CHAPTER XXXII
Candle in the Wind
"Oh, I'm glad you've made it again," Elise said as Ivory joined her.
It was the same table underneath the same awning covering the same balcony as always. The two young women had been meeting up like this for quite a while now. Both had lost track of how long it had been, but time didn't matter. All either knew was that being here together like this made them feel less alone.
"Coffee today?" Ivory said, picking up her mug to take in the scent of the roast.
"You kept insisting the last time," Elise said with a chuckle. "I had to try it out for myself. Honestly, I don't understand how you and that cousin of yours can handle something so bitter."
Ivory let the drink hit different parts of her mouth. "Hmm. I can't say it's the most sophisticated of coffees, but this one isn't terrible."
"Well, I can't exactly go around buying the most premium of roasts available, you know. My blood isn't anywhere near as rich as yours."
Ivory shook her head with a smile. "You're wrong. You do have a rich heart. There's no other way to explain how you can run this orphanage on your own like this."
Elise looked back to the manor. She could hear the children laughing and playing inside. She returned her gaze to the horizon, watching as the grass danced in the wind, like an ocean of vibrant emerald.
"What made you open this house anyway?" Ivory asked. "I don't think you've ever told me that story."
"I'm an orphan myself," Elise said.
"Oh. I'm sorry."
She chuckled. "I'm not. After all, I think it was my upbringing that led me to this destiny. To do good in the world."
"One should not have to have experienced pain in order to be compassionate to others."
"I agree with you, but sometimes it gives you the right nudge in the right direction." She paused. "Your remark was directed more at yourself, wasn't it?"
Ivory didn't answer. Her coffee was lukewarm by now and its flavor was a bit more mellow than earlier.
"You have to forgive yourself, you know."
She turned to her companion.
"Those stories you've told me about you and your cousin growing up. You have to let it go. You're doing your best now, aren't you?"
"It doesn't make up for the hell I put her through."
"No, of course it doesn't, but there's nothing we can do about the past. All we can do is better, better than we did before."
Was it possible, though? To let go of the past like that. She made it sound so easy, but for Ivory, it was more than a stain. It was a scar, right over her very soul, one that would not be disguised so easily.
She turned to Elise, whose face was hazy. The rest of the world began to blur as well until she was back in Shade Academy's dorm, the only one awake in the room she shared with her teammates. She blinked away her drowsiness before looking over at her childhood friend, Demetri, who slept in the lower bunk across the room. Rustling came from above and she peeked up momentarily before reflexes kicked in and she dodged her cousin, who came crashing down to the floor in front of her.
"What was that?" Ariadne said sharply as she shot up in bed. "Oh, that again." She fell back down and instantly returned to sleep.
"Are you all right?" Demetri said, turning his head over to the Schnee side of the room.
"Will you now accept my offer to trade places?" Ivory said to her cousin, who responded with a middle finger.
"Huh?" Demetri said. "Wait a minute."
"What?" Ariadne said, rousing herself up upon sensing the different energy in the air. "What's happening now? Wait, is Lilly flipping Ivory off?"
"No, that's not Lilly," Ivory said with a chuckle.
"Hold on a minute." Ariadne sat up in bed, letting her feet dangle over the edge in front of Demetri, who moved out of the way. "This happens to you, too?"
Lilith moved her hand so that her middle finger was now facing Ariadne and Demetri. The latter had to fight to hold in his chuckle, but a bit of it slipped out.
"I hate gravity," Lilith said, sitting up. "I'm gonna figure out a spell to erase it."
"That would be funny if it were definitely impossible," Demetri said, "but with you, it's difficult to tell if it actually is impossible."
"I see," Ariadne said, putting on her glasses before resting her chin on her hand, squinting at the elder Schnee. "So, even though Lilly and Lilith are different personas of the whole, they technically truly are one and the same person, so there will be things about them that are identical."
"You mean like hair color, eye color, and falling down from the top bunk?" Demetri said with a grin.
Ivory put a hand to her mouth to stop the laugh from escaping.
"Lilith just said the B word," Lilly giggled as her eyes flashed gold for an instant.
"Hey, did that always happen?" Ivory said.
"What?"
