- Soul- Stirring Ladle -
They continued to move....and Bam and Charlotte kept creating miracles by killing those immortals with their Shinsu Black- Hole Sphere.
But in the middle of the way, Bam came up with another great idea like the usual. Instead of running through the entrances, he decided to use the [Blue Oar] to jump out from the window along with Mata and Hockney. But the idea was then canceled since it was too dangerous for Hell Joe controlled Shinsu in the South City and they tried to use a flying creature with Mata's Blur Orb. And on the other hand, Charlotte was following both Rachel and Grand De Lee who was laughing happily to see Hell Joe's underlings suffering from the fear of being killed. He thought that they deserved it after betraying the Grand Family.
Rachel started to find things suspicious while Charlotte just kept running and cleared the path for them from any enemies who dared to attack them. Well, none of them dared to attack them after witnessing Charlotte's ability to kill them.
It didn't take long to arrive in a place where she could see Khun and the others. Part of her wanted to jump out after seeing them but Grand De Lee and Rachel stopped her. Even though right now the three of them could see Khun and the others, the regulars didn't seem to notice their presences.
Khun has been suspicious of Hwaryun for a long time and right there and right now, he was going to clear his suspicions.
"Hey Hwaryun" he called the female guide.
"What is it?" Hwaryun asked.
"Before we meet this De Sah guy, there's something that I'm curious about" said Khun.
"Curious?"
"What kind of power does De Sah have for him to be able to defeat Hell Joe? I thought he already lost to Hell Joe before" he said. "Does he have some kind of plan? Tell the truth. Did you lie to us?"
"...lie....?"
"Yeah. Did you make up the whole story about your grudge towards Joe....and your goal is not defeating Hell Joe but meeting De Sah...?"
Hwaryun was quiet for a moment.
"You think my goal is to meet De Sah?" She asked him once again. "What does that mean?"
Boro didn't seem to believe in Khun. He believed more in Hwaryun, especially after seeing that corpse of a Red Witch while Altaira, on the other hand, he was smirking. Celeste was confused and asked him why he was smiling when his teammates were having an argument.
"You'll wait and see" said Altaira. "This is an interesting show."
"....No. I'm certain. You may have said that you broke into this castle to defeat Hell Joe but you are not actually interested in what Hell Joe is doing. Plus, it's suspicious that you are using Yuri Zahard as a bait when she is the only person who could kill Hell Joe. That's why it seems that you are here to meet De Sah, not to kill Hell Joe" Khun explained his doubts.
"....I don't think it's nice to suspect people without any reason" Hwaryun replied calmly.
"There are lots other suspicious things too. First. Your attitude as a guide. You came here as Viole's and Nox's guide in order to get the thorn fragment but right now you are completely on a different journey to avenge a fellow guide. I don't think you would prioritize your personal guide over Viole's and Nox's journey. That's not how someone would behave if they were angry about not following standard path for the death of a companion.
Second. the attitude of you and Ai who lost someone precious to both. I don't really get the feeling that you guys are sad or angry about her death.
Third. Hell Joe doesn't have the thorn fragment. If he did, FUG would have heard about it. And your concrete goal would have been breaking into the castle and finding the thorn fragment. So this is what I think.
There's some kind of connection between that De Sah guy and the thorn fragment, and that's why you are using us to meet him."
Charlotte could feel the corner of her lips curling up after hearing Khun's explanation. It was a fortunate that the changes she did doesn't affect his personality, not even the slightest. He was indeed the smartest person whom she ever encountered.
All the explanations were logical and detail.
Listening to those arguments that Khun had which was logical, Hwaryun let out a sigh and smiled. She admitted that Khun's answer was extremely close to the truth which made the group wonder about her real motive.
Hwaryun explained that the corpse was real and so as her grudge. But compared to her grudge, she was, after all, a guide from FUG, in charge of guiding both the slayer candidates to slay the throat of their biggest enemy, Zahard. Her job was to help the slayer candidates and in order to do that, she had to meet De Sah.
