AN: *insert Fanfare 1 from Chrono Trigger* I'm back! Sorry for the wait y'all, I had to get a new computer...old one killed itself. I'm here, and ready for this story to continue! Thanks for being patient everybody. Glad to return, so...ENJOY.

ARC Seven: Quest of Sand and Memories

Chapter Fifty Four: High-Pressure

Batman gazed around his surroundings as he attempted to find out what had happened.

"Where is this?"

"Batman-san!"

Batman turned around to see Emilia, Julius, Pamela, Beatrice and Meili running to him in a hurry. While he was glad to see them safe and sound, he was still quite worried that he didn't see the others with them.

"Emilia!"

"Are you okay? You're not hurt?"

"I'm fine, and yourselves?"

"We're doing just fine, but…."

Emilia seemed understandably worried about the others who got separated, but a quick hand to her shoulder from Batman seemed to ease her. Batman patted off some dust out of his suit and simply jumped on top of the carriage to retrieve his belongings. Julius seemed to be quite troubled with the fact that they were all now split up.

"Batman, it concerns me that the others are nowhere in sight."

"It should be fine, that spell we saw earlier was simply a dimensional teleportation one, I've seen Beatrice use something similar."

"So that means, they're here somewhere?

"Yeah, we just have to find out, where."

Batman opened one of the metal boxes, white mist coming out of it. Batman took a breath and began putting on his Justice Armor.

"Meili, do you sense any Ma-Beasts?"

"Hmmmm…Not really, I really think we're the only ones here in this area."

"That's something I counted on, but we're going to have to move out and meet with the others."

"So will that suit help?"

As soon as she said that, Batman activated his jet boots and flew high into the air, he flew around for a bit of time as he tried to confirm it.

"We're underneath the desert."

Batman flew back down at where the others were waiting. He then motioned to the path ahead of them.

"We got only one way to go, and that's forward. There's nothing behind us, so we've only got that going for us."

"But Batman-san…are you sure we can meet with the others?"

"It's the only choice we got, Emilia."

Emilia nodded but looked over and saw a quite despondent Beatrice. The little spirit was then patted on her shoulder by a Pamela, who was doing her best to comfort her troubled mind.

"Not to worry Beatrice, we just have to trust we can meet with the rest of them. Okay?"

"…Yes, my partner wouldn't fall so easily, I suppose."

"Yup! Subaru is a tough one."

Pamela chuckled alongside Beatrice from the little banter. Batman nodded his head and they began making their way down the path.

It had been several minutes since they made it down the path. Everyone was on high alert trying to make sure nothing was sketchy. Emilia and the others sat in the carriage with Rem, making sure to protect her at all costs. Batman was ahead of them in the air, scanning the area in case of a surprise attack. That's when he stopped mid-air, making Julius pull the carriage to a halt immediately. Batman landed quickly ahead of them all in a defensive manner.

Julius leaped down from the driver seat and unsheathed his sword.

"Everyone! Stay inside the carriage!"

Julius raced off to meet with Batman….as he was staring face to face with a cloaked figure.

He quickly pointed his sword at the assailant.

"Who are you?!"

"..."

"Answer my question!"

"…You…smell funny…"

The cloaked figure stared at Batman as he landed next to Julius, even going as far as to tilt their head out of curiosity.

"…The magic…I smell in you…is not familiar?"

"….Beatrice told me something like that before."

"...?"

"Now please answer the question, who are you?!"

The cloaked figure stepped forward and Batman could have sworn he saw a smile underneath the hood.

Subaru and his team looked at the two pathways. When Subaru looked to his left, he could hear strange noises coming from it. Like air escaping from a loose pipe, it made him quite uncomfortable.

"Barusu."

Subaru snapped out of it as Ram struck him on his back. She gave her usual displeased expression.

"Barusu, I suggest we take the left path."

"Huh? How come?"

Anastasia walked over and pointed at the dark corridor that was the right side. It had a sickening aura that made even the noble dragon Patrasche tremble.

"Ram is right you know? That path seems to give me the creeps."

"Well…I guess she has a point."

It was never said, but Subaru didn't just want to go down the left path…he needed to. Inside his soul, he was yearning to go towards the other way. He felt his heart being crushed that he couldn't go…but he also felt it was for the best of everyone there. Deathstroke then smacked Subaru's back and looked down at the young man.

