Stopping the Stone Golem was no longer possible after several minutes, because the woman in the earth abandoned her control over it. She rose from the titan's shadow and stared at it with an indifferent expression, though in her enthralled eyes there was a hint of resentment for the construct.
Lady Freya was satisfied, given that it was her strategy that rendered the woman powerless during her attempts at restraining the golem a second time.
Using her connection with her creation, Lady Freya used her construct as a medium for her power, so each time the woman in the earth tried to restrain it, the golem began to assimilate the earth into itself. Clearly, this didn't do any physical damage to the woman who rose unharmed, but there must've been great discomfort and potentially even a spiritual impact there.
Each time the earth was absorbed into the Stone Golem's body, the damage it'd sustained from Walkyr flying into it was healed. Once that damage was healed, it kept assimilating more of the earth around it to empower it further. All of this rendered the enemy weaker, and thus thoroughly foiled in her tries at delaying the journey of the golem.
Walkyr, meanwhile, was enjoying himself more than Worthy could understand.
Each step the man took was met with someone trying to ambush him or overpower him with a frightening, overwhelming Reward. Yet he never once slowed down in his battle with Asterie. The woman was persistent, and becoming more reckless the further they made it into the city center.
No longer was the thrall exercising caution around her allies. Instead, she was recklessly unleashing the full might of her Reward, decimating whole sections of the city without remorse, and killing dozens of thralls in the process.
If there was one thing Worthy was thankful for, it was the fact that so deep into the center of the city, there were only thralls. Any Climbers who'd remained so deep in the settlement stood no chance against an army of thralls. Thus, they'd either become thralls themselves or been killed by those who had.
The Prime Settlement, Middle Town, had existed for many years. Its origin perhaps went as far back as the creation of the Tower. Thousands of people had passed through it and made its home before they were eventually trapped on the First Floor. Perhaps it was the most populated settlement in all the Tower. There was no telling how many people existed on the First Floor at a time. Hundreds could be trapped in the wasteland, and yet thousands remained here, as well as other mysterious settlements throughout the destroyed world.
It was disheartening to witness the destruction of such a key location in the Tower, even if its existence had no impact on the world outside. There was a history to the First Floor and its settlements. Worthy may not have held an attachment to the other various settlements spread across the First Floor, but he knew better than most the history that existed within Middle Town.
He'd seen the drowned, hopeless world that Alice was left as the sole survivor of. He's witnessed the final battle of whatever civilization existed in this place, and he'd witnessed the sun fade away as the Blood Marauder devoured the entire world. Knowing the history of this place, and watching as Alice erected building after building, and wall after all… it was such a waste.
That land was now being destroyed by two individuals who could care less for it. More than that, the result of that destruction was because of Alice's inability to permanently kill the Blood Marauder. Now, one of its fragments—at least what Worthy prayed was a fragment—were responsible for the devastation of Alice's creation.
'Really, I'm getting a feeling that these are the end times. There won't be another settlement like Middle Town. Even if the buildings could be destroyed, there will still be lands utterly uninhabitable.'
The child didn't think Middle Town would be destroyed so easily. The Devil's Den, the unnatural underground settlement, had been given an unnatural configuration of space. There were hallways that went on for too long, and rooms that should not have reasonably fit into the underground settlement.
Middle Town… it didn't seem to have any of that strangeness. At least, none that Worthy could tell.
'Sure, the respective settlements may not have been created by the same person… There should at least be something special about them all individually, though.'
Middle Town had its wide killing field, and that was it. There had to be something else. The defenses on the wall were adequate for keeping the city safe, but there was no way that Alice didn't consider the possibility of the Blood Marauder's fragments eventually growing in power. The persistent deity was a threat to all of existence. It'd gone into the blood of a god and consumed all life, and inherited their special abilities, much like the ones Alice herself had.
There was no way she believed stern walls would be enough to protect civilization from the might of the Blood Marauder's fragments.
'...I hope she wasn't that shortsighted, anyway.'
The boy shifted his focus back to the devastating battle in the middle of the city.
Finally, the Stone Golem had arrived at where Worthy had been directing Lady Freya.
The thread connecting him to the creator of the portals was moving around frantically now that the golem had gotten so close. Walkyr was being assaulted by more and more portals, with less breathing room between each of their appearances. Likewise, the destructive, tenebrous orbs finally returned.
Inside of the building, both of the problematic thralls must've been working in unison to take down Walkyr. Desperately, they were attempting to defeat the mercenary before the golem could arrive. Sadly, they were not making much ground in their attempts on the gunslinger's life. His momentum was steadily growing the longer the fight went on, and his actions became even more precise the greater the adversaries he faced.
They were out of time, and soon, they were within just enough range for the mountainous golem to reach.
Lady Freya grimaced for a moment, her head tilting in curiosity and confusion. Something was disturbing her, but the unmoving woman did not speak.
