The Second Floor

Before the cage opened for Winston to walk through, whether to his impending death or a great opportunity yet remaining to be seen, he was stopped by Headon.

The rabbit like guardian propped up his staff before him.

"I almost forgot to ask, but what is it that you wish to achieve?" The same deep monotone voice called out, echoing in the hallway.

"What do you mean?"

"Everyone has a path to follow in the tower to get to where they wish to. People desire all sorts of things, wishing for all sorts of things, wanting all sorts of things. What are you after?"

Winston thought for a moment.

"Purpose I guess?"

"Hoh? A rather philosophical goal you have."

"Does it matter what goal I have? Does it make a difference in climbing the tower?" Winston asked impatiently.

Headon chuckled. "I suppose not. Everything can be fulfilled at the top after all." He removed his staff.

"Then there is one last thing I have to give you." He said. Winston turned to look at him.

Headon, out of nowhere pulled out a spherical mass, a deep black ball that floated in the air.

"This is a pocket. Something that is widely utilized in the tower. It will allow you to understand the language of the tower, Macsethian." He said.

If he hadn't stopped me just now, wouldn't I have been unable to understand the Tower's language? Winston felt distasteful but didn't voice out his thoughts.

As the sphere approached him, a steady stream of information invaded his mind.

"You make make the pocket invisible by saying 'invisible mode.'" Headon said.

"Invisible mode." Winston repeated and the sphere turned invisible.

Interesting... he mused.

"Then, let us proceed with the test. 'The Door.'" Headon smirked and pointed his head ahead towards the cage.

Winston didn't speak, only walked towards the cage entrance which slowly opened like the deep entrancing maws of death.

As Headon turned to be behind him, no longer in the field of vision,Winston tapped his left thumb and ring finger together twice.

Immediately, his spirit vision became active and he saw... waves.

Insurmountable waves, too large to perceive clearly, too many to number, too numerous to count, too beautiful to move his head away.

It was a blend of waves that moved about in the air, like a water stream moving down the river. And amidst the waves of water was the behemoth like being that was the white steel eel. It floated with the help of the waves, following their direction and sometimes manipulating them to his liking.

Winston was entranced for a second before he walked into the waves.

Immediately, he felt a great pressure on his being. It felt like he was submerged at the bottom of a 7 meter deep pool, something he had previously experienced. Yet, weirdly enough, it was not hard to move as it would normally be under all the resistance.

It felt like he was moving through pure air, yet there was an abnormal pressure that surrounded his body. It did not feel uncomfortable, nor did it feel wrong.

It just felt... strange.

This feels strange. Winston thought as he moved his hand through the waves.

Just then, before he even got to fully analyze the situation, a deafening roar sounded.

Winston looked over at the large titanous creature that was hurling through the air. The gigantic creature, larger than any other he had ever seen moved with a frightening speed for it's stature.

Winston's eyes threaded into needles, hurriedly, he dashed out of the way and rolled to the right.

The white steel eel smashed the ground, creating a deep crevice where Winston's relatively tiny figure had previously stood. The eel stabilised itself back into the air as Winston regained his footing.

Winston looked at the target of the test, the door.

At the moment, the door was 54 meters away from him, a distance he could reach in 4 seconds.

Without wasting any time, he began running towards the thing. The eel, with it's large eyes looked at the running figure of Winston. Why such a large creature would dash for such a tiny one for the sake of eatinf was beyond him; for there was no way for a creature of such size to get any sort of sustenance by eating him.

However, now was not the time to dwell on such things.

Winston felt the waves in the air behind him move, and at the same time, looked at the unusual flow before him.

He could not look back to see, since Headon stood at the base of the cage doors, watching him still. At that moment, his sight would turn him into a bulbous mass of flesh that did not perceive anything.

And he did not have the luxury of turning it off, since noticing the waves in the air gave information about the eels irregular movement patterns. Without his spirit vision, prediction could only be left to his spiritual intuition and natural senses, something that he did not think would keep him alive in such a highly stressful situation where time was the key.

Jumping to the right again, he upheld his footing when he saw the waves moving towards him.

Immediately dropping down on the floor, he flattened out his body and tried to appear like a sheet of paper.

Whooosh~

The giant eel passed over him like a truck, almost throwing him off the ground and dragging his body with him like ragdoll flowing in the wind.

Winston stood up as the eel passed him, and dashed towards the door.

The door lied 28 meters away at this point.

The eel turned back after passing the gate, it opened it's maws to let out a piercing screech and dashed back at him.

