The Priestess raised her hands as if she were addressing a congregation.
"We are the followers of Devouring and Chaos," she proclaimed. "It is only HE who can make this Tower right by cleansing the rot that's eating away at it!"
She crouched and dipped her fingers into the small puddle of blood at her feet. When she stood, she held up her blood-stained hand for us to see.
"Chaos loves souls. And each soul we give Him will be rewarded with something."
Her Grimoire flared behind her head, unfolding into a pitch-black ritual circle. The air was suddenly filled with the smell of rust and blood.
"We have to stop whatever she's doing," Litha said firmly, moving forward cautiously, her right hand raised and pointed.
Temur gestured sharply for me to stay back and followed closely behind her. They had barely taken a few steps when the body on the floor beside the Priestess exploded.
Blood sprayed everywhere and then strangely reversed course, gathering together and sloshing before compressing into a massive floating sphere above the Priestess. The blood ball dropped onto her, crawling into her mouth and nose, sealing her eyes and clinging to her like a living thing.
I froze. Felling both irritation, disgust and awe at what I'm seeing. Bones cracked and her flesh warped, blood fused with her body as she grew taller, larger.
Then the blood hardened on her like a shell, and now she look less like a human. She roared.
The sound shook the tunnel.
"What the fuck," Litha muttered.
What stood there wasn't human anymore. It was a monster with dark beady eyes set high on its head, beneath which a massive mouth that swallowed the rest of its face. It was taller than Temur, nearly twice his size, its body shaped like a bear stripped of all fur and flesh.
Litha and Temur summoned their Grimoires, each manifesting above their heads.
I sucked in a sharp breath. They had Grimoires just like mine.
Their Grimoires were powerful, powerful enough to take real shapes and not just intangible things like circles of light or ball of glowing lines.
Litha's was a deep-blue crystal, mirroring her eyes as it hovered above her. Temur's took the form of an older Barbarian warrior with fierce eyes, its faint red glow revealing only its upper body.
But the monster didn't seem that impressed as it lunged at them. It crossed the distance in a blur, claws slamming down with enough force to tear metal apart.
They slipped away from its reach like dancers.
I stared in awe as Temur moved with shocking speed and grace despite his bulk. In the next instant, he was behind the monster, his metal bar slashing across its side.
The creature yelped as the bar that was reinforced by Temur's red aura, cut deep into its flesh.
It spun toward him to use the closeness against him.
But.
"Taste this!" Litha shouted.
Mana gathered in her glowing fist, and she drove it into the monster's side. The impact sent it stumbling away.
The monster growled, dark eyes tracking them warily.
I understood then.
They were working together perfectly, when it focused on one, the other struck. It was splitting its attention.
It was a flawless formation.
But then.....
The monster's body suddenly shuddered and spikes of hardened blood shot from its flesh, erupting toward Litha as the monster itself barreled straight at Temur.
It attached the two of them at once!
Litha clenched her hand in the air.
Light shimmered like a drawn curtain. A thin shield of blue mana formed around her, and the blood spikes shattered uselessly against it.
Mana surged through her legs in a flaring blue as she launched herself high into the air above the monster, which was now brawling with Temur.
Then she came down hard, smashing her fist into its head.
The monster roared, snapping wildly at the air and Litha struck it again.
And this time it staggered.
Temur raised his makeshift blade. Red aura gathered at its tip. He charged forward and drove it straight into the monster's chest before it could recover.
The monster convulsed and then went still.
"Wow," I breathed.
So this was how Iron-rank Awakeners fought. They moved as if gravity barely applied to them, their speed were unreal especially the way they worked together.
"You two are so powerful," I said.
"Hm?" Temur glanced down at the corpse, checking for movement. The hardened blood dissolved, leaving the woman's body behind with her chest pierced and crushed. "We aren't powerful," he said. "The monster was just weak."
Litha walked toward me. "We're above average Iron rank, sure," she said casually. Her Grimoire glowed faintly in agreement. "But forget that. Why are you an Iron when your power is scattered everywhere? Your aura looks like you just Awakened."
"That's because I just did!" I blurted out.
I gave them a brief explanation. "…and that's how I ended up here, with this."
My Grimoire floated in front of me, glowing with a soft green light.
Litha shook her head. It sounded unbelievable but for some reason, she didn't doubt it.
"I've never heard of someone teleporting in from outside the Tower just like that," she said. "And starting at Iron rank, no less."
She sighed and straightened. "Fine. I know how to pay you back. We'll repay you by showing you how things work on the 102nd floor and in the Tower in general. After that, we'll go our separate ways. This is just repayment for saving us."
I opened my mouth, but Temur shook his head. When Litha decided something, it was better to let her have her way.
"Alright. Thank you," I said.
Litha nodded sharply. "First thing you need to know, the first absolute truth of this place, don't trust anyone. Either you're powerful, or you're weak. People die here every day over nothing. So it's your choice how you want to... "
"Of course I want to be strong," I cut in. "That's the only option. I want to climb the Dungeon Tower."
"And become an Ascendant. Yes, we've heard it all before," she said, rolling her eyes. "Same boring dream."
I frowned. "No I only want to climb to the fifth floor."
She blinked.
Temur burst out laughing and clapped me on the back hard enough to nearly send me sprawling. "Ha! You actually surprised Litha!"
She scowled, then huffed. "I'll keep that to myself. Don't ever let anyone know why you're climbing, especially if you plan to go higher and doing something."
Then she turned to me. "But for now, let's see what kind of skills are in your Grimoire."