久久大陆

[Sixth Floor]

"Zzz…"

On the floor, Sol snored without any restraint, filling the devastated halls with his uneven breaths.

A light tap against the crimson bandana the hazel-haired adolescent wore caused him to jump up in a fright, directly from his sleep.

"Who—? What?!" Sol let out, already wielding his spear just a moment after jumping to his feet from slumber.

The dreary-eyed Sol blinked a few times at the one responsible for waking him, "…Jeong-Hui?"

"Yeah," he nodded to confirm his sleepy friend's words, "…What happened here, man? Are you alright?"

The corridor was completely trashed, with multiple walls crumbled and the floor holding burn marks from black lightning.

On the floor, the carcass of the horse-faced demon was still laid out.

Sol gulped, "Err…Honestly, I don't really remember. Oh! Th-there was a ghost, Jeong-Hui!"

As soon as the young man remembered that fact, Sol grabbed his friend by the shoulders, shaking him as if trying to drill it into him that he wasn't crazy.

He nodded wryly, "I get it. I'm just glad you're alright."

Sol sighed out, "What about you…? You seem kind of rough, dude."

It was a long story, but he summarized all that happened: the encounter with the GOETIA System user, how he targeted Eunji, and the weird encounter with Baek-Hyeon.

Though he had to clarify "Xiaodan" to him since the silver-haired new member of Gangcheori had yet to meet most other members.

"…That's about it. I had Xiaodan look after Eunji in one of the safe rooms. She still seems really out of it…" He explained.

"Another death, huh…And Korain's arm? Man, this day can't get any worse can it?" Sol whimpered, holding his face in his hands, "GOETIA users are really attacking, then…can't get worse than that."

Though he felt grief himself, at the moment he was resolved to handle this.

He placed his hands on Sol's shoulders, calmly reeling him back into focus, "We should regroup with Yeong-Un. By now, he should've contacted the leader and vice leader. If they're not already down here, then…"

"Things are even worse…?" Sol asked.

He hesitantly nodded his head, knowing it was a tough pill to swallow for his friend.

"Do you think you can continue?" He asked.

Sol looked up at him, holding his answer for a few moments before nodding his head, straightening himself out, "I can."

"Alright then, let's–"

"Aha-ha-ha!"

–An abrupt, cheery laughter caught both of them off-guard as he looked back immediately.

Shrouded in the ever-present darkness of the blind night, a thin figure approached, though their bright, frizzly, and pink hair was impossible to miss.

"Who are you?" He asked in a serious tone.

The figure continued to approach eerily through the shadow-crept halls, moving towards them as their all-black armor became seeable.

"Jeong-Hui…" Sol said worriedly.

He called out again as the figure failed to identify themselves, "--Stop right there! Don't come any closer until you tell us who you are!"

Finally, the figure stopped once being close enough to see their face.

Huh? He thought.

To his surprise, it was a young man who looked around his own age, similar in build to himself but wearing that engraved, grimy armor that stood in complete contrast to his soft features and bright-pink locks.

"Aw man, I forgot my manners again! Sorry about that, guys!"

The unknown person apologized with a cheerful laugh, bashfully ruffling his own hair as he stood with his eyes closed.

"Huh…?"

Sol and himself let out in unison at the complete oddity of the enigmatic visitor.

"Where did you come from…?" He asked.

He was sure there was nobody that followed him up the stairwell, nor did he hear anything coming from above–yet here this stranger was, standing before them.

"The back door was unlocked, you silly billies! It's not like I broke in or anything–I swear!" The enigmatic, pink-haired adolescent assured them.

It was a puzzling situation. The one they were facing in the grim corridor was so unlike any other they had confronted before, it was remarkably difficult to figure out what the proper action to take was.

"Oh, right–man, my manners are really bad today, aren't they? Aha-ha! It's really easy for me to forget things like that. I'm Dae-Mon, nice to meetcha'! As for why I'm here…" the pink-haired adolescent finally opened his eyes, revealing his black-pearl irises that held zero emotion in them, "My job here is to slaughter you."

Right then, the two felt an overwhelming bloodlust ooze from the unreadable adolescent's position.

