10. Escape


There was a saying that life and death are one. Life is not light, nor death is the darkness. They are simply two different types of brush that one can use to express himself with.

Miku almost agreed to the philosophy once she realized that she was unable to move. There was only unlimited darkness and emptyness that engulfed her. And she was conscious.

It was the dream.

Again.

Yes, it was inmistakably the dream where she was forced to witness blurry visions and rumbling, eerie voices without the strength to even move a finger. It was worse than the tattoed curse since she felt as if she was in no position to even defend herself from whatever dangers that await her in the realm of darkness.

Then it began.

An image jumped out from the darkness: an image of a familiar little girl clothed in white, sleeveless garment, painting on a canvas. Compared to a series of visions she had seen before in the dream, this one was of a far greater quality. She almost even felt like she was there, in the very room where the girl was, although still couldn't move her body nor felt her own presence. Miku couldn't grasp the image on the canvas, but when she turned around , she could finally see her face clearly. The girl had a complexion of a Caucasian and an Asian, with blonde hair framing her pretty face. Her green eyes gleamed brightly at her as she smiled.

Can she see me...?

But the thought quickly dissolved as a hooded figure, presumably a man, walked passed through her. She was invincible, she abruptly thought. Yes. It seemed that she was only a mere witness to whatever her dream wanted to show her.

"Look!" said the girl happily, waving one hand which was still holding a brush at her painting.

The man pulled off his hood, revealing a whitish blond hair that was all too familiar to Miku. And when he bent to one knee and tilted his head to one side, it was clear that he was—

Him!

"Is this me?" asked Rolve, his voice was colored with amusement devoid of sarcasm. He then smiled. A genuine one. It made him look even more foreign to Miku.

Wait... Why would he appear in here?

"It's not finished yet," said the girl. "Will you stand there so I can finish the face?"

What is this? she thought to herself, bewildered at the event before her. Is this... the same dream as...?

Rolve looked at the girl and shook his head slowly. "Later, little princess. I come to get you; your uncle wants to see you." He smiled apologetically as he stood and then added, "We can continue this after we see him."

The girl looked up to Rolve and frowned at him, as if measuring his words with care. "Promise?"

"Promise."

The scene altered. A flash of dark red erased it completely from her vision, and another scene was played.

"I promise," said a man, whose back was facing Miku, sternly.

She was standing behind a man whose face she couldn't see. The surrounding was not clear as they both were standing in a dark hallway. Realizing that blood was everywhere, Miku almost gasped. There were lifeless bodies around her—and the man.

The man then spoke again in a low voice. "I now take a vow to become a servant of the Circle. Let my life be used to honour the deceased and protect the living."

The vision ended after that, but the dream hadn't.

There were series of shouts and screams becoming louder and louder. Fire flickered haphazardly in her eyes, blurry images struck her mind as cold feelings made her mind almost blank. After some seconds, a pair of cold hands appeared almost all too quickly and seized her neck, choking every bit of life out of her.

No, she weakly thought as the hands pressed tighter on her flesh.

No...


Miku shot her eyes open, her mouth gaping for fresh air. Her head hit something soft, and hard at the same time, when she rose up to a sitting position.

"That was pretty admirable of you," said Rolve, whose back was inches from her nose, "to fall asleep in a place like this."

"What—" she began, but then shut her mouth abruptly when realization finally hit her. It was not the time to be consulting about strange dreams.

"What 'what'?" asked the Magi flatly, eyeing her.

Her hand moved quickly to her neck. "N-no. It's nothing." She shook her head with some difficulties, trying to fully regain her senses. Straightening up her position, she pulled herself away from Rolve, who was sitting close to her. Far too close, it seemed: their bodies were almost pressed against one another, which made her head hit his right shoulder the moment she made the sudden move. Miku suddenly felt like her claustrophobia struck her.

They were sitting were in a-far-too-small-cave-for-two-people inside the abandoned site they'd agreed to visit to this morning. After an hour of searching in the darkness for a tiniest clue of whatever thing that may shed light to the case of the Fallen Ones' appearance, they were practically chased by one of those fearsome spirits. There had been some vengeful ghosts trying to halt their advance, but Rolve had dismissed all of them by using his weapon. One good thing about the strange dagger, Miku thought, that it didn't need films or any means of 'bullets' to function. Now if only it didn't absorb the user's stamina, it would certainly make a perfect weapon against those malicious beings.

