97 Wurk's Wrath

Day fifteen of trying to breach this fucking door. Morale is at an all-time low, and our progress is still slow as shit.

I know it's only really been an hour since we started breaching the door, but seeing large chunks of metal melt away only to reveal even more material is quite depressing. For crying out loaned, it isn't like we are using a small drill! Those are the penetrators for the Hammer of Prometheus, so the dramatic shower of sparks and molten metal that appears each time the shell makes contact with that accursed metal panel should be accompanied with actual progress.

"At least we're not under attack," Alex, who is sitting down with his friends, says.

"Don't say that. You're going to jinx us!" Cynthia admonishes the Legionary.

"Sorry..." he says while lowering his head.

I sigh and focus on Mary, who is alternating between pacing around and practicing punches against an already battered wall.

It looks like the hybrid isn't very patient. I can understand her pain; I wasn't the most patient person before the Rewinder. But my outlook on life changed after the arrival of the mysterious app, and now I know that I have all the TiMe In ThE wOrLd.

But I'm still nervous despite my seemingly endless time-travel fueled patience. I can't relax since as Alex said, the Enforcers could strike at any moment. I find it weird that there haven't been any more attempts to stop us. We aren't exactly discrete, and we are trying to reach the top members of this damn organization.

A few things can explain the lack of reaction from our enemies. First of all, there might have been a mutiny at some point, and the chain of command has completely crumbled. How sweet it would be. Enforcers killing each other in chaos while a privileged few are trying to escape, thus causing even more confusion.

But I would not count on it. The leaders of the Enforcers must be powerful, so the fear of instant death must be what keeps this shitshow together. I would not be surprised to learn that the shrewder Enforcers are trying to profit from the situation, too blinded by greed to recognize the dire situation they are in.

Or my speculations could be way off the mark, and the Enforcers could be still organized and coordinated while preparing some kind of armed response.

If I'm honest, that last option is the scariest. I've seen what desperate Enforcers are capable of doing, and the Goblins of this planet are not concerned with concepts like overkill or being reasonable. So it wouldn't be too surprising if they throw a dozen of their equivalent to nukes on our asses.

I take a deep breath and check my pistol for the twentieth time before inspecting my handiwork. The massive bulkhead blocking our path has been carved out by the penetrators, but it looks like there's still a lot of material to go through despite the already long corridor that has been dug.

Another shell shakes the building and takes me out of my troubled thoughts.

It's going to take a long time.

...Wurk's PoV...

I fucked up.

Something like this wasn't supposed to happen. I was expecting a powerful lance or a sword of some kind. I would have been happy with a secret spell or even a large artifact.

But this is beyond my expectations, and not in a good way.

I understand why the Elder and his cohort are keeping this thing as a secret. All the security measures were not so much to keep people out, but to keep that thing in.

"So? Are you happy now? It's too late to go back thanks to your petty tricks." The Elder mocks me as I gawk at the abomination in front of me.

"W-What is this? And why is it here?!" I can barely ask the Elder, who wears a complex expression as he stares at the "ultimate weapon."

"I guess there's no point in hiding it from you now; you look like you understood why we want to keep this under wraps." The old Goblin declares. "You may haven't noticed, but a chunk of our history is missing. It relates to the origin of the Tower of Justice."

My head turns towards the old man, thus slightly lessening the intense fear coursing through my body.

"You see, this thing arrived on our planet a long time ago. As you can imagine, it quickly clashed with our civilization and nearly drove our species to extinction." The Elder sighs and continues, "But our ancestors had one last ace up their sleeves, it was a last-ditch effort that required countless sacrifices. The exact numbers of poor souls who have been used as base material to make this forsaken prison have been lost to time, but the few records that survived speak of enormous numbers, some even speculated that the ritual depopulated entire continents."

Holy shit. Now I understand why the Tower is so sturdy...

"The battle for our species' survival was very bloody, but fate smiled to us for once, and the ritual somehow worked." The Elder says. "This Tower wasn't designed as our headquarters, at first it was just a large hole in the depth of our planet. But the only way our ancestors found to keep this thing dormant was to constantly drain its very soul, and use it to fuel the spell array. It worked well at first, but time passed, and the people quickly realized that the containment field kept growing to adapt to the increasing power of the once wounded attacker."

