Barghest opened the door to the first floor. Surprisingly, it wasn't the entrance to a large building but instead the room looked more like a wasteland.
In fact, it was a wasteland.
Barghest looked up and looked at the sun beaming down on them. A clear sky. As if they never even approached the tower but instead a large desert in the middle of nowhere. Barghest looked back down.
She had the luxury of floating so she didn't have to walk through sand.
Matsumi covered his eyes a little to combat the sun.
"What the?! I thought we were in the Tower!"
"Every floor on Heldor's tower is the size of a parallel universe. It's not like a set of rooms. My father created this tower long ago and with it he injected the collective unconscious into it. Each floor is a reflection of your mind. A projection of the internal that exists in any and everyone."
"Somebody thought of a desert? Who wants to be in a desert?"
He shook off the sand that was starting to get in his shoes from his steps.
"I can't even see the way to the other floors."
"It's a projection of my psyche. A remnant of the past. My early days as a child beast."
"These are your memories? You used to live here?"
He started to walk around, it was uncomfortable with the unsteady sand underneath his feet. Matsumi looked around to see if he could spot anyone else.
Barghest looked around. A sense of familiarity washed over her.
"Long ago my father Zeul created me here…My mother then took me and raised me for quite some time."
"Was your mom a beast too?"
Kind of a blunt question to come from him.
"My mother is an angel. She is not beast nor man..she prefers the appearance of an adult human woman though."
"Where did they go? Your parents I mean."
"My father died. My mother is somewhere but she runs the holy church with her new husband. That and i've been sealed for a while. So I don't really know where she is."
"Ah, sorry about that. I wish I got to meet my mom."
"It's alright. My father was no saint and my mother has her own life now. Her own way of doing things. She decided to dabble in the affairs of humans…I decided against it. At least until Vermelha decided to come to this realm..Now I am the same as her."
"You're a witch too?! No way!"
"No. I'm the same as my mother. Dabbling in your affairs. The creation of witches was heavily based on Angels however. They wanted to be mimicked and they were the original race that occupied earth outside of spirits..until humans overpowered them in population millions of times over."
"Oh, I guess you're right. So, what made you change?"
"..Vermelha had trouble with her father. I watched a lot of the abuse she suffered from when she was younger. I had to warm up to it..but she eventually got it under control."
"She did?"
"Vermelha had a very problematic relationship with her parents. She wanted to see the world but until recently witches weren't allowed to..and they were to either traverse the spirit world or they were to stay in Monte Carlo."
"And then you helped her get out of there?"
"No. She did it herself.."
"I would've done the same, she's cool."
He kicked up some sand for no particular reason.
"You know, I'm not really sure why she's so nice to me."
"I don't think you would've done the same…"
Barghest looked at the sand as she continued to float forwards.
"Vermelha made a mistake long ago that was involved in fixing the situation with her father. There was a woman with no magic just like you who was weak and sick. Maybe shes trying to right her wrongs by being nicer to you."
"Hey, I'm not weak and sick! But yea…I always thought about it. But why right here wrongs?"
"…Vermelha took her in and her father killed the girl. After that Vermelha lost control and ended her father's life with the unlocking of her Tokubetsu. Shes told me before she feels guilt in taking that girl with her home."
Barghest stared into the distance. No signs of any life or buildings.
Matsumi kept walking beside her, not saying anything for some seconds before speaking.
"It wasn't her fault."
He gave a simple thought to the situation.
"Human rights and morals are nuanced and complex. Let's assume doing something bad is red and something good is green..most people fall in the middle in a gray area..maybe to you it wasn't her fault but to others or herself it was."
"Sure, you can put all sorts of colors to people. But that's how I see it!"
"Well..it was her experience so I can't judge her. I'm just telling you what happened."
"Yeah, I get it. It's nice that you were there to help her though."
"…I guess so…though i'd prefer doing something else."
"Like what? Normal spirit stuff?"
Matsumi was confused as to why he couldn't see anyone else. A lot of younger kids ran in first, but now it was empty?
"I was meant to conquer the world. Now i'm babysitting some child who has no affinity for combat or mana. It's unbelievable."
One of the nearby students sighed to himself, well whatever this place was didn't seem to hold many answers you could preen from a glance, if anything the only thing to glance at was the vast expanses of sand and dust clouds.
The student continued to walk through the sand, sort of like the caspian from the books he's read. He shifted to take his journal put, holding it up and scribbling something down before closing it and continuing forward.
"Who says I have no affinity?! Why you-!"
He was already pretty far from where they entered but he did notice the new person walking in.
"Oh, look at that someone is here. But, what did you say about my affinity?!"
It took the studenta minute to remember but he soon placed his hand to his face.
"Right…"
He spent a few seconds concentrating but eventually his feet lifted away from the ground as he began to cruise along the air, making sure his straps were properly fastened so nothing would fall off and he'd need to stop to retrieve them.
"Just ignore him. You have no affinity for Mana. You're weak physically mentally and spiritually. Theres no way you'll make it through this life. I feel as if things will only get worse from here regarding combat."
"What?!"
Matsumi wasn't hard to provoke at all, a competitive fire was starting to brew again.
"For combat, I don't care. But for mana?!"
"You suck at both equally it doesn't matter. If I wasn't with you and you tried to go through here you'd die immediately."
"Seriously…if this wasn't for Vermelha and Heiwa I'd shut you up for real, and then you'd have to say I'm cool!"
Suddenly he imagined Barghest on the sidelines cheering for him
"Wow, Matsumi you're so cool!"
He smiled at this imaginary scenario.