92 Going Up

That Tower is really massive; it is quite impressive. So far the penetrators have been doing good work on destroying the floors, the rain of rubble and corpses is also a sign that the shells are doing their job.

But we might have to change tactics. Our ammo supply isn't infinite, and the floors are getting sturdier the higher the shells go. It takes between one or two penetrators for each level, at the beginning it was one penetrator for ten floors.

I stop the infernal bombardment and take a deep breath before turning towards the others. They don't say anything, and Krognar is too busy avoiding the falling rubble to pay attention to me.

"I think we'll have to climb the Tower normally. The floors are getting too hard for the Hammer to pierce them in a timely fashion," I say, and the others nod. The barrier around the floors is less troublesome than I first thought, it's there to stop teleportation and not much else. They probably thought that the material was strong enough, so they didn't bother with a strong barrier.

That was a big mistake. If the barriers surrounding each floor were as strong as the one surrounding the Tower then our climbing would have slowed to a crawl, and fewer Enforcers would have died.

I call for a small barrage of Barrier Breakers to poke a hole into the magical shield while leaving the floor relatively intact. It wouldn't be funny if it crumbled under our feet since the drop would be quite unpleasant. We teleport inside the level, and I finally witness the interior of the Tower for the first time.

Bare-bone would be the best way to describe it. It's a maze of gray corridors and rooms, which are somehow providing lighting despite no visible light source.

"Be careful," I warn the others. This time the occupants of the Tower are unharmed, and something tells me that they are aware that we are coming. I check on my Portal Gun. The mapping device proves to be invaluable in such a situation; the floors are so massive that I could waste entire months lost in those seemingly infinite corridors.

I lead the group and begin to walk forward. We don't encounter anyone for a while. I think it's understandable; I wouldn't be in this Tower after what happened. But my lifeforce detector soon proves me wrong, and a dozen blips appear on my radar. I grab my shotgun and lean against the wall, the targets are just around the corner, and I can hear faint whispering. I put my rifle around the corner and fire.

There are no whispers left.

Leaning around the corner reveals a small pile of half-melted lances and other miscellaneous equipment. I have to admire the courage of those soldiers who are holding their position despite the odds not being in their favor. But we are dealing with the Enforcers, so it's likely that the higher-ups just locked the soldiers in their floors while they are hiding at the top.

"What is even the point of such a big Tower?" Alex asks as I blast another group of blockading soldiers.

"It houses every Enforcer of the planet. The building is also used as a depot for weapons and materials, as a giant factory and rumors say that they even have entire floors dedicated to farming." Krognar answers, "They are hoarding knowledge and wealth. Also, the home of each executive is apparently bigger than a couple of city blocks and spans multiple floors."

Holy shit, what do they even do with that much space?!

... I'll have to admit that I'm a bit jealous. My office and my quarters are nice and quite large considering the size of the Shard, but they aren't as extravagant as this.

I shake my head. It's a good thing that I don't live in such useless and wasteful luxury. It reminds me that we are at war and that the Enforcers gained all this luxury through despicable means.

"All right, according to the mapping device, the entrance to the next floor should be around here," I say as I look around, and I find the door. It's quite large considering the size of the Goblins, and it's very heavily reinforced. I try to open it, but it won't budge no matter how hard I pull or push.

Just as I thought, the bastards locked the soldiers on their floors. They condemned their own men to certain death for nothing. Anger wells up inside me as I punch the door, my shield groans and an empty casing flies out of my Glove while the door is slightly bent.

These arrogant bastards are the same everywhere. They steal from their citizens and enslave them. They are destroying the future of their own people to satisfy their bottomless greed!

Earth must not become like this no matter what.

The door is finally blown away, and we progress to the next floor.

This one is very different from the other floor. It's one massive open space instead of a maze of corridors. There are what looks like conveyor belts and large magical machines that are churning out various items. I can't see anyone except the workers who are unmoving. They can't be unafraid of me, so I go towards them and what I see makes my blood boil.

