a/n: gonna go right ahead and dedicate this to guest 'beck' bc that was the best review I got the last chapter and a good chunk of why this chapter popped up so fast.

Also for anyone following along these days you can find me on tumblr at infinitefuriosa. Message me so we can yell into the void about this oldass niche fandom

Onwards!

Three Day Storm

#16: Rise

The Emperor's senses were consumed by white noise.

It faded by degrees, and slowly he became aware that he was still on his knees, still in that place, an unconscious body in his arms. The Emperor stared down at her, reconciling this small form with the host he had been forced to occupy. He realised, for the first time, that like him she was a creature of the Fortress, confined to its boundaries. He did not know if she could bond with someone, like he had Ginji, but she had been little more than a shell of data while he manifested within that body.

But he was outside of her, now.

Did this … make him like her? The more his mind cleared, the greater detail the Emperor could process. There was a new quality to the world – a glance about the room was all he needed to see the false dimensions, the false walls designed to confine them to this space. This was little more than a courtyard, a grand space sprawling to either side, but the Architect had disguised it well.

He could not name it, but the Emperor knew no enemy could take the advantage now.

Returning his attention to the woman in his arms, he set her on the floor with the gentle touch he'd learned from Ginji, and moved to stand.

The quiet laugh of the Architect rolled across the room. The Emperor straightened, eyes narrowed. This one.

"Well done, my child. How does it feel?"

Electricity snapped in the air. "I am no child of yours."

The laugh came again, a smirk curled across the other man's face. "I am a God of Babylon City. All things belong to me."

The Emperor growled, and a foot slid out to anchor him as he pulled at his power and it came almost effortlessly, with no host to create resistance. Electric pulses crackled across his body, across the floor, light flaring in the dim room.

The Architect chuckled. At that final insult the Emperor lunged, but the man stepped back –

– and vanished.

He knew, immediately, the man was not gone, merely hidden. A tug of the VR and little more than a cowardly charlatan's trick. The Emperor turned in place, scouting the dias. He could feel that coded presence, like he could feel every other part of this area, his own electricity pulsing back and forth between himself and the mainframe that controlled this building. He would find it, force the Architect back into sight, and destroy him.

But then, at the back of his mind, a quiet voice spoke with stunning clarity. Power is easy.

Power was easy. Little could stand against a brute force attack. But to win a war he would need strategy. He knew this, it had been an early lesson from that snake's son. Ban, Ginji's friend.

Across the floor, the elevator chimed.

x x x

Kazuki followed the ghost, and they followed Kazuki.

Together the team scaled what felt like endless flights of stairs, through blacked out patches and suspiciously obvious doors. Higher and higher they went, and right when Ban found the breath to say something scathing about so-called shortcuts, Kazuki stopped. By the time everyone had caught up to the same landing, he was running his hand down the wall.

With a soft noise of success, Kazuki pressed the heel of his palm against the wall and the panel clicked open.

If Ban had been smoking, he'd have lost his cigarette. "What."

"It must be a back door," Kazuki said, gently pushing the panel out of the way. He ducked a little, investigating the space which opened beyond it.

"To the City?" Juubei asked.

"Yes, I think so," Kazuki said, straightening to look at them all.

"You're sure," Ban said. He fixed his stare on the crude doorway – without his jagan glasses, he could not afford eye contact. Kazuki paused, and while Ban wanted to study that look of doubt which was sure to have crossed his friend's face, he kept himself looking to the side.

Shido shifted, drawing attention to himself and Ban watched from the corner of his eye as the man sized up the situation in front of them. "This could be what happened to Ginji."

And there – that was the niggling doubt Ban had nursed. A ghost, a mirage, an illusion – all the same thing in the end, weren't they? The language of the Limitless Fortress, and whoever planned this all had begun with leading Ginji away – a Ginji who followed, when he should have known what he would be getting into. (Ban had to question if he did, and did it anyway.)

Now, for all the obstacles they had passed, this was the same trick over again. Wasn't it?

But then, wouldn't they all see the same thing? Ban drew in a breath, and sighed as obnoxiously as he could. "It's a bit risky, don't you think? Expecting all of us to follow one person, who is themselves following one person? Come on now. It's fine," he said, and waved a hand to shoo Shido out of the way.

The Beastmaster scowled, and barely complied. "Do not pretend this is a good idea."

"Ah well, it's not," Ban said, breezing past. "But it isn't something the City came up with, is it? Besides, if this is a trap, we'll still be closer to our goal than standing out here." Stooping a little to inspect the hole in the wall, he considered egging Shido into a beast mimicry that would let them see what the hell was on the other side.

Nah, too obvious. And what was life with a little risk?

He could feel Kazuki relax by degrees, a delightful contrast to a bristling Shido, and allowed a soft 'heh'. "Oi, Threadmaster. If there is a trap, I'm pinning it on you."

x x x

In the absence of his jagan glasses, fighting enemies had become a pain in the ass.

While the controlled chaos of a highly skilled fight circled around him Ban was forced to fight fast, rather than hard. Between Juubei's needles that skimmed through the air and Shido's beast cries, Ban was resigned to attacking almost exclusively from behind, going for the neck and the wiredoll system. Ban had already promised himself that if he ever got to go back in time, he was going to rip that system out of Makubex's hands before the kid could complete it. This was tedious.

Which, Ban had to admit, was uncanny so close to their goal. A wire doll was no great threat – they were a matter of volume, always had been. He half expected to choke on diamond dust any moment now, but as the fight progressed and the waves of enemy bodies fell, it did not come.

And then, well, he wanted to kick himself, because no sooner had they halved the numbers, than a new wave surged into the room. Ban slid back, fingers flexing. Alright, if he had to step it up –

Threads curled through the air, Kazuki's bells singing. Before Ban's eyes criss-crossed threads appeared, creating a temporary barrier between himself and the new enemy.

"Oi, Juubei, Snake-eyes!"

Ban rounded on Shido's yell. "What did you call me!"

He saw, then, that the other two were on the far side of the room, a narrow path between them, walls of wiredolls on either side. Juubei was already running towards them, and with a soft curse Ban followed too.

Shido and Kazuki backed up, a brightly lit doorway behind them. For a heart-bursting second Ban could only think trap, but when Juubei reached them first, he suddenly, desperately, could only think about being left behind.

He slammed through the doorway and almost straight into Juubei, propping to the side and into the wall instead. Kazuki and Shido bailed in behind him, one of the men hitting at a panel of controls that shut the door. The last thing Ban saw of that floor was the thread barrier beginning to collapse, wiredolls piling over it and into the free space, blank faces turning towards them.

The gap between the doors closed, and the floor beneath his feet lurched. Ban straightened with a start, realising for the first time they were in an elevator. "Well now," he said, glancing to the floor gauge overhead. Unhelpfully, it only said UP. "We must be almost there."

Kazuki murmured a soft agreement, but Juubei tilted his head. "Do you feel that?"

Ban grinned, feeling the elevator slow around them. His skin was tingling, like it only had once before in his life – the day he walked into the Limitless Fortress for the first time. "Yeah."

x x x

to be continued