Instead, she nodded her head, and the golem moved. There was a finality in the movement, as its massive frame moved, stretching its arm out. The titan's hand extended out, covering the ground of several different buildings. Any thralls occupying those buildings were in for a rude awakening, or perhaps a rude slumber.
Worthy could not turn his eyes away. The golem looked to be moving slow due to its sheer size, but the speed that it descended must've been frighteningly fast.
Then, the hand impacted the ground and a thunderous noise filled the air, and soon after a cloud of dust rose to accompany it. Pieces of debris rose into the air, and there was a moment of silence that drowned the entire settlement.
Just like that, the portal creator and the man creating the bombs were dead.
Worthy confirmed their deaths, because the thread linking him to the man creating the portals was severed, and so he could assume the one responsible for creating the tenebrous orbs had perished with him. Two useful Climbers were killed in an instant, all because they fell victim to an ability they had no clue about.
In the end, that was the nature of the Tower. When entering, they all knew what to expect—challenges beyond what the average human could comprehend.
There was something more distressful than the death of the enthralled Climbers.
Rather than their deaths, Worthy looked at the cloud that filled the air. At first, it looked colorless, or perhaps grey. Yet, as it rose into the air, it was colored. The fog was turning pink, rising to engulf the titan. There was something strangely familiar about the fog, but Worthy could not put his finger on it.
Then, he saw it.
Walkyr had gotten the upper hand on Asterie, and was in the middle of lowering his six-shooter to aim at her head. Without the support of the portal creator or the frustrating explosions, he did not need to worry about anything else. Asterie was the only person left to bother him, out of all the dozens of thralls chasing after him.
Right when he was prepared to pull the trigger, the mist neared Walkyr in an instant. It moved with frightening speed, as though carried by a powerful gust of wind. From within this fog, a fist exited and crashed into the man's back before he could turn around or snap his finger in response.
For the first time, Worthy saw Walkyr's expression shift. His excited grin turned into a grimace, his teeth grinding together as his body was forced off of its feet in the same way he'd done to so many others before. Deadman Walkyr was overpowered. Not only was he overpowered, but from the blood that shot from his mouth, he took serious damage from the attack.
Asterie reveled in the emergence of the man who stepped from within the fog.
He was tall and strikingly handsome. His hair was black and his hair was unreasonably pale, as though he'd had all the blood drained from his body. Pink eyes gazed down at Asterie, and the man offered her a compassionate smile.
Suddenly, Worthy felt a senseless feeling of dread, and that semblance of familiarity turned into foreboding.
The handsome man spoke to Asterie for a moment, just in time to step out of the way of a blast from Walkyr's six-shooter. The man had blood dripping from his mouth and nose, which he quickly wiped away with his forearm. Although the impact from the punch was powerful, it wasn't nearly enough to incapacitate him. Hell, it might not have been enough to kill him, even.
Nevertheless, the pale-skinned man did not look shocked or distressed. He appeared rather dismissive of the gunslinger's presence as a whole.
Asterie's finger twitched, and Walkyr acted immediately. The man raised his weapon and took aim, and pulled the trigger. However, in the same sequence, the handsome man pushed Asterie away with his foot, dashed in toward Walkyr, and pushed his six-shooter away.
Deadman acted in time to prevent an elbow from knocking his jaw out of place, leaning away from the man. Quickly, he delivered a kick that sent the man back into the mist he'd come from.
Somehow, Walkyr got the feeling this was a mistake.
He turned around and went to snap his finger, yet he had no choice but to jerk his hand up toward his chest. The space where he once stood was abruptly occupied by the pink mist. Snapping his finger, the man created as much distance with the mysterious man and his fog as possible. Not only was the man stronger than Asterie, but the strange fog he used to fight… it must've been what was responsible for enthralling others.
Sweat was rolling down the gunslinger's face as he anticipated the approach of the fog. Asterie was removing the distance between the fog and his body, trying to ensnare him with it. Walkyr had been resistant to the control of the fog up until now, despite fighting within it. In fact, all of them had been. It had a different level of potency on certain people. Nevertheless, he was clearly bothered by the portion of the fog that remained invisible to the naked eye.
The dust from the destruction had revealed almost the entire pink mist, but there still must've been a large portion that remained unseen.
As Deadman moved desperately to avoid the mist, a hand shot out of it, catching him by his collar with disturbing speed.
Gritting his teeth again, Walkyr delivered a mighty kick to the arm, and it was loud enough for Worthy to hear from the wall. The arm bent in all the wrong ways, forced to release the gunslinger before it could drag him into the controlling mist.
Just in time, a massive, stone pillar—a foot—approached Asterie before she could act. It crashed into her body, throwing her far from the battle.
The Stone Golem arrived in time to support Walkyr, and its kick destroyed more buildings, revealing more of the fog to the world.
