The mission was simple. Everyone excluding Santos was to enter the building from a different floor and explore a few floors each, looking for survivors. Because the building was now on its side in the dirt, the height was no longer an issue, but that didn’t mean their search would be easy. The apartment building had 20 floors in total. Each person would have to explore four floors each. Compound that with a possible high number of victims, and It was clear to everyone that this would be a rather large undertaking for the five of them that would be entering the building.

  Arden chose to take the top four floors, as he was sure that Yaan, in his hatred for Arden and superiority complex would keep Sya at the top of the building. Unfortunately, Arden couldn't start from the top and work his way down, as the top two floors crashed halfway through a second building, keeping it off the ground.

  Arden steeled himself before entering one of the many, many, many shattered windows like the others probably did. There were no doors leading to the outside. It was 17 floors up after all.

  Interestingly, despite the fact that the building seemed to have been repaired for the most part, the glass was still shattered in many places. It was less like the building had been completely fixed, and more like it reverted to the state it was in before the doppelganger brought it down.

  The first thing Arden did was take stock of the state of the 17th floor where he entered. The wall had become the ceiling above him, and the former floor was now a wall. He took a step forward in the empty room, shattering shards of glass beneath his tread.

  The building had always been nearly silent as the grave when he and Sya lived here. It was expected for a giant building whose only residents were a pariah and a sick woman. It had always been empty as well, as it was ransacked presumably years before Arden and Sya took refuge here.

  It was empty now as well, but there was a dread to it, like looking into the void. Arden wasn't sure whether it was due to the knowledge that other people were trapped here, or if he had just grown used to the vibe of being in a lively environment, but the emptiness unnerved him. The only comfort he found in the emptiness was that it would be impossible for anyone or anything to hide. The glass he stepped on proved that even the quietest sound would be deafening in this tomb.

  “Silver linings,” he muttered, moving to the next room.

  Getting from one room to another was a hassle, with the doors no longer being on the ground, but he'd be damned if he let a little hiccup like that prevent him from saving Sya. Thankfully, for the rooms that were now inaccessible by virtue of being up in the air, it was unnecessary to search them. Only the truly psychotic and demented would hide things in a place that was a pain to reach. Although that fit Yaan to a T, he was also lazy.

  As Arden continued through the 17th floor, he found no signs of life. With his improved senses that came with being a Starborn, he thought he would have found something, but there was nothing. Anxiety welled up in his heart as he continued his search and he grew more unnerved without knowing the reason why.

  It was the same for the next few rooms. There was nothing but glass shards and chunks of concrete in them. The only sound that came from any of them was Arden’s breathing as he continued further. There was no one here on this floor.

  Arden stumbled around the hallway wall for a little bit, trying to find the way up. He figured that he would be better taking the elevator than the stairs to reach floor 18. The elevator had long since had the power cut, just like the rest of the building, so riding it wasn’t an option. But walking up the shaft that was now essentially a tunnel was.

  Arden’s feet echoed through the tunnel, every step eliciting another dull ring. It wasn't long before he found the sealed elevator doors. A swarm of red light particles appeared around Arden’s hands as the Bone Talons disappeared and Rogier’s Tree appeared instead.

  Arden doubted that old metal doors would be stronger than a Satellite. He thrust the spear into the split in the door where it would open. Using it as a crowbar, Arden pressed his full weight downward into the spear.

  A few seconds later, the door was wedged open enough for Arden to crawl through the opening. He got to his feet and looked around the hallway that was identical to the one on the previous floor.

  There was only one change between this floor and the 17th. An unpleasant odor of copper and something else wafted into Arden’s nose. He recognized the first smell.

  Blood. It wasn't overpowering, but it was enough for him to smell it. Wherever it was coming from, he was still some distance from it. Probably another floor higher.

  The other smell was something that Arden couldn't place. It was worse than blood, but it was also similar. The only way Arden could think to describe it would be the death of blood. Like blood had been corrupted or was necrotizing.

  Arden feared that his hypothesis about Sya’s location was being proved correct. He picked up the pace. He swapped Satellites back to his Bone Talons. He didn't know if he would need them, but they comforted him. It reminded him that he could make it through this, just as he had the Mausoleum of the Maverick and his first trial.

  All of the doors on this floor were already open which made Arden’s search a lot more efficient. Outside of the odor, though, there were still no signs of life.

  Arden returned to the elevator shaft and began his Ascent to the 19th floor. From here, the shaft was at an incline. As he hurried up the shaft, his radio cracked to life, scaring him.

  “...ad…ver…se...any…ing…like…thi…bli…” Vera’s voice came through.

  Something was interfering with the message. Arden couldn't understand the words being said, but he could feel that they weren't good. His instincts were screaming at him that something had gone wrong.

