This is bullshit!
Linda was, as ever, having the greatest time of her life. She adored the way these stupid pipelines twisted into one another, and not to mention that immense stench practically melting into the fabrics of her clothes; pure bliss. Okay, so maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration, but honestly who could blame the woman for at least trying to poke fun at the scenario?
Realistically the pipes were sweaty and damp, making every grip she held take a little bit of her life away - metaphorically of course. So far she'd yet to take any real damage, but that didn't keep her nose and stomach from trying to self-delete. Maybe that would be best actually, not being able to smell might make her movements quicken, but not having a gut might get in the way of sustenance; perhaps she'd make like the flowers and photosynthesize.
"Pa, guha, pft!" She spit heavily, throwing free some of the sludge that splashed up from the river below; why did it always land in her mouth? "Wagh, flipping garbage!"
She was definitely getting not only a shower later, but washing out her mouth with some serious soap; it'd taste awful, but it would certainly be better than the sewage flicking her tongue now. With this plan on the back burner, Linda pulled herself up another ledge, coming to stop in a much more narrow sort of pipe.
Unlike the rest, this one didn't seem to have any filth running through it, but the remnants of its last current still laid on the metal, leaving stains of blue in contrast to its bronze. She wasn't exactly thrilled when she needed to get on her hands and knees, and then on her stomach as she traversed the straight away, but sacrifices had to be made; plus it had no active fluids, so it was better than all other paths by default.
No mercy, you'll get no mercy when I find you!
These irritated thoughts of rage induced ire helped carry her through the tight squeeze, and then those ideas and such had to pause as she reached the end of the pipe. It opened up a little more here, and curiously enough there was sound. Unlike the roaring rivers of probably radioactive fecal matter, these sounds were more mechanical, and perhaps a little more pleasant as well.
The worn and dirtied girl found room to stand, and as she looked up she could see the flickering's of light breaking through what must have been a gap in the metal up above. The place of which she stood was curved, and not too far spread that she couldn't grip both ends of the shoot with her hands and feet. It was in this manner, like a little child climbing the entryway of an open door, that Linda slowly but surely scurried her way up to the light source.
Huh? Before her sat what looked like an opening, closed only by some sort to panel. Freeing one hand, and leaning all her strength into her legs to sustain her, Linda poked at the subject of her thoughts, wondering if she could somehow move it or break it from this side.
It moved outwards, connected only by a small bit on the top, allowing her hand to press and bend it outwards where the light flooded in full. The shock of the light was so great that the sewer rat - almost literally at this point - was locked in place thoughtlessly for a good ten or so seconds, and right after threw both her arms through, letting go of her foothold as she tried to force her body inside.
The filthy little gal spent a few seconds squirming, but managed to wiggle her whole body through, and found herself on a tiled floor.
She stood, sucking in what must have been her first lung-full of air since she ended up down in that demonic maze.
"I LIVE!" She yelled out to no one in particular, and only after said yell did she realize what she'd done. Her head shot around, desperate to see if she attracted any unwanted attention, and then her mouth spat out a sigh of relief once nobody came running.
Note: never do that again.
With that new commitment she took a bit to take in her surroundings. The tiled floor had this sort of diamond pattern, and the stark white matched with the walls of the room. Most telling of all though was the multitude of tables spread against the walls, with a larger one taking up the center of the area. There were stoves, grills, a microwave, and a few refrigerators spread around as well. She then saw two doors, a normal looking one, and a large metallic one - probably a freezer if she had to guess.
She was in a kitchen, and despite the fact she hadn't eaten anything since awakening in this madhouse, her trip through the sewers kind of robbed her of the ability to feel hunger right now. Linda looked behind her to the shoot she broke free from, and above it sat a sign saying 'Waste Disposal'
Wonderful, from sewage to garbage. Unfortunate, but ultimately a moot point. This garbage shoot had been her savior; granting her freedom from the hell-scape forced upon her by a poor decision. As loathed as she was to admit it - seriously, her pride was seething - Warechu was right. Next time she'd be looking for labels before she hopped into any more pipes.
With her happiness now slightly restored due to the new-found freedom, as well as the commitment to never tell Warechu she'd internally admitted to making a wrong call, the still understandably dirty woman made for the exit door, and stepped out into the halls. Luckily enough, the walkway appeared fairly normal, which immediately had her suspicious, and sent her caution shooting through the roof.
