The hideous creatures began limping towards the ninjas, arms outstretched and hoping to grab onto delicious flesh. "They can't stop us. We've come too far to lose to a couple of pathetic zombies," Goemon said as he spun his pipe before pointing it at the approaching monsters threateningly.
"Yeah! That's more like it, Goemon!" Yae aimed her bazooka at the corpse directly in front of her, eventually pulling the trigger and leaning back slightly with the recoil. The zombie stumbled back as its arm fell off, but soon continued to march forward. Its disconnected arm clawed its way through the dirt alongside it. Sasuke dashed along the side, diving forward to stay out of reach of the arm on the floor. He saw a hole where the monster's arm had been seconds earlier and threw a lit firecracker bomb into it. Years of practice meant Sasuke was quite good at hitting small targets with the bombs, and his skills didn't disappoint him this time. The bomb rolled into the zombie's body, making small clanging noises as it collided with bones until it stopped somewhere near the waist.
Meanwhile, Ebisumaru's ribbon had latched itself onto the other zombie's leg. The Ninja of Justice tugged on it as hard as he could, forcing the corpse to land on its back. It flailed wildly as it attempted to get up, but to no avail. Goemon pulled out a large coin and grinned for a moment before hurling it towards his foe with full force. The coin burst into flames and hit its target. The monster convulsed before the fire spread all over its body. At the same time, the bomb resting inside his partner's skeleton exploded. Tattered clothes and dried blue skin rained down on the ninjas.
Yae stabbed her katana into the hand of the autonomous arm. It stretched and shook as if in pain before trying to wriggle free. "Well, that was easy," Yae said with a smile on her face.
"I don't think Makurayami really expected us to be defeated by those things," Suzaku said. No sooner had she spoken than the hand caught under Yae's blade disappeared in a puff of black smoke. The same soon happened to the charred remains of the second zombie.
Suzaku walked up to the door of the prison and placed her hand on the circular symbol at the center. It swung open ominously, inviting any who dared to enter and brave the dangers inside. Suzaku stepped inside, followed by the ninjas. The door closed on its own as soon as all five were inside, locking them into the beginning of the end of this long and difficult journey.
---
Just like the exterior, everything on the inside of the tower was constructed of stone. A massive pillar in the center and a solid wall on his right made Goemon feel cramped. A single torch hung on the wall and provided a minimal amount of light for everybody in the room. There were no visible attempts to make the scenery more pleasant; even the most resourceful and imaginative person would have to agree that this was a dull and boring place. The air was heavy and musty, which added to the feelings of being trapped in a stone cage. To reinforce this idea even further, the door leading back outside blended in with the rest of the wall and disappeared. There would be no turning back at this point.
"Well, there's no place to go but up," Suzaku said. She stepped onto a stairway that hugged the central pillar, the only means of proceeding further into the tower.
---
"Watch out, Goemon!" Yae shouted before spinning in place and slicing the head off of a zombie behind her.
Goemon jumped back after stepping on a stone that depressed under his weight. A large arrow with a polished silver head shout out of the wall on the right and embedded itself into the wall on the left. But that wasn't what Yae was referring to. A bat screeched as it flew wildly at Goemon's face. The ninja noticed just in time and ducked before they could collide, causing the bat to crash into the wall right next to the arrow.
Goemon and his friends had encountered several types of traps and many more types of foes during their ascent of the tower. The snares had been easy enough to detect and avoid, and the enemies scattered throughout also failed to provide much of a challenge. The ninjas were much too fast for any of them to handle. Even Suzaku helped fight against the zombies, rats, bats, skeletons, and other such opponents with an impressive array of magical attacks that nobody even realized she was capable of. Like the two zombies outside of the tower, every defeated foe would eventually vanish in a puff of smoke.
Goemon was at the head of the group, with Ebisumaru and Sasuke right behind him. Yae and Suzaku brought up the rear, stopping the weak but steady stream of monsters that would appear out of nowhere and chase them up the stairs. Sasuke leapt straight at a zombie in front of him, digging his kunai into its skin and dragging them through its body on the way down. Ebisumaru, meanwhile, slammed his mallet down onto a rat that had just materialized out of the wall on his left.
"Do we have to go much further to get to the top, Suzaku?" Sasuke asked.
"I've never been here, so I can't say for sure." Everybody was quiet for a moment to make sure no other enemies were approaching. Not a sound could be heard anywhere around them. "But it seems like we've been climbing for a while, so hopefully it won't be much farther. Let's keep moving."
Fortunately, Goemon only had to go up a few more steps to find a change of scenery. They were now in a large, circular room, which was apparently situated on top of the pillar they had been going around for longer than any of them cared to figure out. Torches with small, purple flames lined the walls and provided the room with an eerie light. The chamber was completely empty.
Goemon wandered into the center of the circle, and was soon followed by the others. As soon as Yae and Suzaku stepped off the stairs and onto the cold tile floor in this room, the last section of stairs rose up and covered the only hole in the floor with a loud bang. Once again, they were trapped, with no way to go but forward.
Goemon looked around before walking to the outer edge of the room, on the opposite side of where the stairs had been seconds earlier. "Well, this must be the way out," he said, pointing to a door that was barely distinguishable from the wall, save for a doorknob that looked like a skull with blood red eyes. Goemon reached for the doorknob, his heart pounding in his throat as his hand inched towards it.
Suzaku gasped loudly as she watched Goemon from afar. "No! Goemon, don't touch that!" she yelled.
"What? Why not?" Goemon asked, the slightest hint of a chuckle in his voice. He had wrapped his fingers around the doorknob just before Suzaku had shouted the warning. Suddenly, a low growling was heard, causing Goemon to freeze in place.
"That's strange," Ebisumaru mumbled. "My stomach doesn't usually growl this loudly right after a fight."
"Ebisumaru, I'm pretty sure that wasn't your stomach," Suzaku said. "Whatever made that sound is probably going to be a lot harder to deal with than a hungry belly."
The sound was heard again. Goemon concentrated to try to determine where to look in order to see what his ears were hearing. It seemed to originate in this room, but there was clearly nobody there besides Suzaku and the four ninjas. If it wasn't here, then perhaps on the other side of the wall, not too far from where Goemon was standing...
The growl turned into a howl, louder and more fearsome than before. Goemon backed up until he nearly tripped over Sasuke, and stared wide-eyed at the door that he had been standing in front of. The skull-shaped knob now had its mouth open, and thick gray smoke swirled within. It slowly began pouring out and become four massive paws on the floor. The smoke piled up, and within seconds the ninjas were staring at a wolf with the same red eyes as the skull. Every part of it churned in the air, the smoke that made up every detailed inch of its fur and body trying to rise up and fly away but being brought back down into its usual shape by an invisible force. It growled and bared its razor sharp teeth. Like the rest of its body, these were made of smoke, but nobody was too keen on testing whether the teeth or its equally threatening claws could really cause any damage. The skull doorknob wobbled for a moment before falling off and rolling to the side. The door melted into the wall, making escape impossible.
"Goemon, do you remember the apology I gave you right after we got here?" Yae asked. Goemon nodded feebly in response. "Well, I think I'm going to take that apology back."