The Hell Gate III

Kaito's hand was now firmly encased within the pillar of ice. Eleanor, suspended on her own levitating ice pillar, breathed out a visible fogged breath in the warm Ohio air, her glacial blue eyes burning with intensity as she stared him down.

"Surrender," she commanded. "Tell me what you did to Grant."

"I should say the same to you," Kaito retorted. "You know you can't defeat me. And don't worry about your friend. He's still alive, just... resting."

"Maybe not, but I just need to stall until reinforcement to arrive and capture you," Eleanor countered. "You can't evade us forever."

"We'll see about that," Kaito replied calmly. He clenched his encased hand, a surge of power radiating outwards. With a concussive boom, a piece of the pillar of ice shattered into a cloud of shimmering fragments, and Kaito stood freely in the air.

Eleanor immediately responded, firing multiple rapidly spinning lances of ice at him. They hissed through the air. With a barrage of rapid punches, Kaito met each lance, shattering them into fine powder before they could even reach him. He then leaped, intending to close the distance and knock her out.

He was interrupted mid-air. A spiraling, thin tornado of black wind surged towards him, accompanied by a crackling bolt of lightning. A male agent, surrounded by the swirling black wind, floated through the air as his eyes locked on Kaito. Behind him, another agent, this time female, flew on what appeared to be a hovering manhole cover, her two hands sparking with electricity as she steered it.

"Three on one. It's hardly fair..." Kaito let out a dry chuckle. "for you that's."

He vanished.

In an instant, Kaito disappeared from their collective sight. He suddenly reappeared directly in front of the male agent, a split second before the agent could react. Kaito's fist plunged into the agent's gut. The impact sent a visible shockwave through the air, doubling the agent over before he plummeted towards the ground, a choked gasp escaping him.

"Ethan!" the electricity-wielding agent yelled in concern.

Ethan, however, managed to save himself. Just before hitting the pavement, a sudden gust of wind erupted from his falling form, slowing his descent and allowing him to regain some control, albeit clumsily.

Kaito reappeared behind the female agent, his voice a low whisper that made her jump. "You shouldn't be distracted in a battle, you know."

She managed to maneuver the manhole cover, bringing it up just in time to block Kaito's punch. The impact reverberating with a metallic clang. The force still knocked her back a significant distance, sending her careening through the air.

"Iris!" Eleanor called out. She immediately unleashed a volley of precise ice projectiles, firing them to intercept Kaito and stop him from following his pursuit of Iris.

Kaito merely flowed around them. He then appeared from directly above, dropping down with a powerful axe kick aimed at Eleanor. She reacted instantly, flipping the very pillar of ice she was standing on to use as a makeshift barrier. Kaito's kick connected with explosive force, shattering the ice pillar into a cascade of glittering snowflakes. With nothing to stand on, Eleanor began to fall.

She quickly created an ice slide on the ground below, using her falling momentum to launch herself. As she slid, she conjured another massive ice pillar, launching it into the air and controlling it to fly once more. She retaliated with countless ice lances, but Kaito easily evaded them.

As the chaotic aerial battle continued, Kaito noticed a growing sensation: he was having a harder time breathing. The air around him felt thin, compressed, almost stagnant. Without breaking his rhythm, he clapped his hands together, unleashing a silent wave of light. The air warped, and the oppressive feeling vanished as atmosphere returning to normal. Another bolt of lightning snapped at him, but he effortlessly weaved out of its path.

"Iris! Eleanor! Back away!" Ethan's voice echoed in the air. Ethan held up a single, iridescent colored feather in his hand. As he crushed it, it dissolved into a rapidly expanding stream of shimmering green light.

Immediately, a monstrous storm erupted directly in front of Kaito. It was a swirling maelstrom of raw, unfettered elemental power. Registering the sudden tempest as a real threat, Kaito leaped away, trying to gain distance. However, he was being sucked in regardless of how far he ran in the air. The sheer force of the storm's pull was irresistible.

Instead of fighting it, Kaito adapted. He used the circular momentum of the burgeoning tornado, maneuvering himself to be flung towards the three agents. He rapidly approached Ethan as his target.

But Eleanor intervened. With a surge of desperation, she tackled him with an ice pillar, ramming into him mid-air. The impact sent both Eleanor and Kaito tumbling wildly towards the tempest.

Though the storm wouldn't kill Kaito, he knew the same couldn't be said for Eleanor. In a split-second decision, Kaito grabbed her, pulling her close, and pushed his leg forcefully against a larger and more solid rectangular light panel. Using it as an anchor to divert their course. He propelled himself and Eleanor away from the direct, crushing path of the storm's center, but they were still caught up in its powerful circular orbit.

"Eleanor!" Ethan yelled, his voice laced with pure alarm as he watched them get catch up in the swirling chaos he created.

The two of them were rapidly flung towards an unintended direction. A grim, pulsing landmark on the horizon. The Hell Gate.

 ____________________

They were no longer in the mundane world. The air here was thick, heavy, smelling of ash and something strangely cold. They landed with a jarring thud on a landscape that defied earthly logic. Jagged, obsidian spires clawed at a sky the color of congealed blood. Twisted, skeletal trees writhed in a silent agony, their branches hung with unidentifiable, decaying forms. The ground beneath them was a strange, viscous blackness that seemed to ripple with unseen currents.

"So," Kaito stated, "this is Hell."

'Kaito, Tamamo's talisman is wearing off,' Durandal's urged. 'You should wear your mask. Your disguise is fading.'

Kaito acted instantly, pulling the faceless mask from his inventory and pressed it to his face.

