Inverted Pyramid (6)

The kids followed the cable to a kind of cabin hidden behind one of the columns. Suddenly, Lidia swiftly pulled out her weapon and attached a silencer. She carefully aimed at the door's lock and fired, breaking it without making a sound.

At that moment, when Podbe shattered the jaw the entity held in its right hand, the sphere on the creature's head turned a deep red, signaling its fury. It began to advance rapidly, wielding the only jaw it had left in its left hand. Quickly, Podbe dodged it and used his ability again, destroying the entity's last weapon. From inside Podbe, Reia announced: "Minus ten mana points, eighty remain."

Podbe wondered why the system hadn't sent any alerts during the fight. Reia, however, had no answer to that question.

The entity continued to move vigorously. "This isn't over yet, boy," warned Reia. Eduard, observing closely, thought the being's power resided in the sphere on its head. He quickly stood up and signaled to Podbe to destroy the sphere, apparently the core of its strength. The dog understood instantly, raised his head in acknowledgment, and charged at the weakened entity. He leaped toward it, closing in on the sphere, and shouted from within: "Firehead!"

Meanwhile, Lidia entered the room stealthily and gestured for the others to follow suit. As they stepped inside, she saw someone frantically moving their hands in front of a control panel while seated in a chair with their backs turned. The person was visibly upset because the dog had destroyed the entity's two weapons, and now the sphere was in danger. "This can't be," the man muttered. "I'll make this creature stronger and have it finish them all, especially that dog. But… where are the others?"

At that exact moment, he felt something cold pressing against his right temple. "Stay still, don't move!" commanded a firm voice. It was Elena, pointing her weapon at him with determination. The man panicked and raised his hands from the control panel. He couldn't understand how they had managed to enter without being detected on the monitors, but he had been so absorbed in the battle that he hadn't noticed anything else.

The man was small, about the size of a child; his feet barely touched the seat. He wore black gloves and a white lab coat, giving him the appearance of an eccentric scientist. His round glasses, partial baldness—with hair only on the sides—and long white beard completed his peculiar look. "How dare you enter my domain?" he shouted furiously. "I have the weapon; I'll ask the questions," Elena responded with a terrifying glare. Then, she instructed the kids to find something to tie him up with.

Elena, Maria, and Billy began searching and found some ropes in one of the cabinets in the corner. "Do any of you know how to tie knots?" Lidia asked. "I do," Billy replied, who had practiced tying knots for years at the orphanage. He was skilled at it for his age. "Well, do it quickly," Lidia urged him.

Quickly, Billy asked the girls to wrap the chair with the rope, and then he tied a perfect knot. "There, see?" he said proudly, showing off his work. The girls whispered "show-off" and chuckled softly after everything they had been through.

"Alright, now tell us your name, why you attacked us, and where the exit is," Lidia demanded.

"That's a lot of questions, young lady," the scientist replied in a pompous tone.

"Just answer," Lidia snapped, glaring at him.

"Very well, my name is Dani, the great Dani to you," he said arrogantly.

The children couldn't help but laugh at his declaration.

"I may be small, but I'm very smart," he shot them an irritated look.

"Go on," Lidia said, still pointing her weapon at him, though now from a distance as she kept him away from the controls.

"I attacked you because you're intruders, and I'm the guardian of this floor, where I conduct failed experiments, like on almost every floor except the last one," he added. "If you want to continue, you must go through that door. There's an exit just like the one you used to enter, and you'll need to descend floor by floor."

"Is there any shortcut to reach the last floor?" Lidia asked.

"No, little girl. Each floor has elevators to move between them, per our boss's orders. Since the elevator is destroyed, and you're here, the only way forward is to go down floor by floor until you reach the last one. This inverted pyramid was designed this way to stop intruders, and each floor has its own guardian. Though it seems the guardians of the upper levels have died due to the strong tremors we felt."

"Does the door ahead have any kind of lock or trap?" Lidia asked, eyeing him suspiciously.

"Don't come near me, little girl. If you press that button, it will activate."

Lidia ordered Billy to press the button. The boy approached, but before doing so, a shiver ran down his spine. He turned to her. "What if it's a trap?"

"Press it with that stick on the floor," Lidia suggested.

"Alright," he replied.

With the stick in hand and feeling nervous, Billy pressed the button. A click sounded, and a red light on the panel turned green. On the screens, they could see how the room, which had been changing colors, returned to clinical white lighting. They also observed the entity melting, draining away through a grate.

"Alright, let's go, kids," Lidia said.

Dani, distressed, protested: "You can't leave me here tied up!"

He began squirming like a child throwing a tantrum, but he couldn't untie himself. Apparently, Billy was really good at tying knots. As everyone was leaving, Lidia paused before crossing the door, thought for a moment, and after reconsidering the situation, said: "You're coming with us. That way, we'll have a better chance of avoiding future attacks."

Back at the fight, when Podbe shattered the entity's sphere, all that remained was a viscous liquid dripping through the drainage grates. No quest appeared for defeating that creature.

"What a disappointment," Podbe remarked. "It was weak, then."

Reia explained that no quest had appeared, but they had gained fifty experience points. Eduard approached the dog, patting him on the head and saying: "Good boy."

He offered him a bit of the potion. At first, the dog didn't want to drink it, but Reia insisted so he could regain his strength. Finally, he drank it, feeling a wave of nausea like the first time, but afterward, he felt refreshed.

Eduard looked around, wondering where the others were. When he looked again, he saw the four of them approaching, but they were carrying a chair, and on it sat what appeared to be a child. As they got closer, he realized it was a short man. He looked at the kids and asked who he was. Lidia explained that he was the guardian of this floor.

"So you're the one who caused us all these problems, just like those mutant moles upstairs," Eduard said.

"Mutant moles?" the bound scientist asked. "So those things were what finished off the guardians of the upper floors," Dani murmured. "Tell me more about them," he said, looking at Eduard with curiosity.

Eduard described what those creatures were like. Observing the scientist, he realized he knew nothing about them. "I see you don't know about them. Maybe they're some kind of specimen that escaped from somewhere," Eduard remarked.

"Nonsense. I've worked here for a long time, and I know exactly what experiments are conducted in this place," Dani clarified. "They were probably drawn here by something or someone with extraordinary power," Dani reflected. "I'll go with you. I want to investigate further."

"You were coming with us anyway," Lidia responded.

Eduard lifted Dani out of the chair, still tied up, and they began to move forward. Dani observed everyone curiously, trying to understand why those creatures might have been drawn to one of these strangers.

"I almost forgot to ask you, on your monitors, did you see where the other part of the elevator fell?" Eduard asked.

"I could only see that it broke apart and fell spinning like a top. But if your friends are still alive, they're probably on the lower floors, based on the device's last known location," Dani replied.

"Then we need to keep going down to find them," Eduard said. "Let's continue."

They reached the door, opened it, and began descending the stairs toward the fourth floor.

Meanwhile, Adia's group was about to reach the sixth floor. Marie approached Gin and asked: "Do you know why they took the boy? Elena's father told us something, but do you know anything else?"

"It must be because of Project Odysseus and the Metalux," Gin replied.