Outlands
Part 5
By Mieren
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Just as suddenly as he had started, Len stopped screaming, collapsing to the ground once he was fully submerged in the shade of the setting sun. He raised blurry eyes towards a rope of fog just before it reached him, swatting it away with a muddled thought. So clouded was his mind that it took him several seconds to realize that a furious free-for-all had ensued a short distance from him, Gau and Nasuti merging their substantial powers to form a rough shield around Lanfear, though numerous streamers of fog were escaping. Ella, though injured, was doing her best to both fight and keep the mists away from where Akira lay unconscious beside a thoroughly unnerved Mia. Mouri was trying to chant some spell in what appeared to be an elfish tongue, only to lose his place every few seconds to a retaliatory blast of fog leveled with his head. Ryoko and Katari were nowhere to be seen.
"Thank God," Mana breathed, pulling him roughly to his feet. "I thought you had stopped breathing." Len raised blurred eyes to see his far older sister-in-law standing protectively above him, doing her best to keep the encroaching fogs away. Quickly discovering that his balance was non-existent, he reverted to a more serpentine form and dropped to all fours, eyes roving across the battle once more.
"Tell everyone to move out of my way," he hissed, tensing the muscles through his back as he prepared to spring forward.
"But you can't…"
"Tell them to move, Mana."
Reluctantly, she placed two fingers in her mouth and let out a short, sharp whistle. As if by magic, the battleground emptied, a clearing forming around a shocked Lanfear almost instantly. Lanfear jerked slightly as her opposition suddenly disappeared, head snapping towards Len almost instantly as she realized the cause of the break in fighting. Cords of fog leveled around her even as Len sprang, icy fires raging around him as he pivoted tauntingly just before contacting the milky strands. His knowing laughter seemed to hang in the air as he plunged into a nearby shadow, form and fires alike dissolving as he entered the darkness.
"Only in the shadow can the purest of light thrive," Len teased loudly, his voice echoing from nowhere and everywhere at once.
"Darkness elemental," Lanfear scoffed, the tightness of her eyes betraying her haughty posture. "Manipulation of the shadows. Worthless."
"Ten to bind and ten to kill, by strength of mind or force of will," he continued, voice taking on a slightly strained quality as he reverted to the demon tongue. "Yet one may free, where ten must bind, strength of the soul overcomes that of the mind."
At this, Lanfear paused and shied away from the shadows slightly, fear flickering behind her crimson eyes. As she attempted to move further from the darkness, a hand of stone erupted from the ground and latched onto one of her wings, pulling her firmly to the earth. Whips of air and water followed almost immediately, cracking into her with tremendous force even through the protective barrier of fogs. Her pained shriek rang through the shocked silence as the fogs detached themselves from the ground and trees to engulf her. Her cries rose in pitch and volume as she hacked at the various elemental attacks with twin blades of fog. After a particularly vicious slash to the shadows, Len's howl exploded from the shadows along with his trembling form.
"Die, Child of Hashiba," she spat, calling a scimitar of fogs to hand and raising it menacingly. Len glared up at her heatedly and placed one hand on the ground.
The stone below her exploded, hands of granite grappling relentlessly with both her and the surrounding mists. Snarling furiously, she sent a cascade of burning mists into the earth below, eyes widening slightly when twin streamers of molten stone and boiling water shot from below and formed into Kento and Shin, both looking visibly shaken. Before she had time to act, the air around her solidified into wiry arms cloaked in deep bluish black armor and covered in vicious barbs.
Vera didn't hesitate before sinking her teeth into the back of the scaly neck exposed to her, locking her jaw in a stubborn fury. Len forced his eyes to focus on the full scale war for a moment only, sinking into his own shadow and resurfacing beneath the combatants with no-dachi of navy and pearly fires in hand. His first clumsy slash missed horribly, succeeding only in alerting Lanfear that he had a new weapon for her to contend with. Not allowing her the time to respond, he leapt forward while Vera still held Lanfear in check, a milky crystalline essence forming around him protectively. A flash of light emanated from his wrist before he reached his target, illuminating the mock darkness of the early dusk and reflecting off of hundreds of sets of strangely luminescent eyes from within the shadows.
Lanfear leapt away from Len with a choked off oath, throwing Vera off of her back jerkily and disappearing in a swirl of mist.