Although it was no surprise that there should be at least one of those Fallen beings lurking here, it did cause them some trouble when it cushed an old elevator when it emerged to their dimension. The old elevator was their only way to go deeper into the site, and with it crushed, they had no choice but to outrun the beastly spirit. Rolve's stamina was depleting more and more quickly when pushing it aside from their line of escape, and then they chose one alternative he suggested when finding that the Fallen One had a poor sight: hide.

The energy that the weapon absorbed to fuel the stone could be disperesed into a thin layer of barrier. Miku was not sure how it work, but seing how the thin layer glowed in a purplish light like when the dagger's blade had been glowing when activated, she only presumed that the energy that once used to engulf the tip of the blade was now being umleashed to create a layer instead. Rolve told her that his energy would continue to deplete either way, since any spiritual use of the dagger would always strain his body, but it was far better than when it was used to battle a monstrous spirit of a Fallen One's size. So their strategy was to find a place where Rolve's tiny barrier could protect them from being detected by spiritual beings, and wait patiently for the Fallen One to move away from the path to the site's entrance. So a small cave answered their fragile plea.

"Has it moved yet?" Miku managed to ask in a whisper, fully aware of the fact that Rolve's breathing had become more irregular when they'd first found the shelter. She could not see his face in the darkness, but she knew that if she could, he'd look as pale as a ghost. His stamina and vitality would not last much longer should they keep waiting here.

"A bit. But not too far. It's still searching for us."

Miku shifted a bit, trying to make herself as comfortable as she could in such a small hole. Even without Rolve pressing against her side, she already found the cave to be suffocating enough. And the proximity they were in was something else: she could hear his breathing, felt his every move, and even smell his scent. This was not good. It was not the time to be uncomfortable, and she was glad that with the position he was in now, he could never see her face-which as she thought by the warm feeling rising up to her cheeks, should be colored in purplish red. Well, the lack of oxygen was another thing, to be noted.

She checked her wristwatch. "It's been almost an hour now," she said. "Shiki-san, is this Fallen One move according to instincts, just like animals do?"

Rolve tilted his head without looking at her. "I guess it is. There are many types of them, and each of them operates and functions differently. I have encountered of what seemed to be a blind one, which moved by its sense of hearing alone. Some of my colleagues have reported many different cases. I haven't got the time to analyze it further since I wasn't in my fittest condition the moment we encountered it, but my guess is this one too moved only by hearing and reading of our presence."

She wondered for a while. It was true that the Fallen One had ambushed them by bashing its many arms against a wall—and destroying the elevator's machinery nearby—when Rolve and Miku were walking there. And when they ran, it too followed them without many difficulties. She knew she'd been a hindrance to Rolve, who had to grip her hand all the time since some of the beings there were sensitive to light. It meant that she was also literally decreasing his speed and restricting his movements when battling the unclean souls. Minus her sixth sense, Miku Hinasaki was nothing than a heavy, useless load the Magi had to carry all around. Had he acted alone, she was sure the young man could easily get through all of this trouble.

Miku untangled her hair by removing her comb. Long strands fell astray on coated slim shoulders. "I have a plan."

"You want to distract it with that thing?" asked Rolve, almost breathless.

"Not merely by throwing this." Rolve waited, so she continued in a low voice. "My sixth sense is able to detect spiritual beings' movements for a limited amount of time. Not as battle refined as you are, but it does able to feel their movement. When I'm consciously focusing all of my senses to feel things through the sixth channel, I usually get some visions and able to feel things that are amiss. But in return, it'd make me more fragile to any resonance—including their presence and attacks..."

"So you're saying you want to inverse the way your sixth sense works?"

"In a sense, yes. I plan to inject my spiritual energy into this item, although I'd need your help since I have never done it before."

"It's futile," said Rolve while shooking his head. "Not every item cannot contain spiritual energy, spare for my dagger's stone and—" he interrupted himself. There was a pause, and then a sigh. "So that's your plan..."

"Yes. You do have a spare stone, don't you?"

"Heh... I do. Fine, let's get it done, then." Slowly turning around, Rolve faced Miku and held out his dagger. "The moment the stone is removed from the dagger, the layer will also vanish, revealing us to the lurking shadows and the Fallen. A stone alone without a container is like a receiver without an output. How will you attach the stone to that item?"

Miku moved a hand to her pocket and pulled out her cellphone. She untangled the strap attached on her cell and used tested the rubber band. She carefully ripped her comb so it may attach well into the stone once tangled by the strap. "This will be enough, I think."

