Any Means Necessary (Selfish OC SI, Multiverse) [In Tower of God]

[Eiri Fllyn]

74 – Boarding 2

30F, Floating Ship Archimedes

At the Archimedes, those who were shot by a light bullet from the same person got assigned to the same residence hall unless the shooter was themselves shot by a light bullet. Everyone else was assigned randomly.

The gigantic floating ship was split into a number of floors. The first one had the residence halls and restaurants, the second had entertainment areas including a massive pool and games rooms, the third was a store containing Workshop items supposedly from every Workshop branch.

All this was introduced by the hosts over the intercom in the morning, though there were undoubtedly more areas that weren't open to Regulars.

Today was meant to be for relaxation and enjoying the ship's amenities after the preliminary game to get on the Archimedes, and the real tournament wouldn't be starting until tomorrow.

I changed and disguised myself into a random face before quickly making my way to the item store on the third level.

Although the prizes of the tournament did not particularly interest me, I was interested in seeing what items were available for sale considering that this store was supposed to contain items from higher Floors' branches.

All of the minor branches of the Workshop below the 30th​ Floor of the Tower only sold weak E-rank and F-rank items.

I was able to custom order my Pokémon-style Bowls from a minor branch because I was a top ranked Regular within the E-rank bracket with a stellar record for passing Floor tests, and they offered these types of perks to talented Regulars. However, the selection of possible features and specifications were still quite limited.

The prizes of the Workshop tournament were far better in comparison, in the past some prize items were actually multiple Ranks higher than the E-Rank of this Floor group, but that did not necessarily mean they were the only way to get items from the Workshop here.

Although I did not have high hopes for it, it would be remiss of me not to check out what they had for sale.

While browsing the wares, there was a particular item I was searching for.

Ever since I'd developed the Avatar Bodies, there was a need to hide my main body, such as how Sasha carried my main body inside of a Compressed Lighthouse that floated beside her.

But there was a limit to the Compression level of Lighthouses, and using Closed containers Manbarondenna or one of my custom Bowls wasn't ideal either because couldn't be opened from the inside.

Ideally I'd find a high level item with extreme Compression density, durability, and invisibility, which I could carry around as a small hidden accessory.

But as I looked through the catalog and displays, it quickly became clear that this was far too expensive for me right now. What was on display did not quite match my requirements, and those were already far beyond my current wealth.

Typically, any Open storage items (which had a Shinsoo flow to the outside) was much more difficult to keep Compressed at high density, and then the combination that I sought with durability and invisibility was very rare for this class of items.

Because Compression caused a reduction in strength and durability of the object or entity being Compressed, it was also a weakness to store my body inside a weak, or noticeable container.

The price tag of all these features together at a high spec might be troubling for an average Ranker, let alone my current means.

So I shelved the idea of buying it for now, and moved on to my next major objective aboard the Archimedes.

The Acorn Workshop, which was the lab that worked on the Living Ignition Weapons.

With Emily's help, I navigated to the location of the Acorn Workshop. It was an out of the way area with few visitors that didn't seem to have much security, for whatever reason. The inside was probably more guarded, but I didn't see much outside of its door.

Now was not the right time to enter yet though, so I found a corner with some crates to leave behind a Compressed Beastiont.

All of my animal-based familiars were Beastionts, but not all of them had been imbued with the Compression skill. In general, the difficulty of Compression was higher for living things, things with intelligent minds or souls, and things with complex Shinsoo flows of their own including any Shinsoo resistance or the equivalent in magical interference.

The last one prevented people and Shinheuh from getting involuntarily Compressed by a force that didn't vastly outclass them.

The Mysteries in the Avatar Bodies or undead puppets made them too difficult to apply Compression, but I made plenty of other cheap disposable familiars which were just Beastionts relying on their physical prowess.

Because applying Compression in this manner also took quite a bit of work, most of my smaller Beastiont familiars were just basic single animal forms without even a full Beastiont biocore, having minimal combat ability. These I called coreless animal-types.

Others had the full biocore and larger size, but were primarily made and trained to stay in a single template to take advantage of customized Reinforcement spell crests and specialized combat roles, like the ones I lent to team Darul. Those were monster-types with the highest stats.

But the one I left behind here was the shifter-type where it retained the full transformation abilities of the Beastiont, and even incorporated various useful Shinheuh biologies I'd encountered, at the cost of significantly weaker Reinforcement and brute combat strength. It was also a type that, realistically, I'd have to assume direct control to really make proper tactical use of.

After that, I made my way to the pool on the second floor where the majority of the Regulars were relaxing at.

I changed back into my normal face as Axion with casual clothes first.

The main pool was bigger than a football field, and there were some rides around like a waterpark. There was a half-level above us that served as a balcony of sorts, where I spotted Androssi in a bikini walking away from some reporters chasing after her.

Below that, Viole was walking with his whole FUG team behind him at one edge of the pool. They weren't in pool clothes, and one guy was still carrying around a huge scythe. Everyone else gave them a wide berth as it wasn't clear whether they were here to have fun or carry on with their terrorist activities.

I walked forward towards them since they were between me and Ship Leesoo on the other side of the pool, who was laying back on a beach chair besides Laure, who in turn was sleeping as usual on his blanket.

Viole's group stopped while Viole just looked around, probably just watching everyone have fun and thinking about whether it would be too awkward to get his "team" to join in on it rather than act like a gang following their leader.

It was not to be, however, as Khun Ran and Novick, captured from the Arlen's Hand incident with Khun Aguero Agnis, were being kept closely in the center of their formation as the FUG group's prisoners and reluctant teammates.

I should point out here that Khun Ran and Novick had gone with Aguero Agnis back then because they were the strongest members of that team. Khun Ran especially, was A.A.'s genius cousin even younger than him and looked like a preteen, but was absolutely at the peak of E-Rank.

Meanwhile, Novick was from a branch of the Ha Family, so like Ha Jinsung, he too specialized in unarmed martial arts.

As I walked, nobody seemed to recognize me yet, probably because I hadn't appeared in public in this identity for years and I wasn't wearing the usual crystalline armor that I used to.

Then, as I approached Viole's group, the bunny-eared girl's eyes squinted at me before widening and bringing out a Lighthouse Cube, typing, and rapidly looking between me and whatever was on her Lighthouse screen.

I smirked knowingly at her, and then she grabbed the scythe-wielding masked guy's arm to whisper and point at me.

Her other teammates stopped as well to listen to her. Viole was the last, and when he heard whatever Xia Xia was saying, he quickly turned to me.

Cassano and Horyang moved in front, serving as the big and tall bodyguards on Viole's left and right.

O O O

[Interlude]

As the lone man stopped quietly in front of the FUG group, some of the nearest Regulars realized that something unusual was happening.

More and more eyes turned in that direction, and it wasn't long until Ship saw it, recognizing Axion at once.

Above, Androssi and the reporter looked down towards the scene as well.

"Who is this man staring down the Slayer Candidate all of a sudden?" The reporter asked. He turned to his film crew. "Hey, make sure you're capturing this!"

"Jyu Viole Grace…" said Axion slowly, with a challenging smirk. "I've heard quite a few interesting things about you."

"You shouldn't believe everything you hear," said Viole simply.

"Of course, I don't. But since you're in front of me now, I might as well ask you directly, hm? Did you really kill Khun Aguero Agnis?" asked Axion.

Viole's eyes were hidden beneath his hair so the onlookers could not see his expression.

"Yes. I did," he said.

"Why?"

"Because…he was a son of Khun. And I am a Slayer," said Viole.

Xia Xia jumped forward. "That's right! Our Lord Jyu Viole Grace is the man who will become our God! He wanted to eliminate the Regulars who could become his future enemies, the most outstanding Regulars! That's why he killed Khun Aguero Agnis!" She shouted, describing her fabricated version of the events at the Arlen's Hand incident.

"The most outstanding Regulars? Does that include me?" asked Axion with an amused look.

"If you dare to stand in God's way, then you too shall be eliminated!" Xia Xia exclaimed.

"Alright. I seem to be standing in your way right now, Jyu Viole Grace. Are you going to try to kill me too?"

Axion stood there imperiously, placing his hands into his pockets.

"Mr. Axion. I have no quarrel with you. You're not a member of a Great Family or the Zahard Family," said Viole quickly before Xia Xia could respond for him.

"Did Jyu Viole Grace just call that man Axion? Princess Androssi, is he right? Is he truly Axion?!" The reporter on the balcony asked.

"He is," said Androssi.

"Oh, so you did recognize me after all? Hahaha, I'm flattered. I thought everyone had forgotten about me…" said Axion.

"Isn't this shocking? How are you feeling about your former teammate's sudden reappearance here?!" The reporter asked Androssi.

"I already knew he'd be here."

"Does that mean you were in contact before?"

"No comment."

"…but did you know that I was in the same cohort on the Floor of Tests as Khun Aguero Agnis?" asked Axion. "You could say he was my teammate, for a while."

"Do you also want revenge then?" Viole asked.

"You don't stand a chance against our Lord Jyu Viole Grace!" Xia Xia shouted. "You aren't even among the top 5 E-Rank Regulars anymore, after going missing for so long!"

"If I wanted revenge, it ought to be proportional, right? Since you killed a teammate of mine, perhaps I should kill a teammate of yours. Like the bunny girl over there," said Axion. "She's even a Lightbearer too. What a conveniently fair exchange."

"Wh-what?! Lord Viole, you'll protect me, right?!" Xia Xia took a couple of steps back.

"I can't let you kill her, Mr. Axion," said Viole.

"Just kidding. I don't care about revenge, nor do I believe that you managed to kill Aguero Agnis, not until I see a body. But you seem powerful enough to do it, I'll give you that, and your team is impressive. Maybe this Workshop Battle will finally give me a challenge," said Axion, as he stepped around to the group's right.

"It may be unwise of you to underestimate this team," said Horyang quietly, a contemplative expression on his face as Axion passed by him.

"Is that so? Thank you for the advice, teddy bear. See you around, FUGs," Axion said with a wave.

"Let's go," said Viole, leading the group away in the opposite direction after it became clear that the confrontation was over.

"Incredible! What a tense standoff. Such powerful aura from both sides! Now that Axion has returned, are you going to work together with him to defeat Jyu Viole Grace and his FUG team, princess?" The reporter asked, pushing the mic towards Androssi again.

"Didn't I say the interview was over already? Bye," said Androssi, ignoring him and walking away.

O O O

"That sounds dangerous," said Axion, sitting across from Ship. After the initial greetings with the members of the team that were at the pool, Ship and Axion moved away to discuss more serious matters over some drinks.

"Yeah. It doesn't make sense, Verdi caught him with the Shinsoo suppression trap, and it definitely worked. He was clearly unable to handle Aleksai without his Shinsoo, but all of a sudden, the red light came out and it was over," said Ship, shaking his head. "It must be some kind of power up that he can't use that much, because he didn't try to press the advantage, and negotiated with us instead."

"Probably something similar to the Devils, but maybe it's a strain to use and he isn't used to it yet" said Axion, hand on his chin as if in thought.

"It does seem pretty similar. And Hatsu's sword was broken by Beniamino Cassano. He's pretty upset, he wants to repair it but…I told him to get a new one. He should be at the item store right now."

"I could give him a basic sword made of my standard cellulose crystal until he finds a good replacement."

"That would be a good backup. Emily seems to have an idea for him though, so hopefully he can get something good before we have to battle tomorrow."

Axion nodded. Then Ship gestured towards him.

"And how have you been doing all these years? It's been so long since we saw you in person and not as Axie or on the TV. You're not even wearing the armor anymore. Changed your fighting style?" Ship asked.

"You could say that," Axion said, smiling. "I learned a lot of new tricks, and the armor isn't as useful anymore. Of course, I also didn't want all the attention from the armor being recognizable, so I couldn't keep that habit if I wanted my peace. I think I spent the last four years well, all things considered. It gave me the chance to explore a number of ideas I had, round out my skills, and see more of the Tower."

"New tricks huh? You going to tell me?"

"And ruin the surprise? You'll find out soon enough. But for your planning purposes, just know that I've kept up my Lightbearer training, and significantly improved my Anima skills. Not only can I control some normal Shinheuh now, I also have a special one that's quite powerful. Derf here has learned some new skills too," said Axion, holding his right hand up at the end to show his bracelet where a miniaturized Derflinger dangled.

"I can see that. Being able to Compress to that size is really useful. That could easily take an enemy by surprise because you can hide him anywhere," Ship observed. "Nobody would even know you're a swordsman unless they recognized you."

"Hohoho, I can do a lot more than just become smaller now, but you won't see me bragging," said Derflinger, his voice sounding a lot squeakier now in this form.

"I can't wait to see you guys in action again," said Ship.

"You and me both," said Derflinger. "I need some excitement before I start sleeping away entire days."

O O O

35F Train City Central, 2F Residence

"Today is the day the Hell Train departs!" Darul said loudly from beside me while the rest of the team stood at attention facing us.

"Let me explain our strategy. There are two ways to get to the 6F Skyscraper Platform to board the Hell Train. One is to take the special VIP elevator on the 5F Control Room floor, but that's only available for high class ticket holders who register with the administrators. We don't have a high class ticket number right now so we can't do that, unless we find and defeat a high class ticket holder on the way. The other way is to use the regular platform, which is on 1F."

He used his Lighthouse screen to display the known structure and paths of Central Station.

"Each elevator only goes up or down one floor at a time, so we need to fight our way through to the elevators on each floor to get to the section that leads to the boarding entrance. The elevator that leads to the 1F entrance platform is in a separate section of this 2F, which we can't reach directly from this residence area. That means we need to fight our way up to the 4F stadium, then down again, and every other ticket holder will be doing the same, as will those still looking for a ticket. When we exit our room, we will need to be prepared for immediate battle, because there will probably be ambushers outside. While making our way to the Hell Train, we will collect 1 more ticket so that there are enough for all of us, but our priority will be getting to the 6F Skyscraper platform first. Any questions?"

Darul looked through the team and they all shook their heads. He raised a fist into the air. "Good. Today, with the power granted to us by lady Sasha, we will finally board the Hell Train! Let's move out!"

The team cheered, raising their weapons into the air, and then we exited the room.

After walking a short distance to the gate that was guarded by a patrol bot, we could see Regulars standing in wait at the open space beyond.

In the distance many more Regulars could be seen, some in active combat, and other rooms in the distance with their teams similarly exiting.

I released the trio of wolf, bear, and beetle Beastionts from before, and had them take the vanguard to charge out the gates with mighty roars and howls.

The Regulars who were standing outside our gates shuffled backwards in a panic.

"Ahh!!! Please wait! Lady Sasha, we are here to join you!" Someone shouted. "Please let us become your subordinates!"

"Huh?"

O O O

 

[Eiri Fllyn]

75 – Boarding 3

35F Train City

After the Regulars at the gate were captured and interrogated, the situation became clear.

"Lady Sasha, it appears that people have taken note of our recent battles and team's rapid growth in strength. With these rumors spreading, I would not be surprised to see many more of these types hoping to curry favor with a new powerful force," said Darul afterwards. "What should we do?"

"I'm neither a charity nor looking to gather a larger group. Anyone who wants to join better bring their own tickets and something of value to contribute. These have neither, so there's no point in letting them join us."

"Understood," Darul said. He turned to the bound up Regulars. "You heard the lady. We have no need for you. Do not attempt to follow us."

We left and began moving towards the path to the elevator.

Contrary to expectations, nobody attacked us, and instead gave us a wide berth, so we got to the elevator without any trouble.

The 3F Restaurant floor passages had few Regulars and was also largely peaceful. This floor had a lot more patrol bots to prevent damage to the shops and eateries.

When we got to the 4F stadium floor, though, it was chaos.

Fights were happening all across the stadiums and even on the galleries. This floor was normally used by the administrators to host events for Regulars to compete for tickets legally throughout the year, or for concerts and other entertainment.

Now it was simply a huge free for all.

That was to be expected though, since there was only one elevator that went down to the entrance section, and it was at the opposite end of the stadium from the elevators that went between the 3F commercial area where we came from.

Other corridors had elevators of their own, from which new teams were coming up, and all led to the central stadium area.

"Get in formation!" Darul yelled.

Our Fishermen took their places behind my wolf and bear monster Beastionts, spearbearers behind them partnered with the two scouts towards the left and right, while the beetle brought up the rear.

Darul and I were at the center, and I rode my tiger Beastiont at normal size while Darul remained on foot with his Light Cubes spread around.

We charged through the stadium area while trying to avoid the other teams and ongoing combat.

This time we weren't left alone.

Spears shot at us from a distance as the opening move for a team which attacked us from the left flank.

We dodged or parried the raining spears.

"Keep the front guarded, there's an ambush team coming from the elevator!" Darul ordered as our team turned to engage the flankers.

Then he ordered the Fishermen to counterattack the left, and one spearbearer-scout combo to standby while the other supported.

I left the two monster Beastionts in the front to defend at first and let Darul command the battle, observing how the team fared with the spell crests I'd given them yesterday.

When they clashed with their opponents, their advantage was immediately obvious. It took only a few short exchanges to overpower the other side, much to their own obvious glee.

"Ahahaha! That's right, I'm one of the elite now you bastards!!" One of them shouted manically and charged forward into the heart of the enemy formation after taking down the first opponent.

My lips curled up at the sight of it. To be so excited by a little buff like that. Well, I couldn't blame them. I more than doubled their strength and speed overnight, and now they were above the average Regulars around here after having struggled for years before to make tiny gains with grueling training.

Darul yelled at him to not get cocky through his Pocket connection before ordering the rest of the team to support the assault.

In reality, he was still far from being among the elite. The teams that were attacking us now were obviously in need of more tickets and therefore not an elite team.

The best teams were likely already ahead, possibly waiting at the boarding platform already, and among those, the ones I considered elite could wreck entire teams of this level by themselves.

That was why I had to transfer some items and units over to my Axion avatar, even among the elite E-Rank, there were a number of threats that might be too much for the Avatar to handle with its own stats even while fully buffed.

While Team Darul cleaned up on the flank, the ambush team coming from the front arrived throwing Shinsoo bombs at my Beastionts.

My bear roared and got up in front to just tank them directly while the wolf ran forward around them.

After the bombs went off, my bear was revealed to have only slightly singed fur, to the opposing team's shock.

They had no time to stay stunned though as the wolf swept through and trampled two of their frontline fighters and chomped down on a third before throwing him into the air.

"Your Shinheuh are truly incredible, lady Sasha," said Darul, observing the proceedings.

Once the bear joined the fight in earnest, their team was simply destroyed without even getting close to us.

"This is nothing, they're not even fighting at full power yet," I said. "The enemy is just weak."

"…it seems that everyone is weak in front of your overwhelming strength," said Darul.

"Flattery is unnecessary, Darul. I'm sure you've seen stronger Regulars before, this isn't the time to be impressed yet."

"Of course, my apologies."

These monster-type Beastionts all incorporated superior biologies fit for specific combat roles. Like the Armoriont their skin was like tank armor and they had a lot more of it, being many times larger than a normal Earth animal.

The base strength of the bear was about six times higher than a world champion human, even while being a balanced all-round unit with a lot of biomass devoted to defense and survivability.

That base strength was already on par with the Reinforced Regulars on my team, and then they had their own Reinforcement that almost tripled it, which the Beastionts hadn't activated yet.

The wolf was built for speed, riding, and group fights that last a long time rather than maximizing attack power.

My tiger, while superficially similar in shape to the wolf was, like actual tigers, specialized in instantly ending single combat duels with a savage attack, thus serving as a great personal ride for a VIP like me.

The beetle was mostly good for being heavily armored and flying stably to carry a large group over short distances.

I had some other models, but the point was that they were all strong, stronger than I could even buff my main body since their base stats were so high with the extra biomass. In fact, in their specific combat roles they all edged out Axie, which used the Rhyme dragon template. That one was just the best all-around flying fighter, but due to it not possessing its magical traits from FoZ, it was inferior on basic stats compared to the heavy ground units.

They had little use back on Worm due to the size limit of our portals, and Taylor being unable to directly control the ones that weren't bugs, but in my hands now with my spells, they were much more useful.

As we continued moving forward, a beam of Shinsoo came towards me.

Darul reacted quickly and blocked it with a Lighthouse barrier.

"Everyone, aim for the Anima!" A voice shouted from the right. It seemed to be one of the teams fighting at the center of the stadium who had won their bout with whomever else they fought.

"A Wave Controller! Protect Lady Sasha!" Darul shouted as the new team rushed towards us.

Our Spearbearers returned fire with the Scouts helping to target.

An enemy Fisherman charged right in and attacked the closest Spearbearer and Scout at the same time, apparently good enough to match them both even with Reinforcement.

Another one came towards me, and while the Wave Controller continued suppressive fire to prevent our own Fishermen from getting back into our formation and keep Darul busy with his barrier. He valiantly tried to block the Fisherman in melee at the same time but didn't look like he would succeed.

I glanced at my Beastionts who were not coming after I mentally sent the order, surprised to see that they had Light Cubes around them emitting Shinsoo pressure fields making it difficult to move.

That was an unfortunate weakness of these Beastionts…the enemy team had lucked out or figured it out somehow, my Beastionts had terrible Shinsoo resistance so minimally raising the Shinsoo pressure could become quite crippling regardless of their physical stats.

Just then,

"Now's our chance, get her!"

