@FujiwaraPhoenix @Drifting Pollen @Lugubrious @VitaVitaAR





A downed, bisected skeleton dragged itself across, trying to reach its weapon to continue fighting-

CRACK!

But Fran put a stop to it by stomping on its skull, destroying it and rendering the skeleton dead once more. As the berserker checked on her companions, she would see that the last of the remaining undead being dispatched, ending the threat. In the Servant's honest opinion, this fight was too easy. Clearly, whoever summoned these skeletons were not expecting a ragtag group of otherworlders with otherworldly abilities to show up. Still, the path was now clear for them to continue. Fran was all for proceeding down the passageway further, confident in dealing with anymore surprises that may pop up. The others, however...

"Do...we...", Fran spoke, turning to her teammates as she pointed her mace down the darkened path. "...pro...ceed?"

Though she had seldom seen Kanako fight in earnest, Sanae felt no real awe as she watched the deity casually fire out multiple massive pillars in complete and utter defiance of the laws of physics in her attempt to crush the spirit standing against them in earnest. It was more of an expected standard to her, really; though Suwako could have been argued to have been the stronger of the two, she was still a god...

Regardless, though, it seemed that the onbashira were enough to completely rout their opponent—though that Sanae would be able to see as much in the moment, given how the few seconds after summoning the deity had left her weak enough to vomit once more. The butterflies, at least, were no immediate threat as she fell victim to her body's inability to stave off the magic threatening her, but at the very least they—and the oil that seemed to be the source of all her ills—were quickly disappearing in turn.

Once she had finished recovering from her brief bout of illness, though, the shrine maiden took a deep breath and finally managed to properly right herself. She still felt lethargic after the fact, but compared to how she had been mere moments before, this was a marked improvement that she would happily take. Steadily, Sanae flew over to what remained of the oiran and, with a brief shake of her head, once again pointed her gohei towards her face...

Or, well, just her eye at this point.

"I can't say that you weren't strong, but you really should learn to fight with less vulgar tactics," she quipped with a half-smile as a five-pointed star formed beneath the spirit's remains. "Not that I'd let you stick around to try again, though; once was more than enough for me."

With that matter settled, Sanae finally felt her legs give out from under her and fell to her knees. The ordeal had left her drained physically, for sure, but she hadn't exactly felt that while flying. It was at this moment, though, that the goddess who had answered her call chose to descend towards the shrine maiden.

"Ah, Kanako-sa-ack!"

Where she had been expecting a bit more of a "warm" reunion, Sanae instead found herself receiving a light chop to the head as Kanako looked at her. She seemed no less pleased with the shrine maiden as she had been when she had arrived, though, which usually didn't bode well.

"I had heard from Suwako that you had been kidnapped—and by another deity, no less—but you are still the shrine maiden for the Moriya Shrine. Please consider your own well-being as you go traipsing about in this fantasy realm, especially if battles here are to the death. Honestly, maybe I should have you train in actual combat instead of danmaku when you return from this venture..." she complained before her stern expression began to soften. "But it's good to see you haven't encountered worse misfortunes since you were first brought here. I'll save the lectures for another time."

With that, though, Kanako briefly glanced around the area, noticing the rather infamous blue-haired hermit and giving her a disapproving glare before finally turning to notice the other person among them who was actually distinctly unfamiliar to the goddess.

"I suppose you're one of those new 'friends' Sanae found when she was brought here. I certainly hope she hasn't caused you too much trouble with her antics," she spoke with a somewhat haughty smile on her face. "I am Yasaka Kanako, the main god of the Moriya Shrine... Though I suppose such a place would matter little to someone plucked from another world. You can just think of me as Sanae's protector for now, then. We may be seeing each other in the future again... Provided this one here actually manages to gather some faith to do so."

@DracoLunaris@VitaVitaAR

---

"Fujiwara, Fujiwara... Huh. Never heard of the surname before, but would I be off the mark in guessing that you were nobility, then?" Suguru replied as he brought one hand to his chin. "Well, I suppose lying about your lineage would also be possible, but I don't think there's any real merit to lying about being both unaging while having perfect physical recovery... I don't suppose that you wouldn't be able to teach someone how you do that, would you?"

The monk's musings were quickly pushed to the wayside, however, once Youmu made the decision to break into the mausoleum proper. Given how lax the jiangshi's guard seemed to have become ever since the fight against Suguru had concluded (especially considering how she was continuing to gnaw on one of his spirits even now), it was no surprise at all that Youmu's motion to simply disarm the undead and leave her lying on the ground would have went off without a hitch. There was a brief pause as the pair that wasn't native to Gensokyo—Carol in particular—seemed to regard the girl with a bit of pity as she tried (and failed) to jostle herself into a position where she wasn't just lying face-down on the paved stone pathway, but that feeling quickly faded once the monk took the opportunity to simply push the doors of the mausoleum open.

With their intended guard out of the way, it didn't seem like there was much in the way of distractions to stall them any longer, at least.

Once the group began to explore the mausoleum in earnest it wouldn't take long to reveal a spiraling stairwell that led into the depths of the underground. Whether or not this was here already or if it was something that the hermit who (presumably) resided here was a question they would have to ask her themselves...

