CHAPTER XXVIII
Blinding Light
Ingrid screamed as the electric current ran through her entire body once again. Amid the cries and begging of her younger sisters, Adam continued to supervise the torment. It had gone on for quite some time now. He glanced over at Blake. She seemed ready to fall apart. On second glance, it looked as though she were already broken. Nevertheless, he authorized the Lesser Daemons under his command to continue the torture. Their magical ability to heal any wounds could make this torment eternal if he were so inclined.
"I have to wonder," Cinder asked him. "Are you even trying to break her anymore? Because from where I'm standing, I think Blake's already ready to say yes to Tamiel."
"What are you doing here?" he said to her.
"Regrouping with Azazel and the others. I thought we'd drop by and say 'hi.'"
"Okay, then, hi. Now, bye."
Cinder chuckled. "You were lying when you said you were over her."
"Oh, I am over her. I'm doing this simply because I like watching people suffer. I have a god complex and narcissistic personality, you know."
"How self-aware of you."
He grinned.
"Please," Blake whimpered as tears streamed down her face. "Not my children..."
"Amazing, isn't it?" Adam said to Cinder. "Rank means utterly nothing. Everyone can beg. You know, I think you're on to something. That mantra you hold, that you have nothing if you don't have might. We're proving it right here and now. Blake Belladonna might be Queen of Menagerie, the fifth kingdom, but she has no real might. Political power can only bring you so much. Nothing we've seen so far can overcome the absolute juggernaut of this power we've come to possess."
"Especially in this world," Cinder mused.
"It's strange, too, isn't it? You and I wanted to rip each other's heads off, but now, none of that seems to matter."
"Oh, don't get me wrong, I'd still kill you without a second thought. But like you said, that doesn't matter so much anymore."
"Because what's the use in petty squabbling when we've got our sights set on much loftier goals, huh? Tell me, Cinder. You have this incredible power at your disposal now after your pact with Azazel. What do you intend to do with it?"
She didn't answer. The thought of that "ritual" continued to make her feel soiled even to this day. But she could not deny the absolute ecstasy of this power and that served as an unending source of conflicting emotions.
"You still gonna try and accumulate even more power?"
She maintained her silence as she walked away from him, toward the portal she had opened to join him in this world.
—
"What the hell is that?" Leon gawked.
"A castle?" Yuan said.
Penny looked up at the dark, enormous castle looming ahead of them. Some time ago, they had succeeded in fully transitioning into the Labyrinth, but what they came upon was unlike any Labyrinth they had ever gone through. The world was dark, but not like the light-eating darkness of the Third Layer. They had entered a realm throughout which pervaded a dark, violet hue, whose skies were inhabited by things that should not be capable of flight. The world they had entered could not be further from reality; it was as though they had walked right into a high fantasy movie set.
Except that it was no set. Everything here was real, from the burned out landscape to the hellish "trees" and "animals" roaming about. Even this castle in the distance was almost demonic in appearance.
"There aren't any Corrupted ahead of us," Yuan said.
"Is that good?" Leon said.
"Under any other circumstance, I would say yeah, but that castle..."
"My sensors are going haywire," Penny said. "I can't really make out what's happening in the space that building inhabits. It's not like the Fourth Layer, or the Third, or any of them."
"So, what's this, a Fifth Layer of the Labyrinth?" Leon said.
She didn't answer. Like everything related to magic, she had no answers. No one in all of Remnant could possibly have any answers. Only Bedivere could explain any of these phenomena and he wasn't here to help.
Bedivere, Penny thought as she clutched her hands to her chest. I wish you were still here. I wouldn't be so lost with you around.
But you're not lost at all.
Her eyes opened wide, but she quickly realized that she was merely hearing his voice, an auditory hallucination.
Like the one you had of me during your most recent near-death experience, hmm?
Yeah, she thought, smiling to herself.
I suppose I should show up again to give you some more reassurance, then. Penny, you aren't lost. Not anymore. You're the one destined to guide the next generation.
She chuckled. I'd be more reassured if this were actually you and not my mind speaking to myself in your voice. Cuz if it's the latter, then I just told myself that it's my destiny to teach these kids how to live, and that's a little presumptuous.
In that case, believe it, Penny. Who is to say whether you are imagining me or if I'm actually speaking to you from beyond the grave? Are you not standing in a world created by magic?
Penny bit her lip, fighting back tears. I choose to believe it. I choose to believe it's really you I'm hearing, that it's you Lilly summons every time she calls out her knight, that you've always been there, watching over your daughter and her mother from a place and time we have yet to travel to.
She could see his smile with her mind's eye. Go, Penny. They need you.
She nodded, permitting a single tear to roll down her cheek.
"Penny-senpai?"
She looked over at Yuan and Leon, both of whom were facing her.
