Chapter 9

A groan resonated in the cold damp cell underground. Paths of rainwater trickled down the walls like silent tears. The air smelled musty as if it had been a long time since someone used that place, which was most likely true.

Tired saffron eyes tried to adjust to the pitch-black darkness surrounding him. His head was pounding hard, a never-ending beat. The man tried to get up from the stone-cold ground, only to crash back down again due to his restraints. Both of his hands were chained to his back, completely covered in a metal casing, linking to a wall. His legs were bound with the same chains, connecting to the main chain behind his back. His face felt grimy, his throat was parched like the Jaf Deserts in the middle of the Land of Sihir.

'How long have I been here?' was the only thought on his mind. His brain seemed to have malfunctioned. 'Trumpet... Flute... Purple... Black... Black...'

"Yunoki." His rasped voice mumbled, reverberating throughout the entire dungeon.

A chuckle echoed in response. It was low, rumbling, and velvety. Ryoutarou dreaded the encounter as the sound of boots scraping the ground came closer. The candles on the walls, he presumed, were being lighted one by one, casting a soft glow into his cell. Shadows danced around the walls as the heir of the Yunoki clan appeared on the other side of thick metal bars. The torch's flame in his gloved hand highlighted the duke's sharp features. The small grin he sent Ryoutarou shot chills down his spine.

"Tsuchuira," the duke stated, bemused.

"Yunoki," Ryoutarou snarled.

Bending down to be on eye level with the man he had taken as prisoner, the duke gave him a small comforting smile.

"Glad to see you are finally awake after two days. I expected longer." Unlocking the cell, the metal door creaking on its hinges, Azuma stepped in. "Of course, you would be awake soon. No one can survive Bea's deadly knock out unless one has been through it. I am sure those secret nights of training with Baron Kazuki finally paid off, hmm?"

Azuma shut the door gently behind him and set the torch in a holder by the wall. Pulling a wooden chair from the corner of the cell, the duke sat amicably in front of Tsuchuira. Azuma observed the worn-out Ryoutarou in front of him.

"What's the meaning of this, Yunoki-sama?" Ryoutarou rasped sharply despite his raw throat. Heated saffron glared threateningly into cold gold. Still staring at his prisoner, the duke silently contemplated the image in front of him.

'He might just be the one to change the tides of this battle,' thought Azuma silently. After a few quiet moments, a smirk graced the duke's feature. Tilting Ryoutarou's face with his boot, he bemused, "You, my dear friend, may be the one to turn the tides of this war."

Ryoutarou snarled.

"Rest assured, dear Kahoko will be safe. She will be my queen after all." Delighting in the shock on his prisoner's face, the duke gave a fierce kick across Tsuchuira's face. Grunting, throbbing pain spread across his left cheek, the tanginess of his blood in his mouth was a comfort. Spitting the mixture of saliva and blood, Ryoutarou raised his face and gave an animalistic growl at the sadistic duke. Feeling more amused with the current situation, the duke called upon his fairy who wore an expressionless face.

Alonzo flew to the front of the prisoner. With a raise of his steel black wand, darkness enveloped Ryoutarou's sight and mind. Everything around him was black. Dark. Just an endless void of nothingness.


A gentle female voice called out to him in the abyss.

"Ryoutarou-kun!"

Ryoutarou glanced around but could see nothing. The voice called out to him again, louder this time.

"Ryoutarou-kun!"

It sounded so familiar, like a long-forgotten memory. The girl's voice was so cheerful, so full of light. Ryoutarou knew that all these were just an illusion, something conjured by Duke Azuma's fairy. He knew it wasn't real. He tried to shake away the feeling of warmth slowly enveloping him. He knew he was slowly giving in and tried to resist it.

"Ryou-kun! Look!"

He recognized this voice. 'No, please. No.' He shut his eyes and put his hands over his ears and demanded it to stop. 'Stop, not her. Please, not her. She isn't here anymore.'

A pair of soft hands enveloped his. He opened his eyes and a pair of sea-green eyes looked at him warmly. Her shoulder-length chestnut hair was the same as he remembered. She smiled warmly at him, that gentle smile she always wore. She was here. She was right here in front of him.

The abyss completely enveloped him. All resistance and hesitation were thrown to the wind, he let himself free-fall into it, welcomed it with open arms.

'Hey, do you remember that day, Mizue?'


Alonzo cast his solemn emerald eyes at his master. Their prisoner laid on the ground listlessly, as if he was in eternal sleep. Alonzo can make that happen if his master wished it but then they have a task to complete.

"Is this necessary, Master Azuma?"

"Whatever do you mean, Alonzo?" the emotionless duke inquired.

