Chapter Twenty-Four
Earlier
Thanos had arrived back rather promptly, a distinct scowl marring his features. The Raikken were quick to pick up on his foul temper and wisely kept quiet.
"I am sorry," Akemliek had gotten to his feet and began pacing the minute he had sensed the white armor. He was well aware of what had happened to Kali, and knew that it had not been part of the plan. "I am certain you will want revenge, but letting any form of emotion cloud your judgment is foolish and human."
"Of course, you are right," the ice demon responded, querying, "I take it the Raikken have gotten everything in place?"
"Yes, it took them long enough," he grumbled out sounding slightly annoyed. "But, I don't want them reciting the incantation without you being here to supervise."
Thanos gave a nod, "I understand." He turned his attention to the Raikken and said in a cool voice, "Begin."
After so much time, it was understandable that Akemliek was impatient. It also made sense that for a spell which required two hours just to recite never mind adding the energy, for it to take more than that was going to make him even more impatient.
The problem with the spell was, not only did the collected energy have to be released at the precise moment; the fact that even the slightest mispronunciation would result in the spell having to be repeated.
Well, the Raikken hadn't even managed to get ten minutes into reciting it, before one misread a symbol as "fluffy" instead of "fury." Talk about embarrassing.
Unfortunately, Akemliek's luck did not improve after that point. The Raikken managed to get about twenty minutes in before one completely skipped a line…Resulting it being immediately destroyed due to the curse on the seal.
Basically, if any who attempted to read the spell skipped lines, they would suffer the wrath of fire. As for why it didn't do the same to those who misread symbols, he didn't have a clue.
When the Raikken bungled their fourth attempt, Thanos had them excused saying that they were needed for a much more important task. He wanted them to hunt down and engage the warriors in combat. They took this opportunity gladly having feared the wrath of a very peeved master.
Akemliek was hoping though, that they'd be the first batch the warriors destroyed. It'd certainly save him the trouble of having to do it later.
Thanos motioned to a group he had waiting in the hall, and they quickly came in. He stressed that they needed to get it 'right.' These Raikken were at a higher level than the previous ones, and were thus blessed with slightly more brain matter.
They completely got the implication in what the ice demon said.
Of course, with the knowledge that bungling the spell resulted in death, and failure to free Akemliek resulted in death they took their time reciting the incantation…And they really took their time.
All the while Thanos watched those handling the energy that Kali had managed to collect with a hawk's eye, prepared to snap at them should they even put an armor toe out of line. Even with his staring making them exceedingly nervous, they were careful and did not drop anything.
"Hm," Thanos murmured, "They found the warriors."
"Let's hope they can keep them engaged long enough for this to get done," Akemliek grumbled, having started to pace once again. He really hated being stuck in a position where he couldn't do anything.
Present Time
Sailor Neptune let her attack fly, and slid to a halt next to Sailor Mars, "Never seems to end does it?"
"Nope," the Fire Senshi responded, doing her best to cut through the Raikken herself. "They have to run out of these stupid things sooner or later."
The Senshi of the Galaxy gave a derisive snort, "Don't hold your breath. Akemliek's been raising this army ever since he got sealed; we've probably put barely a dent in his true forces."
"Cheerful thought," Jupiter remarked, dropping back so that she was next to her Princess. "Not going to help us get through this though."
Saturn cut off Galaxy's retort with, "We just have to suffer through this, the closer we get to the exit the more resistance they're going to give us; it's as simple as that."
"True enough," Mercury said with a nod. "If we let this get to us now, they'll beat us all too easily."
Uranus gave a snort and rolled her eyes, commenting, "Not like we're actually winning right now anyway."
"Uranus you're such a pessimist," the Moon Princess teased with a light laugh, biting down a yelp when she almost got stab. "Hey! Watch it you samurai reject!"
Pluto shook her head in somewhat belated amusement at this, but said nothing.
The eldest of the Senshi had more important things to worry about than partaking in conversations. Universe had helped them out, or Neo Universe at any rate, but she had not sensed the warrior since then. Nor had she been able to detect her before the help had been offered.
The Time Guardian was uneasy, the fact of the matter was, the warriors were not even supposed to be here right now. Time had been altered and she had no idea where it was going to go, and this fact that made her very uneasy. But, she was just going to have to trust that Universe knew what she was doing. The Scout normally did.
