15: Sealed Fate

 "What do we do?" Asked Dan.

 "Laura was thrown somewhere above my floor—I think I'm on the eight floor now. I don't know. You have to contact her."

 "Okay, then what?"

 "Nani ittenda?"

 "Right! Evacuate!"

 "Get your ass out there!"

Nani ittenda = What are you saying?

 Sam hung up. Dan had to take a breath. He was still worrying about where Shujin went. He puts his phone down and slipped it back in his pocket. He looks around and sees there's probably fifty people on that floor. 

 "How many people are in this building?" He asked aloud to all.

 "There's gotta be around two-thousand."

 "Are you shitting me?" He muttered. "How many floors?"

 "Forty."

 "Are you shitting me!?" He yelled. "Okay, everyone evacuate to the five top floors. Don't rush but don't be slow, got it?"

 "Why not the lobby? It's closer."

 "It's sealed off. It's crawling with monsters right now! Now go!"

 The people started heading for the emergency exit and walked up to the fortieth floor. Was that the best decision, Dan? Jon asked.

 Why are you asking me this now? Was it not?

 It was.

Oh my god! You're annoying.

Find a way to contact Laura through the sound system.

 "Hey! Is there a way to broadcast a message to the entire building?"

 "Second floor, AV and all that is down there."

 It's already filled with hundreds of beasts. You'll see a lot of blood. Are you ready?

 I've got no choice, Jon!

 Souka. Ikuzo

Souka, ikuzo = okay, let's go

 "Try to warn people from floor to floor, got it?" He told the evacuating people. 

 Dan quickly casts Black Envelope and drops through the hole he went through. He decides to stop at every floor and warn the people to evacuate immediately. Five floors down, Dan screams into the hole, "Laura! Can you hear me?" He hears blade slashing and feels mana coming from a few floors below him, he couldn't really pin down to what floor.

 "I can!" Her voice echoed through the floors.

 "Where are you?"

 "Tenth floor!"

 "On my way!"

 Dan dropped two more floors and went to the tenth, there were beast filling the entire floor. They either climb to through the hole or used the emergency stairs. That detail ticked for Dan. He looks around for the stairs. It was on the other side of the floor. To his unfortunate situation, there were several beasts estimated to be level 9 to 12, though not maniacal.

 Dan met three of the stronger beasts. "Mendoukusaaa…" 

Mendoukusaaa = So annoying

 Dan couldn't focus on any of the three, he was constantly being attacked by weaker fodder beasts that got in his way. One of the three beasts landed a solid punch to his face. Blood spewed from his lips. It made Dan angry. 

 Black Veil, Jon uttered.

 "BLACK VEIL!" Dan screamed. It created a small protective dome—2.7-meter radius—that would repel any organic substance. It gives him time to breathe. It was a protective dome but he couldn't counter in anyway. 

 "Th- Thanks for that."

 A thank you? Jon teased.

 "Yeah, get used to it."

 He looks around and finds Laura. She was near close to the stairs. He runs through the crowd of beasts, repelling everything around him. "Laura!" He called out.

 She looks up at him and smiled, she felt really relieved to see his face. He got close to her and somehow allowed her to enter his veil. "What's this?" She asked.

 "A new spell of mine," Dan replied.

 "Cool..." She was impressed.

 "Okay, we don't have time. I need to get to the second floor and get everyone to the top floors. Sam said the lobby is sealed and the beasts are getting out of control."

 "Okay then, I'll help you."

 "Do you have any range attacks?" He asked. "Without your blade?" He also added.

 "Un," she nodded.

 "Okay, borrow your blade for a second?"

 "Umm… Okay?" She hands him her katana. The action of handing the blade over created a reaction called a Synergy. When two or more people have compatible souls, they can share each other's mana. Dan was able to borrow Laura's base spell, Crescent Slash.

 "I'm gonna dispel the veil, kamaero!"

 "Okay."

Kamaero = Get ready

 He dispelled the veil. Laura casts Light Amplification on herself and waits. Dan takes two steps forward and slashes horizontally. He creates a black Crescent Slash that annihilated a lot of the beasts in an instant. Laura then follows behind the slash to deliver finishing blows. Unknowing to her, her amp spell were light versions of Dan's Dark Gauntlet and Boots. Highly condensed mana that had the characteristics of electricity. Each one of her blows were electrocuting passively. 

 Dan ran up to the three stronger beasts and slashed upwards diagonally. Casting big gashes onto their chests. Laura comes in and punched one of the abdomen of the beast and its torso just flew off. She spun around and throws a roundhouse to the stomach of the second beast and went right through. She hopped forward and went the other direction with her leg, landing a hook kicked the head of the beast, unscrewing it off its neck. 

