Ben was nervously looking at the kitsune that he had been accompanying for the better part of his time, the suspiciously obscene angel that had joined them, and the strange, primal monster looking down on them from the sky. If fighting the monsters in the Backrooms had taught him the feeling of fear, then the current standoff was a lesson on raw, primal terror.
"You didn't answer yet, Saja. Will you join us or remain on your own?"
Saja's answer was laced with venom. "And as I said, I need a reason from you. I do not see any reason to follow someone who accepted the company of an angel of Ilias."
The men made a few steps backward.
Holy shit… didn't Tamamo say that they were allied? They have more hate for one another than for that angel! If they come to blows, we're dead! We're all dead!
"Well, for starter I want to point out that while this place does not represent a great threat to us, who or whatever sent us here likely does." The kitsune pulled out her fan and started walking around Saja. "We will need all the firepower available to take care of it, and the last thing we should do is weaken ourselves by bickering against one another like unruly children."
Ben flinched. They were either very good friends to throw themselves such harsh piques, or they had poor opinions of one another. Given how Saja was frowning at the insult, the latter was more likely.
"And somehow, you came to the conclusion that entering a pact with one of those angels was the perfect solution? That we should help our enemies because we're facing of a little difficulty?"
Raphaela mumbled through her gritted teeth. "I'm as unhappy with this as both of you are."
Tamamo smirked. "See it that way. I am only following the adage keep your friend close and your enemies closer. After all, we did resort to a contract to prevent attacking one another."
The four men flinched again when the primal monster flapped her wings while looking down on the two of them. Saja didn't look particularly interested in the idea her sister offered. She then turned her severe gaze toward the angel.
"And you, why did you accept? What did you see in joining us that could further the plans of your goddess?"
"Even if I hate her, I am forced to acknowledge that this world gave credence to the words of your sister. We saw too many of our allies dead, sometimes to this lethal, mysterious environment. And worse…" She shivered. "Lucifina is wandering around, killing everyone in her path. The more numerous we are, the higher our chance of survival against her are."
"You should have both started by that." Saja looked down, concerned. "I will join you, but the instant either of you so much try to play a trick on me, I will allow myself to blast you to oblivion."
"If you believe we are that untrustworthy, why don't you ask for a magical pact?"
"Because I refuse to make our situation any more of a farce." Saja turned around. "Now, should we start moving or do you intend to stay here and gawk all day?"
"I would first suggest that we share what we saw and what we know." Tamamo gestured around her. "Didn't you notice that this… sector looks like a cheap copy of the singularity world? I am sure that there is something to learn from it."
Saja huffed, but relented. She explained that she had found the place after an unfortunate, messy battle that involved most of the Archangels, Lucifina and Minagi. Raphaela gasped in shock when she heard about the fate Sariela and Metatrone met, shaking her head in denial.
"It can't be… they would never turn their back on the Goddess of Ilias. I simply cannot believe it!"
"And I cannot believe Minagi got squashed because she got too busy either, but I saw… what remained of her." Saja gulped in a mix of disgust and anger.
"We saw that morbid scene too. Continue."
"I explored this place and recognized its appearance as the singularity world. I spent a few hours checking around, but it looks like all building entrances lead back to those yellow hallways. I decided to stay near the Monster Lord's Castle just in case it would evolve with time. Now, why don't you tell me about you?"
Tamamo took in a deep breath as she prepared to count her tale. "Well-"
"No. I'm asking the angel. Not you. I want the full truth as her Goddess would present, not an embellished, self-serving story."
Tamamo growled at Saja, but she stepped back when she saw that the yoma wouldn't relent. Surprised, Raphaela quickly recounted how she incidentally accepted to join forces with Tamamo when searching for a way out of this place. She counted then their unfortunate exploration of the city in detail and how something -or someone- had led Adramelech to them before they escaped.
"…then as ridiculous as it sounds, we ended up here after pressing a switch on a wall."
"Mmh." Saja contemplated the situation for a brief moment before her eyes started wandering to the four men accompanying Tamamo and Raphaela. Her expression quickly grew salacious. "Now, what do you intend to do? I wouldn't mind getting my fill of energy…"
Ben gulped in a mix of fear and desire.
Tamamo answered, aggravated. "Saja, these ones are mine. We'll return to the fourth floor where you will be able to get everyone you want."
"Are you afraid they would lose interest in you if they had a taste of what I can offer?"
