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Saint Claire was right the zombie was relentless, even as it had been hit time and time again it just kept coming, that was until St. Claire got another talisman hit in on it, the force of his attack stunning the zombie for a bit a mere second but that second was enough or St. Claire to deliver enough combos to take it down. Valentine had always known his brother could fight, hell, the two of them had gotten enough scraps in their day for that to be evidently clear. Not to mention the Jeet Kun Do their father had them learn. However, the moves he executed, the hits laid into the monster, it was unlike what he had seen before, the level of skill in his brother's hit, the form, and the strength behind each heavy blow, it was damn near flawless, Valentine found himself awestruck by just how powerful his brother had become. Especially against the undead. [break][break]

The thought of this made Valentine happy, but he also knew that skills like this that specialize in certain monsters did just that, specialized in those monsters. It was a concerning thought that nagged in the back of his mind, what happened when the monsters they fought weren't undead? What happened when the monsters they fought were stronger, had more numbers, or had just as much skill? Valentine knew that humans had all gotten classes, but what if animals did, what if predators or perhaps even these monsters had such or something similar? What happened when they had to fight other humans? The nagging question bothered him as he watched his brother fight the zombie, his breath caught in his lungs, he didn't feel like he could breathe. That was until the monster went down with the last hit.[break][break]

After it was down for the count, Valentine felt he could finally exhale. "Nice work bro, coming in clutch again," Valentine said trying to defuse the tense situation with a bit of friendly banter. However, the situation was still dire, as they could hear them now, the hoard of zombies now running to toward their position.[break][break]

"Right, head toward the end room!" Valentine said as St. Claire suggested they move. He ran as fast as his legs would carry him. He ran as fast as his legs would carry him, barreling through the double doors at the end of the hall with the others. That's when he noticed them, a slew of dead bodies strung out around them if one could call them that. These bodies were smashed into pieces, sure they had been bitten, a zombie head even looked alive for a mere second, but considering it wasn't attached to their head and half crushed Valentine paid it no serious heed. It was clear that all who had found this area that was protected by the boss in the area had been crushed, and demolished into pieces by the zombie before they could make it onto the ladder. Valentine forced back the bile that tried desperately to crawl its way up his throat. [break][break]

He moved up the ladder, this time not bothering to scout ahead, as he had a hunch and he could only hope it paid off less he be like the bodies strung out along the floors. As much as he wanted to scout ahead, the voices screaming and moaning coming toward the hallway were enough to make him keep putting one hand and foot above the other. Quickly climbing up the ladder, reaching the floor door on the ceiling he pushed it open.[break][break]

Then he made his way to the next floor, he glanced around seeing that this floor looked just like the room on the third floor. There was no door to this wooden room, no it seemed to be nothing more than a resting area, as everyone made it up the ladder Valentine found himself closing the floor door. "Looks like my assumption was right, defeating the mini-bosses offers us access to the 'ladders'. The ground falling every now and then must be the chutes." Just as Valentine had said that a rumble sounded out from below, the floors like on the fourth were most likely starting to collapse and open up into pits, dropping down those still fighting for their lives to floors below, so far down that if the impact didn't kill them the hoards of zombies still alive at the bottom would. [break][break]

"We should rest here for a moment then move up again," Valentine said, taking a moment to catch his breath, Mio and Botan did the same. [break][break]

"This, this is insane..." Mio said, clutching her head as she spoke, Valentine placed a comforting hand on her shoulder as she did. She brought her hands down wiping away a tear that had fallen in the process. "I don't know how much more of this I can take." She said, sobbing slightly. She was shaking, Valentine wasn't even sure how the meek girl had managed to hold it together this long. Perhaps it was simply a necessity.[break][break]

Then Botan spoke up next attempting to comfort her, "We just have to find two more ladders after this right? Then we're home free after we beat the boss." He said, trying to force a smile on his face, but such things were easier said than done. [break][break]

Valentine nodded to Botan, offering a friendly smile to him, the guy had seemed just as stressed as Mio, but he wore it better. Instead of tears and sobbing, he had a clenched fist and a stern look to him. For everyone's sake, even those who were managing to survive Valentine wanted to finish this as fast as possible. [break][break]