They didn't flee because they can't. They are chained to their workstation, and tubes are entering their bodies in various areas to stop them from dying. Their feet have been cut off and replaced by small prostheses that are tightly screwed on the floor. Everything below the elbow has been amputated and replaced with specialized tools for their work, and their mouths have been burned to shut them up. The sickly pale workers are staring at me with lifeless eyes.

"Good fucking lord..." Alex mutters in disgust.

"This is what we are fighting against." Mary clenches her fist and punches the wall. Her fury is visible, and flames are coming out of her nostrils.

"I don't even want to read their minds. I would faint." Sarah declares.

Krognar stares silently at the helpless victims of the Enforcers who were condemned to a fate worse than death.

"Do you want me to end it?" I ask the slave, and he nods instantly. The others like him also nod, and soon enough all the remaining workers nod in unison.

*How long were they here? How long were they forced to live like this?!*

This inhumane treatment is worse than I imagined.

"Follow me," I say as I pull out my laser pointer. They guessed what I wanted to do so the group hurries behind me. My goal is the door to the next floor, which Mary forces open with a couple of punches. We all go in, and I order a couple of explosive shells into the grim factory. The Tower shakes as the imprisoned workers are freed from their hellish existence.

I think the group is shaken by what we just witnessed, but we don't have time to recuperate. The Enforcers could be planning a counterattack, and I don't want to let any of those bastards live.

Those who are bringing such untold suffering unto their own people only have one way out if they make the mistake of crossing my path. My gun will bring justice to those corrupt degenerates.

"W-Why would they even do this?" Alex mutters in shock.

"I don't know," Krognar replies while grinding his teeth, "If I had to guess it's probably to cut down on production cost and to deter any rebellious thought. Nobody would even think about going after the Enforcers after witnessing something like this."

Looking around helps me forget the previous floor. We are in what looks like a large storage area. It's filled with massive shelves covered with various crates of varying sizes. I don't even want to know what they contain after seeing the production floor so we skip past large floating copper tubes with a flat metal piece embedded in their sides that must be used to move the crates. There's no one else here besides us according to my lifeforce detector so the workers must have fled when we started the attack. I hope it's the case. Otherwise, they might have been conscripted by the Enforcers to act as living walls to stall our progression.

We soon find the entrance leading to the next floor, so Mary pummels the door and blasts it away. I take a step inside, and I am suddenly taken out of my thoughts by a blast of energy in the chest. My shield stopped it, but I was surprised nonetheless.

I raise my arm to stop the advance of the rest of the group as another blast hits me. This particular floor lacks lighting, but my armor soon adapts to the poor conditions and what I see makes my jaw drop.

The workers of the previous floors are all there, lying in a pool of their own blood while their bodies are covered in large holes, which I assume were caused by the one who keeps trying to kill me.

"W-Who are you?!" a voice echoes from the back of the room, and I finally notice the one responsible for this massacre. A duo of Goblins is manning a sort of recess in the wall, which is armed with a massive lance pointed towards me.

"Like I told the others, go back to your floor! Everything is fine so don't panic, or we'll shoot!" the other operator declares with a shaky voice. They must not be able to see very well in the dark since they would have noticed that I am not a Goblin.

"Y-You should take a look at this." The first Goblin whispers to his colleague but they forgot to stop the microphone, so I hear everything.

"I-It can't be. The sensors must be fucked! I bet it's because of this earthquake; we'll just-" I smirk as I point towards the cabin housing the two Goblins.

"Mary, show me your strength!" I shout, and the draconic woman grunts before leaping forwards with two pulsating burning orbs already in her hands. The Goblins don't even have the time to react as the two spheres are smashed against the opaque window, and the magical constructs penetrate the material and melt everything that's inside.

Even the Goblins are not spared, and their screams of terror are snuffed out in a second when they turn to ashes.

"Good job," I compliment Mary, who nods before going back behind me with a confident stride. I take one last glance at the dead Enforcers before switching to the dead workers. These people were counting on the Enforcers for protection, but their supposed protectors massacred them all without even a shred of regret.

