CHAPTER VII
Dangerous Games
Yuan squared off against his opponents as they slowly positioned themselves around him, one directly in front, two to either side. Ingrid was the first to attack, splitting off two identical clones with her Semblance to use as decoys while she attacked head on. Leon dashed in as well, using his teleportation Semblance to try and disorient him. Ivory went for ranged Dust attacks instead, knowing full well his prowess in close quarters combat.
His first move was to hit Leon with a powerful lightning attack from his Ji halberd. The moment he was sent flying back, he engaged Ingrid, seeing right through her illusions and going straight for her. She gasped, failing to anticipate his directness and her concentration was broken, her two clones vanishing. She scuffled with him for a moment before he struck her with a left hook, which broke her aura. She somersaulted back to put some distance between them.
Ivory was the last target. Yuan knew that she was well-versed in close-range combat, but ranged attacks were her forte. He needed to close the gap quickly, though her saber would have an advantage if he got too close. When in striking distance, Yuan attacked, his Ji halberd giving him a slight edge in range and power, though her attacks were quicker than his.
The tables turned when Ivory projected a glyph in front of him to stop his movement. It was enough for her to gain the distance she needed to open up a full barrage, twelve glyphs in the air launching Dust attacks of all types. Ingrid and Leon shielded themselves against the blast, staring intently as the debris cleared away. Yuan was still standing, completely unscathed. Around his body was some sort of brownish glow, but it wasn't his aura, which was cyan in color.
"Is that a rune?" Leon said, looking at his partner's left backhand.
"I think so," Ingrid said.
Ivory continued to stand on-guard, ready to defend against another onslaught at a moment's notice, but Yuan didn't attack. It seemed his feet were firmly planted in place, as though he was fighting something that tried to push its way to the surface.
"Are you all right, Yuan?" she asked him.
"Y-Yeah," he grunted. "Just...this...power..."
Penny stood up, her fists clenched, weapons systems online and primed. Her worst fear was about to come true, that her student would be overcome by that dark power which now inhabited him. Qrow and Yang were also ready to move, but their fears were unfounded. Yuan fell to the ground, his aura and the brownish glow breaking as he landed on all fours, panting and sweating. Nora was already by his side along with Ingrid.
"Are you okay?" Ingrid asked him.
"You're not hurt, are you?" Nora said.
"N-No, mom, I'm fine," he answered. "It's just...every single time I use this power, it drains everything out of me. It's like...it's like going on the kind of overdrive that tears apart your insides if you keep it up for longer than ten seconds."
"Okay, you need to stop doing that from now on. I'm not gonna let you keep this up if that power is gonna kill you."
"Mom, I'm fine. I just...need to adjust to it, that's all."
"Is everything all right?" Winter asked, her saber in her hand.
"You guys don't have to have your weapons in your hands," Nora growled. "This is my son we're talking about."
"Yeah, sure," Yang said, "but we've all seen this before."
"And it's nothing like that crap we had to deal with back then." She turned to Ren. "Right?"
He nodded silently. Indeed, this was different from the Wraith they fought against almost twenty years ago, but it was impossible to ignore the chill every time his son used this power.
"I think your mother is right," he said. "You should probably keep that power wrapped up until we can figure out what to do."
"No," Yuan said, standing up. "I know what the problem is."
"Yuan?" Ingrid said.
"I need to be in the Labyrinth."
"The hell are you talking about?" Leon said.
"You were there with me, you and Astor, when we went in to get Ivory out. I used the full extent of this power and I didn't experience anything like this."
"He may have a point," Hillphire said from the doorway. Hollie walked in ahead of him. "I've been doing some work with another expert in the field. Some of you might be familiar with the name Ariadne Jupiter."
"My sister?" Perseus said.
"Yes. She's the leading mind in the growing field of Thaumatology. I had a chat with her the other day and I shared with her my observations about you and your new powers. She posits that the stress you experience may be tied to the fact that the thing inside you is a being of pure magic, one that is not native to our world."
"So, being exposed to Remnant might be toxic to it?" Penny said.
"It's possible."
