Prologue
Thick fog rolled in through the streets of London, England at half past midnight. A pair of horse carriages stopped in front of the wrought iron gates of the Occidental College for Young Ladies. Ophelia Lowry stepped out of the foremost car and bid her friends - and her six trusty bodyguards - farewell. We'll meet up at the hotel when I'm done here , she promised her companions. Then, she watched them disappear into the dark city streets.
Ophelia stood alone under the light of an electric street light that flickered intermittently on and off. Once the two carriages were out of sight, her fake, frail smile crumbled into a frown and she sauntered into the campus. Her mind was riddled with thoughts.
All of the things that she had seen and heard on the RMS Teutonic and in Bordeaux, France haunted her and shook her to the core. The absence of the continent-wide investigation by Scotland Yard also sent a chill up her spine.
Something was amiss in the world - and Ophelia couldn't help but feel like its roots ran uncomfortably closer to home than she first thought.
If anyone had any clue about what that strange oddity was, Ophelia deduced, then it would be her father - the Chief of Police of Scotland Yard, her father, as well as the chairman of the Occidental College board.
Mr. Steven Lowry.
Ophelia knew for a fact that her father's office in the College was his home-away-from-home and that he spent more time there than in Scotland Yard and at their Bedfordshire home combined. Whatever strange oddities were manifesting were sure to catch her father's eye. Any records he had about it would be stored there in the Occidental College.
She sauntered through the front gates and slipped past the night watch under the cover of darkness. She went over to the quadrangle garden and the willow tree at its heart and then reached into a small hollowed out hole in the trunk hidden behind the thicket. She was looking for a brass copy of the Occidental College's master key.
Suddenly, her heart sank. It wasn't there!
Dejected, she pulled her hand out of the hollowed out trunk and looked at her empty hand. No one else was supposed to know where she kept that key - not even her most trusted lackeys.
All of the sudden, Ophelia felt a presence looming behind her. She whirled around to face the presence and prepared herself to fight. However, in the blink of an eye, she found the blade of a British Army saber inches away from her throat.
Ophelia's entire being trembled and she dared to look up at the shadowy swordsman. Then, she gasped.
"Professor Watson?"
"Lady Lowry?" Amelia's uncle, Dr. John H. Watson lowered his saber and he sheathed it back into his walking cane. He lent Ophelia a hand, "I apologize, but I didn't expect you to be back from France so soon."
Ophelia took Dr. Watson's hand and let him help her up to her feet.
"Midnight trains and clipper cargo ships." The aristocrat explained and dusted off the dirt and leaves from her dress, "The cruise liners wouldn't take my chequebook. The customs officers nearly didn't accept my passport - or the passports of my friends and guards. Until I threatened to get my father involved. That shut them up."
"The rumours say that you and your friends are dead." Dr. Watson revealed with a frown, "French news reports about your exploits on the high seas never made it to England."
"And yet here I am in the flesh, Dr. Watson." Ophelia stood defiant.
"Indeed. It is a fortunate error. You are still a student of mine, Lady Lowry. Just like Amelia. It's good to see you alive and well."
"Quite." Ophelia then glanced at Dr. Watson and she asked this time, "But what about you? How did you know about my hiding spot here in the Willow tree?"
"My colleague Sherlock knows all of the locksmiths in London, my dear." Dr. Watson smiled, "Locked door mysteries have become unsettlingly common as of late, you see. It's good to have connections."
"Is that so…" Ophelia's thoughts trailed off. Then she gasped, "Sherlock Holmes is involved?"
Dr. Watson nodded and gestured to the administrative building.
"Amelia asked me and Sherlock to help you when you got back to London. You just happened to get home earlier than we anticipated. We've already begun our investigation - if you would care to join us."
Looks like Amelia kept her end of the bargain , Ophelia thought. A small smile formed on her lips and she followed Dr. Watson into the administrative building. The two of them made a beeline into the office of the college Chairman. Just as expected, the doors were already unlocked. Inside of the office, she saw a man wearing a peculiar deerstalker hat rifling through the drawers. It was the great detective Sherlock Holmes!
Sherlock Holmes stole a glance of Ophelia before getting back to work. With his back turned to the aristocrat, he spoke with a dismissive tone.
"Ah, so the spawn of Mr. Lowry is here. That saves me the trouble of coming to pick you up." He brought out the copied brass key from his pocket and laid it on the mahogany desk by the window, "Would you be a dear and help me search for clues?"
Was this where Amelia Watson got her toxic attitude? Ophelia pouted and brushed aside her pride for now. She then took the key and began searching too.
"Don't look at me with that sour face. Your father sent me on wild goose chases for the past week, little missy." Sherlock Holmes lamented, squatting to reach a low cabinet, "He threw every cold case that Scotland Yard had at me out of the blue before he disappeared for a 'business trip' to the Continent." He brought out and lit his smoke pipe and puffed some tobacco before he concluded, "All of those cases were strange Missing Person reports that have gone unsolved for years - even a decade. And yet…"
"And yet?" Ophelia coaxed.
