Veil of Darkness

As the City collapsed, the ghost civilians have compromised to flee the city and for now dwell in the safe zones of the abyss but some of them have no idea where to flee from.

Since the Ghost City was the pinnacle of industry where ghosts have fulfilled jobs which gave them meaning to what their purpose was before.

Now, all they can pray for is for the rebuild of the city.

Alfo, losing hope from all the destruction of the city, he decided to help the ghost civilians who needed help.

As for the Death Angels, losing their purpose were keeping the core of the city in check, now they are nowhere to be found, the thieves and the core are now missing in action.

They utterly failed their only thing that gives them meaning.

Not knowing what to do, they decided to maintain a still motion and be inactive up until they retrieved the core once more.

"Hugo, did you really plan on destroying the city in the process of helping an outsider?" Alfo thought while looking up in the broken city.

---

Staring at the face of the Death Angels, Claire and her allies need to escape or else death befalls their unalive corpses over and over again.

Running as fast as they could, they tried to outrun the destruction of the city but it seems a bit late on their part.

Trapped by the unforseen debris of the road and the buildings, somehow Data-kun went back online.

"Claire go that way!"

Connected with Claire's mind and vision, he gives the direction despite the loss sight of location.

They completely follow it as soon as Claire leads them.

"There is no time to talk, just run!"

Olivia warns Claire since time is of the essence and death is everywhere.

"We should head over the underground in order for us to escape through the secret exit. Over the left!"

Data-kun uses telepathy to communicate with Claire and the others.

As the Death Angels tries to find them, it was futile to find them, it is like finding a needle in a haystack.

As for them, they were successful on escaping.

Going back to the large two doors where the trials of Pandora took place, they are about to enter without a second.

"Finally, we are back."

Suddenly, the pathways of the first trial were already open since she already passed the trial before so, they luckily march on.

"Let's talk while we walk, Claire. I'm curious, about your Felia in your world. How did it go for her?"

Felia curiously invited Claire in a story of their world.

"Well at first, she was all alone and while that was happening, she seemed to be lost herself trying to find me.

Now, when I ponder about it, she seems to be desperate."

"That's correct.

In my world, all of the children who are infected by the virus got desperate to maintain their sanity in order to relieve themselves from killing themselves.

But unluckily, most of them got rejected and considered to be defects, which lost their hope in life.

Olivia, you can relate on that right?" Felia gives the spotlight to Olivia to talk about something.

"Despite my average IQ tests on the academy, I already give useful with my skills as a killer.

I don't particularly care less about the others but I feel like I was one of the lucky few who got the letter of recommendation from the dominator himself."

Olivia finishes her sentence.

"I was about to be a defect but since I met Claire, everything else was warm and cheerful, it made me want to live once more."

"I see.

My life just started like in a game, when their lives about to be changed by some evil god.

Now I get to live the way I want but in exchange everyone wants to kill me."

"By the way, how did you managed to avoid all the danger from the city?"

Felia asks Claire.

"I have a lives to spare."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Well, like a game, I have 21 lives in total. I lose some of it and tried to be better."

"Wait, how many did you lose?"

Olivia wonders.

"About 11 left."

"Huh?!!! You lost quite a lot already!"

"What if you lose all your lives?!"

"I didn't think about it."

"You need to focus on living, Claire. Or else you'll die on the spot."

"You're right I'm sorry."

Olivia squishes Claire's adorable face.

"Hey Joseph." Claire waves at Merchant Joseph.

"Are you about to go to the nightmare dungeon?"

"Yes, we already retrieved the core of the Ghost City."

"That's fantastic. How many souls have you saved?"

"I got a lot. Check it out."

Claire shows the life lantern and it seems to be filled with almost 7 million souls.

"That's quite a lot. Have you used it on your status yet?"

"How can I do that?"

"It can't be helped.

Just by touching the lantern and focus the aura of life energy courses through your hand connecting to your heart and then, yell with all you can."

"VICTORY!!!!"

Claire parodies a certain conversation from RE: Zero.

Then suddenly, her life essence have updated and finally her life points have skyrocketed.

"Let me check my status. WOAH!!! I got 70 million health points! That's amazing."

"You seem stronger now."

Joseph coughed while saying.

Afterwards, they give Joseph a short farewell since they have less time before Phillia reaches them.

As they moved on to the path, they are almost in the entrance of the nightmare dungeon.

"We're here, it seems we're back at the eight pathways again."

As soon as they arrive, she showed up, a strike of a blade penetrates at Claire's heart as soon as she realizes it, Claire kicks the opponent from behind to release the blade back to its user.

"Hello Claire." Phillia greets.

"You." Claire panics as Felia and Olivia make their move.

Phillia and Olivia trade blows of each other while Felia supports Olivia from a long distance.

"Felia, run away with Claire now!"

Olivia gives a warning to both of them as they tried to flee from the scene and pick whichever the pathway they will lead.

They ran as fast as possible, but for some reason, Claire doesn't want to leave Olivia.

"Claire! Olivia gives us a shot on escaping, do you want to let her sacrifice be in vain?!"

"I know but she needs help, please.

I don't want to lose any of you."

At the long pathway, Phillia slowly marches on with a blade full of blood.

Claire loses her sanity as she thought that Olivia might be dead.

But instantly, Phillia's neck was snapped and turn counter clockwise, which made her lose consciousness.

"Claire..."

Olivia have used her invisible cloak to offer a surprise when she was stabbed by the blade of the abyss. Claire hurriedly runs and catches her. "I love you..."

"We need to escape now."

Felia tried to carry Olivia with the help od Claire.

"How about Olivia? Is she gonna... die?"

"I don't know... For now let's escape and head to the nightmare dungeon."

But Phillia isn't dead. She used her new ability, dead is alive, to return back to life after for 60 seconds. Now she is back to herself, ready to kill them.

She first snapped her neck back as she carries the blade to kill Claire's allies first and then Claire herself.

"You need to escape Claire.

Bring Olivia, you can carry her right?

Run as fast as you can while I distract Phillia. Go now..."

Felia runs the opposite way to distract Phillia while Claire and Olivia flee the scene.

Slowly, she walks with her with full caution without disregard of falling and tripping.

"We'll survive. Felia will be alright..." Then Claire notices someone in front of them.

Claire then faints and lose consciousness as well.

As that mysterious guy carried them and saved them, Felia however died.