[Chapter 36. Upper Floors]

  On the 4th floor, it was brighter and more spacious from the get-go. There were no corridors anymore. Instead, there were four balconies to the outside. After stepping onto one of them he was awestruck.

  He stood on a large, open platform that was built into the tower's side, hundreds of meters in the air, protected by a semi-transparent barrier that hummed faintly with power. The view was breathtaking; the forest stretched out in all directions, a sea of green under a sky of pale blue. But the beauty was slightly marred by the sight of the auxiliary towers that stood around the main tower, their tops bristling with what looked like large drone emplacements.

  They were a silent reminder of the power at his command.

  Looking down, the ground seemed so far away, the trees like tiny bushes. A sense of vertigo washed over him, a dizzying sensation that made him step back from the edge. Back inside he noticed the open ceiling, a flat glass dome was covering a good portion of it.

  Searanox thought as he walked over to one of the doors that were set into the outer wall.

  After opening it, he blinked. Before him was something he could only describe as a royal suite. It was at least twice the size of the ones on the 3rd floor.

  The entrance hall alone was bigger than the entire 2nd floor apartment. Same for the living room it was huge, with a large, comfortable-looking sofa and armchairs arranged around a low, polished stone table. A large, empty hearth took up one wall, and a huge window overlooked the forest.

  The bedroom was equally impressive, with a massive four-poster bed that looked like it could sleep six people with ease. While the bathroom was a marvel of luxury, with a large sunken bathtub and a separate shower stall big enough for a party.

  He walked over to the large window in the living room and looked out again. This view was even better from up here; the forest looked like a green carpet, the sky a vast, endless expanse. He could see for kilometers, the world laid out before him like a map.

  A grin spread over his face while he had this thought.

  After leaving the suite he checked the other doors. Fair enough, all were the same, same size, same interior, same everything.

  He looked around, counting three doors on each quarter, twelve of these suites in total.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  Searanox shook his head and let himself fall onto a comfortable couch that stood in the center hall. After a few seconds, while he was looking at the glass dome, he realized that there was seating in the open space of the center hall.

  Giving the chamber another look over, he saw beautiful pillars arching upwards with seating beneath them, decorative elements, and at its heart the stone, elevated on a small raised platform.

  Slowly, he peeled himself off the comfortable seating and went back to the center stone. The menu opened once again after he touched it, and he selected Roof.

  Soon after he found himself not under open sky as he had previously thought, but inside a smaller room, which was still at least tens of meters across. Like the 4th floor, four ways led onto balconies. He went outside and stood on top of the tower, even higher than before.

  This platform went around the entire circumference of the tower. It was also protected by the same semi-transparent barrier as the floor below. The four auxiliary towers were only small specks from this height. At the edge, the sheer drop was dizzying.

  Back inside, there were only four doors. Behind the first, he found a bathroom that was bigger than most rooms on the 2nd floor, with a massive sunken bath. There were small, separate rooms with a shower, toilet, and even a sauna. Searanox shook his head, dumbfounded, before opening the next one.

  It was a bedroom that had a bed the size of a small room. After walking inside he looked around, the room was not just a bed; it had a small living area with a sofa and a table, and a massive window that looked out over the forest.

  The third door led into an empty round room with a hexagonal depression in the floor, two steps below.

  The thought came to him as he walked inside, intending to look around for another door. As he stepped down into the depression, its edges glowed in a faint violet, and in its center was a lit hexagon, not bigger than a dinner plate.

  Curious, he walked over and saw a small glowing tower symbol in its center. As he focused on the hexagon, it floated up to his hips. Surrounding it were six other hexagons that were gray and had no markings in their centers.

  "Is this a map?" Searanox asked out loud.

  There was no answer to his question, just the floating hexagons in the center. He tried to touch them, but as he brushed over them, they moved.

  The thought was more question than statement.

  Deciding that this could wait, he walked out of the room. With his foot out of the depression, the glow vanished. The last door revealed something akin to a meeting room, with a large, round table made of polished dark stone, surrounded by thirteen high-backed chairs.

  Each wall were lined with shelves, but they were empty, waiting to be filled. Looking up he saw a ceiling that was a dome of dark, almost black glass, shimmering like a starry night sky that seemed to shift and twinkle with a slow, mesmerizing rhythm. He looked around the room.

  It was a place of power and authority, a place where decisions would be made that could shape the fate of the world. He walked over to the large window. The forest was a sea of green under the pale blue sky. Slowly the sun was setting, casting long shadows across the land. For a long moment he stood there, just looking at the world outside.

  He thought, the weight of his choices settling on him. The genocide. The slaughter. The fear he had instilled in others. It was all for this. For this tower. For this power. For this chance to not just survive, but to thrive. He leaned back, a sense of satisfaction spreading through him.