"Where are the Ronin?" Venus inquired, "I can't see them through all these helmeted heads, even if their helmets are weird."
"We're over here," Anubis' voice rang out from the other end of the cavern. He had seen his comrades and the Ronin make faces at the "weird helmets" comment, while Kayura had merely sniggered in amusement.
Ryo paused a moment as he surveyed the wall of Raikken, before going back to hacking through the demons, "Anyone have any ideas?"
"Yeah," Kento gave a grunt as he smashed into a Raikken, "Don't get killed."
"Brilliant Hardrock," Sekhmet snorted out, querying, "What other elaborate schemes have you planned?"
Kayura visibly winced at hearing that, "Ouch, rough crowd."
"You don't know the half of it," Rowen told her with an amused laugh, saying, "Oi, Sekhmet don't be so crabby."
The Ronin of Halo spoke up from a few feet away, "And if you dare say you can't help it because you spent over a week with me, you are going to have a date with my no-datchi."
The Fall Seasonal shut his mouth with a snap, while Dais let out an amused chuckle at the situation. The Summer Seasonal was trying to find a way out of this situation for all of them, but the more he tried to think about it, the harder it became.
"Sekhmet isn't the only one who's being testy," the Torrent Ronin brought in with a light laugh.
Cale snorted in amusement, "Whatever gave you that impression?"
White Blaze gave a roll of his brown eyes, 'Someone explain to me, how they managed to survive two weeks down here?'
The black tiger snorted his laughter, 'They weren't all in the same group.'
'That answers it,' the white tiger sighed through his nose. White Blaze then frowned, 'I have a feeling that this isn't going to last much longer.'
'As do I,' Black Blaze gave a slight nod of his head in agreement, his eyes narrowing as he looked around.
'You all right?' White Blaze rumbled out to the girl standing next to him. He watched her with a frown as she looked deep in thought; he let out a low whine and bumped her in the knee.
"Huh?" Elayne jumped forward, startled for a moment before she let out a small smile, "I'm good." She gave a visible wince, and rubbed at her sore arm. It was starting to bother her, being this close and having to sit idly by…She was starting to wonder why she had even bothered to come.
Suddenly the image flashed in her mind, and she gritted her teeth together. That was the entire reason she had gone this far, to prevent death…She just hoped her intervention would be enough.
Black Blaze shook his head a little, 'They're starting to tire already. The Raikken's numbers are only now starting to escalate. If they don't do something decisive, and soon, they are going to become overrun.'
The girl was silent, her one hand clasped tightly around the jewel she had always worn. It was humming, ever so softly, and she knew what it meant. It was a warning…A sign of things to come.
Twenty minutes later, and the Raikken had once again swelled in number. The situation was becoming desperate, and they all knew and accepted that. The problem was exactly what were they supposed to do about it?
They had to change the battle so that it was in their favor and not the enemy's, but to accomplish that they needed to be able to think clearly.
The warriors were exhausted after finding out they'd been fighting in Akemliek's domain for almost two weeks; they had certainly felt entitled to the fatigue. It just wasn't helping them gain anything more than a quick trip to a permanent nap.
"I'm out of ideas," the Strata Ronin announced, letting out a barrage of arrows. It was his third time doing that, and would probably be his last. He just did not have the power to shoot off that many, and create more while they were in mid-flight.
Cye let out an annoyed growl, as he cut through a Raikken, "We all are, we've been at this for too long. We have to find a way to end this, and before Thanos or Akemliek comes calling."
"How are we supposed to do that Cye?" the Ronin of Hardrock asked, "We're still barely recovering from using Inferno, and have all but exhausted ourselves using our surekills."
Sage and Ryo were both quiet, having managed to fight their way to one another. The blond swordsman shook his head to Ryo's unasked questions, and the Ronin Leader frowned.
"Maybe we should use our last option," the archer muttered. "Again."
The Ronin of Halo was scowling, "You were fighting using it the last time, now you want to use it? Make up your mind Rowen. Last time we had no other choice, this time-"
"We might end up without having one again," Ryo broke in now, offering, "Hey, it can't be as bad as when we had to deal with Sarenbo."
"Dude, nothing was as bad as that," the Warrior of Strength brought in with a chuckle, "'Cept maybe the bug-eyed dude."
Kayura had heard their conversation and now cut into it, "You can't be serious! You can't use Inferno again, not this soon!"