"I mean," the ebony-haired fairy gulped, "why Tsuchuira-sama? We could have used any other slave out there and it would still be the same anyway."

In a flash, Yunoki grasped his fairy tightly, restraining his breathing. Bringing Alonzo close, the fuming duke smirked, threatening his fairy in a steel cold voice,

"Don't," Alonzo chocked and gasped as his master's grip tightened around his small body, "ever question me. I do what I think is best, you understand don't you, Alonzo? Lun chose me and you are just here to watch me. Anything and everything else is up to me. I want power and I shall have it, is that clear?"

Nodding weakly, Alonzo was finally released. Gasping for air, Alonzo mumbled to his manipulating chosen:

"As you wish, Duke Azuma."


"Sakimoto-san, where are you taking me?" Ryoutarou asked the young lady dragging him across the familiar snowy fields of Salji.

He had been travelling all over the world under the orders of the Maestro. Being the next Concert Master requires the acknowledgement and seals of approval of the other four masters across the Four Seas. Besides that, he had to undergo many years of training under each master. It was not an easy journey, many trails and obstacles stood in his way. No one to guide him, to offer him comfort through his quest. Sarafina was bound to a blood oath not to aid Ryoutarou throughout his training. If she did, the contract between her and her chosen will be severed forcefully. The blood oath was an ancient part of the Eva Magics, they would not want to mess with it for fear of Eve's rage.

Most of the masters isolated themselves from society, concealing their locations and true identities. They would change base from time to time, so gathering information and news took up most of his time in a day. Even when he had found them, not all would welcome him with open arms.

The first master he encountered was Master Schatten of the Land of Sihir. Blinded from a duel where his opponent had clawed his eyes out whilst he pierced the man's heart. He was only ten when he was made the master, and his opponent who had taken his eyes to his grave was none other than the previous master - his very own father. Ryoutarou was blessed to be welcomed with open arms at the Land of Sihir. Master Schatten had been to Seiso and had met young Ryoutarou, back when he was staying with the Maestro.

Sordo of Occhi from the Kingdom of Gellert was next. She was a very hard nut to crack, especially when she always seemed to be able to read his mind, which spooked him from time to time. Due to the long war between the two kingdoms, she was very wary of his presence in her sanctuary, a cave to be more exact. She could be all talkative for one moment and very silent in a snap. Under her, he mastered the art of the mind which had helped him to resonate with Sarafina more easily. With Sordo's help, they found out a loophole in the contract. As long as Sarafina does not channel her magic to Ryoutarou whenever he uses Ergo, his dulcimer, she can still aid him in menial tasks such as healing his wounds or tracking down certain magical creatures on his missions.

Mistress Soqov, hailing from the ZvakaipaZiso clan of Ya-En. Legend has it that during the cycle of the moon, the head of the clan would transform into an unfathomable creature of silver, eyes as red as fresh blood. One glance into those eyes could suck one's soul into Eve's realm. The victim will be permanently bonded to the eternal fire pit and Eve herself. The Zvakaipa family were the descendants of Eve's ancient dark shadows. Finding the mistress was not hard, but impressing her took the longest time ever. She wore a blindfold made of a pure white cloth, lined with inscriptions of the Ancient Language in red ink. She was of small stature and would always stare at Ryoutarou blankly. Compared to his other master's tasks, Soqov's request was very simple - prepare the blindfold and put it over her eyes, every evening by the stroke of the ninth hour. Not a second later or earlier. However, even a slight wrong stroke in the lettering of the Ancient Language, it will come off easily and her uncontrollable powers would manifest. For countless days, Tsuchiura was trapped in the depths of hell for every cycle. He only has 3 days in between each cycle to rewrite and blindfold the mistress. It was a daunting task, perfecting the blindfold, ensuring she focused on him and not escape out from her temple to plunge innocent civilians to Eve's sanctuary.

Lastly, Chief Minato Sakimoto of the Salji Wolves. He was a jolly man, easy to please and treated Ryoutarou like his son. He only had one daughter, Mizue Sakimoto. A young girl of Ryoutarou's age, with sea-green eyes, chestnut hair, and a sunny personality to match. As they were one of the few teens in the camp, they always hung out together around the snowy landscape whenever he was not training with her father. Naturally, she slowly fell for him though he was oblivious to her affections.

This, however, did not go unnoticed by the master. During dinner, he would always casually suggest to Ryoutarou on taking his daughter as his bride, causing the young man to choke on his meal and his daughter to blush. Ryoutarou knew she was a good catch, many bachelors had tried to seek her hand in marriage.

