Astolfo was having a hard time wrapping his mind around things. In just an hour of stepping on this floor, he had come across hundreds of crazed dog-like monsters that drove him to the brink of death. Even now, dozens of those repulsive abominations were staring at him through the layer of clear water. Thankfully, they weren’t dumb enough to come in while he was knocked out.

There was another thing Astolfo couldn’t wrap his mind around, and that was the extent of his injuries. While not deep, they were still many, yet he could barely make out a handful of cuts on himself. He had been unconscious, but it wasn’t longer than a few hours, how had he healed this much? The same thing had happened earlier when he had just come to this place. Thinking he couldn’t answer anything right now, Astolfo put the question in the back of his head and stood up.

The beautifully sculpted statue of the mourning angel that adorned the fountain was even more enthralling than the one he had seen upstairs. The caving on the platform that showed a grandiose staircase enticed him, but also filled him with agitation.

With a sigh, Astolfo reached into his pocket and pulled out a folded sheet of paper. The picture of an exquisite manor revealed itself as Astolfo unfolded the paper. The grand estate that one would guess housed none less than a god was covered in a faint blue light as fireflies circled its vicinity. The house was beautiful, but Astolfo’s gaze remained on the cave behind the house. Like a blemish on a masterpiece, the dark and gaudy cave alone seemed different from the rest of the scenery.

This cave was currently Astolfo’s only hope. The single thread holding his sanity, keeping him from giving up. Astolfo once again engraved the sight the only place that looked anywhere close to an exit in his mind and pushed the rising emotions back in. He would get out of here and reunite with his family, no matter what.

With a determined grunt, Astolfo folded the page he had torn from the books upstairs and placed them back in his pocket. He filled the water back in his canteen and ate some of the fruits he had tied around his waist. Astolfo glanced around him at the disgusting canine monsters still surrounding him.

Astolfo smirked and raised his middle finger at the monsters as he descended from the fountain.

**

After a brief descend from the elegantly crafted staircase, Astolfo came across a passageway on one end while the stairs continued on another. Astolfo was torn between the choices, how would he know what kind of danger lay in both places, at the same, one of them could give him more space than the other like the difference between the first and the second floor. In the end, he decided to check out this floor too. He excused it with being tired, but his anxiety about the exit played the biggest role in the decision.

Astolfo cautiously passed through the passageway and climbed up a small opening that left him at another fountain. Though it looked similar, this fountain and the sculpture in it were unmistakably leagues above the ones he had seen earlier.

“Isn’t passing through water and that passageway inconvenient as hell?” Astolfo said as he walked out of the fountain of clear water and stepped into the heart of the place. There wasn’t much difference in this place from the ones above other than the fact that this was much more grand and intact in its structure. Though, it was much smaller than the floor above as he could see the periphery quite close by.

Astolfo first picked up a pebble and went right next to the fountain. He took in a deep breath and shot the pebble against a wall…

“…Nothing.”

It seemed there weren’t any monsters like those canines around. He stuck around the fountain for another fifteen minutes just for good measure before sighing in relief and moving towards the houses around.

The resplendent mansions were snugly packed around him. Though the space between each one was enough for entire carriages to pass through, their lofty gardens and loftier walls made it seem small. Astolfo looked around for a short while in search of monsters of any kind. Assured that there wasn’t any immediate threat, Astolfo decided to rest in the houses closest to the fountain.

He passed through imposing doors and walked by wild yet pompous gardens as he took refuge in the large mansion a couple of times the size of the Kirsche residence. Strange sculptures comprising of circles adorned the vast mansion, carpets and furniture spread everywhere giving the mansion a filled yet spacious feel. As he explored more, he once again found that other than wooden furniture and items of relative irrelevance, most daily things weren’t in the place, just like in the houses he had seen above.

Astolfo soon found the biggest room in the place with the biggest bed around. He immediately jumped on the bed and sprawled out. With the stick, he had broken off at his side and his food and water within arms reach, Astolfo smiled and made himself comfortable in his temporary abode.

“I’ll leave,” he said. “I’ll rest up and I’ll get out of here.” It seemed to him that he was getting more sentimental after his recent experience. To shake it off, he shifted his thoughts towards these ruins.

