Reapers - Thirteen Brothers

XXXXVII - Labyrinth

Next thing I knew, Alexis had already draughted to Amos.

"You dare interfere with the Grandmaster's orders?!" Amos shouted indignantly.

Alexis just smiled and rested the flat of his blade on his shoulder. "Afraid you can't take me, old man?"

Swords began to clash as Alexis and Amos both darted along the pathway. They were so fast their movements blurred with the mist. Amos was quite quick for an old man but Alexis was too damn faster. Whenever Amos' bronze spear collided with the undulating blades of Alexis' sword, it gave off a weird vibrating sound that made my teeth want to fall off. It blared like a giant church bell being hit with a wrench.

"Sharifa!" Conrad called while deflecting a blow from Archie. "Stop them!"

Sharifa did not waste time. She stepped in front of us halfheartedly, spreading her trembling arms wide open in attempt to block our way and interrupt our escape.

"I need to... stop you," said she.

I looked her straight in the eyes. "Is this what you really want to do, Sharifa?"

She froze. She dropped her arms to her side. Taking a quick glance back at Conrad, she stepped aside. Her shoulders shook as tears welled from her silver eyes.

"Go," she rasped heavily. "Go now."

The last thing I said to her was "Thank you."

I wanted so bad to take her with us, which wasn't the brightest idea. I knew it would just make things more complicated for all of us. I had no choice but to leave her.

Instantly forgetting her tantrums, Apple led the way, skipping with much enthusiasm while we headed to the Gate.

Rosario helped me with Vincent. He could barely open his eyes and his breathing was faster than a tired dog's. That got me worrying. A lot.

"Vince," I murmured shakily, giving his hand a squeeze. "Come on. Stay with us."

Slowly, he half-opened his glassy eyes, his gaze fixing vacantly at me.

I heard Amos barking at Sharifa to run after us. She sounded firm and assertive when she said, "You managed to have them escape on your own. Then catch them on your own."

I almost smiled on that note. Atta girl. I thought as we fled from the fight..

Soon, the clangor of blades biting at each other was drowned by a deafening vacuum. Haze swirled around us, making it harder to see the pathway. Getting caught by a bunch of psycho familiars was bad enough but wandering off deep into the labyrinth might be equally dangerous.

I was struggling to keep up with Rosario's draughting. I didn't complain though. It would be darn trickier to have to carry Vincent all by myself if I pissed her off again.

As we arrived at the Gate—a huge weathered stone archway overrun with moss and flowering vines—Apple produced a metal cube from her pocket. In the middle of the Gate, there was nothing to see but surging darkness.

Carefully, the girl placed the metal cube on the ground just in front of the Gate and started pushing and flipping out intricate contraptions from the cube's surface. When she was done, the device was turned into some sort of steel mesh that looked like honeycombs.

"This is a Gate Hacker," Apple said in her tiny sweet voice, looking up at us. "Master Hector told Apple to use this. It replicates the movement of spiritual particles in a portal and rearranges them to either open or close a Gate. Well, that is the theory but it's a prototype so—"