Tower of Endless: Death Granted Entry

Inside the hall, Moon sat, mouth wide open.

Release a small amount?

Give it shape?

How?

He kept repeating Uon’s words in him head, but as someone who came from a place known my the laws of the Tower for having not the slightest trace of Echo, he found it puzzling.

He looked down, eyes fixed on his hand as he opened it wide.

He tensed his muscles, erected his fingers, made them into a claw.

Nothing?

He patted himself on the chest, feeling his heartbeat, his ribs, his flesh, and skin.

He raised his hand to his neck, feeling the pulse.

He could feel and root himself to this physical body, but no matter how hard he tried to search...

’So, where was echo?’ He questioned. ’Is it truly inside?’

He gritted his teeth...

”Heeeeeennnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn” His face crumbled as he tried to force it out, without feeling anything... until he started feeling his stomach making sounds he didn’t want to hear now, so he stopped.

”What exactly are you doing?” Uon asked, curious.

”Erm... how do I...” Moon couldn’t hide his confusion. ”How am I supposed to release my echo?”

Puzzled, ”Can’t you feel echo?” Uon asked.

”How so?”

”Your body has it. It literally is flowing inside.”

”Where?”

”In your body.”

”Dammit, how do I do it?”

”You should do it naturally.”

”If that’s natural, why are you teaching me? Why are arcanists rare?”

”Control is just one of many other aspects; arcanists are rare to find because of that. Everyone can release Echo and move it around even if these aspects are missing.”

Moon started rubbing his face with both hands.

Was it like how he can’t feel the food he ate?

He wasn’t sure.

”So, what do we do now?” Moon gave up.

Uon kept thinking, unable to find an answer.

”Has such a case ever happened before?”

”Not that I heard of.”

”What about that flowing light thing Teacher Samuel mentioned?”

Uon pointed at the round rune like on the board. ”This is flowing light.”

Moon squinted ”I’m not following.”

”Just this. This is the whole complete formula of flowing light.”

”So, this is the flowing light is just a small circle... with other smaller circles?”

”Absolutely.”

”What does it do?”

Uon closed his eyes, covered them with his arm, then raised his other hand.

A small circle with three smaller circles between the lines appeared in his hand, transparent. Suddenly, it started glowing, and once it was as bright as a normal light source—

It exploded.

Bang.

”AAAAAAAAGGGGGH, MY EYES... WHAT DID YOU DO?” Moon screamed.

It exploded in a bright, blinding flash of light.

He, who was staring intently at the rune, was assaulted directly by the blinding attack without any way to retaliate or damage reduction.

”That’s literally what flowing light is. It’s a small arcane art that flows on low brightness and explodes in a blinding flash. Tactical blindness, you can say.” Uon explained, not bothered by the fact that Moon was screaming.

Moon’s eyes burned and started tearing nonstop. He tried to open them again, but only the black spot of afterlight devoured his vision. The stinging sensation got even worse.

The pain wasn’t lessening.

”Did you have to use it like this?” Moon retorted.

”You kept nagging to see.”

”I didn’t know.”

”Now you know. Anyway... your sight will return in 30 seconds or so. Don’t worry,” Uon casually added while patting Moon’s shoulder twice, but Moon’s agony didn’t cease.

Moon burned this incident as a new grudge... one he would hold deep in his heart. ’Soon enough I’ll use flowing light on your damn eyes, you yellow bastard.’ He promised himself.

After recovering his eyesight and calming down a little—

”So, what do we do now?”

”Well, it’s been almost 2 days. You learned everything well... Except for this problem...”

They had tacitly agreed. Now it was time to seek Teacher Samuel’s help.

...

”What do you mean he can’t feel echo?” Samuel asked, looking as unwelcoming as ever.

”He can’t release it nor feel it flowing in his body,” Uon explained.

Mumble... mumble...

The two of them kept trying to explain, going back and forth about everything that has happened and they tried...

Samuel, on the other hand, was already thinking of a solution beyond what they knew.

To him the two of them now were nothing but side noises.

Before long, he decided to try something.

Rumble.

His echo was released, pressuring Moon directly.

Uon, who was right next to him, felt it instantly. He staggered backward.

His face painted in horror, he shirked. ”Eeeek, Teacher, please don’t kill me.”

As for Moon, he was standing there. ”What’s going on?” completely unaware of what was happening.

Fate Alert didn’t go off, so he was one was or another not in any form of damger.

Samuel retracted his echo. ”That’s a good constitution,” he commented positively for the first time.

Uon, sweating profusely. ”What constitution?”

”He has high resistance to echo,” Samuel explained.

”Is that a good thing?” Moon questioned.

Uon, confused, shook his head.

”It’s not very useful for now, but will be the further you climb.”

”Um, then... Teacher, how do we fix this problem of his?” Uon asked.

”Draw it out.”

”Draw it out?” Uon paused before adding ”Is that possible?”

”First of all, unless he has no Echo of his own entirely, it would be impossible.

”But, the system validates his capacity,”

”There are people with no Echo?” Uon skeptical.

Samuel Ignored him ””Echo tends to defend naturally when the owner is attacked by foreign Echo. You have high resistance to echo, which means the damage you need to suffer to draw out your echo is higher.”

”How so?... Big brother Uon used flowing light on me and I almost went blind,” Moon retorted.

”You were hit by the product of Echo. No constitution can help defend against that. Your body negates echo itself.” he justified before turning his gaze toward Uon. ”Attack him with elementary wind blast.”

Confused, ”Are you sure?”

”Attack me?” Moon pointed at himself.

But Uon was met by Samuel’s irritated stare, more irritated than usual.

Disregarding Moon’s question, he mindlessly aimed his finger at Moon. His Echo gathered in a shape that Moon failed to discern before—

Whoooosh~

Wind from within the runes started to move audibly around the rapidly rotating arcane art.

Ding

Fate Alert

30% → 30%

’What the hell?’ he thought before and invisible, yet strong gust of wind moving at a blinding speed smashed into his chest, knocking him a few steps back before even comprehending what they were saying.

At first, he held his chest, assessing his condition and the fact that he was fine, but he didn’t put his hands down.

He thought of the sensation. It was like a punch, a weird punch.

It felt like a wide, forceful punch, one that didn’t feel too damaging, but the kind that sends one flying.

Thus, his hands stayed there, trying to find the foreign feeling, something that didn’t fit the hit, nor the wind.

Samuel and Uon watched silently until he put down his hand.

”Was that an arcane attack, or was it also a product?” Moon asked.

”It’s an arcane art that propels wind, so it does hit your body, along with the wind it produced,” Samuel elaborated.

”Are you okay? Are you feeling anything?” Uon asked, concerned he ended up attacking him.

Moon thought for a moment, but—