Au Coup Par Coup

by TraipsingExodus

An ill wind blows through Lumiose as savage murders shock the city. A king is rising to take his throne, opposed only by the Merchant and Mystic, the Mortician and Blade, the Errant and Embrace. Aided solely by their own wits and the powers of cryptic prophecy, they seek to impede his rise - but a king is not without his loyal subjects to stop such treachery.

17. Chapter 17

The tunnel behind the door seemed to stretch on forever. It sloped gently downwards, turning right and left at random, and the air grew steadily thicker all the while. Daniel shifted his gaze constantly as they walked and instructed Charles to watch their backs. After several minutes he said aloud, "We've been walking in a roughly square shaped spiral. Down."

Johannes glanced around at the dark, featureless, earthen tunnels - here and there a support beam would jut from the walls and he replied, "Who the hell made these tunnels? They've got support beams and they're a consistent size. This wasn't hand excavated. This was funded and done with purpose."

Daniel shrugged. "Not sure. If this is leading us to the King's fucking chamber though-" He stopped and shone his light ahead, the light catching the dull reflection of metal. It was another door, this one marked with yellow hazard tape and a large red "KEEP OUT" sign. "Well, if that's not fucking suspicious, I don't know what is. Vests on. Now." barked Daniel. He pointed to Johannes, Viola, Ana and Ricard.

Johannes looked around, then settled his gaze on Ana. "Uh, only Ana doesn't have hers on."

"That's why I told you all aloud. Help her get into hers."

Viola trembled. "Something is terribly wrong here," she broadcasted to everyone telepathically. "Terribly, terribly wrong. This aura...it's horrid. Malevolent. Even regretful."

"Sounds like spirits to me," remarked Jean. "Angry, unsent spirits at that. I'd be on your guard. All of you." At this, Charles growled and raised his arms, his blades extended and coated in a swirling black mass of energy. Anger, fear and anticipation coursed through him.

d'Artagnan squawked, his voice ringing through the tunnels and added, "I concur with the Vessel. Best we prepare ourselves for whatever it is that may lie ahead." Daniel and Ricard both drew their pistols at this, and Johannes rested his palm against the mega stone set in the bracelet on his wrist.

"I've got drifblim and arcanine with me if we need them." explained Daniel to the group. "Well, arcanine anyway. I'd send Jean through, but she needs to stay with Ana. So I'm taking point. If I die, run." Jean's expression became morose and she looked at Ana, her brow furrowed. The hexer was humming a tune, and it echoed more than the tunnel should have let it. Daniel raised his pistol at the door and looked over his shoulder. "Ready?" At the collective murmur from the group and a loud wail of "Yes!" from Ana, he kicked the door open and swept his pistol from left to right, his eyes searching frantically for movement. Then, his jaw dropped. It was a lab.

"What the fuck is this?" he stepped deeper into the lab, past destroyed consoles and tables and looked around, letting out a low whistle all the while. He searched the walls for a light switch, and found one further down the side of the room. "If this fucking works then it'll be the first in what I expect is a long list of fucked up and unlikely things to happen today." He flipped the switch on, and blue lights flickered to life overhead, though some went out immediately after turning on. Charles relaxed his shoulders and sighed. A massive section of the ceiling had suffered a cave in, and many of the tables and workstations had been pushed aside or thrown aside, broken and slammed together into untidy piles. The center of the room was open and wide, dotted here and there with a few shattered glass holding tubes large enough to fit Charles.

The entire party filed through and spread out, looking around at the consoles and detritus, shifting aside tables to the sounds of groaning metal and creaking wood. Murmurs of confusion began to rise in the room. Viola looked about, shivering and whispered to Jean, "This room is thick with wrongness. We should not be here."

Jean let out a small laugh. "My dear, the air has been thick with wrongness ever since we stepped foot in that maintenance tunnel. You just aren't attuned to smelling, feeling, and tasting all that is wrong with the world of the damned. Do you want help? Do you want to know as I do?"

Viola's eyes widened. "What does that entail?"

Charles flipped a pile of debris and frowned at the dusty, scratched, cracked tile beneath it, then turned to look at the banette and gardevoir. Jean floated close to Viola's face and grasped it. The zipper on her face slid from one end of her face to the other and she opened her mouth. Thick black smoke began to pour from it and the air filled with wails and whispers. Viola stared back, her face frozen in horror, mouth opening and closing like a beached magikarp. Jean pressed her mouth against Viola's and blew - smoke billowed out of the sides of their lips through the imperfect seal they created and Viola's eyes rolled up in her head. Her limbs began to spasm and a muffled cry of pain rang out. Charles let out a cry of alarm and made to run towards the banette, but Johannes streaked past him.

The researcher smacked the banette aside, panting and shouted, "WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?"

Viola sagged to her knees, coughing and retching, thick puffs of black smoke tinged with sparkles of pink billowing out of her each time she tried to rid herself the vile fumes and she looked up at Johannes and Jean with streaming eyes. "Johannes, Johannes, stop, please…" She coughed more and then vomited. Johannes let out a cry of rage and dug through the pack at his side and pulled out a syringe. With trembling hands he uncapped the needle and jammed it into Viola's neck.

"Are you alright?" he asked, his face flushed and eyes frantic. The gardevoir coughed again in response and wiped her mouth, nodding. He helped her to her feet and then looked at Jean, his eyes like daggers. "AGAIN, WHAT THE FUCK WERE YOU THINKING?"

The banette zipped her mouth shut and floated over to Ana's shoulder to sit down. "Showing her the demons."

Johannes' brow furrowed and he muttered, "What?"

"Any of you want to tell me what the fuck you're all shouting for?" asked Daniel, stomping over to the group with Ricard and d'Artagnan. "What's with her?" he added, pointing to Viola.

"I don't know, Jean just...blew some kind of smoke into her and then Viola threw up and…" Johannes shook his head. "What the fuck is she doing, Ana? Do you even know?"

Ana's eyes widened as she focused on Johannes and a grin spread across her face. It melted away into a grimace and then she turned her attention to Viola. She stepped up to the gardevoir and put a hand to her cheek. "For precious few seconds, you can see. Look. Look around. Look." Charles gave a start, alarmed, and his eyes diverted from Jean and the unapologetic expression on her face to Ana's.

Johannes recoiled. "Was that-"

"There is something there," interjected Viola. She pointed at desk, half of its legs gone, partially submerged in debris. "The drawer." Her expression betrayed abject terror, and her eyes darted back and forth, tracing things Charles could not see. He turned to see Daniel make for the desk and followed him.

Daniel threw the drawer she was pointing at open. Inside was a cloth-bound package affixed with a tag. "Sample 17-b. Unpowered. LysLabs." He growled. "Flare." He unwrapped the package, revealing a bizarre, multi-hued crystal. "What the fuck were they doing?" he asked aloud. Charles saw Daniel lay his fingers on it to pick it up and he pulled them away immediately as if he'd been burned. Daniel rubbed his temple and wrapped the cloth up. "Fuck. I dunno what this is," he began, wrapping the crystal up and shoving it an overlarge plastic bag he tugged from his jacket, "but it's bad fucking news."

Charles caught a flash of metal glinting in the blued, dim light of the room and dove in front of Daniel. With a snarl, he deflected the projectile and heard it clang a few feet away. Two figures exploded out of the darkness that hung over the entryway into the lab - a weavile and the bartender from the Diggersby.

"Should not have come!" shouted Charles in a rage, sprinting directly at the weavile. "Cursed place for your grave."

"Terrence! Now!" shouted the bartender.

The weavile launched itself at the bisharp right as a loud shriek rang out behind him. Charles did the smallest of double-takes to see if he could catch what it was, even as he tried to bat the weavile away with a backhand. Instead, the weavile caught hold of his arm and slashed at him with its free arm, screaming all the while.

Charles fell backwards and the world flew into disarray. He caught sight of Terrence launching a volley of shadow balls at Daniel and the rest of the group and saw the bartender slash his wrist with his dagger and spray blood and a mass of cloths along the ground - a tremendous, earsplitting wail rose in the room and became a quaking boom that shook the bisharp to his core. He slugged the weavile in the face and rolled away from it before kipping-up to his feet. He made to return to the group, but heard the weavile shout with fury. Too close to retreat.

Shuppets exploded out of the cloths on the ground and began to swirl around the group. Daniel slashed at them with his knife and threw a pokeball out with his freehand. His arcanine materialized with a loud howl and he shouted, "Get some fucking barriers or some kind up, throw out shadow balls yourself, fucking anything, just keep Ana, Johannes and d'Artagnan safe! Arcanine, burn these motherfuckers!"

Charles turned his attention back to the weavile and beckoned it. "Come. Seem eager for a cursed grave," he taunted. He caught the pokemon's wide slash at his face and threw it at the pile of rubble in the center of the room. "Need name for resting stone."

He had no sooner turned about when he wheeled around once more as he heard the weavile let out a furious scream of rage. With a shrill shriek, the weavile launched itself at Charles and fell short of him, rolling along the ground and using the momentum to spin itself about and sweep his legs out from under him. He raised an arm just in time to have the weavile's claws glance off his armored gauntlet before he swept the cat off its legs in turn and punched down square on its face. The weavile rolled aside at the last moment and backflipped away. "My name is Karan." She ran at him and slashed at his gauntlets again and again, punctuating each strike with, "And I. Serve. My King." She threw her final slash with enough force to send her spinning and brought her legs up in an arc. Charles felt the claws on her feet cut across his stomach and he hissed in pain as Karan retreated.

