Episode 22 Escape from Sanctum!

Arai leads the way, blowing his way past the sliding doors of an elevator, jamming the buttons inside it as Kunai and Ivy hurry inside.

Arai clenches his Dark Ritual tightly, still holding the jingling silver keys of the guard in his hands. For a moment, all remains silent as the elevator slowly hums, moving slowly down into the lower floors. Finally, there is a small ding overhead, and the elevator doors slide open, revealing a dark figure standing inside the midst of a dark, lightless cell room.

Arai cries out loud, flinging a whirlwind of ice into the air at the figure. Kunai follows as well, forcing the figure back and pinning it against the wall of the jail room with a Steely.

A soft firelight suddenly erupts in the cell, and Arai, Kunai, and Ivy all gasp in surprise as they see the illuminated face of the figure. “Ryuu!” Kunai cries out loud.

Ryuu’s eyes lazily stray over to the Steely by his side, pinning him to the wall through the collar of his jacket. He smirks as he laxly pulls it out of the wall, twirling it in his fingers. His hand suddenly freezes as he stares at the Steely, dropping the Steely to the floor.

“Ryuu…what are you doing here?” Ivy gasps out loud.

Ryuu slowly bends over, picking up the Steely and gazing at it carefully for a long moment. He places his hand on the handle, removing from it a long thin strand of purple hair. “What is this?”

“Oh…I’m sorry,” Kunai mutters softly, “I must’ve used that by mistake. It’s the Steely I took off the wall back on the island that Lady Iris supposedly used during her training.”

Arai stares from Kunai to the strand of hair dangling between Ryuu’s fingers. He smiles slightly to himself knowingly, muttering, “I see…”

Ryuu shakes his head, dropping the Steely to the floor. Kunai narrows his eyes, but does not say anything, as Ryuu clenches the strand of hair tightly in the palm of his hand, before placing it in his pocket.

Ryuu glares at the three of them haughtily, placing an arm on his hip. “I thought you three would show up looking for me much sooner.”

“Ah…heh, we were kept from doing so by a whole host of reasons,” Arai replies, laughing softly, “but that really should wait for another time. Right now, we’ve gotta find Alcaster and get out of here as soon as we can.”

“Alcaster? What do you mean?” Ryuu asks.

“Well, you see, we headed for El Nath to see Alcaster about Kunai’s eye, and also to restock on fuel so we could go searching for you. But we were told he’d been captured and imprisoned here, in Sanctum,” Arai explains.

Ryuu nods slowly. “I see, so he’s been captured in one these cells too, huh…”

“But Ryuu, where’ve you been all this time, what happened, and how did you end up here?” Ivy asks, turning to look up at Ryuu worryingly.

Ryuu sighs, shrugging his shoulders slightly. “I myself don’t even know that well. All I know is that after my hang glider went down, I landed on a small island in the middle of the ocean. I explored it a little, and shortly after landing I found a portal opened by a Mystic Door spell. I went through it, and next thing I knew, I wound up here.”

“Hm…strange, did you find out who cast the Mystic Door?” Arai asks interestedly.

Ryuu shrugs again, glaring at Arai through his cold green eyes. “After I arrived here, a powerful man attacked me and knocked me out. When I woke up, I found myself in here. I knocked out the guard and was about to escape myself when you guys showed up.”

“A powerful man? What do you mean—” Ivy says, but stops as a bright red light flashes overhead. The sound of several footsteps suddenly rings outside in the corridor.

“I’ll explain when we have the time,” Ryuu mutters. He draws his sword with a bright flash, and it bursts into a euphoria of fire and lightning. “Right now, we’ve got trouble.”

The elevator doors suddenly burst open once again, and several guards armed with heavily armored Esther Shields and carrying guns stroll into the room.

Ryuu leaps forward, brushing the air in front of the men with a burst of flare. He swiftly and adeptly cuts through each of their chests with one strong horizontal slash of the sword.

Arai places his hands on his hips, smiling slightly to himself as he chews on a cookie. ‘Hm…Ryuu’s just as fiery as ever. We’ve certainly missed his ferocity during the short time we were separated.’

Arai turns as the guards fall to the floor, instantaneously dead. He waves his hand, signaling to the others. “Okay, let’s get out of here as quick as we can! We’ve still got to find Alcaster…”

“Going somewhere?” a deep, murderously cold voice says in the darkness of the cell.

Arai freezes in the front, coming to a stop and clenching his staff tighter in his hand. “Oh dear…more trouble, it looks like,” he mumbles softly, a smile flirting around his lips.

Ryuu steps forward, waving his flaming sword in the air and casting long, dark shadows about the cell. “Heh. I’ll take care of this guy. Come out into the light, you coward!”

The man slowly steps forward, a smirk on his face. He runs his hand through his long black hair, the light illuminating his chilling black eyes. He raises his Dark Arund, stringing an arrow through it.