Left or right, these were the viable options she could take, and seeing as there were no immediately fantastical elements present, she decided on the risk to rush out and over to the nearby window. Casting her gaze down, Linda was happy to report that she could see the sewer garden where Warechu and her first tasted sunlight. The furry little cretin himself wasn't there, but that was hardly an issue, as she'd assumed he went looking for her the moment she fell; or at least he better have.
I swear, if you ran-
Her threat-crafting was brought to a stop as her ears were assaulted by what she could only assume was an insult to the musical field as a whole. Linda wasn't exactly a big fan of pop-rock, or whatever the popular girls of the day called it; her school life consisted of detention and probably a few classes of rehab for always trying to steal the wallets of her teachers. Really, those times were not exactly swell for her to recall, but at least she'd gotten one of her teachers fired, so that was pretty cool; both why and how he got locker-room pictures of them all undressing was a question best rung out by Tiny-Tim in the slammer - good guy, but with a seething hatred of anyone who hurts kids, which was a fact she learned when he made her 'repent' for her previous actions against the Lowee twins via dangling her from their cell window, who's bars he'd ripped out with his bare hands.
Kinda miss you Tiny-Tim.
With the decision to visit her prison-buddy, and probably see how the idea of a 'mixed jailhouse' worked out for Lowee over the years since she'd been let out, Linda chose to go right; right is always right... except when it isn't. Worries concerning how rhyming decisions weren't always the best was a brain cell above Linda's current amount, and so she walked along, bearing a sensitive ear in the off-shoot somebody might be nearby.
She made another right turn - this time because the hall only turned one way - and started down some stairs, where she came to a four-way intersection in the next set of halls. Ahead of her looked to be an exit of some sort, with double doors and a clear view of what looked like a parking lot; a full on parking lot. Running away was always an option, but Warechu had yet to cross her path, plus she needed to complete the task they were assigned and capture that weirdo from before, so the exit ahead was nothing more than a tease.
The decision was once again down to right and left, and as before there were no immediate tells of which way led to what. Before she could pick right again, the young sneaky girl was startled by a ringing. She reached into her pocket, and pulled out her phone.
Huh... who's asking? The instrument of noise in her hand was yet again a reminder that these kidnappers over the recent weeks kind of sucked at their jobs, but hey, that was fine with her. As she curiously flicked open the device, a heavy sweat began to pour down her face.
Oh no.
.
.
"Thanks for the lift."
"Not a problem." Vante offered a small wave, tilting his newly bought hat downwards to block out the sun. "Now, are you sure you're good to go?"
"Positive." Kurome shot back, turning to face what looked like a small office building. "This is the address. I'll be fine from here."
"Alright, but remember, you got my number now, so if you need anything before tomorrow morning, give me a call."
"Sure thing." Kurome looked back and gave a nod. Vante seemed to accept it, and slowly started off, but not before Dergil poked his little head out and gave a cheery grin.
She sent a small one back, albeit her own contained a little bit more sass; the kid was more of a rascal than she'd previously assumed, what with the constant flicking of his lighter throughout the ride. Now, Kurome could have questioned Vante on why he let his little bro carry around a easily abused fire source when he was a known arsonist, but the older brother didn't appear all that worried when the kid took to burning the end of his lolly-pop stick, so she decided she wouldn't either.
They were an interesting pair, but the time for immediate fun was over, and with that in mind she made for the entrance of the building and stepped inside. Vante informed her to be careful of what she said to anybody up here on the floating highways, as apparently they had a bit of a rivalry with those living on the land below. It was a weird thing to take in, but according to him she could really rile up some people if she mentioned anything about liking the land below better. These folks liked to see themselves as superior in standing as opposed to the surface dwellers, despite not having basements, which for Kurome was an immediate turn-off; she loved her dank caves of solitude, and the potential safety they provided from hurricanes.
The main takeaway from all this though: she'd learned exactly how to piss these people off - that might be useful later if one managed to tick her off.
"Hello?" She spoke, walking over to the small station on the right, dinging a small desk bell that sat at the opening of what she assumed was the front desk itself. For a bit there was nothing, and then a door creaked open from inside.
"Just a minute." Someone called out, followed by footsteps. Kurome watched with a somewhat limited curiosity as the living poster-girl of an office woman took her seat. She spun forward in the swivel chair, and for just a second the light glared across the rim of her glasses, partially catching Kurome off guard as the light crossed her vision, temporarily blinding her.
Kurome blinked, keeping her eyes from falling to the jiggle of the ridiculously full blouse.
