Tower of God: Sequence Strength

Chapter 98: Flame oh flame



Visionary Winston peered through the abyss and his eyes fell atop a large mega structure, futuristic in appearance situated somewhere on the 122nd floor.

He looked at the one who had uttered his name, but before his eyes could fully lock on, the entire space was sealed. The shinsu itself, something which had never hampered his divination or travelling moved to create chaos and disorder, making everything difficult for Winston to see.

But he already knew all about him.

The White Dwarf. The same he had killed with his own hands.

Without hesitation, Winston leapt into the spirit world and appeared on the 122nd floor.

The shinsu in the area was chaotic, making direct teleportation feel like a distant dream. But it served little obstruction to Winston who held the Door pathway.

With a simple step into the void, his figure blinked into the abyss and appeared above a mega structure full of sprawling metal behemoths and spires that towered over the landscape.

As he appeared, the knowledge of the White Dwarf began to flood his mind again.

Yet this time was also the same. Just like when he had performed spirit channeling on the dead carcass of the man.

No, it was even more weird.

It was a simple blank slate. A white void, if you will.

It felt as if the dwarf were not a person at all.

Instead, they were something else entirely, devoid of any history, thoughts, or memories. The one beside him however... he was peculiar.

Visionary Adam extended his hand and smiled compassionately. Then, he opened his mouth and uttered.

"Burn."

A single word. A profound declaration. A command upon the world and the shinsu around him. Fantasy overlapped with the real world. Make Believe turned into reality.

His tone was monotonous. The word was thrown out without any build up and with such speed that most might not even catch it.

But then, a small spark appeared in his hand and fell down.

At that moment, every single being in the vicinity felt something. A primal fear of flames, consuming them from the inside out.

It felt as if all the heat in the world was concentrated to a single point and left to burn forever. A single touch would incinerate anything.

And as the spark fell upon the megastructyre composed of metal, chaos descended.

The shinsu that had been thrown into chaos calmed, and then it exploded into a shower of flames and magma.

Flame. Oh flame.

Beautiful glorious flame.

I study it, I control it, I am it. It completes me. Every night, every day, every moment of the Tower it works it's magic. It's majesty is unmatchable, its workings too complicated for others to understand.

It baffles me how you can be considered a force of destruction.

How can you, the most beautiful and the most enchanting be considered horrid?

But it doesn't matter. For you are one with me.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

The other people that wish to control their flames hold no power over you. They might call themselves masters of flame, but I alone stand as your very incarnation. Your lover.

Blossom was always afraid of her flames. Only if she could see the beauty inside them. It would have stopped her from going down the rabbit hole of depression in her own mind.

My eyes glisten in the dark room as I watch the dim candle burn with a small wisp. So small. Yet so powerful. Such was the nature of flames. They were not to be feared. They were to be relished in.

As I watched the fire dance around the wax, my eyes suddenly turned, drawn somewhere. Somewhere on the 122nd floor.

My eyes flashed, overcome by a strange heat as they yearned to burn. And burn they did.

The glorious and majestic fire enveloped me as I melted a hole through space. And taking a step, I went inside.

The light blinded me for a moment. And perhaps it was by coincidence, but despite not trying to, I appeared right before the perpetrator of the disturbance I had felt.

The disturbance in the blaze.

My eyes scan the strange figure that floated before me. He wears unblemished white robes and a silver cross on his neck. He has golden yellow hair and a neatly trimmed beard. His gold eyes that shine in the light hold a strange allure yet seem dangerous all the same.

I smile at him. A charming smile, formed unconsciously on my lips by the spectacle around us. Magma, fire and flares of heat marred the entire landscape, turning everything one could see into a never ending burning sea of heat.

She knew where they were. At least she had an inkling of it. It was where they fought the mechanoids for the last time before they were able to get rid of them entirely. Only now, the entire thing looked a bit too worse.

The metal structures that stood proudly in the ground for untold eons even before they had climbed the tower now burned to the ground. The magma pooled into the crevices of rocks below as the rock itself burned and transformed into liquid heat. Nothing was spared. The last few mechanoid corpses and the smaller creatures that now inhabited the land disappeared in the blink of an eye. It was a frightening display of firepower; one that although surprised her, failed to reach her level still; much less that of Blossom's flames of destruction that consumed all rules in the tower.

For what reason this man had released such destruction below, it remained to be seen.

"Yeon Yirang." A sweet and pleasing voice rang in my ear, soothing the mind.

A spell? That thought rang in my mind.

