Tower of Endless: Death Granted Entry

High in the audience, Samuel and Ed were still seated, watching how this round would turn out.

Moon had arrived almost two hours late, but the time they had consumed so far was only a little over an hour, which meant he still had plenty of time.

Ed was squinting at the scene; he wasn’t there when Samuel and Uon tried to force Moon’s Echo to react to threats.

"That’s some needlessly high Echo resistance," he exclaimed.

Samuel nodded this time. "It was the first thing I noticed about him," he said calmly.

Ed rubbed his chin. "That loose Echo won’t do much damage, I suppose."

Samuel agreed. "Attacks need to be focused and properly executed to do reasonable damage to him."

"No wonder... No wonder you didn’t use any Echo on him that day," Ed said before giving Samuel a sidelong glance. "You sly bastard."

Samuel didn’t talk back or retort.

Ed wasn’t done yet. "Right, Samuel, how high is it compared to that guy back then?"

Samuel closed his eyes for a moment; he pointed with his chin at Moon. "His is slightly higher," he judged.

Hoo~

Ed exclaimed, "I didn’t think someone would ever exist with higher Echo resistance than him."

His eyes fell back to the ring. "His form was breathtaking; his gift was one of the strongest to ever exist, not the rarest, but I would say it ranked higher than anyone else with the same gift."

He looked at Samuel. "Even your seal’s structure was built to mimic the nature of his Gift."

Ed smiled. "Strength, speed, defense; he was perfectly balanced, also in close and ranged situations."

He looked at Moon again. "His title was the most well-earned among the three of us..."

Ed’s face turned heavy. "Even after all these years, I miss him... Wouldn’t it have been better if he retired here with us and met that brat?"

Samuel’s eyes didn’t leave the arena, nor did he respond in any way to a word Ed said.

The third member of their group was still a heavy topic for them, yet, for some reason, Ed was getting more talkative about him.

Further below, Boa was holding her head, watching the scene. "H-how is he doing this?"

Talia, next to her, looked closely at the scene playing out. "I’m not sure."

"Sister, I thought we’d only find useless guys on the lower floors, cannon fodder at best, but what’s going on now?" Boa exclaimed.

Talia glanced at Boa. "There’s something abnormal this wave; the numbers are too high, too many mutually affiliated people." She turned back to the ring. "No one truly knows what exactly is going on; all we know is that this might be one of the largest waves to ever take place in the Tower’s history."

"What does that— Ah," Boa paused, her eyes widening. "You mean the Tower is dragging all those who would have been stars of their own waves together into this one."

"Did the first-floor administrator go in—" Boa covered her mouth, choosing not to finish the sentence.

Talia didn’t respond to her words. "It might have been a bit confidential, but it’s becoming a heated topic within the top floors’ inner circles."

Boa nodded in understanding. She was, after all, an aide, but also a person of authority from the top floors.

Oblivious to their discussion, or maybe unbothered by it, Lexie punched the air time after time as Moon did.

"Punch through his Echo and armor!" she cheered, unbothered by Nola’s silence.

A little lower down the rows, Colten and Roran were leaning forward, watching the exchange.

"Are they monsters?" Roran inquired, his face more serious than ever.

"I have no idea how they’re doing this." Colten shared the same confusion Roran held.

"Should we just give up this round, take the next trial maybe?" Roran suggested.

"Easy for you to say," Colten retorted. Moon was his Boss under the validation of the Tower’s system authority.

Around them sat the trio of Colten’s knights; none of them opened his mouth once. Yet their faces held confusion and reluctance not any less than Colten’s.

In the ring, Dara was still unable to get over what Moon had done. "How did you do it?" he growled.

Moon shook his arm one last time. "Not telling you," he said casually before looking into Dara’s eyes and smiling. "Unless you tell me how to spam Echo attacks, of course."

Dara closed his eyes for a moment; he brought his palms together. "Over my dead body!"

Dara announced before—

Shuaaa~

Radiance surrounded his body; it kept expanding around him, forming a sphere-like shape.

It kept expanding until it covered a one-meter radius from every direction.

Whee-tew~

Moon whistled. "This is gonna hurt," he said before jumping in recklessly, regardless of the effects of that sphere-like Combat Art.

"Dumb!" Dara said as the radiance over his fists overlapped with the sphere’s.

Inside the sphere, Moon’s face contorted. "I’m a thousand times smarter than you," he said as he met the incoming punch with another parry.

Thud~

Inside the sphere, Moon felt his body grow heavier, as if under constant pressure that stung his skin. Even the knot he had made to gather his long hair was getting loose.

Moon felt his scalp sting after his hair came down his shoulders again; he went for a quick scratch—

Before he found some strands of his hair falling off.

"Am I going bald?" he asked himself out loud, a question that drove Dara even madder.

Another fist came down; the radiance was stronger on it.

Moon had no choice but to parry again. "Dammit!" His sense of urgency was rapidly escalating.

Ting!

Ting!

Once he parried again, he punched at the helmet repeatedly.

Dara tried to hit him again, but Moon evaded this time.

He followed with an uppercut.

Yet, once again... the helmet refused to budge.

Moon’s hair was starting to get messier and more haggard. Yet what was worse was that his skin felt like it was starting to burn.

A feeling akin to being scalded by hot water.

"At least it’s a normal pain." Moon rejoiced in his heart that this wasn’t anything abnormal like Samuel’s.

Still, he repeatedly attacked the helmet that refused to come off, and Dara tried to land a hit on him but kept failing.

Their frustration was equally escalating; they bore the same desire to win, but they were both trying to figure a way out of their own shortcomings.

Dara was too slow, and his Echo attacks were too scattered to do meaningful damage. As for Moon...

He lacked the means to break into the armor Dara was using. It felt like this armor was designed and built especially for him, unlike all the other sets.

Still, Moon’s urgency was greater than Dara’s.

On the right hand and wrist he had used to punch through Dara’s Echo, the small wounds were worsening, even widening slowly.

His hair falling out was another problem. ’I’m not going bald.’

Not only that, but even his eyes began to sting and tear rapidly.

Moon finally decided to conclude the "know your body" experiment he had started. Now, instead of parrying or meeting Dara’s attacks...

Moon ducked.

He slid past Dara’s armor as the radiant punch fell, yet failing to find him—

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