Chương 2: The Tower of the Dead God

I exhaled. My heart was pounding so hard I could hear it. Thanks, I whispered in my mind, but didn't say. Astarielle jumped up next to me with both arms up.

"Woo hoo!" Not now. With a flick of my wrist, I unsummoned her. She vanished in a burst of crimson flame, still shouting. I turned after the man who tested me, but he was gone. Only disintegrated grass remained. With a shrug, I walked to the plane, adrenaline slowly leaving me. My legs started screaming that walking was a crime. Yeah, I've over-abused them, I knew. I could summon Astarielle to support me, but I'd rather crawl. She would never let me hear the end of it.

If there was one thing I learned growing up with succubi, it was that there was no excuse for showing weakness. Ruthless mockery awaited anyone who didn't know better. Kareem gave me a long glance.

"Habibi, you sure you don't need help getting up the stairs?"

"Yeah. I've never felt better." I even managed to straighten. While clutching the stair railing, I made it up the stairs and into the jet. Every seat had a person in it. Damn it. Kareem caught my shoulder.

"Here, Habibi, we get the staff seats." He directed me to a seat by the side, normally reserved for the staff. I sat down, my legs giving out the second they were allowed to. I glimpsed a few people looking through the aisle at me. As if I cared. I was asleep before the engines started. Someone woke me up with a rough shoulder nudge. With a grunt, I opened my eyes, glaring at Kareem.

"We're approaching," he said.

"You might want to look out of the window. It's quite the sight." With another grunt, I turned a bit to see out through the window. Mother of God. I heard the tower was pretty big. That did not do it justice. At least three miles deep and wide, built out of stone and charred steel with no windows, it started from the bottom of the ocean, and pierced up the heaven. No lights, no life, just the absurd size. In a way, it was so large it didn't make sense. Especially seeing the islands underneath.

They looked so tiny, but one of the tiny islands had an airport with six jets. Aside from the connecting platforms, I counted seven islands. The central hub, the airport, and five islands obviously belonging to the five main secret societies of the world. They apparently each built it for themselves. At some point in my past, each of them tried to recruit me. I wasn't ever going to work for a corporation. I mean, I could summon demons. The entire concept of labour didn't make any sense to me.

Sure, I studied law at Harvard, but that was mostly to get away from my mum. She was lovely, but also kind of suffocating, and very, very, religious. That really didn't mix well with my demons, especially with the succubi. The Church's section had the most boring island. A mixture of church-style architecture, and a US military base. Crosses everywhere, everything perfectly organized and boring. They were just putting a massive, silver cross atop what looked like a replica of New York's cathedral.

Of course they built a cathedral at their artificial island. As far as I knew, the Church spanned the Americas and Europe in influence, together with the other main Western secret society, Lucielle Legal. Those were the secret societies' equivalent of the finance sector. They had the next island. They'd built a maze of glass and steel. Skyscrapers, ultra-modern design houses, everything painted black or white.

Roof windows sometimes betrayed the presence of trees and grass inside some buildings, but the place still looked insanely overdesigned, and not for the benefit of its inhabitants. It looked especially weird next to the Yamato Syndicate's island. Those were the Japanese, who also united the societies of Southeast Asia and, somehow, Australia. They built an elegant island, with curved rooflines, dark wood, Sakura trees, and structures that blended traditional Japanese architecture with something more modern.

Everything was precise and understated and it all looked great. The Chinese also didn't slack. The Tribunal of Heavenly Dragons' section was the largest. It sprawled over a snake-like island, practical and dense, buildings stacked and connected by covered walkways, everything built for function first and aesthetics close second. Budget or construction difficulty weren't variables in their design, apparently. The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

And then there was the Golden Sands. Golden domes. Minarets. Arches and courtyards and a color palette that ranged from gold to more gold to offensively gold. I decided not to question the practicality of moving gold to an artificial island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Then again, none of the islands looked practical. Even the central hub looked like half the budget was spent on making sure the design looked great. The jet continued its descent. As we dropped lower, the tower's presence intensified.

Way too large. Way too weird. Way too alien. We landed at the airport, and Kareem motioned me to come out with him. I got up, feet screaming for mercy. Denied. We walked out, and he kept walking from the plane.

"Now, Habibi, you should go register at the pods. But that's where everyone else is going, so there's going to be a queue." I looked over the airport. Indeed, two other planes looked like they landed recently, one parking into the hangar, the other still having people filing out of it.

"So, instead, I'll take you to your place. You can get accommodated, and register later." Hmph. Made sense. We walked to the airport's edge, and Kareem took one of many carts that parked there. Up close, the islands weren't small at all, so I was happy for the cart.

"How many people are here on the islands?" I asked.

"About twenty thousand, give or take. Half are construction workers, then there's a lot of staff for the facilities in the central hub. There are about two hundred climbers, roughly fifty from each society."

"Any famous mages?" I probed. He shrugged.

"Not among the climbers." I raised an eyebrow.

