Ascension: Online

After I had rested up, gaining some Essence back, we continued our hunting journey. The three from Zone C carried Julius's corpse back to their base wordlessly.

In all honesty, I wouldn't have been surprised if they tried to fight us out of revenge, but it seemed this group of people were more rational than most. They could see that they were clearly outnumbered, and they had witnessed my strength firsthand. If I was that strong, than obviously my allies weren't weak either.

"Do you think killing him was a bit overdo there?" I asked the three girls with me as we walked.

"I don't know… maybe," Monica said. "But the truth is, your last knife pierced through his shield and hit him too. Even if you wanted to not kill him, it wouldn't have worked."

"I don't think you should worry that much about it, Kaze-kun," Hina-nee said, placing a hand on my shoulder in comfort. "You already decided beforehand that it would be a fight to the death, after all. If it was the other way around, I'm sure he would've killed you without any hesitation as well."

"I suppose…" I sighed.

"Don't tell me you feel guilty now," Furuwa scoffed. "The Kaze I know never feels guilty."

"I don't feel guilty. It's just…"

Suddenly, a message appeared before Hina-nee, Furuwa, and I respectively.

[New Vault Detected]

[The location has been marked on your surroundings.]

As the three of us stopped simultaneously, Monica glanced back in confusion.

"What's the matter…?"

"O-Oh, it's nothing," I quickly said, dismissing the notification and covering it up. Hina-nee and Furuwa both averted their gazes and did the same.

"Huh…" Monica frowned in confusion, but turned back around and bought the lie.

Hina-nee, Furuwa, and I exchanged glances, before deciding on a course of action without needing to even talk.

"You know…" I began, scratching my head. "I'm beginning to feel a bit tired. My Essence has just barely recovered, and I honestly don't think I can keep hunting today."

"Ah, I see," Monica said. "That's no problem. Let's head on back, then."

I nodded gratefully. "Thank you."

*****

- Later That Night -

"Well, well, well~ what's this midnight gathering we have here~?" Nadeshiko giggled as she walked out of the residential building and meeting up with the rest of us near the entrance of Zone A.

"… Nadeshiko." I glanced at her briefly.

"So? Why did you tell me to come here tonight, Kaze~?" She licked her lips seductively, before instantly throwing her arms around my neck, letting me get a good whiff of her body wash and shampoo. "Don't tell me… a foursome~?"

"No!" Furuwa instantly cut in, blushing furiously. Then, after meeting both Hina-nee and I's gazes, she calmed down a bit. "S-Sorry, that was a bit loud… a-ahem, anyway, let's go."

"Hm…? Where are we going~?" Nadeshiko wondered aloud, but I just pried her arms off of me and began walking away.

"Just shut up and follow us."

"Mkay~"

About half an hour later, we arrived at the place we had detected the Vault earlier today. After scanning our surroundings, I found the location marker pinpointing its position.

"This way."

Soon after, we found ourselves staring at a cave of some sort. According to our maps, we were right at the very edge of the forest — we were outside the playing grounds of the exam right now, meaning anything we killed here wouldn't account for our points, and if we got caught out here by one of the Elders, well… we would be disqualified, most likely.

That said, I wasn't about to just leave this Vault unchecked. I had no idea where this forest was located in the world of Ascentia, since we arrived here via portal. There was no telling when I would be able to come back here again — and I wasn't about to let this opportunity go.

"Hm… how do I put it, this kind of reminds me of the Vault of Corruption, but different at the same time," Hina-nee murmured thoughtfully.

"Yeah… they're both caves, but this one's clearly more hidden, and less 'futuristic'," I added. "If anything… this feels… old. Any ideas as to what the theme of this Vault might be?"

"Well, no choice but to go in and find out~" Nadeshiko whistled happily before striding forward without a care in the world, and I sighed.

"Man… I've been way too reliant on Aisa…"

The four of us stood in front of the door leading inside the cave. It was made of smooth, polished cobblestone, judging from appearances, and had two diagonally-placed green rectangles on it, one on each side, that almost seemed like eyes of some sort.