"I'm fine," she sniffled. She turned to both of her charges. "This is not gonna be like any other Labyrinth we've ever gone through."
"We know, boss," Leon said with a smile. "And if my partner's ready for it, I am, too."
"Yes, senpai," Yuan said. "All of the Labyrinth work we've been doing until now has readied us for anything."
"It'll be weird with just us three, but hey, we have Magical Boy Yuan, Supergirl, and my Million-Lien-Smile on the same team. There's no way we're gonna lose."
Penny returned his smile. "You really are cute, you know."
He turned bright red.
"It seems Penny is the only one who can do that to you," Yuan said to his partner.
"Shut up, man," he whined.
The trio turned to face the ominous castle in the distance.
"Time to raid a castle?" Leon said.
"Yeah," Yuan said.
"Let's do it!" Penny said.
—
Ingrid panted as the torture moved on to Justine. The Lesser Daemons went to work on her again, healing the damage done to her body by the gruesome techniques employed by these robed figures. She caught a glimpse of one of them. He looked human enough, but with the grotesque scars and markings on his face, he may as well have been a devil.
I have to hold it together, she thought. She needed to work double time to convince herself. After all, she was fully cognizant of the fact that they could keep this up forever assuming they had enough magic at their disposal. And from what she could tell, there was no end to their reserves.
"Haven't you had enough?" Francine yelled. "You're not even doing this for any reason anymore!"
"Wrong," Adam said. "There's always a reason."
"What the hell is your reason, then?"
He glanced over at Blake. Seeing the brokenness all over her face was more than enough. Just past her was Sun, who was no longer watching the horrors. He didn't force him to look, however. The screams reaching his ears would be plenty.
"Okay, I think it's time I got my hands dirty," Adam said before standing in front of Ingrid, who snarled at him. He looked over to Blake to make sure she was watching before digging his hand into her eldest daughter's abdomen, tearing through flesh before rearranging her innards.
Ingrid fought to hold back her scream, but the pain was too much to bear. It was as though his hand grasped more than just her physical body.
What the hell is this feeling? It's like he's tearing away at...my soul!
Her aura flickered before breaking and then reconstituting.
Lady Ingrid...
She opened her eyes wide. Did she imagine that voice just now?
"You're no fun," Adam said, pulling his hand back out before healing her wound. In spite of the catastrophic damage he had just caused, she was back to full health in mere seconds. "I think I'm gonna have my way with the triplets instead." He tilted his head. "Would be a lot easier if I had a third arm, though."
Ingrid seethed with hatred as he walked to her sisters, who thrashed as he violated their flesh and bone and blood, again causing their auras to flicker just as what had happened to her own.
"Let them go, you son of a bitch!" Ingrid screamed, her blood hot with rage.
Adam turned to her with a grin. Blake's eldest turned out to be much more fun than Blake herself, who was at the point of despair and no longer reacting on the outside.
"My, my, you have much more fire than mommy did back when she was your age," he said.
"Fuck you!" Ingrid yelled. "I'm gonna rip your fucking face off, you piece of shit!"
"You and what army? Face it, little girl. You are in my territory now and there is absolutely nothing you can do to save your family or yourself."
Ingrid seethed as she ruminated on the truth behind his words. There really was no way out of this one. She and her family were faced with overwhelming odds. Only a miracle would grant them release.
But in spite of this, she did not lose hope. Rather, it wasn't hope that filled her heart. It was a fire unlike any she had ever felt in her life, a fire that raged within, fighting to break loose and devour her whole.
It was the fire of life itself.
Her surroundings went black. She found herself in a perfectly empty landscape, one that contained no sights or sounds. She looked all around for anything familiar, but even light forsook this place.
"Hello?" she called out, her voice echoing back toward her in distorted fashion.
"I've been awaiting you."
"Who's there?"
She received no answer, but the darkness in front of her receded to reveal what looked to be a black cloud that vaguely took the shape of something human.
"This feeling..." she mumbled.
"I presume you've realized who I am, princess."
"Is that supposed to be some kind of joke?"
"I apologize. Was I mistaken in addressing you by that title? You are the princess of Menagerie, eldest child of Queen Blake Belladonna of Menagerie, are you not?"
"How do you know so much about me?"
"I have been watching you from afar, waiting for the right time to come into contact with you. My fellow Wraith-Knights have already formed pacts with two of your friends."
"I knew it. You're the reason my hair's standing on end."
"It is only natural to be wary in the face of power as dangerous as that of a Wraith. Your caution leads me to believe that I have chosen well."
"So, what, you wanna possess me like your buddies possessed Yuan and Xanthus?"
"'Tis not a possession, milady. 'Tis a partnership. A bond between those of kindred spirits."
"Kindred spirits?"
