It had only been a few hours since they’d come in contact with Andestine forces. For all he knew, they could still be on their trail. If that was the case, and if Alisson turned his head to see a battlegroup ready for another round of combat, then he knew that there was no hope in winning. He could barely hold himself up on his stallion, and Alisson had felt dizzy and frail from losing so much blood. At the very least, Celis’s healing spells had finally sealed his wounds, though there was still much inside of his body that was ruptured. He tried not to think about it, and simply continued on.

The both of them were dry on mana, Alisson had used the sparse mana that he did regenerate on two lighting spells, one in front and one behind them in the tunnel. It would be a couple days at the least until the two of them were back into fighting shape, and that was assuming that nothing else would happen. When Alisson thought about it, it had passed his mind the first few times, the fact that they’d fought and bled for almost three days in a row now, without rest. Certainly, Alisson was hungry and tired, but all that fighting had left his mind completely awake, and alert, devoid of thinking anywhere was safe.

The tunnel so far had been peaceful, nothing seemed out of the ordinary, there were rats, the rushing of underground streams passed them, and the odd wooden brace every few meters. The tunnel was man made after all, it was quite wide to allow the passage of caravans, but evidently the tensions with the cultist country had left trade desolate in this area for the past few months; as it looked like no one had been here for some time. The layer of dust and the long-extinguished lanterns gave Alisson a sense that he shouldn’t be here.

“Alisson, I forgot to tell you…”

Celis spoke out, but due to the scurrying rats and slight hum of the wind, her voice didn’t shatter any sort of silence.

“Tsuhara showed up…after you were knocked out.”

“Really now? Why was that?”

He asked.

“Mm…she said she had something to give us, is was a note and some sort of medallion. And then, she left back to Daigoro.”

“Was she really fine on her own? Trapezing through that battlefield?”

“From what it looked like…yeah. She used some kind of wooden slips that were imbued with explosion spells I think, she practically carpet bombed the cult and the Andestinians when she showed up.”

Alisson could see it clearly.

“Well, she is a six-tailed Kitsune, that means she’s on the higher spectrum of power and seniority, it shouldn’t be a surprise that she can’t handle herself. Now, what’s this about her package?”

Celis pulled up aside Alisson and handed him a small black box. As Alisson opened it, the two horses emerged from the tunnel, and the moonlight, although weak, made Alisson cringe his eyes from the sudden light. Alisson brought over one of his light spells and extinguished the other.

If you’re reading this, it means everybody has done their job in getting this to you. It means our allies are as reliable as they say they are. However, it may be that they haven’t done their job well, so I will refrain from naming names. You may not feel me being so far away, but know that I’m still watching over you. I know you’re not dead at the time of writing this, and if you’re still not, I applaud you for your performance. Once the task is done, it has been arranged that some of our devious friends, fishermen by trade, will be camped out in the waters around Scratskaslovotskaya. They will be your link back home, depending on what has happened. Show them the medal, and they will understand. I’ll be expecting your return. Good hunting.

The writer of the letter was obvious. It was his Lady, planning ahead. She had something in store for them, that was for sure. There was a reason she was so bold as to not just let him and Celis return to Sidonia the way they came as originally planned.

“Scratskaslovotskaya…”

“What?”

“It’s the nearest human settlement to the Deadzone, it rests in that strait of traversable land between Irine and the north. Around there is where we’ve been ordered to move to meet with what sounds like Kitsune informants after we finish our job in Freigat.”

Alisson ripped up the letter into little bits and threw it into the nearby river. He stuffed the small medallion on a pack on his waist, he didn’t want to lose it by losing his stallion.

It had been drizzling lightly since they’d exited the tunnel, though Alisson hadn’t noticed until he saw the droplets falling in the river. He heard far off thunder and knew that the rain would be picking up soon.

“It should be clear travels to Tarakia from here, especially when we get into the country proper, it’ll be much safer. It’ll be about a week’s time to Pūshkinskaya. For now,”

Alisson looked to his apprentice.

“We’re going to need to find some shelter.”

She nodded. The both of them needed sleep, but it was problematic because of the fact that Andestine could be right behind them. They shouldn’t know anything about Alisson’s destination, and by that fact, in Andestine’s eyes, he could be traversing anywhere in the north. Little did they know that his objective was actually quite close, and was not as north as say Halaruth. That was his advantage, if the Andestinians were still on his tail, he could hopefully make them overestimate his travels by simply staying put; and they’d lose him just like that.

They both continued on heading down the road. It was pointing northward, so it was a bit counter-intuitive, but he didn’t intend to use it for long; just until they found some kind of out of the way and relatively defended area.

The rain started to pick up, and him and Celis slipped on the hoods of their cloaks as thunder sounded nearer and nearer. Lightening was soon shooting through the sky above them, and rain was heavily falling in swaths. Alisson stopped. On his right, where that river was still running, there was a clearing of trees, and he could see through it the dark outline of what looked to be a large and broken-down house. House was an understatement, it looked more like an estate from its size though evidently it was not as glamourous due to its abandonment.

“There.” Alisson raised a finger toward the estate. “We’ll make camp there for the night.”

He could barely hear himself over the roar of the rain.

The two of them made their way past the tree line to the rushing river, a shoddy wooden foot-bridge was the only way to ford the river. It looked about as old as Alisson was, but nevertheless his stallion cautiously stepped across it. He could hear the individual planks of the bridge creak in pain, even over the rain. A bolt of lightning struck behind the estate, and for a brief moment the old building was illuminated. He caught a glimpse of something shift in one of the second-floor windows.

When he finally reached the inlet the mansion was on, behind him he heard a large crack, and it looked like Celis’s mare had fallen through the bridge. It was desperately trying to hold on to the mainland with two legs, its hind legs were being engulfed in the current. Alisson reached his hand out to Celis, and she grabbed it. He pulled up Celis with all his might, and she wrapped her legs around her mare tightly; the added strength tipped the favors in the mare’s way and the horse was able to escape the tide and scramble onto land. Alisson almost broke down in a cough from how tight his chest felt when he exerted himself, he didn’t know if that was the result of his wounds or his tire.

Alisson squinted his eyes at the window that he’d seen movement in.

“What is it?”

He shook his head.

“Nothing. Hopefully this place has an intact stable…or at least a big enough door for our horses.”

He couldn’t very well leave them out in the rain without a roof over their heads. So, before entering, he and Celis did a lap around the exterior of the building. Surprisingly, despite the estate’s obvious age with its moss vines and peeling décor, the structure itself looked very sturdy. There was a stable, and it looked useable, despite the moss growing down from the roof and covering the entrances to the pens. Alisson approached and gave one of the supporting pillars to the stable a rough shake, and sure enough, it didn’t budge.

Satisfied, Alisson motioned to Celis and she led her mare in.

“Here.”

Once she dismounted, she extended her arms up to Alisson and helped him down off the stallion. Alisson grabbed a pack of food from the stallion, and, having a hand wrapped around Celis’s shoulder’s for support, hobbled to the front of the estate. The door was, as expected, unlocked due to its broken lock, so they simply shoved their way in. The halls of the interior of the estate were long and dark, one couldn’t see down them completely with the light of the moon alone.

Still leaning on Celis, they walked down one of the halls and turned into the nearest room. It appeared to be a sitting room of sorts, probably for arriving guests back when the estate was still operable. It’s sofas and chairs were now but shattered and rotten wood across the floor, but it didn’t discourage either of them; it would suffice for the night. It was better than nothing.

…

With Alisson leaning on me, we hobbled deeper into the dark room, and I set Alisson down against a corner of the room that was relatively free of broken furniture. I poured another healing spell into Alisson and once again depleted my mana for what felt like the dozenth time in the past 48 hours.

“I’m gonna go make sure there aren’t any beasts hiding in the building, stay put.” I say, standing up.

Alisson nodded, and then looked up to me.

“I’ll get started on our dinner then.”

He flashed a weak but closed-eye smile. I turned away and hurried to leave so that he wouldn’t see my burning blush.

...Saying things like he’s a housewife...

I shake my head and continue down the dark halls of the abandoned estate, stopping and peaking my head into every dark room and tapping a stiletto on the doors along the way to probe for beasts. The wind of the storm howled against the walls of the building. The rain pounded against the windows of the estate and the walls. I could see the rain falling across the ground in drowths through the windows, and every now and then a bolt of lightning would light up the outside. In those brief flashes of light, I could see the outlines of sulking Roamers, far off from the estate, just pacing slowly and dragging their heads low. Roamers didn’t usually attack one at a time, and so those lone wanderers, pack-less, simply milled about, probably scrounging on the scraps of the other predators. I’ve seen plenty of Roamers at the far edges of my vision like this when traveling, they mostly didn’t pay attention to us. What I’m worried about is the chance that there might be a pack of stronger beasts making this abandoned estate their nest, and they might attack us. I should be able to handle the majority of beasts, as long as it’s not a Bear or some special case.