Behind him he heard gunshots ring out. He watched Karan bound up a shattered holding tube and launch herself at him from above. She overshot him and spun around, then raked at his ankles. Charles anticipated the feint this time and stepped closer to the weavile and kicked her directly in the head. She went sailing back into another holding tube, shattering it completely, blood streaming down the two vicious cuts on her face. An ominous crack rang out and the weavile crumpled to the ground, dazed.

He turned about one more time and sprinted towards Daniel, slashing at the shuppets that swirled around him to attack as he drew near the group. He felt a shadow ball connect with his leg and he tumbled forward, coming to a rolling stop at Ricard's feet. He got up, groaning and became aware of a new sound - metal clashing against metal. He looked to Daniel and saw him dodging and deflecting strikes from Vassal. He snarled and made to step towards his friend and help him, but was surprised when Daniel spared him a single glance after deflecting a heavy strike and shouted, "NO! HELP THEM!" He turned his attention back to the man and swung in a wide diagonal arc up from his hip to his shoulder. A cry of anger and pain informed Charles that Daniel's strike had hit home.

"Vassal, you idiot, this isn't working!" shouted Terrence, exploding out of debris, desks and tubes as fast as his partially-healed injuries would allow. He raised a huge ring of dancing purple flames and launched them directly at Jean, who responded by sending forth a pulse of similarly colored energy. The balls of fire exploded as they came into contact with the pulse and Jean followed up by beginning to quiver - a second later she had been joined by four copies of herself. The clones spread out before Ana, Johannes and d'Artagnan, though Viola stood in front of Johannes as well. The gardevoir had her arms raised, her face set in concentration, and a faint pinkish-purple shimmer emanated from her hands and trickled down to the floor, out to the sides and up a foot or two into the air. Smaller balls of ghost energy would explode across it now and again, and while the barrier would flicker, Viola responded each time with a shout of determination and the shimmer would become a white flash before the barrier reformed. All the while, arcanine blew gouts of flame at the advancing ghosts and ran from one side of the group to the other as their numbers massed and dwindled on either end.

Charles began to track Terrence with his eyes. The gengar looked worried - and tired. Worse still for the ghost, he had fallen into a pattern. Desk. Tube. Debris. Wall. Debris. Tube. Desk. Charles bent his knees and prepared to spring. Now. He launched himself forward and caught the gengar mid-jump from tube to debris and knocked it to the ground. Before Terrence could phase into the floor Charles reared a fist back and punched the gengar square in the forehead, his fist coated in an aura of dark energy.

The gengar's eyes rolled up in his head and he fell back against the floor, his overlarge tongue hanging loose. To his left, Charles heard Vassal swear and saw him sweep-kick Daniel off his feet. The detective shouted in surprise and fell hard on his back. Charles saw his friend slam his fists onto the ground and scream in pained fury. "FUCK. FUCK. FUCK." He saw Vassal and Karan sprint from the room, but thought better of following them alone and instead focused on keeping an eye on the gengar he'd subdued.

With trembling arms, Daniel sat up and got to his feet, hunched over and clutching at where the wound on his back was. "Fucker got away. Gods damn it all. That son of a bitch is gonna fucking pay." He turned about to the rest and barked, "We alright? Everyone alive?"

Charles waved at Daniel to get his attention amid the murmurs of assent. He pointed at the unconscious gengar on the ground. Daniel's face split into an ugly grin.

"Nice going, Charles. This fucker is gonna squeal," he huffed, pulling his pistol free from its holster and bringing it to bear. He drew his leg back and launched a kick square into the gengar's side.

Terrence groaned in pain, and his eyes flickered open with some difficulty. "What...what happened?"

"You lost and they fuckin' abandoned you. Where the fuck did they go?" replied Daniel. He locked his elbow as his trained his pistol on the ghost's forehead. "And don't go thinking you'll get the fuck out of this. I'll paint the ground with whatever the fuck is in your gods damned head in an instant and just find them the old fashioned way if I need to."

The gengar groaned. "Fine. Can I sit up?"

"Slowly," growled Charles, his arm raised, blade extended and a severe look on his face.

"What do you want?" spat Terrance, training his eyes on Charles as he sat himself up and rubbed his back.

"Understand human tongue. You speak it. Answer him." The bisharp pointed to Daniel and then crossed his arms.

"Ugh, what do you want then?" he asked Daniel.

"I already fucking told you. Take us to wherever the fuck it is they're going. I'm sure you know," snarled the detective. "And maybe the worst that'll happen to you tonight will be getting knocked the fuck out."

Terrence got to his feet with deliberation and rubbed his forehead. "I've got a better idea. I'll help. With everything you're trying to do, whatever it is you're trying to do. Because, honestly, I don't care what these images and sounds mean anymore." He sighed and turned to look at the door. "Follow-"

"Shade. Speak of these sounds to me." Everyone turned about and saw Ana approach the gengar and kneel down to eye level with him. "Tell me. What do you see? What do you feel?" She reached out with hands faintly glowing with white energy and gripped his arms. "Speak. Speak. Speak. Speak."

The gengar's eyes closed, and he began to sway on the spot and caught himself falling over several times. He mumbled, "Fuzzy pictures. Loud static. A woman laughing. A man screaming." He paused. "I hear static. Loud static. It hurts. The images are swirling and the man looks like he's running but he's distorted. I see...I see…" His eyes tore open and he looked at Ana with an expression of terror. "Karan. How?"

The hexer frowned and looked at Jean. "Fruits plucked from dying trees are filled with the regrets and memories of the blood that fed them." The banette nodded and looked at Terrence with a sneer.

"What's so funny, puppet?" he said, scowling.

"Didn't your mommy and daddy tell you when you were just a little gastly that it's impolite to eat the dreams of the dying?" She flipped in the air and then floated over to Ana's shoulder to settle on it as the woman stood up. "Bad dreams taste bad. Dying dreams feel bad. Fill you up with shredded regrets and futile hope. Quiet little remembrances. They swirl all around your head and then…" She fell backwards off of Ana's shoulder and landed flat on her back. "Ouch. What? Why can't I phase here?"

The gengar laughed. "The King is less than willing to let members that don't belong to his "court" through the walls, floors and ceilings. Except for the damned dusknoir."

Jean floated up before Terrence and gave him a wicked smile. "At least I'm not the one plagued by dead dreams. Idiot shade." She pulled her zipper open slightly and blew a plume of black smoke in his face. "So...naïve."

Terrence blew the smoke away and said, his voice curt, "Do you want my damn help or not? I'm offering it, and for free at this point now that I know what these weird memories mean." He frowned and averted their eyes, but Jean began to laugh as he did so.

"Did you think it was something more?" Terrence rolled his eyes and Jean began to shriek with laughter. "Poor little gengar." She flew to him and stared him in the eyes, her own dancing with malice. "Did you think you were special? Meant for more? Maybe you were the chosen among gengar! Cursed forever to hold knowledge the likes of which all the other inferior ghosts could never have!" The trilling of her laughter made Charles feel uneasy, and from how Terrence winced, it seemed to cut into him more than his own blades could "Or did you- oh. Oh." She brought her hands to her mouth, shaking with girlish glee. "You didn't. Oh but you did. You read a book. Maybe two. Stole a pokedex…"

Terrence's eyes flashed. "Shut. Up."

"He did! He did, he did, he did! He thought he might have been human once!" Jean's laughter shifted from girlish to wholly cruel. "You sor-"

Charles stepped between them, his eyes fixed on Jean's and he snapped, "Enough. Had your say. He will help us. We will treat him as ally for it. Understood?" He added a growl of warning for emphasis. The banette cowed and returned to Ana's shoulder.

Daniel looked between Terrence and Charles and grumbled, "So? You done shootin' the shit? You mind leading us on?" The gengar scowled and set off, not once bothering to check if they followed. Charles and the group followed, the bisharp keeping pace with the gengar to keep a close on him.

"Are we really about to just follow him? After he tried to kill us?" protested Johannes. Next to him, Viola nodded, her face shining with fear.

D'Artagnan squawked in protest as well. "This is most unwise, Mortician. Surely you recognize that, Blade?" Charles gave the xatu a meaningful stare and shook his head negative once. "Curious. I consider you a rather adept judge of character, Charles. You are certain?"

Charles kicked at the ground and crossed his arms, his brow furrowed. "Yes. Certain." He sighed. "Awful idea. Terrible idea. And best chance we have."

Terrence rolled his eyes. "I get that none of you trust me. And don't have much reason to. Hell, I wouldn't. But if you want to know where Karan went, where Vassal went and where the King is, then you can follow me and I will take you there."

A murmur of resigned assent rippled through the party.

"Where?" muttered Charles.

"A wall. False wall. Wouldn't find it normally. Have to keep heading down, not quite to a dead end, but somewhere a little before it," explained the gengar, taking off down the passage once more. The walk fell into silence for a minute before the smooth, open tunnel shrank all at once into a one-person opening before them, and brought a indistinct sound out of Daniel's throat.

"What's with this fucking tunnel?" he asked in what Charles would tell was a falsely casual voice.

Terrence frowned. "Vassal dug it. It's how he found the King, or so he told me. Never was one for details on how this all came to be. Well, his own anyway. I think he was some kind of archeology freak or something? I tend to zone out when he talks."

"Archeologist turned bartender and brothel owner?" asked Daniel. Charles saw the worry behind his friend's eyes dissipate as he studied the gengar with a furrowed brow.