"I don't get it," Nora said. "Bedivere's Wraith didn't have any problems at all screwing around with our whole planet."
"That's because his Wraith was his own," Hollie said. "Oooh, I get to sound smart for today. The hypothesis is that Bedivere's Wraith was a complete being, since it was tied directly to him. From what you've told us, Yuan, this Sir Elyan isn't actually related to you. He's more of a visitor to our world using you as a vessel."
"Yes, that's actually true," Yuan said. "From my understanding, anyway."
"Similarly," Hillphire continued, "the Labyrinth is an invading force of its own, non-native to Remnant, but it is a facsimile of the world that the Wraiths are actually native to."
"Which is why your Wraith-Knight thing came to you in the Labyrinth in the first place," Hollie said. "That's where its power is most strongly concentrated and thus doesn't wreak havoc on your body." She turned to Hillphire. "Did I get all that right?"
He chuckled. "Sure."
Hollie held up a fist in victory.
"You guys are saying," Nora began, "that my son has to go back into that hellish world?"
"Mom," Yuan said, turning to her. "You and dad and all your friends had your chance to save the world all those years ago. I think it's time you guys trusted us to do the same for our generation."
"But you can't! Grimm and bad people, whatever, but not the Labyrinth!"
"Nora," Ren said, taking her hand gently. "I think he's right. Back then, circumstances placed us directly on the path that we followed up to today. It's no different for him and his friends."
"I believe in destiny," Athena said. "I think we should try a Labyrinth run. Teams LILY and APEX only."
"Whoa, wait a minute," Qrow said. "You kids think you can do that on your own?"
"My cousin has been doing exactly that by herself," Ivory said. "I believe we can accomplish at least something with all eight of us together."
"Lilly going through all that shit is different. She's got her dad's superpowers. You guys?"
"We have..." Leon began, posing next to his partner.
"The Yuan," Perseus finished, posing at Yuan's other side. Echo was suspended from the ceiling, also gesturing to Yuan.
"Oh, brother," Ingrid said, putting a hand to her forehead.
"Liam, do you really think this is a good idea?" Penny said.
"I think screwing around with the Labyrinth in general is a bad idea," Hillphire said. "But I've been in correspondence with Ariadne for some time now. She and Dr. Cherenkov have put together a Labyrinth Task Force funded and supported directly by Jupiter Enterprises. So far, Lilly and Demetri have succeeded in saving countless lives with their work in the Labyrinth."
Athena glanced over at Ivory. For a moment, she thought she had witnessed her flinch at the sound of that boy's name, but maybe she was imagining things.
"As much as I don't want to say this," Hollie began with a sigh, "I think that we should do the same. Or something similar. If people are getting lost in the Labyrinth out in Vacuo and Vale, for sure it's happening in Mistral as well. I can't be the only one who's been noticing the rise in mental health issues, particularly depression."
"So leave that to the doctors," Qrow said. "Not kids."
"Dad," Astor said. "We're not really kids anymore."
"Don't give me that. You guys haven't even graduated yet."
"Why are you being so overprotective?" Ivory said.
"I'm not being overprotective!"
"Yeah, you are," Athena said.
Qrow looked around at the youngsters. For a moment, he saw them as children, including Yang, who stood in the back with her arms folded across her chest. He sighed heavily before walking away.
"Forgive me for being a dad, okay?" he said.
"It's not that," Ivory said. "You're acting a lot more overprotective than usual."
"Well, is it my fault for not wanting to lose my kid after I just reconciled with her?"
Ivory was going to retort with words that could only be called unkind, but she refrained from taunting him with his past mistakes and bad decisions. Of course, that didn't stop the tiny bit of resentment that she continued to harbor for him not being in her life for the past seventeen years.
"Hey," Hollie said, taking Qrow by the hand. "They'll be fine."
He looked into his wife's eyes. He deserved all of her hate for what he had done to her all those years ago, but her green eyes showed nothing but compassion and reassurance. She had forgiven him a long ago for his infidelity. Perhaps that's what broke his heart more than anything. He didn't deserve her forgiveness, and yet she so freely gave it to him.
