(Wednesday, 13th of Dawnstar Moon, 2021)
"Well...that's a thing."
Damini, Eve, Jack, and Mifu were now outside, in the morning because Damini wouldn't wake up until six hours later. Now that it was broad daylight, they could actually see what damage Jack caused, and considering how one half of the haybarn was now lying bottom up towards the sky, Jack was pretty proud of himself. Now he can see that there was some kind of magic circle spray painted on it. Neither Billy nor Jack had any idea what was going on, but Eve appeared to be looking into it. She appeared to rip off the nose and eyes of her robot and wore them like a pair of glasses. She sat crouched over the magic circle, examining the magic circle with her makeshift glasses while Mifu examined the magic circle.
"Buddy, magic circles like this suddenly don't just pop into existence." Damini put her hands on the man's shoulder. "So did you just put it there, did someone else put it there, or what?"
"I swear, I don't know a darn thing about this magic smagic stuff." Billy was the most confused out of all of them so he couldn't have put the magic circle there.
"This magic circle was painted here some time eight months ago." Eve was still looking at the magic circle. "Billy, when exactly did you get this hay barn?"
"I built this barn two years ago, but I had to replace the roof of it because a really strong windstorm knocked the first one over and broke it." Billy informed them, and Mifu nodded understandingly. "I bought the roof piece from some guy on the internet."
"Could you give us any details about this man?" Eve questioned, and Billy shook his head.
"Sorry fellars, but I wasn't the one who picked it up." Billy then gave the Guardians an explanation as to why that was. "My mana was sick on the day I had to pick it up, so I had to get my uncle father cousin to pick it up for me."
"You mean your uncle, father, and cousin?" Mifu raised an eyebrow as she traced the magic circle with her long sword.
"I said what I said." Billy huffed before kicking the metal sheet roof. "I'm just angry at myself for not noticing this kind of thing sooner. Maybe more of my cattle would still be alive if I did."
"It's fine, don't blame yourself, instead, blame the person who placed that magic circle here." Eve finished scanning the magic circle. "Speaking of, this specific magic circle is designed like a portal. So there's a high chance of someone controlling it from the other side."
"I'd say we go through the portal and show 'em a thing or two." Damini smiled devilishly before realizing that the portal was closed. "So how do we kick their ass if we can't reach them?"
"Oh that's easy." Eve put her makeshift goggles back into her robot's head. "There's a reason transportation magic circles are often hidden. It's because they can be used against the user in some cases, all they need is a little magic, and they'll work like a charm."
"Ah, nice." Damini cracked her neck before cracking her fingers. "So how are we going to do this? There are probably a whole lot of people over there, so we should probably prepare ourselves for a big fight."
"Oh, if y'all are gonna go fight someone, I have something to offer you." Billy's mother, Mama Bobba, was suddenly seen walking towards them, using a cane to balance herself as she held something wrapped in cloth. "A man came by a couple weeks back, and he claimed to give this to the young man over there."
"Me?" Jack pointed at himself in confusion. Who could that man be? "As in Jack Grimm?"
"Indeed...he asked me to give you his tool, as though he predicted you would show up on my doorstep one day." The elderly woman informed Jack before stepping in front of Jack. "I would used it myself, but I can't. I'm too old to use it, and my son doesn't have a fightin' bone in his body, so you should use it. Plus, I would love to see it get the action it wants, it's just been taking up space in my closet."
"Ma! You're a lot more energetic!" Billy sounded surprised that his mother was up and walking on her own.
"There's still some life in these old bones you know!" The elderly woman chuckled. "My guess is that thing. That object has been giving me life, so I guess this is that man's way of paying me."
"Wait, if this thing has been giving you life, it'd be unfair for me to take it from you!" Jack was holding the clothed object.
"Magic is fickle, so if I keep it in secret and break my promise, I have a feeling that the magic will stop." Bobba smiled a toothless smile in front of Jack. "So take it, so that I may at least have less weight on my heart."
