Hey guys,
So this is it! We now have major part Arc Two starting! I'm so excited to finally have gotten here and let's hope that everything goes according to plan and falls into place for the Aphrodite's Labyrinth Arc. I'm excited to start writing it and since I have the Steven Universe Soundtrack (so many beautiful background pieces) to keep me company, I'm absolutely positive that everything will fall into place. Seriously, the background music to this show is more fitting for DBR than I want to admit, especially when I find some of the battle pieces. Goodbye Clannad soundtrack and hello music from Steven Universe season 1, I know your music shall serve me while as I sit at my way too slow computed and try to get some DBR done for the few readers that stuck around. I apologize for all the times that I never updated, I'm going to try and stop doing that I swear!
Funny story about that, first off if you haven't seen Steven Universe please give it a try, it's surprisingly amazing, but second off that's actually what inspired the tension stuff from the last two chapters. It's funny in a way, because while watching the tension filled Week of Sardonyx, I couldn't help but want to write my own tension in DBR and see how it went, so here I am and the tension between the Alliance hopefully isn't going away any time soon just because of how much fun it is to write it. There is just something about the feelings that I am getting from these bits, from just how this whole Arc has started off that has kind of surprised me, it's got this uncomfortable feeling to it, but that's what has captured my interest and curiosity. This feels uncomfortable, feels like nothing is okay, but that is the point. I wanted to write something that interested me, which happened to be tension and Kimiko finally breaking from her annoying mold and doing something irrational and stupid, something that I hope you were all looking for too, because it's a bit too late to go back on now, isn't it?
But anyways, on to the chapter at hand, I hope you guys all love it!
PS- Listen to Atop the Gem Spire from Steven Universe while reading this, it oddly kinda fits the beginning a lot ;)
xKiha
Tsumi couldn't deny that he didn't want to be here as the both of them walked towards the huge stone labyrinth, Kimiko pulling their spellbook out of her bag and letting her fingers curl around it. She looked almost angry, teeth pulling at her bottom lip.
The large stone monster was blocked by a heavy door, the symbol of demon magic that was on every spellbook imprinted on the door. Tsumi looked up at his bookreader for some kind of idea on how to feel, but was met only with muted thought, Kimiko holding out her book as both members of the poison duo were met with a blinking purple light from their book.
"There must be some kind of charm to it." Tsumi said, shielding his eyes as the marking on the door began to glow as well. "I guess only the people with spellbooks can get in."
For a moment, Kimiko found herself feeling something odd, almost like admiration. Putting up a wall that only people who could put up a fight could enter was considerate, kind hearted almost. But this wasn't the time to think about this woman in that light, not now at least.
The door split itself in half, leaving enough of a space that both of the members could easily get through. It was odd to say the least, but that wasn't what Kimiko wanted to focus on at that point. They were getting in, but without too much of a fight, what was in there wasn't exactly something she wanted to know and yet, this left her feeling a bit unnerved.
"You think she was waiting for us to come?" The bookreader asked.
"I don't know, but maybe."
The walls were blank stone, with the exception of the occasional lit torch on the wall to keep everything lit. Being that this seemed to stretch for miles didn't help all too much, everything about this gave her a bad feeling. But with the door closing behind them, there really wasn't much of a choice on what to do next.
"We have to go find her." Kimiko said, trying to mask the feeling of regret from this decision now that it hit her just what was really happening here. "Come on, this is probably just this size to intimidate us, no big deal, right?"
"Y-Yeah, no big deal." Tsumi repeated, although the tall and empty walls made everything seem so much bigger than it was before. He didn't want to admit to being terrified, but this was all that he could feel all of a sudden: fear.
It was as if this place wanted him to be afraid, the demon following behind his bookreader as they began to walk forward. The wall to their right would break off every so often, revealing a long path that eventually would turn into another direction. There was no clear path they should go in, or rather none of it was trying to make itself clear to them. Something about the feel of it, it just wasn't right.
"What do you think she will do when she finds out we came here?" Tsumi found himself asking as they turned a corner, only to be met with so many more options and walls.
"She built this to bring us here, I know it." Kimiko said, gripping their book tightly. "Why else would she build something so huge? Just to attract more attention? No... She did it because she knew that we would be here. I don't know how she knew or why she would remember us specifically, but she is here and we are going to deal with it."
"But if she built it here, wouldn't she be more prepared to face us than we are her?" Tsumi couldn't help but feel increasingly nervous.