I honed in on the enemy commander momentarily, a woman with very short blonde hair in a gold dress, carrying what seemed to be a Shinsoo wand to help her with the beam attacks.

And then the Fisherman got around Darul to attack me directly, his fist enveloped in a glow that indicated he was proficient in Shinsoo for close combat.

Another streak of light, actually a powered spear this time, also came towards me from a different angle.

This team wasn't bad at all, good tactics and their members were all individually quite good, worthy of being ticket holders.

Just as the Fisherman and the spear attack were about to hit me, my tiger lunged while decompressing to its true size as a monster-type Beastiont, and tackled the Fisherman to the ground, pinning him with one paw.

The spear flew by me harmlessly once we moved.

"Shit! Stop that Shinheuh with a control field!" The commanding woman shouted.

"I don't have any more Cubes!" Their Lightbearer protested.

"Me neither!" Said their other Lightbearer.

I smirked at them. "An admirable effort. But not nearly enough."

One Fishermen finally rejoined our side and pushed back the other Fisherman that was troubling our Spearbearer and Scout. The other one had gotten hit by a Shinsoo beam and might be out of action for a while.

Now we had the numbers advantage and could push a counterattack.

"Look, I told you, they're too strong, all of you need to team up with us to take them down!" The enemy commander shouted in a different direction.


"Fine! We'll do it your way!"

And several other groups started coming towards us, one from behind and the other diagonally between the other two groups.

"Lady Sasha, there's too many of them! We can't defeat them all, you should make a break for the elevator!" Darul exclaimed. "We'll cover your back!"

"No need for that, go pick up Fisherman 2 and see if he needs treatment. I will handle this," I said.

He looked taken aback for a moment before nodding and moving. "Understood."

Next, I materialized my Arms Inventory, and opened another capsule.

From them emerged three more wolf monsters that immediately charged towards the team that was suppressing my other Beastionts.

They howled as Reinforcement activated.

"Ahhh!" The enemy Lightbearers screamed as the wolves crossed the distance in seconds and tackled them.

They shrugged off the enemy spearbearers and wave controller's attacks like nothing, and quickly disabled the Lightbearers.

Their Shinsoo fields were released, and I set the rest of my Beastionts on the enemies.

The beetle, being the closest one that was still positioned at our rear, turned towards the incoming new groups and opened fire.

An explosion of liquid burst forth, raining burning acid and blocking their advance as several of them screamed after getting hit.

My first wolf and the bear came back, the bear took a guarding stance to cover the Regulars on my team, while the wolf joined its brethren.

While there was no hard limit on the number of Beastionts I could have, I was in practice limited by how many I could coordinate, their upkeep since they still needed to be fed from time to time, and the capacity of my Bowls.

I could only effectively coordinate 3 units at a time, but the wolf packs could best coordinate among themselves, so they were the ones I relied on in a numbers contest. And that was why I opted for specialized roles so that they could react even if I didn't successfully give any direct orders in time.

Because I fought through five Irregular tests on my own this year and had to prepare for this Hell Train adventure, I substantially expanded my forces during that time.

One of the Challenge tests also randomly awarded me new Bowls in my preferred ball capsule style, which helped a lot.

It didn't take long before all the opposing forces were defeated. I left them mostly alive if heavily wounded, as I had nothing to gain from killing them, and no idea if any of these people might be plot-related. The wave controller team felt vaguely familiar.

My Beastionts returned after the wolves howled in victory, then our team went to loot tickets from the defeated.

Everyone in the team was still in silent shock even as we moved towards the elevator again, bereft of any more opposition, and having acquired four new tickets, bringing our total to eleven.

"I see now what you meant before lady Sasha. To think that you were still holding back…this level of strength does make the previous victories look unimpressive," said Darul. "Forgive me for asking, but why do you even need a mediocre team like us? Rather than serving you, it feels as if you are the one helping us."

"It's fine. Does everyone else feel that way too?" I asked, looking around and getting nods in return.

"Of course, I understand why. The truth is, I don't really need you guys. I told you when we first met, didn't I? I wanted some meat shields to deal with trash that bothered me, preferably ones that could think for themselves so I wouldn't have to spend energy commanding them. That's the reason. Isn't it annoying to swat flies all the time? You're doing a good job, by the way."

"I see. Then, we will continue to serve you to the best of our abilities," said Darul, receiving a bunch of affirmations from the team.

From the elevator down to the 1F entrance platform, we didn't meet any more teams, though there were many signs of battle along the way.

At the entrance platform, we saw the gate was open. Previously, an extremely powerful train guardian called Mirotic would be camped here, preventing Regulars from trying to board before the departure date, but today it was gone with the gate opening up.

Beyond the gate was a spiraling staircase that went upwards.

A flying bird machine greeted us and told us to follow it to the Train platform as it started flying up slowly.

Instead of walking up the staircase, I put most of the monster Beastionts back in their Bowls, except the beetle, and my personal bodyguards.

Then we rode the beetle as it flew up through the hollow center of the staircase.

Seeing that we were moving quickly, the bird machine also sped up and took the straight center path instead.

When we finally reached the top, the Hell Train came into view.

A gargantuan structure that dwarfed the Workshop's Archimedes floating ship many times over.

It also floated high in the air, and had a single glowing cabin entrance, and floating stairs that led to it from the Skyscraper platform. Other compartment entrances were closed.

The Skyscraper platform itself was empty. It seemed that other ticketers who got here ahead of us had already boarded.

"We're really going on the Hell Train!" Exclaimed Fisherman 2.

"A-amazing! It's so…huge!" said Maid.

"Don't get too excited, the toughest part is ahead," said Darul. "Everyone on that Train is among the elite, and the tests are no joke either."

"That's right. From here on, we will be taking the tests on the Train itself for each Floor and there's no room for failure or trying again, you'll just be forced off," I said. "Let me say this clearly so there are no misunderstandings. I have certain objectives on the Hell Train so I will be getting off before the Last Station and you'll all be free to leave then. Many of the enemies and tests on the Train are extremely dangerous. I will handle the most dangerous threats, so as long as you're with me, you'll be able to go much farther than you would on your own. Your job is simply to stop other Regulars and lower level enemies from interfering with me."

"Yes, ma'am!"

O O O

30F Archimedes

I was introduced to the newer members of Ship's team not long after we finished our discussion.

Of course, I already knew them through controlling Axie on the team and participating in all the tests together, but it was the first time we'd met in person.

Verdi, their Anima who looked like a young girl in her early teens, had been recruited by the time Androssi joined up on the 25th​ Floor, and didn't seem to look any different or older. She was eager to show me the new playmates she captured during the previous phase of the Workshop Battle—Prince and Miseng from the Sweet and Sour team.

Obviously I pretended not to know these two and they had enough wits about them to do the same. They would be fine anyways, and would even benefit from the experience, as Verdi had a technique she called "Doll Making" which would significantly enhance somebody's Shinsoo power by wearing one of her specially grown flowers.

All in all, Verdi was quite an impressive addition to the team, and her ability as an Anima could be considered to be superior to my own, even though I had the water spirits to help me. I had even learned a few things about being a normal Anima from her in exchange for letting her put a flower on Axie, which ended up doing nothing, to our mutual disappointment.

Vespa, the very short part-bee species member of the team, was moody and not too interested in talking much.

She was probably among the weaker members of the team albeit very fast as a natural flier, though Ship himself was almost certainly the weakest, in terms of direct combat potential. Both were scouts though, so they didn't need to be strong, merely used strategically.

O O O

In the evening, I met Androssi in her luxuriously huge solo suite, which was supposedly assigned to her because she found Bong Bong, but probably just VIP treatment because she was a Princess.

"Baam certainly seems different. But also still the same. As if they couldn't change him in spite of everything that happened. Still getting attached so easily to anyone by his side," said Androssi. "Though he is a lot stronger now."

She laid on a reclining beach chair at the open half-circle terrace serving as the balcony of her suite, looking up at the fake sky.

"He certainly is. And if all goes well, he'll get something that will accelerate his growth to incredible levels at the end of the Workshop Battle," I said, standing beside her, cycling mana and personally assisting the Spirit Cluster Core in converting Shinsoo to help refill what I'd used for controlling my Avatar and all my familiars during the bullet game.

"The long hair doesn't suit him though. Hiding his eyes like that, it makes him look dangerous and tragic."

"He's playing the role well," I said.

"I think it suits him pretty well. Since he is dangerous and tragic right now," said Derf, now normal sized and floating in the air. "Could wear more black and gothic though."

"You know about gothic styles?" I asked.

"Sure. It's made the rounds a few times over the millennia, but usually far away from Gotha, go figure. Why the last time it became trendy again was only a hundred years ago, in east Gallia," said Derf.

"Well I don't like it. He was much cuter with those big innocent eyes and naïve looking face," said Androssi with a sigh. "But never mind that. Why are there so many prisoners and intruders on this ship? I saw a whole hall full of them earlier. The one I captured said Emily is an actual person trapped on this ship and he's trying to save her."

"Isn't it obvious? All of them are trying to save Emily." I said.

"Really? So she's just leading all of them on at once? That's impressive," said Androssi. "She might have more fans than me."

I shrugged. "There are lots of lonely people. You know how the Tower is. Not many can claim to have real friends, and Emily is the only one they can talk to, who won't stab them in the back in the next test."

"Yet she led them all here to get caught," said Androssi.

"Or on a futile mission to save her," said Derf. "She could be telling the truth. A maiden locked in a tower, a desperate cry for help, to anyone who'd listen!"

"Uh huh. Do you really think she's real?"

"She is. And she does need saving," I said.

"What, seriously?"

"She's a Living Ignition Weapon, just like the two Devils. Just like Baam too. Except, she's already been melted down and has no body anymore. She was the test case for what the other FUG faction wants to do with Baam," I said.

"A test case? They're trying to melt him down too? Do we need to get involved in this then?" Androssi asked.

"Not for Emily no. A certain person has that part covered already," I said. "But I do have an interest in their research data, and depending on how things go, we may need to act to stop them from doing it to Baam during the Workshop Battle."

"A certain person? Who?"

"Oh you know. That person, of course," said Derf.

"I don't. I bet you don't either," said Androssi.

"I ain't taking that bet," said Derf.

"You do know this person, in fact," I said. "Our mutual acquaintance. Who probably taught Emily how to get all these guys to go on a suicide mission to chase after her."

Androssi's face was only confused for a short moment before she sprang up into a sitting position with a sharp look at me.

"No way."

"Yes way," said Derf.

"It can't be who I'm thinking of right now."

"Why not?" I asked.

"Rachel?"

I nodded.

"Okay…I really shouldn't be surprised. Have you been in contact with her this whole time?"

"Occasionally. We had a call a couple of months ago."

"Is she here?" Androssi looked troubled at the thought.

"No. She sent someone in her stead."

Androssi snorted. "Of course she sent somebody instead of showing up herself. Is she still pretending to be crippled?"

"I don't think so. She should be focused on gathering new members for her team right now, after escaping from Khun."

"Hm…" Androssi laid back down. "Why is she even trying to save Emily?"

"Who knows?" I said, shrugging. "She didn't tell me. Maybe she feels sympathetic, towards a fellow girl that feels powerless, who doesn't even have a body anymore. Or maybe it's just because Emily is actually quite powerful, as an entity that can coordinate people on a massive scale. There is also what would happen if she were to Ignite for Rachel, but I have no idea what the result would be."

"Is there a reason Emily brought over all these intruders then?"

"A distraction at the right time, maybe," I said, contemplatively. "I could probably use that chance to break in to steal some of their research data, if something like that happens. Though extracting the relevant data in a useful form is still a problem."

In the original story, I only remembered that the prisoners were released and caused some problems for the hosts during the final round of the Workshop Battle. However, it wasn't anyone from Rachel's group that released them, so it might not have been part of the plan, unless Emily predicted or instigated it somehow.

"Well, whatever. Sounds like I don't need to care about this."

"Yaawwn. I stopped caring 10 minutes ago," said Derf. "What were we talking about?"

"Go back to sleep, you layabout," said Androssi.

"Says the girl actually laying about," said Derf. "I'm only doing nothing because I got nobody to fight. I'm a sword, that's all I need to do. But my partner barely uses me now, preferring to use all his other new fancy shmancy skills first."

"This is aromatherapy, for your information. And I can put you to work. Come here," said Androssi, grabbing onto Derf's handle and then pouring a large amount of oils onto his blade.

"Woah woah, what are you doing? That is not the right way to do maintenance!" Derf protested. "What is this stuff, it's going to dull my edge! Stop at once!"

"Good, because I don't want to cut myself," said Androssi, before starting to slather the oil on her legs, using the sword for reach so that she didn't have to sit up to do it.

"Oooh. I take that back. Yes, this is fine. Please continue rubbing me against your legs. How about you unsheathe my outer layer so I can soften up for you?" asked Derf.

"Shut up, or I'll stop."

"Yes, ma'am!"

O O O

 

[Eiri Fllyn]

76 – Foes at the Entrance

30F Archimedes

At night, my shifter Beastiont, taking the outer appearance of a low level Tower Shinheuh with wing-like fins, flew stealthily into the Acorn Workshop, following a little ways behind Hatsu, who was himself stealthily following after Cassano and Horyang after they opened the door.

My Beastiont had some minor camouflage capability but could still be seen quite easily, so it had to rely on hiding in the shadows.

The door of the Acorn Workshop opened into stairs descending into another barely lit corridor.

Once Cassano opened the next door, light spilled out from the room that was mostly decorated in white as stereotypical lab rooms were.

"Ilmar?" There was a woman's voice, and then Horyang rushed in excitedly after hearing his old name.

Hatsu sneaked beside the door to spy but my Beastiont was forced to stay back further away.

Just then, another voice came from inside the corridor.

"Hey, it's a peeping tom," the boyish voice said. "Having fun?"

"Who's there?!" Hatsu whirled around, hand going to his empty side, only to realize he didn't have his sword anymore since Cassano broke it in the bullet game.

"What? Wanna play with me?" The voice asked eagerly.

Cassano heard the commotion and came out, recognizing Hatsu at once.

He quickly subdued the weaponless Hatsu.

My Beastiont stayed out of sight until the group dragged Hatsu into the lab room. They didn't close the door behind them.

Sneaking closer, I used the moment when their backs were turned while Cassano threw Hatsu into a side room to speed under a desk with some things that could provide cover.

"Ms Sophia…who is this kid?" Cassano asked.

"Oh, say hi! This is Beta," said the woman, who was the researcher that took care of them during the experiment.

"I'm not interested in halves," said Beta. The teen-looking boy in a blue hoodie with his left arm attached to a movable intravenous drip stand.

After the boy walked off and left the room, Sophia spoke. "He's only been living in the lab…and he's a bit shy. He's your 'brother'. Come, I'll show you my research."

Sophia began to lead them out of the room and down the corridor as well. I remained in the room until the door closed, then came out to get a closer look around.

Suddenly the door opened again, and a large yellow arm made of some sort of Shinsoo tried to grab onto my Beastiont, but I reacted fast enough to flap away and it barely missed.

"Heh, so I was right, another peeping tom," said Beta, now without his IV drip. "Did you think I didn't notice? I was just waiting for them to go away so we could play properly. What are you supposed to be?"

I didn't answer, but stared him down, contemplating what to do.

The point of this had been to do some quiet reconnaissance so that by the time I actually broke in, I'd know where to find things, but being discovered meant that I couldn't really do that anymore.

This room seemed to have only one exit and he was blocking the way. I could also try to free Hatsu, but he wouldn't be particularly useful without a sword since his hand-to-hand was underwhelming.

"Can't talk? Or don't want to? I don't think you're a random Shinheuh that found its way here. Where's your master?" Beta asked.

"Too far away for you to play with. But I suppose I wouldn't mind having some fun with you," I said through the Beastiont. "You must be bored being stuck here."

"Oh, so you can talk after all. Interesting. Is that common for Shinheuh? I haven't really seen many."

"No. Most are dumb and just growl, hiss or roar."

"I'll take your word for it. So, let's fight," Beta grinned.

"Aren't you going to get in trouble if you fight here? It looks like there might be important stuff here we shouldn't break."

"Maybe," Beta said, shrugging. "I don't care."

Then he attacked without warning, another enlarged yellow hand reaching out.

The Beastiont was too slow in its Compressed form to dodge, and his hand was closing in around me.

So then I triggered the Decompression, and smacked away his hand with a tailwhip, before spitting a stream of acid towards him.

He retracted the Shinsoo hand to use it as a shield, then I used the opportunity to shapeshift.

Discarding the Shinheuh disguise, the Beastiont grew arms and legs while its torso condensed, turning into a more draconic figure.

With a push of its legs and a flap of its wings, the Beastiont shot forward to tackle Beta through the open door that he was blocking.

We smashed into the wall on the opposite side of the corridor, then Beta twisted around and threw the Beastiont off.

What followed was a simple physical wrestling match as we tackled, swiped, and tumbled around the tight corridor. Beta was quite strong and could probably overpower this Beastiont easily but he wasn't taking it seriously, merely laughing.

It wasn't long before the guards came out of an elevator down the hall, followed by Sophia and the two Arm Devils.

However, by then, my Beastiont had unleashed a large amount of smoke from various holes in its body, filling the already dark hall to obstruct visibility.

It pushed away from Beta while transforming its body again back to the Shinheuh and making a fast escape up the stairs, ejecting slippery fluids to cover the ground behind it.

They did not give chase beyond the main door, so I had it Compress again and find another hiding place on the 3rd​ floor of the Archimedes, to wait until there was another chance to infiltrate or back me up when I chose to break in for real.

O O O

35F Hell Train

"Welcome, newbies," someone said, from a large crowd of people standing in a loose semi-circle facing us.

One Regular in particular stood out, towering over everyone else by a huge margin, standing at the center behind a core group of followers.

Several other groups were spread out to the sides, ranging from two to five each. Apparently our group had the most numbers, at least if we compared each one separately. But it looked like they might all be allied.

All in all, there seemed to be around thirty boarders besides us.

"That's Aka Williams," said Darul, gesturing to the huge guy at the center. "They say that newcomers have to become his subordinate after getting on the Hell Train, or die."

"That's right. Our Scouts watched you guys fight down there. Very impressive for newbies, but now that you've made it on this Train, you should learn your limits," said one guy with brown shaven hair walking forward. "Join us and follow Sir Aka, we can fight through the Hell Train together. Everyone else here has already agreed. It'll be dangerous for you otherwise."

"Hmm…I'm not interested," I said. "Please stand aside."

When there was no movement from the other side, Darul took my cue and followed up. "Don't you people have any shame? Bullying newcomers like this and forcing them to join your group every year. And you still can't make it through the tests on your own?"

A different guy in unusual blue skin walked forward, pointing a staff towards us. "You sure have high opinions of yourselves, newbies. But don't get cocky just because you only fought weak ones so far. Especially you, the girl in the cloak. You must be newto the E-Ranks. I'll admit that you're strong for a newcomer, but even if you are from the Lo Po Bia Family, that doesn't mean anything here. I've killed plenty of scions from the Great Families on this Train."

"Who told you I'm from the Lo Po Bia Family? I've never said anything like that," I said.

"What? Aren't you? That's the family with all the Animas," he said.

"There's no relation. Or do you think every Anima is from that Family?"

He shrugged. "Consider it a compliment that we mistook you for one of them considering how good of an Anima you were. But either way it doesn't matter. This isn't a place where you can carelessly show off with just those skills. Take this chance that Sir Aka is offering you and join us. You have good potential, it'd be a pity if you couldn't live to see it blossom."

"Tough talk coming from guys that are hiding behind having a huge group!" Fisherman 1 shouted back angrily. "What kind of skills do you have to compare yourself to Lady Sasha?!"

"Yeah, you don't look so tough!" Maid yelled. "I bet Lady Sasha could defeat you without lifting a finger!"

The blue skinned Regular scoffed. "Is that something the likes of you should be questioning? By the way, our offer is only for her. We have the intel and know that the rest of you wouldn't even be able to get tickets on your own without your precious lady, so we won't even let you join if she doesn't come along. Sir Aka only accepts those who are worthy ticket holders."

"You're all just bootlickers yourself, Sir Aka this, Sir Aka that!" Spearbearer 2 spat. "If you're so confident, how about you show us your skills?"

"Why is it always like this with dumbass newbies?" The brown shaven guy shook his head. "So eager to fight at every chance."

"What? You're the ones threatening to kill us if we don't join you! How the hell are we the ones eager to fight?" Fisherman 2 demanded.

"You're misunderstanding something here…we aren't threatening you and we're not going to kill you. The newcomers who don't join Sir Aka die because they get in over their heads and can't handle the dangers on the Train. This place isn't like the normal tests. You'll be fighting for your lives every single day," said the brown shaven guy.

"Could've fooled me. If you're not threatening us then why are you blocking the road?" Darul asked.

"Enough." Aka Williams' voice rang out. "Sasha, was it? If you are not from a Great Family, that makes your talent even more impressive. But you are making a mistake to challenge the Train brazenly like this. You are acting up because you don't know better, and I can see that you won't budge unless you see for yourself where you truly stand. So, Moontari, show her."

"Are you asking me…?" Moontari turned back to Aka, who nodded. Then Moontari walked closer to our group. "You wanted to see my skills, didn't you? Now you'll get the chance. Come, any of you, or all of you at once."

"Is he fucking serious?" Spearbearer 2 asked. "Just him against all of us?"