"No, I'm afraid that you would crush their bones or even exhaust them to death as we're in the middle of an uncharted, possibly lethal territory." Tamamo passed both of her hands over her face. "Let us get back to the base on the fourth floor as quickly as possible. This first search for an exit is a failure. The humans will take the lead, we will follow them."
"And which exit do you think we should take, dear sister?" Saja sarcastically tilted her head on the side."
"It doesn't matter. As far as we can see they all lead to the same place." Tamamo pointed to the door that she had blasted earlier. "Let's go for this one, unless someone sees anything wrong about it."
The next several days were as unbearably tense as they could be as the growing group crossed through several floors while the three demi-goddesses kept throwing insults and piques at one another. The situation had further passably worsened an evening when Tamamo indulged herself in the four men while refusing to share them with Saja. As both monsters screamed to one another, the four men slinked away while accompanied by Raphaela.
"You vicious opportunistic bitch isn't even satisfied enough to eat while I starve, you have to force me to assist to this spectacle as well!"
"I only do it because I know the moment you lay with one, I'll have to write him dead!"
Barely a corridor away, the four men tried to whisper to one another.
"It's a good thing that Tamamo said that they were allies. With friends like these, it's a wonder that they're not dead yet."
"And yet they have no place in the world of man." Raphaela counted with a smile which wanted to be sympathetic. "And you, do you not find them disrespectful? Treating you as their thing to be used to sate their own lust… you would be safe from such a fate if you followed the guidance of the Goddess of Light."
Sam took a sip from his bottle. "With all due respect, the guidance of the goddess didn't stop us from meeting them in the first place. And besides, even taking into account how horny they are, their presence was still a plus…" He hesitated for a short but noticeable moment before finishing his sentence. "So far. Although I must admit that I didn't expect that Saja to be as much of a horndog as the first one we met. I admit their sex drives are more than annoying."
Raphaela giggled. "Then let me invite you to the world of the Goddess one again. You will appreciate her pure angels after being forced to deal with those instinct-driven beasts."
She failed to notice Leo muttering that he enjoyed it, as the three remaining men were looking at her with surprisingly judgmental looks.
"…Are those angels as pure as you are?"
"Unfortunately, not all of them can pretend to be as pure as I am." Raphaela raised her head in an exalted praise. "As I am the spiritual leader, only the Goddess of Light herself Ilias is purer than my person!"
When she looked at them again, they weren't saying a word. However, she could sense their thoughts and emotions. They were simple enough to be coined in a single sentence.
"Does this hypocrite have any self-awareness?"
Fortunately, before she could be tempted to exercise her judgment, Tamamo and Saja came back, visibly done insulting one another. The party returned to their routine progression, eliminating a few more unusual stumbling monsters and skinless hounds on their way before they eventually reached their destination floor.
However, Raphaela felt everyone get surprisingly nervous the moment they returned to those cream, carpeted offices. She didn't sense any threat herself, but she still decided to get on her guard. Behind her, Tamamo fully activated her armor, weapon at the reay. There were no signs of enemies, but indeed the place felt even more off than usual as a dark hunger seemed to impregnate the halls surrounding them. Ben nervously browsed through his map notes.
"Ok… luckily, we're not that far from the base. Barely a kilometer away. I can't wait to get home…"
"Take the lead then." Tamamo barked her orders out. "And hurry up. We already lost too much time in this fiasco."
Saja huffed at the kitsune who made a conscious effort to ignore her, making Raphaela smirk: the division between the Ancestors was her best defense. How could they threaten her if they were at each other's throat? With a little luck, a third one would step in and start a fight between the three of them, allowing her to secure this region in the name of the Goddess of Light.
"Fuuuuck…" Her train of thoughts was interrupted by Ben who loudly swore as they approached a familiar place. "Fuck, fuck, fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck…" The man briskly walked in front of the large set of reinforced doors lying broken on the ground while holding his head. "FUCK!"
Raphaela examined the floor around the entrance. The pools of slime made the culprit obvious. She prepared her weapon quickly joined by the two Ancestors who were just as ready to fight as herself. Saja snarked, but the Archangel could feel a slight note of concern in her voice.
"Did some copies of Kanade go rogue again?"
