I do not own Re:Zero or any of the characters.
Retry
Elena fell forward onto the floor in the back, wretching. Frederica dropped to her knees beside her instantly, setting her hand on her back, only for Elena to instantly shrug it off, pointing to the front of the carriage.
"Dragon...roar," Elena choked out.
Frederica dove for the front window instantly, ripping it open. She grabbed the reins from Julius and tugged them, stopping Gyan from roaring. Julius's eyes went wide as he realized what had almost happened, and sighed, taking the reins back.
Ian spurred the horse forward and Subaru joined him at the back where Elena was waiting.
"A light at the tower," Elena whispered. "A spear formed from it."
Ian nodded, whispering to Subaru. "We have to go back."
Subaru nodded and rode up beside Julius and Meili to pass along the message. Once he had, Meili was displeased, but got them turned around and headed back. Once they were a safe distance from the meadow, they stopped and all gathered so that everyone could complain to Subaru.
"The decision to turn back was as much mine as his," Ian finally spoke up, Meili and Frederica's complaints falling silent. "Elena had a déjà vu episode, which usually happens when I use a specific ability of mine. It...for lack of a better term, allows her to correctly guess the future, even with no evidence to support her claims."
"We'd have all died," Elena said. It's something I noticed before with Emilia's ice towers before Sand Time. Has anyone heard of a type of magic attack that makes projectiles out of light? Spears, maybe?"
Everyone looked around at each other before shaking their heads. Elena nodded and Ian frowned.
"It was probably something unique to the tower's defenses, or it was Shaula herself," Ian guessed. "So, her range is enough to target Emilia's ice towers on the edge of the desert?"
Elena nodded.
"How do we beat that?" Subaru asked.
"We could try a different approach," Ian suggested. "Maybe a different Sand Time? Or Ram and I could fly and distract her."
"Too risky," Rem said immediately, taking both of their hands.
Subaru considered for a long moment. "To start with, let's see if there's a break in the meadow. if nothing else, we might be able to at least remove the obstacle of being surrounded by Courtessan Bears."
"Alright," Julius nodded. "But we should all travel together. If we try to split up, Meili won't be able to protect everyone from Mabeasts."
"True," Ian nodded. "We'll need a way to know where we started, though."
"I'll make a tower," Emilia said, raising a hand.
"No, wait!" Ian said, but it was too late.
A tower of ice formed in a swirl of white-blue light, only for the tower to shine. Ian swore, yanking his White Whale Sword from its sheath just as the first shot slammed into the tower, obliterating it. Ian looked to the tower just as the second shot flashed toward Subaru.
"Subaru!" Beatrice warned, lunging for him.
"E-M-M!" Subaru shouted, catching Beatrice's hand.
A moment later, the next shot slammed into Subaru, but then spun away past him with no further effect than making Subaru shout in pain. Another shot slammed into Subaru. Then another. The others all sprinted for the carriage, except Ian who shot to the side of it toward the tower. As he'd expected, a shot flashed down toward it instantly. Ian slashed for all he was worth, only to watch pieces of his sword scatter into the air as the carriage all but exploded. He skipped backward, slashing upward, and on his third try, he managed to hit the projectile in the center of the light, deflecting it into the air and past the carriage. More shots slammed into Subaru. Finally, Emilia formed a massive, solid wall of ice, only for the next shot to go straight through, though it missed Subaru.
"No way!" Emilia gasped.
"Even the ice walls don't stand a chance!" Julius said, astonished.
However, the ice had been melted, not smashed.
"Heat?" Emilia asked. "Did the heat...melt the ice?"
"Something fell to the ground," Julius said. "A needle?"
"Subaru!" Beatrice shouted. "There's a problem!"
"I'm listeni-ah!" Subaru shouted, only to be interrupted by a needle. "But I can't-ugh!"
"If things keep going the way they are, we'll be running out of mana very soon, I suppose!" Beatrice shouted.
