CHAPTER 37: A BIT OF LIGHT READING

Page after page after page, Aerith tore through them like a man on some divine mission. Minutes turned to hours. He had only planned to learn as much as he could on the first day before falling back to the cafeteria to meet his comrades but what he was reading made him become engrossed.

He started with the history of the tower, and what he learned redefined a lot of things. The tower according to the books was created by an unknown being and ruled by many unknown beings at one time, and for some reason unknown they all vanished. It was like the truth was forbidden from being recorded in the books themselves.

A new being rose to power to be called the god of the tower, and apparently has been the only one ever to reach the top. There was also rumoured to be a treasure on top of the tower capable of granting any wish.

"How can a treasure grant a wish if no one’s ever seen it or used it?" Aerith said with disapproval in his voice as he flipped through the pages with his grey eyes growing with interest.

The tower itself was recorded to have eight floors, and Aerith had expected them to just be landmarks on the way up but he was wrong and also right in a way.

Currently they were still on the first floor which was the floor of beginnings. Those born in the tower itself existed on the third level of the tower living in a modern civilization of their own making. According to the books it was called an utopia of sorts.

The first floor was the only floor with a fixed location while the others operated much differently. The higher floors were connected to worlds called corrupted realms or like the testmaster had said Crypts. To go to a higher level for a first time one had to do so by traveling into a crypt to find a way back.

There were two ways to do this, the first was to save the world from it’s corruption and the second was to travel through the doorway to the next floor. And both ways had the same dangers of defeating the creature that guarded each doorway.

Aerith’s interest quickly diverged into the subject of these creature that seemed to be in every crypt in the hundreds of realms connected to each floor. These creatures were called umbrals, there were images based on them and each one seemed more horrifying than the last.

Umbrals were the monsters that those called into the tower would do battle against. There was a lengthy history about duty and destiny between all crossers and the umbrals who were spawns of a fallen god.

The books proclaimed of a great war that led the world to be fractured and the tower being created to connect a new series of realms to form a new world. But that was where those stories ended.

Aerith shifted his attention into another matter. He had known a bit about the tower and what awaited them when they chose to go to the next floor but what he did not know was why he had abilities and what they were. Or why the tower chose him when it had people within it. Or why it needed people who wanted something more out of life.

As he flipped through pages tirelessly his understanding grew and the fear he had of the unknown earlier slowly dissipated. It was replaced by the fear of the greater unknown. The more he knew he knew, the more he needed to know. He felt like he could absorb all the books in the library and still not get a clear answer, but maybe that was just his superstition.

"Now what’s this." He paused at something that caught his eye.

He had finally come across a book that went through the basics of what role he had to play in this.

The book stated with the explanation of how people with a deep yearning in their hearts were called into it and in the process given gifts. Even those who had not been called could force their way in like Nasha did and they would also be given abilities.

Each ability was more different than the last, each with their own parameters and limits. And perhaps that’s what made them truly a fearful force in the world of the tower. Each crossers ability was special to them.

Their ability would come with and attribute and a title disclosing it’s type, according to the book what was more important was the description of the ability which gave an explanation to what the ability meant in a sense.

Aerith summoned his title description and stared at it with cold eyes.

[Title- Lightcatcher]

Title Description- Reborn as one of light, shining without blemish. Light shines and shadows recoil. They are a beacon that can never be dimmed.

"Feels like a load of crap to me." He turned back to the book.

According to the book the real power of the ability came with its enchantment which would always have at least one flaw. It waved the banner of "all power comes at a cost". The enchnatment did not actually explain the ability itself but it’s imperfection. He almost grimaced at the thought of the tower giving them an Achilles heel to prevent them from being to complacent. Aerith had to summon his enchantments to see for himself if what he read was actually valid.

He currently had three enchantments which when he had first gotten gave him a bit of an headache, now that he had experienced others actually using their attribute enchantment to their advantage he had to try his best to comprehend his the best way he could.

[Title Enchantments]

Shadowless- as light reborn you bear no shadow.

Hope’s Shackles- The pleas of mortals bind them like chains; to ignore suffering is to invite divine punishment.

Eyes of Revelation- before the light all is made bare, not as they seem but as they truly are— flawed, fractured, ugly.

If he was to guess which one was his imperfection it would be the "hope’s shackles" enchantment, and from his experience it was real. He recalled when Emil had almost gone berserk and he could not look away from her suffering no matter how hard he tried, the same thing had happened when Nasha had lost her legs. And also when he had become a vessel for the black plague, there was a moment when he could feel the suffering of those he had killed. Even now he still heard their cries in his head.

Aerith frowned deeply. "Why would you give me such a damn imperfection and being me to a place where people will suffer." He would think of a way around it later because another think caught his eye.

Apparently one could only have one or two enchantments with one being an imperfection but he had three. Aerith rolled his eyes and said under his breath. "Well two if I grnore the most useless one of all."

He did not see how not having a shadow could be useful in anyway.

According to the book mastering ones enchantments was one of the secrets to surviving the towers cruelties. Aerith gave himself a mental pat on the head, "Alright that’s enough fairytales for now, let’s learn how to actually survive in this hellhole."