Ch.11- Bittersweet.

The narrow passage was barely wide enough to go through in single file. Amy’s breath came in short gasps as they ran, the scratching behind the door following them the whole way.
“Do you know where we’re going?” Lain screamed.
Amy nodded, then remembered Lain couldn’t see her. “Yes,” she said, her voice coming out higher than usual.
I’m gonna puke…
She really was in bad shape. Once this was over, she’d have to train a little—
Actually, no. Fuck that. I’m going to rot in bed for the rest of my life.
They stumbled forward with their hands against the damp walls. After what felt like forever, the passage opened into a larger chamber.
Amy froze.
Thirteen wooden crosses lined the walls. Thirteen students were bound to them, slumped and bleeding and still breathing.
Today might actually be the worst day of my life…
Her eyes went to the pedestal at the center. On it sat a black box with symbols carved all over it, and a golden lock on top.
The whole reason they were in this building.
“What is this place?” Lain asked, staring at the students, then at Amy.
“The sacrifices.”
It was worse than the manga panels. Way worse.
Lain was already moving toward the nearest student. “They’re still alive.”
Amy’s legs shook as she approached another one. A girl with short red hair, fifteen at most. Blood was running from cuts along her arms and forehead into shallow channels carved into the floor.
“We need to get them down.” She pointed at the pedestal. “That’s what the golden key opens, by the way.”
Lain looked at the box, nodded, and went for the ropes first.
A screech tore through the chamber.
The girl’s eyes snapped open. Nothing but milky white.
Her mouth opened way too wide.
“Alblagtung thanki shadma. Sehlet hhst mall sbeid.”
The fuck?
Lain was already backing away. “Don’t touch them. The bindings are cursed.”
Red light started coming from above. The blood channels lit up, and Amy could see the whole thing now — a massive ritual circle drawn in blood across the floor.
“We need to break the circle,” Amy said. “In the sto—I mean, according to my power. Their souls are powering the nightmare.”
“…”
Lain looked at her for a few seconds.
She was smart. She’d already worked out the implication.
If they killed at least half the sacrifices, the nightmare would start collapsing. That was how Zayd and Lain got out in the original story — not deliberately, but the students died in the fighting all the same.
“How do we break it without freeing whatever’s trying to manifest?” Lain asked, choosing not to say the other thing out loud.
“Libris. Any ideas?”
[You know I can’t help you.]
“Please. If I use my power again, I think my head might actually explode.”
[…I wish I could. I can’t. Not directly.]
Amy groaned, then turned around as she heard weird sounds coming from behind; apparently the monsters had already arrived. They had dropped their disguise entirely as they approached, with long, elongated necks, black skin, and many eyes everywhere.
They were about to pour into the room when Lain raised her hand, and a wall of ice erupted, blocking the entrance.
“That won’t hold them long,” Lain said.
Ugh. Fuck me, this is going to hurt.
Amy closed her eyes and pushed.
The pain was immediate. Blood ran from her nose, and she kept pushing. The ringing in her ears got so loud she could barely hear anything else. Her eyes were wet. At first she thought they were watering, until she realized she was bleeding from those too.
The answer was there somewhere. She could feel how far she still had to go, and she pushed anyway.
When she finally reached it, she nearly laughed with relief. Knowledge was filling her head faster than she could make sense of it. But she had an answer.
Amy went to the pedestal. She recognized a few of the symbols from class, and others from the manga, though recognizing them wasn’t the same as knowing what they did. Fortunately, she didn’t have to understand them to follow the instructions.
“Can you break it?” Lain called. She’d moved between Amy and the ice wall, which was already cracking. More ice formed around her fingers.
“We need blood from outside the system. Ours should let us redirect the flow.” Amy winced as more knowledge arrived. Did it have to hurt every single time?
Lain raised an eyebrow at her. Amy looked back at the pedestal.
Please don’t ask me, I have no idea how that works…
“I’ll try it first.”
Lain took a knife from her boot before Amy could answer. She cut her palm and put it against the nearest channel. The blood in the channel pulsed, and the restraints connected to it started disappearing.
Holy fuck it’s actually working.
Amy took the knife from her, cut her own palm, and pressed it to another channel.
Behind them, the ice gave way. The creatures were coming through.
“Keep going!” Lain shouted. “I’ll hold them off!”
Amy moved to the next channel, then the one after it. Wherever she smeared her blood, more restraints came loose. She could hear Lain fighting behind her but didn’t stop to look.
“Amy, hurry!” Another ice barrier went up as Lain retreated towards the center. “I’m running out of mana!”
“I’m trying!”
Four students were free. Amy was working on the fifth when the nightmare began to break. Across the room, opposite the entrance the monsters were using, the air cracked like glass.
An exit. Finally, something was going—
She heard laughter above her.
Amy looked up through a crack in the ceiling. There was flesh on the other side, and far too many eyes, all looking down at them. The incarnation was waking up.
“Fuck.”