"Your damn straight we're going to the left fork. The right isn't an option."

"Because of that ominous feeling?"

Deathstroke got close to Subaru, staring eye to eye with him, he then stuck a finger to his face in an almost mocking manner.

"Isn't the fucking Witch of Envy buried here?"

"Well, sealed…but more or less."

"Alright, and didn't you say too much of her miasma could lead to everyone going fucking crazy and try to kill each other?"

"…Yeah."

Deathstroke kept his eyes on Subaru as he moved his finger away from his face and pointed to the opposite path.

"So tell me Subaru…if we went down that path, how do you think it'll end for all of us?"

Subaru could catch on to the malicious intent in his voice, so he made an annoyed expression as he looked away from him.

"Yeah…you'd probably kill us all and end up dying from the miasma."

"…Okay then. So I'd rather not waste time killing you guys and end up dying as a drooling slob. So-!"

Deathstroke stood straight once again and pointed to the left path.

"-Left it is?"

"Haaahhhhhh, yup, left it is."

Deathstroke then nodded as he motioned to Subaru, who could only give a wry smile, letting the young man lead the charge.

Ram went close to Deathstroke, seemingly leering at him.

"Slade-sama, I hope you were just fibbing with the statement about the other path."

"…Come on Red-head, you know I hardly joke about things involving death."

"So you were thinking of easily killing us?"

"Nah, it was more than that."

Ram seemed to raise her brows, not understanding what he meant. Then she came to her own conclusion about it.

"So…it was money. You didn't want your contract to end."

"What can I say, you guys get me into all sorts of interesting dilemmas. Just that and that, alone."

Deathstroke chuckled at that point, making Ram take a deep breath as she and the others continued down the path.

They continued traversing down the rocky trail, eventually finding the atmosphere still oppressing as ever. Subaru was cautious of his surroundings, keeping his hand on his whip at all times. Deathstroke observed the cave walls, surmising that something had built them quite long ago. Ram was keeping guard while riding Patrashce along with Anastasia.

Eventually, they reached a rather large cavern system, with several large holes that most likely lead to death.

"How deep do you all think those lead to?"

"I don't know Barusu, why don't you jump in and find out?"

"Uhhhhh, no! I'm not that stupid you know?!"

"…It seems you aren't that much of a disappointment after all."

"Please stop, your words sting!"

Just then, a large booming sound came out of one of the large holes. As they all turned to look…a large hand emerged.

"…!"

With it, a gigantic horn browsed around, then the rest of it's body came out too. It's head was just the horn, no eyes, or nose, it's mouth went down from it's chest down to it's stomach and the fur on it's back was on fire.

It growled as it suddenly turned its body to face Subaru and the others.

It then took a deep breath and…

"-RAM! SHIELD!"

Deathstroke and Ram rushed forward in front of the others, just as the Ma-beast spat out a huge fire from it's mouth.

"AL FULA!"

A large sphere of immense wind surrounded the group, as the two of them used their wind magic to push the fire around them. Deathstroke then motioned to Subaru.

"Subaru grab my electric staff! Hit him with it!"

"A-Alright!"

Subaru quickly ran over and retrieved the staff from it's pouch. He then aimed the tip of it at the Ma-beast.

"Eat this!"

He pushed the button, sending a bolt of electricity to hit the monster, it screamed in pain and covered it's mouth. With the fired stopped, Ram and Deathstroke went on the offensive.

"El Fula!"

They fired wind blades at the beast successfully cutting off the horn head it had, as well as one of its arms.

Deathstroke then got his staff back and ran up the its leg and jammed the staff into its hip, sending countless volts of electricity coursing through its body. Subaru then ran with all his might, feeling nothing but rage and anger at this Ma-beast. For it trying to kill them, for stopping them down their path…and hatred for stopping him from seeing Emilia and Rem.

"Invisible Providence!"

An Unseen Hand bursted out of his chest and struck the creature on the side of its horn, making it lose balance. The beast slammed its fists on the ground, making the floor crumble. Pieces of the ground were then sent flying towards them, but Subaru used his whip to grab onto to Anastasia and pull her to safety. Patrasche easily carried Ram away and dodged the debris.

Deathstroke now used his sword, as he actually ran up its fiery back and sliced away at it. The Ma-beast roared loudly as it was now flying into a rage.

