CHAPTER XXVI
Playing with Fire
As soon as they reached a clearing, Ingrid stopped her sisters, allowing the group to catch their breaths.
"Did we lose them?" Justine panted.
"I don't hear any of them," Francine said. "Damn it, it's impossible to see anything in this world."
"You all still have your reality anchor gems, right?" Ingrid asked.
Nadine pulled hers out, examining the rune etched into the center of the ruby. "How does this work?"
"Magic. That's all I know. No idea about the specifics."
"So, how do we get back to the real world?" Justine said.
That was a good question. This was Ingrid's first time in the Labyrinth without Yuan or Xanthus to create a bubble of stable reality around the group. They were also the only ones capable of pulling them back into the real world. Without either of those Wraith-Knight hosts around, Ingrid was at a total loss.
"At least these things actually work," she muttered, patting the red ruby in her pocket. She began walking forward. Even if she had no idea where she was going, she continued to press onward. Her sisters were counting on her. She was perfectly aware of the fact, however, that she might only be leading them toward danger.
"Whoa," Justine said. "Does anyone else see that?"
The Belladonna sisters looked all around. From what they could tell, they were still in the mining town, but only mostly. Their environment had since shifted into a mash-up of all sorts of sceneries, but in severely distorted fashion.
"That building is upside down," Nadine said.
"And that one is sideways," Francine said. "And it's curving? What the hell is going on here?"
"Remember what I told you guys about the Labyrinth?" Ingrid said.
"Yeah, but I didn't expect it to be this warped," Justine said. "Which, uh, which way do we go?"
"Forward. Let's keep moving forward."
"Where is forward, though?" Francine muttered before following after her sisters.
—
Yuan let out a scream that shook the town square. Enough power emanated from his body that nearby windows shattered at the force of his Wraith-Knight's awakening. In frustration, he hurled a fireball at a nearby car, setting it ablaze.
"Yuan!" Penny yelled, staring straight into his eyes as she gripped him by the shoulders. "Snap out of it!"
"Penny-senpai," he panted. "I-I'm sorry."
She scanned her student. Black wisps of what appeared to be smoke emanated from his body as his irises flashed between jade and golden halos.
"I don't get it," Leon said, standing beside his teammates. "Until now, you and Xanthus couldn't even so much as flicker your powers on in the real world. You just threw a magical fireball, dude."
"It may be because of whatever's happening in this town," Penny said. "The veil between this world and the Labyrinth is a complete mess. It's like the entire town is engulfed in a huge rift, but..."
"But I can't cross over," Yuan said, clenching his fists. "I can't do anything to save Ingrid."
"Yuan, you need to stop that, right now. You're no good to her in this state. Try and focus."
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly.
"You might be able to take advantage of this. If the two worlds are crossing over, maybe you can force out your power."
"Is that such a good idea?" Leon said.
"To tell you the truth, no," Penny sighed. "I still don't trust anything called a 'Wraith', but we've been with Yuan for long enough to know that he's not gonna do to this world what the last Wraith did."
"What exactly did he do?" Yuan said.
Penny didn't answer.
"Senpai, I need to know. I have to understand why it is that you and my parents are so deathly afraid of this thing inside me."
She turned away for a moment, reminiscing on her old friend, the one who pulled her out of her own personal hell. She did not want to think of him in any way other than good, but the fact was that their world's savior had also served as their greatest threat. Would it be the same for Yuan?
"Hey," Leon said, standing beside her. "We know it has something to do with Lilly's dad. And...if you really can't talk about it, then—"
"No," she said. "Yuan's right. I think it's time you know what that thing inside you is truly capable of. Residing deep within Bedivere's soul was another side of himself, his Wraith. Every being of magic from his world possesses a Wraith, which tends to be the polar opposite of everything the real person is. In his case, he was so righteous in the real world that his Wraith ended up being basically evil incarnate. It had zero reservations, lived solely for itself and no one else, and nearly plunged the planet into a never-ending Labyrinth. But...even more than that..."
She turned away from her students in disgust before taking a few steps away from them. Merely recalling this memory drove a dagger into her heart. It was unthinkable that someone as bathed in light as Bedivere could have been capable of it, but it made sense that his Wraith would have been as fiendish as Bedivere was virtuous.
"Bedivere—I mean, his Wraith, it tried to corrupt our world."
"With the Labyrinth?" Leon said.
She shook her head. "He tried to personally corrupt some of us. Particularly Weiss."
