Episode 47 Atelier: Seek and Destroy

Kunai, Arai, and Ivy stand at the crest of a long cliff overlooking a narrow valley below. A soft wind blows by, ruffling their loose clothing. Kunai stares down at the complex of buildings below them, situated next to a much larger one, with iron fences built around it.

“Atelier…” Kunai mutters, as his eyes roam over to the large complex below them.

“Gamma Precinct stands right under the shadow of it,” Arai mutters in reply.

Kunai remains silent, but narrows his eyes as a steady stream of steam floats into the air from a large vent in the complex, hovering over the atmosphere. “So this is a Paradox production plant too.”

Ryuu bends over heavily, panting harshly as he struggles for breath. His bright green eyes glaze over momentarily, as he leans over and stares straight in front of him, where the darkened figure of Fyx stands laughing.

Ryuu sways, and clutches his sword for support. His eyes widen as his rate of breathing quickens. Behind him, the clock on the tower reads 11:54:56. ‘I was lucky…by using currents of lightning running throughout my circulatory system, I was able to destroy the poison molecules that had been running throughout my body. If I hadn’t been able to do that…I’d be dead by now.’

Ryuu raises himself to his full height, glaring straight at Fyx and Shuriken, standing behind him off in the distance. “You…monster!”

Fyx stands in the middle between Ryuu and Shuriken, his face and body are ragged and scaly, with gill-like features at the side of his neck. His eyes are a malicious yellow, encircling a pair of red pupils. In his hands he still carries his Fairfrozen, yet now it is blackened and scarred, as if charred with fire.

Ryuu charges straight at Fyx, who sneers and thrusts his Fairfrozen forward, piercing Ryuu straight across the stomach. Ryuu chokes out loud and coughs out blood from the impact of the blow.

“I’m surprised…” Fyx mutters as Ryuu falls to his knees, “That you actually managed to cling to life long enough to see me transform into my Paradox form.”

Behind Fyx, Shuriken slowly raises his right hand, and summons another Avenger in it. ‘This is it…I’ve run out of stars. This is my last chance to kill him. But if I keep it in my hand, I might be able to keep charging it with mana, and keep it alive longer. However, that’s a huge risk, and I might accidentally waste all my remaining strength. Additionally, it will restrict me to close range fighting, at which Fyx is more superior at.’

Shuriken suddenly launches himself forward, sprinting straight at Fyx from behind. Without warning, a long, sinewy arm bursts out of Fyx’s back and grabs Shuriken, choking him around the neck.

Shuriken gasps in surprise and struggles for air as the shadow’s hand tightens around his windpipe. Fyx speaks to Shuriken without turning, his voice barely a hiss, “You should never underestimate a Paradox, Shuriken. You, more than anyone, should understand the strength of evil…”

Shuriken grits his teeth, kicking his legs and struggling for air. Finally, he forces his right arm up, and severs the Paradox arm with his Avenger, slicing it clean in half.

Shuriken recklessly lunges forward yet again with his Avenger, aiming for Fyx’s back. Suddenly, multiple arms explode out of his back, grasping for Shuriken’s arms and legs.

Shuriken gasps and severs all of them with his Avenger, leaping backwards to avoid further attacks. Shuriken pants heavily, lost for words for a moment. ‘So he can attack from the back as well…even where he can’t see!’

Shuriken stares at Fyx’s back intently, his brows furrowed in concentration. ‘If that’s the case, and he can see behind his back as well, then he must have close to a three-sixty degree field of vision. Meaning, I can’t sneak up on him. My options are to either cloud his field of vision and strike in an open opportunity, or make a direct attack on him.

‘The ideal method is to create a distraction or diversion of some sort, but his reactions are too quick. Besides, I’m quite sure he can use Dragon Roar, and in that scenario a diversion would be useless. He’d be able to hit me even if he couldn’t see me. I see…then, I have to use the weapon that he gave me.’

Shuriken narrows his eyes, his heart beginning to pound faster. He catches Ryuu’s eye, and quickly signals with a nod of his head for Ryuu to attack.

Ryuu nods, as Fyx notices the brief communication between the two of them and turns his eyes to glance back at Shuriken. “Heh…whatever you do, it’s fruitless. Save your strength. You’ll need all the strength you can get to withstand the pain I’m about to inflict on you…”

“Think again, old man!” Ryuu growls. He lunges forward again, grabbing Fyx by the wrist, and thrusts his sword forward, creating a huge, fiery ball of explosion. “EXPLOSION!”

A huge ball of fire and smoke rises into the air suddenly, and covers the entire battlefield. As the smoke clears, an empty bottle of something quickly falls to the ground behind Shuriken as he dashes forward at breakneck speed, and crashes straight into Fyx from behind, Avenger outstretched. His skin is completely blackened, covered under the protection of Phoebe.

