Faust felt it before it hit him and used Bolster in that split second.

He should have used Unknown Trespasser.

BOOM!

His entire world turned a blinding white. His skin fried until he couldn’t feel pain anymore. It happened in an instant.

Then he was tumbling through the air.

His entire body was on fire. He slammed down on a piece of the castle roof that was floating up and sputtered weakly. The rain kept pouring on him like it was a joke.

"That has to be in the top ten most painful things I’ve ever felt."

Faust had been hit by a crowbar, stepped on Legos, and had his arm broken in two places, so he considered himself an authority when it came to pain.

Feeling began to return to his fingers after a few seconds, fortunately. Unfortunately, pain also returned.

"Mmmgh..."

All he could do was groan. His skin was on fire, yet he was bone-cold from the rain. The swirling sensations made his vision blur.

Something was flying down to him in the rain. The small shape dropped onto the roof hard, transforming into a girl.

"Faust! Holy shit, are you alright?!" Nirvana scrambled to pull out a health potion and feed it to him.

The warm green fluid soothed his dry throat and, together with Blood Regeneration, did its best to put him back together.

Nirvana drew him into a tight hug. "Bite me, Faust."

His body was still paralyzed by the overload to his nervous system.

"Faust, come on! You have to bite me."

Pushing his jaws apart and summoning the Blood Lord Schema took everything he had. Fangs extended from his teeth painfully, and he sank them into Nirvana’s neck.

Her grip around him tightened a little. She held back a soft sigh, holding Faust’s arm up to see if he was healing.

"Okay, okay, that’s good."

Nirvana turned her head up in relief, letting the rain fall against her face, closing her eyes. Her blue hair clung to her body like a dark river.

"Faust, are you scared?"

He couldn’t answer, but he tightened his grip around her shoulders.

"I know. You never seem afraid. But... if we keep going up, getting struck becomes more and more likely. And even if we get there... can we beat Vi?"

Faust didn’t respond in any way.

Once he was done feeding and fully healed, they separated. He flexed his fingers and toes with an astonished look.

"Surviving a lightning strike is common, but getting up immediately after is crazy." 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

Nirvana didn’t share his smile.

"We’re going up," Faust said simply.

Silently, they continued their ascent. Faust would have liked to take off his armor since he was basically the only metal in the sky, but there was no time.

He hopped between the floating rocks, using his tether occasionally to swing across the air to his next foothold.

Once he was high up enough, he could see the entire castle. Up here, it looked whole, just some fractured pieces floating a bit farther from where they were meant to be.

Below, the black, desolate land spread out endlessly. In the other direction was the black sea, which cut around the horizon as far as he could see.

"We are a lot higher up than I expected."

The vastness of the world below him and the rain and wind battering him made him feel a bit dizzy for a moment. But his goal was right in front of him.

He swung his arm and his slime tether shot up. With a grunt, he jumped and pulled himself up to the throne room, landing silently.

Nirvana, in her bat form, was waiting for him, sheltered from the rain under a sculpted depression in the stone walls of the hall.

She hopped out and transformed back, pulling the wet hair from her face. Fear flashed in those crimson eyes as she watched the doors to the throne room. It sat at the apex of the castle.

"What did Thalia mean?" Faust asked.

Nirvana flinched. "It was supposed to be you and Spider that came up here to fight Vi. But Spider didn’t have her Schema, so..."

"You promised you wouldn’t lie to me," Faust said firmly.

Nirvana dropped her head. "I got scared. We almost died to just the guy down there. Whatever is past those doors is going to be on a different level."

"You can’t stop me from dying if that’s what you’re worried about." Faust shook his head. "Nothing is guaranteed except death. And even that might change soon."

He didn’t bother explaining further than that and stepped through the throne doors.

Golden light poured from the roof of the hall.

It came from a massive magic circle dominating the empty roof of the hall. Its geometric patterns rotated slowly like the inner workings of a clock.

Gears of light meshed and turned within larger rings, each layer spinning at a different speed.

’A magic circle. The mechanism that makes the castle fly. Break that and we win.’

Runes crawled along the edges, never still, always becoming something new. The whole mechanism ticked—a deep, resonant sound that Faust felt in his chest more than heard. It was like a low heartbeat of something alive.

The architecture beneath it was ancient and ragged.

Towering black columns lined the hall, carved with reliefs of battles and figures Faust didn’t recognize. The windows from floor to ceiling had broken apart as the walls floated and separated.

At the far end of the hall, raised on a dais of three steps, sat a marble throne.

And on it, a thinly cloaked woman, battered by rain and time.

Her hair was pale as snow, cut short over her shoulders by some sword. The golden light illuminated a pale, beautiful face with bloody bandages wrapped around her eyes.

"Welcome, weary heroes. You bring with you the end of this all. For that, I thank you."

A/N: Support the story with power stones and golden tickets :)