Chapter 10: Welcome to Harpocrates
Eleanor Deveena

Everything rang. Senses were distorted. A taste of copper spread through her mouth. Her mouth felt warm yet cold, fuzzy yet sharp. Contrasting feelings.

Everything was a paradox. Nothing made sense. Images fumbled in and out of focus. Ringing in her ears. Her head felt like a drum beating over and over again.

Time held no meaning.

Boom. Boom. Boom.

Her fingers dug into her thigh. The pain finally grounded her back to reality when she felt something squish against her generous bosom. Looking down, she saw locks of black and silver hair below her chin, draped over her chest.

For a moment she smiled as she gazed over softly at Veronica’s sleeping form. Veronica’s ponytail had been unraveled; hair fell generously below her shoulders. 

The way Veronica held tightly to her made her think that maybe she wasn’t just a hardass. The way the exotic-haired girl looked over her in worry back at the Vadstena made her think that maybe Veronica just had a bit of a difficult time expressing herself.

Either that or she just held on to dear life. 

Eleanor liked to think it was the former.

Sitting up against a boulder, Eleanor adjusted her exposed back against the hard surface; the additional weight on her didn’t help much as she raised herself up from the strangely soft ground.

She gently (but forcefully) pried Veronica off of her (ouch her grip was tight!). Veronica’s head gracefully landed on Eleanor’s shoulder, still sleeping. Eleanor rolled her eyes, a bit annoyed, when she suddenly felt a breeze skimming across her breasts.

Eep! Eleanor’s coat was in shambles, her black undershirt was gone, and her red lace bra was reduced to practically a single piece of cloth that hung loosely on top of her cleavage.

Quickly covering up her breasts with her free arm with a yelp, her eyes darted back and forth to see if she could find any clothing. Veronica’s coat was also a no-go as it was torn to shreds, but at least her shirt was still intact. Lucky her, Eleanor thought, ticked off.

Reluctantly, she tied what remained of her coat to her breasts like a makeshift bra; not what she would’ve liked. The remainder of the coat as a bra was uncomfortable and proved to have no real support. It was also a pain to tie it when a certain sleeping girl was resting on her shoulder.

But it’d have to do for now. Hopefully, if Elsie was still aliv-no, when Elsie shows up, Eleanor would take her coat. 

Eleanor groped around for her wand, but all she found was sand. Sand? 

She found herself on a beach. The Vadstena, strangely enough, was behind her and in one piece, as if the attack had never happened. The waves of the beach were calm and subtle, unlike the charged waters back at the siren attack.

There was a massive congregation of silver-tinted buildings in front of her. Was she right next to the Harpocrates Caverns?

This whole confusing situation made her more desperate to find her wand, but her gut told her she wouldn’t find it.

Reminiscing, she found herself thinking back of her times in the Academy. 

“C’mon, Eleanor. You should really head to the gym sometime,” Elsie, in a white sports bra and black shorts, stretched her legs, smirking as Eleanor gasped for breath. They ran for five minutes before the redhead felt her lungs on the verge of collapse. 

“I….don’t need to!” Attempting to straighten her breathing, her stubborn streak continued, “I’m...great at magic! Just gimme a wand….and I’m good!”

“Yeaaaah, and what if you don’t have your wand? Huh?” She grasped Eleanor’s sides, pulling the soft skin from over the clothes, tickling the mage. Frowning, Eleanor tried to pull away. “Sure, wands are hella helpful, but when a mage doesn’t have their wand, or something similar, their mana productivity plummets.”

“T-then,” successfully pulling away from Elsie’s grubby hands, Eleanor pointed, “What about you?! You hardly ever use a wand. It’s all just mana martial arts with you.”

“I’ll admit,” Elsie smiled, “We have the exact opposite problem, but at least I’m smart enough to admit it!” 

An angry vein popped from Eleanor’s forehead. Biting her lip, the redhead shrieked, “You goblin!”

Trying to prove Elsie wrong, she tried to form a water ball without her wand to splash Elsie, only for it to fall straight to her feet. 

Her raven-haired friend burst out laughing. “Pfffft hahahaha! For you, trying to use magic without a wand is like trying to ride a unicycle when all you’ve ridden your entire life is a tricycle! Buahahahaha!”

Eleanor looked like a very angry kitten that day.