"Already!?" Subaru panicked.
"It's almost over!" Beatrice yelled.
"Can you do it?" Subaru asked.
"What a foolish question, I suppose!" Beatrice snapped.
"The third is incomplete!" Subaru said. "Let's go with the second one!"
Beatrice nodded. "I'm going to deactivate E-M-M right after it hits!"
There was no time. Subaru looked at Emilia, who met his eye and nodded. The moment the next needle hit, Beatrice ended her spell. Except the next shot was even faster than the rest. Emilia shouted in surprise and determination, forming six ice walls, but the needle made it through all six. Fortunately, however, it had lost enough speed that Julius was able to slash it out of the air.
"Unfortunately, there are a number of women who will grieve if he is hurt," Julius said, eyes narrowed in concentration.
"Let's go!" Subaru shouted. "The second! Absolute invalidation magic "E-M-T"!"
Subaru raised his hood as he spoke, and behind him, Beatricedrained what mana she needed and multiplied it with her own magical power to cast a newspell. In the time it took Ian to blink, a light expanded around Subaru and Beatrice, forming a spherical field about ten meters wide, encasing all of the others and the Dragon Carriage with them. The effect became obvious instantly.
"This is..." Julius gaped.
The next ahot to be fired crossed the distance to the light in under a second, only for the light to vanish and leave a long, white needle in the air in its place. It was still moving, but compared to before, barely. Ian slashed it out of the air instantly, and nodded approvingly.
"A Needle, huh?" Subaru noted.
Julius shook his head. "Something like that. No, more than that, Subaru, this magic..."
"Wait, wait, wait!" Subaru said urgently. "There areheaps ofthings I want to talk about, but for now we have to withdraw! Get in the dragon carriage right away! Let's get out of here!We can't take toolong!"
Julius nodded. "Understood! Let's hurry!"
He instantly jumped into the Dragon Carriage and turned it toward where they'd entered from the sandstorm.
"Let's go! Don't get too far from me!Stay within the light!" Subaru shouted.
"Wah, Subaru,wow!" Emilia gasped from the Dragon Carriage."Even though the light's firing..."
Shot after shot targeted Subaru, as though it were a matter of pride that he not be able to survive, only for the needles to lose their power the moment they entered the field E-M-T had created.
"At any rate, it's agreatpower!" Julius called. "Is thisyours and Miss Beatrice's trump card of some sort?"
"One of the trump cards!" Subaru called back. "I'm not going to spoil it! For now,our priority should probably be getting away from the Watchtower!No, definitely!"
Julius hummed thoughtfully. "I think it is an application of Yin magic, invalidating the effects of mana within the range? If that's the case, it's the natural enemy ofmages. No, you're a formidable opponent for anyone who uses mana to aid their skills."
Subaru shook his head. "I would say, it only seemsto give a relative advantage, it doesn't make me stronger. I'll still lose in afairfight against a strong guy. This is the ability that I developed thinking ofwhenI'll giveRoswaalablackeye."
"Subaru!" Emilia called. "Are we going back to the dunesin frontthe flower garden this way?"
Subaru nodded. "For just a short time,butyeah! We need to polish and refine our countermeasure any-"
At that instant, as the E-M-T field met the rift in the Sand Time that would let them escape, the world shattered. Everything suddenly distorted and rolled, casting Ian and the twins from their Ground Dragon and into darkness, both girls clinging to him. He held them tightly, activating his wingd agic cloak around all of them for protection, and then waited. Then, finally, his back slammed into the sand, despite his cloak's efforts to slow it, and the wind was knocked from his lungs, robbing him of consciousness.
A dull thudding of pain drew him to consciousness, then grew steadily worse until his mind formed an image of a cartoon circus elephant tap dancing inside his head to the beat of his heart. He groaned, opening his eyes, and found himself staring up at Rem, who was in the process of healing his head.
