"Welcome," the voice said. "To the Tower of the Goddess."

Remeber how this arc is called Climbing? Yeah, he's going to climb up a tower now.

Daemonium just looked confused. He didn't see anyone that could have been talking to him, and he didn't believe in ghosts, so the only solution here was magic. Magic can do anything. It can help you solve mysteries. It can help rewrite history. The only thing it can't do is help me get a girlfriend. So of course, it just had to be magic. The only question here was the typeof spell used, how long it has been activated, who put it there, etc. There was only one question he really cared about though, and that was: HOW DOES HE GET OUT OF HERE!?

"If you wish to escape, then too bad! The only way to get out is to climb the tower!"

Seems like the tower answered the question for him.

"If you're in this tower," the voice continued. "Then you probably already know why you're here: to recieve a gift from our beloved and the most beautiful goddess of all, our goddess Amare! However, in order to get to her gift you must prove your love to her! And in order to do that you must reach the top!"

Daemonium's opinion was that this was stupid.

"This tower extends into the sky, with a hundred floors of completely unique challenges. Every challenge is harder than the last, and until you get out you won't have access to food, water, or any outside assistance."

If you asked Daemonium, that sounded dangerous.

"This is going to be a dangerous journey." The tower simply stated the obvious. "But the challenges will be simple. In every room there will be a gold door like the one in front of you, and that leads to the staircase. It will be locked when you walk in, and the only way to unlock it is to find and use a gold key. There will be a gold key in every room, but the conditions to get it will vary. In some rooms you must defeat the monsters, in some you must go through an obstacle course, in some you may have to look for it when it has been hidden, and some rooms may have even crazier challenges. However, the goal will always remain the same; find the key and use it to go to the next floor. With that, I don't don't think you need me anymore, so good luck!"

With the voice finally disappearing, Daemonium finally noticed a sign on the wall. It wasn't anything special, simply displaying a big number 1, but that made the reality of there being a hundred floors in this building sink in.

On one hand, climbing the tower was the only way to get out. And he didn't prepare any food or water beforehand so he would have to get out eventually. On the other hand, a hundred floors was a lot of floors. He certainly didn't have all day to do these challenges, but the procrastinator in him said that was too many floors. Besides, he was only there to hide from the assassin. If he strolled out as soon as possible, wouldn't that defeat the purpose?

So while Fake Daemonium freaked out about the prospect of being trapped, Green Daemonium panicked about how they were going to eat, and Dead Daemonium was just grateful that it wasn't dark anymore, the original Daemonium simply sat down and rested. After all, he didn't really need anything else. He was okay doing this before the assassin chased him after all.

And so he simply lied on the ground and slept, the Daemoniums freaking out as he did so.

Another hour passed, and Daemonium woke up from his nap. It wasn't too peaceful, he couldn't really sleep with all of the banging on the door. Despite the place being soundproof, someone was seemingly able to bang on the door hard enough to make the noise echo through the door. Daemonium was going to the door in order to shut whoever it was up, but remembered the door couldn't be opened. And so she went back to sleep.

Until he took a closer look at the door. Many bumps had formed on the door, likely made from whoever it was on the other side denting the door. With every bang he heard, a new bump formed on the door. Each bump grew larger and larger, as if either the person punching was getting stronger or the door was getting weaker. The person's hands became more visible with every punch as well, until one punch finally pushed through the door hard enough to make a large imprint in the door. It was like the door had grown an arm and a hand permanently in the shape of a fist.

Daemonium stared at the fist imprinted on the door. Something about it seemed familiar. It was big, and strong looking, but he couldn't place a finger on it. Sanguisa's arms were lankier, Sebastian's were hairier, Calumnia's was smaller, and this definitely didn't belong to Veritas. It was far too familiar, almost as if he saw that hand only earlier that day. But who was it? That day he had met Green Daemonium, Fake Daemonium, Dead Daemonium, Sanguisa, and...

THE ASSASSIN! Daemonium almost hit his head on the ceiling with how high he jumped out of shock. If the assassin somehow knew where they were, it was only a matter of time until he broke down the door. Panicking, he ran to wake up the other Daemoniums and ran around the room in search of the key.

Green Daemoniun slowly formed itself out of the green puddle it slept in. Dead Daemonium slowly got up and combed through their dead hair with their fingers. Fake Daemonium streatched before casting this fox's favorite Daemonium illusion over this fox's self, making the kitsune look just like Daemonium. All three of them looked confused, exhausted, surprised, tired, and most important of all REALLY FUCKING SLEEPY!

"Don't just stand there!" Daemonium shouted as if his life was on the line. Granted, it was, but it was still loud. "Help me find that key!"

While the Daemoniums would've agreed they just couldn't help here. It's not like they didn't understand the predicament or didn't like him that day. It was none of that, it was simply because there was literally nowhere to look.

Remember how I described this room? Remember how I said it was empty? Well it's very empty. And somehow despite all of that space there was no key in any of it.

This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

And so the other Daemoniums said it was pointless and went back to sleep.

"Come one guys!" Daemonium attempted to shake them awake, his voice sounding as if he was partially trying to convince himself to keep going. "The key has to be here somewhere?"

So where was the key? It wasn't anywhere Daemonium had looked, in fact it wasn't in the room at all. You see, when walking in through the door the first golden key was hooked right on top of it. The solution for this puzzle was only possible if you knew the problem before going in.

So yeah, they were doomed.

"Maybe we can get in some other way," Daemonium suggested. "I know! Green Daemonium can pick the lock!"

Daemonium picked up the slime and pushed it straight into the keyhole, hoping for Green Daemonium to pick the lock. Unfortunately the keyhole glowed and spat the Green Daemonium out.