The Lady Ancient paused in her fighting for a brief moment, "It's a miracle the use of Inferno didn't kill you last time." This she said to Ryo, before turning her gaze to the other four, "But it'll definitely kill all five of you this time."
"We know that Kayura," Cye told her in a quiet tone of voice.
Sage let out a sigh, "But, if that is to be our fate then so be it."
"It's the only choice we have," Kento agreed.
"Far from it," the Winter Seasonal suddenly brought in. "Your armors are not the only ones that can be used to form Inferno."
Rowen's eyes widened in slight surprise, he had almost forgotten about that…But still, with the Seasonal armors being different from the last set, wouldn't that prevent it from working?
"Suzunagi cast our armors the same way she did yours," Dais said in a calm tone.
"However, there is still a problem," the green-haired Seasonal of Fall commented.
"Our armors could be used," Anubis said, eyes looking to the Ronin of Wildfire, "But, it won't change the fact your body cannot sustain the white armor this soon."
"Better if I die then all of us," the Ronin Leader retorted, starting to get annoyed by this point.
Empyrean had been listening to this line of talk from the beginning, and she hesitated in her attack, to call out, "Hey, Nova! I think it's time for the gloves to come off."
"Are you nuts?" the Elemental Leader responded, biting down a yelp, and sliding under the Raikken that had almost impaled her.
"I'm with Empyrean on this one," the Senshi of Water and Ice announced. "It's the best way; we can't afford to lose one of the Ronin anyway. Especially since they're needed to take Akemliek out for good."
Aarde had moved to where the tigers and Elayne stood, she had watched the girl pale when the Ronin had started talking about using the Inferno again. Now hearing that the Elementals were ready to take certain measures, she looked ill.
"An-chan?" the Senshi of Earth queried gently, Elayne looked at her with worried eyes. "You need to get out of here. Especially with the way things seem to be headed."
"I'm not leaving Aarde, not now, and certainly not if things get worse. I'm not eleven years old-" she knew the words coming from Earth next, and said, "And not an innocent either. I'm staying here, and how do you expect me to get past all that?"
Aarde gave a grin, "You're resourceful. I'm sure you could find a way to get the crystal to teleport you."
"Kirstin, you just gave me an idea," the girl said before darting off.
The Senshi of Earth blinked, as she queried to the open air, "Was it a good idea, or a bad idea?" She sighed through her nose, "Somehow, I don't think I want to know."
Elayne managed to maneuver around the Raikken easily enough, they weren't really that concerned with her at this point in time. After all, they had much more impressive opponents to deal with than her.
The girl drew to a halt, eyes skimming the crowd once more for the person she was looking for. She had to wait a few minutes before her friend's head became visible, and the girl dashed off once more.
"Kayura!"
The Lady Ancient had just finished bouncing off a Raikken's chest plate, and lancing her sword through another when she heard Elayne call her name, "What are you doing over here?"
"Sight-seeing," the girl commented with a grin, before becoming serious. "Look, I know you told me the Ancient taught you a mass transportation spell. I also get that the staff hasn't come to you since you got down here. But stop fighting, and try calling it now."
"What?" Kayura blinked her eyes in confusion then frowned when the girl took off the crystal letting the jewel rest in her palm.
Elayne had a grim look on her face, "The Cimmerian crystal should negate the remaining energy blocking you from calling the staff. I think it didn't come originally because of the distortion of time and space, in addition to the fact that you're technically in a different realm. It couldn't find you; the crystal should permit it to find you."
"All right," the woman sheathed her jitte, calling out to Anubis, "Cover me, would you please?"
"On it," the Spring Seasonal said with a nod of his head.
The Last of the Ancient's clan closed her eyes and concentrated, her brows furrowed as she tried to locate the shajuko and call it to her. Her eyes shot open in surprise as the mystical object appeared in front of her, and she reached out a hand and grasped it.
"It worked," Elayne looked about as surprised as Kayura, but she quickly shook it off. "The only way you guys are going to get out of here alive, is if you use that teleportation spell."
"I can't teleport the Senshi though, and they're too weak to teleport themselves," the woman remarked, blinking in surprise when the girl opened her hand and dropped the black jewel into it.
The girl looked Kayura in the eye, "You can with the crystal, it's tied to them, like the Jewel of Life and staff are tied to the Ronin. It'll let you tap into its power for this, because it knows who you are and respects your lineage and thus you."
