"I sure hope these are not infinite stairs", Emina said as she walked down the stairs with Kaden.

"I doubt it", Kaden replied. "I think I can see something at the bottom. Its long way, but not endless."

For a place inside the great remnant, the stairs were curiously calm. The lack of unusualness was by itself unusual. Kaden felt some concern about it. The sort of place was very unlikely to exist in place which was bathed in such enormous amount of mana for thousands of years. He could accept it to have less activity at the current time when the remnant was accessible, but there still should be some effects.

Emina stopped suddenly and raised her hand. Kaden stopped too and waited for an answer.

"I think I heard something", Emina told Kaden and seemed to listen more.

"It could be sounds from other areas?" Kaden suggested. "Despite the structural strangeness, I see no reason why sound wouldn't get here."

"Then why aren't we hearing screaming, feeling explosions or anything", Emina continued. "Its quiet. Deathly quiet. Like a tomb."

".... it ... must." A quiet whisper. Barely audible.

This time Kaden heard something and it seemed Emina did too. Finally. Some strange stuff!

"I heard that one too", Kaden replie. "I agree. Its not coming out walls. It felt like it came from everywhere around us at the same time. I say we merely take note of it, but since there are no other effects we can ignore it."

Strange sounds were pretty common in remnants. In most cases they were just that. Random sounds generated by the stale mana.

Emina listened for a moment longer and then nodded and then continued down the stairs with Kaden once more.

"...cannot be... right". Another whisper

"it ... how things have always..."

"must ... it!"

Such whispers were heard from everywhere around them. They became more easy to understand as they continued down.

"There seems to be something sensible in the whispers?" Emina pointed out. "As if they are recordings of some event. Can't say what, though."

"You are the one good with sounds", Kaden pointed out. He had also noticed the same thing, but there was no context so the information was useless.

Emina did cast some magic, but after a while she shook her head.

"While we hear it, it doesn't actually seem to be sound", Emina explained. "My sound based magic doesn't affect it at all."

Kaden snorted and continued down.

"... or we die"

"... first. Then others"

"... not right... wrong!"

It seemed like the whispers were group of people arguing about something, but no actual information could be gained. Kaden was paying only slight attention to it.

"Could this be some memory of event from the ancients imprinted in the mana", Emina said. She was still paying more attention to the whispers than Kaden. "We are hearing it in our language, but when I listen more carefully there seems to be an 'echo' behind it which is in different language, that being the language of the ancients."

Kaden had not heard any of it, but as mentioned earlier, Emina was good with sounds... even if it was no actual sound.

"My point still stands", Kaden replied. "It has no context. We can't say what it is or if its even useful at all."

"I'll make notes of them just in case", Emina said and pulled a crystal and started to make notes as they continued down.

The whispers continued, but beyond certain point they didn't become anymore easier to understand or offer anything more than it had already done higher up the stairs.

As for the stairs. There were doorways along the way on each level. They were sealed too, but Kaden and Emina didn't bother trying to open them. The reason was that each door didn't seem safe to open. Either sounds they didn't like could be heard, strange feelings at the door or even the door clearly being not in state to be opened, either broken or some strange effects around it.

As such, Kaden and Emina continued even deeper down. There were some concerns regarding that. The deeper down one went, the stronger effects one should expect. Yet, also greater gains, which is why Kaden accepted the risks.

"What do you think of this door?" Emina asked Kaden once they found one that didn't seem dangerous.

Kaden stood and observed the door for a moment. "Its acceptable. We have to pick one. Looking down there are only few more floors left... and I don't think we should continue to bottom. Mana seems to get extremely dense there. Its still acceptable here."

"We are nearing the deepest parts", Emina added. "That place is beyond us. I know very little of it, but apparently there is extremely dense concentration of mana and it is impossible to say what is in there. At least I have heard of no records of anyone going in and coming back. In fact, if we didn't find a good door, I would have suggested we return back up and try one of those that only seemed dangerous."

There was another panel next to the door and, yet again, the codes unlocked the sealed door. The door opened with a slight sound while Kaden and Emina took cover just on the sides. They obviously wanted to see what was inside.

The path from the door seemed safe. It didn't seem dangerous, but mana seemed a bit higher. That was to be expected.

As soon as Kaden stepped in with Emina just behind, a shock passed through the area. Not a big one, but enough to be felt.

"What was that?" Emina asked while Kaden was standing still and trying to listen.

"I think its fighting", Kaden told Emina. "Even if we skipped a long way down, someone else is already here. I think its some distance away, though. I can't hear sounds, but we still felt the blast."

