Shinji stood by the window of his apartment, gazing out into the stormy streets. He was alone again… but he could still smell Asuka. Her scent permeated the apartment in every way. Asuka had just left to go find Selina and he could still feel the warmth of her lips on his.

"Be careful," he had told her. But part of him knew that careful wasn't her style, and that in reality, careful is the last thing she can afford to be at this juncture.

He glanced towards the table in the nearby kitchen, the glasses they drank from were still there. Calmly, he walked towards them, though his heart was beating hard. He remembered their gasps, pants, moans, cries…. Making love to her was the greatest accomplishment in his life… at least that is what he decided. He could almost still smell the aroma of sex in the room. Love was a powerful thing; even so long after the fact, he could still feel the energy, smell the event… if he closed his eyes he could still feel it and even hear it.

She had become his everything… and he knew that the next week was going to be very telling indeed. It would take her a couple days to get to Selina, then a few more to reach Awashima Island, and he knew a lot was going to happen in that time.

A pounding resonated from his door. He didn't even jump at the first pound. It came again, even louder this time. He could hear the door cracking, the hinges weakening, the lock trying desperately to hold its place.

Calmly he entered the living room, his hands folded in front of him. His cobalt eyes didn't even twitch as the door finally gave up the fight and splintered along the hinges. Four cultists entered the room slowly, their dark hoods hiding their faces. The scent of blood and sandalwood reached Shinji… at least one was a pleasing smell.

A bald cultist baring an evil mark upon his forehead came into view. His face held amusement, and his eyes flickered with power. But his dress, his demeanor, everything spoke of an authority that could only be surpassed by a being like Dracula or perhaps Shaft. There was no question Shinji's mind who this person was.

"Lord Decius I presume," he said calmly. "I've been expecting you."

"The sacrifice made quite a mess of my hall," he replied in a slight Romanian accent, glancing around at the room. "Even managed to kill one of my best Summoners. I expected to see her here." He glanced around.

"I'm afraid you missed her. She's already left for her next target. But don't worry, she'll be coming for you soon enough."

"Good," the man replied. "I won't have to find her myself. As for you Ikari, I think you know what happens next."

Shinji glanced to the cultists. They were brandishing ropes and daggers, but he knew they weren't going to kill him. He was to serve a different purpose.

"Yes, I do… I'm going for a ride."

VI: Grasp the Thread, Part I

The catacombs were as dank and dark as Asuka could have expected. A long trough of water flowed from the castle to the outside along the route she and Selina now walked. Occasionally a cry of pain could be heard in the distance, sounding distorted after having echoed such a long distance.

"Its still not as scary as downtown Tokyo-2," Asuka noted without humor. Her traveling companion expressed no mirth at her comment, instead staying close to her. "How deep does this go, exactly?"

"We should be relatively close to a way up into the basement of the castle," Selina replied. "Though the direct route might be a bad idea. The cult is likely to try to cover the main entrances, so we should move towards the west side of the outer wall. They wouldn't expect that since its so far from any of the main entrances."

"Sounds reasonable," Asuka noted. She noted the forward path continued but several other side paths were now appearing on both sides of the channel.

"Left here."

Asuka turned as instructed, only to see that the stone floor stopped on the right side but continued a bit on the left. The area was open, like a large hallway of stone but the entire section was flooded out. Asuka noted that platforms in the stone existed along the left hand side of the passageway, the stones that once made a staircase leading to it had fallen apart, and sections that were once connected by wooden walkways had long since rotted.

"We should be able to make those jumps," Asuka stated confidently, observing their spacing.

"Indeed," Selina replied. "With that leap stone around your neck, you'll have an easier time with it. I'll have to use a glide spell, but I'll manage."

Asuka kicked off the wall and jumped up to the platform above. Selina managed the same feat though it was obvious she was not as good at it as Asuka herself was.

"You sure you can go on?" Asuka asked with concern.

"Don't worry about me," Selina replied immediately. "I can adapt."