"Vassal is...weird. Loves the King. Too much. Found his chamber a long time ago and said he had found his calling helping him because of it. I think he was looking for this lab at first, actually, and thought there might be more further down. Fuck him," explained Terrence. "And Karan is nuts."

"What exactly is her problem?" asked Daniel.

Terrence shrugged. "Bad blood? Bad past? I'm not sure. She's more than a little terrifying. She doesn't talk much about the past, but the way she acts, the prey she picks…" He shuddered and repeated, "Touch you like it's wrong. Delicious." He shook his head. "Absolutely crazy. Mates with her prey and then kills them. Don't even know why, she doesn't eat them. Maybe a lick of blood now and then but that's usually part of the "fun" as she'd call it. Some of them too she..." He trailed off and rubbed his forehead. "Hours. Like she was having the time of her life. Sometimes she forgot to kill them because she wore herself out. Earned a reputation for being more than good. Being the best. She loved that." The gengar shook his head in wide arcs left and right, his eyes closed and his brow tightly knit.

Johannes spoke up, and Charles turned to look at the researcher. "She was-" He paused and frowned. "I've never made a study of something quite like this before, but I've read some very disturbing case studies done in Kanto of all places…" The researcher looked uncomfortable. His eyes cast down to earth and he cleared his throat. "Someone. Or some people. Some pokemon, I don't know. Some kind of force got a hold of her and, well, made the rouge look like paradise in comparison." He managed a weak, ironic smile. "Who do you blame? Her? Whoever did this to her? Cruel indifference?" His smile became bitter. "Who gets to judge?"

Daniel let out a cruel laugh. "I do. Let's keep moving."

They squeezed one by one into the tunnel and continued along in a silence that persisted until they reached a nondescript patch of wall that had Terrence call out, "Stop!" The party did so, murmurs of confusion rising from them as they did. "Need to head through here." His hand began to glow a bright red and he pressed it to the patch of wall. The dirt crumbled away and he beckoned them to follow.

The spilled out into a cavernous chamber made of ancient stonework. Terrence raised a finger and flicked a small ball of purple flame at a tall stone brazier. The violet light drove away the inky black that surrounded them and revealed a looming ceiling. Johannes looked around, his jaw slack. "Where the hell are we?"

Terrence shrugged. "Not sure. This place is ancient. The King is pretty ancient himself. Looks it anyway. So does that throne he sits on. If its even a throne, I've never been able to tell. It's coated in darkness."

A dusknoir exploded out of the brazier and reached for Daniel, who stood nearest the stone column it sat atop. "Dawnsoul. You come to the seat of the usurper. Your final mistake. The dusk has come and gone - the infinite night stretches before you, and the Veil reclaims all."

---

Daniel dove out of the way of the dusknoir and shouted, "Get the fuck back!" Not worth it to waste ammo right now. He got to his feet, his knife at the ready and saw several more dusknoir phase through the walls alongside shuppet and duskull. "Where the fuck are these coming from? Is the King controlling them?"

Terrence grimaced and shouted, "No, and he's pretty unhappy about that. They show up whenever they want. They never get this close to the chamber though, something must be wrong. Is it one of you?"

Daniel slashed at a duskull with his knife, cutting it in two. He caught a dusknoir flying at him out of the corner of his eye and turned to greet it with the point of his blade. It sunk to the hilt in the dusknoir's eye and the ghost screamed in agony as angry crimson light exploded out of the gash. "I don't fucking know!" He stabbed the dusknoir in the eye again, then shifted his grip and drove his knife into its torso several times. More brilliant red light filtered through the cuts and the dusknoir's entire body began to convulse. Daniel flung himself away from it as its body fell apart into a pile of shredded cloth and smoke tinted red and purple billowed from it to the sounds of disembodied voices screaming. He turned onto his back and winced as he tweaked his injury and regarded the pile of rags on the floor before him. With a sigh, he got to his feet and turned in time to see shadow balls raining down on the others.

Viola, Jean, Charles and Terrence deflected what they could, but he saw several hit Charles square in the stomach and thighs, another catch Viola's shoulder and one more hit Jean full in the face.

The banette sank to the ground at the same speed his heart did. "Jean!"

Ana rushed forward and scooped the banette up in her arms, sobbing. The puppet stirred weakly in her arms and she glared up at the dusknoir that loomed over her, her hair whipping about and glowing a soft purple. "VANGUARD! CEASE!"

The ghosts in the room fell still and the dusknoir before her, the largest of them all, peered down at her. A low rumbling groan filled the air and it said, "Soul of the twilight."

The hexer's breathing was heavy and shaky. "We come to right the wrongs of the usurper. On wings of calamity." She glared up at the dusknoir, her eyes streaming. "The Vanguard of Ichor do not interfere with those who would visit calamity upon those with ruinous intent. It is your code."

Daniel stepped towards Ana and she turned instantly to face him and screamed, "STOP." He froze, his leg outstretched in mid-step and brought it back with a small nod. She turned to the dusknoir again. "Allow us safe passage. We are not agents of the usurper."

The ghost considered her for a moment, then its single red eye traced from her face to the gengar. "And yet here stands his accessory."

Ana held her hand out, her wrist presented to the dusknoir. "I swear it on my essence. Bind my oath to the blood of the dawn and ichor of the dusk."

The dusknoir's eye trained itself on Ana again. A long silence stretched out and then it chuckled. "Soul of the twilight. Your oath is heard. By your blood and ichor are you bound. Destroy the usurper or through the Veil you are claimed." The ghost placed its enormous hand beneath Ana's.

The hexer slashed a fingernail across her wrist and grit her teeth in pain. Thick drops of red blood fell into its hand alongside thicker still globs of a curious purple and black liquid that shone in the faint light of the chamber. They evaporated into streams of ruby and ebony smoke and rose into the air between the two. With a soft puff, the dusknoir blew the smoke at Ana, where it swirled around her and faded.

"We depart. And await the soul of the usurper. Or the twilight." The dusknoir raised its arms and sank through the floor, with the rest of the dusknoir, shuppet and duskull present following suit.

Daniel rushed to Ana and helped her to her feet, digging through his jacket for a potion to spray on Jean all the while. "Are you alright Ana? What's going on? What the fuck did you do?"

"Bottled safety. An oath to upend a bottle of it upon our heads and allow us passage to the throne of the usurper." She brought her hand to Daniel's face and looked him in the eyes with concern. "At the price of damnation. Perhaps. Should we fail." She took the potion from Daniel the moment she saw him tug it free from his jacket and sprayed it on Jean's face. The banette's stirrings became stronger and with a groan that echoed a hundred times over and carried muffled shrieks, the pokemon came to and floated out of her hands and onto her shoulder.

Charles mumbled something and Jean replied with a single, curt sentence.

"Charles, you alright? Need anythin'?" asked Daniel, concerned. The bisharp smirked and patted his stomach twice and then rapped his knuckles against his head once. "Tougher than a few shadow balls by now, eh?"

Terrence pulled ahead of them all and beckoned. "This way. Not far now."

"Hold on, hold on," called out Johannes, spraying Viola's shoulder with a potion bottle as he did. "Alright, that ought to be good enough. Nice work Viola, good thing that shopkeep gave us such a dead useful TM." Viola nodded, her face nevertheless lined with worry.

"I'll be fine. I swear. I'm keeping my head down," Johannes replied to a voice unheard.

From behind him, Ricard strode up to Daniel, stomping especially hard to warn him of his approach, and signed, "D'Artagnan has done his best to keep me informed. If the chamber of the King is fast approaching us, we should be prepared."

Daniel nodded. "And we are." He pulled his pistol from its holster. "I've got twenty different plans to deal with this bastard and his two remaining cronies." He shook the pistol. "Primed and ready."

The deaf-mute frowned. "Our approach was reckless from the start, Daniel, but you have not done much to mitigate that."

"Well, what do you want from me?" he signed back. "I'm doing the best I can with what I've got, and in case you haven't noticed, what I've got is a living knife, a loaded gun and someone who's so close to the brink I wouldn't be surprised if just walking into his throne room would tip her over."

"The best you can manage is charging blindly?"

Daniel put his hand to his friend's shoulder and gave him a self-deprecating smile before letting go to sign, "You give me way too much credit, Ricard. I plan for steps one and two and make up three through infinity. And we are way past step two."

The accountant closed his eyes and exhaled long and slow. He unholstered his own pistol and pointed past the gengar, then raised his hand and signed, "Ok."

---

Pierre pulled the charging handle partially back on his submachine gun several times before pulling it completely back and locking it. He and his three compatriots sat in an ITS truck, jostling gently in their seats as they crept towards the Diggersby. He sighed into his gas mask and silently cursed Ricard's name. This had better be worth it. He pulled the mask up to give his face time to breathe, and then felt someone nudge him.

"Pierre, you trust this Ricard fellow completely?" It was Lothaire, his bright blue eyes contrasting sharply against the black tactical gear he wore. His voice was muffled.

With a chuckle, he replied, "Mostly. I wouldn't write off a tip he's this insistent about. Besides, I couldn't rob Fabien of a perfectly good opportunity to blow some shit up. Isn't that right, you brute?"

Fabien seemed to be bulging out of his gear around his biceps and chest. He flipped the bird to Pierre and chuckled in response before returning to his inspection of his shotgun. Next to him, Paul sat up and leaned forward, towards Pierre. "How did you get this mission approved? We're not exactly out of practice - but you are, and you're off leading the team? Well, I have to wonder just how much balle you had to fork over to do this."

