Waver woke up to the sound of waves hitting the shore and to a burning feeling in his lungs. His eyes snapped open he immediately spat out a mouthful of salt water.
"Cough! Cough! Ugh!"
It took him a moment, but he eventually managed to regain his bearing.
The first thing he noticed was the sand between his fingers. It was dotted by luminous grains like the one upon the walls of the cave that they used as shelter upon the Oni infested island. Their light was the only reason he could see anything of his surroundings.
He was on a beach. An underground one at that.
Before him it stretched a subterranean sea, but the darkness was too deep for him to really gauge its true size.
He had been exploring the cave with Emiya, so how exactly had he come to be here? On the sand next to him, there was the control stick for Volumen Hydragyrum and nothing else. Of his fellow adventurer there was no trace to be seen.
What the hell had happened? He had to remember.
[br]
Waver advanced carefully through the corridor with Emiya following right behind. Every now and then they looked in the direction they came from, just in case the Oni had woken up and came after them.
Not that there was any chance it could sneak up on them. Its sheer presence was equiparable to that of Berserker-Class Servants that Waver had the misfortune of seeing up close during the Fourth Grail War.
They weren't subtle creatures by any stretch of the imagination, btu even so one couldn't help but being wary about them. Fortunately, the further they got away from the holding cell, the safer they felt, though the trade off came at the price of stumbling into a veritable maze.
The single corridor had split several times, and it was only because of Volumen Hydragyrum's ability to spread and scan in several directions at the same time that they managed to avoid most ends. Unfortunately, as its range wasn't unlimited, they had to backtrack a few times.
They had the impression of having made real progress only when they arrived to a flight of stairs going down.
"Just how big is this place? I feel like we've been walking for hours," said Emiya.
"It looks bigger than it actually is because we haven't been advancing in a straight line, and being underground doesn't really help keeping track of time either. We should be close, anyway."
"How do you know?"
"The potion I drank is losing effect faster than it should. I'm going to have to drink another one before we proceed further."
"Isn't that bad?" Emiya asked.
"How'd you figure?"
"You wouldn't make a point of drinking it, if you could do it over and over again. What are the side effects?"
"I don't have a clue," Waver replied before swallowing another dose. "The substance I use as a vector has a very low toxicity. I could drink it by the gallons and I would be just fine. The problem is the aura of the sword. I'm subjected to it both within and without. I have no way of knowing what prolonged exposure will cause without being subjected to it for long stretches of time."
"What are we waiting around for then? Let's hurry!"
"Agreed, but let's not be careless. There's no way of knowing what other dangers might lurk ahead."
They descended the stairs to the lower level and came across a long, straight corridor, very much unlike the previous floor. They advanced steadily, though the ease in which they did so put them on high alert. However, nothing came out of the darkness to attack or hinder them.
Eventually they came across a huge set of double doors, that looked very much like the gates of an ancient castle. Both of their analysis revealed no trap upon them, though pushing them open required a great effort on their part.
They came across a wide room, with rows of square stone pillars that disappeared in the darkness above them, presumably holding up the ceiling. Each column had torches upon them, which lit one by one as they passed by.
"Emiya, is that-?"
"The same type of altar that was at the village, yes," he answered, when they arrived at the center of the room.
"Wait! My sense of direction is a bit off but if I'm not mistaken we are right underneath the Oni's cage."
"What? Are you sure about that?"
"No, but it would make sense. If the aura of the sword is really what's keeping the Oni dormant then right above or right under her chamber would be the right place for the job."
"So if we take it from here…"
"The Oni might wake and there's not other way out besides the one we came in from."
"So, what do you suggest we do? Just leave it here?"
"No, but we should come up with a plan first. If that thing does wake, we don't stand a fighting chance, but if we lure her down here we could seal her inside long enough to make our way out, and then collapse the entire cavern on her head."
"Do you think we could make a Boundary Field strong enough to hold her back that long? And how do you plan of collapsing anything, anyway? Do you have explosives on you?"
"I have better than that. I have Magecraft. And with these pillars we know precisely where to strike to bring it all down."
"That's… that's one hell of a risky plan," Emiya said after a moment of consideration. "Start to finish, the number of things that could go wrong are more than I can count."
"I agree, but that's what we've got to work with. Unless you have a better idea."