I can't believe what I'm hearing.

"What, so you're telling me that this thing is what caused the Tower to be so large?" I exclaim.

The Elder nods, "Yes, the Tower kept growing and growing. So the next Elders modified the spell array to transform the containment field into a massive building to keep the existence of this creature a secret."

My jaw drops at the revelation.

"But sadly the creature is getting stronger. It has been slowly recovering while the growth rate of the Tower slowed, some calculations suggest that the spell will have reached its limit in a few decades. After that period passes, the Tower will stop growing, and the barrier keeping this thing dormant will become too weak, and it will wake up." The old Goblin says.

"Holy fucking shit..." I mutter.

"You don't say." The Elder makes a smug grin, but it quickly turns into deep sadness. "We tried to slow the rate of growth by adding more and more power drains on the spell, but it has been futile."

"So it's that thing that is powering the Tower? I had no idea how we could have possibly made such a powerful and seemingly infinite power source, but it all makes sense now." I say.

My eyes wander on the body of the slumbering abomination. The creature is massive; it's at least as tall as ten floors. The ethereal golden chains that restraint the being do little to alleviate the primal fear coursing through my veins each time I glance at the creature. It is humanoid-shaped, but it's clad in cracked black armor that is bearing sinister inscriptions, and the single red horn protruding from the helmet seems to distort reality itself with each slight movement.

"So why is this thing considered an 'ultimate weapon'? Unleashing that monstrosity would destroy everything." I ask the Elder.

"That is the great shame of our species and a burden that is carried by all the Elders since that day. It all started when we first discovered teleportation. Our first successful test was forcefully redirected to the Bazaar, and that's when we made our First Contact. The mysterious entity that hijacked our spell scared a king at the time. Learning that this happened to all the species that discovered teleportation must have broken something in him. He turned from an unremarkable ruler to bloody conqueror in less than a month, and because he was one of the first to have reached the Bazaar he used his superior technology to put the entire planet under his thumb." The Elder explains.

"But his goal wasn't to unify the planet; it was merely a side-effect. His true goal was to take control of the Tower. At the time the Tower was sealed, and the key was broken into several pieces that have been distributed all over the world. That ruler gathered all the pieces and stormed the Tower to put his crazy plan into effect. He proclaimed himself the Elder and created this organization, then proceeded to waste countless lives and resources to modify the body of the Destroyer." The Elder says as he points towards the creature, then at an old console.

"W-Why would he do that? He could have broken the barrier, and released the Destroyer!" I say as the Elder slowly approached the console.

"He was aware of that. But he didn't care. In his deranged mind, the threat of otherworldly invaders was so great that he had to risk the survival of our species to make the ultimate weapon. He didn't even consider that our planet isn't resource-rich and isn't in a good location, so nobody would even consider invading it." The old Goblin says as he presses a few buttons. The ancient device comes to life, and the creature rumbles.

To my horror, the torso of the creature shifts and opens. The large amount of flowing blood isn't what interests me; all my attention is focused on the insides of the creature.

"I-Is that-" I stutter.

"Yes." The Elder answers.

The nightmarish vision in front of me is a fleshy, pulsating cockpit of some sort that has been carved directly into the creature. Blood-soaked metal panels keep the thing together, but the 'seat' looks like it would swallow anyone foolish enough to sit into that horrifying creature.

"You wouldn't be surprised to hear that this has never been used before. That mad king was probably scared of his creation, so he thankfully never used it." The Elder adds.

"But I fucked up..." I mutter.

"You forced my hand, so we'll see what happens. We have to do it, the ones who are attacking the Tower are making good progress and losing the support of the upper floors would ruin us. Their contributions are indispensable if we want to keep up with the ever-growing costs caused by our attempts at keeping this thing asleep." The Elder says as he presses various buttons.

"No, stop!" I shout. "You need to stop; I'll find a way to convince them! Don't we have any other secret weapon that will do the job?!"

"Did you know that the Destroyer requires a sacrifice to start?" the Elder says while ignoring me.

"What are you-" I'm interrupted mid-sentence by a powerful force that flings me towards the Destroyer.

