A temptation

The Tower of Temptation: a distant figure against the horizon that creeped ever closer, looming menacingly over any troublemaker who dared approach it. Dusk projected its shadow over the group of adventurers, giving off an ominous feeling that whispered them to get closer still. Although its tip extended far above the clouds, its shadow was void of color. Devil bats fluttered in its vicinity, promising pain to the unwary visitor.

The party would had reached the tower by the end of the day, but since their new travelling companion carried along a couple of heavy bags, the group was somewhat slowed down. Olber questioned what Sayu even needed those bags for, but Harold defended the famous scholar by saying that it probably had something to do with her research project. When Amimari took a peek, however, all she found was clothes. Out of curiosity, she randomly picked one. Her cheeks flushed beet red as soon as she understood how one was meant to wear that piece. 'Skimpy' didn't start to describe the thing.

Amimari showed some skin as well, but it was fine since she was wearing a nurse uniform along her big coat. She couldn't fathom the reasons a girl like Sayu could have to wear something so daringly lacking.

"Is something bothering you, Ami?" The daring dancer questioned as they had diner around a fire. Olber and Harold were reminiscing about their past encounters during service, so the girls lacked the context to follow them.

Seizing the chance to ask, Amimari reached for her female friend's ear and whispered what she discovered earlier. Sayu smiled to her.

"You saved my life the other day, so I might as well tell you the truth. I enjoy being the center of everyone's attention. It gives me a rush. It's something I got from my cabaret experience."

"A-A rush?"

"Aye. Whatever I do, I do better if I'm looked at."

"And you have… those clothes… to gather as many stares as possible?"

"Bingo! I used to do that only on the warmer seasons, but it's become a habit. I may be a little bit exhibitionist…"

"A little…?" Ami rose a brow.

"…but I am no fool. I only do that whenever I'm with trustworthy friends or at the cabaret."

Being somewhat of a pervert doesn't necessarily imply that stupidity follows. The dancer went fully dressed to her trip alone through the wastelands, not showing much meat for the predators to much or flesh for the bandits to tarnish.

The beast nurse stared at the dancing fire, quietly pondering the issue. Sayu still wore her leather skirt, black leggings and white jacket. If one had to measure the degree Sayu trusted them, her normal clothing would yield saddening results. In other words, she continued to be wary of the group. Should they rejoice she didn't distract them with her unique way of clothing… or lament she didn't bare it all for them? They may have rescued her, but that didn't mean they enjoyed her trust. Since they shared the same destination, Amimari hoped for fellowship.

Black gloved hands grabbed her long beast ears.

"Fluffy!"

"Wha-?"

"I always wanted to fluff a beastfolk ears, but I never did because that could mislead my clients." Sayu confessed, catching the nurse from behind and rubbing her blond hair. "You, though, are just so fluffable! Mofu-mofu-mofu!"

Amimari enjoyed that kind of intimacy with her friends, so she just giggled along. Thinking back on them, she regretted having departed the capital without telling anyone of her intentions. They surely had to be mad about her unannounced departure… at least one of them.

At some point, Sayu removed her gloves to better feel the softness of her friend's fluff. The pair of older men soon noticed the girls.

"I kinda jumped in on this journey, but I didn't consider why I would like to save the world aside from mere survival." Harold murmured to his companion. "That over there could be a good reason."

"For the fluff?"

"That is alright, but I meant their smiles."

Olber shrugged, bearing a smile of his own. "I didn't know you were so cheesy."

"Laugh all you want. I stand by what I said, captain."

Harold briefly considered asking what he was trying to repent about, but the melancholic grin on the guardian suggested the roughrider to give it up.

The next morning, the party gathered their belongings and resumed their journey towards the tower, which now bathed in the dust-filled light of dawn. Traversing a nearby forest, the group found something unexpected. So far, they had dispatched a few groups of predators in their journey, but the forest area had no traces of similar wildlife. At the epicenter of such virgin ground, they found a log cabin.

Some knocks later, an elder man of small stature cautiously peeked from behind the door. His purple eyes danced over the visitors, questioning their intentions.

"Are you living here on your own, sir?"

At Olber's words, the old man focused his gaze on him. His serious expression was so devoid of emotion he could very well be examining Olber's very soul. Then, he closed the door. The next time he opened it, his hands held the strings attached to a small staff of blue orb and pointy tip. Harold frowned at the sight of the shape that twirled inside the orb.

The old man's white hair had some shades of blue, mimicking the tones of his robes and his sleeveless shirt underneath. His wrinkles stretched clean on his forehead while a wide smile spread his lips.

