[Welcome to the Tower of Fate]
Xander saw this prompt in his mind.
'I just have to remember everything Austin ever told me about the tower. I just have to survive.'
***
"So what's the tower like?" Xander asked Austin once he got back.
"It's amazing, honestly. It's, of course, extremely dangerous, and you could lose your life around every corner, but the thrill is something else," Austin said, with his head in the stars.
He continued, "There's nothing to worry about in the tower; you just have to climb, just climb and survive."
"What's the first thing that happens when you enter the tower?" Xander asked.
"Well, this is something you're supposed to learn in school, but clearly, being in the outskirts, we didn't get much schooling. But the first thing that happens is your soul gets sent to the tower, where you have a trial to overcome. This trial is different for everyone, but basically, you get sent into this random place inside a random body, and you just have to survive."
"The trial is never easy, but some have it harder than others."
"You have to defeat creatures and sometimes people, but as challenging as it is, it's almost always within your ability to complete."
"And then, after you survive, you are rewarded powers based on how well you did in the trial."
***
After a moment, Xander felt his soul being pushed into something, and then he opened his eyes.
What he first saw was that he was standing in what looked like a temple at the top of an altar, with a bloody knife in his hand.
Around him was another person, an old man in a black cloak, with his face half-covered by the hood.
He looked down at his body to find that he was wearing the same cloak as the old man.
He turned to the side and saw hundreds of people lined up, waiting to be next, with smiles on their faces.
'I need to check my status first.'
[Name: Alexander Stone]
[Rank: Dormant]
[Core N/A]
[Trait: …Death…]
[Trait Rank: Dormant - Locked]
[Starter items: Sacrificial Knife, Spatial ring]
'My trait has to do with death; that seems pretty neat.'
"Next," the old man let out a breath.
Xander watched as a mother and child walked and laid down on the altar together.
Xander just stood and watched, not exactly sure what was happening.
'Does he expect me to kill them?' He looked down at the altar that was covered in blood and then at his bloody knife.
'Maybe I'm supposed to be someone killing these people,' Xander thought in horror.
He then turned around and saw several people all in black robes, all loading bodies into carts and carting them off.
"Child, what are you waiting for?" the old man said with a rough voice.
"What… what do you want from me?" Xander looked at the man, clearly not wanting to have to kill these people.
"They are waiting to be joined in the Lord's embrace, so let them go."
Xander turned and looked at the mother and the young boy, who were both looking at him with smiles on their face.
They nodded at him as if to say we're ready.
'You just have to survive,' he remembered what his brother said.
'I have to do this. I have to survive.'
He looked down at the knife and reached down slowly towards the woman and child.
"Bang!"
Xander looked back toward the crowd to the source of the noise, happy that he hadn't had to kill these two zealots quite yet.
The old man standing beside him looked on in anger.
"How dare you interrupt our sacrifice!" he yelled.
"How dare you kill all these poor souls," a tall man in red and gold armor said as he walked forward through the crowd with several more men following him.
"I'll kill you all," the old man said as he pulled out a knife.
He then turned to Xander and said, "Run, hurry, go and tell the head priest what has happened. I'll kill as many as I can before I'm sent to our lord's embrace."
Xander didn't think twice. He unsummoned his knife then turned and ran toward the door that the other men were taking the bodies off to.
The men who were loading the bodies were now running toward the armored men with knives pulled out.
"Chase after him!" the lead armored man said to one of his men.
Several men took off toward Xander, beginning to fight their way through the other priests.
The priests all fought unafraid of death, not scared to die if it meant taking a soldier with them.
Xander ran through the temple door and found himself outside on top of a tall mountain. To his right was another temple; to his left was a long winding path.
'What do I do? Where do I go?' He didn't know where the head priest was, but he assumed he was in the other temple, so he ran as fast as he could toward it.
He ran up the stone steps two at a time, entered the temple, and shouted.
"Help! Attack! We're being attacked!"
Multiple men, all in black robes, looked at Xander and, without question, summoned their knives and began to run out of the temple, completely unafraid of the battle to come.
Just as Xander thought the last of the men had left, an aura washed over him that brought him to his knees.
"Child, stand," a voice that sounded like some sort of deity said to him.
Xander quickly did as he was told and stood up.
"Follow me," the voice said.
Then, as Xander turned around, he saw a man who appeared to be in his 50s but was clearly the strongest person he had ever seen walk past him.
Xander followed the man down the stairs as they slowly walked toward the other temple.
While all the other men were long gone due to their sprint, this man was clearly in no rush.
"Tell me what happened," he said plainly.
"I um… I was about to sacrifice our next vict… person when a loud noise went off, and I turned around to see men in red and gold armor walking toward the altar."
"Hmph!"
"The Church of Everlasting Fire thinks they can just walk into my temple and do as they please."
They were now close to the temple and were about to walk in when Xander suddenly felt an aura wash past him that was no lesser than the man beside him.
"Hmph! They sent another E-rank, so be it."
He turned to Xander and pulled out a jade slip, "Child, take this and run to the next temple. Give this to the head priest there. Hopefully, it will come to nothing, but we can never be too careful when it comes to the Lord's work."
"But… where is the next temple?"
"Smack!"
"Stupid child," Xander was slapped so hard he spun around and fell to the ground, his head ringing and mouth bleeding.
"Just stick to the path, and you will reach it. Now go!"
As he said that, he walked into the temple.
Xander just lay there in pain.
'Why is this happening? I just want to go home.'
'You just have to survive,' his brother's words went through his head.
Gaining confidence, he stood up and was about to start heading down the long path.
"Don't run, you heathen!"
Xander turned toward the door to see one of the armored men covered in blood; it was clear that some of it was his own. He had cuts all up and down his arms, legs, and on his face.
He looked on in anger at Xander as if he had just killed his mother.
"You will die today!" he raised his spear and ran forward, right at Xander.