Getting the key from the bottom of the pool took a few many attempts. The plan was for Green Daemonium to lower Dead Daemonium to the bottom of the pool, Dead Daemonium to grab the key from the pool floor yet again, and for them to signal to Green Daemonium to pull them up, allowing for the key to be retrieved and the gang to move on to the next floor. It was such a perfect plan, as not so humbly admitted by the plan's creator Daemonium. There was no way it could fail in his opinion.

So of course it failed.

To be fair, it wasn't the fault of the plan. The plan was quite solid. The problem was Green Daemonium just leaving Dead Daemonium at the bottom and hoping the group could leave them without noticing. It didn't work out though, with the key being at the bottom of the pool and all, and Dead Daemonium was so pissed they forgot why they were down there in the first place.

Take two.

The plan failed again. Dead Daemonium was definitely not trusting Green Daemonium with their life, so they gripped onto it so tight that it was shaking from the pain. Green Daemonium could hardly take such pain, and before Dead Daemonium could hit the bottom it flung them upwards, Dead Daemonium hitting the ceiling-who-must-not-be-named right on the head again.

Third time's a charm, right?

Before even touching the water, the two Daemoniums were glaring at each other like rivals or mortal enemies. As Daemonium attempted to ask what was going on the two struck, punching each other in the jaw before devolving into a wild and rabid brawl. Think of one of those cartoon fight clouds but without the dust because this tower was surprisingly clean.

Fake Daemonium was the one to break it up. The two were pushed far apart, but still tried to scratch and slash at each other like feral animals. Fake Daemonium sighed. It didn't seem like this fox and Daemonium were able to hold their breath long enough to last down there, so changing the plan was out of the question. But if the two weren't going to get along, what were they to do? An idea formed in Fake Daemonium's head, and this fox thought it may have been the only way.

Letting go of the two and letting them fight, Fake Daemonium simply pranced over to the original. This fox's tails shook wildly, like a dog that was quite pleased with its owner. Daemonium simply looked up with a puzzled expression, unsure of what to think about the situation.

"Fake Daemonium?" His voice wavered, as if he had no idea what was going on. It was likely because he actually did have no idea what was going on, but let's ignore that for now. "I thought you were trying to calm those two down? Wait... what are you doing?"

Fake Daemonium grabbed Daemonium by the hair, biting down into it, and lifting him off the ground. That certainly caught the attention of Dead Daemonium and Green Daemonium, who stopped all that they were doing to stare at the Daemonium hanging by his hair.

"Oh I get it!" Despite not getting it at all, Daemonium assumed he knew the situation. "Since they are dangerously in love with me, which they'd have to be crazy not to, you're using me as eye candy to defuse the situation. That's the plan you had, right? Right?"

Fake Daemonium shook this fox's head before dunking Daemonium straight into the water.

As Daemonium fell deeper and deeper into the water, the world started to fade to black around him. His chest hurt, as if holes were being punched through his lungs by the water that was filling it up. As he fell deeper into the water, he noticed a glimmer of gold light near the bottom of the pool. He reached out and grabbed it, not noticing Dead Daemonium reaching down to grab him.

The key had been retrieved, and they were now able to move to the thirteenth floor. But at what cost? Green Daemonium pulled up a disappointed Dead Daemonium, holding up a key and an unconcious Daemonium. They laid Daemonium on the ground, sad to see him gone.

Until Fake Daemonium pressed this fox's ear against Daemonium's chest to hear a slow but steady heartbeat, indicating that Daemonium was alive.

Before Green and Dead Daemonium could celebrate however, Fake Daemonium pointed to his breathing. Daemonium was definitely not breathing, so if something wasn't done he'd likely die in some time. So what was the solution? Fake Daemonium made an illusion of a book Sebastian gave this fox (because this fox can apparently read), and showed the other Daemoniums what they had to do: CPR!

Instantly seeing the oppurtunity and pushing Green Daemonium away, Dead Daemonium scooped up Daemonium and kissed him as intensely as possible. It was the type of kiss that you'd see in a quite inappropriate video, and Fake Daemonium even blushed and looked away. Due to the nature of the kiss I am legally restricted from describing this to you as this fiction is a 100% safe and family friendly work.

Their make out session with the demon king was quickly interrupted by Green Daemonium prying them apart and tossing Dead Daemonium away. Green Daemonium simply cradled Dead Daemonium in its arms, looking into his shut eyes. Daemonium was like a sleeping princess, cursed to rest forever, and Green Daemonium was his prince. As such Green Daemonium's kiss was a short and sweet, just a simple peck on the lips. Then he started kissing Daemonium even more intensely than Dead Daemonium did.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

And that just led to the two fighting over Daemonium all over again. The original Daemonium might've become another Dead Daemonium if Fake Daemonium didn't intervene. The fox pointed at the book, trying to explain that CPR wasn't the same as kissing, it was a combination of chest compressions and artficial ventilation in order to preserve brain function and keep a person alive, not a kiss of life.

That didn't stop them because they couldn't read.

After finally getting Daemonium away from the two of them, Fake Daemonium provided some actual CPR. After a little bit Daemonium started to cough. A bit of water spurted out of his mouth before he slowly opened his eyes and got up.