"The way your eyes flash with golden light when you two switch places."
"Huh?"
"You do realize she can't see that happen," Demetri said with a grin.
"Yes, I just did," Ivory sighed.
"I've noticed it always does," Ariadne said. "It is likely due to the switch causing a spike in Erscheinung Particle pressure, which overflows a slight bit and becomes visible through the eyes for an instant. From the reports, the same thing happens to the rest of your friends back in Mistral. Whenever they transform into their Wraith-Knight forms in the Labyrinth, their eyes glow gold until their power is fully manifested on the outside."
"Didn't you say that their clothes change as well?" Demetri said.
"Wait, what?" Lilly said.
"How does that happen?" Ivory said.
"My hypothesis is that it has something to do with the very nature of the Labyrinth," Ariadne said. "It is a world that can be shaped by magic, after all. The change of clothes likely is an outward representation of something deep within the person's subconscious. If the Greater Daemons are capable of influencing the very geography of the Labyrinth, it's easy to imagine a person changing their appearance, especially something as simple as clothing."
"Hey, why don't you change your appearance?" Demetri asked Lilly.
"I don't know!" she said.
"Why are you yelling?" Ivory asked.
"Because!"
Her eyes flashed gold. "Because she wishes she could—"
"Hey! Stop telling everybody what I'm thinking!"
The other three watched her eyes flash gold a number of times as she argued with herself, ending with Lilly crossing her arms over her chest with a frown on her face.
"She looks annoyed," Demetri whispered up to Ariadne, who nodded.
"Is anyone else hungry?" Ivory changed the subject.
"No," Lilly said sharply.
"That's a lie," Demetri said, grabbing his towel and heading to the showers.
"Hey!"
—
Lilly stood front and center as the trio looked up at the giant, twisted business tower. This would be their final attempt at freeing this young man from his Labyrinth. If they failed here, it would mark their third failure in a row, all in less than two weeks.
"Can you hear me?" Ariadne's voice crackled through their earpieces.
"Barely, but yes," Demetri said.
"I see you right at the threshold to the Fourth Layer. Thanks to Lilly's work in the rune lab, we can maintain some communication in the Third Layer, but it's not as clear as the first two. Still, Fourth Layer distortions are so strong that there's no way to synchronize our signals."
"Not yet, anyway. You were able to rectify Third Layer comms. I believe in you."
"Your faith is appreciated, but I'm afraid it will take more than that for the next Thaumatech breakthrough."
"Thaumatech, huh? I like it."
"The path ahead of you is clear. All of the doors from your previous incursions are still unlocked. Still, Corrupted alertness is higher than ever, and I'm detecting a number of those other monsters. Lilly, Ivory, Demetri, good luck."
The trio crossed through the threshold into the Fourth Layer, cutting off their communication with the outside world. They would be on their own until Labyrinth collapse. Business as usual. Except, for Lilly, this was not business as usual. She wasn't sure if she would be able to stomach a third failure in a row. She tried to clear her mind of the faces of the ones she had failed over the last ten days. Three of them, part of the first group Labyrinth, were children.
Keep it together, she thought to herself. We have to win this!
"We've got company!" Ivory said, deploying Elfenbein's Dust cartridges for battle.
Lilly's first move was to summon her knight, who proceeded to systematically dismantle the horde of Corrupted ahead of the group as the others cleaned up afterward.
—
"Man, I don't know how those three do it," Dionysus said as he leaned back against the control panel.
"Please be careful of where you're leaning," Ariadne said as she typed away, keeping up with the constant shifting of space-time and updating the LabNav map as she went.
"And I don't get how the hell you can stay ahead of map changes like that so easily."
"You assume it's easy."
"You make it look easy."
"Shouldn't you be with Orion right about now?"
"Yeah, but I ditched him today to be with our baby sister."
"Uh-huh."
"Big Bro is busy putting together a strategy to defend against Atlas."
"Still with the war."
"Can you blame anyone? With all the big military buildup and General Holland declaring their claim over our Dust mines, how could you expect anyone not to think that they intend on invading? And have you heard about the attacks in Mistral and Menagerie?"
"Those are rumors."
