Ascension: Online

Soon, all the girls had made it to the ledge I was standing on. It was by no means safe, but it was wide enough to fit all four of us.

"Kaze… w-what now?" Furuwa asked, subconsciously latching onto my arm out of fear.

Hm… so she had a fear of heights. I didn't know that until now- wait, what am I thinking?! There's bigger problems to be concerned about…

"Do we split up?" Hina-nee suggested daringly. "This place is huge, and if we split apart, we may be able to find an escape route quicker. We only have until tomorrow morning, after all. Otherwise, we'll most likely be disqualified."

"Uh… that's gonna be a no," I replied. "This place is quite large, but that's exactly why we can't separate. It's too dangerous. I mean, just look around us."

The girls glanced around at the ominous green void below and various torturous parkour mechanisms, exactly proving my point.

"Hehe~ I can go alone if you want, Kaze~" Nadeshiko offered, hugging me. "That will speed things up, no~?"

"… Too dangerous," I said after some hesitation, looking down at her sparkling eyes.

She blinked. "You… care about me~? Hehe, Kaze cares about me~"

I sighed, ignoring her remarks. "In any case… worst comes to worst, we all just jump off the edge and die so we can respawn back in Zone C. That's not ideal though, since we'll all lose plenty of stuff from our inventories. Nadeshiko, I'm sure you have many Engrams from slaughtering so many people, and I myself have quite a few as well that I don't want to lose."

"That's… fair," Furuwa said. "So we should still try to get out if we can. Let's stop just standing here doing nothing."

"Fufu~ because you're scared of heights~?" Nadeshiko giggled.

"N-No, what are you talking about?!"

"Then… why are you clutching to Kaze's arm so tightly?"

"Uh… t-that's-"

"SKREE!"

Suddenly, a loud shriek erupted out of nowhere. It sounded like a woman in great pain… but something about the voice made it almost… inhuman.

"W-What was that?" Furuwa asked, shaking from fear.

"… Well then." I narrowed my eyes. "Let's investigate."

*****

The four of us jumped from platform to platform in the direction of the scream we heard, avoiding all the torture mechanisms. Sharp swinging pendulums, rolling logs pierced with long needles, and traps that would shoot spikes out of the wall randomly. Nadeshiko took the lead despite me telling her not to, carefreely leaping from ledge to ledge while somehow managing to avoid everything.

"How does she do it like that…?" Furuwa shook her head in bewilderment while clutching onto me for dear life. I wanted to point it out, but she would just get so embarrassed she'd try and push me away. Since we were standing on a very tight and narrow ledge right now, that would most likely get one of us killed. Maybe both.

"Come on, Kaze~" Nadeshiko giggled flirtatiously, smiling innocently at me. "Leave those two behind and be with me already~"

"If you want to go on ahead and explore, go ahead," Hina-nee reassured me. "She's right, Chiaki-san and I are both quite slow at this, but…"

I shook my head. "Not happening."

"Kaze-kun…" Hina-nee smiled, blushing slightly.

"Hmph… you have some conscience, it seems," Furuwa pouted, holding onto me tighter. I grinned. It wasn't everyday I got to see her like this.

"Ara, what's this?" Nadeshiko suddenly said, seeming to be staring at something to our left a couple ledges in front of where I was.

The three of us quickly made our way over to Nadeshiko's location and immediately saw what she was talking about.

"This…" Hina-nee's eyes widened.

Before us, a bloodstained humanoid body hung from the ceiling of an open room within a scarlet tower of some sort, dreadful and ominous. The figure looked to be a woman, judging from the long disheveled hair and slim proportions. Below the body was a short altar of some sort, with a dim candle on top.

"… Well. This must've been the shriek we heard earlier," I noted, completely unaffected since I lost my sense of fear already.

Then, Nadeshiko made a daring move that none of us expected. She leaped over from the ledge to the scarlet tower, examining the corpse up close.

"Hey! What are you-" I shouted in a panic, but my voice was drowned out by an ear-splitting scream.

"SKREEE!"

To the girls' horror, the corpse before us suddenly revitalized, cranking its own head upright and raising one hand slowly. Nadeshiko gazed in wonder as the zombie, body shaking, cut off the rope suspending her with nothing but her bare, unnaturally long and sharp fingernails.

"Tch… Nadeshiko, get back!"

"E-Eh? Kaze, wait-"

"Kaze-kun!"

I tore Furuwa away from me and jumped across as well, pulling Nadeshiko behind cover as the corpse fell down and crashed onto the floor, smashing dust everywhere.

