Under The Veil of Night

’It’s like she’s on a completely different realm.’

Jason was still looking towards Kanae as the people around started to climb as fast as they could. Seeing the high standing Kanae had, he has the feeling that he would be unable to reach her in this lifetime. Even if he had all the time in the world, he wouldn’t be able to reach her.

It was a weird feeling, but that was what he got from seeing that girl.

"Oro, can you help me?" Tommy asked with a wry smile. His thigh was hurting so badly that he was unable to move properly.

"Ah, alright," Jason turned his body around to face the boy. He tried to push the thoughts into the back of his mind as deep as possible.

On top of the rubbles, Kanae moved to the side. She sat down on the floor, her legs dangling on the rocks. The people around nodded at her and went on their way, no one tried to attack her. They all knew, without her help, they could never pass this place.

After quite some time, Jason and Tommy finally arrived on top of the rubbles. Tommy looked towards the two of them apologetically. "I’m sorry. I become a burden for you two."

"It’s not your fault," Kanae shook her head lightly. If she didn’t decide to try trusting that woman, they would never be in this situation. As the leader, she understood her position as the one who bear the burden of her teammate’s decision.

"You’re not a burden too," Jason chuckled.

Standing up, Kanae nodded her head. "In a dangerous place like this, being fast is not necessarily the strongest. It’ll only mean that you have to face the danger the first."

"What?" Tommy asked in confusion.

Kanae smirked as she pointed to the door towards the 16th floor. "What do you think lies behind this door?"

The door was still firm, but they could faintly hear the sound of slashing and so on. It was clear; the next floor was filled with monsters, so they have to fight with their all to pass it.

"Let’s go."

The three of them climbed the stairs, reaching the next floor. Upon seeing the gruesome sight in front of him, Tommy nearly vomited out of nausea. The condition in this place was not any better than the first floor. Aside from the fact that the damages around were extremely big, there was basically no difference.

Kanae tightened her grip on her sword. She had trained her body to a high level from a long time ago, but she never truly has the determination. As a martial artist, if she could admit as one, she has to responsible for her sword and faced the consequences behind it.

Before long, the three of them engaged in the fight too. Tommy was covered by Jason and Kanae because his wounds were limiting his action.

"Dodge!" Kanae yelled.

Tommy quickly bent down and a sword passed his head, reaching the monster behind him. He tried to move, yet pain filled his body. Seeing how Tommy was unable to move, Kanae quickly covered up for him, blocking the attack in his place.

"Captain, why are you protecting me?" Tommy asked in frustration. "Please leave me. I’m just being a burden here!"

"You’re not a burden, Tom," Kanae replied without turning her head around. "We come here together, so we will come out together too."

Having his feet wounded limited Tommy’s movement very much. He has been feeling rather depressed by how his fighting skill decreased. Without Kevin and Jason protecting him, he would have been dead a thousand times.

"Stand guard, Tom. You’re not alone here," Jason remarked.

"I know," Tommy tightened his grip on his sword. He readied his stance, but his feet gave another scream of pain to him. Gritting his teeth, he tried to ignore them as he focused his attention to the enemies before him.

Knowing that his teammates were there, protecting him and at the same time, encouraging him, allowed him to grow more confident. He knew that it would not be an easy fight from the moment that they stepped here. Getting frustrated and angry would not answer anything.

He had to fight back with all his strength. He would not let his teammates down!

They didn’t know how long it took them to reach the stairs, but when they saw the sight in the next floor, despair filled their eyes. There was basically no difference between the 16th floor and 17th floor.

"Captain, what should we do?"

"We come here to train," Kanae replied calmly. "Since there are still a lot of monsters in front of us, we can’t get out of this place, so we have to fight."

Jason nodded his head. "Aye, Captain."

With that, the three of them charged forward once more. Blades were dancing around the room along with the death of numerous monsters. Time passed swiftly as they finally made their way towards the stair towards 18th floor.

"I don’t understand why the stairs are always protected like this?" Kanae patted the wall as they climbed the stairs.

Jason eyed the wall near him. He had only realized after Kanae mentioned it that the stairs between two floors were always empty from the monsters. Except the doors were broken, no monster came to this place.

"I think, the door has special design that doesn’t allow them to come."

"Do you think when they become a monster they lost their sense and ability to think?" Kanae asked quietly.

Jason stayed silent. He simply didn’t have any answer for this question. All he knew was the fact that the monster attacked rapidly, without any chance for them to think about anything. It was as if all they knew was attack, attack, and attack.

If that was true, the experiment done in this place was truly inhumane.

"Shall we come to the next floor?" Kanae pointed to the door towards 18th floor.

"Sure."

They opened the door and once again saw a mess of the room. There was no need to say about the floor anymore because by this time, every single inch was colored red. Nothing was spared from them. However, part of this room was also broken, showing the 19th floor not far from them.

Tommy was speechless when he saw another broken floor. "Just what happen in this place that makes them break even the floor?"

"A brutal fight happened here," Kanae answered in a low tone. "I’m pretty sure that many of them have power far beyond what you can consider as normal."

"Do you mean, they can break the world record?" Tommy asked with shining eyes.

Kanae: "..." what was the relation with that and why are you so happy?

Jason shook his head lightly. "You might not want to think so much about them anymore. It’s good that we’re not here when the fight happened."

Considering how the situation after the fight was, it was clear that this place was definitely a hell when it happened. With their current power, it would be neigh to impossible to survive. After all, Jason himself knew for sure that he couldn’t fight numerous monsters at once, even more those people who has strength that can destroy the room.

Kanae narrowed her eyes towards the floor above them. She could sense the presence of one person.

One person

It was already good enough that they could survive the barrage of numerous monsters on the floor below. They were not sure about the others as they didn’t have the time to mind it. However, this place was completely empty, only leaving one person on the broken 19th floor.

"Rei, do you sense someone?"

"Above this floor, there’s one person," Kanae replied. "Shall we greet her?"

"Her?" Tommy was stunned. Even before meeting the other party, she already guessed the gender?

Kanae nodded her head. It was strange, but she had the feeling that the person was a woman. Of course, she still needed the confirmation for that.

"We should greet her. The stairs towards the next floor should be near her, right?" Jason asked in a wry tone.

Kanae nodded her head slightly. Taking a deep breath, she turned her body. "Let’s go."