Chapter 16: Pyramid
04:36 AM (Japan Time), Sunday June the 15th…
"… This is the pyramid that was in the report?"
"Correct…"
"Is it smart to raid it with so many members?"
"It's possibly riddled with weapons…"
"I see. We'd need several tactics to handle them…"
Blues, Search Man, Davis and Lander stood before a pyramid.
It was protected by an energy field.
However, a hole formed before the main entrance.
A red carpet extended out of it.
"Welcome, might warriors of the light…"
A woman's voice echoed, speaking in an "ancient" dialect.
"To the hall of the Oracle…"
Nobody bothered to argue with the voice.
"We'd need someone to secure the way out…"
Search Man warned the group.
"Good point. The Monolith system may be hampered…"
"Can't you locate the generator of the barrier?" Lander suggested.
"No. It must be inside. Can't scan it from the outside…"
"But, say. Why not send proxies instead?" Davis suggested.
"Why not… There's no need to risk and go inside…"
"Let's send Killer Eyes for now…"
"And mix in invisible ones, too…"
"I approve. Let's go with that. Any objections?" Raika asked.
"No. What about you two?" Enzan asked.
"I have none…" Charles replied.
"Same as him…" Martin replied.
"Mutual agreement, then. Let's do this…"
"Maybe we can add in cache copies of ourselves…" Davis suggested.
"And hide ourselves…" Lander deduced.
"That can work to make the enemy overconfident, too…"
"Let's do it, then…"
The quartet formed the legions of Viruses and copies of themselves.
Once they had gone inside, the barrier reformed.
A stone slab slowly descended to block the main entrance.
However, a Drill Arm appeared beneath it and drilled through it.
It was broken into pieces.
Steel spikes formed on the sides and bottom of the frame.
"That'll ensure that data can flow outside…"
"We need to locate the barrier generator and break it…"
"And maybe we can open holes from the inside…"
"That would be useful to send in reinforcements…"
The original four hid behind a sand dune.
They looked at the displays of the data sent in by the scouts.
"It's actually very narrow inside…"
"Fitting for a trap…"
The main hall was only wide enough to accommodate two people.
A spiraling staircase headed to the upper levels.
An ominous piece of music echoed inside of the hall.
"I've heard this one before…" Charles muttered.
"Same. Wasn't it in Detective Conan?" Martin recalled.
"Running searches… Found it…" Davis reported.
"What's the deal?" Lander asked.
"Theme of the Old Castle… From the 3rd movie…"
"It sure sets up the mood…"
"Sure…"
The scouts reached the end of the spiraling staircase.
"It climbs all the way to a chamber in the apex of the pyramid…"
"Which means that the rest of the body is solid…"
"And that there are no other rooms…"
"Welcome to the Hall of the Oracle, mighty warriors of the light…"
The room merely had a throne and a relief drawn in the far wall.
The relief was a stone circle with 13 incisions across its body.
The night sky was drawn inside of the circle.
A woman was sitting in the throne.
"I am Cleopatra… Queen of Egypt…"
"Classical!"
"I guess the model is Elizabeth Taylor from the 1963 movie…"
"Well. It IS a legendary movie, after all…"
"And? What's the trap?"
They weren't too surprised to find a recreation of Cleopatra there.
"Witness… The message of the Oracle…"
The relief glowed and vanished to give way to an empty space.
The image of a comet flying across the night sky became visible.
It then switched to FPV (First Person View) of something.
"T-that's…!"
"My name is Duo…"
The alien Net Navi known as Duo stood there.
Several images flashed by in a quick succession.
Close-ups of the hands of several people were seen.
A drawing glowed inside of their palms.
"… "Duo's Crest"…" The giant announced.
A tall cylindrical capsule stood inside of a system.
Most of its body was made of glass.
It had two golden bases attached to the top and bottom of it.
Regal stood at the base of it.
He was looking at its tall and imposing shape.
He had grown a dense beard.
