There was no suspense as they successfully passed their first chamber—a red chamber. Just like how they responded to the first hordes of giant feral bats, the second wave was also dealt with by Starboy in the same manner as the first, but then, they did not forget not to wait for a third wave to possibly appear, so before the fireworks that indicates the demise of the hordes ended, the two had already exit the chamber at the opposite side, thanks to thier superhuman speed, and now, where the exit led them was another balcony exactly like the first one, but of the flooor five floors below it according to the floating astral instructions they follow.
COUNTDOWN TIME 5 : 07
"Big bro, you get it?" Questioning Skylar, Starboy watched him walked towards the spot on the balcony the exit of the red chamber that has vanished and is replaced by another chamber door led them—a place he is also standing, and that similarly has only the written word that displayed the countdown time floating in front of it midair
However, instead of Skylar replying his question, when he got closer to him, he paused, thinking as he faced that chamber door that took the spot of the exit before they know it earlier after passing through it, and that also currently possessed a green glow, meaning it leads to a green chamber—a safe chamber.
For almost a minute, with Skylar's arms folded and the gap between his right hand thumb and his index finger propping his chin, he just stood there saying nothing but stare at the door that has changed its glow color many times, thinking in his mind. Then moving on, he moved closer to the chamber door glowing green and he placed his two palms on it, opening it, and before it fully opened, the two entered the chamber behind it, all the while maintaining the dead silence of the eerie building.
I wasn't expecting this...
Skylar broke into a smile after he got a proper look of the chamber behind the door he opened when it glowed green. The chamber 500 meters long and likewise wide and high, in addition to its subtly glowing white walls as if made of glowing marble, features a 50 meter wide golden arched bridge, bisecting it and that leads to the exit on the other side and is above a lake of super clear water that contains like an aquarium: an ecosystem of brilliantly glowing sea creatures and sea plants of different and diversed greatly defined colors.
COUNTDOWN TIME 9 : 39
After Skylar briefly glanced at the countdown time, he resumed their march towards the exit on the other end of the bridge. Walking at a relatively slow pace, Skylar would from time to time, go to the edge of the bridge, stand close to the parapet and spend little time admiring the view the exotic pool below offers.
Also at some point, tempted, he wanted to jump over the bridge and have a closer look of the dazzling and colorful ecosystem that might be further below, but because of Starboy who is strangely anxious of the time, and having anticipating his intention, called his attention to the floating astral timer, he chose not to do it. Then they moved on, walking towards the exit just at the other end of the bridge.
...
COUNTDOWN TIME 9: 45
"Big bro, which one?" Starboy glanced at Skylar beside him. Both of them after just exiting the bridge, therefore the chamber the green door led to, stood in front of a door glowing green; and Skylar in particular, thinking deeply, stand with his eyes narrowed and the thumb and forefinger of his right hand framing his chin.
Some moment after Starboy questioned, Skylar quit his thought and chuckling, he responded:
"Abbas, don't you find it strange?"
"Big bro, what do you mean?" Sounding confused and curious, Starboy glanced at him with a matching expression on his face.
However, Skylar not responding his question right away, move towards the door in front of them that is now glowing red, and after he placed his two palms on it, opening it, he responded:
"I want to know what will happen if we die?"
"Big bro, is that not risky? If we starfall here, we might have to remain in the real world for more than three days... about twelve plus sim-time. Won't that affect your plans?" Starboy explained.
However, Skylar as the door fully opened shook his head disagreeing with him:
"It doesn't matter. Either way, we are at the mercy of someone in the shadows, we might as well irritate him instead of dancing to his flute."
"Don't you think so?"
As Skylar added all of a sudden, he glanced at Starboy with a broad smile, but in response—instead of replying—Starboy showed a thoughtful and confused expression.
A moment later, as the two glow because they coated thier body in extra layers of ether—Skylar having 7 Ec layers and Starboy a bit inferior having 6 Ec layers—they both enter slow mode—unlocking both hypersense and hyperfocus realm simultaneously—having already sensed the great danger ahead with thier sixth sense or danger sense. Then strolling, they entered the rotunda chamber in front of them that is of similar size to the earliest one, but is filled to the brim with water, making it look like a watrer world and a bit like the bottomless deep—dark and strangely more quiet than the balcony that is already way super quiet.
This is really starting to piss me off...
The two however, immediately, as they contact the chamber's super cold freezing water that filled it, both simultaneously swam fast in different directions, having barely dodged an attack they didn't see but they anticipated and felt coming.
Its funny...
