Summarizing the last… uhh… I don't know, 47 seconds, I think.
Time doesn't really matter right now… No, wait a second, I think I said that wrong…
Idiot, of course time matters. I'm in a race against the clock, and I have less than 7 minutes left to kill an interdimensional parasite, or die trying… with debts to pay…
I think I got a little off-topic. Yeah, without a doubt, I did.
I'll start again.
Summarizing the recent events, I left the library and once again entered the gigantic maze of hallways that was the third floor. It would be extremely easy to get lost here, especially when you're someone who has no idea where to go, but thanks to the cube, which was acting as my guide, it was fairly easy to find the staircase that would get me out of here.
Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap.
I climbed as quickly as I could until I reached the second section of the floor, but when I arrived, I encountered another unexpected problem.
"A collapse."
The staircase connecting to the third section was blocked by a mountain of rubble.
"I'm getting déjà vu."
It was almost the exact same problem I had on the second floor.
[Go right.]
The cube said that, and of course, I followed its instructions as if I were a lost tourist and the cube was an electronic map.
Tap, tap, tap, tap.
You might be wondering something like: Where am I going?
Well, if you remember correctly, I only have one mission left, and that same mission might be the most fucked-up one out of all the missions I've been assigned. We'll find out soon enough, but for now, I had to recover my weapons, because otherwise, I wouldn't even be able to take two steps before ending up, in the worst-case scenario, completely vaporized.
[Proceed 15 meters and turn right.]
I increased my pace, reaching almost inhuman speeds through the power of my own will. Or at least that's what I thought, because honestly, it seemed illogical how ridiculously fast I was moving.
Not to mention the state my body was in. Despite still being under the effects of the adrenaline injection, it should have already been so damaged that it wouldn't have been strange at all if, at any moment, one of my arms or legs simply detached itself while I was running.
[Right, now.]
I followed the cube's instructions, but when I turned the corner, I encountered something that didn't manage to stop me, but it did make me drastically reduce my speed.
I had entered a fairly large area, filled with plants with striking appearances and luxurious furniture. It looked like a resting area, or perhaps a cafeteria, a place where office workers and other employees would go to rest after hours of hard work.
But that wasn't what caught my attention.
What did was that half of the place was completely destroyed.
Multiple pieces of evidence in the form of craters and walls riddled with holes indicated that a fight had taken place here, but not a fight between humans, where at most a table or a couple of chairs would be broken.
And it also wasn't an encounter similar to the ones I had with the entities in this building.
This was far more destructive.
There were enormous craters in the floor and walls, and all of them were almost completely covered by large stains of crimson blood.
"Oh no…"
Just by seeing the existence of this blood, I was able to conclude that the cause of this disaster was the result of a brawl between superhumans, one that apparently did not end very well.
"Shit."
At that moment, a chill ran through my body from the tips of my feet all the way to the top of my skull.
I was afraid, very afraid. Afraid of encountering a crazy superhuman who wouldn't hesitate to kill me.
It wasn't that I was underestimating the strength of the entities. Those bastards gave me a terrible beating, but none of them could cause this kind of damage.
Not even "the substance," which covered more than half of the first section of the third floor.
"Keep going… just keep running…"
I told myself as I continued moving forward.
Honestly, I would have liked to keep investigating this area. It would have been nice to sit down for a while in one of the few armchairs that remained intact, just for a little while…
But I couldn't. I had to keep going.
I accelerated my pace again as I crossed through a double glass door, only to enter another hallway.
"This is crazy..."
[What are you talking about?]
The cube asked, and from the way it spoke, it was obvious that it was worried, so I decided to answer honestly.
"This building, in general."
With its narrow and endless hallways, the labyrinth-like structure of this building had given me a headache by constantly confusing me with its strange design.
"Most of this place is made up of nothing but hallways, stairs, and offices."
It was frustrating. Just thinking about every aspect of this place made me feel dizzy and gave me headaches.
"What kind of crazy person would work in a place like this?"
[Who knows? The world is full of all kinds of people.]
That was a coherent and quite believable answer. However…
Even so… just thinking about the fact that a person spent a large part of their time working here… Tsk… I couldn't do it. I don't think I could handle 8 hours of daily work in a place like this without going insane in the process.
I couldn't stop imagining myself dressed like an office worker, working like an office worker… being an office worker…
Sigh.
"Ugh… out of nowhere, I got a chill."
[…]
[There are those who spend their entire lives fighting to survive, chasing a peace that barely allows them to live with some degree of dignity. But even when they achieve it, they know the torment will not disappear; they will simply learn to carry it with them until the day when death finally comes to claim them.]
"...What kind of people are those?"
[Mostly, they are the ones who earn minimum wage.]
"Oh…"
From one moment to another, I began to feel a strong sense of pity for those who had to work here. It must have been like a nightmare, one that only ended when the monsters and interdimensional beasts arrived.
