Chapter 42 – Floor 2 – End of the Fall

On the seventh day of the free fall, the party was in poor spirits. Tyermsy and Ziphe as well as the Royalty Realm party members were in an abysmal condition from overexerting themselves. Even those who had become Deities could not lift a gigantic ship for a week non-stop without becoming a little tired. Ziphe was ghastly pale, but his aura reserves were still intact.

Many Deities grew their aura reserves and skills for short term bursts of energy and could only maintain their Godly aura for minutes to hours at most. A strong foundation with skills that held Deity Realm aura for long periods of time were quite rare. Ziphe and Tyermsy happened to be a God and Goddess with comprehensive foundations, brought to fruition by the long nurturing of their respective organizations. The High Priest of the Void, however, had weak base aura and could only hold a true D tier Godhood for minutes before dropping back down to Demigod or even lower, according to 21's conversation with Clico.

Typically, a High Priest of the Seven Paths Church had to have a strong foundation rooted in skills above the F tier rank. The Seven Paths Church was a prime example of an organization who grew their elites from birth through prophecy and supposed divine revelation from the Authorities. Only those chosen by the Church would be given the necessary resources needed to break through realms with substantial resistance points. Barriers between the Sage and Royalty Realms and the barriers between the Royalty and Deity Realms that had the resistance points of the Prince and Half-God Realms are the hardest realms to break through. With the support of an organization, these bottlenecks are easier to navigate. Vladimir was a special case of a High Priest with weak foundations.

Seen as expendable, Vladimir was a perfect guest to send into Hell.

Tyermsy was a prime example of a Deity with extremely strong foundations. Born to be the Queen of the Gatekeepers, Tyermsy could maintain her unfathomable aura levels for just as long as the Grand Councilman, who was meant to be one of the top three aura users in the world, only rivaled by the Wizard King and the Pope of the Seven Paths Church. This feat alone put Tyermsy among the top ten aura users globally.

The rest of the party grew anxious over the declining health of the Deities and Royalty. The onslaught of random spirits that lurched at the Labyrinthian were annoyances to be sure, but they posed a much lesser threat compared to the incapacitation of the elite members of their sub-party. Goln sat with the rest of the extra council members and Gatekeepers in the control room of the ship and talked to Ziphe remotely through his signature headset.

"Everything is going well…" Ziphe croaked optimistically. Despite his ghostly appearance, Ziphe smiled as he worked next to Tyermsy, who was working just as hard.

Tyermsy never wanted to appear weak and was a proud leader. Sweat dripped from her face as her green eyes squinted in pain. The live feed of the surrounding Royalty was dire. Zirene and Ryke constantly needed to be fed energy from aura credits by Nure to stay floating close to the ship. As time went on, they put their bodies against the wooden frame of the ship to prop themselves up. Everyone else followed suit besides Ziphe and Tyermsy.

Vice-Councilman Blue was in charge of the control room in their leader's absence. He was Ryke's Apprentice and had been given the nickname, 'Blue' by Ryke when he saw the bright blue aura that was emitted when he used electricity magic mixed with spirit magic. Ryke was impressed. Even the kid's hazel eyes turned blue when he channeled his aura. The kid's name before was John, but Ryke laughed at John's name saying,

"Blue fits you. The Council will call you Blue when I introduce you as such. Don't interfere."

At first, John hated the disrespectful nickname but grew to appreciate Ryke's hard work and knowledgeable foundation. The moment he became a council trainee, he was Blue. He even dyed his hair blue to match his newfound identity later into his career. Embracing his nickname was better than rejecting it. He later found out that nicknaming apprentices was a common theme among the council members.

After becoming Ryke's official apprentice as well as a Vice-Councilman, Blue looked up to Ryke and strove to emulate his passion for the High Council's work. Blue happily took the responsibility of running the control room in Ziphe's stead but was pained to see his superiors struggling in a grueling situation like this. Blue was usually passionate, hot headed, and impulsive, but he tried to take the responsibility seriously.

Goln looked at Blue.

"Will they really be okay?" Goln fearfully asked. Blue trusted Ziphe, Ryke, and the Council. 21 was not a council member, but he was given authority to formulate his schemes and plans. Blue was a skeptic of 21, like Tyermsy, and a reckless plan of holding the boat up with raw aura was without a doubt a plan created by 21. Yet, Blue was faithful to Ziphe, Ryke, and Zirene, the three council members struggling to carry the ship.

"Yes, they will." Blue looked silly with his blue hair, but his deep loyalty and trust in his comrades was absolute. His direct and overt confidence in his superiors put the people in the control room at ease. Ecnelis was impressed with Blue; Blue reminded him of Tyermsy in a way. Realeh, Ecnelis's sister, was shaking from the fear of losing the strongest members of the party, but Ecnelis put his hand on her shoulder. She was visiting the Control Room out of fear.

"If Blue trusts Ziphe, we should also trust Tyermsy." Ecnelis spoke up softly, comforting his sister. She stopped shaking, and the eighth night of the free fall came and went.

***

In the afternoon of the ninth day of the controlled fall, the white mist of souls from the waterfall ate the party. Suddenly, the deck became full of ambient souls from the spiritual fog. Everyone was put on alert, and the small tickle of annoyance turned into a grand battle.

