Beyond the double doors was a chamber about the same size as the entrance hall they came up through on the southern end of the Great Hall. It, too, was rectangular, with long, narrow windows on the far wall that offered a view of deep-blue sky.
But the black-and-white-patterned stone floor was missing one crucial element: the staircase that would take them to the fifty-first floor and above. They looked all over, but there wasn’t even a hanging rope, much less a ladder. There was only a strange circular recess in the stone floor, and Eugeo couldn’t see a single thing that suggested a way up.
“No…no stairs,” he mumbled, following Kirito farther into the dim room. The flow of cold air across the back of his neck made him hunch his shoulders. His partner noticed it, too, and they both looked straight up.
“…Wha…?”
“What is that…?”
Then they fell silent.
There was no ceiling. There was just empty space in the same shape as the room itself—no, a vertical shaft—that stretched up as far as the eye could see. The top was lost to thick darkness, making it impossible to tell how high it went.
As their eyes traveled slowly back down to ground level, they realized that the shaft was not just a smooth, hollow space. Along the side of the shaft, at heights corresponding to the levels above, were doors leading to each successive floor, albeit smaller than the double doors they’d just come through. Extending from each door was a narrow little terrace that stretched about halfway across the shaft.
So all they had to do to infiltrate the floors above was get to those terraces. In a daze, Eugeo reached out and jumped into the air.
“…Of course I can’t reach it…,” he mumbled. Even the lowest of the terraces was higher than the ceiling of the Great Hall of Ghostly Light, well over twenty mels overhead.
Next to him, neck outstretched, Kirito asked weakly, “Listen…Just checking here, but there aren’t any sacred arts for flying, right?”
“Nope,” he answered without pity. “Only the Integrity Knights have the right to fly. And they use flying dragons, not sacred arts…”
“Okay…Then how do the people here get up to the fifty-first floor and higher?”
“I don’t know…”
They puzzled over that one together. Just when it seemed like they would have no choice but to turn back to the Great Hall and ask Fanatio’s subordinates for help, Kirito whispered, “Something’s coming.”
“Huh?”
Eugeo looked back up the shaft.
Something was indeed approaching. A dark shape was coming slowly down the shaft, nearly grazing the uniform edges of the vertical line of terraces. They jumped backward out of the way, and Eugeo watched the shadow descend closer, hand on his sword hilt.
It was a perfect circle about two mels across. Given the way the edges glinted in the blue light from the narrow windows, it appeared to be forged from steel. But why was this object just floating slowly down the shaft without any visible means of support?
As the disc passed the terrace two floors above, speed steady the entire way, Eugeo began to hear an odd hissing sound. Again, he was aware of cold air flowing over the back of his neck.
He could neither run away nor draw his sword, but stood in place dumbfounded as the disc brushed the terrace overhead and descended toward them. When it was just a few mels away, he noticed a small hole in the middle of the disc’s underside that was emitting little bursts of air, which explained the strange sounds and breezes.
But how could the power of wind alone keep such a large metal platter floating in the air? The object’s hissing grew louder and louder as its descent gradually slowed, until at last it came to fit perfectly in the circular depression in the middle of the floor with a soft thunk.
The top of the disc was polished as smooth as a mirror. There was a finely decorated silver handrail placed around the rim. In the center of the disc was a straight glass tube about one mel tall and fifty cens wide. Next to the tube was a girl, with both hands resting on the bulged spherical end.
“…?!”
Eugeo took another step backward and squeezed the hilt of his sword. He tensed, ready for the revelation of a new knight.
But very soon, he realized that the girl was not equipped with so much as a knife anywhere on her body, much less a sword. And she was wearing a long black skirt that seemed unsuited to combat. The white apron from chest to knees with an understated crochet pattern around the edges was about the most decorative element in her outfit, and she had no articles or accessories otherwise.
Her grayish brown hair was cut straight across at eyebrow and shoulder level, and the features of her pale face were unremarkable. They looked fine but lacked character or expression. She appeared a bit younger than Eugeo, but there was no way to be sure.
Eugeo gazed at her eyes, wondering who she was, but they were downcast, the lashes covering them so that he couldn’t even make out their color. She folded her hands in front of the apron, still not looking at either of them, and bowed deeply before saying at last, “Pardon me for the wait. What floor will you be visiting?”
It was a voice devoid of emotion and with only a bare minimum of inflection. At the very least, there was no hostility, either, so Eugeo took his hand off his sword. He repeated her question.
“What…floor? Are you saying that you’re going to take us higher up?” he asked, scarcely believing it.
She lowered her face again. “That is correct. Please tell me the floor you wish to visit.”
“Um…well…”
Eugeo wasn’t sure what to say; he’d grown to assume that anyone they met in the cathedral would be an enemy. Next to speak was Kirito, who was often just as inscrutable in his own way.
“Well, um, we’re wanted men who snuck into the cathedral…so are we allowed to ride on this elev—I mean, this flying disc?”
The girl’s head tilted the tiniest bit in confusion, then returned to position. “My job is merely to operate this floating platform. I am under no other orders.”
“I see. In that case, we’d be happy for a ride,” Kirito said, walking right up to the circle.