JACG Chapter 89 (Gate of Betrayal) (Patreon)

As we marched through the woods around us the sight of the castle became increasingly clear. The idle chatter that was fueling our march before died off as we grew closer. Everyone increasing their awareness instead of wasting their attention on bonding further.

Well, when I say everyone it was mainly Pyrrha and I. Pyrrha was someone who was trained to do dangerous mission after dangerous mission. So her awareness of her surroundings was impeccable. Seeing a clear target she started to become even more focused. That led to Rias no longer chatting her ear off as she could see Pyrrha had something else occupying her mind. Ashley was not that concerned about security but she was still contemplating something so when the conversation was dying she did not pipe in.

 I on the other hand was searching for details that would bring out that long forgotten memory. The monsters that we have fought and the description of the mission gave me a sense of Deja Vu and I just could not pinpoint what that memory was. This brought into question something I never really considered.

All the memories that I had as Severus Snape were crystal clear, so clear that they were burned into my mind to be never forgotten. All the things that I have done since being born into this world were clear to me as well. So why were the memories from that other life so foggy? Occulemency meant I had that picture perfect memory but that was clearly not the case anymore. The answer was fairly clear once I thought about it, I had never sorted those memories like Snape did all those years ago. So they remained floating around in my head instead of being in their proper place.

That was a mistake as those memories were just as important to me. The majority of those memories might be useless but ironically pop culture would be oh so important to me now. The multiverse was open to me and information like that would be golden. Not only for the purpose of protecting me in other worlds but for me to draw inspiration from.

So I needed to sort those memories but I just did not have the time to do that. The mission we were currently on needed to be done and it needed to be done now. So I could not take the days I needed to sort those memories. Which sucked as I clearly knew something about this world even if I could not put my finger on it just yet. I was just going to have to deal with it for now as I could not even take the time to drag Ashley away for a bit to tell her about Rias.

Hopefully, as we experience more of this world the memory that is out of reach would become clear. The sight of the castle before us was already dragging something out of me. I just needed more of these sights to jog my memories.

The castle was rather odd. It was clearly built to serve as a fortress that no one should be able to enter. With its high walls and fairly rudimentary design allowing that protection, but it was blocky and uninteresting to look at. On the other hand, the castle had a tower that led to a bridge that led to another part of the castle. I could not really figure out the purpose of such a thing as it did not help the structural stability and it was not like it looked good either. 

Who ever these Saint Beasts hired to design their castle they should have shot them. What ever it was not really my business if they had a crappy looking fortress as their base camp. I was just used to castles being something grand and majestic to look at. Hogwarts was a really magical sight.

“So that’s Maze Castle?” Rias questioned with a frown on her face. She was also not too impressed with the sight before her. I was sure that she had seen plenty of things more impressive. She was the sister of Satan after all. She was also the heir to a dukedom so she was more used to seeing beautifully designed homes.

“It should be,” I spoke out quietly not quite sure if that thing was our destination. The point me spell was pointing to it but it could also be pointing behind it. I doubted it as what are the odds a castle would be in the way of us searching for a castle?

“Lame,” Ashley muttered out as she got a good look at the castle. I was expecting something a bit more biting from her but the sight was not really something that dragged emotions out of others. Her single worded insult was telling in this case. 

“Not really a good start to our epic quest to defeat the forces of darkness,” Rias muttered out sourly as she continued to look at the fortress before us with a disappointed look.

“Is this way the castle looks really that important?” Pyrrha questioned while looking at the three of us with disbelief on her face. I could not really blame her as we were being silly but that was just the way we were.

“It is,” Rias announced seriously but she seemed to accept the sight before her as she marched forwards. The current sight before her might not have fit the image in her head but she was determined to see this through.

“Eh, it’s not really that important but you got to have a sense of style when you choose to be villains and these dumb fucks clearly don’t get that flair,” Ashley spoke out as she hopped off of my back. Pyrrha took in her words and shot Ashley a confused look as she did not really get Ashley’s point. Rias on the other hand simply nodded as she got to where Ashley was coming from.

“It’s just a disappointing sight after all the hype from the mission,” I spoke out with my own two cents. Ashley was right if you are going to be evil the least you can do is have style. If you did not have that flair you were destined to be forgotten and that did not make a good villain.

