The third floor welcomed them with silence.
Not the peaceful kind. The suffocating kind.
Their footsteps recalled too clearly along the long, narrow hallway. Fluorescent lights flickered overhead, buzzing like something whispering through broken teeth. Every door on both sides stood shut.
Blyke slowed first. "…You guys feel that?"
Henry didn't answer immediately. His eyes scanned the ceiling corners, the vents, the small imperfections in the walls.
Arcee exhaled slowly. "It's colder."
Blyke sniffed the air instinctively.
"…That's blood."
Arcee's gaze shifted downward. Thin, dark streaks lined the base of each door. It was not splattered but drawn line at the edges.
As if something inside had tried to crawl out... and failed.
Every single door had it. A quiet pattern repeating itself down the corridor.
Cagaro's fingers twitched slightly but his expression stayed composed. His eyes traced the lines carefully. The stains weren't fresh but they weren't old either.
Henry finally spoke. "Don't step on them."
Blyke blinked. "That's your reaction?"
"Don't touch the door handles either." Henry continued calmly. "Avoid the threshold."
Arcee adjusted her stance. "Trigger mechanism?"
"Not hoping something worse." Henry said.
A light above them flickered violently for a second then stabilized. The hallway felt longer now.
The blood lines seemed darker the closer they passed.
Blyke rolled his shoulders. "Yeah, no. I don't like this. This is horror-movie logic territory."
Cagaro stepped slightly forward. "There's no sound inside the rooms."
"That's the problem," Blyke muttered.
Arcee turned slowly.
The staircase door they had entered from… was closed.
None of them remembered hearing it shut.
Henry's lips curved faintly. "Good," he murmured.
Blyke stared at him. "Good?!"
Henry's eyes sharpened. "Enemy is nearby."
They moved in a tight formation now.
No one brushed the doorframes. No one let their shadow cross the blood lines.
The architecture felt wrong, subtly distorted, like the building was folding inward. Then, at the very end they found it.
A massive cathedral door.
Dark ironwood reinforced with blackened steel ribs. Carvings spiraled across its surface, abstract shapes that looked almost like ribs, almost like wings, almost like screaming faces if stared at too long.
Locked? Maybe.
Something about it felt… occupied.
Blyke stared up at it. "Why is there a final boss door on the third floor?"
Henry tilted his head. "There was no visible staircase in the hallway."
Arcee nodded. "Which implies vertical access is beyond this point."
Cagaro's gaze sharpened. "It means the source to go up is on other side of the door."
"Assuming it's not just a death chamber," Blyke muttered.
Arcee stepped closer, pulling out a compact metallic device from her sleeve. She pressed it against the door's surface. A soft hum vibrated through the air as the scanner calculated density, internal structure, hinge distribution.
Numbers flashed across her lens.
"…Approximately 340 to 360 kilograms." she said calmly. "Weight concentrated toward lower hinge axis. No visible locking mechanism is there."
Blyke stared. "So we just… knock?"
Henry shrugged. "If there were traps in the hallway, this is probably worse."
Arcee turned toward Blyke. A small smile formed.
"Well," she said lightly, "if we had someone whose primary talent wasn't yelling and dramatic commentary—"
Blyke's eye twitched.
"—but rather actual physical contribution…"
"Finish that sentence and you will see..." Blyke warned.
Arcee adjusted her glasses. "I'm simply suggesting that brute force may be the only viable solution. Provided someone here can generate enough torque without crying about it."
Cagaro quietly stepped aside. Henry folded his arms. Blyke stared at all three of them.
"Oh. Oh, I see how it is."
Arcee's tone remained clinical. "If you're unable, we can attempt a pulley system. Though that would require time and competence."
Blyke exhaled sharply. "Sh*t away! "
He stepped forward, planting his feet firmly against the cold stone floor. Fingers dug into the grooves of the cathedral door. Muscles tightened along his arms and shoulders.
"Three hundred fifty kilos?" he muttered. "That's it?"
Arcee tilted her head. "Try not to strain something important."
That did it.
A low growl escaped from Blyke as he pushed.
" DUMBASSSSSSSS!!! "
The door did not move... I mean for one second.
Then the hinges groaned. Dust rained down from above as iron scraped against stone.
Veins surfaced along Blyke's neck as he shoved harder, anger fueling every ounce of force.
With a thunderous crack, the cathedral door had bowed to him.
Blyke exhaled slowly, rolling his shoulders once.
"See?" he said, cracking his neck. "All that wasted calculation just to confirm I'm built different."
Arcee didn't even look at him. "You required emotional provocation to function."
"Strategic rage is still STRATEGY."
Henry walked past them first. "Save the victory speech."
Cagaro stepped through last. The space beyond swallowed them whole.
There was no floor. Not in the normal sense.
Beneath their feet stretched an endless drop of black depth—no visible bottom, no reflection of light. Just a consuming dark void and suspended in the center of that abyss... A cathedral... floating.
Not attached to pillars or hanging from chains. Simply suspended in midair like a divine thought frozen in place.
A narrow stone bridge extended from the doorway they stood in, leading toward the floating structure. It simply existed... somehow...
From the cathedral's massive stained-glass windows poured warm evening light. Orange and gold beams spilled into the void, cutting through darkness like divine blades. The sky beyond the glass shimmered with the final glow of sunset.
6:23 PM.
Arcee glanced at her display. "Time sync confirmed."
The architecture was breathtaking.
The windows were majestic. Towering stained glass depicting angels in flowing robes, wings outstretched, eyes lowered in solemn reverence.
Blues, crimsons and golds blended in divine harmony. The light passing through them painted the air itself.
Inside, long wooden benches were arranged in perfect alignment, as if awaiting a congregation that never came. At the far end stood a raised chancel and beyond it— an altar carved from white marble, illuminated by a single descending beam of golden light.
The walls were lined with sculpted marble figures... maids, angels, attendants... hands joined, faces serene, expressions formed with impossible delicacy. Each statue seemed to be frozen in mid-motion.
Cool like a mountaintop chapel at dusk.
Arcee scanned quietly. "Estimated hall dimension… approximately 660 by 450 meters."
Cagaro blinked. "That's not a hall. That's a continent with religion."
Henry's eyes remained forward. Blyke stepped onto the stone bridge.
They stepped onto the stone bridge carefully, their footsteps muted against the smooth surface.
The void below remained unnervingly silent.
Endless and suffocating. The floating cathedral loomed ahead, bathed in golden evening light, almost welcoming.
Blyke's jaw tightened as they walked.
"…I don't like this." he muttered.
Arcee glanced sideways. "You haven't liked anything since the first floor."
"This is different." Blyke inhaled slowly. "It smells wrong.."
Cagaro slowed slightly. "Moving where?"
"Toward us."
From inside the cathedral, faint vibrations trembled through the bridge. Not loud enough to hear clearly but enough to feel through bone.
Henry's expression shifted subtly.
"…Strange," he murmured.
Arcee noticed. "What?"
Henry kept walking, eyes fixed on the stained glass ahead. "This atmosphere..."
His voice lowered. "Something feels familiar."
As if he had stood here before or somewhere painfully similar.