The empty hallways were silent and cold. Every floor in this facility had the same pattern and doors. The only problem was none of the doors were unlocked. Two soldiers were roaming around and were trying to open the doors. A soldier grabbed a door lock and tried to open it but failed. "What the heck! None of these damn doors are opening." The soldier who was standing behind him came closer and put his hand on his shoulder. "We have been trying it for hours, man; it's all the same." The soldier got frustrated and pushed him back. "So whose fault is that?" The soldier who was standing behind sat down. He looked frustrated and annoyed. "It's what we signed up for. So don't get impatient." The soldier stood there. He was looking hopeless and angry. He slightly turns his head and looked at him. Suddenly everything felt wrong. "Huh!" Inside his mind he knows something is wrong. The soldier who was sitting down was stunned. His eyes wide opened. He saw the soldier who was standing; his head was falling. His eyes still opened and his head was decapitated. He tried to get up but shared the same fate. As soon as he tried to get up his head started falling in front. He got decapitated too. Their bodies became motionless and their heads fell off their bodies. The moment became cold and full of despair. The cut was so precise that their consciousness was still attached when they got decapitated. Both of their heads fell. Blood started covering the whole floor. Their eyes were still opened. The bodies laying lifelessly and the heads rolled. A man was standing across the hallway. His coat, long charcoal gray. Not for fashion but worked as a functional armour. In his right hand he holds a katana. It was sharp and the blade was black. The sword guard was crimson red. His eyes were crimson red. His left hand had a skull tattoo. The third horseman. Murakai Maximus. Aka Max the Spear. He looked ahead and footsteps grew louder. A woman came from the other side. Leather jacket, knives hooked in her hips. Yuki. The second horseman. The Arrow.
"How pathetic. It took only two blows." She whispered it playfully. "They are only foot soldiers. It would've been more exciting if we had a captain." Max stepped over the corpses. Yuki looked back and says - "Who's next then?" For them it's a hunting ground.
In the stairway Kento and Misa were sitting face to face. He's still pointing the gun at her. She didn't flinch. She didn't care about it. She sat there while making direct eye contact with him. "So how many are you out there?" She asked. She was completely relaxed. She was leaning back. "Our plane crashed; many of us died. Only seven of us made it." Kento answered it honestly but inside he knew something is off. Misa smiles and says, "Well, congratulations; now only five of you are remaining." Kento grips the gun harder. "What do you mean?" Misa tilted her head. Her face reaction changed; she was feeling annoyed. "So you're an exterminator who can't even sense his surrounding energy system?"
For an exterminator it's important to sense other beings with void energy. The stronger an exterminator gets the more he can observe. A commander class exterminator can fight blind if they focus on the surrounding energy sources. In Kento's case he can only see void beings and special things such as the green border which covers a reality chunk. He can't use his energy yet.
"Answer me; what do you mean by it?" Kento demanded. Misa slightly leans forward. "Two of your soldiers are dead." Kento's eyes got wide opened and he was stunned. He points it at her chest and yelled. "You're just trying to manipulate me." She looks away. "Believe is your choice." Kento puts the gun down. He was thinking about everyone who was with him earlier. Was it V? Or someone else? "It's not V." Misa muttered. Kento looked at her and felt a slight relief but not satisfied. Two people died who were with him. He gets up. He stood up and leaned backwards. "How do you know V and Rez?" Misa doesn't answer it. She gets up and takes a step towards the stairs. Kento pointed his gun at her. "Answer me?" Misa looked at him. She tilted her head. "Ask him."
Suddenly V was standing at the stairs that leads to the upper floor.Kevin was catching up from behind. "V, you're ok..." As soon as Kento tried to reach him, Misa dashed sideways and got behind Kento. She used him as a human shield. V doesn't react, doesn't flinch. Kevin finally caught up and stood behind V. With one arm Misa was choking Kento; with the other arm she pulled out her gun. "Don't do anything stupid or else?" V stood there. Kevin pointed his gun at her. "Say the word, captain." Kento didn't move. His heart rate increased. His gun dropped when she jumped him. "You won't do it. Because if he dies then we are all dead." V took a step forward towards them while saying it. "Then how about you let me have him and everything will be fine." Misa dragged Kento behind and took steps down the stairs. "You showed up after two years and now you want him to be a part of your agenda." All of them stopped. "We can talk about it, right." Misa pushed the barrel at his head. "Shut up."