"And yet, when you look at them all, those cases had common points of interest." Sherlock revealed, "The trans-Atlantic shipping company that would become the campus of the Occidental College. Many of them were spotted in or around this complex before they disappeared. But why?"
"That's not all." Dr. Watson shook his head now, frowning with genuine concern, "Mr. Lowry said that he was going on a business trip to the Continent, but there were no records of him leaving England in the records of Customs."
"In the eyes of England, Mr. Lowry hasn't left the country." Sherlock Holmes mused with a scoff, "The leading candidate for Prime Minister of Great Britain is sneaking out from under Queen Victoria's prominent nose."
"Was that why Father wasn't responding to my telegrams?" Ophelia grumbled beneath her breath. Then, her heart trembled with fear, "Or could it be… that my father left because of them?"
The aristocrat's eyes turned to the portrait of Queen Victoria hanging from the wall in her father's office. She noticed that unlike the other paintings on the wall, Queen Victoria's portrait was tilted ever so slightly. This wasn't the first time that she had broken into this room, yes, but that portrait was something she had never dared to touch.
Until now.
Ophelia's frown grew deeper and she approached the queen's portrait.
"Lady Lowry, what are you doing!?" Dr. Watson, ever a proud former Army physician, was horrified by her odd action.
"I'm giving Her Majesty a lift." Ophelia carefully took the portrait off the nail and set it down on the floor. Dr. Watson and Sherlock Holmes then went over to Ophelia's side and gasped.
There was a key-locked vault hidden behind it. Ophelia took her brass master key and found that it fit the lock of the vault. She turned the key and unlocked it with a heavy metallic click. Then, a deluge of weathered photographs flowed out from the vault - along with a paper envelope stamped with logos that were neither from the Occidental College nor from Scotland Yard.
It was shaped like an eye.
Sherlock Holmes squatted down and picked up a handful of the photographs at once. He then gulped and shook his head with disbelief.
"By George… These photographs are the people from the Missing Persons reports in the Cold Cases." The renowned detective turned the photos around and saw writing on the back of each one, "It's Steven Lowry's handwriting. ' Deemed unfit' , they all read. What is the meaning of this?"
Sweat formed on Ophelia's brow while Sherlock rummaged through the photos - identifying each and every one from the many Cold Cases of Scotland Yard. Dr. Watson then turned his attention to the two envelopes with the eye-shaped stamps. He opened them and cursed.
"What's wrong, Dr. Watson?" Ophelia asked, but she was afraid to know the answer to her own question.
The esteemed Doctor reached into the envelopes and pulled out a triad of photographs clipped to extensive, typewritten research documents. Those photographs were labelled with the names of the subjects.
Ina'nis Ninomae.
Amelia Watson.
Ophelia Lowry.
All those photographs had the same message - written in Mr. Lowry's penmanship.
'May they find their place in the Great Library of the Ancient Ones - under the protection and auspices of the Esoteric Order of True Sight.'
"We have to tell Amelia and Miss Ina'nis." Dr. Watson clenched the handle of his sword-cane. He then turned to Ophelia and demanded, "Where are they now, Lady Lowry!?"
"About that…" Ophelia's face went pale, "It's a long story."
AlterMyth
At All Costs
Sixty-First Scene - Reunion
Far away from London - in the subterranean realm of the Sous La Lune bastion beneath Bordeaux, France, Amelia Watson was waging war. The detective, covered from head to toe in dust and soot, took cover behind the unnatural trenches in the brimstone hills - the smoldering remains of Death-sensei's indiscriminate display of power from earlier.
Ame kept her head low while bullets whizzed above her head of unkempt golden hair. She returned fire with the Krag-Jørgensen rifle that she wielded, but five rifle shots in a magazine could only do so much against an army of more than a hundred Grim Reapers. Whenever the reapers shot at her position, she prudently popped open the box magazine of her rifle to slot in new shots on instinct. Then, if ever she ran out, she switched to her six-shot Webley revolver to buy time for her to reload.
In the heat of battle, Ame had to maintain her composure and keep firing something - anything - downrange to keep the Grim Reapers from crossing the bridge. After all, a stone's throw away from Ame's spot, Gawr Gura wielded her Single Action Army and her aquamarine trident in a desperate defense.
Ame could see Gura fighting with everything that she had. She watched the Atlantean empty her cylinder and then reload her revolver like the storied frontier gunslingers from the Americas. If an enemy got too close, Gura struck with her trident and kept even the strongest of the sickle-wielding junior Reapers at bay. When her gun and trident failed, Gura even used her tail to wallop enemies that tried to flank her.
Seeing this valiant effort spurred Ame to watch over the shark and fire every damn bullet she could load into a chamber. She wasn't going to let them lay a hand on Gura!
"AME! A little help here!?" Gura yelped.