  Arden didn't respond to the message from Vera. He knew that whatever was interfering with the signal wouldn't let him send a message. Perhaps it was a distance issue. Arden was at the top of the building and Vera was at the bottom. If that was the case, then one of the other three would be able to hear it and respond. But from the radio silence, it seemed everyone else was having the same problem.

  Arden’s heart beat faster in his chest as he came to the 19th floor. Using the same technique as before, he pried open the door. As soon as he did, his nose was assaulted with the same horrid stench, but much stronger.

  He reeled back and started choking on the smell. He didn’t think a fresh mass grave would smell this bad. After a few minutes of settling his stomach, Arden pressed on, with his elbow against his nose to try and stop himself from smelling to little success.

  He couldn’t figure out where the smell was coming from. It was omnipresent. Arden searched every nook and cranny of floor 19 that was accessible. He knew that the smell was originating from somewhere on this floor, otherwise the elevator door wouldn't have contained the smell. He needed to find it before he moved on to the top floor.

  ‘Where is it coming from!?’

  In every room, Arden sifted through the rubble looking for the source, but there was nothing to find. All of the furniture had long since been looted.

  ‘There’s nothing here!’

  He started to walk back to the elevator shaft when he heard a noise. He stopped and listened, hoping that the sound would repeat. Arden’s eyes lit up for the first time since entering this building when heard the sound of dripping water coming from near the elevator.

  The smell was everywhere. He couldn’t track it. But a sound? That was something he could find. Especially in the near total silence of the building.

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  He saw the elevator shaft at the end of the hall and stopped.The dripping sound was close. Arden focused all of his attention on the sound and where it came from. When the sound came again, Arden was ready. He spun around and looked at the floor next to him.

  There was a small puddle on the floor. He looked up at the ceiling towards the vent and grate. His eyes widened when he made out the features of a woman pressed against the grate with closed eyes.

  Arden switched back to Rogier’s Tree and reached it toward the vent. When the spear tip got caught on the grate, Arden gave a light slash to cut it apart. There was no way a rusted metal grate would be a match for a Satellite.

  Both the grate and the woman fell out of the ceiling. The grate fell to pieces and the woman fell into Arden’s arms now bereft of his spear. He laid her on her back on the floor to get a good look at her. When she was laid out in front of him, he realized that she was also the source of the ungodly smell. Arden covered his nose and squinted, trying to stop his eyes from watering as he leaned in closer.

  The woman was attractive. Not as attractive as any Starborn, but she would have been a looker in a mundane society, if it weren't for one damning thing.

  She was a Blight Walker.

  Her normally brown hair looked like it was dipped in mercury and the fluid moved around her hair like it was a liquid metal. She looked much worse than Sya ever had. There were only several centimeters of brown hair between her scalp and the approaching Blight Essence.

  Her body was also in a much worse state. Her arms and legs were bent in unnatural angles several times in each limb. Scars from what looked to be knife wounds ran all over her body. The silver blood spilt by Blighted and Blight Walkers had dried around some of the newer wounds around her neck.

  The dried blight blood was the source of the smell.

  Arden held his fingers beneath her neck to feel for a pulse. He was as relieved as he was confused to find one. Arden looked at the woman with awe.

  “How are you still alive without the Status?” he whispered.

  It was well known that the Status offered boosted vitality, even to mundanes. Those with the blight running through them were cut off from the Status, and lost the healing that came with it. The fact that a Blight Walker was still alive after what appeared to be violent torture was nothing short of divine.

  Arden was given another reason to despise Yaan. If the other people in this building were just as brutalized as the woman here, Chorzo would need to kill Arden, because Arden was not going to be merciful to Yaan.

  “I have a survivor,” Arden said over the radio.

  He waited a few seconds for a response, but got nothing. Only static. Knowing he wouldn't be getting any help, he moved the woman from the floor and propped her against the wall.

  When he was satisfied, he stepped back and saw that the woman had opened her eyes.

  Arden shuddered.

  The look of pain and fear wasn't something that a human should ever have to make. Silver tears streamed down her face and she tried to hold up her broken arms between her and Arden. He heard numerous popping sounds coming from them as she forced them to move.

  “No…no…no,” she whispered. “Stay away. Get away!”

  Her body started convulsing and she started leaking silver Blight Essence from every orifice. It spilled out of her mouth, her nose, her eyes, and her ears, painting her entire body in Blight Essence. But it didn’t stick to her like blood would. The Blight flowed down her body to the floor, collecting in a single mass.

  “What the…” Arden whispered.

  He extended his hand towards the Blight mass when the puddle raced along the floor away from Arden towards the elevator shaft as he watched in stunned silence.

