War Beyond the Obelisk

Chapter 3: Genesis I

Once a mission was declared complete, its participants were naturally returned to Paradise.

The reason they had remained trapped in the zombie world was equally simple: one zombie was still alive. The moment it died, the scenario would end.

As the system’s voice faded, pure white light flooded Yu Feichen’s vision.

The world dissolved, then solidified again.

Voices collided with his ears from somewhere nearby.

“Just got back from an outside world? How did it go?”

“We nearly wiped. By the gods, that place was practically the end of the world.”

“Few people ever see what the end of a world looks like.”

“Who cares whether it really was? I made it back. As long as I can still see the center of the world, that’s enough for me.”

Triumphant laughter erupted.

Even a clown in a scarlet cape whistled from the roadside. He tossed red-and-blue balls toward the golden sky and shrieked with laughter.

“The center of the world—is a tower!”

Yu Feichen started forward, intending to pass the celebrating crowd. A streak of meteorlike light flashed beside him.

A moment later, a figure with a brilliantly reflective head appeared.

The captain.

Soon, the rest of the team materialized as well, in every imaginable height, width, and shape.

“Come say hello to Brother Yu,” the captain called.

Then he looked ahead. His voice was calm but exhausted, almost a sigh.

“The Tower of Genesis. We’re finally back.”

As though moved by the same instinct, everyone raised their heads.

Before them spread a pale-gold sky, its radiance pouring downward. Vast coils of white cloud gathered into a colossal vortex, and from the vortex’s center descended a snow-white tower.

It was an obelisk.

Grand. Solemn. Almost brutally plain.

Four sharp edges climbed toward the heavens, drawing closer and closer until they converged somewhere beyond sight into a single point—a sword thrust straight into the sky.

The Tower of Genesis.

The center of the world.

It was too immense and too tall for any mortal gaze to contain.

The tower stood upon the boundless Sunset Plaza as though rising from an endless glacier. Yet no glacier, however pure, could compare with the crystalline brilliance beneath their feet.

The plaza had been paved with radiant-ice stone from the Eastern Continent, which was why it was also called Radiant-Ice Plaza. No seams could be seen between the stones. Their glasslike surface reflected the sky, the clouds, and the sacred tower, casting faint rainbows along every edge.

In ancient times, the stones had supposedly been treasures beyond price, reserved for adorning royal tombs.

Golden spheres floated through the air, each woven from intricate runes. Whenever travelers passed, the spheres called out in cheerful voices.

“Avatar presets for sale! What style would you like?”

“Grandtree Inn—discount rooms today! Feel at home, even worlds away!”

“First time in Paradise? Need a guide? A translation orb?”

“Resurrection Day wish plaques, handmade by High Priest Iscadira! One for you, or perhaps two?”

Noise was everywhere. People streamed across the plaza while falling stars flashed overhead. Some figures appeared; others vanished.

A flower girl pushed a sunset-colored bouquet into one teammate’s arms.

“It’s good to be back,” the captain said. “That was rough. Drinks are on me at Sunset Street. Brother Yu, come with us.”

No one answered.

The captain looked around.

“Where did Brother Yu go?”

Far ahead, a slender figure in black was already walking away.

“Brother Yu! Brother Yu!”

Someone tugged the captain’s sleeve. He stopped admiring the tower and called, “Wait for us!”

Yu Feichen turned.

Soft light fell from the golden horizon and rose again from the radiant plaza, lending his silhouette an unreal quality.

“Your avatar is very handsome.”

A silver-haired boy in white robes stepped from the group. He smiled gently, his eyes curving with warmth.

“You saved my life. I wanted to thank you.”

Yu Feichen stared at the unfamiliar face.

For several seconds, his mind was blank.

Then he vaguely remembered that this was probably a team member named Xia Sen.

In the zombie world, Xia Sen had been a nearly defenseless medical officer. Everyone had been covered in blood and dust, with no time to notice appearances.

Besides, people could look entirely different from one world to another. Back in Paradise, they could alter their bodies and faces at will. They called it “sculpting an avatar.”

After being stared at for too long, Xia Sen blinked.

A small glimmer caught the light.

Only then did Yu Feichen notice the dark-red beauty mark beneath the corner of Xia Sen’s right eye. Its color was strangely vivid, like a drop of blood that had hardened in place.

Yu Feichen had mild difficulty recognizing faces. He could distinguish beauty from ugliness, but remembering a face required effort, and he rarely cared enough to make it.

He usually identified people by their hair, eyes, voices, or a defining feature—such as the captain’s bald head.

The dark-red mark flashed again.

I’ve seen that color somewhere, he thought.

“Brother Yu?” Xia Sen asked. “Will you come to the tavern with us?”

The thought slipped away before he could catch it.

Yu Feichen looked away from the mark.

“No.”

His voice held no emotion.

“I’m leaving.”

He turned toward the Tower of Genesis.

“Wait!” Xia Sen called. “Are you upset?”

“No.”

Yu Feichen glanced back. His black irises reflected so little light that his eyes looked cold and inhuman. One careless glance from them was enough to raise a chill.

“I’m going to the Gate of Eternal Night.”

The plaza around them went abruptly quiet.

The team stared at him as though he had announced his intention to walk into a furnace filled with knives. They had known one another only briefly, yet somehow produced the atmosphere of a final farewell.

After a long pause, the captain asked, “Is your rank high enough?”

“I just advanced.”

“You—sir—you…” The captain stumbled over his words. “Don’t do anything reckless.”

Yu Feichen looked at him, apparently unable to understand the concern.

“Goodbye.”