"Is everyone okay?" Gau asked shakily, summoning a small burst of light to illuminate the clearing. His eyes kept flickering between the small shadows remaining just beyond the reach of the light and the cluster of ten-year-olds around Kento, two of which he had believed to be dead.
"As good as we're going to get anytime soon," Len responded thickly. He glanced at Gau demandingly before turning his attention back to the numerous lacerations along his pale frame and a shimmering orb set just behind his right wrist. Shocked and still more than slightly nervous about the countless eyes moving around in the shadows, Gau ran stiffly to the boy's side. He healed him almost absently, his attention focused on the milky orb set in the back of Len's wrist, pale hints of multiple shades of blue flashing through the orb before it settled into the purest opal.
"How did you…" Mouri began uncertainly, pushing past Gau to prod the crystal orb in the boy's wrist.
"Like Lanfear said, there's a darkness elemental here," he muttered dully in response to the rhetorical question. His eyes remained locked on a particular patch of shadow that seemed strangely darker than the surrounding blackness. He spat out something less than civil in another language towards the darkness before continuing. "Unlike the other one and myself, he wasn't very nice about putting this thing in place."
"You call that nice?" Akira groused, massaging his wrist testily as he wobbled in their general direction. Len's patronizing look kept him from commenting further. The boy seemed most comfortable with the situation in general, but like everyone else, his eyes kept flickering towards the glowing eyes filling the night around them. After a moment of tense silence, Ritsuko finally asked what everyone was thinking.
"Exactly what were you three doing?" she asked stiffly, her gaze not including her husband, who she obviously intended to have a word with later. She waved one hand towards a particularly large concentration of the reflective eyes. "And what are those things?"
"We were using the armor as it was meant to be used," Len murmured, glancing to Vera and Shin for confirmation. "The armors are things of magic tapping into elemental energies of incredible proportions. If all ten stood together, we could win. As things stand now, we're only holding our own because Lanfear has no idea what she's doing yet. Despite the fact that she's a tenth level elemental master, she shouldn't be able to handle that kind of energy. Something is keeping her alive or she would have been torn to shreds by now." He paused in his musings, turning inquisitive jade eyes towards the shadows. "And as far as what those things are, I haven't a clue."
"One can always try the direct approach," Nasuti said lightly, pivoting slightly to face the largest cluster of glowing eyes directly. "Hey! What are you things?"
"Very good," Katari said condescendingly, massaging one temple as she emerged from the shadows with Ryoko on her heels. "I'm sure that'll work."
"What were you two doing out there?" Ella asked stiffly, eyes locked on her little sister worriedly.
"Hiding since we were given the order to clear the field," Ryoko murmured apologetically in her friend's place, glancing at Mana for confirmation. When the older woman nodded, she continued, though tentatively, eyes constantly flickering towards her father. "Something in the trees kept talking to us, but we couldn't understand him."
"It was in the shadows," Katari corrected slowly, eyes narrowing. "And it was a she, not a he."
The two girls locked eyes for a moment, comprehension dawning on their faces even as Ella opened her mouth to tell them it wasn't important. As one, they turned towards Len, who only shrugged massively in response to the unspoken question.
"I'm almost afraid to ask," Gau groaned, rolling his eyes towards the emerging stars. "But I have a feeling that I'm going to find out sooner or later no matter what sanity dictates." Nasuti glanced at him with a tolerant look, quickly shifting her eyes back to the shadows.
"What I want to know," Ritsuko said stiffly, "is exactly what you did in 'using the armor as it was meant to be used.' How did you disappear like that?" Len and Shin glanced at each other and shrugged. Vera snorted loudly and locked eyes with Kento, who shifted nervously and began eyeing the earth at his feet as a possibly escape route.
"The armors can shift themselves and their bearers into elemental forms for a short time, the length of which is dependant on the strength of the bearer in that power," a bemused voice answered them from the shadows.
"Who are you?" Mouri called out loudly, moving protectively in front of the group with several spells readying around his outstretched hands. He paused, suddenly wondering why he had responded in Japanese rather than the sorcerer or demon tongues. He knew it was absurd, but for some reason he was sure that whoever or whatever was out there spoke Japanese. As he had expected, he didn't receive an answer, the speaker having disappeared into the night.
"This is just great," Akira groused. "We have God only knows what following us in what appears to be a massive pack," he growled darkly, motioning sharply towards a cluster of ruby eyes, several pairs of which flinched. "And now we have some strange guy following and teasing us!"