"We made it through that shit twenty years ago, didn't we?" she continued. "We can do it again." She turned to Winter. "Do you think you could help me set up something similar to what Vacuo has running?"
"I suppose I could," she said. "The problem is where to start with all of it."
"C'mon, guys," Yang said, gesticulating toward Hillphire. "It's not like we don't have a mad scientist right here with us."
"Engineer," Hillphire said with sarcasm dripping. "I'm an engineer."
"It was barely twenty years ago you were only a blacksmith," Nora mumbled.
—
"I did not get the impression from our conversation that you already had something built," Winter said, staring at the massive contraption at the very back of Hillphire's personal Forge, the only area in the entire Hillphire Innovations complex that was his and his alone.
"I had been working on this with Ariadne for a month now," Hillphire said. "Well, coordinating with her and Dr. Cherenkov, of course. It's quite rugged compared to the sleek one they have set up beneath Shade Academy, but they had years to build theirs. I had to allocate a large portion of the company's resources and manpower to build this thing in such a short time."
"So," Yang said, looking down at the enormous machine layout, "this is supposed to open up a rift?"
"Not quite," Xanthus said, pushing up his glasses. "It merely destabilizes space-time in order for someone like Yuan to cross between this world and the Labyrinth much more easily. Of course, standing in the middle of destabilized space-time for too long might draw you into the Labyrinth eventually, just as has happened to people in the past."
"How the hell do you know all that?" Athena said to her teammate.
"I read."
Echo chuckled.
"So, I should be able to cross through over there?" Yuan said.
"Well, we have to fire the machines up first," Hillphire said.
"Let's do it, then," Leon said.
Hillphire gave the group an explanation of how the machines worked, how each of the rift generators provided the proper amplitude and how the resonance emitters adjusted to the correct frequency to cause the destabilization of space-time.
"You're saying that the universe itself has a frequency at which it begins to unravel?" Winter said.
"That's what Dr. Cherenkov and his staff have discovered," Hillphire said. "I honestly did not anticipate that they would discover such a method from the work I've done myself on the matter. They took my theories and applied it to practice. Ariadne has done the same with her studies on Thaumatology."
"Sounds like you're quite the celebrity," Yang said.
Hillphire reddened. "I honestly am not so good with this level of popularity. I do a lot better with my machines than with people."
"Oh, don't worry, we know that."
They looked over to the youngsters, who were gearing up to enter the Labyrinth as the machines around them hummed to life.
"They grow up so quickly," Winter said.
"Yeah," Penny said. "I'll be going in there with them, though, so there's no need to worry."
"A team of nine?" Yang said. "That's...odd."
The others turned to her. She was smirking. A heavy sigh fell upon the group.
"I thought it was funny," Astor said, prompting Yang to give him a high five.
"You kids take care while you're in there," Qrow said.
"Don't worry," Athena replied. "We've had experience with this shit. That world can't fuck with us anymore."
"We'll be okay, Grandpa Qrow," Leon said.
Winter and Ivory stood face to face before giving each other a salute.
"You know I'm proud of you, don't you?" Winter said.
"Yes, mother," Ivory said. "Worry not. I will make sure to bring every single one of my team home. Such is the duty of a leader, is it not?"
"You get one little win at the tournament and all of a sudden you're bossing us all around, huh?" Athena said.
"Only if you will follow me."
Ivory walked past her toward the rift. Athena let out a small chuckle before gesturing to her team, who followed.
"Okay," Penny said, joining the youngsters. "We might have two teams here, but we'll all be working together."
"As always," Leon said.
"I have an extra communication set in case we get separated," Xanthus said, entering a few commands on his armband keyboard. "There. Everything is calibrated."
"Testing," Hillphire's voice came in through the team's headsets. "Do you all read me?"
"I hear you, Liam," Penny said.
The others gave thumbs up signals.
"Good," Hillphire said. "According to Ariadne, these devices should enable us to communicate between the worlds, but the further down in layers you descend, the greater the temporal incongruence, and thus the greater the difficulty in communication."
