Emile and the others stood from their cafeteria table and approached the main hall's doors. As a cautionary measure, Emile placed his ear against the door and attempted to listen to the other side.
Unfortunately, only eerie silence responded to him and pushing the doors open only revealed an empty main hall.
The foxes had vanished, the main desk was left deserted, and stillness entrapped the wide open space.
Emile pulled his sword off his shoulder and positioned it appropriately, he didn't want to get caught off guard. Willow and Roy did the same, each of them summoned their weapons and relics as they looked around the still hall.
*Thud*
The sound of a door slamming shut attracted the cohort's attention. Instinctually, they all looked up a floor, at a terrace hanging above the hall's main desk.
Then, the pitter patter of footsteps echoed in the deathly silence.
Slow and relaxed.
The steps sounded devoid of all energy, as if their beholder was taking a leisurely stroll.
Finally, long black hair peaked above the terrace's railing along with fiery red eyes and a smug, unwelcoming grin.
Blood laid his elbows out on the terrace and casually flipped his hand up, waving at his colleagues below.
"Where'd everyone go?" Blood projected his voice throughout the hall.
At first, Emile and the others looked around. They continued to strain their ears while trying to hear the quietest of sounds, anything to help them aid in their understanding of the situation.
But alas, only their friend silence was there to greet them.
"Get down here!" Emile finally replied, similarly projecting his voice.
Blood immediately swung his leg over the terrace railing and hopped over it. He plummeted down and landed on the carved out husk they used as a desk before arriving at Emile's side.
"The foxes in the Ceremony room are dead," Blood said indifferently.
"Okay —" Emile replied, "but we are trying to protect the rest of the foxes now, just so you know."
Blood rolled his eyes and chose to forgo an audible response.
*BOOM*
The ceiling shook. Clouds of dust and loose rubble broke off from the ceiling and filled the air of the hall.
Suddenly, the cohort found themselves in a room much like that of a misty morning as dust obstructed their vision.
Then,
*BOOM*
Another loud explosion rocked the hall. The bridges above them cracked and broke, entire pieces collapsing and falling to the ground floor.
Many of which collided with other bridges on the way down, summoning a symphony of stone that shattered on impact and razed the ground floor of the hall.
Carefully watching the ceiling to avoid getting crushed by any falling debris, Emile and the others noticed a spider web of cracks adorning the sky.
Although the largest of explosions already settled, lesser ones continued to rain down as expressed via the puff's of dust that periodically blew from the ceiling.
The cracks quickly grew wider until….
*Snap*
The ceiling collapsed and a swarm of quadrupedal monsters followed suit, tons of them plummeting down while still slamming their skulls into the piece of falling ceiling.
Above them, a gargantuan hole appeared and hundreds of eyes peered down, each of them a bright orange that seemed to glow in the encroaching darkness their visit sparked.
Before Emile could even think to call out an order, Willow rushed beneath the falling piece of sky. Utilizing her essence and injecting it into her calves, she merely pushed the tips of her feet into the ground and enough force was generated to not only leave imprints of her shoes in the stone, but more so to launch her across the room instantaneously.
Before the major piece of ceiling, along with the army of monsters riding it, could hit the ground, Willow swung her hammer up and collided with the center of the large stone.
Surprisingly, the ceiling piece didn't shatter and instead was redirected back. Flying much faster than when it was falling, the chunk of stone tore through the air and slammed back into the hole.
On impact, the piece finally shattered and thousands of shards of stone rained down around them. In addition to the massive cloud of dust that accompanied it, a storm of essence exploded from the hole and mixed with the dust.
In a matter of moments, the cohort found themselves in a hurricane of stone and essence. And since the essence took the form of small white sparks, it closely resembled a blizzard that was seconds away from crushing them in a mound of razor sharp stone shards.
Emile quickly grabbed hold of Blood and Roy's shoulders just as the pendant around his neck burst with pure white light. They flashed across the hall, appearing underneath the terrace Blood arrived from.
Then, the blizzard arrived and thousands of stones peppered the ground. Each stone leaving behind a dent in the solid ground, most of them shattered instantly, exploding akin to a shrapnel grenade.
Before the dust could settle, Emile watched as dark figures lurked through the clouds.
Something invaded underneath.
One of the shadowy figures knelt low to the ground and slowly moved along the floor, coming dangerously close to one of the other shadow figures that stood above the rest.
The kneeling shadow pounced towards the larger one and was immediately met with extreme force.
Willow's hammer bludgeoned the pouncing creature, cracking all its facial bones before the beast ricocheted off her golden weapon and flew through the air.
The force at which Willow struck the beast created enough air pressure to create a shockwave of wind, pushing the dust to the edges of the hall effectively clearing the battlefield.
Meanwhile, the beast responsible flew past Emile and the others and splattered against the wall beside them. Its body flattened from the gforce, its bones bent and broke in unnerving places, but Emile could still piece together what the monster looked like.
Like a wolf, the beast had four legs and a long body. It was covered in sleek, charcoal gray scales that pulsated rhythmically in tune with its heartbeat.
It lacked a tail, but instead had a single, cracked horn protruding from the center of its head. The horn was unnecessarily large and straight, it didn't curve upwards like most horns did.
The beast was also equipped with a larger than life jaw, so large in fact that it could open its mouth and consume something larger than the beast's head itself.
Of course, its jaw was lined with thousands of tiny teeth perfect for ripping and tearing flesh from bone.
Before Emile could see any other details, the flattened monster evaporated into essence leaving nothing behind except for the crater in the wall itself.
Just then, a roar pierced the air causing every living being in the area to stop and look.
Looking down from the hole in the ceiling was a behemoth-like beast with a long trunk that came equipped with a round hammer at its end.
The beast was five times the size of the other monsters, its giant muscles pulled and stretched its scales as it roared into the air.
When its roar died down, hundreds of the smaller monsters swarmed into the hall. They climbed along the ceiling, piercing the stone with their steel-like claws.
They dropped as well, raining down like corrupted angels invading purgatory.
Emile prepared himself, gripping the hilt of his blade slightly firmer when someone tapped the back of his shoulder.
"Hey man —" Blood said in a slight whisper, "can I get some blood?"