章 11: Prologue - Reborn From Light
The burning light bled into the world.
A burst of power shone like a sun from the pedestal where the sword and Ariyama once stood.
The light was a bleached thing of endless strength.
And at its center stood Ariyama Saato, hand gripping the broken sword of Idolseus, blinding white exploding off him like a light bulb.
The hazy blue hue that overtook the whole room was evaporated and extinguished, replaced by the scorching light that made every shadow disappear.
Matsune Sasya looked up, her eyes wide and watering, the huge stone giant above her doing the same. Its shapeless, cracked face was ignited with the brightness.
Ariyama felt amazing.
The burning light emanating from him made him feel like a god. The sword gripped in his hand felt weightless and not burning him whatsoever, as if it had become one with him.
Correction: it was Idolseus who had become one with him. At least, that's what Ariyama thought was the case. They fused, and now he had the power to save Matsune.
He felt different, sure, as if Idolseus had fused him with more than just his powers. He felt another will, another mind, driving him on. But that will shared the same goal as his, so he let it take control.
The light seemed to have drawn out the rest of the monster scurrying around the place. The ceiling opened up and swarms of the human-like locusts flew out, their yellow spore gasses already spraying out. The purple tentacle that had taken Yasami away also poked its veiny, pulsating self out from the hole in the wall.
But Ariyama Saato wasn't scared anymore. He had power, and now they were nothing but ants under his boot.
He took a single step forward, the sound echoing off the walls. He raised the sword he held in a two-handed grip on its long handle. The light around it condensed and regrowed the missing half of the split blade. Energy poured off it like a nuclear reactor core.
And when Ariyama swung it in a single, long arc, the energy split the air with a horrible ear-piercing sound. The slash was aimed for the swarm of locusts, and it lasered the insects out of the sky. Their corpses fell to the floor as pieces of smoking flesh. The slightly-bluish white light grew ever more from the sword, and Ariyama swung it again.
The tentacle thrashed, trying to find the right spot to slither back into its hole, back into its den of security.
The heat-so-hot-it-looked-like-light caught it first and shredded it into pieces.
Ariyama grinned with exaltation as he felt the power flow through him. He slashed the air again, the sword whispering in a sharp arc.
Ariyama was now the judge and executioner.
And the knight was next to be guilty.
It turned away from Ariyama's attack quickly, brandishing its saber above its head to cleave through the defenseless Matsune laying on the ground.
But the laser of bluish light reached it first.
The heat of the light tore through its arm, taking away its sword too. It jerked with silent agony as its arm – the sword still clutched between the fingers – fell to the ground with a loud thud.
It twisted its body with pain, bringing its other arm down to crush Matsune again.
It sure was intent on killing her, but with this power, Matsune dying was the last thing Ariyama was about to let happen.
Another swing of the so-called Enchanted Tool, and a slash of light hit the left forearm of the knight, shredding through it as its stone armor burned orange from the heat.
Another thud as the limb fell.
Armless now, the knight turned to Ariyama, and he could feel the blood-curdling rage seeping from the cracks of its armor.
It bolted towards him like a beast.
Its speed was incredible, those stone tree trunks for legs letting it reach the end of the steps to the pedestal in just three strides.
It was inhumanly fast.
But Ariyama Saato was faster.
He took another thunderous step, letting out a battle cry as it swung the sword again, horizontally.
For Takemichi.
For Yaranagi.
Even for Jack and Yasami
The air cut in two as it was filled with boiling light. Unlike the previous two thin slashes, this attack had ten times the energy poured into it.
The wave of rippling blue-white light crashed against the stone knight before it could even begin to take another step.
The light submerged him, and Ariyama swore he heard an actual scream of anguish as the knight was vaporized.
The light disappeared like a snap of fingers.
The knight stood there, at the foot of the steps, now nothing but a pair of legs and half of a torso that ended with blazing stone and trails of smoke.
It swayed slightly where it stood, but only for a moment. The next moment, the monster that had killed two of Ariyama's friends finally fell over, shattering like glass once it hit the ground.
And then, it was over.