Satisfied she was okay to continue Asuka moved confidently forward. As she approached the first gap she jumped it easily. Watching Selina do the same with a short glide to cover the distance she lacked in pure range. Asuka continued on reaching the next and much more substantial gap. She jumped as before but it was obvious her range was insufficient t make it across. As in the first cave she ever visitied, she activated the effects of her leap stone causing a circle of glyphs to appear in spectral energy below her and leaped again in midair. This double-jump was sufficient to cover the distance. Selina made the gap by getting as much height as she could then gliding across using her magic.

As Asuka continued down the path she noted dark shapes ahead on the ceiling closer to the middle of the room. Before she could ask what they were she saw red eyes appear on the lower side of the shapes then watched as they began to drop from the ceiling. Opening shadowy wings, these massive bats suddenly dived towards the pair at speed.

Asuka summoned a sword as she continued to run forward, slashing as she went. Her hits were so strong that the bats seemed to simply explode into a burst of red mist as they were being struck. Despite their number, Asuka was more than capable of fending them all off with the sheer speed of her attacks.

"Supernatural manifestations," Selina noted aloud. "Vampire bats such as these were common in dark castles and manors, according to the legends."

"Meaning this entire castle has become twisted by the cult's presence," Asuka replied.

"If that influnace has run this deep, killing off the cult might be detrimental to this place," Selina noted.

"Bill me."

After traversing a few more gaps and killing off a few more bats, the girls finally reached the end of the tunnel. To the right, a waterfall of murky water was visible. To the left a doorway with a staircase leading up. The stair was relatively narrow.

"This must be there service entrance," Asuka noted.

"Careful now, child," Selina replied. "No telling what is up there."

Asuka noted that internally and ran up the stairs noting the stairs were a wide spiral leading upwards in a circular tower. Above there didn't seem to be any enemies, so she confidently strode forward, running up the stairs. Selina was able to keep up if only barely. Suddenly a sound like a blade cutting the air got Asuka's attention and she turned to see where it was coming from.

With a resounding crack, some hard object struck her in the back of head and threw her from the stairs. Recovering quickly she activated the Leap Stone and managed to land her mid-air jump onto the staircase again with momentarily awkward footing. She then looked towards the source of the attack. There stood a skeleton wearing little in the way of armor with its hands raised high. A pair of massive boomerangs flew from the sides of Asuka's vision back to the waiting monster's hands as the skeleton ducked down again, with arms swung back, lining up its next throw.

Asuka ran from the stairs and lept towards the skeleton as it threw but used the Leap Stone to bounce back towards the stairs above, easily avoiding the attack. She managed to get a handhold on the stairs and swung herself up, then immediately backflipped as an arrow flew at her. The deadly projectile barely missed her passing under the small of her back as she flipped.

"It's a shooting gallery", she thought to her self as she switched to her knives and started chucking them in the direction the arrow came from. The skeletal archer easily dodged the projectiles and fired back one of his own. Asuka ducked it and continued running towards the monster, following the stairs to get to it.

Selina below ran up the stairs dodging boomerangs headed for her and ending the annoying bag of bones with a well placed burst of fire. Turning around she caught the boomerangs that were on their way back, and with a spin threw them upwards managed to catch a skeletal pikeman that was getting ready to throw its spear at Asuka. As Selenia's skill with such weapons was quite limited, they shattered against the wall near where the monster once stood.

Asuka kept running, flipping expertly over the arrows pointed at her and finally brought down a massive sword on her target from her combined sword runes. She quickly switched to sword and shield and summoned her shield above while ducking to avoid a spear headed for her head from above. Repeatedly, the weapon struck trying to break though her defenses before Asuka rolled back against the wall and out of reach.

"And this was the easy way?" Asuka questioned aloud.

"Should have been," Selina replied. She then jumped across the open center of the tower and flew up long enough to get above the pikeman. As it spun its spear to try to hit her, she lanced the monster with a bolt of lightning though its center mass causing it to blow apart. Trying to glide forward she misjudged the distance and suddenly lost her battle with gravity.

