“...Okay, so two questions. One, how do you know this, and two, why exactly are we not already there sticking a few feet of cold steel down its throat?”

Going by the very fact that we are sitting here casually discussing residence of the thing that put me through hell instead of making any decisive moves already tells me that the situation is a bit more complicated than they are letting on, but I wanted to see what answer Cornelius would give. Surprisingly, it was Kitara that spoke up in response.

“Just because we know where it lives, doesn’t mean we can just walk in there like we own the place,” she said with annoyance. Huh, did not expect any attitude to come from her with that cheery disposition she has been putting out so far.

“We can’t enter the Spire until we meet a few conditions,” Cornelius clarified. “One of those conditions is that anyone trying to gain access must be in a party of three. No more, no less.”

A party of three…? I almost laughed, but held myself in check. “The sacred Trinity, am I right?” I asked instead.

Kitara burst out laughing while Cornelius looked confused for a moment. “The priest, the little boy, and the god who watches in secret!” Kitara cackled. It was my turn to be confused, what in the world was she talking about? Whatever it was, Cornelius obviously got it, since his face darkened to a surprising degree. “Kitara…” he admonished with a low tone. “Haha, sorry Corny, it was just too perfect…” Kitara said. She didn’t seem all that apologetic.

Then again, I think my preconceptions about this woman has been cracked well enough that I lost confidence in being able to read her. She still seems like a pure hearted girl, but those last two remarks...I’ll have to pay more attention to her from now on.

“Am I missing something here?” I was forced to ask.

“Really man, do I have to spell it out? It was a Catholic joke,” Cornelius grumbled while turning away. Kitara’s myrth finally faded as she looked at his face. “I’m sorry Corny, really, it just came out…”

Sighing, Cornelius said, “I know Kitkat, I know...it’s just...difficult for me, okay?”

Kitara reached over and hugged him, pressing her petite head against his chest. That really was inconsiderate of me, I’ll try to avoid jokes like that in the future, okay?”

“Thank you,” was all he said in return.

They were quiet for a moment, and I used that time to try to process what was going on. I more or less failed. “Okay, I’m assuming that Catholic is a religion or something? That’s the only context that’s making sense to me right now, but I still feel like I’m missing something else.”

The two of them looked at me with disbelief on their faces. “What do you mean, you ‘assume Catholic is a religion’, what part of Earth did you even grow up on?” Kitara demanded. Why do I get the impression that she really wanted to ask ‘are you stupid’ at the end of that…?

Before I could say anything, Cornelius’ expression changed to one of an epiphany. “Right, you did say back in the interrogation room that you’ve been re-iterated more than once...I was going to ask you about that-”

“Interrogation room, what?” Kitara focused on him instead of me now, leaning back to look him in the face.

“Long story short, he was brought in because he had an unregistered Inventory Core and the Captain suspected that he was one of us, that’s how I met him,” Cornelius said as quickly as possible. “Don’t worry, there was nothing too serious like an attack or anything- but...then again, you have to explain how you know Lilia,” he finished as he turned back to me. “One thing at a time though, since it seems we have a lot of misunderstandings to clear up.”

I couldn’t agree more. “Yes, please, let’s try to figure out one thing at a time so that we can all be on the same page.”

Kitara returned to her previous sitting position and Cornelius made himself comfortable for our extended talk. “Okay, let me get this first point out of the way since it will bug me forever if I don’t. Religion first, then your re-iterations. Back on Earth, I was a devout Catholic. I still am...mostly. Kitara here is, what, atheist? Agnostic?”

“Let’s just go with agnostic, or something like that. Obviously there is a higher power out there considering what happened to us and where we are now, but whether that is god or whatever, I don’t know. I just don’t like organized religions and their brainwashing,” Kitara said.

“...Fair enough, but let’s not get too far off point, though I know that’s my fault,” Cornelius continued. “Now, right, Catholic and Agnostic here. Both are systems of beliefs, though one is organized and the other is not. I won’t get into all the controversy surrounding the Catholic Church, but there tend to be a lot of nasty jokes made that honest practitioners get rather upset about.” He seemed to want to give Kitara a pointed look, but visibly stopped himself. “Anyways, when the Reality Break happened, a lot of people’s religious views became...well, chaotic would be the best word I guess. I wasn’t plugged into the talks from around the world, you know, too busy trying to keep my kitten and myself safe, but from what I heard, people were losing their minds. Some religious folks tossed their beliefs away in the bloodbaths, some held onto them even more tightly to the point of fanaticism, and some just...warped their views.”