Valentine took out four bottles of water from his inventory handing one to each of them, before popping the top of his own and quickly guzzling down the water and wiping away a bead of sweat from the run and climb they just had to do. After which he took another knee, "alright here I go again," Valentine said, astral projecting to the floor above, it was... An office area? The area was filled with steam, this area was strange, it was like a research area, a bed could be seen at one end of the room, a desk on another, a skull, books, and other occult things placed about. It looked as if the bed was used for experiments or something. Valentine didn't know what it truly was, but as his astral body floated toward the exit of the room, he saw a room full of books.[break][break]

[break]

This next area outside of the office wasn't just filled with books though, surgical tools could be seen, beds, many of them. It looked like some type of research room, with hospital beds scatted throughout. Though nothing suggested there were any patients, save for the nurse in the distance. The dead nurse holding a giant syringe, surrounded by what was 6, no 7 zombies. He didn't know how they'd defeat them, but they had no choice. [break][break]

Valentine's astral body flew back into his physical, then he lifted his head as his eyelids parted. "Alright, good news and bad news, there is no immediate danger once we reach the room above, bad news, once we exit that room, there are 7 zombies, and one that looks like a nurse holding a giant syringe... Another miniboss I guess." He said, dusting off his pants before grabbing the ladder. Sitting around stressing about the situation would offer them nothing, they had to keep moving.[break][break]


[break][break]

Information Guide:

[attr="class","landtag2"]St. Claire [TAGGED]

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[attr="class","landbod2"]

Valentine nodded to St. Claire's words his brother was right, they were doing it, they were making it through this tutorial, so far no other teams had seemed to progress as far as they did, however, as they climbed Valentine gained a sinking feeling in his gut. The tutorial was designed so that the higher someone moved up the worse things got for people below, he wanted to keep moving up to the next floor immediately, but classes or not classes they were still human; at least he thought they were. They still had to keep moving, they still had to keep climbing if they wanted to stay alive. Self-preservation and luck in classes were the only things that kept them alive so far in this tutorial. However, as they saw the waiting area and his suspicions were confirmed, he ultimately decided to take a break as he could feel the weariness of all the running and fighting. They needed a break, going to the next floor haphazardly would just lead to danger and mistakes.[break][break]

After astral projecting upward, Valentine could see they were directly within close range of another mini-boss, Valentine's suspicion was that this meant that from here on out the bosses were going to be stronger, strong enough to not allow people to progress further up the stairs, on the plus side this meant that they didn't have to search for the next ladder up as it would most likely be near the mini-boss. [break][break]

[break]

This mini-boss holding almost a comically sized syringe was enough to give him pause for concern, especially considering the syringe was almost the size of the petite zombie itself. It was clear to him that like the other zombie mini-bosses this one had increased strength.[break][break]

Valentine was never more grateful for his brother's skill choice than in this moment, after St. Claire's words of encouragement, Valentine nodded speaking directly after. "Clairey's right, we're almost there just two more ladders and we'll most likely be at the boss, we just have to survive till after we beat this challenge, once we do that then, well, I don't know what going to happen but I imagine its better than this godforsaken place," he said before climbing up the ladder, then he checked his menu, his skill was still on cooldown sadly, but he was getting the hang of his other core abilities and passive thankfully. He wasn't really fond of having such a long cooldown or being regulated to an ability that didn't allow him any offensive options but he had to play with the hand that was dealt. If his powers allowed him to scout then he was going to be the best damn scout there was. [break][break]

Valentine listened as St. Claire took charge, Valentine nodded in agreement with the plan before saying, "we'll be right behind you, bro! You can count on us, but... Please be careful Saint Claire," his voice trailed off a bit toward the end but it was laced with sincerity of a brother who cared deeply for his siblings. That was the true reason Valentine had been so at odds with his power choice, wondering if he should've chosen one of the others classes. Saint Claire was on the front lines until he could participate, he was the only reason they had moved as progressively as they had, moved as fast as they had through the rooms. [break][break]

