3) For Whom the Haunted Bell Tolls

Part 7

Everything was all black as Nodoka is unconsciously lying on the ground. After gaining her awareness, she then slowly opened her eyes and looked around to see where she was. Giant bells were above her head and four windows, each side has one. She knows that she is at the top of the tower.

Nodoka looks around some more and, in her great fear and shocking surprise, she sees all of the other victims, young men, women, girls, and boys all lying on the ground. Their whole bodies were wrinkled and their skins were pale white. She also notices strange white collars around their necks too.

Nodoka tries to escape, but something stops and chokes her as if she was pulled like a dog. Nodoka realizes that she has the same white collar around her neck as the other victims. She looks at it and sees a line attached to the collar. She follows it, and it leads to something covered with a cloth standing on the edge of the tower's window. She stared it in great fear and wanted to back away.

Then the creature on the edge of the window turns its head around to Nodoka as its eyes glowed, and its diabolical teeth grinned at her. Nodoka became so scared that she collapsed to the floor. In her subconscious mind, she stated, "Negi, Yue… please… help me."

Negi, Matt, and the girls climbed about six flights up the stairs as they got higher and higher, getting close to the top. Some of the girls were sweating while the others help them to climb up further.

"Hey…! How much… further do… we have to go?" said Chisame while huffing and puffing at the same time.

"Just a bit further… and we're at the top," Matt claimed as he was also breathing.

"Y'know," Chamo speaks, "there is a simple way to get up there."

"And how?" Matt questioned.

Chamo pointed his paw up in the air, "We can 'fly' up there."

Matt blinked, "Oh yeah! I forgot that you guys are mages."

"Great idea Chamo," Haruna commented. "For once that furry head of yours is thinking something than girl pant–"

"Ah!" Yue shouted, covering Haruna's mouth. "Not in front of our kind young man here."

"Oh right, sorry." Haruna smiled in embarrassment. Matt raised his left eyebrow in a confused look.

Negi nodded, "Right, I'll go first." Negi sticks out his hand and, in bright light, his staff appeared in front of him. He grabs his staff and hops onto it.

Asuna touched Negi's left shoulder as he turned around to see Asuna. "I'll come with you," Asuna requested. Negi smiled and nodded.

Asuna hopped onto his staff and the two flew up ahead to the top. The two were flying at incredible speed and they were getting closer to the top. The rest of the gang watched Negi and Asuna go up.

Yue is getting ready to bring out her broom from her pactio card. Suddenly, Eva twitched and sensed something wrong. She looks up to Negi and Asuna and warned them. "Negi! Asuna! LOOK OUT!" Eva cried.

Negi and Asuna heard Eva's warning when they looked back, and then they turned their head towards above them. Falling rocks were falling right above their heads! Negi screamed, but Asuna quickly reacted and brought out her pactio card. "ADEAT!" she yelled. Her card transformed into a giant sword, and she grabbed it. Asuna swung her sword and sliced the rocks into pieces. "Piece of cake," said Asuna in a confident mood. She thought that was it, but Negi screamed again as more rocks started to fall onto them.

Everyone on the stairs panicked, but Eva made a fast command. "Chachamaru!" she shouted. Chachamaru raised her arms and aimed at Negi and Asuna. She launches her hands and grapples Negi and Asuna by the collar of their shirts. She quickly pulled them back to the others as the rocks just missed them by an inch. Negi and Asuna were stunned and relieved at the same time.

Negi stood up, breathing, and puts his right hand on his chest, feeling the pounding beat from his heart. He then looks at Evangeline and Chachamaru, "Thanks, I thought–"

"You idiot!" Eva shouted and pulls Negi's cheeks, "You almost got yourselves killed up there. What were you thinking, barging in without caution?"

"Calm down Eva," Haruna interrupted them. "Everyone's okay, and no one got hurt."