I heard a floorboard creak behind me, my hands shot for my stilettos and my eyes locked onto the source of the noise. Very vaguely, I could make out a human figure through the darkness.

“Who’s there!” I shouted.

It backed off and disappeared back into the safety of the darkness; or at least, that’s what it looked like, seeing a shadow move within a shadow is tough work.

I exhaled, but I kept my gaze on the darkness for a long moment.

If it’s not hostile, it’s not something to worry about.

I turn with a flare of my cloak and continue on with my checking. I don’t know if there’s a basement to this estate, that’s the most likely place I’d find a beast hiding out, but even if there is, among all this rubble and darkness, I might have already missed it. I got to a flight of stairs in what looked like a run-down ballroom. The stairs were collapsed, there was no way to get to the second floor. So, I turned to go back the way I came. After a few steps, I noticed that the hallway was a dead end.

The hell? I just came from this hall like one minute ago. I squinted at the wall. There was something off about it. Upon closer inspection, my hunch was right. There was a strange texture to the wall, like there was thousands of thin lines running horizontally. I cautiously drew a baselard, and cut down at the wall. My baselard cut through the wall unnaturally easily, and left a large black gash through the center of it.

The wall seemed to unravel, like a ball of yarn falling apart. That’s when I realized it. The lines in the wall, it was…string? Very thin, fine, perfectly colored string to create a false wall.

Before I could draw any conclusions,

“Heh…ehe.”

I heard what sounded to be a giggle. I turned in a blur, drawing my other baselard and sinking into stance. Far off, on the second floor of the ballroom above the destroyed staircase, there was what looked like a girl in some sort of slim dress, I couldn’t make much out due to the darkness. On her head, were two green glows, that I soon recognized as her eyes; The glow of her eyes illuminated her face and I saw that she had two prong-like objects sticking out of her ears arranged diagonally on the sides of her head.

The figure backs off, her eyes faded, and she was cloaked in the darkness, effectively vanishing.

“…Not human.”

I mutter, still squinting at the darkness.

“…Looks like I’ll have to find a way to the second floor…”

I say to myself and relax, sheathing my baselards and turning back to the false wall I’d cut.

I knelt down, and picked up a hand full of what had unraveled from the wall, sure enough, it felt like fine, metal, string. I stared at it for moment in scrutiny before dropping it and continuing down the hall, now unblocked by any fake wall.

This isn’t like the Ipithid Plain in its shifting ability, this is someone who’s purposely trying to get me lost, not some unexplainable force of nature. The question is, who the hell could tie together string – Or wire, since it felt metallic – and color it so skillfully too in only a few moments? Well, the only suspect I have is that mystery figure. I’ll head back to Alisson and report my findings. This place isn’t as empty as we’d hoped.

Ah…I really wanted this place to be clean…I just wanna curl up next to Alisson and sleep on a full stomach…is that so much to ask for?

I backtracked my way back to the entrance, making sure to compare my environment to my memory, to make sure that it really is the same and not some false path. I was about halfway to Alisson’s room when I saw a door creak open right beside on my left, a mere meter away. I had already checked the rooms, and I was confident that there was nothing in them, so it shocked me and I overreacted.

I drew my baselards and stumbled back into a wall on the right, right up against a window. I stared down the open door, my heart racing. Thankfully, nothing was on the other side, and looked like the door had swung open because of a draft or something.

I exhaled heavily.

When I opened my eyes from my relief-filled exhale, I saw out of the corner of my vision, behind me, on the other side of the window, something that blocked the moon’s light from pouring through the window. My mind subconsciously realized this first, and I careened my head back without thought. It was when I consciously realized it that I saw what was on the other side of the window.

Two, two, tall, thin, white, Sequiturs.

I was already recoiling back with a yelp when I saw their faces. All the other times I’ve seen a Sequitur, they’ve been too far away for me to make out their face. Now though, I see them clearly. Black eyes;

And an ear to ear grin, chopping their head in two with a smile lined with blade-like teeth.

I fell to the ground in shock, backpedaling and shoving up against the wall, staring down the Sequiturs with wide eyes. I had dropped my baselards, and my entire body was shaking in fear. I felt like I was hyperventilating within only a couple seconds. I blinked, but they were still there after I’d opened my eyes. In response, one of them tilted its head ever so slightly, along with its smile, my heart was about to burst in terror.

But, that spike of fear finally shocked me into action, and I scrambled to my feet, grabbed my baselards in a stumble and broke into a sprint down the hall, my eyes shut tightly, on the verge of crying.

There was t-two of them…-! And, they were, they were smiling-!

I clenched my teeth together to prevent myself from breaking out into a whimper.

I had been so focused on the Sequiturs that I didn’t realize that the reason I could see them so clearly was because lightning had struck behind them, and only now was I hearing the thunder of that lightning.

Floorboards cracked under the heavy footfalls of my sprint. But I didn’t care. All I wanted, was to curl up next to Alisson, and cry.

My shoulders burned with paranoia, the thought of something just grabbing me from behind overtook my mind, and I repeated to myself:

Don’t look back!

Over and over in my head, though the burning sensation on my back only grew. It felt like someone was breathing right over my shoulder, and I could feel their breath rolling down and across my neck, sending goosebumps down my spine.

I’d lost all cohesive thought by the time I reached the room I’d stuck Alisson in, and I turned into the room, almost falling over myself, ready to collapse onto Alisson. When my eyes adjusted to the dark light of the room, my heart dropped. Alisson wasn’t anywhere to be seen.

“Wha…”

My mind was blank for a moment, and I almost collapsed to my knees in not having Alisson, but I quickly caught myself and relapsed back into logical thought.

There were the remnants of half-made dinner, and I could see a great deal of broken wood and scratches where Alisson had been. He clearly didn’t leave purposely, it looks like he’d been dragged out, but he didn’t go without a fight. In his condition though, there’s not much he could have done.

I saw Enhérejär on the floor, it might have just been me, but it looked to be pulsating at me. When I reached out my hand to it, it shot up and rested comfortably in my open gauntlet. I gripped Enhérejär tightly, it sounded as though it were humming with urgency.

“I’m sorry Enhérejär, but I’m not exactly the best fencer…” I say a bit jokingly to myself.

Apparently in response to my remark, Enhérejär clicked and formed up on my right hand, like exoskeletal armor running up my right arm. I didn’t question it, and barged back out into the hallway.

Without his weapon-! I need to get to Alisson.

Thoughts of Davy course through me, and I clench my hands into fists tightly.

You’ll pay for taking Alisson away just when I wanted him!

Well, he could already be dead for all I know, but that thought doesn’t cross my mind with any shred of legitimacy.

“Which way…”

I mutter. Now that I’d left the room, once more I was confronted with a large dead end. The doors and halls were plastered over with fake walls, and I could tell they were as such due to their familiar texture. I felt a pull on my right arm, almost causing me to fall over; It was Enhérejär, pulling me toward one of the hallways.

“I understand!”

I say to the animate weapon without questioning it, and cut through a wall of string posing as a wall and then break into a sprint down the hallway it was trying to conceal. Past the broken furniture, paintings, and general rubbish, I ran through the hall with incredible speed. I saw another wall in front of me, and rose a baselard to cut through it.

When my baselard landed on the wall, my momentum died as my baselard sunk only about an inch into what I realized too late as being a very real wall. I crash headfirst into the wall, and back off, rubbing my head.

“Ow…”

Idiot. Fatigue and pressure don’t mix well.

There was an open hallway to my side, so it turns out that I am really just an idiot and didn’t see that I’d came to a junction. Enhérejär gave me another pull down one of two halls, and I took a single step in compliance when I saw down the hall, a human figure. It wasn’t like the other ones that I saw, it was far larger, instead of a slim little lady’s shape, it seemed to be one of a burly man, though I couldn’t be for sure because of the darkness obfuscating my perception.

At first, my heart jumped in terror, my mind immediately seeing the figure as Davy and I gasped whilst freezing with fear.

My mind quickly redoubled itself with the few simple thoughts,

He’s dead! I fought and killed him myself-! I shouldn’t be scared!

I’m able to barely overcome a wave of trauma and push through my own doubt.

