Vita felt the chill rising up from around her, biting deep into her flesh with the touch of a predator. She could move, but the only way she could tell was by the rocking motion which pushed her back and forth against the walls of her claustrophobic prison. The numbness had set in all over her body up to just under neck-level, so that she could barely feel anything anymore.
Ice...? It didn't seem quite like it. As she moved around to touch the walls, the tingling sensation began to withdraw, and with it the sense of near-paralysis. She could breathe and she could see through the walls as if they were merely glass. Evidently some unique magic was at work here.
Where was Hayate and the others? Where was Nanoha? Where was...she?
It all came back to her in a flash then and there...pursuing Srethis...fighting against Ungore...the foolhardy attempt through the shrinking black hole as the pressure forced in at her from all sides as she blacked out in the process...
Think. She was in a cage of ice. Someone had put her in here for a reason, which did not speak too well of their intentions. On the other hand, nobody had killed her yet, which could mean that her captors wanted her kept alive for some reason. If she had succeeded in following Srethis, and Vita knew now that the rest of Srethis' allies would not have taken kindly to seeing her, then -
Vita chanced a glance downwards. It came as a small matter of surprise to discover that she was some distance off the ground and that someone was carrying her on their shoulders. Heaving her up to transport her to some other location. Who would want to move her? Someone who wanted her out of the way, or somewhere safe, or...
She squinted through the ice and realised that the person carrying her was none other than Srethis.
For a split second Vita thought that maybe her pursuit through the portal may have had positive consequences after all, that Srethis alone had found her and was taking her to safety by themselves. It was a short-lived hope, however, because she could see Ungore a short distance ahead of them, beckoning the reptile forward to follow.
She tried transforming with Graf Eisen for an instant. She didn't expect it to work, considering how out of it she was in the circumstances anyway. What she didn't expect was the blinding dagger of pain that shot through the back of her head at the same time. It squeezed a howl from her throat as Vita clutched at the base of her skull, and then disappeared almost immediately. Warily, Vita decided against trying to transform again for a while...if the force containing her was massive enough to prevent the transformation of a Guardian Knight, then...
"You are awake, Vita-san," Srethis said quietly.
Vita had a good view of her surroundings at this angle, but it didn't seem to help her much. She was being carried through a wide rocky cavern, across a seemingly never-ending path. There was no light source, but an eerie glow seemed to resonate from every part of the walls and ceiling at once.
"Where am I?" she said, prepared to receive no answer. After all, she was in enemy hands by now. There was no reason for her captors to relay any information to her at all, except out of an overbearing confidence.
For a moment, the lizard glanced over to Ungore, as if seeking permission. There was no response from the half-slumped alien as the two of them continued to trudge forward one step at a time. Then Srethis breathed a sigh of relief and spoke to the Velka Knight held up upon its back.
"You are in the land of limbo between the portals of time, Vita-san," it said. "But not for long. Soon we will leave this place."
"Leave? Why? Where are you taking me?"
Srethis gave a small shrug underneath the weight of its burden, indicating that it either deigned to answer or did not really care. Either way, there was no notable difference in its gait as it continued to carry Vita on its back with surprising ease. Its dark green eyes were lowered towards the ground in a gesture of apathy and sadness, carrying very little hope and willpower within them anymore.
"Srethis," the Guardian Knight tried again in a more restrained tone of voice, "if you won't tell me that, then tell me this. Why have your friends kept me alive? Am I a hostage?"
"No," the lizard said mutely, nodding its head slightly to lift Vita up a little higher, relaxing the muscles in its lower back. "The Bureau is coming to rescue you. Srethis must not let them take you, because otherwise...you will die. The plague inside you will kill you from the inside, slowly, painfully, without fail. Your friends have no knowledge of how to save you. But as long you stay with Srethis, with Srethis and Ungore, you will continue to live a little longer."
Mixed emotions conflicted within Vita's head at hearing this. Nanoha was coming to rescue her? And that would contribute to her...death? And what of this "plague" inside her? It still didn't make any sense why Srethis' allies would want to keep her alive at all. From what Srethis was saying, it would be a lot easier just to leave her behind for Nanoha. None of this made any sense at all.
"I don't understand," she murmured.
Srethis squeezed its eyes half-closed for a second before letting out a strangled wheeze, its body shuddering. Then it seemed to steady its body and calm down again. "Listen, Vita-san...Srethis has been told that you must be kept alive. But when the others found you, Vita-san had a virus inside her. Sickness. Illness. A disease...just like Srethis' disease. And Srethis knows, Srethis knows that there is no cure. Even Srethis has only been kept alive by the medicine that Ungore supplies to it. When Srethis was captured by the Bureau, Srethis was slowly dying...the Bureau does not have the knowledge to heal Srethis..."
