Craaasssshhh* *Booooom*

Nyx: Well, I think I have a pretty good grasp in what we’re fighting.

They were in a spiral pathway, again. But this time, they found a solution to reduce their time. Nyx: You know what to do.

Cylo: *Sigh* Alright...

With her replenished mana, she could control and manipulate her element once again, but she didn’t. She was afraid of the scythe that was aimed towards her. She could easily escape if her opponent wasn’t immortal and has an undying dark flame that his scythe produces. As a result, she was used as transportation.

Reus: YEAAAAAAAAAHHHH!

He said, while riding Cylo’s wood..element. A short time after, they’ve arrived at the end of the pathway. Again, they were greeted by a staircase going down, and the sounds that they keep hearing on the pathway kept getting louder and louder.

Cylo: Oh, so it’s his floor.. Augh... Not him...

Nyx: Why, what do you mean?

Cylo: He’s unbearable. Really, really annoying. He’s also eerie and creepy..

Reus: Yeah, I see what you mean.

The sounds they kept hearing are mostly shouting, and crashing, and exploding. He’s also talking to... himself? He was asking questions, and he kept answering them.

Xiel: I don’t wanna go down now..

Cylo: Yeah, he’s creepy. While we were going on expeditions, he was mostly on the back..

Nyx: Wait, why?

Cylo: He’s a ventriloquist.

Reus: What?

Cylo: I told you, he’s a ventriloquist. He only talks with.. his puppet. He doesn’t like it when we call his puppet.. puppet.

Xiel: B..before we go down, what’s his guise and elements?

Cylo: His guise? It’s also unusual. It’s directed to his puppet over there. Figure it out-

Nyx tightened his grip on his scythe and threatened her.

Nyx: Tell it, now. We’re not playing games here.

Cylo: Jeez, ok. He can pass his elements through his puppet. He can also combine it, and his puppet goes all powerful.

Nyx: Uhhhh... what?

Cylo: In other words, his puppet can do the work for him.

Reus: Isn’t that really easy for us?!

Cylo: Haha, no. Why did you think he was placed in this floor?

Xiel: Maybe it’s in alphabetical order. Quick, tell me your fucking name... We’re not here for a game of guess what, just tell us why he was placed there.

Cylo: Well, obviously he was apparently stronger than me.

Xiel: Apparently? Wait, you guys haven’t fought before?

Cylo: Nope.

Xiel: Then how did you know he was stronger?

Cylo: The King, Drax, is the one who’ll determine it. He’s the strongest one in the ranking, followed by the guy on the 4th floor, then this guy, and then me, then Ross.

Nyx: The King is the strongest one? Then he’s here waiting at the 4th floor, right?

Cylo: What, no..

Nyx: But.. there were 5?

Cylo: 5? Who told you that?

Nyx: That Ice guy, Ross.

Cylo: See, here’s the funny thing. He never saw the rankings. He was so engulfed by his pride that he didn’t want to know who the 1st one is because he thought he was the strongest. He was so proud of his guise and his element that he was blinded by his delusions. He always trains really hard though, so I guess that’s the only plus factor in his personality.

Reus: ...Wow.

Nyx: Well, he does give that “I’m rich and powerful” kind of vibe. He was even wearing a suit. Which, brings me to my next question..

Cylo: Yep?

Nyx: When are you going to take off that coat and hat? Seriously, how long are you going to keep wearing that?

Cylo: Oh, I didn’t notice.

She took off the coat and hat, revealing a girl with green hair and red eyes. She’s small, and she was wearing a chest plate.

Nyx: Haha, so I guess all our girl members are flat. Hahahahahaahahaha.

Xiel jumped at Nyx, and stabbed him with her knife.

Cylo: Can I attack him, too?

Xiel: Go—Ah—Ead.

She summoned wood on the roof, and repeatedly smashed Nyx’s whole body with it. Nyx then regenerated, and his clothes were all bloodied.

Nyx: Oh come on, it was just a joke. Anyway..

He then aimed his scythe towards Cylo again.

Nyx: Where were we? Oh yeah, right, we were going downstairs.

Xiel: Don’t ever mention that shit, again.

Cylo: Heh.

Nyx: Oho, she didn’t run away while attacking me~ Ok, I guess we can trust you.