The figure starts to shamble toward me, with one shaky step at a time. The floorboards under him didn’t creak, and in fact I couldn’t hear his footsteps at all, from this he appeared to me more like a shadow than a physical entity; But on the sense of my gut, I could still feel a presence from the figure physically, it gave off the impression that he was gliding toward me, and that the footsteps were an act of deception.

This thing doesn’t look friendly. I can’t waste anytime being conservative, I’ll kill it and move on.

I rush forward, contrary to the figure’s shamble. It raises its arms, about to swing at me. I easily bob under its attack and slice at what I now see to be the man’s gut. I gasp when my baselard digs itself into the man.

This sensation, it feels like I’m hitting a corpse; Riga mortis has already set in and finished with this man, so how the hell is he still standing? In my confusion, the man swings for me.

Not so fast bud, I’m not that slow. I easily evade and back off for a second.

The guy didn’t make any noise when I struck him, and neither did I draw any blood with my strike. That combined with the obvious sensation of Riga mortis, and I feel as though I’m fighting a dead body. The man shambles again toward me. Now that I’m closer, I can see clearly that his face is completely rotten and is bare of any eye balls in its sockets.

An animate corpse. But this thing doesn’t give off a ‘zombie’ feeling to me. It’s like its literally just an object that’s moving by some 3rd party, like Enhérejär or something. Well, whatever. Kill first, ask questions later.

Again, I bob side to side, evading its flailing arms. I charge into it, and sidestep with my baselards, cutting circularly around the corpse’s kidney area. I back off for a moment, and then lunge again, aiming from my prior incision. My baselards get stuck, but I brute force them through the corpse, and I successfully cut the body in half from waist up.

I back off, staring in disbelief. I can see right through the corpse, a fine absence of any flesh, like a chopped down tree, only, both the torso and the legs of the corpse remained where they were. The torso was simply midair, above the hip, with nothing connecting the body together. It didn’t make any sense.

Screw it. This thing isn’t too dangerous, and I can’t seem to kill it, so I’ll ignore it, for now.

I blitz past the corpse, still trying to stop me from passing, but I easily barge under its side and past it. My sprint is short lived. After a minute, I come to another junction. There’s another flight of stairs before me, to the second floor, and it’s intact. There’s one problem though, there’s a large mass of metal string blocking the hall. I can see through it and make out the stairway, but can’t get past it, it’s like a spiderweb. This was unlike the other walls of string, as the string was not colored, and it seemed to be much thicker. I raised my baselard to cut it, and sure enough, it bounced off; The string was as hard as steel.

I cursed, and imbued a Pict spell into my baselard, depleting my mana again, and thrusted at the wall of string once more. My spell exploded upon the barrier. The smoke and dust clears, and the wall of string is unharmed.

“…Damnit!”

I click my tongue. I can’t break through. It’s evident now, there’s some entity blocking me from getting to Alisson. But, on the bright side, by comparing how much resistance there is in different parts of the estate, I can easily figure out that Alisson is probably on the second floor.

My vision suddenly flashes with white. It was like I was transported to a hazy white space of nothing. In my vision before me, I can see very vaguely and hazily, something.

“There is, another way up?”

With those words, the white vision wears off, and I’m back in front of the wall of string. I glance to Enhérejär on my arm. That was, that was Enhérejär, wasn’t it?

“…Yes, it’s broken though.”

I remember that Enhérejär can split itself and fly through the air, and I realize that I should be able to jump up to the second floor of the ballroom using Enhérejär.

“I might be able to make it up with your help.”

I say, but no response comes, Enhérejär only gives a slight pull back toward the way I came with a little pulse of urgency.

Now’s not the time to question. I’ll take it in stride, and focus on Alisson.

I turn and triple time it down the hall, barging through the corpse-man once again without much trouble. When I get past him, I see another three figures, reminiscent of the corpse man in their posture and shambles. They’re all different in their bodies, as opposed to the first corpse that looked to be a burly man when he was still alive, the others looked like maids, judging from their torn dresses and slimmer bodies. Though, their faces were in just as bad a shape as the man’s was, so I couldn’t tell their gender other than by looking at their ragged apparel. Now that I think about it, the man looked to be wearing a rotted suit.

I don’t try to fight them. I blitz through all three of them, dicing off their limbs with a flurry of strikes as I fly through them.

The halls thereafter were inundated with similar walking corpses, and I handled them all the same, by rushing past them whilst dealing as much distractionary damage as I could. I don’t think my strikes are actually doing much to distract literal corpses, but it makes me feel more at ease.

With my non-stop blitzing through the halls, I reach the ballroom within a few minutes, backtracking the way I came and cutting through a few false walls that unsuccessfully tried to fool me. I paused in hesitation for a moment when I got to the part of the estate where I’d seen the Sequiturs, but they were no where to be seen, so I pushed them out of my head and continued on.

There was that girl from earlier, with the glowing green eyes, standing on the second floor, just watching me with a creepy smile. I run to the collapsed stairway, leaping atop the rubble, scrambling up the pile of rotted wood until I reached the top of the pile. I gave a wary glance to Enhérejär, still locked around my right arm, and then, leapt up to the second floor, extending my right arm toward it.

Enhérejär acted immediately, and clicked out and toward the second floor like a blooming flower. It shot for and latched onto the lip of the ballroom’s second floor, still attached to my right arm. Like a bungee cord, Enhérejär suddenly retracted toward the second floor, pulling my body up with a rough jerk. I gained enough altitude thanks to Enhérejär, and managed to get both my hands on the lip of the second floor, and I pulled myself up with ease.

The girl with green glowing eyes who didn’t look like a corpse was just staring at me a meter away. I didn’t give her any time. I drew my baselards and slashed at the mysterious girl without thought.

She evaded, but didn’t counterattack. She simply kept on smiling at me, with her porcelain-like face. She oddly reminded me of Sylph, for whatever reason, minus any emotion.

There was one hallway leading out of the ballroom on the second floor, and I now saw that the green-eyed girl was standing directly in front of it.

“Out of my way!”

I slash with a baselard at her in a cobra-quick lunge. I saw her hand raise for my baselard. Knowing that no one in the right mind would bring a hand to block a blade unless they were completely confident, I disengaged my strike into a roundhouse kick with my right leg. My right shin slammed into the green-eyed girl’s kidney, but, she didn’t budge, if felt like I’d hit a metal pole. I think my shin would be fractured right now if it weren’t for my armor. Thinking fast. I disengage from my kick, and attempt to just barge through her like with all the walking corpses from earlier.

I manage to pass her, and seemed to have surprised her expectations. She breaks into a hot pursuit right behind me.

She’s fast!

But not as fast as me.

More of those hulking corpses block my path, they look like they were still being scrambled together into formation by the time I saw them; I’m clearly moving faster than my enemy can react. The light of the moon pours through a window on the left, and it brightly illuminates the corpses for a moment. In that time, I see something that I hadn’t noticed before; Razor thin strings, right above the corpses, shimmering in the brief splash of moonlight. I didn’t see them before because of the darkness and because of how thin they are, but it looks like I have a culprit for all this crap. Whatever force I’m facing, is in control of the corpses like a puppeteer to marionettes. Those strings are probably wound all throughout each corpse’s body, it explains why I can cut them in half and they can still stand.

If my speculation is true…

I jump over the thrown together corpse blockade, slashing through the air above them. I feel some resistance, but the wires eventually sever, not being as thick as the wall I faced before. I land, and keep on my sprint, though I hear keenly behind me a few corpses drop to the floor, literally like puppets that had their strings cut.

Well, at least I know they’re not zombies raised by necromancy.

I also hear my pursuer, that girl with glowing green eyes, barge through the corpses, still right on my tail.

Enhérejär gives me another tug to my right, apparently wanting me to go into a door on my right. I follow Enhérejär’s orders immediately, and break through the door with my entire body. The room I enter is a short hallway, but in the middle of it, a thick wall of string is raveling together, just like the one downstairs that stopped me from getting to the second floor. Behind it, is one last door, behind that, I can feel it, Alisson is there.

That’s right you bastard! You can’t keep up with me can’t you!?

I blitz through the unformed string-wall with an aerial dive, weaving through slithering strands of metal string. The wall finished forming just as I passed, and my pursuer was left on the other side, just staring at me. I didn’t look back; I charged through to Alisson.

…

Alisson writhed his body this way and that way, but no matter what he did, he couldn’t break free. He’d been in the middle of preparing food when the door to his room burst open, and a silent wave of what looked to be wires surged at him. He drew Enhérejär, and for a moment his weapon warded off the string all on its own, like a barrier between Alisson and the wave. Enhérejär’s defense broke down within a few seconds, and he’d been engulfed without much fuss thanks to his weakened bodily condition. He’d been wrapped up and dragged out by this mass of string, that had no apparent origin. He tried to yell for Celis, but he’d been gagged and blindfolded by strands of string within seconds.