But that didn't exactly change how claustrophobic the place felt or how many spirits were floating around and trying to keep the group from getting further within. Carol, understandably enough, was less than pleased with the fact; Suguru, on the other hand, seemed completely unfazed by them to begin with.

"Eugh. I suppose this is better than those ugly creatures from earlier," the smaller girl complained, shooing at one of the spirits that drew closest to her. "but that chill running through my spine every time they get close is a feeling I could very well live without. I'd rather not try and dissect these things if I could help it, but..."

"Well, I don't sense any cursed energy from them," the monk replied with a shrug, "so it's out of my jurisdiction. There are quite a few negative emotions mixed through a few, though, so I suppose there are a few analogues to my own world."

The musings of the pair continued as the group continued to travel downwards, though the former seemed to be lost in her own thoughts more than actually saying anything meaningful to the group. Eventually, though, the stairwell led into what seemed to be an oddly lavish Chinese-style garden of sorts, complete with flowing water and stone bridges crossing over the artificial ponds and streams as they converged towards a similarly-styled house at their center.

"Is there any chance this 'acquaintance' of yours was brought here well before you were? I cannot fathom anyone being able to construct something like this within a few weeks..." Carol asked with a look of mild bewilderment on her face. "Never mind her thoughts in hiding such a place within a mausoleum and beneath a city, no less...!"

@VitaVitaAR@Raineh Daze

Compared to the tension that build up during the slow, wary descent into the depths of the magic shop, the ensuing brawl against the otherworlders' skeletal attackers was more of a relief than anything. These undead foes certainly didn't pose much of a challenge, and while he was glad to contribute for once, Lewa couldn't claim much credit when it came to nullifying the threat. Not with Fran, Remilia, and Anne around. The presence of such raw power really rendered the ambush anticlimactic, and the realization that he'd been the only one affected by the spooky atmosphere left him with a sheepish smile once the one-sided fight concluded. Why should they fear, after all? Sure, Anne made an effort to rally a proper defense, and Remilia seemed upset, but even that effort seemed wasted when they could swat these rattling bones like gnats. To them, it was just an annoyance. Of course, they were probably not the skeletons' intended targets, but Lewa couldn't help but wonder if this world had anything that could make these people sweat.

Well, with that over, the group had a choice to make. Given the presence of so many enemies in lieu of the man they'd come here to find, it seemed clear that they would return to the quest-giver empty-handed, with nothing but bad news to offer. However, the reveal of that rocky passage and the pitch-black caverns beyond told Lewa that their visit here wasn't quite over just yet. Confident, intrepid, curious, and almost certainly unsatisfied with the prospect of going back now, the others would probably want to delve into the once-hidden cave system in search of answers. And in truth, Lewa would be lying if he said he wasn't curious himself. While the whole concept of large-scale architecture was still fairly new to him, it seemed unlikely that someone could build a basement right next to such a big underground space by accident. If his ragtag crew could find out what really happened here and why, they would be able to offer Serena more than their condolences.

Lewa allowed the shaft of his axe to slide through his fingers, adjusting his grip upward toward the bladed head. Its balance in this position allowed for easy transport during travel while still keeping him armed. Even if his group had little to fear in these parts, he doubted they were out of the woods just yet. If the Great Spirit could fall victim to Makuta's treachery, there were few beings out there that a sufficiently devious sneak attack couldn't fell, and he was resolved to not let that happen to him. Or the others, if they could help it. As long as the little fae remained in their care, her safety was the real problem whenever any combat occurred. Lewa nodded to Fran when she spoke, indicating that the berserker could take point as they continued. "Let us leave no stone unturned."

Once all the enemies were thoroughly dealt with and she had a moment to breathe, Anne let out a sigh of relief and lowered the Fae girl off her shoulder. "Are you okay?" she quietly asked, kneeling down to look the child in the eyes and then giving the rest of her a quick once-over to check for injuries. Nothing would have struck her directly in the battle, but the Knight still didn't know how fragile her charge might be, or what sort of conditions might affect her well-being in situations like this. Would the violence worsen her trauma, or would she just take it in with the same blank stare she seemed to give everything else?

Once she'd verified that the girl at least wasn't badly hurt, Anne turned to the rest of her group. "The mission's technically a failure... Well, I should just call it a job rather than a mission. Anyway, if there are no goods to retrieve, we can't fulfill our obligations to the Princess." Their employer would likely want an explanation and maybe an apology, but she hadn't given any specific orders on what to do in a situation like this. Given the circumstances, Anne thought they could be excused for taking matters into their own hands.

"...It's a pain, but I'm with Lewa on this. If we leave this situation alone, whoever wanders in here next is just going to get killed." Plus, there was the matter of who'd set up those skeletons and why. Anne didn't think old bones just got up and put on armor by themselves, even in this world, which meant they were probably animated by magic. That in turn meant they'd been deliberately placed here and primed to attack any intruders—not the actions of someone with good intentions in mind.

She'd come here promising to protect this city. Even if it meant personal risk and inconvenience, even if it meant subjecting her companions to the same, she would press forward and save those who could still be saved.