"Lady Sasha, shall we take care of him for you?" Darul asked.

"Hmm. Go ahead. This will be a good experience for all of you," I said.

"I see…that means he's truly strong, doesn't it?" Darul asked.

"Haha. Maybe."

…

A few moments later, Team Darul was lying on the ground, defeated and groaning. While Moontari had barely broken a sweat.

"Tch. All you fools seem to have gotten some kind of power up, but your skills are sorely lacking," Moontari said, before pointing his staff at me. "Now, lady Sasha, it's just your Shinheuh left."

"I'm curious now, do you really think you can take on all of my Shinheuh too?" I asked.

"I'll admit, your Shinheuh seem quite strong, and I'm not sure how many you have. That's why we like your potential. But I'm only one member of Sir Aka's team, and Sir Aka's power is far beyond mine. It's a good deal for you to join us," said Moontari.

If the Train wouldn't stop us from all moving together, then going with a strong and experienced team like theirs might not be a bad idea.

However, the problem for me was that I was aiming to find a specific location in the Hell Train, not to pass all the stages or follow the schedule. The fewer eyes that saw where I was going or any of my true power, the better, and in any case, I didn't want to be held back by stragglers in a large group when my time was limited.

"I'm afraid that I have my own reasons for traveling through the Train independently. So I must decline. But, I do find myself curious how my Shinheuh stack up, so I'll entertain you for a little while," I said.

Then I released the four wolves, the bear, and the beetle, all at once.

Moontari took a new fighting stance as my bear advanced alone while the other Beastionts collected Team Darul and I started to heal them of their light bruises.

My bear roared and charged on all fours.

Moontari met the charge head on, and then the bear stopped cold in the middle of its run.

His staff slammed into the bear's head, sending it toppling down.

"Reverse Flow?" I asked aloud. Yes, there was somebody capable of using that around this part of the Tower, I suddenly remembered.

It was a very powerful skill to possess at this level, and with it, he could very well take on all of my Beastionts, depending on just how good he was with it.

"So you recognized it. Yes, this is Fast Skip. And your Shinheuh seem to be weak to Shinsoo control skills, so this looks like a bad matchup for you," Moontari said. "Now, are you starting to understand? You're not that special on this Train. It would be wise for you to learn this early on instead of blindly charging into danger."

I observed that the bear was still stuck in flow paralysis and did not seem to be making any progress whatsoever in getting out of it.

With their awful Shinsoo resistance, this was actually much worse than being trapped in a Lighthouse control field. He could just hit each of my Beastionts one after the other without being limited to a certain area of lock down.

"It's too early for you to assert victory, don't you think? How many times can you use that skill?" I asked, sending out the rest at once with full Reinforcement.

The beetle sprayed him first, while the wolves charged in next.

He jumped and swung his staff, releasing a wave of Shinsoo that blocked any acid that got close to him, then froze one wolf before he landed.

Then he rolled to dodge one wolf's lunge and froze that one again while passing underneath it.

The next two wolves that charged him, he visibly struggled to keep evading and got smacked away flying after a couple of exchanges, but he still successfully froze them both.

Finally, the beetle sprayed at him again just before he landed, and he tipped his staff against the Floor to push off and backflipped aside, leaving the beetle frozen too.

When he finally landed again, he dropped to one knee almost immediately, supporting himself with his staff and panting madly.

I clapped slowly at the scene. "Now that was impressive. Six consecutive uses of Fast Skip, all highly accurate, even after you took a hard hit. If the rest of your team is this good, I can see why all these other Regulars have decided to follow your lead."

"U-unbelievable. Is this what elite ticketers are capable of…?" Fisherman 1 murmured. They were all standing behind me watching.

"Heh, it's not a particularly tiring skill to use, if the opponent has weak Shinsoo. It's more about finesse than power or stamina," said Moontari, getting back up slowly.

"Those Shinheuh are pretty strange, aren't they? Normally if they were that strong, they would have decent resistance to break out of it after a minute at the most. This weakness must be related to how she can control so many abnormally powerful ones," said the brown shaven Regular next to Aka and the rest of their team.

"Everything has a weakness. Even those monsters that seem invincible…" said Aka with an expression that seemed like reminiscing. "There's always a price for power."

"So, what now? You have anything else up your sleeves?" Moontari asked. "Or will you hold out until I take down that big cat of yours too?"

"Again, it's too early for you to assert victory. This is just the entertainment. Rather than asking me, I should be asking you if you have anything else up your sleeves, or are you a one-trick pony?" I asked. "Why didn't you press the attack, isn't it because you exhausted yourself and needed a break?"

His expression soured rapidly. "There's a difference between perseverance and stubbornness, you know? Forgive me if I won't be so nice anymore, lady Sasha!"

He dashed forward with a burst of Shinsoo that cracked the ground, momentarily going almost as fast as my wolves at maximum speed.

This was actually more impressive than it might sound because the speed scaled much worse than strength with bigger body mass and with Reinforcement on larger masses. Part of their superior speed was simply having longer limbs to cross larger distances. But their instantaneous acceleration and short-distance burst or pivot speed was much worse.

This meant that in reality, Moontari's move just now actually significantly outclassing my Beastionts in agility yet nearly reaching their maximum speed in a fully accelerated run with prior momentum.

That was part of the reason he'd managed to skillfully evade the wolves' attack earlier, even before using such a strong Shinsoo burst step.

My tiger steed got frozen but I remained seated, unperturbed as Moontari's staff came swinging down after he jumped onto the tiger's head to reach me.

My snake suddenly tore out of my cloak from my neck and Decompressed itself, elongating forward.

"Hsss!" It tackled and wrapped around Moontari's arm and upper chest even as he reacted instantly to freeze it just before it managed to bite his neck with fangs full of venom.

He struggled for a bit with his momentum stopped, and movements constricted, while I sent my own Shinsoo into the snake whose lower half was still wrapped around my body.

Simultaneously a Baang formed in front of him.

I dragged back the upper half of the snake that was gripping onto him, breaking the Fast Skip technique with my own Shinsoo control.

My Baang released its payload and blew him away, while the snake coiled around my neck and above my head.

Three new Light Cubes appeared around me, creating a Shinsoo control field of my own, removing the effects of Reverse Flow and restoring the tiger's ability to move with a growl.

I sent forward and expanded the Light Cube' coverage in order to do the same for the other Beastionts.

The beetle was revived first, shooting sticky goo at Moontari. He managed to roll and dodge that, then freeze it again, but by then the bear was revived and charged him.

"Fuck!" He cursed while panting hard and holding out his left arm to freeze the bear again, his right arm holding the staff in a weak attempt to keep up a stance.

I launched another Baang at him while he was on the verge of collapse, then proceeded to continue unfreezing my Beastionts while he laid flat on the ground, unable to get back up this time.

"It looks like you're done, mister Moontari. A bad matchup, you said? Did you think I had no way of covering for such a blatant weakness? The truth is, this is a bad matchup for you. Against a Regular, your Fast Skip might allow you to easily end the battle in a single strike. But you lack the firepower to actually take advantage and wound my beasts, while each use tires you out much faster than it takes for me to get rid of your technique."

"Haha! Who's cocky now you bastards! Lady Sasha is the greatest after all!" Fisherman 1 shouted.

"Damn it…a Lightbearer and a Wave Controller too? You've got to be kidding me…" Moontari groaned while a couple of his teammates hoisted him back.

"Why is that a surprise? Everyone has at least one of the primary positions, you couldn't possibly have thought I was just an Anima with no other skills? I even had a Light Cube beside me the whole time," I said, referring to the soccer ball sized Cube I kept floating beside me that secretly housed my main body.

"Where in the hell did you come from? There doesn't seem to be any record of you from the E-Ranks or D-Ranks," the bald and scarred member of their team said while having his own Lighthouse in front of him and typing to presumably go through the info on public networks.

"I've no obligation to answer that. Now are you thugs going to stop blocking the way, or will the entertainment continue?" I asked, bringing the rest of my Beastionts back into formation. "Who's next? I'll take any of you, or all of you at once."

There was a tense moment of silence while the faces of the core group around Aka turned ugly after hearing me return Moontari's words.

Some of the other groups had contemplative expressions now too, amidst whispers.

A grey haired man spoke up then, standing alongside two others whose faces had wide eyes that were a little too…awed and probably indicated their own inexperience. "Hey Aka, isn't this enough? This person is obviously not a normal newbie. We're only going to move as one big group for a short while anyways, until new guys come in from the next station. What does it really matter if they want to go off on their own now?"

"Mind your own business Boro. I leave you and your so-called apprentices alone, and how many of them stick around for more than one attempt or even survive?" said Aka. "How long has it been since the last time this kind of new talent appeared? Just letting her go is irresponsible, especially because of those ticketers from higher stations that will prey on the newcomers."

"Sir Aka, this person may have the qualifications to survive on the Hell Train on their own, but I can't stand this level of disrespect for you!" Said a man in a black jacket and sunglasses.

"And just imagine, with the kind of attitude she has, if she doesn't get humbled a little here, she's going to end up provoking and fighting every strong bastard on the way up. Losing to us is better than getting killed or worse," said the brown haired shaven guy.

"I agree," said a woman with long blonde pigtails holding some kind of assault rifle.

"Where did you get the idea that I go around picking fights? What kind of warped rationalization is this? You are the ones blocking my way and forcing a fight," I said.

"That's exactly what I'm talking about. You don't seem to understand, you don't need to pick fights to piss people off. Just acting the way you are right now is enough to get plenty of psychos on your tail for one reason or another," said the shaven guy.

"Somehow I feel like you guys are just being greedy. I always knew you were greedy, Aka, but you might bite off more than you can chew one of these days too," said Boro. Then he turned to his apprentices. "We're leaving now. If we stay here too long we'll have a harder time getting through the night when the monsters spawn."

"Yes, sir."

"Do whatever you want Boro, you'll just come back with a tragic story every year and find new apprentices. But I don't want any more deaths weighing on my heart," said Aka.

Boro sighed and led his group away, onto the road of light that led to the gate to the inner train.

"This is Revolution Road…the same road that Zahard and the Great Warriors took that changed their fates and the fate of the Tower, or so the story goes," said Boro, acting like a tour guide for his apprentices. "But it's more like the road to hell, because that's what's waiting for us ahead."

Most of the onlookers watched them leave quietly, some questioning among themselves if they should follow or wait with the big group, but Aka's core team and I stared each other down.

O O O

 

[Eiri Fllyn]

77 – Elite vs Elite

35F Hell Train

While Boro left and we had a tense standoff, I quickly analyzed the recent battle performance and assessed the enemies arrayed before me. I did not remember or recognize any of their skills from canon, so I had to go off what information I had gathered recently.

First, Moontari was probably among the strongest guys in his team, since Aka was confident in sending him out solo. But that was only because of his skill in Reverse Flow—that was an absolute trump card in fights against most Regulars at this level, and to be able to do it to Ten Family descendants who had higher resistance meant that he had almost nobody to fear.

Yet in terms of sheer firepower he couldn't even really get through my Beastionts' thick skin/armor, being more of a skill type fighter than raw power.

The rest of Aka's team probably had at least one real heavy hitter, and it looked balanced with the bald guy being a Lightbearer and the girl being a ranged shooter filling a Wave Controller role.

I had to assume that the girl's rifle might be dangerous, since those types of weapons were usually more powerful than basic Baangs or even Shinsoo Wands for direct offense.

Aka Williams himself was apparently a melee fighter, but he filled the very rare role of Defender. When I saw this intel before, I had to double take because it was the first time I'd even heard of it. But upon further research, one of the Ten Family Heads, Hendo Lok Bloodmadder was also famously of this role.

Basically it was a frontline tank, and he certainly looked built right for it.

If I wanted, I could probably just break through and escape into the Train by myself, since I doubted any of them could catch up to me with Burstshift and my own defenses against field control techniques.

But I'd have to abandon the team I'd brought, which wouldn't be a huge loss but certainly inconvenient. I intended for them to move around as a decoy of sorts, or to guard my avatar and other things if my attention had to be moved elsewhere.

Going all out revealing my main body was another option, but it wasn't a card I wanted to play until absolutely necessary.

But with my current restraints, this battle would be challenging, despite my outwardly confident demeanor.

It was likely that at least a couple of their team members could directly overpower my Beastionts, while Moontari operating with support from a well coordinated team would be much more dangerous.

The biggest uncertainty was Aka Williams himself. He was likely to be stronger than the top E-Ranks at this point, but exactly what that meant was unclear. Androssi and Viole were the best reference points I had, but my avatars and Beastionts were yet untested against a true elite of that level.

Androssi could easily defeat Axie and likely any of the monster Beastionts regardless of their basic stats. Even if she had lower strength, her skill and damage potential from Shinsoo greatly exceeded the Beastionts, while they couldn't damage her much in return. It was even less of a contest against Viole, whose explosive Shinsoo techniques dealt way more damage than physical blows.

As a Defender, Aka Williams might have comparable defensive prowess to Androssi, but in a support role that seemed well suited to holding a specific location, like the situation now, while his team unloaded on the enemy.

Meanwhile, I couldn't count on much support besides maybe Darul with his Lighthouse. In fact, in this battle they were arguably liabilities since they were outclassed too much.

So I sent a silent message to Darul's Lighthouse in preparation for my strategy.

[Break through with the team when there's an opening. Don't wait for me, take any path] My message displayed in front of him.

[We can't abandon you] He returned

[I can get through whenever I want, but can't take all of you, so you need to go first, I'll catch up] I sent.

[OK]

"It seems you still do not plan to back down, even at the possibility of fighting my whole team," said Aka at last. "You are far too arrogant, so I will make you see reason."

"Do you expect me to be impressed that you're trying to recruit me while having nobody strong enough to defeat me one on one?" I asked.

"This is hardly a one on one. By my count, your team has eight Regulars including yourself, while mine has six. It is your own foolishness that you surround yourself with weaklings who cannot help you," said Aka. "And you're also mistaken. You could not defeat me one on one even if I offered you such a duel. Or would you like to take back your earlier bravado to fight any or all of us, and demand single combat now?"

"I allowed you to provide some entertainment, but now you're simply in the way and wasting my time. If you were fully confident in single combat you would've come forth already. It is because you're uncertain that you would rather pretend that this is still a team fight."

He snorted. "Don't mistake humility for lack of confidence. It's unbecoming of a leader to demonstrate their personal superiority at every opportunity the way you do."

"Enough talk, either get out of the way or fight!"

"So be it! Formation C, do not let her pass!" Aka ordered.

My Beastionts charged forward all at once, including the tiger I rode on.

Two more Light Cubes appeared, bringing my total to 6, including the Control Cube beside me that held my main body, which expanded to human size so that I could use my full Lighthouse skill, since being Compressed reduced it. This was the maximum that I could manipulate with my main body present.

Simultaneously, I, as Sasha, jumped off the tiger onto the main Light Cube, the two new Cubes moving closer in front on either side while the tiger continued forward.

The three other Light Cubes moved with the foremost Beastionts in a wide encirclement, emitting a Shinsoo control field to protect them.

The bald Lightbearer revealed six Light Cubes of his own, three of which were in front of the girl with the rifle. A beam blasted out crossing between the Cubes to be enhanced, striking the wolf at the front of the charge, and toppling it over with the explosion.

I returned fire with the same Lighthouse assist technique, launching a beam from my own Baang, but slower as I was managing both the Baang and Cubes at the same time.

Another three Cubes generated a barrier to block it just before it struck Moontari, whom I'd attempted to take out of the fight while he was still recovering.

Aka Williams stepped forward and took up a strange stance with his arms down as if he was hunching over, then unleashed a fiery aura from each limb before meeting the two other wolves charging in.

He stopped them cold with a double punch that sent them flying back a few steps, but otherwise not terribly damaged, unlike the shooter girl's beam that almost OHKO'ed the first wolf.

That wolf laid on the ground heavily wounded and burnt, regenerating quickly but was incapacitated for a while.

The sunglasses guy and shaven guy both rushed towards me, ignoring the Beastionts in the way. My bear and fourth wolf attempted to intercept, but both were frozen by Moontari for a second. By the time I put my Cubes into position to unfreeze them, another beam from the girl had slammed into the bear and tore a huge hole in its chest.

The other two wolves continued to assault Aka Williams, together with the beetle which spat acid at him, but he held them all off and blew away the acid with his own fiery Shinsoo aura.

The sunglasses guy jumped towards me after getting around the wolf, but got tackled by the tiger.

He fought it off with his Needle momentarily before it got frozen, and then he used the opportunity to stab deeply into the tiger's side, breaking through the skin with a powerful Shinsoo enhancement on his weapon.

Two beams approached the melee combatants from opposite sides.

One from the shooter girl hit the tiger, the other from me hit the sunglasses guy before he could pull out his Needle from the tiger.

My beam was much weaker than the girl's but the sunglasses guy's defense was worse than my tiger's, so they both ended up blown away with serious injuries.

The power of their team formation was quickly proving itself. While Aka Williams defended the front, the Lightbearer defended from attacks that got around Aka, and enhanced the power of the shooter girl's long-range attacks that could take down any unit on my side in a single hit.

The shaven guy had crossed the remaining distance to me after the beetle failed to intercept with sticky goo.

Although I had floated five meters off the ground, he jumped off the ground with Shinsoo and shot a Fisherman reel that rolled around and caught my Cube, allowing him to drag himself towards me.

Meanwhile I saw that the girl was powering up another shot, aimed in my direction and possibly gunning for my Cube.

I couldn't have that, since the Cube was weak and could get destroyed easily revealing my main body.

So I let the Cube fall and Burstshifted after quickly sending a message to Darul from the control panel inside the Lighthouse that I operated with my main body.

The beam came as expected and narrowly missed my Cube, which also forced their Fisherman to fall back down since his reel didn't have a solid hold anymore.

The beetle launched another blast of sticky goo, capturing him in it.

Meanwhile, I sped straight into the heart of their formation.

"…!" They all had expressions of shock upon seeing me fly the distance in an instant and get past Aka before he could turn his attention to me from the wolves he was fighting off.

I dropped a flashbang underneath, then fired two Baangs at close range at the gunner girl and Moontari.

Predictably, Moontari had frozen me with Fast Skip, but my Baangs went off anyways and blasted both of them.

While using two at a time was my avatar's limit and halved the Baangs' power, it was still sufficient to knock them off their feet even if they failed to deal serious damage.

By the time Aka Williams turned around after flinging away the wolves, the flashbang went off and bought me a few seconds to break out of the Fast Skip and regather my Light Cubes towards me that were still trailing far behind. Aka Williams' huge body blocked the flashbang from blinding anyone on the other side of him.

At the same time, Team Darul had started rushing forward on the right side of the room, prepared to go around Aka's blockade.

I ordered my two wolves to disengage from Aka and go to team Darul together with the fourth wolf that was still uninjured, while the beetle spat more globs of sticky goo at Aka Williams from behind while he was blinded.

The bald Lightbearer was the first one to recover and had three of his Cubes create a containment field around me and sent his other three to make a barrier blocking the gate to the inner Train.

However, he miscalculated as the containment field wasn't nearly as effective on my avatar as it was on my Beastionts.

I simply Burstshifted again and struck him with a palm using the Floral Butterfly Piercing Technique.

He failed to dodge completely and blood burst out of his shoulder, then I followed up with a Baang that fired at point blank range.

Engulfed by the blast and likely concussed, his Lighthouse barrier disappeared.

Team Darul had jumped onto the wolves, then Aka Williams charged over with a furious release of Shinsoo, his whole body emitting a powerful heat with his fire aura that got rid of the goo slowing him down.

I Burstshifted again right in front of his face and then my snake Decompressed, launching itself onto his head and wrapping around his neck in a choke before biting hard.

It successfully pierced his defense and drew blood, simultaneously injecting paralytic venom. At this level it wouldn't likely be very effective against him, but simply disrupting and slowing him a bit was all that I needed.

By now the first wolf that got hit by the gunner girl's beam had regenerated to a movable state and was back up, so it charged Aka Williams from behind and bit into his ankle while I retracted the snake.

The beetle picked up the still wounded and incapacitated tiger, while the bear got back up despite still having a hole in its chest that hadn't fully closed.

I dropped some smoke grenades around the gate just as Team Darul crossed through riding the three-wolf pack, then I Burstshifted again to the beetle and tiger, returning them both to their Bowl.

Aka Williams had kicked away the wolf biting his ankle again, and then made a decision and yelled out new orders to his team.

"Ignore the weakling team, let them go and focus on the girl!"

By this point, the Fisherman with brown hair and shaven lines was simply trapped in the sticky goo that'd been sprayed on him, the bald Lightbearer was clearly disoriented when he got back up, and the other three members were similarly in a rough shape. Their other Fisherman with the black jacket had recovered a bit but was bleeding and burnt all across his upper torso after taking my Lighthouse-assisted beam earlier. Moontari and the gunner girl were only bruised, but Moontari was panting in sheer exhaustion and barely standing.

While they tried to recover and regroup to blockade the gate again, nobody attacked me so I returned the wounded bear into its Bowl too, and then also the wolf that Aka had kicked away..

Now the field was cleared of Beastionts except the snake that was still wrapped around my body and the three wolves that had escaped already with the team.

I stood behind a vertical ring of my Light Cubes, giving them an amused smirk. "You all look terrible right now. Still think you can win against me one on one, Sir Aka? It looks like I'm winning even against your whole team."

