“Celestial Art: Spheres of Light.”
From Lilian’s tails, light coalesced, forming a sphere about the size of a baseball. She tossed these spheres at the spiders, widening the gap through which they ran. Spiders shrieked, a hideous sound, as they were burnt by holy energy. Bodies were blown apart as the divine technique detonated against them.
Running behind Kevin, Christine used fire to dispose of anything that tried to attack their rear. Her nekomimi ears twitched, and she hissed as bright blue fire lanced from her tails like miniature rockets, exploding against the ground, walls, and ceiling with impunity. Kevin winced when several rock fragments fell on his head.
I hope this place doesn’t collapse on us.
Running beside Kotohime, who moved at the front of their group, Cien was like a whirlwind. He lashed out at everything that the four-tails missed. His claws sliced through spiders like a beam saber through butter. Blood and gore splattered along the walls as bodies were cut apart.
“I don’t think…” Iris gasped. “This is working!”
Unlike the others, Iris could do nothing. Her void powers could have helped, but with her lack of control, she was liable to kill them as well as their enemies.
“There are too many of them!” Lilian agreed.
“Not to mention this tunnel. It is like a never-ending maze.” Kotohime moved gracefully into a spin, and crimson liquid flew around her like raindrops. She stepped to the side as a spider tried to bite her in half. Its larger than average frame was subsequently vivisected when Kotohime sliced into it with her blade.
The tunnels were indeed like a never-ending maze. No matter how many turns they took, no matter how many twists they made, the cavernous passage seemed to go on forever. And within this never-ending maze, their never-ending legion of enemies remained seemingly infinite.
We need to at least keep them from attacking our rear.
“Christine! Lilian! Aim at the ceiling behind us! Hit it with the most powerful attack you can!”
“Celestial Art: Double Helix Cannon!”
It was a testament to her trust in Kevin that Lilian didn’t hesitate. Her tails twisted around and were thrust forward, launching a beam shaped like a helix, which flew through the air and struck the ceiling. Christine’s attack came soon after. She launched a fireball at roughly the same place as Lilian’s attack.
Flames slammed into the rocks, exploding with a brilliant force in the enclosed space. Hot air washed over the group, pushed down on them, and tried to make them fall. A loud roar like rushing water resounded all around them, and then the tunnel behind them came down. Rocks and earth collapsed on the spiders behind them.
“Great plan! Now we don’t even have a way back out!” Cien shouted as he struck a spider in front of him with a fist. The spider was pulverized, gore exploding around him. His attack, extended because of the air pressure created from his punch, slammed into several more spiders and killed them quickly.
Kevin shot sixteen spiders in half as many seconds. Each one was struck by ice, which quickly expanded and froze them solid. “At least now we don’t have to worry about a horde of spiders at our backs! Or would you rather fight off a two-pronged attack?!”
“Tch!”
They continued to run, continued to fight. Iris wheezed beside him as he protected her. The tunnel split several times. Spiders emerged into the main tunnel through these side passages and several smaller holes. Burrowing tunnels?
“There’s no end to them!” Lilian cried as she launched several light spheres at a side tunnel, collapsing it.
“This was the dumbest idea nyever!” Christine spat, firing a dozen fireballs to the same effect as Lilian.
Kevin wanted to dispute her, but he really couldn’t.
“Ougi.”
As if a tornado had appeared underneath her feet, Kotohime burst forward with incredible speed. To Kevin, it was as if she’d disappeared. She then reappeared several yards in front of them, sheathing her katana. It was only after she had closed it all the way that her attack became clear. Several dozen lines appeared on the spiders around them, seconds before the creatures fell apart, their bodies turned into mincemeat.
“There is a ladder up ahead!” Kotohime informed them all. “Keep going! I shall guard our backs while everyone else climbs up the ladder!”
“No,” Cien said, shaking his head, even as he destroyed a spider underneath his heel. “I’ll protect our rear. You’re the only one who might stand a chance against Hebi.”
