CHAPTER XLII

The Heart Beats Loudest When It's Breaking

Lilith took the reins for most of their stay in Mantle. There were very few safe places for the Schnee cousins to shelter in, but Lilith had a knack for finding small nooks where they could hunker down. While the elder cousin's Wraith stood watch, Ivory seized the chance to close her eyes for a bit. The room they squatted in wasn't much of a room at all. It seemed to have been repurposed over and over again. The most recent use was likely a storage attic, given all the cardboard boxes and crates lying around haphazardly. Still, there were blankets here and there, but with the dust and garbage covering them, it had been a while since anyone last lived here.

I still can't believe mom's hometown is like this.

"Pretty sure she lived up on the floating island in the family manor," Lilith mumbled. "Not down here."

Yeah, I know, but you know what I'm trying to say.

"Uh-huh."

Hey.

"Hmm?"

Have you seen places like this in the Labyrinth? I mean, back when we were still, well, you know.

"Before we decided to share the ride?"

My body's not just some ride, you know!

Lilith chuckled. "Yeah, I did. I was mostly confined to general areas you inhabited, like our hometown and then Vale when you moved out to Beacon Academy, but yeah, I've seen places like this. Not anywhere near as bad, though."

Was Oasis like this?

"Hardly. That small town didn't have this level of...shit, what's the word?"

Misery?

"That fits. Vale, on the other hand, had its fair share of misery."

I...never noticed.

"No surprise there. You spent most of your time on campus. I was the one who wandered around the city."

So, like, you'd see everybody's Shades and stuff, right?

"Mm-hmm. And it basically matched what was out in the real world. Only that there was no filter."

Cuz that's the nature of the World of Shadow.

"Yup. I saw all of that hopelessness in full, raw display."

That means you also saw all of the different Fourth Layers scattered around the city.

"It's kinda how I knew the general attitudes of the places we were in."

I've been meaning to ask. Did you ever, well, poke around some of those Labyrinths?

"Some of them, yeah."

Purely out of curiosity, I'm guessing.

"Well, duh. I don't exactly care to go around being a superhero, you know. And besides, you know better than anyone else how very uninviting some of those shit holes can be."

Ivory groaned and Lilith looked her way.

"Can't sleep?" Lilith asked her.

"No," she replied. "It sounds like you and Lilly are having a conversation."

"Yep."

"I see. How long was I asleep for?"

"Not long. Probably an hour. Try and get more shuteye if you can. This place is pretty quiet. I haven't heard any goose-stepping nearby."

Goose-stepping?

"Yeah. The way those guys outside march with their legs outstretched and shit."

Oh.

"That's a recent development," Ivory said. "Atlas's Uniform Code adopts the standard march the rest of the world uses. The goose-step had been used exclusively by the Schwarze Sonne to set themselves apart from the rest of the Atlas military. Unless..."

"Pretty sure all those guys out there are Schwarze Sonne," Lilith said. "They've all got the insignia on their uniforms, even though only their unit commanders wear the red armband."

Ivory looked at the ground. How in the world had a corps swelled to the size of an entire army in such a short time? Was there a recent draft? Or maybe the rest of the Atlas Military was folded into the new regime. No, that couldn't have been it. General Holland was still overall commander of the armed forces, not Colonel Gottfried.

"Still thinking about how different your country is from the last time you saw it?" Lilith said.

"I just can't see how the Schwarze Sonne has so much influence now," Ivory said. "I have to assume based on what's going on down here that it's the same throughout the entire country. The whole military has been dominated by the Schwarze Sonne."

"Maybe General Holland marches to someone else's drum beat."

"I highly doubt that."

"You sure you know him that well? He may have his own ideas, but what about his advisors?"

"It's true that he's very close to Colonel Gottfried, and that he allows the colonel a lot of free rein, more so than even my mother and her Schneesturm Corps, but still."

"Who truly holds the power in this country, I wonder?"

"Für immer Atlas!"

"Atlas für immer!"

"There they go with that fucking chant again," Lilith said as she stood up. "It sounds like they're getting closer. We should move."

It had been four days since their arrival in Mantle and it was all they could do to stay hidden, given the tight security the new Schwarze Sonne soldiers placed upon the lower city. There was no real plan in place, but Ivory had a few connections she might be able to rely on down here. Rather, it was her old friend's connections.

