Another series written by your's truly. In comic prose. Enjoy~
–- Update From New Post Merge ---
Tower of Eternity
Chapter 1
9 Climbers
Page 1
! [Text boxes overlay the panels of a gargantuan deep purple tower in the midst of dense foliage of crimson red trees. The thick forest of trees surround the tower like a moat surrounds a castle]
Text boxes: Excerpts from the journal of the pioneer, Sir Gabriel Wakeman.
“On the 2nd year of our expedition one of the scouts of our party encountered something that defies all logic. As we scurried to the spot where our scout was, we all viewed it in all of its majesty. What we were looking at was an impossibly tall purple spire in this dense thicket of dark red trees. The tower perhaps several miles long in diameter, pierced through the cloud cover and stretched significantly father than any of our eyes could reach”.
“We inquired the native people surrounding the area about the peculiar spire, but regrettably received few answers. It appears that the spire predates the known history of their civilization. All that is known is all those whom enter its doors never return”.
Page 2
! [The text boxes cover a larger series of panels showing the height of the tower, each panel progressively getting higher and higher in the air until the final panel of the page shows the forest as only small red dots]
Text boxes: “One of the locals used a word to describe the odd structure that was completely foreign to our party’s interpreter. The closest translation of the root of the word used could roughly translate to “that which is now and forever more”. A more pragmatic interpretation and the name that our party has begun to call it is…”
Page 3
! “The Tower of Eternity”
[A single page spread of the tower passing through the cloud cover and continuing onward]
Page 4
! Text box: 400 years later
[The scene shifts to several groups of people holding newspapers. Each person has jaws agape and shocked expressions. Whatever is in the newspapers seem to be completely flabbergasting the people of the world]
Text box: “A flame was ignited throughout the world. In a matter of days a single spark set off by one man set the world ablaze”.
[Panels showing hundreds of people setting sail from foreign ports on cramped boats, leaving on tightly packed trains, and innumerable horse and wagon caravans travelling across plains]
! Text box: “Countless thousands of immigrants immediately dropped everything in their lives to come to the source of the flame, the sigil of the fire. In 3 months, the country’s population had more than doubled, over one man’s spark”.
Page 5
! [The panel shows a close-up of a newspaper headline containing the portrait of an old man with long flowing white hair, seamlessly connected to his equally long white beard. His thick ivory colored eyebrows nearly cover the entirety of his eyes. The old man is wearing a slick black business suit with a white tie. He holds a cane in his left hand. The caption of the article reads “Staley Hosts Worldwide Contest”]
Text boxes: “President Staley of the economic giant Staley Pharmaceutical Company announced he is organizing an eight person expedition party to scale the Tower of Eternity. Whoever manages to reach the top of the Tower of Eternity and returns will win 100 million dollars”.
“And after rigorous testing over 3 months, all the positions were filled”.
Page 6
! [The scene shifts to deep within the crimson forest. The dense forest cover almost completely blocks out the light. Eight people are standing in a small campsite, one of them being President Staley whom is sitting down beside a campfire. Each of them seem to be patiently waiting for something with varying levels of patience]
[A slim man with glasses walks on the dirt path toward Staley. He has short slicked back black hair with two long, almost sharp bangs that droop down past his eyes to just above his mouth. He is wearing a slick black suit with a white tie, just like Staley. The man is holding a steel briefcase in his left hand and an opened envelope in his right hand]
???: “Mr. Staley, I have received a letter from one of our camps. Our party will be complete by the end of this day”.
Text box: Halford Hayes
“Head Researcher of the Staley Pharmaceutical Company”
Staley: “Oh thank you Halford. I take it they are escorting our final winner to the site then?”
Halford: “That is one of the issues that are mentioned within the contents of the letter. It would appea-“
[Halford’s sentence is cut off by a loud explosion just outside the campsite]
Page 7
! ???: “What on earth was that?”
[A young man wearing a sable ebony colored parka with white trimming sprints out of his tent toward the center of the campsite. The hood of his parka covers most of his head, only showing the lower half of each of his eyes]
Text box: “Pitch Black” Dimmu Dimmu
“Youngest climber to ever ascend to the top of Mt. Amon Amarth. Estimated height: 42,000 ft”.
