Emilia walked unsurely through the twisting, winding, and creaking metal halls of an ancient building, rust-covered nearly every inch of the walls, and an unfamiliar scent lingered in the air. Many strange devices were placed about, providing light within the darkened halls. Lucky for Emilia, she was not alone. No, instead, she was with friends. Her camp: Ram, Garifel, Fredrica, Petra, Otto, and a still asleep Rem were with her.

They were all equally unsure of their location, and the skeletal remains they had found in this seemingly never-ending metal maze put them on edge. It was made only worse by the feeling that something watched them from the darker parts of the building. Emilia came to a stop and paused, looked around the far more lit room; crates darted the floor of the room, stacked and netted with drapes of cloth with a strange symbol on them.

Above them on the ceiling and into the far corners were nets holding round spiky objects, with red glowing dots around them. Emilia had no idea what any of this was, nor when she looked to the others did she see a hint that they knew either.

But she couldn't blame them after Subaru had disappeared a week prior, and that strange portal dragged them in. She wasn't sure what was going on anymore.

But her worry for her Knight had only increased.

"This place is reaaally strange, it's starting to give me the willies," Emilia spoke out as she felt a subtle pang in her heart, oh how she missed her Knight telling her that no one said willies anymore, "I hope we can get out of here soon." She noticed the tired expression on Otto's face, only then to hear him speak.

"If it isn't too much to ask, can we take a minute to rest, please?" Otto asked with an exhausted tone. Only to be followed up by Ram, who had been carrying Rem on her back since they had arrived in this place.

Ram commented snidely, "Where is your manliness? Asking us lovely flowers for rest; pathetic." However, her legs were beginning to wobble.

Emilia sighed as she turned her head back towards the environment before them, "We can take a quick break, I'm reaaally not~ that tired yet; I can quickly look ahead!"

Garfiel then spoke up, "y'okay 'f I tag 'long?" Emilia gave him a nod before heading over to Ram and helping her place Rem down; then, when everyone else had situated themselves about the room, did her and Garfielhead for one of the pathways.

Once more, they entered the winding halls, though they made sure to mark their way back, Garifel doing so by punching a wall and leaving a fist-sized dent. They soon found themselves on a catwalk, and all around them was darkness, utter darkness.

"It's reaaally dark around here," Emilia commented aloud as she took several steps forward along the catwalk. The structure creaked, groaned, and bits of rust fell off into the darkness below. But luckily, it seemed the structure was fine for now. Emilia glanced over the railing of the catwalk and stared at the deep darkness.

"Ya wonder 'ow long of a fall 's 't the bottom," Garfiel commented with a whistle, "Wonder who built this place, 's as big as the silver dragons Reid would cut down."

Emilia answered to the best of her ability, "I don't know, but with all those skeletons around here, maybe a lot?" Emilia began to move again, turning her attention back to the catwalk and what lay across. Taking careful steps forward, she could make out the other side as it came closer. It was then she saw something hanging from a wall. It was a ripped piece of cloth, tattered and pinned into the wall, illuminated by a source of light from above. She could at first make out the primary color, and with the next few steps, she saw-

Her eye's widened in shock, her heart raced, and she darted the rest of the way to the wall grabbing the tattered piece of cloth, "Hey!" She heard Garfiel shout, but she ignored him and focused on the piece of fabric. Emilia's concern was rising through the roof, yet she was also becoming more relieved.

"What 's it?" Emilia heard Garfiel ask, standing up; she turned around and smiled at the demi-human. Emilia avoided all bad thoughts such a find could entail, choosing instead to focus solely on finding her foolish knight.

"It's a piece of Subaru's clothing,"

Garfiel had a puzzled look on his face, "Cap'n suit? Why is a piece of it on the wall?" Before it turned into a more serious one.

They both looked around, trying to figure out how a piece of Subaru's clothing ended up attached to the wall. Their gazes eventually traveled up to the hole above, noticing the source of light as well as skeletal digits peaking out.