Shuriken yells and curses out loud as he makes impact with Fyx, pushing and forcing his Avenger deeper within Fyx. Fyx yells out loud in mortal pain, as Shuriken cries out loud as well, as Phoebe shrieks and retreats from his skin.

Shuriken hisses loudly and continues to force the Avenger deeper into Fyx’s back, watching as large, long cracks begin to appear in Fyx’s body, and he begins to crumble.

Fyx gives one last shriek of mortal pain before his body completely collapses into the air, and falls to the ground as a black dust. Shuriken pants heavily, his Avenger still outstretched in the air.

Shuriken grabs his side, and watches as the Avenger cracks in half, and falls to the ground with a loud clatter. He stares at his arm, which is scarred and bruised from battle. “I did it…” he pants, “I’ve avenged my sister.”

Ryuu slowly raises himself to his feet, grimacing gruesomely in pain as he clutches his freely bleeding wounds. He steps up to the rubble of dust that had been Lord Fyx. ‘I wasn’t strong enough…to defeat him alone, nor could I fight Ayame, or even protect Kunai from the Triplicate…am I really that weak?’

Kunai sprints down a brightly lit hallway along with Arai and Ivy as a bright red light flashes overhead, and a loud siren rings loudly overhead. Behind them, several armed guards carrying stun guns chase after them, firing but missing at their heels.

Kunai turns his head and stares back the their pursuers. “Arai! Why did you have to activate their alarm?! What’re we gonna do now? With my arms and legs like this, I can barely run, much less fight!”

“I’m sorry, Kunai!” Arai mutters suddenly, “But I couldn’t think of any other way for us to do this! You and Ivy must go ahead and break into the Control Room. In a few minutes, all of this facility’s guards will be in the vicinity of this hallway, leaving you clear to enter the Control Room and grab the key. As the only one left who can fight, I will do my best to hold all of these guys off!”

“Arai! Are you sure?! There’s way too many for you to fight alone!” Kunai cries in protest.

“Just go!” Arai replies, his face serious for once. “My life is less important than getting that key. If we acquire the key, we acquire means of getting into the Rift World and destroying the Myougun! Do you understand how important it is to get that key?”

Kunai nods reluctantly. “Okay, Arai. Just don’t go out and die on me!”

He then turns and begins running down the hallway again, while Ivy chases after him desperately. Kunai turns a corner and doesn’t look back behind him as Arai gives a loud shout of battle.

Arai waves his Dark Ritual, and peers around at the three dozen strong guard of men, while many, many more are still pouring in from all corners of the hallway. “It looks like you won’t let me go without a fight! It’d be so much easier if we just became friends…”

One of the guards hesitantly steps forward and fires a bright red laser of warning over Arai’s shoulder. Arai shrugs and smiles at the man. “Or not!” He waves his staff, and sends several bolts of lightning jolting through the man, throwing him to the floor dead.

Ryuu and Shuriken hurry away from Omega Sector, as the sky above them begins to grow dim. The two of them sprinting side by side, panting heavily and clutching hastily cared for injuries.

Ryuu turns to Shuriken. “Hey,” he mutters, “Haste us. We’ve got no time to lose.”

Shuriken nods in reply. “Right!” he replies, and a blue light momentarily surrounds the both of them.

Kunai leads Ivy hurriedly and breathlessly up a flight of stairs and into a much larger, circular room ahead. The room is walled with windows all around, some on the right side overlooking the empty plains outside and others on the left overlooking the facilities of Atelier.

Kunai turns and locks the door behind them. He glances hesitantly throughout the room. “Hopefully Arai can buy us some time before the guards arrive.”

A soft thumping noise suddenly fills the room, causing both Kunai and Ivy to look around in alarm. Kunai stares at a long, cylindrical iron container in the middle of the room, extending from the bottom of the floor to the ceiling.

Kunai slowly and cautiously steps towards it, reaching his hand forward. “It’s coming from here…”

As Kunai approaches, he reaches forward and presses a large, round green button in the middle of the container. It suddenly slides open, revealing a little Green Snail standing on a pedestal within.

Kunai blinks as the Green Snail turns its little head as if to get a better view of Kunai. It suddenly blinks its eyes in recognition. “We meet again!” it squeaks.

Kunai jumps back in surprise as he yells out loud. “WHA?! IT CAN TALK?!”

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN, ‘IT?!’” the Green Snail growls back. “I’M A GUY YOU IDIOT! CAN’T YOU SEE MY MONSTROUS—”

“This is just getting too weird,” Kunai sighs, as the Green Snail leaps forward and clambers onto his arm.

