Let Me Ask for Directions

Phantom vanished.

Not a second's gap. Gone, between one breath and the next.

"Everyone, look ou—!"

Pele tried to shout the warning, and realized she was already the only one left.

"We walked right into it...!"

The back of her head throbbed. A trap, then? Not one of the others was anywhere in sight. There was nothing but trees, and stones jutting out of the earth. The view had gone dark; branches roofed the sky and wiped the sunlight away.

Even so, she steadied herself at once. She could, because before she was a goddess, she was a warrior.

She ran through what the enemy might have done.

First: this was the trap they planned from the start. Second: a defense that triggered the moment we broke the barrier. Third: they noticed us come in, and acted.

Not one of the three sat right with her. However it had happened, they were dancing in the enemy's palm.

Tch. First I need to know where this even is.

She spread her senses. The ground the Heavenly Punishment had seized was not so vast—at most, half the mountain, ringed around the immortal's old house. Pele's own sense was broad enough to take in all of Hawaii. If this place were truly the size it appeared, something ought to have snagged on it.

"Nothing."

Nothing registered, and she accepted that as if it were only natural.

"Another space. Of course."

She sprang, shouldering through the leaves in her way, and broke out under a clear sky. Forest without end filled her sight, green earth unrolling beneath her feet. Given the terrain, it was a view that could not exist. A little farther to the side there ought to have been a city, and yet it had vanished as if it had evaporated. She could scour the place until her eyes stung and still not find it.

"Did they dress the space up from nothing? Or build one that favors them?"

She kicked off empty air ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and launched herself. The trees hemmed in her sight, but sight was only an accessory to her. Divine sense stirred. She hunted for the aura she had committed to memory.

"How big is this?"

A hollow laugh escaped her. She had covered a distance that would have taken her clear around Korea and on through a tour of Japan, and she had not met a single person. For living things, there were trees. Only trees, and soil. Not even an ordinary ant.

"Sloppy work. And they still put effort into it."

A space exquisite enough to fool divine sense. Nothing like a way out presented itself.

"How long has it been?"

The same scenery repeating itself threw her sense of time off. What felt like a few hours might, in truth, have been longer, or shorter.

The enemy made a toy of law. They laid down laws that could compel even a god. Their use had limits, and that was precisely why they struck harder.

"I don't like this."

An old memory surfaced, and her mood soured. The Child of Man already had her on edge. If she let a place like this catch her by the ankle, there would be nothing left of a goddess's dignity.

"......No exit, then I break one."

She spat sharply into her palm. Rubbing the wet hand against the other, she called up flame. Fire dripped sparks like jelly, and she shaped it into a spear.

"You watching? Come out, or I smash the whole thing."

Just in case, she was kind enough to warn them. When not even the wind answered, she shrugged.

"Then don't."

The air howled. She spun the spear once to take its weight, sighted dead ahead, and hurled it with everything she had into the green swell.

A red meteor flared for an instant—

Red ruin swallowed the world.

Then came a sound like glass shattering.

Pele knew she was back in the space where she had started.

"You got out much too fast."

"We're fucked."

"Barrier. Utterly useless."

"Hehehehe...... I gotta pee."

Looking at the four who had come out to greet her, Pele broke into a wide grin.

"Let me ask for directions."

"Where are the kids?"

"This is a problem."

Dan Miryu scratched his head, taking in the darkness on every side.

"It seems we've been had. Did Roadman fail?"

"Could be. Told us to trust no ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠one but him, and this is what we get."

Sword clicked his tongue and drew his sword. The greatsword glinted in the dark, and a strange light gathered in his eyes.

"Weird place. Pitch black, and still there's light. I can see."

"A special space, then."

Dan Miryu's whole body drew taut. If they were inside the enemy's grip, how were they meant to answer it?

A bleak killing intent grazed his skin. In a place without a breath of wind, a gale of murderous will came roaring in, and the air itself heaved. Hair whipped in that wind. Will had taken form, and begun to warp the principles of the world.

A freak in a satgat stepped out, taking the dark for company. Cords hung thick from the brim and scattered as the figure came on without a sound. Between the cords, two ghost-fires burned. Sliding, wavering closer, it was an evil spirit climbed straight out of hell.

"The Third Apostle......"

