Meiling flung Byakuren's grip aside and took a few hasty steps backwards, her initial leer having all but twisted into a scowl.
"I was wondering why you weren't here," she commented loftily, though despite her attempt at nonchalance, her strained tone of voice betrayed her vexation.
"Surprised?" Byakuren held up a straightened palm in front of her eyes and curled her fingers into a fist, beckoning her adversary forward.
"Not particularly. My mistress's information is never wrong. I had an inkling you'd be nearby." Without warning, Meiling launched forward again, this time towards the monk, who braced herself with both arms and met Meiling's hammer blow with equal and irrepressible fervor. Planting a foot behind her to steady herself, Byakuren pushed off the ground, kicking up a cloud of dirt and dust behind her, and speared forth in the hopes of catching Meiling unawares whilst she was still reeling from the force of Byakuren's reply. Meiling, however, proved every bit Byakuren's equal in that regard, spinning around and countering Meiling's riposte with a thrust of her own.
As the two of them gripped and grappled for that transient moment of physical superiority which might decide their skirmish, Byakuren turned half an eye towards us and yelled, "Go! While you still have the time to do so!"
"I don't think so!" Meiling made a second dash for us – and for me in particular – but her progress was once again stalled by Byakuren's bodily barrier, another pair of braced arms greeting her, standing strong in her path. Evidently deciding that the only way to us was through her opponent, Meiling unleashed an immeasurably fast flurry of blows, each thrust bursting invisible bubbles of sound as they whistled through the air, each impact reverberating noisily around the expanse as they met the flesh of the monk's arms. Yet Byakuren appeared otherwise unperturbed, with only her eyes narrowing in concentration as she continued to parry each incoming punch, matching Meiling's salvos fist for fist, jab for jab, elbow for elbow.
Powerful as Reimu, Marisa and Miko might be, they could never hope to nullify the pure physical threat of someone of Meiling's ilk without causing irreparable damage to the neighboring environs, and to those possessed villagers who, despite their deathly physiognomies and hollow, gaunt expressions, still retained an uncanny familiarity that stayed the maidens' hand. Which, of course, played right into whatever plans the denizens of the Scarlet Devil Mansion had been busy concocting. Our best course was to flee, and hope – and trust – that Byakuren was up to the challenge of holding Hong Meiling back.
"We're counting on you, Byakuren! Let's go!" Marisa flung out an arm, sparks of fire and electricity catching at her fingers as she aimed her fingers towards the horde. "Sorry, guys!" she yelled. "This is gonna hurt!"
A magic circle spun into existence, hovering parallel to Marisa's palm, drawing a mystifying array of runes and spells into the air, gathering a rapidly amplifying inferno of swirling power into the center of the ring. Without warning, the blinding heat was sucked into an infinitesimal pinpoint, and for the briefest of moments, it vanished, leaving stars dancing in our eyes as we attempted to restore our vision in the far darker surrounds of the crimson haze.
Then, the light returned in an untrammeled torrent of ethereal fury, rocketing forth from the magic circle, shooting a cylindrical beam of pure plasma that speared into the unseen distance, throwing anyone caught in its warpath violently to one side and sending them sprawling unceremoniously onto the grass, singing the leaves and branches overhead until they were black with soot and ash.
"Come on!" Marisa grabbed me and veritably threw me onto the broom behind her, which she had long since mounted whilst I was busy admiring her handiwork. "We're flying the rest of the way!"
"I thought you said-"
"There's never any time for caution, traveler, as you well know." Miko slapped me on the back and winked at Marisa and Reimu. "Let's get a move on!"
"For once, I'm minded to agree with you, Toyosatomimi no Miko!" Marisa primed the tip of her broomstick and, with a forceful push off the ground, we picked up speed as quickly as the rickety old device would allow. Before long, we were arrowing through the woods, wind whipping painfully against my face as I strained to see what was around us, let alone where we might be headed.