“Hmm, why is it such hard work to switch between the floors? It isn’t hard to tell that these people are separated by a class system, but it must have been bad if they went this far to keep people from switching over… And what about the missing things, it’s like most of the metallic things were taken away from here…”

As he thought over everything he had come across, Astolfo could feel his unease go away and a sense of calmness flood in. Soon, the boy slipped into a dreamless sleep.

**

“▒▒▒▒▒▒”

Noises.

“░░░░░░”

Screams.

“▓▓▓▓▓▓”

Wails of despair, calling out in indecipherable words. Voices he could not register, let alone understand, assailed Astolfo with deafening magnitudes shaking him awake. Instead of getting off the bed in a panic, he stayed down and collected himself, and made a note of his situation with closed eyes.

Though the sound was loud, it seemed to be coming from a distance, so he wasn’t in any immediate danger. He was still on the bed and his weapon and goods were where he left them. That was great.

Clutching the stick in hand, Astolfo opened his eyes. Astolfo froze up from head to toe as a fearful chill ran down his spine.

There was an eye looking down on him.

Black veins spread like webs in the rotting white sclera. The giant red iris flitted around observing him. A little below, on the wall right across him was a similarly giant mouth filled with uneven teeth.

Astolfo gulped and slowly pulled himself up. Sounds of flesh tearing reverberated through the air as more eyes and mouths popped up on the wall with every little movement he made. Astolfo made his way off of the bed while watching the newly forming eyes and mouths.

All of them were staring at him. Watching him.

Astolfo didn’t utter a word as he simply walked out of the room. With the same heavy movements he had been maintaining all this while, he closed the wooden door of the room behind him and slumped down against it.

“What in the world was that…” he said. With a deep sigh, Astolfo sipped on the water and ate some of the fruits he had on him.

“I should leave now… to the exit…” He got up and sped down the long corridor. He had planned on checking more rooms, but he was sure as hell not going to do that anymore.

Astolfo soon reached the front door of the mansion and stepped out just to be greeted by the same spine-chilling sight he had seen a while back. Eyes and mouths had appeared all over the outer walls of every single mansion on the floor, and they were all pinned on him.

“So this is why I didn’t see any monsters…”

With gritted teeth, Astolfo ignored the eyes and mouths and stepped towards the fountain. He felt it was dangerous to run and was glad he had chosen the closest house to it. Without turning back, Astolfo jumped into the passageway and started his descent down the staircase.

“I should have rested on this damn staircase.”

**

After another long descent down the elegant staircase, Astolfo came across a splendid door. It was rather small, similar in size to the ones he had seen in the mansion above. Astolfo nervously creaked the door open and was greeted by a strangely dark room.

The visibility was low, but it wasn’t zero. The dark room was enormous and adorned with paintings and sculptures of all kinds. It seemed to be a storage room of sorts, but the arrangement of things in it being so elegant made that implausible.

Just as Astolfo took a few steps inside, loud and repetitive thumps reached his ears, as if ringing the bells of a disaster’s advent. Astolfo was neither scared nor surprised, it would have been rather stupid of him to not expect this.

Unlike his expectations, he hadn’t come up at the fountain, but that was fine. He had no plans of fighting either, he decided to be as stealthy as possible and find the exit. Astolfo poured his mana into his weapon branch and stepped ahead making as little sound as possible.

Passing through the other door in the dark room, Astolfo found himself in a wide and extravagant hallway, but he paid it no heed. With only the sound of his breathing and the thumping of whatever was running about, Astolfo set off in search of the exit.

His eyes scouting everything around him before each step, he was sure that he wouldn’t be located. The mana he was using to cover his weapon was magnitudes lesser than the mana in the air, and whatever minimal sounds he made were being drowned by the thumps.

So, Astolfo reacted a second too late when a glint of light flashed by him. Half his vision was filled with blood and an intense stinging pain ran through his head. The stumbling boy covered his left eye with one hand and flailed his weapon with another.

Astolfo stabilized himself and turned to face his attacker. Two blades sticking out its arms like the scythes of a grim reaper, four solid legs firmly pressing down the ground, a black amalgamation of flesh and blood grotesquely shaped to resemble a mantis stared down at the boy. Blood and saliva of black and gray dripped from its mouth as two eyes with dozens, if not hundreds of irises all looked at him.

For a second, Astolfo forgot the pain and was shrouded by fear. Soon, he realized he didn’t have the leisure to be in pain. Astolfo’s instincts were screaming at him to run as far away as possible.