She smiled at the memory, but now Eleanor realized she had a new problem. Without her wand, she could barely focus her magic to use the more complex spells. 

For a bit, Eleanor thought about borrowing Veronica’s wand, but she’d just be shoving the problem to someone else. 

She thought back to EE-Thirty’s gauntlets. Those were mana conductors too. Maybe I could ask to borrow one?

She just needed to find EE-Thirty. Wherever she was.

If I had been completely alone, I definitely would have been freaking out a lot more, Eleanor thought. 

Thinking fast, Eleanor decided she needed information first. They were quite possibly already next to the Harpocrates Caverns. The Vadstena was intact but inaccessible as the ladder was currently folded. Most of her crew was missing.

Those massive stained silver buildings that reached up to the sky intimidated her. As if on cue, Veronica stirred, pulling Eleanor’s attention away from the structures. A bit of drool connected her lips to Eleanor’s shoulder. A confused Veronica stared at the naked patch of skin in front of her for a few seconds when she realized it was Eleanor’s shoulder.

She had been drooling on Eleanor’s shoulder for who knows how long.

Flustered, Veronica wiped the drool off her lips with her undershirt. Eleanor saw the barest hint of abs before turning away. “Are you fully awake now?”

“Huh?” Veronica let out a dumb voice uncharacteristic of her, “Oh, yes, I am.” She went back to her flat tone of voice, like the one she adopted back at the Academy, or at least tried to, but her voice cracked. “Where are we?” Veronica asked, taking stock of her surroundings. She was even more confused than Eleanor was at this point. Her jaw dropped when she saw the Vadstena in one piece. 

“I think we’re right by the Harpocrates Caverns. Those buildings have runes of demonic origin,” Eleanor replied, pointing at the red runes pulsating through the silver walls of each building. 

Veronica raised an eyebrow, a mixture of doubt and suspicion evident in her face. Her silver-black eyebrows twitched in slight disbelief. “For a declared and abandoned Red Zone site, these buildings look oddly well-maintained,” Veronica stated. “I can hardly believe it if it wasn’t for the demonic runes.”

While Veronica spoke to her, Eleanor raised herself up and dusted the sand off of her pants (or at least what remained of them) and stretched. She caught a glimpse of Veronica turning away before fiddling with her travel bag. After searching in it for a good two minutes, Veronica grunted, frustrated. 

“C-couldn’t find your wand?” Eleanor squeaked out. She was hoping that wasn’t the case.

Distressed, Veronica could only nod. Harsh reality dawned on Eleanor and all she could do was slap her head. “Agh, why couldn’t everything just turn out okay for once!” She started ruffling her own curly red hair, distressed at how everything turned out. “One of my biggest dreams came true only for it to come crashing down! Gah!”

“Now who knows if everyone else is still alive! I don’t see anyone but us two here!”

“We’re just so screwed!”

Eleanor just had it with these turn of events. “And those eerie buildings are totally inviting us in! Totally! We won’t have a choice but to go in!”

“Elsie might be dead!”

Panic squeezed her heart. She felt its claws stretch through her veins, blood, and mind. Eleanor couldn’t think straight. A jackhammer pounded in her chest.

Couldn’t breathe. Her head hurt. Breathing was painful, like forcing air through tiny pipes. 

Elsie, her best friend, dead. Dead, gone, in the dirt. Rotting, eaten by worms. Larvae. She felt them crawling along her skin, digging into her blood vessels. Eaten alive, consumed from the inside. The sparrow in her chest -

I’m going to die! I’m going to…

A pair of warm hands rested against her tummy. Strands of black and silver hair tickled the side of her neck. Someone wrapped their arms around her, hugging her from behind. She felt a hand pet her frizzled crimson-colored hair. 

The thundering jackhammer in her chest slowly wilted to a halt. The cold sweat that ran down her neck and back was gone. 

As if sensing Eleanor’s easing mood, Veronica tightened her hug, her nose deep in Eleanor’s curly hair. “It’s alright. We’ll find her. We’ll find all of them. They’re fine. We’ll find them.”

“Mn.” 

“We’ll find them.”

The girls silently linked arms, their feet headed to the silent silver buildings clad in red runes. 

Welcome to Harpocrates Caverns.

Enjoy your stay.