Bariton walked up to Judine, who was writing something in one of her many journals one night. It wasn’t all too interesting, not much was occurring and the chill of the air was matched by the seafoam spraying onto their ship.
“What ya writin’?” Bariton asked the question without judgement, or at least hiding it if there was any. He was looking over Judine’s shoulder, but it was clear he wasn’t actually reading anything on the page and was more just analyzing the handwriting.
“Just some notes I took about the tower,” Judine stated, continuing to clean them up. One page was needlessly messy, and the right page was more structured. “The mana of each floor is similar enough, but the schools of them are slightly different. If we get out of here-”
“I think you mean when, Judine.” Bariton interrupted Judine, filling their conversation with silence. “We’ll make it out. And four of us will make it out as gods.” Bariton kept on, refusing the idea of quiet.
“Yes, yes.” Judine waved away Bariton’s correction, seemingly ignoring it as she looked down upon the writing some more, the analysis of the tower was more surface level than she liked and she frowned. “The theory that the system is run by one truly godlike being, potentially one with omnipotence but the mental state of a singular man… I think the Tower proves it just enough to overthrow the idea that the System isn’t even conscious.”
Bariton thought for a moment, “but… what may that effect in most people’s day to day life?” The bard’s ignorance caused Judine’s frown to deepen. “What? Isn’t it fair that the truth should matter? That’s why I also don’t get, like, philosophy.”
Judine shook her head. “Hm… I suppose it doesn’t matter unless you have free time, but well, we get free time constantly, don’t we? Better to think about thought than to waste it spiraling down a negative path.”
Bariton shrugged. “I guess so, but it’s fair I suppose to think freely, better to think on thought than to think on negativity… Yeah.” Bariton looked back at the notebook, and seemed to think for a moment as he walked off to talk to the rest of his party.
61 - Deeper
Bariton awoke shortly after Judine did, and it was kind of sad to not awaken to someone else holding him. But he buried that thought as he watched Judine leave the room with her coat on. Clearly, the party was going to split today, to then dig into the meat of this floor.
That Linore character was interesting, the blood red hair with scars that covered him didn’t match most priests for God of the Sun, and the divine energy the man held wasn’t the same as that one. It felt more like the pillar of light from right before they met Kishtan.
And that was the thread Bariton would focus on. He tried to move alongside how time used to flow, but he couldn’t manage it. Everything around him felt slow, and after he left and put his nice green clovered hat on he wandered the halls.
Partially unknowing as to where he had to go, or where he wanted to go even, but he knew he had to dig into Linore, even if only a little. He knew he stood no chance fighting the man, having matched their speed when they were talking. Everyone else moved unnaturally slowly as Bariton walked past them.
Bariton tried to hold the displacing winds still, and it worked little, but he kept working at it eventually working. The wind quit displacing people, causing the people he walked past to lift up their arms after fractions of a second.
The wind was still there, and Bariton slowed down a bit as that occurred. Bariton tried to avoid moving any faster, requiring another aspect of focus. He kept drinking in detail despite it, and he tried to force himself to move even slower as he almost bumped into somebody.
“Ah, apologies.” He tried to move himself to normal timeframes, not speak too fast to hear. And it seemed to have worked as the person lightly bowed.
“No no, the fault is my own.” The person wore a tall hat, and they were clearly wealthy with the earrings they wore. And yet they were still here in this church. That, Bariton found interesting.
“Well, I’d like to know a bit more about you.” Bariton started, lightly tipping his hat as he’d learned from Sornid to do when meeting someone new to show respect. “What may your name be, so I may know who I had almost wronged?”
The man straightened their back as they tipped their own hat in kind to Bariton. “Why, the name’s Freishnaut, and yours?” Freishnaut looked at Bariton with a light gaze, the way one would look on at a gem in a window.
“Ah, why it’s Bariton,” Bariton reaches out his hand to shake, of which Freishnaut takes it in with a grin, the dwarf’s smile barely visible under the beard. Freishnaut seems to try to shake it vigorously, but with Bariton so much stronger he had all the control and it was forced to be a calm one. “Pleasure to meet you, Freishnaut.”
“The pleasure’s all mine!” Freishnaut’s eye glint seemed to only grow as the conversation progressed. Bariton felt his mind strain further as he kept forcing himself to move at a proper pace. “Now, what may you be doing in this church of Heavenly?”
The words Freishnaut stated rang the alarm bells within Bariton’s mind, and suddenly he was given the urge to kill the god they spoke to. But Bariton also knew he wasn’t gonna kill them without killing everyone else in here. “Ah, why I’m still here from when God of the Sun ruled this church…” He felt his tone drop off, knowing full well his lies were probably ineffective against the dwarf.
Freishnaut laughed, his ruby red eyes curled up in a smile buried under the facial hair. The laugh was booming and seemed to draw the attention of a few other people in this church. Odd how all they’re tales would end in 4 days now.
