A Note from the Author:
If you've been keeping up with Manic
Saga, I thank you, and if you like it, I thank you even more, but as
many people know, I haven't put up, or typed up, chapters as often as I
used to, and for that, I apologize. And, as I'm sure some of you are
wondering, I have my side to it. Here we go.
Lately, as I've
told everyone, I've hit a writer's block, especially with these few
chapters. However, after a long while of thinking, I now know that I
didn't have writer's block so much as I have had something I've dubbed
as 'writer's self-denial'. To elaborate on that, I've been wondering
what my purpose was for writing, and why I even do it any more. I used
to think of it as a hobby and as something I would do when I was bored
one day or if I had an idea or something and I continued on it.
However, now, it's just become dull and I have no inspiration or
motivation to actually type anything up. It's been a downward spiral
from then on, and I hated it. I didn't want to write anything again
from then on because I just thought it'd be a waste of time.
Down the road, I thought I'd write stuff again for when I was bored in college and the like, but I never really got up the motivation to actually do anything of the like, mainly because I saw no purpose in what I was doing. However, when I went to English class today, I was handed a chapter from a book to read and reflect upon and come up with a thesis about it. The article was Education and the Significance of Life, Chapter VI by J. Krishnamurti. I must have read the article about three or four times, each time picking out another idea about why I do what I do, and what every author does. Krishnamurti went on to describe how one educates another, and how one is enlightened through education, whether it be from a teacher in a set school, or merely by interaction with another person. One is always educated through experiences, and whether we choose to pass down that education so that others will grow, develop their minds from it and come up with their own original ideas and theories is our own. I thought about this article for a while and thought to myself, 'This is what I want to do. This is what I've been doing for a long time and I didn't even know it.' After a while of thinking, I finally found my purpose for writing. It's my way of spreading ideas into the world, it's my response to an insane world, and I found out that I'd rather be doing this than most anything in this world. So, without further ado, it is my priviledge, honor and pleasure to present to you Volume 2, Chapter 18 of Battle Network Cybersystem: The Manic Saga.
Manic
BATTLE NETWORK CYBERSYSTEM: The Manic Saga
Volume 2: Pokerface
Chapter 18: Conflicting Evidence
Manic, Joseph, Kinzoku, Ryuu and Miyuu were walking down the steps to the hotel lobby, carrying their bags and such. They had said their goodbyes to Jet, Derek and Taichi late last night, so they wouldn't be seen heading back to Electopia, with someone who said was sent by Klove to make sure they weren't found by any tournament officials still alive.
Joseph yawned as he found the final step
down with his foot, "Why do we have to be up this early in the morning,
I haven't even had breakfast yet..."
Ryuu was silently wondering
the same thing. Why had they been awoken so early in the morning? The
tournament semi-finals weren't starting until later in the day. Were
they actually that far away from the Northern Republic?
I assume they want us exhausted for the next two fights, Gaius said to Ryuu mentally.
Sou... Ryuu responded in his native language, It would make sense, seeing as there are some people who want us dead...
All of them had the same feeling Ryuu did, someone was out to get them and they were supposed to be dead by now. However, because they were underestimated, and since they wanted the crowd to pay more for the fights, they needed to keep them alive, but barely.
"Well, I need to find something to eat..." Miyuu said as she placed her hands behind her head and walked forward to look around the room, but she didn't go very far until Yui had stopped her cold. A large man wearing a brown trenchcoat had walked past her from behind. However, it wasn't the size of the man that Yui noticed, but it was... something else...
Yui, what's wrong? Miyuu asked, stepping to the side as the man walked past.
Yui watched, concentrating on what was so special about the man, but then shook off the thought. It's nothing... we should hurry, food can wait.
Miyuu sighed and trudged towards the door, with the rest of the team following behind her.
Outside, there was an old man dressed in a formal tuxedo, waiting for the five Electopian fighters.
