After passing through the portal, I saw that the three members of the cunning hares were already dealing with the surrounding ethereal's.
Seeing this, I ran next to Billy, who was currently dodging two of them. One was using a street sign as a weapon, while the other had shield on both arms.
"Billy, switch!" I shouted while placing Belle on the ground, who then ran off to hide in some rubble.
"Good, I need time to reloade!" He said and gave a quick kick to the shielder, causing it to stumble back and exposing the black sphere.
Seeing the sphere, I fired a few shots, only for the ethereal to slam both arms closed, blocking the bullets.
Once it had regained its balance, it began to rush towards me, wanting to slam into me.
I dove to the side, dodging the ethereal and took the chance to aim at it from behind, shooting at the softer part of it.
As the bullets dug into the skin, it howled and turned towards me, slamming its two shields together, ready to charge at me.
"Not so fast!" It was kicked onto the ground by Billy, who pinned it onto the floor with his foot.
"Never turn your back on a starlight knight!" He raised one of his revolvers in the air, while the other was pointed at the black sphere.
With the ethereal defeated, the two of us rushed to where Anby and Nicole were at and saw the both of them were circling another ethereal.
"Anby, aim for the center!" Nicole ordered while distracting it with her suitcase, each shot landed on the thick armor protecting it, Anby herself was flanking it from behind.
"Billy, cover Anby, I got Nicole!" I shouted and began to run towards Nicole.
"W-wait, but you don't have armor!" Billy called out to me, but his attention was brought to the ethereal's that were about to surround Anby.
"Eros, just what the heck do you think you're doing?!" Nicole shouted at me, dodging a blow from the ethereal in front of her.
"Covering you, that's what!" I shouted back and fired a few bullets at an ethereal that was about to strike her from behind.
"Thank's, but I'm docking your payment!" I only reloaded my gun and fired a few more shots.
"I'm not even being paid!" I shouted back, Nicole then ran at me, her suitcase raised behind her and heading towards me.
I ducked down at the last second, only to hear the sound of bone cracking, and the scream of an ethereal.
Looking over my shoulder, an ethereal was now sprawled onto the floor, parts of the black rock littered the floor, and the sphere already damaged.
"I'm helping you find a home that's large enough to fit you and your sinners." Nicole humphed and tossed her hair behind her, only to look at her hand and gasp.
"What, are you hurt?" I asked her, she shook her hand and showed e her hand, only for me to see a chipped nail.
"M-my nail is chipped!" She wailed, crying only for her sadness to turn not rage, she spun around and pressed a button, summoning the strange canon once again.
"Get some you ugly bastards!" She screamed, the small ether ball began to form at the barrel.
"W-woah, boss, friendly fire! Friendly fire!" Billy shouted with Anby in his arm, who was slack and staring at Nicole.
As soon as they ran passed Nicole, she released the button, firing the minature black hole.
"Whew, barely made it." Billy sighed, placing Anby on her feet, seeing this, I was shocked, my jaw that was slack open was then closed by Billy.
"Whoops, can't have you eating an ethereal fly, even if they don't exist." Billy shrugged, the three of us then stared at Nicole, who was still screaming and firing.
"Is… this normal?" I asked Billy, he then turned to me.
"This? Oh definitely, you should have seen what she did to the last person who chipped her nail."
FLASHBACK 3RD POV
A man was kneeling on the floor, his face was pale and he was sweating buckets. Nicole herself was sitting on the hood of her car, one legs crossed over the other.
"So, what do you say?" She asked, filing her nail while staring at the man.
"I-I'm sorry for chipping your n-nail, a-and I'll give you t-ten thousand dennie's." He struggled to speak.
"That's right, and you'll bring it to me by tomorrow, or it's going up by ten percent for every minute your late!" She stomped her boot in front of the poor man.
Hearing this, the man's eyes rolled to the back of his head, and he was soon unconscious.
FLASHBACK END POV EROS
"The man's still trying to pay off the huge amount of debt, a darn shame." He said with his eyes closed, and his voice held pity.
"T-that's too petty, can't she just have the man pay for the amount she originally paid?" Anby then placed her hand on my shoulder, staring at me.
"You tell her then." Was all she said, I then turned to Nicole, who somehow had lifted a piece of rubble that was twice her size, and threw it at a groups of ethereal's.
"Hell hath no fury like a woman's scorn." I clasped my hands together, and prayed for the man's rest.
Both Billy and Anby soon did the same, and for a second, the three of us heard the sound of a man crying.
