Famine quickly approached War to inform him of the new orders Senzo had just given them.
"War, you take the east, and I'll take the west. Death and Master are already looking for the staircase in the other directions."
After telling War everything he needed to hear, he didn't wait and immediately turned around to explore his direction as well.
"..."
War stood there covered in blood, staring blankly at the back of Famine, who didn't care about his confusion at all.
"Looks like Master has had enough of this dungeon, huh..." he muttered.
But he had enough as well; because of this damn dungeon, his little brother Pest had been harshly punished.
Not that he could blame Senzo for it; from their standpoint it might have been completely normal for Pest to be doing that, but for normal humans it was anything but normal.
Just thinking about it made his mood sour instantly, and he immediately turned around and walked in the opposite direction from Famine.
"Time to let off some more steam by bullying these weaklings."
***
And while War was actively looking for enemies, Senzo was simply flying above all the vegetation, looking everywhere for the staircase.
He was also enhancing his vision as much as he could, but sadly he couldn't see the whole floor at once, and he had to do it little by little.
Like that, time slowly passed; the three horsemen were each quickly exploring their own cardinal directions, and Senzo stood high up in the sky looking all around him for that singular staircase that would hopefully become his salvation.
"!!!"
After who knows how long, he had finally found the damn thing, and it was once again hidden all the way at the outer edges of the floor.
"Rush toward the east immediately! I have found the staircase!"
Senzo loudly announced, and without hesitation he rushed toward Death first to pick him up; doing it like that would be much faster than waiting for them to arrive by themselves.
Maybe next time I should just look around on my own and have them wait together? Senzo thought, but that plan had a fatal flaw.
What if the staircase wasn't visible due to some annoying condition that hadn't been met, like killing x amount of monsters or something like that?
Just thinking about that possibility irritated Senzo, so he could only pour all his grievances into his speed and rush toward the two others.
Luckily War was very tactful and ignored all the monsters. The moment his announcement echoed throughout the floor, Senzo estimated that by the time he and the other two would arrive at the staircase, War would also be there.
"Very good."
A couple of moments later Senzo picked up Death, who was rushing toward the east as well, but wasn't surprised to see Senzo flying over.
"Thanks, master, and sorry for being a bother."
"Oh?"
Senzo was quite surprised hearing Death's remarks, but he didn't have time to waste right now, so while they continued chatting, he quickly rushed over to Famine with Death now flying next to him.
"It's fine; it's better like this than taking hours or even days to clear the whole floor only to find the staircase at the end," Senzo replied. It felt quite nice to see his subordinates apologize for something they couldn't do anything about.
But it wasn't right to punish them for nothing; just punishing Pest had already completely ruined his mood after all.
"But still, if..."
Before Death could finish his sentence, Senzo immediately cut him off.
"Don't worry about it, Death; I can see you three are all pained by what happened with Pest. But I don't intend to blame any of you, and hopefully when he comes out the next time, we will properly be able to educate him together."
Death stared at Senzo with wide eyes; his hands were trembling slightly after hearing Senzo say something like that.
But he didn't reply and was staring at Famine, whom they were now rapidly approaching.
Thanks, that means a lot.
Even though he couldn't say it out loud, he could at least think it. It was fine if Senzo never knew of these feelings.
"Yo Famine, jump and let's go!" Senzo stated while turning around and rushing in the direction of the staircase.
Famine jumped up without hesitation and felt his whole body get swept away, flying behind Senzo and Death at a speed so fast it felt like they were breaking the sound barrier.
"Master must be really anxious..." Famine muttered under his breath.
A couple of moments later all three arrived in front of War and the staircase; War was catching his breath, trying to act tough.
"Yo," he barely managed to squeeze out between labored breaths.
Senzo just rolled his eyes at the clear posturing of War, but it felt nice after all the things that had just transpired on this damned floor.
"You three go up first and secure the perimeter; when everything is safe, call for me," Senzo ordered, not wanting to waste a single second.
"Understood!"
The three echoed in unison as they rushed up the same-looking circular staircase like they had done three times before.
"You know this is kind of repetitive," War said while running up the stairs.
Death and Famine both nodded, not intending to answer right now, perfectly executing the master's mission took precedence. Especially after the things Pest had done.
Not hearing any answer, War felt a little annoyed, but he couldn't really make a big deal out of it at the moment.
Then all three finally arrived at the next floor, and what they saw left them stunned; it was a completely different scenery from all the floors they had previously cleared.
It looked like they had just teleported to a floating island; there was a clear sky with all kinds of small floating islands everywhere.
"What the hell!?" War grumbled; this was clearly one of the worst matchups for their skill sets.
The island where they had arrived was quite small as well, and there were no bridges or any other ways to climb onto the other islands; it looked like they would need to rely on their master to efficiently clear this floor.
And the worst thing was the countless flying monsters they could see populating the sky; from humanlike bird monsters to full-on birds, there was an innumerable amount of them.
"I guess it's time to call Master and see what he wants to do..." Death grumbled while clutching his small scythe tightly.
"Master, the coast is clear!" Famine shouted down the stairs immediately after.