"Good day, sirs and madam," the formal man said with an unmoving face, "I am here to tell you the directions to the final fights." As if he were a mechanical figure, an arm raised up and pointed towards a mountain in the distance, covered with snow and rock, with a forest surrounding its base. "The last segment of the Bandit's Cove Tournament will take place inside the peak, an abandoned training facility used by Yumland Marine Corps. during the Northern Wars. However, be-be-because," the old man stuttered, as if what he was saying was a record skipping, "the war ended in a treaty joining the three warring nation-states into the Northern Republic. If any of your team is killed on the way, you will be disqualified, leading to all of you being e-e-execu-cu-cu-cuted upon sight. If, however, you make it to the top, you will be allowed to participate in the upcoming fight. Good luck."
After the old man said his last words, he staggered into the hotel, and the front doors slammed shut behind him. The five were still reeling in what he had told them. Someone did not want them to live, if that wasn't clear before, it certainly was now. Also, they had never been on a remote island, as they were led to believe by Klove. They were right in the middle of the Northern Republic itself, the sponsoring nation of the tournament. They had to be more careful than before, they were on someone's home ground, not an unknown field. One careless moment in the forest could mean death by a trap of some kind, and the five fighters knew that they wouldn't play fair any more.
Kinzoku let out a quiet sigh and walked forward, shoving the sheath of his sword underneath his obi(belt on a kendo/samurai uniform), "We should go, before we're late for our match." They all agreed with him and began to walk towards the forest guarding the base of the icy mountain.
The walk towards the opening to the forest wasn't a long one, though. However, they didn't stop walking, and walked through the low-hanging trees and brush around them.
"Man, there's a lot of stuff in here..." Joseph said as he smacked a stray branch away from his chest to move forward. However, the other four were making their way through the brush easily. Undoubtedly, Joseph thought to himself, they were talking to the deities mentally.
I wish I had a deity... Joseph thought to himself, I wouldn't be left out of the loop like that... this sucks... they even get cool powers when in cyberspace...
Joseph stopped moving when he hit that idea. Going through brush and shrubs in real life was a pain, but in the cyberworld, he could just hack them away with his various sword datasilver, especially the flame elemental ones. It would make their journey much faster.
"Hey guys, try putting on your cyberbands!" Joseph yelled to the others, "We might be able to save some time getting there!"
"That's a thought..." Kinzoku said as he sheathed his blade again, "I wouldn't have to sharpen this again by the time we got there..."
I'm not too sure about this... Infernos said to Manic.
Why not? It would make us go faster through this forest, Manic retorted.
However, Kinzoku and Joseph already had their cyberbands ready and strapped them on.
"Gah!"
"Gyaa!"
Both
Kinzoku and Joseph yelled in pain as they dropped to the ground,
surging with electrical energy, and both disappearing into the
cyberworld. All that remained of them were their shadows on the ground.
"Damn!" Ryuu cursed as he saw them disappear.
It seems that it was a trap for us, Gaius said mentally, Luckily, we all didn't do that.
S-sore demo... Ryuu exclaimed mentally, but was interrupted by Infernos.
They'll be fine, they can make their way out of there and get to the tourney in time, but we need to keep going. Just have faith in them, kid, Infernos replied.
"...yes..." Ryuu said as he, Manic and Miyuu kept walking forward.
"Besides, they strapped on those things of their own free will," Infernos said through Manic's voice, relaxed, "It's not like we found a trap or anything..." As Infernos said this, the ground under his and Miyuu's feet started to cave in around them. Ryuu looked behind him at the two netbattlers and saw them plummet through the ground, sounds of iron scraping against one another and leaves crunching under feet.
"Manic-san! Miyuu-san!" Ryuu yelled as he looked over the side and into where the two had fallen.
Manic was dazed, but tried his best to pick himself up and regain his senses. He then looked around the place, then up towards where sunlight was protruding.
"Are you two ok?" Ryuu asked, hoping they would hear him.
"Ngh... yeah, we're ok," Manic said as he stood up from the ground. A shard of metal had managed to cut his arm, but he ignored the pain and saw that Miyuu wasn't severely hurt from the drop either.
"I'll find something to help you guys out," Ryuu yelled to the two, but was stopped by Manic's voice.
"No,
it'll take too long, Ryuu," Manic yelled back up the open chamber, "Go
ahead of us and be as careful as you can. We'll find a way out."
