Truespire
Chapter Two
Connected to chatroom "☼≡d.r.a.g.o.n≡≈≈≡f.a.l.l≡☼".
Logged in as ElementalHero_HopeSummon[EH_HS].
Room Status: 5/7 Online
[EH_ED] Status OFFLINE
[EH_GH] Status ONLINE
[EH_HS] Status ONLINE
[EH_IH] Status ONLINE
[EH_PM] Status ONLINE
[EH_SM] Status ONLINE
[EH_SP] Status OFFLINE
[EH_PM]: It might be tricky getting in though because it seems to be pretty heavily guarded.
[EH_GH]: i really need some water right now :/
[EH_GH]: i thought there was some with my stuff, but i can't find it
[EH_PM]: Thats not good. Ill give you some when we meet up in that case.
[EH_HS]: What are you trying to get into?
[EH_PM]: We found a way out. All we need to do is break into a room which Ive marked on all your maps.
[EH_PM]: Once we get to the surface itll be game over for anyone trying to stop us.
[EH_IH]: No, not game over. More like game on.
[EH_HS]: How's that~?
[EH_IH]: I have a feeling that things will be even more complicated than we thought they'd be... I can't be sure though.
[EH_SM]: Guys, I can't find my gas mask D:
[EH_PM]: Dont worry about it because lost stuff can be replaced easily.
[EH_SM]: Yeah, I guess you're right~
[EH_GH]: wouldn't it be possible to just bruteforce our way in
[EH_GH]: i mean, IH has magic resistance, you have your cool guns
[EH_PM]: I think itd work. I like the idea of just blasting our way through and we should save our mental effort for things that need it.
[EH_IH]: Sure... you can do that. I don't want anybody dying on me though.
[EH_PM]: That's not very likely so dont worry. Have you seen these people? They seem to have very few weapons and they only have defensive magics.
[EH_IH]: Alright then. I've marked a second set of coordinates, this will be our meeting point. Head there now.
[EH_GH]: got it
User ElementalHero_PoisonMetal[EH_PM] has disconnected.
[EH_HS]: Umm... this is bad! Like, really bad D: There's this girl and she's following me... ;~;
[EH_HS]: Seriously, she's getting closer fast!!
[EH_GH]: that's creepy!
[EH_HS]: The worst part is, I... recognise her!!! :/
[EH_GH]: D:
[EH_IH]: I was right.
Disconnected from chatroom "☼≡d.r.a.g.o.n≡≈≈≡f.a.l.l≡☼".
...
Yui was stumbling around directionlessly in the creepy almost-darkness. Somewhere in front of her, a tiny white light appeared.
"Is anyone there?", she shouted halfheartedly, taking a few steps towards the point of light.
There was no response.
"I know you're there!", she followed up with, and broke into a run, stumbling on the rough ground a few times, until the light revealed itself to be coming from the screen of a strange device held by a purple-haired girl with glinting green eyes.
"I-it's you! I remember you!".
The girl, in a panic, typed something into the glowy device, before roughly turning it off, eliminating the light, and glared at Yui before taking several steps backwards.
"I remember you too! Get away from me!", the purple-haired girl shrieked angrily
"Who ARE you?", Yui persisted, and continued to move closer, confused by this girl's behaviour.
"Th-that's not important! Leave me alone!!", she said, before turning around and beginning to run away through the subterranean fields.
"Wait, no, don't leave!", Yui shouted in reponse, and began to chase after her, in search of answers.
"Don't you dare take one step closer!!", screamed the girl, who then pulled out a deck of cards. "PHOENIX FLOWER!!!", she added, in an impossibly loud, piercing voice which eerily echoed off the ceiling.
Yui stared in alarm as a stream of burning particles started flying from the purple-haired girl. They moved with the soft grace one would expect of flower petals at first, but quickly accelerated towards her.
She leaped out of the path of most of the burning petals. A few still managed to hit her, but were deflected by her clothes. She grabbed her bag, reached into it, and pulled out a shiny cross-shaped boomerang with sharp edges.
"Haha...~", the purple-haired girl said. "You going to fight me with that thing?"