"I hope you know what you're doing, Marisa!" I yelled as we narrowly avoided colliding headfirst into a particularly stout and girthy tree trunk. Somehow, hearing my panic seemed to entertain the witch, who laughed heartily and accelerated in response.
"Don't you worry, traveler! We're taking a shortcut!"
"A shortcut? Where-" And suddenly, the ground beneath my feet disappeared, the shock of which was almost enough for me to loosen my grip around Marisa's waist and fall into whatever abyss awaited me below. Yet as I peered closer – at least, as close as I dared to look – I noticed that the air displaced by our breakneck flight was causing a trail of eddies to form in our wake.
"You remember Misty Lake, don't you, traveler?" Reimu queried as she floated up beside us.
I nodded. "It's been quite a while."
"Some journey it has been, indeed," Reimu agreed with a wistful smile, the tresses of hair guarding her ears fluttering elegantly behind her as she soared. "In the end, all things make their way back to their source. In that respect, fate is little different." She spread her arms, beckoning at the mirror of water surrounding us. "How fitting that we would come back to the place where it all began, and where your eyes were first opened to the wonders of this world we all share."
"It's just as you say."
"Look sharp," Miko warned, drawing our attentions back to the task at hand. "Up ahead lies the Mansion. Its shadow is unmistakable."
Sure enough, it was but a matter of moments before I caught first sight of the unsettling silhouette of the place to which my travels, vivid and varied as they were, had always been destined to ultimately lead. Its rugged outline, pocked by arrays of sharp spires that jutted from its broad, slanted roof, marred and distorted by disrepair and disrepute, spoke of the callous cruelty of its immortal inhabitants, and of the evils that – if the others' warnings were to be heeded – were conducted deep inside the murky recesses of this unholy manor. A stone wall materialized into view around the Mansion as we neared, its eerie yet imposing façade matched only by the gate of twisted black iron towards which we continued our swift traversal.
"Have utmost care," Reimu urged as we began to decelerate. "The gatekeeper may not be present, but she is the weakest of the Mansion's scions. Far greater dangers lurk within."
We came to a halt in front of the gate, which loomed ever larger from up close, the leering metal bars which comprised its face staring down upon us, daring us to enter. The gate was slightly ajar, and there would be no question of our being able to walk in. Whether we were truly ready to do so, however, was another matter entirely. Even Reimu, as powerful a magician as she was, appeared slightly perturbed by the prospect, her brow tangibly creased in concern as she gazed into the garden of tangled and twisted weeds that flanked the Mansion proper.
"This is it, I suppose." Marisa looked at each of us in turn. "Shall we?"
"No time like the present." Miko shrugged, and reached out for the gate. Yet just as her fingers brushed against the steel, the gentle sound of susurration behind us froze us in place, staying our feet, catching our breath in our throats.
"I would advise against your entrance," said a dreadfully recognizable voice to which I was, against my best intentions, undeniably well-acquainted. "Especially you, human traveler from beyond. You may find that what you have been seeking for so long… is also the last thing that you ever wanted to know."
I had heard this voice before. Not just once, and not just twice.
"A rarity, to see the librarian out and about," Reimu remarked, who had spun around and faced our latest adversary. I did the same, and there, in all her purple-clad, weary-eyed glory, was the one who had brought me here, the one who had set me upon the path to discover myself under the pretense of a thirst for discovery, not knowing that it was she who had robbed my memories and stolen my faculties in the first place. From her the great question stemmed, and from her the answer would be gleaned – at least, should we be able to coerce her into divulgation. And for a being like her, who wielded such untold power and such unlimited knowledge, that was – to severely understate the point – by no means guaranteed.
But Patchouli Knowledge had no eyes for those she already knew and understood, to the point of familiar contempt. Her stare, unflinching in its focus, was fixed solely upon my person. Ignoring Reimu's comment, she continued to speak only to me, her voice soft yet flowing with purpose, drowning out all the other worthless noise, permeating deep into my mind.
