Tower of God: Sequence Strength

Chapter 67: One Step Closer

 n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Located somewhere infinitely far away yet everywhere around him all the same. That was what he had always felt the potions were located whenever he digested the potion and was ready to summon the next one.

It did not need a genius to figure it out, only someone that had previously read Lord of Mysteries to figure out where the potions were coming from.

The Sefirah Castle. The Sephirot that pertains to the Lord of Mysteries and holds the essence to ascend not only to the level of a Great Old One, but to ascend to the level of the Pillar of the Universe.

Winston smiled as he felt the next potion laying infinitely far away yet right next to him. It was something he had figured out when he got access to the Sequence 8 potion, but he had never once been able to tap into the sefirot.

Of course, he had tried the incantation using Macsethian, given that he did not know how to speak any of the Chinese dialects, he had hoped that Macsethian would do the job. But it hadn't. And so, he could only wait to ascend beyond the level of a demigod and eventually find his way into the Sefirah Castle.

He looked at the 7 avatars assembled before him. His avatars were an extension of his spirit, not something he had necessarily created with a beyonder ability. As such, each of them had to be joined back to him before he could attempt an asension.

With a thought, each of the 7 avatars turned into liquid shinsu before him and rapidly dissipate into the air. Since a long time, Winston again felt himself at full strenght.

I could get used to this... It feels better to have a full astral body. He mused with a smile. And then, with a thought, a crystal bottle appeared in the air in front of him. Without missing a beat, he extended his hand and caught the bottle.

The bottle was warmer than the other potions, this time appearing in a pale blue colour. The edges of the fluid were of a darker shade and the center of the potion seemed to hold hundreds of bundles of miniature threads that extended outwards to the edges of the bottle. The surface of the liquid was uneven and seemingly phasing in and out of itself, making various whirlpools. And to top it all off, the entire potion was bubbling from the bottom to the top. Winston stared at the potion for a moment before he closed his eyes and reminisced about the dream he had the previous night. A moment of contemplation followed.

Then, without wait, he opened his eyes, snapped open the cap of the bottle and drank the entire potion in one go! With that, he kept the bottle away and waited with his eyes closed. The ascension in the subsequent sequences had only yet gotten stranger and far more dangerous. This time around, with the ascension marking the penultimate step to demigod, it was bound to be hazardous, not to mention the existence of rituals that was only going to complicate the process.

Winston waited with bated breaths, a strange foreboding assaulting his mind as he looked towards the change about to begin.

And sure enough, it started soon after.

At first, it started with a strange stiffness at the back of his spine. Slowly but surely, it started to spread outwards towards the rest of his body and it all began to freeze. Through his eyes, he could see hundreds of transparent black threads extending on from infinity towards him, or perhaps they were extending from him and to infinity.

His thoughts started to slow down. Then, a strange phenomenon appeared to occur. He entered a dreamy state, his body of heart and mind extending outwards and entering the spirit world, something it wasn't supposed to do. The Body of Heart and Mind looked outwards, seeing the hundreds of thoughts and dreams wandering about. They rushed towards him, incessantly merging with his being. Instantly, Winston felt himself losing his self, assimilated by the uncountable thoughts and psyches.

But only if it stopped at that point. His body of heart and mind, that had somehow entered both of what he deemed to be 'spirit world' and the 'sea of collective subconscience' was immediately flung outwards towards the unknown. Winston immediately traversed through an unimaginable distance, or maybe he hadn't travelled at all. But there was one thing he knew of. He was lost. Oh so very lost. The body of heart and mind travelled farther and farther from his true body, which would eventually render him unable to get back and eventually cause him to lose control.

After just a couple of seconds, he had already almost lose his own self freedom, almost assimilated into the minds of hundreds of thousands of people and gotten lost in the spirit world and the sea of collective subconsicence combined.

Compared to the previous ascensions, the ascension to Sequence 5 was truly different and far more dangerous. But there was another fact, it was that it could not be purely resisted by will. External factors were required to fight the corruption and the after effects of the potions.

And sure enough, as soon as it all started he felt a distant light, gazing at him from beyond the infinite distance that lied between himself and anything he knew of. There, he was 4 distinct objects, more specifically, he saw four clear crystal monocles; gleaming intently in the spirit world, attracting his attention.

