Chapter 11 Part 4
Sakuya was shaken from her efforts to free herself by the distant sounds of shouting, the alarm bells, and a faint tremble that reverberated through the walls, so distant, but certainly catastrophic if she could feel it without  hearing it. Above her head, rock creaked and a fine pattering of dust fell to the floor. The guards outside were talking to each other, growing anxious,  nervous ; they hadn't heard word since Sigurd and Ephi had left, what seemed like days ago, and neither of the men seemed sure of what was happening or what to do.
Sakuya could think of only one thing that could cause this sort of chaos. If Shirishi was also here, then Ephi had not been as thorough in sweeping away her tracers as he had thought. They'd been found.
But it was too soon to celebrate, or even to think for a moment that she could rely on rescue. Sakuya knew that she could be in no greater danger than she was now, in the precious moments before help could arrive. She was a hostage, a prisoner, and most of all, a liability that her captors could not abide. They would either seek to escape, taking her as insurance, or kill her if they thought their backs were to the wall.
Either way, the distraction was welcome as Sakuya returned to her work, gnawing at the gag that Ephi had forced into her mouth. It had thus far proven stubbornly resilient. For all his sins, she couldn't claim that Ephi was stupid or sloppy. She'd already succeeded in rubbing her own lips raw to discouragingly little effect on the gag itself save to worry it full of saliva.
All she needed was to get the gag out of her mouth, if she could do that much, then she could sever one of the cords around her wrists with a wind spell and then free herself, hopefully before her guards realized what was happening inside of the cell.
Now, the guards were beginning to speak heatedly. They were unsure of what they should do, only sure that they should do it quickly. One was in favor of taking her from the room and retreating to a 'Back Gate' while the other was saying that they needed to follow their orders.
Whatever those orders were, the insinuation of something sinister made Sakuya all the more desperate to free herself, redoubling her efforts.
'I was a fool.'
The thought echoed over and over in her mind. She couldn't help it, her predicament was entirely her own fault. If she'd kept a clearer head, if she'd not been so hostile towards Mortimer, or if she had paid closer attention to Ephi, seen some sort of sign of his treachery, then this all might have ended differently.
'Alicia will never let me live this down.'
A comforting thought, full of the promise that she would live long enough to 'never live this down'. If only she could get free…
Hands wriggled futilely in their binds. Sakuya's own stats had not been the highest in ALfheim, because her early ascension to the post of Faction Leader had left her with little time to quest or level up. Being faction leader, playing her role as a noble, had been a fun all its own. Its only failing was that it didn't grant experience points. She'd gotten by in the scarce combat that she'd known in ALfheim more on practical experience and innate skill than game stats and high quality equipment, Takemikazuchi notwithstanding. Sakuya could therefore not be called the strongest among the Fae, but she was not entirely without the superhuman strength that they all possessed to some greater or lesser extent. It still wasn't enough to slip her shackles. She stopped trying after this last attempt had nearly cut off the circulation to her hands.
The wall trembled again, this time even harder, and with a disconcerting groan of old and fracturing rock. Just how old was this building? And how long was it going to hold up to whatever the  hell  was happening in the upper levels?
Sakuya's efforts intensified as the guards came to an agreement. They'd stopped talking now, falling silent suddenly, and turned their attention to the door. The sound of iron locks being turned, the creaking of rusted hinges. At last, Sakuya stopped in her struggling to see one of the men stepping inside, face obscured by a black cloth mask, a ring of keys clutched tightly in one hand.
He filled the doorway for one moment, two, a lifetime, Sakuya breathing softly as he loomed over her in the tiny cell. Finally, she couldn't take it anymore. She looked on defiantly, even if these were to be her last moments, she would face them with some measure of dignity.
"Mmph!"
'Well? Aren't you going to kill a defenseless woman?' Sakuya thought.
Her answer came as the keys fell from the Guard's hand, followed by him sinking to his knees and then toppling the rest of the way to the floor. The cause of his sudden fall very apparent as she was illuminate in a shower of Runes circling her left hand, the very likeness of Princess Henrietta de Tristain, only not.
Sakuya squinted, almost certain that she was viewing a mirage. "Mmph?!" Shirishi?
The not-Henrietta grinned. "To the rescue, Darling. I heard from this fool here that you'd been made a guest and decided I'd come have a chat. And look." She gestured to two shadowy forms lightly laying the guards to the ground out in the hallway. "The cavalry decided to arrive on my way here."
