~VERY IMPORTANT NOTICE~
To all my fans: I will be moving sometime soon and starting August 16th (this coming Wednesday) I will be cut off from my Internet service until further notice. I will most likely be back at soonest the week of August 27th. ToaLP is almost finished, down to the last couple chapters. I will try to finish it before then but my apologies if I cannot. Hopefully the wait until I return will not be a lengthy one.

Episode 52 Inescapable!

“Holy crap, that’s a huge monster…” Kunai mutters, as he trips over his own feet backing away to get a better view of the stone knight.

Ryuu shakes his head decisively, drawing his sword. “Doesn’t matter. If we don’t take this thing down here and now, Lord Kimura is gonna get what he wants.”

Arai sighs, incisively stepping forward next to Ryuu and Kunai. He reaches into the deep folds of his traveling cloak retrieves from it a small case built of finely polished wood. “I guess it can’t be helped.”

Kunai turns to Arai, slightly puzzled. “What’s that?”

Arai opens the box without a word to Kunai, a rather inarticulate gesture. Kunai stares on in confusion as Arai withdraws from the box a round, chocolate chip cookie.

Kunai sighs exasperatedly. “A cookie?”

Ryuu suddenly yells in comprehension, stumbling forward and groping for the cookie speechlessly. “Arai! That’s not—it’s not what I think it is, is it?”

Arai, without another word, silently places the cookie in his mouth, placing the entire thing in his mouth. He swallows it whole, and flashes a smile over to Ryuu and Kunai. “It’s not any ordinary cookie, Kunai.”

“A trump card of some sort?” Kunai mutters.

“Yes, you could say,” Arai replies. “This cookie is encased with a powerful potion that my grandmother made for me. It will greatly amplify my magical powers for a whole two hours. However, as is usual with such things, it does come with a price. After the effects of this cookie wear off, I shall not be able to cast magic for a period of twenty-four hours.”

“Arai…” Kunai mutters tentatively, “But if you can’t use magic after your two hours are up, doesn’t that place you in a lot of danger?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Arai replies, “Like Ryuu warned you before we came here, saving and protecting Ivy comes first and foremost. Whatever it costs me, I will readily pay it.”

“Arai…” Kunai murmurs to himself again.

“What’s done is done, Kunai,” Ryuu answers Kunai, “Arai’s made his decision. He can’t take it back now. Whatever happens as a result of that will happen.”

“Right now, the most important thing is getting past this monster,” Arai adds, “And you, Ryuu, and Silver are much more stronger and suited for this battle than I am. I’m merely allowing you three to keep going with as little fatigue as possible. And to save Ivy, we’ve been giving very limited time.”

Arai throws himself forth as the stone knight charges, its stone feet leaving enormous potholes behind as it lunges forward, creating shockwaves rumbling through the ground.

With flourish, Arai forms a wall of bright, flowing electrical energy rushing outwards to meet the stone knight. The knight rears, and presses forth its own shield of stone to deflect the burst of lightning.

The knight easily shrugs off the bolt of lightning and leans forward again, bringing its Fairfrozen crashing down towards the ground with brute force.

As the gleaming blue spear lowers, Arai grabs onto its tip, and, swinging violently to maintain his hold, creates a shockwave of lightning in his hand and sends it zooming up the shaft of the spear straight back at the knight.

The blast of lightning explodes on contact with the knight’s stone hand, and Arai leaps off agilely from the spear as it falls to the ground while the knight’s hand shatters into a million pieces.

Arai wheezes slightly as he drops to the floor, frowning up at the stone knight. All at once, he gasps in astonishment as the other stone knights lining the staircase behind spring to life, and fly through the air, joining the larger knight and forming a circle around Arai, surrounding him.

“More?!” Kunai gasps from the sidelines. “Damn it! Is it all right to leave Arai to handle them all by himself?”

“He’ll come through,” Ryuu mutters, “I’d like to join in the fun, but I have to hand it to him…besides, we’ve gotta conserve our stamina and energy for when the real fight starts…you can’t forget that.”

Arai puffs heavily as he sends an arc of sparks flying to keep the newest enemies at bay. ‘I guess this time it’s no use. I’ve really got to put my life on the line, if not for my sake, for the sake of my friends. I don’t know why, but I’ve never really seemed to think much about my own life. Always thought it was worthless…’

A younger Arai falls to his knees as the pain from several mortal wounds forces him down. His own arms shiver from the effort of holding his body up as he stands on all fours. He glances up under his mat of wavy blonde hair and sees a young brown-haired youth his age, bound to a wooden stake by several yards of thick rope.

“You…monster!” a younger Ryuu growls next to him. He is also on his knees, several bloody gashes running across his cheeks, but his eyes still alit with a blazing hatred. “Let him go now!”

