In the Court of the Blind King

Chapter 2 - Through Pointless Paths

"Let's go, Doppio"
"Ye... yes, Boss"

Their new situation still felt strange and somewhat uncomfortable to both of them, but Doppio and Diavolo followed towards the revealed hallway, without saying a word about it.

"How could this happen? I should be the one in complete control of King Crimson!" Diavolo thought, visibly irritated by the separation of his stand and Doppio's.

"Are you okay, Boss?"

He looked at Doppio and the anger on his face turned to seriousness.

"Yes, Doppio. I'm fine."

Diavolo sighted in a mix of relief and disappointment.

"At least Doppio is still loyal to me. Not like we have another choice. I just wish that... his... Epitaph was stronger, but by the looks of it..."

They followed through the long marble hallway until they saw a staircase. It was large and beautifully decorated, made with the same beige marble of the rest of the hallway, with a luxurious yellow and blue carpet tightly covering the better part of each step.
But what had caught their eye was not the staircase, nor the details that would have made it so breathtaking to anyone in the normal world.

"Boss, there is someone there, on the stairs!"

Diavolo looked closely. There was, in fact, a person there, although he couldn't make out any details about their appearance from that distance. They started to go faster towards the mysterious figure. As they approached the end of the hallway, the person began to walk up the stairs.

The two men reached the base of the staircase, and looked up, now able to see more details about that staircase: wherever it was, they could only see a dark and unending hole all around it, as if it was a bridge. Multiple pillars stood across the sides of the stairs, and about in the middle of the way, stood that person, right beside a pillar. They wore a yellow straight jacket with free arms and a pair of blue pants with a red helix pattern on the sides. They had messy orange hair and didn't distinctly look male or female.

"Who are you?" Diavolo asked in an impatient tone.
The person in yellow looked at both of them for a moment, before disappearing behind the pillar. As Diavolo ran up the stairs and got to the pillar, they were not there.

"You can call me..."

He quickly turned back, towards the origin of the mysterious voice, and spotted them, right beside a door, on a staircase that wasn't there before.

"...Drie."

The voice was distinguishably female, and the person looked at Diavolo and Doppio with an expressionless stare. The person reached for the handle on the door right beside them and concluded their introduction

"I am your first trial."

As they disappeared inside the doorway, Doppio caught Diavolo's attention

"Boss... something strange is happening, these weren't here before!" he stated as he pointed to the multiple staircases that had suddenly filled the previously empty dark room.

"What is going on? It's like these stairs..."

Diavolo looked around the room, before completing his sentence, noticing the many staircases in many different angles, almost none seemed to follow the rules of gravity.

"...lead to nowhere. How bizarre, it's like one of those Escher paintings..."

They noticed the person in yellow in the top on a platform that seemed like the exit, on a high corner of the large room.