Under the astonished and reverent gazes of the climbers below him, the High Ranker doesn’t stop to address their feelings and concerns. As he passes through the bazaar towards the church, he looks down, and then at everyone looking at him from atop the giant trees and says a single sentence.

  “The terrorists have no home here now,”

  And then he’s gone, and yet the words remain, hanging in the air like a declaration from a god itself.

  Then comes the cheers.

  #

  Tomorrow is the public execution.

  Ever since the High Ranker dug up the entire hideout of the revolutionaries this morning, it is like a fire has been lit under the climbers. A vigour and excitement that lets not the night descend upon tonight, as can be seen from the bright lights and noises coming from below.

  Adrian is seated on one of the high branches of the tree, occasionally looking at the people partying below, and occasionally looking at the stars above. There are fewer of them now–many black holes must still be lost in the woods or underground somewhere–but the night sky is back.

  The drunkenness wouldn’t go though. He has been dragged through parties by his friends, feeding on food and alcohol. But unlike the time when he had just become a climber, the current him is more than capable of slipping away.

  He lies on the branch, hoping his Resistance would kick in sometime and help him, but the damn alcohol is very strong, meant for people with much more Resistance than him. Standing at 13, it should do something, but perhaps he’s just too drunk to actually feel the effects.

  In his half stupor, he checks his Status after almost 10 days of working his ass off.

  Name: Adrian Alphona

  Class: Manifold Warden lvl 24

  Body: 35 (+5)

  Kinesthetics: 72 (+2)

  Resistance: 7 (+6)

  Mind: 83

  Mystics: 131 (+1)

  Mana: 1320

  Free Points: 8

  Primary Abilities: Avatar*, Timer, Prison

  You have three Upgrades pending!

  His stats have grown wonderfully, and he has finally crossed the double digits into Resistance. Although, that has brought with it its own problems.

  Avatar

  Mana charge: 34

  His main spell keeps getting more and more expensive. Adrian removes the pendant, losing the +4 from the artifact, and once again looks at the ability.

  Avatar

  Mana charge: 23

  The damn Resistance is making his avatars expensive.

  He hadn’t noticed it earlier, putting the blame on the ability upgrade, but now it seems so obvious. It is not just his ability which he has upgraded that day, but also his Resistance which has gained 5 extra points, pushing it to 6, making the mana charge increase by 7.

  It can be noted that after the 5th point, every point costs him 2 extra mana, and after crossing the 10th mark, 3 extra mana. If this keeps going on, then either he’ll never be able to use his avatars, or completely stop investing points in Resistance, and stop wearing artifacts which gives him more of it.

  The reason really hits you in the face when you think about what the stat really does. Resistance increases your body’s inertia to stay the same. It stops the physical and magical attacks, as well as poisons, and bleeding, because they all inherently try to change the body. The higher the stat, the higher the inertia of the body, eventually leading to reduced aging.

  But his Avatar is a process of creating copies of himself through him. They come out of him, and that is inherently a very major shake up in his body. Adrian doesn’t know if the avatars take some of him with them, like some spinal fluid or maybe his age with them, but they do inherently clash with the stat.

  I wonder if I can upgrade it so that it does not need to come from me, but can exist out of something else? That should stop the clash.

  He has three upgrades as well. He has been thinking about the next upgrade for a while, the direction he wants his spells to take, and it doesn’t look like he’ll find more of what he wants on this floor.

  Too much thinking. Feeling a headache approaching from all these calculations, Adrian stops, and continues to stare at the stars. Unfortunately for him, the headache catches up to him anyway.

  “I knew I’ll find you here,” Ji-a says, suddenly appearing by his side.

  Adrian sighs. “How may I help you, milady?”

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  “Can I not even come see a friend now?”

  “Are you sure you didn’t just get bored from the party so you came here to find some fun?”

  “That may or may not be true,” She says, laying down by his side and looking at the stars.

  “Move away, take your stinking ass to the other corner.” Adrian pushes her to the side.

  “Wow rude. Who even wants to sit by your side,” Ji-a snorts, and slugs her way to two hand distance from Adrian.

  For a few minutes, no one talks, a silence suspends in the air. The ground below is still so flashy, and so noisy, but somehow the sounds feel too dull to them.

  “Do you not feel like someone will come and try to kill us again like this? It’s very much like the other night,” Adrian finally says.

  “Maybe. I can probably escape. I don’t know about you.”

  “Hmm, you’re probably right,” Adrian mutters, the intoxication slowly leading way to a deep deep sleep.

  “If I have mana, then I’ll take you with me too. Don’t worry,” Ji-a says. Her voice feels so distant now, muffled, as if passing through a wall.

  “So you can sleep if you want.” I should get to bed.

  “Isn’t it better to sleep here? Under the stars? Who knows when you’ll be able to enjoy such a view and peace. So take it from me, but enjoy this peace while you still can, because who knows when it’ll come back.” Her words suddenly feel so poetic, like they contain the wisdom of the world.

  A more sober and wakeful Adrian might have argued, but the current him can only nod along.

  “Good night, Adrian,” She says, but Adrian only hears half of it, his mind sinking in the dark dark water of sleep, lit by a few stars up above, until even their light couldn’t penetrate his sleep, and they disappear.

  #

  Adrian wakes up in his room, the morning light peeking in through the windows and falling on him. He lays on the floor, a blanket thrown over him.

  She could’ve at least put me on my bed.

