The ceiling was covered in some kind of white, glowing crystal, and was far above them. It looked almost like the sky on the outside. Five-meter tall pillars were placed all over the floor. And slithering between them was a massive dark green snake, its scales were shimmering in the light emitted from the crystals hanging from the ceiling. Two flaps were going down the side of its neck and it had four deep red eyes that were piercing the group, horns growing out of its head above them.

"C-Canyon Basilisk!" Rex, who had fallen to the floor, yelled.

Zane pulled the cart up with one strong pull.

So much for being able to rest . . . should we run back down?

The canyon basilisk began rushing towards them, breaking some of the pillars. Zane pushed the cart out of the way and dove back down the stairs, Lovia followed him and in the corner of his eye, he could see the driver picking up Rex and jumping out of the way.

The snake slithered over the opening in the floor, blocking out all the light and covering them in darkness.

"What do we do?" Lovia asked.

Zane could hear that she was clearly tired.

What to do . . . we can't fight if she's tired.

Zane signalled her to go down, back into the room and waited for the snake to disappear. He ran back up and looked for the driver and Rex.

"Down!" he yelled once he spotted them. The driver ran over and put Rex, who was clinging to him, on the ground and then proceeded to grab the cart. The two ran back down the stairs.

"W-Why did we run?" Rex asked.

"Tired," Zane responded.

"W-Well I suppose we could take a short break," Rex said.

Pretentious asshole.

Zane grabbed the fire bowl from the cart and some firewood from a sack. He placed it down in the room and lit the fire with one of his bright red flame crystals. Lovia and Zane sat down around the fire while Rex set up his sleeping bag in the corner of the room. The driver lay down as well.

"Any idea of how we can kill that one?" Lovia asked.

Zane shook his head. "I'll think of something," he said before grabbing a sleeping bag from the cart and laying down himself.

In his sleep, he began pondering ways to beat the basilisk and visualized them in his sleep.

Killing this thing head one would be impossible for our group. It would just eat us alive or squish us to death. And from what I've already seen we can't outrun it with the cart . . . and Rex. It would just catch up to us . . . If I were alone this would be easy . . . Maybe we could catch it . . . we do have a lot of ropes but nothing that would be heavy enough to hold it in place, tying them to the pillars is also useless it can break them . . . Some kind of trap might work . . . a guillotine might work, I would just need to get up to one the pillars . . . Lovia and the driver could probably distract it . . . but do I have enough blood? No . . . there's no way the amount I have right now could create a blade capable of cutting that things head off . . . meaning we have to slash it first so I can get some more . . . if I can even manipulate the blood of a creature like that. Assuming we manage to kill it . . . where's the way up? I didn't see anything that reached all the way up to the ceiling . . . could this be the final floor . . . no way. Never heard of a tower with less than seven floors.

Zane was again woken by Lovia's voice.

"Zane, wake up!" she said loudly.

Zane jumped up. He looked at her with a confused look on his face.

"Rex is gone, the driver already went after him," she said.

That bloody idiot . . .

Zane immediately sprinted up the stairs. He quickly saw the chaos that had unfolded while he slept.

The basilisk had raised its head, hissing at something and surrounding it were countless broken pillars.

So much for my plan.

Lovia had run up as well. Both of them began running towards the massive snake, looking out for the two others. The driver was carrying around Rex, going from pillar to pillar avoiding the snake's whip-like attacks.

"Ah, Zane, missed Lovia. Would you please take care of that one!?" he yelled.

"If this thing doesn't get him I might kill him," Lovia said.

Alright, I can still pull off the plan.

"Cut it, I need blood," Zane said.

Lovia nodded and prepared her chain blade. Zane opened his satchel and opened the blood containers. The blood rushed out and hovered around Zane, in a shield-like form. Lovia went past him, already swinging her chain above her head. The basilisk noticed them and began switching his attention to them. It rushed towards them with its mouth wide open, the two long fangs shining from the glow of the crystals. Zane jumped up on a pillar and Lovia managed to jump to the side, swinging her chain at the snake's large body but instead of cutting through the scales it got repelled and fell to the ground.

"Attack the belly!" Zane yelled.

Easier said than done tho . . . I might be able to get its attention from up here.