He paused for a moment, then pushed on. “I didn’t know what to feel myself. For the sake of keeping myself focused and sane, I chose to believe that my faith was not misplaced, that my God still exists and is above all the insanity that we were facing. For a while, that was enough, I was able to ignore any discrepancies and just focus on doing what I could for the two of us. When I died..and encountered the messages from the entity...then re-iterated here...it threw me for a loop. I had many years of idle activity, nothing to stop me from trying to really figure out what to believe in. Was I going insane? Was this a test from my God? I couldn’t tell, because the only direct answer I ever got was from the thing that set us on this path. I want to know whether or not my religion was true, whether the God I worshipped for so many years was real...or a lie.”

Silence reigned in the room for a long moment. “Maybe we will find the answer at the top of the Spire, Corny,” Kitara soothed.

“Maybe…” was his despondent reply.

I could understand his plight. As much as I couldn’t remember the religions from Earth, I still struggled a lot with the idea of worshipping a god that may or may not have existed across multiple lifetimes. In some iterations I actually met gods, or beings that called themselves such, and that only brought about more confusion for me. In the end, I decided that it didn’t matter which god was the ‘true’ god, since none of them seemed connected to my other lives...until now. Before, it was a matter of give-and-take: if helping a god benefitted me, then I would work with them. However, I stopped worshipping anything, blindly or otherwise, a long time ago.

I didn’t want to go down the theological philosophy route at the moment, since we still have a lot more to talk about, so I said, “Okay, I understand that point. You wanted to talk about my re-iterations next?”

Cornelius nodded. “Yeah, you made it seem like you were brought to life multiple times, how many times exactly? And how is it that you still look so young? I know that Kitara and I were actually born again - ha, I’m technically a Born Again Christian, huh?” Kitara burst out laughing once more, Cornelius right along with her. I figured it was yet another religion joke. I hope this doesn’t happen too often…

“Sorry, sorry, I kinda needed that,” Cornelius said. “But yeah, we were literally born from parents in this world, and as far as we can tell, we have both lived a full 25 years here. I mean, I guess there might have been some fluctuations in time, but it doesn’t make sense that you’ve been through multiple lifetimes.”

“Yeah, that really doesn’t make sense, were you not born here too?” Kitara added in.

I honestly did not know how to explain my circumstances, though I had an idea or two. “I don’t know how much time passes between iterations. By that I mean the amount of time anyone stays dead. It could be a second, or it could be centuries, I have no idea. All I know is that this is the hundredth time that I’ve started a new life and I’m sick of it. I don’t want this to keep going, I don’t want to wake up again when I next die. If the entity can tell me about that, then I’ll beat him down all he wants.”

My face darkened as I said, “More than likely, that thing was the reason why I suffered for so long. I just want to know why. If I can’t get that much, then I’ll settle for a final death.”

“Wow. A hundred different life times?” Kitara asked. “That must really suck.”

It was my turn to suddenly laugh. “That’s a bit of an understatement.”

“I used to read a lot of literature about immortality, the darker side of it,” Cornelius interjected. “I can’t say I completely understand what you’ve been through, but at the very least I can say I get the concept. If what you’re saying is true, you really are an unfortunate bastard.”

“Oh my goodness, did Corny just say ‘bastard’?!” Kitara cried out in mock surprise.

Cornelius rolled his eyes and smiled softly. “Yes, I did, don’t get too excited now.” Kitara turned to me while laughing and said, “This guy rarely curses or uses words like that, it’s like a miracle when he does.”

“Oh, I see,” I said with a chuckle of my own. “We’re getting distracted though, what were the other things we needed to talk about?” That helped them focus on the task at hand once more.

“How long have you been in this iteration so far, Zareb?” Kitara asked.

I had to think for a moment. “Should be just over a month and a week? Let me be clear, I ‘woke up’ in this body totally bare, I didn’t grow up in this iteration at all.”