With a loud, sharp laugh, Pierre waved off the comment. "Rusty or not, I can still run a shitty little op like this, Paul. It's a simple enough run, and you were only considered because we need someone to bring up the rear. And you were always so good with keeping an eye on the men's backs."

"Yeah, yeah, va te faire foutre," replied Paul immediately, smiling himself and sitting back.

A voice from the front of the van called back, "Une minute!"

"Alright, everyone listen up. You've already been briefed, but let me just go ahead and reiterate: load lethal, we're just there to demo a wall and deal with what's behind it. I'll have less-lethal ready in case we find something we don't want dead. All of the Diggersby is still under lock and key as the investigation proceeds, so let's try not to step on any toes. They've received word in advance that we'll be investigating something in the manager's office, so it shouldn't be a problem." He looked around the three men as they loaded and cocked their weapons, and after a ten second silence, nodded and added, "Arlight. Get ready." He pulled a bright blue magazine free from his harness and loaded it into his gun, then slapped the charging handle down to send it home.

---

Terrence pointed to the arched passageway before the group - one that was far too narrow for Daniel's taste compared to how cavernous the previous room had been. "Through there. Soon as you exit this hallway, you'll be in the main chamber. It's soaked through with ghost energy too, so I'd be careful. You especially," he explained, pointing to d'Artagnan. He led the way, with Daniel following closely behind.

He pulled the slide back on his pistol far enough until his eyes found the glint of a loaded round. He was ready. So were the walls. He felt them squeeze around him, his heart begin to race, and the smell of rot and fetid water catch in his nostrils. He flew back into the sewers - they felt like ages ago. The pedestal and the heart. The pulsing walls and glowing rune upon the floor. He picked up speed, overtaking Terrence in a jog. The walls pulsed again. He turned back and shouted, "RUN!"

The entire entourage lurched forward, desperate to keep up with Daniel, who now was opening a gap before them as he shifted into a full sprint. "What the hell are you doing, Daniel!?" shouted Johannes, huffing beside Viola. "Stop! Stop!"

A long, angry and partly panic-struck yell rose from Daniel's throat, and he leaned into his sprint further until the walls let go of him and he found himself in a dimly lit, massive chamber that featured a huge mass of swirling black in the center. He saw Vassal clutching an armful of glowing cloths and Karan beside him, tendrils of purple energy swirling around her, and occasionally pressing against her body and forcing their way in through the skin without leaving marks. He did not stop, and launched himself at Vassal, tackling him to the floor, knocking the cloths out of his hands and sending them scattering into the air.

Daniel sat upon Vassal's stomach and aimed his pistol wildly at Karan while the man below him was still dazed. He fired and heard a loud shriek as the weavile spun away from him, clutching her shoulder. He tugged his knife free from the small of his back and drove it down towards Vassal's throat, but the man caught his hand and snarled, "You won't be rid of us that easily!" Daniel holstered his pistol and tried to force the dagger down with both hands.

"I'm tired of this ghost shit and I'm fucking tired of stumbling around these fucking tiny tunnels. Do me a fucking favor and-" A black tendril exploded from the mass in the center of the room near him and struck him across the face, sending him flying back away from Vassal and skidding across the cracked stone floor. He struggled to his feet, cursing the insistent pain in his back and his now labored breathing. Already fucking winded. Tendrils rising from the mass blocked his view of Vassal.

He caught the others rushing into the room - Charles immediately met Karan's screaming pounce with crossed arms and extended blades, and the two dove off from the others, rolling about, trading blows and scratches. Terrence chased after them, contributing what he could in the form of waves of purple pulses of energy and volleys of shadow balls.

A voice boomed in the air, sending Ana scrambling to the edge of the chamber, clutching her head and screaming in pain. "FAILURES. YOU HAVE FAILED ME. WHORE. VASSAL. AND TRAITOROUS PEASANT." Jean followed close behind, and upon noticing them rushing away, Johannes, Viola and d'Artagnan joined the hexer and ghost. Ricard, meanwhile took aim at the mass in the center of the room and fired.

A shield burst from the black mass, coated in black tendrils, and the bullet ricocheted off with a loud twang. "I am the reckoning of an age long past, you foolish creatures. And my ascension nears its completion. Bow before Agilrad, your King. I have razed nations across this pitiful plane, and watched the fires of a hundred burning castles from mountaintops in lands you could never conceive of." A purple light came to life in the roiling black mass and illuminating shafts of violet began to explode out, reaching out to the four torches dancing with red flame that ringed the room.

The scattered cloths upon the floor began to glow and rise, and the air filled with the rushing sounds of whispers and muffled shrieks of the damned. Daniel felt his stomach churn as the cloths turned into an endless sea of shuppets and duskull. "For fuck's sake," he muttered, "How the fuck…" He heard a loud, droning chant rise in the air, and he turned to see Ana sitting in the center of a ring of candles, her eyes locked on Agilrad, unblinking. Floating above her was Jean, her mouth open, letting loose a steady stream of smoke. Viola, Johannes and d'Artagnan stepped within the circle of candles, and he saw the shimmer of a light screen come to life in the dim chamber.

Ana stopped droning long enough to point to Jean and shout at Johannes, "Remove as many tags as you can find and place them in a large circle around us. Replace them all as soon as they burn up and when you begin to run out, remove more from Jean. Do you understand?"

Johannes cocked his head at the last word. "What?" Viola tugged on his shirt and he looked at her for a moment before adding, "Got it!" Jean turned to face him and he rummaged about in her insides for a moment before pulling out a large, balled-up stack of tags.

A voice came to life in Daniel's head. "Mortician. The time is upon us. I am of precious little use save my ability to inform you of that which you cannot see. The Blade fights valiantly, but I fear this excess of ghosts will overwhelm him. The shade that fights alongside him has neither the energy nor the heart for the fight he assists him in. And this is to say nothing of the the Merchant. Please, make haste, and remove the threat Vassal poses to us all as swiftly as you can."

"Help Ricard out," he mumbled, tossing arcanine's pokeball out towards the accountant. He turned in time to see the shuppets and duskull finish coalescing, and raised his knife, his teeth grit. A loud howl rose in the air to his left, and the ghosts began to swarm around, launching balls and tiny embers of purple light at Daniel. Through the flurry, he saw the tendrils cease to block Vassal from view, and he caught the man rushing at him, dagger raised.

Daniel rushed to meet him, snarling, and dodged left and right, spinning around massed clumps of ghost energy and deflecting slow-moving, ghostly embers. He slashed out at the shuppet and duskull now and again, sending their tattered remains drifting to the floor. They'll be back. No way they won't be. He sidestepped a slash from Vassal, and with a single flick slashed open his arm and cauterized the wound at the same time.

Vassal screamed in pain and swung at Daniel. He managed to deflect the first, second and third swing, but as the fourth came from below up towards stomach, he also caught from a flash of purple in the corner of his eye. He turned away from the ball but felt it smash into his back and burn his soul. Not fast enough. Vassal's knife grazed against his stomach and slashed apart some of the fabric of his jacket and shirt. He heard the sound of something dripping to the ground and his eyes widened. There goes a potion bottle.

He aimed a kick square at Vassal's stomach and knocked him away, and dove backwards himself immediately after. He groaned as his back and lung protested, and staggered to his feet, glancing over to Ricard to check on him. Arcanine was burning down wave after wave of ghosts with relative ease, and Ricard, who had brought far more ammunition with him than Daniel had, continued to fire at any ghost that managed to dodge the flames. He turned and fired several rounds at the black mass in the center of the room - more loud clangs rang out and a booming voice shouted, "Enough!" A figure separated itself from the mass, ringed in red light, and four brilliant tendrils exploded out of the crimson fire of the torches and affixed themselves to the figure. It was the shape of a man, and the shining metal of an aegislash's blade shot out of the right arm, while a glinting aegislash's shield slid out of the left.

"What the fuck is that?" shouted Daniel. He looked from the figure back to Ana and the others and saw explosions of purple explode against a wall of light, or on seemingly nothing as a tag upon the ground burnt up in a brilliant blue flame.

He spun his head back around to focus on Vassal, who got to his feet and called to him, "That is my King."

"Mortician, I have been keeping my eye on the fight. The Merchant is faring well enough, but your Blade is fighting against the tide itself. His assaults leave no permanent mark upon that weavile - her tears open her body with angry gashes, only for them close in an instant, and a few punches that should have fractured skulls are met only with a moment's pause as she gathers mind and body into one entity again. The shade has taken to hiding behind a pile of rubble, fearing death." D'Artagnan's voice was steeped in worry as it rang in Daniel's head. "Worse still, I fear the supply of tags is beginning to dwindle. The Errant is having a progressively more difficult time finding tags to lay out. The assault from the spirits around us is unending."

Daniel met Vassal's charge with another roar and deflected his blade. The man's strikes were more vicious now, and the fatigue in his limbs and the pain in his back were beginning to take their toll. Deflecting the attacks was becoming a labor, not a reaction. His arms met the blade with weaker deflections and parries, and several cuts tore across the fabric of his jacket and anti-stab vest.

Vassal roared and managed to thrust his dagger into Daniel's stomach, the detective's attempt at parrying missing completely this time. However, Vassal's blade caught just a few centimeters into the material of the vest, and with a grunt of frustration, he tugged his blade free and punched Daniel across the face, sending the man stumbling back.

Daniel focused on Vassal, but caught sight of the King as he stomped up to arcanine and swung his sword in an overhead arc down on the dog. He jumped to the side, though the shockwave sent him flying much further away, towards Ana and the rest of the group. With a whine, the pokemon got to its feet. Ricard fired several times at the mass and dodged another sword swing, but as he stood the shield came around and a sickening crack rang out.

