The world of Lapis Lazuli has very little sunlight beneath a strange veil of dark blue. The world itself is littered with interacting yet separate villages. Clothing is also surprisingly modern, just about every article of clothing in the real world can be found here. These villages have some modern technology like indoor plumbing, radios and cars, but lack television, computers, and most other modern warfare. Actually due to the constantly adapting beasts of the land war has been a rarity. Guns have been modified with spiritual insects which resonate with the user’s soul to fire special bullets that inflict great damage to these beasts, but are harmless against humans and structures. Because of this even children are trusted with them.

Those with light blue eyes are extremely rare, and labeled as cursed. Though in the past couple of decades this has been reduced to trite superstition in most villages the myth still remains. Worse is that some villages actually still believe in this, and either ostracize or torment those with these eyes. Of course this leads to some of the ‘cursed’ to resent their villages or humanity as a whole.

Plants and animals have adapted to survive on the blue sunlight. Due to the dangers of the beasts outside the land both villages and farms are encased in tall stone walls. These keep beasts out and crops and livestock within. Though there is a currency among all the villages there is no actual unifying government, only a loose nit council that meets every so often.

A strange world inhabited by Kats, strange creatures that generate specialized powers that can not only give humans abilities but also be used to make objects defy gravity and fly. This is most commonly used in airships, which utilize a combination with devices that project this energy evenly throughout the body of the ship and a sufficiently powered Kat. These creatures come in a variety of shapes, though most are small, and provide increases in a person's speed, strength and stamina while they are with the person.

The world itself hosts several continents, but one in particular is of interest. The continent of Ventus is a land that hosts three powerful nations, the Aria empire, the Rolix empire, and the Allexentus federation. All three are powerful nations who have warred in the past leaving devastation on the smaller nations that lie between them. For the last fifty years they have been at peace, but an unsettling discovery has shaken the world. The Rolix Empire unearthed a powerful ancient Kat called a dragon, which outputs a massive amount of energy and possesses a tremendous amount of strength. Upon witnessing its power they succumbed to it and started to worship it.

The discover sparked excavation and soon the Aria empire started to find these dragons. Deciding to enslave them they started to weaponize the creature, building gigantic ships beyond previous imagination and capable of wiping out entire fleets. This lead to conflict between the two and the flames of war ravage the land. The Allexentus Federation has so far taken a public stance of neutrality, but they desire for the dragons to once again be sealed away in order to preserve stability and peace. For that reason they have hired several mercenary, pirate, and smuggling groups to further their agenda.

Technology on this world is far enough along for metal crafting and some machinery, as well as guns and cannons, but they lack computers and similar devices. The main means of transport are airships, which are powered by Kats. For the most part airships are made out of wood because it is lighter than metal, easier to get, and can float in many cases, however new ships using dragons are made from steel. Though many ships have hidden rooms or closed off areas to protect the Kats a lot of smaller ships just have an area beneath the deck.

A shadowy black figure with white circled eyes that can usually be seen slouching or hunching over. Just existing is a strain for this poor guy, its movements are somewhat uninspired and simplistic. Not a hard target to kill it makes up for this by attacking in large swarms. Lacking any sign of intelligence it will fight until the bitter end.

A strange lost one who has six swords protruding from its back and smoke covering most of its body, it wields two swords in each hand. These creatures have a constant smile on and are a bit harder to kill than the wanderer, their fast movements and sword skills might leave you skewered if you are not careful. They don't, however, do well when they have to think on their feet while pressured and can be overpowered by a rush or flurry of blows. Beware of them in groups since they will perform coordinated attacks.

A large figure standing at about 25ft whose body is covered in thin black smoke. It wears two silver shin guards and two gauntlets as well as a brown breastplate and silver round helmet over its head. Underneath its helmet are two burning white orbs that can be called its eyes. Like its name implies it wields a large sword as its weapon, and is the lowest of the 'blade' family. Beware its 'Impact' attack which will send you flying.

A Lost One with an artistic flare, one should be weary of him lest they want to end up a canvas. This lost one is missing his right eye which endlessly bellows smoke.

This Lost One loves to play games and smile, his favorite game is 'can you survive this?' His abilities shouldn't be underestimated or one might lose their life. The upper portion of this lost one's face is missing, instead it just bellows a constant stream of smoke. Despite that he can still somehow see and hear just fine.

An introduction to the Tower:

Within the following reports I intend to discuss the purpose, function, and need for the tower as well as how they relate to the various types of souls divulged. In practice the towers, for any climbing them, could be considered a physical yet not physical plane, a location that exists yet does not at the same time. As such rules of dimensions and common sense should be left at the door, one could walk through a door only to enter the room they were just leaving, or climb upwards and go down a level. That is the type of place the tower is.

