"It's over." Kai looked down from the peak of New Olympus, a grand mountain overlooking Newerth – the name christened to the enormous city that humanity settled in on the first floor of the Tower.
Newerth was filled with guilds backed by patron deities from all across humanity's history and lands. Pyramids, a colosseum, shrine gates, pagodas, castles – all of it used to stand side by side with each other, showing that humanity a whole had banded together to fight against their extinction.
Now, everything was burning rubble drenched with the blood of fallen ascenders. Their staffs and blades and shields – everything they wielded in the name of a futile resistance – burned with them.
Clumps of writhing tendrils slithered about in this carnage, eyeing the destruction they wrought with crimson red, eerie three lobed eyes.
Pitch black trailed wherever their wriggling appendages touched, as if their entire bodies were brushes dipped in in impossibly dark ink.
Darkness comprised of countless pixel like squares all shimmering erratically like a glitch in a game.
These tentacled beasts were Virals.
Nightmarish creatures under the control of the Administrator – the supreme entity that governed this damned Tower, forcing its inhabitants to climb it or perish.
Virals showed up whenever the Administrator wanted to get rid of someone or something, and due to them being direct subordinates of the highest power here, nothing, no divine weapon or even the mighty gods themselves, could resist.
Humanity had tried hard to clear the Tower's 100 floors and escape extinction, but in the end, they failed at the 49th floor. Not even halfway -that was all humanity's efforts amounted to.
Kai looked away from the unending destruction. He was hardened to suffering by now, but at the same time, he was tired of it. He looked up.
The skies were haunted with the same shade of crimson that reflected from the Virals' uncaring eyes. From black clouds fell ash like tears shed for mankind's end.
New Olympus was soon to be next, and there was no hope here either.
The Olympians, among the strongest of the gods that championed humanity, were already dead. As were the Aesir of Asgard. The Beast Gods of Egypt and Mesoamerica. The guardian fairies of Britain. The devas and martial gods of the East.
All of them fallen.
Not just the gods, either.
The Archetypes, humanity's greatest heroes that each represented the pinnacle of the six classes that the System of Power granted, had also fallen.
Only a few ragtag survivors had managed to make their way here led by Kai and his little brother.
But it was futile.
They were like passengers on capsizing boat scrambling to the highest vantage point they could to enjoy a few spare breaths before the tides of the end inevitably drowned them.
"Not yet." A gentle hand tapped Kai's shoulder.
"Optimistic even now?" Kai shook his head and shrugged his brother's hand off his char-stained pauldron. "Ren, it's over."
"Like I said, not yet," said Ren.
Unlike Kai who donned plate armor and wielded a bladed staff as a battle mage, Ren wore a much more modern outfit in the form of a two piece grey suit, though said suit was now thoroughly tattered and burned form battle wear.
Kai's armor was all domineering spikes and angry red, molten lines. Courtesy of being harvested from quite the enraged fire dragon. He looked every bit the veteran warrior that he was.
In contrast, Ren looked far more approachable, more like a friendly bartender than anyone used to holding a weapon of war.
But it was not just their attire that the two brothers contrasted.
Kai's face was grim. Jaw hard set and eyes narrowed in a leer. A face that chose to say little and show even less.
At most, it showed a large, jagged scar that ran diagonally from his brow down to his chin, and for many, that showed more than enough to stop any attempts at conversation.
Ren presented himself with a smile, even now. A smile made gentler by his soft features and a face that managed to remain clean and unmarred even now – courtesy of his passive healing skill.
A smile to comfort his brother who he knew, underneath that craggy frown of his, was a man hurting.
Hurting at the loss of everything that they had fought for.
"Do you have a plan for this?" said Kai. His voice was more tired than anything else. He was not tired of fighting. No, fight, he had plenty left in him.
He was tired of losing.
Losing friends. Losing those he loved. Kai and Ren had already lost his little sister to the Tower many years ago, back when they were too weak to protect her.
And now, his older brother – the only family he had left in this world – was to be next. "I know you were the best out of us all. Stronger than even the Archetypes with that special class of yours. But there's nothing anymore. We've lost."
