[If you want you can reread the last chapter because when on release, it didn't upload the images I added for the Council girls, but now they should be there.]
Who are you?
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"When you said 'night,' I thought we'd be moving at midnight....isn't this a bit early?'
Amelia questioned as she pressed a finger on her ear.
"We need to wrap this up as quick as we can. I don't want you staying up late and end up not being full energy for tomorrow's stream." Cyrus answered.
"What're you, my dad?"
She was dressed rather casually from her usual attire with a large jacket covering her up. In the midst of the loud city, she found herself downtown and calmly scanning her surroundings. Only a short while later did she stumble upon a rather high quality looking store.
Pressing her earpiece again, she squinted and remained across the street to the store.
"I'm at the place... it's kinda hard to think this is it but it's also genius."
She looked at the bright neon lit board of a pawn shop named 'Sun Diamond.'
"I guess not all cultists are stupid as they make themselves out to be, but given how I dealt with them last time...they're a significant amount of stupid -- Just get in there and do what you have to do."
"I really hope feeding you info is gonna be worth it. I don't wanna end up dying just yet."
"You and I both know you're not letting that happen."
"Heh, yeah, just thought I'd get a reaction."
Watson finally sucked up her snickering and headed over to the store. A short jiggle of a bell once through the door, she was relieved to see that not many people were here aside a single customer and two people tending to their respective counters.
She locked in on the least occupied person and made her approach with a half effort smile.
"Evening, lady. Want to look at something or do you got something for me, haha..!" A tall middle aged man greeted her.
"That depends, are there going to be camera crews around me when I have something of value?"
Her words got another laugh out of the man. "Naahhh I'm never letting any TV show crew ruin my reputation here."
"Good then! Because..." Amelia slipped her hand into her back. "I want to test my luck with this..."
She placed a folded piece of paper on the counter. The man glanced between her and the page before carefully opening it.
It was a very old and tattered looking page, the texture didn't even feel like paper to him. Using a small lense, he examined it from top to bottom and the indescribable text before him.
"Ma'am...this is..."
"A bargaining chip."
The two slightly leaned in to a whisper.
"Do you have any idea how much this is worth...?"
"Why do you think I'm here? You're the expert~ Besides, this is only a small grain of the real thing..."
"W-what?!" The man stopped himself from acting out and cleared his throat. "How much do you..."
Amelia raised her hand to stop him.
"Like I said, this is a bargaining chip." She placed her hand on the page. "Let me join the hunt."
"I don't know what you're talking about..."
"Let me ask you this then: Has anyone ever told you that the boundaries around us are all fake? All it takes a single strike to break the glass..."
Her riddled tone kept the man quite for a moment before he snatched the page from her then tilted his head.
"Come with me."
The man guided Amelia out of the store through the back where an alleyway led to a stairwell descending into the unknown dark.
As the man walked down first with a torch on, Amelia glanced over her shoulder to see a synchronized flash of light atop the roof of the pawn shop. Settled in relief she followed him down, the dampness of the walls around here only amplified the pressure of the situation before her but all Watson could think of was how cliche this scenario felt.
So much so that she felt like backing out and letting Cyrus deal with this himself. But she knew she's already locked in and can't run away now.
The deeper they went, the brighter their surroundings got as the two entered a tunneled hall. They entered it through a metal door and on the other end was another metal door.
"Wait here for a bit." The man left Amelia in the hall while entering the next room himself.
Amelia quickly tapped in on her communications. "So far so good. I don't think you can sneak into a place like this bud I'll let you know if things go south."
"..."
"Cyrus?"
"..."
"Ughh! Don't tell me there's no connection here, this is a radio!"
She suddenly snapped back to the door with her best look once she heard the door open again.
"H-hey! So?" She waved at the man.
"You'll be meeting the master directly." He answered in a low whisper.
"Alright, is...is he here?"
"You'll see." Without another word, he lunged forward and slammed a rag over Amelia's mouth.
The shock of his action made her gasp, ultimately forcing her to inhale the fumes doused in the rag. Everything went slow, then hazy, then quiet and then finally, black.
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"Hey, Ina?" Gura called out aimlessly.
"What's up?"
"Have you ever just felt like you're supposed to know something's wrong but you can't figure out what it is?"
"....Um."
Ina was spinning in Gura's gaming chair while the shark laid flat on her bed, eyes locked to the ceiling. Not really knowing how to respond to her question, Ina took a closer look at Gura's state and noticed the lost look in her eyes.
"Why, is something bugging you?"