"Menagerie is rumor, but Mistral is clear cut. Ivory saw with her own eyes Colonel Gottfried leading the attack."
"Yes, and Colonel Gottfried has led operations without council approval many times in the past."
"Yet there's no communication between Mistral and Atlas. Not that we know of, anyway. Headmaster Lyon only has so much influence over the Mistral Council. Who knows what secret talks Atlas and Mistral might be having."
"I had no idea you were a fan of all this political intrigue, brother."
"I've been spending too much time with Orion," he said with a chuckle.
"To be honest, I think it's about time you figured out your place in the world. Maybe politics or military strategy is it."
"Hell no. I'll leave that to Orion and dad. I'm happy just coasting through life."
"Are you trying to convince me or yourself?"
"Myself, obviously."
She chuckled. "For what it's worth, Dionysus, I think you have what it takes. You just need to apply yourself. Of course, figuring out what you want to do is the first step to that."
"Ugh, I'm getting lectured by the youngest person in the family. What in the world has my life come to?"
—
The trio stepped out of an elevator to the top floor of the business tower. Demetri tentatively looked back as the elevator doors shut and the machine whirred to life, descending back to the lower floors.
"I don't understand how we can just casually use machines in another world like this," he mumbled. "What if that elevator had taken us underwater or something?" He turned to the Schnee cousins, both of whom were in complete focus. He knew for a fact Lilly was feeling the pressure of a potential third failure in a row, but he did not know Ivory to put the same kind of pressure on herself. And yet, something about her demeanor right now showed him a tiny crack in her armor.
"Captain," he said aloud. Ivory turned to him by pure reflex, quickly realizing he had been referring to Lilly. The two awaited their team leader for a moment.
"Huh?" Lilly said. "Oh, right, you mean me."
"Are you okay, cousin?" Ivory said.
Lilly nodded quickly. "We're mostly saving Lilith's strength for the boss battle. My knight barely draws any of my energy anymore just by staying active. That's why he's been out and about with us since I summoned him."
"I believe Ivory was referring to your state of mind, not your physical well-being," Demetri said.
She reddened. "Oh. Y-Yeah, I'm doing okay."
Ivory stood in front of her. "Take a deep breath," she said.
Lilly did just that.
"Don't forget to let it out."
Demetri chuckled as Lilly released her breath.
"Okay," Ivory said. "I think we're ready."
"Sorry," Lilly said.
"For what?"
"For not being a better team leader."
Ivory and Demetri exchanged looks.
"I don't think it's that you're a bad team leader," Demetri said. "You're a bad team player."
Lilly tilted her head.
"I'm afraid I have to agree with Demetri," Ivory said. "Even in our match during the tournament last year, rather than both our teams facing one another with tactical movements, we all fought four individual battles. Occasionally, each duel would receive interference from other duelists, but other than that, it was all solo fights."
She looked at the ground.
"I think what I'm trying to say," Ivory sighed, "is that you take too much of the burden on your own. You aren't alone in this fight. Not anymore. Why not rely on us more? Give us commands."
Lilly chuckled. "Me? Command you?"
"Absolutely. You know the Labyrinth inside and out. Demetri and I are here as your backup singers."
"Except that I cannot sing for the life of me," Demetri said. "Although, I can think of a certain pair of twins who are exceptional singers." He grinned upon noticing both Ivory and Lilly reddening.
"What are you smiling about, Demetri Holland?" Ivory demanded.
"Yeah!" Lilly said, stamping her foot on the ground. "Demetri Holland!"
"Oh, it looks as though our target is right up ahead," he said, squeezing past the Schnee girls.
"We're not done with you!" Ivory said, marching after him.
A bright flash of light came from behind and both Ivory and Demetri turned around to protect their team leader, but when they looked, Lilly and her knight were both gone.
"Lilly!" Ivory yelled out, running to the space her cousin once inhabited.
—
"Ivory!" Lilly called out. "Demetri!"
It's no use, dude. We're not even in the same place as them anymore.
"Yeah, I can see that. They might have gotten zapped with us, too, though."
They were a bit far from us this time, so I don't think we dragged them here. What is it with you warping all over the damned countryside anyway?
