Nobody made a peep, and few dared to breath, when from the pitch black ahead there shined a light. Still, the sight reinvigorated every muscle, and put a spring in every step and servo. Prepared for a rumble just as much as they prepared for relief, the six operatives of Gilgamesh rushed through the corridor toward the fascinating beacon up ahead. This particular hallway resembled a hotel’s, but long neglected, with every door leading to nothing more than rooms empty but for dust.
Unexpectedly, the passage opened up into a huge chamber with a ribbed concentric circle ceiling. Underfoot the bricks crumbled and chipped at the slightest provocation, and the water-damaged ceiling appeared nearly as defunct but far more perilous in that regard. Brick columns stood like trees in a silent, stone grove, the pattern extending into the shadows. At the room’s very center, a circular hub whose top flared outward into the centermost dome harbored the single beam of light. Instinctively the group approached, though none failed to notice that in a room like this, attack could come not only from any direction, but all of them at once. These worries unnerved the operatives far less, however, than the shadows that appeared to move. Pinpricks of eerie green speckled the ebon void that lay beyond the reach of the agents’ various light sources, yet they remained perfectly still rather than flitting around like fireflies. In very short order the group reached the hub. Into it stepped Otsune, radio primed to try for a signal. Though it seemed like the slightest noise would interrupt the deathly silence consuming the room and invite some instant attack, Otsune whispered into the radio without delay.
”Come in, Albatross. This is Phantom. We are underground, in a cistern connected to an abandoned subway. Supernatural activity is rising. We must be getting close. Mark my position and send reinforcements. Phantom out.”She finished not a moment too soon. An awful scraping of metal over stone filled the
cistern chamber, denoting the arrival of the enemy. Over those portentous sounds came the likeness of an enormous saw or two. Everyone present could guess the source: Dullahans, predictable but tough-to-kill Fiend-class demons. A less subtle disturbance in the shadows indicated the arrival of more Mephistos as well. Quite suddenly, the darkness was alive with the forces of hell. The six operatives fanned out to surround and put their backs to the cistern’s central hub. A single, monotonous word reverberated through the oppressive air:
”Engage.”Immediately the gun-toting members of the squad began to fire. A fusillade of ice shards from Babyfingers’ endothermic cannon penetrated the darkness, while the yellow of Bullion’s muzzle flash and the brilliant azure of Souta’s fused fire illuminated the vicious faces of demons hiding in the dark before ventilating them. The demons did not obligingly wait to be shot, however, and quickly closed to melee range. Attacking in twos or threes, the Hatreds and Mephistos faced off against the armored knuckles of Atlas, Ell’s screaming mace, Souta’s Silverbeast, Bullion’s bayonet, and the augmentations of Babyfingers and Otsune. Thanks to his Devil Arm, Souta fought with a ferocity nearly parallel to the demon’s. With gleaming claws he ripped through smoky shroud, red carapace, and metallic demonhide. A Hideous whirled its scythe, and after blocking with both hands, he grabbed the scythe and twisted his body. The demon lost its footing, was carried into the air, and abruptly returned to the ground with a Riptide technique. The lancelike finger of a Mephisto shot toward him, and Souta, with claws entangled by the other monster’s corpse, swore and struggled to throw his elbow in the way of his face, preparing himself for pain. Instead, a salvo of torn bricks flew from nowhere to batter the Mephisto, squashing it like a bug against the ground. Puzzled, Souta searched for his savior, but found his allies engaged. He could see Ell on his left and Bullion on his right, both of whom had sustained wounds. The smooth, lethal blasts of Otsune’s Burabura Boost could be heard over the din, and a spray of ice in the corner of his eye confirmed Babyfingers’ activity. Another second’s search found Atlas away from the circle, pinned against a pillar by a Dullahan’s enormous saw shield. Before he could make anything else out, the bellow of Babyfingers thundered over the noise, “We’ve got to go! Cut a path through them!”
He charged away from the pillar into the darkness, and his nearest allies immediately broke off from their duels to follow. Ell cried out as she received a scythe slash to her exposed thigh, but she did not stop sprinting.
Good girl, thought Souta as he followed, with Bullion right on his tail. Otsune paused to fire a trio of rockets into the weak spot on the Dullahan’s back, slaying it and allowing Atlas to break free and follow. As one the group charged into the dark, with Babyfinger’s ice trail keeping the Hideous off their tails. Over the hazard Mephistos flowed, but Bullion and Souta fired backwards as they ran.
”Where are we going!?” he yelled as a cluster of fused fire exploded in a Mephisto’s face, splattering it. The next instant he ran into Ell, nearly knocking them both down, and he discovered that the group had stopped. In front of them lay a brick wall, but between them and the wall floated a black, inky apparition with a single green eye.
Humans, came a whisper, more ethereal and chilling than any ever made by Otsune.
Follow me. It disappeared through the wall, and Babyfingers, after recovering from his surprise, shoulder-charged the bricks. They crumbled, revealing a path, and with great haste the six ran through. Babyfingers brought up the rear this time, and created a block of solid ice behind them to stall the demons for a minute or so. Trusting in the ghost, Gilgamesh’s agents ran on.
-=-=-
The feeling grew stronger and stronger. Gomory would have known that she drew closer and closer to the second seal even if parts of the walls and floor didn’t randomly tear away and hurl themselves at either her or the Fausts. Occasionally, one of the culprits –black spirits that she guessed to be the ghosts of humans- would manifest and become a spectral barrier blocking the way in a feeble attempt to hinder her progress. Even sheathed, her Jiaolong tore through these defenses. Still, they wore at her patience, and one of her Fausts lost its hat to a surprise bricking. When in a rectangular room lined with tombs a dozen spirits manifested, Gomory smiled instead of snarling; the spectral presence could not be far at all. Moving with deceptive grace and beauty she dispatched one guardian spirit after another, and her Fausts raked them apart. So vengeful were these haunts, however, that they attacked in groups with little regard for one another, attempting to bind her and then crush her limbs or her throat with invisible hands. When the skirmish ended, her chest heaved from exertion, but she could not afford to rest. At her command the Fausts cooperated to roll aside a stone blocking the door, and with swagger in her step Gomory entered.
Before her lay a vast cavern, which would have been a bottomless pit about five hundred feet in diameter if not for the gargantuan pillar of rock that lay at its center. From this entrance to that pillar stretched empty space. Less than a meter in front of the demoness lay featureless oblivion, but on the great pillar she could spy something most interesting indeed. In the middle of the platform rested a pile of enormous stones positively brimming with spectral green energy, around which whirled numerous black spirits. Pieces of stone levitated at random in the air. Rather than silence, the entire place brimmed with a low, ominous humming, interrupted sporadically by whispers of despair. The shadow of a smile snuck across Gomory’s face, and she leaped out across the void. Landing on one of the floating stones, she jumped again. The Fausts steadily hovered after her while she leaped from rock to rock, until she stood, a little ruffled but very triumphant, on the center platform. Before her stood the
Eidolic Cairn, a wellspring of human spirit energy and the Second Seal of the Apocalypse.
”Hm.” A platoon of ghosts rushed toward her. Gomory rolled her eyes and turned her back. One of them raked its fingers across her bare shoulder, but she barely flinched. Even stranger, she did not attack. The spirits looked at her Fausts, but they did nothing but turn around as well, facing back the way they came.
”Attack me again,” Gomory clutched her weapon, staring at the entrance.
”And I will gladly expunge each and every one of you. But you should not be afraid. We’re here…to help.”
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