"The woman he loved?"
She nodded. "And...your mom."
Yuan looked over at his combat partner and then back to her. "That makes no sense."
"It makes perfect sense, really. Ruby was, basically, like, the purest out of all of us back then. Him constantly going after her was symbolically perfect, as if Corruption itself was trying to bring Purity to its knees."
"Mom, huh?" Leon said. "Athena said that Aunt Yang told her a story about how dad served as his squire or something. And then his Wraith tried to corrupt my mom?"
"Why was he so interested in your family?" Yuan said.
"I couldn't tell you what his ulterior motives were," Penny said, "but all the same, I think he wanted to corrupt everything for the sake of corruption."
"The nature of a Wraith. I see. That's why you're so worried about me and Xanthus."
She nodded.
Yuan turned toward the center of the swirling magical forces permeating the town. "Even if that were the case—and I know I'm repeating myself here—I don't feel the slightest bit of corruption from Sir Elyan, my Wraith-Knight. Xanthus tells me the same thing about Sir Percival. I know it's entirely possible that they're just hiding their true natures from us, but at the same time, I can't ignore the strong sense of duty I get from Sir Elyan. He's a knight, through and through, complete with all the chivalry and stuff that comes along with that."
"Yuan," Penny began, but the look in her pupil's eyes told her that he had the utmost of confidence in his newfound supernatural companion. She took a deep breath before letting it out all at once. "Okay. I still don't trust that thing. But I do trust you, Yuan. And if you believe that your interests are aligned, then, okay. I'm on your side."
He nodded. "Thank you, senpai."
"Uh, don't mean to butt in," Leon began, his scythe fully deployed, "but I think we got company."
The trio looked around at a building group of Corrupted and those other creatures they did not recognize.
"You ready, Yuan?" Penny asked him.
His response was to step forward, summoning forth his power, which caused his clothing to transition once again to black with cyan trim.
"I like the style, dude," Leon said with a smirk. "You look almost as good as me."
"Let's handle this," Yuan said before leading the way into battle.
—
"Are you hurt?" Francine asked Ingrid as they leaned against what remained of a concrete wall.
"I'm fine," she panted. The truth was that the pain in her side was starting to bother her. Her aura was still intact and her body was more than capable of healing itself, but the process was a lot slower than Yuan's magic was capable of.
"What the heck was that thing anyway?" Justine said, keeping an eye on their surroundings while they caught their breath. "Was it an ogre?"
"I think so," Ingrid said. "We have to keep moving."
"No, we can't keep going on like this," Francine said, "not when the entire freakin' environment keeps shifting around us."
Ingrid surveyed their surroundings, which continued to warp between wholly disjointed locations. At some point, they were in a desert. At another point, they found themselves in a forest. Stranger yet, one of their transitions took them to a mountain path and back down to sea level.
"Are we, like, teleporting around the planet?" Justine said.
"Look," Ingrid sighed, "I barely know what the heck we're going through, okay?"
The triplets looked at her. She had always been the one to keep them together, but even she was at a loss today. She had kept her composure this whole time, but she could only do so much. Without Hillphire navigating for them and without Yuan at her side, she was lost.
No, that's not right. I can't be lost. I can't afford to be lost, not when my sisters are counting on me to get them home safe. But what the hell can I do in this world?
"Ingrid?"
That was a voice she hadn't heard in far too long. She turned to see her combat partner, who was approaching them alongside Ivory Schnee.
"Lilly?" she mumbled.
"It is you!" Lilly yelled, embracing her and making her wince. "Oh, are you hurt?"
"A little."
"No worries! I got it handled!" She held out a hand, summoning a Water Rune in the air between them and working on healing her injuries, extending the magic out to the rest of her party.
"Are these your sisters?" Ivory asked.
"Hey, Ivory," Ingrid said. "Yeah, this is Francine, Justine, and Nadine. Guys, you remember Lilly. And this is her cousin, Ivory."
"Oh, right, the girl who won the tournament," Francine said.
"What the heck are you guys doing in the Labyrinth?" Lilly said. "And how in the heck did you get all the way to Atlas?"
"A-Atlas?" Ingrid said before looking around. She hadn't noticed the snow before, but now it was nipping at her skin.
"Yeah, how did we get to the country that hates us?" Justine said.
"Wait," Nadine began, "it's happening again."
"Another shift," Ivory said.
"Okay, you've got this, Ingrid," Lilly said as the Water Rune faded away. "I can't follow you back to where you came from because I think we might be a little off in time right now."