"I'm not sick!" Vita snapped angrily through the walls of her prison. "There's nothing wrong with me!"
Yet even as she said the words, she remembered how ill she had felt in the hospital wing in all the events leading up to now. Even though a Guardian Knight should be immune to such trivial human sickness, Vita had been bedbound for many days until Srethis' arrival. And when she had met Srethis for the first time, the lizard had seemed wracked by a terrible sickness from inside. Was this true? Was this why...?
"There is nothing wrong with me," she said again, repeating the words to herself more than anyone else. "I used to be sick. But that was no "plague" or life-threatening disease. I'm fine now."
"One of us fed you the medicine whilst you were unconscious, Vita-san," Srethis countered. "Otherwise you would not be talking right now. Within twenty-four hours, you will begin to feel the effects once more...as I have. And that is why we cannot allow the Bureau to take you back again. They will not understand your condition. They will not have Ungore's medicine. You will die at their hands, the hands of ignorance."
"How can I have your disease?" Was it contagious? Vita hadn't even had physical contact with the lizard – if she had caught it directly that way, then theoretically lots of people in the Bureau would also have caught it. And such a thing sounded very unlikely. "How is any of this possible?"
She didn't want to believe any of it. There was no reason for her to have a life-threatening illness so suddenly and for no apparent reason. Unless...unless it was related to the seemingly-impossible sickness which had landed her in hospital in the first place? But that was nothing to do with any of this. It was impossible for her to share a disease with a shapeshifting lizard from another time and space completely...
"If what you say is true, then how did I get this disease?" Vita demanded. "None of this makes any sense!"
"Srethis does not know. We only know that the virus now runs within your veins."
"I'm a living program! I'm not affected by "viruses"! I shouldn't even be able to get sick!" What might have been panic for anyone else had reformed into anger for Vita. From the start, she had felt as if someone was just playing around with her and forcing one thing after another onto her. "Then tell me! How did you contract this disease, Srethis?"
"From birth," the lizard hissed, the harshness in its voice evident. "From when Srethis was amongst family and friends of its home world. From before the dimensional distortion occurred and wiped out every other creature of Srethis' kind. From before Oguba rescued Srethis and gave Srethis another purpose amongst Ungore and these other people, this Red Scorpion. Perhaps...perhaps not the most likely of comrades, nor the friendliest, but a better fate than being left to die in the abyss of lost time." The creature lumbered forward, its eyes narrowed and baleful as pain flooded its face. "It never used to be like this, no...no, the disease would only give Srethis little discomfort every month or so, but Srethis could live with it. Nor was it uncommon. Many of our race had contracted it. You put up with it, they said. You learned to live with it.
"But after the dimensional distortion, everything changed, Vita-san! Everything! The plague inside Srethis evolved until it was wrecking Srethis apart from the inside. And the others of Red Scorpion, no, they would not take pity on Srethis, they would gladly watch Srethis die. Their concern was with the organisation.
"But Ungore helped. Ungore said, Srethis is not the only one who has lost their planet and species. Ungore had ways, it said, ways given to it by Oguba. And so the medicine kept Srethis kept alive every day, let Srethis die a little less." The words had coiled away into a string of deadened whispers, falling away against the hard barren ground. "For the last survivor of a dead race...continuing to live is the greatest gift of all..."
There were no more sounds after that, nothing except the shambling gait of the lizard as it moved forward with Vita on its back. Ungore was far ahead in front of them now, too far ahead to hear their conversation. And for the first time, Vita shared in the silence, crossing her legs as she waited and said nothing.
"You said the others in the organisation don't care about you anymore," she said at last.
"Yes. They left Srethis to die. Our superior – they agreed – they ordered it." There was no anger in the reptile's voice, only a statement defined with emphasis. "Ungore brought Srethis back, and for that Srethis is grateful. The others were not happy. Srethis is no longer considered part of their organisation."
"Then leave them!" Vita almost exploded. "Why are you still carrying out their orders? You don't need them anymore!"
Srethis gave a hollow laugh. "Ungore is still part of them. If Srethis leaves, Srethis receives no more medicine. No choice."
"Then maybe it's time to stop all of this." Vita spoke quickly, knowing that she might not have much time left. "Srethis, listen to me. Don't continue with these "friends" of yours anymore. Come back to the Bureau with me. Nanoha is on her way, I'm sure of it – I'll tell them your story and we'll have the best doctors working on you for a cure. We'll take a sample of Ungore's medicine with you – there's no reason why we shouldn't be able to replicate it! You can live without relying on them!"