Everything calmed down in his eyes, there was no longer a sense of alienation of the surroundings and the surrounding thoughts that were getting transmitted directly to his mind stopped. The invisible threads that were extending from his body retreated back into him, no longer triggering his thoughts and body into a state of induced lethargia. Winston felt the clarity return to his mind and a state of euphoria and elevation was what followed. With that, he felt an indescribable pull towards his own body.

Without question, he allowed himself to follow it.

Not long after, he found himself back at his body and merged with it. Then, he opened his eyes like an enlightened buddha.

Ho00000~

Winston breathed, and clenched his fist. Then, without missing a beat, he disappeared from his place and appeared outside instantly. Feeling the place he stood at change, he was surprised but then adjusted as per the requirement.

The Fool, Error and the Door pathways' Sequence 5 were named Marionetteist, Dream Stealer and Traveller respectively.

Of the three, traveller was the ultimate travelling ability, granting him the power to directly travel through the spirit world at will! It was definitely the best ability in the door pathway, one that made it one of the most powerful pathways to name. Travelling itself might not sound busted, but in the later stages, Winston knew exactly the kind of things he could achieve. Perhaps at the level of an angel, he could directly teleport himself to the top of the tower!

Winston braced himself and then, he was gone with a flicker of an afterimage!

Whoosh!

Dozens of Winstons, or more accurately, his afterimages flashed all over the distance in the general area of his temporary residence! It was the combined effect of the increased dexterity, reaction time and focus from the Fool pathway, synergizing with the travelling ability of the door pathway, allowing him to 'blink' all over the place in the matter of moments! The funny thing about the door pathway was, after he blinked away, there would always be an afterimage left in his wake, lingering just a little longer than a second! Meaning, if he could do 50 blinks in the matter of a second, he could still surpass a hundred effortlessly in a drawn out fight. And that was only the case if only he himself was fighting.

After testing the travelling ability for a bit longer, Winston decided to test the long distance travelling some other time and stopped. As he did so, he extended his hand and focused on an apple tree far away. With a mental command, the apple flung into his hand! It was one of the overshadowed abilities of the Sequence 5 of the Door pathway, named the Invisible hand! Taking a bite out of the apple, Winston decided to focus on testing out his other abilities. For a Fool Pathway beyonder, becoming a Marionettist is also one of the most important milestones in their journey. A marionettist does exactly as his name suggests, he controls marionettes. Their main ability is the spirit body thread manipulation. Spirit Body threads are illusory threads that extend from the spirit body of any live being.

Once a Marionettist gets the control of these threads, the target loses all sorts of freedom and completely dies off in spirit, leaving their still live body to be controlled. There were of course, limits to such a thing. The Marionette could not venture too far off from the main body and they could not possess any of the beyonder's own abilities. Furthermore, the possession of a Marionette's threads could only be attempted from a distance of 5 to 10 meters and took some time depending on the spiritual strength of the target. The stronger the spirit, the greater the time required.

Winston walked some distance and looked to the ground. Before long, 3 bugs crawled out of

the ground and laid still before him. Bugs were, of course, easy to control since there was no such thing as spiritual strength to them. For such simple minded creatures, controlling them required nothing more than a simple thought.

Winston made the bugs dance around for a tad bit longer before getting rid of them using flames. There was no use to keeping them since there was a cap to how many marionettes he could have at a particular time. And that cap at Sequence 5 amounted to 3. Shaking his head, he thought of the third and final Pathway, the Error. Dream Stealer was a strange sequence for sure, but it was also where the error pathway truly began to seem eerie and downright scary. The ability to steal thoughts, knowledge and any surface memory was what marked the sequence. Of course, the new ability manifested was the ability to invade dreams by travelling through the sea of collective subconscience. It allowed him to plant certain things in the target's dreams, leading them into deception and tricking them into thinking certain thoughts are being led through their own will.

All of these made the Dream Stealer one of the major milestones of the Error, as was Marionettist and Traveller to the Fool and Door. It was where the true strength of the Error pathway, as something powerful in the traditional sense, but more in the eerie and downright

disturbing sense came to shine.

But Winston was not about to test such things right now. Nor was he capable of, since such things required people to be tested. Nay, what he wished to focus on was something he had

not realized could even happen.

It was... how to say..?

Well, a Mutation? It was a mutation in the sequence abilities.

A/N: What type of abilities should he manifest? Gimme some ideas.

Throw some stones.

Cheers-