“That’s ridiculous,” Pyrrha announced with a frown as we continued walking towards the castle. I gave her a flat look as she did not really have any ground to stand on here. Like I said her world was all about self expression which meant most of the villains in her world had that flair and style. She had just not met those foes yet.

Well, that was the case for the villains in the earlier seasons. I think the villains later on became increasingly bland in design. Roman Torchwick may have been a chump but he was a chump with style.

Pyrrha gave me an equally flat look but I just shrugged at her. She had no chance of understanding why I was giving her that look so I was going to give her some slack. She would learn the true ways of villainy eventually there was no reason to push her too hard right now.

Pyrrha just sighed and marched forward silently. We soon reached the entrance. The sight caused Rias to squeal in excitement, Pyrrha sprung into action because she thought Rias was in danger. So she ran towards Rias in a instant but she was confused when Rias did nothing more than fuss over the entrance before us.

“So cool,” Rias muttered out as she looked at the entrance before us. Instead of a traditional gate the entrance was a long tunnel that led forward into the fortress but it was carved to look like a giant skull trying to swallow us whole. It was a much better sight in comparison to the dull blockly walls from before but I still gave the Saint Beasts a six out of ten. They could have done so much more but at least they were trying here.

“Eh, I’ve seen cooler shit. “ Ashley let out with a bored expression on her face. Pyrrha seemed to have finally got what was going on as she gave all of us an exasperated look and another sigh.

“I thought she had fallen into a trap, can you guys take this a little more seriously,” Pyrrha muttered out quietly. She clearly did not mean for us to hear that but she did not take into account that the three of us had supernaturally enhanced hearing. So her chiding was clear as day to us.

“ At least it’s not a blocky abomination Ashley,” I spoke out with a soft chuckle accompanying my words. Ashley just looked over at me and rolled her eyes. Rias nodded clearly agreeing with my words and Pyrrha just sighed and started to drag the girls into the hall way.

“Wait we have to stop a gawk at the gate as if shocked about the gruesome sight!” Rias shouted out as Pyrrha dragged her deeper into the tunnel. Rias was struggling to get out of Pyrrha’s grip but she was clearly not putting any real effort in. It was another act to break the mood but I was also sure if Pyrrha let her go she would follow through on her dumb idea.

Ashley just allowed herself to be dragged along with a blank face. The sight caused me to chuckle again. I then followed as I was not going to leave them by themselves.

The tunnel was long and fairly bland back to that god forsaken blocky look but this time it could be excused as this was just a hallway. It was still a little disappointing after walking into a skull.

The bland look on Ashley's face told me she agreed but Pyrrha was not letting us ruminate on the dumb look of this place. She was more concerned with ensuring no one got hurt because we wasted time doing dumb shit. Rias settled down for the most part as she was fairly reasonable but she still had a pout on her face.

We soon reached the end of the tunnel even if we were not walking that fast. The end of the hallway led towards an open courtyard. Before we reached the end a creature flew in front of us.

Pyrrha already had her rifle out pointing at the creature before us before it could do something. The creature that appeared before us was an odd sight. It was a giant eye ball that had wings and tentacles. The skin of the thing was purple and leathery, it did not look that threatening but it also did not look friendly at all.

Rias was looking at the creature before us with a curious look but she did not seem that interested in it. She clearly did not think this was one of the Saint Beasts and she was probably right. The monster before screamed mob and there was not anything that this dumb thing could do to disprove that assumption.

Ashley took out her own gun with a smile blooming on her face. I contemplated telling her to leave it to Pyrrha as Ashley would probably shoot the thing before we could get anything out of it but I decided against saying anything, She was not pointing at the flying eyeball so it was not really an issue yet. We also did not need to get information out of the dumb thing either we just had to wreck shop here.

“We are here to slay the Saint Beasts,” Pyrrha announced our intentions and I gave her a confused look. Did she really need to tell the enemies that we were planning on killing them? I mean it was not like we needed to hide that information but there was no need to tell it either.

“I assumed that to be the case.” The eyeball spoke out with a high annoying voice that was once more sending bells ringing in my mind. I looked closer at the thing as if trying to dissect it with my vision. 

