Chương 70: Chapter 69: Strange New Cast

Ophila had stopped dead in the middle of the street, exactly three houses down from Senna's front door. Her gaze was locked on the jagged, violent crack ripping through the fabric of the artificial sky. She had never seen anything like it. The closest thing she'd ever heard of was myths about a phenomenon known as a "Floor Collapse", but those were just ghost stories told by veteran Delvers meant to scare the newbies. They were supposed to be impossible.

Yet, looking up, she could see that reality breaking right in front of her.

"Ophila!" The shout came from behind her. Senna was sprinting down the steps of her porch, her eyes wide with panic. She grabbed Ophila by her arm.

"What's happening?" Ophila shook her head. Her normally analytical and logical mind was spinning away into an useless loop.

"I don't know," she managed, biting her lower lip. Her thoughts drifted to William, who was alone in the lodge without anybody to rely on, and felt a pang of worry. She wished that Lio was standing beside her. Even if he was a horrible manipulative bastard, he was the one who always knew what to do. Or, at the very very least, possessed the uncanny ability to fake it so perfectly that you couldn't help but believe him. But Lio wasn't here. She had to figure this out herself.

Ophila took a deep breath, forcing her mind to push past the shock. She gripped Senna's arm back, willing her voice to remain steady.

"Senna, listen to me." Ophila locked her eyes onto the older girl's panicked face.

"We can't stay out in the open. We need to get to the Floor 4 descent tunnel."

"But the sky—" Senna stammered.

"Don't look at it," Ophila ordered, pulling her forward.

"Lio told me that if anything happened, we head straight for the descent tunnel. And William is still back at the lodge. We have to grab him on the way." At the mention of Lio's name, Senna's eyes widened, the panic draining from her face.

"Okay," she said immediately, her voice suddenly calm.

"Okay, if Lio said so." Ophila stared at her, utterly floored, before shaking herself out of it. She had a million questions about what exactly Lio had done to earn that kind of blind, instantaneous devotion. It was clear that the girl's trust ran so deep that a single name could completely erase the terror of a literal apocalypse unfolding above them. It was deeply unsettling. But right now, analyzing Lio's terrifying charisma—and also the lack of it—was a luxury they didn't have.

"Keep close," Ophila barked, pulling Senna forward. They started moving, Senna falling into step beside her, both of them keeping their heads down. Around them, the rest of the Trestfall populace had begun to notice that something was wrong with their sky. Conversations died midway, crowds stopped walking to stare at the sky, faces upturned to stare at the strange rift.

"Keep your eyes on the road," Ophila hissed, her hand gripping Senna's elbow to steer her past a group of stunned merchants.

"If the crowd starts to stampede, we'll get trapped—""Ophila?"

"What? We don't have time to—""Ophila, look." Senna's voice had changed its tone. The bizarre, soothing effect that Lio's name had just conjured hadn't completely vanished, but her tone had suddenly gone frigid, drained of any remaining warmth. Ophila stopped. Against every instinct screaming at her to keep her eyes glued to the cobblestones, she slowly tilted her head upward. And she stared, paralyzed, as two colossal hands reached out from the breach.

Its massive metallic gauntlets clamped onto the torn edges of reality, fingers digging into the rippling stone they forced the rift open wider. Through the widened gap, a towering entity peered out, draped in heavy, dark ceremonial robes that billowed widely around its monumental figure. The armor strapped around his torso and limbs was ornate and ancient, but what caught Ophila's eye was the massive, blocky warhammer gripped in one hand and a set of giant iron scales swaying in the other.

A horrific stone mask, carved into the grimacing visage of a multi-eyed demon, obscured its face entirely as it stared down at the helpless town below. The titan leaned forward, lifting its massive warhammer, and spoke in a booming voice that rattled Ophila's teeth.

"GUILTY!" Immediately, the void behind the giant blackened completely as hundreds of writhing dark shapes erupted from the crack. They poured down toward the streets of Trestfall in a relentless torrent, and as they descended, their silhouettes solidified themselves into ghastly monsters, their inhuman shrieks filling the air as they dove straight into the panicked crowd. For one full second, Ophila's brain simply refused to process what her eyes were sending it.

Then, as the first monster slammed into the crowd and the screaming started, her mind was jolted back to life. Run. The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Lunging forward, she clamped her hand around Senna's wrist and began to sprint. Meanwhile, behind them, the street was already dissolving into chaos. Trestfall was a settlement built for the quiet, peaceful routine of the upper Floors. It wasn't prepared for a catastrophe this size.

Within seconds, the crowds erupted into a frantic, claustrophobic stampede. People collided with one another, knocking over merchant stalls and abandoning their belongings in a desperate bid to find cover. Quickly, the air filled with the acrid stench of smoke and the terrified wails of the populace. Near the town square, a small squad of Trestfall guards tried to form a defensive line. But they were completely unequipped for an apocalypse.

The moment the first wave of monsters hit, the line was ruthlessly overwhelmed, torn apart in an instant before the guards could even cry out. As Ophila dragged Senna through the screaming crowd, she forced herself to look at the attackers. She would need it for future reference. And she saw that the monsters were a strange, chaotic assortment with absolutely no uniformity to the swarm.

Some were completely alien, but as Ophila's eyes darted across the battlefield—or more correctly, a massacre—she found that she recognized some of them. But they were supposed to be from the lower Floors. Just twenty yards away, tearing through a crowd of people, a cloud of blood spraying into the air, was a pack of Adlets—beasts with the lower body of a canine and the upper body of a human that belonged to Floor 18.

