The black castle rumbled from outside with the rain mercilessly beating it, and from within, an explosion and the falling stairs shook its grand halls.

Faust kicked off stone pieces of the stairs, hopping across the falling stairs like a giant cricket. Nirvana held on tightly. He jumped after Greg, occasionally grabbing the boy and throwing him up to help their ascent.

They were both ridiculously strong, but Greg wasn’t as quick or dextrous as Faust.

’I hope those curses Zen was talking about don’t come back for us now.’

Spider glanced back at them from the top of the stairs. A raw, painful scream ripped from her throat as she transformed. Her legs bulged and snapped with rapid shifts.

In half a second, her legs bent like a grasshopper’s. The exoskeleton was white and powerful.

She grabbed Zen as she got behind him and surged upward in an explosive leap that blew the rock she pushed off into rubble. She dropped him off and turned back, leaping back down to grab Greg.

Once she dropped both off, she turned back to Faust, but there was barely enough stone to jump off. Faust watched her glance at the walls.

She wanted to jump off that to get to them, but after that, what?

Faust made his decision. He pulled Nirvana off his back and threw her up towards the wall. Spider’s eyes widened immediately, but she wasn’t slow to react.

Before Nirvana even flew towards the wall, Spider was there to catch her and burst back towards the top of the stairs.

She turned back as she soared up with Nirvana to safety. Her gaze was rife with disbelief and confusion.

Faust met her gaze with a smile. He plummeted on a piece of the stairs, wind rustling his white traveling cloak and red hair.

The shadows of the walls fell over him, and he disappeared.

Spider landed at the top of the stairs just in time to see Faust reappear from the shadows at the top of the stairs. Her look of awe and disbelief dimmed a bit as she realized Faust was never in danger.

He almost scoffed. People saw sacrificing your life for others as the ultimate test of character. But he could have gotten to the top of the stairs far quicker if he hadn’t been helping Greg.

Having backup plans, for Faust, was a better test of character than throwing your life away.

"That’s going to happen a couple more times, huh?" Thalia said, looking down the now-collapsed stairwell.

The castle was shaking and rumbling below, but the entire spire didn’t seem in danger of collapsing. They had to cross two more buildings with walkways between them.

"That’s why I decided on this route to the safe room," Zen said calmly. "There are three more places where something like this can happen."

Faust nodded absentmindedly. He was thinking about how thankful he was for upgrading Shadow Step before this. He got five skill stones and enhancement stones from the fourth wave rewards.

Along with the six extra enhancement stones he had saved up, he used them on Shadow Step, Unyielding Axe, and Moon Leviathan.

[Shadow Step Lv2 (Silver): Step into one shadow and reappear in any other within seventy meters. Requirements: 150 Spirit, 200 Agility, Level 6. Cooldown: five seconds]

[Unyielding Axe +2 (Silver): A heavy weapon built for war. It increases your resilience to pain. This axe holds a well of power only accessible if you are unwilling to surrender. Requirements: Level 5, 150 Strength, 150 Constitution] 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

[Moon Leviathan +2 (Silver): Armor cut from the scales of a powerful great monster. +80 Strength +50 Constitution. Reduces the effects of debuffs by 10%. Increases strength temporarily the more damage is taken. Requirements: ??, ??, ??, ??.]

The jump distance between the rock he had been on and the top was around sixty meters, so he used Shadow Step. If it had been too much, he still had Slime Tether to rely on.

"Too bad we can’t equip those Lapis Lapels we stole from Fix and Negan," Nirvana said.

Thalia wagged her fingers. "Stole is a strong word. We ’acquired’ them as rewards. Too bad they were too expensive for Kye to give us hers. But we can’t use them until we’re at least Gold rank. Can’t even appraise them."

Faust set off with them behind him. The walkway from this spire to the next block of the castle wasn’t far, but it would definitely be protected by puppet knights.

He called his summons, and white light flashed in the dim, dark corridor. The silver knight appeared with Faust’s mount.

"Scout ahead and try to draw the knights away from their guard post."

Greg, who was walking ahead of the group with him, smiled. "Oh, let me call mine too."

Silver light bloomed and coalesced into a slightly tall Silver swordsman. This was one of the four summons available on silver-grade summon cards. It had two swords at its hip, so this was the damage-dealer summon.

Faust took one look at it and frowned. "Save it. Don’t waste your twelve hours if you don’t have to. My guys aren’t going to fight; they’re going to distract and buy us time."

Slightly deflated, Greg dismissed his summon.

The top floor of the spire was haunted by the muffled rattling of the rain outside and the occasional booms of thunder. Their walk was long and quiet, except for the squishing of their wet shoes and dripping water from their clothes.

Zen led the group, ignoring the many twists and turns of the corridors, and the many different strange, ancient rooms. He pointed out traps and cursed objects easily.

Finally, they came to the walkway. They stopped a few meters back and let Faust use his Mirage skill to go and check how many knights were ahead.

The corridor split into three roads at the archway that led to the bridge to the next tower. Rain beat the weathered black stone relentlessly. About twenty Puppet Knights stood guard at the archway, their golden masks gleaming in the dark hall.

Faust returned to them with a grim look. "I didn’t see my summons, but I can hear something moving quickly down the right path, so that might be them distracting some knights. But there are still too many knights there for us to just run through."

"That bridge will definitely explode if we try running across it. We need to move as quickly as possible," Zen warned.

Thalia nodded in agreement. "Faust, can you use that weird spatial ability? The one we use to walk in that dark place."

*Narrow Path,* he corrected internally.

And he didn’t think that was a good idea. He had to chart a path for all of them using Pathfinder, and something about the rain made that ability draw a higher cost. Maybe it was the constant movement.

But he couldn’t guarantee it would be safe.

"No," Faust said, shaking his head. "We’ll just have to fight through it as efficiently as possible. I have a simple plan in mind."