"That's a relief. I, too, am not going to participate in their battle, my role was only to stop you."

As he listened to her, Arthur looked straight into her eyes and asked:

"Why did you accept his offer in the first place?"

"If I hadn't, you would have defended your brother and that would've made things easier for Sol'khin. Forne said that the enemy can travel from one host to another so it's not impossible for him to control you. All I wanted is to keep you away from this big mess."

*****

The thief who was part of Maxine's group was currently shaking from head to toe, obviously from fear. When he appeared on the third floor, the first thing he saw was a beast at least five times his size, its skin was purple and its appearance was the definition of fear. Fortunately, it didn't attack him, however, he soon discovered that it was actually his partner.

For an experienced player such as him, he recognized this monster, which purposely made itself smaller as its real size was burdensome in the Red Tower. As luck would have it, Patio, the thief, had the Void Behemoth as his temporary companion.

Communication was impossible… heck! The thought of leading the way never crossed his mind. He became a mute as he obediently walked behind the large beast, afraid to anger it in any way. The tattoo on the back of his hand depicted a purple hexagon-like object. It was the first time Patio saw such an object so he didn't know where to search, which frustrated the dread-stricken man even more.

At that time, the thief didn't know that what he'll witness on the 3rd floor will almost make him piss his pants. His adventure with the Void Behemoth was neither brief nor absurdly long as, in just two hours, they arrived at a large area filled with all kinds of ruins.

Guided by the Behemoth, they marched toward the biggest ruin and when they tried entering it, the large, motionless statue at the entrance reacted. It stood up from its kneeling position, its two emotionless eyes locking onto the two invaders.

"H-hey… why don't we-"

Patio couldn't even finish as the Void Behemoth loudly roared and leapt at the statue, pushing it on the ground and spitting Void blasts from its mouth, turning the enemy into nothingness. The blasts were made from Void Magic, which devoured everything in its way, whether it's solid, liquid, or gas.

Just like that, in a matter of seconds, the strong guardian protecting the main ruin was defeated, allowing the two to roam the place without any hindrance. The thief didn't know much about this place and felt rather insecure so he maintained a safe distance from the Behemoth while still following him, hoping for some sort of protection, after all, if something happens to him, his partner should be disqualified too.

A few minutes later, a golden light sprung from the ground and enveloped both the beast and the man, taking them to an underground city, where they came face to face with two other contestants.

This city, which was luminous and very majestic, was a nest for countless types of machines. Some meant to do labor work and others to protect the safety of this eternal settlement.

In more than a way, this underground hidden city resembled the place Zodiak visited to retrieve Anduril, which was created by the same race that invented everything here.

Hach'ara was busy dealing with the hundreds of buzzing and flying machines trying to capture both him and his partner so when the Void Behemoth appeared along with the thief, he didn't show any reaction. He had heard of the ancient beast living the Underworld but never personally saw him so he didn't recognize it.

Zodiak, however, was totally the opposite. The aura of Void oozing off the behemoth was enough of a sign to know the beast, even if its appearance was slightly different. He paid no heed to the unremarkable thief and, instead, glared at the growling beast.

"What? Do you want to fight here too?"

The hostility emanating from the behemoth could not be faked, nevertheless, apart from its deep growling, it didn't anything reckless. After a few moments of intense glaring, it turned his head, focusing its attention on an open area a few hundred meters north of its location.

It was an enormous circular fountain with a shiny, transparent water and jet black floor. At its top, there was a purple gem that was very similar to the hexagon from earlier, however, the problem was the tight security around the fountain.

There were countless golden pipes pumping water from the eternal fountain to the rest of the city… as if it was a power supply. What made it rather confusing was why would a power-supply be in the open and, a fountain, at that.

"Fucking hell…"

The thief cursed with a low voice as he saw titan-like robots rising from their slumber and circled around the four of them. In addition, the number of minuscule yet fast flying machines reached the thousands and despite Hach'ara destructive retaliation, the numbers weren't dwindling.

*****

"Damn! I really couldn't recognize her… it must be something the rock scientist… or whatever he is, invented."