“Hm, so not the same reason as me,” Freishnaut began, and the greedy glint in his eyes only seemed to grow from that. “I’m here to help Kermany win the upcoming war, having a god on your side is a massive help.” The honesty the dwarf had was jarring, and Bariton struggled to come up with a response as the dwarf kept talking, “I tell you this because I want you to join me no matter the cost. Gods are certainly more useful, but also more dangerous, than people.”
The dwarf patted Bariton on the back, and the Dwarf flinched as his hand reddened. Another laugh. “Wait, what do you mean gods are more dangerous than people?” Bariton finally formed a question, and it was just asking him more about his plot.
The laugh Freishnaut let loose was even worse, enough to shake the hall a little. “It’s simple Bariton me boy!” Freishnaut took a step closer to Bariton, and lowered his voice to a whisper. “People are easier to control, so how about this; I scratch your back, ya scratch mine hm?”
“I’m not willing to be bought with money.” Bariton met the dwarve’s ruby-red eyes. They weren’t the best shade of red, but they were deep with age. Deep like Shammus’s. Freishnaut let out a chuckle at Bariton’s statement. “Nor am I going to betray my country for just a little bit of help.”
The chuckle died off, and Freishnaut simply stared into Bariton’s eyes. “You know full well you shan’t cut this deal off, you don’t know how effective a nobleman is even when not in his home country.”
Bariton shuddered at the thought, this man probably knew precisely what that was, and this was more than likely just another world, which means he won’t be able to make good on the promise even after all the tower ends.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
And that gave Bariton a conundrum. This offer was truly impossible to follow through on his end, which would probably end in Kermany’s end in this world; but of course there was the side of things whereas Bariton wasn’t going to be in this world after this floor.
And so Bariton acted, with the eyeglasses he wore not quite reforming yet. But it was clear they were close to doing so. “Hm, you’re right, but are you willing to die for it?” This led Freishnaut to laugh even louder.
“Of course I am!” Freishnaut’s ruby eyes slimmed, almost appearing offended from Bariton’s comment. And he stepped forward. “I’ll die for Kermany’s sake, especially since ya seem an honest boy.”
That comment made Bariton have a harder time to say yes to this deal. It’d be just another broken promise though, one without any weight. After all, Freishnaut was probably just a design of the tower.
“Fine, I’ll accept your help, but expect it after I finish up here.” Bariton half-lied, slipping in the way he really was wanting to help, he desperately did want to save Kermany, and talking was thankfully not as boosted by Agility.
“Hm, that’ll do. Just head to Kermany and find the capital then.” Freishnaut seemed alright with dying easily; and just wanted to help his people in his final moments. It felt wrong to Bariton to manipulate him like so, but he had to do this, at least he was pretty sure that was the case.
“Especially if I die before you finish here!” Freishnaut let out a laugh that filled the halls, and many more gave the two odd looks. Bariton simply threw his hands up in the air at the odd looks, but it seems that went unnoticed by the dwarf.
“So then, what ya need me to do? Spy on someone? Spend my money?” Freishnaut stepped toward Bariton, the look in his eyes showed he was truly wiling to do just about anything for this mission of his.
The mission to ditch a god and replace it with someone SSR++. “Why would you even rather a person than a god? Aren’t people more volatile, less easy to control the more powerful they get?”
“While that’s true, that also isn’t as true as you may think!” Freishnaut’s words confused Bariton ever so slightly. “While people may have greeds and wants we can predict less easily, we can also exploit them far easier.” The dwarf seemed to pick up on Bariton’s microexpressions with his continued explanation. “After all, who wouldn’t want to follow someone with the very things that you want? Your greed is what’ll lead you to help us.”
“But what greed could ever lead me to betray my own nation with your help when I can take it for myself without you?” Bariton stared into the ruby red eyes, and then noticed Judine. She was talking with a certain priest, before suddenly they began moving at the pace only Bariton could see.
A practical stopping of time, as the dwarf Bariton was speaking to moved at the same pace, a golden mana surrounding him. “Ah, I see, you’re curious as to how that priest can move at this same time?”
“Of course, this speed requires SSR++ minimum ranking, and yet they both are working on control. She could be in danger--” Bariton’s attention was dragged back to Freishnaut with a snap. “Or strong chronomancy, but that’s still dangerous for us.”
“Ah, is it the idea that eventually our time control will let us move faster than you?” Freishnaut’s beard barely covered his smile, and the glare Bariton gave them seemed to make him step back a moment.
“Apologies, but I like pokin’ fun at people. So do ya want me to spy on Heavenly’s servant?” The wording there made Bariton’s attention snap back to the dwarf, causing him to miss full seconds of Judine’s and the other one’s interaction.
