MHA: The Tower Era

When Luke woke up the next day, his normal routine of showering and leaving his hotel was quickly disrupted as a screen displaying attunement choices, rather than time, appeared.

Luke looked at the screen in confusion, "What? How?" he mutters and rubs his eyes. Luke shot up, nearly ripping his bed in half, and stood in the center of the room, the cores collided with a series of sharp, metallic dings.

"I'm a chosen?"

[Congratulations, Chosen, your Affinity has been analysed by the Tower and now you have a choice of three attunements for your Energy.]

"Three? Don't you only get a choice of two?" Luke looks around his room for anything suspicious, but only the cracked walls and untidy room shows itself.

[The Tower has given you a third possibility because of your special soul.] The words on the screen change like glass shards rearranging itself, it seemed alive.

The transparent blue screen changes again.

[Please choose one of three, but beware that the third option has risks.]

[1. Death Affinity, mastery over life cycles and endings.]

[2. Shadow Affinity, stands for duality and concealment.]

[3. Soul Affinity.]

- [Caution. The Soul Affinity is rooted in humanity's awareness of self, consciousness, and the perceived connection to something greater than the physical realm.]

- [Caution. There will be consequences for choosing such Affinity.]

The screen suddenly expands and shows three options.

"The Death Affinity? And Shadow..." Luke suddenly looks down at the floor, his eyes closed. After the Tower Era, Affinities could be granted, but only the most suitable of Affinities could Humans attune to. If you could attune to Death, it means you are closer to death than most. It is similar with the Shadow Affinity.

Luke quickly continues to look at his choice, the Soul Affinity.

"I've never heard of the Soul Affinity. Could it be one of the Supreme Affinities like Dream, Void and Time?" Luke asks and no one responds.

Luke looks at his options and at once chooses his choice.

"If bringing her back is going to kill me, I will do anything to do it." Luke leaves his hotel, wandering through the apocalyptic ruins.

The ruins of a civilisation that seemed to be hundreds of years ago, the rotten stench of blood, and the dead bodies that the bodies the city fed to the monsters. The city was one of the least regulated places in the world. Death was a bigger problem here, the suffering almost indefinite.

Yet, people would still walk the streets of this city with no attention to the normal people's suffering, this place had never been caring even before the Tower.

Luke was one of those people, he hadn't cared before the Tower and now, but he had lost something great and that had changed him.

He lost family.

He thought, what if I stop anyone else from losing the same that I lost, maybe that would be justifiable for his parent's sacrifice.

Luke stops before the bodies he killed the day prior, but now it was rotting and the stench of the bodies only added to the cities already horrible stench.

Luke took the bodies and brought them outside the walls through a hole he found yesterday when killing these people and outside the walls, he leaned the bodies against the wall on the green grass.

Luke, with his Energy enhanced body, started to dig four holes. He couldn't burn their bodies or assure that their soul would move on, but he could at least do the minimum for the four rebels; The least he could do to justify his parent's death.

After four hours, the holes he dug were big and wide enough, when he threw the rebels into the holes and covered their bodies with the ground he dug.

Luke placed his dirt-caked hands by his sides and closed his eyes.

After a bit, Luke opened his eyes and sat on the grass and leaned on the grey wall.

[3. Soul Affinity.]

- [Caution. The Soul Affinity is rooted in humanity's awareness of self, consciousness, and the perceived connection to something greater than the physical realm.]

- [Caution. There will be consequences for choosing such Affinity.]

"I would like to attune to the Soul Affinity!" Luke shouted.

[Congratulations, you have chosen the Soul Affinity. The Tower will support you, but throughout the countless times the Tower has given this choice, none have returned alive after the process.]

[Caution: Their minds break away at the first sight of that world, never returning and a mindless husk left behind, only the special few could manage this power]

[So, the Tower would like to grant you another choice as you are the most suitable for the Affinity]

[The Tower does not need a dead body, choose carefully]

[Do you really want to continue?]

