I was soon joined by two of the golden golems my sis sent over. I still found it both awkward and somehow amusing that they seemed to resemble my girlfriends, which did make me wonder about my sister’s sanity sometimes. I guess she has always liked poking fun at me, and she ments that the old jokes don’t work anymore. Maybe this is just some new sibling teasing? Oh well, it is performahat matters. These two were Shaeu, though on a rger scale of course, being some six feet tall, and she was carrying a heavy golden staff, while the other was Asha, wielding a wicked double-headed axe, iremely bad taste, sidering she was a Dryad whose other half was a tree.
“Oh hey bro!” My sis spoke out over the equipment on the Shaeu golem, a wireless speaker uhe camera around her chest. “This is pretty crazy, how does teology like this even work here?”
“I wish I knew.” I ughed, still having never resolved why I ofte breathless here, despite not needing to breathe, and not even being truly sure if there was even air in the Boundary. No, there’s an analogue, as some of my previous attacks have shown. “But that aside…”
“I know.” My sis replied, now all serious. “It’s the ch time now. We ’t let her get away, right? She’s too dangerous. And also, ered rats bite, right?”
“Yes.” I agreed. “That’s my . She just ’t ignore my incursion. Although the question is, just how much does she know? She’s been stuck pying a ed version of the greater struggle Earth is fag here, so she might not fully be aware of how queror works. But I have to assume she does. If so… she ’t just slip away like you fear, or else the loss of her Anchor will ruin her when I destroy it.”
“Yeah, that’s too easy. Nothing goes that way for you, does it bro?” my sis said over the wireless. We were moving deeper into the shadowy building and could hear the occasional scuttling of creatures down the distant, twisting corridors which seemed to be longer and turn in dires that shouldn’t have been possible, often desding. Worse, the walls were damp, and the floor was slippery, covered in a thi of ice that shimmered uhe dark lights of the torches and nterns spluttering around us. The footing is terrible, but I’m sure that’s not the point. The ice is probably ced with her water too.
“No, though if I say I’ve been unlucky, I’ll probably get diviribution. I’ve had my struggles, but in adversity we’ve always found opportunity. And this is no different.” I took a moment to speak to my sis seriously. “I picked up a Favour from one of the dead. It’s an archery one, and it also involves sunlight. I’m almost certain it’d be a good fit for you.”
The golden statues stopped and there was silence, before Aiko let out a long humming sound. “Wow, cheers bro. You’re always thinking of me. You truly are the king of bros, but I don’t hate it. You know…” I imagined she was biting her lips as she watched the cameras and listeo me. “…before, I’d have ripped your hand off for it, bro. But now… is it fair, taking it? What about those who need one and don’t have one? Besides… I peted against Shaeu’s brother, and I io do so again. With my own talents, not those cribbed from some God. Get me?”
I did. Yeah, that’s just like you sis, fident in your sp, and now I guess in your bat talents. And you’re kind too. “Don’t regret it then, okay? But if I ’t find anyone for it soon, then it’d be a waste me breaking it down, you’ll get it then.”
“Wow, sure. Makes sense. Waste not, want not. But… no, I doubt it’s suitable for Eri, she’s not the brightest of girls, more like the moon than the sun. Motoko and Natsumi, maybe. Though they ck sunlight, but… if I work Ren-kun hard and help out myself, we make it work, maybe? Or then there’s Bell- and Teare-.” Teare-? That’s a new one…
We rouhe er of one corridor that sloped sharply downwards into the bowels of the earth, and we discovered that instead of the building we were in before, it opened inte cavern, stactites and stagmites f toothy jaws in all dires, the obsidian ground slick with water and ice, droplets falling from above. As I carefully explored the underground area, feeling the abnormally high ether density, the golden golems followed me, my sis still talking. “Hinata-’s no good, she’s got no bat se all, pirl. Hey, even Ren-kun could probably take it if I beat some archery into him, but… you’d rather give it to someone close to yht?” she said shrewdly, and I couldn’t lie.
“Of course. I don’t know if it’s possible, but I want every one of you to have a Favour eventually. If I mao get hold of enough, then even mom, father, uncle and auhe families of the girls… but such is clearly impossible.”