She kept moving. Her arm burned, she couldn’t focus her eyes properly, and she was in so much pain that trying to work out where it hurt most seemed pointless.
One of the students she’d freed stirred. A dark-haired boy. He blinked up at her, apparently still trying to understand where he was.
“Run!” She pointed across the room. “Take whoever you can and get through there!”
He kept blinking. Amy slapped him.
That got him moving. He struggled to his feet, swayed, then noticed the unconscious girl beside him and began dragging her towards the exit.
Lain had creatures on all sides now. She was still fighting, but her attacks weren’t as strong, and she wasn’t moving fast enough.
“I can’t hold them much longer!”
Amy’s hand shook against the next channel. Eight were free. That left five, including Elias and the girl with red hair.
More of the ceiling fell away. Tentacles were lowering through it, with mouths and eyes along them.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
“Almost there…!”
She made it to the ninth student, a boy with dog ears and a long, fluffy tail. He was kind of cute, actually—
Jesus Christ. The blood loss is seriously getting to me.
The tall blonde girl she’d freed earlier was helping now too, pulling students towards the portal with the dark-haired boy.
Lain released a frost nova. It cleared enough space for her to reach Amy.
“Let me help.”
She cut her other palm and put it to the channel beside the boy. With both of them working, his restraints came away.
Four left.
A tentacle came down near them and the floor exploded. Amy cried out as a stone fragment opened her neck.
A few centimeters right and it would have taken her throat.
“Leave them!” the blonde girl shouted from the portal. “You won’t make it!”
Amy got back on her feet.
Elias and the red-haired girl were still up there.
No.
Lain looked at her. It wasn’t the usual look.
“We finish this,” she said, and moved to the next one.
The rumbling got louder. More tentacles came down, sweeping the chamber. One caught an impostor and turned it into paste. Another hit the wall and broke reality further, widening the portal.
Two more freed.
The red-haired girl and Elias.
“Lain, get ready, we’re leaving!” Amy screamed, stumbling toward the girl. “Take the box with you!”
Lain couldn’t answer. More of them were coming down on her.
The ceiling collapsed further, and Amy saw it properly for the first time — a mountain of flesh, covered in eyes and mouths, tentacles coming off every surface of it.
Lain threw one more wall across the whole room, splitting the students from the monsters, then freed the red-haired girl and turned to help with the last one.
“Get her out,” Amy said, pointing. “I’ll finish here.”
Lain hesitated. She was looking at Amy’s face.
“You can’t—”
“I’ll be right behind you. Take the box.”
Eventually Lain went. She grabbed the box, got the girl on her feet, and guided her toward the portal where the blonde girl was still working.
[You are an idiot, you know that…]
Amy turned to Elias.
His ropes were thicker than the others and pulsing.
“I’m getting…you—out of…here,” she said, even though he couldn’t hear her.
She lifted her hand toward the channel.
A tentacle swept the chamber.
Amy ducked. It missed her.
It hit the boy’s face.
Everything went quiet, even though it hadn’t.
Her brain, running on nothing, took a long time to understand what it was looking at.
There was no face there anymore.
With the last student dead, the nightmare started collapsing for real. The chamber shook.
The Blood Emperor kept coming down through the broken ceiling. Amy’s vision went spotty at the edges, then her legs went, and she dropped to her knees next to the cross.
“Damnation!! Amy!”
Lain’s voice, from very far away. Amy tried to answer. Her mouth didn’t work.
Her nose wouldn’t stop bleeding. Neither would her eyes, or the wound in her neck.
That’s a lot of places to be bleeding from.
She could just make out Lain coming back through the creatures. Ice shards struck whatever was in her way, and the box was still at her hip.
Then Lain was holding her by the shoulders. Her hands were cold enough for Amy to feel it through everything else.
“Stay with me. We’re getting out.”
Amy’s feet left the floor.
Since when is she that strong…
The Blood Emperor roared. Amy felt the chamber shake and saw something falling towards them through the ruined ceiling. Lain threw her before it could reach them.
“The box—”
“I have it.”
Going through the portal felt like being plunged into ice water.
Oh. That’s cold.
She couldn’t keep her eyes open much longer. Lain’s face was the last thing she managed to focus on, and even that was going blurry.
Amy had never seen her look like that.
-————-　■　-————-
There were people talking somewhere nearby. Amy tried to listen. She was lying on something uncomfortable, though she couldn’t have said what.
“…lucky any of them survived…”
“…severe strain…”
“…you’d expect nothing less from Class S…”
I failed.
She remembered Elias’s head. She’d promised to save everyone, and then she’d stood right there when it happened.
I could have saved him. But I didn’t.
They’d got the others off the crosses. She knew that. She knew how many they’d saved, and if she thought about it sensibly, they’d done far better than they could’ve hoped.
It just didn’t feel like it. Her stupid heart wouldn’t listen to any of that.
A damp cloth touched her forehead. She felt the cold for a moment, then lost track of the voices again.
-————-　■　-————-
Light filtering through her eyelids. Pain throbbing behind her eyes. The metallic taste of blood in her mouth.