"Child," As the Golem towered over the fog and its creator, Lady Freya spoke to him sternly. "We cannot defeat whatever that is."
Worthy was confused at first, but soon had his curiosity quenched. The arm that'd just been broken was snapping back into place, the pink mist absorbed into the limbs in a way the boy had not seen done for any of the other thralls.
That's because it wasn't a thrall. Worthy couldn't help himself; he created a link to find the first person he could think of, who the man may be, and his theories were confirmed.
Black hair swaying and injuries reverting themselves, the easygoing terror in the fog was none other than the man Asterie had praised to greatly in her enthralled state.
Edwin Redglaive turned to face the thread that linked him to the child, and hummed. His eyes followed the thread, and eventually his pink eye locked with the child's, despite such a great distance between them.
Worthy's heart raced, and he severed the connection between the two before the man could somehow exploit that bridge in the same way the Tower had.
He understood why Lady Freya could not see a way of defeating the monster. Not only was the fog healing him, it was clearly wearing on the mental strength of both Walkyr and Lady Freya, who was not anywhere near it. However, the man was exploiting the connection she shared with her creation through her Reward.
The child was correct to remove his connection to the man. He was not ordinary—he could use the connection one shared with their creations to infect them with the fog as well.
Edwin was not simply enthralling them, he was loving them. The man was captivating, so much so that even when Worthy wanted to take his eyes off of him, he couldn't. How could he possibly turn away from someone so handsome, someone who appeared so charming…?
'What? What's gotten into me?!'
Smacking himself in the face, he snapped himself out of his trance. Whatever abilities Edwin had, they were sinister. That odious fog and his ability to control the mind were worse than anything the child had seen.
Sure, Asterie could decimate large plots of space with her Reward, but that ability when put on the offensive was simply destructive. It was overwhelming, yet not nearly as ominous as a power that infested the mind. When the mind starts to betray you, the body is assured to follow shortly after.
That was happening to Walkyr in real time. It was not just that the fog was chipping away at his mental fortitude. His body was losing its strength. The damage he'd sustained from the punch would not have been nearly as substantial as it was from one punch ordinarily. Yet, it struck him enough to send blood rocketing from his mouth and his nose.
When the eerie man opened his mouth and spoke to Walkyr and the Stone Titan, Worthy heard an invasive voice in the back of his mind.
He hadn't been quick enough to destroy his link with the man.
"Greetings," The man's voice sounded calm and agreeable. "Forgive me for worrying you all so much. I did not anticipate your willingness to kill your peers." Somehow, the words felt condescending, despite being laced with nothing but sympathy and good-natured intentions.
"Soon, we will all be unified under a common cause. You will not need to fight or kill others, because there will no longer be a fight for survival. In the embrace of my everlasting affection, you will never fear again. Neither the Mindless nor the other Enlightened will harm you, so long as I lead you.
You seek to climb the Tower, do you not? Then, we shall climb together. Open your minds to me, and I will lead us all to the top, where our wishes can be fulfilled."
'Bullshit.' The child thought, and the man looked to perk a brow, despite him not speaking anything out loud.
Walkyr looked to say something as well, perhaps far more snarky than what the boy said, judging by his body language.
Eventually, the man spoke again, "Whether you seek to resist or not, I won't hold it against you. I love you all equally. Now that I have grown so much, I have no need to end your lives. You will fall into my hand soon, and that… repulsive giant, the Holy Knight, will not be able to delay me any longer."
As the man started to take steps, the fog followed. No longer was it obscured. It became more visible with every step, and the boy could now see the true, overwhelming quantity of the fog. It did not simply stretch across a small radius around the city center as he once assumed.
No, that fog… it had devoured the entire Prime Settlement. Each and every mile of land, from the northern wall all the way to the south, had been wrapped in the miasma the entire time. Meaning, they'd all been fighting a mental battle, and that battle was led by War Reaver, who was now absent for an unclear reason.
"You know my name, don't you? Edwin Redglaive. However, I do not believe I should go by that name any longer, should I?"
The smile on the man's face grew wide—massive. It was disturbing, and Worthy felt his brain working desperately to block out the sound of the man's voice. Whatever the name he was about to speak was, it clearly wasn't meant to be heard.
"I am…"
Before the man could speak, a beam from Walkyr's six-shooter blew his head from his shoulders. Blood spurted into the air and gore, and various other pieces of his skull were sent flying.
Edwin's head was removed from his shoulder, and his voice still carried itself in their minds.
He spoke his name, and in the next moment, Worthy, Lady Freya, Walkyr, and a hundred other men and women throughout the city felt their heads pound in agony.
Worthy…. Worthy… Worthy was not Worthy. No, he was exactly who he thought he was.
Worthy did not do anything, nor say anything, because of his love for Lord Edwin… no, his love for Lord Furfur was absolute.