Fanatic

『Chronicles of the Blood Tower』

Rasmus blinked his eyes rapidly as he opened them to meet the sunlight peeking through the window of his room. He took a deep inhale through his nose and smelled the mahogany air from the fresh wood planks on the floor.

Sometimes he felt so grateful just for these small things in this place, even if it was an almost unreal and unfathomable place to understand by any form of logic.

He lifted his legs to the side of his bed and raised himself up from the bed covers and continued to gaze at the bright blue sky through the window. His black bangs fluttered lightly with the slight breeze.

Regardless of how great he felt in the present moment, the reminder and thoughts that this would be his last day to train and level up before the test tomorrow came ringing through his head.

As he took a deep exhale, Rasmus took his shirt from the hamper where it lay over the cleaning magic below it and pulled up his status window through the Tol.

---

Name : Rasmus Trostas

Age : 16 (real age not identifiable due to distortion in time axis in host's prior location)

Class : Caster - Apostle of Annihilation

Level : 22

Attributes -

Strength : 522

Speed : 1,057

Mana : 4,125

Dexterity : 701

Stamina : 625

Undistributed points : 0

Status : Healthy, Holder of Key Fragment, Blood Core (unique power source), Lenoah's seal (weakening), Reverse Mana Flow Technique

….

---

Rasmus more or less felt prepared with his spear techniques and aura that he could wield. But, he had yet to attain any skills or spells relating to his class, 'Apostle of Annihilation'. It gave him some troubles but, not matter what he wanted to ask about other's class advancements and how they played a role in their growth throughout the Tower, his class was something that was supposed to be hidden and was unique.

Because of this Rasmus wasn't sure what to do about his troubles regarding this and was thinking about trying to go through the Tol���s options of hiring retired rankers as a teacher, but that sounded like more trouble than help, so he discarded the thought.

Rather than being displeased however, Rasmus was very happy with his mana cultivation. It was pretty much common knowledge not to waste attribute points on raising mana stat as it was something you could raise through cultivation. However, Rasmus' speed and efficiency was second to none, giving him a huge difference between people of his level and those even somewhat above him. His pure mana capacity and skills with the spear were something that could make him pass for an early C Rank regular, which was something absurd since he was taking the Trial Floor's Test to become an E rank regular, the lowest ranking.

Rasmus had set a goal for himself though, that no matter how strong he was comparatively 1 on 1 with others of his floor level, he could not get complacent as he might have more enemies in the future that would be much stronger individually and in groups.

Rasmus got himself dressed slowly and picked up his spear to head out to hunt for the last day to see if he could get any more experience possible before the big day tomorrow.

---

"Hah."

Gray Windsor let out a dead pan laugh as he looked at the bloodied man below him. The man below him was beaten so severely, his face was completely unrecognizable to anyone who might have been acquainted with him.

Earlier that week, when Gray had left his planet to enter the Tower, he had been marked as an irregular by the guardian Mathis. However, he had tried his best to hide the fact that he was one, and didn't hint to anybody and kept to himself the entire time he had stayed on the Trial Floor.

Yet, for some reason the man beneath him was a D rank regular sent by the Trostas family, one of the 9 Great families, to investigate the rumors of an heir to their family that might be an irregular. This didn't make any sense to Gray as he was furious that Mathis might have sold him out, and that he would die before being able to save his planet from imminent destruction.

Ptooey

Gray spat in the face of the dead agent sent to capture him.

One thing to note was that Gray had no clue that there was another irregular that might be in the Tower at the same time as him. Not only that, but Gray was taking the brunt of the accusations and fighting while covering incidentally for the other person known as Rasmus Trostas.

Regardless, while it was brutally difficult at first, the experience came rolling in like water in a stream as he defeated agent after agent sent by not only the Trostas Family, but the other 9 Families that might have a hand in the capturing of the rumored irregular.

Despite being on the Trial Floor, like Rasmus, Gray was incredibly far ahead compared to most people taking the test.

Though he didn't know it yet, he was bound to learn of the dark secrets of the Tower, whether he liked it or not. And whether he would face those alone or with other like-minded people, he couldn't possibly know that either. The only thing for him to do, was to advance and become stronger.

'Sword of Dawn'

Gray thought about his rather mysterious sounding class he had been suggested to pick. Mathis had said it might be a good fit since it was a class only available to "holders of the key fragments" and that he had one. But, he had no leads on what the key fragments were, or what his class could even do with it.

Pooh-wuk

Gray stabbed his thin single-handled, silver saber, clad with aura through the chest of the already dead man. There was no harm in making sure to clean up loose ends.

---

5 hours later…

Rasmus was getting ready to head back to the inn and was cleaning the blue blood off the tip of his spear while walking towards the portal back to Eden.

He smiled and raised the hood over his head from his red leather jacket he obtained from Mathis. Inwardly he was grateful to Mathis despite him being unsure of the mysterious existence known as "guardians". He had run into little-to-no trouble while staying on the Trial Floor, and his clothes and equipment definitely helped him avoid nasty situations.

Sometimes, the best disguise was to be out in the open as one said.

Who-oosh

Rasmus headed through the portal and was about to put his spear back into the spatial pocket in his gloves before he heard screams.

At first Rasmus was shocked. How could he not be? The scene in front of him was not normal at all. Eden was said to be a great city within the multiple lands on the Trial Floor and was considerably safe.

But in front of him was something he wouldn't dare to speak lightly of. If he had to pinpoint a word for what he was seeing he would say one thing.