They didn’t have time to argue, and Kevin knew that Kotohime knew this. She nodded, granting her consent moments before they reached the ladder. Christine went up first, followed by Iris, then Lilian. At Kotohime’s beckoning, Kevin ascended the ladder as well, followed by the kimono-clad swordswoman herself. When everyone but Cien was up, Kevin looked back down to see the inu creating a hailstorm of blood, guts, and body parts.
“Cien! Get up here!”
Cien’s ears twitched. He looked up, then tossed Kevin a smile full of fangs. “You’d better hope I survive this, or I’m gonna haunt your ass for all eternity!”
Kevin had just a moment to realize what Cien was planning to do, but not enough time to do anything about it. Seconds later, Cien slammed his fists into the rock wall, which caused the ladder, and the floor around the ladder, to collapse. Had it not been for Kotohime grabbing Kevin with her tails at the last second, he probably would have fallen into the pile of rubble and been crushed.
A startling silence descended upon the group. Kevin stared at the spot where the ladder had been, unable to comprehend what had just happened. Did that idiot really collapse the tunnel on top of himself? What the hell had he been thinking? Now he was trapped!
“Kevin,” a familiar voice filled his ears, and a familiar hand felt warm on his shoulder. “Kevin, we should probably get moving. I’m sure Cien is fine.”
“Yeah… I don’t think we have much choice. We still have a job to do.” Kevin turned away from the ladder, holstered his guns and, grabbing Lilian’s hand, began to walk. “Let’s go.”
The place they now found themselves in was not a cave, but a hallway. Dimly lit with only a few lights that flickered and buzzed, they made their way along the marvelously straight path. The walls, floor, and ceiling, a foreboding gray that was corroded with age, enclosed around them on all sides.
Christine moved closer to Kevin, and when she grabbed his hand and squeezed it as if her life depended on it, he didn’t resist. She must have been frightened. He certainly was.
“Inari’s sagging ball sack, this place is creepy,” Iris muttered, eying what appeared to be bloodstains.
“This place reminds me of an enemy stronghold I once fought inside,” Kotohime reminisced. “We were forced to travel through a passage similar to the one we were just in—minus the spiders—and then my sister and I had to fight over a dozen sentries.”
“Was this back when you worked as a mercenary?” Kevin asked.
“Indeed, it was.”
“Could you talk about the past later?” Iris complained.
They continued on in silence, until they reached another door. It was locked, but Kotohime was apparently a skilled lockpick. She created a key made out of water, which she used to open the door. It squealed on rusted hinges.
“Well, great,” Iris complained again, “we might as well announce our presence.”
“Would you stop complaining?” Christine scowled. “Seriously, it’s fucking annoying.”
“Hmph. Excuse me for trying to lighten the mood.” Despite her complaint, Iris fell silent.
The hall eventually opened into a small chamber filled with cells. Kevin warily eyed the bars covering each cell. Rust and bloodstains coated them like paint. Set into a cement wall that was chipped and looked ready to crumble, this place reminded Kevin of the level to a video game he played once.
“Lilian.”
Lilian responded to his call by channeling youki through her tails, which illumin
ated the area around them. The more Kevin saw, the more worried he became. This place was a decrepit dump. Rotten wooden beams lay strewn about the floor. Walls were covered in dried blood and claw marks, as if some animal had attempted to escape, only to injure itself. Desolate. That’s what this place was, a despairing prison of aging steel bars and filthy walls.
“This place is so creepy,” Lilian murmured.
“You said it,” Iris said, looking around as if expecting something to pop out and try to eat them. “This place gives me the creeps.”
“You’re not the only one,” Christine muttered.
The next door led them into another hallway. This one branched off into three different directions.
Kotohime turned and looked at them. “Unfortunately, this is where I must leave you. I sense a strong presence somewhere up ahead, which must be Hebi.”
“Good luck, Kotohime,” Kevin said.
“Stay safe,” Lilian pleaded with her bodyguard.