"Yes. I. Do! To what do I owe the honor of such remarkable guests?" He answered, rubbing the white beard that outlined his jaw.

"We are travelers. Our-"

"We're going to that tower over there!" Sayu chimed in, tilting towards the old man.

His eyes opened up as they set on the dancer. The sage exited the cabin, exalted.

"Could you be, perhaps, looking for a guide? If so, you're in luck! I give tours around the tower! I will show you the way!"

The travelers exchanged gazes, a collective note of uncertainty tainting their eyes.

"We don't really need such a service, good sir. We merely checked on you to see if you were alright, living alone in these woods. These are trying times. Dangerous predators prowl at night, while the brigands infest the day. As the earth degrades and crumbles, it becomes riskier and riskier to live far from the cities."

"You don't say…" The old man retorted, obvious disappointment taking over his curved back.

Olber politely bowed to him and turned back. "Stay safe."

"Farewell." The nurse waved.

"Bye-bye, oldie!" The dancer sang.

The archer continued to study the reclusive man with suspicion-filled eyes. There was something gravely dangerous about him. It was his roughrider's instincts kicking in, sounding all of his alarms.

"Harold! We're going to leave you behind!" Amimari called from afar.

However, the roughrider couldn't show his back to that man. For some reason, the idea didn't sit right with him. The Music Corps Captain always had a talent to notice small details that couldn't be expressed with simple words.

That elder… had a despairing aura that corroded the very soul. A depth of sorrow tainted with an unsolvable tragedy.

The tiny man approached him. His serious eyes met Harold's.

"Are you sure you don't want a tour?"

The archer flinched and stepped back. For a moment, he thought he was talking to a grim reaper. A finger was pointed at the old man.

"Do not follow us. I have my eyes on you."

With such a warning, Harold left to catch up with his companions. The elder's mouth broke into a grin. "As if. Booty calls."

The girls asked why the fashionable captain lagged behind, but Harold simply disregarded the issue by changing the topic: the tower now loomed over their heads. The doors remained closed, but the dust hadn't gathered yet.

"Although this place is meant to be forbidden, many people have explored its interior, it seems." Amimari observed, a bit saddened that the tradition was so easily forgotten.

"Maybe others ventured here with our same purpose."

"You mean, studying light?"

The group remembered they hadn't shared with the scholar their ultimate objective. Both Olber and Ami had faced a lot of rejection when they firstly searched for allies at the capital, so they merely omitted it to avoid the same fate.

"Haven't we told you yet?" Harold realized, oblivious to the hardships of the initial duo. "Well, Sayu, we're actually here to-"

"Explore the Tower of Temptation!"

"What the-!"

Out of nowhere, the tiny elder of penetrating gaze had materialized behind the archer. His smile might be described as innocent, if only his eyes weren't so alarming. Trotting forward, he pushed the door open with a little spell and invited the group to enter.

"This way! It is a great place for tourism in this time of the year! The greatest tour guide, Mogha, will show you everything there is to see!"

Huge spiraling stairs elevated along the walls where elaborated murals were painted. A word stood out above everything else: Gallus. Why they could read the strange script is a mystery, but they were certain of what it said. However, they weren't alone. A group of six other explorers had gathered next to one of the earliest murals, scribbling notes down and watching for dangers cautiously.

"They actually come here to do research!" Sayu sang.

Olber stepped forward with a frown. "Students from the magic academy? What are they doing here?"

"Those are not your regular students, Captain. Look at their white uniforms. Those white cloaks… They belong to the elite class."

"Wow… Elite? Maybe we could ask their help."

"I don't know, Ami… If their teacher is who I think it is, they won't exactly welcome us during their field session." Harold lamented, scanning the area in search of that unfortunate lady he used to bicker with so often back when he was an officer.

As the party fully entered the bottom of the tower, the group of academics noticed the newcomers and raised their guards warily.

"Feh." Harold saw the old man mutter with a grimace. Moments later, he restored his inoffensive-looking attitude and continued. "Let's not bother with them and continue the visit, yes? Over here!"

An invisible force gently pushed the party towards the center of the tower. Then, a magic circle appeared below their feet. Moments later, they were flying upwards, defying gravity.

"Look! It's the geezer from before!" One of the scholar pointed.

"Is he… using gravity magic?!" Another cried, dumbfounded.

Only one of their students refused to look: a beastgirl of blond hair who was crouching next to inscriptions under a mural. Once they were left behind, or rather, below, Mogha regaled them with tall tales, satire, playful banter and silly shenanigans. He made inside jokes about the tower as though they were familiar with the place and could relate. Naturally, these flew straight over the newcomer's heads.