“Yeah, seems a long shot.” My sis agreed. “But as you no doubt learnt from me…” I could hear the smile in her voice, despite her obvious exhaustion. “…training and practiever betray you. Whether they get Favours or not, everyone’s growing in their own way. And we’ll tio do so. So… uh, we got off-topic a bit. If she doesn’t run, then she’ll have to defend the Territory, right? In which case you’ll grab her ierial. I’d say she’s screwed either way.”
“Yeah, but if she’s pragmatic, she’ll drop into the Territory, destruct it and then flee ierial.” I tried to imagihe thought process of someone clearly so ing and ruthless, despite her tender age. “It’s not something anyone do, start over, but if it’s that or lose everything…” I looked around at the cavern, which was vast and expansive. Faint trickles of spatial energy, fizzing violet sparks, were drifting around, and while they were impure and weak, I drew them in to replenish my stocks as best I could. “…then it’s better to live to fight another day. Damn, this is a great pce to hide an Anchor. I could learn from this. My first Anchor was in a stupid spot, and while Shirohebizumi has a lot of advantages, it’s also a bit too vulnerable and close to the Ring Gates for my peaind.”
“Yeah, got to think about my owory as well.” My sis said. “I thought it was going to be Nishimorioka, but with that Oni guarding it for now…”
In parison to the retively rexed stroll I was having through the Boundary, the Material was more stressful. As I followed the map towards the broadcasting room, some of the sights were enough to make me gd that nobody was with me here. Bloodstains were on, spttering walls, windows and floor alike, and under some colpsed rubble I could smell something truly foul, and flies were buzzing zily around, squirming into the rocks. Disgusted, I let a faint surge of fme element free, just enough to ie the buzzis.
There were traps too, more wire traps lio buckets ainguishers, as well as some nastier traps desigo kill or maim, such as piano wire carefully oiled and stretched at neck height in particurly badly lit halls, and ohat dropped shot-puts from the ceiling, their heavy mass easily enough to crack skulls and break bohough I merely swatted them aside. My Eye spotted several explosive traps as well, though none were as crude as the fmmable trap I had entered earlier.
Still, progress was swift, and I soon reached the bridge to the final building, though as I began to cross it, I was fronted by a half-dozen men and women, older than me, wearing ragged polid military uniforms, their faces hollowed out and vat, eyes g lucidity. They were all holding ons, rifles, pistols and one even had a grenade uncher, in mirror to my own. Old blood was staining them, only washed off by their sweat, leaving it in strange whorls like aint, and they halted my advance, ons raised. So, this is her weling ittee, is it? Not a bad pce for it, Though I retreat… That was belied by an explosion behind me, several very well-hidden batches of explosives detonating, colpsing the ceiling, blog me in. The gss corridor trembled, swaying armingly, some snaps and splinters giving me pause, but if I fell three stories I wouldn’t even notice, so I wasn’t ed by that. Water was casg down from broken pipes, starting to spread into the tunnel, and so I wao finish matters quickly.
Gunfire erupted, rifles barking, and it was hard to dodge in su unfavourable space. “Damn, she sure knows how to use her pawns to best effect.” I snorted, bitterly impressed. “But…” Brigandine was more than able to ha, being far strohan ordinary body armour and I was grateful I had it in both worlds. Though not because it’s proteg me from injury. These… are pretty pathetic.
Impacts rocked me, but that was all they were. Impacts. I still felt I could be taken down with enough firepower, I wasn’t o sider myself invincible, but even back when the yakuza and US Agents attacked, I was able to take hits to my body from small-arms fire and only suffer cuts and bad bruising. It seems like years ago, but it was only a few months. Now I was far sturdier, and my League was always growing, so I simply waded through the gunfire, just proteg my eyes with one hand. Though it’s hard to get over the ingrained fear of guns, and then there’s that…
The man with the grenade uncher opened fire, and as the shell arched towards me, light fshed, shattering the dirty window beside him, and a gust of wind blew the projectile out. It exploded, and mss shattered, and oion slid down, impaling a firing soldier in the leg, nearly severing it, but other than grimag in agony and bng white, he tio shoot at me, heedless of his draining blood. Twrenades leapt out at me, but I swept them outside too, and I on the mind-trolled victims, too fast for them to process. They tried to fight, but I quickly subdued them as best I could, and with more wire from the assortment of musical instruments I had e across earlier, I bound them, while doing some basic Healing, to prevent them from dying.
