The Black Spire offered only one mode of travel and that was a person's own two feet. There were no convenient shortcuts, hidden lifts or portals waiting to whisk you away downward. To reach the deeper levels, Espers had to tread the same grueling path again and again.
Because of that, they needed to be prepared for both the descent and the return. If you only focused on going deeper, you'd never make it back and you'd be lost forever in the Spire's depths.
Cohorts that entered the Tower of Worms required capable leaders with good instincts to know how far to push and when to turn back.
As for Necessary, their story began with what could only be called an "expedition."
After clearing out all the Chaos Creatures that infested the Seventeenth Floor, the group of Knights began their return to the surface.
But along the way, they were ambushed by a demon.
Not just any demon, but a Fallen Demon.
Hearing that, Nightingale frowned. It didn't make any sense.
When someone mentioned the word "Demon," they were referring to a class of Chaos Creature that stood above Fiends and Beasts.
Ordinarily, such demons only appeared on the levels beyond the Twentieth Floor. However, on rare occasions, special monstrosities capable of moving between floors would emerge.
No one could predict when this phenomenon would occur, and as a result, there had been countless instances of unfortunate parties meeting an untimely demise.
In the case of Necessary, they had been fortunate enough to survive. The Fallen Demon, according to their account, was a humanoid creature over two meters tall, clad entirely in black armor and wielding a massive greatsword.
It resembled what one might call a Dark Knight, but Uriel had referred to it as an "Angelus."
Lu Song didn't know what that meant, but he kept listening.
Confronted with the strange monstrosity, the cohort had immediately formed a defensive line and launched their counterattack. A low-ranked Esper would have turned and fled, but this was a group of Knights.
Contrary to popular belief, it wasn't impossible to slay a creature beyond one's level. A Squire, for instance, might be able to kill a Chaos Creature of the Beast class, though that would depend on several factors like their Mythic Ability, experience, and the surrounding environment.
And as previously mentioned, Necessarie was a cohort composed of Espers who had undergone their first "Ascension Ritual" and entered the sequence of "Knight." They had likely slain their share of Demons during their ascent through the Spire.
They were quite formidable.
But the Fallen Demon proved to be more formidable.
In the end, they were forced to retreat, barely escaping with their lives. To put it bluntly, they got the hell beaten out of them and ran with their tails between their legs.
Frontliners like Typhira and Uriel suffered the worst of it, while long-ranged fighters such as Sky and Alice came out with fewer injuries. Whether her claim was true or not, Uriel mentioned that she had managed to wound the monstrosity, something that would at least explain her critical condition at the time.
Most likely, she had been cornered into a disadvantageous position, forced to hold the line and protect the others while they made their desperate escape.
Lu Song thought it was truly pitiful but Nellibel only grinned and looked at Uriel with admiration.
"You managed to face that vile demon all by yourself? Hehe… I expected nothing less from you, princess."
"Please don't praise me. In the end, I couldn't kill it."
"But that thing didn't kill you either and you survived to see another day. I'd say that's a victory in my book."
"Even so, it's disgraceful." Uriel spoke with a deep frown on her face. It was likely the first time she had ever been forced to retreat like a coward.
As if to lift her spirits, Nellibel smiled and added playfully,
"Oh, don't feel too bad. You're not to blame at all. If anything, it's my fault for not being there with you. What a shame… I would've loved to carve that detestable demon's face in myself!"
Typhira shot her a glare filled with disdain.
"Yeah, right. As if you being there would've changed anything."
Nellibel turned toward her with an almost amused expression, a faint smirk curling on her lips.
"Did you say something, shrimp? Because I could've sworn I heard a mosquito or was that your voice?"
"This bitch… are you trying to start something?"
"Start what, exactly? You'll have to be more specific. Oh, and could you speak up a bit? I can barely hear you over all that loser energy radiating from your flat chest."
"Leave my flat chest out of this!"
"Oh, so you know your chest is flat? How fascinating. Maybe that's why you're so good at manipulating wind. Because your chest is aerodynamic? I'm so jealous that I could cry. Tell me, do you use it as a chopping board in the kitchen too?"
"Ugggggghhhhhhhh! That's it!"
Typhira shot to her feet and slammed both palms onto the table. Her teeth were clenched, and her cheeks flushed — whether from alcohol or embarrassment, it was hard to tell.
"Let's go outside! You and me, we'll settle this right now!"
This woman… how could someone be so easy to bait?
Lu Song blinked as he watched the scene unfold.
From his seat, it was painfully obvious that the boar-like woman had orchestrated the entire thing. The sly, satisfied curl of her lips made that perfectly clear.
She had deliberately exploited Typhira's greatest insecurity — her modest chest — to ignite her temper and make her explode in public.
Perhaps Nellibel 'did' want to start a fight, but doing so directly would have been far too dull for her tastes. Instead, she chose the more entertaining route: taunting and needling her opponent until they inevitably took the bait.
And in Typhira's case, the outcome was all but guaranteed. Speaking of which, she was gritting her back teeth as if restraining a snarl.
The beautiful archer said suddenly,
"C'mon Typhira, can't you see Nellibel's just messing with you?"
"You stay out of this, Sky! Today I'm going to teach this boar of a woman a lesson!"
"No, you're just drunk. Didn't I tell you to stop drinking a while back? Look at your puffy cheeks."
"My cheeks are not puffy! You… you… you… Ugh! Damn you, Sky!"
Typhira kept stammering, trying to spit out a proper insult, but Sky's innocent, handsome face undermined her venom. Before long, she ended up losing all her momentum just like that and flailed her arms around.
Uriel rubbed her temple irritatedly and let out a long sigh, clearly used to this kind of drama.
"Can the two of you stop already? You're making a spectacle of yourselves. It's unsighting."
"She started it!" Typhira barked, pointing an accusing finger at Nellibel who simply closed her eyes and raised both hands in the air.
Her face turned an even deeper shade of red. Nightingale half-expected her to leap across the table.
Before that could happen, Alice quietly intervened.
"If you're both done acting like children, maybe we can go back to the subject matter."
It was a cold voice that sounded devoid of emotion. Some might even question if she had a soul to begin with.
Was this what people called a cold hearted Loli?
Most perverts... correction, people seemed obsessed with women that possessed this archetype for reasons that he didn't quite understand.
Regardless, the tension slowly deflated. Typhira scowled and sat down again with a huff, crossing her arms like a sulking child. Nellibel only grinned wider, clearly pleased with herself.
Lu Song couldn't help but think that if the Demon hadn't finished them, their group dynamic surely would.
Uriel nodded at Alice in silent acknowledgment, then cleared her throat before continuing.
"Ahem. As I was saying… after that, we barely made it back to the Sixteenth Floor. Surprisingly, for some reason, the Demon didn't pursue us."
Her voice trailed off. Uriel's eyes narrowed deeply as her expression darkened and twisted her beautiful crimson brows. Finally, she added,
"...it felt like it was watching us even as we fled. That thing... It wasn't normal at all. It... just let us live."