Finally, Mogha invited the tourists to jump onto the stairs so that they could continue their ascent. "We're close to the top." He said, trying to hide the fact that he was sweating.

When it was Sayu's turn to jump, Mogha hurried to provide some help, but the girl simply jumped onto Harold's brawny arms and scrubbed his hair while saying thanks. The archer's instincts reacted to a great danger. Olber noticed his alarmed stance and shifted gears. A swarm of Devil Bats had just awakened and they were more than ready to fight the invaders.

"Get behind us!"

The soldiers dropped their luggage so that they could properly wield their weapons. The winged beasts were of small size, but their numbers quickly overwhelmed the party. Some even latched on them and stole their life energy. Each of their articulations had claws, which they utilized to firmly grasp onto their victims and suck them dry. The lancer kept swinging his spear to stop the bulk of the monsters, but his energy dwindled. The girls he shielded pulled the beasts away from the guardian, but things took a quick turn for the worse.

"Are those White Sabertooths?! Inside the tower?!"

"Oh, yes, they are. There are many monsters like those at this place. They mostly react to magic, so our arrival must have alerted them." Mogha explained.

"So this is your fault?!" The archer howled as he shot the beasts that rushed up the stairs.

Somehow, the careless tour guide remained mostly ignored by the predators, as if a protective aura repelled the vermin.

"Damn it… Get off me!"

Olber's shout echoed through the tower. Having noticed Mogha's mysterious lack of presence, he pushed Amimari and Sayu towards him. If the bloodsuckers wanted a contest, he would give them one. Who would win? A swarm of hungry Devil Bats or a royal captain with healing runes and a medic's support?

Bats and more bats gathered around the soldier until he was completely surrounded, providing some cover for his partner. Harold managed to strike down four of the incoming Sabertooths, but two had managed to get the jump on him. Bludgeoning them with his bow, the roughrider desperately fought to push them away in fear that they get past his line of defense.

"Ywaaaaagh!" He shouted as the feeling of torn flesh grew on his shoulder and spread through the rest of his aching body.

The other white lion took notice of his struggle to maintain balance and promptly bore his fangs against the human's leg. His crunch got the target, but somehow failed to make the prey stumble. It pulled and pulled, but it was as if there was some kind of invisible wall behind the human, preventing him from falling down. Then, a chilling feeling ran down the beast's spine. The roughrider had his blue dangerous eyes on it. The lion felt compelled to release his leg. However, doing so only allowed the man to grant its side a mighty kick that pushed the lion to a long lethal fall.

Noticing the change in momentum, the lion that gnawed at his shoulder bit harder. Harold enveloped the beast with his arms and broke its ribs with a merciless knee. As the bloodied soldier prepared to finish it off, the beast magically slipped off of his hands and dropped towards the side of the stairs, following its partner.

"Olber!"

Surrounded by a pool of swollen bat corpses, the bloodied guardian knelt down. Amimari had worn her tongue from chanting healing spells to support both soldiers, but as long as blood continued to drop, she would continue to channel miracles. Despite her aid, the lancer finally collapsed onto the circle of dead bats.

"What… happened to them?"

"That's simply, miss. They died from overeating. Those bats are so voracious it costed them their lives." Mogha explained detachedly to the dancer.

"Is that so?"

"More incoming from above!"

The rattling of wings descended onto them, but the new wave of monsters didn't linger. They fluttered around and continued their descent after a short while, ignoring their potential preys. The tour guide provided some more context.

"Although they are really stupid, they have their own survival instincts. They noticed the corpses around and deemed you too dangerous to engage. Rejoice! We can continue the tour!"

The bloodied archer stood next to Mogha, menacingly staring him down. He didn't need to open his mouth to get the message across. Finally noticing the fatigue catch up to him, Harold knelt in a similar fashion to Olber and fought to retain consciousness. Amimari popped her head under his shoulder and carried him next to the lancer, underneath one of the murals.

Despite the fatigue caused by overusing magic, the nurse continued to chant recovery spells for them. Meanwhile, the dancer accommodated the fighters so that they could get some proper rest. For this, she used her cloth-filled bags as cushions. Since Mogha told them the corpses kept the predators away, she reluctantly gathered some corpses around them. Amimari learnt that day how many ways it was possible to verbally express disgust.

Once the basic treatment was done, Amimari let out a heavy sigh.

"Is something the matter?" Sayu noticed.

The nurse tensed, unsure on how to explain herself. "I… can't keep going like this. These two can't fight everything on their own. It… crushes my heart to see harm come onto them so often due to number disadvantage. If only we had… more fighting power…"

Her eyes wondered off towards some nearing lizardfolk corpse. Stumbling with doubting steps, the nurse grabbed the sheathed blade on the belt. Closing her eyes, she squeezed the handle as if to suppress her nerves and shaky limbs.

