Ascending the tower with my SSS class

Uriel didn’t understand it. His people were being massacred, yet she didn’t move in the slightest; in fact, it seemed like she accepted it, with barely any resistance. It wasn’t that he cared about them; the whole situation felt distant to him. Still, that was Uriel: someone who had spent who knows how long without any human contact.

He understood that something was wrong with him, but he didn’t understand why someone like Soliel was so calm.

"Aren’t you going to save them?"

Soliel simply turned around and walked, as the screams and cries for help echoed throughout the cave.

"I can’t save them. We can’t defeat that creature. The only thing we can do is search for the light. Once I find it, I’ll be able to help them, but until then, there’s nothing I can do except watch."

Uriel looked at Soliel while observing the monstrous creature. It moved with astonishing efficiency; some brave soldiers charged at it, striking with their fists, yet their attacks had little effect, and they were devoured and torn apart by the numerous hands emerging from the black mud.

"Then why are you helping me? It doesn’t seem like something you’d do when you’re letting these people die."

It was a strange conversation. The two of them spoke about the deaths around them as if it were something detached, as if they were watching everything through a screen.

"Letting them die? No, quite the opposite. I will save everyone down here, and you, being from another world, are going to help me achieve that—or at least, that’s what the other me told me."

Uriel felt a spark of curiosity.

"Another you?"

"Yes, the other me. She probably sent you, didn’t she? She mentioned your arrival, said you had already seen the light once, so you would be useful in finding it. That’s why I saved you—but first, I needed to know whether you were dangerous."

"And what if I had been?"

The vibrations stopped for a moment; it seemed Soliel was thinking.

"Well, if that had been the case, I would’ve torn your limbs apart and taken you with me."

Uriel understood clearly that she wasn’t lying; that’s exactly what she would have done.

They both moved through the caverns, away from the screams, until they found a passage—a tunnel shaped perfectly to Soliel’s size.

"I’m sorry, I didn’t think you’d end up being so tall, even taller than me. That’s not usually possible."

Uriel didn’t really care. It was true that it was a bit narrow; however, all he had to do was crouch slightly. And so, they began their escape from the slaughter.

"So, where exactly are we headed?"

Soliel hadn’t mentioned it; she had simply told Uriel to follow her, and that’s what he had done.

"There’s another city a few kilometers farther from here. We’re going there to prepare."

"Prepare for what, exactly?"

For the first time in all this time, the vibrations Soliel emitted carried a trace of emotion—something Uriel could feel.

"We’re preparing to go to the surface and find the light."

Find the light... That was something Uriel also needed to do if he wanted to prevent his family from being killed: to stop being an ember and become a flame. But how would he do it? He had lost all sense of who he was.

They continued in silence, stoically, for kilometers through the depths of this underground world. Soliel was the first to break the silence.

"I’m impressed. This isn’t an easy journey, you know?"

The truth was, Uriel had already grown used to the relentless repetition of actions. At first, it was a bit annoying, but he quickly found something familiar in the monotony of walking without end; even the pain felt fresh.

"You know, I actually spent a long time alone, doing nothing... maybe years, just sitting still, thinking... unable to feel my body... Honestly, this is a bit refreshing, in a way."

Soliel said nothing; she was processing the information she was receiving. Truthfully, she didn’t understand how someone could remain still for so long without doing anything or feeling anything; that was like being dead.

"You’re a bit strange."

Uriel felt slightly perplexed. It was coming from someone who could accept the deaths of others without blinking; though he didn’t feel offended or anything like that, her reaction was curious.

"You don’t have many friends, do you?"

Soliel stopped for a moment and turned her head toward Uriel.

"I don’t need friends. All I need is to find the light. Nothing else."

There it was again. Both this Soliel and the other one always spoke in these kinds of metaphors: light, following your heart... but Uriel still didn’t understand what it meant. In a way, he understood that Soliel would eventually find this light she longed for, but her body was nothing like that radiant form Uriel knew.

"But what is this light you’re searching for? Is it something physical? Can it even be seen?"

Suddenly, a change surprised Uriel. The vibrations coming from Soliel now carried anger—or at least something close to it.

"Of course it exists. What nonsense are you talking about? Especially you—someone who supposedly comes from a world where light exists. And don’t play dumb, the other me told me."

"Then what you want to find is the sun?"

That meant he would have to go with her to the surface of this world. It was a journey he had no idea how long it would take.

"That giant sphere isn’t what I’m looking for. Besides, I’ve read the ancient texts—there’s no such thing as a sun anymore."

That surprised Uriel. A world where the sun had disappeared... that basically meant a cataclysm that should have extinguished all life in the system. In fact, didn’t that mean this was something like a ghost planet, its orbit now doomed to wander the universe forever until it collided with something larger? Uriel didn’t really understand much about physics and those kinds of things; he had left school early.

Still, Uriel hadn’t found the answer he was looking for, and it was starting to frustrate him.

"Agh, why can’t either of you just speak clearly? What the hell is this damn light you keep talking about? What does it even mean to follow your heart?"

But, against all odds, the answer finally came.

"I don’t know about the others, Uriel. Look, I barely know you, but I suppose we’re meant to travel together, so I’ll tell you—why not? You’ll have to help me anyway..." That much was true: whether he wanted to or not, Uriel had to follow her. "The light I seek is something very simple: it’s the future, Uriel; it’s life, it’s tomorrow, it’s salvation—and it’s vengeance. That is the light I’m searching for."