His eyes opened, and what he first saw was the amethyst ceiling of the tower.
"An unfamiliar ceiling..."
He muttered to himself, feeling his body basking in light of the exits.
Thoughts popped into his head about last night.
When he had wished for a bed, a bed appeared.
*Pang! Thwack!*
"The tower works in mysterious ways, he said, huh..."
Seeing the light be disturbed by a cloud.
*Whooshhh*
Yet, as he was looking at the ceiling, loud clangs had been screaming at him the entire time.
He moved his body up, but not out of his bed.
He was in his white and blue checkered sleepwear, turning his head at the distance at this damn loud sound.
A familiar black haired man holding a lamp that held a bright, bright flame within.
A stranger who Mr. Walpurgis had never met, who threw gusts strong enough to make his messy brown hair flutter.
Making a strange facial expression, he had gotten up out of the bed, leading to it fading away like mist.
He had moved his hand up to his neck, until he could feel his tie.
"There we go."
It was as if it was magic. His outfit returned to the one he took with him to work everyday.
That Navy-blue tie, black two piece with suede shoes.
He ruffled his chestnut hair, watching from far a distance.
The battle was at the north exit of the tower, Banakin and this unknown female stranger battling to death, for some reason.
"Is it alright if I got some popcorn? I mean, he's just fighting for his life and all..."
He whispered to himself.
He looked to the corner, and saw Mrs. Walpurgis and LD in the corner trembling.
And then, he of course, smiled at them.
Then began to look back at the fight.
Flurries of cold, iron steel had flown towards Banakin, and yet, even with these floating blades...
His flames that came out of that glowing lamp, flew out like hands and grabbed the swords.
"Cauldron hell!"
Is that a video game move? Thought Mr. Walpurgis as Banakin shouted.
As he said it, what seemed to be 10 hands came out of the lantern, some with palms out and some with fists.
Two swords had been stopped, and now the rest of the fists came with a sense of fury.
With Banakin throwing his flame hands at her!
Yet.
When all those swords crashed down onto her, she was nowhere to be seen.
So Mr. Walpurgis looked up, feeling that strong gust of wind.
The lady had stood on a floating sword, one in hand, and four around her.
"Damned Six of Swords!"
Shouted an orange haired man, Halae, who pulled a card from what seemed to be his chest.
The insignia on it said "Ace of Wands" as he flipped it and it morphed into a small wooden wand on his hand.
Quickly, he shot a beam of azure flames towards the floating girl.
To this, she simply flew to the other side with her sword.
But both of them had already locked on their target.
Flaming hands flew at her, and blue fireballs had split on eachother changing trajectory attacking her all at once.
To this, she dropped to the floor, and moved all her swords in sync, forming what seemed to be some ultrafan.
And it worked to some extent. It had made it difficult for the flame hands or fireballs to reach her.
Yet, a large ping sound played as Banakin raised his lamp upwards.
"Body without organs."
After hearing this, the sound of a bell started playing. Again, playing, louder this time.
At some point, Mr. Walpurgis was holding his ears, as it felt like his cranium was splitting apart.
But the sound was still there.
It was so painful, so painful that it felt like his eardrums were going to burst.
It was so painful, that even the girl with the long, black hair and fair skin too was losing her control.
And of course, the flame hands finally took grasp of her when she lost focus.
Now being held up by a flaming hand, one would assume she would be burnt alive, but no.
The hand wasn't doing anything mildly interesting except holding her in place.
"Hieeeek!!"
And when I, mean, Mr. Walpurgis looked down. A sword was right on the cusp of cutting my neck.
Mr Walpurgis had slowly turned his eyes, listening to the frightened shouts of Mrs. Walpurgis, and as expected, LD going "Oh shit."
They also had swords by their necks, as the girl held by the hand shouting impatiently,
"C-cough, I have your friends by their necks! Try anything funny and they're dead!"
A wry smile fell across Mr. Walpurgis's face upon hearing this.
Banakin shouted, "Go ahead, do it! I dare you!"
"I don't want to die, please, save me!"
LD shouted in response.
Looking with a grave stare, Banakin only moved his head towards him for a moment, before ignoring him.
"Come on, you'll never beat me in melty sludge at this rate!"
"Alright."
Banakin said with a serious voice, as one last loud pang resounded the amethyst tower.
With this, the swords fell with a thud to the ground.