The Green Snail suddenly tilts itself forward and bites Kunai on the arm. Kunai yells in alarm and swings his arm around wildly in surprise and pain. “Ouch! What are you doing?!”

“As the messenger of the Myougun and key to the Rift World, it is my duty to kill intruders!” the Green Snail growls.

Kunai suddenly stops struggling and blinks in surprise. “Wait…you’re the key to the Rift World…? Okay, this is getting really weird.”

“Yup! Otis is the name!” the Green Snail replies cheerfully.

“This is getting really, really weird,” Kunai groans.

Arai twists and turns, frantically holding back the approaching and rapidly growing army of guards now surrounding him in the hallway. As he freezes a couple guards with his ice spells, several more appear from behind the gathering group of men.

Arai’s movements quickly begin to slow as fatigue takes over, and he bends over panting. He lowers his staff, and breathes heavily.

Suddenly one of the guards steps forward, and fires a shot straight at Arai, hitting him just over the left shoulder. Arai falls over onto the ground clutching his shoulder, his breathing fast and ragged.

The guard steps over Arai, glaring down at him as he passes. He points to several men. “You guys,” he orders, “Watch over him and take him to the prisoner’s quarters. Leave him for Lord Fyx to deal with later. Meanwhile, the rest of you guys, follow me. The others he came with should be in the Control Room by now.”

“Right!” the rest of the men reply, and proceed to follow the first one’s orders.

A loud knock suddenly rings throughout the larger circular Control Room and Kunai and Ivy turn toward the locked door. There are several loud thumps from the other side of the door, as the guards approach and slam their fists on the door.

Kunai hastily grabs Otis the Green Snail, and squishes him roughly in his hand. Otis cries out in protest. “Hey! I’m not your squeeze toy, you nitwit! Stop squeezing me so hard!”

“Shut up!” Kunai mutters to Otis. “You’re coming with us!”

From the other side, the guards forcefully throw themselves at the door in an attempt to knock it open. Finally, the door bursts open, and the guards rush forward into the Control Room, yelling out loud.

The leader, the one that had shot Arai, stares around perplexedly as he gazes around the room. Only Ivy is standing in the middle of the room, holding Otis the Green Snail in her arms.

“You! Drop Otis and raise your hands! We won’t shoot if you comply!” the leader shouts at Ivy, pointing straight at her.

Ivy does not reply, but gazes around the room blankly with her eyes, focusing on a point just behind the leader. Suddenly, the leader stumbles forward, choking loudly, a Steely planted deep in his back.

The leader falls to the floor, with a fresh bloody wound on his back. The other guards shout in surprise and turn their heads wildly, looking for the source of the commotion.

Kunai suddenly reappears behind the group, waving for Ivy to quickly follow and clutching his own side. Ivy pushes her way past the guards and follows Kunai as they run down the hallway, leaving the guards behind in confusion.

As Kunai slows down to allow Ivy to catch up, he grimaces in pain, and checks his side. ‘Damn…I’m still not in good enough of a condition to fight yet. My arms are still stiff, and my legs aren’t gonna be able to carry me much longer.’

The walls around Kunai and Ivy suddenly explode violently, shattering the walls and spraying debris everywhere. Otis screams in alarm.

Kunai and Ivy both fall to the floor, while Kunai struggles to raise his head and see what’s going on. He turns his head from side to side, narrowing his eyes as the dust from the explosion clears.

A large, snakelike Paradox slithers into the middle of the hallway, and bears down on them, its bright yellow bloodthirsty eyes glaring down at them. The snake Paradox hisses loudly, and opens its mouth, revealing two sharp fangs and leans forward to strike.

Kunai rolls out of the way and pushes Ivy away from the snake Paradox’s grasp as well. He forcefully raises himself to his feet, but stumbles to maintain his stance. ‘Damn! I…can’t move…’

Kunai gasps and looks up suddenly as a new, tall figure appears standing in front of him. He gazes up at this new arrival from the floor. “Sh-Shuriken?”

“Hey,” Shuriken replies in a low mutter, an Avenger clutched in his hands as he faces off against the snake Paradox.

Ryuu quickly sprints into the hallway where Arai had fallen. As he enters the hallway, he sees multiple men up ahead, each armed with a stun gun and a blaster. He grits his teeth, and draws his sword, fire flashing into it at once.

Ryuu dashes in front of the men, and raises his sword, poised to strike. He quickly spots four of the men, each helping to carry Arai. “Arai!”

Two of the men, who’d been leading the group, start in surprise at Ryuu’s appearance. “What the?!” they cry in surprise, and reach for the blasters by their sides.

