Archive of Our Own ^beta

A/N:

This is an idea that I haven't seen explored yet, so I took it upon myself.

Remember:

There is always room for happy endings.

—

Coerced into Altruism in the Dungeon

—

The building Eli was atop was exposed to the day's elements.

The small drizzle pattered on his form, and despite the wind also beating at his face, both chills felt pleasant. He was initially concerned it would affect what he came up here to do, yet it never picked up.

Despite the weather however, the sky was not overcast. The sun was still out there, looming in the distance. He took solace in the fact that the only thing surrounding him was this warm glow, the wind's whispering wails, as well as the gentle rhythmic taps of the sky's downfall, almost melodic if he listened at just the right times.

He closed both eyes, enjoying the sense of nothingness all around him as he waited. At the corner of his mouth, he inhaled one last puff of smoke from his cigarette, before spitting it off to the side.

The moisture was ruining it anyway.

Breathing in through his nose, he let a state of calm soothe his entire being.

His eyes darted to the watch affixed to his sleeve.

It was nearly time, he noted, looking through the clear lens of the top-of-the-line scope he had purchased in advance for this job.

He played with the dial on the side, slowly zooming closer and closer amidst the sudden influx of blurry figures moving about.

It was 200 meters, give or take.

It wasn't his largest distance, not even close, but it was still certainly one that required his utmost concentration.

His finger eased onto the metal with familiarity, and he held it there, steadying his breaths even further, the sway that affected the subtly red crosshair stopping on a singular form amidst many—the brown receding hairline of a man amicably shaking hands on a wide-open stage.

Smile, shake, look away.

That repeated, and the amount of people around him began to lessen.

Unfortunately for his target, that dwindling number was also the countdown he had to live.

Five.

Four.

Three.

Two.

On the final person, the smiling man looked elsewhere for a spell, performing a paltry wave. Overcome by his own curiosity, Eli looked as well, spotting two figures at the back of the stage, a woman and child. The younger bounced up and down excitedly, while the woman smiled back warmly.

That made him... a little guilty for what he was about to do, but it wasn't nearly enough to change his mind.

"Sorry not sorry. It's 500K we're talking about..." His low mutter carried, just as the man reached to shake the final hand. Look. Smile. Shake. Drop. Walk away. The last remaining person vacated from the three-centimeter margin that was Eli's rule.

Right as this happened, his body tensed, but in a complete state of control. He released the breath that would accompany the decisive pressure needed for the sniper bullet to be sent careening into an oblivious brain. At the same time, elation like never before rose in his chest, and he couldn't help but grin.

He loved this part.

"You're dead."

A loud sound wrenched through the air.

His shot went way off target, and the wooden scaffolding holding up the grand red curtains of the stage exploded, the velvet cloth falling onto thousands of startled people who were now screaming in a panic.

The vigorous celebrations marking yet another year of the mayor in office were ruined completely.

It was an act of terror, and yet no one died.

Eli, stared at it all, wide eyed.

There was no way his aim had been off, not when he had his target dead to rights, literally.

Perhaps unconsciously, he tore his gaze from the scope, and when he did, he was met with a sight that truly and utterly confounded him. It left him floundering so much in fact, that he just stared at it dumbly, even to the point where he completely tuned out the still ever-present screams from below.

Along the length of his barrel, there was something firmly connected to it. No, there was something wrapped around the steel partition. It was thin, razor thin, to the point where Eli had to blink multiple times to make sure what he was seeing was actually there.

It was a wire.

For all intents and purposes, it looked like a tripwire, however he could just barely see a hooked edge at its end, where it had looped several times around the frame of his sniper. Wordlessly, his gaze left this abnormality to trail just where it had came from.

Thoughts that his gun had somehow gotten snagged on some odd part of the building was as unrealistic as God himself interfering, but it was still the only plausible thing on his mind to have caused him to miss the way he did, no, to have caused his entire gun to jerk completely off angle, sending his shot spiraling out of the way.

But when his eyes landed on the right side of the building, his thoughts slowed to a halt.

He... didn't know what he was looking at, and in a show of complete foolishness, he just stared without doing anything, his mind having come to a complete blank.

"Well, this is awkward."

That voice spoke, one sounding so close to being young, but also strangely mature. Perhaps that maturity came from the slight tinge of amusement he detected in it. No, not amusement. It was the tone of voice of someone who was unconcerned, not laced with any kind of tension.

That was as far as Eli's questions went however before instincts jumpstarted, years of life-or-death situations spurring his body into movement.

He rolled out from his prone position into a crouch, reaching behind his waist for a very familiar friend for express purposes like this.

Once landing, he abruptly had to dive sideways, and was rewarded with the heavy THUNK of a clash of metal where he had just been. He took this opportune moment to enact his own counterattack, his arm already readying the small DB9 sidearm, pointing it towards the figure he was certain hadn't moved from their starting position at all.

Eli's sights lined up with a completely empty rooftop.

His breath hitched with utmost surprise.

"Someone wasn't paying attention~!"

A chill shot down his spine, and Eli could only define it as a feeling of death as he heard a voice from directly behind him.

He had no time to question it further however, as his vision suddenly swam, something impacting the base of his skull at precisely the same moment.

His entire body fell forward, and he didn't feel pain when his head slammed into the damp concrete tiles of the roof floor. Instead, it was just a very jarring numbing, similar to anesthesia or the like. His brain, ever rational, was able to tell him that the prior blow had dulled his pain receptors for a bit.

His head just barely tilted up, and he was able to see the sidearm just a few inches from his frozen hands. He was already reaching for it. Kill, he thought. He needed to kill whoever was attacking him no matter what. Only then could he track down his contract and do the same. Gotta... kill...

Black gloved hands picked up the firearm—one's that were not his own.

And then, a whistle.

Eli looked up at the stranger who was now appraising his small gun, holding it above him dramatically while bathed in the slight shower of the endless rain.

And, he couldn't help but gasp.

This was due to his first real and conscious look of just what this stranger looked like.

It was a mix between both formal and informal. Crisp black pants with a similarly colored coat, the latter of which rested over a white dress shirt of sorts. The pants were held up by a very peculiar golden leather belt, and in the same manner, there were small golden chains, not hanging down per say, but affixed to the coat in various spots, resembling some kind of fashion statement.

"Hm? Something wrong?"

Eli was once again brought to the man's 'face', just as a loud clank of metal echoed, courtesy of the strangely dressed man sliding off the chamber of the gun, it falling onto the ground loudly.

Far from focusing on the rather mocking display however, he instead focused on the strangest thing about the person, his face.

No, calling it a face wasn't even accurate, considering the expression he was looking at wasn't even real.

It was a white mask with animated eyes and mouth.

The eyes were slightly narrowed and completely black, and the mouth could be considered even more disturbing. It was a smile; a wide chilling red smile that stretched across the entire bottom portion of the disguise.

Wait...

A feeling as cold as ice shot through him, and he realized it was recognition, simmering from the deepest corners of his mind.

Eli had heard of someone terrorizing the underworld as of late; blowing up drug dens, stopping human trafficking groups, shutting down ongoing crimes with speed and efficiency that put the police to shame.

He hadn't seen what such a person looked like himself, but there was a single collective fact everyone knew. He wore a cartoonish mask, and Eli doubted there were many who deranged enough to do the same.

This had to be him.

But, he thought, his lips curving into a smile, feeling life in his limbs again. This changes nothing...

As he watched this masked freak thoughtlessly destroy the means of stopping a man in his tracks permanently, renewed confidence surged within him. His muscles tensed, and he leapt to his feet before his company could even think to stop him. He assumed a fighting stance; his gait low, fists held aloft.

A single glance was all this afforded him, dropping the rest of the gun's parts unceremoniously onto the floor."We going for another round? Sure you'll be okay without your little pick-me-up?"

Eli bit back the explicative curse he had on his lips. He settled for a calm frown instead, answering with a measured tone. "I don't need anything but my hands to squeeze the life out of you."

Eli believed that too.

The masked man may have caught him off guard before, but that was him being sufficiently distracted by both evading an attack and reaching for his gun. As long as he kept his eyes on him, he was sure he could best him. There was another factor that gave him confidence. It had him scoffing at his opponent.

That slender build... if I just manage to get him into a grapple... Eli was certain he had both years and weight on his enemy. The moment he caught him, the fight would be decided.

"..."

The masked man chose not to respond to the barb, but that only fueled Eli further as he grinned wildly. If he didn't want to talk that was fine by him. A silence stretched between the both of them as they stared at each other, neither of them starting the altercation, perhaps in fear of tipping the other off about their movements.

But then, Eli shot off towards him as fast as he could go. To accompany this, a feeling of elation like never before filled him as the masked stranger made a small noise of surprise, actually flinching backwards. Dumbass! You've just sealed your—

"Hehe. Just kidding~."

That voice, completely at odds with the trace of unease before, echoed in his ears. If Eli felt any kind of danger in his attack, he was too late to retract it however, as he had already leapt at the person with the small frame the very instant he sensed his weakness. His aim had been to bring him down to the ground and strangle the life out of him, but... he had miscalculated.

Because along with that teasing, almost snarky voice, came a feeling like no other crashing into the bottom of his skull.

He immediately went to scream in pain, but no sound came out, just as his vision darted in and out of consciousness.

For the second time that day, he fell to the floor, water pelting his skin all the while. Huh? He was confused. He clutched the now numb part of his face, his lower jaw, his chin, cursing. But... "Ghhaaahhh?"

Nothing but unintelligible moans came out instead. He tried again, and again, but to no avail. He... He couldn't speak.

"If you're wondering why you can't speak, I'm pretty sure it's because I broke your jaw. You know, because you viciously jammed it into my knee?"

Eli growled from the very base of his throat, already reaching at his pantleg, whipping it out with a flash. He should have heard the satisfying squelch of flesh being punctured, but instead there was nothing but steel hitting air.

"Oh no. A knife. My one weakness."

A monotone flittered from behind him, and he was already swinging in that direction.

But no matter how he made the small blade dance, he could not land it in the infuriatingly nimble man.

True to his slender body, he was agile, darting away from each poised thrust and slash. The mask, with that eerie expression seemed to twist further in delight, despite the unchanging painted visage. Eli grew more frustrated by the second, throwing out more desperate strikes, until he finally overextended upon his rage reaching its peak.

"There it is."

The attack was swift.

A gloved fist flashed towards his throat, and a strangled gasp left him before he could stop himself.

He clutched the fleshy part of his body with a biting pain, only to feel the back of his shirt grabbed by the lapel. He was promptly thrown into the roof's one entrance and exit. His mind, already addled by pain, slammed face first into the door, and he dizzyingly brought both hands to steady himself and dart away.

His attacker didn't let him.

A leg slid between his, his arms were bunched behind his back in a hold that had him gasping in discomfort. "Gah...!"

"Now,"the masked man said, voice dripping with amusement that had always been present."What was it that you said before?"

The grip on his arms grew tighter and they were forced into a position that had Eli's muscles screaming in protest.

"Ah yes,"he said with a biting laugh—no, a nigh delighted chuckle."You don't need anything but your hands to squeeze the life out of me? Hehe, shall we render that a moot point?"

Eli didn't even have time to consider what that meant.

A sickening crack echoed through the rooftop.

It was only the excruciating pain that followed that had him realize it came from his own body. He screamed. He screamed his debilitating jaw out, so loud and hoarse that it felt like it would snap off at any given moment. "Hghfgbhsdb?! My—giihhhh! My hgggddgdhghhjfhjfh!" His arm. Oh god, his arm. The fucking psychopath had broken his arm.

"Oh, but you're a badass assassin, right? You can probably still do plenty of damage with your other one, huh?"

Eli's eyes grew wide.

"W-Wait." His jaw started working again, or more like he forced the words out regardless.

It didn't save him.

This time, there was no sickening sound of bone being torn from fleshy ligaments, for at that very moment, thunder struck off in the distance, making everything soundless for a brief moment.

Thus, without a single sound to mark its delivery, his entire right side burned as his other arm was bent at a completely wrong angle. He barely even felt the sensation of it falling uselessly to his side.

He didn't hear his own scream so much as he felt the fire burning his throat as he did so. He didn't realize immediately that the man had let him go, but he was hardly in a state to move, not when he could not feel either his arms.

In the same manner, he thought it was a miracle he could even feel his legs given the paralyzing fear that shot through them.

At that moment, he heard metal scratch against the concrete, and looking over was a mistake. A dirty pipe scraped towards him, held aloft by the masked, grinning, man. Eli's entire being chilled over. This person wasn't normal. He was insane, unhinged. No—a monster. He was a monster in human skin.

"You may have heard I don't kill people. You'd be right."

Eli watched as he flipped the pipe in his hand, bringing it above his head. It was quite the ominous image, lightning choosing just then to strike off in the distance. His features, the soulless black eyes and almost bloodthirsty smile flashed demonically for just a moment.

" I make them wish they were dead."

Eli screamed.

…

…

…

"Well, that was a copout," Alex muttered.

It was one thing to break both arms of the assassin, but for him to faint just before things got really messy? He would feel cheated if he was half the sadist he played as. It was for the best though, for everyone involved. He wasn't a monster, nor a dick. That said, he certainly wasn't about to make some poor janitor clean blood off a rooftop.

As if he'd be so insensitive.

Not to mention, he didn't want to be scrubbing stains out of his own outfit.

Oh, and he supposed it was always nice not to kill people and all that.

Not that it was very hard not to.

After all, humans were incredibly fragile creatures. If you break them just a little bit, they have trouble moving, so it's not like it's necessary to end their lives. It was part of the reason he removed guns from the equation when he could. Too messy, and most of all, too unpredictable.

When a bullet entered someone's body, you were inviting a whole list of internal problems. Blunt trauma was way easier to deal with and deal to others. Rapist looking to get handsy? Shatter the fingers. Boom. Problem solved.

It wasn't that Alex liked causing pain, it was just more efficient at times.

He dropped the pipe with a clatter, smacking his gloved hands of the dust. "Guess the police can take care of the rest," he said, sparing one more glance at the defeated, oddly pathetic form of a person who was supposed to hold such a terrifying profession.

Alex would be laughing if the man was conscious enough to hear it. Regardless, he walked towards the perimeter of the building, right where the loser's prized possession was still lying prone overlooking the busy city streets.

He picked the sniper rifle up, admiring its make under the sunlit but rainy day.

Military grade, huh?

He guessed that meant there were new suppliers in town.

There was never a dull moment, not in this city.

He supposed he would be quite busy in the next few weeks. His lips curved upward before he could stop himself.

He should go pay them a visit.

It just wouldn't do for them to think they were being ignored. That would just be bad manners. Alex was a kind person—he shared his attention with all the criminals, smalltime or big time, young or old, male or female.

Sirens started to clamor in the distance, and he ignored them even as they got louder and louder—closer.

Time of the essence, he started to wrap things up himself. With the weapon still in his hands, he reached along the bulky stalk for the metal pin along its side, flipping it counter clockwise. The gears no longer holding the butt of the rifle together, he made to remove it in its entirety, starting the dismantling process, however, something had him looking up.

The rain had suddenly undergone a change.

It was now pouring, no—hailing.

Even more peculiar, the sun was now nowhere to be seen, obscured by the deep greys of clouds that now existed in every direction. In no time at all, the world had darkened considerably. That's... odd...

The moment he thought that, without warning, a sound cracked through the air with such extreme intensity that he felt his ears splitting, nearly tearing him from consciousness right then and there.

Accompanying this disorienting assault on his auditory senses was something perhaps more threatening, though it only lasted for a second. His vision was submerged in a blinding light before he even considered the option of reacting.

But this confusion quickly turned to pain as a searing sensation lit his entire body, as if every single nerve of his was on fire. The influx of his pain receptors being fried was so unbelievably disassociating that he fell to his knees in a slump. "What the—?!"

And then, everything went dark, his consciousness abruptly waning.

He didn't see the impossible phenomena that seemed to appear in thin air not a second later.

/

[ HERO ] located.

Transporting...

/

"...?!"

When Alex next opened his eyes, he was unable to suppress the curse that escaped from the very back of his throat.

His right arm shot to his opposite shoulder, which felt like it was flaying at the skin because of how painful it was. He surprised himself by not screaming. He dipped his chin downward to get a better look at where the pain was coming from, and frantically tore off his mask when he grew irritated by the eye holes of the visor.

It wasn't just his shoulder that was in pain, not when he saw the back soot marks coating his clothes. And as if some phantom sense suddenly triggered, he convulsed numerous times, nearly falling backwards into the grass behind him.

Grass...?

His hazy mind recognized the texture, and then the sea of green around him. And upon further examination, it wasn't just grass. He was surrounded by trees—a forest. A dense fog ridden forest with tree trunks and branches incredibly gnarled. It looked eerie, especially since it did not ring any bells.

I'm... not in the city...

It was a fairly quick deduction to make, and he knew it to be true because of the distinctive lack of nature spots in the concrete jungle he lived in—and this sure as hell wasn't a park.

He might have been dreaming, but that was doubtful because that searing feeling stinging his nerve endings was painful enough to almost leave him breathless.

He looked around—a proper look.

No matter which direction, he just saw more trees and the fog certainly didn't help things. In fact, had he ever seen fog so thick, so dense that it felt like it was the artificial construct of some horror movie?

It was just so... gloomy.

The lack of light added to that feeling. Looking up didn't reward him with the sight of the sun or the moon, not when the treetops clearly eclipsed any view of the sky.

"Where the hell am I?"

Alex thought back to the last thing he was doing, and with some difficulty, he began to sift through the hazy pieces. I was... having some one-on-one time with that contract killer and made him squeal for a bit, and then, a bright light. Bright light and pai—

His body suddenly seized as an unbearable amount of pain surged through him once again; from his feet to his chest, and even his head. He remembered—God damn fucking right he remembered.

It was kind of hard not to when he had the electrical equivalent of a few thousand stun guns discharged into his system, which, he could say with full confidence wasn't any less painful individually.

But was this a joke?

Was I really just struck by lightning? How the hell am I not dead?

A lightning bolt was around 300 million volts.

That's not the kind of thing a human can walk away from, no matter what kind of physical conditioning he did in his spare time.

Knives, bullets, tazers, and shrapnel from a grenade even—that was the limit of Alex's interaction with lethal weapons. He might be skilled in a fight, yes, but no amount of skill mattered if a bomb was dropped on his head. Lightning was the same.

I feel the pain, it hurts, and fucking burns even... but that's all...

Not only did he survive, but the pain he was receiving was severely less than what he should be feeling. And don't even get him started on any possible brain damage. One world-shattering event at a time, thanks.

