A girl was seen crossing beside a large mountain, her running was extremely fast for a human being. The girl was Asuka who had been running non-stop since her father had saved her of the Ranker earlier. It had been tens of minutes but she still hadn't managed to find a place where Rankers couldn't find her.
It hadn't been long since she and her parents had come to this place after moving from a distant location, so she didn't really know the surroundings of where they were.
This was a problem, as this would make it more difficult for her to hide or escape from the Rankers.
However, with her parents' faith in her, Asuka did not dare to relax as she ran without stopping. She had only one thought in mind that forced her to move — if she wanted to get revenge on her parents, she needed to live and become stronger.
No— she quickly shook her head strongly.
'Mom and Dad aren't dead... Yes! I need to live and get help for them!'
Forcing herself to believe this, she kept running.
After a short while, Asuka's face lit up. In the end, her efforts did not seem to have betrayed her. She managed to catch sight of a village not far from where she was.
In that village, she could seek help for her parents. With her hope rekindled, she ran as fast as she could towards the village.
"Found it~," that was before a voice came like a melody in the sky.
Asuka's expression paled in fear as she saw three figures floating upright in the sky. It didn't take her long to discover the identity of these three. There was only one type of a person who could float in the tower, as far as she knew — a Ranker.
"—Gk."
In the end, however, her exhaustion took over and she fell to the ground like a rag doll.
Asuka was out of breath — even breathing felt painful.
"This is frustrating..."
Her pink eyes were wet with tears and she bit her lips hard.
Anger boiled inside her, but she didn't have the strength to do anything. Her parents had sacrificed themselves to help her, but she couldn't escape.
"What's frustrating?" One of the three Rankers asked her with a genuine smile on his face.
Asuka's face turned somber.
Looking at the three Rankers, her throat went dry and she became absolutely silent. All she wanted most was to defeat these Rankers and help her parents, however, that was not possible — not for her. As if an illumination had come, a thought popped into Asuka's head like a bolt of lightning, however she quickly disappeared with this thought while biting her lips hard. It was too risky.
Ten years ago, her mother had taught her something. However, she told Asuka not to use it unless she really needed it badly, after all, she might end up losing her life because of it.
This was a spell.
Something that is forbidden in the tower, something from the ancient ages that existed even before the king of the tower came into being. And not just any spell.
—This is a spell to summon a demon from outside.
Those were his mother's words. A spell to summon a demon — a demon that his mother told him had a strength comparable to the existences at the top of the tower.
'A demon like that... No matter how many Rankers they are, they would all die.'
Asuka gritted her teeth. Even if it meant her death, she could make the demon kill all the Rankers and her parents would be saved. However, she was still hesitant-she couldn't assimilate that she was going to die.
"Huhu. It looks like you're planning something, isn't it? I can tell by your expression. However, it's a pity that no matter what you do, it won't work. You, someone who isn't even a Regular, are facing three Rankers — do you think you have any chance?" One of the Rankers said, as he descended from the sky and landed in front of her with a smile.
Asuka didn't like that. She could feel the look the Rankers were giving her — a look of contempt.
"Well, since everything you do will be useless, finish what you were planning. We will just watch."
"..."
It was too much.
Asuka couldn't take the humiliation anymore. Taking a deep breath, she bit down hard on her index finger until blood dripped from it.
The Rankers watched her movements with a smile. They seemed to find her actions adorable. This only served to make Asuka even more enraged as she began to quickly scratch the ground with her bloodstained finger.
She first drew a circle, before making several lines inside and outside the circle. These were the instructions for summoning the demon outside, passed down from her mother.
'Mother and father...'
As soon as she finished the circle full of diagrams, Asuka looked up at the sky.
In the Rankers' eyes, she seemed to have given up on everything, after all even after drawing that ridiculous circle with her blood nothing had happened.
'Goodbye...'
A tear ran down her cheek and she began to chant the spell.
"@$#&|-€∆£¶¢..."
"Huh?"
A surprised and suspicious look appeared on the face of the Ranker who was standing in front of Asuka. And as soon as he saw a glow coming off the circle of blood on the ground, he was even more certain of his suspicion. At that moment, he remembered why so many Rankers were assigned to this location in the outer area of the tower.
Spells.
A shiver ran down his spine and he quickly shouted to the other two Rankers floating in the sky, "Stop her!"
"W-what?"
The other two looked confused by his sudden shout.
Tsk-
There wasn't much time, so he didn't answer the other two's questions and launched an attack on Asuka quickly. A small pale blue ball formed on his finger, it was similar to a water bubble.
Immediately, the blue bubble burst followed by a scream.
"Blue Shot!"
Whiiiiiing—!
A blue light appeared as soon as the bubble burst, similar to a cell phone flash.