Valentine waited for his brother to enter the room first just as St. Claire wanted. He waited till Saint Claire was only a few feet in front of him, before hefting his axe above his shoulders and running behind. St. Claire was spot on about his assumption the mini-boss had deemed him a threat and was heading straight for him, however, as some of the zombie mobs dodged St. Claire choosing to avoid them, they began to move toward the rest of the group, but what Valentine didn't expect was that the mini-boss would grab a zombie near her, yanking it down before plunging the syringe into it, drawing out what seemed to be a black liquid. Upon further contemplation Valentine realized it was blood, she plunged the syringe into herself, the muscles in her undead legs and arms visibly getting larger and bulkier within mere seconds. Then the mini-boss grabbed the bloodless zombie, a husk of what it once was, and tossed it at St. Claire with strength on par with his own. [break][break]

Valentine wasn't even sure how the hell that was possible, but he didn't have time to think about such especially, as he now had run up face to face with a zombie, he crashed his axe into its head with a hefty swing, splitting into its brain matter with a sickening squelch. Mio had stabbed another zombie in the face with the chair leg turned stake, kicking it off with pristine form much as she had done earlier. Botan, on the other hand, was far more impressive as he let loose a punch against a zombie with such force that when his brass knuckles connected with its skull it smashed its face in, launching it back into another zombie's skull causing it to stumble over. Valentine moved over avoiding the fight with St. Claire and the mini-boss to smash the downed zombie in the head with its axe. Then as he glanced up he saw Botan punching another zombie in the gut, before delivering another punch to its skull putting the creature out of its misery. [break][break]

"We have to move the zombies away from the mini-boss!" Valentine shouted, toward the others. As he tried hefting one of the bodies and dragging it away, moving it to the far corner of the room. "Got it!" Botan said, "Right!" Mio followed, and thankfully Botan was able to grab two of the zombies with ease by their legs and carry them away before running back for some of the others while Mio protected his flank. Valentine managed to move on more but after he was physically exhausted, his muscles were straining, and he didn't know how much he could go on. Though what he did know was that this mini-boss could use other zombies to its advantage and sure it would've cut down on the mob's numbers if she was allowed to utilize their corpses but he didn't want to take the chance of empowering her. Thankfully Saint Claire's ability that made undead weary of him, causing him them to go around and further away from the fight had allowed them to easily dispatch them away from the reach of the boss, especially as St. Claire could keep it occupied with his class giving him an advantage over the undead. [break][break]

[break][break]

Information Guide:

[attr="class","landtag2"]St. Claire [TAGGED]

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[attr="class","landbod2"]

Valentine turned slowly breathing heavily as he watched the fighting unfold between St. Claire and mini the boss, Valentine didn't think St. Claire would lose, he couldn't think much because to do so would be admitting that he'd be watching his brother die. However, Valentine's mental fortitude kicked in, and his negative thoughts about his brother losing quickly left. That was until they serviced again as Saint Claire was knocked on the floor. Thankfully his brother managed to block the syringe with the body of the previously used-up zombie. Valentine's breath caught in his lungs for but a mere moment, he didn't know what was going to happen but he had hoped his brother would make it through the fight. That hope proved to be worthwhile as St. Claire got a shot in the boss from his talisman. Then his brother turned the tides of battle, beating the zombie's skull into a pulp. Valentine had never seen his brother be so ruthless, but for a creature that just tried to kill them all, he had no pity. Especially when the person it was trying to kill first was his little brother. [break][break]

Valentine gently placed his hand on his brother's shoulder, "that's enough Saint, I think it's dead," Valentine said, as he could no longer feel the creature's presence, "for good now," he followed up, realizing his choice of words. One of Valentine's primary concerns was that these zombies, these undead would be harder to kill than just a head shot, thankfully that wasn't the case, but what he was really fortunate about was his passive that let him sense the presence of those in his immediate surroundings, because of that, Valentine could tell when it was no longer there, no longer on this mortal coil. "Are you okay?" He asked his brother, concern plaguing his voice.[break][break]