“Worry not,” Kotohime reassured her charge. “I do not intend to go charging into battle with an unknown opponent recklessly. I shall be fine.”
The group watched Kotohime leave them. As she disappeared around a corner, Kevin looked at Lilian from the corner of his eye. The redhead stared at the place where her maid and bodyguard had vanished, a hand clutching her chest.
“Lilian?”
“It’s nothing…” Lilian shook her head. “I just had this really bad sense of foreboding.”
“I’m sure it’s just because of this place,” Kevin said. “It’s not very conducive to pleasant thoughts.”
“Yeah… yeah, that must be it.”
“Right. Now, come on. We need to hurry up and find Heather and Phoebe.”
Because there were two different directions they could go, the group decided to split up. Lilian and Iris went down one hall, leaving Kevin and Christine alone.
“You ready?” he asked.
Christine nodded. “Y-yes, I’m ready.”
“Then let’s go.”
As they moved off in the opposite direction of Lilian and Iris, Kevin fervently prayed for everyone’s safety.
In a situation like this, praying was about all he could do.
Polydora woke up to discover that she was lying on her back. The sand underneath her was coarse, rough, but she ignored that in favor of trying to determine where she was.
The ceiling glowed a dim blue, which she realized must have been due to the many crystals embedded into the rock walls. Each crystal irradiated low amounts of light. It helped to illuminate the area around her.
“Oh, you’re finally awake,” a voice said. Polydora realized there was a person hovering above her, their form blurry and indistinct. Yet as she stared, the image soon solidified, revealing features that she easily recognized.
“Euryale,” she muttered, trying to sit up.
“Easy there,” Euryale said, helping Polydora sit up. “You inhaled a lot of water. Your body hasn’t fully recovered from that yet.”
“I see. What happened to us? And where are we?”
“We seem to be in an underground passage of some kind,” Euryale informed her. “It appears to be an old mining tunnel, though I might be wrong. In either event, after those tentacles grabbed us, we were all pulled under the water and ended up here. Myself and the others woke up about half an hour ago.”
“Thoe?”
“We found her lying unconscious by the underground river.”
“River?”
Euryale stood up and pulled Polydora to her feet as well. “This tunnel is a subterranean river. According to Ioxeia, we’re underneath Lake Michigan.”
Following her companion, Polydora was led to where Thoe rested. The woman lay on her stomach while Oïstrophe, their healer, tended to the wounds on her back. Polydora grimaced when she saw the rent skin, as if something had torn apart her back with a set of claws.
The others were gathered around the two, watching silently. Polydora saw the concern on all of their faces. Only Menippe, who’d apparently been tasked with sorting out their weapons, which she guessed had washed up with them, wasn’t staring at Thoe in shock. Even then, the youngest among them occasionally glanced at the pink-haired warrior.
“How is she?” Euryale asked.
“Alive,” Oïstrophe said bruskly, “which is something that we should be grateful for.” She sighed, frustration leaking into her tone. “It’s no good. Without any medical supplies, there is little I can do to heal her.”
“Too bad Kotohime is not here,” Euryale said. “She’d be able to fix Thoe up in a jiffy.”
Polydora could not help but agree. Kotohime’s River Kitsune blood meant she had amazing healing powers. A wound such as this would have been no problem for her.
“We cannot afford to linger here,” Polydora said at last. “We should try to find a way back up to the surface. Menippe, please help me secure Thoe. I shall carry her on my back.”
“O-okay.”
With Menippe’s aid, Polydora secured Thoe onto her back. She hooked her arms underneath the pink-haired yama uba’s thighs and leaned forward, to keep the woman from slipping off. Thoe’s limp arms were placed around her neck, but that wouldn’t keep her from slipping, especially since her body was still wet. Once Polydora was sure of her grip, she ordered them to move out.
“Euryale!” she shouted upon seeing the woman staring at nothing. “What are you doing? Come on!”
Hesitating for a moment longer, Euryale soon turned around and ran to catch up with them.