"Hold on, sharkie!" Ame cried back. She cocked her rifle and then pointed it down range, "Ready!"
When Ame gave that signal, Gura darted off to the side of the bridgehead and let the detective take aim. Ame picked off their enemies with precise, fatal shots. There were so many enemies bunched up on the bridge that it was hard for her to not hit anything, so it became a matter of choosing her targets well. The detective steadied her breath and calmly struck down sickle-wielding Junior Reapers whenever she could. With every sickle she defeated, the resolve of the army pursuing them wavered more and more.
Across the River Styx, on the Eastern bridgehead, Ame could see Kiara and Jenma opening up another front for a pincer. They assaulted the Grim Reapers on the bridge from the rear with their weapons drawn. Kiara took the lead and charged the reapers with her buckler shield raised. She bashed her shield into the back of a sickle-wielder and then cut him down with a slash of her fiery broadsword.
Before they could avenge the sickle-wielder, however, Jenma dashed into the fray with her senpai's red katana poised for attack. Kiara and Jenma found themselves shoulder to shoulder and the two of them met the reapers in battle once more.
By that point, though, the battle was spiraling out of the Watson Expedition's favor.
The rearguard of the Potomac Platoon were shocked at first, but they reformed their battle lines quickly. The smoke grenades that had obscured the vision of the Grim Reapers throughout town were dissipating. That allowed the defenders to see just how small the attacking force was - four talented ladies instead of the large army they probably thought they were fighting.
Four skirmishers against a well-trained cadre of line infantry. Outnumbered twenty-to-one, even after all the enemies they already defeated.
The reapers' defense became more tenacious and they fought back with more fiery resolve than before.
"This ain't looking good…" Ame grumbled, reloading her rifle again, "There's no end to them, huh?"
She was already down to her last dozen bullets for her rifle - and a little more than that for her revolver. Ame caught herself zoning out and she shook her head.
This wasn't the time to doubt.
Ame, Gura, Kiara and Jenma were buying time for Ina and the reaper Calliope to get to their vaunted motor-boat in the central keep jetty. Then, when the coast was clear, Calliope was going to send a signal: fireworks bursting above the keep. That was supposed to be the signal for the ladies to run to the keep and board the boat.
Can they really trust a Grim Reaper like Calliope, though? The sliver of doubt lingered in Ame's mind. Those troops that she, Gura, Kiara and Jenma were butting heads against were Calliope's underlings. As the battle dragged on, her sliver of doubt inevitably grew.
Suddenly, Ame heard loud noises coming from the distant keep. Something was bursting, but they weren't fireworks. They were Maxim machine guns firing at full tilt.
That wasn't part of the plan…!
The doubts in Ame's mind gripped her imagination. She thought about Calliope endangering a helpless Ina under a hail of automatic gunfire.
Moments later, a strange vessel emerged from the watergate of the keep's outer walls. It was the size of a small yacht but it had no wind sails. It left a trail of smoke in its wake and it was fascinatingly loud as she cut through the once still waters of the River Styx.
Calliope Mori stood near the rear of the strange motor-boat and manned the gearbox of its smoke-belching engine and, from what Ame could tell from that distance, was the rudder. Then, at the center of the boat was its lone passenger.
Ina.
But this wasn't the same Ina'nis Ninomae that Ame first met in Dr. Watson's medical office in London. This Ina faced the Maxim guns with a resolute face and her purple hair flew gracefully in the wind. This Ina commanded twelve strange purple tentacles that swatted away the few accurate machine gun shots that followed them out of the keep.
This was Ina in full bloom, Ame thought. The sight of it brought a smile to her face and finally slew the sliver of doubt she had entrenched in her heart.
Calliope Mori kept her word , Ame thought. I like being wrong sometimes.
It didn't take long for Gura, Kiara, Jenma and even the Grim Reapers to find the strange motor-boat speeding through the Styx. Gura and the sickle-wielding reaper that she was clashing with had their eyes on the motorboat, but the Atlantean came back to her senses first and kicked the sickle-wielder in the shin before pistol-whipping him to the ground.
"Ame! What's going on!?" Gura cried, reloading her revolver before the rest of the reapers returned their attention to her.
"Change of plans, Gura!" Ame grinned and pointed to the strange vessel, "We're getting on that boat. Now!"
"Seriously!?" Gura's face went pale.
While Gura was still at a loss, pillars of flame rose up from the Eastern bridgehead and threw the Grim Reapers there into disarray. Kiara spread her wings and she carried Jenma up into the air. The two of them flew over the river and then landed comfortably in the hull of the motor-boat.
"Damn, I wish I could do that…" Gura mumbled beneath her breath.
In a few moments, the motor-boat dashed through the waters and zipped under the wooden bridge. The Grim Reapers of the Potomac Platoon saw their leader, Calliope Mori, manning that boat. Many of them froze in disbelief. Others cursed their fates.
This was the moment Ame was waiting for!
