Gematrail — Echo Observer — Lævateinn Chapter 23: Echo21 – Stirrings in the Celestial Prison

🎶🎧 Spotify 🎧🎶 track Num : 33 / 34 — Meanwhile — The Caves of Mount Fuji A damp chill clung to the air as we pressed deeper into the cave. “A-are we there yet? I can’t feel my ears anymore, it’s so cold …” “Keep your voice down !!” Yuka spun around and clapped her cold hand over Maya’s mouth before the words could carry. We all held still. From somewhere deeper in the dark, sound bounced off the stone walls — voices, human voices, locked in an argument. “This is your fault we’re lost! I’m half-dead from the cold!” “How is this my fault?! You’re the one who bolted when you saw that skeleton on the ground and started screaming!” I knew those voices. “You little thieves … so this is where you’ve been hiding!!” A vein throbbed at Yuka’s temple. She rolled up her sleeves, and with enough fury to make the very air tremble, she stormed toward the voices at a terrifying pace. “ Sis!? W-wait, please!!” Anna’s cry never reached her. A moment later, a voice scraped out of the cave’s depths like something dragged across gravel. “Give back what you stole — right now !!” CRACK——BOOM!!!!! A wind-shear arrow tore through the air with a sound like the sky splitting open. The shockwave hammered the cave walls in rapid succession, sending cascades of rock and dust raining down from the ceiling. “I would die before making Yuka my enemy…” Maya had gone chalk-white, trembling head to toe as she pressed herself against Anna’s side. When we reached the back of the cave, we found the two members of Black Moon slumped against the wall — pale as corpses, their backs already bruised from the impact — crumpled at Yuka’s feet. “Now. Talk. Where is the Sacred Vessel ?” The two of them forgot entirely about the cold stone floor as they slammed their foreheads against it, words tumbling out over each other in a torrent. “We brought it to the Toyota sisters, we swear!! We were ordered to — our livelihoods were on the line!!” “That’s right!! If we failed, it was gonna be nothing but bean sprouts for the whole month — please, just this once, cut us some slack!!” Yuka stared down at the two of them, prostrate and shaking, and exhaled a long, slow breath. “And you have no idea where they would have taken it?” “We just left it where we were told — we genuinely have no idea!!” “It’s the truth!! We dropped it at the end of some deserted path — there was nothing there but an old sign leaning against the wall!!” “…Fine. I’ve heard enough. You’re free to go.” “Th… that means we’re released …?” “And don’t let me see your faces again!!” “ EEK—!? ” They scrambled to their feet as though touched by lightning and blew past us like a gust of wind, sprinting back the way we’d come at full tilt. Maya watched them go, mouth hanging open. “You think they’ll be okay…?” “Anyone that blissfully oblivious will land on their feet wherever they end up.” Yuka shoved the loose strands of hair from her face and walked on. Led by Yuka and Kanna, we finally emerged at the far end of the cave — where a wash of harsh, artificial light bled through the dark ahead. “This has to be it!!” Despite the burning ache in her legs from the long march, Maya bounced on her heels with the giddy energy of a child who’d just spotted the finish line. “How terribly charming — you’re infantile right down to your soul, aren’t you.” “Sh-shut up, you low-life succubus !!” Kanna’s ear twitched. “I’m sorry — did I just hear something I can’t let slide? Maybe I should drain every last drop of vitality from that cute little body of yours later, hmm?” She smiled, the corner of her mouth curling just so — and there was nothing warm about it. A glacial pressure radiated from her expression, something that made your skin crawl. “N-no, please, I’m begging you…!” Maya’s legs nearly buckled. She ducked behind Anna, putting as much of her between herself and Kanna as possible. “Let’s get the Sacred Vessel and get out of here.” Yuka stepped forward into the light. “Well… if retrieving it were all we had to worry about,