Looking at Uriel's face the first thought that climbed up to Nika's mind was that there had to be an enemy nearby. She rushed in to provide backup and intercept any incoming enemies by blinking from the shadows, yet when she appeared in front of Uriel he swatted her away like a mosquito.
"You're blocking my view." He said as he turned on a gas lantern and placed it near the old looking sticker.
"So, this building was condemned and it's unsafe. What's the big deal? Even if the entire structure dropped on top of our heads we'll make it out unscathed." Nika reappeared from the shadows once more, only this ti she was more careful not to obstruct Uriel's line of sight.
"You're just saying that because you can hide inside shadows!" dusa pouted.
"Think about it, this building was marked for demolition, yet it still stands to this day. Not just that, this sign looks old, probably before the arrival." Uriel thought about it without being able to arrive at any conclusions.
"The most plausible explanation is that this building was marked for demolition before the arrival, then people who moved in didn't bother taking the sign out." Luna explained.
"Of all those present you're the least qualified to speak about plausible explanations! Besides, if what you said is true then people should live in here, but look at the flyers and letters piling up in front of the doors. It ans that this building hasn't been inhabited in a long while." Uriel pointed out.
"You are... correct." Luna nodded and fell pensive, then Nika cut off their silent pondering that was starting to get on her nerves.
"One thing I know for sure, we're not going to get any clues by standing at the entrance like idiots. It's not like we're not prepared to face danger, we ca looking for it!" Nika lacked the curiosity both Uriel and Luna possessed and she couldn't care any less about the mysteries the world had to offer, but despite her airhead attitude her words held an undeniable truth.
They needed to get on the move.
dusa was the first one to venture inside with enough confidence no one who saw her would guess she was actually blind. She didn't need any light, yet she still carried a couple gas lanterns on top of her gear to light the way for the rest and to give away her position to her companions.
The first floor turned out to be completely abandoned and they found no clues to go by, just like the second and the third floor. Inspecting each floor was a slow and tireso endeavor, but one that may mark the difference between life and death as they've learned on several occasions.
It was only when they reached the sixth floor that sothing in the scenery changed. Lights were out and all doors closed just like in all the previous floors, but the flyers, pamphlets and letters didn't go past the sixth apartnt.
"This is not good," Luna muttered to herself, then continued once she realized everyone looked at her. "The number six can be bad bad, but in nurology it can be good."
"What are we supposed to make of that?" Nika scratched her head.
"The number six holds an ominous significance in so cultures and the opposite is true for others. What's important is that it has a aning and for so reason, people who delivered letters or publicity didn't make it past the sixth apartnt of the sixth floor.
Do you understand why Luna said it's not good?" Uriel could have easily shared the warning ssage he got from the system, but there were many reasons why he preferred not to.
One was that Luna refused to share what her trait was about even after a long ti of knowing each other which could an that she either didn't trust them enough or was embarrassed about it. Whatever the reason it gave him an excuse to keep so secrets of his own.
His true motivation to keep it a secret, though, was that he was starting to believe there had to be so sort of consciousness behind the system and he wondered if soone was using the smartphone to manipulate him into doing their bidding.
The system ssage was a warning, a helpful one at that and there was nothing wrong with it. The system too had proved to be incredibly useful up to then, not just to him but also to his friends.
But if Uriel's suspicions were correct, then he had nothing to gain by sharing his doubts and a lot to lose since his friends could possibly arrive at the conclusion that Uriel's decisions were biased and would distrust his rationality.
"I get it! Because even if its aning is actually positive, it still ans we're dealing with an entity rank cryptid! See? I pay attention to Luna's blabbering." Nika said proudly.
"Precisely, but it might be worse than just an entity rank cryptid. Who knows how many people did the cryptid inside this place kill or for how long." dusa added.
"There's one way to find out. Uriel crouched in front of the fifth apartnt and picked up the correspondence.
[System notice] New title acquired: Postal offender.
'Another one?' Uriel clicked his tongue but didn't care much about the system calling him nas or bestowing upon him nasty titles. By that point it didn't surprise nor did it bother him anymore, especially since he couldn't deny the truth behind them, or so he thought.
"That bad? Huh!" Nika asked after noticing his disgruntled face.
"It's nothing," Uriel shook his head and read the letter in silence. "It's dated after the arrival. It ans this building was at so point inhabited."
"And then everyone died." Luna nodded and remarked casually.
"It ans we're in the right place." Nika too nodded and opened the door to the sixth apartnt. At the sa ti she opened the door, the clear noise of soone dragging furniture downstairs called for everyone's attention.
"There's people downstairs." Luna said.
"Impossible, we were there just a few minutes ago." Uriel said.
"But it can't be a cryptid." Luna showed her cellphone which was turned on, proving the absence of a field of disruption.
"Can't be people either, my mystical sense would have alerted of the presence of other people."
"I know you can feel energy signatures, but can you feel even faint signals like that of people without traits? We just checked the halls, but didn't look inside the rooms." dusa asked, though she was unsure if soone could have been so silent as to not be heard by her.
Nika took a peek inside sixth apartnt just to confirm there was nothing out of the ordinary before following the rest of the group that headed downstairs to confirm the source of the noise they just heard.
The entire floor was exactly the sa as they left it, but this ti they bashed at the doors to see the inside of the apartnts.
"Nothing out of place." Luna inford.
"Sa." Nika shrugged.
"Where did that sound co from? I could have sworn soone dragged sothing heavy."
"Yes, it sounded like soone dragging a table and it ca from this apartnt, but..." Before dusa finished speaking the noise of a door shutting close reached them from above.
This ti both Uriel and Nika were ready. The forr activated Dash to reach the sixth floor in record ti and the latter appeared from his shadow as soon as Uriel made it there.
"What? There's nothing here." Uriel spoke sowhat disappointed in the fact that there was nothing to fight against. the door was open just as Nika left it and at a first glance nothing was out of place. It wasn't until he turned to see Nika's pale face that he realized there was sothing wrong in the seemingly ordinary apartnt.
"Ghosts! There's ghosts in this place!" She said as she started crossing herself in a desperate manner. Due to her heavenly rank physical prowess her hands moved so fast they blurred out without ever taking her eyes from the inside of the apartnt were all the pieces of furniture were upside down.
Even the chairs were upside down, balancing only on the tip of their back. The kitchen was also upside down and even the refrigerator, though the latter didn't look much different from when it was upright.
"Uhm... no, ghosts don't exist." Luna said while racking up her brain to find an explanation to the strange placent of the furniture.
"Really? You don't believe ghosts are real?" Uriel lifted a disbelieving eyebrow. The fact that everything was upside down didn't seem that strange to him, but only because he didn't see the apartnt before.
"Of course not. Ghosts are supposed to be an ethereal manifestation left behind by people who died. People have died all throughout history in exponentially increasing numbers, if ghosts were real there would be more ghosts than people inhabiting this world."
"Huh...? Hello, my na is Uriel Sage and I have a cursed book in my possession that allows to command the soul of people who die in my vicinity." Uriel sarcastically introduced himself.
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