I do not own Familia Myth or any of the characters.


Unfinished Business

Ethan glanced at Ryu as they raced through the Great Tree Labyrinth, slaughtering any monsters foolish enough to attempt to attack them. Ethan felt a little guilty that they were probably deeper than Bell and the others had gotten yet, but he shoved the thought away instantly. This was for Ryu. Bell and the others would be fine.

Once they'd left Knossos into the Eighteenth Floor, they'd caught one of their targets, a human and Ryu had severed the tendons in his arms and legs. Then, once that was done, she had demanded to know what the group was planning, and where the others had gone. He'd blatantly refused to tell her the plan, so she had instead extracted information about the other's whereabouts, specifically where they were headed. The man had guessed they'd flee to the lower levels where the monsters would help be a deterrent. Ryu had accepted the information and had left the man there to be found by either monsters or the Adventurers in Rivira, whichever found him first. Ethan had asked why she didn't kill him, but she'd simply said the only one she wanted to kill was the one with the missing ear. Then, almost as soon as they entered the Great Tree Labyrinth, Ryu had claimed to have found the others' trail and that they were closing in rapidly. So, he followed her.

They shot along the forest floor rapidly, only to skid to a stop as a Monster Party suddenly burst from the trees around them. Ryu snarled angrily, then shot forward, tearing into the monsters on that side as Ethan followed, firing a Lightning Spree into the opposite side, his irises glowing and his sclerae black. Together, they rapidly slaughtered the monsters, then exploded off again. Irritation growled inside Ethan's head. They'd been chasing their targets around the Great Tree Labyrinth for the better part of a day already, winding their way through every floor of the Great Tree Labyrinth over and over, their prey using successive Pass Parades to try and slow them, and probably hoping to kill them. Despite that, Ryu claimed she could still see their trail, so, on they ran. Finally, they reached a massive tree that seemed to be a part of the stone that ran around the edge of the floor, as a cleft in the tree transformed into a tunnel made entirely out of light blue crystals that sloped downward gently.

Ryu didn't hesitate to sprint into the tunnel, so Ethan followed along. However, both were forced to slow down as they found the floor was slightly slippery, and after a few minutes, they both skidded to a stop at the bottom as they found themselves at the top of a cliff, the path along which was barely two people wide, and beside which was an open chasm. Across from them, the Great Fall plummeted from the ceiling above them into a pool below them. Four hundred meters below. Even for a Level Six, it was a fatal fall from this height. However, the thing that made Ryu shriek furiously and kick the wall, was that the entire area was made out of the same crystals as the path they'd just come down. The ground, the walls, the bridges spanning from one tunnel to the next down the inside cliff face of the chasm, the shore around the pool below the Great Fall, on which was the entrance to the Twenty Sixth floor. It was all crystal. The trail was gone.

"We lost him," Ryu growled.

"Not yet," Ethan said, resting his free left hand on her shoulder. "We'll find him, Ryu. I promise you, this ends today."

Ryu stared at him for a moment before nodding, turning left along the cliff. "Unless he can fly, he went this way."

Ethan nodded and they walked quickly along the cliff until they reached the end of the cliff path where a cave led into the labyrinth of the floor, which reminded Ethan of a crystal version of the upper levels, except on a much, much more expansive and intricate level. Ethan sighed internally. They'd never be able to find him here. Any number of the tunnels could loop around or lead to hidden passes.

"We need to move fast," Ryu said. "Be careful of the water. If you fall in, you'll be swarmed and killed instantly, and monsters will jump out of it to attack."

Ethan nodded and they both took off running, speeding through the tunnels rapidly. As they took sharp turns, their momentum carried them onto the walls briefly, and any time a stream crossed their path, they leapt over it in a single bound, slowing down for nothing. After a couple of minutes, an Aqua Serpent, a ten foot long snake with light green scales, exploded out of the water ahead of them, only for Ryu to slide under it and Ethan to slash it with his Light-Blade-enhanced sword, splitting it from snout to about two feet behind its head where its body was coiled. Its body crashed to the ground and exploded into ash behind him. A second later, a massive, fanged fish burst out of the water, only for a barrage Blade Rain to tack it to a wall, killing it. A few feet later it was another snake. Lightning Spree erased its head, but now Ethan had a suspicion. He glanced at Ryu, and she nodded without even looking back at him.

"He's likely a tamer," Ryu said, just as she flipped into the air, splitting a pair of Devil Mosquitos, which were each the size of Ethan's torso. "Even here it shouldn't be this populated."

