Going Up
Walls shift, turning and locking into each other, stairs twist, interlocking with one another. The distance between the floating stones only shrinks as they go up, making it more confounding as they travel.
BOOM
BOOM
BOOM
With the lack of space, crashes occur every second, the shattered pieces flying off only to be brought back and reassemble themselves. "Ugh, fuck..." Kael groans, rubbing his temples. 'How long has it been? 15 hours? A day? 3 days? This place is driving me crazy. The higher we go, the more compacted it gets.' He opens his eyes, and a wave of nausea runs through him. He winces as he looks up at the constant twists and turns. 'Shit... we can't jump around anymore; we just have to keep climbing the stairs.' Closing his eyes, Kael continues to follow Ryua. 'It's a good thing I got my ass beaten by Mira and Isadora over and over again until I managed to fight back while blindfolded. I don't have to worry about nausea as long as I keep my eyes closed.'
Tap
Tap
Tap
Ryua stops, placing her hand on a wall. Shifting her gaze down, she sees Kael. 'He hasn't gone insane yet. In fact, he's quite calm. His posture hasn't changed one bit despite constantly going through shifts in time. He's likely unaware we went through several loops. There's a spot we kept going through that shifted space, sending us back down. Luckily, I managed to notice after the 8th loop. What I find strange is his solution to his problem. How in the goddess's name is he able to accurately read my mana in this room, which is quite literally a catalyst of compressed mana?' Glaring at the young man with his eyes closed, she turns back around and walks up. After five steps, her long black hair starts floating. "We've reached the low gravity point," she states in a calm, composed tone.
"Low gravity?" Running up the stairs, Kael smirks, feeling his body weight drop. "Wow, this is sick..." he mumbles, jumping up.
"Hmm?" Turning around, she raises an eyebrow. "You've never been in a gravity chamber? Most high-end academies have gravity chambers."
With a shrug, Kael sighs. "I have to be a junior before I can enter a gravity chamber. Not even nobles are allowed to train in one." 'I was going to buy one, but Eira insisted on building one herself. It's been months. If she wasn't so stubborn about it, I would've used one by now.'
"I see," Ryua mumbles, taking her gun out and looking around. "Stay on guard. I'm certain we'll find a monster up here." The twisting of walls and the interlocking of stairs continues, but as they move upwards, the possible routes increase, making it a more and more consuming maze of stairs.
'Shit... what's going on?' Kael groans, falling on one knee. 'Fuck, every damn twist is giving me an aneurysm.'
"Hehehehe~ Look at you~ My disciple is going through something quite painful. Hmm~" Ilka grins mischievously, popping out and floating upside down. After a second of seeing Kael rubbing his head in pain, she turns her head and sighs. "Before you say anything, you're right, I have no clue what you're sensing since I can't sense shit in this form." Landing on his head, she pulls his hair. "But~ I. Do. Know~ You see, I've been in similar places. I taught you how to sense mana, but..." she smirks, looking up, "Every twist and turn is sending ripples of mana in all directions, sort of like shockwaves. Usually, in places with low gravity, mana flows at a faster rate, and with all these stones already packed to the brink with mana, they become sort of like mirrors that deflect the ripples of mana—"
Ryua exhales and turns around. "What are you doing? I'll leave you behind if you don't stand up," she says in a cold, serious tone. 'All you have to do is open your eyes and stop sensing mana. How is he unaware of this?' she wonders, rubbing her eyes.
"Fuck you! Don't interrupt me, you fucktard!" Ilka grumbles, flipping off the adventurer who's completely unaware of her presence. Turning back around, she rolls her eyes. "Anyways, you good-for-nothing greedy disciple. Since you're so fixated on doing as you like and ignoring your master, you need to be punished. You're not allowed to open your eyes unless you're fighting. Figure this out yourself. If you don't, I won't train you for 5 years." She floats down to eye level with Kael, who's taking deep breaths. "This isn't a threat, it's a promise. I'll be watching." With that, she dematerializes.