"Indeed." I said, meeting the eyes of this... strange man.

"I thought the ten family heads were mostly inactive." I chuckled at his remark. He was not afraid of me. He wasn't even being courteous or showcasing the least bit of respect that comes only from fear. That was curious.

"The current happenings in the tower have prompted us to come out from our inactive states. Recently, I even got wind of Hon getting back up." I said, trying to read his expressions. But no matter how much I tried, it remained a mystery. His features were complicated, but they

proved unexpectedly hard to see through.

His face only held a compassionate smile that calmed the mind.

"And what brings you here?" He asked.

I stop, for, but a moment.

"I sensed something. That flame and thought it was interesting. Tell me, young man. Are you perhaps a beholder of the ancient powers?" I raised an eyebrow and ask.

The man chuckled warmly and shook his head.

"No. Far from it."

I nod at his words. "Then let me ask you. Why did you do this?" I pointed to the ground which

had turned into a sea of lava. There were no more rocks or metal. Only liquid that promised death through incineration.

The man tilted his head and pinched his chin for a moment before he again met my eyes.

"I was trying to swat a flea." he said. Then, he shook his head.

"No, perhaps it was not a flea. Maybe it was a large worm that I've ignored long enough for it

to become a problem." He said, correcting himself.

"I see. And how has that turned out for you?" I ask, feeling a strange sense of intrigue.

"I didn't succeed." He said without missing a beat. "He is... how to say..." The man grinned at

me.

"Let's say he's like a zombie. Getting up after dying. Like that old enemy that comes back even though it makes no logical sense for him to. Even if you kill them by your own hands."

My eyes narrow at his words. He seemed to be hinting at something.

And I wasn't sure I liked it.

"You don't happen to be from the age of genesis would you?" My words suddenly became

cold and my eyes took on a murderous hint.

"Hardly." He chuckled and shook his head. Then, he looked to the ground. "I'm a bit pissed.

Your sudden appearance made him get away." He said.

I stare at him coldly.

"Is that supposed to be a warning?" I ask.

"No. But you're welcome to speculate. You may as well take it as a warning or you may take it

as a sign of my first greeting to you." He smiled.

"My name is Adam. And I am the Visionary." The man clutched the silver cross hung on his neck and looked to the sky. "And he is someone I like to call the Hanged Man."

I raise an eyebrow. He? Who was he talking about.

Just then, a ripple travelled through the shinsu.

My eyes widened sensing the sudden arrival of some being. Something that felt ancient.

Something strong.

And everything broke.

Crack!

Shatter!

The space around me shattered like glass and what I saw made me widen my eyes. Flames unconsciously materialized around me as I saw a being of pure Degeneration and chaos.

It was a man, naked and with a single eye at his head. He spread his arms into a T-pose as he

hanged upside down upon a large cross. All around him was a blinding black light as the

shinsu turned black and corrosive.

Flames instantly began to dance, threatening to burn everything around me. At that moment,

I realized something.

Perhaps it was not by chance that she had appeared directly before this man. Perhaps

everything had been a trap.

But before I had a chance to attack, the degeneration stopped.

Adam and the Hanged Man stood still in the sky and looked at her.

"I told you not to make such a dramatic entrance. See? You scared her?" "What is the meaning of this?" I ask. The heat in the area that had started to cool after the

man's earlier attack at the ground again started to rise. I was pissed.

Adam smiled at me again. And in his hand appeared a deck of cards.

"Let me introduce us again." He threw two cards at me.

It was the two cards of the major arcana. Justice and The Hanged Man. "Myself, Justice of the Major Arcana. And this is Hanged Man of the Major Arcana." The man

grinned at me and threw the rest of the cards at me.

"And here, I declare war." His eyes shone with light and flames instantly covered the entire

area, extending even to the inner and the outer tower from the middle area that we were in! "War towards the Jahad Empire!" He spread his arms open.

"All in the name of the Lord, The Embodiment of the Sefirah Castle and the Dominator of the

Spirit World." He said.

My flames rushed upon them, but something was wrong. They were in a separate space, a

pocket dimension that was only visible to me.

My eyes cloud over with flames as the curiosity I had felt at first transform into rage.

"Until we meet again. Do tell your friends." He smiled at me.

"It'll be a glorious battle." He said and disappeared into the void.

As the separate space that had created crumbled before my primeval flames, they were

already gone.

I stood there. Unmoving.

Wrathful.

A/N: Throw some stones.

Cheers~~