Floor 52

Her First Trial

We arrived on the new floor amongst a sea of fog. It swirled around our legs and spread upward, blocking our vision of what might be nearby. Even the ground was impossible to see amongst the seething mass of white.

Lisa let go of my hand and looked at the wall of fog with narrowed eyes. “So what do we do here, you’ve never explained that one.”

I went to explain the details of the floor, but even though I was within the forward base two floors away I couldn’t speak. Instead all I could feel was an invisible hand gripping my neck, a warning sign that I’d felt numerous times in the past.

It was only when I stopped thinking about the trial of the floor when the invisible hand finally loosened. “You’re going to have to find that out yourselves,” I told my daughters, “good luck.”

While they both looked at me in surprise a wind whipped up, and the fog that’d lingered at our legs swirled and obscured us from each other. When the wind finally died down I was in a completely white room.

The white room was circular in design, with a domed ceiling and tiles on the ground. The wall was made of a type of stone that I had no hope of identifying. There were no doors on any of the walls, nor even any windows.

The only thing in the room was a single chair upon which a woman sat. With her back to me I could see that she still wore a long red dress, and her black hair had been put up into a bun. What looked like chopsticks made of gold ran through her bun, and a single ruby hung off of a gold chain from one of the sticks.

“I see you’re still playing your games.” I walked over and stood next to the chair. “How’ve you been, Wye?”

“Tolerable. Have you enjoyed your new body?”

A tingle ran through my body at those words. “I should’ve known you did it,” I half-accusingly said to her, “but why’d you take so long?”

Wye lifted up one pale hand, her fingers uncurling with the motion. “Without Luticia integrating a soul like yours into a new body proved arduous.”

The mention of my dead wife caused me to sigh. “I’m still shocked she did what she did anyways.”

Wye looked up at the shell I was using, her eyes a rainbow of colors that never stopped moving. “That is because you were not yet informed about the true purpose of the labyrinth.”

“But she told you, didn’t she?”

Wye rolled her eyes at my question. “Of course, otherwise I couldn’t achieve my own purpose.”

There was a short period of silence as I waited for her to continue, but it became clear that she’d said all she wanted to on that subject. “So why’d you put me on the first floor?” I asked, as I tried a different line of questioning.

Wye gave a shake of her head. “When you reach me again I will gladly tell you, but only at that point in time.”

“Come on, Wye, can’t you at least give me something?”

For the first time since I’d arrived in that room Wye stood up. She turned and put one finger against the mechanical head of my shell. “Pay close attention to the state of the floors, because what you see will impact our next meeting.”

Before I could ask what she meant a swirl of white erupted out from the ground, and then the entire room that I’d been in was gone. The fog cascaded around me in random patterns for what felt like an eternity. As the fog finally started to settle down I realized that I was standing near the portal, and that I was no longer alone.

“I see you two made it,” I said, a sense of relief washing over me. I knew that this floor was rarely deadly but my daughters were unique to begin with.

The looks on their faces spoke volumes for what they’d just gone through. Lisa, who was often a bit too happy, instead had her eyes downcast. Mika in turn was biting her lower lip and had her hands clenched into fists. My words seemed to snap them back to reality, though, as they both looked at me and smiled.

“That was quite different,” Mika commented as she watched us, “I never expec-”

Before any more words could come out of her mouth she went rigid, and both of her hands reached up to her neck to pull at the thin air. It was an act that caused Lisa to cry out in surprise and run to her sister, though I remained where I was since I knew she would be fine.

The invisible hand that I knew choked at Mika’s throat released a few seconds later, though the confusion on her face was easy to see. “You can’t tell anyone anything about what happens here,” I told them, “what happens here is for you and you alone.”

“Why though?” Mika coughed out as she rubbed her neck.

I gave a shrug of my shoulders. “We should focus on going to the next floor. I’d rather not spend any more time here.”

Perhaps it was due to how cold I’d seemed to them, but both my daughters glared at me. Yet it was a sacrifice I’d have to make, as what happened on this floor was nothing compared to the deeper floors.

Lisa walked over to the portal with Mika, and then she roughly grabbed my offered hand. The fingers almost creaked under the power of her grip. I almost wanted to chuckle at that, because even though my daughters had grown up it seemed they still had a bit of an immaturity to them.

Floor 53

That Which Hunts The Hunter

The scent of flowers was transmitted through the shell’s systems, and I could hear the noise of birds chirping. All around us was a fairly large meadow that was filled with flowers, though further out to the north a forest could be seen.

The forest itself had thin trees and yet lush leaves, the trees themselves a very pale brown. From our vantage point we could see there were no birds amongst the trees, even though an excessive amount moved around amongst the flowers.

“Hunts the hunter?” Mika asked, her gaze sweeping over the area.

