BXBX NOVEL Chapter 182 34.5 Systems?
"I can\'t-"
"I\'ll do it!"
With Guidance\'s quick callout, Maruki came to the call as he blocked the staircase with his imposing body. Shade collided against the tank\'s shield, stopping him in his tracks as I prepared myself to subdue him.
"Move, Maruki," Shade growled, his rose dangerously flaring up in front of him. "The Princess is calling, and I will not be found wanting."
[*iaugsdigaCOMEijhbdfiuhuh89743849A*ASYuhdhiahwr*]
Another howl, another word. Whatever this thing was, it was using Shizu as a mouthpiece, and it was doing all it could to possibly separate us. Guidance was already typing another possible [Move] into her [Manifest], and hopefully, it was something that could restrain Shade if he wasn\'t going to snap out of this.
"Snap out of this, Shade!" Maruki called out, his light shining against Shade as he barred the way. "The Princess isn\'t calling for us!"
"Again. Move," Shade ground his teeth, hints of petals starting to swirl around him. "I don\'t want to-"
"[Bind]!"
Hearing Guidance\'s cast behind me, I quickly got out of the way as green chains shot out of her keyboard, latching onto Shade\'s feet and shackling him to the ground. The errant Somatic fell to the ground, his floating petals disappearing as he grumbled in pain.
"U-Unhand me, Lady Guidance!"
"That won\'t last forever!" the dev quickly yelled out. "Moriya! Shen!"
I nodded, "Got it!"
Moving swiftly, I placed myself on top of Shade, Shen promptly moving towards Shade\'s thrashing head. He was snarling now, his shackles straining as he struggled to break free.
"The Princess!" he yelled out. "She needs me!"
Feeling him buck beneath me, I pressed myself down even harder, making sure that his rose was right underneath me in an attempt to stop him from using it. I didn\'t think it would work, but it\'ll have to do for now.
"I-I don\'t know what to do!" Shen yelped out. "I-"
[*jusaghdiu7HELPy734t687^&*Aidyuh38SHEN8y498*(HSFsf*]
Another howl, and Shen stood as still as a rock as she stared down below the staircase. Her eyes were glazed over, her wrench glowing ominously against the darkness as she spoke.
"S-Shizu?!" Shen asked aloud in a panic. "She needs my help!"
Fvck me... The situation was getting from bad to worse! "Guidance?!"
"On it!" the dev called out. "[Bind!]"
Another set of chains shot forth, shackling Shen to the ground as the poor girl fell to the ground with a thud. We were down to three now, and we still didn\'t know how to snap the afflicted out of their spell.
"Unhand me, Moriya!"
"Shizu needs me!"
The two thrashed against the staircase, the chains holding them down thankfully preventing them from rolling down the staircase to their deaths. Meanwhile, Maruki, Guidance, and I were stuck trying to subdue them while also making sure that we won\'t freeze to death or get plunged into darkness.
"[Bind]!" Guidance called out, her fingers flying across her keyboard as she reapplied the chains on Shade\'s body. "They have a debuff on them, Moriya, Maruki, give me time to dispel them!"
"Got it!"
"Of course!"
[*uaghsfduUNHANDapo9ui97THEMy89a7sd7asd*]
Shizu\'s puppeteer kept on bringing in the pain as it howled at us, its screams starting to get to me as the urge to simply stand up and jump down began getting stronger and stronger inside me. I didn\'t know how I was going to hold onto sanity, but I bit my lip and powered through it as I kept Shade underneath my pin.
"[Dispell]!"
A green light buffeted the man beneath me, a sheen of light covering him before magically shattering into motes of light. Shade stopped struggling, a small breath coming out of his mouth as he relaxed.
"W-What happened to me?"
A tinge of relief quickly washed over me at Shade\'s return to clarity. It was good news, but we weren\'t done yet.
"[Dispell]!"
Another burst of Guidance\'s [Move] came out of her keyboard. This time, Shen was its recipient as she too relaxed against her chains.
"I... I.... Shizu?"
"There," Guidance let out a sigh of relief. "They\'re dispellable, at least. We can\'t let that thing keep doing that to us though. I can see the stacks of it starting to build up as well."
Stacks?
Standing up, I took a closer look at my HUD only to realize that I was already under a debuff as well.
[STATUS: CALLED(2): 30 SECONDS]
Judging by the way it was arranged, I could only assume that I currently had two stacks of this [CALLED] debuff. Hovering a finger over it, the description said that well... that I was being called...
[*shatter....*]
The sound of shattering chains pulled me out of my thinking as Shade and Shen were finally let go. Standing up, the two looked utterly confused, their eyes shimmering as they tried to process what just happened.
"T-That was... Shizu wanted my help..." Shen hauntingly whispered, her grip on her chest wavering as she shook where she stood. "I-I heard her..."
"That wasn\'t Shizu," I sighed, placing a hand on her shoulder for comfort. "We\'ll save her, okay? We just have to keep going."
"That... That bastard..." Shade ground out, his anger making his rose glow a deep red as he growled. "To dare use the Princess\'s voice to trick us..."
I let out a nervous sigh as I found myself looking further down. Somehow, it never seemed to end, even with our progress being relatively fast despite our caution. Even now, the world around us was devoid of light, the warmth and light from Guidance and Maruki respectively being the only things keeping us afloat at the moment. The stairs looked and sounded as dilapidated as always, and each step only made it feel like we were going in circles.
"Never mind that," I called out, snapping everyone back into place as they looked at me. "Is everyone okay?"
Guidance and Maruki gave out their respective nods. Shade and Shen weakly gave out theirs, and an unheard consensus seemed to form after that. It was now proven that this thing could make us turn against one another, and we had to watch our backs and see the signs... Also...
"Guidance, can you give everyone in here a [Dispell]?"
The dev clearly wanted to question the decision, but she nodded along anyway.
"[Dispell]"
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