"Come on, let's move," Valentine said, he had finally been able to catch his breath as his brother had fought the boss but fatigue was still rearing its ugly head. Jogging was a chore, and he could feel his muscles becoming sore, he was sure it wouldn't be long until he would start cramping up, thus why he took another water bottle out of his inventory, guzzling it down in mere seconds before tossing one to each of the others. Hydration was important in times like this. Opening the double doors, Valentine found another office room, though this one had a ladder on the right side of the wall that led upward. Just to be safe Valentine astral projected, lifting his body from the floor to floor. [break][break]

He only stood on the floor directly for but a mere moment, glancing around to make sure it was safe, when it looked like all the other resting areas, he shot up again, this time seeing an empty hallway but what surprised him was that he could see the signs of battle, two dead bodies, they weren't bitten instead their torsos, had been slashed through, it seemed as if they had bled to death when Valentine rounded the corner he found saw a room, a simple one at that, there was nothing but zombies there. Moving back in the other direction, toward the north he saw the elevator. Still, oddly there was nothing around it, so he turned down the east hallway, only to see two things a group of 12 desperately trying to fight through zombies and skeletons, but not just zombies, the 8th-floor mini-boss, a bulky zombie that held a spiked club, it charged through the other zombies near it just to attack the guy in front who had a tower shield, the lucky bastard. [break][break]

The guy skidded back, his arm visibly bruised, but thankfully two spell casters were behind him, evident by the fact that they both shot different elemental blasts at the skeletons and zombies. From what Valentine could see their party dynamic had four spell casters each with a cardinal element, 4 tanks, or sturdy-looking guys, and 2 physical damage dealers that would attack any that get through the tanks or are too close for comfort to them. A guy who could spill out white light that seemed to heal, and another that was throwing... "Are those fucking bombs?!" What the hell Valentine said in his astral form, watching with awe, it was no wonder they had survived this long. He silently cursed himself for being split off from such an effective group, though it seemed as if this group had gone up the building the old fashion way. [break][break]

However, from what Valentine could see the group was slowly but surely moving back toward the stairs, probably trying to get the high ground to better stab at and fire at the skeletons with the mages from above where they wouldn't risk friendly fire. It was a smart plan and Valentine could continuously see why they made it so far. Though what Valentine was most happy about was that the mini-boss was occupied, especially as two of the DPS had gone on the assault. Looking around he found a simple common area to the right side of the party that had lured the boss from further down the hall. He didn't know if the party had plans to come back and inspect the ladder, but the sudden tremble he could feel from his mortal body was enough to tell him his time for scouting had run out. That was all Valentine needed to see before he flung his astral body back into his physical. [break][break]

While back in his physical body his eyes fluttered open and words quickly followed suit, "we have to move now! Right now! Trust me I think we can get to the 10th-floor boss and be done with all this and save some lives in the process!" Valentine said, hurriedly making his way up the ladder, pushing himself to climb further and further up even though his muscles were straining. Valentine continued moving, he didn't stop to rest in the restroom for but a mere minute, before climbing up the next ladder, speaking as he did, "we got lucky there's another party facing off against the 8th-floor boss, while they keep it distracted we can climb up the ladder and hid straight for the last boss and objective and end this damn shit." Valentine said realizing that he would, in fact, be using someone essentially as bait. [break][break]

However, he quickly spoke once more, "it might be crappy of us not to help that party out, but they looked formidable and I doubt they'll go down easily, if at all, but they look tired. The best we can do is try and end this tutorial as quickly as possible so that we all can live." Valentine said he was sure the party would've already done so if they had already fought a mini-boss and figured out the ladder information before them. Instead, they climbed through the one area Valentine rarely scouted, the stairs, taking the hard way up the entire time. [break][break]

"Follow me, stay behind, and move as fast as you can," Valentine said as he lifted the floor latch, stepping onto the 8th floor, he quickly rushed out of the room, heading straight toward the east hallway, he jogged, his breathing was heavy and his forehead visibly beaded with sweat. He turned directly into the common room area, the screams and shouts of the party yelling out their moves as if they were in some type of manga could be heard. Clearly, they had gotten into the whole thing, into their roles and classes, Valentine couldn't blame him, doing the same to a degree was what was keeping him sane. He moved over to the ladder climbing it quickly waiting for the others to follow, once they were in the next resting area on the 9th floor he took a moment to catch his breath before taking a knee, dipping his head, closing his eyes, and astral projecting once more. [break][break]


