Silence In Numbers: File One (45 page)

“That’s right, the trump cards have been brought in,” Reno said with a grin, hefting his assault rifle. “You guys are safe now.”

Sano took in the sight of the newly-scarred Reno holding the huge gun and grinning. “Dude, tell me again why you always stay in the car?”

“Well it just wouldn’t be fair to the monsters, y’know? You can’t play the Ace all the time.”

“Ahh, right. It’s very generous of you to give the monsters a fighting chance.”

“I thought so. I’m the magManimous kind of hero.”

“That’s ‘magnanimous’.”

“Right, that one.”

Ayane smiled, looking at Katsumi. “We can end this now – together.”

Katsumi nodded, returning the smile and looking around at the group before turning towards the stairs. “Forty-three more floors… Should’ve made it a hundred.” She led them towards the next floor and one step closer to the final confrontation, swearing that tonight, things were going to end.

She was right, in a way – some things were certainly going to end, but what, exactly, she had no idea.

Katsumi and her team entered the tower’s fortieth floor wary and ready for anything. The fighting had been getting more difficult with every floor, and the floors that were a multiple of five seemed to be the worst; on twenty-five they had  faced a horde of demons that had flooded in for a full twenty minutes without break, forcing them to kill quickly or be overrun. On thirty they had faced a giant demon with an armored hide that took explosives to get through. On thirty-five the floor had wild temperature swings from freezing to burning, distracting them during the fight with demons that seemingly weren’t affected at all.

And on forty… On forty, they stood facing some sort of abomination that was waiting for them. It was very tall, mainly brown in color with rough, stony skin. On one swelled-up shoulder was a stretched face that grinned at them and gnashed sharp teeth; the arm connected to that shoulder was very long and thin, ending in a spear-like point. In the middle was the creature’s head, long and thick like some sort of wolf or lizard, but not earthly enough to recognize. Its left arm was more natural but incredibly muscular and holding a large, heavy sword. Seeing as the creature reached the ceiling and its sword was nearly as tall as it was, blocking it was not going to be a possibility.

They were tired and each of them had minor injuries, but they were ready. Katsumi and Rufus took off and split apart, running to either side of the c
reature; Ayane, being the fastest out of all them, ran straight at it. It began moving instantly and lurched forward, swinging the massive blade, but that was far too slow to hit Ayane; she was keeping her eyes on the long, thin arm as she leapt onto the other one, and her instinct was rewarded as it lashed out at her. She twisted around the spear point and ran up and over the creature as Katsumi and Rufus hacked its legs to divide its attention. As soon as Ayane was out of the way, Law, Sano and Reno opened fire on the creature.

It let out a roar of pain and mov
ed in earnest now, spinning with the large sword and lashing its thin arm out like a whip at times, and a spear at others. The three kept on the move, hacking at its legs as the others held fire on its torso, distracting it more than anything as gunfire was unlikely to pierce its skin. The stretched face on its shoulder spat out acid that narrowly missed Katsumi, splattering and beginning to melt through the floor. They added that to their list of things to avoid, but Law saw an opening; he raised his rifle and called to them to turn the thing towards him, which they did. Ayane caught his meaning and landed in front of the creature, waiting; the face opened to spit and Law fired a grenade at it. Ayane dodged the acid and the grenade went in perfectly. The three near it immediately dodged back as it exploded, ruining the shoulder and severing the whip-arm, although it also sent acid everywhere that they were lucky to dodge.

As the creature went berserk they went to work, hacking at it and easily dodging the heavy sword until the beast finally went down. The fight was basically without challenge, which gave them confidence as they pressed on to the forty-first floor. Each floor was conquered, adding to their overall fatigue but not individually impossible. The forty-fifth floor was harder, filled with
several
monsters just like the one from forty, but they were able to cause them to injure each other, thus escaping without injury themselves. The fiftieth floor, however, was different.