A group of Blue Crabs scuttled into view, only for Ethan to blast them instantly with Lightning Spree. He saw a shadow approaching in the water and blasted the water with Lightning Spree as well, and three Raider Fish and an Aqua Serpent floated to the surface before bursting into ash. They followed the tunnel, slaughtering more monsters as they ran. And the further they ran, the more and more monsters began to attack. They passed through hallways, intersections, and round, room-like chambers, passing streams all the while, including one chamber where streams formed something like a spiderweb on the ground. They were swarmed particularly badly in that room, but they both came away without much more than a few scratches.

As they continued running, Ethan healed Ryu. Then, at long last, they burst out of the tunnel on the shore of the pool below the Great Fall. Almost on cue, a streak of red passed Ethan, ripping his cheek open before impacting with the ground with a sickening splat and a crack of fracturing crystal. Both swore instantly. Iguaza. Bird-type monsters that turned themselves into living bullets for the single-minded purpose of killing. They lacked even the base intelligence to recognize that doing so caused their own deaths as well, succeed or fail. Ethan's arm snapped up toward where the streaks of red were speeding around above them, leaving blurred afterimage trails, only for a shriek to ring out directly above him. His head snapped up just as a Harpy's feet grabbed him by the upper arms. He swore as his feet left the ground. He was a sitting duck for the Iguaza. Except, they ignored him, instead flashing down toward Ryu. She dove behind a massive chunk of crystal and Ethan looked up, realizing his fate was, instead, the swarm of both Harpies and Sirens waiting for him above. He held his hand out toward the swarm of Iguaza, bracing himself for his snap-decision's fallout.

"Lightning Spree!" Ethan roared.

Countless branches of lightning arced from his hand, half of them intercepting the Iguaza and slaughtering them before the rest blasted the Harpies and Sirens, killing them all. However, as he was being held by one, he took the brunt of a bolt as well. He shrieked in pain as he fell, his sword spinning away, then crashed down in the water, Ryu's cry of surprise and fear being cut off midway. Ethan swore internally. He didn't have his Undine cloth on. He'd special-ordered one as a jacket that could fit over his outfit, but it was probably with Anya. He was helpless. And no sooner had he hit the water did an Aqua Serpent streak into view. He reached his right arm down, moving to draw his xiphos, but with his body barely responding under the water, it was barely halfway out before the serpent caught him, sinking its fangs into his upper arm, though his Durandal chestplate managed to keep it out of his torso. He shouted in pain, ripping the xiphos free with all of the speed of cold molasses, then drove it just as quickly into the serpent's side. Then out. Then in. Then out. The process had taken ten seconds to stab twice. He wasn't going to make it. And he couldn't shout the incantation for a spell without drowning, even if the spell didn't work. And On top of that, Lightning Spree was out because it would fry him as well. Then, suddenly, a massive fish tail exploded into the top of the snake's head, shattering its skull and all but launching its head downward away from him, its fangs tearing massive gouges in his arm.

He shouted in pain, water rushing into his mouth. He squeezed his eyes shut, spitting it out, careful to keep more from flooding into his mouth. Then, as he opened his eyes, he flinched. there was a face in front of his, but it wasn't Ryu's. The girl had emerald blue hair with an Under Coral decoration in the left side, pale, indigo skin, jade green eyes, and an intense, terrified-yet-determined expression. Then, before he could react or stop her, she had shoved her thumb and first two fingers into his mouth and under his tongue. For a moment, all manner of painful methods of death flashed through his head. However, the thoughts faded as soon as he looked past her at the two Aqua Serpents and four Raider Fish rapidly closing in on them.

He yelped in fear on pure instinct, moving his arm to point, and suddenly felt the oddest sensation of his life. The water that surged into his mouth around the bubbles suddenly changed direction, being sucked under his tongue and vanishing, and his arm snapped up at only a fraction of a second slower than if he was on land. Slow enough to be disorienting, but not enough to stop him fighting. At the same time, he registered that the mermaid had stuck something under his tongue. Something flat, hard, and with four corners. He ignored that, praying that whatever it was didn't have a maximum retention for water, and also that his spell would work even if he wasn't really speaking.

"Blade Rain!" he shouted in a stream of large bubbles, except, his voice, though muted, registered as actual words in his ears.