[break]

Upon reaching the 10th floor Valentine could see what appeared to be a washroom, showers, tubs, slick tiles layered with water sitting a top of them, and steam littered a watery area about, as he floated down the large washing area, he saw a flash of red out of the corner of his eye. He visibly paused, concern welling up inside him, until the boss creature simply walked passed him, but what he saw was enough to make him want to turn his tail back to his body and let the other party deal with it. [break][break]

[break]


With each step the zombie took steam would rise up in vast abundance, its body veins looked as if they had liquid magma or fire running through them, its skin was soot gray, and a maw of fangs could be seen from its mouth. Its fingernails ran long like sharp 6-inch claws. His body was covered in charged scrubs and a tattered doctor's coat that seemed to be alight with dancing flames. Though what was most disturbing to Valentine was the way its body seemed to warp the air around it, the steam that rose from the ground as it walked, it clearly had some high body temperature. Meaning that getting close to this thing, and attacking it physically could possibly burn you to a crisp. He saw no other minions, possibly because they would just get burned up by the boss. [break][break]

The boss of who seemed to move back and forth from the washroom to out the open door of the hall, across from the room there were two wooden doors that Valentine could see, above it, the words "intensive care" could be seen. Walking through the doors, or rather phasing through with his astral body, Valentine saw it, the bed with the red "X" a sickly looking young girl, her skin just as dark as the zombies in front of them, red veins that looked as if they were filled with fire appearing to run through her body, but what was most interesting was the white flowers that seemed to bloom from her body. Beautiful and delicate. Valentine wondered what all this could mean, but he didn't have time to reflect on such, what he did notice was the area in which to hang an IV bag, a needle already running into her veins, this needle and tube looking sturdier than any he had ever seen. [break][break]

Leaving out of the room, Valentine noticed the floor plan, he could see that in order for someone to get to the final objective no matter where they went on this floor, they had to come by this washroom, either throughout it from the south, or around it from the east and west, he figured that the boss fight was designed to happen in that hallway, possibly damaging the patient and causing the tutorial to fail. Unless one could lure it into the washroom that it also patrolled.[break][break]

Moving back to his body, Valentine spoke as his eyes opened "Okay, good news and bad news, the next floor is a washroom area, the boss is there but he's practically on fire, or rather has it running through its veins I think, it's hard to explain, either way, if we beat this boss, and put the IV bag on the patient, we can finish the tutorial I think! First things first though we have to prepare, the boss admits a lot of heat so once we get up there be sure to cover yourself in as much water as you can from the running showers." Valentine said, nodding to them all before speaking once more.[break][break]

"Mio, do you still have that fire extinguisher from earlier?" Valentine asked, turning to the shy girl. She nodded, pulling it out of her inventory. Valentine grabbed it from her hurriedly explaining so that she didn't think he was being rude. "Okay, I'm going to attack first, draw its attention and try and weaken it as best I can with this fire extinguisher, after I do, I'm going to use my skill. After I hit it the first time with the extinguisher, I'll be counting on you to deal as much damage as you can Botan, drawing its attention." He said, turning toward St. Claire. [break][break]

"Then Saint Claire and all of us can try and finish off the boss together after it weakens and hopefully its heated body isn't that pressing of a threat anymore," Valentine said, then he turned to Mio, taking the fire extinguisher and fire axe and placing them into his inventory. Botan nodded beginning to charge a punch, his brass knuckles glowing a crimson red. [break][break]

"Mio, you'll take the IV and move past the boss to the hospital bed in the room behind to put the IV, on the patient, after we engage and draw the boss's attention," Valentine said, waiting for everyone to confirm if they understood the plan before he moved up the ladder, raising the hatch, or rather the grate that was raised slightly above the ground. Valentine moved to the side to allow the others to come up before he quickly stepped underneath the shower area. Letting himself get drenched after the rest did as well, he moved his soaking wet body to the middle of the floor, pulling the fire extinguisher out of his inventory, and grasping it in both hands. [break][break]