“[Ice Magic: Ice Spikes]”

Astolfo stopped covering his bleeding eye. Five spikes of ice materialized from thin air and shot towards the mantis-like monster. The blades of the monster flashed and crushed the spikes to bits within a second.

“[Ice Magic: Freeze]” “[Ice Magic: Ice Spikes]”

A layer of ice spread below the mantis’ body as a dozen more spikes of ice raced towards the eyes of the mantis. It immediately raised its scythes to dispatch the spikes when a dense mist reached it. The mantis recoiled from the great unease the mist brought it and was struck by one of the spikes.

That was all the time Astolfo needed.

Without missing a beat, he rushed right towards the mantis and dived forward. He slid on the layer of ice he had created and passed under the mantis. Astolfo jumped back on his feet and sprinted with all his might.

‘Exit.’

Within seconds, his reason for finding the exit had completely turned on its heels.

Maybe if he found a way out, he could escape that thing.

His eye continued bleeding, but Astolfo didn’t even realize it, he continued to run without looking back.

The mantis-like monster was hit by all the spikes of ice. While they were certainly not damaging, they were annoying. Furthermore, the mist that clouded its face was unbearably unpleasant. The mantis furiously swung its scythes and sliced apart the mist itself. When it looked around, its prey had already disappeared.

The mantis’ eyes split in two, a pair looking behind it and another looking ahead. Seeing its prey run away, the mantis turned its giant body around but slipped on the ice that was covering the floor. In the few seconds, it took to stand back up, its prey had already turned around a corner. Rage bubbled up the mantis and its blood boiled in fury. Its prey had escaped its sight. In a fit of indiscriminate anger, the mantis destroyed everything around it as it ran to chase after its prey.

Astolfo ran wherever his feet took him. As if he was in a trance, he identified every little hint of the place's structure and turned towards the path that would lead him to the exit. Soon, loud sounds of smashing walls and cutting air reached him. The mantis had started tearing this place down.

Every chance he got, Astolfo left behind a mist made of the water he had collected, slowing the mantis down. Soon, he had reached the main gates of the estate. In one fell swoop, Astolfo rushed to the doors and kicked them open.

A hue of a mystical blue light covered everything around him. He was now on a very small floor, spanning a few hundred meters. Right in the center of the floor, an enormous blue magic stone stuck out from the ceiling. Overwhelmingly complex magical formulas covered the base below the stone. It seemed like he stepped into the residence of gods as the perfect sight of the lowest floor appeared in front of him. And far to his left, was the blemish in god’s residence. The dark cave where no light reached. His exit.

The marvelous sight stopped Astolfo in his tracks for a split second. And in that split second, a sharp blade of air sailed through the winds and cut into Astolfo’s sides.

“Ahk!” Astolfo shouted as he looked back. “It’s here already?!”

The mantis had almost caught up to him. Even though he had reached the end! His speed was undoubtedly lowered from the deep cut on his side, it would be difficult to outrun it right now. His mana was running low too.

As the low growl of the grotesque monster sounded again, Astolfo looked at the last of the water in his canteen. His mana was low, but he could manage with this. Without hesitation, Astolfo spread the water in his path with his psychokinesis. He immediately jumped ahead, freezing the water and air below him to move much faster than he could.

The mantis continuously launched sharp blades of air at him, destroying the ice below, but Astolfo would run and freeze it again. His heart beat faster and a sense of relief flushed in as he got closer and closer to the dark cave. The mantis chased after him as he slid right into the cave, into his exit.

Astolfo fell face-first into the place and slid forward. He raised his head and finally saw the cave. A faint blue light, separate from the one outside, softly illuminated the inside of his exit. At the center was a pedestal of marble shaped like an altar, and behind it was the shabby gray wall that covered the edges of the entire floor.

Strength left his body as realization dawned upon the boy.

The worst of his fears had come true.

The cave, where he had made his exit, ended merely a few feet in. This was the end. There was no way out.

The growl of the mantis reached him again, but this time Astolfo didn’t feel like he could move. Yet, his body dragged ahead, he crawled and clawed at the floor to go as far ahead as he could. It was not him alone, he had taken the young knight’s life too. He had absolutely no right to die here. He could not accept it. The mantis came ever closer, but Astolfo still continued ahead.

Soon, Astolfo reached his limit.

The boy fell down.

And woke up in a dream.