"Since when could you speak the sorcerer tongue?" Gau retorted, pausing to heal him wearily before continuing on his rounds through the group.
"I can't, but it was obvious it was laughing!"
"He was probably just trying to be helpful," the blond muttered.
"Fighting each other is kind of pointless, isn't it?" Nasuti asked scathingly. She scowled darkly when she didn't receive a response.
"My guess would be yes."
This time even Len jumped, spinning wildly on his toes to face the source of the voice, which happened to be less than two paces behind him. Standing unconcerned and clad in thin folds of loose leather was a young man with reddish hair and a strangely angular face, bright blue eyes flashing in amusement. Hooked at his belt were twin scythes attached by a long thin chain on the ends of the hilts.
"Anubis!" Ritsuko gasped, eyes bulging. Her sentiments were repeated several times before they received a response from the no longer grinning man.
"I see you know my brother. I have not seen him since we were but children," he murmured, azure eyes growing troubled. "I heard his call, but cannot find him."
"Brother?" Kento breathed, eyes wide with disbelief and shock. "He never said he had a brother."
"I doubt he even remembers me," the young man murmured. "He was taken by the Warrior of the Starlight, Talpa, when he was very young. We thought he was dead." He looked up with hopeful eyes. "Do you know where he is?"
"The astral plane," Mouri stammered, afraid to continue when the man's expression turned absolutely murderous. Kento stepped back.
"What are the things in the shadows?" Len asked suddenly, forestalling the redhead's rampage.
"They are that which my brother called," he murmured, the anger and worry fading from his eyes as he regarded the boy in front of him quizzically. "Tell me, are you the third of the shadow's light?" His eyes flickered towards Vera and Shin, gaze locking onto the orbs set in their wrists. "You carry the blood of a dragon." Shocked that he had been recognized so easily, Len only nodded blankly.
"Tell me, um…" Ritsuko started, trailing off uncertainly.
"Rune," he offered helpfully.
"Uh, Rune," she continued. "Shouldn't we get moving? I don't think we should stay in one place like this."
"I have a delivery first," he said lightly, eyes roving across the group several times before ultimately coming to a rest on Ella. "You have very little talent, yet you are the best of the group. The others have their own destinies which they must follow."
"What do you mean?" she asked nervously.
"I'd have taken the responsibility, but my lineage didn't grant the powers necessary for such work. They fell to my brother, who is unable to do anything from his current position," he sighed. His hand flashed out of view into a hidden pocket, reappearing a moment later with something clutched in his fist. "Catch."
Instinctively, Ella plucked the tiny projectile out of the air, nearly dropping it when she realized what it was.
"Where did you get this?" she demanded, brandishing a small sphere of copper at him angrily. Rune shrugged.
"I don't know. I woke up to my brother's call with the orb in my hand. I recognize it as a piece of the Armor of Chains, but I know little more than to which element it answers."
"Perfect," Len interjected happily before Ella could snap out a response. "We now have eight of the ten."
"Say again?" Mouri asked, shocked.
"Eight of ten," he repeated, growing excited. "Akira, Vera, Shin and I already have our armors. Ella will make five and I'm sure that Gau and Nasuti can summon the orbs of light and fire."
"That's seven," Gau objected stiffly.
"No, he's right," Ritsuko sighed. "I have the eighth."
"Say again?" Mouri whimpered, massaging his temples.
"The armor of the Ancients implements the element of spirit. It can deflect almost any magical attack, but it's almost completely useless in an elemental battle."
"Isn't that what Kayura was using?" Kento asked numbly.
"In a fashion, yes, but in reality, no," she answered quietly. "That was not the full suit of armor. It was lacking several key pieces and thus powers that may have saved her in the last battle." She paused, summoning her golden staff to hand and deftly plucking two of the golden rings from the cluster at the end. Without a word of explanation, she slipped one ring around each wrist, the golden bands melting into her skin just behind her wrists. "This is the full suit."
A flash of golden bronze light arose from her wrists, increasing in intensity until everyone was forced to look away. The light slowly cleared to reveal Ritsuko standing resigned in a skintight suit of golden bronze armor, short sword hanging at either hip. Rune nodded enthusiastically.
"Wonderful, Guardian," he murmured appreciatively. His eyes quickly shifted to Ella, Gau and Nasuti. "Now you three."