Cylo: I told you, I want to get the hell out of here. I’ve been here for most of my life, I want to get out.

Reus: Hmm, alright. But, I’m still skeptical.

Cylo: I’ll even help you defeat that guy.

Nyx: What’s his name, though? Why have you been referring to him as “that guy”?

Cylo: It’s kinda hard to pronounce, so I’m just referring to him as that guy. Anyway, his name is Eyxrd. Like, E-ye-xi-red.

Reus: Why not just call him Red?

Cylo: ...

Xiel: Wait, is it just me or did the whole place suddenly become quieter?

Cylo: Huh, that’s pretty strange. He’s not shouting and talking.. anymore?

Xiel: Yeah. That’s why you were having a “proper” conversation. Augh, let’s just go down and deal with this.

Nyx: Alright.

They all went down the stairs, revealing a huge room and a man in white cloth standing in the middle. His hand was locked in his cloth, like a mental patient, but the other hand was in a puppet. The puppet was looking at us, while the guy was looking at the pathway going to the 4th floor below, which was on the other side. In other words, the puppet and the guy was looking in seperate directions.

Red: I’ve been.. waiting..

Reus: Uhhh, waiting?

Red: Wait, you’re not..Cylo?

Reus: Yeah, I’m not. Cylo is right here, see..

He turned his back. He has a somewhat crazy but decent face, and his hair was white. He then looked at us, and cried..

Red: *Sniff* Cylo has.. Friends?!NO BUT, I THOUGHT I WAS YOUR ONLY FRIEND!!

“BUT I’M HIS FRIEND TOO!”

“YOU WERE NEVER HIS FRIEND!”

Cylo: I’m a fucking girl.. also, I never ONCE TALKED TO YOU, YOU CREEPY BASTARD!

Red: Audible Gasp!

She summoned her wood and it hit Red in the gut, flying him away. The wood then bent and more and more wood got summoned by her. It then hit him again, and again, and again, sending him flying to the walls.

Red: Alright, enough jokes. You ready?

“Hell yeah. Let’s go!”

The puppet slipped off of Red’s hand and multiplied. It then hit the wood that Cylo is summoning, and the puppet slowly turned... red.

Cylo: F-!

The puppet exploded, but luckily, Reus saved Cylo from the brink of death by tanking the explosion with his form.

Reus: Aww.. that stings more than the guns.. Anyway, are you alright?

Cylo: Y-y-yeah..

Cylo gazed at him intently while saying that..

Reus: Ok.. good.

He then ran to Nyx’s side quickly.

Nyx: Alright, ALL OF YOU GET OVER HERE!

They all quickly went to Nyx’s side, and the puppets kept multiplying and multiplying.

Cylo kept smashing and smashing Red to the ceiling, but he kept surviving by using his puppets. The puppets then turned red, and was dropping from the ceiling, like a missile. But, Nyx and the rest had a somewhat plan.

Nyx: NOW!

Reus threw Nyx high up in the air, and Nyx slashed through the puppets in a circular motion. Cylo then shielded everyone by using her element and created a huge wood dome.

Red: Woooow...

“THAT’S A FUCKING MEDIOCRE PLAN!”

Nyx slashed the puppets by spinning and attacking the puppets, however..

Red: Too bad though..

“WE ALSO HAD A SOMEWHAT PLAN! HAHAHAHAH!”

“It isn’t a plan! It’s our guise!”

“It still serves as a plan because they don’t know what it is!”

“Isn’t that what they call a trick up our sleeve?” “Yep.”

The puppet that has been cut suddenly moved and went to Nyx, covering his whole body by dismembered parts of puppets.

Red: HaHaHahaHa..

“HaHaHahaHa..”

*BOOM*

The parts exploded, and so did Nyx. His whole body turned into a pile of ashes..

Nyx: (Oh my God, can this actually kill me?)

(Oh no, wait, if I can still think.. then that means... auuggghhhh.... I’m not dead yet..)

Nyx regenerated back to his original body, and he reversed time to bring back his clothes. Fortunately, the dome still hasn’t been opened by Cylo.

Red: WHAT?! HOW?! “WAIT, THE REAL QUESTION HERE IS.. HOW THE HELL DID HE REGENERATE HIS CLOTHES AS WELL?!”

Nyx: So, you can also move your puppets, huh?

