[Yoshitsune]
I was transfixed in place. The smog of the realm between ceased to smother my senses like a heavy blanket and left me in a strange cave. Behind me, I felt a wave of foreign thoughts and emotions swell into my back. I turned my back to the way forwards and moved to investigate the source.
When I approached the clear barrier that separated my realm from the one outside. My soul trembled and my limbs grew weak. Though they did not move, I could feel with sharp clarity that these were people. Living people.
I was peering blindly into a city center. I felt the exertion of farmers pushing carts through the dusty streets. Feelings of worry and desire echoed out from the silent mouths of merchants attempting to peddle off their wares. Men with swords bound to their sides watched the citizens with great intensity as they sought someone out in the crowd.
Though the sun stayed resolutely in the same spot on the sky and the emotions did not change, I remained engrossed in the scene. The feelings that radiated off of these people was too intoxicating to turn away from.
After a time, I began to conjure up a story for each individual person. What crops they grew, how old they were, what families they had back home; each person had their own unique journey that only I could see. I even named each of them as though I were their true mother. Maybe, if I spoke life into them through their name, they would begin to move again and I would not be filled with such melancholic grief.
It was a sense of normalcy that I was starving for.
This journey through the border realm was more harrowing than the previous time. The illusion that the enemy in the dungeons cast on my mind had brought fresh memories bubbling to the surface; memories that were all too eager to greet me once Ishmael-san and Vendetta had disappeared.
Their disembodied hands were reminded of their dissatisfaction and punished me for seizing even the tiniest amounts of happiness. They clung to me, weighing me down and closing my throat with a tight squeeze.
It was only the feeling of a sense of purpose that allowed me to crawl on hand and knee through the darkness and reach the other side. Each squeeze and rip and yank continued to remind me of why I could no longer give up even after my revenge had concluded.
But, those thoughts had melted away long ago. Even these hands were tranquil upon viewing the scene in front of them. I could feel fingers reaching out to energies that they felt a kinship with as though they were choosing their own parts in the play. They fluttered with excitement each time I named a new person in town.
Stationary, they would continue to imagine the rest of their lives beyond this frozen scene to the point that I could feel the souls on the other side move independently. They would dream of their families, the joys of new children and the grief that sweeps them at loss of friends. One day, they too would die. Some imagined they were surrounded by family while others imagined a passing cloaked in solitude to match the imaginations of their lives. And I would be behind them, imagining the course of my own life and death.
To die in my homeland.
image [https://i.imgur.com/ouEkZiL.jpeg]
Message
Where are you?
And then, like water droplets on a hot day, it all disappeared. Everything that was meticulously built up collapsed. Nothing had happened. Nothing had changed. They all were exactly where we left them, oblivious to the lives we projected onto them.
Like angry locusts, the hands buzzed atop me in a frenzy. I ruined their lives again and they wished to ensure that I pay for it. They scratched and ripped and choked me again until my tears flowed between the cracks in the fingers that covered my eyes.
I could not passively allow them to complete their tantrum. I stabbed my fingernails into the hands squeezing my neck. The pain from the damage flashed in my brain and I stumbled. But, the hands loosened their grip.
I choked air into my lungs and ran deeper into the cave system. Metal barriers barred the way to a sterile path of tile. I skidded to a stop, seeing that a magical tapestry prevented me from continuing onwards. I pressed my hand up to the mana wall to receive a message.
image [https://i.imgur.com/gP2dw3g.jpeg]
Notice
Ticket Required
An invisible force directed me to a small shack to my right. I sprinted over to it and stuck my head into it. I felt no signs of life.
“I need a ticket!” I shouted into the empty room. A message of confirmation appeared in my mind and I felt the mana wall beside me fade away.
I broke into a sprint as I broke onto the tile trail. Arrows led me through an unfamiliar world that I paid little mind to. The ground shook like an earthquake and screaming reverberated off of the walls, driving me forwards at even greater speed. Sparks formed around my body as I imbued mana into my steps.
I descended the stairs with a single leap to be faced with a massive metal behemoth. An aura of suffering radiated off of it to suffocate the station like a wildfire. I scrunched my face in discomfort as I looked around for any signs of my friends. But, I didn’t see anyone.