Ryuu
hesitated for a few seconds before he stood up and resumed the journey
to the mountain. Manic sighed and looked over to Miyuu, "Are you hurt
anywhere?"
Miyuu flicked some leaves from her hair before she
stood up, "I'm fine, it wasn't too bad a drop." She looked up to where
they fell from. She had to squint her eyes because of the light, but
they had fallen at least fifteen feet into the ground. It also looked
like there was some sort of man-made hallway that had been eroded
through. "We should try to find a way out from here, because it might
take a while to get out from that hole."
"You're right," Manic
responded as he shielded his eyes from the sunlight above. The place
they were in was pitch black and the light sharply contrasted that.
However, after a moment, Manic's eyes readjusted to the darkness and
saw that the hallway they fell into lead further towards the mountain.
"How about going that way?"
Miyuu shrugged, "Do we have any other choice?"
"Guess not," Manic said and the two walked into the darkness.
"I think we're lost," Joseph said as he and Kinzoku walked through the Northern Republic's cybersystem. It was completely opposite from the forest they had been it, the entire internet was barren, with no sign of life.
"Hmm..." Kinzoku wondered, "Well, I guess the best thing we could do now is to walk the way we were walking in the real world..."
"Yeah, I guess... I'm sure they'll understand that two members of Team Deity will be fighting from cyberspace..." Joseph responded sarcastically, but without any emphasis.
Kin and Joseph didn't have to walk for very long until they came across a rectangular tower that stood twice as tall as either Kinzoku or Joseph, ridden with flowing data currents and several clear buttons.
"...what is that?" Joseph asked. Kinzoku wondered the same thing as they both stepped over to it.
"I've never seen anything like it..." Kinzoku responded as he slowly put a hand to it, being cautious about anything that may come from it. Once Kinzoku touched it, however, a screen appeared in mid-air before him, that showed what appeared to be a control room.
"What the..."Kinzoku asked as he took a step backwards. However, Joseph already knew what it was.
"Wow, this is some pretty advanced technology," Joseph said as he looked at it with admiration.
"Well, what is it?" Kinzoku asked.
"It's a synchronized telecommunication pathway," Joseph said, then stopped himself, "What it is is a broadcasted link between the real world and cyberspace, so we can see people in the real world and they can see us."
"Really..." Kinzoku said as he took a closer look at the monitor, "Why doesn't ONBA have any of these, I wonder... Hello? Is anyone there?"
"Well,
I'm pretty sure that ONBA uses one for experimental datasilver and
other stuff in the net," Joseph said, "but having just one of these is
really, really expensive. I'm surprised there was one even here, but...
why is the control room empty?"
"And why isn't anyone else here
doing experiments?" Kinzoku asked, "This seems like it's too expensive
to leave unmonitored, from both real world and here."
"Well, this
could explain why we had trouble getting to here in the first place,"
Joseph said, reminded of the painful shocks going through his body when
he put on his cyberband. However, Joseph caught something else from the
corner of his eye. It had been placed somewhat behind the monitor from
their viewpoint, but now he realized it. It was another monitor, the
exact same as the one before them, but it was facing a different way
and much farther away. And another one to the right of that. And
another one directly opposite to that one. Each of them were facing
four directions of the internet, which struck Joseph as odd.
"This is too weird..." Joseph said quietly as he looked at the three other monitors.
"What seems weird about them? Having one for each direction in an open net seems fairly reasonable..." Kinzoku said.
"Yeah, but..." Joseph stammered, "These are omni-directional... why would they need four of them?"
"Shh..."
Kinzoku said to Joseph quietly as he squinted his eyes to see into the
distance. He was sure he saw something over there.
"What?" Joseph asked. Kinzoku only motioned for Joseph to follow him as he walked towards what he saw further on.
Manic and Miyuu walked through the cold, dark hallway, their hands running along the walls.
"How long does this go for?" Miyuu asked herself as they walked. However, her question was answered, as her hand felt a corner along the wall, halting their progress.
"Great," Manic said as he felt the wall too. He ran his hand across the wall barring their way, but found a crack a meter away from the side wall, then ran his hand past it and found another crack a couple of feet from that.
