Dungeon Keeper Ami [Sailor Moon / Dungeon Keeper] [Story Only Thread]

Originally on 2009-09-16T18:51:00
The Horned Reaper looked down at the prone form of the his potential get-out-of-jail-free ticket. A female, judging from the skirt and the oh-so-cutesy ribbons. His eyebrows narrowed at the sight. Urge to kill rising. The human was so short that he doubted she was even fully-grown. Most disappointing. Too physically weak to put up an entertaining fight, and too young to have absorbed much magical lore. Unless she wasn't human. She looked the part, but he had never seen one with blue hair before. Then again, most of the ones he had encountered were either wearing helmets or coated with various bodily fluids. Oh well. All he really needed was an escape route; future carnage and mayhem were merely a bonus.

Noting the length of the girl's skirt, or rather the lack thereof, the demon nodded approvingly. No self-respecting heroine would be caught dead in an outfit like that. The Reaper's clawed fingers tightened around his scythe grip as he yearned to drive it into the smooth, unblemished skin of her legs. No! Focus! Freedom first, fun later! Dressed like this, the intruder had to be an apprentice dark sorceress then, or maybe some lord's pampered plaything. Neither would object strongly to being handed power on a silver platter. Getting her to play along should be simple. Even better, she was already waking up and wouldn't test his patience unduly. The Reaper's perpetual grin widened in anticipation.

Ami Mizuno, currently Sailor Mercury, let out a soft groan as she woke. She was lying on her stomach, and, judging from the way her ribs, side, and face ached, had landed that way, possibly head-first. Feeling cold, rough stone under her left cheek, she raised her head off the ground. There was a stinging sensation and a slight resistance as coagulating blood stuck to the floor. Deep blue eyes opened and stared unseeing into the darkness. Ami could hear dripping noises echoing in the distance, and the cold air smelled of mould and a hint of sulphur. Where was she, and how did she get here?

Oh, right. Jadeite's latest scheme had involved more pocket dimensional weirdness, and she had been just about to follow Sailor Moon and Sailor Mars through the exit, while behind her space was just folding up and collapsing. The realisation that she had not made it in time hit like a physical blow, and she felt her heartbeat speed up. Was she in the Dark Kingdom? Dead? Being dead probably didn't hurt this much.

Groggily, her right hand went up to her earrings, prompting a visor to slide in place in front of her eyes. Grey tones replaced pitch blackness, and Sailor Mercury got a first glimpse of her surroundings. Still shaken, she noted that the floor was rather dusty. Further inspection was postponed by the discovery of two - were those hooves? - nearly as thick as her torso, located just barely out of arms reach. Involuntarily, her gaze wandered upward, taking in the wide greaves that flared out into pointed knee protectors, the red skinned legs like tree-trunks, the metal-studded loincloth, a barrel-shaped muscular chest, and finally came to rest on a grin that was nothing but finger-long fangs. The part of Ami's brain that wasn't gibbering in terror admitted that she might have been a bit hasty in ruling out the "dead" hypothesis. This horned monster sure did look like a Western illustration of the devil, though she couldn't imagine what she had done to end up in hell. These unproductive thoughts were roughly shoved aside by self-preservation instincts kicking in.

Eyes widening, a shout of "Youma!" escaped the blue-haired girl's lips, and she quickly rolled away from the looming monstrosity, jumping to her feet once out of reach of that grisly-looking scythe. Thoughts were racing through her brain even as she took a combat stance. Giant youma, I'm all alone, I don't know where I am. Options? Shabon Spray won't hurt it. Beat it up? It's twice as big as me, and all muscle! I wish I had Rei's powers! By now, fear was threatening to overcome the adrenaline burning in her veins. Flee?

The Reaper adjusted his opinion of the girl slightly upward when, confronted with the sight of him, she didn't freeze up, but instead scrambled out of reach and even looked as if she considered attacking him. How interesting.

"Shabon... "

Even better, she was starting some kind of spell now. He shifted his weight, bracing himself. This should be fun!

"Spray!"

Bubbles? BUBBLES?! His right eyebrow started to twitch as his expectations came crashing down around him, and a deep growl escaped his throat. What kind of moron threw bubbles at a horned reaper? He had never been insulted like thi- wait, it was getting rather chilly, and this fog hadn't been there before. The murk was so thick he couldn't even see his own feet, and the brat had disappeared. The muffled sound of rapidly fading footsteps indicated that she was running away rather quickly. The Reaper sniffed the air. This blasted fog masked even the scent of her fear. How vexing. The dungeon was small though, so he could just stand here, talk, and try to coax her into coming back. That would be the reasonable thing to do.

Ami shivered when she heard the thundering clang of the youma's hooves stomping down the corridor. It was cackling madly as it followed her. She had hoped the only exit from the bleak main chamber would lead her to some place where she could hide, but instead she found a tiny cell filled with rotten straw. The prison's rusted bars were bent outwards, and some had even been broken and ejected into the corridor itself, as if something huge had violently burst out. She had a fairly good idea what.

Fingers flying rapidly over the keyboard of her hand-held Mercury computer, the senshi searched for a solution. She had scanned the walls and found them solid. No secret doors anywhere in sight, nor any trace of life. Oh, she had seen some dead cockroaches and rat skeletons. All neatly bisected. This youma was certifiably insane! Unimpeded by her own fog, she could already see the towering figure approaching. Her computer was steadfastly refusing to find any exploitable weaknesses. Her lips became a thin line as her face settled in a mask of determination. If she was to die here, she would not go down without a fight.

The Reaper snorted with irritation, this damnable fog was an annoyance. At least the brat was trapped in this dead end - what was that? Catching a hint of movement from the corner of his eye, he whirled around, or at least attempted to. Something cold and metallic struck the hollow of his right knee, and the leg he was twirling around on buckled. The ground shook as his armoured knees struck the ground. Behind him, a slight shape raised her broken prison bar again, this time in an overhead blow. You can't kill her yet, the red demon reminded himself.

Quick like a snake, his right hand shot out, catching his attacker by the throat. Sailor Mercury made a strangled noise as red, scaled fingers closed around her neck like a vice. The Reaper stood up, incidentally lifting the girl off the ground. Merciless yellow eyes stared into fear widened blue ones, which narrowed in anger. Then she brought the heavy metal bar straight down on his head. More startled than hurt, he let out a grunt and blinked. Seeing the expression of shock and growing despair on his victims face, he let out a long, roaring laugh. Small gloved fingers clawing at his hand snapped him out of it. The brat's face was turning a rather unhealthy shade of blue by now.

"Listen," the demon growled, bringing Ami's face up to his own. "I will drop you now, and you will stay and listen. If you run again, I'll chop your feet off!"

Seeing that the girl was in no shape to reply, he dropped her unceremoniously to the floor, and watched in amusement as she backed away, crawling until her back was to the wall, wheezing and gasping for air all the while.

Ami could see lights dance before her eyes, and massaged her neck with both hands, trying to loosen her choker that was now nearly embedded in her skin. So much for the ambush idea. If the youma wanted to talk while she eagerly sucked in air, that was all right. As long as it talked, it wasn't killing her. Maybe she should start paying attention.

"...as you can see, we are both trapped here. Fortunately for both of us, there is a way out now that you are here. One that you will find quite to your liking, I reckon." the Reaper looked down at the girl, looking for a reaction. Nothing, she was still coughing. Stupid, fragile humans.

Well, that explains why I'm still alive, Ami thought.

"Just claim the Dungeon Heart for yourself and become a Keeper!"

And unleash you on the world, the senshi added in her mind. Ack, neck hurts. Better keep him talking. "What is a 'Keeper'?" she croaked out, still rubbing her raw throat.

"A Keeper is one of the ruler of the underworld, commanding vast armies and magics beyond mortal ken, more powerful and wealthy than even kings! Even the mightiest of monsters would bow to your will. Perhaps even me, if you do well. Do you accept?"

This youma wants me to become a Dark General, Sailor Mercury thought incredulously. A mental image of herself in an uniform just like Jadeite's flashed through her mind. Ridiculous. Still, I had better not upset him. "Where is this ... dungeon heart ... you mentioned, and what would I have to do?" she craned her neck back, looking up at the Reaper for the first time since their fight.

Hook, line, sinker, the demon thought. "You landed on it, actually. With my help, the process is rather simple. All you need is to want the job and some blood, I will handle the rest."

Ami pulled herself to her feet, steadying herself against the clammy wall. This dungeon heart sounded like her best bet to get out of here. If only it didn't mean letting the scary monster out too. She needed more time. Cautiously, she asked "Please don't take this personally, but would you mind if I analysed this dungeon heart before I committed to anything? It sounds too good to be true, and..."

The Reaper chuckled, amused. He had not told her any lies, so what could it hurt? After waiting for decades, waiting a bit more did not mean much to him. "Paranoia? Useful in this business. Go right ahead." he waved a hand dismissively, getting another chuckle out of the way she nearly tripped over her own feet in her hurry to get away from him, looking back over her shoulder nervously from time to time.

Two hours later, he was rather bored. What did the girl hope to learn from staring at the round cover of the dungeon heart with those weird glasses of hers and tapping her fingers on a small rectangle?

Ami was rather intrigued by the readout of her scans. If it wasn't for the youma glaring in her direction, then attempting to analyse an artefact of this complexity would have been downright enjoyable. Thus, she had been working on a plan to get rid of it for the last hour. Or, to be more honest, trying to convince herself to go through with it. The device underneath the protective stone plate was of a fiendishly elaborate design, but she was certain that she could manage to manipulate it to her ends, given enough time - without making a deal with the devil over there. For now, she already knew how to access that reservoir of magical power slumbering within the inert heart. With it, she could boost her own attack enough to dispose of this youma. She hoped.

All she had to do was step on this symbol first, then walk over to that on the other side, concentrate, take position over the centre-most part of the dungeon heart... like this... Ami closed her eyes and took a deep breath to calm down her nerves while sweat trickled down her forehead. The reaper was still standing in the same place, leaning against the wall with a bored expression on its face, but an eyebrow was rising at her sudden activity. The senshi exhaled. She'd only get one try at this. Now or never.

"Shabon Spray..." she felt a rush of power flow into her from below, and tried to ignore the tainted feel of it. She felt bloated with energy, close to exploding. Then, a dam she never knew was there burst under the pressure "... Freezing!"

Ice! Why did it have to be ice! He'd kill that treacherous little slut as soon as he got out of this ice block. Which, given ambient temperatures, could take a while. The Reaper would have roared in homicidal anger, had he been able to move. Alas, he was well and truly immobilised, and only his hate-filled eyes were able to dart around in their sockets. His attacker was having some trouble too it seemed, floating in a pillar of blue light and screaming herself hoarse. Served her right. He just hoped she hadn't killed herself and deprived him of the pleasure.

The dungeon heart, while not being sentient, reacted according to its programming when it felt itself being accessed. User is intending to use my power to destroy her enemies? Check. User's blood? On the cover, coagulated but present. Check. Strong source of magical power? Oh hell yes! Check.

The Reaper was fairly certain that a flower bud growing out of the potential Keeper's forehead was not part of the usual activation sequence. How embarrassing. He would have frowned had his eyebrows not been frozen in place. And now the plant blossomed out, only to reveal a brightly glowing blue crystal inside. As if pulled by a great force, it abruptly shot downward, breaking right through the dungeon heart's cover, and sending chips of stone flying. Moments later, the whole stone disc fractured and exploded upward, flinging the girl away like a rag doll. A first deep, rumbling heartbeat echoed through the halls, oh so familiar to the trapped demon. Unable to move, he watched as the dungeon heart's superstructure started to form and torches magically ignited themselves, bringing light back to the dungeon for the first time in centuries.

 

Originally on 2009-09-10T19:38:00

Ami woke up, covered in dust and draped uncomfortably over a piece of rubble that was pressing into her belly. With a start, she remembered that she had been attacking that big scythe-wielding youma before passing out. Given that she was still in one piece, her desperate plan must have worked, even if it had partially backfired on her. She noted that someone must have turned on the lights while she was out. Lying near one wall, she could only see a corner of the room. The view offered little to hold her attention, despite the murals now visible in the flickering torchlight. Their vaguely female silhouettes reminded her uncomfortably of the various Dark Kingdom youma she had encountered.

Ami heard a high-pitched noise, somewhere between laughter and a snicker, and realised she had no time to waste on admiring the architecture. Groaning, she pulled herself to her knees. The act of getting to her feet was hampered by the surprising stiffness of her joints, but at least she seemed uninjured. Absently brushing some dust and gravel off her short blue skirt, she looked about for the source of the sound.

Immediately, a raised dais, supporting three vaulting arches arranged in a triangle pattern around a circular pit drew her attention. The structure took up most of the room, and certainly hadn't been there before. Her lips formed an 'o' of surprise. Just how long had she been unconscious this time around? Judging from the pool of melt water surrounding the ice-encased form of the scythe-wielding youma, several hours at least. The visor still covering her eyes flared to life when she focused on the red figure. The readouts dancing across the screen left no doubt that the creature was still alive, and, as far as Ami could tell, its burning yellow eyes were following her every move. She shuddered. What did it take to bring that monster down?

She briefly pondered freezing it again, just to be on the safe side, when another squeal reminded her that she might have more immediate problems. Following the sound, she approached the dais taking up the centre of the room, and peered around the corner. On that side, a set of stairs led up to the arching superstructure looming above. She decided to cautiously approach them, and took a step forward. Unexpectedly, her foot encountered something soft that let out a shriek of protest.

"Gah!" Sailor Mercury jumped back, bringing her left hand up in a warding gesture as she looked down. A tiny figure, no bigger than a child, was lying on the ground, with its face buried in a heap of debris that Ami recognised as having belonged to the dungeon heart's cover. The creature flailed its arms up and down, striking at the ground repeatedly in order to extricate itself from the mound. The senshi felt a tinge of guilt when she noticed the dusty footprint standing out prominently against the green-tinged skin on the back of the being's bald head. Its clumsy struggles reminded her a bit of Usagi.

Any resemblance to the blonde klutz faded away when the creature finally managed to remove its over-sized head from the dirt, stood up, and faced her with an angry chirp. Ami stared down. Fist-sized black orbs set in a gaunt, near skeletal face stared up. Upon meeting her eyes, the thing's furious snarl relaxed into a blank expression. Ami's face mirrored the expression, and both remained unmoving for a few seconds. Then, tentatively, the imp's upper lip twitched upward into a cautious smile, revealing a mouth full of broad, jutting teeth.

Ami was out of her depth. Horrible monsters that snarled furiously and attacked? She knew how to deal with that. A youma that smiled and seemed more afraid of her than she of it? Completely new situation. Therefore, she could be forgiven for not returning the smile and keeping her face blank and unmoving as she continued staring down at it, wondering what part of her youma-fighting experience was applicable here. The imp seemed to interpret this as a bad sign and curled up in a ball, covering its face with its arms.

At this point, the blue-haired girl became aware of sniggering from above. Her head whipped around, and she spotted three more creatures just like the one in front of her, looking down from behind the low stone railing around the pit, and seeming unduly amused at the fate of their companion. When they noticed that she had spotted them, they ducked into cover again. Ami thought she heard something that sounded suspiciously like "Uh-oh." She heard a pitter-patter noise, when the creature near her made good use of the distraction and went to hide.

Ami went into active scanning mode to discover just how many of the bug-eyed creatures were hiding in that pit. Almost immediately, the screen all but screamed warnings at her. A torrent of evil energy was pouring into her, originating from deep within the pit. The information made her legs go weak with worry for a moment, but she didn't feel as if anything was wrong. Yet, a nagging little voice in her mind added. Ignoring the warning, as she couldn't do anything about it, she continued her investigation. Four more tendrils of dark power reached outward, tiny in comparison to her own. They had to connect to these small creatures, she concluded. Interestingly, no connection went to Big Red in his ice block.

"Hello? I know you are here! Show yourselves!" Sailor Mercury stopped at the top stair, getting a good view of the pit's interior for the first time. She didn't know whether the little ones could understand her, or would heed her request, much less what she'd do if they did, but she felt like she needed to gain control of the situation somehow. To her surprise, the things hopped out almost immediately, and formed up in a row in front of her. Despite their demeanour - one was putting a finger in its ear and twirling it around, another was hopping from one foot to the other, a third was licking its mining pick - she still got the impression that they were standing at attention. She noted that each one had the same equipment: an appropriately sized pick and a big bag slung over its shoulder.

"Can you understand me?"

Four affirmative nods, completely out of synch with each other.

Ami, encouraged by their cooperation, continued her questioning "Can you talk?"

This time, the heads shook from left to right.

"Too bad. How many of you are there, total?"

One of the creatures held up four fingers. It needed two hands to do so, as each one had only three fingers.

Ami nodded to herself. That matched what her visor told her about the power flows. "Are you planning to attack me at some point?" a bit of a stupid question that, as they'd just lie if they really were hostile. Nevertheless, she hoped that she could learn something from their reaction.

The expression on the creatures' faces ranged from perplexed to a look that very eloquently asked "Are you stupid?" Accompanied by frantic head-shaking, this was about as definite an answer as she could hope to get. Interrogating the creatures about a way out of this place proved fruitless, and she couldn't think of any more questions to ask them right now. So she thanked them for their time and bowed politely - which drew a round of confused looks, for some reason - and proceeded with the inspection of the chamber.

Stepping up close to the circular pit, she got her first good look into its depths. Sickly green motes of light swirled around above a red, fleshy-looking membrane that pulsed rhythmically, producing a rumbling sound like a beating heart. This is obviously the fabled dungeon heart, Ami thought, realising with a start that she had not noticed its omnipresent noise before now. It had always been there, but felt natural, just the way things should be. Ominous. When her own heartbeat sped up, so did the beating of the magical device. Ami frowned. Could she have claimed the heart accidentally? Was that even possible? Had this been the youma's plan from the start? She shot a glare at the dripping pillar of ice, deeply disturbed by that possibility. She didn't know enough, hadn't known enough since coming here, and doubt was gnawing at her.

Taking a deep breath, the girl sat down on the edge of the dais, letting her legs dangle freely. The four little creatures were probably not going to be a problem - they had had opportunity enough to do whatever they wanted to her while she was unconscious. She needed to calm down, learn more, study the dungeon heart and finding a way home to her friends. Now that she wasn't in immediate danger, she pulled out her Mercury computer in order to properly analyse her options. The pool of power she had tapped to defeat the Reaper was replenishing itself, apparently by sucking in ambient power from the dungeon. It was already half full again, and she quickly put it to good use by re-freezing the red demon. Thankfully without any side effects this time.

After some time of focused typing away at her palmtop, Ami was starting to feel hungry. She had been here for several hours now, without a single bite to eat. So far, she didn't have a clue on how to coax the dungeon heart into sending herself back home (or if it even could), so food would become a problem. Drink not so much, she could create water herself. She knew that there was no food to be found anywhere here in the dungeon. She didn't know how she knew, but she was nevertheless convinced that this was true. More importantly, what could she do about it? Her gaze wandered over to where one of the gnome-things was wiggling its bottom at the frozen Reaper, blowing raspberries, and generally trying to goad the hapless demon into a homicidal rage. Entirely redundant effort, in her opinion.

Back to the food problem. Wasn't there anything in here she could eat? Her gaze fell on the deep-frosted Reaper. Naaahhh. Where had that idea come from? Not only was it disgusting, she also had no idea how to kill that youma, and it would probably turn into dust anyway. Yet, the analytical part of her mind would not let go of an idea until it had completely thought it through. Her gaze drifted lower, to the little green thing. Maybe it was edible? The imp stopped what it was doing and turned to look at her suspiciously. Maybe if a limb was separated while it was still living? The midget-sized monster's expression turned into one of pure horror, and then the critter ran off as fast as its short legs could carry it, while letting out a shrill wail.

Ami froze, palmtop dropping into her lap. The being could read her thoughts? Experimentally, she turned her attention to one of the others, wishing for it to come closer. It did so, almost at once, and stared up at her expectantly. She mentally ordered it to hop on one leg. Immediate obedience, accompanied by a look that was part confusion, part annoyance. She imagined it doing a handstand. With great reluctance, the less than agile creature gave it its best attempt. The imp managed to get its feet in the air all right, but then its pack dropped to the ground, upsetting its balance, and both went tumbling off the dais. Ami watched this, wide-eyed, scratching her temple with one finger in embarrassment.

Experiment successful, more or less. Maybe it had something to do with their mutual connections to the dungeon heart? The scary youma had told her that Keepers were rulers of the Underworld, which fit seamlessly into the bigger picture. Unfortunately, it also was another indication that she had unwittingly stumbled into accepting the role. In any case, it appeared as if she had a bunch of loyal slave workers now. Her expression turned sour at the notion. Even if they were youma, the idea of completely controlling someone else did not sit well with her. She had better find a way to fix all of this.

Her progress so far indicated that the dungeon heart needed precious materials for some of its advanced functions. Whether they were used as a catalyst, or used to pay other entities was still a mystery to her. She took off her tiara, holding the thin gold ornament with a single blue gem in her hands, and looking at it. Maybe she could use this? If she did, would it be gone next time she transformed? Putting the ornament back on her forehead, she continued her attempts to discover the mysteries of the dungeon heart.

 

Originally on 2009-09-13T00:13:00

Distorted by a thick layer of ice, the Horned Reaper saw the four dwarf-sized forms of the imps approach his prison. He couldn't bend his neck to look down, so he lost sight of the impertinent things when they arrived at the foot of his icy prison. Moments later, his field of vision swung downwards abruptly as the block containing him toppled over and hit the floor with a clang. The vaulted ceiling was no improvement over seeing that blue-haired fool of a Keeper fumbling around without a clue, but at least it was less likely to infuriate him further.

The change of perspective didn't last. Almost at once, the world started spinning around him rapidly when his prison started rolling down the only corridor leading away from the Heart chamber. On each full rotation, he could make out the giggling forms of the imps, gleefully pushing his prison forward with a combined exertion of strength. Oh, the indignity of it all. He wasn't some kind of room ornament that could be unceremoniously discarded when one got tired of it! The motion stopped, leaving him trapped like a fly in amber within a thick layer of ice, and staring down at rotten straw.

The Reaper simmered with rage, nearly literally so. He was a demon with an affinity for fire, and while he much preferred his scythe, he could unleash a fireball in a pinch. Or would have been able to, had the ice not prevented him from going through the necessary motions. In any case, his body exuded enough heat to make the ice around him melt, slowly. Sure, the damned brat of a sorceress applied a new layer from time to time, but that was all added on the outside. Already, a bubble filled with water, rather than ice, followed the contours of his body. Once he got a bit more elbowroom, he would be able to apply force directly, and then the girl would pay.

Ami covered her mouth with one hand in surprise, watching as the Reaper's prison disappeared into the tunnel with loud clanking noises. The sight of him made her nervous, so she had ordered her servants to move it to the farthest corner of the dungeon. She had expected them to just slide the ice block there, though. Apparently, the exact details about how to execute a command was left to themselves. She'd have to keep that in mind for later.

She felt tempted to have the little beings use their picks to dig a route to the surface. The lure of sunshine, fresh air, and possibly even people who could help her get home was nearly irresistible. In contrast, this place was dank, empty, and it smelled unpleasant. Not to mention the lack of food and the abysmal company. Unfortunately, she couldn't in good conscience allow the currently frozen youma to reach innocent people. She had the means to fight it off, but that wasn't necessarily true for whoever lived above, and once she left for home, it would be free to do as it pleased. She hoped her friends were all right. Feeling homesick, she wondered if her mother had already returned from work at the hospital and noticed that she was missing.

Right. Dawdling wouldn't solve any of her many problems. She thought she had a good enough grip on the fundamentals of constructing things with the power of the dungeon heart, and the only way to test this theory was to give it a try. She walked over to the wall on the opposite side of the corridor leading away from the dungeon heart, and let her fingers slide over the smoothed bricks. Grey dust stuck to her white-gloved fingertips. Good, it was dry. She needed more space for her construction, and accidentally flooding the chamber just wouldn't do. Something had already told her this on an instinctive level, but she wasn't ready to simply trust information that came seemingly out of nowhere. "All right then. Get to it!"

The imps needed no more encouragement. They attacked the wall as with great enthusiasm, as if it had personally offended them. The tools bit into the stone with an ease that should have been impossible for implements wielded by such slight creatures. Ami took a step back when the bricks collapsed inward and a great cloud of dust billowed up, more than she had expected. A second look revealed that the stone and debris were sublimating rapidly, turning from solids into a fine greyish smoke that rose to the ceiling in fine streams. Frowning, she pulled out her computer and tracked the phenomenon with her scanner, watching the tendrils make their way through the air and straight toward the dungeon heart, where they swirled down into the pit, never to be seen again. Some form of intrinsic magic catching her unprepared again, then. And here she had wasted half an hour working out the most effective way to store the excavated rubble.

The sounds of collapses and metal striking stone stopped, and her little helpers started squealing excitedly. One of them was writhing on the floor, a long, pale maggot wrapped around it. The head of the snake-like thing was darting back and forth rapidly, its mandibles holding a little chunk of imp flesh every time it rose from the body underneath. Before the senshi could do something, the other imps were already on it, bringing their picks down on the segmented body again and again with wet smacking noises. They hit their hapless companion as often as the target. Ami could feel bile rise in her throat at the sight.

Finally, the overgrown insect stopped twitching, lying in a pool of its own body fluids, and the imps went back to work as if nothing had happened. She looked at the carcass. Eww. It was all whitish and icky and slimy. It was also not turning into dust or dissolving the floor with its blood, which put it into the "potentially edible" category, as the only candidate. Ami gulped. She'd have to be much hungrier than she was now before she'd try giant maggot roasted over open torch. A lot more hungry. A quick attack encased the worm in a glistening layer of ice. For now, it could go into the corner of the Heart chamber she had tentatively labelled "larder".

Meanwhile, the imps were putting the finishing touches on the new extension to the dungeon. Ami could see them smooth the floors and walls with astonishing speed. She closed her mouth. Really, she should be used to such weirdness by now. Interestingly, she could feel a very minor increase in the power flows through the dungeon heart when the servants imbued the ground with its power. She surveyed the new room. Square, as she had intended, with a domed ceiling to better carry the weight of the soil above. The white and black chequerboard pattern of the floor she had not specified, nor the stylized bas-reliefs of chess figures on the walls. A slight smile flickered over her face. They were more to her tastes than the creepy murals on the old parts of the dungeon, at least.

Now for the more difficult part. She re-checked the plan on her palmtop, painstakingly extracted from the depths of the dungeon heart, and nodded once. The screen displayed a magical pattern that she was reasonably confident would furnish a room from raw materials, if activated by will and magic. Just by watching the arcane symbols, she could feel the word 'library' form in the back of her mind, along with the knowledge of how to bring it out into the world. Another creepy side-effect from accessing the dungeon heart no doubt, but one that was admittedly useful. The library wasn't her first choice, a bedroom (the floor was rather hard) or well-stocked kitchen would have been better, but she just knew she did not have what it took to build them. In contrast, she could sense that most of the resources required for a library were nearby, somewhere outside the dungeon. She had already ordered her minions to dig an exploratory tunnel and fetch them, and they were even now returning with their quarry.

Ami looked at the growing pile of various substances on the ground, while the imps emptied out their bags, adding more to it. With enough gold, she need not have bothered, but aside from her tiara, had none. Hopefully, the feeling that the spell would still work if the right base materials were provided was right. The girl frowned. The feeling called for wood, which she didn't have. She hoped that substituting coal would work. It had been wood at some point, after all. Likewise, no dye was available, and she had sacrificed the bow on the back of her skirt, hoping that the spell would be able to extract the blue dye and use it. Satisfied with the preparations, she stepped out of the room, preceded by the quartet of imps vacating the area in the orderly fashion of frightened chickens.

At Ami's command, the room exploded into a maelstrom of activity. A whirlwind glittering in every colour of the rainbow picked up the assembled materials and spun them around the room, transforming and shaping them as they were flung to the air. From time to time, a piece struck the ground or walls with a loud clang and snapped into place, no longer participating in the violent flurry of transfiguration. Before Ami's eyes, the room assembled itself. First, a charred-looking carpet (probably the coal's fault, she surmised), then desks, benches, chairs, and rows of shelves - all pure black (the coal again, probably). Finally, the swirling sands melted into glass and formed rows of beakers, alembics, and more enigmatic instruments, taking up a whole corner of the room. The library came with a lab, Ami nodded approvingly. But where were the books? The shelves were empty, as far as she could tell. Nevertheless, both her computer readouts and feeling insisted that the process had worked perfectly fine.

Perplexed, Ami entered the room, looking around to see if she had missed anything. That stupid dungeon heart was not performing as advertised. Rule the underworld? Hah! She got four loyal midgets, and the one youma in here was trying to kill her. Riches? She didn't even have a bed. And now it was even withholding her books. What good was a library without books? She needed some source of information to learn more about her situation, and now this spell wasn't cooperating! Had she been a more outspoken person, she would have screamed in frustration.

Her gaze turned to a round object sitting on one of the lab benches when she felt the magic around her react to it. The crystal ball, for it looked as if it had emerged straight from a fortune teller's tent. A glowing white nimbus surrounded it, and fog within was swirling to form a face.

Nicodemus Asbraxe considered himself an adventurous merchant, daring enough to snatch a profit from situations nobody else would touch, and smart enough to turn a blind eye to the less than legal activities of his clients. His customers considered him a pompous, fat fence with too much greed and too little sense of self-preservation. They were wrong about the last point, at least. He had once been apprenticed to a wizard, but found that he was averse to risking life and limb performing experiments in draughty laboratories. Still, he had adapted some of his master's summoning spells to allow for transactions at a distance instead, which proved to be a veritable wellspring of money if you weren't choosy about your customers. Self-preservation also dictated that when a Keeper wanted something, you dropped whatever you were doing and gave them their full attention. Nicodemus liked Keepers. They did not ask pointed questions about where a particular object came from, or why there was blood splattered all over it. More importantly, they were, without fail, filthy rich.

One of the devices in his study alerted him that a Keeper was searching for some unspecified item, and the fence quickly pulled his hood down until his face was hidden in a pool of darkness out of which only a long, mangy beard protruded. He then muttered a well-practised incantation, and a picture formed in the air above his coffee table, showing him the prospective client and part of the dungeon directly behind her. Hmm, cute that one. Female, rather young too, strange blue hair in a short cut, and matching blue eyes with a look of confusion in them. He mentally adjusted his prices up a bit at the sign of inexperience. He also took note of the dark circles around her eyes and the scabbed-over scratch on her left cheek. Exhausted, has been in a fight recently, and is possibly desperate. He nearly rubbed his hands together in glee. Better and better.

"Greetings, Lady Keeper. I am Nicodemus Asbraxe, at your service. To whom do I owe the pleasure of speaking with?" he began, with what he hoped to be a charming tone of voice. The girl seemed to be surprised to hear him speak, if the widening of her blue eyes was any indication. Oh, this would be good. Prices increased another notch. Unexpectedly, she whirled around, facing away from him, a brief look of panic on her face. He could empathise. The sight of a charging Horned Reaper would do that to anyone. Even here, safe in his home, he had gone white as a sheet. Immediately, he cut the connection. If the Reaper was after this Keeper, she was dead meat anyway, and he didn't want the beast to get a look at him. The last thing he needed was it extending whatever its grudge was to him. Sighing, Nicodemus sank deeper into his couch, lamenting the lost opportunity. His last glimpse of the girl through the dissolving picture was of her preparing to unleash some sort of spell.

Oh no! How? How had he gotten loose? Ami was acting on reflex, making the arm movements preceding her signature attack. Damn, that youma could move fast when he wanted to! But she had noticed him in time, barely.

"Shabon Spray Freezing!" A swirling spray of freezing bubbles shot from her hands, toward the Reaper. She could have sworn its lips twisted upward into a hideous grin when their eyes met. Then, quicker than she thought possible, its armoured right hoof swung around in a sweeping kick, catching one of her servants and turning it into a speeding projectile. Halfway the distance between Ami and her enemy, the screaming imp slammed into her own attack and was silenced abruptly, turning into a hard block of ice before continuing onward on its trajectory and slamming into her like a cannonball. The impact was hard enough to send her flying backwards and drive the air out of her lungs. Less than an eye blink later, she bounced off the wall behind her and slid to the floor, dazed.

Her sight blurring as the pain drove tears into her eyes, she desperately struggled to get off a spell at the rapidly advancing red figure. "Shabon Sp- AHH!"

"No more of this!" the Reaper growled, interrupting the spell through the simple but effective way of stomping down on the girl, hard. He thought he heard some ribs cracking as the girl gasped in pain. He smiled. Life was good. The next part was going to be tricky, however. If he killed her, then he would be stuck here for the foreseeable future. If he didn't, she would probably freeze him again, and then look for a more fail-proof way to keep him confined. If that happened, he wouldn't be able to escape even if she excavated a portal. No, he'd have to bully her into going along with his plans and being too scared to do anything about it.

"I am greatly displeased by your treatment of me," he continued, leaning down to the figure still trapped underneath his weight until his steaming breath touched her face with every word. "Order your imps to start digging toward the south-east, or I will kill you!"

"If you k-kill me, you'll be back to being stuck here forever," the insufferable brat breathed, voice faltering.

How inconsiderate. She might be smarter than he had given her credit for, or at least was more perceptive. "You got me there. I'm merely going to make you wish I had killed you. I am a demon after all, and causing pain is what we are good at." She shivered in fear. As she rightfully should.

"You are still going to kill me after you have what you want," she answered in a whisper.

"Not necessarily. You see, I ~was~ rather furious at you for backstabbing me, and putting me on ice like that. I should have expected it, really, that's what Keepers do. I think what angered me the most was that a slight girl like you succeeded at taking me down. But now that I have re-affirmed the natural order, I am willing to let bygones be gone. Let's have a fresh start and work together, how about it?" He realised he meant it, too, even as he casually decapitated the imps coming to their mistress' aid, one after the other.

However, there still was that obstinate, defiant look in her eyes even as she struggled to shake her head. "I don't trust you."

Which left him with a bit of a problem. It was embarrassing, really. He had no problem with torture as such, except that he wasn't very good at it. Killing he could do. Torture, not so much. Lack of experience combined with a sick enthusiasm for cutting flesh left most of his victims dead before any desirable results could be achieved. Other than death, of course. Hmm, what could he do that wouldn't cause too much damage? He snorted at the thought. Him, worried about causing too much damage. Then he had a bright idea. She was a female, so...

"A stupid choice. I see you need some more 'convincing'."

Ami felt true terror at the malice expressed in those few words. Then, a scaled hand reached down, and grabbed a hold of the front of her sailor senshi uniform. Her body jerked as the demon gave the garment a violent tug, and with an agonised ripping noise, the front half came off. Oh no. No! No! NO! Not that! Ami froze in horror as she felt the chill of the dungeon air on the exposed skin of her chest. I wish I had died instead! I wish I was a real Keeper and knew how to get out of this situation! Having barely finished the panicked thought, she felt a surge of energy from the dungeon heart, as if she had just re-affirmed their connection. The next moment, she was gone.

The Horned Reaper looked at the blank ground in dismay and dropped the ragged piece of bow and white cloth he had been holding. Why did the brat have to pick now of all times to figure out Keeper transport? Uh oh. He felt the familiar drop in temperature when the air filled with fog. "Goodness," the demon let out a heart-felt curse.

"Shabon Spray Freezing!"

The voice calling out the attack name was full with righteous female fury, its direction lost to the sound-muffling qualities of this accursed fog. He barely managed to get out of the way. That had come from behind. Then he had to throw himself to the ground to dodge another blast of freezing water, this time from the right and above. So her transportation hadn't been a one-time thing. Double goodness. To summarise: he was fighting an angry Keeper with a ranged attack that could take him out of the fight in a single good hit, who was able to teleport nearly at will within her own dungeon, he couldn't even see her, and to make matters worse, he couldn't even attack her dungeon heart instead! This was the kind of unfair fight he never wanted to be on the wrong side of.

"You know, I," he dodged under a ray of frost,"really meant what I said about starting over," the Reaper ran, diving behind the cover of the dungeon heart's dais just as a spray of icy water splashed against it, turning into icicles.

"We don't have to fight! I could serve you by - ah, will you give it a rest already?" deflecting an incoming attack with a fireball from his scythe, he stepped aside, only to slip on the floor covered with ice. Great. Now she is getting creative too! "There's no reason for us to fight! You have shown that you have the needed ruthlessness to succeed as a Keeper!" Were her attacks coming less frequently? He thought so. "Come on, be reasonable. You are mortal and will tire out eventually. I am not, and can- Darkness!" he barely jumped out of a blast that came from straight above. How in the blazes of hell had she done that? He continued trying to convince her. "Look, if trust is the issue, I can swear allegiance to you at the dungeon heart, Then I won't be able to attack you or the heart, and you will be able to use your powers on me! Even if I chose to betray you later, the bond dissolving would warn you! Just consult the heart and you'll know that I'm not lying." Hating himself for doing so, he added: "Please?"

Silence, but no more attacks. He took that as an encouraging sign, and walked toward the looming black pillars that were the dungeon heart superstructure seen through the fog. He felt the familiar lure of its power, and opened himself to it, basking in its acceptance for a moment.

"It is done. Now do you finally believe me?"

The Reaper stood motionless, waiting for a response. It came rather quickly. SLAP! Reeling, from the invisible blow, he wondered what had just happened. SLAP! Ouch! Oh, that. He had all but forgotten that Keepers could do that. SLAP! SLAP! SLAPSLAPSLAPSLAPSLAPSLAP! Stumbling backward from the cascade of stinging blows, the Reaper felt himself roll down the stairs leading up to the dungeon heart. To add insult to injury, his own folded-up scythe hit him in the head on the way down.

Stupid, hysteric, overreacting human females. "All right! I get the message! Stop it already!" Perhaps it was the hint of barely restrained fury in his voice that convinced the girl that continuing would be a bad idea. In the ensuing silence, he heard faint sobbing from somewhere else in the room. The fog was fading out of existence now.

"Mercury Power, Make Up!" A flash of blue light concealed Ami for a split second when she triggered her transformation to restore her ruined outfit. It also re-applied her make-up, removing all traces of crying, and cleaned her body, as it was intended to. To the senshi, everything felt normal. Her sailor crystal, embedded within the dungeon heart, felt rather confused though. Not with providing its magical power, everything was working as normal there. No, it wasn't quite certain what to apply the cosmetic operations to. There were just so many connections, going every which way. Which one to choose? The non-sentient crystal had no way to take a decision, so it just chose all of them. A cylinder of light, centred on the heart, started expanding through the dungeon, leaving only gleaming cleanness in blue and white tones and the occasional Mercury symbol in its wake.

The Horned Reaper felt weird, but not unpleasant sensations when the light washed over him, momentarily blinding him. He blinked against the glare, then stared at the new imps, his eyebrows rising up nearly to his horns. He let out an amused snort. Then, as a horrible suspicion dawned, he slowly looked down at himself. "Must not kill her. Must not kill her. Must not kill her. Must not kill her," was the mantra he desperately repeated inside his mind for the next several minutes. It took him that long to re-gain enough of his composure to growl out the words: "Whatever you did just now, NEVER. DO. IT. AGAIN!"

Ami missed a step at the bellow, startled. What was his problem now? Never mind. She had better get to that crystal ball quickly and see if she could call up that Nicodemus guy again, he might be able to help her with her problems.

The pot-bellied man in question was surprised to get a second request from a Keeper in one day. This was one was targeted at him specifically, too. That could be good or bad, but he wouldn't know until he answered. He gaped in amazement when he saw the girl from before, looking none the worse for wear.

"You? But the Reaper- "

"We reached an agreement," the blue-headed lady replied, her eyes going hard.

Nicodemus nodded dumbly. No surcharge for her, no. He did not want the ire of anyone who could fend of the Reaper and not even look bedraggled. That appearance had to be a glamour. What he caught a glimpse of next through the passage behind the Keeper had him gaping in shock, mouth open like a fish. The Horned Reaper, angrily ripping off a miniskirt just like the one the girl was wearing? A blue bow was waving behind the terrifying red figure like a flag, held in place only by a single thread. Were- were those earrings? LIPSTICK?! Forget about no surcharge, bring out the Valued Trusted Customer Please Don't Kill Me Discount. Whatever could do something like that to the Reaper had to be a horrible, powerful nightmare in disguise.

 

Originally on 2009-09-15T00:02:00

Ami felt miserable, even if her recent transformation had hidden the outward signs of the previous battle. Still, if she allowed herself to dwell on how exhausted she was, or on what had nearly happened to her, then she would break down completely. The residual panic in her mind just wouldn't go away, so she ruthlessly shoved it aside by focusing on something else instead. The cowled face within the crystal ball was a perfect distraction.

"You were introducing yourself before we were interrupted. Mr Nicodemus Asbraxe, correct?" Ami tried to sound as polite and pleasant as always, but it came out somewhat strained with the way her ribs were aching. A few might even be cracked, she feared.