[Yes/No]

Luke stops to ponder. "What if I chose the Shadow or Death Affinity," Luke considers his options if he didn't choose Soul Affinity, "Death is about endings and Shadow is about the present. I can't reverse what happened with either, but Soul will give me the slightest chance to do just that: Bring them back."

Luke doesn't hesitate the decision.

He pressed Yes,

and his world changes forever.

The world that once looked normal, green grass and blue skies, changes into black clouds and multicoloured ground.

Luke glimpses another world, his mind fracturing under the weight of its strangeness. Yet he presses on, searching for something.

Luke's once dominantly blue hair became infused with tiny slivers of every colour: Black, White, Green, Yellow, Purple.

Luke's once differently coloured eyes change and become even more distinct; one eye becomes a hodge podge of colours that keep changing and the other became a green that became darker, when it reached black the colour rebound and turned green and then white, then it repeats the patten of White -> Green -> Black.

In the multicoloured eye, the immaterial lies and the power to influence the spirit world, in the other eye lies the normal Earth, through Luke's power the two realities unite and influence each other, and Luke sees the living and non-living.

Luke's eyes became a light show, a mesmerising display.

Luke's body also started to flicker, turning his left body parts a transparent blue.

Luke was becoming an Affinity user.

When everything stopped changing, Luke's awareness came back to him by pieces, like how it broke, his words becoming simple.

"What?"

[Congratulations!]

"Who?"

[The Tower welcomes the sixth Supreme Affinity, Luke Enfae. The Tower will give you a choice: Join the Tower or Take Freedom for yourself and become a rebel]

"Why?"

[You are the sixth, the Soul Affinity user, you function as the bridge between the material and immaterial]

[The Tower will help you achieve everything you want.]

Luke's mind finally regathers and becomes accustomed to his new world filled with countable numbers of tethers that reach for an unknown destination.

"If the Tower can't help me, then it doesn't deserve my allegiance. For now, I will play your game".

[The Tower welcomes the Sixth Supreme, The Soul Affinity]

An announcement that wasn't personal Tower Message resounded for the sixth time in a month and the world reeled.

A Supreme Affinity is the highest authority on the Tower, mostly because of their power, but also because they are the most useful inside the Tower. Luke shot up from the lowest, an undetermined to the highest echelon in the Tower Era.

Hundreds of Chosen gather under the leadership of a Supreme, each five forming factions that are small and large, they are revered, but also hunted.

Now, what the tower wants from humanity, which is the question on the minds of most and the Tower Expedition will prove what the Tower's goals are.

The Rebels say that the Tower is creating soldiers, however the World Tower Association say the Tower is guiding humanity to stardom.

"If I cannot bring them back, I will rip apart the Tower" Luke states as his smile widens, "Power truly corrupts everybody," Luke says as he felt his power rocket to the moon.

"No wonder why most hate the chosen."

Luke stood up from leaning against the wall and looked at the graves that connected with a tether to somewhere.

Luke channels his Soul Affinity, envisioning the 'Release' of a soul, he channels his Energy and implements his imagination onto one of the graves and the tether that couldn't be broken by anything, but time, snaps in half.

The body, that Luke could see through his multicoloured eye, slowly becomes something like dust and disappears from the world.

Luke prays for the release. His connection with the Soul hints that there is a place for these souls, the tether connecting somewhere shows proof.

Luke releases the other souls and the binds that held the soul to the body disappears, and the soul follows the tether to an unknown destination.

"May you live a better life," Luke's muttering seemed to change something within the souls, their red colouring becomes a bit whiter.

"Perhaps, saving the many will atone for the sin I accrued" Luke says as he beholds the sky that looked between a mixture of two realities.

Luke's eyes get brighter and a glint shine through, his eyes that once took in light and reflected, now absorbed the sky's colour.

"I hope this is some justice for your sacrifice, mother. I couldn't help anyone before,

Luke's eyes gave away to tears.

now, I can help people, maybe one day I'll help you and we'll live in this harsh world together once again".

Tears continue to run down his face, one by one, they fall to the floor.