There’s safety in numbers, but what happens when something sinister may be among us? A secretive knight reveals her tragic past while surviving an onslaught of an unyielding undead horde. The blood of royalty comes in handy, and a curse and a magical being give aid to their new companions, but is it a friend or foe? Things are really heating up when one gets jealous of another as they get too close to whom their mind is linked to. Even when cornered, the nine warriors and one crow-goat are still ever getting closer to catching up to the evil Necromancer, but can they withstand the evil within, much less each other?
Strange Bedfellows
Yuva meets Dorias, a tower sprite in the form of a living statue that has an intuitive awareness of the surrounding area of the tower. It can communicate telepathically, but it’s not clear if it’s to anyone or just those of royal blood like Yuva. But, like a scouter from Dragon Ball Z, Dorias can detect the Dracomoph “power level” in Yuva. It explains his immense strength and dexterity, but not his transformation into a dragon. Having no outward dragon powers may be the reason he and his sister were placed in such a rural area, much like casting out the runt in a litter of pups.
Whoever did it didn’t see the value of such a “weakling”, even if it’s only superficial. Dorias is a part of the tower as much as the tower is a part of it. It knows almost all the ins and outs of the tower, from every doorway, stairwell, trap and monster. But what Yuva doesn’t know is why Dorias is helping him? Did breathing the breath of life into it inadvertently make some pact between them? Sorry, only enough time to deal with one monster at a time.
The First of Many
The gang is still being hunted down by the Necromancer in control of the undead body of Carache the Dracomorph. The gang splits in two and for a plan on the fly; Lilicen leading the charge with the main bulk while Yuva takes only Dorias. Still not quite sure how a fire barbitos can take down a dragon, though, dragons tend to be well known for being immune to fire. Dorias guides Yuva off an embankment, right into a weak wall and onto Carache, previously giving chase to Lilicen’s group. Trapped under the rubble, Carache could no longer avoid Lilicen’s attack, to which she unleashed a volley of flames right into his mouth. Looks like dragons are weak to fire, especially when it’s up close and explosive.
The Weight of an Invisible Crown
The reason behind Yuva and his sister Funapa allegedly being of royal blood, latent powers of a Dracomorph, and being so far removed from the Dracomorph kingdom is still a mystery to Yuva and company. It’s still only freshly revealed by Princess Ignelia back in volume 3, and with that revelation comes uncertainty and caution among the group. Yuva’s more focused on what it could mean for his sister rather than himself, given his position right now, it’s become more of a burden, especially with Lilicen. She’d been raised and tutored by royalty, so there is some measure of animosity between her and the monarchy raising her to be a weapon. Now she feels utter disdain towards the possibility of having to bow to some backwater yokel from nowhere and call him Prince.
The Many
The Necromancer’s undead thralls; with each passing moment, more and more adventurers enter the tower for a chance at wealth, glory, or duty to the realm in regard to attempting to save the princess. But with each warrior felled to the merciless power of the tower, they end up adding themselves to the ranks of the conjurors’ demonic slave army. The process was simple and morbidly efficient from the previous volume: the Basilisk was the first to be a part of the Necromancer’s army; coupled with its ability to turn its victims to stone, the Basilisk smashes them, which then lifts the curse, only to then infect them with the Necromancer’s necro-maggots, thus turning them into more of the undead army. A perfect system fit for a gruesome fate, and for an ill-mannered reason.
Aridelia, the Necromancer Knight
A good king considers all his options, even the unsavory ones. If all options are not on the table, then who truly rules, the king or the option? Whether a king needs to order a rationing of their kingdom’s food supply during a famine, go to war with another nation only when absolutely necessary, or make peace with the most unlikely creatures of their kingdom, every option must be considered. The Dracomorph king had done just that when discovering a necromancer lying low in the ruins of a neighboring castle.
Its house had fallen centuries ago, and the necromancer, having nowhere else to go, the king struck a deal with her: become a knight of the kingdom and serve under his rule, and let the past stay in the past. A shaky decision from a most benevolent ruler, a peace that was short-lived by the ruler’s passing, and by an evil kin no less. Aridelia forged her own destiny in a world completely unknown to her, and unkind to those just like her. But such things didn’t matter to her. In the time that she’s existed, she’d lost her identity, a husband prince, and a sympathetic king that gave her a chance at a new life. Now she presses on with a new identity, one built on justice for her fallen king. She joins Iscale and the members of the Anti-Nausea Alliance (read volume 4) to track down and avenge the kingdom and take down the evil Necromancer.
It’s Representation, but Not?
Anime has had various attempts at adding characters from the LGBTQ+ community that in the past haven’t always been well received, so the creators find a workaround to make, let’s say, a trans character more of a fictitious creation. Aridelia, having lost her husband right in front of her, transferred from her female body into her dead husband’s body. It just seems a rather crude form of imagination to have a character transition into a trans character by not actually being trans. Instead of just having a trans character, it seems rather hypocritical to have some horrible, monster-like creature hiding in a corpse to pass as human while the “gender swapping” was very nonchalant and an afterthought. Props to the creators for trying, but it’s better to just do it than find some articulate loophole.
Parts of the Past
The nine warriors accept Aridelia unanimously and return to the mission. Their presence brought forth more tower guardians, which begs the question: how are they attracting them in the first place? The first tower guardian was dispatched by Lieutenant Rudeum and Calix back in the first volume; now the guardians have become the hunters, finding our heroes locked behind a door that only someone of royal blood can unlock. Magic begets magic, the guardians are drawn to Yuva and the gang. A scent perhaps, or maybe Dorias unwittingly attracts their ire.
One thing’s for certain, Aridelia is attracted to Yuva, or his bobble draped around his neck at least. Back when Aridelia explained how she first took shape, she was developing a sort of consciousness as she grew, and as she became self-aware, other consciousnesses passed her by, as if she was coming to life while their consciousnesses were leaving for the afterlife. She remembered a being she had never met, and a fragment of that being was housed in the glowing orb that Yuva has.
Final Thoughts
There are so many plot points left in this volume of Tower Dungeon, it’s hard to count them all on one hand. Yuva being royalty and his connection to the tower, the death of Carache, Aridelia’s past dealings with the king as well as being a necromancer herself, Iscale so casually telling everyone that he’d been in contact with Minsabelle this whole time and Dorias’s timely aid. This list goes on, and the plot gets deeper with every floor they climb; it’s almost unfair to the readers to have to wait for the next chapter.
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