Chapter 498: Finding the Tower of Souls
The group continued flying for more than five hours. The journey was long, but Leon and Emilia found a way to entertain themselves.
Whenever they spotted monsters below, they would fire spells at them.
At first, it was simply something to do during the flight, but eventually, Leon and Emilia turned it into a game.
They continued firing their spells at monsters below as they flew, competing to see who could kill the most.
And eventually, the scenery began to change: a thick mist appeared ahead.
At first, it was only a small amount, but the deeper they flew, the thicker it became until their surroundings were almost completely covered.
Violet slowed down slightly. Something felt wrong. The farther they went into the mist, the stronger the strange feeling became.
Then the pressure appeared. It wasn’t a pressure against their bodies. It was pressing directly against their souls.
Leon immediately noticed it.
The strange force continued growing stronger as they moved deeper into the mist, but Leon remained completely unbothered.
"We’re near," he said calmly.
His soul was simply too strong for the pressure to affect him.
Violet and Emilia were also doing relatively fine because their souls had been upgraded, allowing them to resist the pressure much better than an ordinary person.
Celeste, however, was struggling. She was the only one among them with a normal soul that hadn’t been upgraded.
The pressure was becoming increasingly difficult for her to endure, but she quickly used her [Darkness Ember].
Her flames surrounded her soul, protecting it from the strange pressure and allowing her to continue resisting.
"I’m fine," Celeste said, noticing Emilia’s worried expression.
Leon nodded before looking ahead. They continued deeper into the mist.
Then, before long, the mist finally began to clear.
Violet flew forward, and the group emerged into a massive clearing.
Leon looked ahead. A huge tower stood in the middle of the clearing. It rose above the surrounding area, standing completely alone within the mist.
Leon stared at it with a serious expression. They had finally reached the place they had been searching for.
"Here it is," Leon said, his eyes remained fixed on the enormous tower, "The Tower of Souls."
The Tower of Souls stood in the middle of the massive clearing, surrounded by the thick mist that seemed to avoid its walls.
The tower was enormous, built from dark stone covered in pale blue markings that slowly pulsed with light.
Its upper section disappeared into the clouds, making it impossible to see the top from the ground.
The entire structure gave off an ancient and oppressive feeling. However, there was one thing that immediately caught Leon’s attention.
Very high up on the tower, almost near the point where the structure disappeared into the clouds, there was a massive heart embedded directly into the stone.
It was not beating quickly, nor was it particularly bright, but Leon could clearly see it pulsing.
Thump!
A faint glow spread through the tower.
Thump!
The glow slowly faded before appearing again.
Leon stared at it, ’The Soul Soldier’s soul also looked like a heart, and so did mine.’
His eyes narrowed slightly.
He didn’t know exactly what the connection was yet, but there was no way that something like this would be placed on the Tower of Souls by coincidence.
Leon moved closer to the entrance.
The massive gate blocking the entrance was completely sealed, and in the middle of it was a small slot shaped like a coin.
’Just like in an arcade machine...’
Celeste walked closer and looked at it.
"We need to put something in this to open it!" she said. "What do we do?!"
Leon, however, simply smiled, "After all this time, this thing is finally going to be useful."
He had kept countless items in his inventory for months without knowing whether they would ever have a purpose.
Recently, however, several of those items had started becoming useful.
𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮
There was the [Divine Key], which might have something to do with the mysterious golden door inside the [Divine Journal].
And now, there was this. Leon opened his inventory and quickly found the item he had been looking for.
[Tower of Souls Token (Mythical): Allows the user to enter the "Tower of Souls", no matter what you do, do not do it.]
Leon looked at the description for a moment.
The warning at the end had always been present, he had ignored it before, but now that he was so close to the tower, it indeed felt important.
The Tower of Souls Token was round and dark, with a white heart-shaped mark in its center.
It looked simple enough, but Leon could already tell that this was what the gate required. He extended his arm and placed the token into the slot.
Ding!
A system notification appeared.
[Anyone who dares to enter the Souls of Soul without the means to survive will suffer greatly.]
[Turn around, player.]
The message was straightforward. It was also completely ignored. Leon had no intention of turning around.
Not only did he need to complete the Hunter’s quest, but he also wanted to discover who the [Lord of Souls] actually was.
During his first God-Rank assessment, Leon had encountered ten powerful opponents, and every single one of them had seemingly been killed by this unknown being.
If the [Lord of Souls] was responsible for what had happened to those people, then Leon wanted to meet it.
There was another reason he wanted to enter as well: the rewards inside the Tower of Souls would surely be related to souls.
If he could obtain something capable of strengthening a soul, then Emilia, Celeste, and Violet could potentially become even stronger.
Perhaps Leon himself could also benefit. He pushed the token farther into the slot.
Immediately, the massive doors began to shake.
Rumble!
The sound echoed through the clearing as the enormous gate slowly opened.
Ding!
[If you so wish to enter, players, then do so at your own risk.]
[No resurrection ability or item will save you from the shattering of your soul.]
Leon stared into the darkness beyond the gate. The pressure coming from inside the Tower of Souls was enormous.
And yet, he wasn’t bothered, ’Not like I have a choice.’