Chapter 21: Extra Chapter

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Centuries Later

POV Khun Aguero Agnis

No words were enough to describe the hate he felt for this family…no, his father. There were very few which he could name that came even close to the amount of hate he felt for his biological father.

Khun Eduan…the legendary Spear Bearer, the Warrior, the head of the Khun family as one of the 10 Great Families of the Tower. To many both in the family and outside, his father was a living god.

Residents of the outer tower revered him as a divine being while those who dwelled in the middle and inner areas had respect or fear for the man. Regardless of whom, the name ‘Khun’ demanded attention and power.

He knew that hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of others would kill to have a bloodline like his. To have the blood of a god flowing through his very veins…but few realized the struggle and the pains to live within the Khun family.

In truth, he knew that some other Great families struggled the same way as the Khun family did. It was a natural process as the leaders took many partners throughout their eternity and their blood spread throughout the tower. An organizational family was formed…and while the Ten leaders themselves could not care less, it was a poisoned nest within the family. A game of politics for power, fame, attention, and in most cases…survival.

It was common knowledge that the ‘Ha’ family was divided in two by the first two children of the matriarch of the family; Ha Yuri. Despite this, the family still managed to stick together in times of importance bringing ‘honor’ as a word to describe the Ha family.

Meanwhile the reputations the Khun family have earned were along the sides of ‘douchebags’ and ‘scheming bastards’. Not entirely inaccurate considering the environment they were forced to grow in, learn in, and survive in. Their hostile and uncaring personality was a result of the many attempts of trickery…tricks that often lead to the downfall of their family and influence. Their scheming reputation came from the necessity to outwit the others, eliminate others before they remove yours. 

It was hell.

Through researching about the ‘Arie’ family, he managed to find that the family was mostly broken into a single ‘Main’ branch of the family and an alliance of all the other branches. It seemed as if the fights and rivalry between the two main factions were bloody to say the least…but in a family so focused on the way of the sword, there was little trickery, backstabbing, and cruelty beyond what was necessary.

To his knowledge, there was no family worse in division than the ‘Khun’ family. With famous rankers from the family returning to create new branches in which would inevitably fall into the game for power. There were many branches and individuals who had tried to avoid playing the ‘game’ altogether but the results forced the rest to continue playing…as did those who came after.

Those who did not play were ripped apart like bleeding chickens in a pond full of divine pirañas. Helpless members were killed, influential members eliminated entirely, leaders exiled from the family, and their money and any form of materials goods they had-seized.

It would not be as bad should the family head, Eduan, simply not care at all…it was exactly due to the fact that his cursed father found the conflicts entertaining that the fights, backstabbing, and the game continued to roll.

The Spear Lord took many wives, countless wives. The ones he had ‘married’ alone numbered over 3,000 and the countless bastards across the Tower…such was the number that the exact number was unknown.

It was through bedding his many wives and the gossip he enjoyed. It was the small pleasures of creating a little game for him to watch and enjoy…seeing lesser beings fight for supremacy…meaningless supremacy.

Children of influential branches were often the target of assassinations. The case being so severe that one out of four children from the main families died before they reached the age of 10. Killed before they turned into monsters…eliminated before they became a threat.

Not to mention the official games hosted annually for every Khun children at their age of ten. A brutal battle when one child is pitted against another…often ending in maiming or worse. Only the ones who won the battle were allowed to put on the crest of the Khun family while those who lost…they were often abandoned by the family to avoid cut off any ties with the ‘loser’

It’s for the good of the family

He has heard that phrase being used too many times as an excuse as children after children were forced out into the world…left to fend for themselves. 

Those who lost the game of politics were eliminated from the game in a variety of ways. Leaders were often executed for crimes they did not commit or framed upon. The mothers and children of low importance were exiled from the family and forced to make their living in the outer areas of the tower where they would be forgotten into history. Children and the young with great potential were often forced into engagements with their own, or sometimes adopted, to bring them into the family. 

Many regulars who climbed the tower and gave up returned to find their families gone, exiled, and no longer welcome. Others were prosecuted upon their return while the very few who made it to the very top were praised as kings and queens…often creating new branches of the family. Feeding the pattern as the cycle continues.

It disgusted him. It disgusted him that he too took part in the games until recently.

His family had nothing special to offer as part of the main family branch. His mother, one of the many wives, did not birth a Khun to leave a legacy before. She wasn’t part of the ‘Maschenny’ clan, one of the few wives to have ever successfully garnered the attention and favor of the family head.

Unlike ‘Maschenny’, his mother didn’t birth monsters capable of crushing entire floors. She didn’t birth the famed ‘Maschenny Jr’ who would later on become one of the most influential Princesses of Jahad in the tower. She didn’t bring up and train the many rankers of the family nor did she have the authority or influence to secure her position in the family.

No…that was his role and he had failed her. He had failed them all.

"I think that struggling to survive is really beautiful. It's only when people became obsessed with life, they can really find themselves. It is beautiful?”

Even after it all…he couldn’t get her out of his head. It was no longer love, nor was it care, or affection…

“Aguero, please! You need to help me!”

