Phantom dropped off the bowsprit of The Lumiere, performing some fancy aerial acrobatics in midair before landing on the bedroom balcony. He entered the dark bedroom and turned on the lights. A quick glance of the room revealed a broken full length mirror, shards of glass still on the floor. Unable to find any other oddities in the room, Phantom headed to Neinheart's office. There, he found Ereve's Tactician motionless behind his desk.
Phantom shook him, "Neinheart!" There was no response.
Phantom checked his pulse. He was still alive.
"Neinheart! Neinheart!" Phantom slapped him a couple of times.
"I need to stop her! I need to..." Neinheart woke up in confusion.
"Neinheart, what's going on here?"
"Where is she? Where is The Empress?" Neinheart turned his head about.
Phantom grabbed Neinheart's shoulders, "Calm down! Tell me. What happened here?"
"C-c-corruption...dark magic... they got her...if only I had realised sooner..."
"What?"
"I need to stop her."
"Is this the Black Mage's doing?"
"I do not know. But we need to make her come back to her senses."
"But where is she?"
Neinheart pondered for a moment. "The garden. She will most likely be there."
They left the palace. On the way out they tried to knock some sense on to the soulless guards but to no avail. They walked through the pavilion and into the woods. The full moon illuminated the area to be bright enough to navigate that night without any other light sources.
Suddenly, a couple of arrows appeared from the darkness in front of them. Phantom sidestepped and dodged them reflexively.
"Idiot. Why did you dodge them?" a female voice came from a silhouette ahead.
"Phantom..." Neinheart called out with a weak voice.
Phantom looked behind him in horror. Three arrows protruded out of Neinheart's chest.
"Neinheart!" Phantom quickly moved to catch Neinheart, who was falling backwards.
Phantom slowly sat Neinheart against a tree.
Neinheart coughed up blood, "...please...stop...her..." Neinheart stopped moving.
"Neinheart! Neinheart!" Phantom held Neinheart's shoulders tightly.
"It's all your fault." said the female voice.
Phantom turned his head to see Irena emerging from the shadows as the clouds unveiled the moonlight.
"If you hadn't dodge that, Neinheart would still be alive. But never liked him anyway. So its okay." Irena spoke with an expressionless face.
"Irena?" Phantom doubted his eyes.
"Are you colour blind? There is only one green haired archer on this island."
Phantom still knelt beside Neinheart's body in disbelief.
Irena raised her bow. "It's okay. I'll forgive you. If you don't dodge anymore. So please. Die."
The archer fired several arrows in quick succession. Phantom rolled to the left to avoid the projectiles which dug into the ground.
"Wait! Why are you trying to kill me?" Phantom placed his hands in front, forming a defensive stance.
"Hmm...because..." Irena tilted her head slightly.
"I never liked you either." Her bow glowed as she fired a few glowing arrows.
The thief shifted his body to dodge with minimal movement. The arrows flew pass him.
"If you stay still...it will be quick." Irena sounded bored.
Phantom fell to the side as he sensed danger behind him. The arrows had returned to attack him. One of the arrows grazed his cheek before flying pass. They travelled for a quite a distance after passing him, before turning back to their target.
"Homing arrows? You've got to be kidding me." Phantom started running.
The bored archer aimed her bow to the sky and fired more arrows. The new arrows homed in at the fleeing thief, joining the old set of arrows. Phantom pranced about the forest using a mix of Shroud Walk: short distance teleportation, and Flash Jump: a jump with increased power. Turning sharply whenever the swarm of arrows got close; the swarm would make a big turn to the skies and continue back to their chase. His turns would make some arrows get stuck on trees or the ground. But Irena kept firing more and more arrows endlessly, only pausing for a while to yawn.
The swarm grew larger each second, looking like a snake was chasing the thief. Irena hasn't moved an inch since the battle started. Whereas Phantom, had been running about like a madman, leaping off trees, hiding behind them, trying anything to shake off the deadly swarm. He turned back and lead the arrows back to its source. Irena stopped firing when she saw this.
As Phantom ran past her, she said, "Aren't you going to attack? That not going to work."
