Raymond and Shiina watched astonished the abyss, which had already swallowed Sariel and Luna.
"Did he really jump in there? Is he crazy?" Raymond was surprised.
"Look who's talking..." mumbled Shiina. "If I didn't hold you, you would have jumped too."
"Let's go." Aegreon ignored the situation. "We need to find out exactly what this place is."
"What about them?" asked the bodyguard.
"A simple fall like this is nothing for Sariel," said the assassin. "Let's search this place."
Moving away from the abyss, the three saw themselves amid a great city with imposing buildings everywhere. However, the absolute silence made exploration a little uncomfortable.
"Let's split up" said the Pillar, already moving away without expecting an answer and disappearing among the dozens of constructions.
"Where are we going?" asked Raymond.
"I don't know, what about there?" Shiina pointed to a high building that almost touched the ceiling of the cave. "It's close to the bridge and it's big, maybe it's important. Not to mention that we can see everything from above and decide our next step better."
"Sounds like a good start."
Both walked to the wide and high building looking for clues.
Sariel's horse, Su-en, followed them both and obeyed their orders without resisting. He was a well-trained and friendly animal, though strong.
When they reached the building door, they heard a great impact echoing from the bottom of the abyss.
"Does that mean they've only reached the bottom now?" asked Raymond.
"Probably." Shiina approached the door. "Let's see how it opens."
The assassin stretched her hand to push the heavy door, when the stone suddenly shone in brown and opened itself, sliding into the wall and allowing the entrance of both.
"An automatic door… must have an Alteration stone that detects us and moves the door as we approach."
"So, this construction is definitely important. It wouldn't make sense to spend an Alteration Stone on something so banal."
"Don't go anywhere, okay?" said Shiina to Su-en.
The horse whined softly and waited outside.
Entering the building carefully, they faced a large, but dusty, organized hall. There were sofas, bookshelves, fountains, and what looked like a kind of reception with several enumerated cabinets behind, plus a door in the corner of the room.
Looking at everything possible, the two found no relevant information, except for some small and labeled Sealing stones in the cabinets behind the counter.
The only useful item they found was a map of the entire underground kingdom.
"There seems to be nothing," said Raymond.
"Maybe we'll find something higher. Let's find the stairs."
Both searched for the stairs; however, they did not find it.
Confused with the lack of stairs to climb, they decided to look at the door in the corner of the room, realizing that it was made of marble and with an arrow-shaped up and down button right next to the door.
By pressing the button, they could hear something coming down from the upper floors.
Raymond was alarmed as soon as he heard this sound, until the noise stopped on the floor they were and the door opened, revealing a small empty space inside.
"Relax, big guy." Shiina tapped him on the shoulder. "Nobody's been in here for decades."
"We can't let our guard down. Remember, there were creatures that shouldn't be here."
"And they didn't step in here, otherwise there wouldn't be all this dust, and the floor would be scorched. Let's go now." She pushed him into the small room.
As soon as they entered, they saw dozens of enumerated buttons on one of the walls, the bottom button being marked with the letter 'T' and the top button with the number '80'.
There was also what seemed to be an Illusion stone in a rectangular format above those buttons, with the letter 'T' glowing in blue on it, besides a warning written next to the door saying: 'Please do not touch the screen.'
There were also two other warnings on another wall written 'Maximum elevator load: One ton.'
Without thinking twice, the assassin pressed the 69 button and the door closed.
Then, they both saw the floor they stood on shining in a brown glow brown, and both felt it lifting.
The screen made with Illusion stone changed to the number 1, then 2, 3, and so on.
"Is that some kind of indicator on which floor we're on?" asked Raymond.
"It seems so."
Waiting a little longer, they both went up more and more, going beyond the 30th floor.
"Why did you pick number 69 when 80 is the highest?" asked the bodyguard.
"I'll show you when we get there."
Curious, Raymond remained silent while waiting to reach the 69th floor, wondering if Shiina somehow expected to find something special there.
Finally, the elevator stopped, and the door opened, revealing a small corridor with five doors on the right and five on the left.
They both approached the nearest door with number 691 above it, and it didn't open itself.
Raymond tried to open it, but it was very closed.
"I'm gonna take it down." He prepared to punch the door.
"Easy there, big guy." Shiina put herself in front of the door. "Relax a little."
The assassin then showed a diamond-shaped Sealing stone the size of a key and tagged with number 691, then inserted it into a hole next to the door, which shone in brown and opened.
