At The End of the Tunnel

With the Rubeki flooding into The Americas, I was uncertain of my next move. Having Khalil by my side gave me confidence. He hadn't faced the Rubeki for, and I didn't have any fighting experience like Sky did, but he was plenty capable.

"Right up ahead!" Khalil shouted out. He unsheathed the bladeless katana that I haven't seen in 9 months. It took on some changes, yet remained equally powerful as before.

It sliced through the Rubeki with ease, imploding them into smoke and dust. 

"Where are they coming from? Do you know?"

"The sewer drains, that's where I first saw them,"

"Got it, we'll head there first,"

Khalil, Mizu, and I sunk down into the broken-open sewer drain that the first Rubeki came through, investigating the hole underneath the city. Upon looking around, I realized that the sewer drain was getting bigger and bigger as it went on.

Throwing Golden Strands down it, I was able to see that the sewer drains and their pipes expanded into an unnaturally large cave system. I was surprised to see Khalil had such a style to his city.

"Is there a reason you have this under your city? You used to live in caves?"

"No... I have no idea how this got here, or why it's here... that stench..." 

Khalil plugged his nose after revealing that the expanded cave system wasn't there on purpose. Upon hearing that the design wasn't purposeful, I looked around the cave to see what else I could find. The very style of it was unnatural, and the grooves in the walls looked like it was dug in one direction. 

"They came from somewhere... if we follow this, we'd be able to find the source of the problem. Tell me, Faith, are you aware how the Rubeki work? If we take out the source, will they all go away?" Khalil asked me.

"I'm not sure exactly, but in The First Trial, Providence was the one who controlled the Rubeki. They were a fabricated enemy to apply pressure to Sky and his friends, and they stopped attacking once Providence was cornered. I'm not sure if the Rubeki have a central unit, but they are creatures of Black Strands. The Black Strands are synonymous and like a hive mind, sometimes they operate separately, other times dependently," I told Khalil everything I could.

"Of course, the Rubeki are a mysterious force if nothing else. We can't split the main sight of the city to follow this tunnel, not if we don't have the communication with Sky, Dani, and Ra," Khalil told me.

[Bzt]

I gripped the left side of my head in pain.

A small phrase and hint of pain in my head caused me to realize that something was sparking together with another object. Just like Strands do when they directly connect.

[Faith?]

Pausing again, I watched the words appear in my vision once more, and the color of the previous blackened text started to turn light blue.

[I am with you, Sky and Dani are fine, you must investigate this tunnel.]

I presumed the voice to be Avie's, and nodded at the newly secure feeling in my chest.

"Avie says we need to investigate, and that Sky and Dani have a good grip on the city. We can go further in if you want," I told him.

Khalil, Mizu, and I started to run further and further into the tunnel. The grooves become more defined. The carvings were feral, strewn about in an odd way that became desperate.

"Who made these? And... why does this go on for so long? We have to be under the ocean by now..." Mizu said. She placed her fingers in the thick grooves, and as soon as she touched them, the very end of the tunnel lit up.

It wasn't as far as I expected, but at the very end sat a gorge of disturbing images. Human bones, perfectly clean of any flesh on them, dead women hanging on meat hooks at the top of the ceiling, and circles of blood drawn into the floor and back wall.

"What the hell?" I couldn't help but open my mouth, spewing uncertainties in my mind while putting together the circles on the back wall to form a word.

This wasn't the Rubeki... the word constructed on the wall was far too intense for them to figure it out on their own with their limited intelligence.

The Vega and Asterio Apocalypse.

A strange phrase invoked by my fear of Finlis and his presence brought a weird feeling into my brain, as if I've heard of that phrase before.

Vega and Asterio Apocalypse...?

The dead women at the end of the room were dismembered in a strange way as well. This time, before I could get to them, Khalil read the name out loud.

"Two-Thousand Forty-Nine," Khalil said. The strange combination of symbols and the messages it told to me were starting to worry me. The name of the apocalypse, and the name of the year... whoever dug this tunnel knew something much larger than anybody.

What would happen in three years? And... why did it need to be said in the dismembered limbs of these unfortunate people?

[PREDICTION: JAVELINS]

At the sight of the next ounce of text in my eyes, I turned my head with the golden saber coming up in my hand, and cutting through fifteen javelins before they could hit Khalil or Mizu.

I panted as I hit the ground, searching for the source of the attacker at the end of the tunnel. Something was coming...

Then, I saw it.

A man with blistering orange hair, almost brighter than a torch light, entered the room with a solid stride, walking with passion beyond my comprehension.

"Ah, it's so nice to see people once again..." He murmured, walking further into the light from the glowing saber in my hand.

"Who are you?"

"The man that will bring Eirikr Asterio back. Somebody you Asterio's have feared since the beginning of your days..." 

I gulped, watching him adjust his posture. His hands started to beam with Iridescent Strands encircling the wrists. There was no way we could beat him if he had the Iridescent Strands.

"I am Arthur Vega. The Asterio-Slaying Man,"