The detective flicked on the safety of her rifle, slung the weapon over her shoulder. She then leapt out of the smoldering brimstone trenches in full sprint.
Gura followed suit and dissolved her aquamarine trident. She had just stowed away her Single Action Army revolver too when she felt the detective's hand grab hers firmly.
"Ame!" The Atlantean's cheeks flushed red.
"Let's go, sharkie!" Ame grinned and led Gura onwards, away from the Western bridgehead.
Then, in the blink of an eye, powerful bombs exploded under the bridge and tore off the wooden spans that supported it. The great wooden bridge of the Sous La Lune bastion - along with the fifty or so Grim Reapers that were stranded there - came tumbling down into the waters of the River Styx. Whatever resolve the rest of the Potomac Platoon had was shattered like the rubble and dissolved like the pillars of Phoenix fire that corralled them there.
Were those the explosives that Jenma was talking about? The thought crossed Ame's mind for a while. However, the loud, roaring of the motor-boat and its twin petrol engines stole her attention again.
That boat was quite fast - thrice as fast as a rowboat or maybe more. Ame and Gura had to sprint to catch up to it. There was ten meters of water between the boat and the edge of the riverbank - a stretch that was too shallow for the boat and too deep for them to ford. There were those few remnants of the Grim Reapers firing rifles at them and the boat too.
Ame and Gura only had one shot to make the jump.
The detective and the shark-girl, hand-in-hand, ran as fast as their feet would take them along the banks of the River Styx. Then, at a river bend, they leapt forward with every ounce of strength they could muster. Despite all this, ten meters was still a tall order.
Ame and Gura sailed through the air but started dropping short of their target! This was when Ina rushed to the edge of the boat. She cast her twelve tentacles forward and caught her two dear friends mid-air before they fell into the water.
Those tentacles drew them straight into Ina's open arms. She wrapped Ame and Gura in a tight, loving embrace.
"Ame! Gura!" Ina repeated over and over, weeping on their shoulders as she held them close, "I missed you…"
No more words came to Ame and Gura at that point. They too broke down into tears and returned Ina's embrace. Moments later, their weeping turned into tearful laughter and joy. They basked in each other's warmth and company while Calliope, Kiara and Jenma looked on with smiles on their faces.
The motor-boat suddenly struck a patch of rough waters that shook the hull for a bit. That forced Ame, Gura and Ina to let go of each other to sit down and hold onto the boat for dear life - laughing together for the first time in what felt like an eternity ago.
The three of them all looked back to the Sous La Lune and the chaos they had unleashed on that bastion drawing further and further away. Then, for a brief moment, Ame caught a glimpse of something disturbing.
A myriad of dark tendrils with eyes erupting all at once from the fountain of the Sous La Lune town square. The detective locked gazes with one of those eyes before that inhuman eye turned gold. Just looking at it made her feel a little bit dizzy.
"What in the world is that…!?" Ame gasped and turned away from the monstrosity. She then laid a hand on her forehead, rubbing her temple to tend to the phantom pain.
"Huh? What are you talking about?" Gura tilted her head with concern.
"Did you see it too, Ame?" Ina asked this time, wearing a troubled look. She too seemed to be oddly weary.
Ame's eyes met with Ina's and she nodded. Their wordless agreement, however, made Gura's head spin.
"Calliope, let's get out of here." Ame urged, sitting down on her seat, "The sooner we get to Portugal, the better."
Calliope nodded, grabbed the gearstick and shifted the boat to its highest gear. The twin-petrol engines roared louder and the motor-boat cut through the waters of the Styx even faster now.
Sixty-Second Scene - Going With The Flow
For a good hour or so, the strange motor-boat that Calliope Mori commandeered chugged on through the dark, dank caverns of the abandoned brimstone quarries. Even though the engines were rather loud, the ladies spoke over the din. Ame and Gura introduced Ina to Jenma and Kiara, while Ina reintroduced Calliope Mori to everyone else in return.
It took a little bit of time for them to get to know each other, but Ame eventually started calling Calliope simply as 'Calli'. After the daring escape that the veteran reaper planned and the way she took care of Ina in the Underworld, Ame learned to trust her new ally a little bit more.
If all five of them were going to be working together in that HoloMyth deal that Jenma told them about, Ame figured that she'd have to get along with Calli sooner or later.
In contrast, Gura bonded quickly with Calli - especially when the both of them unwittingly spoke with Southern drawls and made jokes about the United States as fellow Americans. Now that they didn't have their weapons drawn against each other, they saw how close their wavelengths were. From what Ame could see, she thought that Calli and Gura looked like a pair of Southern belles on a leisurely boating trip on the Mississippi instead of the Styx.
Ina, on the other hand, shook hands with Kiara and Jenma and caught up with what happened in the Upperworld while she was asleep. The librarian-turned-priestess naturally had a lot of questions for the two of them.
It was almost like Ina was cataloguing the two of them like mythical creatures , Ame thought with a smile. The mighty phoenix and an office lady from an alternate universe .