“Please…! Release him! He’s never done anything to you!” a teenage, sobbing Ayame pleads at Ryuu’s side. “Let Yttrius go now!”

Fyx suddenly steps into their line of vision, clutching a bloody Fairfrozen in both hands. Blood oozes and drips from the tip, which is slightly bent from having apparently made contact with something hard.

Fyx’s eyes gleam malevolently and mercilessly, as they stray over to the nearly unconscious figure next to him. He sneers softly. “It’s no use. Just be glad I haven’t gagged your friend…that way you may say your goodbyes…and also the better for me to hear his screams of agony!”

“You sick bastard!” Ryuu growls, coughing and wheezing violently from his wounds. He clutches his chest, where a bloody mess has built up under his armor. “How can you just go and kill another human being like that!”

Fyx’s eyes widen maddeningly, as he smiles, apparently in pure bliss. “Simple!” he yells, and brings the Fairfrozen down crashing through Yttrius’ shoulder, severing his right arm instantly.

Yttrius screams fatally, helpless to do anything but watch as his arm falls to the ground, leaving nothing but a bloody stump by his shoulder.

“Yttriuuusss!” Ayame shrieks, covering her eyes with her blood-filled hands.

“NO!” Ryuu screams, his eyes popping as he watches his friend wail. “YOU BASTARD!”

Arai does not say a word, but shrieks and screams in complete agony, not far from feeling the pain in Yttrius himself. He clutches his sides, shuddering violently as tears spray down from his eyes.

Arai, only a few years younger than the current one, stumbles resolutely through a dark forest clearing, as he shuffles along a rocky floor. Many evergreen trees surround him from all sides, while a full moon shines brightly overhead amidst a blackened night sky.

He suddenly breaks into a sprint, pushing his way through a huddle of trees and entering a bright clearing, where a ray of moonlight reaches down all the way to the ground without disturbance.

Ryuu is lying on the floor nearby, gasping in pain and groping his ankle. He turns in surprise as Arai approaches him on foot. “Arai! Get the hell outta here! It’s a trap!”

“Ryuu! Is your ankle injured?” Arai cries, bending over Ryuu.

“I said get the hell away!” Ryuu growls, pushing Arai off of him.

Arai turns abruptly as a Steely flies through the air, piercing a tree trunk right behind Ryuu and himself. Arai makes a sharp intake of breath at the missed attack. He raises a Dark Ritual, his eyes roving about the clearing and scanning for an approaching enemy.

“Aha!” Arai mutters, as he spots movement beyond the trees at the edge of the clearing. With a wave of his staff, he sends a blast of lightning hurtling through the clearing at the enemy. A soft thud follows, signifying a fallen enemy.

Arai turns satisfactorily back to Ryuu but almost immediately widens his eyes again, in surprise, but mostly this time in pain, as a new enemy sticks several Steelys right in his back. Blood drips down his robe as the Steelys are driven deeper, almost touching his spinal cord.

Arai shakes slightly and coughs as blood spills down from his back. “Damn…so there were…two…” he mumbles weakly, forcing himself to turn and face his enemy.

A masked assassin stands before him, a Dark Gigantic strapped about his hand and a set of Steelys drawn by his side. The assassin leers coldly down at Arai, before proceeding to finish the job by sending another two Steelys flying through the air toward him.

A third figure suddenly dashes through the night air, blocking and taking the blow just before the Steelys reach Arai. “Valerie!” Arai exclaims, watching as the longhaired girl falls into his lap.

“I…don’t have much mana left,” the girl mumbles in Arai’s lap, as he breathes heavily, cradling her and running his hand through her hair. “Here,” she mutters softly, and releases a soft green light, which hovers about Arai and Ryuu for a moment.

“Valerie…you…didn’t have to take the blow!” Arai whispers. “My life doesn’t matter…but you’re…dying! Why didn’t you save yourself, instead wasting all your remaining mana on healing Ryuu and me?”

“I’m a cleric, Arai,” Valerie whimpers, “That’s…what we do.” She suddenly lies still in Arai, and in his lap, he feels her heart stop.

Tears slowly drip down Arai’s cheek. “Valerie…? Valerie! Valeriieee!”

Arai suddenly returns to reality, as the miniature stone knights surround him and brace their own spears for attack, stamping the ground with their stone feet.

‘Whatever happened…I always put on a smile, and put on a happy exterior. But I was always lonely. Even now, seeing Kunai and Ivy makes me lonely. I hate to admit it, but I’ve always questioned whether or not I should be alive…I don’t value my own life, do I? But watching everyone close to me die…a part of me wonders whether or not I really just want to join them!’

A sharp gleam suddenly returns to Arai’s eyes, as he flashes the knights a smile. “Time to take care of this!” he cries, and creates another shockwave of energy soaring through the air.