"My, my~ Kaze, you care about me after all~" Nadeshiko giggled and stroked my face lovingly.

"Not now, idiot!"

The zombie slowly straightened its crooked body, floating up into the air like some sort of undead witch. Then, she pointed her skeletal hands at where Nadeshiko and I were hiding just beside the entrance to the tower, and began blasting it with projectiles.

"SKKKKKKREEEEEEE!"

Green orbs of light shot out of her palms, explosive and powerful. Luckily, the blast radius wasn't large enough to hurt Nadeshiko and I, but I still wrapped her body with mine tightly to protect her.

I checked on the ledge I had jumped from and saw that Hina-nee and Furuwa had both retreated a safe distance, which was good. However, if we were to try and jump back over now as well, we would inevitably be hit by this never-ending barrage of what seemed like plasma energy.

Daringly, I peeked my head around the edge of the entrance just to run a quick Inspect, before ducking back just in time to avoid getting hit.

[Name: Tortured Witch]

[Race: Undead]

[Level: 50]

[STR: 150]

[AGI: 150]

[INT: 0]

[DEX: 0]

[MAG: 500]

[LUC: 0]

'What the fuck?! 500 MAG?! That doesn't even add up correctly to a Level 50 lifeform!'

I assumed mobs' stats to level ratio were different from players, but still, this was too insane. A MAG stat of 500… if I got hit by even one of those orbs it was shooting out, I'll most likely get gravely injured if not outright one-shot.

Strangely, though, it wasn't coming to us, despite knowing we were here. Perhaps its INT stat of 0 wasn't just for show.

"Okay, Nadeshiko, here's the plan," I whispered into her ear as I held her tightly.

"Hm~? I'm listening, Kaze~"

"Alright. I don't think I can hurt that… thing all that much, since it's a higher level than I am right now. You, on the other hand, can," I explained. "So, here's what's going to happen: I'll dash through this wall and try my best to get its attention on the inside of this tower. The moment she turns her back on you, leap in and strike her back. Got it?"

"Mkay~ just don't die," she licked her lips and said. "After all… I'm the only one allowed to kill you, fufufu~"

Before I could react, she leaned in and planted a wet kiss on my lips, sucking the saliva straight out of my mouth with her gentle yet aggressive tongue. She pulled away after a few seconds, and then kissed me again, this time on the cheek, before leaning in to my ear.

"You're all mine, mkay~?"

"… Nadeshiko…" I muttered in disdain. This girl… did she have no concept of danger?

Taking a deep breath, I let go of her and pressed my body against the scarlet walls of the tower, ready to go in.

'Vanishing Clouds.'

In an instant, I phased through the wall and landed right beside the massive Tortured Witch. It glanced down at me, confused for a brief moment, before shrieking in frustration and trying to swipe at me with one of its long claws.

'Goddamn melee attack too? Heh, good try.'

'Blink.'

Teleporting out of danger, I rolled around to hide behind the trapezoid-shaped altar. It was a bit small for my liking, but just enough to cover my body.

The witch looked around, confused at where I went.

"Hey! Over here!" I hollered on purpose, showing my face.

It spun its body in my direction, before pummeling me with her blasts of plasma once more.

"SKREE!"

Quickly ducking back down, I did my best to shrink my body as much as possible, even though I couldn't actually do that physically.

'C'mon, Nadeshiko…'

As if on cue, my trusty partner leaped out of her cover, scythe in hand, and cut down directly through the witch's back.

"K-KAH!" The witch froze in mid-air, as if choking on blood, before falling to the floor. Its skeletal figure crumbled to dust, before turning into dark essence for Nadeshiko. It looked like quite a lot.

'… Seriously? I did all the work, and I didn't get any of the XP? Screw this system…'

Nadeshiko glanced at her level-up message with dreamy eyes, before dismissing it and turning to me with a smile.

"Hehe, I did it, Kaze~"

"… Uh, yeah. I can see that."

She ran over and hugged me, catching me by surprise. She then rested her massive scythe on my neck, seductively caressing my chin.

"Hm… you're not scared of me at all."

"I'm physically incapable of feeling fear anymore, thanks. That said, I can still feel discomfort, and your scythe is making me extremely uncomfortable, so — if you will."

"Fufu~ mkay~!" Nadeshiko giggled cutely, pulling away and heading off to regroup with the other girls.

I moved to do the same, but then, my gaze landed on some writing inscribed on the altar.

My eyes widened in shock.

"This is…"