"You sure you can trust in Renata's acquaintances?" Lilith said as they crept through alleyways, staying out of sight of the endless patrols.

"I have never met any of them," Ivory began, "but I trust in Renata."

"Forgive me if I'm not as convinced as you are. You barely even recognize your own country after a year away. Who's to say how these old connections will hold up?"

Ivory had already considered these facts, but there was no choice. The only other option she could think up was off the table, given the danger ever-present in the Labyrinth.

"That's the safe house," Ivory said, pointing to a ramshackle structure.

"That shit looks ready to fall over," Lilith said. "Are you sure this is it?"

Ivory placed her hand on a faded etching in the concrete wall beside her. It was a modified version of her family's crest, the snowflake that appeared as their glyph Semblance. The revisions were enough that the untrained eye would not pick up that it had anything to do with the Schnee Family, but she had come up with this altered version with Renata herself in order to indicate allies. Only they knew about it.

"I'm sure," Ivory said as she marched confidently toward the building.

Lilith wasn't sure, though. It was why she had kept her guard up the entire time, even as they entered the seemingly empty safe house. Both girls' eyes went to the shadows and any other places potential foes could hide.

I don't like this feeling.

"Me neither," Lilith mumbled.

"What's wrong?" Ivory said.

"Everything feels wrong."

They explored the building together. There wasn't a soul to be found, but from the way things were disturbed, there was recent activity here. Neither could be sure how recent, though. Their answer would take the form of heavy stomping closing in on them.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me," Lilith said, drawing Myrtenaster and readying herself for a fight.

Taking cues from her elder cousin's Wraith, Ivory also drew Elfenbein, but stared open-mouthed as the wall was completely shattered by a single punch from an Übersoldat.

"No," she muttered.

"Quit gawking!" Lilith said as she grabbed her cousin and ran with her.

They were under attack from all sides. Not only were Übersoldaten closing in on them from every direction, there were a number of Schwarze Sonne soldiers taking shots at them as well.

"Goddamn these fucking SS assholes," Lilith said as she erected Shield Runes behind herself and Ivory to take the rifle hits and save their auras.

"SS?" Ivory said.

"Yeah! Schwarze Sonne is a mouthful so I'm abbreviating it!"

"Look out!"

Ivory dove into Lilith, tackling her out of the way of a massive energy blast. They glanced over at the point of origin. An Übersoldat was aiming a giant plasma cannon at them, charging up for another shot.

Meanwhile, Lilly couldn't think straight. First, it was the Labyrinth and the horrors it had to offer. She could deal with that. It was easy to rationalize the sights and sounds there given that it was a world in which the subconscious came to life. But then she came face to face with a real life crime syndicate. She knew they existed. She wasn't ignorant of the reality. But to watch as her younger cousin nearly fell victim to those bastards made her see red.

This was much different. It wasn't the subconscious brought to life, nor was it a small subset of the population taking advantage of the weak.

It was an entire country, gripped by the very hand of evil itself.

Lilith could feel every bit of Lilly's burgeoning wrath, but she had her hands full fighting off the SS troops and their accompanying Übersoldaten.

"Any ideas?" Ivory yelled, slamming a gate shut behind them as they ran through a warehouse. She projected a glyph to reinforce the gate's physical strength.

"Fuck, we're in a dead end," Lilith panted, looking around for an escape route.

"I think it's a terrible idea, but what about the Labyrinth?"

"Yeah, it's a terrible idea, and our only way out of here, and also impossible."

"Are there no rifts nearby?"

She shook her head. "The closest one is a mile away. Fuck it, I'm gonna blow a hole in the—"

The wall ahead of them exploded inward and dozens of SS infantry along with Übersoldaten poured in.

"That was my idea, you assholes!" Lilith yelled.

Ivory gritted her teeth, looking around as the soldiers corralled them into a corner. There was no way out of this one.

Meanwhile, Lilly's heart had taken another turn. In the midst of her growing wrath, she remembered what had happened the first time she allowed herself to give in to the rage. She had committed her greatest regret, summoning the Rune of Atonement into this world and damning a child for all eternity. And then that same Primal Rune would latch onto one of her best friends, who was now being put on trial.

She didn't want to repeat that mistake, not now, not ever again. Wrath quickly gave way to regret, and then to longing.

Just leave...

Lilith listened to Lilly's voice intently.

