The Next Stage

Slowly, my vision sets in as my consciousness returns, but continues to fade in and out. The flesh-like floors and walls of the previous surrounding area, still covered by the shade of darkness, is the first thing I am able to make out, instilling a faint sense of fear that the trial is not yet over. However, after a few more seconds, my vision then barely makes out the images of three individuals standing before me. Strange murmurings of voices play out, but the words are hard to put together, feeling as if my ears are both slacking on the job and working overtime simultaneously.. Taking notice of my current horizontal position and my back feeling up against the strange but familiar substance underneath it, I start to crawl up slowly, feeling more of the flesh as I wave my arms and legs about.

“...where am I?...” I ask myself, only to hear the same indecipherable ramblings in and out of my ears.

…am I…dead?

Suddenly, a sharp strike lands against the top of my head, prompting my senses to rearrange enough to make out the words that follow.

“Snap out of it!”

Huh?

Surely enough, my vision and hearing begins to return to normal, as I am finally able to take notice of Christoph, Zadek and Kedaz all huddled around me with concern. After a brief minute or two of annoying questions coming from Christoph, an arrogant smirk coming from Zedak, and a blank stare coming from Kedaz, I begin to laugh softly while clutching the top of my head, amused at my own peril.

Thank the heavens…the trial’s over.

Christoph sighs, “Well, at least you still seem like yourself. Although, being such an easily amused person can also be regarded as the first sign of psychopathy,”

I rise to my feet, and while still laughing, I grab Christoph’s collar tightly and pull his face close to mine.

“What’s crazy is you thinking that I would brush off whatever that was back there,” I pull out my longsword, with a wide and aggressive grin plastered across my face, “...I’m going to kill you now!” I finish with a cheery tone.

“Hold on, hold on!” Christoph replies with an awkward smile as he places his hands carefully against the hilt of my sword, “Are you certain that will get you what you want? All things considered, I’d say I’m your greatest benefactor right now,”

I tighten my grip against Christoph’s collar and pull him even closer, “My benefactor?” I respond with a chuckle, “Let’s not get the roles reversed here. If anything, I am your benefactor,”

Christoph smirks confidently, “Don’t think too highly of yourself, Mr. Nehman. You are still yet but a hatchling in this gruesome place. If anything, you are in more need of me than I am of you.”

“Says the one that planned to use me as his own personal safe zone for days on end,” I respond with a cheeky grin.

“Well it looks like the free trial has now passed, since just recently, you ended up attracting them like moths to a flame,” Christoph responds in kind.

“Yet you still wish to accompany me to the higher floors instead of remaining where you were, like a child wanting his mother to stay with him because he’s scared of the dark,”

“Yet the so-called mother wouldn’t even have been able to make it past the first trial if not for her so-called son…now who’s the one playing a parent to a child?”

“Enuff!”

Christoph and I both turn slowly to see Kedaz pointing a sharp configurement towards the both of us. One that Christoph had surely made for her, although now covered in Tori blood.

“...I thought you said she’s deaf?” I whisper to Christoph.

“I said she’s deaf, not mute,” Christoph responds quietly, “The mute one is Zadek.”

I then turn to Zadek and see him shaking his head calmly as he rests his back against the familiar flesh-like wall, prompting me to stare downwards and realize that the same flesh-like floor I had encountered in the trial has now completely replaced the hollow sand that I had gotten accustomed to, even past the trial. The flesh-like floor continues to move about slowly, back and forth, making balance a slightly difficult thing to attain.

…I prefer the sand.

“It’s like we’re stuck in the mouth, or guts of a creature,” I say as I look around carefully, “So this is floor sixty-five, huh?”

“In a way, we technically are.” Christoph says as he takes out another strange gadget of his, similar to a compass but acting as a Richter scale.

At this point, what can’t he make?

“What do you mean?” I ask.

“You’ll see for yourself in one of the trials ahead.”

I wince, thinking about the horrors I experienced in the previous, “Please…no more…”

Christoph laughs, “You’re the one that wishes to scale the floors of Torynth in order to find Bruno and his party. Don’t chicken out now,”

I kiss my teeth and glare at Christoph, “Don’t start with that. You are the one who excluded me from knowing about these trials in the first place.”

“Well of course I did.”

“...huh?”

“Those who reveal anything about the trials to those who haven’t partaken in them are subject to taking them again. Not only that, but the number of NexTori you must face will double every time. You can’t really expect me to voluntarily risk myself for something like that,”

I take a seat, and notice a pile of leather material stacked beside me,“...NexTori, huh? You sure have a lot of names for each of them,” I begin to inspect the pile of leather material, before tossing them over to Christoph, “Whatever. It seems I have no choice but to forgive you then. The emerald dagger you created for me was certainly useful, so you have my thanks.”

