Broken Tower Saga: The First Swordsman

The sword that was burning in white light followed its course and pierced the man right at the heart. The broad man looked at Wrik for once, before his body dropped on his back. 

Wrik felt an awful amount of mana escaping away from his body. Truth be told, there was no mana left in his body, and even the light in his eyes diminished with the last move he made with the sword. Even standing up became a struggle and his consciousness was fainting away, but he could not pass out now. Not until he got away from here. 

Rosie was looking at him as if she was seeing a ghost. On the other hand, Anton stood up and sucked in a deep breath, rubbing his neck. He went near Wrik and helped him get up. With the exchanges of glances, the three of them made their way upwards in the stair. 

"We need to move 400 metres more," Rosie said, and brought out her crystal. She had to crush it to let Balat know that they were at a safe distance. 

Seeing Wrik having trouble moving, Anton picked him up and rushed out. Wrik was doing his best to keep his eyes open, but the eyelids felt heavy like a mountain. Not to mention there was no mana on his body. He overused the [Eye of Insights] to the largest amount today. He felt like his eyes were bleeding, though he had no way to find out now, as the white helmet was still on his head.

In that state he saw them moving while the cacophony of the turmoil entered his ears, almost deafening him.

He grunted as the noises rose. He saw soldiers coming at them, but Anton turned his speed higher escaping. Work could not even focus on that, as if the sounds were consuming him. 

The firing of bullets, and gunpowder on the air, while blood and dead bodies on the path. He could barely make sense of the things and he felt the wall inside his mind was shaking. 

"We have made it," Rosie said, crushing the crust. More and more soldiers were coming at them, surrounding them. Some even fired shots at them. But in the next moment, their body disappeared like thin air.

The last thing Wrik saw after passing out was the light consuming him and with the headache incoming, he could not delay losing consciousness anymore. The only thought of reaching safety soothed him a little.

The next time when he woke up, he found himself in darkness. He felt drunk, and his mind could not work out where he was. 

"Ton?" he called, but no one answered. He narrowed his gaze to find there was a high wall on his sides, almost impregnable, yet it looked quite fragile to him. He felt someone was calling him, and he moved, touching the rough wall. He recognise the wall, yet he felt like he had never seen it before.

He walked for a little while to find a table out in the darkness with two chairs across from one another. Moreover, there was another person sitting in the chair. 

"You finally found your way here," the other person said, inviting him in. "Dumb Wrik."

Wrik felt a chill when he heard the voice and it only rose when he saw the face of the person. 

"Who are you?" he snarled at once, looking at the person. 

"Huh?" the man raised a brow. "Is it too dark for you to recognise me?" 

The man raised his arm and an orb of light formed, illuminating both of their faces. 

"Can you recognise me now?" the other person asked. "After all, I'm the closest person you have, and the same is true for me."

The one before Wrik was another Wrik, but there was some distinction between the two. The first was the eyes. His were the exact opposite of Wrik, white as burning silver; the other was the hair. Some part of the man had burning white hair with the usual dark hair. He had a cocky smile on his lips as he invited Wrik to the seat before him. 

"Sit down, you can't get away without having a good talk with me," the white-eyed Wrik said to the normal Wrik. 

"You are lying," Wrik said and took the seat. 

"True," the other Wrik smiled as if did not care if his lies were discovered. "Do you have any question about who I am? Or how I am doing in your consciousness?"

Wrik raised an eyebrow. He did have some hint about all of these, but he let the altered version of him answer his own question. 

"Technically, I'm you, but better," the alter Wrik said. "I'm far smarter in every area than you. In one word I'm Awesome."

"You only sounded cocky to me," Wrik snorted.

"You don't believe me?" the self-proclaimed Smart-Wrik said. "See how bad the days get when you are in charge. You actually do not believe your own consciousness."

"I'm going to pretend you are not there and wait for me to gain consciousness if you continue to speak nonsense," Wrik said.

"Well, then let me give you some idea why I'm better than you," the other Wrik said and formed a couple more of the light orbs. "Say you barely pulled through with your life, did you find anything wrong with the heist you just made?" 

"There are many things wrong," Wrik said and thought about what's wrong with the heist. Starting from the appearance of the councilmen, to the power supply turning off without him giving a signal. Then those masked men appeared. It appeared the other party chose to steal the item on the same day. 

"I'll give you a chance to figure out everything with the clue you have," the white-eyed Wrik said, juggling the light orbs in his arms. Light flickered along with it and Wrik felt like hitting this alter person of him. He clearly knows how to piss him off. "Let's see how smart you are." 

"The men that came in impersonate themselves as the councilmen to get inside safely with the excuse of biannual inspection," Wrik said. "It is clearly a better way than the way we used. They were never stopped with less restriction and had more power over the workers or supervisors. If we were not there, it would all be smooth sailing for them.

"But there was some problem in impersonating the councilmen as well. After the approval from the council, they needed to get the arrival of Lord Rudyard. I'm not sure how easy it would be for them later. What if they were real lackeys of the councilmen? But Lord Rudyard would understand their scheme and would like to delay them with his connection. There were other issues there too, like Lord Rudyard would not let them have their free reins on his own home ground." 

"You are not even looking at the easiest way," the alter Wrik said. 

Wrik's eyes widened, hearing that. He understood what his alter was talking about. "Who knows the item that I stole better than Lord Rudyard?" 

"None," the altered Wrik said, smiling. 

"Who could access all the paths to the item and cut the power off easily?"

"You are getting there," the altered Wrik smiled like a proud father. 

"This is only a hypothesis," Normal Wrik continued. "Suppose Lord Rudyard found out a way to unearth the item out, but he was deliberately not trying to mine it out as he had to deliver it to the council. But he did not want to let go of the item. Considering how I felt when I touched the item, I could understand him. 

"So, Lord Rudyard staged all this robbery with hiring a crew and impersonate as the people sent from the council to check his item. He made the plan and robbed his own house, while the suspicion will be altered to another high seat of the council. Some of them do not even like others' sight, and this will just be his opportunity and excuse for playing a victim. If Lord Rudyard really did it, then he really played a masterstroke." 

"Unfortunately, the item is still with us," the alter Wrik said. "Though, I'm not sure if we are out of danger as of yet." 

"What makes you say that?" Normal Wrik asked. 

"Insights' ' The self-proclaimed smart Wrik said, gesturing towards his Eyes. 

Unconsciously, he felt something wrong as well. If Lord Rudyard made the plan, he should have some backup plan as well.

"The time of your leaving has arrived as well," the alter Wrik said. "You should now know what you should do, and a lot of answers to your doubts will be cleared up when you wake up. Goodbye to them. Be sure to see me again."

Wrik still sat there with a frown on his brows, the darkness he was sitting in was swirled by the light. He knew he was about to wake up now. 

"Another matter," the alter Wrik said. "Don't try to close the wall ever again." 

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How long I've waited to write this scene! Over six months, probably.