blueteamnovel Chapter 133: Adrenaline Rush
Chapter 133: Adrenaline Rush
Chapter 133: Adrenaline Rush
Two armored men from a strange cult living in an authentic-looking medieval castle kept up to date with fresh period-accurate fabrics have fallen into a river after trying to capture Zuzia with a net.
Zuzia was just minding her own business on a backpacking trip through the wilderness when she suddenly found herself in a dungeon of a bunch of strange cosplaying kidnappers. She has no idea what their motivations are, why they wanted her, or even where she is, as she can’t understand their language at all. She doesn’t even know what language it is.
Now, those two ‘knights’ that fell into the water are at risk of drowning, and Zuzia feels a little guilty, since she doesn’t want to kill anyone, but she wants to escape.
She could probably leave them and get over it pretty quickly after the fact, especially if she doesn’t actually see them drown, but the fact that she knows they don’t stand much of a chance is what is nagging at her.
The water is filled with foul excrement and other waste, her kidnappers are still trying to capture her and imprison her, and the only reason these two fell in was because they wouldn’t let go of the net they tried to capture Zuzia with. Her adrenaline is clearly pumping hard, and the materials around her are cheap, since she has been pulling metal bars apart and snapping ropes that she can only rationalize as being movie props.
And, if the armor on the ‘soldiers’ is as cheap as the metal of the portcullis, she may be able to at least give the men a chance.
She takes a deep breath and dives back down into the water, finding one of the soldiers already climbing up the portcullis on his own.
Good. I can leave him alone then.
She swims down to the one still on the bottom, struggling to walk to the portcullis. He’s visibly losing steam, meaning he must be out of air.
All I have to do is try, right?
Zuzia grabs his arm and plants her feet, ready to pull with all of her might. The blonde rips his armor off as quickly as she can. It’s rather graceless, since she needs to hurry, so she yanks the plates off without regard to the injuries he takes in the process. When she yanks his helmet off, she then pulls him by the arm as she kicks towards the surface, hoping he takes the hint.
Since she ascends rather easily, she feels relief. Her own breath is about to expire, and the surface is still a meter or so away.
As soon as she breaks the top of the water, she gasps in a breath, tugging the knight up to the water as she treads with her feet. He still feels like dead weight, but at least she was able to get him to the surface. She swims to the portcullis as he coughs, spitting up water and wheezing.
Once they’re both hooked on, she notices the other knight isn’t at the surface yet. She takes a breath, diving to find him dangling semi-lifelessly from the metal bars.
She grabs his collar and keeps her feet on the bars, pulling him to the surface as well. He coughs up some amount of water, gasping for breath as well.
Relieved that she won’t be responsible for manslaughter, Zuzia moves towards the escape hole she made.
Or, she would, if an iron grip didn’t halt her. She looks back at the second knight she just saved, who seems to have the presence of mind enough to grip her bicep.
REALLY!? After I just saved your life!?
She shouts in Polish, “Let go of me! Stop!”
The backpacker can’t call out for help, since everyone around seems to be a member of this strange cosplaying cult.
No matter how much she flails her bicep to try to free herself, he keeps hold of her. “Let... go! I said let go! I won’t warn you again!”
She tries to pull away, and she feels his grip slip. Just a little more...
She screams at the top of her lungs, “I said let me go!”
Zuzia throws her fist forward with all of her strength, straight towards the portcullis.
Somehow, at that exact moment and right where her arm is passing through the water, an explosion goes off.
An massive blast of water erupts in front of Zuzia, and metal shrieks as men scream and yell in shock and terror. She feels herself fall briefly, somehow blasted out of the water.
Then, the river rushes back in to fill the hole, and she finds herself a meter below the water, terrified.
The portcullis has been thoroughly smashed apart, twisted and bent away from where it was in a wide arc.
The two guards are clinging to the metal bars desperately, now several feet above the water with the two halves of portcullis bowed out and against the canal walls of the castle. The second soldier that she rescued, and the one that tried to hold her prisoner, is clutching his wrist as he screams in agony.
Nevertheless, the way is open, and they’re trying to bomb her now. Zuzia has no time to sit around and gawk. She begins swimming furiously.
I don’t know how I survived that, but this is my chance!
She follows the river until another portcullis appears ahead of her at the outer wall. Thankfully, this one is currently open for some reason, making her escape...
The guards on the wall begin shouting and pointing at her, and she tries to hurry. The metal bars start to descend, and she dives into the water, trying to avoid them.
It doesn’t work. She feels the metal come down on her rather quickly, driving her to the riverbed and pinning her down.
