POV EROS
It's been who knows how long after entering the hollows, and things have been difficult for the four of us.
The bangboo Belle was controlling stayed silent, ethereal's have been chasing us ever since we encountered them, and I was low on ammunition.
What's worse, Nicole and Anby have been struggling to breathe, and Billy himself has been struggling to stand. Soon, an alarm went off, causing the three of them to look more concerned.
"That's the third time, if we stay here any longer, we'll slowly lose ourselves." Nicole gripped her hair and squatted down.
"And turn into ethereal." Nicole nodded at my comment, then breathed deeply, composing herself.
"If we don't get out by the recommended time, we'll lose our minds and become one of them." She finished explaining.
"But with what Anby and Billy told me, those etherals you guys encountered must have been people who were turned into etheral's, can't say I wasn't scared at the pictures I saw, thanks, Billy." Billy only shifted away chuckling nervously.
"H-heh, s-sorry boss." Was all he said before he received a smack from Nicole, only to yelp in pain.
"Damn you and your metal body!" She whined, holding her hand and staring at it with wide eyes, only to sob.
"I broke a nail!" She wailed, only for her mouth to be blocked by my hand, and placing my back against a subway carriage.
"Sir, are you sure there are survivors over here?" Peaking around the corner the four of us saw what looked like a patrol group, all of which belonged to PubSec.
Nicole spoke with my hand, only to remove it from her mouth.
"If we get caught, not only do we lose the strong box, but I don't get paid." She hissed, only for her to stop and look at the three of us.
"I-I mean we don't get paid." She corrected herself, not returning our stare.
"But boss, there's something we can do to prevent our arrest." Billy moved back and picked up the bangboo, its red eyes staring at all of us.
"If we hand over a proxy, not only do we get off scot-free, but our record will be clean." Hearing this, I walked up to Billy and snatched the bangboo from his hands.
"Billy, shame on you for suggesting a thing." I chided him, causing him to look down at the floor with shame.
"Sorry, it's our only best bet if we get caught." Anby then patted his back, staring at him.
"If you do give away the proxy, I'll sell your limited edition starlight knight poster." Hearing this from Anby, he fell to his knees and gripped her legs.
"Noooo, anything but that, please!" He begged her, but Anby could only stare at him, with her eyes not changing their expression.
I had to admit, the more I hear her speak, the less I understand her, since she seems serious all the time.
"Enough, we're not giving Phaethon to them, let's keep moving, we're just going to get caught." She said and began to walk in the opposite direction.
The three of us then looked at one another, shrugging and following her, walking deeper into the hollow.
However, not even three steps in, I felt my heart thump loudly. I could hear it within my ears, blocking out any noise.
My breathing had become more ragged, as if the air was not filling my lungs. The shackles then began to react, and sparks of red lightning began to jump around me.
My sight then became black, until I could see the four of us. My hands and knees were on the ground, with Nicole, Billy, and Anby surrounding me.
All of them wanted to get closer, but were forced to step back when the shackles began to react negatively.
Soon, the shackles shot out to my right, leaving a path of red thorns in its wake. The vision began to follow it, watching it from afar.
The shackles then jumped into a portal, the same one that dragged me, Hecate, and Hella into this world.
Once it passed through it, it kept darting past rubble, ethereals, and even survivors, until it arrived at what looked like an elite ethereal.
In one arm, it had what looked like a sword, while in the other, a massive shield that was the size of its body.
It was patrolling from one side to the other, as if guarding something important.
Under it, was a small box, it looked like a safe, behind it, two large mania crystals clung to the wall, with two figures inside.
That was all I could see, and I felt beads of sweat dripping onto the ground, forming small puddles.
"H-hey, Eros, you good?" I heard Billy ask me, his hands were close to my shoulder, he wanted to help me stand up, but was hesitant.
"You aren't going t-to transform into some evil bad guy, right?" I only grabbed his hand, causing him to flinch, but not pulling back.
