Veins and Light?!

[Day 7… I wonder what's down there…]

An odd group of four were staring at a staircase that was shrouded in darkness, and weird noises echoed from it at irregular intervals.

All five looked towards each other, steeling their nerves and readying themselves for the dangers that they knew they would be facing from the sounds that they could hear.

Abel was the first, and Kylie followed behind him nervously.

Two pairs of footsteps were heard as they quietly stepped forth into the dark maw of the staircase, being careful to stay vigilant of their surroundings.

Slowly, they descended the stairs with their nerves on edge as they tried their best to keep a lookout for any possible danger that could possibly be hidden within the darkness.

Abel was carefully looking from left to right, as he was not going to make the mistake of going into an unfamiliar environment without acting with caution.

There were only two flights of stairs to descend to get to the third floor, but it seemed as if time was as slow as molasses because of the tension between the group of four.

As they got to the landing before the second flight of stairs, pulsating veins as thick as fingers were seen by the group of four that appeared on the floor of the landing, creeping up from the third floor.

Unlike normal veins within a human body, these ones pulsated with a green light at regular intervals as if it were a heartbeat.

As gross as it appeared, Kylie and Abel were quite curious about the veins as they approached them, seeing as they would have to walk over them sooner or later.

When Abel started to walk towards them, the ring on his right middle finger started to vibrate softly enough for him to just notice it.

Feeling this, he became excited as he realized that maybe whatever the green light was would help to unlock the stone ring so that he could bind it to himself.

Getting closer to the veins, he started to feel a slight pull from the ring leading to the veins on the floor that were closest to him, but that's when the ring stopped and went still, causing Abel to become perplexed.

'Omi, what's wrong with the ring? It stopped vibrating.' Abel asked Omi through their link, as he did not want to draw any of the different types of enhanced zombies down on the third floor.

'The ring has just run out of energy, Master, so all you need to do is let the ring come into contact with the veins on the floor or walls.' With exasperation clear in her voice, Omi answered Abel.

Abel ignored the frustrated fairy while hiding his embarrassment at being spoken to as if he were ignorant.

Though when Omi heard these thoughts, she realized that the poor boy didn't know any better, so instead of just saying sorry, she became resolved to be better and to not expect him to know all of these things, as they had to do with the new magical side of the world filled with untold mysteries.

Unaware of Omi's musings, Abel proceeded to bend down and bring the ring closer to the veins on the floor, hoping that they wouldn't suddenly grab his hand like certain hentai doujinshi.

When the stone ring met with the vein, there was a delay, as if time seemed to have stopped, when suddenly the veins on the walls and floor started to pulsate faster and faster as green energy siphoned into the ring, causing archaic green runes to appear that were the size of a grain of rice.

That was until the pulsating increased to a near seizure-inducing rate when suddenly a shrill scream, clearly that of a woman, was heard from the third floor, which was twice as big as the fourth floor.

Abel, quickly retracting his hand from the vein, stood up and pulled the stunned Kylie, who was carrying Omi with him, up the stairs, as he knew that there was going to be trouble following that scream.

The facts show that the veins and that scream were connected, and whatever was able to spread that far and wide was probably strong—insanely strong.

So, Abel planned a tactical retreat, which he soon was grateful for as he heard the clacking of zrendza's nails and other different sounds heading in their direction.

The group of four rushed to the teachers lounge with the sounds of the enhanced zombies close behind.

Skidding around the corner towards the lounge, they heard the clacking and thumping of feet echo up the stairs, and just as they got to the door, they heard them reach the third floor as the sounds they made echoed within the corridors.

Being careful to close the door lightly so as not to alert any nearby dangers, Abel and company fell to the floor in exhaustion from the stress that the chase had given them.

At the moment, Abel was sitting with his back to the door, not knowing what he should do as he was reminded of the ingenious ideas the MCs from different novels came up with at a time like this, relying on their own wit and strength to get through trouble.

Getting sucked into his own depressed thoughts from his previous and current lives, he imagined that he was going to die here, never to amount to anything, when suddenly he felt himself getting hugged by a pair of tiny arms.

"It's okay; I know this is very hard to deal with. I wish I could say it was going to get easier, which it actually will as you get stronger, but currently you aren't there yet, and you still need to struggle to get to that level. But you have all of us with you. Me, Kylie, and Khepri are here for you, and although I'm not allowed to do much, I can still give you advice. Just don't give up; you're so much more than what you currently know, and your future is bigger than you could ever imagine." In all of his life, both current and previous, no one had spoken to him with such care and consideration, which caused him to tear up.

Before he could shed a tear, he wiped them away, smiling at the fairy that had been through so much with him recently.

"Thanks, Omi. I keep thinking of myself as being alone, not realizing that I have you three here with me." Touching the fairy's head and thanking her before standing up, Abel tried to think of a plan out of his current situation.

"Okay, this is what we're gonna do…"