"I guess...? I mean," she hoisted herself up. "Ever since that whole incident with Gawr, I've been feeling pretty detached. Not in like a weird distant way but rather, I just don't feel like myself anymore..."
"Well...did something happen after she was calmed down?"
Ina's question made Gura think to herself for a moment. She remembered how in her unconditional state after being knocked out, she confronted Gawr again but this time the red shark seemed...very flustered. She demanded to know who Cyrus was and whatever he did to her was unexplainable and that they should agree to never talk about it again.
It was a bizarre encounter, she had never felt her shadow like this but it was what happened after that had ticked her emotions.
"...I just, I guess I had a dream when I was knocked out. It was all so blurry but I felt like I was in a familiar place but I didn't want to be there."
"Maybe you've been feeling a bit off because of the move out of all of us. It's pretty normal to feel out of your element."
"Yeah but how'd I fix it? I don't exactly wanna worry everyone during the stream, on my birthday no less."
"Mh." Ina shrugs. "Sometimes you just go with the flow of things and eventually settle. But sometimes you can use a bit of back tracking too!"
"...Back tracking.."
Gura mumbled to herself, finding a different root meaning out of Ina's advice, although Tako didn't really know what she meant herself.
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"Mmhh...bleehh, Gura get your socks outhha my room.." Amelia then shook her head awake after a shocking discovery.
"Wait...! Gura doesn't wear socks in the house..."
She frantically looked around herself. A new dark and damp foundation surrounded her, she was chained up against a wall with thick cuffs with the room only lit by fire torches. There was a wide spiked latch that kept her body pressed to the wall.
"Jeez, what's next? Red robed cultists with an elk skull mask?"
The door right across her thrashed open with red robed cultists walking in, fitted with animal skulls for masks.
"Ha! Called it!"
"Glad to see that you've awakened, our fresh disciple..." The man in the middle said in a whisper.
"Look dude, I'm all in for some bondage but I just met you." She shook her chained hands.
"Please do not be so vulgar...the children of the Ancient Ones must remain intact to their purity."
"If I'm meant be part of that path then why was I abducted?"
"Well, we are very warmed by your commitment to join our cause...but trust comes with time. We couldn't simply let you know the routes we take to our sacred sanctum." The man explained.
"Not feeling the warm welcome here." The detective scoffed.
...
"However...our followers may not be as enlightened as I. I'm no fool to your presence here, Amelia Watson."
Those words made Ame's eyes shoot up at him. She could even feel the smirk through his mask.
"Did you not think we'd know of the companions of the false vessel? Our years of studying and hunting her down wasn't all for naught." He then slipped out the page she had provided. "And because of this...I've been willing to keep you alive so that you can provide us with what we've been seeking all along~"
'Thats one trick down the gutter...' Amelia cursed.
"The offer to join us is still very much on the table, dear detective." The man offered his scarred hand to her.
She kicked away the hand without a thought. "Biiiiig pass on that, I don't dig the dress code." She then wriggled her hands in place, knowing she can't really escape like this. "Besides, sooner or later you'll know your whole scheme of not wanting to be followed."
It was a rather risky move for Amelia to expose Cyrus's position like that. He would have preferred to have done this more quietly and now she threw him under the spot light, still, she thought that putting the cultist in a panic and have them slip up on-
"If you are referring to your companions then they would have already been here by now...The only other person who knew about your whereabouts was the assassin we had hired to lure you in."
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"What?"
"Oh yes, you must know how much we had to pay the man to even get him to speak about you lot." The man shrugs in annoyance. "The world under bragged about how well versed his knowledge was of secrecy."
Amelia's head began to slowly sink down, her eyes wide with confusion as she heard his words.
"But..when did-"
"It was far more interesting to think that he was the one who came to us for that offer. He must have caught wind of the money we had recently obtained...No matter, his skills were worth every penny."
'He...he wouldn't. This wasn't part of the plan...why..?' Watson was heavily silent, her eyes hidden behind the blonde curtains of her hair.
"There is no need to be so disheartened, my child..." The tall man reached down and touched the girls chin, "You should rejoice, the spill of your blood will bring you closer to the great ones, tonight, you will be reborn."
Amelia angrily swiped her face away from his touch, broken rage beaming through her eyes as one peaked through her locks.
"You'll never get to Ina...Not while I'm still here." She growled.
"Well then it's a good thing we'll be fixing that today~" the man laughed as his followers opened the door behind and left with him.
Once the large doors slammed shut, Watson was now dreadfully alone with her thoughts and despair.
She had been betrayed on the first go. Played by the man she trusted enough to call a friend, she scoffs.