"How about a truce?" V offered her. "You can't get out of here on your own. We are at the lowest level of this facility and we both know they're in the upper layer." Misa gave it a thought. She looked at V and asked. "Why should I trust you again?" V took a step back and signals Kevin to lower his gun. "Because we might have different ways but it leads to the same destination." Misa's eyes calmed and chilling. She takes a deep breath. "Fine then. I will work with you until we reach the upper layer; then we are done." She pushed Kento. Kento trips and almost fell but V caught him. Misa puts her gun away and they all agreed to the current situation. "Now let's explore this maze, shall we?" V looked calm and he had a plan.
A chess board. Four black queens. One black knight. One black bishop and a pawn. Ema was sitting right in front of it. Her eyes locked in. She stared at the pawn. She stretched her hand and grabbed the pawn. Suddenly she threw it away and placed a knight on that spot. "I don't need a pawn anymore." She whispered.
The empty stretched hallway wasn't ending. No matter if they took a left or right turn, finding the stairway that leads to the next level was tricky but not impossible. V was walking right in front of them. Kento and Misa were walking behind him and Kevin was in the back. "Where's the next stairway?" Kento was frustrated. "There is a pattern here. No matter which turn we take we just can't find it that easily. Which means the staircase is shifting its position every time we take a wrong turn." It was Misa who spoke of this theory. V looked behind and stopped. "How can you be so sure?" Even he was trying to find it but couldn't come up with it. Misa stopped and looked at him. "I am not completely sure. It must be right. I mean we know there is a staircase but we just can't reach it if we make mistakes." V looked at Kento and then looked ahead. "Let's keep walking." V started walking again. They followed him. Kento looked confused and frustrated. Misa was enjoying herself. Kevin was keeping his guard up.
After twenty minutes of walking Misa got frustrated.She stopped and yelled. "You damn morons. We've been walking for hours." V didn't look back and says, "Then fly." Misa pulled her guns and walked towards him. "You want to trash talk, bring it." Kento holds her and takes her back. Kevin got tired and sits down. "We are never getting out." He whispered. V didn't look back; he didn't say anything. He took a step ahead and looked at the door at his right. He then looked left and then he looked straight ahead. "Got it." He was confident. Misa looked at him, still annoyed. "What?"
"You were right. The staircase is shifting. This whole facility is a square-shaped structure and there's a plus-shaped hallway on both sides. So it means the staircase is located in every corner of that plus and it's moving." He was right. A square-shaped structure which had a plus-shaped structure within that square which is the hallways. The staircase is shifting from each corner. "So how do we know where to go if they are constantly moving?" Misa leaned back and said it. "Not constantly. They are like a clock. Look at these doors." They all looked around. "These doors are not real doors. They are working like a clock. Every hallway has a different amount of doors and they are either placed in even or odd numbers." Kevin stood up and asked, "So how can we understand it?" V looked at them. He was confident. His black eye gave a crimson glow. "It means that whenever the staircase is shifting the door pattern changes. When we were walking I counted twenty-two doors here but now there's twenty-three. It means either it's getting shifted or it's already in position." Misa got annoyed. She understands it but the main problem is which corner will it be whenever it's getting shifted. "So which corner will it be?" Kento asked V. "It will be depending on the odd-numbered door. If an odd-numbered door is placed amongst the even, it will be working as a direction." V smiles as soon as Misa says it. Kento now got it. To indicate a corner there must be two odd-numbered doors in two hallway corners which means the staircase will shift on the other corner. The odd-numbered doors are like an anti-spawn point which gives a hint that the staircase won't be in this corner. Every floor had the same rule. They looked at each other. Kento looked excited. V was smiling. Misa and Kevin looked at each other. Suddenly they all sprinted the other way. They all were rushing. V was running in front of them behind him the whole party.
Rez and his party have finally arrived at the warehouse. They all were standing in front of the door. Sho looked back and it was a massacre. Void beings are laying around dead all over the place. Their heads are decapitated, limbs are separated from their bodies. Some of them were dissolving to ashes. Among them there was a new figure. Blonde hair, blue eyes; he is tall and muscular. On his back there was a sniper rifle. He was holding a knife in both hands and they were covered in black blood. "Jeez, Martin, you and the commander really messed up." Martin Hawk, the third ranking officer of the combat unit. "Well, I couldn't control myself when I go all out." They all walked inside and spread around. Rez was standing in the middle and whispered, "Let's find a way, shall we?" The hunting game is getting exciting and more complicated. All they need is to find a way to get inside the facility. The huge underground bunker is about to become a slaughterhouse.