Blessed Messiah and the Tower of AI

Chapter 8: Blessed Light

One by one, Miku's teardrops wet the scroll. She can't believe it. After all this time when her friends turned their backs on her, she thought they'd been selfish enough to leave her in the dust without another word. But they were doing this all for her sake.

How could she have been so blind to the truth?

They'd all acted like they were taking the blessings for themselves... If only Miku had read the entire scroll ahead of time would she have understood their true intentions earlier than later. It was sheer luck she hadn't read the scroll just in time for them to betray her.

Miku slowly recalls each of the blessings her friends took. If what the scroll said was true, then the punishments they all received were probably far worse than she imagined them to be. She can only make assumptions she assumes are accurate due to their associated element.

Kaito drowned in the ocean, Meiko in hellfire, Ia caught in a drought, Mayu probably lost somewhere in the void-! Miku didn't want to think of the rest, but her mind hadn't stopped brainstorming. Gakupo falling from a crack in the earth, Gumi struck by lightning, Luka losing herself in a hurricane, Rin freezing to death, Len burning in fire...

She's let them suffer these unbearable deaths. This is all her fault... isn't it?

If she had denied her duty of going to the tower, none of this would've happened. She would be back home, everything the same as it's always been. Or maybe... if her friends had sauntered up to her and told her the reality of the tower earlier, surely she would've understood rather than experience the anguish she had to undergo. But she remembers that these friends never abandoned her. They'd never hated her for anything she did, never got mad for whatever trouble she'd caused, never left her to face danger all alone.

That's right: she isn't alone.

Like that day she outstretched her hand to nine strangers and began to trust them with all her heart. Right now she outstretches her hand to those same nine strangers- no, friends- who she has trusted with all her heart. She can feel
the warmth of Kaito's hand slip into hers and that illusion of those nine in shining blue light standing before her.

She sees their smiles and their outstretched hands telling her to join them. With every piece of her heart and soul, Miku yearns to be reunited with them once more with her fingers in Kaito's palm. But... no, she can't join them. Not just yet; she has some unfinished work to be done.

Her hand phases through Kaito's and, nearly in tears, Miku watches as her friends disintegrate into floating blue shards. Her face is graced with a sorrowful smile and tears streaming down her face. She sniffs as she nods her head understandably. This is for the better. She may not be able to join them just yet, but her friends will always be by her side no matter where she is.

Suddenly, she notices from the maze-like pattern on the floor that a red liquid had filled the crevices. She lifts her head to let her eyes trace back to where the liquid had started and sees a trickle of red seep from the hands of each statue. The wax of the red candles must be dripping from the newly-lit flames.

The liquid glows in the crevices, uniting at the altar in the center as a blazing orange fire ignites up top the pedestal. This fire here is the prize she's suffered ten floors to see with her own eyes, it is none other than the Blessed Light.

Miku steps up before the altar and gently drops the torch to the floor beside her. She kneels down and although she's still in tears, she whimpers quietly as she clasps her hands together and prays silently.

'I pray that you forgive the injustice our people have done to you. With these nine sacrifices, I speak for the world that you forgive us for what we've done and bless us with a new world that will live on forevermore.'

Dawn has risen like resounding bells throughout the skies, waking the world to start anew. A new world of peace, a brighter paradise for all, a paradise where glory glimmers in the hands of the people and especially that of the Messiah who will bring this new land to its rightful place.

Miku takes her golden torch and reaches out to the altar; the Blessed Light sets the tip aflame.

She pulls back the torch and holds it within her two hands. She hangs her head down as she mourns greatly. This light would have never been achieved without the help of those nine strangers that fateful day. If they never found that lonely girl in the middle of nowhere, that soon-to-be Messiah, what would be of the nine sacrifices? They're the reason she's here at the top of the Tower of AI, why she's withstood fifteen more years after a tragedy, why she holds this Blessed Light close to her heart.

And with that she raises her torch to the skies as high as she can.

To this perilous world, a light shines at the very top; high up somewhere far and ready to restore peace. In the midst of this barren land, scorching and dried up to its very core, this mystical light can even be seen from the very corners of the Earth. It envelops the world in a somber tranquility as each of the nine blessings return to their rightful places in this world.

Where there once was dried land has now been gifted water; where there once was deathly cold has now been gifted fire; where there once was darkness has now been gifted sunlight; where there once was light has now been gifted dark; where there once was parched soil has now been gifted fertile earth; where there once were gray skies have now been gifted thunder; where there once was still land has now been gifted wind; where there once was scorching heat has now been gifted cold; where there once was empty land has now been gifted magma.

Everything is new.

Everything is at peace.

This new world is all thanks to ten villagers from the Village of Youth:

This is the doing of the Messiah and her nine companions.