Emilia then looked back to the piece of her Knight's clothing and furrowed her brow, "I don't know, he might be in danger, ooor he left it here to find a way back, maybe he's here somewhere." Regardless of why her Knight's clothing had a piece of it attached to the wall, it still meant that Subaru was around somewhere, "We should-"

The sound of something dropping not that far away caught both Emilia and Garfiel's attention, and the following sound of scuttling served to set them on edge.

They weren't alone.

Both of them hurriedly rushed back towards their camp, retracing their steps as the sound of scuttling in the ceiling above or below grew prominent, clicking followed, chattering, inhuman sounds. When they finally reached the room in a panic, Emilia quickly sealed up the passage they had come from, with her ice creating a thick wall.

It was a simple stop-gap for whatever lay on the other side as even through the thick walls of ice, bright flashes were becoming very visible. Quickly Emilia added more ice to her wall, thick layers, and promptly turned back to her companions. Garfiel helped Petra and Rem safely hide while Frederica stayed with them tucked away in the nook of some crates.

Emilia noticed a peculiar look on Otto's face. It was like he was trying to figure something out, but she ignored it.

Emilia then took her defensive position, hands raised, magic at the ready as the flashes of light stopped, and instead, a single orange light appeared on the other side, growing in intensity until-

Boom!

The ice wall shattered to pieces, shards of it launched onto the floor as, from the hall, a series of blue balls of light zoomed past, nearly hitting Emilia and instead embedding themselves into some crates. Emilia made out figures in the passageway. Tall bipedal creatures with four glowing blue eyes stared down at them, but in that mix were floating creatures of metal, and as they rushed into the light, they showed off their proud red and white coloration.

Emilia swiftly cut them down with her ice magic, ripping the floating creatures to shred's and the bipedal ones were impaled, flung back as wispy visages of them escaped their bodies on death. "Above us!" She heard Otto shout, only to find herself falling onto her back as a new different creature landed on top of her.

This one was quickly taken off her by Garfiel and pinned into a nearby wall. The thing looked closely to the other biped figures, and the only notable differences were the extra pair of arms it sported and a helmet. It posted some strange weaponry in its hands, close to some club held with one hand.

Emilia quickly turned her attention back to the passageway and watched as yet another wave of creatures poured in, armed with staffs of some kind, only to be swiftly bisected by a gust of wind magic from Ram. Getting herself back to her feet, she glanced at Garfiel, who was fighting off the creature's multiple arms before getting one good grab in and crushing its neck with his hand.

The chattering of these creatures continued as a few more waves came in only to be dealt with by Emilia herself, ice impaling them and releasing that wispy visage from them. Only one or two stood after the next wave, and they didn't charge, only stared at them as they clicked and chattered before running off.

"We should go, they're calling for their captain!" Otto shouted.

"Otto, can you understand them?" Frederica called out.

"Yes, I can, and they are not happy about us being here!"

It was settled then and there, Emilia sealed up the passageway again, and they moved out of the room. Moving through alternative halls, they found that as they moved deeper into the twisting maze, the more visible light from the outside came in, and soon they found themselves outside.

Before the Emilia camp stood a stark sight, ruined buildings off in the distance and collapsed sections of land, tall brown grass mixed in with snow, silent, distant massive towers, and rusted metal carriages that lay about the area. There were very few noises beyond the wind, which gave the land an eerie deadness to it all.

No one spoke a word, not a peep, not even a groan of exhaustion escaped their lips as they continued to take in the landscape. The coldness of the land hit them as well, only counteracted by the still-rising sun, which hadn't even hit noon yet. Perhaps it would've been best for them to head back inside, but the thought of those creatures within and the faint echoing cries reminded them of the dangers that lurked within.

So the camp pressed on, moving through an open pathway between all the metal carriages. It didn't take much for any of the camp members to notice the sheer number of carriages that had been flipped over, left abandoned, or occupied by their former owners.