Dan Miryu called up what Phantom had told them at the Heavenly Punishment briefing. A Heavenly Punishment in a satgat, a sword at the waist—the third seat among the twelve apostles. He dragged the rest of it forward: the past, the name, the ability.

"Alone?"

"No."

Sword crushed the grip in his fist.

"One more."

The darkness dyed a vicious red. For a moment he thought the cords themselves had caught fire.

Blood.

A wave of blood poured down, staining the dark. The Third Apostle's shape was swallowed and gone. The wave surged, aggressive enough to fill the whole of the place.

"Hup—!"

Dan Miryu opened the necklace. Where the blood mixed with the dark it was murky and metallic, and Life stopped it cold.

Steel rang on steel, directly at his back.

"Damn it. You owe me!"

"Thank you!"

Sword had halted the Third Apostle coming in from behind. He swung wild cuts and shook the apostle off, and the two men—back to back before they had quite meant to be—faced the enemies in front of them.

"Hmm? Has the law broken down? I didn't expect this."

Blood drew together in one place. Coiling like a whirlwind, it announced its master's descent. A decadent beauty, half her neck missing, stroked her long nails.

"The Second Apostle......"

"Well, hello. First time meeting you. Korea's own sitting guardian."

She offered the greeting in fluent Korean.

"......This is the worst."

A low groan escaped him. Of all the apostles, he had met two who contended for the very top, and he had met them at once.

"The worst? Please don't say things like that. Women are delicate. You'll hurt my feelings."

"......I'm a married man."

"Really? And so young? Your wife must be delighted."

Dan Miryu lamented inwardly. Why was it that not one of the women he had met lately was normal?

A goddess, a fanatic, a demon hag......

And now a lunatic.

"......Can you handle him?"

He whispered it toward Sword. He knew the man was strong, but Sword had not used his body in months. A fall in skill was a given, and his first opponent was a world-class villain besides.

"A fool's question. Forgotten I'm the one who can kill you?"

"You were doped back then. Three shots."

"Shut up."

Having nothing to say to that, Sword shoved him with his back.

"Don't waste time worrying about someone else. Worry about yourself. I'll take the swordsman."

"Hold fast. I'll come help at once."

"That's my line."

Sword stepped off and drove in at the Third Apostle.

Behind him, a crack of torn air leapt up. At a glance it was a single report. In truth, dozens had stacked until they sounded like one.

"I'll be the lady's opponent."

"Mmm. I like a fresh man, myself."

The Second Apostle looped her arms behind her head and bared her underarms. The snap of her waist as she tempted him was more than enough to pluck at a man's heartstrings.

"We met by chance, but do take care of me. Try not to be boring."

"I'll say it again. I'm a married man."

"What a bad man. Honestly."

Dan Miryu's fist shot out in a straight line. Surprise flickered in the Second Apostle's eyes. He had closed to her face and struck in the same instant.

She turned her body to blood and let the fist pass through.

He drove punch after punch into the blood, and whether they landed or not, he did not care. Blood ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠riddled with holes soaked the ground, then fled him, crawling off like a snake. Spread across the floor, it shrank as it went, venting smoke, until blood-mist lay where the blood had been.

"Wow. You're no ordinary kind of tough. I don't think I could even stand in front of you."

A leisurely voice drifted out of the mist.

"Return the hostages you took, and I'll withdraw."

"You're just asking, aren't you?"

"You won't return them?"

"Cooperate with us, and I'll think about it."

Dan Miryu sighed.

"Negotiations are off. Anyone can see we're the ones with the advantage. A shame."

"An advantage? You must have the wrong idea about us."

The blood-mist deepened to a fiercer red.

"Fate shelters us. The world will meet its hour of transformation, and salvation will come."

"That's enough of the bullshit."

He unleashed the necklace completely.

"......So you had a hidden card."

Life drove out the vicious blood. Blood, nothing more than an accessory of a person, was shoved back by the pillar that upheld the world.

The transcendent of Life descended.

"Shall we begin? Mila Gordon, who couldn't protect a single thing?"

Life looked down on that trifling blood.

Blood stood against Life. No—it raged.

The mist thickened, and it dripped blood. In an instant the blood had submerged everything around them.

A lake of blood.

The lake detonated its own flesh, without restraint.