Stars Don't Shine in Sewers [Celestial Arms]

[Hirosame]

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Hiro's eyes slowly opened up, as he heard the trickling of water all around him. Getting up, he rubbed his head, trying to recall everything that had happened prior. All he could remember was a bright light, and the Trickster's words, just before Sayha had agreed for the both of them. At the moment, he looked around himself, trying to find the Assassin. He hoped that she would be right there next to him, but it didn't seem to be the case. Maybe she had gotten up and walked around to see what she could find. "Sayha?" Hiro asked out loud, propping himself up. After having been given no response, he started to worry just a bit. He stood up, finally able to see where he was. It looked to be something like an underground pathway, that had a bit of water running through it. Likening it all to something more akin to a sewer, he assumed that he was pulled back in time, like the Trickster had mentioned. After all, he had realized that the Trickster was a resident of Lonsdale, after his last bit of his speech. Not only that, but far beyond Hiro's own comprehension in power.

"Sayha, you here!?" Hiro called out again, his voice echoing in the dark. It wasn't completely dark, as there were torches all along the walls and such. He received no response, and figured that he might try and check his friends list, to see her location. As it opened, he read the description for her given location, which said 'Purple Mirror Mansion' below. It glitched out a little bit as a response of having been opened, but he closed it. Perhaps she was still in the Mansion, safe and sound. Honestly, he preferred it if there wasn't anybody else here on this mission with him. Sure, she may have to deal with the Trickster's advances a bit more, but that was nothing compared to what he may have to face. Speaking of which, Hiro felt a recurring echo in his mind, in the Trickster's voice.

"I see you've made it safe and sound, young one... Your mission, since you chose to accept it, is to stop a catastrophic event from happening on the surface above. All you have to do is get up to the surface, and stop it. Simple as that! Make sure you don't die now!!" Maniacal laughter filled his mind, as the voice began to dissipate into the background.

Hiro cringed a bit, after having heard the laughter. The Trickster mentioned nothing of Sayha, so he figured that she was more than likely safe, for the time being. She might try and leave the Purple Mirror Mansion, since she seemed to have been creeped out by the Trickster, though so long as she was safe, then everything was just fine. At this time, Hiro decided to take a moment and gather up all the information that he knew about the Trickster, for later use. Placing a hand to his chin, he thought. So, the Trickster was a being who lived in Lonsdale, and has since moved to the Purple Mirror Mansion, where he has stayed for a long time. He was able to transport Hiro to the past, as well as a few other things that he was saying, which made him think that the Fairy Gate that was attacked either had to be the Trickster himself, or he controlled powers much like the Fairy Gate. On top of that, he must have been one of the survivors, after the calamity of Lonsdale. So many questioned crcled in his mind about this Trickster fellow, including the thought that he, himself, may be one of the classified Geniuses. Just as he was thinking this, though, Hiro looked over to his side very quickly. He heard a noise off in that direction, and some scurrying. Hiro got into a defensive stance, as monsters jumped out!

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∝: 656
♫: Underground Water Channel
✏: ---
@: ---

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[Hirosame]

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Hiro clicked his tongue, as a few monsters had appeared from the darkness. A group of 6 Kobold Nobles, max levels of 30. Nothing that he couldn't deal with himself, but it was definitely a bad timing kind of thing. Hiro glared at the group, which all started to run at him quickly. Reacting as fast as he could, Hiro started to dance all around their attacks, deciding to let them circle him whenever they could. The didn't form up in a circle quite as quickly as he would have liked, and he began to get a little impatient with waiting. So, instead, he decided to throw out a bunch of his own attacks, rather than wait for the monsters to form up. Hiro plunged his fist into the head of one of the closest ones, causing it to disappear almost immediately. The others didn't seem phased by this, though, and continued their assault on him. This was child's play to the Monk, since his dexterity was more than capable of keeping him moving and out of the way of all their attacks. Even their skills didn't connect. Hiro had only ever fought this type of enemy once, so he didn't know what exactly to expect from them. They were weak, though. Anything that they throw at him, he could easily repel, and crush them in a second. He wasn't worried at all, figuring that they had no other skills remaining, other than their Cudgel Whacks that they've been using. Oh, how wrong he was.

The five remaining Kobold Nobles decided to run back and stand in a small circle, all facing different directions. Confused by this happening, Hiro looked at them. They were in a circle, so this would be his chance to kill them all in one go. Just as he was about to jump up and crush all of them instantaneously, they let out very loud, shrill shrieks down the corridors from whence they came. Hiro covered his ears, since he didn't expect this to happen at all! As the monsters finished their yell, Hiro jumped up into the air above them, and angled himself to where he would land directly in the middle of them all. He activated Tiger Echo Fist in between them all, causing a small shockwave to rumble out and destroy all the Kobold Nobles in one hit. Standing back up, Hiro smiled victoriously for a moment. That moment ended when he began to hear some more scurrying off in the corridors where the monsters shouted down. A lot more scurrying. Then, some monsters shouting. There must have been hundreds of monsters, all filing up in the corridors, ready to head to the point where the sound was made. Hiro would likely be outnumbered. Such a massive army, as he imagined it to be, would have quickly overrun him to the point where he might not even be able to retaliate, given circumstances where he would be covered in monsters. So, Hiro looked around, found a corridor, where monsters weren't called from, and ran.