For a split second, Srethis stopped moving forward. A curious expression passed across its face, giving birth to something that had not been present before. Hope. The first signs of a measure of hope.
But it was only there for just an instant.
"No...no, Vita-san," the creature croaked, shuffling forward once more at a quicker pace. "You ask Srethis to take a chance. Srethis cannot afford to take risks. There is too much at stake. And the medicine...it has side-effects, dangerous side-effects. It does things...to Srethis' memory. So that Srethis sometimes cannot remember who it is, where it came from, even the name of the disease anymore...only the most powerful memories remain anymore..."
Is that why Srethis couldn't give any detailed information to the Bureau when Fate interrogated it? Because the medicine had been doing damage to its memory? Imagine, taking something like that every day, until...
"Srethis," Vita said in a controlled tone of voice. She couldn't transform. She couldn't fight. She might have a warped virus circulating in her system right now which could kill her. "Nanoha and the others will help you. I promise. If we've both got the virus, then I'm putting my life on the line for this as well. You have to turn back now whilst you still can."
The hesitant look passed across Srethis' features again for a moment, and again its movement faltered.
Then a crackled voice sounded through the lizard's ear, loud enough for both of them to hear.
"You stopped, Srethis. What's going on? We are short on time – you do not have time to be delaying. Ungore: move back to support Srethis. The superior program has given us clearance for Exoria to start opening the portal to the Metaworld Sector."
The crackling ended as the communications closed, the voice disappearing into static.
"The Legion," Srethis mumbled fearfully, and forced itself forward once more as Ungore's face appeared up ahead in the distance. "You are a good friend, Vita-san. But Srethis cannot turn back now. You must still come with us."
"Grylmark!" Tiana said angrily. She raised Cross Mirage and levelled it at his head at close range. "Release my friends immediately!"
Trapped at the centre of the altar, Signum, Subaru and Erio were still frantically slashing out at the thick red energy beams which hemmed them in. Their blows had no effect, giving off tiny sparks and forcing them backwards to each other as the current intensified. As the energy grew and grew with every passing moment, Tiana could barely see their faces at all.
"I am not one for peaceful talk, agents of the Bureau," Grylmark said with a bored expression on his lined face, "but it would be wonderful if you could all stop foolishly attacking my forcefield. The noise is giving me a bit of a headache."
"Where's Vita?" Subaru demanded. "What have you done with her?"
The life-form they had detected had been none other than Grylmark. That was quite obvious now. But if Grylmark was the only life-form that Nanoha had been able to detect in this area...then where were the others of Red Scorpion? Were they so far away that they would be never able to catch up with them to recover Vita? Or had they left this place already, warping to another destination in time and space? If the latter was the case, their journey here could have been for nothing...
"Please stop that pitiful hammering," Grylmark drawled, "and I will release you and tell you where your red-haired friend is."
There was one final attempt by Signum to destroy the energy bars, which resulted in her being thrown back into the centre of the altar from a backlash of power. Then there was silence. The Velka Knight and the other two forwards turned expectantly to the enemy standing before them, though their weapons were still poised to strike.
Tiana was the only one free to make her move, as she hadn't been caught inside the trap. Her firearm was still pointed right at Grylmark's forehead, but she had a feeling the bullet would never reach him. Yet here he was, alone, with no summons in sight...He was the one controlling the force field which kept Signum and the others prisoner. If she rushed him now, maybe she would be able to save the others...
"That's better," the tall old man sighed. "Now. I feel it is my good duty to inform you that - "
"Your good duty?" Signum almost choked.
" - that you can search and search for the rest of your life upon the surface of this realm and you will never find your friend, or Red Scorpion...or another living creature." Grylmark shook his head in wonder. "Just thought I'd save you a million years of time and effort. And talking of time..."
"They're not here?" Subaru said irritably. "Then where are they?"
Grylmark smiled thinly. "Oh, they are still here! Just for not very much longer. Give it ten or fifteen minutes, and they will be out of reach. You will never see them again. Of course, you will also never see that friend of yours again," he added almost as an afterthought. "Or daylight. Or humanity. Or your home planet." He chuckled dryly. "I'm afraid to say, dear agents of the Bureau, that if you don't catch up to Red Scorpion before they leave, you will be stranded here for all eternity!"
Signum slammed Laevatein upon the energy bars furiously, and Grylmark winced, quickly increasing the concentration of energy through the force-field.
"Are you going to tell us where they are, or are you just going to stand there trying to intimidate us?" she yelled through the bars.
The old man sighed again. "Patience, Velka Knight. I'm coming to that. I simply thought you would want to know how much time you really have left. Red Scorpion are underground. If you hurry, you should be able to delay them long enough to get your friend back." He raised his hands high above his head, brimming with power. "I will show you the way."
