Lilac's messenger rang, a gentle bell ringing off in the corner of her mind, as she entered Central Park. She ignored it as she felt the air shift, the bustle of the city surrounding the sanctuary abruptly going silent, a phenomenon that the researchers at The Bureau speculated could possibly be because of an undiscovered relic.
She had her doubts, but generally the Research Division was rarely wrong about these kinds of things, and the emergence of the Gates had only enforced their more…esoteric ideas.
Director Marcus's aide stood beside her, making observations in her System notes, the razor sharp look in her azure eyes undercutting the pleasant smile she wore.
The two of them were an enigmatic pair, frequently looking into Gates and events that seemingly fell outside of the purview of The Bureau, though it was unclear what they were looking for.
A sucking sound followed by barely audible pops marked the entrance of her team, nine of the strongest Walkers in the organization, now under her leadership.
They'd been reluctant to join her team when Marcus had assigned them to her, but the successful completion of several missions had created something of a growing camaraderie between them.
Experienced Gate Walkers knew the world was dangerous, and that team composition could mean the difference between survival and death. For the nine people behind her, clearing a Gate was less important than the former, particularly since they were only sent to A rank gates or higher.
"Why are we here, Cap," November asked, his voice taut with the stress they were all feeling.
Lilac tugged at her hair a bit, trying to move the blonde locks to cover the eyepatch protecting her left eye as she responded, "Director Marcus wants us to look into a recent string of disappearances we've narrowed down to this general area."
"Rules of Engagement," he asked pointedly.
Amy piped up, "Combat is strictly in cases of life or death, unless we're required to enter a Gate."
Amy…the walking mystery with crystal blue eyes was, in truth, an irritant that Lilac hadn't wanted anywhere near her under the best circumstances. Today, when they were investigating what very well could be an S Rank Gate Crash, she was a needle in a festering wound.
A Gate Crash, when the creatures and influence of a Gate emerged from within, was a relatively new development, the first having triggered less than a year prior. While some were violent and destructive, the most dangerous Crash was when it was subtle, the forces of emerging entities slowly growing and establishing themselves in some secluded area, their forces growing away from the eyes of The Bureau or the Association.
Lilac nodded to Amy's unwanted intrusion and motioned for the team to progress in formation, and grabbed the girl's arm to pull her aside.
For a brief moment, moving her was like trying to yank an iron rod from its foundation, then it passed and she followed Lilac's pull.
"I am going to say this once, and only once, and you are going to listen to me," Lilac whispered angrily.
Amy gave her a condescending smile in return, like someone placating a child, as Lilac continued.
"This is my team. I don't know why you're here, or what you're actually doing, but they answer to me, NOBODY else. Are we clear?!"
Amy nodded and said, "My apologies if I've overstepped some kind of boundary, Captain Lilac. As for what I'm actually doing…just visiting an old friend of the Director. We're hoping for an overdue report on a project they're working on."
The straightforward honesty caught Lilac off guard, but she refused to let it show.
Truth be told, she considered Director Marcus a friend and a savior, and maybe even a father figure; one who took her and her own friends in as children as part of The Bureau's program to nurture wayward youths and orphans into powerful Gate Walkers.
Perhaps that's why Amy's presence made her so uncomfortable. The girl, maybe in her early 20's, fairly close to her own age, had seemingly come from nowhere and had been given an extremely close position and access to things Lilac had been denied for years.
Before she could continue, a figure emerged behind Amy, moving so fast that Lilac couldn't even react before it reached them.
It slammed into Amy like a newborn foal, knocking her over and rolling with a surprisingly innocent laugh.
Giggling.
The thing was giggling.
Then Lilac got a better look at them and realized the creature that had evaded her team of experienced Walkers, and her own mental perimeter, was just a girl.
"AMY," she shouted, excitement and happiness ringing in her voice.
The two rolled around, playing like children for a few minutes before pushing away from each other, Amy wiping the dirt and leaves off her clothes as they stood up.
"Aria!," she said, a more genuine smile on her face than before.
"I was actually on my way to see your father," she continued, using what Lilac now recognized was a professional voice. The voice she used whenever they had spoken, even in private.
She wasn't sure why, but that stung just a touch.
Lilac didn't need one of the uncommon Analyzation abilities to see that despite her playfulness, the girl, Aria, was clearly powerful.
She pouted and said, "Auntie Amy, you never come to play with me anymore."
"You're older than I am, Aria, should you really be pouting about playing?," Amy asked, still smiling.
The girl's black eyes seemed to light with an inner fire as she said, "Dad keeps me so busy though! Keeping everyone in the Consortium happy is WAY harder than my uncles let on."
Amy gave her a gentle warning look, and said, "We'll talk about that later. For now, why don't you guide us to the temple."
She looked at Lilac and asked, sarcasm on the fringes of her words, "Of course, that's if your assistance wouldn't be considered overstepping your boundaries, Captain?"
