Cards of Remnant

Chapter 31: Dark Threads - Part 2

"Ruby!" Astral shouted, bursting through a door he'd sensed Dark Magic emanating behind.

He did hope that his friend was actually in danger in the room. The door had been labeled 'STAFF ONLY' after all and he didn't want to violate the club's rules for no reason.

Fortunately, or unfortunately from a certain point of view, he did find Ruby in the dark, cobweb-filled backroom. The young silver-eyed girl was enclosed in a blazing barrier of Dark Magic, with only a pair of defense mode Baobaboons before her as protection. And even as a Pot of Greed flashed before her and she drew two more cards from her deck, it was clear that such protection was sorely needed.

"Astral, do I want to know what that scary guy with the glowing spider tattoo on his arm is?" Jaune's spirit asked, floating beside his body in spectral form since he'd willingly been possessed while conscious.

Astral narrowed his borrowed gaze at the bulky man facing Ruby with a harsh violet glow in his eyes, a veritable army of insect monsters assembled before him. Unhealthy amounts of Dark Magic radiated off his body, plunged into him by a shining spider biting into his neck. And even that arachnid exuded an impossibly thin thread of mystical power outward, linked to something far, far away.

At the fringes of his memories, visible only due to the recent boost in clarity from his reconnection with Number 103, Astral recalled encountering similar power before. But in vastly greater intensity. A horde of men and women in occult robes, each one backed up by gargantuan black creatures lined with neon-colored lines, a sea of fallen souls giving life to their forms of the mightiest Dark Magic.

"No," Astral informed his partner. "I very much doubt you do."

"Hey! Tall, blonde, and scraggly!" a girl outside the flame barrier called, limping in her torn and outlandish red outfit. "What are you doing here?"

"The sign said 'STAFF ONLY'!" another similar-looking girl shouted, this one in unkempt white clothes. "Get out of here!"

Astral quirked an eyebrow at the frightened pair, bruised and exhausted without any aura. He did not believe he had to worry about them being able to force him to comply with their pleas.

But their voices did attract the attention of the pair of duelists battling within.

"Oh?" the man with the glowing spider tattoo said, his voice overlaid with the unnatural timbre of an older woman's voice. "What have we here? Another fly in the web?"

"Jaune?" Ruby exclaimed.

Astral pointed up at one of his eyes, the one that had been turned red from Jaune's natural blue due to the possession.

Ruby nodded, understanding his hidden meaning under their foe's nose. "Jaune. Good to see you."

"Good to see you too, Ruby–and, she doesn't know I'm here," Jaune realized, sighing in his ghostly state. "Wow, this feels… how do you do this all the time? Knowing that no one can see you?"

Astral shot his partner a comforting smile, understanding how such a state could prick the young man's self-esteem issues. "It is bearable knowing that those who matter can–"

The spirit interrupted his reassurance when he suddenly felt a pricking on the back of his borrowed neck, the magic within him surging out to repel an attempted insertion of a foreign power. Astral swung back with Jaune's hand and swatted a small glowing spider from his flesh, the same kind that was channeling Dark Magic into Ruby's opponent.

"Oh? The Little Signer has two friends with magic of their own? How intriguing," the possessed man remarked, only for her gaze to narrow at Astral with recognition. "Wait, blond hair… and that face… Jaune… no, Saphron, you wouldn't involve your precious baby–"