"RICARD!" Daniel met Vassal's next strike with a strong parry and slashed the man across the chest, leaving in the wake of the dagger an angry slash of cauterized blood and burnt flesh. He kicked Vassal away as the man recoiled and screamed in pain, and sprinted towards his friend. He saw Ricard skid across the ground and landing in a heap next to arcanine. With a breathy groan, the accountant got to his feet, and Daniel met him to assist. "You alright? Holy shit, that's alotta blood."

Ricard signed, "Nose is broken. Can't talk much. D'Artagnan can fill me in." He fired at several shuppet and then dumped the magazine to insert a fresh one. He gestured for Daniel to get back in the fight and aimed at the King, who had turned his attention towards Charles and Karan's fight. Daniel set off immediately after the king, determined to help support the bisharp, slashing apart several ghosts as he did so. He remembered halfway to the fight that he'd completely forgotten about Vassal. He shouted back, "D'Artagnan! Update!"

"The Merchant has apprehended Vassal, in a manner of speaking. Though he remains some distance away, the threat of gunfire is enough to keep him at bay. For now. Make haste. We are out of tags."

"Fuck fuck fuck." He pulled his pistol free and fired thrice at the King, each bullet striking the vaguely humanoid figure wielding the aegislash in the back and tearing holes the size of grapefruits into it. An acrid smell filled the air, and the wounds emitted a red-tinted haze.

Agilrad turned around and fixed his attention of Daniel. He was hideous - some terrible mixture of rotting man, glistening aegislash and snaking midnight tendrils. In what little light the crimson torches afforded him, he could see three glowing eyes of violet set in a distorted human skull. Blackened, rotting skin sagged from the horror's face, sloughing off and regrowing as little tendrils from the skin that remained. The holes in his body began to close in a similar fashion, with tendrils of pure black lacing together into a matrix of fibers at an alarming rate. "Feeble tricks befitting a court jester. If that." With a snarl that echoed through the entire chamber he swung his blade at Daniel. Though he missed, the shockwave from the blad colliding with the ground threw off the detective's balance, and the King brought his sword back in a wide arc again.

Daniel avoided this as well, but a terrible, blinding pain erupted in his midsection. The king caught Daniel on his back foot and slammed his shield into the detective's stomach, flinging him against the nearby wall. He felt the wound in his lung and back reopen, and he crumpled to the ground, dazed.

---

Charles caught Karan's wrist and slammed her behind him, dragging the cat in a wide overhead arc and bringing her head crashing straight into the ground. Tendrils of purple exploded from the ground and swirled around her head and a moment later her free hand lashed out at him. The bisharp released her arm and backflipped away. With a growl, he readied himself for her to pounce again. When she did, he met the attack with the pointed end of the blade jutting from his forearm. He heard it dig into her shoulder and the weavile shrieked in pain.

She grit her teeth, slashed him across his face and kicked off his body. Charles wiped the blood streaming from the cuts away and huffed. He was covered in scratches and several punctures, but the wound upon Karan's shoulder closed up as the others had with the help of the black tendrils.

She'd taken enough punishment to die several times over, and yet she hadn't so much as lost consciousness. He grit his teeth and went on the offensive, ducking and diving away from a flurry of icicles she launched at him from thin air and slammed his fist into the pit of her stomach. He heard a wet hack and the crack of her spine shattering. With a roar of exasperation and fury, he pulled his fist back and caught her full in the face with another punch square to the nose, to the sound of another crack. She went flying away from him and crashed into the rubble that Terrence hid behind.

"Stay down. Don't want to keep killing you," he called to her, panting. "Would appreciate any help, Terrence." The gengar did not respond. Charles growled as the weavile stirred and the bloody mess of her face fixed itself as the tendrils dug their way into her body and seeped into gashes and tears his punch had created.

A blinding plain erupted across Charles' face and he went flying into the wall at his side, cracking a considerable number of stones and becoming partially lodged in it. He tugged himself out in time for a sword to stab into the stonework, crushing and destroying several stones and bring forth a rain of rubble which Charles was only barely able to dodge. His eyes caught the glint of Agilrad's sword cutting through the air directly at him, and with stiffened, gleaming gauntlets, he managed to deflect the attack. The force from the attack wound its way up his arms and made his bones ache. Can't do that much more.

He sprinted at Agilrad and slashed again and again at his torso, dodging out of the way of a shield slam and an overhead smash from the sword as he approached, and finishing his assault with a blinding fast punch to center of the King's stomach. His hand tore completely through the thin flesh of the abomination's torso. He yanked it back out while grabbing at anything he could possibly tear to deal more damage, but found nothing.

Charles caught Agilrad's knee as it came up to greet him, but the force sent him flying up into the air at an odd angle. He righted himself in midair and caught Daniel's crumpled form and the onslaught of ghosts still bearing down upon the others for an instant before he turned his attention back to the King and Karan, who had stood and was tracing Charles' descent through the air. She ran out to meet him and pounced him in mid-air, knocking him back and sending them both tumbling away.

Charles punched Karan repeatedly in the face, the last signs of his previous assault now faded from her nose and forehead, and with another crack felt her cheekbones shatter against his fist. The weavile slumped off him, clutching her face and growling. He kicked straight at her midsection, but she caught it with one hand, then bought the other away from her face and drove her claws into his thigh. With a scream of pain, he brought his fist down atop her head and felt her skull crack beneath his fist. His hand pressed a sizable indentation into her head. She released him, falling face down onto the ground, where she at last laid still. The tendrils began to snake their way into the wound, repairing brain tissue, skin and skull alike. Don't have long.

He spun around in time see Agilrad swing his sword straight down at him, and with a wince of pain, Charles dove out of the way. He limped as fast as his leg could carry him, making directly to Daniel, swatting and slashing away the shuppet and duskull as they dove at him. Those he could not strike down, he endured. He turned and found the King was strolling towards him at a slow pace - whether it was his strange, imperfectly human body that impaired his movement or confidence that his stride did not need to be quick, Charles did not know. He caught a glimpse of Terrence crouched behind the rubble he'd launched Karan at before and snarled, "Useless, traitorous coward!"

He made it to his friend and knelt down to shake him, grunting insistently. He patted his hand against Daniel's cheek several times and then the man stirred. With a sigh of relief, Charles shook his shoulder with greater insistence, and then Daniel coughed, spraying his chest and pants with blood. He grabbed hold of Daniel and limped towards the others, dragging Daniel alongside him as fast as his injured leg allowed. "Daniel needs help immediately," he called to Viola and d'Artagnan.

"D'Artagnan? I'm holding this barrier steady. Could you and Johannes treat Daniel?" replied Viola.

Charles looked over at the others. Viola, now in her mega-evolved form, was indeed holding a barrier steady, her arms outstretched. Ana worked beneath her, drawing up new tags from a stack of papers she had undoubtedly pulled from inside of Jean. d'Artagnan took a lighter from Daniel telekinetically and began to relight candles that were extinguishing in a peculiar rhythm around Ana. Free from the tedious task, Johannes dug around in the backpack he had with him and removed two potion bottles and a small vial of smelling salts.

He handed one bottle to Charles and motioned to his leg. The other bottle was smaller and marked with the silhouette of a man. Instead of a spray nozzle, it had a cap that protected a needle and a trigger-like plunger. A red sticker covered in symbols that reminded Charles of warning signs Daniel pointed out to him kept the cap from falling off. He watched as Johannes opened the tiny vial of smelling salts and waved it under Daniel's nose.

The detective came to a second later, his face screwed up at the stench, and he let out a wet cough. "The fuck is that smell?" he rasped. Johannes uncapped the smaller potion-like bottle and stuck the needle into Daniel's neck and depressed the plunger. "Ow, fuck!"

"Cocktail of mild stimulants and mild amphetamine-based analgesics. Dangerous as all hell to use more than one in a twenty-four hour period, but it'll dull the pain a little bit," explained Johannes at top speed.

"Who said I needed speed? And who made you the pharmacist?" grumbled Daniel.

"The blood on your shirt and pants, along with the fact that you were knocked out did it."

"Surprised Ana didn't drop her chanting," noted Daniel struggling to his feet.

"She's been hyper-focused this whole time. I think she forgot we exist," reasoned Johannes.

Charles tapped Daniel insistently on the shoulder and pointed at the approaching monstrosity. He gave Daniel a grim nod, his eyes burning with intent, and ran out to face the King. Behind him, he heard Daniel's heavy footfalls as he followed, all the while shouting, "Keep that shit up Jo, we'll get this over with as fast as we can."

---

Pierre felt Lothaire tap his shoulder, and so he tapped Fabien on the shoulder in turn. The four made their way down the stairs, their guns at the ready and fanned out into the cramped office. Paul groaned, "Seemed a tad bit unnecessary to sweep and clear a room we know the men already had under lock and key."

Pierre kept his submachine gun aimed at the bookshelf that Ricard had told him of and shrugged, replying, "Yes, but I love to hear you bitch at me, Paul. Get that shelf moved."

Fabien stowed his shotgun and dragged the shelf aside, revealing a glowing symbol that Pierre did not recognize. "Looks a bit like the things the rois of old had, no?" asked Lothaire, his tone interested, if unsure.

"Whatever it is, the target is behind it. Get the C4 set up Fabien," instructed Pierre. "You confirmed the payload size wouldn't fuck us here, right?" He gestured to the ceiling for emphasis.

