"I'm beat!" Leonard coughed as he laid on the ground and stared at the tall ceiling with a giant chandelier above him with everlasting candles. "It's been a week, and we are still on the fourth floor..." Leonard continued as he sighed with his eyes closed.
With almost a thousand Awakeners that entered the fortieth floor, and didn't bring enough food, they were about to run out of food. Most of them only ate a single bite of bread a day to preserve food. Not to be mentioned, they had to share their food with those who didn't have any food left.
"The longer we are here, the less food we have, but the more we go without resting, the more hungry and tired we will be. Either way, we are fucked, but the real question is, which one we should choose," Louise said as she sat next to Leo and watched everyone take a pinch of bread and share the handful of bread with dozens of people.
"Pick your poison," Arthur said as he stood next to Louise. "If I was by myself in this kind of situation. I would run as fast as I could, and try to catch up with those guys. It's better to suffer now than later knowing they can kill Alkael," Arthur continued and looked at Louise and Leonard. "They would follow you, Leo. We can't show our anxiety to them, we have to keep providing them positivity,"
"You're right..." Leonard stood up and stretched his arms up. "Everyone! The break time is over, let's keep moving! I know that you're all anxious, but that will only drag you down. Let's keep your anxiety at bay, and focus on surviving. If we keep moving, we will reach the lowest floor sooner, and we can go back home," Leonard shouted loud and clear.
"I still have five loaves of bread in my backpack and two bars of chocolate. Let's eat them together once we reached the seventh floor," Louise said as she showed her backpack. "Let's feast before we leave," Louise showed her bright smile and it helped everyone feel at ease.
They all helped each other to get up because they knew they didn't have the will to stand up on their own. A little help was all they needed to keep their spirits high enough to not give up.
(On the seventh floor)
"How's it? Is it worth it?" Lillith asked Sven who cleared the entire hall on his own.
"Fuck yeah it's worth it! My Body Enhancement skill became fifteen now!" Sven answered as he was out of breath.
"Congrats. Clearing the whole three floors with ten halls each only raised that skill by one," Lillith said as she chuckled and looked at him as if he was an idiot.
"At least I got it raised up. Better than nothing," Sven scratched the back of his head.
"You really love to bully him for everything he did, huh, Lily?" Vincze chuckled as he walked toward them. "He's changed, you know? He's not the same guy he used to be," Vincze said jokingly.
"We don't have time for small talk. Two more floors and we are going to fight Alkael, we have been here for two weeks, and the floor is getting bigger the lower we go. Our MREs are also about to run out, we only have five days of rations," Jeanne said as she hopped on the wolf's back.
Jeanne looked at Brynhilde who seemed anxious sitting on Alpha's back with her team.
"What's wrong, Bryn?" Jeanne asked.
"It's nothing," Brynhilde said with a forced smile.
Jeanne looked at Gaswin and Alberta. They both pretended to put a crown on their heads. She then remembered that Brynhilde was supposed to have a coronation day and that it had been months since the breakout.
"When is your coronation?" Jeanne asked.
"In four days, but it can wait," Brynhilde answered.
"Four days? That would be..." Gunnar said but before he could finish his sentence, Jeanne unsheathed her sword and got off from the wolf's back.
"It's possible. We just have to go all out from here and out," Jeanne said and she looked determined.
Everyone grabbed their weapons and didn't question Jeanne's decision at all since she was the leader. They knew it was possible if they went all out as she said, and they didn't have to worry about their [Harmony] skills since they refreshed every day.
"Four days? Let's try and make it three days!" Rozan said.
Jeanne chugged the poison vial and threw the vial on the ground. The last droplet of the poison touched the floor and it immediately made a sizzling sound and corroded the stone floor.
"I'll take the next hall. I'll go first," Jeanne said, and then she disappeared and reappeared hundreds of kilometers away from them. The blast knocked everyone back, and she left her footprints every hundred meters.