It was just me and it.
“There you are,” a voice echoed in my mind. “The very last of you to board. Hurry up and get on, I will not tolerate delays.”
“Then, everyone that passed through is on that thing?” I questioned hesitantly.
“Just hurry up you stupid fool. I will leave you.”
The metal beast screamed again and lurched forwards. I could not afford to hesitate further. I could not be left here alone. Without any more thought, I lunged into it. I felt my body dissolve into light that was fished from the platform and reeled into the bellows of the metal beast.
Lights and sounds and sensations briefly sparked in my mind before it disappeared. I could feel innumerable souls brush against me. I thought I felt something familiar, but it was not Ishmael.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
I was drawn further and further backwards until I was suddenly deposited into one of these boxes. My body became solid again and I slid on the ground until I reached a stop. My head snapped around. I was surrounded by other demons.
“Looks like there was one more,” a demon commented. “They’re out of breath too, must have been a late entry. I wonder, does that make you strong or weak?”
“Who cares?” Another questioned with a bored intonation. “I’m just glad this fucking thing finally showed up. I don’t want to spend another minute in that place.”
“Here, here,” a few other demons said in a low, disjointed chorus.
I looked around me. While some auras were more irritated than others, none were outright hostile. I relaxed slightly and found a space along the wall to lean up against.
For a moment, there was only the rumble beneath us. The box rattled and swayed with every move the metallic snake made at the head. It was disorienting and I had to focus on my footing to be thrown around with every jolt and move. Some were not as lucky and spilled to the ground after a particularly violent turn.
My attention passed from demon to demon, but it was difficult to see who was strong and who was weak. Going by my own journey, everyone that made it this far was a true warrior and I needed to be wary of all of them equally.
“So, where did you come through?” A voice asked me.
I looked beside me to see a short-statured demon with bat-like features. Their aura appeared friendly, but there were speckles of something unsavory beneath. However, that applied to everyone in this place. There was nothing specifically strange about them if you didn’t count them trying to strike up small talk.
“I came through Brunswick,” I answered honestly.
“Hmm, never heard of it,” they replied with a shrug. “But, I learned that there are many different realms that you can reach Level 20 in. Just because I haven’t heard of you doesn’t mean you aren’t impressive though. Did you kill someone powerful to get here?”
I could feel the eyes of the demon watch me closely. The dark pockmarks in their aura fluctuated. Uncomfortable, my attention drifted around the room. Our conversation was the only one and they were paying close attention to me. If they had all been together long enough, then I was the only unknown.
I looked to the other side of me to see a snake-headed woman sneering at me for daring to look her way.
“Don’t mind them,” the bat cajoled. “They don’t know how to make good conversation.”
“Fuck you, Liscio,” a demon with the head of a crocodile spat. “Don’t act like any of this is normal. You’ve never seen a beast like this before and you don’t know what the voice has in store for us.”
“Here, here.” The other demons, with exception of the snake-haired woman, said in agreement.
“My comrades and I destroyed the city guarding the Portal and slew its leader. They beat me here, so you may have seen them.”
“You killed one of your realm’s leaders?” The bat questioned with an impressed expression.
“Well, damn,” another demon, a chimp like one said with an approving nod. “No wonder we had to wait so long for you to arrive.”
“Here, here,” the room agreed again.
The atmosphere in the room changed. I could feel that I was viewed far more favorably than when I first arrived. But, something inside didn’t feel quite right. It wasn’t me that killed Armaros, it was my comrades. I didn’t think that they would care if I let this misunderstanding persist, but I could not abide by stealing the honor of another. I felt like a warrior that bragged about achievements that weren’t theirs. It was easy to be the hero when the real one had died.
“Well, I didn’t deliver the blow personally,” I admitted. “I killed one of his officers and many of his subordinates.”
“Was it the other members of the group that you say are here as well?” One of them asked.
“Yes,” I replied, almost sheepishly.
“What did you do to deserve to belong here?” The snake-haired woman barked. “Kill a couple henchmen while your allies took the real glory? And then, you were so slow getting here that you made us wait for God knows how long?”