"Should be fine," came the reply. Fabien taped an octagon of breaching charges around the symbol and drew the line out the room, up the stairs and into the hallway. The rest followed closely in his wake. Once stacked up outside, he counted down from three on his finger and aloud. "Three. Two. One." A loud bang carried up the stairs and the sound of drywall spraying across the ground and furniture in the room followed.

"Clear it!" shouted Pierre. The four moved into the room yet again, and found the wall destroyed. Much of the furniture in the room knocked aside, over, or apart. A curious red light shone out of the newly created hole. The four men approached the hole, their guns at the ready, and were met with the sight of a partially shriveled, blackened human heart floating atop a marble pedestal, emitting a crimson glow. The alcove it sat in was just large enough to contain the pillar and the heart, and nothing else.

Pierre heard Lothaire gag next to him, and Paul to his right whispered, "Merde."

His own stomach uneasy, Pierre tapped Fabien on the shoulder and muttered, "Destroy that fucking thing."

Fabien aimed his shotgun at the heart and replied in a grave tone, "D'aise." The boom of the gun rang out in the room, and the heart blew apart, killing the light instantly and splattering the walls and some of the floor before it with blackened, wet chunks of muscle.

Lothaire turned away and retched while Pierre patted Fabien on the back, numb. "Excellent work. Fabien, I want that pedestal in a million pieces." He grunted in affirmation and moved to set a block of c4 to the fixture.

Pierre strode away from the group and pulled his cell phone free from his pocket and dialed Ricard. No one answered.

---

Agilrad roared in pain as one of the crimson-burning torches in the chamber sputtered, and the tether that sprung from it to his body shattered. The roiling mass of black tendrils seized and flexed, and a section of his back exploded into a brilliant beam of crimson light that faded away, leaving nothing but a singed and smoking hole that tore far enough through his torso to create a small opening in his stomach. Red-tinted smoke rose from this opening, and the haze obscured the glowing purple eyes of the undead creature. With a roar of fury that shook the pebbles upon the ground and reverberated through gods-knew-how-many chambers this deep in the earth, the King shifted his gaze from Charles, to Daniel, to the others behind them, and then settled on-

Daniel's eyes widened. "No! NO, FUCK YOU," he screamed, rushing out to stand between Ana and the abomination's gaze. He raised his pistol and emptied his magazine at the aegislash, seemingly to no avail. The holes that punched through his torso, arms and legs began to close, and the figure flinched only slightly.

"A source," boomed Agilrad. He held a hand out towards Ana, his hand partially clenched into a fist. The squirming black mass that approximated fingers began to glow a bright red. "The King demands tribute." Daniel watched as he clenched his hand into a fist and then turned to see the ground under Ana explode into a column of purple light. The hexer clutched her head, screaming, and fell to her side, thrashing and sobbing, her entire body glowing a faint red. Next to her, Viola's gait faltered, and she slouched, her face twisted into an expression that blended fatigue and fear. Johannes shook Ana insistently, shouting at her over the din of bursting shadow balls and pulses of ghost energy around them.

Jean abandoned her perimeter defense and flew to Ana, shaking her alongside Johannes, her own shrieks and cries of worry and fear meshing with the sounds ringing in Daniel's ears, leaving him further unsettled. He reloaded his pistol and shouted at arcanine, "Keep them safe!" The dog responded with a weak howl of affirmation - Daniel could see his heavy panting, sagging posture and the weakening blasts of fire he breathed out. Ricard did the best he could to avoid the increasing number of volleys and dive bombs the ghosts swarming around them were launching as more began to slip past the arcanine's assault.

Why the fuck aren't you behind the light screen, Ricard? You crazy, selfless bastard. Daniel turned and saw King bring an underhand swing up into Charles' guard, knocking him through the air and off behind him, nearer the group. He turned and made his way to Charles to help the bisharp up, but the pokemon instead kipped-up with a snarl and sprinted to meet Agilrad as he advanced. The bisharp dove out of the way of an overhead smash and punched the creature in its knee - a wet crack rang out and the leg buckled beneath the creature. An earsplitting roar of pain filled in the chamber and the tendrils began to repair the knee, popping it back into place with another sickening crunch. With a furious backhand, Agilrad slammed his shield into Charles' shocked face full force and sent the bisharp flying back into the wall.

The bisharp struggled to its feet, panting, and Daniel took a large potion from his jacket - the strongest dose, and after Vassal's attack, the only one he brought, and threw it at Charles. His friend caught it and sprayed it immediately on his face and body as the King's leg continued to reform. Daniel's attention, however, turned to Ricard's attempts to dodge attacks from the ghosts swarming around him and arcanine, and he set off toward the two, wheezing. He shouted back to Charles, "Keep fuckin' dodging and don't take chances!"

A shuppet struck Ricard in the back of his knee and knocked him flat on his back - Vassal instantly rushed towards Ricard, taking full advantage of the accountant's inability to properly draw a bead on him. Daniel intercepted the man with a knife thrust that Vassal parried, though only just. With a snarl, he turned his attention to the detective and slashed at him. His freshly reopened lung made keeping up with the swift strikes a laborious process, and Daniel's wheezing became insistent coughing, filling his mouth with the taste of copper. He lashed out at Vassal, cutting him across his stomach and crossing behind him, but the man met the strike with one of his own, whipping around and slicing through Daniel's arm.

Over Vassal's shoulder he saw Viola's body shine for a moment and then she crumpled, her mega-evolution now elapsed. "Viola!" cried Johannes, rushing to her as shadow balls struck the ground around him. "Daniel!" he shouted, looking up at the detective, "We're overwhel-" He heard a hack like a word caught in a punch to the gut as a shuppet flew straight at Johannes, hitting him in the stomach and exploding through his body and out his back. Motes of blue, green and purple light sparkled of the shuppet, and Johannes fell over Viola's body. Daniel saw no wound upon his back - the attack was ethereal.

"Johannes!" yelled Daniel, "FUCK!" He parried an attack from Vassal that came at him from below and deflected it, but fell off balance as a fit of coughing consumed him. He stole a glance at arcanine, who breathed a tremendous, sweeping arc of fire at the attacking ghosts - many of the ones that fell in the wake of the flames did not reform, and those that did were noticeably struggling to do so. Then, Arcanine tipped over and laid still. Fuck, he's completely spent. The King's getting there too th- FUCK. He turned his head towards Vassal as he caught the flash of his knife. Off balance and hunched over, he could only swing his arm out in an effort to grab Vassal's arm with his left hand.

A blinding pain coursed through Daniel's left arm as Vassal's knife punched clean through his forearm, spraying blood from the fresh wound. The man gave Daniel a manic grin and twisted the blade in his hands, bringing Daniel's arm up and Daniel with it as he screamed in pain. Behind Vassal he saw Terrence rise into the air and gather a ball of shadow energy in his hand. The detective managed a pained grin and chuckled between coughs. "Got you- no." The smile on his face dissipated as he saw Terrence aim the ball at him. He punched Vassal in the face, still ostensibly reeling from Daniel's sudden laughter. The man stumbled back, ripping the knife out from his forearm as he did,earning another scream of pain from Daniel that transformed into: "YOU FILTHY DOUBLE-CROSSING CU-"

A shot rang out that sent Terrence flipping through the air, screaming with rage. He caught himself and rounded on the source of the gunfire - Ricard held his pistol up at the gengar, his face set into a grimace, shining with sweat, and his free hand clutching his knee. He mouthed a single, silent word at Terrence, "Lâche." The pokemon dissolved the ball of ghost energy and instead snapped his fingers, creating a flickering mote of curious, purple fire. With a forceful, rage-fueled overhand pitch, it shot from his hand and caught Ricard in the chest.

The fire sprouted from the point of impact across his chest, and the accountant's expression became bemused. The flames crept up, along his arms, up to his neck and down to his groin. He dropped his pistol and began to pat himself out, appearing bizarrely unhurried as he did so. Each pat spread the flames out further, coating his hands and sending sparks up to strike his face where they too began to spread. Skin began to crisp and his clothing began to blacken and crumble away. Ricard began to pat with greater insistence and a strangled, raspy scream fought to claw its way from his throat. His entire body burned with a violet fire and his movements slowed. The raspy scream stopped and with a look of sad resignation he turned his head towards d'Artagnan, who stared on, unblinking and he turned and raised his hand towards the xatu. With two short strokes, he waved him a silent goodbye.

His arm fell limp and the violet fire soared.

"RICAAARD!" bellowed Daniel. He caught Vassal swinging at him again with a knife and parried it, his arm burning as intensely as his eyes. Off to his right he saw Charles' glance at the man's flaming corpse and scream in rage, then dodge another strike from Agilrad and cut a deep gash into the monster's shield arm. It did not show signs of reforming, and if it was, it had slowed down significantly.

He kicked Vassal away and caught a flash of bright pinkish-purple from the corner of his eyes. It was d'Artagnan. An echoing, sorrowful voice boomed in Daniel's head:

Feeble minds snared by ill winds old

Torches burn hearts on points of rose

Merchant, Mystic, and in their fold

Mortician and the Blade he chose

He saw the xatu rise into the air, the eyes upon his chest shining, and his gaze locked on Daniel. From head to talon, d'Artagnan's body radiated an almost blinding fuschia light. Something in the corner of his mind tugged his arm, deflected a blade and then thrust forward. Daniel raised his arm, parried a strike from Vassal with precision and then stabbed his knife into his arm, but only glanced it-

He saw himself step to the side, bring a knee up to Vassal's stomach and then raise his knife to deflect a shadow ball. He felt like something was defogging his brain, revealing a small television that played… The future. His jaw fell open. D'Artagnan, how are you- He stepped to the side, avoiding a strike from Vassal and a ball of black flame from Terrence, brought his knee up into Vassal's stomach and then brought his knife up to meet the shadow ball. This time, instead of deflecting it off into the ceiling, he angled his knife and it flew back at Terrence. The gengar, unsteady and bearing an expression of noticeable fatigue as the now familiar black and purple spirals of smoke poured from his arm, rolled heavily out of the way. He stood up, panting and raised his arm, collecting energy for another attack, but the lights gathering in his palm flickered and died.

