The Dustbin
Day 5: Night School (Part 2)
26th of the Great Tree Moon, Late Night
"Professor Yuga..." Byron asked as the three of them hustled down the darkly-lit halls.
"Talk to me." Karna replied, tugging onto the rim of his hood while running down the halls, their heels clacking against the mason and plank floor alike.
"... Should we prove the two to be guilty behind our attempted mass murder, just what is stopping them from rigging the trial against us, and potentially costing your career?" Byron pointed out.
"Well, that's all part of my plan." The hooded professor replied confidently. "... Don't let anyone else know about it. Vigilante justice, the best kind of justice. Mainly because of less paperwork being involved."
Vidar just lets out a small grunt as he followed behind the student with his coat hanging around his shoulders.
"... I swear." Karna grimaced. "I'm grateful that the Adrestian Empire did provide me with funding for my research for Magical Advancement, but even then, they seem to want to kill each other at a moment's notice... This is why I hate politics, it's a complete waste of everyone's time!"
"I second that." Byron remarked. "... It is sort of odd how the Faerghus sort of swept the deaths of my entire family under the rug... alongside with the whole so-called 'Tragedy of Duscur' clearly being an inside-job."
"And what made you come to that conclusion?" Karna asked.
"For one, unlike other Faerghus residents, I actually studied Duscurian culture and mindset." Byron remarked. "To them, assassinations and murder are according to their beliefs, are the pinnacle of cowardice, and condemns that soul to the embrace of a dark goddess known as Hel, the Death Sovereign. Their soul will be fed to the Garmr, her pet hounds, and the physical body left behind will become a part of her Dragurs, Hel's army of the undead that will rampage throughout the world of the living in the coming Røkkr, also known as either 'Twilight' or 'The Day of Reckoning'."
"... Hm, impressive, Mr. Amadeus Noa." Karna complimented. "Where did you learn of Duscurian culture and belief? Even Faerghus's Magic Academies don't have a single text mentioning those. That and well... they don't get along and all."
"... Truth is, after I lost my home, I lived among them." Byron remarked. "After everything that my people have done to them, I'd expected them to feed me to the dogs. But no, they spared me, only because I was only around like what? 5 or 6 years old?"
"... Killing children... bad." Vidar heaved out between his bandaged lips. "... Byron... told me... so."
"Moral lessons aside, methinks that the best course of action right now is to find the conspirators behind this little incident, and possibly stop a potential war from igniting." Karna remarked as he ran down the halls. "... That and well, you'd think that people would have the modicum of basic decency to not start a war while school is in session."
"I admire your prioritization towards the practical, professor." Byron complimented. "... Just like how I lived after my whole family went up into flames."
"Speaking of practical, Mr. Amadeus Noa, I recommend that you keep your conversation to yourself." Karna pointed out. "Right now, we are in amidst of a hot pursuit."
"Right, apologizes."
Outside of the Upper Dorms...
The McCarthy twins stealthily follow the bald head of Hans, gleaming in the moonlight from above, his massive frame of muscle bursting through his uniform, his coat hanging from his fingers behind his back.
"... Oi oi oi, just how much wax does he even use for that head of his?" Sorcha asked her twin sister. "... No seriously, that head of his is like the sun."
Selene simply shrugs right before sneaking behind another cover.
Sorcha then spots two guards patrolling the monastery, signaling her twin to keep low until they pass.
As the guards pass, the twins then take off their shoes to avoid their heels clacking against the stone floor, and as the guards pass, the two hastily tiptoe by the passing guards, both holding onto their boots before ducking behind another cover.
"He's headin' into the trainin' grounds..." Sorcha remarked as she put her boots back onto her feet. "... Who's the shorty at the door?"
Selene peeks above her cover and finds a short, spunky-looking male youth with clean-cut turquoise hair waving at Hans.
"Yo, Hans!" The youth greeted the bald student. "You really came!"