Though, after everything that had happened to them, the 'Great Phoenix Expedition' was the least of their concerns. Now, they were going from one great mystery to an even greater one.
While Ame was quietly watching her companions with a smile on her lips, the twin petrol engines of their motor-boat started sputtering loudly before conking out. Parts of the engine hissed with steam and smoke and glowed dim red. Their boat was gradually losing momentum and caused Calli to panic.
Rowing boats for three hundred years didn't prepare Calli much for operating a motorized watercraft like this one. The lively banter and conversations happening around the boat came to a halt. Were they really going to be able to make it to Portugal after all? Ame, along with the rest of her companions could only wonder.
However, the management trainee Jenma stood up from her seat and sauntered over to Calli's side confidently.
"She's overheating." Jenma assessed. She brought out her small flashlight and observed the engines with a keen eye, "Motors of this decade weren't exactly known for their endurance." She then tapped the side of the engines with the scabbard of her katana and added, "But they're built sturdy for sure, I'll give them that. Give her some time to rest and she'll be up and running again. I'll tune her up for you too if you have some tools. Just be sure to stick to medium gear after this though."
"Is that so? Thanks a bunch!" Calli beamed thankfully. She handed Jenma a small toolbox before plopping down to an empty seat, "You're a grease monkey too huh, Miss Jenma?"
"Grease monkey, huh? I guess you could say that." Jenma smiled and sat across from Calli now, "Keep driving a lemon clunker on a tight budget long enough and you'll learn a thing or two about maintaining engines."
"Hey, listen. I only learned about machines recently." Calli admitted. A playful smirk formed on her lips, "J-chad was the one who taught me. If the two of you are gearheads, then you might get along quite well!"
"Huh!?" Jenma sounded revolted, but her cheeks were flushed red and she couldn't look Calli in the eye, "I w-want nothing to do with that shoes-for-brains bonehead boss of yours!"
Just about everyone else on that boat, however, could tell that that was an absolute lie. Jenma puffed up her cheeks and pulled up the luggage they had stowed away.
"Anyways! We'll be going with the river flow till the engines cool down." Jenma changed the subject and popped open the trunk, "Anyone hungry? It's been a while since we had something to eat, yeah? I've got some food to tide us over till we make it to the Upperworld."
The management trainee brought out strange food packets from her parallel world and passed them out to the group. Calorie Flakes , read the label prominently. That food was a so-called 'nutritional bar' and was packaged in this odd material she called 'plastic' that was surprisingly lightweight and sturdy, but easy to tear open.
Ame opened her packet and was greeted by the pleasant smell of lemons from her bar.
"Ooh, lemons!" A smile formed on Ame's lips.
"I got lemonsh too, Ame!" Gura mumbled. She was already chowing down, but her eyes were shining and her tail was wagging happily behind her. Ame smiled back at Gura and took a bite of her own snack bar.
Wow, that was tasty . It was the tastiest English flapjack that she'd had in her life and it hit the right spot. She had been sneaking around or fighting enemies for so long that her body forgot that it needed to eat. The Calorie Flakes bar disappeared from Ame's packet in less than a minute.
The rest of the ladies got their Calorie Flakes from Jenma too and they wolfed it down just as quickly. Never in Ame's wildest dreams did she think that she would share a meal from a parallel world together with an Atlantean, a Phoenix, a Grim Reaper and the unordained Priestess of the Ancient Ones.
She remembered lazing around in her bathtub in her Bedfordshire home, wishing day after day for a grand adventure. To think that that dream would come true, huh ?
It made her wonder what she did to deserve to be in the presence of all these powerful mythical beings. Why was she chosen to work alongside them all when she was just a normal person? Wasn't she just an unlicensed detective who had some above average grades in college? She knew how to throw a punch and how to shoot pistols and rifles, yes, but that was nothing compared to what Gura, Kiara, Calli and - now - Ina could do in battle.
What did Jenma, her superior Enma and the rest of the so-called Cover Corporation see in her? Why would they brave, literally, hell and high waters just to recruit her of all people?
While she was lost in her thoughts, Gura suddenly scooted over to Ame's side and brought out a handkerchief.
"Hold still, Ame. You've got crumbs all over your mouth." The Atlantean dutifully wiped the detective's lips, "Got something on your mind, stinky ?"
Stinky!? Ame panicked and started sniffing her armpits, causing Gura to laugh.
Ame's eyes narrowed.
"Do you want to swim all the way to Portugal, sharkie !?" The detective threatened.
"I'm sorry…! Hahaha~!" Gura begged while laughing heartily, struggling to catch her breath. She then turned to Ame with a smile, "There. You look a little better than you did a while ago. Yer smilin' now too!"
Was Gura trying to cheer her up, perhaps? The small smile on Ame's lips grew wider.
"Thanks Gura."
Suddenly, one of Ina's twelve tentacles hovered over Ame with what looked like a 'plastic' bottle filled with chilled brewed tea. The unordained priestess sat across from Ame and happily spoke.