Skeletal remains even occupy some of the carriages. Some of the bodies looked to have been in states where they tried to get out of their carriages. At the same time, some looked as if they died right then and there, with no time to react.

It reminded Emilia of the Elior forest; everything, frozen, halted time, undisturbed.

Emilia's eye's surveyed the area and noted one of the wreckages, a symmetrical series of holes -which she could easily fit her whole hand and arm into- forming a triangle. Her eyes then scanned the surrounding wreckage and noticed similar markings around the-

"AHHHH!"

Emilia's head snapped back to what was behind her. All of the camp members did; they would see Petra on her knee's mortified, scared, shivering, shaking, and staring right at the ground, for there laid a corpse. A corpse revealed from their movements removing layers of snow built up on the earth, a corpse for all to see.

Emilia's gaze stiffened; the corpse was far more 'fresh' than the others. Its skin remained though dried and tight, wrinkled, and its hair was thin, messy locks, stringy in appearance. The corpse's adorning clothing had faded from likely years of exposure to the elements. However, it still carried a distinct black to it, contrasted by a worn orange accent and white secondary. Tears began to form in Emilia's eyes as she took in more of the sight.

Emilia's mind attempted to deny what she saw, unable to accept that reality. But still, she looked at the corpse.

The corpse, even its mummified and dried state, still possessed a nasty look to it, and even with its stringy thin locks, the hair still looked intentionally swept back. The corpse had only one arm tightly laid on its stomach, firmly holding -even in death- what looked like the strings of a necklace. -Around that hand, though, were three fist-sized holes punched into the corpse's chest, forming a symmetrical triangle. But that hadn't quite registered to Emilia or the camp yet-

Subaru had promised to get her a necklace a week ago. Emilia's mind then briefly flashed back to the hole above and those skeletal fingers hanging overhead.

It was then Emilia accepted who this was, "S-s-subaru." She hadn't wished those words that escaped from her mouth to be true. She hoped for the tears forming in her eyes to not be real. Emilia hoped that all of this was just some terrible, terrible dream that she would wake up from and see a safe, comforting ceiling telling her all she needed to know.

To know that this was just a bad dream.

But the reality set in; others in the camp wept, and the winds of nature howled. They grieved the death of their friend. But Emilia, even as she grieved, began to realize the features of the corpse more clearly. The colors faded beyond belief, with the black being the only remaining distinct feature, and if she compared the coloration of the piece of clothing she found and stored on her portion, well, it was far more colorful. The body had already lost all life and shriveled up and dried. Yet had not been a skeleton like the others in the area.

And the missing hand.

Subaru had been missing for a week, but this body. This corpse of his had been here for years, decades. It became shockingly clear to Emilia that where they were transported had time pass faster here than in Lugnica, or they had been transported to the same place, but at a different time. Meaning if that perhaps if they could find a way back, reverse whatever had been done to bring them here. They could save-

Emilia was quickly ripped from her thoughts by three loud successive cracks and the panging, bending, screeching of metal. Emilia turned her head to the sharp left and noticed on a metal carriage -which had previously lacked any external damage to it, save for what time had done- a series of glowing, red hot holes, forming a symmetrical triangle. Just like the ones on the other carriages, just like the one on Subaru's chest.

Emilia's hand slowly craned to the right back towards the wall of the structure they had left. Slowly it continued up and up until it reached the top. And there she saw it. The thing stood tall and proud, flanked by the creature from within the structure. In comparison, it was giant compared to them. It possessed four arms tipped in clawed hands; it wore a strange helmet covering its face and included odd tubing leading down into its white and red armor. It wore a fur cape and held in its upper set of hands a club, no.

Emilia could remember Subaru describing something from his homeland, weapons that, much like bow's, could harm a person from a distance but with much more destructive potential. Subaru had called it a gun. The thing held a gun with a smoking barrel. Its blue eyes stared down at them as it slowly raised the weapon upwards and relaxed it on its shoulder.

