AJ followed the line of slow-moving Aspirants, his head down and his mind lost in thought. He knew that he and the rest of Atlus’ fighters were being funneled into some new destination, but what could he do? Going backward, although there was no rule preventing so, would be little more than suicide given the freaks they call staff, and that wasn’t even mentioning the seemingly omniscient vice-director.

  AJ had seen that entity work only a few times now, and only when the offending guest had broken more than two of the hospital’s rules. The poor individual who had incurred its wrath had all simply vanished from existence, their bodies either sucked into the walls or fell into a void of darkness. Some had struggled, using rare items and abilities in a vain attempt to ward off the all-consuming abyss, but those efforts proved futile. Nothing they did, no skill they used, and no item spent could ward off the power of the vice-director, and with each failed attempt, the hope and morale of Atlus’ elite forces died with the consumed.

  The Aspirants shuffled along the dingy, decayed corridors in small, silent groups, and they only stopped once they had all entered a large waiting room near the entrance of the hospital wing. If AJ’s map could still be trusted, this should be the lobby area connecting all three portions of the hospital together. It was a wide area, easily able to the several hundred Aspirants.

  Huh, AJ mused, only several hundred had made it here.

  Perhaps there would be more in the coming moments, but he guessed that close to half of his forces had already been vanquished. It hadn’t even been more than three hours since he stepped foot into the hospital, and the losses were already astronomical. He couldn’t even feel sad about it. In fact, no emotion other than a slow dread could be seen on any but the most defiant of individuals now. But it wasn’t all hopeless yet, not yet.

  If he could just make it to the cafeteria and use some of the rare elixirs and panaceas, then he had a chance to at least escape this place. His foes might be formidable, but that was only the case when an Aspirant broke one of the rules here; AJ was sure that he could take one of them down in a single hit with enough preparation so that the first monster wouldn’t get that power boost. AJ should be able to free himself in the time it took for any other creatures to react so long as assaulting the staff was the only law that he broke. There was no doubt in AJ’s mind that he’d be powerless to resist the vice director should he overstep his bounds, no matter how much he prepared.

  AJ’s thoughts were interrupted when the horrifying voice on the intercom spoke up once again.

  “Greetings, guests. I hope that you have been enjoying your stay thus far. However, it has come to my attention that the majority of our guests have not been registered with reception. You will need a visitor’s pass to explore our hospital, and any guests who do not obtain one in the next 10 minutes will be treated as trespassers.”

  AJ frowned and almost spat out a curse. They were only assigned the visitor status when they were already inside the hospital. How the hell were any of Atlus’ Aspirants supposed to have one of those? No, AJ supposed that it made sense for the creatures here to do their utmost to kill the invaders.

  What AJ was truly annoyed with was the inane justification that this piece of shit vice director gave. Why bother trying to justify any of its actions when everyone knew that its ultimate goal was the complete destruction of the Aspirants? Was it trying to take the moral high ground by infusing ridiculous logic into its rules? AJ wanted nothing but to find this vice director and punch its brains out!

  The voice continued, unabated by AJ’s frustrations. “Visitor’s passes can be obtained in any information kiosk, conveniently located in the main lobby. And don’t worry, guests are permitted to speak while in the lobby. Once again, all guests are required to obtain a visitor’s pass within the next 10 minutes, as this ensures that no unwanted individuals are within the hospital grounds. I would like to remind all guests that they should remain orderly and wait patiently in line during this process. Have a good day.”

  The second the announcements were finished, a few lights lit up around the lobby that they were in. Three of the so-called information kiosks were displayed, each with a single nurse behind the counter, and at the center of the lobby was a huge red digital display that counted down the minutes.

  The Aspirants closest to the kiosks scrambled to get to the desk first. There was no doubt in their minds about what would happen should they fail to acquire one of the passes within the time limit. AJ was almost afraid that his people would fight each other for a spot, but he needn’t have worried. The first Aspirant who tried to cut their way to the front of the line was decapitated by one of the guards, followed by another announcement about the need to remain orderly.

  Once it was clear that trying to bypass the line was a hopeless endeavor, the Aspirants all lined up neatly behind one of the three kiosks, all the while looking at the red glow of the countdown. The nurses worked agonizingly slow, taking minutes to process a single group of Aspirants. They asked the guests seemingly random and nonsensical answers, and if they got a reply that they weren’t satisfied with, then that party would be forced to go back to the end of the line. That would be a death sentence.

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  At this rate, only about a dozen or so groups would have their passes. The minutes passed, and AJ knew that his group wouldn’t be able to make it before the timer hit zero.

  “We won’t make it,” AJ said, his voice feeling almost alien after that period of imposed silence. “I’m not sure if we can still use the kiosk even when the timer’s up, but we’ll go under the assumption that we can.”