These four heroes will need to fight

Threat to many worlds long thought lost

Cracked now, seals of an ancient rite

Resurrecting the King Who Crossed

He'd heard this before. Back when d'Artagnan started referring to them all with their strange titles. The original prophecy before they started receiving cryptic fragments. He deflected strike after strike from Vassal, each parry met with a quick slash of his own. The man's face turned from anger to worry in his head, and then in front of him. He heard two roars, one after the other, saw two offhand punches to the gut, a roundhouse kick and an overhead -

He stared Vassal in the eyes as he caught the punch with a downward thrust of his knife, stabbing through Vassal's arm to the sweet sound of his screams, and met his kick with a stiff knee. No overhead would come. He moved his hand automatically to catch Vassal's wild thrust with his free arm, then tugged his knife free and stabbed through Vassal's other forearm. He heard the man's knife clang to the ground. "Almost even," muttered Daniel, still looking the man in the eyes. He pulled his knife free and stabbed it through the side of his neck to the sound of a wet gasp and then a strangled cough.

He saw Terrence stir in his head, try to ready an attack, and his hand let go of the knife to make for his pis-

Daniel tugged his pistol free, shoved Vassal down to his knees and aimed at Terrence. He fired thrice, striking the gengar in his left leg, his stomach and above his eye. The holes glowed with a brilliant orange flame as the bullets worked their charcoal-kissed magic and Terrence fell back, the wounds billowing an acrid-smelling black smoke and the same, ghostly spirals of purple. The tendrils that repaired Agilrad did not come for Terrence.

Daniel brought his pistol back, ignoring the television in his head and put the barrel to the center of Vassal's forehead. "Now we're even." He fired. The back of Vassal's head exploded, spraying scorched bits of brain, skulls, skin and hair several feet out behind the man. Daniel tugged his knife free and turned away from Vassal and made his way towards the King. The xatu's words came alive in his head again - these were entirely new to him:

As the King's ensnared servants fall

Heroes' wounds mount and take their toll

He saw a flash of blue and a whirl of frozen claws on the screen in his head. Daniel dove aside and shouted in pain as his injuries screamed in protest, then stood, still coughing and spraying the ground with blood. He stared down Karan and saw himself dive to the right-

He dove away from Karan and landed on his side. He rose to his feet, ignoring the biting wounds in his back and forearm and raised his pistol at the weavile. Fuck. She began to sprint at him, darting left and right as she closed the gap. He saw himself fire at the last possible second.

Dance of edges that flash and maul

Counsel fighting for this realm's soul

The words were nearly drowned out by Karan as she screamed and crashed past him, flipping end over end as the bullet that struck her knee knocked her off her feet. She came to a stop in a crumpled heap near Vassal's corpse and did not stir. He checked his gun - the slide was locked back. Empty. He holstered his pistol brought his knife to the ready again and joined Charles. He tugged another knife from his boot free and chucked it at the king, where it dug into his left arm.

Agilrad screamed and turned from the panting, slouching bisharp and thrust his sword out at Daniel. With shout of anger, he sidestepped the thrust and brought his knife down on the flat of the blade. A cloud of purple spirals and black smoke rose from it and left a scorch mark. The King swung again at him, and this time Daniel dove away and struggled to his feet. The images on the screen in his head were beginning to become blurred. The King had become sluggish. Whatever he'd done to Ana had worn off, and it showed. Daniel noticed dozens of scraps of cloth on the ground, some feebly stirring and forming what appeared to be a shuppet before falling limply back to the ground. The words that came from d'Artagnan were weak now, registering in his head as hardly whispers:

Struggle's end comes as time and tide

Rogue spirits no longer accost

Charles let out a bellow of fury and jumped at Agilrad, slashing him across the face with blades coated in darkness. He slid under the King and slashed at his back, each strike earning him more yells of pain and anger. As the abomination began to turn about to face Charles, Daniel stepped forward and stabbed into the creature's shield arm several times. Each thrust was punctuated with a hiss and the blackened skin and midnight tendrils tore away and began to sag, their vigor fading. Daniel launched himself at the king, both hands gripping his knife and driving it into where the clavicle would normally be on any ordinary man. His weight pulled the knife down, tearing open the King's torso. As Daniel fell to the ground, he saw the king prepare another slow overhead slash, and so he rolled away from the sluggish strike. The blade struck the ground and cracked the stone it collided with into pieces.

The King seized up for a moment, screaming, and his shouts of pain became accompanied with the mad roar of Charles as he dove through the creature's torso, tearing it apart and coming to a rolling halt next to Daniel. The sword and shield fell to the ground as the body began to fall apart, the tendrils exploding into puffs of black smoke and the eyes flickered and died, no longer shining three points of purple at the detective and his bisharp. D'Artagnan's voice cracked in Daniel's head, his voice now a tiny whisper in the back of his mind, as he spoke:

Hard-won battle brings regicide

Once-immortal old King Who Crossed

As the screen went black in his head, Daniel stole a look at the xatu, and saw him sink to the ground, unconscious.

The sword rose into the air and arms made of shadow, tipped with yellow fingers seized the shield and it soared towards the body of Vassal. Yellow fingers? Now that it was not actively thrashing about and swarming with black tendrils, Daniel realized the aegislash's coloration was off. The blade, crossguard and handle were a deeper, grey iron color, but with a strange, otherworldly shine. The edges, instead of the usual cleaner, whiter steel color were blood red. Daniel got to his feet, unsteady, his body protesting his standing more than ever and mumbled, "What the fuck is it doing?" He looked at the rapidly disintegrating mass of rotted skin and black, worm-like mass of tendrils that the aegislash had pulled itself from and then over to the aegislash again.

It stabbed itself into Vassal's chest and the tethers that connected it to the torches in the room sprung to life. The sword began to shudder and groan and the worm-like black tendrils began to wind its way out of his arms and into the body of Vassal. "Oh, FUCK NO. NO YOU FUCKING DON'T!"

Charles sprinted to the body, huffing and drawing a fist back. The new amalgam of man and pokemon sat unnaturally up, his limbs spasming and his mouth opening far beyond what human jaws normally permitted. Charles' punched connected squarely with Vassal's chest, and a loud cracking sound rang out. Daniel forced himself towards the scuffle with immense difficulty now. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Just stay upright, fuck. Just stay upright. Everything ached now, and the burning in his forearm and back had left him hunched over.

Vassal seized Charles by the throat, his arm exploding into black tendrils as skin peeled away and muscle snapped and interwove with them. Vassal's entire body convulsed and shook as he stood, popping and cracks now filling the chamber. His neck began to stretch and tear as a howl rose in the air. The black tendrils exploded out of his nose, his mouth, his ears and his eyes and the strangely wet voice of Agilrad barked in a distorted, tortured tone, "THE KING. DOES NOT. FALL." The black mass that draped itself across the throne began to recede, revealing the stonework underneath. It dissipated into black smoke, then coalesced into squirming masses of inky black that snaked up to Vassal's corpse and wound their way around his legs and up his body.

Daniel fell to his knees, coughing and spraying the ground with more blood and shouted, "JUST TEAR THE FUCKING SWORD OUT CHARLES, FUCK, ANYTHING!" Daniel caught the gleam of Ricard's pistol laying beside the white, ashen remains of his friend and began to crawl towards it.

The bisharp snarled and drove his forearm sharply to the right underneath the arm that clutched his neck, cutting it clean off. He dropped to the ground, coughing and grabbed the aegislash that stuck out from Vassal's chest. He tugged the sword free with another loud snarl that transformed into a scream. He brought the pokemon down in a wide arc into the ground, smashing it flat on the stonework, and rained dozens of blows upon the sword. Agilrad began to glow violet. Charles raised both of his arms over his head and the violet aura exploded out of the aegislash and into his hands, only to be driven down directly into the center of the blade immediately after.

---

With a loud, metal crunch the blade exploded into several fragments that slid across the ground in every direction. The aegislash blade was naught more than a handle and crossguard, a frozen and unblinking eye, and a short section of destroyed blade. Charles roared as he picked up the remains of the pokemon and threw it at the stone throne in the center of the chamber, where it lodged itself into the stonework that comprised the back of the throne with a loud crunch and twang.

He turned to Vassal's corpse and saw the black tendrils that covered the corpse beginning to explode into black smoke and shrivel into tiny gray worm-like entities that crumbled to ash. He looked over the body, its skin partially blackened and torn along the arms and neck. The jaw and cheekbones were noticeably broken beneath the peeled and torn skin and had begun to reform into something else. What exactly, Charles was unsure of. He turned towards the others and made his way over to the ash pile that was once their friend, where he saw Daniel clutching the man's pistol and sifting some of the pure white ash through his fingers.

Charles caught glistening streaks on his friend's face in the dim light of the chamber. He put a hand to Daniel's shoulder and squeezed. Daniel coughed and wiped his mouth, sniffling and finally muttered, "He's gone." He gestured at the bodies and pieces before them - at Vassal, Terrence, Karan and Agilrad. "They're gone." He coughed again and grimaced. "It wasn't for nothing, Ricard. Thank you."

