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The Ninth Floor

ninth floor

The faction-war floor, destroyed by Emberus in three minutes with only two beings left standing on it.

Story so far

With the fighting over and the battlefield of Larracos empty, a warning announced that Emberus would destroy the ninth floor in three minutes. The volcano erupted, red comets streaked the dawn sky, the heat became sweltering, and the last crawlers — Carl, Donut, Elle, Imani, Louis, Bautista, Samantha, and Mordecai — filed into the stairwell.

Two beings remained. One was Emberus, who filled the world with fire. The other was Justice Light, hidden by a spell so he could break The Nothing from this side of the veil. Most former crawlers had already taken their deals and were on their way back to orbit.

Appearance

A charred battlefield under a red comet-streaked dawn, sweltering with volcanic heat, rotten roots underfoot, filling with fire.

Role

The floor whose final minutes hold both the crawlers' escape and the trap that changes the course of history.

Relationships

Emberus — Destroys it on a three-minute timer.
Larracos — The emptied battlefield left behind on it.
Justice Light — Stayed on it to die and to spring his trap.

Earlier in this series

Also appears in books you've already read — spoiler-safe to their endings:

Sources — 13 recorded facts, by chapter
Chapter 19
  • The wagon-wheel floor hosting Faction Wars, with Larracos at its hub and nine territories radiating out.
Chapter 21
  • The next floor down, reachable via stairwells said to lie at the bottom of the eighth floor's hole warren.
Chapter 23
  • The war-divided floor across which Carl is unconsciously flung into enemy headquarters.
Chapter 35
  • The Faction Wars floor, where the Ring of Divine Suffering's rules let Carl mark every enemy present at once.
Chapter 43
  • The war floor where Volteeg discovers the cookbook too late, hides from conscription, and writes his sole entry after victory.
Chapter 59
  • Current floor, home to Larracos, Shanty Town, and only two Club Vanquisher entrances on the whole level.
Chapter 65
  • The war-torn floor where faction bases sit besieged by mercenaries and Justice Light's traps wait underground.
Chapter 66
  • The Faction Wars floor Donut cannot leave until the Sepsis Whore deal's conditions are satisfied.
Chapter 71
  • The Faction Wars floor where the volcano is triggered, gods are summoned, and war mages rebel.
Chapter 96
  • The Faction Wars floor, condemned to become a cremation chamber in sixty-six minutes.
Chapter 97
  • The war floor, destroyed at the end of a countdown while the crawlers evacuate a whole city off it.
Chapter 98
  • The doomed floor, eight minutes from destruction, hosting the evacuation and Huanxin Jinx's death.
Chapter 99
  • The faction-war floor, destroyed by Emberus in three minutes with only two beings left standing on it.
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