"You may have gotten your team past us, but that was all. Even if my team is weakened, you're not exactly winning, either. Your Shinheuh are too wounded to fight while most of my team can continue," said Aka. "If you wish, I will offer you a one on one duel now, foregoing our advantage."

While we spoke, I considered the tactical situation again.

Although moving my avatar through them wouldn't be difficult, the challenge was the rest of my stuff.

I'd put away the Beastionts, and the Arms Inventory in its Invisible Mode was attached to me, so that was fine.

The problem was the Light Cubes, or more specifically, my Lighthouse Control Cube that held my main body.

While active as Light Cubes, they wouldn't be able to move as quickly as me. I would have to retract them back into the super condensed and deactivated form for them to attach to my body with Shinsoo like the Arms Inventories, Pocket, etc.

I couldn't do that with the Control Cube though, and it was beyond my multitasking ability to maneuver it through the blockade earlier with Team Darul while I had to concentrate on the avatar in melee combat and spellcasting.

A clear example of why I wanted to get a special Open Bowl for my main body, but alas, I simply had to work around it for now.

More importantly, with how persistent this guy was, if I only escaped by a hair they might try to get me again later, at an inopportune time.

Perhaps a show of force was in order, even if that meant revealing cards I'd been holding back.

"It is too late for you to be honorable now, Sir Aka. Now that I no longer need to be concerned about hurting my own team, I'm afraid it is your side which is at a disadvantage, not me," I said, before reaching one hand into the air.

The lid of my main Cube behind me opened, and an obscure black form emerged.

My main body, now hidden underneath a thick layer of black cloth-like mass of flowing tendrils, making its form unidentifiable as human or even alive, except for two red lights for eyes coming out of holes at the head area.

Immediately, Shinsoo surged and swirled around it, liquid rapidly condensing out of the air and creating a powerful rotating suction force across the entire area.

"…!" Aka's calm face changed as Shinsoo pressure rose dramatically.

"What is this power…?!" Moontari asked, eyes widened in shock. "How can it control this much Shinsoo?"

"Annihilate them, Deep End Beast!" Sasha's voice shouted.

"Too strong," said gunner girl, then she aimed. "Strike Anima first."

Their Lightbearer quickly used Lighthouse Assist with all of his Cubes at once.

The girl's gun unleashed the most powerful beam yet, but this time a counter Baang was formed immediately by the water spirits, boosted by my own Lighthouse Assist, and released an even larger beam that quickly overwhelmed theirs, forcing the girl to dodge to the side.

"It's almost like back then…!" Aka murmured quietly, fists clenched. "I don't know who you are but I can't let that happen again!"

Then he ran forward to meet the challenge while fully engulfing himself in a red aura, roaring.

As the torrent grew stronger, many of the Regulars present were forced to cover their faces or grab for footholds to avoid getting swept up.

I made a horrific, artificial screeching sound, then gathered a large amount of water Shinsoo in front of me, before launching it as a huge spinning wave like a drill multiple times the size of Aka.

As it collided against him, his aura briefly surged while pushing back with his arms in a bear hug motion, almost bringing my wave to a stop.

Impressive, I thought, his Position as a Defender was well earned.

However, my technique exploded shortly after from the pressure build-up, knocking him off his feet.

Before he could get his bearings I followed up with another drill wave towards Aka and multiple streams hosing down his teammates.

In the end, they were all left strewn on the ground, unable to block my passage through the door with Sasha and all of my Light Cubes.

O O O

30F Archimedes

On the second day after boarding the Archimedes, the participating Regulars were gathered up on the fourth floor of the Archimedes, at a massive stadium, where people from the Middle Area, Regulars of other floors, and various other guests were able to watch from the gallery level that encircled the open stadium.

Strangely, there were no seats so they all had to stand, though there was probably some other VIP area with seats that I couldn't see at a glance.

A central cylindrical platform was where the co-hosts Io and Punk, two guys in suits wearing a blue and red full face cybertronic helmet and visor were explaining the rules.

The participating Regulars were able to wait at either a dedicated section of the gallery, or individual waiting rooms where they could rest and had screens broadcasting live.

Beta had snuck out of the Acorn Workshop to attend at the viewer gallery, and my Beastiont was in its Compressed form beside him, after following him as he left the Workshop. As I expected, he didn't care about reporting me since he didn't care for the researchers, nor did he care to fight me this time since he was trying to go to watch the tournament.

So I made small talk and pretended to be his Shinheuh, and he played along with it, or at least didn't object to me following him around or clinging to his shoulder.

"What's with all these complicated rules?" Beta muttered. "Who cares?"

"Plain fighting gets dull. They do this for the paying viewers," I said.

"I just wanna see some fights already."

The Workshop Battle would be split into 2 stages. In the first stage, 10 gamblers were chosen from the One Shot One Opportunity game (the bullet game to get on the Archimedes), from the highest scorers using the light bullets.

They were the team leaders, and by betting on the outcomes of the group free-for-all fights happening inside the stadium, the six gamblers that earn the most from betting would advance to the second round, which was a team tournament.

In the second stage, team leaders would use the money they earned to buy teammates and items.

With the group fights, the Regulars were all split into groups of 8, and they needed to compete to plug the 3 sockets in the middle of each circular stadium.

Falling off or losing the plug given to each participant was a fail.

Only 3 from each group could advance to participate in the next round, and the round would not end unless all three sockets were plugged, regardless of the number of Regulars remaining.

The first group fight had four members of Sweet and Sour participating, with an upset from Miseng who used Verdi's power up flower and went berserk, followed by another upset by Prince remembering that he was actually pretty strong and regaining his confidence to work with Akraptor and Wangnan to cinch the win.

"Not bad. Those kids are funny," said Beta. "But I hope this isn't the best or it's hardly worth my time."

"There are lots of groups left," I said.

Only the three guys from S&S could pass the round, but Miseng probably wouldn't have accomplished anything in the next round anyways.

"Viole! Did you see the power of the new Prince?! I'll beat you and make you come back!" Prince shouted into the waiting area where he noticed Viole watching from above.

Wangnan started dragging him away while Prince continued to shout. "You're embarrassing! Come here!"

"Don't look down on me! I'm growing up! I'm getting better!" Prince ranted.

Once the first fight was over, the hosts announced that five groups would fight at once.

The group lists were published on floating screens.

The gamblers were given extra time to place their bets before it started.

In Group 6, two names notably drew attention from the whole crowd: Varagarv, the top E-Rank Regular, was listed with Axion.

O O O

[Interlude]

"What a tense atmosphere in Group Six! That's the Varagarv, Mad Dog of Yama! The strongest E-Rank Regular!" Said Io the co-host.

"Hmph. Who decided he's the strongest?" Anak muttered from the gallery, beside the rest of Team Ship.

"He's been called the strongest E-Rank Regular for a long time," said Chang Blarode, helpfully advising Horyang and Goseng instead of finishing their fight in a nearby stadium. "But he hasn't appeared to take the tests in a long time. I wonder why he decided to enter the Workshop Battle…" He looked at Horyang. "But here's some advice, big guy, never fight him."

"And in the same group is the Crystal Knight Axion! The E-Rank Regular who has never lost a battle and rumored to have defeated a Ranker! Both these outstanding Regulars have not appeared in public for a long time, what will they do here today?!" Said the other co-host Punk.

"The strongest, huh?" Beta asked. "They do feel a bit different from the rest…"

While everyone stood still, Varagarv began silently walking towards the sockets. He wore only pants and went bare chested with a red and white hood that had abnormally long strips going down his back.

No other Regulars moved, and Axion merely watched.

"What's this? Is Varagarv going to the sockets unchallenged?! Amazing! No one can stop him! Even Axion is wary!"

Then another Regular came up. "I'm the warrior Amaguta! I request a battle with the top E-Rank Regular!"

This Regular was also bare chested and powerfully muscular, with a shield in one hand and the plug in the other.

He was ignored, and then in anger, he attacked Varagarv from behind.

Suddenly, his head exploded and his body fell down without even touching Varagarv.

The top E-Rank Regular plugged a socket. He stared at Axion momentarily, who returned a look of curiosity, glancing at the dead body.

Then Varagarv turned his gaze to the gallery, and his eyes met Viole's.

'He did it without creating a Baang?' Viole thought while looking intensely at the stadium, recalling what Reflejo on his FUG given team had told him before the battle.

"He was originally a warrior who fought at the secret canine fighting grounds…controlled by a Slayer, Baylord Yama. The warriors there are called Mad Dogs. Baylord wanted to show off the strength of his canines so he sent three young canines up as Regulars. Varagarv was a strong, perfect warrior. He got his nickname as the strongest E-Rank Regular not long after he entered the Tower, that's how strong he is. But one day he stopped going up and cut ties with FUG. Rumor has it…he hates FUG with a passion and kills anyone related to FUG," said Reflejo.

"Then the reason he's here…"

"Is to fight you, Mr. Viole."

Beta narrowed his eyes at the scene. "The hell was that? The guy's head just exploded on its own?"

The Beastiont didn't answer him this time, as Axion was concentrated on the stadium.

"Interesting," said Axion, smirking. "Even I could barely see the counterattack. That kind of ability is perfect for posturing, makes me wish I had something like that."

Varagarv looked back at Axion, but didn't say anything, merely standing there.

In the gamblers' room, most of the potential team leaders looked nervous, aside from Ship and the disguised Khun, but they were both wearing frowns too.

Only Ron Mei, the Mad Dog's "angel" teammate, wore a smile. "Looks like Varagarv might let that guy pass too, if he just plugs in his own plug. And I was curious to see how he'd fight! Too bad," she said to Ship who sat beside her. "Isn't he on your team now? Since he always teams up with the princess."

She was on somewhat friendly terms with Ship having had previous encounters with Anak and him in the past, and hung out with Anak at the pool the day before too.

"Yeah, he is. It's probably best that they don't fight here," said Ship.

'I thought they might fight and so I just betted on Axion. I won't lose anything if he also takes a spot, but I won't earn as much as I should've either,' thought Ship Leesoo.

'I don't like that smirk on Axion's face. Is he going to fight even though he might not have to? Why did I have to bet on both of them?' Khun thought. 'But Varagarv already passed so I should be fine, right? …What did the rules say about if a passing Regular gets knocked off of the stadium?'

The group fight wouldn't be over until 3 plugs were in the sockets, even if Varagarv himself had passed. So if he wanted to end the fight, two more plugs had to be placed.

"With an unbelievable show of force, the Mad Dog has taken one of the passing spots! Now the rest must fight over the remaining two!"

Axion decided to walk slowly towards the sockets just as Varagarv did. He wore his trademark bulky teal colored crystalline armor today, complete with a half face helm. His sword was nowhere to be seen, however.

"Will nobody challenge Axion either?" Asked one of the hosts.

"Hey, wasn't this guy frozen like the rest of us, maybe he's not that strong?" One Regular said aloud.

"Yeah, how about we take him out together first?" Another Regular suggested.

Soon all of the other Regulars decided on their course of action and moved closer to Axion in a circle, who continued forward languidly.

"Get him!" The other Regulars rushed forward to attack at once.

 

[Eiri Fllyn]

78 – Elite vs Elite 2

30F Archimedes

Three silver Light Cubes revealed themselves all around the stadium in a wide triangle, covering all of the Regulars in it, including Varagarv, just before the first Regular attack reached Axion.

"Lighthouse Flow Control? Somehow that doesn't seem quite as impressive as the Mad Dog," said Novick to Ran. The two former Khun team members keeping to themselves and slightly away from the FUG team that forcibly recruited them.

"Because it's not. Aguero Agnis could have probably done better than that," said Ran, referring to his cousin Khun A.A. "It's only three Cubes and doesn't seem very strong."

Axion moved in a burst of speed, aided by his Lighthouse field, grabbing onto the attacking Regular's plug handle and then twisted around to swing him after separating the plug from him.

The Regular was thrown directly at Varagarv, and just before the top E-Rank Regular was hit. The offending projectile was stopped in the air, blood exploded out of the Regular's back and he fell down lifeless.

Before the other Regulars had processed what had even happened, Axion had already launched two more of his assailants at Varagarv at different angles, where something similar happened.

By the time the remaining three Regulars realized they were out of their league, it was too late for them to escape.

Axion appeared inside the guard of one Regular, kicking him upwards slightly before following up with a second strike from his plug, batting the Regular up high into the air.

He grabbed the other Regular's plug which had fallen, launched that towards Varagarv as well.

There was a loud sound of a collision, but the plug itself, being made of highly durable Workshop materials, did not explode, it was merely knocked aside.

Axion was already leaping in the air though, and above the Regular whom he'd batted upwards, and then batted him again back down towards Varagarv.

A momentary scream as the victim flew through the air could be heard before multiple parts of his body exploded beside Varagarv.

The last two Regulars were dispatched similarly by Axion, each one launched towards Varagarv from a different angle, and each one dying from whatever power Varagarv was using.

Axion finally stood in front of Varagarv, about half the radius of the stadium away.

"Fascinating. The protection seems to extend all around you, with no obvious blind spot," said Axion.

"He's fighting like you, witch. Using his opponent to get rid of other competitors," said Anak, recalling the way Androssi baited her around during their Fisherman test to knock out all of the other participants.

Androssi shrugged. "What can I say? When the opponents are stupid, isn't it only natural to make use of them?"

"He used all those people to test Varagarv's defense? That's cold…" Wangnan said from their team waiting room after they exited from the first round.

Many observers had similar reactions.

"You are looking for death, Knight," said Varagarv darkly.

"I wonder why you don't retaliate against me then?" Axion asked, tilting his head. "Why did you kill those Regulars I used, instead of coming after the one who actually attacked you?"

"I don't care about you. I'm here to fight the FUG slayer nominee. Unless you want to challenge me?" Varagarv asked.

'It's surprising that I couldn't actually see his counterattacks either. He certainly has the untouchable aura done right. But even if he is offering to let me pass without a fight, this is a good chance to measure this avatar against the top E-Rank, and make a small contribution to the bet for Viole. Although he claims to be opposed to FUG, he's just pretending. This guy is actually part of the FUG scheme and will become our side's enemy in the next stage,' Kaleidus thought.

"Isn't the real reason…that you can't retaliate against me with whatever is protecting you? You can only counterattack with it. And if you came at me, it might not be fast enough to disappear before I figure out whatever it is," said Axion. "Does it get weaker the farther away from you it has to defend? Or do you keep it close around you simply because your own body is a weakness that needs to be defended?"

"…" Varagarv glared at the other Regular with eyes that seemed to be glowing balefully red with a black sclera.

In the gamblers' den, Ron Mei put a hand to her mouth. "Wow! I thought he was another wrecking ball like your princesses, but he sure is perceptive! So smart!"

"So is he right?" Ship asked back. 'Getting this info in this round will be useful. Axion must be trying to give us a leg up before the final round.'

"Heehee, not telling!" Mei answered.

'That guy said he's here to fight the slayer nominee…which is Baam. If his tricks are revealed here, Baam is less likely to be in danger from being taken by surprise,' Khun thought.

"But since you're standing right next to the sockets like that, it seems rather dangerous for me, huh? By claiming that spot, you now have a significant terrain advantage. You don't need to come after me since you've already passed, but I have no choice but to get close to you," said Axion.

"Why don't you…try it?" asked Varagarv.

Axion chuckled. "Do you know why I allowed you to approach the sockets first? I'm sure everyone watching right now thinks that I was being cautious, observing you first. But the truth is…"

"You talk too much," said Varagarv.

"…I just thought it'd be boring if I eliminated such a strong competitor quickly in this round. Since we have such a large audience, why not make this more entertaining for you all? What do you think, everyone who paid so much to see the Workshop Battle? Isn't this so much more interesting?" Axion said to the audience with a gesture, looking all around.

The Workshop hosts looked towards each other from their flying podiums. Although their expressions weren't visible, they silently shared an understanding.

"A fine sentiment! Let's give it up for this talented showman, we and the audience are eager to see more exciting things from you!" Io shouted with an applause.

The crowds cheered.

"But can Mr. Axion back up his words? How will he get through the seemingly invincible defense of the top E-Rank Regular?!" Punk asked. "Even the Regulars from the other groups are watching this intensely, not one of them have officially concluded their own battles by plugging in all three sockets yet! What an incredible scene for the first round of the Workshop Battle!"

"Invincible defense? Perhaps. Perhaps not. When faced with an impossible challenge, one must merely think clearly and approach it from different angles, and ask the right questions," said Axion, as if treating the stadium like a lecture hall.

A Baang formed in front of Axion and fired a beam of Shinsoo at Varagarv.

The beam hit Varagarv's chest, eliciting no reaction.

"Curious. Did you allow it through because it was too weak? Or does your protection only work for physical attacks?" Axion asked.

Another Baang formed in front of Axion. This time, it did not fire right away, allowing it to continue powering up. The Lighthouse Cubes flew to him and enclosed the Baang tightly.

"First, melee combat like a Fisherman! A Lightbearer's Lighthouse control! And now, a Wave Controller too? Just how many positions can Mr. Axion fill? How many different skills does he have?" Io asked.

"A Lightbearer who can form Baangs simultaneously with their Lighthouse Flow skill is terrifyingly rare at this level! And terrifyingly dangerous, as they can enhance their own attacks, not just those of their teammates!" Punk shouted. "I can't think of a single other Regular in E-Rank that can do it!"

Axion unleashed his Shinsoo beam, which was larger than Varagarv's whole body.

Varagarv raised a hand into a punch and snarled, creating a purple Baang of his own which enlarged into a huge ball and punched it at the incoming beam.

The two attacks fought for dominance, and then Axion's beam lost.

A Lighthouse barrier formed just as Varagarv's attack ran over Axion's own.

After a few seconds, the attack faded, and the barrier held.

"Not bad," said Axion.

"The untouchable Varagarv shows that he also has powerful Shinsoo of his own! What will Axion do now?!" Punk asked, flying his podium around to the other side of the grand stadium.

Then Axion repeated the attack. This time, Varagarv didn't let Axion power up, and immediately punched forward a blast of Shinsoo.

Axion let loose his Shinsoo beam prematurely before jumping to the side. He then fired a second Baang at Varagarv while the first two attacks were clashing.

However, Varagarv's first attack overwhelmed Axion's so quickly that he immediately returned fire onto the second Baang without having to create a second Baang, simply allowing the first to dissipate.

Suddenly a conch-like yellow cannon appeared behind Varagarv and fired a powerful Shinsoo beam almost the exact instant he countered Axion's second Baang.

"…!" Varagarv turned his face but was unable to create another Baang.

Black shadowy things appeared in front of the cannon's beam, blocking the beam, but exposing their existence to the world.

It was a group of wolf-like creatures of pure darkness, which had soaked up the damage from the beam until it was over, and then they disappeared, though not without appearing to be singed.

"And he's done it! With what appears to be a powerful Shinoo item, Axion has managed to outnumber Varagarv's Baangs, a classic tactic for Wave Controllers! Just what are those things that defended the top E-Ranked Regular? Some form of rare Shinheuh?" Punk commentated.

"Ahhh…he managed to force it out into the open," said Ron Mei.

"What are they? Was Varagarv an Anima?" Ship asked.

"Not exactly…they're a kind of special ability gained from 'blood fusion', the ultimate counter attack," said Mei.

"Blood fusion…?"

"Mhm. A powerful bloodline was mixed into him from birth. All of Yama's Mad Dogs have an ability like that," said Mei.

"So your wolf things can block Shinsoo attacks after all, but you didn't want to reveal them huh? Each of them are too small to fully block such a large blast. But it seems like they might be more suitable to killing people who get close, rather than defending from somebody who simply unloads attacks from afar. I wonder how much damage your wolves can sustain until they give out?" Axion ruminated aloud.

"As many attacks as you can throw," said Varagarv.

"Hahaha, I've already seen the measure of you, so there's no need for me to play around with you anymore. You are not worthy of the title of top E-Rank Regular anymore, let alone facing my full power. I believe there are at least two others watching us right now who could defeat you," said Axion.

"You are foolish to think you have seen my power merely from that," said Varagarv. "You are not FUG, so I am not here to fight you, but if you insist on seeking death, I can oblige."

"Just finish it already, Axion!" Androssi shouted from the gallery. "You're holding up the tournament!"

"Well, if the princess asks, I shall end this now," said Axion.

An arms inventory rack appeared beside him, on which were a number of Shinsoo ball capsules.

He took out a ball from the rack, upon which it disappeared back into invisible mode.

"What? He also uses Shinsoo bombs?! So I'm not the only one! Such a powerful guy also uses them!" Wangnan said excitedly.

"He can probably afford very expensive ones, unlike your cheap toys," said Akraptor.

But Axion pressed the button on one immediately, without throwing it.

"What? What's he doing?!" Wangnan looked shocked.

The ball opened and something burst out of it.

Within seconds it expanded to an enormous size along with a typhoon of Shinsoo, even as Axion's 3 Light Cubes moved together with it

An earth shattering screech filled the grand stadium, along with a massive amount of raw Shinsoo expanding into the air, after having been Decompressed out of the Closed Bowl.

The sudden emergence of this Shinsoo created a pressure on the nearby Shinsoo in the air, creating winds that Regulars on the other platforms had to shield their faces from.

The denser Shinsoo did not form a clear boundary as Axion's Lighthouse control field was not capable of containing it all, but the area of the platform for Group 6 where Axion and Varagarv was noticeably thicker In Shinsoo now.