"Aye. I had wondered which one among you would be most like myself. I presumed it would be your childhood friend, the one with the strong personality. I hadn't suspected it would be you who would be burning with righteous fury so bright that it puts the sun itself to shame."
That's right. She and her family were currently being tortured.
"Where did my sisters and my parents go?" she demanded.
"They continue to suffer at the hands of evil, milady."
"And lemme guess. You're gonna offer me this power of yours."
"At heavy cost to your soul, young one. Your friends must have already told you by now the burden they bear as hosts for my fellow Wraith-Knights."
She recalled the few times Yuan would confide in her about the Wraith-Knight he had awakened to. While in the Labyrinth, it afforded him incredible power, but that heavy feeling never left his mind. Though Sir Elyan, the Wraith-Knight he had bonded with, possessed no malice, it was as if his very presence applied pressure against Yuan's heart.
"I will be blunt, young lady. Forming a pact with me will not be easy. After all, the power of a Wraith is born from the deepest, darkest pits of the soul, one's very sins given form and transformed into raw power. Only in taming this other self can one find the strength to stand against any adversity."
"Anything," Ingrid muttered. "I don't care what the cost is. I'm willing to do anything to keep my family safe."
"You speak resolutely. Do you truly understand the burden you will bear?"
"Of course not. But like I said, I'll do anything for them."
"I see."
The black cloud before her began to solidify until taking the form of something reminiscent of a knightly figure clad from head to foot in armor.
"I am Sir Galahad of Kameloth, once and evermore loyal vassal and retainer of Arthur, the Pendragon of Albion. Tell me, Ingrid Belladonna, Princess of Menagerie, will you swear to uphold the knight's code of justice, honor, valor, and mercy?"
"I swear it."
"Then, I, Sir Galahad of Kameloth, swear to be thy shield. From this day forth, let thy suffering be mine, and let my sword be thine, Lady Ingrid Belladonna of Remnant. Command my destiny and wield the power of a Wraith-Knight. Lay waste to thine enemies!"
It was too late by the time Adam sensed the flicker of magical energy from one of his victims. In complete horror, he turned to face Ingrid Belladonna, the eldest of Blake's children. Her amber eye color had been replaced by a fiery golden glow emerging outward from her pupils. Her face was painted with the very image of untold wrath as a force expelled itself from her body.
"Stop her!" Adam commanded to the Lesser Daemons, but it was too little, too late.
Three of the hooded figures were caught in a shockwave emanating from Ingrid's body and they disintegrated. She began to float from the ground, engulfed in a black, shadowy fog rising from her feet. She writhed in pain as she screamed, tearing at her own flesh, throwing bloody strips of skin in every direction. Screams morphed into maniacal laughter as the shadow swallowed her whole. An apparition appeared above her chrysalis of magic, like a flame grinning at the world.
The shadowy figure gradually took the form of something human before finally receding to reveal a completely reformed Ingrid. All of the rage was gone, supplanted by a laser focus she had never felt in her life. She had one goal now: to protect her loved ones and eliminate any and all threats to them.
Her first move was faster than the human eye could see. In a flash, she was standing beside her mother's captors. In the next instant, she had decapitated all four of those Lesser Daemons. Her father's guards were next.
"You're all useless!" Adam yelled, but before he could make another move, he was already in a blade deadlock with the eldest Belladonna child. "Amazing what this power can do for you, isn't it, Ingrid?"
"Yeah, amazing."
Something was strange.
"What's the matter?"
He gritted his teeth as he realized that the Ingrid he was fighting did not move her lips. He looked over his shoulder. The real Ingrid had just freed her triplet sisters. What he was fighting right now was a shadow clone. He turned back to his opponent, which should have been significantly weaker than the original, but this one had incredible strength.
"Okay, which one is the clone and which one is you?" he demanded.
"Ain't that the million-Lien question?" said the one he was clashing with.
"Don't toy with me!"
"Who's toying?" said another clone to his right.
"We're all the real thing," her voice came from all directions.
Adam only barely managed to dodge an incoming strike from another direction, somersaulting away from danger to face off with five Ingrids, two looking after her parents, one with her sisters, and two squaring off with him.
"You think you can get a little power boost and take me on?" he spat. "I've bonded with a Greater Daemon! You're merely borrowing your power! Mine is linked directly to her!"
Tamiel manifested beside him, great axe fully deployed. She attacked first, targeting Ingrid directly, instantly cognizant of which one was the real Ingrid.
"I know how this works," she said, exchanging blow after blow with the newly awakened Wraith-Knight. "Your clone technique has merely been amplified by Sir Galahad's power, but it's not infinite. You barely have what it takes to keep those other clones materialized because you're focusing solely on me right now."
