Towers of Heaven
Page 24
Olivia dug her feet into the ground and took a deep breath. Her intent was clear. Jason muttered. “So be it.”
A formless energy expanded out from Jason’s body and enveloped Olivia. Her expression fell as her very being was assaulted. It was like needles were prickling her mind, threatening to destroy it. What is this spell? Quickly, her powerful tolerance for pain and torture rose up, solidifying her mind. The pain subsided, now barely noticeable.
When she recovered, Jason was upon her, his sword already a foot away from her neck. Instead of activating a defensive skill or teleporting behind Jason by using his shadow, she did the unthinkable. She lowered her daggers.
Jason mind thundered with shock. He had no intentions of killing Olivia, not with the history they had. He had just planned on roughing her up a bit. As soon as he saw her lower her guard, he froze to a halt.
A trickle of blood dripped down Olivia’s neck. He had just barely been able to stop in time, thanks to his mastery over his body. Sighing heavily, Jason seemed to age several years. “Tell Roy to continue ascending the tower. Protect him for me, won’t you? I need some time alone.”
With that, Jason pulled out a scroll and ripped it to pieces. His body disappeared in a flash of light. Olivia stood there, half in satisfaction at stopping Jason, and half in disbelief at herself. Since when had she put her life in harm’s way for someone she just met? Was it because she didn’t want him to follow a path she once took? But if that was the case, that meant she was actually looking out for someone other than herself. It was a foreign feeling.
Olivia noticed several soldiers approaching her, their weapons at the ready. Sighing lightly, she copied Jason and disappeared in a flash of light. A few hours later, she stood in front of Roy and explained the situation.
“I see.” Roy stared up at the sky with an expression of sorrow. “His father died, huh?”
Olivia suddenly realized something. Jason still hadn’t begun her training and she already tried to sacrifice her life for him. She stared at the sky and fell silent.
A few days later, outside of the tower, Jason stood in front of a blazing fire. Underneath the flames, a rundown one-story house could be seen. There was a faint smile on his face. There was still a chance to save his father. A wish, given when completing the final floor of the tower. “Dad, don’t worry. I’ll save you.”
Jason winced. He glanced down at his hand and chuckled. “Too bad I’m not a masochist.”
Shockingly, small grey needles repeatedly stabbed into Jason’s arm as he watched his father’s house burn down. The needles were made from battle energy and formed by his will. In this way, he was able to consistently deal damage to himself and raise defensive skills like Troll Regeneration, Earth Armor, and Reflection. Interestingly, Reflection didn’t deal damage when he attacked himself. A loophole he would take advantage of.
This was an idea he came up with during the past few days when he sat in the living room of his father’s house. Mutilating oneself to raise skills wasn’t a foreign concept to Jason. The reason why he hadn’t done it sooner was because it generally wasn’t efficient enough. Now though, with battle energy at his beck and call, he used it to much success.
To Jason’s surprise, manipulating battle energy was much harder than it looked. There was the quantity used, and then the shape and form that it took. All of this had to be processed continuously and left no room for his mind to focus on other things. Basically, this meant he couldn’t move his body and manipulate battle energy at the same time. At least not yet.
Jason thought back to a few days ago, when Olivia had lowered her weapons. I thought she was the same as back then, but I was wrong. She’s different. More empathetic? The Olivia of his past was a callous and cold assassin that had no qualms about murdering others. The Olivia of now looked cold, but on the inside, she still had a heart. This only left Jason confused. What happened in her life for her to change so drastically?
A soft cry broke him away from his thoughts. Jason raised his hand and patted Tank’s small head. “What is it? Hungry?”
Imagery of food appeared in Jason’s mind. Except to Jason, it wasn’t food at all. It was actually armor. Jason grimaced. “You eat armor?”
Tank nodded her head. Jason buried his head in his hands. “Why is it like this?”
Tank’s species was called battle turtle. Did that mean she was partially created by battle energy? If that was the case, then could she extract battle energy from armor like he could extract battle energy from weapons?
Jason sighed at the thought of spending even more money on equipment. He chuckled to himself. “What a strange pair we are.”
Tank tilted her head as a wave of confusion assaulted Jason.
The blaring of sirens sounded in the distance. Jason shrugged. “Time to go!”
With that, he fled the premises.
END OF BOOK 1
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