A light laugh and a limp of exhaustion, the detective slumped against the wall. 'I wonder how much I was worth...' she thought as she imagined he must have been paid quite the sum to get her here.
'They took my coat, my revolver and...most of everything was in there, time jumping isn't an option.' she looked down and began tapping her foot as a means to jog her brain and think of something.
She may be distraught but she's not giving up yet, this cult is still a potential danger to her friends...if not Cyrus himself.
In her frustrations, she saw her necklace then blinked in realization. "Ha, idiots..." She bowed forward as much as she could, causing the necklace to slip off her head but she caught it in her teeth before it could fall to the ground.
She took a few short breaths to mentally prepare herself before biting down on the head piece, which was a gold tear drop shape. It broke then sizzled as slight smoke began seeping out. She then spat the object into her hand then used the chain of the necklace to guide the acid dropping from the head piece.
The fluids that came out began eroding the metal cuff on her wrist, melting it away until it broke off. She quickly went to repeat the process to the other then used the remaining droplets to melt the latches of the bar around her abdomen.
She composed herself and calmed down. After a short stretch she looked around the room and found nothing of use and went for the door.
Pressing her ear up against the wooden gate before her, she heard obvious mumbling. The doors were guarded.
She tried looking around for another option but there was nothing of help. She then stopped and simply shrugged.
She knocked on the room door. The guards outside were immediately startled by this noise ran into the room to investigate.
They burst inside to find nothing, the broken chains on the floor and the missing detective, all the means to cause them to panic.
"H-How did she even?! There's no other place to go!"
"Agghh! Should have known better. She's not some joke damsel either...!"
The two guards then ran back out with loud shouts alerting everyone they could.
Once gone, Amelia peeked out from behind the door that she automatically hid behind when the guards came in. They had managed to hide her themselves and now the path was clear.
"They really are significantly stupid..." She mumbled before running out into the brighter halls.
As she made her way around the place trying to find any sense of direction, she almost ran into another set of guards, unlike the last two, these ones had rifles. The detective darted around a corner and remained there with her breath held as they conversed.
"We told the High Lord, he said to continue the ceremony preparations."
"Still, get back to the storage room, she'll likely try retrieving her gadgets." The man pointed.
Soon, with a nod, the guard made a run for it down the opposite hall while the other left immediately. Amelia scoffed and began following the guard heading for the storage.
When the guard had reached and entered the room in a frantic jog, behind him was Watson who had a rather red-evil look in her eye. It may have been general imagination but it almost looked like she had a sharp toothed grin.
What followed next was the slam shut of the door and then a girly scream came from inside, which was not Amelia's.
Minutes pass and the leader of the Cultists was already partaking in a ritual of sorts. Staring at the page in his hand, he stepped into a marked circle on the floor, surrounded by his followers who raised cups into the air, and chanted.
A lesser member came running into the room and immediately fell to his hands and knees.
"My Lord, we cannot find her, it is unsafe to complete the ceremony here."
"She cannot stop what has been started, faith drives us all, brother...She too will be drawn to the will of the Gods, eventually."
As they continued to chant and recite the words on the page. Amelia quietly observed from the upper floor, hidden between the railing of a staircase. Equipped with her cost and even her hat which somehow now rested on her head. (She did not bring that with her).
Her free hand was positioned and ready, hovering over her revolver. Trying to assess the best possible way to go about this situation and attack. Given that Cyrus ditched her, she still had to do something about this cult if it means to hurt Ina.
She watched as the supposed "High Lord" was chanting the words from the page in his hand. She smirked.
'Kinda glad I didn't actually rip a piece off Ina's book.' she thought.
"I just scribbled some text off what I saw on a random page...it's not going to.."
Her words were caught in her throat as the floor beneath the man began to glow in a flash of purple, tentacles emerging all around from the circle.
"Simply because it is not a page of the book, does not mean the scripture is useless, dear Watson."
The robed man said as he slowly turned his head to exactly where Amelia was hiding.
"....shit."
The tentacles shot at her with the speed of a bullet, crashing through the stairs and latching onto the girl.
She was ripped from her hiding spot and brought right to the center of the ritual. Her arms were tightly held by the squishy appendages as they brought her face to face with the cultist.
"Fascinating how a few words can turn you into something more than what man could ever dream of..." He mumbled right at her face.
"And it still couldn't make you less of a dick." Amelia attempted to kick the man but was thrown away.
She crashed against a painting strung up against the wall. The frame shattered easily upon her landing, it then falls on her head once she slams onto the floor.
"Subdue her." The leader announced.