  He sits up groggily, a slight headache acting on his head, and his vision swims a little, but the hangover is quickly fading away due to Resistance. He decides to help it a little by going into the bathroom, and vomiting a little.

  Much better.

  An hour or so of sitting in the bathtub, soaking himself in with all the water and feeling the calmness of a straight mind settle on him, he finally gets out, and gets ready for the new day.

  How long was I asleep for?

  9 hours 22 minutes 3 seconds

  That’s the longest I’ve slept ever since I got here. Did I miss the execution?

  Adrian walks out of his room, and into the diner of the inn where he can still see many patrons sitting and having their breakfast. Adrian walks up to the bar, and asks the barman. “When is the execution again? Did I miss it somehow?”

  “You must’ve had a lot to drink last night,” The man snickers, “The execution is a little delayed. Everyone got too crazy last night, so now some of them are being forced to clean all the trash they threw. The church was very angry when they saw the situation.

  “Barged into inns and everything. Gave me a scare, but thankfully they seem to have some sort of divination trick which caught the ones who loitered the most. And also every drunk who passed out on the ground. Climbers really don’t have a sense of self preservation,” The man clicks his tongue in a patronizing manner.

  “What about the stage? Is it made yet? Also, can I get something to eat?”

  “Take something light, and tons of cold water. Will help your stomach. And the stage is being constructed as we speak. It should all be done within an hour or so, so sit back and enjoy the food in that time,” The barman says, going into the kitchen to convey his order.

  Adrian goes through the porridge slowly, not too keen on making effective use of his time today. He doesn’t even send out avatars, just in case he needs them later. If there is ever a time for revolutionaries to attack, then it will be the execution.

  But do they have enough fire power for it?

  After the breakfast, he walks out of the inn, sheepishly walking down from the tree using proper footholds like a newbie climber will. He hasn’t used them in so long, that it feels like a completely different experience.

  Walking through the empty bazaar is an experience too. Everyday that he has been here, a rambunctious bazaar has been a constant in his life. But all of a sudden, it feels so quiet, except for a few open stores, and a few customers.

  He walks past the stage which is almost built now, facing the giant trees. Perhaps so that people can watch it from their homes as well. People move around the stage doing last minute check ups.

  It’s a high stage, with a metal lunette for the criminal’s head to be locked in. The lunette has runes etched into it, as a normal metal piece would never be enough to stop a climber with particularly violent skills.

  A longsword sits by it, dark and menacing, as if brought straight from the hells for this exact purpose.

  Adrian walks past it all, and into the beautiful garden, finding a familiar face lying face first into the grass. He walks up to him and tilts him with his foot.

  “Noooo the sky is too bright. Leave me like this,” The man cries.

  “Drank too much?” Adrian says, pushing with a little bit more force.

  “Go away if you’re not here to lay on the grass too,” Ritsu cries again, “And yea, last night… ugh I should’ve gone home when everyone told me to,”

  Adrian sits nearby. “Why would you do it when you just recovered a few days ago. Also you don’t have a high Resistance I assume?”

  “It was getting so depressing in the room. And Himari was also always worried and I was getting worried about that, so I thought it’ll be a nice change. Ugh also,” He waves his hands in the air, as if producing some meaning out of this arcane symbolism, “I shouldn’t have drank some of the lvl 50 stuff on a bet…”

  Adrian bursts into laughter.

  “You are too loud!” He covers his ears as he yells.

  Adrian and Ritsu sit there for a while more, as the stage in the distance is finally completed, and more and more of the audience is gathering around it.

  He pushes Ritsu awake, who finally shows his grass filled face with more complaints.

  As they walk to the stage, they also meet the others. His party and Finneas’s own have gotten much closer in the days they have spent adventuring together. Buren is there too. It gives Adrian a bad feeling.

  Finally, around half an hour later, when the space in front of the stage is chock full of people, some of them even climbing atop the tree to look at the spectacle, then the church finally enters.

  A procession of 10 church members, with 50 or so terrorists with black paint smearing all over their face, and leading them all is the High Ranker. With a simple thought, he lifts them all onto the stage, and shackles the terrorists to the floor with his metal.

  Then he addresses the audience.

  “It has been a tough time for all of you. To go through something like that is not easy, even for climbers. But we are nothing if not resilient. We keep moving, keep pushing forward, all in the service of our Creator.

  “I can see now, how much this place has changed since almost two weeks ago. It has never been more beautiful, more of a home to us, than it is today. Except there is just one smudge on this beautiful canvas.”

  The man waves his hand, and a woman floats in front of the audience.

  “People like her are the cancer of our paradise. Today, we shall remove this cancer, and once again bring freedom to our Towe-”

  His words hang there, arrested against the vast flow of mana in the air. It presses down on you, choking and dominating. Everyone in the area falls to their knees, sweating and kneeling, fear spreads and mixes in the mana like a darkness descending upon the world.

  Only the High Ranker still stands straight, looking into the distance where none can see. Adrian grits his teeth and looks up, even as it feels like the whole world is against him. He looks up at the High Ranker.

  A soft smile plays on his face, the woman in his grip either dead or fainted. A single line escapes his mouth, and everyone hears it.

  “So they’ve come.”

  And a scorching heat follows, breaking through the grip of fear and mana on everyone at the same time. They all look up simultaneously, directly at the flaming meteor now descending from the sky.

  This is just pure fucking bullshit.

  #