Chapter Text
The card reader beeped green, and the door slid open to the side. Revealing the cold room within. It was like a closed space, no windows, and the only glow illuminating the inside were from the emergency lights, causing the room to look like it had been painted with crimson blood. Although it was eerily quiet, droplets of water echoed in a steady rhythm. Reflected by the red lights, puddles of the melted ice were visible to the eyes. Evidence of the defrosted Phantoms.
Vil’s heels clicked, looking around the room, studying the many giant boxes with S.T.Y.X. logo plastered on them. “This is… The Phantoms’ Asylum…” Epel eyed the glassed cubes, uneasiness settled within him, “C-Could it be… All of these boxes here have Phantoms in them…?” He softly asked. “That’s right~! Amazing, right~!?” Suddenly, a chirpy voice chimed in. “This is a Monsters House full of all~ the Phantoms our family have gathered from all~ over~ the~ world~!” The door behind them abruptly shut. “!!??” Yuu and Epel turned around, their fingers clutching on the door’s side to make it slide open, but to no avail. “Urgh… It won’t-… Open-!!!” The poisoned apple grunted, his fingers slipped from the door handle as it tightly glued shut. “Tch. We’re trapped… Must be your doing, Ortho!” Vil glared, his anger earned himself an amused giggle.
“Bingo~!” Came lights to create the hologram picture of the smiling robot, greeting his challengers with a childish playfulness. “Well? Are you guys having fun dungeoneering?” To answer his seemingly innocent question, the PomeShackle only gave him an alarmed frown, so Ortho just continued. “Now then, this is your Second Trial. In order to proceed to the next floors, you will need to clear this asylum first. Plus, you will need a special ID card or password to open the door of this asylum. Besides, I’ve already cancelled the ID card’s identification that was given to you by our beloved S.T.Y.X. staff~” The android giggled, and his statement made Vil glanced at the card in his hand.
“If you have the cheat code to leisurely clear your way right off the bat, that would take away half of the fun, right?” Ortho smiled, as the model in the room stiffly smirked, a vein popped on his neck, “Well now. Thank you for your ‘unnecessary’ concern.” “Anyway,” The robot continued, nonchalantly basking in the frustration of the group before him, he announced their next trial. “Your next challenge for this stage will be… A treasure hunting game~!” Ortho opened his arms up, twirling around happily as he created holographic confetti flying around him. “A treasure hunt…?” Rook looked surprised, not quite the challenge he had expected.
“The rules are simple. Trapped within all of these cages, there is one Phantom that holds the ID card needed to escape this asylum,” Ortho pointed at the boxes stacked to the ceilings and some that had fallen to the ground. “Let’s find the correct cage and obtain the ID card~!” Although his rules were indeed simple, looking at the many boxes scattered in the room was a different issue. “You gotta be kiddin’ me! You’re telling us to find ONE thing inside these MANY CAGES!?” Epel snarled, feeling that this challenge was unfair, and clearly leaning toward the Shroud brothers’ favor more. But the android just giggled, as if he had predicted this reaction, “Ehehe~ I knew you would say that. Since this is your beginner’s stage, I shall give you a hint!”
He turned around, projecting a pointer on the wall and said, “Please remember well the cages that I’m going to point right now. That one, that one, and this one! The ID card is inside one of these three cages~” First, the pointer landed on the box laying on the ground near the group, he then pointed at the one floating on the little pool within the asylum, and lastly, the pointer moved to a box on the second row right behind the pool. “Alright then, fellas! I bid you all good luck!” Ortho then vanished just as fast as he had appeared before.
“…” Vil walked toward the door behind them, then swiped the card to determine if what the little Shroud had said was true or not. BREEP! It blared red light. “… Didn’t work. Seems like what Ortho told us were true. The card we got from the staff couldn’t open-…” THUD! THUD!!! Vil’s words were cut short by loud banging noises and growls coming from the cages. The group had no time for leisure.
“Oh no…! The Phantoms’re waking up!” Rook looked around, observing the boxes like a hawk. “Seems like we are on time limit here-!” Yuu narrowed his eyes, warning the others of the coming danger. “It might be a trap, but we should try opening the three cages that Ortho pointed at in order,” Vil suggested, shoving the ID card back into the bag. They all nodded, as there was no other way to escape this frozen hell.