Who wouldn't? She was a capable girl, with her sharp observant skills and insight, proven countless times in their missions. Besides that, she was attractive inside out and any male who doesn't look at a gift horse in the mouth would be a fool.

That fool was Ryoutarou Tsuchuira.

"Sakimo-," Ryoutarou called out as he trudged the snowy caps of one of the tallest mountains in Salji, Mount Esta. The 19 years-old young lady turned around sharply and pointed at Ryoutarou.

"How many times have I told you? Just call me Mizue!"

Ryoutarou sighed. Wisps of fog formed as he spoke, "It is disrespectful of me to call you that, Sakimoto-san. You are the chief's daughter and the heir to the pack. I can't just casually call you that."

Mizue harrumphed, "Well, I give you permission to call me Mizue, so just do it already."

"No can do, midget. At least, I don't go around calling the name you hate the most, Sakimoto-sama,"Ryoutarou smirked.

Mizue glared even more fiercely. "Oh, you asked for it!"

Without warning, she tackled him to the ground. Echoes of shouts and teases were thrown into the cold frosty air as two teens enjoyed their friendly banter together.

"Anyway, back to my question, where are you taking me, Sakimoto-san?" piqued Ryoutarou.

"Patience, giant, is a virtue. We are almost there," Mizue exclaimed, using his nickname.

After a few minutes, they reached the mouth of a looming cave. Stalagmites and stalactite lined the cave's surface. In the misty light, the entrance looked like a portal to another dimension.

Mizue gave Ryoutarou a bright smile before running ahead of him into the cave while shouting, "Catch me, Ryou-kun!"

"Wait, Sakimoto! You might slip," Ryoutarou called, running after the young heiress.

The inside wasn't as dark as one would expect, cracks on the walls let the slightest ray of light shine in. Both of them ran deeper into the cave, the air getting colder, their breaths getting more laboured with each gulp of air. Finally, Mizue stopped.

Crystal clear, lapis lazuli walls surrounded the teens in a chamber. The different hues of blue shone and sparkle like the night sky. Swirls of marigold, sunset orange twinkled at them. It was a very peculiar sight. Ryoutarou had never seen anything like that before.

"Woah… This… This is spectacular." The lad mumbled, completely awestruck by the beauty of nature. Mizue grinned gleefully.

Leaning against a wall, she said to her companion, "You ain't seen nothing yet."

Pressing against a certain part of the wall she was leaning on, the floor began to shudder. Ryoutarou looked at her bewildered, with a bit of uneasiness in his eyes. Sensing his distress, Mizue smirked. Narrowing his eyes, Ryoutarou questioned her actions.

"You sure you know what you are doing?" The rumbling became louder along with the earth's shaking.

"Patience, I repeat, is a virtue," the heiress remarked with a roll of her eyes.

All of a sudden, a hole opened underneath Mizue's feet, plunging her down into darkness.

Ryoutarou's heart plummeted along with her.

"MIZUE!" He screamed as he scrambled towards the hole.

"Mizue! Answer me, Mizue!"

Cheery and teasing laughter floated up from the dark hole. Ryoutarou let out the breath he had been holding in. Mustering his most serious reprimanding voice, the lad chided, "You are going to be the death of me! Please warn me if you are going to do that, Sakimoto-san!"

"Ish! Don't be such a prude! Come on down then, it is completely safe here," The heiress huffed back in the dark.

Rolling his eyes, Ryoutarou slipped into the hole. Landing on soft ground, he presumed it was snow, his eyes tried to adjust to the sudden darkness. Small lights began twinkling back at him. Tiny, multicoloured lights blinked and twinkled. It was like a dome filled with droplets of rainbows.

"Woah, Sakimoto, how in Eva's name did you find this place?"

Mizue giggled, "You can call it fate. I happened to stumble upon this on our last hunt. You know, the time when I separated from the pack?"

Ryoutarou grumbled, "Yeah. Don't remind me." Thinking about the ear full he had to bear when Mizue slipped away from their pack, the lad rolled his eyes in annoyance.

"Don't you roll your eyes at me, mister. At least I came back right on curfew."

"Yeah. Right on curfew,' Ryoutarou mocked in a shrill voice.

"Oh! That's it. Why I ought-," Mizue huffed.

Her speech was cut short just as a chilling wind suddenly gusted into the dome. Ryoutarou dug in his heels onto the snowy ground, shielding his eyes and face from the stream of snow plunking against him due to the raging wind. The onslaught picked up speed till the point where Ryoutarou could feel himself being nearly ripped from his spot. Against the howling wind, he screamed for Mizue while pushing against this odd force of nature. He kept screaming and shouting her name, but not even a silver of her voice called back.

