The fifteenth floor, one of searing heat and blazing color. Corals seeped mana and waved in the currents their heat created, all seeming to be blown away by the biggest in the center. It was red, so brilliantly so that even the radiance of the coral around it simply couldn’t measure up to it.

And at the center of the floor, wrapped comfortably around the trunk of this blindingly red coral slumbered a creature well known to the world, from the myths of the commoners and the fights of the strong. This particular beast, the wyvern, was oddly positioned, on his back with his wings spread, pushed against the floor and the corals while he gnawed on his own tail. At a glance, he appeared less a beast designed for speed and for slaughter and more a large house pet. He looked content in spite of the strangely acrobatic sleeping posture, though emotions were hard to read from his scaly visage.

Many things ran through his head in his sleep, half-formed ideas and disorganized images which stood in for dreams; the wyvern had been getting these more after moving downwards, though it wasn’t regretting the move in the slightest. If anything, he was just as intrigued by the changes in his mind as those in his body, and there were plenty of those.

As his jumbled mind turned in the direction of his own body, something he was more than happy to indulge in, he was snapped awake by the loudest noise he’d ever heard. His wings and tail flailed wildly and he let loose a frightened hiss, he jerked his head around to find what caused his panicked awakening. After a moment of undignified scrambling, he regained composure. He glanced around quickly to ensure that nothing had seen his little outburst, and relaxed when he was certain that nothing with a central nervous system, or at least eyes, was present.

After he had done so he looked longingly at his new perch, shaking his head when he realized sleep would not claim him again. His heart was already beating in his throat, and his highly sensitive ears were still ringing subtly, so he looked for something to do. His speckled emerald and crimson body stretched out, wings stirring the water into vortices and sending his jellied floormates spinning and tangling, though it did not last for long. There was something satisfying about watching the creatures pulse and float through the water, an idle fascination that the wyvern could get lost in and relax for a little while.

He followed around a particular one for a time, a man-o-war which seemed to always be in the middle of the rest, even if he stirred up the group to bring it outside the rest always shifted to bring it back. The novelty quickly wore off, though, and he absently popped a few of the gelatinous creatures with his sharpened tail. He left the interesting one alone, then departed.

Of course, he did so with the flair he’d grown to enjoy so much in his leisure, a quick flap of his wings sent him shooting downwards through the liquid, fifty meters were covered in a split second before a second motion sent him careening away. He seemed leisurely throughout the entire stunt, even bored moving at speeds and changing direction that would have killed most any other creature which could have experienced them, and he didn’t even bother bleeding off his speed as he thought. Despite how much he’d grown to love the floor of heat and radiance he’d been living in the past few days, and how much he’d grown in body and mind because of it, he wanted to stretch his wings a little.

And once he thought of that, he looked towards the passage downwards, the passage leading to the only floor he knew of which he hadn’t explored. He descended quickly and eagerly, feeling the water around him getting heavier, the light fleeing as he tore through the tunnel. He shot out into an oppressively dark area, one unlike anything else he’d ever seen in his Maker’s creation before. There were no corals, no colors, barely any light. It was only his incredible eyesight which allowed him to see in the dim space, before he was dazzled by a sudden eruption of blue right before his eyes, and a rush of red and white streaking by.

Unusual glowing fish tried to evade capture of something far stranger; a number of boneless arms were attached to a fleshy tube which housed two oversized eyes, they appeared comical after one looks past the sheer aggression they were attacking the glowing fish with. Much like the jellyfish of his floor, there was something entrancing about them, and his gaze followed a particularly big and flashy looking one for quite a few minutes, watching as it led the others with it.

Unfortunately, that creature was not long for the world, after the group had culled the fish, they set their sights on the only other creature on the floor apart from themselves. The only problem with their plan, that creature happened to be the wyvern. The biggest thing led their charge, only to be promptly sheared apart by dozens of teeth. The wyvern gave a completely unnecessary shake of the head, before tilting his chin upwards. Motes of light, blue blood, and dark ink all flowed out of his mouth through the gaps in his bared teeth.

Seeing their leader cut down so liesurely only seemed to stoke their ire, their skin began flashing reds and whites at an even more frantic cycle. For his part, the wyvern was unimpressed by their displays, and after a handful of them once more propelled themselves to their demise, the wyvern took this as an invitation to return the favor and attack back. In just a few seconds and a short burst of motion, the wyvern decimated them; he counted near one hundred being aggressive towards him before he moved, and less than ninety after.