He walked away.

Behind him, someone whispered, “That was probably the last time we’ll ever see him.”

Yu Feichen knew why they said it.

Everyone in Paradise knew that the Gate of Eternal Night was lethally dangerous. Those who entered did not return.

Only two kinds of people went there: fanatics and those with nothing left to lose.

Yu Feichen entered the Tower of Genesis.

The tower was a vast white structure whose upper reaches disappeared into golden sigils and dense clouds.

Resurrection Day, which came once each era, was approaching. More teams than usual were venturing into outside worlds, and the tower was busier than ever. Its first floor was even more crowded than Radiant-Ice Plaza.

People of countless races, appearances, and fashions flowed around Yu Feichen. Some crossed the floor, while others climbed the broad spiral staircase built along the inner wall.

Thousands of cedar doors decorated with gold lined the tower. Travelers passed through them without pause.

Every activity involving law or contracts took place on this floor.

At its center stood a colossal statue, so tall that its head met the clouds. The god wore garments of an ancient design and possessed a stern, forbidding face. Upon his right palm floated a stone tablet carved with sacred text.

This was Mogrosh, God of Contracts and master of the first floor.

His hall waited at the top of the spiral stairs.

Yu Feichen knew it well.

As he walked, two approaching travelers spoke to each other.

“I just came back from Mogrosh. He invited me to tea, told me how disappointed he was, and said I was causing him great distress.”

“Another complaint?”

“Employers are naturally impossible to please.”

“If they were merely being difficult, Mogrosh wouldn’t say you were causing him distress.”

“Plenty of things can distress Mogrosh.” The speaker laughed. “When I arrived, Mog was reviewing a complaint against Little Yu. You should have seen his face. He looked like someone had come to report that his son had slept with another man’s wife.”

At that exact moment, the two travelers came face-to-face with Yu Feichen.

Six eyes met.

Silence.

The pair grabbed one another and fled through the nearest magical lift.

Yu Feichen entered another.

It was a sealed, translucent cage. A column of symbols along one side corresponded to the tower’s floors, each marked by a different color.

He selected the pitch-black symbol XIII.

Invisible force trembled through the cage. It rose smoothly and with astonishing speed, passing through layer after layer of cloud.

The second floor was equally crowded. That was where missions were accepted.

Aside from the first two floors, Yu Feichen frequently visited only the seventh—the domain of the Goddess of Strength.

Her statue wore a golden gown and rested both hands upon a greatsword. Her eyes were half closed, her expression serene. The flowing locks of her sculpted hair formed roads and bridges, connecting seven carved stone gates set into the tower wall.

Each gate bore a name and corresponded to one of seven levels of danger in the outside worlds.

After selecting a mission on the second floor, a team would travel to the seventh and follow the road assigned to them. The goddess’s power would then open the proper gate.

Rewards were settled in radiant-ice crystals, one of Paradise’s currencies, and could be collected on the third floor.

The Wisdom Goddess remembered every reward earned through completed missions. The total represented a person’s merit.

Payment received for assistance or guidance also counted, provided the contract had been witnessed by Mogrosh—though only one tenth of such payment was converted into merit.

When enough merit accumulated, a person advanced in rank and gained access to more dangerous worlds.

Greater danger meant greater rewards.

Yu Feichen was expensive.

A guaranteed clear cost thirty thousand cubic measures of radiant ice. A “salvage job” cost twice as much—the term referred to worlds where outside assistance was permitted after the original team had ruined the mission and needed someone to clean up the disaster.

His merit rose quickly.

So did his rank.

Once the zombie-world rewards and contract payment had been settled, he qualified for the thirteenth floor.

The Gate of Eternal Night.

It offered no guaranteed reward.

Yet legends about it circulated throughout Paradise.

They claimed that if one entered and survived, one could obtain anything one desired.

Anything at all.

The lift stopped.

Its translucent walls, white when the ascent began, had turned completely black.

The door did not open.

Yu Feichen reached out.

The instant his fingers touched it, everything vanished.

He stood in limitless darkness.

From every direction came a deep male voice.

“Guest, why have you come to the Gate of Eternal Night?”

“Why have you come to the Gate of Eternal Night?”

The echoes repeated in layer after layer before finally fading.

Yu Feichen did not particularly want to answer.

He disliked total darkness.

He disliked excessively loud voices.

Most of all, he disliked answering other people’s questions.

“My merit was sufficient.”

The voice surged several times louder, filled with anger and authority.

“Why have you come to the Gate of Eternal Night?”

Apparently, the superficial answer had been rejected.

Paradise had an old warning: one could not lie before the Gate of Eternal Night.

Yu Feichen lowered his eyes, arranged his words, and began again.

“Because the High God is King of Kings and God of Gods. All lands touched by sunlight are under His—”

“Why have you come to the Gate of Eternal Night?”

The voice interrupted before he could finish.

“The worlds beyond all seven gates belong to the High God.”

“Why have you come to the Gate of Eternal Night?”

“God is everywhere.”

Assistance purchased with radiant ice. Warnings received before entering a world. Physical enhancements carried from Paradise into foreign realms.

Countless gifts of that kind existed.

All were sustained by the High God’s power and collectively called the Grace of God.

They were everywhere, as though the High God stood above them at every moment, watching.

But Yu Feichen was not a believer.

To this day, he had never even seen a statue of the High God.

“Why have you come to the Gate of Eternal Night?”

The voice shook the darkness.

Yu Feichen looked straight ahead.

“Because it belongs to someone else.”

His words were calm, clear, and unwavering.

“And I don’t like that.”