Ascending the tower with my SSS class

[Your actions have pleased Soliel]

[The Eleventh Finger has taken an interest in you]

[The Ten Fingers are furious]

Uriel was deeply asleep, oblivious to everything happening around him. At last, what he had feared had come to pass: the poison had overtaken him. Now he couldn’t move and was at the mercy of anyone nearby, though with a bit of luck, Kaelira and the others would find them.

But now there was a small problem. Uriel knew he was asleep—so why? Why the hell was he still conscious? It was strange. He couldn’t see or feel anything, not even darkness; he simply existed in the void. The only difference was that he could think.

I really hope Ininise is safe. I tried—I truly did my best to keep her safe—but even so, in the end, she took a blow that could very well be fatal. If the others don’t find us, we’ll die. That’s certain.

There was nothing more he could do. He regretted it, of course. He was also angry at his own weakness. Today he had realized the difference between himself and those who had trained to become climbers: it was vast—irritatingly vast—but he would have to do something about it.

Uriel was aware that, in a short time, he had been forced to improve—and he would have to keep doing so. There was a name he had heard repeatedly during this battle: Viviane. Uriel knew that name. Viviane was one of the most prominent climbers, close to becoming their leader in the human world.

He was sure she wouldn’t like that he had killed those men, but it hardly mattered: what was done was done. In any case, he was certain he had done the right thing.

Worry, anger, fear... what was the point of feeling them in this state? There was nothing he could do. Instead, he chose to rest—but it was difficult, and so minutes passed, and then hours.

Desperation began to creep in with every passing minute.

What the hell was happening? Was this the work of that man Masson’s poison?

Would he remain in this state forever, until his body died? Would he never wake again? Had he died—and was this where people went after death?

Each thought was worse than the last. Uriel wanted to scream, but he couldn’t. He couldn’t even use his mouth.

And so time passed. Uriel could do nothing. He was alone with his thoughts. He thought about his family—what they would do if he remained like this forever. In that case, Uriel would rather die here, in the tower, than have his family—his little sister—bear the burden of having a brother who was dead while alive.

Time kept passing. Uriel felt every second, every minute, like an eternity—but there was nothing he could do except think.

At some point, he began to think of things just to pass the time. He still hadn’t lost faith that, eventually, he would wake up.

So he began to review his life—his actions—as slowly as possible, to keep himself occupied and avoid falling into madness.

...

...

...

Uriel had reviewed the entirety of his life 545 times. This process wasn’t done in sequence, of course; sometimes Uriel would stop and think about other things, or his train of thought would drift.

He kept himself busy to avoid thinking about how desperate his situation was. Some memories entertained him far more than others; specifically, thinking about Ininise managed to keep him occupied. But even after spending a long time thinking about the most beautiful woman he had ever met, one could grow tired if those memories repeated over and over again. Still, without a doubt, what Uriel enjoyed remembering most was Ininise’s face—her white hair and golden ornaments, her beautiful figure...

Uriel had many things to do when he returned. He had to find his sister, take her out to eat. She had never liked toys much; maybe she would want to go to a concert. Once the world knew he was a climber, he would take her to one—but of course, he would go with her. What if something happened and he wasn’t there?

Hundreds of other thoughts passed.

What was that about the Ten Fingers? Uriel was now aware that there were other worlds. Honestly, he would like to see them. There were many things Uriel wanted to do when he woke up. The first world he wanted to see was Ininise’s. Were all the women as beautiful as the girls in that group, or had he simply been lucky?

...

Uriel would buy a beautiful house and have a beautiful wife. He wanted many beautiful children and to watch them grow up proud of their father. He wanted his mother to hug them and spoil them like any grandmother would. His sister would become a successful person, and her children would play with his. They would all be happy together.

...

Uriel was not going to leave this place.

He was not going to escape.

He would remain here forever. He had been condemned.

... 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

Uriel had finally lost hope.

No one would come to save him. He was already dead.

But if he wasn’t, he deeply wished that someone—anyone—would kill him. Please, give him relief from his own existence.

...

Uriel no longer thought about anything. Time passed in contemplation. His mind had shut down: there was no sound, no memories, no introspection. His mind began to fade away slowly.

It was remarkable how the human body could adapt. At first it had bothered him, but now it was natural to be there, simply thinking of nothing. There was no need for anything. He felt neither hunger nor fear.

...

Time passed. To Uriel, it felt like an entire lifetime spent doing nothing. It no longer mattered if he woke up. He had been there so long that his mother had probably died—after all, there was no one to take care of her.

His sister might have grown up. In fact, he even came to think that perhaps he was still there because she was the one keeping him alive. At times, he even hated her. He also thought that Ininise’s group might be selfishly keeping him alive.

He hated anyone who might have had even the slightest chance of causing this to him. But at some point, he got over it. It no longer mattered. His dreams, his desires, his determination... all of it had been destroyed by time.

Was he still Uriel after so long?

It hardly mattered. He accepted that this eternity was his new life.

And so time continued to pass. Uriel no longer cared. He amused himself with small mental games he invented, or by creating fictional scenarios—millions of them, countless stories in his mind.

But one day, something changed in his mind. A shift appeared. It was hard to explain. He was thinking about the usual things...

When a warm sensation struck him, and even within his mind, lights appeared. Lights he would never forget. Uriel knew it was not a thought.

It was Soliel.