[And the other part would be people like you.]
"People like me? What do you mean by that?"
[Well… ¡...!]
The cube's sentence was abruptly cut off when it seemed to become surprised by something.
"What's happening?"
[It's here, to the left!]
I made such a sudden turn that, due to the speed I was moving at, I almost fell violently to the ground. Fortunately, I managed to maintain my balance and recover my posture so I could continue running.
"...!"
There it was.
In the middle of a mountain of rubble, the Necronian axe protruded above it, without showing a single scratch across its entire structure.
"Great!"
I said without controlling the volume of my voice, something I ended up regretting, but only a little.
I moved toward the axe and bent down to retrieve it.
"Hmm…!?"
But when my fingers touched the weapon's handle, that was when I noticed the problem in front of me.
"Cube."
[Is something wrong, sir?]
"Yes, you see, this hallway is very dark…"
[Yes, it appears so.]
"...Scanner."
BEEP.
[Oh…]
"What category is it?"
[It is category 1, the same as the one hiding behind the wall on your left.]
"There are two… any recommendations?"
[...]
[They are not that tough.]
[Extinguish their lights.]
"Alright…"
I closed my fingers around the handle, then lifted the weapon.
"Are you waiting for an invitation?"
My words traveled through the hallway until they disappeared into its darkness.
...
"Come on, don't be such a coward."
I knew very well that whatever was hiding in the darkness could hear me and understand me.
"You and the other one… were you expecting to surprise me? If so, you're even dumber than the others."
...
GGGRRRRRR….
"Oh…"
That actually surprised me.
A row of teeth, each one larger than the length of my forearm, emerged from the darkness and approached my face, stopping less than a couple of centimeters away from it.
"You're… a little bigger than I expected. Is the other one the same size as you?"
RROOOAAARR!
"Ah, whatever."
And this is where we arrive at the present moment, where, while standing face to face with a threat hiding in the darkness, I decided to respond with my own darkness.
FFFUUUUAAAAASSSSSHH!
An intense dark energy emerged from my body and concentrated around the axe.
"I can't waste any more of my time."
RRROOOAAAA….!
The entity jumped toward me, trying to rip my head off with a bite, but before it could even sink its sharp teeth into my skull.
PAAAM!
A small sphere the size of a marble flew at high speed toward the entity's chin, until it collided forcefully against it.
The impact itself did not cause much damage, but it achieved its objective. It distracted it.
It does not matter if it was only for half a second, that is enough to have the advantage in the next move.
FUAASSSHHHH!
I swung the axe imbued with darkness.
SLASH!
Its edge cut its way through the entity's teeth, destroying more than half of them.
RROOAAAR!
"Wow…"
This entity did not seem to care about the damage it received, and its roars made me think that it would continue attacking, without caring about the consequences.
RROOOAAARRR!
But it did not matter anymore. Now I was in the perfect position to deliver an even more powerful blow.
FFFFUUUUUUAAAASSSSH!
Using my maximum concentration, I used the stigma to gather all the darkness surrounding the axe into its edge, with the objective of making it expand the moment it collided with the entity's skin.
"Silence…"
I said, hoping to sound cool before swinging my axe.
Crack…!
"Eh?"
CRACK!
I think… maybe I should have swung the axe before starting to talk.
Strong cracking sounds began to be heard from the wall on my left, while at the same time, a bunch of cracks appeared and began spreading across every part of it.
"Ah, right, I almost forgot. There were two entities…"
CRACK!!!
The wall fell.
Hidden among the dust and rubble, the entity launched a powerful blow at me, one that I barely managed to dodge. As a consequence, the attack continued its course until it collided with the other wall of the hallway, producing a loud sound:
CRASH!
Taking advantage of the fact that the dust cloud was still covering us, I moved as far away as possible from both entities.
From the end of the hallway, I saw… well, actually, I did not see anything. The cloud was still covering a large part of the area, but...
RROOOAAAR!!!
KRUUU-KRUUUU!!!
Their roars made me believe that they were not happy at all.
"Great, now how am I supposed to…?"
"…!"
I could not even complain anymore.
FIIIIUUUSSSSH!
A huge object emerged from the dust cloud at high speed, directly toward me.
"Fuck…!"
Almost the same way as with the entity's attack, I threw myself toward the ground and let that object continue its course until it crashed into a wall behind me.
I moved a couple of meters away from the impact zone before raising my guard again.
KRUU-KRRUUU!
The dust cloud quickly dispersed when that object that had almost crushed me stood up.
"So you are the second one…"
From what I understand, entities take forms by assimilating beings, or something like that. I have seen that most of them take the forms of animals from Terra or monsters that inhabit Terran worlds.
The only exception was the substance, which simply did not have a defined form.
KRUUU…
Its form was… not very different from the rest, some kind of insect, with a strange texture on its skin.