Of course, the Fae child didn't have any business being down here with them, but Anne couldn't exactly leave her unsupervised or send her up to the streets on her own. After carefully picking up the girl once again, she followed up at the back of the group, trusting the others to bear the brunt of any further traps.

Mokou gave Suguru an odd look. To recognise the existence of Japanese nobility but not her family? Had they really fallen that far as to be forgotten…? Or was he just completely oblivious to history? Well, he was right: it wasn't really important, aside from maybe giving another reason to go fight those taoist immortals now and then if they wanted a reason more than "we're all immortal, why the hell not?"

"It's a medicine and only one person can make it. Trust me, you'd want rid of this eventually," she answered, shaking her head. Well, if he could find someone else, maybe it would be more bearable… but his very surprise at the concept made it seem doubtful. And there was no way she was letting slip the other method to obtaining the hourai elixir.

As they wandered into the mausoleum, she couldn't avoid noticing that it was very similar to the same one the immortals had built—ah, the jiang shi's owner was one of them, right? But, taoists, that explained a lot. "The taoists in Gensokyo have something like this. I don't know how fast they could get it up, but it's its own sealed world. She could hide it in a crack."

And she only knew that because there was no way anyone was hiding that entire temple they'd sprung up without it being visible. Confirming there was nobody home to fight had been way too slow.

---I can't say I don't feel a little guilty about knocking over the jiangshi. I know she's not totally without any kind of wits, and she didn't resist at all. Probably because she didn't realize what I was doing until it was too late.

But we need to get inside, and we don't need to deal with her trying to stop us. She's not difficult to fight on her own, but it'd still waste time.

... It's familiar in here. More than I expected the interior of the mausoleum to be.

Then again, since this is Kaku Seiga's work, there was no reason to expect anything else.

The spiral staircase is well-lit, at least, and there's spirits but no ghosts. I don't want there to be any ghosts. There better not be.

As one gets close, I lightly place my hand on Roukanken's hilt.

It veers off moments later. I guess they must be somewhat intelligent, maybe. Or maybe it's just coincidence. Despite my nature, I can't claim to know much about the inner workings of spirits like this, and I don't think they would have been directly brought over from Gensokyo to begin with.

It's even more familiar below. This is definitely Kaku Seiga's work. I don't really get how this sort of thing works, but I know that the Taoist Hermits can do something like this.

"Fujiwara-san is right," I say, walking over one of the stone bridges and approaching the building at the center of the space, "I think it's called a Senkai. They must be able to create these quickly, if Kaku Seiga arrived around when the rest of us did."

@Raineh Daze@FujiwaraPhoenix

---

I grip one of the remaining skulls between my fingers. It's human, alright. That much is obvious. Of course, it could technically be from some other race where you'd only be able to tell from seeing their flesh---

But human is close enough.

My slim fingers clutch its fleshless, dusty surface tightly, my eyes narrowed.

"Lazy. There's no style or substance here at all."

Who uses skeletons? They're just unsightly. You can't make them look better with outfits. They don't really fit anything but dusty, unpleasant old underground spaces and other similar locations.

Fairy maids might not be very smart, but they suit their surroundings well. Hobgoblins are ugly, but they're naturally inclined towards housework.

Skeletons are simply unpleasant.

I wind up and throw the skull. It hits the wall with a crunch, fracturing and breaking apart as it meets the stone.

"It's pointless to go to this dismal tunnel if we're just going to turn around and leave immediately," I comment with a sigh, glancing over my shoulder towards the others, "We're going deeper."

I hate it down here, but to be honest I'd hate it even more if we went down here for no reason.

Besides, I can still smell that faint blood-scent on the air.

@Drifting Pollen@Lugubrious@Rezod92@FujiwaraPhoenix

Rayne really, really did not want to be looking at the pulp the butterfly lady had been reduced to by the pillar impacts. She might have been a monstrous murderer but the Witch Knight was still very much not one who dealt in death. There were other things to focus on fortunately, such as a clearly very sick Sanae and her goddess who had done the annihilating Rayne did not care for, who was not making the best impression by delivering a disapproving head chop and mini lecture to the kneeling shrine maiden rather than offering her support for her sorry state.

Somehow Rayne did not find it in herself to be surprised that this goddess also had issues.

Still, that did not mean she shouldn’t be polite (or maybe it even meant she should be even more so given this was the first to be willing and able to do some divine smiting) and so she tipped her hat in greeting upon being addressed and introduced herself as “Rayne, Knight Witch” and then adding that “Sanae’s been no trouble at all?” with her tone indicating that she wasn’t sure what kind of trouble the goddess expected her maiden to have been getting up too.

As she did this, she approached, landing beside Sanae and crouching down to offer: “do you need a hand? Or a shoulder?” because she very much did not seem to be in a state to be walking or flying around unsupported, and the ever helpful Knight Witch was more than willing to lend that support.

Frankly, she felt inclined to insist.

Upon hearing Rayne's response, Kanako crossed her arms and gave a slight nod in reply. There were a few things that the goddess could have attempted to pry into, but it seemed quite evident that this was neither the time nor the place to do so.

