Razielle sighed softly and stretched out his wings, grimacing slightly at the tention he felt at the base. He shook his head slightly and tucked them back against himself. He glanced worriedly at the feathers that well from Simon's wings but didn't say anything. Instead he glanced back at the tower. "How do you know?" He whispered
"How do I know what? Specificity isn't your strong suit, huh?" He took a step toward Razielle and scooped him up, leaping into the air. "Don't look down. Also don't squirm. Wouldn't want to drop you to your death."
He breathed a small laugh "no I guess it's not, apologies." He yelped at the sudden movement and wrapped his arms around Simon's neck, burying his face in his shoulder. "Ha, you think angels are afraid of heights?" He shook his head, and peeked at the ground. "You're really gonna talk about death when we're in Hell? Really?"
"I'm very funny," Simon said dryly. He spiraled upward, glancing into every window they passed. "The only reason I told you not to look down is that the tower goes on infinitely. At some point, we won't be able to see the ground."
Razielle shook his head slightly, refusing to look at the tower. He didn't need to see the souls inside to know their growing rage and agony. Instead he look skywards. "I'm not afraid of heights. I'm afraid of falling without a means of catchigg myself. There's a difference." His browed knitted together in confusion "so if the tower goes on forever, where are we going if not the top?"
"There is no top, idiot. We're going to the billionth level. Copernicus frequents there."
Raz tilted his head. Copernicus. He had never heard of such a name, though, he wasn't sure if he ever wanted to know of a being with that name. He kept silent for a few more hundred floors, wondering how far they had fallen compared to the height of the tower they were fly up to. "So how does this work?" He asked softly, pointing to the tower. "Is it like a ranging system? The worse you are the higher you go or something?"
"No. These are only the mildly bad souls. Remember when I tapped my foot six times? That brings us to the first level of hell. Twelve for the second, eighteen for the third, etc., etc. The farther you get down into hell, the worse the people get. Hitler, for example, is at the very bottom, carving life-size, exact replicas of every single person whose death he caused. Out of diamond. Copernicus is here to deal out punishment. He really went to heaven but volunteered to bore the less villainous citizens of the Underground City."
"I see" Razielle nodded, glad that they at least didn't have meet the worst of the worst people there. "So if Copernicus went to heaven at first, but voluntarily came down here to assist with souls, then doesn't that mean he's still technically an angel?" Razielle had never heard of Angels voluntarily going to hell, though he assumed he was doing just that. He found it odd angels would want to go here, given that heaven was a paradise.
"No. He's sort of in-between. They just refer to him as a soul. It doesn't make sense to me either." Simon shrugged, shifting Razielle in his arms. "Almost there."
"oh. I wonder how The Diety and Lucider ever managed to figure that out, letting an angel leave heaven and having an angel come into Hell must have been akward for the both of them." He mused, nodding and looking up at the windows. The higher they went, the nicer they seemed to be."kinda reminds of the penthouse building in LA.
"Hmm," Simon said, ignoring the subject of Copernicus. "More like the tower of torture." He carefully landed on the sill of a window and unceremoniously dumped Razielle into the room. Then he jumped in after him, tucking in his wings."
Razielle shivered slightly and gazed around the room beeore being dropped. He glared up at Simon before standing and brushing himself off. He checked the bandages on his wings before glancing up at the rest of the room
"Oh, don't give me that look. I could've dropped you outside." Simon turned his gaze to an old man in a chair, speaking in a monotone voice to a middle-aged man laying on a couch with his hands over his eyes.
Raz huffed a sigh and nodded "true, thanks…I think" He murmured in reply, gaze landing on the two men across the room whom one he assumed to be Copernicus.
"You don't need to thank me, wise guy. Hey, Copernicus!" SImon said, procuring a piece of paper and a pencil and handing it to the old man, who nodded at Simon and took the utensil and the paper.
"I wasn't being..ugh you're a pain, ya know that right?" He argued, staying behind a bit. He wasn't really sure what to do other than observe. He tilted his head curiously when Simon handed over the price of paper and pencil to the older man, wondering what it was for.
"I am well aware of my annoyance-causing abilities. The paper is because he isn't allowed to talk to us. He has to keep spouting these weird formulas and stuff. To be boring to the guy on the couch."
"ah so that comes with the Holister model persona, got it." He nodded with a smirk and slowly walked forwards towards the pair, watching as Copernicus wrote something down on the piece of paper for Simon while simultaneously spew our formulas to the other man who looked liked he wanted to rip out his hair. "Seems like it's working."
Simon elbowed Razielle in the gut, hard. "Don't mock me. I'll throw you out the window. And obviously, it's working. I think this guy cheated on his wife a few times. With different people. Not devious enough to go to level two, but still disgusting." He looked down at what Copernicus wrote, which was, "Jak się miewasz? czego potrzebujesz?" Simon responded, "Jestem w porządku, musimy znaleźć jako swoje."
"I'd love to see you try." Raz muttered under his breath, clutching his stomach, the sick feeling returning when Simon had elbowed him. He glared over at the man lounging in the chair and scoffed slightly. Alright, he could respect a place where people got exactly what they deserved, even if it was Hell. He tilted his head uhm, sorry I'm well versed in many languages, what did he say?"
"Polish. He asked, how are you, what do you need, and I said, I'm fine thank you we need to find the diety." Simon watched Copernicus scribbling down several lines of writing at a furious speed, then hastily shoving both the pencil and the paper into Simon's hands. Simon read what the mathematician wrote, then grabbed Razielle's arm and dragged him to the window. "We gotta go. Now."
"wait what's he say now?" He asked frantically as he was dragged away from the pair. Razielle hastily thanked them in English before facing the window, eyes widening. "Simon what's wrong?"
Simon picked Razielle up hastily. "I'll tell you in a moment. Patience is a virtue, you know," he said, ever sarcastic as he leaped out the window. They began dropping to the ground, faster than Simon would have liked. His headache was getting worse, and fire was running through his veins. Struggling to open his wings, he winced. Finally, against the wind, they opened, and he almost dropped Razielle, his arms now only around his waist.
"sadly I have none when it comes to lives being risked." Razielle replied, trying to sound just as sarcastic but instead coming out more desperate and afraid. His eyes widened as they dropped to the ground a yell lodged in his throat as they plummeted down, not to Earth but to more open air. Razielle didn't realize how far they flown up until they were falling, seemingly forever. The yelp was finally realized when Simon opened his wings, the sudden jerking motion only worsening his sickness. He pressed his face I to Simon's shoulder and tried his best to control his breathing, really not wanting to throw up not flight. "We gotta go back, I think I left my gut up there somewhere." He muttered, blinking back stinging tears