Chapter CLVII: Danger Smells Like Strawberry ~Kyanosa

Josh and another young man sat on either side of a door in the middle of a hallway on the Spectrum, both with their legs stretched out and saying hello to the occasional being that had to walk over them. Taking a quick break from playing with his dagger, Josh looked at the other person and extended a hand. "Joshua Renil. How'd you get roped into guard duty?"

In the best interests of getting noticed, the other person returned the handshake. "Shinsei Aku. I actually volunteered for it. It's the most interesting thing that I've done so far on this trip."

"Seriously?" Josh went back to his dagger. "You didn't go planet-hopping or weapon-searching yet?"

"No. I get the vague feeling that I'm purposely being ignored."

"I had that for a while too. People around here are all wrapped up in their cliques. You just need to make the first move, start a conversation with somebody."

Shinsei raised an eyebrow. "And who did you meet?"

"Kyanosa, back before we went all weird in the head. Then Kaye and Mazzic. I'm working on other people, but hey, these are my preferences. Just find someone interesting and introduce yourself."

Shinsei gave a wry smile, then closed his eyes. "I just might."

And behind the locked door, guarded by the two, young men, Grimace waited for his chance...

*          *          *

Kyanosa fell for what seemed like a very long three seconds, then landed neatly on a floor of polished black tile, very much like the room he had just left. He looked around, taking in the walls of solid black marble that formed a long corridor directly in front of him. On either wall every five feet sat candles in their silver holders at roughly eye level, illuminating the hallway more than one would expect. Kyanosa looked up, seeing nothing above him but the same ceiling as in the rest of the hallway, which matched the walls. He frowned even more. [Spectacular. Now we can't get back.]

{That was only an entrance anyway. I was planning on going a separate way back, but I suggest that you start moving.}

[Why?]

{They don't take well to visitors here. I'm pretty sure that there's some sort of creature guarding this door against intruders, so I think we should gain some advantage by moving first.}

[You and your great knowledge. I don't think there's anything here at all.]

At precisely that moment, all of the flames in the candles turned a bright shade of green, and a second later, a tremendous roar echoed through the corridor just behind Kyanosa. {I'll bet you.}

He spun around, peering into the darkness behind him. He could faintly make out a few writhing objects, like especially thin (maybe an inch around), flying snakes, coming towards him. The real danger of the situation showed up when a black blob that took up the whole hall appeared behind it. [So? We can beat a jellyfish and some snakes.]

{Those aren't snakes. Those are tentacles.}

Kyanosa quickly turned in the opposite direction and sprinted down the corridor, with the intent rumbling of the creature following behind him. A lone tendril wormed its way ahead of the others and wrapped itself around Kyanosa's ankle. As soon as it tightened its grip, he was glad he wore metal shoes, but kicking at the wiry appendage afforded little comfort as it dragged him back towards the hulking mass that controlled it. In a vague moment of lucidity, Kyanosa swung the Mirror staff (which, if you didn't read the last chapter, he had activated) at the tentacle, shooting a number of glass shards from the crystal sphere at the weapon's end. One blade pierced the limb through its middle and severed it from its base. Spewing some navy-colored liquid Kyanosa could only assume was blood, it spasmed and withdrew, leaving our plucky schizophrenic to kick off what it left behind and continue on his mad dash towards more hallway.

Two more tendrils shot from the blackness with the intent of snaring the would-be escapee, but Kyanosa recognized the telltale whipping sound that accompanies such an action and performed a pirouette, swinging his staff with him. As if aimed perfectly, but mostly as a result of the myriad shards created with each swipe, two more shards deprived the creature of just as many limbs. Finally learning its animalistic version of a lesson, the creature began to focus more on cutting the distance between itself and Kyanosa than on hindering the latter. It roared, retracted its remaining appendages, and started wriggling back and forth as it moved, somehow increasing its speed.

Kyanosa looked back and cursed, unsummoning his staff and running full tilt towards a small block of light at the end of the corridor. [How long is this damn hallway!]

{Hm...I think it's about a quarter of a mile. I think we can do that in 85 seconds or so.}

[That seems higher than I remember.]

{Nobody on track wore metal pants. Slide.} A stone wall suddenly loomed out of the darkness in front of him, proving the block of light to be just a small hole in it near the floor. Taking the advice of his mental guide, Kyanosa dropped to the ground and slid feet-first through the hole. He was nearly certain that he was home free until the creature itself crashed its way right through the wall behind him; he was even less certain when he noticed that the room into which he had slid consisted of a gaping abyss with a stalactite-ridden ceiling. Two tendrils grabbed onto each of his legs as the monster too noticed the second fact and, taking a "you're going down with me" attitude, plunged into the darkness below. Finally fed up with the fruitless restriction on his favorite power, Kyanosa switched to Archangel, sliced the tentacles with one mighty swipe, and pumped his wings upward, bidding his adversary an arrogant farewell as it, still subject to gravity, disappeared.

In Kyanosa's head, Tuesday gave Brick the astral version of a smack upside the head. {What are you, stoned? Switch powers!}

[This is asinine! You know this is my best power, and anybody who has a problem with it can say it to my face.]

{You don't get it! Give me the body!}

After a brief mental struggle, Tuesday regained power over Kyanosa and changed from Archangel to Polished Wings. He flapped his way as close to the ceiling as he could without impaling himself and flew toward an opening in a far wall.

