Traversing through the extremely dark and eerie cavern, the group lands themselves upon an army of Hollows. Idling by, they await themselves right next to a transparent wall.
On the other side of the wall, chaos and havoc amassed everywhere. One hollow appeared bloodied, smacking their fist upon the wall, their eyes were filled with disbelief. Then they were blasted by a powerful cero, obliterating their remains.
'Everywhere I go is the same. Nothing peaceful…' Darwin sighed.
Hiding behind a sturdy rock, the group observed from a far.
"Watch, It's happening," Harribel solemnly said.
Darwin witnessed something extremely interesting with the transparent wall.
The transparent wall disappeared little by little, revealing the entrance and exit.
The tension of the army, heavy. An Adjucha appeared beside a decently strong Adjucha kneeling down one-kneed, he said, "Commander, your orders."
The Commander commanded the thousands of Hollows including Gillians as their main source of military strength.
He yelled with a morale boosting might, "Charge your ceros!"
In unison, Gillians charged up their ceros from the tip of their mouth.
As the transparent wall disappeared entirely, the Commander loudly commanded, "Fire!"
A bombardment of ceros, thick in numbers burst forth, annilhating the Hollows who wanted to escape.
'Even leaving is terrible…'
"Charge!" The army of Hollows began their grand march, each step made was an equivalent to an earthquake.
"Even I wouldn't leave unscathed," Darwin announced.
Harribel explained further, "Every thirty days, the transparent wall, Muro De Regla, opens up and closes in an hour."
With sounds of innumerable amounts of footsteps, Hollows flee in a rush to get out of Third Strato.
"We don't have to worry about these Hollows. Their only goal is to leave this bloodied battlefield," Relax in her tone, she reassured Darwin.
As time flies by, more and more Hollows continue to leave the vicinity while others charge in recklessly.
'There must be some sort of reward blinding those who know the risks.' What lies ahead had some sort of correlation to what he had just witnessed. It truly got him thinking in innumerable ways.
"Before we head in, I need to tell you something crucial about this Stratos. Hollows fight on a separate platform. It's a platform which turns and flips once a specific amount of time has passed."
Darwin asked, "What is the point of fighting here rather than other places?"
Sung-sun interjected, "The crimson red lights shinning above causes Hollows to invoke their desires to its extremity, making their Reiatsu run rampant and exponentially explode. When a Hollow is slain on the platform, the platform absorbs the corpses and gives corresponding amount of Reishi to the killer of corpses. If in a group like the one we saw, it spreads evenly to each of them."
The thought alluded him into thinking more. 'How did they create the mechanism behind the Reishi distribution...And who made this mechanism in the first place…'
"Let's go quickly," Harribel insisted.
'This is more than what I had expected!'
The entire battlefield enclosed in an extremely vast plane. The surface was patternised, ancient borders, a carved huge skull appearing at the epicenter of the platform.
Darwin could see when the Hollows died on the platform, the blood and corpses gets sucked into the floor making it seem otherworldly.
Standing outside of ginormous platform of battle, Darwin witnessed something extremely fascinating.
Faint sounds of cogs turn, chains tugging at something. Then an extremely unstable and deafening earthquake spreads across the battlefield flipping the entire platform upside down in a slow rotation.
Muro De Regla, the transparent wall that surrounded the platform started to dissipate.
Then, he heard the sound of glass breaking, no, he heard multiple of them.
They resonated in succession after the platform started flipping.
'Does the glass breaking have anything to do with the red lights above?'
Silent in his thoughts, Darwin continued observing while trying to connect the dots together.
The army of Hollows that went ahead first pulled out with the Commander's orders, "Retreat!"
Harribel explained what the glass breaking was to Darwin, confirming his suspicion. "The glass breaking is an object obtained from the Second Stratos, Resting Glass. It counters the effect of the red crimson lights above."
Hollows made their way outside the platform in time just before the Muro De Regla appeared back again, stopping anyone from entering and leaving with absolute certainty.
Harribel saw the Darwin's intrigued expression, she further explained, "Hollows stuck in the enclosed platform by Muro De Regla die for being too late. If you don't know the rules, you will be swallowed by it."
'Now that begs the question. What happens when everyone is outside the platform?'
Harribel could sense what question Darwin was probing answer.
"Another rule is placed outside the platform when the lights change back to normal. Someone initiating an attack will lose a significant portion of their Reishi."
"How does one go to the next Stratos?"
An Adjucha resembling a standing wolf walked up to the group in attempt to answer his question.
"Halt!" Lioness Adjucha stood in front and told them to state their attentions.
Slightly afraid, he gestured them to calm down. He then introduced himself, "I'm Figgs. Im only here to answer his question."
Darwin asked him to continue, telling Appacci and Lioness Adjucha to let him speak.
Irritated, Lioness Adjucha declined, "I only follow Lady Harribel's orders. Not from some runt like you."
"Rose! Let him explain." Harribel and the gang were in fact new to the whole Stratos system even though they had travelled straight to the last Stratos. One time completion doesn't mean you fully understood the ins and outs of the thing you completed.
Scratching his head, Figgs said with a short sigh, "You must obtain rights to the next Stratos. The more Hollows you kill, the more points you gather." Figgs points towards a white stone monument with black outlines.
"That stone monument is the door to the next Stratos, placing your hand upon the surface allows you and your group to head in through. But the black outlines must light up fully in order for it to reveal its entrance.
Sensing his good intentions, Darwin asked him, "Can I break the entrance?"
With a crazed laughter, Figgs teared up, "No way. You think you can destroy the entrance? Doing so would instantly boot you to the Tenth Stratos, The Desolate Wasteland."
Harribel hearing this for the first time, she was reminded of a certain individual in her group that made them skip through to Tenth Stratos.
Embarrassed by the subtle looks, Rose turned her head away in silence.
"Is there any other interesting things to know about this layer?"
Figgs replied, "Nope." Then Figgs proceeds to leave somewhere else, placing his palms at the back of his head.
'He gave information and then left just like that?'
Figgs left a lasting impression on Darwin, he was mysterious and yet willing to tell knowledge of this place.
"I guess we should wait until we can head onto the platform ourselves," Darwin suggested.
Harribel nodded.