"And these red rubies?" Ingrid said, playing with the golf ball-sized gemstone in her hand. "Wait, is this a rune?"
"Yes. She and Lilly have been working on this for some time. It should help to anchor your existences as you travel through the Labyrinth and prevent the environment from corrupting you."
"That's comforting," Leon said. "I think."
"Okay," Ivory said. "Yuan, proceed when you're ready."
Yuan led the group of nine to the center of the Rift Generator formation. As he looked around, he could not deny the resemblance between the arrangement of structures and the runes that Lilly used.
"It's like we're standing in a giant rune circle," Ingrid mumbled.
"You noticed, too?" Yuan said.
"I'm just hoping we don't end up separated like the first time we experienced the Labyrinth," Athena said.
Echo took her by the hand, looking up into her midnight blue eyes. "As long as I have you by my side," she said.
Athena gave her a smile. "Okay," she said, addressing the group, "let's go!"
Those in the control center watched as the nine vanished from sight.
"Unfortunately," Hillphire began, "my Labyrinth Navigator is not as advanced as the one Ariadne has access to. They'll have to plot their own course in there."
"You mean they're on their own?" Nora said.
"No, they can communicate with us just fine. But they'll be the ones to decide where they're going."
"Okay, so," Astor said, yawning. "I guess I'm gonna go to the mall."
"You should go to school," Qrow said.
"And do what? You know my team left for Menagerie, don't you?"
"You should still attend your classes. Unless you wanna end up dumb."
"C'mon, dad."
"You know what, I'll go with you. Let's do some combat training."
"Ugh. Your 'training' is just me running laps all day while you drink your ass off."
"Exactly." He threw his arm over his son's shoulder. "Now, let's go. Your mom's gonna be pissed if I don't push you to attend classes and then you fail. That ain't gonna be my fault, okay?"
"We're staying here," Ren said. "I don't think I can pry Nora away from this place. And besides, we can provide backup in case anything goes wrong."
"Don't jinx it!" Nora yelled.
"I'll stay with them," Yang said. "Mom should be coming here soon with the rest of the team, too. You two have fun!"
Astor sighed all the way to the door.
—
The group of nine stared at the completely empty version of their world. Yuan had succeeded in crossing them over to the Labyrinth's First Layer. It was an exact replica of reality with the only exceptions being that it was devoid of any life and everything was awash in an ever-so-slight shade of blue-gray.
"You did it," Leon said to Yuan.
"I can hardly believe it myself," he said.
"My scanner isn't picking up anything hostile," Xanthus said. "Penny-senpai, are you getting any readings around us?"
She shook her head. "This is the First Layer, after all. I'd be more worried if we did encounter monsters here."
"Where should we start?" Ingrid said.
"What do you think?" Ivory asked Athena, who was looking around.
"Let's get out of the Forge first," she said. "It would help if we had a good view of our surroundings."
"Agreed."
Once they were out in the city, Ingrid and Echo climbed to the highest points they could in order to get a better view.
"Hey," Ingrid said into her microphone. "Are you seeing that, too?"
"Out by the hospital over there?" Echo replied.
"Yeah."
"I thought my eyes were messing with me, but I guess it's a thing."
"Let's go check it out."
The two scouts dropped back down to the team to report.
"I think it's worth an investigation," Ivory said. "This may be one of those personal Labyrinths that Lilly has been going into."
"We'll take point, then," Athena said, glancing at her teammates, who nodded before taking up formation with Perseus at the very front alongside his leader.
As they neared the visual distortion ahead of them, their world began to shift.
"Stay near me," Yuan said. Both teams obliged. "This may be the darker Labyrinth."
"You're right," Penny said, her scanners going haywire. "Hang on, I'm rereading the debriefs. Okay, according to what Ariadne has discovered over the months, we should be descending into the Second Layer of the Labyrinth right now, but as long as we stay close to Yuan, we shouldn't get separated. Also, if these rune stones do what they're designed to do, there shouldn't be any problems even if we get too distant from each other."
"These readings," Xanthus said, looking at his armband monitor. "This must be the space-time distortion Ariadne talked about."