Tamamo silently nodded in confirmation. The exploration of the remainder of the base was as eerie as Raphaela imagined it would be: there were a few pools of slimes here and there as well as discarded bullets, guns and damaged makinas lying on the floor, but there wasn't a single soul roaming around. There weren't even skeletal remains and only very few dissolved clothes. Kanade had eaten everything that, by the lowest of any possible standard, could be consumed to give her energy. Every single square inch of the floor, wall and ceiling was impregnated with the mark of Kanade's hunger and the terror of her victims, completely obliterating the signs of any mundane activity that happened beforehand.
The kitsune darted to her room to find the entrance door torn from its hinges. Naturally, the slime had broken in and eaten every snack that the kitsune had stored aside for herself. Raphaela abandoned the angered Tamamo to her devices and focused on the men. Ben was desperately trying to restart a makina while Leo was fiddling with wires in its back. Sam and Jack were checking supplies room by room, gathering any gun and bullet they could find on top of one of the few standing tables remaining.
They're grimly trying to move on out of pure pragmatism… they do not take the time to grieve their friends because they know this place won't let them do it.
The mountain of muscles was dismantling guns and sorting through the ammo with an impressive ease, putting aside everything that looked usable and throwing away what was too trashed for use. However, for a reason Raphaela couldn't understand. He severely frowned when examining a gun.
"Ben? Can you come check that?"
"What? Need a hand with something?" Ben gulped and looked at the gun.
"You tell me. You did some inventory management last time you were there, didn't you?"
"Yes… and we didn't have any bullpup rifle last week if that's what you ask. Maybe a patrol brought that one in."
"Mmh." The nervous men returned to their respective work, and the two men working on a makina were joined by Tamamo who was herself watched over by Saja, allowing Raphaela some leeway to talk to the large man alone.
"I will offer a prayer to Ilias in the name of the fallen… no one deserves to suffer at the hands of one Ancestor."
"Thanks, lady." The man only broke the shortest smile without interrupting his work.
"It is a tragedy, but you should not try exercising your vengeance against the two Ancestors with us. At least not just yet."
"Why would I hate them?" His sentence was punctuated by a metallic rain as he emptied another broken magazine of its content. "They're not the ones responsible for that mess, are they?"
"They're monsters, just like the one responsible for that horrendous slaughter delivered on your friends."
"And they're not the ones who did it." Another clicking sound echoed. Raphaela was getting slightly aggravated at being treated like an afterthought, even moreso that the man in front of her was extremely dismissive of her words. She spat her next words as much as she spoke them.
"They're the same abominations that are just waiting to feast on you… they might even have led here so that she could devour your close ones. You. Must not. Trust them."
"I quite don't." Sam sighed and stopped transferring the remaining ammo in the working magazines to stare at Raphaela. "But I don't believe that Tamamo bothered herself with placing detection wards and killing one of Kanade's copies so that someone she expressed a lot of distaste for could eat from her pantry."
"She's a lustful, selfish, greedy abomination that will kill you once you've outlived your usefulness."
"On that I agree. Which in that case, means that she has even less reason to lead one of her sisters here without a good reason, doesn't she?"
Raphaela couldn't answer. It made sense, but that man was way too dismissive of his own doom. She decided to check on the Ancestors instead, hoping that her presence alone would be enough to prevent them from plotting against her or their human companions.
"Saving's almost done…" Ben was nervously biting his thumb and shaking his head. "Fuuck, I still can't believe it. That base had been here for longer than I can remember. Freya… Laura… Pilate… all of them fucking gone without even a good bye."
"It could be worse." Leo nervously smiled, which only attracted him a glare that instantly cooled him down. "I mean, only very few servers got destroyed. Most of the data was saved, even the video feed from the cameras. It will take weeks to browse through though."
"We don't have weeks." Tamamo harshly announced. "We don't have unlimited supplies, and unless you tell me that another batch will come tomorrow, we will need to find some on our own. And to that end, we need to move."
"Do you really still pretend you decide for us, sisters?" Saja unhappily flapped her wings.
"Yes, unless any of you has another plan, our best hope so far is finding if the one who names himself Luka is the real deal and if he can help us or not. Then we'll discuss who gets him."
Raphaela stepped forward. "Is it really a priority?"
Tamamo snickered. "Why? Are you willing to let him in our custody? I always thought that your so-called Goddess only had eyes for him, and I'm surprised you'd consider leaving him a chance to slip from your grasp."
"Before we start getting down this path, we should make sure that this discussion matters in the first place, shouldn't we?" Raphaela's grasp on her staff tightened. "We already saw several people that shared names with figures from the singularity world, and all of them turned out to be so many red herrings that ultimately didn't matter. Luka might be one of them. For all the Goddess knows, he might just be a completely unrelated human who just happens to be named Luka."
