Ray’s heart skipped a beat after hearing Pierce’s answer. It wasn’t common for other people to even know about Tower Nodes. So the fact that there was another person specifically hunting them down was consternating.

  “Any old Tower Node?” Ray asked. “Or ones from a specific Paragon?”

  “You’re not confused by the idea of Tower Nodes, then,” Pierce said. “Interesting. That means you either possess some of your own, as was already evident, or you know about them via other means. I’m thinking it’s more of the former, isn’t it?”

  “What do you mean as was already evident?”

  “Pretty simple. My Sylvan buddy said you have multiple Tower Nodes. I didn’t believe him at first, deciding I’d wait to find out for myself if that was the case. But the fact that you know about them definitely lends credence to the idea that you have your own.”

  “Huh. That’s more proof for me too.”

  Pierce scratched the back of his helmeted head seeping inky smoke. “Huh? Proof for you? For what?”

  “Proof that the Sylvan on your team is just some mook sent by the Third Floor Lord. They’re the only people who know about my Tower Nodes, and combined with the way he acted, I’m pretty sure he’s more or less out here to get me.” One corner of Ray’s mouth curved up in amusement. “Going to be strange when you claim to have killed me without him.”

  “But you don’t intend to die here,” Pierce said. “Still, pretty dumb to think the same trick will work again, don’t you think?”

  He had a point there. Ray’s team hadn’t done anything about the main reason they were in the current mess—the red sparks from Pierce’s blade that had allowed him to follow them here. Even if Ray teleported to wherever Gritty and Marcus had gone, there was nothing stopping Pierce from following them again.

  “Isn’t it pretty dumb of you to assume we’ve got no way of dealing with your little trick?” Ray said.

  Of course, he didn’t have a way of doing that, which was what Pierce was correctly assuming. Still. Now that he had mentioned it…

  Ray: We need to get rid of the red sparks.

  Marcus: Yeah, we do. Don’t worry, I think I got it. But I can only deal with what’s on Gritty.

  Ray: Right. Just leave what’s on me to me.

  Pierce’s flashing eyes almost had a look of recognition, like he could tell Ray had been communicating with his teammates, probably trying to come up with a plan. “Maybe. But you’re forgetting one thing. It won’t be easy trying to figure out what to do when you’ve got someone trying to kill you.”

  Fair point. Which he proceeded to display by attacking Ray.

  This was, of course, fully expected. Ray was ready or it, his body as tense as a tightrope holding with the whole circus act balanced atop it. As soon as the armour-clad figure of Pierce rushed at him, he moved.

  Simple motions weren’t going to work. Even with the buff from Time Veil adding multiple percentages of his past version’s stats to his own, he wasn’t fast enough. Pierce was just that powerful, covering the distance between them in the same amount of time Ray had moved less than a foot.

  But the slicing arc of the red sword missed Ray wildly. He was gone, appearing behind his opponent with a quick use of Temporal Passage, at a spot he himself had rushed through.

  It was a good thing he had topped off his Aeon Mana just after he had arrived here. Now, he could twist around and fire off a flaming blast from the draconic maw around his hand drawn up by Aetheric Trace.

  Pierce simply deflected it with his sword.

  Ray stared, slightly wide-eyed, as the beam of compressed blue fire struck the red blade before diverting its course, hitting the far dungeon wall where it exploded in a shower of flaming rocks. What in the world was that sword? Ray didn’t even know his attacks could be deflected like that. It didn’t even look physically possible.

  “Two can play the range game,” Pierce said.

  Ray knew what was coming. Sad thing was that it came a little too fast. Nevertheless, he was already moving, dodging away as arc after arc of burning, slicing red energy shot at him.

  He was not about to make the foolish mistake of trying to fend them off with his Windbane maw’s breath. There was a clear power difference between Ray and his opponent. A straight up contest of strength, even on a magical level, wasn’t going to end well for him.

  Or at least, that was the impression he was intent on giving.

  After a few dodges—and he was thankful he was fast enough to evade—Ray actually tried blasting an arc with his flames. The result was foreseen. Pierce’s red energy blade sliced right through the flaming blast as it carved towards Ray. As predicted, the difference between their strengths was too high.

  Since Ray had committed to countering it instead of dodging, there was no time left to evade. But Temporal Passage took him to safety.

  More importantly, it had emboldened Pierce. He was stalking towards Ray now. Sure, his face was still veiled behind most of the helmet, but the confidence in his eyes was unmistakeable. He believed he had Ray right where he wanted him.

