Sailor Bloodlines
Sequel to Sailor Moon: The Alternate Story
And the Sailor Kuiper Trilogy
Chapter 3: Webbed Warrior
Having exhausted themselves searching for any clues relating to Queen Lena, Percy and Linda stop by a tavern located in a village north of London. From the battles they waged with all the imps in between their departure from Corfe Castle and now, they had found out that Queen Lena is being held in a holy place. Just as they were about to give up, the pair is approached by Erik the Red, who joyfully greets Percy. He tells the two about a strange place on the east coast of the country he saw when he was arriving from Norway. A church dubbed the Canterbury Cathedral had an ominous black cloud hanging over it. Gathering their supplies, Percy and Linda thank the explorer for his advice and make their way towards the east coast.
Night has fallen by the time they reach the Canterbury Cathedral, as candle light shines through the stain glass windows. When they enter the building though, they are greeted by four singing nuns, thanking the lord for bestowing upon them these weary travelers. Percy and Linda explore the main room hoping to find something suspicious, but to no luck. That is, until Percy finds a golden hairpin on the steps of the altar. The nuns let out a deafening shriek and strip from their outfits, revealing themselves as half snakelike creatures from the waist down.
Percy tries to attack two of them with a Cyclone Slash, but their scales are like armor that resists his blade. Linda is also in a tight jam, unable to cause any damage even though the pellets of her air-soft gun are basically metal marbles the size of her thumbnail. One snake nun manages to coil her way around Linda and prepares to bite her head off, but she manages to pull out her hammer and smack it in the face. Getting some distance between her and it, Linda pulls out her flamethrower and finds out that the snake nuns are weak to fire. She tells Percy to try another Cyclone Slash, and as he starts to spin, she shoots her flamethrower at him. Due to the high velocity Percy is spinning at, he creates a flaming tornado that sucks in and incinerates two of the snake nuns.
The fourth snake nun slithers around the duo and attempts to kill Linda by surprise, but then a long sticky tongue stretches across the room and pulls the youma towards it, where it meets a double edge iron sword face first. The owner of the blade turns out to be an anthromorphic bull frog, that can talk no less. Linda is immediately freaked out that such a creature exists, while Percy keeps his saber at the ready, remember the stories I told him about battling the frog knights on the Isle of Endymion.
The frog tells them that he means them no harm, and that he only came here chasing the youmas he noticed carrying Queen Lena. Percy and Linda look at each other, and come to the same agreement: Even though she is afraid of slimy creatures, Linda and Percy truly need all the help they can get saving the queen. The frog tells them that they can call him Buffer (a bizarre attempt at combining bull and frog). As the three explore the main hall, Percy slips and accidently lands on keyboard of the organ. He notices that one of the keys is broken and tries to push it back into place. Just then, a doorway opens in the corner adjacent to the organ, and the three heroes go inside.
The group encounters a good handful of youma as they travel through the depths of the cathedral, but none of them were a match for the three of them working together, until a Winged Diablo ambushed them and took a bite at Linda's leg. Percy launches himself at the youma, severing one of its horns, but Linda stops him before he can kill it, saying she has a plan. She pulls out of her bag a strange device that fires a strange ray at the youma, which suddenly calls her master and asks for her bidding. What she used on it was a Hypno-Ray. Buffer then licks at Linda's injured leg, which at first startles her, but then she notices that her leg has been healed. Buffer reveals that his saliva has healing properties, so he will be able to keep the three of them alive.
Using their new guide, the three heroes are taken straight to the deepest part of the cathedral, where to their surprise; they are greeted by the chancellor of Corfe Castle. Percy only caught a glimpse of him while he was there, so he never thought of him as someone important. Behind him stood a woman who looked much like Karin, but slightly older looking and with her hair in a single ponytail, and a second chancellor tied up. The first chancellor suddenly says that he has no need for his human form any longer, and transforms in front of everyone into a blob of youma with three stubby arms on each side and two horns on his head. He claims himself as Bleckenstein.
Percy and Buffer both charge at the youma and slash at it in an X-formation, but Bleckenstein easily recovers from this and fires off its arms as missiles, and manages to regrow more to shoot off. One of the arms hits the Winged Diablo through the chest, ending its life prematurely. Linda tries to roast Bleckenstein with her flamethrower, but it proves to be ineffective against the blubbery mass. Bleckenstein then starts to rampage across the room, attempting to ram into the heroes, but they keep jumping out of the way until he manages to get a blow on Percy. As the youma towers over him, Buffer uses his tongue to keep him from attacking Percy.
Percy then notices two things, a solid spot in between Bleckenstein's eyes, and white aura surrounding his saber. Bleckenstein gets off his feet and ends up flying towards Buffer, slamming him into a wall. Just as the beast starts charging at Percy again, Percy uses his newest technique on Bleckenstein: the Slash of Light. Percy slashes towards the youma sending that white aura surrounding his saber towards it and striking it in between the eyes. Bleckenstein says he will have his revenge as he explodes, leaving only scattered dust. Linda unties Queen Lena and the real Chancellor, who thank the heroes for coming to their rescue.
Once back at Corfe Castle, King Edward is astonished by the story the Chancellor tells him, but is pleased that the real Queen is safe. Queen Lena states that their kingdoms should create stronger legal systems to uphold the law. She also comments that she hopes the stress of all this does not upset her child. King Edward looks at her skeptically, so the queen reveals she is two weeks pregnant right now.
Meanwhile, in the guest chamber, Percy and Linda notice a peculiar glow as a figure materializes in front of them. Karin has come back into existence. Linda tells her she is glad she has returned, calling her Princess Karina. Karin is shocked that Linda and Percy know of her true identity, and feels that was the main reason they came to rescue her. Percy reassures her by telling her he did not know she was a princess until after she disappeared, and that she is a real close friend of his. Karin wipes the tears of joy out of her eyes and embraces Percy.
The three bid farewell to King Edward and Queen Lena, wishing her a happy vacation, and hoping she gives birth to a healthy child (but not telling her who that child will be). Outside the throne room, the three notice Buffer at the top of the staircase looking crestfallen. He felt that it was his duty to protect Queen Lena, and that he failed, vowing that he will go into hiding with what little honor he feels he has left. Before exiting the gate, he turns back to Percy, telling him he has great potential with a blade and must never wary from the path of the sword. Linda comments that not all frogs are as bad as she thought.
Borrowing an iron crossbow from one of the soldiers to give Karin a way to defend herself (as she was trained in archery by Raye Hino), the group makes their way back to the White Cliffs of Dover. Karin notices a bloody scar along Percy's face from their battle with Bleckenstein on the way back. She holds up her and as a yellow aura surrounds it. Percy's scar vanishes from his face, as Karin reveals she has had these healing powers ever since childhood. Once the group makes it back to the White Cliffs of Dover, Linda pulls out a strange key like device and hopes her mother's theory proves true. She holds the key skyward as it begins to glow and the sphere that brought them to this point of time opens back up. They enter the sphere and make their journey home.