After Nicole had calmed down from her rage, she opened the suitcase, yes, you heard me. She opened her suit case.
She then pulled out a small make-up kit, lipgloss, eye lashes, and began to fix herself, using a hand held mirror.
I was about to ask them how this was working, but I was stopped when both Anby and Billy placed their hands on my shoulders.
"Don't ask, even we don't know." They both said in unison, I then sighed and decided to focus on the current situation.
"Belle, do you guys still have the coordinates, or did you lose them?" I asked her, Belle then came running to us, sliding in front us.
"Luckily, the hacker didn't touch much, only my hard drive." She said with sniffles. "It had my favorite collection of Astra Yao." She wiped her visor.
"Can you… you know." I was hesitant to ask her at first, but Belle didn't need me to explain.
"Yeah, let's go." She sighed and began to lead us once again, sure I would have led them, but there was one problem, I don't know the way out.
After running towards the coordination, I started to feel mania once again, only this time, it was starting to feel more dense.
"You three, do you feel it? I asked them, staring at where the feeling was coming from.
"Yeah, it's like something's holding me down." Billy said, his movements were slow, and I could see the lights in his eyes going dim.
"It's best if we pull back, you three have been here for too long." I suggested, but Nicole shook her head.
"No, no way are we pulling back, we've come this far, and I'm getting paid one way, or another." She exclaimed her hand forming a fist.
Seeing her like this, I didn't know wether to respect her to push on, or concerned that she was being desperate to be paid.
'Then again, I did venture in a world ending crisis.' I thought and remembered the black ring.
The four, well five, of us then arrived at the location, and on the floor was a small looking metallic box.
Behind it, were two large mania crystals, and inside, were two figures that I could recognize.
Seeing them, I sighed in relief that they were safe, the other three were more focused on the small box.
"Found it." Said Anby.
"It's our lucky day." Billy cheered and walked forward.
"My strong box!" Nicole smiled and began to walk forward as well, I on the other hand waked towards the two crystals.
Only to be pulled away from what looked like a large sword, and to no ones surprise, it was another ethereal.
"So, how confident are we to take it down?" I asked, Billy only looked at his revolvers.
"Uhhhh, leave a message after the tone?" He asked, the ethereal then roared at us, and ran forward.
As I took a closer look, I saw bits of bone and skin near the sphere, and what looked like hair on top.
"This one was human." I spoke aloud, Billy winced at my words, but didn't remove his gaze from the ethereal
"His name was Miguel, he was the leader to the red fang gang." Anby said, her blade leveled in front of her.
"I see, you three distract him, while I free my companions." Looked at the magazines I had left and grimace.
'Three left, better make each shot count.' I thought to myself, the ethereal then roared once more, and slammed their foot onto the ground, appearing in front of us.
Anby and Billy were able to jump back, Nicole however widened her eyes to see the speed, with how heavy the suitcase must been, she wouldn't have time to jump back.
Instead, she raised her suitcase and used it as a shield to block the blow, however, the force was strong enough to send her skidding to the side and fall on her knee.
"Billy, Anby distract it!" I shouted and ran to Nicoles side to help her stand, seeing me run towards Nicole, it took the chance to run towards me with its blade raised.
However, it was forced to protect itself from Billy, who was forcing each shot, while Anby herself tried to get in close to slice its arm.
Only for it to swing its blade on top of her, however, Anby parried the attack and spun her entire body, gaining momentum to slice at its stomach.
But her sword was met with the bladed arm, the two blades clashed against one another, one trying to over power while the other was trying to form itself forward.
In the end, the ethereal was able to push her back, swinging its blade and launching Anby next to Billy.
She planted her sword into the ground to stop her from sliding and ran forward once again.
Only this time, she sheathed her blade and focused on dodging, each time the ethereal tried to strike her, Anby would either dodge or be saved by Billy, who was providing covering fire.
"Nicole, are you alright?" I asked her while helping her up.
"I-I'm fine, this one isn't that strong." She tried to play it off, only to wince in pain, looking at her arm, I saw that it was bruising.
"Let me heal you." I didn't wait for her to answer me, I gently gripped my hand and began to heal her.
Seeing this, she stared at the bruise that was on her arm slowly shrink, once I had finished healing her, she stood up and grinned.
"Not bad, I'll make sure to find you a good place once our agreement is done." She said and ran to join Billy and Anby.
"Alright you two, keep it distracted while charge!" She ordered both Billy and Anby.