The fat peddler in goods of dubious origins realised that he had been gaping, and his mouth snapped shut so quickly that his long, grey beard whipped upward. "Ah, yes, of course. What can I do for you Lady...?" he paused expectantly.

"I am Sailor Mercury," the blue-haired Keeper informed him, "and I am in need of some books for my library. Possibly maps too," she added after a moment of hesitation.

"I live to serve, " Nicodemus stated with a bow and a smile. Because I wish to continue living, he didn't add. "I do have some books relating to the arcane arts, but it would be helpful if you narrowed down a bit what you are looking for."

Ami needed a moment to consider the question. She hadn't anticipated an opportunity for shopping, after all. Her goal was getting out of this hell-hole and back home, hopefully without unleashing the demon on the world. "Books on travelling magic or transportation. Anything on dungeon hearts, too." The adrenaline was wearing off now, and she felt woozy. Perhaps the battle had taken more out of her than she had thought?

The merchant drew the obvious conclusion. A Keeper who wanted to travel and to create new dungeon hearts could only mean one thing. "Ah, you are preparing for some good old-fashioned conquest then? Any regions that a cautious man such as me should not plan on visiting in the near future?"

Ami felt her legs weaken and leaned forward abruptly, putting one hand left and right on the table next to the crystal ball to steady herself. She bit her teeth together to avoid yelping in pain as the movement shook her hurt rib.

To Nicodemus, it looked as if the Keeper's was baring her teeth at him in anger as her face suddenly filled out most of his conjured image. He jerked back and started sweating. "Forgive me Keeper, that was out of place. I did not mean to question your plans. As for the books you require," here he was starting to feel as if he was digging his own grave, "I am afraid I have nothing like that in stock right now, but I'm sure I could acquire some given-"

"Then get to it!" the voice of the Reaper interrupted. The demon had finished ripping off the last remains of the offending sailor fuku, though he had apparently missed the lipstick. With a satisfied smirk, he noted that the Keeper - Sailor Mercury, what an odd name - still cringed at his approach. His yellow eyes narrowed as he observed her hunched-over pose and the sheen of sweat on her forehead, and continued: "And add in a treatise on the basics of Necromancy while you are at it. Well, what are you waiting for?"

The trader looked from the terrifying monster to the more innocent looking one, who was therefore at least twice as terrifying, nodded once, and disrupted the communication spell, eager to finish this conversation.

Ami turned to face the Reaper with a frown. "Necromancy?"

He flashed her a toothy grin, and answered nonchalantly: "You look as if you'll need it soon."

The sailor senshi's eyes widened in surprise, and she took an involuntary step back. Then she fixed him with a glare. "What do you mean? That had better not been a threat!"

Ohh, her eyes had actually flashed red for a moment there. She must really loathe him. This could prove to be endlessly amusing, if he played it right. "Of course it wasn't," he drawled. "Don't you know anything?" He paused dramatically, making a point to let his gaze sweep over the empty shelves of the library. "No. It is obvious you don't. Oh, wait, there's something...". The Reaper bowed down to pick up a thin booklet that looked as if had been blown off a shelf earlier and barely contained four pages. "I stand corrected. It seems as if this is the sum total of your magical knowledge."

Ami, who had been about to simply walk away from the taunting, looked interested despite herself. At least until the Reaper started flipping through the issue and started laughing uproariously.

"Those are some of the silliest-looking monsters I have ever seen," he commented, indicating the illustrations of some of the monsters that Ami and her friends had fought together.

Ami had enough. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't just put you back in an ice block and be done with it!"

"Aside from the fact that in your current condition, you would be hard-pressed to do so?" he asked, conveniently leaving out the part where she could technically just use her Keeper powers to put him right in the path of an attack. "You would also lose access to my knowledge, which you can't afford. You are just fumbling around, with no idea or plan about what you are doing, and hoping that everything will turn out all right in the end."

Ami winced. That had struck a bit too close to home for her taste. "Go on."

"You may think that you have plenty of time to figure out how all of this works, but that couldn't be further from the truth. Simply through the act of becoming a Dungeon Keeper, you have made powerful enemies. At the very least, Metriande, the Keeper who imprisoned me here, will have sensed that someone snatched up her inactive sub-heart here. She is bound to investigate sooner rather than later, as she will want it back." If she is still alive after all these centuries. He hoped she was, he would pay her a visit.

Noting the brat's brightening expression, he fought the urge to bury his face in his palm. "No, that is not a good thing! You cannot just give it back. Claiming a dungeon heart constitutes a pact with the forces of darkness. Once you lose your last dungeon heart, you die, and your soul is snatched up by one of the dark gods. The same happens in case you die normally, but the heart will survive and be up for grabs in that case. Which one do you think Metriande will go for?" Oh, how the girl was going white as a sheet now. She had taken an attentive posture at the start of his lecture, apparently on reflex, but now her fists were clenching and unclenching, and she was shaking.

"You didn't mention any of that before!" Ami shouted accusingly.

"Which is exactly why you need to keep me around. You wouldn't want to run afoul of any other nasty surprises, would you?" the Reaper retorted, enjoying this and making no attempt to hide the fact.

"I hate you!"

Ah, red-flashing eyes again, and now she was stomping off. Oh, faltered in her step there. Must have noticed the imps.

Ami blinked when she spotted the tiny bug-eyed servant creatures, all four of them sporting miniature versions of her sailor fuku, and looking quite happy about it. And why shouldn't they? It was a vast step up from the filthy loincloths they had been wearing before. Deciding that she didn't really care to find out how that had happened right now, and that she desperately needed rest, she gave them new tasks instead.

The Horned Reaper watched in amusement as the Keeper created a new, bare chamber for herself, and then lay down on pieces of coarse carpet pilfered from the library. Hah, a Keeper resting in conditions like that. He'd be able to tease her about that for decades if he didn't kill her first. Not that he could at the moment, seeing how the entrance to the new room was too small for him to fit through. Maybe he'd tell her how to use her powers to acquire more comfortable quarters when she woke up. Maybe.

 

Originally on 2009-09-16T23:03:00

Rei Hino kneeled on the floor with her eyes closed, and dressed in her red and white-robes. In front of her roared the temple's sacred flame, and to her right sat a black cat with a crescent-shaped spot on her forehead. Kneeling next to the shrine maiden was a girl with long blonde pig-tails, who was looking back and forth from the fire to the chanting girl. Usagi's expression conveyed worry as well as cautious optimism. Suddenly, the flames changed as a transparent picture appeared within.

"She's alive! Ami is alive!" the blonde let out a relieved cry even as she seemed to blur from her spot, tackling Rei in a joyful hug. Ears flattened against her head, Luna managed to jump aside just in time when the impact of the blonde missile sent both girls sprawling. Much to the cat's chagrin, the vision in the fire disappeared.

"USAGI!" the black-haired girl's temper flared. "Look what you have done now," she scolded, but her heart wasn't really in it.

The blonde, upon being reminded that her interruption had broken Rei's concentration, blushed and scratched her head in embarrassment. "Oops, sorry! But Ami isn't dead! Can you find out where she is?"

"I'll do my best," the taller girl promised and took position in front of the blazing flames again, closing her eyes and chanting a sequence of monosyllabic words. In response, the fire seemed to straighten. The shrine maiden began to speak. "Ami seems to be somewhere underground. A cave maybe?" Suddenly, her eyebrows shot up, and her voice was tinged with worry. "I sense that an enormous source of evil is with her."

Usagi's eyes widened in fright when a new picture appeared in the flames. This time, it wasn't her friend tossing and turning in her sleep. A monstrous, red-skinned devil with long, straight horns on its head was stalking through the underground chamber on massive, armour-clad hooves. In one hand, it held a wicked scythe. Suddenly, it stopped, and then slowly turned its head into the watchers' direction, until it seemed to stare straight at them with cruel yellow eyes, revealing a fanged grin and a dangling nose ring.

Rei opened her eyes with a start, and the image dispersed. She felt her heart beating rapidly.

"Rei! What was that thing? Did it see us?" Usagi blurted out, having scuttled backward from the sacred fire involuntarily.

"I don't think it could see us, but it felt someone watching," the priestess replied, absently petting Luna, whose hackles were standing on end.

The blonde thought about what they had seen. "But, if that youma is in there with Ami, that means - WAHHH! Ami has been taken prisoner by the Dark Kingdom!" As fast as the crying fit had come, it was over when a look of steely determination appeared on Usagi's face. "We have to help her!"

"How? We don't even know where the Dark Kingdom is!" the raven-haired girl snapped.

"But Rei..." Usagi whined, tears in her eyes. Suddenly, Luna found herself snatched off the ground and looking into Usagi's eyes. "Don't you have something we can use Luna? You have to come up with a plan!"

"I don't think so..."

"Try to remember! Ami needs our help!"

"Put poor Luna down, meatball head!" Rei shouted, saving the cat from being shaken by the desperate crybaby. The moon cat landed on all fours, somewhat shakily. "We will just have to take the fight to the Dark Kingdom! We should try to capture the next youma and force it to answer our questions!"

"Don't call me that! And how do you suggest..."

As the bickering started in earnest, Luna shook her head sadly. Why did it have to be the level-headed of her soldiers who got captured?

Ami awoke after a night of half-remembered nightmares to the sound of high-pitched squeals and stomping footsteps. She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and got up, feeling rather stiff from sleeping on the barely padded floor. A twinge from her chest was an unpleasant reminder of her cracked rib. She stopped at the very narrow opening leading to the main chamber to see what all the noise was about. A squealing imp rushed past, little legs moving as quickly as they could. Hot on its heels was the Reaper, a gleeful grin on its face and scythe held high.

Ami grimaced. Why did she have to deal with something like this so soon after waking up. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING? STOP THAT RIGHT NOW!" she shouted, just as the Reaper cut the bug-eyed servant in twain from top to bottom. The two halves fell apart and then dissolved into motes of green light, and even the blood disappeared.

The red demon turned to look at the Keeper. "Just having some harmless fun. Don't worry, new ones just keep appearing as long as you have less than four." True to his words, a new imp was already jumping out of the dungeon heart's pit, surrounded by a greenish glow.

"That's not the point! You can't just go around killing them! They are intelligent beings that never have done anything to you!" once again, Ami felt herself horrified by the casual brutality of the Reaper.

The demon considered that point. 'Intelligent' wasn't the word he would use to describe imps. He shrugged. "Fine, I'll leave them alone." For now. He was feeling rather mellow after several hours of fun. How he had missed random mindless slaughter during the centuries of boredom. "Also, someone was scrying on us earlier," he added in the hopes of changing the topic. Slaps were annoying. "This means the location is no longer secure. It is about time that you stop fooling around and build this dungeon up to something respectable, raise an army, and build up your defences."

The blue-haired girl in the sailor fuku narrowed her eyebrows at him. "And what if I only want to find a way to get home?"

"Well, that would be a foolish waste of the opportunity to become rich, powerful and feared. In any case, you will need time to find a way back to wherever you came from - not an easy task, as you do not originate from this plane of existence, if my guess is correct. I have never before seen creatures like the ones in your book, and your type of magic is foreign to me. You do not have time. Someone is bound to show up sooner, rather than later. You need to be ready do defend yourself and your dungeon heart by then."

Watching the girl's expression, he concluded that she still seemed unconvinced. "Of course, if you just want to roll over and die, that's your prerogative. I will be free either way."

"Why are you so convinced that anyone who shows up will automatically be hostile?" Ami asked finally, after mulling things over.

"Simple. You are a Dungeon Keeper. The best you can expect from other Keepers is being enslaved and becoming their loyal pet, if they see any potential in you. Unlikely, with the current state of your dungeon," the Reaper chuckled. "As for all others, they will see you as evil. Capital 'E' evil. And why should they not? As a dungeon keeper, you are already damned. Any good you do can only be a trick to enable greater evil at a later point. After all, the dark gods will claim your soul, and there can be no redemption for you. Much better for the heroes to just destroy you outright and make the world a better place."

Ami was silent for a long time after this, staring at the ground as her fingers clenched into fists. When she looked up, blue eyes flashed to red in anger for a moment. "And it's all your fault that this is happening to me," she snapped.

The demon leaned on his scythe and made a dismissive hand gesture. "I'm sure you'll come to appreciate it in time, once you have gotten used to it."

Frustrated, the furious senshi pondered whether the loathsome creature would die if she dug a deep enough pit and dropped him into it. Instead, she forced herself to calm down and get more vital information. "Is there any technical reason that necessitates that a dungeon heart be only used for evil?" Ami asked, crossing her arms in front of her chest defensively. The idea of being forced into the role of the villain still didn't appeal to her at all.

The Reaper made a face as if he had just smelled something vile. "Not using it for evil? Where would be the fun in that? But to answer your question: the process of creating a dungeon heart requires the blessing of at least one of the dark gods. Committing the blasphemy of using it for good," he snorted dismissively, "would ensure that they call a dark crusade against the fool attempting it. No single Keeper could hope to survive against the united might of all others."

His grin widened, and his yellow eyes shone with unholy glee. "In short, all you have to do is crush all the other Keepers before attempting such a thing! Go right ahead, it shall be glorious!"

 

Originally on 2009-09-19T00:59:00

"This is a totally inappropriate use of my abilities," the Horned Reaper growled, swinging his scythe. A fireball whooshed away from the weapon, down into the large chamber below. It splashed into a large rectangular basin filled with molten metal. Its orange glow became noticeably brighter, and an imp squealed in fright as it barely avoided being scalded by a rain of red droplets.

"You complained that you were bored," Ami, leaning against the unfinished rock of the cave , replied without looking up from the black tome that was hiding her face.

"Don't you have coal for this?" the demon growled, unleashing another blast of flame into the smelter. It struck suspiciously close to a bug-eyed imp who was struggling to drag an ore-filled bag toward the bubbling pool. "At least you could take your nose out of this infernal book and be useful! You probably know it by heart by now, anyway!"

Lowering the book enough so she could peer over it, the blue-haired girl gave the towering figure standing next to her on the balcony overlooking the cave a questioning glance. In the red glow of the furnace, her blue eyes looked nearly violet. "Only the first six chapters," she replied in all seriousness.

Realising that she wasn't joking, the Reaper felt a vein throb in his forehead. He thought back to how she had refused at first to learn the first steps of Necromancy. He'd had to explain that the book contained a healing spell she could use to fix her ribs before she even deigned open it. The only bright point of that entire headache-inducing situation had been the terrified grovelling of that cowled merchant type when he explained that he had not been able to find any other of the books the Keeper desired. "Never mind that now. You should be moving the ore while the imps mine. With only four of them, it's going to take forever otherwise."

Ami considered the point, and then reluctantly put the skull-encrusted book down. She faded from her spot overseeing the mining and melting operations and shimmered back into existence on the ground, next to where her imps were striking at the rock with their picks. One of the four was just about done stuffing the raw nuggets into a sack. The young Keeper walked over to the bag and lifted it. Or at least attempted to. While her senshi transformation vastly increased her strength, she was also a slight girl, and the container outweighed her. Losing her balance, she fell over and landed on top of the dusty bag with a grunt of surprise that was lost in the clanging of metal on stone echoing through the chamber.

"While I appreciate the sight of you making a fool out of yourself, I don't want this to take any longer than strictly necessary," the Reaper quipped, which earned him a glare. Coming from a face covered in dirt, it only made him chuckle. "I meant for you to use your Keeper abilities to move the ore. You can use them to move anything that belongs to you, not only yourself," he explained, while preparing to fire another fiery projectile into the molten mass below.

Ami stepped away from the bag and stared at it with a look of intense concentration. The sack twitched once, and then tipped over, spilling freshly-mined ore all over the floor. Then, the now empty wrapping disappeared and suddenly burst into flame a foot above the boiling mass of rock and metal. Covering her mouth with one hand, Ami watched as the charred remains ascended on the hot updraft and dispersed.

"Visualising the ability as picking something up with a giant invisible hand helps with control,or so my former Keeper told me," came the deep voice from above. "Keep trying until you get it right!"

Soon after, piles of glittering ore faded from their position on the ground, only to splash into the smelter with some regularity. When the noise stopped for some reason, the demon looked up from his task, only to see that the Keeper had that strange blue visor over her eyes and was staring at an empty spot in mid air, while her fingers danced over that weird rectangular not-a-book she conjured up sometimes. "What's the hold up?"

"I'm trying to find out where the ore goes between the moment I pick it up and before I drop it again," the short-haired girl replied, attention focused on the figures flickering over her visor. This was fascinating! She could see the ghostly outline of a hand, a just-as-ghostly load of ore held within. Experimentally, she turned the immaterial appendage over. The ore stuck to it, as if unaffected by gravity. Hmm. Could she use this power to pluck material directly out of the vein? No, apparently not. It was limited to interacting only with things that already belonged to her, as far as she could tell. So what would happen if she just wished the whole hand to appear, rather than just its contents?

From the Reaper's elevated vantage point, he could see a translucent shape of a hand appear in mid-air, filled with dirty stones. The mound of rubble immediately lost cohesion and slipped out of the hand's grasp, trailing a dust cloud on the way to the ground. "Great work, Keeper. You have found another way to turn something that works neatly into something messy and inefficient. Truly time well spent." The sarcasm in his voice turned to anger. "Now stop fooling around! I'm getting IMPATIENT!"

A while later, both the fuku-clad girl and the demon were standing on the lowest level of the chamber, watching as a thin stream of molten gold trickled out of the bottom of the smelter. The metal ran down a narrow channel and finally gathered within depressions set into the ground to the left and to the right of the groove. "This should be a barely adequate start," the Reaper commented, eyeing the red-hot substance critically. "We were rather lucky that the ore was too low yield for the previous Keeper to bother with."

Ami just nodded silently. He had explained to her earlier that the dungeon heart worked like a reverse philosophers' stone, and turned gold into baser materials. Thus, given enough gold, it could create all materials required for a construction project in just the right qualities and quantities, leading to end results that were in general superior than what could be achieved by gathering the required resources manually. She'd double-check that information later, of course. If she had learned anything, it was not to blindly trust the murderous beast.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Put it in your treasury so the heart can use it for alchemy."

"It's still molten," the senshi protested, looking at the gleaming pools that were radiating heat.

"So? It's not as if you are going to burn your hands," though I wouldn't put it past you to find a way to do just that, the red demon waved the objection aside, and tapped his scythe against the ground impatiently. "Just do it. We have wasted enough time here."

Still doubtful, Ami complied, and made the liquid gold disappear from its containers and re-appear in the vault several hundred metres above. She still hadn't gotten used to how she was aware of exactly where everything within her dungeon was located, as if she had a three-dimensional map in her head. It was quite creepy. Fully expecting to find a spreading puddle of hot metal, she teleported herself to the treasure chamber. The treasury was another build pattern that Ami had dug out of the dungeon heart's bowels. It had been surprisingly complex for what she thought was basically storage space. Nevertheless, she had not run into trouble setting a treasury up. The frightening Reaper had insistent that the dungeon needed one, for some reason.

Now that she was seeing the small hill of freshly minted, glittering coins resting on the mirrored floor of the chamber, she could appreciate the suggestion. Her dungeon heart felt as if it was brimming with energy, ready to call forth its powers on her slightest whim. Gaping at the riches sparkling in the torchlight, she needed several seconds to realise that this all belonged to her. She gulped. This was more money than she had ever seen in her life, or even dreamed of having. Back in her own world, she could buy nearly anything she wished with even a part of this. For a moment, she lost herself in daydreams. She saw herself owning a clinic. Going on a cruise with her friends. Attending any university of her choice. Shaking her head in wonder, she took a step forward and bowed down to pick up one of the coins, feeling the cool, heavy disc rest in her hand. The Mercury symbol was engraved on one side. She flipped it over. Her own face stared back, features set in a regal, haughty expression. Such wealth, she once again thought, still trying to wrap her head around it. And all it had cost her was her soul.

As if summoned by that sobering thought, heavy footsteps echoed through the vault as the Reaper approached. He took in the sight of the gold, and the corners of his mouth twitched down. "It will have to do," he snorted. "Now follow me. It is time for your next lesson!" He had already caught on to the fact that she was much more obedient when he framed his orders within the context of education. Strange, but he wasn't complaining.

"Now that we have some gold in the coffers, it is time to instruct you in the finer arts of crafting your dungeon," the Reaper stated as both stopped in front of a blank wall. "Summon your imps and start digging. Your dungeon isn't going to impress any entering creatures just yet." Following this proclamation, the demon proceeded to run Ami through a training program that strained her shaping abilities to its limits. Time and again, he found a little flaw in the inclination of a pillar, in the curve of a statue's bat-like wing, or in the pattern on a bronze brazier, and made her re-create the object from scratch. Still, she was making progress.

Even though Ami felt more exhausted than if she had just sat through a four-hour exam, she was impressed with the results. The rectangular chamber now reminded her a bit of a cathedral with its high and vaulted ceiling, its gleaming floor, and with its rows of pillars framing the path toward the back hall. Instead of an altar, a massive throne with an arched back stood elevated against the back wall, framed by flaring braziers on both sides. She didn't care much for the decorations, statues of grotesque monsters looming within the thirteen alcoves that took the place of windows, but the Reaper had designed those himself by invoking some magic built into the room. Right now, the demon was stomping towards her, the sound of its hooves muffled somewhat by the red carpet leading up to the throne. "That will do," he finally nodded.

Ami gave a slight smile of satisfaction. Yes, the place looked as if it was right out of some (sinister) fairy tail palace. However, currently the soft, comfortable-looking pillows lining the walls were much more attractive to her than the décor. She really could do with some rest.

"Hmm, you are still here?" the voice of the Horned Reaper startled her out of her contemplation of the furniture. She turned her head, only to see that he had sat down on the throne. The over-sized dimensions of the seat fitted the towering demon perfectly. "This is my room. Go make your own if you want one. Shoo," his voice taunted. Pointy fangs gleamed while his grin widened in reaction to the Keeper opening and closing her mouth mutely, like a fish. "What, you expected me to work for free, did you?" he mocked.

 

Originally on 2009-09-20T19:36:00

Ami felt the urge to slap the Reaper around with her Keeper powers for his insolence, but ruthlessly clamped down on it when she realised what she was thinking. Can't let this place get to me, she thought. That she was scared of what he might do was also partly responsible for her hesitation to strike directly at the demon smirking down at her from his throne. She turned in place so fast that her skirt whipped around her legs, and stalked toward the door, never once looking back. Thus, she missed the disappointed frown on the Reaper's face. He had been looking forward to an explosion of some sort from the way her eyes had turned almost completely red in rage.

On the threshold of the room, Ami stopped. Without turning, she stated in a deceptively calm tone of voice. "As you seem to like this room so much, why don't you stay here for a while?" Behind her, she heard the impact of large boulders as the doorway crumbled, rendering the question a rhetorical one. An imp rolled out of the avalanche of stone and dust, landed in front of her, giggled gleefully, and skittered down a side tunnel. Ami heard some muffled clanging noises from behind the collapsed exit, which were soon followed by vile curses. Her lips twitched up in satisfaction. That should hold that maniac for a while, if his previous behaviour was any indication. If she had been an immortal, tireless demon trapped in some underground prison, she'd have used the centuries to dig her way out. Even if the walls were nigh impenetrable, she was pretty sure the ceiling wasn't. He was just lazy.

Appearing next to her dungeon heart, Ami decided that she could no longer ignore the problem of her growling stomach. With renewed vigour, she scanned through the patterns stored within the magical artefact, searching for a solution. The emergency food supply, a huge, segmented maggot corpse frozen within an ice block, was still not looking any more appetising than when it had still wriggled around. Ami reasoned that if she was supposed to field armies, it would only be logical for there to be a way to feed them. Unless all the monsters were like Angry Red, who had weathered centuries without sustenance? Her limited experience wasn't much help - she didn't know if youma ate anything.

After a while of concentrated work, Ami let out a relieved cheer when she found what she had been looking for. It was so much easier to focus one's attention when there wasn't a huge, sulphur-smelling monster in the room. At the thought of checking up on the Reaper, she experienced a strange moment of double-vision. Superposed over her surroundings, she saw the demon sitting on his throne, chin resting on one hand, and sulking. The strangeness passed as quickly as it had appeared. Blinking, Ami chalked this up to being another feature of the dungeon heart, and returned to mentally plotting out the location for her new room.

By now, Ami was more familiar with crafting rooms from pre-set patterns, and having gold really took all the difficulty out of it, she pondered. Before her, a formerly empty cave exploded into a maelstrom of earthen colours as gold coins rained down from somewhere above, striking the floor in places and transforming like strange seeds. Structures grew and expanded outward from the impact points, devouring all empty space in an eye blink.

Ami looked around. The smell was rather agricultural, but she took that as an encouraging sign. The entire floor of the room was covered in muck, and there were a few shabby wooden sheds. Clucking noises informed her that these were henhouses. As if on cue, a fluffy yellow chick peered out, and then hopped down to the ground below, where it started scratching and pecking in the dirt. A dozen others followed the first one, and soon the air resounded with their chirping. Ami, for her part, had mixed feelings about this. She was glad about now having a food supply, but while she knew intellectually that people ate chicken all the time, she was a city girl. The thought of taking one of those birds, wringing its neck, then butchering it left her feeling queasy. A new thought brightened her mood. Chickens meant eggs! With a spring in her step, she approached the nearest henhouse.

As expected, the low building was warm, dimly lit, and full of nesting hens. Ami stared at the rows of lined-up nests resting on shelves along the walls. Only a few of them contained eggs, as far as she could tell. She stared at the closest one. A vicious looking hen stared back balefully. The senshi was undeterred. She had faced various youma in battle, armed with nothing but bubbles, and no mere bird was going to get between her and her objective! Determinedly, she took a step close and waved her hands.

"Shoo! Go away!"

The hen spread her wings over her clutch in challenge. With the way her comb fell over its beak, it looked almost as if she was scowling.

It's a good thing the Reaper isn't around to see this, Ami reflected as she dashed out of the door amidst a cloud of feathers and straw, left hand held protectively over her ducked head, the right one pressing three eggs against her chest. An angrily clucking chicken was hot on her heels, batting its wings furiously. Ami remembered that she could teleport, and performed a tactical withdrawal. Looking down at her quarry, she smiled. Mission successful!

Her elation evaporated a few minutes later when, upon being subjected to her improvised cooking equipment, the eggs dissolved into green motes of mana. What? WHY? Grumbling, Ami, reappeared on the hatchery grounds, fading into view with her visor already covering her eyes. After batting away a still irate hen, she pulled out her palmtop computer and started analysing what she saw. Her shoulders sagged upon reading the results: all of the living beings here were conjured from pure magic, which made them inedible. The muck was full of dead bugs and worms and the likes, though, which were all made of transfigured matter and in the process of being greedily devoured by the pecking chickens. Which, presumably, would make the latter real enough to consume at some point, as well as their future offspring.

Ami figured that transfiguration of material directly into living beings didn't work for some reason. She would have to find a book on it. Bitterly, she considered the chicken feed. Transfiguration into dead organic matter was obviously possible, so if whoever created this pattern had specified 'sandwich' instead of 'dead vermin', she wouldn't be so hungry right now. Well, she didn't have a few days to wait for her animals to mature, so another solution was required. Perhaps that trader again? Arriving in the library, she contemplated for a moment that teleportation was really convenient. Unfortunately, the crystal ball she had accidentally contacted Mr. Abraxe with failed to show a reaction this time around. More likely was that he just wasn't answering because he still hadn't acquired the books she requested. Sigh. She eyed the single tome resting on the otherwise empty shelves. No. While its graphical descriptions could ruin one's appetite, that wouldn't be enough to take her mind off her growing hunger. Near the dungeon heart, the frozen, sickly white flesh of the maggot creature glittered, as if taunting her.

No! She still had another option. She could visit the surface, now that she had the Reaper locked away. Yes, he's still sulking, she confirmed when she mentally checked on him. So far, so good. She would have to be careful, of course. Make a tunnel that first led far away from the dungeon heart, and sized to only allow passage to an imp. She could move herself to its end without crossing the intervening space effortlessly, so why take a risk? She would also make sure that this exit was easy to collapse, just in case. If she proceeded cautiously and stealthily, there would be little danger of detection, right? Her stomach growled a confirmation.

 

Originally on 2009-09-22T18:11:00

Ami looked up, scanning the ceiling of the narrow tunnel with her visor. Tree roots were protruding from the earthen roof and formed a dense web. Nothing gave the impression that anything living larger than a rabbit was anywhere near the location she had chosen for her first foray to the surface. At her nod, an imp squeezed past her legs and started swinging its pick at the soil, soon opening a hole through which faint light fell in from above.

Ami brushed a stubborn root out of the way and stepped into the pillar of light, revelling in the smell of fresh air as she got a look at the forest canopy above. Loose earth crumbled under her gloves as she reached for the edge of the exit and pulled herself up. Staying ducked with one knee in the grass right after emerging, she cautiously surveyed the surrounding trees and bushes. The complete absence of danger convinced her to stand up. She couldn't see very far due to both the tree trunks and the lighting conditions. Quickly identifying the tallest nearby tree, she hopped to its lowest-hanging branch and made her way up from there with little difficulty. Her feet and fingers easily found purchase on the ancient oak's gnarled bark, and soon enough, she found herself sitting on a branch that gave her a good view of the surrounding countryside.

The sky near the horizon glowed a faint red as daybreak approached, but Ami could still make out stars above her position. None of the constellations were familiar to her, quashing the faint hope that she was still in some part of her own world. She felt a wave of homesickness hit her at the discovery. Was she ever going to get home and see her friends and family again? What was this prolonged absence going to do to her attendance record?

The growling of her stomach snapped Ami out of her morose thoughts and focused her attention back on a more immediate and more solvable problem. She looked around, getting a good view of the landscape from her elevated vantage point. She was in the middle of some kind of forest. A few kilometres to the east, it gave way to open countryside, with wheat fields swinging softly in the breeze. She could make out the squat buildings of a sleepy village in their midst, as well as a road that led somewhere into hilly territory beyond. In the distance, thin streamers of smoke rose into the sky, indicating the presence of more towns. People meant she could get food and information, Ami thought happily. Nothing else really stood out to her, except for a patch of forest that looked more sickly than the rest. Mentally correlating it with the position of her dungeon, Ami concluded that there could be a connection. Yet something else to look into, she sighed.

The girl started to make her way to the nearest village. She pondered how she was going to handle this. Should she transform back to her civilian form? The thought of being unpowered in the middle of an unknown and potentially dangerous world didn't sit too well with her. Besides, she could make much better time in senshi form. She wouldn't be able to hop from branch to branch like this as her normal self, she mused, while underbrush rushed past underneath.

Money would not be a problem. Or maybe it would, if someone recognised that it was her own face on the gold coins. She wasn't sure how, or even if, that interacted with her senshi disguise magic, but she felt no need to find out. The imps could prepare a few coins by scratching off that side while she approached her destination. This left the issue of clothing. She was well aware that her sailor fuku wasn't exactly the most modest of garments, and she had no idea whether it would constitute acceptable female clothing in this society. She could sew, as she insisted in doing well in all of her classes, which included Home Economics. That didn't help all that much, as she didn't have time or material to make something more concealing. Unless...

The Reaper awoke with a start when a loud ripping noise resounded through his throne room. He noted that the exit was still blocked by a pile of rubble - curse the brat - so what had made the noise? An asymmetry in the room drew his attention to one of a pair of decorative curtains dangling from the ceiling. Its twin was conspicuously absent. The demon's expression turned more displeased than normal. What was the Keeper vandalising his room for?

Ami felt somewhat ridiculous wearing the long, hooded cloak that had been a dark red curtain only minutes before. Imps were not the most talented tailors, to put it mildly, but the garment hadn't turned out too badly. Sure, it was a bit frayed around the edges, but it did its job quite well. They even had managed to put the darker-coloured patterns on the curtain near the bottom seam. She just hoped those strange symbols in a darker colour were just decorations, rather than having a meaning she didn't know.

Ami could feel the first rays of the rising sun warming her chin. Her eyes were still in the shadow cast by the hood, which she had pulled down deeply into her face. While she didn't need to hide her tiara, which she had left behind, she might want to use her visor at some point, without attracting undue attention. Well, more attention than she was already drawing, she admitted. The few other people on the road were wearing peasant garb and doing agricultural things, such as driving cows to the pasture. All of them were giving her curious and suspicious looks. Well, I do look almost exactly like one of those stereotypical evil sorcerers from one of Usagi's mangas, Ami though with a sad smile, all I'm missing is a sinister-looking staff. A younger boy sucking on a straw was so distracted by the sight of her that he didn't watch where he was going, and collided with the rear end of a slow bovine. Ami nodded a greeting, which the villagers answered with a nod of their own, or a wave of their hand. None ever approached her though. Even the cows circled around her in a wide bow. Hanging her head, Ami figured that she might have been better off just arriving in her fuku.

As the hungry girl approached the settlement, the heavenly smell of freshly-baked bread made her pick up her pace. A few steps further in, the smell of medieval squalor hit her full-force, and made her wrinkle her nose in disgust. The morning breeze did its best to disperse the unpleasant odour, and Ami resolved to simply ignore it and find something to eat. The villagers were still watching her with suspicion, even though none seemed outright hostile. She also noted that none of the women were wearing anything that revealed more than their ankles, so the cloak had probably been a good idea after all.

A rooster crowed from the gable of one of the straw-thatched wooden buildings, drawing her gaze into that direction, and from there to the larger two-storey building whose sign clearly identified it as an inn. While walking in its direction, she noticed that several horses were stabled in the stable attached to the building. Business must be going well.

Ami opened the door and stopped for a moment until her eyes adjusted to the dimmer conditions inside. All eyes inside turned to the cloaked and hooded figure outlined within the door frame. The murmur inside died down. This early in the morning, around half of the round wooden tables and chairs were unoccupied, but Ami nevertheless fidgeted at being the centre of attention. A faint blush appeared on her cheeks and she stepped inside. The aroma of cooked meat wafted in her direction, and she felt her mouth water. When she sat down at one of the tables near the counter to the right side of the room, conversations resumed, and hands that had moved to swords in anticipation of trouble relaxed. She drew a second round of curious glances when she lowered her hood, this time directed at her short blue hair, and the hushed gossiping doubled in intensity. She overheard a few sentence fragments.

"... blue? ... think she's fey?" "... no, touching the iron cutlery..." "... but ... gloves ..." "...rather young... " "... witch looking for trouble..." "... hair's so short... disgraced... ?"

The innkeeper distracted Ami from the fact that she was currently the object of the local gossip by asking to take her order. He was lean, slouched, and with his overly long nose and the two tufts of greying hair around his ears on an otherwise bald head, he reminded her a bit of vulture. Ami ordered a large breakfast, and had to pay in advance. She whisked one of her adjusted gold coins from her stash, hoping that it would be accepted without too much trouble. The innkeeper took a look at it, then bit into it, and nodded.

"Can't say I have seen that symbol before. Good, solid gold though. Travelled a long way, have you?"

Ami shrugged, and answered honestly "I don't really know. I got here by a magical accident, and am not even sure where 'here' is."

The man's eyebrows seemed to develop a life of their own as they crept up his forehead. "Oh, how curious. This is the village of Goodplace, within the Barony of Blisshire, in the Kingdom of Morgan the Great." His expression turned sympathetic when it became clear that the girl (she couldn't be older than his own daughter) did not recognise any of these names. "You must be from a far away place indeed."

Ami, who noted that conversation was dying down again since the other guests were trying to eavesdrop, decided that it couldn't hurt to let them know about her origins. "I'm from the city of Tokyo in Japan."

"Sorry, I can't say that I have heard of it, Miss" Perking up, the innkeeper asked. "You mentioned a magical accident. Are you a wizard's apprentice, then?"

"I can do a little magic," Ami admitted. "Not enough to get me home, unfortunately."

"I thought so, " the man replied, "but you might be in luck." He stretched his left arm in a wide gesture that encompassed the room. "You may have noticed that the inn's unusually well occupied for this time of the year."

She hadn't, but at his words, she took another look at the other guests. There were the expected farmer types, but many of the men and women looked to be of a rougher sort. Mercenaries or guards perhaps. Some of them were wearing light leather armour, and she could see a bunch of spears and swords resting in a corner.

"A week ago, the Baron's herald passed through town, notifying everyone that the Baron is gathering heroes for a strike against the terrible Keeper Arachne, who is devastating the North of the shire. Thus, we have all kinds of adventurers passing through. If you accompanied them to the castle, you'd meet many wise and powerful wizards, one of whom might be able to send you home."

After these encouraging words, the talkative man lowered his voice conspiratorially, "Although you might want to change the style of your robes, no offence. If you went looking like this, people would think you were going to join the Keeper. In this land, that style is associated with evil warlocks and other unsavoury types. They use the hoods to hide how the dark magic twists their features, you see."

Ami suppressed a gulp. Technically, she was one of those 'other unsavoury types', but there was absolutely no reason to mention any of that. The waitress appeared and set a plate down in front of the famished girl. It contained steaming potatoes and some kind of sausage she didn't recognise. The meal also came with a large mug of foamy beer. She was too young to drink, wasn't she?

One of the other guests, a man build like a bear, with a shaggy black beard and matching hair, stood up slowly, and interrupted her train of thoughts. "Twisted features indeed," he bellowed in a voice loud enough to draw attention to everyone in the room. "You can't tell me that that hair colour is natural!"

Ami crossed her eyes to look up at his pointed index finger, which quivered with rage, less than a palm's length away from her head.

 

Originally on 2009-09-24T23:44:00

A wide circle of light illuminated the blue-grey floor of the Dark Kingdom's throne room. In its centre stood queen Beryl's throne, an imposing stone affair whose high back ended in a flower-shaped stone arrangement, which in turn formed the bottom of an even larger sculpture whose undefined features gave the impression of hollow eye sockets and curved fangs. None of the courtiers skulking around in the shadows just outside the brighter area was paying attention to the imposing architecture though. The two figures standing within the circle of light, at a respectful distance to the red-headed queen, were much more interesting, though perhaps 'standing' was too generous an expression to describe the left figure's posture.

The blond man was slouching deeply, with his hands on his knees and his head lowered. From time to time, an uncontrollable spasm went through one of his limbs, and thin streamers of smoke rose from his singed uniform, very visible in the bright illumination provided by the multiple spotlights trained on the pair. To his right stood a grey-skinned youma, obviously female in her clinging, slitted green dress. A reptilian tail was swinging left and right like a pendulum in obvious excitement. In stark contrast to her companion, the female stood ramrod-straight as she reported on recent events. "... gone well with the energy harvest, I was preparing the next energy-draining packagings for the crates, when suddenly..."


The square of night sky in the open window of the warehouse was suddenly obstructed by something for a moment. Within an aisle formed by the rows of crates, a red-headed woman who had been in the process of stamping various packaged goods with a cursed seal looked up. Strange, she could have sworn that window was closed before.

"Stop right there!"

Okay, the pigtailed figure in a short fuku was definitely new and unwelcome.

"I'm the sailor warrior of love and justice! Sailor Moon!" the intruder introduced herself, making weird gestures with her hands. "Household appliances should be used to avoid work, not steal energy! In the name of the Moon, I will punish you!"

The enemy! Youma Mareki immediately discarded her human guise. Long red hair turned into stringy green bristles, her body structure became taller and more angular, and a grey tail snaked out from under her green dress. The opponent seemed taken aback by the transformation. An opportunity! With a standing jump, the monster cleared the five metre height difference between herself and the would-be heroine, who had obviously thought herself safe and out of reach on higher ground. Eyes widened in shock and both arms held high to protect her face, Sailor Moon stumbled backward, barely avoiding the youma's double-handed downward blow that shook the entire stack of crates. Crouched on the ground like a stalking tiger, the youma unhinged her jaw, revealing two long, snake-like fangs protruding from her upper gums. A ferocious blast of water shot from her throat. The blonde in the blue sailor fuku let out a frightened "Eeep!" and fell over backwards, slow enough that the stream of water still clipped her trailing pigtails and drenched them.

"Fire Soul!" Suddenly, the murk of the warehouse was banished by a hellish glow that shifted all colours to an orange-red spectrum. Mareki whirled around. An ambush! The seeming incompetence of her attacker had been bait! But she wouldn't fall this easily! A torrent of water shot from her maw, over the deep trenches formed by the alleys between the ordered piles of crates, intercepting the incoming fireball. With a deafening hissing noise, both projectiles cancelled each other out, and the resulting wall of steam hid Mareki's red-skirted attacker from her sight. Catching movement from the corner of her eye, the youma pirouetted on one clawed foot, extending her tail like a whip as she did. Just in time too, as Sailor Moon had been going for her tiara. The tail slap caught the girl in the stomach and sent her flying. The blonde hit the ground with a satisfying hollow sounding thud and continued rolling over, losing her grip on the tiara. With a squeak of surprise, the super-heroine went over the edge of the platform formed by stacked crates. Mareki could see white-gloved fingers holding on desperately to the wooden ledge. She still couldn't see her other attacker through the obscuring steam, so she swept her breath weapon over the general direction of her adversary in a wide arc before hurriedly walking into the pig-tailed girl's direction.

