towerofanimus | Endgame: This Broken Jaw of Our Lost Kingdoms; Part Two

Gilgamesh listened to the details given with an interested hum -- the thought of such an elaborate setup was in a few ways not unlike the Holy Grail War. But demons... Hah. Perhaps he should have spent more time prodding the first murderer about the happenings in his world.

He stopped at the shouting coming from a distance away, turning his attention to the glowing forms approaching them. His curious frown gives way for a smirk as he recognizes Enoch, and he lifts a hand in greeting. "I see you're still in one piece, warrior of God."

The new portal opening had Grainne's hopes up (dammit) for a second, until out popped two more people in wireframes. She got the sense that there would be a lot of that happening in the future. Well, at least it gave her something else to think about other than the desolation and the others' talk of a foreign war.

"Ah-?" The voice sounded familiar, she had spoken to him a time or two, didn't she? "Grainne. I was the one with the tea."

"Grainne." He nods. "I remember you, but we never introduced ourselves. I'm Enoch, and this," he gestures to Lucifel, "Is my friend, Lucifel. I suppose it's belated, but it's nice to meet you."

He can't help but smile at Gilgamesh's greeting, returning it as he speaks to Grainne. It's probably a good thing at least one of them is between him and Naoya, otherwise the latter might have found himself caught up in a relieved hug. Honestly, the wastelands might be ghastly, but this is a far cry from being trapped on one. He has hope again, after fearing it all lost.*

Naoya raises his eyebrows in amusement at the appearance of the pair. "Well, then. You've just come in time for us to start climbing. The barriers between worlds is particularly thin at the top of that large building. It's a likely spot for any kind of portal."

"Quite a stroke of luck." With Enoch and Lucifel having caught up with them, Gilgamesh sees no reason not to continue to the entrance of the building. "Our world host here said something about there being over sixty floors."

Not that it would be too strenuous for him; he'd managed to scale the entire length of the Tower while Riki sent monsters to punish them. This would be nothing by comparison.

"It should be easy, but I will say I am quite sick of Towers of all types and sizes." And if the others weren't as well, she'd eat her stockings. If she had them. "I am eager to be away from this."

Grainne felt much more energetic, for some reason, she might as well use it to get to the portal all that much faster. This time, though, she was more careful after that near fall earlier.

"I've been told I have experience climbing long flights of stairs." He glances over his shoulder at Lucifel with a little smile. No hard feelings. It probably couldn't be helped.

In any case, he starts forward.

"Though in all honesty I'd much rather not." He doesn't get tired so easily but it's still annoying.

"Unfortunately, we don't have that much choice. Unless another portal appears to us quickly, I would suspect that it's easier to rip through a space that's already been opened." He's still a little frustrated that he can't summon his demons, but no point in sulking over it.

"... And don't mind the orange-robed bodies in the building. They're idiotic cultists."

"Is there any other kind of cultist?" Gilgamesh quips while continuing to walk, taking in the world that would probably have been somewhat interesting if it had not been warped into a land of utter death.

"Orange..." Grainne wrinkled her nose slightly, as much as she can in a wireframe anyway. "Green is so much better."

Looking up at the strange tower, she hummed once and briefly. "Naoya... how are you doing now?" She knows it's a little early to be asking that, but after the state they encountered him in, she couldn't help but about it.

"Not really, no." The question makes him pause, though, and his posture stiffens visibly.

"I've spent two years in the Tower with the reality of his choice. I know - possibly better than almost anyone - that the past can't be changed. Perhaps one day I'll return, but... we have a battle to fight now in the Tower. Not here."

"Would these...cultists have supplies? Food, water, medicines?"

They were on another world. A real world. As long as they were forced to trek up a tower, surely they could get some benefit out of it. Something they could bring to everyone when they met up again.

"If the building was warded off and protected, presumably they would need to keep supplies inside."

He doesn't look particularly surprised to find the front entrance of the building to have a concentration of debris around it, as if a battle had occurred there.

"... Some. But a lot of it was destroyed near the end either in battles or just simply from use. The Lockdown did last a week. There might be a few things around, though."

Naoya nudges a body out of the way with his geta. Someone he knew? Likely not. He didn't mingle with the grunts very much.

"If there is anything you wish to take... maybe we should get it before we leave." Grainne spoke up then, cringing away from where she had accidentally touched a body. She had no concept that before the only thing that had passed into the Tower before was just souls. "There is no telling what is waiting for us once we reach the end of this journey."

"Where would they have kept the medicine?"

If Naoya didn't know, well...he wasn't so sure they had the time to thoroughly explore. It would have to be abandoned in that case. He may not feel so much like he would fall apart away from the tower but other than that, the fear was still there, and so was the feeling, if fainter.

While the others talked about gathering possible supplies, Gilgamesh moved around the larger debris to try the front doors. There was no point in standing around discussing scavenging and not making progress towards their destination, as far as he was concerned.

"I think there's a defibrillator near the entrance, but most of the Shomonkai's supplies were above the thirtieth floor or so. There were some heavy steel doors blocking the path, but there's some rather large holes in those now."

Fortunately, the doors were open. Not entirely, but enough to squeeze through. "Don't... er. The higher we go the more likely we are to encounter swarms of dead flies. Even if all life here was wiped out, it's not a good idea to touch them. Belzaboul - Beelzebub if you're not familiar with that name - was a rather nasty demon, and not one you would want to touch at all. His flies used to burrow into people, plant eggs, and then spawn out of them. Forcibly."

Grainne went a bit pale at the description of the flies, standing behind Archer to wait for her turn through the doors.

"We have to go through... that?"

"All life is gone...even demons. If the flies are dead, then so are their eggs. I don't think there's anything to worry about."

His words are bold but his voice betrays how uneasy the idea makes him feel. He's glad Azazel never did such a thing with his flies...

Pushing through the doors, partially blocked by debris, gave Gilgamesh entrance to the lobby. While there were no bodies littering the lobby, there was evidence that more fighting had started occurring within the building as well. He turned to glance at the others, searching for an emergency stairwell or a broken escalator that they could scale.

"Like monstrous botflies. What a sight that must have been."

Disgusting, to be sure, but skewering flies of that size would have been interesting.

"Oh, I know. They're just incredibly unpleasant and disgusting to look at. Even more so up close." Naoya led them off to the side and attempted to open a door. ... Hm. Something must have fallen behind it after he closed it. Granted, he didn't have the assistance of the Harmonizer anymore, but he still had memories to help him. He wedged the door open with a piece of concrete and gave the door a solid kick, shoving aside the large chunk of ceiling that had fallen.

He allowed himself a momentary grin, pleased with himself, before motioning towards the stairs. They had a long way to go. "Belzaboul was an... unpleasant demon to deal with. Belberith wasn't exactly pleasant either, but at least he had the decency to shut up sometimes."

Endgame: This Broken Jaw of Our Lost Kingdoms; Part Two

Welcome to a teenage wasteland!

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