Getting a view of them in the light from the hall, Sakuya recognized the garb and the distinctive masks of the Imp Hogei-sen assassins, Zolf's personal guards. Two had arrived just behind Shirishi. If they and other Fae were here, judging by the conflagration and familiar sounds that were beginning to echo down the hall, then it meant that this had to be a full assault.
"Lady Sakuya." One bowed slightly, speaking in a genderless voice as his accomplice approached, unfolding a long knife from a holster on his hip, he set to work ungagging her first before turning to her hands. "I trust that you are unhurt."
"Sakuya-san?" Shirishi paused as she got a good look at her, the cuts on her cheek, and the rest… The gentle chiding and reassurance faded from her voice to be replaced with worry. In the damp chill air, Sakuya didn't have to ask what had drawn the Dark Magic practitioner's attention, the way that Ephi had roughly pulled open her yukata, exposed her from shoulder to midriff, now that the adrenaline and outrage had faded, the feeling of his hands reaching deeper, she shivered. "Sakuya-san, are you…"
"I'm fine." Sakuya insisted quickly as the Hogei-sen made quick work of her binds with his knife, accepting their help to sit up as she felt her hands prickle with the return of circulation to her extremities. The very first thing she saw to was pulling her collar closed and properly adjusting the garment, trying to erase the memory of the feeling of his hands on her skin. The second thing she did was rise shakily to her feet, testing her balance with the help of Shirishi, before retrieving Takemikazuchi from its place leaned against the far wall.
The moment her hand closed around the hilt of her katana, Sakuya felt worlds better. This was familiar, this was something she could rely on right now. Practicing her swordcraft every day had become her refuge in this world, a time when the stress and worry could be shrugged off and replaced with the peace and serenity that she so often exemplified to the public, but so rarely felt for herself. The sense of security that came with cradling this extension of herself went a long way to steadying her turbulent thoughts.
"What is going on here, Shirishi?"
It was the Hogei-sen at her side who answered in that same maddeningly soft voice, as if the world wasn't coming down around their ears. "Lord Mortimer's orders, once entry was achieved. We were to spread as quickly as possible throughout the facility in search of you and Shirishi-san as well as any other HVTs who might have been taken by Reconquista in the chaos at the Gala…"
"At the Gala?!" Sakuya found herself raising her voice, no, she'd learn about that soon enough. "And… Mortimer, he's alive?" Then Sigurd had been lying. Hating the cold man and wishing his death were worlds apart, learning that it hadn't come to pass came as a surprising relief.
A small nod from the masked man. "Everything will be explained. For now we need to meet up with our forces. This prison is a maze and it is unclear if we are presently behind or ahead of our own lines. I'd advise that you and Shirishi-san stay close. We cannot guarantee that we will be able to protect you, Sakuya-sama. You may have to fight. Can you move?"
Sakuya paused, testing her weight cautiously. She still felt faintly tipsy, but she wasn't about to let it slow her down. A small nod to the Hogei-sen.
"Good, then allow us to lead the way. We took note of the route on the way in."
The Assassins said that, but Sakuya thought they could have just as easily have followed the trail of bodies they'd left behind, guards and others caught unawares, slumped against the walls and at intersections of hallways. Most, she noted, showed definite signs of still being alive, still breathing, some even groaning as they lay half-conscious or comatose. Where possible, the assassins had sought to minimize casualties. Sakuya wondered if they understood the pointlessness, what the inevitable fate of these men would be under the laws of Tristain even if taken alive.
That was, until they reached a flight of stairs where a guard lay slumped, a miniature crossbow bolt protruding from his left eye socket. Opposite and below him on the steps laid a still Hogei-sen assassin, a hole the size of a fist through his chest.
"Josaia." One of the Hogei-sen said softly, stopping to crouch down beside his fallen comrade.
Whatever passed between the living and the dead was invisible behind the glass eyes of their masks. Only as he stood back up did Sakuya realize the magnitude of what she was witnessing.
This person laying on the floor here, dead in the dark, had died trying to find her; in other words, he had died intending to save her life. And yet, if they had not turned down this hallway, she might have never even known.
