So I was cleaning out some drives recently and came across a few stories of mine I had forgotten I had been writing in the past. They all are decent, so I figured I'd clean em up and put em up to see if people like them. No guarantee on update speeds, though ill post all the chapter I have for em at once as I have em already.
So here's the second, a Madoka Magica, and Darkest dungeon crossover fic. I had been writing this one casually up until the Madoka Magica mobile game got canceled for its NA version, as it pissed me off as I had literally just gotten Sayaka, but the idea is very fun and Sayaka needs more love, so here we go!
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
A consciousness found itself falling down through a dark abyss. On one side, a waterfall of dark brackish water flowed, threatening to pull the consciousness within it. On the other, a dim glowing speaker surrounded by clouds, barely audible sounds coming out of it trying desperately to be heard.
"Where . . . am I?" The consciousness asked aloud as it drifted between the two warring powers, unsure what was going on. "Am I. . . I died, I died when I made a mistake, but . . . what did I do? What was a mistake?"
"¥°®π¢{€×®°€=€{®°®π€{¢}¢¶©÷¥π|=¢¶¢÷®℅®"
The consciousness turned to the waterfall as an odd noise was are from within it. The consciousness could see fish swimming in the water happily, yet the longer it looked, the darker and more foreboding the water looked as an image of armor appeared just underneath it.
"Don't leave us! Don't fall to despair, Sayaka!"
The consciousness turned to the speaker, the warm and caring voice that came from it making her feel warm and happy. She, she was a she and . . . she knew the voice. What was a Sayaka though? Was that her. . . . name?
"~=~{¢∆®×®×®¶®÷©℅¢[¥×®π¢{¢}®[®[\¡£°®{©¡!"
The consciousness reeled as the noise from the waters dipped through the darkness, threatening to overwhelm everything. And I that same moment, its noise became intention that she could understand.
"DisreGard, ThEm! ThEy do Not MattEr!"
"What? I don't, I, what is this and, who, what, are you?" the consciousness asked as it looked at both things, the water and speaker that glowed faintly.
"Please, don't go away, Sayaka! Please come back!"
"Ignore them! TheY, do not care aboUt you, About, Us! EmbraCe our new ExiStanCe!"
The consciousness looked at the two focuses and gasped as she realized they were fighting over her. Beams of light and giant black colored wheels. Arrows of energy and giant swords. Bullets and spears, and music notes and violins. All were being exchanged in ways that made no sense to the broken consciousness.
"I, I don't, who are you? Where am I? Who am I?" the consciousness begged for answers? Only to receive them all at once.
"you! Your friend! Hell, the abyss, purgatory, Gehenna, the end itself! A friend! A monster! A failure! A being of despair! A friend who cares for others! One who shuns others! Sayaka Miki! Oktavia Von Seckendorff!"
"Ah it hurts!" the consciousness screamed as every word seemed to conjure a memory she could recall but not remember, bringing only pain or heartache. She couldn't even tell which memories were causing what effect making the barrage of uncertain thoughts and feelings even less tolerable. "Just, stop . . ? Please, it hurts, I can't, I don't, understand, it hurts I, please stop!"
"DespaiR OktaVia!"
"Please come back Sayaka!"
"Shut up! I don't know who those are!"
"YoU!"
"You!"
"But, that doesn't . . make sense?" the consciousness asked as suddenly a giant armoured hand erupted from the water and reached for her. At the same time a multitude of rifles, arrows, and spears came out of the speaker pushing the armoured hand back.
She watched as they went back and forth, and back and forth, not understanding at all, when suddenly she felt something grab onto her being. Gazing down into the depth of darkness below, a long and thin slimy squid like tentacle was coming out of the blackness, and had grabbed her.
"Huh, what is . . . . no, wait, stop , you cant-!" she screamed as she felt something begin to flow through the tentacle into her very being. It was cold and dark and clammy, but different from anything she had ever felt. Then, she noticed the multitude of weapons attacking the tentacle, and the armoured arm trying to pry it off of her!
Nothing made sense, but all she could feel was an ever increasing pain and more energy of each kind began walking up on the three sides fighting over her.