"Hmph! You just got lucky there, boya, since me and Chachamaru backed you up." Matt Oda pauses a moment and stares at Evangeline in her upset look. Matt Oda sensed something within Eva like he knows something is bothering inside of her. She spotted Matt Oda staring at her again. "Something wrong, Matt?" she asked in a grump.

"Uhhh… no," Matt replied as he shook his head, "I'm just looking at Negi making sure he has no injuries on him."

"Well, I guess only we can do is to keep climbing up," Yue stated.

"Aww… c'mon!" Chisame complained, "Don't they have elevators in these clock towers?"

"Unfortunately, not." Matt obliviously replied. "Let's keep moving."

At the top of the tower, Nodoka gains consciousness… again. She looks around the room. She sees the victims again still all wearing white collars like the one Nodoka has on her neck. She turned to the window where the hooded culprit is standing on the edge of the window looking at the moon in the sky. She thought everything she has seen around is a nightmare, but it turns out it's real.

Nodoka tries to be brave and pulls out her pactio card. She quietly enchanted, "Adeat." and a magical diary appeared before her. She called out to the hooded culprit. "Hey!" The culprit turned to her. "Who are you, and what's your evil purpose?" The culprit with the two glowing white balls using as the eyes just stared at her speechlessly. After a few moments, a picture and words appeared in her book. All in her pages said, "Energy… Blood." Nodoka was so scared while the culprit turned to the moon again. Nodoka held tight to herself and hopes that Negi and her friends will rescue her in time.

Negi and the gang kept climbing up the stairs, and they still haven't got close to the top. Matt looks around the inside of the building and spots lamps on the side of the walls. Matt examines them closely with his hand as it collected dust.

"What are you doing, Matt?" Chao Lingshen asked.

"Nothing, just taking a closer at this lamp," Matt replied. "It really looks old, like it was built at least a hundred years ago."

"Well, this tower was built around in the 1800s," Satomi replied and winked at him. "Before watches arrived in this part of the town, people relied on this clock tower as a source to keep track of their time for their shifts, schedules, and daily routines."

Yue continued the facts, "But since time passed and people are now wearing watches and have digital clocks at home, this clock tower is now nothing but an ordinary tower. Not many people use this tower anymore. However, strange rumors were spread when some people discovered and thought this clock tower is so old that ghosts are now living in it."

Chao continued, "So today when people pass by this tower during the nighttime, many of them think it's haunted and spread the word around to the people to stay away from this place."

Matt took his hand off the lamp as he left his fingers marks on it and dust on his hand. He wipes them off on his shirt. "Interesting story," Matt replied, "but I'm not so sure Negi is taking a liking to this."

Everyone looked at Negi as he was crouched into a ball, shivering in fear.

"C'mon bro, act like a man, will ya!?" Chamo shouted to Negi.

"Why are you guys giving Matt Oda history lessons about this place?" Eva scolded. "I thought we are here to rescue your bookworm friend and apprehend this ghostly culprit."

"Don't be so rash Eva," Matt replied. "Though I don't like History, it may be helpful to learn about this place to get good information and how we are dealing with this culprit we're facing up against." Eva didn't care and scoffed at Matt.

"Hey, you guys," Konoka called out, "Not to interrupt, but can we move on?"

"Eh, you're right Konoka. Let's move."

The team pressed onward. They kept climbing and climbing for so long that it felt like they climbed at least 45 flights so far. Everyone was getting tired and slowly started to sulk. They were all sweating and breathing heavily.

"GAH! I can't take it anymore!" Chisame yelled. "I'm going to collapse."

"Uwah, I can't go any further." Konoka moaned.

"Miss Konoka, hold on," said Setsuna as she helps her mistress carrying her.

Matt grabbed on to the rails of the stairs and took deep breaths. "Something's is not right," He claimed. "We should be at the top right about now…, but we're not. I don't think this tower can be this high to reach the top."

"But Matt," Asuna responded as she was breathing heavily, "We been climbing up these stairs for so long… Are we missing something?"

