Baam, when he stepped out of the tunnel and into the light, felt as if he had stepped into another world again.

All around him stretched fields of bright, vivid green – in the distance he could spot a tree line, the leaves and branches swaying in the breeze. Up above, clouds hugged the sky – or as close to clouds and skies he had ever seen within the Tower. He took a breath, feeling the fresh air fill up his lungs.

"Enjoying the gong?"

"The what?"

"The gong, the shinsoo."

"You mean air, right? Why not – "

He cut it off then and there. Baam could feel both their eyes on him, taking him in. His mindset shifted, settling as Viole's eyes narrowed, "What is it?"

"There's no air in the Tower."

"But we're breathing – "

"That's not air. That's gong, the shinsoo in the empty space around us."

Viole fell quiet at that, mind whirling. Even after three months there was still so much about the Tower that he just didn't know. Jinsung seemed to agree, as he glanced over to where Hwa Ryun stood, "Will you take this up in your lessons too?"

"Of course."

They walked in silence. Viole tried to just enjoy the sights around him, enjoy his freedom from underground, but it just didn't have the same lightness as before. He kicked at the ground, scraping his heel through the dirt and grass.

"There's shinsoo in that too."

And he stopped.

Hwa Ryun stood by his side, same as before. Same as before, except, yes – she was smiling, a Cheshire grin that overcame her smirk. Viole wondered if she enjoyed making a fool out of him – telling him things he didn't know. Her smile widened, "Should we have a lesson now?"

"Sure."

She held up a finger as she took a step, "So you know of Flow Control and Reverse Flow Control, but shinsoo does not exist solely inside living beings. It's in the empty space all around us, it's condensed into the waters of the sea, there's pockets of it infused throughout the earth."

"Infused?"

"Yes, to the best of anyone's knowledge when you strip away all the shinsoo the Floors are just made of rock. Rock ceilings, rock walls, rock floors. Shinsoo exists not only inside but all around. When in low concentrations it forms a gas that makes up the atmosphere and "sky", when in high concentrations it becomes a liquid to make the seas."

"If there's so much shinsoo all around us, then why not use it?"

"Shinhueh do. They live their entire lives within shinsoo and have adapted to it. There are shinhueh who swim through the sea, and shinhueh that swim through the gong. But yes, I see your point." She evaluated him at that, even before then, eyeing Viole before she said, "Well, there is one person who is said to manipulate shinsoo that way."

"Who?"

"Baek Ryun. The current head of Wolkaiksong,"

Viole blinked at that, he opened his mouth once, then twice, but had to say it, "Who?"

She had said back then that patience was out of character for her, but Viole did not see it. She inclined her head, then said, "You have at least heard of Urek Mazino, haven't you?"

Viole looked at her, all movement stopped. Ha Jinsung must still be walking up ahead, but that name arrested him completely. "The Irregular," he said, "How – "

"Baek Ryun is the best friend of Urek Mazino, the two of them founded Wolkhaiksong – Wing Tree, which is an organization devoted to finding a way out of the Tower. No one really knows where Baek Ryun came from. He was an orphan from the Middle Area that found his way to a forest and lived there for many years – discovering how to use shinsoo on his own. That alone wouldn't be too noteworthy, he could well be a child from the Ten Families, but it is said that the forest has an odd aura about it and he was able to use the ambient shinsoo to empower himself. It's one of the reasons why Urek visited the forest in the first place."

"Okay," Viole said – taking it in, "So no one besides Baek Ryun has ever used shinsoo in their surroundings?"

"Not that anyone's aware of, but then again, who knows with Zahard and the other Irregulars?" At that, she paused, a sudden look of surprise taking over her face – after all this time it felt foreign to see that on the face of the young redheaded Guide … but then the shock faded as a smile, a grin, stole onto her face. "In fact," she said, "I think that is likely, after all you already showed the ability once."

Again, Viole felt the urge not to give into her bait, but he knew a losing battle when he saw one, "What do you mean?"

Even then, he had not been expecting her next action. Hwa Ryun tapped her jeweled eyepatch once, twice, and said, "Remember this?"

Viole took a step back. The gouging of her eye had been an unmentioned fact that hung between them for the last few weeks – suddenly bringing it up threw him more than a little. "That's." He started, but couldn't find the words.