Red: Y-YEAH! WHAT ABOUT IT?!

Nyx: So passing your elements to your creations are just a branch of your guise, huh? Considering your puppets can move.. that can only mean that you can control your puppets somehow, right?

Red: Yep! I control them using my mana. Like strings. Interestingly enough, they are puppets. So like, they are puppets on mana strings. Then, my mana gives them the power to explode! Or to create. Guess what my elements are..!

Nyx: Water, Earth, Fire, and Water, right? With all these combined, you must be the Avatar.

Red: Uhhh, yeah?

Nyx ran to him. Red was startled and multiplied, and multiplied puppets then surrounded Nyx with it. Nyx jumped above him and exploded, damaging him because he was also in the radius.

Red: Agh! You bastard!

Nyx regenerated, and ran away from him. He went to the other side of the wall where the dome was placed.

Nyx: Heheheheheh...

Red: HahaHAHAHAH! Scared?!

He ran back to the other side, and threw his scythe in the air. Red, confused, made his puppets surround Nyx again.

Nyx: Time to use this neat little trick again.. haha. While Nyx was surrounded, he reversed time to the point earlier when he jumped on top of Red’s head. The reason why he threw the scythe is to catch in mid air and deliver the final slash to Red.

Red: Wh-A?! SHIT!

He made his puppets go back and surround Nyx again, but he didn’t mind the fact that he was on top of him right now.

The puppets then surrounded Nyx, while Nyx was going to drop-slash Red’s head.

Red: WAIT- WAIT NO FUCK!

The puppets exploded on top of him, killing Red in the process as well. Nyx, again, got turned to a pile of ashes due to the explosion.

Nyx regenerated for the 3rd time, and ran back and knocked on the dome. The dome opened up and to his relief, Cylo didn’t do anything to them. Nyx: That guy’s a real fucking pain in the ass.

Cylo: Wait.. you.. you killed him?!

Nyx: Uhh, yeah?

Cylo: ALONE!?!

Nyx: Is someone here with me? OF FUCKING COURSE I DID.

Reus: You know, he’s actually pretty skilled. He’s also like a cheat identity here because of his.. uhh.. “regeneration”.

Xiel: Not to mention his ability to turn back t-

Nyx: Ok, ok. How the hell did you know that?

Xiel: It’s obvious, God, even Vor could probably figure that out.

Cylo: What are you guys talking about?

Nyx: I-it’s nothing, really. I just have a really fast regeneration and luck.

Cylo: Your regeneration can also safely heal your body after getting turned to ashes? I know those explosions were targeted to you.

Nyx: Uhhh, probably? Anyway we need to go now! It’s the 2nd to the last floor, right?

Cylo: No, it’s actually the last.

Reus: Wait, what?

Cylo: This building only has 4 levels on its underground level. What are you guys talking about?

Xiel: Wait.. we thought there were 5?

Cylo: Oh, maybe because the king isn’t here. Why would he fight if we could take care of it?

Nyx: Yeah, but we wiped out 2 of your team now. Seriously, why not just bring your knights all together and let them attack us?

Cylo: It was the last guy’s idea. He said it’s to test our skill, but as it turns out.. yeah, this turned out.

Reus: We did single handedly wreck a whole battalion of your soldiers in the tower, what the hell is he thinking?

Cylo: We also can do that singlehandedly.. that’s why he put so much trust in us that it’s actually almost stupid. Now look what happened. Almost all of the top 5 in the rankings got wiped out.

Nyx: Ah, well. It’s not like we could change it now.. Hahahahaha. Come on, let’s just go.

Xiel: Yeah..

The party is now headed to the last floor, according to Cylo. On the other hand, someone just woke up from his beauty sleep and is now escaping.

------------

Vor: Ah.. Finally, stairs..

A long, straight pathway connected the stairs and the facility where Vor was at.

Vor: Hmm... what floor is this again? Oh yeah, right..

(It’s the 5th floor..)

“Yeah, I was just getting to that.”

Vor went up the stairs, and saw another pathway.

Vor: Ahh, damn it, another straight pathway.

The pathway connected the stairs and something else on the 4th floor.

-------------

???: I....I...managed...to.......sur.vive.

The one talking was on the room that was on the 3rd floor.

???: I’..m going.. to make you pay!

Laying there was a puppet, talking.

Red: NYX!