"Well, she does have a habit of getting a bit overzealous at the best of times, so if she's showing a bit more prudence with her actions then all the better," the goddess responded in turn as the halfling moved to try and help Sanae up.

Sanae herself had obviously not recovered since her initial loss of strength, and the half-hearted attempts at trying to even push herself back to her feet made it quite obvious that getting back to the inn they had planned to regroup at wasn't going to be in the cards on her own. This, of course, made Rayne's offer of help greatly appreciated.

"Ah, well... I certainly don't think I'll be walking any time soon, so some assistance would certainly help," the green-haired girl replied as she steadily dragged herself back to her feet. There was a sheepish smile on her face as she addressed her companion at first before her attention, inevitably enough, returned towards Kanako. The goddess' attention mirrored her own in turn, and the two faced each other with somewhat mixed emotions about the whole affair.

"I assume you're starting to run a bit low on faith after this miracle, aren't you?" the goddess spoke first as her eyes scanned over the shrine maiden's disheveled form. "You should try and set up a branch shrine here, at the very least. Even something small should suffice in getting enough to contact us, and given the current state of things here..."

"This was a bit more terrifying than the enemies we've seen in this world so far, Kanako-sama, but I understand. I'll get to that as soon as I get the chance," Sanae responded with a light nod.

"Mm. Unfortunately, I used a fair bit of what you provided for the summoning to make sure that the problem here was handled swiftly, so I can't provide you with any particularly helpful abilities like Suwako did. For now, make sure you go rest somewhere safe... And don't get yourself involved in incidents like this unprepared again."

With that, though, the telltale signs of the divinity's disappearance began to show themselves, and with that came the goddess' final words; these, of course, were pointed straight towards the hermit who had chosen to stay out of the situation as their conversation finished.

"As for you... You have a penchant for scheming, so let us hope—for both our sakes—that your decisions won't lead to any regrets further into the future."

With that, the goddess disappeared, leaving the three girls behind with the onbashira that had since left their scars upon the battlefield even now.

@DracoLunaris@VitaVitaAR

---

Hearing Mokou's and Youmu's brief explanations caused the two others with them to fall into though, and the pair briefly paused as they considered the implications of what was just stated. Carol, of course, was the first to speak.

"A pocket dimension, then? I didn't think it was possible to warp space in such a way... And I can't say I'm not intrigued," she began to say as the group finally reached the end of the stairwell leading to the floor. "Your world doesn't really dabble with technology, I assume, so creating and maintaining something like this... You don't suppose it might be possible to replicate if the principles behind it were made clear, perhaps?"

"It's not quite like a Domain, but I think that there are some fundamental similarities in my eyes as well," Suguru spoke on his own as he knelt down near one of the island-like structures and slowly dipped his hand into the water. "Something more like a barrier enclosing a space, maybe?"

As the group continued to walk through the underground garden, though, the distinct lack of any anti-intruder system would feel a bit disconcerting. That feeling would only grow as they finally reached the house whose owner was quite evidently missing at the moment.

"I don't suppose you plan on entering?" Carol asked with a slight frown. "Technically, we've already broken in, but the lack of any defenses leaves me at least somewhat concerned..."

@VitaVitaAR@Raineh Daze

---

Once the brief clash with the armored undead had subsided, the fae child seemed to regard Anne with the faintest of nods. A brief glance towards the remnants of the battle, however, would do little more than cause her attention to linger on them for a brief moment before a return to passivity.

Compared to her practically nonexistent responses to the world around her up until this point, whether or not this was an improvement remained to be seen.

Regardless of her thoughts, though, the group's intention to push forward into the cavern was made quite clear, and one by one the travelers began to move forward. For what little it was worth, the mouth through which they passed through was uncannily wide to begin with. That width did not seem to diminish my any means as the group continued to push forward, which might have been a concern all it's own. Examination of the cave walls—if anyone thought to try and do so in the hollow darkness—would at least reveal that the wall had not been chiseled through so much as it had been carved and hollowed out by something, though.

As to whether or not that had any influence on the matter was a different question entirely.

The stifled atmosphere of the path leading forward coupled with naught but the sounds of the group's own footsteps for the next few minutes. Supposing the group had found some means by which to light the way forward, however, it would be at this point that they would encounter a pair of uncannily large humanoid beasts blocking the way forward. Their size easily seemed to double Anne's, and the massive halberds that they held in their grasp seemed no less imposing. Coupled with the bovine face masks and the cloven, hooved feet that might have been visible between the armor that they wore, however, and it would be clear that they were some sort of minotaur-esque creature.

The fact that no breathing could be heard from them as they wordlessly turned to the group before striking out, however, probably did not bode well in general.

As the probably-undead minotaurs began their assault, though, an uncanny chill would run down the necks of those closer to the rear. A brief glance behind them would reveal nothing more than what might have been a red gleam, visible for a fraction of a second before disappearing.

Would that have been all, though. A blob of malformed, tar-black magical energy seemed to come out of the darkness past where the group would have been able to see much of anything and barreled straight towards Anne and the child she was carrying.