“Thanks for the imagery,” Cornelius said with a grimace. “Still, that is definitely not like how the others were re-iterated here. I haven’t met too many of our kind, but the Adventurer’s Guild does keep track of that sort of information. I don’t have much access to it myself, I just know that, in general, those who are re-iterated are born in natural births, just with their memories and such intact. How is your level? Which, by the way, is another requirement concern for the Spire, each member of the party needs to be at minimum level 15- AH! Now I get what you meant by the Trinity, that was really bothering me!”

I had to laugh again. “Yeah, the religion thing threw us all off, but I meant the Trinity in role playing games - tank, healer, and damage dealer. One to take the damage, one to heal the damage, and one to dish out the damage.” There was no escaping these sacred roles. It didn’t matter what game system was in place, as long as people are needed to work together in a group, said people would somehow naturally form eventually.

“Oh right, I completely forgot that was a thing,” Kitara said. “Not that the roles existed, just the whole thing about it being a trinity or whatever.”

“Yeah, I forgot too haha,” Cornelius said. “But we’re getting sidetracked again, we can talk about our roles for the party later if everything works out. Your level, Zareb?”

I pulled up my status screen for the first time in a while just to confirm the information.

Name:

Zareb Sindile

Age:

???

Titles:

Master of One’s Soul Well Rounded

Fame:

---

Level:

6

Class:

---

Health:

150/150

Race:

LOCKED

Mana:

330/330

Soul Force:

MAX

Stamina:

180/180

Soul Resilience:

MAX

Strength:

18

Intelligence:

33

Vitality:

15

Wisdom:

23

Agility:

35

Charisma:

6

Dexterity:

17

Luck:

17

It seemed that with my new level I gained quite a few new stats. It became even more clear that there was a direct relationship between my health, mana, and stamina, and certain stats...which is rather curious considering my insights into the leveling system, but I could look into that later. “I’m level 6 right now, though I don’t know if that is good, bad, or average,” I told Cornelius.

Both he and Kitara raised their eyebrows at my words. They looked at each other, before Kitara said, “We’re both level 12 and we lived here for 25 years. You got so many levels in a month? That’s ridiculously fast.”

So many years and they’re only level 12? That really doesn’t add up. I wonder...maybe it has something to do with my multiple past lives? If I am right about states of change being the basis of the leveling system, and that the levels are a record, then perhaps the reason why I leveled so quickly is because of my heavily saturated soul. The more my soul settles into this body, the more my past experiences affect its being, meaning that my body and mind (technically) are growing at pace that no one else could match.

I wonder, then, what level will I be when body and soul are fully merged? Will the number even matter?

“Hmm, okay, so I probably need to hide the fact that I got 6 levels in a month, right?” I said with a grin.

Kitara rolled her eyes, it looked cuter on her than Cornelius, yet somehow also more condescending. “Obviously you should hide that, no one should even know that you’re re-iterated.”

Cornelius smiled and touched her shoulder. “I’m sure he was just joking Kitkat. Even if it was in poor taste.” Maybe I need my own friend in this world, if only so that these two would stop ganging up on me…

“By the way, I don’t know if this is appropriate to ask, but what’s the deal with the locked race thing in the status screen?” I asked. I wanted to know if this was something only I dealt with, or all Re-Iterated people, or… What I did not expect was for both of their faces to sprout awkward looks.

Cornelius scratched the side of his head before saying, “We...don’t know.” Ah, so they have that too...but then Kitara…? “And before you ask, Kitara is a special case that we’re not going to talk about right now.” What, does he speak for her now? She has a voice of her own...but it looks like she agrees with what he said. Maybe she just let him say it instead of dealing with the awkwardness of telling me directly herself. I didn’t get the impression that she had a problem speaking up for herself so far, but perhaps this was a more sensitive topic. I decided to let it go for now.

“Alright, that’s fine,” I said. “What else do we need to go over?”

Cornelius stood up. “Actually, I’m getting a bit tired, and I’m sure you haven’t had a chance to rest yet. After all, you only just got into the city today. Let’s take a break for a while and then talk again later at dinner, okay?”

All I could do was slowly nod and watch as he walked away, entering the door next to the kitchen. Kitara gave me a look, then got up to follow him. “Oh, you can use the first door over there, it’s a spare bedroom. Make yourself comfortable,” she said before entering the same door as Cornelius.

Somehow, I feel like I messed up big time.