"Too dangerous?"

"No one knows what's inside. That's a danger in itself." And it was also much easier to send newbies first and then solve it with veterans once the dangers were mapped. I got that logic. I wanted to be here because of that. Glory would come to whoever conquered the tower, and being expendable meant I was going to go first. All I had to do was to climb to the top. If I never stumbled, then I would never lose the first place. We passed the Lucielle Legal section, and I frowned.

I thought that was the section I was trying out for in the first place. Or, well, I would have tried for, if I came on time. Instead, we drove through a large white gate with a golden frame.

"Welcome to the Golden Sands," Kareem said. Ah, well. I snorted.

"Ever had a ginger in here?"

"Sort of." He laughed.

"I actually checked during the flight. The first one was a pirate that wound up in Lebanon after the British Empire sunk his ship. The second ginger we've ever had was a kid born in Abu Dhabi that got married at sixteen because he made a sheikh's daughter pregnant when they met at school. You're the third ginger ever to be an official member of the Golden Sands." Nice. Though, the building he stopped the cart by wasn't nice. He killed the engine in front of a small building at the very side of the island.

It had yet to be painted, cables sticking out of the walls. I did see the AC exhaust, so at least that. One of the windows had a crack running through it. The door was a different shade from the frame, as if they just put some random spare door in here.

"Your accommodation," Kareem said, waving his hand toward the door. I glared at him.

"What is this about?"

"Everyone's got a designated number of spots. Those filled out during the trials. You're an extra, Habibi, so you're getting the spare we could find. It's either this or a depot without AC."

"I'm taking the AC. Thanks." I got off the cart, withstood complaints from my feet, and walked to the building. Kareem started the cart and rolled away. He didn't tell me where the registration pods were. Nor did he give me a key. I tried the door. No lock. Oh. Not even in the frame. Great. The inside punched me in the nose the second I opened the door. A large single room, with a double bed, two couches, a table, and sweat marks and mess everywhere. By the marks on the furniture, at least five people slept here.

Most likely construction workers. I did the quick check on the utilities. The fridge had an ajvar jar that was about to reach sentience. Water ran into the semi-clogged sink, so that was good. The bathroom had mold in places it shouldn't have, so it was most likely overgrown mess. It had a bathtub though. And finally, the toilet made me close the door a third of a second after I opened it. All right. This place needed some work. I pulled on my power. Astarielle! In a flash of crimson flame, Astarielle appeared.

She wore a really nice set of heels, a random garter belt on her left thigh, and absolutely nothing else. With a smirk, she raised one leg on the low table.

"Do I have enough shoes for you now?" She scrunched her nose, looking around.

"What's with this shithole?"

"The shoes look great. So, this is our place by the tower. I'll go register, and you're going to clean this place up. Make sure it's spotless, including the insides of the fridge, the AC, the bathroom, and especially the toilet. I'll be back in a couple of hours or so." Her jaw dropped.

"You cannot be serious." I headed for the door.

"Chop chop." I walked out and headed for the main hub. The beauty of summoning demons was that there wasn't all that much free will involved on the demon's side. They had to do what they were told to. No matter what. And in case they pissed me off, they simply weren't getting summoned again. By what I had gathered, Hell really wasn't fun to be in, so they very much wanted to be summoned. I didn't see any free carts, so I took a walk.

The accommodations barely took time, so I had a while to kill before the queue at the pod registration would clear. Since I had to abandon my bags when avoiding the debt collectors, I had to buy some new clothes. And I had to get my suit cleaned. All the sweat had evaporated during the flight, so now I had white marks all over the suit. After a long walk through the main hub, I found an entire array of restaurants, ATMs, clubs, and bars. No actual shops.

Things might have been ordered from the nearest mainland, wherever that might be. Most likely Australia. I pulled out my phone. No signal. Obviously. I had slacked enough, so I headed toward the tower. The building surrounding the tower entrance opened into a grand atrium. Marble floors, arched ceilings, ambient light that came from nowhere and everywhere. Hallways branched off in multiple directions with absolutely no labels. Lacking a better orientation point, I headed for the tower.

I passed clusters of people, mostly construction workers, technicians, and administrators. The hallways opened into a massive dome, straight by the tower. A part of the tower was clearly rebuilt, made of Earthen steel, looking as if the original gate and wall were disintegrated. In front of the tower lined twenty pods, each a sleek capsule that visually bordered with alien technology.

Unmanned medical stations awaited by the sides, massive screens covered the upper part of the tower wall, and tribunes circled the area. Oh, so the climbers were going to be watched. The person doing the registration walked off, and I saw who he was registering at. Holy fuck. I stared for a few seconds, mouth drying up. She was blonde with hair in a complex bun, pale, wearing a silver dress and white gold jewelry. Something about her emanated an aura of unspeakable perfection.

Up until this point in my life, I had never seen a woman as beautiful as any of the succubi I summoned. Well, here came the first time.