Aeon Legion: Labyrinth (61 page)

Alya, you were right. I
have seen the steel in her. However, even steel has its shadows.

-Final entry from the personal
logs of Praetor Lycus Cerberus

S
he
walked
out of the shadows of steel, footsteps echoing on metal as she
stepped into the dim light. The orb of her black shieldwatch glowed
red which shone through the darkness. Her armor was of Legion design,
though matte black with red edges. The torso plate displayed scratch
marks where she had scraped the Aeon Legion emblem off her armor.
Dark smooth hair hung several inches past her shoulders with a single
lock bleached white on the left side of her face. None of these are
what made Terra's skin crawl. The mask did that.

It was a Kalian mask, black,
smooth, and oval in shape with a red symmetrical glyph on its front.
The mask covered from the top of her forehead to the chin, obscuring
her face save for two dark, sunken eye holes. Two pairs of sweptback,
horn like antenna decorated the side of the mask just above her ears.

Terra stepped back and tensed
when the black clad woman peered at her through those hollowed
looking eyes. Every sense in Terra's body screamed at her to run. All
Terra could manage was to lift her aeon edge to defend herself.

The woman in black charged,
appearing in front of Terra with movements too fast for Terra to
track. Terra slashed at the woman, but she blocked the blow before
grabbing Terra's shieldwatch arm and smashing it on a nearby steel
beam. Terra screamed as both her shieldwatch and arm broke. The woman
then grabbed Terra's throat in a vice like grip.

The black clad Legionnaire
stared at Terra for a moment, body tense as though expecting more
resistance. None came as Terra gurgled her own blood while trapped in
the woman's steely grip. Terra's unbroken hand tried in vain to pry
the grip loose.

A ring formed above a puddle.
It rotated clockwise to reveal Roland. He landed on the puddle with a
small splash before focusing on Terra. His expression turned to
horror when he saw Terra in the grip of the woman in black. “Terra!”

Another ring formed near a bin
filled with Coal. It turned to reveal Hikari who bared her teeth upon
witnessing the scene.

Roland drew his aeon edge and
made to say something to Hikari. Hikari ignored Roland, instead
drawing her aeon edge and charging at the black clad legionnaire.

The woman in black did not
even glance at Hikari as she swatted her aside with the back of her
left hand while keeping Terra's neck locked in her right. The blow
sent Hikari skidding along the ground, unconscious, like a rag doll.

Roland rushed forward and
swung his aeon edge. The legionnaire in black dodged the strike
before jamming the sheath of her aeon edge into Roland's stomach. He
gasped, falling to the ground unconscious.

With her strike team down,
Terra would have felt more panicked if not for her more pressing
problem of breathing.

A third ring formed in the
shadows of an unfinished building. As the light faded, it left a
figure standing partially shrouded in shadows. Praetor Lycus Cerberus
stepped forward. His gaze passed from Hikari to Roland and then to
Terra whose face had paled. He then turned to the legionnaire in
black. “That tiro you are strangling belongs to me.”

The woman tossed Terra aside
like a broken toy. When the she spoke, her voice carried a distorted
mechanical edge. “Praetor Lycus, wielder of the aeon edge Cerberus,
eighth member of the Legendary Blades. I have come here to challenge
you to a Trial of Blades. To the death.”

Terra coughed and gagged while
crawling away from the black clad Legionnaire. The taste of blood
filled her mouth and her arm screamed with pain.

“Who are you?” Lycus
asked.

“I have no need to answer a
dead man.”

Lycus grinned. “Dead man?
Well if I am a dead man, then may I at least know the name of the
blade that is to slay me?”

She glanced down to her aeon
edge. “This blade carries the name of my burden. It is what I am
now. Exile.”

Lycus's wolf like grinned
widened, the beast within him beginning to show. “Exile. Oh that
was almost good. Well then, Exile. Why do you wish to slay me?”

The black clad woman who
called herself and aeon edge Exile stepped forward. “I am not
interested in talking with the scholar nor the Captain. Show me
Cerberus. Your other faces do not interest me. The only thing you
need to know, Cerberus, is that I am here to make you pay for your
sins in full.”