Every able-bodied member excluding Vladimir, Guest Services, 21, and Trike came to fight the deranged ghosts. Clico was weaker without Omira, but he unleashed the tattoo runes inscribed on his forearms, filling him with aura. Clico had an arsenal of runic weapons, but each rune took a long time to inscribe and required countless resources and aura credits. All along Clico's body, he had carved runes full of aura into his skin that had different uses and purposes, but for this battle, his arms would suffice. With his power boost after the adventure with 21, Clico felt energized and stronger than ever.

Everyone has a different color aura depending on the type of skill they use, and runic magic tends to hold a purple hue. After unleashing a portion of his consumable power, Clico's body was covered in a purple energy. A spirit with crinkly black hair turned its head at a 180-degree angle and smirked at him menacingly. It ran at him and formed claws where its hands would be, laughing demonically all the while. These ghosts were probably possessed by Shades or the Floor Administrator.

Clico punched at a giggling spirit that slashed at him, and his fists formed an afterimage in a purple haze. Spirit after spirit fell to Clico.

A close distance to him, Anaxmai used a long scythe to cut down the souls that approached him. He had a raging red aura full of anger, but he was composed and moved faster than Clico. From a distance, Anaxmai didn't seem to move at all but stood in place as spirits fell when they came too close. Anaxmai stood over the crumbling fallen souls with a look of disgust. Turning his head, his black pupils and calm complexion caught the gaze of Clico's blue eyes. Anaxmai's long red hair flowed in the wind, and he turned away his gaze and disappeared from sight.

"What an impressive Sage," thought Clico.

But Anaxmai wasn't the only powerhouse on deck.

Blue's crackling aura was felt all around the wooden deck as his electricity sparked the very air. In the darkness of the dungeon, one ship glowed blue in the mist of souls. It was hard to see in the conditions of the fog, but the others were fighting hard. The souls posed less of a threat individually, but as a horde, they were overwhelming.

Goln used the dichotomous light and dark elements to fight, but he was a C Ranked Wizard and was easily overwhelmed. As he shot out blasts of light magic at a demented soul, two more would take its place. Clico rushed to his side and blasted away a trio of ghosts with a purple ball of aura.

"Thank you, sir." Goln managed to gasp out.

"Don't talk. Fight." Clico pointed to more materializing spirits. In the distance, Kiln and Utone were enjoying the first battle of the dungeon. Kiln used earth magic to act as a tank while Utone used water magic to fight at a distance. His body turned a rocky brown color and took the brunt of the spirit's attacks with a smile. They were used to fighting with each other and made quick work of their section of the deck.

Twin Prophets Mo and Do fought in unison with their staves flashing in succession. They used the wooden flooring of the ship to fling the souls off of the ship and placed the decking back as if it never happened. Gatekeepers Groth, Realeh, and Ecnelis fought in a trio. The three Gatekeepers took a similar approach to Utone and Kiln. Ecnelis and Realeh acted as supports while Groth took on the aggression of the ravenous spirits.

***

Below deck, Zacchaeus was infuriated. He heard the commotion above and the auras of the different party members fighting with passion. There was a lot of pent-up emotion building among the party members, and this battle gave the crew time to let loose. While everyone was fighting for the party, he was stuck with the smelly, old priest.

"Zacchaeus, tell them to keep it down up there! White, where is my tea? I asked for it ten minutes ago." The Priest was observing the souls floating in the mist outside his window and enjoyed the low hum of the crashing of the waterfall after asking to turn down some of the noise cancelling runic formation Nure had set up.

Zacchaeus took Duchess by the shoulder and pulled her outside the room. They were close to the bottom of the waterfall now. Once they landed, he had a plan, but he needed her help.

"Duchess, are you tired of serving this maniac?" Zacchaeus whispered to Duchess.

Duchess sighed. Zacchaeus was a lazy boss and a terrible person who gave the grunt work to her and White, but she hated the priest just as much as the other two in Guest Services.

"What do you have in mind?" Her bright hazel eyes met his dark brown eyes.

The moment Zacchaeus opened his mouth, the entire ship rocked, and Zacchaeus lost his footing. He barely kept on his feet, but Duchess fell to the ground.

"Those lazy Deities! Zacchaeus, what is the meaning of this?" The Priest burst through the door with a scowl.

"I think we arrived. We are on the Third Floor…" Zacchaeus regained his footing as the boat shook and stabilized in the water. The Labyrinthian had fully entered the black waters and fog of the falls.

"Ah glorious! White, where is my tea?" The Priest was content as White brought him his lavender tea.

"This expedition is quite interesting. How fun!" The Priest chuckled as he sipped the tea. He loved his lavender tea. It was like he became a different person with his tea!

"Great job everyone! You're dismissed for the night." Smiling, the priest closed the door with the delight of White's lavender tea.

White was proud of himself. He had waited to pour the tea pot until after the descent ended. Imagine what would have happened if he had spilled, or worse, if he had spilled the tea on the High Priest!

***

On deck, the spirits stopped attacking. Looking around, the members were confused, and the fog was too thick to see anything going on. Even those next to each other, like Utone and Kiln, found it hard to see their adjacent companions. Reaching around, all everyone could see was a thick, white fog. Even the wooden deck of the ship was consumed by white. At this moment 21 limped onto the deck. It seemed like his battle with the supposed Administrator Eros had harsher injuries and consequences on 21 than Clico originally thought.

After six months and nine days, Ziphe's sub-party entered the third floor of Hell, and 21 prepared to address the crew as the Deities and Royalty flew onto the deck in exhaustion. Even Vladimir and Guest Services came on deck to see what the Third Floor was.

"Welcome to the Third Floor." 21 smiled.