"Wha? Why are you blaming me?"
I'm just messin' with you, haha. I have no idea what's going on either. Back when it was just me in this world, I had to walk everywhere. If only I knew that it was possible to teleport all over the place. Man, that woulda saved a lotta time. And footwear.
"Footwear? You don't even have to replace your...never mind. Anyway, does this place look familiar to you?"
Kinda. Is this the Jupiter mansion?
"That's what I thought, too, but it's really different from what I remember."
Labyrinth, dude. It's probably a super distorted version of the real thing.
"Oh, right. But, then, whose Labyrinth would this be? Ariadne's?"
I'd say maybe her parents, but you've already resolved that one, haven't you? What about her brothers?
"I don't think either DJ or Orion would have any issues. Maybe Gio?"
The butler?
"Hmm, that doesn't make any sense either."
Ariadne might have her own Labyrinth. Who knows? Let's check shit out.
Lilly began wandering the mansion. There were servants and other groundskeepers roaming about, but none of them seemed to notice her. Each one was clearly a projection of the Labyrinth, though non-hostile versions of the usual denizens of this world.
"Hey, have we ever come across anything in the Labyrinth that wasn't trying to attack us?"
Well, not with you around. All the missions and stuff we've been doing have been to literally invade someone else's personal Labyrinth, but these things do exist.
"Things?"
Shades. Or Shadows. You know how you and other magical girls have Wraiths like me?
"D-Did you just call me a magical girl?"
Mm-hmm. Anyway, everyone has a reflection of themselves in this world. After all, what is the Labyrinth?
"Right. That's why there are three layers. The First Layer is an exact mirror of the real world, except empty, representing the collective unconscious. The Second Layer is the subconscious layer, which is why it's perpetually foggy, since it's hard to know what's really there. And the Third Layer represents trauma, hence the darkness and grossness."
Interesting. You said the First Layer is empty, huh?
"It isn't?"
I guess you and the others can't see them. Makes sense, since I'm the Wraith, not you.
"Wait. The First Layer is populated?"
Yup. Not by Corrupted, though. Everyone's reflections are all over the place in the First Layer. It's only when they experience trauma that a Fourth Layer sprouts where their reflections stand.
Lilly put a finger to her chin. There was still so much about this world she didn't know. Her own magical powers were a mystery to her, even to this day, despite her ability to employ them at such a degree as she was now capable of.
Heads up.
She held Myrtenaster at the ready, checking all six Dust cartridges. They were partially depleted, but there was still enough for her to employ without needing to use rune magic unnecessarily. She still had to conserve her strength for the return to the Labyrinth she was supposed to be running through.
Hey, is that...?
"Perseus!" Lilly yelled before running to her friend. She yelped as she crashed into an invisible barrier, which prevented her from getting any closer to him. "Ow," she said as she rubbed her head. "Perseus! Can you hear me?"
Don't bother, Lilly. This isn't a Labyrinth that either of us can intervene in.
"What do you mean by that?"
Look up. Isn't that familiar to you?
She turned her eyes toward the ceiling, gasping as the Rune of Atonement began to shine. The eye atop the scales turned its attention to her, but seeing nothing, it recast its gaze on Perseus, who seemed busy with something.
"What's going on?" Lilly said.
Most people go through Labyrinths brought on by their own hearts. But there are those created by things greater than mere mortals.
"You're talking about that Primal Rune."
Yup. They may as well be gods where we come from. Our home world, I mean. Ecumene. Just as runes are crystallizations of magical power, the Primal Runes are crystallizations of whole concepts and laws. This Primal Rune, the Rune of Atonement, is the incarnation of Justice itself. It weighs your crimes and passes judgment according to your sins.
"What has Perseus done that caused something like this to appear to judge him?"
It wasn't him, remember?
Lilly's eyes widened as she recalled the day that she had summoned this Primal Rune into this world. It was the day she committed the greatest sin of her life, to have passed eternal judgment on a young boy. She gritted her teeth, fighting off tears that formed, but nothing she could do would hide the agony from her other self.