"That's…not a bomb…" Wangnan said dumbly, watching the screen zooming out to show the Shinheuh from different angles.

Many viewers on the galleries almost unconsciously took a step back. There were no screens separating them from the action, and this gigantic creature loomed over the fighting platforms menacingly, seeming able to float or swim in the air.

Its mouth was multiple people wide and could easily swallow Regulars whole, its width was largest near the head but most of its body was thick enough to fit four or five regulars head to feet. Its length was of such a span that it could curl around a whole fighting platform, and its "wingspan" with its two fins was easily longer than the diameter of the platforms.

"Un-unbelievable! This is a White Steel Eel!! One of the most ferocious species in the Tower, that only make their nests in extremely dense Shinsoo that even Rankers find troubling to move in!" Io commentated while flying far away from the scene.

"Are you kidding me? My entire team faced one of those for the 25th​ Floor test, all we had to do was try to pop a small ball it was guarding, not actually defeat it, and we lost with a team wipeout. How does this guy just pull one out like that?" A Regular with orange dyed hair asked. It was Edin Dan from Khun's team in disguise under the name "Dinn".

Beside him, Rak Wraithraiser, also wearing a disguise of a cloak and a plastic orange and white bird mask, had his arms crossed and scoffed. "Of course he has one. He's the super turtle." Rak had tailed Khun back to their room the night before and barged in on Team Sweet and Sour while giving Khun a piece of his mind

"Okay…I might have to take back my advice. Don't ever fight the Mad Dog, unless you have a fucking White Steel Eel for a pet," said Chang Blarode to Horyang and Goseng.

Horyang chuckled, knowing how powerful Axion truly was, if he was Dr. Dua and the same one who attacked the Ranker on the 21st​ Floor after the Zygaena test.

"Sheesh, I don't know if it's better or worse that the Shinsoo over there is probably not as dense as their normal habitat. That might mean it's even faster than it normally is, but Varagarv probably won't have as much trouble moving around either?" Chang thought aloud.

Varagarv looked tense and guarded, staring up at the giant creature who was encircling him from above like a predator would prey.

"Get him out of the way," Axion commanded with a hand gesture.

Another screech and the Eel launched towards Varagarv at incredible speed.

Varagarv formed a Baang in his hand and punched forward a powerful Shinsoo wave.

The Eel shifted its body slightly and the wave made a glancing hit onto the heavily steel-like armored dark green area covering the upper portion of its body and head.

The wave was strong enough to break through the armor and draw a bloody gash from the Shinheuh, but it continued charging forward and used its left fin to slam into Varagarv.

The shadow wolves appeared to attack the Eel, and although they caused multiple bursts of blood, they failed to stop the Shinheuh from crashing into Varagarv.

The Regular grunted as he tried to stand his ground momentarily but was pushed back with the tremendous force of the assault, and then sent stumbling back towards the edge.

The Eel turned and flipped its body around, flinging its enormous tail like a whip that swept through the entire platform, crashing into Varagarv again and this time sending him flying off the circular stadium.

Without a technique to fly, he was unable to halt his momentum before crashing into the pool below with a huge explosion of water.

The Eel flew up and circled around again with a victory cry.

Axion picked up another plug and finally walked to the sockets, plugging both his own and the third plug required to end the battle.

"What a stunning turn of events!" Punk shouted. "Varagarv, the strongest E-Rank Regular, has been swept off the stadium by Axion's White Steel Eel in a devastating combo! If he hadn't already passed by plugging a socket, he would have been disqualified from this round! Does the title of the strongest still belong to him?!"

"And so, the Group 6 battle has concluded, with Axion and Varagarv as the winners!" Io announced.

Varagarv surfaced out of the water looking none too worse for wear, but was forced to exit the arena via a teleportation door that appeared beside him.

"Noooo waaaay," said Ron Mei. "You really have another monster on your team."

"That was a surprise to me too. I've barely seen him fight before," said Ship.

'He really hasn't changed. Just like back on the Floor of Tests, he starts by pretending to be weak, relying on strategy and tricks, and then brings despair by revealing that he could've just crushed you with overwhelming power from the beginning,' thought Ship. 'He didn't even have to use his crazy sword this time.'

"Hmm…you think we could fight that?" Ran asked Novick.

"Depends. If it were wild, probably? It's not that smart. Also depends how thick the Shinsoo is. I can't be sure from here," said Novick. "But since that guy is controlling it, who knows? Good Anima can strengthen their Shinheuh even more."

"If we have to fight him, I will handle it. I've fought one before," said Viole.

Ran turned to him questioningly. "Like…by yourself?"

"Yes."

Ran and Novick shared a look. "If you say so…" Ran said.

Axion opened his Bowl ball again and the White Steel Eel went back inside, along with a large amount of the Shinsoo that had been previously released, before exiting the arena through a teleportation door as well, to the cheers of the crowd.

"Typical show off," said Anak.

"It's important to have good style, especially when you outclass your opponents," said Androssi. "Otherwise it's just boring."

"If we're in the same group, don't pull me into your schemes," said Anak.

"What? I don't scheme. I just kick ass and look good," said Androssi.

O O O

In the third round of group fights, Jyu Viole Grace had the spotlight.

At first, four other participants wore FUG shirts and pretended to be helping him, thus discouraging the remaining members from attacking for fear of Viole.

However, Viole did not accept these fake FUG supporters and attacked them instead.

"Don't try to make me your god, I'm not a convenient machine that makes your wishes come true," he said before knocking them all out.

"So…that's him," Beta muttered with a strange glint in his eyes.

"Are you interested in him?" the shifter Beastiont said.

Beta shrugged. "He's like me."

In the other rounds, most members of Sweet & Sour, Team Ship, and Team FUG all passed without too much trouble, and then there was a break before the last set.

"I'm going to meet that guy," Beta said. "You gonna keep following me?"

"You going to fight him?" The Beastiont asked.

"No, just to talk. To see if he can…handle the truth," Beta said with a dark chuckle.

"Cool. You do that. I'm heading back to the Workshop," said the Beastiont. "Since you snuck out, they must be sending people out to find you soon. I'll make things a little more difficult for them so you have more time."

Beta snickered. "You mean you're going to sneak in while I'm out distracting them. Whatever. Works for me."

O O O

"Beta! Beta, where are you!!" Sophia shouted, after finally realizing that Beta had gone missing.

The guards came to see what the commotion was, and she told them they needed to get Beta back.

And so most of the guards moved out.

After they all left, Axion's Beastiont came out of its hiding spot and entered the Acorn Workshop.

O O O

[Kaleidus]

"…are they even E-Rank Regulars?!" Wangnan asked fearfully from a section that had suffered massive collateral damage from the ongoing elite fight.

Because the Regular Ranks were separated by the test on certain floors, and not necessarily by their actual combat strength, those at the peak of the E-Rank Regular combat rankings were actually potentially much stronger than many Regulars among the D-Ranks.

I stood beside Androssi watching the epic final group showdown between Khun Ran and Anak Zahard, after having come to the gallery once I was done healing the White Steel Eel in private.

This had been a memorable battle in the original story as well, that was interesting to me from an analytical standpoint, where Ran asked the hosts for a 1v1 with Anak and got it, and they were allowed to use the entire grand stadium for their battle instead of just their own platform.

All the team leaders were given a chance to go all-in during this set of fights (there were only three groups left), for a 3 million point bonus if they bet correctly.

It was both impressive as a high level fight and entertaining for multiple reasons.

Parakewl, the shameless green skinned comedy relief from the Floor of Tests, having secretly followed Rak to this Workshop Battle, had been in one of the other groups doing his usual arrogant boasts about "revolution" before running around screaming profanities at the Regulars trying to chase him.

Ran and Anak looked to be evenly matched for a bit, both simply using brute force physical combat with no particular special techniques, perhaps not having the time to try anything more complicated as they were neck and neck.

But if this went on, Ran would ultimately lose because Anak had the superior physique and endurance.

Then Ran used a secret skill of the Khun family: the "Lightning Pill", which he seemingly generated out of Shinsoo before swallowing.

His entire body gained a new aura of lightning, sparks flying all around him, and the Shinsoo pressure which he exerted rose dramatically too.

I did not know if this sort of thing could be done with any other Shinsoo Quality or element, but it was a tremendous power up I could not miss the chance to see in person.

The other Khun, Aguero Agnis, either didn't have this Lightning Quality, or just didn't have the talent that his genius younger cousin did.

And what a talent it was. The previously near even contest changed completely into a one-sided smackdown.

They soon destroyed parts of the other platforms and knocked out Regulars from other fights as collateral damage while Parakewl miraculously got out of the way of each attack.

Eventually, Ran explained the mechanics behind his Lightning Pill and the dot on his face signifying its active use.

It would only last five minutes before exhausting him, but made him more powerful than Anak in a frontal fight, allowing him to goad Anak into fighting head on even though she could just wait it out.

"Five minutes is all I need to deal with the likes of you," Ran said.

"I'll kill you!" Anak charged out of the rubble she'd been blasted into.

As the fight went on, Anak was clearly losing ground and getting bloody all over.

"Maschenny Style Lightning Spear!" Ran roared while his whole body crackled with powerful lightning and he charged up a huge spear of lightning to throw.

And Ran had apparently learned some skills from Khun Maschenny, mother of both him and his sister Khun Maschenny Zahard, a top 100 High Ranker princess.

It was only still a fight because Anak, having a half-princess body, was supremely durable, and just kept getting back up for more. And Ran didn't have the advantage of Derf's resistance piercing magic power either.

Nevertheless, assessing the power he was showing, If I had to fight Ran in this state myself, I'd almost certainly lose in my Avatar Body, and even the enhanced White Steel Eel probably wouldn't fare well.

Of course, my Avatar Bodies were weaker than me in several dimensions. Their base bodies didn't have anywhere near the level of long-term "Shinsoo Cultivation" or flows buffed up the body over time permanently, so they relied on Armoriont biology instead.

Plus, the magic I could use through them was more limited, and all were weaker by about at least 25%.

Their Shinsoo manipulation and reinforcement was much weaker too, only about a bit worse than half-strength, also half the Baangs, Light Cubes, etc.

This even impacted the use of the White Steel Eel, because it was too large and powerful already to indirectly activate additional buffs for it through the Avatar Body, even with the spells inscribed onto crests on the Shinheuh's body.

This was also why I resorted to using the White Steel Eel in the earlier battle.

Varagarv was strong enough that I would have serious difficulty actually dislodging him using my Avatar Body alone, and I didn't have any of the monster Beastionts I had assigned to the Sasha identity for now.

"What an idiot, falling for his taunts like that," said Androssi as Anak angrily tried to get back up to keep fighting after more trash talking from Ran.

"She'll learn…eventually…maybe," I said.

"Maschenny Style Sword of Light!" Ran charged his strongest lightning beam yet, and this time it pierced through Anak's chest, sending her into a platform, the impact forming a crater.

The whole stadium shook and fell in pieces, all the other Regulars on every platform fell off into the water.

My eyes closely observed the damage wrought.

Back in the Crown Game on the 2nd​ Floor, I'd done less damage to Anak with a Level 5 Slash Wave, which only had the power of a Level 4 Slash Beam since it was dispersed as an AoE attack. To overwhelm an older and stronger Anak's Shinsoo resistance outright with a Shinsoo technique and still do this much damage, Ran's attack might have been on par with a L6 Slash Beam or higher.

Considering that Derf's higher end attacks cost impractical amounts of MP and had to be used sparingly, the gap between me and even mere side characters would soon close quickly without something to bring me to the next level.

Something that I hoped I could find on the Hell Train, or in the secrets of Ignition Liquid.

No teleportation doors appeared to help the fallen Regulars leave for whatever reason, perhaps because the hosts were too amped up raving about Ran's awesome power, so the unfortunate Regulars had to grab onto fallen debris to stay afloat if they couldn't swim.

Anak struggled back up even with the huge wound in her chest, much to the crowd's applause and the hosts' raving.

This could've been Ran's victory. He had deliberately missed Anak's heart and could've whittled her down from range, but instead he chose to give a whole speech about arrogance.

Then after some posturing and taunting Anak successfully goaded Ran to keep fighting her in melee while exhausted.

Then at the last moment, as they both punched each other at the same time, the debris piece they were standing on was suddenly flipped over sending both of them into the water.

"REVOLUTION LONG-TERM!" Parakewl yelled as he burst out of the water underneath. "Gosh, I almost drowned!"

Seeing this scene play out again in person, I couldn't help but laugh out loud. Both Anak and Ran fainted in the water, Anak because she was too injured, and Ran because his Lightning Pill's time ran out.

At this point, most of the team leader gamblers would have lost due to going all-in and there being no winner.

Meanwhile, my familiar was mapping out the Acorn Workshop and searching for research data and things of interest to take note of.

It was slow work because there were still some people and guards left, but now I had plenty of time, since Beta wasn't likely to be caught any time soon. They didn't actually have any way of tracking him after he got rid of his tracking devices.

After the end of the Plug Battle, there was a short break before all the Regulars were invited to a party in the evening.

O O O

 

[Eiri Fllyn]

79 – Different Kinds of Parties

30th​ Floor Archimedes

I connected to Yihwa's Crest spirit, to find several members of Team Sweet and Sour sitting around a table looking gloomy.

"What's wrong with you guys?" I asked, making the fiery spirit float over the table.

"Dr. Dua! It's terrible. Mr. Khun lost the all-in gamble on that last fight between that princess and his cousin," said Yihwa.

"I see. That's unfortunate, but it's fine," I said.

"See? I told you to chill," said Derf using Gyetang's mouth.

"What do you mean? Without a team leader in the 2nd​ round, we're screwed! We've lost the wager!" Wangnan said.

"Only two team leaders had points left, and one had only 1 point. That isn't enough to have an actual competition in the second round. 1 point can't buy anything." I said. "So the hosts will have to do something else, they won't run the tournament with only one team and a win by default. Just wait for Khun to come back with news after they hold the gamblers' meeting."

"Oh…OK," said Wangnan.

"For now, just relax at the party. There's nothing else you can do anyways," I said.

"What about the weapon? Any news about that?" Akraptor asked, referring to what I told him 2 years ago.

"I'm still investigating it, but they've hidden it well. FUG will most likely be smuggling it into the second round somewhere to give it to Viole, but what happens after is the problem. The other faction must be planning something, because they wouldn't just hand it over to him without a way to control him," I said. "The answer may lie with the Acorn Workshop…I was able to sneak in with a Shinheuh. I'll update you all if I find something useful."

"That's good news, at least," said Yihwa.

After that, I left them to their own devices.

In reality, this whole weapon investigation thing was just a way to appear like I was doing work to help. I already knew the other FUG faction's plan, and so did Hwa Ryun, I assumed. Wangnan's team had no role to play in the Thorn's handover, but if things went similarly to canon, their presence would be needed during the 2nd​ round to make sure everyone could escape at the end.

Would things really go the same way? Maybe not.

But this whole Workshop Battle was practically rigged, so I wouldn't be surprised if it did.

The Workshop hosts themselves were working with Rankers within FUG. Aside from their monetary motivations, the tournaments were simply engineered to get the pieces into place while looking like a legitimate competition for Regulars on the surface.

This was all done so that it wouldn't devolve into a fight between Rankers.

Most of the heavy hitters from the FUG team and our teams didn't match off against each other during the Plug game, despite its "random" drawing of groups. Besides Ran and Anak, who actually should have been allies if Ran wasn't being forced to be part of the FUG team.

By taking each other out in a way that made them unable to fight in the next round, this drastically reduced the firepower available to our pro-Viole side.

My own match with Varagarv was a surprise, but they were probably testing me out just as much as I was testing out Varagarv, who was one of their secret trump cards, and he hadn't used his full power either.

At least half the gamblers were FUG plants, if I recalled correctly, maybe even all of them aside from Khun and Leesoo.

With so many FUG plants, it would be simple to make the final round only consist of FUG teams. However, the Workshop only had a business deal with FUG, not real loyalty, which was why they still cared about the legitimacy of the competition with their audience.

But even if our teams would be allowed to participate, the rules could be set up that we'd be at a large disadvantage, especially as they now had a good excuse because all the leaders except for Reflejo, representing Viole's FUG team, and Ron Mei, representing Varagarv's team, had failed their all-in gambles.

In the end, this would likely turn into a fight between Rankers anyways.

I'd be best off simply staying out of the way.

O O O

[Interlude]

Wangnan and Akraptor sat with Chang Blarode and Quaetro, the two elite Regulars whom team S&S had previously met while climbing, and who were sent up by Khun together during the bullet game. They were excitedly talking about the events of the group fights.

Then their attention was drawn by the clamor of other Regulars. When they turned, they saw princess Androssi in a stylish matching top and skirt with a long white shawl that reached the ground as if it were a dress, escorted by Axion in a tuxedo and a similarly long shoulder cape on his left.

"She's even prettier up close…" Wangnan said, drooling.

"She's a fierce woman," said Akraptor. "Did you see her fighting in the stadium? It wasn't as flashy as Axion's battle with Varagarv, but she was just as overwhelming."

"She fights brutally without mercy, but her opponents were too easy," said Chang Blarode. "I'd like to see how they team up."

"A fearsome combination," Akraptor said, nodding.

The co-hosts Io and Punk were playing music on guitars in the background.

After getting away from all their admirers, Androssi and Axion found a spot among the dance floor.

"This feels nostalgic," said Androssi, moving in a slow foxtrot facing Axion. "How long has it been since we've been to a party like this?"

"You know the answer. At least four years, by my count," said Axion. "We went to one on the 25th​ Floor, right before we separated, when we danced just like this."

"I wondered if you'd forgotten," said Androssi.

"How could I forget such a beautiful image?"

"You'd better not or I'd have to kill you."

Yihwa walked over to Wangnan's table and sat down.

"Decided to join the party after all?" Wangnan asked.

"Weren't you going to find the alligator?" Akraptor added, referring to Rak who had been with their team in disguise but had stormed off somewhere after the fights ended and missed the meeting with Axion using Yihwa's Crest spirit earlier.

"I couldn't find him, so I thought he might've come to the party," said Yihwa, noticing that Blarode and Quaetro were both looking in a particular direction.

She followed their gaze to see Axion and Androssi dancing.

"Since you're here, might as well enjoy the party then," said Akraptor.

"Doing what? I'm not going to drink with you guys," said Yihwa, eyes glued to the scene.

Akraptor smirked. "You know, he'd probably accept if you asked him for a dance."

"What? Who says I want to?"

"What, she likes that guy?" Quaetro asked.

"N-no! Don't cause misunderstandings!" Yihwa said heatedly.

"Don't be shy, flame thrower. If there's something you want, you gotta give it your all! You won't know unless you try," said Wangnan with a grin and a nudge.

"Hah! That's right, embrace the fire, girl! If he refuses, just make yourself hotter to catch his eye!" Quaetro said.

"What kind of dumb advice is that?!" Yihwa gave him a scornful look. "Even if you make a pun, that's not how it works!"

"I agree. You don't need special powers, all you need is courage to put yourself out there. What do you have to lose?" Wangnan asked.

"What about you, o' fearless leader? Why don't you go ask the princess for a dance?" Akraptor asked.

"What?! That's crazy!" Wangnan cried. "I can't do that, she's the princess!"

"Hah! What was all that big talk earlier about putting yourself out there? You gotta give it your all, right?!" Yihwa said, nudging him back in imitation.

"She'll just reject me like everyone else she ignored on the way," said Wangnan.

"So you're just afraid of being turned down!" Yihwa said.

"So are you!" said Wangnan.

"No I'm not, I just don't want to get between them!"

"Oh so you admit you do want to dance with him," said Wangnan.

"Shut up! What's your excuse? Isn't it because you know you're not good enough for her, you smelly monkey?"

"Damn flame thrower, I'll show you! Nobody is too good for this talented and handsome Ja Wangnan," said Wangnan, standing up.

"What, you're seriously going to do it?" Quaetro asked.

"Hell yeah, what have I got to lose? I'm gonna ask and you're all gonna seethe once she accepts," Wangnan said arrogantly before adjusting his tie, and patting his suit to make sure he looked fine.

"Oh shit, we can't just let him steal the princess!" Quaetro declared, standing up as well. "I'm gonna ask too!"

"Don't get infected by their stupidity, Quaetro," said Blarode, standing up as well and putting a hand on his teammate's shoulder.

"Bro, what if she actually accepts?" Quaetro asked.

"I believe the princess respects strength. As one of the top five E-Rank Regulars, naturally I have the best chances here," said Blarode before walking forward. "So I should be the one to try."

"Wait, what?!"

"Hold it right there, I said I was going first!" Wangnan said while running forward to get past him.

"Damn you guys!" Quaetro chased them as well.

"They're really going…" Yihwa said with surprise. "Arghh! I can't let these idiots show me up!"

She found her resolve and charged forward as well.

Akraptor watched dumbfounded as the three guys fought to race ahead, shoving, burning, and jumping over each other, causing chaos with nearby party attendees, before they unceremoniously crashed together near the princess and Axion.

Akraptor snickered to himself quietly, pressed his fingers to his forehead to cover his eyes, then laughed uncontrollably.

Axion and Androssi stopped and looked at them with surprise and curiosity, before Wangnan shot back up and straightened himself out to approach her.

"Princess Androssi, My name is Ja Wangnan, the future King of this Tower, May I have a dance with you?" He asked, holding out his hand.