He couldn’t see where he was going, but if felt like he was being dragged through the halls of the estate at an incredible pace. He struggled as much as he could, but the string didn’t budge. He could distinctly hear someone walking alongside him, though they didn’t say a word.

It had only been a couple minutes when he was brought upright into the air. The forcefully moved his arms above his head, and bound both his ankles together, and both his wrists to each other.

“You look just like a chained-up princess. I really know how to pick ‘em.”

He heard somebody smack their lips after speaking in Firdu.

A moment later the string covering his mouth and eyes peeled away and he saw clearly who’d said those words.

The atmosphere in the room he’d been dragged into was far different than the rest of the estate. It was clean, there were no busted floorboards, there were no rotted and shattered furniture, and there wasn’t any mold or dirt anywhere to be seen. It looked to be a time capsule of when the estate was still in use. It was also brightly lit in a warm yellow color from a few candles and a chandelier; though they did not flicker like flames would, so Alisson concluded that the light sources were magic.

Alisson set his eyes squarely on his captor, he was getting a strong sense of Déjà vu: He was bound, in some mystery environment, and at the mercy of…a little girl.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

What’s with children and tying me up?

The girl before him was smiling at him smugly. Although Alisson called her a girl, she was actually only a head shorter than Celis, and judging from the fact Celis had been catching up to Alisson in height, the girl before him wasn’t all that much smaller than him. Her appearance was peculiar to say the least.

For one, she was floating a meter off the ground, in a relaxed posture, as though she were laying in a hammock. She didn’t bob like someone did when under the effects a flight spell, no, she was dead still in the air, the sight of someone so perfectly defying the laws of physics made Alisson’s mind stutter for a moment.

She had dark hair and bright purple eyes, at the center of her eyes, Alisson could see a blot of white, or perhaps bright lavender; it was unnatural in its luminosity. She wore a black dress of purple accents, though it could also be taken as a uniform from the odd insignias on her shoulders. It was like a mix of a maid and nurse uniform, though much more formal. A black cape was draped over her torso, it had metal pins like studs running down the sides of it; the cape was parted so one could still see her center. Beneath her frilled skirt black and purple striped stockings covered her legs down to what looked to be formal dress shoes.

Alisson realized that the only skin he could see of his girl was her face, even her hands had thin, rubbery looking black gloves. Her fingers looked unusually pointy, and sharp.

Though what stood out most in her outline was the silk hat she wore, it had a purple cross on it. The cross was not some embroidery, it glowed, pulsated even. Her silk hat was quite small and only rested on the left side of her head.

There was another person aside from this floating little doctor; Standing off to the side and against a wall, with her arms behind her back and her face blank, was what looked to be a maid or an assistant. Her eyes shone with orange, glowing like the eyes of the girl directly in front of Alisson. She too had some peculiar accessories, at her ears there were blocky prong-like objects that covered her ears.

What kind of mess have I stumbled upon now?

He didn’t let the girl espouse herself.

“Let me go.”

“No.”

Her lazy voice was contrary to her pristine clothing.

“Let me go.”

“No.”

“Let me go.”

“…I’m just going to keep saying no doofus.”

Alisson frowned.

The strings that had cocooned his body when he was being dragged had eased off, and he was now only held by his ankles and his wrists. He was confident he could break free.

There was a flash of blue, and Alisson had activated his Opensen. With his newfound strength, Alisson struggled under a second wind, and the strings binding him at his ankles and wrists started to give way.

The girl’s eyes widened slightly.

“Oh my…”

Still floating in the air, Alisson saw her fingers move as though she were playing a harp. Apparently following the girl’s finger movements, another few layers of metal string formed up on Alisson’s wrists and ankles, and his efforts were halted immediately.

Alisson didn’t stop struggling even though it was futile.

“…Struggling while you’re so mortally injured…The live ones are really something...”

The girl floated nearer, and she laid a hand on Alisson’s shoulder, which sent a shiver down his spine. She brought her other hand to her mouth, and pulled off the rubber glove on it with her teeth. Her hand, now bare, made Alisson’s eyes widen. Her fingers were metallic, they shone like steel, and were as sharp as scalpels. The rest of her hand aside from her fingers however, seemed perfectly normal, and made of flesh.

She moved her bare hand down to Alisson’s abdomen; The sight of seeing her sharp, needle like fingers, encroaching on Alisson made him subconsciously inch away in fear.

“I like my dolls in good condition when I taxidermy them…and here you are with enough holes to be called swiss cheese. I’ll patch you up, and then kill you. How does that sound?”

Alisson’s eyes shot wide when he realized that this little girl had the intention to kill him. He was about to ask who she was, and perhaps talk his way out of dying, when he heard a smooth click. Her hand at his abdomen, that had once had five sharp fingers, now had fifteen, each of her fingers had split into three.

Restrained like this, with such a scary looking cradle of scalpels hovering near his exposed belly, Alisson’s shoulders shivered in fear. Her fingers peeled aside his broken armor and diced through his gambeson underneath. He then heard what sounded like a burst of pent up steam be released, and he felt a prick on his skin. For whatever reason, the aching pain he’d felt, all around his body, suddenly ebbed and disappeared from his mind.

The girl then pushed her hand deep inside of Alisson’s gut, her fifteen fingers moving independently of one another, though he couldn’t feel them at all, in fact, he couldn’t feel anything after that prick.

“What, what did you do to me…?”

Alisson felt hazy all of a sudden. He couldn't even feel his lips move.

“Anesthetics. I don’t want you to be so loud while I’m digging around inside of you.”

Anesthetics? Last Alisson checked; those usually didn’t work this well. He knew of a few herbs and leaves that had good painkilling properties, but whatever this girl had used was certainly on another level.

“You’ve got stomach acid just spilling everywhere;” She broke into a sarcastic smile. “Just where have you been playing all day?”

The girl was still staring Alisson dead in the face, so he didn’t know how she could see his insides. Suddenly, two streams of liquid ran up the girl’s fingers. On her pinky, it looked like a vein was sucking out some sort of yellowish liquid from him, and a vein running up her ring finger was sucking up a red liquid, which Alisson recognized as his own blood. The girl’s numerous fingers we’re moving quickly inside of him, and he didn’t know exactly what they were doing. Down the girl’s middle finger and index finger flowed greenish and blueish liquids respectively. He felt some sort of cooling sensation at his abdomen, akin to when Sidonia spoke with him.

“Who are you…?”

Alisson managed to say under his flickering eyes, they were heavy and evidently whatever what she was pumping into him was making him sleepy.

“You’ll be dead soon so that doesn’t matter. Although…It really is a waste…Maybe I should have some fun with you before you breathe your last…usually I’ve only ever liked the cold ones but…”

She smiled deviously to herself. Oddly enough she started humming a tune, apparently in a good mood. A minute later, Alisson felt his abdomen tighten, and the girl withdrew her fingers from inside of him. They were covered with his blood, and thin, blood covered strings were attached to the tips of her fingers that ran into Alisson. She tightened her fingers into a fist and Alisson’s abdomen felt as though it was forcibly closed.

Alisson finally realized what the hell she was doing. It was some sort of surgery to mend his wound. That string…she was using it as suturing.

“Mm…next is your knee…you can’t stand on your own very well if your kneecap is shattered like that…”

The hand that had been inside Alisson’s stomach reached down for his left knee. Her arm wasn’t long enough to reach all the way to his knee, but it kept on moving down to Alisson’s surprise. He saw why: from the girl’s elbow down, her arm had detached, and it was held by two prongs that he could make out under her sleeves.

From all he had seen, and this girl’s similarities with a certain forest warden, Alisson believed he could reasonably guess what this entity was.

“Spirit. Why are you doing this?”

The girl frowned angrily at Alisson, as if she were pouting. The lavender blots of light in her eyes pulsed, as if to signify her anger.

“Spirit schmirit! For crying out loud! Why does everyone call me that! I’m an Intercessor-Class Autonomous Support Construct! Never call me a spirt for the rest of your life-! You understand boy?”

She sounded awfully like Sylph, when she was in one of her manic episodes.

“No, I don’t.”

Alisson said with a scowl. The girl frowned deeper in response but other than that ignored Alisson. Her hand that was on his left knee was doing the same thing as it had to his abdomen, yet he couldn’t feel a thing.

“Can you at least tell me your name? And why your going to kill me?”

He was about to add ‘Spirit’ onto his question on instinct, but he decided to not anger it. The spirit sighed in response.