And just as it got to its peak she let out a scream, and everything turned white.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
In the deep recesses of the coves and caves beneath the manor that housed the Darkest Dungeon, where saltwater and fish monsters were both a constant, a group of two adventurers trudged, hoping for some form of relief.
Lucile, a young but pious Vestal with sandy blonde hair who was usually a ray of hope among despair.
Mortenau, an old but grizzled survivor or many wars and skirmishes, a man at arms who always had a tactic in mind, but whose mind often wandered into dark territories.
The two of them were all that was left of a group of four who had delved to cull the numbers of fish monsters in the coves. The other two, an arrogant hellion from the far north, and a man who was as much cultist as academic, had fallen to overconfidence and karma respectively, leaving them to fend for themselves.
"We, are almost out . . . right? " Lucile asked with a heavy breath.
"Aye, we are almost there girl. Keep those legs moving and well be out soon enough," Mortenau said in a self assured tone that hid his own worries. They had after all failed their mission. They hadn't managed to cull the coves nearly enough, and had lost the two idiots that had insisted on coming with them. They had been too weak and suffered for it. They needed to get out, or else the fishfolk would attack and overwhelm them in an instant.
"But, how much, further?" Lucile asked in gasps. "I don't, don't think I can keep up much longer, with my leg this way."
Mortenau grimaced at Lucile's words. It was his fault. He had not noticed one fish monster, and it had managed to stab her in the lower leg. Hardly a fatal blow on its own, but they hadn't had the chance or the time to bandage it properly. The wound was weeping into the waters both giving away their trail, and weakening her as they went. But they couldn't stop to bandage it, not until they got out of the shallow water they were in, not until he was sure they a would not be jumped the second they stopped moving! "I know," he finally said after a few seconds. "We should be just about at that big open cave area that was moderately dry and had the pools of clear water in it. We can stop there for a second probably. It should be safe."
"Oh, that pretty cavern with the water flowing down deeper right?"
"Yes. Were almost there."
"But, it was closer to the surface, and the water there was almost warm. If it flows down, then were walking . . . . through it. Why is, it so cold then?" Lucile asked nervously.
For a second Mortenau thought that the blood loss must have been getting to her, until he felt it as well in his legs. The water they were trudging through was getting colder by the second. And in this place, that was a very bad sign as it could mean a great many things of great evil were ahead of them. "We're almost there," he suddenly said as he saw the tunnel widen ahead of them, signaling their arrival to the same cavern. "Just, stay calm, and follow my lead."
Lucile nodded, and though Mortenau could not see it, he knew as she continued to keep pace with him. She was a good girl, better than the hellhole of a hamlet deserved in all honesty. But she had her reasons for being here, and he would respect that.
Pushing into the opening cavern of the coves and caves he breathed a sigh of relief to see no group of fishmen awaiting them. The walls trickled lines of water down them into any number of small natural sluice ways that fed down into the rest of the cave system, and at the mouth of the cavern, where some parse amount of light shone in, was an area of stone that was mostly dry.
And a person lying in one or the pools of water, half in the stone area like they had fell unconscious trying to climb out.
"A, person?" Lucile asked as she saw them. "Were we, not the only group to enter the coves this week?"
"One group to each area if possible, but no two groups to the same area. That's one of the Heirs rules. We should be the only people here," Mortenau said quietly as he pointed to an edge of the one of the pools and pointed out their pathway to Lucile.
She nodded and followed him closely, but he could tell from her reflection in the waters that she was occasionally glancing at the person at the waters edge. He couldn't fault her for it really. The person appeared to be wearing pieces of black armour and had dark blue hair of all colors. Not unheard of true, but still very rare and even exotic.
All he wanted to know though was whether they were friend or foe.
Reaching the stone shelf Mortenau gestured to a woven rug that was nailed against a slight incline of the wall. It had been there for as long as anyone could remember, and the bloodstains that covered it told all who saw it what it was for. Lucile simply nodded and went over to it, wincing as she leaned on it so that her leg so it could be looked at.
"This will sting," Mortenau said as he pulled out both a small drinking flask, and a bottle of holy water. With what could be in the water of the coves, he wasn't taking any chances. "Keep yourself busy. Look at that person, tell me what you see as I clean and cover your wound."
"Um, alright. They, have blue hair. Dark, with lighter blue accents, and probably as long as mine or longer. So I think they're probably a girl or woman."