I made certain that the rifle was properly slung over my shoulder, and then I walked in the direction of the forest. From my left hip a rod extended, which I gripped and pulled out. “Yes, there’s an immortal thin creature which lives in the forest and tries to eat anything that enters.”

Lisa also pulled out her sword, her eyes locked on the distant trees. “If it’s immortal how can we kill it?”

“You can’t, all we can do is slow it down and run away,” I explained as I continued forward, “the portal is somewhere in the forest. Stay close together and pay attention.”

“Father, hold on a second,” Mika called out from behind.

I stopped instantly at her request and turned around. “Are you alright?”

Mika opened her mouth to say something but then closed it and looked at Lisa. With one hand she nervously reached up and brushed her bangs away from the front of her face. “Maybe we could take a little break? I am getting kind of hungry.”

I knew she was lying at those words. My daughters didn’t need to eat, the crystal inside their created bodies supplied them with all the energy they needed. While they might need to sleep, or at least rest in order to recover, they rarely ever ate. In fact the only reason I ever saw them eat anything was because it tasted good.

“Alright, I’ll go check in with Kuzu and the others and eat something myself. I’ll reconnect in an hour,” I told the girls as I lowered myself to the ground.

“Sure thing,” Mika said as she smiled at me.

I ignored the fact that she’d lied to me, as I could guess as to the real reason for stopping. “Disconnection activate.”

Once again the system started the automatic process by which to turn off the shell. I waited patiently for all of the information windows to appear and vanish, and before I was fully disconnected I glanced at the readout of the shell. Though we’d crossed over two floors there’d been almost no change to the status.

After I took off the visor I noticed that Kuzu was seated to my right. She held a thin rectangular object in her hand, one that I knew was a type of digital tablet. “Studying hard?” I asked her as I put the visor down.

My words caused her to jump in surprise. “When’d you get back?” Kuzu asked as she stood up, the tablet placed on the chair she’d just used.

“Obviously right now,” I offered my one hand to her again.

After I’d stood up and stretched a little I hobbled my way out of the shell control room. “Mika called for a short break, so I decided to come back here and check in with everyone.”

“They’re alright though, right?”

I paused at that question, but as I couldn’t explain everything because of the rules of the fifty-second floor I merely nodded my head. In truth it was one of the reasons I hadn’t wanted my daughters to go with me. They would see things that would change them.

We went out into the hallway and walked to room three. Rather than simply opening it I knocked on the door, waiting patiently for a response from within. The door opened after a few seconds and both Kuzu and I walked in.

Much like our own miniature house Row and Adam had also set up their own in the base. However they had a desk in the corner of the room, at which Row was seated. On top of the desk were monitors that showed video feeds.

Row was absorbed in what she was doing, barely giving a wave at us upon our entry. “How many Architects have attacked so far?” I asked as I limped over to the desk.

“None.”

“What!” I looked sharply at the avian. “That doesn’t make any sense!”

Row could only give a shrug at me. “I don’t know anything about those things except what you’ve told us, but Adam and Lance haven’t seen a single Architect yet. To make matters worse Isa keeps whining about how bored she is.”

I tried hard to articulate what I felt in that moment, but no words came to mind. Kuzu even stepped in close to me and put one hand on my shoulder.

“The relay station should’ve gotten the news about the outpost,” I said as I tried to explain to the two, “there’s no way the coordinator would ignore something like that.”

“It’s alright,” Kuzu said as she wrapped her arms around me in a soft hug, “getting flustered about it isn’t going to help anyone.”

Though the lack of Architect activity bothered me, I knew that as of that moment I couldn’t do anything about it. I nodded my head in response to Kuzu. “You’re right, let’s go back and eat something. I need to meet back up with the girls in a little bit.”

☗ ☗ ☗ ☗ ☗

When I reconnected to the shell my daughters had already finished their break. Mika offered me a weak smile while Lisa waved energetically at me. It seemed as though she’d already forgotten how I’d irritated her, a fact that I wasn’t going to complain about.

We walked across the field with our preferred weapons at the ready, though I didn’t have any blade summoned from the tip of the iron rod. When we crossed from the meadow and into the forest there was a subtle shift in the atmosphere, as though all life except for the plants no longer existed.

The forest itself was composed of thin trees with lush foliage, and yet the foliage wasn’t thick enough to block out the sun. Instead all of the sunlight that came through the canopy cast shadows everywhere, long thin ones that made the ground look as though iron bars were lain across it.

Our pace through the forest was slow, and I was the one who set it. I’d seen far too many people try to rush through before. Every single one had ended up torn to shreds.

A tree creaked off to our left and I came to a halt, a sudden stop that made Lisa stumble into me. It was only the slightest of noises but I put all of my attention on it, my eyes probing the shadows for any sign of Him.