Behind the door, there was what seemed to be a very luxurious room, with a large bed with red sheets, two silver chandeliers next to the door, a large mirror facing the bed, sofas, several shelves and closets, and a window with a balcony, showing a beautiful view of the entire underground kingdom.
There was also another door that led to what seemed to be a bathroom, with a large bathtub in the center, a toilet to relieve your needs, a small closet with bathing clothes and a mirror.
"What's that?" Raymond was impressed by the beautiful room. "Some kind of... inn."
"Much better than that." Shiina used Wind magic to move all the dust from the bed and the room out of the balcony. "This is a hotel, a place made to rest and way better than a stinky inn."
"And why did you choose this room?" The bodyguard was extremely confused. "Didn't you say you'd show me?"
As soon as she heard that, a malicious smile appeared on her face, throwing herself into bed, making a sensual and inviting pose.
"Lie down with me and find out" she said in a seductive voice.
"What...? What does that mean?" Raymond, though still confused, realized some of her intentions.
"Have you ever heard of anything called Kamasutra? It's a book that contains several... Interesting positions... 69 is one of my favorites..."
Upon hearing this, Raymond took his hand to his own forehead and sighed tiredly.
"Really?" he said as I left the room. "Let's go up to the top floor and look around."
"Hey! Can't you stop thinking about the mission for a second and have fun?"
However, the bodyguard ignored her and went to the elevator.
"Tsk! Playing difficult, are we? This won't last."
With that, the assassin followed him to the elevator.
As they went up the stairs to reach the top floor, Raymond could not contain his curiosity about earlier and asked: "Have you seduced your targets before?
"Of course! Most men act like monkeys when a beautiful woman hits on them. Most of the time I didn't even have to use illusion magic."
"So, you didn't necessarily... sleep... with them…" said Raymond in a interrupted way.
"Most of the time, I didn't, since it was usually a few rich pigs who were full of themselves, but if he was handsome... and had a good body... why not seize the opportunity and enjoy the moment before killing them?" Shiina showed no shame. "That includes some women too, I found some who were quite skilled with their..."
"I get it! I get it." He interrupted her with an angry tone.
Upon realizing his tone, a small smile appeared on Shiina's face.
"Were you jealous?" she taunted.
"No, I just... I get angry when you admit to killing people and being proud of it.
"I told you I investigated my targets before accepting any contract, and I only killed those who did some harm, as nobles who used their influence or status to harm the poor... Most of these bastards were married and even had children… they weren't even ashamed of cheating on their spouses." This time she was the one who showed irritation.
"Killing is still too extreme. You have other means to deal with this."
"Like what? Report them? Do you think that'll do any good? They'll only understand if they're killed. Not to mention that we all came together to survive the Angels, our society does not need garbage like them that turns against humanity itself."
Raymond was about to respond when the elevator reached the 80th floor and the door opened.
As soon as they left, they realized there was a ladder next to the elevator leading up to another floor.
Both went up the steps and came across the roof of the building, so high that it would be possible to touch the ceiling of the cave with a large jump.
Going to the edge, they could see clearly the whole city they were in.
The whole place had several buildings that could have something important, so many that it would be impossible to visit them all in the few hours left for nightfall.
"Tsk! This place is bigger than I would like." Shiina complained. "What will we do?"
Raymond looked around carefully, trying to find anything that would differentiate the buildings from the others.
It was then that he realized what appeared to be a square, with several trees growing high and with a fountain in the center. For some reason, Aegreon was there, looking for something.
"We're going there" he said as he pointed to the square.
"Over there? Well, Aegreon seems to know something, let's go."
They both came back and went down the elevator.
Both went towards the square and faced the same vision they had from above, a place with strong healthy trees, a fountain flowing constantly and several comfortable benches. There was nothing unusual there but Aegreon, who was in the water of the fountain.
As they approached, weak tremors began to arise from the bottom of the rift.
"Aegreon, what are you doing there?" shouted Shiina, approaching him.
The Pillar was right in the center of the fountain, with his body almost completely hidden by the dirty, dark water that was spouting.
Suddenly, a click noise could be heard, and the entire fountain began to descend, just like an elevator, taking the three even deeper from that place, while the tremors of the rift continued.
"What? What did you do?" Shiina was surprised.
"There was a secret passage here, I found a key somewhere else."
"Well, that's a Pillar for you. Where are we going?"
"To discover the secret of this place..."
The fountain, or rather, the elevator slowly descended deeper and deeper.