The Tower Sage

(Somewhere in the Tower)

"I can't believe it, you really did it." the hoarse voice of an old man who looked like he would die at any moment echoed in the dim cave.

"Cut the crap. Here is what you wanted, I fulfilled my part of the deal, now you need to do yours." the cloaked second figure said impatiently.

The cloaked person was named Jim Wardok but most just called him Scar Face. Despite the cloak, you could see the outlines of his muscled body beneath it. While some people might be attracted by his impressive physique, his face quickly repelled most of the interest.

His face was riddled with scars and burns, his eyes practically glowed with hatred, greed, and malevolence.

"Very well. I don't know why you want to return to the past after making it so far but a few words of advice." His voice grew heavy and serious "I can guarantee you that no one will notice the abnormalities in time but if you confront someone powerful, there is a good chance they will discover your abnormality. Some might want to kill you, others would try to use you, so be careful."

"…Thanks, I guess. Now can we start? I have been waiting for this moment long enough."

"Youngsters, always so impatient." The old man grumbled "Very well, let's start."

A silver light began to envelop the scarred man, slowly disintegrating him layer by layer but instead of fear or pain, all he did was laugh with happiness. Just before the silver light hit his soul, he heard the voice of the old man again.

"Remember, every action has a consequence. You are not the first to come to me to return to the past to change their tragedies or obtain missed opportunities. You might get want you want but you will never rid yourself of the consequences." The old man said, sounding helpful but there was an obvious undertone of dread.

He knew that the action of sending someone to the past would make the version of him in the new timeline bear the consequences. The more this guy changed, the more he would share their divided punishment but what could he do, the deal he offered was just too sweet.

"Screw you, Kronos." Jim said and disappeared, leaving the King of Titans alone in his cave.

(About 600 years in the past, Earth, Miami)

Somewhere in a bedroom, a young man jumped out of bed, sweating and panting like he just had a terrible nightmare.

Jim ran to the bathroom and looked at his handsome, scar-free face in disbelief.

"I can't believe it, it actually worked." He said in a shaky voice.

He spent a few minutes touching and observing his new old face until he suddenly stopped and just looked at his grinning self in the mirror.

"Hahahah, hahahah" he started laughing like a madman.

"Consequences?! There will be no consequences! With all the opportunities I missed in my last life, I will rule the Tower. I studied everything down to the tiniest detail, I know things that are unknown to even these high and mighty deities. If I get just a few of these things, who would dare to defy me then?!" With the mad glimmer in his eyes now more prominent than ever, he screamed at his reflection.

"SHUT UP, IT'S TOO EARLY FOR YOUR SHIT!" an angry shout came from next door.

Jim ignored it and started making plans for the future. With a glance at his phone, he knew it was the 4th of July, 2026.

"That means I have 6 days before the Earth dies and everyone enters the Tower for refuge. So little time, so much to do.

First I have to go to the Royal Ontario Museum I Canada to get a rock. Who would think that the probably most powerful rock in the galaxy is just collecting dust in some random museum?

Then I need to go to the University of Cambridge in London to find someone. This is the most important part, if I don't find the stone, I have to kill him, I can't risk him interfering with my future, not again." He clenched his fists in hatred when he remembered the past.

He used to be just a weak climber but his greed for power and fame drove him to endanger himself over and over again. He celebrated even the slightest increase in strength and blamed his fellow climbers more powerful than him for everything bad that happened to him.

The stronger the climber, the stronger was the hate he had for him. That also meant that the unsuspecting young man in London bore the most of his hatred, even if these two never even met each other, be it in the past or future.

"There is no way the Museum will just gift me the rock if I just asked nicely or would sell it for a few bucks, that means I will have to break in. Shouldn't be too hard, some relics won't be able to stop me, I was a master at breaking in in the Tower, not to mention here. All I need is a few tools and money."

After making a list of everything he had to do in the last six days of Earth, he went online and took up a large credit. All earthly money and debts would cease to exist by the end of the week.

The first thing Jim did after getting the money was to book a flight to Toronto in a few hours. It was perfect, it gave him enough time to look for a way to get the necessary tools for his heist there. It would have been a lot easier if he could just buy them here but he highly doubted they would let him on the plane with these things.

(4 hours later, airport)

It was done, he made a few calls and 'donated' some money to some people and was assured that the goods would be delivered once he arrived.