Speaking of world-shattering, he supposed a few more things could qualify, like how he was on the top of a skyscraper just a few minutes ago, to whereas now, he was surrounded by spooky ass trees straight out of a video-game's depiction of the 'badlands', or some evil guy's territory—shit like that. Well, the only thing missing was the demonic enemies and-

At that moment, Alex wasted no time launching to his feet and swinging up a nearby tree, within seconds perching on one of the branches, a hastily drawn knife appearing in one hand. In his other, he had dawned his mask.

He remained completely still as he did nothing but wait, straining his ears.

Then.

Rustling.

There was a faint rustling to his right, still a bit aways. Not once looking away from the source of the noise, he flipped the knife around with one hand. Alex was able to hear the footsteps more clearly now, and it made him pause.

That's... not how a human walks...

He heard four feet stepping on the grass and shrubbery, and they sounded heavy, like a bulky animal's. He shifted on the branch, ready to drop at a moment's notice. It might pass him, but if a glance was chanced upward, or even if he was sensed, he would have no choice but to take it down quickly.

While he might not have experience hunting, that still did not change the fact that animals had a method to their rage. They could be predicted and countered—a hell of a lot easier than humans anyway.

He tensed when he saw a form start to come out of shrubbery, and he quickly took note of the bulky frame, reddish hide... and the parts of its spine that jetted outwards?

Alex tried and failed to ascertain what he was staring at.

Luckily however, whatever it was didn't notice him at all as it continued to walk a slow pace underneath the branch he was atop. He didn't relax however, not when for all intents and purposes, it was an unknown creature to him.

The eyes were the most glaring.

They were such a deep red they looked like they were glowing, even though it must have been a trick of the light reflecting from his mask. He continued to watch it while staying unnaturally still, right up until it disappeared further into the trees.

"Okay," he muttered, conveying a clear lack of understanding with what he just witnessed. Some kind of mutated bear maybe? I would call bullshit if I didn't get fucking houdini'd here with zero explanation.

His circumstances were starting to make less and less sense.

There was the option that he was kidnapped, but then there was the glaring inconsistency of leaving him to wake up in a forest alive with his mask untouched. It would have definitely been an interesting prank to say the least.

But that's when he took notice of something metallic glinting on the ground, and when he did, he nearly felt the urge to face palm, despite how disorienting it would be to do so with his mask on.

Just short of being obscured by the large undergrowth of the sea of green all around him, he noticed the all too stalky form of the sniper rifle he had just been about to take apart on that rooftop.

It looked a little worse for wear as it too had taken some damage from some very intense heat, but it wasn't so bad that it looked inoperable. But that wasn't nearly as pressing on his mind as what it was doing here in the first place.

It had somehow... come with him.

The probability of him getting struck by lightning and then kidnapped while he was passed out was looking more and more unlikely.

Instead, something else came to mind, even if it defied all reason and logic. Still though, he couldn't think of anything else. If he had all his belongings, even the items he had been holding, and if he had been struck by lightning to a degree that should have killed him—this could only mean one thing.

Either I just figured out the secrets to quantum physics and teleported—He lifted his head at the expanse of forest—Somewhere? Or, also just as likely given my track record, I'm dead, and this is some kind of hell...

Honestly? That last one was a bit unrealistic.

When he was to finally kick the bucket, he was fairly certain his surroundings would be a lot more... unwelcoming. After all, he was no saint. Not that he believed in places such as heaven and hell, but shouldn't he be getting punished in some way? With all the sin he had managed to rack up, he assumed he was at least due for some strenuous torture or something like it.

Spinning in his hand briefly, his knife soon disappeared within his coat. If... whatever that thing was... came back, then he doubted such a small blade would do any lasting damage. Its skin looked tough, kind of like a rhinoceros, or even a dinosaur.

If that's the type of armor it was rocking, then the only option wasthat, wasn't it?

His eyes trailed to the rifle on the ground.

His weight shifted, about to drop back down to the grass, however, he stopped himself abruptly, and it nearly resulted in him falling off the branch.

A fact that would have likely ended up killing him.

In that next moment, an inhuman wailing assaulted the air from seemingly all directions. His body went rigid, and it took everything in him to stop himself from falling off his elevated position. That was extraordinarily difficult however because the ground chose that moment to shake with incredible force.

An earthquake, at least, he thought so.

Alex would have been convinced of this conclusion if he didn't suddenly hear a cacophony of noises, this time however, distinct and very much close by. They were coming straight towards him.

Abruptly, a tree exploded to his left, and he looked just in time to see a mammoth of a creature tear its roots from the ground as it smashed into it, before ignoring it completely and crashing into everything else in its wake with an urgency that implied a fierce desperation, maybe even fear.

But before Alex could even question what was going on, it happened again, except the trees exploding did not just number at one or two.

It sounded like numerous bombs had gone off, and the ground, on his left flank, was suddenly assaulted by rushing creatures of various shapes, colors, and sizes. They dashed through the forest below, unconcerned with everything in their wake.

That included the tree Alex was atop. It was a miracle it was ignored for so long but that changed when a creature that looked frighteningly close to a gorilla lumbered through the woods, meaty fists catching the base of the tree.

If Alex's reflexes had been any slower, he would have missed the timing needed to do what he did next. Something on his belt, accompanied by a flash of his hands, blurred towards another tree, and no sooner, his body launched from the now wrecked landform.

Flying through the air at lightning speeds, his hand shot out just in time to catch a stray branch, and he performed several spins before he landed deftly on the wooden limb. Only then did he take a breath, surveying where he had just whisked away from.

The tree was gone.

It had been instantly uprooted and decimated by the random flailing of a creature that he was all but certain couldn't have resided in his world. If anything, it was nothing short of a monster, especially with those—once again—crimson glows that made up its eyes.

But that gorilla-esque thing wasn't the only danger to him with its massive gait. Smaller creatures ran at full speeds below him, and the number was so great that it eventually crowded to be a full-on stampede of creatures he had never seen before. And they all had those red eyes.

Now, if Alex would have fallen, he might have been able to avoid the trampling of one or two, but not the dozens upon dozens sprinting in one direction as if they were all mad. What the hell was going on? It was like they were running from—

Suddenly, the wailing from before, the wretched sound that kicked off all of this, ceased in its entirety.

The only thing he heard was the almost endless footsteps of unknown creatures as they continued to rush underneath him. Confused and more than a little disturbed, Alex tried to maintain his calm, however, what happened next made that impossible.

Light flashed.

/

VIEW QUEST

[YES] [NO]

/

What?

Words appeared amidst an orange floating holographic screen mere millimeters from his face.

He took a step back, before realizing he was on a tree branch. He lost his balance completely and was sent falling backwards. Luckily for him, the creatures had long past his neck of the woods, so his quick reaction of linking the undersides of his knees around the branch might have been unwarranted.

Nonetheless, he now hung upside down, the strangest thing meeting his sight. It was the screen. Surprisingly, it had changed its orientation to follow him.

Feeling a bit annoyed, his grip on the branch loosened and he fell only to land in a roll, facing the complete opposite direction now. "Ugh..." And of course, that orange screen was still staring back at him. He let out a breathy sigh, crossing his arms.

View Quest?

Was this some kind of joke? Did he lose so many brain cells from getting struck by lightning that he was hallucinating some kind of video game interface? On a whim, he tried waving his hand through it. Annnnnnd it just goes straight through. Figures...

Alex didn't really have the time to be fooling around like this, not with how concerned he was with how quiet it had gotten. But... since his surroundings didn't show him to be in any immediate danger, he relented.

"Ah, what the hell."

Without any more deliberation, he cut his losses and clicked[YES]on the floating prompt, and no sooner after he did, a very automated PING sound effect was heard and–

/

On the 30 th  floor of the Dungeon, young women of the Astraea Familia are doing battle with a rival group, the Rudra Familia, who engineered a trap, setting off numerous explosives. This attack failed to kill Astraea Family, but it did set something else in motion. The Dungeon responded to the damage dealt to its surroundings by sending a Level 7 Monster Rex to deal with the intruders harming it—this creature is known as the Juggernaut. If nothing is done, the Astraea Familia will likely be wiped out.

OBJECTIVE(S):

Protect the Astraea Familia until they safely make it back to the surface.

* Warning *

Failing a quest might cause severe penalties to be enacted on self.

/

Alex didn't say a word.

He just continued to read the long string of text that appeared in front of him. At one point he had to flick a gloved finger just to scroll down. He even clicked on some of the words, that for whatever reason, were highlighted. These held definitions, and as some were not easily definable, they gave him clarity through an abundant amount of context.

He perhaps spent around half a minute looking through all this information with who knows what expression on his face. When he finished, however, he let his arms fall to his sides, looking up. He looked at the creepy grove of treetops where he was sure something of a ceiling should reside, and then perhaps another, and another, and another.

Multiple ceilings that would grow lesser as he ascended, all the way to the surface, because apparently, that's where he WASN'T.

He was in a dungeon.

A bona fide, mythical ass, monster filled dungeon in a labyrinth city called Orario.

There was only one way to react to something of this magnitude.

He promptly burst out laughing.

His whole body shook, and what started out as silent chuckles turned into barrels of falsettos echoing throughout the chaotically oriented woods.

As his body was wracked by this untethered amusement, he brought a gloved hand to his masked but widely grinning face. It wasn't that he had lost his mind, no—far from it. It was just hilarious, genuinely hilarious.

Man...! Only something like this could happen to me~!

It's not like he wasn't sad, or even angry. In fact, he was pretty fucking livid that this had happened to him without him having any say in the matter, but—his laughs lowered in volume, shaky, and with less impact now.

Complaining wouldn't change a damn thing, would it?

He could scream to his heart's content about how fucked up this situation was, but doing so wouldn't bring him back to where he was.

He had been sent here with purposeful intent.

That was an important distinction he could not gloss over.

Someone or something had willingly made the decision that he was needed, and waived all his human rights away the moment that they did.

They had struck him with lightning from nowhere and sent him in the middle of nowhere.

His anger wouldn't move anyone, least of all the beings capable of all of this shit.

"So I'm stuck, is it?" he sighed out. Exasperation? Amusement? He wondered which was more prevalent for him right now? Or maybe, he was just so stricken by the fact that he was no longer within the tethers of modern reality, that it could very well be both and neither.

Those creatures from before?

Those had been honest to goodness monsters.

He had no idea if they were creatures that a regular human like him could take out, even with a knife and a sniper rifle. For all he knew, he could die instantly.

Yes, he might be skilled enough to play around with thugs and gangsters, but he would surely regret it if he thought even for a moment that ability mattered here at all.

And don't even get him started on that inhuman screech, the one that had surrounded all aspects of his hearing, almost drowning out his own thoughts. That had been the dungeon itself. It was sentient. Fucking. Sentient. It possessed the cognitive awareness to feel things such as sadness, and more importantly, rage.

He looked back at the quest, the words—no, the directive contained therein.

And I have to save some girls from a monster, and not just any one, but one that's Level 7?

Alex had no idea what that leveling meant exactly, but Level 7 couldn't be anything good. Of course, there was the fact that clicking on the word Juggernaut gave him a picture, which was something he immediately regretted.

Honestly, that thing looked terrifying, something out of his nightmares. It could even pass off as a dinosaur on steroids. Would he really be capable of safeguarding people from that thing, much less killing it?

He didn't know much about this Astraea Familia, only that they were a group of Level 4 girls that served as a policing agent in their world. And the quest screen had told him in no uncertain terms that they would likely be wiped out. A group of Level 4's would be wiped out when facing a Level 7 monster.

What the hell did that say about him?

He was from a normal world, without monsters, without any sort of supernatural ability that this world apparently gave off in spades.

What did that make him? A Level 1? No... he was less than that. He was a zero.

Honestly, Alex was better off running. He would be leaving those girls to die, but did that really matter? He didn't know them, and he certainly didn't owe them anything. He wouldn't be bothered by the deaths of people he couldn't even see.

What he did, why he donned his mask, it wasn't because he believed in dealing out justice, or because he wanted to save people.

It was for fun.

For a thrill.

Compared to the cesspool of boredom that was school and daily life, cracking the skulls of scumbags was fucking therapeutic.

He wasn't a good person, and he was certain he was going to hell when he died, if such a place even existed. If running away here meant he could live to fight another day, then that sounded a hell of a lot better than killing himself with some fool's errand of heroics. In fact, he moved to do just that—

/

Failing a quest might cause severe penalties to be enacted on self.

/

"..."

His movements stopped, and he bit back a growl of irritation, eyes dipping to that warning, that painfully ominous and vague warning.

It could mean anything, literally anything at all.

A penalty was like a consequence, simply an effect or result of an action—that's what Alex knew of the word anyway. But that could be something as simple as being pinched on the arm, or as extreme as losing one's life. What could it be in this case? There was no way to know.

...That was a lie.

Alex already had a pretty good idea.

If whoever sent him here had the power to displace him between worlds, then they certainly wouldn't be giving him a slap on the wrist for failing their imposed objective.

They had struck him with lightning. Loud, bright and searing in pain lightning that was almost harmful enough to kill him. Penalty his ass, he knew exactly what would happen to him should he failthis quest.

"So... a hero with a gun to my head, huh?"

Maybe this was karma in a way.

He took on the mantle of stopping scumbags, but his motives were anything but altruistic. If this was his punishment for thinking that way, then he thought it fit quite nicely. Whoever did this to him sure had a warped sense of humor.

He sighed.

"Fine then. You want me to save them? I'll fucking save them."

Or, that's what he'd like to say, if he had any clue where they were supposed to be.

From what little he had read about the dungeon in the past few minutes, the floors were not by any means small. He certainly didn't know how to get himself un-lost in this massive ass forest.

Sure, he could hazard a guess on which direction to go with those monsters running away like they were, but he was fairly certain he would need a little bit more to go on if he was being expected of playing the knight in shining armor to a bunch of damsels in—

The quest screen suddenly disappeared, and in its place, appeared a very intricately created interface that held some very familiar topography.

He stared at it for a time with nary a change of expression behind his mask, then looked upward, where the sky should be... somewhere.

"Really?"

As expected, he got no response.

Sighing again, he looked back to the mini-map, an actual mini-map, that appeared upon his request, where he noticed several very distinctive blinking red dots all converged on a single location. He would go out on a limb and say those were his damsels...

Shouldering a large firearm that likely did not belong in this world, he broke into a sprint, dashing through the trees and shrubbery of the ominous foggy wood, the map keeping up with his pace with not a single flinch.

Although, in the back of his mind, he wondered why everything looked like a video game. He wanted to pretend that whatever higher power did this to him wasn't just copying his modern media as a frame of reference because they lacked originality.

He wouldn't complain about a free map though.

His pace grew quicker.

…

…

…

The sounds were Noin's first clue that something bad was about to happen.

The young member of Astraea Familia looked around the dungeon's spacious 30th floor warily, as the chilling howl continued to echo in her ears. It was so inhuman, so rich with malice and hate that it felt like she was drowning in it. It put her on edge, more so than she had ever been before in the dungeon. She did not need a sixth sense to figure out just how terrifying whatever was making that sound was, not when her entire body was screaming at her to run away.

The screeching shook the very ground itself—no, the ground shook WITH the screeches. As the dungeon did not lack sentience, she knew every bit of the surroundings around her was not only alive but thrumming with the same vicious hatred that bore down on her like a storm. The cavern walls, ceiling, the trees, undergrowth—the very dungeon itself—was all collectively screaming its outrage.

It was a cue, a forewarning of imminent danger, the only one adventurers like herself received before they were overwhelmed and forced to fight for their lives.

Noin's hands gripped the straps of her small shield tightly, so tight that her palm felt it was molded into it. Head on a swivel, she looked around the foggy barren land that made up the floor. The chilling sounds did not cease, and as each second passed by, the girl felt her shoulders grow more and more tense with unease.

Anticipation of an upcoming fight sent coils of dread springing without stop inside her body, and she simply wanted release.

Thus, when a shadow caught her eye, she didn't feel any urge to condemn the naked relief she felt. This meant she had something to focus on, an object that her ire could be aimed at.

Whatever that object was, it dropped from the ceiling with a distinct lack of presence that left Noin perplexed.

It was curled into a ball not dissimilar to a Mad Beetle or the like, and it simply glided downwards effortlessly and without noise. It skidded along an adjacent wall, long spindly limbs stretching, flashing appendages that seemed to cut at the surrounding rock, causing a shower of sparks to erupt.

Noin released a breath, unsheathing her sword from her—

The object vanished.

Huh?

In the time it took to blink, that black shape had suddenly got a lot closer. It changed location instantly, and her brain struggled to adapt to the new sensory overload of information. Bigger. It became a lot bigger. With its piercing red eyes that seemed to glow a crimson light, and its long abyssal bony arms, it seemed to freeze in place as it stood before her.

No.

Noin felt her heart squeeze as she came to one singular conclusion. It hadn't frozen. It was just aiming a sharp claw held high above its skull head, the fearsomely sharp digits glinting amidst the scant light. And the teeth, the teeth shown like obsidian, razor sharp edges that made rows upon rows where its mouth formed. Noin noticed all these details, even as her mind completely blanked.

Then the talon flashed downward.

Her body didn't retreat in the slightest. She didn't draw her sword. There was no signal for her to move whatsoever. She just stood there dumbly, despite there being mere millimeters between her and a fatal attack. But it wasn't because she was frozen with fear. Nor did she even feel any kind of danger.

Yes; just like that.

Noin was promptly skewered through the heart, without even understanding the basic reason why.

She should have been.

She definitely should have been.

CRAAACK!

A sound she had never heard before exploded in her ears, along with a very violent orange flame that so abruptly lit up the left side of that black monster's face.

It was an attack in only name, however.

The orange flame, the sparks that which were created afterward, died not a second after, leaving nothing remaining of the attempt, not single scorch mark on its intended target.

It had done absolutely no harm to the creature.

However, it had succeeded in stealing its attention.

Time grew still as Noin watched that mangily head, mere moments away from ending her life, turn in the direction of the mystery attack.

That was all it did.

Before anything else could happen, the beast simply turned its head in that animalistic fashion, narrowing red beady eyes, likely to vent the rising curiosity of the phantom sensation it had just felt upon its hardened skin.

Noin hadn't turned hers.

If she had, she would have missed what happened next.

CRAAAAACK!

With that same sound as the cue, she witnessed it all.

Orange flame, an eye exploding, black blood spraying out like a geyser, and then, the ear-piercing scream that followed.

...

...

...

A/N:

Don't worry, I'll try to not make the same mistake a lot of other gamer fics make, where system messages take up the whole story. Expect them only to appear in a strenuous circumstances, like so.

So, what do you guys think? Is it wrong to have excellent timing in the dungeon?

Oh, and I did the math, and by that I mean I looked at a timeline. Kaguya is 19. Ryuu is 16. Everyone else is 15 and 16. Eina and Misha are 14. Rivera is 94, lol.

