Nacht found himself standing inside a hallway of sorts. The walls and floor were a pale white and—much like the last floor— it seemed to be devoid of noise. Well, except for the shaking and moving of the walls behind him. He held his saber, prepared for any oncoming attack before Alister put his hand on his shoulder.
"Focus on staying hidden. There is likely more than just a single team of sinners on this floor."
Nacht gave him an indignant glare.
"Where am I supposed to hide? I don't know if you're seeing what I'm seeing but all I see is a brightly lit hallway."
Alister looked at Nacht and chucked.
"I meant for you to stay hidden behind me. I'd rather not see you get yourself killed thinking you can take on an enlightened."
Nacht's left eye twitched but he said nothing. Alister was right after all. In the dark forest he was able to contribute greatly to their success. Even so, that was with all of the circumstances being in his favour. On this floor with nowhere to hide, he had lost his greatest weapon, the element of surprise. However, Nacht didn't like being sidelined while he put his faith in others. Sure he was weak, but that didn't mean he was useless.
They continued to walk further down the hallway as the wall behind them pushed them further out of the corridor and into an intersection of pathways. One the paths had a section that was stained with blood, seemingly having left its owner's body quite recently. Of course that was the path Alister chose to walk down.
Nacht had a few ideas as to the purpose of this floor. So far, all of the other floors had some trick or circumstance that somehow made the floor deadly. The floors also went off of the abilities of at least one of the two sinners who were bound. Seeming as how he was out of his element, it must mean that this floor was more suited to Alister's abilities. Turning to look at the closing walls around him that seemed to push both him and Alister in a specific direction, he came to a conclusion.
'This floor is forcing us into the direction of the other sinners.'
That was the only reason he could think of why the floor was the way it was. Walking forward, he accidentally bumped into Alister's back and realized he was looking at the blood stain on the wall.
"Be wary of the knight in melted armour."
Nacht looked at Alister in confusion.
"What?"
Alister pointed to the blood stain and spoke with interest.
"Can't you see the writing on the wall?"
Nacht stared at the wall in confusion.
"I don't know what you're talking about. I don't see anything."
Bang!
In the next moment, Two figures began charging towards them. Nacht leveled his sword even though he didn't have to. Alister stood in front of him and blocked the attack before dodging a blow aimed at his side. Twisting with unprecedented lethality, Alister severed the figure's swordarm and drove his blade into the other's neck. The sinner's eyes broke wide open in shock before he dropped to the floor dead. The other sinner who had lost his arm was still conscious as he began screaming from the pain of his limb being detached from his body. Then his screaming only grew before going deathly silent as his body was turned into a hollow husk.
Nacht looked at this startling transition with dread and a lingering sense of horror. Last time he had witnessed this process he had been too shocked to fully comprehend what he was seeing. Now that he wasn't in danger, he was able to witness the full scope of the process and couldn't help but think that it was unbelievable.
'Does destroying one's soul really have that effect?'
In contrast to his uncomfortability, Alister acted like he hadn't just condemned both sinners to their deaths.
"Let's keep moving."
Nacht thought about trying to bind the sinner's relics to himself, but upon looking at the weapons, he decided otherwise. They looked to be of the same grade as his saber but they were weapons that he was unfamiliar with, so they wouldn't be useful. Even so, there was the potential that one of the relics could hold a description that carried valuable information. Still, he didn't want to leave himself vulnerable when he didn't need to since unlike an enlightened, he'd have to concentrate to bind the relic.
'What a shame.'
Now that he thought about it, why didn't any of the sinners have any powerful relics? You would think that he would have run into at least one sinner with armour but there were none so far.
'Were they stripped of their relics as they entered the crucible?'
As they walked, Nacht couldn't help but notice that some of the paths had images engraved into the walls. However, most looked simply architectural in design. After losing interest in the floor's architecture, Nacht decided to talk to Alister until they came across another group of sinners.
"Why did all of you sinners decide to enter into this death game anyway? Is there some kind of prize at the end that you're trying to get your sinful hands on? Now that I'm thinking about it, how did you even get in here in the first place? This place seems to be part of the first gate but separate at the same time. I was sent here by the voice, however you had no such privilege."
Alister remained silent for a brief moment, then spoke in a surprised tone.
"You actually think sinners chose to be here? Gods no! The crucible itself decides who enters. Similar to how the voice brings you to penance, we are summoned to the crucible. However, I on the other hand chose to come here. As for if there's a prize at the end of all this, I certainly hope there is one. "
Nacht remained silent for a while. He was now even more curious about the crucible. Whoever had created this place must have been extremely powerful. After all, if a place has the capabilities to resist the powers of an eephermal than it has to be quite special. However, from what he knew about the blood moon, it didn't seem to be intelligent. So maybe it could penetrate the defenses of this place but it didn't bother to. Hopefully he'll learn more in the future. Nevertheless, whoever created this place had a purpose, and by the looks of it, their goal had yet to be reached.
'Maybe I could find a clue from the engravings.'