The Tower's Secret

18. [Part 2] Coming Closer

Having crossed the checkered tiles, Ivy stood on the other side of the large room, painting her nails as she amusedly watched the successive characters brave the challenge one at a time.

Beside her sat Hong in a meditative stance, his legs crossed, his eyes closed, and his sword on his lap. Rafferty was huddled on her right, and Wren was ten feet away, fascinating herself with small pebbles on the ground. Ivy's lips upturned with satisfaction. Her whole team—even Rafferty—had survived thus far. What convenient allies.

She glanced ahead as yet another character stepped out from the tiled flooring. The man's expression was triumphant as his rewarded Light descended down from midair, entering his body and pulsating from within. Soon enough, a small woman had passed as well, using a completely different method than her predecessor.

How interesting...same test, yet such disparately different strategies for solving it.

Some like Ivy had employed the old fashioned technique; jumping from tile to tile. A few others had flown, either using wings or air manipulation to achieve their goals.

And then there were the hodgepodge of different methods which entertained her the most. One man had teleported, disappearing and instantaneously re-appearing on the other side. A separate woman with dirty blonde hair had shot a grey device—which was connected to a long coil of cable tie—at the ceiling. The object attached to the wall, and the woman had swung herself from one end of the room to another by tying the cable around her torso. Another man had used a long pole to pole-jump to the other side without touching the floor once.

Three people had even crawled. One was Rafferty, another an old woman with red eyes, and the last one a plain-looking boy. Intriguing. Ivy had originally entertained the idea of crawling, but she'd been afraid that the strategy would be rejected by the Floor, so she'd chose the safer and simpler way of jumping—a method knew she was capable of achieving.

But for those who were too weak find other methods, maybe taking a chance was their only way. Ivy sighed. How terrible it was to have one sole option, to be left in desperation.

Or even worse—to have no options. Just like those people who had failed...

Ivy shivered slightly at the thought. The screams were jarring enough, but being able to see what actually happened on the other side was even more unnerving. All the characters who'd died—they were sucked into the ground, the floor burying them alive and muffling their screams until they could be heard no more.

And they all possessed the same expression in the end. That desperate face filled with unrestrained horror. Mouth opened in a incomprehensible scream.

Pleading for someone to help.

"Please, Princess Ivy! Please do not do this..." betrayal and fear mingling in the atmosphere. "Please, I beg of you, do not kill my child!"

Crunch.

Ivy pursed her lips. She would—she would never end up like that, reduced to such a sorry state of pleading. Never. She finished painting her nails on her right hand quickly, switching the bottle to her other hand as she prepared to-

Whispers and shocked voices suddenly rippled around her.

"What is he doing?"

"How is he alive?"

"He's...walking..."

Ivy refocused her attention forward, following the gazes of the people around her. She cocked her head, realizing that the last character on the other side was finally crossing over.