Lycus stood calm, but Terra
didn't share his confidence after having her throat crushed. This
woman in black, this Exile, stood like an unmoving steel beam,
without even a hint of fear as she faced a Legendary Blade.

Lycus studied Exile. “I see
now. It was you who broke into the Archives after stealing Tiro
Mason's shieldwatch ID. You were the one stalking me. Clever. You
followed Tiro Mason to this time since you knew I would be watching
over her. Then when I was alone and away from the city you would come
here and kill me. A good plan except for the part where you have to
kill me. That won't be so easy.”

Terra wondered when Exile had
stole her shieldwatch information. Her eyes went wide when she
remembered the day she fell asleep in Kairos's Garden and the black
figure she saw then.

Exile drew her aeon edge.
Black steel matched the darkness until the timecore orb and edge
glowed red. The blade was a span longer than a longsword with the tip
ending in a tanto point. She saluted Lycus.

Terra gasped for breath while
pain surged through her arm. She crawled to a nearby iron beam,
putting her back on it while watching Lycus and Exile face one
another. Lycus stood, arms crossed, without expression. A long moment
passed with the only sound being the wind and distant rumble of
thunder.

Lycus appeared in front of
Exile, aeon edge Cerberus in hand. He struck in a flash. Exile dodged
the blade so close that the metal flat of Lycus's blade made sparks
as it scraped against her mask.

Exile counter attacked,
slashing her blade at Lycus. Terra couldn't make out what was going
on, seeing only a blur of motion and after images. She looked around
before seeing Roland who still lay unconscious. Terra crawled to him,
gritting her teeth in pain before removing his shieldwatch and
attaching it to her unbroken arm. Although weak, she felt her
connection with time return. Working fast, she sent a distress call
to Saturn City using her own identification, hoping that maybe Alya
would find it.

A loud boom followed by a
shock wave that washed over Terra. She shielded her eyes before
looking back to the fight. Using, Roland's shieldwatch, Terra Sped
her vision. She lamented that she couldn't use his shieldwatch to
Restore herself as it was only attuned to Roland's body.

When Terra's eyes focused, she
still could not keep up with both combatants' movements. She could
see afterimages of Lycus attacking with each of his blows blocked.
The ground cracked nearby under the power of an aeon edge burst. The
wind from their movements rushed over Terra.

There was series of loud booms
as Lycus unleashed a burst from his aeon edge. Unlike the other aeon
edges Terra had seen, Cerberus unleashed three bursts in quick
succession. Exile countered with her own burst, but the force almost
overwhelmed her, ripping up the ground around her and sending chunks
of earth flying into the air. Still she held her ground, panting from
the exertion.

Lycus attacked again,
unleashing another three bursts. This time the bursts knocked Exile
back, sending her flying into a nearby metal beam with incredible
force. She smashed into the beam with a loud clang, bending it.

Lycus stood, his face
impassive, staring at Exile. He lowered his aeon edge.

Exile shot forward, appearing
in front of Lycus in an instant. She struck, her blade almost taking
Lycus's head off. He dodged, though the black aeon edge cut a small
gash on his face before he fell back. Lycus took up a defensive pose
before touching his face. His eyes widened upon seeing blood on his
fingers.

Exile stood, aeon edge ready
with no evidence of damage from her impact into the metal beam.

Lycus continued to stare at
the blood. “Blood. My blood. It's been centuries since I have seen
my own blood.”

Terra thought that Lycus was
about to panic. Instead he lowered his gaze, obscuring most his face
in shadow save for his wide toothy, snarling smile. He laughed with a
twisted face that Terra had grown to fear. She then understood. He
was no longer Lycus. His other faces had stepped aside to unleash the
beast. Cerberus charged.

Their blades met again. This
time, Cerberus no longer held back, pulling the trigger on his aeon
edge and unleashing another series of bursts. Exile would jump back
each time using her own burst to lessen the blast. Soon the ground
around them shattered as their battle raged in the center of the
construction site.

To Terra, it was like looking
upon artwork too complex to appreciate. Each sword stroke was like a
unique shade that blended with the whole tapestry of the fight.
Instead, she tried to feel the ebb and flow of the battle.