“How the fuck are you talking without a mouth?” Ashley questioned which led to a silence building in the hallway. Pyrrha was looking at her as if asking if that was really that important. The eye looked offended but was staying still so it would not be shot. Rias was giving the creature a contemplative look as if trying to figure out the same thing.

“Ignore her. You will lead us towards these Saint Beasts.” Pyrrha announced with a serious look that screamed no non sense. Ashley looked offended that Pyrrha told the thing to ignore her but she just huffed.

“I’m afraid I can’t do that, if I dared to betray the Saint Beasts I would be killed.” The eyeball spoke out as it just floated in front of us. I just notice that the creature before us had wings but it was not using them to float in front of us. So why the fuck did it have them in the first place. I used the Alpha Stigma to figure out what was going on there and learned a spell to fly under my own magic. It was not that fast but it would be something my people would be shocked to see.

Other than that I did not pick up on anything else. I guess that creature was scared of what Pyrrha would do as it was not doing anything but floating quietly. Hell, even the hallway around us did not have any magical traps set up which was surprising.

“Well, if you don’t lead us to them I’ll pin you down and pull that big ass eye ball out of its socket,” Ashley announced with a blood-thirsty smile on her face. Pyrrha gave her a look but turned back to the eye ball as her expression softened. Rias paled slightly as she looked between Ashley and I. She was clearly wondering what Ashley would do to her if she found out how Rias felt about me. She was right to worry as Ashley was a threat all by herself.

“You should listen to her, she’s crazy,” Pyrrha spoke out softly as if trying to coax a child. Ashley looked outraged and looked over at me as if saying can you believe this. I gave her a flat look as she really did not have any ground to stand on here. I loved her but she was not mentally sound and even she knew that. It was not like Pyrrha was serious she was using Ashley’s sudden and expected threat to play good cop bad cop.

Ashley pouted at me not taking her side but she just looked back at the eyeball and took out her spear. She then started to walk menacingly toward the shivering eye ball before us.

“You make a good point, follow me.” The eye spoke out meekly as it floated towards the end of the tunnel making some distance between us but with Pyrrha having her rifle aimed at it there was no danger of it escaping.

“Fucking coward, one threat of pulling out your eye ball and you betray your masters,” Ashley spoke out sourly as she wanted to follow through on her threat. The eye ball made the right call hoping ships as Ashley would have done her threat for shits and giggled if he did not.

Rias was giving the floating eyeball as if she was pitying the creature. I got it as she was this close to earning Ashley’s ire as well.

We were almost at the end of the hallway when the roof suddenly fell ontop of us with a force that I was not expecting. I quickly braced the weight above my head and the girls did the same. The force behind this was honestly surprising it was actually pushing us down even through the four of us had supernatural strength.

I had my Alpha Stigma out watching the eyeball to make sure it did not pull any tricks but I did not see any traps or moves from the eye ball. So how the fuck are we currently in a trap that could affect people like us.

“Hahahahaha Fools! Welcome to Maze Castle! In order to enter you have to pass through the gates of betrayal!” The creature laughed out loudly and annoyingly. The thing was being smug now that we were trapped. As it taunted us the setting that we were in finally clicked for me.

This world was Yu Yu Hakusho it took me so long to recognize it as that anime was something I watched ages ago. Beyond that, the arc we were facing was fairly bland and not something that really caught my attention. The tournament arcs in Yu Yu Hakusho were the truly memorable parts of the story but this arc did happen in the story as well.

The annoying voice and the sudden trap were able to jog my memory.  I could remember the identities of the Four Saint Beats and knowing their abilities I was a lot more confident in defeating them even if my current situation was not that good.

The four of us had stepped into a trap after all. Even with all of our strength, I could see that we were being pushed to our physical limits just to have the roof not crush us from the sheer force it was putting off. Sweat beaded down the girls' faces as they put everything they had into not being crushed.

“You fucking punk, as soon as I get out of here I going to tear that fucking eye ball out!” Ashley snarled out as she was clearly angry at the situation she was in right now. I now remembered enough about this trap to get out of it pretty easily.

The trap before me was purely mechanical so I just needed to transfigure the gears in the walls to stop the pressure from killing us. Rias could also get us out of this by just blasting the ceiling with her destructive blasts. I could only assume she was holding back on that front as she did not know what was going on here. She did not want to risk our lives because she wanted to blow this trap up.

