Killian was spared from a gruesome death in first floor. The trees caught him with their branches to give him a soft landing. But he couldn't ascend due to the beetle that Dorian created to block off the 2nd floor. He waited for the entirety of the first day of the Exam until the beetle was gone. Then, he was rewarded with his patience.
Once the beetle withered away, every person on the first floor flooded the second floor. Killian increased his kill count by a couple during his time in the second floor, but he tried to stay focused on his mission: kill Katsuki.
It took Killian close to 2 hours to find the portal for the 2nd floor. He was on the third floor at the same time Katsuki, Rowan, and Sable on, but he was at the front gate, looking in. They had the head start due to the portal being within the castle, and it was easily found. While for Killian, he had to sneak past all of the traps on the property and within the castle.
Once he had found the portal to the third floor, he was behind Katsuki and his friends by several floors. And once Killian had left the third floor, all the rest of the participants flooded the third floor.
FLOOR 24/100, DAY THREE, 190 REMAINING
They've been ascending with ease and no one has gotten in their way, getting to know each other along the way. At least, not yet. The 24th floor resembles a futuristic city with flying cars, holograms, blimps, and neon lights with various languages. Katsuki and Ivara appear on the 54th floor of a skyscraper while Rowan and Sable appear in a bar with robots as bartenders.
"Welcome, patrons, to Escher's Loop," the bartender spoke with an automated male voice.
"Where's Katsuki and Ivara?" Sable realized.
"Don't tell me we got separated…" Rowan clicks his tongue.
Meanwhile, in the skyscraper, Katsuki approaches the window and looks down at the city.
"How the hell are we supposed to find the portal this time?" Katsuki said as his eyes darted across the city, admiring it but also anxious.
Ivara approaches a cubicle in what seems to be an office area, "How high up are we?"
"Pretty high up."
Ivara then approaches Katsuki and looks out the window with him.
"Sable and Rowan are not with us, so we have to be careful," Ivara's voice dripped with caution.
"We're still ahead. We just have to move fast and find them and the portal right after."
Katsuki and Ivara then leave the office area and begin to investigate the rest of the skyscraper, floor by floor.
Rowan and Sable split up on the ground level and investigate any markets, parlors, houses, apartments, and many more. They were able to rule out manhole covers early on due to never find any out in the street or alleyways. Their time was running shorter and shorter the longer they took to find the portal.
In the dead center of the futuristic city, Killian is sitting down on the ground, his breathing slow.
"You want me to prove my worth, World?" He answered a question that only he could hear. "Of course I can kill the Antarctican."
He stretches his arm out in front of him, "I will give it to you. Anything to serve you."
Impaling his chest with his arm, he takes out his own heart from his body. Then, he places the heart onto the ground, falling down to the ground right after.
Branches sprawl out of the ground and cover Killian's deceased body. The branches hug his body tight and give a soft glow. A ginormous tree grows from Killian's dead body and it's branches cover the sky. Leaves begin to form along the branches and the roots begin to take over the streets.
As Ivara peered out a window, she noticed that the view of the city was replaced with bark. "Katsuki, you should see this…"
Katsuki drops a box full of miscellaneous items and joins Ivara. As he tries to make sense of what is happening, he senses a familiar Essence. "I know this Essence…" He mutters under his breath.
As for Rowan, he also takes notice of the familiar Essence. "This guy is back again?" He clicks his tongue…
At the base of the tree, a figure begins to separate itself from the tree. The figure is taller than any Human and is wrapped in gnarled bark and twisted roots. Killian's laugh rang throughout the area, a deep, rumbling laugh that echoed like thunder.
"I thank you for trusting me with this strength, Earth…" His voice low and heavy. "I shall return natural order to this planet." His eyes glowed like fire as he broke free from the branches that kept him attached to the tree.
Once he broke free, he bellowed a vicious roar that sounded animalistic. That roar echoed throughout the entire city, alerting everyone that he is in the area.
Unfortunately for Katsuki and Ivara, the skyscraper they are in is right beside the tree which means the tree can see them on the 52nd floor of the skyscraper.
Branches shot through the window of the skyscraper, missing both Ivara and Katsuki by a hair.
Killian is informed by the tree that Katsuki and Ivara are on the 52nd floor, and he begins climbing the building. The new bulky, powerful Killian easily ascends the floors as he climbs and reaches the 52nd floor within mere seconds.
As Ivara and Katsuki sprint through a hallway, the wall in front of them explodes and out comes Killian in his new form. "Katsuki!!" He growls.
"What the hell!?" Katsuki shouts as he and Ivara both stop.
The floor below Killian begins to faulter due to his weight and the ceiling begins to crack.
"Your big ass can't fit in here, you fool! You're gonna destroy this entire building!" Ivara shouts, her eyes furrowed.