Terror.

His eyes widened as he took an inhale through his nose full of smoke. The guards that were supposed to be guarding the gate were tending to injured civilians.

The streets and high rise buildings from the commercial and housing districts were all aflame. The entire city was on fire.

Rasmus didn't have much time to guess or think what had happened.

'MELODY!!!!'

Rasmus bent his thighs and calves while spreading mana into the soles of his feet and exploded forwards into the city.

Whoo-ooooshhhhhh

The flames fanned brightly through the warm breeze filled with a bloody scent as Rasmus didn;t even bother to tend to the several wounded and screaming civilians and aspiring newbie regulars.

'What the hell is the Floor Master doing?' Rasmus thought to himself as he couldn't understand what could be possible of causing something so disastrous right under the noses of the Floor Master.

The way Mathis had explained it, Floor Masters were appointed by guardians once they became high rankers that retired. They were given a special permission to have full authority over the space and ambient mana over the floor, as long they stuck to the contracted rules which guaranteed the safety of lives and stances of neutrality over family conflicts.

But, what the hell was this?

BOOOM!

Rasmus was sprinting along the barely stable rooftops with his spear heading towards Melody's inn when he heard a huge explosion from the direction he was heading.

He didn't want to waste any more time, even if he had to waste a bit more mana here.

He coalesced more mana into his lower body and accelerated at high speed while alerting his senses to look and hear of anything related.

As he came up to the street where the inn was located, the site in front of him made him blink.

The inn was completely destroyed and there were several charred bodies laid inside the rubble.

Rasmus started to tear up subconsciously and suddenly felt the teardrop slip down his cheek.

"What?", Rasmus muttered to himself as he sniffled.

He couldn't remember the last time he cried. No. This wasn't even crying, this was just a body reaction when one felt pained. But even so, it wasn't something he wanted to feel or even recognize at this moment.

'There must be something'

Rasmus shot forward and twirled his spear in a fan-like motion at high speed to blow the wind away so he could get a better look at the bodies.

Minutes passed with Rasmus ignoring the screams and shouts of the guards trying to rescue civilians and the several explosions going off inside the city. He was on his knees bare-handed lifting up wooden plank after wooden plank trying desperately to find something, anything to give him a clue to where Melody was.

"Huff… Huu… Huff… Haaahh", Rasmus panted roughly lifting the rubble.

Suddenly, he found something.

But the moment he looked, he threw up on the spot and started to tear up violently. What he saw in front of him through the snot and tears and stomach acid coming from his orifices, was the mangled and burnt body of Melody with her face cracked open and brain matter pouring out.

Rasmus just knelt on his knees and continued to cry as he looked desperately at her body after throwing up what remained of his food consumed earlier.

In the night sky, he just lay there staring and crying looking at the first person he actually felt somewhat comfortable with for the first time in a long time.

Uncomfortable feelings of loss, pain, confusion came up to his conscious as he tried to shove them all away but eventually let them through, only to embrace himself addictively to the suffering he was going through.

Despite being someone he should by no means have any attachments to, Melody was just someone who didn't care much for anything he had or didn't have. Unlike on Earth where classmates bullied him as a motherless child, or adults looked at him with scorn due to his alcoholic father or the pitiable look the nurses gave him on his deathbed, Melody simply was just like a fresh glass of water to a thirsted and dying traveler in a desert. Just searching for anything close to companionship, whether he was conscious of it or not.

He bitterly bit his lips and forced himself to stop crying as he knew tears would do nothing for him here. Because as much as he finally admitted he felt like he had someone to open up to, he was becoming aware of the kind of place he was in.

He coddled Melody's head that was detached from her body and he started to dig at the ground.

Anyone looking at him might think he was insane. And… Maybe he was at this moment. But who were they to judge him? He was just following what his gut was telling him to do at this moment.

Soon, he had made a small pit of charred earth and took Melody's head gently and wrapped it in a cloth he took out from his spatial pocket. He nestled the wrapped head into the pit and took his hands together and said a few words of parting, as he felt it was necessary to at least acknowledge the dead.

After sitting for a few moments to try and gather his ragged emotional state to try and piece together any sort of rationality that could be held, something within him pulled and nagged at him. He felt an unknown source of anger and rage.

Before he had always felt it unconsciously, the moments he was truly enraged, but this time he felt something physical of some sort. In the place where his blood core resided in his chest, he felt a faint vibration and warmth.

Rasmus shook his head to try and deny any kind of stupid thoughts or hypotheses that weren't needed at this moment. He cooled himself down, but did not push away the rage in his eyes. He simply focused it all to a point where he could stay focused and collected to find out who to direct his anger at.

Rasmus heightened the mana concentration then to his ears to ignore the shouts and screams and try and see if there was any conversation in the vicinity of the area that might give him a clue as to what happened.

Wooo-ooong WOOOOO-OOOONG

Even for Rasmus, who had exceptional talent and experience with the channels related to mana inside his circuit thanks to the blood core, this was incredibly taxing mentally as he felt a sharp headache as he focused in on a conversation between a guard and what seemed to be a ranker of sorts here for reinforcement.

"What the fuck happened here?", the ranker asked the panicked guard as he put his hand on the guards shoulder to try and calm him down.

"The.. th.. the fanatics!", The guard sputtered in a terrified voice.

Rasmus couldn't see the facial expression of the ranker who had come in to defuse the situation but, at the same time both Rasmus and the ranker's expressions turned ice-cold at that moment.