“It doesn’t matter. Just shut up and don’t talk.”

She said oddly melancholically. From her attitude, it sounded like she wasn’t actually too confident in what she was doing.

“Alright, that wraps that up~!”

Another sound similar to when she applied her anesthetic sounded, and Alisson could suddenly feel a wave of pain rush over him; It made him convulse in surprise.

She’d just somehow cancelled the anesthetic. There wasn’t any reason to do so…unless she purposely wanted him to feel pain.

She backed up, finally taking her hand off of Alisson’s shoulder. Again, she gave her metallic hand a clench, and the strings that ran from it tightened on Alisson’s knee. Alisson wasn’t sure what she did, but from what it looked like, she might’ve just pieced together the shattered bones in his knee. Her bare hand mesmerizingly clicked back into only having five fingers, and the blood that was on it seemed to be absorbed into her through the tips of her fingers.

Alisson set his gaze squarely on her eyes.

“Why don’t you use magic if you want heal me?”

She rolled her eyes.

“Sorry kid, but I’m not going to use some random unqualified and untested crap to fix you. Even if I wanted to, I can’t use magic, not one bit; believe me I tried for a while, but nothing came of it.”

For not using it, she seemed oddly knowledgeable in magic. But why call it ‘unqualified’ and ‘untested’? Magic worked around the world and saved and ended peoples’ lives on a daily basis, just what were her definitions for something being ‘qualified’?

“Well, now for some fun~.”

She licked her lips. She rose the hand that was ungloved, and Alisson could see a thin string shoot out of each of her fingers.

Wait…

Alisson eyed the area around the spirit. Very faintly, he could make out light bouncing off of needle thin string all around the spirit. So that’s how she appeared to float. It looked like she had more ports for her string than just on her fingers.

The string that she’d shot out wrapped around to the behind of Alisson, and his eyes shot wide; they had wrapped around his tails. His tails that had been idly spinning around each other tensed and struggled furiously with the string, but the more they struggled, the tighter the string became. The spirit’s smile deepened as she tightened her hand, and the string tightened around his tails in response. Alisson’s mouth opened as his body spasmed in pain. He just barely stopped himself from letting out any sounds, but his breathing became erratic quickly.

They weren’t cocooning his tails no, but more so the spirit was letting them dig into the fur and flesh of his tails through sheer pressure.

The pressure was increasing gradually, but suddenly it stopped increasing when the spirit looked away from Alisson, her eyes piqued in surprise.

“Persistent little…”

Alisson wasn’t sure of what she was talking about. The spirit looked back to Alisson, almost angrily, and then back away, the blots of lavender in her eyes dulling and reigniting several times over.

She finally finished having her little conniption, and laid her eyes back on Alisson. She frowned, apparently dissatisfied now that he’d calmed himself and regained a stoic expression. Her fingers moved again as though she were playing a harp, and suddenly a fresh barrage of string wrapped itself around Alisson; only this time it was around his entire body. It wasn’t thick like the bindings at his wrists and ankles, it was the same as what she’d used to wrap his tails; Thin, slightly sharp string, that was tightly digging into his flesh.

The sudden sensation all around his body, added to her increasing the level of tightness with another slow contraction of her fingers, Alisson yelped out in a bit of a whine.

“Ah-!”

He squirmed uncomfortably, gritting his teeth. The spirit smiled again, evidently happy with Alisson’s reaction. She continued increasing the tightness, slowly closing her fingers into a fist as Alisson writhed around, occasionally the pain surpassed him and he let out an uncouth whimper.

The spirit once again closed the distance and floated nearer whilst tightening her grip. She laid both her hands on Alisson’s shoulders, and was practically nose-to-nose with him. Although he couldn’t see her very well due to cringing his eyes in pain and writhing his head back and forth. The sharp fingers of her ungloved hand dug into Alisson’s shoulder, and it probably would have made him bleed if it weren’t for his aketon and coif. Alisson’s breathing quickly became erratic and his chest bobbed with heaves. His face was fully flushed red, in both embarrassment and anger.

There was some sort of buzz in his mind, humming at his ears. He didn’t know whether to think it a headache or some sort of numbing effect.

Then, after a moment, it felt as though his mental state of anguish came to a head. The thin buzz at his ears suddenly increased in frequency, to a point where it sounded like ultrasound.

It took Alisson a long time to figure out what had happened thereafter.

At his backside, his two restrained tails, unleashed their Bacilla.

The tip of each of Alisson’s tails bubbled and vibrated for a second, before the outer flesh and fur peeled away like a flower blooming. It revealed the core of the tails, a soft white innard, akin to crabmeat. The two Bacilla shot out from the tails, Alisson saw them enter his vision from behind him, racing for the spirit like tentacles with no limit on their length.

The spirit recoiled in mild surprise, and her fingers worked quickly; His two Bacilla were quickly ensnared by the spirit’s string.

Bacilla were a very sensitive part of Nekomata, akin to them being a massive nerve; So when the spirit’s string tightened around them, it was a far greater sensation than when she’d restrained his tails. Alisson shrieked and his body tensed, his eyes wide.

The Bacilla didn’t stop there. From the two of them, each peeled away into two new, but thinner, white-tube appendages. These four, connected to the original two Bacilla, which stemmed from Alisson’s tails, were caught in milliseconds as well. Before Alisson had even gotten over the first Bacilla being snared, the four new ones were caught and tightened upon by the spirit’s string.

He’d never felt such an intense and indescribable pain.

Before he could scream out, those four Bacilla also split into two each, the now eight tentacles much thinner than the first. This cycle continued over the course of only a few seconds, but by the time Alisson’s Bacilla had reached their limit, it looked like a net had formed around the spirit from all of Alisson’s Bacilla – The spirit’s string had acted to counteract the Bacilla as soon as it formed, and had kept away the Bacilla from the Spirit by only a inch.

Every single piece of his Bacilla was frozen in place, restrained by invisible and thin strings.

“Devious little boy…I’m not sure what all this is. It reminds me of a honeybee stinging something as a final means of self-defense…But look how that always turns out for them…”

The spirit smiled, for whatever reason not too disturbed by the sudden white Bacilla net that had formed around her, struggling against the string to kill her without Alisson’s input.

The spirit tightened her fingers, seeing and knowing what this meant, Alisson prepared himself in the few seconds that he had; but there was no describing what he felt when such a sensitive part of his body, his Bacilla, was wrapped and tightened around my innumerous strings.

He yelled out, not getting any sort of break thanks to the spirit’s sadism.

“That’s right…. there’s no one to save you.” The spirit chuckled. “You’re too weak.”

Only a few seconds went by before phlegm started to drool out of Alisson’s mouth as his eyes flickered in and out of consciousness.

“That’s it…I can’t help myself any longer-!”

The spirit said, and licked her lips. She parted her skirt, and seemed like she was going to press herself closer to Alisson. Of course, Alisson didn’t see or hear any of the spirit in his state.

Alisson’s eyes were dull, and his mind was barren of but one thought.

Someone…please…No…no one will come…no one ever comes…

The string surrounding his Bacilla suddenly loosened. It didn’t let go, but eased off to the point Alisson could catch his breath, and stop tensing his whole body in a convulsion. He took a few deep heaves, his head hanging on his neck. He could see his own phlegm fall from his mouth and splatters onto the floor.

The spirit had backed off again, and her fingers were moving furiously. She looked angry. That, or her red face was from her earlier actions.

“She’s…Damnit. Don’t let her pass.”

Alisson was in confusion for a moment, until he realized what ‘she’ referred to.

My apprentice…she always comes…ha…ha…

He weakly smirked in his delirium.

“W-what’s that about?”

He asked slyly through pain and his cringing eyes.

“None of your business.”

The spirit tightened her fingers again and the string around Alisson’s Bacilla suddenly tightened. Alisson yelped in surprise and gritted his teeth.

“I said don’t let her pass! How simple of an order is that!?”

The spirit clenched her fist in anger, and Alisson felt the effects of her anger upon himself. The spirit suddenly careened her head to the one door into the room, furious.

“She’s-!?”

The door broke down.

Alisson didn’t see Celis until she was already body slamming the spirit away.

…

The floating girl narrowly avoids a slash of my baselard after I’d shoved her away from Alisson. Enhérejär leapt off my right arm and cut through the string binding Alisson’s ankles and his wrists. He dropped to the floor limply. Those white tentacles in the air around Alisson promptly retreated into his tails’ tips, the flesh sealed tight with a squelch. I didn’t bother to question it, Alisson’s safety was more important.

“Are you okay?”

