Under the Veil of Night

Tommy no longer counted how many times he fell down in the span of a few minutes. Looking at the other two who fought relentlessly, he felt rather helpless. Upon seeing a monster pouncing towards him, he quickly slid to the side by kicking the wall and slashed at the monster.

'Only the feet?!'

He wanted to curse when he saw his attack nearly didn't do any damage. Crashing into the nearby wall—no, door—he tumbled inside and crashed into a table.

"What in the world is that boy doing?" Jason frowned when he heard the loud ruckus.

Kanae stopped her movements when she heard the ruckus. One glance at the room and her body tensed up immediately. She could sense someone else's presence inside the room. Kicking the ground hard, she scooted to the door.

"Rei?" Jason was stunned, but he quickly followed the girl from behind.

She quickly reached the room and saw Tommy with a woman not far from him. The woman had long hair with a disheveled appearance. Her high-quality bag was placed by the side. With dirty and slightly torn clothes, she looked extremely pitiable.

"Rei," Tommy called. "Why did you come here?"

"You made quite a ruckus," Kanae observed the woman in front of her. On the other hand, the woman was looking at them too. She looked flustered.

"Why are you alone?" Tommy stared at the woman not far from him. He stood up carefully. Thankfully, this place was not slippery, allowing him to move rather freely.

The woman bit her lower lip. "My friends left me because I hinder them."

As Tommy studied the woman's expression, he recalled his mother. This was the first time he saw someone who looked so similar to his mother.  However, it was clear that she was far younger than his mother.

"If you're not strong enough, that explains why your friends left you," Kanae replied. She turned around. "Let's go, Tom."

Tommy looked at the woman and then at Kanae. He wanted to bring her along because she was clearly hiding here. Who knew when the other monsters were going to appear?

"Can we bring her along to a safer area?"

Jason appeared near Kanae. "You should learn how to protect yourself first, Tom. If you want to bring other people around, you have to be responsible for her safety. We won't help you."

Tommy's eyes widened. He looked at the woman once again. It was not in him to help others, but he couldn't help but feel pity for this woman. In addition, the fact that she looked like his mother made him unable to leave her alone in this place.

"What's your name?"

"Celeste," the woman answered.

"You can follow us if you want, but I can't guarantee your safety," Tommy said as he made his way to the door.

"Its fine," Celeste smiled, showing a bright smile. She moved towards the door slowly too.

The other two were already heading towards the stairs, ignoring the incoming monsters streaming out from the other rooms. It was clear that there should be some source in a secret room that made more of these monsters keep appearing.

"Do you want to check out the other rooms, Oro?" Kanae asked as she opened the door to the staircase.

Jason shook his head. "Not now, I don't really have a good feeling about staying here for too long."

"No one wants to stay here for too long."

With that, they made their way towards the sixth floor. Compared to the other floors, this floor seemed to be very quiet. There was no trace of a monster at all. The fourth floor was the most hectic, while the fifth was relatively empty.

Jason widened his eyes at the sight on the sixth floor. What he saw nearly caused his jaw to drop to the floor.

"What in the world happened here?"

He could perfectly see his way up towards the eighth floor. The floors had completely fallen through, creating a large pile of rubble that piled upwards like a staircase. One look was all they needed to conclude that there must have been a large explosion in the seventh and eighth floors.

Considering how the some of the rubble was splattered in red in some places, they knew that the situation here was not this peaceful earlier.

"How should we go up?" Tommy asked.

Kanae pointed to the mountain of rubble. "There's no other way but to climb upwards. You have to be careful, though. The footing is not at all stable."

Tommy looked towards the mountain of rubble with wide eyes. He truly didn't want to climb it at all. Several areas were still oozing red blood, making it look rather scary. Couldn't they just stay here?

However, the other two were already starting to climb up the rubble. It was not hard if the rubble only had a small incline, but it was quite steep. Trying their best to cling to the rubble, they started climbing.

"There are some bigger pieces," Kanae steadied herself as she assessed the surroundings. Right now, she was already where the seventh floor used to be. Beholding the gory sight in the areas that had not collapsed, her expression hardened.

Thankfully, she was not here when the explosion happened. Coming to the main building immediately after entering might have cost her life.

"You're too quick, Rei," Jason followed from not far behind her.

Kanae glanced down. Her expression stiffened when she saw Tommy and Celeste near each other. Celeste threw a small knife, which pierced into Tommy's thigh.

STAB!

"What are you doing?" the pain caused Tommy to release his grip. In that moment, he felt gravity pulling him downwards. Celeste already took out another knife and was about to attack Tommy again, but he had fallen down before she could succeed. They were not too far from the ground, but it would still be very painful to fall from this height.

"Tom!" Kanae roared. She kicked off the footholds in the rubble as she dashed down towards Celeste.

The woman noticed that Kanae was already heading towards her. She immediately took out several other knives and threw them towards Kanae and Jason.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

It didn't take her more than a few seconds to arrive near Celeste. She came down from above at high speed, her sword clashing with Celeste's knife, which countered her downwards momentum and prevented her from dropping to the ground immediately.

Slip… Celeste's footing was no longer stable after that exchange, and she was forced back to the ground. Kanae kicked off the rubble near her, sending her away from the protruding parts. Flipping backwards in the air, she made sure that she landed on her two feet.

"Rei, are you alright?" Jason used his sword to block the knives as he slowly descended the mountain of rubble.

Kanae nodded. "Check on Tom. I need to take care of this woman."

Celeste groaned as pain shot up her back. It was so painful that she started to tear up. Upon seeing Kanae come closer, fear filled her eyes. The sword in Kanae's hand was getting nearer.

"Wait! Please spare me. I have children waiting for me to go home…"

SLASH!

"You already earned our pity earlier. There's no second chance for you," Kanae said ruthlessly. If only this woman didn't try to kill them, she wouldn't be bothered to kill her.

Trusting her once was already more than enough.. There was no second chance.