"Yes!!", shouted Yui in reply. Without thinking, she threw it into the air at an angle, causing it to twist around in the air, until it was flying directly at the mysterious girl.
"FETCH~", the girl said with satisfaction, flicking a card away with her other hand. The boomerang suddenly changed path, as if it had bounced off of something invisible, and it landed with a thud a few metres in front of Yui.
"You're a...!?", she began, but the purple-haired girl interrupted.
"Yes, I'm a Sourcecaster, now just go away and never bother me again! ICE NEEDLE!"
A number of pointed, acicular ice crystals formed around the girl, then suddenly launched into the air with crazy speed, moving in a perfectly straight line towards Yui.
She threw herself aside, but was not fast enough; she felt a stabbing pain as one ice needle struck her left arm, and two more hit her stomach only milliseconds later.
"AGH...!!!", she shouted, getting back to her feet. "That hurt!".
The mysterious Sourcecaster girl didn't respond. She was already running away, much faster and more desperately than before.
"Ugh...", Yui groaned, getting to her feet. It only took a few seconds for the fragile ice needles to melt and fall away. Blood immediately began to leak out onto her clothes.
She turned to roughly the direction the girl had run too, and decided that since she seemed to be in a hurry, she must be going somewhere. That meant that there was something noteworthy in this bizarre dark landscape.
She then cautiously stepped forward, and began making her way forward in the same direction.
Indeed, there was a faint blue light somewhere in the distance. It was dim, but appeared to be quite large. Maybe, she thought, she could find someone there and ask a few questions about this place. Perhaps she might even find her friends.
...
"I guess I'll leave you alone now...", Ron said, then turned away and began to shift the moving wall back to its original position. "I think they fond somebody else out there -- I'm going to go check."
With that, he walked away down the hallway. Rather urgent, unrecognisable voices began bubbling up from somewhere outside.
It was several minutes before anyone spoke.
"I think it's worth the risk!", Erin said eventually.
"We're going to get separated if they catch us...", Dianke objected. "Also... What if the rest of the team's still down here? They'd get left behind..."
Julio frowned.
"Well, I for one like the idea of getting out fast.", Taylor began. "We could ask Ron to tell anyone else who shows up where we went, and then we could come back for them, better equipped and prepared for a search."
"Well, when you put it that way...", Dianke replied.
"I guess I'm fine with that...", Charlotte agreed shortly afterwards.
"Let's go now, then!", Erin said enthusiastically, standing up as well and taking two steps towards the room's equivalent to a door.
"Wait, didn't Ron say they might've found someone else? Shouldn't we wait to see who it is?", Charlotte said.
"I guess we'll find out when we get out there, anyway.", Taylor responded.
Erin was already sliding the wall aside in the manner Ron had done.
"Gh... I definitely wouldn't want to live somewhere with such strange doors!"
"I agree!", Taylor said.
"Now let's get out of here!". Erin immediately dashed off down the hallway.
Taylor turned to the other three, who stood up as well. "You ready?"
"Yes.", replied Charlotte, who began to move to follow Erin.
The others soon did the same.
Taylor broke into a run and left the room. "Erin!? Where are you?", she shouted, although not too loudly, as she ran.
The walls, floor, and ceiling were similar in appearance to the room she had just left, but it was less brightly lit. She didn't bother to look at it too closely.
She turned a corner, and found Erin talking in a hushed voice to Ron and a third person, who was slumped against a wall with his head turned away from her.
"We have no choice. Please, tell everyone else you find where we've gone, but don't try to stop us.", Erin said.
"Alright...", Ron sighed. "I suppose I can do that. Will you be bringing him with you?". He gestured towards the dazed-looking person.
The rest of the group had quickly caught up, and had now gathered next to Taylor.
"Of course."
"Okay then."
At this point, Erin turned to face the other four. "It's Alex. We're going to bring him with us.", she explained.
"By the way... thank you.", Charlotte said to Ron.
Ron nodded in acknoledgement. "I guess you guys are free to leave whenever. Your stuff is in the front room, you'll see it on your way out."
Alex straightened himself out. "Where are we going?", he asked.
Erin briefly explained their plan to him.