Amy slowly became aware of her surroundings as she noticed first the softness of where she was lying and next the smell of alcohol; not the bar one, rather the hospital one.
[You’re awake.]
Amy tried to answer. Her throat was so dry that whatever she’d meant to say came out as a croak.
[About what I expected.]
She winced and tried opening her eyes properly. There was a white ceiling above her. The infirmary, then.
Turning her head hurt her neck, but she managed enough to see the bedside table. Libris was sitting on it.
The book’s presence brought a smile to Amy’s face.
[Welcome back. You’ve been unconscious for three long days. And despite my reluctance to admit this, I’ve been quite bored without you.]
“Aww,” she barely managed. “…that’s the sweetest thing you’ve ever told me…”
[Don’t let it get to your head… And also, just take it easy from now on. Alright? The healers worked extensively on you, but you’re not fully recovered yet.]
You don’t need to tell me twice.
“How bad was it?”
[Bad enough for you to be obligated to stay for two days.]
Amy reached weakly for the glass of water on her bedside table—really considerate of whoever had left it there. After a few sips, she felt marginally more human. “And the others? Lain? The students we rescued?”
[Everyone who got out is alive. A few are still recovering, but nobody is in critical condition. Lain left yesterday. Her injuries weren’t as bad as yours, though she’d put a considerable strain on her core.]
Amy nodded. The memory of Elias’s crushed face flashed in her mind, but she quickly pushed it away, focusing instead on the glass of water in her hand.
[I should warn you, Amy. Next time you push your ability that far, you might not recover at all. Another episode like that could cause permanent damage, or worse.]
Amy set the glass down, keeping her eyes averted from the book. “I didn’t have a choice.”
[There’s always a choice.]
Amy’s eyes narrowed. “Really? What was my alternative? Oh, please enlighten me.” The bitterness in her voice surprised even her.
[You chose to save them—admirable, but reckless. If you destroy yourself in the process, who will be left to protect them next time?]
Amy clenched her fists, jaw tight. “So what, I should just stand by and do nothing?”
[No. I am telling you to be wiser in how you fight. Know when to push, when to hold back, and when to trust others to stand beside you.]
Silence ensued before she let out a short, humorless laugh. “Did you find that on the internet?”
[Yes. Quite efficient, really.]
Amy shook her head, half-exasperated. “Great. Here I am, barely alive, and you’re quoting motivational blogs at me.”
[Would you prefer I cite an obscure philosopher?]
Amy sighed, rubbing her temples. “Yeah, yeah. I get it.” But despite her irritation, she felt some of the tension in her chest ease—just a little. “Has the Academy done anything about what happened?”
[Quite a bit, actually. Security has been dramatically enhanced throughout the grounds. The headmistress ordered a full inspection of all facilities, particularly after receiving some rather forceful complaints.]
“Let me guess—Lain’s family?”
[Indeed. The House of Arkwright does not take kindly to their heir nearly being sacrificed to an eldritch horror. Several other noble families have joined in demanding explanations.]
Amy snorted weakly. “Fuck ‘em. Any loss a school suffers is a win for this world.”
[There’s more. Classes resume in two days.]
“What?” She pushed herself upright and immediately had to stop. The room was spinning. “After everything that happened?”
[They say keeping things normal will prevent panic. Mostly, though, they want you all ready to fight as soon as possible. Giving you time off won’t help them turn students into combat-capable ability users.]
Amy slumped back against her pillows. “And here I was hoping for at least a month off…”
[On another note, Crow has the box now.]
“Has he opened it?”
[No. He’s been… hesitant. He just stares at it for hours, seemingly unable to bring himself to use the key. I suspect he’s afraid of what he might find inside.]
Amy frowned, but didn’t judge him. The box belonged to his father, after all. If Amy were in his place, she would have a lot of trouble accepting anything from her own father.
“Anything else I should know?”
[The new chapter is out, been out for three days, in fact. Right after you lost consciousness. Also, I finished the update of the system.]
“That fast?”
[It’s not as surprising as you think. The chapter release has less to do with the time passed in this world and more about the plot progression.]
“Wait, does that mean…? Did I get a power-up?”
[Indeed. And a significant one at that. Your ability is directly proportional to the readers’ affinity for your character, after all. Your actions in the ritual chamber… resonated with them.]
“…you won’t nerf it, right…?”
[I will only nerf your power if their strength is disproportionate to the readers’ fondness for your character. So, no. Don’t worry.]
“So… I’m stronger?” Amy found herself smiling a little.
[Much stronger. You still need to recover before you try finding out how much.]
She nodded, then looked at the door.
“Do the nurses know I’m awake?”
[The monitoring spells should have notified them. I imagine someone will be here soon.]
“Want to read the new chapters while we wait?”
[If you like.]
Amy got comfortable against the pillows. The book began to glow, and she watched its pages instead of letting herself think about the chamber again.
She’d managed to put those memories away for now. Hopefully she could leave them there.