Matt looks around the whole area on the floor they're on and tries to find this oddball trick here. He looked at the stairs, the ground floor, the ceiling, and the walls, but found nothing out of the ordinary. Matt paused for a moment and begins to think very hard.

Then Matt turns around and spots a lamp, the same kind he observed some flights ago. He observes the lamp carefully, and in a blink of his eyes, he saw and noticed something. Matt got closer to the lamp to confirm his assumption. Matt twitched.

"Aha! I knew it!" Matt yelled.

"What? What is it Matt?" Asuna wondered.

"How could I not realize this sooner? Gang, we have been walking in circles."

"Huh!?" everyone shouted and pondered.

"What do you mean, Matt?" Satomi asked.

"Ever heard of an artist named M. C. Escher?"

"I know that guy," Chao replied. "He's was a famous artist who created this illusion painting of stairs going in a complete circle. Why did you say that?"

"Well Chao, everyone…, we're in his painting."

"Huh?" everyone was confused.

"Take a look at this lamp here." Everyone got close to Matt. "You noticed something strange on this lamp?"

They observed it closely, but they were clueless. "It's all dusty Matt," Konoka replied. "I don't know what's wrong with it. All I see is it's glowing and a few fingerprint markings you've printed."

Everyone couldn't figure it out, but Satomi and Chisame have got it. "Of course!" Chisame shouted. "Matt, you're genius." Everyone stared at Chisame to see how she figured out Matt's point of view. "You see these fingerprints here." Chisame pointed to parts on the lamp. "Look at Matt's hand!" Matt opened his hand, and it still shows a little bit of dust on his fingertips and on his palm. Everyone was still a little bit confused. In a few seconds, they came to understand Matt's point.

"You're catching on now," Matt stated. "These prints on the lamp here are the same as my fingertips. I just touch this lamp, and we were climbing up the stairs not too long ago. How can the lamp from a few flights ago that has the markings of my prints, have another lamp with the exact same prints on this one on this stair level."

Matt put his hands on his hips. "It's very simple. Somehow we entered into this loop that the moment we're about to enter the next level of the stairs, we're right back to the last stair level we climbed. That's why no matter how many flights we've gone up, we could never reach the top. I don't think we're dealing with an ordinary criminal. This has to be the work of someone with magic."

Everyone was amazed again by intelligence abilities. "That explains why we been walking up this tower for so long," Haruna stated.

Matt looks up. "Now that we know we're in this loop illusion, is there any way to break this so we can get ourselves out of here."

"That I can do!" Asuna shouted in confidence.

"How, Asuna?"

Asuna pulled out her sword out and sticks it into the wall. "Just watch, and you'll be amazed." Matt's watching.

Asuna puts her hand on her sword. A glowing white aura surrounded Asuna's body, and a magic circle appeared on her feet. She transferred her magical power into her sword as it started to glow. With her sword attached to the wall, the magic in the sword was transferred to the wall causing the whole floor level to glow. "Nullification!" She called out.

Crack! They heard the sound and spotted the crack… floating in midair. Crack! Crack! Just then, cracks were everywhere, on the walls, the stairs, all around the team. The cracks were connected together and then, CRASH! Everyone covered themselves as pieces of the loop illusion spells fell and were crushed and disintegrated.

"How's that Matt Oda?" Asuna said proudly.

"Incredible…" Matt replies trying to calm himself from great amazement. He has his right hand on his chin. "Am I a lucky fellow to have you magical guys."

"So, are we out of the illusion?" Konoka asked.

Matt takes a look at the lamp on the wall, only this time it has no markings of his fingerprints. Matt knew they were out of the trapped illusion. "We sure are Konoka," Matt replies back to her. "This lamp here doesn't have my fingerprints from the last lamp I touched."

"Finally!" Chisame yelled in relief. "We can now get to the top."

"Right everyone, let's go!" Matt called out as he leads the group climbing up the last flight of stairs.