 "Color me impressed," said Dan. "Didn't know you could do that."

 "This…" She looks at her arms, seeing the highly condensed mana coursing inside and outside. "This isn't my spell."

 "It isn't?"

 It's yours. You two Synergized. 

 "Synergized…?" Dan muttered, "that spell is mine, huh?"

 "Yeah, and you did my spell too."

 "Wow," Dan nods approvingly. He turns the sword upside down and hands the sword back to Laura by the grip. Laura grabs it and wipes the blood off it with her shirt. She then sheathed her blade. 

 Dan smiled and raised both his hands, directing it to Laura. Presenting a double high-five request. Laura smiled back and clapped his hands. 

 "Alright, gotta go to the second floor."

 "Hai."

 The two went to the emergency stairs and started jumping off each flight of stairs until they made it to the second floor. The floor was quiet. They walked out and heard crackling from broken wires. The floor was cleared out, they heard fighting from all the way down to the lobby. Sam and Volta were able to control it better.

 Dan found the AV room and figured out a way to broadcast the message to all floors.

 Volta was still in the basement, burning herself up, trying her best to prevent a single beast from escaping. The beast sensed her to be too strong, they decide to maneuver around her and run to kill weaker people instead.

 I'm running out of mana… She noticed. She had fuel for probably ninety more seconds. I'll be useless after this. I'll die if I keep going. 

 She had been using amp on a large output to prevent any harm to herself. Her physical body could still fight, but without magic, she'll be dead meat. She was forced to leave the basement and went to the lobby, where Sam was trying to keep passers at bay. 

 "V?" Sam called.

 "I'm almost out of mana, you deal with this."

 "Uhh… Okay? Yeah, sure. Then go up and evacuate."

 "Okay. Bye," she replied as she breaks down the emergency door and head straight up. She dead ass just left me here? 

 "Well, I can't blame her. I'm getting tired myself," Sam feels a cramp on his arms, and the tension on his legs get tighter. Even his breathing was accompanied by coughs of blood. Can't afford to die here.

 The beasts circled around him, focusing their fangs on him. He holds the blade on his left with a reverse grip. He crouched down to one knee, holding his left blade in front of him, the right blade tucked in to the side of his right waist. The beasts starts charging and pouncing on him. He dashes forward, thrusting his blade into the face of the beast, then he drags his blade outward and carved the face out. He pivots around and clashed his blades together, creating distance with his repel. He switched both blades to his regular grips and spun around slashing the throats of several beasts at once. Then he picks himself back up and throws his blade on one direction, his blade pierced through the chest of half a dozen beasts. He does the same on the other side. He opens his right arm as he charged lifting his right knee off the ground and caving in the face of a beast. One of his blade returns to his hand. He grabs it by the rope at the butt of the grip and spun the blade around vertically. He then threw his arm out in a horizontal manner while simultaneously releasing the blade. He managed to throw his blade in a curving way, piercing through neck, abdomen, and head of dozens of beasts.

 I'm slowing down a lot, huh? Sam noticed about himself. I can't keep this up. Where's Dan? He should still be fresh. Fresh-er, Sam hadn't forgot that Dan was thrown through several floors earlier. 

 Sam's phone started ringing, if he took out his phone he'd make himself open. He didn't care much and quickly took out his phone and saw Dan calling him. He answered and put it on speaker.

 "Sam, ikiteru?"

 "Yeah, I'm okay."

 "Is the gate closing?"

 "Nope, the beasts are slowing down, but I'm getting tired."

 "Okay, on my way."

 Dan jumped down the on the floor above Sam and joined the fight. "Hey," he greeted. Dan looked around and saw the crowd of beast were waiting. Why aren't they attacking? He asked Jon.

 Orders, I'm assuming.

 They serve a master?

 Yeah, I don't know their name though.

 Why would they wait?

 I sense something big coming out. Maniacal.

 "There's a maniacal beast coming, Sam."

 "How'd yo-" Sam was cut off by a wave of force that threw him across the room. Emerged from the basement was a large beast. Hunched over and muscular, revealing saber teeth from the top of its mouth like a walrus. 

 That's a big monkey, Dan thought. 

 Really? A monkey? Jon sighed, disappointed in Dan's simile.

What? I'm not wrong.

 It has a gravity attack, watch out, Jon points out.

 Gravity? You can tell?

 I know a gravity spell when I see one.

 So, you know how to do one?

 Learn from the monkey.

 Dan ran up towards the beast-monkey and drags his right hand backward, winding up to land haymaker to its jaw. Halfway there, he starts falling forwards and lifting his legs backwards. I'm floating…? beast-monkey then lifted both its fists and crushes Dan to the ground. The beast-monkey grabbed Dan's leg and threw him away. 