Sailor Moon could hear the footsteps of the monster echoing through the warehouse as it made a beeline for her, and held on to the edge of the crate she was hanging from. Her fingers were already tiring, and she couldn't find purchase on the slippery surface of the stack with her feet. Then the youma stood over her, a grey misshapen silhouette of malice, its mouth widened into a sadistic grin as it lifted one scaly foot to bring it down on her fingers. Sailor Moon's efforts became more frantic, and one of her kicks hit the gap between the box she was hanging on and the one it was resting on. The jolt was enough to upset the precarious balance of crate, youma, and dangling girl, and as if in slow motion, it began to topple toward the alley. "Uh oh."

Hearing a loud crash, followed by the noise of more masses sliding and wood bursting open, Sailor Mars took a risk and raced through the dissipating steam cloud, jumping over one of the narrow alleys in the process, and landed on the stack Sailor Moon had been fighting the youma. A funnel-shaped gap was toward its far edge, and she could hear the tinkling of some appliances shifting. A sawdust-smelling cloud was rising over the location of the slide. Worried for her friend, the senshi stepped up to the edge of the avalanche, and peered down. Sitting on top of a mound of broken boxes and packages, the girl in question looked back up. On the ground, a scaly grey arm poked out from under the pile, unmoving.

"Good job securing the youma," Sailor Mars grudgingly commented after closing her jaw with an audible click. Sailor Moon gave a half-hearted smile and tried to stealthily rub her backside. Owie.


"... found myself tied to a chair, covered in prayer strips, and valiantly resisted vilest tortures as the enemy tried to interrogate me..."


Mareki struggled against her bonds. The damnable prayer strips sticking to her body were paralysing her and preventing her from accessing her powers. She seemed to be stuck on a chair. Her captors, both only visible as dim fuku-clad silhouettes, had somehow procured a lamp and were pointing it at her.

"All right! Turn it on, Sailor Mars."

Click. Blinding light flooded the youma's eyes, making it hard to see anything at all.

"Eww! Ugly! Turn it off again!"

"No. Stop being such a crybaby!"

Mareki fumed. Ugly, was she? What were those girls trying to do, anyway? The youma cautiously tested the knots holding her wrists together. Ha! Amateurs!

"Soldiers, remember what we are here for," sounded a much put-upon third voice from behind the bound youma.

A third enemy? That could be bad. She was probably screwed if Jadeite didn't show up soon, even if she was making good progress on loosening the ropes.

"Right," the pig-tailed blonde nodded, and stepped forward, leaning over Mareki. Which, given that the youma had already demonstrated her ability to unleash a stream of wall-denting water from her mouth when she wasn't affected by wards, didn't speak too highly of the girl's intelligence. "Tell us what you have done with Sailor Mercury!"

"Ha! I'll never turn traitor to the Dark Kingdom!" the youma spat immediately. All she needed was to wait until Jadeite showed up to collect today's harvest.

"Are you saying that you are completely useless to us?" the unknown third voice added with a dangerous undertone. "All right then. Sailor Mars, dispose of-"

"Wait! Wait! I'll talk! What do you want to know?"

"Where is Sailor Mercury?" the senshi in the blue fuku repeated.

Mareki recognised that name. "Sailor Mercury? Wait, that's the one Lord Jadeite was bragging about killing all the damn time, isn't it? What do you want with her? Her corpse?"

Sailor Moon sniffled and looked as if she was about to burst into tears. Which she promptly did. "Whaaaaaaa! Sailor Mercury is dead!"

"Get a grip on yourself, Meatball Head. She's clearly lying!" the soldier in the red skirt was now glaring at Mareki, hands on her hips.

"I'm not! That's what he said!"

The female voice whose owner the youma had not yet seen spoke again "Youma! Where is the entrance to the Dark Kingdom?"

Whoops. That was information she wasn't willing to give, for it would get her killed if anyone ever found out "Well, err, how do you intent to make me divulge that?" she asked, dreading the answer.

The clueless looks that the two girls exchanged were truly priceless. Hadn't they thought any about this in advance. Finally, the one in red crossed her arms and glared at the blonde. "This is your stupid plan, you figure something out!"

Mareki heard someone sigh behind her.


"... I knew it was only a matter of time before Lord Jadeite would show up to collect this day's harvest, but when an opportunity presented itself ..."


"Bwahahaha! Stop that! I'm ticklish! Nooo! Bwahaha!" laughing and gasping for breath, the youma fidgeted on her chair, which swayed about dangerously, while her tormentor continued poking at her sides with a finger. Sailor Mars just stood aside, leaning against the wall of crates, and looked highly embarrassed by the whole process. "Spill it!"

"No! Neve- Bwahaha!" One particular violent twitch caused the youma's elbow to jab into Sailor Moon's belly, taking the wind out of the girl's efforts and making her double over in pain and landing in the tied-up youma's lap. In her frantic efforts to get up, she accidentally brushed off the prayer strips sealing away the monster's powers.

Mareki could feel her blocked powers suddenly returning. She was pretty sure she couldn't slip off the bindings, get out from under the klutz, and get up from the chair fast enough to not eat an attack from Mars or the unknown enemy behind her. Now that her powers were back, she could float though.

Sailor Moon eeped when she felt the ground drop away under her feet. Instinctively, she held on to the nearest solid object, which was the youma. Trapping the creature in a hug, she involuntarily restrained her movement and prevented her from using her hands. Nevertheless, Mareki could still attack. She opened her mouth and started shooting fountains of highly-pressurised water at Sailor Mars, who dodged with leaps and bounds, always staying a step ahead of the fountaining splashes. As the youma opened her maw for yet another shot, she suddenly coughed, and then she, Sailor Moon, and the chair dropped simultaneously back to the floor. "Haha- Stop tick - ~cough~ Haha. Bwahaha! ~cough~"

Jedite could be excused for being distracted by the sight of Sailor Moon lying on the ground, draped over one of his youma (in full monster form, no less) and the remains of a chair, encircling the creature with both of her arms and tickling it. Some ropes were apparently involved too. The monster in question was struggling to shake the fukued blond loose, waving her arms, legs and tail, and spurting water from her mouth between fits of laughter. Sailor Moon, for her part, was too scared of what would happen if she stopped tickling to even consider the possibility, and so both she and the youma continued splashing around in the growing puddle as the senshi fought to stay on top.

A roaring fireball bearing down on him reminded Jadeite that there was, in fact, a second enemy in the room. The blast of flame engulfed him completely and seemed to spiral around his form, before revealing a blue-glowing spherical shield as it dissipated. He lowered his raised hand and cocked his head, giving Sailor Mars a smug smile. "Is that all you got?"

Mars' face went red in anger. She dropped into a fighting stance as Jadeite brought up his own hands, ready for anything he could throw at her. The walls of crates to her left and right collapsing took her therefore by complete surprise, and she was buried under an avalanche of cubes.

"That's number one," Jadeite stated, and then blasted Sailor Moon off his youma with a flick of his wrist. She hurtled past the lamp, which shook in her wake, and collided with yet another stack of crates that wobbled dangerously from the impact. She bounced and landed sprawled out on an pallet, a dazed expression on her face. "Number two."

The dark general strode forward purposefully, savouring every second of this. "It is time to end this, Sailor Moon." His footsteps made loud, regular splashes in the water. Suddenly, a rose struck in his path, showering him with a rain of droplets. "This is also familiar," he commented, looking up at the masked figure that perched on the crates above, cape fluttering behind it majestically.

"Sailor Moon! Don't let a temporary setback get to you! Believe in youself and - GACK!" Being tackled by a wet and sinewy youma didn't fit into Tuxedo Mask's regular cheerleading routine. Both combatants dropped out of sight, and sounds of a battle came from their direction. Jadeite snorted. "Keep up the good work, Mareki." He then turned his full attention back to Sailor Moon, who weakly raised her arm to her forehead.

"Moon Tiara Action!"

The glowing disc didn't make it more than an arms length away from the prone girl before it stopped in mid-air. "Oh please, you tried that move already on me," Jadeite stated with obvious relish. "Have your junk back." At his gesture, the no longer glowing tiara reversed direction and smacked the defender of love and justice in the forehead, sending her back down.


"... it was at this point that things started to go wrong... "


Luna was a blue-black cat, a colour ideal for creeping around unnoticed in a poorly-lit building. As a predatory animal, she was naturally stealthy, and five of her six ends were pointy. Jadeite found this out the hard way when she appeared seemingly out of nowhere and attached herself to his face. Unfortunately, she was a small cat, and after the initial surprise, he easily batted her away. Thinking this to be the end of it, he returned his attention to Sailor Moon, who was apparently out cold, a trickle of blood running down from her forehead. A thumping noise from his right distracted him. The stupid cat again. It had jumped against the lamp standing here for some reason, and was now running off, onto the pallet his hated enemy was lying on. Crazy animal. The lamp shook, wobbled, and then slowly tipped over. He followed its arc with disinterest. It splashed into the puddle of water on the ground. Which he was standing in. "ARGGGGGHHHH!" The lights in the warehouse flickered once and then went out as fuses were blown.


"... the other enemies were already getting up again, so I disengaged and decided to save Lord Jadeite and the harvested energy instead of going after them, so the mission would still be successful. And here we are."

Jadeite looked up for the first time, bringing the deep scratches running down both of his cheeks into the light. His blond locks were standing on end, and a muscle in his neck twitched involuntarily. "My Queen,I-"

"SILENCE! I have no use for a general who was defeated by a cat!" Beryl's eyes filled with a white glow that grew steadily brighter, until it shot at her hapless underling with a flash. Jadeite found himself encased in crystal, his cringing away posture preserved forever. With a negligent wave of the evil queen's orb, prisoner and prison disappeared.

Youma Mareki, who had been backing away quietly, froze like a deer in the headlights when the queen's attention turned back to her. "Now, the energy for our Great Ruler," Beryl demanded.

Curses. Mareki dropped to her knobbly knees, voice apologetic. "My Queen, Jadeite held all the gathered energy bec-"

Beryl's face showed no anger as she disposed of the youma in the same way as the late Jadeite. If any emotion graced her impassive features, it was exasperation. Imbeciles. I hope Nephrite will do better.

 

Originally on 2009-09-26T01:09:00

Ami stared at the plate of food resting on the wooden table in front of her longingly. The mouth-watering aromas rising from it mingled with the alcohol and tobacco smell of the tavern air, and her stomach growled a complaint. So close and yet so far. However, she didn't dare pick up her knife and fork, as her angry, bear-like accuser was towering over her and watching her every move might interpret that as her going for a weapon. Life just wasn't fair. Of all the things to get suspicious about, he had fixated on her hair colour, which was the one thing that had nothing to do with any of the secrets she was trying to hide.

The blue-eyed girl leaned back in her chair as far as it allowed, and looked past the man's still extended pointing finger and straight into his eyes. "I was born with that hair colour," she informed him, her voice calm. Sure, he was much taller than her, had arms that bulged with muscles, and would normally have had the intimidating presence to make her cringe away in fright even in her transformed state: However, she had spent the last two days in the presence of the Horned Reaper. Compared to that murderous thing, an angry strongman just didn't measure up.

"A likely story, " the man barked, sending droplets of spittle flying over his shaggy beard.

"I know a simple way to check if that hair colour is natural," a weasely-looking young man with brown hair quipped from the back of the room, waggling his eyebrows suggestively. Bawdy laughter approved of his statement. A tall blonde woman sitting next to him, who was wearing a metal breast plate even at the breakfast table, smacked his shoulder with a fist, feminine outrage on her face.

"Well, it's true," Ami stated, the faint rosy colour rising to her cheek the only hint that she had overheard the strange man's suggestion. She hoped nobody would actually insist on taking it seriously!

Booted footsteps sounded on the wooden stairs leading down from the inn's upper floor, and a red-headed young man, barely taller than Ami, attempted to defuse the situation."Now, now, now, there's no need for everyone to get all worked up over this." He was wearing a long white robe similar to a monk's habit. A broad, scarlet stole was wrapped around his neck, covering most of his shoulders and upper body, with both ends reaching nearly to the back of his knees.

"Snyder," the black-bearded man towering over Ami replied, not taking his gaze off the girl's blue hair. "You're just an acolyte, not even a fully trained priest!"

"But who better to judge this young woman's spiritual integrity than a man of the Faith, like me?" the newcomer retorted in an unctuous tone of voice, undeterred.

Ami craned her neck to get a better look at the youth who had stepped up to her seat from behind. He looked rather harmless. Soft, chubby features, red hair in a bowl cut, confident smile on his face. He was holding some strip of paper in one hand.

"Tch, Boris. Shame on you for even thinking such a cute young lady could be a dabbler in the dark arts. See, I will simply do this," he said, putting the paper on Ami's head with a flourish before she could react. She immediately felt a strange tingling sensation. Still looking at the hulking brute of a man, the acolyte smirked smugly "See, the ward did nothing. False alarm."

Boris, for his part, nearly tripped over his feet in his haste to back-pedal out of reach. Gasps escaped the throats of the guests of the inn, and chair legs scratched over the floor as the more martially inclined of the breakfast crowd jumped to their feet and unsheathed weapons. Aghast, the barmaid dropped her tray with a scream.

Suddenly the focal point of a wide semi-circle formed by various sharp and pointy implements all pointing directly at her, Ami turned to face the holy-man-in-training, her eyebrows furrowed in an expression of irritated, disbelieving surprise. Her question was more a shaky sqeak "What did you do"?

"Oh my." Confronted with the girls eyes, whose irises glowed red like hot embers, Snyder gulped and took a step back. And a second one, just to be on the safe side. Sweating, he raised his hands, palms outwards in a placating gesture. "All right, all right. Stay calm everyone. While there might have been a slight misjudgement on my part, there's no reason to panic. She can't cast any dark magic, as the ward is syphoning off and dissipating all her evil energy. The spillover is what's causing the glow."

Ami still had no idea what had everyone so terrified of her, except that it had something to do with what the robed young man had done. Hearing his explanation, she stealthily tried to summon a coin from her treasury to her hand. The tingling sensation on the back of her head intensified, but the coin arrived underneath her fingers resting on the table, even if it felt colder than usual. Relieved that she still had an easy way to escape, she sent it back.

"So you see, while she appears to indeed be some kind of witch, the situation is under control. As long as the holy ward is on her, we are perfectly safe from her magic! I made that one myself," the acolyte bragged.

With a flash of orange light, the paper strip covered in holy symbols burst into flames and crumbled into ash. The assembled heroes collectively took a step back, and Ami smelled burnt hair.

"It really shows," the tall blonde woman in the back of the crowd muttered in disgust.

"I... shall have to meditate on this," Snyder stammered, before turning tail and dashing for the exit, priestly robes waving behind him.

Eyes back to blue, Ami stared the assembled inn patrons, motionless. They stared back. It was quiet enough in the building to hear a needle drop. Suddenly, the door swung open with a bang, and two panting, portly town guards stepped in, tapping their spears on the ground in an unnecessary attempt to draw attention. "Freeze! You are under arrest, witch!" the lead one shouted imperiously. The effect was slightly ruined by the door rebounding off the wall and hitting him in the shoulder, making the ill-fitting armour on his shield arm rattle.

In a very Usagi-like moment, Ami met their eyes, looked down at her plate, and raised her gaze again. Giving a hopeful smile, she asked "Would you mind terribly if I finished my meal first?"

 

Originally on 2009-09-27T19:39:00

Ami watched the approaching guards warily, dividing her attention between them and the other armed guests at the inn, who were looking at her with open hostility now. She shrank a bit deeper into her chair, and strongly considered the possibility of fleeing. Getting away would be no problem with the dungeon heart's power, but the people here seemed the cautious type and would start searching for her. Who knew how easy it was for them to accidentally stumble over her dungeon while doing so? Not to mention that being a wanted criminal right of the start would put a damper on her ability to discover a way home. To make matters worse, she didn't know what that ward had done to give her away.

Putting her hands flat on the wooden table on each side of her plate, she addressed the men in armour directly "Wait! I don't want any trouble! What am I being arrested for anyway?"

"You're an evil witch, all glowy red eyes and weird looking, too!" Boris, the black bearded Neanderthal, as she had come to think of him, spat furiously. "An' probably a Keeper spy too," he accused.

Ami's eyebrows shot upward. Glowing red eyes? But she had blue eyes! When was the last time she had looked into a mirror, anyway? "You think I'm evil just because I look differently?"

"No, it's perfectly normal for people's eyes to start blazing with the fires of hell when in contact with a holy ward," the tall blonde woman wearing a breastplate that Ami had noticed earlier stated, deadpan. A few of the other heroes chuckled, but Boris just looked confused.

"But I haven't done anything!" Ami whined. She checked her access to the dungeon heart. Yes, still working.

The taller of the town guards approached her, spear held up cautiously, and heavy mail boots clanking. "That will be for the judge to decide!"

"I'll get a trial?" Ami asked, sounding hopeful.

"Waste of time if you ask me," Boris growled. Everybody ignored him.

"Obviously. We aren't monsters like your associates in the Underworld," the smaller and more portly of the guards retorted. Chains were rattling in his hands.

"Fine then," Ami lowered her head in defeat. If she got a chance to explain, then she could maybe convince these people that she was innocent. In any case, she would learn more about this world, and running from the law was something that felt wrong for a champion of love and justice. Besides, she could just teleport away if things went awry. All going along would really cost her was some time and her food, she noted sourly.She felt one of the guards chain her wrists together behind her back before she was roughly pulled to her feet. The other patrons relaxed their postures when it became clear that she wasn't going to put up a fight. The innkeeper seemed especially relieved that the situation hadn't degenerated into a furniture-destroying battle.

"Good to see that you are reasonable," the lead guard noted. Louder, he continued "and someone get that Acolyte back in here! I don't want to end up as a toad if she decides to change her mind."

"No need, no need! I am already here!" Snyder strutted in through the open door, a large earthen amphora held in his arms. "Divine inspiration has struck, revealing to me why the previous ward failed through no fault of my own!" Ami noted that the sceptical glances of the others matched her own. The short man in priestly robes was walking toward her now, a wide grin on his face.

"The reason is rather simple, if not obvious. This girl," he pointed at Ami, who stood between the two guards towering over her, wrapped in her dark red cloak, "must be hiding some kind of heavily enchanted item on her person that wasn't deactivated when her own power was bound!"

The guards shuffled further away from the blue-haired girl upon hearing these words, all the while trying to appear as if they weren't moving. Their pay wasn't high enough to deal with evil sorcery.

"But never fear! I have already retrieved the appropriate countermeasures from my stash!" he lifted the amphora he was holding. Something inside made sloshing noises.

Ami didn't like where this was going, and took a step away from him until her back touched the bar counter.

"This holy water has been especially blessed and enchanted by the Abbot himself! A single splash will neutralise all magical items on somebody's person!" With that, he pulled back his arms, as if to swing the container in the prisoner's direction.

Ami paled. Neutralise all magical items? What about her precious, currently inactive visor?

The innkeeper was about to protest that one couldn't just pour water all over his floor, but it was already too late. A spray of transparent liquid shot from the amphora and sparkled in the air before it struck Ami's face and drenched her clothes. She cringed away, but the effects were near instantaneous. Her lithe form was surrounded by a curtain of green motes and pale blue streamers of light for a moment, and suddenly she felt a draft on her wet skin. Had she had more time to consider the situation, she would have realised that her cloak and senshi uniform were just as much magical creations as her visor.

"Eeeeek!" Ami dropped to the ground, hid under the table, and pulled her knees to her chest to protect her modesty as well as possibly within circumstances, which, given that her wrists were still tied behind her back, wasn't all that much.

The surprised silence within the inn was quickly broken by jeers and whistles. "Well, at least we learned that her hair colour is indeed natural," the same man with rodent-like features as before drawled.

Ami's face was red as a tomato as she cowered under the table. Enough was enough. "SHABON SPRAY!" Getting the spell off with her limbs restrained was by no means easy, but fortunately it wasn't something that had to be aimed. Obscuring fog spread through the inn, performing its tasks of hiding her from leering gazes. The drop in temperature was rather uncomfortable in her current state of undress, though. Around her, the voices turned surprised and frightened, and she could hear people bumping into each other as they tried to move in the haze.

"Pigs," the tall blond woman muttered as she set down her cup of tea, in order to better punch her companion in the shoulder.

"Ouch! Stop being so jealous, Cathy," he complained, but the woman had already stood up and walked into the mist, becoming a thin silhouette before disappearing completely. He heard a scuffle, as if from far away, despite the fact that it was happening in the same room."Unhand me, woman! What are you doing? I am an upstanding man of the faith, and- Ow!" Something heavy clattered to the floor, making gurgling noises.

Cathy squatted down and peered into the surrounding greyish-white mist, slowly advancing toward the location where the young sorceress had last been. Someone bumped into her, making her armour ring, but she ignored the collision. That arching black form had to be the table. Two red pinpricks of light glowered at her from underneath. The correct one, then. The long-haired blonde held out a bundle of cloth in front of her. "I have clothes. Thought you might want them."

Ami let the stranger approach, taking note in passing of the sword at the woman's hips. The straight scar running down her right cheek indicated that she had been in battles and probably knew how to use it. The prospect of clothes was mighty attractive at the moment though, so Ami allowed her to approach and slip the robes over her head. The coarse fabric tingled uncomfortably.

"Now that you are decent, do something about your spell." It wasn't a request, Ami realised. There was steel in the long-haired warrior's voice. Well, it had already served its purpose, so she stopped maintaining it.

Once visibility was restored, the woman hauled Ami to her feet, and she could see the unintended consequences of her spell. Tables had been overturned in the heroes' haste to take more defensible positions. She was at the receiving end of many a glare, and averted her eyes, blushing. The two town guards were huddling in a corner, eyes closed tightly, and holding each other as they shivered in dread. Next to the staircase, that annoying monk Snyder lay on the floor, rubbing a bump on his head, and wearing only nightshirt-like underclothes. Ami looked down at herself. Yes, she was wearing his white-and red garb. She turned her head upwards and sideways to give the tall woman a questioning glance.

"He's the moron who destroyed yours. Besides, the two of you are nearly the same size," she replied dispassionately.

"Hey! Hey now! Don't go casting aspersions on my intelligence! This is all her fault! Who wears nothing but conjured clothes? That's just not done!" the redhead defended himself, already getting up after running into the wall during the mist episode. Ami gave him a nasty glare, eyes momentarily flashing red. He was the fool responsible for embarrassing her like this!

"Ahem. It just isn't seemly for a man of my position to be seen like this. We shall continue this talk later," he sputtered with as much dignity as he could muster, all the while backing up towards the stairs, then turning tail and fleeing up to his room.

"Snyder," the woman sighed, making the word sound like a curse. "I wish Jered had hired an experienced priest instead."

A few hours later, Ami found herself on the back of a horse, sitting in front of the woman - Cathy, she now knew - who had saved her from terminal embarrassment. Currently, she was also saving her from falling off the horse. Ami had never learned to ride, and having her wrists tied together was not improving her balance. To her right was Snyder on a temperamental brown and white spotted mare. The acolyte had replaced his robes - Ami was still wearing his old ones, though her chains had been loosened once so she could put on the garment properly. He had also put a new ward on her, this one etched into a golden necklace that wouldn't burst into flames. To her, it felt about as effective as the paper one, and it also made her eyes glow red eerily, as she had checked by watching her reflection in a pond. That had been deeply unsettling. Currently, the red-headed acolyte was trying (and failing) to start up a conversation with Cathy.

In front of her was that black-bearded brute, Boris, sitting on a horse that he made look like a pony with his size. Strapped to the barbarian's back was a massive double-bladed axe, and he was busily complaining to the party leader Jered, the weasely-looking man who had been making all those insinuating comments back at the inn, about having to 'bring the horrid little witch' along.

Jered shook his wavy brown hair and answered "We were going to the capital anyway. The payment the mayor promised us for this prisoner transport more than makes up for the inconvenience. Now give it a rest already."

The ride really was less interesting than Ami had expected, at least after she had gotten the hang of staying on the horse. After the first couple of sunlit fields, pastures, and forests, the sight of more became mere routine. She distracted herself by checking up on her dungeon, which became easier and easier with practice. By now, she could actually see whatever she was concentrating on. She was also ordering the imps to drive more exploration shafts into the surrounding terrain. When a black-carapaced beetle wandered out of the dust, she almost dropped off the horse in surprise . It was absolutely enormous, bigger than a sheep even! She had sweated nervously when the thing had ignored her imps and made a beeline straight for her dungeon heart. Those mandibles looked awfully sharp. When it had gotten close enough that it risked falling into the beating membrane, she had considered using the Reaper to deal with the problem, but after a moment, she felt something like a tug on her mind, a request for approval. She granted it, and the beetle walked off, deeper into her dungeon, making a cheerful buzzing sound with its wings.

Aware that she had just attracted her first minion - she wasn't sure enough about the Reaper's loyalties to consider him a minion - she assigned a place for it to live. Apparently satisfied with her choice, the critter started building a nest in the narrow, damp crevasse. Still shaken by the scare of something just wandering in and toward her dungeon heart, Ami drew up some defensive measures. Soon, her imps were busy retrofitting the dungeon with rockfalls, trap doors, collapsible ceilings, and the likes. She also had a special plan for her dungeon heart chamber, but before she could put it into motion, she felt an insistent pull from her library. The crystal ball was active. That Nicodemus guy must have her books ready, and she wasn't anywhere near to conclude the transaction! What to do? She couldn't just pop away, because then she wouldn't be able to return. Besides, there would inevitably be questions, and she wasn't willing to throw away this opportunity yet after all she had gone through. Well, she had another option.

Hoping that she wasn't making a big mistake, she snatched the horned demon off his throne and dropped him in the library, then shoved him gently in the direction of the glowing communication device when he looked around in confusion. When a stack of gold coins landed on the desk next to the crystal ball, he finally seemed to get the idea. There was a lot more growling and threatening scythe-waving involved than she was happy with, but in the end, a rectangular green glow appeared on one of the empty shelves, slowly solidifying into a heavy tome.

Ami felt giddy. Finally a clue to getting home! Now, if only she was in a situation where she could use the book. Maybe she could still read it if she got an imp to turn the pages for her?

"KEEPER! Your traps are malfunctioning!" the angry voice of the reaper echoed through the dungeon, loud enough to attract her attention. A soft giggle escaped her lips when she found him. The red demon's scythe was spanning the length of a pit, blade resting on one side, end of the grip on the other. Holding onto the horizontal weapon's haft was the Reaper, dangling precariously over the hole that had been hidden underneath the trapdoor. What was he talking about? It had worked as intended, though she'd have to remember to make it wider in the future. After moving the demon to safe ground, she plopped an imp down next to him, its three-fingered hands full of mud. At her direction, the illiterate creature started to draw on the wall.

The Horned Reaper narrowed his yellow eyes as the imp started to write words in huge letters on the bare stone. The handwriting was atrocious but legible. In disbelief, he snorted "That has to be the most ridiculous method of communication devised yet. To answer your question: the trap is clearly malfunctioning because it doesn't distinguish between allied and hostile creatures!"

The imp scribbled some more. The reaper read. "What do you mean, you don't know how to make those? Do you expect your creatures to remember where all of them are all the time?"

The imp was slowly running out of mud. "No, frankly, the fact that most of them are imp-operated doesn't reassure me at all. Do you have any idea how malicious the little freaks are, given half a chance? No, of course you don't. Why in darkness' name are you communicating like this anyway instead of just talking?"

"Damn it Boris! Cease and desist! I'm done talking about this! We are taking her along, and that's final!" Jered finally lost his temper with his huge companion. "You have been at this since we left, and it's nearly midday now! It's not as if she's making any trouble!" he fingered the bandoleer of daggers strapped over his green shirt, fingers twitching as if yearning to use them.

Cathy urged her ride to go faster, until she was riding next to the brown-haired man, and leaned over the gap separating them. "About that. Did you drug her or something?" she whispered, indicating the girl whom her left arm was half wrapped around, "she has been giggling at odd times and doesn't seem to register what's right in front of her eyes."

 

Originally on 2009-09-29T21:38:00

It was lunchtime, and the group had moved off the road and onto a tiny hill where the bedrock poked through the grass, forming several more-or-less flat schist slabs. A crooked pine swayed in the wind, casting shadow over the impromptu picnic site. The horses were grazing a bit further down the hill, tied to one of the larger boulders.

Ami chewed on a piece of bread. It was a bit dry, but since this was her first piece of food in a long time, it tasted heavenly to her. All too soon, the delicious morsel was swallowed, and she turned to the right, where the red-headed acolyte was sitting next to her. As the group had unanimously decided (she hadn't been asked) to not untie her, the task of feeding her had fallen to him. It was all quite awkward in her opinion. He held out another piece of bred, hand somewhat shaky.

"I don't bite, you know." Ami stated, with a friendly smile. It came across as rather more hungry than she intended, and Snyder didn't look particularly reassured.

"Well, she looks lucid enough now," Cathy commented to the brown-haired man sitting cross-legged next to her, and shifted to use his shoulder as a backrest.

"I tell you, she's up to no good," Boris, the black-haired, black-bearded bear of a man growled with his mouth full, glowering at the girl in question from his spot across the tablecloth. "We shouldn't be wasting our provisions on her!"

Ami shot him a nasty glare, then resumed devouring the offered food at a pace that made the priest-in-training who was feeding her fear for his fingers.

"Don't mind him, he used to live on Avatar Island as a child," the blonde Cathy stated, as if that would explain everything. "He hates everything associated with dark magic."

"Avatar Island?" Ami paused for a moment in her feeding frenzy to give the other woman her undivided attention.

"Right, you say you aren't from around here. Avatar Island used to be one of the most peaceful places in the world, ruled over by the paragon of light himself, the Avatar. After Keeper Mukrezar was done rampaging all over it, the land had become a soot-covered outpost of hell instead. Boris arrived here as a young orphan on one of the last ships that got out."

"Oh." Ami re-considered the hulking brute in light of this new information, a hint of pity slipping on her features. Noticing her gaze, the man bared his teeth at her in anger.

Quickly averting her eyes, Ami returned to her conversation with the blue-clad swordswoman. "This Keeper, did he attack other places too?"

Cathy smiled humourlessly "No, the bastard was an accomplished tactician, but sucked at long-term planning. Once he couldn't get any more resources by plundering adjacent territories, his empire went down in an orgy of violence and cannibalism. Rumour has him ending up in a stewing pot. Serves him right, if you ask me. "Sombrely, she added "The land is still ruined and worthless, though, and nothing lives there." Narrowing her eyes at Ami, she continued "You had best keep in mind that everything Keepers touch comes to ruin. If you were seeking employment with one, forget about it!"

Ami nearly choked. "I wasn't planning on that!" she protested, entirely truthfully. "All I want is to find a way back home. I'm not evil!"

"Your awful red eyes say differently," Boris interjected.

"You do have quite the healthy appetite for a girl of your size, Mercury." Jered addressed the white-and-red robed senshi directly, cutting off his barbarian companion.

Gulping down the latest bit of half-chewed bread, Ami blushed slightly. "Sorry. I don't usually eat like this, I'm just really famished."

"Oh? And here I was thinking that it was because you need to replenish your mana supply. Those wards are syphoning off an awful lot of power." He pointed at the golden amulet around her neck. "Quite unusual for one so young to not have run out yet." A calculating gleam appeared in his brown eyes. "A sure sign of a remarkable amount of training. What is it you can do, aside from that little fog you demonstrated this morning?"

Ami hesitated. What could she tell them safely? "Well, you have already seen the fog. I also have a spell that conjures ice." With a sidewards glance at Snyder, she added "I also used to have a magical item that let me find out how most things work."

Jered looked at her for a long time, scratching his chin. "I cannot shake the feeling that you are leaving out quite a lot of things."

"Indeed, indeed. Elemental magic alone would not cause that much corruption," Snyder chimed in. He wagged a finger chidingly at Ami. "You had better confess, lying at the trial will just make things worse for you. The priests are very good at detecting falsehoods."

Ami pressed her lips together into a thin line as she considered her options. Telling them about being a Dungeon Keeper was right out. Boris would probably try to split her in half with that axe of his on principle. Better change the topic. "Err, about that trial. What kind of outcome can I expect from that?"

"Well, that would depend on your crimes. If you are indeed as innocent as you pretend to be, and considering your age, you would almost certainly be placed with guardians charged to make you abandon your dark ways. Maybe an apprenticeship with an experienced wizard, or a within an abbey," the acolyte explained. "Provided that they think you are trustworthy, which they might not, if you continue being so secretive. Maybe you will want to give a more extensive list of your abilities?"

Ami hung her head. In a hushed voice, she stuttered "I- I might know the one or other Necromantic spell."

As expected, Boris' face became a mask of disgust. Cathy narrowed her eyes slightly, and Jered seemed unsurprised.

"Necromancy? Whatever did you learn that for? That is really dark stuff, not to mention somewhat useless in most situations." Snyder seemed more upset by the choice of subject, than the black magic itself. He shook his head disapprovingly. making his bowl cut whip around.

Telling them that a demon made her do it wasn't going to improve their opinion of her, Ami thought. "I was hurt, and the book had a healing spell, so I wanted to use it. After that I kind of just kept reading," she laughed nervously.

Jered raised an eyebrow. "You actually used it on yourself, as a rank amateur? You are lucky that you didn't end up with side effects that make your hair look normal."

"Eh?" another reason to be angry at the Reaper. On the other hand, he might not have known. He didn't strike her as the intellectual type, loathsome violent beast that he was.

Having finished lunch, the group was back on the road towards the capital. Ami was riding with Snyder now on the acolyte's spotted mare, as Cathy didn't want to strain her horse by making it carry two people for too long. Sitting so close in front of a boy, who had to put his arms around her in order to hold the reins, was a new and awkward experience for the girl. Usagi and Rei would probably have found it romantic, but she found the fact that she still had her wrists tied behind her back an inconvenience. She didn't want to accidentally touch something she shouldn't. So far, she had been blushing most of the time, especially when the movement of the mount shifted the riders around, and the red-haired man's hands brushed against her upper thigh. Not on purpose, she hoped. Were holy men in this world supposed to be chaste? For all his bluster, the acolyte seemed to be just as embarrassed by the situation as she was, fidgeting more than usual and being uncharacteristically quiet.

A bit ahead of the rest of the group, Jered and Cathy were having a private discussion.

"...you think she's on the level?" the long-haired swordswoman asked, keeping her voice down.

"Not a chance." Jered shook his head emphatically. "Unless she keeps her money in very strange places, she did not have any on her at the inn. Despite that, she clearly had enough to pay for the meal earlier. She clearly has some abilities she hasn't told us about. Still, there's something plain wrong about her. Just look." He discretely turned his head. The suspected witch was sitting on the horse, looking deceptively innocent in the borrowed acolyte robes, until one noticed her red eyes, which were darting to the left and right regularly, never focusing on anything in particular.

For her part, Ami was unaware of their scrutiny, as her mind's eye was currently in her dungeon, flitting over the pages of her newest acquisition. From time to time, an imp darted in to turn a page of the heavy tome. Reading this way was slightly nauseating, similar to riding in a car and reading in the same time, but it was also distracting her from the warm body her back was touching. Nothing in the dungeon required her immediate attention. One of her imps was scouting the beetle tunnels, attracting more of the insects as it went, but so far, it hadn't found anything interesting yet.

"I see what you mean," Cathy agreed with a nod. "Think she's a Keeper spy, after all?"

The wavy-haired man shook his head in the negative. "Not a Keeper spy, no. She's too peculiar-looking. A Keeper's runaway kid, though? Possibly."

His companion sat up straighter with a start, eyes widening, before looking at Ami from the corners of her eye "Are you serious?"

"That, or maybe some powerful warlock's daughter. Let's see," he held up his hand, extending a finger. "One. She is saturated with dark magic and looks weird, indicating that she may not be entirely human. Two. Someone has to have taught her magic, because freezing is an advanced spell. Three. With the way she acted around horses, she must have never been around them before. Four. She acts repulsed by little everyday inconveniences, such as manure on the road. Five. She wasn't carrying a single weapon, so she must come from a place where she was well-protected. Six," here his expression turned a little greedy, "she paid with an unknown gold coin, where a few coppers would have sufficed. And seven, all her clothes were conjured. Not many people can waste mana that thoughtlessly."

Cathy nodded, examining the information from all angles. "So you think she's some kind of sheltered princess from the Underworld, out on a bout of teenage rebellion?"

"More or less."

"I'd have expected someone like that to be brattier," the woman voiced the only immediately obvious problem she could find with the theory."

"Would you act bratty if you were tied up and alone with a group of four armed strangers? Wait, don't answer that," he added with a mock sigh as her lips parted in a grin.

"Should we mention your conclusions to the authorities, then?"

"Heavens no! Think what a valuable bargaining chip she could be if we handle this right!" he grinned and rubbed his hands together, "Besides, she seems to have access to daddy's stash, so..."

The blonde brushed long strains of hair out of her face so she could properly massage her temples."You are incorrigible. What about Boris? He isn't going to like this," she pointed her thumb at the brooding giant trailing behind the party on his much stressed horse.

He waved away her concern. "He's hired help, just like the acolyte. He will simply have to set aside his personal feelings on the matter."

The countryside had turned to woodland, and the road had become narrow, winding between ancient trees that had been standing here long before its first cobbles had been set. Ami welcomed the shelter from the suffocating heat. The air felt as if there would be thunderstorms later in the day, but for now, specks of sunlight were dancing over the leaf covered ground whenever the wind picked up and shook the leafy canopy. While the red stole covering most of her upper body was causing her some discomfort with its warmth, she was glad to have it. With the way she was sweating, being covered only with the white fabric of her robe would be more revealing than she was comfortable with. She shifted uncomfortably in her seat. Her arms were falling asleep.

A whistling sound shook her out of her thoughts, followed by a wet thud. Suddenly, she found herself flung through the air as the horse reared up, letting out a pained whinny, and then galloped off, an arrow sticking out of its right flank. With a thump, she landed on her back, more softly than expected. Underneath her, Snyder let out a groan and stirred weakly. Ami, rolled off him, feeling slightly guilty. Even if she didn't look it, she was still in her senshi form, and thus tougher than him. From all around came the noise of weapons being drawn. Jered was shouting commands, and from somewhere in the bushes, she heard a high-pitched, angry voice.

"Gamuk stupid! Not fire yet!"

A short, green creature with long, triangular ears nearly as big as its face, was emerging from the bushes, waving a dagger. The blue-haired girl struggled to get up from the mossy forest ground, slowed down by being unable to use her hands.

"Fucking goblins," Cathy swore as she slid off her mount, an arrow pinging off her breastplate. "Archers in the trees!"

"On it!" Jered replied, loosening a dagger with a twirl of his wrist. A short humanoid figure with the weapon embedded in its chest screamed as it fell off its perch on an oak. More goblins were appearing from the bushes, but Ami had no time to pay attention to them. The first goblin was moving toward her, sensing easy prey. Behind her, the acolyte let out a whimper of pain, but didn't get up.

"RAHRRG!" Boris had gotten off his horse, a feat easily accomplished by stretching his legs and standing up, and was charging at the diminutive attackers, his double-headed axe held high. The three small arrows sticking out of his own leather armour didn't seem to slow him down.

Ami took a step backward as the goblin approached, its piecemeal armour dangling. It got a good look at her face and hesitated, seemingly taken aback by the red-glowing stare. Not one to let an opportunity like that pass, Ami took advantage of its distraction, and brought her foot around in a spinning kick. The child-sized creature was caught in the head and went tumbling, flipping over once as it skidded over the ground. Its horned helmet went flying, its unmoving owner in the dirt.

She sprinted back to Snyder's side. "I need some help here!" The acolyte was still writhing on the ground helplessly. Looking around, she saw that the others weren't doing so hot, either. Cathy was slowly moving in Ami's direction, her long sword flickering about in precise arcs as she parried blows from three attackers. The weapon's point was covered in red. Boris, for his part, was surrounded by a circle of the hunched-over creatures, who gave him a wide berth. Like a pack of hyenas, they capered around him, darting in for his legs whenever his back was turned, and retreating when he whirled around, axe moving in wide swings. She noticed two small, limp forms at his feet, but it was clear to her that the goblins would soon overwhelm him.

Ami spotted Jered making a rolling jump that carried him through the legs of his horse, who was stomping around and kicking up dust in fright. The manoeuvre bought him some time from the band of goblins that had been ganging up on him, and he looked around frantically, nearly giving himself whiplash as he searched for an escape route. A moment later, he took a decision and dashed in her direction, head held low. A goblin trying to get in his way found his route blocked by a thrown dagger whistling past. Ami hoped that the brown-haired man would remove her chains, but instead she felt herself pulled toward him roughly, and then used as a human shield.

"EVERYONE STOP!" Jered shouted, causing an interruption in the melee as the combatants turned to look at him. Incidentally, this also postponed the meeting between the blue-haired girl's heel and his crotch.

"GOBLINS! Harm this girl, and you will draw the direct and personal ire of a Keeper!" he shouted. Cathy gave him a look that could only mean THAT's your plan?

Ami's heart skipped a beat. They knew? But how? Should she flee? No, she couldn't just abandon them here to die. They weren't bad people, from what she had seen so far.

