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No. 62287
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Elements, huh...
I felt torn. Fire sounded like a nice and reliable choice for putting more hurt on my enemies, especially flammable types like the undead, but water felt like an interesting choice as well. Would it make the whip flow like water, eroding enemy defenses? Or perhaps give it ice powers? But then, everything burns, so fire would likely be more effective in general... assuming we didn't dig down and find ourselves a fiery demon lurking in the depths of the mansion, that is. For a brief moment, I almost considered asking Patchouli to recommend an element to me, but I figured it would not be wise to try the wizard's patience. Eventually, I thought back to my battle against Remilia and the trick I had pulled with the holy water.
I struck forward with the whip, aiming for the red crystal - the one associated with fire. Just as before, the philosopher's stone shattered, the pieces hovering mid-air and melting into glowing spheres of light. The next moment, the spheres were drawn into the chain whip in my hand, being absorbed into the metal. I could feel the grip of the whip warm up, slowly and steadily, becoming nearly too hot to hold on to as the metal chain turned red-hot before my very eyes, the spiked tip glowing a bright white, near-molten. I swung the whip through the air a couple of times to get a feel for it, being careful not to hit myself or my companions, and it left brilliant streaks of flame behind. Satisfied, I coiled up the chain again, the heat leaving it in an instant as if I had flicked an off switch.
Patchouli nodded softly, unsummoning the remaining stones.
“As I expected.”
I couldn't tell if her voice was pleased, disappointed, or apathetic as usual. In any case, she continued, gesturing with her index finger in a meaningful manner.
“Fire is yang or masculine in character, its motion is upward and its energy is expansive. It is associated with the planet Mars, summer, south, daylight, heat and the color red. Red is associated with extreme luck,” she added after a brief pause.
“It is also believed to govern the heart, tongue, and pulse. Its negative emotion is hate, while its positive emotion is joy. The Primal Spirit of fire is represented by the Red Pheasant or Phoenix.”
“Well, thanks for that, I-...”
“In Chinese thought Fire is associated with the qualities of dynamism, strength and persistence; however, it is also connected to restlessness. The fire element provides warmth, enthusiasm and creativity, however an excess of it can bring aggression, impatience and impulsive behavior. In the same way, fire provides heat and warmth, however an excess can also burn. In the conquest cycle, fire overcomes metal, and in turn is overcome by water. In the birth and nurturing cycle, fire burns to earth, and is sparked by wood igniting.”
“Yes, yes, I get it already,” I tried to shut her up before she kept droning on forever. I wasn't really as into the whole oriental magic symbolism hoodoo as she was, after all. All I cared about was the whip hitting hard and true, destroying my foes.
“Hmph. Fine.” Patchouli scoffed at me, not appreciating my lack of enthusiasm for the Wu Xing. It's not that I was trying to be ungrateful, mind you, I simply didn't have time to have my horoscope read. Giving her one last respectful nod of thanks which she did not return, I turned back to my three companions, eager to set forth on what would hopefully be the last adventure of the night. However, what I saw was Youki leaning against a wall alone, looking off to the side in waiting, a faint smirk hiding under his mustache. Alice and Remilia were conspicuously missing, but the noise of something heavy being dropped from a side room clued me in on their location. I peeked in, the stink of gunpowder punching me in the face.
“Hey, watch it! If that goes off, my dolls might level half the mansion!” Alice was picking a heavy-looking bag of what was obviously gunpowder off the floor, glaring at Remilia's behind which was peeking out from among piles of weaponry in the opposite corner of the room. Filled with old-timey firearms galore ranging from matchlock to caplock, the room appeared to be yet another random armory scattered across the mansion. I couldn't help but wonder why the vampire needed all this stuff.
“More of your trophy collection?” I asked in the vampire's general direction, glancing through the room. I noticed Alice's dolls were arming themselves with what looked like flintlock pistols of some sort, proportioned like fat muskets for their small size. They didn't seem to have too much trouble hefting the things though, and one of them was lugging around a bag of what I assumed were bullets.
