The door exploded, just as a shield appeared on Amelia's arm, going from her shoulder height to the floor. She braced her shoulder against the shield, planting her feet, before a wave of fire knocked her back a foot. The shield was in the shape of a large kite, and it had a silver frame, with the metal creating a pattern, the gaps in the metal filled by a semi-clear ice.
Amelia could feel the ice melting, which was both a first to her and a shock, because that was the same unmeltable ice that made up the northern continent of Yelain, which was so cold it was impossible for a living being to stay for more than three minutes before all the blood in their veins froze. And for this fire to be able to melt it, Tim was much more powerful than she thought.
"Fifth Form."
A barrier of water appeared in front of Amelia, relieving her of the barrage of flames.
"Thanks, Rosaria," she said, as tongues of water touched her shield, freezing against the ice and filling in the melted parts.
"No problem. I don't really want to choose fire as the cause of my death, you know," Rosaria told her.
Amelia sighed as the fire died, leaving nothing but smoke and pieces of the stone littered on the floor.
There was a flash of light from the darkness, before a figure walked from the smoke. "Sorry about that, but I panicked a bit."
"Son of a bitch, I can't believe it," Daniel laughed. "Welcome back, Tim."
Tim smiled as he walked out of the rubble. "Sorry for the scare. Oh, and we won't have to worry about the way back activating traps, because I'm pretty sure I just incinerated the entire room. I ended up having to put up a barrier to keep the place from collapsing."
"How long?" asked Ethelyn.
"As long as I have spirit energy left," Tim replied.
Blyke nodded. "How did you get out? With the Oblivinite and the traps…?"
Tim gave an adorable smile. "I told you I excelled in Takeover~" he said. "The transformation itself can take a bit, thought, so I had to speed up the process." He showed them all a long, semi-deep cut on his wrist. "I used my blood to force the contract. The fire my Nine-Tailed Kitsune controls is some of the hottest in the world. Oblivinite has a certain resistance to heat, but it's nearly impossible to find something my flames can't burn."
"Well, then, we're lucky Amelia was so fast on the draw," said Ethelyn. "Let's keep moving. I don't know if there are more traps that can trigger, but I'd rather not find out when the arrow goes through my head."
"Agreed," said Blyke.
Amelia nodded, walking to join the head of the group, but as she passed Tim, she patted him on the head. "You're one powerful little runt, aren't you?" she asked, grinning, before joining Blyke at the lead.
They walked in silence before something from before surfaced in Amelia's mind.
"Hey," she began, "Daniel, you said you had to input algorithm before, didn't you? To control the Oblivinite?"
Daniel sighed. "I wish you'd just dropped it. It's a bit of a pain to explain. Unlike other elements, Oblivinite is a manmade one, nothing more than a programed parasite. Anyone with Oblivinite has a certain amount they can control. For me, I have never reached the limit of the amount I can control just yet, but for others, they have a certain amount they can keep under control. And even if they past that, the amount they can summon themselves is dependant on the amount of magic energy they have. However, the way to bypass that rule is if the user finds Oblivinite and reprograms it to follow their orders, instead.
"Personally, I sometimes take some from the school gates, because, honestly, with Asha there, the only things they ever actually destroy are birds stupid enough to stand on them. The way I do it is by inputting algorithm into them and reprogramming them. The easiest way is with a laptop, but sometimes I have to do it mentally."
"That's bullshit. How can someone be that freaking overpowered?" asked Tim.
"That coming from the guy who could burn right through my Oblivinite?" laughed Daniel. "When you think about it, all of us have certain talents that are key to defeating each other. I guess that's God's way of keeping balance between the God Amora."
"Seems that way," Ethelyn agreed.
There were several more traps, or tests, as Amelia believed, because the path led somewhere where those less skilled would not be welcome.
However, there was a dark, empty room about halfway down, which was strange, especially since no traps triggered as they walked through it.
Amelia shivered as she saw huge, stark scratch marks and gouges in the concrete room. "Let's get out of here."
Tim grimaced. "Yeah. I don't think I want to be around to find out what once was in this room."
"Neither do I," agreed Rosaria.