Also, believe it or not, I fleshed out Alex's character and backstory well before I watched the first episode of Eminence in Shadow. Imagine my surprise when both Cid and my OC wore masked attire, both had a flair for the dramatic, and both ended up saving hostage(s) via rooftop entrance—not this story, another one of mine. What I'm saying is, while Cid influences my writing on Alex now, he wasn't a blond replication of him to begin with.

Ryuu was supposed to be standing watch, just like the others.

It was an important duty that definitely needed a hundred percent of her attention, yet she continued to steal glances at the girl next to her, the one who had just recently returned to them. She was sure Noin noticed, but just chose not to say anything. That was her own way of being considerate, even when she didn't need to be. Ryuu had certainly seen it enough times to know.

Eventually tearing her gaze away from her friend, she looked back to the area that required her gaze, the darkness and fog-filled woods, wrapping their location in a complete circle.

Technically, there wasn't any way to keep an eye out for every entry and exit point that could be used by the two targets they waited for, but that was why they all joined in on the search—only as a precaution, however. Ryuu already had an inkling, just as the others likely did, where they would spot movement, if any. It was impossible not to. After all, when they were still working out the kinks in their plan, and even when the waiting period began, the sounds did not once cease.

Of course, she was referring to the sounds coming from the forest.

Deep roars and banshee-like shrieks rumbled up and over the canopies, launching into awaiting ears, only growing louder and even more enraged as time passed. It was why Ryuu didn't have a doubt in her mind of the intense battle occurring deep within that greenery.

And as if on cue, evidence presented itself in the form of yet another tree way in the distance disappearing from sight, with a deep quake bellowing immediately after. And for the umpteenth time, she couldn't refrain from tightening her grip around her blade's leatherbound handle. It wasn't so much the monster that was giving her cause to fret, though.

Yes, that beast in all its demented glory did indeed terrify her—it nearly killed Noin after all—but what truly frayed her nerves was the thought of the person that was supposedly opposing it at this current moment. The very same man who, after coming out of nowhere, seemed to be helping them in their plight.

That person had already managed to save Noin, a girl who despite her Level 4 status had been put on the ropes by that monstrosity in an instant.

So, in being able to compete with that monster for this long, going on four minutes, just how powerful did that make him? In Ryuu's mind, he had to be an upper tier adventurer—a five, or even a six. Right? But, if he was indeed that strong...

Ryuu swallowed.

What does it mean for me, being the person who had mistakenly attacked him...?

Her rapidly pounding heart was the answer to that. Yet, she shook her head, dispelling the phantom question. Come what may, she would have to deal with it at a later date. As of this moment, there were more important things to worry about.

Ryuu declared her resolve, and as long as she had a say, it would remain unshaken.

She had been too naive.

"So... that guy made it sound like you stabbed him."

"Hbwauh?!"

Now, Ryuu thought of herself as a proud elf. It might not be as pervasive as when she first arrived in Orario, but some of her homeland's noble haughtiness still yet remained, something Kaguya continuously liked to remind her of; the "Elven bitch-blood," as she not so affectionately called it. Ryuu still had the face of poor Celty in her mind whenshefirst heard the term.

In any case, it referred to their kin's pride, plain and simple. And despite that being what she found herself despising to the point where she fled those forests in the first place, it hadn't been removed, not entirely. She still considered herself an elf possessing poise and grace befitting her people.

Thus, Ryuu found it unacceptable to behave in a way that brought those ideals—ones she couldn't manage to completely let go of—into question.

Yet Noin's innocuous comment regressed her back into a blubbering child ignorant of all things dignified. Her face burned, and she knew that to be so, because not even Ryana's much acclaimed fire magic had ever felt hotter.

"Yeah, I thought so..." Noin's swirl of both a chuckle and a sigh seeped into Ryuu's ears, and she found her embarrassment teetering in place.

What?

Such a comment was not only vague, but it also implied that Noin needn't have even asked in the first place, the answer being just that obvious. What was obvious? Ryuu going around stabbing people? She certainly hoped she didn't have that kind of reputation amongst those she was close to. She wouldn't know what to do if she did.

And what kind of face was Noin even making right now? Disappointment? Anger? It was impossible to tell just from what she had been given.

Thus, and she felt pins and needles pricking at her neck, tentatively, she pushed forward. "A-And, are you mad... about that?"

"Huh?"

In her periphery, Noin looked her way, and any unspoken pretense of them staring steadfastly into the forest was abandoned as they locked eyes. This continued for a little while, until her black-haired companion finally broke it, with a laugh and a wave of her hand.

"Oh, I'm not mad. Sure, you don't want to hear a friendstabbedthe person who saved you..." This been said with some degree of emphasis from the girl, and Noin even trailed off at the end, but she abruptly switched gears and started tripping over her words.

Ryuu realized her face must have revealed how much that had torn into her.

"B-But it's not anger! I swear it's not, or anything close to it. I know you, Ryuu. You wouldn't have done something like that if you knew all the facts. You're just not that type of person."

Ryuu felt budding relief.

"...You're not, right?"

"Noin...!"

The indignant retort came out before she could stop herself.

"Haha. Sorry, sorry—that was me joking. My bad."

Ryuu wilted, feeling utterly spent even though she had little reason to be. Silence soon enveloped and that looked to be the end of it, something she was more than content with. Seconds passed. Yet, she found herself frowning. Why did she still feel so unsatisfied? Like, there was still a lingering something or other that she was missing. Was she content with that being the end of it?

Against her better judgement, the words spilled out before she had a chance to give them any serious thought.

"What do I do if he doesn't feel the same?"

A pregnant pause filled the air, right before her heart very loudly missed a beat in her chest. That was what Ryuu felt at the moment she realized the deathly embarrassing thing that had just been uttered in her own quiet voice, and it had not only been in the midst of a battlefield, but also to the very open ears of someone who was now staring at her with wide eyes.

"Ah, wait..." She wanted to take it back, but it was too late, and Noin's stunned silence told her in about a million different ways that such a thing should have remained within the confines of her head.

The prickling sensation upon Ryuu's now flushed skin returned a hundred-fold, and she just stood there in what felt like—despite the chilly dungeon air—a sun-beaten desert.

Her face at the moment had to be a sight to see.

What was wrong with her? Why did something like that slip from her mouth? Was she... trying to justify herself? Her actions?

It was hardly the time or place to go about couriering favor with someone she had wronged, someone who now likely bore a grudge against her. And especially not when it was for no other reason than to assuage her own guilty conscience.

Given the situation was what it was: lying in wait for a very powerful monster to come barreling out the trees, and with their mysterious benefactor—is that what he was to them?—hopefully in tow, her question was beyond the bounds of inappropriate. It was downright horrid.

Ryuu wanted to slap herself for her complete lack of faculties. What must Noin think of what she just said? Surely, that she was some kind of vain, heartless, empty-headed—

"Pffft! Heh! Heeheeheeheeheehee!"

But that all seemed to become muted as Noin's giggling slapped her across the face.

Eh?

The black-haired girl keeled over somewhat, her form shaking, and it seemed it was all she could do to stay standing firmly in place. Incidentally, Ryuu completely forgot about the stretch of forest in front of her. She just stared at the laughing girl, who looked like it was a struggle to even breathe. It would have been concerning if she wasn't so utterly confused.

"I... I'm...! I-I'm sorry! Heehee!"

Her stare was caught, and Noin waved her hands apologetically, even as they continued to quiver in amusement.

"I-It's just... our famous Miss Ryuu, who doesn't even give men the time of day, is worried about what one might think of her? I just couldn't help but laugh! It really is something else! Haha...!"

Ryuu said nothing. She could only say nothing. Every attempt at doing the opposite was met with the thrashing and drowning of the words and phrases she thought she knew. She again wondered what kind of expression she had upon her face, frozen stiff as she was, and she grew even more self-conscious now that some of the others started peering at them curiously from their own spots.

"I... um..." She opened her mouth to speak, only now realizing that her saliva had disappeared—

"Hehe. But I'm only just teasing."

—Only for it to click shut.

Just like that, Noin looked away from her, traces of giggles still rocking her form, that, and the perpetual smile that seemed all but sewn onto her face. Apparently, the girl had had her fun. Ryuu supposed she should be glad. If that had gone on any longer, she might have made an even greater fool of herself. Although, that certainly didn't stop her friend from expressing amusement at her expense.

If it were any other occasion, Ryuu might have glared at Noin for the remainder of the day, maybe even sulk in her room and ignore everybody. She frowned a bit at that self-acknowledgement. But... none of that happened now.

This was hardly like any of those occasions, after all, so she didn't.

No. In fact... she couldn't.

Because no matter how hard Ryuu tried, she couldn't stop staring.

Noin's cheeks were rosy and full, so full that not even her side profile, nor the gloomy atmosphere of the dungeon, was able to dim the insurmountable cheer of the sight in front of her. Ryuu's previous embarrassment was nonexistent. She didn't even recall what that had felt like.

Actually, she would welcome it again, if only that meant Noin could keep making an expression just like this. That's how much happiness it brought Ryuu.

It's also how much terror she felt when it had been her actions that had nearly been the cause of shattering it to pieces. That was why she could admit with certainty that she had never known such a bittersweet feeling of relief, a feeling only attainable to those who found something they thought had surely been lost.

And, for allowing such a beautiful thing to happen, Ryuu breathed a silent thank you to the gods.

This prayer flowed out of her mouth, yet, for some briefly unascertainable reason, it fell straight back down, and her breath hitched. That was because a deep wrongness enveloped her. Noin's smile in this moment...

The gods had nothing to do with it.

Try as they might, the gods had no jurisdiction over the dungeon, whether it was the most sickening of horrors, or the grandest of miracles. Ouranos was said to keep the fearsome entity in check, but that did not extend to each individual life of the wayward souls that pioneered through its caverns.

From the moment those stairs were descended, each person was liable for every decision they made, just as the results were of direct correlation.

And it washisdecision that brought this smile into being.

And I...A part of Ryuu's stomach twisted. I stabbed him for it.

"Oh, and that other thing you asked."

Ryuu almost didn't hear the girl, too distracted by the deep unease welling within her, but she nudged the discontent aside as best she could and focused on Noin's face, who was scratching her cheek with a wry smile. "I'd uh, watch yourself around that guy, just in case."

A brief pause followed.

Ryuu smiled.

"C-Come again?"

It had been such an instinctual response, and it was one she only used when hearing something that just didn't click with her brain. This was definitely one of those times. Thus, she desperately sought the clarification she was so lacking in.

But the black-haired girl just shrugged and said nothing, as if to say it couldn't be helped.

"N..." Ryuu actually heard a quiver in her own voice. "Noin...?"

"Anyway, lets focus on our duties, Miss Ryuu."

"Noin?!" Where did this emotional distance come from!?

She didn't have a clue as to what caused the complete one-eighty in the girl's personality, but she didn't even have the leeway to inquire further, not when a myriad of shouts abruptly stole every aspect of her attention.

It was because at that precise moment, the time for playing had ended.

"WE HAVE MOVEMENT!"

With a powerful commanding voice she so rarely made use of, Alise's shout towered over them all. The previous lightheartedness disappeared from Ryuu's body, cold battle-hardened tension rising in its stead.

It was right in time for her to witness the speeding blur that suddenly shot out from the forest.

Her sword instantly raised with intent.

However?

She recognized the figure speeding out of the green thicket, and it was most definitely not the towering dark monstrosity with legs that amounted to more than two. Instead, it was a sight that while Ryuu had only seen once, was still just as distinctive.

From beside her, Noin's reaction, the way her voice tried to convey surprise, but it came out as a gasp instead, she felt was certainly justified.

The dark of the person's clothes and blond hair were indeed glaring, yet the porcelain-covering obscuring its owner's identity couldn't as easily be ignored, nor could the approach of his entrance.

Primarily, its audacity.

He did not come running out of the forest—he flew.

From right near the tops of the canopies just barely visible because of the deep absconding fog, knees bent and arms flung backwards, it made for the strangest sight. For the briefest of moments, her gaze was stuck in a stupefied loop, but when his form began to lose height, and it was obvious he was falling, she actually questioned his sanity.

The tops of the trees on the 30th floor approached well over fifty meders. It wasn't a height someone—even adventurers like them—could just shrug off as nothing.

But that was when his arm shot out, as if stabbing the air.

A brief flash of light accompanied something nearly invisible blurring to the side, and his entire body was savagely flung along with it. The movement was so fast and came as such a surprise that the weak sound that escaped Ryuu's mouth wasn't something she could have stopped if she tried.

She found herself losing sight of him, and her eyes squinted amidst the dreary surroundings. Those dark clothes almost made him completely indistinguishable, especially against the dark trees and their looming shadows. It was only the pale white of his mask that drew her right back to him.

Only—

Ryuu blinked.

Rapid and erratically, he swerved, flipped, swung, and vaulted off of every solid surface he could get his hands on, and sometimes it didn't even look like he was directly touching anything. In the oddest way possible, he just seemed to smoothly glide his way down in the various places that somehow allowed it.

Distracted, Ryuu almost missed when he suddenly slowed, hanging off a branch and teetering there for a bit before finally dropping to the ground.

But just then, something that was not quite a rope nor a thread whipped towards him, almost violently, almost as if it had a mind of its own. But it came and went. There was absolutely no sign of it on his person when he abruptly turned towards them. It was to the point where she even thought she imagined it.

That was when he began to walk towards them, almost in a stroll-like fashion.

Ryuu couldn't say she was too pleased by the instinctual urge she had to take a step back, nor the slight increase in the tempo of her heart. As a result, she shifted her weight from foot to foot.

"That's him, right?" Ryana said this from her position next to Neze, and while Ryuu couldn't see what kind of face she made as she did it, the beastkin girl grunted in the affirmative.

The man continued his approach, and a hand disappeared into the confines of his outfit, pulling something out that was completely foreign. It was a small slim rectangle, and as he walked through the diminishing troves of greenery, he seemed to eye it carefully, his gloved thumb falling down on the object with systematic cadence.

But he soon stashed the thing back where it came from, and with his other hand— Ryuu abruptly closed her eyes, just so that she could open them again.

However, the sight in front of her hadn't changed.

Long, compact, and metallic.

With his other hand, the masked man gently tossed this suddenly appearing construct into the air, catching it by a hanging strap off to its side, unceremoniously slinging behind his shoulder.

There was a brief tremble of his body, but that was gone from her mind when the stowed item rose past his head a bit, and she realized what she was looking at.

It was the peculiar weapon he had used previously, the one that had provided cover fire for Noin's escape. But its strangeness wasn't important right now.

How had it seemingly appeared out of thin air like that?

Ryuu was certain it hadn't been on his person before. It couldn't have been. If it had, those acrobatics would have been impossible. Was it some kind of magic then, maybe a skill? She didn't see how there could be any other explanation. She had been watching him walk; she would have noticed him grabbing for something, even if it did lie hidden.

Her questions would have to wait.

Nearly upon them, it allowed her to see what she hadn't during those frantic moments when she spotted him in that tree. Then, he had only been focused on Noin, and not even getting stabbed had been enough to deter him from that. That pleased Ryuu immeasurably, yet stabbed into her just the same.

But as for his outfit, it looked like she hadn't been mistaken in her first impression.

Primarily black with hints of gold, he possessed the kind of smart wear the guild employees usually sported, except with just a touch more personal casualness. It was definitely unique, to say the least.

Of course, after that, there was his wavy blond hair, but that only seemed to compliment the most glaring thing about him, and the main reason Ryuu couldn't force herself to relax.

She tried to meet that face.

Masks weren't exactly uncommon in Orario, whether that was to sate the odd adventurer's childish sense of mystique, or even to those humble enough to desire anonymity. They were even used as familial icons for some. She could certainly think of a particular goddess who chose to outfit her Familia with such apparel.

So, it wasn't the mask in general that bothered her.

Rather, it was the expression.

The smile, that deep red smile, was painted wide enough to come across as a look of boredom, yes, but it could just as easily be recognized as a gleeful smirk. Combined with those slanted black eyes, it was enough. It was more than enough for somewhere deep within Ryuu to be intensely bothered by it.

And...

And it was likely why it wasn't at all difficult to mistake him as one ofthem.

He might still be,an inner voice told her.

The thought had been sudden, so sudden, it rocked her entire body. Immediately afterwards though, she bit the back of her teeth in admonishment.

He had saved one of their own, and if that wasn't enough, he bought them time to come up with a solid strategy. Noin even vouched for him. From the moment he appeared, he had only continued to be of assistance to them. What more could she ask for? He was the one who had every right to distrust them, not the other way around.

Unaware of Ryuu's struggles, he stopped a few steps away from them, and she did her best to snap out of whatever daze she had been put under.

Determined to make a good impression than she had made previously, she took a step toward his black-cut figure. An apology. Yes, that's what she would start with, something sincere that would allow her to finally put to rest the shadows hanging over her.

"E... Excuse me, if I may, I would like to—"

His right arm shifted, and his clothes rustled slightly as he looked her way. It was a simple action. And yet when he did this, Ryuu's mind came to a screeching halt, and she irrefutably froze.

She had worked up the courage, and the words she wanted to say were on the cusp of escaping her throat.

That was what should have happened.

She found herself swallowing them instead, and the gulp that resounded in the next moment was far too loud to be anyone but her. She wasn't aware just when she started staring, only that it took her too long to notice.

Not at his mask, not his curious and curiouser objects. No—Ryuu stared at his clothes, the part that had been almost obscured by his right arm.

Along his right side, there was a tattered mess of fabric that just barely covered skin, if skin was even an appropriate word to use. His flesh was ripped, and jutting out were several small spikes. No, shards would be a more accurate description.

Most of them were slick with blood, but that just made the ones that weren't so, stand out. Some of them, colored a steely brown, remained untouched by his insides, and while she initially thought weapons—man made weapons—were inside his body, she realized she had it wrong. The answer lay behind him, in the forest, full of trees that held that same steely brown shade.

The Floor 30 gargantuan freaks of nature that possessed bark with the consistency of iron.

Those splinters reminiscent of glass shards were stabbed into his body.

And it was saying something that despite Ryuu dimly noticing the other wound on his shoulder, the one that was pierced in an all too familiar way, her body didn't quiver in self-loathing this time. It was because she was already doing all that and more.

It was perhaps in part due to this that she didn't notice when the others had closed their ranks a bit, all staring with various degrees of horror at the man that was literally bleeding out.

"Wh-What happened to you!?"

Noin, bless her heart, was the first and only one among them who rushed forward, closing the distance between them in an instant. Her hands acted with similar speeds, making to touch the red-stained protrusions the man was sporting. But as if remembering at the last moment, they jerked away just shy of contact. AndRyuu was fairly certain it wasn't getting blood on her hands she was worried about.