"Apologies for that, I was tending to some other business." She cleared her voice, humming as she sent an off-centre squint. "Now then, how may I help you miss..."
"Kurome."
"Yes, miss Kurome." The woman then tossed on a questioning look. "We don't usually get many walk-ins this time of the day, so pardon the intrusion, but do you have an appointment?"
"No..." Kurome had to hold off on anything else, as the strange tone of the woman was starting to make her question if she had the wrong address. This certainly didn't seem like the last hideout Lonk welcomed them into, and from the mild clicking's and typing's coming from the cubicles deeper in, she decided it was best to just be blunt; she felt somewhat out of place. "I'm actually here to check on a couple acquaintances of mine."
"I see, and who may these acquaintances be?" The woman linked her fingers, and her stare became almost threatening in its intensity; it had no effect on Kurome herself, but she didn't want to exactly start trouble just yet, and so she opted to keep a cool demeanor.
"Linda, and Warechu; the former is an unhealthily pasty girl with childishly rogue tendencies, and the latter is a gray mouse."
The woman's eyes seemed to shift for a bit, and she stiffened her posture.
"Pardon a moment." She turned over to what Kurome assumed was a PC hidden just from view, and began typing away at the keyboard to her side; her eyes scrunching up as she slowed to a stop. "Well, we certainly were expecting the arrival of two such individuals, unfortunately however they have yet to make an appearance."
"Excuse me?" Had the woman not been focused on the screen, she'd have noticed the tiny shift in air around the shadowy patron.
"Yes." She turned back, apparently undeterred by Kurome's now less than reserved tone. "We were informed of the pair's coming by our employer, however they did not arrive at the scheduled time." Her eyes shut, and she crossed her arms with a hum. "To be quite frank, I'd assumed they were just running late, however if what you say is true, and you're here to check on them... would I be correct in assuming their tardiness has nothing to do with a late departure?"
"No, you're right." Kurome kept her voice as even as she could, hiding away the seething ire attempting to burn through. "They left early."
"Oh dear." The woman sighed, typing away at the keyboard again. "Pardon, but I have a report to correct. Afterwards I'll send out a missing persons report to the local police, so please feel free to come in and take a seat."
"There's no need to get the cops."
"Pardon?" The woman turned back, only for her face to display a mild surprise; she finally noticed the dark aura surrounding Kurome, which only deepened when the girl slipped out a cell-phone from her shirt pocket.
Several rings went through, before the other end picked up.
"H-hey-"
"Linda..." Kurome began in a falling tone. "I want to ask you something."
"Sure t-thing, what do you w-want to know?"
"Did you and Warechu meet up at the base Lonk provided?"
"Yeah... of course w-we did."
"Funny... because right now the kind lady at the desk says you two never arrived. Would you mind clearing that up?"
"Crap..."
"Linda?" She couldn't see it herself, but Kurome's aura was now physically manifesting, creating a black haze just barely outlining her body.
"C-come on, don't sound like that! I-it wasn't our fault, honest! We hopped in the cab, and then the air smelled funny, and next thing you know we're chained up in the target's wacko doll-house mansion! How were we supposed to know the taxi's were a sham?!"
Kurome stayed silent, seething on the spot as she ran the explanation through her mind. In truth, she wasn't so much angry with the pair themselves, because Linda was right: it really wasn't their fault, and they couldn't reasonably know their target would have the local transport system on a personal payroll. Really, Kurome was most furious that she had to deal with yet another ridiculous scenario; another kidnapping, as if she hadn't already experienced enough of them.
"Where are you?"
"I don't know; not in the city that's for damn sure." She sounded a little calmer this time. "Look, I'm seeing an exit right now... I think. But I can't get out yet because I need to meet up with Warechu; I haven't seen him in the halls yet but I'm certain I'll find him soon. Once we link up we're going to capture the target and make a break for it."
"Right." Kurome spoke through grit teeth. "Fine. I'll rendezvous with you as soon as I can."
"Okay, but how? We have no idea where the hell we are, so there's nothing on our end we can provide."
"I'll figure something out." Kurome eased up on her anger, just enough that the aura faded away, again going unnoticed by the pseudo-goddess. "Call me if you discover anything."
"Rodger." With that the phone cut off, and Kurome was left on the dial-tone for a few seconds before sighing and flicking it closed. She slipped it away, and turned back to the woman, who stared with a tense look. Kurome ignored this however and spoke.