"Must be someone strong then", Emina said and went to side to read some signs. "Hmmm, it says there is a security station nearby. It could be useful. It seems this is leading to some deeper levels. The security station seems to be a checkpoint until entering. It seems higher grade residential areas?"

"So... rich people arranged themselves the best areas while the rest were being annihilated by the cataclysm? Some things just don't change", Kaden said.

"Well... I would think there is something more down there too", Emina decided to add. "I recommend we use the security station to find safest way to most useful thing we can find. As for the deepest parts, that would be the parts we can't go to."

Kaden nodded in agreement. That was the best plan they could have at the time. For example, Kaden didn't want to run into anyone ... or anything. For sure he wanted to avoid the fighting.

They continued forward with some extra added care to ensure at least some stealth. The security station wasn't too far, but there was no telling what could happen along the way. For all Kaden knew, there could be another infinite corridor or worse.

Along the way they heard and felt more of signs of battle. There were also some screeches in between the blasts. There was indeed something bad enough out there that resulted in lengthy combat even for stronger people.

Luckily they didn't run into it. There was a reinforced door leading to a room with windows that were one-way glass. Emina opened the door once more with the emergency codes.

The security station was in generally good shape. Just some dust. Kaden had to admit that with exception of the external parts, the insides of the great remnant were in generally good shape.

The machines lit up and still functioned too as Emina as attempted to operate them. Not long after images appeared on the screens. The security cameras were still also functioning. Some of the feeds were not making much sense. Kaden assumed the camera might be in some distorted area. Yet, most were making very much sense indeed.

Both Emina and Kaden observed a battle unfold. It was a group of True Magi fighting some creature, a shadowy skeletal creature that was emiting dark mist around itself... and they were losing.

Kaden frowned a bit as he tried to determine the creature's strength. Since it didn't simply annihilate the True Magi, it was still probably within True Magus range rather than Archmagus, but it was at the top end.

Also, there seemed to be something the True Magi were trying to fight each others for. It seemed they had found something and were fighting over it.

Perhaps they had attracted the creature while they had fought each other for it. It seemed they wouldn't continue fighting for long.

"I say we wait until they stop fighting", Kaden told Emina. "Lets look for something useful and formulate a plan until then."

Emina nodded and the both of them started to observe the cameras and compare it to a map. Not that the map probably was very useful anymore, but perhaps it was still correct enough.

"I recommend we try to get to this armory", Kaden said after he noticed a camera pointing to a room with what seemed like weapons and some kind of battle armors. Even if they didn't function, parts or even whole objects, if he could fit them in his bag, would be extremely valuable. More so after they had apparently marinated in the dense mana of deepest parts of the great remnant.

They could, at least, be traded for money and that money could be used for useful things.

"It is a shame we can't go to the deepest parts", Emina lamented. "But I agree with the armory. Rest of these places we can see are merely corridors with doors. Possibly residences for people who used to take shelter here from the looks of it. They may have something valuable, but that would require more luck."

Indeed, the deeper parts seemed to contain the housings. If you were stuck inside a mana storm, earth would protect you pretty well. Direct and most dangerous mana would be absorbed by the earth, but not entirely. Still, the further away you get from it, the safer.

Some of these people might have brought along valuable things, but the place was a shelter. Just how much of random things, that were not directly related to survival, would you have been allowed to bring? That is if you weren't one of the rich people, but as Emina said, that area was deeper and probably certain death to go there.

While Kaden was pondering this, the True Magi stopped fighting. It ended when one of them actually died and the skeletal creature started to brutally tear apart the body. Not even eat it or do anything special to it, just tear it into shreds.

"So ends life of a True Magus", Emina muttered. "They are rare enough and loss of each is notable."

"They should have stopped fighting earlier", Kaden replied. "Your life is worth more than whatever they were fighting over while fending off that creature."

Kaden didn't care that the True Magi probably weren't stupid. They wouldn't be True Magi, if they were.

"We need to wait for the area to clear before we can go to the armory", Emina pointed out. "That place is along the way. Otherwise we need to skip around it with much longer way. There could be even more danger over there. The True Magi are also wandering around."

"I would also point out that we can see from here higher levels", Kaden added. "There are some teams coming to this level from that way. We will run into them, if we waste too much time."

Emina frowned and then nodded as she noted the same matter, but as she was doing that she noticed something concerning.

"We might have a problem", Emina said then. "That creature. It didn't chase after the True Magi and seems to be shuffling towards our direction."

"We will have to take some ways that take us close to it, if we are to return to the stairs", Kaden said. "I'm not certain we can do that. It might get close enough to notice us."

"Then what should we do?" Emina questioned.

Kaden didn't know how to answer.