"Could be a door," Manic said as he moved his hand across the wall, "Try to find some kind of doorknob or something..."
"You mean this?" Miyuu asked skeptically as she held up a broken handle to the door from the ground next to her foot. Manic looked at it for a second, then tossed it behind him.
"Plan B, then," Manic said.
The door burst open to reveal Manic's shoulder and Miyuu behind him. They walked into the area. If the hallway they walked through had been considered somewhat modern, this new room would be considered very futuristic. Fluorescent lights flooded the large room and revealed a large computer console running the length of the room wall. Keyboards and four monitors lined the console, along with other things.
"What is this place?" Miyuu asked as they both looked around the room. As they were looking, the first monitor on the console lit up with the image of Kinzoku and Joseph looking at it.
Hello? Is anyone there? Kin asked as he looked at the monitor with a curious look on his face.
"Hey, it's Kin," Manic said as he strode towards the monitor displaying his face, "Hey, Kin, can you hear me? Kin!"
Kinzoku had moved away from the monitor, unaware of Manic's words. Manic sighed.
"Guess we know they're here..." Miyuu said.
"Yeah..."
Manic responded as he lowered his head to look at the console. He
caught the phrase "Release Internet Security Disperse Lock 1" on the
console, next to a switch and a keyboard.
"Hey, check this out," Manic said to Miyuu and waved her over. Miyuu started to walk over, but both Infernos and Yui noticed something. Something didn't feel right in that room. Miyuu looked at what Manic pointed to.
"Hmm..." Miyuu wondered, as her hand hovered over the button, "Maybe it'll help those two out?"
"Yeah, let's give it a shot," Manic said as he reached for the button.
Stop, Infernos barked. Manic drew his hand back.
What's wrong?
Infernos definitely felt it. Yui did as well. They would never forget that feeling. The feeling that death was close at hand, even for a deity. It always came accompanied by a certain thing, a certain monstrosity.
Get out of this room, now! Infernos
barked again, but it was too late. From the shadows came a low growl,
then the sound of a large jaw opening and closing shut. Manic and Miyuu
looked towards the shadowed corner of the room to see what was there.
Slowly, it stepped from the shadow. It was a large canine-like beast,
bearing its sharp teeth and blood red eyes. Its skin was a dull tan,
and it was on all fours, but it was at the same height as Manic, and
much more muscular. Manic sensed something about Infernos now,
something that he never expected to sense from him.
Fear.
Ryuu walked through the forest alone. The forest was eerily quiet, Ryuu noticed, not a single shred of life anywhere but himself and the plant life surrounding him.
"I hope they all make it out safely..." Ryuu said as he walked between the trees.
They'll be fine, Gaius said, Infernos is a rabid dog while Yui is the mutt's owner, those two will be fine...
Ryuu couldn't help but chuckle out loud at this. Infernos, the most independent of the deities, completely whipped.
And Naoko's scary when fighting, even when we're just sparring... Gaius continued. Ryuu now laughed out loud at the thoughts. The deities may have been serious about many things, but they had senses of self, just like any other living being.
"What's so funny?" a voice said from high up on a tree. Ryuu stopped and looked up to see where the voice came from, startled.
"Who's there?" Ryuu yelled towards the voice.
High up in a tree, there was a tall, skinny figure sitting on a branch, looking into a small handheld device. He looked down towards Ryuu and both he and Gaius took a step backwards.
"A-anata!" Ryuu exclaimed at the man, who had a puzzled look on his face.
"Come again?"
"You! You were the one at the ball!" Ryuu yelled back.
"Ah,
now I remember you, you guys killed Deuce," Jack said with a grin as
Ryuu winced at the word 'killed', "come to think of it, I don't see the
rest of your merry band of misfits... where are they?"
"S-sore wa himitsu desu!" Ryuu yelled at the man, who once again had a confused look on his face.
"You know, I think that if you're in the country," the man said as he hopped from the branch he was sitting on and landed in a kneel on the ground, "you should speak the language more often."
"Kaisamana, Jack!" Gaius exclaimed at the man through Ryuu's now-deepened voice.
