93 Reaching For The Top

"Fire in the hole!" I shout before activating the Hammer.

Everyone nod and brace for the incoming impact. A portal appears out of thin air and a single penetrator crash into the wall, causing many debris to litter the area. I grit my teeth as the dust clears. The wall is damaged, but it's somehow still holding. The Tower is getting stronger the higher we go, so I'll have to take that into account.

However, it's just a minor setback.

After all, I do have more than one penetrator at my disposal.

In fact, I have a lot more than one.

Another shell comes out of the floating magical construct and smashes against the blue brick wall. Interestingly enough, the wall bends like a sheet of plastic rather than a pile of solid material. But even all the flexibility in the world isn't going to save that damn panel from destruction.

As it turns out, the Hammer is pretty fucking EfFeCtIvE at destroying things.

The material groans one last time before snapping in half. The shrapnel, which is sometimes the size of a clenched fist, bounces off my shield and even triggers the Glove a few times. The people belonging to my Order are fine, as expected, but Krognar's way of dealing with things is somewhat unique.

He does have a shield, but his seems to be a lot less reliable than ours. Instead, his armor made of liquid metal creates protective panels in front of the deadly rubble.

"What?" the Goblin, who noticed my gaze, shrugs. "We don't all have impossible shields, so I found a better way."

"I'm not judging; I was just curious." I then turn towards the gaping hole the penetrators made and what I see makes my jaw drop, I can even hear gasps coming from the others. We pierced into the Lift itself, and it looks like someone took the most expensive hotel suite ever and enclosed it in a golden dome.

"I hope you guys are not affected by this," Krognar warns as his helmet turns into something that looks a lot like a Soviet-era gas mask. He then points to a desiccated corpse. I can deduce from his fancy uniform that he was the attendant who was in charge of pleasing the occupants of the Lift.

"Poison gas? How despicable." Mary says before looking behind her. "And this place isn't even sealed, that poisonous mist could have spread into most of the lower levels."

"...And that would have killed everyone on those floors." Sarah finishes the hybrid's sentence with a horrified tone.

I'm glad that my armor protects me against such hazards. The look of utter panic that has been etched on the dead attendant's face shows that his passing wasn't a pleasant moment.

"Let's not think about this too much, we all know who we are against," Krognar says before heading towards an innocuous cabinet that looks like it's made of dark polished wood. The Goblin pushes the large needle embedded into his mechanical arm on the surface of the cabinet, and a bright light accompanied by sparks soon follow.

...Maybe that particular cabinet wasn't made of wood.

The arm of the Goblin soon starts to make heavy thumping noises as he slowly cut through the robust cabinet. It takes ten minutes before the panel finally comes loose, and it reveals an unusual sight. Or at least I think it's interesting, since Cynthia is visibly agitated by the view.

"Interlocked plates, how clever... It allows for easier three-dimensional runes, and-" the young Fabricator then realizes that she was speaking on the comms again, so she shut off the system before hiding her face in her hands.

The Goblin kicks the panel away and begins to work on the cabinet which is sitting in the opposite direction.

"I hope that one of you is somewhat competent when it comes to enchanting because I need someone to help me with the other cabinet," Krognar says. I turn towards Sarah. She can read the Goblin's mind so it should be easy for her.

"I'm afraid I can't do anything, I could extract the knowledge, but I wouldn't understand the information. Not to mention that I can't learn how to it from just his memories since he's a Goblin." The mind-reader answers.

"Alright, then that leaves us with Cynthia. Do you feel like you can do it?" I ask the Fabricator, and she nods so hard that I worry that her head might fall off.

"Krognar," I address the Goblin, "Cynthia will help you, just tell her what to do," I say as the woman kneels in front of the opened panel.

"So we'll first need to activate the auxiliary routing circuit, do you see it?" the shopkeeper asks.

"I do," the Fabricator responds.

"Then I'll need you to pull as hard as you can on that plate. Don't worry about damaging the rest of the runes." The Goblin instructs.

"But- Alright, I'll do it." Cynthia rips out the aforementioned part of the complex magical circuitry, and she casually throws it away.

