Awakener's Guide to Climbing the Tower

Astrid had every chance to leave.

The flying carpet lay several paces behind them, crumpled across the roots where it had fallen. One corner had torn open and mana pulsed weakly along its embroidery, lifting the fabric by an inch before it sagged again.

It might still fly. Not well, but it could probably carry one person back to the checkpoint.

Astrid looked at it once.

A translucent blue window trembled at the edge of her vision.

「 〔COMBAT STATUS〕

Name: Astrid Hale

Class: Arcshot Virtuoso

Mana: 73 / 527

Stamina: 102 / 382

Condition: • Mana Overuse • Minor Frostbite • Right Wrist Strain 」

Another pulse of cold crawled beneath her sleeve.

Astrid dismissed the window.

Beside her, Hiiro shifted his injured foot behind him and lifted his fists. His shoulder touched hers as he settled into a stance that his body could no longer hold properly. Blood ran beneath the torn side of his uniform and another thin streak marked his cheek where one of the twin blades had grazed him. Mana gathered around his knuckles. The light flickered, then dimmed.

Astrid saw it, so did the six Hobgoblin Commanders.

The wounded axe wielder dragged one leg through the soil, half its face torn open where Astrid’s ice and Hiiro’s fist had struck the same wound. The spear Commander stood ahead of them, its weapon angled toward them. The cleaver wielder moved to the left while the hooked-chain Commander circled from the right, iron links sliding over the ground with a slow scrape.

Behind them came the shield-bearer, tower shield raised and its warhammer resting against one shoulder.

The twin-blade Commander had disappeared among the trees.

Smaller goblins and Hobgoblins filled the spaces between the larger creatures, closing every path they could have taken.

The Commanders had turned away from the wall, goblins and Hobgoblins had abandoned their supply lines when they saw how much of a threat they were. The pressure on the checkpoint had somehow weakened.

Hiiro’s plan had worked.

Astrid’s gaze dropped to the blood slipping between his fingers as he briefly pressed one hand against his side.

It worked. But at what cost?

The carpet waited behind her. She could still leave.

One burst of mana might lift it above the canopy. The Commanders were watching Hiiro more closely than they watched her. If she moved before the circle closed completely, she could reach the wall. She could find Misha and she could bring Caius. That was the practical choice.

Hiiro had ignored Misha’s warning and he had ignored Caius’ plan. He had slipped away with a carpet he barely knew how to operate, then jumped into the middle of six enemies far above his current level.

No one could blame Astrid for leaving him to face what followed. The thought settled into place with terrible ease.

Cold, reasonable, and familiar.

For one breath, the forest vanished and white marble replaced the bloodstained soil.

***

Cassandra Borealis knelt in the center of a wide chamber, her hands resting against her skirt because she had been ordered to keep them still.

Frost had already reached her knees. It climbed slowly over her dress, sinking through the fabric and into her skin.

The silver moon crest of House Borealis hung above her, larger than any person in the room.

Her father stood near the door, her mother remained beside him. Neither looked at their eldest daughter.

Cassandra had been old enough to understand what their silence meant. She had lived more than ten years before the youngest child between them had even been born.

Yara was five. Small enough that the formal Borealis dress reached the floor around her shoes. One hand held the side of their mother’s skirt. Pale hair framed a face that should have been soft with confusion.

Cassandra remembered looking toward her youngest sister. Not for rescue. A five-year-old could not stand against the family. She had only wanted to see something human. Fear, confusion, or perhaps even the careless concern of a child who did not understand why her eldest sister was kneeling alone.

Yara stared back, her eyes were cold. There had been no trembling in her mouth, no crease between her brows, and her small fingers had rested against their mother’s gown without clutching it. She had watched Cassandra as though she were studying something that had already been discarded.

No child has been able to look at someone that way. Something in those young eyes had felt older than the adults surrounding her.

The frost climbed over Cassandra’s stomach. Her breath became white.

Then her mother turned first. The silver Borealis crest embroidered across her cloak moved toward the door.

Her father followed and Yara went with them. The door closed and voices continued beyond it.

The frost reached Cassandra’s chest, her lungs stopped expanding and her fingers no longer moved. Her last breath left in a thin cloud before the cold swallowed everything.

Then–

Warmth. A woman’s arms around a body too small to lift its own head. Red hair falling over Astrid’s infant face.

Elara Hale, her mother, was laughing through tears while someone with dark eyes stood beside the bed, one scarred hand hovering awkwardly above his newborn daughter.

Astrid remembered all of it.

She did not wake up inside a stranger’s body. Neither did she steal someone else’s life. She remembered being born again. She remembered falling asleep against her father’s chest while his heartbeat sounded beneath her ear.

Cassandra Borealis had died on that marble floor.

Astrid Hale had opened her eyes afterward and been given another beginning.

***

She blinked and the forest returned. The smell of damp soil, ice, and blood filled her lungs.

Hiiro remained beside her. He was injured because of his own decisions. Reckless, arrogant, and loud.

He was also still there, still fighting, still trying to stand between her and the closest Commander whenever one of them shifted.

Astrid’s fingers tightened around the grip of her thin sword.