"Hey,
hey, no need to get riled up, man," Jack said as he brushed some dust
off his jeans, "I didn't get any orders to kill you just yet, besides,
I was going to tell you what was going on anyways, chill..."
Ryuu wondered what Gaius had said to Jack, but more importantly, how did Jack understand what Gaius said?
The Jack snickered at Ryuu's puzzled look, "Looks like your friend doesn't get it all yet, let me fill in a few gaps for you..."
Gaius let out a low growl as the Jack spoke. However, Ryuu ignored this. "How do you know all this? Why are you fighting us?"
The
Jack laughed. "Kid, I don't blame you for not knowing about us and our
bitter rivalry, so I'll start with that. Pay attention."
Gaius was still on edge while Jack spoke, same as Ryuu, but Ryuu was a little calmer.
"Ok, it all started long long ago, probably somewhere in the medieval times, but I'm not sure about that, never paid the old guy any full attention. Anyways, apparently your pal deity was around since the dawn of time, even before then. However, instead of being only six of you, there are twelve, six in each plane of existance."
"...plane of existance? What do you mean?" Ryuu asked, standing up straighter."Well,
there's the material plane, which we're in," the Jack explained, "and
there's a parallel plane of existance, the spiritual plane we've dubbed
it. When someone from here dies, they get born into the spiritual
plane, and when someone dies in the spiritual plane, they get born over
here, the cycle goes on, blah blah blah, we have life and death."
Ryuu thought about this. Did this mean that no one completely dies? That there really was a life past death here?
"Yo,
kid, you still with me?" Jack said, snapping Ryuu from his train of
thought. "Good, because this is the trip. Your friend over there and
his friends decided to have a war one day and in the middle of it, they
decided to have plenty of these, probably because they have no lives
and they're bored as Hell, but whatever. Anyways, because of these
wars, countless victims were taken and, because our first assumption
about people being born in the spiritual plane when they die here was
wrong, we got the short end of the stick. Countless lives were lost,
and because your 'friend' over there neglected to tell us a pretty
important detail, they can never come back."
Ryuu took the
entire explanation in and thought about it. There were too many
questions flowing through his mind, but he wanted to ask the most
obvious one now.
"What detail was that?" Ryuu asked. Gaius was silent.
The Jack now looked at Ryuu with a deadly serious look, "That whoever was killed by a deity, would never be reborn."
Gaius, Ryuu asked sternly, is this true?
...
Did you kill all those people!? Ryuu exclaimed mentally at Gaius.
"Heh,
pathetic," the Jack said with a smirk as he started to walk away, "I
wouldn't trust that slimy mongrel if I were you, kid..."
"Ma-mate!" Ryuu exclaimed. Jack turned around and winced.
Kakoune shemaiano!
"What did I just say about the language?" Jack said, a menacing look in his eye.
"G-gom...sorry..." Ryuu said, "but why are you trying to kill us?"
The Jack sighed, "Are you still trying to defend him? We're trying to kill him, not you brats! Tch, I'm outta here, I'll see you guys up there..." He walked out of Ryuu's range of sight, through the dense forest. However, Ryuu was still wondering what was going on.
Gaius... Ryuu said, is what he said true?
Gaius remained silent for a moment, then spoke. Yes... the six of us had killed people in those times...
Why!? Ryuu yelled at Gaius mentally, What justifies the death of another!?
Gaius sighed, but Ryuu could sense a feeling of calmness and happiness from him, which irritated him. What Jack told you was only half true. Yes, we killed people, and yes, they aren't coming back. However, he didn't tell you the entire truth...
Then what is the entire truth? Ryuu asked.
...only Infernos and one other know the whole story. Each of us only know fragments...
Why do you only know a fragment of the entire story?
Gaius sighed, but answered Ryuu promptly, Once we win this tournament, we'll tell you all. I promise.
Ryuu sighed, but started to walk forward. Ok...
"Are you sure you saw something over here?" Joseph asked as they walked forward, not seeing any signs of a presence anywhere.
"Hmm... maybe my eyes were playing tricks..." Kinzoku said to reassure Joseph, but he felt something here, but it didn't feel like someone living.
Joseph scoffed, "This is pointless," he started turning around, but kept his eyes on Kin, "I'm going back to check on those towers..."