 Sam was just recovering and started running towards the beast-monkey, only to be hit by a flying Dan. Sam fell over and Dan landed on top of him. "Get your crotch out of my face!" Sam's scream muffled through Dan. Dan rolled over and pushed himself off the ground and got on one knee.

 "Gross," Sam felt a shiver through his whole body. 

 "Get off my case."

 "It's got a… Spell."

 "It's a maniacal. I can't tell what lev-" Dan plummeted to the ground and the floor was crushed under him. Sam just stood there and watched, he pouts. "Looks like you're in quite the predicament."

 "Y- You fu- fucking prick…!"

 Sam wonders how to help Dan, he threw one of his blade at the beast-monkey. The blade plummets down to the floor. Souka… Juuryoku, Sam figured out. Now that I know what it does, I just have to figure out how to nullify it. 

 "Daijoubu?" Sam asked Dan.

 His teeth grits, "KUSOYARO…!" He said as loud as he could.

Souka = I see

Juuryoku = Gravity

Daijoubu? = Are you okay?

Kusoyaro = Fuck you

 Dan, trace the mana, Jon said.

 What does that mean? He asked.

 Use your mana sense and go into detail. I know it's hard, just focus.

 It was getting a bit difficult to breathe for Dan, as his chest and stomach was pressed down with approximately six G-force. Dan had to focus as he was feeling a bit drowsy. The force of magic, every particle, he feels the mana and it has a similar sensation to his own. Whoa… Dan in awe. 

 Okay, now what do I do?

 Replicate.

 As he feels the mana similar to his own, he knows he can replicate it. However, purely on function. There was no understanding of the fundamental basics. He tries to let himself stand, and push forward. Tried walking forward. He tries to drown out beast-monkey's gravity force by increasing his output and enlarging his radius. 

 Dan…

 He ignored Jon and focused everything on increasing his output. 

 Dan!

 "Dan…?" Sam started floating. The beast started floating too. Then all of them started flying up to the ceiling and shot through floor for floor. All the way to the twentieth floor. 

 Sam felt his entire body ache from it. Despite his innate toughness, this was excruciatingly painful. He tries to pick himself back up but coughed up blood in the process. He opens his palm and recalled his Twin Blades. They returned and he held them tightly. He looks around the floor. Empty. He looks over at Dan, struggling to move a muscle. He looks over to the beast and it was nothing but a single big chunk of flesh left. Well, that's one way to kill it.

 "Dan, you good?" Sam asked as he rushes over to him.

 "No," he coughed and wheezed for air.

 Jon, what the hell was that?

 You blacked out. Don't do that ever again. You'll end up killing yourself and others.

 "Kuso… Itai!" Dan moaned.

Kuso = Shit

Itai = Ouch

 Sam hears from the lower floors that the beasts were quickly moving up, like a bucket being filled by water. "Dan, they're rising... Fast!"

 Dan laid on his back, he felt a large portion of his body bruised. No broken bones, however. He was well aware of that. "How come you're not that hurt?"

 "An eighteen-wheeler going fifty miles an hour wouldn't kill me."

 "Hontou? Douyatte?"

 "I've been hit by one before."

 "Huh!?"

 "Hayaku neyo!" Sam yelled.

Hontou? Douyatte = Really? How?

Hayaku neyo = Hurry the fuck up!

 Dan got up and stood on his feet, feeling very out of it. He needs to rise to the top floor where everyone's held up. "Ima wa dousuru?" He mumbled. 

Ima wa dousuru = Now, what to do?

 "Stairs!" Dan ran to the emergency stairs and breaks down the door. He casts Dark Boots and starts jumping up every flight of stairs as quickly as possible.

 "Are you kidding me!?" Sam quickly reached behind Dan with the same method. Making good time, they made it to the thirty-fifth floor. Where the first floor of people was held up. Luckily, there were no holes on any floors, so the beast would take a bit more time.

 Dan and Sam met up with Laura and Volta. "Are you okay?" Laura concerns.

 "We're fine. Mostly," Dan replied.

 "V, how're you feeling?" Sam asks.

 "Okay," she shrugs. Sam feels ignored and sighed.

 "The beasts are rising up, quick and we need to stop them," Dan mentions.

 "Well, nothing's gonna change as long as that damn gate stays open," Sam stated.

 "Dousuru?"

Dousuru = What are you doing?

 "We need to get everyone out first, then, we can hold them off," Dan said.

 "Get them out? How?" Sam replied.

 You have three minutes to learn the spell, and two minutes to evacuate everyone, Jon stated.

 "I have an idea."

 "What idea?" Sam asked.

 "We'll drop them from here."