The green skinned attackers also froze, but for a different reason, interrupting their attack to take a closer look at the figure in white robes.

"You dumb! Girl dressed like priest!" one pointed out suspiciously.

Another whacked it on the helmet with a club. "Dolt! She's got them eyes!" A chorus of awed exclamations followed, interrupted by the smallest goblin. "She still look scrawny."

"She kick Dub far," another chimed in, pointing at the unconscious body lying with its face in the dirt a few metres away from Ami.

"She prisoner," the second goblin added. "Not with stupid ones!"

"What we do? What we do?" a few others yapped.

 

Originally on 2009-10-02T00:20:00

Ami watched the goblins hesitate, shaking their weapons and distorting their ugly faces into grimaces as they bickered among themselves. She hoped the plan would work, even though the way Jered was holding her up and ducking behind her was most displeasing. If she got the chance, she'd tell him what she thought about that later.

"Is bad plan!"

"Is not!"

"Is TOO!" the shouting goblin finally managed to win the debate, by virtue of grabbing his opponent by his long, triangular right ear and swinging him around until his face slammed into the knotty bark of the nearest tree. The little humanoid took a more rigid posture, puffing out its black-armoured chest, and clapping its hands together as if to clean them. "We kill big ones, leave red-eye alone. She rescued, maybe get reward!"

The other goblins cheered. This made sense to them.

"Oh good going Jered. Great negotiation skills." Cathy had made her way over to where Ami and Jered were, and was protecting his back, sword held ready. At her feet lay the injured acolyte, groaning softly from time to time, forming a mound that would serve as a minor obstacle to the small attackers. The only one still separated from the group was Boris, who had managed to position a large pine to his back and was glowering at the goblins surrounding him with the fury of a black bear.

"Not so fast," Jered's voice went steely, and Ami suddenly felt something cold against her throat. "Do you really think the Keeper would care whose fault it is she got hurt, rather than destroying everyone involved? Back off!"

Obviously I would! Ami thought, taken aback by this turn of events. Jered didn't make much sense. Could she get out of this fast enough if she tried? Feeling that dagger against the skin of her neck was frightening.

The goblins hesitated in their advance and let out some cranky growls, looking at each other questioningly. Finally, the one that had disagreed before croaked with a maniacal gleam in his blood- shot eyes "What odds that Keeper even watching? We kill all, we loot, we go away!"

Uh oh, this was bad. Ami could feel the brown-haired man tighten his grip on her, and didn't dare gulp for fear of cutting herself on the sharp steel. Well, my secret is out anyway, so...She considered her options. Reaper? Inappropriate, and she didn't want to set him free. Beetle? She mentally snatched the biggest, meanest looking of her chitinous minions and pulled it in her direction, then felt something wrench it from her immaterial grasp at the borders of her territory. The bug was hurled forward on its trajectory until it spread its wings and arrested its fall with an agitated buzzing sound. What the... ? Ack, goblins getting close, try again, worry later!

Everything froze when suddenly, the lead goblin went down under the weight of a bug-eyed creature just a little smaller than himself that had appeared out of mid-air. The imp gave a squeal of glee as it stood up and did a little jig on the hapless attacker's head.

"Holy crap!" the blonde swordswoman boggled, staring at the creature with wide, blue eyes. "You were actually right about her!"

"Don't panic now," Jered commanded. "Nothing has changed! Now you know we aren't bluffing!" he added, a hint of hysteria vibrating in his voice. He hadn't actually expected a Keeper to be scrying on them. Had anyone paid attention to Boris, they would have seen that the black-bearded giant was scowling fiercely at the newcomer, and then transferring this scowl to Ami. The imp itself had turned its huge black eyes on Jered and bared its teeth at the rodent-featured man. It let out an outraged squeak and started advancing, waving its pick back and forth threateningly.

"Keeper is watching!" the goblins cried. "We stuck again now! What we do?"

"Control your creature, Keeper," Jered hissed as the imp approached. With luck, he and his team would still get out of this situation unharmed. Well, mostly unharmed, he added mentally considering the arrows sticking out of his barbarian ally and the slumped form of Snyder on the ground. It was nice to have the value of the girl confirmed though. As Ami didn't think her health would be served by the man holding a knife to her throat having to fend of an irate minion, she ordered the imp to stop.

The goblins were still discussing the recent development.

"...get Gold! Keepers pay good!"

"Dungeon not here! How we find?"

While the little green things argued, Cathy was kneeling down next to the fallen priest-in-training, checking up on his injuries, looking grim. Ami, listening in to the goblin chatter, realised that they wanted to find employment with her. While the idea of having a tribe of bloodthirsty little savages to go with her bloodthirsty huge savage wasn't entirely to her taste, she figured that they'd at least be out of the way and not endangering any innocents in her dungeon. It wasn't as if she didn't have enough room for them. She craned her neck to get away from the blade, and said "Go with the imp."

The heroes looked at her, as if surprised she had spoken up. The goblins just looked clueless and suspicious. "How we know this not trap?"

Ami figured that she could safely transport one imp plus whatever cargo it was carrying. Fortunately, goblins were small. Shrugging its shoulders at its strange new orders, the servile minion scuttled over to the unconscious warrior it had landed on, and unceremoniously stuffed him into its pack. With a high-pitched groan, it strained to lift the body, which was still hanging half out of the sack, and disappeared. The worried glances of his companions turned to angry mutters. Back at the dungeon heart, the imp reappeared, and dumped the unconscious body on the ground as if it was garbage.

Attracted by the noise, the Horned Reaper stomped over. He snorted in disdain upon spotting the sprawled-out form. "Wake up, trash!" A kick from his huge hoofed bounced the creature off of one of the pillars of the heart's superstructure. It did the job.

"Who dare kick Gruk? You die!" the goblin pulled with two hands at its helmet that had once been a cooking pot, now stuck over his eyes from having an imp drop on it. With a plop, the piece of armour was finally dislodged, and the belligerent face of the huge-eared being appeared. He looked at the legs of his tormentor. Then he looked up. And up. The red-skinned demon grinned toothily down at him, watching in amusement as the green creature's face flinched away. "Gruk think feeling mercyful today," it stammered.

"If you are going to join the Keeper, get it over with. I don't have all day!" the Reaper growled, twirling his scythe in anticipation.

"Gruk is joining!" the goblin quickly agreed, scampering toward the heart and conveying its wish to join the Keeper. Nearly as soon as he was done, an imp sneaked up on him from behind, pounced, and put its bag over his head and upper torso. Ami transferred the two of them back to the battlefield, where her disoriented new underling struggled to get out of the pack, while the imp just giggled to itself.

"Tell them that it's safe to go!" Ami demanded.

Gruk freed himself and surveyed his surroundings, disoriented. "Not completely safe," he finally concluded. "Gruk got kicked by giant red monster. Keeper hiring, though."

A little cheer accompanied that announcement. A moment later, the imp was buried under a heap of goblins, all vying to be the first to be ferried over to the dungeon. Huh. Ami hadn't expected that being hired by a dungeon keeper was so coveted. Looking closer, she noted that the small monsters did look somewhat starved, in as far as she could judge. The waylaying business must have been going poorly, then.

One by one, the goblins disappeared, which left Ami with the travelling group only. Jered let out a long-held breath and let go of her. "Well, that was certainly interesting. Cathy, how's Snyder doing?"

The blonde looked up, face pale. "Not good. He's coughing up blood. I think a broken rib punctured his lung. At this rate, he's not going to make it."

"Damn. Accursed goblins. And he's our healer, too. Can you bandage him up?"

"I can help!" Ami shouted, stepping closer. While the young man had caused her much embarrassment so far, he didn't deserve to die. "Just get those chains off me!"

"Forget about that!" Boris roared, stomping towards her. "We have seen the witch is in cahoots with a Keeper! We should string her up right now!"

Ami backed away from the angry barbarian. They still think I'm a witch? But... did Jered simply bluff and I made a huge mistake? She'd fret over that later. She turned to Cathy, asking imploringly. "Please, let me help! He doesn't have to die just because you don't trust me! I won't do anything!" She briefly considered disappearing the chains to the dungeons - they were on her, so they were hers - but didn't trust her control enough to do so without flaying her skin from her arms too. Boris was still advancing on her, and Jered was kneading his chin, considering his options.

 

Originally on 2009-10-03T20:09:00

Ami backed away as the huge form of Boris advanced on her. The man's face was a mask of fury, bare teeth gleaming within a thicket of black beard hairs. The barbarian still had a few goblin arrows sticking out of his breastplate and arms, but they looked more like needles compared to his bulk. While the wounds were bleeding, they didn't seem to slow him down in any useful way.

"Boris! Cut it out!" Jered shouted, trying to get at least a semblance of control back over the situation. In response, the giant tightened his grip on the haft of his axe and drew the massive weapon back for a swing at the blue-haired girl in front of him.

Long experience dodging youma attacks prevented Ami from freezing up in fear. Instead, she dodged by reflex. Boris, even in his berserk rage, felt a pang of surprise when the girl, only half his size, got out of the way by jumping over his head and landing behind him. The physical abilities of her senshi form didn't just go away because she was dressed unconventionally for the job.

"Told you she's a monster!" the towering man roared, spinning in place to face the girl, who was rapidly putting distance between herself and her attacker. Just as he lunged after her, he felt Jered tackle his legs from behind. He fell like a tree, striking the ground with an earth-shaking impact. The more limber brown haired man quickly climbed on his back and sat down on his back.

"I ordered you to stop you barbarian oaf! Do you want a bounty on your head if something happens to the girl?" Crap. This can't have been good for his injuries. I can't afford to lose two mercenaries. Why doesn't the idiot just listen? Boris reared up under him, making the smaller man nearly lose his hold on him. The bear-like man was foaming at the mouth and letting out unarticulated howls of rage, all the while clawing at the pest on his back that was holding him down.

"He's lost it completely!" Jered considered his options. Normally, if he wanted to take down a target in this position, he'd just use his daggers. Unfortunately, he didn't want to kill his subordinate. Biting his teeth together, he slipped both arms around the berserker's neck and put pressure on his throat. Damn giant has a neck thick as a steer. Damn, I hope the kid appreciates what I'm doing for her! Without his hands free to defend himself, he was taking his shares of bruises. Jered made a pained 'oof' sound when Boris managed to roll on him, but didn't loosen his grip.

Ami watched in horrified fascination as the two men struggled among the fallen leaves, and Boris' face went more and more blue. She gave their battle a wide berth as she stepped around the two fighters, moving closer to the blonde swordswoman, who was trying to tend to Snyder's injuries. She had rolled the short red-headed acolyte on his back, making him sit up leaning against a tree, and was in the process of stripping off his robe to get a better idea of what, if anything, she could do to help him. A weak trickle of dark red blood was dribbling down from the not-yet-a-priest's chin.

"Please let me use a healing spell on him," Ami pleaded. "I can't possibly make things worse!"

Cathy looked at her, undecided. "Jered?"

"Don't. For all we know, the Keeper will whisk her away the moment that amulet is removed, and where would that leave us?" the man managed to gasp out, still struggling with the much larger Boris.

Ami was beginning to get angry. "You would just leave your companion to die because you are worried about not getting your reward for turning me in? You make me sick!"

"Oh, put a lid on it! We have no reason to believe tha- CRAP!" the distraction had allowed Boris to get a good grip on the back of Jered's green shirt, and with a mighty heave, the brute lifted the weasel-featured man forward, over his head, and slammed him into the forest floor. Wheezing, the giant swayed as he pulled himself to his feet, picking up his axe in the process. Eyes wild, he looked around for his quarry, found it, and thundered toward Ami.

The senshi wisely made a run for it. Getting to far away from the others wasn't an option, but maybe if she took higher ground? Ami looked at the trees rushing past, annoyed at the undergrowth tearing at the white robes she was wearing. Ah, there was a particularly thick tree trunk that forked not too high up. Ami aimed for the uneven platform formed by the two crooked branches and jumped, seeing the leaf and brushwood-covered ground shrink away under her. With any luck, she'd be able to land safely even with her arms tied behind her back. She landed with a jolt, striking a knot in a branch hard enough to drive the breath from her lungs, but at least that prevented her from falling off the other side. Below, she could hear a bellow of rage as Boris discovered that she was now effectively out of his reach. Back near the former battlefield, she could make out Jered getting back to his feet and rubbing his side, cursing loudly about too hard roots.

Ami squatted down, pressing herself against one of the branches to make room, grabbed an imp from her dungeon, and plopped it down in front of her. The creature let out a surprised squeal and wobbled, flapping its little arms rapidly to avoid losing its balance and tumbling off its perch. The new arrival prompted Boris to let out an enraged scream, and Ami felt a shudder go through the wood of the tree, accompanied by a thwacking noise. Below, the barbarian was chopping at the tree with renewed fervour, using his battle axe like a lumberjack's tool. Alerted by the racket, Jered turned his head to see what had the black-maned man set off even more. His amusement at finding Ami seeking shelter in a tree like a scared cat turned into an alarmed frown as he spotted the imp about to bring its pick down on the lock of her chains. Plink!

"Stop that right now!" he demanded, grabbing one of his many throwing daggers from his bandoleer while running toward her location.

Ami wasn't about to oblige, and ducked her head lower. She could almost see the lock before her, badly damaged, hanging between her hands and against the tree bark. She needed a moment to realise that she did see it, from the perspective of the imp. Weird. Then, the lock shattered under a repeat strike of the magical digging implement, and Ami felt the chains around her wrists loosen. With the imp's assistance, she quickly unwrapped them, then stretched her arms. They prickled as blood shot back into them, but she ignored the sensation and lifted her hand to her collarbone, and grabbed the warding amulet located there. It stuck to her as if it was a magnet and she was made of iron, but came off with a determined yank. As she had been under a lot of stress lately and was feeling vindictive, she bounced the golden trinket off of Boris's forehead. "Shabon Spray!"

Unnatural greyish-white mist blanketed the area, reducing visibility to about arm's reach. Jered tripped over a root, and bit down a curse. "Mercury! Cease this nonsense and come out! Otherwise, we'll be forced to treat you as hostile!"

"While Boris is like that? Not a chance!" it was hard to estimate the voice's direction, but he was sure that it had come from ahead, ground level. So she was moving already. He cautiously started stepping in that direction. Damn. He didn't want to deal with a completely unrestrained black sorceress with Keeper support when he was down one team member, and the other in a questionable state of sanity. Speaking of which... "Boris! Calm down! We need to work together!" they needed to capture or subdue the girl as soon as possible, before she decided to hunt them instead. This fog spell of hers was a real pain. "Boris?"

"I'm here. You'll help me catch the witch now, will you?" the large man growled, an undertone of mistrust swinging in his voice.

"Obviously," Jered drawled to the large silhouette in the fog. "Capture, not kill, if possible. We need to- over there!"

The two adventurers heard footsteps moving away from them, and gave chase. They were fortunate that the girl didn't seem the aggressive type, Jered figured. "Surrender, or we'll have to subdue you!" he shouted into the mist. He'd rather not have to fight her if he didn't have to. For such a meek-acting kid, she sure packed some nasty surprises.

Ami pressed herself against a tree and stayed motionless and quiet, watching as her pursuers passed not five metres away from her. Her heartbeat sounded so loud that she was sure it would give her away. The two figures, one heavy-built and looming, the other lean and wiry, moved on without even a glance in her direction. Carefully, Ami backtracked her steps, looking at the ground to not accidentally step on a twig.

Cathy shuddered. The late spring air had become rather chilly when this fog had appeared. She covered Snyder's pale body with his robe to keep him warm, as there wasn't much else she could do for him. She was pretty sure that his internal bleeding would be fatal if something wasn't done soon. His shallow breathing had become rather ragged. The blonde suddenly looked up when she heard the rustling of dry leaves as soft footsteps approached. Rising from her squat position she turned to face the dark silhouette peeling itself out of the all-concealing murk. "Who's there?" she asked, sword drawn. Suddenly, the fog seemed to become strangely transparent, and she could see the young sorceress. Her blue eyes widened in alarm when she noticed that Mercury's eyes were back to blue. A glance down confirmed that the ward was gone, and so were the restraints.

"What did you do to Jered and Boris?" the swordswoman demanded, moving protectively between Ami the prone form of Snyder.

"I sent them on a wild-goose chase. They will be fine," Ami assured her, holding up her hands to show that she was unarmed.

Elsewhere, the able-bodied men of the group were rushing through the forest, which felt like a nightmarish maze full of dark, towering silhouettes and treacherous roots by the fog. "Where to now?" "Listen! She's over there, quickly!"

The imp moved with a hopping gait, making sure to stomp down hard and make a lot of noise when landing. It looked back over its shoulder and giggled quietly at its two pursuers. The little minion was deriving an inordinate amount of merriment from this assignment, and gleefully led the two men chasing it through every thornbush and mud hole it could find. It stopped for a moment, rubbing its three-fingered hands in malicious anticipation. Ahead, it had spotted a wasp hive hanging from a tree.

"Look, if I really wanted to harm you or him, I could just throw spells at you out of the fog," Ami explained, turning away from the suspicious blonde and illustrating by turning an innocent sapling into an icicle with a well-aimed Shabon Spray Freezing. "Please let me heal him. I don't want to do any harm. I could have just run away, but instead I'm here to help."

Swayed either by the pleading expression in Ami's blue eyes or by her arguments, Cathy finally lowered her sword and sighed "Fine, I believe you. Just don't make me regret it."

Ami immediately knelt down at Snyder's side, putting both palms on his slowly rising and lowering chest, and concentrated on the spell. Cathy watched the proceedings warily, especially as the blue-haired girl's eyes flared red once more, brighter than she had seen before. Her sword's point was resting on the ground. but she hadn't sheathed the weapon yet, just in case.

Ami, for her part, found the healing procedure to be more difficult than when she had used it on herself. She had to track down the injured flesh, move it, and knit it back together with an exertion of will, while for herself, the injuries to her ribs had mended upon the slightest coaxing. Still, she felt a sense of elation as she sewed tissues back together and repaired broken bones. This, she realised, had been her goal in life: study enough to become a doctor and help people. She hoped that she would be able to keep this ability when she returned home. Maybe even teach it, she allowed herself to dream. She focused on finishing up, evacuating the blood from Snyder's lungs so he didn't drown in it. Cathy frowned when the acolyte vomited up a mouthful of black, clumpy blood. The knuckles on her hand holding the sword whitened.

Ami hurried to calm her. "All done. He should be fine now, if still weak. I couldn't replace the blood he lost."

It was true, the blonde thought. His breathing was more regular, and some colour had returned to his cheeks. Still, necromancy... well, what counted were the results.

 

Originally on 2009-10-06T14:26:00

About an hour after Ami's fog had dissipated, Boris and Jered returned to the road, covered in bee stings and shallow scratches all over. In addition, it looked as if an entire thistle had gotten stuck in Boris' wild black mane. The mud-soaked trousers of both men made sad sloshing noises as the hapless adventurers shuffled forward with tired steps. Ami giggled at the sight, bringing her left hand up to her mouth. Snyder joined in with a snicker. The red-haired acolyte had woken up a while ago, but was still weak from the blood loss, so he was resting on the ground, with his back leaning against a tree. Cathy's features remained impassive, but her blue eyes gleamed with mirth. The swordswoman was tired herself, and her long blonde tresses clung against her sweaty cheeks and forehead. Re-capturing the two horses that had run scared during the altercation with the goblins had been hard work.

The two men had opposite reactions to spotting their elusive ex-captive waiting with the rest of the team as if nothing was wrong. Jered stopped where he was, one hand going to the dagger-filled bandoleer on his chest. He hesitated in mid motion and let the limb drop back to his side when he spotted Snyder. Ami noticed that the wavy-haired man's brown eyes betrayed some relief at seeing the acolyte awake and healthier. That went some way to soothe the anger she was feeling at his actions. Oh, she could understand why he had chosen to do what he did, but that didn't mean she liked it. Boris, however...

The bear-like man seemed re-invigorated by the sight of her, if the way he was bearing down on her, axe held high over his head, was any indication. Ami would have none of it.

"Shabon Spray Freezing!"

The barbarian's warbling war cry was suddenly cut off and replaced by a gasp of surprise. A coruscant blue blast of water magic struck the ground in front of the charging warrior, and a wave of Arctic cold spread out from the impact point, covering the sparse grass and fallen leaves with a blanket of slippery ice. Boris' right foot stomped down on the slick surface and failed to find purchase. The giant of a man landed with a crash that caused a spider web of cracks to spread through the ice. Carried by his own momentum, Boris continued skidding forward until he reached the edge of the frozen patch and rolled to a graceless stop. Ami used the opportunity to encase his axe in an ice block, effectively freezing it to the ground, and glowered down at the man. Cathy and Snyder both looked troubled by her use of offensive magic, but mollified by the fact that she had acted in self-defence and gone out of her way to avoid harming their travelling companion.

Jered was ready to tear his hair in annoyance. How was he ever going to restore some measure of order like this? "Everyone, stop fighting!", he shouted, advancing toward the two combatants. Fortunately, the witch looked willing to comply - she really didn't behave like he would have expected from a dark sorceress. Still, she was getting support from a Keeper, of all things. If she was supposed to be some kind of infiltrator, then this direct interference had already defeated the point, unless this whole situation had been staged to throw off suspicion. It was a plan he himself might have come up with. Sometimes, Jered wished he was a more trusting kind of person who could take things at face value. Life had to be less headache-inducing when one didn't see schemes everywhere. Shorter though.

Well, even if the girl was an infiltrator, her role would demand that she didn't cause any trouble right now. Honestly, he was surprised she hadn't run off in the confusion. This left Boris as the most immediate problem. The big oaf had grabbed the handle of his huge double-bladed axe, that being the only part of it not stuck within the ice, and was pulling with all his might. Despite his face was going red from the exertion, the weapon wasn't budging. Good, this lowered the urgency of that problem. Jered spared some attention for his allies. Cathy was backing away from him, frowning and pinching her nose shut. He couldn't fault her, that last mud hole had been vile. Snyder was looking at him with a half-lidded stare that he couldn't quite place. Was that resentment? Things were really getting better and better. "All right, everyone calm down and..."

It had taken over half an hour of intense debate, but finally the group had come to a compromise that everyone could live with, even if they weren't necessarily happy about it. Ami had returned to wearing the warding amulet. It was a symbolic gesture, as she had adamantly refused to be chained up again, and could remove it with some effort if she really wanted to. In turn, Boris had grudgingly assented to let the proper authorities decide her fate, grumbling all the while about this huge concession. Naturally, it didn't end there. Letting Ami ride behind him was completely out of the question, and likewise, Ami herself wouldn't feel safe if the violent oaf was out of her line of sight.

Thus, the two of them ended up riding on opposite sides of the road, with Ami sitting behind Cathy on her horse. Snyder would have still been too weak to prevent the blue-haired girl from falling off the mount if she had been riding with him. In fact, he had some trouble staying in the saddle by himself, which was why he was riding sandwiched between Cathy and Jered. This left Boris all alone on his side of the road, as he objected to be anywhere near the 'accursed Keeper-loving witch'. This arrangement suited the other party members just fine, as the shaggy man, unlike Jered, had not taken Ami up on her offer to provide the necessary water for a bath. The brown-haired man sneezed just then. Okay, maybe the bath water had been a just a tiny bit on the cold side, Ami reflected unrepentantly. Still, that had to be better than smelling like an entire pigsty.

The lost senshi wondered, not for the first time, if sticking with this group was really her best option. She reminded herself that, while she might have had more liberty exploring on her own, she would also proceed more slowly, as she didn't know how to ride. Besides, disappearing now would prove Boris right about not trusting her. Not to mention the fact that the adventurers were travelling in a direction that Ami would have chosen on her own. With heroes from all over the land gathering in the capital, the place was her best bet for finding someone who could help her get home. However, there was also the issue of her trial looming like a dark gallows-shaped shadow in the not-so-far future. She hoped that she could convince the judges that she was no threat, and that her travelling companions would vouch for her character. Except for the brute, of course. There was little chance of getting him to do anything that aided her. He hadn't even let her heal his wounds, despite the fact that Snyder was in no shape to do it instead. The black-bearded barbarian had decided that it was better to just tough it out than to accept her help.

In addition, Ami liked having humans for company, despite some of them being a bit annoying, even if she didn't count Boris. Snyder, for example, was exceedingly grateful for her saving his life. Unfortunately, this manifested in him trying to do something nice for her by getting her to renounce her 'evil ways' and embrace 'The Light', which seemed to be one of the central tenants of his religion. She had politely informed him that she wasn't worshipping any dark powers, but alas, that hadn't put a stop to his conversion attempts. Technically, Ami was Shinto, but didn't practise it much. Not that the acolyte had ever heard of it, and she doubted that even if he had, he would have given up.

For that reason, Ami was somewhat relieved when Jered decided to strike up a conversation with her. She should have known better.

"Don't you think you owe us something of an explanation?" the wavy-haired man asked, leaning back to talk past the hunched-over Snyder. "For starters, what exactly are you? You look human, except for your hair colour, but you have shown some abilities that are clearly not."

He must be talking about her senshi powers, Ami realised. She could answer that easily enough. "That's just some magical augmentation to my normal physical abilities. I'm completely human.""Oh, and where did you get these augmentations? That Keeper who is aiding you, maybe?" Jered continued on this line of inquiry, his facial expression unreadable.

"What's up with that Keeper, anyway?" Cathy interrupted unexpectedly.

These questions were a bit harder to answer. Somehow, Ami didn't think that "I got my powers from a talking cat." sounded believable, even if it was the unvarnished truth. Instead, she partly evaded "I was given these powers to hunt monsters and already had them before I got here. There was no Keeper business involved."

"Well, that doesn't explain why one is helping you," the blonde insisted, "and none of the explanations that I'm coming up with are very reassuring. So spill it. What's this Keeper's name?"

"Um..." this was bad. She had been acting on the wrong premise earlier, believing that the group already knew that she was a Keeper, and she didn't have a prepared explanation for this. She was sure that revealing herself was not a bright idea, though. None of the other party members ever mentioned the word 'Keeper' with anything but venom and loathing in their voice. Hanging her head and avoiding looking into anyone's eyes, she replied "I can't answer that question, but I can assure you that that Keeper means no harm to anyone in this land, except maybe Keeper Arachne, and only wants to see me safe."

"That's it? You can't tell us? Why not?" Cathy erupted. Ami could feel the woman's muscles tensing in anger.

Sighing, the blue-haired girl said. "It would be bad. Please believe me. I really can't go into more details, but you have nothing to fear from me or the Keeper. All I want is to find a way home."

Tense silence followed her statement, and Ami couldn't help but feel that she had lost some of the trust she had built. Only Boris chuckled into his beard. "The trial will be interesting, don't you think?"

This sombre mood set the tone for the remainder of the journey. The party spent a night camping out, rather than stopping at the overcrowded inn, as Ami's red-glowing eyes would have led to more trouble than the added comfort would have been worth. The white-robed senshi was excluded from the guard rotation, for obvious reasons. Despite this, she placed one of her imps somewhere well outside of the campfire's light radius in order to keep an eye on things. She didn't trust Boris to not have another go at her while she was asleep. Jered and Cathy were sharing one sleeping bag, which caused the blue-haired girl to blush, but at least she could use the spare.

The group continued its journey as soon as dawn broke. As the landscape slowly changed from wilderness to farmland, the party met more and more travellers along the way, all moving away from the capital. Ami saw carts and wagons loaded with household items and furniture, accompanied by many women and children. They reminded her of pictures of fugitives she had seen on TV. A few short conversations confirmed that guess. Apparently, Keeper Arachne was gathering her forces underneath the city, trying to pre-empt the Baron's strike against her, and the people were fleeing the impending confrontation. In their anger and fear, many of them sent hostile glares at Ami, whose glowing eyes were making her stand out. It got so bad that Jered ordered her to take the warding amulet off so that the group wouldn't have to deal with a lynch mob.

Finally, close to sundown, Ami got her first glimpse of the capital of Blisshire. It looked much like the medieval cities of her textbooks, Sprawled out between a hill on its west side and a river on its east. A high stone wall surrounded the entire settlement, and the highest point of the area was dominated by the looming crenelations of a keep. "That's the capital?" Ami asked, a hint of disbelief swinging in her voice. It looked so tiny, compared to Tokyo. "You don't get cities that big in the Underworld, do you, witch?" Boris crowed.

Ignoring the two, Snyder had halted his horse. His brown eyes had widened, and were scanning the slope of the city's hill, darting left and right. Slack-jawed, he stammered out "Where is the Abbey?"

"Hrm?" Boris asked intelligently.

"The Abbey. It should be right there on the hill. Big, square building with a central clock tower and a wall around it. But it is gone! I need to know what happened!" the young acolyte explained, spurring on his horse. The others hurried to match his pace.

The moon was rising when the group arrived at one of the city gates. Ami spotted two guards with helbards, much more impressive in their gleaming plate with violet vest than the milita that had arrested her. These men here had the look of professional soldiers, and took their job seriously.

"Hold! Who goes there?" one of them shouted, suspicion tingeing his voice.

"Adventurers looking to join the fight against Keeper Arachne," Jered answered, directing his horse to the point of the group. "We also need to see the Baron about delivering a prisoner," he raised his thumb at Ami, who tried to hide herself behind Cathy. The ward was back on, and her eyes were glowing nearly as intensely as the torches. They clashed rather spectacularly with her acolyte robes. The guards gave her a calculating look.

"It's good to get some reinforcements. You'll find the Baron at the Fish Market. Stay away from the Keep. In fact, don't go anywhere into the good parts of town if you want to avoid a pointless and agonizing death." the guard waved them through.

Snyder stopped halfway through the arching gate. "Excuse me, but could you tell me what happened to the Abbey?"

"Keeper Arachne," here the guard spat on the ground, "is what happened. Bastard hollowed out the underground below. One moment, the building was there, and the next there was only a big hole with dust rising from it." His face turned sorrowful as he added "We lost many volunteers who had been lodged there. Most of the priests too, I'm afraid."

The young man with a bowl cut wobbled in the saddle, as if he had been hit. "I see, I see," he nodded weakly. "Thank you for the information."

Ami searched for something comforting to say, but couldn't think of anything that wouldn't sound trite. Cathy and Jered were busy discussing the situation in hushed voices. "...already lost the Abbey..." "...still think this is a good plan..."

This left her some time to admire the buildings passing by. The architecture seemed familiar, reminding her of German whitewashed frame houses. Most of the dwellings only had a ground and an upper floor. If there was an underlying plan for the city's growth, the builders had happily ignored it. Streets met at odd angles and varied unpredictably in width. Between the houses were narrow little alleys that looked like black alcoves in the fading twilight. The torch that Cathy was carrying did little to improve visibility. What shocked Ami most was the smell. Compared to a modern city, the place was filthy. It had the aroma of a dunghill at best, often spiced up with a sickening smell of decay of indeterminate origin. From time to time, the stink of old fish drifted down the street, indicating that they were moving in the right direction.

Suddenly, there was a bend in the road, and the rows of houses parted to form a wide plaza near the river. At the moment, it was drenched in orange torchlight and resembled a stirred up anthill. Soldiers were running everywhere, carrying wood and ropes, while others were de-constructing stalls or standing around in groups and talking. Nobody took much notice of the new arrivals at first, until someone spotted Ami's eyes, at which point swords were drawn.

"What's this? You! Get off the horses! Who are you, and why are you here?"

Jered and the others complied without hesitation. "Prisoner transport for Baron Leopold. I have a letter from the Mayor of Goodvillage here, and- "

"All right, take it up with him. Up there on the podium, you can't miss him."

The crowd parted, opening a passage to the centre of the plaza. Ami huddled against Cathy, feeling uncomfortable with all the hostile stares in her direction. Then, she got her first glance at the Baron. He was striding around on an elevated wooden platform in the centre of the market, pointing this way and that way. A large purple plume on his helmet whipped up and down in unison with his truly enormous grey moustache. The crowds seemed to avoid the area around the red-faced man, and as she walked closer, she got an indication why.

"...idiots! Move that plank over there, we need more palisades! Where's the away team? I want those goddamn spiders gone yesterday! And someone find the bloody wizards and ask them if they still don't know where this thrice-cursed Keeper's dungeon heart is." As the baron talked, he turned around his own axis, his extended index finger moving like the pointer of a clock as it fixated on whoever the noble was talking to at the moment. Soon enough, the digit came to rest on the approaching group. "You there! The acolytes over to the docks with the wounded, the fighters to Lieutenant Marcus over there!" He moved on, not even pausing to see if his orders were obeyed.

"Ahem. I'm afraid that won't be possible." Jered held up his hands as he interrupted the flow of commands.

The Baron's head whipped back, huge eyebrows furrowing as his steel-grey eyes focused on the green-shirted man. "Explain!"

"Well, the girl here," Jered grabbed Ami's right shoulder and pulled her forward so that the baron could get a better look at her, "is, despite her outfit, a prisoner whom we were tasked to bring here for judgement." He held out the letter from the mayor, which the baron snatched out of his hand, ripped open, and skimmed over.

"Dark witch, huh?" Leopold muttered, "and you want me to figure out what to do with her. I don't have time for this!" he crumbled up the letter and tossed it over his shoulder, barely missing the large pauldrons that held up his cape. "Did she commit any crimes?"

Ami shook her head, while Boris gleefully barked "The witch is working with a Keeper, who even sent some imps to assist her!"

An angry mutter went through the crowd at the loud proclamation, and the empty space around the party suddenly felt much smaller.

"Keeper, huh? Spying for Arachne?" Leopold asked, upper lip quivering with fury.

"No! I haven't done anything wrong!" Ami defended herself hurriedly. The baron looked less than convinced.

Cathy sighed, and sent a glare at Boris. "Actually, we think she's some Keeper's runaway kid," the blonde explained, figuring that this was less damning than any other possible association with a Keeper.

Ami's eyes widened in surprise. So that was what they thought about her! Unfortunately, she didn't have time to fully explore the implications of that, as the baron was addressing her directly.

"Keeper's kid, huh? Whatever. Can you do anything useful, girl?"

Ami nodded, then elaborated "I know some ice and healing spells."

"And are you willing to fight against Arachne?"

"Yes!" she replied simply. Ami was a sailor senshi, and defending people from evil was her duty. She would have done so even if she hadn't been asked.

Leopold seemed satisfied. "Good enough. Put her on some front line team. Case closed."

Boris gaped, along with some of the advisers. "But, your Lordship! You can't just-"

"Stop wasting my time!" the irascible noble turned away, cape swishing. "What are you still waiting for? Back to work!"

 

Originally on 2009-10-08T01:32:00

Ami found herself guided toward a large fire at the edge of the plaza. A rag-tag bunch of armed figures was sitting around it, sharpening weapons, strapping on armour, and generally getting ready for battle. Even the blue-haired girl, who was no expert on military discipline, could see that this group failed to exude an air of confident professionalism. Apparently "front line team" did not exactly imply quality troops. Still, things could have turned out much worse. Sure, she had been drafted to fight evil, but that was something she would have volunteered for anyway. More worrisome were the dark glances that she was still drawing from the crowd. She put a hand on the amulet around her neck, feeling its warmth beneath her fingers. She was no longer a prisoner, so she figured that she didn't need to wear it any more, and plucked it off.

She wondered briefly if her eyes only glowed red when she was wearing the thing, or if it merely being on her person was enough. If Snyder was around, she would have handed it back to him, but the acolyte and her other travelling companions had been sent in a different direction to sign up and get the administrative details out of the way. So she just held onto the golden talisman by its long chain, which seemed to do the job. At least, new people she was encountering were no longer automatically glaring at her. Upon arriving at the gathering point, she spotted a clean-looking free spot in the circle of clamorous warriors and set down. A tanned man who was adjusting the string of his longbow looked up, took in the white robe, and raised an eyebrow. "Didn't think we'd rate an acolyte, what with all the priests gone."

Before Ami could correct his mistake, a gong sounded, and a large man stepped into the circle, plated boots resounding on the cobblestones. The knight stopped in front of the fire, not even bothering to take off his horned helmet. Ami hadn't seen any of the other knights wearing a deep blue shawl. Maybe a rank insignia?

"Attention!", the newcomer began to speak with a full baritone, "I'm Sir Leon, and I'm here to brief you on the mission, so listen up! Your life may well depend on it!" He raised his mailed gloves, making shushing gestures, and waited for the muttering to die down before continuing "As you all should know, Arachne has infiltrated the cities through the sewers. We have been able to identify some of the tunnels her minions used to climb in, and which should lead straight down to her dungeon. It will be your job to enter the sewers- " here, a chorus of good-natured grumbling about the smell threatened to drown out his voice, "- as I was saying, you will be entering through Arachne's access tunnels and prepare the way for the main assault force."

The man looked into the round, trying to meet the eyes of everyone present. "The good news is that you won't have to worry about rats. The bad news is that Arachne's spiders ate them. Oh, don't worry, we finally managed to clear most of them out, but watch the narrow side pipes anyway. On a more cheerful note, the Keeper will be expecting you to enter through the abyss where the Abbey used to be, so who knows? You might be the firsts to her hoard, after all!"

The audience cheered at this latest proclamation, and Ami wondered whether they were really aware of what they were getting themselves into. Two pairs of footsteps behind her alerted her to the arrival of Cathy and Jered, who had shown up just in time to listen to Sir Leon go into great detail about the minutia of the plan. Jered looked as if he had just bitten into a lemon, while the swordswoman at his side had her arms crossed over her breastplate, expression neutral as usual. Ami skidded aside to make room for them, offering the warding amulet to Jered, who made it disappear in a pocket as he sat down next to her. "Bad news?" the blue-haired girl whispered.

"The baron was so impressed with the job we did keeping an eye on you that he told us to continue," the blue-clad blonde explained.

Jered raised a finger to his mouth. "Shush. We'll talk later." With that, the three continued listening to the war planning.

---

"... and there's going to be traps. Lots of traps. Which I had rather hoped to avoid," the weasel-featured man finished his explanation.

"Now, now. From what I have seen, you know your way around those," Snyder winked, grinning. "You'll just have to be careful, and you'll have Mercury over there to patch you up."

"Yeah, laugh it up, Mr I-am-with-the-main-force," Cathy commented drily. "At least that makes it your job to prevent Boris from charging off to challenge the biggest, meanest monster in sight."

"Don't remind me," the redhead replied, massaging his temples.

"Excuse me?" Ami interrupted. "Traps? I could really use my equipment, then. Is here some place I could change?"

Cathy looked down at the girl tugging on her sleeve. "Change? Into what? Are you going to conjure up some clothing again, even after what happened last time?"

Ami's cheeks coloured. "I don't expect that to happen again. So how about it? I could really use something that I can move easier in than these robes."

"Well, we aren't supposed to leave the camp," the blonde stated, walking over to where the group's horses were tied up together with those of the other adventurers, and retrieved a large blanket from the saddle bag. "If you really want to change, I can hold it up around you."

The blue-haired girl considered this for a moment, looking at the large square of fabric in the woman's hands, and then at the mass of soldiers all around, most of whom weren't paying any attention to them. Blushing faintly, she nodded. What other choice did she have? Getting her visor back was worth the little - if potentially embarrassing - inconvenience.

It turned out that there was precious little room in the tube formed by the blanket, held up by Cathy's outstretched arms. Jered certainly seemed to enjoy ogling the contortions of Ami's silhouette, backlit by a torch in the background, as she struggled to remove her robe within the confined space. She didn't know what would happen if she re-applied her transformation when wearing something else in her senshi form, and she didn't care to experiment here where someone could potentially see her (though she made a mental note to look into it later). Besides, it would be inconsiderate to just risk destroying the borrowed robe. As soon as she had shed the white and red garment, Ami blurted out "Mercurypowermakeup!"

Cathy couldn't help but get a good view of the flash of blue light that enveloped the girl right in front of her for an instant. Momentarily blinded, she blinked to clear the sparks dancing in front of her eyes. Squinting, she eyed the skin-tight white leotard and the very, very short skirt. "If you intend on wearing that, why did you insist on a blanke- hey, are you all right?"

Ami was staggering, not because of any physical discomfort, but because an unexpected, loud wave of protest and outrage from her dungeon had caught her off-guard. Blue eyes going blank, she launched her mental presence outward to check up on the situation. What she found made her jaw drop, and a nervous giggle escaped her throat even as her left eyebrow twitched.

---

"KEEEPER! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE NOW!?" the Horned Reaper raged, cussing up a storm. The red demon was in the process of tearing up a sailor senshi outfit that had appeared on his body, expertly tailored to fit his proportions. Strips of fabric were flying all over the room as the monster ripped the offending garment into little pieces. A bent and broken tiara was lying at his feet.

