Reminisce | Tower of God

Chapter 3

Elyse’s gaze trailed over all the teams surrounding her own. It looked like there were more than a hundred other regulars who had passed the test, each one just as unusual and extraordinary looking as the next. Some held weapons, blades or bows or guns or staffs, some had nothing but their own bodies. But from what she could tell, very few of them had more than two teammates.

Elyse, her brother, Khun, and the crocodile, Rak Wraithraiser, seemed to be one of the only groups of four. The blue haired boy had been right. Barely anyone else had bothered themselves with the extra challenge of gaining another team member. Perhaps some had even just settled for a group of three out of confidence in their own abilities. 

“FINALLY! I gotcha! I will kill you!”

Elyse frowned at the source of the yelling. There appeared to be some sort of argument going on between two boys, one of which had apparently taken one of the arms of the other. It was more of a one-sided conflict though, as the dark haired boy with a red horn at the back of his head seemed less than interested in what the red-head had to say. Soon enough, another member of the bored kid’s team stepped in, only to make things worse.

“They seem to be fighting during the break, Mr. Khun,” she heard her brother point out. “Shouldn’t we stop them?”

The addressed boy only shrugged. “Leave them. They’ll be stopped soon.”

Right on cue, a new voice spoke up over the commotion. “Did you not understand? No fighting during break time. You didn’t take my words seriously, did you, regulars?”

Without even having to shift her gaze to look at the newcomer, she could already feel it. His presence, perhaps even his power, for some inexplicable reason … she could sense it. She’d felt something similar when she’d first met Yuri and Evan and Headon. But back then it’d been much more faint, not because their presences were weaker, in fact she likely would’ve passed out if she’d truly sensed them, but rather because there was something that’d been … missing from whatever enabled her to sense such things. Whatever was in the sword in her hands seemed to have solved that problem for the most part.

“I’m the test administrator, Lero Ro,” the man revealed with a smile.

 “Test administrator … then you’re a r-ranker?” the boy with spiky red hair stuttered out. Then, with a huff he turned from the team he’d been attempting to start a fight with. “Damn it! I’m only backing down because the ranker’s here.”

With that, the test administrator sighed. “Well, well. Isn’t this a feisty crowd?”

Elyse paused for a brief moment before turning to face Khun. “Hey, um, by the way, what exactly is a ‘ranker’?”

“What?” The blue haired boy blinked, his stare quickly flickering between her and her brother’s equally questioning expression. “You don’t even know about rankers? They’re people who’ve reached the top of the tower. Only one or two out of thousands of regulars get to be rankers. Quite frankly, they’re monsters. They’ve got crazy power.”

“Reached the … top of the tower,” her brother murmured quietly, his thoughts of the remarkable people they’d previously come across clearly written across his features. 

“Regulars, over here! Please focus!” As requested, Elyse shifted her gaze back onto the blond ranker. Once the others had done the same the man continued. “Now that you’ve had some time to rest let’s move on to the next test! But before that, there will be a little … pretest. Those who don’t pass cannot take the next test. Don’t worry too much though, it’s really simple … so let’s begin.”

The test administrator lifted a hand, splaying out his fingers, and with a loud whooshing sound, the air itself seemed to compress, to harden and push back the regulars that once stood around her. Shouts of both surprise and anger filled the space, but not a single one had come from Elyse nor her brother. While she could feel the wind, and what appeared to be water, rushing past her, it hadn’t managed to push her back even a single step.