Jeanne swung her sword in all directions as the demons almost froze in time. She spun around and did a three-sixty as she swung her sword as hard as she could. The demons that she cut didn't even leave a mark until their bodies slowly got separated and floated in the air.
Everyone felt the ground shake and loud banging sounds from the hall in front of them. The banging sounds overlapped like rumbling thunders, and when they reached the hall fifteen minutes later, they saw bodies scattered everywhere. Not a single demon was left alive.
"Did she leave already? What the hell happened here?" Rozan asked as he looked at the mess Jeanne made. "Did I say three days? I think if Jeanne is being serious, she could clear the rest of the floor on her own in two days, no, maybe a day?" Rozan looked at thousands of demons on the ground from Alpha's back.
Agnez realized the gap between her and Jeanne was getting smaller and smaller. The more demon lords Jeanne killed, the stronger she became, and she would surpass Agnez in no time.
"(You're scared of losing?)" Mazikeen asked.
"(Yes, and I don't like it)" Agnez answered.
"(That's not her power, it's the sword that becomes stronger, not her. Without the sword she's nothing)" Mazikeen said.
"(What makes it different from me? I'm relying on your power as well)" Agnez asked.
"(We have become one, Agnez. I'm you and you're me. Do you think that sword can win against us?)" Mazikeen asked back as she chuckled. "(The power of that sword is limitless, but so are we. We defeated Luciel, and at that moment, we only consumed a small portion of gemstones)" Mazikeen tried to convince Agnez.
Agnez went quiet as she rode the wolf and stared at Rozan. She then activated [Demonic Manifestation] and flew toward him and landed on Alpha's back.
"How many gemstones that you bring?" Agnez asked.
Rozan looked at Agnez weirdly, and the reason why was because she had Mazikeen's boneless and muscular wings behind her back. She was supposed to be possessed by Mazikeen's appearance, but this time she was still Agnez but had Mazikeen's wings.
"A lot, but more importantly, since when you can do something like that?" Rozan asked.
"I don't remember, but it may be because the bond between me as Mazikeen master has deepened. I think the skill got affected by it, who knows," Agnez answered as she looked at the wings behind her back and flapped them. "Anyway, give me all of them. I want to test something," Agnez reached out her hand at Rozan.
Rozan grabbed his backpack and gave it to Agnez. "That's all I have, but I'm keeping that for you though, for fighting Alkael," Rozan said as he watched Agnez room the backpack from his hand.
"Alkael is a mage, you can disable him with your skill and he will be weaker than the previous demon lords that we fought," Agnez answered as she checked dozens of gemstones inside the backpack.
Agnez jumped off and Rozan ordered his dragons to stop flying. He was curious about what she was going to do with those gemstones, but he already had a hunch that she would eat them all.
Agnez grabbed a handful of gemstones and put them in front of her mouth. Her teeth became sharp, and those were Mazikeen's teeth. She then put them all in her mouth and started crunching them into small pieces.
She unsheathed her new sword and activated the [Sleight of Hand] skill to create illusions of her arms. Without a warning, without moving a muscle, dozens of projectile attacks were flying toward the wall.
The wall was damaged, but it could still withstand the powerful attack that she created. She decided to activate [Harmony], and suddenly her heart stopped beating and her whole body felt like it was melting. She then activated [Brute] and felt like her whole body was about to explode.
Every part of her body was waiting for her to unleash the power within. Her heart stopped because it waited and reserved the energy so she could use all the power for a single blow.
She screamed as she swung her sword at the wall one more time, and everyone saw it with their own two eyes the impenetrable tower wall got cut open. They could see the outside world and saw what Gehenna looked like.
"(Jeanne might have the speed and strength. But we... We have the power to destroy and bring chaos!)" Mazikeen said with excitement. "(Now, let's break all the rules because we obey to none!)" Mazikeen continued.
Agnez swung her sword and then stabbed the ground right in between her feet. The ground suddenly cracked and started to crumble.
"Why should we go around the tower to use the stairs when we can just break the floor?" Agnez grinned as she stared at everyone.
