64 Awakening Part 1 (1/2)

Since the shadow decided to accompany Akira, the crystal eye was left behind as it wasn't truly apart of the shadow. Ryuji, being who he was, leaned down to pick up the crystal eye and said, \”Well, that was easy.\”

Ann rolled her eyes at him, \”Yeah, spending a couple minutes to convince her to join us was just sooooo easy.\”

Everyone chuckled when Ryuji seemed to take a hit from Ann's words. He ended up sulking for a while but Axel quickly got everyone back on track as they run to the statue.

The moment Ryuji slammed the crystal eye into the statues socket, a loud cranking sound rang out as some sort of mechanism came to a stop.

A relieved sigh came from Axel's mouth as he looked forward. A normal path way now stood before them. However, it was only a normal pathway if you ignored the 10 giant guillotines that now rested on either side.

Halfway through the pathway was a chest. Axel wasn't very interested in it but everyone else? Ryuji and Morgana dashed towards the chest, pushing each other out of the way while arguing like cats and dogs.

Akira seemed to want to open the chest as well while Ann was just confused. She tapped Axel's shoulder a couple times and whispered, \”Hey Axel? Why is there a chest over there?\”

\”I… honestly don't know. I'd say it was laid out by Kamoshida but… he's a douche so don't count on it.\” Axel replied.

After the chest fiasco, the group continued forward. However, the moment they entered the room, everyone stalled as Ryuji roared, \”The hell is this!?\”

Though they didn't vocalize it, the rest of the group agreed with Ryuji's exclamation. The room infront of the was lit up by a dim pink light as statues of… female bodies wearing bloomers littered the room.

What really shocked them was how many there were. Everywhere you looked, there would be at least one statue just sitting there.

Ann visibly recoiled at the sight. Before they enetered the palace, Axel and Morgana had given her a quick rundown on what a palace was.

That meant she knew that the palace reflected what was going on inside Kamoshida's mind, and it seemed to be filled with perverted thoughts.

Axel moved forward and gently hugged Ann. She jumped a little when Axel hugged her but she could feel the warmth from his touch and quickly moved closer as a feeling of safety washed over her.

It's funny how safe she felt just by sitting in Axel's arm, like nothing in the world could hurt her as long as he was there.

Once the group regained their barrings, they slowly made their way forward. This time, however, everyone noticed a very obvious difference between this area and the others.

There were no shadows. Everywhere they looked appeared to be shadow free. This didn't mean that the group would lower their guard. Instead, the chose to be even more cautious.

Akira, Ryuji and Morgana scouted forward together, reasoning that the area was way to quiet and peaceful for it to be actually safe.

And it was lucky they did. Almost as soon as they returned from scouting, a drastic change happened as the atmosphere became chaotic.

Shadows fell from the roof in what seemed to be a semi-liquid state before reforming into slime-like creatures.

\”An ambush…\” Muttered Axel. He quickly summoned Gemini while simultaneously moving to defend Ann.

Once the battle started, Axel stayed back and buffed the others while Akira, Ryuji and Morgana went to town. It actually impressed him with how quickly Akira and Ryuji learned to fight.

Akira's fighting style made him seemed like he was dancing, weaving through the shadows alongside Arsene. Wherever the pair went, a few shadows fell behind them.

Ryuji, on the other hand, was the complete opposite of Akira. While Akira seemed like he was dancing, Ryuji fought in a rough yet effective way. Brutal hits, attacking from the shadow's blindspots, Ryuji did whatever it took to win. Hell, even Captain Kidd fought dirty.

Morgana, the only member that didn't need training, fought like the embodiment of the saying, 'Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.' He used his small size and agility to his advantage, dodging strike after strike while simultaneously having Zorro impale the shadows.

A feeling of pride welled up inside Axel's chest as he watched the group fight. He easily deflected the shadows that came to attack him when he felt a sudden push from behind, followed by the sound of something heavily smashing against the floor.

Axel quickly regained balance as he snapped backwards and froze. A giant suit of living armour stood by as it's sword impaled the ground where Axel stood. However, that's not what made Axel freeze.

In it's arms lay Ann, crying as blood ran down her forehead. An unholy roar of anger bellowed out from Axel's mouth as shot forward. Without thinking, Axel wailed against the helm of the living armour.