That was confirmed promptly, when the black-haired girl, face anxious, suddenly looked up at him.

"Well?!"

There was no immediate reaction from the man. Of course, if his face had been looking in any other direction, she might have been convinced he hadn't heard her. Except, a gloved hand suddenly rose to meet Noin's unsuspecting face.

Ryuu's hackles immediately rose. Surely, he wasn't going to hurt her. Still, pulse quickening, and even in spite of what she decided earlier, Ryuu took an instinctual step forward.

But.

Her worries were entirely unfounded.

It was because he had already performed the motion with his hand, however, not to maim the girl in front of him, not in any technically combative way of doing so anyway. No, instead, he promptly made a fist. To which he then flicked her right in the forehead.

And the sound that followed was far sharper than it had any right to be.

Mouths on either side of her fell open.

No, Ryuu's fell open as well.

"Ow!"

Noin yelped like a child, retreating a few steps back. The sight alone wasn't enough to ascertain whether it actually hurt or not, but in what looked to be a reflexive action, the girl's hands raised to cover, or perhaps, protect the top of her head from any further harm. Ryuu would have found it ridiculous if it didn't fill her with such ineffable confusion, even more so with the comment that then left that masked confine.

"Oh, she actually cried out."

"W-What did you think I was going to do?! What is wrong with you?! Why did you do that?!"

"Well... I clearly must have been thinking about how flickable a forehead you had,"the man said, as if pondering it all the same as them. He shrugged."But really, it's not even my fault. Basically, if you don't want someone touching something all willy-nilly, then you put it away. Do you not even have that much common sense?"

"P-Put it away..." Noin froze—seemingly in disbelief—before wilting. "Why, why did I forget you were like this?"

Ryuu wasn't sure how to take the sudden byplay that seemed to be exclusive to only them, that being the peeved black-haired girl, and the already animatedly emoting masked man. No, wait. Wasn't that odd considering his injuries? Shouldn't he be in more pain?

"No, forget that! You're wounds! You are seriously wounded!"

Ryuu found herself nodding.

"What, this?"

The very odd man—Ryuu was definitely convinced of that now—looked himself over, specifically at the shards of tree in his side. On another note, thankfully, that was all he decided to look at. She wasn't quite sure how she would have reacted if he commented on his shoulder. She was snapped out of her musings however upon hearing the latter half of the man's response.

"—not even that bad?"

She focused in with a start.

What wasn't that bad?

His injuries?

Was he sane?

No, he clearly wasn't.

That had already been established, and she needed to get with the times. Admittedly, she might have believed him if she was just going off of the soft timbre of his voice that had delivered that deceptively calm statement. However, what with the multiple foreign objects sticking out of his body, that was impossible to do.

It was like accepting at face value that a dwarf and elf were soon to wed, in the sanctious Elven forests no less.

It just wasn't done.

She couldn't have been the only one who thought so, right?

Gauging her companions, Ryuu found a strange amount of relief in them looking just as floored as her. Kaguya was the exception though, as well as two others, Alise and Lyra. The first two being appraising, and the last one, well, Lyra was sending an amused smile the man's way. That... actually shouldn't have been so much of a surprise now that she thought about it.

However, someone completely different from them ended up breaking Noin and the man's indistinguishable stalemate.

Ryana pointed her finger downward.

"There is a pool of blood at your feet."

Contrarily, he didn't move an inch.

"I don't believe y—gaahfebgefh?!"

"Eiiiiiiiiiiii! Y-You're actually coughing up blood! Ryuu, Maryuu, hurry! Super hurry! Cast a healing spell!"

Before she even knew it, and in a sort of out of body experience, Ryuu found herself numbly being pushed by a frantic Noin, only half aware of Maryuu being dealt with in the same way, the blue haired young woman's girlishly yelping as she nearly bowled into their supposed patient.

Ryuu was fortunately able to maintain a bit more grace, and she just silently positioned herself at the man's side, outstretching her hand. Thankfully, that left Maryuu with his left shoulder, and no one questioned the arrangement. Ryuu didn't think she would be able to heal a wound she had caused, not if she wanted to be able to concentrate.

"The song of a now distance forest..."

Muttering words she's had to have said close to a thousand times, magical power began to build in her palm, and her [ Noah Heal ] began to locate and envelop the opposing marred flesh.

"Hey, nurse... is this healing magic?"

She looked at him only briefly, taking note of the way trickles of blood stuck to his ivory white mask. And what had he called her? Anyway, she was quick to look away, catching Noin watching them with a surprising amount of concern beheld in her stare. Of course, this was the man who had saved her friend's life, a fact that had all too easily been blurred with his jester-like behavior.

With this sudden bout of awareness, as well as even more prickling shame following it, she resolved herself anew in her healing, while also taking care to answer the man.

"Yes, it is," she said, satisfied that her voice didn't convey the way her heart was beating out of her chest. She couldn't even decide the reason anymore. Guilt, fear... awkwardness. Perhaps all three were blending together.

"I see. I see. And, what would you say is the most extreme wound you can heal with this spell?"

Ryuu quirked a brow.

He wasn't looking at her, or any of them for that matter. His gaze, or what made for his gaze, was off into the distance. Nevertheless, it was an odd question. Why ask when he knew the answer? He was an adventurer, wasn't he? She still responded.

"...All healing spells are usually for wounds that pierce the body in some way. Although at a certain point, there isn't hope for recovery. And as you probably already know, replacing lost limbs is also out of the question. ...Why do you ask?"

He chuckled, finally looking at her, and there was the slightest hint of humor to the dark edge that suddenly coated his voice."So, that means its potent enough to push something small out of my body, right? Like, say, numerous sharp objects?"

The air around Ryuu seemed to freeze.

Then, her eyes painfully slid downwards to the wound she was pouring energy into. And there, as if her staring had prompted it, the blood-soaked flesh began to stir. Words left her, and a breathless exhale slipped out instead.

She had made a mistake.

She was so out of it, worrying about this person, her unresolved feelings regarding him, that she had made the most basic of mistakes when it came to healing. Promptly, blood began to gush out from his body at an even faster rate than before.

"I-I'm...!"

The hand doing the healing shook, right before flesh ripped and squelched hideously into the awaiting air.

…

…

…

Less than a minute had passed.

Several times through Ryuu thought about quitting, that is, she was referring to each passing moment where the splinters were far too slowly being pushed out of dark colored insides, where she could see just how much pain it was causing her patient.

Of course, his face didn't reveal this.

The signs, while subtle, lay elsewhere.

The way he was all but murdering that strap over his shoulder, how, halfway through, he gave up on standing and sunk to one knee, and then of course, the strangled grunts that came from the back of his throat.

But as time continued to tick away, and as Ryuu worked on healing the last of the tears and gashes in his skin, she realized with a cold sweat that his reaction to what he was experiencing didn't match up in the slightest.He should be in more pain than this... no, even putting that aside... this much blood... still remaining conscious is...

She did not say what she was thinking, however, nor did she try to stop the healing process in favor of a new method.

"I... I think I'm finished over here."

It looked like Maryuu had concluded early, the girl stepping away. The masked man actually said something in response, but Ryuu had trouble understanding the words he used.

Something about Mor-feen?

Putting that aside, Ryuu was once again thankful for their positioning. She couldn't see the shoulder wound, nor the way it had likely been healed. She didn't think she wanted to see it, not up close at least.

Seeing her sin washed away like that, even though she hadn't been the one to do anything to rectify it, she wasn't sure how she would react. It was like she was told to wait in her room while the adults spoke, but her cowardly mind welcomed the chance to run away.

It was strange. No matter what she seemed to do, she couldn't find a way to get it right with this person, this stranger. While realizing such a thing, she stared at him from the side. His mask dipped and bobbed under the lingering strain of his injuries, but his breathing was becoming more relaxed. It confused her to no end about the relief she got from observing that much.

Guilt was certainly a new emotion for her, and that's what it was, guilt, right?I know it's unlike me, but... I don't want to cause this person any more problems.Declaring such a thing, however, it might just be for her own satisfaction. But she decided to accept that too.

The last of her healing finally finished up, and the proof was the jagged iron-like splinters that seemed to swim in the puddles of blood at their feet. It made her sick to watch, but not for a reason she might have had previously.

"Hm. I hate to admit, but I find myself disappointed. I thought for sure you'd be a screamer. The one's hiding behind enigmatic walls usually are."

That nonchalant voice suddenly cut into the air, one that sounded both cruel and amused, and in that brief moment, she was unable to associate it to any she knew, but that was only because of how jarringly audacious it was, her mind being all but forced to jumble it into incoherence.

When her eyes eventually landed on the source however, and she saw the black-haired girl in the kimono, who was gazing at their male addition with such perpetually sifting eyes, as if she was appraising a noteworthy creature for all it was worth, she understood.

"Hm. That's funny."

With an odd warble-like sound that she realized was a chuckle, the darkly dressed man pushed himself to his feet, and even though he staggered a bit, "Because... you know... if all you wanted me to do was whine and bitch... you just needed to ask. I've been told... I can be quite accommodating like that. ...Oh, but what's this?"

His tone suddenly changed from one that was strained with slight exhaustion, into one with tingling glee instead. Also, those black narrowed eyes that had been staring off elsewhere finally seemed to settle on Kaguya."Since we're on the subject of walls, does the Lord and Lady know you've left yours?"

The air seemed to prickle.

Ryuu looked between the two, now very uncertain. It wasn't just her. Noin had also frozen a bit, as did Celty, Maryuu, Ryana, and Asta. Ryuu also caught sight of Neze and Iska exchanging their own looks.

Ryuu didn't know the man's basis for making such a jab, yet it made her even more curious given that it was a fairly accurate one. While it wasn't hard to make a guess at Kaguya's all too unique personality, only a select few knew of the past she experienced before coming to Orario's walls, or rather, to be in the know of who she had been running from.

They all knew family was a sore subject for the girl.

Even if it was a mere guess, it wasn't such a simple statement that he could just make and be let off the hook for. No, not with someone as vindicative as Kaguya.

"Oh? What an amusing remark. Do you mind elaborating on that?" The black-haired beauty smiled, as if to praise her opponent for landing such a solid blow. But Ryuu knew better. That smile was as devious as it was flattering.

"Kaguya."

A sudden warning voice, yet hardly threatening, floated through the air, and the girl's expression faltered.

Alise stepped in between the two, usual chipper confidence on full display, but not forced. Never forced. Ryuu was glad to see it. It was a part of Alise Lovell that she had long endeared, even before her hands were grasped that day. In any case, the red haired girl acted as a saving grace, defusing the issue before something unnecessary could occur.

The last thing they all needed was to be exchanging barbs and at each other's throats.

Right...

Of course, she was aware of how much of a hypocrite that made her.

Ryuu felt incredibly small as she watched Alise begin to lightly scold Kaguya.

"I'm sure you have questions for our ally here—I do as well. But I think we have more important things to worry about, yeah? So for right now, let's try to forgive and forget, kay?" The crimson beauty winked at Kaguya.

It was testament to how much trust the kimono-wearing ravenette had in Alise, that when faced with such a suggestion, the girl only huffed with an expression close to amusement. Then, sardonically, she offered, "as you command, Captain," before completely looking away from the masked man.

To those that knew her, that was as tame of a reaction as they were going to get regarding her loss of interest, again, something only their Familia captain could properly pull off.

"Do I get a scolding too?"

An energetically raised hand brought Ryuu's attention back to reality.

Alise turned towards him with her lips quirked upward.

"If I did, I wouldn't know where to start, not after what we've had to rely on you for." She had completely brushed aside his purposely teasing remark. "And right now, while it's not even close to enough, I'll say it anyway because it needs to be said. Thank you. For saving Noin, for lending us aid, and even now for standing on this battlefield with us, I thank you, truly. I... I don't want to imagine how things would have turned out in those first few moments... had you not intervened."

That had quieted things a bit.

If it wasn't for the fact that Alise's eyes were narrowed so very softly, or that her voice conveyed such heartfelt sincerity, Ryuu would have been truly caught off guard when witnessing the sight of their captain bowing to someone else, one they did not even know the identity of, and to a man no less.

But she saw all that and more, so it was why she could only just silently watch, her heart pounding in some misplaced sense of awe.

If there was an immediate reaction, it didn't come from the man. In fact, there was no way to tell what he was thinking under there, that perpetually unchanging expression that stayed glued to his face.

But apparently, that wasn't the end of things.

"T-Then, me too. It would be weird if I didn't say anything, right?" Noin suddenly shuffled forward, though her eyes were anywhere but on his. She still did her best to convey the words causing a tremble on her bottom lip though. "T-Thank you for saving—"

"Whoops. Hand slipped."

A superficial impact was heard, a very familiar one.

Ryuu tried to offer a warning, but she had been too late. Noin was already clutching her forehead, which had just received another flick. "A-Again! Y-You did it again!"

"But this time just felt right, you know?"

"W-What does that mean!?" Noin's voice broke a bit at the end, as if she was a step away from crying.

The man shrugged, as if to say it wasn't his problem, before sticking his hand into his clothes. Ryuu was quick to realize what he pulled out. It was a small black object, sleek and rectangular around its edges, and all too similar to the item he had been utilizing from afar when he broke away from the treeline.

Actually, now that she gave it thought... If he had been injured to that degree, how had he managed such an impressive display of agility at that time?

Oblivious to her scrutiny, the man continued to tap away at the object. However, unlike last time, something different happened.

What?

It suddenly lit up with a bright glow.

It definitely hadn't done that before, not from where she could see.

Ryuu was barely even conscious of the fact that her mouth parted a bit, well displaying her unmitigated surprise. Of course, she wasn't unique in that regard. With their brows stretched upward and focused gazes, the others seemed to express their interest as well.

For it to be capable of glowing in such an abstract way, combined with its odd form, that narrowed down what kind of item it was significantly, did it not? It was not Ryuu's first time seeing such a thing then, not when she was a part of one of the leading Familias. Of course. It was a magical artifact. Was this person just like that woman, then?

Astraea Familia had something of a friendship with the Hermes Familia, or at the very least, just one of their members, the recently dubbed Perseus. Naturally, they were more than aware of her fantastical collection.

What that meant here, Ryuu did not know.

Did it mean that this man possessed a skill much like Asfi Andromeda, or did he know someone who did? For all she knew, he could be a member of Hermes' Familia as well. So many questions. The inquiries she had as to their enigmatic ally's true identity just continued to pile up.

"That thing, what is it?" Neze suddenly asked, and while she may have appeared calm, the twitching of her ears gave her away.

He responded promptly.

"This, my cosplay wearing friend, is what is called a phone. You can interact with various interfaces, use it to escape your empty fucking life, or if you want to do both at once, engage in cyber-terrorism. Ah, that last thing is a famous past-time for us humans, basically demonstrating their repressed emotions in a way that sows chaos and anarchy in modern society."

A beat passed.

Ryuu stared at him in confusion, as if continuing to do so would make her grasp a seemingly missing piece of a puzzle. It was like there was a language barrier... except there wasn't. So many foreign words were thrown around just now that it made the 'human slang' Kaguya had been teaching her incredibly tame in comparison.

Though, she was starting to understand Noin's reaction when she asked if this guy would be mad at her or not.

With him, it just wasn't as simple as the answer being yes or no, mad or not-mad. Instead, the answer would range from misanthropic, unintelligible, and/or borderline sociopathic—she was sure she could just keep plugging them wherever she pleased in any situation, and it would make just as much sense. Any emotion under the sky seemed like fair game.

At least, that's the impression she got, staring at him now.

"Kaaz-play?" Neze muttered to herself with a furrowed brow.

"Um," Asta raised a hand, her armor shuffling as she did so, and her hesitance was painfully clear on her face. "I'm still a little confused. What are you going to do with that thing?"

"Rather than what I'm going to do, it's more like, what haven't I been doing. Use your brain ladies. Don't you find it odd that no one with sharp teeth and an inclination for human flesh has attacked us yet?"

Ryuu was sure they all felt the invisible prick, as if something had been needling them this entire but just now found how to make itself known. And with that, its sudden weight washed over them like a damp blanket.

She considered his point, no, she did more than that.

She looked around, as if expecting an all too familiar horrid shape to abruptly jump out of the shadows at a moment's notice.

Where was it, if not here, where they were?

Where was the Juggernaut?

Alise, in a sort of half attempt at crossing her arms, looked deep in thought.

"You mean to say... you're keeping it occupied... from here...?" she asked, staring at what was in his hands, unable to keep the incredulity out of her voice.

"Occupied, giving it a perpetual trail to try and hunt down, same thing. It's, uh, kinda dumb. Anyway, assuming those steel strap-ons aren't for show," he turned to Ryuu abruptly, "and I know they're not because that woman penetrated me already—"

Her face suddenly felt like it was doused with fire.

"— Then we can fight it on our terms."

She shook away the mental cobwebs that had formed upon his sly jab at her, and focused on the situation, the silence that followed his statement. It also had to be a testament to the gears turning in everyone else's head as well, she thought. After all, she couldn't be the only one struggling with his words.

Provided that what he just said was true—no. She had no reason to doubt him; it wouldn't be fair of her. She owed him a little faith, if nothing else. Noin's breathing presence beside her was all the proof she needed for that.

Besides, could her conscience afford to doubt him? She didn't think she could handle it if the swirl of guilt within her got any deeper. She did not know if that was just her own emotions telling her that, or the fact that she was an Elf with an ingrained sense of integrity.

Either way, she needed to make up her mind, and it needed to be because of something she decided for herself this time, instead of getting swept along by the situation.

"So,"Spontaneously spinning the rectangular object in one hand, the blonde man gave off the impression he was smiling."You girls got a way of taking that thing down, or do I have to pull something out of my ass? Believe it or not, I actually don't have any more heavy-grade ordinance hidden in these stylish duds of mine."

"That won't be necessary."

Ryuu blinked.

It was because she had surprised herself by speaking. Yes, she had meant to from the start, but she couldn't say she was prepared for the undivided attention it garnered, his attention. She tried not to let the sudden spike of nervousness, his stare being the cause, appear on her face as she continued.

"What I mean to say... is you've already done more than enough. It would not be right to let you shed any more blood for our sake."

Ryuu maintained eye contact.

Even if every ounce of her wanted to run away, to retreat from the silent presence of that gaze, which just like him, was ridiculous, strange, and terrifying, she stood her ground, not looking away. No, more than that, she didn't want to look away.

And It wasn't only her pride responsible.

On a much more tender level, she didn't want to give this person any reason to believe they couldn't protect him the same way he had protected them, how he had protected Noin.

Eventually though, she had his response with the subtlest of inclines to his mask. Though the words came out softly, as if he didn't even mean for it to reach anyone's ears but his own. "(...Then that's that. But... what's with the ear accessories? Are they not embarrassed?)"