He wore a different outfit than usual.
He faded and appeared before the capsule, hovering.
He held out his palms and 12 "Crests" emerged, surrounding the capsule.
He pressed the glass and passed through with a ripple as if it were water.
A device over the capsule spun and three beams of light shot skywards.
"Regal!?" They gasped.
A magnified projection of Regal's neck and head formed in mid-air.
He laughed but his face began to contract into anger.
His neck became the body of a snake, and his eyes became red masses.
"What's that monster!?"
Regal's head extended and shot a stream of flames.
A shot flew for it.
The face "dissolved" but reformed immediately.
He chased "CF" Meiru, coiling around her waist and trapping her.
"Sakurai!?" Enzan gasped, surprised.
He laughed again.
His image became blurry, and he roared in pain.
He was pulled back inside of a tower.
It dived into a shaft.
The image faded and was replaced by something else.
Regal was lying face down on the ground.
The area felt it was outer space.
The viewer ran towards him.
His hair had withered.
The viewer crouched beside him and turned him over.
His face had become an empty skull.
"That's the fate of that miser fool…" Cleopatra announced.
"W-what's this!?" Everyone gasped.
She laughed.
"What the wanderer brought back from beyond the gate…"
The relief formed again.
"Shall we do it again?"
"Do… What!?"
The incisions glowed.
The right hand of each Navi glowed.
They all looked at them to see "Duo's Crest" glowing there.
"13 warriors of light have been chosen…"
"What!?"
"But only 1 of you shall survive and make it to the new world…"
"What nonsense are you talking about!?"
"When the gate opens, the judge shall come…"
Duo appeared again and was replaced by an image of the Earth.
A shockwave started on one side of the planet.
It turned the globe into a gigantic sphere of circuit diagrams.
The globe dissolved into red dust as a second shockwave spread across it.
Duo's Comet emerged from the dust and flew outwards.
Everyone was frozen in place.
"Duo's Judgment has been bestowed…"
Duo's voice echoed.
"Humans thread into a flawed Network civilization, 30 years ago…"
His body turned to the left.
"And your subsequent future that continued from there…"
He displayed an image of the Moon orbiting around debris.
"They have been annihilated from the Universe…"
Nobody dared to speak.
"… I see. You sent it spirits instead of real warriors…"
Cleopatra laughed, having seen through their setup.
"Matters little!"
She snapped her right hand's fingers.
"Warning! Enemy signature!"
"What!? Where!?"
Something cut through the space and hit the real ones.
The next second, their right hands glowed with the "Duo's Crest".
The assaulter was a carbon copy of the alien Net Navi, Slur.
The eyes glowed red and two black wings formed behind them.
"They are the real deal! Perfect copies!"
She laughed.
"You wanted to find that fool? He will come for you!"
"By all the…"
"But these cannot be copied… They are tied to your lives!"
"What the hell!?"
"That man can only achieve them by erasing each of you!"
"Hell! That means that he will use that walking nuke for that!"
"But wouldn't that erase the "Crest" data, too?" Raika argued.
"No! Because they protected by a mystic boundary…"
She laughed.
"They can survive anything…"
"Shit. Foresaw that, too!"
"If you try to forcibly remove it, the warrior will be erased…"
She smirked.
"Naturally, you can recreate it. However…"
She giggled.
"That pain and despair and betrayal will chase them forever!"
"What a…!"
"I am but a messenger. Erasing me shall not change anything!"
"Fuck!"
"And when that fool gathers them and opens the door…"
She replayed the earlier footage.
"The judge shall come, erasing it all… That fool included…"
She laughed again.
"But since I shall have traveled to a new world by then…"
She sat on the throne and crossed her legs.
"It matters not. I shall rule unopposed there!"
"This is ridiculous!"
"I am afraid that is true, sir… I am analyzing the data, and…"
Search Man was analyzing his own "Crest".