  ‘Is that how the Blight spreads from Blight Walkers?’

  Arden checked the girl for a pulse again, happy that she was still alive after expelling the mysterious fluid. He left her there for now. He had to find the other survivors. He didn’t like the idea of leaving her here, but this place was now a safe spot in the building.

  Arden hurried towards the elevator shaft while static came through the radio again. As Arden sprinted up the inclined shaft towards the fleeing mass of Blight, the static cleared and he could make out the frantic overlapping speaking of Vera, Chorzo, Savish, and Laurent.

  Arden couldn’t make out any words even though there was no static. They were all yelling over each other. There was one word he could make out, though.

  Elevator.

  After his first step in the elevator, Arden could hear only his single footstep and the sloshing noise of the Blight above him as it ran.

  After his second step, he could hear something coming from behind him from the bottom of the elevator shaft. It was fast and heavy.

  After his third step, the noise coming from behind him grew into a roar that would not be silenced. It sounded like a waterfall.

  After his fourth step, he looked over his shoulder and saw a silver flood rushing to meet him.

  By his fifth step, he was no longer trying to catch up to the Blight ahead of him, but trying to flee from the torrent of Blight behind him.

  Arden watched with panic as the small puddle of Blight slid through the crack in the door right in front of him. He needed his spear again to open the door. He looked back behind him to see how close it was to him, hoping he would have the few seconds necessary to summon it from his Soul Cluster.

  He felt time stop in that instant. It was less than a meter from him. The full weight of the Blight would smash into him in less than a second.

  Arden shut his eyes and had just enough time to raise his arms in front of his face before the torrent slammed into him. He might as well have not been there for as little resistance he could put up.

  Arden felt intense pain like he was hit by a truck as the essence crashed against him and the door. The door, like Arden, was worthless in stopping the flood, as the door was smashed inward. It would have been blown off the hinges if the door sat on hinges, but instead it was ripped out of the wall.

  After a few moments of blacking out, Arden realized he was looking up at the wall of floor 20 above him. He started coughing and choking up copious amounts of Blight Essence that he had inadvertently swallowed.

  He didn't want any inside of his body. His biology was unique, being a Paradoxical Starborn, but he didn't want to test if it was stronger than the Blight. Historically, if anything tried to compare itself to the power of the Blight, it was going to lose.

  He felt a burning, throbbing pain in his arms and knew that they were broken. A glance at them proved his suspicions. To say they were broken was an understatement. His arms looked like an old gnarled tree in the woods that everyone thought was haunted.

  Arden was pleasantly surprised. He thought that at the least, his arms would have been ripped off and his skull smashed in again. He’d been told many times that a red-tier Starborn’s body was only a little sturdier than a mundane, but they had undersold it.

  He used what little Biomass he had collected from the two Celestials along the way here to slowly and painfully set his bones in the right place and fuse them together to heal them. It didn’t work out as well as he thought. He was only able to set all the bone fragments together before he bottomed out.

  He summoned a healing potion that he pocketed instead of drinking while in the infirmary and drank it now. A few minutes later, he stood up with fresh arms and walked through the hallway. Both him and the hallway were painted with a fresh coat of Blight Essence.

  He thought the smell was bad down on the floor below, but it was nothing compared to here. But that was to be expected. There was one Blight Walker producing Blight on the 19th floor, and the 20th floor is where 20 stories worth of Blight collected.

  Arden thought it was weird that no one had talked on the radios after the flood, until he saw that it was smashed to pieces by the weight of the wave. He sighed and threw the pieces to the floor and followed the path of destruction left by the flood.

  Arden was led to a single room at the far end of the hall without a door.

  He was filled with a burning rage when he saw what was in the room.

  He saw his sister nailed to the wall, crucified with eyes open wide with fear with a strange emblem behind her. The ocean of blight covered her body, causing her to try and struggle away from it to no effect. It was like the opposite of the woman downstairs as the Blight Essence entered Sya’s body through her eyes, nose, mouth, and ears.

  Arden rushed forward as soon as he saw what was going on, but it was too late. She had consumed all of it.

  “Sya?” he asked as he approached her.

  A strange silver symbol lit up on the wall that Sya was crucified to. It was similar to the emblem of the deity that Arden saw at the end of his trial, but it was different. It was like the emblem both came from the same language, but had completely different meanings.

  The symbol was a ring. It had a black hole in the center of it, giving it the look of an eye. Silver tentacles worked their way from the outer ring towards the pupil, as if trying to smother it.

  Recognition flashed through Arden’s eyes as he recognized the symbol. He had seen tentacles snuffing out the light before.

  Aldren the Helios Saint had shown him during the trial in the form of a doomsday prophecy on a celestial map.

  It was something that could be called a great evil.

  The Blight.