Author's Note: I do not own Another or Eternal Darkness. Another is property of Yukito Ayatsuji and PA Works. Eternal Darkness is property of Silicon Knights and Nintendo. This chapter is somewhat longer than the others so far, mainly as much of it is taken up with paraphrasing the plot of Eternal Darkness, plus a few new chapters.
Chapter 3: A Place Close to Death
Kyouichi Sakakibara plowed through another group of about four or five zombies as he drove the car up onto the front sidewalk leading to the entrance of Yomiyama North Middle School, before slamming on the brakes, bring the vehicle to a complete stop.
Four more zombies were attracted to the sound of the vehicle halting mere feet from the entrance of the school. Kyouichi kicked open the door, knocking one of the zombies over, before firing a burst of three rounds from his MP5 into the torso of the downed zombie at point blank range, killing it. The second undead creature was dispatched with a burst to the torso, and a single execution-style gunshot to the head.
Meanwhile the three shotgun blasts rang out as Mei Misaki killed one zombie with two shots from her Benelli assault shotgun and wounded a second with the third shot, before finishing it off by piercing its head with the metal spike she was using as a melee weapon.
As the two of them walked away from the vehicle, they heard a load roar and felt the ground shake with rapid, thunderous footsteps. Kyouichi and Mei ran in opposite directions as the glass front doors to the school shattered. Seconds later, another one of those giant three-headed creatures burst through the door, slamming into the car that Kyouichi and Mei were inside only seconds before. The front of the vehicle was crushed by the impact as the car was launched several meters away.
Mei fired three shots into the creature's side, one of the shotgun blasts mangling its right arm beyond repair. This infuriated the creature, which turned at Mei and charged at her, swing its remaining good arm.
The monster was only a couple meters from her when Mei fired a shotgun blast into the creature's left-most head. The pellets shredded it, but with its other two heads still intact, the creature kept moving, even more determined to crush the girl that had caused it so much injury. Mei tried to fire again, but heard not a loud "boom", but the click of an empty chamber.
The three-headed beast roared and raised it clawed left arm, swinging it down at Mei, who rolled to the side, the beast's arm passing in above her. Mei got up from the roll and ran past the creature, turning around, towards Kyouichi, desperate, trying put some distance the creature.
Mei, however, tripped over the dead remains of a zombie, Mei drew her the .38 revolver she had taken from the dead police officer and pointed it in the general direction of the hulking creature and squeezed the trigger as quickly as she could. One bullet after another pierced the torso of the creature. As the creature was within a couple meter's distance, Mei took careful aim and fired her last two bullets at the heads of the creature. The first round blew the a hole clean through the right head, but the bullet meant for the central head missed, only grazing the side of its face.
At the same time Kyouichi took aim at the back of the creature, placing the red dot sight of his MP5 right over the center head of the monster. Kyouichi squeezed the trigger, firing a three-round burst, causing the monster's last remaining head to explode in a red mist. The creature fell facedown on the floor as Mei got back on her feet and started fiddling with the chamber release on her revolver. After a few seconds, she got the chamber open and reloaded the weapon.
As Mei finished reloading her sidearm, Kyouichi walked up to her with her shotgun.
"Here", he said, handing her the weapon.
"Thanks", Mei said, "Look out for me while I reload"
"Sure thing", Kyouichi said, scanning the area outside the school, MP5 at the ready. After several seconds, Mei had replaced all eight shells in the magazine of her shotgun.
"You ready", Kyouichi asked.
Mei nodded. "Lets go", Kyouichi said in response, "Call it instinct, but I have a feeling there will be something wait for us in Classroom Three."
Kyouichi entered the school building first, followed by Mei. They checked the rows of lockers in the entrance foyer, finding the foyer to be completely deserted. Mei and Kyouichi climbed up the stairs, pausing only briefly to eliminate a zombie that walked in from the second floor with a short burst from Kyouichi's MP5 and a blast from Mei's shotgun, before ascending two more flights of stairs, finally reaching the fourth floor of the school.
Suddenly, Kyouichi heard a high-pitched shrieking sound and saw something red fly towards him. He put up his hands to protect his face from the object, dropping his MP5 as he did so, and found himself face to face to one of the mantis-like creatures.
Fueled on pure adrenaline, Kyouichi held the monster back with one hand as he grabbed the nightstick he took of the remains of the police officer he found earlier and swung it in the face of the creature, knocking it on its back.
