Chapter 213: The 11th Floor

Author’s Note:

I retconned a few things in the last chapter. Most notably was the very end of the last chapter. I forgot the wedding was only a few days away, and it would be nearly 6 months before Will could see any progress on his Necromancer project, so I changed Heath’s bootcamp to be shorter, and the next on Will’s to do list to be ‘going to the wedding’ rather than ‘deal with the monsters’.

Also, I was kind of missing the little legends at the beginning of chapters, so here you go! A treat for both of us!

Enjoy!

There is no constellation for William Oh. When the gods were creating the stars in the sky above The Tower, they offered to grant him one, but William Oh refused.

Unwilling to settle for a tiny swath of the sky, William Oh claimed everything else.

That’s why if you shine a light too bright into the night sky, you might just see him staring back at you from beyond the pinholes in reality.

-          Clementine Smith, level 50 Entropic Seamstress

“For obvious reasons, the length of the reception is dictated by the eleven days of Acclimation you face on the Floor.” Loth said, giving them their final advice. “Naturally you shouldn’t arrive the day of the wedding, nor leave immediately afterwards, so I’ll expect you back in two weeks.”

She turned to Brianna, waggling a single obsidian talon at her.

“Don’t piss off The Rotwitch. You’re not immortal when it comes to her.”

Brianna gulped, face pale as her copies fussed over her outfit: Something that Thea Oilton had sent up from Akul the other year.

The socialite who acted as the diplomat for the Burned Stronghold was, to this very day, still using the Tangled girls as dress-up dolls on the 5th Floor, and would occasionally send some of the ‘good stuff’ up for them to wear around the Burned Stronghold.

I should get her and Roger Oilton their Advanced Classes, Will thought as an Anna straightened the collar of his suit. Perhaps the dresses were a bribe, or a reminder.

“Ready?” Will asked, glancing over at Brianna in her emerald dress as he hefted his luggage. It brought back memories of Brianna in her hand-me-down faded dress, which was before-

Will blinked the thought out of his mind, retreating from it, wincing for an instant like he’d touched a hot stove. He brought himself back to the moment just as Brianna responded.

“…I think so.” The black-haired baker-girl said with a nod.

Will patted his vest pocket, locating the flashglass spyglass in his pocket. Despite his formal outfit, Will also had a canteen with a bit of water on his hip, and some food in his luggage…just in case.

And the wedding present, Will mused, finding the case in his pocket and nodding to himself. Alright. We’re ready.

Purchase Door? (x2)

Yes.

Designate Targets.

Will mentally selected himself and Brianna.

Designate Floor.

Eleventh Floor

Current Influence: 3448->3426

Despite the risk, there were a few good reasons to take Brianna rather than one of her copies.

First, it might be considered rude to arrive with a disposable copy. Second, if the rotwitch tried to kill her, it was just as risky to send a copy as anything else, so the risk was similar either way.

And last: Brianna had stalled out at level 50 at least a year ago, and it was about time she got some more levels. For whatever reason, Brianna only gained XP from copies on the Floor her main body was currently on.

The bright yellow Doors appeared in front of both of them.

Haven’t done this in a while… Will thought, taking a deep breath before stepping through the door.

The change was sudden and complete.

Will had been told what to expect, but it was still completely disorienting experiencing it for himself.

He was falling.

Will’s stomach rushed up into his chest, fluttering like a trapped bird.

All around, Will could see the stars.

Up, down, sideways. Everywhere he looked were tiny dots of white, and no land to speak of.

Then How can I still breathe? Will thought, releasing Phantom Hand’s grip on his heel that he had reflexively done to arrest his ‘fall’.

Except he wasn’t falling.

There was nowhere to fall to.

Welcome to the 11th Floor!

Miasma Acclimation: 11 days. Door creation restricted until Acclimation period is over.

It is not advised to Ascend or Descend before the Miasma acclimation period has elapsed. Side effects of doing so include fever, bulging bloodshot eyes, coughing, pustules, necrosis of the extremities, paraphilia, parasitic twin growths, and Death.

There is a Stronghold above, and a Key Site in need of clearing to your left.

Again, it is not advised to Ascend or Descend before the Acclimation period has elapsed.

Will took a deep breath and pulled out the spyglass from his packet as he scanned the softly glittering void.

After a moment, Will spotted a flash of green in the distance. He raised his spyglass to his eye and peered through.

Yep, That’s Brianna, floating in a lazy circle.

Will put the spyglass down before he got too good of a look at the underside of the flailing girl’s dress, grabbed himself with Phantom Hand and began to fly in her direction.

A moment later, she saw him approach and began waving.

“Why were you spinning?” She asked as Will arrived, stabilizing the both of them with a hand on his arm.

Will opened his mouth to say that she had been spinning, then realized that might not be the case, simply shrugging instead.

Okay, a stronghold above me… relative to where I was when I first entered the Floor.

Will tried to trace his path back to figure out which direction had been ‘up’, but he and Brianna had moved enough that it was impossible, especially entirely without landmarks. Will could feel a tiny centrifugal tug that indicated the two might still be spinning as a whole, making such a task even harder.

Let’s see where this stronghold is.

Will tied the two of them together with a piece of string and began scanning the surroundings. Brianna produced her own spyglass, but her priorities were somewhat different than Will’s, and after a few minutes of searching, she became more interested in the beauty of the Floor than finding their destination.

“Ooh, Will, look at that one!” She said, pointing. Will turned and oriented on the white star she was pointing at.

Under the magnification of the spyglass, Will could make out a brightly glowing crystal island, the same starlight color as everything else. it was like a disk with quartz crystals erupting from the center, jutting up and out from the center of the crystal-crusted disk.

Maybe crystals just look prettier to a girl?