He ran forward, his body slipping and nearly sliding as he did but he managed to keep his footing. The boss burst through the double doors of the shower area, it roared, it was a guttural scream that sounded like a wood crackling fire mixed with something of pure anguish. It charged forward, Valentine grabbed the fire extinguisher, pushing himself for what meager stamina he had left. He pulled the lever, aimed, squeezed the trigger down, and swept the fire extinguisher from the left to the right, coating the boss, steam visibly rising up from the boiling water and the concoction within the extinguisher hitting his body. From then on Mio attempted to sneak by, as Botan came from the same side as Mio, delivering a charged punch to the zombie from the left, it flew toward the right and into the wall underneath the shower, but only for a mere second as it leaped up, crashing into Botan.[break][break]

Botan screamed, his arms were red and covered in blisters from first and nearly second-degree burns in mere moments. Just from blocking the zombie's tackle, the strength of the zombie hit was enough to knock Botan back, but Valentine found himself grateful that they had drenched themselves. He squeezed the trigger down on the extinguisher once more, drawing the boss's attention. It leaped at him, and Valentine activated his skill as he stepped back.[break][break]

He slipped seamlessly into the digital realm, as he dubbed it. He could no longer see the boss, but he could guess its direction, it was going only due to the fact that it had leaped at him, he rushed forward in the direction toward the leap that was no longer coming, turning around and moving three steps the northwest. He deactivated his skill, finding himself behind the boss as it was engaged with Saint Claire and Botan. Mio had finally managed to move toward the door, but she slipped, hitting her head against the wall, the IV bag skidding across the wash area. [break][break]

Valentine's eyes went wide, they had to buy more time, he sprayed the extinguisher once more against the zombie's back, concentrating specifically on its neck, as Botan and most likely Saint Claire engaged. All before pulling out his fire axe from his inventory, and tossing the empty extinguisher to the side, he grabbed his fire axe in both hands, and carefully moved forward driving the axe into the zombie's neck. Though it didn't dig deep enough, it wouldn't be enough to remove the zombie's head. Not without more force. [break][break]

[break][break]

Information Guide:

[attr="class","landtag2"]St. Claire [TAGGED]

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"Yeah I understand, me too," were the words that came from Valentine as Saint Claire spoke about wanting all of this to be over with, Valentine could fully understand his brother's sentiment, he wanted it to be over as well, he wanted to just go home and lay in bed, but he knew that wouldn't be possible, so instead he moved on, going forward with their plane, their safety in mind...[break][break]

"Yeah, we do, we can do this guys and gal!" Valentine said, blushing a bit as he looked at Mio, who said nothing in return but did pat him gently on his shoulder with a warm smile of her own, as they stood within the ninth-floor waiting area. It was time to move, time to finish all of this bullshit and just get on with their lives and however much more craziness that would intel, but for this, for now, he wanted to be done with it, he wanted to be over it and finished for good. Whatever awaited them next he wanted to do that, perhaps after he got some more food, rest, and a nap in him. [break][break]

Valentine's plan was working! It really was, it was going exactly as he had planned all except one thing, Mio fell, he came back into the mortal realm, the place he had decided to dub the original world he was in before his skill activated taking him to the self-proclaimed digital world. Only to find that Mio had lost her footing, slipped, hurt herself, and ended up tossing the IV bag across the room, he wasn't angry at this, but he was concerned for his friend. He rushed over careful not to slip himself, picking the petite girl off the ground. "Are you, okay?" He said, gently touching the back of her head. There was no blood thankfully, so it meant that at most she'd probably just have a knot and some soreness. She nodded weakly, between the slip and fall, and the fatigue affecting everyone he was sure she was at her end.[break][break]

Valentine noticed as Saint Claire finished off the boss, using the skill he was talking about, Valentine went and grabbed the IV placing it in his inventory. Seeing the boss lay limp, Valentine didn't trust it, perhaps it was just rage at the situation, perhaps it was just his negative emotions bubbling to the surface, or maybe it was just fear that the boss had gone down much too close to the plan, but he found himself grabbing the fire axe, hefting it up in his hands, placing his foot onto the zombies now a cooling corpse, and pulling it out only to swing it down again, and again, until its brain was nothing more than mush. Wiping the blood from his face, he placed the axe back into his inventory in case he needed it again later.[break][break]

