Supernatural Taxes

34) If all else fails I can apply for a job at the Tower of Darkness

"Hmm," She said with a mouthful of soup, it was hard to see through Thanos, the hologram keyboard was positioned in front of the screen by default. She mimed a bit while blowing the still hot soup in her mouth, by the time she swallowed thanos had gotten the picture and moved to the side, the video Thanos clicked on eventually buffered, sadly it was 360p. The title of the livestream was, "50 man task force is challenging the Tower of Darkness".

Thanos read the description in the stream's sidebar, "This elite task force was put together on short notice, it includes SWAT teams, former navy seals, special forces and numerous unnamed spies. After two days of preparation they are ready for their first and hopefully final assault on the Tower of Darkness. The city of Amsterdam as well as the king of the Netherlands has promised handsome rewards and honours to those who rid the country, 'of the false ruler who cruelly gives his vegetables nothing but the ability to feel pain.'"

"Oh, cool." Atla squinted at the screen, the video's lighting was terrible.Red and yellow light was emitted from the background behind large double doors that gave off a kind of 'Gates of Hell' vibe. The figures in the foreground had their backs to the doors so were only visible as machine gun toting silhouettes but Atla counted at least twenty of them as well as three large square vehicles. Maybe they were waiting for more members or preparing for the next floor, because if Atla's deduction based on this grainy, oblique CCTV footage was right then they'd just cleared the Hell Floor.

She checked her phone and sure enough Nora already knew what was happening and messaged her almost an hour ago, Atla called her.

Nora answered, "Yello!"

"Red."

"Golden."

"Vermillion."

"Errr citreous!"

Atla grinned at their now obsolete knowledge of obscure colours. "I just put on the stream, what did I miss?"

"They obliterated General Kango on the first floor then mowed down the zombies on the second floor. They're armed to the teeth, they've just waded through the Hell Zone, now they're preparing for the fourth floor, they're just waiting for the tank, oh, here it comes."

"I see... So how many bosses have they beaten?" She remembered that this Lord of Darkness had four 'demonic generals'.

"Just General Kango, it there definitely isn't a boss on most floors."

"How—"

"The Lord of Darkness has been making announcements over the intercoms the whole time, mainly to spout generic supervillain lines but he also announced that he was waiting on the tenth floor."

"Then the tenth has to be the final floor, the floating one above the billowing dark clouds."

"Considering his personality that's undeniable," agreed Nora, someone called for her in the background, "Ooh, gotta go, sounds like they're on the move again and dad just made popcorn, chat soon."

Atla smiled but also felt a twinge of jealousy for their unconventional movie night. She went back to drinking soup while analysing the Tower of Darkness with Thanos. "It looks like the first area of each floor is empty and safe to give the challengers time to prepare, how very fair." That was another similarity to Castlemania but also the start of most platformer levels.

The Lord of Darkness decided to make an announcement now, "Bwahahahaha, humans, how did you enjoy the Dreadfully Fiery Floor of Doom?"

Atla almost spat out her soup, she swallowed, "No wonder people just call it the Hell Zone."

"I don't know, something about the name just tickles my heartstrings you know," Thanos spoke wistfully then chuckled.

There was a pause, the military men continued cleaning and reloading their firearms unfazed.