Avere had been flying through the air, feeling the wind on his skin for a few minutes already, enjoying the feeling of being back in the air, though it seemed like his very nature as an ehetrian had been repressed, so it was more like he had returned right back to it.
Not that he didn't enjoy it, he did it to such an degree he had tears in his eyes, but more so from remembering the past and his own happiness he had held while flying high above most others, being one of the ehetrians who chose to always fly especially high for long distances.
The problem with flying higher was that oxygen was thin, so most people already chose to fly lower, but then there was also the danger of running out of mana and just falling down, which, though probably not deadly thanks to the ehetrians weird constitution that lowered their weight during flight, would still be quite bad, and very painful.
So, for the most parts, only fit people with great amounts of mana dared to flight as high as Cades had done back on ehetria, even higher than any friends he had ever held, not that that was some impressive number.
After some time, however, about thirty minutes of just flying, being lost int he feeling of the air's maelstrom, seeing various complicated medical appliances and rare ehetrian apparatus's above the platform, feeling almost like he'd have normally been forbidden from entering such a place while flying like this, he heard a voice within his head.
"I always wanted to ask- but what is the purpose of those bridges?"
The bridges, previously hard to make out the materials and technique of, were made of wooden planks simply interluded and gave way when he touched them, shaking, and to be honest, if he had been lying on there on the side, pretty comfortable for ehetrians, many of which preferred sleeping on harder materials.
Actually, Cades had been wanting to try that out as well, perhaps even something like a nest that people had slept in, made to look a bit more convoluted and better than birds though, there was always the problem with the wings when sleeping on the back after all, but he had never really gotten the chance, sleeping within a normal bed that foreigners tended to use, it being better for children and such.
"They are just there to rest on..." he continued flapping his wing, rising upwards to the top of the tower, thousands of feet high by now, not even asking why he was able to still hear Adelius.
"Well, would you f#cking look at that..."
He continued flying upwards, expecting to soon leave the tower and see the silver dome in all it's annoyingly caging glory, seeing less and less creations and more and more batteries supposed to store great amounts of mana to power this thing, eternally now.
"By the way, I wouldn't do tha-"
And, now Avere fell down, feeling as if his head was about to explode, a silver river coming from his nose, showing that he had just hit something that was seemingly invisible.
Half a minute later he arrived on the ground again, his head about to seemingly explode.
"What was that?"
Adelius, sniggering, quickly replied, " that was a special material, enchanted to be invisible, wouldn't want rain coming down into the tower after all, but sunlight is good for the body..."
"F#ck. Sh#t. Motherf#cker. B#tch." he rattled on.
"Good... just get it out of your system, the pain is only temporary, happened to a multitude of ehetrians before you after all, though some of them actually knew it was there before flying up..."
"Makes sense..." Avere begrudgingly agreed after some time.
"Yeah, but Avere?" he said, sounding both tired and a bit solemn.
"Yes?"
"I have to throw you to the next trial..."
Avere took a step back, already putting up his hands in defence.
"Don't worry too much about it, the next guy is rather simple, the only interesting thing about him is his experience, " he smirked, " just like for the two of us."
"Was that a kamikaze verbal attack?"
"Yes... did not land as well as I had hoped, though..."
"Then it was just a suicide without the attack..."
"Yes...sadly..."
Avere took a heavy and long breath.
"Do you have any more questions?"
"I mean... not really...you explained pretty much everything..."
A spark went up in Avere's head.
"Wait! Who are the great pillars?"
"Oh, sure, I can tell you that."
"Starting with what I know, every one of the great pillars holds reign above an afterlife, or even multiple from what I heard, so is this one the silver ocean, the afterlife in which experiences and souls can communicate with each other, basically a giant hive with resemblance to the heaven of various cultures, even offering the ability to eventually reincarnate." he said, taking a small break after the first wave of his explanation.
"Other than that I don't know of all their titles, that's some very rare knowledge in my time, but I do know of absence, of motion, of experiences for sure, of inconsistency, of history, of randomness, also known as the indecisive queen of chance, then there is stagnation and dust, though the last one really doesn't sound all that powerful if I were to be honest..." he looked at Avere who just stood there.
"But the great pillar of dust is also known as apathy and decay, so in some way I guess he resembles the passing on objects and people, the end of life, such stuff, so he'd probably be rather strong, never met him though, not that that is surprising in any way."
"In some cultures there's also the great pillar of dominion, the eleventh born of the child, but I don't believe he is real... but I have to say, there's one interesting thing about that great pillar, if he was truly real."
"What is that?" Avere asked, knowing full well he was about to take another, rather long, break."
"His name is Numen." Adelius asked, throwing the glass bottle, plain but beautifully made, the transparent liquid still trapped within, eternally so, at him.
"Wha-" he screamed as he caught it.
"Sorry, I just like a good dramatic ending" he smiled in an annoyingly bright way, " if you're thirsty drink the bottle, there's water within!!"
F#ck that guy, Avere thought.