The Earth After Rebirth

"This village, just how far away is it." Aeron complained, they'd been walking for hours already.

The farther they walked away from the capital, the mistier their surroundings got. It didn't seem like a naturally occurring mist but rather something the mysterious tower came with.

"It's about the journey not the destination, cheer up." Viktor tried to cheer him up.

"Is it really?" Kiro questioned, not expecting an answer.

They couldn't see that far but the village soon came into view. Nobody was at the gates to ensure everyone who entered wasn't a thief.

That was strange because villages around Asgard were quite strict about this. Every village had its own little militia to deal with destructive players who didn't like following the rules—but here they were entering without proving their purpose of visitation.

As they entered the gates the entire place felt lifeless, devoid of anyone roaming the streets and they didn't need to look hard to notice the giant structure that was erected at the heart of the village.

It seemed to be beckoning, daring them to go inside of it. Kiro, more than once had to yank the two away from its temptations.

Entering with little to no knowledge would not be smart on their part. His mental fortitude was still as strong as ever—not once was he enticed to do what he didn't want.

"What the hell are we doing? Let's just enter and get it over with." Viktor was already drunk with power, he wanted to experience the buff again.

"I think it'd be better to find someone to talk to first, we know nothing." Kiro tried to silence him.

"Why are you the leader anyway? I'm older I should be."

"I don't know, I just always am."

They walked around a house and noticed a man pressing his face onto the window. Looking at them with curious and hopeful eyes.

"Help us!" He croaked.

"What exactly happened here? Your—our King sent us to help." Kiro explained to gain a bit of trust from the dishevelled man.

He looked to be young, but aged a lot due to stress and lack of food and water. He had dark circles under his eyes due to sleep deprivation. The man was clearly at the end of his rope.

"Praise the gods, praise our king!" His excitement caused him to enter a fits of coughs and then collapsed.

The three were very surprised by his sudden show of vitality. Instead of using his last breath to give them information, he instead died praising the gods and his king.

"Well, that was productive." Viktor joked.

Kiro groaned, this wasn't at all part of his plan. He'd hoped they could finish this sooner, but now they had to look for yet another person and hope they could divulge something useful.

He much rather spend his time investigating Asgard, although if he was honest with himself, he had no idea where and how to start.

They walked around for a while, but there were no curious faces on the windows of the many houses that looked abandoned but closed shut. That's also when Viktor yelled at the top of lungs.

"We're here to help, show yourselves!"

The two stood back, watching the windows for any movements. It took a while but there was finally something peeking out at one of the windows, when they moved closer the person backed away, like they were scared.

"Please don't shutter the window!" Their voice was muffled but it could be heard through the concrete wall.

"Just tell us what happened, we're here to help."

"It's the damned tower, it's killing us. We can't go out there, everyone who tries has died." He sounded panicked.

"Then why aren't we dying?" Aeron asked skeptical.

"I don't know, maybe because you can use mana? That's what the chief told us before sending our militia to the tower, but they–they never came back." He said, at the verge of having a complete mental breakdown.

"We haven't eaten or drank anything in about a month. This thing appeared out of nowhere—we thought it was good at first—then the mist came. Then our death toll skyrocketed, we didn't know what was causing it until someone pointed it out."

Kiro picked his brain but there was nothing about towers in his memories.

'So much for being an omniscient being from the past who knows the future?' He thought arrogantly calling himself a being of the higher plane.

"So people can enter the tower? Is there anything you'd like to add, something useful?" He asked the man, Viktor nudged him for being insensitive.

"I don't know anything."

"You've angered no one? There are many villages in Asgard, why was yours chosen?"

The man began to weep silently. He never uttered a single word again no matter how much they tried, they even threatened to break down his door—which did nothing but make him slump on the nearby chair already accepting his fate.

"I suppose we won't get anything from anyone here. That was a waste of time, I should've—"

"Listened to me? I know." Viktor finished the sentence for him.

Letting him have his moment, they walked towards the tower. There was only one door, the top of the tower was unseen from the ground.

It was completely windowless. Kiro touched the obsidian marble stone, it was burning hot. He could feel that the tower was a living and breathing organism. The anger it permeated was incredibly weakening to those close enough to it.

Kiro was scared for Viktor because the guy was a hothead, someone like him in the tower, he wasn't sure that was a good idea. He was less worried about Aeron, he was a guardian after all.

"Viktor, don't touch. This tower seems to be angry at something, but our job is to save the village no matter what."

They both nodded, serious expressions on their faces. When they didn't ask questions, Kiro put his hand on the door handle, slowly twisting it.

It went all the way, until a click was heard.

The inside was more surprising, they looked at each other confused.

"Isn't this just a whole other world?"