Scribes at Work

The next day, all the Winstons were to take on the 24th floor test. They ate some food, freshened up and all decided to head out.

Winston could create 7 avatars now, which totalled to 8 of him that could be active at a time. For now, 3 of his avatars were with him, helping him climb up the tower. And the rest were on the lower floors, spreading the fear of the monocle in everyone.

After they set off and hopped onto the local transport, which was actually a fish atop which a giant seating station was built, they all made themselves comfortable.

The 23rd floor was curious in it's nature. Most of the cities seemed to be above clouds. The shinsu density was peculiar on this floor, making it seem like everything was enveloped by clouds. That also meant that one couldn't see the ground when they walked, if there even was one. Most of the floor was filled with charms of liquid shinsu or simply steep drops, which made transport through such shinheuh extremely popular. It was the same for the floors 24 and 25.

Then, Winston got a call from his pocket.

It was from someone from the same occupation as Winston, the blue haired swindler, Khun Ageuro Agnis.

Raising an eyebrow, Winston answered the call.

"It's been a while, Winston." Said Khun from the other side.

"Indeed it has. How've you been? Did you make a decent team yet?"

"It's been good. The team I made is decent at best but some of them are useful." Then, his voice took on a slightly mischievous tone. "What about you? You've been quiet famous recently."

"Famous?"

"You don't know? It's related to the test you took on the 22nd floor." From the corner of his eye, Winston glanced at Charlotte who was closing her eyes and leaning back into the headrest.

"Right. I didn't expect it would attract so much attention."

"I always knew you were a ladies man, but to think you'd become so bold was beyond me." A chuckle accompanied his comment. "Where did you even find her?"

"If anything, she found me I suppose."

"You sure she's not a princess of Jahad? Her abnormal strength and beauty does seem to suggest."

"No, she's not a princess."

Winston shook his head, not wishing to elaborate more. Let's just say the 22nd floor test was more than just cleared by her. She had decimated every single opposing team in the test, leaving no resistance.

As of yet, her fanpage on the Box had reached 3 million followers. It was crazy.

And because of that, Winston, who was already plenty known because of his abnormal strength and travelling with two Jahad Princesses was gaining even more attention.

"Are you sure they're trustworthy?"

"I can trust them as much as I can trust myself."

"Hmm. Well, I respect your decision. But do be wary."

Winston laughed a bit. "Isn't that ironic coming from you? You have the biggest traitor right next to you."

The line went silent for a moment before Khun spoke again.

"That's true I guess."

"How's she been? Has she made any weird moves yet?" There was a slight edge to Winston's tone now. Now that he had become a Sequence 6, he was more comfortable with tackling the Rachel problem. That is if his intuition didn't stop him beforehand.

"Not yet. But she has been getting quite restless recently. Just a couple of days ago, she told me she had a nightmare about how Bam fell from the platform while trying to save her."

Winston scoffed. "What a farce."

On the other side, Khun's face underwent a change. His eyes darkened considerably and all motions of expression disappeared into the ether.

"She's going to pay for what she's done. I will make sure of it."

"Then why don't you?"

"...I want to find out why."

Winston could only nod and say nothing else. Bam was an enigmatic one for sure. He was naive and not too intelligent. In essence, he had something everyone else that wished to climb the tower had lost, at one or another point in their life. Maybe that was what connected people to him. He had something to protect.

Although Winston himself had not gotten too comfortable with him, he still could not help but pity the poor creature. Betrayed by someone he thought the world of. In a way, it reminded him of himself, back when his caretaker had died. Lost.

But that was all. It was all he felt. A strange sense of connection and a feeling of pity. He had not connected too deeply with the boy. He could not afford to. He still had a purpose to find in the tower.

Now that I think about it... somewhere along the lines I had forgotten that I'm here for a purpose. Winston's eyes glazed over momentarily.

I suppose... I should take a small rest on one of the floors up above.

Shaking himself out of his reverie, he said, "Anything else you wished to talk about?"

"There was." Khun continued. "Rachel talked about you yesterday."

Winston raised an eyebrow, feeling an inkling of suspicion.

"Talk?"

"She saw the fanpage on the Box. Then she went on to talk about how she wanted to meet the team again."

Winston pinched his chin in thought. Then, not too long after, he commented.

"Anything else that she said?"

"Nothing I could hear." Khun's tone could not be any less disgusted. He knew this must be some sort of scheme underway. But for the life of him, he could not figure out what or why. But if there was one thing he knew, as long as Winston was involved, it would not matter.