"Ugh... why the hell is she so mad?" Kael mumbles under his breath. 'How the heck do I solve this problem? The mana around is disorienting my senses. If I open my eyes and stop sensing my surroundings, I'll still be nauseous, but I'll be able to move... Fuck. Why is Ilka mad at me? I haven't done anything to piss her off.' Scratching his head, he reaches into his pouch until he finds a blindfold. 'I can't risk accidentally opening my eyes. If Ilka stops training me for 5 years, I'll have to change my plan, and that'll take too much time. Ilka's not the type to give me an impossible task. If it's a test, then I have no choice but to take it.'
Walking down, Ryua glares at Kael. "What the hell are you doing? We don't have time for these games."
"Ah... you can leave me behind. I'll catch up once I figure this out," Kael responds, sitting down with his legs crossed.
After a minute of blinking in place, she clicks her tongue. "Let's go!" she yells, annoyed, pulling him by his hair and dragging him up the stairs. 'I should just leave you here. Dropping you here and running up would be easy. I've been slowly climbing this whole time so you can keep up. If I let you go, I'll reach the top in no time.' She turns her head back to see Kael isn't struggling; he's just letting himself get dragged. 'He's driving me crazy,' Ryua exhales.
-
'How is this possible? Is he playing with me, or is he an actual monster?' Ryua thinks, glancing at Kael walking beside her with no sign of pain. 'He managed to adjust in less than 9 hours... How did he break past the effects? He must've been faking it, lowering my guard.' She tightens her grip on her Crimson Tide revolvers.
With a heavy yawn, Kael stretches. 'Hmhmhm~ I bet Ilka didn't expect me to figure it out this fast. It's all thanks to my circulation method; the ripples of mana aren't responsible for the headaches. It's the mana reflected that's the problem. It overlaps with new ripples, clashing and sending mana in all directions. So the best solution is to absorb the mana so it doesn't reflect. Since I just ranked up, I can't store it in my core, so I just circulate it and transfer it to Umbra.' Kael grins, looking at Umbra transformed as his black silk glove. To keep people from seeing the tattoo he got when soul-bounding with Umbra, he always wears long-sleeve shirts, keeping Umbra as a glove that he can transform into a long sleeve if necessary.
"Hey, you said there'd be monsters—"
Swoosh! Swoosh!
Swoosh!
"You just had to jinx it," Ryua whispers with a heavy exhale. Looking around, she starts sprinting upwards. "We're at a disadvantage. As much as I'd like to fight them, they'll kill us," she says calmly with a serene gaze. 'I'm not sure how this man does it, but I can't sense anything. If I tried, I'd go insane. I need to find an open space.'
Catching up to her, Kael exhales. "You could've said something before running off! I hate these disgusting-looking things so damn much," he breathes heavily, running at full speed.
"You've seen these things?" She turns, curious.
"Yeah, Itto fought a couple of them. Before a rift split us up, we were getting chased by a horde of these things! These monsters are cannibals. While we ran for our lives, they chased us, biting chunks off each other."
"It's strange. Even if they're the dominant monsters in this dungeon, why would they be on a floor like this?" Ryua wonders, jumping higher and higher in the low gravity.
Kael stops and looks around. "Hey, you said these walls are unbreakable, right?"
"Yeah, why?" She halts, looking down at him.
"I can sense them... they're following us, but they're on the other side." Kael smirks, slamming his hand on the wall. 'Even if the walls crash into each other, they'll reform before they can get through.'
'Is he acting stupid? Or is he actually stupid?' Ryua sighs, lifting her Crimson Tide and pointing it at him.
Bang!
The bullet shoots out, flying directly at Kael. BOOM! The wall next to him breaks, and a rotten face nearly grabs him, but the bullet sends it crashing back. 'Huh? What?' Kael turns, confused.
"Let's go, it'll get up any second," her voice cold and demanding as she starts jumping up.
"H-how did..." Kael rubs his head. 'I completely forgot these things don't have restrictions. Shit, this is bad. There are four of them after us.' "We can't keep running; we need to fight them."
"I know," she exhales. "We need to find an open space. If we fight them here, we'll lose."
