I was getting annoyed at this. The information was valuable, but I was getting antsy and bored. I had never been one to sit still. I always preferred to be in motion, to be doing something. I enjoyed learning, but after a certain point, my mind would drift. My thoughts always wanting to focus on something else.

All I wanted to do now was hop back into the dungeon. I had thought up some new strategies now that I knew the overcharge skill was a thing. I wanted to see if I could overcharge my summons.

[Due to this, Malikap… Are you even paying attention?]

I had started staring off into the distance, lost in my thoughts. But I shook my head and focused on the red pulsating crystal. "I'm sorry, I'm trying. I've just never been good at this kind of thing."

[What kind of thing? Listening?]

“Yes..?”

[How did you survive school? The teachers at my school would have throttled me if I had as bad a focus as you. ]

"I'm sorry, I'm trying my best, but I wanna get back to clearing the dungeons. While we are sitting here talking, those Aerlyntiums are floating there. Real people are stuck in a quasi-state of death when they could be here and alive again."

[ I understand that. But I am explaining some important things here. Information that you will eventually want to know. ]

"Is this information going to help me clear the monsters fast or move to another floor?"

[No, but…]

"But nothing. Give me one good reason why I should continue listening to you. You started by talking about Aurentum, and then you took a segue to ramble on about Malikap and that Elric was killed and Malikap took his place.. It's a crazy revelation, but Why is it important? Why must I know about him or Aurentum to survive in this place? I think I proved my competence in fighting, so what does the knowledge part matter?"

If crystals could breathe, Maximillian would have let out an insufferable sigh.

[This is important because you've been pulled into the middle of events. You now have to decide if you will be a part of the solution or a part of the problem. We want you to be a part of the solution. I know this information doesn't feel important, but I promise it will only help you clear this place. I'm not trying to bore you or stall you. There is a reason we are speaking, so please. Listen.]

People didn't tend to like me. I knew my wizard friend liked me, and maybe that girl I kept having memories of did, too, but I had a feeling that I was an outcast and not someone many people wanted to be around. It was strange not knowing who I was. Or was it weird? Maybe my experience here was perfectly normal. I hadn't opened up to these people at all. If I listened, they would listen, too, right?

I rested my arms on the table before me, clasped my hands around my elbows, and put on my serious face.

“Alright, I’m sorry I haven’t been attentive. I’ll try a little harder.”

[To fix our problem here, I'll refocus what I'm saying to be quicker. Malikap broke out of this dungeon and, in so doing, created a hole. Everyone always thinks Aurentum created this place, but he didn't. This place is a bridge—a bridge between two realms, Life and Death. And when we are here, we are neither. When Malikap broke out, the realm of the living could not accommodate him, so God created magic. To fix that hole.]

"And that hole is where Aurentum comes in?" I started feeling bored again, but I was determined to fight against this quasi-fatigue plaguing me. What was wrong with my mind?

[Yes and no. We are almost there. When God created magic, he created what are called Aspects. These are beings that are in control of how existence works. Beings that manage weather, rivers, erosion, earth, growth, and wealth. Beings like Rellum, Aurentum, and Malikap.]

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

[To imbue reality, people, with free will, he gave us The Choice. Good and Evil. Sin and Virtue. Yin and Yang. But Aspects, the lesser gods, were not given Free Will, as a result, Aurentum is a victim of his circumstances. As an Aspect, he was given power and influence over wealth. He controlled the ebb and flow of markets, money, and greed but grew tired of never having his own say. And one day, he refused The Great Will. ]

“What's The Great Will?”

[It's nature. It's order. It would be like grass refusing to grow green. Rain refusing to fall. The sun refusing to rise and set. Rivers refusing to flow. Refusing The Great Will is disorder, chaos, and death. It's going against the greater nature of existence.]

“And that’s bad because?”

[Is he serious?] The crystal took on a strange tone as if it disbelieved my words were real. I had a feeling that if the crystal had a human body, he would turn around and raise his eyebrows at his friends. I didn't like people questioning my intelligence. It wasn't my fault I knew little about the World Religion.

When my father was disgraced, my family stopped attending sermons. So, even though the will to learn had always been there, I never had the opportunity to learn my own religion. It was part of why I fell to Thievery. It was an easy skill to learn and I didn’t have to listen a lot. I could almost feel the memory form, but something stopped it. Almost unbidden, words I didn’t even want to say, came out of my mouth.

"Look, I'm not defending Aurentum; I think I get how evil he is, but what is wrong about betraying 'The Great Will.' Everyone does. You're both speaking with me, and I'm not one of Rellum's chosen. You're using Malikap's ward instead of Rellum. You're cavorting with an enemy and going against the right way of doing things."

[We have permission, and it’s not like you weren't chosen by Rellum anyway.]

“So he didn’t ask his Dad’s permission before sneaking out of the house, and now he is locked in a prison for all time? Isn’t that a tad harsh? And arent Rellum, and Malikap stuck here too?”

[It is more complicated than you are making it seem.]

“How?”

[It's more like he broke out of his dad's house after destroying the kitchen table, stealing the family coffers, breaking the front door, and absconding with all the family pets. To break the metaphor, he destroyed what trust he had in the Father, destroyed innocent lives in the process, and tried to play the role of the victim.]

“Alright, but I thought Rellum’s thing was forgiveness. Why can’t Aurentum be given a chance at forgiveness?”

[He’s too bitter. He sees it as capitulating. He won’t let himself because he feels too much pride.]

“So, why exactly did I need to know this information?”

“You need to know that you can't trust them," Thomas spoke up for the first time in the whole conversation.

"Well, duh! That was obvious. We're in a prison, I wasn't born yesterday." I shook my head and then looked at Thomas. "Let me see if I've got this straight. Malikap, Rellum, and Aurentum have specific natures to follow. The reason why Aurentum was jailed here was because he betrayed his nature. And now Malikap has betrayed his nature, too, and now it's up to myself and two other "Penitents" to climb the tower and find out why?"

[Essentially, but there are others of us on future floors. The problem with this place is in its structure. Once we leave this floor, we lose access to the shops and Klericho's base of operations. We have been here for at least a year trying to move on to the other floors, but we got stuck. And then we ran out of runs.]

"Alright, say I help you with this stuff. What is in it for me?"

[Teammates that will stick with you throughout the entire dungeon.]

I tilted my head and shrugged. That was probably a good thing to have. I lost on my previous run because I got impatient with the assassin. I was going to need to be more careful with this build. "Alright, I'll bite, what's the plan? How are we going to make it past the Djinn boss? Isn't that the wall that stopped you both?"

“You have 95 more runs, right? We have already discovered that you can bring us back each run, or if you die but we don't, we can high-tail it back to here.”

“I’d prefer not to use up all of my runs.”

[We know, but how else would you make it through this floor?]

"Brute force?" I laughed, hesitant in my answer. As soon as I said it, I knew how silly it sounded.

[There are still several things we can try, including plenty of methods for overcoming the challenges of this floor. With your new pet fusion skill, we can try nuking the boss down; maybe that will bring enough damage.]

"Okay, that sounds like a good plan to start with. It will take a plethora of runs before we finish them all. Unless there is a way to get multiple Aerlyntiums per room per run…" I facepalmed as I realized an easy test we could do. My eyes lit brightly as I said, "How does grouping work? Is it the first one through the door? What happens if Thomas goes through first?"

“No, nothing like that, but I think we have wasted enough time.”

I nodded. “Alright, Let’s do this.”

As a group, we walked over to the door to the dungeon. Thomas and I held Klericho's shoulder as he walked through the dungeon door.