Normally the varying dimensional openings are managed by the herald, who can decide who enters which room from which door. Though in theory certain classes of outside sources can intervene with this process, the most common is the residing ‘King’ of the tower whose powers supercede the heralds. However other beings have been known to manipulate the tower in the past, and in extremely rare cases heroes and even normal people have been able to command the tower doors through sheer force of will.

The tower breaches across sever planes of existence, several worlds if you will, and due to its abstract nature will allow heroes to proceed to these new worlds. The interference upon these worlds will sometimes lead to negative legends and stigmata among the residents, for example the world of Lapis Lazuli sees the heroes with blue eyes as bad omens, or the ancient hunt for the heroes with red eyes in the world of Rokotsuyo. Such practices are common place amongst the varying worlds.

However this information does not help one understand the purpose or true function of the tower.

Souls and King’s Blade:

Perhaps the most fundamental step in the understanding of the towers would be understanding what a soul is. Usually defined as the abstract existence of a person it is a concept that has emerged from nearly every culture across the plane of all worlds. In fact there have even been several attempts to prove it, such as measuring a person at the time of death to see if there was any change in weight or taking a record of someone dying. To clarify to all readers such an abstract thing does in fact exist, and all living beings have them.

In one way a soul could be compared to a set of instructions or parameters. It is the thing that regulates ones desire to survive, along with their basic wants and how motivated they will become. Though not as specific as the conscious mind one might consider the soul something like the driving force of living things, or their ‘fate’. A soul will react to different external stimuli, however, and may become distorted or be forced off its natural path, one should not consider it an absolute.

Souls themselves react to external stimuli, growing in strength as a person grows. Though some break down or are damaged most are able to continue growing through adversity. A hero’s soul in particular is usually well suited to facing this adversity and expanding their soul. With each experience a person grows, and likewise a soul grows in both strength and meaning. Not just fighting, but also encounters, friendships, rivalries, and all the other things that help people to grow. In that sense one might consider a soul less of a direction and more of a record. The soul influences and is influenced by the external world at the same time. I am somewhat resigned in what to compare it to in its entirety, but one might consider it to be their true self or guiding principal.

How much of us is our soul and how much of us is everything else...but I digress.

All one needs to know is that heroes souls are fundamentally different than normal humans. Humans themselves have a varying range of souls that provide a lot of different instructions. Heroes have the ‘instruction’ to climb inscribed upon their souls, thus a hero will naturally climb the tower even if not told to. Though one’s conscious mind may resist this urge, or past trauma may prevent them from following these instructions, such a result is most unfortunate.

The King’s Blade is a weapon that manifests from the soul of heroes, and their right to the throne. If one were to call the difference between a hero’s soul and a normal soul something it would be this ‘right to the throne’ or ‘eligibility’. Without it a hero’s soul would collapse, thus inflicting irreparable damage to their state. Heroes can utilize this ability to produce weapons unique to their soul, that is what one calls the king’s blade. Of course a King’s Blade’s strength is proportionate to the strength of a person’s soul itself, and as a hero fights more and more their souls will expand as it drives them forward. That is the most basic purpose of the tower, to force hero’s souls to expand and grow.

The door opened.

It opened revealing a set of ivory white stairs rising up to a large circular white platform. The platform was about one hundred yards in diameter and completely flat. At the other side of it were a series of stairs rising up to a smaller semicircular platform with a radius of about five yards. It was attached to the wall, and a large red door with a strange emblem of an eagle was etched into it. The wall that held the door was massive, and it curved around at the edges of where one could see, showing that the room was circular and gigantic. The entrance to the room at the bottom of the steps was on a similar wall. Both glowed a bright red color that permeated the room.

Beneath the platform was an endless abyss of darkness, and above was the same. The walls seemed to stretch upwards further than the eyes could see, and descended down in the same manner. Seeing the top or bottom of the room was impossible, despite the light. It was a single bridge in a solitary and massive chasm of darkness, that was the best way to describe this room.

Stepping out of the door was a man who stood about 6‘3“ high. If one had to guess he was in his early twenties. He wore a long black coat that opened in the center. It stretched down to his ankles and had a hood with a single white line running across the top and two white cords that came down at the neck that ended with two crown tassels. Currently the hood was off, bunched on the back. Underneath that was a black shirt with a silver collar and black pants with a white line running down the sides. If one looked at his waste they would see a white belt with a golden buckle which possessed a red 'X’ in the center. The man’s shoes shoes were also black with red heels.

He had long brown hair that transitioned to a snowy white color at the tips of each strand. The hair came down to his shoulders and was a bit of a mess at the moment. Several bangs sought to cover his bright green eyes that glowed almost like neon. On his back was a large white kodachi that was almost as tall as he was, standing at six feet in length. Its handle, guard and blade were all a pure and flawless white. Though the blade was reflective it was almost indistinguishable from the guard and hilt. Both of the latter seemed to be made from ivory, and had no decoration or engraving on them. It was held in place be a black holster attached to the coat just beside the red X.

