~Notes~
No more fillers for the next 10 chapters, guaranteed. I promise.

Episode 40 Warp

Footsteps echo softly in a wide, dimly lit hallway of a large castle. A lone figure stands by himself in the midst of the hallway. On his left are wide, arched windows, overlooking a large valley below filled with city lights, bathed in a soft glow of moonlight.

Suddenly the footsteps grow louder, and a new figure appears, dressed in a raggedy gray cloak. The new figure kneels before the first. “Lord Kimura,” it whispers.

Lord Kimura steps into the shafts of moonlight coming into the room, peering down at the kneeling figure before him. “Go,” he whispers, “to Ludibrium. The last Triplicate is already waiting.”

The figure nods, raising its head to stare up at Lord Kimura for a moment, revealing several strands of long purple hair and a pair of blood red eyes.

“Yes, Master,” she replies, and disappears immediately in a flash of bright light.

Lord Kimura turns as his servant disappears, facing an additional two figures now standing behind him, shrouded in the darkness of the how. “How wonderful,” Kimura mutters, “Arayu, Zack.”

Kunai, Ryuu, Arai, Shuriken, and Ivy walk side by side down an echoing hallway. A thin veil of fog hovers by their feet in the chill air.

Kunai glances around at the seemingly endless depths of their surroundings. The ground glows with a strange swirl of colors, while an apparent night sky silhouettes their path.

“It’s so cold down here,” Ivy shivers. She turns to glance at Kunai for a moment.

Kunai stares by at her, surprised momentarily. ‘She seems to be drifting back and forth between her old self and her silent self…but one thing stays the same…she shows no sign of familiarity with me.’

“Ryuu,” Kunai says out loud, “Aren’t there any Thanatos or Gatekeepers guarding this place? I mean we’re nearing the Clocktower where the Third Triplicate is supposed to be, right?”

“They were all already wiped out before the Myougun even took power,” Ryuu replies, “Everyone knows that. But this place is still dodgy nowadays with what the Myougun have hid here…”

“The Third Triplicate,” Arai finishes for Ryuu.

Kunai stares onward, clenching his fists tightly and glaring angrily ahead. ‘Damn…we’re so close to the last and final Triplicate now…’

“To think,” Arai says suddenly, smiling to himself, “that we’re already at the last Triplicate. Time sure has flown by, hasn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Ryuu answers, “But this is only the last step in the first stage of defeating the Myougun.”

“Why do you have to be such a downer…” Arai mumbles. “You’re depressing me,” he continues. Arai suddenly raises a whole basket filled to the brink with cookies. “Cookie anyone?”

“I TOLD YOU TO KEEP THAT THING AWAY!” Ryuu growls, turning to Arai.

“This is a present from Granny!” Arai replies cheerfully. “So I have every right to enjoy its wonderful cookie deliciousness!”

Ryuu sighs, shrugging and waving Arai off. “Whatever…”

A slight whistling suddenly rises in the air. Kunai looks up in surprise. “Hm? What’s that noise?”

“Look out!” Shuriken yells, stepping in front of Kunai and Ryuu. He raises his Avenger, and runs straight forward, bringing it with a crash into a Spirit Viking that had been sneaking up to them in the darkness.

A Spirit Viking’s ship cracks in half at once, and Shuriken finishes it off by sending several Tobis cutting straight through it.

A brief memory of Shuriken flashes through Kunai’s mind for a moment. ‘Shuriken…’

Ryuu turns and glances at Shuriken, giving him the thumbs up. “Not bad, kid.”

“Not quite yet!” Kunai growls, stepping forward and launching two Steelys of his own. They zip through the air and make contact as the fallen remains of the Spirit Viking rise into the air, now in a sinewy shadowy form.

Ryuu gives a gasp in alarm. “A Paradox?” He draws his sword, setting it ablaze. “This’ll only take a moment.”

Ryuu sprints forward, his sword in the air and poised to strike. The Paradox Spirit Viking suddenly fires a cannonball flying toward Ryuu with a loud explosion. Ryuu freezes, surprised and unable to move.

“Look out!” Shuriken yells, flinging his Avenger towards the cannonball and canceling it out with a loud explosion, just inches from Ryuu.

Ryuu waves his arm, clearing the dust from the explosion as he turns to see Shuriken approaching him. “Good one, I owe you.”

