Po Bidau Tiara

Winston found himself in a dream.

With his recent escapades at Khun Eduan's battleship, the Bizzaro Sorcerer potion digestion had been coming along nicely. Needless to say, Parasite's potion digestion was the most prominent among the 3, with Secrets' Sorcerer coming at last.

Turns out, acting as a Secrets' Sorcerer was a hefty thing. There's all kinds of things you have to do and frame yourself as a Sorcerer in the eyes of people.

It was all kinds of fun to attempt this with his avatars, but it was also the one that yielded the worst results.

And now, his potion digestion lay on the precipice of digestion; reaching 97%.

But that also meant he had something else to worry about.

The ritual to ascend.

The Sequence 3 of the Fool Pathway was aptly named Scholar of Yore and the ascension ritual for the Sequence was to be separated from the outside world for 300 years and come back to consume the potion when the beyonder is no longer part of the current time.

As for the Error pathways's Mentor of Deceit and Door pathway's Wanderer; he had no knowledge of their advancement rituals, hence, he could not attempt them.

Which left him in a difficult situation to say the least.

In hindsight, 300 years was not a lot of time for the tower.

But he knew better than to wait.

War was on the horizon. And there was also the threat of the strange presence behind Rachel, that he had felt on the 2nd floor itself.

As such, he had to improvise.

Instead of sealing himself for 300 years, he would instead find someone that had already been sealed and take over their body. That way, it wouldn't become a problem of time, merely of the person.

To find said person, Winston naturally thought of Divination.

He looked around himself. He seemed to be in some sort of train. The entire carriage was empty and looked not unlike the train compartments seen during the steam revolution.

The entire compartment was clear and shiny, appearing peaceful to look at.

That is if one ignored the harrowing scenery on the outside.

Red light filtered through the windows on one side. The shadows lengthened and a strange cry tore through the light and reached his ears.

He looked outside.

A pictorial representation of a hellscape was what greeted him upon entering. But instead of flames, red water pooled out of the rocks and a sea of flesh stretched towards the horizons.

"That's an interesting one." He commented, feeling a bit humorous about the dream which was a blend of symbolism and real visions. More visions than symbolism that is.

The train moving through a hell scape likely represented the Hell Train while the ocean of flesh outside likely pointed to the floor of death.

In the world of LoTM, the spirit world and the astral world, even extending into the real world were all distorted to some levels by symbolism and authority of the various entities that inhabited those dimensions. That was part of the chaos of that world and made divination extremely unlikely to succeed when no anchorage of information was provided. Even further, it could actually harm the user by showing them something dangerous even though they divined something completely unrelated.

The problem was not an issue here. As mentioned before, information flowed evenly through shinsu. It was incredibly efficient. For that reason, information was rarely, of ever symbolic. And when it was, it was extremely literal, like this time.

The visions tells me to board the hell train and through there, head to the floor of death... Does this mean heading there without boarding will not hold the same result? I was thinking of sending some avatars there, but I guess I'll have to hold off on that. Winston mused while pinching his chin and making a humming sound.

After observing some more, he woke up.

~~~

Winston got off the bed and opened up the curtains to his room. He stared outside, yawning while he did so.

A beautiful scenery of a tropical island greeted him.

It was the 31st floor.

In the month that followed the workshop battle, they had moved on to the 31st floor by taking the test.

Winston was an oddball since he didn't need to take the test. And not take the test he did, only to make it more fair to the others.

Well, fair is a rather subjective word. Since the teams had people personally trained by Winston along with Princesses of Jahad and another Irregular, well, the other teams stood little to no chance.

It was a complete massacre.

Even though I won't be climbing with the others, chilling around with them won't be unwelcome. I have to wait around for a year to board the train anyway.

Winston thought.

The only problem was what to do next. He could always try and pester the big man Jahad himself using monocles, but he wanted to get to Sequence 3 before attempting that, solely to give the 'king' more of a spook.

Other than that, he was mostly free.

I can try scouting for a potential wife... but I don't think it'll be too successful. Most women would be afraid of me by this point. I wouldn't want to change my appearance and betray their trust. As for the ones that wouldn't be afraid will likely try and mooch off of me. Sigh!

And that leaves the last group. The kind that would now try to kill me. I suppose it may include the various Jahad Princesses and so. Strangely enough, Winston had a thought.

...nah, that would be crossing boundaries into the Mother Goddess of Depravity's territory. He felt a blush creeping up on his face as he imagined the situation he had just thought up.

Oh, what's that? You're curious?

Well... let's just say it has something to do with Charlotte.

Definitely not doing that.

Winston swore to himself never to think of such heresy again.

Suddenly, he felt something.

"What's this?" He narrowed his eyes.

And then, disappeared from his place.