He hated it. He hated that he couldn’t forget her. He hated that he had ever listened to her. He hated himself for breaking rule #1 in this cursed family.

Never trust anyone.

“Aguero! I promise, I promise!” He remembers her grabbing him by his hand as she led him up the forbidden staircase and into their father’s private garden. He remembers laying on the well-trimmed grass with her as they simply enjoyed the moment of peace together.

Was it all a lie? Was I just a tool? Like countless other before me?

The questions would not go away despite how much he tried. He hated his father, he hated this family…but why could he not hate Maria?

Khun Maria Jahad

He had chosen her, Maria, over his own biological sister. He had chosen to help her at the cost of his family…and now all that was left was regret. All that was left was emptiness…all that was left was the sourness of defeat, betrayal, and the cold.

In the cruel battle to choose a princess, he had chosen to help Maria over his sister…and it lead to her death. In the end, he succeeded. A painful victory that he wished he had lost…but what was done was done.

Maria became a princess…and his family was exiled.

Stripped of the family’s crest, he and his mother was forced to leave. Flee like refugees from a war they had lost. A war he had lost and his family to pay.

In his bitterness, he had returned to that same garden. The Garden of Light, as his father called it, and ironically it was where he met his father. 

Even as a child with barely any skills in shinsu or any notable skills, it was impossible not to see the aura which surrounded the man. 

An irregular who had entered the tower countless years ago along with the God King, Jahad, himself. A man who had later on became one of the ten rulers, ruling and giving birth to countless sons and daughters. Once the greatest Spear Bearer in the Tower before the Red Tower, and in simple melee terms…he rivaled the strongest of the 10 families with likes of the Arie and Ha family. Truly a God of Spears.

It was from this man the name of the Khun family began…and from this man he had inherited all his qualities.

Pale skin, light blue hair, electric blue eyes…great strength and power along with his scheming mind.

Truly…a horrific father. A father who does not care about his children and family getting murdered if he merely had women and booze. 

The same man of legend, of divinity, of worship, laid in front of him in a sun-bathing chair. Most likely aware of his surroundings but showing absolutely no care for the hate he felt for him. 

Eduan, eyes closed, relaxed in the sun as he slowly chewed the grapes one by one. Eating the berries one by one as he enjoyed the taste of each one. Despite his relaxes and uncaring stature, Aguero could tell that the man was…un-killable, untouchable.

Electricity of voltage unknown danced around the man’s palm and throughout the rest of his body. His closed eyelids fluttered as they expelled untold amounts of power and wisdom through his years. Though it wasn’t shown, Aguero knew that Eduan’s spear, Mago, should always be within his grasp.

The famed spear which was said to be able to pierce the entire tower in two. Whether of not if it was true…Aguero Agnis did not want to try.

Even as he felt fear for the man, as one would when standing in the presence of a god, he did not feel the feeling of awe or the need to worship. To him…the man was nothing more than an incredibly powerful jerk. A man whose powers were spent idly and uncaringly. A man who did not deserve his strength…his time in the tower was long overdue.

But what can he do now? Try and stab him in the throat with his small knife? Summon a shinsu-spear and try to kill a god? Talk to the man he despises and risk his own life for saying something his father did not want to hear?

There was nothing he could do…and he hated it.

He left in his hate and into his father’s palace. A palace where he could be killed as only the closest, the most trusted, and highest of members of the Khun family would be granted access to the patriarch’s personal palace.

His next hours were a daze as he pushed down his fear and hate. Unable to understand why his father was like that…why his father was so untouchable…why others desired to live in this cursed family.

As he dodged through the few servants in the unusually empty Palace, he found that he had reached the treasury. The place which holds the great treasures of the Khun family. Reaching the door…he found that the greatest place of them all was unlocked.

Why is it unlocked?

Did his father believe that no one would be stupid enough to steal from him? That no one would be crazy enough? Desperate enough?

No… that shouldn’t be it.

The many wives and concubines had nothing left but hate for his father. Enough to lay down their lives as to give his father a final insult. Leaving the treasury door would be a grave mistake. A mistake (if it even was one), that he was fully planning on exploiting.

There was nothing left for him anyway. As an exiled member of the family, he would have to fend off for himself along with his mother. There would be nothing to do…except perhaps make a living as one of the lowly slummers or beggars in the outer tower. Such was the case without the support of the family that it wasn’t unheard of to hear former wives of his father to whore themselves out just in order to feed their young.

Not him. Not before he sends a message.

He entered the room of great wealth. Perhaps one of the greatest rooms in all of the tower…and he was able to see why.

A room was an insult to the great hall he was in. The plan was large enough to fit a palace of its own. Fitting of his father’s dirty and messy style, treasures of great power and rarity were laid around on the floor while others were piled on high to heights never seen before.

Gold and diamonds were lazily sitting around while blades, bows, and most importantly spears, were on full display by…perilously balancing on the floor and walls. These weapons crafted by only the best of craftsman and countless artifacts from the workshop itself…so many of them.

So he scavenged the endless pile. The endless treasury in a hall knowing he would not even be able to see all of them much less investigate. Still, that was enough in the personal treasury of the leader of the Khun family.