The two Ancestors stared at her for an uncomfortably long moment. Then Raphaela yelped in surprise when Tamamo grabbed her shoulder with a broad, uncanny smile.
"You're entirely right. I wonder what we would do without you? Probably lose time arguing against one another like bullheads, don't you agree?"
Behind her, Saja huffed and took the lead. "Let us part from this place as soon as possible."
"Do you even know what our destination is, dear sister?"
"Deep down. Where it is the most dangerous." Saja answered without turning back. "If he's indeed the real deal, then there's no doubt that he will be where he is the most needed."
Tamamo scoffed. "Really? You're sticking with such a simplistic vision?"
"Huuh, my apologies, but she would be entirely right." Ben awkwardly scratched his head. "I mean we lost track of Luka some time ago, but he's always been around the deeper floors. We'll try to browse through the footage to see if he or anyone else contacted us recently, but in any case we'll have to get lost in the deeper floor ourselves."
"Oh. Well then, carry on~." Tamamo answered in a sing-song voice, making the mockery sting even worse. "It's a long way down, isn't it?"
The four men nervously looked at one another. It was going to be a VERY long way down.
Unsurprisingly, sleep didn't come to any of the men in the following night even as the three demi-goddesses were soundly resting some distance from one other. However, the place had been thoroughly warded by them, preventing any backstabbing, and more annoyingly, stopping them from escaping altogether.
Not that we would be able to go far anyway… The base on floor ten has been nuked, we didn't have much contact with the other asides from floor three, and aside from all the Backrooms threats, there are also those rogue slimes devouring everything in sight.
Ben glanced at his companions to see how they were themselves faring. Sam and Jack were both sleeping after having enjoyed the attention of Tamamo while Leo was sitting against a wall, his computer on his knees and earbuds placed to not disturb their patrons by fear that he could get smitten. Ben himself took a good look at them and frowned.
Damn it… I really hope that they won't come to blow with one another. The Backrooms are dangerous enough as-is; we don't need even more threats on our back!
Raphaela groaned and slightly shifted as if she felt the hostile intention in her direction, making Ben not so much relax than redirect his attention to whatever his partner was doing. Fortunately, Leo had found something worth his attention as he gestured to get closer and grab a pair of earbuds. His friend had loaded footage of the different cameras watching their bases.
A large team was waiting at the entrance, their M.E.G. outfit barely recognizable through the low resolution of the camera but still visible. Ben could even distinguish the bullpups rifles they were carrying with them. Leo paused the scene and pointed at another screen of a scene happening inside the base, a few minutes earlier. Two men were nervously perambulating near the command.
Aren't these the guys who were accompanying that angel? We completely lost track of what they did after they arrived…
"Mistress Raphaela is right… this place and everyone inside has been tainted by that damn monster. Have you seen how she strutted herself around, imposing her conditions?"
"Yeah… they've been damned. I tried to talk to one of them about the joys of following the Goddess Ilias, and you know what he did? He laughed! He said I should see their nurse because I was sounding just like one of those followers of Jerry!"
"Yeah… it's a shame that it has to end that way, but we can't let that bitch suck the soul out of everyone... I mean, just look at how lax they grew." The man waved at the camera. "Your so-called protector is just a bitch controlling you through your dick!"
Wait, they're not really going to… fuck. Oh fuck.
"Everyone else agrees. They'll be here in a few minutes."
Leo stopped the recording and pointed back at the scene at the entrance of the door and at the one showing the door's panel.
Just as he feared, one of the two men activate the entrance. Everyone waiting outside rushed in with their weapons at the ready while people inside were wondering what was going on. However, even with the element of surprise, the entering team's bloody assault was slowed down to a crawl as everyone inside took arms and started fighting back. The fight quickly turned in an absolute slog were barely understandable cries were shouted over the sound of gunfire.
"For the Goddess of Light Ilias, no one shall feed the enemy today!"
"Traitors! They're fucking mad! Kill them all!"
"None shall empower the dark bitch any longer!"
The exchanges weren't the disciplined bursts that Ben usually saw and mastered in his life. It was a chaotic shoot from people caught by surprise against a zealous application of firepower. The fight became further hectic as people ran out of ammo, and save for those in the arsenals, no one could immediately resupply themselves. People started throwing themselves at each other in a vicious melee with a rare savagery, and Ben could barely keep track of who was on which side as the halls were getting decked with blood.