The Goblin nods, "Good. That should stop some of the alarms from reaching the top."

"What?" the incredulous Alex asks.

"A dozen of silent alarms activated when we forced our way into the Lift. If I'm quick enough, we should be able to avoid most of the-" the Goblin is interrupted by a blast of energy that grazed his head. The explosion came from a little lance hidden in a wall, so Mary melts it with well-placed fire breath.

"Young lady, I admire your enthusiasm, but please refrain from destroying the Lift. We kind of need it." Krognar says before he goes back to fiddling with the enchantments.

"A thank you would have sufficed." The woman says.

*I don't know if Krognar realizes that he made a half-dragon pout.*

The safeties on the Lift must be tremendous, especially considering what Krognar told me. I hope that Cynthia and the Goblin will be quick enough to disable the horrors that must be coming to us. The Enforcers gassed their attendant, and potentially all the lower floors, as a first measure. So I shudder to think what they have in stock.

Krognar shouts another incomprehensible order at Cynthia, and she does something in the panel. The Lift creaks and becomes slightly tilted.

Everything is going to be okay... Right?

...Wurk's PoV...

Holy shit.

Someone actually did it. Someone fucking attacked the Tower.

That was supposed to be impossible, I thought we had pacified the population and that we had then under control.

And the higher-ups are having similar thoughts. My communications have been busy, to say the least, since the Tower has been attacked. A lot of other residents of the higher floors are complaining about slight shakes, and that it disturbed their afternoon tea. Some even called for my immediate demotion; it was unacceptable that something as horrid could happen to them, the elite of the planet.

Oh boy, they're going to be in for a rude awakening when they learn what is happening.

...As if, I'm going to lose far more than a bit of salary if they learn that a lot of the bottom floors are fucking gone. They were completely obliterated, the Tower is complete hollow at the bottom. I'm glad that all the matters regarding security pass through me before I send them through the proper channels, that way I can attempt to salvage the situation.

It's a bit of a big oversight if you ask me, but I'm not going to complain since it saved my ass numerous times.

But let's stop thinking about the past, I have more pressing matters to attend to. Right now, there's a bunch of maniacs rampaging through the Tower, they are wielding unknown weapons and have unknown equipment.

At least I'm not aware of it, it sure as hell isn't the crap we peddle to the ones living outside the Tower.

The worst thing is that I don't have a clue who the invaders are. The few rebel groups that are still operating are just smugglers who are working for us, and we certainly weren't stupid enough to give them access to such powerful spells.

Hell, I think even we are unable to field such extraordinary magic in such a short amount of time.

But I have to stop them no matter what.

First of all, the initial attack came out of nowhere, and it was so sudden. There was a massive spike of ambient mana then the Tower got pummeled into oblivion. Then the lower floors opposed absolutely no resistance at all.

All the traps we laid down there? Not really effective when the entire fucking floor is obliterated.

I also didn't count on the personnel. They live on the lower floors for a reason. They were either killed by the initial attack, or they tried to flee, which resulted in their execution.

We don't need such cowardly vermin at our service; it will taint our reputation.

But let's get back to the present. I initially followed the protocol and purged the surroundings of the Tower. But the attackers survived.

It leaves me with two options; the purge killed them and other members of their group invaded the Tower, or they attacked from a distance that was so great that the purge didn't reach them.

Of course, they also could have resisted the purge, but that is so unlikely that I should not even consider it.

But the two other options are equally terrifying. If they are from a group, then it means that they are numerous and well organized, and they also aren't afraid to die. These are the hardest kind of people to deal with, they can't be bought and are so determined that killing them is the only answer. The other option means that we angered some people who are stronger than us, and I find it very unlikely.

We spend a considerable amount of effort to isolate our planet, and our population, from the rest of the universe. We have multiple large-scale planetary shields that should make us undetectable, and we heavily regulate who can and cannot teleport. Even I am not allowed a lot of time off-world, and I'm under heavy scrutiny when I get the permission to leave the planet.

The ones in charge are scared of angering a powerful outside force, or that some random World-Hopper discovers our planet by accident. The arrival of new people would mean unregulated flow of information, and that is bound to cause a few rebellions.