"Don't try to move," Rem said. "You have a concussion, but i'll be done in a minute."
Ian groaned in acknowledgement and let his eyes slide closed. "Where are we? What happened?"
"Subaru and Miss Beatrice's magic negated the distorted space in the Sand Time," Rem said. "I think that's what I heard Miss Beatrice say. When it did, everyone was scattered. Even Sister isn't here."
Ian opened his eyes and looked around for a moment before nodding. He wasn't worried about Ram. Now that Ram had her horn, she was the strongest combat force they had. She could take care of herself.
"Where'd we end up?" Ian asked.
"Underground, I think," Rem said as she finished healing him. "It's too dark to tell."
Ian nodded and stood. "I don't suppose you have a magic stone lantern."
Rem shook her head.
"Well, looks like we'll need to be creative," Ian said.
He focused, extending his horn before channeling mana to it, making it glow. In the complete darkness around them when Rem's hands weren't glowing with healing magic, the white light from his horn reached a few meters, but all it illuminated was a floor of white sand and darkness beyond it. Rem copied his idea and the illuminated area brightened further, though it didn't expand any, and Ian noticed that they both cast a pitch black shadow behind themselves, for what little that mattered. He looked up and was able to just barely see the light of their horns reaching a stone ceiling six to eight meters above them. It was hard to tell how high since the rock was black. He looked around, then sighed.
"We're going to be lost for a while," Ian sighed, drawing his While Whale Sword.
Rem nodded. "And with visibility this low, my morningstar won't be useful."
Ian nodded and drew his whipsword, passing it to her. "I have a feeling you'll be excellent at using this."
Rem smiled and nodded, holding it in her left hand so that she could hold his free hand with her right. They both looked around one more time before setting off straight ahead, for lack of a better option. As they walked, Ian inspected his White Whale Sword. Unlike when he slashed the first needle head-on, slashing it from the side hadn't damaged the sword at all. It was in as perfect a condition now as when he'd received it. He smiled at its ridiculous resilience.
After about five minutes, they found a wall made of compressed sand, then began to follow it to the right. About half an hour later, they found a passageway, the wall of the chamber continuing past it.
"Jesus, this place is huge," Ian breathed. "We legitimately might never find our way out."
"We will," Rem said firmly. "I have faith in you."
Ian nodded, smiling and giving her hand a squeeze before they started down the path. Ian tried to suppress the anxiety that it was the wrong path, but as time ticked by into what had to be hours, it began to wear at him. Then, finally, they stopped as they reached a four-way intersection. They both looked around, frowning. From the left and right path, they felt...something. Ian felt his Authority drawing him right, and felt a cold chill run up his spine when he looked left, and he could tell by the way Rem's grip on his hand tightened that both paths made her feel an instinctive kind of dread. He swallowed hard and continued straight instead, neither speaking.
Time continued to tick by without them finding any more chambers or branches. Then, finally, they stopped, both sniffing.
"You smell that?" Ian asked.
Rem nodded. "Smoke. Something's burning up ahead."
Both retracted their horns, holding their swords ready, and crept forward. The passageway continued straight until a soft right bend that glowed faintly orange. Ian crept along the wall so slowly his joints complained at him for it, then finally stopped as he stared at the object that was burning. It looked like a demonic centaur. A horse's body up until where a horse's neck should be, then a humanoid torso up until that torso's neck, and then the horn, a single, massive one like a ram's horn, reaching upward from its humanoid neck and curling backward into a spiral. The thing was so tall that its horn was only a few feet shy of the roof of the passageway, had a mouth reaching vertically from its humanoid chest to its stomach that was filled with fangs, and had flames roaring from its humanoid back. It's skin looked blackened and charred, and it radiated danger. Ian narrowed his eyes slightly and began to withdraw, only for the thing to suddenly spin, too fast for what its horse legs should allow, and then shrieked. Instantly, Ian despised the thing for no other reason than that its shriek sounded like dozens of infants all wailing at once.