The flame hands got sucked back into the lamp, as she fell to the floor with a even louder thud than her swords.
"She must be heavy, huh."
Thought Mr. Walpurgis.
"I really hate using that, how am I gonna be able to eat for 3 days now, man... Or play Pelty Sludge...! Damnit all!"
Halae came up to Banakin, before coming up to the girl and kicking her unconscious body.
"How dare you attack us out of nowhere, Neema! What a truly unruly bastard!"
He said as he kicked,
"Unruly bastard!"
and kicked,
"Never come around here agai-"
and before he had kicked again...
Banakin simply put his hand on Halae's shoulder.
"Calm down, dude. You know no one truly dies here. Let's just throw her off the bridge."
Slowing his heavy breathing, Halae responded hastily.
"Alright... That doesn't sound bad. That should take her somewhere real nice. Heheh. Should be able to regain the tower's favor with that."
"Tower's favor?"
Mr. Walpurgis said, sneakily walking into their conversation.
"Heh?! You scared me, dude."
"So? Continue about this."
He said with his pointer finger circling.
"Fine. I guess we have time, you owe us though, we really saved your butts!"
To this, he simply nodded with his eyes closed.
"Alright, so basically whenever you use your tarot, the tower starts to stop favoring you for a while, which means you won't be able to enjoy luxuries and such. Of course you won't die, no one here dies, but..."
Halae said with his blue eyes filled with what seemed to be fear, or dread. Mr. Walpurgis couldn't quite grasp what was beneath them.
"It can be a fate worse than death, that I assure you."
Banakin budded in between them, looking to Mr. Walpurgis and saying,
"Sorry for intruding, but this probably isn't the safest place for you new guys. You should probably go on somewhere safer."
"That's for sure. Don't want to become a tarotless, or under the tower or anything like that. Real hell, I'll tell you."
To this, Mr. Walpurgis simply nodded again, and said a low "Thank you." before walking off to the two in the corner.
"We're going to leave. I guess we shouldn't use arcana, or whatever it is unless we are in dire straits."
"L-leave? But what if that happens again!"
LD sat, shouting in front of Walpurgis's face.
"So you'll curl in a corner and die anyways? Have some backbone."
The first one to get up was Mrs. Walpurgis, who had looked faintly at the man before him.
"So, darling... Let's just get out of here... Urghk!"
She cuffed her mouth, as if she was holding back puke.
But, seemingly, it never happened.
"Alright. Let's get out of here, but two things first."
He walked up to LD and slapped him in the face.
His glasses flew off his face, and he looked stunned.
"What type of ice cream do you like, LD?"
He said.
pure bewilderment drew across LD's face at hearing this.
"Ice... Cream...?"
"There, you're finally back to your senses."
Mr. Walpurgis said, as he took the glasses from the floor and put it back on LD's face.
"If you're our leader, then don't be weak."
"Leader..."
LD whispered to himself, before, all of a sudden...
Slap!
LD slapped his cheeks with his hands, leaving Mrs. Walpurgis confused and Mr. Walpurgis simply staring.
Tears started to fall back down onto LD's eyes, yet different than when he had a sword to his neck.
These weren't sad tears, no. These were tears containing spirit inside of them.
"You're damn right... Hic. I can't go fooling around."
He got up, the tears slowly drifting from his face, and spoke,
"I heard the conversation from over there since this big tower echoes a bit.. You said two things? Let's get the last thing done. It's asking for directions, right?"
"Hmmm..."
His hand was to his chin, Mr. Walpurgis simply looked at him again before giving a thumbs up in approval.
"Alright! L-lemme go ask em!"
And so LD walked towards the two, and began conversing.
The couple awkwardly twiddled around as they heard laughter, silence and then tapping sounds a few moments later.
"They said the North exit will lead to the next best tower, he said it's like a plaza there!"
He excitedly said as he pointed towards the exit.
And with even more confidence, he swayed his lab coat and pointed his glasses up, leading to a shining effect.
Grabbing Mr. and Mrs. Walpurgis's hands, he dashed towards the north exit, revealing the cool, yet warm, clear sky all around them.
Halae and Banakin looked at them from a distance, perhaps both of them smirking. As Mr. Walpurgis noted.
He had smiled, and the other two were a little flustered to say the least.
Those three ran into the shrouded distance.
Swaying like autumn leaves.