Ear-what?

Ryuu was about to ask what that meant, but something chose that moment to slam into her from behind, demolishing her bout of confusion. "Well said, you uptight Elf!"Nearly falling on her face or succumbing to a heart attack, Ryuu had to decide which would happen first as she rounded to find Lyra's loon of a grin beaming back at her.

She had choice words for the Prum girl, but just like always, Lyra marched to the beat of her own drum.

She strutted right in front of the man, and even though she was about a head or two smaller than him, she unabashedly struck a pose that could almost be considered flirtatious.

"Ryuu there more or less has the right of it, mister. I don't think you'll be disappointed by the splash we have planned."

The mask stared.

"...Yep, I have no idea what I'm looking at. And? What would that be?"

"Tell me, how do you feel about controlled demolition?"

"I almost just fell in love with you."

"Hehe, that so? Take that thing off and we'll see."

"Lyra!"

There was no hesitation in either of their replies, which likely caused Noin's chaste disapproval, stepping between the two as she did. Also, Noin was quick to jab a finger in the man's chest. "And you! Don't encourage Lyra like that. You have no idea what tree you're... ah, um..."

Her face grew rather stiff.

The mask tittered. "Thank you. I will remember that brilliant display of awkwardness for the rest of my life."

Ryuu couldn't see Noin's face, but she did see the tips of her ears redden.

With one last chuckle, the man flipped the artifact into his awaiting palm, thumb hovering over the glossy bright surface.

Ryuu took a steady breath.

Would their plan hold?

Would it be enough?

With trembling fingers, she searched for the existence of her heartbeat. She didn't quite know why. It was only speculation, but perhaps she wanted proof that she was alive, then and there. She found that in the energized tempo resounding from her chest.

"Oh, one more thing before we start."

Curiously drawn in by the tone, she looked up and—

Her body stilled.

There was no other way to describe it.

In that moment, it was like everything else had slowed down and dimmed, only the sight in front of her existing. If she had been expecting it, it might not have resonated so, but now, as that man—no—as that boy slid his porcelain disguise to the side, teasing the wild tendrils of his flaxen yellow hair away from his face, both the curve of his lips and the twinkling of golden irises were on full display.

"Don't die, yeah?"

She didn't know what those un-muffled words meant.

She didn't know what kind of thoughts were supposed to exist behind them.

But.

At that moment, the paradoxical, conniving jokester that she had been forced to know dimmed considerably, and now it was like she was made to look at a completely different person. That jarring contrast... that caricature of a normally already caricaturized self... was that why she was still staring, even now, and couldn't look away?

Ryuu had wanted proof of her existence, that she was alive. But by that logic, she was more alive now. She need only listen to the dull echoes of her rapidly beating heart.

It had been a devastating attack.

And, in the next moment, his gloved finger stabbed downward.

Ryuu blocked everything else out. The very last thing she allowed in was the strangely alluring sight of that mask once again concealing a surprisingly boyish face. The feeling of her blade's hilt brushing against her side became her new sense of touch, the stretch of forest in front of her—her sight. And, for her ears...

They waited.

They waited a long enough time to cause doubt, but even so, Ryuu waited, not moving so much as a muscle out of place, in fear that the moment she did was when she would be punished for losing her patience.

And then, approximately 35 seconds later, she was rewarded.

Ah, or maybe it was a punishment.

It started as a low sound. But as time passed, it progressively began to change. A barely coherent ringing that lightly kissed the ears, morphed into a slow, ever so slow echo of something much more real. Closer and closer it got, until finally—

It intensified all at once.

"RYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

The Juggernaut had found them.

Ryuu had heard it screaming before.

Now, however, the indescribably loud sound was completely different. It held such an intense malice, enough to send shivers through her already flinching body, a reaction she couldn't stop herself from performing, not in the wake of the sheer immensity of its imagined presence.

That was quick to change as she regained her bearings though, looking to where the noise originated, where that unfathomable being burst into view without pause or warning, nor consideration.

There were no similarities with the person that came before it. Stating otherwise wouldn't be funny even as a jest. Its size eclipsed that of a normal human, no—that of even a normal monster, the speed and ferocity it was capable of even more so.

In every sense, it was its namesake.

It WAS a juggernaut.

"Right. Totally forgot. It also may be just a TEENSY bit angrier than last you saw it. But just a smidge. Don't think any one person is at fault though. Yes." Despite the, quite frankly, impossibly tension-free voice that had become the unspoken outlier of their formation, Ryuu didn't tear her gaze away from the black blur that sped past a formation of rock standing impressively amongst its dirt beaten surroundings.

Or, it did.

The stone promptly exploded into thousands of tiny fragments, the monster treating it like simple shrubbery it could stomp through, like its presence didn't even register at all. And naturally, the distance between predator and assumed prey continued to wane considerably, regardless of anyone's feelings on the matter.

"Oh really. Well. How kind of you to inform us."

With something of a snarl in Kaguya's voice, Ryuu had half a mind to check to see if a glare accompanied it, but she didn't dare.

Looking away from that thing for even a moment would be beyond foolish. Not that the alternative filled her contentment either. No, nothing about maintaining her focus on that abomination soothed her.

In fact, it made her wonder how that person could continue to behave in a manner befitting his usual, as if the seemingly very real thought of meeting a gruesome demise with the rest of them didn't once cross his , his ineffable attitude aside, the masked individual had the right of it.

However, 'TEENSY' was a bit of an understatement.

The talons flashed with visible eagerness, just as the one remaining eye seemed to radiate the same. It wanted to kill them. It wanted to kill them all and leave nothing left. Anything less, and it wouldn't be here.

In short order, Ryuu found her resolve flickering.

It wasn't something she immediately noticed, but as a sound that had been nothing but unintelligible whispers before became a full-fledged voice, she was all but forced to. It was her own. It was telling her they couldn't do it, that they shouldn't even try, that just like Noin had, they would all soon be at the Juggernaut's mercy.

Who had the right to kill such a creature?

Who had the right to deny the Dungeon its blood-filled bounty? Killing this abomination that which's sole purpose was annihilation, then returning home, wasn't that far too arrogant a dream? Wasn't—

"Celty!"

"Yes!"

Ryuu blinked, briefly mollified by the sight of her own kin raising her staff.

But.

Right.

Her worries vanished, as they were proven unfounded. She had forgotten. She had let fear cloud her judgment, and it dulled her mind. It was an inexcusable folly. Having it charge towards them with reckless abandon, drawing it as close as possible—that wasthe plan.

Only, one of them didn't know that at all.

All but ripping the metal length from his shoulder, the masked individual hiding a boyish face held it aloft, craning his head to stare down the peculiarly shaped reflective surface resting on top. If he planned on firing the contraption like he had done before, sending that orange flame once again dancing on the creature's hardened body, Ryuu didn't see it. She couldn't. After all, the boy didn't even get the chance to do so.

The sound of electricity echoed in the air instead.

With that, the first baton had been passed.

Light pooling around the edges of Celty's staff, the opaque gem instantly began to coalesce with a fierce blue, sparks fizzling and dancing around it. But that was all that happened. No magical phenomena shot out from the power-imbued tool.

Instead, higher and farther away, something came to be, as if just suddenly blinking into existence. With a loud crackle, a maelstrom of electrified energy, not even announced by a single storm cloud, appeared directly above an oblivious enemy.

Perhaps if country-folk saw it, they might have mistaken it for an act of the gods themselves, but that wasn't the case.

It was the power of a mage finishing the last verse of their chant.

ZAP! CRAccKKKle, ZAP, ZAAAPPPP!

Lightning descended.

It wasn't a singular beam of destructive and wild energy, but several precisely arranged tendrils, stabbing downward in a straight line, like someone had taken a paintbrush to the battlefield epicenter and did a perfect slant. It was so impressively wide, and furthermore boasted such accuracy, that there was no way it could miss its target.

Yet, the soil a few paces beside the monster's lumbering form was instantly charred a stark black, and not a twitch was made in response.

Ryuu sucked in a breath.

A miss.

It had been a complete miss by anyone's standards.

But dread was not what she felt, even if an outsider might have deemed it necessary. A budding anticipation settled over her instead, even more so when the ever-approaching creature didn't attempt to flee. Yes, it wouldn't avoid an attack that wasn't there.

Thus, completely ignoring the failed attempt, the Juggernaut continued towards them unmolested, both its one eager eye and razor-sharp claws flashing menacingly in undiluted bloodlust.

That left it completely and utterly blindsided when a massive explosion tore into its left side.

"KEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!" With a scream that could only be called surprise, a feeling like no other accompanied the sight of the quad-pedal horror being sent thrashing to the side, tumbling across the ground with zero of the animalistic grace shown previously.

Ryuu wondered how confused it was, if it was even capable of such feelings. After all, as far as it was concerned, it had just been knocked asunder by the one thing that wasn't supposed to be able to touch it, the one thing it was supposed to have a sure-fire method against.

Roaring in outrage, the Juggernaut desperately tried to leap to its feet.

But the action failed.

And it was quite the sight.

The murderous looking leg that was capable of tearing them in two actually buckled, and the body of that maelstrom of darkness fell right back to the ground. It tried to move further, but each attempt was met with the same.

One only needed to take a look to see why.

The terrifying beast, which they recognized mainly from its all-black appearance, was now not so uniform in color. Along one side, abyssal armor had given way, and cracks and tears revealed a reddened muscley interior, the newly visible flesh pulsing at irregular intervals. It looked malleable, soft, and much more than that, abundantly vulnerable.

And naturally, when seeing what she caused, a certain girl couldn't be more delighted, and that girl wasn't the green haired bespectacled elf.

"Keep'em coming Celty! Don't let up even for a second—heehee! I'll show you what my babies are capable of!" Hooting and hollering, Lyra was behaving exactly as Ryuu expected, and she allowed herself a tiny smile.

However, she had to admit it was only half in enjoyment of her friend's cheer.

The other half was imagining just how many eagerly awaiting fuses were resting below the dirt surface, ready to be set alight by Celty's precisely coordinated storm.

They hadn't just been twiddling their thumbs while they were waiting for the Juggernaut to rear its ugly head. They had gone to ground, literally. They dug, and spread amongst eleven able bodies, things had been quite productive. It didn't take long at all to create their own improvised countermeasure—or countermeasure(s) in this case.

A nigh appreciative whistle sounded off.

"You rigged the place with bombs?"

Weapon now lowered, the boy was staring at the expanse of land in front of them, but most likely at the objects sparkling and shimmering as they stuck out of the ground, each one a part of a much larger synchronized grid, one that creature was right smack in the middle of.

From this distance they must have looked like fancy gems.

In a sense, they were.

The texture and appearance matched, however, there was not a single person in Orario that would mistakenly think of them as such, not when most of the population handed them into the guild on the daily. And being flammable or explosive? Even a child would look at one strangely if such an absurd thing was said.

And they didn't need to be.

Rather, they just needed to highlight where the true payload was.

In truth, this wouldn't have worked on anyone else; a uniformly filled area with neatly organized monster cores?

Onlya thingfar too eager to kill them would have fallen for such an obvious trap.

"...You are making it irritatingly difficult not to like you." The already inclining mask further tilted towards the pink haired girl, and the unbiddenly enthused grin Lyra shot back showed exactly how it made her feel.

Crack! CRACK! Crack-CRACK!

Ryuu's attention took off once again as several familiar sounds once again accompanied the fierce blue appearing in the air right above the creature's still halted and struggling form.

Celty's next barrage was ready, and there was no delay.

The fearsome tendrils struck hard and fast, coming down one after another perfectly nailing the sparkling monster cores with such precision and speed that one would have to believe there was some kind of homing magic at play.

That wasn't the case, as Ryuu knew, not when it was assuredly 'as expected' of the one casting.

It was a skill purely Celty's own.

Not a falna-gifted one, but her own talent.

Even before being granted Astraea's blessing, Celty Srowa was something of a genius. Spatial awareness? Accuracy? Child's play. The greenette had tried to explain it to Ryuu before, it merely being a matter of "formulas and vectors", but it wasn't anything she'd been able to readily understand.

In any case, Celty's sharp eyes wouldn't be giving that monster an inch of reprieve.

Things took a turn for the better, more than Ryuu thought they had any right, any realistic justification, to.

Yes, even so, the air continued to crack deafeningly loud as scores of lightning struck gold, bombs exploding into the Juggernaut's bone shaped body. It naturally tried to escape, but each attempt was met with unanimous failure.

The merciless ignitions had it staggering for balance, the concussive blasts sent its beady eye swirling, sweeping its already poor vision into further disarray, and as much as Ryuu wasn't sure before, the way it was screeching with such raucous intensity—wails only continuing to grow louder—it was almost enough to match the decibels of the explosions themselves.

The most important thing, however, was that it couldn't move, couldn't even think of moving.

"In the sky of the now distant forest..."

Thus, the final baton was passed to her.

Each word passed Ryuu's lips, and she failed to contain the blossoming excitement therein. They could do this. They could kill it at this rate. The Astraea Familia wouldn't be wiped out by a monster of this caliber. The justice they believed in wasn't so weak.

There was no way it was.

Holding onto these words, Ryuu felt emboldened enough to continue with the ones she was speaking aloud. So, empowering scripture nearly reaching its apex, final verse on the cusp of her throat, she—

The words stopped.

They stopped just shy of completion.

It wasn't a conscious decision, though.

As much as she willed it, wanted it, no syllables, no utterances followed their predecessors, leaving her spell to do nothing but come to an unceremonious halt. And inevitably, in the very back of her subconscious, she could feel as it flickered in uncertainty, as if it was threatening to fade out at any moment, no doubt wondering why the source of its growing power suddenly vanished so abruptly.

Yet, she couldn't do a single thing about that, not when it was the furthest thing from her mind. All of her focus, without an iota to spare, was on the incomprehensible act playing out before her eyes, so ludicrous, so unexpected, that for a moment she doubted if it was even real.

Lightning... had missed.

No, not missed, not in the correct sense of the word.

After all, the staff-toting girl had been completely spot-on with her aim. Just as before, lightning had congregated high in the air, building its devastating charge so as to strike down upon a blinking monster stone where it could do the most damage.

That's what should have happened, and no outward variable should have caused a discrepancy in that cause and effect.

Yet, something had, and as a result, ice crept into the deepest recesses of Ryuu's skin.

She had forgotten one simple fact about the dungeon, something that every good adventurer knew, that needed drilled into their heads early on, as soon as physically possible.

A monster was always, ALWAYS, at its most dangerous when on the brink of death.

Celty hadn't missed in that her magic hit the ground.

She had missed insomething elsepurposely hitting her magic.

A long grotesque black arm had swiped at the approaching azure onslaught.

The effect was immediate.

The air rippled as the two forces collided, and then an even more fantastical phenomenon occurred, one that shouldn't have surprised her, yet still did.

There was no way she wouldn't be struck dumb at seeing it in action.

A translucent barrier, blue in color, appeared around the Juggernaut, almost like a second skin.

But as much as it seemed to be begging for the contrary, nothing happened in the subsequent seconds the two great forces of light raged on in a stalemate, like the natural progression of time had halted in its tracks, and she was forced to wait. However, that was why Ryuu instantly noticed the change when it happened, and in the same vein, realized her teeth, so very audible, were undeniably chattering without stop.

What she witnessed—it was simple, so very simple, but irrefutably more terrifying.

Exposing a chilling array of sharp dagger-like fangs, the monster smiled.

There was no other way to put it.

Of course, time returned in the next moment, and everything happened all at once.

Sound disappeared.

The energy dancing and sparking off the Juggernaut's body vanished without a trace, but only for it to return exactly a second later with a vengeance, and the resulting light was almost enough to blind Ryuu. Her ears helped her instead, but that wasn't a kindness, not in the deafening way the air cracked as if it had taken the damage instead, and then-

And then most certainly not in the feminine cry that just as abruptly bit into her ears from the side. And, the subsequent screams that mirrored it.

Ryuu's head never moved so fast, having done so purely on its own, a feeling of wanton denial filling up every part of her.

Every gruesome, messy, horrible possibility ran through her mind like a storm, and she was convinced she would meet one of them.

She breathed.

And once she finished breathing, she tried breathing again.

She breathed. And breathed, and breathed, and breathed, and breathed, and breathed, and breathed, and breathed, and breathed—and she realized she couldn't breathe, not when her eyes finally converged on a singular point.

On a green haired girl with glasses.

Eh?

And on the black-clad, porcelain-faced figure that was already in front of her.

…

…

…

Alex found others extremely trustworthy.

No, really.

He would even go as far to say that he was one of—if not the most—trusting human beings on Earth. Of course he wasn't on Earth anymore so that might be liable to change. No. It didn't matter.

He stood by his statement.

There wasn't a more trusting guy than him.

Sure, people might look at him strangely if he said such a thing out loud, but that was because they didn't understand. Or, more like they didn't want to.

See, those ignorant masses had gotten it in their heads that trust was synonymous with friendship and everlasting bonds. Don't make him laugh. One did not need to have such relationships in order to garner trust.

All they needed, all theyreallyneeded, was to know what the other was thinking.

He trusted that female classmate of his to always get on his case, because he knew she couldn't handle people who fell out from her own normalized view of society.

Trust was for the men who stumbled after lone girls in the dead of night, because everyone intrinsically knows how to regress into savagery. Along the same vein, he trusted the seasoned criminals to turn on their partners, because the clever ones always do. The cops who will never prioritize his vigilante-ass over civilians, the way his opponents always hesitate when they see the mask, etcetera, etcetera.

But those were all rudimentary proofs.

More than anything else, Alex trusted those who killed.

It was an inhuman act that defied all rationality, yet hidden deep within the irrationality, was logic.

'He was jealous of him, so that was all it took to pull the knife out.'

'She loathed her bully, so she reached out and pushed her in front of that bus.'

Not simple lust, and not simple greed. Rather, the desire to murder another. The choices made to make that happen. It was a line that could easily be read. There might be twists, turns, dead ends too, but it all came back to the same thing. Theywantedto kill. Theywouldkill. By any means necessary.

And, that did not just apply to human beings.

With animals it was even simpler, laughably so. When they were hungry, they killed. Driven into states of self-preservation, they killed. When a prey turns their back to them, showing insurmountable weakness, who could expect them to refrain?

The devious bundle of saws for teeth in front of him was no different.

A monster it may have been, the Juggernaut still possessed this trait.

So, much like the cornered rat, how could Alex fail to trust that it would go for the eyes, especially when the chance to do so had been literally presented to it on a golden platter?

Like a bitch in heat, it lunged for the lightning.

Because even here in a world so far off from his own, freaky ass monster or not, pieces of shit were still pieces of shit.

What Alex chose to do in response was swift.

"Sorry not sorry!"

