A surge of memories of that terrible battle against this former nemesis gushed out and into my head, and the ringing, cavernous echoes of his hideous cackles reminded me enough. True enough, it was the very same demonic priest who was killed by Master Six’s Sash of the Stretching Rainbow!

Whether it realized I had recognized it, the demonic priest gave a frightful lurch and a shudder before his appalling laughter ceased abruptly! Then before I knew it, the priest broke into different parts, just like how he had been crushed into bits and pieces right after he was strangled to death by the Sash of the Stretching Rainbow when we last fought. Very much like before, we watched blankly as blood spurted into the air like fountains and the chunks and slime of flesh and viscera plopped into the puddles of blood before more of them splotched on to the ground.

And while we were still reeling with the loathsome rush of nauseousness and ghoulishness, the pieces of human flesh and parts on the floor wiggled once, then twice, until they began shaking in a frenzy sickening gore until everything melted into a huge pond of blood right at the center of the office corridor! My senses tingled wildly as we could only behold the horrific scene with aghast looks. And to make things worse, the pond began to bubble and roil!

Then suddenly, a wave as tall as a man leaped from the puddle, charging straight at us like the gaping jaws of a whale threatening to engulf us whole! I grabbed at both Edelweiss and Na San and dragged them after me, running back towards the direction of the elevators, screaming at the top of my voice at Jin Qichen who was still scrambling away, “RUN! RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!” The scream jolted him and made him turned over his shoulder and what he saw—a monstrous wave the height of a man storming across the polished floor at us and in its yawn he could vaguely make out the image of the wide and hungry jaws of a monster—had him gasped with panicking shock and he bolted, overtaking us with the sudden burst of speed that only Olympic runners could boast.

The huge wave slapped down on where we were just standing before, drenching the floor whole. Standing at several yards away, panting for air, Edelweiss asked, “What now?” “I’m also hoping for a solution myself!” I breathed.

The pond of blood churned again. Then the same grotesquely crimson wave rose again menacingly like a hawk ready to swoop down on us. Deciding that it was time for another run, I almost yelled to everyone to flee again, but my voice stuck in my throat when I saw Na San suddenly tossing himself forward at the huge wave of blood!

The red crimson wave swept at us suddenly with a spurt of speed, towering for a brief split-second before slamming down like a solid slab of red human slime so quick that we could barely react! Just when I thought I would be seeing Na San being swallowed into the little sea of blood, his shamanic drum rumbled with a roar of thunder, sending an echo so powerful and deafening that the walls shook and hummed!

More rumbles ensued and the terrible wave of blood crashed harmlessly to the ground an innocuous pond of deep red sludge. The walls of the corridors continued quivering with the residual murmurs of the thunder and the pool of blood began to shrink rapidly, its shape contracting as if it was flinching and wincing in fear of the reverberating echoes. Na San knew better than to stop; he gesticulated in a strange manner, swaying like a bull in a china shop to the rhythm of his drum as he whined a song of an unknown tongue, filling the entire corridor with his voice and the jagged, raspy thunders from his drum.

The surface of the blood-red pool shook again. Only this time, it was different. It did not stir or toss up violently like before, instead, it simmered with bubbles just breaking the surface and I saw with my own eyes how the pool grew smaller and smaller like water evaporating just as quickly as dry ice! Every set of door along the still-winding corridor shuddered in its frame as if monsters and beasts were trying to get out, writhing in agony at the thunderous groans coming from Na San’s drum, only the doors held fast, stubbornly refusing to yield.

By the time I looked once more at the blood on the floor, now only a few harmless blots about to be utterly vaporized, Na San’s drumming stopped. Then his back arched and he vomited a whole mouthful of blood! The thunderclaps from the shamanic drum no more proved to be a new lease of life for the final specks of blood as the blood shot up from the ground into the air and streaked like arrows away from us, tearing towards the far end of the corridor! Half-way, the blood descended and turned into a weasel, its fur scorched and badly blistered, as it fled towards the shadows at the end of the corridor!