What she wanted from De Sah wasn't his power, but an item that he currently possessed. Right now, De Sah has been imprisoned for some years that his skill of fighting must be decreased and his power couldn't be helpful to them. But with the item that he had, they could get the thorn fragment.
"It's called the Soul- Stirring Ladle."
Soul- Stirring Ladle was the item used by the former rulers of the South and North Cities in order to make the spirit room.
"You've heard the story about De Sah and De Jah making the spirit room right? One of the items that they used at the time was the Soul- Stirring Ladle. With its mysterious power to scoop up souls, the ladle plays the important role of binding souls together which have not united with one another and it's also the only item capable of scooping up the souls in the spirit room."
"B.....but isn't that what Hell Joe is after....!?"
"You're right. But Hell Joe thinks that it's already broken. Because De Sah smashed the ladle right in front of Joe. But it's not an item that can be broken so easily. We've kept searching for that ladle that disappeared and Ai infiltrated into Joe's castle recently came back and said that she saw De Sah with that ladle."
"What? So the reason that guide was killed by Joe--" Khun came up with another assumption.
"Yep. She had also sneak into the castle in search of the ladle when Joe killed her. We tried for a very long time to break into this place. For Ai, it's the second time to break in here."
Charlotte then began to summon her fan out from her bracelet as Khun asked another question to Hwaryun, "Why on earth do you guys want that ladle.....?"
"....actually, we're not very interested in the ladle itself. The one who's interested in the ladle is a guy named Madorako."
"M...Madorako.....? From the Workshop Battle.....!?"
"That's right. He's a merchant who sided with the FUG which got involved in the Workshop Battle. Actually, his private army is the one who managed to sneak the thorn fragment out of the Floor of Death. It hasn't been confirmed but there are rumors that he has another thorn fragment, too.
They say that since becoming the enemy of several executives at FUG during the Workshop Battle, he's been searching for a client to whom he can sell the thorn fragment at a proper price. What Madorako has been desperately wanting for ages is the Soul- Stirring Ladle."
She wanted to trade the ladle for the thorn fragment. They didn't know or care why Madorako wanted that ladle so bad, but they needed the thorn fragment.
Hwaryun had prepared everything in order to get that ladle, though there were things that she didn't expect to happen like when both Charlotte and Bam disappeared to somewhere else, but she had made up her mind to get the Soul- Stirring Ladle right now. It was either they agree to help Hwaryun or spoil the whole plan and face their end there. In this Floor of Death, if they weren't careful, then they were done for.
But before they could give their answer, they were distracted by a loud crash.
CRASH-
There was Charlotte who was thrown away from a direction and hit a wall hard enough. She fell on the floor after she was hit by the wall and her fan fell from her hand. On the corner of her lip, there was her blood.
"CHARLOTTE?!"
Altaira's face darkened instantly.
Charlotte wasn't looking at them since she was more focused in something more important or someone more dangerous.
Followed by her surprising appearance, there was also Grand De Lee landed before them.
Charlotte held her fan, stood up again with a forced grin, wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth. She was trying to endure the pain that she received from the ranker. She put her left hand right on her stomach that has been hit by Grand De Lee earlier.
There was a huge difference between a D- rank regular with a C- rank regular. Just one rank difference didn't only mean that they have climbed the tower higher, but there was the difference between their strengths. Not to mention a D- rank regular and a ranker. Even though Charlotte had a way to cancel Grand De Lee's immortality, in the terms of the others like strength and speed, Grand De Lee was faster and completely better than her. Charlotte wasn't his enemy.
"I thought that I am your savior" said Charlotte. "How could you possibly attack your own savior?"
"That's if you don't side with these intruders and betray us first" Grand De Lee replied with the look of anger and displeasure. "You promised to not create troubles."
"That's if you don't plan to attack my friends first, bastard" she cursed. "Compared to the thorn fragment, they are even more precious."
"So does that mean you are fine with losing the thorn fragment?"