"Future king of this Tower? Are you suggesting that you're going to overthrow my father?" Androssi asked back, unimpressed with her arms crossed.

"Uh…what I meant was, after he retires! Yeah—"

"No, thanks. Not interested," said Androssi.

Blarode pushed Wangnan aside before taking an elegant bow.

"May I have the honor of—"

"Sorry, no."

Quaetro shoved Blarode aside, jumping up and down. "How about me?"

"Definitely no."

"Could I have a dance with you?" Another, softer feminine voice asked from the side.

"No, I don't lean that—" Androssi started automatically before even seeing who it was.

"It would be my pleasure, my lady," Axion said.

Androssi turned to see Axion taking the hand of an ecstatic Yihwa and moving away.

"—that way," Androssi finished slowly.

Wangnan, Blarode, and Quaetro came up beside her.

"You got dumped," they said in sync.

"I did not! It's the standard etiquette to dance with different people at a formal party like this!" Androssi said.

"Really? So how about you dance with me?" Wangnan asked again.

"I said no already."

"Why not?" Wangnan asked.

"Yeah, why not? You don't have a dance partner anymore," said Quaetro. "Might as well pick one of us."

"No. Why are you guys being so persistent? Take a hint!"

"Oh fair princess, I come before you with an important message! Please listen to me!" Suddenly Gyetang was in front of her, glowing yellow, a sheathed sword strapped to his waist.

"Huh?" Androssi narrowed her eyes at the oversized chicken and his familiar aura.

Gyetang kneeled, "My friend was on a team with Khun Aguero Agnis. He fought heroically against the dastardly FUG and traitors on his team, but succumbed in the end. However, he was able to send me an important coded message just before he died and tasked me with delivering it to you!"

"And that is…?"

"Please, let us first move away from prying eyes and ears," said Gyetang.

"Fine. Don't follow me, or you'll regret it." Androssi glared at the other three, quickly taking the excuse to get away.

"Got it princess!" Wangnan nodded and grabbed the other two before they could protest, having remembered the situation with Gyetang's wish.

Quaetro resisted at first, but Akraptor had also made his way over at some point and helped the other two to restrain him from doing anything stupid.

Once they moved away a bit, Androssi whispered as they walked. "Thanks, but what's going on Derf, why are you with this bird?"

"Oh, this guy really is Khun's old teammate that died. He joined the kid's team just for the chance of meeting you, the princess. But since he's dead, Axion thought he could give Khun some closure by fulfilling his teammate's wish," Derf whispered back, still using Gyetang's mouth.

"Oh, it was something like that? I guess I don't mind then," said Androssi. "I didn't know you could control dead bodies."

"Normally I can't. But this body is technically alive after Axion revived the cells, just without the soul," said Derf.

"That's creepy," said Androssi, stopping to examine the other 'Regular'. "So there's no actual message then?"

"Nope. How about a dance with me instead?"

"You wish," said Androssi.

"I sure do," said Derf. "Come on, give this chicken man a reward for his heroic sacrifice. Khun promised him."

"What's that got to do with me? He wasn't my teammate and didn't die for me," said Androssi. "And whatever deal Khun made was done without my consent. Besides, it was only to meet me, not to dance."

"Yeah well I'm bored, and I bet you are too. You got any better ideas?"

Androssi glanced around the party room, all the people still staring their way, Axion and that Yeon girl still dancing, the hosts playing their guitars, people drinking and talking…

"Fine," said Androssi. "Are you sure you can dance in that body?"

"No but that's what makes it exciting!"

O O O

In a different section of the party, Horyang was feeling troubled. The Living Ignition Weapon, who had been with Team Sweet and Sour up until the Arlen's Hand incident, had since been forcibly recruited onto the FUG team, just like Novick and Ran from Khun's team.

He had resisted fiercely at first, but he had been mollified slightly after hearing from his brother Cassano, who hosted the Devil of the Left Arm to his Right Arm, that their mother figure, Sophia, was waiting to see him. Sophia, a researcher, was their main source of human contact during the Living Ignition Weapon experiments.

However, the reunion was not all happy. He had put on his best face in front of her, but what he learned had him deeply conflicted.

At the party, by the efforts of Verdi, Prince, and Miseng trying to play matchmaker while disguising themselves, he was temporarily separated from team FUG and found himself alone with Goseng, his former teammate whom he'd had a crush on.

So when Goseng confided in him her thoughts and regrets, Horyang shared his troubles too.

"…I met Ms Sophia," said Horyang.

"The researcher you were fond of? So you came to meet her? That's nice that you found her!" Goseng said enthusiastically.

"She didn't stop the experiments," said Horyang with an uncomfortable face.

"What?"

"The experiment that had been done to me and Cassano…they had made another already…and they completed one. She knew everything from the beginning. That we would become like this. The reason that we could live on…was because of her love. But if it was fake…if the smiles, the names…was just to make her research succeed, then must we really become devils?"

O O O

Cassano leaned against the wall in a deserted spot outside. Like his brother Living Ignition Weapon, he was contemplating a similar question, after meeting Ms. Sophia in the Acorn Workshop and discovering that she continued to experiment on other subjects, Beta and Emily.

In his hands, he held the Emily app device, and posed to her a question.

[Does Ms. Sophia really love us?] -Cassano

[She doesn't love you.] -Emily

A hooded and masked figure stepped out from around the corner.

"Not going to join the party?" The figure asked.

"There's nothing there for me," said Cassano. "Why did you want to meet? It was you that contacted me using Emily, isn't it…A?"

"Yes. To tell you that the swordsman has escaped already, through the passage below the bed. He may have discovered Emily's chamber, or at least the gate to it," the figure answered, now identified as Axion in disguise using the codename he told Cassano before at the bullet game before the Archimedes, when he intercepted the fight between Cassano and Hatsu.

"He is of no consequence. The guards can deal with him. Was that all?"

"I am just curious about something. You let him go on purpose both times, right? Are you intrigued by how he made his sword stronger through training? Were you trying to see if it was the sword, or the person that grew? That's why you destroyed his sword, right? To see if he could continue growing without it. A weapon, that is."

"…you may be right. For a swordsman who has relied on his sword all his life and is useless without it…what will become of him when he loses it?"

"But it's not hard for him to just get a new sword. The real question you're wondering is, what will become of a Living Ignition Weapon that loses the devil inside, that defined his whole life, right?" A asked, alluding to the possibility of one of the Devil of the Left Arm and Right Arm brothers losing their hosted devil, as if he already knew what Cassano intended to do to his fellow Living Ignition Weapon, and that the man was troubled over the decision.

Cassano scoffed. "No. The answer to that is obvious. He will have no purpose, if he even survives. What I wanted to know is…why do we need such weapons? Why do people go to such lengths to make such weapons? And is that the limit of what we can achieve, are we truly so useless without a powerful weapon created from the countless sacrifices of others? Is this the only way?"

"I see. You're wondering if it would be worth it. Whether you truly need the complete Devil," said Axion.

"Hm. Why do you care? What is your role in all this anyways? Since you are aware of the swordsman and the layout of the facility, you must have business with the Acorn Workshop. What is your goal here?" What he left unsaid was the question of whether that business would interfere with his own.

"My role? Merely a wanderer with an interest in curiosities. But if you wish to know, my current goal is to acquire the research data on Ignition Liquid and Living Ignition Weapons,"

"Is it wise of you to tell me this?" said Cassano. "Even if you are an associate of Rachel, if you intend to continue that experiment…"

"I would merely take the results of their research, just as you intend to do the same, in a way," said A, bringing out a hand from his cloak to hold up his own Emily device. "What has already been done cannot be erased, after all. Besides, did you not wonder if there was another way? If there is an answer, it can only be found by studying it deeply."

"Was there something in particular you wanted from me?"

"Cooperation. To achieve a mutual goal. Haven't you ever wondered, how did they plan to control you if you rebelled? They have created such powerful weapons, were they so arrogant that they could deceive you forever only with false love?"

"Powerful as we are, they have people that are still much stronger. We were incomplete experiments, beneath their concern, powerless to change our fate, until Headon chose us," said Cassano.

"What if I told you they have a specific countermeasure against Living Ignition Weapons?"

"You mean the Boiling Acid?" Cassano asked.

"No, That is only for melting you down to be repurposed. I believe they have another means of simply suppressing the power in your bodies. Something that would be your weakness. Don't you want to know what it is, in case you have to face it in the future?" Axion asked. "This too, would be part of their research data."

"And you want my help to get it," said Cassano.

"Correct. I can try to steal the data and the files they have lying around, but I cannot be certain I can decrypt or understand it without one of the researchers' cooperation," said Axion

"Even if I agreed, what makes you think that I can be of any use in this? Ms. Sophia is the only researcher that speaks to me, and she will not simply hand over this information if I ask."

"Have you actually shown her any interest in that information before?"

"…perhaps not. But I fail to see why she would disclose such valuable information," said Cassano.

"And yet, did she not eagerly show you her latest research? Beta. Emily. What purpose could bringing you to Emily's chamber and revealing her nature serve?"

"A false façade of friendliness," said Cassano dismissively.

"She has no need of you anymore, Cassano. The experiment was completed. Even if you were not going to bring Emily to Rachel, the Workshop would have completed its bargain with FUG with the completion of Jyu Viole Grace. You, your brother, even Beta…none of you have roles to play anymore. So, what is her true purpose?"

"What are you trying to say? That it's some sentimentality? She does not love us. We were but tools. Perhaps, she feels some sick satisfaction that we are still in the palm of her hand, even after leaving the Workshop for so long and obtaining our freedom," Cassano said bitterly.

"Or perhaps, Emily can be wrong. But you already knew that, didn't you?"

"I have no reason to believe you over Emily," said Cassano.

"Did you know that Sophia was also an orphan from the Middle Area?"

"What?" Finally, Cassano's expression changed.

"Try asking Emily why Sophia chose to join the Acorn Workshop," said Axion.

Whether because of curiosity or hope, he did not know, but Cassano did as A suggested and asked the question.

[To give the orphans of the Middle Area power so that they can be free!] -Emily

"Now ask Emily 'what is love?'," said Axion.

[What is love?] -Cassano

[Love is a bus! You have to chase it and then you can only get off where they drop you off.] -Emily

Cassano stared with a confused expression at the answer that the chat app's intelligence stole from another user in a previous conversation. It was actually half of Androssi's analogy when Emily had asked the Princess for advice on love.

Axion simply silently waited to see what kind of conclusion the Living Ignition Weapon would draw.

After a while, Cassano put the Emily device away and looked at A. "I see. Love is a subjective topic…it's something that Emily can't give a clear answer on. But that doesn't necessarily mean she's wrong, either, does it?"

Axion shrugged. "I'm not here to convince you otherwise. The important part is, as you say, this is a subjective topic. The answer isn't actually yes or no. Emotions exist in degrees, and are comprised of many overlapping feelings. Whether it's a strand of attachment, an attempt to rationalize her actions, or the simple need to share her accomplishments out of pride, any one of these can become an 'opening' for you to use. Even if you are just a tool, you can still frame your request in terms of her worldview…if she wants to believe that all the terrible things she did were for the sake of a noble goal like freeing the orphans of the Middle Area, then let her believe that revealing the secrets of her research to you would help achieve that goal."

"You make it sound easy, but I'm not the kind of person with the skill to deceive someone like that. My intentions will be obvious."

"So what? People go to great lengths to hear only what they want to hear, and avoid seeing inconvenient truths. You should know this well, having personally experienced it. And you have nothing to lose by it. At worst, it becomes a way to distract her from your real objective," said Axion.

After a while, Cassano closed his eyes slowly, and re-opened them taking a deep breath. "Very well. I will try to ask her. However…if I am successful, she will probably tell me everything I need to know about that 'weakness', in which case, what would I gain from handing over the rest of the data to you?"

"That's a fair point. But even if you knew the weakness, that doesn't mean you can defend against somebody exploiting it, right? It's unlikely that the researchers would've created a counter-countermeasure, since they are the ones who would've used that weakness against you. Therefore, I will help you devise a defense using that data."

"That sounds tempting, but sharing my weakness with you in the first place is also a risk for me, isn't it?" asked Cassano. "How do I know you'll fulfill your end of the bargain afterward, or that you'd even be capable of devising a defense? It might not even be possible, or it might take too long to be useful."

"You're quite shrewd, aren't you? Alright. Is there something that would satisfy you as a guarantee? Or is there something else you'd rather I do for you instead?"

"Hmm. How strong are you?"

"Let's just say…I wouldn't even need to know your weakness to defeat you."

"Is that so? Then, you wouldn't mind guarding me until my mission is complete, right? It should be simple for you if you are that strong. If you do that, then I'll hand over the data you want, excluding information about my weakness, after we meet Rachel."

"…interesting. This way, you can make sure the mission succeeds, test whether I really am Rachel's ally, and if I lied, you'll have backup to deal with me once we arrive," said Axion.

Cassano remained stoically silent.

"Haha, I like it, it's quite a convenient plan, since I planned to meet up with her eventually anyways."

"We are agreed then."

O O O

35F Hell Train

Team Darul had gone up ahead as I ordered, and then I rendezvoused with them after taking some time to myself to heal up my Beastionts.

After the initial excitement at the entrance, we settled into a relatively quiet pattern, moving through the passages within the Train at a steady pace.

It was similar to an RPG dungeon crawl, with the maze-like passages, random encounters, and puzzles to navigate.

Just a lot more tedious and generally less fun considering the scarcity of loot or rewards, and the lack of any XP bars. Plus the life threatening difficulty for unprepared Regulars, and additional pressure from the requirement to make a certain amount of progress to reach the required test zones before the Train arrived at the next Floor.

The designers of the Hell Train, which by ancient lore might have been the Workshop in cooperation with the Floor Administrators, made it for Zahard's original party in mind though, so that's how the difficulty was probably scaled.

"The passages are completely filled with enemies now…it will be difficult to keep moving forward like this," said Darul, viewing multiple screens on his Lighthouse receiving intel from the Scouts' Observers and his own Cubes.

There was an artificial day and night cycle on the Train.

During the day, it was largely peaceful, though enemies guarded various points in the passages. They didn't attack unless provoked or if we attempted to pass them.

But now at night, enemies had spawned everywhere.

"There's a huge wave of monsters coming this way!" said Scout One through the Pocket transmission.

Darul barked out orders to get in a defensive formation and ordered the Scout's return.

I looked at the disappearing bodies of nearby monsters which had been ripped apart by the bear and wolf Beastionts, from the specialized bear-wolf-beetle-team, and clicked my tongue.

"This sure is inconvenient. These things look like living beings but they're all just projections of some sort. We can't harvest any meat for food from them," I said.

"And without a replenishing supply of food, it will be difficult for your Shinheuh to stay active given how long we need to be on the Train…" Darul said, understanding the problem quickly.

"See if you guys can handle this yourselves. I'm going to call back my beasts. This is only the beginning and should be the easiest, so your team will need the experience," I said. "And start looking for a place to camp. From now on, we'll fortify our position at night and continue moving forward during the day."

"Understood."

On the Hell Train, most of the enemies during daytime were just automatons, artificial constructs with no biomass to them.

And now these night time monsters were also useless for biomass.

The Beastionts could hibernate and stay in the Bowls to minimize energy expenditure, but it would be difficult to acquire materials for regeneration.

I had brought along some Shinheuh corpses and fodder in one of my Bowls, but I had to be conservative with them.

I, my avatars, and the Beastionts all needed to eat. Thanks to photosynthesis, we had significantly reduced nutritional intake requirements, but it depended on the quantity and quality of light exposure,the air composition, and any clothing vs photosynthetic skin cells exposed, which was further reduced in efficiency by the active skin aesthetic/texture. Similarly, Shinsoo did wonders for the body but didn't quite erase nutritional needs either.

Although it wasn't shown in the canonical story, this was one of the reasons that getting on the Hell Train was considered expensive, even though there wasn't actually a fee to be paid for boarding.

Regulars all needed to prepare for up to a year's worth of supplies and the storage items necessary for it all, since there was no easy way to resupply while on the Train, unless you were willing to get off at one of the later stations where the Train made longer stops, or found one of the special rest areas on the Train.

And of course, storage items were fairly expensive for Regulars, the most common one being the Pocket, which really only offered pocket-sized slots to put things in.

Something super convenient like Manbarondenna with its house sized storage in a briefcase capable of storing anything was simply unheard of without great wealth like that which Khun had stolen from his family vaults.

I didn't even have Manbarondenna with Sasha, because I'd given it to the Axion avatar for its mission to steal materials from the Workshop.

Most teams resorted to lugging around their stuff in Light Cubes, and that was another reason why every team needed a Lightbearer. Even bad ones were in high demand, if only to serve as a mule.

I pondered over how to manage the available troops, then decided to recall the more vulnerable wolf Beastionts and tiger, leaving just the high defense bear and beetle as reserve forces in the back of our formation, while my snake stayed wrapped around my body in Compressed form.

Our Scout rushed back, and then the big wave, dozens of monsters, came less than a minute after.

They were small boar-like creatures about half the height of a human, with tusks in front, which charged en masse and they almost immediately broke through Team Darul's front.

"Arrgh, shit!" Fisherman 2 cursed as a tusk boar bit into his leg and refused to let go even after getting stabbed multiple times with his Needle.

Spearman 1 moved forward to supplement the front, and Darul used a Lighthouse barrier to buy some time.

Spearman 2 threw spears onto the other side while the boars charged smashed into the barrier repeatedly.

Cracks started to form while Fisherman 2 finally killed the boar biting him after he activated his Reinforcement spell crest and received some help from Scout.

Darul sweated while glancing at the horde of monsters and the initial combat results. "We can't afford to hold back! Everyone activate your crests to full power now!"

Once everyone powered up, the boars were at the front were pushed back a bit, and Darul released the barrier to generate a disruptive Shinsoo field to restrict boars' movements further back so that the Fishermen, Scout, and Maid could engage fewer enemies at a time while the Spearmen continued to launch spears from behind.

After a long and grueling fight, the team was exhausted and suffered many injuries, but defeated the wave.

"Good work, everyone. If you keep it up, you'll grow quickly and soon this level of challenge will seem as easy as breathing," I said encouragingly, despite being a little disappointed. This fight would have been easy with even a single monster Beastiont to help them, which just showed how large the power gap was.

"Really, you think so, Lady Sasha? Felt like we were barely hanging on there," said Spearman 1, sitting on the ground.

"I've…never…felt so tired…in my life," said Fisherman 2 between gasps.

"We have to do this every night…for a whole year?" asked Fisherman 1, leaning against the wall.

"I'll help a bit next time, you can't overuse the crests either after all. But this is simply the minimum qualification to be on this Hell Train," I said while moving to heal the group. "You just have to get used to it, and increase your skills quickly. No pain, no gain."

There was a collective groan.

"We all knew what we signed up for. Be grateful that we can be here at all, and that Lady Sasha can step in when things get too dangerous," said Darul.

As we set up camp that night, though, I inwardly considered that this might simply be the limit of their talent.

This was not a game after all, they could not simply gain XP to level up.

No matter how hard they were pushed, there were those that just wouldn't be able to keep up, whether for lack of talent, or will.

And there was also a limit to the things I could give them.

Nevertheless, I had to stay with the group for now. Even if I would be slowed down this way, pushing forward alone carried a different risk.

There were hostile beings lurking on this Train that could conceivably kill me in a single hit, whom I did not want to face yet, who might wake up to hunt down powerful Regulars that stood out too much.

At the very least, having others slower than me around to distract such enemies was still useful, however distasteful it was to sacrifice subordinates in such a way.

About an hour later when we had set up camp in a defensible spot, we had another encounter.

"There are some Regulars coming this way," Maid reported on the Pocket transmission, while acting in a Scout role keeping watch. "It's the three that left early back at the entrance."

"Should we drive them away?" Darul asked.

"No, if it's just those three, it's fine. They're probably just looking for a secure location like we are—" I said, before getting interrupted.

"Ah, the grey haired guy found my observer! He's trying to talk to it!"

"What's he saying?"

"Um, I'm not sure. My observer is too low grade, it doesn't have sound transmission," said Maid.

Of course her Observer didn't have audio.

O O O

 

[Eiri Fllyn]

80 – Team Rachel

35F Hell Train

After realizing who it was, I instructed Maid to let them follow her Observer back to our camp.

"Oh it's you guys," said Boro, upon arrival. "I didn't expect to see anyone this far ahead already, so when we heard the sounds of battle at night, we came over to see if it was newbies that needed help. Most teams have at least one old timer with them that knows to stop moving at night when the enemies spawn."

"How kind of you…" said Darul with suspicion in his eyes. "And despite all these enemies spawning, it was easy for you to move around and even come to help another group?"

Boro shrugged. "That's the benefit of experience. There are some patterns to the way these things spawn, some passages that are easier to get through, and methods to avoid them. Like this spot you found, I knew about it being a safe area so we just started heading here after it was clear the battle was already over and we couldn't find anyone there."

"However, this spot is already occupied," said Darul.

"I can see that. But how about we share it? There's enough space for both our teams. We can even team up for a while, I could guide you guys. Just a temporary alliance of convenience, nothing more."

"…we'll consider it. Go back outside for a moment and I'll give you an answer shortly." Said Darul.

After that, Darul came to the back where I was sitting on a Cube pretending to meditate, and asked for my opinion.

