Chapter 3

Arie Aria Pandora, Age 7

Narrative POV

Pandora’s appearance was that of a true Arie, taking heavily after her father’s characteristics as an Arie but anyone could tell she was going to be a beauty…however her face was too smooth, her hair too silky and her eyes (especially her left) blank of conscience or emotion. It was as if she was more of a doll than a person. Despite this, what made her eerie was her smile. A flat smile, a grin, that she always had on that had no emotion—no, there was pain behind that smile.

Through everything, no matter when or anything…Pandora never lost that smile. It was as if she couldn’t…she simply grinned.

Pandora was a quiet child, not that there was anything wrong with that…she often chose not to interact or enjoy herself.  Due to this, she wasn’t close to the other Arie children her age, not that the main family encouraged her to make friends with the branch families or the ones’ who’s blood have been diluted for generations. She was treated like a different breed altogether, like an isolated princess. Pandora grinned.

Perhaps the reason of why Pandora’s mother even let her little princess get away with her silence was due to her excellent performance. All Arie children were put through foundational training and testing to discover their talents and potential. As little Pandora, only 7 years old, breezed past any examinations and crushed the learning curve, the elders of the family laughed as they began pouring their resources into the child; deeming her to be the future of the family. Pandora kept grinning.

Other children trained with fun, approached the lessons wishing to end. The children, arrogant of their blood, believed that their natural talent with their blades would bring them to the top of the tower. 

Not all of them are wrong…the blood of the Ten Families were never to be underestimated, especially not the blood of the White Sword; however, reaching the ceiling of the tower would only mean the beginning for little Pandora. 

Others her age could afford to be childish, immature, and take their lessons with a smile. Pandora took her’s with desperation, an ice cold fury, and an unquenchable thirst for revenge…all with that grin…a grin that wouldn’t leave her face. 

If Pandora could get power to kill the gods, then she knew that the tower was capable of challenges that would be equally painful and demanding. There were Divine Sea Fish swimming in the currents of shinsu whose’s ancestors once challenged the ten families and Jahad themselves. There were organizations and people who actively sought to kill her and her family for having the blood of a living god through her veins. Her grin widened.

For that reason she took every lesson to memory, every demonstration to the bone, and every spar to heart. Every bit of knowledge would be required to climb up this hellish tower and every bit of strength would increase her chance of survival. 

Even through all her hardship and struggle, the nights never failed to remind her of why she fought; her dreams plagued with the screams and vision of what she saw inside that pithos and what remained of humanity. The memories of the horrors burned her mind and yet she could only smile…it was tragically funny.

She would be getting her blood, even if it came at the cost of her own…going all the way with her smile.

Age 9

Pandora was brought to the age group 50-100 to accelerate her training and provide her with partners who were more worthy as the elders put it. In the end, it was almost the same with only the oldest and the most experienced of the age group being able to compete with her.

Even still, she didn’t stop. She couldn’t stop, just like her smile. Maybe one day she would allow herself to take a breather and relax when she realizes that she was on a good pace…but that isn’t now.

Even when the tower was shocked over a regular with no special backing or blood surviving for over 2 minutes on father’s personal test, a feat believed to be impossible except for the Arie or irregulars, Pandora could not care less. 

Without sparing an extra second to hear the details of the poor regular’s death, Pandora returned to her training regime as she began to call the shinsu around her blade. She blinked once when her blade glowed white for a split second before dissipating into mist.

“Need a clearer image?”

Her grip on her blade tightened as she focused on her blade again. This time, her blade glowed before the aura was formed around metal…humming slightly as the shinsu vibrated with energy.

Her grin grew wider.

Curiosity

The child remembered the feeling of activation perfectly as she stopped the stream of shinsu into her blade. As the aura fell, the child held out the blade again.

Blade Aura

As if the previous three hundred failures never existed, the shinsu glowed white at once as her blade was encompassed in the white luminance once again.

Her grin grew again.

Age 12

“You have been formally chosen as a Princess candidate” The Arie spokesperson, Arie Hendriton, informed me right after a training session. I had wondered why someone of such importance had come to see little me.

“Your training sessions may cease until the Princess is chosen. From tomorrow, you are to move to the Floating Ship, Severance, where you will compete with the other candidates. Consider this an honor…even the Patriarch has high hopes for you.”

Even father? 

I nodded at his words as he left the sparring ring and soon out of sight. 

“A Princess…heh”

It was a great honor to become an official princess and even greater benefits followed. Groundbreaking power from the blood of the king himself, money, authority, influence, and fame. 

Princess of Jahad…

To become an elite female chosen to serve King Jahad for the price of receiving a small portion of his power. While I say small portion, in reality it was unfathomable groundbreaking power. Due to this, the princesses were considered Ultimate Species of the tower. In the inner tower where regulars competed to climb the tower, there was no opponent more feared and in the outer tower where residents and natives lives, Princesses were often the subjects of worship.