Maybe he had accomplished something with his death. Maybe this guard would have killed her if he had been allowed to live. Maybe Shirishi wouldn't have made it on her own in time, or maybe she would have suffered the dead assassin's fate instead. He had died never knowing if his sacrifice had been worth it, and neither would she. Was her life so valuable that people she'd never known should sacrifice themselves?
His moment of communion with the dead over, the Hogei-sen nodded to his remaining partner and set out up the stairs, towards the sound of battle and the distant rumbling of earth.
"Wait!" Sakuya reached out toward him, as if exerting an invisible pull on his arm, the Hogei-sen turned to regard her through soulless glass. "You can't intend to leave him here?" She looked down at the pitiful form, sprawled lifelessly.
"Our first commitment is to the living." The second Assassin whispered. "If we survive this, and if this prison is still standing, we'll come back for her. "
"Come on, darling." Shirishi said softly. "Don't mind the mess, just keep walking."
But she couldn't help but mind, even as she started to follow up the stairs.
She wanted to say words like 'forgive me' but did not for fear, for fear… fearing that she would sound weak, even to herself. That she would dishonor the sacrifice that had been made for her sake.
Shirishi kept speaking as they climbed and entered the next gallery of the prison, wider, and more broadly lit, the sounds growing ahead of them, the shaking was more intense here and after a moment, a shuddering, grinding -crack- filled the air, causing all four Fae to stop and look up for fear that the ceiling was about to give out over their heads.
"This place is huge." Shirishi muttered under her breath. "A real dungeon."
And that was exactly what it was. It was through Shirishi that Sakuya had learned of their location. They weren't just in some basement or sub level of a building, but rather, they were over a hundred meters beneath the surface, inside a crumbling ruin that was a dungeon in both senses of the word, and now they had to climb their way out while behind enemy lines.
"We're approaching the intersection where this gallery branches off from the main complex." The lead Hogei-sen reported softly. "We're almost certain to run into danger from here on. I will take point and scout ahead. Daul, stay with Lady Sakuya and guard her with your life."
The second Hogei-sen, identical save for being slightly shorter than his fellow, gave a small nod and brandished his knife, the first chanting under his breath as he picked up speed, the runes of a Dark Magic spell building in his hand, and then he balled his fist, blinking halfway down the hall before dropping into a skid that carried him to the next corner.
Pulling a hand mirror from his breast pocket, the Hogei-sen peered, and then suddenly went alive as the ground trembled. "Get back!"
A hand grabbed Sakuya roughly by the shoulder, pulling her away. The shout was met an instant later as the ceiling suddenly gave out, or rather, was driven down from above, the Hogei-sen vanishing in a blink of smoke a heartbeat before he would have been turned into a bloody paste.
Sakuya felt the second Hogei-sen's, Daul's, arm wrapping around her waist, and then the overpowering sensation of being pulled, or rather, the world being stretched around her, and then suddenly finding herself being shoved behind a pillar as the wall next to where she had been standing banged and shrieked with the passage and impact of wind shrikes.
"Meiss!" The remaining Hogei-sen shouted to his vanished partner only to be met by a sound of barking, sickly laughter that left Sakuya's heart cold. That wretching, wretched,  familiar voice.
Shirishi was immediately on guard, as was the Hogei-sen. Behind the pillar, Sakuya's hand fell to the hilt of Takemikazuchi, taking a long, low, trembling breath. It seemed she might have a chance to make good on her promise.
As the dust settled, it became clear that the collapse had not been accidental. There was no rubble, no signs of fracture, the stone had simply slammed shut, sealing them on the far side of the gallery and cutting off their escape. Was it some sort of preplanned trap? A door of some sort, no, too smooth, and with no sign of seams along the ceiling where it had fallen, this had been done by magic.
An Earth mage who revealed himself now from the depths of a passage opening out of the side of the gallery like some sort of living orifice. Of the three stepping out of the darkness, he was the only one who could have been responsible, Sakuya knew for a fact that neither of the other two were proficient in earth magic.
"Going somewhere, Sakuya-chan?" Sigurd's laughter bubbled up, echoing from beneath his silver helm. At his side, Ephi watched with caution, eyes glinting green.
"I've the same question." Sakuya's face set into a grim smile, anger giving her more courage than she'd ever imagined she could have while facing the real threat of death. She remained behind the pillar, sheltered for now. "I'd have expected you to be long gone. It sounds like this fortress is coming down around your ears, Sigurd. I hear that Mortimer is out there right now leading the assault. Does this mean that your plan's coming apart… again?"