Leave us alone...

"Is she saying something?" Ivory whispered as the SS officer yelled out commands.

"Lilly," Lilith began, "what are you—"

"Leave us alone!" Lilly screamed, her eyes flashing gold as she surfaced.

Ivory watched as her cousin's flesh became covered with those ancient markings just like when she and Lilith first split apart in the Labyrinth. Those same runic characters extended beyond her body into the air and other surfaces around her. And then, the world around them began to shift, graying out before decaying and filling with a thick fog.

"W-Wait a minute," Ivory said. "How are we in the—"

Lilly gasped before falling to the ground.

"Whoa, are you okay?" Lilith said, running to her.

"You two are separated," Ivory said. "We really are in the Labyrinth."

"Yeah, I don't know how either," Lilith said, tending to Lilly. "Like I said, there wasn't a rift for another mile."

"Did Lilly just force open a rift?"

"Maybe." She turned to her other self. "Did you?"

"I-I don't know," Lilly said. "I just had the sudden urge to get away from all those Übersoldaten and now we're here." She groaned again.

"Great. You're a lot more sensitive to the shit here than I am."

"What are you talking about?" Ivory said.

"Remember our suspicions before? About this Labyrinth being different because of how fucked up Mantle is? Well, this is it. This entire city is a Labyrinth. And it is heavy as shit."

"Is that what this pressure is?"

"The fact that you're feeling it despite having zero magic is all you need to know just how fucked up this place is."

"The pain..." Lilly said, clutching herself. "It's everywhere..."

"Give yourself some time to regain your balance," Lilith said. "We still have to move."

She nodded before sitting upright, pulling in her knees. It was all she could do to stop herself from breaking down and crying on the spot. Unlike other Labyrinths, where her targets' suffering was merely on display in visual and audio, the pain here actively invaded her heart. Nevertheless, she couldn't just sit here uselessly.

"Stand up," she said quietly, catching the other girls' attention. "You have to stand up."

Lilith and Ivory watched as she struggled to her feet, nearly stumbling a few times.

"Are you all right?" Ivory asked her.

Lilly nodded. "Let's go."

They left the warehouse and wandered the streets of the Mantle Labyrinth Second Layer. There were Corrupted all over the place, but none of them were hostile. Nearly every single one exhibited utter despair, unlike the variations that permeated most Labyrinths.

"This Labyrinth," Ivory muttered.

"Yeah," Lilith said. "Your suspicions are spot on. This isn't like the usual gig. They're not Corrupted. They're Shades. And every single one of them is a perfect reflection of the real world. And so are those assholes."

The three hid behind a crumbling wall, peeking out at a group of men marching down the street. From their appearance, they were most definitely this world's representation of the real-world Schwarze Sonne troops, but there was something off about them.

"You feel that, too, me?" Lilith said, glancing at Lilly, who nodded.

"Feel what?" Ivory asked.

"Those SS asshats aren't pure Shades. I dunno what kind of shit Atlas is doing in the Labyrinth, but those Shades are infused with Lesser Daemon essences."

"What would that do?"

"In essence, it's basically a complete bastardization of how it is back on Ecumene. Everyone has a Shade, but only those with magic coursing through their veins have a Wraith, which is the magical equivalent of a Shade. In this case, they're fusing a human soul and a Lesser Daemon soul together."

"Are you saying they'd be able to use magic in the real world?"

"You'd think that, but maybe they don't have the process perfected just yet. After all, a human soul and a Daemon soul are two totally different beings, so it's not like me and Lilly where our will is basically one and the same, just with different emphases. On the other hand, I'd expect both the human soul and the Daemon soul to fight over the body, but it doesn't look like that's the case here."

"It's clear over this way," Lilly whispered before leading the way out into the street.

Mantle's Second Layer Labyrinth was unlike any other they had ever traversed. Even Lilith found herself at a loss with the state of this world. Whereas every other inhabited area had its patches of lower layers amid the all-encompassing First Layer, there was no such layer in this city. The highest possible layer to ascend to was the second.

"Are things here so bad that there really is no First Layer?" Ivory said.

"I've never seen it firsthand," Lilith said, "but logically speaking, this is totally possible. The World of Shadow is nothing more than the reflection of the psychological state of the real world."