"Sorry, it's just… when the two of you found the box, did the two of you see two large crystals?" I asked, and Billy and Anby nodded.
"Yes, however, we were forced to retreat when we were near said crystals, my cravings for burgers were enhanced." She explained.
"I-I see, you made the right choice to retreat." Anby, only nodded and soon looked around us.
"So, what does that mean for us, you can lead us to the strong box?" She asked me, and I only glanced at her with a smile on my face.
"Oh my god, you can lead us to the strong box." She began to squeal in delight and soon hugged me.
"Yes, yes, yes, oh how lucky we are to have you!" She didn't notice where she had my head, buried in between her breasts.
I was shocked at what was happening, this was a first for me, and I didn't dislike it, however, I pulled back and gently pried her arms off me.
"That's nice and all, but we need to get going, I don't know if the path I found would change, so let's get going." I counted how many mags I had left, and found then were still full.
I then knelt to pick up Eous in one of my arms. Surprisingly, the bangboo was light, so I enjoyed it.
"You heard the newbie, make sure you protect him at all costs." She ordered, and both Billy and Anby nodded and stayed close to me.
"This way." Was all I said and began to run in the direction that I saw, along the way, I could see small bits and pieces of mania crystals on the ground.
However, as soon as I got close, they began to break and splutter towards me, as if they were being absorbed by me.
As if leading us to where we needed to go, however, etherals had shown up, most likely attracted to the crystals as well.
"Etheral's up ahead!" I shouted, I stopped, and aimed my pistol, firing with great precision.
However, I wasn't alone, Anby and Nicole rushed forward, knocking a few of them back, while Billy stayed next to me to provide cover fire.
"Eros, just keep running and find a place to hide, we'll deal with them!" Nicole shouted at me while blasting a small black orb of ether.
The orb soon stopped and began to expand, creating a powerful vacuum, dragging any ethereals that were too close towards it.
As soon as the ethereal's touched the orb, they began to dissipate, as if they were being shredded in a cheese grater.
Billy himself was running around, shooting and evading the ethereals with ease, one of them tried to stab him from behind.
As if sensing the ethereal, Billy turned his body to the side and bent his arms, letting the blade-like appendage slip through both arms with ease.
Once it passed through, Billy clamped his arms tight around the ethereal's arm, holding it in place, he then spun forward, dragging it to act as a shield from another attack.
With the two ethereals in place, he released the first one, and aimed both revolvers at both of them, pulling the trigger and breaking the black spheres.
"Who's next?!" Billy taunted, causing most of the ethereals to howl and chase him, seeing this, he panicked and ran towards Anby.
"Anby, help me!" Billy shouted, running away while firing at the group, he then passed by Anby, who already had her sword drawn.
"Roger, preparing to eliminate." She then knelt down, sheathing the blade, and leaned low, as if she were in a running position.
Once they had reached a certain distance, she ran forward, like last time, and she unsheathed her blade, quickly slicing their limbs to prevent them from running.
However, one of the ethereals had snuck behind her and was able to land a strike, all she received was a small cut that was on her leg.
"Received minimal damage, I can still fight." She muttered, however, before she ran forward again, I raised my hand, aiming it towards Anby.
I thought I would feel exhausted about what I was about to do, but I didn't. The cut that was on Anby's leg soon healed, as if it had never been cut.
"Received medical aid, performance is now at full capacity." She then rushed forward, only to hear me shout.
"Anby, dodge!" I shouted, launching a black orb towards them, once she dodged, the orb then exploded, causing the group of ethereals to be launched in different directions, and landing prone.
Once they all had fallen, I took the chance to fire as well, carefully aiming at the ones that had the black spheres exposed.
I was too focused on firing, I didn't notice a stray ethereal behind me, with its sword raised, I was about to be struck.
"Oh no you don't, you're not touching my lucky charm!" Nicole shouted at the stray, using her briefcase as a shield.