Fortunately, Saly was asleep when Arthur self-injured himself. Though, Wolfram and Leiu witnessed the whole event, from start to finish. They were spectators but apart from seeing, they can't really do anything else… even the sound was cut off.

"Sister-in-law is really something, don't you think?"

He jokingly said while sneakily glancing at the stone-faced and silent Youth calmly sitting next to him.

"Why do you think she did that?"

In response, Leiu snorted and retorted:

"You already know why, stop with the oblivious act."

"Ehh, come on, at least pretend not to notice."

The two brothers were aware of Forne's plan but neither of them commented. The Joker already stated his non-interference, as for Leiu, he maintained his silence, as usual.

"Arthur and Lucy won't participate, isn't that a good thing?"

The Joker chuckled while saying that but, out of the blue, he felt a hand tightly holding his collar.

"I've already warned you, Wolfram. If something happens, you must act!"

The youth's hand was slightly shaking and his expression was different from the usual, his eyes were wavering and his breathing was unsteady.

In response to this, the Joker's smile vanished and his face became filled with a gaunt of expressionlessness. He pushed his brother's hand away, fixed his clothes and said:

"Act? How will I act? You want me to kill you? Really? The mighty Nameless Knight is giving up like this…"

"You know very well what will happen if Sol'khin gets out."

"Yes, I do know. He'll kill everyone present but I don't care. I will protect Arthur and his family… the rest, I don't care. What is this look you're giving me? You think I haven't killed any innocents before?

I spit on the thing they call 'humanity'. All I care about are those close to me so even if the worst happens, I and Arthur will make sure to free you. The whole world can be your enemy but we cannot!"

After saying his piece, Wolfram clicked his tongue and left the room, not forgetting to violently slam the door.

*****

"I want every inch of their bodies chained! DO YOU HEAR ME?!"

The warden of the prison yelled at the low-ranking angels, his temper rising every time he thought about the causalities they suffered to capture the two monsters kneeling before him. Their bodies were heavily injured and riddled with holes that were used for magical chains to pass through and bind their movements and dangerous abilities.

"S-sir Habs, which floor should they be locked into?"

"What do you mean what floor?! The deepest one! Hurry up!"

Habs managed to reach such a high position despite not being angel due to this strength and past military merits. He fought the demons for two hundred years and killed more than fifty thousands by himself, earning him the position of the warden of the Last Moment Prison.

It was quite a cheesy name for an infamous prison but it was named so because everyone who's locked here will live their past moment in their cell. Throughout history, only three people managed to successfully escape, two of them are Forne and Zodiak, who achieved such a feat only because they were imprisoned on the 4th floor.

As per their boss' order, the two newly-captured prisoners were dragged to the deepest floor. Each one was held by four angels and chained from head to toe, they could barely breath properly, much less lift a finger.

Two had identical appearances except for their hair colors, one was snow-white while the other was scarlet red.

They were Midolf and Radolf, who were hunted down by the angels ever since they escaped the war versus the specters. Someone must have snitched to their angels, causing them to relentlessly chase them to the ends of the world.

Unfortunately, after a long and bitter struggle, they were surrounded by three commander angels and captured, at last. Now, they were imprisoned in the Last Moment Prison, more precisely at the deepest floor, where only the most dangerous and powerful criminals are held.

The place was illuminated by white light sparks which couldn't illuminate the whole floor, which, by the way, was much smaller than the rest but guarded by at least five hundred fighter angels.

"Hahahaha I'm finally getting new roommates!"

As the two youngsters were thrown into metal cells that were totally empty, a womanly voice echoed inside the cave, startling the nervous angels.

Radolf remained unresponsive, his eyes staring at the dark ground. However, Midolf was much more talkative despite his current, miserable state.

"Who the fuck are you?!"

He cursed at the chained woman, who didn't seem bothered by the nails stabbed into her bones or the chains stabbing his forehead and chest.

"My dear, handsome boy, I am Zaarae, hahahaahaha"

"Quiet! QUIET!"

The angel leading this floor banged his baton on prison bars while warning Midolf with his eyes, though he didn't even dare to face the restrained Zaarae, much less get close to her cell.

"Mhmm, you've got a nice and familiar smell…"-Zaarae

****

Author note: Zaarae; Parasite Empress, the Lady who reaps.