Christoph laughs awkwardly, “I don’t know about the created for you part, but I gladly accept your thanks,” Christoph pauses, “...was? You don’t mean…”

“Yeah. It’s gone.” I tap my chest pockets, revealing onto the two daggers left, “The flesh floor and walls ate it up, just before I managed to break out of it and kill the NexTori.”

“...well that’s certainly one way to defeat them,” Christoph replies with an awkward smile.

After tapping the right temple of my head three times with the base of my palm, trying to adjust my hearing and sight senses to their absolute best, I jump up from my seated position, and land on my feet with a bit of a bounce.

“Magnificent. Even after all that pain and suffering, my body seems to have recovered at an alarming rate…”

Christoph lifts up my left arm, as if trying to inspect my armpit, “The effects of the trials always fade away quickly, enabling us humans to be able to get back on our feet in time to fight off against incoming Tori waiting for us on the next floor. Thinking of it, it's like Pandora’s way of giving us humans a bit of leeway, strange as it may seem.”

I snap my arm down and cover my armpit, while staring at Christoph with a grossed out expression, “Well considering how unfair everything else we’ve dealt with here is like, it’s only fair,” I look around and begin to walk forward, with Christoph and the twins following close behind, “Pandora, huh? If all the guardians seem to look the same through every floor, perhaps that could also be what Pandora looks like.”

Christoph chuckles softly, “That’s certainly something I have already taken note of.”

Christoph, Zadek, Kedaz, and myself continue down the halls, with every step being heard across the wet cold halls due to the friction between our feet and the flesh-like floor.

“For such a talented butchineer, you’d think you could at least make us some shoes or something.” I state, irritated by the feeling of flesh beneath my feet.

“Believe me, I would if I could. But every time I attempted to make them, some phenomena occurred where I found myself surrounded by Tori, and killed instantly.” Christoph sighs, “It seems Pandora isn’t a fan of covering one’s feet.”

“...It seems even gods have their own fetishes,” I reply, jokingly, with Christoph laughing briefly in response.

“Perhaps so.”

“...come to think of it…aside from the gross sounds of our steps, it’s been awfully quiet on this floor.”

“I told you before, didn’t I? Many of the Tori seemed to wish to escape to higher floors. Aside from the pack of rainbow feathered Tori we had encountered before meeting with the guardian, we probably won’t be forced to fight any Tori until we reach even higher floors.”

I stop in my tracks, causing the rest to follow suit, “Tori this, Tori that. What is with that term anyways? Isn’t that just the Japanese word for bird? Since I’ve arrived here, I can’t seem to make out any words other than this foreign language we have been speaking. I can’t even attempt to speak my mother language anymore. It’s like a forgotten tongue at this point.”

“I understand what you mean. German is also something I can no longer speak, other than knowing I spoke it in the known world.”

“Exactly. So how are you able to use a different term for these things, if that term is from a different language?”

Christoph stares at me, before continuing to walk through the halls on his own. However, before he is able to walk past me, I grab his arm, and glare at him, feeling like I am being disrespected.

“I asked you a question.”

Christoph’s face darkens as he looks towards the floor, “Please. Don’t ask any further.”

“...is it something you need to hide so desperately?”

“That’s not it. I would just rather avoid the subject if possible.”

“So it must have to do with this group that’s after you, then? Isn’t it?”

Christoph remains silent. After a brief pause, I grip his arm tighter. “...so it is…”

Christoph lifts his head, before turning to look at me properly, “...in a way, you’re right. But it doesn’t have to do with the group, per se. It has to do…with its leader.”

“...what’s his name?”

“...Nakai Shinji.”

I continue to observe Christoph’s expression, noticing his usual confidence and flair has been easily removed. All that remains is a sense of fear, and reservation.

That’s the second time I’ve seen him look and act so pathetic. For such people to be able to lower such a capable man to this state…I’m beginning to want to meet them myself.

“Nakai Shinji. Or in English terms, Shinji Nakai,” I let go of Christoph’s arm and continue down the halls with Zedak and Kedaz, who stop briefly to look at Christoph’s sorry expression, “I’ll be sure to remember it well.”

“You can’t fight him.”

I stop in my tracks once more, while Zedak and Kedaz continue forward for a brief while. Turning my neck to face Christoph, but keeping the rest of my body facing forward, I spit out a small bit of mucus that had been building up in my throat since I had reawoken.

“Fight who?” I ask Christoph.

“Nakai Shinji…he’s a different type of monster, even more than any Tori you and I could ever encounter.”

“...so?”

Christoph lifts his head and beats his chest aggressively, revealing a crazed grin in the process, “You don’t understand! When he kills Tori, they don’t fade away! When he kills humans, they don’t respawn! And that’s not even the worst of it! I’m telling you, staying away from that man is your best chance at surviving this place!”