The wind halted just as sudden as how it started. Ryoutarou blinked against the abrupt brightness. The darkness was gone and it was as if the sun itself was in the dome. Looking around frantically, heart thudding loudly against his ribcage, there was no sign of Mizue at all. She had disappeared into thin air. He called upon Sarafina urgently.

"Ryou-," his fairy began.

"NO! Find her! FIND HER, GODDAMMIT!" The young man slashed out.

He ran around the dome, picking up medium-sized rocks and tossing them aside. Huffing and puffing, he argued,

"Sarafina, please… I can't… Please. I know that my training would all go down the drain if I ask for your help," Ryoutarou slumped to the ground, "But, SCREW IT!"

"She can't be gone… This must be some kind of conspiracy, a prank right? Mizue!" He shouted her name, with Sarafina looking on with worried eyes.

"Mizue! You won, alright? I will treat you to your favourite cakes later, so please, I beg of you, please…."

His voice dropped to a whisper as his shoulders slumped, "Come back to me."

Sarafina could only look on with sadness in her eyes at her chosen's disposition. She liked Mizue too, but her hesitance to immediately obey Ryoutarou's order was not that she feared the consequences of their contract.

She had sensed something amiss ever since Mizue returned from their last hunt after straying away from the group. Though the young heiress looked the same as ever, if one were to pay close attention, they will notice a certain sluggishness in her movement. The fiery fairy chose not to voice out her concerns, thinking it may have been the time of the month for human females. However, when they entered the cave, it confirmed to her something at large was brewing.

"Master," Sarafina stirred Ryoutarou out of his stupor, "I have a proposition. And before I mentioned it, don't jump to conclusions too fast."

Ensuring Tsuchuira was mentally prepared to take it, she began explaining the minor changes and quirks in Mizue's behaviour. Like how she was not as attentive as before, lacking in speed and being a tad bit more careless than usual; which led to Ryoutarou being tasked to tag around her. Chief Minato probably noticed his daughter's weird behaviour, but drew the same conclusion as Sarafina. Ending her brief explanation, the fairy suggested:

"I suggest we bring this to Chief Minato's attention. With the whole pack here, we will find Mizue-sama in no time. We should-,"

"No."

Sarafina glared at her master's rashness, "This is not the time to be rash. It is better to go as a group to face this."

"No. We will find Mizue here and now. There is no time to lose," Ryoutarou retorted.

He began to dig through the snow-covered ground, scraping away the layers of white. He knew he can just ask Sarafina to melt it all away, but then he did not want to risk the consequences of severing the oath, which may hurt or even kill his fairy.

Sighing in defeat, Sarafina can only look on at her master's disposition. Deep down, she knew he did not want to risk her safety despite the danger and uncertain conditions surrounding the missing heiress. Summoning a spell, Sarafina waved her staff and melted all the snow away in a flash.

"Calm down. The spell I did just now was to warm myself up. It isn't considered in our contract. I am not totally bound to you, you know?" She huffed.

Puffing up her wings, Sarafina flew to the spot where she last saw Mizue. Ryoutarou followed behind her and noticed something peculiar about the walls surrounding them.

"Sarafina, is it me or are the walls moving?" Ryoutarou nervously asked.

"Huh?"

The little fairy flew near to one of the walls, observing one of the light spots intently. It was only for a few seconds, but she saw it clearly. The lights were wriggling about, making it seemed as if they were blinking.

"Ryoutarou… I don't think these are ordinary lights… They are…" Sarafina gulped nervously, trembling, "worms."

As if the magic words were spoken, the lights began to move frantically and rapidly. Fear gripped the fairy's heart as she flew to her master's side. The 'lights' slowly fell off the walls and made their way towards Ryoutarou.

"Sarafina, can you do anything about this?"

"I can cast a temporary shield but that won't last long. It will only work against magical beings. And if these worms are what I think they are, then it will hold them off for a while."

"Just try whatever you can," Ryoutarou claimed as he tried to swipe away the worms that were wriggling onto his leg. Mumbling a light incantation, a red shield surrounded them, immediately shoving and disintegrating the worms that were near them by 5 feet.

"Master, I think that we have entered into one of the five ancient beings hideouts."


A/N: So... hi? It's 2020, 4 years. 4 long arse years since this fic was even last updated. This fandom may be dead, especially with the rise of many, many new animes but TDM has always been on the back of my mind. This was a recovered work from my thumb drive which currently housed 99% of my coursework but some spring cleaning made me stumble upon it.

Apologies for such an awfully late update and hey, this pandemic may just be what I need to (hopefully) finish this. Stay home, stay safe.

P.S.: No promises on regular updates but my goal is to finish this by 2020. So fingers crossed.