"Eee… ¡…!"
-That… is that a...?
[Yes.]
[It seems that it also assimilated him, besides taking the form of a mantis.]
KRUUU….
That greenish entity, almost 2 meters tall, with its large yellow eyes, looked at me with murderous intentions while rhythmically shaking its sword-shaped arms, but this did not matter to me, because my vision focused only on its torso.
"Agh… seriously, it must have been like a nightmare."
It was a face. It was the face of a person, the face of a person attached to the entity's torso.
"Dammit…"
I said while giving myself a couple of pats on the cheeks.
"Alright."
Fuuuaaaasssh!
KRUUU!!!
"Let's continu…."
CRASH!!!
Once again, I was abruptly interrupted.
RRROOOOAAAARRR!!!
But this time...
KRUUUU-KRU!!!
The way they did it confused me much more than it should have.
From one moment to another, the green entity was tackled by a huge pale feline-looking beast with stripes all over its body.
"That is the other entity."
I exclaimed in surprise.
[That is correct, sir Robert.]
[It appears to have assimilated a tiger.]
-Another animal from Terra?
[Yes, although this one is different.]
-In what way?
[It is bigger and has spikes on its back.]
-Ah… yeah, I did not notice that.
[It happens to anyone, do not worry.]
KRUUU!
ROAARR!
The tiger stood on its hind legs while biting and scratching the body of its opponent, but the green entity did not fall behind, as it used its sword-shaped arms to defend itself and attack at the same time.
"What is happening now?"
[The entities are fighting each other.]
"I understand that, but…"
[Do not look for logic in their behavior.]
[As I told you before, these are not a big deal compared to what you faced before.]
"Hmm…"
It would be a good moment to attack them by surprise… but looking at it from another perspective.
[Excuse me, sir Robert, what are you doing?!]
-What do you think? I am taking advantage of their distraction to get out of here.
[But…]
-The mission only asks me to eliminate the Ka'li, not the rest of the entities.
-I will recover my sword and then continue with the original plan.
CRASH!
I ran until I disappeared into the darkness of the hallway, and I did not even think about stopping or slowing down.
Or at least, I did not do it until I stopped hearing those fierce roars.
Even so, I kept running.
***
It felt peaceful, the way my body seemed to sink into a sea of incredibly burning flames that were unable to burn my skin.
Slap!
There, I felt happy, not like at home…
Slap!!
Nobody looked at me like they did, or at least, not in the same way.
Slap!!
That same hatred did not exist in their eyes, and their hits were nothing compared to theirs.
SLAP!!
In the middle of the flames, I…
SLAP!!
Was happy…
…
SLAP!!!
"Huaaaa… Haaa!"
"Oh, you finally woke up."
"What… eh? …Ouch!"
"Thank goodness, I thought you were dead."
"What? Dead? Who are you? And why do my cheeks hurt so much?"
When I abruptly woke up from what seemed to be a rather pleasant dream, the first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was a sturdy man with a calm expression.
"Those are a lot of questions."
I could not deny that, but what could I do? I was extremely confused and in a lot of pain.
"Who are you?"
"My name is James. I found you buried under a pile of corpses. What is your name?"
"My name is Dran and… WHAT?!"
I had not heard wrong, right?
This guy had just said that I was next to a corpse.
"Ah, so Dran. It is an uncommon name around here. You are from the north, right?"
"Yes, but… what do you mean by saying that I was next to a corpse?"
"You were not next to one, you were underneath it."
He corrected me, while maintaining that same calm expression that made me feel confused, as if I was the strange one for acting so surprised.
"And it was not only one…"
He turned his head, looking to one side. I followed his gaze until I came face to face with a scene that was quite…
"…!"
Terrifying.
One meter away from me, a pile of corpses rose like a pyramid.
"You were underneath all of them. Counting you, there were 7 in this pile."
I could not stop looking at them. All of them were literally destroyed.
Many of them were missing their eyes, others had exposed bones and torn skin, but there was one that stood out above the rest.
It was the one that did not even have a head, but not because it had been cut off.
It showed signs of having been beaten so badly that, from the neck upward, there were no recognizable remains of it.
"Buugggh."
Just thinking about the fact that my body had been underneath them made my stomach turn to the point where I felt like vomiting.
"Bbmmmm!"
But I did not.
I was embarrassed to do something like that in front of a stranger.
"Are you okay?! Do you want some water?!"
"…..Bbmm, no… I am fine…."
"Oh, that's good, because I don't have any water I can give you."
-Why does this guy say things like that?
I thought while managing to stand up.
"Hey, you should sit down a little longer…"
I ignored his comment, because I wanted to identify the place where I was.
"Let me help you."
Said the guy named James as he stood up to help me.
At that moment, I was surprised to see that this guy turned out to be more muscular and taller than I had thought.