Rolve eyed her for some seconds before inhaling deeply. "Based on rough calculation alone, we would only have a minute to rip the stone from my dagger and inject it with your spiritual energy." Even in the dark, Miku knew that his eyes narrowed cautiously. "And I warn you: it is not a pleasant thing to do, especially if this is your first try. You may even faint as soon as the proccess is complete."

"I'll try not to."

There was a silence between the two. "Fine, we'll go by your plan," Rolve finally muttered darkly. "Listen carefully and do as I say..."

He then taught Miku the basics of transferring raw spiritual energy to the stone. It was not as hard or complicated as Miku'd thought before, but she was not going to underastimate it either. She rehearsed some objects she'd found before in her previous 'adventures' that were also capable of containing spiritual energy: a mirror, sacred stones, crests and even masks. She had never understood the way they'd worked before, as to why they could trigger her sixth sense and cause a resonance, but now she finally able to grasp a little on the mechanism. In sum, she just had to focus on using only her sixth sense, her spiritual gate of senses, to channel her own energy—fuel for using her senses—to the stone and decide what impact it would give to its surrounding. The messages and voices contained in those objects she'd previously come in contact with should had also been powered in the same way.

The young magi then taught her to imagine the stone as a living being that was capable of 'eating' or 'absorbing' her energy on its own will, a way he'd guaranteed to make the proccess of transferring faster. Though he did warn her that it wouldn't make it less unpleasant and tiring: exactly the opposite, in fact. But they did not have much of a choice now. Either way, it was a race against time. And they had to win if they wanted to see the sun ever again.

Taking a deep breath, Rolve said, "Tell me immediately if you feel something wrong. Remember: shut your sixth sense as soon as the stone glows. Overpowering it may exhaust your body too much or even kill you."

She nodded, her jaw stiffened in anxiety and fear of failure. "All right."

"Relax," said Rolve as he tore out the stone out of the dagger's hilt. "Now!"

Miku closed her eyes and touched the stone. She'd imagined that it'd be cold, but she was wrong. The stone felt as if it had just been burnt, and she almost withdrew her hand when it came in contact with its elegant-sculpted surface. She focused her mind and all of her senses to just open one 'gate', her sixth sense. And within only three seconds, she felt like her energy and life were drained out of her body, flowing in a great measure to the burning stone.

"Stop!" said Rolve.

The flow of energy did not stop. It continued to rush out from her body, numbing her mind and senses in a matter of split second. She couldn't control it anymore. She was being sucked.

"Stop it, Hinasaki!"

She shot her eyes open. Her body felt numb, her vision was a blur. She had never felt this exhausted in her life before.

Rolve quickly took the strapped comb from her hand and attached the glowing stone onto it. He pulled Miku with all of his strength as he pushed himself off the cave. Rolve threw it and Miku could barely heard the sound of the item clanging on the ground. She almost could not stand up were it not for Rolve who lifted her in a hurry. "Move if you don't want to die!" she heard him shout with a hoarse voice.

Moving desperately on instinct and sheer determination not to collapse to the ground, Miku clutched her hands on Rolve's arm as she forced her body to move.

They ran as fast as their exhausted bodies could, ignoring some of the vengeful spirits in the way. Rolve was shielding his body with one arm, and Miku was basically shielded by Rolve who was some steps ahead of her. But she could not think of anything now. She could only push her body to move while her mind almost blacked out.

After what seemed to be eternity, they managed to spot the entrance to the outside world and threw themselves outside. Cold breeze and solid ground welcomed the two. And as if there was an invisible barrier, the spirits were all halted at the entrance. It was one rule of their realm: they could never get out from the place they were once trapped to death. Slowly, but reluctantly, they all fell back one by one into the darkness.

"Hinasaki," coughed Rolve, his voice was merely a dissorted whisper in Miku's ears.

Although aware that his arm was around her, she was unable to move. Unable to think. Unable to speak. She just lay there on the ground without moving while staring blankly.

The transfer of energy was a success, but as Rolve had cautioned her before, it strained her body too much since she had not been able to control the amount of energy transferred. Miku felt Rolve's cold hands lifting her to his shoulder and his staggered steps. But afterwards, everything was pitch black.


A/N : Starting from the next chapter, I will make each chapter longer than I've previously written. (I normally wrote 2500+ words / chapter for this fiction). So stay tuned. And yes, the story is moving yet to another arc.

Your Reviews are very much appreciated!