Daemonium looked confused, only to look down and see Green Daemonium and Dead Daemonium cling to him tight. They looked like they could cry, releasing the fear they had for him all of this time. Even Fake Daemonium couldn't hold it in. Daemonium simply smiled and embraced them, patting their heads and calming them down in silence. It took a while but they eventually calmed down, simply greatful that he was alive.

It was only the twelth floor and he already almost died. Let's hope the later floors aren't any more dangerous than the "pool without a lifeguard" floor.

Onto floor thirteen. This floor was shiny. It was as if someone walked inside and covered everything they could see in an entire bucket of wax. Every surface was shinier than a mirror, perfect for one to ogle at themselves and do some self care. Even the key was incredibly shiny. It was like a small little pocket mirror in the shape of a key. Speaking of the key it was just sitting there. It was right next to the wall on the right side of the entrance, basically at the center of it.

"This will be easy." That is exactly what Daemonium said before taking a single step and proceeded to instantly slip and fall on his back. He instantly learned that it was not going to be easy.

Seeing this sight, Dead Daemonium hesitated to step on the floor. They slowly put their foot on it, their toe barely touching the ground. They probably wouldn't have stepped foot in the room anytime soon if Green Daemonium didn't put its hand on their shoulder and grin.

And thats how Dead Daemonium slid across the room at hundreds of miles per hour, only stopping when they hit the wall. Green Daemonium laughed, not a very audible laugh but one would assume otherwise with how its back was arched from laughing. It laughed so much that it didn't notice Dead Daemonium slide by incredibly quickly and toss it away.

Now it was on. The two stared each other down from across the room, eyes filled with raged. They ran to each other, ready to completely destroy each other...

Only to fall on their faces. The two needed to figure out how to maneuver around in this room first.

Fake Daemonium was prepared. While the Daemonium illusion made it look like this fox was simply standing there, in actuality the fox with sharpening this fox's claws, making them as sharp as blades. When the illusion was taking a step into the ice Fake Daemonium slowly placed this fox's claws into the floor, hoping that would make sure this fox didn't slip. This fox took a step and... survived! Fake Daemonium was estatic at the revelation, amazed that this fox wasn't forced to slip like the others.

The fox took another step and slipped and fell.

While Fake Daemonium laid there in confusion, Daemonium tried to get himself up. Every time he got himself fully upright for ten seconds or less he'd end up falling yet again. He had never been ice skating before, but from what he imagined this is what ice skating was like, just not as cold or icy as he imagined.

Maybe he didn't need to do this at all! A genius idea went through his head, and he smirked at the thouht. Of course, if he was just going to fall everytime he stood up then he didn't need to stand up. He could just crawl there! It was just brilliant, why hasn't he thought of it before?

He tried crawling to the key and fell flat on his face.

Well it wasn't like he was the only one failing here. Dead Daemonium and Green Daemonium were trying and failing to hurt each other and Fake Daemonium would always start walking eventually but fall down simply because the fox shivered too much. Daemonium sighed. While it was certainly going to take a while for them to get their balance together, at least they had all of the time in the world.

"I can't believe it! Daemonium!" Daemonium turned to the entrance, surprised at who walked through. With her long brown hair, tall and skinny figure, and pale skin that Daemonium could recognize anywhere. "I can't believe I caught up to you!"

"Sanguisa!" Daemonium yelled with excitement, happy to see someone else he had finally knew.

"Daemonium!" Sanguisa ran to him with her arms wide open, her smile wide and happy.

"Sanguisa!" Daemonium ran to her with his arms wide open, releasing tears of pure bliss from his eyes.

And both of them slipped and fell.

"Ouch." Sanguisa rubbed her head, a large bump having formed on it. "It was hard to believe you've made it this far. How did you get past floor two?"

"I don't really remember." Daemonium didn't rub his head despite the bump, because it was used to the pain by now. "I think Fake Daemonium did it for me. How about you? I almost died at just the floor before?"

"Really!? Are you alright!?"

"Don't worry about it. Apparently Fake Daemonium gave me CPR."

"Foxes can give CPR?"

"Fake Daemonium's not just a fox, the fox is a kitsune!"

"I don't think I really care about that."

Daemonium groaned. "You should get the point."

"Well anyways, did you climb the tower this entire time in the nude?"

"Huh!?" Daemonium looked at himself again and realized that he really had been nude the entire time. He only took them off to hide from the assassin more effectively back in an earlier chapter, and he clearly forgot to put some clothes back on. There were those pants he hid Green Daemonium in, but those were left on the first floor after the assassin broke in. The magical reset thing that happened when the floor was cleared might have meant that the pants were completely destroyed so...

"Don't ask," he said, blushing furiously.

"Okay then," Sanguisa said with some suspicion.

"A-Anyways, you didn't answer my qustion. That pool is deep, even if you could swim how did you get past that last floor?"

"Oh, I wasn't the one who completed it. I just followed..." Sanguisa stopped as her face went cold. She looked behind her and expected to see someone, but jumped when she realized no one was there. She turned back to look at Daemonium, almost fainting from shock when she saw him.

Daemonium just looked confused. "Who?"

"Him."

Sanguisa had just pointed behind him, which just made him more confused. Daemonium slowly turned around, and I bet you could guess who was behind him.

If you guessed anything other than the assassin, you need to get your memory checked.