Overhead, the leathery wings of a Boobrie flapped violently, creatures she knew were native only to the fairy territories of Floors 11-13. A cold dread pooled in her stomach. This was exactly like their encounter with that strange creature on Floor 1—a beast she later researched and identified as a Floor 17 Skinwalker. What were they doing up here?

"Ophila, the alley!" Senna gasped for breath as she pointed toward a narrow gap between two stone townhouses. Nodding, Ophila veered hard to the left, pulling Senna out of the main street. As they sprinted into the shadow of the cool alleyway, Ophila's hand dipped into her pocket, her fingers wrapping around her rough marbles. Her heart hammered against her ribs. Then, she screeched to a complete stop. The abrupt halt nearly pulled Senna off her feet.

She stumbled with a yelp, turning to stare at Ophila in utter confusion.

"Wha—" Ophila slapped a hand over Senna's mouth, instantly silencing her. Her own chest heaved as she fought to quiet her breathing. Her eyes were fixed on the path ahead, her brows furrowed with concentration. She scowled. The shadows at the end of the alleyway were wrong. Instead of lying against the ground and walls, the darkness was pooling unnaturally, completely detached from where the light was. The silhouettes of the broken bricks simply didn't match the shapes casting them.

Ophila felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up as the shadows suddenly coalesced, hardening into a tall, lithe monster. It bared a row of jagged, needle-like teeth, unleashing a low snarl. Ophila grimaced, grabbing a marble, preparing to lift it out— Senna moved. Despite the terror in her eyes, the older girl didn't hesitate. She pulled Ophila's hand from her mouth and slapped her palm over the rune inscribed across her collarbone.

The lines of the mark ignited into a brilliant light, and the air behind her rippled, two ghostly hands emerging. They reached out, clamping tightly around her left wrist. Senna's face flashed with pain. A soft whisper slithered out of the darkness.

"Your pain is your payment, child. Agreed?"

"Yes," Senna choked out. Immediately, the ghostly hands vanished back into the ink-like blackness, and a thin plume of dark smoke rose from the cobblestones. Ophila watched closely, noticing that for some reason, the intricate pentacle she'd seen during Senna's previous casting did not appear. Instead, the smoke twisted and shifted until it evaporated completely, revealing a lean soldier outfitted in a light white tunic and a rough wolf pelt draped across its shoulders.

It dropped to one knee instantly, its featureless iron mask faced toward the ground.

"I am a nameless Velite of the Praesepe Legion," it whispered, raising its bronze spear.

"Born to serve the Great Duke Alloces. My life is short, my strike is quick. Point, Contractor, and I shall carry out your will."

"That monster," Senna gasped, pointing a trembling hand toward the shadowy creature.

"Destroy it."

"Of course, Contractor." The Velite rose from its knee. Then, in an explosive blur of motion, it darted forward, driving the bronze spear straight toward the shadow beast's torso. The creature unleashed a harsh and animalistic screech, lunging off the brick wall to meet the arcane soldier head-on. The Velite fought with a fluid, deadly grace, masterfully using the length of its weapon to keep the beast's snapping jaws at bay. Ophila didn't waste the opportunity. She grabbed Senna by her arm and yanked her backward.

"We need to move," Ophila urged, glancing past the skirmish toward the narrow gap of the alley exit. Senna nodded through gritted teeth, her face pale and clammy. With Ophila leading the way, they bolted down the remaining stretch of the alley, squeezing past the brawl. Behind them, the sharp clashing of bronze echoed, accompanied by the beast's frustrated snarls. They slipped through the narrow exit, bursting out into the open street. Trestfall was in chaos, but Ophila didn't pause to look at the sky again.

With her hand tightly gripping Senna's arm, she navigated the panicked crowds, sprinting until the familiar sight of the lodge came into view. She threw the front door open, the wood banging violently against the interior wall.

"William!" Ophila shouted. No answer.

"William!" she called out again, bolting down the hallway, with Senna stumbling close behind. Ophila reached William's bedroom door and flung it open. She stopped dead in the doorway, her eyes wide with disbelief. The room was in complete ruins. Right in the center of the floorboards was a massive, jagged hole, plunging deep into the dark earth below. The thick, suffocating scent of damp earth mixed with something foul slammed into her nostrils, making her dizzy.

Clinging to the splintered edges of the broken wood was a thick, iridescent slime that shimmered in the dim light. Ophila took a step back, shielding her nose with her sleeve as her mind raced to process the scene. There were no signs of a struggle. It was as if something had simply snatched William, and dragged him right back down into the earth. What the hell is going on?

"William..." Senna whispered from behind her, as she stared over Ophila's shoulder at the gaping pit.

"Well, well, well," came a voice from behind them. It was low and amused, dripping like warm honey.

"What a mess." Ophila and Senna spun around. Leaning against the doorframe of the hallway was a woman. She was uncommonly tall, with long legs disappearing beneath a light, dark fabric that barely skimmed her thick thighs. She was all curves, her waist narrow and her chest full, her warm brown skin catching the dim light. Dark hair tumbled loose past her shoulders, curly and sleek.

"Did you do this?" Ophila demanded, stepping forward and putting herself between the stranger and Senna.

"What did you do?" The woman let out a soft, musical giggle.

"Me?" She languidly pressed a hand to her chest in mock offense.

"Of course not, Ophila." Ophila stiffened.

"How do you know my name?" The woman smirked as she reached into the folds of her skimpy clothes and drew out a long golden sewing needle, holding it up between two fingers. She ran her tongue over her lips slowly.

"Why don't you come with me and find out?"