Tamamo, no longer a choker around his neck, materialized beside him in her small form, her kitsune ears and nine tails now fully manifest and rippling with dark energy. Her eyes glowed with an almost ecstatic wildness. "The pure malice of the netherworld!" She exclaimed as a wicked laugh bubbling from her throat. "I can feel my power returning! Hahaha!"

Eleanor was on one knee, using her frozen rapier as a trembling support. Her blue eyes darting between Kaito and Tamamo. "Who... who are you people?" she demanded. "What is your role in all of this?"

Tamamo threw her head back, her wild laughter echoing through the alien landscape. "Hahaha! We are the harbingers of this world's destruction! We shall enslave worthless humans for our enjoyment as we reshape the world as we envision it! A new age of chaos and pleasure, carved from the pathetic remnants of your reality!"

A grim expression hardened Eleanor's face. Her grip on her rapier tightened.

"Ignore her," Kaito said quickly as he stepping forward. He gestured dismissively at Tamamo, who continued to cackle. "I'm a member of the Association, task with investigating the Hell Gate." He paused. "It just so happened that you caught me in the act."

Eleanor's gaze flickered between him and the still-cackling Tamamo, suspicion warring with bewilderment. "The Association? What's your goal in all of this? And what is this place?"

Kaito shrugged. "Who knows, the higher-ups never mentioned more than 'investigate the anomaly' to me. Beyond that, I'm just following orders." He then turned his attention to Tamamo. "Well, we should find a way out of here first of all. Any clues, Tamamo? This doesn't exactly look like a tourist-friendly."

Tamamo crossed her arms, a stubborn pout on her face, the last echoes of her maniacal laughter fading. "Why should I help you, human? The longer I'm here, the faster I will recover my strength. Soon enough, I'll be able to defeat you once and for all."

Kaito sighed. He knew how to play this. "Please?" he tried, using his most earnest voice. Tamamo didn't budge. He then shifted tactics. "I will give you unlimited access to the card for a whole week."

Tamamo's ears twitched. A thoughtful expression, warring with her innate pride, crossed her face. Finally, she sniffed haughtily. "Hmph. Very well. I will only help you just this once as you are my servant. But don't think this changes anything." She gestured around the desolate landscape. "The netherworld is a tricky place, full of shifting pathways and malevolent entities. However, if we ask around, we can eventually find the direction to escape."

"Ask around?" Kaito repeated, glancing at the shadowy, distorted figures that occasionally flitted in the distance. "Alright then, I guess. Lead the way."

'Kaito, Hell is notoriously difficult to navigate,' Durandal cautioned him. 'Its geography is fluid, shaped by the will of its rulers. My innate connection to Heaven allows me a degree of orientation even here. If you were to get lost, you could use my sword form as a pseudo-compass.'

Eleanor stood up, her gaze fixed on Kaito. "Why should I trust any of your words? Why should I follow you?"

Kaito scratched his masked face, turning back to Eleanor. "Well, it's your choice. You can stay here and be stuck, or you can come with us and try to leave. I won't stop you." He gestured vaguely at the terrifying landscape surrounding them. "Just be aware, this isn't Ohio anymore."

Eleanor kept a wary distance as she silently followed behind Kaito and Tamamo.

They traversed the desolate, ever-shifting landscape. The viscous black ground squelched underfoot, and the air grew heavier with unseen dread. Distorted whispers seemed to drift on the non-existent wind, and grotesque, half-formed shapes flickered in the periphery of Kaito's vision.

Ahead, a particularly dense cluster of skeletal trees seemed to writhe more violently than the others, and from their gnarled embrace, a shadowy figure detached itself. It was tall and gaunt, its form indistinct, like a mass of living smoke, yet Kaito could feel its malevolent gaze.

Tamamo strode confidently towards it. She began to speak in a language Kaito was unfamiliar with. The shadowy figure responded in kind. They exchanged what sounded like pleasantries, then the conversation grew more intense.

Suddenly, the shadowy figure stiffened, its form expanding, tendrils of darkness lashing out. Its guttural voice rose in a furious, inarticulate roar, and it lunged forward, claws of shadow extended.

Kaito stepped in front of Tamamo. Without hesitation, he punched out, his fist meeting the ephemeral form of the entity with surprising solidity. A ripple of force emanated from the impact, and the shadowy figure recoiled, its form momentarily breaking apart before reforming. It backed away, cowering, its shadowy limbs rising to shield itself. A high-pitched, chittering whine escaped it, a sound of submission.

'It's telling us that it would give us directions,' Durandal translated. 'Just don't hit him again. It says you hit quite hard.'

Kaito nodded, backing off the entity. "Alright, we won't hit you again. Just tell us how to get out of here."

The shadowy figure responded to in its strange clicking tongue, its form still trembling slightly.

'It said that the exit is just past the Dragon Bone Mountain,' Durandal relayed, 'and then to the left of the Soul Devouring Tree. But not too far, it warned, as to encounter the Overseer Monolith. And it stressed that we can't miss it.'

"Dragon Bone Mountain, Soul Devouring Tree, Overseer Monolith," Kaito mumbled, trying to commit the strange landmarks to memory. "Sounds specific enough. Let's go."

The group set off in the direction the subdued entity had provided, leaving the trembling shadow behind.

"How rude," Tamamo scoffed as they walked. "An inferior being such as that should have been honored to help me. Such insolence to attack its betters."

Kaito let out a weary sigh. Navigating Hell was one thing; navigating it with Tamamo's ego was another entirely.