She nearly loses all of her breath at that moment, and she groans, terrified of drowning as much as becoming a prisoner.
I know I said I’d rather die, but I was doing good! I’d rather live free! Let me live free!
She presses upwards, and to her surprise, she is able to lift her back up, in spite of the metal portcullis pinning her down.
That’s right! They’re movie props! Thank God for the cheap materials these lunatics used!
She lifts herself up high enough, slipping past the portcullis and then kicking up towards the surface. She reaches the surface with surprising ease, though maybe she’s losing track of time. Her mind is going crazy with all of the fear and terror she’s feeling just trying to escape.
Once she has caught her breath, she resumes her desperate marathon swim down river, following it until she leaves the crazy town. She can hear what sound like hoofbeats following, meaning she needs to escape the water and find somewhere to hide.
She spots a stand of trees and makes her way to the shoreline, bolting up out of the water and sprinting for the trees.
This is the longest adrenaline rush she has ever felt, since she feels like she all but flies up out of the water. She is able to sprint faster than ever, and still her body doesn’t feel tired. Her surroundings flash by in a blur.
Zuzia would give anything to be at home in her bed.
If I make it home, I’m not going out for a LONG time. Please, God, let me make it home.
The Polish woman makes it to the stand of trees, and she darts into cover, finding a good spot to hide for the moment and catch her breath. She’ll need to resume running once the soldiers get close, but for now, she has some space. They’re still searching the river banks from the looks of it. But, once they find her footprints, they’ll pursue her relentlessly. Her best chance is to avoid being caught until nightfall, and then she’ll be able to hide long enough for them to give up...
She hopes.
“Right... Time to keep moving. I have to get as far into the thickest parts of the woods as I can. Then I can rest.”
She takes a quick drink from her water bottle, which is clipped to her belt loop, and she begins running at a more comfortable clip.
Once she has some distance, Zuzia pulls out her cell phone to dial emergency services.
Zuzia starts with ‘112’ for Poland’s emergency services, praying that she’s in some backwards part of the Polish cell service area.
However, her phone disconnects without success, and she looks. She has no signal whatsoever.
“No...” whispers the blonde, unable to contain her terror. However, she notices the GPS icon is active in the status bar. She immediately has a moment of hope.
Zuzia opens the app for navigation, thankful that she’ll at least have the help of land navigation to find normal civilization, or at the very least, get close enough to reach a cell tower.
That was her hope, anyways.
When she opens the map, it takes a moment, but a detailed digital layout of roads, forest, the river, and the cultist town appear on screen, just like she might expect, with the little icon indicating her at the center.
Strangely, there is a destination already put in that simply says “Daniel”, and it is located about 1,276 kilometers (~793mi) away.
“What the heck is a Daniel?” grumbles Zuzia. “Or, wait, shouldn’t it be ‘Who?’ Isn’t that a person’s name?” She sighs, laying her head back against a tree.
She tries to clear the destination, but it doesn’t work. When she tries to add her hometown, the searching function doesn’t return any results.
“Because, having experienced it, I can say confidently that it takes a while to recall the information about the transfer, somewhat like waking from a dream.”
Yaulander pants heavily, still furious and fuming. He waves his hand somewhat violently and with no regard for who is around him, and the maid skillfully avoids being struck by the outswung hand. “Inform me immediately when she is found! I shall personally educate that wretched woman myself.”
Rikuto remains quiet, watching as the blond Imperial whirls dramatically and storms off without receiving an answer, as if refusal isn’t even in his vocabulary.
The Japanese man is thankful for that. He shouldn’t have finished the spell, and he only reacted instinctively because something felt wrong.
But now, another Earthling has been transported to this world, and his fear is that she was dragged to Zenkon against her will. He’s not sure how exactly the Divine Realm chooses, nor why all three of the summons seem to have come from the same version of Earth. All he can really do is hope his own men can find her first. And, if Rikuto can get in touch with Ryukana, have her returned home if that is what the newest Divine Summon wishes.
***
At the moment of the summoning, far away in another castle, a goddess stirs at the sudden surge of energy. Ryukana rises from her lounge recliner, setting the book aside as well as the artifact ‘mirror’ she uses to watch over Daniel now, just to be safe. It’s a Divine Relic that can find virtually anyone -assuming they aren’t devoid of mana in a magic-centric world-, so it cannot fall into the hands of mortals. She ponders for a moment before she makes the connection.
“Oh... Rikuto, what have you done?”