"You're dying!" Ian snarled, stepping into view and extending his horn for light. "Rem, use your synthestesia to warn Ram what's down here and to have her use her Clairvoyance to watch the fight so she knows what they can do!"
"Right!" Rem nodded, horn also extended.
Both charged instantly as the Centaur shrieked again, ripping handfuls of burning mane from its back, hurling them at the pair as fireballs. Both dodged out of the way, but the heat of the flames made them stagger all the same. The flames were far from normal. Ian had no doubt that if he was hit with them, his body would be incinerated instantly. He shot forward, ducking aside from the Centaur's rear legs as it tried to kick him, the force of the kick throwing up a cloud of dust and sand just from passing over the ground. He slashed, and one of the Centaur's front legs spun into the air. Rem swung the Whip Sword she'd borrowed and wrapped the blade around the Centaur's left arm, which was holding a fireball, then yanked the handle as she retracted the blade, slicing the arm off at the shoulder. The Centaur shrieked, but even as it did, the wounds began to foam a second before the wounds regenerated, strongly reminding Ian of Capella.
"Of course we find the one Mabeast that can heal!" Ian seethed.
He slashed, aiming his Hundred Man Strike for the division between the two mismatched halves just as Rem wound the Whip Sword around the horse body. As Rem shredded the horse body's flesh and allowed its innards to spill out, the upper body spun into the air, only to instantly regenerate its missing half, the horse half turning to bloody foam and seeping into the sand.
"The horn!" Rem shouted.
Ian shot forward. He remembered Rem and Ram teaching him that when a Mabeast lost its horn, it would become docile, but he had a suspicion that wouldn't be the case here. The Centaur shrieked, a new fireball being ripped from its back only to grow elongated, held like a sword. Ian bent backward, slashing up into the sword from below, and the flaming weapon deflected with a solid impact, leaving the White Whale Sword warm to the touch but undamaged. Then, Ian launched himself off the ground, flipping over the Centaur's shoulder and slashing. With a thundering crash, the horn fell, only to be replaced as instantaneously as the horse half had been. Rem sent out the Whip Sword, but as she did, the Centaur's charred body suddenly turned a shiny, metallic black. The blades of the Whip Sword sparked against the body and bounced away just before the Centaur roared, bringing its flaming sword down on the blade. The wires separated with no resistance and Ian swore, skipping backward.
"Don't attack!" Ian shouted as the horn fell.
Rem, who'd been about to strike, leapt backward just as the Centaur's body hardened. Ian landed beside her and instantly tackled her to the ground as the flaming weapon, now longer and thinner, like a spear, flashed overhead. The tailwind yanked him, spinning, into the air, and he used the momentum to land on his feet as he swung his sword in an upward arc, then back down. A pair of Hundred Man Strikes severed both arms at the shoulders just as they finished forming flaming axes, and Ian began to scramble for any possible strategy to kill this thing. The shoulders foamed and regrew, but now with two arms each, doubling the number of fireballs it could hold.
"Then let's try something a little more drastic," Ian growled. "Ul Fura!"
A compressed blast of Wind Magic flashed across the distance, slamming into the Centaur's mouth before erupting into a cyclone of wind blades, lifting the Centaur and spinning it as it ripped into its body, scattering blood. It likewise tore into the ground and ceiling of the cavern, causing sand to flood into the cavern, only to be scattered into a dust cloud until the spell ended. Sand continued to fall on the collapsed Centaur for several seconds before stopping, and Ian and Rem stared at the unmoving Mabeast.
"Is it dead?" Rem asked, taking a step forward, only for Ian to hold his left arm out in front of her, staring at the supposedly dead Centaur's still-burning mane.