Jack was hesitant, but he could get the vibe that this woman was relentless, so he took the clothed object and took off the green colored cloth to see what the object was. As Jack unwrapped the unknown object, his eyes went wide to see it was an axe. A highly decorated axe, making Jack feel even more guilty about taking it. Jack already had Fire Maiden and Stonecutter as weapons, he didn't need three. What was he gonna do? His eyes suddenly landed on an etching on the side of the weapon's shaft. Harlequin. That must be the weapon's name. Harlequin the axe. Not bad.
"Thank you Miss Bobba." Jack thanked the small, elderly catfish person as a bright light suddenly appeared behind him.
"Okay, the portal is open." Eve wiped her brow before standing up to her full height. "Damini, gather some sand. Mifu, prepare your sword. Jack...what can you do again?"
"No idea, but I'm willing to find out." Jack began stretching while sheathing the axe in his backpack. Jack has gotta find a better way to store these things.
"Well I wish you fellers good luck, come back alive so I can celebrate by giving some of y'all some jerky ya hear!" Billy shouted at us as Eve's robot was the first to enter the portal.
"We will, so start making some!" Damini was surrounded by a cloak made of sand as she entered the portal right behind the robot.
"Jack, you go in before Eve." Mifu ordered Jack, and he nodded, not wanting to defy the scariest woman he knew.
Mifu jumped into the portal, then Jack unsheathed Fire Maiden and walked through the portal. Jack walked through, half expecting a fight, only for his feet to suddenly land on something made of wood. Jack opened his eyes to look around himself, noticing how the surrounding area was covered in a thick layer of mist. That made it hard to look around the area, there was nothing Jack could see. Jack looked down at the ground to see he was standing on some kind of wooden dock. Jack looked around himself, and saw that Mifu, Damini, and Eve were here too. Damini held a spear made of solidified sand while Mifu held her longsword in her hands.
"We appear to be alone." Damini examined, but Mifu closed her eyes, as though she was focusing on something. Jack noticed the wind blew through her lengthy ponytail, causing it to seemingly dance.
"Six people, 2 o'clock, 4 o'clock, 6 o'clock, 8 o'clock, 10 o'clock, and 12 o'clock." Mifu drew her sword and aimed it in front of her. "I'll handle the 10 o'clock and 12 o'clock people."
"What! Fine, I'll take 2 and 4." Damini controlled the sand of her spear and turned it into a set of claws. "Eve, (Y/N), you two handle the 6 and 8."
"But how?!" Jack asked while using Fire Maiden and getting into some kind of stance. "The only way we can go is either deeper into the docks or back through the portal.
"Don't worry, I'm having my robot here scan the surrounding area." Eve informed Jack while the robot's head spun around. "The docks are arranged in a kind of maze, and we just have to go a certain way to find our opponents."
"I'll start moving." Mifu took a breath in. "There's only one major building in this entire area, but everything else are just docks like these. And Jack?"
"Yeah?"
"Have faith in yourself, and if you die, Alice will never forgive you."
After saying that, Mifu dashed into the mist, while Damini rushed into the mist shortly after. Eve and Jack looked at each other and nodded before running. Eve's robot followed closely behind them with its head still spinning, and Eve was looking at her phone the entire time. Jack looked at Eve's phone, and saw that it was a radar, revealing 10 dots, four of which were their team while the other six were the enemies. One dot, which Jack was assuming was Mifu, had already met up with two of the dots, and was supposedly fighting them already. Jack wanted to ask Eve what Damini could do, but doing so in enemy territory seems like a bad idea. After some running, Eve and Jack came across a kind of fork in the dock.
"Jack, take a right here!" Eve ordered the man. "Right after taking a right, I want you to throw Stone Cutter straight through your three o'clock, then I want you to use Fire Maiden's gun mode to shoot in that same direction."
"Eh? You want me to throw Stone Cutter into the ocean?" Jack asked the girl, who shook her head.
"No, just trust me on this one." Eve ordered Jack with a dead serious expression. "I'll use my skills to support the throw."
