"Everyone, get ready for battle! Form up—Alex, try to kill them with your abilities!" Henry commanded, realizing that the fight had become inevitable.
Alex tried to manipulate the blood within these grotesque, human-like creatures, but it was no use. It felt as though he were trying to move an immovable object; something was blocking his control.
"I can't manipulate their blood. It seems like something is preventing it," Alex reported to Henry. Without hesitation, he extended his blood sword to about a meter and a half. Composed of compressed liters of blood, he could adjust its size within a certain range.
As the creatures attacked, Alex sprang into action. With a single sweep of his blade, he cleaved three of them cleanly in half. Two more creatures lunged at him from either side. One on the right threw a punch, which Alex dodged, slicing it in two with a swift motion. These creatures posed little threat to him, so after dispatching the one to his left, he quickly turned his attention to check on his teammates.
He observed that the creatures weren't causing much trouble for the others either. Mike fought with raw, straightforward power, smashing the heads of any creature that dared approach him with his armored fists. Henry fought with elegance; any creature that entered his three-meter range had its head shattered instantly. Joanna and Terry, meanwhile, stayed back, barely engaging since their abilities weren't suited for direct combat and they preferred to avoid fighting unless necessary.
When all the blood-drenched monsters were finally slain, their bodies began to dissolve, sinking into the floor as though absorbed by it. Alex watched the scene, intrigued by the way the floor seemed to consume them.
"This place is strange. Have we been transported to another world, or what?" Mike asked the group, unease clear in his voice.
"No, we're still in the tower. But this place has been altered and subjected to certain restrictions. This power belongs to a human, not a monster," Terry replied with quiet confidence. Reaching down, he touched the floor and murmured an incantation:
"The past is the past. The present is the present. The future is unknown. Reveal your truth. Speak your truth."
As he finished, a strange light pulsed from his hand, and an image appeared before them—a hologram of the tower's main hall. In it, they saw the walls become stained with blood as screams echoed. Blood engulfed the hall, consuming everyone in sight in a horrifying scene straight out of a nightmare.
The rest of the group watched, shocked, but Alex was more interested in Terry's abilities than the disturbing vision. He had thought Terry's power worked only on humans, but now he realized he had been mistaken. Terry's ability was as complex as he'd guessed, and he felt a new sense of respect for Terry's quick thinking and adaptability. It seemed that Terry, in some ways, was similar to him.
"This place is the tower, but someone's power has altered it—a human power," Terry confirmed to the group. The revelation was unsettling. To think that a human ability could transform an entire building and kill thousands—such power was both terrifying and formidable. They all knew that facing a being with this level of control would be a deadly challenge.
"Well, what do we do now? We have no way to retreat, and facing this unknown power head-on doesn't look promising,"