It registered to the camp who gave a sparing glance to their friend's corpse, the holes in his chest, and then to holes in carriages, that this. THING! Had been the one to kill their friend—Emilia's Knight. A growl escaped from Garfiel's lips, while Ram remained silent and stoic and held Rem on her back. Frederica held a catatonic Petra in her arms and glared up at this creature. Otto possessed a hardened gaze that had a hint of worry to it and Emilia.

Through all the sobbing, tears, and knee falling, Emilia stood up and blankly looked at this creature. It was apparent that it had fired those shots, not to harm them, not to scare them off. But to announce its presence. It's marking. To show them its trophy, that it had been the one to kill their friend. It wanted them to know. It wanted to rub it in.

It knew they knew who this corpse belonged to, and it took satisfaction in that. The chattering and yelling from the surrounding creature were so rhythmic that it sounded like chanting, which Otto confirmed but a second later as he translated their words.

"They keep repeating Captain and Araksis over and over; talking about some trophy," Otto tried to translate for his camp, still visibly distraught until realization hit him and his words became venom, "Wait, they deem Natsuki-san as some trophy!? Are we next?"

This Captain Araksis gestured with one of its lower hands for its men to quiet down before finally speaking and in a booming, alien voice. One which Otto translated for the camp.

"He's calling Natsuki-san his greatest triumph, he's asking why we're weeping? He seem's confused about our magic, and is threatening to torture us." Otto visibly shook where he stood, noticed by all in the camp and Araksis above. Ram was holding back tears with a hateful glare. Garfiel was growling, gritting his teeth with a snarl; Frederica continued to comfort Petra, who remained catatonic.

Emilia, Emilia remained blank, her expressions, emotions impossible to read.

"He doesn't know if we're angry or scared, he's calling this a hunt. Telling us to run, and he mentioned some city." Otto finished.

Araksis made wild gestures through out's speech, wide and open before letting out what couldn't be mistaken for anything but a sick laugh and then gestured with a simple hand for its men to leave, sparing one more glance down at them before disappearing in a flash of blue.

The Emilia camp stood there dumbfounded, angry, and on edge. Relief only partly came to them that they knew they were now alone, but they also knew that Araksis would hunt them. They couldn't enter from where they came either, as there was no doubt more of the creatures lurking within the depths of that structure, now wholly aware of their presence and preparing to hunt them. It was more than they possibly could handle.

As such, it became apparent that they needed to move. Get as far away from here as possible and find a way back home in this strange new world.

So they left.

Left to find safety, a refugee from the cold, perhaps even find this place, this city Araksis made mention of in his speech.

The Emilia camp wandered off into the day, the unknown bracing themselves for whatever was to come their way.

/.\./.\

Long after the group had left, Araksis set out on his hunt. Only then did a little light wander into the area and began to search aimlessly.

/.\./.\

Grimoire: Lore: The Mad Prophet:

Once, there had been a prophet, one whose clarity was so accurate that he predicted many events throughout his lifetime. He had foretold of a great battle the likes the world had never seen, where a King from a faraway land would arrive in their lands to take all for himself and bring about an end to Od Laguna, only to be met in battle by the most fearsome of a swordsman, their fight would be epic. Still, it would not come without a cost, for it would take every man and woman's lives to take victory from this threat.

Many would die, and the land would be devastated but fixable with the swordsman's tender aid and watchful guidance.

And the prophet claimed that it was soon.

Many listened to the prophet. Many steeled themselves for a battle, for when the day came, they would give up their lives. But it never came. That day never came to pass, and the prophet whose clarity had been so clear was now doubted, called a fraud, banished from the land.

So ends the tale of The Mad Prophet.

Author's Note:

That is a way to end the first chapter; I hope this got you all interested. I need to thank my SleepyAzon over on The Rezero Fanfiction Kingdom. See you next chapter.