Chapter 70: He don’t leave me anyone

[Property Seizure. Target: Gate to Floor 55. Status: sealed by Guild Master Marcus.]

The runes on the gate flickered red and held.

Dante hit the gate with his fist. The sound rang through the whole floor.

"Open," he said.

The runes didn’t change.He pulled back and hit it again. And again. Blood ran down his knuckles. The gate held.

’He sealed it,’ he thought.

He slid down the wall with his back against the cold stone and closed his eyes, and in the dark he saw a girl with cat ears whispering a promise.

Meanwhile on Floor 37.....

The black flames didn’t go out anymore.

Esabella walked up the stairs, and the fire stayed on her fingers after she stopped moving. She noticed and didn’t care.

Floor 38.Six guards at the lift. She cut through them without breaking stride.

Floor 40.A squad of ten with crystal shields. The shields melted. Her eyes flashed gold for a full second before they went brown again.

Floor 43.A man in the stairwell begged for his life. She walked past him.

Floor 45. A captain stood in her way, an A-rank with a name she didn’t bother to learn. He swung once. She caught the blade with her bare hand and the steel went red, then white, then dripped between her fingers.

"What are you?" he whispered.

And then –

’Crack ’

She felt something as she climbed. The core in her chest beat faster with every floor, like something waking up. Her back itched where the wings should be. Her forehead ached. At Floor 46, a small sharp point pushed against her skin under her hair, and she put her hand there and felt the tip of a horn. Then she hide them .

’Not yet,’ she thought. ’Not till I see him, i want to see him my this form too, hehe i think he will like it.’

’Floor 47.’A trap of falling stones. She walked through it.

Floor 48.’A whole squad waiting in the stairwell, with the Radiant Dawn crest on every chest. They held their weapons out, shaking.

"Stop right there! You are the Black Flame..."

"So?!," Esabella said. The black fire left her hands. When she climbed over the last body, there was no one left to say anything. The stairwell was quiet. Smoke curled along the ceiling. She took the last flight three steps at a time, and pushed open the door.

The sign on the wall read FLOOR 49.

A single poster hung beside it, glued crooked. A scarred man’s face looked out of it, with the crimson seal and the reward in black letters.

Esabella stopped. She looked at the face for a moment. Then she reached up and touched the edge of the paper with one finger, the way she had touched the dead man’s poster in the inn.

"I’m close," she said.

Far above her, through six floors, a man leaned against a sealed gate with his eyes closed and blood on his hands.

She couldn’t hear him, but she turned her head toward the ceiling anyway.

"Wait for me, dante, i am coming for you. my king~." She said

....

[Mending Thread complete. Cooldown: 24 hours.]

Thirty bodies lay around dante. He didn’t look at them. Behind the gate, he could hear hammering. It was slow and steady, like men building something. Then something clicked.

The runes went from red to white, one by one, and the gate rolled up into the ceiling with a low hum. Dante stood up.

There was no one behind it. A long corridor stretched ahead, with a red carpet and lit torches. At the far end, another door open, and the hammering was louder there.

He pressed the ring.there was No heartbeats in the corridor.

’He opened it himself, he must be planning something. Whatever is he planning don’t matter now’ dante thought.

A white banner hung on the wall, with gold letters.

[WELCOME BACK, DANTE.]

He looked at it for a second.

"Marcus, you bastard, i will tear you apart" he said. The sword cut the banner in half. Both pieces dropped to the floor, and Dante walked over them.

.....

In the Floor 50.The city was empty.The painted sky glowed over the glass towers, and alarm bells rang from every street. Windows were closed, and curtains were drawn. Every guard had been pulled up to Floor 55, and nobody was left to stop a woman in a black cloak.

Esabella crossed the plaza without slowing.

A white stone statue stood in the middle of it. A man in armor, sword raised, with a scar on his cheek. She stopped and read the plaque.

[DANTE GREY. HERO OF THE RADIANT DAWN.]

She looked up at the stone face. "Same wrong face, but the name is same" she said. Then she walked on.

Floor 51. Eight guards lay in a white corridor, each with one clean cut across the neck. A pipe in the wall had been sliced through, and the gas was gone. She stopped at a line in the steel wall, perfectly straight, and touched it with one finger.

"Dante." For one second, her face softened.

Then it went serious again, and she kept climbing.

Floor 52.

Twelve guards pressed into the platform floor, with their armor crushed. A captain’s legs bent the wrong way. She knew that. She had seen it in the vault.

Floor 53.

A burned hall, with four mages on the floor. The walls were black, but the floor was cold. The fire had been taken, not put out. She almost smiled.

Floor 54.

Thirty bodies, and a huge man in black armour with a hole through his chest. The gate at the end stood open. Half a banner lay on the carpet, with a few drops of blood beside it.

She counted the bodies once. Then she looked at the gate, and the red corridor, and the torches.

"Rude," she said. "He didn’t leave me anyone."

The tip of a horn pushed against her hair. She pressed it down with her palm. Then she stepped into the corridor.