"Yeah, well, it's kinda getting late." Hans replied as he looked around his surroundings, causing the twins to duck under cover to avoid detection. "... Come on, Casper, you ain't gonna get any taller if you're a night owl."
"Oh come on, I'm still growing!" Casper remarked. "But enough of that, let's get a round in before the guards show up!"
"Right right, come on, [Training Gauntlets] on, kiddo." Hans replied as the two went into the academy's training grounds. "... Don't collapse after one punch."
"Peh, I've doubling my training since I got here!"
The doors shut, leaving the two to wonder what their next course of action is.
"... Do we sneak in?" Sorcha asked. "Or do we wait here?"
Selene points to the hut right above-adjacent to the training grounds.
"... Alright, we'll get a better view from up there." Sorcha remarked. "Lene, you lead."
Back at the Upper Dorms...
For the past half-hour, Iago hasn't even moved out of his room, still glued to his desk and chair, candlelight still lit, and reading through the text that he had on his person.
Topaz was no stranger to waiting for long periods of time, in fact, she oddly finds herself getting really comfortable in her position right above the Black Eagle's head.
She faintly sniffs the air coming from Iago's room, picking up a slight scent of rosemary coming from the room below.
"... Must be the candles." Topaz thought as he peered down from the ceiling vents from above. "... Fodlan is quite ingenious to have candles that also act as incenses."
Still, the scent also helped the little Hashashin keep herself awake and alert as well, aiding her mission to keep an eye out on this elusive student of the Black Eagles.
Suddenly, she hears knocking coming from Iago's door, causing Topaz to cease peeking and switch to listening.
"One sense at a time." Topaz thought as she laid her ear against the ceiling's inner hollow. "Do not take in more than you need."
"Come in." Iago's voice spoke out, followed up by a creaking of the door's hinges and a slight yawn.
"Good evening..." A sleepy voice yawned out. "... You have the materials for my research?"
"Top shelf, second book towards the right." Iago spoke to his visitor, his voice indicating not a single lapse in his focus. "... Honestly Lindhardt, your naps are going to be the end of you someday. Take care of yourself properly, you're a noble, aren't you?"
"Yeah well, I really don't see the point of formalities as long as no one's around to judge me..." Lindhardt's voice yawned out as the sound of a book being removed from its shelf was heard. "... Plus, my naps function as a way to take care of myself. I mean, I saw Casper sneak out of his curfew just to get one more round in. Honestly, if you need to be worried about anyone's well-being, it's him."
"Such is the life of the son of the Empire's Minister of Military." Iago remarked as Topaz hears the flip of his text's page. "... I do admire his drive though, considering his... circumstances. Don't get me wrong, I'm not insulting him or anything. I'm legitimately impressed."
"Well, it my job to make sure that he lives long enough to see his efforts come into fruition." Lindhardt remarked as Topaz hears the thumps of his boots heading elsewhere, followed up by the creaking of the doorknob. "... Above everything else, I believe that no one should die meaninglessly."
"Death is a tragedy, no matter what circumstances may befall it." Iago remarked, with Topaz trying to push aside her thoughts of mentally pointing out his statement's hypocrisy, as she was taught by the Hassan to suppress her emotions whenever it doesn't involve her personally. "... Take care, understood?"
The sound of the door shutting was then heard, leaving Topaz to wonder what her next course of action would be.
"Should I cut and run, or keep listening in?" Topaz pondered. "I still need to keep an eye on him, but at the same time, I need to make sure that I avoid detection."
She then decides to listen through the ceiling for a few moments before taking her next course of action.
"... I'll wait for him at the end of the hall." Topaz thought as she shifted her tiny body around the ceiling hollows before crawling back outside. "At least I'll be detected later than now."
Topaz then crawls out of the loose roof tile and sneaks across the open rooftop and began looking down at the halls around the dorms from above.
