The heavy blast doors at the end of Floor 5 groaned open, gears whining like something alive. A gust of hot, stale air rushed out from the dark beyond. Kaito tightened his grip on his grandfather's blade, the cybernetics in his right arm humming faintly.
Ellie glanced at him, eyes sharp. "Ready?"
"Always."
They stepped into Floor 6. The environment changed instantly — a vast industrial hall filled with suspended platforms and rotating gear bridges. Somewhere far above, mechanical roars echoed, followed by the sound of metal scraping against metal.
A shadow darted across the ceiling. Then another.
"Company," Ellie muttered.
From the darkness, cybernetic beasts dropped onto the platforms — sleek, wolf-like machines with glowing red eyes, hydraulic limbs hissing with pressure. Their claws sparked against the steel floor as they closed in.
Kaito's cyber-arm locked into battle mode with a sharp click. The first beast lunged; he met it head-on, slamming his arm into its jaw and sending it crashing into a railing. Ellie's twin blades flashed, severing a hydraulic leg before she backflipped out of the way of another swipe.
They fought fast, killing two of the wolves. A metallic clink followed — from one of the fallen beasts, a glowing blue core rolled onto the floor.
Ellie picked it up. "Must be one of those drops travelers talk about. Worth something to a merchant."
"Then we keep every single one," Kaito said, tossing it into his pack.
Floor 7 was worse. The hall narrowed into a maze of shifting walls, each corridor patrolled by four-legged drones bristling with plasma cannons. Ellie's cloak kept her hidden long enough to disable one cannon, but the others adapted quickly.
Kaito took a near-hit to his left shoulder, the burn singing his jacket. "They're learning," he hissed, smashing through a wall panel to flank one of the drones.
The fight stretched them thin. By the time they found the exit, both were breathing hard, sweat running down their faces.
Floor 8 greeted them with a dead silence that felt worse than all the noise before. The air was colder here. Large metal statues lined the walls, each shaped like a warrior from a different era — samurai, knights, soldiers.
Ellie paused. "Creepy."
The eyes of the statues lit up. One by one, they stepped off their pedestals.
Kaito swore under his breath. "Of course."
The battle was brutal — the statues were heavy and relentless, immune to weak strikes. Kaito's cyber-arm crushed through one's chest plate while Ellie rolled beneath another's blade to stab its exposed core.
By the time the last statue fell, both stood in silence, the adrenaline slowly fading.
Ellie smirked tiredly. "Eight floors… two hundred ninety-two to go."
Kaito adjusted his grip on the blade and looked toward the sealed gate ahead. "And it's only getting worse."