"I know your boss probably hasn't mentioned me, but I need access to the hideout."
"Excuse me, maam, but what 'hideout' are you talking about?"
Kurome really didn't have time for this stupidity.
"Look, if I get Lonk on the phone, will you listen to him?"
"Lonk..." Her gaze steadied. "No, I don't believe that will be necessary. Have you ever worked as a clerk at a used games shop?"
"What?" That was an... oddly specific question.
"Please, answer the question."
"Yes, I have." Kurome shot forth a glare. "What does this have to do with anything?"
"Our employer often likes to brag about his experiences from time to time, and in his last few email briefings he mentioned taking up a 'puzzle challenge' to impress someone, and then in the next email he mentioned befriending her and staking claim to her 'awesome skills'."
"Staking claim, huh?" Kurome wasn't sure what that implied, but she felt the innate urge to beat the daylights out of Lonk the next time he showed his smug appearance.
"Don't think too much of it; he loves expressive lingo. He already has a partner, and despite how he comes off, he's deathly loyal, so don't go deluding yourself into thinking you might steal that spot."
"I don't plan too."
"I can see that." The woman said with a slight smirk. "But the warning goes out regardless. Sassy, dark, an air of uncontrollable fury; you're quickly filling out the list of unintentional flirtations he'd built up over his briefings."
"...Okay." She wasn't quite sure how to take that one.
"Well, seeing as you've proven your identity - for as far as I'm concerned that is - I suppose I can hear you out. The hideout, correct?"
"Yes." Right as Kurome said that, the woman stood.
"Very well then, I'll take you there."
.
.
"Uh, Lady Blanc?"
"Yes?" The fairly reserved goddess questioned, turning to look fully at the attendant.
"Are you sure this is a good idea?"
"And what's wrong with it?" Blanc asked, turning her gaze ahead again. "We're just going to speak with him."
"I understand that, but are you certain this is wise? Most of the ordinary citizens never get to speak with you face to face on a daily basis, and while we ourselves can keep a steady conversation with you, I'm uncertain if an ordinary citizen holds the same capabilities."
"Don't worry about it." Blanc waved off. "The informants said he's just an old man now, so what's he going to do?"
"I understand, but perhaps a personal visit will be too hard on his heart."
"Wow, you really have no faith in your fellow people, do you?"
"T-that's not the case!"
Blanc came to a stop, turning to face the oracle of her nation: Mina.
"Look, I may not be Neptune, and my people might not get to see me all the time, but if I can't speak to them face to face then what type of goddess am I? Vert talks with her people when she goes shopping; Neptune's always out playing with the kids in Planeptune's central city park; hell, even Noire makes a point to personally visit the factories where she orders her equipment; what's stopping me from stepping out every now and then?"
"I... well..." Mina seemed to shrivel a little on the spot, with her face shadowing over as she brought the tips of her index fingers together, poking them rhythmically. "Y-you're not exactly like the other goddesses though."
"Excuse me?" Blanc slipped on a more... let's call it an 'intrigued' look - 'accusatory' might be too harsh of a word for now. "You mind running that by me again?"
"Well... you don't usually go out personally to gather things. Most of the time you have us do it for you, while you focus on your writing."
"Yeah, but I sometimes go out to get things myself." Blanc clarified as she restrained the cross mask trying to slip over her face.
"Yes, but you do so in disguise, and even then it's only on rare occasions."
"Are you going anywhere with this?" Blanc was losing the battle of looking like she wasn't mad, and Mina appeared to see this.
"N-no, I'm not trying to say anything."
"Then stop yapping." Blanc breathed in, shoving away the series of swears and such she 'probably' wouldn't have said, but most certainly would have thought. "Let's just get a move on; I'm set on this, and there's nothing you can do to change my mind."
"I... alright, I understand." Mina sighed, and the pair resumed their walk.
The two came before an old looking home, painted white with a faded red roof. The quaint little place looked comfy, and even reminded Blanc of the way her little sister's often drew houses in their pictures, that is... when they weren't drawing soft-core porn - Vert would rue the day she infected her innocent little girls, but that was a vengeance for another time.
Blanc walked up the short few steps, and rang the doorbell. After a few moments it opened to reveal an older looking man, wearing a dusty old hat and some faded overalls.
"Why hello there young lady, how may I help you?"
"Hello as well. I've been told you know a thing or two about one of the local ruins here in Lowee."
"That I do. Why don't you come on in and take a seat, Lady Blanc."