Once again, she did.

"That's the wound I got back in the Crown Game. Back then, you had not formed a contract with the Guardian. In fact, you didn't even know what shinsoo was, but still, you manipulated it. You manipulated the ambient gong without a baang. It seemed alive."

"That's…I'm sorry. I didn't mean – "

"Relax, Viole. I happen to like the eyepatch now."

"Now?" He asked, but she didn't answer. They had crested a small, sloping hill and with it a ruin still off in the distance came in sight – each pillar cracked and some had fallen to the ground. She left him with not even a word thrown his way, leaving Viole thrown off guard once again.

"What's going on?" He asked Ha Jinsung as the Ranker walked up.

Ha Jinsung still had his eyes on Hwa Ryun as she headed towards the ruins. "She's found a path up for us." The Ranker nodded his head at her, "Come on, let's follow her."

As the two neared, he found himself looking up to Ha Jinsung. "Who's Karaka?" He asked again, though it was less of a question than it was last time. For his part, the sudden question seemed to surprise Ha Jinsung, but Viole pressed on, "I'm not letting it go this time – He and Yu Han Sung must be related somehow."

The Ranker sighed, "He's a Slayer," he started, "Slayer number 5. I trained him back when he was a freshly-minted Ranker."

"How does that relate to Yu Han Sung?"

"While FUG is run by Grace and the Slayers, there is a Council of Elders that oversees its day to day functions. He was the youngest member in generations before Yu Han Sung showed up."

And what does that have to do with me? Why is it no longer safe in the cave? But Ha Jinsung didn't let him ask that, instead he nodded over to the ruins and said, "Look."

So Viole looked.

Hwa Ryun weaved her way through the pillars, eyeing different parts of the ruins. This close, Viole could see that a circular stone tableau sat in the middle of the ruins and the pillars ringed around it. As Hwa Ryun made her way through it, her staff hovered by her hand – it tapped different rocks then suddenly swung out – smacking against one of the pillars.

"What are you doing?"

He saw a section of the pillar sudden press in.

A light shone out in the circle – swirling and growing, spiraling in on itself.

Hwa Ryun just stepped into the light and vanished.

"Come on," Ha Jinsung said, grabbing his shoulder. "After you."

Is he worried I'll try to run – even after all of this?

` Viole stepped into the circle.

…..

When he reappeared, Viole found himself in a very different place. Mountainous terrain surrounded him, covered in moss, grass, and trees. He could see the edge where the rocks sharply descended into jagged cliff faces. Off in the distance he could spot a Tower looming, rising so high it seemed to pierce the sky…the roof…itself.

"Where are we?"

"The Middle Area," Viole turned around to see Ha JInsung standing there – he had not been there mere moments before. "Right at the very edge where the Middle Area touches the Inner Tower. Our new stronghold should be close by."

They do not take long to traverse the crags – having been deposited near their location. The stronghold looked like a long white spire – from a distance nearly merging with the jagged rocks that make the cliffs.

The trio stopped on a ledge, hiding behind some rock outcroppings. Viole formed a baang and sent shinsoo to his eyes. He felt an odd sensation as his gaze honed in on them and spotted people patrolling the walls. Needles at their hips and Spears, rifles and bows strapped to their backs.

"Who are they?"

"Bandits," Ha Jinsung said, "Their leader is a Ranker, but the fact he's not on the upper Floors, not even as a Royal Guard, is telling. Still, I'll deal with him while you two deal with everyone else."

The rest of the compound, you mean?

With that, Ha Jinsung just vanished, like Yu Han Sung had hours before. Either he used a technique or he moved so fast that Viole, even with his Reinforced eyes, could not track him. He didn't know which was more frightening.

The power of a Ranker.

Then they, Viole and Hwa Ryun, crept up to the high spire walls – darting from rock to rock. When they reached the base of the wall the Guide gave him a quick nod then leaped up. Viole just had enough time to hear shouts of shock and panic as he jumped up after her.

Viole landed in a whirlwind of action and combat. Three Needles stabbed at him the moment he landed. He sidestepped out of the way of one, jumped over the other, then phased away from the third – sending shinsoo coursing to his legs.