I shout with my back toward him, eyeing the other two people in the room; Some sort of carbon copy of the green-eyed girl but with different colors, and some floating girl in a dress. It was evident that she was floating from string, and so I picked her out to be the force behind the corpses and the walls of string from before.

Alisson wasn’t responding, granted it had been only a few seconds since I’d broken down the door, but he usually replies immediately when I ask. I turned back toward him worriedly. Enhérejär had greedily filled his open right hand, but he was still on his knees, staring into the floor.

I extended a hand out before his eyes. He looked up to my hand, and then up to me, with wide, disbelieving eyes. He slowly grabbed onto my hand with both of his own, grasping it as if his life depended on it. He sat there for a second, just staring at my hand. It looked like he was seeking solace from some horrible act, like how I would act if I’d gotten to him after I’d seen those Sequiturs.

“I’m here, Alisson.” I said softly.

Life suddenly returned to his eyes, and he shook his head. He pulled himself up after giving one last squeeze to my hand.

“I’m fine.”

He said, shakily standing and wiping the phlegm from his mouth with a hand. He quickly sunk into readiness next to me. Together, we stared down the floating girl and her maid looking friend.

…

Celis…she really came…

“Oh my look at the both of you…”

Alisson wouldn’t let her finish. He’d been in a momentary delirium when Celis had arrived, but his mind was quickly reassuming normality.

With Celis on his left and with Enhérejär in his hands, staring down the floating little girl, Alisson quickly formed a plan.

Alisson crossed over to the left, stepping forward in front of Celis. Seeing his intentions, Celis dashed right, and then to the left, in front of Alisson. They continued like this, in an intertwining serpentine-like rush toward the spirit, leaving her no time to act.

When Alisson saw both the spirit smile smugly and hear the rushing of string, Alisson knew they were probably encircled already by that thin, invisible string. It seemed that the spirit couldn’t deploy her thick string without weaving together her thinner string, that was good, it meant she was only left with her easier-to-cut thinner string. Alisson could use Enhérejär, and let it fan out and slice through the surrounding string to clear their advance; but he’d be left weaponless, and Enhérejär may not have the mass to cut all the string.

Alisson decided quickly. He grabbed a lone flask off his belt and popped the lid off with his thumb.

“I’ll clear the way.”

Alisson said quickly as he stepped in front of Celis. With the flask in hand, a wide horizontal swipe easily tossed its contents through the air in front of them. A wave of oil flew out in a 180° radius in front of them. Alisson followed this up with a pull, strike, and throw of a match. This created a wave of fire. It burnt through the invisible string, Alisson could see the string burn up and how the fire continued quickly all through out the room, riding the string before dying as the string was burned. It seemed that whatever metal alloy the string was made of, it was highly flammable, and the heat of the fire easily vaporized it.

“W-wait w-what the-!?”

The spirit was in shock, recoiling midair. It was too late for her; Celis stepped forward in front of Alisson and charged straight at the spirit. Alisson’s fire had burned away all the string the spirit had been using to prop herself up, so she dropped like a rock out of the air. Celis was about to slam into the spirit in a heavy tackle, and it would’ve landed the both of them against the wall of the room.

However, a blur entered Alisson’s vision and the orange-eyed maid intercepted Celis, and tackled her away to the ground, sparing the spirit.

Alisson revved back Enhérejär, and thrust at the spirit in Celis’s absence. The spirit, having fallen to her feet, was backed against a wall, and was smiling with wide eyes in terror as Enhérejär’s tip neared an inch away from her nose. She tilted her head just in time, and Enhérejär pierced the wall right to the side of her head. Alisson punched with his offhand at the spirit, but his arm was suddenly caught from behind. He was soon lifted off his feet from behind; behind him, there was a green-eyed maid, exactly similar to the orange-eyed maid in all but coloration. Alisson legs flailed in the air and he wrestled his torso as hard as he could, but the green-eyed maid’s grip didn’t budge.

The spirit was retreating, and was smiling, raising her metallic fingers at Alisson, string beginning to rush for him from her fingers.

This was a bad situation, no doubt. There appeared to be two assistants to the spirit. Celis was grappling with one on the floor, and the other had swept him off his legs from behind, grabbing him under his shoulders. And to top it off, the spirit was just about to remake her web of invisible string, after all Alisson had done to get rid of her pre-existing tactical advantage.

Close-combat brawls were not his specialty. He’d have to make do.

He grabbed onto Enhérejär, that had been stuck into the wall, and yanked it out toward himself. If he couldn’t break free with his Opensen, there was no way Enhérejär had the physical strength to help either; There was no way to break free.

He’d blow himself and this maid to kingdom-come with a magic knife then. It was better than being restrained. Enhérejär withdrew all five of his remaining explosive knives, and triggered them; they all started to pulsate with red, about to detonate.

“Alisson-! Don’t!”

Celis sounded beside him, and both him and the green-eyed maid were knocked over, Celis had apparently withdrew from her grapple, and slammed into the green-eyed maid. The maid’s grip on Alisson didn’t slacken until they hit the floor, when it did, Alisson scrambled to his feet, grabbed Enhérejär out of the air and stabbed down at the green-eyed maid. The knives that Enhérejär had withdrawn from Alisson fell to the floor, their priming having been canceled by Enhérejär. The green-eyed maid was holding Celis in a death grip, but when Enhérejär came barreling down, the maid let go and rolled out of the way, with the same unsettling smile she’d worn since she’d shown up. Celis, having been freed, left Alisson’s mind and he turned to the spirit, to see a wave of string mere meters away. He rushed forward and cut through the string easily with the help of Enhérejär splitting itself. He was quickly point blank to the spirit, and having cut her string, she was but a little girl. Alisson kicked her straight in the stomach, and her small body was sent flying into a wall with a loud thud.

Another set of rushed footsteps approached from behind immediately thereafter. The green-eyed one was still on the ground, so it had to be the one with orange eyes, but it’s not like there was much difference in them. Alisson could handle a physically stronger opponent, when he wasn’t already caught in a death grip.

He sidestepped, and as expected, the orange-eyed maid came barreling past his side, where he’d been a moment before. He grabbed onto the maid’s backside, and guided her momentum right into the adjacent wall. She was still on her feet when she slammed into the wall, so Alisson quickly swept her legs and gave her a push, easily off centering her and sending the maid to the floor. He saw Celis rushing the spirit, her baselards drawn. The orange-eyed one was safely out of the fight for a few seconds, and if Celis was taking out the spirit, it fell on Alisson to make sure the green-eyed maid was out of the fight as well. He turned away, to the green-eyed one, who’d just gotten to her feet, and had thrown a punch at Alisson. Alisson easily grabbed onto her punch with his offhand, and whilst redirecting it past him, he deftly stepped behind the green-eyed maid, and kicked her right in her tailbone.

The green-eyed maid was sent flying, at the hands of her own off-centered momentum, right into the orange-eyed maid, who was just getting to her feet. They both hit the ground as Celis swung at the spirit with both her baselards.

The spirit rose her hands, and Alisson realized with shock that those metallic fingers of hers were probably ample enough weapons – Celis clearly hadn’t thought as such. The spirit parried both Celis’s baselards with a single hand, the clash of her metal scalpel-like fingers scraping against the baselards created sparks.

Celis’s baselards, flew through the air; She’d been disarmed, clearly, she hadn’t expected any resistance. Though, Celis didn’t retreat.

She lunged through the air and caught the spirit’s small body.

Alisson had moved forward, and Enhérejär was forming into something in the middle of the air, not held by Alisson.

Celis and the spirit struggled for a moment, but it seemed that the spirit was not as physically strong as her two assistants; Celis was able to slip behind the spirit and restrain her legs as they fell back into a wall. Though, the spirit’s sharp fingers soared for Celis’s neck.

“Celis!”

Alisson shouted. He’d caught one of Celis’s baselards as it’d been knocked from her grip, and he now threw it toward her.

Celis caught the baselard, and just barely blocked the spirit’s fingers. Thanks to the moment of respite from the block, Celis was able to get her other hand around to the front of the spirit, and grabbed both her wrists, taking control of her arms. Celis then shoved her baselard toward the neck of the spirit –

As she did, Alisson grabbed Enhérejär out of the air, with both his hands. With two swords, he pointed one at each of the maids’ necks that were getting to their feet.

Just like that, all three enemies were under lock and chain by Alisson and Celis.

“Tell your lackeys to back off.”

Celis said, shoving her baselard further against the spirit’s neck. The spirit only smiled with defeat in response.