The laughter had stopped now, replaced with stone silence from behind that faceless helm, silence save for the rubbing of metal as gauntlets closed tightly. Good, she thought, get nice and angry, lose your wits.
"This? This means nothing!" Sigurd snarled. "I still have you Sakuya-chan, you're all that I need, and I don't intend to lose you now!" A hand fell to his ornate sword.
Sakuya laughed derisively from behind the pillar, baiting Sigurd. "You have me? Then come and find me,  lunatic. "
"This mess is unrecoverable." The earth mage hissed in disgust. "Just hurry up and kill her so that we can be rid of this place. Even this old, the reinforcements of the walls are almost impossible to break, but I can cover our escape if you dispose of them  quickly "
The sinister snick as the fallen Sylph's blade left its scabbard crystallized Sakuya's resolve, at once strengthening her and leaving her all the more frightened as Takemikazuchi glinted silver in her hands. Such a fanciful name for what was really only an upper mid level Katana, but one that she had sought out with care. Its maker was a prideful master of her craft in the game of ALO, and even more so now. Sakuya hoped, needed,  prayed  that something of the spirit of the blade's maker could be with her here and now.
From behind the pillar, Sakuya whispered to the assassin. It wouldn't do to have the two traitors know their plans. "Daul? We'll have to do this together. Forgive me for being unblooded."
"Not at all, my Lady." The voice behind that inscrutable mask answered back. "I only wish we could have kept it that way."
The web of runes appeared again in his left hand. The darkness magic swift movement spell Blink, which allowed its user to sacrifice mana for near instant movement over short distances. It was a rarely specced spell despite the ability to chain repeated castings without further chanting. It prevented the caster from using other magic while in its ready state and required the constant use of one arm, forcing the spell's wielders to spec for a one-handed melee build if they wanted to deal damage effectively. Redundant in the open skies, however, in underground locales, the spell could be incredibly powerful, allowing a single skilled user to overwhelm multiple opponents or attack a single enemy from most any direction.
A moment to compose herself, then the first heavy footfall, it was their unspoken signal. The Hogei-sen blinked and reappeared again beside Ephi, intentionally avoiding the all too predictable blind spot of the rear, already striking downward with his knife as the Slyph turned to face him. The Earth Mage, for whatever reason, wasn't using the surrounding stone work to his advantage, perhaps the 'reinforcements' in the walls that he'd mentioned, and reluctant to use flames in confined quarters, he had instead turned to the simple expedient of a conjured sword to try and fillet Shirishi alive as the Darkness mage in the form of the Princess danced back lightly, trying to gain the distance to chant. That left Sigurd to Sakuya.
Sakuya leaped from behind the pillar, sword drawn straight at her side as she closed the space between herself and Sigurd in an instant, attacking from his side in a flanking maneuver. It was the strangest feeling she had ever known, the lightness as her blood rushed and the air swept past her. She'd known the flood of adrenaline in Kendo matches where there was no time to think and only to act on years of training, and the exhilaration in the sword duels she had been a part of in Sylvain. But never anything like this, her life measured with every breath and drawn with every clash of blades.
Sigurd, distracted as he was by Shirishi and Daul, still saw her coming, he couldn't help but manage that much. Their swords met, Sigurd leaping back after his parry to position himself away from the other two duels in the gallery. Sakuya leapt after him to continue the assault, but this time Sigurd was more prepared, nearly slipping past Sakuya's guard and meeting her neck before she bent backwards. Her eyes narrowed. Clumsy, almost meeting with the edge of his blade like that. A rookie mistake, even a novice should have known better.
Blades crossed, Sakuya saw her own distorted reflection in Sigurd's helm, like a dark joke as they struggled. He was stronger than her, she knew that she wouldn't win in a battle of attrition. His pre-Transition stats were higher and size afforded him an advantage in reach that she couldn't hope to match. However, thanks to her willingness to get up close, he'd failed to secure the superior position.
They broke and then clashed again, and again. The motions coming faster with each swing, strike and parry.
Uninspired, Sakuya decided. It was the only way to describe Sigurd's combat skill. The Transition had blessed them with a multitude of skills and implanted knowledge, Sakuya had noticed this even in her own sword practice, the odd sensation of wanting to assume a certain stance, carry herself in a specific way that was not a perfect match for her own style learned in real life rather than ALO, but that her body seemed to know intimately. She had wondered how this had worked out for others, how the knowledge translated from ALfheim would benefit or interfere with skills earned in real life.