"Maybe Dead Daemonium can kick the door down." Daemonium picked up the zombie and chucked them at the door. After slamming face first into the door and failing to kick it out, Dead Daemonium got up and simply kicked it again. After failing to do any damage with that kick they kicked the door again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And you get it by now, the door didn't budge.

"I know!" Daemonium had one last idea. "Maybe Fake Daemonium could... yeah, I got nothing."

Fake Daemonium just looked disappointed.

The assassin was still destroying the door and completely wrecking the entrance. Despite how much the place had been enchanted with defensive magic that should've prevented some of the strongest being from bending it, the assassin's punches were getting closer and closer to busting a hole in it. The door was unrecognizable from the door it used to be, and it was bent so much it seemed more like a ball of cotton than a flat sheet of paper.

"I got something!" Daemonium jumped up excitedly, almost hitting his head on the ceiling again. If anything in this series has a secretly high mortality rate, it was probably that ceiling. "Fake Daemonium, you can hide us! And when the assassin gets in we'll sneak out and enjoy life!"

Satisfied that there was finally a plan that involved this fox, Fake Daemonium covered them with this fox's illusions. The four of them were basically invisible, leaving no trace of them to be seen.

And with one final bang, the door was opened. As he walked in the Daemoniums noticed Sanguisa clinging onto the assassin's foot, crying and begging him not to kill anyone. The assassin didn't care but the Daemoniums were touched by her generocity. And that meant the assassin was her problem now because they all decided to just leave.

"I think we're safe now," Daemonium said after they ran as far away from the tower as possible. "You can remove the illusion now. "You can remove the illusion now."

Fake Daemonium removed the illusion, and the three Daemoniums sat there and caught their breaths. Well, not like Dead Daemonium really needed to breathe since they were technically dead, but zombies get tired too.

Wait... three?

That is when Daemonium realized someone was missing. Fake Daemonium and Dead Daemonium were very obviously here, the text said they were just a moment ago. And he was definitely there, so there was only one Daemonium that could've been missing. That was a bit of a problem.

So here's a fun fact about kitsunes. The illusions they make only have a range of around fifty meters. That's about 164 feet for the Americans reading this. Another fun fact about kitsunes is that Fake Daemonium is one. Are you following along? If so, you may have guess this next fact: They ran far more than fifty meters away from the tower. Put all of these facts together and what's the situation for Green Daemonium going to look like?

If you say it was spotted by the assassin, then you are correct!

Green Daemonium was going to run alongside the others, but noticed the key right on the door. It thought the key might've been tasty, and so it grabbed the key and plopped it straight in its mouth. Unfortunately, the Daemoniums could be quite fast when it comes to running from danger, so the illusion faded off of Green Daemonium and made it painfully obvious that it was standing there to the assassin. And the assassin's reaction to this? Shoot it of course!

Luckily, before a bullet could reach the young slime, Sanguisa grabbed the assassin's hand and pointed the gun upwards. As such he simply fired towards the ceiling, buying enough time for a speedy Dead Daemonium, carrying the original and fake Daemoniums in their arms, to kick the assassin in the face.

And the fight continued. The assassin tossed Sanguisa away like one of the dolls she liked and fired at the little zombie. Dead Daemonium skillfully dodged each bullet as they got closer and delivered an uppercut to the chin. Dead Daemonium was quite proud of themself for that move, until the assassin headbutt them into the ground.

Meanwhile, Daemonium and Fake Daemonium ran to Green Daemonium, practically crying as they squeezed the slime so much it hurt. If Dead Daemonium saw this they would be jealous, but they were too busy fight the assassin.

"Please don't do that ever again," Daemonium said. "Why did you even stay behind?"

Green Daemonium pointed at its head, which had the gold key floating inside.

"I get it, you wanted to explore the tower. But we can't do that. The situation is far too dangerous for that, and we could get killed."

Green Daemonium just wanted something to eat, but it wasn't going to make any corrections.

Before Daemonium could continue his big speech he heard a large slam from across the room. The assassin had tossed the zombie into the gold door so hard that one could hear a few bones seemingly snap. The other Daemoniums ran to help them, but they felta shiver as they realized the assassin stood right behind them. With a single pistol pointed to Daemonium's head, it was clearly game over.

"Wait!" Daemonium was scared, shaking like he was in the Arctic, but he still spoke. "Is it okay if I say my final words to these three?"

The assassin was confused, but nodded his head to show he allowed it.

Daemonium sighed and turned to his friends, looking completely devastated. "I'm sorry," he said, wrecked with guilt. "You guys have done so much for me and even saved my life, but I never acknowleged it. I guess, when my first friend died I was too scared to make anymore, and only by losing the only remaining memory of him in the 3ds is when I realized how great friends you are. And yet, all I did was lay in my room all day. I just can't think about him anymore without breaking down completely like that, but you still stuck with me despite that. So if you may be so kind, would you accept my final gift?"

If they could cry... you know the rest.

Daemonium went to Green Daemonium and pulled out the key, before opening the door behind them. A single staircase went straight up to the second floor, right above the Daemoniums. Daemonium simply smiled, a sweet and somber smile that showed an underlying sadness.

"My final gift to you is," he said, wiping off a single tear. "My survival!"

Before anyone could question anything Daemonium grabbed the other Daemoniums, leapt straight through the door, and shut it right behind him. The assassin tried to punch it down, but like Dead Daemonium he didn't even dent it.

With the Daemoniums going to the next floor the room magically reset itself. The broken door disappeared and replaced itself with magic. The key vanished from the keyhole and went back to the door outside. The lights turned back off and the assassin and Sanguisa laid in the room, ready to be the next challengers in the Tower of the Goddess.

The assassin groaned, while Sanguisa chuckled with schadenfreude.