Through Times of Dark and Back

06: Shrine of Depth

"...say what now?"

Kiyoomi nodded. "You heard me."

"I can validate," Osamu added, nonchalant as ever, though the tone of his voice was accompanied by evident truth. "Long story short, we just about stepped foot in the research labs when we were informed of this. Reports claim that the shrine is basically a hideout for the Depths, but the fact that Bokuto and Kenma are in there still stands."

"How do we know that these reports are reliable info sources?" Shirabu questioned, placing a hand on his hip and tilting his head to the side. "And how do we know for certain that they're in there?"

As if on cue, a hologram-like projection of a male abruptly manifested in the middle of the room, in a space where everyone could conveniently see him clearly. He was a tall man, had light greyish hair, green eyes and wore tactical black clothing.

"Lev," Kiyoomi greeted, providing a short nod for a sign of respect. "Any further updates on the shrine?"

"See for yourself," was all that Lev replied as he then stood to the side, revealing a massive room.
White, marble pillars as thick as three or four trees combined stretched out into heights ceilings should not reach. It almost looked like they could be trying to reach the literal sky.

Some sort of candle and ruby gemstone adorned altar was placed smack in the middle of the hall, and above it hung a giant golden chandelier that held blue flamed candles instead of orange ones.

All sorts of ancient looking inscriptions could be seen outlining the altar on the ground surrounding it, and four white marble pathways connected to said altar, with golden, motionless water ten feet below the paths, occupying the rest of the grounds.

"Holy shit," Shirabu remarked, his eyes widened.

"Looks like something pulled straight out of a fantasy book," Osamu remarked, appearing to be intrigued and intimidated at the same time.
Everyone else internally agreed.

"About Kenma and Bokuto-san..." Lev trailed off, as if he was unsure whether he should tell or not, before making up his mind.
"Look." The screen shifted from him to something else, and just by that singular action, it became very apparent that the situation was bad.
Kiyoomi winced physically at the sight, as did Atsumu, Hinata failed to stifle a gasp of utter horror, Osamu seemed disgusted and Shirabu was rather disturbed, as shown by the expression he now wore.

There was another altar. A black marble and a huge one, to be specific. Translucent golden water flowed down from the ceiling around it, accompanied by branches adorned with ruby red lotuses protruding from the ground and wrapping around the water. Fresh, crimson red blood mixed with the flowing water, in amounts nothing short of abundant.
Smack in the middle of the altar were two all too familiar figures, in motionless positions beyond understanding.

Kenma was kneeling on the ground in some sort of praying slash worshiping position, his head tilted back and his eyes closed, his hands clasped together in a ball. Blood dripped continuously from his forehead, flowing down both his hair and his face in streams of red. His mouth.
His mouth was ripped out. It was literally ripped out.
Where his mouth used to be was now occupied by a literal hole, abundant amounts of gore gathered there and also flowing down.

Bokuto was no better.

He was in some sort of bowing position, as though he was a magician who'd just finished his performance and was waiting for applause, his head tilted back like the other's was.
His eyes were straight up gouged out, and seemed to be crying blood perpetually. The same gore decorated both his clothing and his hair, rendering him almost unrecognisable.

Neither looked like they were statues at all, nor did they look like they were turning into one. They were just there; dead silent and completely motionless, as though paralyzed.

"We will head over at on-" Kiyoomi was cut off by a sudden scream, one that depicted not an ounce of happiness or glee but several ounces of genuine terror.
The screen switched back to Lev, who seemed to be looking over what the five could see. He looked terrified, and I mean terrified. Trembling, he took a step back, and uttered a quick message before turning on his heels and bolting off, the hologram dissipating soon after.

"We were meant only to gather intel."

"Suit up, we're heading out," Atsumu quickly ordered, earning himself several rights and nods in affirmative responses. "Meet me in the foyer."
This sent everyone hastily heading out of the room to carry out the order, with Atsumu being the last to leave.
He hurried down to where the kitchens were, grabbed something like six or seven apples and grabbed five pre-made backpacks that were put  together for emergency situations like this. After that, he sprinted to his room and threw on his tactical gear and left as quickly as he had entered, grabbing his weapons on the way.

Fortunately, the other four were already there by the time he made it down to the foyer. 
"Eat," He simply said, tossing apples in his team's general direction.
They each caught their respective apples and seemed to await for order of business from their apparent leader of this mission whilst beginning to munch on the fruit as instructed.

"Sakusa, do you know where the shrine is located?" Atsumu questioned, taking a bite of his own apple. Kiyoomi nodded.
"Yes. Fortunately, Lev provided us with the coordinates beforehand."

"Okay. We'll be going by car," Atsumu stated. "How long's the trip if we do that?" The ravenette bit his lower lip, his brows arching into a frown.

"Here's the thing," He said, the tone of his voice depicting one of unusual confusion and frustration.
"Lev gave us the coordinates of the place; the shrine is supposedly only something like eight kilometres away from here. We conviniently had scouts nearby and I asked them to check the given coordinates to confirm, but they claimed that there was no shrine. They weren't lying.

So this is likely the work of a spatial power slash pocket dimension thing, so we are going to have to take the chopper."

"I see. Alternate dimension, huh?"

"That's right. Not to mention, there's no telling how far or how close that shrine is exactly to here."

"An alternate dimension yet communications still function as normal?" Atsumu raised a brow, tilting his head in a questioning manner. "Something doesn't quite sit right with this, or is it just me?"

"No, you're right. This could be some sort of illusion or trick or something," Kiyoomi answered. "If that's the case...you positive that we should still be doing this? It may very well be a trap."

"If it's a trap, so be it," the faux blonde said, turning to the entrance of the building. "Even so, there's lives at stake here. We cannot afford to lose any more of them - each and every one is a valuable asset to contributing to protecting civilization."

"Well said. Let's go, then," the other nodded towards the rest of the team.
"We are taking the chopper, right?"

Atsumu hummed affirmatively, beginning to walk towards the massive doors with his team following behind closely.

Minutes later, the five found themselves seated in a helicopter, with Kiyoomi piloting as he was the only one who knew how to do so. He glanced back at the others.
"Ready for take off?"
Having been greeted with affirmative responses, he turned around again and began to flick and press buttons, bringing the vehicle to life.

...

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