Reminisce | Tower of God

Chapter 2

“Mic Test! Mic Test! One two three!”

Elyse’s eyes fluttered open at the sound of the unfamiliar voice, and she was immediately blinded by the brightness all around her. The first thing that caught her attention after her eyes adjusted was the floating yellow cube above her head, standing out from the background of blue and white behind it. It seemed to be the source of the voice.

“All the ‘regulars’ who have made it to the tower, we sincerely welcome all of you to the 2nd floor … Evankhell’s floor!”

She sat up quickly, eyeing the tall grass surrounding her. The voice’s words … She was still in the tower. But in a place that was so very different from where she was last. And her brother was nowhere to be found. 

The person speaking through the yellow cube continued on. “This floor is also called the ‘Floor of Test’ because here we carry out the final test to see whether you’re qualified to go up the tower. I’ll explain the details later, but now let’s start the first test!”

Elyse frowned at that. She’d only just woken up after having passed the strange rabbit man’s test, and not only was her brother missing, but it turned out she already had to face another test. Despite her inner complaints, she forced herself to stand, and to listen carefully to what the voice had to say next.

“The rule for the first test is as follows. There are 400 regulars here, narrow that 400 down to 200!” There was a small pause before the voice added, “Try every possible means! The test ends when the number of regulars reaches 200. Ready, begin!”

To narrow 400 down to 200 by every possible means. That could only mean… 

A scream rang through the air from a distance away. For some reason, the sound was almost all too familiar, and it made her entire body freeze up, her knees threatening to buckle under her own weight. Something whizzed by her head and planted itself into the ground in front of her. An arrow. With widened eyes, she tightened her grip around the sword-turned-dagger in her hand and fled from her position, away from the source of what nearly struck her.

The stench of blood and the cries coming from all around her was nearly too much for her senses to handle. All she could do was run. And she continued running for more than a few minutes, ten at the very least, before she spotted two figures ahead of her. The larger of the pair was red-skinned and bleeding. No. Not simply bleeding. He was dead. And before him was a boy with light blue hair, sapphire eyes, and a briefcase in hand.

Elyse didn’t want to take another step, either towards or away from the boy. She remained where she was, silently watching as he’d sighed, slowly turning away from the corpse in front of him. “Gosh, is there anyone worthy of going up the tower with?” He faltered as soon as his gaze fell on her, an unexpected witness. “If you were planning on attacking me, you should’ve done it while I was dealing with this guy.”

She glanced at the blade in her grasp, realizing what it must’ve looked like to him. Quickly, she splayed her hands out in front of her in surrender. “Wait! I was only watching. I didn’t actually intend to—”

The boy laughed, cutting her off. “I know,” he quipped, “I was just joking. Though … that is quite a nice dagger you have there. It looks sort of familiar for some reason.”

Awkwardly, she nodded in thanks, extending the blade slightly towards him to let him have a better look at it. His eyes skimmed over the weapon, lingering on the letters engraved near the hilt on the flat edge. She’d almost missed the detail the first time she’d examined it herself, but something had almost seemed to draw her attention to that particular aspect of the dagger.