Again, it seized just as quickly as it came as Dae-Mon closed his eyes with another cheerful laugh coming, 'Oh, that's right!--I can't kill all of you. Hmm…Everybody except…Dae-Seong? Eunji, I think? Korn? No, no…Korain! Yeah! Everybody but those three, I can slaughter! Aha-ha!"

"Slaughter…? What's he talking about…?" Sol asked nervously, gulping down.

Even he could hardly find the words from his throat in the face of the perplexing, pink-haired man who laughed jovially while displaying unrestrained bloodlust.

It's as if killing for him…is nothing more than a child's game! He thought.

Just as Dae-Mon began to approach them once more, stepping towards the two with their oozing intent to kill thriving out and filling the halls with a cold air–

Crack.

They all stopped as dust sprinkled down from the ceiling up above, finding a series of cracks stretching across the pale-white material.

"Huh?" Dae-Mon let out curiously with his unchanging smile.

CRUMBLE.

Suddenly, the entirety of the ceiling above gave way, breaking apart and crashing down–though he managed to act quickly with his hyper reflexes, grabbing into Sol, who was still unaware of what was happening, and pulling him aside into one of the rooms to the side.

"Wha–?!" Sol let out.

Sol was tackled to the ground of the room to the left, being pinned down momentarily by the red-haired friend of his as the entire floor shook and filled with a sea of dust from the collapse of the ceiling above.

"...You saved me…" Sol let out in surprise.

"Yup…" He stood up, extending his hand down to his hazel-haired comrade.

Sol accepted his hand, being hoisted up as they looked at the newly desecrated floor, with broken floorboards, walls, and furniture flooding the sixth floor in a destroyed mess.

"The seventh floor…came down?" Sol questioned.

"Seems like it," he answered.

"Do you think…?" Sol began to ask.

"You already know the answer to that," he sighed, drawing his daggers.

Sol looked down anxiously, "...I know. I was just hoping that guy would be handled by that…"

Though the two accepted that their jovial enemy was unlikely to have been felled by the collapse of the floor above, it didn't help that the desolation now mixed up the entire sixth floor, making its layout new and unknown with a sea of debris in the way.

Sol clutched his silver spear close to his body, still clearly exhausted by his previous obstacles.

That much was noticeable to him as he glanced back at the hazel-haired adolescent, keeping track of him as he knew the unsuspecting nature of his opponent.

GOETIA System users can't be underestimated. More specifically, I can't trick myself into thinking I understand how they work. It's a total mystery–they're an enigma. They don't think like us, either. I might as well be facing a monster, he thought.

As he stepped over the sea of shattered floorboards that made a pile in the broken, widened corridor, he scanned the area carefully, listening to Sol's steps follow behind him.

Even worse…I'm running on fumes with spirit here. I've got enough for one or two spells, max. I'll have to use Sage Period for any magic I use now. That makes things a whole lot more tricky, he thought.

With another step taken, the littered pieces of wooden beneath his step cracked, causing him to momentarily look down.

"--?"

–In that slight moment where he lost focus, the wall to his right collapsed, being barged through by the pink-haired figure who greeted him with a cheerful smile despite rushing towards him with utter malice.

Shit! He thought.

Thanks to his hyper reflexes, he was the only one aware of the threat that was mere inches away from grasping him, as Sol had yet to process what was happening.

The rasp of an abrasive engine met his ears as he finally looked at what form the pink-haired menace had taken: accompanying Dae-Mon's ever-cheerful smile, his arms had been morphed into the shape of jagged, revving chainsaw blades, unleashing the raspy hum of the malicious engines as the spinning edges were pointed towards his flesh.

What the hell–?! He thought.

It was so out of the ordinary that he was completely taken aback by the two chainsaw-arms that were being brought down towards him from the jovially-laughing adolescent that had burst through the wall.

He dashed back with a [Blink Step], having his back slam against the wall of the opposing side of the corridor as he witnessed Dae-Mon's attempt to mutilate him fail as the chainsaws that replaced the young man's arms slammed into the debris below.

"Aha-ha-ha! You're a slippery one, arentcha? No worries, I like a game of tag!" Dae-Mon laughed happily.