Asuka instantly leaped out to catch her and used her stone to leap back onto the stairs.

"That was close," Selina noted.

"That was stupid," Asuka replied in mild teasing. "Please be more careful next time. I've lost one mother in my life, I'd rather not lose another one."

Selina nodded after she was put down. "Understood. Let's go, it only gets harder from here."

"Joy," Asuka replied.

It took another precious 10 minutes to get to the outer wall of the castle. Inside the walls the long corridors were punctuated with flashes of lightning from outside. A storm was hitting the island now but though the open side of the wall that looked into the courtyard they could see the central tower, and their goal. The wall lead straight to a bridge over the main courtyard which lead to the top floors of the central spire.

"Getting closer now," Selina noted then suddenly broke to a halt. "Look out!"

Asuka ducked at that moment in a slide barely missing being decapitated by a boomerang axe.

"Not this again!" Asuka yelled in anger as she noted the hulking armored figures with massive shields summoning more throwing axes to their waiting right hands. She dashed forward in a blaze of speed trying to strike the first only to get slammed with a massive shield. As she spun in mid air backwards, she twisted to dodge the follow up axe throw before kicking off the wall and switching to twin sickles. Upon landing she made a quick dash forward hooking the shield from the side and ripping it away before going in for the kill. Dodging the quickly decending axe, she hooked the armor and ripped up, shattering the body of the Axe Lord before combining her glyphs into a massive scythe and tearing upwards to rend the second target. Realizing there were more behind it she swung her weapon back and rushed the next one in line.

Selina ran forward throwing balls of flamesfrom her hands in an effort to get the Axe Lords on the defensive. This opened them up for Asuka who mercilessly cut them down with wide swipes of her scythe in their rear sides. More tried to approach, only to be dispatched with as much ease. Five minutes of constant melee and finally, the path seemed clear.

"Now to-" but the words caught in her throat as she watched a massive armored figure enter the chamber. The armor over its left shoulder was exceptionally thick, and the sword it was wielding was massive for its own size, and the thing was over nine feet tall as it was.

"Sword Lord," Selina noted.

"Axe Lord, Sword Lord," Asuka complained. "Why couldn't it be a Pillow Lord."

In response, the massive armored figure stepped forward and slashed down. Asuka jumped back as the blade was able to reach her and in doing so just barely managed to dodge. She rushed forward, hoping to catch it off guard now that it overextended only to get slammed with the shoulder armor of the creature and thrown back into cutting range. Asuka got to her feet and leapt over the slashing motion of the Sword Lord.

Upon landing she tried again to get close but was nailed with the blade. Somehow it didn't cut deeply but the force threw her to the wall. She slid down barely missing being decapitated by the blade. She felt her blood running but it only pissed her off more. Rolling away, she managed to avoid another attempt to cleave her, then quickly got to her feet and ran forward. This time she jumped over the armor and onto the thing's back. It dropped its sword and started slamming itself into the rock walls of the passage, but Asuka held on, switching to her sword glyphs but not summoning them.

As the beast swung around again, Selina nailed it with an icy spear launched from her hand. The momentary stun was enough for Asuka to finally act. She got up on its shoulders summoning a massive sword of her own and thrust down though the gap in the neck armor and into the main body. With a roaring noise the armor blew apart throwing Asuka into the door behind her. She watched the armor disintegrate and breathed a sigh of relief, checking the wound.

Selina ran up to her. "Are you alright?"

"I'll manage," Asuka noted. "It's not as bad as it looks." With Selina's help she managed to get back on her feet.

"That was stupid," Selina noted with mild teasing, mocking her earlier scolding.

Asuka smirked in response. "If it's stupid and it works, it isn't really stupid."

"So next time, I just need to find a way to stick the landing? Is that it?"

Asuka chuckled, and turned towards the door.