"But...", he began to reply, "I don't think it's a good idea to leave the others here, if they are here that is."
"We'll be coming back for them, though!", she said loudly.
"Besides, I feel weak right now... You can leave, but I'd like to stay here, at least for now... to continue the search myself, you know? There must be others out there.", Alex said in response. "Sorry."
Erin sighed. "Fine...", she said.
Taylor listened silently with a mildly confused expression. "I guess... we're still going?", she asked.
"Yep!", Erin responded. "And don't worry, Alex. We'll be back just as soon as we've gotten some more supplies."
"Alright.". Taylor felt reassured at this, and strode down the hallway to some kind of entrance room. This room, unlike the others she had seen, was cluttered with various pieces of furniture. A pile of bags, holding their things, sat untidily in a corner.
Erin and Taylor quickly grabbed theirs up, the other three not far behind.
One after the other, they all left the building.
The air was perfectly still. It was fairly dark out here, but with the lights from the various other buildings which surrounded them, as well as a number of odd, moderately brightly glowing patches somewhere above them, they were able to see.
"So... which way do you think it is?", Charlotte asked, more cheerfully than before.
"Well... If it's in the center of this town, if you could call it one... Maybe this way?", Taylor answered. She turned to the left, where the buildings seemed to be densest.
"Okay then... Hopefully this place isn't too big.".
Their pace slowed to a restless walk as they moved in a line in that direction.
Indeed, there were more and larger buildings over here; many were brightly lit, and people could be seen in some of them. They soon came to a cluster of them, which encircled a square of the same glowing crystals used for lighting in the buildings, embedded in the stony ground.
Taylor cautiously moved up to it. "I think this must be it!", she said, a little more loudly than she had intended to.
Before them was a large, roughly square pit, leading straight down a considerable distance. As they moved closer, it was revealed that a huge, jagged groove had been intentionally smashed away in a deep spiral around the pit, forming something close to a set of stairs leading downwards.
"Yep, you're right!", Erin responded. Observing the path downwards, she added, "And look, getting down won't be an issue either!"
Charlotte shuddered a little and moved forward. "I think we should go down there single-file... That would make it safer perhaps?"
"Yeah, that could work...". Erin moved right up to the edge and began to clamber down the notch which formed the path. The stone surfaces were all quite solid and rough, which made this process a little easier.
Charlotte went next, then Taylor, Julio, and finally Dianke.
The path was fairly steep, but didn't twist at all and was not difficult to climb down
"How much further do you think it is?", Charlotte asked after about ten minutes.
Julio awkwardly peered over the precipice and down the pit.
"It can't be that far!", Erin said.
Indeed, the bottom of the pit grew nearer and nearer, and only a few minutes later they had reached the bottom.
Here, it opened up into a huge, open chamber; the walls and floor were made of identical-looking grey stone, but seemed smoothed down. It was also square in shape, about fifty metres on a side, and in most places was about four metres high, although it sloped downwards near the edges. Light crystals dotted the floors and ceiling.
They, however, were pretty much in the center.
As Dianke made the final downwards step, joining the others, Julio placed his bag of things on the ground and withdrew a shiny metal sabre which was jutting out from it, and a soft, smooth cloak made of some strange material which seemed to collect the colour of the rocks of the chamber and take it on. "Something's amiss...", he spoke darkly, and pointed the sabre out in front of himself to nothing in particular.
"He's right!", Erin remarked. Taylor surveyed their surroundings. There was an atmosphere of peace to the place, but an uneasy peace, as if they weren't wanted here. Every movement, every noise, and every word produced a great echo in the empty chamber.
"Shouldn't there be a portal somewhere...?", asked Dianke after a moment.
"Yeah, there should...", Taylor replied, still running her gaze along the walls and ceiling. "But there's nothing here."
"Maybe...", began Charlotte. "Maybe the portal is invisible? It could be some kind of security mechanism, and this seems to be a magical place..."
"Possibly.", replied Erin.
Taylor sat on the ground and rested her hands on the cool rock floor. "I'll check...".
"I will too.", Dianke said, and sat down next to Taylor, mimicking her posture.
Julio stood behind them with Erin and Charlotte, looking on-edge but saying nothing.