“Holy, I’m not sure that you’ll make it. Or that we restore your minds.” I said bitterly as I tied the st one up, a polian, who might have been cute if she wasn’t so dead-eyed and skeletal. “But at least you’ll have a ce.” The gss tunnel was wrecked, one end blocked and leaking water, which was falling through cracks in the floor like a small waterfall, while one wall and the ceiling en to the sky, a cold breeze blowing. “Shiro, I’ve found more survivors, adults. But they are in a bad way.”
“Got it. We’ll send some weaselkin to try aract them when you move on, and take them to the Room, where they get medical attention. Stay safe!” she replied, and as I ehe new annex, I searched for further obstacles to my advance, Eye shining…
In the Boundary, my sis had chattered on about what she wanted her Territory to be like, keeping the mood light-hearted, which helped. My Resilience was w to dampen my revulsion and sorrow, of course, but seeing the blood and remains of so many kids the same age as her or even younger was something I never wished to experience again. Though sorrowfully, I khat was a forlorn hope. “...so yeah, I’ll focus ing iher. Since you’ll be proteg me, right?” she finished, as we reached the tre of the massive cavern. She stopped talking, obviously impressed by what she saw over the cameras, a rge ke, several hundred metres across, with plumes e elemental energies s up into the air and then casg down again, like repeating golden streams. A number of elegant, curled spires, made from silver and amber jewels, stood around the edge of the ke, and the ether density had increased and was now on a par with Kyoto.
“Pretty. I wish I could see it with my own eyes.” My sis breathed out a sigh. “But then, yoing to wreck it, right bro?”
“Afraid so.” I said, St Moonlight slig the first Ether Spire apart, shattering it. “Though that begs the question, where’s the Anchor… oh.” My Eye peered through the curtain e light, and into the crystal-clear waters that seemed tinged almost blue, only to see something twinkling down below, shining to my Eye. “Wow, that’s clever!” I reflectively mimicked my sister. “No wohis Territory was able to stand against the other ohis is a way more favourable position.”
“Down there, is it? Hey, wao send in a Sister to take a look? Safety first, right?” she sniggered, and I nodded, so the Shaeu lookalike stepped forwards, while the Asha one swung her axe, and after a number of bloire shattered, while I cut down several more. With the Sister dropping into the water, my sis grumbled for a moment, before adjusting the inputs. “That’s better. Yeah, we’re sinking like a stohis ke must be hundreds of metres deep. Awesome! And there’s definitely something big down here, I see a Spire… uh and…” There was a fsh of blue and white, and my sis let out a cry. “Damn bro, polden Shaeu just got bit near-in-half. I mao get a hit in, I think, but under water the power would have been…” Her words were cut off as a great head burst from the ke, still biting down on the image of Shaeu, curved fangs pierg the gold, until with a growl, it shrough, legs and torso separating, before aether scattered.
“Oops, there goes more equipment. Don’t bill me, bro, it’s a business expense, right?” she joked through the wireless speak on the Asha, though her tone was awestruck. “So… that’s a draght?”
“No, not a dragon. A Wyrm. Kind of like a wyvern, I guess, just more Eastern?” It was bigger than the one Shaeu, Grulgor and I had fought back at the start of our acquaintance, and the white scales were tinted blue. Opening a mouth easily big enough to swallow even a troll whole, it fixed an angry gaze on me, as if seeing me as a threat.
“Okay, so who would put their Anchor in the ir of a Wyrm?” my sis asked, only tret it as her voice drew attention. The Wyrm took a deep breath, water element swirling in like an e maelstrom, fortifying the shiniheriergy it was gathering.
“Over here, jackass!” I called, focussing light down to as fine a beam as I could, almost invisible as the indigo shaded to violet, then invisible ultra-violet. The Wyrm screamed, one eyeball bursting, hot liquid sizzling, and its breath went wide, bsting a great groove in the cavern, aion of hot steam rising, bathing me and the Golden Sister in a searing embrace. Ouch, warm!
“I ’t see anything. The camera was roof, but not… non-proof!” my sis pined. “You still fine bro, you must be, right?”