The others exchanged glances with each other. Why would Grylmark help them like this? Why would he care whether they got Vita back or not? It was all very suspicious – this could just be another trap to incapacitate them further.
"All right, Grylmark, what's your game here?" Tiana said testily.
"Grylmark the Third," the old man corrected.
"Whatever. You're a part of Red Scorpion! You helped them attack us! You even helped Ungore rescue Srethis! Why would you go against them now?" She took a step forward, so that her gun was at point-blank range from his body. "Why should we trust you?"
Grylmark paused for a moment as red lightning spiralled around his hands, blinking slowly.
"Why?" he repeated. "I have all of you caught just where I want you. I could take you all out in one go without much effort. But instead I choose to let you have your victory, your small amount of success in reclaiming a foolish companion who wandered somewhere that they shouldn't. That is why you should all trust me, Tiana Lanster..."
The energy shot from his hands and smashed into the force-field surrounding the altar, The ground shook and cracked at the centre of the altar...and then began to cave in. Signum, Subaru and Erio yelled out as the ground beneath them began to fall apart, breaking away under their feet and swallowing them up, one by one...
Eyes wide, Tiana dashed forward with a cry, but the entire altar had been consumed in flames. She shielded her face from the heat and ran to the steps as far as she dared. There was nothing left of the altar now except a dark hole in the earth stretching into a near-infinite abyss. A path leading underground...through which Signum and the others had disappeared into...
Grylmark said Red Scorpion were underground. Did he really help show us the way to them? Is this really a shortcut? And why would he...
If she wanted to follow them, now would be the time. But down there? She didn't even know what she would find -
She never got the chance to find out. A sudden blast of force surged up in front of her and smashed into her, throwing her backwards off her feet, away from the hole in the ground.
"Then again, I digress, Tiana Lanster," Grylmark said quietly. "You should not really trust me."
The sharpshooter picked herself up off the ground, wiping blood away from her cheek. A few bruises, but otherwise she was fine. The blow hadn't been meant seriously. Grylmark wanted to keep her away from that hole...he wanted to keep her here, away from her friends. Had that been his plan? Just to trap the others somewhere else so he could deal with her?
"Where did you really send them?" she demanded, her fingers still tightly clasping Cross Mirage. She had not let go of the gun for a single instant.
Grylmark grinned. "I told you the truth. Red Scorpion are underground, and I sent your friends in the correct direction. The path I created for them will lead them directly to their goal, and they should catch up if they are quick about it."
"What? That's ridiculous! You're our enemy! Why would you care if we got Vita back?"
"Tiana Lanster, I do not give a griffon's army about your friend," the old man said patiently, folding his arms. "I will tell you this: you and your friends are already stranded here with no way to get home, ever. Your fate is sealed. You will lie here for eternity."
Tiana shook her head. "You expect me to believe that? Nanoha is here. She has Oguba - "
"Oguba?" Grylmark's eyes brightened gleefully. "Oh, I would not rely on Oguba's power so blindly like that if I were you! Besides...that is not the real reason I helped you now. You, your friends, and Red Scorpion...you are all a part of my plan. And I no longer have any use for Red Scorpion, not any more. With luck, your friends will encounter Red Scorpion in the caverns below, and you will both destroy each other! I'll just be down shortly to finish off any of the survivors."
"But – why - "
Grylmark's voice turned dark. "I think you have had enough questions for today, Tiana Lanster! Of course, I can't have you telling anyone about this now, can I? But you know how the saying goes: dead girls tell no tales."
The air around him rippled with immense power, blowing at his clothes in a maelstrom of magical energy. For a moment, Tiana was driven back a step just from the sheer scale of the magical field, but then gritted her teeth and held her own – she had fought Grylmark before. She had beaten him and his Manticore. Twice. Never on her own, perhaps, but there was always a first time. He was not going to drive her away now.
"I knew you wouldn't get caught in my trap, Tiana Lanster!" the tall figure crowed, an incandescent glow flooding throughout his body. "You're too smart for that, aren't you? I was wrong to call you a child before. But I regret to tell you that you have made a mistake in coming to this place! Here, in this land of limbo, your magical power is severely limited. I doubt you can manage to use anything more than very basic primary-level techniques! But here, Tiana Lanster, my power is tripled! Allowing me to do...this!"
The sky above Grylmark went black all of a sudden, and the old man knelt down on the ground, clasping onto the rock to form the foundation of the massive influx of power. His head jerked up as alien words howled from his throat, lost in a tornado of dark energy. The mist was torn out of his body and into the presence forming in the sky above them.