Needless to say, the fae child's immediate response to seeing such a sight was to tense up and grip onto Anne as tight as she could, and with an expression of wordless fright that barely belied what might have been running through her head in the moment.

@VitaVitaAR@Drifting Pollen@Rezod92@Lugubrious

"If you want to do something like that… you'd need to ask the taoists. Or maybe the ones that made Gensokyo. Or the Lunarians? But the taoists would be easier to get," Mokou answered, shrugging. She didn't know how these things worked beyond… well, Gensokyo was sealed off, the taoist mausoleum couldn't physically exist where it was, and whatever vague knowledge about the lunar capital trying to kill Kaguya brought.

That nobody was at home didn't particularly seem to stop the immortal, who just went straight up to the door and tried to go in. What's the worst that could happen?

As Lewa advanced alongside the others into the dark passage, he remained alert and ready. He did not jump at shadows, though, or peer about with nervous restlessness. After proving himself amongst his peers, whose remarkable abilities scarcely needing demonstration by now, he felt like he could afford to be more brave--though never cocky. Though much better than a claustrophobic squeeze through cramped nooks and crannies, this spacious tunnel offered its own dangers by virtue of the sheer numbers of angles attack could come from. Furthermore, such huge swathes of inky blackness could be home to unseen behemoths, waiting just out of view to pounce on any prospective intruders and devour them whole. All that meant that any carelessness on Lewa's part could lead to dire consequences, but the toa nevertheless strove to keep his head on straight, and not feed his pessimistic side any further. After all, his travels through this bizarre world had it bloated enough already.

After a few minutes' suspense, the otherworlders' uneventful advance came to an abrupt end. From the darkness loomed two enormous figures, chillingly silent and still. Just when Lewa was beginning to get somewhat used to basic human anatomy, these monstrous bipeds went and defied it, with heads and legs arranged in all the wrong ways. Much more worrying, though, were the huge polearms that the pair soon hefted to wield with lethal intent.

Lewa leaped backward as the minotaurs took their first ferocious swings, putting as much distance between them and himself as possible. As impressive as his axe was, those heavy halberds made his own weapon look like a matoran's plaything, and the toa didn't even want to chance blocking a cleave from one. Luckily this wide-open cavern gave him plenty of room to move, and jumping happened to be something of a talent of his. Assuming that one of the others could put up enough of an up-front fight to get the minotaurs' attention, he hung back in order to support the team effort from afar. With a whirl of his off hand he manipulated the air pressure in the cave, creating a strong current from behind him that would buffet the monsters head-on. Any projectiles -or people- thrown toward them would fly with greater speed, while the two would (hopefully) be harder-pressed to rush the otherworlders down. Next, he gathered his power and began to hurl handfuls of highly compressed air that would rupture on contact with his foes, knocking them askew with blasts of concussive force. With Lewa's full attention on the main event, he did not notice the stealthy assailant come from behind, though perhaps his currents would interfere with rogue projectiles.

The Fae child's response was there and gone in a blink, but that was enough to flood Anne's heart with a rush of relief. Maybe she wasn't all the way back just yet, but that kid was still in there, somewhere, tiptoeing slowly back towards the waking world. There was still hope for her yet—if only Anne could keep her safe.

Again, a twinge of doubt urged her to leave this place altogether, and again, she reminded herself that it couldn't be left as it was. The further the tunnel went, the more she became convinced of this fact, as the true scale of the system down here became clear. Had someone really dug all this just to get in through the back of a single magic shop, or was this merely an extension of something far larger, a network that might stretch beneath the entire city of Nieve?

Before they could find out, a new threat reared its ugly head. Anne couldn't make out exactly what had abruptly stymied the group's advance, but from the others' reactions she could guess it wasn't anything good. She stopped in her tracks and squinted, trying to get a lock on the number of enemies, to come up with a plan of attack before everything went to hell.

She never got the chance. Instincts honed over years of fighting screamed all at once in the back of her mind, and she whipped around just fast enough to glimpse a flicker of red disappear into the black. The projectile that followed was nearly invisible in the shadows, and Anne's tired eyes couldn't track it even as it sped straight towards her and her vulnerable charge.

It was only less than half a second before impact that she dropped to the floor and slipped beneath the mass of darkness like a ghost. Her free hand swept out the edge of her longcoat to clash against the lower edge of the magical attack, and for a brief moment the tunnel lit up with a faint blue glow as the Defensive Coat's hexagonal forcefields clashed with whatever energy had been thrown at her. An instant later, the dark mass ricocheted upward to splash against the ceiling, no longer a threat to Anne or her companions.

She hadn't seen that attack. It had been the Fae kid who picked it out, and the tight squeeze of her grip that alerted Anne to the projectile's timing and direction. She'd learned long ago that anyone's decisions could be conceptualized as a melody, a rhythm that dictated their every move in a fight, and the Knight could hear the girl's now, high and frightened like a string pulled taught on a fiddle. By reading the child, she could read what she was reacting to, even if Anne herself couldn't directly perceive it.