Those seconds caused Bariton to miss the ending as well, and Freishnaut laughed. “Sorry, sorry, you know him as Linore eh?” Freishnaut laughed, and Bariton had to bite back his tongue, and use almost all of his strength to hold him away from violence. “His real name’s Insanity, but I feel I won’t be of much use as a spy anymore huh? I guess I should probably start evacuating the church hm?”
The way Freishnaut just walked off after that, and started talking to other churchgoers grated against Bariton. First he was told to betray the very reason he was still alive, he lived through his formative years, then next he was pulled away from his friend and now she was gone.
Missing and more than likely imprisoned somewhere. Bariton’s rage burned brighter than ever, but he breathed out a sigh. The world was still moving, but the time limit felt more restricted. The goal had to change from preventing the fifth day from occurring, but rather evacuating the church in five days. And with what felt like hundreds to a thousand stories in the church that’ll all end on that day, it seemed impossible.
But Bariton still went forwards with it, he had to try something at the very least. The efforts weren’t pointless. He felt time slow to nothing as the air began to ionize around him. He felt it speed back up as he slowly eased up his movement.
He practically flew above the people in the halls to prevent turning them to paste as he rushed back to the room. The hallways above turn into blurs from murals to colorful tiles. The fight was nowhere near done, and it was only a small moment that separated death from life at this speed.
A beautiful song could be formed from it, but Bariton buried the tune into his heart. He couldn’t afford to be so distracted with how much control he had over himself. Must’ve been the heightened magic stat that helped him here?
Hard to say. And harder to grasp why his brain always drifted to music outside of his class. But he had to stay focused, he finally reached the room, and slowed down to hardly reasonable speeds as the chaos around him slowly died down.
He opened the door, and found only Shammus and Pallad still there. He sped back up as he felt his heart thundering, the beating ringing in his ears. “Where’s Clara?” Pallad looked up at him alongside Shammus in similar speeds, the air partially ionizing and a shrill yelp from the air burning and the sound barrier breaking rang out across the room.
“She wandered outside the hall to begin espionage, similar to you and Judine.” Shammus spoke first, his words seemed much faster than Bariton’s own, but Bariton couldn’t even keep still with how much pent up anger and rage he held at this damned floor. He wasn’t going to lose someone every ten floors. “Why do you ask?”
Bariton takes breaths far too few between, but he keeps hyperventilating, “Linore took Judine, they were talking and something else drew my attention for a mere second and Judine was just-” Bariton’s breathing increased as his vision blurred ever so slightly. Shammus stood and approached quickly but calmly.
The comforting hand on his back did little to help. His breathing got quicker, every effort to calm himself was met with harder resistance from his own body. His hairs were all standing up all at once.
And Pallad’s response to it was simple. A quick whack to the back of the head, knocking Bariton down swiftly and quickly. Bariton fell to the ground like a sack of rocks, sliding for a few seconds against the now shattered marble tiling. The mural seemed to look down at Bariton which made Bariton bark in pain more than the actual hit.
“Calm yourself Bariton, so you say Linore took Judine?” Pallad spoke next, his voice less soothing than angry. It was nice to have someone just as mad though. “Then we shall find her, but first we need all of us calmed. We cannot fight in this church just yet.”
“Instead, we do this stealthily.” Pallad, the least stealthy of the group kept going on. “We may be inable to hide our presences from the divine being that Linore is-”
“It’s a divinity.” Bariton’s breathing calmed, finally being able to stand back up. He saw his health literally plummeted a full 10% from Pallad’s hit. It was a dangerous hit, but it brought him back down to reality. “I talked to a Kermanic spy; he said they are actually the divinity of Insanity, and Heavenly Dealer of None’s servant.”
Pallad’s face flared up for a single moment, and Bariton saw his Agility was higher than the brutes, with his ability to see the micro adjustments that quickly faded. The light in Pallad’s eyes however stayed.
Shammus was next to speak. “Something tells me the next god we fell is to be Heavenly Dealer of None, having met them more than once in this tower alone…” His voice trailed off, “And the tower’s insistence on him being the main overarching villain for floor 43 and now floor 50 as the puppeteer of Insanity.”
“Mhm…” Bariton let out a light word of agreement, before thinking back on what Clara could possibly be doing. “But first, I’d say we focus on finding Clara. Our healer will probably need us first and foremost, and we can’t possibly let that thing find her first.” The shudder that passed through Bariton would’ve broken the sound barrier had he not been speaking through such a thing. His very speech cost a small sliver of mana he noticed, as he forced aeromancy to pass his language along at the same speed he moved.
The system certainly simplified that process a great amount, he couldn’t imagine how tough it’d be to micromanage ones thoughts to such an intense degree such that the aeromancy was hardly even noticeable with eyes that could practically see the atoms that made something up.
But Bariton was done getting distracted for now, as he placed his hand atop the door. His allies seemed to be matching his speed which Bariton did take mental note of as he pushed it open.
******