Apparently in response to some sort of order, the two maids slowly started to get to their feet, with very exaggerated and cautious movements. Alisson watched them like a hawk, pointing Enhérejär formed as two thin swords at the both of them. They both promptly bowed, and backed away from Alisson to the far side of the room, where they remained bowing in subservience and impassivity, still with the same expressions, like they were dolls.

Alisson sighed and turned with the spirit with sharp eyes. He walked closer to the spirit, still hopelessly restrained by his apprentice from behind on the ground.

Enhérejär. Block every single port that this spirit can shoot string out of.

Enhérejär fanned out of Alisson’s hands, and wrapped around the spirit at different places. Enhérejär pulled off the spirit’s other glove, showing that both the spirit’s hands had metallic and scalpel-sharp fingers. Enhérejär rested above the tips of all the spirit’s fingers, as well as a few places on the spirit’s back and front.

Celis eased off with her baselard, and instead used the hand to better hold down the spirit. Celis brought the spirit upright from behind as Alisson stepped closer. He drew a knife, and shoved it straight at the spirit’s neck. The spirit had been warily smiling, but Alisson shoving a blade at her neck caused her to lose her smug attitude and her eyes widened.

…

Alisson gave the spirit a death stare as he held his knife an inch away from her throat. He was evidently deciding whether this spirit should live or die. My body against the wall, I held the spirit’s arms in my elbows and locked my arms around her front. I was holding her down so that Alisson could make the decision, he is my master after all. A wave of pride was ebbing over me, the reason we just overcame the spirit and that Alisson was freed, it was all because I showed up, right? Alisson didn’t have some plan lined up or anything, he would’ve escaped her grip long ago if he did…it was all the root of me, right?

For whatever reason, I have a hard time being confident in my actions.

Alisson stared a long moment at the spirit, but the spirit never replied, and in fact she started to relax in my grip and her smile returned to her face.

Eventually, Alisson sighed, easing off a little with the knife.

“Start talking.” Alisson said. “Now.”

Eh…just kill her. Just what was she doing anyway? It looked like she was torturing Alisson when I barged in. I only had a second to take in the environment before I acted, but I’m pretty sure I made the right assumptions. The mysterious force behind all the walking corpses and that green-eyed girl, it’s some girl in a dress with a little hat.

“I said: Start. Talking.”

Alisson growled, shoving his knife an inch closer to the spirit.

Alisson can really be scary sometimes.

She only smugly stared at him in return.

“I’ll kill you and burn your entire damn mansion down if you don’t explain yourself. Spirit.”

He spat. I could feel the girl’s shoulders slacken in my grip, she was now completely loose, and wasn’t putting any effort into her muscles.

“Go ahead. Kill me.”

The spirit looked up to Alisson with a weak smile. Alisson’s frown remained unchanging.

After a second, the spirit lost her smile, and she looked to get a little angry.

“Well? Do it. Go on, what are you waiting for? Didn’t I just treat you like a doll a few minutes ago? Don’t you hate me?” The girl said, looking to be trying to convince Alisson to kill her. “…Or, are you some sorta’ masochist?”

Alisson just stared at her, without any change. It was scary that he could be so stone-faced, especially after being called a masochist.

“I, I was going to kill you! I was going to make the both of you nothing more than corpses stuffed full of string-!” She shook her head in the middle of her fit. “Just, just kill me already! Do it!”

After pleading for a moment, her head sunk low, and the room was silent for a long moment. I felt the spirit shudder through my grip.

“Just…just kill me…”

Alisson recoiled, and sheathed his knife. I didn’t realize why until I saw the tears rolling down the girl’s face. She started whimpering and soon she was crying, just like a child would. I don’t know why, but in that moment, I pitied her. I wanted to turn her around and let her cry into my shoulder, Alisson too I imagine. But we can’t let our guard down.

The spirit continued to cry and cry for some time, into no one’s embrace or solace-giving hug. Me and Alisson just stared deathly still at her, the both of us frowning with a mask of mild disgust.

Eventually, the spirit stopped crying. She couldn’t even wipe away her tears because I was holding her arms. There were a few minutes of silence, nothing but the howling wind outside the estate and the rain was heard.

“Celis. Let her go.” Alisson stepped back, deactivating his Opensen. “We’re leaving.”

I gave a wary glance to the silent girl in my arms, and reluctantly let go of her, and stepped away. If Alisson thinks she isn’t going to backstab us…then I have to trust him. Enhérejär peeled away from the spirit, no longer blocking the spirit’s ports for her string. The both of us headed to the only door to the room, leaving the spirit sitting sprawled in the floor, her hair covering her face from my view.

“…wait…”

I heard a mumble. Alisson and I didn’t stop, we continued toward the door.

“Wait!”

Alisson stopped, so I did as well.

“I’ll…I’ll talk…”

She said. Alisson and I turned to the spirit.

…

She was on all fours, reaching out with a hand toward him and Celis, with an expression of utter defeat.

The sight made Alisson’s stomach tight, and sent a shot through his chest and through his wrists. Though, he kept his steeled countenance, and appeared to only glance at the spirit with disgust as if she were nothing. Alisson stepped back over toward the spirit, and crossed his arms, tilting his head expectantly.

The spirit let loose a large sigh, and laid back against the wall, looking up toward the ceiling with a blank, melancholic expression.

“Look I’m…I’m sorry…for what I did…”

Despite saying that she would talk, the spirit seemed at a loss for words, another lapse of silence passed before the spirit spoke up again.

“I…it’s…”

Alisson, his arms crossed and frowning, answered for the spirit.

“You’ve been alone all these years, haven’t you?”

The spirit’s body jumped in response, though she averted her eyes uncomfortably.

“Y-yeah…I, I guess so…” After another pause, “What makes you say that?”

She asked, still not looking at Alisson directly.

“We have met one of your…kind, in the past. I was just extrapolating is all.”

The spirit eyes lit up and she looked Alisson in the eyes.

“R-really? There’s another that’s still operable?”

She averted her eyes with a small smile.

“Yes…”

The spirit smiled.

“Thank goodness…I’m not the only one…”

“…is such manic behavior common of spirits?”

Alisson asked.

“Mm…Well, for those of us left, I guess so. We weren’t made to function so long you know…most all of us have gone brain-dead or insane from how long we’ve had to operate. Just look at those two.”

She pointed to her two servants, the ones with the glowing eyes that were silently standing off in a corner, still wearing the same expressions.

“They were like me, they could talk, had personalities, now look. They’re just husks. The only reason they’re not piles of rubble is because I’ve stubbornly kept them around. It was bearable when it was the three of us, but, they’re of a lower class than me, they’re minds are, not as strong as mine, and…they didn’t last long.”

“So then,” Alisson brought his gaze back to the spirit, “Have a name?”

The spirit averted her eyes.

“You can call me Lavjoure. That was the name of the last lady of this estate. I’ve long forgotten my designation…”

“You, forgot your name?”

Alisson canted his head in suspicion.

“Well, forgetting for us means purposely purging data. I don’t have nearly the storage to remember eons of time, so I have to get rid of my memories if I’m to function without being bogged down.”

It was an odd way of talking about memory. Why coin the terms ‘storage’ and ‘data’ in the context of remembrance?

“But,” The spirit, Lavjoure, started once more. “No matter what I do, my degradation gets worse and worse every year…soon, I’ll be just like them.”

She flicked her eyes to her two servants.

It sounded to Alisson like her…questionable acts…were a means to keep her sanity.

“So, you said that this estate had a previous owner?”

Alisson asked, wanting to keep Lavjoure talking.

“Yes. That was about 200 years ago, but as I said my memory is foggy so give or take a few hundred years.” She smiled weakly to herself. “They had a whole village here, and to my knowledge they started a mine not far from here. Little did they know, they tunneled straight into the facility I’d been idly waiting around in. I kept hidden, and a few years after that, the village fell to a swarm of monsters. It was then that I poked my head out, and decided that it was far better to spend my time above ground in the sun; instead of a musty bunker where everyone I was tasked with protecting were already long dead.” She fell silent again.

It explained why this building was the only one standing for kilometers; it was the spirit’s doing in maintaining it.

Sylph too described an underground base of sorts that she had emerged from, or at least worked around, just what was it with spirits and mystery underground facilities that no one had ever seen? Alisson wanted to ask more about the subject of spirits’ origins, and of whatever people they served, but evidently it was a touchy subject from what Alisson had seen of Sylph.

He didn’t exactly know what to do with Lavjoure. He didn’t need anything from this spirit, she’d been the one to accost them first. She had defiled his Bacilla, and normally that’d warrant death, as they were quite a sensitive matter, both physically and socially in Sidonia. However, he saw before him that the spirit harbored no ill-intentions, and was genuinely guilty. She was even asking, asking, Alisson to kill her, so evidently, she was suicidal.

