Chapter 4: Night Tower

They continued on their journey for what felt like weeks without any incident. They had probably walked for thousands of kilometres yet they had yet to leave the sand of bones, it was a large territory.

Stop, said the leader. Do you feel that? He asked his men. The essence here, it thinner, but how can that be? So far deep in the sunless desert, the essence should be much thicker no? Answered one of them.

It must be the treasure, there's no other explanation. Excitement was visible in their faces. We're not far from leaving the territory of the sand of bones and it doesn't seem like they'll be any more dangerous phenomena on the way.

So what should we do about them? They turned and looked at us, the other captives obviously tensed, their mouths quivering in fear.

He looked at the blonde girl, she was tense but otherwise fine, infact she looked ready to duke it out with them. If he was being honest he was a bit scared as well.

He knew for certain he can't defeat ability holders, no matter how high his senses are, the most he could do is dodge but there was no place to run to here except the white desert which was a death sentence by itself.

Bring them, we might still have use for them, replied the leader. So they continued, after what he assumed to be days if not a whole week they finally saw the end of white sand of bones.

The ability holders crew grew even more excited. After a while something appeared in the distance. It looked like a shadow of a tower that reached the sky.

Is that..is that what I think it is? Asked one of the ability holders. A tower, so that was the treasure? That is troublesome, we can't move that.

True but can still sell it for a hefty price to the big clans. You're right, replied the leader. One of that size might be a legendary grade Tower of even mythical, it would probably go for a few billion essence cores.

What if it a divine grade? One of them asked jokingly, they laughed. Divine grade? Stop joking man, there's only 4 of those in the entire world and if we ever discovered one I'm certain we would be killed for it.

Enough,let go, said the leader. Morpheus listened to all of this. He didn't know much about the grades of towers but what he did know was that towers grant a single ability equivalent to it grade and many abilities below that grade.

He didn't know how many grades there were, infact the only two grades he knew were mortal and earth grade. They moved towards the distant tower.

The closer they got, the larger it became, he noticed the other captives were becoming excited, they probably imagined themselves obtaining abilities and fighting off their captors.

Honestly he was kind of excited too, he always wanted to be an ability holder but all of the known towers were controlled by the large clans.

One either needed to pay a hefty sum to challenge one or enslave themselves to the clans. Finding an unclaimed tower was rare these days so this was a once in a lifetime chance.

The tower was only 2 kilometres away from them now, which with it size looked like it was right infront of them. He couldn't even estimate it height.

It was so tall it peak was hidden above the dark clouds and it was dozens of kilometres wide. It was extremely beautiful, it outer wall appeared to be make of the night sky itself.

It did not look like a painting no, it looked like it had actually stars and moving clouds, as if a God had ripped the sky to construct the tower.

They approached and stopped a few dozen metres away from it giant gate. Boss, do you think it possible for us to challenge it? You know that not possible.

A person can only have a single ability, unless we can request one of those special ability holders that can remove abilities, it impossible for us.

Fuck man, I really wanted to try and obtain a better ability, even earth grade would've been fine, complained one of them. So what are we going to do?

Atleast now we know what draining all of the essence around here, we will go back and sell the location to this tower. With that many essence cores we might be able to reach rank 2.

They all appeared excited but other thoughts were running through Morpheus mind. He couldn't stop these guys from leaving but if he conquers this tower wouldn't it belong to him.

He would be rich enough to sleep all day without having to worry about food. Should we kill them now? That question woke him from his thoughts.

The leader looked at them with a bored look. I don't think we have use for them anymore, do with them as you see fit, he said dismissively as if their lives meant nothing to him.

Everybody panicked, some screamed and begged but their pleas fell into dead ears. A head flew, the speedy sword guy killed a man with a cruel grin, ecstasy filled his eyes as he licked the blood off his blade.

This level of cruelty caused others to panick even more, a few more died before they could beg for their lives until only 15 of them were left. Somebody turned towards him, he cursed in his mind and ran.

Just as his opponent was about to reach him something unexpected happened, the ground shook, the sand vibrated causing them to lose their balance.

GATHER UP, the leader shouted calling his teammates back, panick apparent in his usually cold eyes. He saw a chance and ran towards the towers gate. Stop him, he heard the leaders cold voice behind him.

The others saw this and ran as well, a speed type ability holder chased after him closing the distance in a blink of an eye. Just as he was about to grab him something jumped out of the sand between them blocking the path of his pursue.

He turned back to look and saw a giant worm with razor sharp teeth facing the ability holder. Before they could reorganize themselves, more jumped out of the sand. They turned the place into a forest of murderous worms.

He didn't know how many would reach the tower and he did not care, everything was happening too fast.The others were running around like headless chickens, he was the first to reach the tower and jumped through the gate.