"That might be true. Humanity HAS lost," said Ren, and Kai perked his head up. "But you haven't."
Ren opened his hand and a large black tome materialized within it. It was a nondescript book which not many would have given more than a second glance. He flipped through its many pages until he got all the way to the very end.
From there, he tore off a page.
"A spare page? If this is some kind of skill or spell that'll turn the tides of a fight this hopeless, I'm going to be asking you why you didn't use it before 99% of humanity died," said Kai. He said this, but he knew Ren better than anyone else.
Ren had a heart that wept and bled for others. He gave out the skills he collected in his book to those that needed it without a second thought. He never held back on extending a hand to those that reached for it, even if, later on, those same people would try and kick him down after he raised them up.
Even in the ruthless, dog eat dog world of the Tower, Ren had tried to give himself room in his heart to spare others, giving them second chances or more if he felt they deserved it. He tried to see through the eyes of everyone with a kind of empathy that Kai sorely lacked.
To Kai, an enemy was an enemy. The moment they raised a sword or staff, they were a target to take down. It was this cutthroat mentality that had let him survive so long, after all.
This was probably because of how the Tower took in humanity in waves with each spanning ten years. So far, five waves had been taken from mankind which totaled fifty years that man had struggled in the Tower.
All humans the Tower took were settled on floor zero.
There, humanity was given an ultimatum: clear all 100 floors of the Tower or perish.
Those that chose to climb the Tower became known as Ascenders and granted a 'System of Power' that allowed them to choose between six classes: warrior, ranger, mage, assassin, healer, and artificer.
Said System also allowed them to strengthen themselves far beyond mortal comprehension by defeating enemies in the Tower and overcoming difficulties.
The first wave faced the most chaos, the most disorganization, and the most infighting as they adjusted to the Tower's conflict-ridden environment.
They had to deal with not just climbing the Tower's deadly floors, but also its other inhabitants and civil conflict between the gods that were supposed to lead them.
The anarchy made it so that the survivors were hardened by clearing the Tower by making sure they trampled on others on the way up.
Either that, or you were trampled down instead.
The second wave was not much better. The strongest Ascenders from the first wave, sponsored by gods, established guilds and some semblance of order. In practicality, these guilds were little more than gatherings of thugs drunk on power.
More organized gangs ordained by divine backing than anything else.
Rule under the guilds was harsh, brutal, and all too often unfair. Guilds routinely fought with each other for resources, causing an endless cycle of bad blood where the focus shifted from
Kai himself had been taken during the second wave and its constant conflict had shaped him into what he was now: a fighter with hardened scar tissue over both his mind and his heart.
Thirty years later, during the fifth wave – that was when Kai's siblings were taken from Earth. By then, Newerth was more established.
Gods fought less with each other and finally got it through their thick divine skulls that they had to work together.
There was enough law and order to make sure you did not have to have eyes behind your head to prevent backstabbings and robberies.
Even then, that was no guarantee of survival. Ren managed to survive the Tutorial and even come out of it with a powerful unique class.
But Lin, their little sister, did not.
With the strength of his unique class and a more orderly Tower environment, Ren had the luxury of staying kind.
There was a time that Kai envied Ren, even looked down on his little brother for being soft and having such a strong class fall into his hands out of what seemed like sheer luck.
But now, with everything ending, Kai felt thankful for his brother.
Deep down, Kai had always cherished Ren and never wanted him to change, never wanted the Tower to mark its ugly scars on his little brother's innocent heart.
That was why no matter what, even if Kai was in many ways a polar opposite to Ren, even if many times they disagreed, he protected his brother with everything he had.
It was why Kai knew that if Ren had a way to fix this before lives were lost, Ren would have done that without a single moment of hesitation. Ren was never the type to sit back and let others suffer if he could help it.
"Here." Ren held the page out to Kai.
Kai took it, scanning its contents. His face, stone set with the will to fight one last time before dying, cracked in its grim resolve. A single one of his brows rose up in surprise – about the best his face could muster after two decades of fighting and fighting.
[Gift of Return]
[Rank: ???]
