[You have received a Memory ...]
As Ragna heard those words, he started to grin.
'Hmm, I wonder what i'll get. Maybe it's a armor like he had.'
As he walked towards the others, he summoned the runes.
[Pot of Flesh]
Type: Tool
Rank: Ascended
Tier: 1
Description: "A pot filled with red and throbbing flesh that is from a Pillar of Flesh. The Flesh gives out a cloud of gas with regenerativ attributes."
Attributes: [Healing Cloud]
Attribute Description: "This Memory releases a healing gas. The longer you stay in it, the more and faster your body heals. Only stuff that can heal naturally, can also be healed with the gas."
'This ... this is actually great.'
***
After Ragna told them about his new Memory, they rested for a while and tested it out.
When he summoned the Memory, it instantly started released a green fog that started to heal everyone standing inside it.
Their normal wounds that came from cuts, bites or anything in that sort healed pretty quickly, taking just a few minutes. Even Layla's shattered arm healed up, which took way longer tho, around 4 hours.
***
For the next weeks, they spend their time just conquering floor after floor, going higher and higher, trying to reach the last one and to finally leave this place.
How many months had they spend in the Dream Realm by now ? Ten or so.
Every Floor was special in their own way, reaching from filling up with water, to make them drown, to kill new monsters, and sometimes solve puzzles and mysteries.
They had not seen Caspian in that time, but they knew that he was in the tower.
They of course had questioned how he survived all this time, while they already had it hard, but they quickly found it out in a libary-like Floor, where they had to solve a puzzle to go to the next one.
Each Floor got harder the more living beings there were in one, meaning that their small cohort had it harder than Caspian.
But, of course, conquering the floors wasn't in vain. They grew stronger, smarter and more skilled with each Floor they passed, gaining Memories and Echoes on their way.
Celeste had pretty early on gained her second Core, and Ragna was already at around 25% to filling his up.
But there was still one mystery left.
The People from the older Winter solstices. How had they found out what was on the highes Floor ? Or did they misjudge and not meet the Boss but just something else ?
When Ragna thought about it, the description they gave, was pretty similar to the Monster in the very first Floor. Only the Rank and Class were different.
Ragna just hoped that the Monster on the last Floor wasn't worse than what he already expected.
They had often come close to death, but somehow always survived, avoiding it by just a fraction. And that's why, after spending even more weeks in the tower, they had now reached Floor 199, the one before the last.
As they went up the stairs,
Ragna felt his heard pound with each steps, as he went up the stairs. The wight of countless battles, harsh enviorments and close brushes to death weighting on his mind.
Each Floor had tested him and his friends in a new way, and they were getting closer to the end. He knew that whatever awaited them, would be harder than anything they had fought before.
The others followed behind him, just as quiet and tensed as he was. Their blood pulsed, their hearts drummed and their breathing was ragged but there was only one thing on their mind. Determination.
As they neared the end of the stairs, and approached the next Floor, an angelic hum started to play quietly all around them.
When they stepped onto the 199th Floor, what met their sight was not one but 5 creatures. And they had all reminded the small cohort of something.
One looked like a Queen, the other one like a rook, the next ones like a Bishop and Knight, while the last one looked like a pawn.
The Queen, at the center of the bunch, was the tallest and most menacing of them all. She wore a fine tunic and held a thin and long sword, which shone with brilliance. She wore a Crown made out of glass, which was also decorated with many gems of different kinds.
To her Right, stood the bishop. A tall and thin figure, having two long arms that both ended with a sharp blade. It's body was wrapped in a thin black robe, which dropped down to the ground.
Left from the Queen, stood the Knight. It wore a black suit of armor and it's head looked more organic than like metal. It's head was so twisted and smushed that it resembled one of a horse. But what really scared the cohort, were it's thick and powerful legs.
Behind the Queen stood the Rook. It was a wide Figure that had on a full armor. There were no openings, no spots to hit except the armor. In general, it seemed like it was kinda slow but were hard to kill.
The last Figure, and the one that was the least scary, was the pawn. It was small and didn't had anything outstanding on it, like how you'd imagine a pawn to be.
But each of these Creatures radiated a kind of power they had never seen or felt before. And to be honest, it was scary.
The Cohort stood on one side, and the Nightmare Creatures on the other one.
And without warning, the Creatures began to move forward.
The Queen had insane speeds, instantly dashing towards Ragna.
The bishop, just a little bit slower went towards Layla, and the Knight towards Celeste.
The Rook just jumped into the air, and every time he landed, a shock wave could be felt as they struggled standing still.
And the Pawn ... it was just slowly hopping forward.
Ragna cursed under his breath as he parried the Queens Sword with his own blade. But the impact made him drop onto one knee.
'Fuck, she's strong.'
Thankfully, before the Queen could attack again, and hit him, Cera shot out a blood bast. Pushing the queen back a few feet and giving Ragna the time to stand back up, before dashing towards the queen, his sword already augmented to the maximum, and his body buffed by Blood Sacrifice from Cera.
As their swords clashed, sparks flew throughout the room.
***
Celeste was fighting the Knight and its characteristic was literally agility and jumping.
It just jumped over her, turned around, dashed to the side, just trying to confuse Celeste before hitting her. But thankfully, this was actually a pretty good matchup for Celeste. Because of her Gravitational Powers, of course.
Because of her second Core, she could manipulate gravity to a way higher degree and on a larger Radius.
Celeste raised her staff, as she manipulated the gravity around her, putting huge pressure on the Knight that was jumping over her.
The Knight, mid dash, suddenly found himself get pressed to the ground.
Celeste grinned and laughed like a madman as she just pushed it down harder and harder with gravity.
"Stay Down !"
As she continued, she could see its body squishing, the weight slowly crushing its armor. While pressing it down even further, she slowly walked towards it while summoning a sword Memory.
She just stabbed it, over and over again till it died.
[You have slain a Awakened Demon, Chess Piece, Variant: Knight].
The Pawn just continued moving forward while the Rook made the ground shake.
***
Layla had it a little bit harder than Celeste, but not as hard as Ragna. She was fighting the bishop, a tall and slender figure.
It was really fast, just trying to attack her by dashing against her body. She could've of course made it go blind, but that would've made it probably just go crazy and dash around everywhere, which wouldn't have been really nice, so she decided to use her ink to make it grow weaker, and slower.
As the Bishop dashed forward with its bladed arm, this time slower, Layla sidestepped under one of them before dodging under the second one.
She sadly didn't have any attacks that could really do damage, except for her Awakened Swords. She plunged it inside , piercing the black robe and thrusting into the chest, but it was enough yet.
As the bishop dashed back, pulling Layla with her, the Rook jumped again, making the ground shake once more and make Layla fly into the air.
She just spinned around in the air, unable to balance herself, but since Celeste was already done with her fight, she was there to help.
Celeste made the gravity around her grow less, so she could jump up to Layla and then balance herself mid air.
As they dropped down again, they now stood in front of the bishop and Rook.
——-Author's Notes——-
Words: 1505
Sorry for kinda rushing the tower, since I jumped up from Floor 4 to 199, but I really didn't have the nerves or creativity to write many more Floors, and I also want them to finally awaken and get out, so I can make the story more slice of life for a few chapters, before they go to a citadel.
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