"An open space, huh?" Kael smirks. "I gotchu." Grabbing her hand, he halts and places his gloved hand on a wall. In a flash, it cracks before shattering into pebbles. "Let's go!" he yells, running through the pebbles before the wall reforms. The space behind the wall is a large empty area with very few structures around.
"How did you do that?" Ryua asks, a raised eyebrow in utter confusion.
With a smirk, Kael raises his hand. "This glove of mine is an artifact that sucks up mana. So to break the wall, I just sucked it dry." 'Umbra's the best. Before I leave this floor, I'll have it suck as much mana as possible.'
Swoosh!
Swoosh! Swoosh!
"Leave them to me," Ryua says, reaching into her pouch and grabbing a large bow. The bow has golden corners, made of some light dark clean wood. At the top, it has some blue strings that wave around.
"Wait a second. You'll only waste your energy. I have a better idea." Grabbing a potion, Kael smiles. "They're weak to holy water, so here's the plan. You have to kill all four of them at the same time, or they'll realize we have holy water." After searching his pouch, he finds the arrows he owns and dips them in the potion.
Taking a deep breath, she grabs the arrows and inspects them. "Where did you get these arrows? This is the highest quality I've seen in a long time."
"My dwarf friend made them..." Kael smiles awkwardly. 'Eira, I told you to make them low quality... No, I can use this to my advantage.' "She's not from the dwarven kingdom, and she won't make any more, so please don't ask." Looking behind her, Kael groans. "Seriously, can we deal with these things first?" 'Dwarfs made a vow to never make arrows again so her reaction is reasonable.'
Turning around, she glances around. "These things won't attack instantly. They like playing around; no need to worry," she mumbles, nocking the four arrows. Closing her eyes, her bow starts radiating a fiery hue. The arrowheads burst into flames. "Your reaction speed is too slow," she coldly states, opening her eyes to see them rushing at her. As soon as she lets go, the arrows fly, leaving a fiery trail. The arrows move through the area at high speed, turning. The fire grows and moves as if it were alive.
'Wow... it's beautiful.' Kael breathes in. 'I can't see it, but I can sense its movements... it looks like a phoenix...'
BOOM!
The explosion erupts, and both Kael and Ryua instinctively jump back. "What is this..." Ryua mumbles, a slight crack in her voice. As the fire slowly disperses, the four monsters stand still, and right in front of them lies something else...
It's not two to three feet tall like the others; it's five feet tall. The leaves it uses as clothes don't look like dark black ripped-up rags like the others. It has beautiful green leaves that extend down its body, covering it like a dress with flowers growing on it. Its body is not distorted. Its mouth isn't drooling like the others. It doesn't have black skin; its skin is normal with a slight yellow hue. It has golden glowing hair that floats in the low gravity. It's not twitching. Its wings are large, the colors on them shifting like a rainbow. No bruises, no cuts. Its face is beautiful. A golden white hue erupts from it. One of its eyes is bright like the sun, while the other is black with veins on it as if it were infected. It looks completely different, yet there are similarities between them.
Holding the arrows in its hand, it turns to the other monsters. "Ᏽዐ ፪𐌀ር𐌊 𐌕ዐ ፕ𐋅ቹ ፕቹ𐌄, ሃꝊ፱'ረ𐌋 𐌃ጎ𐌄 𐌉ቻ ሃꝊ፱ ነ𐌕ል𐌙 𐋅ቹ𐌐ቹ. 𐌉'𐌋ረ ጋ𐌄ል𐌋 Ꮤጎ𐌕ⶴ ፕ𐋅ቹ ጎ𐌍ፕ𐌐፱𐌃ቹ𐌐ነ." As soon as it speaks, the other monsters run off. It turns back to Kael and Ryua, extending its arm. "I҉t҉'҉s҉ a҉ p҉l҉e҉a҉s҉u҉r҉e҉ t҉o҉ m҉e҉e҉t҉ y҉o҉u҉—" Stopping itself, it taps its forehead, emitting a green hue. "I greet the intruders," it says clearly in the common tongue.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
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