He reappeared behind one of the bandits. He twisted the man's arm behind him, pressing it upward against his back. Another one of the bandits, a sharkman Viole noted from this close up, moved to swipe at him. Viole outstretched a palm.

The sharkman barely had time to yell out "Shinsoo!" before the dark blue blast, tinged with black, hit him, throwing him backwards into the third combatant. They both were blasted across the wall, where on the far corner a guard tower, rectangular and blocky, overlooked the crags below.

The third opponent, the one whose arm had been twisted, took that chance to break out of the hold and jump back. His scarred face broke into a sneer as he reached behind his back for his Spear.

Then he froze.

He stood poised, hand reaching for the Spear on his back, and stayed held in place like that as Viole walked by. The boy stopped. The second half of the wall stretched before him – the site of Hwa Ryun's combat. It held the remnants of her short struggle – the carved slice that cut into the cement floor and snaked its way to a section of the stone railing that had been blown apart as one of the guards had been knocked off the ledge, and her second opponent which she had sent flying across the wall with a whack from her staff – leaving the bandit to smack into the guard tower before falling in a heap next to Viole's downed foes. The crater in the wall and the huge splattering of blood told Viole that the strike was undoubtedly lethal.

And, above all the wreckage, Hwa Ryun hovered – crouched on top of her staff like a gargoyle.

Viole approached underneath her, looking up.

"You did all of this?"

"Yes. My Mjollnar does a lot of collateral damage."

At first, Baam had come because he felt disturbed by the destruction. The lethal violence breaking through his veneer of a Slayer candidate, but that left him curious. "Your what?" he asked.

"Mjollnar," she said, tapping the staff underneath her, "It's a Wand, like the one Rozéal had. You can use shinsoo through it."

"Really?"

"I had to be put into the Wave Controller position class for some reason."

I guess that makes sense. "So can you use shinsoo through it?"

Her eyes became half-lidded at that, gazing down at him. For a moment, her smile slipped as she spoke softly, "On a higher Floor."

No use at the moment, then. "Should we go on?"

"Sure. I just need to take care of something." With that, she hopped down from her staff … her Wand, Mjollnar, and walked past him. Viole turned around, wondering what she was doing, and then his previous concerns swarmed back to him as she lifted her Wand and sent it speeding to the frozen bandit's head.

And it too slowed. It should have stopped completely but Viole's second baang wavered and flickered above his head. Still, Hwa Ryun stopped herself at that and eyed him. "What is it?" she asked.

"You can't just kill him! He's frozen! Defenseless!"

"You do realize that you'll have to maintain the baang to keep him frozen for the rest of the fight, right? You'll be forced to clear the stronghold with only one half-formed baang."

Viole felt his mind, his entire being, harden. His eyes narrowed as he glared at the girl, stepping between her and the frozen bandit. "So be it," he said.

She looked at him for a moment before that same smirksmile grew on her face. Mjollnar spun away from the man's head to hang at her side. "Those are good eyes, my god."

He groaned at that, then turned his back to her. "I'll check the guard tower," he said before heading to the door on the far side.

After taking a few steps, he realized he didn't hear footsteps following him and cranked his head around. There Hwa Ryun still stood, gazing up in the whitewashed sky above, with its bright blue and rolling clouds. For a moment, Viole wondered if that's how he looked when he paused to look up at the stars – lost in thoughts of earlier days.

He almost said what are you thinking of? But it wasn't even a thought, just an urge.

"Are you coming?"

"I am. After you."

…

AN: A couple of things. First, for returning readers you may want to go back and reread the previous chapters. I did some revisions to both better fit in with the canon and for future plot points I have in mind. Essentially, I realized that all three canon flashbacks we've been given are back to back with each other. After Yu Han Sung leaves he passes Ha Jinsung who then introduces himself to Baam, after Ha Jinsung realized that Baam learned the Flare Wave Explosion instantaneously he asked if Baam wanted to become a god. So taken that into account the new order is Chapter 1 - Ultimatum - Jinsung Intro -Fake Thorn - Chapter 2. Second, I've also thought up of a couple of new theories that I will probably present elsewhere. You can find them on