"The twelfth floor looked the same, but now the smoke from the eruption is kind of blocking our vision," Rozan said and looked at the ashes were getting thicker. "I also think that there won't be any demon here as well,"
They kept walking forward and their eyes started to hurt because of the ashes and the smoke. Agnez, Kastor, and Asmond were walking in the front while Mykel stayed in the back and looked at his surroundings.
"There's another town up ahead," Kastor looked at the others over his shoulder and pointed at the town in the distance. "Everyone, be on guard," Kastor said to his team.
They entered the town and it was the exact same town from the eleventh floor even the buildings were the same. They started to think that something was suspicious about the Samael Tower and the Caspea World.
"Something is different," Enma said as she checked the buildings. "Even though the weather is worse, the buildings aren't rusty or decayed," Enma said as she pointed at the utility poles on the sidewalk the cables were still intact and the paint of the building walls hadn't faded away.
"It's as if we are going back in time," Asmond said as he looked around the town but then he saw a glimpse of a kid hiding behind the wall then the kid ran away. "There's a kid over there!" Asmond pointed in the direction where he saw the kid.
Asmond ran and tried to catch up on the kid, and then Mykel and the others followed him from behind.
The kid couldn't be seen anywhere in the backyard of the house, but that didn't stop them to look for the kid that Asmond saw.
They checked inside the house and couldn't find the kid anywhere. Enma saw a similar hatch hidden underneath the carpet inside the shed in the backyard and everyone immediately entered the shed to look at it.
"It's better to not scare whoever lives down there, let's send someone to go check down there," Kastor said as he looked at the hatch. "Enma, I think you should go down there with Asmond,"
They both nodded with understanding and then opened the hatch and entered the dark basement.
"There's something that I need to confirm if we are really back in time," Agnez looked at Mykel. "We should go to the same hatch that we found from the eleventh floor,"
"Go ahead," Mykel said as he tilted his head toward the direction where the building was.
"Jeanne, Lilly, Nagy, come with me," Agnez said as she walked out of the shed.
Asmond and Enma looked at the lantern and he decided to touch it with his bare hand and it was still warm. They both kept walking forward and saw a door shut in front of them, they leaned their ears on the door and heard whispers.
"Hello? Is someone in there?" Enma asked as she looked at Asmond.
There was no response but they clearly could hear whispers from behind the door.
"We are not trying to hurt you and we are not dangerous people. Can you tell us what happened to your world?" Enma asked again as her eyes moved around while she kept leaning her head on the door.
"Who are you people?" A scared man's voice could be heard from behind the door.
"We are from a different world called Earth, we are here to save your world from the demons," Enma answered calmly. "Can you tell us what happened to your world? It's okay if you don't want to open the door, we can speak through the door,"
The door suddenly opened, and they both saw a small family of a man and a woman with two children, one was a boy and the younger one was a girl. The man looked at them with a scared expression, but he believed them and decided to open the door widely for them.
"Please come in, it's better if we talk inside," The man said.
Asmond and Enma nodded with understanding and then entered the small room where the children were staring at them and terrified because of the swords on their waists. The man grabbed two cups and filled them with water, he then offered the water to them.
Enma looked at the cup and hesitated to drink it while Asmond without hesitation drank the water.
Asmond noticed that the water tasted funny and it was thicker than he thought that it was hard for him to swallow it. He thought that it could be because the water wasn't fresh and came from somewhere as long as it was drinkable.
"Can you tell us what happened?" Asmond asked the man and then he looked at Enma who didn't drink the water and slightly shook his head to tell her to not drink it.
"There's nothing much that we can tell you about because everything happened so fast," The man answered and looked at his wife. "If you came here, that means you're here for the tower, correct?"
"Yes, we are here to find the tower but there's a problem with that because we can't go to the next floor without a portal. So how did all this happen? Why there are ashes falling from the sky? Is it because of the volcano?" Asmond asked.
"Yes, the volcano, that's where the tower is. The tower is inside the volcano and when the giant demon came out from the tower a year ago, an eruption happened. It wiped out most of the people in our world, and now there are only a few of us left," The man answered and he looked devastated.
"Are there no people like us? People with abilities and skills that are chosen by the Constellations?" Asmond asked and looked at the children were giggling at each other.
"The gifted, that's what we called them. Yes, there are a lot of them back then, but we have no idea if there are any gifted people that are alive right now," The man answered as he looked at his wife who had been staring at Enma and the cup in Enma's hand.
"I see, do you by chance know if there's a demon in this place that we need to kill so we can go to the next floor?" Asmond asked with his eyebrows raised.
"There's no demon," The man answered immediately. "They didn't bother to kill us because they want us to suffer,"
Enma furrowed her forehead and immediately stole a glance at the children who kept giggling at each other. She realized that the children were stealing glances at her and Asmond as if those children were making fun of them.
"Asmond, can we talk for a moment?" Enma asked as she tilted her head toward the door.
Asmond nodded with understanding.
"Give us a moment," Asmond said to the man with a smile on his face.
They both walked out of the room and Enma was backing the door while Asmond stood outside the room.
"What's wrong?" Asmond asked.
"They're acting really weird," Enma answered quietly. "While you were talking with the guy, his wife, and his children have been acting strangely,"
"What do you mean?" Asmond glanced at the wife who had been staring at him with a creepy smile then he immediately averted his gaze back to Enma. "I see what you mean,"
(In the same building on the eleventh floor)
Agnez stared at the woman's face with her eyes and mouth wide open after she decided to stab her in between the woman's eyes. She pulled the sword and looked at the woman collapse then fell on top of the headless demon that used to be the woman's husband.
"I knew it, there's no such a thing as going back in time," Agnez said as she looked at the baby crying so loudly. "Stop the act, you little imp,"
The baby's body started to morph and the skin slowly turned red with the baby's eyes turned all black. The baby turned into an imp as Agnez expected and before the imp could pounce at her, she cut the imp in half without hesitation.
Lillith tried to look at the memories both of the man and the woman, but it was empty. It indicated that either those two were already dead, or have a [Mind Control] skill which would be impossible since they were just ordinary people, or a demon since she couldn't read a demon's memories.
"Everything is nothing but an illusion," Agnez said as she wiped the blood from the blade and looked at the small room that disappeared and turned into a dead forest.