“A Ranger, eh?” Ryuu mutters under his breath. “Tch, your pathetic little wooden arrows are gonna have a lot of trouble against my fire.”

“Be careful, Ryuu,” Kunai cries out loud, stepping forward. “You don’t know what this guy might be capable of.”

The man laughs, a cold, clanging noise in the emptiness of the jail cell. His cold eyes stare sneeringly into Kunai’s, boring into them. Finally, the man turns his attention back to Ryuu. “Yes, you should listen to the kid, Uchida Ryuu. Arrogant as you may be, it’s still not a good idea to underestimate your enemies.”

“Heh, everybody seems to know my name these days,” Ryuu spits.

“My name is Arayu of the Naraku of the Myougun,” Arayu replies with a deadly smirk, his hands clenching tighter on his bow and strung arrow.

“Naraku?!” Ryuu cries out loud in surprise, his eyes widening.

“Who are the Naraku?” Ivy asks, turning to Ryuu and Arai.

“The Naraku are a bit like the Joukai, except they work on the side of the Myougun. They were a group specifically organized to counter our attacks on the Myougun,” Arai explains, staring at Arayu. “We thought we’d defeated them all years ago. I had no idea that there were still members of the Naraku who were alive.”

“Heh, regardless, he’s gonna die here and now. I admit I’m a little surprised that we never detected this guy, though,” Ryuu growls.

“That’s because what you speak is the truth,” Arayu replies, meeting Ryuu’s smirk. “The Naraku were all defeated by you hateful Joukai. My father himself was one, and he died valiantly for the Myougun. I am only one of the four Second Generation Naraku, designed specifically for the Phoneme War.”

“Damn you Naraku,” Ryuu growls lowly to himself. He suddenly leaps forward, sprinting on the ground towards Arayu.

Arayu steps to the side, dodging Ryuu’s attack effortlessly, and with a flash of bright light, fires four arrows at Ryuu’s back, forcing him to leap side to side, dancing out of harm’s way.

Ryuu lowers his sword, staring at Arayu. He turns to Arai, Kunai, and Ivy. “You guys,” he growls, “get out of the way, now. Go and find Alcaster, I’ll hold this guy off. Leave him to me.”

“But—” Kunai cries.

“Like I always say, no ‘buts,’” Ryuu interrupts. “Go, now! I’ll be fine.”

Kunai nods, and leads the way past Ryuu and Arayu, while Arai and Ivy follow after him, disappearing into the darkness of the hallway, their footsteps ringing further and further away.

“Heh,” Ryuu mutters, staring at Arayu, “so you’re not gonna chase after them, eh? I thought you were after them…”

Arayu meets Ryuu’s smirk once again, lowering his Arund as well. “Tch, I am after them. But they won’t get very far. Besides, I’m much, much more interested at the chance of defeating you myself.”

“Hell would freeze over before you even lay a scratch on me,” Ryuu growls, raising his sword as it bursts into a new round of flames once again.

Arayu raises his Dark Arund, sneering. “Good. Then we’ll just have to prove you wrong, won’t we?”

“We?” Ryuu mutters.

Arai leads the way as Kunai and Ivy follow just behind him, sprinting up a narrow stairway into a slightly brighter floor. Arai slows down as he stares at his surroundings, glancing from side to side.

On either side of the long room are many cells, each containing a person sitting inside. The prisoners look up as the three of them enter the room, staring into them with wide, blank, malnourished eyes.

Arai glances at the prisoners as they pass by, slowly walking down the hallway. Finally, at the end of the hallway, Arai stops, gasping out loud as he sees the thin, shivering finger of Alcaster.

“Alcaster!” he cries out loud.

The thin, bearded man looks weakly up at the group as they stand in front of the cell, gasping out loud. Alcaster feebly clutches his wooden staff, using it as leverage to raise himself into a standing position.

“Visitors…I’ve not seen the looks of another human being such as yourselves outside of this complex for years. What brings you here?” Alcaster mutters in a hoarse, barely audible voice.

“Alcaster…we’ve come to free you,” Arai replies.

“Free me? And how do you intend to do that?” Alcaster asks in an unconvinced voice.

Arai withdraws the set of keys from his inside pockets, and immediately inserts one into the lock on Alcaster’s cell, allowing the barred door to swing open with a soft creak.

Alcaster hurriedly steps out of the cell, glancing around and taking in several deep breaths. “It has been many a year since I’ve had the liberty of walking freely.”

Arai nods, turning back down the hallway and preparing to leave. Suddenly, Ivy cries out loud, causing Arai and Kunai to glance back. “What is it?” Arai asks.

“Arai! What about all these other prisoners? We can’t just leave them here like this!” Ivy cries out loud, gesturing to the other cells.