"DEVILSPAWN SUMMON: GREATER MANTICORE!"
A cold lump of dread settled in Tiana's throat as she realised what was blanketing out the sky above her. It wasn't night, it wasn't a sudden gloom fallen over the horizon; it was a creature alone, its presence enough to snuff out the glow everywhere in her surroundings. It couldn't just have dropped out of the sky – there must have been a portal overhead, a giant portal of colossal proportions. Grylmark must have prepared it earlier, prepared it just over the altar. He had planned to kill her right here.
The Manticore stalked out of the sky and descended onto hard earth. And this time Tiana did back away, for fear of being inadvertently stepped on and erased from the world completely. The Manticore loomed at least twice the size of the last one, so that it was the size of a skyscraper. The three animal heads intertwined with each other, each breathing elemental fire and frost as they merged to form an impenetrable barrier.
Its size wasn't the only thing that had changed. The scales covering its entire body now had a metallic tinge to them, as if a little something extra had been infused into the monster. And as the Manticore advanced forward a step, shaking the entire landscape with its movement, a lightning field crackled into view for a second, glinting across the edge of the creature's flesh.
I'm supposed to fight that? Tiana thought wildly. How?!
Grylmark rose to his feet, rising further to levitate into the air several metres above ground, so that he was at knee-level with the Manticore.
"I must confess something to you, Tiana Lanster," he said, and Tiana saw to her surprise that Grylmark's face was infused with rage. "I have not been taking you seriously lately. You have been nothing but a thorn in my side from our very first encounter! Thanks to you, I have not been efficient in my tasks as I used to be. Thanks to you, my Lesser Manticore was wounded to the point that I had to perform emergency counter-measures of my own! But worst of all, Tiana Lanster...is the time that you have taken from me, time which cannot ever be replaced!
"And so I re-modified my greatest creation, the magnificence which is my Manticore, to be used against you and you alone, Tiana Lanster! I have infused its armour with my own magic so that any of your attacks will be instantly repelled! To increase the probability of success, I also made sure that you were alone when I summoned it at last!"
Tiana found her voice at last. "This is going too far!" she yelled up at him. That thing could crush the Bureau in a few attacks alone...you would need Nanoha, Fate and Hayate blasting at it from all sides just to -
Grylmark still wasn't finished, however. "But still I allowed myself one more option, Tiana Lanster. At every point, you had defeated my Manticore, again and again. Such a waste of my resources. No more, I promised. I would kill you here and now. It would be a certainty. And yet there was still the possibility...that you would still be able to defeat my Greater Manticore, formidable an opponent as you are..."
Tiana chanced a look up at the monster above her. Fighting that would be like fighting against the ocean whilst clinging to a stray piece of driftwood. With holes in it.
The old man raised his hands once more. "You see...everything must be perfect. I cannot allow you to ruin anything anymore, especially now. I must eliminate all possibility of survival. Device Absorption!"
The sharpshooter tensed her body, prepared for some spectacular attack, but instead a small glimmer of light appeared above the summoner's head and disappeared up into the sky. Nothing seemed to happen at all.
Then to her horror, Tiana felt Cross Mirage shudder in her hands. In the next moment, she felt her transformation outfit disappear and revert to her normal TSAB clothes. Cross Mirage changed back into the small harmless cross in her hand.
I lost my transformation? How did he do that?!
Desperately, she tried to transform back. There was no response from Cross Mirage; the device felt dead and cold in her hands.
"I have sucked all of the magical energy of your device away," Grylmark said, "and transported it into the holes of lost time to be disposed of. I see no reason why I should give you a fighting chance. Die quickly, Tiana Lanster."
He chanted out a single spell which was lost in the clamour of the Manticore's approach, and his body disappeared completely as a portal rapidly opened up behind him, closing briefly upon his exit. Nobody remained except the orange-haired girl and the colossal behemoth which was beginning to slowly stalk towards her.
Transform, Tiana thought frantically, trying as hard as she could. I need to transform!
It was no use. Cross Mirage had been drained of absolutely all of its power. Grylmark had been deadly serious about this. She was left powerless before this monster. It wasn't as if she'd had much of a chance against it even with her powers and abilities, but at least...
The Manticore uttered a growl deep in each of its three throats. It turned its attention to her. She couldn't have been any bigger than its big toe.
I'm dead meat, Tiana realised as the monster came forward.
Dust. It was everywhere. It got into your lungs, filled every inch of this empty little hole in the ground, choked you to death and made you want to tear your hair out just to get out of there. But this place was like a natural coffin: room enough for just one person, no breathing holes at all, and no way out. Any living creature unfortunate enough to find themselves here would soon realise that all available oxygen had already been used up by its previous unlucky inhabitant.