"Wait," Kin ordered. Joseph stopped in his tracks and looked towards Kin. Kin saw something move from the corner of his eye, definitely.
"Come on, there's nothing here," Joseph said again as he slowly turned around, "don't worry about it, we can take whatever they WOAH!" Joseph barely ducked under a cutting swipe from a blackened form that rushed towards him. He quickly dodged its other attacks, but just barely.
Kinzoku watched Joseph fight off the lanky humanoid enemy, but then turned to his left to attack an oncoming one head-on with a Holy Sword. The humanoid figure quickly parried the sword away, but Kin still cut at it, not giving up.
"Egh," Joseph muttered as he dodged several swipes from the blackened form, becoming severely agitated. Finally, Joseph brought out a Fighter Sword datasilver to combat the form's vertical strike. While he was holding the block, Joseph had a clearer look at what was attacking him. It was pure black, but it moved hunched over, like a tiger stalking its prey. It was pure black and had curved blades where its hands should have been. The most distinguishable feature was the narrow strip of blood red across its blackened eyes, shielding them. Joseph managed to swing the beast away, only to find it crouched and ready to strike again.
"Oh great... Kin, you okay?" Joseph yelled behind him.
"Doing...fine..." Kin muttered as he tried his best to hold off the fighter. He was fast and powerful, a very lethal combination, but Kin was holding his ground.
"Good to he--ack!" Joseph yelled as the beast fighting him had managed to tackle him to the ground, struggling to get up.
"Joseph!" Kin shouted as he kept the second one at bay. He growled at the beast, then quickly smashed the Holy Sword into its blade hands, knocking it away from him.
"I've had it with these things," Kinzoku said to himself.
You ready, Naoko?
You bet, Naoko responded to Kin mentally.
"Don't stare into the light," Kinzoku said with a smirk as he brought his hands up to his chest in a standing meditation stance. Light flooded around him, but dissipated as quickly as it came, leaving Kinzoku/Naoko standing, robed in the white garment that he wore over his black, loose-fitting pants, carrying his rendition of the Sol Maxim, the Light Naginata, under his right arm.
"So," Kin/Naoko said in a perfectly integrated voice, "You think you can take on a deity?"
The
form responded with a leap towards him. Kin/Naoko smirked and quickly
ran through it with the Light Naginata. He stood on the other side of
the fallen form and turned around to look at it for a moment. However,
instead of disappearing into data streams, it remained there. Kin/Naoko
walked closer to look at it and make sure it really was dead. He
crouched down and looked at it for a second. Kin/Naoko's attack didn't
miss, but the foe wasn't disappearing.
"Hmm..." Kin/Naoko said in thought, but then was quickly interrupted by Joseph's yelling as he was struggling against the beast.
"Ngh!" Joseph grunted as he tried his best to shove off the monster, but the form was too strong for him to defend against. However, Joseph's struggling lessened as he watched it bring it's blade arm up, ready to strike into Joseph.
But the arm was quickly cut off, along with its head. It fell into a heap in front of Joseph's feet. He quickly picked himself up and backed away from the fallen fighter.
"What...was that?" Joseph asked himself as he looked to who cut through it, and saw Kin/Naoko barely floating above the ground, back turned towards the fallen foe. Joseph looked with admiration.
"Awesome..." was all Joseph could say at that point, but then watched as Kinzoku reverted to his normal self.
"Are you ok?" Kin asked Joseph, legs planted on the ground now.
"Y-yeah..." Joseph said, still amazed by the integration between Kinzoku and Naoko.
"That's
good," Kinzoku responded with a slight smile, then continued to walk
towards the way they did, "We should try to find a way out of here as
fast as we can..."
"Yeah..." Joseph responded and the two walked forward.
"Hey, I have a question..." Joseph said to Kin.
"Yeah, what is it?" Kin asked politely.
"Well..." Joseph started, "I was wondering... what does it feel like to be integrated?"
Kinzoku wondered about this as well. "Hmm... I don't know, I can't really describe it...but it kinda feels like I'm me, but with someone else..."
"Hmm..." Joseph thought, "Sounds kinda...erm..."