“Hmm? Oh, yes, I figured it might prove to be useful.” Remilia popped out from behind the mountain of guns and ammo, weighing two pistols in her hands, her index fingers resting on the outside edge of the trigger guards. Chuckling to herself, she immediately discarded them, skipping over to me while trying not to knock down any other volatile objects.
“Would you like one? Although I must say, your knives would probably have more effect on the creatures we'll be facing than a simple bullet would.”
“Well, put enough metal into anything and it'll at least stop moving for a while,” Alice muttered while practicing firing formations with her small army of dolls. The newer ones, lacking fingers, had some minor trouble holding the things.
“Yeah, true. I prefer my knives though, so no thank you.” Remilia shrugged in response to my rejection of her offer, leaving the room with Alice and I behind her.
“Very well then. Are we all ready to head down?”
I nodded, gripping my enchanted whip in one hand, the Kusanagi in the other.
Alice nodded, adjusting a fairly long musket which she had strapped onto her back; it looked like some variety of the Minié rifle at first glance.
Youki nodded, satisfied with just his swords and the clothes on his... well, his legs.
Remilia nodded to herself, as if to confirm the group as a whole was ready, hands on her hips and looking determined.
...And then she awkwardly turned to Youki, looking up at the tall older gentleman with a timid, polite smile.
“By the way I don't believe we've met. My name is Remilia Scarlet, I am the lord of this mansion. And you are...?”
“Youki. Konpaku Youki,” the swordsman responded with a chuckle, twirling the end of his beard between his fingers. After pushing himself upright off the wall, he dropped down into a polite, deep bow.
“It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. I see the hunter over there did not manage to slay you tonight?”
“We didn't get that far, no.”
Remilia sighed deeply, glaring towards the remains of what was once an ornate door with a complex, mechanical lock.
“And I even had a lovely key designed for this door, hunter, for you to find after defeating me. Why does nothing ever go as planned?”
I didn't quite know how to respond to that.
“Oh well,” she resigned herself, shrugging and hopping over to the destroyed door. She peeked back at us over her shoulder - quickly moving her wing out of her way when she realized it was blocking her vision - and shooting the rest of us a fanged grin.
“Shall we be off?”
As the rest of us made our way through the broken door separating the basement from the rest of the mansion, Remilia turned to her gatekeeper one last time.
“Meiling. Don't let anyone or anything get through here. The moment you see ANYTHING approaching that isn't the hunter, the swordsman or the puppeteer, I want you to collapse this passage. Got it?”
Meiling looked a little confused, blinking a couple of times before nervously responding.
“Y-you forgot to include yourself there, milady...”
Remilia merely laughed softly, turning her back on Meiling and heading towards the depths at a relaxed walking pace, passing me and the rest of my companions.
“Adieu, Meiling.”
...Well. Dispelling the awkward silence, I clicked my tongue to grab the attention of Alice and Youki, gesturing after Remilia with my head. We made haste after her, leaving Meiling standing there, stunned by the words of her mistress. As we delved into the first of many winding tunnels of the Scarlet Devil mansion basement, I could've sworn I heard a faint whisper in a bit of a clumsy accent trailing behind us.
“Au revoir.”
...
...
...
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BGM: “Underground Reservoir”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=povrBEvJ_1w
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“So,” I interrupted the sounds of our footsteps echoing down a narrow, winding staircase, “tell me about this thing we're meant to be hunting. This... “Flandre,” you said?”
“In due time, darling.” Remilia's voice echoed into my ears from a bit further below.
“Suffice it to say that our target will be more dangerous than anything you've faced in this mansion so far... or perhaps, ever. That goes for all of you,” she said to Alice and Youki as well.
“Um, excuse me, I'm not really the type to go monster-hunting in my free time to begin with, so please don't lump me in with these two crackpots.” Alice being as charming as always.
And there's that annoying chuckle that I had missed so much.
“Nonsense, I can sense you have great potential within you. Your magic is more than impressive, as is your control over that doll army of yours. I, for one, feel safer simply having you here with us,” Youki responded, piling on the flattery. I felt a strange urge to look behind myself to make sure Alice wasn't actually blushing after that.