"Your ignorance has saved you thus far, but that will soon come to its end." She adjusted the cap on her head, sighing as she did so. "A pity; I would have liked to observe your development in this domain further. All good things must, however, come to their inevitable ends. Not even one such as yourself can fight against the finitude of life, and of being itself."
"You're not giving him much of a choice," Marisa muttered. "Neither are you giving any of us a choice. Your little experiment ends here, Patchouli. Return Gensokyo to its prior state, or you'll regret ever coming out of your hidey-hole down in the Mansion basement."
"Vulgar as always, Marisa Kirisame," Patchouli replied with a disapproving click of her tongue. "I have always been loath to leave the comfort of my chambers, and what little I have witnessed here today has failed to change my mind. The only reassurance I can provide myself is that I will not have to contend with this distraction much longer." She withdrew a slip of paper from her gown pocket and held it up in the air. "Traveler, if you so desire to break the spell chaining your thoughts to blissful innocence that you would risk everything you know and love to achieve that end, then I shall be waiting for you in the library." The paper, which I realized was a talisman, began to glow red. "Farewell, for now."
"Wait!" Marisa launched a blast of lightning towards Patchouli, but when the smoke cleared, all that was left was a black patch of flattened grass on the ground where Patchouli had been standing just moments before. "Damn it!" she snarled. "I knew that witch was behind all this! I knew it!"
"Save some of that spark for later, Marisa," Miko advised, though she, too, could not suppress the troubled look that currently claimed her features. "We must follow her into the Mansion."
"Maybe we should have done that sooner," Reimu noted. "Here comes the brigade."
Out of the mist and from within the confines of the Mansion, an army of youkai were advancing upon us, comprised of beasts and spirits of every size and shape, from the smallest, daintiest of fairies, to the most hulking and heavy-set specimens of ancient lore and legend; from tengu to kappa, from sprites to dragons. They were united by one single, burning purpose: to defend their masters, and to keep us at bay.
Marisa blew an exasperated breath through her nose. "This is going to be one hell of a fight. Where did they keep all those youkai in that tiny hut?"
"And not just that." Reimu gestured at something behind us, and we turned to look. There, making their way slowly around the perimeter of the lake, was the throng of villagers we had left behind, ambling through the bushes, uncaring of the branches that scraped against their faces as they rumbled towards us. It was clear, then, that Byakuren must have faltered in her skirmish against the gatekeeper, yet her wellbeing, though important, did not take precedence ahead of our own at this point in time. We were trapped between a rock and a hard place, with neither the will nor the room to flee. Either the other three would have to take some drastic and potentially unforgivable measures, or they would have to allow themselves – and myself – to be overrun, making one last final sacrifice for the good of the realm that they so loved.
But that choice would, to our unimaginable surprise, soon be made for us.
High above our heads, the scarlet fog exploded into color, a brilliant kaleidoscope of magical swirls and etheric glitter that swarmed over the land, glistening as it descended into the treetops, filling the canopies with a dazzling cornucopia of lavish luminescence and luxurious luster, stunning both the youkai and possessed villagers into wide-eyed, paralyzing silence. From far, far in the horizon, the sound of a lone horn blared, sweeping through the thick air, piercing the all-encompassing veil like a blade through cloth. A row of magic circles descended from the sky, expelling beams of crystalline charms that sought out the nearest villager and instantly bound them to the ground, shackling them with chains that sprouted out of the dirt and coiled around their hapless forms, holding on firmly despite their desperate struggles.
At the same time, the drumming of footsteps entered my ears, and I turned to face the origin of this new noise. One, two, three, and then soon an uncountable number of figures marched forth, their forms radiating seemingly the same type of energy from which our salvation continued to fall, from the multicolored orifices that had been opened in the sky. At their head, to my immediate and irrepressible relief, was a diminutive figure who bore a determined and stern expression as she approached, yet broke into a knowing smile upon spotting us. She gestured towards those that had followed her all the way here, and pointed forward towards us.
"Lunarian Defence Corps!" called the princess of the Moon, Watatsuki no Toyohime. "Forward, with me!"