Autophagy

"Do you have anything left to say?" Song Lei asked with a wide smile on his face. Andres had fallen to the ground. He seemed like he was about to lose it. While coming here, he never expected that he would meet with so much resistance.

"I..." Andres muttered. He didn't have anything left to say. His mind was constantly working to somehow save himself from this situation. "I'm sorry! Please don't kill me!"

Song Lei looked at Andres and frowned. He was really shocked at this man's shamelessness.

"I'm not the one to decide that," Song Lei said. He looked at Isabel and waited for her decision. In the end, she would be the one doing the job. Isabel, after thinking for some time, stepped up and released a flesh bullet at Andres.

The flesh bullet penetrated Andres' forehead. Andres couldn't realize what happened for some time. And when he did, he was already dead.

"Curse... You..."

*Thud

Andres' body hit the ground as blood trickled out of his forehead. Song Lei sighed a breath of relief when he saw this.

[Congratulations! You've managed to kill Andres Obrero with the help of your friendly Spirit Guardian Isabel! You've leveled up!]

"I was worried that you would forgive him or something," Song Lei said. Isabel came up to him and flicked his forehead. Not being able to properly communicate with Isabel was getting to his nerves.

When Andres died, the small straw doll he had rolled on the ground. A small shadow popped out of it.

"I- Is that Mia? Had he locked her into that straw doll..?" Song Lei muttered to himself. Seeing that Isabel nodded, Song Lei sighed. "Well... It's great that we saved her," Song Lei said. He wanted to learn more about what happened but he couldn't do so. If he had a pen and paper with him, he could use those to communicate.

[You've been cursed! Time left until activation: 23:59:59]

"Umm..."

Song Lei looked at the ominous-looking notification. He didn't know what to do about it.

'Was it done by Andres in his last moments?' Song Lei thought. He wasn't feeling any different than normal. Because he had no way of knowing what it was, he discarded the notification. 'I have to learn more abou-'

Song Lei's thoughts were cut in half as his sight got hazy. He tried to keep his balance but couldn't do so. He felt his body burning as he fell to the ground.

Isabel rushed to his side but couldn't do much. Song Lei fainted shortly after.

...

Damien rushed up to the 16th floor.

'I did it!' He shouted in his mind while jumping on his place. He actually wasn't that sure about passing the 15th floor alive. When he arrived on the 15th floor, he felt his soul being pulled out of him. He pushed through purely by using his willpower. If he were to linger there for a second more, he would probably faint. That would be his death sentence.

After finishing his small celebration, Damien looked at the hallway that was full of lava. He, just like Song Lei, was mesmerized by this. Although he had been living in the New World for a very long time, he had never seen something like this before. The fact that this floor had an ever-running lava stream that wouldn't cool down with time was already breaking the rules of physics. The whole floor having a different layout and size than the others was the icing on the cake.

"That lucky bastard is always discovering new things even though he just came here..." Damien muttered to himself with a wide smile on his face. He backed away into the staircase and started thinking about what he would do.

'I don't think that he has gone upwards. Those robed people too wouldn't be able to enter those floors without beating the spirit guardian,' Damien thought while holding his chin. 'I should look for him on this floor.'

Because some of the doors on the 16th floor were blocked by the lava, this lowered Damien's searching range by a large margin. He entered the hallway again to decide on which order he would search the rooms. He had to pick carefully as he would have to fight with a resident ghost if he picked the wrong one.

'I should start from the last room,' Damien thought while looking at the furthest room. 'If they were hiding somewhere on this floor and scheming something, they would pick the furthest room from the staircase. That would be the hardest room to get to...'

After deciding on the room, Damien rushed into the hallway again. Unfortunately, he couldn't run through it however he wanted as the hallway was mostly covered by lava. If he stepped on lava unintentionally, it wouldn't be a very fun time for him.

When he reached the last room of the floor, he was already covered in sweat from head to toe. The temperature was making it impossible for Damien to breathe.

'This is it,' Damien thought while pulling the handle of the door. The door creaked open. Damien took a step sideways in case he was ambushed as soon as he opened the door. Fortunately, no such thing happened. He carefully walked into the room.

As soon as he stepped through the door, he felt a malignant being watching him. Shivers run through his body and his heart started pumping out blood. The sudden change of temperature from unbearably hot to somewhat chilly and this malignant stare made him lightheaded. He somehow managed to pull his consciousness together.

When he turned his head towards the right side of the room, he saw Song Lei lying on the ground unconscious with a silhouette crouching next to him.

A drop of sweat trickled down off of Damien's forehead. He could feel that this silhouette wasn't something to be trifled with. He quickly activated his ability. His eyes started to glow golden as they became vertical. In less than a few seconds, everything became clear to Damien's eyes. There was a blonde woman, seemingly middle-aged, crouching next to Song Lei with an anxious expression on her face.

There was another person standing next to the woman. This person was a little kid. It was obvious that they were mother and daughter from their similarities.

Damien had no idea what to do. Although the feeling given by these ghosts indicated that they were incredibly strong, it didn't feel like they would hurt him or Song Lei in any way. Rather, they seemed like they were worried for Song Lei.

'Well... Here goes nothing,' Damien thought. He walked up to the blonde woman and looked at Song Lei.

"Is Song Lei okay?" He asked without making eye contact. He hoped that his ability would make him be able to communicate with the ghost.

Hearing his voice, the blonde woman looked at Damien with a frown on her face. She started speaking some words.

"He should be okay. Tell him to raise his soul power," she said.

As soon as she spoke, Damien closed one of his ears with his hand. The woman's speech was shattering his mind, making his soul go into a frenzy. Fortunately, Damien had a very strong will and soul. He wouldn't break just because of this.

Seeing Damien's distressed state, the blonde woman stopped talking. This was enough for Damien to act on.

Obviously, this blonde woman was Isabel. She honestly had no idea about how to deal with this new person. She wanted to ignore him but realized that he could somewhat communicate with her.

Seeing that this person knew Song Lei's name, she knew he could be trusted. And after all, even if he wasn't trustable, she had no other choice. Unless she could communicate with Song Lei, he would die because of the curse.

As her last chance, she spoke a short sentence to Damien so that he would give her message to Song Lei. She hoped that Song Lei would be able to raise his soul power in time and cleanse himself from the curse he was affected by. She didn't even have a proper bed left in this room. As she couldn't look after Song Lei by herself, she had to send him to the lower floors with Damien.

After Damien managed to pull himself together, he nodded at Isabel. He looked to the further corner of the room and saw Andres' lifeless body lying on the ground. When he saw the robe on Andres' he understood that this was the mastermind of the darkness infestation.

'He even dealt with this by himself,' he thought. Seeing that the ghost wasn't saying anything anymore, he picked Song Lei up.

"Thank you for everything," Damien said. He took Song Lei with him and left the room. He now had to bring Song Lei to the 14th floor.

"How will I do this?" Damien muttered to himself. If he were to carelessly try rushing through the 15th floor, he would surely die before being able to do so. He had barely managed to do it last time. Now, he even had to carry Song Lei.

He searched through Song Lei's backpack and found a rope.

"What if I...?"