"It would be convenient to have him lead the way for a while. Our group will have the upper hand if there's a conflict since theirs is smaller and weaker. You can accept it if you want," I said. "I don't mind either way."

Following some more discussions with his teammates, eventually Darul accepted the offer.

O O O

30F Archimedes

The rest of the Workshop Battle was a very complicated mess.

First, Team FUG and Team Mad Dog, with the only gamblers that had points left following the all-in Ran vs. Anak fight, were pitted against each other in a sort of capture the flag game.

Then the hosts had decided to run a simultaneous "Development Tournament" in which all the other gamblers would fight against each other in a separate section, where the winners would obtain the right to move to the main arena and join the capture the flag game.

At the Development Tournament they'd all start with a basic amount of points, select a vanguard Regular to deploy first, who needed to defeat opposing Regulars to earn more points. They'd use those newly earned points to summon in more teammates at the summoning stations (teleportation platforms).

Each of the qualifying Regulars from the previous Plug Battle had a point value assigned, based on the hosts' assessment of their combat strength, so stronger Regulars were more expensive to summon, but any gambler could summon any they could afford to the field.

Whether because of FUG's interference or the hosts' honest assessment, my Axion persona ended up costing 2 million points, which was twice that of Androssi, Viole, and the Mad Dog Varagarv, who were 1 million each.

In practice, this meant it was impossible to summon me, as there simply weren't enough opportunities to earn that many points.

Not that I cared, since I didn't even want to participate in it. There were too many people, betrayals, and double-betrayals overcomplicating things, and this part of the event had little to do with my interests.

So I just controlled Gyetang a little bit with Derf, making some fights easier for Khun's team, and mostly left things to progress on their own.

In the main arena, various members of Team Mad Dog and Team FUG betrayed each other, switched sides, revealed their true colors, forfeited or abandoned the game until the audiences watching had no idea what was happening anymore, and the Workshop hosts disappeared mid-way to deal with a different crisis.

Beta smuggled himself into the test by swallowing a parasite Regular that had been qualified, crashed the Development arena fighting every team he saw, then got to the main arena and tricked Viole into getting trapped with the Thorn, trying to make him taste despair.

Then Viole turned things around and absorbed the Thorn, Androssi got successfully summoned by Khun's team and defeated Varagarv, Reflejo took Hwa Ryun hostage after her identity was exposed, and forced a fight with Viole after he revealed B-Rank power he received from an FUG Ranker...

Anyways, it was complete chaos, but somehow most of it remained the same, as canon. Not a surprise though because almost every gambler, team, and participant was controlled by the anti-Viole FUG factions or influenced by FUG members in some fashion.

Talk about a rigged tournament, right?

As for me, I snuck away in the middle of the chaos of Beta crashing the tournament and a mass breakout of prisoners on the Archimedes (the ones that were all trying to save Emily but got caught by the Workshop patrols).

Most of the Workshop had already been empty once Beta had escaped during the party, but now there was literally nobody in there.

My Beastiont reconnaissance unit had managed to find a machine where one of Sophia's assistant researchers had forgotten to log out in the confusion, and there I downloaded as many files as I could, before sweeping physical documents that might be of use.

There was way too much useless or irrelevant content in there to grab it all and sort through in a reasonable time, but my goal wasn't to learn all the minute details of their experiments or the hard data. I was not an expert researcher and could hardly make sense of that sort of content.

I just needed to find some interpretive journals/notes from the researchers to double check the plausibility of whatever Cassano might have gotten from Sophia directly.

And for once, Offensive Bias would come in useful, despite being unable to connect to the Shinsoo-based machines, he could still process the physical documents and the ones I downloaded into my Lighthouse cubes, through optical scanning.

Next, I broke into the areas where they stored Ignition Liquid, Boiling Acid, components, catalysts, and related experimental inputs/products, grabbing containers from sealed vaults, shelves, and sucking in liquid from their water tanks with my own prepared containers.

Some of it I stuffed straight into Manbarondenna, but other things were already compressed and so the bag wouldn't take them, so I put the rest into uncompressed Lighthouse Cubes.

These storage items in ToG were incredibly convenient, and I'd surely miss their use on other planes without Shinsoo. With so much stuff packed though, my Avatar Body couldn't control any more Cubes for combat purposes, a minor drawback until I could store this stuff somewhere else.

Finally, I met up with Cassano after he also ditched the tournament after helping Reflejo take Hwa Ryun hostage and defeat Horyang, taking Horyang's half of the Devil at the same time when his 'brother' Living Ignition Weapon refused to join him.

I waited for him on the second floor of the Archimedes, and then followed him to the Acorn Workshop's hidden lower entrance to Emily's containment facility.

"Let's not waste any time," said Cassano to me.

Cassano slotted into a panel beside the entrance the custom Compression Flask he traded for from Madoraco, an FUG affiliated Ranker merchant who was one of the main forces behind the plan to trap Viole in the Workshop Battle.

The flask began to turn blue from its former red color.

Just then, an orange haired guy with goggles showed up from another hall.

"Who are you guys?" He asked, keeping some distance.

"You're a Traveler deceived by Emily? I'm surprised you made it this far," said Cassano.

"Then you're also…?"

"No. I'm here to get her out. Since you made it this far, I'll show you the truth about the Emily who deceived you."

The door to the facility opened, and together we went inside to see "Emily".

There was a huge vertical water tank with the label "EMILY-01" on it. Inside was…well, some kind of shapeless blob.

The tank connected to another gigantic egg-like structure further inside the facility.

Here, Cassano explained the nature of Emily to the Traveler, and the people involved.

An experiment in which a Living Ignition Weapon had been created, and that person was melted down so that it became a weapon others could harness.

Where the Workshop hosts wanted to recruit people for their own purposes, and manipulate them through Emily, thus assembling the Travelers.

FUG desired the power to create an ultimate weapon, and through Madoraco the merchant Ranker, provided funds to conduct the research and transport Emily with a special Flask.

In his explanation, Cassano didn't mention that the Flask was now in Cassano's hands since Madoraco betrayed the Workshop hosts.

"But..she really told me that she's alive! She begged me to come save her!" The Traveler shouted.

"It was all a lie to lure you people here. Or maybe she's delusional, believing that she was still alive despite being trapped in the tank," Cassano said coldly.

"That's…too cruel."

"I'm going to change this ridiculous tower, with the power of this weapon," Cassano declared, then walked away. "If you want to leave, then come with me."

The despairing Traveler followed listlessly.

As we moved out of the facility, I asked, "So, you already got the data?"

"I got it before the last round started. You just need to guard me until the delivery is finished," said Cassano. "Then I'll give it to you."

"Good."

Although I was asked to "guard" him, our escape from the Archimedes was quite peaceful. It seemed there was already a route prepared for him.

We made our way out through some hidden passages to a flying vehicle, where we embarked and exited the Archimedes ship from a side hanger, leaving the docked ship and the island where the chaos of the final round of the Workshop Battle was happening.

I vaguely kept track of the events through Gyetang and Yihwa, who had both been successfully summoned into the field.

Anyways, in the end, even Rankers got involved once FUG tried to melt Viole and the entire island where the tournament was happening with a massive amount of Boiling Acid.

Fortunately for Viole, the FUG Rankers were held off by Quant and Lero Ro, our old instructors from the 2nd​ Floor, whom had joined Wolhaiksong, the Irregular Urek Mazino's organization, and snuck into the area to help.

At some point during the intense situation, Gyetang heroically sacrificed himself under Derf's control trying to help stall the FUG Rankers, at which point, that Derf sword got destroyed so Derf moved to a second fake Derf sword I'd prepared with this avatar.

And of course, Viole and co., escaped the island and reunited with the old second floor team, while "capturing" Hwa Ryun, because Khun considered her too suspicious as an FUG member to treat as an ally despite her help.

I was confident she would be fine regardless and it was probably all part of her plan (making Baam feel guilty about his old friends mistreating her, probably) because she didn't ask me to rescue her so I simply minded my own business and left it alone.

O O O

A day later…

[Interlude]

Wangnan woke up and after getting caught up on the situation from Yihwa, found Ship Leesoo having a friendly conversation with Akraptor and Prince. Other members of both teams were scattered about, exercising, playing games, etc.

They'd been brought to a resort run by Wolhaiksong to recuperate.

"…please take care of Baam for us," said Ship, after some small talk and praising Wangnan.

"Wait, what do you mean? You're not going up with Viole?"

"We can't. We're already D-Rank Regulars, actually. We just stayed here to participate in the Workshop Battle, but now we're going to go up again. So we can't climb with Baam," said Ship. "We have our own goals, so we can't stop. Hurry and catch up to us."

Later in the day, Wangnan talked to Akraptor alone.

"Hey, what about Axion?" Wangnan asked. "Everyone was summoned and escaped, right? That's what flamethrower told me…but he's not with Viole's old teammates either. Did something happen?"

"It was difficult to summon him because of his points cost, but he said he had an alternative escape route. According to Yeon, he made it out, but has other things to do so he left on his own afterwards," said Akraptor.

"So we're really on our own now," said Wangnan. "But at least we still have Viole. I thought we'd have to part ways here."

"So did I. We'll also have that Khun guy, apparently."

"What? So we have to keep going through that hellish training?" Wangnan cried.

"What's wrong with that? Viole might have escaped FUG, but it's only going to get harder from here," said Yihwa, suddenly appearing from behind them.

"Ack! Flamethrower, what the heck?" Wangnan jolted around.

"We need to quickly get a lot stronger, or we'll fall behind and become burdens. You almost died this time, you know? There was literally a hole in your chest, I don't even know how you survived that," said Yihwa with a glare.

"That's…ugh. When did you start worrying about me?"

"I don't care about you, smelly pig. But we can't get complacent just because Viole's back. You should've realized it by now, right? How much of a gap there is between our team and Viole's friends, or his enemies. We can't rely on other people supporting and carrying us up forever. It's time to stand on our own!"

"You seemed really fired up. Is that what Axion told you? That you needed to become more independent?" Akraptor asked.

"That's not true! He said that about our whole team!"

"Well, he's not wrong…" said Wangnan.

Meanwhile…

Androssi stormed up to Baam who was quietly looking out a balcony.

"Huh?" Baam made a confused expression as Androssi grabbed him by the collar.

"Baam, we're going on a date," Androssi said, glaring at him. "Today."

"A date? Why, all of a sudden…with me?"

"Because I said so. You promised to eat Axion's chicken pie together with me, remember? But since that jerk ran off on his own again, you and I will go on a date instead. Got it? We're going to have a great time, by ourselves, without him, and he's going to regret missing out!"

"Uh, okay." Baam struggled to recall when he made such a promise, but in the end, simply went along with Androssi's demand.

The next day, their date became the subject of spying from Rak, Yihwa, and Prince.

Khun Aguero Agnis met with Novick and Ran after disciplining the spies, without actually stopping them.

"Yo Khun. So how are things?" Novick asked.

"I have some surveillance. Just hope the princess doesn't do anything reckless," said Khun, while thinking of Rak, Yihwa, and Prince.

"But what are you going to do now? Are we going to team up with them?"

"I guess…what happened with our original team is unthinkable…"

"What happened to Gyetang and Dan wasn't your fault, Khun," said Novick.

"No it's all my fault. That's why I can't let it end like this…"

Then he explained his new plan. Khun A.A. and Baam would be in the 'main' team, while Novick and Ran would form the secondary team. Both would help each other and exchange info while climbing, but the secondary team would be responsible for finding and eliminating Rachel.

O O O

30th​ Floor, Abandoned Castle

Far away, on an island with a ruined old castle, a group of four brown-cloaked hooded figures stood in a grand stone hall where the walls were cracked and pillars were crumbling from age.

One figure stood at the center upon a raised circular platform, looking upwards at something only she could see, while another stood behind her closely.

The large stone doors to the hall were slowly pushed open, revealing three newcomers, one of which also wore a brown cloak and hood, with a mask.

The other two were Cassano and the Traveler.

"Welcome," the blonde girl on the platform lowered her hood and smiled. "I was worried something bad might have happened on the Archimedes."

The Traveler took one look at Rachel and felt an ominous vibe. 'Who is she? What's this feeling?'

"It was nothing troubling, although I couldn't bring my comrade with me," said Cassano, walking towards the apparent leader of this group.

"And did you bring the item?" Rachel asked.

"I did. Here it is." Cassano showed the Flask containing Emily in his hand.

"Let me see," said the figure behind Rachel, also taking off his hood, to reveal a brown skinned white haired man. It was Michael, one of the double agents planted by Rachel on the team Khun had assembled. "I need to check it to proceed with the plan."

Michael came down from the stone platform and walked to Cassano, taking the Flask.

"Good work, Mr. Cassano," said Rachel.

"By the way, this man claims to know you, Miss Rachel," said Cassano, gesturing to the cloaked figure which arrived with him.

"Oh?" Rachel tilted her head, now looking more closely at the figure's style of dress which seemed reminiscent of her own group's. "He's not a Traveler?"

"No, he assisted me with some things, and made a deal with me, so I brought him along," said Cassano. "He calls himself 'A'."

Taking his cue, the figure walked forward towards Rachel without a word.

Michael frowned at the figure walking past him, then made eye contact with the other two standing on Rachel's other side.

The duo jumped in front of her immediately. The female one had long orange hair overflowing from her shoulder down in front of her chest, while the male had a huge wrapped weapon on his back.

"Hey you. Stand back a little, until we know who you are," said the man.

'A' stopped and chuckled. "Buelsar Elliot. One of Yama's Mad Dogs. From the strength of your Shinsoo, it seems that you are indeed stronger than Varagarv."

"Hoh? Did you meet him at the Workshop Battle? Judging from your tone, you must be pretty good yourself. But I should warn you, I'm a D-Rank. I don't know if you really fought him or you're just posturing, but either way, I hope you aren't thinking you're a match for me because of that," said Buelsar.

"Is that so? It seems that you've acquired some powerful teammates, Rachel," said A. "But, it feels like there's a couple missing still…"

"Who are you?" Rachel asked with a puzzled expression. "Are you here to join us?"

"Well…not exactly? I didn't originally plan to show up this early. But since Cassano kindly invited me, I couldn't turn him down," said A. "He has something I want, after all."

Rachel made a contemplative face for a moment before looking towards Cassano for an explanation.

"He wants some data from the Workshop. It could be dangerous in the wrong hands…so I agreed to give it to him only if he came with me. I wanted to be sure that he told the truth about being your associate, Miss Rachel," said Cassano.

Although the two acted as if Rachel was unaware of the situation, in reality Cassano had already sent her a message ahead of time informing her of it.

"In that case…aren't you going to take off your mask?" Rachel asked A. "I can't tell who you are otherwise."

"That's not a bad idea. But…I should clarify something first. Although I praised your cleverness in devising this strategy, Cassano, the deal we made was in fact, merely for me to guard you until your mission was complete. Revealing my identity was not a condition required," said A.

"What's up with this joker? Quit stalling and take it off already, in case you haven't noticed, you're surrounded," said the other hooded female figure standing beside Buelsar. "Don't try any funny business. If you really are Miss Rachel's acquaintance, why would you have a problem with that?"

A laughed, which sent everyone present on edge.

"No matter how you scheme, you still need the strength to back it up. Isn't that right, Rachel? So how about we play a little game? If you or your team can take my mask off by force, then I will join you. Otherwise, if I defeat you all without losing my mask, then I will just leave after Cassano hands over the data."

O O O

[Kaleidus]

I thought about my strategy while on the way here with Cassano.

Originally I had planned to simply lay low with this avatar after acquiring the Acorn Workshop's data and materials, to quietly study them by myself.

Then I'd join up with Rachel when her team went on the Hell Train next year.

Although it might strain my relationships with Team Ship and Team Sweet and Sour once they found out, it was simply more convenient to be in Rachel's party at that point for my own goals. I had nothing to gain from being with those other teams during those events, after all.

But since I was already here as part of the deal with Cassano, I could also just join her early.

Her team was top tier in the current bracket, and didn't really need me to help in the tests, so I could still spend my time studying Ignition Liquid while benefiting from some perks of being in her party.

There were, after all, two Living Ignition Weapons here now, plus a teammate that should have a power I was interested in studying, although that guy didn't seem to be here yet.

On top of Rachel being a decent summoner candidate as well, and possibly having useful FUG connections with different factions.

So it was with this in mind that I offered the game, with the intention of ultimately losing if they were too strong, or just conceding if I considered their performance good enough.

And it would allow me a chance to go all out with this avatar and see Rachel's progress.

After hearing my proposal, however, Rachel didn't immediately agree to it.

"Wait! Whoever you are, I'm not going to force you if you don't want to join, and if you had a deal with Mr. Cassano, I think it should just be honored," said Rachel, giving a meaningful look to Cassano.

"Understood," said Cassano, opening his Pocket and retrieving a data stick.

"Indeed, a deal should be honored on the terms agreed to. A wise decision from a fair leader," I said, turning back to Cassano and taking the data stick, then putting it away in my own Pocket.

"Rachel, are you really going to just let him go no questions asked?" asked the other hooded female figure. "Even after he used your name as leverage to make that deal?"

"That's not enough of a reason to treat him like an enemy, when it looks like he's cooperated with Mr. Cassano so far. It's impolite of him not to show me his face after coming all this way, but we have more important things to do than get upset over something like that," said Rachel.

I turned and faced the two of them again. "But my offer is still open to you. If you're confident in your team. Now that I've received my payment, this can just be a friendly wager between us."

"You against our whole team, that's a bit unfair, don't you think, especially if we only have to take off your mask?" Rachel asked skeptically. "Unless you're actually hoping to lose and join us? That's not going to work, you know. I won't just let any random person join. Do you even know what our purpose is?"

I just laughed provocatively. "Any random person…I'm sure you'll change your tune after you realize how difficult this game actually is for you. But you're right that it's a bit unfair…since your team isn't fully assembled yet, but don't worry, I'm willing to stay until they arrive, so you can have another try after losing."

"I don't know why you know so much, but now you're being ridiculous! I was trying to be nice, but you're just asking for a beating!" Rachel said with grit teeth.

"Some people just need to be taught physical lessons," said the orange haired woman. "I'll take care of this guy!"

Without waiting for Rachel's approval, the woman raised her right hand and formed a golden trident out of Shinsoo, rushing towards A.

"Don't be rash, Angel!" Rachel shouted, "We don't know what he can do!"

"Who cares? I'll crush him anyways!"

Rachel still didn't have much discipline over them, I noted. But that might be too much to expect for this particular team that she's only using as a stepping stone. Still, although it was years ago and our time together was short, I hoped she at least made some changes after receiving my advice.

O O O

[Interlude]

'She's as fast as the top E-Ranks! Who the heck are these people?!' The Traveler thought while backing away subconsciously in a sweat.

The masked 'A' stood still until the last moment before Angel's trident almost stabbed into his face, blurred to the side without apparently moving his legs, and then whirled around to strike her back with his palm.

From the point of contact a spiraling Shinsoo wave blasted out and sent Angel flying away in concert with her own prior momentum.

"A shaped Shinsoo Quality already? Not bad," said A, looking unruffled. "That's rare on these Floors."

"Floral Butterfly Piercing Technique…so you are from FUG after all," said Buelsar, observing closely, but not interfering or showing any concern for Angel. "We should keep him alive."

Angel flipped around and stopped her momentum, apparently not hurt much by the attack, but her hood fell off to reveal an angry expression.

"Don't get cocky, you bastard. That movement technique of yours might be tricky, but it's just a trick!"

Suddenly her blue eyes began to glow, small floating white wings came out the back of her cloak, and a yellow halo formed on top of her head.

She rushed towards A once again, but this time airborne, approaching A at an angle from the air.

This time, A barely dodged with some footwork, then proceeded to demonstrate extraordinary martial arts skill, repeatedly dodging Angel's attacks in a close melee by twisting his torso, leaning away, stepping aside, and occasionally parrying with a palm imbued with Shinsoo waves.

"No tricks this time," said A, while expertly weaving around his opponent.

"Stay still!"

"No thanks," said A. Then he unnaturally blurred aside again—only this time, he curved upwards and was right above her in a flash.

With a downwards straight kick, he forced her straight into the ground facedown and held his foot on her back, making it difficult for her to exert force to get out of the hold.

"Flying is indeed another rare sight at this level, but unfortunately that won't help you against me either," said A. "I suggest you work with your teammates instead."

Although Angel's speed was impressive compared to E-Rank Regulars, and significantly faster than A's Reinforced physical speed, it was clear that A's skill greatly exceeded hers.

Moreover, her physical speed was still much slower than the weakened Omni-Flight spell and the derivative Burstshift Kaleidus could use through this Avatar Body, even with this being the less compatible Axion model compared to Sasha.

Critically, because this model didn't have the Endbringer crystal internal armor weighing it down either, the cost to use that spell in sub-second bursts was almost negligible.

As Kaleidus assessed the preliminary battle results, he keenly felt the fruits of his combat training with Ha Jinsung.

Unlike the prior years, the last two had been focused almost entirely on direct combat development rather than spell research, and the areas of growth changed accordingly.

"Shut up, I'm not done!" Angel growled, then suddenly black round balls exploded from underneath her cloak.

Hundreds of them enlarged as they flew into the air surrounding A, becoming various sizes, some larger than people, revealing their nature as metallic spiked and winged lifeforms with rows of sharp teeth, making sounds like nails on metal.