She immediately uses the mirror to try to find the new summon, who, if they received proper blessings from the Divine Realm, should stand out, especially in a human-led kingdom like Mornistae.
And, sure enough, she is able to find a young woman with golden blonde hair as she runs through the castle, defending herself with a large can of pepper spray; specifically a fogging spray. She recognizes the equipment the young woman has easily. It certainly came from 21st century Earth, and she appears to be of European descent. The gods and goddesses of the Divine Realm can choose anyone they want, relatively speaking, so there’s no real requirement to choose from any one country on a given world of selection. That said, it also isn’t so simple to choose the perfect would-be hero from among billions, so many of the gods and goddesses, especially junior ones, often choose at random, even going so far as to do something akin to a roulette spin to narrow down the options in several rounds. Then, it’s a matter of finding someone with no lingering attachments, primarily, but also of decent character.
After a rather long chase, the young woman finds a hiding place in the woods outside of the capital of Mornistae, where she eats some of the apparent camping rations she brought with her. Her behavior indicates that the memories still haven’t settled, assuming she agreed to be transported to another world. The brain chemistry of the summoned individual are often adjusted to add the capacity for magic, and this often creates a delay in recalling short term memories due to the mind needing to sort itself out. Order once said that she and Chaos left it as is, since they also prefer if the mortals forget anything they see in regards to the Divine Realm. It can sometimes wash away all of those memories permanently, but it otherwise remains harmless.
The main question Ryukana has would be how someone got summoned at all. She may not have the same authority or seniority she had, but she was under the impression that she would remain in charge of Zenkon’s fate, even if she is supervising from within the household of one of her Divine Summons.
If there is a new god or goddess responsible for Zenkon, it would have made sense to ask Ryukana for help.
The only thing she can think of would be that the Divine Guardian watching over Zenkon from the Divine Realm is one of her juniors; and a very junior god or goddess at that. Since there are still two active summons on Zenkon, even they should have been warned of the arrival of another, though it seems, Rikuto was part of the summoning.
Ryukana stands up, saying gently, “I need to figure out what’s going on. But, first,...” She changes her location to arrive without warning near Daniel. He’s currently in the midst of a dance, though his own lack of skill is quite evident. The celebrations, which Ryukana was watching before, are in full swing. Three major threats that Mattarglos has been handling without much progress have been swiftly eliminated by the combined force (and carefully managed restraint) of the Fievegal. Reignleif is the one currently dancing with the human mechanic, very obviously guiding him on the fly while still managing to make it look like he’s leading, while others watch on with curiosity and envy.
It seems to be a very spurious and light-hearted celebration, meaning that Daniel’s lack of dancing ability isn’t something to be mocked, so much as enjoyed for the fun that everyone is having.
The goddess makes her own attire match that of the elven mage, Senn, who is in a fairly casual fall dress that keeps her a little warmer. Mattarglos is much further north than Mornistae, and it is fall now.
Ryukana approaches Daniel, asking Reignleif gently, “Empress Reignleif, may I have the next dance with him?”
Both Daniel and Reignleif glance at her with jovial expressions, but Daniel does a double-take, clearly having not realized who she was at first.
“No need to panic yet,” urges Ryukana, keeping her expression calm and warm.
Reignleif curtsies to Ryukana, who mimics the gesture, and then she curtsies to Daniel, while he bows politely. They then hold each other to begin dancing, and Daniel warns softly in English, “I’m still garbage at this, so please go easy on me.”
She snickers playfully. “I thought you were doing well.”
Daniel jokes, “Someone was doing well enough for both of us.” Reignleif blushes and grins over her shoulder, swaying her tail approvingly as she happily and proudly walks with her head high. For once, she’s not hiding her face behind the high collar of the mantle she always wears.
Daniel continues, “So, what is it?”
The goddess turns serious, continuing to speak in English as they continue to dance, “I don’t know all of the details, but it seems Mornistae summoned another person from Earth.”
Daniel nearly stutter-steps, managing to keep rhythm. “They did?”
“Yes. A young woman arrived.”
“Did... you...?”
“No. That’s what has me worried. It’s not impossible for one of my very junior colleagues to not have looked into the circumstances of this world, or to not have considered the consequences. Summoning is meant to be taxing and dangerous, normally, in order to minimize the host worlds from overusing them. Likewise, we’re supposed to carefully consider as much as possible about the person to be summoned as well as the condition of the world we’re sending them to. But, if this is someone’s first world management assignment...”
“They’ll be eager to get their first summon under their belt...” murmurs Daniel, finishing the thought. Ryukana bobs her head once in confirmation.