-He must be around 1.90 meters tall.
"Thanks… James."
"No need, Dran."
He replied with a smile on his face.
-He is really kind.
"…!"
When I raised my eyes, I found myself looking at a destroyed wasteland, filled with craters and fissures that created deep abysses, not to mention the countless piles of corpses scattered throughout the area, and the fire that seemed to spread from the horizon.
"Where are we?"
I asked, unable to look away.
"This… this is the refugee camp. More precisely, this is what remains of it."
"The refugee… camp."
"…!"
At that moment, I remembered everything.
The chaos, the crazy people with dead eyes, and above all, I remembered that beautiful girl with platinum hair.
"Olivia…."
Suddenly, I stopped feeling so much pain.
***
"Okay…"
After escaping from those entities, I entered the library and recovered my sword.
With it in my hands, I prepared to go back up, but I did not just go up to the third section of the floor. After going through a couple more places, I found the main staircase, which took me directly to the fourth floor.
Once there, I ran until I reached its own library.
"This is already… I do not know what to think."
But it looked… different from what I expected.
Not to mention that it looked like a scene taken straight out of an extremely bloody horror movie.
"Is that blood?"
Beep.
[For the third time, yes, that is blood.]
It was an absurd amount.
I would not doubt it if someone said there was much more blood spilled throughout this place than books on the shelves.
"Damn…"
"Are you sure there is nothing here?"
[For the third time, there are no traces of entities here.]
"What about monsters?"
[For the third time, there are also no traces of monsters or any other form of life besides you.]
"And… superhumans?"
[Superhumans are a form of life.]
"…."
Tap… tap…
"What happened here?"
I asked while walking through the middle of the shelves.
"I had never seen anything like this."
I had never seen such an amount of blood, or at least, I had not seen it in a long time.
"Why would superhumans kill each other?"
[…]
"Cube?"
BEEEEEP.
"And that?"
[Apologies, sir Robert. It is sending a report to the higher-ups.]
"A report? Are you writing down everything I do for them?"
[Only the vital things, like this, for example.]
Beep.
[Answering your question, it seems that what caused the rift on the lower floor happened here.]
"Here? How was that possible?"
[I will answer that later. Focus on finishing your mission.]
"Right, thanks, cube."
I increased my pace to quickly reach the center of the library, while the cube behind me muttered something like:
[If it was a nightmare...]
"…."
I did not ask anything this time, because I feared that the answers would be things that distracted me from my objective and, in the long run, made me hesitate.
That last thing would be a death sentence, one that would arrive long before I even set foot on the 17th floor.
Tap… tap…
"I reached the center of the library and, just like the one on the lower floor, this one was free of any kind of furniture, and further ahead there was a huge hole in the floor.
Aside from the countless bloodstains, I do not think there is a clear difference between the library on the 3rd floor and the one on the 4th floor."
Tap… tap….
"Alright… let's go over the plan."
Beep.
[This building has 20 floors in total. Counting the intermediate sections that exist on each floor, they should have an average height of 20 meters. Assuming you want to reach the 17th floor, there should be an approximate distance of 260 meters.]
"Will the grenade's power be enough?"
[Without a doubt, but that is not the important part.]
"Do not worry, I already have it more or less figured out."
-Mister Specter…
-Are you there?
I am always here.
-Great… and what do you think about the plan?
…..Meh.
-Meh? What does meh mean?
…..Everything will work out, as long as your will does not falter.
-And can you not help like you did before?
You did it that time.
-Oh.... And is there nothing you can do to make the plan succeed?
I can help depending on the type of access you allow me.
-What does that mean?
I will help maintain the shape of the sphere for only 4 seconds. The rest will depend on you.
"Alright… that is enough for me."
I did not feel like I was in a position to criticize the specter, because his help had already been useful before, and besides, I still had no idea what his main function in this job was.
He kept saying that his purpose was to help me, but that was another one of the things I still did not fully understand.
Tap, tap…
"Grenade…"
Beep.
Responding to my call, a brick-shaped object appeared in my hand.
Click.
I immediately removed the ring that was on its top.
I stood at the edge of the hole and saw how it continued downward until reaching the first floor.
Then I raised my gaze toward the ceiling, seeing how there was another hole in it, and more above that.
[They stop on the 10th floor.]
The cube spoke, referring to the place where the holes disappeared.
[Mission time limit: 5 minutes and 9 seconds.]
Sigh.
"….I am going to live."
I said before jumping into the hole.
[Throw it now!]
The cube shouted, and I responded to its order, throwing the explosive downward with all my strength.
Now!
The specter shouted, and instantly a layer of darkness surrounded me until it formed a protective sphere around me.
Beep.
During.
Beep.
Those agonizing seconds.
Beep.
The only thing I could say was.
BEEEEEP.
"Here we go again."
BOOOOOOOOM!!!