"Fine, but if I lose it I'm tossing that robot of yours into the ocean!" Jack noticed that they were approaching the fork and Jack prepared to throw the weapon the moment he turned the corner.
"I'll have you know Mechantium here is water proof AND pressure proof!" Eve shouted at you.
Jack turned right on the fork and just as Eve told him so, he reeled his arm back. Jack then launched the weapon with all the might he can muster, and much to your amazement, it was moving much faster and farther than Jack ever would have expected. Jack looked at Eve to see she had her palm outstretched at the weapon, covered in a silver aura. Jack watched the weapon disappear into the mist, and then Jack heard it hit something before landing on the ground. Eve and Jack ran along the dock, which appeared to curve around like a spiral. They kept on running until they approached some kind of figure lying on the ground. When Eve and Jack approached the person, they saw that she was knocked out and that there was Stone Cutter lying right beside her. The person lying on the ground was a blonde girl, wearing a red colored cloak.
"How on Earth did I hit her?" Jack asked as he picked up Stone Cutter. "Is this thing enchanted so I could throw it farther or something?"
"No, I used one of my class skills, Force." Eve explained to Jack while reaching into her Robot's back to pull out a set of handcuffs. "Basically, I can control the speed, momentum, and inertia of an object. Problem is that this skill is highly situational, only works with solid objects, and large objects are harder to control."
"Say, is this person the 6 o'clock person?" Jack asked while Eve handed him the handcuffs so he could wrap them around the person's wrists.
"No...according to my radar...this is the 8 o'clock person." Eve looked around them. "We should have passed by him, but how did we not see him? Is the radar busted? Was there a mistake? What if-"
"Anubis."
Before Eve could finish her sentence, Jack noticed that Eve's shadow was beginning to change into the form of a jackal head. Jack instinctively grabbed Eve's wrist and pulled her away from the shadow, just as the shadow launched up to attempt to bite Eve in half. Jack didn't understand how, but the shadow now took the form of a giant jackal head, with teeth the size of Jack's head and glowing red eyes. After biting the air, the jackal head dipped back into the ground, as though it was never there. In the distance Jack saw a single person, a cloaked entity with a smile that reminded him of a horror movie villain. The weirdest thing about him though was that he had his hands in a certain hand sign, it kind of looks like a dog hand sign.
"Darn...it appears one of my ally has been incapacitated." The mysterious figure's voice sounded like they did nothing but smoke pot for the past fifty years. "Oh well, you two look weak, so I can take care of you myself. Now...Horus."
The cloaked man then did a bird sign using both of his hands, and his shadow took the form of a giant bird, followed by several birds being launched towards both Jack and Eve in quick succession. Jack raised his arms in front of himself defensively, but before the impact, Mechantium's arms stretched themselves towards the cloaked man, followed by rods emerging from the robot's arms. The rods glowed a mint green color before a mint green force shield appeared in front of the three of them, blocking the birds from hitting either Jack or Eve. Jack noticed how the birds appeared to disappear upon impact, was that his ability?
"Eve, do the force thing!" Jack reeled Stone Breaker back once more and threw it towards the man.
Eve's hand was covered in a gray aura, and so was Stone Breaker as it flew through the sky. The weapon accelerated and spun rapidly, but before it could make contact with the man, he pressed one of his fingernails like a button. Amazingly, Stone Breaker phased right through the cloaked individual. Stone Breaker landed on the wood behind the man, and Jack was forced to draw out Harlequin and Fire Maiden. Jack pressed the first trigger to turn Fire Maiden into it's whip form, then he launched the whip towards the cloaked individual, trying to cut them in half, but then they pressed their one fingernail once again to phase through the attack. Jack noticed something odd though, whenever the person used that technique, Jack noticed some kind of orange light coming towards Jack, twirling around him, then finally being absorbed into his chest where the heart was. Jack then decided to try another swing, but this time, Fire Maiden would release gas. The valves on Fire Maiden opened up to release the explosive gas, and just as the weapon went through the mysterious individual, Jack pressed the second trigger, igniting the gas. The explosion was large enough to envelop the docks entirely, with the exception being the part where Eve, Jack, and that girl they captured were. The explosion didn't reach then because of Talos' force field, but Jack could tell that the robot was running low on fuel, so he needed to do something if the cloaked individual isn't dead yet.
