43 The Third Floor

"Oh, you're finally done with the paperwork?" Nyx wondrously asked. That's... kind of surprising, actually"

Riku simply raised a brow at his goddess's rather surprised expression. He didn't think she knew how long paperwork usually took, but it almost looked like she had been through this exact same situation before as she stood right beside him in wait. They only had Shizu to worry about now, and he was pretty sure that she would get through with her own submission without much effort.

"I take it you've been through this before then," Riku curiously pointed out.

"For more times than I would've liked, to be honest," the goddess grumbled. "I don't want a repeat of going through all of that again... Watching other people do it is kind of fun though."

"Of course, it is. It's always fun to watch other people's misery."

It was something that he learned during his many years in his old job, after all. It also didn't help that the ones he killed or tortured were usually so smug with their own superiority that the moment he cut them down to size, they started acting all pathetic and weak like they never even stood a chance against him. As if them begging for mercy would ever make her spare them though. He had a job to do, and he never left a loose end wide open even if it meant killing a few innocents along the way.

He would regret that they were in the wrong place in the wrong time in the first place, but never the fact that he killed them to retain operational security.

"I did it!"

Riku raised a brow as he heard Shizu's excited voice directly in front of him. She was smiling brightly as if she had just passed the bar exam. Then again, anybody would with how ridiculous the paperwork they just did was.

"I'm glad you can finally join us," Nyx smiled at his fellow Champion, her teasing tone starting to return. "You were kind of faster than Riku though."

"That's mostly because the clerk already knew what I'd say before I even told her," Shizu explained. "Precedent and all that."

"Good. That means we can continue forward," the former assassin nodded before gesturing to the stairs waiting for them. "We have more puzzles to solve, and we want all the time we can get if we want to stay in the middle of the pack."

Taking the lead, Riku took his first step on the glowing golden stairs. Surprisingly, it almost felt like walking on air as they began their ascent to what was supposedly the third floor of the building. Not the second, but third. It was weird, to say the least, but he wasn't going to question an obvious advantage given to them if it meant they could get to their destination faster.

"This is... kind of trippy," Shizu awkwardly chuckled beside him. "It feels like I'm walking on marshmallows or something."

"And how do you know what walking on marshmallows feel like?" Nyx chuckled back.

"It... It just feels like it, okay?" the fortune teller pouted. "Don't tease me now, Nyx."

Scoffing at the exchange, Riku turned his attention back to the task at hand. Namely, the fact that they were approaching the ceiling and nothing was happening was rather disconcerting to him. Was it supposed to be like this?

"Oh, just walk right up to it," Nyx quickly told him, having seemingly noticed his questioning gaze. "It'll give way. Trust me."

Riku shrugged. "If you say so."

Trusting his goddess, he took confidence in her words as he stepped right up to the closed ceiling above. Taking one strong step at a time, he stretched his hand up to the marble ceiling, only for his fingers to phase through, revealing what looked to be an extension of the stairs they were currently climbing.

"Cool..." Shizu stated in amazement.

"See?" Nyx smugly pointed out. "I don't know why Big Brother Themis decided to have his main home made like this, but it's something, I guess. If you ask me, he should've just built it like any other proper stairwell instead of relying on phasing walls and random illusions."

Riku kept his silence as they kept climbing. Not that he didn't agree, of course. He would've expected the God of Order to have the most logical building sense and architecture, especially with how bland and one-note everything they've seen in his Realm was so far. Marble on marble, straight road after straight road, being straightforward should've been a given. But apparently, he wasn't. The relentless amount of paperwork they had to go through also felt nonsensical and illogical... Perhaps there was something there?

Or then again, perhaps it was just a part of his challenge for them Champions... He himself would probably try to be random if he had to make some cute little challenges for random people.

Their group remained silent as they continued on their journey. Eventually, they reached their destination, and the first thing that Riku noticed about the current floor was that it was styled like a courtroom of some sort. Granted, a courtroom that had what looked like an arena in the middle where the podiums for the accuser and the defendants were, but other than that, it was a classic court complete with a judge's stand, a jury stand, and a place where audiences were currently seated.

"Oh, this place," Nyx sighed as she looked around, her hood partially obscuring her face. "I hate this place."

"Why?" Shizu asked. "This place doesn't look like much..."

Looking around, Riku narrowed his eyes as he stared at the two individuals currently on the arena. They were clearly fighting, and each blow they made with one another made the audience around them cheer with a happy fervor.

"This looks less like a courtroom and more like a fight club," Riku scoffed. "It looks like we'll have to fight, after all."

"Indeed," Themis's voice boomed from where he sat in the judge's stand. "It would seem that two more Champions have joined our midst."