It tried to fall backwards and crush Deathstroke on its back. He saw through this and actually pierced right through the chest, coming out the other side. Patrasche then used her powerful tail to trip the Ma-beast. Subaru then launched several of his fire throwing stars to blast apart the monsters feet. Deathstroke then immediately cut its remaining horn head in half.

He rolled on the ground as he was helped up Subaru.

"Damn. That was the fucking worst huh?"

"Yeah, what kind of Ma-beast was that?"

They glanced over at it and could only wonder about its existence.

"Looks kind of like a…what were they again? Minotaurs?"

"Ugh, a real messed up one to be fair."

Anastasia, Patrasche and Ram gave sour looks to the two men, as if to tell them to take things more seriously.

"Barusu! Slade-sama! If you two are done with your silly assessments I think-"

The Ma-beast suddenly sat up.

It's arm, horn and all of it's other injury were slowly beginning to heal over.

"Of course it has a fuckin' healing factor!"

"This bad! Slade-sensei, you got anything to-"

Deathstroke then ran past Subaru as he then jumped off the path. He then stabbed his sword onto the cavern wall and balanced himself on the sword. He then aimed his palms at the beast that turned its body to face him.

"Wind Spell: Killing Torrent."

A large tornado fired out of his palms and struck at the Ma-beast, pushing its body to the ground. Deathstroke then stopped, as Subaru ran forward and used some water throwing stars to freeze its hands and feet in place. The Ma-beast roared wildly as it tried its best to free itself. Deasthsroke then grabbed onto his sword hilt and kicked the wall slightly as he was now…running across the wall.

The Ma-beast freed itself and shot another fire breath at him, only for him to quickly get his body closer to the wall, avoiding most of the damage. He then stabbed the sword again to the wall and balance himself on it. He then aimed his semi-automatic rifle at the monster, firing away at it. The Ma-beast grabbed a piece of stalagmite and tossed it at him. It missed, as Deathstroke was now once again, running up the sides of the wall.

Subaru turned to Ram and gave her a simple suggestion.

"Ram, listen I need for you to do something!"

"What now?!"

"Listen…"

After giving her the suggestion, she simply stared at him, dumbfounded.

"What the hell are you asking me to do Barusu?!"

"Just do it! I need you to trust me on this!"

Ram gave it a few seconds of thought, but when she saw that the Ma-beast was shooting more fire at Deathstroke, she relented.

"Do not regret this Barusu!"

"O-Okay!"

Subaru swallowed his breath nervously…as Ram was readying her kick.

"Revenge Counter!"

Ram kicked Subaru's side, so badly that he felt a few of his ribs crack under the impact. Just as he spat out a bit of blood, Ram had a guilt ridden look on her face. She quickly caught him before he fell to the ground. Anastasia ran over looking at her with a confused look.

"What are you two doing?!"

"Barusu told me to! He said that-"

Just then they heard the Ma-beast roar, they looked back to see it was clutching its side in pain.

"…!"

"Ow! Guess it worked out huh?"

Ram looked down at Subaru in utter surprise.

"What did you do?"

"Revenge Counter. It's a tricky move, and sadly, I can only do it to someone once."

"Once?"

"Yeah, any damage I get, no matter how bad, I can share it with one person nearby. The crappy thing is, I can do it that same person only once. So…yeah, it's a bit of a tricky trump card."

The Ma-beast roared with such a might, that the entire cavern was shaking. Deathstroke saw his chance and grabbed something from his belt. He then used wind magic to shoot down…right into the mouth of the monster. Everyone could only gasp at seeing him do this.

The Ma-beast then turned its attention to the others slowly breathing as it made its way. Ram furrowed her brows at the monster, Patrasche stood in front of all of them, possibly intending to fight it.

The Ma-beast then clutched its stomach and began gagging and coughing. Then, an explosion broke through its abdomen, sending blood, intestines, and even stomach acid to the floor. Emerging from some of the intestines was Deathstroke, covered in blood. Steam from the stomach acid and the warm bile was covering his body.

"Um…could help me kill it already?"

Subaru took the initiative and tossed more of his throwing stars to further blast apart its gaping wound. Ram then used a wind blade to actually split open its heart. Anastasia fired a beam from her finger to shoot open its neck. Patracshe then tackled a stone at the Ma-beast, busting open its knee. Deathstroke then ran up the badly injured monsters body, and then focused with all his might in getting all the mana he could to activate his ultimate move. As he was now in the air above the heavily injured Ma-beast, he got his sword ready.