"You really look down on me. To be honest, without your help, I also know where the thorn fragment is" said Charlotte, leaning against the wall in pain. "That thorn fragment...I could always find alternative ways to get that thing. But if you kill my friends, how am I suppose to revive them back, right?"
"CHARLOTTE!!"
Charlotte's golden eyes immediately looked at her friends. Right now, each of them had different kind of expression. There were some people like Hwaryun who remained calm and composed. Some like Boro who was surprised. Some like Khun who was both worried and confused. He was the one who had just called her name before.
Celeste thought fast enough to use her silver butterflies and distracted Grand De Lee while using his green vine, Noah used his green vine and had it circled around Charlotte's waist before pulling her close to them. He was about to catch Charlotte if Altaira didn't interrupt in the middle of the way and catch his younger sister.
Noah felt annoyed, but he put that feeling aside since they were facing an enemy right now.
"Are you alright?" Altaira softly asked.
"Do you think I look alright in your eyes?" Charlotte asked back, walking away from her brother.
"Who's that guy? Why is he fighting against you?" Khun asked as he watched how Charlotte was walking towards him.
"Use your new ability first" said Charlotte to him. She walked away from Altaira and walked towards Khun, tapping his shoulder. "Your new skill....we have to get away from that ranker first. I'll tell you everything later."
"A ranker?!"
"Who is he?!"
"He's Grand De Lee. The current ruler of the North City" Charlotte answered Boro's question. "Used to be a ranker and he's a tough enemy."
Khun understood that right now they were in danger therefore he was planning to ask Charlotte about the details later. He looked at Grand De Lee with a glare.
"INTRUDERS!" Grand De Lee shouted at them. "That Soul- Stirring Ladle is our treasure! We're not handing them to anyone!"
He raised his weapon and then attacked them. The regulars fortunately dodged that one hell of blow.
"AAHHHH!!"
"Damn it! How are we supposed to beat the ranker? Let's talk this out!"
"Talk this out?! He wants to behead us and you are still going to talk to him?"
"Then what should we do?!"
"Run, of course!"
"Soul- Stirring Ladle is your treasure? What a load of nonsense" Hwaryun said to Grand De Lee firmly. "Didn't it originally belong to all of the inhabitants of this place?"
"What?!"
"Back then when you first cast a spell on this place, the Grand Family promised the residents of this place that you would use the ladle to free the souls of anyone who wants to leave in five thousand years" Hwaryun said, reminding Grand De Lee about the past. "But you guys didn't keep that promise.
The souls in the spirit room belong to a different immortal body. But you could change the bodies with souls attached to them if you use the Soul- Stirring Ladle. De Sah and De Jah originally promised to share the spirit room and the ladle as well as not to abuse their power. But over time, as more and more people wanted to leave this place, De Sah and De Jah changed their minds.
They rounded up everyone who opposed them or tried to escape from here, and used the ladle to transfer their souls into little dolls or gigantic parasites, they called them Leech Guardians, and they made them defend the Floor of Death and their own castle as well as forcing them to capture anyone trying to leave this place.
And you guys tried harder and harder to hide and conceal the existence of the Soul- Stirring Ladle. Ultimately, the ladle which had been the only hope of freeing people from this place became a sword maintaining the power of De Sah and De Jah. There's a reason why De Sah and De Jah were able to maintain control of this place without any major problems for a long time.
You never deserved that ladle anyway! We need it so we're going to take it with us!!"
"DON'T BE RIDICULOUS! That was the best choice for everyone!" Grand De Lee argued. "Since we were saved by Enryu, we have been guarding this place in order to deliver the thorn to our savior!! But what if the Zahard Family found out about our existence?! They would have learned of the existence of the thorn and tried to steal it from us at all costs!
Staying here and waiting for the savior! That was our destiny!! What's so bad about punishing those who rejected our destiny and tried to leave this place?! Defying destiny is a foolish thing to do! The ladle must remain in our hands so that we can punish those people!
And today, we finally met our savior! Even if there were some slight problems! That means that we made the right choice!!"