The Tower of Emnu

Lisa Klein shivered in the cold, too tired, exhausted and afraid to get up. Her fingers clenched around a square object the size of an orange as she listened with held breath for any noise.

For any indication that she wasn't alone.

She knew this was another one of the cultivators tricks. It had to be. He would come for her again, he would kill her too. Just like he had killed anyone else.

She had not seen it, but she had heard it.

At first she had been so elated, so hopeful when she heard voices, someone answering her!

A woman’s voice had called out. "Over here."

And Lisa had shouted for help again.

Then she had heard footsteps in the snow and a deep voice had called out to her:

"Miss? Where is the Cultivator?"

"I don't know." she had answered truthfully, but then everything had went wrong.

A shout from a woman, and then another man.

"He is in the trees!"

Lisa had cursed her Lesser Perception as she was forced to hear everything. Smell everything.

There had been a crash and shouts and she had smelled singed hair and blood. The fight had sounded gruesome and the cries of despair had frozen her heart to the core.

She had cried and despaired as she heard one voice after another die. Heard the spluttering and cries of pain and then at the end a meaty crunching sound.

Over and over.

The silence afterwards had been deafening and then the laughter.

Lisa had never heard anything worse. Anything more insane or depraved. It was the laughter she imagined the Joker would have in real life. A mad, elated cackle.

But even that had stopped and she had heard the Cultivator work, heard him mutter and curse.

She had no idea what he was doing, but it scared her to death.

So she had been ready to die when she heard his steps close in on her. She had pissed herself in her terror and then she felt her bindings snap and come loose. Her limbs were stiff and she had fallen face first into the snow.

But she had not moved. Had not dared, was too terrified to even move an inch.

His words had been no comfort, but still they burned themselves into her mind. His voice was so soft, but cold and dispassionate too. It was the voice of the devil himself.

Lisa was sure the cube in her hand was another trap, that it would kill her, or kill others.

But the ground was cold, icy cold and she could not stay like this forever. Eventually Lisa sat up and with shivering fingers she pushed the blindfold off her eyes.

She blinked into the sudden light and looked down at the cube in her hand.

She braced herself to die, but nothing happened.

The cube was actually not a cube, but an even sided pyramid and she recognized it for what it was.

A mana stone.

She gasped and gaped at it for a long minute, before she straightened and looked around.

The clearing was silent and still and yet it stank of blood. She looked to her right and saw a corpse.

It could not be anything but a corpse. A man was lying on his back in the snow that looked churned like a whole army had trampled over the spot. He looked almost unharmed if not for his head.

The head was a bloody mass, the mans face gone.

Lisa looked away, keeled over and emptied the remaining contents of her stomach into the snow.

She had never seen a corpse before, especially not one so brutally mutilated.

Lisa cried to herself, while she clung to the tree she had been tied to. She cried because this world was not fair.

Just like her old world. Why did bad things always happen to her?

Why did she deserve this?

And yet, a part of her mind told her, that she was still alive. That it could be worse.

Eventually after minutes of shivering and crying Lisa straightened and forced herself to look at the dead.

A few meters from the man with the bashed in head was another corpse, clearly male. His eyes looked empty into the sky, his throat and chest a bloody mess. The mans armor punctured and torn, the blood still flowing.

It was a grotesque sight, not just because of the injuries, but because for some inexplicable reason the man was naked from the waist down.

He did not even wear shoes and Lisa retched as she stared at the mans indecency for a moment, before she looked away. She stumbled away from her tree and looked for survivors, even though she knew, she would not find any.

He had killed them all.

The third corpse she spotted was twisted and bloody. The dark brown and green leather clothes torn to shreds, but it had been a woman. Her neck was twisted the wrong way and her left side was stained dark with blood.

A single eye looked at Lisa, while the other socket had a spike of ice embedded into it.

Queasy Lisa looked away, closed her eyes and breathed deeply, before she continued.

Something in her forced her to see it, to witness what the Cultivator had done.

To never forget that she was not safe in this world, or any.

The next corpse was a man again, this one was entirely stark naked and the only indication that he was dead, was the blood in the mans shortly trimmed red beard and the hole underneath his chin. Blood had pooled around the mans head and in the snow it looked for a moment like a crimson halo.

Lisa turned away from the dead man's wide green eyes and looked at the last corpse.

The woman was lying still a few feet away behind a tree. She looked to Lisa’s surprise uninjured, although her blouse and cloak were stained crimson around her neck.

Lisa walked over, her boots crossing a patch of cleared snow that smelled like brimstone.

She stared at the woman. She was so pale, her eyes closed, her breath even.

Her breath.…

She was still alive!

Lisa almost jumped towards the woman, knelt down and opened the woman’s blouse and cloak to look for any injuries. She could bandage some, right? She could use some of the woman’s cloak in a pinch.

She had learned how to bandage people, the only upside to living most of your life in the hospital was that doctors and nurses were not shy in teaching you stuff if you were bored and interested enough to ask.

But Lisa could find no injuries, only the woman’s throat seemed...discolored?

There was a patch of even whiter skin than the rest of the woman’s throat and she stared at it in curiosity, when the woman opened her eyes.

Lisa gasped and backed off, while the woman blinked and coughed, before she slowly sat up.

