Tower of Endless: Death Granted Entry

Time ticked by; everyone waited for Moon to appear, but he was still nowhere to be seen or found.

Basil kept going back and forth, checking his whereabouts all over the facility.

”Did that cat kill him?” His mind raced for a long time, but this was the only conclusion he could come up with.

Barrett wasn’t as restless; he sat down in the front seats closest to the arena and waited.

Dorbish did the same. He waited silently in the audience, constantly changing his seat to keep his distance away from Roran.

Meanwhile, Moon sat in his room, alone for now.

He chewed on his unknown food slowly, enjoying the taste and texture.

But not for long, for suddenly...

Slid~

His window slid open. ”Meow,” and an orange visitor came.

Mishu and Moon looked at one another; neither made a sound for a long moment.

”Did you come to toy with me again or steal my food?” Moon calmly said, not looking startled or pressured by the sudden arrival of the one who bullied him the most.

Mishu didn’t react to him; he only took one look around the room before turning around to leave.

”Wait,” Moon called, halting Mishu’s coiling jump.

He looked at the long sandwich he had in his hand before ripping off a generous piece of it and placing it on the plate Ed had brought.

”Here, eat some,” Moon offered. ”Not sure about your taste in food, but I think it tastes good,” he added before his eyes returned to his own piece, taking another bite.

Mishu squinted for a moment, looking back and forth between Moon, who was no longer looking at him, and the food he was offered.

After lingering for a moment, he nimbly jumped onto the desk. He smelled the food a couple of times before taking a bite.

The duo kept eating in silence; Moon occasionally took a sip of water.

Before long, each finished what he had. Mishu didn’t leave, though; he stretched his body on the desk, looking well-fed and relaxed.

”You know,” Moon spoke, ”when I first saw you, I wanted to kidnap you and keep you with me, until I realized one more step would have killed me.” Moon chuckled softly.

Mishu didn’t look at him; only his ears moved in his direction.

Moon was almost done with his bottle of water too; he went to the bathroom for a quick shower.

There, under the cool water, his mind began to ease slowly, finally released from the dreadful shackles that bound him to his bed and the trickery his mind was playing on him.

Once he was done, he stretched his body, stayed shirtless as usual, and of course, without shoes or a weapon.

”I guess it’s about time I go bash some skulls.” After everything had settled down, what was left was grave irritation.

At himself mostly, but luckily today was a good day. He had some victims to take his anger out on; they also had a plan and numbers to use.

”Don’t disappoint me, scrubs,” he said while tying his hair together and heading out, leaving Mishu relaxed, or maybe asleep, on the desk.

The first to notice Moon was Basil, who was running around all over the place. ”BOSS, YOU ALIVE? YOU OKAY?” he shouted at Moon from far away.

”Oh, you recovered well,” Moon commented, looking at him running and seemingly healthy.

Arriving near Moon, he asked, ”Boss, the round should have started 2 hours ago, where have you been?”

”Oh well, I-”

”There’s no time,” Basil cut him off, seeing he was looking fine. ”Let’s go!” He grabbed Moon’s arm and started running, dragging him to the arena.

Moon pursed his lips, but didn’t resist.

Before long, he found himself standing before the stairs leading down to the ring. ”BOSS MOON IS HERE!” Basil announced.

Moon leaned closer to him and whispered, ”You scrubs.”

Basil shouted again, ”BOSS MOON IS HERE, YOU SCRUBS!”

Most of those who were there came to watch Moon; some he knew, some he didn’t. They had waited for over two hours watching nothing, waiting for him.

One way or another, they all knew something was plotted to take him down this round. Some overheard the details, others only caught some rumors.

The majority couldn’t help laughing once they heard the second announcement from Basil.

Everyone’s gaze turned to him now; everyone was waiting for him. The older Samuel and Ed, who had half given up on this round, and Lexie and Nola, his biggest fans.

Dorbish and Barrett as well.

As well as someone lurking under a cape, features indecipherable; not even their gender could be seen. Yet, for some reason, Talia’s gaze never left that person, following them since the very beginning.

Yet, the person never once made eye contact with her.

Oblivious to the watchful eyes of Talia and the suspicious individual’s presence further away, Lexie looked both pleased and relaxed at last. ”About time, favorite starved skeleton.”

At the back, Samuel looked at Ed. ”Won’t you list the reward?” he urged.

Ed was smiling next to him, and snapped, ”Yeah, right.”

Soon, in front of every second-floor ascender residing within the eastern branch, a quest update notification appeared.

Ding!

[ Quest Update ]

Southern Normalization Facility: Branch Exclusive Quest

Title: Skirmish Ring Quest

[ Rewards ]

Round 2 Reward: Upper Body Armor [Info]

Chest Plate - Shoulder Plate - Wrist Plate

Grade: C

Creator: Sky Splitting King

The audience, Moon, and everyone else saw it.

Though the icon didn’t do it justice, the armor looked both simple and stunning at the same time.

The icon still offered a hypothetical fitting of the armor over a mannequin.

A thin, close-fitting tapered cuirass; on the upper side it rose high across the upper chest, forming a shallow, slightly angular rounded shape, reaching its maximum width below the arms before moving in a very sharp V-shape with hollow sides downwards.

It looked sculptured, but not muscular.

Followed by large, rounded dome-shaped shoulder guards, seemingly widening the shoulder length.

The wrist piece was closer to a vambrace of pure metal.

The armor was entirely black, and had some cryptic markings that looked like circles connected by half-circular lines at the edges before going into geometrical quattro-shaped lines as they went closer to the center.

”Beautiful!”

”Dammit, how could I miss this?”

”A light armor that’s also plate, how rare.”

”Who the fuck is Sky Splitting King?”

”So many gaps, is that even practical?”

”Are you stupid, do you want the armor to fight for you?”

Murmurs rose, and more came to the arena like ants rushing at a drop of honey, which made Ed puff his chest in pride.

”That design never gets old,” he commented.

Samuel exhaled. ”After so many years, it was never replicated.”

Ed nodded. ”Not only is it hard to make, but whoever wears it might be deemed a criminal related to us.”

He went silent for a moment before adding, ”Anyhow, I made it black for now, unless the kid wants to change the color to something else.”

His eyes soon went elsewhere. ”As for this one, there’s no need for you to send them a signal; everyone now knows he’s finally here,” Ed whispered as his eyes fell on the same individual Talia was watching.