"You recognise me?" Blanc wasn't exactly shocked by the revelation, but even so, she didn't expect the man to catch on to her identity quite so fast as he did.
"I may be old, but I'd be hard pressed if I were to forget my home's own goddess. Now then, scamper on in, and I'll get some tea going."
"Thank you." Blanc did just that, wandering inside as Mina followed after. The two took a seat at a rather plain looking table, and soon enough a couple cups of the spiced drink were poured for them. The old man took his place at the other end of the table, seeming to relax and sip away, apparently not caring that his bushy mustache partially dipped into the tea with each sip.
"Now then." He started, facing them as he set his hat on the rim of his chair. "How may I help you with the old place up some miles east."
"You know which ruins we're talking about?" Blanc was yet again surprised, but in a good way; this would go quickly if he kept this up.
"Why yes, I do." He then offered a jolly brief laugh. "There's only a couple ruins I've ever had much personal experience with here; I'm just happy I guess the right one for our chat. So how may I help you with it?"
"One of my scouts said you worked to build it." Blanc told, taking a brief taste of the tea. It held a hint of mint to it, and was fairly pleasant all things considered; Vert would love it, and so Blanc would do everything in her power to keep the bitch from having any - ever.
"Yes... that I did."
"Is something wrong?" Blanc knew the look he wore, one of regret, and with the ruins in mind, she was more than a little curious as to why he regarded them with such emotion.
"I..." The words froze, before settling on a somber tone. "You're the goddess, and as a goddess it's your job to protect the people. If you're coming to me for information on those ruins, then I suppose it's not for anything good." He looked up, and Blanc saw just the tiniest bit of fear in his face, which immediately had her on edge. "Has she done it, is she free?"
"Who?" Blanc inquired firmly, keeping her voice soft, and yet curt enough to show how serious the question was. His eyes looked to light up a bit.
"I see... you don't know, then she can't be." He sighed again, this time it was more relaxed. "Good, we're still safe then."
"Please, can you tell me who you're talking about?" Blanc tried again, and the man seemed to visibly sturdy himself.
"Alright, I'll get on that. Some time ago, back in my younger days, a few of my buddies and I had the idea to try and create a new aspect of gaming. We wondered if there was a way to connect two games together. It was simple at first, but we got in way over our heads, and we ended up doing something awful."
"Linking two games..." Blanc eyed the man. "Would you happen to have worked at the shrine of Lock-On?"
"You've been there then..." He looked to slump in his seat as he leaned back. "Yes, I was there; that one's the second of Lowee's shrines - the ones carrying my touch anyway."
"Okay... but, pardon me for this: how are you even alive? That was a time even before me, how how does a simple human last this long?"
The man then held up what looked to be a green mushroom... with a face?
"My family has got plenty of extra lives; sadly though, they only work on our family, otherwise we'd be rich by now. Perhaps you've seen my great grandson Maryo - he runs the farm where we get 'em."
"Maybe..." Blanc had no idea if she did or didn't know anyone of that name, but she wouldn't discount it.
No, you're getting off topic.
"What is this 'awful' thing you did?"
"You see, the shrine was once a lab, where my friends and I tried to work our experimental gaming techniques. We discovered that data could be transferred between games for the then new console via the use of a certain technique, and so we initially designed a couple games after it. However it ended up being dangerous to both the games and console, and when the newer version of the machine came out, we opted to try a different strategy. We created an addon for the console, however it never had enough power to do what we needed, and so we opted to try and draw in share energy to power it."
"Share energy... why share energy?" Blanc knew it was prominent in tech, but even so, it was strange. Share energy was only used to power electrical plants, and then said electricity was what powered everything else. She'd never heard of anyone using raw share energy to power anything else.
"Unlike electricity or other fuels, Share energy boasts the greatest power output of the bunch, and so we figured if we could somehow stuff it into the addon we could power a mini-computer to copy a game's save data, as well as other data, and transfer it to another compatible game. However, as we drew in share energy, it began trying to break free from our containment device, and so we kept messing around with holding it there until the entire unit exploded."
"Exploded!" Blanc was immediately worried. "Did any of you get hurt?!"
"Luckily no... aside from me; I was vaporized." Blanc paled. "But as I said, I have plenty of 1-ups, so I plopped back into existence all well and good." Blanc then sighed, and the man continued. "However the air itself felt... wrong afterwards. We didn't know what happened, only that it was bad. Later we heard how there was a power outage reported over the local area, and would you know it, that event occurred the exact moment of our explosion. We knew we did something terrible, and so we decided to contain it, in the hopes the problem would fix itself."