Quick as a whip, she rolled back to her feet, careful not to squash her charge in the process. She could already feel the ache in her bones, the urge to end this quickly before she had to start pushing herself for real. Normally she'd have lunged forward then, closing the distance and cutting down the enemy before they could get off another shot—but with an innocent's life in her hands, should she really risk going close-quarters with an enemy of unknown skill and ability?

She'd faced worse odds before. But this time was different: this time she was neither alone nor outgunned. Based on the prior positions of her allies, based on their fighting styles and their initial responses to the other enemies ahead, the correct choice was...

"Lady Remilia! Behind us!!"

...To pray the vampiress wasn't so haughty as to leave her backup maid in a pickle.

@Lugubrious@FujiwaraPhoenix@VitaVitaAR@Rezod92

“Oh, ok?” Rayne replied to the news that Sanae often got ‘over zealous’ which she didn’t really understand. Maybe, given that they’d both happily dived head first into the mess they had had to be divinely bailed out of, this should have been telling.,

This wasn’t exactly the moment for introspection however.

Instead the Knight Witch focused on making sure she supported Sanae’s weight with all her might, which was, due to her short stature, not exactly a lot. Still, her levitation would add to it, and she needed to use it to get up to a useful supporting height anyway.

As such she floated upwards with one of Sanae’s arms slung around her shoulders and held lightly by the wrist, while her own arm went around the woman’s back to further help hold her up. She then did her best to act as a support/armrests while the priestess completed her conversation with her goddess, before said goddess focused on Qing'e with some familiarity.

“Wait. Is she from your world as well?” Rayne asked Sanae in place of the goddess, due to the latter having vanished right after giving the woman she was talking about a combination of warning and threat, before calling over to her “hey, are you alright?” because no matter what the situation, or what trickery might have gone, she was still glad that Qing'e was alive. She was also concerned that she might not be as unharmed as she appeared. For all she knew she might just be enduring the same sickness Sanae was suffering better, and that is before she thought about whatever fate she’d survived might have done to her.

The moment the door to the smaller structure opens, I wrinkle my nose. There's a strange scent, acrid and chemical, assaulting my senses immediately. It's not intolerable, but it's certainly not pleasant.

As I follow Fujiwara-san inside, I can see why immediately.

On a large table, a corpse has been stretched. It's a young man, his body looking withered but without decay. I don't know much about these things, but I guess he's probably been preserved in some way.

That's only a small solace, given the fact that his entire torso has been cut open, dry flesh pinned aside, to reveal his completely emptied insides.

I can't help but step back, recoiling from the sight. It's not as if the use of corpses is surprising given it's Kaku Seiga, but I can't help but feel a wave of nausea, my stomach turning.

"Ergh, it's---" I place a hand over my mouth and try to clear my head, taking a deep breath. Whatever preservative agent is in the dead body has at least eliminated whatever scent it would be putting off. The chemical smell isn't pleasant, but it's better then the smell of death.

Aside from the obvious sight of the corpse, there's a number of other items in the chinese Necromancer's workshop. A large jar, with some faint sounds coming from inside and the top tightly sealed. A large number of scrolls and books neatly stacked on counterspace around the center. A collection of rods of wood and steel, with a faint light surrounding their tips, leaning off to one side. A large sack that looks as if it's filled with coins.

And---

I take another step back. I'd been distracted by the vivisected corpse, but there's something even more ominous than that here.

Surrounded by a few talismans is a perfect sphere that appears to be made out of a pitch-black glass. Looking at it sends a chill up my spin, my phantom half twitching back and forth beside me.

It's not simply that all these items are stolen, because there's no doubt in my mind that someone was wicked as Kaku Seiga has spent plenty of time stealing since she arrived here.

It's that there's a heavy sense of malignancy hanging in the air all around me.

And the darkest point is that head-sized jewel.

"... This is..." I trail off, "Maybe I should have expected something like this..."

@Raineh Daze@FujiwaraPhoenix

---

The blue-haired woman had been uncharacteristically quiet and withdrawn in the presence of one of Sanae's gods. However, the moment she disappeared, she stepped forward once more.

"I'm a little queasy, that curse was certainly unpleasant," she began, with a casual wave of her hand. If she was in more pain then she appeared, it was difficult to tell.

"But I'm quite alright, now," she continued with a friendly smile, "There's no need to be concerned. Mmm, but I should properly introduce myself, shouldn't I..."

The somewhat ethereal-seeming woman bowed.

"While Qing'e is my name, that miko would know me far better as Kaku Seiga," she began as she rose to her feet, "I am ahermit who follows the Tao, and the one responsible for your victory. I expect thanks, you know~"

The smirk she flashed towards Sanae was something she could never have managed in the presence of Yasaka Kanako, but with the god's departure she felt perfectly confident in doing so.

In the moments after the oiran ghost's defeat, their surroundings had shifted once more. This time, there was no longer any fire, nor any signs of an open street. If anything, it felt rather cool.

Instead, it was a dusty, dark basement. Perhaps that was what had always been there, in reality.

The gory mess that had been left behind by the ghost's defeat had disappeared completely, as well, without a trace.