Really, the defenses of the planet are top of the line. I was told that the engineers who designed the whole shebang were executed after they were done to prevent any potential leaks.

My thoughts are interrupted by a small red blinking light on the corner of my desk. I rack my brain to remember what this is supposed to mean, it was briefly mentioned when I got this job, but I didn't pay attention.

"Shit." I almost fall off my chair when I realize that this is one of the silent alarm for the Lift.

This is bad. I mean, the station was bad before, but now we reached critical levels of bad.

The Lift is supposed to not be known by a lot of people, and the location of its entrances is highly sensitive information that is only known by the residents of the top floors. But they somehow knew and broke through the supposedly impenetrable wall.

Another red light comes alive. It means that the intruders are fiddling with the runes.

Fuck.

My gaze shifts to a beautiful diamond-shaped blue stone with hints of purple that is hovering above its pedestal. I remember that I wanted to buy this ornament as soon as I saw it, but the price was very steep. Luckily for me, my position means that I am responsible for the security measures for almost everything in the Tower. So I performed some 'maintenance' on the Lift.

And by maintenance, I mean that I sold almost every single safety measure embedded in that room. I replaced the heavy-duty lances by the dinky models we sell; I added a few hiding features, and the higher-ups were happy. Nobody even bothered to check the rest of the room, or they would have realized that it was the single lance left in the entire thing.

So the Lift is, for all practical purposes, completely undefended.

After all, nobody will ever assault the Tower, so all this fancy and pricey equipment are just sitting there, collecting dust.

I was very wrong.

I slam my hand against my desk, how was I supposed to know that the walls could be breached?! I was told that they were unbreakable no matter what! I can't be blamed; I was given false information!

Let's calm down for a bit.

Deep breaths calm my erratic heart, and my anger against my incompetent superiors subsides.

What can I do to stop the invaders from putting the Lift under their control? The fucking thing is not very complicated, any decent enchanter should be able to put it under its thumb in an hour or two. I sigh and press a few buttons under my desk. They should activate all the security measures in the Lift.

Maybe I was lucky, and I didn't remove everything.

I nod, "Yeah, that's what will happen. There's no way that something as important as the Lift had so little protection in the first place, I was just unable to find them." I say with an empty laugh.

Somehow, I feel like I fucked up.

I shake my head and focus. The attackers are headed for the higher floors, so I need to prepare for the assault. I could, and probably will flee the area in my secret evacuation shuttle if the situation becomes worse. But I can still mobilize the troops, the elites living in the lower upper floors should stop the invaders.

And, in the one percent chance that they are defeated, then there's always that thing at the top of the Tower.

I wasn't allowed to see it, but the top members of this organization told me that it was our ultimate weapon should the unthinkable happen.

The only one with authority to use it is the Elder, but I might be able to force his hand if I play my cards right.

After all, something like an ultimate weapon is bound to save us.

...John's PoV...

"And we're done!" Krognar shouts while raising a hand in the air. Cynthia, who has been worked to the bone by the unscrupulous Goblin, nods before falling on her back, completely exhausted.

"I'm not going to lie. I was getting a bit worried when furniture started to ignite randomly. But everything seems fine now." Alex chimes in.

The Legionary is right; it was a bit nerve-wracking when huge sparks flew off the exposed runes and started to set everything on fire. Luckily for us, Mary stopped the incident by burning the fire with her flame.

I didn't even bother asking for more explanations when she told me that. I live in a world that is so bizarre and insane that I said goodbye to logic and reason a long time ago.

"So, are we ready to go?" I ask the rest of the group, and they all nod so I turn towards Krognar, "Send us up."

The Goblin nods and slams two small metal tablets together.

The Lift Immediately tilts to the side, to the point where we all fall on one side. The trashed cabin is also going up at a speed that is definitely not safe.

"What was that?!" I shout at the Goblin after getting back up.

Krognar scratches the back of his head and forces a chuckle, "Well... I might have misinterpreted a few of the wirings and might have removed the speed limiter. So we are going so fast that we could be turned into mush without sufficient protection once the Lift crash at the top."

...Is it too late to Rewind?