'Live for the sake of others.'

Those words and her mother's voice remained vivid in her memory to that day. To love thy neighbor and forgive the trespasses of others. Those were the words she lived by. As a therapist, she believed that ideology to be incredibly important towards the goal of keeping a healthy lifestyle, which she always tried to teach to her patients through her care and the lunch boxes she lovingly prepared as well.

Was she ready to wield a sword and end a life? The tears started to flow from her eyes as this question tortured her soul. Sayu embraced her to offer some emotional support.

The nurse felt useless about not being able to better support her teammates, but if the dancer pondered the same issue, she would soon realize she was literal deadweight. However, she decided not to utter a word of complaint. Those people paid a steep price to allow her presence at the tower, so she could only make sure that her research bore fruit, one with which she could start to repay their kindness.

On the other hand, Mogha seated on the edge of the stairs and stared at the darkened infinity, his staff dangling from the strings between his fingers. Despite his lack of activity, his breath was ragged.

Sound of struggle echoed from below.

The group rested at the final landing before the stairway winded to the top. There, an especially large mural depicted something really unsettling.

A colossal ship, a fiery downpour and lamenting of souls.

It was horror itself, brought to life in paint. If the somber mood of the adventurers wasn't bad enough, when the awakening men noticed it, a horrible headache drilled their already fatigued minds.

As the group resumed their ascent, Olber noticed Amimari's new sword and her reddened eyes. The captain stopped her by the shoulder and wore yet another of his serious expressions.

"You don't need to take up arms for our sake. I will never get tired of repeating the same thing, Ami: just having you heal our injuries afterwards is greater than you could ever imagine."

Amimari thought she had already cried enough, but the guardian proved her wrong.

"B-But… I hate seeing you two suffer…"

Then the impossible happened: Olber embraced her, if clumsily.

"It is alright to suffer in battle. You should never grow to enjoy it." He muttered. "If we must fight in our quest, so be it. If we survive these ordeals, we will have you to thank for a quick recovery. Please, do not take up arms so easily."

The nurse was immediately reminded of Olber's actions when he killed the Orbling's offspring. Just as she hated people getting hurt, the lancer suffered injuring others. However, it was a role he was prepared to undertake.

"I… I was not ready for this…" Ami cried, embraced the soldier back as her wails travelled downwards. Sayu's endurance to fluffy crying girls was pushed to the limit, her blue eyes tearing up as well.

Once Ami was returned of her freedom, Harold messed with her hair.

"Give me that sword, girl. An untrained fighter will make important errors during fights, so you switching your job will only undermine our team."

"I understand…"

Harold patted her head gentler. "We appreciate your feelings, though. Tell you what, I promise to teach you some swordmanship when we get the chance to! Fights can end in results other than death. If you were to swing a sword, I want you to do it looking for a peaceful ending."

The nurse had only known the roughrider for a few days, but that didn't stop her from hugging him too. Sayu couldn't take it any longer and wept along her, tightly clutched to her side.

The sweet and emotional ambience had upset him long enough, so Mogha didn't feel any guilt when he put an end to it.

"Ahem! Well, dear guests. Since we are almost to the top, I see it fit that you pay for the marvelous tour I just gave you."

"How about no, vermin summoner?" Harold flatly refused, reminding the party who was responsible for their earlier hardship. The other captain raised his red gloved hand.

"We are not here to learn about the Tower of Temptation, Mogha. My companions and I are searching for Maker, who is said to dwell at this place."

Sayu's reaction was immediate. "Really? First time I hear! Why didn't you tell me earlier?"

"Everyone at the capital looked at us like freaks." Ami sniffed, adding to Olber's serious nod. "Please, forgive us."

"No way!" The dancer denied with wide gestures of her arms. "I will have you make it up to me in one way or the other, so it seems I will have to follow you on your quest! Wink."

Sayu's fashionable fan already expected that outcome, so he simply chuckled at the pair's surprise. Since it was taking them a while to process the real message, Harold decided to spell it out for them by kneeling next to the fashionista and fluttering his fingers towards her.

"In other words, the great pioneer of fashion wishes to join our cause! A round of applause!"

"Yay! Applauses for me, hahaha!"

Mogha got the attention onto himself as he was the only one to clap more enthusiastically.

"What? I'm going too." The reclusive man grumbled. He was hell-bent on getting his fair compensation. When nobody was looking, however, his eyes evidenced the real target of his desires: the tantalizing flesh bouncing beneath the dancer's skirt.