But I could never allow it to get away. Not when the odds were in our favor. I tossed my sword into the air, yelling, “Where do you think you’re going?!” One turned to two, two into four, and four multiplied into eight. Eight swords of steel shot like lances in the air, chasing after the routed weasel and slammed into it with a string of heavy thuds like bullets hitting through hardened ice, splintering the tiles of the floor as an accompaniment to a final squeal of pain and defiance from the weasel before it disappeared into dust.

Finally, I had the time to check on Na San. Edelweiss was tending to him, but he had fainted. So the use of the shamanic drum was not without any cost, I mused. His powers and mastery must still be insufficient for him to fully utilize it. Worrying and uncertain of Na San, I looked frantically for Jin Qichen, “Hey, Jin Qichen! Come here! Na San’s…” My voice broke. Jin Qichen was nowhere near us! He was missing!

“Oh, for Heaven’s sake!” I cursed loudly. Then Edelweiss cried, “There he is!” I looked at where her finger was pointed at and found our man. There he was, scurrying like a beaten rat towards the elevator doors one hundred meters away!

“COME BACK, YOU FOOL!” I bellowed as loudly as I could, “DON’T RUN OFF YOURSELF!” But I was too late. Jin Qichen’s finger hit the elevator button even before he could stop himself and the doors opened, revealing a wall of darkness inside. A large hand stretched out with the speed of a frog’s tongue and grabbed at Jin Qichen’s head like a little ball and he raised the pretender prince effortlessly from the ground. There was no way we could see who or what it was and all we could hear was Jin Qichen’s anguished screams.

The screams were so harrowing that they filled us with shock and panic that even Na San recovered from his momentary unconsciousness on my shoulder. Oh, Gods in Heaven, I gasped, Is this the end of Jin Qichen?! “YOUR HIGHNESS!?” Na San woke up and screamed. In his blind trepidation, he shoved me aside, nearly causing me to fall, and he sped towards the elevator, clawing up his drum and drumstick on the way and he grunted and snarled like a faithful bloodhound eager to defend its master!

Naturally, Edelweiss and I chased after him with our weapons gripped tightly in our hands. But before anyone of us could help Jin Qichen, the stranger’s arm withdrew, pulling a screaming Jin Qichen into the elevator with him right before the doors slammed shut. Na San snarled, hoping to jam something between the doors. For a moment, I thought he was running as quickly as Liu Xiang, the Olympic hurdler, for he suddenly accelerated, leaving Edelweiss and me to bite his dust.

BOOM! Na San banged headfirst into the stainless steel elevator doors that adamantly held between him and his master’s salvation. I would have burst out laughing if not for the gravity of the situation. No sane person would run recklessly into dangers nevermind a strong set of steel doors.

Na San clambered to his feet when we got near and he pounded angrily at the elevator doors with frustration while my gaze panned upwards to look at the LED display. The elevator was on the seventh floor, then the eighth, the ninth, and finally, the tenth. Jin Qichen was now on the top floor. Between the time we had spent in the Real World up there and our brief fight here just now, Big Sister and the others should have reached the top floor too by now. “Would they meet this stranger?” I wondered apprehensively, “And we still don’t know the identity of this mysterious assailant…”

As I drifted in my thoughts, the dismal bell of the elevator rang again and the doors opened, showing a well-lit empty compartment this time, harmless and innocent. Na San hurried in even before the doors fully opened and we fell in just behind and I hit at the “10” button.

The elevator grunted as if in protest having to jump right back into work after only a brief respite and it began climbing, the numbers on the LED display overhead us rising one at a time. Na San kept a glare transfixed on the display, the hands that held his shamanic drum and its drumstick shaking and throbbing either from the lingering pain from the blowback he had suffered earlier or his rage at his powerlessness to defend his master. I patted his shoulder gently, “How are you? Are you all right?” Na San nodded quietly. Then he spoke, with a voice hoarser than his before, “I’m fine, Young Lordling.” I responded with an assuring nod and gave another pat, “Don’t be too hard on yourself. At any rate, I’ll…”

The toll of the elevator bell cut me off. We were there. The top floor. The doors began to slide apart; first, a slit, then a larger opening before the irritable Na San squeezed through suddenly like a rat, leaving us both still gaping with shock inside. But just when he left the elevator, he fell suddenly and vanished with a whoosh!