The Mysterious Figgs

Traversing through the extremely dark and eerie cavern, the group lands themselves upon an army of Hollows, on standby, right next to a transparent wall.

On the other side of the wall, relentless amounts of screams, chaos and deaths were extremely apparent — one hollow appeared bloodied and wanting to leave the vicinity, before, being blasted by a strong cero.

Hiding behind a sturdy rock, the group observes from a far.

"Watch, It's happening," Harribel solemnly said.

Darwin witnessing something extremely interesting with the transparent wall. Disappearing bit by bit from the top and bottom edges, closing in on in the middle at an extremely slow pace.

The tension of the army, heavy. An Adjucha appearing beside a decently strong Adjucha kneeling down one-kneed, he said, "Commander, your orders."

The Commander commanding the thousands of Hollows including Gillians as their main source of military strength. He commands, "Charge your ceros!"

In unison, Gillians charged up their ceros from the tip of their mouth.

Coming to a close, the transparent walls inevitably disappears without a trace.

Swinging his right arm forward, the Commander said loudly, "Fire!"

Multitude of ceros blast through the frontline obliterating them together.

"Charge!" The army of Hollows begin marching through the cave and exiting to the vast expanse of battle, blood, gore and hunger.

"Even I wouldn't leave unscathed," Darwin quietly mentioned.

Harribel explained further, "Every thirty days, the transparent wall, Muro De Regla, opens up and closes in an hour."

With sounds of innumerable amounts of footsteps, Hollows flee in a rush to get out of Third Strato.

"We don't have to worry about these Hollows, their only goal is to leave this bloodied battlefield," Harribel relaxed, she reassured Darwin.

As time flies by, more and more Hollows continue to leave the vicinity while a select few charge in recklessly.

"Before we head in which is closing in five minutes, I need to tell you something critical about this Strato," she said with grave and urgency hinted at her tone.

She continued, "Hollows fight at ground level, a fight to the death until the lights above turn normal and not crimson red."

Darwin asks, "What is the point of fighting here rather than other places?"

Sung-sun responds instead, "The crimson red lights shinning above causes Hollows to invoke their desires to its extremity, making their Reiatsu run rampant and exponentially explode. On top of that, the cold and bloodied ground of the battlefield absorbs corpses and gives corresponding Reishi to the killer of corpses. If in a group like the one we saw, it spreads evenly to each of them."

High risk, high reward it seems.

And what is behind the mechanism of the Reishi distribution, sounds interesting.

"Let's go quickly," Harribel insisted.

—

Incredible!

The entire battlefield enclosed in an extremely vast plane. The floors were patternised in ancient artistic designs on the borders, a carved huge skull appearing at the epicenter of the platform.

Standing outside the ginormous platform of battle, Darwin witnessed something extremely fascinating happening.

Faint sounds of clogs running. chains pulling. Then an extremely unstable and deafening earthquake spreads across the battlefield flipping the entire platform upside down in a slow rotation.

Glass breaking sound resonating repeatedly across the vicinity.

The army of Hollows that went ahead first pull out with the Commander's orders, "Retreat!"

Harribel pointed out something, "The glass breaking is an object obtained from Second Strato, Resting Glass. It counters the effect of the red crimson lights above."

Hollows made their way outside the platform in time.

All of a sudden, a massive transparent barrier appeared around the platform stopping anyone from entering and leaving.

Harribel seeing the intrigue in Darwin's expression, she explained, "Hollows stuck in the enclosed platform by Muro De Regla ultimately dies for being too late."

Observing Darwin's weariness as he looks everywhere for any ill intentions, Harribel explains further, "Another rule is placed outside the platform when the lights change back to normal. Someone initiating an attack will lose a percentage of their Reishi forever."

Understanding what she said, he asks, "How does one go to the next Strato?"

An Adjucha resembling a standing dog walked up to the group in attempt to answer his question.

"Halt!"Appacci and Lioness Adjucha stood in front and told them to state their attentions.

Slightly afraid, he gestures them to calm down. He then introduced, "I'm Figgs, let me answer that question for you."

Alerted, Darwin asks him to continue and telling Appacci and Lioness Adjucha to let him speak.

Irritated, Lioness Adjucha interjected, "I only follow Lady Harribel's orders. Not from some runt like you."

"Rose!" Harribel adamantly tells her to allow him to speak.

Scratching their head, Figgs said with a short sigh, "You must obtain rights to the next Strato, the more hollows you kill, the more points you gather." Figgs points towards a white wall with black outlines.

"That wall is the door to the next Strato, placing your hand upon the wall allows you or you and your group to head in through. But the black outlines must light up fully to the very top of the white stone door."

Slightly less guarded, Darwin asks, "Can I break through the door?"

With a crazed laughter, Figgs teared up, "Noway. You think you can destroy that door? Doing so would instantly boot you to the Tenth Strato, The Desolate Wasteland."

Harribel hearing this for the first time, she reminisces on a certain person in her group that made them skip through to Tenth Strato.

Embarrassed, Rose turned her head away to the left.

Darwin asks, "Is there any other interesting things to know about this layer?"

Figgs replies, "Nope." Then Figgs proceeds to leave somewhere else.

He gave information and then left just like that? Something is odd. He reminds me of Mies for some reason.

With a mysterious demeanour, Figgs left a lasting impression on Darwin. Not so much to the other four.

"I guess we should wait until we can head onto the platform ourselves," Darwin suggested.

Harribel answers, "Indeed."