"It doesn't matter, we're here now, aren't we?" She muttered, almost sounding angry with him. "There's no turning back now, Tsu."
And yet, he couldn't help but wish they could, only so they could apologize and try to get the others help. Not that Kimiko would let them try, not after what happened before.
But even though they were the ones to defeat Xenolith in the end, this didn't mean that they could have gone through the castle without the help of the others. And this place... this could be the same. When alone, just how far could they make it before everything became more difficult.
They went to turn another corner, something they had been doing for far too long in the eyes of the poison demon. Everything looked and felt the same, which only made him feel more and more frightened and confused. But this time, Kimiko seemed to stop dead in her tracks.
"Glad you could make it."
Right there, there she stood. Kimiko felt her mouth dry out, hiding her spellbook behind her back. The demon woman only took this as an invitation to get closer though, her blond hair flat against her back and waist thanks to the lack of wind, her hand curled protectively around the hand of the blue haired toddler who held her spellbook. It almost didn't make sense, that Kimiko spoke so bitterly about a pair who almost seemed like a mother and her precious child. And yet, this anger and fear didn't come without merit.
"You knew we would come." Kimiko growled back.
"Of course I did." The statue demon found herself snickering. "But, I had no other option. My child and I just couldn't live knowing that somebody who insulted us so badly was still in the game. I was willing to take any precaution necessary to make sure that such a vile girl wasn't participating in the battle for ruler anymore."
"Mommy?" The child mumbled.
"Suichi, baby, don't worry about this. We can take care of this together, can't we?" The woman practically cooed this to the toddler, the smile on his face growing as he nodded, appearing quite proud of himself. "That's right, we will stop them from ever saying such cruel things again."
"By telling you the truth?" Kimiko narrowed her brow. "This child can't be yours, not when he's a human."
"Don't speak when you know nothing abut what you're saying!" The woman shouted. "Especially when you've allowed yourself to walk right into my creation. A labyrinth by Aphrodite, something you could never understand if you're not the one that created it."
"Just try us then." Kimiko shouted, holding out their spellbook before her. "We'll show you that we stand a perfectly fine chance, weather or not you created this place!"
"Rokuryo!"
The poison tipped shuriken materialized in Tsumi's hand, the child narrowing his eyes and trying to focus solely on Aphrodite. And the moment he felt he had everything locked onto target, he sent the shuriken forward, aiming for her shoulder.
"Suichi, please read a spell for me, love."
The child nodded obediently, as if the only thing on his mind was just how he could please his "Mommy", opening up the book in his tiny fingers. "Rayuzi!"
Without missing a beat, the blond woman stuck her foot into the ground, a large portion of the stone under them shooting up and acting like a shield. The Rokuryo shuriken hitting the stone only to hit the ground, fading into nothingness. And almost automatically, Aphrodite sent her foot into the stone, shooting it at the poison duo.
Kimiko was caught off guard, flipping through the pages of the book. "Rerano!"
It took a moment, but the poison shield was formed, beginning to spin around them rapidly as the stone shield headed towards them. The sound of when the two collided was horrifying, but it became worse when the force of the stone became too much for the Rerano shield to hold, the poison spell erupting and shattering both itself and the rock. This sent both members of the poison duo flying, hitting a wall that rested behind them.
"See? With just one spell, we can counter two of yours." Aphrodite smirked. "And yet you try to talk to me as if you have some sort of chance against me."
"S-Shut up!" Kimiko growled, trying to ignore the sudden headache and stood herself up. "You don't know anything about us either!"
"I am sure I know more than enough." The blond woman sneered. "But, this shouldn't take too much longer, to destroy both of you."
"Shut up!" Kimiko shouted, flipping farther into their spellbook. "If you want us to show you just what we are capable of, we will show it to you!"
"K-Kimi?" Tsumi felt himself grow nervous, knowing that the farther she flipped into the spellbook, the closer she got to the sixth spell. "You're not going to read it, are you?"
"I sure am!" She laughed, seeming anything but concerned about what could happen. "If she thinks she can underestimate us, then she is going to see just what she is mocking!"
"You can't! You don't know what'll happen!"
"We'll get stronger!" Kimiko shouted, settling herself on the page. "The sixth spell! Ranohe!"
There was no turning back, no option for Tsumi as he felt the all too familiar searing pain shoot through his body. Of his body and mind being taken over by somebody who he didn't know, of a part of himself that he was too afraid of knowing. He felt himself fade away as T felt himself awaken after being asleep for so long.