At that point, Mei ran forward, Benelli M4 in hand, and stuck the barrel right against the mantis-like monster's face and pulled the trigger, vaporizing the creature's head in a blast of shot. The monster's body fell to the floor in a pool of blood flowing out of the mangled stump of a neck.
"You OK?", Mei asked.
"Yeah", Kyouichi said as he walked forward, slowly making his way down the short length of hall that separated the hall from class three.
Kyouichi slowly turned the door to class three and pushed it open. He entered, scanning the room for any enemies that may lurk within, but there were none to be seen.
Mei closed the door to the deserted classroom behind them, and then… it happened. The room disappeared in swirl of light as a high-pitched shrieking filled the room. The shrieking sound remained, however. Kyouichi looked around him. He was in a stone-walled, high ceilinged room, with wide windows, like a European cathedral. The windows let in a bright light, but Kyouichi could see only white emptiness beyond them.
Kyouichi looked down, and realized he was on a narrow platform, lined with statues. Etched into the floor were countless faces that appeared to be screaming at the top of their lungs. The shrieking sound seemed to emanate from the faces carved on the floor.
"Where the hell am I!", Kyouichi said, a definite note of fear in his voice, "Mei!"
"I'm here", Mei said.
Mei walked past Kyouichi and examined the first statue, only the lower torso and legs remained, but from what he could see, the statue appeared to have once been clad in Roman style armor.
Kyouichi walked up behind Mei and examined the statue as well. In the stone base was carved the name "Pius Augustus". The next statue was of a man in Middle Eastern clothing, carrying a scimitar. The name on the statue read "Karim".
Across from Karim was a boy who looked no older than his teens simply labeled "Anthony". Then a girl in a revealing outfit named "Ellia", a man in clothing from about the Renaissance Era named "Roberto Bianchi", a statue of a monk labeled as
"Paul Luther". The next statue was of a samurai whose name was worn off the base, then there was man in 18th century European or American clothing labeled "Maximillian Roivas", a World War II-era American soldier named "John Williamson", and finally, a boy in an oddly familiar outfit, whose name was worn off the base, like the samurais.
Beyond the statue of "Edward Roivas" was what looked like a large, leathery hand clutched around something.
As Mei approached the giant hand, the hand slowly opened. Kyouichi brought the MP5 to his shoulder, ready the blow the giant disembodied hand to pieces. But once it opened, the hand stopped moving. In the center of the palm of the giant hand, was an old, leather bound book.
Mei reached out and picked up the book. Kyouichi opened his mouth to speak, but before any words could come out, the room evaporated, reforming back into Classroom Three.
"What the hell just happened!", Kyouichi said.
"I don't know, but it must have something to do with this book", Mei said, holding up the leather-bound book.
"That…. That wasn't a hallucination?", Kyouichi said.
Mei ignored him and opened the book. On the title page were two lines writing in a language unlike any Kyouichi had seen before. The characters definitely weren't kanji or hiragana or romanji or anything like that. As Kyouichi thought this text changed into Japanese.
"Tome of… Eternal Darkness", Kyouichi said slowly, reading out the name of the book, his voice sounding uneasy.
Mei disregarded his unease about the tome and turned the page. The next page told to the story of a The Ancients, four beings with great magical powers (Mei and Kyouichi noticed that the spelling of used archaic characters, something akin to spelling it "magick" in English) that existed before mankind, Chattur'gha, Ulyaoth, Xel'lotath, and Mantarok. These beings were said to be sealed in another dimension, with the exception of Mantarok, who was said to be sealed somewhere on Earth. More interestingly still, it seemed that the Ancient's powers had a sort of "rock-paper-scissors" relationship with each other- Chattur'gha beats Xel'lotath, Xel'lotath beats Ulyaoth, Ulyaoth beats Chattur'gha, with the exception of Mantarok, who had dominance over all three. The tome stated that the ancients were awaiting their chance to return and wipe the other ancients… and humanity from existence and reclaim Earth for themselves.
"Sounds like something Lovecraft would come up with", Kyouichi commented.
Mei continued reading, through a chapter that told of a Roman centurion in 29 BC named Pius Augustus, who came upon a mysterious ancient temple in Persia, which was filled with monsters and zombies. Pius fought his way through the hordes of the living dead. In a chamber of the center, he found an artifact, the essence of Chattur'gha, and… became an undead servant of Chattur'gha… and went on to bind Mantorok in a temple in Cambodia with his own magic.