However, Ryuu quickly thrusts his sword forward, knocking the blasters out of their hands and severely cutting the guards’ hands. Ryuu then turns and makes a fatal strike as the other guards shout in anger and lunge forward to attack him.

Ryuu quickly finishes off all six men that had been taking Arai, and bends over Arai, who’d been thrown to the floor during the quick scuffle.

Ryuu glares down at Arai, who is lying on the floor with his eyes closed, though still clearly breathing. “Respiration seems to be normal,” Ryuu mutters to himself. He suddenly reaches forward with a trembling hand to Arai’s shoulder wound, and wets his hand with some of his blood that had been dripping out.

Ryuu stares intently at the stain of blood on his index finger for a moment. He then reaches into his pocket and draws out an old, battered Steely with his left hand, staring down at both objects for a moment.

As the snake Paradox lunges forward with its mouth wide open and fangs revealed, Shuriken dashes forward with his Avenger, and cleanly slices off one of its fangs. The severed fang falls to the ground with a loud thud, and Shuriken dashes out of the way as it hits the ground, poison seeping from its tip.

Shuriken glances back at Kunai as the brief altercation pauses momentarily. “You two all right?” he asks.

Kunai nods in reply. “Yeah.”

Shuriken dashes to his right as the now one-fanged snake Paradox lunges forward again, attempting to strike him with its fang. Shuriken plants his Avenger deep within the roof of the snake’s mouth as it rises into the air again.

The snake Paradox shrieks and hisses in severe pain, and large pools of saliva drip from its open mouth. The Paradox shakes its head from side to side, banging into the already heavily damaged walls of the complex.

Ryuu suddenly appears in the distance, carrying Arai on his shoulder. He arrives with the rest of the group, and stares around, laying Arai on the ground next to Kunai and Ivy.

“Shuriken,” Ryuu growls, “Take these guys and get them out of Atelier. I’ve already set the self-destruct mechanism in this building to on. It’ll blow up in about five minutes. I’ll take out this snake Paradox and follow you guys out.”

Shuriken nods in response. “Okay.”

Shuriken then picks up Arai and shoulders him just as Ryuu had, and turns to Ivy and Kunai. “Can you two walk?” he asks them.

Kunai roughly rises to his feet and pulls Ivy to her feet as well. “Yeah, we can still walk a little. Though, we’re kinda useless in a fight.”

“That’s okay,” Shuriken replies, “I don’t expect to have any enemy encounters on the way out.”

“Kunai!” Ryuu growls suddenly, as Kunai turns to leave.

Kunai turns back to face Ryuu and looks at him, slightly bewildered. “What is it, Ryuu?”

“If I don’t make it,” Ryuu says in a low voice, “Go on without me. Waste no time. Got it?”

Kunai widens his eyes in surprise. “I—what, Ryuu?”

“Got it?!” Ryuu repeats again, slightly angrily and impatiently.

“I…got it,” Kunai murmurs. He then turns and follows Shuriken and Ivy out of the hallway.

As Shuriken, Kunai, and Ivy sit on a slightly grassy knoll outside Atelier, the building slowly begins smoking violently, and flames erupt from the ceiling of the complex.

Suddenly Arai, whom Shuriken and lain on the ground nearby, rises, grabbing the side of his head and rubbing it slightly. He looks at the wound on his shoulder and sighs, shaking his head. “Where’s Ryuu?” he asks.

“He’s still inside,” Kunai mutters. “We took off while he held off a Paradox. The building’s been set to self-destruct.”

“I see,” Arai replies.

Suddenly a huge explosion engulfs the entire complex, and smoke and gaseous vapors rise into the air. Several forks of a powerful, raging inferno rise high into the air, illuminating the darkening sky.

Kunai immediately jumps to his feet in alarm. “RYUU!” he yells out into the dusk sky as a continuous stream of smoke rises into the sky. Kunai falls to his knees, shaking violently himself from a mixture of physical and emotional pain.

“Ryuu…” Kunai mutters. “Please, don’t tell me that you didn’t make it…”

“Heh,” Ryuu’s voice suddenly growls, as the full figure of Ryuu emerges from the flaming building, “What are you crying about, Kunai?” He carries his still flaming sword over his shoulder, but the most prominent feature of his return glows in his right eye, where there are now four pupils.

Next Time: Episode 48 The Opening of the Gateways

Kunai: Ryuu! Your eye…

Ryuu: I needed to become more powerful.

Shuriken: Let us head to Gamma Precinct.

Otis: [squishing noises in background] No way am I opening the Gateway for you! This pervert here squeezes me too much!

Ryuu/Arai/Shuriken/Ivy: …

Kunai: DON’T SAY IT LIKE THAT, OTIISSSSS!

Episode 48 The Opening of the Gateways coming soon!