Uriel’s head still hurt, and it was only getting worse. For so reason, every ti he thought about Ininise and the others, it felt as though those mories were far more distant than they should have been. It was a strange and unsettling sensation.
At the sa ti, a sense of urgency began to rise in his mind, as if he needed to find sothing, though he didn’t know what. His gaze drifted to the system panel, which was flickering. Uriel opened it, and a ssage appeared.
[You have obtained a quest]
[Holy Pilgrimage]
[Find the light of Soliel in the second zone of the first floor]
Uriel felt that finding this light was of vital importance to him; however, he had no idea where to begin looking.
Just as his thoughts wandered over what he should do, the door to his room opened once more. This ti, a young man with short blond hair stepped inside. He was quite handso and had delicate features; he looked like a model from a fashion magazine.
He entered wearing a calm smile that, for a mont, reminded Uriel of the one Ininise used to have—that smile of religious people, accustod to speaking to large groups and always showing their best face.
"You must be Uriel, of course." The man moved the chair from where it was and placed it in front of Uriel’s bed, sitting down and looking at him intently. "It’s a pleasure. My na is Miguel." He extended his hand toward Uriel, who returned a firm handshake.
"The pleasure is mine as well, but may I ask who you are?" A lot of people Uriel had never seen in his life kept appearing.
The man smiled even more, if possible. "Your brother, Uriel—that’s who I am." If Uriel had been confused before, the current situation was doing him no favors, and it must have shown in his expression, because the man sitting in front of him quickly began to explain.
"My apologies, of course. We’re not brothers by blood, but brothers in faith; after all, both you and I are favored by the goddess Soliel." That was true—Soliel had ntioned several chosen ones; it seed this man was one of them.
"I’m glad to et fellow companions, of course, but right now there are so things that concern more. Have you seen the people who brought here? What happened to them? And where are we? How long was I asleep?"
Uriel had too many questions and feared that if he didn’t ask them now, he might lose the chance once again.
"About the demons you ca with... hmm... they didn’t look well, to be honest. They carried you through the entire second zone, which was far more dangerous than the first. Many of them looked badly injured, but even so, they took you from group to group of other humans, until they encountered Anastasia and Vladimir; they offered to take care of you."
Miguel averted his gaze to the floor, sowhat embarrassed.
"The truth is, they passed by my group as well; however, at the ti I thought you were a complete stranger, so I refused to take care of you myself."
That was fine—Uriel didn’t really care; in fact, the strange ones were people like Anastasia, who had decided to take care of him out of pure charity. Honestly, he didn’t understand it.
"But all of that is in the past. Many of those favored and chosen by Soliel left our forr groups and ford sothing like an order here, and you, Uriel, are one of us."
Sohow, Uriel had entered a religious organization without even knowing it, but he supposed that ant Soliel saw him as soone worthy.
"So we gathered, joined the Oracle, and took the church for ourselves. I wanted to bring you there, but as you can see, you’re still here, because Anastasia said sothing about how, once a hand is extended, you must follow through to the very end. So the only thing I could do was bring you furs to keep you warm. Oh, and as for your last question, I’m sorry to say you’ve been asleep for nearly a week."
A week... that was a long ti. In fact, how was he even alive after sleeping that long without dical treatnt? He should have died of dehydration or sothing similar.
"Thank you for the explanation, Miguel, but a week is a long ti. Haven’t we found a way back to Earth yet?"
Miguel shook his head in denial.
"We have found it; in fact, we would already be ho. However, we cannot enter it. That’s why, for now, we remain in the space between the third zone and the second."
A chill ran down Uriel’s spine. What could possibly prevent all these people from returning to their worlds?
"You see, getting here was difficult. You must have heard about the sudden events, right? Well, there was one especially chaotic: the blood moon. The first ti that event appeared in zone one, the dead in the ruined city beca much stronger; we estimate that half of the climbers died during that event."
Half of the climbers... that was truly a tragic number. In a single event, the climbers lost half their forces, and during all that ti, Ininise’s group had carried him. Uriel feared the worst.
"Then ca the second blood moon. Fortunately, by then we had found this walled city; compared to the previous one, we still had casualties, but they were minimal. We were better organized."
Suddenly, his expression grew grave and serious; he was not recalling pleasant mories.
"The passage to the final zone was open. We all entered and faced the bosses of this place; however, we were massacred and forced to retreat. So now we take refuge here and, from ti to ti, we go out and try to grow stronger for the true final battle."
Miguel clapped his hands together.
"Well, that was a summary of what happened while you were asleep, Uriel. Things have been a bit hectic around here; however, recently, we—the paladins of Soliel—received a mission and a revelation from the Oracle. We must seek the light in the second zone. You must have received a similar quest as well, right?"
Uriel nodded.
"Yes, in fact, I saw it shortly before you appeared."
Miguel stood up from his seat.
"Good, that settles everything. You don’t have a group, right? Among the other paladins of Soliel, we decided that I would temporarily be part of your group, as a way to make up for having rejected you earlier. So we only need three more brave individuals. It shouldn’t be too difficult to find people without a group. I’ll leave that to you, but Uriel, take my advice: it would be best to look for people you can trust."
A ring on Miguel’s finger lit up, and clothes appeared in his hands.
"Put this on. Well, I’ll be at the church; there are a few things that need to be settled before we leave. Oh, right, Viviane will want to see you; she’s sothing like the leader of the human groups. I recomnd speaking with her, but don’t feel obligated. Goodbye, Uriel; there’s soone else who wants to see you."
Miguel headed toward the exit; however, he was briefly stopped by Uriel’s voice.
"Um, Miguel... thank you very much for everything. You’re a kind person."
Miguel gave him one last smile and waved farewell.
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