The Book of Cosmi

Chapter 12: The Tower

| Xander |

In a flash of light we had arrived at the place that I assumed was the realm of Cosmic and Cosmos. I knew the Omniverse existed and was a vastly unknown place because it's just impossible to travel it all in your lifetime, but being in this realm that supposedly contained the two sole creators of the entire, nearly infinite Omniverse. At any rate, knowing what Ose just did to me by "blocking" my fist with her eyes, makes me wonder how powerful this Cosmic and Cosmos must be, and it's not like I can fight back or escape from them... Ose can put me down alone. No turning back now. I looked around before I heard Ose's gentle voice speak out once more.

"𝑷𝒊𝒄𝒌 𝒖𝒑 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝒅𝒓𝒂𝒈𝒐𝒏 𝒎𝒂𝒏, 𝒘𝒆 𝒈𝒐𝒕 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒈𝒐, 𝑰 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒐𝒓𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒃𝒚 𝑪𝒐𝒔𝒎𝒊𝒄 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑪𝒐𝒔𝒎𝒐𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒓𝒐𝒅𝒖𝒄𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒕𝒐 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑻𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓."

Obviously the first thought that came into my mind was "What is The Tower?" Then I thought to myself, I should probably stop questioning and just embrace it, I'll figure this all out on my own.

After a long distance of walking, nothing I haven't really dealt with before, we finally arrived at this large tower. It was multiple stories tall, much like the local holiday God's Inn near Hestia's mansion. I looked at Ose and squinted at her before speaking out

"𝐘ⱺυ'𝗋𝖾 𝗀ⱺ𐓣𐓣α 𝗍α𝗄𝖾 ꭑ𝖾 𝗂𐓣 ɦ𝖾𝗋𝖾 α𐓣ᑯ 𝗄𝗂ᥣᥣ ꭑ𝖾."

 "𝑻𝒉𝒂𝒕'𝒔 𝒂 𝒇𝒐𝒐𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒉 𝒊𝒏𝒒𝒖𝒊𝒓𝒚, 𝑰'𝒎 𝒕𝒂𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒊𝒏 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈. 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒐𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒓? 𝒀𝒐𝒖'𝒍𝒍 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆 𝒎𝒚 𝒔𝒕𝒖𝒅𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒇𝒊𝒓𝒔𝒕."

Ose walked up to the large doors of the tower and instantly, they opened up without her doing anything. It was almost as if the tower was alive. Weird. We both proceeded into the tower and instantly I felt a change of atmosphere from here compared to the outside, it was grim in here, musty, dark, evil. Don't tell me this lady who looks like she'd live in a fully outfitted marble and golden sculpted planet, lives in this pathetic tower that hasn't been cleaned in what seemed like years. It turned out she did, the moment that thought traced my mind, she immediately spoke out and said...

"𝑾𝒆𝒍𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆, 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑪𝒖𝒓𝒔𝒆𝒅 𝑻𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒇 𝑬𝒎𝒃𝒐𝒅𝒊𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕, 𝒎𝒚 𝒉𝒐𝒎𝒆."

 I grimaced and replied.

"𝐘ⱺυ 𝗋𝖾αᥣᥣ𝗒 ᥣ𝗂𝗏𝖾 ɦ𝖾𝗋𝖾?"

"𝑰𝒕 𝒕𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒔 𝒂 𝒍𝒐𝒕 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌 𝒕𝒐 𝒄𝒐-𝒆𝒙𝒊𝒔𝒕 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝑰 𝒅𝒐."

 I mean sure, the place had an atmosphere that felt like you were about to be stabbed from behind, but it didn't feel anything too out of the ordinary. I mean Ose did explicitly say this tower was a cursed tower, so there was clearly something up with it. I spoke out once more.

"𝐖ɦα𝗍 ᑯⱺ𝖾𝗌 𝗂𝗍 𝗍α𝗄𝖾 𝗍ɦ𝖾𐓣?"

 Once more she replied swiftly, witty, with a hint of that smart aleck element that she seemed to have in all of her sentences,

"𝒀𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒍 𝒅𝒆𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒐𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒆𝒒𝒖𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒄𝒖𝒓𝒔𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓."

"𝐒ⱺ, 𝗒ⱺυ'𝗋𝖾 𝖼υ𝗋𝗌𝖾ᑯ 𝗍ⱺ ᑲ𝖾 ɦ𝖾𝗋𝖾?"

"𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝒅𝒐 𝒂𝒔𝒌 𝒂 𝒍𝒐𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒒𝒖𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔. 𝑩𝒖𝒕 𝒊𝒏 𝒂 𝒔𝒆𝒏𝒔𝒆, 𝒚𝒆𝒔."

"𝐎𝖿 𝖼ⱺυ𝗋𝗌𝖾, ɦⱺω 𝖾ᥣ𝗌𝖾 ω𝗂ᥣᥣ 𝚰 ᥣ𝖾α𝗋𐓣? 𝐒ⱺ 𝗍ɦ𝖾𐓣 ωɦα𝗍'𝗌 ꭑ𝗒 ρυ𝗋ρⱺ𝗌𝖾 𝖿ⱺ𝗋 ᑲ𝖾𝗂𐓣𝗀 ɦ𝖾𝗋𝖾."

"𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒖𝒓𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒆𝒆 𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒅𝒆𝒂𝒍 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒂𝒏𝒊𝒕𝒚, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒖𝒓𝒔𝒆𝒔, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒂𝒕𝒎𝒐𝒔𝒑𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒕𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓. 𝑰𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕, 𝒏𝒐𝒓 𝒊𝒔 𝒊𝒕 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒆𝒂𝒌 𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒅."

Ose suddenly lifted her hand as an onslaught of purple-black cursed spirits suddenly bombarded me. I was not expecting this. At first I was shocked and frozen in place, not knowing how to handle these spirits. They clung onto me and continuously screamed and yelled around. It was more irritable than anything. The spirits continued their chaotic attacks on me. Nuisances they were.. That was until my tattoos lit up a bright blue and all the cursed spirits would be stopped in their tracks, around me the dark depths of the tower would be lit up with a red steamy flame as my power accumulated at a high rate. I gritted my teeth and then yelled aloud.

" 𝐆αƶ𝖾 υρⱺ𐓣 𝐃𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐇!"

A shockwave surfaced throughout the entire tower, and evaporated all the cursed spirits. I saw Ose sitting back and squinting, analyzing how I handled the conflict. She nodded and then spoke.

"𝑾𝒆𝒍𝒍, 𝒐𝒃𝒋𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒍𝒚, 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒍𝒆𝒅 𝒊𝒕 𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒆, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒘𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒂 𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒕𝒍𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒍𝒆 𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒐 𝒈𝒐, 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒘𝒐𝒏'𝒕 𝒃𝒆 𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒅𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒊𝒔 𝒂 𝒈𝒐𝒐𝒅 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒕. 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆𝒏'𝒕 𝒈𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒂𝒏𝒆 𝒚𝒆𝒕 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒓𝒂𝒘 𝒂𝒕𝒎𝒐𝒔𝒑𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓 𝒊𝒕𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒇, 𝒔𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒂 𝒍𝒐𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒑𝒐𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒂𝒍. 𝑰'𝒎 𝒊𝒎𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒆𝒅, 𝑫𝒓𝒂𝒈𝒐𝒏 𝑲𝒊𝒏𝒈."

And from there... I would begin my treacherous journey and training under Ose, this would soon form who I, Xander, would become for the rest of my life.