First, they approached the box near to them, which was the first cage Ortho had pointed at earlier. Through the red light, they could read some words written on it, “… PMT-… 27446……?” Yuu read out, squinting his eyes as he spelled out those words. Vil then commented, eying the numbers with interest, “Must be the Phantoms’ number. I remembered that they numbered the Phantoms they’ve held here. Something like, ‘ROS’ and ‘SUS’ with a series of numbers right after,” he stated, remembering the day when they were forced to go on lockdown due to the experiment S.T.Y.X. was doing with their prisoners. ‘I remember that announcement…’ Yuu thought to himself as he continued to read what was on the cage besides the serial number. “Hm…?” The boy hummed under his breath, noticing the barcode printed on the glass. From what he knew, the Phantoms’ numbers from last time were a bit different from the number on this cage. The alphabets at the beginning were different, he didn’t know why they were different, however Yuu could guess it might be based on what type of Phantoms they were or what level of danger they possessed. Yet what bothered him more was, ‘There’s no letter at the end here, unlike those previous two numbers…’
Ssk… Ssk… Ssk ssk… ‘Hm…?’ Yuu’s ears twitched. A very faint rubbing noise he caught on, yet it seemed the others couldn’t hear it at all. He listened closer, and closer… Ssk… Ssk ssk… Ssk… It came from inside all of these cages! ‘Are these noises… Came from the Phantoms inside……?’ The boy wondered, as he quickly looked around. Ssk… Ssk ssk… Ssk- THUD… ‘!!!’ Yuu stepped back from the cage, when he saw the side of a nearby box was jolting up. Better not get too close… Epel was readying his magical pen, looking elated to show off that he was a reliable ally, “So, we’re just gotta open tha’ cage, right? Then, I’ll jus’ use ma magic-!!!” “Non.” Rook held the apple’s magical pen down, stopping him from advancing. “There might be a fierce Phantom inside. Leave this one to me.” “But-!” Epel wanted to argue, but his senior wagged his finger. “My… Epel-kun, have you forgotten the promise you’ve made with me?” “…… I understand. I’ll follow your instructions, Rook-san…” The lilac haired boy stated in defeat, hanging his head low.
“Oh my, unlike your usual antics, you gave such an obedient answer there. What kind of promise did you make? Do tell me later,” Vil smirked, intrigued by what was going on while he wasn’t looking. “Oui!” Rook smiled, nodding his head in delight as he readied his pen aiming at the box labeled ‘PMT-27446’. “Now then, show yourself… Fuh!” The hunter blasted the latch with grace, it cracked open. Slithering out of it were Phantoms decorated with coins, cackling, growling like broken beasts. “Rook. Freeze them in place for me, won’t you?” Opening his grimoire with grace, Vil prepared balls of wind magic. “As you wish, Roi du Poison~” Winking ever so confidently, the huntsman immediately shot icicles which quickly spread toward the Phantoms. The queen aimed his magic at the frozen monsters, closed his grimmoire, activating the attack. It wooshed forward! Shattering the enemies at once. Since the numbers were fewer than before, both seniors took out the small fries with ease.
Once the monsters melted into small black puddles, Rook called over his junior, “Epel-kun, can you lend me a hand in search of the ID card?” “Understood,” he nodded. The two headed over the now empty cage, casting a small spell to light their view. Inspecting the outside, the young man was delightfully surprised, “Ah…… Only the cage's lock part is destroyed… Amazing… How was he able to aim at something this small so accurately…” Epel searched at the front while Rook took the back corner, they looked at every nook and cranny, but unfortunately, both found nothing. It seemed this cage was the wrong answer. “Hmmm… Well, we still have the other two boxes. Let's keep searching!” Vil encouraged, and his two subordinates nodded.
“…… Everyone, can you guys open that one first?” Yuu suddenly voiced a request. His finger was pointing up at the box behind the pool, the last one Ortho pointed at. “? Why?” Epel asked, curious why his fellow freshman would make such a request. The boy was silent first, then his lips moved, “… There was a noise in there. As if something thin being hit to the floor.” “Uuum… All o’ these darn Phantoms have been makin’ all kinda noises tho…” The poisoned apple was not convinced by this reasoning. Yet, Vil had a different opinion. “Was there something different in that box? Do tell quickly,” he asked, demanding some details to make his call. Yuu nodded, but then looked hesitant.
Should he explain them openly? The banging noises from the cages slowly grew louder. There was no time to waste here! “T-The other boxes only have squelching noises in them. I was looking around the pool earlier, and that was when I heard it…” The outworlder pointed at the way, wondering if his excuse was convincing enough. “…… Well, I suppose there's nothing wrong in opening that one first.” Vil answered, opening his grimoire and holding it up. His wind magic then condensed on top of the book, turning it into a small sphere. “Now then, will it be a demon? Or a snake coming out of it?” He then shifted his eyes at the others, warning them that he was about to open that box. Rook shielded his younger teammates, “Epel-kun, Yuu-kun, get behind me.” “! I-… I’m fine not being protected, sir!” The young apple protested, earning himself a chuckle, “Listen well, Epel-kun. Hiding behind one's back doesn't only mean ‘protected’ or ‘running away’.”