Hey. Stop beating yourself up over that. I pushed you to it, remember? I was kind of an asshole back then—kinda still am, actually—but anyway, those fucks deserved everything you gave them—
"Everyone deserves a second chance," Lilly mumbled. "I robbed them of that."
Lilith noticed that even with Lilly's guilt, the Rune of Atonement did not pass judgment on them. She wondered what it was that made them invisible to it.
"What can we do?" Lilly said.
Nothing. The Primal Rune is examining Perseus's soul. Whether it grants him salvation or perdition is entirely up to him. We aren't allowed to intervene.
"That's not right. We have to be able to do something."
Trust me, Lilly. We absolutely cannot fight back against a Primal Rune. It just isn't possible.
The world began to distort and they found themselves back in the Labyrinth they were undertaking with the rest of their team.
"Lilly!" Ivory yelled, running to her alongside Demetri. "Oh, thank goodness you're back."
"What happened?" Demetri asked.
"How long was I gone for?" Lilly asked them.
The other two exchanged glances.
"How long do you think you were gone?" Ivory said.
"A few minutes?" Lilly said.
"You were gone for ten seconds," Demetri said.
Labyrinth shit, obviously.
"Right," Lilly said. "Labyrinth shtuff."
"Shtuff?" Ivory said.
"Uh-huh."
"Lilith must be saying bad words as usual and Lilly almost repeated it out loud," Demetri said with a grin.
"Hmph," Lilly said, crossing her arms. "Anyway, let's keep going. We have to save this man."
"Roger!" the other two said, following after Lilly.
Ahead of the trio was the final stretch before the core of the Labyrinth. Monster resistance at this point was extreme, but nothing the group couldn't handle. At some point, Lilly had overexerted herself to the degree that she could no longer control her magical output and her knight vanished without warning.
"Lilly!" Ivory yelled, running to her cousin. "Are you all right?"
"Y-Yeah," she said, putting a hand to her head.
"Ariadne already warned you about this," Demetri said. "Your EP flow perfectly mirrors your own state of mind. And right now, you need to take a deep breath."
"Our goal is right there," Ivory said. "You don't need to rush things."
"I know," Lilly said. Her thoughts did not match her words, however. The goal being so close only further magnified the desperation already in her heart. Her head throbbed as fatigue caught up to her and she fell against the wall.
"Hey!" Ivory yelled, tending to her cousin.
"I'm f-fine," she said. "Really, I'm..."
"Damn it!" Demetri said, readying his gauntlets as two fierce-looking monsters rushed at them. "I'll hold them off!"
Lilly's eyes flashed gold. As Demetri moved to engage the two monsters, a massive rune circle dark indigo in color manifested to his right. From the center of the rune emerged a hand, which hurled a spear at one of the monsters, impaling it against the wall. Demetri rushed at the second monster, using his grappling spears built into his gauntlets to redirect his movements until he was behind the monster. He mounted the wolf-like creature's shoulders, extending his gauntlets' spear tips just enough before driving both his fists into the back of the monster's neck.
"Nice moves," the elder Schnee said, standing up and surveying Demetri's handiwork.
Ivory looked over at the knight in black armor before turning back to her cousin. "Lilith?" she said.
"'Sup, Ivy," she said.
"Is that her new nickname?" Demetri said, joining the girls.
"Nah, it was a typo. Missing the 'o' and the 'r'."
"Very funny."
"What happened to Lilly?" Ivory said.
"What do you think happened? She overdid it and now she's resting. Still conscious, though, and listening to everything. On the other hand, I'm completely fresh, so yeah. Oh, we saw Perseus."
"Ariadne's brother?" Demetri said.
Lilith nodded. "Like I told Lilly, there was nothing we could do. The thing governing his Labyrinth wasn't his own self. It was the Rune of Atonement, a Primal Rune. You were there when it first appeared, weren't you? With Perseus. When Lilly—"
"Yes, I was. What exactly is a Primal Rune?"
"Regular runes are the crystallization of spells, allowing instantaneous casting of magic at the cost of the wielder's spirit energy, what you guys call EP. Spell casting otherwise costs no EP, but requires a lot of prep work and time. Likewise, the Primal Runes are the crystallization of laws and concepts. The Rune of Atonement governs Justice."