Like this, he went through the creatures, slicing and shearing his way through their weird flesh tubes and devouring their many limbs until they took the hint and left in a rush. It was then, after he was left with an apparently empty floor, that he realized he was a little lost. After he scanned through the darkness for his exit, he realized the squids evacuated through one of the tunnels out, and he was tempted to follow them, so he did. They probably fled to his own floor to begin with, anyways.

~~~~~

Meanwhile on the thirteenth, the wyrm lay coiled in her alcove. She had been soundly asleep when something sounded out, louder even than when she’d had the displeasure of listening to the Lord’s horrendous shrimp from near the floor entrance. It gave her a fright, and sent her subjects into disarray for a short while before she could rein them in. Afterwards, she found herself unable to settle back in, and could only sulk at the rude interruption.

She watched as her subjects danced and swam in her presence, an unspoken war to get closer to her in all her majesty. It was a dance they’d performed ever since she’d matured, a rally to a call she broadcasted by her very existence which was heard by all those beneath her. Seeing the devotion on display cheered her up some, but movement on the fringes made her mood shoot right back down.

It seemed that the serpents weren’t the only to be riled up, those not-snakes were also up in arms at the sudden disturbance, though for entirely different reasons. They gathered their numbers, hundreds of luminescent things moving in an almost coordinated harmony. The snakes ended their worship, readying in response to the aggressive invaders. They didn’t often try to invade that which the wyrm had claimed, but when enough gathered together in their hunger it became hard to predict exactly what they might do.

And it was much the same this time, they began feasting on the fish with gusto, blood and guts from those not swallowed whole, motes of light from those mortally wounded; it was hectic and chaotic. After they reduced the baitfish from thousands or more to mere hundreds, if not dozens, she could see it in their eyes that they had begun searching for more. A great many of them turned on one another or set their sights on the wyrm's territory. How she wished to eradicate them; the one time she did so they simply came back in a flash of light, along with the Lord’s disapproval.

And so, she could only cull them, keeping them away from her alcove. She unfurled her body, raising her head and flaring her hood with a mighty hiss. She moved to the edge of her area, doing her best to intimidate the three meter long creature that held some semblance of sway over the rest. It seemed to not want to deal with the wyrm after the last time it led its forces to feast on snakes. The scars lining many of the surviving creatures told a story of fangs and venom, after all. Many of the smaller, younger ones turned on each other in their gluttony, and the wyrm was left disgusted yet again. She found it simply unnatural to watch a creature so ravenous that it would turn on its own kin, especially considering that almost none of what they bit was actually consumed. Of course, biting chunks out of one another or simply swallowing anything still living fed them, but the wyrm would still rather not eat her subjects.

Around a third of the total mass descended rather than cannibalize themselves, rushing in what constitutes a formation in their minds. The remainder continued their own rampages, suckers, hooks, and sharp pointed mouths; the wyrm had seen this a few times, always just as sickened. Eventually, their war amongst themselves ended, with more than a few being ended by the wyrm and her subjects for overstepping their bounds. The flashing colors slowed, and the survivors slunk away; limbs regrew and missing chunks refilled. Another round of hunger and feast ended with devastation and glut, and the creatures of her floor would repopulate as swiftly as ever, sure to repeat the cycle in days at the longest.

As the lights of dead and dying creatures dimmed, she returned to her alcove and allowed her hood to close. However, before the peace could return, those which descended returned in a hurry with far fewer numbers. She had just enough time to note that their near leader wasn’t part of the number, before she witnessed something rocket out of the hole moving so fast she couldn’t sense anything more than a blur.

Not that she needed to, anyway. She swam out of her cave with far more vigor than she had done so with the not-snakes, her hood already flaring in irritation towards the invader. By the time she reached the boundary of what she had claimed, the unwelcome guest had already slaughtered the fleeing creatures, turning in her direction as it noticed something. She had already felt it too, that instinctual revulsion to his kind, a tiny thought that screamed at her that he was doing something wrong just by being there.

His hackles were raised, his teeth bared as he growled at the wyrm. Despite her being a full ten meters larger than he, he stood his ground. Both were confident, it seemed, and she was getting ready to strike or retaliate should he do so first. The only thing reining her in was the lives her subjects, they were already barely holding in their aggression and if either made a move, she was certain madness would erupt. And if that did happen, she would assuredly have her numbers ravaged, but they had already been forbidden by the Lord from killing one another. This meant that even if she did drive off the wyvern, it would most certainly be a pyrrhic victory; the wyvern was more than capable of simply avoiding her, and her serpents simply weren’t enough to stand up to him.

And so, she made a decision. She swallowed her pride for the lives of her subjects, letting her hood droop back down before turning around and returning to her alcove. The wyvern seemed confused yet again as he watched her not follow through on a fight, and he turned around too, visibly deflating. He’d been pumping himself up for a confrontation, and this was the second time it had been denied from him. Both he and the wyrm likely thought of attacking the other when their backs were turned, but that simply didn’t lend itself to a non-lethal confrontation, the only type of confrontation they were allowed.

And so, they let the other be, for the moment. She coiled around herself in her alcove, hood still not fully down as she watched him reach the hole. He descended rapidly, leaving them in peace again.

Until he came back out, eyes wide in confusion. He looked down towards the entrance, then towards the audience that eyed him warily. Something went through his mind, and he simply puffed out his chest and shook away his look of perplexion, then swam towards the exit to the ninth floor.