"Now learn the consequences of your actions, you insolent brat!" the Elder shouts as he fires another spell.

Fuck, I don't want to die!

I burn all my magic power to resist the attacks of the Elder, but it's not enough. I am pushed towards the hellish cockpit, and I see that small tentacles made of wriggling flesh are already coming out of the seat!

"Fuck! I'm taking you with me, you old bastard!" I shout and activate a spell of my own.

Surprises flashes on the face of the Elder as a grappling hook made of pure mana pierces his abdomen and drags him towards me.

"Y-You fool!" The Goblin shouts as he tries to remove the restraint I placed on him.

I can't react to his words. I don't think that I can even understand words anymore. Time seemed to have stopped when a tentacle grabbed onto my ankle. It felt like every fiber of my being was being set on fire while I was thrown into a meat-grinder.

The Elder soon join me, and I smirk as the bastard endures the same horror as me.

...Why am I smiling in the first place?

Who am I?

W-Where is this place...

A tentacle pierces my heart. The still beating organ is hanging in front of me, and the Destroyer absorbs it while hundreds of tiny fleshy fibers fill the gaping hole in my chest.

Something at the back of my head tells me to panic; that this is not normal. But that nagging feeling is soon smothered by the soothing pulses coming from the creature that absorbed me.

I feel like I belong here.

IT's GoOd To Be BaCk HoMe.

...John's PoV...

Another shell detonates, and yet ano-

I'm suddenly interrupted by the rumbling Tower.

"What's happening? It's like we are in the middle of an earthquake!" Alex shouts.

"I have no idea, but-" the shopkeeper stops speaking when the Tower drops without warning.

My shield groans as I smash head first into the ground.

I roll to the side to avoid a large chunk of stone that crushes the position I was occupying a moment ago. I crack my neck as I get up, it looks like everybody is alright thanks to their shields.

"What the hell was that?" Mary shouts. "Did we do this?"

"I doubt it," Krognar answers after dusting himself off. "Even the lights are off; it seems like it's a Tower-wide phenomenon."

"Then what was that drop?" Cynthia asks.

"If I had to guess, then it's some sort of large-scale power loss. It's likely that the enchantment that kept the Tower afloat was either damaged or shut-off." The Goblin answers.

"Look, the door is open now!" Mary shouts as she slowly forces the massive metal blocks apart.

Good lord, I don't want to get on her bad side.

"What could have caused that sudden power loss?" I ask the Goblin.

He shrugs in response, "I have no idea, your guess is as good as mine. I thought that something like that could never happen to the Tower."

I nod before turning towards the massive door. "Everyone, listen to me! I don't know nor care about what caused this sudden change of situation! We are here for a single reason, and that is to kill Wurk! So get ready to breach!"

My intuition tells me that something went wrong, and I don't want to stick around to find out if I'm right.

The others nod and the hybrid opens the door before flinging a few fireballs into the opening to make sure that we will not be shot immediately after entering.

"Go!" I shout and run into the corridor. I barely have the time to notice how long it is. It would have taken us hours to pierce through that much material.

We finally reach the end of the corridor, and I'm dazzled by the new scenery.

Ostentatious doesn't adequately describe the sheer amount of wealth on display. Every single decoration feels like it's worth more than everything I own, and the stunned Goblins who are just recuperating from the sudden Tower shift are glaring at me with offended expressions.

"I bet you are responsible for this ruckus!" a Goblin wearing a shiny suit shouts and shakes his cane towards me, "I damaged my suit! Do any of you lowlifes even know how much it-"

The Goblin is interrupted by being punched in the throat by an angry half-dragon.

"Tell me where Wurk is, or you're next!" she shouts at the terrified female Goblin.

"I-I have no idea!" the Goblin cries as she falls to her knee, her gaze is fixated on the limp figure of her companion that has been embedded into the wall by Mary's punch.

"If nobody answers, you will all share the same fate as this guy!" Mary points towards her victim while shouting at the other Goblins.

A sudden roar comes from the top, and a large mass crashes through countless floors.

It lands in the middle of the massive hall, and I gulp when I see the gigantic silhouette through the smoke.

I hope we didn't wake him up, and that his arrival is purely coincidental.

...It's nice to dream sometimes, isn't it?