One after the other, Skylar still maneuvering fast and directionless in the water keeps dodging lethal and pinpoint attacks that he couldn't see—since everywhere is dark, but he could anticipate and sense with his sixth sense and sometimes his ear enhanced with hypersense/supersense—moving incredibly fast and with great agility at limited spaces like a dragonfly—superfast and in any direction. However, as he was about to draw his leg as fast as possible to avoid a two pronged attack coming for it, he felt a sharp pain in his left shoulder that left him wincing as he almost cried out in pain.
Okay... Realizing he has lost an arm, Skylar paused and his glowing figure in the dark waters seems to vanish because he switched from ether that making him glow to his spiritual natural energy that its glow is invisible to the naked eye—his most reliable energy kind.
["Abbas, fly up."]
As he transmit his voice to Starboy he could sense is somewhere else, the invisible attacks that are almost upon him because they have not stopped since he paused a fraction of a second ago, all ceased strangely. And in the next instant, a strange calm returned to the dark chamber but along with the smell of rusted iron and rotten egg.
["Abbas, let's leave."]
After Skylar transmitted his voice to Starboy as he launched himself forward; in the next couple seconds, the two fly out of the water chamber through its exit on the other end, landing on the balcony of the floor ten floors below it. And getting up from the ground, Skylar turned to look at Starboy who also just got up from the ground and is removing long and thin ropy things that look like the guts of a strange creature that is stuck to his locks.
"I am starting to understand this illusion... Its a terrible and lazy attempt. So annoying."
Saying this, Skylar turned arogut. Then like usual, he saw that the exit has been replaced by a door that is glowing red. However before he could proceed further, Starboy as he lifted his head that was buried in contemplation have something to say:
"Big bro, you have any idea how we fell for this illusion?"
Hearing his question, Skylar paused, framing his sculpted jaw with his thumb and index finger, contemplating both consciously and subconsciously and also staring blankly into space. Then a moment later, smiling brightly as he quit his thought, he replied:
"I think we have been had a long time before now... for me at least. And it should be during the time we met boss 'Family man'. The right answer should be the snacks I ate."
Chuckling, while still holding a smile, Skylar turned around to look at Starboy whose big and round protruding brown eyes he met, stare back at his as if assessing him, and chuckling again, he turned around and walked towards the door that is now glowing black, opening it by placing his palms on it.
"Let's go buddy."
Drawing Starboy's attention as the door fully opened, revealing a chamber with a brown desert ground, Skylar entered it while Starboy followed behind him.
...
Entering the chamber with dimensions half a kilometer in length, breadth and height, Skylar and Starboy having noticed two creatures waiting at the center pressed on forward, living their footprint on the desert ground, looking unbothered by the pressure of the two creatures that stuffed the place.
A moment later, as the two reached close to the two strange creatures that seems to have been waiting for them, one very small—half a meter tall and it float midair, fully cloaked, thereby concealing its entire figure except its two pairs of glowing white eyes; and the other, a ten meter tall blue creature with black spots like a leopard, standing on four legs, but has a torso that extends longer like the body of a snake, and also has an extra pair of hands that are holding a relatively large knife each with semicircular blades, overall looking like a giraffe but in place of a giraffe's neck, its has a large torso that extends to a small neck, that then support a small cat-looking head with large horns like a bull and a pair of protruding red eyes like that of a toad—Skylar quickly accessing the danger level of the two creatures with scaling, chuckled and glanced at Starboy beside him who also glanced at him simultaneously, making thier excited eyes meet.
"Which one can you beat?" He asked.
"Big bro, can I have the big one?" Starboy replied, sounding like he is making a polite request, which Skylar shrugging, agreed with.
"Okay, just don't forget all we need to do is get out of here." Saying this, Skylar gazed at the exit far behind the two creatures, leading Starboy's gaze to it.
"Okay big bro." Starboy responded, then he pointed at the big blue creature with sleek skin. However living him surprised, the creature did not responded as he hoped, but it moved closer to the cloaked one standing midair; the two start preparing themselves for battle by radiating their increasing spiritual pressure that then flooded the chamber and by cloaking their fighting body part in unique energy kind, but in the case of the blue creature, it also cloaked his weapon too in elemental earth energy, and the cloaked one floating midair has a swirl of air elemental energy circling around him.
"They fight as a unit, I think." Skylar having seen this, come to a conclusion as he also prepared himself for battle—radiating his spiritual pressure that counterbalanced that of the two creatures after having fully cloaked himself in spiritual natural energy. And now looking at the creature and never looking away, he continued:
"How do you fight? What's your range?"
"Big bro, I can manage all three, but I am a lot weaker at mid range. If I can—"
Suddenly pausing midsentence, Starboy like he vanished appeared about fifteen meters to the right of where he was before that now have a deep long gully that extend vertically, looking like a cut on a hard wood from an axe.
"They are kind of rude, right?" Skylar joked.