"Another treat from the parallel world." Ina introduced with a smile, "Drink up, Ame!"
Ame took the bottled tea and smiled at the unordained priestess too.
"Thanks, Ina."
Even though Ame still didn't know why the Cover Corporation chose her, there was one thing that she knew with absolute certainty. Gura and Ina were precious to her - and she was precious to them. She always wanted to be at their side, enjoying tender moments like these.
As long as she could see their smiles, Ame decided, she would be happy to face whatever the fates had in store for her.
Sixty-Third Scene - Hardened Heart
The now silent motorboat carried on downstream through the cavernous branch of the River Styx while its twin-petrol engines continued to hiss and blow off steam. After its six passengers finished their simple packaged meals, they huddled at the center around Calliope Mori. The veteran reaper promised to give the Watson Expedition answers to their questions, after all. Now that everyone had a chance to settle in, Calli decided that now was the best time to make good on her promise to them.
"So… where do I begin?" Calli started, fidgeting in her seat while her head drooped low. She could feel the inquisitive gazes of the Watson Expedition boring into her soul.
Suddenly, the gentle, reassuring hand of the Phoenix Kiara rested on her shoulder. Calli raised up her head and saw Kiara smiling warmly at her.
" Kusotori ?" The nickname escaped from her lips.
"Don't worry, Calli. We're not enemies anymore." Kiara reminded cheerfully, "You got everyone out of that bastion safely. We trust you. We want to listen to your side of the story now." She turned to the detective and the management trainee who were sitting across from them, "Isn't that right, Ame? Jenma?"
Jenma nodded curtly while Ame faced Calli earnestly.
"If we're going to work together on this Cover Corporation thing, then we're going to have to be on the same page about these things, Calliop- I mean… Calli." The detective reasoned, "Plus, if we're going to save Miss Enma, we'll need every bit of information we can get. It's hard, but we shouldn't let this register on an emotional level if we can."
"Thank you." Calli answered and heaved a sigh of relief.
The veteran reaper finally told everyone her story with more confidence. All the while, the rest of the ladies listened nervously.
It was about six months ago, Calli recalled, when Death-sensei ordered her and J-chad to raise the hundred-strong Potomac Platoon and travel to London. Calli remembered it all too well. Death-sensei sent an urgent telegram to them, saying that the Ancient Ones informed him of a strange disturbance that they detected: invaders from another world that were there to disrupt the natural order of things in this world.
Death-sensei's whole speech roused Calli, J-chad and their troops to action. Their time to make names for themselves in the pantheon of reaper history and work alongside the enigmatic Ancient Ones was here. That was what they all thought.
Calli's junior - the sickle wielder who was shot during her promotion ceremony - was one of the most enthusiastic zealots about the Upperworld campaign. Calli and J-chad were too, until Death-sensei's increasingly morbid orders started to test their faith.
As instructed, Calli and J-chad drafted reapers to form the Potomac Platoon and took them all to the Upperworld for their mission. They were to track down the two supposed interlopers - the Otherworlders who arrived from another world. The Otherworlders appeared in London as Death-sensei anticipated.
It was Jenma and her senpai Enma.
Even just observing them back then, Calli could tell that they were human beings with incredible skill. Moreover, the two strangely-dressed ladies carried an arsenal of futuristic weapons and provisions: the P220 pistol now in Ina's possession and the Glock 26 holstered by Jenma's breast, Enma's red-bladed katana and a strange, long 'black rifle'.
The Grim Reapers reported back to Death-sensei regularly by telegraph and kept tabs on the two Otherworlders for a few weeks. They followed the ladies across the English channel aboard the RMS Teutonic too, but there wasn't really much for them to write in their reports. However, their mission changed when Jenma and Enma made contact with Kiara Takanashi, a Phoenix who was days away from her 500-year expiration date.
That one sliver of evidence and potential risk was all Death-sensei needed to brand the two as threats to the natura. The Potomac Platoon was given the orders to attack.
Capture them at all costs, the telegram read. Show no mercy .
That night, while Enma, Jenma and Kiara were walking out of the English Maiden Cafe after a hearty dinner, the Grim Reapers swarmed them. The three ladies reacted quickly and put up one hell of a fight.
Even in her weakened state, Kiara was a fierce warrior that humbled Calli with her swiftness and skill. Enma, likewise, proved more than a match for J-chad's scythe with her katana. Jenma, on the other hand, mowed down the rabble of Grim Reapers with automatic gunfire from the black rifle and cut a path for them to escape.
It was an incident that would make it to the headlines of British morning newspapers the next day. Calli was worried that the British police would intervene and make things difficult for them, but Scotland Yard barely investigated the incident. It was passed off as just another street brawl and the story disappeared by the time the evening publications were put to print.