Stifling her annoyance, Lilac gestured at the two to lead the way forward.
Whistling to get her team's attention, the trio waited as the Walkers assembled, maintaining defensive formations, which garnered another giggle from Aria.
Throwing her hand out off to the right, she started walking, a spring in her step.
As they walked, Lilac assessed the girl, noting that in addition to her black eyes, she also had bright multitone flame colored hair. This, in and of itself, was not strange, but there weren't any roots showing. A recent dye job maybe?
A rough estimate put her at five feet, standing well below Lilac's own six, and just a shade under Amy as well.
The ground beneath her feet seemed to gently smoke as she walked, leading them through a path that opened up, seemingly by magic, though Lilac couldn't sense any mana use.
Within an hour, they had arrived at the entrance of a temple that felt like it had been constructed specifically to be missed. The gray structure, while clearly maintained, had an air of unreality to it, as though it wasn't entirely within the realm of Lilac's ability to perceive it, though she couldn't begin to explain why.
As she looked it over, Aria ran to a robed man who was tending one of several gardens gracing the path to the doors.
"Dad!," she yelled as she moved to jump on the man's back.
Facing away from the approaching group, the figure grabbed his daughter out of the air, abruptly, and impossibly fast, now facing them as he looked over Lilac's team, his eyes lingering on her for a moment longer.
Something caught in his eyes, and his expression softened for the slightest instant…recognition maybe?
"Aria! Its good to see you again! How long have you been away from home this time," the man asked, his voice surprisingly deep and youthful despite his apparent older age.
Pouting once again, her face scrunched up cutely as Aria said, "Its only been six months Dad."
Shrugging as he put her down, he said, "You know what its like, time flies."
Casting a glance at Lilac and Amy, he moved, almost gliding across the ground as he said, "Amy, my niece. I assume my bastard brother Marcus sent you? You don't come by for personal visits often."
Amy smiled apologetically and said, "I'll try to make it out here more, I've just been busy, you know?"
Nodding understandingly, the man asked, "And what does he want from me now?"
Straightening up a bit, Amy, professional again, said, "Director Marcus says that the contracts have come to an end, and the time has come to collect them. Don't fight me on this Terrowin."
The big man sighed heavily before he asked, "I assume this is the extraction team then?"
"That's correct," she said as she moved her head in their direction.
He turned and approached Lilac, introducing himself, "Hello, my name is Terrowin. I'm the current guardian of this temple."
Lilac offered her hand and said, "My name is Lilac. I'm the extraction team captain, though…to be honest, I'm a little unsure of what exactly we're here to extract. The official information we were given was that this area was at risk of a Gate Crash"
Taking her hand and shaking it firmly, Terrowin shrugged and said, "Honestly, we're not entirely clear what you should be looking for either. The documents we're using as reference for this are pretty vague about any identifying marks, though they also say to leave it buried, even if the seals come undone."
"Seals?" Lilac asked.
"Yes, the Gates that have opened within the Temple are directly related to seals on the targets you're meant to extract. They were supposedly meant to never open, so we suspect some kind of external influence, though we'll be carrying on that investigation ourselves since it will likely be beyond the capabilities of the Bureau."
He motioned for the team to head into the temple and said, "You can find the Gates just within the temple."
Turning back to Amy he said, "May I have a moment?"
Amy nodded her assent and the pair walked away, whispering to each other about whatever it was that Lilac was apparently not supposed to hear.
The whole situation sat badly with her, but, despite her distaste, she hadn't even intended Amy to be part of the mission, so she couldn't exactly complain that the man had walked away.
Clearly there was more going on than she was aware of…as usual.
Her team gathered around her and she nodded toward the entranceway to the temple, shaking the distractions from her mind. There was enough going on without secret conversations wreaking havoc on her ability to focus.
Taking note of the neatly tended gardens surrounding the entrance, Lilac was surprised to notice that the plants were nearly all dangerously poisonous, or otherwise innocuous ingredients for deadly poisons.
What kind of God was this temple dedicated to that allowed something like this? She wasn't sure she wanted to know and, in fact, the longer she was here, the more she wanted to get away from the place.
The entire temple felt…wrong somehow, like a living thing that wanted her gone, that hated her very existence. It seemed as though the light from the outside world stopped at the threshold of the doorway, and even the darkness within seemed to be alive somehow, an inky abyss that longed to consume her.
The question rose, unbidden, to her mind, "Is this even Earth?"
More and more research into the Gates had revealed that the locations within the Gates were not isolated areas, as the Association had initially thought. The Gates opened to real locations that, while not inherently hostile to terrestrial life, were consistent and significantly more dangerous than Earth. There were even some who believed the Gates were a colonization tool used by other worlds to invade…though those opinions were shut down pretty quickly, relegated to the realm of conspiracy and superstition.
