~Notes~
I’m on a roll today. ^^ Anyway, if you don’t go ZOMG by the end of this chapter, I’ll cut your head off.

Episode 30 The Opening of the Underworld and the Awakening of the Beast

“Kunai…” Ivy mumbles sadly, peering into the pale face of the Hermit. “Please, please be okay…”

As if reacting to her words, Kunai suddenly appears to stir, though he doesn’t open his eyes. He merely grabs Ivy’s wrist, clutching onto it weakly. Then as another spasm of darkness sweeps over him, his grip slackens, and his arm drops back to his side, useless.

The pair of yellow eyes disappears from the darkness, to be replaced by a pair of red eyes. The red eyes survey the dark room silently for several moments.

Presently, the eyes disappear as well, as the dark form of a lone figure emerges from the darkness. A pair of red eyes glare out from under tufts of jet-black hair. “I feel something…calling out to me…” it whispers, in a slithering, wandering voice.

With another clink of metal scraping against her axe, Lily finally drops to her feet, collapsing from fatigue and exhaustion. Above her, Iris stands victoriously, smirking down at the girl. “I’ve finally got you…” she smirks, badly failing to hide her glee.

However, meanwhile, Shuriken, Arayu, and Zack begin to tire as well during their fight with Noel. Azuria soon joins them, having worn out Ryuu and Ayame.

The two of them, Ryuu and Ayame, lay side by side on the ground, breathing heavily. Bishop Calburn leans over them, pressing his staff close to each of their hearts, transferring a steady glow of electric green light.

The two Church Guards stand on either side of the Bishop, guarding him as he conducts his healing. “Thank you,” Bishop Calburn mutters to them, “for warding off that Soul Eater. Otherwise, there mightn’t be anything left to heal.”

Ezekiel suddenly breaks free from Lord Kimura, leaving him panting in his wake. Ezekiel signals to both Noel and Azuria, and suddenly the two of them break away from their fights as well, retreating to the head of the valley.

“Come down here!” Arayu shouts angrily to the three.

Shuriken and Zack both hurry to clamber up the valley cliff to join the three Soul Eaters; however, on the way up, they meet Noel and Azuria, blocking their way.

“If it’s a fight here you want, then you’ve got it!” Zack shouts aloud to the two Soul Eaters, nodding to Shuriken. “Let’s go!”

“No!” Lord Kimura orders from below, “Take out the leader. He’s casting the spell to open the gate!”

Arayu begins to scramble up the hill as well, but is forced to pause as Noel aims several dangerously accurate Arrow Bombs in his direction.

“O Great Protector and Nurturer of the Darkness, I beseech thee…” Ezekiel mumbles. A ray of black light suddenly connects he and the altar at the other end of the valley.

With a rumble, the very earth begins convulsing with powerful earthquakes, as the strangely faint outlines of the doors to the Underworld come into clear view. Boulders are shaken loose from the quakes, as everyone struggles to maintain their stance under the immense shaking of the ground.

“Noble crown descended from the depths of eternal time from the bowels of the inferno,” Ezekiel continues, “shine thy majesty of black sunshine unto this undeserving world… I beseech thee, Mother of the Eternal Unknown, from whose womb gave birth to these rays of mirrored darkness…”

“Arayu! Zack! Iris! Shuriken!” Lord Kimura cries, abandoning all pretense of nonchalance, “Draw back! Prepare to seal the gate! It is about to open!”

Obeying their master’s orders, Shuriken, Arayu, Iris, and Zack immediately withdraw to Lord Kimura’s side, standing loyally next to him. Lord Kimura hurriedly scrambles to retrieve from within the folds of his cloak an ancient scroll, riddled with scorch marks and tears.

“Is that it?” Arayu mutters under his breath.

“Yes,” Lord Kimura responds, “this is the scroll Shuriken and I spent so long searching for. We had limited time to find it, especially with those pesky Joukai on our tails.

“Wouldn’t it be better to just capture the Third Phoneme right now and seal the door with her power?” Iris asks, staring at the cracked scroll.

“Of course,” Lord Kimura replies, “however, we’ve not time to break open her soul and take the power. That is why we must temporarily seal the door with this. If Lilith is released from the Underworld, not even I will be able to stop her…”

“…and thus utter from thy holy lips the cry of despair! Come forth! Descend from the bowels of darkness in which you’ve been ensnared…DESCEND! LILITH OF THE ABYSS!” Ezekiel finishes the incantation, and at once the doors of the Underworld begin to creak open, exposing the gigantic nails of some terrible beast.

A roar descends from the doors, and shakes the very earth with its menace. Ryuu glares up in wonder at the power of the beast breaking forth from the doors. ‘Can this be…? Is it really going to come out?’

Suddenly, Lord Kimura breaks out in his own incantation, echoed by the recitations of Shuriken, Arayu, Zack, and Iris as well. “O Angel that watches over Life…protector of the innocent and banisher of the darkness, grant me thy strength! Grant me thy power that transcends time in order to seal the darkness which empowers us all…

“As the lightning that descends from the black sky, strike down this dark malevolence! SEAL!” Even as the doors begin to open, at the cry of “SEAL!” the doors are suddenly thrust back, closing even as the beast begins to roar its hideous growl in protest.

The Soul Eaters turn to Lord Kimura in outrage, having failed in their attempt to open the door. Without anymore words, the Soul Eaters leap across the valley, and fly through the closing doors, vanishing with the vanquished roar of Lilith.

Ryuu glances up at this sight, and suddenly is struck by an idea. He grabs Ayame, who is still weakly recovering from her collapse. “Are you strong enough to move?”

“I-I think so,” Ayame mutters. “Why?”

“We’re leaving the Night World,” Ryuu answers.