“Enjoying yourself ?” The dreaded voice sounded. He didn’t need to turn around to know whose voice it was.

An electrifying voice slurred by wine and sex. A voice which demanded attention and projected power. In the face of such a voice…he refused to turn. He refused to give the attention his father demanded. He refused to give him the respect that he did not earn. He refused to give him the satisfaction of submission.

“I am. It seems you’ve gathered some loot here and there.” He mused, ignoring the itches which were beginning to form on his back from the static in the air. As he tossed a gladiatorial helmet over his back, it hit the floor loudly as it clanged down the pile.

“That was the Helm of The Deep in which I took from the King of the 85th Floor on our climb. I speared him to his throne in Helm’s Deep. His capital and greatest StrongHold.”

“Doesn’t interest me.” He continued looking through the pile. Occasionally picking up something which seemed weak enough for him to use and putting it into his lighthouse while putting back the others.

“Child of mine…you are dancing with death.” The same voice called out to him once more. His back beginning to sting as he felt blue light dance at the edge of his vision. “What are you planning to achieve? An honorable death by your father’s hands?”

“Heh” He smirked. Death? He had no plans to die by his father’s hands. He would rather kill himself than allow that bit of satisfaction. He was born a son of this demon…he would die different.

“Die here father?” He spat out the words with disgust. “Your hands are too mighty to merely kill me. Your spear to holy to have my blood on it.” He grabbed a rather large floating-gem into his pocket before facing his sperm donor.

“You can’t kill me because it is beneath you.” He picked up a random object in the treasury. It was some sort of boot. He threw it at his father’s feet. “That is more valuable to you than me, or my mother, or anyone with your blood.”

The Spear God’s face didn’t even twitch as he listened to his son ramble on.

“You stripped me of your name. Take it. Those who carried your name killed my sister and brought down my family. My reputation, my pride, my name…take it all.”

He stepped closer to the man as he looked into his eyes. Uncaring eyes…eyes which showed little care for him, one of his many sons, as he showed a tiny tiny reflection within those blue orbs within.

“But don’t take my strength father. The power which comes with your blood…that…that alone is mine.” He held his gaze with one of the strongest beings in the tower as he continued to rage out each word. “One day I’ll use this power of mine to take you off your throne.”

At his words, the eyes of his father changed from one of boredom to amusement. As if he had just watched an animal perform a trick…as if a fish had grown legs.

“HAHAHAHA” The god laughed in his face as he reeled back in laughter. “By all means, try to take me off of my throne.”

Perhaps it was the tower laughing at him…perhaps it was the tower saving him; but at that moment, the tower chose him.

Between the small space between him and his father, space split vertically as light from a realm beyond spread across the walls of the treasury. From within the space-time rupture stepped force the Caretaker of the Tower.

Perhaps a rabbit, fairy, or something else altogether…the first administrator of the Tower bowed before the lowly child of an irregular…turning his back to one the great leaders.

“Khun Aguero Agnis. The tower offers you an invitation” The side of the immortal administrator slit opened as a row of sharp teeth revealed themselves. Reveling in the future as he saw the bloodshed of small child in front of him would make.

“The tower offers you a chance to take it all.” The devil whispered into his ear. “The tower can give you all you need…to surpass your father.” The sweetness of the voice…the promises it made and the temptation of it all…

“The tower can make you…the new Patriarch.” The first administrator’s teeth were replaced with a single glowing red eye as it stared intensely at the young Khun.

As the first caretaker of the tower…he was knowledgeable in many things including the path of fate, the direction of the future, and new entrances. He was among those who knew most about this tower after all…as well as what laid at the top.

Yet he could not know everything…but he knew enough about the blue haired child in front of him. Already, he could smell the change chaffing off of this boy. The change that the tower desperately needs…it would be done with many instruments…but this boy was destined to be one of them.

The caretaker stretched out his hand to the young boy. Offering it for him to take.

The young child could only look in wonder at the administrator’s outstretched hand as he gazed at the great rift of space. The strange light it emitted as well as his father still behind the stretch watching intensely at him…it was almost as if he was looking at himself in a future mirror.

“Go boy. Go on and see what a hopeless endeavor you are embarking on.” His father’s voice echoed off of the great walls. “Go on and face beings greater than you can possibly imagine…and once you have learned…return here a beggar.”

His father’s words cut deep…reminding him of the impossibility of his quest…and yet he could not not enter the tower. There were things he needed to know.

He had to find Maria and question her.

He needed to gather underlings to build himself an organization.

He needed…he needed to get away from here. To come back and save her mother in time before she is lost forever in the outer realms.

He needed to prove that irregulars weren’t the only rulers of this tower.

Perhaps…just perhaps he might find someone to rely on on his journey up the tower.

As he solidified his decision, he looked towards his father once more who was chewing on some grapes. Grapes from the grape trees he had planted everywhere across this floor and even inside this throne palace.

He took the outreached hand of the administrator as he felt his body begin to be pulled into nowhere. As he felt himself falling to a different floor. As he began to be beamed away as he begins his new journey as one among the countless regulars.

As he began to fade away, he looked towards his father once last time.

“I hate grapes.” And just like that…he was gone.