???: “Let’s keep it together shall we? We are supposed to be the ones who can handle ourselves under pressure”.
[A woman in her late 20’s appears from behind Halford. She has long flowing silver hair that drapes past her shoulders. She wears the identical outfit to both Staley and Halford. Over her left ear is a gem encrusted hair clip of an eagle. She has a cold, disinterested gaze in her eyes]
Text box: Slymenstra Silverman
“Vice President of the Staley Pharmaceutical Company”
Slymenstra: “I don’t suppose we have any volunteers for checking out what that was? Interested Shavo?”
Page 8
! [Slymenstra turns her head towards a tall man hunching over on a bench with his arms crossed. The man’s head is completely shaved and is covered with scars. He also appears to have no eyebrows. The most noticeable aspect of this man is the tattoo on the left side of his face. On his face is the depiction of a hanged man, the head of the hanged man circling around his left eye and the gallows ending on the same height as his lips. He wears black leather pants and a sleeveless leather coat showing his heavily tattooed arms depicting as if his arms were bound by rope and carries a gigantic spear on his back]
???: “…Not interested”.
Text box: Shavo Dadaian “The Distortion”
“Wanted in 12 countries for manslaughter. Has the highest known body count of any man currently living”.
Tarja: “I’ll go. There’s nothing to do here but wait anyways”.
[A young woman appears from behind Dimmu Dimmu. She has long teal colored hair that rests on her shoulders. She is wearing a glimmering emerald colored aviation esque suit with various patches and pouches containing who knows what. Inscribed on the back of her suit are large angelic wings. Perching on her left shoulder is her pet owl Berry who has piercing crimson eyes]
Text box: Tarja “Typhoon” Mäkelä (+ Berry)
“Native of the Pantera treetops, trained to live in altitudes with little oxygen and has dominion over birds”
Page 9
! [Tarja runs off towards where the sound of the explosion emanated from with Berry flying closely behind her]
[From the tent next to Tarja’s another young woman emerges from the entrance of the tent with a fatigued expression being worn on her face. She has short, messy purple hair and she wears a sultury low cut sleeveless yellow shirt with black rims and a black miniskirt. On her left wrist she has a tattoo of a crown being surrounded by 12 stars.]
???: “Corr, if she wants t’ go and get ‘erself killed that’s fine by me. Just keep it down dammit!”
Text box: Lacuna “Ultra Violet” Schaffer
“A common petty thief”
Lacuna: “Oi! I’m takin’ offense to that!”
???: “Please keep it down. You’re not the only one attempting to get some sleep”.
[A tall dark skinned man sticks half of his body through the entrance to his tent next to Lacuna’s with a solemn expression. He has a large muscular figure that can be seen even through his almost clerical looking white and red striped robes. His robe’s hood is held over his head, almost covering the entirety of his black hair. His face is mostly covered by a small red and white face mask. Around his neck is a long chained necklace of two identical swords parallel to each other pointing leftwards]
Text box: “Livewire” Lee Aday
“A self-proclaimed wandering holy man”
Page 10
! [The scene transitions to Tarja and Berry traversing through the forest, showing panels of Tarja bounding over overgrown red tree roots and swinging from tree branches]
Tarja: “It’s awful isn’t it Berry? We all hear an explosion and everyone is disinterested. Just more content to sit on their asses or sleep! How on earth could such lazy people pass those entry tests?”
Berry: “Hoot”!
Tarja: “Yeah we didn’t “pass”, but it’s still the fact of the matter”.
Page 11
! Tarja: “W-what is this?”
[Tarja and Berry immediately screech to a halt after leaping over another branch to see a caravan covered in flames and bellowing smoke into the dense tree cover. Mangled human bodies lying on the ground surround the outskirts of the flaming caravan, save for two people that can be seen standing through the smoke]
[The following panel portrays the figures in the smoke noticing Tarja’s presence and begin walking towards her. Tarja’s expression immediately changes to a serious tone]
Tarja: “Don’t take another step, identify yourselves”!
???: “Whoa whoa whoa it’s okay! Don’t attack us!”
[The figures had walked close enough for Tarja to make out their appearances]
Page 12
! Dani: “Just give us a minute to explain ourselves, alright?”