"It's judging Perseus?" Ivory said.
Lilith shrugged. "I don't know what's going on between him and that rune, and why it even chose him to begin with. Lilly and I summoned that thing into this world, not him. But I know for a fact it has something to do with guilt that he must be harboring. That's the Rune of Atonement's M.O., to latch onto people with overwhelming guilt and then examine every nook and cranny of your soul."
"Then, his Labyrinth must be a living hell," Demetri said.
"Maybe. Who knows?"
The trio stepped into what otherwise might have been a business office, but it was cavernous in scale and the desks and chairs and other furnishings were enormous.
"What the hell?" Lilith said.
"This must be how rats feel," Demetri said.
"Rats indeed!" a voice boomed throughout the area, causing all three to immediately bring their guard up.
"I don't see them anywhere," Ivory said, scanning their environment for threats.
"I do," Lilith said, her eyes glowing bright gold as she fully manifested her power on the outside, causing Myrtenaster to explosively transform into the blackened form of Caliburn.
Demetri and Ivory looked up at the oversized office desk, where a giant of a man dressed in overly flashy business suit peered at them over the desk.
"You think you can just take away my client without my permission, do you?" the man bellowed.
"Client?" Demetri said.
"I think I understand," Ivory said. "I'm sure you've both pieced it together as well. It is beyond a shadow of a doubt that we are dealing with the victim of a criminal syndicate."
"What a smart young woman you are, Miss Schnee," the man said. "It's no wonder, being the daughter of a colonel in the Atlas military."
"Luciano Semenza," Lilith said.
"Did she say 'Semenza'?" Demetri mumbled.
"I'm impressed you even know my name given how well-insulated I am," the man said.
"Of course I know who you are," Lilith spat. "No matter how good you may hide in the real world, this is my domain. I know everything about this world and everyone in it."
"Oh? Why have you done nothing to stop me, then?"
"Does a mere gnat warrant your attention?"
"A gnat, am I? From where I sit, you are the ones the size of insects."
"That's enough!" Lilly yelled as her eyes flashed gold, signaling her return to the surface. "Where is he?"
"You mean my client?"
"Tell me where he is!"
"You seem different somehow. All of a sudden, you care a great deal about this so-called gnat."
Ivory looked over at Lilly. Her teeth were gritted, her grip on Caliburn like iron.
"Something's wrong," Demetri said. "This is this Labyrinth's core, isn't it?"
"According to the LabNav, yes," Ivory said.
"Then, where is the victim? And where are the red veins that keep him shackled to this world?"
"Let him go!" Lilly fumed.
"I'll be happy to release him as soon as his debt is paid," Semenza said. "Unless you'd like to pay his debt for him. Of course, by the time you have the money to pay it off, it'll be more than a hundred million Lien. Interest compounds daily, after all."
"Typical of a crime syndicate," Demetri said. "Do we have a game plan here?"
Ivory glanced over at her elder cousin, who couldn't think straight from the anger. Lilly, what's happening to you?
She knew people like this existed in the world. She wasn't ignorant of the news stories and documentaries about criminal organizations that trafficked all sorts of illicit contraband, weapons, and even human beings. But unlike her Wraith, who lived in that world all her existence, Lilly had refused to acknowledge that such evil existed.
And now that she was face to face with malevolence itself, her only response was not one of fear, but of hatred. Pure enmity flooded her heart and all she could see before her now was an enemy.
Hey.
Lilly didn't respond to the voice in her head. Truth be told, she could barely hear it.
Listen to me.
"Not now!"
Her teammates turned to her.
Let me take over. You're not in the right mindset to fight a battle right now.
"No, I can handl—"
"There. Don't worry, I'll—"
Her eyes flashed gold once more.
"No! He's gonna pay for what he's doing to this family!"
Lilly, stop!
"Caliburn!"
Demetri and Ivory shielded their eyes as Caliburn pulsed with golden power.
"Oh?" said the giant Semenza. "You're going to challenge me?"
Lilly!
She channeled all of her magic into her sword, flooding it with so much power that it burst outward and lit up the massive chamber like an omni-directional floodlight. Demetri grabbed Ivory by the arm and ran with her to a safe distance, only stopping once they were hidden behind the towering leg of a nearby giant chair.