"Do we have to?" Gau whined, childishly thinking of some way to make his right arm disappear until the redhead left. Rune smirked at him and bobbed his head, fingers running excitedly across the scythes at his waist.
"I saw how the children fought with my own eyes," he said, words quickly picking up speed as he continued. "If all ten armors were to fight together…"
"That's what I said," Len groused, interrupting Rune before he could further degenerate into his excited ramblings. "But does anyone ever listen to me?"
Ella glanced at the orb in her hand skeptically, sighing when her brother shook his head forcefully.
"No way," Gau snapped, eyes flashing. "There's got to be another way to fight."
"What a vain little weakling," a voice from the shadows scoffed.
"You'd think we were trying to take his arm off or something," another voice answered sarcastically.
"Would you shut up!" Gau roared at the shadows, creating a bout of silence.
"I'll be damned," the first voice murmured. "I didn't know that that one could speak our tongue."
"I didn't think any of them could," a third one answered, obviously amused.
"Except for the boy, you mean," the second reminded softly.
"Well, naturally him," the third conceded in a soft chuckle. "And the elf."
"That's it," Gau breathed, trembling in a cold fury. "I've had enough."
A soft snarl escaped his throat as he pumped one fist into the air and unleashed a fiery explosion of light, destroying the shadows for miles around. Small forms, the largest of which didn't even reach his knee, scattered into the surrounding shrubs awarding them with only a glimpse of the tips of a few bushy tails.
"Nasuti," Gau murmured.
"On it," she replied lightly, effortlessly shifting into a deep brown wolf with wide leathery wings and garnet eyes. She sprang forward silently, disappearing into the nearest patch of dense shrubs after one of the quickly retreating forms. Her innate speed proved to be too much for whatever she was chasing, for mere seconds later, she reemerged with a thrashing silvery gray fox hanging from the clawed hands at her wing wrists. "Got him."
"That really wasn't necessary," Rune said stiffly, wincing.
"Too bad," Nasuti rumbled in something very akin to a purr. "Now who or what are you?"
The fox only glared at her balefully, letting out a plaintive cry towards the shadows as it continued to thrash. Soft snarls registered from all around, the protesting growls solidifying into hundreds of foxes in multitudes of earthen colors. Among them was a single blue fox with white tipped ears and twin tails, silvery eyes blazing from among a sea of red. It winked at them before turning to disappear effortlessly into the night, not bothered by the blazing light Gau had summoned.
"Put him down, Nasuti," Mouri stammered nervously, recognizing the fox for what it was almost instantly.
"Whatever for?"
"Just do it," Ritsuko seconded, eyes flickering across the gathering foxes with obvious trepidation.
"It's a fox," Akira chuckled, joining Gau in prodding the silvery form roughly. "What can it possibly do?"
"Fox," Mouri laughed, almost appearing to be in a state of mild shock.
"It can do enough to scare Lanfear enough that she has to change her underwear. Is that good enough?" Ritsuko asked thickly. Pushing down her fear with obvious effort, she made her way to a now frozen Nasuti and gently plucked the silvery fox from her grip and set it on the ground, retreating quickly.
Upon regaining contact with the ground, the silvery fox darted several paces away before spinning to face them, ruby eyes blazing furiously. Almost instantaneously, it surged upwards in a sudden burst of height, resolving into slender, and furious, man with waist length silver hair and stunning violet eyes. Like Rune, he wore thin billowing leather garments, appearing out of thin air in place of his fur, a single scimitar hanging from his belt. Protruding from his thick mane of hair were largish fox ears framing a sharp, angular face. A matching silver fox tail extended behind him, the tip nearly brushing the ground as it twitched furiously.
Before anyone had time to respond, he ripped his scimitar free and lunged towards Nasuti, pulling up short when he slammed face first into an invisible barrier. His eyes narrowed in hatred. Nasuti only collapsed to the ground, trembling profusely.
"Knock it off," Len snapped, gaining the attention of the slender man and every fox in the clearing. "If you're here to help us like Anubis asked, then take us to Zairian's Ledge."
The silver-haired man looked as though he wanted to protest but dared not speak, violet eyes intently studying Len's face. A look of trepidation appeared on his face and he tensed slightly, sheathing his blade and advancing smoothly.
