Beyond the Barricade
-THE FIRST TRIAL-
--Belle's Perspective--
"Breaking the barricade can't be too hard, we just need to figure out its composition. Eo, what is this thing made of? Strands? Golden Strands? Something tougher?" Dani asked Eo while pushing against the barricade beyond Alexia's constructed dome.
"They must be strands unless she has limited this world to a certain point right above us. If that's the case, you can technically escape, but it's quite grim." Eo suggested to Dani.
Eo went on to explain something about Dani having a body in the Real World as well, and could access it again by killing herself here. That sounded... far too intense, and wasn't considered an option, not by us, at least.
The cramped scenery of broken ground and ruined grass, along with limitless illusions of clouds around us was starting to get old, as we no longer had a reason to stay here. We needed to get out... but how...?
"This is starting to really piss me off. Hey, Illusion Boy, what can you see past this? Is it an illusion?" Dani turned to Mitra and asked him, but she seemed really rude about it.
"Hm... no, not from what I can see. It's limitless, and more importantly, it's 'Mitra'." Mitra told her.
"Mitra? Is that some strange word you people from The First Trial use to describe hopeless scenarios?" Dani asked. I couldn't help but smile, but Boo chuckled at it.
"That's one way you could describe it, Dani!" Boo said, breaking out into a full laugh.
"Hey, Belle, Alexia, can you try something?" Dani asked the two of us. We both turned to her and listened to her plan... and dammit, it might work!
The plan went like this:
First, I put a spear of ice on the ground. Summoning it was no issue, and once Alexia saw that I did, she followed right behind me by holding onto the end of it.
After that, Alexia turned up the size of the spear of ice as far as possible, and it collided with the wall, even sticking into it a little bit.
"Just as I thought. It's not a solid surface. If it can be punctured, it can be destroyed." Dani said, walking over to the end of the spear.
"It's cold. Alexia, do you have to be touching the thing to make it bigger?" Dani asked her again. Now, she was sitting on the spear of ice.
"Yes, I can't change the size of objects without touching them directly," Alexia told Dani, and she nodded.
Dani reacted by slamming her saber into the wall, but it bounced off.
"I figured. You can puncture this barricade, but strands don't do shit to it." Dani said.
"Then... let me give it a shot," Eo said. She pushed her way to the wall and put both of her hands on it.
"System... Cleanse..." She whispered.
At first, nothing happened... but after thirty seconds, the thickness of the wall reduced and we could see past it finally.
And around us... was nothing again.
It was strange. The wall was obviously less thick, but the same background remained. An infinite plane of water, along with a limitless ceiling. It was a big illusion.
"That's the best I can do. We should be able to force our way out." Eo said. Dani and Alexia were already working on it, and just as Eo finished, the entire barricade smashed like glass and dropped into the floor to vanish forever.
We were all astonished, just looking around as the barricade lifted.
"...Now what...?" I asked, looking around.
"There are my beautiful friends!" Illya said in her fake voice. That was the voice she used when she talked to us before she ruined everything.
"Illya..." Dani muttered. She was put to the ground with strands that came out of the ground and wrapped around her body, and she was tightened as much as possible.
"I think it's time you go back to your own world, Dani," Illya said.
Dani tried to move, but her mouth was covered, and with a snap of her fingers, Dani disappeared into dust like it was nothing.
Holy shit... holy shit... holy shit!
"Now that we're back to the main cast, it's nice to see you again, Belle, Alexia, Mitra, Myth, and Eo. I know, we had a pretty bad falling out, but, I've decided to put the effort in to be your friend again. How does that sound?!" Illya asked. We couldn't see her yet, but we were all getting angrier and angrier.
I felt my legs turn weak as I looked around more, but I still couldn't pinpoint Illya's voice.
Then... as if she came out of nowhere, I felt Illya rise behind me and put her head over my shoulder. Her face was sleek and she whispered in my ear, which made things even worse.
"How are you feeling? Angry yet?" She asked me.
I shuddered in fear as I remembered why she was even asking me that question. Yet, all she could do was smile.
"Send Shike my regards." Illya told me.
I turned around as I felt like something bad was going to happen, but in a flash, Boo flew behind me and smashed her knee into Illya's chest to push her away from me.
Illya slid on her feet like it was nothing back about twenty feet before coming to a stop. Boo put her hand on my shoulder and looked at me, slightly nodding.
"There you are, you fucking coward. Let's end this here." Boo said, drawing her katana supported by strands and aiming the tip at Illya.
"Put that sharp object away, you might get somebody hurt." Illya told Boo.
Illya slowly walked over to Boo, but Boo met her halfway in an instant with her super speed. Boo slammed the katana down onto Illya, but our ears were met with a noise that sounded like she missed and hit the ground.
Processing the speed and new image in front of our faces, Illya had put Boo's hand into the ground, broke her katana, and kicked her in the head so hard that her hand flew out of the ground and cracked it. Boo bounced off the floor and landed by Mitra... and then Illya put her foot back down onto the ground.
"I did tell you, you might get somebody hurt. Did you expect it to be Belle?" Illya asked Boo.
I couldn't process what was going on, but I was suddenly impaled by a saber going straight through my stomach.
It impaled me all the way through and I fell to the floor in surprise.
I did my best to heal my wounds, but I couldn't finish before Illya walked over to me.
"Shike wouldn't have gotten hit." She told me.