"What...what is that?" Ivory said.
Demetri's eyes opened wide. He had seen this before. It was only one time and it was but a brief moment, but there was no mistaking what he was seeing now. Lilly's whole body was covered in what looked to be runic markings, which also extended to the ground and air all around her.
This is like what happened at the manor, he thought.
"People like you," Lilly seethed, "are the reason there is so much pain in the world!"
"Go ahead and try what you like, little girl!" the giant apparition dared her.
"Sakral Flamme!"
Caliburn flashed with blinding golden light, projecting a massive flame of holy force to crush everything in its path, reducing the entire chamber ahead to dust and cinders.
Goddammit, Lilly!
She still couldn't hear, not with the blood pounding in her head.
"Hey!" Ariadne's voice crackled in through the team's earpieces. "What in the world just happened?"
"Why can we hear you?" Demetri said.
"There was a massive space-time interference just now and—"
"Ariadne?" Ivory said. "We've lost contact again."
"Never mind that," Demetri said. "Look."
Ivory gawked at the path of destruction Caliburn had wrought. The giant apparition of Luciano Semenza was gone, and so was a large portion of the very Labyrinth they were in. The outside world was visible in a bizarre haze, with lightning and wind accompanying the damage. It was as though the world itself was wounded.
"Hey!" Demetri said. "It's him!"
"We have no time to waste!" Ivory said, running toward the man, but something was wrong. The red tendrils were missing.
"Damn it," Demetri said, gritting his teeth. "Are we too late again?"
Ivory watched as Lilly rocketed to the man, but he was surrounded by an impenetrable force field which threw her back.
"No!" she yelled as the ground began to quake.
"Lilly!" Ivory yelled, running to her cousin. "We have to evacuate now! The Labyrinth is collapsing!"
She looked at her scroll. The LabNav indicated exactly that. She balled her fists, glancing at the father of four one last time before running to her teammates.
—
"What the hell is happening?" Dionysus said, watching the monitors.
"The collapse has begun," Ariadne said, typing away furiously, "but I've never seen anything like this. These values are off the charts."
"Could it be related to that thing just now?"
"It's possible. I'll have to review the data later, though. Lilly, Ivory, Demetri, can you hear me?"
"Loud and clear!" Demetri said. "Which is probably a bad sign!"
"I'm not losing anyone else!" Lilly said before dumping more power into her runic magic.
"Lilly! Stop!" Ariadne yelled. "Your EP output is at critical levels! If you exert any more force, you'll lose consciousness inside that Labyrinth!"
"Not if I can help it!" Ivory said. "You two, hang on tightly! I'm going to put everything I've got into my Semblance!"
"Don't overdo it, Ivory!" Demetri said.
It was the first time since Labyrinth Task Force operations began that Ariadne was genuinely anxious about the situation. Most of the magic and other phenomena they had to deal with was unexplored and unpredictable, but with the resurgence of those readings from the night their manor was invaded by a Nexus, she could not help the dread building up from within.
—
Lilly, Ivory, and Demetri barely escaped as the Labyrinth collapsed behind them. They were a few paces away from the disintegrating bubble of reality and the accompanying debris when Lilly fell to all fours, screaming at the top of her lungs, a scream so overflowing with grief that Ariadne found herself stunned in her command seat back in reality. Ivory ran straight to her elder cousin, kneeling in front of her as Lilly's tears fell to the dirt.
She continued to wail in agony. This was the third Labyrinth mission in a row they had failed in the last two weeks alone, another soul condemned to an eternal prison of torment within their own mind. In spite of all the power at her disposal, even though she possessed the ancient sword of kings, the sword known as Caliburn, she still fell short of being strong enough to save everyone.
"Lilly," Ivory mumbled, barely able to hold back her own tears. "Lilly, c'mon, we have to get back to base."
Lilly could not hear her younger cousin's pleas. The only thing on her mind now was her failure to save yet another soul lost in this hellish world. Ivory wanted to reach out to her, but from what she had seen after all these Labyrinth runs with her, this was not something she would be able to get over so easily, especially with all the pressure she placed on herself. She had to admit, too, that three failures in a row was quite disheartening.