Even with the fear he has for him, or them…I never knew Christoph to be someone that would react like this…

I finally turn my full body to face Christoph, and groan loudly to the point that it echoes across the halls, “Who said anything about fighting people? I told you already, I seriously don’t care about this Shinji person. I don’t even care about this Bruno person that we’re chasing. I have a different goal, remember? We’re literally only on the next floor up, what are you so concerned about?”

Christoph begins to shake in fear, but remains silent as he looks back towards the floor.

It’s as if he’s constantly waiting for reassurance from me that I won’t act up…

I don’t know how much more of this I can take…

“Zadek. Tell Kedaz that I want you and her to lead us to the floor guardian as soon as possible. Once I get back what I want from Bruno and his party, I’ll be taking my leave from the three of you.”

Christoph flinches.

“I can forgive someone for leaving me out to die. Hell, we’re only human after all, and you just wanted to save your own neck. So I get it.”

I walk towards Christoph and stand in front of him with a disappointed expression. I look down towards his shaking feet, and then look up towards his reserved expression.

“But…what I can’t forgive…is a man who has earned my respect, cowering in fear towards another man…”

***

As the four of us walk into the sixty fifth floor guardian’s arena of death, we are greeted by the familiar look of the guardian. An elongated Tori resembling that of a crane, with a black veil covering its entire upper body and its feet dipped in the convergence of the Tori blood flowing through the area. However, the look of the area surrounding the guardian now seems smaller in height, but longer in width; as if we have all now stepped inside an unending hall without walls as deep as the eyes can see, but still short enough to be able to reach the ceiling. The area surrounding the guardian presents a faint gray light, even without the gray curved stained glass windows that the previous floor guardian possesses; making it easy to notice the lines of Tori blood still flowing from its center. Yet, everything surrounding the guardian and the center, including the ends of lines carrying the Tori blood, does not appear in sight.

The book with the faint aura of light remains by the guardian’s feet, and after it turns a page, the guardian lifts its head up to greet us once more. This time, I learn my lesson, as the four of us look away from its face in order to avoid trouble.

“Praises to you. You have succeeded in reaching the sixty fifth floor landmark.”

“Christoph Schmidt. Zadek Bashar. Kedaz Bashar. Access has been granted to the sixty fourth floor onset.”

“The nestling, Nehman Ho. Access has been granted to partake in the sixty fifth floor’s trial point. Victory will grant you the material, whale spider’s silk. Defeat will grant you certain death.”

“Again with the certain death thing? Can’t we just go with simple death?” I ask with a concerned tone.

“May the winds blow in your favor.”

“...gee, thanks.”

The center area begins to turn counter clockwise in the same motion as the previous floor guardian space, and the rest of the motions seem to follow suit, eventually leaving me alone after glaring at a disillusioned Christoph and blank stares from the twins.

Not even a motivational speech. And here I thought we were comrades.

Well, for the time being anyway.

Suddenly, I feel a large gust of wind pin me to the floor, rendering me unable to breathe in any air whatsoever. The flooring changes from the disgusting flesh-like material into a bone-like substance, etching my body deeper and deeper into the hard flooring and enforcing a great sense of pain. Eventually, the wind subsides, allowing me to stand up briefly, while clutching my chest to check for any broken bones in the front of my rib cage. I begin to run around in search of my opponent, or opponents, but fail to find my footing across the rugged terrain, causing me to trip and fall countless times while being stabbed by the hard material floor.

Eventually, after slowly rising to my feet after tripping once more, a massive scream bellows out behind me, pinning me to the ground with the same force. The immense pressure cracks small parts of my rib cage, making me scream out loud in pain-

Nothing. Nothing comes out of my mouth, nor lungs, as I am forced to live through the pain without signalling my distress. It was as if air was both attacking me and leaving my body at the same time, rendering me unable to breathe and unable to move. Finally, I hear the creature’s wings flap quickly away from me, leaving me alone with cracked bones and an extremely sore throat that had completely dried up. As I stand up, I look around through the darkness, still unable to find the culprit for my distress.

“Coward!” I try to scream, only to have my voice come out hoarse.

As soon as I say that word, an image of the distressed Christoph then takes shape in my mind. His shaking. His expression. His reservation.

All of those emotions and actions now stand before me in the form of a bird.

Or should I say, what looks like the horrific cosplay of a gray and white cartoonish looking bird cosplaying as a man. With hemmed pants across its long legs, a shirt designed with tulip flowers decorating the back of its slender body, and a crazed expression that looked like it is afraid of me screaming out any further.

To call it an insane piece of work would be an understatement.

However, in that very moment as I continue to stare at the fear-stricken creature before my eyes, shaking about endlessly, a revelation finally comes to mind. As I stare at the creature about to open its mouth and wings as wide as it can, a sharp grin spreads across my face slowly.

Christoph…you mad genius of a bastard!