Even the beast seems confused, fearful even.

  Its body is shivering out of control, as more and more of the sparks from above fall upon its large body. Adrian lets one of them fall on him, and even through his low Resistance he couldn’t feel much damage done to him.

  It is just like fireworks. It tingles, but doesn’t kill.

  Looking at the confused floor boss who does not attack, the gathering of climbers does not wait for it. They charge forward first, all of them trying to get at least one hit on the floor boss. Adrian and his party, having never defeated a floor boss earlier, are also on the forefront.

  Explosions cover the beasts, lacerations from the sword follow, and under the falling fire, the body of the floor boss is broken and destroyed. All the time, the fire rain hasn’t stopped.

  You are qualified to enter the next floor!

  It keeps falling, on their bodies and on the trees and the grass around them. Even on the altar which appears out of the ground. There is something off about the fire, but Adrian couldn’t understand what. No way the High Ranker will do something so useless.

  Adrian looks at his friends and asks about their own qualifications, and all of them say they got the same message. So close to safety now. Adrian thinks, putting his hand on the Blood Pouch by his side. This Blood Pouch is different yet the same as the one he had bought outside. The vessel remains the same, yet the runes have been modified from a creator.

  As they would be going on another expedition after the execution, all of them have remembered to bring their Blood Pouches.

  Some people like Buren, Himari and Ritsu had not filled their pouches because of their injury, so the others quickly helped them fill it by killing a few beasts. Magically treating it barely took a minute, and they were done long ago.

  Now all that remains to be done is to sacrifice the blood to the altar, and get the fuck out of here.

  People hurry and push others to get in the front. Soon a red gate appears in the clearing, leading to a sandy escape. The first ones to pour the blood quickly leave, but Adrian and the others wait in the back.

  John stands by his side, and he says, “Don’t you think something is weird?”

  “The trees aren’t burning, nor anything else,” Adrian says with a dark expression. How could it be that under raining fire, nothing is burning?

  “We should hurry up and get out of here. Something bad is about to happen, I can feel it,” John says. Adrian nods and looks at the line in front of him. There still are about 10 or so people. Adrian is just wondering about pushing them out when something strange happens.

  Due to excessive contamination, the 2nd floor will be destroyed and rebuilt in a minute.

  Once the destruction starts, all gates for travel between floors will be closed for some time.

  Please leave the floor now.

  There is something like that!?

  Adrian and John don’t need to be told twice, as a sudden strength surges through them, both of them jump at the same time, activating their abilities in sync, while the others still stand dazed by the message.

  In a series of snaps, many people in front of him are suddenly encased in his prison, an explosion underneath them sending them flying away into the distance. They’ll survive, for now.

  Avatars walk out like a flowing river out of him, surrounding those he cannot imprison and stopping those at the back from moving forward, while John moves at front with his sword, slashing through people like cutting grass.

  There are still a few who are strong enough to resist them, but Adrian and John don't care about them. One or two people won’t make much difference after all. Quickly reaching the altar, they start pouring the blood, their friends coming forward and doing the same.

  Adrian can see Mark and Matthew in the back blocking the flock of angry climbers with their shield and ice, helping the avatars. Leah too stands there with her arms out, debuffing the enemies and buffing the party at the same time.

  Swiftly within a few seconds, Adrian is done sacrificing his blood, but he doesn’t enter yet. Quickly creating more avatars and replacing the broken ones, he stays back with John to allow the rest of them to go first.

  Ritsu, Himari and Buren go in first. Followed by Finneas, and then Michael who’s blocking the sword of another climber. Then walks in Mark, and Matthew with Leah, and when only the two of them remain, Adrian finally breathes a sigh of relief.

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  How much time has passed by?

  39 seconds.

  More than enough time.

  Adrian and John walk to the side, letting those they earlier opposed get their chance at the altar and run to safety. When around 10 seconds remain,the raining fire finally seems to be doing something as the world suddenly catches on fire. It’s not just the trees around here, but everything catches on fire. The trees, the ground, the altar, the very sky above them, and also their clothes.

  People too burn as they pour their burning blood on the altar, and find their entry barred from the gate.

  “There’s quite a beauty in the end of the world,” John says walking into the portal as his clothes burn around him. Adrian too burns, but he has already put on the pendant, and can feel the effects of the fire reduce a little.

  It confuses him a little. Isn’t this fire magically made? Then why is it being treated as a natural disaster?

  Adrian creates one last copy before he steps into the portal. Perhaps a part of him will be able to see the end of this world.

  #

  Avatar Adrian wakes up in a burning world. There are memories of a long 16 years in his mind, and yet all of it seems hidden behind a curtain. A mirage that may or may not exist. Some of that knowledge simply escapes into his body whenever he needs them, like a spell carefully dicing the information he deserves to have.