"... Mmm, unfortunate, it's as if her presence has been pulled away elsewhere," commented Seiga, frowning, now, "Harnessing the abilities of such a powerful ghost would have been a lovely reward for our public service in her removal."

She let out a sigh.

"Oh well. I'm sure whoever has her bound is happy to have her back. Now then---"

The needle between her right forefinger and thumb gleamed.

"Kochiya still seems a little bit unsteady. I can help clear the remains of the curse more quickly, you know, though we'll have to return to my Senkai. It won't take long, and I'm sure a mage like yourself must be curious what a 'Senkai' is, are you not, Rayne?"

Exactly how a quick return would be possible was something of a mystery, at least until Seiga dragged the tip of her needle in a circular motion against the nearest wall.

In an instant, the solid wood and stone disappeared, a hole appearing immediately to form a passage through the earth.

"Come along~"

@DracoLunaris@FujiwaraPhoenix

---

---Tch.

Rotten. Everything here is rotten. Even these bull-beasts, despite looking fairly intact, have a faint rotten odor coming from them and no audible breath or beating heart. At this point, I'd have taken the chance if they were still alive despite their inhuman nature.

But I'd never allow rotten blood to pass my lips.

The tarnished silver of a halberd's blade comes hurtling towards me.

Right now, I don't have the power to block. As frustrating as it is, I don't have any choice but move.

The air rushes past me, cut by the edge of the undead bull-beast's weapon as I throw myself backwards. If I were properly fed, I have no doubt I'd overpower these creatures if I had to resort to using my bare hands.

But I'm hardly interested in touching them, even putting aside the fact that I don't have the energy to do it without being injured.

But feeding on that Hourai Immortal did give me enough power for something like this.

I stretch out my right arm as my feet hit the ground, channeling heat down through it and into my palm.

It won't be its true splendor. It won't be the weapon worthy of the Scarlet Devil. But it'll be enough for this much, at least.

A crimson light emerges from my palm, twisting and curling itself inwards before pushing back out into a single, needle-like point.

With a flick of my wrist I send it hurtling through the air with a crack and a scent of iron. It illuminates the tunnel for a few moments, casting everything in a red glow before striking the foremost of the undead minotaurs in the right shoulder. Living flesh can't possibly resist it, so dead flesh certainly can't.

It tears free, blowing through skin and muscle and bone and emerging from the other side, the weight of the muscular limb tearing through the tiny strands of flesh that remain and sending it falling to the ground with a full thud.

---I'd have liked to hit the head, but for now this is good enough. I'll just take---Behind?

Hmph, this person really is a coward!"

I turn on my heel. My acting maid is concealing the young fairy girl with her body as a blackened ooze flies through the air towards her.

Is everything down here about being dark and ugly and mouldy and foul?!

I channel red light through my arm and into my palm again, releasing it as swiftly as possible and sending it through the dark muck, scattering it across the stone floor.

I'm not about to let any harm come to the ones fighting alongside me, not if I can help it. And I'm certainly not going to let that girl get hurt.

What kind of self-respecting noble would slack off so much as to be unable to help?

"A big, stupid coward!"

I can't help but complain.

"Sending corpses after us, attacking from behind---And this completely rotten sense of style! I hate it, I hate all of it!"

Before they die, I'll give them a piece of my mind when we find them.

@Drifting Pollen@Lugubrious@Rezod92

@FujiwaraPhoenix @Drifting Pollen @Lugubrious @VitaVitaAR





"Grrraaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

With Remilia veering off to assist Anne in fighting the shadowy assailant in the rear, Fran let loose a battle cry as she rushed forward to aid Lewa in dealing with the undead minotaurs, one of which her vampire companion did strike down, but due to them being....well undead, it came as no surprise that downed and fatally wounded beastman was trying to get back up.

To which the berserker Servant would swiftly put an end to that endeavor as she swung her mace overhead toward her enemy's skull, blood and grey matter splattering the floors and walls as she finished the job Remilia started. Wasting no time, Fran turned her attention to the other minotaur, who was being buffeted by Lewa's wind attacks. With the enemy distracted, she ran in and blindsided the beastman with an electrically charged mace swing, cracking several ribs and the minotaur crashing against a wall. Before the undead corpse could even fall to the ground, Fran slammed it into the wall again with a shoulder check before proceeding to wail on it with mace strike after mace strike.

A brutal and graphic beatdown, but Fran wasn't stopping until it stopped moving.

Once the goddess had disappeared in her entirety, Sanae let herself slacken ever so slighty. Supported by Rayne as she was, the young woman felt enough leeway now to let herself relax, if only for a moment. The Knight Witch's prompt about the nature of their helper here, however, promptly reminded Sanae that they weren't quite out of the proverbial woods yet.

"Ah... Yeah, she certainly is. I had the, uh... Pleasure of having to fight her in the past, and even under danmaku rules..." the shrine maiden trailed off before sighing. "...I'll just say that my feelings about her are a bit complicated for now and leave it at that."

It was at this point that the hermit had chosen to introduce herself to Rayne proper, and in so doing caused an expression of mixed distaste and frustration to cross the young woman's face in turn.