Then the light caught the crystals just so, and Will spotted a flare of iridescent color that seemed to reach out from the center pillar of crystal, stretching out for something, but failing to find it and retracting back inside.

“Wow.”

“Right?”

I wonder what the monsters are like on this Floor. I’m not sure what we should do about living beams of light.

Another fifteen minutes of searching the skies, and Will finally spotted the Stronghold.

It was a tiny speck in the void, nearly identical to all the other floating islands that they had found, but Will spotted signs of human habitation carved into the crystal.

Windows, doorways, that kind of stuff.

Will took Brianna’s hand and flew the two of them over to the Stronghold.

Once the speck started getting a bit larger, Will slowed them down and took another look at it with his spyglass.

It…looked like a stronghold, but Will didn’t see any people.

Shouldn’t there be people guarding it? Is it an abandoned Stronghold? How do I find the Zodiac Stronghold?

Will groaned and smacked his forehead.

“What?”

“Just…an oversight.” Will mused, pulling up his Map, and filtering out every terrain save fear, dialing up the contrast to the point where any fear at all would blaze like the sun on the map.

There was no human habitation without fear. Especially during a wedding.

A bride would be fearful of the future, of embarrassment, of rejection. A servant might be fearful of making a mistake and incurring the wrath of their Lord. An older gentlemen attendee might be afraid his bowels might not be able to suffer through the entire ceremony.

There would definitely be some kind of fear in the

Will then spun the map around, until the stronghold in front of them was in the slice of land.

No fear. There was nothing alive, or nothing capable of feeling fear down there.

Hmm.

“I don’t think that’s the stronghold we’re looking for,” Will said.

“Oh? What is it, then?” Brianna asked, scanning it with the spyglass.

“An abandoned attempt at a Stronghold, I suppose?” Will guessed with a shrug.

“…You wanna check it out?” Brianna asked with a mischievous grin. For an instant, her smile transformed her into a young woman interested in poking things with a stick.

…We still have two days before the wedding. Will thought.

“Yes, I do.”

A Bee climbed out of Brianna’s chest and Will launched her down towards the floating disk.

Best to send in a scout before risking their lives. They were still in The Tower, after all, with all the dangers that went with it.

As Bee approached the island, it became obvious: the scale of the thing was outrageous. Bee shrank into the distance until she nearly disappeared, becoming a gnat against the backdrop of the enormous crystal disk.

At a certain distance, she began accelerating, her limbs flailing for a moment before she grew a pair of wings and began flapping them against her new ‘down’.

Will sent a Phantom Eye after her, watching as Bee alighted on the crystal road, seemingly build of iridescent quartz laid down flat.

“Did giants live here or something?” Brianna asked, her eyes closed to help her focus on sharing Bee’s senses.

The doors and windows carved into the crystals were outrageously big. An entire house could fit into a single window, and the doors were arches big enough to fit a farm.

How…Will thought as he scanned the surroundings, his Phantom eye hovering right beside Bee’s shoulder, experiencing everything from her point of view.

As he was scanning, Will saw a ripple in the crystal beneath her feet.

“Behind you.” Will said.

Bee whipped around just as a creature seemingly made of void and specks of starlight emerged from the crystal and snapped its jaws shut around Bee.

Bee grew massive talons and began slashing the creature as it dragged her down the crystal road, seemingly trying to pull her into the crystal itself.

“It doesn’t seem like physical damage is doing much,” Brianna said. “One moment.”

The ferocious battle continued with Bee getting thrashed around the abandoned Stronghold, smearing crimson blood across the pristine white landscape.

Without any apparent urgency, Brianna opened a leather satchel on her hip and rifled through a few tiny pockets before withdrawing a gold band, placing the Relic over her finger.

Phantasmal talons erupted from Bee’s fists and the constellation-snake jerked away from the sudden pain as she began slicing apart the creature. A moment later, it turned and attempted to dive back into the floor.

“I don’t think so,” Brianna whispered beside Will, her eyes closed once again, experiencing everything as though she were there.

Will watched as Bee hauled the thing back above-ground and continue savaging it, spreading its black-and-starlight blood across the crystal road before the creature seemingly split in half, diving back into the crystal with its front half while the rest wriggled behind as a sacrifice to the savage attacker.

Will directed his attention from Bee and the monster to the void that surrounded them.

The creature’s coloring was a perfect match for the void and starlight they were currently surrounded by.

I suppose we should expect some of them to be free-roaming, outside the individual islands.

For a moment, Will considered how big the monsters out here in the void might get if their own weight was never a limiting factor.

Just like fish grew to match the size of their pond…how big might these constellation-creatures become?

…Did that star formation just move?

“I’m suddenly paranoid about what we might be sharing this empty space with,” Will muttered, scanning the surrounding night sky.

“…Let’s get on that island.”

Will and Brianna flew down to the giant island, their equilibrium suddenly shifting violently as down suddenly enforced itself, going from a gentle glide to an uncontrolled fall.

Will tightened his grip on Brianna’s hand and slowed their fall with Phantom Hand, lowering them to the ground.

Afterwards, Will began watching the sky with a much more paranoid mindset.

Meanwhile, Brianna formed a squad of Ria to guard them while half a dozen Bee excitedly spread out and poked through every crevice of the giant’s abandoned stronghold. Anna made lunch and set up a comfy nook to relax in.

“There,” Will said, after nearly four hours staring at the sky.

“There, what?” Brianna asked, sitting beside him.

“That,” Will said, outlining a teardrop-shape section of sky with his finger. “That section of stars is moving.”

As if to emphasize his point, a star glittered into existence as the oblong cluster of void and false stars moved past it, no longer obscuring its light.

Out there in the void were monsters that could swallow this entire island whole.