Between the levels, there were spiral ramps winding along the rock walls and a web of piers and ropeways. Most looked flimsy, but everyone here was a demon. A fall from a cliff dozens or even hundreds of meters high would leave a few bruises. Dying wouldn't be easy...
As they descended through the Ratfolk City-States, the spiral ramps grew more orderly. The mouseholes cut into the rock and the crude houses perched beside them had doors now, and there were even channels for wastewater. Huge rats crouched beside the channels, serving as street sweepers so the lower levels wouldn't drown in filth.
Murky vapor rose from the bottom of the Great Pit, shrouding it like miasma. The pale sky at the horizon cast a sickly light into the pit, tinting the drifting mist a faint, inky green.
That was nothing to demons. Ratfolk feared a little fel energy contamination even less. With luck, it might give them some new ability and a chance to rise from the bottom.
Annan hadn't expected much from the McKennan Ratfolk's Bloody Battle, but he had still overestimated their ability to organize it. At the registration point the demons had told him about, on the boundary between the third level and the Fourth Floor, a Grayfur Rat Priest merely wrote down each entrant's name and race. The priest didn't care in the slightest if anyone registered under a false name.
Annan also spotted the demon things that had fought outside the tavern last night. The Ratfolk had locked them up, registered their names, and planned to throw them into the opening rounds of the Bloody Battle as cannon fodder.
"Have you thought this through?" Annan asked Rus.
"If I enter the Bloody Battle, I can get close to the Rat King, kill him, and