With the knowledge already there, few would think to innovate on their own. Judging from this battle, Sigurd was certainly someone of this category, someone who had been granted technical aptitude, but who didn't innovate and only acted on what he already knew. A person like that would have never become a master swordsman in this world. Regrettably, however, that did not mean he was not a threat.
"Sakuya!" The scream like the howl of the damned reminded her of just who she was facing. A murderous traitor, not a talentless novice.
He was fast, and despite the effects of the now incurable curse, still strong. And Sakuya wasn't in peak form herself, suffering the after effects of a paralysis potion and hours of restraint. A cut grazed her cheek, severing a lock of her hair. Another downward swing missing her arm but taking a strip from the sleeve of her Yukata. Despite this, the difference in skill was beginning to show.
Time and again, Sakuya evaded with deft grace, small sidesteps and motions, always expending the minimum of effort as Sigurd struck and overextended. Unarmored, she had suffered barely a scratch, while Sigurd had only been saved so far by his armor, too much for her Katana. He was safe within a cocoon of mythril, with precious few gaps or chinks to take advantage of.
"I'll rip you to shreds Sakuya! I'll make you scream over and over again…" She took a half step back, another. This opponent was nothing, but it would be bad if she wasted any more time.
'I'm going to have to use it.' She thought with some distaste, one that was unique to swords forged with a single magic property, swords such as Takemikazuchi. So easy to leave herself overextended if done improperly, she was loathe to use such Game Techniques having never quite grown comfortable with them and thus cautious not to risk them, especially now.
"… Scream until my name is the only thing you can remember! Then, when you finally scream my name, I'll finally kill you!"
A breath. Stillness overtaking her. Sakuya settled back into an narrow stance, left hand remaining on the hilt while her right index and middle finger caressed the runes inscribed down Takemikazuchi's spine, holding her Katana in a guard, and then waiting the breadth of a second for Sigurd to do as she had expected, to take the opening in just such a way, the way that his impulsiveness, and also his instincts, devoid of the knowledge of why he did as he did, compelled him.
The sword swing that would have opened her from shoulder to hip, heavy, powerful, with plenty of follow through, and utterly wasted as she took the smallest step, turning lightly on the balls of her feet, watching as Sigurd overextended, two handed grip still clutching the hilt of his sword and exposing the armor of his wrists, thin to allow freedom of movement, and thus a weakness.
A green glint filled Sakuya's eye. This man had already caused so much suffering, done so much damage, so much evil. With this stroke, that would all end. With this stroke, Novair and the others could receive some sort of peace at last.
She didn't shout, she didn't scream. As much as she wanted to do both, the only noise she made was a small 'Ha' as she exhaled in perfect form.
Takemikazuchi's downward stroke had begun even before Sigurd's follow through had finished, building speed, and with it, a thin shimmering that extended the length of its edge. She knew how Sigurd was going to respond, how he was going to draw back, and Sakuya had predicted where his hands would be at that very moment as Takemikazuchi's elemental charge was awakened.
A flash of blinding light, a sound like a thunder clap as the length of the katana's blade went blinding white blue. Sakuya had the good sense to close her eyes, but it still crept through, leaving an eye watering after image. A sharp clattering as Sigurd's sword fell to the stone floor. And then an ear splitting scream filled the gallery. Opening her eyes, Sakuya found that her strike had connected true. Where the fallen Sylph's hands had been, his wrists now ended in charred and oozing stumps, the victims of Takemikazuchi's elemental discharge.
"GYAAAHHH!" He fell to knees, forearms pressing together. Somewhere beneath that helmet, Sigurd's eyes must have been bursting from their sockets. Sakuya didn't know if she was more surprised by what she had done, or the fact that she didn't care, not after his promises, not after the evils he had committed, had still intended to commit.
The inhuman bellowing echoed from within Sigurd's helm went on and on until, mercifully, Sakuya drove a full force stunning spell into the back of his skull, just in time to hear another pained cry from across the gallery; the sound of Daul's voice as he was skewered through the shoulder by an amused looking Ephi.