"Yes. It seems the distortions themselves are centered around that hospital, from which it all spills over to the surrounding space."
"And that's why we descended into the Second Layer?" Leon said, squinting into the fog.
"Yes," Xanthus said. "I'm also picking up a lot of readings in the vicinity."
"Stay on guard, everyone," Ivory said, holding Elfenbein at the ready.
They proceeded toward the hospital, evading the gruesomely twisted shadows that lurked around every corner. From previous experiences some of the team members had, they all understood that engaging one would only result in more converging on their location. Stealth was important in this world, even in the foggy Second Layer.
"We should be descending into the Third Layer soon," Penny said. "The density of Corrupted increases the further down we go, so keep your eyes peeled."
"Also," Xanthus began, "the personal Labyrinth itself may be even stranger than the macabre Third Layer."
"Stranger?" Leon said. "As in, how?"
"Uh, according to Ariadne's reports, Lilly mentioned something about...walking through a painting. Or...a cartoon."
The group gave him incredulous looks.
"I'm just regurgitating information," he said as he pushed up his glasses.
"Okay, then," Athena said. "Let's go see what it feels like to be in a cartoon."
"This already feels like a videogame," Ingrid said, readying Shadow Blitz for action.
In no time, the group descended into the Third Layer. The fog gave way to pitch darkness, accompanied by a dark crimson sky which provided no light for them. The flashlights they did possess shone no further than fifty feet.
"This again," Athena said, shutting off her light. "We're wasting batteries with these lights, but fuck I can't see shit out here."
"Let's see if this helps," Ivory said, projecting a glyph, which created a fireball to float over the team as a makeshift lantern.
"I didn't know you could do that with Dust," Ingrid said.
"It's one of the things I learned to develop my Semblance for. Not everything needs to be combat related, you know."
Using Ivory's light as their guide, the team continued to advance through the darkness, but without the ability to see anything past fifteen yards, they came upon a group of Corrupted without any warning. One of the monsters began wailing before attacking, accompanied by more than a dozen more equally grotesque creatures, each of which submitted their own unique cries and screams into the mix.
"These things sound too human," Ingrid said, stabbing her double-ended spear into one of the Corrupted, which seemed to cry as it curled up on the ground, clutching its fatal wound. "Ugh, I miss fighting Grimm already."
"God, this is so disturbing," Leon said, pressing back up against his childhood friend. "Oh, hey, kitty kat."
She sighed heavily. "Really? Even in the middle of all this?"
"Look, I'm just trying to cope with what we're seeing here."
"Fine. If you need to lie in my lap just to stay sane, whatever."
"Wait," he said, turning around quickly. "D-Do you really mean that?"
"Ugh," she grunted before pushing him away.
"Hey! C'mon! Don't leave me hanging!"
"Is it just me," Perseus said as he stood back to back with Xanthus, "or does it seem like these things are in pain?"
"It may just be our imagination," Xanthus said, activating the Sword of Heaven and preparing to freeze his opponents with Ice Dust. "But then again, these are not our usual enemy."
"You know, I've always wondered about that. What if Grimm feel pain and stuff? I mean, the older ones are at least smart enough not to attack what's clearly a heavily fortified city. What if they do have some level of intelligence?"
"Who's to say, really? Perhaps they do have intelligence, but considering it is impossible to research them further, we have to work on observations alone. I personally do not allow myself to think of them as sentient. That may cause me to hesitate one day and commit a fatal error."
"You have a point."
"Regroup!" Penny yelled to the teams as the number of Corrupted began to swell to an unmanageable size. The horde was endless, putting to shame the swarms of Grimm back in the real world. "We need to hold the gate over here and use it as a bottleneck!"
Yuan looked around as his friends gathered together. None of them could see further than fifty feet, but he was able to sense every single one of these things, most likely a result of the Wraith-Knight which lay dormant within him. From what he could tell, there were thousands of them, far too many for the nine of them to handle, even with Penny's unrivaled physical prowess.
"Yuan!" Ingrid yelled. "What are you still doing out there?"