Zane picked up a stone that laid next to him and threw it at the basilisk. But there was no reaction. He jumped to the next pillar, trying to get closer to its head. When the pillar he was on began shaking violently he nearly fell over. The basilisk was brushing against it with its large body.

Thing must be about a hundred meters long.

He looked towards the middle of the hall, most of it was filled with the snake's body.

Imagining what that thing on the mountain would be able to do . . . makes me glad I don't actually have to deal with it . . . ever.

Zane jumped to the next pillar and just as he landed he heard the basilisk hissing at him. It raised its head up high, nearly brushing up against the ceiling.

"Now!" he yelled.

Lovia, who had been swinging her chain, hurled it at the snake's belly, cutting it open. A large amount of blood began gushing out and the basilisk began hissing louder.

Perfect.

Zane moved the blood he was controlling towards the wound and began merging his blood with that of the snake.

Maybe I could . . . no, ripping it apart from the inside is not an option.

Once their blood had turned into one, large puddle he began moving it. It was a weird feeling, he could clearly feel that there was something that wasn't supposed to be there.

"Distract it!" he yelled.

Lovia began screaming at it. The basilisk moved towards her.

"Blood Guillotine!" Zane said in his otherworldly voice.

The large amounts of blood formed into a large blade, wider than the canyon basilisk. Zane jumped from pillar to pillar, trying to get ahead of the basilisk but it was to fast and moving the large blood blade was quite difficult for him. He looked around for someplace where he could ambush the basilisk. After a short while, he spotted two pillars that were close enough to each other. He jumped over to them, nearly falling multiple times due to the shaking. He positioned the blade right above the space between the two pillars and then looked around for Lovia.

"Here!" Zane yelled.

Lovia ran towards him, the basilisk following her. She ran past the pillar Zane stood on, looking up at the blade above her. The basilisk followed closely behind her, breaking apart every pillar that stood in its way.

If this doesn't work we might die . . .

Zane began shaking slightly. But when he noticed how close the basilisk was he snapped out of it.

"Fall!" he yelled, his otherworldly voice echoing through the hall, once the basilisk's head had passed him.

The guillotine made out of blood fell down, cutting through the basilisk's scales, but it was stopped by the creature's backbone.

Shit . . . what's up with this thing . . .

Zane tried to lift the guillotine up, out of its back but it was stuck in there. The basilisk hissed loudly and rammed into the pillar he was standing on.

The pain as he hit the ground was great.

Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit.

Zane began shaking again as the large monster turned its head towards him. But he snapped out of it quickly, removed the corks of off two vials on his back and pulled out his guns. He loaded them and shot two bullets at the basilisk's eyes. One blood bullet missed the other only grazed the monster's eye. The basilisk hissed loudly and a clear liquid ran down the snake's head from the eyeball. Zane took a deep breath and jumped up from the ground, beginning to run.

I need to stay calm . . .

He recalled the two blood bullets.

There has to be something I can do with the blade still in it's back . . . that might work.

Zane changed the blood guillotine into a wide plank that got stuck on the pillars. It only stopped the snake for a short time per pillar but it was enough time for Zane to turn around and shoot at its eyes. With his next shit, he hit both eyes on it's left side. The basilisk raised it's head up and seemed to squirm in pain.

Serves you right stupid snake . . .

It rammed its head into the ground next to him. Zane looked it right into its one still good eye it still had, raised both his guns and shot, hitting the last working eye and the one he had grazed before. The basilisk again squirmed in pain and hissed at him. Zane slowly retreated and recalled the blood from the plank but large amounts just fell to the ground and created a blood puddle.

Really need to train manipulating animal blood.

The snake remained on the ground not moving at all.

Must be trying to hear us.

Zane slowly went to Lovia.

"What now?" she whispered in his ear.

Zane thought for a second.

All we can try is the same thing again . . . I just need to drop the blade from a greater hight . . . but is this amount of blood even enough? I'll just have to try it.

Zane nodded and told her to stay back. Zane jumped up on a pillar, creating enough voice to alarm the basilisk. It began rushing towards him, ramming into a lot of pillars head-on.

Good . . .

