Overlord Blue Citadel Alternate

『The Second Floor』

Going up the staircase didn't bring them to the next level of the biomes, but instead an entirely different location. They were no longer surrounded by lush colors of plants and petals of flowers. Instead they found themselves surrounded by what looked to be a no man's land. Trenches, craters and the smell of burnt dirt. 

The sky was yellow, spotted by dirty clouds with a pale greyish-green tinge to them. 

In the very center of the no man's land was a single small temple, which was more like a shrine. There was a multitude of female figures in white and red Japanese Miko outfits, they were priestesses. This shrine was decorated in what appeared to be paper origami. 

Standing however over everyone around the Shrine was Genji, an intelligent golem-like being three times the size of the average human being. It would've towered over even Gagaran who was already tall compared to normal humans.

"This is an interesting scene..." Dyne stared at the massive being who seemed to be made of earthy colors and appeared to have a humanoid form. 

However he knew, they all knew, that thing was not human, even as its eyes shifted to look towards him. It was a golem, but it was also a man, one that couldn't speak its mind out loud.

Peter glanced behind himself towards the stairs, before uttering, "This is nothing like the last floor..." He was having a hard time computing the fact that they had passed the biomes.

"The castle has strange dimensions compared to the outside world... Don't let it bother you," Vertum snickered quietly as he looked over towards the leader of the Swords of Darkness.

"What made these craters...?" Ninya had walked over to one of the craters that ruined the eerily strange landscape that already graced their presence. "Meteors?"

Vertum chuckled hearing her guess of what could have caused them. "That's not a real sky... Though it does rain every few hours..." His eyes traced over the trenches, which were in reality traps for invaders to climb into. 

"Really?" Ninya stared at the sky above, "It looks real..."

"SairentoOnna crafted it," Vertum said with soft chuckle, "They had a thing for apocalyptic settings, though I can hardly understand their infatuation considering the circumstances."

"That sounds... Ironic," Ninya looked over at him and gave him a few blinks of curiosity and disbelief. She had a hard time believing someone had created all this... They had to be on the level of Gods if this was even possible! She stared at him for a few more seconds before turning her gaze to Genji who still hadn't moved.

"So who is that?"

"Genji, the Guardian of the Second Floor. He can't talk, yet anyway. I have yet to acquire a suitable voice for him," Vertum was thinking of using a lip bug in order to give him a voice.

"How does he communicate?" Dyne asked as he walked over towards Vertum, stroking his chin as he let one hand hang at his side. 

"Sign language, it's hard to understand if you're not trained in it. His creator was the same way," Vertum let it slip that the being right there was created by the person who made the scenery.

Ninya slowly nodded to this along with her friends. "How many floors are there?"

"You'll see, there are a multitude of Floor and Area Guardians go along with them," his eyes traced over the Miko Priestesses which were equipped with Samurai-related weapons such as traditional Japanese spears and short swords.

Her eyes seemed to shine up at him. "We're going to go to all of them?" 

Vertum shook his head slightly, "No, just a few. We have to find your sister, don't we?"