“You can also sneak up behind enemies by hiding yourself, and you'll have a higher chance of defeating opponents when the front fails to do so. This is an important tactic when hiding behind someone's back,” Rook explained, wiggling his finger like a strict teacher. “Meaning not all in the front are the stronger, Little Apple,” Vil followed with a smirk. “… U-Understand. Leave the back to me!” “Good. Then…” The talk was over. The swirling sphere finally shot up, aiming at the lock of the cage. DANG! The impact effectively destroyed the lock, and the door fuzzed over then fell to the ground. “GAAAAAAAHHHH!!!” A loud shrieking echoed.
Coming out of the cage was a tall Phantom, dressed in a magenta ragged gown. It was slightly taller than Vil (even with his high heels), towering over the group. With its high pitched shrill, the monster almost caused them some ear damage. “Ugh-! What a b-… Noisy Phantom!” The evil queen almost cursed at the creature as he launched several blades of wind magic at it. Rook supported Vil by providing some fire magic himself to amplify the attack. Epel helped in parrying some stray magic, while sneaking some icicles at the Blot creature.
Yet, the tall Phantom still stood. “Just a little more… Epel! Can you summon a sphere wind magic!?” “S-Sphere…!?” Seeing the panic on the little apple's face, the hunter gave an explanation, “Try imagining that Phantom is nothing more than a Magift Disk, and you used your wind to trap that disk inside it. Do you think you can do that?” Epel stared at the Phantom. In his mind, he's changing that ragged monster into the spinning Magift Disk he’d always seen during his practice, and that disk was spinning inside a ball of tornado. When the image became clear in his mind, Epel nodded, “I'll try! Take this!!!” With his magical pen pointing at the Phantom, the magic gathered at the point of the pen then shot!
The wind traveled fast, surrounding the shrieking blot in a tiny tornado sphere. “Agh-! I made it too little…!” Epel clicked his tongue. But his dorm head thought otherwise, “No. That's quite enough.” Vil shot out his own sphere wind attack, increasing the intensity of the attack. “Rook!” “Yes, my queen!” The hunter delivered the final blow, by using a fireball to cause an explosion right at the Phantom.
BANG! It shook the nearby cages, and even the pool near it slightly blew out. Once the Phantom melted into a puddle of black ink, something echoed. Thud. “!! I heard something fall to the ground just now,” Rook stated. Vil approached the puddle, and found what they were looking for near it. “Ah, it's the ID card!” He declared, waving the card for the others to see. “Seems like this Phantom was the one holding onto it.” “Ah… So they did have one… I guess the hints Ortho-kun gave earlier weren't lies…” Epel breathed with relief. “Tres bien! I suppose this is what the power of belief that opened the way forward for us,” Rook winked. “Hmph. Surely he gave those hints not out of the kindness of his heart.” Vil huffed, turning the ID card to check once again if it was the real one. “They're rolling us around as if they’re playing a chessboard.” The group walked toward the exit door to the floor below them. While they walked, Vil continued, “They're just killing some time-…” He paused, then frowned. “… Killing time? No, that's not it… Could it probably be-…” THUD THUD KACHANK
The Phantoms grew restless. More of them tried to break their cages open, alarming the group of their limited leisure. “!!! Seems like we have no time for chit-chat!” Vil gasped, hurriedly went to the key scanner to swipe the ID card. “Make haste, everyone!” When the door slid open, Rook urged both juniors to go with Vil first while he stayed on guard at the rear. Finally, they arrived at the familiar stairs, as the door closed tight behind them. Relief washed over them, so they exhaled a breath, celebrating that small escape. “Phew… Somehow we managed to get away safely…” The queen breathed out, holding onto his chest to calm himself.
The huntsman glanced at the sealed door, he commented, “I noticed the Phantoms inside the cages are all smaller entities.” “Yeah! With that size, I can handle them all… I think…” Epel was confident in his skill, but Vil warned him, “Don't let down your guard yet. I heard the deeper we go, the Phantoms will gradually be more troublesome than before. Stay alert, everyone.”
“…… The Phantoms there…” Yuu spoke softly, “Not all of them were awake, right…?” He asked carefully. The question brought confusion to the team, however only Vil nodded, “You noticed it too, I see. Those troublemaker brothers may have full control of the whole island, but they cannot unfreeze all of the Phantoms here at once.” The General's dormhead revealed the truth he had taken notes of. “!?” “If they had been able to do that, why bother setting up games like that?” Yuu added. Ortho making this whole situation into a typical RPG story setting was suspicious in his eyes. However, the thing that bothered him the most was that while the brothers used this situation as a means to buy themselves time, it was also a means to entertain themselves. To wear them down, so none of them could withstand an army of Phantoms from different eras, and the overblotted Idia plus Ortho.
