"Eve."
That was the only reason he got up and kept going. Finding his sister was the strength he needed to persevere.
The memories flashed before his eyes. Memories of their good and bad times.
He recalled how Eve would stay up through the night after working many jobs on the same day to take of him when he was sick.
Their shared dreams and love for each other.
He remembered it all.
Then, the face of his elder brother smiling flashed before his eyes.
Tears gathered in his eyes.
Adam was smiling in front of him. That was his last smile.
He recalled Adam's last wish before he was murdered.
"Go, Seth. Find Even too and save her."
Those were Adam's last words, engraved in Sethryn's heart forever.
His eyes watered and tears dropped from them like rain.
He wept over and over again.
His fear had gotten the best of him in this lonely realm.
His mind was plagued and riddled with saddening thoughts that he rather not remember at the moment.
It was becoming too suffocating to bear.
The climb was endless and torturous.
How could anyone finish the First Stair?
Sethryn was breaking apart.
His body was wounded.
His spirit was shattered.
His mind was broken.
He raised his head and let out a loud cry of anguish that echoed through the entire white world.
...
...
...
"Let me out of here!"
"Please, let me out!"
He begged but no one responded to his desperate pleas.
Who would?
There was no one else in the First Stair but him. Only he could hear his pleas.
He was alone and the Stairs were not like the Floors of the Tower of Babel.
The Stairs were just the connections between Floors.
The Stairs had no Keepers.
No one reigned over them and no one ordered them around.
They simply were and will continue to be.
...
...
...
When was he going to see the sun again?
Was he ever going to even see the sun again?
Sethryn missed the sunlight and the wind that brushed over his face every day.
He wished to breathe fresh air again, even if it was for just a second.
He missed the world he used to know.
Sadly, none of his wishes could be granted... not now anyways. He still had to reach the farfetched door between the clouds before he can dream of seeing the sun again or feeling the caress of the wind.
His tormented mind was his only companion. One minute, it is brimming with profound determination and motivation; the next minute, it is drowning in depression and despair.
Sethryn was not going to be the same man that walked into the First Stair whenever he stepped out of it.
He turned his head to the sides having noticed something.
"They just moved," he said.
"It looked like the world moved. It swirled around."
"Are my eyes deceiving me?"
He rubbed his eyes and looked around again but nothing happened. The white realm was still as it had been since he entered.
"I must be hallucinating."
The world remained indifferent towards the player, leaving him to the tedium his endless climb offered generously.
Sethryn began to mumble inaudibly to himself like a crazed man.
"Why?" he finally spoke out loud.
"Why am I still stuck here? Why can't I be free?"
"Why!" he shouted, his voice reverberating within the confines of the silent dimension.
Sethryn continued to lament as though the void of whiteness heard him.
It did not hear him and neither did it reply.
The stairs did not reply either.
Good fortune had turned its back on Sethryn and he was forced to face his demons alone this time.
The void was apathetic to his lamentations and desperation, offering neither comfort nor judgment.
...
...
...
"Ahh!"
Sethryn shrieked and fell, hitting his knees against the edge of a step. His legs were weak and cramping from severe exhaustion. His climb was slow and was bound to be slower now that he had injured his knees.
Tough luck.
However pathetic his condition had turned, Sethryn did not offer himself such pity.
He wiped the tears from his eyes and continued to clamber while refusing to back down.
Dejection was turning to rage inside him.
Sadness turned into blazing fury.
Sethryn was incensed as he dragged his legs up the steps.
He saw it again.
He had reached the point where he could see the cloud.
His glimmer of hope shone again and he became more determined to reach it and take hold of it.
His hope was not as pure as the first time.
It was mixed with fear and doubt. At the back of his mind, Sethryn was wary of the kind of bad fortune that may befall him now he had a second chance at hope.
Was the end of his climb truly near?
Was fate playing with his broken spirit while preparing to deal him an even more fatal blow?
The cloud was not a mirage. It was as real as the tormentous feeling he experienced from his ascension.
Soon, the door also came into sight.
Sethryn wanted to jump up for joy but he preferred to not jinx his transient good luck for a moment.
After a few more hours of climbing, Sethryn finally reached the door that stood at the top of the stairs.
...
...
...
The door was muddy brown, old and scratched, with many wave-like inscriptions drawn on it.
Its knob was weathered and shed off some of its surface but it stood steadfast to the door like two lovers to one another, guarding whatever was beyond them.
Sethryn stretched his hands.
He reached out to hold the knob with his quivering hands.
He grabbed it and felt rejuvenated for a brief moment.
A sudden rush of ecstasy raced through his body, deep into his spirit and he felt reborn.
Sethryn was injected with a little of the door knob's pulsating mana.
He withdrew his hands immediately. Afraid and suspicious of such good fortune.
"What sorcery is this?"
He doubted, believing that such a graceful gift did not come without a price.
Only the door stood in Sethryn's way and he had to open it somehow.
Mana seeped from the door knob into his body, rejuvenating him but his Synapse did not record the event.
That was strange and that was the reason that Seth feared it.
Could it have affected him in any way?
Sethryn glanced through his profile and nothing changed. His Mana Core Points (MCP) were still at three hundred and forty as it was since he used his shield skill.
...
...
...
His climb has been an onerous journey from the bottom through infinity and finally, he had reached the end.
Consumed by weariness and depression.
Saved by his unyielding determination to reach an end that he could not see.
The unending spiral of stone steps had finally been defeated.
Sethryn was the victorious one, standing at the top and his hand reaching for the doorknob one more time.
He let out a deep exhale.
His heart pounded fast as he grabbed the knob.
The stream of mana flowed into his hand again but he stood firm, refusing to pull his hand out as it travelled through his body and finally returned to the knob.
"Here goes nothing," he muttered under his breath, not hopeful for anything from his long-lasting experience alone in the void.
Sethryn turned the knob and the door creaked open with a screeching sound.
Beyond the door was a blissful scene — one that he had longed for.
Sethryn shut his eyes and took a deep breath before opening them again.
It was indeed real. Real was an understatement, it was surreal.
He was not dreaming.
He took his first step out of the void into this expanse of greenery, mixed with different variety of flowers and different lighthouses at different positions in this vast field.
The touch of the sun's rays on his skin had never felt so warm and comforting.
Sethryn moaned from the relaxing sensation he felt from the breeze brushing over his skin.
He did it.
He had successfully climbed the First Stair.
His notification beeped.
<< You Have Successfully Climbed The First Stair >>
<< Welcome To The 2nd Floor >>
Sethryn muttered with a voice filled with deep relief.
"Finally."