“Coming!” she said as they all began their journey to reach the surface.
Lilian and Iris wandered the deserted hallway.
It was quiet—too quiet in her opinion. The sound of their footsteps echoed back to them. In the solitude that surrounded them, their footsteps sounded ominous.
The hallway was wide, easily spanning fifteen feet. Lilian suspected it was to let larger yōkai walk through. It really made her wonder about the person who’d built this place.
“Ugh, gross,” Iris muttered. Lilian turned to see her sister wiping her hands on her pants.
“What is it?”
“Nothing, I just got something disgusting on my hands. These walls are so dirty.”
“Hm.”
The walls were indeed filthy. Grime covered them from top to bottom. Black stains of filth seeped along the cracks as if the walls were oozing blood. It made Lilian wonder; this place was supposed to be a base, so why hadn’t anyone kept it clean?
“You know, I’m kind of surprised you let Christine go off with the stud,” Iris said suddenly. Lilian winced as her sister’s voice echoed down the hall.
I really hope no one heard that.
“Kevin might not have any powers, but he’s the most experienced when it comes to these kinds of situations,” Lilian explained, whispering to keep her voice from echoing. Even then, it still sounded too loud to her sensitive ears.
“Yeah, I guess that’s true,” Iris said, not lowering the volume of her voice. “Plus, her powers will be more useful to him right now. Fire and ice would make an excellent combination in a fight.”
“Could you please be a little more quiet, Iris?” Lilian started to ask—until she felt her feet leave the ground and her arms become ensnared. Iris squawked beside her as she, too, suffered the same problem.
“W-what the hell are these?! Webs?!”
They were, indeed, webs. Glistening white silk webs. They were everywhere, covering the floor, the walls, the ceiling, spanning the entire length of the hallway—and she and Iris had just been caught by them.
How didn’t I notice?!
Lilian tried to use reinforcement, but the moment she channeled her youki, she felt it being sapped away, flowing into the threads. Horror struck her like a blaster bolt between the eyes. These webs! They were…
“Jorogumo threads…” she whispered, terrified.
“My, oh my,” a feminine voice echoed throughout the hall. “Look a
t what we’ve caught within our web, sister dear—a couple of young vixens who just happened to wander by. It’s too bad. I was hoping our next prey would be a hot young man, but oh well.”
“Could you please stop talking like that, Hilda?”
“Hmph. Very well, Katrina. Now, what shall we do with them?”
Lilian knew they were in trouble. She could barely move, she couldn’t use youki, and her sister was in the same situation.
“Hey!” Iris shouted from where she hung. “Stop talking as if we aren’t even here, you hags! Why don’t you old crones show yourselves?!”
“O-old crones!” one of them shrieked. “You’re going to regret calling me old, you filthy little—”
“Calm yourself, Hilda. She is clearly trying to rile us up. Do not let her words bother you. The words of someone who is about to die mean nothing.”
“Ha!” Iris barked with laughter, though Lilian heard the tremor in her voice. “That’s the kind of answer I’d expect a cowardice whore spider to say!”
“Iris, I really don’t think you should…”
“It seems one of you has got quite the mouth,” the voice called Katrina said. “I shall enjoy prying out your tongue, little girl.”
Distortions appeared before them. The air became warped, bending and twisting, causing everything around it to become misshapen, like an object viewed through a mirror at a carnival fun house.
Two figures appeared within the distortion. Their upper half was that of a beautiful female, thin of waist and with voluptuous assets, barely covered by the skin tight fabric that conformed to their figures. Below that, their figures ceased to be human. Their torso was connected to a thorax, which in turn was affixed to a large abdomen, black and chitinous, with a red hourglass visible on their back ends. Eight legs tipped with claws protruded from their bodies, clacking as they walked.
They masked themselves with an illusion!
“Hello, young vixens,” the one on the left, Hilda, said, her lips curving into a deadly smile. “I hope you’re prepared to die.”
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