He was now sitting at the airport with a small suitcase with only the most necessary things, waiting for the boarding.

After what felt like hours to him, the announcement came through the speaker.

(Another 4 hours later, Toronto)

Jim arrived and booked into the hotel without any problems and went straight to bed, tomorrow would be a long day.

He had hired some guys to provide him with the building plans for the museum and the security system. If everything went as planned, the heist would happen the very same night.

(Next day)

A knock on the door awoke the sleeping returnee from his beautiful dream.

By the time he got dressed and opened the door, there was no one there except a large suitcase. With the arrival of the case, the remaining sleepiness disappeared from his face and he quickly pulled it inside before checking if he was seen by someone and closed the door.

The suitcase contained both the museum plans and the tools he needed to break in. With these things, the heist was guaranteed to succeed, he was so confident that he immediately booked the next flight to London in the morning.

That was just how confident he was. With his future experience, the security system might as well be a tripwire and the security guards, wooden mannequins.

He would have preferred to travel by boat due to the lower risk of someone finding the stolen goods on him but the boat would take 7 days to arrive in Cambridge and he didn't have that time.

With nothing left to do until nightfall, he continued searching the web for his target.

(Night, near the museum)

He still hadn't found even a trace of the guy he was looking for but he still had days for that, now he needed to steal the most powerful stone on the planet.

The Royal Ontario Museum wasn't exactly a high-security building. It had a few alarms on the windows and two security guards patrolling it at night, nothing he couldn't deal with.

He slowly approached the wall while making sure no one was watching him before climbing to the third floor using a gutter pipe. After making sure that he wasn't so unlucky as to have one of the security guards take a break on exactly this window, he used his tools to quietly open the window without raising the alarm.

Having made it in successfully, Jim leaned the window closed as it was also his way out.

It was dark and there were cameras in every corner but neither posed much of a problem. He had spent hours memorizing even the tiniest room in the building and made sure to cover every inch of his body with some kind of black clothing.

It was inevitable that people would notice the missing rock tomorrow and check the cameras but as long as they didn't know his face, they couldn't trace him to the airport in a short amount of time.

After avoiding security for several minutes, Jim finally made it to the small vitrine in a small corner of the exhibition. Even without any light sources, the blue stone seemed to shine.

"There you are. You are even more beautiful than I imagined. I can't believe some idiot used you for a mere S-rank Talent, I swear I will make better use of you." He thought excitedly.

In his past life, he awakened a B-rank talent which was pretty good but it was nowhere near being able to satiate his hunger for power. He spent all his life watching and studying these stronger than him and he learned of many of their opportunities. Opportunities he swore to take for himself in this life.

After entering the Tower, humans thought that the highest rank a talent could be was S, only later did they learn of higher ranks. One of the few humans to awaken an SSS-rank was the guy he was looking for and this rock was the key to me getting his talent.

There were 3 other humans from Earth with an SSS-rank Talent but not much was known about their past, so he had no clue where to find them.

In less than a minute, the vitrine was opened up without a sound or alarm and he carefully put the blue rock in a prepared bag.

Jim silently put the glass where it belonged and sneaked back to the window he came from, leaving without being noticed.

After walking through allays and bushes to make sure no one was following him, he returned to his hotel room and went to sleep to prepare for the next day. Tomorrow it would get serious, he needed to get out of Canada without being captured and find someone whose face he had only ever seen in books.

(Ten hours later, Cambridge)

He was able to board the plane the next morning and land without being discovered.

Either people didn't notice the missing rock yet or they just didn't think to notify the airport to look for this stone. Whatever the reason, it was good for Jim and his plans.

He booked a hotel near the university, knowing fully well that he would spend the next few days searching the area for the guy.

(1 day before Earth dies, Cambridge)

"Shit, where is this bastard?!" Jim screamed in his mind.

He had been searching and asking around yet he still hadn't found a single clue. Time was running out.

"It should happen any moment now. I hope the books I read didn't lie and he only entered a few minutes before the end." He was growing desperate. If that guy entered the Tower before he achieved his goal, it would make many of his future plans impossible.

Finding a person in the Tower was even more impossible, finding one specific person on the planet was already hard, now imagine the same with one person and virtually infinite worlds, which was basically what each floor was. Even if he did find him, he would have awakened his talent and he would have no chance of getting near him without dying.

