Shinobu was the first to descend down into the next layer. While waiting for the others, she tested out her Whiplash and started doing tricks with it, at least until Rengoku made his descent as well.
"Greetings, Rengoku~", Shinobu said as he dusted himself off. "How are the others? They're not too injured, are they?"
"They shouldn't be, fortunately!", he replied. "Speaking of them, they should be here in a few seconds.."
Almost as if it was on cue, Sanemi fell down as well as Tengen, Giyu, Mitsuri, Obanai, Gyomei, and Muichiro.
"Ah, there we are!", Rengoku smiled, looking at the other Hashira. "Just like I said!"
"I suppose we're ready then?", said Shinobu, readying her Whiplash.
"Yep, let's go!", Tengen said, walking through the start room's door. Immediately, he noticed a change when he was hit with a cold breeze rather than the hot winds of Greed. It appeared they were in a cave of some sort.
"Finally, it's not impossibly hot anymore..", Obanai sighed in relief as they walked forward, leading to a lower elevation. Shinobu jumped down, where she saw a green orb at the top of an opening. Using her Whiplash, she hooked onto it and easily brought herself to the orb, where the others took a little more time to get where Shinobu was.
"I must say, this green arm that V2 dropped is incredibly useful!", Shinobu smiled as they progressed forward into the cave, where their spaces got a bit tighter.
"Careful, everyone.", Tengen called out as he narrowed his way through the cave system. "Wouldn't want to get any more injuries than we already had."
As they got through the narrow areas, they reached a part where the ground was lightly enveloped in cold water. Above them was a blue orb. This was a problem for the other Hashira, as it would take them a considerable amount of time to reach the very top.. except Shinobu, who slingshotted herself up to the top of the cave without any difficulty.
"Shinobu! Do you mind tossing that grappling hook arm thing to us so we can each reach the top?", Rengoku called out. Shinobu gave a small nod and tossed the Whiplash down, where Rengoku caught it and slingshotted himself up as well. He then threw it down to Muichiro. This went on until the very last Hashira (which was Gyomei) reached the top of the cave. With that, they moved forward to a sudden hole in the ground.
"It looks like there's water at the bottom.", Obanai said, looking into the hole. "Sigh, guess I'm getting a bit wet.."
Obanai soon realized that "a bit wet" was an understatement as soon as he dropped down, where he entered a large city-like area. The entire place was FILLED with water, from top to bottom. Not knowing this, the others dropped down as well with no hesitation. Obanai pointed to a door locked by three blue pedestals, as well as three other doors with a blue skull picture on top of them. As Tengen walked forward on a broken bridge, two Drones, two Strays, four Soldiers, and a Virtue spawned.
Rengoku thought fast due to their limited breathing time and fired his Malicious Railcannon at an explosive round he shot from the Core Eject, wiping out the weaker enemies and leaving only the Virtue alive, albeit in critical condition. Sanemi mowed it down with his Overheat, unlocking all three of the doors. Rengoku went to the left door, which momentarily led to a tunnel with no water, finally giving him and the others when they entered breathing time.
"Ahh, finally! I thought I was going to fucking drown..", Sanemi sighed in relief, taking in a large breath of oxygen.
"Well, we're not done yet..", Muichiro said as he looked to the end of the hallway, revealing another room filled with water. "We should probably prepare.."
Obanai sighed as he raised his Screwdriver Railcannon. "Alright, here we go again."
He took a deep breath before running through the hallway, water filling his senses as he entered a room containing two two-tiered towers and a third, lower platform in the middle. Two Soldiers spawned on the middle platform, while two Strays, a Virtue, and a Malicious Face spawned on the opposite tower. Obanai fired a drill at the Malicious Face, constantly damaging it. As for his next course of action, well, he didn't really think this far...