But there is always a way out, Subaru thought, picking herself up out of the unruly tunnel that Grylmark had literally thrown her into.
There was no sign of Erio or Signum. The tunnel had split several times along the way and the three of them had been split up, left to fend for themselves. Would this really lead them quickly to Red Scorpion? What if their branch in the tunnel stranded them miles and miles away?
But now was not the time to dwell on that. Subaru's tunnel had deposited her right into a dark dusty room which was just large enough to fit three dead bodies into. In fact, judging by the crunching under her feet, that wasn't too far from the truth...if she didn't get out of here in the next five minutes, the lack of oxygen would make her faint. And if that happened, she would not be waking up again.
Subaru readied Mach Calibre, took a few steps back as far as possible in this cramped tomb, and then lunged forward with a howl, smashing her metal fist into the wall of rock before her. The wall shuddered with the impact as Mach Calibre began to revolve faster and faster around her wrist, drilling through concrete and stone...
Then cracks appeared all around the pressure points of her blow, and the wall began to fall apart. Quickly Subaru slammed her other fist through as well, breaking through completely as the supports crumbled and the entire room began to cave in around her. She curled into a ball and rolled through the shrinking gap as dust and smoke poured in from above, making it out of the death trap in one piece, coughing through the ashes which rolled around her in a solid cloud.
Whew. That was close.
Had it been Grylmark's intention to bury her alive in there? Maybe, maybe not. But now that she was out of there, Subaru felt the glimmer of a magic field in the air around her. A mage had passed through here – no, several mages.
Vita. She had been here, and she was still alive. There was no time to lose – she had to follow the trail immediately. In more familiar circumstances it might have been better to wait around to see if she could regroup with Erio and Signum, or at least find out what was happening to Tiana. Was she still up there with Grylmark? But no, there might not be time for any of that. She had to press forward quickly, yet not recklessly enough to get herself killed.
She paused to gulp in a few lungfuls of fresh air from the passage she had emerged into. A broad winding corridor extended out in front of her, from which the faint traces of magic had attracted Subaru's attention. It felt very much like an underground cave, except for the eerie glow emitted from the rock face on either side of her, as if the walls themselves were lighting up the caverns.
Wasting no time, Subaru kick-started the wheels of Mach Calibre into action with a single tap of her heel, revving her blades into gear. In a second she had shot down across the rocky corridor at high speed, darting around any obstacles in her way. The walls of the cavern went by in a blur, driving a mild wind across the side of her face which blew her blue hair around. The magical field began to grow stronger.
And yet...in the distance there was an end in sight. The light in the cave was diminishing little by little. Turning into a pale, opaque darkness...
"Subaru!"
The blue-haired mage forced the brakes down on her device. She was going too fast to stop immediately. Sparks flew as the metal blades under her boots clashed against the wheels, throwing her off balance slightly; she felt Mach Calibre struggle under the strain of the deceleration force and quickly lowered the intensity. The last thing Subaru needed was to break her device under such conditions, in an alien world with enemies ahead of her.
Her metal heels dug into rock and she was forced to take one foot off the ground completely, which almost flipped her body round into the wall. Gritting her teeth, Subaru threw the rest of her energy into decelerating completely.
She came to a grinding halt just a few inches before a yawning black void streaking the passage in front of her. There was no more corridor, no more rock, no more air – the path was gone. Instead, this great mass of darkness roamed in front of Subaru, like the dead of space or night, seeming to swallow everything up...
What on earth...? What is that?
"Subaru!" the voice called again in panic. "Subaru, get away from there!"
She didn't need to be told twice. Quickly, she reversed a few metres away from the edge – the whole spectacle made her feel dizzy. Whatever it was, she didn't know if she wanted to risk going through it.
"Erio?" she realised, turning to the red-haired mage standing to the side in front of her. He had been the one who had shouted out the warning. "Are you all right? When did you get here?"
Erio placed the shaft of his spear onto the ground steadily. He looked pretty shaken. "I've been here five minutes. Grylmark threw me into a five-foot pit trap, so I've been busy making handholds and climbing my way up."
"He's screwed all of us around," Subaru said with disgust. "He set us on the right path towards Vita, but not before trying to bury me alive first." She revved up Mach Calibre impatiently, crouching down low. "I'm glad you're here, Erio. We need to hurry and go after Vita!"
"But through there?" Erio asked, pointing at the blackness eating away at the space before them. "That...that's what Oguba told us about, isn't it? One of the holes in space and time. If you fall into there, your existence will be erased from history. We'll be sucked away completely."