"How do you figure?" she asked.
"Well, because you're already done with what you have to do in Menagerie by now."
The triplets all tilted their heads in the same direction, completely puzzled by that statement.
"Are we incongruent in time again?" Ingrid said.
Lilly nodded.
"And we absolutely must prevent any temporal paradoxes," Ivory said, "so we can't follow you."
"Ariadne says that there's no risk of that anyway," Lilly said. "It's likely that there's some kind of cosmic failsafe that prevents us from following her or her from following us."
"Still, we cannot take the risk."
Lilly gave her combat partner another hug.
"Thanks," Ingrid said. "For healing us, I mean."
"Don't mention it," Lilly said. "Hey."
"Hmm?"
"'If you're feeling lost, look to the light within you.'"
"Huh?"
"It's something mom used to tell me. I think everybody can live by that mantra."
"The light within me."
Lilly nodded. Her smile was the last thing Ingrid saw of her before she and her sisters shifted back to Menagerie in their own time.
"Okay, sis," Francine began, "I think I get why you're so confused about this whole Labyrinth thing so I promise I'll stop bugging you about it, 'kay?"
She chuckled before leading the way.
The light within me, huh?
—
Blake attempted to resist the conditioning, but it was nigh-impossible. Willpower alone permitted her to stay sane, but even that was about to fail her. As far as the rest of humanity was concerned, the Labyrinth was an uncontrollable phenomenon, completely random, and they were at its mercy. In the hands of these Greater Daemons, the one thing that remained was that humans were still at its mercy. The difference was that this world could be shaped according to the Greater Daemons' will.
Hallucinations were one thing. Delusion and hypnosis could only go so far. After all, the most cognizant minds were capable of distinguishing reality from unreality, but the Labyrinth was no fiction. Everything happening in this world was utterly real. The daughters Blake held in her arms were real. Their blood was real. Their cold, lifeless bodies were real. And she was forced to relive these grisly images of their deaths over and over again. If it wasn't her son and daughters she failed to protect, it was her husband and her friends.
She looked to the distance, where Yang fought off a horde of Grimm, succeeding in terminating every single one of them before heading to her old friend and combat partner.
"Hey, you all right?"
Blake looked up at her blonde-haired, lavender-eyed friend. She didn't want to watch her die yet again. After her, she didn't know if she would have to watch her children die once more, or her husband, or Ilia, or Velvet, or Ruby, or her parents, or—
She shut her eyes, attempting to ignore Yang's guttural groans of death. She thought she would have grown numb to the process by now, but that would not be the case. Yang was as dead now as the last five hundred times.
"It doesn't have to be this way, you know," Adam's voice sounded from the side. "It was also difficult for me while I still resisted. But once you give in, the pain goes away. Not only the pain, but also the worry, the fear and anxiety, the dread."
"What do I have to do?" she stammered through tears.
He smiled, squatting next to her. "All you have to do is say 'yes'."
She turned to him. She couldn't tell if the look on his face was genuine or trying to sell her something. This Adam was different somehow. He really did seem to believe whatever promise the Greater Daemons had told him. Or maybe she simply could no longer tell what was real from what was not.
"What do you say, Blake? Do you want the pain to go away?"
"Where...where is Sun? Where are my children?"
"Unfortunately, we don't know where your kids are. Obviously, these bodies aren't them. You know that, right?"
She didn't.
"But Sun's right over in the next room. The sooner you get this over with, the sooner you can see him."
Blake was groggy with grief, but one thing was still clear to her: she had to see her family. She had to see the ones she loved.
"Okay," she said.
"Fantastic," Adam said as he stood up. "She's ready."
Two of the Greater Daemons manifested before them, Eisheth and Ashtaroth.
"She doesn't look ready," Ashtaroth said.
"She just needs a warm bath and a fresh meal," Adam said. "She should be ready by then."
"That's not what Ashtaroth is referring to," Eisheth said.
"Huh?"
Adam turned to face Blake, but she had Gambol Shroud's blade embedded in his abdomen the moment they were face to face. She backed away, pulling her weapon out of his flesh and his hands went right to his wound, but he did not fall to the ground.
"I'm sorry," he said. "I've failed the two of you. I told you she was ready when, clearly, I was mistaken."
Eisheth smiled. "Perhaps you are still fond of her."
"Truth be told, feelings like that don't just go away."
"You aren't trying to make me envious, are you?"