"I can't say you didn't help us out there or that this wasn't going to be a problem that we'd have to deal with eventually, but I feel like you had other reasons to bring us here," Sanae replied in turn, giving the blue-haired woman a bit of a side-eye as she mentioned trying to make use of the ghost that they had only really scraped by fighting.

With the building free of it's wrathful resident, though, there seemed to be little reason to linger for much longer. Despite her misgivings about Seiga, though, the shrine maiden could not deny that spending some time resting would do her some good.

Given that they still didn't exactly have much money to throw around—especially after purchasing that tome which had somehow escaped damage during the battle—it was hard to deny the offer.

"...Thank you for your hospitality," she remarked as she slowly floated towards the hole that Seiga had carved in the wall. "I'll be in your care.



Though traveling through Seiga's hole in the ground was a bit disconcerting on it's own (especially with little more than her words to go off of), the trio soon emerged out of the ground akin to moles popping out of a tunnel. The trip certainly took a while longer than Sanae would have liked (that is, to say, any longer than a few seconds), but she couldn't deny that the hermit was nothing if not efficient in her method of escape. The question of how the owners of the brothel would deal with the new, perfectly-carved tunnel that led straight towards a graveyard did cross her mind, of course, but the shrine maiden was far from any position to wonder about covering things up any more than that for the moment.

Once they had emerged, though, the first thing that Seiga would lay eyes upon—and the others in turn—would be the charm-less jiangshi laying face-first on the ground nearby. The doors to the mausoleum behind her were visibly ajar, but the fact that she had been dispatched in the first place...

"...I assume you had some guests while we were handling that mess," Sanae remarked as she attempted to shift her body into a slightly more comfortable position while still leaning on Rayne for support. "Should we get ready for another fight? I'm still a bit queasy, but..."

@DracoLunaris@VitaVitaAR

---

Despite her own apparent misgivings about so casually entering the house to begin with, Carol soon followed both the two white-haired girls (and Suguru, who seemed just as nonplussed as the other two) into the house. Instead of the same sort of revulsion that Youmu presented, however, the small girl would simply regard the preserved corpse with a bit of mild interest.

"I suppose the owner must work with the deceased regularly to be so willing to openly treat and embalm a body," she remarked before skimming over the body proper. "Cleaned, free of more biodegradable matter before preservation... I'm no expert in matters like these, but at the very least I can say that there was at least some deliberate methodology in how this was handled. Whether or not it was the owner who did this or if it was taken from the graves above is a different matter, but I'm not sure if I'm all too willing to meet someone willing to work on corpses in their own home..."

Suguru, however, seemed to be less than pleased with the contents of the house. It wasn't the body that had distracted him so much as the same orb that Youmu had found herself drawn to. Unconsciously, the monk strode forward and, ignoring the talismans surrounding it, moved his hand towards it out of curiosity.

"Don't you dare," Carol remarked as she continued to peruse the rest of the goods littering the shelves, causing Suguru to turn to face her with a mildly annoyed expression on his face. "Even I can feel the malignant energy coming from whatever that is, and trying to do anything with it without analysis is asking for trouble."

With that, the cloaked girl walked over to examine the orb in turn. Slowly, she began to pace around, craning her neck on occasion in an attempt to get different views of the object in question before nodding her head.

"Hm... Unfortunately, I don't believe that I can do anything of the sort without risk, either. I do have to wonder how this got here to begin with, though; if this space didn't exist before the arrival of it's owner to this world, then why would she possess it to begin with?"

There was a brief pause before Carol turned to face both Youmu and Mokou with a question of her own.

"Is there a possibility that your acquaintance could have made this? If so, it might be prudent to try and neutralize her before trying to handle this here."

@VitaVitaAR@Raineh Daze

---

The chaos that erupted in the cavern as the two massive undead heaved their weapons at the group seemed to shake the cavern itself, stones and dirt falling to the ground as both the shadowy magicks from the darkness and one of the undead fighters' arms went flying into the walls in quick succession. For what little it was worth, the group of four (five, if you counted the fae in Anne's arms) did not seem too much worse for wear after the initial clash, and Lewa's buffeting winds providing cover combined with Fran's unrelenting rampage against the sole undead she hadn't already dispatched would have meant that the battle ended as quickly as it had began.

Unfortunately, the cavern, though large, was not necessarily quite as stable as one might have otherwise hoped for. It certainly didn't seem to be made for handling the barrage of blows that the Berserker was doling out as she smashed the undead minotaur into a mess of metal and guts and created a crater as it slowly began to fail to even attempt to resist. The telltale rumbling of something quite concerning starting to arise would be coupled with the fae child desperately grasping onto Anne's arm for dear life as a group of the very same enemy that had fired that first blob of magic seemed to slip in and out of the shadows and fired away.

For what it was worth, Lewa's winds did seem to slow the projectiles enough to make them nowhere near as lethally quick as the first had been, but with an impending cave-in hanging over their heads (quite literally, in a sense), the group would have to make a decision soon: push forward or retreat, lest they die in indecision here and now.

@VitaVitaAR@Drifting Pollen@Rezod92@Lugubrious