The Sylph had predicted and caught his assailant in the brief moments of their own battle, as Sakuya had been dealing with Sigurd, the Hogei-sen had launched a flurry of close range attacks with chained castings of his 'Blink' spell, all failing to find a chink in the Sylph traitor's finely crafted Ancient grade armor despite attacking from seemingly every direction. Unlike Sigurd, Ephi was not the sort to let his equipment make up for his lack of ability. When the Imp had next blinked, trying to take the traitor from the rear, it had been right onto Ephi's waiting sword, thrust as he whirled to catch the assassin blow for blow.
Even Shirishi and the earth mage stopped for a moment to witness the tandem defeat of Sigurd and the Imp Assassin.
"Look at what we have here, Sakuya-sama!" Ephi called as he cruelly twisted his blade, the Imp trembling as he struggled to not cry out. The moment of stunned silence lasting long enough for the Sylph to chant a short wind shrike, connecting with the Hogei-sen's mask in a shower of blood and shattered glass, the body going stiff and then limp as Ephi pushed it off of his sword, flourishing the blood covered blade fluidly as he advanced towards her with a look of utter, casual malevolence.
Sakuya's fearful, anguished eyes traced between Ephi and Daul's still form. No, she couldn't let her emotions cloud her mind now! Her most developed skills in magic mastery were in water and holy type magic, or in other words, long range support magic; if Daul was still alive she might be able to do something, but not as long as Ephi stood in her way. And even now, she could tell, he was something far worse than Sigurd.
It was in the calm of his eyes and the ease of his stance. Confidence, but not unearned confidence like Sigurd's. Ephi had fought in the mob patrols since the very first days after the Transition, his courage was not something that could be questioned, nor his ability to deal death underestimated.
The smooth, graceful motion of his first strike only served to drive that fact home. Grace. That was the only word that Sakuya could think to apply. Ephi was deceptively graceful, motions like a dancer until he suddenly exploded into power, searching for openings, trying to force them where he could. And cautious, much more so than Sigurd, when she tested him with a feint, he didn't take the bait. She didn't dare give him an opening lest he guess her true intentions, in which case it would be all over.
"Did you think I'd be like Sigurd, Sakuya?" Ephi laughed as he deflected and sidestepped Sakuya's thrust, keeping up his end of a one-sided conversation all the while. The next strike he caught with his saber, attempting to lock blades, and for a moment green eyes met. "You should know I am nothing like him."
How dare this traitor lecture her! Sakuya could feel little but growing anger, kept in check by her slowly fraying nerves. This man was a threat to the survival of their very race, an elite veteran ALO player with knowledge of the inner workings of nearly every faction, spell, and geography of the post-Transition Fae world. He could not be allowed to escape!
Anger, rage! Sakuya fought back with all her might, forcing him to take step back, and then another. "You! You are exactly like him!" An opening, no, Sakuya withdrew, almost too late from Ephi's own attempt at a trap. Not only seeing feints but laying his own. Had he really been some shut in, in that past life?
"Really Sakuya-chan?" Ephi continued. "Sigurd, you, all of the others, you all just use what you've been given. But you don't embrace it." The tempo grew faster and faster until the two were exchanging blows almost constantly, barely any time to do more than block, doge or perry, it was a rare sort of fight. Between two demonstrating such skill, it should have ended quickly, at the first mistake, but they were both rendered cautious, unwilling to behave decisively lest it be a trick.
A gap in her guard, it couldn't have lasted more than an instant, not nearly long enough for Ephi to turn his sword, but long enough for him to step in and thrust its pommel into her stomach with an explosive release of breath. "I do!" Hand grabbing her hair and then a solid, brutal kick followed by a painful yanking of her scalp as she rebounded. "This power, this knowledge." Sakuya crashed back into the wall, as Ephi planted his free hand against his chest. "It's flourishing within me. This world suits me Sakuya, I can thrive here while you can only flounder." His expression darkened. "And I will not abide you taking it away."
Sakuya ducked, stumbling away, and then jumped back again, narrowly missed by Ephi's sword swings. How could he be this strong? Not just his physical strength, but his skill. This went beyond what she had been lead to expect, a unique sort of viciousness that couldn't have been the product of the Transition.
Slowly but surely, it was pushing her back, pressing her towards a corner where she would have no choice but to stand her ground. 'No.' She thought. She couldn't let him dictate this fight.