Ami, having some idea of what had happened, if not of the why, turned her attention aside before she was exposed to the sight of more of the Reaper's anatomy than she ever cared to see. A little imp in a fuku ran past, seemingly unimpeded and not at all bothered by the change of clothing. A flare of orange light that made the blue murals on the dungeon walls glow violet prompted Ami to look back at the demon. She was just fast enough to see long, thin streamers of fire rise up from a circle around the Reaper's hooves and twist themselves into the shape of the equipment that had been replaced by the senshi transformation. A moment later, the tongues of flame solidified into the metal and leather of his pauldrons, greaves, loincloth, and most importantly, scythe. So that's why he treats it as if he didn't care much about its condition, the confused Keeper reasoned, fixating on a little detail that made sense in this whole mess. She opted to transport the Reaper back to his throne room, the rubble in front of which still hadn't been moved. The murderous expression on the demon's face could only spell trouble.

"Me got shiny crown!"

"You looking silly!"

"You looking sillier!"

The goblins, as a whole, seemed to take the effects of the transformation more or less in stride. Ami wasn't quite sure what she should make of the collection of midget-sized, long-eared green senshi-lookalikes, but the way they were bickering, complete with blowing raspberries, reminded her painfully of Usagi and Rei, and she felt a pang of homesickness.

"Bwahaha! Maka look like a girl in that dress!" one of the goblins taunted, pointing a crooked finger at another, who promptly picked up a wooden stool and swung it by one of its three legs, clobbering the mocker into the ground.

"Maka IS girl, idiot!" the still fuku-clad goblin crossed her arms and huffed.

All right, crisis averted. She could focus back on her body and- Movement in one of the corridors attracted her gaze. She froze and stared, brain unwilling to process the sight, then stared some more. Even the BEETLES!?

---

"No, I don't know what's wrong with her. There was this flash of light, then she was wearing this costume and looking somewhat out of it, and suddenly she put her hands in front of her eyes and backed into me." Cathy was holding the whimpering girl in her arms, preventing her from falling over. The scene had drawn quite a bit of attention, partly because of the light show, but mostly from Ami's attire.

"Must be the embarrassment from being seen in an outfit like that," one of the female archers snickered.

"She does have the legs to pull it off," an unmistakably male voice jeered. "Wish she was in our group!" The comments degraded rapidly from there.

Ears burning, Ami opened her eyes and pulled herself to her feet, successfully focusing back on her present situation. She stood straight and did the best to ignore the jibes. It helped that she felt confident in her ability to take down any single man here while transformed, even without resorting to magic. "I'm fine now. Just some unexpected backlash," she quickly reassured all those who cared.

Amused, Jered asked "Ending up looking like this was your intention, then?" Nice tiara and earrings, those. Too bad they were only conjured. Well, maybe if one found the right buyer...

Ami just sighed. "Where I come from, most girls my age wear something similar to this," she explained, referring to school uniforms.

The brown-haired man found this rather hard to believe, but the sorceress' body language did indeed indicate that she wasn't considering her outfit immodest. "That place I'd like to see," he drawled after a moment of quiet contemplation, earning himself an elbow jab in the ribs from Cathy. "Ow!" he took a step aside from his blonde companion. "Do you think displaying your initiation ranks so openly is wise, though? Especially using the Underworld symbols."

Ami's eyes went round, and she blinked as she looked down at the indicated spot on her sailor collar, pulling the fabric upward with her right hand to get a better look at the black mark. Where did that come from? That hadn't been there before!

"Looks a bit skull-like. Necromany, right?" Snyder barged into the conversation. "What does this other bent squiggle mean?" the acolyte was bringing his face very close to the fabric, nearly bumping into Ami's nose with his forehead.

The blue-haired teenager bent away, covering the symbol with her gloved hand, and took a step back. "I don't know! Those weren't there last time I did this!" Does just reading a book count as initiation?

---

After a while, even the interest in Ami's strange attire had waned, not that this had stopped the stares completely - most of the soldiers and heroes were male, after all. The begin of the mission did its part to distract everyone involved from the comparatively scantily dressed girl. As if that wasn't enough, the stench emanating from the sewer opening once its rectangular wooden cover had been removed was enough to kill anyone's libido.

Ami's visor was covering her eyes, providing her with information about the narrow tunnels ahead, and giving her the best night-vision out of the team. The foul-smelling sludge covering the ground sucked at her boots with every step, and she was glad she hadn't come here wearing Snyder's sandals. Yuck! Her group consisted of ten people, including herself, Cathy, and Jered, and everyone was hoping that the sewage levels wouldn't rise any further. Especially the dwarf. In the circle of torchlight, thin pipes in the walls disgorged bursts of greenish-brown effluents within short intervals, as if blinking mockingly at the explorers.

"That way," a leather-clad man ordered. He had a shawl wrapped around his mouth and nose to protect himself from the smell, and had stopped in the middle of an intersection between their tunnel and a somewhat narrower one. The new corridor's only other distinguishing feature was that the wet-glistening cobwebs hanging from its ceiling were swinging slowly in a mild breeze.

"You sure?" a rough voice coughed out.

"The muck is flowing faster in that direction, the opening should be there," Ami confirmed independently, informing the others of the results of her scan.

"How can you even see that, girl? Not even a cat could see-"

"WATCH OUT!" arrows flashed over Ami's screen, alerting her of something hand-sized dropping down from the ceiling onto the man at point. Her warning was a split-second too late, and a black, furry spider alighted on the adventurers shoulder, immediately lunging for his face. With a pained shriek, the hapless victim clawed at the thing, feeling inch-long fangs pierce his cheek. With a wet crunch, the grotesque attacker was crushed into a sticky pulp in the man's fist.

"Crap, damn spiders! HEALER!" Cathy's hair looked as if it would have been standing on end if it weren't for her bowl-shaped helmet. Ami was already running toward the victim, splashing through the muck. Her patient was spitting out blood and something lighter-looking. Ami touched the stubble-covered cheek with her fingers, calling on her magic. She closed her eyes to avoid perturbing the other group members even more with the red glow. Closing the injuries was actually quite simple, as they were small and smooth.

"You were lucky," Ami commented after a moment. "The fangs over-penetrated and injected their poison into your mouth, not your flesh."

"You wouldn't be callin' me lucky if you'd had to taste this crap," the man joked, slapping her on the back jovially and making her stumble. "Thanks, girl."

The group advanced more cautiously after this near-disaster, and soon found what it had been looking for. A jagged hole yawned in the side of the rounded wall, like a black wound. A steady flow of sewage was streaming into the opening and disappearing with an echoing gurgle into its depths. The brackish brown liquid formed an arching waterfall bereft of any beauty. The adventurers gathered around the gap, leaning in to peer into the downward-leading chute.

"Careful, don't slip!" "Damn, how deep does it go? Can't see in the torchlight!" "All right, get the ropes."

"There's a kind of broad balcony about four man's lengths down on this side," Ami informed the others after putting her scanning equipment to good use. "The shaft widens below that and goes still deeper, about twice that distance."

"Right. We should be able to reach that, no problem."

"Doesn't anyone else see a problem with that plan?" Jered spoke up. "Namely, we'd have to climb through that," he sneered, pointing at the spray of stinking muck cascading down. "I don't know about you, but I don't fancy a nice and thorough sewage shower."

"Oh, don't be such a sissy, prettyboy," one of the archers taunted.

"I could freeze up a dam," Ami suggested. The idea of being drenched in raw sewage made her shudder in disgust.

"Nah, save your magic for when it's needed, lass," the dwarf interjected, holding up his pick-axe. "We'll just have to make ourselves a fine alternate entrance!" Moments later, he was already at work, hewing an opening well above the 'water' level into the wall to the right of the original hole. With interest, Ami noted that his tool seemed to work in a similar way to the picks of her imps, maybe even a bit more effectively. Then again, the wielder was stronger and bigger. A crumbling noise informed the waiting party of the fact that the digger had reached his destination and connected his fresh tunnel with the pre-existing one.

"Wait, if you can do that, why don't we make our own tunnel instead of braving that chute with ropes?" Ami asked.

The dwarf gave her an odd look, as if he couldn't understand why anyone would ask such a stupid question. "Because I get tired, lass. Duh."

About ten minutes later, Ami joined the others on the jutting rock balcony below as the last party member to descend. The group had roped down with no difficulties and was now looking for a way further down. As soon as the senshi's feet touched the ground, she could feel an odd sensation. It was a sort of charge in the stone itself, as if she was approaching an invisible boundary. "I have a bad feeling about this. Let me have another look," she demanded.

Unexpectedly, a cold wind chilled her to the bone, and humming, as if from a great swarm of bees, echoed through the shaft. Even the light of the torches seemed to shy away from the dreadful noise. Suddenly, a cloud of darkness, composed of uncountable minuscule black bodies, surged out of the depths and reared up, expanding outward like a wave braking against the cliffs. Panicked gasps went through the crowd as the swirling blackness formed into a vaguely humanoid head and upper torso, its fanged, clawed and horned form more implied than outlined by the shifting darkness. Its eyes alone were well-defined, fiery red slits in the enormous head towering metres above the intruders.

"Shit! Shit! Shit! It's Arachne!"

"Look out!"

A laugh, formed by the synchronised rasping of thousands of limbs over chitinous carapaces, echoed through the chimney-like hall as lightning started to arc between the disconnected hand-shapes of the apparition. Before anyone could think of an appropriate defence, the enemy Keeper hurled a devastating bolt at the platform everyone was standing on, reducing it into so much rubble. Ami's eyes were widened with shock as she fell through the cloud of rubble and debris that also contained her comrades, into the waiting darkness below.

 

Originally on 2009-10-09T20:29:00

After a few seconds that felt like a breathless eternity, the weightlessness of free-fall ended with an abrupt impact. Ami felt her back strike not the expected jagged rock, but the cold, yielding putrescence of the sewage dribbling down from above and gathering in a basin here. Around her, she heard the frightened screams of her companions cut short as they plunged into the vile-smelling, viscous liquid with loud squelching sounds. She had no time to feel disgusted when the muck closed over her head; even with a senshi's toughness, the shock of the landing had left her dazed and disoriented. The sludge, while much softer than stone, was still harder than water. Suddenly, her feet met the hard bottom of the basin, and she had the presence of mind to kick herself off and upward, to the surface. The nausea-inducing pool of liquid waste was only about as deep as she was tall, but that was enough to drown in.

With a gasp, Sailor Mercury broke the surface, grateful that her visor had prevented the unhealthy muck from getting into her eyes. She tried to brush it clean with one hand so she could take a look around, but before she had finished the motion, something slimy whipped through the mud, leaving a thin trench of parted sewage in its wake. Ami felt something like a muscular steel cable wrap around her waist and lift her up into the air. Her ineffectual struggles against the tentacle's smothering grip sent glistening droplets flying off her mud-covered form. A sudden yank jerked her sidewards, toward the looming walls. She got a fleeting glance at motionless bodies floating in the bubbling sewage, and then felt a sharp pain in her head as it met the rock with a loud thud.

---

Ami awoke to the sensation of lying on a cold floor, in a place that smelled undistinguishable from a public privy, with her head resting on something warm and soft. She opened her eyes, only to find her vision swimming. Her headache re-doubled.

"She's waking up!" the voice sounded strained, if relieved.

"Careful, that's a nasty bump on your head," Cathy's voice cautioned from very nearby, indicating that it was her lap that Ami's head was resting on.

Braving the movement, Ami sat up, blinking rapidly to clear away the double vision. Feeling a bit woozy, she looked into the round, taking in the three bare, clammy walls and the opening where the fourth should be, blocked by arm-thick vertical steel bars. The blonde behind her followed the direction of her gaze, and explained bitterly "Yeah. Got captured by the Keeper. Damn it all."

"The others?" Ami asked, coming up short three after a quick count of the various sad figures with her in the room, all of which were in their underwear, bereft of arms and armour, and caked in half-dried sewage. Looking down at herself, she saw that she was just as filthy, but still fully dressed, having had no equipment to confiscate.

To her right, Jered shook his head sadly "Didn't make it through the fall."

Ami felt her blood go cold when the realisation sank in that some of her comrades had already died on this mission. Her secret identity as a sailor senshi had gotten her used to danger. Sure, the battles were often scary and painful, but nobody ever got hurt, at least not permanently. It made her feel as if someone had punched her in the stomach. "Oh."

"Are you well 'nough to heal up some of us, lass?" the dwarf asked, limping into her field of vision, and making her aware of the low-level whimpering that permeated the room. It seemed that nobody had survived the fall completely unscathed.

"Right. Of course!" anything to distract herself from her morose thoughts. "Who's the most hurt?"

---

Ami was kept busy as she patched up injuries and mended broken bones, though she didn't know how to deal with the various inevitable infections. Killing off the bacteria with an intense influx of necrotic energy could potentially do more harm than good. She hoped that would be a problem for later. It was strange that she, as a prisoner, had been allowed to keep her magic, she reflected. In fact, the room seemed to conduct and amplify her Necromancy. What purpose could that possibly serve? Maybe their captors just hadn't known about her abilities? While walking to her next groaning patient, she turned her thoughts to escape. Maybe call an imp to dig a way out? She picked one up from her dungeon and attempted to drop it into the shadows outside the cell, but found that something blocked it from re-manifesting in the real world. She grimaced. Could Keepers block each others powers in their own territory? Her grip tightened involuntarily around the arm of the battered soldier she was tending to when she repeated the experiment and found that she couldn't even send or receive a gold coin. She was stuck in here!

The patient winced, and she realised what she was doing and loosened her grip, apologising. "I'm sorry, that arm is dislocated. I'll have to set it, this will hurt for a moment."

Forewarned, the man still shrieked in pain, convulsing under her attentions.

"Starting without me? How impatient!" an unknown male voice from outside the cell interrupted. The prisoners turned to face the new arrival, backing away from the bars when he stepped into the circle of light in front of the cell door. If he had hoped to make a dramatic first impression, he certainly didn't manage to pull it off. Even the magnificent dark violet robe with yellow skull patterns couldn't hide the fact that he was a comically lanky man, if tall. With the flowing long sleeves, black goatee, and high Dracula-collar, he was certainly going for the evil wizard look, but was sabotaged by the fact that he reminded Ami of a geeky college student trying his hand at cosplay. "Well, what do we have here?" he asked rhetorically, walking up and down in front of the cell.

The warlock hummed to himself for a bit, unphazed by the insults and angry demands to be released from the more short-tempered prisoners. His oil-slick hair glittered in the torchlight as he continued "Hmm. Four scruffy-looking hooligans, two mildly attractive females, and a dwarf of indeterminate gender, all in dire need of a bath. Hold!" he held up his long-fingered right hand, palm facing in the dwarf's direction, displaying black-painted fingernails, "I'm not interested in that information!"

Having pre-empted the dwarf's outburst, he continued his monologue. "Ahem. In any case, I suppose the girls will have to stay intact until the victory party-"

"Screw you!" Cathy interrupted, throwing a clump of dried sewage at the warlock. Sadly, it disintegrated before reaching him.

"That is the general idea. As I was saying," he spread his arms grandiosely, "Behold your fate!"

A ball of white light formed above his head and floated to the apex of the domed ceiling, revealing the chamber behind him in all its grisly details. The racks were the least intimidating of the various torture instruments placed neatly throughout the room. Innumerable scalpels, knives, and rusted saws gleamed all along the walls. Ami stared in horror at a seat composed of nothing but spikes, braziers full of glowing coals, several sharp hooks hanging from the ceiling, and other, more exotic appliances whose undoubtedly unpleasant function she couldn't even begin to guess at. Pale as a sheet, the girl gulped and took a step back. "Wh-what? You can't mean to... Monster! Shabon Spray Freezing!"

The blast of bubbles shot forward from her outstretched arms, shooting toward the smug peacock. When it reached the bars, it suddenly turned aside and frosted over an innocent patch of the cell's ceiling.

"Uh-uh." the dark wizard wagged a finger chidingly. "Any spell from the inside stays inside. Nice try, though."

The other prisoners had similar reactions to Sailor Mercury's, minus the spellcasting, though some expressed their feelings with insults or frightened pleas, rather than just appalled stammering.

"Oh, be quiet. I haven't even gotten started yet. You should feel honoured that a great warlock such as myself is overseeing your torture personally. Lady Arachne," he added with a polite bow, "if you would?"

The light flickered, and the four surviving men and one dwarf disappeared from the cell one after the other, each one yanked upward brutally before fading from sight. They re-appeared high above the torture devices, slamming down on them violently. Chains and manacles writhed and moved on their own, snapping at the victims' extremities like snakes, then pulled taut. The four male adventurers found themselves strapped to tables with bonds tight enough to cut into their flesh and make their bones crack in protest, while the dwarf landed in a large black pot filled with water. A fire lit up under it almost immediately.

"No! Jered!" Cathy shouted in fright, running to the front of the cell and rattling the steel bars futilely. "You let him go, bastard!" Ami joined her a moment later, worry for her companions clearly visible on her dirt-covered face.

The warlock ignored her completely, admiring the different saw-toothed daggers on the wall instead. "Oh, right. This is going to be messy work. I could do with an assistant. Let's see..." he studied each of the immobilised bodies for a moment. "Nope. Can't say I particularly dislike any of you wretches any more than the others. Well then," he pointed his finger at the closest table, which happened to hold Jered, "Eeni meeni miini moh, my assistant is you!"

The digit came to rest on the tanned warrior who had been bitten by a spider earlier today, and the black wizard stepped up to him, put his hand on the soldier's forehead, and leaned on it with his entire weight. His eyes flashed a bright crimson as pale green light gathered around him and crept down his arm, sinking into the shuddering victims skull. Quickly, the gaudily dressed magic user took a few steps backward, taking cover behind an iron maiden. On the table, the man started convulsing even as his chains flopped loose. He sat up, his posture rigid. His bloodshot eyes started darting around in their sockets in helpless panic. A long, unending scream escaped from his wide-open mouth as his eyes focused in terror on his hands, which had started moving on their own. They rose to his face, fingers entering his mouth, grabbed the meaty flabs of his cheeks, and started pulling outward. With a sickening tearing noise, the flesh ripped loose, and blood gushed freely.

Ami, was at first too shocked to believe what her eyes were telling her. Aghast, she started vomiting at the sight, and turned away. A long minute later, the man's hoarse screams abated with a final gurgle, but that didn't stop the horrible tearing noises as the poor soldier's animated skeleton continued peeling off the layers of flesh, skin and sinew covering it, discarding them with great gusto. An unrecognisable chunk of bloody flesh flew through the bars and struck the wall next to Ami, causing the sobbing girl to sink to her knees and continue dry-heaving. This was beyond cruel! What kind of monster did this to other people? What would he do to her? She had to escape, to find a way out! No, pull yourself together, there must be a way!

"No! I'll tell you everything you want! I'll do anything! Please! Stay away from me!" one of the other surviving men gibbered, sprinkled in dark red blood not his own.

"Not interested, I have a better use for you," the warlock replied brusquely, stepping closer with a sharp-looking knife in his hand, "besides, this is a thoroughly recreational activity." Ignoring the pleading of his victim-to-be, he turned to the waiting, blood-soaked skeleton and pointed at Jered "Get started with that one. The hot irons are over there."

"No, leave Jered alone! Please!" Cathy shouted from the cell, desperate. Ami moved closer to her, feeling numb, and put a comforting arm around her. She tried to put the duet of screams, the hissing, slicing noises, and the sickening smell of burnt flesh out of her mind. Need a plan. Think! Think! She activated her visor, scanning the cell entrance for weak points. Frustratingly, there were none. The bars were arm-thick, flawless metal, buried deep within the rock of the ground and ceiling. If anything, the cell door was even sturdier. The reinforced frame showed no traces of rust, and the lock was heavy, its key hole positioned in such a way that there was no manoeuvre room to try any complicated lock-picking tricks. Not that she had any. No, if she wanted to get out that way, she needed the key.

From outside, the self-absorbed muttering of the warlock drifted over as both tortured men gasped for breath at the same time by random chance "...'foggy with a dash of hail and sulphur'? What kind of augury is that? Maybe I interpreted that wriggly bit here wrongly... yes... oh, what's this? Dead already?" disappointment tinged his voice as he straightened, moving away from the nest of sprawled-out entrails that had once been a man. A pale, luminous form rose from the smoke, rattling ethereal chains around its limbs. The ghost had the features of the dead body it was hovering over, twisted into a death mask of torment and all-consuming hatred. No sound escaped its bloodless lips as its arms extended toward the warlock's neck. "Oh, stop being so melodramatic. Off to the Keeper you go!" With a negligent wave of the sorcerer's hand, the apparition was flung all across the room, sinking through the smoothed rock of the walls as if they weren't there. Humming, the torturer approached the next stretched-out figure.

Ami bit back her bile. The key. If only she had the key! Her visor was showing her exactly what it looked like, but she couldn't locate it anywhere within the area. What could she do? The screams were doing nothing to help her think clearly, and she shuddered. She was feeling more detached from the situation than she should, she realised. I'm in shock, she self-diagnosed. Unhelpful. She still needed a way to get out of here and save whom she still could. But what could she do? Wait, she had a good three-dimensional representation of what the key should look like... Grasping at straws, Ami concentrated on using her freezing magic in a more controlled way. Whispering the invocation, she consciously breathed deeply and regularly, and focused only on assembling an exact copy of the images on her visor. It took her three tries, but then she was reasonably certain that the glittering ice resting on her shaking hands would work. Handling the slippery, fragile key with great care, she approached the door. A reluctant glance outside at the torture chamber revealed that the warlock was distracted, busy with a meat saw. Ami quickly looked away. So much red. She slipped the hand holding the replica key through the bars, fumbling around at an awkward angle before she managed to find the keyhole. With great care, she turned the piece of ice slowly, constantly worrying about it breaking. Click. The heavy cell door moved under Ami's experimental pull.

Sailor Mercury quietly swung the barrier out of the way and stormed out, Cathy hot on her heels. Despite being dressed only in her blue pants and a chest wrap, the unarmed woman's tear-stained face was set into a mask of determination.

"Shabon Spray Freezing!" foregoing the usual posturing, as a butcher like this man had lost all entitlement to what was basically a 'cease and desist' warning, Ami tried to catch him unaware.

"Oh, bother!" the sorcerer was quick enough on his feet to duck underneath the blast of blue, and the weapons on the wall behind him disappeared under a layer of ice. He wiggled three fingers in an odd gesture and became transparent on Ami's visor, then calmly walked to a new position and started moving his hands in arcane gestures. He seemed completely taken aback when Ami launched another stream of azure bubbles straight at him. Interrupted, he dodged out of the way and made a bee-line for the door, gathering up his robes as he ran. The heavy wooden gate opened up for him on its own accord. "Master! The prisoners are escaping!"

Ami took off after him when she lost her clean line of fire, but slipped on the ever-present blood splatters. This slowed her down just enough for the door to slam shut in her face. She punched the grainy wood in frustrated anger.

Cathy had only looked around for a split-second before deciding to leave the sorcerer to Mercury, rushing to Jered's aid instead. She grabbed one of the long-handled hammers off the wall and launched herself at the skeleton from behind. The animated construct of gory bones was a moment too slow in pulling its red-hot iron bar free from its tormented victim's flesh, and its parry came up short. The hammer head struck the skeleton's pelvis with a crunching noise, shattering the bone and sending the creature to the blood-drenched ground. The blonde fighter wasted no time in capitalising on her advantage and swung her weapon again and again until little more than a heap of bone fragments remained. "Mercury! Forget about that bastard! Quickly, get over here and help Jered!" Cathy was cradling the head of the brown-haired man in her arms. His body was a mass of charred burns, and he was groaning softly. "Oh, Jered," tears were flowing freely down her cheeks as she stroked his mud-encrusted hair.

Ami made her way through the abhorrent chamber, uncomfortably aware of the slaughter-house smell now that no immediate danger was occupying her thoughts. One of the men was little more than a hollowed out torso surrounded by entrails, completely beyond her help, another was unconscious and bleeding from long, shallow cuts. An absent-minded spell extinguished the fire under the pot that contained not-yet-dwarf-stew. What had happened here was terrible. This whole place was terrible. And these wounds. She didn't want to look, but had to. Trembling, she extended her hands, focusing on knitting the flesh back together as well as she could. It was complicated work, and she knew this was going to leave scars.

"Can anyone get me out of 'ere?" the dwarf complained. Cathy, being unable to assist while Ami tended to the wounded, proceeded to break open his chains with her hammer, as she had done for her friend before. Once the stocky, bearded individual was free of the hot water, she moved on to the free the third survivor.

"Th-thanks, Mercury" Jered groaned hoarsely, sitting up from the torture instrument and standing on wobbly legs. "G-good as new. We need to g-get out of here, though." He moved over to the wall in order to re-arm himself with the tools hanging there. The scalpels weren't his throwing knives, but better than nothing.

A wave of coldness passed through the room, and the light dimmed. "INCOMING!" Ami shouted, taking a ready stance.

With a strange wrenching noise, a quartet of giant spiders dropped out of thin air, each one landing in a separate corner of the room. Even the smallest of the ugly, hairy monsters was as big as a sheep at least, not even counting the long legs covered in sharp bristles.

Ami used the time that the monsters needed to sort out their many limbs and re-orient themselves to call out her trademark attack. "Shabon Spray!"

The oversized arachnids hesitated as the sudden fog robbed them of their vision, a fatal mistake. One of the yellow and black monstrosities suddenly found itself shock-frozen, then shattered by hammer blows from Cathy, who was venting her pain and anger at the situation on this easy target. A second spider charged blindly into the direction that it had last spotted the smallest of the targets. The dwarf, being one of Ami's allies, could see it coming despite the strangely transparent mist, and hopped out of the way. The beast let out a shrill warble as its lunge carried it onward, straight into the spike-studded interior of the iron maiden. The impact toppled the open torture device, and its lid fell shut, trapping the injured monster inside. Long legs protruding from the gap under the iron coffin's lid twitched a few times before going still. Meanwhile, the third attacker found that it couldn't move very well with thrown daggers sticking out of its joins, while the last one joined its companion in being frozen statuary.

Wisely, Keeper Arachne refrained from throwing any more minions into the impenetrable murk.

"We really need to get out of here," Jered repeated. His body was covered in scabs, grime, and freshly-healed burns. "We are hurt, have no armour, only salvaged weapons, and half the team is dead. We should try to avoid combat and reach one of the other teams."

Ami felt inclined to agree. She would have loved to get revenge against their captors, but her companions were in no shape to fight, and she didn't want to leave them to fend for themselves. Nodding, she scanned the surroundings, producing her computer out of thin air. "All right. We are in a dead end here, and the only exit is through that door. There is a large open area behind it, and I can't find any secret exits."

"Aye, didn't spot any myself," the dwarf agreed. He had picked up a hammer himself, and was approaching the exit. "Get over 'ere and help me with that door," he ordered.

After a few determined blows, the obstacle was reduced into its splintery component parts. Ami climbed over the sawdust-smelling debris. The cave behind the doorway was enormous, large enough that an entire cathedral could have fit inside. A soft blue-green glow illuminated the area, emanating from special threads spun into the white spider silk that covered any exposed surface with smooth, shining threads. The entire place reminded Ami of the interior of a giant cocoon, ethereally beautiful in its own way. Bulbous, elongated forms hung from ceiling on long threads, reminiscent of pears hanging from a tree. However, this was no fairy tale grotto, as Ami was quickly reminded of when she scanned the silk-wrapped bundles. It was a larder, and each of the hanging cocoons contained a human skeleton, some of which were small enough to belong to toddlers. Shaken, the blue-haired girl clenched her fists in anger. Was there anything that this Keeper wouldn't stoop to?

"Holy crap, that's an awful lot of spiders," Cathy commented after looking down the length of the cavern. Awful sets of eight faceted eyes stared back hungrily. "Watch out! They are even climbing along the walls!"

"We can take them," Ami declared, her blue eyes flickering red with rage as she stood her ground in the face of the onrushing chitinous wave, fury clouding her judgement.

Surprisingly, the spiders stopped as one. "Is that so?" the scratchy not-voice of Keeper Arachne asked, sounding quite amused. A humanoid shadow that hadn't been there a moment before was covering the ceiling, defying the rules of physics. Red pinpricks in its darkness pulsated cheerfully. "Then what about this?"

A giant, nebulous black finger stabbed down from the shadowy figure, into one of the spiders. Under the party's incredulous stares, the arachnid grew larger and larger, until it had reached the size of a town house. Eight eyes as big as Ami's head stared down at her, and the ground trembled when the oversized monster advanced on its trunk-like legs. A Shabon Spray Freezing struck the animal in the face, having about as much effect as a snowball hitting a human. Ami did what came naturally, and ran like a little girl. "Back! Everyone back into the chamber! Get away from the entrance!"

The party piled back into the horrible blood-drenched room and scattered, fighting against nausea as they breathed in the miasma. An enormous limb covered in razor sharp bristles stabbed through the opening and stoked around, overturning tables and equipment in the process. Shouting to be heard over the cacophony of bouncing furniture, Jered turned to Ami, who was pressing herself against the far wall. "Think your Keeper ally can do something to get us out of this?"

The limb retracted, scratching over the ground with its barbs as it did. A heavy impact shook the outer wall, making the torture tools lining it rattle. Rocks and dust rained from the ceiling.

"It's trying to break through the wall! DO SOMETHING!" the other surviving male adventurer shouted, looking ready to soil his pants - not that it would have been noticeable in his sewage-encrusted state.

Ami's eyes had glazed over, and her attention was elsewhere. Back in the dungeon, the pages of her travel magic spellbook rustled as an imp turned them for her with reckless haste. Something to move faster. Interesting, but inappropriate. A spell to increase a horse's stamina. Useless. Seven-Mile-Boots. She didn't even want to think about the mechanics involved. Ever-full sails. Useless. Useless, useless, useless. Wasn't there anything about teleportation? Skipping forward to the more advanced spells, she read as fast as she could, until she reached the end of the book. A spell that took half an hour to cast and would transport the caster to a point she had visited before. Useless under current circumstances. Most of the teleportation chapter seemed to be about retrieving, rather than sending things. She had the imp flip several pages back. Maybe this.

"I- I think I might be able to call some help," the blue-haired girl suggested after a while, awareness returning to her eyes.

"Only 'might'?" Jered asked, trying his best to keep his fear from affecting his voice.

"I have never actually tried this spell before," Ami admitted. "You had better move back a bit." Unknown to the others, she was questioning the wisdom of her decision. The ritual would be able to move a single, stationary creature to her location. Her imps and beetles were useless against the current foe, and the goblins wouldn't fare any better. The only underling she had who was potentially of any use was the one she loathed most and was wary about unleashing on the world. Her resolve to never release the demon had suffered a crushing blow from recent experiences, though. At least all the Reaper wanted was mindless slaughter, a slight but appreciable step up from Arachne and her underling. How weirdly perspectives could change. She noticed that she was procrastinating, and prepared to get started. Of course, the red demon had to make things difficult by pacing around in his throne room, snorting furiously and stomping his feet in a rage.

The scaly, horned monster turned its head, shoulder pauldrons rattling, when a circular diagram made of blue flame appeared on the red carpet going through the centre of his lair. An imp-drawn sign slammed down in front of the restless demon, short and to the point: "Need something killed. Get into circle!"

"FINALLY!" the demon nearly tripped over his own feet in his puppy-like enthusiasm as he raced toward the centre of the counter-rotating circles, earlier rage forgotten.

Back in the half-ruined torture chamber, Ami had both of her hands raised high over her head as she struggled to pronounce the unfamiliar syllables of the spell. A clean circle of ground had expanded in front of her, pushing a ring-shaped wave of clogging blood outward as it grew in diameter. The magical circle's perimeter burst into icy flame, and thirteen evenly-spaced flickering runes appeared in the burning curtain.

"What's the lass doin'? Look at her eyes! That's a downright evil look!" the dwarf edged away from the chanting sorceress, eyeing her suspiciously.

"She's trying to summon help. I'd rather take my chances with her than with that monster spider outside! Get over here and help me, the small ones are trying to get in!" Jered put a stop to that line of thinking. The room shook again under a heavy impact as he and Cathy barricaded the entrance with an overturned rack, both bracing themselves against it with their shoulders as blows rained down on the obstacle.

"What could she possibly be callin' that could help with that?" the dwarf asked, even as he pulled another table toward the improvised barricade, adding loud scraping noises to the clamour.

Ami's voice reached a crescendo as she refused to let herself be distracted by the plight of her comrades. In response, lines of fire pulsed and drew a pentagram in the centre of the summoning circle. Suddenly, the entire room coloured with the bright orange tones of an active furnace when a tornado of flame exploded from the ground, sending large chunks of the summoning circle flying. Within the pillar of fire towered a dark, horned silhouette, holding up a wicked-looking scythe as it bellowed a challenge to the world.

 

Originally on 2009-10-11T23:47:00

The air in the torture chamber flickered with heat, and the strong smell of sulphur mixed with the miasma of blood and faeces. The spiralling maelstrom of fire surrounding the looming form of the Horned Reaper dissipated, leaving little tongues of fire crawling outward over the smashed and overturned equipment. Even as the flames died down, the yellow eyes of the crimson demon blazed brighter as he turned to the closest figure, raised his scythe, and lunged.

Ami, who was standing at the edge of the summoning circle, cringed away from the searing heat released by the completed ritual. She felt her blood freeze as the Reaper unexpectedly turned toward her and his scythe whistled down at her. Instinctively, she lashed out with the same power she used to transport and move her minions, holding up her hand protectively. The blade stopped, quivering, as the Reaper fought against invisible bonds. "Stop! What are you doing?" Ami squeaked, giving the creature an invisible shove that made him stumble back a step.

The Reaper's eyes went round with surprise as he looked at her in confusion, then disappointment. "Oh. That's you under all that filth." Without another word, he turned away, grin returning as he spotted the heroes pressing themselves against the walls in an attempt to get as far away from him as possible.

Whimpering, Jered voiced what all of them were thinking "By the gods, we are all going to die!"

Tugging at the Reaper and interrupting him in mid-stride, Ami shouted "Not them either! The spiders! ONLY the spiders! Nothing else!"

Irritated, the horned demon snorted and kicked at one of the fallen racks, breaking the device into two parts that landed with a splash in the coagulating blood "Are you sure? Hmph. Where? "

The other party members huddled together as the monster's gaze swept over them. Even the dwarf unashamedly hugged Jered's legs in fright. Fortunately, the sound of wood splintering distracted the Reaper as the improvised barricades gave way. In the doorway, a sheep-sized mottled spider pushed its way through the tumbling debris.

With a whoop of joy, the Reaper stormed toward the creature. It let out a surprised screech as the demon slammed into it like a freight train, completely ignoring its attempt to bite him. The tackled animal went flying, and the red demon disappeared out of the door, after it.

Ami let out some breath she hadn't realised she was holding. At last, something had gone almost according to plan. Then she noticed the faces of her companions, who were looking at her in a mixture of fear and awed horror.

From outside, hacking and slicing noises could be heard among the angry chittering of the arachnids. A severed spider leg flew in through the open entrance, trailing an arc of ichor before landing on the floor and bouncing twice.

Ami wondered what were they on about now "What? I told you I was going to call in some help."

Jered cleared his throat "I don't believe it. You don't do things half-way, do you? What were you thinking, summoning that?"

Ami's hands grasped at each other nervously "To be honest, it was something along the lines 'a goblin won't do'."

Cathy broke the stunned silence by exploding "And therefore you decide to call a fucking Horned Reaper? And it even listens to your orders?"

"No time to explain that now! Need to go help him deal with the spiders," the senshi fled from that line of questioning. "Shabon Spray!"

Meanwhile, the dwarf motioned to Jered to lean down, and whispered into the brown-haired man's ear "Are you sure she's on our side?"

Overhearing this, the other male survivor of the team shook his head in disbelief and muttered so quietly that only the others who were standing next to him could hear it "A Reaper. She can summon a Reaper. That girl is a disaster waiting to happen. We should do something about her while we still can." He watched the retreating back of the blue-haired girl as she moved to the exit and cautiously peered outside.

The blonde swordswoman commented in a deadpan tone of voice "I'm sure her pet monster will appreciate that."

Outside the room, the Reaper let out an appreciative whistle upon spotting the mammoth-sized giant spider. "Now that is worth killing!"

He had moved underneath the monstrous arachnid, his hooves making faint squelching noises on the ichor-drenched silk covering the floor as he danced around his opponent's attempts to step on him. Hack. There went a chunk of leg. Slash. And another. The monstrous spider bellowed in pained fury as the Reaper went to town on its front legs, shortening them piece by piece and forcing the creature to lean forward. Once the head was low enough, the demon jumped, dodging a bite from fangs as long as his arm as he buried his scythe's blade up to the hilt in the spider's forehead with an overhead swing. The giant spider reared up in its death throes, but the Reaper refused to let go of his weapon, and was yanked upwards and thrown into the air. The scythe came free in a spout of gore, and the demons trajectory carried him high, above Mercury's fog bank that blanketed the lower levels of the cavern. While in mid-air, the murderous creature righted itself and looked for a good landing point. The spider that popped open like a grape under his hooves as his weight bore down on it from above never saw him coming.

Ami had merely hoped for a distraction when she had decided to call the Reaper for help. A disposable one, she admitted guiltily to herself. Instead, she was watching him carve his way through the twitching, chitinous masses, leaving nothing but mutilated corpses in his wake. As she watched, another spider went up in flames after it had tried to shoot sticky webbing at him from a distance. Slowly at first, then faster and faster, the spiders retreated, until they were in full rout. Roaring in glee, the Reaper gave chase.

"Hey! Wait!" Ami shouted, watching her minion disappear around a bend as he completely ignored her. She looked back at the opening to the torture chamber. Her companions were approaching reluctantly, looking at the piles of dead spiders with wide eyes.

"Is it gone?"

"No matter! We need to get out of here," Cathy pointed at one of the smouldering bodies, "This spider silk is slow to catch fire, but once it does..."

The implications, combined with the fact that no part of the huge cavern was not covered in webs, was motivation enough. Everyone was already running when the first flames started licking up the walls, filling the grotto with acrid black smoke.

Ami watched the readouts on her visor as the tunnels rushed past her, and tried to ignore the fact that there was an entire graveyard dangling from the ceiling, packaged into innocent little cocoons. Arachne seemed to prefer big and spacious natural-looking caves that joined each other at different heights and at odd angles. It made sense, she supposed. The spiders could just walk up walls, and any intruders would have to use the narrow, winding stairs instead. In the distance, she heard loud gongs and the crumbling noises of collapsing walls. The clanging of metal on metal echoed softly through the halls.

"The main force must be attacking," Jered concluded, skidding to a halt at the first intersection that opened up in front of the party. "Which way now?" Next to him, Cathy was panting, leaning forward with her palms resting on her thighs.

Ami dismissed the ascending left tunnel almost immediately, and pointed down the right one. The displayed energy flows in the cavern were denser in that direction. Besides, a trail of spider pieces led that way. "Arachne's dungeon heart must be that way. So is the Reaper."

"Them are two excellent reasons to go the other," the dwarf blurted out, and let actions follow his words. After only a moment's hesitation, the other new member of the group followed him, never looking back.

"Well, they do have a point," Jered looked ready to go down the same path, "we are here for the loot, not for the fight. Over there is where all Arachne's monsters will be."

Ami frowned. "But Arachne needs to be stopped, and I can't go that way! What do you think is going to happen when the Reaper encounters the other teams? I NEED to catch up with him!"

Cathy went pale as several mental images flitted through her mind, none of them pretty. "You have a point. We'll stick with you."

The wavy-haired man looked ready to argue, but then closed his mouth and nodded. "Right. We probably stand a better chance with you at our side then on our own," he admitted.

---

Knee-deep in spider corpses, Baron Leopold stood at the front of his forces, sabre held high in triumph, and ichor stains covering his enchanted dwarf-forged full plate. He lifted the face plate of his helmet, and immediately the ends of his enormous moustache uncoiled, freed of their confinement. "That was the last of them, men! Onward, let us rip out the dark heart of this monster!"

His features were cast in sharp relief when purple electricity danced over the transparent dome shaped shield that covered his position. One of the three wizards holding his staff horizontally over his head collapsed to his knees, droplets of sweat dripping into his long white beard as he struggled to maintain the barrier.

"My Lord, please keep your head down", Lieutenant Leon warned from where he was hiding behind a particularly bulbous spider's abdomen.

"Nonsense. I'm not afraid of that hoary old Keeper." He turned to the enormous black presence of the Keeper that was flitting around in the air above the amphitheatre-like hall, and shook a fist at it. "YOU HEAR THAT, ARACHNE? RAGE AS MUCH AS YOU WANT, I'M COMING FOR YOU!"

In response, another lightning bolt shot forward from the red-eyed cloud of buzzing insects. One of the blue-clad wizards collapsed from the exertion of having to hold up the ward. The ranks of soldiers behind the Baron ducked deeper behind their shields.

"Meh, wimp. You, acolyte, get over here and patch him up!"

Crawling on all fours, a redhead with a bowl cut reluctantly left the protective ranks of soldiers and came forward. "My Lord, I'll do my best, but I'm not really trained to..." Snyder started to protest.

"Blah, blah, you are once again useless. Abbot Durval, do it instead. What do they teach acolytes these days?" the Baron seemed disinclined to tolerate incompetence.