“Hehehehe you will never escape from the Gate of Betral so there is no need to worry about your empty threats girl!” The eye ball announced smugly.

“You can feel the weight right? There are sensors in the hall way to measure the strength of its victims. Using a complex series of gears it applies the perfect amount of weight so the four of you can barely hold the roof above your head.” The creature continued to explain the trap before us as I started to transfigure the gears to stop the pressure on us. It was a slowly process as I was not able to use my wand or snap but I was still able to do it even if it was slow.

Rias was looking around as if considering blasting her way out right now. Ashley was cursing up a storm but she did not have an ability to help out here. Pyrrha also had a look on her face before she closed her eyes and started using her semblance. Her ability to fuck with Polairty was interesting and it made me a budget Magneto but I was not really paying too much attention to her. I was too concentrated on breaking this stupid trap.

Who makes a trap that is designed to make the people under it betray each other? It’s sadistic and a dumb move it would be better if you just literally crushed everyone that came to your door. But no the Four Saint Beasts had to make it a trial to get their attention. Ironically it was only that the trap was not designed to outright kill me that allowed me to be trapped in it in the first place. If this thing was lethal Fortuna would have made it fail before it even got a chance at trapping me.

“There is a solution to your little problem hehehehe, this is a trial after all. The weight above you is designed with enough leeway to allow one person to escape the crushing weight of the world above you!” The eye ball announced with laughter bursting out of it. It was clearly taking joy in the situation it put us in. I was not sure why it was so smug this trap had nothing to do with it this was a trap designed by the Saint Beasts.

The weight above us started to lighten as my efforts at changing those gears was finally showing it’s efforts. Pyrrha had also started to dismantle gears as well but we did not really know what was important and what would lead us to having the weight increased massively so she was taking it slow. I was not too concerned about that as Fortuna had my back but Pyrrha was not that confident about her solution.

“You better make a decision quickly, the four of you are not able to hold that weight for very long so one of you should betray the others before the weight crushes all of you completely hahahahaha!” Again the eye ball was teasing us but the weight was getting lighter with every second it talked. 

Rias stopped looking around for a solution as she could feel what was happening and she shot me a grateful look. I guess she assumed it was me who was saving us, she was right but Pyrrha was also doing so and I did not see her shooting Pyrrha a thankful look.

Ashley also felt what was happening so she looked up at the floating eye ball and gave it a menacing smile. Which caused it to shiver despite its current position.

Before it could say something else Ashley’s eyes glowed brightly and the creature before us plummeted to the ground. It let out a yelp as it hit the ground and produced a crater as it was pinned by the gravity Ashley was suddenly enforcing on the monster before us.

The eye was looking around wildly and eventually locked onto Ashley with a glare.

“This is pointless girl! Even if you pin me with this strange technique it will not let you escape the Gate! The only way out is to betray your companions!” The eye shouted out as it continued glaring at Ashley. Ashley just started laughing in return as the rood was starting to be pushed up with our combined strength and the decreasing pressure above us.

The eye ball was giving the sight before it a panicked look but it could do nothing as it was currently under the effect of Ashley’s Sacred Gear.

With a loud click I finally finished changing enough gears to completely free us as the roof started to rise. Rias sat on the ground as she got her breath again. Pyrrha was looking coldly at the eye before us. Ashley was already walking towards the creature with a manic smile blooming on her face.

The monster was clearly panicking as it never expected us to escape the trap that it had placed us in.

“Call me girl one more time I dare you.” Ashley spoke out lowly as she crouched so she could match the eye’s gaze. It blinked rapidly and sweat started to fall off of the creature.

“Mercy?” The eye ball asked hesitantly and fearfully. Ashley just started to laugh in its face. Pyrrha continued to give the creature a cold look then she looked away as if she did not see anything. Rias was paling again.

“No.” Ashley let out as she reached forward quickly not inhibited by her own field of gravity. She grasped onto the eye and started to retch it out of its socket. It was a slow agonizing experience for the creature before us but no one was feeling generous with that thing. Finally with a sicking pop the screams from the creature died and Ashley had a giant bloody eye in her hands.