  “Say goodbye, Raymond!” Pierce yelled as he flashed in.

  Ray simply raised his arm, then fired off the draconic maw’s breath again. Except, this time, he had made sure to pour in some extra Tiers with his Mana Infuser ring. The strength behind the blast rose by a few Tiers, enough to overcome the previously impassable barrier.

  Pierce’s eyes widened as his sword failed to deflect the blast this time. He was thrown back, his whole body wreathed blue flames as he crunched into the dungeon chamber’s wall.

  The attack hadn’t dealt much damage. That armour of his was strong, and he was quickly getting back to his feet, his eyes glinting with a greater sense of danger. But Ray was happy. That had been a success. Now, he had solid proof that while Tier 10 wasn’t enough to overpower his opponent, Tier 12 definitely was.

  He wasn’t wasting any time either. As Pierce got back to his feet, Ray had already summoned several flying Windbane head constructs, after raising Resurrect Recollect to Tier 12. Then he fired them all, including the draconic head on his hand.

  A part of Ray regretted that he hadn’t learned much about Pierce before killing the guy. But that part was very small. No way was he giving up an opportunity to take out such a powerful opponent.

  Well, it turned out that he needn’t have worried. Despite the furious attack that Ray had unleashed, Pierce came out of it completely unscathed.

  A moment before the multiple lasering breaths from the numerous draconic heads struck, Pierce decided to transform. Ray had no other way of describing the abrupt, wild change that his opponent underwent.

  Pierce’s whole body glowed. All the smoke trailing off his armour disappeared, and even the red sword turned bright white before dissipating into little motes of fading energy. New colours worked their way over Pierce’s form, and the general shape around his figure seemed to change, like his armour was undergoing some kind of weird transformation.

  The worst part about all that was the fact that none of the streams of compressed fire did anything to him. They failed to burn his body, and when they collided and exploded, the force from the detonation passed right through him.

  When it ended and the light disappeared, not only had Pierce changed, but he was also completely unharmed.

  Ray stared. “The hell…?”

  Pierce grinned at him. His dark helmet was gone. His whole previous armour was gone, leaving behind a light leather chest piece and some hardened trousers tucked into high boots. Where he had held a bright sword in both hands before, now he had a short, black spear in each hand. “Like my new look?”

  “What did you do? How—wait, don’t tell me your transformation makes you invincible while you’re transforming?”

  The widening of Pierce’s grin was all the answer he needed. Ray cursed.

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  He recalled the time he had used a transformation against the transformer. That time he had first fought a Viledrake and the monster had sought to up the ante by assuming a potentially even stronger form. Ray hadn’t allowed it, hammering home with his all his powers.

  Now, Pierce had used the same idea. But instead of leaving him vulnerable, apparently, his strange ability made him immune to all damage during the duration of the transformation.

  “And I’m healed too,” Pierce bragged. “If you hadn’t noticed.”

  Ray cursed. He hadn’t noticed. Then again, he hadn’t exactly seen any wounds through that thick armour and helm earlier, so it wasn’t like the change was staring him in the face.

  “Good to know,” he said. “Guess I’ll just have to kill you before you can… transform again.”

  “You’re real confident you can do that. I suppose you must have more tricks up your sleeve. Definitely wouldn’t have guessed you can modify the strength of your abilities that vastly.”

  Actually, Ray wasn’t sure what surprise he could call upon to take out Pierce’s annoying ass, but hopefully, something would come to him during the fight itself. For the moment, though, he was curious about one thing.

  “Tell me,” he said. “Do you want to take my Tower Nodes after killing me?”

  Pierce spread his hands. “Isn’t that obvious?”

  “Right. But I’m asking more about what you’re going to do with them. You seem obsessed, but I can’t tell if you’re obsessed to own and use them…” Ray’s eyes hardened. “Or if you want to destroy them.”

  Pierce blinked. “Sharp one, aren’t you? Why do you care?”

  “Depending on your answer, I wouldn’t mind just giving them to you.”

  “Oh yeah? What if I lied?”

  Ray shrugged. “A liar was never going to ask me about lying. Instead, a liar would pause, would try to sus out what was the answer I was looking for, then feed it to me.”

  Pierce scoffed, which turned into a laugh. “I’ve got a little competition going with my Sylvan buddy. We’re both looking for Tower Nodes, as I said. But where he wants some specific ones to further whatever his real goals are—specific ones that you supposedly possess, by the way—I want them to destroy them. You were right on the money there.”