'A' jumped off to avoid them, Angel flipped back up into the air. "I admit you're fucking fast, but speed alone doesn't win fights! Let's see how you dodge these Metalfish that can even eat through diamonds! They'll eat you alive!"

"You really have an impressive array of skills," said A in a tone that was still calm, taking up a new stance as the Metalfish swarmed towards him from all sides, making it impossible to dodge.

'A single one of these could give a typical E-Rank Regular trouble! She controls hundreds?'' The Traveler thought, marveling at the sight, subconsciously letting out a murmur, "Is the gulf between E and D Rank really this huge?"

"This team is top tier even within D-Rank, kid. You heard that dude earlier right? Buelsar Elliot over there is one of Baylord Yama's Mad Dogs, and that's his assigned Angel," Michael helpfully explained from beside him, keeping a large distance between himself and the fight. He was among the weaker ones in the group in terms of direct combat power and had no desire to get involved directly.

"But what gives you the idea that I rely only on speed?" A asked, before cracking the ground with a Shinsoo burst step and charging face first into the swarm.

His fist smashed a Metalfish and blew it away into several others behind it, before turning to another with a kick, and using the momentum to flip himself over to yet another one. Each strike carried enough force to dent the creatures' body and was accompanied by a wave of Shinsoo.

Like this, a whirlwind of powerful strikes dispersed the swarm.

"Alright you fucker, I'll—!" Angel shouted and her eyes glowed brighter, as if preparing to unleash another powerful technique.

"This is just a bad matchup for you, Angel," interrupted Buelsar, grabbing his weapon from his back and disappearing in a burst of speed.

He reappeared to the side of A, already swinging his drill-like needle with both hands, trailing with a powerful Shinsoo wind, smiling maniacally.

"…!"

A raised both arms to block just in time, but the collision blasted him away dozens of meters into a wall.

O O O

 

[Eiri Fllyn]

81 – Team Rachel 2

Buelsar didn't let up and chased him, stabbing forward while A was just getting out of the crack.

A blurred to the side dodging, and was forced on the defensive as Buelsar continued to attack, seemingly keeping up with his speed.

After a while, A moved a large distance away into the air, and then something flew out from his sleeve into his hand, enlarging into a grey one-handed longsword. If one looked very closely at it, it would seem to have a slightly crystalline texture, but otherwise looked like patterned steel.

"Ignite, Lingering Sword!"

"Ooowwwwwoooooooowaaaa!" A ghostly wail came from the sword as Shinsoo currents gathered around it.

Then A charged towards Buelsar at a blistering speed, a grey aura enveloping the sword as he swung it.

Buelsar countered with a full force swing from his own weapon, and the two clashed with a shockwave that cracked the ground while fluttering their cloaks.

While continuing with several more similar exchanges, they seemed to be eventually matched, and A quickly assessed the situation.

'Non-lethal subdue doesn't look possible with only this avatar and fake Derf sword,' Kaleidus thought. 'He's faster, still has much stronger power in reserve, and the blood fusion special as a Mad Dog. His weapon is durable enough to handle Derf's Level 4 Sword Aura without much damage, and while his body might be more vulnerable it will be difficult to create an opening.'

In practice, although he could move his whole body at even higher speeds than now with Burstshift using just 1-2 MP per burst, his limbs couldn't move quite as fast, so against somebody actually skilled in close combat, the advantage was somewhat limited.

'If Buelsar is like this, Daniel might actually be strong enough to fight my true body evenly, never mind that monster Hoaqin,' Kaleidus concluded.

Daniel Hatchid was one of the team members who hadn't arrived yet, but whom Kaleidus knew from the story that he was the strongest, fastest, and most durable of their group, representing the peak of D-Rank Regular power, and probably even stronger than many C Ranks.

That was because the ranking system for Regulars was based on the tests passed, not necessarily their actual combat strength.

There were those who stayed within a certain Floor group for various reasons, and in the D-Rank one such attraction was the "Hell Train" which was an optional route that went from the 35th​ to the 44th​ Floor, and had many secrets aboard.

'Well, it's not like I expected anything different. The power scaling from this point onwards will become difficult to handle, even before I reach the limit of my canon knowledge. Indeed, that orange head's criticism of me is valid…tricks will only get me so far. I don't have the talent to quickly reach greater heights without special methods. But that's precisely why climbing with the 'good guys' with all their fated and born talent, would no longer be helpful to me.'

"Is this all you can do? After all that bluster, I wondered what cards you had up your sleeve to be so arrogant," said Buelsar with a grin, seemingly unstressed with their fight so far.

"Not at all, you should remember my goal is to just keep my mask on. This is just a little game, after all, I can't make it too difficult for you guys," said A, without an outward hint of his internal conclusion.

'Still, it's not like I have no options at all…I've been preparing for this a long time and learned many new things after all…let's test their limits and mine!'

"Hah, still acting like you've got everything under control. But who says we need to accept you into our team? At this rate, you might want to think about begging to join us, not the other way around!"

"Kuhuhu…in that case, why don't you show me my place? I could keep this up all day," said A, before flashing into the air. "Are you even capable of flying like your teammates?"

Buelsar scoffed. "So now you're just running away?"

"Tactics are also a form of strength. Why don't you guys just work together to take me down?"

But Buelsar just grinned again. "Don't celebrate yet, I don't need to be able to fly to get you."

Then he raised his hand and suddenly the entire space in the hall was surrounded by gigantic chains manifested from Shinsoo, which crisscrossed in a pattern through the air.

"Welcome to 'Hell in a Cell', the special ability my master granted me as a Mad Dog! These chains won't break until I die! You've got nowhere to go now!"

Segments of the chain tried to wrap around A, but they weren't very fast so he easily dodged.

However, Buelsar jumped onto the chains he made, and navigated through the air by running on them like paths.

The furious melee continued in the air, Buelsar putting more pressure on A by simultaneously controlling the chains to attack.

"Haven't you been looking down on us a little too much, with only this meagre strength?" Buelsar shouted while his attacks increased in both ferocity and speed.

Each strike was accompanied with a tremendous Shinsoo wind blast generated by his drill weapon, extending his attacks beyond his physical reach.

Then, one strike completely overwhelmed its opposing force from the 'Lingering Sword' and blew A's whole body away.

He smashed into a large chain segment, and was then quickly tied up by other smaller chains.

The fake Derf 'Lingering Sword' was still intact in his hand, as its magic aura cut through the Shinsoo blast, but it had proven insufficient to block the larger surface area of Buelsar's attack.

"It's over now that you're caught in my chains," said Buelsar, stepping on the big chain A was attached to, and kneeling down from above and behind A's head, reaching out. "Now let's see what's behind that mask, shall we?"

Suddenly A's body contorted unnaturally and some parts of the body even separated, allowing him to slip through the chains.

"…?!"

Green gasses erupted from the separated parts, obstructing sight.

Buelsar stepped back to avoid the fumes in case they were toxic or poisonous.

In that moment, A reformed the Avatar Body. This was possible because that was a body composed almost entirely of Beastiont/Armoriont biology, rather than an actual human body.

Its only true vital point was the Spirit Cluster Core that powered it.

"Did you really think it would be that easy?" A asked after flashing away and reappearing far away.

Buelsar chased once again, but then A retreated instead of engaging this time.

"I'm still faster than any of you, so unless I allow you to engage me on purpose, you can't catch me if you're not working as a team, let alone break through my defenses," A taunted while repeatedly moving away every time Buelsar got close. "These chains aren't nearly good enough to pin me down!"

"Annoying bastard!" Buelsar shouted. "Stop acting like you're winning while all you're doing is running away!"

"Is that what you think?" A asked. "Looks like you're still misunderstanding something."

'I ought to use this chance to teach Rachel and her overpowered arrogant team the value of actually being coordinated as a group,' thought Kaleidus.

Then the atmosphere seemed to change in a split second as A changed stances just as Buelsar reached him again, drill swinging with a torrent of Shinsoo.

When A disappeared yet again, flashing away, an energetic ball of Shinsoo was left behind, which immediately exploded on Buelsar.

The strength of that blast was unexpectedly weak however, so Buelsar warily observed for any other tricks hidden in the attack.

Then A went on the offensive again, except he didn't target Buelsar.

Instead, he reappeared behind Angel, who had just been watching from the side as she didn't want to interfere with her superior's fight after being called off earlier.

"Ahhh!!" She screamed when the Lingering Sword slashed her back open.

"Hiiiiiehiiiiahehi!" The sword released a bizarre sound that somewhat resembled deranged laughter.

He disappeared yet again before Angel could respond, leaving behind another ball of Shinsoo as she furiously turned around, and then delivered another two slashes to her legs after reappearing on her other side, and finally disappeared again just as the ball exploded in her face while she collapsed towards the ground.

"Bastard, you're fighting me!!" Buelsar yelled.

"Weren't you saying I couldn't defeat you? Here I am, allowing you guys to strategize and come as a group, but you wasted the opportunity!" A replied, escaping from Buelsar again.

'Isn't he supposed to have a ramp up power too as his opponent gets stronger? But nothing is happening, so it doesn't activate if he isn't personally being targeted? Or maybe because I am not strong enough to trigger it, so he's just unable to get to me.' Kaleidus analyzed.

"Damn! Mr. Cassano, please help Mr. Elliot!" Rachel shouted. "Michael, take Emily to go rendezvous with Apple, and keep an eye on that other guy!"

"You better come with me, man," Michael said to the Traveler.

"Wait, what are you guys trying to do with Emily?" The Traveler asked.

Michael ignored him however and simply grabbed his arm, running towards the exit.

Cassano jumped into the fray, powering up his left and right arms in a red and blue light respectively. 'I suppose now is as good a time as any to test out the complete devil's power,' he thought.

"That's more like it!" A shouted while narrowly escaping a large blast from Cassano's left arm that carved a trench into the ground.

Cassano's aura powered up even more and formed wings of light on his back.

With two fighters on him plus the still present chains from Buelsar, A had much less space to maneuver, and was occasionally forced to parry along with his evasive tactics as the two began to catch up and get more coordinated.

'Damn, this power is still unstable!' Cassano thought while trying to use the devil's power in his right arm simultaneously. 'I'll need time to get used to using both halves, it's not ready!'

Feeling that he was losing ground, A switched tactics again and materialized an Arms Inventory with racks full of ball capsules.

A quick gesture had multiple of them open and numerous creatures burst forth.

Screeches and roars abounded as an assortment of chimeric and strange creatures assaulted Cassano and Buelsar.

These were all experimental models intentionally different from the efficiently specialized monster Beastionts Sasha used, and incorporated a significant amount of local Shinheuh biology that Kaleidus encountered while climbing.

"An Anima…!" Rachel exclaimed. 'Who the hell is this guy? He's too strong, they won't win like this. Was he sent by a different Elder? The intel he has on us doesn't seem completely accurate though. The necromancer won't join us until later, and Apple is useless in a fight like this, so it wouldn't make any difference if I had a full team assembled or not. If I want to win this game, I need to do something now!'

A tentacled creature managed to wrap itself around Cassano while several other creatures bit down on his arms and legs, restricting his movement and his ability to generate force from his limbs to get out of the hold.

A winged draconic fish hurled a stream of liquid from its mouth against Buelsar's side while A clashed his sword against the Mad Dog's drill weapon.

"Fuck, what is this shit?! More bullshit tricks?!" Buelsar cursed as the liquid stuck to his clothes and weapon, substantially slowing him down, allowing the dragon fish to jump him. "You're the most annoying jackass I've faced in a long time!"

A ignored the insults and pressed the attack too now that Buelsar was inconvenienced while blocking the dragon fish.

Then a giant yellow Lighthouse Cube smashed him aside before he could land a strike.

"Angel, can you still fight?" Rachel asked, helping the other woman up while watching her Cube hit A.

"Arghh! Of course I can, he didn't get my arms, and I don't need my legs if I can just fly!" Angel growled. "I'll fucking show him who he's messing with!"

She grabbed tightly onto her Shinsoo trident and concentrated as her eyes began glowing a much brighter blue.

"Hraaah!!!" Buelsar screamed and a black smoking aura erupted from his body, pushing much of the goo off him as Shinsoo swirled.

The dragon fish roared and attacked savagely with its claws and jaw, but Buelsar with his new aura rapidly overwhelmed it.

A attempted to assist but was blocked by a triangular light screen constructed from 3 Light Cubes as the vertices, then boxed in by another 6 Cubes from beside and behind in a wide field that covered half the hall.

'9 Cubes at once already? Looks like she really did hone her own skills,' Kaleidus observed. 'This Shinsoo slow field is also tough to deal with too, I don't have enough resistance in this body to just ignore the effect, and I wouldn't even be able to counter this with my own inferior Lighthouse skills even if I could use any Cubes right now.'

"Hah!!! Die!" Angel yelled as she charged toward A, now sporting a halo over her head and glowing angel wings that expanded to twice the length of her height.

Her speed had dramatically increased as well, and when combined with the Lighthouse control field and the numerous chains still serving as obstacles for A, she easily caught up to him this time.

Instead of trying to evade, a conch-like Shinsoo cannon appeared right in front of A, launching an enormous blast wave of Shinsoo at Angel.

This blast was incomparably larger than anything anyone in the battle had unleashed so far, having used a potent stored charge that Kaleidus had prepared in it ahead of time using the power of the water spirits, rather than relying on the Avatar Body's or his own ability to form Baangs.

Angel crashed her similarly enlarged Shinsoo trident, which now glowed with a flaming aura, into the blast wave and was momentarily pushed back, and fought for dominance, pouring as much power into her manifested trident as she could. "Fuck!! Why you…!"

Meanwhile, Cassano had finally stabilized enough of his unified power to unleash a tremendous burst of Shinsoo that tore apart the huge tentacle creature holding him and blasted away the other creatures.

He panted heavily after the act, and seemed barely able to continue fighting however. A message from his Pocket had him lumber towards Rachel to recover and take up a guard position instead of pursuing A further.

Next to him, Buelsar had critically wounded the dragon fish and had charged back towards A, who was barely holding off Angel and was still in a severely slowed state.

'This seems to be my limit for now, I can't use the White Steel Eel well with all these chains in the way blocking its movement. The conclusion of this match is clear. But even so…it would be unsightly not to continue until the end!'

More Shinheuh with the strength of E-Rank Regulars burst out of new capsule Bowls to meet Buelsar's charge. The big ones spewed more goo, acid, and opaque gases to obstruct the area while smaller creatures went to constrict him similar to the big one that had immobilized Cassano moments before.

Angel was finally blasted away, just barely overwhelmed by the Shinsoo wave.

A charged full speed in an attempt to get out of the slow field, while Rachel gestured with her hands to maneuver the field-generating Cubes alongside his charge, and recalled 3 of them.

She jumped on 1 of them to take flight while reserving the other two for physical combat.

Finally, the White Steel Eel burst out of the last capsule with a mighty screech.

It buckled against the numerous chains crisscrossing the area, but was flexible enough to get through the open spaces and powerful enough that the chains failed to completely stop its movement.

Rachel watched with shock and froze for several seconds, staring at the creature which shattered her dreams on the first floor which she hadn't dared to fight.

"Damn it…! I'm different now!" Rachels shouted to nobody in particular.

A climbed onto the Eel, which was completely uninhibited by the Shinsoo slow field, being used to much greater densities in its natural habitat, and used it as a vehicle to escape out of the field, rushing towards Rachel.

Cassano launched another Shinsoo punch beam into the steel eel's armored section, which briefly diverted its course, but otherwise failed to deal substantial damage.

After just barely escaping the control field, A jumped off the Eel just as Buelsar lost the other Shinheuh stalling him and manipulated the chains to constrict the Eel.

The White Steel Eel turned to face Buelsar, while A blitzed towards Rachel, getting past her desperate attempts to block him with her Cubes.

There was a loud clang as A's sword crashed into Cassano's left hand palm in defense mode, just barely intercepting him from striking Rachel. The Living Ignition Weapon grabbed tightly on the sword with both hands, preventing A from retracting it.

Simultaneously a huge Cube dropped directly on top of A, crushing him onto the ground leaving only his head uncovered, followed by several other cubes immediately getting in formation to generate another slow field concentrated on him.

Cassano finally collapsed, exhausted from the burden of his unstable power on his body.

Rachel rushed forward around Cassano with a determined expression and grabbed the trapped A's mask, ripping it off.

After a moment of confusion, her eyes widened as she recognized the unusually colored eyes and the face.

"Axion…?"

"Congratulations, you win Rachel. You've grown strong," Axion said with a satisfied smile.

Angel was groaning and had shrunk back to her normal size leaning against a wall in the distance.

Buelsar yelled incoherently while furiously continuing to fight the chained up White Steel Eel and beating it into the ground.

Rachel was surprised for a moment before quickly regaining her senses. "Wait, stop, Mr. Elliot! The game is over! We won!"

O O O

After the battle concluded, it took some time before everyone settled down.

During that time, Michael, the Traveler, and Apple had returned together and started treating their team's wounds. Apple was another Lightbearer who specialized in intelligence and logistics, who, like Michael, was one of the double agents that came with Rachel from Khun's team.

A had retrieved his Shinheuh into his Bowl too, and Buelsar's chains were released.

"So, you actually know that guy?" Buelsar asked, arms crossed leaning against the wall beside Angel, who was being looked at by Michael, who also served as the group's doctor.

"Yes. Although I didn't expect him to test us like that, he will be of great help after joining us," said Rachel.

"Whatever. As long as he doesn't mess up the plan," said Buelsar.

"Thanks for understanding, Mr. Elliot," said Rachel.

Meanwhile, Axion had treated Cassano a little with his own skills, and had received another data stick from him.

"Hmm, so the one from earlier was a fake?" Axion asked.

"Not quite. It was a small fraction of what I received from Ms. Sophia. Our deal didn't specify exactly what data to give you after all, and if you weren't genuinely Miss Rachel's friend then there was no need to give any more than the minimum. That was the true nature of our cooperation after all…I had no need of you as an actual guard," said Cassano.

"That's smart. And I probably wouldn't have found out. Even if the info was lacking, it would be reasonable to think Sophia withheld it at the source and there would be little I could do about it."

"It was Miss Rachel's idea, after hearing about it from me."

Apple was now working with her Lighthouse, doing something with Emily while the Traveler just watched.

Some time later, Axion and Rachel met alone in a different room of the castle.

"Was all that really necessary?" Rachel asked. "You could've warned me first."

"It was more fun that way. I was telling the truth, you know? Cassano is the one who asked me to come with him, I didn't plan to join you at this point," said Axion.

"So you really would've left if we didn't win the game?" Rachel asked with a frown.

"Yes. I was originally going to let you summon me on your own when you decided I was needed," said Axion, pointing at her neck. "With the catalyst. You weren't planning on calling for me so soon either, right?"

"Hmm," said Rachel, looking away. "I wasn't sure if you'd really come at all, so I made my plans with that in mind. This will change things."

"If it's inconvenient for you, I can leave and come back later. I need to spend some time analyzing this data anyways, so I might not have a lot of time to do whatever you guys are planning," said Axion.

Rachel shook her head. "No, come with us. You lost the game anyways, and we don't have that much to do until the 35th​ Floor," said Rachel. "That's when it'll get busy. By the way…"

She looked at him critically again. "How much were you holding back there?"

"What makes you think I didn't go all out? I thought I played it pretty convincingly."

"Obviously, you didn't use your real sword, or 'that power'. I know what you did when fighting that Ranker assassin, remember? My Ghost was there," said Rachel, referring to the entity assigned to her by Headon and who secretly assisted Axion at the final moment against Lo Po Bia Ren using Reverse Flow to freeze him in place when Derflinger's ultimate attack was launched.

"Haha, that's true. Well actually, there's a reason I couldn't use Derflinger's true power, even aside from hiding his presence or my trump cards," said Axion.

"This isn't my real sword, it's a substitute blade to avoid being recognized. Also our power is limited when acting without a summoner," said Derflinger, finally revealing his ability to actually talk. "Didn't you also hear us talk about that at the same battle?"

"So it's because that princess isn't here?" Rachel asked. "I didn't get all the specifics of it."

"Partially, yes."

"Can you make another contract with someone else?"

"I can. Why, are you interested?"

"Does making a new one mean breaking your old one?"

"Nope, I can make more than one. It doesn't have to be permanent either, it could just be for a single objective," said Axion.

"Then what happens if your summoners are enemies with each other?"

"I'll avoid doing anything that harms either or directly contradicts the other's commands, and if they insist on fighting, I'll either pick a side I like more or stay out of it for them to resolve it themselves," said Axion.

"I assume you're willing to contract with me, if you're explaining that much," said Rachel.

"It would be fairly difficult to move with your group otherwise, yes, unless you'd prefer someone else on your team to play that role. But they might not be qualified for it."

"No, it has to be me! But tell me everything I need to know about it first."

O O O

A/N: That's the last chapter of this arc. Originally intended to be one arc, I've split it into two since I reoriented around the Sasha plot. The next one will delve into further MC's Hell Train activities.
The Hell Train, Hidden Floor, and Floor of Death arcs were quite long in the canon, but I plan to just focus on the parts I found most interesting. One of the major things I looked forward to in the ToG segment is actually the Floor of Death arc, since it holds the possibility of very interesting interactions. That said, we might (as in, tbd) have to take a break from ToG before we get there, partly to manage the story length of being in one setting, and partly because it makes some sense for the MC to put off encountering much more powerful entities that start to feature in the canon storyline, now that MC has a method of managing planar time relative to his own.