However, before it reached Asuka a blood-red barrier appeared around Asuka coming straight out of the circle on the ground.
Booom—!
The blue flash collided with the blood-red barrier but failed to break through it.
Ranker's eyes widened.
'What the hell is this barrier?! Isn't she just someone who hasn't even become a Regular yet?! Damn, I knew it! My premonition was right! Damn me for letting her do something as sinister as a spell!'
His face was distorted incredibly, and in the blink of an eye, he arrived in front of Asuka. Pulling something like a sword out of nowhere, he jabbed it in Asuka's direction. At the same time, the two Rankers, though confused, attacked Asuka with their respective attacks.
Being attacked by serious attacks from three Rankers, the barrier protecting Asuka would undoubtedly break down. At least, that would be until recently.
"I summon the demon from outside, Jaldabaoth!"
'Damn—!'
At Asuka's shout, the three Rankers quickly retreated as soon as the circle released an extremely strong glow.
***
The moon shone with all its splendor over the clear sky. Today even a few stars could be seen, a rare sight for Uriel who hardly ever went out in the middle of the night, and when he did he only saw the clouds covering the moon or no sign of stars at all. Despite the beautiful night, he walked hurriedly through the streets as if in a hurry.
He was looking for a place to buy food.
Since his mother would be coming home for a long time and he didn't know how to make food, his only option was to look for food outside.
It was in these moments that he hated that he was born with two parents who hated each other, after all, they were always away from home too much to see each other's faces. And the one who suffered most because of this was him — the "reason" they had not yet separated.
Once Uriel had overheard a conversation between his parents and heard that they were still together only because it was said that a child without a mother or father would grow up in a bad way. Although, in Uriel's opinion, this was all just nonsense, since neither of them spent hardly any time with him, being absent most of the time.
"Ahh. That sucks. I should have gone earlier to get something to eat, now I have to walk around in this cold and have to look for a market..." he grumbled, putting his hands inside the pocket of the sweatshirt he was wearing.
He had passed a market near his house where he always shopped, but it was closed, so here he was — in search of food.
"Meown~," suddenly a meow came from his side, making him turn his head to check what it was.
"A cat?"
Uriel moved closer, looking at the cat crouching in the cold winds. The cat had a black coat and innocent green eyes, he was also very small and young.
"Were you abandoned?"
"Meeeow."
Answering Uriel's question, the cat pointed in another direction. There was a cat with brown fur, along with another cat with black fur and green eyes. Observing the black cat, Uriel quickly connected it to the mother of the small cat in front of him.
"I see. Your mother doesn't pay attention to you and so you are alone?"
"Meow."
"I see..."
In a way, it was quite similar to him, so Uriel felt a little sympathy — even though it's just a cat.
"But, you know..."
"Meow?"
The cat tilted its head in confusion. Uriel smiled and stroked its head.
"You don't need someone above you. Someone who is above you like a father and mother is not necessary. All you need is to be above people, then nothing will matter."
"Meow."
"That was something I saw in a webtoon and I thought it made sense, although it was said by a villain..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
A silence followed. In the face of the awkward silence, a redness began to appear on Uriel's cheeks. For a moment, he wondered what he was doing by starting a conversation with a street cat.
Without opening his mouth again, Uriel stood up and walked away.
"Meow~."
He didn't dare turn back when he heard the cat's meow, even more so because of the awkward moment.
'Damn. Am I really going crazy? Talking to a cat... Arrrghhh!'
Uriel clutched his head and hurried his steps. Although he didn't have many friends at school — in fact, none — , he didn't think he had gotten to the point where he was needy enough to talk to a random cat he found in the middle of the street.
He felt an overwhelming urge to scream and look for a hole to hide his head until his shame had completely worn off.
Actually, he didn't have to look for a hole...
Krrrrr—
"Huh?"
Uriel's eyes widened as he felt sudden tremors rising from the ground. His mind quickly worked. It would tremble in the ground — earthquake.
"—!"
As soon as he realized this, Uriel jumped up and quickly began to run away from that place.
'Shit, shit, shit! Why the hell did an earthquake have to happen in this place right at this very moment?!'
Crack—! Crack, crack—!
Accompanying the speed of his thoughts, cracks began to appear all over the ground and the tremors increased. This time, the tremors appeared in a way that made it look like the ground was moving and only served to make Uriel paler.
He ran, and ran, and ran.
He was running in a way that he never expected to run once in his life, he even believed that he could break the world record for fastest speed on a 100-meter track. However, his speed was not enough to let him escape the tremors.
KRAAAAAAAAAAA—!!!
"Fuck—!" Uriel cursed loudly just as a gigantic crater appeared on the ground and pulled him down.
Since he didn't have the power to fly, Uriel only saw the starry sky as he fell at full speed into the crater.