When they entered Floor 50, nothing was there. They walked carefully into the room but, still, nothing could be seen; there were no traps, no environmental hazards, and no giant beasts. It put them on edge, especially considering the dim lighting on the floor – unlike the others, this one seemed not only corrupted, but dilapidated. It seemed very old and as if it had been abandoned for a long time. It was exactly the type of place they would expect to find haunted during a normal job, and it even held the same uncomfortable, oppressive atmosphere. There was a heavy silence here along with a smell of rot that choked the air, making it more difficult to breathe. They progressed through the room looking in all directions, straining their eyes under the flickering lights.

The first thing that happened was Katsumi crying out. The others turned in time to see blood spray from a new gash on her shoulder, but before they could ask what had happened she had whipped her sword around and it clanged off something. She seemed to be fighting something and Ayane was at her side in a moment, stabbing into the air. Something gave a cry and Ayane felt it leave before she lifted her blade to spot black blood on it. “It’s invisible…”

“There may be more than one,” Katsumi stated. “Backs to the wall! Law, I want something covering this area and giving us at least a hint of where these things are.”

As they moved to the wall, Law fired a smoke grenade into the center of the room. As it filled up, movement could be seen creating waves in the smoke. They began firing at the trails, bringing down two of the creatures before long. More seemed to be in the room though, and they wasted a lot of ammunition killing them. Most disturbingly, the things never appeared even after being killed, so they had no idea what they were or what they looked like. Eventually Katsumi called for them to move to the stairwell and they went quickly, setting up there instead and holding the stairs. The others covered Law as he opened a case and took out two demolition charges, tossing one into the room and planting another at the base of the stairs.

The team then moved up the stairs and detonated the explosives, killing whatever was near the one in the room and blocking the entrance to the stairs with rubble. In case they dug through, Law set an explosive mine on their side of the rubble. “Well done,” Katsumi said with a nod. “Is anyone hurt?”

“Besides you, you mean?” Reno said as Ayane moved up to inspect her sister’s shoulder.

“It’s not too bad,” Ayane said in relief. “Looks like a thick blade did it.” Reno tossed Ayane a bandage and she went to work wrapping it.

“It felt pretty forceful,” Katsumi responded, watching Ayane wrap it and getting way too many flashbacks of the action. Meeting Ayane’s eyes, she saw she wasn’t the only one, and they shared a look of understanding that made them both smile a bit as they once more realized they were working together again. After a moment Katsumi forced her gaze from her sister’s and looked at the others. “I think they’re supposed to stab. Whatever blades they’re using are wide enough to cause a wound that would be impossible to stitch up outside of a hospital.”

“Then it’s a good thing they didn’t get you with that,” Ayane said seriously, tearing the bandage at the end and putting away the remainder. “I’d say we should be more careful, but honestly, we were as careful as possible, it’s just impossible to be ready for invisible enemies.”

The others nodded. Ayane had basically taken a “second-in-command” position during this mission; she had simply slipped into it, she and Katsumi easily falling into the partnership that had enabled them to survive endless hardships and dangers. The rest of the team recognized this partnership and deferred to it, preferring to trust their experience. As a team, it turned out that the six of them worked very well together. While the fighting was wearing them down, none of them needed to stop and none of them were terribly injured. It was going as well as could be expected – now all they had to do was survive the last sixteen floors.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Sigma chuckled, looking from the screens back to Belphegor. The demon was fully corporeal now, and fully empowered. All of the fighting the team had been doing, their emotional and physical energy spent, and the power Katsumi and Ayane had been putting out, had powered the demon to a level Sigma had only dared to hope for. “Our goal has been met,” he said as he stood up from his chair, looking at Joseph. “If all goes well, we should have our hands on it soon.”

“I admit, your plans have gone well.” He looked over at the now-unconscious Hitomi. “Should we disp
ose of the girl now?”

“She should be useful during the fight,” Sigma said with a wave of his hand. “I’m sure they will be distracted by her presence. Besides, it never hurts to have a failsafe.”

“Very well. We should prepare now.”

“As you say,” Sigma responded with a nod. Louder, he said to Belphegor, “They’re coming. Have your fun – they are no longer needed alive.”

Belphegor, the Prince of Sloth, smiled darkly. “They shall be the first slain by my own hand in millennia. I shall enjoy rending them apart.”