"Keep an eye out for any potential openings while giving none..." Topaz thought. "They may look at the ground, but that doesn't mean that they won't look towards the sky."
She then closes her eye for a brief moment, and hears the sounds of a window clicking open.
Topaz peers down, and finds an improvised rope made of rags fall down out of the window with the open shutters, and saw Iago, with a cloth back tied around his back, shimmy down from the rope, and upon his heels hitting the ground, he took off towards the dark halls, heading towards the monastery's entrance.
"... I should go find the others." Topaz remarked to herself. "... But at the same time, I need to make sure to keep an eye on him."
She then visualizes a path for both, arcing her vision towards the greenhouse's rooftops and the buildings structure around it acting as her next path forward.
"... I should be able to see everything from up there." Topaz thought. "Should I get caught, I'll simply jump over to the other side."
She then takes off towards the greenhouse's roof, going around Iago's direction of his stride and keeping overwatch of him, potential guards, and for the professor spearheading this game of cat and mouse.
Normally, the glass ceiling would break under anyone jumping onto it, but Topaz's constitution shaped by her brutal training regimen from the Hashashin to be utilitarian as physically possible.
In other words, she herself was rather light and had perfect control on how much muscle can she exert throughout her body, so landing on glass panes while fully-dressed in these stuffy Garreg Mach uniforms without breaking through them...
*thump*
... Was rather a simple matter.
The chase was now afoot. And all she had to do, was not get caught, just like her last attempt, where she had most of her equipment confiscated, and possibly destroyed.
Outside the Training Grounds...
"Wait, aren't the sparring grounds supposed to be closed during curfew?" Byron pointed out as he, Vidar, and Professor Karna Yuga heard grunting coming through the doors behind the training grounds.
Vidar simply grunts with a shrug.
"Well, rules aren't really rules without the rule breakers." Karna pointed out. "... I mean, we're under that umbrella, right?"
"Fair enough." Byron replied before looking towards the wooden hut upstairs adjacent to the training grounds, spotting the McCarthy twins peeking behind one of the covers provided. "... Wait, aren't those two-"
He then spots Sorcha waving at him, followed up by her pointing towards the door.
"... So one of them is in there." Byron remarked. "... We got the names, but which is Iago, and which is Hans?"
A loud thud was then heard through the doors, followed up by a strained groan.
"You're pushin' yourself too hard, kiddo." A gruff male voice spoke through the doors. "Footwork's good and all, but you swing your arms too widely. Go for quick successive jabs rather than heavy punches. Just because you're smaller than me doesn't mean you have to match me in brute strength."
"Haah... haah... Easy for you to say." A younger male voice replied in a tired manner. "... Can't get stronger when I don't take risks. Thought I tried something out of my comfort zone."
"Not gonna lie, you're in right state of mind..." The gruff voice remarked. "... But instead of practicing 10,000 punches once, how about you practice 1 punch 10,000 times?"
"What? Then how am I supposed to lift that arm afterwards!?" The younger voice pointed out. "... Wait, is this all part of some big training regiment? Is that why your arms are so damn huge like Raphael's?"
"... Yeah, sure." The gruff voice sighed out sardonically. "To be fair, the big kid from the Leister Alliance knows how to play to his strength, like the rest of his peers. Although take it from me, do NOT challenge him to an eating contest. You will regret it."
"I'll take that as a challenge!" The younger voice remarked. "If I beat him, then that means I'll beat you too!"
"Yeah, sure. Go ahead." The gruff voice replied as the doors of the training grounds opened, revealing a giant bald male and a short, sky-blue haired youth walking out, the latter being covered in bruises all over his face and arms. "Til then, get some sleep. Good for the bones, at least for the ones that aren't possibly fractured."
"Alright, see you next time, Hans!" The short male remarked before taking off towards the upper dorms as the latter walked off towards the other direction after the former was out of sight.
"So that's Hans..." Karna remarked. "... He's pretty big. I'm surprised that those clothes even fit him."