"How do you know all of this?" the Ancient's descendant asked with a bemused grin.
Elayne gave a wry grin, "How do I ever know anything?"
"You see it," Kayura shook her head, "All right, it's worth the shot. You hear that Ronin? This means any of you try and form Inferno, I'm shoving the shajuko in a not-so-nice place."
"Yes ma'am," the Warrior of Strength called out, saying with a smirk. "Of course wouldn't work on Sage, he's already-"
"Kento, you keep it up, and I'LL kill you, Akemliek can get in line," the swordsman shot back, effectively cutting Hardrock's bearer off.
Nova had weighed the options and risks over in her head a few dozen times now. Her Scouts seemed adamant about this, and she felt they had every right to be.
The problem that was really causing her to hesitate was whether or not they could handle it. Well, either way, if someone didn't do something soon everyone was going to be dead and long before Akemliek ever showed.
"All right fine," she finally announced, knowing she would regret the decision eventually. "Take them off."
"Yes!" the Senshi of Air whooped, grinning when Aarde raised both eyebrows at the display. "What? I've been dying to do major damage since we got down here."
The small bracelets that each Elemental Senshi had overtop of their gloves, had never seemed to be out of place. Everyone had naturally accepted it was just a quirky part of their fuku, and had no real special meaning.
Imagine their surprise when each young woman touched the stone in their bracelet, their energy levels shooting up and their elements solidified into a metal weaponized form.
"They have weapons?" Sailor Jupiter blinked in surprise. She was not the only Senshi taken aback by this.
Galaxy gave a snort, "Apparently, they do. Wonder how long they've had them."
Elayne had long ago left where the Ronin were fighting, moving back to where the two tigers lay in wait, which was far closer to the Senshi. She heard the comments made, and decided to explain.
"You guys are forgetting the fact they were gifted the left over armor power, it might not be all that strong, but it is powerful enough for them to have weapons to channel that energy."
Venus almost jumped out of her skin, not having expected Elayne to be that close to them, "And they haven't used these before, because?"
"Being armor power based, it's no different from the guys when they use their surekills," the girl murmured, warily eyeing the Elementals energy levels knowing they'd drop eventually. "It requires concentration, and a lot of energy to summon and form the weapons. They've only used them twice before, and were wiped out a good two weeks after that."
"Wow," Sailor Moon commented, frowning, "They've pulled out all the stops."
"Well, we can't let the Ronin outdo us by using that super-armor of theirs," Empyrean laughingly commented, twirling her naginata, a smirk on her face as she asked the Raikken, "So, who wants to play with me first?"
"You're stealing my lines," Glacia commented with a chuckle, her westernized bow was held lightly in her hands, before she reached back to her quiver and gripped two arrows. "Let's dance, dough for brains." She let the arrows fly, and as they streaked off and connected with Raikken, they detonated.
Aarde sighed out through her nose, and shook her head, "Just once, could they act their ages?" She turned her wakizashi in her hands easily, then slipped into a fighting stance.
"Keep dreaming sister," the Elemental Leader gave a chuckle, before rushing forward into the Raikken, her tonfas might have looked harmless but they were not. Once they came into contact with Raikken the rounded ends extended into points easily piercing armor and demon. "C'mon Aarde those two are showing us up."
The earth Senshi gave a derisive snort, "Ya, like that means anything to me. Worry about mowing down the Raikken, we can compare who has the better weapon, and better skill with said weapon, later."
"You know," Glacia called out to her friend, "You remind me of Halo. A total and complete stick in the mud."
"I heard that," Sage's voice rang out clearly above the fighting.
This got much laughter out of the warriors, and permitted them to gain the upper hand over the Raikken, in fact the numbers stopped abruptly increasing.
Within ten minutes the number of Raikken had substantially dropped off, but the feeling that something was wrong had started to creep into each warrior's mind, nagging at them relentlessly.
The Wildfire Ronin just about had the breath knocked out of him, and he knew then what had happened, and exactly how much worse this had become, "Akemliek's free."
Finally, the Raikken had reached where the spell called for the power…And as each line was recited, the collected power was released from the special containers it had been placed in. Upon being released it connected with the 'sheet of ice' that the seal happened to have formed in.