Of course, Jahad didn’t want his power and blood (he gives power through blood) to spread throughout the tower so he set up requirements and rules in place. Only in once every couple hundred years did a famed family choose a single princess. 

Rules followed in order to make sure his power never became diluted or spread to those who weren’t loyal to his name.

1. Princesses must never have a relationship with a man
2. Princesses must never marry
3. Princesses may never have a child

Two more rules followed in order to make sure they were loyal to the Empire and most of all Jahad himself.

4. Princesses must never help or side with an enemy of the Empire

5. Princesses must never enter the Floor of Death (43rd Floor) Will be allowed to use the Middle Area to skip this floor.

As I reviewed the rules, I found myself feeling satisfied with the conditions. After my husband, I held no love for man anymore so the first three rules would not pose a problem. Rules 4 & 5 were interesting but as a member of the Arie family, I was already subject to rule 4. Not being allowed to enter the rumored floor…in truth I wanted to explore and learn what Jahad was hiding there (as did my curiosity) but if it was the price I needed to pay for his power…then I would gladly accept this trade.

“Heh Huh…” It really was just a dream though, wasn’t it? 

There was nearly a hundred candidates in my family vying for the position of princess this time. Some were hundreds of years old, far far more experienced than I was.

Sure they may be hundreds of years old and stronger, but none of them have been chosen 

I tried to reason.  It was a nearly impossible goal…but I would try. I needed to try. 

100F. Severance. Giant Floating Ship of the Arie Family

I was allowed to bring nothing but my weapon and the clothes I had on me. I summoned my blade from my Arms Inventory (Ep: an invisible item which holds your weapons for you) as I held it with both hands.

It was an intricate and silver layered (straight) longsword with cross guards. The blade itself was over a meter long and ended on a point which disappeared into nothing. The handle part of the blade was wrapped with the skin of a silver Divine Sea Fish to make sure that my grip doesn’t fail.

Perhaps the most important part of the blade was that it would grow with me. Feeding off of the shinsu as I climb the tower, the blade would continuously refine itself slowly to my wishes. Getting sharper, stronger, resistant, and however I wished my blade to grow. 

I held onto it tightly as I looked at the entrance of the gigantic airship. In truth, it would be a small city floating with giant suspendium crystals (an incredibly rare mineral found within the tower. When mana is injected into the crystal, the mineral floats defying the laws of physics and gravity. The higher the purity of the crystal, the more valuable it is) powered engines. 

The wide open white gates were lavishly decorated with not even a speck of dust ruining the perfection of the picture. Yet I knew what was beyond the perfectly hospitable gates in the airship; hellish competition.

The moment the airship left the ground, there would be no way out of this hell for months, perhaps years on end until the Princess was chosen. A title and honor no competitor would easily give up on, including me.

“Heh heh…”

It was too late to take back my choice now not to mention it would be unwise to ignore an order from the family…adding onto the fact that I had the main family’s blood flowing through my veins, only scorn and embarrassment awaited me if I gave up without even trying.

Should I wish to try for a Princess again without taking this opportunity, I would have to wait a minimum of a couple hundred years before having the chance…and that was considering the critically low possibility that Headon didn’t choose me for all that time.

Taking in a deep breath, bracing myself for what was to come, I sheathed my sword to my back (because I was still too short to sheath on my side) as I entered the white hell.

I was lead by a nameless servant to the central area of the airship. Walking through the long hallway and through a pair a wide (white) stone gates led to an area which resembled a stadium or an arena. A flat circular area that was at least two hundred meters wide and the ceiling which seemed just as high. Like most Arie architecture, the main component was still the same bleached white stone with shades of grey.

I saw that I wasn’t the only contestant in the area although I didn’t see anyone entering from the outside. There were at least three dozen and looking behind me, I saw more and more contestants arriving.

Age was hard to tell with people from our family living anywhere between a hundred years to immortality but I was easily near the youngest end in this group. I recognized a couple of older members who were representing their respective family divisions or factions.

Of all of them, there were two members who stood out above everyone else; the two having hundreds of years to prove their worth to the family and hone their strengths and make names for themselves.

Arie Atanasia. The most renowned and stated as the hope of the branch families of the Arie family. She too was at the top of her age group and eventually trained equally against regulars who gave up on climbing the tower and returned to this floor. Due to the discrimination that the branch families faced, it was said Atanasia wasn’t able to receive the education and resources some of father’s direct descendants got but she ripped through all of them through pure grit and dedication alone.

Arie Victoria. The most well-known Arie female member who has not been chosen to climb the tower yet. Apparently before I was born, the main family poured their resources and love into her in an effort to create a princess in hopes of another Arie Hagipherone- the legendary Arie princess who’s name and influence reached almost as far as the 10 family heads themselves.

Through over 500 years of experience and dedicated training, she was told to be seen as the pinnacle of strength for non-regulars. Talent, determination, resources and time…she had it all. Most likely the strongest of us all here and thus the winning candidate for the position of Princess.