"I wish I did but I can't come up with anything better," he sighed. "Let's do this. I'll take care of setting up the Boundary Field around the room. You do the pillars. We'll double check each other work once we're done, alright?"
"I've got no objections to that. Let's get to it."
[br]
Deep underground, a pile of rocks trembled. Then it stood still. A moment later it trembled again and a small hand burst out of it sending fragments flying all around. It searched for a solid grasp and found it with a stalagmite that wasn't part of the pile.
Shirou pulled himself out of his makeshift grave taking in a lungful of air the moment his head was fred.
[Die Hard Mode Activated]
"Ahhh! Damn it!" he cursed.
His Health had finally fallen down to zero, which was hardly surprising considering he had been buried under a pile of rocks. Actually, he was very fortunate. If he hadn't activated his [Body of Blades (fake), chances were that he would have been turned into a smear and if that didn't kill him on the stop, it would have certainly incapacitated him long enough for his stamina to run dry and kill him anyway.
Again, it seemed that his only way to get through some situations was doing horrid bodily harm to himself. Was that is karma or something? At this point, he wouldn't be surprised if it was.
Unfortunately, it wasn't the time to ponder about the nature of his fortune. First he had to finish unbury himself and then he had to figure out where the hell he ended up.
Easier said than done. though. Although he could lift a great weight, a loose pile of debris was both heavy and hard to handle. Dragging himself out of it horizontally was seemingly the best way of going at it but there was a risk he'd break himself in two and that wasn't really something he could afford at the moment.
What happened to Velvet? In the chaos that had ensued he lost sight of him. Where exactly was he when things went down the drain?
[br]
"I'm all set, here, Emiya," Velvet called out. "What your status?"
"I'm only halfway done," he responded.
"Hurry up! Being this close to that fragment is making the effects of my potion fade out sooner. I already have to take another dose."
"I'm going as fast as I can. This room is huge. If I am to ward it off completely it's going to take some time," he said. There was no need to mention Mana consumption. He couldn't layer it in the shape of a sword, since the Boundary Field had to adhere to the walls in order to combine the strength of both.
Velvet only had to deal with several columns. Their overall surface was relatively small so it took an equivalent small amount of time to set up whatever method he would use to break them later.
Unfortunately, they couldn't really swap roles. Shirou didn't know anything about undermining the structural integrity of anything other than Reinforcing it to a point where it could no longer maintain its shape. That wasn't something that would serve him here.
The whole point of their plan was not being inside the room once they collapsed it and the first requirement of Reinforcement was that he had to be in contact with the object itself. So clearly that wasn't something he could do.
Velvet might have done the warding on the perimeter as well, but Shirou was confident that his proficiency with that particular technique was higher, and he couldn't just step in halfway through either. Too many things could go wrong if one misinterpreted what the other had done. Checking things over afterwards was a different matter.
All in all, it took almost another hour for Shirou to finish, and then another one for Velvet to go through everything. In that span of time, he had to take two more doses of the potion.
"Ugh," he groaned after he downed the fourth vial of the day.
"Are you alright?" asked Shirou.
"I'm fine. Don't worry about me. I'm not going to die from something like this. Besides everything's ready. Once we remove this piece of the sword from its place, one of us has to go lure the Oni over here."
"I'll do it," Shirou volunteered.
"No, I'll be the one to do that. With Volumen Hydrargyrum I can navigate the maze without getting lost, but can you do the same?"
"I have a pretty good memory," he replied.
"I'm not arguing that. I'm asking whether you are a hundred percent sure you aren't going to take a wrong turn and get yourself boxed in."
"... No. There might have been a couple of times I was more worried about looking behind my back than watching which turn we took. Sorry."
"There's nothing to apologize for. Unfortunately, no one has eyes on both sides of their head. Still, that means that I'll have to be the bait. Don't worry about me. I'm quite confident about my running speed and Volumen Hydrargyrum can make for an efficient distraction."
"Alright. I'll be counting on you then. I'll be ready to turn on the Boundary Field the moment she gets here."
"Yes, but not before we got out of the perimeter. I'm not looking forward in being locked in with that thing."
"That makes two of us then," Shirou agreed.
The joined at the altar where the second fragment of the sword had been waiting for them to finish their preparation. Velvet reached out and plucked it from its resting place.