That was when Calli and J-chad learned that Death-sensei had allied himself with Mr. Steven Lowry, along with all of his influential connections throughout England. Those allies pulled the strings of the police and the media throughout the Upperworld in the Grim Reapers' favor. It was frightening just how much power a handful of people wielded, maneuvering so deftly under the nose of Queen Victoria herself.
What sort of deal did Death-sensei strike with those powerful mortal men and women? Calli could only wonder.
All she knew was that their allies made it easy for the Potomac Platoon to hunt down the fugitive Otherworlders and the errant Phoenix day and night. Three days of nonstop chases and battle through the labyrinthine back streets of London gave the Otherworlders no chance to rest and suppressed the ever-weakening Phoenix. Every hour, they tightened the noose around the necks of their prey until they had nowhere left to run.
On the eleventh hour of the third night, Enma made her last stand and took on the entire Potomac Platoon on her own. All so that Jenma and Kiara could escape the clutches of the Grim Reapers.
Calli remembered seeing the seasoned, bespectacled manager, wielding the black rifle in her two hands. She had fitted a bayonet to the barrel of the black rifle and dared the army of reapers to try and take her down.
Enma led the reapers on one last wild chase and descended into the sewers of London. She shot and cut down seventy reapers that night - peppering them with bullets, stabbing them with bayonets and slitting throats like an utter madwoman.
However, Enma was a mortal - and her enemies were not. The seventy she defeated would eventually rejoin the fray again and again until the valiant warrior finally collapsed. Calli and J-chad dealt the final blows and struck Enma down with the blunt tips of their scythes.
Enma fell down to her knees, drenched in sewer water, sweat and blood. Even in that state, as the unkillable Potomac Platoon surrounded her, she was defiant to the end. Half a dozen Reapers had to hold her down until Death-sensei arrived.
The Lord of Death appeared with a cadre of fanatic cultists who branded themselves as the Esoteric Order of True Sight - worshipers of the Ancient Ones. They wore black habits just like monks but were anything but holy in their appearance and aura. Every single one of them had necklaces with golden pendants depicting strange, inhuman eyes.
One of those cultists had a strange hardbound book with him that he paraded like some sort of artifact. The cultists revered the book and chanted words and mantras that Calli couldn't quite comprehend. All the battle-scarred Grim Reapers just looked on, unsure of what exactly was going on behind the wall of cultists that had gathered around Enma.
Then, after a short while, dark purple shimmers appeared around Enma and the cultists' chanting grew louder and more intense. The Cover Corp manager struggled and screamed at the top of her lungs, but she suddenly fell silent. She was screaming - and yet there was no sound.
Slowly but surely, the dark purple shimmers floated away from Enma and were drawn towards the empty book. That book opened in the cultist's hands as if it had a life of its own and its pages turned briskly to catch those shimmering specks of light. When the last of the shimmers were absorbed into the book, Enma's body stopped moving and turned into black, petrified stone.
Enma was still in London, Calli revealed. She was alive but she was nothing more than a lifeless statue. Her spirit was sealed away in that book and taken away by the cultist to who knows where.
The ladies in the motor-boat fell silent when Calli ended her tale.
Jenma bit her lip and struggled to stop herself from lashing out at Calli. Ame, on the other hand, furrowed her brow and shook her head. The supernatural world was something entirely foreign to her, after all. Kiara and Gura likewise wore frowns, not sure of what to say.
Only Ina kept her composure on that boat. She brought out her purple grimoire, held it close to her heart for the rest of her companions to see and made a promise.
"Whether I like it or not, the Ancient Ones chose me to be their priestess. Even though I didn't go through their ritual, I think I have the power to undo that spell. I have already seen enough forbidden knowledge to do that much."
"Can you really do that?" Calli sounded surprised.
"Yes. I just need the book that they sealed Miss Enma's spirit in." Ina reassured with absolute certainty burning in her purple eyes, "I'll bring Miss Enma back to us. Her fate is not set in stone just yet!"
"Thank goodness!" The veteran reaper leaned back from her seat, "Death-sensei never told us about what they did there, so I always thought that it was a lost cause."
" Humu humu ~!" Ina hummed confidently, "We can't give up yet. We're going to do our best to save Miss Enma, Calli. Can we count on your help?"
"I'll do what I can." Calli answered gamely, "It's the least I can do - after everything I've done so far."
Sixty-Fourth Scene - Sanity Check
While Calli was speaking, however, she noticed strange illumination coming from further downstream in the abandoned quarry. Wasn't this supposed to be uninhabited? Calli wondered. There was no way that their pursuers from the Sous La Lune could have caught up with them so quickly, let alone gotten there ahead of them.
The veteran reaper borrowed Jenma's binoculars and scoped out the area. Through the lens, she saw two dozen Grim Reapers were stationed there, laying down sandbag fortifications in a hurry. Those reapers weren't from the Potomac Platoon, Calli quickly recognized. There weren't any rowboats there either - and yet they had another four disassembled Maxim guns being unlimbered and prepared for combat.