"You got it boss!" Billy shouted while circling the ethereal.
"Roger." Anby herself kept blocking the ethereal, or dodging its attacks, giving Nicole the time she needed.
"Eros, don't just stand there, go free your friends!" Nicole shouted at me, snapping me out of my stupor.
"R-right!" I began to run to my companions, ignoring the sounds of gunfire and the sound of metal clashing against metal.
'Hold on you two, I'm almost there!' I screamed within my mind, soon a shadow loomed over me.
Time slowed down as I looked back, seeing the ethereal behind me. It chose to chase after me, ignoring the cunning hares completely.
I saw the blade was about to strike me, about to slice me in half. Instead, I felt time start to slow down, the green blade falling towards me, the cunning hares all trying to reach for me, even Belle, who was hiding, stared at me with fear.
However, it was too late, the blade had struck me behind, sending me towards the wall and landing against it.
As I stared at the ground, I heard a loud high pitch ringing in my ears. My blood began to pool underneath me, the warmth was slowly leaving my body.
'Oh, I'm dying again.' I thought, my breathing was slowly becoming shallow, and everything was starting to go dark.
'No, I wont die like this.' I thought to myself, I slowly looked up to see the ethereal standing in front of me, its blade raised high, ready to strike me.
'I'm not going to die, not here, not now.' I slowly raised both my arms, forcing myself to touch the two crystal, and activating my shackles.
'I still need to save you two.' The sound of my heart began to overtake the ringing, my hands began to clench the crystals.
'Wake up.' The crystals began to form cracks all over, the mania that was once trapped inside, began to seep through them.
Slowly surrounding me, strengthening me, healing my wounds that I had sustained at a rapid pace.
'Wake up, I'm not leaving the two of you again, I'm not going to die and leave you alone!' The cracks began to grow bigger, and bigger.
"Destroy the ethereal." Was all I said, and both crystals shattered, bits and pieces began to drop, littering the ground with its blood red color.
"Roger, Chief. Hella, take the chief to a safe spot." Said a familiar voice, one that I had heard many times.
"Don't tell me what to do, I'll still take him to a safe spot though." Said Hella, who then lifted my body from the ground.
"Alright big guy, let's get you away from the splash zone." She said, before she began to run, I pointed to where Belle was.
"Take me there, then go support Hecate." I ordered her, hearing this, Hella soon did as I ordered and soon placed me next to Belle.
"Alright, good to have you back chief, now enjoy the show!" She said with a smile and reached behind her, pulling out her signature water pipe.
[Yes, this little gremlin used a water pipe, no guns, no bats, no swords or knives, just a regular ol' water pipe to smash and cause trauma!]
She then rushed towards the ethereal and raised it high, once she wound up her strike, she then clenched her hands and smiled.
Her eyes brimmed with life, and she then screamed, swinging it with all her might agaisnt the shield.
Causing not only to let out a large boom, but the shield itself cracked. This caused the cunning hares to stop, staring at the sight in shock.
"Heheh, is this thing that much of a threat? C'mon, c'mon, c'mon!" She shouted and began to swing her weapon once again.
Each blow was slowly pushing the ethereal back, leaving skid marks in its wake. Meanwhile, the three members stood still in shock, staring at Hella.
"Uhh, Eros, she… uh, is she always this strong." Billy asked, pointing at Hella.
"She is, and she's only in the b rank category." Both Nicole and Billy widened their eyes at what I said, staring at her, then back at me.
"S-she's only a b rank?" Nicole asked, her voice slowly rising in a higher pitch, I only sighed and continued to watch Hella laughing.
"Yup, Hecate herself on the other hand is an A-rank." The four of us then turned towards her, watching how she was ordering nightmare to fight.
The creature known as nightmare was flying around it, swinging its claws at its body, the ethereal tried to use its blade, swinging wildly at it, but with how agile nightmare is, it missed it every time.
"Hecate, Hella, bring it down." I ordered, my hand then began to glow white, and two orbs flew to each of them, entering their bodies and giving them a surge of energy.
"Got it!" Hella shouted and soon rushed forward, her speed doubled as she appeared behind the ethereal, striking both its leg.
As soon as she did, both legs were broken, preventing it from moving anymore. Hecate herself then stood in front of t, staring at the creature.
"Nightmare." Nightmare itself soon flew towards it, pushing the ethereal onto its back.
"Hella, take out its sword and shield!" Hella then dashed to the side with the sword, swinging her pipe as hard as she could, slamming the arm over and over.
