"From what I'm seeing, it should be around here somewhere," one of the soldiers informed Henri after looking through the translucent display of what appeared to be their city. Multiple points on the map glowed with a tincture of golden-yellow light to mark certain landmarks that they were informed about a few days ago. Henri simply nodded, concurring with what the soldier said.
He was no map reader and didn't even bother to do so since he had military men around him. Following his show of strength, Henri had naturally become the leader of this group of humans and although many of them had died over the past four days, Henri had also managed to save them in several situations. Thus, preventing more deaths by doing so. Within the group, many humans also awakened as well, learning to use spiritual energy as much as they could, as their lives depended on it, which, in reality, it actually did.
Henri, because of his iron-based ability and natural big size, served as the group's vanguard and shield. He appeared to be the one who had mastery of spiritual energy the most and had become more conversant with it than any of them. As such, they left most of both the attacking and defending while they supported him whenever they had to fight. Henri was definitely tired of this group, but he just kept them around since he never knew when they would become of use, fortunately for him, their use might be coming to an end soon as he noticed one of them jogging towards where he was standing.
"I found something," this soldier said as he tried to catch his breath to speak more clearly.
"Found what?!" the squad leader bawled, inching his face to the soldiers as he patted his back. "Found what? Spit it out, soldier!"
The soldier inhaled and exhaled a few times, gaining some control over his breathing before finally opening his mouth to speak. "I think I've found it. The door to the tower just like we all saw a few days back."
This topic particularly drew Henri's attention since that was the sole purpose for which he teamed up with the military men. He needed their numbers and some of their handy skills like map reading and he couldn't feel any prouder as it paid off for him. Without moving an inch, Henri listened to the soldier's verbal briefing. His ears tingled as soon as he heard the words 'tower' and 'door'.
Had they finally succeeded in finding one of them — the doors… after four days?
A grin almost spread across Henri's stiff face but he quickly suppressed it. He was not in a haste to celebrate until he confirmed for himself that it was what he was thinking. Following the soldier's lead, he and the rest of the group walked in the direction where he had seen the door and truly, there was a door there.
It looked no different from the normal doors humans used in their homes and yet, they were all wary of it. This door floated a bit above the ground, and at its top side, right at the centre of that area, was the number '0' written boldly on it as if telling them where it was leading. Well, anyone who had seen the notification about the doors to the tower already knew that and so it was no cause for harm. One would expect that with Zony's latest information about the tower now opening up to them, everyone would be quick to find the doors but that was not exactly the case.
The humans who did not awaken stayed out of it completely, choosing to survive outside the tower instead. If this much chaos happened outside of the mysterious tower, they couldn't fathom just how much of it would take place inside the tower. Another group of people decided to take it slow and wait, just to see what happens to the first set of people who enter. If nothing happened, then they, too, would proceed. Then they were people like Henri Cavyll who didn't care and simply wanted to enter from the get go, only to be delayed by his inability to find the any of the doors.
As if hypnotized, Henri was drawn to the door and soon, he stretched his hand out to reach for it. The soldiers were not sure if that was a good thing or not since they had not witnessed someone go through the doors of the tower before.
"Before careful!" the squad leader said loudly, momentarily drawing Henri's attention away from the door as he half-turned to look at the squad leader and nod. Henri was the strongest member of the team so far. Naturally, the squad leader wouldn't want anything to happen to him as that would significantly reduce their strength as well as their chances of surviving.
Seeing that nothing was stopping Henri from going forward, the squad leader turned around his comrades. "We are going beyond that door…" he said, pointing behind him to the door.
"Without a doubt, everyone here who has awakened with or without additional abilities is coming with us. As for those who didn't, you are welcome to join, even if you are most useful outside here. I don't know what is beyond there and I can't guarantee your safety either. All I know is that we are not going down without a fight!"
Henri listened, observing how the morale of the soldiers was boosted by the squad leader as he happily shook his head. He waited for a few minutes for them to gather and make their decisions before finally pushing the door open, introducing everyone who volunteered to go into a bright light that nearly took their sight.
Henri, along with others, closed their eyes, further covering them with their arms over their face for the short time the light lasted before they continued through the door.
"Let's go," Henri said with a serious tone, leading the way through the door into the unknown where they couldn't know or even predict, whether false or true, the fate that awaited them the next second.