  Ray was actually a little surprised to hear that. He might have judged the impression he had gotten off of Pierce correctly, but still. “You know of an actual way to destroy them? Whenever they’re in some kind of danger, I always get a notification that they’re—”

  “That they’re System objects and they can’t be destroyed. Is that it?”

  Ray nodded.

  “Well, that’s one big pile of bullshit. My entire run up my Tower was based on finding and destroying the Nodes that propped it up. That was the theme, the main goal for everyone inside it. Or at least, the main Objective as set by the System. Finding and destroying the Tower Nodes.”

  “That’s… so strange.”

  Pierce shrugged. “I tend not to question the System.” His eyes hardened. “Especially when I can see good reason for destroying what it tells me to destroy.”

  Ray couldn’t even begin to fathom why the System would direct anyone to destroy what it itself used to build up its whole, well, everything. The Tower Nodes were supposed to be the building blocks, the power that it drew on to create these gargantuan edifices called Towers.

  To actually set Objectives about finding and destroying them seemed too self-defeating. What was the System’s goals? Had it somehow determined the Paragon it was pulling from had grown too influential in whatever Tower Pierce originated?

  “Wait,” Ray said. “What’s the point of taking my Tower Nodes?”

  Pierce frowned. “What?”

  “I realize I don’t know what you went through on your Tower. But still, you were taking out Tower Nodes from your Tower itself weren’t you? I assume you succeeded, with how strong you’ve gotten. But why take the Tower Nodes of another person? The nodes I have aren’t affecting the Tower any longer. There’s no point.”

  Tutting, Pierce shook his head. “You don’t get it.” He took a step forward, determination flaring in his green eyes. “The Tower Nodes are corrupting influences. Voices of those so-called Paragons will trick and deceive you to do their bidding. They’ve already been doing that, considering you know about them and possess them already.”

  “Ah, I get it now.”

  Ray wasn’t going to start arguing with the guy about how true that statement was. He was pretty sure Pierce had seen some real shit in his Tower, which had coloured his views on Tower Nodes and thus, it would be the same as arguing with a streetlamp.

  “So, you get it, huh?” Pierce’s eyes narrowed. “Does that mean you’ll be surrendering your Tower Nodes?”

  “Can you destroy them right in front of me?” Ray asked.

  “Sure…”

  “I’m just looking for some proof, you know. After all, while you might say you want to destroy Tower Nodes, you’re allied with a Sylvan who’s hunting them down.”

  “Fair enough. I’ll show you how I can take care of them.”

  Nodding, Ray called out a Tower Node of the Fleshcrafter. He hadn’t called it forth or used it ever since the end of his time on the Second Floor, after how close he had come to being captured by that asshole Paragon. As such, he had absolutely no qualms about giving it up.

  After he relinquished his ownership of the Tower Node, it began floating towards its new owner—Pierce.

  Who had pulled out his own Tower Node in response.

  Ray blinked. Where other Tower Nodes he had seen so far had been white or some variant thereof, Pierce’s one was entirely black. The crystal also looked like it was made of tiny blocks, a ceramic Lego model rather than the real thing.

  “I get it now,” Ray said. “Of course, we can’t destroy the Tower Nodes. But we don’t have to. Not when there’s a Tower Node that can destroy other nodes.”

  Pierce’s small smile admitted that Ray’s deduction was correct. While Denizens might be incapable of harming System objects, other System objects weren’t held back by such restrictions.

  “It looks hypocritical, I know,” Pierce said. “But I’ve got a small deal in the works. Once my Tower Node has eradicated every other Tower Node, I will turn its power onto itself. That’s all it can do, by the way. Just destroy other Tower Nodes. It can’t affect anyone or anything else, or perform any other action. Do you have an identification ability?”

  Ray frowned. Oh, so that was his proposition. While Ray couldn’t use Primordial—no, it was Eternal Pulse now—on other competitors because of that Amulet of Blindness, that wasn’t true for Mana-interacting items no longer under their direct influence.

  So, he used Eternal Pulse, focusing on the floating black Tower Node.

  [Eternal Pulse—Tower Node]

  Tower Node of the Culler

  The power of pure eradication and destruction might seem an antithesis to all that life and creation stands for. Yet, it is a necessary component. Nothing can be created when the space is already occupied. As such, the ability to cull the world to a blank canvas is fundamental to its proper functioning.

  “And if you don’t believe even now,” Pierce said, his eyes recognizing that Ray had just used his identification ability. “Then watch.”