Ariyama stood there as the light died away, still glowing slightly from the new power flooding through him. He had still no clue as to what had really happened – most of it was a blur, to be honest – but all that mattered was that the stone monster was dead.
And that Matsune was safe.
Ariyama let out a soft breath, then looked over to where Matsune was lying, wounded badly.
He smiled sadly. He'd done it.
His legs moved before he realized, and he slowly made his way across the cracked and decimated Shrine, the sword he wielded now back to being rusted and cut in half, but still it remained in his bone-crushing grip.
Finally, he reached Matsune and knelt down before her, a tired smile on his face.
"Hey."
Matsune looked up at him with a mixed expression. She looked scared, relieved, guilty and angry all at once.
"What did you do… you idiot?"
Her breathless response drew a suppressed rage from deep in Ariyama. He reached out and held onto the fabric of her ruined coat, clenching it until it almost ripped. He kept his face neutral but couldn't stop the furious shaking in his body.
"What did I do? I saved you, you ungrateful cow…"
Matsune glared at him, but was clearly too hurt to argue further.
"So… you took the Enchanted Tool?"
"I don't know what the hell that even is still, but yes, I did."
"And you clearly fused with the Pilgrim…"
"Don't know what that is either, but once again, yes, I believe I did. Now, will we get out of here?"
Matsune's eyes widened and she turned to look around. The ceiling, the walls, the floor, everything, began to shake and fracture even more.
Ariyama followed her gaze and felt his stomach drop.
"What the hell is going on?"
Matsune grunted with pain as she sat up.
"This place is called a Shrine. Those monsters who… killed everyone were protecting that sword. Now that you have it, there's nothing to keep this unstable structure stable…"
"So you're saying…"
Matsune used the back of her sleeve to wipe blood from her face.
"Yes. We need to run now, or we'll be buried down here."
"Say less."
Ariyama pulled at his belt, sliding the broken sword under it and trapping it against his hip. Then, he offered Matsune an arm, which she took.
Her right leg was broken, so he needed to carry her. He bent down and helped her climb onto his back. Her arms wrapped tightly around his neck, as did her one usable leg around his waist.
"Run, Ariyama-kun."
Matsune whispered into his ear, and that was all the motivation he needed. Crouching with his wobbly legs, he inhaled then let out a long breath.
He waited.
Then he felt the floor beneath him crack.
And he was off.
Pouring every last ounce of the residual power he got from the sword into his legs, Ariyama gritted his teeth as he raced for the stairs out of this place.
Either from Matsune's prolonged fight with the knight or from Ariyama's blazing cuts of light, the concrete wall that had fallen and sealed the way to the stairs had been torn down, leaving a sizable hole for Ariyama to run through.
"Ariyama-kun, wait! Pick that up!"
Ariyama slowed his sprint slightly, locking his gaze on the silver bracelet that was on the ground in front of him, shining brightly despite the muck and grime everywhere.
That was what Matsune used to hold off the knight.
Was it an Enchanted Tool like Ariyama's sword? And if so, did Matsune make a contract with a silhouette of light too?
Questions for later. Ariyama winced as he bent down to snatch the bracelet, the added weight of Matsune on his shoulders not helping. Still, he managed to snag the bracelet and continue his sprint. He pocketed the small piece of deadly jewelry and finally reached the hole through the wall.
He turned himself to look back at the carnage behind them one last time. He glanced at the Takemichi – still slumped against the wall – and at Jack – with half his head missing.
Yasami was food for that purple tentacle monster, while Yaranagi fell between the gaps in the floor, his arm missing from a slash courtesy of the knight. Those two hadn't corpses to look at, so Ariyama bit his lip to fight back the emotion welling up inside him. He had to escape.
That's what they would've wanted, right?
The next minute or so was a blur.
All Ariyama felt was his labored breathing as he passed through the hole in the wall, one hand gripping the thigh of Matsune's leg wrapped around his waist, the other clutched at her interlocked arms that surrounded his neck.