"W-Wha—"

In the time it took for his hand to flick towards his belt and perform a very practiced action, he was already about-facing in the complete other direction, where he sent the sole of his boot crashing into the heavily armored torso of the girl that happened to be there. There was no way it managed to hurt her, or cause her any degree of pain, but he hadn't been trying to do so.

Her face lit up with palpable shock as she staggered backwards.

He had actually aimed for her stomach, but he failed to account for their height difference in time.

Nevertheless, the results still pleased him.

He ripped the tower shield from her now all too weakened grasp, and fortunately, since his timing hadn't been too off, in the very next moment his belt tugged, and that was the only warning he received before he was all but catapulted off his feet in the direction he wasn't looking.

As Alex whistled through the air at high speeds, he couldn't have been picky about which body part he had lassoed before doing so, but he supposed through years of untiring use, his aim was truer than it had any right to be. Greenie, that is, her slender waist, bucked irregularly to accommodate the steel wire securely wrapped around it, and then with the full brunt of his added weight.

She made a high pitched sound at the sudden unwilling motion her body was taking, and it would have been nice if she was sent stumbling towards him as a result, but he wasn't that fortunate. Not when she barely took a step to the side.

Alex had forgotten how stupidly heavily these parallel-world girls were.

It shouldn't matter, however, not when he was already on course to solve all the problems in one go.

Within moments, the remaining distance between them vanished, and because if there was anything he could do correctly these days, it was take a fall, he very VERY non-technically ducked into a roll, and before he knew it, his boots were skidding along the dirt kicking it up everywhere, the shield that had been held closely to his chest raised outward and upward quickly, where an immensely bright light was waiting, choosing that moment to flash from both somewhere and everywhere.

Hold on?

And.

It was only then that Alex realized how bad of an idea this was.

"Uh, why did I assume the shield would—"

An ungodly amount of energy slammed into the obtrusive buckler, and Alex swore he heard something crack... or several something's. He really hoped that was the shield.

Then, the ground saw fit to leave him.

Actually, it was him that left it.

Yes; similar to a magical-ass hit and run, diesel style, he was sent flying backwards, which he was forced to assume in the proximate seconds given how considerably difficult it was making use of his senses when everything was blurring together in about the trippy-est way possible.

Was he still spinning?

That was probably an affirmative in light of his stomach feeling like it was trying to combat one, two, three different home invasions, all at the same time.

And even though he had no idea how long it all lasted, his brain still at one point finally caught up with the fact that his body had stopped moving.

And, that an impressively high cavernous ceiling loomed above him, a sight that did not change even after blinking a few times.

It was hardly the time for it, but something his mother once said trickled into his hazy mind.

-If you can't trust four walls and a ceiling, you can't trust anything.

Of course immediately afterwards, she would start running after pigeons with a pocketknife.

Alex paused, feeling that was off for some reason.

Righttttttttttt...

Jared. He was thinking of Jared, the homeless guy under that highway, who wielded crack like it was his superpower or something. He wondered how that guy was doing.

But anyway, if he had the necessary cerebral brain fluid to worry about drugged up homeless men, that more than likely meant he had survived that clusterfuck of an attack, which he totally nailed by the way."Don't know how I'm not dead... but I'll take it," Alex murmured with an incredulous lurch. "But why do I feel like I'm forgetting to do something?"

He suddenly heard a groan.

Or, maybe it was a moan? Sounded a little too soft for groan's more ungraceful connotation. He was going to settle for a dubious sounding snore. Yes. Also, what the hell was pressing into his not-not-hopefully-not-not broken ribs? Stiffly, Alex rolled his neck to look down, mask uncomfortably riding along his collarbone, and he saw what the problem was.

I swear this wasn't here before...

On a side note, he managed to recall what he had been forgetting.

Green hair filled his vision.

There was a body attached to the hair too, which was strange because he would have remembered volunteering to be someone else's cushion. Although... with the way gravity said 'fuck you', there was probably quite a few more things in the last minute that he wasn't going to remember.

Nevertheless, another soft groan-moan-snore came from the lightning-toting girl he had jumped in front of, which by the way he was never doing again as long as he lived.

Unless he was forced to.

...Which he probably would be.

Stupid quest screen and its dubious sounding objectives, making him save people like he was some upstanding individual.

Well, Alex could put aside the crisis of him being mistaken for a good person for later, even though it did give him chills.

Greenie was alive and that was all that mattered, because if she wasn't he was completely and utterly fucked.

Probably.

Allegedly.

He'd come back to that.

"Wakey, wakey, sleepyhead... your friends are still fighting. Time to get up, else they're all going to die," he said in the nicest voice he owned.

She stirred considerably, and her eyes opened, but they were bleary, still not completely lucid.

Fine by him.

Now he could try the approach that wasn't so boring. He reached out and started rubbing her hair softly. And just because, he brought his mouth closer to her totally-real-and-definitely-not-fake pointed ears. "If you don't get off me in three seconds, I'm going to do something strange to you. One, two, thr—"

She shot up like a demon possessed, and the look she gave him was so unbelievably flustered, that for a moment he feared she was going to pass out again with all that blood rushing to her face.

Alex mentally pleaded for her not too.

She was already touching all the wrong places, and even though he would normally be all too willing to say that out loud just to see a reaction, he was actually talking about his stomach, torso, ribs, did he mention his stomach, torso, and ribs? And any other place that was heavily bruised and quite possibly satisfying the definition of the word 'broken'.

Either way, thankfully, she didn't.

"S-S-S-S-S-S-Something s-s-strange?!" Instead, a particular expression stared at him, the kind of expression one made when they find out Mommy and Daddy weren't actually wrestling at one in the morning.

"You're still on top of me," he kindly informed her.

He doubted she could have scampered away faster if she tried. He would have been hurt if... well... no, actually. He couldn't think of any reason why that would hurt him. But for sentiment's sake, Alex would be hurt if he wasn't already trying to get a grasp on the situation.

He ignored the girl as he pushed himself to his feet.

More or less where they had been standing before, and a few even looking this way with wide eyes, several figures cast distinguishable silhouettes in the distance. There were still eleven of them, including little miss Greenie next to him, which meant his ticket wasn't at risk of being punched just yet.

Swell.

He then noticed the significantly larger figure looming behind them.

Fortunately, it was still trying to figure out how best to walk after Fantasy-C4 was shoved up its ass. ...Well, if its kindly staying still, how about I make its other eye—

Alex froze, reaching for something that just wasn't there.

His gift from Mr. Assassin was no longer over his shoulder. ...Right. His mind had been mainly on overdrive just a short while ago, but he remembered now. Ridding himself of excess weight was one of the first things he did before he ended up getting body slammed by magic and latching onto womanly hips... not necessarily in that order.

Anyway, his boom-boom stick.

He'd have to track the thing down before... before...

Alex sniffed the air.

Is something burning?

Just then, a small shriek came from beside him. He turned his head to find Greenie looking at him, expression aghast. When she pointed a shaky finger at him, rather, a part of him, his eyes fell to where she was indicating.

"Oh, hey."

His arm was on fire.

Well, not in every definition of the word.

His clothes were on fire, that is, the dwindling surface area of fabric that used to be a dapper looking sleeve. Damn. That was one of his favorite outfits too. Right, priorities. His elbow from what he could see, was scorched a nasty red, likely from a stray lightning bolt. He had thought he felt a sharp stinging back then.

On a side note, who knew the chance of getting struck by lightning was so high these days? Crazy.

"—s-sorry..."

Alex turned his head.

"Y-You're arm... because of me."

He looked at the girl strangely.

No, he purposely thought of her as strange. Was that why she looked about ready to cry? Well, that was kind of funny, and weird, but mostly funny, considering his reason for being in this situation at all was as far from noble as it could be.

She was about to feel so stupid.

"I think you're misunderstanding something here." Alex's mask tilted away as he began swatting at the flames, that is, before they could ruin the rest of his clothes. "Basically, if any of you girls die, I won't be able to go on living. It's that simple. Of course I'm going to shed a little blood to that end. Well actually it's probably been pints by now. Anyway, make sense?" he finished,already bored.

All the girl did was stare at him silently, and it lasted long enough to make him wonder if that would be enough for her to understand. Fortunately, her viridian eyes widened a second later. But? This was accompanied by a reaction that was a tad bit strange, or at least, even more strange than her others.

"O-Oh," Greenie uttered softly, her cheeks enveloped themselves in a familiar yet more pronounced dark hue as she frantically looked away from him.

"..."

Alex was well aware he was just staring at her.

Could... he take that to mean she was stunned by his duplicity?

He just conveyed the fact that his reason for helping concerned his own well-being, right? He just said he would literally die if he didn't, right?So why the hell was she looking at him like that? Shouldn't she be a little more, well, he didn't exactly know but, not good? Gaze estranged from his, arms tucked in front of her as if she didn't know what to do with them, she looked like some skittish little squirrel.

Women.

Weirdos. Every single one of them.

…

…

…

Ryuu did not need to be told what her face looked like.

Her grin, if the unsuitably poor expression even applied with how she was feeling, stretched at her face, to the point where it ached.

She was relieved.

Gods she was relieved.

There was close to a billion things she felt like saying, yet, just the same, if she opened her mouth, it was likely nothing would come out. She would not know how to truly speak of what she just saw, what she currently was seeing, and what words might be okay to use to best describe the palpable warmth gently strumming her entire being.

But even so, the flashes continued to appear in her mind:

Him moving before any of them, Celty's unknown yet known fate being determined one moment, but gone the next as he jumped in front of her, and whether he realized what Asta's shield was made out of, whether he realized he might have been dying alongside Celty but chose to try and save her anyway, and despite the fact that he had already told them about that monster's hidden trick, but not deciding to leave them to their justified folly, despite all of that, every bit of it, he—

Ryuu let out a shaky breath.

The time that felt frozen for her finally began moving again as she turned away from the two figures, masked male and green haired female, both alive and well in the distance. She also started the process of blinking away the copious amounts of moisture that had built up around her eyes without her say-so.

Again, there were a number of things she felt like saying. However, right now only one thing mattered.

A roar pierced the crisp air.

Across from her, despite its crippled state, the Juggernaut busied itself clambering to its feet, beginning to lumber forward. It didn't have the same fearsome speed as before, nor should it have its terrifying durability, but it likely didn't even care.

If it wanted to kill them, all it needed were those maddeningly sharp claws and teeth to do so. That's what it had to be thinking with that one singular eye that could only see red.

As if Ryuu would lay down and let it.

"Imbue the light of stardust and destroy the enemy—!"

If she wanted to move forward with everyone, this thing had to go. She would not disgrace herself further by failing, not again, and most certainly not at this crucial moment. So, glaring at the rampaging beast getting ever closer, that wanted nothing more than their bloody demise, Ryuu caught her rapidly diminishing spell by the hand just as it nearly faded into sepia. "Luminouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuus Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd!"

Her power exploded forth.

The familiar viridescent glows of her mana took flight all around her, instantaneously shooting forward at the black monster without pause. They rained down like a raging monsoon, colliding against the creature's form, enveloping it with the pure green glow of her magical power.

Her breathing rose in tempo.

Because there was no mighty explosion engulfing her vision like her spell was accustomed to doing, rather, the magic was met with resistance.

For the first time, Ryuu got to feel with her own body the jarring sensation of her mana being manipulated by an outside force. Even when she knew what could happen—what was likely going to happen—she couldn't say she was undaunted by the sight of that contrastingly pure blue light so effortlessly pushing back her crescent shaped barrage, threatening to send it in complete disarray.

Ryuu's teeth bit down hard, enough that she thought they might break. At the current moment, the mental strain of keeping her magic in place was no laughing matter. If her spell was like Celty's, one that expelled mana, this fleeting stalemate would have been unfeasible, impossible.

But her Luminous Wind was not something she threw so carelessly. It was controlled. Manipulating her mana to do as she wished took her utmost concentration. Even still, as her lime green constructs clashed with the seemingly impenetrable translucent barrier, she could feel her hold slipping.

This... what is this truly, a spell, a skill...?!

It was a terrifying prospect for a monster to possess such abilities, and more so, it was completely bone chilling to think that, had it not lost its eye, and had it not been significantly weakened by Lyra's explosive barrage, it would be even stronger than this. At that point, it wouldn't have been strange if they had all been killed instantly.

It wouldn't BE strange if they still met such a gruesome fate.

Perhaps even logic dictated such.

But that was why Ryuu shook her head, even as proof of her materializing exhaustion started to trickle down the side of her face.

Unacceptable.

If her power faltered here, if she allowed this monster to escape her grasp, it would be spitting on all the chances that had gotten them this far. It would be spitting on the many chances that one person in particular had given them, even if she still didn't have a clue as to why.

So she couldn't let it end here.

That was not the kind of justice she believed in, and more than that, that was not how she, Ryuu Lyon, wanted to leave things.

Without warning but welcome, something like a chill teased every bit of her body. No, not a chill. It was a heat, a hot vortex of flames that began to stoke and swirl within her innermost framework. This new energy might have been given kindling by the Elven forests in which she grew up, but they surely sparked into a raging inferno when the family she had made in Orario eclipsed everything else.

The family that deeply loved her, and that she loved in turn.

Their happiness, their smiles.

She couldn't let those people die.

And, if there was anything else...

There were still heartfelt words of gratitude she had not yet given.

So Ryuu thrust her hand out with force.

"LUVIA!"

Something snapped, like a thread that had finally reached the limit of its tension, and so too did the balls of lights in her command, trembling fiercely in place.

But they didn't fizzle out into nothingness.

Just the opposite in fact.

They grew brighter. The balls of light sought their brothers and sisters and joined together, growing larger and larger until their shine seemed to darken the surrounding area in contrast, and the beast standing near began to be completely dwarfed by their size.

Its reaction to the sudden emergence of power went unseen, just as the murky black body soon did.

This was not a new spell that had been created from nothing.

It was not the unpredictable breakdown of anIgnis Fatuus.

It was simply a new door being created, and she alone had the key.

Explode.

The door slammed open, and green light flashed dangerously before detonating with a deafening impact.

But, just before, and Ryuu swore she heard it, a single sound echoed through the stifling air. It was similar to the cracking of glass that had just reached its limit. The sight it accompanied couldn't be mistaken however, clearly seen before everything went white.

That otherworldly blue phenomenon, that which had nearly gleefully taken Celty away from them, was undeniably shattered into a million pieces, and the monster behind it...

It didn't even stand a chance.

The echoes of inhuman-like screams into the smoke-riddled air were the final vestiges of the Juggernaut's existence.

…

…

…

Head tilted and arms crossed, Alex stared at the gaping indentation of soil that had been created.

It was dead.

Scratch that, it had been fucking obliterated.

Whatever the business end of that lightshow had been facing, well, it sure as hell wasn't there anymore. He was also sure there was a joke about Hiroshima here too, but he just couldn't find it.

Anyway, he continued to stare.

If Alex was a lesser man, he would go into shock and have a panic attack. If he was a better man, he would be crying tears of appreciation at the sight. Well, he was in between there somewhere, probably, so he just nodded appreciatively.

It really was an impressive sight, after all.

What was previously a flat stretch of land with forest on all sides, was that, except the inner landscape wasn't so flat anymore. The pink haired girl had seen to that, bombing it to high hell, laughing as she did so.

Damn that girl, acting in a way that tugged at his nonexistent heartstrings.

But that wasn't all.

Blondie then tagged herself in and shot a tactical nuke out of her hands, because apparently that was possible, and then just like that, the several small craters were erased, a deeper, much wider one taking their place.

Alex's eyes tracked to said girl, idly wondering the terrifying thought that she could have done A WHOLE LOT worse than a knife in their previous brief bout of friendly fire.

But, and he wasn't sure if this was good news or bad news, summoning the green armada didn't look to be something she could do whenever she wanted—hence—why Blondie looked so dead on her feet. She even had to be supported by the one with red hair, little miss charisma.

And by way of their mouths moving, they looked to be having a conversation, and it wasn't hard to guess what about, not when basically all of them were sporting similar expressions. The relief was so palpable it probably could have manifested into some weird creature if it tried.

Actually, Alex probably shouldn't tempt fate like that.

Well, and he couldn't fault them for their joy.

Should be. They killed the big bad AND none of them kicked the bucket.

Sure, it might have been a bit touch and go in the beginning, but they eventually doubled down and carried the team, which was good because he wasn't liking his chances of doing it in their place. He would have had to get a lot more creative than he currently had the means for.

And speaking of 'means', he managed to once again affix one of them to his back.

If only serving as a way to stagger the frenzied fuck, the compact weapon had definitely been a total lifesaver. Alex would thank the person who gave it to him were that possible. But it wasn't. Mr. Assassin was likely dragging his handicapped self through prison at the moment.

Sucked to be him.

Although, he kind of wanted to take back his thanks.

The bastard had only packed three rounds in the damn thing. Seriously, overconfident much? What would he have done if a disturbingly stylish vigilante had knocked one of his shots into some nice-looking curtains—oh wait, that's actually what happened. In hindsight, Alex could have definitely prevented that from happening, but hindsight was a bitch, so no one listened to her anyway.

Moving on, one bullet missing, and one bullet entering a fleshy eyeball later, he only had one left.

Alex wondered if he could create more. He certainly knew enough about the inner workings of guns, but as for the chemical components that made bullets? He wasn't so sure.

It was something to think about.

Oh, two of the females suddenly started making their way over to him.

To be more specific, Red was helping the other along, Blondie still looking a little unsteady on her feet. And since the former apparently didn't know how to be anything other than positive and agreeable, the redhead gave him a chaste wave and grin as they continued to trudge forward. So while he expected that to some degree, he couldn't end up saying the same when the other girl mirrored her friend, smiling faintly.

Again, it was barely present given Blondie's state of exhaustion, but still, it was quite the difference between both the aggressive and docile modes he had seen her in. Not really knowing how to make heads or tails of it, Alex habitually tilted his head.

Don't get him wrong, he knew he had done the bare minimum to turn over the suspicious, hostile impression the group had of him before, and it only served his own ends to keep it that way.

Still though, it wasn't something he was used to facing.

On a good day, most people usually did not want to be near him, mask or not, even more so if they knew him prior. It was actually kind of funny, scratch that, it was undeniably funny, the reactions he would get. Like, what, did they think he was about to start kidnapping babies or something?

That's horrible.

What could he do with a captive baby?

Alex shrugged the thoughts off.

Blondie, Red, the lot of them too, they could be as jolly as they wanted, angry as they wanted, whatever as they wanted, towards him or anyone else, just so long as they weren't going off killing themselves. Though, that was something he didn't think he had to worry about... for the most part, his babysit-ees were pretty competent, even more so as a team.

Hell, if his usual stray civvies had been equipped with just half their coordination, life would have been a HELL of a lot easier back on Earth.