"Wait… does this mean we'll…", Kyouichi asked, but Mei ignored him and kept reading.
"Shh…", Mei said, continuing. As Mei skimmed through the next several chapters, Kyouichi's fear was quickly overcome by curiosity. It turned out that in 565 AD, the temple where Pius found the artifact was rediscovered by another, a Persian adventurer named Karim. There, Karim fought through hordes of monsters, only to… die horribly and be charged with guarding an artifact, the essence of Ulyaoth in spectral form.
The next people who encountered the minions of the Ancients didn't fair much better, a page named Anthony in 814 AD, Amiens, France, died after failing to stop a plot by the Ancients to kill Charlemagne. In 1152, a Cambodian slave girl discovered the temple where Mantarok was bound… and was killed by Pius Augustus. In 1460, an Italian architect was forced by a conqueror, who was actually Pius in disguise, to help stabilize the temple where Pius first found the essence of Chattur'gha for a monument… a literal "pillar of flesh", a pillar made from the bodies of countless men buried alive in concrete. In 1485, a Franciscan monk named Paul Luther discovered that the same cathedral in Amiens where Anthony had died was a hot bed of the activity of Chattur'gha's minions. Paul fought off a horde of the monsters, but in the end, was killed by a gigantic monster hidden in chamber under the cathedral.
But it was the next chapter that was most interesting, it mentioned a samurai named Masaki Yomiyama.
"Yomiyama?", Kyouichi said, "Like the town?"
"In addition to the name of the town, according to some versions of the tale", Mei said, "The original "other" was named Masaki Yomiyama. In others he was named… Misaki".
Mei continued reading, revealing that Masaki Yomiyama had, in fact, lived in the area of Japan that was home to the present-day city of Yomiyama. Moreover, he found, hidden below what would presently become the city, a complex of ancient tunnels, infested with the living dead. He fought his way though the horrors and eventually reached the innermost chamber, where… he was killed by another massive creature, like the one that did in Paul.
Kyouichi and Mei kept reading, looking for more information, skimming through a chapter about a doctor in 1760, Rhode Island named Maximillian Roivas, who that discovered the ancient city of Ehn'gha filled with the minions of Chattur'gha, which had killed of the original inhabitants millennia ago, under his house. Roivas killed a spider-like monster with a pair of flintlock pistols, only to try and tell the world of his discovery and be thrown in an insane asylum. Then, in 1916, in the middle of World War I, a journalist named Peter Jacobs destroyed the monsters in the catacombs under Oublie Cathedral in Amiens, armed with a rifle and powerful magic spells written down in the tome. Unlike most people who encountered the Ancients, Jacobs did not die.
Then, they came to another mention of Yomiyama, this one from the point of view of John Williamson, an American soldier involved in the occupation of Japan after World War II, who was the last of a number of mysterious disappearances in 1947. It turned out that Williamson had shot his way through an army of monsters under an abandoned house in Yomiyama, and managed to use a bind spell he found on scroll hidden in the catacombs beneath Yomiyama to seal the horror lurking beneath Yomiyama, which had been responsible the disappearances, only to be attacked from behind by one of those mantis-like creatures and killed.
In 1952, Edward Roivas, a descendant of Maximillian, discovered his servants being attacked by a vampire-like monster. Roivas managed to kill the creature, discovering it had come from Ehn'gha. After fighting his way through hordes of monsters, Roivas activated a device that set off massively powerful magic spell that wiped out the monsters living in Ehn'gha.
The next encounter with the Ancients had an unnervingly familiar name attached to it: Misaki Yomiyama.
"That's…", Kyouichi said.
"The one whose death resulted in the "Curse of Class Three", Mei finished.
Misaki Yomiyama ventured into the catacombs under what is now the basement of Yomiyama North Middle School- the house that Williamson entered was demolished to make way for the school- and found to Tome of Eternal Darkness, which allowed him to use a dispel magic spell to disable the binding Williamson placed on the creature that lurked beneath Yomiyama. Misaki unleashed the monster, which promptly killed Misaki and began unleashing its destructive magic, causing a series of mysterious deaths in Misaki's former class,. All the while, a spectral version of Misaki lived on, helpless to save his classmates. In later years, the creature revived a dead person and placed them in the class to act as a "focus" for its magic.
"So this is the root cause of all evil is that monster beneath the old school building", Kyouichi said, "Lets go, this won't end unless we kill that thing!"