"You'd be surprised what the academy can do to accommodate its students." Byron remarked. "Not a single expense, from education to fashion, was spared. Then again, accommodating nobility demands a high-profile upfront payment to begin with..."
Vidar then sticks out his tongue in disgust, agreeing with Vidar's remark.
"Well, geopolitics and price tags aside, I think we have more pressing matters ahead." Karna pointed out as he saw Hans walk towards the monastery's entrance gates while shifting his gleaming head side to side, as if looking out for anyone peeping at him. "... Remain vigilant, as norm."
Both nod in acknowledgement, as the three then begin trailing behind Hans under his nose.
On the way, the two students and the Professor see Sorcha and Selene hiding behind the empty vendor stalls, signaling each others' presences towards each other, with Karna himself noticing a small shadow maneuvering above the monastery rooftops, mentally noting her to be Topaz.
All of the Dustbin students and their Professor each hide behind either an empty vendor stall, a barrel, or behind the tarps, listening in on the two suspect's conversations.
"... So, the plan failed?"
"To be fair, it was really spotty on whether it worked or not. Now we're left without a way forward, until you give us a next step for this little bottleneck."
"Spill it, string bean. We may be under our orders from our old men who really wants an excuse to set both Brigid and Dagda on fire, but we're under curfew, and if we get caught with our pants down, we're done."
"Alright, alright. Look, as far as the Empire is concerned, Brigid is practically under our thumbs now, but there have been rumors that a rebel coalition between Dagda and Brigid are amidst forming, and while normally, the Brigid princess would be axed in any attempts to dissuade any forms of rebellion, but current circumstances complicates the would-be manner."
"Then again, killing an important political hostage would be a rather negative press to the good faith that Brigid gave us..."
"... But then, the McCarthy twins and them injuring one of the noblemen kids from the Empire came to be."
"Perfect for scapegoating, for both accounts, don't your agree? Anywho, they got lucky this time, next time, we'll simply have to separate them from the rest of the group and set up an ambush in the mock battle. I'll contact the board representatives from the Empire to have them pull some strings for us."
"Wait, why you're telling us all this when we're not gonna do anything there?"
"Because as far as I'm concerned, I think that's what the well-read people call 'Bold Villain Stupidity'."
The three then notice the hooded Professor along with the four glaring students besides the entryway of the monastery.
"Good evening, gentlemen." Karna sardonically greeted with a borderline-fake smile on his face. "To what do you owe this night of conspiring to kill my students over some political malarky? If you're going to make a political statement, please, keep it out while the school year in session-"
Hans then tackles the professor aside as the other two run for it into the monastery, making their way through the gap formed by the burly Black Eagle student before he also took off.
"GET THEM!" Byron cried out as he was then picked up by Vidar and began their mad pursuit through the academy's hallways, with Karna running after them upon picking himself back up to his feet.
As they run through the halls, Hans and Iago knock over whatever was in their way. From barrels to even entire wagons, Vidar, even carrying Byron on his back, simply vaulted over the obstacles, with the McCarthy twins also vaulting over them, and Karna simply blasting them away with his [Miasma Δ], alerting all nearby patrol of guards from the sound of explosion of his magic.
"Hey, what's going on there!?"
"We got an intruder! Move move!"
"I see something moving down there! Get em!"
"Oh dear." Karna remarked to himself as he continued to run through the halls following the hot pursuit, now taking their chase through the faculty building, hopping over a knocked-down podium with a shattered vase laid in front of its base. "... Evidently, our culprit seems to be wise enough that when faced with no other options of covert escape, blatant escape is the option."
Ahead of the pursuit, Cyrus was stumbling down the hallway in his crutches, awoken by the shattering of the vase down the halls.
"... What's going on-"
"MOVE!"
