A girl slowly peeked from the darkness, until her face was close to Matsumi's. She looked at him, a few inches from his face as Barghest watched silently. Her red pupils shined in Matsumi's face, almost as if she was a lamp herself.
"Ah…it's you.."
With his eyes closed, Matsumi didn't notice her early enough, lighlty bumping into her. quickly, he opened his eyes to get startled by the girl.
"Ahh! Oh...its a girl."
"What are you doing here? It's dangerous…I remember from the game. You have no mana inside of your bones."
"Yes I do! Are you learning how to sense others too?"
"I could do it since I was ten..What are you even talking about? You can't sense mana?"
"I was about to try for the first time before you bumped into me! Who are you?"
"My names Kurai. I go to Yoshiwara. Same school as you. I think they were talking about you. Something about breaking and entering."
"So, you wanna get to the top too? Sorry, but I'm getting there first!"
"You don't want to go there. It won't be any fun..they'll torture you forever there."
"You're not going up? What are you doing here then?"
"Of course i'm going up…but you have a pure look in your eyes. That look will no longer exist if you reach the 100th floor. They will make you pay."
"I'm not gonna get scared if that's what you're trying to do! I have to get up there, no matter what!"
"Why risk your life for something so trivial?"
"Why? Because I want to!"
Matsumi's face was filled with genuine intentions, a smile struck across his face.
"…The ones above tell me your fate in your eyes..then I will see through it until you reach that floor. I'll accompany you."
"Ok, that's fine with me! You're like me too! Our eyes are the same, just like old man Desmunê!"
"….Who?…"
Kurai scratched her head in confusion, turning it to the side and looking at Matsumi.
"Hey, Barghest! She wants to come with us! Did you find anything yet?"
He moved closer to Barghest to not be pulling on the chain so much.
"…Only limbs."
Barghest picked up a small human leg, one with green pants.
"It must've been from the guy from before. He didn't have much mana..maybe less than you…he probably got ripped to shreds here."
Kurai wasn't happy that she was ignored but she didn't fuss about it. She turned and moved with Matsumi and Barghest.
"Did he get eaten?! We were just with him!"
"Ah. I saw. He was eaten and ripped to shreds by the red beast."
"You think the monsters are part of the trial? That means there's more than one! All we need to do is find those monsters and Barghest can beat them up!"
"The monster I saw you kill just now was a small baby one, There is a large one I saw resting nearby. I didn't want to attack it without seeing what it was capable of doing first."
"There's a bigger one? Awesome! I wanna see it!"
"Why do you want to see it? So it can rip your head off?"
"I want to see everything that has to do with magic! Magic monsters, magic spells, magic food! Anything!"
"Not everything is about magic."
She floated over to Kurai.
"Take us to the beast. Let's get this over with already…"
"Everything in this world is magic! I've seen it every since I came to the school! Come on, Kurai! Take us to the monster!"
The silhouette started to slowly appear behind Matsumi as Barghest and Kurai looked on. Its drool slowly dropped on to Matsumi's head as it approached closer, before letting out a large roar that shook the entire floor itself.
"Huh?"
He wiped the drool off his head, shaking it off.
"Gross.."
Suddenly, the roar from this beast caused Matsumi to jump from shock. He turned to see it fully.
"Gah! It's huge!"
"…Looks like I don't need to. Your wish is granted."
"Maybe we should let it eat you. That might get some dead weight off our shoulders.."
"It's even weirder than I thought! Let me get on your back first!"
Matsumi gasped in amusement of this beast, he'd never seen anything like it before.
The beast roared and chomped at Matsumi when he got close, Barghest had moved him to the left a bit, otherwise his head would've gotten removed right then and there. After he'd been helped, Matsumi started to make his way over to the side of the beast, his eyes locking on to its leg. He wanted to get a closer look before they had to move to another floor after this trial.
The red beast screamed as flames erupted from it. There was a black and clear field of mana that hit the flames back, protecting Matsumi from them. Kurai watched him as he ran around.
"Cool! So cool! It even has fire! You guy's seeing this?!"
Barghest reattached the chain to his arm and yanked him back to her as if he was a pet.
"Sit down. Let us take care of this."
"Hey, watch the chain! Are you gonna do some more magic? I wanna do stuff too!"
"Just sit somewhere until we're done. Youre not useful in this setting…I'll do as much magic as you want if you do."
"That's not fair!"
He tried to move away from Barghest but her spell brought him to a stop quickly.*
"I can't move with this stupid magic on!"
Frustrated, he huffed as accepted his situation.
"You better do the coolest thing ever! I won't forgive you otherwise!"
Barghest's mana crawled around Matsumi restricting him further, even covering his mouth to quiet him. She walked toward the beast, silently standing in front of it as it roared in his face.*
Muffled words came from him, nothing that could be understood clearly. He watched Barghest, expecting to not be disappointed after everything she'd done to keep him from doing anything.
Barghest's claws formed on her hands. She swiped once at the beast and it immediately went silent, before its head slammed against the ground, detaching from its body. Barghest walked over and took a piece of the beast before chomping into it, its blood splattering all over her mouth. She silently began to eat the beast. Even for someone like Matsumi he could tell that her mana was increasing way beyond what she normally put out.
Matsumi's eyes spoke for him in the moment. Surprisingly he…wasn't very impressed. It just ended too quickly for him, no flashy lights or anything.
"It was ok, I guess…"
Was the thought most prominent in his mind. His fun had been cut short, again. He was not very happy, even turning around to face away from Barghest in such a way it was hard to take him serious.
Barghest grew more powerful by consuming The creature. Sh flexed her mana and smiled, as the small critters ran off into the crevices of the floor, a door started to move open as a stair way appeared a few inches away from the three.
"Ah…I love that. I haven't eaten in days..God.."
He wondered why her energy was growing so much, and so quickly. Did she get stronger by eating? Was she that hungry? Maybe he can get more magic if he eats too! But he was still unable to really talk.
Barghest freed him and wiped her face.
"With all the beasts here I can absorb them and finally get some strength back. On to the next floors."
Matsumi stayed put, signaling for her to remove what was covering his mouth. Barghest removed the cover from his mouth and floated, faster than she did before for the stairs.
"You barely did any magic! That's only two awesome points! And don't cover my mouth!"
"I had to concentrate to activate it. I did do magic..but not whatever you wanted I guess.."
"You didn't even let me do anything! I'm tired of this floor, let's go to the next one."
"You can't even fight! How am I supposed to let you do anything? You're always a liability not a factor."
He sighed, his feet dragging him to the exit. Matsumi gets like this quite often, when he doesn't get his way or when he's simply bored. This time being a combination of both. All of his energy gone in an instant, just as fast as when it shows up.