Phantom glanced back and saw the swarm split into two, evading their master but still continued targeting their prey.
"I'm not stupid enough to make my own weapons hurt myself." Irena stretched her arms and yawned.
She sat down on a log and started playing with her hair.
Phantom focused on conjuring his weapons while on the move. A glowing shape of a sword and shield appeared on his hands. However his long struggle had set a toll on his body. Creating his weapons while moving at high speeds for long periods was too much for him. The swarm had gotten too close to him. One of the arrows scraped his knee, causing him to slip off a tree branch and plummet to the ground. The mass of arrows pounded on him. As the rain of arrows ended, Phantom emerged from the cloud of dust, breathing heavily with his round shield facing the sky. He had manage to solidify his silvery shield at the last moment, by forgoing his sword. One arrow managed to pierced his shoulder. His cape was shredded. His hat had disappeared somewhere in the forest. He received several cuts all around. The onslaught had dug a hole that surrounded where Phantom stood. He undid his magic shield, which dissipated into the air, and tended to his wounds. After stopping his bleeding with pieces of his cape, Phantom silently sneaked up towards Irena. She still hasn't moved, and was stargazing obliviously.
"Deneb, Altair, and Vega...How I wonder what you are..." Irena sang in a monotonous voice.
Phantom grabbed her bow from behind and quickly broke it with his thigh.
"My...bow..." Irena looked at Phantom with teary eyes.
"Ehhhh..." Phantom was paralysed by the unexpected puppy eyes staring at his soul.
Without warning, a ship's anchor came slamming onto his sides. The chained anchor, was swung from behind, mowed the thief down in a big arc. Phantom crashed through a couple of trees, the impact, breaking his spine. He laid motionless on the ground as his assailant walked towards him. The archer still sat there unharmed, picking up her broken bow.
"Where's your cane, old man?" Hawkeye looked down at Phantom's broken body.
The ground shook. Ereve was falling. Which meant something had happened to The Empress.
"Looks like you're too late." Hawkeye took a closer look at his fallen enemy.
In the distance, were the cries of a large bird.
Phantom could no longer hear what Hawkeye was saying when he closed his eyes.
Phantom woke up in a chair. Greeted by the sight of the witch drinking tea across the table. Phantom checked his body, surprised that all his injuries were gone and his clothes were fixed like new. He then examined his surroundings. They were under the dome shelter that used to be in the Empress' garden. In the middle of it, a round table and two wooden chairs they were sitting on. And surrounding the dome, endless fields of flowers that extends to the horizon. The sun, or maybe the moon, illuminated the strange place. The witch placed her cup of tea down and turned her attention towards the confused thief.
"Where am I?" Phantom asked.
"Hmm...where indeed."
"A garden?"
"Maybe."
"Is this real?"
"Maybe."
"An illusion?"
"Maybe."
"Are you stupid?"
"May-...I'm not falling for that." The witch smiled.
"Okay..."
Phantom stood up and started walking around the table, assessing the situation, eyes fixed on the witch. He continued his interrogation.
"Am I dead?"
"Maybe."
"Did you heal me?"
"Maybe."
"Is Neinheart alive?"
"Maybe."
"Can I have some tea?"
"Sure."
The witch waved her hand and a cup of tea magically appeared on the other side of the table.
"Great! Now we're getting somewhere."
Phantom finished circling the table, sat back in his chair and took a sip of tea. He took a few deep breaths before trying again.
"So, what are we doing here?"
"Drinking tea."
"And talking?"
"And talking."
What is this sorcery? What is this place?
Did I just travelled back in time?
Part of her spell? Part of her transformation?
One thing's for certain is that she needs me alive. Or does she?
Maybe she is just toying with me.
Too little information. I need to drag this out to find out more.
Damn, she looks good in that dress.
The witch tried to hide her giggle as she watched Phantom, in deep thought, staring at her.
"What?" Phantom asked.
"Nothing. Are you ready?"
"I was born ready."
The witch snapped her fingers and Phantom's surroundings slowly faded to white.
Author's notes:
I had finished chapter 2 when I published chapter 1, so the next update won't be as fast as this.
To be continued -
(19 Nov 2014)