[Description: This active skill allows you to return another to the beginning. Once utilized, it is consumed.
This skill must be gifted and cannot be used on its original owner under any condition. In addition, utilizing this skill will erase the original owner's existence, removing them not just from the present, but also the past and the future.
Only the gifted will remember the gifter's existence.
'There is no greater gift than time. But make no mistake: there is no greater cost either. Know this should you decide to break the chains of fate.']
"This…when did you get this?" said Kai.
"I dunno." Ren shrugged. "I've tried to remember, but whenever I do, my memory gets all foggy. Almost like the skill wants to be hidden. Either way, what matters is that we have it now, right? I tried to hold out as long as we could before using this, but now, it looks like we need a second chance."
"You can't use this skill," said Kai. "It has to be gifted…you can't be suggesting…?"
"Yes, you bonehead. That's exactly what I'm suggesting." Ren pointed at the page. "You go. Back to the past. Where it all began, when humanity got shoveled into this Tower. And this time, make sure we win, Kai."
"If I use this, you won't exist anymore," said Kai. "Not now. Not in the past. Not in the future. Never."
"Well, in about an hour, nothing will exist here in the present anyway, so hey, not much lost, right?" Ren's smile faded when he saw Kai's serious expression. "Kai, I know we've had our disagreements.
Our different ways of approaching problems, you with your sword drawn and staff blasting first and me with the talk first fight second path – that caused a hell of a lot of arguments between us.
But in the end, we always stuck by each other, didn't we?
We picked each other up when we were down.
Even if our words clashed, when it came down to it, our backs were always together."
"Yes," said Kai.
Ren put both hands on Kai's shoulders. "I want you to have my back, brother, just one last time."
Kai's gauntlet faintly trembled as he held the page in his hand. "I can't. This would be like killing you. Nobody will remember you. All the good things you did for everyone, even those that never deserved it – it'll all just be gone."
"No, it won't," said Ren. His smile remained unbroken. Hopeful. Kai knew for sure that a softie like Ren was hurting in his heart, but he hid that all to be strong for his older brother.
Kai's grimace deepened. He was the older brother here. He had to be the one to be strong.
"Because no matter what, you'll still remember me," said Ren. "You'll remember all the times we had together, good and bad. Everything I did. And to me, honestly, that's all that matters. As long as I have a place in your mind-," Ren fist bumped Kai's chestplate. "In your heart - I'm happy knowing that this life I led wasn't for nothing."
"Ren…" Kai did not know what to say. Expressing his emotions was something he always struggled to do. Even before life in the Tower, he had been closed off. It was just the way he had been raised.
A single, alcoholic father that preferred a belt to talk made sure of that.
Kai had worked hard to take his little brother and sister away from his monster of a father, but just when their lives looked like it was getting better, Kai had been taken away into the Tower.
The page in Kai's hand started to glow, indicating activation.
"It's time," said Ren. He drew back from Kai.
Kai's body began to color in with bright white, as if he was turning into pure light.
"Save humanity, Kai. Protect everyone like you protected me," said Ren. Finally, in this last moment, his front of strength was cracking, and tears flowed through those cracks, welling up in the corners of Ren's eyes.
Ren still smiled. "And try to smile every once in a while, yeah?"
"I-," Kai tried to reach out to his brother again, his hand stretching forward, pleading for just a little more time.
Blinding light filled Kai's vision.
"I'll try." Kai finished his sentence before blinking in surprise.
Kai found himself in a massive white space surrounded by huge crowds of people. Men and women from across the world, rich and poor, young and old, healthy and weak – the Tower did not discriminate much.
The people were like little stipple dots marked across a vast white canvas. Insignificant little things, most of which were soon to die in the next few days.
Kai looked down at himself. He was dressed in a plain white T shirt and track pants. Clothes from Earth he had almost forgotten about. What he wore when on lazy weekend nights during long gaming sessions, back when he had never had to fight or take a life.
His hands were soft. Vaguely calloused from some gym work, but nothing too notable. His skin was pale and unmarred by scars. He touched his face. The massive scar running across his face was gone.
He had Returned.