Taylor let her thoughts all fade away to nothing, and slowly felt a sense of serenity. There was no noise but their breathing.
Her peace soon turned to panic. She closed her eyes, just for a few seconds, but when she opened them, she was surrounded.
"EEP!", shrieked Dianke, scrambling backwards with an alarmed expression. Taylor instantly spun around and stood up. A group of tall men -- about eleven or twelve in all -- had encircled them. Their faces were cast into shadow by the identical grey hooded robes they wore. Each one held a thick, heavy-looking quarterstaff, and several had them raised as if ready to strike.
"Who a-ARE y-you??", Taylor growled in bemusement. Her right hand wandered to her bag and pulled out a stunningly sharp poisoned dagger, which she then, with hand shaking, waved defensively in front of herself.
Charlotte and Erin both took a step back in shock and confusion.
"We are the keepers of iliL uw iz.", they spoke hauntingly in perfect unison, completely unfazed by Taylor's threatening gestures.
Somewhere behind them, marking each corner and face of the walls, stood eight identical portals.
The others had certainly heard this, and looked around for the source of the sound. Even Julio seemed freaked out. Dianke sat back up and stared unresponsively at the ground.
"Tell us... which portal are you looking for?", the keepers asked, again in unison, their gazes seeming to look into Taylor's soul.
"Wait... there's more than one portal?", Erin asked nobody in particular.
Charlotte momentarily spasmed. "Yes.", she spoke with a sudden certainty, standing up straighter than ever. "There are eight. Ours is that one.". She pointed towards a corner of the room in front of herself, which still appeared to be devoid of anything to Erin and Julio, before collapsing on the floor in a heap.
"Damnit, you used the Eye of Truth again, didn't you!?", Dianke demanded, darting to Charlotte's side.
Charlotte groaned in pain, and said nothing else.
All eleven keepers tensed up, and shifted their staves menacingly, and flickered into vision.
Erin immediately grabbed her twin keyblades, and launched herself forward, shoving two keepers to the ground using them. As she raced towards the portal's location, her feet seemed to barely touch the ground.
Taylor, as soon as she could comprehend what had happened, dived through the brief gap Erin created, following her with heart racing.
The stunned keepers were on their feet in an instant. They broke formation, and, with an anguished gasp, streaked after the two girls, with speed none in the group thought possible.
Taylor let out a cry. A keeper, with a powerful blow from its staff, had swept her legs out from underneath her, and she crashed to the ground.
Only milliseconds later, a second one hurled its great staff at Erin; it struck her in the back and knocked the air out of her, causing her to fall as well, only metres from the portal. "Ugghhh...", she moaned.
"We cannot allow that. You will instead be banished.", the keepers all said as one, in the same steady, ominous manner as before.
The ten keepers who will still holding theirs all raised their staves and pointed them at Taylor and Erin. The other one raised its hands instead, in a threatening claw gesture at them. "SPACE JUSTICE BANISHMENT.", they said, their combined voice becoming louder, booming and commanding with a hint of anger.
A bolt of purple-black energy formed at the tip of each staff pointed at them. All of them quickly converged into a large, pulsating, bloblike mass, which flew at Taylor and Erin.
"NO!!!", Erin shrieked in horror. The dark energy engulfed first Taylor, then her, before dissipating against the stone floor just in front of the portal, with no sign of either girl.
"You.. can't... do that!", Charlotte groaned weakly.
The keepers all turned their attention to Charlotte. "You are to be banished as well."
Julio suddenly lunged at a keeper, furiously lashing out with his sabre. Sliced by the blade, the keeper crumpled to the ground. However, it showed no sign of being injured at all, apart from a tear in its robe.
Three more keepers immediately leaped on Julio and pinned him to the ground. He glared at them with pure rage.
Charlotte was on the verge of passing out, and Dianke was nearly hysterical; within seconds, they too were pinned in place.
A group of keepers grabbed Julio and half-pushed, half-threw him at the other two. He was sprawled on the floor, making mumbling noises.
"SPACE JUSTICE BANISHMENT."
A second clump of purple-black energy coalesced, and cleanly swept up all three of them.
They, too, vanished without a trace.