"Absolutely not. You are my lady, not her."
"How are you still—" Blake began.
"Alive?" Adam interrupted her. "Didn't I say it before? Eisheth and I are bonded together. She grants me power, and I grant her, well, whatever she wants."
Blake watched as the wound in his abdomen closed up with no apparent outside intervention.
"Blake, please," he said, taking a step toward her, but she backed away. He sighed heavily. "I guess there isn't really a choice, then."
The three vanished as the scenario around her was reset, placing her at the dinner table with her family. Dread immediately took hold of her. Who would she have to watch suffer and die this time? And how many times would she be able to stomach the scene?
—
As Ingrid continued to flee through the perpetually shifting Labyrinth with her sisters, she ruminated on Lilly's last words to her.
The light within me? What did you mean by that, Lilly?
"Ingrid! Look out!"
One of her sisters tackled her to the ground, barely saving her from a monstrous creature that resembled nothing they'd ever seen before. It stood on five appendages, each appendage consisting of five needle-pointed spears for fingers. Atop its frog-like head were two rows of eyeballs, five on each side. Its thick, purple lips hid two rows of far too many teeth that resembled human molars, meant for crushing rather than impaling and tearing.
"What even is that!" Justine screamed before firing a few Dust salvos from her main combat knives before leaping back in a panic. The attack did nothing to the green monster's thick hide and it began its assault on Francine. "Why is it focusing on her?"
"Are you okay?" Nadine asked Ingrid, who rubbed her head.
"Yeah, thanks for the save," she said before turning her attention to the monster attacking her sister.
A few of their attacks seemed to daze it somewhat, particularly their heaviest strikes such as Nadine's meteor hammer and any Explosive Dust attacks they employed, but blades were all but useless; nothing could pierce its carapace.
"Is its skin made of metal or something?" Francine said as she continued to dodge. "One wrong move and I'm kebab. Nadine!"
The youngest of the triplets knew exactly what the eldest was referring to and she immediately deployed her meteor hammer, snaring one of the monster's legs with her chain. At the same time, Francine did the same with her own chain scythes, firing off the spear tips to snag the monster while Ingrid and Justine moved in to attack its soft spots, namely the eyes and inside the mouth.
"Be careful not to get eaten!" Justine yelled to their eldest sister, who dodged the monster's tongue, which shot out like a flexible spear. "That's gross!"
Meanwhile, Ingrid was focused. Her target was ahead of her and nothing else mattered at this point. She needed to trust that her sisters would be able to hold their ground. But at the very last moment, it gained the upper hand, overpowering both Francine and Nadine and breaking free of their weapons before swatting Justine away and snagging Ingrid with its flexible tongue and holding her in the air to gloat before devouring her.
"Ingrid!" Francine and Justine cried at the same time.
The eldest Belladonna sister squirmed, but the monster's tongue was slick and impossible to break out of. Before it could eat her, Nadine's meteor hammer went flying at its head, hitting it with enough force to knock it to the ground. Ingrid scampered away as its grip slackened. She looked at her youngest sister, whose face was painted with fury, the total opposite of the ever-calm Nadine Belladonna.
"You...will not...hurt...my sisters..."
"Nadine?" Justine called out to the youngest, who did not respond. She went for another attack with her meteor hammer and the monster counter-attacked, but Nadine was much faster than normal, able to dodge with ease, even up this close. Simultaneously, she delivered blow after blow with her weapon, maneuvering skillfully around the maze of needle-like appendages, dodging each and every strike.
Her meteor hammer landed a solid hit on one of its eyes and the creature was stunned long enough for the sisters to finish it off, each one attacking a different exposed body part. Justine managed to find a joint not covered by the metal-like skin and she plunged her combat knives deep into the monster's flesh, severing muscle and tendon and rendering that leg and all of its fingers useless. Less than a minute later, all four Belladonna sisters had ended the monster's movements for good. Ingrid watched as it struggled for a bit before collapsing permanently. She turned her attention to Nadine, who was still fuming, her fists balled and teeth gritted.
"Hey, Nadine," Ingrid began, but her youngest sister failed to notice her. "Hey, the battle's done."
The youngest continued to rage, itching to find something else to kill.
"Nadine, what's wrong with you?" Justine said, taking a step forward before Francine stopped her.
"Wait, something's off," she said.
"Francine's right," Ingrid said. "Nadine! It's me! It's Ingrid!"
"You...will not...hurt...my sisters..."