The cultists knelt around him finally rose and made their way to Amelia, daggers and chains in hand.
Amelia struggled to lift herself up, she felt a slight sting at her head, a moist sensation ran down her cheek. A wound on her forehead had a slight mess of her complexion.
Still, seeing the looming shadows of the cultist approaching her, she grabbed her weapon and opened fire on anyone nearing her.
She shot and killed the two closet to her then attempted to run, keeping some distance between them. Jumping behind a black cloth alter, she kicked it down and used it as cover before opening fire again.
"I could really use some gum right now." She mumbled to herself as she reloaded.
Not even getting a chance to turn back and fire again, the alter was mashed through by a tentacle and exposing her position again. The cultist went in and attempted to strike the girl but she rolled away, barely losing a finger.
"There's no running from this, detective." The leader sighed. "Despite your intervention, you're only aiding us in our progress."
"Sure you're not just waltzing into my trap?" She bluffed through her teeth as she jumped and fired the last few rounds she had at the man.
But the bullets were absorbed by the purple glow that emitted underneath the man, he was protected.
Watson was now cornered, she tired hitting her attackers away with the butt of her revolver but was inevitably grabbed. A chain wrapped around her neck from a cultist who went at her from behind. The next two were nearing her with their weapons aimed at her face.
"Hm, I'm sure." The leader shrugged as he began walking to the others. "The Disciples could gain wonders from your aid, Watson. The offer remains...until your dying breath."
"You can kiss my ass... seriously, I might enjoy it- HNGK!" The chain tightened and soon followed the tentacles that began wrapping around her legs.
'Aahhhh shit! I'm gonna get hentai'd! Think think...' with her oxygen supply slowly declining, she tried looking around herself to find any sort of help. 'I could have gotten out of this...if I had a better plan...Cyrus you two faced fuck...!'
She suddenly gasped loudly, the sweet taste of air filled her lungs as she dropped to the floor.
Amelia looked up to see the High Lord kneeling infront of her with his stomach held, blood spewing from between his finger tips as he shrieks.
"I thought you said you can handle yourself..." A familiar voice called.
The other cultists turned and faced their weapons at Cyrus who sat atop the ritual table with a 12 gauge shotgun in his hands.
"Y-You...?!" The leader angrily turned to him. "What is this...?! How dare you defile the mgk..! The blood of the children...!"
Cyrus jumped off the table and approached the huddled cultists with a rack of his weapon.
"Had to take a little detour. Now, drop the detective." He said calmly.
"You think you have any authority here...?!"
The tentacles release Amelia's legs and shoot for Cyrus but as they near the man, they begin to curve and completely ignore him, deflecting off into different directions.
Unable to be stopped, Cyrus walked as slow as possible, a growing dread piping in the Cultists as they watched.
"What is happening..?!"
The tentacles could only fly around him and completely avoid his very presence. The other cultists soon took chare as they ran up to him but were brutally blown away by his shotgun.
"Don't make this boring for me." Cyrus tilted his head. Blood splattered the front of his shirt.
The cultist with the chain was already weak in the knees when he saw his leader, he kept his distance from Amelia the moment Cyrus ended his companions. He had realized that this man was not worth dying over. And so he fled.
"Do you...think that you can stand against the Ancient Ones?! We are the higher born! You are nothing at the feet of the Gods...!"
Cyrus hooked his gun to his back then grabbed the man by his face, both hands pressed against his skull.
"Out there, maybe." His hands began to squeeze. "Down here? With how easy it is to get to you...how easy it is to find fear in you, can your God save you? Is he saving you right now?"
Cyrus's fingers were digging into the man's skull as the mask broke off and revealed an utterly terrified man underneath, who's face was messed with blood by fingernails sinking into his face.
"The Ancient Ones can wait in line. Here...I'm God."
A noticeable crack filled the room and soon, Cyrus twisted the man's neck with such force it 180'd to the point he was facing a pale and speechless Amelia. Finally, the man fell and remained there.
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After a prolonged silence, Cyrus stretched his arms and began wiping off the blood on his shirt.
"So much for being a skilled detective ready for jobs at a- Ow!" Cyrus was met with a gun thrown at his face.
"You backstabbing no brain traitor!" Amelia yelled as she grabbed a ritual dagger off the ground.
"The hell are you...?"
Cyrus swiftly moved out of the way as she tried slicing his face and continued to dodge and smack away her hand.
"You sold me out?! You get your chance and make a quick buck out of me?!"
"I didn't sell you out! It was part of the plan!"