Arai sighs sadly, glancing at the other prisoners, who gaze at the group with expectant gleams in their hollowed out eyes. “We just don’t have the time or equipment to transport all these people out of here…”

Ivy shakes her head, glaring at Arai defiantly. Suddenly she swings her staff, conjuring a glowing, floating door in the middle of the room. “Open up their cells. I can transport them back into El Nath with my Mystic Door.”

“A-Are you sure?” Arai asks, slightly taken aback by Ivy’s resoluteness. Ivy nods firmly, and Arai nods as well, smiling at her. “Okay, then I’ll go ahead and release the other prisoners.”

Arai slowly steps up to each cell, opening its doors and allowing the prisoner held inside to step out. He then quickly turns and ushers all the escaped prisoners through the door, closing it behind them as they disappear through it, just as the door itself disappears.

“What about us? Are we not departing through that door as well?” Alcaster asks.

Arai sighs, shaking his head. “We’ve gotta go back and get Ryuu.”

“Ryuu? Uchida Ryuu of the Joukai is in this complex?” Alcaster asks in stunned surprise.

Arai glances over at him, smiling, “So you know who Ryuu is?”

“Of course I know him,” Alcaster replies, “through my work with the Joukai and the Four of Victoria Island, I grew to know Ryuu and several of his comrades quite well.”

Arai nods to Alcaster, gesturing for the others to follow him. “Okay, then. Let’s go get Ryuu then!”

Ryuu quickly draws the Joukai Guardian Seal in the air, deflecting the four arrows Arayu had sent his way. Ryuu then swings his sword, sending an explosion of fire and lightning headed towards Arayu.

Arayu stands still, as the fire and lightning is deflected off of him, and instead is concentrated towards a large puppet doll standing by his side. “What’s the matter? You seem to be sweating quite a bit,” Arayu sneers, bearing down on Ryuu.

Ryuu narrows his eyes with hatred, running straight at Arayu with his sword at his side, cutting down the puppet with one blow. A large hawk suddenly flies through the air, blocking the blow on the puppet and absorbing all the damage instead.

Arayu steps up to Ryuu with a smirk on his face, stringing another arrow on his Dark Arund. “Pathetic. I expected better from the man who has opposed the Myougun for so long.”

He fires the arrow into the air, just as it explodes overhead, shattering the ceiling. Several blocks of concrete and debris fall on the ground, over Ryuu.

Ryuu dodges the falling debris, just as a large block of concrete falls over his shoulder, knocking him onto the ground with a grunt. Ryuu gazes up at Arayu, pinned down on the ground under the fallen piece of debris.

Arayu steps up to Ryuu on the floor, smirking down at him. “Shameful…to think that a great man such as yourself would die here like this.” He strings his bow again, preparing to fire the final shot.

“Heh. You obviously don’t know what the hell you’re talking about, then,” Ryuu growls, a smirk returning to his face. He suddenly kicks up into the air, knocking the piece of debris into Arayu’s face, causing him to choke out blood.

Ryuu then leaps into the air past Arayu, knocking him over onto the ground with his sword. Ryuu then gazes down at Arayu haughtily as he lays down on the floor, knocked out cold.

Ryuu glances up as Kunai, Arai, and Ivy arrive in the room once again, this time followed by Alcaster. Ryuu grins, nodding to the others and signaling for them to go. He turns and begins to run. “Took you guys long enough. Let’s get going!”

The five of them quickly sprint down the room the other way, towards the elevators. They enter the small, cramped elevator, and quickly skip several floors, flying back into the brightly lit topmost floor.

Ryuu leads the way as the group bursts out of the elevator. He stops short as he sees a large group of assassins directly in front of them, poised for an ambush.

Ryuu smirks, raising his sword. “Seems you guys just don’t get it,” he mutters. He agilely leaps into the air, cutting his way through the crowd of assassins, knocking them all dead on top of each other at once.

He then sprints back to the point directly under the hatch, glaring up into it as Arai, Kunai, and Ivy arrive next to him, putting on their oxygen tanks.

Ryuu glances around as Alcaster slowly totters towards them, puffing loudly. He stares at the other three, nodding to their oxygen tanks. “The old man and I don’t have any tanks. How do you intend to escape with us?”

Arai nods in understanding, quickly looking around the room. He suddenly sends a fork of lightning shattering through a door in the middle of the hall, exposing a small janitorial supplies closet inside. He pulls out two slightly dusty tanks, handing them to Ryuu and Alcaster.

“This should do the trick,” Arai replies, placing the mask over his own mouth as Kunai and Ivy do the same. Ryuu and Alcaster quickly equip the tanks, as Kunai jumps into the air, forcing the hatch open once more.

“All right. Let’s get out of here while we still can,” Ryuu growls, leading the way back out into the sea.