"But it didn't, did it?"
"No, and so we decided to hide the disturbing feel of the space inside a shrine, designed to dampen share energy should it excel a certain amount."
"Hold on a second: the shrines can weaken shares?" Blanc asked, and the man nodded.
"Yes, and this was a good thing too, as one day we went to check and see if the space had eased up, only to see a bright light right as we were about to finish... and then we saw her."
"Who?" Blanc had asked this a second time, but she wasn't so much irritated as she was worried; the man was shaking.
"I don't know her name, but I remember her horrifying appearance as if it were only yesterday. Her body was wreathed in fire; so black was it that the very light around her was swallowed up. Had I not known better I'd say it was the goddess of Planeptune, but not quite... everything about her was just... wrong, from the misshapen skin to the off-colors of her eyes and hair. I could feel the evil radiating from her, and I was frozen on the spot. I just watched as one of my buddies ran past her, not even drawing a glance. He was a smart thinking lad, and a skilled wizard to boot. He tried to cast a spell on her, catching her in a ball of fire, and shrinking her into what looked like a disk."
"A disk... why a disk?"
"Disks were the new hot topic of the day, so I think it was just a gut reaction. Either way, I managed to gain my legs again, and we hovered around the thing. It pulsed with ill-intent, and even a man so magically illiterate such as myself could feel the darkness within. It infected the entire area with its malice, with the prime example of such being the two game cartridges we left enshrined. It tainted one of them with its evil, and right as we saw that one turn a demonic blue, we knew we had to get rid of it. So we built a shrine deep, deep underground, below the original, and sealed it with a harder magic."
"So this disk... it's hidden deeper under the original shrine of Lock-on?" Blanc didn't enjoy the thought of that, especially with what they knew about the scarring.
"Yes. However hiding it wouldn't be enough, as we could feel the woman trying to escape. The shrine you've asked me of, well... we built a bunch of them; all over Gamindustri. They siphon small bits of residual share energy from the air, and send it down to the shrine under Planeptune; keeping the seal of the disk fully powered and strong."
"Okay..." Blanc was beginning to put the pieces together. "So these shrines... they're like locks for the shrine imprisoning the disk?"
"Yes." He appeared to relax a bit. "And so long as none of them are disturbed, that monster can never escape." The man breathed a sigh of relief. "I'll be honest, I was afraid when I saw you, but seeing as you didn't know of any sort of monster, I'll assume she hasn't broken free."
"No, she hasn't." Blanc steadied her voice, throwing in an air of relaxation; it was false, but it would be enough to put the man's mind at ease. "I just wanted to know why the shrines all appeared the same. Sources reported ruins similar to the ones found here, and I was curious as to what they were about."
"I see, so I was wrong; there's nothing bad going on then?"
"No." Blanc lied, not knowing if it was even a lie at this point anyway. "Everything's fine." She stood." Thank you for your time, but I must be off."
"Oh, I see." The man nodded, standing himself. "Well then, I wish you well with your pursuits."
"Thank you."
Once Blanc and Mina left, and the two were some good yards away, Blanc finally opened up.
"Mina."
"Yes?"
"I need you to get a team back up to those ruins, and gather as many pictures as you can. I want a full report on their quality and standing."
"Understood."
If those ruins were the only thing keeping some sort of monster at bay, then Blanc wanted to ensure they stayed intact, at least until she filled the others in on the news. It would seem a trip to this newly mentioned 'prison' the old man spoke of was in order.
...
Author's note
...
Okay, so this was a bit of a slower chapter too, but we're dealing with plot; it kinda be like that sometimes.
The crew is coming together, slowly but surely coming together. Blanc is the main source of drive this time, giving some answers as to not only why the shrines exist, but to their purpose as well. A new figure is proposed as well, sealed away like any other baddie of legend; who knows, maybe one day the great evil will just exist casually down the street or something.
Anyway, that's all for now, so try not to feel too bored, because next time we're going to have a bit of fun with a particular rat of upstanding skill - when it comes to burrowing into trouble.
Note: Try to forgive any blaring grammar issues present in this chapter; this is the 4th time editing and saving this chapter - the website has failed to load every time I've attempted to save the doc, freezing each time mid-save. Hopefully I've - yet again - dealt with all the issues this time.