What was school like? Absconditus could barely remember it at this point. The building was just so plain and boring. Who would want to go to a brown and white building five days a week? It should've been purple, or pink, or orange, or red, or maybe the pattern was the problem. If the brown and white were polka dots or fancy stripes it would look much more inviting in his opinion.
The classrooms were also boring. He had to sit still in a desk for hours on end, and this desk wasn't even interesting. How was everyone just okay with this? He couldn't sit still for that long; he might as well have been allergic to sitting still. If he tried to sit still for that long he'd end up falling asleep, which the teachers apparently thought to be worse.
Oh, don't get him started on the teachers. They were loud, brash, rude, mean, the opposite of supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. Even worse is that it felt like they all hated him. It was like one teacher told all of the others he was some primordial evil or something, because he could swear they were hiding faces of disgust when he wasn't looking. If other kids got something wrong they were slowly guided through the problem, but if he did he was yelled at. If he got out of his chair for a stretch they would say he was being insubordinate. If he said one word to talk back they'd call him some sort of delinquent.
So he stayed away from school. He didn't realize he could skip school at first, but once he did he felt liberated. That place just wasn't built for people like him. His dad seemed to be opposed to that however, and never took the claims about school being awful seriously, so he just didn't say anything about it. It wouldn't cause any issue, right?
As Absconditus slept in the dark cage he wished he went back to school. Even that would be better than this.
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Fortunately the 41st floor was different from the previous few.
The key was laying right next to the door this time, and other than the floor looking like a different material than many of the other floors there was nothing off about this floor.
"This one looks easy," Daemonium said. "Too easy. What sort of booby traps are lining this place?"
"We don't know," Sanguisa said. "But we can't figure it out unless someone activates the traps."
"But who's going to do that?"
Daemonium turned to Sanguisa.
Sanguisa turned to Green Daemonium.
Green Daemonium turned to Fake Daemonium.
Fake Daemonium turned to the unnamed golem Daemonium that I forgot was with them for a moment.
The unnamed golem Damonium turned to... no one. The assassin was next to Daemonium.
With a heave and a ho Daemonium and Sanguisa tossed the unnamed golem Daemonium out onto the floor, the pile of rocks landing on zhis equivalent of an ass. The assassin, Sanguisa, and all of the Daemoniums hid behind the door from the previous floor, waiting in anticipation.
One second passed.
Two seconds passed.
A whole minute passed.
And nothing happened.
Thinking that this was all there was to the floor, the unnamed golem Daemonium got up and took a step forward. Immediately zhe was flung into the door at over 500 miles per hour. That's 804.672 kilometers per hour if you cared.
So what happened? The entire floor was similar to one giant treadmill, acting like a large conveyer that sent anything standing on it backwards at high speed. It doesn't activate unless it detects movement above it however, which is why it only started when the unnamed but really needs a name golem Daemonium started to move.
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"Doesn't seem like anything bad is happe- HOLY SHIT!" This was Daemonium's reaction as the pile of rocks without a name smashed through the door, sped only a mere hair away from his head, and slammed into the wall behind them so hard it shook the entire tower. Seriously, if you were on a higher floor you might have thought it was an earthquake or something.
Now two protagonists have had life-threatening experiences with rocks, and this one seemed just as traumatized. He fell to his knees in shock, his eyes wide with fear.
So how does one solve a problem of this nature? How does one get past a giant treadmill of impossibly high speeds that only activates when you move on top of it. A problem of this nature sounds as if it requires an intelligent solution, like the type of solution you'd see in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.
Absconditus just picked them all up and ran.
The treadmill floor started, and it was set to the same speeds that sent the rocks that need a name that are also a Daemonium, but Absconditus kept running. He was able to match its speed, quickly started to surpass it, and before he knew it he was actually starting to get closer to the door. He was beating the room at its own game, and before five minutes passed he had made it to the other side. He kicked up the key with his foot, bouncing it off the wall before headbutting it into the keyhole and smashing himself through the door.
Absonditus placed the group on the ground and headed forward, but none followed. Daemonium was still traumatized, with Fake Daemonium trying to comfort him with this fox's fur. Sanguisa was confused at what just happened, Green Daemonium and Dead Daemonium seemed to be arguing about something, and the pile of no name Daemonium stones was busy trying to rebuild zhemself. With a sigh, Absconditus decided there wasn't any harm in waiting a little longer.
The assassin decided to sit on the stairs for a little bit. It's been a long time since he enjoyed himself this much.
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An indeterminate amount of time later, the cage was unlocked. Absconditus's legs yearned for the outside, craved it, hungered it, if they could speak they'd be rejoicing at this very moment. Absconditus took a step out and stretched his limbs, even the spider limbs on the back, almost forgetting how good it felt to walk outside.
"Here." His master handed him a pitch-black helmet and all black clothes. "Wear this."
Absconditus thought of the outfit as a bit edgy but wore it anyways. He found the helmet a bit tight and the shirt seemed to constrict the movement of his spider limbs, so it seemed clear that this outfit was designed for an elf like his master.
"What is this for master?"
"The suit is enchanted to be bulletproof and raise your Durability," she explained. "It also serves as a uniform of sorts."
Hearing the word uniform almost made Absconditus want to throw up. That word reminded him of school, and even if he'd prefer to be in school he still found it bad.
That being said, didn't a uniform imply classmates to wear them with?
"Follow me." Before he could ask the question his master walked down to another end of the room. Absconditus followed, having never realized just how big this basement room was. It was like there wasn't a wall in sight, like he could run and run through the room for the rest of time, and the only source of light was the one small candle his master held onto.
Finally, after what felt like hours of walking to Absconditus (it was actually just five minutes but he's dramatic), Absconditus thought he had walked in a circle. It was the same desk as before, with the same lamp, and the same chair, and the same disorganized papers in the exact same locations. Even his cage was in front of it, only he soon realized that wasn't his cage. Someone else was in the cage.
The person seemed to be another creeper like him, but this time female. She had really dark green skin, like leaves decomposing in the dirt, and her six spider limbs seemed short and stubby in comparison to Absconditus's. When she was let out she appeared to be just a centimeter shorter than Absconditus, although the difference was barely noticeable. His master gave her an identical uniform, and she put it on quickly and calmly.
This happened a few more times. They walked to more identical desks within the seemingly infinite basement, unlocked the cages of a few more shadow people, like minotaurs and incubi and demons, and had them all wear the same set of armor. Once finished, there was a small army of ten slaves in black suits following their elf master.
The elf master pulled out a piece of chalk from her pocket, then proceeded to draw a circle in the ground. With a flick of her fingers (and likely some magic) the circle became a portal; a swirling purple vortex to take them where they needed to go.
"I'm sure you know who you need to kill already," she said.
"I don't, master!" The only person to speak out of line was Absconditus, while all of the others barely even moved or reacted. They were like statues, only moving on command.
The elf sighed. "Just follow the others," she said. "They know."
"Okay."
"Anyways, it's time to end this war once and for all! Drop out!"
The squad jumped into the portal, Absconditus quickly tagging behind once he realized what she meant. Going through a portal was an odd experience. It was like falling forever yet for just a few seconds. He felt like he fell at breakneck speeds but when he looked he was going quite slow. He easily landed on his feet out of the bottom of the portal, then looked up with amazement.
That gargantuan building before him was the Demon King's castle.