"Sword Art: God Killing Severance."

He then shot down and completely sliced the Ma-beast in half. Deathstroke leered up at the monster as it began to split apart and roar back at him.

"Yeah, yeah. Fuck you too."

The two halves fell down adjacent holes, the fire from its own back actually working against it now, setting the body parts on fire.

Deathstroke sat on the ground as Subaru also joined him.

"Haahhhhh…I really hope we don't run into more of these things."

"If we do, I'll make sure we do the same plan again."

"Hell no! We almost died from it!"

Just then, a large beam shot down and made the very floor crumble away. Subaru watched as the light simply took up his sight and he then lost consciousness.

Subaru's eyes opened as he saw that he was in the dark void. He looked to his right and saw Petelgeuse and Regulus, smiling at him.

Then to his left, he saw Roy and Sirius, nodding their heads at him.

He walked past them as he could see someone in the dark void…it was Satella.

"I love you…Subaru…"

"Sa-Satella..."

Satella walked out of the void and smiled at him, her voice made his heart beat faster than normal.

"I love you…I care for you…and I will wait for you…."

"...!"

"And soon…you'll learn everything…and HE will bring us closer together."

"...Wait!"

"Until then, take care…my love, my F-"

With that, his mind was tossed out of the void.

"Subaru?"

Subaru awoke to Beatrice sitting next to him in a large white room. He looked around was glad to see everyone was now together. Beatrice assured him everyone, including Deathstroke was healed.

"But how did we get here?"

"Simple…that person brought us, I suppose."

She pointed over at a dark cloaked figure that turned around to face them.

Batman was walking over next to Subaru ready for anything to happen. Julius was standing by Anastasia and Ram, who were taking care of Rem. Pamela stood next to Deathstroke who were both guarding Meili.

The cloaked figure removed their hood. Underneath was a lovely girl with dark green eyes and blackish brown hair, tied together to look almost like a scorpion tail.

She took a glance at the party, when she noticed Subaru. She put on a huge smile and rushed over…embracing him in a huge hug.

"Huuuhhhhhh?!"

"SENSEI! You've finally come back!"

Even the stoic Batman was taken aback by her attitude, he even got see that the girl was…barely wearing anything at all. Just a simple black bikini and green hot pants. Batman happened to glance over and saw the others.

Emilia was pouting.

Beatrice was annoyed.

Ram just gave a disgusted expression.

Julius and Anastatia squinted their eyes at him.

Patrasche seemed to be growling a bit, at the mysterious girl.

Meili and Deathstroke shook their heads at Subaru, as if they were unsure of what to think of him.

Batman gave a deep sigh as he walked over to them.

"Excuse me, but I think we have some things to talk about…could you let him go already?"

"HUH?! No way! I'm letting go no matter what!"

She hugged the poor guy tighter, her pretty big chest crushing his own. Hardly able to breath, Subaru could barely turn his head…even as Emilia got a sprinting start and used a textbook spinning kick on his side. The young man blasted away out of the girl's arms, as she looked over and saw his body crash into the white wall nearby.

Ram nodded in agreement, while Deathstroke and Meili were having a good laugh about the whole ordeal.

Julius was quite disappointed with the entire situation, matching Beatrice's reaction as he lowered his shoulders.

Emilia looked over at Subaru with a sour look, keeping her thoughts to herself.

"He never lets ME hug him like that."

And in the corner of Batman's mind he imagined Rem slightly smiling.

The girl ran over and dragged Subaru by his sleeve as she panicked.

"Wahhhh! Sensei! He's dead! Is he dead?! Oh maaaan he's dead!"

"Please, leave the boy alone…all of you."

Everyone took a seat on the ground as they spoke more clearly with the strange girl…who insisted she seat with Subaru in the middle.

Subaru and Batman were unsure of what to make of the girl. She seemed to be quite capable in her feat of dragging away Subaru like a piece of cloth, but she didn't seem hostile to them in the slightest.

"So, want to introduce yourself by chance?"

"Oh! Yeah, yeah, I should introduce myself to the others! That's kind of odd of me right?!"

She seemed to laugh it off, but the way she was listening to Subaru so intently was making even Deathstroke suspicious of the situation. She bowed her head slightly and winked at them.