"Snap out of it!"
As soon as the words left her mouth, Nadine's aura broke and she fell to her knees. Her triplet sisters rushed right to her side.
"Are you all right?" Justine asked her.
"What...happened?" Nadine panted.
"I think you just discovered your Semblance," Ingrid said. "I don't see why else your aura would break like that."
"So, whatever that was, it just ended because it consumed all her aura?" Justine said.
"That's usually how Semblances work, yeah," Francine said before tending to the youngest. "Hey, are you feeling all right?"
"I remember Ingrid getting caught by the monster," she began, "and then I blacked out for a bit, and everything was kinda blurry, and then next thing I know I'm here and..." She spotted the monster a few yards away. "You guys killed it?"
"We all did," Justine said. "Boy, you sure beat the crap out of that guy, too."
"You don't remember anything?" Ingrid asked.
"No," Nadine said.
"Hmm. If that's your Semblance, it looks like it put you into some kind of berserk state. You were moving a lot faster and you had a lot more strength behind your hits. Also didn't seem like you got winded one bit. At least until your aura had been completely consumed."
"On the downside," Francine began, "you weren't exactly thinking straight."
"A literal berserk mode," Justine said. "Oh! I got the perfect name! Crazy Cat Lady!"
"No," all three of her sisters said sternly.
"Aww! You guys suck!"
"Are you all right now?" Ingrid said, helping her youngest sister back to her feet.
"Yeah, I'm fine," she said. "Still kinda dizzy though."
"Give it a few. Your aura should be back up soon."
Slow clapping came from the side and they all turned to the sound. Ingrid immediately balled her fists.
"Impressive!" Adam said, approaching the sisters. "Honestly, it would've probably taken Moonslice at full power for me to cut through that thing's armor, but you girls, well, let's just say you've got your mom's creativity."
"You again," Ingrid spat.
"Oh, come now, I'm just here to talk. Bit of a...negotiation going on right now."
Ingrid was about to retort when she went rigid. A black knight-like shadowy figure brought her mother to Adam's side.
"Mom!" Francine and Justine yelled.
Blake stared at them for some time, unable to figure out whether what she was looking at was real or another manifestation of the Labyrinth.
"Don't get careless, Blake," Adam said. "This time, it's no counterfeit."
"Mom, what did he do to you?" Ingrid said.
"Ingrid?" she began. "Is it...is it really you?"
Her daughters went into combat mode straight away, but they were restrained by Übersoldaten that appeared behind them from out of nowhere.
"What the hell?" Ingrid yelled, but there was no way for them to escape these monsters' iron grip. "Wait a minute, you control these things?"
"Well, not me," Adam said, looking to the side as Eisheth faded into existence.
"Ah, so you're opting for a more direct approach," the Greater Daemon said.
"Yes. I figured that after showing the queen how imaginative we could be, well..." He turned to Blake. "I hope you understand. In this world, my master is a god. Those images you saw, we could play them on repeat for you for as long as necessary. And it won't be dummies this time. It'll be your actual daughters who go through that pain over and over again. They won't die either. Not while Eisheth has command over this world."
"Mom, don't listen to him!" Ingrid said.
Adam turned his attention straight to her. "You remind me of her so much."
She growled at him as he began nearing her.
"You have her strength and her spirit." He touched her cheek lightly. "And you're just as beautiful."
She moved to bite at his hand, but he was ahead of her, grabbing her by the jaw so hard that she yelped from the pain.
"Leave her alone!" Nadine yelled as she fumed with rage again.
"Don't bother," Adam said. "Even in that berserk state you just discovered, you don't have anywhere near the raw strength you'll need to break out of that Übersoldat's grip."
"Please," Blake begged as she fell to her knees. "Not my daughters. Adam, please."
"Oh, now you're begging me?" he said, turning to her, astonished at the utter defeat in her eyes and body language. "Unbelievable. To be honest, I never thought I'd ever see this day. I kinda expected you and Yang to kill me one day, but I like this outcome a little better. Still, I don't know if you're actually in submission or if you're gonna stab me again as soon as I get close to you, so I think I'll test you a little bit more. Besides. We have a score to settle, Blake Belladonna. I was past all of that. Until you stabbed me, anyway."
Ingrid growled as he went over to her before forcing a kiss onto her mouth.
"Ingrid!" Francine yelled.
"Oh, you'll get your turn," Adam said, grinning before punching the eldest sister in the abdomen.