"The clauses on the program are listed in plain sight…"
"And it can't be rewritten, I take it!"
"Unfortunately, sir… Any attempts will cause our deletion, sir…"
"But how is that going to transmit to…?"
"It has stolen my user permissions and entered the PET system…"
"Shit. Which means that it's accessed the backup data server!"
"These are the 13 chosen ones!"
The screen depicted the faces of 13 Navis.
"Blues, I, Davis, Lander, Sigma, Blood Shadow, Omega…"
Search Man began to announce the names.
"Rock Man, Freeze Man, Laser Man, Annihilator Man…"
"Means for those two to destroy each other, too!?"
"Isaac, Felicia…"
"Felicia? Who's that?" Enzan wondered.
"A civilian Navi. Classmate of Isaac… And whom Witch fought…"
"Heck! They dragged a civilian into it, too!"
"There is no set date… Take all the time that you wish…"
Cleopatra formed a goblet with wine on it.
She sipped some of it and smiled.
"Until the Trumpeter comes to announce the end of the world…"
"… Anaya!" Enzan growled.
She laughed.
"Took you long enough, Holmes!"
"True! Only she would come up with such a farce!"
"Let the battle royale of death and betrayal begin!"
"How dramatic!"
"To begin with! What the hell is that footage!?"
"What. Vadous didn't show it to you?"
"I can see the why!" Charles grumbled.
"Well. Matters little. His and Twilight's monopolies have crumbled…"
She shrugged and drank some more wine.
"I guess that those two will be boiling their brains into steam…"
She stood up as the throne glowed.
A red beast of seven heads formed there.
Each head had a crown over them.
She sat on its back as her skin became pallid.
Her face became a skull.
"I am Mother Harlot. I will plague the world during its last days!"
The beast roared.
"Call me what you want. I'm 100 steps ahead of all of you!"
The beast flung for the copies of the Navis and attacked them.
The footage was cut.
But roars of the beast and munching sounds echoed.
"Fuck! What a mess!" Enzan growled.
"Let's pull out before something worse happens!" Raika hissed.
The copy of Slur flew for the south and attacked something.
Freeze Man became visible, with two swords stabbed on his chest.
The copy flew to the left and hit an invisible Laser Man next.
It drew an arch and dived to hit an invisible Annihilator Man, too.
"Those three were looking, too!" Charles grumbled.
"Lovely!" Martin fumed.
"Hand over the Crest!"
A scuffle began between the three Navis.
"Plug Out!"
04:49 AM (Japan Time)…
"… No! That can't be!"
"W-what? What happened, Saito!?"
"… Netto…? What was I…?"
"What's the matter?"
Saito suddenly woke up and sat up on his bed.
He was sweating and his face was contracted in sweat.
Netto also woke up, surprised.
Saito jumped off the bed and turned on the PC screen.
"Blood! Sigma! Answer me!"
Two groans rang out.
"What the heck was that…?"
"What happened…?"
Both were confused about what happened, too.
"Check your right hands!"
"Right hand…?"
"What's the deal…?"
Both did as he instructed, but nothing happened.
"Run a system check for odd data!"
"… Devil! An odd video file was playing!" Blood Shadow gasped.
"Heck! How did that make it past our defenses…?"
"W-what in the world is going on?" Netto asked.
Saito didn't answer and interacted with the PET.
"Isaac. Answer!"
"… The hell was that…?"
Isaac groaned as he answered the call.
"Check your right hand!"
"True…! The right hand…!"
Isaac did as he was instructed, but nothing happened.
"What? A video file? Then…?"
"Blues. Search Man!"
"… Hell! What was that!?"
"Hacking…?" Search Man groaned.
"Lander, Davis!"
"By all the coyotes in Texas! The bloody hell was that!?"
"I felt about to explode from panic!"
"What about the right hands…?"
"… Nothing!"
"But, then…!"
"… We've been had…!"
Saito hissed and closed his left fist, furious.
"That whole drama over the "Crests" was a lie!"