Interrupting her thoughts, Jennifer stepped forward into the darkness and gave the all clear signal, surprisingly still audible from within the structure; given everything else about the temple so far, Lilac had fully expected sound to be trapped inside.
The rest of her team walked in and she followed close behind, spreading her mana in an effort to detect any unknown threats, but all she found was more of that unsettling presence from inside…and something else.
A pressure from deep within the temple pushed back at her and the system sent her a message.
[You are being assessed by the power of Inu'Mi Zaku. All stats are reduced by 20% so long as you are in the cursed area.]
The system windows, messages, alerts, and other notices were pretty accepted now, though nobody had any choice in the matter. Everyone saw them from time to time, but she'd never heard of Inu'Mi Zaku, or an area outside of a Gate having an innate curse like this.
Inspecting her team, she was surprised to see that many of them seemed worn down already, like they'd spent an entire day fighting instead of a brief march.
"Everyone report, what did the system say to you all?"
Lilac figured it couldn't have only been her, and asking directly seemed to be the fastest way to figure out and assess the new risks.
Jennifer reported a 10% loss in stats, though November and the rest said they'd been knocked down by 70%.
Lilac and her team had been through a great many terrible situations, some extraordinarily dangerous, but a loss of 70% wasn't just bad, it was catastrophic, and who knew what would come as they continued on.
She knew she should pull back, have the team leave and inform Marcus of the complications, but something inside her insisted she move forward, and despite seeming like they were barely able to stand, her team seemed to have the same inclination.
In the face of an unknown force, and with all logic screaming against it, they moved forward, weapons now drawn in preparation for what would certainly be a battle to the death.
A battle that never came, though as they continued onward, they were eventually too exhausted to keep their guards up.
How long had they walked?
How much further was their destination?
Where were they going?
The world behind them faded into darkness, and the hall before them stretched like a road into the abyss itself, its earlier appetite for Lilac gradually being sated.
Despite hours of walking, days perhaps even, the compulsion to move forward remained, and grew stronger if anything.
At the edge of her stamina, Lilac got a system message.
[You have arrived at The Crossroads. The seal on the Divine Twins has come undone, and their power is leaking out, altering the world.]
They had reached the end of the hallway, only to find two extremely detailed and intricate Gates on either side.
The first one, on her left, seemed constructed of remarkably ornate gold and Ruby. Just looking at it made LIlac feel as though a bolt of lightning had run through her body, exciting her passions and dulling her willpower.
To her right, the second Gate was constructed of silver and jade, sending waves of calm through her, like being slowly lowered into a pool of ice water.
This was…wrong.
The whole situation was wrong, well and far beyond Lilac and her team, maybe even beyond the few S Ranks that resided in the states. An additional quick glance at the gates revealed more information, though it was hardly useful.
The gold and jade Gate read:
[Torment of the Betrayer. Production Code: 11281994]
The opposite Gate was similar.
[Residence of the Betrayed. Production Code: 10161793]
While not entirely unexpected, finding these Gates was still a surprise. Named Gates were an uncommon occurrence, and almost always incredibly dangerous, requiring multiple teams and weeks of preparation.
Neither of which Lilac had at the moment.
Looking at her exhausted team, worry gnawed at the edges of the beginnings of the plan she was forming.
Could they handle one of the Gates if they all went in together?
What if something happened and they couldn't complete it, let alone attempt the second?
How long would it take to make their way back down the hallway and then to Marcus to file a report and request assistance?
Turning her head, Lilac looked down the hall and felt her stomach drop as she saw how far they had walked from the entrance.
Less than a hundred feet.
The grueling trip through the shadows had been less than a hundred feet…but that was impossible, it had taken so long to make that trip!
She hadn't thought to note the time before they entered, but the light streaming in through the temple entrance hadn't seemed to have dimmed at all.
A low grinding sound, like stone on stone, drew her attention just in time to see multiple ragged claws reaching out from the Torment of the Betrayer Gate and grab almost her entire team.
Surprise and panic overtook them as they were dragged in, streaks of blood along the ground from where the claws had broken through their defenses and carved into their flesh.
Before she could even react, the Gate portal closed and Lilac and Jennifer, who had been waiting nearby, were left alone in the gentle silver light of the opposite Gate.
Acting on instinct, Jennifer dashed forward and began checking the now darkened Gate, looking for a way to get it to reactivate, though they both knew once a Gate closed it was impossible to reopen unless it was cleared…or everyone inside was dead.
Though she wouldn't say it aloud, Lilac was fairly certain of the reason the Gate would reopen.
Resisting the feeling of futility she was feeling, Lilac sent a message requesting a status update to the team inside and turned to Jennifer.
A streak of pain ran through her left eye as she said, "All we can do is hope they're ok…we need to investigate this remaining Gate."
Jennifer took a deep breath and nodded, and the pair turned to the Residence of the Betrayed…and began walking.