Slowly but surely, he was pushing her back, pressing her towards a corner where she would have no choice but to stand her ground. A death sentence for her. 'No,' She thought. She couldn't let him dictate the terms of this fight.
Remember Sakura-chan .
Sakuya stopped retreating, resting lightly on the balls of her feet. Ephi's eyes narrowed in suspicion. He wouldn't allow himself be taken by what had befallen Sigurd. His pride would never tolerate it.
You can't hesitate because you're afraid of being hit .
Swords clashed, there was no room for error now. No room for a mistake of any sort and they both knew it. This fight had entered its last stage, there was no place left for her to go but forward… Hesitation, indecision, there was no place for them now, she would only have one chance, one gap. Chanting under her breath to build up a spell, she ignored the runes that encircled her, didn't let them slow her in the least.
If you hesitate you will definitely be hit.
There!
If you do not hesitate, you cannot be touched.
Stepping forward and to the side in the space between swings, a hot pain slicing her flesh like a razor blade down the length of her cheek to the side of her neck. Ephi's eyes widening as he twisted away, retreating from the swing that narrowly grazed his own cheek, but more importantly, gave Sakuya a clear shot at the earth mage locked in battle with Shirishi.
Shouting the completion of her chant, the barrage of hail pellets peppered her target along his unguarded flank, riddling his arm and side bloody through his cloak. The mage desperately sought shelter by jumping closer to Shirishi to escape the projectiles, right into Shirishi's waiting darkness spell, an obsidian blade of raw magic that caught him utterly by surprise as the seemingly defenseless Shirishi slashed her hand downwards, fingers pointed, severing his right arm at the elbow.
The mage's own howl of shock and pain was shorter but less muffled than Sigurd's. Roaring a half garbled spell, the floor between him and Shirishi began to rise, slowly, painfully, as if it was being forced every step of the way. It was high enough to offer shelter, of sorts. Ephi tried to grab Sakuya's yukata, missed. This was her chance. Brandishing Takemikazuchi for the killing blow on the mage as he attended to his futile defenses.
The stone barrier, the smooth wall at the end of the gallery that had been put in place by the Earth mage to trap them, suddenly cracked and then burst inwards in a cloud of dust and falling stone that was swept down into the gallery. Sakuya's momentary shock allowed the mage to dodge the killing blow and with it, a gap was made for a precious instant, enough time for Ephi to catch up from behind Sakuya, to grab the crippled Earth mage and dive for the tunnel that they and Sigurd had originally arrived through. The wounded and bloody mage somehow gathered the will to collapse their entrance, a single incoherent syllable roaring from his pained throat, joined by the roaring of collapsing masonry. Together, the two vanished from sight.
And then… then it was over, clouds of gray rock dust surrounding Sakuya as more of the Hogei-sen arrived, along with Cait Syth and Kurotaka Spriggans. As swiftly as her fortunes had been reversed in this dungeon, they were reversed again as she was now surrounded by friends and allies. Still riding the high of adrenaline, she shivered.
"Sakuya-chan!"
Sakuya's hands tightened on the hilt of her sword as she heard someone calling, repeatedly calling her name. Eventually Sakuya recognized the voice through her daze, only loosening her grip on the hilt of her sword when she found herself being hugged by a small body and a face she felt like she hadn't seen in a lifetime.
"A-Alicia?" She blinked, getting her heart under control, feeling the strength draining from her arms. What was more unbelievable was the look that Alicia was giving her. Tears. Had she been crying? So unlike her, bright and exuberant in any world.
"Sakuya-chan!" Alicia cried out, pulling her helmet from her head. The realities of this world had led to Alicia opting for something for more practical to fight in, a form fitting suit of golden armor, perfectly fitted to her, like a child Knight or the armor of a young Prince. Sakuya would never have imagined that helmet ears could be worse than helmet hair, but somehow, Alicia had managed. "Oh God, I was so worried!" Small arms squeezing her painfully. "But you're okay, you're okay, you're okay." She whispered over and over like a mantra.
"Alicia?" Sakuya repeated. She shook her head. "Alicia it's alright. I'm fine. But are yo…"
The diminutive Faerie looked up, anger replacing relief. "Of course I'm fine! But I don't matter right now, you do!" Her eyes turned big as saucers as she saw the cuts on her cheeks. "Are you okay? Hey, someone! We need a water mage over here quick!"
A water mage? For this? No!