It was due to my wariness that I noticed the long fingers that stretched out from behind a nearby tree. The fingers had almost reached Mika’s head, and so I bolted over to her and swung the rod out. Ice formed in the middle of the swing and sliced off one of the pure white fingers.

The hand retracted instantly at the loss of the finger, the arm it was attached to seeming to almost shrink as it slipped back behind the tree it’d emerged from.

“What was that?” Mika asked as she stared down at the finger that squirmed on the ground.

“Babus the Immortal Man.” I let the ice vanish from the magic blade. “He can stretch and twist as much as he wants, and once he finds prey he’ll hunt until they’re eaten.”

“But we can chop him,” Lisa commented as she nodded at the finger on the ground.

“If we can remove his head it should buy us enough time to get to the portal. Otherwise he’ll just grow everything back.”

There was that moment of silence as we stood in the middle of the forest and waited. Mika had her hands on the spheres at her hips, while Lisa held her sword in a relaxed stance.

When Babus came it was from above, his emergence from the foliage without any hint of warning. His long and thin body was as gaunt and ugly as I remembered, and the pure black eyes made it impossible to see exactly where he was looking.

His descent was straight at Lisa, and it was only due to the wariness of Mika that her sister didn’t get caught. With a quick flick of her right hand Mika threw one of her nigh invisible hooks out at Babus. The anchor cut into one of the extended hands, and Mika gripped the wire and pulled as hard as she could.

Caught by surprise Babus was yanked midair away from his target, and as he hit the ground his long limbs became a tangled mess. I moved in to try and cut his head off, but rather than trying to untangle himself Babus instead writhed and rolled away from my attack.

Babus put one hand against the ground and lifted his entire body up, not even bothering with standing. One of his legs stretched out from the mass as he tried to drive his foot into my face.

I managed to fall to the right, away from his attack, and I hit the ground rolling. Lisa followed through on my dodge as she ran across the forest floor and joined the fight. Her sword sliced into the extended foot and she dragged the blade all the way down the leg.

Babus’ unused hand came in on her left in an attempted slash, but Lisa caught it. Her fingers curled around the gaunt hand and applied enough pressure that everyone could hear the bones crack. Before Babus could try to pull his hand back Lisa had already delivered an ascending swing.

The long arm retracted without the hand that’d been on it, and Babus hissed in rage at my daughter. “This thing is a lot easier to kill than an Architect isn’t it?” Lisa commented as she discarded the monster’s hand.

It was a fact, as my daughters were accustomed to training against each other. With their heightened speed and strength a thing like the Babus wasn’t even a proper threat.

“Say that after you cut his head off,” I reprimanded Lisa, hoping to stem her growing arrogance. Sooner or later we’d run into an executive and that would be the true test.

“I know!” Lisa snapped back at me, a hint of anger in her voice. It was a reaction that made me wonder exactly what’d happened to her on the fifty-second floor.

While we talked the Babus had already begun to regrow his lost body parts. Before he could become much more of a threat two nearly invisible objects flew past him, glittering momentarily in the sunlight, and then the metal threads wrapped around his neck. Mika gripped her wires with the protective gauntlets and pulled her hands back and to the sides.

The wires sliced through the neck without a problem and Babus’ head was removed from his neck. The entire body went limp and all of the regrowing parts stopped mid-regeneration. The various parts on the ground that we’d separated also stopped moving at the same time.

Mika walked past Babus as well as her sister and I, as she headed in the direction of the portal. She glanced back at us while she adjusted her gauntlets, an upraised eyebrow her only question.

“I had him,” Lisa muttered to herself as she followed after Mika.

While my daughters moved on without me I turned and looked at the head of Babus. Those unblinking black eyes seemed to almost stare at me from the ground. I raised my left hand up and aimed it at Babus head, the crystals inside whirring as they gathered energy.

A few minutes later I caught up with my daughters. My late arrival caused them to look back at me, and I knew they could easily see the wall of smoke that had started to fill the forest.

“Something you want to tell us about?” Mika asked.

I gave a wave of my one hand. “An old grudge,” I said by means of explanation, “come on we should be near the portal.”

Thankfully my daughters didn’t pry into that old matter. Instead we continued on through the forest of thin trees and after perhaps five or ten minutes we finally saw an uplifted section of ground.

The ground was raised by about ten feet from the rest of the forest. I knew that these types of spots dotted the forest and that the portal bounced between them at random. So of course when we leapt up onto the miniature plateau we saw the portal. It was what we saw seated on top of the sphere that made all three of us stop in our tracks.

A single woman had taken up residence atop the sphere, her long white hair nearly reaching the sphere upon which she sat. At our arrival she turned to look at us with red eyes, and a smile appeared on her face.