As the Raikken moved to release the last of the power that had been gathered, that of Inferno…Thanos felt a sharp rise in energy and wisely teleported out of the room.
Before the Raikken could release that power it burst from the container, incinerating all the Raikken in the room, and then connected with the seal…The entire cavern gave a violent tremble for a brief moment and then quieted.
Sensing that the danger was gone, Thanos came back into the room. He crossed his arms in front of his chest and waited to see if anything would happen. After everything they had to go through to get to this point, it had better work.
Even though it had been hit with all that power, the wall did not shatter. Instead it slowly began to fade away, inch by inch and layer by layer.
Akemliek permitted himself a sigh of relief, as with each layer that faded, some of the magic that had bound him also started to vanish. He got up from the chair he had flopped down in, and waited with a small amount of patience for the last layers to fade.
The remaining layer abruptly shattered, and the being emerged taking in a deep breath, before slowly letting it back out. At long lasts he was free.
"Am I glad to be out of there," Akemliek muttered as he put on his dark brown wrist guards, overtop his long black shirt. He finally paused in what he was doing to look at Thanos, and regarded him with an amused smile, "Not what you were expecting, eh?"
The only odd thing about Akemliek was his striking height; his skin was pale in color but almost on par with a human's skin tone (if they happened to lack pigment). His hair was a shade away from being pure white, and appeared to be ice blue tinted and it was cut to just below his ear.
Really, he didn't even look like a nonhuman, especially with the fact he was wearing black pants, and that long-sleeve shirt. Yet the material was nothing found on Earth, and actually enhanced his power…When he had access to it, anyway.
Thanos gave a snort, rolling his steel-gray eyes, the green flecks shimmering slightly, "Kali and I joined you when you sensed us nearby and reached out to our minds. You appealed to our natures, and convinced us to join."
Here the ice demon re-crossed his arms in front of his chest, "Physical appearance matters little in our world. And since when do all demons have to look as awful as Talpa?"
"Ah you saw pictures of him," Akemliek snorted down an amused laugh, before saying, "True enough, you did look surprised though." He now flexed his arms, and proceeded to crack his neck.
While being locked up like that he had managed to keep in shape, but he had not been able to do all that much.
Thanos was quiet as his master worked out some kinks, before deciding the being wasn't going to give him any direction unless he asked, "What is your next plan of action?"
"Oh," He paused in stretching out his legs, and held out his palm, scowling when nothing happened. "Well, I'm not fighting them now. My powers are returning far too slow." Akemliek sounded rather annoyed at his predicament, "I was hoping they'd return at a more rapid rate than this."
"The Raikken still have them engaged, and they were starting to lose. Somehow they have managed to gain a small amount of hope back, and are now at an advantage. It's a miniscule one, but it's still there."
Akemliek was now amused, as he finished stretching out his legs finally, "Maybe they've finally improved." The being now looked to Thanos, "I am certain you would like to repay the warriors for their earlier actions, most notable the Ronin?"
"That I would," the ice demon remarked, now standing at full attention.
Akemliek rolled his shoulders and they too cracked, "In that case, standing around here isn't going to do much."
The ice demon blinked in surprise at hearing that, before understanding it was really an actual dismissal. He gave a bow of his head, and then vanished from sight.
Akemliek knew full well that going to fight the warriors now with only half his strength was a stupid idea, it was better to let Thanos deal with them until his own strength got back up.
The ages old being walked out of the room, and started down the tunnel taking this chance to further stretch his legs. He also would like to see how much of his domain had changed while he had been locked up.
Akemliek was not bothered by the possibility the warriors would escape his domain before he got to them. The actual chances of that were very slim. Besides, even if they did manage to pull it off, he would deal with them later.
After all…He had yet to fail in destroying them.
a/n: Yes, I know I'm mean; but my villians are more oft than not the comic relief in my stories. Why? Because in my mind they are not allowed to be exempt from "stupid things" happening to them. And if you didn't see the Sailor Elemental-having-weapons-thing coming, you probably should have. I try to point this out when I can, but TGOL is filled with cliches because that's the way I wanted it. I wanted to take the vast amount of fanfic cliches I've seen and put my own spin on them, and there was no better story to do that in, than this massive RW/SM crossover. And why did I not move this story to the crossover section? Because it does not equally focus on the Senshi, this story is about the Ronin, the Senshi are the supporting cast.