"That's how it feels?" a voice asked. Joseph and Kin stopped and went into defensive stances, ready for an attack.
"Who's there?" Kinzoku called out. The voice seemed all too familiar, though.
"Wait..." Joseph said as he stood up straighter to see. Two people were walking towards them, one shorter than the other. Finally, the two came into view, and Joseph took a step backwards.
It was Klove, and a kid was with him.
"Why are you here!? Didn't you leave with the others?" Joseph asked in surprise. Klove merely glared at the two, while the blonde-haired kid just waved awkwardly.
"We'll explain later," Klove said abruptly, "But for right now, trust us as being the good guys. After this tournament, you can question us all you want." Klove then immediately turned around and walked away, while the blonde-haired kid followed him.
"Hey, Knux, shouldn't you have expanded on that for them a little?" the kid asked.
Kinzoku and Joseph stood watching them, but then started walking towards them, as well.
"How far are you!?" Manic yelled towards Miyuu while he was busy fending off the giant beast as best he could.
"Give me some more time!" Miyuu shouted back as she was trying to figure out the controls for releasing the internet security lock, to get Joseph and Kinzoku free.
This isn't happening, this isn't happening, this isn't happening... Infernos kept repeating within Manic's head, making him even more irritated.
Will you shut up and help out!? Manic yelled back, but quickly ducked under the beast's ferocious leap.
"Almost done," Miyuu said as she was typing in characters to get the lock off.
"Good," Manic replied as he stood up and faced down the beast. He clicked the safety off his long-barreled gun and waited for it to attack again.
Bad idea... Infernos said.
Only idea I have right now... Manic replied. The beast made its move finally and leaped towards Manic again. However, Manic quickly drew his gun and fired at the beast.
However, the beast kept coming towards him, as if the bullet did nothing to it.
"Wha?!" Manic gasped, but quickly dodged to the side, leaving the gun to be chewed up by the beast. It bared its sharp teeth after it shred the gun into pieces.
"How far are you, Miyuu?" Manic asked nervously.
Miyuu put in a few more keystrokes and slammed on the enter button.
Lock Removed
"Done!" Miyuu yelled. Both of them quickly sprinted towards the opposite end of the room from where they came from. Miyuu's hand brushed against a door handle just when the beast was about to pounce again.
"Manic, in here!" Miyuu said forcefully as she swung the door open and ran through, Manic tailing her and slamming the door shut behind him. Behind the closed door was the sound of metal being scraped against and tearing up.
Manic breathed a sigh of relief, "That was close..."
"Hey, look," Miyuu said as she pointed down the dark hallway. At the end, though, light broke through. Manic squinted his eyes to see down further.
"Good," Manic said simply before breaking into a light jog, "we better hurry up."
"Yeah," Miyuu responded as both of them went towards the light.
"Yosh," Ryuu said to himself as he finally saw the base of the whitened mountain. However, he didn't see anyone there, other than himself.
"Where's everyone else?" Ryuu asked himself nervously.
"Right behind you," Manic said as Ryuu turned around to see who said that. He and Miyuu walked out from a small cavern and towards Ryuu.
"Glad you're safe," Ryuu said with a smile.
"Same here," Manic responded.
"The internet lock's off, so where are Kin and Joseph?" Miyuu asked as they looked around the area.
"Well, we picked up some unexpected company," Joseph said as he and Kin took off their Cyberbands and put them away, followed by Klove and his friend.
"Klove?" Ryuu, Miyuu and Manic asked in surprise.
"I'll explain everything later," Klove said, "but call me Knux. This is Miles, he's here for the same reason I am."
"K-konnichiwa, minna-san," Miles said with a smile.
"Well,
now that we're all here," Manic said as he turned towards the base of
the mountain, "we better not keep our hosts waiting..."
"Then we'd better hurry," Knux said as he walked towards the mountain, "Nightfall here isn't pleasant."
Well, that's the end of V2 chapter 18. As a little bit of side info, this chapter took me about 12 hours to write up, segmented. Hell, I even used a white board to plan out the main spots in this chapter, along with the later chapters. Hope you enjoyed it, please send comments and the like, if you wish, thank you