It was now or never. The reason they ventured into the Labyrinth in the first place was to figure out if Yuan's new power could manifest here without threatening to rend his flesh from his bones. Just like before, he was willing to risk it all for them.
"Sir Elyan," he mumbled. "If you can hear me, I beg of you, lend me your strength."
He closed his eyes, unbothered by the numerous Corrupted circling him. An intense power pulsed from within, sending out a shockwave that shook the ground beneath. His clothing billowed with a wind that manifested from nowhere.
Penny watched her student closely as her scanners began to go haywire. It was about to happen again, the unleashing of that ancient being of magic which had been their enemy twenty years ago. To think that it would now be their ally made her skin crawl.
With a final burst of power, Yuan looked up at his enemies. His eyes were no longer jade, overtaken by that flaming golden halo which emerged from his pupils outward. His clothes had also changed color, shifting to a black with cyan detailing.
"Whoa!" Leon yelled as their teammate's power manifested fully on the outside in the form of a mist of darkness accompanied with intermittent flashes of cyan lightning.
"Holy shit!" Perseus said as he raised his shield to protect his team from the debris tossed about by the windstorm.
"Lass die Dunkelheit mein Schwert sein," Yuan chanted. "Und lass meinen Körper das Schild sein, das jeden hinter mir schützt."
Both of his hands glowed with bright light, brown on the back of his left fist and blue on the right.
"Runes!" Leon said.
"Yes, that's what they are," Ivory said.
"Earth Rune," Yuan began, holding up his left hand, "bestow upon my allies your protection. Gehärtete Verteidigung. And grant them your strength. Stahlknöchel."
The entire group of nine were bathed in a soft, brown glow, empowering them physically.
"This is just like what Lilly did," Perseus said. "Whatever this is, it makes your body tougher and stronger."
"So, he just buffed us?" Echo said.
"That's a videogame reference, isn't it?" Ivory said.
"What, you too cool for videogames?" Athena said.
"Too busy."
"Let's do this!" Leon said, whirling Vermillion Crescent around before teleporting with his Semblance into the midst of a group of Corrupted.
The magical enhancements Yuan bestowed upon the group proved to be the one thing necessary to turn the tide of battle. He personally led the team of nine as they cut, stabbed, and smashed their way through the massive swarms of Corrupted, mercilessly carving a path of devastation in their wake. Their objective had since shifted from merely cutting losses to outright extermination of their enemies.
"Water Rune!" Yuan yelled, holding out his right hand. "Regen der Restaurierung!"
The entire group was bathed in blue light as tiny droplets of magic fell upon them, healing them of all wounds and granting a moderate morale boost.
"This is awesome!" Leon yelled, more empowered than ever.
"Yeah," Ingrid said. "It feels like we really can win against this horde."
"Press on the advantage!" Athena cried, leading the charge forward, followed closely by her team and Team LILY as well.
The battle only ended when the remaining Corrupted decided to flee into the darkness. Yuan could feel their presences growing further and further away until they were undetectable.
"I'm not picking them up anymore," Penny said.
"Neither am I," Xanthus said, looking at his monitors. "I think we're in the clear."
"Dude," Leon said, walking up to his partner and giving him a high five. "That was friggin' awesome."
"What a rush," Athena said. "We need to do that more often."
"I feel like I can keep fighting, to be honest," Ingrid said, switching feet as she hopped up and down. "Looks like Echo's not done either."
They all looked up to their archer, who was perched on top of a non-functioning streetlight. Just then, the brownish glows around their bodies broke away almost like glass.
"Sorry," Yuan said. "I think that's the end of the spell."
"Can you recast?" Perseus asked.
"I should be able to."
"Not yet," Ivory said. "Let's save your strength for when we really need it again."
"Yes, ma'am."
Meanwhile, Penny found herself conflicted. Their hypothesis had been correct. Yuan's newfound power was perfectly stable here in the Labyrinth, which turned out to be serendipitous in this situation, but she had already experienced enough even in her short life to keep from being too optimistic. She needed to keep an eye on him and be prepared for the worst in case history decided to repeat itself as it often does.
I hope we're not making a mistake relying on something like this.