"Finally. I was beginning to wonder just when you would want me to show up again." T snickered, popping his shoulder into place while letting his sharp teeth be known, lips curling into a snicker. "And just what do we have here? A woman and her little child? Or a demon and her master?"
"Well, this is unexpected to say the least. Who would have thought that you would have a spell that brought out another side of you." Aphrodite found herself snickering. "However, your cockiness doesn't equate to strength."
"Ah, well, I guess I will have to show you why it does then." The alternate side of Tsumi getting closer to the blond woman, drawing his sword from its sheath and giving her a smirk in attempt to threaten her. "Not that you're going to enjoy seeing why you should be afraid of me though."
With that, T lunged at her, with his sword pointed towards her neck in hopes of slashing into her throat. However, as he got closer, Aphrodite flipped a few pages of her own book, pointing to one of the spells, which Suichi promptly reacted to.
"Mayuzen!"
T didn't seem to care, continuing to run forward at her only for a blinding white light to erupt from Aphrodite's body, stunning the man and causing him to cringe and try to cover his eyes.
"You would think that was the spell, wouldn't you? Aphrodite snickered. "But, there is more here than what you would think."
"Your lies don't scare me!" Without hesitation, he jumped forward at her again, this time managing to slash into her shoulder. "I don't care who you are or what you can do! I'm just going to make sure I can kill you!"
Aphrodite slid backwards, catching herself and keeping her balance before placing her hand over her shoulder wound. "And yet, you should be afraid. Strength alone can't be your friend, not when we're fighting like this." Suichi appearing terrified beside her as Aphrodite pointed to another page in the book. "Go on, just like Mommy showed you."
"Zenzolin."
T braced himself for something big, but instead watched Aphrodite bend down, placing one of her hands onto the stone ground and close her eyes in what appeared to be painful focus.
"What the hell is this?" T shouted, rushing forward as part of the stone rose up from the ground enveloped in white light. The poison demon growing impatient as he lunged forward, ready to cut whatever this was down.
However, Kimiko continued to watch to see just what was happening with this stone. It slowly began to take shape, forming into something that appeared much too familiar for her liking. She watched in horror as skin began to cover the stone fingers, as red and angry eyes began to form and blink, as muted grey skin covered every inch of its body while it reached for it's sword. She couldn't understand how this was happening, how one minute T had been lunging for a shapeless stone formation and now he was lunging for himself.
The clone seemed amused, pulling out his own sword and using it to block the slash that T had attempted to use to kill it. Immediately, the poison demon felt himself fill with rage, looking over to Aphrodite. "What the hell did you just do!?"
"Funny, isn't it?" The statue demon snickered. "That suddenly you're facing yourself in battle. A copy of you that, if I may add, only knows how to kill. Only cares about killing you because that's the only thing he is programmed to do. If you think me too weak to fight you, that you have an obvious advantage over me, than maybe you can fight a much more worthy opponent: yourself."
"You bitch. You can't be serious here."
"Oh, I'm completely serious." She replied, picking little Suichi up and cradling him in her arms. "I trust that you'll be much happier when fighting something that knows you as well as you know yourself. It'll be especially interesting since neither of you are truly the original, are you? My creation being my own and your existence coming from words on a page, because your true self has completely rejected you."
"You know nothing about me!" T shouted, lunging forward with the intent to hurt Aphrodite, with the intent to kill Aphrodite.
And yet, he found his sword blocked by the copy, who in return sent his sword right into T's shoulder, stunning the poison demon as he stumbled back in pain, the clone taking this as an invitation to get closer.
"But, now then, I'd best be on my way." The statue demon smirked, beginning to walk down one of the halls. "I hope a foe like this will be worthy of yourself, seeing how I'm not up to merit."
"You get back here!" T shouted, failing to be a threat in any way, watching his other half close in on him as Aphrodite and Suichi began to disappear down one of the long halls.
Kimiko couldn't believe this, gripping her spellbook tightly as she looked at both of the demons standing there, one of them hers and the other one a creation, a heartless beast that could likely do whatever it pleased. How exactly could they destroy something they knew nothing about other than how it was a complete copy of the demon that stood before it.
How exactly could they defeat what they were fighting with? Kimiko felt her mouth dry up, her fingers begin to shake as the copy began to get closer to the original, who seemed more stunned than Kimiko would have liked.
Was there any actual way to get out of this?