  Ray did so, a little fascinated, as the black Tower Node proceeded to destroy the one he had just surrendered. All the little dark cubes pulled away from their original positions, quickly covering and pulling in the Fleshcrafter Tower Node. Within seconds, the entire transparent crystal with the chunk of flesh inside it was consumed, covered entirely by the black cubes.

  “It’s like a crystal anaconda,” Ray said, still morbidly fascinated. “Just gobbling it up whole. And it’s now digesting the Tower Node it just ate, isn’t it?”

  Pierce shrugged. “You could say that. Point is, your Tower Node is now gone. Well, one of them, at least. You can surrender the rest now that you trust me, right?”

  The rest…. well, the rest that Ray was intent on giving up, sure. He focused and called up the other Tower Node of the Fleshcrafter, letting it hover away from him. Pierce frowned a little, probably weirded out that Ray possessed multiple nodes from the same Paragon, but he said nothing as his Tower Node of the Culler destroyed the second one too.

  A part of Ray wondered if Paragons could sense when their Tower Nodes were eradicated. Could the Fleshcrafter tell that his influence was being obliterated entirely?

  “And the rest?” Pierce asked.

  Ray tensed. The sense of danger that had faded after the battle was now roaring back. “That’s it from me. So, now that we’re done—”

  “That’s how you’re going to be, huh?”

  Without waiting for any further replies, Pierce threw a spear at Ray. His reaction was quick. A cast of Resurrect Recollect brought up the Impenetrable Shell before him. While the spear managed to penetrate through the construct, it was still halted before it could hit its main target.

  “That’s how you treat someone who cooperates with you?” Ray asked, retreating back as he cast more spells to summon more constructs.

  “That’s how I treat liars,” Pierce spat.

  Ray growled, then fired two of his constructs. Pierce just disappeared, reappearing right where his first spear was buried in the Impenetrable Shell before pulling it out and starting his counterattacks.

  Spectral lances appeared overhead, shooting in Ray’s direction like missiles fired from cannons. Ray dodged them, but they were not making things easy. The ground exploded wherever the ghostly spears struck, sending rocks shooting everywhere with bullet-fast speed.

  Dodging was proving way too difficult, so instead, Ray used Temporal Passage. As soon as he reappeared, he fired off the draconic maw around his hand.

  Pierce twisted around with incredible speed, even faster than he had done before. Was this new form stronger, or possessed a different stat distribution? Ray didn’t have an easy way of telling. Whatever the case, as with his red sword, Pierce smashed aside the flaming breath with his glowing spear.

  Marcus: We’re ready. Are you fighting? Did you take care of the sparkles?

  While the sudden message was welcome, it still came at a time when Ray was trying hard not to get himself killed. He had to focus on evading before he got a chance to reply.

  Ray: I’m trying not to die, yes. And yeah, the constant fighting removed most of it.

  Marcus: Well, just don’t stop fighting even as you teleport, got it? And only teleport when I say NOW.

  That was a weird request. Ray no choice but to comply, though. A storm of spear strikes flashed in at Ray, Pierce now pushing him onto the backfoot, but thankfully, he had experience that helped him. That crimson Everstead spear-wielder he had fought on the Second Floor had been just as much of a menace.

  Ray: Any time now…

  Marcus: Wait for it…

  Ray dodged more spear rains, as well as countering a gleaming magenta laser from a spear with a Windbane fire breath.

  Ray: Kinda running out—

  Marcus: Just make sure you’re ready to fight.

  Ray: What the hell are you guys doing?

  Marcus: NOW.

  Ray cursed. “See you!” he shouted at Pierce.

  He disappeared with a Temporal Passage. When he reappeared, he was inside the purple haze, right next to his flying eyeball construct. There was a lot going on in there, but all Ray was aware of was a huge stony monster before him.

  Not, not a monster. The Galiant member of Team Albatross.

  The draconic maw around Ray’s hand was brimming with compressed flames. He wasted no time thrusting his hand out and shooting the Galiant. With a cry, the alien fell back, the compressed blue fire gouging out a massive, flaming rent in its body.

  And then Ray fell. The purple haze suffocated him, shocking his body like hundreds of volts of pure electric current.

  “Use your mimic,” Gritty shouted. She looked weird, though it was hard to tell because the pain was making his eyes water.

  “W—what?” Ray could barely get the words out.

  “Use your mimic and turn yourself into stone. That’s how we got past the barrier. You can do it, wingman. You need to.”

  Stone…

  Ray inhaled a shuddering breath and summoned his Imitator construct with Resurrect Recollect.