~~~

The Garbage Dump with the red ceiling.

That was the name of the place, as his avatars had found.

The entire space was situated between the spaces of the Tower itself, the empty dark places that had nothing else to fill them up with.

And so, the Great Families, who, evidently were not so great, and the King of the Tower, Jahad decided to use the place to banish all of their mistakes and things they didn't want into the space.

That was the Garbage Dump.

A place for rejects of the Tower to be locked away and hidden from all.

The Avatar that found it, whether by chance or choice was elated when he did.

Immediately, every single avatar of Winston was alerted.

There was an opportunity.

Why didn't the divination show me this place? Is it because the information is blocked by the seal? Winston thought, overlooking a gigantic expanse of irregular hills and dumps. There was a pungent stench in the air, resembling that of blood. In the distance, Winston could hear the explosions and destruction of a battle.

And above all, the most striking feature of this place was not the tens of thousands of mechanoids that littered the earth, nor was it the flesh pits that marred the ground of the literal pits that led to the void.

No, it was the ominous red light that shone down from above.

"Why don't we try parasitizing these guys?" The avatar spoke.

Winston narrowed his eyes, thinking the same.

But then, he found his answer.

The ritual could not be attempted with these people.

Why?

While they were isolated from the rest of the tower, which should, in theory, could to be isolated from the world, there was a miniature world right here. Societies, no matter how crude and on the brink of anarchy were still present.

A seal that harbors a person completely devoid from society and one that lasts at least 300 years. That was what was needed.

"Regardless, this is something very interesting. You will have higher position in the next meeting. Your vote will count twice as much."

The avatar puffed out its chest with pride.

The meetings were a usual occurrence. The avatars would come together and decide at something important.

The thought of Medici being the one to make the red priest pathway and adopting the same name was also a result of the meeting.

As a matter of fact, the rest of the pathways were also given out like this. By the power of drawing lots in a meeting.

With a simple thought, Winston made two Marionettes somewhere deep into the place, and instantly, his worms began to spread.

This'll be insteresting... very interesting...

~~~

~~~

Tiara calmly waited in her small ship. She simply sat and read a book as her small ship navigated itself and blitzed across a floor at breakneck speeds.

Suddenly, the ship began to slow down.

Tiara raised a brow and looked outside the window.

A man walked across a desert. His face wasn't covered, displaying his features completely. And one look at his face was all it took for her to recognize him.

It was the Silent Leviathan, Winston. Only he wasn't wearing the typical suit.

He wore a pristine white robe and a necklace at his neck. A cross. His eyes were a clear golden yellow instead of the usual black and his facial features were mainly impassive.

Tiara smiled and opened the gates to the ship. Winston stopped and looked at this without blinking.

As the door opened, Tiara immediately jumped down, still holding a large book in her hand.

"Hello there." She smiled sweetly.

"You're Winston Heath, right?" She said.

Winston mimicked her smile, only his smile seemed warmer and more inviting.

"That's right. But I'm donning a new identity for now." His voice was sweet and pleasing to the ears.

A new identity?

Tiara expressed her interest.

"Oh? Do tell."

Winston's smile seemingly widened, although it wasn't noticed by Tiara herself.

And as he looked into her eyes, he spoke.

"I go by Adam these days."

Tiara's ship had taken her to Visionary Winston.

~~~

~~~

A/N: Bruh, Traumerei's end hit the feels man. I didn't think it was possible to redeem his character anymore. Well, that's the joy of being a plain reader. You just get shocked by the things a creator can pull off.

Also, the new cliffhanger is killing me. Not to mention SIU said he's going on a hiatus.

Anyways, throw stones, stay hydrated and get some sleep.

Cheers~