"Huh," he said, "the pressure abated the moment I took it."
"That's good isn't it," said Shirou "Also, nothing seem to have really happened. I was half expecting some ominous sign to manifest."
"The less theatrics there are, the better. Now, if my assumption was right, tit won't be long before the Oni wakes. I should-"
BRRRRRRRRRRM!
The ground shook like the entire mountain had been caught by an earthquake and above them something cracked heavily. Pieces of rock big enough to easily crush them to death fell from above, and with them something much more dangerous dropped down in a crouch.
[Ibaraki-Doji] [Lv. ???]
Slit pupils bore into him.
"Who dares intrude upon my domain and wake me from my slumber? Come, come. Show me the faces of my next victims. Your blood shall celebrate my return to the world"
"Body of Blades!" Shirou called out.
Swords manifested through his body, tearing his muscles and piercing his bones. The pain was indescribable, even though the filter of his extreme tolerance to it.
His health plummeted to a fraction of its total.
There was really no need to consider whether to use that technique or not.The moment that she appeared, obliterating their plans of luring her into a trap, Shirou knew that unless he went all out straight from the beginning, there would no hope of making out of there alive at all.
"Emiya!" Velvet called out seeing blades sprout from his body and splattering blood all around.
The Oni, for her part, looked momentarily surprised at the sudden display of self-mutilation, but then her mouth quirked up in a feral grin turning her full attention onto him
Precisely as he had wanted.
"Velvet-san, get out of here!" he shouted as he charged at her. If he kept her busy long enough, they could still salvage their original plan, but they still had to get out of the room first
Too bad that she exhibited the same unbelievable speed as Shuten-Doji and stepped into his guard faster than he could follow. She flicked his forehead with a finger and Shirou ended up cartwheeling in the opposite direction, crashing against a wall.
"Fervor mei- ugh!"
Velvet got interrupted mid-incantation courtesy of a punch to the guts that left him gasping for air. He was tossed aside in a worse fashion than Shirou had. He already had Volumen Hydragyrum wrapped around his body under his clothes as an armor which absorbed part of the force. However, had the Oni really wanted to kill with that attack, Velvet would have made a fine impression of watermelon on the beach at summer.
"Humans. To think that you would dare intrude my home and interrupt my sleep. Did I slumber for so long that the world has forgotten the terror of my wrath? Then I should refresh your kind's memory. Ku-hahaha!"
Like a bullet of flesh and steel, Shirou shot towards the Oni, who stopped him in his tracks by casually planting a hand on his forehead and keeping him out of reach like a bigger kid would do with a younger one.
"Kuh!" he groaned in frustration.
"You. You should understand that you are outclassed, yet you still charge at me without hesitation. Do you not understand your position, or are you just a fool? Hm. Regardless, I shall teach you the meaning of fear."
That was when three of the pillars holding up the ceiling exploded and crumbled. The room shook dangerously as part of its support was now gone.
"Don't move," said Velvet. "If you don't let us go, I'll make this room collapse on your head."
"Hoh? Wouldn't that kill you?" taunted the Oni.
"If we're going to die either way we might as well bury you with us."
"Ku-hahaha! You speak like you weren't planning on burying me down here anyway. Otherwise, why would you have taken such a measure in the first place. This is just turning the tables on your petty tricks."
"Velvet!" Shirou shouted and threw the fragment of the sword in his possession at him. "Take these and get out of here! I'll hold her!"
Velvet caught the fragment and stared squarely at Shirou. Seeing the resolve in his eyes, he got up and made for the door.
"Where do you think you are going?" asked Ibaraki-Doji as she made to follow, only to find out that she couldn't move. "Hmm?"
Shirou had grabbed bother her arm with both his hands and had firmly planted his feet on the floor.
"I could just squish your head like a ripe melon, you understand that?... Hoh. I see. There's not a single hint of fear in your eyes. Good, good, good! That will make putting it in them all the more fun."
She lifted him by the head and flung him unceremoniously at the escaping Velvet, smashing them into one another and sending them thumbling on the ground.
"Ooof!" both of them exhaled.
"Emiya, get up! The door is almost…. there."
Ibaraki was standing in front of the exit with her arms crossed over her chest and a feral smile across her lips.