"Daul!" Sakuya gently took Alicia by the shoulders, extracting herself from the painfully tight embrace and hurrying to where a pair of Manticore Knights had just arrived, crouching over the Faerie while another two surveyed the collapsed escape tunnel.
A shoulder wound and a glancing blow to the head that could have blown even a Fae skull half off. By some miracle though, it hadn't, though Daul's face, from what she could see of it behind the ruined mask, looked like a bloody mess.
The Hogei-sen soon arrived to see to their wounded, joining the Tristanian mages to stabilize their comrade.
"Is he going to be all right?" Sakuya squinted at the new arrivals. These Hogei-sen, they all were almost identical, but there were still differences. "Meiss?"
"That's right." Meiss acknowledged. "And don't underestimate Daul." He said as he tenderly undid the hurt Imp's mask, revealing the blood soaked face of a gaunt eyed young woman, painfully pale skin only serving to accentuate the red that was covering her face. She was still breathing, at least Sakuya could see that much. "She's a fighter, this one." Meiss took one of the girl's hands, squeezing softly. "I returned as quickly as I could, Sakuya-sama. Once the path was sealed, I knew we must have sprung a trap, so I searched out reinforcements."
"We were the closest." Alicia said quickly. "Once we got inside, we just started obliterating anything in our path looking for you and Shirishi." A look of supreme relief crossing the Cait girl's face. "Looks like we found you both just in time."
A trap was almost an understatement she thought as she became cognizant of the shaking of her fingers and shuddered to realized what it meant. She'd been at her limits, and had somehow stood her ground. They'd survived only thanks to quick thinking and Sigurd's arrogance. And now, now…
"Area, cleared!" A voice echoed from the corridor beyond the galley and its ruined barricade. "Area, cleared!"
"Area, cleared!"
"This area is clear!"
More voices from further off echoed the statement, again and again.
"Good. Disperse with the Earth Mages and cut off any further routes of retreat. Do not let them escape our perimeter."
Sakuya turned to the sound of someone approaching her from behind, seeing that the leader of the assault had arrived. Sakuya gasped.
Mortimer looked for all intents and purposes to be dead on his feet, or at least, as though he'd been through hell. Covered in blood, some of which must have been his own, hair disheveled. His skin had lost the luster of the living, taking on a sickly pale blue hue that she would have associated with corpses, or maybe the freshly undead. But not even the undead could look this bad without trying. Sakuya couldn't begin to imagine what motivation could be propping him up.
Still, with the help of the massive man following him, General Eugene staying close at his side, Mortimer was able to pick his way over the rubble, conferring with the Hogei-sen and Cait Syth troops as the first Sylphs arrived, swiftly coming to attention before Sakuya, their squad leader apologizing fervently for their tardiness.
"It's alright." Sakuya promised them all. "You did as you were ordered under dangerous circumstances, you've all performed splendidly." As much as she wanted to say more, Mortimer had just caught sight of her and was walking to meet her.
"Sakuya-san." Mortimer looked her over, eyes pausing at her cheeks, a grimace tugging at his enforced neutral expression before losing the hopeless battle. "Meiss told us he found you unharmed… I trust your injuries are only minor." The strangest look in Mortimer's eyes, followed by a small, relieved sigh as she nodded tiredly. "What about Shirishi? How is she?"
Sakuya pointed to where a pair of Undine healers were busy with the Spriggan's bloodied legs. "I see… I see." Mortimer nodded slowly to himself. "I'm only sorry we couldn't have gotten here sooner. I…" Mortimer stopped, blinking curiously as if he had forgotten what he was about to say. Swaying on his feet, he rocked once, twice, like a pendulum, and then, just as he was beginning to fall, Sakuya reached out, grabbing hold of his startlingly light frame.
"Brother!" Eugene rumbled with uncharacteristic worry, cursing quickly under his breath. "Medic! We need a medic!"
Reaching down, the big man took his sibling from her arms, gently cradling him. Sakuya was left with the strangest thoughts as she too sank slowly to the ground, feeling suddenly as if she had bourn the weariness of a hundred years. Mortimer had acted so uncharacteristically before falling. The typical cold expressions, his callous indifference to human norms, before, Sakuya hadn't been entirely sure that Mortimer's heart hadn't been replaced with ice. But just now, as she'd held him in her arms…
He'd felt warm.