“What?!” Ayame cries, “You don’t mean…you can’t possibly mean…”

“Grab Sasha and Lily. I’ll get the others. Go through the door, and hopefully we’ll meet up at the other end,” Ryuu answers, without answering the question directly.

“Right,” Ayame mutters, and slings the unconscious Sasha over her shoulders. Then, grabbing Lily’s hand, Ayame automatically Hastes herself, and makes a flying leap to disappear through the closing doors.

Ryuu hurriedly approaches Ivy and Kunai, as Ivy still stubbornly attempts to heal Kunai. “You,” Ryuu says to Ivy, “we’re going now. Grab Kunai and lets go.”

“What?” Ivy cries, stunned.

“We’re getting out of here!” Ryuu growls, and grabbing Ivy forcefully by the hand, he nearly drags she and Kunai the rest of the way, disappearing through the Gates of Hell.

With a deafening boom, the Gates of Hell clang shut, having swallowed up the Soul Eaters and the Joukai. The four Naraku and Lord Kimura remain behind, staring at the closed doors.

“Lord Kimura,” Shuriken mutters, “is it all right to allow them to get away?”

“They will not remain in the Underworld for long,” Lord Kimura replies. “No, there is no need to devote our time to futilely chasing after them. They will reappear in Rift soon enough.”

“Then we shall return to the Rift World?” Arayu asks.

“Yes,” Lord Kimura replies, “we must depart to the Doors of Dimension and return to the Maple World at once. We shall move on to the Rift World from there. However, first we have some business that must be taken care of.”

“What business?” Iris asks.

“Ah, alas,’ Lord Kimura smirks, “the actions the Joukai have made here cannot be ignored. The Night World is a powerful ally of the Maple World. Undoubtedly, the presence of those five have destroyed any pretense we may have had of bearing a good name in this world. The Charemis Monarchy will now, no doubt, begin to wage war against our empire.”

“What do you suggest we do?” Zack wonders.

“Simple,” Lord Kimura replies, a dangerous smile appearing on his face, “the five of us shall destroy the Charemis Monarchy by ourselves. It is simpler than it sounds.”

The pair of red eyes continue to glare in the dim darkness. Every now and then, the pang of an echo rings in the silence, as the figure to which the eyes belong to stands still, silently searching for the source of the echoes.

“Something calls for me…” the red-eyed creature wails, “something…this…this is exciting me! It is a voice I have not heard for such a long time…it calls for me! Living souls have suddenly entered the realm of the dead…and one of them calls for me.”

“WHOOOAAA!” Ryuu, Ayame, Lily, and Ivy scream, as they hurdle through the blackness of a dimensional trench. Wind rips through their hair and clothes, slashing at their faces as the speed of their bodies hurdling through the darkness increases.

“What’s happeningggg?!” Ayame cries, as she struggles to maintain a hold on something. However, her groping figures touch nothing but icy air lost in the dark trench.

Ivy and Ayame struggle fiercely to hang onto the limbs of the unconscious Kunai and Sasha, as soon a flash of white light startles the entire group, and then suddenly the sensation of flying through the trench ends.

Ryuu grunts as his feet touch solid ground. He wobbles slightly, unused to the unmoving earth. As he runs his hand through his ruffled hair, glancing around at their dim surroundings, he groans. “Finally, we’re here…”

“Where are we?” Ivy asks, peering about. She clutches Kunai’s limp arm desperately, watching his pale face twist with silent pain. Suddenly, Kunai’s limp arm stiffens with renewed vigor.

Ivy peers down in surprise at the response from Kunai. She shakes him gently, peering into his face. “Kunai. Kunai, are you waking up?” she whispers into his ear.

However, the seal on Myou merely glows slightly in response, and then Kunai grows limp again, his arms falling uselessly to the ground.

“Where are we?” Ivy asks again.

Ryuu glares at their surroundings. The floor is nothing but harsh, black dirt, as if scorched with some sort of fire. The air is thick with a patchy, gray fog, that seems to stifle the throat. Around them, luminous gray stones protrude from the ground, like misshapen gravestones in the darkness.

Before them, apparently very far off in the distance, stands a dark tower, with bastions surrounding its dank stone walls. The tower stretches far off into the sky, disappearing amongst the dark shadows of the patchy fog in the air.

Running in a loop around the tower is a river of gray water. The noise of running water sounds greatly in the stilled silence; however, the water does not appear to be moving, but rather, lies as a pool of murky liquid. Off in the distance, the long, trailing forms of trains with lit windows can be seen running back and forth. Their ominous whistles sound, disturbing the graveyard silence.

“We’re in the Underworld, apparently,” Ryuu growls in reply, his voice creating a strange disturbance in the silence. As if reacting to his voice, a breeze blows by, murmuring softly. Suddenly, the murmuring voices disappear, leaving nothing but a stifled silence once again.

“Where are the Soul Eaters?” Lily wonders, staring about. “I thought we followed them in.”

“Moreover,” Ayame mutters, shivering slightly, “let’s get out of here first. This place is creeping me out. Aren’t there any other people here? I thought that this is where the dead come to when they die.”

“Welcome to the Underworld!” a clear, cheerful voice suddenly cries out loud. A dark, shadowy figure suddenly emerges from the folds of the dark fog, and makes his way into the dim light surrounding Ryuu, Ivy, Ayame, and Lily. “I am—uh, wait a minute, you’re…!”

“ARAI?!” Ryuu and Ivy shout as one.

Next Time: Episode 31 The Gods of Life and Death

Arai: I want cookies!

Ryuu: I never thought I’d have to put up with you again…

Arai: Aww, come on, Ryuu! You know you missed me!

Ryuu: Peh.

Episode 31 The Gods of Life and Death coming soon!