Charles heard a low growl and turned to look at its source. Karan struggled to get to her feet, hissing all the while, her knee mostly reformed, through still bleeding. The tendrils that had mended her wounds had died with the King. With eyes wide with what Charles took as grief-stricken insanity, she screeched, "YOU KILLED. MY KING." She readied herself to pounce, but Charles instead walked towards her, his face set into a frown.

"Lost. Fight is over." He crossed his arms and stared Karan down. "You. Have. Lost." Karan screamed and leapt at him, and with a restrained punch, he caught her mid-leap with a jab to her chest and sent her flying back several feet. "I am weakened. You still can't win. Escape with your life." Karan clutched her stomach, wheezing, tears leaving trails of dark patches of fur on her face. She'd lost. She couldn't regenerate. She couldn't even fight. "Goodbye." The bisharp shook his head at the ground in pity and turned on the spot.

An anguished shriek of rage rose in the air. Then, a gunshot.

Charles spun about when he heard the shot ring out in time to see Karan poised to pounce again. Her eyes widened as she glanced down at her chest, at the tiny patch of blood that stained her fur. She brought a paw to her chest touched the wound lightly, then raised the claw to her eyes and watched a single drop of blood fall from it.

More tears welled in her eyes and streamed down her face as she sank to her knees and looked lethargically up at Charles. He looked over his shoulder, at Daniel, his face torn between sorrow and hate. He clutched Ricard's pistol in his hand, the ornate weapon shining in the darkness, a small trail of smoke snaking up and out of the barrel. "Bleed out, you cunt," he spat. He dropped the pistol as a fit of coughing consumed him.

Tendrils of thick, purple smoke exploded out of the wound, from her mouth, ears and nose, and viscous purple sludge leaked from her eyes instead of tears. She let out a long, piercing, carrying scream, her body convulsing with such force that she fell forward and thrashed across the floor. The smoke dissipated into the air with quiet, raspy screams that originated from nowhere. She flailed about and came to a gradual halt flat on her back. Her chest heaved and she coughed, spraying blood into the air, the spurts of blood coming from the hole in her chest now slowing, and tracing an ever longer streak of dark, damp fur down her body.

Her head fell limply to the side and with obvious difficulty she gave Charles a long and searching look. Her voice was distant, her tone incredulous. It cracked like newly formed ice on a sidewalk and she began to hyperventilate, her paw pressing against the wound futilely, trying to staunch the flow of blood from her punctured heart. Her rapid breaths became short and ragged as she rasped, "I want to live." She fixed her unblinking gaze on Charles' eyes and the dim lights behind them sputtered out.

Charles walked numbly towards the weavile's corpse and crouched down before her. Why? For what reason? Given up. Done. Lost. Hardly a threat now. He looked over his shoulder at Daniel, who stared back and called out, "What? She's still breathing somehow?" Charles hummed a negative and turned his attention back to Karan. He closed her eyes and spotted a piece of leather around her neck. He tugged on it and found it was a simple leather necklace.

He should hate this weavile. The evil she'd wrought, the number of lives she'd taken, and her choice of company were all deplorable. He shook his head. She'd lost the fight. For no reason other than suicide would it have been wise to attack him. Or perhaps, something more. He growled and pulled the necklace from her and returned to Daniel, contemplating the thin piece of leather. It was stained with blood. Given up. That is true. Murderer. Also true. Damaged. Excusable? No. Killed in cold blood. Ruined families. Attacked Daniel. His gaze lifted up to Daniel, who struggled to his feet, holstering pistols and sheathing daggers, then making his way to Ana to rouse her and Jean.

Charles clutched his head and shook it. Everything Daniel had done was to help them all. Saving lives. Pursuing good. Killing necessary. Seeking redemption. His thoughts snagged on that last word and he growled. Redemption. His head throbbed and he pushed the thoughts from his mind. Not right now.

---

Daniel shook Ana's shoulder, trying his best to stifle his coughs. Nearby, Viola and Johannes both stirred. Daniel recalled arcanine and continued to shake Ana's shoulder. "Ana, please wake up hon, please." His raised his voice and leaned in towards her ear. "Ana, wake up." The hexer began to stir and shiver, and slowly her eyes opened and searched blearily for Daniel's. Familiar purple irises marked with a black spiral pattern met his own gray eyes. He sighed. "You're alive, thank the gods. Can you sit up?"

She did so with some difficulty, still shivering, and Daniel pulled his jacket off to throw around her. "Sorry if it gets blood all over you. I reopened my wound." He touched his back, underneath his vest and shirt and felt warm, wet, raw flesh. He brought his fingers up to his eyes - it wasn't much blood, but it wasn't the puncture in his skin that had him worried. His breathing was still labored, but now that he'd been exerting himself significantly less, it wasn't nearly as bad. "God damn this fucking hurts. We need to get going." He coughed. "Just give me a moment."

Johannes sat up, groaning and clutching his stomach. "What the hell happened? Daniel? Did...did we win?" He doubled over and whimpered. "My stomach and insides feel like they're on fire." Viola sat up next to him and immediately pulled him into an embrace.

"Johannes, you're alright! You're alright!" she cried in the heads of everyone in attendance. She began to sob into the crown of his head. "Thank the gods."

"Viola," grumbled Johannes, "Let go, please, my stomach is on fire. I think that shuppet did something when it dove through me."

"What? What's happening? Are you alright? Daniel, what's wrong with him?" she replied at top speed, turning to look at Daniel with bloodshot eyes.

"I don't-"

Ana cut across Daniel and replied, her voice quiet, "His soul is damaged. It will repair with time. Stay close to him, Viola." She smiled at the gardevoir and then gingerly lifted Jean in her arms. "You aren't versed in the arts, but your heart is a beacon." She rubbed Jean's cheek and whispered something inaudible to the banette that caused her to stir, then looked up at Viola. "And that is more than enough."

Johannes struggled to his feet, still clutching his stomach, and began to walk towards the throne. Viola sprung to her feet as well, though she nearly fell over when she did as light-headedness gripped her. She reached out, unsteady, and grabbed hold of her husband's arm and asked, "What are you doing, Johannes?"

"I want to see what the hell this thing over here is. This throne. Look at it. It's...not just a throne." He approached it and shouted in amazement, "Daniel, this is a sarcophagus! And there's some kind of mirror attached to this throne, it's incredible. It's...it's pristine, more or less. Are these fractal patterns being reflected in the mirror? And what the hell is this onyx slab here? There's runes on it! Some dials and buttons too!"

"Jo. Please get back here. I have to tell you something," called out Daniel. He pulled Ana into a close hug and kissed her, mumbling, "We're gonna get out of here in a minute. I just have to wake up d'Artagnan." He stood and walked over to the xatu and shook him.

"Wake up. Please, d'Artagnan. Wake up. You saved my life back there, and…" He coughed, though less for his lung and more to fight down a lump in his throat. "You helped us. We did it because of you and…" He stopped, and then rasped after a pause, "Ricard."

The xatu's eyes opened and he rose to his feet. "Leave me." The voice echoed around the chamber. He was broadcasting it to everyone, aloud. "Leave me by him. I will stand the vigil."

Johannes came up next to Daniel, holding Viola by the waist to support her and looked between the pokemon and the detective. "What's this about a vigil?" He furrowed his brow and then looked around.

Daniel looked at his feet and sniffed. "Ricard." He turned about and trudged to where the ashes of his friend lay and stared down at them wordlessly. Ana stood, Jean floating beside her and went to pull Daniel's head down onto her shoulder. To the other side of Daniel came Charles, who looked on at the remains in silence.

"No!" shouted Johannes, once he'd hobbled over to the pile, clutching his stomach, Viola following closely alongside him. "No no no no, how did this happen?" he looked to Daniel for a response, but the detective only rubbed his face and then pointed to limp body of Terrence nearby.

D'Artagnan stepped over to the gathering and looked down at all that remained of his best friend. Tears streamed down his face, and a low note rose in his throat, echoing through the chamber. Another followed, lower in pitch. Then another, higher this time.

The song was slow, drawn out, and discordant. Each note bit into Daniel's being, straight through to his core and chilled his soul. He struggled to avoid hiding his face and his tears, and looked around at each person and pokemon around him in turn. Viola's face was buried in her hands, her shoulders shaking. Johannes looked with on eyes that betrayed both disbelief and grief, his mouth covered in shock. To his right he heard Ana mumbling a prayer in Sinnohan. Every so often she would pause and Jean would reply a statement that was incomprehensible.

He turned to look down at Charles, who continued to stare on at what was left of Ricard before he looked to Daniel, his face set into a frown and his brows turned down. The bisharp mumbled something Daniel did not understand.

The song ended, but continued to echo in the chamber for another minute longer. When it at last died out, d'Artagnan said quietly, "Collect him, please."

"Does anyone have some kind of vessel to hold ashes in?" asked Johannes, his eyes still staring at Ricard.

"Jean does. Part of the usual necessaries I bring with her," replied Ana. She unzipped the banette's mouth and pulled a small urn from her in seconds. "D'Artagnan." She set the urn down before the xatu.

A faint glow of fuschia surrounded the ashes and they were scooped from the ground in much the same way one would scoop sand. The cap on the urn popped off, surrounded by the same fuschia aura, and the xatu poured the ashes into the urn, then capped it again. It rose from the ground and floated next to d'Artagnan's head.

"Let us be rid of this place."