No. She had already lived among people who turned their backs when someone stopped being useful. Those bound to her by blood watched their eldest daughter freeze to death. Not one of them reached for her. Not one looked back when they finally walked away.

Astrid would not carry their cruelty into this life. She would not abandon someone she had chosen simply because staying had become dangerous. She would not measure a person’s worth by their strength, their usefulness, or the power hidden inside their heart... and she would never tear that heart from them just to claim its power for herself.

Borealis blood no longer flowed through her veins. She was Astrid Hale now, the daughter of Elara Hale and the nameless hero. A girl born into a name that had never once made her kneel. A girl who had been given what Cassandra never had.

"I’ve already decided you’re staying beside me." Her thin sword pointed toward the approaching monsters and ice mana crawled along her firearm and over her fingers. "So I’m not leaving you behind, dumbass. You’re not dying while I’m here."

Hiiro went still. He only stared at her for a second before quickly turning his face away. His knuckles brushed beneath his nose and the tips of his ears had turned red. For once, no dramatic reply came from him.

Astrid’s gaze moved from shadow to shadow. "Hiiro."

"I know."

"You don’t know what I was going to say."

"The sneaky one is missing."

A blade flashed behind him.

Astrid shoved Hiiro aside, her sword caught the first strike. The second blade swept beneath it, forcing her twist away before the edge opened her stomach.

Mana rushed through her firearm. The bullet struck the ground beside the twin-blade Commander’s feet.

Frost raced over the ground and once again, the creature’s boot slid, and it crashed onto one knee.

Hiiro stepped in, his injured foot faltered, but his hands did not.

A palm strike snapped the Commander’s head back. He caught one sword arm, turned beneath it, and drove his elbow into the frozen joint Astrid had created.

The arm bent at the wrong angle. The Commander snarled and slashed with its remaining blade. Hiiro leaned away but the tip opened a line across his cheek.

He kicked the creature backward and glanced east.

"We move east!" He shouted. "Kite them through the trees!"

Astrid’s blocked a goblin’s knife. She twisted, forced the goblin’s arm aside, and fired into its chest.

"What does that even mean?!"

"Move while attacking!"

"Then say that!"

"I’m conserving breath!"

"You have wasted more breath explaining yourself!"

They moved east, or tried to.

Hiiro struck through the first goblins before they could close the gap. Astrid fired at the floor behind them, leaving a thin sheet of ice across the ground and some feet stuck with the ice.

The pursuing monsters slipped over one another.

Thud! Crash! Bam!

Hiiro laughed but the sound died when the spear Commander tore its frozen boot free.

A strip of skin remained trapped beneath the ice but the creature did not look down. It charged through its own soldiers.

Astrid’s sidearm glowed brighter as she forced more mana into it, the cold had crawled over her wrist and beneath her sleeve. Her fingers no longer bent as quickly as she ordered them to.

「 〔SYSTEM WARNING〕

Sidearm compression stability reduced.

Continued ice-channeling may damage mana pathways.」

She dismissed it.

Two Hobgoblins rushed toward her. Astrid caught the first blade with her sword and kicked the creature’s knee inward. Her sidearm flashed weakly against the second.

The bullet struck its thigh but failed to pierce so ice spread over the armor instead, slowing it long enough for her sword to reach its throat. The creature fell.

Beyond it, Hiiro’s body blurred between the Commanders.

For several seconds, Astrid only saw pieces of him.

A shoulder slipping beneath the axe, one foot planting against the spear shaft, and a fist striking the cleaver wielder beneath the arm. He used one Commander to block another, turning their size against them whenever the circle tightened.

Astrid almost lost sight of him.

His movements remained sharp but soon enough, each combination ended a fraction slower than the last.

Then the twin-blade Commander changed its timing. One sword forced Hiiro to turn and the other stabbed his shoulder. His body jerked as the creature ripped its weapon free. Blood sprayed across the grass.

The shield struck his back before he recovered, the spear grazed his side before he could recover, and the cleaver’s flat caught his injured ankle and sent him spinning across the ground.

Hiiro landed hard. Blood left his mouth in a short cough. Still, he planted both hands against the soil and pushed himself upright. His body rose halfway then stopped. One arm trembled and his injured leg refused to straighten.

The six Commanders slowed all because they knew Hiiro had run out of strength. They were confident enough that one of them could deliver the final strike on him.

Astrid cut through the last Hobgoblin blocking her path. "Hiiro!"

She stepped over it and ran but the chain snapped toward her. Iron wrapped around her arm.

Her shoulder jerked backward hard enough to pull her off balance.

She tried to slash the links, but the hooked-axe wielder pulled again and dragged her several steps away.

"Hiiro!" Her voice trembled in fear as she shouted his name once more.

He planted one hand against the ground, his arm shook beneath him.

The spear Commander stood above him. Its weapon had broken during the fighting, leaving half a shaft tipped with jagged iron. It raised the broken spear in both hands.

Hiiro looked toward Astrid. There was no grin on his face now, only a sharp breath through bloodstained lips as his eyes found hers

Astrid pulled against the chain. The links cut through her sleeves and pain burned around her arm.

Tears welled up in her eyes as she pulled against the chain. He was near and yet too far, still too far. "HIIRO!!"

His ankle failed when he tried to stand.

The broken spear descended.

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