The Rising Darkness
Thanks to the Team Leader humoring my desperate urge to do something, we explored areas beyond the temporary base where the field team had gathered. We confirmed the same traces on every door we found, allowing us to reach a conclusion that was nearly certain. Unfortunately, that conclusion came with the grim realization that we probably wouldn't find any actual doors in this building at all. The thought left me feeling ready to collapse on the spot. What if the doors themselves were just another red herring designed to waste our time? The possibility made my mouth go dry.
"At least if we run into the Field Team Leader, we might find a way forward. But where on earth is that fox, and what is she doing?"
Our seemingly endless wandering finally showed signs of change at that very moment. Thud! And the change was nothing like what we had hoped for.
"Hmm…?"
The Team Leader, who had been about to step through the door into the next space, was suddenly pushed back as if she had run into a solid wall.
"What do you make of this?"
"Don't ask me…"
"Fair enough."
She got repelled…? It isn't that the distortion disappeared. Does that mean the space on the other side has become inaccessible?
"Ung-ssi, could you take out the map? The walls are marked with floor numbers and room numbers in marker, so the field team must have passed through here before."
The map the Team Leader had stuffed into my pocket was so carelessly folded that the paper was crumpled. Even holding the light close to it made it hard to follow the lines properly. Fourth floor… right here.
"Yes, just a moment… Found it."
"Does it show where this connects to?"
The room we were in sat in the far right corner of the fourth floor. There were two doors leading to the hallway. The arrows from the door right in front of us showed two possible paths… One was the route taken when entering the room from the hallway, and the other was the route when leaving the room for the hallway…
"Here it is, on the first floor…"
The arrow was quite far away.
"It connects to the third room on the first floor."
"That means it was possible to move through it back then."
Exactly. If movement hadn't been possible, there wouldn't have been any record of where it led.
"…I have a bad feeling about this."
The Team Leader nodded in agreement and gave the impassable space in front of us a couple of kicks with her foot before turning toward the other remaining door in the room.
"We have something we need to check. Could you find a path that leads to the second-floor hallway or the stairwell? It might be easier to read if you hold the map against my back."
"Y-yes, right away…"
The map was a mess of tangled lines, but the second-floor hallway and the stairwell that ran through every floor had plenty of doors marked, so we managed to find a route quickly.
"Through this door, five—no, six moves should get us there."
"Good. Let's move quickly."
Fortunately, the door on the opposite side wasn't blocked, and I thought we would arrive soon. But after that, the Team Leader was repelled by blocked paths several more times. Every single blocked route led toward the first-floor hallway or rooms. Even in its incomplete state, the map proved extremely helpful for navigation, and we finally reached our destination—the second-floor hallway.
"Hah… hah…"
My breathing hadn't even settled yet, but the moment the Team Leader confirmed our arrival, she grabbed me and headed straight for the stairs in the center of the hallway. There was a door leading into the stairwell passage, so we couldn't go up and down the stairs directly from the hallway. Still, the Team Leader seemed to have a different goal in mind.
"Oh dear. No wonder it looked familiar…"
"Team Leader?"
Her face was hard to see to begin with, but even through the mask I could tell she wore a rare expression of dismay. Her gaze was fixed beyond the stairwell passage—specifically, toward the stairs leading down to the first floor. And soon enough, I saw it too.
"What… what is that?"
"…Something very, very bad."
"…"
That was explanation enough. It writhed and rippled like the darkness we had seen through the windows, but this one was far more distinct. Its already ominous shape was tinged with a dark crimson. There was no stench, yet it gave the horrifying impression of being filled with rotting blood.
"Why are we only noticing it now? And it's that damn thing's ability…"
We need to head back to the temporary base immediately… No, if it's like this, the ability user must be positioned at the highest point.
"Team Leader… it looks like it's rising."
"It is rising. And we mustn't get any closer. It will swallow us before we even have a chance to react."
"…!"
I tried to back away in shock, but the Team Leader's hand gripped mine tightly, preventing any escape. Under normal circumstances she would have teased me for getting embarrassed, but she clearly had no time for that now.
"Judging by how fast it's rising, it must have swallowed something quite delicious… That cheeky fox is never around when she's actually needed."
"Swallowed? You don't mean the Field Team Leader…?"
"We're moving."
She yanked my hand and I stumbled after her, quickly regaining my balance to keep up. Then she suddenly stopped, and I bumped right into her back.
"Team Leader? Why—"
Before I could finish asking, I saw it: a dark crimson shadow surging toward us from the far end of the long hallway illuminated by our lights.
"Oh no…"
Thud…!
The Team Leader immediately pulled me through the nearest door to escape, but unfortunately it led straight down to the first floor. Meanwhile, the darkness crept closer, slithering silently until it was right in front of us and even behind us, tightening like a noose. We couldn't run forward or backward. The only doors left were the two on either side, and one of them had just become blocked.
"I don't care where, just find a door that leads upstairs…!"
"This door here leads to the third floor! But…"
I had been studying the map the whole time to reach this place, so I quickly recalled what I had seen. Yet—
"Then why aren't we going in?!"
"Wait…!"
The once-gently advancing darkness suddenly changed when it was only a meter from our feet. It began to seethe as if it had found prey, surging toward us. That was the last thing I saw before—
Thud…!
"Ugh…"
We tumbled through the door together after the Team Leader threw herself—and me—through it.
"Haa… Are you all right?"
"My back… hurts a little…"
It was a relief that the thing pinning me down wasn't that repulsive darkness, but a beautiful angel with striking blue hair and eyes. Unfortunately, we had landed inside the women's restroom—the very same one we had first entered when we came into this building. The pain in my back was probably from the broken tiles I was lying on, but that hardly mattered right now.
What I needed to focus on was—
"Come to think of it, you were about to say something earlier."
"…Yes, that… It's a bit awkward to mention, but… hmm."
"?"
I wanted to believe I was mistaken, but when I struggled to unfold the map while pinned beneath the Team Leader, I quickly realized it wasn't an illusion. The arrow from the door we had just passed through on the second-floor hallway led exactly here—to the third-floor restroom. And the next arrow…
"There's only one exit from this restroom, and the next destination is… here."
The following arrow unfortunately reversed direction, pointing all the way back to the multipurpose room on the first floor.
"The first floor."
"…The first floor."
"Hmm…"
An awkward silence hung between us for a moment.
"So… we're trapped."
"…We are."
"…"
Only after confirming our predicament once more did the Team Leader rise gracefully and tap the sole exit with the back of her hand.
Thud. Thud.
The sound confirmed beyond doubt that the other side was blocked. The fact that we were only one floor above where we had been made the despair even heavier. According to the Team Leader, that extremely dangerous darkness was already rising right beneath our feet.
"Ugh…"
I needed to get up too, but my back ached and the guilt of having chosen the door that led us here weighed on my mind. Swallowing a sigh, I lifted my head while still lying down—and froze when I saw what was behind me. Why had I only noticed it now? A hollow laugh escaped me.
"Ung-ssi…? Are you all right?"
The Team Leader's voice was filled with genuine concern at my sudden laughter, but I ignored it and pointed with my arm toward the row of fixtures along one wall of the restroom.
"Team Leader… can those be called doors too?"