[A short tan skinned girl is holding her hands up in the air as an act of caution. She is a young girl, barely in her 20’s, wearing a colorful Technicolor square pattern on her white hoodie and jeans with several patches on them. She has short dark blue hair and a small scar above her left eye]
Text box: Dani Harris “The Voltage”
“Native of the reclusive Muir swamplands. Immune to nearly every poison due to the abnormal systems in the Muir people’s bodies”
Alexi: “We were attacked on our way here by the losers of the final entry test. So they had to be put down”.
Dani: “Well you didn’t have to kill them”!
[A tall man with incredibly pale skin and dark rings under his eyes begins to light a cigarette as he speaks. He has long wild light pink hair that stops just past his shoulders covered slightly by his red fedora. He wears a darker pink leather biking jacket with 8 star shaped holes on the back and black pants. On each of his hands are large custom made brass knuckles, each one having a small engraving on the front. The right hand reads “itselleni anteeksi” while the left one reads “Ev voi antaa” with a small scratch through the letters]
Text box: Alexi Nikkilä “The Super Nova”
“World famous archaeologist, has discovered over 20 historical ruins by himself”
Page 13
! Alexi: “They tried to bomb the two of us, you’re telling me we can’t fight back?”
Dani: “No, but…”
[Dani is cut off by Tarja as Berry lands back on Tarja’s left shoulder]
Tarja: “Time out, so you guys are telling me that this caravan was going to bring our last member?”
Dani: “Oh, uh, yes that’s right!”
Tarja: “So, which one of you is the last climber?”
Alexi/Dani: “Both”.
Tarja: “What”?
Halford: “This is the situation I was trying to tell Mr. Staley earlier”.
Page 14
! [Suddenly Halford appears directly behind Tarja, completely catching her offguard]
Tarja: “What? When did yo-“
Halford: “Mr. Alexi Nikkilä from Group 1 and Ms. Dani Harris from Group 20 passed the final entry test, the 40 mile run through the sand dunes at exactly the same time of 10 minutes on the dot. So we have no choice but to accept both individuals as climbers”.
[Alexi begins to stow away his brass knuckles into his pockets]
Alexi: “Not that your boss minds that you guys have two more capable people instead of just one”.
Halford: “Quite. Though my sincerest apologies for the unfortunate turn of events”.
Tarja: Thought Balloon: “These two ran through 40 miles of sand in 10 minutes? That’s insane”!
Page 15
! Halford: “Well then Mr. Nikkilä, Ms. Harris, and Ms. Mäkelä, shall we return to the campsite? I’m sure you two are both tired from this excursion and would like to hear the plan to scale the Tower of Eternity in full detail from the lips of Mr. Staley himself”.
Dani: “Y-yeah!”
Alexi: “Sounds good to me. Let me just make sure I haven’t left anything in the caravan”.
Halford: “Of course. Ms. Mäkelä, could you lead Ms. Harris back to the campsite while I wait here”?
Tarja: “Sure thing. Berry and I would be happy to”!
Dani: “An owl”?
Tarja: “It’s a long story”.
[Tarja and Dani stroll back towards the campsite with Berry flying closely behind them]
Page 16
! Alexi: “So, I take it you have some important role in Staley’s company then”?
Halford: “You could say that”.
Alexi: “Then perhaps you could tell me why the men and women that attacked us had Staley Company nametags hidden in their belonging”?
[Halford adjusts his glasses before answering, the few rays of light that breach through the forest cover and the rising smoke reflecting off the left side of his glasses]
Halford: “I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about”.
Alexi: “Look, I’m not going to hold it against you guys, and I’m not going to bother telling anyone else”.
Halford: “?!”
Page 17
! Alexi: “But tell me this, if you guys are so set on bringing a certain number of people, for whatever reason, did you REALLY think sending a bunch of semi-armed thugs were going to stop people you yourselves hired to be super-humans”?
Halford: “…Perhaps your question would be better suited to Mr. Staley himself. Even I am not privy to all of the details of the following operation”.
Alexi: “Fair enough. Lead the way”.
Halford: “Of course sir”.
[Halford adjusts his glasses once more]
Page 18
! [A single page spread of Alexi following behind Halford with Halford giving a distressed look on his visage]
Halford: Thought Balloon: “Super Nova, you're the wildcard we don't need”.
END