"Actually, I do have talents that- what's that noise?" Looking up from the exhausted wizard, Snyder raised his head and peeked over the wall of mangled body parts. Through the flickering, multi-coloured hues of the magical shield, he could see the large circular room expanding in front and below of him. Resembling an arena, it was most likely used by Arachne to hold audience with her minions. Therefore, the double-winged black door fit for city gates blocking the bottom-most of the three exits from the room must lead to the inner sanctum, the Heart chamber itself. The stone banks ringing the circular open space in front of the ebon gates were trembling, and a sound like distant thunder was growing ever louder.

From the wide hallway opposite the one the forces of Good were currently regrouping in spilled a wave of moving limbs and glistening chitin. "Shit! More spiders! Combat positions!" "Wait, they aren't coming for us!"

Legs pumping madly, the spiders climbed over each other in their haste to get down the arena walls and to the black doors. Wails of fear went through the ranks of the heroes when they spotted the red scythe-wielding figure responsible for the stampede. "HORNED REAPER! She has a horned reaper!"

"Correction," Baron Leopold stated calmly, flicking at the grey strands of his moustache with a finger, "she has a berserk horned reaper. Good for us, bad for her. Say, Leon, I don't have a stuffed reaper in my trophy room yet, do I?" he added, rubbing his gauntleted hands together.

"My Lord? You aren't planning to-" the knight with a blue shawl draped around his shoulder tried to reason, before he noticed that his liege was no longer listening.

The Baron had already turned back to watch the chaos in action. Above, the black cloud of thousands of insects that composed Arachne's projection was screaming in rage. "No! Back, fools! You are going to ruin everything!"

One of the first spiders to reach the sandy circular plaza in front of the gates spontaneously burst into flames, while a second disappeared into a pit trap. The wave of arachnid bodies pressed on though, despite spiders being impaled by spikes shooting from the ground or being hurled into the air by explosions. Above the carnage, the shadow of Arachne buried its non-existing face in its disembodied palms. With a hiss that sounded suspiciously like a sigh, the black apparition disappeared through the wall leading to the heart chamber, and its huge gates opened slightly to let the remaining sanctuary-seeking minions in.

"Three more figures from the tunnel, My Lord," Leon, who had kept an eye on the side passage, informed his liege, "two-legged, possibly orcs."

"Ahem, ahem, I do believe those are merely incredibly filthy humans," Snyder corrected when the new arrivals approached at a jog. "These must be what remains of the advance group," he added with sudden worry for his travelling companions.

The baron nodded. "Smart idea, following that panicked mob trampling all the traps in its way."

---

The broad corridor that Ami was running along widened into a large, circular chamber, lit by the same kind of glowing spider thread as the rest of the dungeon. Behind her, she heard the wheezing and panting of Jered and Cathy as they tried to keep up. Ahead, the tail end of the spider stampede disappeared over some kind of cliff, and that infuriating fool of a Reaper jumped right after them. Moments later, she heard explosions and saw smoke, pillars of flame, and flying spider bits. Arriving at the edge of the amphitheatre, she slowed down and surveyed the scene below. A smoking, burning field of sand was littered with dead or half-dead spiders. Ahead, black gates were closing after allowing passage to the frightened minions. Obviously, her own so-called underling had somehow managed to put on a burst of speed and to slip inside too. Through the crack between the closing wings of the door, she could see the room behind flash a bright white as three curving bolts of lightning shot down from above, striking the red demon. In an explosion of shattered floor tiles, he was thrown into the air, and uncountable white threads shot toward him from all sides. Then the door slamming closed blocked her vision.

Ami stopped, unsure of what to feel about that. She didn't get the chance to collect herself, because a large armour-clad figure approached with ringing footsteps, purple helmet plume whipping up and down.

"Ah, one of the front line teams. You are just in time for the final assault." The baron turned to the ranks of soldiers and wizards pouring in behind him "Wheel in the ballista! Beyond this door lies the dungeon heart of Arachne! We will scour her evil from this land forever!"

The last of the heroes emerged and formed up in ranks. Accompanied by loud rumbling, a compact little siege weapon was pulled in by six dwarves, who proceeded to point it at the door, surrounded protectively by a quartet of blue robed magic users. In well-disciplined rows, the warriors advanced down the amphitheatre's steps and started walking over the smoking field, toward the towering gates. Ami and her travelling companions were moving alongside them. As they approached, she could hear the deep heartbeat of the enemy heart vibrating through the bedrock.

"Watch out, a spider near the ballista!" Ami didn't know who had shouted the warning, but with a sinking feeling she saw a lone arachnid that appear out of nowhere. As she had already observed once before, the spider started growing larger and larger. Before the siege weapon's team could react, the improbably huge creature had stepped on the apparatus, reducing it and two of the handlers to a pulp. By now, soldiers were screaming in fear and fleeing in blind panic, away from the behemoth that looked as if it could fit all of them in its stomach.

"Cowards! It's just a spider!" the Baron shouted, shouldering his way against the stream of the fleeing masses and toward the creature. "Come back and fight it! FIGHT IT I SAY!"

"He's insane, isn't he?" Cathy asked. Ami nodded dumbly. From past experience, she knew that her ice attack did nothing to stop a monster of that size. The spider was unhurriedly climbing down the slope of the amphitheatre, approaching the main mass of troops at the bottom.

"Wizards, assemble! On my mark! Fire!" Lieutenant Leon brought down his hand, and a dozen fireballs streaked like comets through the chamber and toward the monstrosity, impacting with bright flashes. The spider let out a high keening wail, and turned from a towering, sharp-bristled, poisonous whirlwind of death and destruction into a towering, sharp-bristled, poisonous, burning whirlwind of death and destruction.

"Belay that order, focus on the gate instead! Arachne can just enlarge a new one if this one fails! We must reach the Dungeon Heart to put an end to this!" a hunched-over man in extremely elaborate priest's robes shouted.

"Who's that?" Ami asked as she was swept up in the crowd moving toward the heavy reinforced doors blocking passage into the inner sanctum.

"Abbot Durval," Snyder informed her, "He wasn't at the abbey when Arachne destroyed it, and wants revenge for all the innocent deaths."

Ami felt as if she would be crushed to death in the mass of people all pressing against the doors and trying to get away from the super-sized arachnid. Overhead, fireballs pattered against the gates. Suddenly, the pressure vanished, and the huge wings of the door swung inward with a creaking sound. Immediately, the crowd of soldiers poured inward. Ami looked over her shoulders to the outside, and could see the Baron's cape waving as he charged toward the monster, accompanied by only a handful of his most fanatical followers. Because she was looking in the right direction, she could see the enormous gates quietly swing shut again after letting the 'intruders' in. "Watch out! It's a trap!"

An unwilling murmur went through the crowd, all asking roughly the same question. "Where is the Dungeon Heart?"

"Now that 's just unfair!" Jered cursed, looking up. Others heard the brown-eyed man's heart-felt exclamation and followed his gaze. They saw that the heart chamber was in truth a cylinder, much taller than wide. In the middle of the ceiling disc sat the dungeon heart, far out of reach of the heroes. About half-way up, a spider web spanned the chamber, with the Keeper's surviving minions covering the walls above it, staring at the adventurers from sets of unblinking eyes. A single thread was suspended from the centre of the horizontal web. At its end hung a writhing cocoon that swung around like a pendulum as something inside fought to break loose. A single straight horn was poking out of the silky prison.

Ami noted that the enemy heart looked much like her own, despite being upside-down. There was the beating membrane in the central shaft, the superstructure, and the column of swirling energy in its centre. More interesting was the giant, cloud like face of Keeper Arachne leering down on the assembled heroes and laughing from thousands of insect voices. "Welcome, welcome. If you think that this is unfair, you have seen nothing yet," she mocked. Red eyes flashed brighter "Drown like the rats you are!"

The rattling of heavy chains preceded a metallic scrape as a heavy floodgate sat in the lower third of the wall slowly opened. A stream of ice-cold water cascaded out, washing away the closest soldiers. Ami and some of the brighter heroes immediately realised what intruding water and no exit meant. Fortunately, she had the means to do something about it. "Shabon Spray Freezing!" Some of the inrushing water froze, partially plugging the source. She shouted her attack again and again, each time reducing the inflow some more. Her visor flashed red in warning, and she jumped aside, just before a lightning bolt from above slagged the tiles on which she had been standing. As she rolled to a stop, she counted herself lucky that the floor wasn't wet yet where she had been standing, and resumed throwing freezing bubbles at the floodgate. The plug of ice blocking it was growing and growing.

"Protect the sorceress!" Someone shouted, and Ami saw a purple shield intercept the next two arcs of electricity headed her way. Giving up on trying to smite her directly, Arachne instead directed her lightning into the puddle that had formed close to the now sealed floodgate. The group of unfortunate soldiers standing in the water convulsed and went down, smoke rising from their twitching bodies. Obeying an unseen command, all the spiders along the wall jumped and descended toward the heroes on silken threads like a cloud of huge, sharp-fingered venomous hands. Things were about to get really ugly.

Ami didn't know where to look first. Enemies and the screams of the dying were everywhere! At least her fog had made sure that it was the spiders who did most of the dying. The huge double doors exploding inwards drew everyone's attention. With a thunderous noise, the gates were blown off their hinges and tumbled inside, flattening friend and foe alike. Through the opening stormed the huge, ugly, enlarged spider, long lanky legs flailing about in a frenzy as it nearly slipped on the metal of the door wings underneath. Ichor seeped from gaps in its chitin, and it was trailing smoke from charred black spots on its carapace as it rushed forward in a straight line, trampling anything in its path.

"ARACHNE! I'M COMING FOR YOU!" the Baron hollered at the top of his lungs, riding atop the frenzied creature and whacking its bulbous yellow-spotted back with the flat of his enchanted sabre, spurring it on to go faster and faster. His cape was nothing but tatters, and the ends of his moustache were on fire, but the crazy man had his left arm wrapped tight around the constriction between the spider's back and head and didn't let go even as it ran out of even ground and went straight up the wall instead. It was certainly fast. In an eye-blink, the web blocking the path half-way up the room's height had been ripped to shreds. A moment later, spiderzilla had run out of wall and moved onto ceiling instead. Finally realising the danger, Keeper Arachne plucked the giant animal out from under - or more accurately, above - the Baron. Momentum conspired to keep Leopold going in the right direction, and moments later, he was hanging from the upside-down superstructure of the Dungeon Heart.

The heroes on the ground lost sight of him when something huge appeared in mid air and obstructed their view - in her anger, Arachne had hurled the giant spider at the greatest concentration of heroes she could see. To Ami, the incredible bulk of the spider seemed to move in slow motion, turning around its own axis and wriggling its legs as it inexorably sped toward the ground. She ripped her gaze away from it and broke into a sprint, ribbons trailing behind her as she dashed madly to get out of the growing shadow of the beast. With a grunt, she leaped forward and rolled to a landing, just as the impact of the creature shook the ground behind her and catapulted her up in the air again. Great fountains of spider innards fountained in all directions.

Ami landed on her back, just in time to see the glittering form of Baron Leopold far above use the stone gargoyles and other knick-knack decorating the Dungeon Heart superstructure as handholds to pull himself ever-closer to the beating membrane. The shadowy form of Arachne was batting at him in desperation, but being composed of flies, it did not achieve much more than irritating him. Finally, Leopold reached up, took his sabre out if his mouth with his free hand, and stabbed.

"NOOO! DIEEEE!" Arachne gathered up the last of her available mana and put together a feeble lightning bolt, which she poured directly into the madman's body. Spasming and twitching, he held on with dogged determination, grimacing, biting his teeth together, and content to let the metal of his sabre conduct the electricity back into the heart's membrane even as he cut and hacked.

The moment the dungeon heart died was unmistakable. It was as if the entire dungeon shuddered and groaned, roaring like a wounded animal. Floor tiles jumped out of their spots and cracked, murals crumbled into sand, and an unseen wind seemed to blow toward a vacuum where the heart had been. A black sphere of a pitch blackness had opened at its location, and the shadowy form that was Arachne spiralled around it like water going down a drain, inexorably drawn deeper and deeper. "Nooo! NOOOO! YOU WILL PAY! YOu will all suuuuufffeeeer...."

Against the background of pure darkness swallowing the Keeper, the falling shape of Baron Leopold appeared like clearest silver. Smoking, his armoured body dropped, like the huge spider had before him.

There was a sudden flash of pure, wholesome light, and within moments, the giant spider web hanging in tatters from the walls knitted itself back together as if it had never been broken. Abbot Durval was holding up his staff, chanting quietly. Everyone seemed revitalised by the light, Ami saw. However, she herself had flinched away, as if seared by its touch. She wondered what that meant for her. Absently, she watched the restored web bend as the heavy body of the Baron plummeted into it. Despite being stretched to its limits, it held, turning suicidal stupidity into shining heroics. Nevertheless, Ami had to admit that the Baron's escapade had been more impressive than anything Tuxedo Mask had ever pulled off. As she watched, the man used one of the dangling threads to rope down to the ground, where he was immediately surrounded by well-wishers and sycophants. Even the Abbot hobbled his way, intent on patching up whatever still ailed the hero of the hour.

Within the giant, burst-open corpse of the megaspider, something stirred. Soldiers moved away from it warily as its torso started to shake. A smell of sulphur permeated the air, and suddenly, flames rushed outward, burning a circular hole in the carcass, through which a scythe-wielding figure strode.

"Oh no! It's the Reaper!" "Why is it still here?" "Run for your lives!"

Ami moved closer to Snyder, who had gone pale at the sight, though he didn't run like many others "What's the big deal about that demon, anyway?"

With a cry of glee, the Baron sprang to his feet, face plate snapping shut as he pulled his sabre. "Huh, there's my trophy, after all!" Even the best efforts of his advisers couldn't prevent him from rushing toward the red-scaled engine of murder. The Reaper saw him coming, and his annoyance at being covered in spider guts turned into anticipation as he brought up his scythe to eviscerate the approaching fool.

Snyder looked surprised that Ami didn't know. "Horned Reapers are some of the most feared minions of evil. Legends tell of them as unstoppable killing machines, bestowed upon deserving Keepers as a sign of favour by the gods of evil."

The corners of the red demon's mouth lowered in irritation as his quarry evaded another of his strikes. The noble was expletive-inducingly quick on his feet, staying within the demon's guard to cancel out the latter's strength and reach advantage. Under his helmet, the baron's eyes were gleaming with a battle-lust mirrored in the Reaper's. Oh well, if the human wanted to play in close with that sabre of his... The Reaper grinned, baring his teeth. Suddenly, the crowd gasped when a lightning-quick thrust of Leopold's magical sabre ended in the weapon protruding through the Reaper's silhouette. The awe turned to dismay when they saw that, rather than killing the demon, the weapon was trapped between the monster's muscular left arm and his torso. The Reaper's grin widened in anticipation of the kill.

Blinking at the course the battle was taking, Snyder added "In hindsight, their reputation might have been exaggerating a bit."

The horned reaper's eyes widened in surprise when the disarmed baron simply let go of the weapon. Raising his arms, the militant noble grabbed the demon's long, straight horns as if they were handles, and yanked downward. With a deafening clang, helmet collided with nose ring, and the demon staggered in pain. Grabbing his blade when it fell from where it was lodged, the Baron turned the motion into a cut at the demon's unprotected chest.

Something tugged violently at the Reaper from behind, and he was thrown off his feet, dropping underneath the Baron's blow. The same irresistible force continued pulling, and the demon skidded over the floor, lying on his back and trailing sparks as his iron pauldrons scraped over the hard stone. Soldiers who had not moved during the fight were scattering in all directions as his bulk slid in their direction. He came to a stop looking up a familiar looking, if mud-covered skirt. Growling, he sat up, whirled around and bellowed "What are you doing, Keeper?! I nearly had him!"

"KEEPER?!" Jered, Cathy and Snyder were not the only ones who shouted this, eyes going wide as they looked at the blue-haired girl in new light. They were, however, the only ones who wished they hadn't stuck around the sorceress when the Reaper suddenly shot their way. It look like some show of loyalty, they realised with a start. So did the soldiers who were forming a wide circle around the group, weapons pointing inward.

Ami hid her face in her palm and groaned "Good going." Why had she given into the impulse to save him?

"So it's true?" Snyder stammered in disbelief. "Aren't Keepers supposed to be huge and monstrous, like Arachne?"

The Baron stalked toward them, sliding open his visor. His bushy, seared eyebrows were furrowed in anger. "So the little witch is a Keeper, huh? Here no doubt to get rid of a rival and loot her dungeon. Placed that fake acolyte close to me so that-"

"I'm not fake! It's not tru-" Snyder started to protest, hyperventilating.

"QUIET, villain! It also makes sense now that the only survivors of the frontline team are your so-called 'captors'."

"That's not what happened!" "We didn't kno-"

Tired of being ignored, the Reaper interrupted, amusement in his voice "Oops, was that supposed to be a secret, Keeper? Don't worry, there is an easy way to salvage the situation."

Ami threw him an irritated and dubious look.

Grinning, the beast continued "That is, KILL THEM ALL!"

The Baron raised his sabre "Incidentally, fiend, I was thinking exactly the same thing. MEN, GET THEM!"

"No, don't!" "This is a misunderstanding!" "Mercury, tell them this all your fault!"

Mercury did nothing of the sort. Instead, she raised her hands, and the forces of good gasped in fright when the area disappeared under dense, cold fog. "Save your breath and RUN!"

Grinning like the maniac he was, the Reaper raised his scythe to start carving a way through the soldiers between his Keeper and the exit. He was rather surprised when a wave of force blew him off his feet and threw him at the enemy formation, rolling over the floor like a living bowling ball. Pulling Cathy along and blurting out an apology whenever she stepped on a fallen soldier by accident, Ami fled toward the broken-down doors. Cathy seemed utterly stunned by the turn of events, nearly as much as Snyder. The red-headed priest was being ushered along by Jered, who proved to be surprisingly adaptable when it came to saving his own skin.

Behind them, in the mist, the Baron bellowed "AFTER THEM!"

"My Lord, we can't see them!" the soldiers were understandably reluctant to charge blindly into a fog that contained not only a legendary horned reaper, but also a Keeper.

"Wizards! Do something to get rid of this nuisance! I will have my trophy!"

---

"I ~huff~ still think we should have ~pant~ stayed around and explained-" Snyder was having trouble keeping pace with the others, not being used to much physical exertion.

"Because having a rational discussion with a man who considers head-butting that a good idea is certain to work!" Cathy replied sourly, pointing at the horned reaper jogging alongside the group. The demon was grumbling about being denied his fun, but had given up on trying to stay behind by 'accident', because whenever he did, Ami just dragged him along with invisible chains.

"What's up with that, anyway? I thought he was supposed to be unstoppable. Sure didn't look like that when old Leopold had a go at him," Snyder remarked, with a wary look at the red creature.

The Reaper muttered something indistinguishable.

"What was that?" Ami asked.

"I said 'My skills might be a little bit rusty after centuries of disuse'," he hissed angrily. "What of it?"

Sailor Mercury suppressed the urge to face-palm, if only because doing that while running wasn't safe. The beast had just slacked off for centuries? Not even Usagi was that bad!

 

Originally on 2009-10-15T00:00:00

"I think they are catching up," Cathy wheezed as the group sprinted up the blood-slick stairs leading out of the amphitheatre.

Ami's fog was forming wafting banks below them as they emerged from its depths. The staircase was broad enough to allow all five of them to run besides each other, but instead, the three heroes were keeping to its left side. On the right trotted the Reaper, clearing a deep crack in the stone with an easy leap. "Why are we running? Just transport us back to the dungeon if you don't want to fight," the red demon suggested, steaming breath shooting from his nostrils.

"Can't transport them," Mercury explained with a hand gesture towards the fugitive heroes, whose footsteps were sounding right behind her.

"So what? Just leave them behind. They look worthless anyway, especially the short fat one," the demon continued, undeterred.

Ami's reply was a moment late as she had to step around the near-flattened body of one of the soldiers who had gotten in the way of the enlarged spider earlier.

"I can't just leave them behind! It's your fault they are being chased in the first place!"

"While your concern for our well-being is touching," Jered interrupted even as the group cleared the final steps of the staircase and arrived on the amphitheatre's top floor, "do you actually have any idea where we are going?"

Ami stopped at the top of the stairs and crossed her arms before unleashing her magical attack at the masonry. With satisfaction, she watched the slope turn into an ice-covered slide. Below, a strong wind was blowing out of the huge opening where the black gates had been and clearing away her mist. She shook her head. "I was more interested in getting away from them," she answered pointing at the armoured soldiers pouring out of the heart chamber, lead by a large figure with a whipping purple plume on its helmet. "We can't go the way the soldiers came in, it's bound to be guarded, so we'll have to backtrack our path. Now hurry!"

Fortunately, none of the heroes aside from Snyder seemed inclined to argue. "I shouldn't have to run away from them in the first place," the redhead whined, "what did I do to deserve this?"

"You are welcome to stay behind," the Reaper snorted at the young man, making him shut up with a whimper.

"So where exactly are we going?" Cathy demanded, running alongside the blue-haired girl with a practised pace. "It wouldn't do if we ended up in a dead end. We can't hide in here forever!"

Above, the light of the glowing threads that illuminated the area was dying down, and darkness started to settle on the dungeon. From behind came angry shouts as the pursuers were forced to use the staircase further away instead of the slippery one.

"Now that Arachne is gone, I can call in imps to dig us a new exit," Ami reassured the blonde. In front of her visor, the long, winding corridor started to fade into grey tones. She heard her companions stumble more and more often while running over the cracked tiles.

"Argh. Slow down! You and your beast may be able to see in the dark, but we sure can't!" Jered protested, after an unfortunate misstep sent him stumbling into the dirt. "Snyder! Make a light or something!"

"...associating with a Keeper and a horned reaper, of all things. Going to be stoned for heresy..." the portly man mumbled, white robes fluttering behind him as he moved forward.

"SNAP OUT OF IT!" Jered shouted, grabbing the acolyte by the collar and shaking him. He couldn't see the portly man's expression, but he seemed to relax a bit in the taller man's grip.

"Oh, oh, of course. Light. Why didn't I think of it?" the priest in training muttered an incantation, and suddenly, one of his rings started glowing bright white.

As the corridor narrowed, Ami suddenly stopped. "Wait a moment. This is a good place to slow our pursuers down." Two imps appeared out of nowhere, plopping down next to her. Their short blue mini-dresses, white leotards, and frilly ribbons drew some raised eyebrows and disbelieving snorts. Cathy inclined her head and looked at Mercury oddly. The blue-haired girl blushed faintly. "I'll explain later. You! Dig a deep trench here so no one can pass! You! dig out the ceiling so it drops and blocks the corridor!"

Stone chips went flying as the imps enthusiastically attacked the rock with their picks. Soon, the diminutive creatures disappeared in the darkness as Snyder's circle of light left them behind.

"I think that should hold them for a while," Jered commented when the crash of a rock slide sounded behind them, shaking the surrounding rock with the intensity of its echoing impact. "We should take the opportunity to look around a bit to see if we can't find anything useful."

"We are running for our lives and you are thinking about looting the place?" Ami asked incredulously.

The wavy-haired man nodded. "Naturally. This predicament you got us into has left all of us destitute. All we have left is what we are carrying on us," he continued, indicating the filthy rags he was wearing with both hands.

Ami looked down at the floor. "I'm sorry. Maybe you are right." She adjusted her visor to penetrate deeper into the rock so she would spot any potential valuables.

"Oh for darkness' sake, " the Reaper butted in, "You are rich, Keeper! Just hire them! I have no intention of going on a boring scavenger hunt!"

Ami faltered in her step, surprised that the demon had raised a good point for once. "Well, I suppose..." she began, looking at the three adventurers speculatively.

"What? Serve a Keeper? No wa- hmmpf." Cathy's outraged cry was suddenly muffled by Jered's long-fingered hand slipping over her lips. The blonde glared at him, while the lanky man looked at Mercury instead.

"Would you mind letting us discuss that among ourselves for a bit? Privately?" he asked, making a shooing motion toward the mud-covered blue-haired girl and the Reaper. Ami nodded and started walking away, followed by the horned demon. Cathy's voice faded away in the tunnel. "Jered, what were you thinking..."

Ami sighed. It hurt that the revelation that she was a Keeper had apparently brushed away any trust as if it had never been. She couldn't really blame them, she supposed. If Keepers like Arachne were the norm, rather than the- what was this? Something was moving on her sensors, a few metres through the rock of the left wall. She adjusted the settings, and the image came into sharper focus. Her eyes widened in surprised recognition before narrowing into red-glowing slits. An imp dropped down out of thin air, startling the red demon who was leaning bored against the wall. Immediately, the bug-eyed creature started hacking away at the unfinished rock in a frenzy, sending up a cloud of dust that billowed into the narrow corridor. After tunnelling through barely half a metre of rock, it broke through into the chamber behind, sending a spray of crumbling debris and stone spilling on the expensive carpet below.

The occupant of the room was sitting in a high-backed armchair with red cushions, and was staring at the intruder with wide eyes. His black hair would have been standing on end in surprise if it hadn't been so heavy from all the oil in it. Abruptly, the violet-robed warlock stood up when Ami stepped through the dust cloud and glowering at him. The blue-haired girl stared at the lanky man through blazing red eyes, taking in the tacky décor of the opulent chamber in passing. The stone arches weren't so bad, but did they really have to be studded with skulls everywhere? Her inner bookworm salivated at the sight of the shelves full of tomes that covered the walls, hiding the abstract tapestries. She returned her full attention to the evil wizard whom she had just interrupted - doing what? - tormenting a particularly large and ugly frog floating in a soap bubble above the table? She shook her head at the sadist's strange tastes.

"You could have used the door," the warlock stated with a nod toward one corner of the room, where the polished wood of an entrance gleamed in the fireplace's light. From the outside, it looked no different than any other piece of the wall. "From this," he pointed at the fuku-clad imp, "I brilliantly conclude that you are here to secure my not inconsiderable abilities for a Keeper with rather strange taste in uniforms."

Ami responded with a well-aimed Shabon Spray Freezing. Alas, the magician's hands, which had been concealed within the long sleeves of his skull-embroidered robe, shot up, already glowing greenish with gathered power. As if drawn by a magnet, the blue ray of concentrated bubbles tracked the wizard's outstretched hand, which traced a horizontal circle in the air as he spun around his own axis until his extended finger was pointing back at Ami. With an "Eep!" of surprise, she threw herself out of the way of her own attack, rolling off her momentum on the thick carpet.

"You didn't really think you could catch the great necromancer Nero with a trick like that twice, did you, little girl?" the man boasted, goatee bobbing up and down smugly as he spoke.

"Sic him!"

The thundering noise of something huge storming through the new entrance into his room alerted the warlock to the arrival of a new opponent. The Reaper had to duck to bring his muscular red bulk through the opening, and the maniacal grin on his face had returned full-force as he stalked into the chamber, scythe blade raised over his shoulders.

"Oh dear." The expression on the warlock's face at the sight of her red demon was priceless, in Ami's opinion. His skin had lost all colour, and the pupils in his blood-shot eyes contracted into little dots while his eyebrows tried to climb into his hairline. Survival instincts roused the man from his stupor, and he managed to just duck under first swipe of the monster's weapon, losing half of his high-necked collar in the process. He revealed pale, gangly legs as he gathered up his robe and made a mad dash for the half-open door in the back of his lair. Naturally, the horned reaper took off after him with a roar of glee. The door slamming in the beast's face didn't even slow him down, and the unfortunate obstacle exploded into kindling as the demon just kept going. He looked around the small bedroom, head rolling from left to right on the bull-like neck. Under the bed? Swish! Feathers went flying as the furniture was split cleanly in two, mattress, supports and all. Not there. Maybe the wardrobe? Two X-shaped cuts and a new heap of wooden planks later, there was still no trace of the warlock. The Reaper was starting to get annoyed, and the sound of furniture being reduced indiscriminately to debris echoed through the complex.

---

"... so you see, the only way we could currently clear our name is by showing up with the corpse of the Keeper. While I'm sure I could slip in a dagger before she knew what was going on, we wouldn't survive that pet demon of hers. Besides, cold blooded murder is ..."

Hmm, those were his escaped prisoners, huddled together and discussing something in whispers. Some short, portly guy had joined them and was glowing too, exposing just exactly how filthy his companions were. Someone had done some nice healing on the burn victim, though.

"...still, a Keeper! My brothers will want to kill me! Though either she's the best actress I have ever encountered, or something's not right. You wouldn't expect a Keeper to puke her stomach out from watching a torture session. I don't like..."

Ah, the blonde girl. Still holding on to the hammer too. None of the three were aware of his presence, it seemed.

"... and we'll need a place to lay low. Wanted posters will be going up everywhere ..."

"... family will disown me... "

"... damned ... at least find ... dungeon is ... redeem ourselves ..."

The voices were fading into the distance now. He had gotten past without them ever noticing he was around. Nero would have snickered if his current form had allowed. Instead, he silently slithered onwards. Whoever had written that turning into a snake never helped was an idiot of the highest calibre. Sure, escaping through the drain of his own sink wasn't dignified, but it beat the alternative. The scaly warlock came to a sudden stop. Oh great, rock slide blocking exit. Oh well. He wasn't a great wizard for nothing. There was a strange shifting and rustling of cloth before a geeky-looking man in gaudy robes replaced the snake. He cracked his knuckles and pulled up his sleeves, then started a short chant accompanied by complicated arcane gestures. Something spiny and smoking appeared in his hand, and he tossed it at the roadblock before covering his ears. With a loud bang, rocks and debris went flying, and the warlock peered through the rain of falling rubble at his route to safety. From the other side, a wall of armoured figures plastered in white stone dust peered back, just as surprised to see him as he was to see them. Nero groaned. Today just wasn't his day.

---

Jered and the others found Mercury within an opulent room, standing in front of long shelves filled with books. She was touching one after the other, and whenever she did, the tome would disappear into thin air. Behind a broken-down door in the back, he could see the Reaper sulking within a completely devastated chamber. The weasel-featured man walked over to the blue-haired girl, clearing his throat. "We have decided to accept your offer."

Ami looked up from her activity and turned toward the others, who were slowly entering the room through the new passage. She could see that Jered's face was unreadable as usual, while Cathy's lips were nothing but a thin line and her fists were clenching and unclenching, as if she was fighting with herself. Snyder just slumped his shoulders, looking defeated. As the redhead walked past the table, the floating bubble holding the green frog burst. With a questioning croak, the animal hopped toward the acolyte, who looked down at it quizzically. The improbably large frog let out another croak, and then a thrust of the powerful hind legs catapulted it on the man's shoulder, where it settled down within the red folds of his stole. "Strange." Even this oddness couldn't shake the man out of his funk, and he joined Cathy and Jered, forming a short line in front of Ami. He sighed "Well then, get on with it, Keeper."

CROAK! Suddenly, Ami's face was full of cold, slimy amphibian, and she backed away, eyes crossing as they tried to focus on the animal clinging to her nose and kicking at her chin. Her back hit the shelf, which nearly toppled, and on the rebound showered her with a hail of books.The three heroes looked down at the shifting pile of occult tomes out of which protruded one white-gloved fist holding an ill-tempered amphibian.

"I must admit that I was expecting a somewhat more dignified ceremony," Jered commented while helping Mercury out from under the literary avalanche. "What is it with that thing, anyway?"

Ami shrugged and looked at the huge frog, which was now sucking on her thumb. She had the vague impression that it was trying to bite her and just hadn't realised yet that it lacked teeth. She'd deal with the strange animal later. Instinctively, she knew that she should symbolically pay her prospective underlings to seal the deal, and summoned three gold coins from her treasure chamber. "No need for some elaborate ritual. Just take a coin each if you want to enter my service."

Jered was the first to take her up on the offer, and he took the gold with barely any hesitation. Snyder was the second, plucking the coin from her extended hand with a limp gesture. Cathy took the longest before reaching for the money, and the blonde's hand was shaking in trepidation as her fingers closed around the precious metal. Any time a coin left Ami's hand, she felt a new connection form between her and the recipient, similar to the one she shared with the Reaper. She nodded. "Good. I am able to transport all of us out of here now. Now help me with those books, please." With united efforts, all the tomes were soon gathered up and bound together, allowing Ami to transfer the bundles in bulk. Once done, the four humans, one demon, and one annoying frog attached to Ami's ear disappeared from Arachne's dead dungeon.

 

Originally on 2009-10-17T23:14:00

Ami and her companions arrived within a bare chamber of her dungeon. With the bright white and blue tones of its walls, it felt much more cheerful than Arachne's unfinished tunnels. As soon as the young Keeper's feet made contact with the smooth chequerboard-patterned floor tiles, her muscles seemed to relax, and some of the built-up tension left them. Her underlings, old and new, seemed to have more difficulty with the arrival. Even the Reaper stumbled and had to put a hoof forward to restore his balance. Snyder fared the worst of the lot, for the portly man appeared half a metre above the ground and botched his landing. Ami hurried over and extended her hand, helping him to pull himself back to his feet. "Sorry about that. I don't have much practice transporting anyone but myself or the imps," the girl explained.

"It was an... interesting experience," Jered commented cautiously. Next to him, the long blond strands of Cathy's hair were whipping left and right as she moved her head to take in the sparse features of the room. Her gaze swept over the azure murals interrupting the white brick pattern at regular intervals, took in the vaulted arches supporting the ceiling, skipped over the door-less exits at each end of the rectangular chamber, and finally came to rest on the disorderly stack of books in the far corner of the room.

"It's, err, fairly clean," the swordswoman noted, obviously reaching to find something complimentary to say. It immediately brought to mind the fact that she herself, as well as Jered and Ami, were covered in drying mud and worse.

"Though it is still is a dungeon," her brown-haired boyfriend added, inspecting the vaguely suggestive female silhouettes that formed the murals. "Interesting choice of decorations."

"The imps just keep adding them to any blank wall they can find," Ami sighed, busy with removing the fat frog from her ear. The animal had clamped down on one of her small blue earrings, which added some pain to the general discomfort of being attacked by a slimy amphibian. Both of her hands closed around her diminutive attacker when she finally got a firm grip on it, and the frog croaked angrily as she held it out in front of her. "This isn't normal frog behaviour."

Snyder, who ducked his head nervously whenever a dampened beat of the dungeon heart rumbled through the underground, ventured a guess "Well, well. It is possible that this is not a frog at all, but another victim of the evil warlock, transformed into this unappealing form."

Ami's irritated expression turned into one of pity. "Really? Do you know how to turn it back?"

"The traditional means would be a kiss by a prince or princess," Jered supplied with a grin, "fortunately, being a Keeper should make you some kind of Princess of Darkness."

Ami narrowed her eyes and eyed the squirming animal dubiously. The frog seemed just as offended by the suggestion. Sweating nervously, Snyder nearly choked. Jered, what are you thinking, teasing a Keeper? "That's just a children's story," the red-headed acolyte blurted out quickly. Transformation magic usually isn't permanent. Just give it some time."

"Oh, good." Great. Now she had to take care of a large frog who could turn back into a hero at any moment and had already made it abundantly clear that it didn't like her. Ami was tired after all the misadventures of the day. "You, imp!" She motioned one of her servants over. "Put this frog down at the bottom of the deepest pit you can find. Gently. Make sure that the pit is safe and no harm comes to the frog!" The amphibian gave a croak of protest when it was unceremoniously dropped into the sack the imp was holding open, but to no avail.

"Was that a good idea?" Cathy asked, watching the back of the small servant as it scurried off. Ami shrugged "I can't keep carrying it around, and the imp is going to do exactly what it was told, so there is no danger. Besides, I'll be keeping an eye on it from afar."

"I see," the blonde gulped at that reminder of the shorter girl's abilities. "So, what do we do now?"

"All of you take a bath," the Reaper ordered, leaning on his scythe. "I have met bile demons who smelled better than you sorry bunch. What did you do, take a dive in a septic tank?"

The team's response was pre-empted by new arrivals. "Look! Told you we has intruders!" an ugly green head was poking in through the left entrance. A tiara with a blue gem in its centre rested on its forehead.

Another face with long triangular ears appeared above the first one in the door frame. "Not intruders! They with Big Ugly!" The Reaper sneered in the goblins' direction at the nickname.

"They all big uglies," a third goblin joined the others, also with a tiara on its head. "Look! Scary Eyes Girl here too!"

"Idiot! Her eyes blue, not red!" the first one corrected. "What they doing here?"

"This girl happens to be the Keeper," the red demon informed them, pointing down at Ami. He wasn't in the mood to deal with goblin nonsense right now. Or ever.

The largest goblin leaned forward, blinking incredulously. "Oh, me see. Big Ugly think we stupid! She too harmless looking!"

As one, the adventurers turned to look at Ami and took a step away. Even the hiding goblins peering into the room seemed to duck down a bit. The Reaper alone stayed where he was, observing through half-lidded yellow eyes. Ami's eyebrows shot up as everyone kept staring at her with bated breath. "What?" she asked into the silence, crossing her arms in front of her chest defensively.

"Aren't- Aren't you going to convince them by revealing your grotesque and horrifying true form now?" Snyder asked, a hint of disappointment quivering in his voice.

The three goblin heads peering around the door frame nodded. "Yes. Is traditional."

Ami blinked at the expectant expressions surrounding her, then closed her mouth with an audible snap. She turned her head and threw a pleading look at the Reaper, who just snickered at her predicament. "But I'm human! I really look like this!"

The goblins discussed this amongst themselves. "Prove you Keeper," they demanded.

Hanging her head, Ami gave the trio a shove with her insubstantial hand, and the gangly three humanoids fell face-first into the room. "Happy now?"

The heroes gaped as they caught sight of the green creatures' bodies: each of them was wearing an adjusted version of Sailor Mercury's uniform. Sure, a few of the bows were damaged, missing, or displaced, but the overall frilly effect remained.

"I bet this wasn't what you were expecting when she told you that all the girls where she came from wore something like this," Cathy joked at Jered's expense when she recovered from her surprise. For once, the wavy haired man was having trouble recovering his wits faster than her. She rounded on Ami and put her hands on her hips. "I hope you aren't planning on putting me into one of those outfits too!"

Ami waved her hands in denial, palms facing outward. "No, no. They weren't even supposed to get that outfit. Maybe the dungeon heart malfunctioned or someth-"

"The dungeon heart malfunctioned?" Jered shrieked, his voice taking on an unusually high pitch. "Don't tell me we signed up with a dungeon keeper whose dungeon heart isn't working right!"

"Well, that might explain a few things", Snyder speculated, looking at Ami, and using one hand to thoughtfully massage the stubble on his chin.

"I don't think there's anything important wrong with it," Ami defended the heart, feeling oddly protective about the artefact. "I can't be entirely sure it's in pristine condition after all the centuries it was in here, of course, but so far, it hasn't had any strange hiccups yet. Aside from my transformation," she admitted. Then her expression brightened. "Actually, that's a really fast and thorough way to get us all clean if you don't mind-"

"NO!" The Reaper stepped in front of Ami, leaned over her with fangs bared and eyes flashing, and growled "Keeper, if I have to put up with this again, I will try my best to kill each and every living thing in this dungeon!"

Ami nervously took a step back. "Err, well, ..." She straightened, a mischievous gleam appearing in her red-flashing eyes "Why don't you go and heat the bath water, then?" The Reaper jerked as if pulled upward and disappeared, accompanied by the soft whistling of air rushing in to fill the vacuum where he had been.

"A- are you sure you can keep that thing under control?" Snyder asked, shivering. He should have never went along with this. He really had to keep reminding himself that the blue-haired girl was a Keeper. One that was apparently scary enough to have the allegiance of a horned reaper, even if it was an uneasy alliance.

"Even if he rebelled, my ice attack could stop him with a single hit," Ami tried to calm down the redhead, who didn't seem convinced.

"How comes you have a horned reaper serving you in the first place?" Jered wanted to know. "You don't really seem to get along."Or that competent.

"It's a long story," Ami sighed. "Let's get cleaned up first."

---

Ami's dungeon did not contain a bath yet, so she added one. This wasn't so difficult, as all it required was several shallow basins, little more than pits in the ground. One reservoir for the cold water, one for the hot, two gender-separated pools with a dividing wall, and another empty reservoir to serve as a drain. Everything was connected by a few narrow channels that could be opened or closed at will with a stone slider. The necessary water she had conjured herself. There was probably a more elegant magical solution than having her minion fireball the warm-water reservoir to heat it up, but the current set-up was working out satisfactory. With a contented sigh, Ami slipped deeper into the liquid until it covered her up to her neck. Steam clouds were rising from the pool into the clammy dungeon air, obscuring Cathy at the other end of the pool. It had taken a lot of scrubbing and a few changes of the bath water, but at long last, everyone felt and smelled human again.

"So, to summarise, aside from the dungeon heart, you own a lot of empty corridors, a chicken farm, a library that until recently only had three books in it, a few dark corners full of beetles and goblin huts, and your only decent room has been claimed by a horned reaper?" Jered's rather chagrined voice penetrated the separating wall.