Obanai tried his best to dodge the projectiles shot at him by the Strays and Soldiers, until eventually the Virtue's spell circle appeared under him. He swam above the Soldiers until the spell circle stopped moving, firing a beam of light that Obanai propelled himself backward from, evaporating the Soldiers in the process. He did the same with the Strays, and eventually the Virtue itself. As the angel was destroyed, several more enemies spawned on a tower behind Obanai, every enemy being the same enemy that Obanai just killed. He quickly swam back to the hallway to get some fresh air.
"Hah.. hah.. someone else has to finish.. the rest of them..", Obanai panted, to which Rengoku enthusiastically volunteered and took a deep breath as he went through the hallway. He got out his Core Eject and fired an explosive round at the Virtue, shattering it instantly. Using his remaining breath, he readied a Breathing Technique.
"Flame Breathing, Fifth Form: Flame Tiger!"
Rengoku unleashed a series of slashes that cut apart the Soldiers and the Strays, while heavily damaging the Malicious Face. It charged up a laser, which Rengoku deflected back at the Maurice, resourcefully taking it down. With that, the Blue Skull was free for the taking, which Rengoku snatched from its stand and swam back to the hallway.
"Nice work, both of you!", said Tengen, patting Obanai and Rengoku on the back. "Now, just two more to go.."
As they went back to the main cave area, Rengoku placed the skull down on top of the pedestal, causing one of the bars on the locked door to disappear. With that, Giyu went to the rightmost door, leading to yet another hallway with no water. This then led to a smaller room, where the two Cerberi statues on the sides awakened, and a Malicious Face spawned in the middle. Giyu ran below the Malicious Face, preparing his blade.
"Water Breathing, Sixth Form: Whirlpool."
He twisted his body, creating a sharp whirling effect that rapidly sliced apart the Malicious Face above him. As one of the Cerberi walked towards Giyu, the Malicious Face fell onto it, crushing it and turning it into rubble. As Giyu slowly descended to the ground, he was hit in the chest by the second Cerberi's orb, causing him to slam into a nearby wall.
"Shit, that's not good!", exclaimed Sanemi as he ran into the room to assist Giyu. He took out his Overheat Nailgun and fired a storm of nails at the +ENRAGED Cerberus, causing the greater demon to turn its attention toward Sanemi, where the latter used the remainder of his breath to unleash an attack.
"Wind Breathing, Second Form: Claws-Purifying Wind!"
Sanemi created three arced slashes that went down, decapitating the Cerberus as it crumbled into pieces. The cage surrounding the blue skull in the middle opened, which Sanemi grabbed and went over to Giyu to carry him to the hallway.
"..Are you okay, Giyu?", Mitsuri asked worriedly as she checked his injuries.
"..I'm fine.", responded Giyu, as they went to the main cave area once more for Sanemi to put his blue skull on top of the middle pedestal, causing more bars to disappear from the locked door.
"I'll handle the last one!", Tengen said proudly as he swam his way to the middle door, leading to a hallway, and then a large cavern-like area that, surprisingly, wasn't filled with water.
"Looks like I have it easier than the others!", Tengen joked to himself as he made his way forward. Reaching the end, four Filth, two Malicious Faces, and two Streetcleaners spawned, blocking his way.
"Sound Breathing, Fourth Form: Constant Resounding Slashes!"
Tengen ran forward as he swung his blades around himself, each slash eventually colliding with the Streetcleaners' gas tanks, causing an explosion that wiped out the Filth and sent Tengen flying. Luckily, he caught himself just in time before he hit a wall. He ducked under the two Malicious Faces' lasers, and he took out his Piercer as he ran towards them. He fired a shot that went through both Maurices, weakening them down enough to withstand just one more attack.
"Let's make this.. flashy!", said Tengen as he threw a total of five smoke bombs at the Malicious Faces. He threw his swords at them, igniting the bombs and causing a large, beautiful explosion that disintegrated the Maurices, as the blades boomeranged back to Tengen. Four Strays, two Streetcleaners, a Virtue, and a Mindflayer spawned upon the Malicious Faces' death.