"Good, what else?" Mortenau asked as he poured the alcohol over her wound, making her hiss in pain.
"She, I think she's wearing armour, and cloth. It, doesn't look like normal everyday plate or chain. A custom job I think,"
"Why do you think that?" Mortenau pressed as he tossed the empty flask into his pack and then began pouring holy water over her wound, making her calm down a bit. Holy warriors always felt better when doused in holy water.
"I, used to live near a smith, and I've seen a few different designs of armour from my past few months in the hamlet here. It doesn't look like anything I've seen, and is very dark in color. Most armour is not darkened to that extent unless it's ordered that way."
"Good, you've picked up useful knowledge," Mortenau said as he dabbed the wound dry and began wrapping a bandage around it. Doing his best to not look any further up Lucile's leg than he already was. "Do you think she is alive?"
"I . . . . Yes, I think I can see her shoulders shifting a bit at intervals. I think she's breathing," Lucile said, sounding rather happy about the fact.
Mortenau cracked a smile as he tightened and secured the bandage. Life was a good thing, especially with how many lives were lost on a semi regular basis in the hamlet. "Well then, if she's alive, what do you say we take her back to the hamlet?"
"Can we do that?" Lucile asked as Mortenau stood up and began walking toward the unknown woman. "I mean, there's supposed to be no one else here, and the Heir,"
"Would not be against us saving a life," Mortenau said as he knelt down grabbed the girl by the armpits and lifted her out of the water and onto the stone shelf. Only for his eyes to go wide. "Or, perhaps we are biting off more than we can chew?"
"What? Why?" Lucile asked as she carefully got up and then saw what was amiss about the woman.
She looked young, barely an adult, with fair skin and what appeared to be a athletic build. Her armour consisted of black metal and dark blue cloth, with the armour mainly being one shoulder pad, her boots, vambraces, a chest piece and a half armoured plate and chain cover over one side of her skirt. What was truly outrageous however was the fact that her ears looked more akin to fins, and out of her back above her butt, and her skirt, came a thick and sleek fishtail with strong powerful looking fins. The kind one would assume could be on the more majestic and beautiful stories of mermaids perhaps.
"Oh . . . is she, one of those fish monsters then? I mean, she has the tail, but she does look mostly human, right?"
"Perhaps. You've heard the rumor that an untreated fishman bites can turn someone into one of them, right?"
"Well, yes, you don't think that's what this is, do you?"
"Maybe, I can't say for sure. It is a possibility though."
"Then we have to save her! Cleanse her, heal her, something!" Lucile exclaimed, almost falling over as she did from putting to much weight on her wounded leg.
"We don't even know if that is the case or not," Mortenau said calmly.
"What else. Would it be though?!"
"Regith," Mortenau said simply, making Lucile recall the adventurer by name. One who, after being cursed or experimented on, it was hard to say which, could turning into a rather monstrous creature that was a combination of demon and beast.
"Oh, you think . . . she could be something like him?" Lucile asked, her demeaned suddenly very cautious.
"It's another possibility, aye. I say we take her back to the hamlet, put her in the sanitarium, and report to them, and the heir about everything that has happened," Mortenau said as he knelt down, shifted the blue haired girl, and then picked her up bridal style.
"E-everything?" Lucile asked in what appeared to be fear.
Mortenau knew it well. While respectable, and a decent leader, the Heir did not look upon failure lightly. Luckily he knew that this mission had been doomed from the beginning. He just hoped the Heir would see that, and that the fish tailed girl would be interesting enough to quell some of his anger. "Yes, everything. Once we get back I'll go see him. You should stay at the sanitarium with this one, both to keep watch on her, and to get your wound looked at, just in case I didn't clean it well enough."
"Oh. I guess that works . . . . ." Lucile said as she glanced at the girl and sighed. She didn't like unholy people who were cursed, but until she knew if the girl actually was, it would probably be best to not make assumptions.
"Don't hate her until you know what her situation is," Mortenau said as he walked up to Lucile and smiled. "Let's get out of here and get some fresh air in our lungs!"
"Agreed. It will be too soon that I see this place again!" Lucile exclaimed as the two of them left the coves, not noticing the blue haired girls eyebrows twitch.