The enormous wingspan of the beast covered a staggering 50 meters. And this time, with it's body close to the ground, it let no room for the previous trick to be played.

Winston's muscles tightened. He couldn't avoid the beast. It had come too close. If he jumped towards any side he would be hit by the wings, and then devoured.

He kept running at the large sea creature.

When the eel came within 5 meter range, he jumped.

The maws of the eel opened at the same time, Winston turned his body in mid air, narrowly avoiding diving headfirst into the mouth of the eel.

His body impacted the hard scales of the eel, scraping off it like a piece of paper rolling across a table.

A sense of pain flooded his mind as his background was scrapped by the scales. He did not stop and immediately upon landing, he dashed again towards the door that lied all but 9 meters ahead.

Getting to the point in less than a second, almost the time it took for the eel to turn back, Winston immediately activated his ability, door opening.

Of course, his intuition and ability to lockpick mundane and mystical doors had already made him well aware that the door would budge with his current strength. It was a trap from the start. Hence, utilizing the door opening ability, the door opened smoothly.

A dark black wave of a liquid like state enveloped him, rushing out of the door at speeds imperceptible to the human eye.

And just like that, he disappeared.

The White Steel Eel smashed down on the ground where the door had previously stood, its mind in disarray.

"Well, I suppose that was a bit too easy." Headon clicked his tongue, feeling a bit regretful. Truthfully, he had not expected the man to complete the challenge so easily; for if he had, he would have kept a Barracuda, the most fiercest beast in the entire Tower, instead of a measly white steel eel.

"Well, what is done is done." His slit opened up, revealing the razor sharp teeth underneath.

His crystal blue eyes seemed to peer into the unknown beyond, gazing directly at the figure of Winston who was being transported.

"Welcome to Tower of God. Mr. Winston."

~~~

An abstract blend of colours greeted him. Winston's sense of balance was in shambles. There was nothing to stand on in this strange space through which he was evidently being transported to the next floor of the tower.

It was a chaotic dance of spiritual energies and colours of a thousand types, so many in variety that it was impossible to classify them under the traditional blend of colour theory.

Winston hurriedly turned off his spirit vision, just in time for his feet to find a ground to stand on.

He staggered a bit and then regained his footing.

He looked around.

Everywhere he looked, there was a sea of gold; large pastures and fields of ripe wheat and aged grass littered the environment, jutting out of the ground as if the Earth itself had decided to fill the space with the gold of the ground.

Far in the distance, somewhere between 1 to 1.5 kilometers lied some hills and small rock formations that sloped gently; enough for a normal person to climb up them with ease.

And rarely, he saw some figures moving amongst the crowd of wheat and grass. Although the sod broke most of the view, it was quite clear that many people were in the same situation that he was in, observing their surroundings.

The gentle breeze blew across the fields, swaying the upper tips of the giant gold bounty. Just then, a voice sounded.

"Mic Test! Mic Test!

"1 2 3! Is this working!" The voice said, reverberating across the land.

Winston looked up at a small box like object, the thing which had boomed with such a large volume.

"Alright! Attention all regulars! Welcome to the start of your journey, the second floor!" The voice continued.

"Here, you will be judged to be worthy of climbing the tower or not! Let us move on towards your first test!"

Suddenly, Winston's gaze tightened and he activated his spirit vision. A blend of colours appeared momentarily and then, the world exploded into waves.

"There's are currently 400 regulars in this area! The test is simple, bring that number down to 200!" The voice said. "The test starts now!"

Immediately, Winston felt a change in the waves around him.

They seemed to have taken on a darker tone, along with an overall raging feeling, quickly turning into tides.

It seems everyone is ready to kill here. Winston thought as he looked on at the combat happening in the distance through the wheat fields.

And the people in the tower are called regulars... good to know.

As he was engrossed in his thoughts, he saw the waves around him shift. Winston stepped back, and just then a man wielding a large broadsword jumped out of the grass in the side, slamming down the Sword at the space he has previously occupied.

Without missing a beat, Winston drove his fist right into the other party's guts.

Bam!

Kuah!

The man's grip on the hilt weakened slightly, and that was enough for Winston to simply slap away his wrists and get the Sword for himself.

The man staggered back, his eyes widening for a moment. He tried to stabilize himself and go on the offensive, yet Winston was all too quick.

Shing!

With a quick slice from the Sword, the man laid in a pool of his own blood.

~~~

A/N: Tell me your thoughts.