'Am I even a person to her?' I thought to myself, I then leaned to the side, aiming the barrel at the sphere.
Firing at the ethereal in front of us, once it was launched back, Nicole spun around and patted my cheek, wearing a smug grin of her own.
"Good boy, now, sniff out the treasure!" She pointed in the direction we were heading.
In the end, I didn't bother to argue, both of us were heading in the same direction, only for different reasons.
"Well, at least we're almost done." I said and began to lead once again, leading all of them towards the portal.
Midway to the portal, I felt the bangboo squirming in my arms, and soon jumped onto the floor, the eyes were no longer red.
Instead, it was green, indicating that it was back to normal the four of us surrounded Eous, who then had its eyes closed, waving its little arms.
"Hey guys, did you miss me?" The four of us looked at Belle in joy, Billy was the first one to act, hugging the bangboo in happiness.
"Phaethon, you're back!" He said excitedly, once he was done hugging her, he placed her on the ground.
"Phaethon, the heck happened back there? We were this close to being turned into ethereals." Nicole asked, Belle then closed her eyes and slouched forward.
"Well, to make a long story short, our main account got hacked by some random guy." This made all of us, except Anby, surprised.
"What!? What do you mean hacked, did they do anything to your system, what about the coordinates, the carrot?!" She grabbed Belle and began to shake her.
S-s-to-o-op sh-a-a-aking m-m-m-e-e-e!" Belle begged, trying to speak up, Nicole soon calmed down and placed Belle on the ground.
"As I was saying, the guy who hacked us wanted the codes to the strong box, in exchange, they would give us our account and the system back." Belle explained.
"Wise and I didn't know what to do, it was either we stay silent and watch you guys turn, or we lose the codes." Hearing this, I smiled and knelt placing my hand between the ears.
"You made the right choice to save us." Belle then looked in confusion.
"We didn't give him the code, we gave him access to our account and then called PubSec to trace him, in the end we lost our account." She said, catching us off guard.
"Oh, uhh, my condolences then." I tried to console her, but she just waved it off.
"It's okay, we just need to build up the reputation on the backup account we made." Hearing her say this, I recalled what she and general chop had discussed.
"I see, and the coordinates to the strong box, do you still have it?" Belle nodded her head and was about to lead us, but I stopped her.
"No need, we arrived at the portal." I stood up and walked forward, a few steps later, the black portal appeared in front of me.
"H-how did you find this? You don't have a carrot!" Belle looked at my back, while I continued to stare at the portal in front of me.
"Simple." I extended my arms and activated my shackles, red lightning began to jump all over my arms.
The four of them stared at my arm, watching in awe, as the thorn-like shackles that ran across my entire arm glowed.
"Once a sinner is bound to my shackles, I'll always know where they are." However, they didn't see the frown that was on my face.
The shackles that detained the rest of them were broken, meaning I had to look for them once again and place the shackles on them.
"Now that our goal is in front of us, let's finish this and go home." I turned to them with an innocent smile. They soon snapped out of their shock and Nicole spoke.
"A-ahem, what the newbie said, let's go!" Nicole was the first to cross the fissure, followed by Anby, and Billy. I however turned to Belle, who was now looking at me with caution.
"A-are you sure they won't hurt us?" She asked me, I wasn't surprised that she was afraid, I knelt and patted her head.
"As long as I am there to stop them, they won't lay a hand on you." I said with a reassuring smile, her digital eyes then showed confidence, and she extended her hand.
"I trust you." I shook her little hand and scooped her in my arms, gently holding her while walking towards the fissure.
"Thank you for the trust." I then disappeared through the fissure, leaving nothing behind.
[I-I'm so moved Chief is already making a maiden swoon for him, as if! There are better girls for him! Anyways its almost time for me to see the two daughters, I'm so excited!! Send them power rocks to show support. Bye Bye]