"Now, then. What are you going to do? Take your time. I really would like to see what schemes you'll come up with. Also, what face will you both make as I tear them all to pieces."
She was toying with them. Perhaps it was normal for a creature such as an Oni. They were vicious things after all.
"Velvet-san, we need to come up with a plan," Shirou whispered.
"No plan will ever get us through that door."
"Then, let's not go through it. There is another way out now, isn't it?" he said, glancing upward.
"There's no way we can reach up there and it's not like she'd let us."
"We have to try at least. She won't kill us until we give up," Shirou insisted.
"Or until we bore her," Velvet shot back. ".. I have an idea."
"What is it?"
"I can't tell you. I just need you to do everything I say and be ready for anything at a moment's notice. Can you do it?"
"I don't think there's much of a choice at this point. Alright, what will you have me do?"
"Fight her. Just keep her off me as long as you can."
"Alright, but I'm afraid I'm only going to keep her off you as long as she wants."
"I'll take. Now go!"
He took out the Kusarigama and started spinning it. If being a distraction was what Velvet required of him, he would be the best one ever.
[br]
Yes, things had completely went sideways almost from the start, but they certainly couldn't expect that Oni to ambush them before they could ever start luring her into the trap.
If Emiya hadn't been so insanely resilient, Waver wouldn't have had the chance to make up another strategy. After seeing him grow blades from inside his body, Waver was starting to make a few educated guesses about some of his talents.
Affinity for weapons was an euphemism, if he ever heard one. Emiya Shirou was a living weapon. Either his Element or his Origin had to be something related to blades. Perhaps both. Granted, he had no way to be sure. Emiya would never let Waver examine him, even if he they managed to both get back to the surface alive.
Right now, he wasn't even sure whether the young Magus was still alive or dead. There had been no time to warn him of what he came up with to get out of that room.
[br]
While Emiya entertained the Oni with a deadly dance, Waver retreated to the centre of the room.
Currently, there were two exits available. The first was the one they came in from and the other was above them. The ceiling was too high for them to reach and the Oni would not let them through the door.
There were no options, therefore as any Magus worth his salt would do, Waver had to create one by himself.
He gathered Volumen Hydrargyrum and then spread it out in all directions making thousands of minuscule tendrils and sent them all in every little cavity, any small cracks in the floor and
walls. They had no idea what this underground complex was actually like. For all they knew there could be secret passages or adjacent rooms.
Just because they couldn't seen them, it didn't mean they weren't there.
Volumen Hydrargyrum relayed its data directly to the user's brain, which meant the more tendrils he sent out simultaneously, the more taxed his brain would be. Unfortunately, he didn't have the chance to take things leisurely, therefore he turned all of his concentration into that task, forgoing everything else.
He wholeheartedly put his trust in Emiya because there was no other choice. They would either succeed or fail together. At times like this, whatever their differences were they had to be left out.
The sheer output from Volumen Hydrargyrum was nearly enough to make to knock him out cold, but he barely hung in there. So far, he found nothing that suggested a hidden compartment. Everything was solid rock in all directions.
Except….
A tendril found a tiny little crack in the pavement. It leaked further down and eventually emerged into a wide area that seemingly dropped into the depths of an abyss.
There it was. Their trump card. Right under their noses.
He pulled out from the sensory feedback of his Mystic Code, refocusing on his sense just in time to duck under an airborne Emiya, who had been tossed his way like a human javelin. Waver knew the other Magus was still alive only because he heard him grunt as he hit the floor somewhere behind him.
He did not turn, however, for the Oni advanced towards him at a slow pace, head tilted to in curiosity of what he would do now that his support had been dealt with.
There wasn't much that he could do, except following through with his earlier threat.
"Don't move! If you come any closer. I really am going to bring this entire room down on your head."
"You have already said that before and you still have to do it. If you intend to live a bit longer, you'd better not bore me by repeating the same hollow threat."
Waver channeled Mana through his Circuits and two more pillars exploded. Huge chunks of the ceiling began to fall and the pillar themselves crashed down with a great impact, cracking the even ground.
The Oni stopped in her tracks.
"Ha! You have some guts after all. Good. Now, let's see if you can prevent me from pulling it out of you!"