At that moment a voice of unidentifiable origin or gender sounded in the ears of every human on the planet. Simultaneously, a holographic blue screen only that person could see appeared in front of everyone with the exact words they were hearing.

----------

[Planet Earth's lifespan will end in 23:59:59]

[All sentient life, please enter the Tower for refuge before it is too late]

----------

The screen and voice were unaffected by liabilities like language barriers or disabilities, such as deafness or blindness. Everyone heard the announcement and everyone saw the screen in front of them count down their remaining time on Earth.

People immediately started discussing this event, some believed it to be an alien invasion, and some a trick by the government to make them surrender themselves to them. In just two hours, 40% of the population disappeared in a burst of blue light and people started to accept that this was real.

"Found you" Jim cheered in his mind. "Time to begin."

He slowly followed a young man with headphones while taking out the stone and a knife.

"First step, drop some blood of the user on the Fate Stealing Stone." With a quick motion, he made a small cut on his left hand and grabbed the stone with it. If anyone with energy perception was near, they would immediately notice the surrounding energy become chaotic.

"Second step, have physical contact with the target" Jim put his knife away and hid his bleeding hand behind his back.

"Hey, you there!" The young man before him turned around with a confused expression "Yes, you!"

"Yes?" he asked unsure as he watched the strange dude approach him with his left hand behind his back "Can I help you?"

"Actually, yes, you can." Jim held out his right hand for a handshake "I'm Jim, I wanted to introduce myself."

"Ok?" this was getting stranger by the moment but the other youth still shook his hand politely and introduced himself. "Hi, I'm Chris"

Jim increased the strength he put in the grip "Your whole name" Jim said with a dangerous undertone.

"Ouch, stop that." Jim only increased the grip again. This was before they entered the Tower and Jim was still physically stronger.

"Ok, ok. My name is Christopher Conners, now let go, you psycho."

Jim's face bloomed in a grin like he just won the lottery. Chris couldn't see it but the stone in Jim's left hand suddenly turned to dust.

"Third and final step, make the target say his full name while holding physical contact." Jim said to himself.

"What?" Chris only stood a meter away, so how could he not hear that crazy guy's muttering?

"Nothing" Jim finally let go "Oh, one last thing," he said while reaching into his pocket.

"What now? I'm not going to shake your hand again, you psycho." He said warily.

Jim smiled "Don't worry, this will be much easier." He pulled out the knife from earlier and stabbed it at Chris "You just have to die!"

"WH-" was all he could say before the knife buried itself in his chest, just centimeters away from his heart.

Seeing that Chris managed to avoid a fatal hit and fell to the ground, Jim took the knife in a reverse grip, ready to end it.

"I guess you weren't number one for nothing but please make this easier for both of us and die." He said with a maniacal grin before jumping at the man on the ground like a wild animal.

Just moments before the knife finally pierced the heart, Chris disappeared in a burst of blue light, making the knife hit the ground where his heart would have been moments ago.

"Shit, he escaped." Jim cursed

"It doesn't matter, I got what I wanted and without a talent, he will be even more useless than a civilian."

"Whatever, he probably would be lucky if he passed the tutorial. We are probably never going to meet again anyway." Jim jinxed himself.

"Let's go" he said before he too disappeared in a blue light.

He appeared on a lush green field of grass but he was too occupied with staring at the blue screen in front of him.

----------

[You have entered the Tower for the first time]

[All injuries, diseases, and disabilities have been healed]

[Earth used its last bits of power to awaken your Talent]

[You have stolen someone's fate and taken their Talent]

[You awakened the SSS-rank Talent, Disaster]

[You have entered the First Floor, Tutorial]

[Please complete the quest to climb to the next floor]

----------

"It fucking worked!" Jim shouted into the blue sky.

"To think all it took for the stone to work was some blood, touch, and a name. I guess the truly frightening items are frighteningly easy to use. I will never make the mistake of giving out my real name. From now on I shall be named End." He whispered in both amazement and fear.

"Now my rise truly begins" he said determined of his superiority.

Unbeknownst to him, he was never the protagonist nor will he ever be.

The protagonist was a now unnamed young man who had his entire fate and identity stolen from him. That young man was currently looking at his screen dazed.