*THUD*
... In an unexpected turn of events that literally no one saw coming, as Hans tried to shove aside the Almyran hostage, what happened instead was that the latter instead mounted onto Hans's body, dropping his crutches upon the collision of running himself into the fleeing giant Adrestian student, clinging onto his body like a bear climbing onto a tree's trunk.
"AIEEEEE!"
Even more amusingly, Hans, even with the equally-massive Cyrus clinging onto his head while screaming out in panic, the former Adrestian student didn't even slow down for a second's pace, and kept running forward like a runaway carriage rolling down a steep decline of a hill...
*CRASH*
... Before Hans himself, with Cyrus still clinging onto him for his dear life, jumped through the second-floor window, breaking through the transparent barrier of molten-and-cooled sand, landing onto the stone bridge below, his feet imprinting a pair of feet into the masonry, before continuing to run off towards the main chapel in a blind attempt to flee his pursuers, despite one of them clinging onto his body like a tick.
"GET OFF OF ME, YA DAMN HORSE-MATER!" Hans barked out towards the still-screeching Almyran as he continued running with Iago and the cloaked stranger catching up to him by jumping out of the same window that Hans broke through.
The students of the Dustbin and their Professor did the same, with Vidar showing impressive physical prowess by landing on his feet after leaping off of the ledge carrying Byron in tow, the McCarthy twins displaying acrobatic moves by landing on the treetops before flinging themselves back onto the stone floor onto their feet like cats, and Karna himself rocketed forward off the air by firing [Miasma Δ] from both of his gloved hands, right before slowing his decent down with the same spell acting as a counter-propellent against the gravity pulling him down, lest he shatters both of his legs upon impact.
"DAMN IT! THEY'RE CATCHING UP!" Iago cried out. "THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT, YOU PALE DASTARD!"
"I'M SIMPLY THE MESSENGER! I HAVE NO DIRECT INVOLVEMENT IN THIS MALARKY!" The cloaked man replied. "AND BESIDES, NOT EVERYONE EXCEPTS TO JUMP OUT OF A WINDOW AT A MOMENT'S NOTICE!"
"WILL YOU TWO PLEASE SHUT UP AND KEEP RUNNING, AND ALSO GET THIS SCREAMING OAF OFF OF ME-"
From the corner of his eye, Hans spotted a small girl with a skirt running down her ankles, a slit cut out on its side for her to reveal a band of sheathed daggers, with one of them empty of its blades carrying it, realizing that it was in her hand, above her head, and poised to stab down onto him upon landing.
*SHRUCK*
The dagger was then driven into his lower back, but all that did was simply slow Hans's running down, only by an extremely small margin.
"WHAT!?" Topaz cried out now as she was now clinging onto the dagger driven into Hans's back as the latter kept running towards the chapel. "THAT WAS ENOUGH VENOM TO PARALYZE A WYVERN!"
"I'M NO WYVERN, SHIRMPCAKE!" Hans barked out as he kept running. "PASTY! DO IT!"
The cloaked man then pulls out a massive bundle of red rods tied together, each individual wick and fuse all tied into one combined fuse, and with his free hand, casts [Fire] to light the bundle of red rods before tossing it behind them and towards their pursuers.
"What the bloody 'ell is that!?" Sorcha cried out at the red bundle with the lit fuse in front of them.
"BOMB!" Karna cried out as he propelled himself ahead of the McCarthy twins and Vidar carrying Byron, grabbing the bomb, and throwing it off of the bridge-
*BOOM*
... But the bomb explodes before it can hit the water below, blasting off one of the scaffolding of the bridge, causing the stone bridge below them to start collapsing.
"RUN!" Karna barked out as he took off with his students behind him, with the stone bridge now collapsing behind their heels.
With the bridge collapsing in front of them, the monastery guards cease their pursuit, as the three culprits and their pursuers kept running ahead of them.
"... Son of whore." One of the guardsmen cursed out. "... So, who wants to report this to the Archbishop?"