"Love Breathing, Sixth Form: Cat-Legged Winds of Love!"
Running into the caverns to help assist, Mitsuri swung her blade with full extension, shattering the Virtue and going straight through the Strays.
"I've got your back, Tengen!", shouted Mitsuri as she made her way toward the Mindflayer. It fired its cyan-homing projectiles at her, which she negated with one singular slash. Eventually, she dashed toward it and sliced it with elegancy, causing the machine to pulsate and explode. Tengen took the blue skull and tossed it toward Mitsuri, who fumbled to catch it. The duo went back to the hallway and into the main area, where she placed the final skull on the pedestal, successfully unlocking the door. It led to a tunnel, where two Streetcleaners and a Schism in the back spawned.
"Mist Breathing, Fourth Form: Shifting Flow Slash.."
Muichiro dashed through the Streetcleaners and sliced the Schism in half with a singular slash, where the Streetcleaners ran at him next and sprayed flames at him.
"Mist Breathing, Third Form: Scattering Mist Splash."
In response, the Mist Hashira unleashed a powerful slash that blew the flames back at the Streetcleaners, causing them to ignite on fire before dying seconds after.
"Rather violent, don't you think, Muichiro?~", Shinobu teased as she walked around the burning corpses of the Streetcleaners. At the end lay a bounce pad, which sent the Hashira up into a new hallway, where they were met by two Soldiers and a Drone. Making sure everyone was behind him, Rengoku fired the Malicious Railcannon at the ground near the enemies, blowing them up with a satisfying explosion as Rengoku ducked to avoid the Drone dashing at him for its kamikaze explosion.
"Everyone okay?", he said, checking behind himself to see if the others were alright. With a swift nod from everyone, they moved forward, entering what appeared to be a water processing chamber. At the end of it, two new enemies spawned, resembling some sort of green machine. A non-lethal pink laser was put onto Mitsuri, who was confused for a second.
"Careful, Mitsuri! They're locking onto you!", Tengen exclaimed.
"Love Breathing, First Form: Shivers of First Love!"
With a panicked realization, she swung her blade as it winded and slashed apart the Sentries easily, causing Mitsuri to sigh in relief. Soon, two more Sentries spawned; one in the front and one in the back.
"Luckily, these things seem easy enough to slay!", beamed Rengoku as he decapitated the Sentry in the back. "A bit harder than normal though, considering they're metal.."
"And they take forever to fire, which is good.", Obanai replied as he fired the Screwdriver at the final Sentry. The door in front of them opened, leading to a new room where two Streetcleaners, two Soldiers, and two more Sentries spawned.
"Ah yes, the Streetcleaner, my favorite portable bomb!~", said Shinobu as she threw up two coins and shot them with her Marksman, redirecting directly toward the gas tanks of the Streetcleaners and, of course, causing an explosion that wiped out the Sentries.
"Serpent Breathing, Second Form: Venom Fangs of the Narrow Head."
Obanai appeared behind both of the Soldiers and delivered a wide, narrow slash, decapitating both husks at once. "Finally, that move works out for once.."
As the Soldiers fell, a Virtue, four Filths, two Sentries, and four Strays appeared, their placements varying between both rooms. Gyomei's flail easily shattered the Virtue, and his axe dealt with the Filths at the same time via Stone Skin.
"I wonder if my poison's still effective?", Shinobu questioned as she expertly fluttered through the Strays' projectiles and injected each of them with her poison, causing them to fall one by one. "Hehe, still seems like it!"
Once Sanemi finished off the Sentries via his Overheat, the exit door opened in front of them, leading to the oh-so-familiar hellevator.
"I seriously don't like this new place. The water makes fights unnecessarily way harder.", said Obanai as he walked into the door. "Sigh, guess we've got three more stages of this to deal with.."
"Agreed.", Tengen replied as Obanai jumped in. "Though, I can make things flashy in or out of water!", he grinned proudly before jumping in.
5-1: COMPLETE
RANK: P