"The name is Shaula. I'm the protector of the Watchtower."

Everyone was stunned to realize it. The person they were staring at, this young lady who seemed a bit too cheerful…was actually the Sage of the Pleaidaes Watchtower. Emilia almost flew back hearing this.

"You?! You're Shaula?"

"Welllll, yeah. I mean, I may be a sage and all, but I'm not as powerful as sensei."

"Sensei?"

Batman looked over at Subaru who could shrug his shoulders.

"You called Subaru, your sensei. Do you think he's-"

"-Um, well his smell led me to believe he was ya know? He has a very unique smell."

"…I see."

Subaru and Batman took quick glances to one another, the fact that she said she could smell Subaru, made the two of them a tad nervous. Shaula tilted her head slightly at the two sitting across from her.

"Um, forgive me for asking sensei…but that guy sitting next to you, just who is he?"

"Hm? Oh, Batman-san is one of my best friends. But why do-"

"-Where is he from?"

Subaru gave a wry smile, but he noticed that she was narrowing her eyes at the man, making him drop his smile.

"Why, are you asking this?"

"….His smell. It's not normal, like, everyone else's own smells. But his is…mixed up, you know?"

Batman then placed a palm on his chin as he stared at Shaula.

"So you can smell those magic properties too?"

"Well, I shouldn't be delving into it so much, but it is odd. Strange even! I'll just leave it like that, if sensei says you're trustworthy, then I'll believe him."

She nodded with a determined aura, making Batman relax and Deathstroke slowly sheath back his sword.

"Again, you're Shaula, but from what you seem to be referring to…you are not the Sage."

"…Nope, my sensei is, I'm just the apprentice made to watch this tower."

"And the only person I have read about being referred to as the Sage, would be Flugel, am I correct?"

"Yup."

Julius and Emilia couldn't contain the shock that while Shaula wasn't actually the sage they were looking for, but that the great Flugel trained her. One of the three beings that helped seal away Satella. They all had to wonder if she even knew how to reverse the Authority of Gluttony and Lust at all.

How long was she here for?

Did she even know about the Witch's Cult?

Emilia put her hand up to ask a question.

"So is there anything we need to know before we go forward Shaula-san?"

"Hmmmm…well okay let's talk about the tower then?"

"Yes please."

Shaula got up and patted away some sand from her knees, she then happily pointed her finger up.

"Right now we're all under the tower in the sixth layer Asterope.

The fifth layer, Celaeno is the ground floor.

The fourth layer is Alcyone.

Then it's Taygeta.

After that, it's Electra.

And after all that, the first level is Maia."

Everyone listened intently. Batman and Subaru whispered a few comments to each other.

"Subaru."

"Yeah, this is…"

"The tower, the floors, they're all named after star constellations."

"Yeah, and didn't we learn a year ago that no one here knows anything about that?"

"Correct, something…just is off about all this."

Shalua continued her explanation.

"While the other floors you can simply walk through, Taygeta and every level above that is a trail room. You have to complete each task there in order to advance. After that, you can enter the library."

Subaru and the others slowly got up from the floor and looked at their situation, while they made it to the tower, they still had a few challenges awaiting them.

Shaula ran past them, and picked up the ground dragon and the carriage with it.

"What the?!"

"These won't be able to go up with us, so we'll be leaving them in Celaeno. Okay?"

"Um, sure thanks…Shaula."

Shaula seemed to beam with happiness as she heard her name spoken by him. She happily made her way past them, even as the ground dragon roared in annoyance.

The others followed suit, Batman helped Ram get Rem into her wheelchair as they followed behind.

"Batman-san, what do you think of all this?"

"Well, I'm a little upset that we have go through more high-pressure situations, even after what we went through in the dunes."

"But you do seem to not let it get you down, do you?"

"Nope. I'm fine with that…if we can get everyone's names and memories back that's fine with me."

"Heh. You never change do you?"

Ram happily chuckled but she looked up at him and saw that he was staring at Shaula, giving a sour glance.

"…Are you also inclined to her, Batman-san?"

"N-No. It's just I'm wary of her."

"Wary? But what means?"

"The levels she told us of the tower. If the naming scheme was accurate, there should be one more, Merope, if I'm correct."

"Then…there is a secret level?"

"I-I'm not sure…but we need to keep a close eye on this."