Beside the doors was a hole just big enough to fit a hand in, and there seemed to be no other mechanism nearby that could possibly open it up. The only problem was… there were eight much smaller holes surrounding the big one, and I didn't know what those were for.

Hesitantly, I reached into the hole and felt a lever of some sort. It felt slimy, which was quite disgusting to be frank, so I just quickly gave it a pull.

Suddenly, I sensed danger coming from the eight smaller holes, as if something was about to come out of them.

'Blink!'

Quickly teleporting myself backwards a short distance, I fell onto the ground right as eight long spikes shot out of the holes, before slowly retracting back in.

"Jesus…" I muttered in shock, slowly getting back to my feet and dusting myself off.

"Are you okay, Kaze-kun?" Hina-nee asked, inspecting my body all over.

"Yeah, I'm fine, but… that was one hell of a trap."

"… I don't like this Vault already…" Furuwa muttered in disgust.

But alas, the two doors did open up with a loud rumbling noise. The green rectangles lit up as the two sides of the door split apart from one another, one moving left and the other moving right. A dark stone staircase leading down lay ahead, lit dimly by a few eerie green lanterns hanging from the walls.

Since I had lost my emotion of fear, I didn't particularly feel uncomfortable going in, but the girls…

"I don't mind if you want to back out," I said. "I can go in alone."

"I'll come too," Hina-nee said, stepping forward. "Wherever you go, I'll go, Kaze-kun… unless, of course, you tell me not to."

"We're already here. Might as well," Furuwa sighed, then brushed past me and went on in first.

"Tu tu ru~" Nadeshiko whistled, then followed in right after.

Hina-nee was third, and I fell in last. As soon as all four of us entered, however-

SLAM.

The doors slammed shut, and I slowly turned around before sighing deeply.

"I'm not even surprised at this point…"

Hina-nee giggled. "Well — here we go again."

*****

After walking through the seemingly endless descending staircase, we found ourselves at another door. This one, however, opened automatically.

And what lay behind it, was beyond our wildest imaginations.

A large open cavern, with a high ceiling and an endless fall into the void below, was laid out in front of us. Tall scarlet towers stood from the ground, swinging sharp pendulums, and rolling logs lined with sharp spikes.

This whole place was like a chamber — a chamber of torture.

The same eerie green lanterns we'd seen in the corridor earlier were the only source of light in this large underground, accompanied by faint, creepy piano music and a glitched-out AI's voice.

[We̛lc͡o͜m̶e ̡ţo ̕the̡ Va̷ult ̷of́ ͡T͢ǫrt̕ưre.]

Furuwa, faced with this scene, gulped.

I laughed self-depreciatingly. "Still want to back out?"

Nadeshiko, however, didn't seem concerned at all, and stepped back a few steps, before running forward and leaping off the ledge of the platform we were on, catching onto a swinging pendulum from left to right.

"Nadeshiko!" I shouted in worry. "What the hell are you-"

"Hehe~ this is so fun~! Come come, join me, Kaze~!"

I glanced past the pendulum and saw a little ledge on a mountain I could stand on, then stepped back a few steps before performing the same action as Nadeshiko, catching onto the swinging pendulum. Since it wasn't all that fast, timing it right wasn't very difficult.

I slowly circled around to the backside of the pendulum so I was facing the ledge I wanted to get to, then waited for the perfect moment once more.

And… now!

'Vanishing Clouds.'

'Blink.'

Dashing and teleporting through the air, I managed to land myself on the ledge. Luckily, it wasn't slippery or anything. Otherwise, that could've been bad…

I glanced down into the abyss below, and saw nothing but a faint green hue. I didn't know what it was, but I'm pretty sure we're not meant to drop down there.

That said… what are we supposed to do?

This is the Vault of Torture, which — first of all — was NOT a good start, and even more than that, there was no clear route showing us where to go.

From where I was standing, I could see many different possible pathways, ledges, platforms, traps, whatnot. But which of them was the right one, and which ones led to an inevitable and agonizing death?

Damn it… I regret my decision already.