Tower of God: Sequence Strength

Huff! Huff! Huff!

Bam ran up the stairs, his legs carrying him as fast as they could.

Faster! I need to go faster!

His brown eyes stared at the back of Yura Ha and her accomplices, Daniel Hathchid and a girl with wings he didn't know the name of.

6 baangs of shinsu appeared in the air, shredding through the metallic shinsu, moving and changing positioning mid air as if they were alive.

Daniel, the yellow haired man grinned with a malicious satisfaction.

"You! You gave the shinsu a soul!" He laughed maniacally.

Daniel dropped down, his arms held in front of him, ready to challenge.

"Come on then!"

Bam grit his teeth, reeling back his arm and throwing a punch as hard as he could!

Wham!

Whooosh!

Boom!

The stairs crumbled under the force of his punch, destroying a large portion of them. Daniel grinned as he felt the weight behind the attack, his arms caving towards his chest just slightly.

"Not bad! You're getting stronger!" He yelled, throwing a kick at Bam's head, promptly followed by an attempted elbow strike.

Both of which, unfortunately, were blocked by Bam, who turned his hands and slammed them forward!

"Floral Butterfly, Piercing Technique!" He yelled, his hand stopping just before the man's chest.

Shinsu exploded.

A wave of ripples tore through his body as Daniel was flung back into the wall, creating a giant crater.

He groaned in pain.

"Damn.." Daniel cursed under his breath. His eyes suddenly took on a dangerous glint, but then they receded.

"Let's go! We must get to the top!" He suddenly yelled to the woman who only nodded in response.

Without pleasantries, they began to run again.

Bam quickly followed, not willing to let then get away again.

The light at the top approached rapidly, and soon, they all stepped atop the platform!

Silence reigned for a moment, before Bam's eyes went wide in shock.

His eyes drilled at the figure on the other side of the station.

A young woman with yellow hair and freckles-

"Rachel?" He muttered.

-and standing over her was his friend with a knife in his hand, ready to plunge it into her chest.

"Rachel!" Bam yelled, as if on instinct.

...

...

Boom!

The ground under him crumbled as if he was crushed with a large pressure. Red shinsu darted around the area, keeping him under.

Bam grit his teeth, his eyes turning up to see the one that had him in this position.

It was a man with red hair and striking red eyes.

He smiled mockingly.

"So you're the Slayer Candidate. Jue Viole Grace..."

~~~

~~~

The situation atop the platform hadn't been great.

Rachel's team which consisted of unknown members moved by FUG was troublesome by themselves.

But there was also another man, one with red hair, Theolis Clear, a regular that had been getting increasingly popular lately as one of the strongest talents in the tower to have come in centuries.

His reputation wasn't unfounded. Being a D rank regular, he was able to contend with even those in B rank, a feat rarely heard of before.

And so, Khun and Co were in a bit of a stalemate.

His own team consisted of himself, Wangnan, Prince, Miseng, Yihwa, Amon and finally, the strongest of their current team, Zarhan.

Amon and Zarhan had decided to come along at the last moment, saving them from being overwhelmed in this fight.

"Come on! Come on!" Theolis yelled with glee as he clashed with Zarhan.

Both commanded a strange red shinsu, Zarhan's taking the form of a spear while Theolis' was mostly still formless.

Zarhan stabbed at Theolis, his spear blurring in strange patterns, ripping apart the shinsu barrier he held around him, all while Theolis commanded 7 baangs of shinsh to attack from all sides!

The metal below them cracked and split apart, turning the area into a ruined battlefield.

On the side, Amon and Yihwa held off an unknown regular which battled with a particularly thick needle. He too was laughing maniacally, as if he found a sick pleasure in battle.

At the same time, Wangnan, Miseng and Prince held off Cassano, who had become the true Devil after taking possession of Horyang's soul.

And finally, there was Khun himself, preoccupied in a short spar against Rachel.

It was quite literally a spar. Calling it anything more than that would be a vast overestimation of Rachel's capabilities and a vast underestimation of Khun's.

In fact, even calling it that was an insult.

Rachel was getting thoroughly crushed, both in spirit and in body.

"You've always been like this Rachel." Khun taunted with a mocking chuckle. "Always so useless and weak. Too weak to have your own legs carry you. And so you latch onto other people like a leech."

Rachel glitter her teeth, mobilizing her lighthouses to trap Khun into a reverse flow control prison.

Yet, as soon as the barrier was put up, it crumbled, all 3 lighthouses overwhelmed by information from Khun's single lighthouse.

"You see? You don't deserve to go up." Khun walked ahead with measured steps, fending off any more attacks Rachel tried to do.

Her light house expanded, turning into a large cube and crushed down onto Khun.

And yet again, it was foiled. The lighthouse split apart into 4 clean pieces, cut by a thin knife made of ice shinsu in Khun's hand.