The number of times he's had to drag some crying, snot nosed princess out of a literal bullet storm, well, it was more than once, and that was already one too many. And unfortunately, his evil meter hadn't quite reached the point where he busted out popcorn to some twelve-year-old getting gunned down.

Alex might not have that thing called 'compassion' like everyone else, but he did believe that 'fair was fair'.

If those scumbags were wanting to dole out pain in the form of bullets, they should at least be prepared for some retaliation, right? Breaking near every bone in their body made sense, right? It was only natural to come to that conclusion. And, he supposed, safeguarding the scared shitless girl was the unintended side effect.

If nothing else, that was bonus points.

Well, who was keeping score, anyway?

That was a lie.

He was. He was always keeping score—kept him happy and sated.

Though...

His thoughts changed gears, and the reflection of that appeared yet again, promptly and without permission.

/

Protect the Astraea Familia until they safely make it back to the surface.

/

The system, whatever or whoever it was, seemed to assume his propensity to sometimes not be an asshole as a plus, which was quite frankly a leap in logic if he had ever seen one. Not only was it backwards, it was hilarious. He would still be laughing, even more so when he first saw the message, if this whole thing wasn't shaping out to be so... so...

"Tedious," Alex breathed out.

Still, he turned on a dime towards the two girls, still on the clock and all that. If nothing else, he could start the process of getting them the hell out of this unpredictable-ass area. And if they wanted to keep throwing game logic at him, maybe then he would be that much closer to being done with this stage.

Opening his mouth, Alex went to do just that.

Only he immediately closed it.

Behind them, the other girls seemed to be flocking over as well, also seemingly acknowledging the need for a group discussion. That was good, excellent even, but that wasn't what shut him up, nor was it the stray thought that the women looked no different from a box of color crayons, congregating all at once.

No, it wasn't that either. It was something completely different.

Shit had unilaterally just hit the fan.

And the only clue Alex received wasn't the system, nor was it anyone else's warning cry. It was his own instincts. An unrelenting chill, one that somehow felt both hot and cold at the same time, ran down the length of his spine, and his already halted feet further stilled in their tracks.

At once he turned towards the forest behind him.

Alex felt it, that ineffable something.

It was there, and it was different from the Juggernaut, when it eyed him like a piece of meat ready to be consumed. This was not the same. This stare felt more cunning, creepier, and unequivocally more flawed. He knew that stare. That kind of look.

It was human.

The tingle of excitement that came with it couldn't be faked, recreated, or explained in any other way. Though that feeling exploded into something like euphoria when Alex saw something small and gleaming come whistling out of the eerie darkness that was the forest.

In fact, he saw several such phenomena.

But the ever growing feeling inside him didn't abate, not when it got closer, and not even when the sickly green knife struck him dead center.

Shrill cries, panicked and surprised, echoed from all around him.

Alex fell to the ground in short order.

...

...

...

A/N:

Next chapter should arrive really soon. Its done. Just editing is left.

But a few tidbits should anyone even remotely give a collective shit.

Luvia is the spell Ryuu uses when she fights the Juggernaut with Bell, and upon looking it up, it means "a girl who is deeply loved". Fitting, no? It was only because of Ryuu's love for her Familia that she felt the need to resort to vengeance. And the fact that they loved her so deeply in turn made the feeling of revenge all too irresistible in her head. She didn't want to betray that love that they gave her, so she tried to avenge them. It's just semantics, but beautiful all the same.

Ah, but Ryuu won't have to experience that hatred this time.

Please review. Not a single author doesn't read them.

And have a wonderful day!

:)

—EPSILON

A/N:

Ever since I went back to college, I've had a really bad habit of holding my chapters hostage, not wanting to let them see the light of day. And then they develop Stockholm syndrome, or I do, and then it gets really bad. Kay, the metaphor fell away a bit there. The point is, I'll try to stop doing that.

I'm writing a fanfic for Astraea's sake, not professional literature.

With that out of the way, and if it's not too selfish of me, please enjoy the narrative I crafted for those who care enough to read it.

...

...

...

Gojouno Kaguya prided herself a realist.

Because of this, she felt it a forgone conclusion that she often butted heads with her polar opposite, that idealistic elf who seemed to think justice meant saving everyone. That was far too brainless for her to ignore. Quite simply, it couldn't be more wrong.

It wasn't possible to save everyone.

If it was, this world would be a lot kinder.

There would always be someone drawing the short end of the stick, and whether it was through a lack of luck or skill, a sacrifice was guaranteed.

Ryuu, foolish girl that she was, could galivant through the masses, saving as many as she could, believing she could make a difference. But while she was doing that, she was just ignoring her own hypocrisy, that by choosing a winner, she was also automatically choosing a loser. And this would happen regardless of popular opinion, without everyone being consulted, and all those involved remaining blissfully unaware until it was too late...

Yes.

Kind of like right now.

The dissonant ring of metal clashing against metal made Kaguya realize something had gone horribly wrong. There was also an odd sensation just barely tingling along the length of her arm, but she ignored that in favor of the far more pressing issue.

She had been standing upright not too long ago, hadn't she?

Now, she was nearly face down in the dirt.

Why had she willingly allowed her body to be placed in such a state? And why in Astraea's name was it so jarringly difficult to lift up her own head? Her neck felt far too stiff, like thousands of weights were boring down on it without relent.

Kaguya tried looking up from her prone position.

It directed her to the flurry of commotion happening not even meders away.

Multiple figures moved about, constantly shuffling to-and-fro like a game of keep-away, only it wasn't so lighthearted. They numbered around five, yet only one of them truly grabbed her attention – a girl whose crimson hair never stopped dancing as she pivoted, ducked, and seized forwards amidst the scores of blades swung wildly at her person.

"Seyyahhh!"

But no matter how they bunched up, Astraea's captain did not give an inch of ground while combatting them. Graceful to their sloppy, quicker and faster to their paltry, Kaguya just found herself watching Alise as she fought, expertly weaving around each of her attackers. Speaking of...

The four of them were all males, and Kaguya felt something grab at her chest at the sight of them. It wasn't immediately clear what or why this was.

Either way, the sudden surge of negativity that raced through her was startling, but not nearly as much as the dissonance that came with the fact that there was no immediate recognition to be had, none that she could see at the ready anyway.

But that jarring contrast would have to wait.

In every single one of their hands, there was the same weapon.

This wasn't so much a clue but an oddity, especially because of what form the weapons took. Daggers. Obsidian-like daggers continued to flash like lights under the Dungeon ceiling's artificial sky. Even stranger though, and it sent a confusing tingle down her spine, another color occasionally revealed itself amidst the black-stained steel's ceaseless trajectories.

A pale, sickly green.

If anything, it reminded her of—

"Gfffgfbbwh!?"

A tortured sound abruptly sailed raw and scathing through the open air, and Kaguya found herself immediately latching onto the only thing capable of making it.

She doubted her vision when she did.

Kaguya could only stare uncomprehendingly at the beautiful crimson-haired girl whose expression was now completely twisted with pain. And then at what was behind her – seemingly reveling in the attention afforded to it – the black handle that stuck out precariously from one shoulder blade.

Alise gasped unevenly as she tried and failed to look back at the blade inside her. The action just ended up robbing her of her balance instead.

Kaguya's mind creaked.

The sight of her slumping inelegantly to the cold rocky ground with that horrid black steel jutting upright, so cockily, as if it had any right to, caused a hot anger to wrap around her body like a cocoon. By all accounts this feeling should have extended towards the individuals who were responsible, the still faceless goons standing about, but that was not what was running through her mind.

What the hell was SHE doing?

That question dripping with self-immolation was directed at herself, the girl who was uselessly and incompetently watching this all from the ground as if it had nothing to do with her.

Kaguya grit her teeth.

Get your ass up, you lazy piece of shit...!

She forced her body into overdrive.

Heart thumping atrociously loud, Kaguya tucked her knees inward to leap to her feet, simultaneously reaching to slide the katana from out of its sheath. She did this all in one fluid motion. She definitely did. In fact, there should have been no reason why she wasn't already attacking the threat. That was why, in a twist that baffled her to no end, it was extremely strange when absolutelynoneof that happened.

Arms glaringly remained planked on the rough dirt.

Kaguya's heart started to sound off kilter.

It was as if to musically orchestrate the inescapablewrongnessblaring into her skull.

She couldn't move.

Like it was numb, as if it wasn't even there – that was her body's state right now. Why in this godly plane had it taken her this long to notice? Questions piled up, a discordant feeling of dread sloshed around gregariously through her, along with a singular epiphany, one she didn't want to consider –hadn'twanted to. But there was no other explanation. This situation, this defective state of being, it was surely...

A brown leathery gloved hand reached for the knife in Alise's back and yanked it out without any hesitation.

Her friend's brittle cry of agony was like a slap to the face.

Kaguya didn't look away. It was more like she couldn't, wouldn't allow herself to, even. Gaze shifting to the arm the vile glove it was attached to, and after that, finally, at the person's face, she found herself sucking in a horrendously sharp breath.

The old adage, that ice was somehow capable of creeping into one's skin, a feeling she had never once understood – it was horribly familiar to her now.

And as if in some part aware of the freezing temperatures smothering her heart, the ecstatically grinning cat-man started laughing. The deeply unsettling pitch echoed clearly through the air that allowed it.

It was merry, it was joyful, and it was why Kaguya didn't have any problem calling it deranged as well.

A name came to her, even if the last thing she wanted to do was remember it. But that wouldn't happen, not with what he had done to be lodged in her mind in the first place, what he and others like him will only continue to do.

There was no forgetting the unofficial captain of that twisted Familia, one of the many that defected away from order and civility, the prospect of chaos seeming much more delectable.

And that wastheir business.

Chaos.

And this eerily smiling monster in human skin, too, knew of no other way to live as a member of Evilus.

"It worked! It actually wooooooorrrrkkkkeeeddd! I almost don't believe it! Please tell me you all really look that pathetic! Please tell me those absolutely petrified expressions on your faces aren't just for show! HAhaa!"

Like a lunatic, Jura Halmer trembled with undeniable glee. That he looked so genuinely sated, so satisfied, filled Kaguya with such an intense amount of disgust. The man looked not of an adult, but a child playing a game, hooting and hollering after finally managing to snag a round.

He spun around, looking everywhere he could, as if to savor the expressions of all the losers that had been caught in his trap.

Kaguya's insides squeezed.

Men, around a dozen, stood with weapons ready, all similarly dressed in those same rugged animal pelts and thick leather. It was makeshift clothing, the outfits of those that wouldn't dare be seen in broad daylight purchasing any other gear for a bounty would be placed on their heads within the hour.

Kaguya gave this the idlest of thoughts however, same with the all too familiar dagger being in the hands of more than just one. She also tried to ignore the expressions on their faces, the sheer relief there, and then the even more revolting and ominous emotion simmering impatiently beneath.

It made her sick.

Still, she barreled past it all, until she made it to the myriad of forms half-hazardly sprawled at their feet.

It hadn't been just Kaguya.

It hadn't been just Alise.

Looking so weak and helpless it pissed her off were the rest of Astraea Familia.

It should have relieved Kaguya that they were all alive, that they were all blinking and breathing. It didn't, not when they didn't make so much as a peep, not when she noticed the grimaces etched into each of their expressions, crumbling hope that seemed to seep away by the second as the situation was slowly dawning on them.

She wanted to pause that hope, keep it burning, even if it wasn't like her at all.

She couldn't.

How could Kaguya when she wasn't even able to muster up the courage to open her mouth, to say anything, anything at all to somehow cement the belief even to herself that she wasn't helpless?

In the midst of this, Kaguya's eyes landed on Ryuu, and her immediately lurched in her chest. But this was not brought on by sadness or despair. No, she wanted to smack the girl upside the head.

That stupid idiot...!

Ryuu had that look in her eyes.

It was the smoldering, all too familiar look of that elf, who had just seen an injustice happen before their eyes and would not even think about letting it go. No amount of pleading or common sense would be able to convince her otherwise. That, along with a glare hot enough to catch fire, was written ever so clearly on Ryuu's face as she stared at the gasping Alise.

The dumbass was seconds away from saying something incredibly stupid.

"Heehee, not bad for a back-up plan, eh?" Jura said with his nigh elated face, swishing something in his hand.

It was the reason they couldn't move.

Not the infamous whip still tucked away at his side, but another weapon.

No, it couldn't even be called a proper weapon.

Tinged with an all too unpleasant green, one Kaguya knew very well, had been forced to become familiar with, it was nothing more than a cowards' crutch. And those poisoned cowardly fangs that were currently slick with all their blood, Alise's too, the girl even now trying to stifle her pain...

This didn't do anything to soothe the trembling elf. And on cue, Ryuu's lips opened up in a snarl, seemingly no longer able to keep herself in check.

"Honestly, I must say I'm rather perplexed, Jura. Being the veritable cockroach that you are, I had assumed you had tucked yourself away somewhere, perhaps even to cry in the fetal position... Apologies, that just now was a lie. I was actually hoping that you kindly got yourself impaled. Ah, but don't feel as though you've lost your chance. Feel free to do so. I don't mind waiting."

The surroundings stilled.

The wide-open space had in that instant become as silent as a grave.

Her comrades' expressions, almost tangible in how much horror they belayed, would have been amusing if not for the situation, not to mention Ryuu's hanging jaw especially. Naturally, they were all staring at Kaguya herself, who just couldn't help stepping over Ryuu's rage at that crucial moment, just before it exploded.

I've really done it now...Without any real mirth, Kaguya smiled.

Rudra Familia as a whole looked equally as gob smacked, as if they simply didn't know what to make of the kind of girl suicidal enough to do what she just did. They shuffled and exchanged looks, right before gauging the expression of the person who had gone just as deathly silent.

And Kaguya couldn't say she knew how to take the long-suffering sigh that escaped the cat-man.

"You know, Gojouno... I'm actually glad it was you," Jura said in what might have been a wistful tone.

Kaguya didn't even get the time to ponder that.

The bottom of her head abruptlyexplodedin pain. She didn't even realize she had been kicked until flat on her back, loudly expelling breaths into the air. And the inconsistency that she had so obviously been on her stomach before too, also was slow to come to her. Was it because both her jaw and base of her skull felt like they were on fire?

Kaguya didn't know.

Jura had long vanished from view, the far-reaching ceiling of the dungeon taking his place. Even then, she couldn't be sure. Vision dipping in and out of focus, focusing on anyone thing was a challenge.

Her hearing was a different story.

A clamor of noises so closely resembling her name slipped through the muddled haze and into her subconsciousness. Kaguya instinctively wanted to rise to meet them, even if her brain could not readily find the reason why such a thing was necessary. The strength required to do so, however, was the far more pressing issue.

It was fleeting, just like her sight as a fast-approaching darkness began encircling her vision.

A boot slamming into her midsection woke her right up.

It was such an unexpected action, yet so ironically expected of the person who had done it, that even with her body seizing in pain, Kaguya couldn't have prevented the gasp-like chuckles that came out her mouth.

"...Tch. Annoying bitch. Don't teeter off just yet, Gojouno. We've still got things to do."

She slid open heavy eyelids to find the cat-man's grin looking down at her. No; she couldn't call it that. Calling it a grin was an insult to the facial expression. That was the only way she could define the cruel, twisted sneer painting his face. And it only seemed to grow viler by the second as he looked her up and down.

"I'm sure I could enact my sickest fantasies right here and now, and you, the insufferable bitch that you are, would make it your life's purpose to not react in the slightest. Oh, and as much as I want to, to try to pry that unbreakable heart of yours wide open, just for the sake of it, just to see if I can, I...!"

A shiver seemed to rock Jura's body as he suddenly quieted.

"No... I don't think I will. Instead..."

Without warning, the man got a lot closer, and any disgust Kaguya might have felt was put on the hold as a violent prick of pain stabbed into the base of her scalp.

With a disturbing giggle, Jura yanked at her hair, forcibly bringing her face upwards, and it cut off any attempt she might have had to look away. Kaguya was tempted to spit on him, if only for touching the one thing about her she didn't despise her parents for.

But such trivial resistance was dead and gone from her mind at the question that was so innocuously floated by that cruel voice. "...Hey, tell me Gojouno, who do you notwant me to hurt?"

She forgot to think.

"HAHAHAHAHAAAA! SHE ACTUALLY DID IIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!"

Jura slammed her head down into the ground, and despite the imaginary stars that sprouted from darkness that was her own mind, and the abrupt numbness that followed all too swiftly, she didn't feel any pain. Not a bit. Kaguya didn't even taste the would-be grotesque flavor of blood and dirt travelling down her throat.

None of those physical stimuli even remotely registered.

Instead, an invisible, slow reaching rot squeezed her heart with thousands of barbed coils.

"...w-wait," a weak voice pitifully said.

Her own.

But the words reached no one.

They certainly didn't stop the footsteps from getting farther away from her and closer to someone else.

Kaguya looked up, and she saw what she did not want to see. Jura walked eagerly to the person, the one she had just condemned because she wasn't thinking, hadn't been able to, was the worst hypocrite alive for being unable to do the one thing she mocked Ryuu for. Even though Kaguya was praised for it, was known for it, she couldn't even use her head the one moment she needed to.

She just... reacted. She couldn't even stave off the kind of instinctual reaction only a child fell for. She didn't mean it. She wanted to take it back. But saying that implied she had meant to look elsewhere, that someone else should have been chosen in place of that person.

Kaguya's breathing suddenly got louder, heavier.

Yes; regardless of intentions, regardless of fairness, a sacrifice was made, and she was the one who had naively led someone headlong into it.

"Big bad Red herself, eh? Wow, didn't expect that one! HEEHEE!"

As Jura stopped before Alise, darkness threatened to swallow Kaguya whole.

"What do you have to say Lovell? Gojouno there just fucked you over. How does that make you feel? How big a wound did that just open in your noble heart? Hey, you gotta tell me. Don't leave anything out." The man was intermingled with impish giggles. His glee at the turn of events couldn't have been more obvious.

And Alise...

Alise didn't look good at all.

The girl was incredibly pale, and the blood she lost, hardly inconsequential, was made increasingly more obvious in the stains of red that surrounded her person. She was already hindered, unmoving like the rest of them, but, regardless, it was such an Alise, even with a visage wracked with sweat, that took a quivering breath.

"Do... as you wish..."

Jura was already laughing at the resigned words of the girl who couldn't even lift her head off the ground.

At least, until Alisedidraise those emerald orbs.

"But... it doesn't matter. Even putting a dent in my heart... I won't allow it. This... This isn't spite, Jura, or anger... Justice... it means so many different things... and right now... it means saying the words... we're back... to our goddess, with everyone. And I... can't do that if I break... So I won't..." Those were the words that were said with a smile that had not given into the situation in the slightest.