Vil continued his deduction. Based on the announcement all of them had heard about the Phantoms Testings, it appeared that Tartarus itself didn't possess a device that could defroze the monsters within willy-nilly. As such, when the Shrouds took control of the power, they turned off the freezer instead, and let the ice which made the Phantoms’ beds melted naturally. Epel nodded with some understanding, imagining the situation like wanting to defrost a frozen food package but didn't have a microwave or a stove to do so. In the end, those two siblings were stuck in a state in which they were in fact not fully controlled.
“Hmmm… I guess it's a good thing that Yuu's guess hit the nail, right?” Epel stated, smiling contently. “Huh?” Caught off guard, the outworlder looked at the apple with a confused look. “Cuz if we opened the other one first, we wouldn't be able to get out of there as quickly as we did… Right?” He looked at his seniors, who nodded in agreement. “Right. Guess we'll let you handle choosing the next correct answer then, hm, Yuu?” “I-I'll do my best…! But you sure put a lot of trust, and pressure, on me just because my guess was correct…” Yuu whined slightly, not expecting such an easygoing agreement. “Well, you did give a lot of surprises. From knocking out how many out of control robots, to smacking some Phantoms down.” Vil counted the boy's deed, causing the other to be flustered, “O-Okay, I get it! But don't blame me if I guess it wrong later…” “Don't even get the wrong one.” The Pomefiore trio laughed when Yuu moaned in agony.
“They might prepare some more of that ridiculous game later on, but I just wish Ortho would give up on the idea of resetting the world and turn to acting instead,” Vil smiled with expectation. “His villainous act was notably memorable,” Rook agreed, happily indulging his queen with a topic of a promising young actor with the name of Ortho. While they were chatting away, in the back, Yuu dropped his flustered smile, silently feeling the pendant on his chest.
Earlier, when they were searching that first cage, Yuu approached the other two. His ears caught the scuffling noises from inside those boxes. He could hear the banging as well, which the others could hear. But those scuffling ones… He had a feeling those were not regular sounds. ‘Almost like…’ The boy remembered the time he heard those…
Dripping sounds…
Yeah… What he felt when he heard these ‘noises’ were the same. The sounds only He could hear. Perhaps if he listened to them closely, he might get a clue where the ID card was hidden. Unfortunately…… His ears only caught the same rubbing, scuffling, almost like wet slime sounds moving around. If what he could hear were all just these, how could he find that ID card and be useful for onc-!
Ting.
His copper eyes blinked, when something shiny caught his sight. Blinked again then looked down. His pendant was glowing dimly, as it raised itself steadily. The pointy end floated up, producing a dim light almost like a weak laser, then pointed it at the cage behind the pool. ‘What the…’ I-Is this pendant was showing him the correct answer…? Yuu gripped the crystal, stopping the laser light, as he was in a deep thought. When he was looking for Grim that night, this pendant also showed him the way…
… He could only rely on this mysterious crystal pendant. He had nothing else to wager, so… “…… Everyone, can you guys open that one first?” He turned around, asking his teammates for a favor.
………
In the depth of Tartarus, the gate to the ‘Underworld’ was still trying to open itself. Within it, the black inky liquid bubbling with a lot of enthusiasm. Deep voices echoed with amusement, “Huh… They easily passed the second trial. I thought the difficulty level was right for beginners, did I make it too easy afterall?” The childish tone made it obvious who the voice belongs to. “It's okay. The ‘Titans’ will wake up soon,” Idia replied, his voice becoming corrupted. Both of them had screens playing camera footage from the three towers, showing each team completing Ortho’s challenges. “The ‘Titans’ are being kept at the most cold part of the 12th layer, right? But they quickly melted, huh.” “As expected of the primitive beings. They are on a whole different level. The unsealing of the Underworld's gate is also going well.” Idia’s shadow kneeled down before the half-opened seal, eying his ‘brothers’ through the slight opening. In the huge lake of black tar-like substance, laid afloat of it was a half-covered ORTHO model. Its unpowered yellow eyes were wide open, as if it was just a mechanical puppet on display.
“It's easy to enter the ‘Underworld’. But once you're in, you can't open the exit from within. A one-way door to nothingness… And now, we'll pry it open from inside.” Idia's hand touched the circular door frame, awaiting for his brothers’ return. “Those who've entered the ‘Underworld’ shall never again set foot on the surface… As that is the ‘rule’.” The younger voice said in sorrow. But then, the tone turned from despair to hope. “When I return to the surface, I bet everyone will be surprised~…”
“I'm so excited… Ehehe… Ehehehe…!”