He only wanted to make Winston aware.

Winston listened to him for a moment. At the corner of his eye, he saw Bruce take out a silver coin and flick it into the air, performing a divination.

As he got the answer, he turned back to the pocket.

"Say... Khun. Let's meet up."

The line went silent for a moment, "Okay. When?"

"About 7 months from now. Don't worry, I'll visit."

"Got it."

The next couple of minutes passed in some more talking until Khun hung up.

After that, Winston stared out the window.

Let's see what she's planning next.

Just then, the pocket rang again.

It was Shibisu.

"Hello?" Winston said.

Instantly, a banshee like screech echoed from the pocket.

"Winstooonnn! Who is that goddess! Can you introduce me?!"

It seems Shibisu had also joined the fanpage.

~~~

Four men with monocles walked along a deserted city. The colour of bright golden was reflected in their eyes as they all travelled along a straight road, on each side of which were giant monolithic buildings made out of hardened clay and stone.

One of them held a book in his hand and each of their appearance was identical.

It was the four avatars of Winston that had been sent to document various places.

It was the Scribes doing their work.

As it stood, Winston could use his avatars to perform digestion. And each avatar elevated the speed of digestion by a level. Meaning, each avatar he had performing digestion would only speed up his digestion.

It had made his life so much easier. And so, he had spared 4 avatars to go and document places in the middle region of the tower.

One of them turned to look at the right. Inside of the monoliths, hundreds of square windows were erected. Evidently rooms for people to live in.

"The colours are too saturated here." One of them spoke, adjusting the crystal monocle on his right eye.

The other three expressed their agreement. The colours were indeed saturated. Too saturated even.

"And there's no noise." Another spoke.

"Except ours that is."

"The shinsu flow here is expectionally fluid."

"The shinsu flow here does not create any sound. It is devoid of it."

"Then why us?"

"Maybe because of our composition? Our body is created from shinsu after all."

Each of them expressed their opinions. Then, one of them walked somewhat further. All around them were monolithic buildings, each of them having hundreds of windows. He turned his head to look. There it was, on one of the windows a hand so white it looked identical to snow. And the possessor of that hand stared at the talking avatars with eyes wide open.

The Avatar smiled. Then, turning ahead, he brought his hand to his mouth and used the shinsu in his lungs to....

"Everyone!!! Come out! You have visitors! We just need to ask you some questionsss!" He screamed at the top of his lungs.

The voice was of such loud proportions that the other avatars reflexively closed their ears and looked at him with animosity.

However, they had other things to worry about.

Now, on each of the hundreds of windows across the dozens of buildings, many people appeared. Each of them was a pale white in colour and looked at them with a beastlike fixation.

The Avatar smiled and yelled out again, this time louder.

And that broke the straw.

The windows cracked. But none made a sound.

Each window, thousands shattered all at the same time and along came the people crashing down to the ground. The first man impacted the ground, still completely silent and started running at them. Then another came followed by another and another.

A fall of hundreds of meters seemed to hurt them little as they collectively rushed towards the avatars. Their mouths were open in a silent scream. Their eyes held such a ferocious, barbarous look that any civilized man would do better in hell than to be stuck between brutes like these.

The eyes of every avatar widened as they hurriedly flew into the air and suspended themselves hundreds of meters in the air.

The people below them, thousands, stomped atop each other to make a giant hill; slowly but surely trying to climb up to their height.

"They want sound." Said the avatar that had yelled. The other three looked at him with a looked that could kill, but he cared little for it.

"They'll get right upto anything that makes sound and shred it into pieces, wanting the sound to themselves. Unfortunately for them, that's not happening today."

He took out a dairy from under his robe and started to write into it.

The other three, although were unsatisfied with his methods began to do the same.

The people still tried to climb up to their height, but alas, they could not reach.

"It's crazy the type of things the tower holds."

"""Hm."""

~~~

A/N: I recently listened to the Creepcast podcast of the Left/Right Game. And if you haven't, I'm telling you, its peak! The second half of the chapter was one of the situations mentioned in the work and it is such an interesting visual que. You will enjoy it, trust me. Give it a try.

Also, I read a comment that said beyonder abilities mutate inside a dual pathway beyonder. I haven't yet read the second book beyond the first volume, so I am unaware of how that works.

Anyway, give me some examples for the mutations that can happen and I will try to add them. If not, we'll just keep going like we have.

Throw some stones~ cheers~