"Alright, now take my hand." Trizel declared as he stretched out. One hand was holding onto the railing of a set of sparse stairs, and the other was held out towards the doorway.

Sweat pooled on Ted's forehead. There was still a five-foot gap between the edge and Trizel. "I uh...I don't think I can make that. Maybe I should..."

A sigh came from behind him followed by quick footsteps. Sentenza reached out and snatched the rope from Ted's hands as he rushed past him. Without any hesitation, he leaped out towards Trizel with one hand holding the rope, and his other hand reaching out. He came up quickly to Trizel, and grasped the muscular forearm of the giant. Trizel quickly grasped Sentenza's as well.

The two of them seemed to freeze for a moment as they held each other's forearm. They locked eyes for a moment, and both of them smirked before Trizel lifted Sentenza over him and tossed him towards the underside of the stairs Trizel was holding onto. Sentenza tumbled across theunderside of the stairs with a few small thuds and went flying across the other side out towards the abyss.

Sentenza hooked his toes under the lip of the upside-down stairs and tried to yank on the rope in his hands. It was too loose to pull taut, and his face was heading right for the railing. However, Trizel saw the rope get yanked, and grabbed onto it and pulled. Just before his face was rearranged, Sentenza came flying back. Sentenza reached out with his hand and grabbed onto the railing before he was pulled back completely.

"A little bit too forceful, don't you think?" Sentenza called out with a smirk as he barely avoided getting pulled all the way back to Trizel.

"Better than falling." Trizel replied as he let go of the rope.

Sentenza pulled himself up to crouch in the area underneath the stairs. He started to pull the rope up to him and collect it in the circle around his arm. "This rope would have to run out eventually. And then you'd have a way down to where those big stairs lead."

Trizel glanced down. It was thousands of feet to the ground below. He just smiled. "It is quite the fall otherwise, maybe I should not have intervened in fate?"

Sentenza had gotten the rope not quite taut, but fairly firm. He tugged on it twice to make sure, and then nodded. "Fate? It was more like your over..."

How are things going over here?

Sentenza nearly jumped off of the stairs as he quickly spun around to face the skeleton that had just appeared behind him. His pistol was drawn and pointing at his face by the time he caught himself. "Didn't I warn you about sneaking in behind me?" Sentenza said as he carefully put his pistol away.

Well, I figured this was a little important, and if I popped in behind Trizel, I'd sort of just fall. Not too helpful, you know. Death calmly explained as he crouched beside Sentenza. Kind of a low ceiling here, huh?

"We're underneath stairs. It'd be more worrying if there were tons of headroom. Now, you said you have something important to say?" Sentenza explained as he pushed past Death to lean out over the edge. He held out the rope and looped it around the railing a couple times before he gave a little extra slack, and started to tie a knot.

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Right! Well, the thing is. I can't seem to get to Sid anymore. Death explained as he leaned onto his back and folded his arms under his head. He just sort of disappeared. Like he doesn't exist anymore, or he ran into that fog again.

Sentenza didn't stop tying the knot as he listened. His face didn't give away any emotion other than concentration on the task at hand. Trizel, however, wore his emotions clearly. His face contorted from a skeptical look to an angry one, and finally settled on frustration.

"Well, he knew the risks of splitting up. Frankly, I'm surprised whoever works here didn't jump him earlier." Sentenza said as he tugged on the knot he had just made.

"That's pretty harsh," Og'drimun lied down next to Death and imitated his relaxed stance as he gave his commentary. "Even I wouldn't be that heartless, and I'm a demon."

"Any reason you decided to come out here?" Sentenza asked as he leaned back into the increasingly cramped space under the stairs. "I thought you said you weren't going to stick your neck out in some, what was it, 'unknown, and obviously magical chamber'?"

Trizel grabbed onto the edge of the stairs, and he pulled himself up so his face was on the same level as the three of them. "I do not think this is the time to argue. If indeed we have lost contact with Sid, we need to ensure the rest of us stick close to one another even more."

Uh, I don't think we'll all fit under here at once. Death pointed out as he looked around the small space they couldn't even stand up in.

"I've got plenty of space!" Og'drimun bragged as he stood up and stretched out his limbs to prove his point.

Sentenza looked off into the distance, and he started to let out some of the rope from the coil he was holding. He would let out a chunk, then pause and look off again before he turned his eyes back to the rope and let out some more. "Death's right. We need to stick to the plan. A scouting group needs to head out first. This can hold a few, but we need a better spot. Maybe the underside of one of those pipes. Depending on how slippery they are though, we might just have to push through this entire room to another hallway."

Trizel looked over towards Sentenza and said, "Yes, but the scouts were supposed to be..."

"Injuries or not. I'm better suited to this than the boss." Sentenza said calmly as he stuck the wound-up rope across his body. "I see the next spot. Let's not use Death's scythe this time. We need it to be as sturdy as possible."

Hey! How was I supposed to know it'd slice through the stairs and railing like butter? Death called out.

Trizel sighed and shook his head. "It was not your fault Death, and I do not like it, but Sentenza is right. Head back to guard the others. We will let you know when we have a safe enough spot for all of us." The giant man lowered himself from the stairs, and he swung down underneath them. He twisted his body across the upper side of the stairs by the railings and lifted himself up on the opposite side where Sentenza was preparing to move on.

Works for me. Good luck bros. Just yell if you need me to pop in...and please have some solid ground behind you when you do. Okay? After he finished talking, Death disappeared from underneath the stairs.

"Hey, what about me?" Og'drimun called out. "I can be useful too!"

Trizel smiled warmly. "Why you'll need to help guard the others as well! Without your strength, they'd be in trouble if anything showed up."

Og'drimun smiled. "Heh. I guess you have a point." And with that, he flew off back towards the others.

As Death disappeared and Og'drimun left, Trizel's smiled slowly disappeared.

"Geez, you're gonna make me sick being so sweet." Sentenza teased as he cracked his neck back and forth.

Trizel seemed to ignore him. "It has been a while since it was just the two of us. Things were awkward early on."

"When Ted wasn't around, yeah. Just didn't have much to say really."

"And it wasn't long until Sid arrived. He was much less violent at least."

Sentenza smiled as he kicked the loose rope down over the edge. "Still never really understood how to think with his heart...except maybe right at the end."

"Hmm? What do you mean?" Trizel asked as he awkwardly tied a metal piton to the end of his spare rope with just one hand.

"Running off on his own. Info or not. He ran towards what he wanted, not what was smart." Sentenza said. "Chose his heart over his head and sprinted down the path only he could make. It was a dumb choice of course but can't really blame a guy who's used to following his head everywhere."

Trizel cracked a mournful smile. "You have an interesting way of looking at that. I thought he said he was determined to gather as much information as he could since we had limited time before another so-called god came to replace the one we conquered."

Sentenza shrugged. "See it how you want. Seems clear enough to me." He leaned forward and pointed towards a small pipe that curved off of a much larger one a few dozen feet away. "I think that one's our best bet. If you can hook it, and it is strong enough that is."

Trizel let out a proud laugh as he flung his head backwards. "A small target like that? Of course, I shall hit it easily! Now, watch and learn."