“How foolish... I don't have a warrior spirit like you do, Youki.”
“Even a timid housecat can become a ferocious tiger when cornered,” came the cheesy-sounding quip of wisdom in reply. I let out an exaggerated, loud sigh, letting it echo up and down the staircase. We kept walking for what felt like forever, the surfaces around us ominously featureless, save for one thing. Along the staircase were traces of... meat. Pounds of flesh torn from the bones and left behind. Thinking back on the giant zombie-like creature that smashed the basement door, I shuddered lightly, remembering its ultimate fate.
Oh, speaking of ultimate fates.
“So, Youki,” I turned to the swordsman descending the stairs behind Alice and me, watching our rear - hopefully not literally, though I wouldn't put it past him.
“How exactly did you say you survived the clock tower, again?”
“Ah, yes. The Magatama necklace, it... seems to allow one to substitute oneself for a spiritual copy when facing death. A set of extra lives, you could say.”
Wait, seriously? The extra lives didn't go to the main character? I felt cheated. Should've let the swordsman have the sword after all.
“A simple, yet powerful enchantment, I must say, although I have used up many of the charges already...”
“What, did you cheat more than once while falling down the tower?”
“No, I managed to get away with using up just the one. In truth, I was never petrified by that serpentine monster of a woman - I had already fallen to a lower ledge after my spiritual echo swapped places with me. I then had no choice but to climb back down, since you started demolishing the machinery.”
“Er, well...” Gosh, when he put it like that it almost sounded like he was scolding me.
“As for the rest,” he continued, “I lost them while defending the basement door, keeping our target from escaping into the mansion proper.”
“What? You saw Flandre?” Remilia spoke up this time, stopping in my path and making me walk into her, nearly falling over and tumbling down the stairs in surprise. She glared upwards at Youki, her red eyes dimly glowing in the darkness, the torches on the walls placed sparsely as they were.
“Indeed. I would have died several times over if it weren't for this necklace, but I managed to keep her from getting past me.” Youki sounded more serious than usual. I wanted to ask who or what Flandre actually was, but Remilia didn't seem to be in the mood for me to try probing again. I wasn't happy about operating under a need-to-know basis with information, but I guess I was used to it after working for the Church.
“...I see. I must thank you for your efforts, then.” And with that, Remilia turned around, hurrying down the last stretch of the stairs, the rest of us following closely behind.
We came down into what looked like some manner of central room for the basement, stretching off into multiple directions via several tunnels. It was dark and dank, moisture dripping from the ceiling and echoing through the darkness. It looked like almost no one had been down here in ages, only a few torches remaining lit. Bones of all manner of creatures, including humans, were scattered across the ground, and faded footprints could be seen in the mossy filth coating the floor. I handed Remilia the castle map, which she held close to her face, tilting and turning it around with a frown.
“...No good, the mansion isn't heeding my call at this depth. I cannot manipulate it to take us anywhere specific. It's almost as if it's listening to someone else...”
I could tell from the sound of her voice that it was no mystery who the lord of the lowermost sections of the mansion was. Even so, she seemed frustrated to have been beaten this early, reduced to exploring like a common adventurer. The ink on the map in her hands was swirling and swimming about wildly, never forming clear straight lines, never staying in place. It was a bizarre sight to behold, as our surroundings seemed perfectly unchanging.
“Don't hurt your brain trying to think about it. The mansion cannot change form when directly observed, you see,” Remilia explained helpfully.
“Anything beyond the tunnels we see before us could be shifting countless times per second, of course.”
“Great, time to get lost I suppose,” Alice muttered quietly behind us, glancing around frantically and trying not to step in anything. She seemed thankful for the boots she was wearing, compared to Remilia's formerly-lovely shoes. A loud crack echoed through the basement all of a sudden, and we all turned to face Alice - she had stepped on a fragile old bone, snapping it clean in half, and she was staring right back at us looking as if her heart had stopped.