Hearing her curse surprised Katsuki."I didn't expect that from her…"
The floor completely collapsed and all three of them began to fall down to the floor below. Once they landed on the floor below, it collapses like the previous floor and they continue this process for a couple of more floors.
Then, a lightbulb went off in Katsuki's head. Before the floor collapsed, he grabbed ahold of Ivara and uses Wormhole Dash to teleport them out of the building and into a nearby café.
Meanwhile, Sable and Rowan are sprinting towards the direction of the tree but came to a stop when they come across sight of the skyscraper completely demolished. Dust spreads out and covers the area, blinding Sable and Rowan.
"Katsuki!!" Sable screams.
"Katsuki, Ivara, are you guys okay!?" Rowan shouts.
No reponse. However, there is a response from someone else.
"So it seems you and Katsuki made friends," Killian rises from the pile of rubble. "No matter. Whether it be 100 friends or 1000, it will not be enough to kill me."
Killian climbs out of the rubble then stands on top of the rubble like a champion, "There's another like Katsuki…? Who?" He asks the voice in his head. "The girl? Which one?" He listens to the voice and he realizes that Sable is also Antarctican.
As Sable tried to search through the settling dust, she's met with the sight of Killian's fist. The sheer force of Killian's punch caused her to fly and bounce several times off of the pavement.
"Hey!" Rowan yelled from behind as he swung his axe into Killian's thick body made of wood, only for it to get stuck. "Shit…"
Turning around, Killian swats Rowan like a fly with as much strength as he can muster. Rowan got thrown into a store across the street, discombobulated after landing. Blood runs down Rowan's nose and his entire body feels like it's on fire.
REWRITING…
Rowan is able to see Killian's attack and is able to evade it swiftly.
"Rowan, I'll protect you! Just do your best and chop this guy down!" Sable says from a bit of a distance, unharmed.
Killian takes a moment to theorize what her ability could be. Could it be illusionary? Time based? "You are more troublesome than Katsuki." He then comes up with an experiment he wants to test.
Thorns the size of pencils shoot out of Killian's large body, each one impaling Sable and Rowan. Rowan got impaled in his lower abdomen, right shoulder, left hand, and right thigh. Sable got impaled in her left eye, right hand, and upper chest. Thankfully, Sable's Antarctican healing factor kept her alive from an instant death, a trait that is usually taken for granted. From the top of her lungs, Sable violently screams from the pain as the thorn impaled her eye. But she can't lose focus of what is important: save Rowan.
REWRIT—
As Sable was weaving a hand sign to grab onto the red thread of fate and rewrite what happened, thick roots erupt from under and coiled around her hands and arms with crushing force.
"You have to weave a hand sign, don't you? I was looking for a sign for the activation and you did good," Killian then reappears in front of Sable, his fist raised high. "Now I shall test how fast you heal for research."
Unleashing a flurry of combos rain down onto a defenseless Sable, each combo driving Sable deeper into the ground. The ground splits and caves beneath her, spiderwebbing outward. During his "research", he realizes that her healing factor is just as great as Katsuki's, maybe even better. He knows she could feel the pain from the punches, but they left no permanent damage to the body. He then concludes that in order to kill Katsuki and Sable, he must come up with a technique that can outpace the healing factor. Not an easy task, by the way.
The next thing she could see is Killian disappearing instantly after being tackled. As she wondered where he went, Ivara comes into her peripheral. "Hey! Are you okay!?"
As Ivara walked down into the small crater, she winced once she saw the thorn stuck in Sable's eye. "Let me help you with that." Ivara kneels down to Sable and she inspects the thorn, "I'm going to pull it out. Are you ready?" She asks an unresponsive Sable. "Okay. No answer. Sorry if I hurt you."
Ivara pulls the thorn out of Sable's eye, flesh squelching and blood running down her eye. The next thorn is the one in her chest, and she removes the thorn just fine. The last thorn in Sable's right hand also comes out quite easily. Ivara is trying her best to not get sick as she sees the thorns coming out, but her body soon betrays her.
Before anything could physically expel from her mouth, she turns around to cover her mouth.
"Thank you…" Sable softly spoke, her voice cracking.
"Mhm," She nods her head, focusing on not throwing up.
As Sable groggily sits up, her wounds instantly heal, "Rowan…" She asks Ivara.
"He's okay. For now. I used some of my ice to stop the bleeding," Ivara recovered from being sick so she turned around to face Sable. "We gotta kill that tree guy if we all want to get out of here alive."
"Yeah, but he's powerful."
"He is, but I'm willing to bet his strength has to do with something about the big tree."
Ivara and Sable both turn to their left to see the big tree in the distance, both coming up with ideas.