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∝: 511
♫: The Battle
✏: ---
@: ---

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[Hirosame]

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Hiro began to sprint off down the corridor that was vacant, activating Eye of the Tiger to give himself an added boost of speed. He didn't want to use Hellfire Drive as that would only give the monsters a light by which they could go and find him with. He just needed to move fast, and avoid any other problems for the time being. If only he had the skill that Sayha had for Tracker, Silent Move. Then, even his footfalls wouldn't be able to be heard quite as well. No, all he had was Idol. It was then that he remembered that he could have placed a confetti bomb in the center of the room where he was dashing out of. By this point, even if he conjured one and threw it back behind him, he would likely not even make it back to that point, and the monsters would be able to tell which corridor he went down from where the skill landed. Deciding that that would likely be a bad idea, as it would have given them a place to look for him from, he continued to run.

Hiro had to keep turning and going down different passageways and corridors. Thankfully enough, though, none of them seemed to connect. If this was meant to be an underground escape route, then there were two ways that it would work. The first was if they all interconnected, then only the ones who had made it before would know the true route out, and the enemies would only be running around in circles, until they found the right route, which would have already been evacuated or sealed off by the time they found the right one. The other way was to have the underground catacomb be constructed of large, twisting tunnels, with only one exit point: The Entrance. While the enemies scurried off to find the people who used the tunnel system, they wouldn't have found the secret passage near the entrance, where all of the survivors were hiding, and they would have escaped out through the entrance once again, trapping all their adversaries in the tunnels below, while they got away.

Hiro figured that this was the latter of the two types, as the ends of each tunnel lead to a habitat of monsters or something. But, the monsters may have just found the place, and decided to stay while they were here. This catacomb may have been abandoned for a while now, since there might not have been a reason to use the it at all. That being the case, Hiro still needed to run as fast as he could, to outrun the overbearing horde that may have been just a little ways behind him at this point. With nothing else in his mind except escaping before something bad happened, Hiro continued to surge through the tunnel system, bounding over obstacles, turning quickly as he needed to, and just flat out booking it. He would continue to run, until he came to an open area, presumably far from where he had started running from.

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∝: 516
♫: Crazy Buggy
✏: ---
@: ---

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[Hirosame]

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Hiro started to come to a stop, as he entered the small opening. Deactivating the speed boosting skill, Hiro leaned over in front of himself, panting a bit. He had really tried very hard to run away from the monsters, and he started to listen behind himself, and all around. He heard no sounds other than the uneven sound of dripping from stalactites up above. Finally thinking that he had found a place where he could gather his thoughts, he walked over to a nearby wall, and leaned up against it. Eventually, he slid down to a sitting position, where he would be able to relax for just a little while, before moving on again. Hopefully, the next time he decided that he would start moving, he wouldn't be charging through, without looking where he was going. He let his breath get all caught up to himself, and decided that he would try and cover everything once again in his mind. There was far too much stuff going on that he needed to think about, so he would start from the beginning: The Messier Order.

As Hiro sat on the ground, he thought. The Messier Order, or the Sages that he had to deal with beforehand, were beings that were fairly well known throughout the land, as far as what Sayha had heard. Hiro hadn't heard of them before they showed up in the city, but he wasn't actively trying to keep tabs on absolutely everybody in the world. He was also fairly busy with his own time, so he didn't attempt to keep up with everything, as well. Digressing, though, these beings called the adventurers to action, when they needed a hand locating a piece of the tablet that had been broken off and eroded away over time, at the Thames Coastline. Having headed over that, with the Divining Rod, Hiro found the fragment of the tablet, and has asked his friend, Saeko, to repair it up for him. Probably the only way that he could have gone about it, since she was the only Artisan that he knew of. Given that he had to run around the point a bit to get her to do it, it was a bit difficult. But, it was done. Nothing more to that.

Hiro returned with the completed tablet to the Sage that he had spoken to before, where they told him to go on another mission to Ultima Thule, to search for the Pebble of Philosophy. Hiro reached into his pocket at this moment, confirming that it was still there. After Hiro had dived into the fountain, where the Pebble was supposedly held, he was attacked by the being known as Brachyura, one of the Geniuses in this world. The Geniuses were a new class of monster that Hiro had never heard of before. Either way, though, Hiro had fully regained his stamina by this point, and he decided to stand up and start moving again. The path that he had been following seemed to continue onward, so he went along with it for the time being. Without trying to stop any more, Hiro walked along the catacomb's tunnels once again.