This man was Benitaro.

Walking up the stairs he pondered just how tall this damned tower was. It was not like he wanted to continue climbing and facing the various challenges it presented, but he was the hero and passing tests like these while facing adversity was what heros did. It was quite important that a hero place the needs of others before themselves, though that little tidbit was grating on his nerves. Still he did not want to end up losing himself in his own desire again.

An annoyingly familiar laugh echoed through the room as a dark figure appeared at the other end of the platform. This figure was two dimensional, and had black skin that looked like cardboard. He wore the same outfit as Benitaro, down to the very last detail, but he was a solid black figure with no facial features other than a hole where his right eye should have been and a carving of a smile where his mouth would be -though Benitaro knew it could change expressions.

“You again, don’t you know when to give up?” Benitaro inquired.

“Aww, don’t be like that, you know you love me.” It came back.

“Die in a ditch somewhere trash.” This was a pretty common conversation between the two. “Just hurry up and disappear so I can kill the enemy of the day.”

“Oh, is playing hero that much fun? A violent man should be violent instead of dawning the mantle of peace in order to hide their failings. In other words just let go and do as you want instead of forcing yourself to subscribe to the expectations of others.”

“Oh, really, when you say it like that then shut up.” A snide comeback from Benitaro. “If you are quite done I have a giant monster to kill and people to save or help or fight or do whatever to whoever is beyond that door.”

The creature just shrugged and let out a black sigh, which was a visible puff of black air, before it sank into the floor and vanished. As it sank it became nothing more than a shadow for a moment, then faded away completely. As soon as it did black ethereal chains started to rise up from the platform. A large blade shot down from above and pierced the platform, releasing a blanket of inky black darkness where it stabbed. It was a blade of considerable size, easily three times as tall as Benitaro, and had a golden V shaped guard, a long brown handle and a shining silver blade. An armored hand rose up from the darkness and pulled out a giant larger than the blade.

The giant itself was adorned in a bright silver armor from head to toe. Jet black smoke rose up from the cracks of the armor and slithered over it. The helmet had a single horizontal slit that housed two burning white eyes filled with seething and loathing. This creature was Claymore, one of the highest ranked of the sword family. As it grabbed the sword it started to radiate with red energy. Picking up its sword and raising it overhead with a fluid motion it swung down. An eruption of energy ran out of the sword and sped towards Benitaro, but before it got very far the creature lifted the sword up with lightning fast speed and swung down again, then repeated the process once more with even greater force. The three streams of energy overtook one another and merged into a giant wave.

“Triple impact at the start huh.” Benitaro said as a confident smile formed on his face, withdrawing his sword. Its familiar weight rested well in his hands. Shirodachi, the masterpiece of his master, was special among swords. Its sharpness and strength was never to be underestimated, and it had one more used. Vibrating with a strange energy the sword let out single almost melodious sound. Without hesitation Benitaro swung down and a white crescent of energy shot out with the same arc as his swing. It was as tall as he was and moved faster than even the impact. Upon colliding the two flashed for a moment, but his cut the impact in two, forcing its energy to stream along either side. Claymore jumped to the right as the arc continued towards it, then raised its blade defensively.

Benitaro whistled, impressed by the lost one’s judgment. The others had to take a hit of that before realizing they should dodge. “Well then big guy, why don’t we play a bit.”

Eying him with a strange sense of caution the behemoth known as Claymore attempted to size up its opponent with an alien feeling of caution. Normally it was a high ranking powerhouse that squashed its foes without much trouble, indeed it was amongst the stronger Lost Ones found anywhere. Now something a fraction of its size was starting to worry it, the humor of that was lost on the creature.

With a lightning quick movement the Claymore made its move and charged forward. Swinging down its sword it tried to cleave Benitaro in half. The hero almost casually stepped to his left as the sword slammed down beside him, his smirk not lost. Raising the blade up Claymore proceeded to bring it down again and again at Benitaro. A step to the left, a jump to the right, rolling to the left once more, jumping above the blade. With ease he danced around the gigantic blade.

Jumping back the creature raised its blade overhead. Once again it was charged a brilliant red color. It was obviously going for a triple impact again. A powerful technique known by the sword family that gathered energy and released it all at once upon impacting the ground, that was the technique known as Impact. It was a devastating technique that could wipe away foes with a ferocious blast, a power that made the sword family difficult to deal with. However, it had two basic flaws. The first was that it was heavily telegraphed, it was quite easy to see when one was about to use it. The second was that it could only hit things in front of the user.

