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There was no front door, just an empty hole to walk through. As he stepped foot inside, he tried to inspect the building more closely. Thankfully, he did think to bring a flashlight, at least. The pitch black stone looked pristine, and as he shone his light up to it, he could see embossed lines in its surface.

"This way!" came Paulie's voice from deeper in.

"Don't run off on your own," Caster called out. He couldn't even see the kid anymore, but he could hear ascending footsteps. Caster looked for a staircase.

What were they supposed to be looking for? This place was empty. A reaper would have helped right about now in searching.

Being of sufficient age, Caster was able to vaguely sense the soul power coursing the building. If he busted down the walls, he would no doubt be able to see the flowing soul power with his own eyes quite clearly, but as long as it remained embedded within an object, it was still mostly invisible to him.

He found the staircase in question and took it. The next floor looked just as empty as the first, and he could hear Paulie's urgent footsteps already ascending to the next floor again.

They didn't actually have to go all the way up this thing, right? It was touching the clouds. It could have a hundred stories or more, for all they knew.

"Paulie, do you still hear the voice?" shouted Caster.

The kid took a moment to answer. "Yeah! It says to keep climbing!"

Of course it did.

He was beginning to hope that it would tell Paulie to jump off the roof when they got there.

Caster had asked Kalikos about Malast, this so-called "god" that Paulie was hearing. Apparently, as far as gods went, Malast was some kind of lazy son of a bitch who never did anything for anyone. So this whole trip made even less sense than Caster had first thought.