Chapter 52: Third Floor
In an instant of climbing the stairs, I arrived in another hell—a marshland. The air was thick with moisture and the smell of rotting vegetables. I was up to my ankles in mud, with both girls slumped over my shoulders.
Luna was unconscious, but Kiki... I could hear her muttering something. This entire place was a death trap. I could tell that the terrain beneath the mud and water was uneven.
Where I was standing, the mud was up to my ankles, but in other places, entire trees were submerged in the water. One wrong move, and I could be sinking; having these two to support made things even worse.
To make matters even more urgent, I heard what sounded like some kind of explosion followed by the roar of something monstrous.
This kind of terrain wasn’t fit for fighting. Luckily, there were a few trees that were relatively high up. From atop the tree, I could identify where the sound was coming from, but I couldn’t see who was making it.
I stood atop one of the branches where I rested Kiki and Luna.
"She’s dead... she’s really dead... I saw it—"
Kiki was mumbling frantically, her voice cracked somewhere between a whisper and a scream.
I glanced down to see her bleeding from her thighs. I crouched down to take a look at her wound. Her wound wasn’t deep but without proper treatment, it could get infected.