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Caster scratched his neck, thinking.

Well, he wasn't about the carry Paulie's ass the rest of the way up this tower. Tired as he was and without enhanced strength to help him out, that would not go well.

And besides, Caster was not a large man. In height, he barely broke a hundred and fifty centimeters. He had no delusions about that. Growing up, that had been his single most defining characteristic, and the world rarely ever let him forget it. Paulie might've been his junior by over a century, but that didn't change the fact that the kid outweighed him by thirty kilos or more.

So he left Paulie where he was and kept climbing. He'd worry about the kid on the way back down. Depending on what he found up there and how bad Paulie's condition turned out to be, he might just destroy kid's brain and have his reaper regenerate him. It would mean weaving a tale about what had happened to him during their "training," but that was already sounding more appealing than trying to drag him all the way back to Eloa.

The wind outside the Tower picked up and began howling through the empty windows, casting hail throughout each floor like little daggers, sometimes making it all the way to him in the center of the building. He soon got used to it, though, as the climb continued with no end in sight.

He was left alone with his thoughts for a long while.

He remembered hearing that Gohvis had a home out here on Exoltha. He wasn't about to run into that dragon bastard, was he?

Of all the members of Abolish that Caster had ever met, Gohvis had to be one of his least favorites. Everyone was afraid of him, but the guy rarely ever helped with anything. He didn't even seem like a part of Abolish, really. Caster had no idea why Dozer put up with him. He highly doubted that Morgunov would, if Gohvis worked for him.