Rachel's eyes widened.

"Shinsu?" Her lips quivered. How could he use shinsu?

"You are a speck on this world, Rachel. You want to see the stars. What makes you think the stars want anything to do with you? Would they really permit someone as twisted and useless as you to behold them?" Khun smiled, still walking forward calmly.

"No... no no no no no! Shut up!" Rachel screamed, mobilizing the lighthouses again in a last effort.

And as expected, it held no effect.

Rachel stared at him with quivering eyes.

"It is my duty to eliminate people like you. Even if Bam wants to chase after you, I won't allow someone like you to lead him astray any longer." The knife in Khun's hand flashed again. He grinned toothily, his eyes shining with a baleful light.

At that moment, Rachel laughed. Her laugh wasn't cheerful or sarcastic or mocking. It seemed... pitiful.

Khun raised an eyebrow.

"Have you finally lost your mind?"

"Puff! Hahaha!" She threw her head up, looking at the sky.

Explosions happened around them from the ongoing fights, yet they paid them no mind.

"You call me vile and twisted. What about you? Khun Aguero Agnis?" Her tone held an edge to it.

"What about your sins!? I haven't done anything wrong! Everything I did was to have my dream come true! Everything I've done doesn't even come close to what you have done!" She spread open her arms.

"Look at yourself! You sold out your own sister for what you wished for! You led your family to shame! How many people have you killed to get to where you are?! Don't speak as if you have a moral high ground! You're no better than I am!"

She yelled out all she wanted to say, or rather, all that she could say.

"Are you done?"

Rachel flinched, hearing Khun's tone.

He stood over her, his eyes dark and his face clouded with shadow.

"I don't care what you think or how you rationalize yourself. I am here to teach you the consequences of your actions. If you have the power, you can do the same to me... do you?"

Rachel stayed quiet, her feet inching backwards.

Taking her silence as her answer, Khun raised the ice knife into the air, poised to strike. And at that moment, he heard someone yell.

"Rachel!" And his hand twitched, and stopped.

He saw Rachel who was within striking distance slowly blossomed with a smile, a smile that seemed to mock him. He could not describe how truly ugly it was. It felt as if the creator had poured all of the ugliness in the world into this single smile that she seemed to project on him.

She had won. The smile held that clear meaning.

She would live to see another day, and it was not Khun's time to finish her yet.

His eyes turned to where he had heard the voice, sensing Rachel rapidly back off.

And as his eyes met Bam's, something fell atop him.

It was a large pillar of red, crushing him under!

Boom!

"Bam!" Khun yelled, eyes widening in alarm.

Unconsciously, he began running towards his friend.

A man appeared before the red pillar, chuckling mockingly at the figure held underneath.

"So you're the Slayer Candidate... Jue Viole Grace..."

Not another second later, another figure landed beside him, holding a red spear in both hands.

Booom!

Booom!

Shaaaa!

The red pillar crumbled in an instant. Zarhan stabbed with the spear, forcing Theolis to dodge.

The spear shone with a red light, tearing through the land and leaving a 40 meter long gash in the ground!

"Where do ya think yer going?!" Zarhan spoke, his expression one of extreme annoyance.

Theolis stood calmly, his hands held behind his back.

"What's the issue? I was only saying hello to the little Slayer Candidate. Is that so bad?"

At that moment, he tilted his body to the right, narrowly escaping the downward trajectory of a knife held in Khun's hand. Or so it seemed at first.

Watching the knife skim past him, Khun's grip changed, instantly shifting to the left that stabbing at his throat!

Theolis smiled, moving out of the way. But at the last second, his movements turned sluggish!

Triple flow control!

Theolis stopped, the knife grazing his neck and stabbing itself in!

At the same time, a spear pierced his chest!

"Kuh!" He couldn't help but groan.

And then-

BOOOOOM!

A wave of shinsu expanded from his figure, pushing everyone back a distance of 50 meters!

In the dome of red, he dislodged the knife from his neck, immediately covering the wound with shinsu and did the same with the spear.

Slowly, his tissues mended back together, enough to keep going for the time being.

He rubbed his now shinsu hybrid neck.

"Damn. Normal weapons can't even scrape my skin, yet that knife managed to slide right in." He cursed.

Maybe it really is a mistake messing with the Silent Leviathan's friends. They're all increasingly strange and powerful. He added in his heart.

At that moment, he felt a wave of danger wash over his bones. He trembled, instinctually.

His eyes were drawn towards the slayer candidate he had thrashed.

There, upon his back was a large needle.

Theolis' eyes widened.

"Time to dip." He muttered silently.

~~~

A/N: This was a satisfying chapter to write. Though, in the end, Rachel also isn't totally misplaced in what she says.

Throw some stones.

Cheers~