"What plan?! I was never told about this PLAN! I got kidnapped after you go AWOL and then I find out you were hired by these psychos all along!"
Cyrus finally caught her wrist and knocked the knife out of her hand, restraining both her hands as she tried to pull back.
"That was all part of it! They already knew that SOMEONE was going to try and have a go at them! I had to improvise!"
The tentacles and the portal they poured out of began to destabilize, the slimey appendages began to flail and shoot back into the purple light in the ground. But the portal didn't seem to disappear. Infact, it was beginning to grow.
"...we need to go." Cyrus, already having a hold on the girl's arm, began to flee the scene.
Being dragged out of the red themed mess of a foundation, Amelia made the shocking discovery that they were in a mine channel of sort. The once proud looking establishment of a cult was now slowly rumbling into destruction. The roof above them was giving away the further they ran.
Amelia looked at her hand gripped firmly by the Assassin then pressed her teeth. She then snatched her hand away from his hold and began running ahead of him.
Having little reaction, Cyrus only tired to keep us as despite Amelia's sudden power rush, Cyrus was the only one of the two who knew the way out of here.
But their running soon became a difficult task as the domain they had just left erupted in an explosion which only worsened the falling debris. Amelia still ignored it and ran on while Cyrus was more worried about her recklessness.
They reached a climb that worked up to the opening of a dig site, struggling to hold their breath through the flying dust and fumes hazardous to the scent.
Cyrus managed to reach a metal ladder that suspended from all the crushing walls around them.
"Amelia!"
"I'm getting to it!"
"No! The support beams aren't going to hold...!"
He jumped onto the ladder and reached his hand out to the detective who was now a short gap away from him. The ground between her and the ladder had broken away.
"Just jump!"
"Like hell I'm taking that hand!"
"God damn it, Watson if you don't jump, I'm staying down here as well!"
His words, the look look in his eyes, mixed with the dusted and wounded face he had, it all made Amelia feel like she needed to believe him despite her doubts. It was all on a leap of faith.
One that she finally took.
Her hand finally hooked onto his and once firmly in his grasp, Cyrus used up all his strength to throw the girl a few inches above him where she instinctively grabbed the bar of the ladder.
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The dig site was now in the far distance as a tower of smoke and dust lifted into the sky, the area surrounded by flashes of red and blue.
To marvel at this sight were two ragged individuals who were completely white, not by fear of anguish but the mess they had to crawl through to get out.
Sitting on a wide tree branch, Cyrus and Amelia proudly watch their work before them.
...
"I didn't ditch you back there, Ame." Cyrus looked down. "I mean it when I say that I was trying to out play people who were already outplaying us."
The blonde didn't respond and only looked on with the flow of the wind wiping off the dust it could off of them.
"But I know that's not justifiable for keeping you in the dark about it. I'm just...I'm not really used to working with others, I've never had to cooperate with anyone other than the Maids who only ever nod their heads. But I'm sorry."
He then followed her gaze off to the scene of the crime and chaos.
"So, how much did they pay?" She asked.
"What?"
"My bounty. I'm someone who's wanted in 50 different timelines with a price on my head ranging from 30-50k." Amelia smirked as she pointed her thumb at herself.
"12 million."
"WHAT THE FU-" She almost fell down but Cyrus grabbed her by the arm and pulled her up.
"Are these guys loaded for no reason?! How'd they even get that much?!"
Cyrus could only laugh at her surprise which got a laugh out of Amelia in return.
"Dude, that's golden, you made them pay you for nothing! You have 12 million in your pocket like it's allowance from your parents!"
"Where do you think I had been when you were playing damsel in distress?" Cyrus asked.
Amelia only tilted her head in curiosity.
"At first I was just pulling their leg about the amount I asked but with how easily they paid me then and there, it got me curious." Cyrus pulled out his phone and began swiping away. "I went and did a few background checks to make sure that this group can't rise up again after we hit their boss and... during that I found out that mister big shot here was High Management Loan Shark and began digging through all his bank accounts."
He tossed his phone to Amelia who quickly took a glance at the screen. Her eyes nearly popped out at the sight before her.
"THIS IS MORE THEN COVER MAKES IN 4 YEARS!"
"And we have all of it to treat ourselves as much as we want." Cyrus turned his leg over the branch and looked at Amelia with a smirk. "So Watson, wanna buy a few new cars and go home?"
Amelia stared at him for a few seconds before reciprocating his smile before raising her fist at him.
"You're alright, man."
Cyrus collided his knuckles with hers.
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...
"You have a stream in 4 hours."
"God damn it."
To Be Continued