"Hey-- Blyke, let's go."
Blyke had stopped in the middle of the room, frozen. He started as his name was called, looking up at the cadre. "Ah, sorry. I thought I saw something…"
"Like…?" urged Tim.
"A giant eye…"
Daniel grimaced. "Let's hope you were imagining it. But let's hurry up, anyway."
The cadre sped their pace to get out of the large, dim room, coming out in a large, brightly-lit hall.
At the end of the hall, a large wood door stood, with four armed guards, who were watching every step the cadre took toward them.
"State your names."
"We're new arrivals," said Rosaria before any of the other cadre could speak. "We've taken the Phantomhive passageway, recommended by Nesryn Phantomhive."
The guards shared a look before nodding. "Very well. There are still tests you must take before you arrive, though."
Rosaria nodded.
The doors opened and the cadre walked through them into another long corridor.
Or, half a corridor, as the cadre found out, nearly falling into a large, gaping hole.
Of course, Ethelyn and Daniel just used their second forms to sprout wings, but the ground-based Amora had a bit more difficulty.
Or maybe not, when Amelia just stepped over the edge, a square of ice appearing below her foot as she walked across, freezing the water vapor in the air to walk across.
Tim used large tongues of flame to create wings to carry him over the hole, and Rosaria created a bridge of water she walked across.
Blyke just stepped into the bridge of water's shadow, slipping through it and reappearing in Daniel's shadow.
"I really hate you can do that," Daniel said enviously. "Think of how easy it would be to be able to Shadowport everywhere?"
"It doesn't work like that," Blyke sighed. "I have to know where the shadow is I want to be dropped out of, so if it's a place, I have to be able to know where the shadows are for that time of day, which makes it difficult for places with no buildings or place I haven't been to or can't see."
"Ahh. Still, I wish I could teleport. I'd use it to go home for once," Daniel sighed.
The cadre didn't respond to that little piece of information, instead wordlessly walking through the hall.
They faced several obstacles in the hallway, before ending up in a registration line.
Daniel resisted punching the young man's face in as he came up and sniffed each of them. He was wearing a uniform similar to several others there, so Daniel assumed he was part of their staff, and it wouldn't be good if a bunch of guards swarmed them.
The young man's face held a strange expression as he called for a helper. They spoke in silence for a few short minutes before the helper beckoned them to follow him.
"I'm so sorry I didn't come get you sooner," he said. "If you had just told one of us you knew the Mistress Phantomhive, we would have taken you to the front to begin with." He led them to the front of the line, where the woman looked up.
"Names."
"They're companions of Mistress Phantomhive," the man said.
The woman's eyes widened as she nodded. "Very well. What can I do for you, then?"
A large pair of doors, which the armed guards standing next to them opened, revealing the largest room the cadre had ever seen. They couldn't see the end of the place, only a high ceiling and thousands of people swarming around, some of them waving small hourglasses.
Amelia caught on first. "Oh, my God," she gasped.
"What?" asked Blyke and Daniel.
It wasn't the fact that they were in Casinamora that shocked her, but the fact that -- "The Phantomhive Manor has a tunnel that leads directly into Casinamora."
Blyke and Rosaria swore.
"We need to get out of here," said Daniel. "Now."
"Don't let anybody touch an hourglass in this place, unless you want to say goodbye to your Amora," said Ethelyn, her face holding a fair amount of apprehension and displeasure. She seemed incredibly irritated, almost like this reveal troubled her greatly. "And don't speak to anyone, especially people who remind you of Asha."
Blyke didn't know what that part meant, but he agreed with her that they needed to get out of there, and fast.
"We need to get out, now," said Daniel, urgently, as he spotted several figures in the crowd moving toward them. "Now!"
Ethelyn glanced over her shoulder as she herded the cadre through the crowd, shooting beams of light into the four approaching figures' eyes.
The cadre rushed back outside, not breaking their sprint though the paths, not even when they activated the traps, using their fifth forms to block every attack.
When they were breathless, panting in the gallery in the Phantomhive manor, it was Tim who had hissed, "We have to tell Asha!"
∽