Leo pointed at the entrance where a slime trail appeared. Ben observed Kanade methodically starting to eat everyone she came across, making the question of who was going to win academic. People were screaming in fear as she expanded in a shape wide enough to fill the whole hallway, accidentally breaking the cameras as she passed by.
One by one, the different screens turned static while Ben could hear the last survivors screaming in panic. One of them courageously ran to the entrance door and slammed the button to close it before tearing the electronic behind apart in a visible attempt to keep Kanade locked with them.
Then the screaming stopped. Ben felt his heart beat faster. Even after seeing the aftermath by himself, this was when he realized that hundreds of lives had been snuffed simply to sate the hunger of a feminine part of a colony of slime. The last thing he could see before everything turned to statics was the door set being blasted apart. Trying to contain the slime that had devoured and murdered everyone had been a fruitless move, and she was now free to rampage once again, free to devour the few remaining bases of people around the Backrooms.
No, the truth was more horrible than that. The slime had just noticed an open door and rushed in. Any other entity would have done the same. Besides, what would they do even if they caught her? There were maybe dozens more copies of her milling around! However, even knowing that didn't compare to the mundane discovery that most of the damage came from a fight between his fellow M.E.G. members. Did Raphaela brainwash everyone on the third floor? Did she do it out of maliciousness against Tamamo?
Was she even aware of the events that transpired?
Ben nervously shook his head. On the one hand, he wanted to protect their benefactor, she had done a lot of things for them -and to them, as a more instinctive part of him kept repeating-, and while she was a bit forceful with her vision, she gave the feeling that she just wanted them to become stronger. Probably for her own reason, but they still grew thanks to her.
…They were just feeling the same way toward Raphaela and that Goddess Ilias, weren't they?
"I'm back! Phew… please don't make me do that again. The boss is not here?"
"The boss, as you call him, is sleeping. And while we will try to minimize contact risk, whether you go back or not unfortunately depends on whatever new you bring us. Are they good?"
"..."
"That is one eloquent silence. Can you develop it? I will make sure he cooks an appropriate inarizushi afterward."
"I would have told you anyway since I made the promise some time ago, but thank you for the reward… it's even worse than we expected. The tenth floor has already been destroyed, and that Adramelech apoptosis is already wandering there."
"Good grief, this is just as we feared. Are Raphaela and Tamamo working together?"
"Yes, and they were ready to come to blow with Saja… it's strange, I keep seeing the same scene with the two of them at the same place if it makes sense…"
"This is why we're worried… of all the people that manage to work together, it's those two. I admit it was a high probability given the intelligence of both, but it is still unpleasant news nonetheless. If they reach the intersection, there's a danger they will dig up the reality of their presence and react as well as we can expect from them. And that's to say nothing of them getting closer to us."
"What about Saja? If she sticks with them, they'll be unstoppable!"
"Saja's only a tangential problem. Furthermore, her poor relations with her partners may push her to refuse what she sees and push her on her own path. Maybe… maybe we can develop some sort of countermeasure to keep them away, but with the tools we have we're more likely to only anger them rather than eliminate them entirely. Saja could even incidentally help us in that regard if she convinces her partners that everything they see is a lie."
"That doubt doesn't sound like you."
"We're dealing with divine what-ifs in an uncertain place… not facts and grounded statistics. I enjoyed the opportunities offered by this new world, but I've come to miss the stability of the one left behind… to say nothing of the luxury and the company."
"..."
"...Never tell him I said that."
"Not a word. I promise."
"Thank you. Did you happen to see anything else noteworthy?"
"It depends if you consider our trio keeping a quartet of humans alive noteworthy."
"...It actually is. Are we talking about real humans, absorbed ones or…"
"All four of them are real. Or, at least, none of them are researchers. I think at least one of them was part of the seven. Contrary to what we saw in those games, mute heroes aren't dime a dozen… wait, why are you even asking?"
"Because we might need to change our plan then. We'll need to take a risk. A huge, huge risk. It will be a gamble, but if it passes…"
"Please don't tell me I have to go back…"
"Unfortunately, you're the only one who can slip through unnoticed. They didn't see you the first time, did they?"
"...At least let me have a last meal before going. I might not need it, but I really want it."
"Granted. We'll discuss the decision when the boss gets back up anyway."