{This is the underworld! You can't have a holy-based power in the underworld! I mean, duh!}

[Why the hell not?]

{Not Hell, underworld. Different places. Because all light-based spells or abilities are nullified, the energy drain simply to exist is massive at a time when we can afford no lost powers, and every dark-aligned thing down here can track you perfectly unless you have special shielding. A pair of metal pants does not make you immune to evil!}

[I still don't see why we can't just kill everything that attacks us.]

At that exact point, a rigid metal chain burst from the ceiling and, leading with the razor-edged metal piece on its end, shot ten feet straight down, barely missing Kyanosa's shoulder. Albeit a second late, he swerved to the side to the side to dodge it and ran into another that had appeared while he wasn't looking. He arrested his flight by grabbing on to the second, which saved him from a third that would have collided with his head. Suddenly, all three retracted, the razor on the one Kyanosa was holding leaving a moderately deep cut in the palm of his left hand. Since Tuesday was in control, he refrained from cursing this time and started flying again, this time at a lower altitude. He also changed from Polished Wings to Pincushion, opting to fight spikes with spikes in case the chains reappeared.

And did they ever reappear. A number of them appeared in front of Kyanosa and started swirling around one another. Kyanosa simply dipped out of their range, watching them as he passed. It wasn't until he was directly below them that he got an idea of what they were doing: tracing a circle in the rock ceiling. He dove to gain speed the instant the rock gave away, just getting away before it ran into him. He looked back at the hole, intently watching the creature that emerged from it. It was roughly his height and wore armor that seemed to consist of chains, complete with a mask over the lower half of its face. It was lowering itself into the room by a large set of chains attached to something in the room above, and dozens of other lengths of chain with razor-edged tips hovered around it, as if floating in water.

[This is what you feared? A man suspended by metal ropes? Even the pants beat that.]

{That's not a man, it's a devil. I think it's called a kyton, and it can control those chains telekinetically.}

[But can it fly?]

Kyanosa grinned. {No, it can't.}

Four chains speeded towards Kyanosa as he waited in mid-air, and four wing needles countered them at the last second, stopping the chains in their tracks but not at all hindering Kyanosa's power to fly. When the chains were pulled back to the kyton, Kyanosa grabbed one above the point and came back with it. An unsuspecting kyton then felt the horrific fury of a metal boot to the face, which gave Kyanosa the time to grab onto the base of a chain near its back, summon the Glass Sword in his bleeding yet usable left hand, and start hacking away at the chains holding the duo (technically trio) in the air.

The marginally confused kyton reached behind itself and grabbed Kyanosa's collar, pulling him in the kyton's range of sight, but this just gave Kyanosa the chance to snap some more chains on the way. Enraged, and admittedly worried, the monster focused on attacking Kyanosa, sending its free chains his way. He marvelously dodged despite his limited movement (a lifetime of running can give you some crazy dodging skills), forcing the kyton to adopt a meaner method. Two chains slid behind Kyanosa and wrapped around his wrists, forcing them apart with the Glass Sword useless in an upright position.

As the kyton aimed a third chain between Kyanosa's eyes, Brick chose that time to gloat, the cad. [Marvelous strategy. Fighting spikes with spikes doesn't work if you can fight everything with wings and a sword.]

{I did that.}

[I mean at the same time, you plank. When you die, see if you can put me into the kyton's head. Then I'll at least have real weapons.]

Fueled by that last mean remark, Kyanosa received the full brunt of a brainstorm. He deactivated the Glass Sword and triggered a last-ditch power that he really hoped would work. Sure enough, when the well-aimed chain barreled his way, it inexplicably stopped one inch from his face. Shaking in mid-air, it slowly changed direction until it wasn't even close to Kyanosa, and then finished its run. While the kyton was busy being confused, one dormant chain rose on each side of its head, turned toward the closest temple, and ran through them. In the ensuing death throes, chains began falling into the abyss, gradually ridding the creature of its support, but the chains around Kyanosa's wrists released their hold and instead wrapped around his waist. They quickly tossed him through the hole in the ceiling and waved goodbye as the weight of the dying kyton pulled the entire set through the darkness below.

Kyanosa stood up and brushed himself off. {Weapon of Choice. Since the control over chains is the kyton's only form of attack, it counts as a weapon as opposed to an ability, so I gained that power. I just used the chains against it.}

[And it only took you triple the time and energy I would have used by throwing the sword straight into its head. Congratulations.]

{Ah, you're just bitter because I rocked it. Booya.} Kyanosa started dancing.

[Before you celebrate further, note the sudden change in the quality of light in this room, as well as the temperature.]

Kyanosa looked at the area around him, which looked like your everyday large cave, with earthen walls and floor and a high ceiling. {Okay, bright and warm. So?}

[Turn around.]

He looked behind him. Floating not fifty feet away was the upper half of a monstrous humanoid skeleton, at least forty feet tall from the top of its head to the base of its spine, from which sprung a fireball that encompassed the entire nightmare in sensational fire. Deep in its eye sockets burned two more flames, each light blue, and it was hovering towards Kyanosa at a steady pace. When it noticed that the human was watching it, it pointed a long, bone finger at him. It then punched into its other palm, a motion that caused an explosion around the creature, making the flames glow higher and brighter.

Kyanosa grinned, waved, and ran for dear life.