THAT DAY I BECAME A STAR

"How much time has passed now?" 

"How would I know that?" 

I have reached the thirteenth floor already so I decided to take a break and eat before continuing. But there is one thing that bothers me. There are no windows anywhere. I don't know what time it is or how much time has passed already. Sure, I can roughly estimate the time I have spent here but it is not enough. The god of absolute victory said that I only had one year before my soul is erased. With everything there is still to do, I must press on. 

"I am sure Thando is angry." Well, he must not have arrived in Nargil for long now so there is still time. 

"Cissa, what is the name of your world?" Once again, Maria engages in a conversation with Cissa like she is right in front of her. I don't even see the point of telling you to stop now. 

"I do not remember. I do remember how it was but sadly, I have forgotten its name." 

"That's too bad. And how is it then? Compared to Schamerin, I mean." 

"There is no comparison to make. My world is by far better." 

"Of course, you would say that." 

"Shut up, Kevin. Adults are talking here." Are you for real, Maria?

"You are talking to me, I will have you know." To my soul at least. 

"To begin with, my world is bigger, wider. Some of us liked to keep liddorms as pets since they can live for a fairly long time so we would sometimes organize-"

"What is a liddorm, Cissa?" Don't just go and continue with your story like that!

"The thing that you fought together with that Longinuc which named itself Lucia." 

"The dragon?" 

"That is in no way a dragon. It is a liddorm. I do wonder why and how the Longinus got themselves those." 

"No, no, no. That is what WE call dragons." 

"Then you are wrong."

"I am surprised as well. They never brought those creatures when I was fighting them. It would have been much more fun if they did though." Maria seems to be a battle freak as well. I wonder how good she is with the raizen.

"I am better than you. That's for sure."

"Oh, such a bold claim. Can you back it up though?" 

"Why not?" Maria stands up straight at those words and makes a raizen appears. It looks similar to the one in my arm.

"Let us spar. I will teach you a thing or two." 

I leave my food and stand up as well then I bring out her raizen. Let's see how good she is.

***

Back then, when I was told that I am one of those who just used brute force with the Raizen, I thought that it was wrong. I thought I should try to smooth my movements as much as I could, hoping that then, I would be able to master this weapon. 

"Have you had enough?" 

"Yes, more than enough, Maria." 

But now, I know for sure. That they were all wrong. From the beginning to the end. Maria is the top, no, the very definition of brute strength incarnate. 

"Hey!! That's rude!!" 

"I meant it as a compliment." 

"I don't care. You can't talk about a lady like this." This gnoll really… "Did you just call me a gnoll?" Oh shit.

"I-I didn't." That smile…Please, don't smile like that. Even I can still get scared, you know?

"Then don't speak nonsense. Anyway, I had the same problem as you when I was alive. Those who had created that weapon were all saying that it is not meant to be used like this. You should be able to draw out more power by doing that instead. They were always rambling about how I was using it." 

"And what did you do? How did you manage to reach such a level with it?" 

Maria's mastery is based on brute strength and straight attacks. She doesn't bother to feint because her attacks are not only powerful but super fast as well. What's more, she is using her shield like it is a second nature. Every time I dodged her attacks, no matter what I sent her way, her light wall was there, standing strong and protecting her. 

"I train. There was nothing else to do anyway since I wanted to prove them wrong. N'donkeu helped me by creating this tower as well as teaching me how to efficiently use light wall." 

"I see." That must be why her light wall is just like Rebecca's. "You should teach as well as we go up." 

"Well, I will try to but I am not a good teacher. So don't get your hopes too high." 

"Everything is good to take. Don't worry." 

"Hngh…" Abruptly, while we are talking, Rebecca makes a weird noise behind us. I immediately ready my weapon but Maria goes to her and touches her forehead.

"Mother broke three seals already. It is a bit faster than he said." 

"How many seals did he put on her? Can I do it as well?" If I can put those seals on her as well, then we will have more time. 

"He said that there is twenty of them. And no, sadly, you can't do it. You may have enough Angas for it but it's a script only he knows since he created it especially for her just in case."

"Then we should hurry." 

"We will get there, don't panic. N'donkeu said that since the higher floors have the particularity of absorbing Angas from people, she will be weaker there and it will take more time to break the seals that are left. Though it is not good if she remains too long inside this woman's body. It could severely damage her mentally and physically." 

"I don't care about that part." 

"You should." 

"I won't. Now, let's go." 

"Okay." 

I don't want her to die at any other hands than mine but if the goddess who she dedicated her life to after abandoning her son kills her, it would be really funny so I can allow it.

"You are twisted." 

"I know, Maria. I know."

***

The next floor has a pack of six gragoras that seems accustomed to fighting. Well, according to Maria, they should be since it is for that purpose that they were created. 

More importantly, those gragoras seem to know that they need to be killed three times to really die. They make use of it by switching their attacks. After I killed the first one, the others started running around the matriarch who is bigger brought back the one who just died back in a corner of the room that has a wall protecting it. 

"They were well tamed." 

"Not tamed. I told you that everything here has been created using Angas right?"

"Yeah, true that." I just have a hard time believing that those were created from Angas. What was the real purpose of this tower anyway?

"Graaa!!!"

I kill three gragoras at once, offsetting their leader's plan. She really thought I would kill them one by one? 

"Oh well." I fire a lightning ball at the leader and she evades it, only to be hit by a bullet while she is midair. After that, taking care of the rest is no big deal. 

"Maria? You said N'donkeu created this tower to help you but was that it?" 

"Well, I don't think so. He also talked about training the future generations but I don't know how he planned on doing it." 

Well, training the future generations would definitively be efficient with this. A lot of people would grow exponentially if they train here. But It would probably take too much time.

"It took me a year to reach the top the first time, just so you know." 

"What?!!!!" A year?!! "I don't have that kind of time on me now!!" I have less than a year to live, if I can say it like that.

"If you can say it like that?" 

"I don't have a year." 

"Relax, I am here. So you will probably make it in nine months or so if you don't take too much breaks. Though you will be exhausted by then." 

"No, don't worry about me being exhausted. We must hurry. I am surprised you can even be that relaxed when your mother is trapped in my mother's body." That sounded weird somehow. "Won't it affect the world now that she isn't there to govern it or whatever she is doing?"

"I don't know but I think it will be okay. I hope so." Maria looks away like she doesn't want to think about it. You guys didn't even think about it, right?

I advanced to the door of the next floor and I notice something on the ground near the wall where the matriarch was bringing her young. 

"Wait, it was still there." Maria goes to the wall and starts looking at the object with vivid attention. Just now, she looked like a ghost. Seeing her moving without her legs, she really, genuinely looked like a freaking ghost. 

I go to the wall as well and see a pendant on the floor. 

"I guess it was yours." 

"No, not at all. It was the pendant of one of our friends. He tried climbing this tower just like me but he stopped right when it became interesting."

I don't know what she means by interesting but this smile is not a good omen.