I barely take the rest of the floor into account, from the looks of things this was a sort of administrative level, it's full of cubicle-like structures which are all empty.

It's a shame. My trigger finger was itching for some AcTiOn.

The door, which is just a few steps away from us, is protected by a sort of transparent corridor that is overseen by multiple stations which are similar to the one Mary torched. But the stations are empty, the rest of the personnel must have fled to the safety of the upper floors while the two remaining ones were either unaware of the situation or where stationed there as sacrificial pawns to buy some time.

"Be careful," I warn the others, "We might run into the rest of the Enforcers."

The Enforcers don't have a lot of options when it comes to escaping the Tower. They can either jump off a window or try to climb down. These two options are not going to be good for their health since I will either kill them or they'll smash against the hard ground. So it leaves them with one last resort, going up.

It wouldn't be surprising if the people at the top of the organization had some sort of escape shuttle in case the Tower was besieged. And I bet they are not willing to share with the other Enforcers hiding in this Tower.

"I wonder for how long we'll have to climb that Tower," Sarah asks, and Krognar shrugs.

"The exact size of the Tower is classified information, but if I take the average height of each floor, and use it with the approximate theoretical height of the Tower then..." he pauses for a moment before sighing, "We have a long way to go."

"How long?" I say, and Krognar tilts his head to the side, I can almost spot a grin behind his helmet.

"Too long," he says, "but I might have a solution to that problem. Do you think the top brass want to go through all the floors each time they need to go down?"

Cynthia shakes her head, "No, it doesn't make sense. But they should be using some kind of teleportation. The barriers can surely be configured to allow certain people to go through."

"That would be the smart and logical idea. But we are dealing with Enforcers." Krognar sighs, "They want to show off, to prove how superior they are to everyone else. So they built the Lift."

"What is that? I can infer from the name that it has something to do with going up and down." I say.

"And you would be correct. They remodeled most of the Tower to allow for an ornate room to go down the floors at tremendous speed while the others are forced to walk down the Tower. This process takes a long time, and each floor requires an authorization to go through them. So the personnel is effectively trapped in the Tower, bound to the whims of the top-floor residents." The Goblin announces.

For fuck's sake, are these people vying for the spot of 'worst person in the universe'? It's like they get worse the more I learn about them.

"So the Lift is a large room surrounded by a transparent material. That room is like a miniature luxury hotel. It has an attendant and lots of various foods. And, from the stories I heard, the bastards of the top floors like to slow down the Lift so they can gloat and mock the workers who are going down the Tower. The executives sometimes even revoke their authorizations just as they are about to reach the first floor, thus forcing them to go back up. I've heard that some unlucky bastards haven't seen the outside world for five years or more." Krognar explains.

"You're kidding, right?" Cynthia asks. The heavy silence shows that it's the truth. I turn towards Sarah, and she confirms that the shopkeeper's story is true.

"How do you know so much about the Tower?" Alex says to lighten the atmosphere.

"I was planning to assault the Tower. So I gathered all the information I could. But I soon realized how foolish and impossible it was, so I waited for an opportunity to kill Wurk. You already know how that went down." Krognar replies.

The Legionary nods and goes back to paying attention to his surroundings.

I also do the same. We are bound to face more resistance the higher we go. I doubt that the Enforcers are above laying traps that might kill innocent people so we must be careful.

"So how do we access this Lift?" I ask the Goblin.

"It's not that hard; entrances are on every floor. But the problem is that the Lift is embedded into the walls, so we can't punch our way into the device as we did with the doors. And the Lift is also protected by many securities. I don't know what they are and how to defuse them, and it's certain that most of them are lethal to potential intruders." He replies. "Normally, our only way inside the Lift would be to be invited by someone from the upper floors. But your assault of the Tower gave me an idea, and I think I worked out a way to make it happen."

The Goblin grins and points at an empty wall section, "Could you destroy that wall for me?"

I nod and pick up my laser pointer; this should be a piece of cake.