  So really, he is born in the burning world. A remnant of a soul who has gone on his own adventures, leaving him here to… die? He knows the objective of the main body, but he doesn’t exactly like it.

  He can only hope that the main body would see his memories once he dies and suffers.

  Although surprisingly, he doesn’t seem to be burning that much. Everything around him burns and turns into ashes, but the avatar stands there among the fire like an untouchable being. His soles do burn from the fire underneath, but it doesn’t seem to spread as fast as the fire around him.

  What is happening here?

  And in that moment of confusion, he feels something else. It starts as an intense point of energy in the distance, completely stealing all of his focus. The avatar tries to focus and go into his safe place, but somehow his focus wavers.

  The place suddenly seems so far away, so tumultuous, like caught between waves. It gives him a weird feeling. What is happening, and why is it behaving like this?

  And then the point in the distance suddenly expands into a huge sphere. Adrian stumbles and falls on the ground, his eyes bleeding just from looking at the Sphere in the distance. Tongues of fire lick him and burn him alive, and yet that doesn’t seem to be enough to bring his eyes away from the sphere.

  The Sphere is black in colour, wavy like the surface of an ocean. It is unlike the black hole, as it’s not that dark. Light reflects off it, and sometimes it feels like rainbows spill out of the sphere. Adrian looks at it with utter fascination, even as his body is slowly burned.

  And then the Black Sphere opens up. It’s just a small hole in its side, and as Adrian tries to look into it, his mind collapses. A simple image keeps repeating in his mind continuously. Over and over and over and over again. The same image. Over and over and over again. There’s a baby and it's dead, and yet it’s alive. The image of the baby keeps repeating in his head.

  The baby is dying and being born at the same time. It is rotting and yet not. It is and it is not. Over and over and over again.

  His body starts to break apart, and the area around him does too at the same time. Space and time itself is breaking apart and exploding into a singularity. Broken into its essence, the smallest unit.

  Something inside Adrian is trying to escape, but it too is crushed and broken down into pieces. The avatar dies, thinking of the same image. Over and over again.

  #

  Adrian collapses on the cage, clutching his chest in pain. Something inside of him seems to have broken, torn apart, leaving the rest to suffer.

  This is a very bad timing for him, especially when there seems to be another fight going around him and he and some of his friends are being kidnapped.

  He has been wondering where the church and the revolutionaries who attacked at the last instant will go. Clearly the answer is the next floor. All waiting in ambush to steal the climbers who have just escaped from the disastrous floor.

  As far as he knows, a blue barrier has trapped him and a few others as soon as they appeared outside the portal and into the next floor. He hasn’t even checked the floor notification, before the fight around him has swept him away.

  Now they are trapped in the blue barrier, being taken away to go fucking knows where.

  “Are you okay?” Says Leah. Leah has somehow managed to be here, and so is Matthew. Adrian doesn’t have the time or the energy to talk, such is the pain which tears away inside of him. Every move he makes, every breath he takes, stabs into him. Like a fresh wound being rubbed on, it continues to send shock down his body.

  Adrian spends what feels like hours lying on the barrier, eyes closed and wishing for the pain to go away. But every thought itself sends another jolt of pain, so he closes his mind, and tries to focus. It works a little bit, but the focus breaks more and more often.

  He can feel that some of the people he knows around him are concerned, but he genuinely has no energy to reassure them that he’s okay. He’s not, and he doesn’t know when he’ll be.

  He tries to put points into Resistance, but it only increases the pain more as his body shifts and changes. Unconsciously, he puts a single point into Mystic and that finally brings him some relief, but only for an instant.

  In his craze for more comfort, he puts his remaining points into the stat, and feels the almost blissful sensation last for a few seconds, before crashing down and bringing him back to the pain.

  The pain is less now, but after the feeling of bliss, it only seems to have deepened. Adrian lays still, as still as he can be like a corpse, waiting for the pain to go away.

  The ride itself is smooth, but the brightness changes frequently, annoying the heck out of Adrian, but after what feels like an eternity, their kidnapping box finally stops and puts them down. The barrier flickers for a while, but goes off completely; throwing them on a rocky surface.

  Adrian feels the rocks touch him and shrieks in pain. An almost crazed madness takes over him, and he hears murmurs and whispers around him, but the pain that only he is feeling cannot be quantified at this moment. His consciousness flickers.

  And then something wraps around him. It’s like a soft gentle light, and it soothes him almost instantly. Someone seems to be saying something, but comforted by the gentle light, Adrian finds himself losing deeper and deeper into sleep.

  The only thing he remembers before falling asleep is that he is kidnapped, and he needs to find a way to escape once he wakes up.

  Only if the pain can stop.

  #

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