Cerberus's blows seemed to
come much faster than his foe's strikes. Each savage blow matched his
wolfish grin that looked eager to draw blood. Exile remained on the
defensive as bursts pushed her back. When Cerberus ran low on stasis
cells for his aeon edge, he reloaded another clip so fast it seemed
to flow into his next attack.

His
opponent, though slower, was more methodical. Her attacks were not as
powerful nor as quick, but they were precise and with no waste or
unnecessary movements. There was a simplistic
brutality
to them that matched Cerberus's savageness. Each blow was blunt and
without any flourish as though driven more by discipline
as opposed to Cerberus's berserk rage. Even Exile's
blocks and dodges were minimalistic.

Terra understood that these
two were beyond her. It was like watching two storms collide. It was
a battle between a three faced monster and a black steel battleship.

The two locked blades.
Cerberus then pinned both blades to the ground before letting one
hand go of his blade and reaching for Exile's face. His fingers
brushed along the edge of the mask as Exile rolled away. He smiled,
stepping back into the first floor of the unfinished building.

The black legionnaire readied
her weapon and followed Cerberus. They weaved between steel supports.
Cerberus fought one handed. He grabbed each steel beam, swinging on
it with his shieldwatch hand, using the momentum to increase his
speed. Exile marched through the floor at a slow pace, cutting down
metal pillars when they got in her way. Each clash caused the
surrounding area to rust with age. Terra noticed that every pillar
Cerberus touched would rust.

Exile landed another blow,
cutting deep into Cerberus's arm. Terra wondered why he didn't change
strategy. He wouldn't be able to keep this up for much longer.
Cerberus grabbed another pillar and rusted it before flinging himself
outside the building. Exile hesitated.

Cerberus smiled as he used his
aeon edge to send a burst of energy at the building. Weakened pillars
failed under the burst and the entire structure collapsed. The mass
was great enough that a shieldwatch wouldn't be powerful enough to
stop all of it. The rubble entombed Exile in a grave of rusted steel.

Cerberus gasped for breath
before he Restored himself. He turned to go when he saw a red light
emanate from the debris. He paused. “That should have killed her.”

The steel rusted away as the
black Legionnaire rose from the decaying debris, unhurt. The red haze
of grainy energy rotted away everything around her as she stood, like
a storm of death.

Terra felt so small while
these giants battled. Their shieldwatch skills were beyond hers and
the instructors had called her good with those. Even how they fought
on a basic level was far above her own. Each planned their attack far
in advance and they weaved these into a greater strategy.

She thought back to the Trial
of Blades in the Academy. Those were a child's squabble in
comparison. She, Roland, and Hikari seemed like bugs to these two.

Cerberus's wolfish grin
returned as he loaded in another stasis cell clip. Their battle then
moved to another half constructed building. One burst from Exile sent
steel beams flying into the air. While the beams fell, they dueled
upon them, leaping from beam to beam. Upon each beam they crossed
blades and the burst from their aeon edges would tear the beam apart
before they leaped to another. Terra could only see them with Sped
vision while the beams fell in slow motion.

They clashed again. The burst
pushed Exile away. She cut through another metal beam in her way.
Cerberus pursued. When he drew close, Exile faced him while still
falling in midair and unleashed another burst from her aeon edge
which sent a metal beam flying at Cerberus. Metal beams took
Cerberus's attention as he dodged, but Exile maneuvered around him
and slashed. The blade cut across his chest.

Cerberus landed on the ground,
clutching his chest. Terra thought he would Restore himself. Instead
his snarl twisted further as his eyes went wide. He howled an inhuman
battle cry and charged. His speed was incredible. Terra saw only
afterimages even with Sped vision. Blood now covered his chest yet he
took no notice. Instead he attacked with a savageness beyond what she
had thought Cerberus capable of.

Exile became like steel. Each
burst tore at the surrounding ground, yet she held firm, blocking
each of Cerberus's attacks. She struck, wounding Cerberus several
more times. Each wound made him more enraged.

Cerberus's rage built until
even Exile could not keep pace. Then one burst threw Exile off her
feet. He charged, thrusting his blade into her chest. Blood
splattered as she fell to the ground. Pinned, Cerberus moved in
closer, standing over her. She twisted, pushing Cerberus's blade out
before knocking it aside. With his hands free, he pinned her on the
ground before reaching for Exile's mask. He grabbed and pulled.