The blast of lightning instantly shatters each knight, and soon nothing but stone rubble lies on the ground. Arai then turns his attention back to the larger knight, whom by now has lost its entire right arm, rendering it unable to carry its Fairfrozen.

‘I guess it can’t be helped,’ Arai thinks to himself, as he scowls up at the knight, ‘I can’t be worried about conserving mana if I’m not going to be able to use it in a couple hours anyway. I’ll just have to rely on my own regenerative strength if I require magic later on.’

“Let’s just get this over with!” Arai beams, as he creates a powerful spear of lightning running up and down his left arm, while he holds his staff aloft in the other.

“CHARGE!” Arai roars, as he runs forward and brings the spear with a crash right into the belly of the stone knight, shattering it into many different pieces.

As Arai takes a step back, bent over and puffing from the effort, the knight suddenly collapses and shatters into bits, lying on the ground a broken wreck.

“All right, Arai!” Kunai cheers, as Arai claps his hands and smiles to himself, then turns and beams at the other three in the room.

Ryuu smirks as Arai leans over on his Dark Ritual, wearily. “Nice job. Couldn’t have done a better job myself, you cookie freak.”

Silver nods in agreement. “Impressive.”

“Let’s go!” Ryuu shouts abruptly, leading the way and running down the corridor toward the staircase at the end of the hall.

The four of them, Ryuu and Kunai in the front with Arai and Silver bringing up the rear, emerge on an outdoors stone passageway connecting three towers. The passageway leads out of the tower from which they’d come, and then forks paths to connect to the entrances of two other towers. On no part of any of passageway is a railing, but rather, an invitation to a long, painful drop to the dirt alleyways far below.

The four of them stop as they emerge on the passageway outside. A slight, foreboding breeze blows by, ruffling their hair and loose clothing as they stand on the path.

Ryuu grumbles under his breath, peering in front, where the road forks leading to two separate entrances. Kunai follows his gaze as well. “Which way do we go?” he asks.

“I’m not sure,” Ryuu replies. “Both ways look feasible.” Ryuu sighs, staring from the path on the left to the one on the right. “Damn, it looks like we don’t have a choice then. I was hoping it wouldn’t come to this, but…we haven’t the luxury of staying together. We’ve gotta split up.”

“Split up?” Kunai asks. “But isn’t that dangerous? Since we don’t know what leads where, we may end up not meeting again! Then what’ll happen?”

“It’s no use!” Ryuu growls, “We don’t have enough time to go poking around both ways in hopes of finding Lord Kimura! Two of us finding him is better than none of us finding him!”

“All right,” Kunai sighs reluctantly. “Fine. We’ll do what we have to do.”

“Right,” Ryuu growls, “Silver and I’ll check out the path on the right. Arai, you and Kunai take the road on the left. If it’s the right way, don’t bother and come back to get us. Just go ahead and rescue Ivy and we’ll try to catch up when we can. The same will go for me and Silver.”

“Right,” Arai replies. He shifts his stance slightly to get a better view of the forked road ahead. He narrows his eyes and remains silent for a few moments. “Okay,” he says suddenly, “We split up from here. Good luck, Ryuu, Silver.”

“Heh,” Ryuu smirks, “Same here.” He then proceeds to rapidly sprint down the right fork, disappearing through the huge wooden door barring the entrance into the tower.

Silver follows, but just as she reaches the door, she shrieks in surprise as something flashes right past her, knocking the door closed. Another bright blue flash follows, and Zack appears directly in front of her, smirking, and leaning on his Kage staff.

At the same time, Kunai and Arai scuttle down the left fork, but stop in their tracks as a pair of arrows wing past them in the air, barely brushing past Kunai’s hair.

The two of them turn in sequence to see Arayu calmly sauntering out of the tower from which they’d first exited. He sneers at the two of them, as they stand side by side, temporarily frozen.

Arayu loads his bow with another pair of arrows and directs it straight at the two of them. “Stop right where you are and don’t move any further,” he whispers menacingly.

He fires again, aiming straight for Kunai. Arai notices only just in time, and unhesitatingly steps between he and Kunai, taking all two arrows to the back. A slow, steady stream of blood runs down his back.

Arai smiles slyly at Arayu. He glances briefly back at Kunai. “Kunai, go ahead. Don’t worry about me, I’ll hold him off.”

“Arai!” Kunai cries. “I’m not gonna leave you behind!”

“It’s fine!” Arai shouts back. “I’ve still got the effects from that cookie earlier! You’ve got to keep going so that the plan doesn’t die.”

“But…Arai!” Kunai mutters. “I can’t just leave you here! Not now!”

“GO!” Arai replies rather harshly. He turns immediately and creates another spear of lightning in his arm, and with one swift blow, shatters the ground separating he and Kunai, creating a huge rift between them.