Subaru shrugged almost nonchalantly. It was just another obstacle to her. "Not if we don't fall into it, we won't."
"Subaru, you're not Nanoha. You can't just fly through and - "
The blue-haired mage wasn't listening. She was concentrating hard, her mechanical eye searching through the darkness, her human eye melding magical energy through her lower body. Yes, it could be done, as long as nobody let go.
"Climb onto my back, Erio," she said, staring ahead at the colossal darkness before them.
The other forward looked at her as if she were crazy. "Are you serious? What if I fall off?"
"Hold on tight and you won't fall."
Warily, the red-haired kid manoeuvred himself onto Subaru's back, holding onto her shoulders and neck and gripping the sides of her waist with his thighs. Fear and apprehension were prominent in his eyes, and Erio swallowed.
"Subaru," he said, feeling extremely uncomfortable about this, "I'm all for rescuing Vita and beating up the rest of Red Scorpion as much as you are, but isn't there an alternati- "
"It'll be fine," Subaru said with a vicious smile, her body poised. "By the way: close your eyes and don't look down."
"What do you mea- "
"WING ROAD!"
Erio felt the air punched from his lungs as Subaru propelled the two of them forward at full speed without warning, shooting upwards sharply across the silvery-blue mystical road that formed before them. The pressure around his ears was increasing as he yelled, forgetting to close his eyes and feeling his body jerk to one side as Subaru took a sharp turn to the right, her eyes lit up with excitement. They suddenly swerved in the opposite direction a second later, bruising his other shoulder as he managed to gulp in a lungful of air to scream at the mage to slow down.
Then the darkness was all around them, clawing at their skin and seeping into their lungs, and suddenly they didn't seem to be going fast enough. Time was being taken away. Memories were bleeding thoughts and emotions, falling away into the abyss below, taking away their dreams and ambitions as the swirl of time sought to devour the pair of them completely...
I don't think so, though Subaru, and plunged downwards.
She heard Erio howl at the top of his voice, digging his limbs into her back, and her grin widened. What was so terrifying about this? Maybe she had just gotten used to practising the Wing Road with Tiana around. The wind flew past in a rush, forcing the darkness back just a few inches even as it came forward to consume everything. The seconds passed by, and continued to pass, every moment another defiance. Time would no longer be stolen from their lives.
There was a light ahead. The remainder of the corridor, before the hole in time had opened up. Maybe Red Scorpion had purposely opened the rift up as a precaution. But Subaru could feel the Wing Road falter now, weaken under her declining will. The blackness must have been stealing energy away from her, sapping her magical power. Oguba had mentioned that their magic would be limited in this world, but she had not really understood the danger of his words until now...
Furiously, she shot through at full speed, seeing the end of the Wing Road in sight, and leaped off the end in a single bound, carrying a traumatised Erio across with her.
"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Subaru saw the ground approaching as the wind rushed up fast towards her. Not darkness; soil, earth, hard friendly ground waiting to pommel her until her bones shattered. They had done it: they had escaped the abyss, the hole in time.
Unfortunately, she had also been very high up off the ground when she had jumped. There hadn't been time to lose any more altitude, not in that situation. In short, the two of them were plunging to their deaths.
Subaru noticed that not only was the ground approaching them extremely fast, but that it was particularly jagged and paved with spiked fragments of rock just about everywhere. This was going to hurt.
This would be a really good time to learn how to fly, she thought.
Roll as you hit the ground, to minimise injury. That wasn't exactly possible when she was carrying another passenger and they were clinging onto you for dear life. Nor was she tempted to roll across what the ground had in store for her right now...
Shit -
There was a sudden zap and the sound of a small explosion ahead of them. And all of a sudden, the two forwards found their rapid descent halted as a radiant circle of orange light appeared around them, instilling a warm fuzzy feeling into their bodies. Confused, Subaru and Erio felt the light guide them gently towards ground as if they were carrying a giant parachute. Mach Calibre had stopped spinning, and lay silent and still, but that wasn't due to being put out of action – the pleasant light had simply let it rest momentarily, to recover for just a few moments.
Subaru and Erio felt their feet touch the ground softly as the orange glow receded and disappeared. They weren't even standing on the sharp part of the corridor, but the smooth evenly-cut hallway that opened out afterwards, lighting the way ahead of them.
"What just happened," Erio whispered, "and why aren't we dead?"
"I don't know," Subaru whispered back.
"Did you do that?"
"I didn't do that. Did you do that?"
"I don't know how to do anything like that. Who did that?"
"I don't know who did that." Subaru blinked and came to her feet suddenly. "Why are we whispering?"