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∝: 530
♫: Premonition of Something
✏: ---
@: ---

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[Hirosame]

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Hiro continued along the tunnel system as he had just started back up on it. There still didn't seem to be any monsters that he needed to be aware of at this point, but he didn't want to take any chances. While still keeping at a walking pace, he turned behind himself, to make sure that there wasn't anything following him. As he confirmed this, he closed his eyes and let his ears try and pick up any other sounds he could possibly find. When he confirmed once again that there wasn't anything around him, he opened his eyes back up, and started along the path that he was just walking along. It seemed to be a straight shot from here, though, and nothing else was going to really stop him from going that way. As he continued along, though, he decided that he would continue to go over what he knew, to see if he could find anything else out while he was in here. The silence had given him enough time to think about things more clearly. As such, he was not going to waste it.

As he returned to the Sage that he had spoken to, Hiro had run into Sayha, an adventurer whom he had partied with and played a silly game of Hide and Seek with not too long ago. It was nice to see another friendly face, but it was startling to know that she was also on the same mission that he was on. He already didn't trust the Order, since the one he had worked with seemed to be hiding something more and more, every time he went back to see them. They acted strange when he had brought back the tablet, and then even more so when he returned to speak with them again. He didn't know what to make of that Sage, but the other one that was talking with Sayha seemed to be much more reasonable and forthcoming. Wishing that he didn't have to deal with that creepy Sage, Hiro and Sayha were both given the tablets back, and saw an indentation where they could apply the Pebbles of Philosophy and have something happen. Unsure of what else to do, Hiro and Sayha both put the Pebbles in.

They were then forced in to a situation where it seemed like a war meeting was happening. Hiro recognized Hope from his earlier vision, while he was fighting Brachyura. The female warrior was one of the officers in the meeting, while the rest of them seemed to be frantically trying to understand a situation that had happened long ago. Just then, something seemed to click in Hiro's mind, as he stopped walking. Why would people be talking about betrayal, if Hope was there, too? And the words she shouted, as she left the room... Hiro didn't get to hear them all, so he couldn't tell what exactly was going on, but there was something that seemed to fit together. The place where the Fairy Gate was circled. The War meeting. Betrayal... Hiro's eyes shot wide open. If all of that was true, then...

"Hope was a resident of Lonsdale, too...!" He said aloud, in disbelief.

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∝: 534
♫: ...Going to Happen
✏: ---
@: ---

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[Hirosame]

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It all made perfect sense to him. If that war meeting was happening in Lonsdale, or took place with generals and higher-ups of Lonsdale, then that would explain the betrayal part. Why the Purple Mirror Mansion was circled, Hiro didn't have an idea, except that the Fairy Gate there was attacked. But, given what the Trickster said at, the end of Hiro's time in the Mansion. He used inclusive words, as though he, himself, were a resident of Lonsdale. That would explain, also, why he was immensely powerful, and why he was older than the Pebbles of Philosophy. That bastard knew a whole lot more than he was letting on... Hiro silently cursed himself for not delving into it even further. "Dammit..." He said, as he continued to march through the tunnels. This was one important discovery that he had made, despite not having any concrete proof to go off of. That being said, though, the evidence that was there did seem to fit the bill, quite well, so there wasn't much doubt in his mind as he continued.

Thinking back to where he had left off, the war meeting concluded with Hope and the other officers leaving, when Hiro and Sayha had both regained consciousness. After that, they were asked by the Sages what they had seen, to which Hiro didn't respond. The less they knew, the better. Perhaps it would have been good to tell them then, as they might have given him answers, but the less that the Sages knew, the more likely he'd be able to go about his own business without being interrupted. After all that, Hiro had decided to ask Sayha if she would come along with him to the place that was circled, the Purple Mirror Mansion. She agreed to it, and they both left the Sages without much else being said to them. They conversed along the way a bit, though, which was nice. He found himself being concerned about Sayha again, hoping that she was alright for the time being. Whenever he was done here, he would find out where she is, and if she's okay. For now, he had a job to do.

Hiro and Sayha had arrived at the Purple Mirror Mansion, being greeted by a small Pumpkin Person. Eventually, though, she began to tell him that what she knew about the Sages, and the Prophecy she was told, which he heard nothing about. As his suspicions of the Sages rose from there, the two of them heard a voice call to them. Following it, they had found the Trickster at the end of it all, who had begun to tell them answers to questions that they had. Afterward, they were offered a chance to come to this place, which Hiro assumed it was just him being here, which would be a nice change of pace. Without having to worry about Sayha's safety in this place as well, he could continue along without holding back. Then again, he still worried, hoping that his friend was alright. Either way, he concluded the thoughts in his mind, concerning all this, and continued to walk along the path. His mind still wondering about the validity of Hope being a resident of Lonsdale, still unsure if his mind would accept the fact, he pressed on.

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∝: 552
♫: Zelmite Mines
✏: 40% Complete
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