The corridors were haunting, blood splashed across the walls and corridors, alongside maimed bodies and body parts everywhere they could look.
The bodies that were missing in the food court were there, in all of the reviling brutality done on them.
The scenery painted a massacre, there was no struggle, no battle, just relentless bloodshed and carnage against a party that could not protect themselves.
Nothing was left intact, they were all violated in one way or another.
Nothing was right about the corridor, from the lights painted red with blood to the bodies.
All was wrong. A palpable darkness and weight was in the air, it made Ellianor's hands itchy, and Kissenn weary of the path they were taking.
The tablet didn't lie about their position as they made their way throughout the corridor, some of the vile purple and gold goo spreading across the walls.
The corruption was not as rabid and quick as the one in the reception hall, but it made Ellianor paranoid about how fast it could grow.
"Haaaaaaap… meeeeee." A groan came from a corpse, it was horribly mutated, its body parts interlinking and fused with the body parts from other corpses, there was even some dog and cat mixed with the body of the abomination.
Kissenn was quick with her hands, the monster's "head" was pierced, and its futile movements halted completely, as its body became ash for some reason.
With a closer inspection, a red energy came out of the abomination, and into Kissenn.
'Maybe it is her power?' Ellianor tried to force a spreadsheet or system window to appear as he focused his gaze on Kissenn, like in the games and novels he had played.
[PROFILE DOES NOT EXIST. ERROR, PROFILE DOES NOT EXIST]
It was a surprise that it didn't work like it did in every piece of fiction with a system he has read. Maybe Kissenn was special, or the system couldn't compute other's stats and prowess like it could with him.
"So… how was your home, before you came here?" Instead of allowing an awkward, and creepy silence, Kissenn decided it was a good moment to talk, at least to not let the mod dwell and make roots.
It was better than contemplating the deaths and carnage.
"My home… was normal. I worked as a programmer. from eleven a.m. to seven p.m. Lived with my bitch of an aunt. Did lots of overtime. Felt like dying."
A normal life. 'A shitty life, but hell, I didn't need to deal with literal body horror monsters and living, and spreading, corruption.' Nor was he forcefully tied to an amnesiac girl. The world before was easier.
'I am also on the edge of a galaxy now.' A galaxy he never heard of. Ellianor's day had a few ways it could get worse. Kissenn hummed something to herself.
"I see. I guess that is "ordinary"? I don't know… but if it is, I think this is not… something you would want to see." her gaze was diverted over the corpses, thoughtful for a moment.
There were acquaintances of Ellianor there? Or were all corpses just meaningless faces that he only felt empathy for because they were of the same species before their deaths?
'Am I even human?'
In shape, she could be human, but there was no way to prove it until they found a doctor.
'I could be a corrupted person too.' Ellianor found her in a strange laboratory on the verge of being overrun by corruption.
While he said he was there to help her, and she trusted him… Kissenn found it hard to believe that things were as easy as they seemed to be.
As for Ellianmmor, he found himself to be uninteresting at first. Just a normal guy.
'If I can pat myself on the back, I think I handle everything just now.' It was not the best of situations to be stuck in, but it was not as hard as it seemed.
That was because of his gifts, but still… 'I did pretty okay.' Ellianor took the card he had in his pocket. "Get the radio up. I have a question for our helper." Kissenn did as she was told.
"Ask him what is the clearance level of Simony Wilson, I have her security card."
Kissenn placed the radio near her face.
"We have the security card of Simony Wilson. What is the clearance level?" Kissenn was straight to the point, not articulating her words well, but compensating for that with sheer bluntness.
"Hmm. Her cad you say? It can get you to places. She was the secretary of the big boss of that place before it was overrun. Let me change your path, that leads to some pathways if you guys are willing to face some monsters."
The guy quickly changed their path, a new branch sprouting from the original one to show an alternative way.
Ellianor thought of the voice's words for a few moments. 'It can lead to more EXP…'
While the workings of level-up eluded him, Ellianor couldn't deny that at the end of the day, that would be better than getting the minimal value of the quest.
"Let's take the alternative path."
Kissenn nodded, and they branched out to take the other way, even if it meant harder enemies, and more deadly too.
Soon, they came across a door with a card-reading machine. Ellianor slapped the card on it, unlocking the door.
On the other side, there were zombies like the ones he faced on the corridor to meet Kissenn, mutated beasts, and creatures that looked like shades, with strange spiked tentacles on their backs, almost mimicking wings.
They had a vertical mouth that extended from their faces towards the end of their waist, their appearance glowing in purple or gold. It was like the mockery of how an angel should look like.
Those creatures disgustingly ate the bodies of the zombies and mutated like, feasting on their corpses as if they were a buffet.
Ellianor's hand trembled as he held Testament, switching to a two-hand grip over the blade.