Ami blushed faintly, which had nothing at all to do with the fact that she was having a hard time not focusing her Keeper sight on whoever was talking to allow the men on the other side some privacy, oh no. She protested "Well, there are a lot of traps, too. And the treasure chamber."

"The gold is the only bright spot in this mess," the brown-haired men sighed. "As for your imp-operated traps - well, you only have four imps, and they are busy with other things most of the time, right? We are sooo doomed."

There was a splash as Ami sat up. "Please don't be so pessimistic. Anyone who wanted to come after us would have to find us first, and I'm not doing anything to draw attention. This place doesn't even have any exits to the surface." She had collapsed the one she had used, after all.

Snyder's voice cut in from the other side, still nervous "Ah, but I'm afraid you are wrong about that. This active dungeon heart of yours is pumping out dark power from whatever hells it is connected to with every heartbeat, and anything you don't use up spills out and taints the environment. After a while the effects will become highly visible."

Ami froze, remembering the spot of withered forest she had noticed when she took a first look at the surface. "Um, with side effects, do you mean things like plants dying?"

"Yes, that would be a common example of misfortune associated with a dungeon heart in the area," the acolyte confirmed.

"Oh. That's not good," Ami admitted after a short pause. "How likely is it that the Baron will remember which village you picked me up in?"

At this point, Cathy stirred. "It's almost inevitable that one of his pen-pushers has gathered up and filed the letter from the Mayor to the Baron," the blonde stated tiredly.

"What?" Ami stood up with a jolt, startling the other woman. "How fast would he be here looking for the dungeon then, in your opinion?"

"Well, he's going to be busy investigating what remains of Arachne's dungeon, cleaning out the survivors and rewarding his loyal soldiers, but he'll want to move fast. Getting his force ready to march after the victory feast will take a day or two, the journey another two," Jered pondered from across the wall, "I think we have barely a week, if this dungeon is anywhere close to where we first met." He did not sound happy.

"We don't have any time to lose, then! Snyder, you mentioned something about using up the dark power? How do I do that?" the blue-haired girl got a sinking feeling in her stomach.

From through the thin stone, the dampened voice of the acolyte answered "Well, ahem, I wouldn't call myself an expert on dark artefacts, but I would assume that you had to cast a lot of spells or to use it to fuel magical mechanisms here in the dungeon."

Stepping out of the pool, Ami looked at the washed fuku resting on the ground, still stained from the experiences of the night before. She doubted that she was ever going to be able to get it clean again, and wished she could just re-transform to replace it. Unfortunately, she was taking the Reaper's threat very seriously. "Hmm, I don't really know any extremely power-intensive spells."

Within the boiler room, the red demon raised an eyebrow when he overheard that statement. He could have sworn that the freeze spell was rather high magic. But the Keeper was continuing with her talk.

"I think it's about time we had a proper planning session. Snyder, could you please work out some wards that will keep the energy from going to the surface? Cathy, Snyder, please try to think of things that we can do to improve our situation."After a moment, she added, loud enough that the monster in the adjacent room could hear it "If you have any suggestions that don't involve killing everything, I will want to hear them later too."

---

Ami had created yet another new room, this one with a large round stone table in its centre, surrounded by seats. Mercury symbols adorned the walls, but aside from that it seemed rather empty. As war planning sessions went, this one was actually proceeding fairly smoothly, at least when compared to what she was used to. Usagi and Rei would already be fighting over something trivial, while Luna would be trying and failing to get them to listen. Ami wondered how her friends were doing before turning her thoughts back onto more pressing matters. What made this meeting slightly awkward was the fact that everyone, except Snyder and the Reaper, was wearing togas made of a coarse red material. Their former sewage-soaked outfits had proven to be unsalvageable, and now the red demon's throne room was missing some more curtains.

Cathy hid a yawn behind her hand, looking about as tired as Ami felt. Nobody had gotten any sleep since that night on the road, and that had been more than twenty-four hours ago. "... so I'll see about drilling the goblins and beetles into something resembling combat shape once you provide the necessary facilities, Snyder will be working on the warding scheme, and Jered will be drawing as many maps as he can remember," the blonde gave a short recap of the results, "while you will be expanding the dungeon and going over these books." She gestured toward the tomes looted from Arachne's library, which had been sorted into three piles. The useful, the potentially interesting, and the outright evil. The latter was by far the largest of the three, and the horned reaper, long since bored with the debate, was browsing through it with interest. "Oh yeah, and then we need to decide on what to do about getting more recruits..."

Ami nodded, typing on the keyboard of her computer resting in front of her. "I think I'll start with studying the imp creation spell, and then continue on searching for one of those portals the Reaper mentioned." Looking at the dark circles under her companion's eyes, she decided to call it a night. "Thank you all. I think we are done here for today. I'll repeat once more that I didn't intend to drag you all into this, so if you want to leave, I will do what I can to move you somewhere safe.."

"And risk the bounty hunters? Thanks, but no thanks," Jered stated as he stood up. "I really could use a good night's sleep. Is it night? It's so hard to tell the time in here."

---

The new bedrooms for the human inhabitants of the dungeon were all on the same corridor and modelled on Ami's own at her mother's apartment. Not too lavish, but still unusual in this world, if Cathy's gasp when she opened the door to her room was any indication. Of course, there was neither electric light or heating (yet), so a fireplace provided an acceptable substitute. Ami was about to undress and get ready for bed when the Reaper let himself in unbidden, closing the door behind him with a slam as he stalked in.

"What are you doing here!? Explain yourself!" Ami nearly shrieked, whirling to face the demon. He was carrying a black-bound tome under his left arm. The right held his ever-present scythe.

"I came to talk about your most serious weakness as a Keeper, and didn't want to do so in front of the hired help," the demon sneered.

Ami crossed her arms in front of her chest as she looked up at the beast. "And that is?"

"You don't know how to create new dungeon hearts, and thus are stuck in this useless location. Even if you beat back the first assault, the next ones will just be bigger, and your enemies will know where you are," the Reaper explained, as if it should be obvious.

Ami looked thoughtful for a moment. "Well, where can I learn how to make one? Are there any books?"

The Reaper laughed, actually laughed, at her. " 'Are there any books?' she asks. No, of course there are NOT. The knowledge of how to make dungeon hearts is one of the most treasured and well-protected lores in the Underworld. Nearly every Keeper has to re-invent it for himself, through arduous and dedicated study that only barely fits within a mortal lifetime, and only succeeds if said individual has the approval of the dark gods. Nobody would commit such a treasure to a book, as all that would serve would be to produce rivals!"

"Well then, do you have any suggestions on how to fix this, or are you only here to taunt me?" Ami snapped.

"I wouldn't be wasting my time here if I didn't have a solution," he threw the book in his arms onto her bed, where it bounced once on the springy mattress. "Obviously, you will have to get the knowledge from another Keeper, not that they would be inclined to share in any way. Fortunately, this book, which you were so quick to discard, could allow you to rip what you need right out of some pathetic fool's mind!"

"Possession?" Ami asked dubiously, leafing through the dark tome despite herself. As usual, written knowledge proved to be near-irresistible.

"Indeed. When possessing one of their underlings, a Dungeon Keeper can make full use of their skills and abilities. Thus, should you possess another Keeper, you would be able to create a new dungeon heart. The fun part," here the Reaper's grin became murderous, "is getting another Keeper to submit and agree to becoming your underling in the first place. You'll need to find one with no master and no spare hearts, too, then beat him so badly he sees no other option. Do you think you can manage this in less than a week, Keeper?" the monster taunted.

"Hmm," Ami muttered, putting one finger on her lips and wetting it so she could thumb through the book more easily. This was actually quite interesting, theory-wise, even if it contained a great number of unpleasant rants, ramblings, and anecdotes of the researcher who developed the spell. The final incantation seemed rather short and simple though, not really worthy of the many introductions that surrounded it.

Disappointed with the lack of reaction, the horned demon continued his taunts "Of course, with the way you are behaving, you will need a lot of practice before you can even think of taking over the mind of a willing minion, much less of a Keeper, who, even if subjugated, will do his best to resist your intrusion. In fact, I doubt you have the necessary mental fortitude."

Ami looked up, her eyes flashing red. She had some misgivings about this spell. Forcing total control on someone somehow seemed wrong, even if they agreed to it. Doing it for practice... she'd have to loathe the target a whole lot. Or maybe use it as punishment. Hmmm. Her eyes narrowed a bit and the corners of her mouth twitched up into an unnerving smile as she focused on the red demon. He actually took a step back.

"Keeper, I hope you aren't intending to try this on me! Your puny human mind couldn't hope to stand against the resistance I can put up!" he snarled angrily.

Ami's mouth widened into a toothy grin. "Perfect practice, in other words!"

"KEEPE-" In front of the horned reaper's eyes, the toga-clad form of the blue-haired girl blurred and darkened, turning into a coil of black lightning that unfurled and shot into him, arcing over his reddish skin. He staggered as if struck when something icy and determined slammed into his defences, only to meet the fires of his red hot fury. He could feel the Keeper's power trying to seize control, insinuating itself through the same connections that bound him to the dungeon heart, and blocked its path, pitting his own magic against it. Suddenly, he felt a numbing mental coldness rushing in like a battering ram, from a different direction, an even stronger blow than the attack that was still ongoing. What? This couldn't have been a distra-

Ami felt a brief moment of disorientation, followed by a burst of elation when her latest mental push just seemed to just break through the demon's resistance and shoved his presence aside. She looked down at herself, feeling strange and off-balance, but all opposition was gone as if it had never been. Yes, those were undoubtedly the beast's red pectorals, slightly whitened by hoarfrost. She felt a sudden urge to cover her chest. While she knew intellectually that she was in a male body, it wasn't easy fighting down instincts acquired during a lifetime. Unfortunately, there seemed to be nothing of the Reaper that she could access. No skills, no memories... no gain at all. Typical for one of his plans, she concluded sourly. Suddenly, she heard an inarticulate feminine scream of rage behind her, and was forcibly introduced to the drawbacks of being in a male body, through the inconsiderate application of a slender knee to her - or was that his - loincloth-covered crotch.

Yellow eyes watering, Ami dropped to her knees, and felt a light form jump on her back, or at least try to. With a loud grunt, her assailant stumbled backward. Wearing the Reaper's body, Ami turned to see a tiny blue-haired girl - herself, she realised dumbly - tear off the red toga that had caused her to stumble.

"KEEPER! BY ALL THE DARK GODS, WHAT DID YOU DO? FIX THIS! FIX THIS RIGHT NOW!" the girl screamed, her expression a mask of fury and bared teeth that was totally unfamiliar on the face that Ami saw every day in the mirror.

In shock, the Keeper took a step away from what was her own body advancing on her. "Reaper? Is that you?"

In response, the Reaper-wearing-Ami's-body lunged, catching the true owner of the body by surprise. Ami felt her shoulders hit the ground as she fell on her back. It almost didn't hurt in this body. Neither did the angry punches of what could only be the Reaper, who was venting his anger by climbing on Ami's chest and raining down blows. Realising that she wasn't in any real danger, the displaced senshi calmed down a bit. This side-effect had been rather unexpected. Was she really that small, she wondered as she watched her own body flail ineffectually, ignoring her unmotivated defences. How could she best restrain the demon wearing her flesh like this? She didn't want to cause any harm to what was basically herself, and this body she was in was was a lot stronger and more durable than what she was used to. Her contemplations were interrupted when she looked past the angry Reaper sitting on top of her and saw the bedroom door burst open, the space filling with the frightened faces of her three new hirelings, accompanied by a few goblins too. "Mercury, are you all right? We heard screa-"

Ami watched as Cathy's mouth dropped open and her eyes widened. The faces of her companions mirrored the expression. All three of them blushed deeply, making Ami realise what the situation had to look like to them. Here she was, looking like the Reaper's, lying on her back, while her possessed, sweating and naked form was straddling the red body. The beast wearing her flesh had moved on to attempted strangling, and was still screaming at the top of his, now her, lungs "...ONLY YOU COULD MESS UP LIKE THIS! I SHOULD-" The Reaper finally noticed that he had lost the attention of his target, a fact that made him nearly apoplectic with rage, and turned his head to look over his left shoulder at the new arrivals. Dishevelled Blue bangs hung straight down, covering the face in darkness except for a flashing red eye and the gleam of white teeth. "WHAT?" the Reaper snapped, spittle flying.

"Um, never mind," Jered said, being the first to re-boot his brain. "We'll come back later." The intruders fled, except for one especially slow goblin, who was grinning and chanting "Go go Keeper!" and had to be yanked out by his more alert companions before the door closed.

Ami felt the urge to bang her head against the ground in frustration and embarrassment, but the horned reaper in her body stood up and turned around, giving the impression that he was about to hunt down and murder anyone who had seen his strange predicament, current body be damned. Ami just managed to grab a slender ankle with a huge red and scaled hand. The Reaper went down, making Ami wince at the potential damage to her own body, but she couldn't just let him run through the halls naked and doing who-knows-what. "Calm down! CALM DOWN! How am I supposed to fix this if you don't cooperate?"

The argument finally seemed to get through, and the horned reaper in female form calmed down. Or maybe it was just the fact that Ami was using her Keeper power to keep the irate demon's form immobilised. "Fine," he snapped in Ami's voice, "get on with it!"

The senshi tried, she really did. "And put some clothes on," she ordered, bidding for time when her first attempts showed little results.

The reaper grumbled in irritation, and there was a circle of fire, tongues of flame snaking their way upwards, and then the Ami-lookalike was dressed - in the Reaper's usual outfit, complete with scythe. While the huge conjured metal pauldrons, chain and amulet, loincloth, and pair of greaves were all tailored to fit the more human form quite well, a major problem remained with the attire. It did not come with a bra, shirt, or anything of the sort, and was thus proudly presenting Ami's assets to the world.

Ami blinked. "That was not really what I meant. And cover your chest too!"

"Fix this and do it yourself! I am getting impatient!" the Reaper stomped his foot angrily, making its metal armour rattle.

It didn't impress Ami in her looming form at all. Do I really look that pathetic to him? "Well, there seems to be a bit of a problem," she stammered, with a sheepish expression that looked rather out of place on a horned reaper's features. "It doesn't seem to work."

"ARGH!" the Reaper made another lunge for Ami, this time armed with a scythe, which changed the threat factor considerably. The faux horned reaper wisely made a run for it. At least the Reaper's human body was bound to tire out before this one, or so she hoped.

 

Originally on 2009-10-20T22:15:00

Ami grinned smugly down at the Reaper, whose furious expression looked completely incongruous on the borrowed face of the blue-haired girl. She - for Ami had decided to use the appropriate pronouns for the body, rather than the spirit inhabiting it - was uncharacteristically not acting on her violent impulses and was glaring at her possessed body through red-flashing eyes instead, arms folded over her chest. Not that she had more violent options, as Ami had remembered after the first moment of panic that she - he? This was taking some getting used to - could just immobilise and disarm the neo-girl with his Keeper powers. He resumed leafing through the possession tome with large, unwieldy red fingers, grateful that the claws at their ends were surprisingly useful for this. "Hmm, yes. I think I see."

The Reaper looked up with sudden hope in her eyes. "Then hurry up and fix this!"

Payback time."Oh, I don't think I will." She savoured the Reaper's jaw dropping open as she drew her head back slightly in surprise.

"WHAT?"

"Well, I noticed that this body is not tired, as opposed to my own. If I don't have to sleep, then I have more time to prepare before the enemy arrives. Besides, you are much more manageable this way."

The Reaper clenched and unclenched her fists rapidly, going red in the face from anger. "You can't do that! That's MY body you have stolen! Give it BACK! This... this is unfair!"

Smug grins really came easily to this demon body, Ami thought as he loomed over the girl, feeling the skin covering his fangs recede. "So? I am a Keeper, as you like to point out so frequently. If you want this body back, you better start behaving, for example by covering up!" He pointed at the girl's bare chest, which was quivering freely as the Reaper shook in rage. "Oh, and do try to take proper care of my body. I would be less inclined to return to damaged goods, you see!"

The Reaper's lips formed an angry pout as she simmered at the realisation of her own helplessness, and after a while, she hissed "FINE!" and stomped her foot. "Ow! Stupid, useless, weak girl body!" Before she could limp off, she felt herself picked up by the Keeper's invisible hand.

"Now go to my room and sleep. I will retrieve you when I need you." With that, Ami dropped his possessed body down on the soft bed in his own bedroom, hoping that the bluff had worked and that no harsher measures would be necessary. Having to watch your own body walk around, or worse, having to restrain it, was very disconcerting.

---

If turning the pages of a book was difficult with the meaty paws of a horned reaper, then handling the keys of the tiny Mercury computer was even worse. To Ami's relief, he had still been able to make use of the device. He probably shouldn't have been worried about that, as he had always been able to access the machine even in civilian form. His magical attacks, however... well, he technically wasn't in Sailor Mercury form, so the fact that his attempt to cast Shabon Spray Freezing had actually worked was surprising by itself. However, the effort required to do so had nearly floored him, and the pool of power slumbering within the dungeon heart seemed much reduced afterwards. He wondered if the Reaper's body was so fire-aspected that using ice magic required additional effort. As interesting as the question was, it would have to wait until later. Time was wasting, and he didn't intend to stay long in this body anyway, so the question was of low priority.

Ami mentally went over the list of current issues again. His primary goal, getting home, was unachievable with his current abilities. Even if he could do it in the limited time, he would be leaving Cathy, Snyder, and Jered to their fate, which most of them didn't really deserve. Researching a solution would drain invaluable time that could be used to deal with more pressing issues, the root cause of which was the likelihood of the Baron showing up in less than a week. Normally, Ami's preferred response to this problem would have been to vacate the area. He didn't want to fight people who had done nothing wrong, but in this case, he regrettably had little choice. He was linked to the local dungeon heart, and it was too big to flee with. While he was reluctant to take the Reaper's words at face value, the fact that the destruction of a dungeon heart did bad things to the Keeper was pretty much incontrovertible after having watched what happened to Arachne. He wasn't entirely sure if the enemy Keeper had perished right there, or if whatever kind of creature she had been could even properly die, but it had been clear that she had been sucked into some kind of hellish other world.

Shivering involuntarily as he recalled the feel of that darkness, Ami sighed. He didn't want to die, doubly so if it meant going to hell undeservedly, something he didn't really want to think about a lot. As soon as the danger had passed, he would have to look into finding a way to disentangle himself from the dungeon heart and all the evil associated with it. Maybe Snyder's acolyte training would be helpful, but he rather doubted that, based on past performance. Right now, spending time on getting rid of the heart connection would be unhelpful, even counter-productive. Losing the dungeon heart would also cost him access to most of his resources, without deterring enemies in the slightest. With a sigh, he closed the file on that question. He really, really, hoped that this wasn't a mistake that would come back to haunt him in a week.

But enough of the unproductive fretting. He needed a way to survive the coming assault, and there were only two possibilities. Either he had to fend off the attack, hopefully without causing too much harm, or he had to acquire a new dungeon heart elsewhere. The latter option was more palatable, as it involved destroying another evil Keeper and not fighting innocents. Either way, more soldiers were required. At this point, he leaned back on his rock chair and looked at the vaulting stone ceiling with yellow eyes. What could he do about recruiting minions? More imps were a logical choice, they were obedient and required for any kind of fortification work. But fighters? Goblins were weak and impulsive, and he doubted their ability to not seriously injure whoever they were fighting, or whether they would even attempt to follow orders to that aim. Beetles and spiders? Nearly the same problems, and he didn't know if they were smart enough to understand a command like that in the first place. Human mercenaries? She would feel guilty if they gave their life fighting for her. Well, unless they were monsters like that warlock Nero. Feeling rather shocked at the ruthlessness of that idea, Ami nevertheless kept the option open, if reluctantly. He had never thought he'd actually think about youma fondly. At least, those never killed anyone in gruesome ways (if not for a lack of trying), and their energy drain would be really handy in this situation. With another sigh, Ami stood up and approached the stacks of books. Maybe one of those would hold useful answers.

---

"I see Mercury has been busy," Cathy said as she walked down one of the corridors, hair still frazzled from the night.

Jered nodded. Same as the swordswoman, he was clad in a red toga made from a curtain, and carefully manoeuvred through the mass of imps milling about without a plan or purpose "She seems certainly energetic. Somewhat surprising after last night."

The blonde blushed red like a tomato. "Let's not bring that up ever again. I mean, she and..? Brr. It doesn't bear thinking about!"

"Exactly! Exactly." Snyder was quick to agree. Somehow, his bowl cut was perfect, not one hair out of place, as Cathy noted with chagrin. There must have been some magic involved. "Where is she, anyway?"

"Let's just ask the imps," Jered suggested, grabbing one of the passing creatures by the shoulder. "Hey you, where's the Keeper?"

The bug-eyed imp looked up with something like surprise in its big black orbs, then pointed one of the three fingers of its right hand at the intersection leading to the briefing room, before it scuttled off to do who-knows-what.

The three adventurers arrived at their destination, only to hesitate at the doorstep. In their defence, the room contained a horned reaper, whose red-scaled form was still looming high, even seated and stooped over an open tome. He looked up and turned toward the humans, who were retreating nervously from the opening, and waved his free hand invitingly "Oh, good morning. Do come in!"

"Is- is he smiling?" Snyder whispered incredulously.

Jered grinned "Maybe all he needed to mellow out was a night of- OW! Cathy!"

The blonde rubbed her elbow. The brown-haired man's ribcage was somewhat bony. Ignoring his frown, she breathed a sigh of relief that the Reaper had apparently not overheard the comment, and asked "Um, is Mercury around?"

"I'm right here - just switched bodies with the Reaper so she could take a nap for me." Which certainly sounded better than "I just botched a possession spell, but don't worry, the situation is under control."

"Switched... bodies? Seriously?" Snyder took a look at the Reaper's scythe, which was, contrary to all expectations, leaning against one of the walls, out of reach of the demon. This gave at least some credibility to the idea.

"So you are Mercury in the horned reaper's body, and he is in yours? Are you sure that's a good idea?" Cathy asked, a hint of worry swinging in her voice.

"Well, it took some convincing" for some reason, Jered waggled his eyebrows silently when he heard that statement, "but she's bound to cause less problems in that form, at least I hope so. Actually, I think she might be able to assist with training like that, as she won't be killing anyone accidentally."

"It's not 'accidental' deaths I'm worried about with a reaper," Cathy muttered. Still, Ami could see that the woman was mulling the idea over. "Well, we might as well give it a try, provided that we use training weapons."

"That won't be hard, as I have noticed a certain lack of equipment - well - everywhere," Jered said. "Even the goblins seem mostly unarmed. How comes?"

Ami raised a hand behind his head in an embarrassed gesture that didn't fit the hulking demon body he was wearing at all. "Ah, well, that would be because most of what they were holding was replaced by what my clothes-replacing transformation created." Seeing his companion's long faces, he quickly added "I already have an idea on how to remedy that, don't worry!"

Ami reached out with his Keeper power and, after checking that the Reaper was indeed decent, grabbed her from her room, and transported her before present company. Metal and chains clanked as the blue-haired girl wobbled and waved her arms in order to catch her balance. The adventurers just stared at the young female wearing the rather minimalistic horned reaper outfit, although it had been amended with a strip of red fabric wrapped around the chest. Notably, Snyder and Jered were staring longer than was strictly necessary.

"Keeper! Are you going to finally fix this mess?" the Reaper immediately rounded on the largest figure in the room, teeth grinding audibly in the sudden silence.

"No. I called you here because I have a task for you. We have a distinct lack of weapons, so could you make a few more scythes, please?" The polite request just didn't sound right coming from a huge red hell-spawned abomination. The Reaper's cheeks immediately reddened with anger as she heard that.

"What? Arm your unworthy minions with my scythes?"

"Not exactly. Cathy, do you still have that hammer?" Ami turned her attention to the blonde, who nodded in confirmation, but looked puzzled. "Good. If we fold the scythe blades upwards so they point in the same direction as the haft, then we can use them as reasonable spears."

"Spears? SPEARS? Argh!" the Reaper's chest was heaving as she breathed in and out deeply in an effort to calm down, and one of her delicate eyebrows was twitching. Ami was getting worried about the body suffering a stroke.

"That makes sense," Cathy pondered, blue eyes twinkling in amusement, "takes much less time to train someone to use a spear properly than anything else. Besides, it's a much more practical weapon than a scythe."

"Oh, that does it! DIE!" The Reaper's barely-existing patience was finally overcome by the anger at this slander of her signature weapon. With a cry of fury, she hurled herself in the blonde's direction, scythe held high - only to be stopped short as she felt an invisible grip restrain her.

"Now, Reaper, remember our previous discussion," Ami chided. "You want this body back, right?"

The demon in a girl's body kept struggling for a while until it sank in just how little her efforts were helping. Besides, her muscles started to ache after that little bit of exertion. Oh, how she hated being stuck like this! "All right," she growled finally. She threw her weapon down with a loud clang. A flash of red and a wave of heat later, she was holding a new one, which clattered on the floor next to the first one.

"Snyder, were you having any success hiding the emanations of the dungeon heart from the surface?" Ami asked, distracting the redhead from watching the blue haired girl bounce around conjuring more weapons.

"Ah, I'm sorry to inform you that my efforts haven't met with success yet," the acolyte said with a nervous smile, "in fact, the energy output of the heart leads to rapid degradation of my wards, and total failure quickly follows."

"In other words, they burst into flame," Cathy mocked. "How utterly unexpected."

"Don't worry about it," Ami interrupted. "Could you go to the library instead and use the crystal ball to call a certain Nicodemus Asbraxe and buy all the maps you can get? I don't mind if there is some overlap. Once you are done with that, experiment with different materials, please. Maybe it's enough to just chisel a larger ward into stone. "

"Oh, certainly. Why, with my considerable expertise, I will be able to obtain them at a good price too, I'm sure," the young man smiled, already moving toward the exit.

Ami watched the last corner of his white robes disappear around the corner, and addressed Jered, who was still watching the Reaper, much to his more conservatively dressed girlfriend's annoyance. "Jered, can you go around and make a list of things that we are lacking and can't improvise or magic up ourselves? Oh, and don't go into the Heart Chamber. The traps are indiscriminate."

"Okay," the wavy haired man nodded.

Cathy faced Ami's red bulk expectantly, wondering what her task would be.

"Ah, yes, that's quite enough scythes, Reaper. Thanks. Cathy, can you please take those to the goblins and start converting them? Imps, give her a hand." Ami paused at the blonde's nod and watched as a bunch of imps filed in, each one picking up a weapon and then lining up behind the woman like ducklings behind the mother duck. "Once you are done, I would be grateful if you started training them. The beetles too, if possible. Dull practice weapons only to start with."

That left the horned reaper. Ami contemplated letting her train with the others, but one look at the angry furrows marring her brow killed and buried that idea. "You, come with me and stay out of trouble. I may just have a task for you."

---

Hours later, clouds of grey dust wafted through the room, coating the precariously swaying stacks of open books on the rickety table with a layer of stone particles. Sharp-edged stone chips went flying as a heavy hammer struck again and again, propelled by a slender figure whose blue eyes gleamed with manic glee.

"I think that's enough, Reaper. It stopped moving a while ago." Ami was towering in front of the table, scaled hands leaning on the wood as he looked down at the scribbled notes, frowning. Behind him, a group of imps dragged and shoved a fresh stone cube about twice as tall as themselves into room, accompanied by horrible scraping noises. "I said THAT'S ENOUGH!" He had to shout to make himself heard over the din.

"Aww." The Reaper's pout on Ami's face might have looked cute if the owner hadn't been plastered in dust that stuck to her sweat-soaked skin, it's paleness only interrupted by streaks of crimson where flying stone splinters had drawn blood. The body was panting with exertion, though the demon inside sounded happy, and the lack of red light in the eyes indicated an unusual absence of anger. "Make a new one! Hurry!" She bounced up and down with excitement, waving the sledgehammer about as if it were her trusty scythe. Under her metal-clad feet, the remains of what seemed to be a half formed statue were ground deeper into the dust.

"Experiment number eighty-six: failure due to fused legs," Ami noted down, looking at the data on her palmtop's screen once again to determine what she was doing wrong. Taking the spirit animating the conjured flesh of an imp and fusing it with stone had seemed like such a promising idea at the start. Use a spell, get an obedient and durable rock soldier out of the deal. It hadn't turned out to be quite that simple. The only one who was enjoying the experiments so far was the Reaper, who had enthusiastically taken up the job of disposing of the failures. The remains of previous attempts were stacked along the walls, big blocks of multi-coloured rock with distorted faces, grasping malformed hands that reached out of the flat sides, and even more disturbing tangles of limbs and other features. For some reason, the imps had thought it a good idea to enhance the mad-scientist lab atmosphere by using the horrid sculptures as holders for suitably dribbly candles. At this point, Ami wouldn't be surprised if one of the bug-eyed servants suddenly turned out to speak with a lisp and started calling him "Mashter."

"Experiment number eighty seven: base material basalt, twenty-six percent increase in mana density over previous experiment." The towering horned form turned toward the innocent stone block and extended its hands, forming a sphere of green-streaked darkness between them. It shot forward and hit the rock, whose already dark stone surface blackened even more and flowed like mud as it grew taller and slimmer. Lumpy features became more defined, until finally a tall, three-fingered, roughly humanoid figure stood in front of Ami. Very roughly humanoid. It had two eyes and a mouth, but all the proportions were off and asymmetric. However, nothing was missing or too much, and there seemed to be at least some awareness behind these black basalt orbs. Success at last? Ami held up a hand, causing the Reaper to put her raised hammer down in disappointment. "Wait, this one might actually work."

"It is incredibly ugly and should be put out of its misery," the demon in a female body commented. The golem's head turned around to face her with a grinding noise.

"I need them to be able to fight, not to be beautiful. Golem, throw a punch!" Ami ordered, walking in a circle around his creation as he inspected it from all sides.

The golem obliged. Its fist struck the wall with considerable force, then clattered to the ground, most of the arm still attached.

"Can I get rid of Arms-Fall-Off-Boy now?" the Reaper asked eagerly.

Ami sighed and nodded, and immediately, the sounds of violent demolition recommenced. The enthusiasm with which the Reaper took to killing was rather disturbing. Ami hoped with all his heart that those little moans and gasps he heard over the clanging impacts and crumbling noises were only signs of strain and effort. Better to just focus on learning more from the most recent failure. Hmm, the main difference between this experiment and the last, other than stone texture, had been the amount of energy spent on -

A soft thumping sound, very different from the loud strikes of metal against rock, along with the cessation of all other noise, alerted him that something was wrong. He turned around and saw his motionless original body lying on the debris of the latest failed creation, the hammer that had slipped from her fingers forgotten on the ground next to it. In a near panic, Ami ran the few steps over there and knelt down next to the Reaper and picked her up. Still breathing, good. He quickly diagnosed that she had passed out from exhaustion. He probably should have expected something like this. The Reaper simply wasn't used to a body that could get tired, and had ignored all the warning signs. Ami winced. That wouldn't feel good once he returned to that form. Maybe the Reaper could keep it a while longer. Yes, that sounded sensible.

There was an upside to this sudden collapse, though. With the Reaper unconscious, this was too good an opportunity for finding out what was wrong with the senshi transformation to pass up. Ami dropped off the Reaper in her bedroom and removed what little she was wearing before tucking her under the covers, then disappeared into thin air and re-appeared next to Cathy, who let out a startled shriek as the towering monstrous form suddenly appeared next to her.

"Shit! Don't do that!" the blonde narrowed her eyes at Ami, making the scar running down her right cheek twitch, and waved a long wooden stick at him. Behind her the two rows of ten goblins each collapsed into complete chaos.

"You bunch of wretches! Who said you could relax? Back in line! Maka, I saw that!" Cathy shouted, whirling back to face the little green rapscallions, most of which were still wearing short blue miniskirts and formerly white leotards.

There was much grumbling and stumbling around and crashing into each other, but slowly the mess sorted itself back out into two rows of triangular-eared humanoids holding long wooden sticks straight up, for generous definitions of "up". "Yes, Sir!" answered a high-pitched chorus.

"That's better," the swordswoman commented.

Ami noted that the blonde's toga was torn in places. "Did they give you any trouble?"

"Only at the beginning. It seems that getting something into their dense little skulls takes a certain amount of force," the woman replied, grinning.

A closer look revealed that many of the goblins were sporting bruises and welts, especially on their heads. "Right. I will be doing some experiments in a few minutes that may well cause everyone to end up in a uniform like the goblins."

"NO WAY!"

Cathy tried to argue, but Ami just continued talking over her protests. It helped that he was in a body with much larger and more powerful lungs than the blonde. "I am sorry about the inconvenience, but everyone of you had better find some privacy and remove everything they intend to keep from their person. I will be starting in a little while, and will send the imps to alert you when everything is over." Without a further word, he disappeared to give the same warning to Snyder and Jered, who both protested even more vehemently than Cathy, but to no avail.

After making sure through Keeper sight that everybody had acted on his advice, Ami teleported himself to the Dungeon Heart and deposited his Mercury computer nearby, open and in scanning mode. Now came the more embarrassing part. He might be in the Reaper's body, but he had no idea how he summoned his gear, so he would have to remove it first. All of it. Sure, there was a good chance that simply de-transforming would get it back, but why take an unnecessary risk? This was one of the situations where being a teenage girl stuck in a male body felt like a rather large problem. Ah well, nobody had ever died from embarrassment, and he wanted to be a doctor later, so he had best get it over with quickly. At least on this body, nobody would ever be able to spot a blush.

Preparations complete, Ami called out "Mercury Power, Make Up!" and felt the familiar transformation, which ended with him, still male, in a short pleated miniskirt and a white leotard with large ribbons, which looked even more ridiculous than it sounded. A quick grab at his ear confirmed that, yes, his scanner now worked even in this body. Staring directly at the Dungeon Heart, he transformed again, and another three times for repeated measures of the data he was recording. Satisfied, he popped over to the Reaper's bedroom and removed the senshi uniform from the unconscious girl and stashed it away in the wardrobe. He would want to have it available once he took his body back. And now it was time to get out of this familiar but embarrassing outfit and back into the horned Reaper garb. When finished, he sent some of the imps, now also fukued, to alert the other dungeon denizens that the "danger" was over.

---

With an angry grunt, Ami kicked her newest failed creation. The unfortunate statue was catapulted out of the door and impacted the wall, where it shattered into thousands of pieces. This stone golem business wasn't working out as planned. The statues were becoming more lifelike, but he still had not been able to fix any of the brittleness issues. Besides, he was getting the suspicion that the bound spirits would not be able to exert any more force than a regular imp.

"Heard that noise? I think Mercury is over there," Snyder's voice approached from outside. Soon after, he and Jered appeared in the opening of the door and stared into the lab. The weasel-faced man was looking quite tall next to the red-haired acolyte and was holding a strip of paper.

"Mercury? Are you here?"

Both men suddenly went very pale and backed away into the wall, shaking. Ami looked into their wide eyes and said "I know the room looks a bit bad, but that seems like an overrea-"

"Who the hell are you?" Jered shouted, his hand disappearing into his toga and rummaging for a knife, while Snyder sank to his knees muttering "...second one... she has two of them... " under his breath.

Ami seemed puzzled for a moment before understanding dawned. The disguise field is working in this body? He had felt more like Sailor Mercury, but different, too. Now that he thought about it, his initial body hadn't de-transform, did it? He'd have to remember de-transforming before leaving this one. The regular Reaper was bad enough, a magically boosted one... "I am Sailor Mercury, " he flat out told the two men, which was enough to break the spell, "it was a side effect of what I did earlier, sorry. Don't worry about it."

There were two surprised gasps from the adventurers, before they shook their heads as if to clear away the cobwebs.

"Ah, I see." Jered peered into the lab, taking in dust, debris, and broken statues everywhere. "Not having much success with whatever it is you are doing?"

"No," Ami admitted, "Or rather, it's a partial success. I can make animated statues, but they consume so much energy when moving that I can only maintain one or two, and that at low activity level or they fall apart."

The red-headed acolyte, who had picked himself up from the floor, coughed to clear the dust from his throat. "Oh, that's normal. Golems always are energy hogs. I had the opportunity to see the one in the kingdom of Neverdark. It runs on a mana battery that needs to recharge for two months for every hour of action," the acolyte proudly offered his knowledge on the matter.

"Would you happen to know why this is so?" Ami asked. She didn't have two months to charge some batteries!

"Not exactly. This is advanced magical theory. Still, it has something to do with the material being hard and inflexible, so every movement involves either expending magic to make the solids temporarily soft, or banishing what's in the way and conjuring new material where it needs to be replaced. Usually, the latter method is chosen, as it isn't much more expensive than the former and also makes the golem nearly invulnerable. In any case," the redhead coughed again, "it is like constantly casting a very high level spell. Extremely draining."

"I see. So the solidity is the problem." Ami's statement was not a question, and a far-away, thoughtful look flickered over the horned reaper's features, which certainly had not been made for it. Picture of icy tubes filled with liquid flitted through Ami's mind. Hmm, yes. Fragility would be a problem and strength would remain one... unless... maybe hydraulics... hmm, that would be slow but...

"Hello? Mercury?" Jered was waving his piece of paper in front of the red demon face, a feat he wouldn't even have dreamed about even a day before.

"Oh, sorry, yes. This is the list of things we need and lack?" Ami took it and skimmed over it. It was uncomfortably long. "Well, my imps are digging in a direction that the Reaper informed me would lead to a 'portal', which she expects to give us access to some Underworld cities. Maybe we can go shopping there."

 

Originally on 2009-10-23T19:08:00

The long, serpentine tunnel leading toward the portal was growing only slowly. The imps driving it forward had trouble piercing the more solid rock with their picks, and the problem was only getting worse the farther they penetrated into deeper layers. Reaching the Underworld gate took long enough for the Reaper, still in Ami's body, to wake up and promptly get herself into trouble again.

Jered and Cathy stood to the left and right of the blue-haired girl, each having slung an arm under one of her shoulders. Brief periods of struggles to get loose interrupted longer intervals of dangling limply from their grip, head hanging. The spikes on the girl's huge metal pauldrons added an element of risk to the task of supporting her. Ami received the trio at the door to his lab, towering in the door frame as only a huge, barrel-chested horned demon could. He frowned at the three figures, the two taller of which were wearing red togas. A blue choker with a star decoration informed Ami that the blonde was wearing a sailor fuku under the red curtain cloth, but he dismissed that information as unimportant and instead focused on the unhealthy green colour of the Reaper's face. Arms akimbo, he asked. "What did she do now?"

As if in response, the sick-looking girl coughed, and three small yellow feathers flew from her mouth, one of which stuck to the left side of her chin.

"Oh no, she didn't. Please tell me she didn't." Ami's red hand balled into a fist and covered his fanged mouth as he hoped against hope that his suspicions wouldn't be confirmed.

"Sure did. Walked up to the chicken farm, grabbed a chick, and took a large bite out of it when it wouldn't fit whole." Cathy sounded rather amused as she quickly summarised the situation. Her brown-haired companion looked merely disgusted.

"There's - cough - something wrong with your chickens, Keeper," the Reaper complained through gagging noises, "that one tasted terrible!"

"I don't eat raw meat! Humans don't! No wonder you are feeling sick. I'm feeling queasy even thinking about what you just did with my body!" The others had the rare opportunity to watch a horned reaper pale, at least until Ami hid his face in his palms. "Just... eww. I hope the healing spell works on this!" To his relief, the necromancy, while not tailored to pumping out a stomach, was able to work its magic on the pieces of dead chicken, and the disgusting meat was removed from his poor, mistreated original body. He was getting serious doubts about letting the Reaper continue to inhabit it, despite the advantage of he himself being huge and tireless for it. Unbidden, even more embarrassing failures related to the misuse of bodily functions came to his mind.

Gritting his teeth at the mental pictures, Ami activated his scanner to see if he hadn't missed anything that was wrong with the girl sitting on the cold floor, and let out a small gasp when the screen came up with warning lights. While an imp cleaned up the grisly remains of the Reaper's meal, chittering disapprovingly, Ami rapidly tapped tapped the keys of his computer, trying to make sense of the readings. Even as he watched, the counter associated with the contamination alert sluggishly crept upwards, approaching the three percent mark. He didn't know yet what exactly this implied, but one thing was clear: it was all the Reaper's fault. The Mercury computer snapped shut, and the visor over the demonic figure's yellow eyes disappeared into a haze of sparkles as he dropped the senshi transformation. "That does it. I want my body back before you mess it up even more!" Ami said in a strained tone of voice.

A flash of blackness connected the bulky red form of the horned reaper to the diminutive one of the under-dressed girl on the ground, and the demon disappeared into a swirl of darkness that was sucked into the smaller body. "Finally! Free of this humiliating body! Ami could feel the searing heat of the Reaper's triumphant thoughts as their minds touched briefly.

My body is perfectly fine! Now GET OUT! With a metaphorical kick in the arse, Ami evicted the demon from her poor, aching body. An ink-like blot of black shot out of her forehead and into the corridor, past a surprised Cathy and Jered. It bounced off the wall as it resolved itself into the form of the Reaper, and the tall demon landed flat on the floor tiles with an earth-shaking crash.