The strange light had saved them from certain death, but there was still no clue to its identity. Slowly, the two mages walked forward to the end of the corridor, eager to explore further. The magical field was very strong now – they must be really close. Either Vita – or an enemy – could lie just metres away from them.
And then Subaru and Erio emerged into a larger room, a circular clearing surrounded by small crystal pillars, each upon which burned a brazier of magical blue fire. The ceiling rose upwards in a dome-like shape which opened up into the sky at its apex, so that you could clearly see the dim glow from the outside. Not that it mattered – the light source seemed identical whichever way.
There was a small, narrow opening at the far end of the clearing, and it was from here that the magical energy field was most powerful.
There was a tall, robust figure blocking the opening.
That strange light saved me and Erio, Subaru thought. It wasn't either of us, so it must have been someone who wanted to help us. Could it be...this mysterious person? Could they be a valuable ally to us?
"Are you the one who saved us?" she asked, stepping forward into the centre of the clearing.
The figure did not move from its position, nor did it give any answer.
Subaru pressed on. "There was an orange light which saved our lives. Anti-levitation magic. Are you the one who cast it?"
"No," the figure said in a voice as cold as the night, surprising them with its icy tone.
The two forwards exchanged glances, unsure what to do for a moment.
"So...do you know who did?" Erio asked.
"Fortune," the figure said, speaking in a thin, metallic voice of little emotion. "You are fortunate to have entered within the field of Red Scorpion's external barrier. Within this field, all levitation magic is sealed, neutralised, weakened, dispelled, removed. Upon the surface of this planet, magical energy is limited. Here, there is no such limit. You have no one to thank for the sparing of your lives, agents of the Bureau, than Red Scorpion itself."
Red Scorpion?
"Are you...?" Subaru hesitated to ask, but the figure was still clothed in shadows. "Who are you?"
Slowly, the person in front of them stepped into the light.
The sound of their feet was a dull thud upon the soft ground, and their limbs moved in a twisted, mechanical way as they walked, like a soldier. There was a silvery glint to the figure's skin, and it almost felt as if their entire body was made of glass. Yet as the light caught their face, it was soon obvious that there was nothing fragile about them.
Their appearance was human, and yet it was not. Human limbs, human eyes, human speech...but the creature's movement of its body and the way it was functioning was not. Hard steel-like hair grew upon its scalp, and the person's eyes moved in a very definite flicker, a very mechanical manner.
Everything Subaru and Erio saw before them about the figure screamed combat cyborg. And yet...this didn't feel like one of the Numbers, or one of Scaglietti's creations. It didn't feel like one that he could ever have made. There seemed something very different about the figure in front of them, in the power that resonated from its body, in the way it looked at them and spoke to them. No malice, no evil, no hatred...just existence.
There was a single word etched in small faint crooked letters upon its chest. Almost like an identification number, or the code of a model or machine. It read: L.E.G.I.O.N.
"You are not permitted to continue," the combat cyborg said in a voice of stone. "I am the Legion of Red Scorpion, and none will pass before me. I have orders to destroy all who seek entry. However, I do not seek needless bloodshed. If you turn back now, I will spare your lives. Turn back the way you came and you will live."
Combat cyborg, Subaru thought. Just like me? No, not just like me. Not anything like me.
"We came for Vita," Erio said, raising his spear and stepping forward next to Subaru. "We're not going to be leaving."
Subaru nodded, though she still wanted to know more about this Legion and what exactly they were. "We've come this far. And if you intend to get in our way, then..."
The Legion was silent for a few moments. Then it said, "Subaru Nakajima. Erio Mondial. I am well aware of your abilities, strengths and weaknesses. And I warn you now that, if you choose to fight against me now, you will die. This is a certainty." The fingers of its right hand curled up and clenched into a fist with a small click, then uncurled again. "I will give you one more chance: turn back now. Your power is not sufficient to overcome me. Your lives will be given in vain."
How could it possibly know that? Subaru thought. They're bluffing. They have to be. Even if they somehow do know all about us – this thing knows our names for some reason – this Legion can't intimidate us like that. We're skilled mages of TSAB. At the very least one of us could make it past the Legion to get to Vita. You never know until you've tried.
She clenched her own metal fist, feeling the gears whirring. Mach Calibre was ready to go at full power. "Try me," Subaru said testily. "You're not going to stop us."
"Same here," Erio breathed, poised for battle.
The Legion nodded slowly. "Very well," it said calmly, a sudden edge to its voice which had not been there before. "Then I will begin your eradication."
A/N: I realised I've been spelling Tiana's surname wrong for the last...16 chapters or so. Lanster, not Lanstar. Oh well. Thanks again to everyone who's still reading. :)