"It will be as you request, third of the shadow's light and fifteenth of the children of eternity," he murmured in a thick accent, inclining his head slightly. "I am Terru, leader of the Clan of the Tenth Shadow." His gaze whipped towards Ella almost instantly, lips curling slightly as he nodded to the armor orb still clenched in her fist. She flinched.
"I don't… I can't," she stammered, staring uncertainly at the coppery globe.
"Like this, little sister," Rune murmured, gently prying the orb from her quivering fingers and pressing it to the back of her wrist. Almost immediately, the orb sank into her arm, exploding in a flash of amber light that extended down her arm in a pattern of thorny vines that stopped just past her elbow. Gau made a face.
"What's with the decorations?" he groused.
"Symbols of the armor's acceptance of the bearers," Terru offered, looking pointedly at Nasuti and Gau, both of whom began to squirm uncomfortably under his harsh gaze.
"Give up," Akira groaned.
"Bite me," Gau snarled.
"Where?"
"That's enough," Nasuti snapped, causing both men to flinch. She raised one hand slowly in front of her, garnet flames igniting in the palm of her hand as she concentrated. "Armor of the Wildfire. Dao Jin."
As if the armor had belonged to her since birth, a fiery red orb appeared in her hand out of the flames, sinking into the flesh of her hand. Alarmed, she jerked her hand slightly away from the flames she had summoned, watching incredulously as the orb surfaced just behind her right wrist. Even as the orb darkened to a stunning garnet, streamers of crimson shot outwards from the softly pulsing light, streaking her arm like half-dried blood.
"Lovely," Gau muttered, ducking reflexively when Nasuti threw a wild shot in his direction furiously. He made a face at her. "But I don't want to lose my perfect looks!"
"Oh, you're dead," Nasuti growled.
Under threat of an angry wife, Gau raised his arms defensively and extended one hand reluctantly, crystalline peridot flames building in his palm. A resigned look fell over his face as he proceeded.
"Armor of the Halo. Dao Chi."
The result of his summoning matched Nasuti's almost exactly, a deep emerald orb appearing out of the fires and sinking into his hand only to reappear behind his wrist in a gently swirling peridot. A pattern of leaves exploded from the orb to cover his forearm. Gau's face screwed up in irritation.
"What is it with the freaking plant patterns?" he snarled.
"The elements are the source of life," Terru chuckled, choosing to ignore the foul looks thrown in his direction. "So naturally the patterns would mimic nature."
"Then what about those three?" he groused, jerking his head towards Shin, Vera and Len angrily. Terru grinned nastily.
"Their patterns follow their mindsets because they willed it so." He paused, eyes roving towards Nasuti as his smile grew malicious. "Hers settled on that pattern because I willed it so."
"Thanks," she groused, running one finger across the scarlet streaking. She paused, eyes narrowing in consideration. "Wouldn't you have to be a master of fire to do that?" Terru grinned wider.
"I am the fire at the pinnacle's point," he chuckled. Before she could question him further, he reverted to a small silver fox and disappeared into the unnatural shadows that defied Gau's light. The other foxes quickly followed.
"As interesting as that was," Len muttered. "What were those things?"
"Youko," Ritsuko breathed, still staring apprehensively towards the shadows.
"What's the big deal?" Kento snorted. "I could squish them flat."
"The big deal is that you couldn't," Mouri said lifelessly. "In the Sorcerer's War, they played both sides because they thought it was funny. I've never seen them fight, really. I've only seen the aftermath. Plains turned into mountain ranges and fertile fields into barren wastelands and vise versa."
"They have their reasons," Rune said lightly, pushing between them and heading towards a dense growth of trees. "Come, I will take you to Zairian's Ledge as you requested." His eyes locked onto Kento. "You must not follow."
"Why not?" Ritsuko snapped, temper flaring.
"He has business to attend to elsewhere."
Ritsuko looked ready to kill, her fiery rage only ebbing when Kento nodded knowingly and sank into the ground. His disappearance was quickly followed by a rabid bout of cursing from Akira, who degenerated into quiet muttering when Ella punched him in the arm threateningly.
"And where exactly did he go?" Ryoko asked quietly.
"To complete the rings," Rune answered as though it should be the most obvious thing in the world. Both Len and Vera flinched and tried to pretend like they didn't know what he was talking about. Ritsuko and Mouri paled.
"And what does that mean?" Akira asked slowly. Mouri took a deep breath to steady himself before answering.
"He joined the others in the astral plane to represent the powers of the earth."
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To Be Continued…