“Is there anything you can do?”
“I intend to return to the Divine Realm if I can in order to speak to the god or goddess who performed the summoning. Unfortunately, simply undoing it is no easy feat, as it’s most likely that the young woman consented to come to this world. That, in and of itself, is not unlike a magic contract, which can be strong enough that even I couldn’t violate it. In fact, your situation was unprecedented, but I believe you could easily be returned to Earth, where I would have a more difficult time returning Rikuto. Returning someone else’s summoned person would be virtually impossible for me alone.”
“I see... So, what happens to her, then?”
“Well, without knowing why she was summoned, I can’t be too certain. Hopefully, her blessings grant her enough strength to defend herself at the least. For now, though, I’m afraid I’ll most likely be stuck simply observing from afar, since I have to minimize direct intervention. Be careful, though. If you have any inkling that another Earthling is close to you, it could very well be that you’re the target.”
“Me?” scoffs Daniel with surprised amusement. “I...” He trails off, more or less understanding why he might be considered an important enough target to warrant summoning a blessed individual from another world to defeat him; the nukes being the primary culprit.
“I’ll be careful,” replies Daniel with a polite bow. “Should I do anything in the meantime? Should I hold off on the invasion?”
“Perhaps avoid pressing the borders for the time being until I can gather more information. I understand the need and desire to capture Rikuto’s special weapons, but it could be immensely dangerous, depending on how powerful this woman is.” She looks down, a little dejected. “One’s first summon, assuming it is, often turns into an exciting affair, and it’s extremely easy to go overboard. To us, it’s like we’re Chaos and Order themselves, changing the fate of a world. And, why would we want to skimp on our heroes? Before we know it, there’s a hero needing another summoned hero to stop them.”
“I’m surprised Order allows that,” jokes Daniel. “I guess I know next to nothing about her, but she didn’t strike me as one to practice insanity.”
Ryukana giggles. “True. I’m not entirely sure of Chaos and Order’s motivations, but I know that they remain hands-off, so to speak.”
“Are our feeble struggles amusing?” asks Daniel, not trying to sound condescending or anything, but he realizes after he says it how the question could come across.
“I... genuinely don’t know... If it grants you any comfort, that means I’m in the same boat as you. I don’t think it’s about mere amusement...” She trails off, likely having never given any real thought to it in any of the time that she has existed.
Daniel finishes the dance, mimicking what he sees a few others nearby do, and he says quietly, “If you need me to do anything, Ryukana, just say the word. I’ll go and retrieve this woman if she’s in danger.”
“Like I said, she may be your enemy, so don’t do anything rash. I wanted to warn you of her existence in case she was summoned specifically for you. In the meantime, I’ll go look into it from my end. I will be out of contact for some time, though it shouldn’t amount to more than a couple of days.”
“Very well. I’ll send word to hold what we have for now, and we’ll continue our diplomatic endeavors here.”
“I encourage you to do so. Thank you. If you’ll excuse me, thank you for the dance.”
The two repeat their court gestures; a curtsy and a bow, and Ryuogriar asks in passable English, “Have you concluded the talk of secrets, Lady Ryukana?”
“I have, thank you,” replies the goddess in English as well. “I am confident Daniel will explain. Please excuse me, as I have much to find out.”
Ryukana departs, and the platinum dragon claims the next ‘dance’, though it’s mostly her clinging to Daniel brazenly and as obviously as possible.
Ryukana is a little preoccupied, but she’s glad that Daniel has found people dear to him and who treat him dearly.
Maybe it’s a good idea to keep the new summon away from him for both their sakes...
She moves out of sight of anyone and transports herself back to the Citadel. There, she needs to get permission to enter the Divine Realm.
She’s not exactly banished, but she was sent to remain on Zenkon for the foreseeable future, so she doesn’t want to simply go.
“My Divine Creators, Order and Chaos, please hear my request,” whispers Ryukana in what amounts to a prayer. “If I may, I would like to enter the Divine Realm to speak to the new manager of Zenkon, as well as to speak to you, my Creators. I do not wish to overstep bounds, but I have questions that I need clarification on if I am to continue to serve without failing again.”
When she opens her eyes, she is a little startled.
She doesn’t recognize where she is at, since it technically doesn’t exist in the normal sense of ‘where’.
She is neither in the Divine Realm, nor anywhere else in the physical universe.
Ryukana is present in a seeming blend of nothing at all and the roots of all existence.
And, ahead of her are the Primordial beings known as Order and Chaos.
***