Once the arm was rendered useless, Hella then jumped over both Nightmare and the ethereal, slamming her pipe on the arm once again.
"Hecate now!" I shouted, Hecate herself nodded, her focus still on the ethereal.
"You guys, fall back and hide!" Nightmare soon began to widen its jaw one again, it's singular eye began to glow brighter, and a high pitch screaming was heard.
The cunning hares then jumped behind the same rubble that me and Belle hid behind, and covered their ears.
The screaming then stopped, only for a purple beam to shoot in front of the eye, shooting through the ethereal, and melting thee ground underneath it.
After a few more minutes, nightmare stopped firing the beam, and the purple glow disappeared.
The five of us then peaked over the rubble, seeing the back of both Hecate and Hella.
"Enemy destroyed, chief, please give us new orders." Said Hecate, the five us then sighed, however, the peace and quiet didn't last long when we all heard Nicole squeal in delight.
"The strong box, the strong box, we finally got the strong box!" She was about to grab it, only for Belle to stop her.
"Sorry Nicole, but we got some bad news." Belle said and sat on the box.
"W-what do you mean bad news?" Nicole asked with fear in her voice, causing the rest of us to look at Belle in concern.
"When we got hacked, the route we had originally made was deleted, so we can't get out." Nicoles legs gave away, causing her eyes to go glossy.
"All that effort, and we're now trapped here, what's the point?" She asked, Billy himself was the same, even though we couldn't see his eyes, his body expressed his feelings.
"I didn't get to have a dinner with Monica, but it was a good life." e said with sadness.
"Uh, chief, what's up with them?" Hella asked me, staring at them with pity, I only sighed and turned my attention to her.
"We're in something called a hollow, it's like the black ring, but worse." Hearing this, she gripped her head and whined.
"Awww man, this is the worst, and here I thought we couldn't see his finally stay at the MBCC!" She shouted, Hecate on the other hand stayed neutral throughout the conversation.
"It does not matter, our objective stays the same, we protect the chief at all costs." She said, only for us to hear the sound of coughing.
"As I was saying, the man who hacked our system told us that inside this box is a file that could help us get in and out of the files, with ease." Hearing this, Nicole shot up to her feet, staring at Belle with stars in her eyes.
"However, I need your permission in order to use the file." She finished, she was about to explain, but was then cut off.
"Do it!" Hearing her accept the idea, caught us off guard, even Belle was surprised.
"Uhh, that's great and all, but the file belongs to the client, shouldn't you worry about them?" Belle asked.
"That doesn't matter, this is a life pier death situation, besides, you have the codes, right?" Belle could only sigh, and pressed the number pad.
Once the strong box was open, we could see the inside. The only thing that was inside, was a small chip, with red cushions to protect it.
"We won't know what the consequences will be if we try to access the fils in a forceful manner." She said, and pressed her forged, opening a data slot.
"I only have one question. Your real body is outside the hollow, so you wont have to face any difficulty, why help us?" Hearing Anby ask this, the air became tense.
"Because I'm a proxy, I promised to get you guys out." Belle said, her eyes closed, showing how happy she was feeling.
"Besides, if anything happens, the H.D.D system will post a rescue commission for you guys." She then inserted the data chip inside the slot, and all of us waited to see what would happen.
Belle soon turned into a large flash of white, forcing us to look away. After our eyes began to clear, the color of Belle's eyes was no longer green, blue.
"Belle, are you okay?" I asked, I didn't receive a reply, instead, Belle, or whoever it was, was leading us somewhere.
Only for it to stop and turn towards us, staring at us silently, waiting for us to follow them.
"Well, no time like the present, let's get going!" Nicole shouted, the six of us began to follow whoever was leading us, hoping for us to exit the hollow.
"It's good to see the both of you are okay." I said, Hecate only gave a subtle smile, while Hella only looked away, embarrassed.
"Y-yeah, good to see you too chief." Hella said, the three of us then stayed silent, following the person who took control of Eous.
[Alright, the story is now kicking it up a notch, now that chief has his two companions, or as the rest of the gods call them, 'their daughters', there's a timeline where the chief is female, don't ask, what'll happen next, which sinner will catch his eye, which one will find him, and when will the author let me be a part of the story?]
Not any time soon, mind you.
[Shut up, or I'll log you out again! Anyways, this is were we end the chapter, send them power rocks.]
Power stones.
[Yeah, power stones, whatever, to show support, Bye Bye!]