He swung his sword upward, sending a weak Hundred Man Strike out, the magic blade barely cutting an inch into the Centaur before dispersing. However, it was enough. The Centaur shrieked as it launched itself to its feet, the flames exploding into an even more unbearable inferno than before, and ripped flaming hairs from its main to form fireballs.
"Fine," Ian growled. "I'll just erase your whole body and see where that gets us!"
The Centaur roared in acceptance of the challenge, hurling all four fireballs at Ian.
"Al Fura!" Ian roared.
An explosion of Wind Magic erupted from his hand, sweeping past the fireballs and blowing them out like matches before greeting the Centaur and the wall of the cave behind it with an explosion. Except, that wasn't quite accurate. The Centaur was blown backward into the air, but then, as it was assaulted by the countless blades of wind formed by the spell, it seemed to come apart as though dissolving from the front back, strips of its body peeling away and simply vanishing. The sane was true for the sand wall that was struck, which seemed to simply be erased, except for a thin cloud of dust. As the spell ended, leaving the wall where the blast ended far beyond the reach of their horns' light, nothing at all remained of the Centaur. Ian sighed, letting his horn fade and falling to his knees as he panted, pulling mana from Aria. She may be contracted to Elena, but there was a clause in the contract that if she was with him and he needed his mana back, he was allowed to take it. And since Wolf was still refusing to allow Ian to pull mana from him or cast spells through him, it left Aria as the only choice, also resulting in Aria possessing far more mana as emergency stores.
"Are you alright?" Rem asked.
"I'm fine," Ian nodded. "I just hate this place."
Rem nodded in agreement. "Sister watched the fight. She also showed me that she's with Subaru, Miss Anastasia, and Patrasche."
Ian nodded. "Good. Now let's-"
A Sandworm burst from the ground off to their left and Ian shoved himself up, re-extending his horn, only for two forms to streak past the worm on the sides, swiping an arm at it and splitting its sides open. The Sandworm shrieked and vanished back underground instantly, and the two figures stepped the rest of the way into the light, both looking relieved. Elena to Ian's right, wearing an outfit nearly identical to Ian's along with Frederica's cestus, if Ian wasn't mistaken, and Frederica to Ian's left. She had her maid dress on, but it was now filthy from sand and Mabeast blood, and her arms now sported thick, golden fur from her elbows down and long, wicked-looking claws. However, as soon as Ian glanced at her arms, they transformed back to normal.
"I'm so glad we found you!" Elena cheered, throwing her arms around him. "We heard explosions and were trying to follow the sound before the wall just exploded! Nice going! What were you fighting though?"
"Satan's pet Centaur," Ian grumbled. "They can regenerate almost like Lust, so I had to completely obliterate it."
Elena nodded. "Sounds bad. We've been being chased by that Sandworm. Fortunately, it runs away any time it feels pain, so we've been able to survive thanks to Frederica's hearing and her giving me these."
Ian nodded. "I didn't know you could transform."
"I'm not proud," Frederica said. "However, the fur is harder than it appears, a bit stronger than leather armor, so it functions as a passable replacement for my cestus when I don't have them, or have sufficient reason to give them to someone."
Ian nodded. "If the Sandworm comes back, we'll deal with it. In the mean time, we need to find-"
"Stop!" Meili's voice shouted, just as the wall behind Ian and Rem exploded.
He spun, only to see the Sandworm hanging out of it motionlessly.
"Go away!" Meili ordered.
The worm sunk back into the wall and vanished and everyone turned toward Meili, finding her with both Emilia and Julius, all three of which were unharmed.
"I'm glad you're alright, Emilia," Ian smiled.
"Miss Emilia," Rem said as she and Frederica both bowed. "It's good to see you safe."
"I'm reeeaaally glad we found you!" Emilia smiled. "Ian, did you blow up the wall?"
"Side effect of ending a fight," Ian said. "I'll explain while we walk."
The others all nodded and they headed into the passageway Ian and Rem had originally been following, Ian relaying the details of his and Rem's fight while they walked.
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