Ram nodded with a sense of determination, as the two continued walking.

Subaru decided to question Shaula as well about the fact that Merope was nowhere to be found. She denied it at first…but relented and did reveal to him that it was the zero level, but since he did not meet the requirements, she couldn't say anything.

She seemed troubled from what she was saying, so he decided to question her no longer.

Subaru was now in a place called the Green Room in the Alcyone level, a rest area that was covered in green vines. Pamela tested her powers and found she could cover herself in some of the vines. She found them quite comforting.

"From what I can tell, these plants are connected to a spirit. It seems to be a friendly one that heals anyone in it's vicinity."

Subaru nodded happily, but looked over at Patrasche and Ram who were tending to Rem.

While he could clearly see that the wounds Patrasche sustained during the Ma-beast fight was healing. A small cut on Rem's cheek was not.

"Shit, maybe the Authority is preventing her healing."

"Possibly, but I wouldn't worry about one cut."

"Doesn't matter! A cut still bleeds…and I want her to be okay. I need her to be okay."

Ram, Pamela and Patrasche all went quiet as they saw Subaru rub his cybernetic hand on the vines nearby him. He took a breath as he affectionately looked over at Rem. Then his eyes turned serious.

"I made a promise to save her right? That's why we're here right? And I'm going to do just that!"

"Of course, Barusu I will stay here with the ground dragon to take care of Rem. You and Pamlea-sama go on and meet up with the others."

"Thank you, both of you."

Subaru gave a polite bow and made his way out of the room. Pamela put some vines inside her pouch as she smiled at the two.

"He really is determined huh?"

"Yes indeed, Barusu's determination seems to be at it's highest."

"Too bad, I could've fallen for him, had I met him earlier I guess…oh well, besides I owe someone a date when I get back!"

"Oh? And that would be-"

"-Oh it's Otto."

She stuck her tongue out playfully as she waved them goodbye, making her way out of the room.

Ram and Patrasche were left speechless as they sat quietly in the Green Room.

"…She has odd tastes."

The ground dragon nodded in absolute agreement.

The group had now made it to the third layer of Taygeta.

There they found a entirely white space around them, devoid of even walls. As they walked further, Meili turned around and yelled.

"Hey! That wasn't there when we got here!"

The rest of them turned around and saw a large monolith floating off the ground, in front of the entryway where they came from.

Subaru decided to be brave enough to touch it. Once he did, he heard a voice echo out throughout the room.

"Touch the brightest of the hero destroyed by Shaula."

Subaru and the others turned around again to see that monoliths similar to the one he touched now surrounded them, but they varied in sizes.

"Subaru, try touching one to see what happens."

"Okay, but if we all blow up, just remember that Julius was the one who suggested it."

Julius didn't like the comment, but he stood in front of Anastasia just in case.

Subaru touched one that was next to him, suddenly the room shook a bit and the monoliths reverted back into the original. Deathstroke put Meili down as he was letting her sit on his shoulder.

"That would probably mean Subaru failed right?"

"Yeah, but didn't Nii-san say that we would blow up?"

"It was a joke Meili. Relax."

"Okaaaaay."

The little girl almost seemed disappointed.

Subaru decided to try it again, he touched the first monolith and once again the monoliths appeared again. The voice rang out it's requirements and the others began to wonder how to solve the situation.

But it was Batman who figured something out.

"Wait a second. 'Brightest hero', bright…"

"Batman-san, did you figure something out?"

"Maybe, Emilia, just maybe."

Batman shot into the air and flew above the monoliths…then as he looked down from high above, he called out to Subaru.

"Subaru! You need to get up here, right now!"

"Um, right! Beatrice help me get up there please!"

Beatrice nodded in agreement and she used Murak on him, to let Subaru float up into the air. As he floated, Batman, just to make sure he didn't float away, caught him.

Subaru's eyes widened as he was staring down.

"Batman, this is!"

"Yeah, you see it too right?"

From above, they saw the entireties of the monoliths were making up the constellation of Orion.

"But no one should know about this! And the answer would obviously be one of the stars names!"

"My best guess is, that whoever built this tower had knowledge about it."

"But unless someone had knowledge about our worlds, they could never hope to pass this part!"

"Agreed, I think…Flugel counted on that."

"Are you-Are you saying Flugel knew about the other worlds?"

Batman looked over at Subaru, unsure of how to answer that.