  The other three’s expressions turned grim, but they all nodded. Well, April and Jose’s expressions turned grim in any case. The last individual was barely alive at this stage, with the tendrils of wiggling hairs reaching past his neck now and just moments away from entering his face. AJ had seen others like him, and they were all taken away by nurses or doctors once the tendrils infested their whole bodies. He didn’t have long left, and he knew it.

  “Once the timer’s up, we’ll remain in line, no matter what happens. There’ll be 2, maybe 3 groups in front of us, so we’ll only need to hold on for 5 or 6 minutes, max. But remember, we’re not trying to fight, we’re trying to survive. Focus all of your abilities on defense.”

  April nodded. “Defense; got it. I’ll set up a barrier and try to weather the worst of it. Jose, anything you can do?”

  “I’m a long-range specialist,” he sighed, “But I can put up rudimentary wards. I doubt they’ll do much here, but it’s better than nothing.”

  AJ didn’t bother checking with the last man. He wouldn’t be able to do anything in his current condition. Still, these meager defenses would have to do. The small group used the remaining seconds to prepare for the battle ahead. Yet nothing could have prepared them for what was to come.

  The second the countdown was over, a set of guards escorted the Aspirants with passes out through the main lobby door. Once all of the visitors had vacated the premises, the guards locked the main entrance, and that’s when things started to descend into madness.

  The lights dimmed and the air grew stale with sickly rot. From every corner of the building poured out the freakish staff, each of them with murderous glints in their eyes. The figures, all of whom were uniquely augmented and deformed. Some had rusting surgical tools implanted into their arms and chests, all of which were sewn into place with pointed wires and decaying twine. Some of the doctors had entire portions of their bodies replaced with seemingly random bits from unknown animals, while others were grotesquely mutilated, their organs spewing from their stained uniforms.

  All of them slowly stalked up, ever so slowly, to the gathered Aspirants. They looked like fresh butchers appraising a choice piece of flesh.

  “Remember,” AJ grumbled, “We stay in line no matter what.”

  He didn’t hear his comrade’s response. The monsters pounced, while the Aspirants did their best to retaliate as best they could. AJ could tell that it was hopeless from the start. Whatever powers infused the “staff” were back now that the cursed vice director had deemed the people here trespassers, and with their connections to their patrons still severed, the Aspirants had little tools at their disposal to defend themselves. Worse, consumables, the lifeline of any expedition, was also cut off, which meant that the combat capabilities of the Aspirants were crippled.

  It was a slaughter. Magic, from pure mana bursts to elemental barrages, had little to no effect on the creatures. The decaying flesh of the monsters would absorb the attacks outright, and even in the best-case scenarios where a stray hit would bypass whatever defenses these things had, the damaged area would simply regenerate. While magic might have been mostly useless, the same couldn’t be said about melee combat.

  No. Blade and steel fared even worse. It was completely worthless, as even the Aspirants with the highest strength and endurance stats could do nothing but graze the skin of the awful doctors. AJ had seen paper cuts that did more damage than the greatswords his men were wielding. Under the supernatural darkness of the reception room, these staff creatures seemed invincible.

  But this didn’t make sense. Why would the hosts send Atlus’ men and women to die here? That shouldn’t be the case, there must be some kind of mechanism to explain the absurd strength of the creatures that inhabited this hospital… and that’s when AJ noticed it. There would be a feeling of extreme melancholy and gloom whenever that voice popped up on the intercom, and if AJ really concentrated, he could see that the vice director’s aura would infest the room every time it spoke.

  Yes, there was a faint, almost invisible gas that swirled around the room, and it was especially noticeable whenever one of the Aspirants broke too many rules and was sucked into the floors. The vice director was empowering the staff. There would be no going forward without killing that thing first, and if AJ had learned anything from the half dozen Trials that he’s been through, it’s that bosses who specialize in buffing its minions tend to be weak in a direct confrontation.

  Thankfully the struggles of the others had bought his own group a lot of time. The monstrosities were more interested in fighting the immediate prey and had left AJ alone for now. Better yet, they seemed to completely ignore the parties at the kiosk, and with only one more group ahead of them, AJ was confident that they could make it out of this new hell alive. He could see it in the eyes of the others around him as well; they would make it.

  His need to escape from this place intensified as a grin started to appear on his face. Yes, that must be the key to this puzzle of a siege mission. They had gone about the whole thing in the wrong way, and if AJ ever saw Carlton and his worthless scouting party…

  No, revenge could wait until he was out of here. He needed to regroup with as many survivors as possible and the reserve squad so that they tackle this mission the right way. The admin building was the key to all of this if he and an elite group could bypass the cursed hallways and enter that building, then they had a good chance of killing the accursed vice director. The staff here wouldn’t be a threat without its support, and AJ was confident that he could destroy the hospital with only a handful of Aspirants.

  “We’re next,” AJ grumbled, “Let me do the talking. We’re getting out of here if it’s the last damned thing I do.”

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