Kunai dashes forward, sending another two Steelys as the Paradox Spirit Viking. It fires another cannonball at him with a loud blast, smashing the Steelys to bits in the process.

“Arai’s Special Lightning-Charged Cookie Lucky 7 Attack!” Arai shouts suddenly, launching two cookies from his cookie basket charged with electricity.

The cookies make contact with the cannonballs, transferring the lightning to them and causing the cannonballs to explode. Kunai stands coughing slightly as the smoke clears. “What the heck was that?!”

Arai grins, winking at Kunai with a smile. “That was my Cookie-Based Attack Number One! Did you like it?”

The Spirit Viking Paradox turns to Arai suddenly very angrily, lunging forward towards him. Shuriken takes the opportunity and sneaks up on it from behind, summoning another Avenger as he does so and slamming it through the Spirit Viking Paradox.

He forces the Avenger straight through it, slicing the Paradox cleanly in half. He then summons another clone of himself, carrying an Avenger as well. They both force the Paradox apart, destroying the halved parts to pieces.

The clone disappears with a flash as Shuriken finishes the attack, standing still in the pool of shadow and panting slightly. He glances at Ryuu and Kunai as he does so, still carrying the Avenger in his right hand.

“That was…amazing!” Arai cries, applauding loudly.

“Certainly was,” Ryuu replies, “Kid could’ve probably made Joukai in the old days.”

“We should get going,” Kunai mutters, “to the Triplicate, remember?”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Ryuu replies.

A strong, hollowed, timeless silence hovers heavily in the air as Kunai makes his way up to the top of the Clocktower, ascending the last few steps into it. A thin cover of fog still continues to swirl and hover about their feet.

Ryuu follows behind Kunai, staring up at the huge tower before them. “Hm…this should be the resting place of the final Triplicate…”

Arai, Shuriken, and Ivy now as well, standing clustered and huddled together behind Ryuu and Kunai. “Well, we’re here,” Arai murmurs, “What do we do now, Captain?”

“Simple,” Ryuu mutters, “We release the seal holding the Triplicate back.”

He leads the way forward, ascending the stairs to where the Tombstone stands in the middle of the dais at the center of the room. Ryuu’s breath comes out as a fog as he breathes, making his way to the top.

Kunai and Ivy quickly follow behind, while Arai and Shuriken casually bring up the rear. Ryuu turns to stare at Ivy as she and Kunai approach the top of the dais.

“You,” Ryuu mutters, nodding at Ivy, “Step forward. As the Phoneme, you have to release the seal.”

Ivy steps forward, and a bright blue pentagram suddenly appears in the air. Ivy rises to the air, hovering just over the pentagram momentarily.

Kunai stares up at Ivy worriedly as a wild haze of gray smoke appears in the air, hissing loudly as it spreads through the long, echoing chamber. ‘Ivy…’

“Here it comes…” Ryuu growls, raising his sword and bracing himself. “The last Triplicate!”

Ryuu, Kunai, Arai, and Shuriken all look up in suspense, anxiously waiting as the smoke slowly clears to reveal the monstrous form of the Triplicate.

At last, the smoke clears, and the group blinks perplexedly as one, staring up into empty air at nothing. They then look down, and see a tiny Green Snail on the floor looking up and laughing softly at them.

“What the hell?!” Ryuu growls, glaring down at the snail, “A Green Snail?!”

The Green Snail slowly inches forward and presents Ryuu with a yellow letter. Ryuu blinks and picks up the letter in his hands, ripping open the envelope and staring at it.

His eyes dart left and right as he reads the letter, while the pentagram disappears and Ivy jerks awake, lowering herself and staring around slightly bewildered. Ryuu crumples up the letter as he finishes reading.

“Tch, piece of crap…” he mutters.

“What’s wrong?” Ivy asks, looking over Ryuu’s shoulder at the crumpled letter in his hand.

“I’ll tell you what’s wrong,” Ryuu growls irritably, “this letter says the Triplicate’s not here. It’s already been released and is rampaging around somewhere else in Ludibrium.”

Next Time: Episode 41 Back to the Building Blocks

Kunai: So wait…the Third Triplicate’s not here?

Arai: Nope…this place is as empty as my cookie basket…

Ryuu: You already finished all those damn cookies?!

Arai: Yup! But don’t worry, Ryuu! I’ve got another basket!

Ryuu: [grumble]

Kunai: Maybe we should go find the next Triplicate…

Episode 41 Back to the Building Blocks coming soon!