She advanced smiling, with a lower canine tooth poking out from her lips. She did not mind stepping on the still spread out Volumen Hydrargyrum. It could neither arm her nor slow her down anyway.
But that was fine. Neither of those weren't the reasons why he hadn't recalled the thing around himself yet. The impact of the pillars and the other fragments had made several deep cracks into the ground, to which subtly applied strength order to make them deeper.
However, it required a bit more time. Which he no longer had. The Oni had arrived in front of him now and was looking at him from below with a curious stare.
"Not running? Hm. Unlike that other one, you don't seem the type to hold your ground till the end. … What is that are you doing?"
"Hey! Aren't you looking in the wrong direction?" asked Emiya as he fell from above like a meteor and nearly landed with both feet on the Oni's face.
She jumped back to avoid him, not because it would have hurt her, but because who would want anyone to step on their faces?
She growled.
"I've already grown bored with both of you and I hunger."
"Emiya, buy me twenty more seconds," Waver said.
Emiya's answer was to charge at the Oni again, unmindful of his own safety, rushing forward with a low stance and two swords held out at his sides. Once he was almost upon her, the Oni made a step forward and kneed him in the stomach, making him double over and fall to the ground vomiting blood.
"I've played around long enough! I think it's time for breakfast," she said, picking Emiya up by the neck and lifting him the way one would with a kitten. A kitten they were about to eat.
Time had finally ran out. For all three of them that is. With a last burst of Mana, Waver made two more pillars explode. The impact upon the floor added to the work that Volumen Hydrargyrum had done. Unfortunately, not just the ground but even the rest of the room had enough of the abuse and it all came down crashing.
The ground opened, not just under the Oni, but also underneath Waver and Emiya.
The abyss beneath embraced them and the ruins of the room, casting them all into an even deeper darkness.
[br]
Shirou had to give credit to Velvet. He had gotten them out of that room, though he'd rather not comment on the method. Being cast in a bottomless pit with no warning whatsoever wasn't precisely his idea of a good time, but beggars couldn't be choosers. Unlike the other Magus, however, he didn't possess any method to slow down the fall.
Furthermore, he wasn't precisely alone when the ground gave in under him. He and Ibaraki-Doji had fallen together, and that hadn't been a great experience either.
[br]
A wordless scream came out from Shirou's mouth as the abyss claimed him. He was free falling, except he that wasn't free.
Ibaraki-Douji was still holding him by the neck, even though her attention had been understandably diverted elsewhere.
Around them, the pillars, walls and roof of the room were similarly dropping down with them in enormous chunks. That meant that once he got smashed to the ground, he'd be flattened out from above too.
Of course none of these would likely harm Ibaraki in a significant way, therefore even if he somehow survived, she would easily finish him off.
A change in course was necessary.
Taking advantage that she wasn't paying attention to him, he took the chance to plant both feet into her stomach and pushed with all of his strength.
Her grip on him slipped, courtesy of the blood from his self-inflicted wounds. He had achieved his goal of getting free, but he had made a little miscalculation.
The blades that filled his body meant that he was the heavier one, and as physics would have it, it was Ibaraki who got thrown out of the path of the falling debris.
She disappeared into the darkness while he remained in the middle of a tombstone in the making. Airborne as he was, he could not alter his direction and could only only plummet to the bottom of the abyss. With no other recourse, he Reinforced himself even further. He didn't matter if his HPs fell to zero, as long as his body didn't turn into paste.
The ground came up to him all at once, brutally halting his movement, At the same time, the debris crashed upon him thunderously, burying him entirely.
[br]
Waver felt extremely lucky. Using the last of his Mana, he had Volumen Hydrargyrum act like a chute which he managed to maneuver well enough to get out of the way of most debris, though he still couldn't see where he was going.
He ended up hitting the water and it was only through sheer luck that he hadn't drowned after he passed out for exhaustion.
However, he was now in a foreign place to which he didn't know if there was a way out, with his only ally missing and a furious Oni certainly still looking for them.
All this struggle had only bought a him bit of respite, but things were still very far from actually getting better.
Now…. what was he supposed to do in these circumstances? Find an exit? Look for Emiya? Hide and hope that the Oni wouldn't find him?
Al courses of action involved risks that he couldn't gauge.
He had to make a choice, and he had to do it fast, otherwise it would have all been for nothing.
[XXX]