Zane reformed the blood he had into a new guillotine blade, it was a lot smaller than the last but he managed to get it wide enough to cut off the snake's head. He moved it up far in the air, hoping it would get through the bone this time. The basilisk was rushing at him, breaking every pillar in its way and hurling up parts of them that nearly hit Zane at times. Zane suddenly realized that he was out of pillars to jump to and had to stay on the one he was on, already hearing the basilisk approach from behind.

Now or never.

Zane jumped up and moved the blade down, it felt like he was swinging something attached to a rope. He managed to hit it right into the cut from before and hit the bone, which broke with a loud cracking sound. The snake let out a hiss that abruptly stopped when its head got severed and rammed into a pillar, getting crushed by its own body that was still in motion.

"Zane, you alright?" Lovia asked.

Zane landed and nearly fell to the ground. He was exhausted but unhurt. Zane nodded in response to Lovia's question. She smiled at him.

He leaned against one of the remaining pillars to rest, Lovia sat down beside him.

"This was crazy . . . I never imagined we would find something like this here," she said.

"Not as bad as a drake . . . " Zane responded.

She chuckled. "I can imagine."

"Ah, you two seem to be alright, splendid so that means we can continue now," Rex said as he approached the two.

There was no sign of the driver.

Lovia stood up and walked up to Rex.

"Is there a problem?" he asked.

The next thing that could be heard was a loud slap and a scream.

"Misses Lovia how dare you!" Rex said angrily.

He raised his hand to repay the favour but Lovia caught it mid-swing, grabbed it and pinned it on his back, forcing Rex on the ground.

"Misses Lovia," he began but he didn't dare say another word when he saw Lovia's look.

"You listen to me now!" she said. "You always get us in danger, barley do anything yourself and even if you do so, you nearly die! You also ignore our needs at all times and put your own above those of the mercenaries you hired to help you conquer this tower! Although help is not the right term! We're basically doing it for you! And I wouldn't have a problem with that if it weren't for this move! What were you thinking when you just ran out without telling us!? Did you really think you could beat a creature like that on your own!?" Lovia was livid, she had trouble not punching Rex.

Zane began grinning.

Not bad at all . . . I really shouldn't judge people just from the first look.

"I-I'm sorry . . . I will not repea-"

"No! This was too far! From now on you'll stay behind and not get involved! You will not lead the group at all and you will not fight! Got that?!" Lovia said loudly.

"Plea-"

"Got that!?"

"Y-Yes . . ." Rex finally said.

Zane now openly laughed.

This is great.

Lovia let go of Rex's arm and stood up, looking down at Rex with what could be described as disgust. She returned to the pillar and sat back down beside Zane. Rex rolled over and looked at the ceiling, tears running down his face.

"You might have gone a bit too far," Zane said once Lovia had sat back down.

"He's lucky he still has teeth," she responded coldly.

That made Zane laugh even more.

The driver came to them shortly after with the cart.

"Well then, I have rested enough. What about you Zane?" Lovia asked after about an hour of resting. Zane nodded and got up, stretched and then looked around the massive room. He couldn't see any way to get up to the next one.

"Rex, it's time to look for the way up!" Lovia said, still angry.

"Y-Yes, of course," he said, trying not to make Lovia any angrier.

The group proceeded to walk around the hall, looking for some way up to the next floor. They found a few armours with skeletons in them that were covered in dust and rust. After a while, Zane noticed that the ceiling seemed slightly different right above where the staircase led down to the fourth floor. It seemed like there was a large metal ring on the ceiling.

"Maybe there's something on the ground around her," Lovia said after Zane had shown her the ring.

The four looked around for a while. Rex found a lever hidden beneath the rubble. It had been placed inside a pillar that the basilisk destroyed during the fight.

So how would you get further up if you managed to kill this thing without sacrificing all of these pillars? Ah, who am I kidding that's the whole point.

Lovia commanded Rex to pull it and after he did the ring on the ceiling began to split and move, creating a ball. The part of the ceiling that had been cut off with the ring began moving down and eventually hit the ground. A small ramp extended from it to let them on. Rex and the driver pulled the cart on the platform while Zane and Lovia waited. Once all four of them where on it Zane pulled a lever that was on the platform and it began going back up.