And, as soon as the respect entered the room, it exited. I was confused, it was not as though I put in no effort, but, even I could admit that it wasn’t to the same extent as Vendetta or Ishmael-san. Had all of these demons achieved similar feats as my partners in their own realms? Was I the sole one riding on the backs of greater people?
“I wouldn’t be so critical if I were you,” A voice boomed throughout the car and snapped us all into attention. “Hello, my dear viewers. Welcome to ChipTV’s exclusive coverage of the Hell Express! I’m your host of this game, Smiles, and I am as just as excited as you are that this production has returned.”
“Who are you?”
“Shut up, it’s not your turn to speak,” the voice admonished. “We have given you the chance to view the profiles and lock in your predictions. Remember, anyone that predicts the winner will be able to choose from a selection of wonderful products offered by virtue of our generous sponsors.”
We were ignored while Smiles listed out names that I had never heard of before. Their voices began accelerating as they navigated the impossibly long list to the point where I was unsure if they were even speaking words or just making sounds with their mouth.
“With that out of the way, how about we clue in our contestants to what they will be doing, eh?”
The floor in the center of the chamber shook even more violently than the rest of the room. A podium extended from the floor. Atop it, a short, multi-colored creature rose into the room with their arms raised to either side of their body in a flourishing pose. A porcelain mask of a smile covered their face.
“Hello, contestants,” Smiles said amicably. “It is wonderful to meet you all face to face. You must be wondering why, out of all the contestants you met in the station, only you are in this chamber. What sort of common factor binds you together? Has anyone figured it out?”
Silence only met Smiles. I looked around the group, but did not see anything common amongst our form or our auras or our postures.
“No?” Smiles asked with some level of disappointment underneath their jovial expression. “I’ll tell you then. Out of every contestant, the twenty of you have died the most.”
The snake-haired woman moved to speak. But, before she could let words of rage out, a red ‘X’ covered her mouth and prevented her. She pulled on it, stretching her lips and raising her anger, but the red object would not budge.
“No interrupting me with some asinine statement about how you’re not weak. I am not implying that you are weak. No, far from it. Some of you are high on the list of total kills. Some of you even have a sterling kill versus death ratio. It’s just that you also have died more than any other here. Some of you may live bloody lives, others may have lived a significant amount of time before rising to this point, and some of you may have just met a misfortunate death loop. It doesn’t matter to us.”
With a snap of Smiles' fingers, the ‘X’ disappeared from the snake-haired woman’s mouth. She remained quiet, unwilling to test Smiles again.
”Now, it’s time to play,” Smiles announced with a clap. “All of you will participate in a game. It’s one of the favorites for the Hell Express.”
“What sort of game?” The crocodile asked suspiciously. A feeling of vindication for their caution wreathed their body.
“The rules are simple. For most of you, there is a person in the car in front of and behind you. You are able to challenge the person ahead of you and be challenged by the person behind you and the challenged party cannot refuse. If you defeat the person ahead of you, you advance to the next car. If you lose, then you move back one car.”
A miniature mana projection of the area we were in appeared between Smiles’ hands. The section became segmented into parts equal to the amount of us in this chamber. The section by their left hand turned green while the one by their right turned red.
“For one of you, there is nobody in front of you,” Smiles said, tapping the green square before moving on to the red car. “For another, there is nobody behind you. If you lose while you are in the last car, then you will be unable to continue. These fights will continue until there is only one car left. The winner will be permitted to advance further, so just win.”
If we weren’t sizing each other up before, we were now. Yet, it was a cold burning fire that emitted off the other demons. We were calmly sizing each other up. Who was the strongest? Who was the weakest?
“Calm down,” Smiles said with a laugh. “There is one last rule. I will give you all one way to have more than one person survive. If a majority of you can come to the decision that the person who will occupy the last car will automatically lose and the remainder of you can continue onwards together.”
“What happens to them?” Liscio asked.
Smiles cackled in Liscio’s face. Crazed eyes spun inside the holes of the mask and their shadow seemed to almost suffocate the bat. But, before anything could happen, Smiles composed themselves and stepped away, leaving Liscio gasping on their knees.
“Where’s the fun in telling you? Decide quickly and, remember, you’re being watched.”