"..."

Even when the Familia first started and it was just the two of them, Kaguya had always thought of Alise as powerful. She was something of a combat prodigy after all, and she worked harder than anyone to Level up.

But being powerful wasn't what made herstrong.

That came from somewhere else. And Kaguya stopped trying to figure out where once she realized that Alise's soul was just that blinding all on its own. She didn't look to others for anything. She grasped what she desired within herself for the sake of others.

And it made her shine radiantly as a result.

Kaguya's vision blurred.

She wasn't losing consciousness, nor had the dungeon's faint lights dimmed. Wetness teased at her eyes, and she could no longer feign ignorance as to what it was. Silent and stifled tears fell. Something like crying... she couldn't even recall when she had last done so.

But then they fell down even more when those impossibly clear green orbs looked her way.

The words "This isn't your fault" weren't voiced in the slightest, but it wasn't necessary, not on the face that didn't have even an iota of betrayal or discontent.

It was the look of someone who thought it only right to fall on a sword so no one else had to. Such a thing, accompanied by an expression of utmost tenderness, shouldn't have been allowed.

It really, really...

Blood began to trickle down Kaguya's bottom lip.

"I didn't think it was possible to despise you even more than I already did, Lovell."

Jura's voice, almost muted by a heart cracking loudly in several places, her own, came out with such simmering finality that it left no room for doubt as to his feelings at the moment.

"I would say this is going to hurt me a lot more than it will you... but who would believe such a bold-faced lie... kindly suffer and then die screaming, you stupid bitch."

The cat-man didn't even need to snap his fingers or do anything of the sort.

The group of four closest to Alise instantly took that as their chance to scuttle forward, hurriedly sheathing their weapons. They wouldn't need them for what they were about to do – that was written all over their disgusting expressions now dripping with eagerness. Horror barreled into Kaguya like a hurricane, and then at the hands that reached out without qualms.

"Stop..." she said from her front row seat.

That kind of futile opposition... not a thought-over riposte or anything close to it, but rather just the instinctual words of a victim. It was the reaction of someone so irredeemably weak. That was the only kind of resistance Kaguya could muster up... and words could not describe how much she intensely hated herself for it.

Closer and closer the hands got.

Juuuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

Unvoiced yet red hot, her scream burned to the point where it could have just as easily been sent flying – hoarse, ugly, and piercing into the cold open air with how deafeningly loud it was in her own head.

Or maybe that was Jura's sudden crescendo of cackling laughter?

Or was it the rage-filled wailing of the feminine voices she had come to know?

Kaguya couldn't decide, couldn't think of a way to decide. Yes. She couldn't think. Her vision blanked in and out, on and off, like someone was covering her eyes without her say-so. As such, and with her sight blurring, each tear ridden blink had Alise vanishing, returning, and vanishing from sight again and again, with each time making Kaguya terrified that they would be the last.

...Oh.

She was terrified, scared.

She was scared of this situation.

She was scared of the malicious looking backs that had nearly reached Alise.

She was scared of being as weak as when she had been trapped in that lonely manor.

She was scared of the future that awaited several minutes – no, even several seconds from now. But more than anything else, Kaguya was scared that she was scared. There was no longer any use pretending she wasn't. She was, without a doubt, completely and utterly—

"Well, that's far enough I suppose."

Kaguya's heart started to beat extensively loud in her chest.

The voice that suddenly echoed, male, was different from any of those present, and it caused the scene in front of her to freeze. It certainly wasn't Jura's, and it most definitely wasn't that of his cohorts.

Kaguya knew this.

She knew this because she had heard the voice before.

It wasn't intimidating. Wasn't commanding either. Instead, it treaded the line between indifference and casualness. But itwasdifferent, so very different, and that was why she couldn't believe that she had forgotten all about it until now. Just as she had somehow failed to notice the figure that appeared in tandem with it.

Someone now stood impossibly close to an Alise who had been surrounded by those who wanted to break her.

No.

He was standing in between them as if he had always been there, as if imagining anything different was the true illusion.

That was the only conclusion Kaguya could come to with the jarring difference between what was and what had surely been. This discordant confusion gripping her had nowhere to go, and so she just did what everyone else in attendance was doing and let instincts take over.

Yes; joining the widened eyes and parted mouths, Kaguya stared dumbly at the masked blond now standing almost shoulder to shoulder with an Evilus member almost a full head taller than him.

"Y-You! How did—!?"

The speed with which the four men nearest reached for their weapons were definitely worthy of their high statuses, being the Three's and Four's that they were.

That being the case, it seemed a matter of course that Kaguya was seconds away from witnessing the moment in which they leapt forth and attacked with the enigmatically present blond doing the same, even though his true capabilities were still completely shrouded in mystery.

But.

Movement, attacking, battle...?

Such a rationale spectacle didn't happen in the slightest.

Because it was over before it even started.

One of the four, despite the hands that were touching his weapon's handle, never even pulled on it. Kaguya found this strange. No, what was stranger was the man wasn't even looking at his opponent anymore. He was far too distracted looking downward. But his gaze was not on the conventional looking mace at his side.

"Oh, did you finally notice?"a voice asked, somehow sounding both kind and cruel.

The Rudra affiliate shivered in response.

Two things became apparent to Kaguya's brain in that moment.

The first, and the reason why she suddenly doubted her eyes, was the fact that the boy wasnot empty-handed.

The second was the very cruel line that now marked the taller man's exposed chest.

Color fell from it in the next subsequent moment.

Dark, wet, and thick liquid began to drip out from the man's now open wound with startling quickness, and the blood that stained the ground did not show any signs of calming down.

Something sturdy followed.

Kaguya could only blink at the sight of a man shooting bulging eyes at the ceiling from his new position on his back. He made no attempts to get up from the ground in which he lay. His expression and unintelligible croaks, however, clashed with this.

But no sooner than she could blink, the one garbled cry of disbelief tripled.

Three other Evilus members just as succinctly hit the floor.

It was surreal:

The way her captors were now staring uncomprehendingly at their unresponsive bodies, no, the specific parts that were somehow cut and slightly bleeding. It wasn't a fatal wound. Not even close. But because that didn't matter, because the unfathomable stupor they were experiencing wouldn't just be disappearing because they wished it, she knew they would not be getting up any time soon.

And it was also why Kaguya knew there was no way Rudra could have ever expected the situation to unfold like this.

Not this reversal that just didn't seem possible.

Her teammates by chance caught her eye and... it wasn't even anything they were doing. It was actually something they had been doing but now weren't.

Their faces that had been pinched with unbidden fear, Kaguya couldn't even begin to describe the dissonance of seeing all that tension practically erased from them.

It was as if a certain someone had stolen it all away.

And that someone continued to casually spin an all too pointedly poisoned knife as if it had nothing to do with him.

"W—... Wha... W-What the fuckkkkkk?!"

In what seemed to be a delayed reaction, Jura's whip cracked the air loudly as he jumped backwards. His own green tipped dagger hadn't been stowed, but rather gripped tightly in his other hand in a defensive position. And of course, his frantic gaze was cast forward at the only one capable of taking it at the current moment.

The blonde man with the drawn-on smile waved.

"Y-You bastard—where did you...?! No, how are you even...?"

In not quite so little or many words, Kaguya was wondering the exact same.

She wasn't sure of a lot of things the moments before their... ambush, but she vividly recalled the most flashily dressed one among them being the first to hit the ground, courtesy of a flyingsomethingfrom the forest. And that something had surely been...

Kaguya couldn't refrain from swallowing, making her realize just how barren and dry her throat was.

What did it mean that the boy was now holding what was obviously one of Jura's poisoned daggers?

The blonde didn't answer any of these questions, and Jura growled when it became clear he had no intention to. Beyond the fact the mask was looking Jura's way, it wasn't even clear he was paying attention.

Despite this though, as if his discontent was a mere change in the seasons, Jura started to chuckle.

"Does any of it matter?"

He cracked his whip left and right.

"We still have you outnumbered. Who cares that you somehow got your hands on some of our stuff? And getting a good look at you, aren't you, like, hella weak? What the fuck is that outfit, ripping everywhere?"

Jura nearly doubled over with giggles.

"Aren't those just fucking dress clothes?! What Level are you anyway? Can't be very high if you have to pull tricks like this! Aren't you just the most unfortunate bastard of all time? Do these bitches even know you? I've certainly never seen them with a blond male on the surface. ...Ha? Are you actually just some stray whose party got slaughtered? Hey, you are, aren't you? Don't tell me that's it?! Hahaha!"

As the cat-man continued to uproariously laugh, growing more and more satisfied with his own impassioned dick measuring, Kaguya was starting to become concerned as to what the boy's plan of action was.

He... was just standing there.

She could see his chest rising and falling. Beyond that, he would occasionally twirl the knife he was holding in one hand. Even so, the silence on his part just continued to stretch on. He couldn't be frozen in fear, could—

Eh?

Very subtly, to the point where Kaguya thought she had imagined it, that mask suddenly looked at her.

Even then, there was no way to know if those black formless eyes were looking at her in particular, but soon it no longer mattered if she was the recipient of that gaze or not. Regardless, what he did next confirmed in the clearest way possible what his lack of saying anything meant, and that it was in no way indicative of him being intimidated by the Evilus member not even a few meders away from him.

And Jura's laughter suddenly ceasing, might have been him reaching the same conclusion.

What the boy did was simple, childish even. Looking Kaguya's way, and with the other hand that wasn't holding the knife, he mimed a particular gesture with it. His fingers and palm opened and closed incessantly, and if it wasn't obvious enough, he unashamedly began to jab in Jura's direction with the knife's edge.

Not a single word was said, and she still felt like she knew what he was saying:

This guy seriously isn't going to keep droning on like this, right?

Kaguya felt her lips twitch.

"Haahhhh?"

Jura did not feel the same amusement. His lips noticeably pulled downward, and not a single trace of his earlier cocksure amusement could be found on his face.

Saying he looked angry was too vague, too general. Such an expression was closer to madness, as if he was seconds away from jumping several levels up from what he initially planned to do with his all too cheery mood. This was even more obvious, concerning too, when the cat-man started to tremble.

"You're... mocking me? Me? Really? Okay... Let's see if you're still having fun a few seconds from now. You know, I'm glad that black demon didn't rip you and them to shreds. Really, really glad. It would have been too quick. Too painless. I can take my time now. You thought what I had planned for these girls was bad? Heehee. Beg all you want, I'm not gonna stop until you're reduced to a quivering mess, on your knees, screaming, pleading for me—"

The mask whipped towards Jura at speeds that even caused a flicker of surprise to appear on the man's face.

He recovered quickly, and his grin turned wolfish. "Ha! So you finally under—"

"Are you... like, propositioning me right now?"a nigh-perplexed voice asked.

The oppressive quality in the air flickered.

Kaguya felt her jaw fall.

Jura's face scrunched up undecipherably.

It was only after a very stifling five seconds of opening, closing, and opening his mouth again and again that something barely intelligible finally come through, like his brain was whirring with great difficulty trying to come up with a response to what he had just heard. And even then, after what felt like forever, it was simply...

"...Huh?"

All that killing intent had vanished from the murderer in an instant.

But the boy hummed through it.

"No, no, don't look like you're about to have an aneurism, I'm just... surprised you swing that way? I mean, with what you were saying and doing earlier, I could have sworn... huh, well I suppose it doesn't really matter. I guess there are just all kinds of bandits these days. Ah, I'm rambling. Look dude, I'm really flattered, but I'm not into guys. Sorry."

Kaguya's concussion was more serious than she thought.

That was the only way to explain the auditory hallucinations her ears were providing her. And it wasn't even that far-fetched either. Drop-kicked a few meders via a kick in the skull would do that.

At least, this is what she was thinking until she got a look at her companions...

Oh my gods I'm not hallucinating...

Otherwise, Kaguya didn't think it was possible for strait-laced Ryuu Lyon to look so ineffably lost. The sheer depth of the elf's flabbergasted visage... it very much couldn't have been because of anything else.

And the reason Kaguya knew this was the girl's expression was scarily similar to when Lyra laughed herself to tears explaining to the elf that cute, green-clothed fairies didn't actually have anything to do with why a man and a woman suddenly found themselves with a baby.

That was the kind of face Ryuu wore right now.

Perhaps Kaguya should have questioned it a bit more, surveyed the others too, but she forgot to do even that as the conversation between masked boy and cat-eared man continued to escalate.

"Are you—are you being serious right now?" Jura looked like he had reached the tipping point ofsomething, most likely his sanity. Also... Kaguya was made to wonder if he realized just how incredulous and weakly devoid of confidence his voice sounded.

"Yep,"the boy answered, popping the 'p'."Men don't do it for me at all. Checked and everything."There was a brief pause that ended with a little chuckle from the boy, as if he was thinking of something funny.

No, even with that extra tidbit of information...

Kaguya was not sure how she was supposed to react to that.

What even entailed the process behind—no, no. She couldn't get distracted. It would be all too easy to space out and do so. Though, she was all but sure that Jura had not meant it in that way when asking his question. He definitely couldn't have.

Red began to seep into Jura's face.

It wasn't shame or embarrassment.

"Wh-What the actual fuck are you blathering about, you crazed piece of shit?! Do you really want to die that badly?!"

Someone started clapping.

The boy was, having suddenly reversed the knife's handle, looked at Jura.

"Wowwwwww, okay. So just 'cause I wouldn't have sex with you, its death? Well excuse me for not jumping at the chance to fornicate with a cat-eared forty-something with a dick. Some of us have standards you fucking pedophile."

The rippling indignation of the content of his words clashed jarringly with the dryness of the voice carrying it. Not to mention the mask's off-putting smile...

What was actually happening right now?

"What the fuck is happening right now?!"

Kaguya didn't know how to feel about reaching the same wavelength as her captor.

"A-... And I'm not even close to forty, you... you... you braindead fuckwit!"

"Don't worry, I believe you. That's what dog years are for."

"ARGGGGHHH! THAT'S IT! I DON'T FUCKING CARE ANYMORE. I REALLY DON'T! GROUP UP AND KILL THIS... THIS... THIS THING! I WANT HIM DISCARDED ALL OVER THE PLACE IN THE MESSIEST FUCKING CHUNKS POSSIBLE! FINISHING BLOW GETS A WHOLE BOTTLE OF SOMA—ON ME!"

The change that caused was electric and dirt and dust kicked up like an explosion.

The seven Rudra Familia members did not need to be told twice, not as steel sang and blurred, several weapons being unsheathed and already swinging towards just one person, all in a singular instant. And it was a matter of seconds – no – even less than that before the distance between them disappeared completely.

Even Alise had trouble dealing with four and then a subsequent fifth. This many, all being 2nd tier adventurers that which transcended what it meant to be human, there was no way this masked enigma would be able to fare any better. And it was exactly as she took no time at all for a sword lodged itself deep into his neck.

Or, that was what would have happened if the blade hadn't stopped just shy of making contact.

Un-concerningly, the mask leaned away from it as if it were a minor annoyance.

"All kidding aside though, you guys don't really have time to deal with me at all, do you?"

The flippant casualness in his voice was gone.

Jura hadn't told his men to stop.

That was not the reason a blonde-haired head wasn't rolling in the dirt right now. He wouldn't have even been able to get the order out quick enough even if he wanted to.

It was not a sudden bout of kindness from the boy's attackers either.

No, they only stopped because they were left with no other choice.

Jura's ears twitched, no doubt hearing it first.

And then Kaguya and everyone else.

Because in that instant the forest started screaming as if alive.

"RYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Kaguya's vision shook.

A sinister and oppressive feeling wrapped around her insides like a coil and squeezed.

There's... no way.

How was it?

How was it that she couldn't even see it yet and be this terrified? But that was inconsequential. Her mind was presently filling in the gaps for her, against her will. Two crescent shaped infernos radiating the intent to kill. Carried by a body jet black. Sleek with unimaginably sharp claws.

"Y-You're fucking with me! How can it still be alive?!"

Jura's face was far from its usual color as he faced the forest.

And then a second sound rang out.

Kaguya's heartbeat felt like it had disappeared entirely.

From the completely other end of the forest, screaming in tandem with its other, such a similar terrifying noise plagued the ears of all those in attendance. And the situation further seemed to descend into insanity. A third one sprouted up. A fourth, fifth, and sixth. If any more had joined the cacophony, Kaguya had already lost the will to notice.

The impossible array of the ravenous screeching only continued to overlap with each other, as if drawing strength from its kin. And it only further turned the already foreboding forest into a singular chaotic entity, capable of turning all her nightmares into reality.

Yes, this was a nightmare.

There was no way it wasn't.

Yet Kaguya couldn't so readily believe she would wake up like nothing happened. She would have to see this through to its arduous end. Her mind cowered, crumbling bit by bit by the mental image that those several impossibly-present Juggernauts were seconds away from bursting from that tree line and—

Someone laughed.

"Wow, you really fell for that?"

.

. .

. . .

A wet squelching sound licked the air.

Kaguya strained disbelieving eyes.

An exuberant amount of blood shot from Jura's mouth, and the cat-man cast feverishly frantic eyes to the blade buried in his side, before slowly cocking his head to the only one who could have done it, the one still holding the weapon within black gloved hands. He could barely manage even that though, but he should have definitely been able to see the face of his attacker, right before unceremoniously slumping to his knees.

That mask just sanguinely grinned back.

"Y-You—gfffffbleaahhh!"

Speaking proved to be impossible for the man as the blond boy suddenly ripped the knife from its fleshy prison. Jura immediately splashed the ground around him with red, to which he immediately fell face-first into.

Footsteps unhesitatingly crunched on the dirt.

The boy was now standing in front of Jura.

"Saying it should have been easy to differentiate an electronic feedback from the real thing... well... perhaps that's too cruel, huh?"

Jura's features, dyed in his bloodied viscera, rose. The man looked terrified. "Who... who the hell, are you?"

Kaguya knew she would never forget the sight of the boy dipping his mask in a mocking bow, right before his arms fell neatly into etiquette as well. And despite their boss' state, not a single Rudra member rushed in to aid him. They were likely just as stricken as her. With awe? Terror? It was likely both. Regardless...

The boy introduced himself.

His voice was merry.

"I'm the unlucky bastard who got the call for help. Let's get along."

Seconds passed after that.

Or perhaps it was minutes.

Kaguya didn't know.

She did know that a weak noise eventually escaped past her lips.

That it was actually laughter wasn't something she had been immediately able to place. But it was. Weak, nervous, and haggard, yes, but laughter all the same, in a situation where it probably didn't make an iota of sense.

But she found no matter what she thought, how her heart was still beating out of her chest in confusion, disbelief, and about a thousand other emotions, she found this tired amusement absolutely rooted in place.

Her realist mindset, it seemed, was still far too weak.