It's just like a while ago with those Maxim guns at the keep! Cold sweat formed on Calli's brow. How did they bring all those heavy weapons there so quickly!? Moreover, if their enemies knew they were heading to Lisbon, then what other nasty surprises did they have in store along that path!?
"Miss Jenma, help me start the engines!" Calli urged, "We're taking a detour!"
"The engines…?" Jenma warned at first, "But they're still cooling down, and…"
"We don't have time!" Calli repeated desperately, "We have to get through this checkpoint before they get those guns working. NOW!"
Jenma nodded and promptly got to work. She and Calli primed the engine and started it with a pull of a rope cord. The engine came to life once again with a loud roar and slowly propelled the motor-boat downstream in a rough, motorized crescendo.
That roar alerted the guards at the Grim Reaper checkpoint and startled them. They scrambled to get their rifles while the rest rushed to reassemble the Maxim guns in a hurry. Jenma, Ame, Gura and Ina, however, didn't give them a chance to react. The ladies drew their guns and opened fire on the enemy positions.
Those Grim Reapers were forced to take cover behind their incomplete sandbags while the motor-boat slipped past them, turning right instead of left at the fork. Then, once the motor-boat had made it through, Kiara stood up and drew her fiery sword.
Powerful phoenix fire coursed through her weapon and she released it with a swing of the blade. A wave of fire flew upwards to the cave ceiling and blasted through it like dynamite. Large chunks of brimstone rocks came tumbling down and blocked off the motor-boat from the checkpoint behind them.
"Is it over…?" Calli gritted her teeth and dared to look behind them.
However, a strange whirring noise suddenly filled the ladies' ears. Everyone turned to the source of the noise: Amelia Watson.
The detective's face went pale and she wondered what was causing the noise. She brought out her chained golden pocket watch and gasped. The hands of the watch were spinning wildly - as if the watch had a life of its own! It was a slow rotation at first, but it grew faster and faster with each passing moment.
Then, the heavy rockslide that Kiara caused started shifting around. It was as if something had gotten trapped beneath it. Moments later, something broke through the rocks: a mass of dark tendrils lined with inhuman eyes that glowed gold.
Unlike before, everyone on the boat saw the monstrosity manifesting before them. Those multitudes of eyes stared them down at the ladies of the Watson Expedition and cast a myriad of long shadows over them. In that short moment, everyone in the boat started feeling intense headaches.
"Don't look into the eyes!" Ina warned, forcing herself to turn away from the unfathomable monster, "They're trying to drain out sanity!"
The rest of the ladies followed suit and kept their eyes ahead of them. Still, they kept hearing disembodied whispers invading their thoughts. Unlike the roaring noise of the twin-petrol engines, those whispers were speaking straight into their minds. Those whispers grew louder and louder while the shadows of the tendrils behind them grew longer as well.
All the while, the dark, dank environment of the Underworld cavern and the waters of the River Styx seemed to change before their very eyes. It was almost as if they were sailing into a portal that swallowed the ladies and their motor-boat whole.
In the blink of an eye, everyone felt like they were flying in the air. Then, the motor-boat came screeching to a halt and the hull skidded through a heavy, solid surface. Naturally, the twin petrol engines conked out too - unable to propel the boat forward any longer.
The ladies dared to look down and saw that their vessel was no longer in the streams of the River Styx. Instead, their boat sat motionless now on a realm with a regal marble floor with a black-and-white checkerboard pattern. Bookshelves of handsome mahogany adorned the hall but stretched up high into an endless, cosmic ceiling while gold-railed spiral staircases sprouted out from the starry abyss below.
What the hell was this place!?
Epilogue
Further away in the realm of checkerboard marble, a girl with wavy red hair sat leisurely on an ornate chaise longue clad in royal French regalia. She was thumbing through a book titled En Passant written by a chess grandmaster from Alsace-Lorraine. While she turned the pages, a golden ring she wore on her right middle finger shimmered under the light of the boundless cosmos above.
It was a ring bearing the insignia of an inhuman eye - the same pattern that the cultists of the Esoteric Order of True Sight wore.
Moments later, a wicked smile formed on the girl's lips. She closed the book she was reading and stood up from her chaise longue . A servant man, wearing the black habit of the Esoteric Order, knelt down and took the book from her while a handful more marched toward the girl and presented themselves before her.
"Our guests have arrived, madam." Low, inhuman guttural voices erupted from beneath the hoods of those cultists in unison.
One of those cultists then stepped forward and presented the girl with a silver platter. On that platter, there were seven spools of thread.
Blue. Yellow. Purple. Orange. Red. White. Crimson.
"Right on schedule." The girl's smile grew wider.
She waved her hand and the chaise longue she had been sitting on dissolved into a mass of dark tendrils and disappeared into the girl's back.
"Disciples . Today, I shall give you cause." The girl sauntered through the formation of cultists and gestured to them to follow her, "You shall have the honour of welcoming our guests with us - to the Infinite Library!"
To Be Continued