Alisson glanced at Celis, looking for her cold input. She looked up and met his glance, seeing that he wanted advice. Celis shrugged, uninterested.

“Wasn’t she torturing you or something?”

Celis asked. Alisson looked back to Lavjoure with a frown.

For some reason Alisson didn’t think much of it now. In the moment it was pure despair and pain, but, he didn’t really hold any resentment other than the fact the spirit had violated him and his pride. Those two matters, however, were forgivable in his head when he saw what had caused them in front of him, a little girl who had been begging for death not moments earlier. If it were an Andestine agent, with that glint in their eyes and that malignant smile of violation, Alisson would be furious at the same treatment.

Was Alisson really that petty? To care about the who? If Alisson saw an Andestine Knight cut down one of his fratello before him, with their brazen disregard and their cocky attitude, then he’d fly into a fury of revenge. Replace that soldier with the little girl before him, and for whatever reason it didn’t seem as bad to Alisson as before. Was that a traitorous way of thought?

Well, it didn’t matter. In both hypothetical situations, Alisson would act the same way, he’d kill them; but he would feel different between the girl and the soldier. In the instance of the present situation however, what Lavjoure had done hadn’t killed anyone, and if anything, it was better that Alisson was the one to be captured…

…Celis didn’t have the same…experiences…as him. He almost threw up in his mouth imagining Celis in his position, and was thankful that he’d been the one instead.

Alisson sighed, preparing his conclusion. He breathed deeply, and stared at the spirit.

“Look…I understand you’re not exactly in a fit state of mind.” Alisson began, and Lavjoure frowned at his words. “We have somewhere to be. To tell you the truth, I don’t care much for what you did or of you general. We need to rest, and move on. That is all. Don’t impede us any further.”

Alisson said, perhaps a little too malevolently. He turned away to the door, but peeked back over his peripheral vision at Lavjoure.

“Though…” Alisson reached a hand to his stomach, and realized that Lavjoure had actually sewn together the part of the aketon she’d ripped to reach his bare skin, to his surprise. “…I must thank you for patching me up, even if it was a purely selfish act.”

He and Celis started to walk to the door, when once again the spirit called to them.

“Wait. You two were talking about travelling?”

Alisson turned, and nodded slowly.

“Well…I can get you some maps of these parts if you want…N-not like the maps of today, no, not those inaccurate drawings…I mean real maps.”

Alisson tilted his head, raising an eyebrow.

“What do you mean real maps?”

“It’s…hard to explain. But I can guarantee you they’d be more useful than any other hand-made map.”

After a moment of silence, Alisson cracked a wry smirk.

“What, trying to make up for yourself and appease us?”

Lavjoure’s shoulder’s slackened and she fell into a guilty but devious smile.

“Yeah…that’s right.” Her face promptly straightened. “But it’ll take me a while to get them…they’re back in that bunker in the mine I was talking about…I should be able to retrieve them by sunrise.”

Alisson turned again.

“Very well then. I’ll be interested take a look at these maps if you procure them.”

Alisson said. He was about to continue when something pulled on his arm. It was Celis, and she was pouting at him.

“Come on Alisson!” She whined, “I’m hungry and tired!”

Alisson nodded in agreement.

…

“That’s a good job you did then today.”

Alisson said after I’d explained what I had to do to rescue him. We both already ate, and were sitting against the wall of the room we’d been in earlier, watching the rain and thunder through the large windows of the estate. With a full stomach and burning muscles, I was ready to sleep for an entire week, especially since Alisson was at my side.

I was staring at him ever since he said, ‘good job’ expecting him to pat me. Apparently realizing my half-pouting glare, he averted his eyes guiltily and reluctantly raised his hand. I sat in glee as he held his hand on my head. A question popped into my head.

“Oh, what did you mean when you thanked the spirit for healing you?”

I asked.

“She…I don’t really know what she did. It was some sort of scientific surgery I’m sure but…it seemed more effective than magic. She sealed up and internally fixed my wounds with those dexterous metal fingers of hers.”

“Really?”

“See for yourself.”

Alisson and I had already taken off our armor for comfortability, at least the chain and steel exterior, so all he had to do was lift his aketon and I saw his belly.

There looked to be stitches across where his wound had been. Other than that, there wasn’t any blood or open bleeding. After taking that in, I realized that I was looking at Alisson’s bare belly. I’ve only every seen his hands and face, so it’s a little groundbreaking for me. I was expecting Alisson to either be super skinny or be totally ripped, but it looks like he’s in the middle. I mean, I guess makes sense…I don’t really know what I expected.

I realize I was staring a little too hard and too long when Alisson suddenly descends the iron curtain down upon his flesh, to be rarely parted again. He was giving an angry look, with a red face.

“…Pervert.”

I averted my gaze with a blush. It looks like he realized that I was mesmerized with that rare sight of his exposed skin.

“My knee is the same.”

Alisson said quickly. Not wanting to fall into an awkward period of silence after he’d called me a pervert, I spoke up quickly.

“What were all those white tentacles surrounding you and the spirit when I barged in?”

Apparently taking my innocent question as a check to his calling me a pervert, Alisson blushed with wide eyes, looking away. What? I really don’t know what that was, I’m just asking.

“That was…my Bacilla.” Alisson says as if I’d already knew.

My eyes widen.

“No way…so…”

“Mm…that was the first time they came out…”

Oh boy. I can imagine having that happen in that scenario…with someone you don’t even know…that’s probably biting at both Alisson’s pride and his mental image of himself.

“Don’t Bacilla usually only come out at times of stress?”

“Mm.”

Alisson nods warily.

“So doesn’t that mean that it’s normal to have it come out in the middle of a fight?”

“Well…” Alisson looked away guiltily. “It doesn’t have to be just stress; any intense emotion can bring it out when a Nekomata has reached ample maturity, just like one’s Opensen…”

Oh…Yeah…Alisson’s gonna be beating himself up about that for a while. He probably wanted his Bacilla to come out when he was professing to his lover or something…wait.

My eyes widen.

I’m his lover. Right? Is that how that works? Or is he my lover? Or does it not count at all – since it’s one-way for all I know…A sudden veil descends on me when I remember my own revelation about Alisson. It feels weird to just think that I’m in love with him so casually. In my head, I don’t consciously think with the words, ‘love’ and ‘like’ when I think about Alisson; He’s just Alisson. Who else could that be? Alisson is like a part of my being that I’m not wholly in control of.

He’s mine.

I shake my head lightly.

So should I even try to confess to him? No, that’s a bad way to think...I have to, both social norms and good communication call for it. I mean, you can only nudge and wink at someone so much to get them to understand something...It’s better to just come out and clean about it…I guess that’s why coming clean about love has gotten such a stigma and a whole social realm about it, because it’s such a integral yet small piece of communication. Where else do three little words change futures and explain one’s most important alliance?

Well, back to the matter at hand, Alisson showed his Bacilla to some random spirit. On paper that’s enough to call for his death and the death of whoever saw it. Those are some old Sidonian norms though, back when everyone had the luxury of an Opensen and Bacilla, and even higher levels of manifestation that have already been lost to the Nekomata. Now, whenever someone unlocks their Opensen, or Bacilla much more rarely, it’s more a, ‘Oh, cool, good for you. Now you’re more powerful and can serve Sidonia better.’ sort of thing.

So, do I care that Alisson’s Bacilla was exposed to some random spirit we met literally today?

Of course!

But am I going to execute him and Lavjoure over it?

No!

I mean, I feel only a little jaded, but when I see Alisson, fast asleep on my shoulder, I’m thankful that he’s safe, and by my side. His hand had long fallen from my head, and his quick breaths and soft sleeping face evaporated any care I had for some stupid worry of purity. When he’s like this, I can hardly believe that he’s out of my league, and some scary shadowy person I don’t know. But, my mind flits back to how cold Alisson was when he was talking with the spirit, given the circumstance his attitude was understandable but…which one is really Alisson?

My gut tightens, still battling over which of my mental images of Alisson is right. But my eyes, and the very top of my head, are light, and clear, and say with full certainty that the angelic face before me is Alisson. It’s the depths of my mind, and my gut, that are waiting to pounce on a wrong assumption, and say ‘I told you so’ in the midst of a mental breakdown. Well, even if Alisson isn’t who I think he his…well…it won’t come to that.

I sigh, physically slackening and remembering my tire. Just like in the Ipithid Plain, I cant my head over Alisson’s, and rest my cheek on his soft hair, closing my eyes.

***