"Fuck!"
"A ploy by Anaya to make us despair and fight each other…!"
"What!?" Netto gasped.
"But how did that video thing make it into our systems…?"
"Wait. We all recently underwent maintenance at the MOS…!"
"Hell! She snuck an agent there!?"
"And slipped this as a data package that slowly self-assembled…!"
"To then play in the middle of the night and mess with our perceptions…!"
"Was it that bad!?" Netto gasped.
"I felt like I'd go mad from the fear gnawing into my heart…!"
Saito sighed and sat on the chair.
"I had the feeling deep on my heart, but…"
"This confirms that Anaya has grown very dangerous…"
"Rama is nothing at this point! A farce by Regal to distract us…!"
"The issue is that Regal would go to any ends to gain those things…"
"And Clark must be busy, luring him away from us…"
"Because he wants it to be between the two of them…!"
"Let's reset our recent cache memory and sleep again…" Saito sighed.
"Agreed. Being haunted by that is what she wants…" Blood Shadow sighed.
"Trying to chase that spy will be pointless, anyway…" Davis sighed.
"Must've pulled out by now…" Blues grumbled.
"Surely…" Search Man fumed.
"Or maybe it was someone that was hypnotized into doing it…"
"That sounds like something that she'd do, too…"
"Given how the Rama members were "recruited" that way, too…"
"… This is Omega. I analyzed and figured out what happened, too…"
"We apologize, sir. We were careless, sir!"
"It's not your fault. Nobody could predict such a move…!"
"What are our orders, sir?"
"Resume your usual duties…"
"Roger, sir!"
"As for the others… Stay away from that bloody thing…"
"Agreed. Don't want to come a step close to it!" Davis growled.
"Pyramids are our mutual trauma…!" Blues growled.
"That piece of junk, Pharaoh Man…!" Saito grumbled.
"Heck. You're right. It hijacked the MOS!" Netto recalled.
"Maybe I can lure the walking nuke into taking it out…"
"That'd be great. Will save us the hassle…"
"Or maybe he'll do it anyway…"
"Sure. Must be pissed off at being shown this…"
"And Regal, too…"
"Guess that Clark as well…"
"So maybe they'll compete over who breaks that first…"
"Regal once recreated the Death Star, so…"
"Maybe he'll nuke it with that…"
"Wouldn't surprise me!" Sigma sighed.
"The issue is… What do we tell Felicia?" Isaac argued.
"Let's say that it's Witch, who's making up a movie…"
"And sent it to her to provoke her into a rematch…"
"That could work. She's calm and doesn't ask questions…"
"And suggest that ignoring the taunt is the wisest course of action…"
"Sure. Like the bullies…"
"Sigma. Blood. Not a word of this to anyone else!" Omega ordered.
"Yes, sir! We'll delete the cache memory of this, sir!"
"Do it…"
Everyone underwent the process.
They all sighed, relieved.
"Good. I'll advice Felicia to do the same, too…"
"Handle it…"
Isaac ended the group call.
"We'll return to our usual duties. Fortunately…"
"Our Operators are sound asleep…" Search Man finished.
"I'll use my chip implant to forget it, too…" Netto sighed.
"Don't ask questions, either, Lander. It's a personal issue…"
Davis foresaw that Lander might ask questions about it.
"Fine. I don't want to fall for their ploys, either. Bye!"
He ended the group call as well.
"Let's rest. At least it's a Sunday…" Davis rallied.
"Sure. Let's go play games at Yaito's…"
"Time for the mad Mario Kart day!" Sigma laughed.
"Don't overdo it…" Blood Shadow warned.
"Do that. We'll handle the rest…" Omega told them.
"Roger, sir!"
The group call finished, and the twins headed back to their beds.
"I'll patrol. You rest, Sigma…"
"Aye, aye! See you later, bud!"
"Today will be a more entertaining day. Let's look forward to it!"
"Sure!"