Instantly, dozens of blade silhouettes formed around him and raced forward, slicing through the water as easily as through air, and impaled the monsters all dozens of times over. All but one of the Aqua Serpents burst into clouds of ash and he grit his teeth, kicking off hard like a frog. And then, he was racing through the water himself, a dozen times faster than he could swim normally. He let out a cheer in a stream of bubbles, forming a Light Blade around his Xiphos before twisting his body, slipping past the serpent's mouth and slashing, his augmented blade splitting the serpent's head, then along its body in segments, passing in and out of the body where it was bent to slither through the water. As he finished his slash, he spun himself back toward the mermaid and she smiled.

"Breathe," she said, her voice muted and barely reaching him, but carrying nonetheless.

Given everything else that had happened since she put whatever it was under his tongue, and the dark spots beginning to spin in his vision, he inhaled. Water rushed into his mouth, only to be sucked under his tongue, leaving only air to flood his lungs. He gasped for several breaths before smiling and nodding. Then, he turned, kicking off toward shore where he thought he'd left Ryu, and exploded out of the water like a dolphin, finding her surrounded by dozens of monsters and struggling to fend them off while casting worried looks at the water. She froze as he burst out of the water, however, and he sent a Lightning Spree into the monsters, slaughtering them all before landing on his feet and skidding to a stop beside her.

"How?" Ryu breathed.

He reached into his mouth and pulled out the strange object, staring at the small green scale, roughly the size of the end segment of his thumb, and also roughly the shape of a diamond. "A mermaid scale."

"A mermaid scale?" Ryu asked, eyes wide. "You managed to kill a Mermaid? Is that what happened to your arm?"

He blinked, then glanced down at his arm, realizing it was still mangled, though he'd lost feeling in it. He grimaced and healed it with Restoration before flexing and bending it, feeling returning quickly. "No, I didn't kill the mermaid. I think she's a Xenos."

He glanced back just as the mermaid pulled herself onto shore, now wearing a shell bra that she definitely hadn't had on before.

"You're Ethan and Ryu, right?" she asked. "I'm Marie. Wiene asked me to help you and Bell. I helped Bell earlier."

"Wait, Bell and the others were here before us?" Ethan asked.

Marie nodded. "There was a weird thing here that was really strong, but Bell beat it, then they all went back up."

Ethan stared at her, then sighed and shook his head. "Anyway, thank you for the scale." He paused, glancing at it. "How long will it last?"

"Forever," Marie said. "It's thin, but once it's removed, its really hard, like metal. Oh! By the way!" She reached down, pulling another scale off before tossing it to Ryu. "It'll let you breathe underwater, cast your magic, and swim almost as well as a mermaid."

"It lets you move almost as fast as on land, too," Ethan said.

Ryu nodded, smiling. "Thank you. Tell Wiene we said thanks, too, if you can."

"Next time they come down, I will," Marie said, then pouted. "They always leave me alone down here."

Ethan smiled sympathetically. "I'm sure you'll be able to go up eventually. If we can get the human world to accept Xenos."

Marie nodded, smiling. "If you can, then I can be with Bell!"

Ethan snorted. "Of course."

Marie beamed, then waved and dove back into the water. Ethan sighed, walking over to his sword and picking it up.

"By the way, there was another human with one of his arms missing who ran by toward the next floor down," Marie said, popping back up out of the water for a moment. "Okay, bye!"

Then, she was gone again, and Ryu began to head for the tunnel to the Twenty Sixth floor. Before she could, Ethan caught her arm.

"We have to go!" Ryu snapped.

"I know," Ethan said. "We will, Ryu. I promise. But I need you to promise me that you won't fall into darkness. I promise you, it will end today. But I can't lose you in the process. Please, trust me to see this through with you, but don't let this consume you. What they did was awful, but it doesn't have to define you. There's more to your life than just what happened to you before, now. Isn't there?"

Ryu stared at him for a long few moments before sighing, eyes watering, and shook her head. "No. It doesn't have to define me. You're right. Thank you."

Ethan smiled, kissing her. "I love you, Ryu."

"I love you, too," Ryu smiled. "Now, let's go kill that one-armed son of a bitch."

Ethan smiled and nodded, kissing her again before pocketing his mermaid scale, turning to run toward the next floor as Ryu slipped her scale into her small leather magic crystal pouch, pulling it tight before rolling it up and shoving it into his pocket as she caught up to him. He flashed her a smile before they continued to run. They sprinted down the path to the next level, and looked around. Monsters swarmed toward them from the left, so they turned, sprinting that way, for lack of a better clue.


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