"Who....are you?" the woman asked with a raspy voice and visibly trouble speaking.

"My name is Lisa, I am a new aspirant. I am a [Ranger]. I found you here, oh god I am so glad you are still alive!" she babbled forth in rapid succession, before she closed her mouth and fell silent.

"I...I think he is gone."

The woman frowned and groaned as she held her head, she looked around and finally put a hand on her throat.

Suddenly her eyes widened and she gaped, her fingers cradling the white line on her throat desperately. She started to hyperventilate, her eyes wide in abject panic, her fingers tight around her own throat.

Lisa did not know why, but she reached out to the terrified woman and shhed her softly. When the woman did not pull back, she hugged her gently. It was not the first time she had talked down someone from a panic attack.

Its was still funny to her how desperate people get when they realize someone is in surgery and there was nothing you could do to help your loved one.

She understood their fear of course, but compared to actually being on the operating table, just standing by and doing nothing had never felt right to panic about.

In Lisa’s case, it never had even come around to that though. Operations usually were only done with good odds. And good odds had never been something Lisa had been blessed with. She would have taken any surgery if there had been any chance at all.

But there never had been.

And equally trying to calm this woman would not help.

It was like putting a band aid on a gaping flesh wound. It was a nice gesture but ultimately pointless. But it was the right thing to do nonetheless. After the abduction, the dead and mutilated corpses. After feeling helpless and scared for so long without being able to do anything. Soothing this woman was was something she could do, something that may help someone in an even worse situation than her own.

No matter how insignificant it was in the end.

"Shhh, its okay, you are okay. You are not injured. You are safe." she whispered to the panicking woman in her arms.

Lisa knew it was all lies, that the Cultivator could be watching them, waiting for them and the thought of that made her shiver and nervously she scanned the surrounding forest as if her thoughts could summon him.

But what else could she tell the woman, but those lies?

It was the best she could do.

Slowly the woman calmed down, she shuddered and then asked with a hoarse voice.

"Where is Thorgen?"

Lisa opened her mouth and the woman pushed her back. She looked around wildly and a pained shout escaped the woman’s throat when she spotted the closest corpse.

"THORGEN!"

The mage scrambled towards the naked corpse, but her legs gave out and she fell into the snow face first. Undeterred she started crawling towards the dead man.

"No...no, no, no....Thorgen." she cried out, her hands reaching out towards the mans still form, but she did not have the strength to even move two feet, while she stared at the dead man in despair.

Lisa gently pulled her back into a hug and said softly.

"I...am sorry. But they are all dead."

The woman shook in Lisa’s arms, so desperate, so full of pain, before she started crying. Lisa had no idea what she was doing, but she could not help herself, she was glad that the woman was still alive. Glad she had something to cling to in the cold. Something alive and good, not cold and dead.

For a few long minutes they both just sat there, the mage crying her heart out, while Lisa just sat in the snow, holding her.

Then the woman slowly calmed down and looked at Lisa.

"You...you were the hostage."

Lisa nodded sadly.

"He told me he was fleeing and that I only had to shout for help. He...he used me as bait. To lure you here."

The mages face went slack and her tear filled eyes turned cold.

"One day I will find him and I will burn his heart out." the woman said slowly, deliberately and then she stood up. Visibly forcing herself, as she swayed on unsteady feet.

Lisa had to help her, as she was still very weak. But once the woman was on her feet she walked over to the corpse of the naked dead man with the crimson hair.

Carefully the mage knelt down next to the man. With a slow touch she reached out to caress the mans stubbly chin, before she bowed over the corpse and pressed a soft kiss on the mans face. Then she straightened and closed with shivering fingers the mans eyes.

The mage turned back to Lisa, who had stopped a few feet away.

"Thank you for...for being there." she said and then pointed her hand towards the sky.

A glowing red spark flew out of her palm and exploded like firework above their heads.

"Emergency signal." the woman explained and Lisa could see the strain in her face, the raw emotions warring within her, before the woman caught her balance again and said:

"My name is Melissa, I am an ice and fire mage, what did you say your name was?"

"Lisa... I am a [Ranger], but I am still new to all of this."

Melissa nodded and then they could hear shouts in the distance.

The mage took a deep shuddering breath and looked Lisa in the eyes.

"Listen to me, Lisa, whatever happens, I am in your debt and I will pay it back one day."

Lisa raised her hands, waving them desperately.

"No, no, I did not do anything. You are not in any debt. I...I couldn't do anything.

Nothing."

Melissa shook her head.

"It was our arrogance that caused this. If we had fought together, if we had been faster, more coordinated..." she paused and balled her fists. "We could have killed him. You had no fault and you were there for me.

That is enough."

She turned around abruptly, looking for something at her belt and finding nothing.

The woman cursed quietly and then faced the direction the shouts were coming from.

"Over here!" she shouted, before she said quieter.

"They will have a lot of questions, but you did not do anything wrong, okay, Lisa?"

Lisa nodded and waited next to the Mage until a group of armed men and women carefully came over to them through the snow.

Then there was a second group and soon she was surrounded by people again. That did make Lisa feel better, but it did not make her feel safe.

Nothing would ever make her feel safe again.