Tower of Avarice: A LitRPG story

The conference room was quiet, save for the soft hum of the overhead lights and the low vibration of the air conditioning through the ductwork. Mathew stood by the window; his eyes were still fixed on the city below.

Rain ran in rivulets down the glass, and he couldn't see the sun through the cloud cover overhead. He wondered what his parents were doing now. It had been so long since he had seen them, but he doubted they even knew he had left yet.

He thought he recalled sending them a text message or maybe a voicemail, but his memories from outside the Tower were hazy and vague. It was like trying to remember a dream.

Mathew didn't turn around when Emily entered, but he knew it was her. Her footsteps were light and careful across the carpet as if she were nervous to see him.

Their reunion hadn't gone how he had thought it would, but that was fine. He had entered the Tower for her, to help her, and now he could finally accomplish that goal.

Nothing else mattered to him.

"She's arranged everything. The elevator is on its way." Emily explained. She had just stepped out with the grey-suited young woman to discuss Mathew's transfer to Mischievous Depravity's demesne, and it had taken a few minutes to coordinate.

Emily came to a stop just behind him, and Mathew could see her reflection in the glass. She looked exhausted, and he turned around and took a step toward her. Before she could say anything, his arms wrapped around her. It felt like the most natural thing in the world, and he felt that some piece of him that had been missing had finally returned.

"I never wanted this." She said, her voice low as she placed her head against his chest and leaned into him. Mathew held her a little tighter, his cheek resting lightly against her hair. The hum of the building pressed in from all sides, but it was quiet inside their embrace.

"I know." He whispered softly.

The conference room, with its sterile elegance and harsh lighting, felt impossibly far from the worlds each had explored in the Tower. It was like a relic from their old world before they knew of words like demesne and Apostles.

Glowing lines were slowly appearing on the floor, warming to life in soft pulses that grew brighter in anticipation of the elevator's arrival.

Emily didn't speak for a long time. Her arms were wrapped tightly around him; her fingers curled tightly in the back of his jacket like she was afraid he might disappear before the elevator arrived. She could smell smoke and blood, but deep beneath it all was a scent that she remembered the most.

It was him.

"I lost her, Mathew, on the first Floor. We were barely out of the elevator when we were attacked. I entered to save her life, but I failed from the very beginning. I didn't have time to talk to her, to tell her all the things I wanted to say…" Emily murmured.

Mathew didn't respond immediately. He felt the conflict in her, felt it as if it were his own. Joy at being reunited with him, and possibly her mother, had been laced with grief at their loss. It made him ache, but he didn't blame her. Not at all. He never had, and he never would.

"I'm glad." He said finally, and meant it.

"I'm glad that you'll have that." There wasn't any trace of bitterness in his voice. Instead, he was happy for her.

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She pulled back slightly, just enough to look up at him. Her eyes were red-rimmed but dry for now.

"And what will you have?"

Mathew gave her a faint smile and shook his head softly.

"I'll have a higher purpose and a twisted new name. Apostle to Mischievous Depravity. But I'll be happy knowing that you're out here, safe and sound with your mother. I should have died a thousand times already, Em. I wasn't more deserving of survival than anyone else I met, but I was always the last one standing." Mathew paused and Emily thought he was finished speaking when he suddenly resumed.

"They gave me the title of 'Enduring' because I kept living. And you were the reason I pushed on, Em. I couldn't die without seeing you again, without helping you. This is how I achieve that."

"Mathew…" Her voice broke like glass in her throat.

The elevator chimed behind them with a soft, melodic sound that didn't match the dread and sadness that it brought with it.

"Don't worry about me, Em. Live a long, happy life." Mathew whispered as he brushed a strand of hair from her face. He kissed her then, softly and briefly. There were no promises in it, not vows. It was just a warm memory that they could both carry with them.

Mathew turned as the elevator doors opened with a hiss and stepped into the white light shining from within. He looked back and gave her a smile before the doors closed, and he was gone forever.

Emily stood frozen for a moment before she collapsed to the ground in silence. Her breath hitched, and then she wept alone in the room where they had said goodbye.

Page break

The elevator shuddered as it passed through the barrier that separated Mischievous Depravity's demesne from the main path of the Tower of Avarice. The soft, white light within twisted and dimmed before it returned to its customary brightness.

When the doors slid open, Mathew found himself in a vast, directionless place that wasn't a land in the traditional sense. It was an ever-shifting terrain, a dreamscape that changed from grassland to mountain to sea in a blink of an eye without any pattern.

Shapes moved at the corners of his vision, dissolving when he looked directly at him. The sky was a flat blue, with a black object hanging silently in the heavens above.

Mischievous Depravity's true body.

It hovered in space, vast beyond comprehension, with countless limbs that stretched across the heavens. The god's body was covered in eyes that blinked and focused on innumerable things.

Mathew stepped forward, his boots sinking into the ground, which twisted and cracked, always on the verge of changing. There was no wind, but his jacket fluttered around him oddly. There was no sound here, but he heard a scream in his bones.

He knelt on the ground and bowed his head to the deity.

"I pledge myself in exchange for what was offered. I will serve as your Apostle and spread your name."

Above him, Mischievous Depravity unfurled its thousands of limbs in slow, coiling delight.

Page Break

The lobby of the Tower was quiet in a way that no longer felt ominous, just hollow and lacking. The light here was less harsh than it had been in the conference room, and Emily could see a crowd of people outside the doors, frozen in time as they stood in the rain.

She was wearing the same jeans and coat that she'd worn the day she arrived. Her powers and abilities were gone, and the Aether and mana inside her had been taken away as she was released from the Tower's grasp. She felt smaller without them, as though she had been lessened in some way.

Beside her stood the grey-suited young woman, her expression unreadable as they waited in front of the elevator.

"She'll be here in a moment." The woman said, her voice somewhat gentle despite her appearance.

Emily didn't respond; she just stared at the elevator doors and waited. When the chime sounded out, her heart nearly stopped.

After so long, the doors finally opened, and her mother stepped out.

She looked exactly like Emily remembered, not old and sickly or wheelchair-bound, but healthy and radiant.

Emily didn't move at first, but then she ran forward with a lurch.

They collided in the center of the lobby, arms wrapped tightly around each other as if they were unsure if what they were experiencing was real.

Behind them, the grey-suited young woman walked away, leaving them to their reunion. There was so much for them to say, so much that had to be explained. But Emily stepped back and looked at her mother.

"How is this possible? Did you make your wish?" Her mother asked, her voice filled with disbelief, and Emily shook her head. Tears were streaming down her face, and she scrubbed her cheeks with the back of her hand.

"No. It was Mathew."

Emily explained what had happened, and her Mother shook her head in wonder. She couldn't believe that someone had made such a sacrifice for her.

She wasn't surprised when Emily's face looked determined.

"I'm going to get him back, Mom."