In short the trick to evading it is sticking close then dodging the initial strike. Since the technique fanned out it was difficult to avoid at a distance, but the other way of saying that was that it was easy to avoid at the epicenter. Of course the was a difficult task for most, charging in towards the strike defied all common instinct and dodging the strike of the blade took some skill in of itself. Not that Benitaro intended to let the thing have its way.

Charging forward fearlessly Benitaro gripped Shirodachi with both hands. Like before it started to reverberate. The thing would swing down in a couple of seconds, he would jump to the left as the blade hit the ground, jump up, and using his Dragon’s Song slice the thing in half. That was the plan at least, but the creature never swung down, it just stood there waiting for him. Thinking it was just slow Benitaro leapt into the air and made a horizontal slash. As his blade was just about to come into contact with the Claymore the monolithic opponent vanished.

The giant reappeared above him, its blade pointed down. With a stab it sought to impale Benitaro, and if not for the fact that its blade glowed a shining bright red color it very well might have. Letting go of his Shirodachi with his left hand he held it out as he grasped something unseen. There was a red and gold flash of light a strange blade about three and a half feet long appeared in his hand.

The sword was a golden color with two grooves on the top and bottom of the blade that were a red color. Starting at the end of the blade were three scythe like protrusions pointing downwards, the one at the end being the longest (at about a foot and half) and the other two both being shorter than the last. The center of the blade contained a large gap that ran from just above the handle to the edge of the most inward spike. The handle had a golden guard that wrapped around it, and was shaded a dark red color.

Pointing it to his left Benitaro let loose a powerful blast of flame that took the shape of a bird and sped towards and crashed into the wall of chains. Which was all fine and well, it just splashed flames across the chains before dying out, but more importantly it propelled him just out of the path of the sword. As the giant blade hit the ground though it unleashed a powerful burst of energy out in all directions around it and that sent Benitaro hurtling back.

Slamming into the chains quite hard Benitaro made a note to remember that attack, none of the others had used that. He fell from the chains to the floor flat on its stomach, and the lost one he was facing gave him a look he swore was mockery. The thing wanted to get real, fine, he was about to get real. Although his back, and front, hurt he could not help but smile in this situation. How many times had he been closer to death than this, and now some petty loser of a lost one was going to look down on him. He had fought with those who could bend space and time to their will, summon powers beyond mortals, achieve immortality, command armies of puppets, and quite a few literal messengers of death. This thing was child’s play compared to them.

Claymore had landed on its feet with no problem, if one doubted its flexibility or agility because of its size they would likely end up dead. Impressive as it was he was finished with it. Rising to his feet he gave it a cold smile in return for the assumed smirk of satisfaction it had. It stepped forward and threw its right arm back, then brought it forward, sword in hand, at what it thought would be the final strike. Benitaro ducked under the swing, then quickly rose up and whipped his right arm forward with his own sword, Shirodachi, in hand. A white crescent of energy shot forward at Claymore, however just before it hit the lost one vanished once again.

Appearing behind Benitaro with sword aimed to stab him it slammed it down. It was exactly what Benitaro thought it would do, though, and he managed to jump to the left. Throwing Shirodachi at the Claymore’s he almost halfheartedly he put up a somewhat pitiful effort to inflict harm to the lost one. The lost one merely let out a deep chuckle as it moved its head enough to avoid the spinning blade. Raising its sword the blade started to glow red again, such a troublesome creature.

“My soul is shocking!” Benitaro said as his infectious smile spread even wider across his face. As if on cue his golden blade, his King’s Blade, released a charge of electricity. Rather than shoot forward like a bolt though this one instead stayed at the tip of his blade and started to pulsate. The lost one staggered forward, its armor and blade pulled in by the powerful magnetic force. Still it was not enough to bind him, he managed to start pulling back. With some effort it began to raise its blade overhead in preparation to swing down in what would hopefully be the final blow. The hero had gambled and lost, it thought.

It never saw the attack coming. The spinning Shirodachi reverberated as it sped hastily back towards the magnetic force, hitting the lost one’s neck that was directly in its path. With a flash of white the Claymore’s head was severed from its body and hovering towards the source of the magnetic pull. As the blade got close Benitaro quickly reached out and grabbed the handle perfectly, though kids should not try this at home or they could lost an arm. With that settled the magnetic field vanished, and the chains around the platform vanished. A flash of light and his king’s blade vanished. He promptly placed Shirodachi in its holster and walked up the remainder of the stairs. Upon reaching the door he brought his right foot up and gave a powerful kick to it, the sound was strong enough to resound through the room, and the door flew open.

“No problem.” He said to himself, commenting about the lost one he had just defeated. Sure his body ached but that was trivial when one considered that he walked away from battle alive. “Ok, what’s next?”