"Ow!" Ami groaned, standing up with slow and cautious movements, nearly yelped in pain at the soreness in her muscles. "Didn't it ever cross your mind that when your limbs start hurting, you should stop doing what you are doing?"

"And stop killing? Are you insane?" the Reaper snapped back, fangs bared and murder in his eyes as he prepared to vent about his recent imprisonment in such an unworthy, weak mortal body.

"If you cause any more trouble, I'll put you into a chicken next time!" Ami threatened. Once I figure out how.

The Reaper's already opening mouth shut with an audible click. After a moment, he growled "Whatever." and stalked off, down the corridor, kicking an imp who was too slow to get out of his way. She could nearly feel the fury radiating off him.

Ami gagged as the taste in her mouth struck fully home. It was as if something had died in there, she thought, before remembering that that had, in fact, happened. "Blargh."

"You are looking mighty green there," Cathy said, grabbing Ami's arm near the shoulder to steady her swaying form.

"Thank you," the young Keeper answered. Ow! Every movement hurt. She wasn't that out of shape, was she? Just how much exercise had her body gotten when the Reaper possessed it? Slowly and on tired, wobbly legs, she walked back into her lab. Snyder looked up from where he was crouching in the light of dribbling candles held by strange, distorted stone limbs protruding from the rock. His eyes went wide when he saw the girl staggering in.

"Ahem. Mercury? Are you all right? And aren't you cold wearing that?"

Ami looked down at herself. Right. Reaper outfit with added strip of red cloth to cover her chest. She quickly weighted the advantages of changing into the more modest sailor senshi uniform waiting in her room against the potential pain of going through all the movements required to get into the outfit. "I'm fine," she decided. What she was wearing was less revealing than a bikini, anyway. "Imps! A chair! And a few glasses of water!"

When the furniture arrived, she let herself drop into it with a sigh of relief. "So, Snyder, are you making any progress with that warding scheme?" she inquired with a polite smile.

The redhead cleared his throat and pointed at a series of scorch marks on the floor with his chisel. "I'm afraid that my experiments with re-routing the power drained by my wards into a battery is not working out as planned yet."

"Mainly because you have no idea how to construct a magical battery in the first place, right?" Cathy taunted. The blonde had stepped into the room and leaned against the book-covered table as her blue eyes took in the various unfinished or destroyed creations strewn around the room.

"I'll have you know that I'm making some progress deriving first principles from each attempt," the acolyte defended himself. "See, I'm thinking of applying Dorian's Theory of Gnostic-"

"All right, all right, no need to bore me with arcane details that I won't understand anyway. How's your home-grown monster research coming along, Mercury?" the blonde turned toward Ami with a hopeful expression. "Please say it's going well. Trying to drill discipline into the goblins is like trying to pull teeth from a rabid wolf."

"Ah, well," Ami sat up straighter as she unknowingly went into lecture mode "I have been investigating several methods to reduce the energy consumption of my golems. The first attempt was with using a liquid base instead of a solid one. Water, mud of various consistencies and compositions, tar, even some molten rock obtained from one of Snyder's more spectacular failures. However, none of them were able to keep a shape and just flattened into puddles and rippled sadly until the spell dispersed. You are standing in one of the more successful attempts, I believe."

Cathy looked at her feet. The puddle underneath her soles was trying, unsuccessfully, to climb up her boots. She stomped once in surprise, dispersing the water. It ceased moving.

"And that," Ami sighed, "is the second problem with using liquid bodies. They lose cohesion too quickly. Which brings us to my next sequence of experiments. Liquid bodies within an elastic hull." She took a sheet of notes from her desk. "Subject one-hundred and thirty two, burst. Subject one-hundred and thirty three, unable to move under its own weight. Subject one-hundred and thirty four, looted by goblins as novelty pillow. I think I need not go on."

"So that's where they got that thing from," Cathy muttered to herself. "No useful results yet?"

"I can run a tiny solid golem to drain off excess energy from the dungeon heart by now," Ami answered, "that's a small success. I'm also investigating a number of other promising leads. For example, a golem with mechanical joints could get around the whole deformation issue. However, progress is slow, as I don't have a spell that can create or assemble all required parts by itself yet, so I had to work with a crude prototype arm sculpted by the imps." Ami took a long breath and pointed at a collection of cylinders attached to each other that, in the right light, might pass as a mechanical arm at first glance. It was strapped to a rock block and rattled in an unsettling way.

"I take it something went wrong?"

"Aside from the production difficulties, I found out that the animating spirit will only affect the object it is merged with, none of the other components. While I could just summon more into the individual parts, which I attempted on that prototype, they simply don't work together, and all I get is a loosely connected, uncoordinated, twitching mess. In addition, the power drain of using so many spells on the same warrior, albeit less than with solid golems, is still considerable." Ami took a deep breath. She started to talk faster and faster. "So what I need to do is research a completely new spell to craft the parts, and another one to get the different components to cooperate. Or alternatively, one that animates all parts at once. In addition, I really need to find out out how mana batteries are built, and I also want to look into hollow solid golems. For the latter, I think I might need that fabrication spell, and fragility might be an issue. On top of that, I need to manage the dungeon and expand its defences. So much to do, and I don't even know what to start with!"

Cathy cocked her head. "Well, I can't help with any of the magic stuff, but to me it sounds that you are trying to do too many things by yourself. What you need is assistants."

Snyder looked up from his task of hammering another rune into a rectangular plate of stone "I am expanding my abilities by leaps and bounds, I assure you, so-"

"Competent assistants," Cathy elaborated.

"Where am I supposed to find assistants? Nobody is going to want to work for a Keeper, especially not one wanted by the Baron!" Ami winced, perhaps at the thought, perhaps at a twinge from one of her many sore muscles.

"On the surface. Keepers never seem to lack for minions from the Underworld. Remember those goblins? They had little hesitation to sign up with you. Anyone from the Underworld is probably going to be an utter bastard, though," the blonde pointed out. "Plan accordingly. You'll just have to come along on the shopping trip and find some hirelings."

---

The portal reminded Ami of pictures of Stonehenge. Four arches, composed of two tall stone pillars with a horizontal crossbar on top, were arranged in such a way that they touched at the corners. The area inside the square they formed glowed with hazy images of faraway territories and emitted a warm orange light that suffused the spacious cave that the construct was located in, causing the group of comparatively tiny figures assembled in front of it to cast long shadows.

"I don't know. Are you sure this is a good idea?" Ami asked, nearly drowning in the heap of pillows she was lounging on. On Jered's behest, the goblins had found a huge chair, sawed off its legs, and added some cushioning and horizontal bars to its sides. To top things off, Ami had been asked to take a seat on the makeshift palanquin.

The brown-haired man nodded. "Naturally. This way, you won't look infirm, merely decadent."

Ami pushed herself up higher in her seat so she could frown properly at him. The dull ache in her muscles that she felt at the movement reminded her uncomfortably of the fact that he might have a point.

"Don't look at me like that. 'Decadent' is very much the only impression you can make with your army in this state." Jered extended his arm, pointing at the gaggle of fuku-clad goblins who were more or less following Cathy's instructions, makeshift spears that had once been scythes held vertically into the air. The blonde woman barked a command, and the small green humanoids stopped, even though some bumped into each other, and at least one straggler tried to run up and hide within the formation. A wave of wobbling spears marked the progress of its obscured body.

"Oh? Is that why you talked me into dressing up like this?" the swordswoman glared at the weasel-featured man, pulling down the hem of her much-too-short miniskirt as she turned.

"You must admit that it looks better when the entire military is in uniform, and this scratchy curtain cloth is no picnic either," Jered replied, patting his own improvised toga. "Besides, what our dear leader is wearing is even more revealing, and you don't see her complain about it, do you?"

Cathy spared a short glance at the blue-haired girl, who was still in her modified reaper outfit and baring way more skin than the adventuress was comfortable with. The corners of her lips went down slightly. "Well, we already knew that she has no problem with wearing embarrassing things. At least we left Snyder behind."

"Well, if it helps, I think you look adorable," the wavy-haired man tried to defuse his companion's temper, "but I think we should get going, time is wasting."

---

The Underworld city was not what Ami had expected, not that she had a very precise mental image of what one would look like to begin with. However, there was a notable absence of warped little sheds huddling against each other, of city walls, and of winding little alleys. Instead, the initial impression she got when she was carried through the magical gate on her swaying palanquin, flanked by two rows of spear-holding goblins, was that of crushing heat. A surge of hot air washed over her exposed skin as soon as she had cleared the veil-like distortions of the portal, and she got her first good look at the area beyond. It was an open plaza located in one of the side arms of a wide canyon, whose steep slopes became near vertical at the top, until they disappeared into the smoke-filled darkness above. Presumably, there was a ceiling somewhere beyond the murk, but she couldn't see it from her position. Rather than being dark, the area was well lit by a stream of slow-flowing lava at the bottom of the canyon. Its glow gave a reddish tint to everything, similar to the interior of a forge. It took Ami a moment to realise that the black, leaf-like shapes covering most surfaces near the fiery river were, in fact, plants. They must have adapted to better absorb the sparse light they get in here, the studious girl mused.

The new arrivals were not alone on the portal plateau. About an arrow's flight away stood what looked like an unfriendly welcoming committee, about a score of green humanoids with large, knobbly noses, thick eyebrows, and broad mouths. They were considerably taller than Ami's own goblins, held hammers or cudgels, and were wearing loincloths and little else. The pot-bellied things started pointing and jeering when they noticed Ami's skirted troupe. "What are those?" the inexperienced Keeper asked.

"Trolls," Cathy replied, the grip on her own spear tightening. "They are about as strong as humans, but their leathery hide is hard to pierce. They must have been camped out here for a while, look at those empty beer barrels."

"The fat blob over there has to be their leader," Jered added. He was referring to a large, near spherical mass of fatty red folds, covered by a breastplate. It had no legs, but still managed to stand as tall as the trolls that were giving it a wide berth. The creature was dragging itself toward Ami's group with the aid of its long, nearly comically thin arms. Its companions were following it with a slow, swaggering walk, posturing to look as big and intimidating as possible. Lop-sided grins appeared on the green faces, revealing large molars protruding like tusks from their lower jaws.

"Are they going to fight? They are between us and the entrance to the city," Ami pointed out. The wall of approaching green-skins blocked the way to the ramp leading out of this side-gorge and up to the city proper, which was located within the rocky walls of the main cavern. Lit openings covered the canyon's slopes nearly down to the lava level, some of them big, some of them small. As much as they varied in size, they also varied in the quality of the masonry. Where at some points pillars loomed, framed by straight lines and topped by proud gargoyles, other locations showed a predominance of simple holes hastily hewn into the wall. The more affluent-looking dwellings seemed to cluster around the lower parts of the cave, according to Ami's preliminary analysis. Connecting the labyrinth of entrances, windows, and terrace-like protrusions was a network of stairs and promenades that, with their horizontal and diagonal arrangement, formed a pattern that reminded her of a house of cards.

"They are probably going to see how much we are willing to pay to avoid a fight," Jered said. He felt vulnerable in just this thin toga, which wouldn't offer any protection against a blow by one of the trolls' weapons. The goblins, who were moving closer to each other as the larger green figures formed a large semi-circle around the party, didn't do much to re-assure him. Some were already looking back at the portal with longing.

The meaty cadence of blunt instruments smacking into open palms was well-calculated for maximum intimidation factor, and the biggest trolls occupied the front ranks, looming in a professional, threatening way. The whole procedure had the feel of a well re-hearsed performance, Ami thought.

"You puny weaklings there! You are trespassing on our territory! You must pay us for this transgression, or face the consequences!" the blob-like leader bellowed, and his thugs nodded and made approving grunts.

While Ami was thinking about an appropriate reply, the thing's body odour hit her, having much the same effect as an unexpected slap. She blinked in surprise and startled astonishment, unwilling to believe that she had really just smelled that. The goblins were more vocal in their reaction, making retching noises and holding their noses. The lack of concentration didn't do much for their ability to keep a palanquin steady. The girl on it let out a startled yelp as it swayed right and left, prompting much sniggering from the ranks of the trolls. "I see your point," she held up her hands in a placating gesture. "Why don't you discuss the payment details with him?" Ami pointed with her thumb over her shoulder, at the portal. She flexed her Keeper power. Grab! The Reaper disappeared from his throne. Drop! He landed in front of the portal, a look of angry confusion on his face. Shove! The red demon staggered through the gate.

The watching trolls turned their heads as the portal flared orange, and a blurry silhouette peeled itself out of the glow, approaching with clanging steps. When the Reaper's towering form became fully visible, along with his furious grimace, the grins on their faces disappeared. The red demon stopped, turning his head left and right as he took in his new surroundings, and then smiled. He raised his scythe high, leaned back, and let out an ear-shattering roar. Ami could feel the wood under her fingers shake from the intensity of the sound, and suppressed the urge to cover her ears. In the back of her mind, the part that she associated with being a Keeper, something snapped, and when she returned her gaze to the shadowed face of the demon, backlit by the swirling energies of the portal, she realised what. A shiver of dread ran down her spine as she looked into those yellow pupils, flaring like miniature suns.

"FREE! Free at LAST!" The monster took a clanking step forward, his grin widening, and raised his scythe so it glittered in the light. "And now, you useless worm of a Keeper, we shall see how well you fight when you can't teleport around at will! And if you even think of running, I'll gleefully slaughter everyone in this city! You will suffer for all the humiliations you have inflicted on me!"

 

Originally on 2009-10-25T18:24:00

A shudder went through Ami's palanquin when the goblins realised that they were between a furious horned reaper and his target. The beast barrelled down on the group of fuku-clad greenskins, and their ranks broke as they scattered like frightened chickens, each one predictably attempting to save its own hide first. All discipline was dropped by the wayside, along with the Keeper's litter.

Ami felt a moment of weightlessness as the cushioned bottom of the re-purposed chair fell away underneath her. Her seat had been facing away from the portal that the Reaper had stepped through, and she had been in the process of twisting her torso awkwardly to face him when the goblins let her fall. At least the pile of pillows underneath her softened the impact when she struck the ground. The palanquin toppled, dumping her on the warm rock of the floor, where she rolled to a stop on her belly. This gave her a good view of the red blur that was the reaper, a gleaming arc denoting the path of the scythe blade held over his right shoulder as he stormed toward her.

Despite the protest of her aching muscles, she managed to pull herself to one knee, and unleashed her trademark attack, the Shabon Spray Freezing. Rock cracked under the demon's armoured hooves as he launched himself into the air with a mighty bound, clearing the compact pillar of glowing bubbles shooting in his direction, and ascending higher than he was tall. At the apex of his leap, he brought down his scythe, firing a large flaming sphere at the kneeling girl. Ami's eyes went wide as she tracked the monster's progress with her head tilted backward. She let out a gasp as the fireball approached, casting her pale features in bright relief. With a surge of adrenaline, she threw herself to the side, drawing upon reserves she didn't know she had. She felt a tremor go through the ground while she rolled away from the attack's point of impact. It exploded into an expanding ring of fire that washed outward over everyone unfortunate enough to be nearby. The wall of fire blistered her exposed skin as it washed over her prone body, and brought tears of pain to her eyes. All around, she could hear the shrieks of the goblins become louder when the skirts and ribbons of their outfit caught on fire.

A second impact, a mere second later than the first, alerted the blue haired girl to the fact that the Reaper had landed amidst the destruction he had unleashed. The blazing palanquin crunched under his hooves, spitting burning feathers and black smoke into the air that swirled around the muscular form of the demon like a cloak. The smell of sulphur and worse stung in Ami's nostrils while she once again struggled to pull herself off the floor, whose uneven surface pressed painfully into her bare skin. Only her shins and shoulders were free of scratches by now, owing to the effectiveness of the armour protecting them.

Within the conflagration, the horned demon swung his scythe horizontally, holding it near the end of its haft. He spun around like a top, and the deadly weapon described a graceful horizontal circle as it followed the movement. Under Ami's horror-stricken gaze, it cut through flesh and bone, removed the legs of one goblin who had been too slow, bisected a second at the waist in a shower of blood and entrails, and beheaded a third before continuing on towards NO! CATHY!

Sparks flew as metal rang on metal. The blonde grit her teeth and held with both hands onto the haft of the spear interposed between her body and the deadly blade. Despite the desperate parry, the Reaper's scythe continued on its path, lifting the slender swordswoman bodily into the air and hurling her away. She crashed into one of the trolls who was still standing undecided near the battlefield.

"Shabon Spra- ARGH!"

Ami stared in disbelief at the black metal rod protruding from her belly. The pain spreading like a wildfire through her abdomen was nearly unbearable, and a thin trickle of red ran down her chin as she bent over and collapsed to her knees. Her hands unconsciously clenched around the haft of the weapon that had impaled her. Her gaze wandered forward, seeking out the form of the Reaper, whose right foot was still raised from kicking the dead goblin's spear in her direction. Through the large spots in her fading vision, she could see his eyes flare yellow with glee as he strode towards her, lifting his scythe to finish the job. The monster seemed to loom larger and more terrible with every step, and was savouring every moment of this. No! She couldn't die! It couldn't end like this!

The scythe whistled toward Ami's neck as time seemed to slow down for the girl. She could see every notch of the blade as it shimmered in the firelight, every droplet of blood driven across the metal surface as it parted the air, only to drop off the edge and form a thin, half-moon shaped trail of miniature red comets. Across the bonfire that had once been a palanquin and now also encompassed the bodies of her poor fallen minions, Ami could see the hunch-backed trolls move in on Cathy and Jered, now that the victor was clear. The brown-haired man had a dagger in each hand and was standing protectively in front of the blonde, who looked staggered after being slammed into a troll. I'm sorry, Cathy. The dying girl's eyes flared up like glowing embers.

The Reaper's scythe continued on its path, unimpeded. Too unimpeded. Ami's form dissolved into streamers of black lightning that flowed around the blade. The spear protruding through her body fell and clattered to the ground, and for a moment, the uncoiling darkness looked eerily like an angry red-eyed face before disappearing. The demon roared in rage at being denied his revenge, and kept attacking the spot where his victim had just been in a mindless frenzy, sending a spray of rock chips flying in all directions with each blow.

"Cathy? Cathy, can you hear me?"

What's going on? Oh Light I can't move! Help! What's happening to me? Oh no, the trolls are coming! Move body, dammit! Work!" Ami could hear the blonde's thoughts as if from far away, picking up in tempo as they became more and more panicked.

"Cathy! Listen to me!"

My body is moving on its own, oh no, no, no. I should never have enlisted with a Keeper. I should have known this would happe-

"CATHY!"

"M-Mercury? Is that you? Are you doing this?" the swordswoman's thought-voice sounded both frightened and furious, now that she had become aware of the other presence in her head.

Please don't be afraid. I just need to borrow your body for a moment, as I'm too injured to fight.

"Mercury Power, Make up!"

Jered felt his hackles rise. The cry was in Cathy's voice, but the words and pronunciation were wrong. Blue light enveloped him momentarily as his clothing was replaced with a white leotard and short miniskirt. Worse than the humiliation was the fact that the transformation had robbed him of his weapons. With rising dread, he looked over his shoulder, only to have his worst suspicions confirmed. While the blonde's senshi uniform had not changed, it looked neater and cleaner, and the woman herself looked as if she had just spent hours applying make-up and combing her hair. In other circumstances, he would have felt attracted by the sight of her posing in the revealing costume, a few blue sparkles still dancing around her. However, the fact that her beautiful blue eyes were glowing with red light made him have an awful feeling in the pit of his stomach. "Mercury! How could you? Leave her alone! GET OUT!" Immediately, he found himself unceremoniously yanked up and dropped down back in the dungeon near the portal. The tunnel's cold, damp air felt like an icy shower after the sweltering heat of the Underworld City. With loud grunts and squeaks of surprise, the surviving goblins landed next to him, forming a disorderly pile of tangled green limbs on the ground. The only one missing was his precious Cathy, he registered with a feeling of helplessness.

"Shabon Spray!"

The Reaper looked up when a bank of fog filled the plaza, lowering the temperature and dampening the light of the fires. The voice who had shouted the incantation was not that of the Keeper, but it was one of her custom spells, so she must be possessing the blonde. The corners of his mouth twitched upwards in anticipation of another chance at killing Mercury, and with nary a thought, he launched a fireball in the direction the shout had come from. A troll's howl of pain informed him that, while he had missed his target, the attack hadn't been entirely wasted. Orange light penetrated through the murk, shifting more to the left as the burning creature ran around in a blind panic. Firing another sphere of flame and running directly in its wake, he sought to reach the last known location of the blonde. The precaution was proven to be entirely necessary when the ball of fire preceding the demon exploded into steam with a hiss, struck by a gust of freezing magic.

"Thanks, Cathy!"

The blonde suddenly felt Mercury's mental presence leave her, and a moment later was face to face with Jered, who smiled in relief when she appeared out of thin air. She felt energised - the effect of whatever Mercury had been doing obviously hadn't left her yet. Speaking of which, everyone in the room flashed blue when the Keeper undoubtedly used her strange transformation magic again.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me," the Reaper snorted, furrows between his huge eyebrows deepening as he looked across the bonfire at his opponent. Around the crackling fire, updrafts caused by the ascending hot hair made the fog spiral toward the faraway cavern ceiling, providing an oasis of relative clarity in the greyish soup. This made it possible for the demon to have a good look at his latest challenger, who stood in a combat stance, hands balled into fists and raised protectively. The fukued imp's red eyes were glowing like fist-sized rubies.

"Shabon Spray Freezing," the little creature squeaked in reply, then scrambled as the demon side-stepped the fast-moving frost attack and lunged towards his attacker. As his scythe cleaved through the space the thing had occupied just a moment before, the imp simply disappeared, only to drop down a short distance away, along with two companions. The trio blinked dumbly at him (not that they ever looked intelligent) before scattering, each bug-eyed creature running into another direction to hide in the fog.

"Just another silly trick, Mercury. I'll still get you in the end. Have you considered just how fragile these creatures are?" the Reaper started zigzagging as he fired off fireballs at random, aimed at the ground rather than any elusive target. He heard a squeaked transformation phrase from somewhere in the drifting fog clouds, and launched more fire in that direction before he had to evade another blast blast of frigid bubbles. The area was becoming brighter and brighter with every fireball he unleashed. Each one increased the area of the floor that was burning, decreasing the safe space upon which his opponent could tread. As a nice side benefit, the rising heat made the wind pick up, slowly but surely getting rid of the damnable murk. And if some of the troll thugs got caught in the burning field, all the better.

The Reaper's mood improved when he heard the shrill squeal of an imp that had touched the flames and was dissolving into green motes. Through the fading fog, he could now see the little forms of the creatures scuttling around like rats between the walls of fire, keeping to the fewer and fewer cool spots. Unfortunately, it seemed that Mercury had gotten wise to his tactics, and she was doing her best to freeze the floor and to put out the flames. Good for him that this was easy to interrupt, either by launching himself at the imp in question, or by simply sending more fire its way. The one thing that was immensely irritating was the fact that he could barely predict which of the pesky minions was going to launch a blast next, as the Keeper was hopping bodies faster than he could keep up with. Black lightning arced between the five imps surrounding him in a wide circle as her presence darted from one to the next. And always, always she kept shifting them further away from him whenever he got close. Still, she was slowly running out of room, and then he would have her cornered. His eventual victory was inevitable. And even if she chose to run, she was so injured that he could risk following her into her dungeon. Life was great.

"Shabon Spray Freezing!"

It was really convenient how she had to shout out the attack phrase, alerting him to the incoming danger. Strange echo this time, though, thought the Reaper. He launched a fireball into the path of the magical ray of frost, grinning as both projectiles collided and neutralised each other.

Ami saw stars dance in front of her eyes. What in her planet's name was that? Her attack shouldn't drain her like that! Behind the hulking form of her enemy, she saw something speed forward through the flames. The already large eyes of her imp-body widened to immense size as she traced the blast's trajectory back to the blonde figure standing in front of the portal, both palms still facing toward the Reaper's back. Her? How?

Feeling some incoming danger, the demon spun around, catching the second Shabon Spray Freezing on his scythe arm instead of his back. Immediately, the limb and weapon disappeared under a thick, heavy layer of ice, immobilising half of his body. From the corner of his eye, he saw the Cathy girl approach, jumping over the patches of fire - since when could she leap like that? She ducked out of his line of sight, behind one of the firewalls, then re-appeared, holding a blood-covered metal spear. How? Was the Keeper possessing her again? No, the imp still had blazing eyes and - curses! A fresh wave of frost struck his feet. It was surprisingly weak, as these attacks went, but still enough to glue his hooves to the floor, putting him into a rather precarious situation. Furiously, he hammered at the ice coating his scythe arm with his free hand, spreading deep cracks with each ringing blow.

His efforts were interrupted when the blonde arrived, jabbing her weapon at his unprotected back. He had to nearly dislocate his shoulder in order to slap the incoming strike aside, and the weapon, fashioned from one of his own scythes, still managed to slice a deep furrow into his biceps. Enraged, the fingers of his free hand closed around the haft of the weapon and held on to it, despite Cathy's struggles. He jerked the weapon up, throwing her off her feet and whipping her body upward. She let go and flew in a graceful arc, but had to rapidly fire a Shabon Spray Freezing at her landing point to avoid being burned. Once again, Ami felt as if something was sucking the strength out of her.

The demon, hurt and angry, was still sufficiently aware of the situation to know when the tide had turned against him. One ice-wielding body-hopping harlot? Manageable. Two? No. The looted scythe was sized for a weak mortal body and mangled beyond recognition, but still sufficient to channel a fireball through. With a bellow of rage, he unleashed his flame directly at his feet, surrounding himself with a curtain of scalding steam and forcing the blonde to retreat further. Free, he hurled the weapon like a javelin to skewer the annoying complication, sure that she was less replaceable than a random imp. The human had the gall to catch the weapon as she ducked out of its flight path and to smirk at him! He'd have to do something suitably horrible to her, but later. The Reaper broke into a run, leaning low as he moved at his top speed, diving into the obscuring curtain of steam that his bid for freedom had unleashed.

"He's fleeing! Where did he go?"

"That way! He's running toward the lava river!" an imp was not meant to wear a visor over its bulbous eyes, and what the magic had come up with to accommodate its strange anatomy made it look as if it was wearing a transparent blue helmet.

"Got it! Shabon Spray Freezing! What the hell?" the ersatz-Sailor Mercury shouted as the demon evaded her attack by launching himself off the cliff, spreading his arms as he fell toward the stream of liquefied stone below. "Suicide?"

The demon struck the lava with a wet plop, sending a small wave through the viscous liquid. Not bothered by the heat, he raised his fist and shook it at the miniskirted blonde watching from the cliffs above, before sinking under the bubbling surface. A red-eyed imp joined Cathy on the cliff, a second brightly-lit contour before the black background of the ceiling. "Dang," Ami squeaked, "we aren't going to be able to catch him in there."

"Cheer up, we just kicked a horned reaper's arse! That has to count for something!" Cathy stepped away from the gorge, no longer able to bear the searing wind howling out of its magma-filled depths. Sobering, she added. "Though don't. Ever. Take over my body again without asking!"

"Sorry! I was dying and not really thinking straight at the time!" the imp gave an apologetic little bow, which looked rather comical.

"Oh, I saw that," Cathy replied, "thought you were done for. Will you ever be able to take your proper shape again?"

Ami considered this for a while, then nodded. "It's just a wound, deep but not complicated. Without that spear through it, I should be able to heal it if I just prepare the spell beforehand. Let me give it a try."

A sphere of darkness shot out of the imp's forehead, hovering for an eye-blink before it grew into the shape of Ami's body. Aside from black and red, colour was the last thing to reappear. The girl, still dressed in the Reaper costume, had appeared in a crouching position, one palm pressed to her stomach, the other to the hole in her back. The pale green light of applied necromancy played over her sweaty and blood-encrusted skin before she slowly rose to a stand. Her blue strands hung down dishevelled and hid her soot-covered face, but her eyes blazed as bright as the lava below.

The few remaining members of the band of thugs who had stuck around took one look at the half-naked girl and her tall but slender companion, armed only with a spear. Both of them, and this was the important part, had just driven off a fucking horned reaper. The trolls decided to find some less dangerous prey. Like an ancient vampire or a dragon, maybe.

 

Originally on 2009-10-27T23:49:00

Ami was breathing hard and feeling weak in her knees. Blood loss, she realised with a look down at her belly. Smears of dark red coated her skin there, forming a stark contrast with the brighter tones where sweat glistened in the orange light. The consequences of the hastily-healed injury were combining with Ami's previous sickness and aching muscles to make even standing a chore, now that she had time to dwell on the state of her body. Below the cliffs located a few steps behind the blue-haired girl, the lava river roared. The sweltering heat rising from the stream contributed to Ami's exhaustion, and she was suddenly grateful that she wasn't wearing anything warmer than the loincloth and red strip of cloth covering her chest that came with the Reaper's outfit. The metal armour covering her shoulders, shins, and hips was feeling uncomfortably hot and heavy, though. Her thoughts drifted for a moment to how little coverage such a design really provided, before turning to more unpleasant matters.

The plaza between her and the portal was still on fire, although the flames were in the process of dying down. Surrounding the charred remains of the palanquin lay three or four little bodies. The precise number was hard to tell because the half-cooked remains were in multiple dismembered parts. At their sight, Ami felt another sinking sensation in her stomach that had nothing to do with physical illness. The knowledge that the goblins had died in her service made her deeply uncomfortable, even if she intellectually knew that the blame lay entirely with the Reaper. She looked up at Cathy standing next to her. She was observing both the lava flow and the ramp leading to the city through narrowed eyes. Dark shapes, not all of them humanoid, had appeared before the bright doors and windows, apparently observing the battle. Gradually, they slipped back into the hollows hewn into the cavern walls when it became clear that the excitement was over.

"Cathy," Ami asked with a thin voice, "are there some customs that should be observed about that?" she indicated the chopped-up corpses strewn over the ground with a nerveless wave of her hand.

The blonde shrugged. "I haven't grown up in the Underworld."

Ami nodded in understanding. "I don't think I can continue on in this state. I'll move us back to the dungeon."

The air distorted faintly as it rushed into the vacuum where both girls had been standing before. Ami and Cathy re-appeared inside her dungeon, in front of the other denizens.

"Cathy! You are safe!" Jered exclaimed, voice filled with relief, and walked toward the blonde, "what were you thinking, going out there to fight that beast?"

"Mainly that the Reaper knows where this dungeon is and how to get back here," she answered, in a deadpan tone of voice, before snickering at the brown-haired man's flabbergasted expression. That thought had obviously not occurred to him yet. He turned nervously toward the four megaliths forming the portal. "He's not going to walk in at any moment now, is he?"

"No, we sent him running like a dog with his tail between his legs," the blonde stated with satisfaction, smacking her fist into her open palm. The surviving goblins leaning against the unfinished wall of the corridor let out a cautious cheer.

"You won?" Jered asked, incredulous. "And stop sniggering!"

"Sorry. You look so ridiculous in that skirt!" Cathy continued giggling at the sight of the man in a sailor fuku. "And we sure did kick arse! I tagged him with an ice blast and then sliced open his arm!" the swordswoman gushed, grabbing her blood-soaked spear and waving it about in her enthusiasm to display it.

"Wait, what? You used magic? How does that work?"

"I'm very interested in learning how you managed to do that, too," Ami chimed in. She was sitting on the floor, a pillow between her and the cold ground, and imps were scurrying around her. Two were busy draping a blanket from her bedroom around her shoulders, protecting the shivering girl from the chilly dungeon air.

"Well, you showed me how," Cathy explained. "I was right there when you used the spell, and could feel how you shaped it and how you were drawing power into it," the woman explained. "It took me a while to realise that I was still connected to the power source even after you left, and so..." She trailed off when she noticed that Ami had activated her visor and was now peering intently at her.

The blue-haired girl's fingers flew over the keyboard of her computer, and she asked "Could you demonstrate, please?"

Cathy complied, coating one of the walls with a thin layer of ice. Ami felt light-headed from the sudden drain, and slumped down on her pillow. Shaking her head, she straightened with a faint groan, and looked on the readout on her screen. "Could you do the regular Shabon Spray too, please?"

"Are you sure that's wise? You don't look so good," the fuku-wearing blonde cautioned. Seeing Ami's determined nod, she went ahead, and bubbles spread through the tunnel, filling it with white fog.

"That's strange, I barely felt that," Ami commented, comparing the readings she had taken of this attack with the ones from before. "There appears to be-"

"Wait. You are linked to the dungeon heart too now?" Jered asked with dawning horror as he looked from his girlfriend to Mercury.

"No, I don't think so," Ami replied, "From what I am seeing here, she is tapping directly into the magic I had before linking with the dungeon heart. I think the connection was forged when I transformed using her body, and that it will disappear once she de-transforms."

"I'd rather not, if it's all the same to you," Cathy objected. "These enchantments make me stronger and faster, and it doesn't look as if it's consuming too much of your energy to maintain them."

"Well, uh," Ami scratched her head, not having expected that, "but it's quite likely that nobody who hasn't seen you transform will recognise you, unless you directly tell them who you are."

The blonde thought about this for a moment."I'm shocked and appalled at the idea that nobody will be able to connect the girl wearing this ridiculous outfit with me," she finally said, "I really am."

Ami suddenly turned to the goblins, feeling guilty about being too distracted by her own curiosity to think about them. "I'm sorry about your dead comrades - is there something that needs to be done about them?"

"Is safe to go out now?" the largest goblin, who was still a good head shorter than Ami, asked while pointing at the wavering images within the portal. At the Keeper's confirming nod, he shouted "You heard! Go loot bodies before someone else do!"

The disorderly mob of green creatures elbowed and jostled each other in their haste to get through the portal first. The other surface worlders just stared after them with surprise and not a little disgust. "Figures," Jered spat after the silence had grown uncomfortably long. "Now what, Mercury?"

---

Coaxing Snyder out of his hiding spot had been unsuccessful until Ami exasperatedly dropped a large strip of red cloth next to him, showing the vain redhead that she knew where he was. He used it to cover the senshi uniform he was now wearing instead of his white and red robes. Unfortunately, it turned out that he couldn't do much for Ami except provide her with a temporary energy boost, not unlike a chemical stimulant, though they did learn that the feel of his holy magic disturbed her greatly. What both healers agreed on was that Mercury needed rest and good food to regain her strength, both of which were currently unavailable.

Ami had refused to stay in bed when she so pressingly needed assistants, and was now accompanying Cathy, Jered, and the gaggle of goblins on the second trip to the Underworld city. In a concession to the state of her health, she had gotten rid of the weighty pieces of metal armour, and was being carried on a new palanquin. Sure, she could have possessed another body, but her own needed time to heal, and would be in a form of stasis while she was within one of her minions. The remaining goblins were trailing behind, chatting excitedly at the prospect of some entertainment in the city. This time, there was no welcoming committee, despite the fact that her group must have been looking ridiculous to the inhabitants of the cave. Except for herself, each and every member of her party was wearing Sailor Mercury's blue and white outfit with bows and miniskirt, even a grumbling Jered. The argument that the monsters here now associated the outfit with the Keeper who managed to defeat a Reaper had convinced him to go along with that, even if he was still grumbling from time to time.

As the group approached the city, Ami could see that the citizens tended to move in well-armed groups, much like her own. The few individual travellers always kept a hand near their weapon, as if expecting to be attacked at any point. All closed doors looked rather sturdy, and she could see massive locks and bars on the open ones. The atmosphere here was clearly one of mutual mistrust and barely veiled paranoia. She also noted that humans were vastly outnumbered by other creatures, many of which she couldn't name, though the majority seemed to be trolls. Most "people" here went for a very minimalistic clothing style, which made sense considering the local temperatures. The few exceptions were wearing long and gaudy robes and cloaks, and had an aura of magic surrounding them. More than once, denizens stopped on the stairs and pointed as Ami and her posse passed. She could hear them starting to whisper amongst each other, and frequently picked up the word "Reaper". It seemed that she had gained some kind of reputation already.

Instead of the large communal market the young Keeper had expected from a medieval city, there were individual shops strewn haphazardly all over the slopes of the canyon. All were advertising with signs that depicted the goods or services available here, probably for the benefit of the illiterate costumers. Many of the signs made Ami blush bright red, and Cathy wasn't faring much better. Even Jered's cheeks had taken on a rosy colour.

However, despite the distractions and sights, Ami found herself dozing off again and again, lulled into sleep by the swaying motions of the palanquin, the heat, and the exhaustion hitting her like a ton of lead as Snyder's magic wore off faster than expected. From time to time, she woke and caught the tail end of a conversation or haggling process, or was woken to summon gold required to pay for the purchased items. All in all, the shopping trip was rather unexciting, and Jered seemed to have things well in hand. Ami could already see a new sword hanging from a belt around Cathy's waist, and a few of the goblins were holding bags full of groceries, raw materials for the lab, cloth, and various other conveniences that the dungeon couldn't produce for itself yet. She decided to transport the goods home with her power before the little greenskins managed to lose track of them. With a yawn, she sat up and stretched. "I'm feeling much better now. Thanks for taking care of things."

"Yes, we have almost everything on the list, except for clothing and armour. It might be best if you hired tailors or smiths for that, as they'll need to be custom made." Jered answered.

"Good. Did anything noteworthy happen that I should know about?"

Cathy grimaced. "Well, we ran into the group of thugs from before again. Oh, they didn't want to fight," she quickly continued upon seeing Ami's concerned expression, "but some wanted to know what the Reaper meant when he talked about the humiliations suffered by your hand. I'm afraid the goblins were only too happy to oblige."

Feeling still sleepy, and unaware that some of the passers-by were listening in, answered, "Oh. That doesn't sound so bad. They weren't around for most of them, anyway," and thus unwittingly added fuel to the rumour mill.

"I'm afraid you don't really get - ah well," the blonde seemed hesitant to talk about the topic, "there's another problem, too. We are missing six of the little pointy-eared freaks. They are probably off getting drunk, gambling away their wages, and talking about things they shouldn't be talking about."

Ami sighed, and used her Keeper sight to update herself on the location of her wayward minions. Quickly counting to six, she unceremoniously snatched up the troublemakers and yanked them back to a bare cell in her dungeon. Maybe that would help with discipline, but she doubted it. "I have dealt with them," she informed the swordswoman. "That leaves hiring assistants, and a smith or two. How would I go about that?"

"Check the taverns," Jered suggested. The brown-haired man was sporting a new bandoleer full of daggers that clashed horribly with the sailor fuku, but so did his hairy legs. "That's where unemployed creatures hang around and recruiters look for them. We should also be able to find out about other Keepers in the area there."

The largest tavern of the city was impossible to miss, one just had to follow the smell of alcohol and the rowdy cries of the patrons. It was located in the lower levels of the city, which was the better part of town, due to the easier access to the heat and light provided by the lava river. A skewered helmet dangling from a chain served as sign of the Severed Head Inn, and Ami felt a glimmer of irritation at the casual disregard for life when she noticed that the skull inside was real. Her palanquin wouldn't fit through the door into the grotto-like interior, so she had to get out and walk on her own. One of the duo of burly troll bouncers leered at her scantily clad body. She gave it her best glare, eyes flashing red, haughty expression and all. The creature shrank back and made way for her group.

Ami took a first step into the room, and immediately her nose was assaulted by a smell that was a mix of tobacco and more intoxicating substances. The haze in the air was so thick that the lighting was dim despite the multitude of burning braziers lining the walls. The establishment looked like a wide, refurbished tunnel. Along the entire left side ran a long counter, with mugs and glasses of different sizes than only the standard ones on top. Most of the tableware was terracotta, not glass, and she didn't even recognise a tenth of the brews standing on the shelves. To be honest, she didn't think that would be any different if she stepped into a Tokyo bar, as she had led a rather sheltered life. Following the theme of 'one-size-doesn't-fit-all', the furniture was a wild mishmash of small and big. Some enterprising interior designer had made the stunning observation that small creatures could pass through spaces sized for large ones, but not the reverse, and acted on the obvious conclusions. Near the entrance of the tavern, chairs and tables were sized for giants, but became smaller and smaller the deeper one walked into the room. The human-sized furniture was located around the middle, and Ami, who was a fourteen-year old Japanese girl of average size, felt rather intimidated surrounded by so many beings much larger than her. It didn't help that many of the guests stopped talking and eyed her speculatively when she entered. She overheard some of the commentary, and it made her ears burn. Stupid goblins!

"...that her?" "Seen it himself..." "...riding the Reaper like..." "...even possible with the size difference..?" "...heard she made them exchange bodies first..." "Kinky."

The comments from some of the completely inhuman creatures were the most disturbing. Seriously, what was a giant orange lizard even doing in here, sipping something unidentifiable from a bowl? And that mass of green tentacles taking up two of the chairs in the corner... She shuddered, but grit her teeth and held her head high, going as far as to summon some magic for the sole purpose of making her eyes glow brighter. She was here to recruit some hirelings, and looking weak wasn't an option. Behind her, she heard the re-assuring steps of her companions as they followed her toward an empty table.