The soles of his feet hurt and bled as he raced through the maze of dull stone walls and clumps of moss. Matsune held on tight, her arms nearly strangling him. As he ran, he felt the lean muscles along her whole brushed body. She was fit from all her athletic practice, but this wasn't the type of muscle built from lots of running and pushups. This type of muscle was forged into you, sculpted from months if not years of intensive labor and nearly fatal work.
Whatever Matsune had been doing with that bracelet and unnatural acrobatics of hers, she wasn't a novice. She had been at this for a while.
Even as Ariyama nested the exit, jumping through new holes in the walls that were being created by the second, he wondered how long that while had been.
His whole existence on the brink of collapse, Ariyama broke through one last hole in the wall, and nearly fell and cried as he breathed in the cool night air outside.
Careful about the Matsune on his back, Ariyama ran another few meters away from the structure as he felt the ground beneath him quiver expectantly.
Once he was a close enough distance away, he slowly lowered Matsune off him and propped her up against a fallen tree log, sitting down next to her, eyes locked on the Shrine.
There was a distant boom, coming from below the compound, followed by a rush of crashes ever-increasing in volume.
Ariyama's heart skipped a beat as a sinkhole opened up below the remnants of what once was probably a house or something similar. The whole building of gray bricks went concave and collapsed in on itself, the sinkhole swallowing it all up like a gaping maw digesting its latest meal. Once the whole ruins were devoured, a huge spray of dirt and stone and debris shot up from the large hole in the ground like a geyser.
Even from this distance away, small bits of rock and dirt splattered against their exhausted bodies. Ariyama winced as her face was peppered with debris, drawing blood. The quaking in the ground made him feel weightless, bringing back superfluous feelings as he remembered the white room, with Idolseus sitting opposite him, and the feeling of warmth that cascaded him infinitely.
With not a hint of energy left in him, Ariyama released a painful breath as he turned to look at Matsune sitting beside him.
"What was all that…"
He began to speak, but the words died on his lips when he saw that Matsune was crying. Tears streamed down her cheeks, her body shaking and exasperated sobs coming from her throat.
"I… I'm so sorry, Ariyama-kun. They're all dead, because I couldn't save them."
Her words broke through the wall Ariyama had tried to put up in order to block out any of those kinds of emotions.
He looked back at the crater in the middle of the forest, the so-called Shrine now fully digested by the earth. And with it went the bodies of everyone who died down there.
Yaranagi.
Yasuke.
He was dead.
Ariyama tried to think of all the others who'd met their end – he really did – but his mind was blocked with the memories of Yaranagi Yasuke.
His best friend since he was a child.
The person he was closest to and one of only two people allowed to call him Saato.
And he was dead.
He didn't get to lice the rest of his life like he should've, no. He was killed in a dark, devilish underground structure by a huge stone giant.
'Man, that was so cool,' was what Ariyama imagined Yaranagi would say if he was told that was his end. But he had so much more to give, and so much longer he could've lived.
Ariyama didn't even have anyone to blame. Jack, the one who set this whole trip up, was as clueless as the rest of them. And even if Ariyama wanted to blame him regardless, he was buried deep below the ground now.
But as he thought back, Ariyama had an epiphany.
He did have someone to blame.
The person who, directly or indirectly, started all this mayhem.
Himself.
If only he hadn't opened that goddamn Shrine Gate and caused the group to gain access to the inside.
And he only did it because he was deluded into believing this was some sort of way to have his 'big moment', and make friends without his fortune being involved.
So, what? Was his 'big moment' causing the deaths of four innocent students? Judging from how idiotic he was being, maybe that's what he deserved.
Ariyama focused back to reality, only to realize he was crying too.
He bit his lip, trying not to cry out. He shook, his heart rotting and bones turning to dust. He felt like he was about to collapse in on himself. And what was that sick feeling rising in his stomach–
He jerked forward and threw up all over the grass. He hurled nothing but bile. He'd removed all the food he'd eaten when he watched Takemichi die right in front of him.
A shaking but gentle hand rested on his back, rubbing small circles down his spine.
A distant voice.
"...OK. It's going to be OK…"
Was that Matsune, trying to soothe him?
Really?
Did she not understand that things were never going to be the same again?
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