Lilly's crying began to die down somewhat when Demetri looked over to the distance, where a massive Corrupted began to emerge from the rubble of the collapsed local reality distortion. This one was much bigger than the Corrupted formed out of the previous two Labyrinth failures they had experienced.
"We need to move," he said into his headset so that his teammates could hear. "It's already started. And it's a lot bigger than before."
Ivory looked past her cousin at the gigantic monster rising out of the ashes, the physical representation of their failure to save yet another soul from this infernal place. She grasped her cousin by the shoulders, looking straight into her face, but Lilly averted her eyes.
"Lilly, we need to go," she said sternly, shaking her when she refused to make eye contact. "Lilly!"
She finally looked up into her younger cousin's crystalline blue eyes, eyes that bordered on sharing in her pain, but the younger Schnee was able to keep her emotions under control even in dire circumstances, ignoring the anguish when the situation required a level head. That's what made her the leader of the best team in all of Atlas Academy's history. That's what made her the champion of the Vytal Festival Tournament.
"Lilly!"
Lilly looked over at Myrtenaster, which she had dropped during their escape. She did not deserve to be heiress to her mother's old weapon, but she reached out to it anyway, leaning against it as she propped herself up.
Hey. Let me take over. I'll handle this.
"No," she said, grimacing as she squeezed out more tears. "I have to do this myself."
Lilly—
"I have to learn to make the hard decisions. Like you and Athena and Ivory."
"Lilly?" Ivory muttered.
Myrtenaster transformed into Caliburn, expelling a brilliant flash of golden light. Contrary to Lilly's unsteady heart, Caliburn remained the firm rock for her to lean against. She stood up, turning around to face the giant Corrupted, a perfect reflection of the man they had failed to save, complete with all of his torments twisting his body into a grotesque, nightmarish thing in constant agony.
She gritted her teeth as she gripped Caliburn with both hands, her clothes and snow-white hair billowing with the light breeze conjured up by the power growing in the legendary sword her father once wielded. Her hazel eyes were the last to transform as the power reached its peak, the natural color of her irises hidden beneath the golden flame-like halos that emerged outward from her pupils to display the ancient magical force burgeoning from the depths of her soul.
"Caliburn!" she yelled as tears streamed down her face. "Geißel vom Himmel!"
An intense golden glow lit up the Labyrinth sky, overriding its usual effects on light in this world. In the next moment, a massive golden beam of energy poured down from the heavens like a waterfall of light, completely engulfing the building-sized Corrupted. It roared in agony as its flesh began to disintegrate, but at the very last moment, Lilly could sense a kind of peace emanating from the man that had been taken over by this ghastly form.
Ivory and Demetri exchanged looks as the golden light dissipated and Caliburn transformed back into Myrtenaster. Lilly panted for a bit before falling backwards, but before Demetri could run to catch her, she was already in the arms of her knight, which had materialized without any of them noticing. She looked up at the knight's covered face, giving him a small smile before closing her eyes.
"Lilly, are you all right?" Ivory said before the white and blue knight shifted into its black and red form.
"That's not Lilly anymore," Demetri said.
"She's unconscious," Lilith said, standing beside her knight. She let out a heavy sigh.
"You offered to do it for her, didn't you?" Ivory said.
"She turned me down."
"You look unusually tired, though," Demetri noted.
"Yeah. She put so much power into that attack that she actually drew from me, which hasn't happened before today."
"We should definitely head back, then. If Lilly's out of commission and you're drained, it's dangerous to stay here."
"I agree. Besides, I'm hungry as fuck. I want some pasta."
He chuckled. "It'll be my treat, then."
"You hear that, Ivory?" she said as she led the way to the nearest rift. "Your boyfriend's gonna treat us out!"
The comment flew over Ivory's head. She couldn't stop thinking about what Lilith had done, offering to stain her hands with that man's blood in Lilly's place. From what they knew about Wraiths that originated from that other world Lilly's late father called home, they were supposed to be heartless and selfish. Lilith didn't seem to be any of those things.
She decided to push the thoughts to the back of her mind as she followed after her companions.