"Hey, Eve, do you see this?" Jack pointed at the light swirling around him, and Eve didn't appear to see it. "Whenever that guy uses a technique, I absorb something."
"Weird, hey, maybe that's one of your class skills." Eve guessed as she slung the unconscious girl over her shoulder. "You're an archeologist, right? One of your class skills is the ability to learn ancient or forgotten magic."
"I thought I could only learn ancient magic through temples and stuff?" Jack turned Fire Maiden back to a normal sword, but he wasn't sure if the unknown man was dead or not.
"Temples are the easiest, but if you're around a kind of magic that's ancient, you'll automatically absorb knowledge of it just by being around the spells." Eve informed Jack, and he thought that was pretty useful. "As for how ancient it has to be...it has to be at least 400 years old and be practiced by less than 100 people."
"What's with that oddly specific explanation?!" Jack wondered out loud.
The smoke cleared in an instant, and the cloaked person was making an unknown hand sign. Jack tried taking a breath, but he couldn't get any air, couldn't breathe. Jack dropped Harlequin and fell to his knees, noticing how Eve was clasping her throat, she couldn't breathe either. Jack slammed his hands on the dock below him to hold himself up, but he was slowly losing strength. Jack needed to turn this around, fast! He can't breathe, and neither can Eve. However, the man was standing still and his hands were preoccupied, so he couldn't do the phase through thing. Why can't he do the phase through thing? Because Jack noticed a pattern, he can't phase through objects and perform hand signs at the same time. Meaning he leaves himself vulnerable when they attack. Jack then tried something stupid, he made his right hand into a dog hand sign, and said something, but he couldn't hear it, yet he was sure he said it.
Anubis.
From the man's shadow, a giant jackal head emerged, exactly like the one the man made earlier in an attempt to kill Eve. There was one particular difference though, it's eyes were now orange instead of red. The giant jackal head bit through the cloaked man, leaving only the head before disappearing back into the darkness. The man's head rolled onto the ground, and blood began to make a pool around the head. Lucky for them, Eve and Jack could breathe now. The two of them breathed heavily thanks to the sudden appearance of air, our ears also popped.
"Hey look, Jack, the fog lifted." Eve informed Jack while gesturing around them, but he wasn't focusing on that, Jack's focus was on the man in front of him. Jack was pale, the man's expression was permanently printed into my mind. "Hey, Jack, are you okay?"
"O-Oh, yeah, I am." Jack lied, he was disgusted with himself for killing another person, Eve noticed Jack's turmoil and put a hand on his shoulder.
"Hey, he tried to kill me twice and almost succeeded in killing both of us the second time, and if you weren't here, I would be dead too." Eve tried helping Jack get over this, but Jack was still a bit disgusted with himself. "Don't feel bad about killing him, he was going to kill us."
"So I guess this world really is kill or be killed." Jack looked at his prosthetic leg, moving his toes.
"No, it's not." Eve caught Jack by surprise as she forced him to look around them, allowing Jack to see an old, wooden shack in the distance, standing atop a part of the docks. "This world is too diverse to be described by a single phrase, especially one as bleak as that. Most people in this world want to be the good guys, so they do good deeds. The person you killed wasn't like that. Now come on, let's go find the cow corpses."
"Sure thing."
After that, they saw that Mifu and Damini beat up their targets as well, without killing them. Damini's targets were ensnared in sand, while Mifu's targets were tied together using some kind of rope. Eve and Jack met up with their teammates while the robot carried the unconscious woman towards the seemingly abandoned shack. Mifu dragged her targets while Damini made her targets hover in the air by controlling the sand. They all reached the old shack and Jack used Stone Breaker to break down the door, allowing them to see inside the room.
And what they saw in the abandoned shack shocked them all.