He wasn't sure if this would be the end all be all, so he figured best to have it than not, Valentine looked around at everyone stating, "let's get this shit over with," before walking through the double doors, Mio held onto him for support until they were inside the hospital room. Like the tutorial said the bed had a large red "X" on it. Botan helped Mio to stand while Valentine went over to the bed, placing the IV onto the hooks at the top of the pole, then connected it to the metal tube that went into the patient's skin with what looked like a thick silver needle that was piercing it. [break][break]

Valentine waited for a moment, watching as the silver translucent tube caused the liquid to flow down. The zombie-looking girl jerked around violently, Valentine took out the fire axe from his inventory and hefted it high in case he had to kill her. Then as quickly and violently as it started it faded away to a gentle slumber of the girl, her veins began to change, the magma-like liquid looking as if it was turning green, then a mundane red, and her skin went from soot grey to pale, her emaciated looking body began to bulk up, within moments she looked like a normal human girl as a rosy blush came to her cheeks. The white flowers protruding and growing from her body turned green. The flower buds began to bloom and green pollen spread throughout, not just the room, it burst out everywhere like a canon going off, covering the entirety of the building. "Oh shit!" He screamed unsure of what was going on.[break][break]

In moments all the zombies fell limp the to ground, the claws going away, the shapes of their body turning to normal, leaving them as nothing more than normal corpses, but when the pollen clouds filtered away, the body was gone. Then Valentine heard a "ding" turning around he could see an elevator in the corner of the room, one he hadn't seen before, over top of it read the words "exit" in Japanese kanji. "Woah what the fuck was that?" he questioned only to look down the room door to see the zombie's boss's body looking like that of a normal human corpse. [break][break]

"Um, okay? I guess maybe she was the cure to this whole twisted whatever the fuck," Valentine said with a sigh, then he could hear the voices of people running, the sound of what sounded like people coming down the far end of the hall as they were shouting wondering what was going on. The next thing Valentine knew they had all received a prompt. [break][break]

[break][break]



[break]
[break][break]

Valentine let out a cheer of glee, but as voices could be heard increasing he decided to make his way for the elevator, he could've waited for those other people but he didn't know them, he didn't trust them. In this world, creatures and undead weren't the only monsters, he had seen enough zombie movies to know to be weary of other humans. Besides as exhausted as they all were he didn't want to take the risk of staying here even a single moment later. Moving into the elevator with Saint Claire, Mio, and Botan; Valentine pressed the singular button that read "rooftop".[break][break]

The elevator rose before coming to a stop with a dinge, on the top of the rooftop there was a small purple barrier, but as they glanced about, Valentine could see two major things that stood out, the entirety of japan, breaking apart, raising into the sky, some of it being turned into what looked like digital code as it broke apart in pieces, other being rebuilt. It was insanity, and it made his heart sink as he glanced in the direction of his family's home only to see the entirety of the area gone, no longer what it was. "Mom, dad... Aurore," he muttered a tear rolling down his cheek. It was quickly wiped away, as he clenched his fist. He moved toward the other thing he had seen, wondering what the hell it was, then a prompt came up on his menu starting the words "Waygate."[break][break]

"Well if the title of this thing means anything, I guess, this is some kind of gate to another place? Whatever let's, let's just get the fuck out of here already," Valentine said looking to Saint claire, pressing the button that asked him if he wanted to enter it. For now, he would choose to push the thoughts of his family being gone deep down, he still had a little brother to look after, a sister to find, parents he knew were most likely gone but still held up help for anyway, and a new word to discover alongside some new friends. He turned to look at, St. Claire, Mio, and Botan giving a reassuring smile as he pressed the prompt that came up for "Yes" that asked him if he wanted to travel through the waygate. [break][break]


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Information Guide:

[attr="class","landtag2"]St. Claire [TAGGED]