“Yeah, just leave it to me. Huh…” My Eye detected the ao her earlier question, and it was ohat I expected. As the Wyrm whipped one massive foot at me, talons like broadswords sweeping towards me, I ducked uhem, and using the Wyrm’s blind spot, I thrust, bde pierg deep. I wrehe bde free, and Foehn fred as I poured what I had left into the bleeding wound, the hungry fires eagerly soaking inside and spreading over the scales, bzing merrily, making the wyrm scream, hurting my ears a little.
“By the sound… here maybe?” my sis had her Asha swinging the axe, and nded several blows, striking faint gashes in the scales, before it batted the statue into the ke, where it sank without trace. The momentary distra allowed me to fire rocky projectiles at the Wyrm, striking the blinded eye, squeezing out more blood and pus, making it bellow in enraged fury.
“So, she adulterated the water, huh? And therefore you’re her little pet and Anchuard? Pretty impressive. So, e on then!” I waved my sword, its one good eye narrowing balefully as it beheld me, the pest that had wou twice. “pared to that piece of … well, Akoman, I guess, from what my Eye said… earlier, you’re nothing but an rown snake!”
The Wyrm owerful, yes, but the sort of power one could find in the lower Astral aplenty. There was no reason for me to fear him, as long as I kept my calm. As it drew in water element for another breath attack, the Water of Morana also being drawn in, I realised the actual genius of this scheme, as my Spirt Water was surging within me, stantly expelling dark mist. Citrine fme flickered, burning away the mist around me in a brilliant circle, and then my remaining darkness element surged, squeezing myself dry to form another Prominence Dusk, the vivid ring of darkness surrounded by a sed halo of light illuminating the cave filled with fog and steam. “Although if it wasn’t me, I don’t see how anyone would get to the Anchor without being trolled by Morana’s Water. You’re sug it iime to go for a breath, and swimming in that…” I the great ke. “…strikes me as an awful pn.”
As the Wyrm roared angrily in reply, blind eye weeping and Foehn burning in the gash I had cut in him, I waited for my opportunity to strike back, while ierial, I had reached my destination, the long hallway where the broadcasting room, principal’s offid several other key facilities lurked. Those traps tio be annoying, but they were no mate. I had avoided them all, especially when a certain other dition resent, and now I stepped forwards to the heavy, soundproof door and twisted the handle. Obviously it was locked, but as I rattled it, I khe one inside would be listening. True to form, moments ter the wall-mounted speaker above the door crackled with static, before a frantic voice came from it.
“Stay back! I… I won’t go quietly! I have a khe voice of a young girl, melodious and cute, though the words were tremulous, ced with fear, and in English. “I’ll stab you to death! Or if that won’t work, I’ll… I’ll kill myself! I won’t go into the hands of those blood-crazed monsters, and I won’t be one of her sves! I’d rather die!” she decred weakly.
Turning my attention to the speaker, I pointed, and a green light ged to red, and a sed light lit green, so I addressed it. “I see. Then you’re in luck, as I’m not with them. I’ve beeo secure all the survivors and take them to safety. Though I’m the only o.” I put on an aggrieved face. “There are traps everywhere, explosives and all sorts of nasty water traps. I would have said those were just pranks before this, but…” my expression ged to one of sadness. “…I saw what happeo those who got touched by water or blood. I’m fortuake my appearand liness seriously and have been avoidii before that.”
There was a long silence, before the lights blinked again. “Yes, that… that is fortunate.” She agreed. “I’ve seen it all myself, lived through it. It was terrible, terrible! So… you’ll really save me? Take me away from here? Are you strong then? Some of the others who came to save us cimed to be, but the two siblings, they… they killed some and the others became sves. Those of us who hid, we were like trapped animals.” Her tone was impassioned now, full of anger. “The strourned on the weaker, and we were just food, or an outlet for sorrow and anger. I… barely mao escape to here, where I’ve been holed up for a while. So… do you promise? Do you promise to save me?”
I waited for the lights to ge, before nodding slowly. “I’ll take you out of here, I promise.” I decred, and with that, the locked door made a clig noise, and I slowly pulled the hahe heavy door sliding open with a dull groan, scraping along the floor…
ShipTeaser