"Wait a second, there's more", Mei replied, briefly skimming through the stories of an archaeologist named Edwin Lindsey who discovered the "tomb" of Mantarok in Cambodia in 1983, after fight through a horde of monsters and was tasked with protecting the "Essence of Mantarok" by an undead Ellia. Finally, there was Michael Edwards, a Canadian industrial firefighter working in Iraq during the aftermath of the Gulf War, who while fighting an oil fire, accidentally fell into the Forbidden City, the temple where Pius first found the essence of Chattur'gha. After arming himself with an assault rifle and a grenade launcher, Michael shot his way through a horde of monsters to place a C-4 charge, which he then enchanted with magic from the tome, to destroy the temple.
Beyond the stories of the other people who came into possession of the tome, there was a section on the monsters. Apparently the mantis-like creatures were called "bonethieves", while the three-headed monsters were known as "horrors". There were also creatures Kyouichi and Mei had not encountered: "guardians", giant spider-like creatures with powerful magic, "trappers", small, blind, scorpion creatures capable of teleporting enemies they detect-mainly by hearing. "Trappers" were apparently best taken out with a ranged weapon such as a gun. Finally, there were "gatekeepers", bipedal creatures about eight feet tall, with skull-like heads, bat-like wings which were apparently made of something similar to a biological Kevlar- it could stop bullets, and a tail shaped like a scythe that it struck with like the tail of a scorpion.
Mei turned the page to reveal the next section of the book.
"Magic", she said simply.
The page had a number of the runes on the page, first, it showed the three runes for Chattur'gha, Xel'lotath, Ulyaoth, and Mantarok. Below these were runes that seemed to describe the target and effects of the spell.
Mei turned to the page, to a spell labeled "Enchant Item", which was supposed to fix broken objects and make weapons more powerful. Then there was the Recover spell, which could heal wounds or even ones sanity, depending on which Ancient the spell was aligned with. There were numerous other: spells for revealing the invisible, spells, spells for creating magic shields, binding creatures to an ancient, spells for attacking, and more.
"But how exactly do you cast a spell?", Kyouichi asked.
"Maybe you have to write the runes somewhere", Mei replied, "I'm going to try the enchant item spell".
"Anterbok, Magamor, Ulyaoth", Mei thought to herself, memorizing the shape of runes, as she simultaneously focused on her Benelli M4 shotgun. Suddenly, the runes appeared around her, glowing in blue, as a deep, disembodies voice said.
"Anterbok, Magamor, Ulyaoth". A blue light momentarily appeared around Mei. When the light disappeared, Kyouichi saw that Mei's shotgun now glowed blue.
"What the hell was that!", Kyouichi asked.
"I just cast a spell", Mei said simply, pointing out the enchanted shotgun, with its blue glow lighting up the room.
"You enchanted the shotgun?", Kyouichi asked, "Wouldn't it make more sense to enchant the ammunition?…"
Kyouichi stopped when he realized all of the shotgun shells on Mei's belt were also glowing blue. "Never mind", Kyouichi commented.
"Well now that we've got that figured out, lets go", Kyouichi said.
Mei followed Kyouichi towards the door when suddenly, the door was knocked over, Kyouichi only barely getting out of the way in time to avoid having his face smashed in by the flying debris.
The dust cleared to reveal a "horror" standing in the doorway, red "lightning" arcing between its hands, it was preparing to fire an energy blast. Kyouichi took aim with his MP5, but before he could fire, he heard two loud bangs, and the entire front of the "horror" exploded in a mist of blood. The monster's heads and upper torso were torn to shreds, and its right arm was completely blown off. The horror fell to the floor, dead.
"Nice", Kyouichi commented, "Can you try and enchant my gun, too?"
"Sure", Mei said simply, before she focused on Kyouichi's MP5 and cast and "Enchant Item spell". Kyouichi's MP5 now had the same blue glow as Mei's shotgun.
"Thanks", Kyouichi said as he hurried out of the room and into the hallway, Mei in tow.
The hallways were clear of zombies or other monsters, as was the stairwell, however, they did not notice a small scorpion-like creature hiding behind one of the rows of lockers near the entrance to the school. Suddenly, Kyouichi and Mei saw several glowing red shockwaves ripple out from the location of the "trapper" hidden behind the lockers.
"What the…!", Kyouichi said as Mei, the school entrance, everything, disappeared in a flash of white light.