“Gather around candidates!” A stern looking elderly Arie woman stood on a small podium at the edge of the arena, beckoning us to come around. With silver rimmed glasses on her slightly wrinkled face, she had the aura of an ancient; beings who existed near the beginning of Jahad’s era. Best not mess with her.

“You are here because the family has deemed you worthy of two of the four criteria for becoming the Princess; beauty and resourcefulness.” The lady, who still did not introduce herself, continued on. “You have been deemed by your faction to have a chance of winning this position; thus, you are here to test the two most important factors.”

There was a moment of silence as we were confirmed what he had only heard before.

“You are to fight one on one for the following 3 months until the remainders compete one last time. The stronger you are here, the more potential you have in the tower. The most powerful of you would have the most chance of surviving the ritual to receive his blood.”

Silence overtook the area as we all knew what ‘remainders’  and ‘one last time’ meant. We were all raised with love and care within the 100th Floor but none of us were blind to the cruel nature of the tower and the natural process of removing others from competition; killing. 

A girl who looked just a few years older than me raised her hand as she, shakily, asked a question. 

“C-can we surrender?”

The answer was more merciful than we thought.

“You may only surrender before you fight. I will explain the rules now.”

As she waved her hand, all of us suddenly received a pocket (Exp: A pocket is a small floating black ball which can turn invisible by the wishes of the owner. It handles transactions, communications, etc. It is like a smartphone that you can never forget and doesn’t need charging) by our side which showed a number. My number was 99.

“On your pocket is your current rank. Since this is the first day, I have ranked you by age; the oldest being first and the youngest…rank 99.”

That’s me. I guess I am the youngest here

“Those who are lower ranked may challenge those who are up to 5 ranks above you for a duel. All candidates must accept the challenge or surrender. Should the lower ranked candidate win, then they will take the winner’s rank and thus climb their way up.”

What is nobody challenges the higher ups in fear?

“The one who is ranked highest” she glanced at Victoria “must challenge any of the lower ranked at least once a month. If they do not…then their rank will drop to the very bottom. Of course, the lower ranks are not allowed to surrender in this case.”

I lifted my left hand to ask a question. I understood why we should aim for rank 1 but was there a reason for anyone to avoid getting lower until the end of the year?

“Miss. I understood why we should aim for rank 1 but is there a reason for anyone to avoid conflict and simply surrender each time until the end of the three months? heh”

The elderly woman’s lip curled up the slightest bit as she read the number of my pocket.

“Yes of course candidate 99” I heard a series a muffled laughter from the others. “During your stay on the severance, your room, food, and services you can access will be entirely dependent on your current rank.”

Well that certainly changed things. Knowing how our family worked, the difference in treatment from rank 1 and 99 would be further than the distance from Hades’ realm and Olympus.

“So I recommend you all try your best if you want to keep your quality of life or, of course, not die.”

I could tell the other contestants already begin to look at the others, trying to scout their abilities and their rank. Ready to challenge them on the spot if they saw even a sliver of weakness.

“Duels will be allowed to take place starting tomorrow. I bid you all a good night and rest.” 

…

Walking to the very end of the hallway was an experience of its own, seeing how much the treatment differed as the rankings increased.

The doors of the very first room, Victoria’s room, was wide, tall and elegant; fit for a true Princess of Jahad. Outside her door were two maids and a butler waiting for their lady to call for them, willing to attend her every need.

As the hallway continued the less and less appealing each door looked. No more servants in waiting, no more silver doors with beautiful handles. Even the walls and floors changed from pure silver, to white marble, to stone and eventually cheap concrete. 

Standing in front of the very last door, a rotted down wooden door, with a jutted out stick which could hardly pass for a lock…I put my pocket in front of the lock as it unlocked. How that piece of junk even had some form of system inside, I would never know.

Inside of the dormitory/room was even worse than the outside. No windows, no light, and no toilet. Looking around, I saw a disgusting bucket filled with murky water and another black one which was empty.

The ends of my grin fell the slightest bit.

On the creaking wooden floor I saw a dirty thin blanket which apparently was to serve as my mattress.

To make matters even worse that I saw that creature of evil crawling across the blanket, instantly ridding of any thoughts to use the blanket at all. Spiders. 

On the one thing that even resembled a form of furniture, a small wooden box which reached my hips, was black bread. As I picked it up, it felt similar to picking up a brick. Hard, dry, stale…probably better off starving.

As I looked at my pocket for the time, it was still at least 16 hours until I could fight anyone to get out of this horrendous space.

“Heh, Goddamit…” 

Picking up the small bread and pushing the box up against the wall, I sat on it as I waited for the time to pass. Digging my teeth into what may as well have been sandstone, I grit my teeth as I waited for the next day to come.

“Disgusting”

I would prefer baby food over this piece of something but I needed something to last the time.

The grip on my blade, Azurite, tightened in frustration and anticipation. This was just the beginning after all. The thought, as depressing as it was, failed to bring down the grin…it was tragic after all and tragedy seemed silly.