“...I am sorry,” she whispered.
...
A fifth voice, whispering something.
We hadn't noticed it before, but the more we focused our ears after the cracked bone shocked us into silence, the more it became apparent that we were being watched. Watched by someone rather talkative, even.
“...two boys, two girls. Two boys and two girls. Or is it three girls and one boy? I can't tell from here, I can't tell...”
Holding our breaths, the four of us looked around, trying to discern the source of the voice. It sounded feminine and childish as it became clearer, but its direction remained obscured, as if it were coming from all around us, echoing back and forth through the basement tunnels.
“...so slender, with smooth pale skin. But wearing trousers? I can't tell from here, I can't tell...”
The whispering was strange, incoherent and oddly paced, alternating between slowly mouthing one word at a time and spitting out words rapidly like a machine gun.
“...two and two would be good, yes, two boys two girls, could pair them off, yes, a nice set, a nice round number, four is divisible by two, four is two squared...”
Remilia in particular seemed tense. Aside from the whispering, the second most noticeable sound in the air was Remilia grinding her teeth. She wasn't breathing nor blinking, merely staring nowhere in particular, her glowing red eyes unfocused and trembling.
“...but no, we're in Japan, four is a bad number... Why? It sounds like the word for death, yes, how peculiar, how amusing, superstitions... But I like four, four is a good number to me...”
Alice and Youki were frozen in place as well, Youki's eyes slowly scanning our surroundings, his honed senses trying to pinpoint the location of our mystery stalker, Alice holding her hands in front of her nose and mouth to avoid causing any more noise. Her yellow eyes darted left and right in what could only be described as a mild panic, the fear of an unknown and unseen foe.
And yet, I felt restless. We had not even seen this enemy yet, and I did not know how to fear that which I could not see or touch. The Church had tried to put the fear of God in me, but with no success. No, I didn't believe in gods. Even if I met one in person, I wouldn't believe in them. Anything can be killed in this world, and anything that can be killed is no god. Neither was this Flandre creature, all we had to do was find her and destroy her.
“...Oh well, they're being boring now, might as well go for now, leave them someone to play with, maybe they'll feel more fun after that...”
All of a sudden, the bones scattered around us began to shake, move, rattle. The entire room became noise from this cacophony of bones shifting about, sliding to each other, clicking together. Bones that were meant to go together, bones that weren't, bones from completely different creatures altogether all together... Before we knew it, we were surrounded by a small army of skeletons.
...Wait, seriously?
“...Wait, seriously?” Remilia too seemed completely unimpressed by this turn of events.
“Skeletons? You're going to have to try harder, dear sis-... Ahem. Hunter?”
“Yes, o batty companion of mine?” I grabbed the whip from my belt, eyeing the bony assailants slowly closing in on us. Most had chosen vaguely humanoid forms, although a few had opted for more monstrous shapes, using sharpened ribs as claws, using animal jaws as hands, combining several bodies together into centaur-like abominations, having multiple arms...
“Please refrain from calling me that. I assume you and your partners are competent enough to handle a small group of minor undead, yes?” She stood behind me, back to back with me, a crimson glow forming in her claws.
I chuckled, almost feeling insulted.
“You went toe to toe with me, what do you think?”
Her wings flapped once, softly; I could feel her grin behind me.
“I think I can get more by myself than you three can get together.”
“Heh, you're on.”
“Oh please, would you two just get a room already!?” All of a sudden, a white beam crashed through the nearest half-dozen skeletons, blowing them to smithereens, outright vaporizing the brittle bones that had given them form. Remilia and I looked at each other, then at Alice, who was staring at us as if we were lunatics, clutching her shredded grimoire in one hand while charging another spell with the other.
“...She got a head start! Go on then!” All of a sudden, Remilia rocketed into the skeletons in front of her, bits and splinters of bone flying from the mass as she began to quite literally rip the undead to pieces. Not one to be outdone by a loudmouth vampire, I decided this would be the perfect time to give my newly upgraded whip a test drive.