It suddenly opened by itself. Asuka stood ready and watched as a cultist walked though the opening. This one wore black robes edged with electric patterns in blue, and was completely bald. Not simply his hair had been shaved, but his eyebrows were missing as well. Marks were visible tattooed into the skin of his face. His robes were sleeveless and more cult tattoos lined his arms, leaving little in the way of bare skin. Sparks seemed to jump in his blue eyes.

"Out of the way," Asuka warned and stepped forward. The cultist still had has hands at his side but turned his palms towards Asuka and curled his fingers slightly. The next thing she knew, she was flying backwards at a high rate of speed. She stopped feeling electric current dissipating in her body causing her to shudder and jolt a bit before she managed to sit up and realize she had been thrown a good 20 feet by the shock.

"Trespasser," the cultist said in a low voice. "You don't belong here. I, Tharanis, will rectify that problem."

"Tharanis huh," Asuka stated as she got back to her feet. "I've killed so many of your kind already. What makes you think you're going to stop me?"

"You've never faced anything like me before, sacrifice."

Asuka's eyes narrowed. "So you know I'm more than just a trespasser then."

"I wasn't talking to you," Theranis stated and thrusted a hand towards Selina. At once a bolt of lightning lanced into her, causing her to scream as she was thrown back against the column. It was the only thing that stopped her from being thrown into the courtyard.

Asuka's response was instantaneous. She called her twin swords and rushed forward using Rapidus Flo, but in that instant she realized she wasn't fast enough as Theranis made his move as well. Within a streak of lightning he passed by her, time seeming to slow down as she realized what was happening and barely had time to notice he had a warhammer in his hands. Asuka tried to correct herself by spinning to face the cultist but didn't get anywhere before she felt the impact. She hit the door hard, feeling the surge of pain in her back from the impact point, as well as the electric burn that was spreading from it.

Behind her, Selina stood up, feeling her arms numb from the shock of the attack she summoned up a shield of ice before her to block the next attack but it did little good. Going on offense she launched bolt after bolt of seering cold at Tharanis, but the cultist was able to shatter each spear of ice with a shock bolt of his own.

Asuka rolled onto her back, feeling the searing pain start to subside and concentrated on healing her wounds with her Refectio glyph, and watched helplessly as Selina was biting off far more than she could chew. She manged a nasty hit against the cultist which shredded part of his outfit and left him with bleeding wounds but that was where her luck ended.

"Enough!" Tharanis roared and relased a torrent of electricity that seemed to grab Selina. With a whipping motion, Tharnis threw her out of the outer window rather than throw her into the courtyard.

"No!" Asuka yelled and watched helplessly as Selina, the girl she called her surrogate mother was thrown into the darkness. Below she knew were the jagged rocks of the shore and likely Selina's death. Asuka immediately saw red, and even in her weakened state rose to her feet.

Tharanis turned towards Asuka as she rushed forward, brandishing her preferred weapons of dual sickles. Like a rabid animal she lashed and struck and slashed with all her strength but each attack was stopped by a skillful burst of electrical energy from Tharanis which traveled up Asuka's arms. In time the feeling of the electricity started to be bothersome, like a thousand insects crawling up her arms. As her strength began to wane again, her adrenaline spent, Tharanis slammed her with his warhammer sending her into the same wall she was sent earlier. The pain spread quickly, and Asuka's red sight went away. Now in utter agony, she cried out realizing she was beaten.

"Now young sacrifice," Tharanis began as he approached closer. "It's time to take you to the keep where you can perform your part in the resurrection of our lord.

Asuka's mind reeled, she tried to push the shock from her body but it was hard to remove. She heard his footsteps draw closer. In mere moments, he would shock her hard and put her out. When she awakens she know she will be well and truly fucked.

"Lights out, child," Tharanis said, as he prepared to release his power into her.

To be concluded…

Dead visions in your name,

Dead fingers in my veins,

Dead Memories in my heart

"If I let him take me now, I'll never be able to win… I'll fail everyone I love… Get up Asuka... GET UP!"

Next Chapter: The Conclusion of Tabula Rasa