Light crept trough the open space between fluttering eyelids and a small groan escaped the third child's mouth. Shinjis head was feeling like someone was hammering on it. After a few seconds of half dazing consciousness, he slowly got in a crouching position. Blinking sleepily he took in his surroundings.
The ground felt relatively solid and hard. In fact, he was pretty sure his hands were touching stone. His vision flickered as he tried to get used to the horrible illumination. It was not black as night, but the lighting of his place was leaving a lot to be desired.
He licked over his lips while waiting for his eyesight to acclimatize to the darkness. The coppery taste on his tongue forced his jumbled mind to a full halt. He knew this taste. He had gotten far too used to it in his immediate past. Coppery and a little sweet, the taste invaded his mouth even as he tried to order his mind.
"Blood..." His voice was sounding slightly strained. When was the last time he got to drink something?
Slowly, his memories began to return to his mind. Unfortunately they didn't come back in chronological order. His mind acted like an unruly child throwing its toys randomly back inside of the chest.
It took him a few minutes to actually bring order into the chaos. First in the series were his childhood memories. Afterwards was the... experiment... His eyes watered as the memory appeared in his mind like it happened yesterday.
With an act of willpower he banished the memory and turned to more recent events. Yes there had been more. He had come to Tokyo-3 and fought against the third angel. He had met Misato and Rei. Later he had, for the first time in his life, gained real friends.
Sure Toji and Kensuke could get on his nerves, but their friendship was one of the things that motivated him to fight. Still, how did he end up here? He remembered the fights against the different angels. Asukas appearance was also big on his list of important events. Then he remembered.
"Leliel... I was captured by Leliel." He looked at the puddle, made of an orange fluid, which was forming where he was sitting. It was LCL, right? Yes, he had been inside of the Angels... he didn't actually know what that big empty space had been.
When he finally returned his concentration to the present, he was in for a big surprise. A very big, red and muscled creature was standing before him. The being was humanoid and looked a bit like a mix between an oni and a western devil.
Shinji opened his mouth to say something and closed it a few seconds later. What was he supposed to say in such a situation?
The big thing seemed to take his silence as some kind of sign because it opened its mouth and spoke.
"Mhhhh! You look pretty skinny and wimpy, but you will do." The red giant observed. Only now did Shinji notice the scary looking scythe it was holding. After a few seconds one of the devils hands tried to seize him. Flight instincts Shinji had mostly forgotten kicked in and he jumped backwards.
When the creature grabbed empty air, the boy began to look for some way to escape. There! A doorway stood behind the other occupant of the room. With surprising agility he jumped around big red and ran there.
"What the... Come back right now! This Dungeon has no exit anyway, dammit." Shinji's steps faltered at these words, but he quickly took in the sight of this new room. Yep, there was no other door, no hole in the wall or something similar here. That meant he was stuck here with the red guy.
Slowly he turned around. He really hoped that the thing... no wait. The red giant could talk. Did it count as a person because of that? Whatever, he just hoped that the devil didn't eat him or something similar.
"This is no way to treat a Horned Reaper.", the newly identified being grumbled.
At the boy's confused look, the demon gave Shinji a disbelieving look.
"What the... you don't know what a Horned Reaper is, right?" At Shinji's hesitant nod the other face faulted. Great! The first person he meets in centuries and the person in question had lived under a rock. It was the only thing that could explain the boy's ignorance. He was probably some Hermits or Wizards apprentice. The boy was too weak looking to be anything else.
The Reaper rubbed his forehead and tried to calm himself with promises of future carnage and destruction. Sure he would have to explain every single detail, but magic users had their peaks in a fight. "Okay boy, you are going to listen to me. Do you understand?"
What came next was one of the most bizarre explanations Shinji ever heard. It seemed that the monster, Horned Reaper better not forget that, had been imprisoned here. The Reaper had once been part of a Keepers army of monstrous minions, but the best part was still coming. Now he wanted him, Shinji Ikari of all people, to become an evil Overlord (It was the nearest equivalent he could come up with.) by claiming a magical artefact.
By now, Shinji had come to the conclusion that he was dreaming. There was just no other explanation. If it was actually true, how was he talking to the Horned Reaper?
How high were the chances of ending up in another dimension AND understanding the local language?
Impossibly low.
On the other hand if this was a dream, then it was only logical for him to understand everyone else.
Some remote part of Shinji mentioned how unlikely it was for him to have the ability to think this logical in a dream but he ignored it.
As he didn't want to wake up to a dark pit of nothingness anytime soon, he decided to go with the flow of things. What was the worst that could happen?
If he had been on the surface, the ominous thunder would have worried him quite a bit.
Shinji was happy he didn't need much blood to activate the Dungeon Heart. Red life fluid dropped from the cut in his hand's palm.
The Reaper smiled a cruel smile. He was getting nearer and nearer to finally k k killing something. Horny had strictly controlled himself from hurting his future Keeper. It would only get in the way of his objectives in the long run. He didn't want to end up in the same situation again. With a look of concentration Horny gathered mana in his hand and flung it at the Heart.
This Dungeon Heart was a powerful magical artefact, invented by the Dark Gods, connected to their realm and very old. For the first time in countless years someone was accessing its power. With a hum it came once again to life and made its first beats.
(Posted Thu, 27 Dec 2012 20:51)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.