With a satisfying crunch, the spiked ball at the tip of the chain pulverized the skull of an unfortunate skeleton near me, which promptly caught fire from the magical flames, consuming it completely. I wouldn't be satisfied with just the one, of course; a horizontal lash smashed through the spines of several additional skeletons, igniting them as well. Despite the dank, wet surroundings, the bones seemed to be almost unnaturally dry, burning to dust nearly in an instant.
While Remilia and I were ripping and tearing our way through the ranks of the undead, Youki and Alice weren't just standing by and watching either. Well, Youki might as well have been - rather than attack the skeletons head-on, he patiently waited for the clumsy creatures to come to him, keeping his katana sheathed until the moment before the enemy strike. A flash of metallic light, and the skeleton would fall apart, split into pieces in the blink of an eye as the samurai waited for its next victim to enter his attack radius. Alice was mostly trying to stay out of the action, looking for opportunities to blast multiple skeletons with one beam from afar, prioritizing safety and efficiency.
A mangled bony mass sailed over my head, nearly hitting me.
“Hey!”
I looked over my shoulder at an insincerely apologetic Remilia grinning at me, just before crushing the skulls of two skeletons into each other, then grabbing them by the spines and smashing their bodies into the ground.
“Tch! You keeping count or what?”
“Sixteen~” came the sing-song reply.
“Eighteen,” I yelled back to her after lashing the whip in a circle around myself again, aiming it low, destroying the legs from right underneath the skeletal abominations and igniting them as they fell, letting them burn into dust.
“Hey, you're either lying or cheating,” Remilia yelled back to me right before another loud crunch.
...
Moments later, we were surrounded by a pile of bone dust, shards and splinters, not a single piece moving anymore. None of us had even broken a sweat.
I totally won by kill count, by the way.
“Huh. If I had known it would be this easy, I could've cleared the basement by myself,” I muttered, slowly crushing a jawbone under the heel of my boot. The fires around us subsided the moment I curled up the chain whip, and I hooked it onto my belt where it belonged when not in use.
“Don't be foolish, darling, you know this was just bait to get you to lower your guard.” Well, I knew Remilia had a point there. This was TOO easy. And yet, I somehow didn't feel like such subterfuge was what our target was interested in. It was less like it was trying to lull us into a false sense of security, and more like she simply didn't care to put much effort into this encounter. As if we were beneath its notice the moment it had lost interest in spying on us.
“...Well, regardless, we've once again lost track of our mystery target,” Alice interjected as she approached us, keeping her eyes on the ground as she tried to avoid stepping in anything again. I was glad to see her unharmed, despite the relative lack of danger in the undead puppets we just fought.
“Hmm. Might I suggest an idea?” Youki too joined us, motioning for Remilia to bring the map closer so all four of us could look at it. Tall as he was, he leaned down over us and the map, pointing at the four tunnels heading out of the central room we were in.
“You mentioned the mansion cannot shift its shape while directly observed. What if we split up? We could corner her by approaching from multiple angles, keeping the mansion from warping to giving her a means of escape.”
“That assumes she'd flee from us in the first place,” Alice muttered, lacking enthusiasm for this plan.
“I think it would be best to stick together, to maximize our odds of survival.”
“No, I agree with our samurai friend...” Remilia seemed deep in thought, thumbing her chin while holding the map in one hand.
“It should work. As long as we head down all four paths, the layout of the basement should remain unchanged. I don't know what we'll find, but...” She raised her gaze, eyeing each one of us with a confident smirk, her fangs poking out and resting against her lower lip.
“...I'm sure each of us can handle themselves. We'll flush Flandre out and regroup to take her on.”
Alice still seemed unsure, but she merely sighed, trembling lightly - whether from fear or the dank cold air, I couldn't tell.
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[] Let's split up, gang!
-{} Be the Hunter. “I'm the protagonist, after all.”
-{} Be Alice. “Eh, what? I just want to go home.”
-{} Be Youki. “A worthy quest, how interesting.”
-{} Be Remilia. “Ooh, pick me, pick me!”
[] Stick together.
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