At the Main Chapel...
"WHERE THE HELL DID YOU GET A BLOODY BOMB!?" Iago remarked to the cloaked man.
"Almyra." The pale man plainly replied. "Blasting power from their cannons, dried lianes acting as containers, and a candle's wick coated with lamp oil. All of it, procured beyond Leister Alliance's borders. Do not underestimate the Empire's covert logistic network."
"YEAH, WELL, UNLESS YOU GOT A ROPE ON YA, WE'RE TRAPPED ON THIS PLATEU!" Hans barked out as he tried to pry off Cyrus off of his face and Topaz off of his knife-bedded back.
"I have a colored flare." The cloaked man remarked as he pulled out another wooden canister from his cloak. "If we make it in time, the Wyvern Knight I had camp out in the distance will come and pick us up-"
"GET BACK HERE!"
Behind the three of them, Karna, Vidar, Byron, Sorcha, and Selene were still running after the three of them, their faces and brows glistening with fresh sweat, their breaths strained from the period of running, and their expressions contorted to various degrees of frustration, sans Byron, who then shot a spire of ice from his open hand, breaking the container, and scattering the powder of colored chalk and black powder all over the chapel's floor.
"DAMMIT, I ONLY HAD THE ONE!" The cloaked man cursed. "CHANGE OF PLANS! WE'RE GOING TO HAVE TO SWIM FOR IT!"
"ARE YOU NUTS!?" Iago cried out. "I CAN'T SWIM-"
Vidar then throws Byron across the chapel's halls, the latter landing on top of Iago and pinning him down.
"Gotcha." Byron declared.
"Unlikely." Iago retorted as he cased [Wind] from his hands, knocking Byron off of his back before the former took back off running.
"THEY'RE GETTING AWAY!" Byron cried out as he scrambled back up. "VIDAR! POUNCE THEM!"
The bandaged youth lets out a feral howl right before he sprang towards the three culprits in one final attempt to subdue them.
*BAM*
... But instead, Vidar overshot his jump's trajectory, and crashed headfirst into the wall ahead of them.
"AHAHAHAHA!" Iago cackled out. "WHAT ARE YOU EVEN TRYING TO DO-why does my feet feel really light all of the sudden?"
He then looks down, and found that the floor of the same hallway that everyone in the pursuit was running on had simply vanished, the only thing beneath them being the pitch-black void below.
"... Well, this is unfortunate." Karna deadpanned as he and everyone else plummeted towards the abyss below.
The darkness surrounding them only echo their screams as they all plummet further and further down to the depths of the chapel's basement below, catching glimpse of dim candlelight and twisting halls that were illuminated from the distance as the tether known as "gravity" stung them all down deeper and deeper, sinking to the black below...
*THUD*
... As the light of day completely faded away. With the only thing that greeted them into this void was the impact akin to a charging bull hitting all of their backs.
Solid ground.
That was the only thing that they all felt before their senses gave out.
Outside of the Main Chapel...
"... You cannot be serious." Seteth grumbled out as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "You're telling me, that one of the intruders who was behind this little cockamamy scheme to assassinate two of this academy's students... was carrying explosives."
The guard nods in response.
"... Oh great, so that means that I'm going through an insomnia-induced hallucinations whenever I see THAT A PART OF OUR BRIDGE HAS COLLAPSED!?"
Nearly most of the faculty and a few students all gathered before the broken bridge. Some were aghast at what they can see so far, while a few more were fascinated on how such a mighty-looking bridge collapsed in the middle of the night.
Even the newest professor, Byleth Eisner, was completely baffled at what she saw, stone-faced as she may looked on the outside. Out of curiosity and slight impatience, she tugged onto her father's sleeve, Jeralt Eisner currently leading crowd control, which she then pointed towards the collapsed bridge.
"... Honestly, no clue on how some schmuck snuck an entire powder keg into this place." Jeralt remarked. "If anything, this night ain't gonna be easy despite there being no active bloodshed going on..."
