The Babel Monsters

The Dead Floors

^^The walls of Skulls^^

--- Rains POV ---

As we headed down the dungeon, several things were inevitable, it seemed. First: the challenge level rises exponentially. Second: the floors become larger, more diverse. And Third, the worst one. Wandering Bosses were totally normal. We battled floor bosses daily, while exploring every inch of the new Floors. Certain floors took weeks to map. Some where straightforward, and required no deep exploration, like the Plains Floors, while others were intricate mazes that changed, and we had to stay and map the different floor-plans of each of the patterns.

I sat on Isle Guile's new dock, where we'd retreated for a brief respite, tired as hades, even me. I stared out at the water, and tried to distract myself with skipping rocks until they smashed against the walls, three miles away. I tried to blink away the images that had been behind my eyelids all month, ever since we'd been to F80, without Riviera's magical protection. The faces stayed. They always had, but it was fresher now, like it had happened yesterday, not 15 years ago, when I was just a kid.

'Jordan, Braith, Carson... Jon. It's been so long since I thought of them... It feels like I've done something wrong, just by being happy... Like I don't deserve it... Maybe that why I was so eager to press myself into Herr Hephaestus's service... It feels better to do something for someone than nothing because of someone...'

'Stop brooding, punk. We're moving out again in an hour. Eat something.' Doc interrupted my thoughts.

I sighed. 'Yes mother.'

'Keep back-talking me. See where it gets you.' She huffed.

'Love you, you bratty pup.'

'Shaddup.'

---

We stepped into F84, and I immediately knew something was wrong. There was a giant field in front of us, covered in bones, but none of them had skulls. Not one. Which was impossible. "If they had all chopped each other's heads off, there'd have been a last survivor..." I said quietly in German.

"Not if the winner took trophies of the heads and left..." Doc shuddered.

Sam turned to watch our six, and said slowly. "I hope that's a scare tactic... Because..." I slowly tuned, and froze. The entire wall on the side of the entrance was covered, wall to wall, Ceiling to ground, in skulls. Way more skulls than the corpses on the ground.

Then my worst nightmare came true. The skulls started falling, and when they hit the ground, they started forming bodies from the bodies on the field. I quickly cast a 24 hour cast of <Oblivion Shower> on the entire floor and walls, completely not having it. I stood in the wreckage, my friends around me as the only safe place. Then the bones started to dissolve, or, the Skulls. The other bones stayed put. "The bones are from past adventurers, and most have decayed or been destroyed... But the skulls are indestructible..." Finn said.

The Skull dust started collecting, and I growled out in an annoyed tone,- "Fuck me bloody... Don't stand up... Don't stand up... Fuck. Yeah, he stood up." The giant Skeleton slowly stood, and normal sized ones started forming, legions of them. I looked at the others. "You ever seen this thing?"

"I've read about it, but I thought it was a children's story... I fought something similar, but not nearly this big... A wandering Boss back on F42..." Aizu said, and Riveria nodded.