"Look at you guys, clearing the tenth floor like it was nothing," Mykel said as he walked toward Asmond, Kastor, and Enma. "It seems that your new equipment is helping you guys a lot in fighting those demons, especially yours, Asmond," Mykel looked at the shiny black greatsword.
Asmond smiled as he fixed his hand on the handle and looked at the blade. "Yeah, this sword is amazing. I feel like I can be helpful from now on," Asmond nodded his head in agreement.
"What are you talking about? You have been useful ever since you got a Benefactor," Mykel replied with a smile and eyebrows furrowed. "Anyway, let's head to the first world, we need to clear all the fifteenth floors as soon as possible,"
Asmond nodded and then looked at Jeanne who looked brighter and happier than ever. He then looked at Mykel and was a bit curious about what happened back then in Tirth World when both Mykel and Jeanne stayed behind.
[You have proven yourself in the trial, you have been chosen to save the worlds that the Demon King, Samael has conquered]
[The first world, Caspea]
[Free Caspea from the Second Demon Lord Bor'azur's army!]
"Okay…" Gunnar said with his eyebrows raised. "What the fuck is this?" Gunnar continued as he looked up and saw ashes falling down from the sky that they thought were snow.
"Who knows, and I don't see any smoke anywhere so that means these ashes came from somewhere else," Rozan said as he rubbed the ashes on his fingers. "We will find out about it anyway," Rozan continued as he smelt the ashes but it was odorless.
They all kept walking and everyone started coughing because the ashes started to suffocate them. They decided to cover their nose and mouth with a piece of cloth from their shirt while Lillith gave Mykel and the others her spare masks that she brought with her.
"I never thought bringing a lot of masks would come in handy," Lillith said as she zipped her backpack.
"You're a lifesaver, Lilly," Rozan said as he put on the mask.
"Uhh, do you have a bigger size? The mask is too small to reach my ears…" Gunnar said as he showed how small the mask compared to his head.
"That's not my problem, just hold it with your hand or something," Lillith answered.
After an hour of walking, they finally saw a town with a gate shut in the distance. Gerrard squinted his eyes and saw nobody on top of the walls or in front of the gate and told informed Lillith about it.
"The gate is shut, that means there should be people in there, right?" Asmond asked as he looked at Kastor.
"I hope so," Kastor answered as he looked around and saw nothing but dead trees.
Mykel stood in front of the gate with Agnez, Kastor, and Asmond, he then looked up and saw nobody as Gerrard said. The weird part was that they didn't hear anything from behind the gate, and so Mykel opened the gate so casually even though the gate sounded so heavy by the creaking sound it made.
The town looked so dead and nobody was inside or so they thought, they explored the small town and checked every house.
"Let's split up and check each building," Mykel said as he looked down at the ground.
Everyone went their separate ways and entered the buildings. It didn't take long enough until Kastor found a hatch in the building he was checking. They all went inside and Kastor showed the hatch that he found under the dining table.
"Let me go first," Gunnar said as he walked toward the hatch.
The moment he opened the hatch, a cold wind hit his face, and saw a ladder that led to the basement.
"This isn't a basement, this is an underground tunnel," Gunnar said as Rozan used his staff to light the tunnel.
Gunnar suddenly stopped and Rozan bumped onto his back. "What's wrong?"
Gunnar pointed at the small room in front of him and he saw something in there but he wasn't sure if his eyes were deceiving him or not. "I think I saw someone was sitting on the wall," Gunnar answered.
All of them immediately grabbed their weapon just in case it wasn't a person.
Gunnar entered the small room and then he lowered his shield and axe which made everyone confused. He turned around and looked devastated all of a sudden, and then everyone saw what he saw the moment he moved his body.
Two skeletons were leaning on the wall and it looked like one of them was holding something in its hands. Turned out it was a small skeleton that could be a baby and the one who was holding it was the mother.
Edith looked around and saw so many bowls and cups made of wood, she saw opened boxes around the room.
"They died from starvation," Edith said as she grabbed one of the bowls and she could see a piece of oat that was stuck on the bowl. "They ran out of food," Edith continued and looked at Mykel.
"Do you think the baby died first or the mother?" Rozan asked as he approached the skeletons and looked at how small the baby skeleton was.
"Does it matter? I don't think either way is a better answer," Gunnar said as he looked at the skeletons. "Anyone here knows exactly when did they die?" Gunnar asked as he looked at everyone in the room.
"You can't tell, but with this cold temperature, at least five years to decompose a whole body into a skeleton," Lillith answered while checking the bones. "So it could be five to ten years ago or even more than that,"
While they were checking the whole room, they heard footsteps running from the tunnel. They all looked at the tunnel and saw one of Kastor's men come out from the darkness, he was pointing at something behind him.
"There's a survivor, but something is off about him," The guy said.
Without asking a single question, they all hurriedly left the tunnel.
The moment they left the house, they saw everyone staring at a man in a brown coat in the distance. The face was covered with a hood and he just stood there and didn't move a muscle, Agnez was the one who decided to approach him first because nobody wanted to get close to the guy because of how suspicious the guy was.
"What's your name?" Agnez asked as she tried to look at the guy's face.
"Name? I forgot," The man answered and his voice sounded so weak.
"Are you the only survivor on this floor?" Agnez asked with her eyebrows furrowed because she couldn't see anything underneath the hood.
The guy suddenly pointed at something behind Agnez and the others. "I'm just a messenger, if you want to see him, go over there," The guys answered.
Everyone turned around and then an eruption happened, they saw the bright red lava come out from the volcano with the thick black smoke.
Agnez turned around to ask about what happened to the world, but then she saw the guy was already on the ground with the same posture when he pointed at the volcano. She walked toward the guy and removed the hood from the guy's head, she saw something odd about the guy's skin that looked a bit like wax.
"What are you doing?" Jeanne asked when she approached Agnez, then she realized that Agnez was peeling the guy's skin. "Wait, what are you doing?!"
Everyone looked at Agnez and saw her throwing the skin, she then grabbed the guy on the coat and showed him to everyone. The guy was actually already dead and behind the shiny skin was nothing but a skeleton with no flesh.
"This guy preserved his skin, for who knows the reason," Agnez said and looked at half the skull that was exposed after she tore the face.
Everyone was surprised and dumbfounded by the discovery, then a notification appeared in front of them.
[You have cleared the eleventh floor of the Samael Tower!]
[You are the first to clear the eleventh floor]
[Please enter your name]
[The red portal to the twelfth floor is now open!]
[The blue portal to your original world is now open!]
"That's it? We cleared the eleventh floor by just doing nothing?" Sven asked with a bit of disappointment.
"Well, whatever is happening right now, I think we should go to the next floor and find out about what hell happened to this world," Vincze answered as he looked at the volcano. "I think the answer is over there since the guy told us to go to the volcano,"
Agnez dropped the dead body and then walked toward the portal that appeared behind them.
"Stop talking, let's get moving," Agnez said as she stared at the volcano and walked toward the portal.