Ingrid knew she was right. The power boost provided by her pact with Sir Galahad was colossal, but facing off directly against a Greater Daemon might prove too much to handle. From what she knew of Xanthus and Yuan's experience, the awakening to this power resulted in a spike in performance that would only last for so long before her body could no longer handle the strain. If Tamiel didn't outright kill her right now, she'd die from the magical stress.
"Keep her busy!" Adam said. "I'll take care of her family!"
"Be careful," Tamiel said. "She might be concentrating on me, but I think her clones can still fend for themselves."
"I don't mind. It's not every day I get to kill the same person more than once!"
Francine gathered up her sisters with her parents as Ingrid and her clones battled against Tamiel and Adam. They were still shaken, but at full health thanks to the healing magic of their captors. What was meant to be a tool of torture happened to be serendipitous given the situation.
"Are all of you okay?" Francine asked her family. Nadine was silent along with Justine. Sun was still trying to sort everything out in his head. Only Blake seemed to be aware of what was going on. She watched her eldest daughter fight against her arch nemesis, wielding a power that had once threatened all of Remnant.
"Ingrid..." Blake managed.
"Mom, she's okay," Francine said, holding her mother's hand. "Ingrid's got this."
"Gotcha!" Adam said, landing a solid stab into one of the clones, piercing its heart. It vanished before the remaining three squared off with him again. They attacked simultaneously, but they were mere shadows of the real thing. Finishing them off would be simple.
Meanwhile, Ingrid could barely hold her own against Tamiel, whose power was overflowing. Each strike from her double-headed great axe caused Shadow Blitz to sing a painful tune. If Ingrid wasn't careful, her weapon would be cleaved in half. Her parrying technique needed to be perfect. A perpendicular hit would be catastrophic. Fortunately, she had plenty of practice with Yuan, whose weapon was almost as heavy as Tamiel's.
"I can feel your power about to break, child," Tamiel said as the two entered a polearm deadlock. "Just a few more minutes now and it will be all over. Once you're out of the way, we can get back to what we were doing. Oh, but I won't kill you. I want you to watch as your mother loses all of her will and consents to becoming my vessel so that I might walk in your world."
Ingrid grunted as she struggled to think her way out of her predicament. Galahad had been silent since their pact had been sealed, but he wasn't gone, not completely. There was another strange feeling beginning to rise up inside her as well, as though another bright flame grew nearer and nearer.
"Damn it!" Tamiel yelled. "Don't tell me they've already broken through the defenses!"
"What are you talking about?" Adam said, facing off with the last shadow clone.
"Ingrid!" Leon yelled before teleporting to her side and swinging Vermillion Crescent at Tamiel, who barely dodged his attack. "Are you okay?"
"What are you doing here?" Ingrid said.
"Rescuing a princess!"
"Are you even serious right now."
"Yeah, we are, actually."
"'We'?"
They both turned to Yuan and Penny, who were standing between her family and Adam. Tamiel vanished, reappearing beside Adam.
"We're leaving," she said.
"We can take them!" Adam persisted.
"No. Sir Galahad's flame should have flickered out by now. There's something about these Wraith-Knights that doesn't sit well with me. We're going to Malphas. Her influence over this region is much stronger than mine."
Without another word, she vanished with Adam in tow. Ingrid let out a sigh of relief before allowing her power levels to decrease. She ran with Leon to her family, checking with every single one of them.
"Dude," Leon said, walking over to Yuan. "Look at all this shit."
"Are these torture machines?" Yuan said, eyeing some of the equipment.
The distress from the entire Belladonna Family was not lost on Penny thanks to her empathy Semblance. After all, the instant she was within range, their agony slammed against her like a tsunami. Had she not been distracted by the monsters she and the two boys were dealing with, she might have passed out from the effects. Even now, it was difficult just to stand on two feet.
"Penny, are you all right?" Leon said, noticing how unsteady she was.
"How could they...?" she said balling her fists. "They're...monsters..."
Yuan walked over to Ingrid's family, trying his best to reassure them. "C'mon, let's get all of you out of this place," he said before taking Ingrid's hand. "You pretty good with this power yet?"
"Not really," she said.
"I'll guide you through it." He gestured for Penny and Leon to join them. "Okay. Just picture our world, the bright, warm sun on your skin. Imagine it not as a dream, but as a memory, one that you want to relive."
Ingrid did as he said. With the two of them exerting together, they managed to draw the entire group back to their world. Finally, Ingrid fell to all fours, exhausted by the awakening of her Wraith-Knight and the battle against Tamiel. She turned to Yuan, who also de-powered himself in order to keep from suffering the effects of magic activation outside of the Labyrinth.
"Where the heck are we?" Leon said.
"Eastern Menagerie, from the looks of it," Penny said. "Blake, Sun, we need to get you guys somewhere safe. Are you all okay to walk?"
"We'll manage," Francine said.