Meanwhile, Lilly's heart was heavier than it had ever been. This place was a mere two hour drive away from her home. For the entirety of her nineteen years alive, she had no clue that there was a hell so close to where she was born and raised. The thought of being utterly powerless to do anything about it weighed heavy on her.

"You okay?" Lilith asked her.

She nodded hesitantly.

"We can stop here if you want."

"No. We have to get somewhere safe so we can plan our next move."

Lilith wondered if she was imitating their younger cousin, but judging from her state of mind while they shared their body in the real world, it wasn't likely. In fact, in that moment just before they fell into the Labyrinth and separated as a result, there was only one thing in her heart.

Longing.

"Hey, isn't that...?" Ivory trailed off as they came upon a clearing.

"That's our combat partner," Lilith said, stopping in her tracks.

"Ingrid?" Lilly said, jogging to the four familiar cat Faunus.

Ingrid turned to face her. "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. The elder Schnee let out a heavy sigh before looking around for their companion.

"Where's Lilith?" she said.

Ivory looked back, spotting their third party member rejoining them.

"Where'd they go?" Lilith said.

"They just warped back to Menagerie from a few months ago, I think," Ivory said.

"The hell? Oh, right, that's why Ingrid wasn't using her Wraith-Knight power just now. Jeez, what the heck is causing the World of Shadow to be so damn crazy?"

"There they are!"

The three girls quickly turned to the sound of gunfire, each of them erecting glyphs and runes to deflect the shots.

"These SS fuckers are like goddamned rats!" Lilith said as she peeked over the dumpster she hid behind. She looked over at Lilly and Ivory, who deflected and returned fire with Dust and magic as the need arose. Heavy stomping came from another direction and Lilith turned down the alley, spotting a group of Übersoldaten headed their way.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" she yelled before projecting two runes, a Wind Rune and a Fire Rune superimposed, in order to summon a high-level magical attack. "Flammende Hölle!"

The massive column of fire broke through the Übersoldaten's auras like they weren't even there, reducing them to ash and melting the surrounding walls.

"There's an opening!" Ivory said, about to lead the way when she noticed Lilith collapse against her hiding place. "Lilith!"

"Damn it," she mumbled. "That's what I get for using a high-tier spell on little to no sleep."

"Hang on! We're headed to you!"

"Stay put. I'll be fine. Just need a breather."

Meanwhile, Lilly continued to fight back against the SS troops and their accompanying Übersoldaten, but her head wasn't where it needed to be right now. Any other fight and she'd be laser focused, even putting herself in harm's way to accomplish her mission. But today was different. Maybe it was the effect of this Labyrinth on her, or perhaps it was something else altogether.

She was exhausted, and in more ways than one. All she wanted was to go home.

"Mom," she mumbled as she tightened her grip on Myrtenaster with both hands.

"Lilly?" Ivory said, turning to her cousin.

Lilith managed to regain her strength just in time to glance over at her counterpart, who had stopped fighting back, instead opting to hide against the wall while Ivory provided cover fire with glyph-facilitated Dust attacks, but like their magic, her Dust reserves wouldn't last forever, not with more and more SS troops headed their way.

"Seriously?" Lilith mumbled. "We go up against all sorts of crazy shit in Labyrinth after Labyrinth, and it's gonna be Atlas soldiers who do us in?"

Ivory looked from Lilly to Lilith. Neither were in any condition to continue their battle. Lilith was physically fatigued and Lilly was devoid of any will to fight. It was a strange sensation to be the weakest in the group. She was accustomed to being the one to carry her team. But the truth was that it had been this way for months now. Lilly and Lilith were the ones who made their Labyrinth incursions possible to begin with. Ivory was really only there in a support role.

She returned fire, spotting even more SS forces closing in, bounding forward and providing cover fire with expert precision, as if they'd trained for this moment all their lives. She wondered if surrender was even possible. From the volume of ordnance they sent over, though, she figured she had a better chance negotiating with Grimm.

Something disturbed the air around her. She looked around. The enemy hadn't used any explosives to generate that shockwave she had just felt. It happened again. This time, she was sure of it. It felt like a heartbeat, one that came from her cousin. No, not just Lilly. Hers was merely the first pulse, followed immediately by one from Lilith.

What's going on? she thought to herself as she looked from cousin to cousin. Slowly, her world became dominated by a high-pitched ringing noise and a bright whiteness filled her vision until it was all she could see.