“Arai…” Kunai murmurs. “What are you doing…”

“My life doesn’t matter as much as Ivy’s. So go, Kunai!” Arai shouts back at him.

Arayu watches the scene between Arai and Kunai without expression, watching as Kunai struggles to break away from his comrade. ‘Friendship…is this what it means? Tch, then I don’t want any part of it if it’ll hold me back.’

Kunai sighs at last, and nods in response to Arai’s request. “All right. I’ll leave. But damn you if you don’t come back and join us later when we save Ivy!”

“Don’t worry, Kunai, don’t worry…” Arai mutters in reply.

Kunai turns without another word and sprints the last few steps down the path and through the doorway leading into the next room beyond.

Arai raises his Dark Ritual, bracing for the next attack from Arayu. “Well, then…shall we battle?”

Arayu sneers. “Do you kid yourself? What kind of fool are you to believe that you are in any condition fit to fight me? Tch, you are merely a nuisance.”

Arai smiles pleasantly at Arayu. “Heh, well that may be, but this nuisance is not going to allow you to pursue Kunai any further.”

“Heh,” Arayu mutters. “Have it your way. Apparently you do not value your life very much, do you?”

“Not as much as I value Ivy’s,” Arai replies.

Arayu’s eyes now blaze with hatred as he stares at Arai. “Be gone!” he yells out loud, sending another four arrows hurtling through the air.

All four pierce right on Arai’s chest exactly on their intended mark, and Arai doubles over as he takes all four blows, spitting out blood from the impact of the attack. He stumbles onto the ground on all floors, shaking violently.

Shaking heavily, Arai weakly stumbles to his feet again, glaring at Arayu. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever incurred such serious injury during all this journey…the whole time, it was Ryuu, or Kunai…now it’s my turn to face death’s door I guess.’

Arai slowly reaches into his coat pocket, and withdraws a chocolate chip cookie from it. Arayu relaxes the grip on his bow slightly as he watches in puzzlement.

Arai takes a bite from the cookie, slightly relishing the taste even in his injury. Arayu, however, spits in disgust at the sight, and tightens his hold on his bow again.

“Die!” he spits, and strings another four arrows, firing them all at once with a flourish.

As if in slow motion, Arai watches as the arrows fly through the air. He remains standing still, helpless to dodge the attack. At once, all four arrows hurtle in a straight line through the air, all four piercing him on the same spot on his chest one by one.

Arai stumbles backwards, and trips over the edge of the breached path he’d created himself, plummeting straight down the bridge and falling into the abyss below.

Arayu smirks satisfactorily at the downfall of Arai. “Humph,” he sneers. However, his eyes abruptly widen in alarm as he feels a strong grip around his left ankle. Arayu glances down and sees a powerful stream of electrical current in the shape of an arm and a hand grasping his ankle.

He shouts in surprise and attempts to shake it off, but as Arai falls, the arm draws backwards as well, forcing Arayu to stumble and trip, falling down into the abyss below as well.

Ryuu bursts through the wooden door and spins around, as a loud explosion sounds behind him and the door collapses, barring the way in and out. Ryuu stands alone inside the new room, Silver having failed to follow.

‘Wonder what’s going on on the other side,’ Ryuu wonders, glancing backwards at the fallen doorway.

“Having fun, Ryuu?” a clear, female voice suddenly rings throughout the room.

Ryuu spins around almost instantly, peering around in the slightly gloomy room for the source of the voice. At once, Ayame appears before him, the hood of her cloak thrown down, revealing her long purple hair, and a pair of bright red eyes.

“Ayame,” Ryuu growls under his breath. “So good to see you.”

Kunai explodes past the doorway behind him and shuts it, unable to watch the scene behind. Instead, he turns and glances around inside the room. ‘Arai…you damn well better come back soon.’

Footsteps ring throughout the empty hallway inside, and Kunai turns just in time to see a new, darkened figure approaching him. As the figure nears, Kunai sees that it is a darkly cloaked person, walking silently towards him.

As the figure nears Kunai, it draws back its hood, revealing a trail of wavy dark hair, and a pair of equally cold, darkened eyes. He suddenly rips the cloak off of himself, revealing a Casters equipped on his arm and a set of Tobis by his side.

“Sh-Shuriken?” Kunai whispers.

“Surprised, Kunai?” Shuriken mutters, his voice echoing slightly, “I’m your enemy for today.”

Next Time: Episode 53 The Palace of the Setting Sun

Kunai: Arai gone, Ryuu gone, Silver gone, Ivy waiting up ahead…I’ve gotta get past you, Shuriken!

Shuriken: You’ll have to defeat me in order to do so.

Kunai: It’s about time you died, traitor!

Shuriken: See if you can land a blow on me!

Episode 53 The Palace of the Setting Sun coming soon!