“Whatever,” Sigma replied dismissively as he walked past the demon, following Joseph. “Just try not to bring the building down.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“So… We’re here,” Reno said as he looked at the gate in front of them. “I thought I’d be happier about that.”

“What awaits us on the other side is not a celebration,” Rufus stated. “Your hesitation is understandable.”

“Nah, it’s just the last obstacle b’tween us an’ the celebration,” Law said as he set down the case he had been carrying from the start, entering the code to open it.

“You really think it’s going to be easy?” Ayane asked curiously, leaning over his shoulder to get a look at what he was doing.

“Let’s not get cocky,” Sano said. “I mean, yeah, we kick ass, but don’t forget there’s some kind of mega-demon on the other side of that door, plus a terrorist or whatever that Sigma guy is, plus the most evil man in the history of evil.”

“That means it’s our chance to tie up all of these loose ends at once,” Katsumi said confidently. “We’re ready. We couldn’t be more ready. The only thing I want to ask is that none of you die.”

Ayane smiled at her. “I’m not dying! I wouldn’t miss getting to live with you again.”

Katsumi shared the smile. “You better not. I swear I will pull your ghost back and make you pick out a place anyway.”

Ayane grinned. “I’d haunt you anyway!”

“I’m not dying,” Reno added. “Len would find a way to kill me again if I did.”

“And me,” Katsumi replied with a smirk, though it was half-hearted. “I swear if you make me tell that woman and girl that you… I will
never
forgive you.”

“No way, I couldn’t do that to a friend.”

“I do not plan to die here,” Rufus asserted.

“I didn’t think you would. Always a survivor, right?” She smirked. “Think you would kill me?”

Rufus raised an eyebrow. “If I was dealt a good enough hand, but you’re a Straight Flush so it would have to beat that,” he responded, making her chuckle. “Royal Flush only. For now, however, you should know that if it looks like I will die, I will retreat.”

“That
is
the wisest course of action,” Katsumi said with a sly smile, “Although the others may not appreciate it.”

“Yeah, thanks for the support,” Sano said with a chuckle. “Don’t expect me to die, either, Major. I’m not done here.”

Katsumi looked at him. “You’re right. I still have a lot of hope for you. You aren’t even close to done.”

“An’ neither am I,” Law said as he stood up and hefted the massive gun he had just removed from the case and expanded. He grinned as he set it on his shoulder. “B’sides, I got a friend who’ll be mad if I die without doin’ somethin’,” he said, glancing at Katsumi and glad the shades hid his eyes.
Jaina said you gotta tell her
, he reminded himself.
Too bad I didn’t know this would happen or I’d have done it earlier.

Katsumi smiled at him. “What are you supposed to do, blow up a continent?”

Law chuckled. “Maybe I’ll tell you after we’re done ‘ere.”

“I’m holding you to that,” Katsumi said with a wink. “Can’t have my oldest friend keeping secrets.”

“Yeah, you’d
never
do that.”

“I’m the boss, I’m allowed to be a hypocrite because I say so,” Katsumi laughed before looking over the rest of her team. She studied them all for a moment before her eyes hardened.
“Let’s end this now.” She turned and slammed a hand into the massive gate, cracking it. She then shoved it open with both hands and stepped inside with the others at her heels.

Before them stood the demon Belphegor, Prince of Sloth, Lord of Opening, in his full physical form. His power filled the room; he nearly reached the ceiling despite its height; his roar echoed around the chamber and hurt their ears; his eyes were burning purple coals of rage and violence; his grin was that of one preparing to toy with his prey. And not a one of them stepped back as he stepped forward – they instead went forward to meet him.

The first movement was a joint one between Katsumi and Ayane, discussed before they’d arrived here – Katsumi charged the demon and he laughed and charged her, while Ayane darted around him and across the room in the blink of an eye. As the others opened fire, Katsumi raised her sword to block a giant fist that still brought her to her knees beneath its force. Meanwhile, behind him, Ayane’s quick sword slashes severed the chains that held Hitomi. The woman looked at her gratefully, obviously weak, having been drained. “It’s a trap,” she told Ayane as she was helped to her feet. “They’re waiting in the back.”