She then walks back into the crowd, guiding the other students back to their dorms with the help of the other guards.
"Alright, show's over. Everyone, back to your rooms!" One of the guards spoke out as he rallied the students back to their dorms.
Byleth then runs into one her students in the Black Eagles, Edelgard von Hresvelg, the white-haired lass despite her below-average vertical stature, still emitting a commanding presence, despite being in her nightgowns, which she then converses with her of this situation.
"This situation is clearly bizarre..." Edelgard remarked to Byleth. "... Be wary, for even I cannot foresee what comes next."
At the ledge of the collapsed bridge, Seteth was on the verge of losing his cool, already thinking that Karna was a part of this little machination, intentional or otherwise.
"First, he's tardy, then, an entire classroom gets buried underground, and now, a conspiracy on top of a bomb..." Seteth grimaced. "... No, Seteth. No, you need to set a good standard to the other students and Flayn."
"What's going on here!?" Manuela remarked as she came out in her bathrobe with a masked face, a pair of cucumber slices over her eyes, and a towel tied around her hair.
"AHHHHHHHHH!"
"... Rude." Manuela scoffed as Seteth hyperventilated upon seeing Manuela's face. "... Maybe I should go to Hanneman and scare him for a bit... nah, not worth it."
Unknown Location
"Urghhh... ow..." Byron whimpered out as his body's nerves shocked him back to consciousness. "... I'm in pain... therefore... I'm alive... unfortunately."
Byron's eyes find themselves in the dimness of a cavern, his face caked in dirt and gravel, surrounded by his Dustbin peers, the three culprits, and his professor, all lying down on the stoney floors of the dim depths below the chapel.
"... Well, damn it all." Byron cursed as he spat onto the stone floor, which he then noticed that they were tiled, as his spit landed into the crevice rather than a flat surface. "... Wait a minute, this isn't a cave's floor."
He then stands up, his legs wobbling from the previous impact hitting stone floor from goddess-knows how high the fall was. A miracle that none of his legs were broken, but still, they were hell to walk around in.
He sniffs the air around him, noticing a faint freshness running through the space. Then, a rat passes by his foot, indicating that this place can support life, despite its dark presence.
"... There's a way out." Byron remarked. "... 'As long as there is a single rat running about, that means there's still a chance to live through any crisis, no matter how dire it may look'."
Those words were from a Duscurian hunter-gatherer that took him in after his home was burnt down with his family and their Noa name.
"I can do this..." Byron remarked. "... I didn't come this far just to die in some pitch-black hole."
*CLUNK*
*whrrrrr*
*gling*
... A pair of glowing red pinpricks of eyes stared down before him, coming from the sound of gears grinding each other, slowly approaching towards the trembling student, as it approaches him, a heartless visage of an iron maiden was glaring down at him.
"... Well, this complicates things."
*WHRRR*
A javelin of light then forms in its metal hand as this clockwork abomination as it then tried to stake it down towards Byron.
*CRASH*
To Be Continued...
Author's Notes: 4 months of absence, I was writing other fics.
That and well, I was busy playing Isle of Armor for my Pokemon Sword, and inspiration for how to proceed with this fic was kinda stuck in a bottleneck until now-ish.
Now all I have to do is to is make sure that I add this to my monthly quota during my second year in college, so yeah. That, and well, if I can't buy the Cindered Shadows DLC, then might as well watch the Let's Play on it as research for this fic's background. If any of you want to help me with background, hit me up on my PM while I work on the other fics that seem to be getting more traffic than this.
... As I might've mentioned, this is gonna be a once-in-a-blue-moon upload per chapter.
With that, what do you think of the fact that the Dustbin students, the professor, and their would-be assailants are now all trapped inside the friggin' Abyss?
Please leave a comment or a review, for I'd like to know what my audience is thinking!