Johan took the hand and was dragged out of the creature and thrown to the wall, where he sat and looked at his rescuer.
He looked to be around Johan's age with pitch-black hair that messily jutted out in every direction. His eyes were like two auroras, a bright violet gradating outwards into a deep ocean blue. His blue, violet, and lime robes sported a stained-glass pattern as if it had been smashed to pieces and sewn back together.
The boy turned towards the beast, and as he did, his eyes left a trail of blue, violet light.
The creature attempted to absorb this boy in the same manner it had absorbed Johan. As it tossed itself forward, the boy simply, gracefully leaped over the beast. As he was staring down at it, his eyes seemed to glow with an intensity that made Johan shiver. The boy reached out his hand, his body parallel with the ground, and reality around the beast shattered into thousands of tiny shards that glowed with the same colors coating the boy's robes. The boy landed on the other side of the room and looked over his shoulder at the complete absence of any sign that the beast ever even existed.
His gaze lifted toward Johan, and the ground beneath them shattered into the same radiant shards the creature had just disappeared into.
Johan closed his eyes tightly, readying himself for the impact. But it never came.
What he saw when he opened them was a spacious room with crystal chandeliers hanging from the ceiling and massive gold pillars with carved dragons twisting and winding around them.
It looked to be a dining hall with a grand center table surrounded by golden cushioned chairs. At the head of this table was a massive golden throne far too big for any man. At each corner of the room were smaller circular tables accompanied by the same chairs as the ones at the center table.
None of this caught Johans eye as much as the group of people occupying this space.
Two boys were sitting at the back right table. The first boy was hooded, dressed all in black, his robes so dark that Johan could have mistaken him for a shadow.
The second was the polar opposite of the first, dressed in a white robe, gilded with gold swirling motifs. His irises were snow white, tinted with a frosty blue around the edges, and his glistening side-swept hair was a similar white.
Johan looked to the other side of the room and spotted a taller, older-looking boy leaning against the cold stone wall, hands in his robe pockets; this robe was a pure, shining silver, complementing his silver blond hair.
Next to him on the table lay a girl with dark brown eyes, staring up at the ceiling. She had a mess of dark brown hair that flowed off the table like a river. Her robes were crimson red like blood.
Then Johan shifted his vision toward the center table, where two people were seated.
One was a girl with pure gold eyes and long black hair. Her robes, which were jade green in color, were not over her shoulders but tied around her waist, revealing a simple white shirt.
Lastly, at the head of the table sat the boy who had saved him just before. His elbow was pressed against one of the armrests, and his cheek was resting on his fist as if he were bored.
He then looked at Johan and smiled.
"Welcome, what's your name?
"Johan."
"Well, Johan, from this point on, you are one of us."
"We will reach the bottom of the spire and fulfill my greatest desire."
"Let me introduce myself. My name is Contritus Mundi."
He took his head off his hand and motioned to the girl sitting with him at the table.
"This is Somnia Immontius, my second in command. She is the one and only daughter of the lord of wrath."
Contritus then pointed over his shoulder to the back of the room where the other four were located.
"The one in black is Simon Ajivah, don't know much about that one, but he has some level of authority over the perceivable world."
"The one next to him is Apolto Miden, a royal from the top of the tower. He was born with the mighty power of cryokinesis."
"Those other two back there I found together halfway through the process of getting digested by an infernal beast."
"The boy is Argelio Fedha; his magic takes the form of mirrors and reflections. And as for the girl, we only know her name, Luna Liraz; her magic remains a mystery.
Contritus turned back to look at Johan.
"What magic do you possess?"
Johan looked at him, confused.
"Im i supposed to have magic?"
"You're a player in this game, are you not?"
"Well, anyway, it will reveal itself to you eventually, you see, magic is not a part of the person, it is simply being used by them, molded by them. Magic has a mind of its own, and it seems it is not ready to show you its true nature quite yet."
Johan listened intently as Contritus spoke.
"What can I do to get it to reveal itself to me?"
The answer did not come from Contritus but Somnia instead.
"Magic can be brought out in many ways," she began
"The three main ways to harness magical energy are sacrifice, time, and strong emotion."
"Your magic is not absent; it just lies dormant within you. There will come a time when you require power, and it will awaken."
Somnia's eyes traveled from his face down to the pendant still wrapped around his neck.
"For now, at least, you won't need your magic anyway. It seems you have found one of the tower's many ancient artifacts. It will help you until the time comes when your magic awakens."
Johan looked at the pendant with a new wonder in his eyes, then shifted his gaze back up to Somnia and Contritus.
"What is the spire anyway? I still don't quite understand how I got here or where "here" is."
"Not many do," said Contritus, staring off into space.
"All we can do is guess."
"But I was transported here many years ago, and I have yet to meet anybody who claims to be a native of the tower. Other than the mystery man himself i doubt anybody actually is."
"So you think everyone in this tower was brought here like us?" Johan asked.
"Yes, with a few exceptions, I suspect every resident of the tower was forced here by the man of miracles himself. And as for the Spire, if you ask me id say the Spire itself is its own dimension. I doubt there's anything outside these walls."
"Tafti said something similar," said Johan as he tried to make sense of all the information that had just been forced into his mind.
"I wouldn't trust that one," said the boy they called Simon.
Simon's voice sounded raspy and distant, as if it were the echo of an older, wiser being.
"Well, kid, now that you're one of us, you're gonna have to start pulling your weight around here." Said Argelio as he flashed Johan a vicious grin.
"Well," Said Contritus excitedly
"Looks like the time for you to prove yourself is here already. I sense a massive energy coming straight for us.