"Don't know. When the time comes, we'll figure it out."

"Y-Yeah."

Subaru concentrated and looked for the stars that could possibly the answer. Rigel and Betelgeuse.

He didn't personally like the name Betelgeuse as it sounded too much like…a certain other person he had a nasty relationship with. So he picked Rigel.

Batman helped Subaru down to touch the monolith and the entire room shined in a bright light. As their vision came to, they found themselves in a giant library. The vast space had bookcases filled with books of varying sizes and quality.

Subaru grabbed one labeled "Typhon" and Batman reached over him and grabbed one with the title "Sekhmet".

Subaru flipped through the pages and found her past, and it was almost as if he could see it in his mind.

Typhon had accidentally broken her father's favorite wine glass and became terrified. Her father was a famous executioner for the city. She felt she had committed a crime and was worried that, she too, would soon face judgment. However, when she informed her father of her misdeed, she was quickly forgiven. This single action set in her mind that the guilty and innocent could be judged by another who-

"SUBARU! LET GO!"

Emilia slapped away the book from Subaru's hand and his eyes had their color return to them. Subaru looked over at Emilia whose eyes were wavering.

"Huh? What did I just do?"

"The moment you started reading that book, we couldn't wake you up from that trance."

Subaru observed the book that was on the floor, but saw that Beatrice had now picked it up.

"Beatrice wait!"

"Betty wishes to also know what happened."

She began reading through the pages, with Subaru and Emilia ready to pry the book out of her hands if they needed to.

"Nothing. I assume it will only work on Subaru, I suppose?"

"Ah, that's weird."

But they soon quickly turned their attention nearby as they saw Pamela doing her utmost to pry the book out of Batman's hand, eventually using a vine to wrap around the book and yank it out of his hands.

"Agh! What the?! J-Just what happened?"

"Batman, you were in a total trance when you read that book just now!"

Batman rubbed his head as he was now coming to. He then looked over and saw Anastatia was having trouble getting a book out of Julius' hand. But luckily Deathstroke slapped the book out of his grip and the book slid across the room and next to Batman. He quickly picked it up and tried reading through it. However, nothing happened at all.

He turned the book over and saw that the book was titled "Balroy Temegrif".

With the three freed from the books trances, they began to discuss the details. Batman surmised that the library contained books that housed the memories of those who died, and that a person with a personal connection with the deceased could look through the book and see their memories. However, he also saw this as dangerous, as it was a possibility that a person's soul or even their memories could be lost with prolonged reading. Emilia went over to look over at the entirety of the vast library. Batman placed one of the last books away on the shelf as he spoke again.

"We can clearly see that the library, while interesting, has nothing for us to use."

"So Batman-san, what should we do?"

"I think we may have to ask Shaula."

"But I don't think she'll tell us anything."

Batman nodded his head and stood next to Anastasia.

"Anastasia, do you think she's keeping something from us?"

"Most definitely, my skills as a merchant can smell that kind of stuff from across a river."

"Then we just have to pry it out of her."

Batman and the others left the library and went over to Shaula. Batman ended up using his skillful interrogation tactics to make Shaula talk.

"Er, alright! But remember the only reason I never told you these rules is because you never asked!"

"Fine, but can you just explain?"

Shaula was at this point carrying Meili on her shoulder; somehow the little assassin grew attached to her, just as much as she did with Deathstroke.

"Alright, there are a few rules you must abide by. If you attempt to leave the tower before reaching the first level…I will kill you all."

"Next: I forbid you all from disrespecting the libraries."

"Next?"

"You cannot damage the tower itself…and that's it. Break any of those rules and I will be forced to kill you."

"Alright, we understand."

Batman and the others looked over the situation.

Emilia then brought up a good point though.

"I think that who ever made this tower was a bit…well, disobedient, like they don't follow their own rules. Sooooo, maybe the way to reach the next layer is a secret passage in the fourth or fifth layer?"

Subaru got up from his seat and had an idea, so he rushed off with everyone else not far behind. They all reached the Green Room and to their surprise, found a new room with a flight of stairs.

Deathstroke walked to it and observed it well with Pamela next to him.

"This is damn weird….We never saw this room did we?"

"No…when me and Subaru were in here, we didn't notice it, well actually we never bothered to search the room to begin with!"

Subaru nodded in agreement.

"When I was in here, the visor in my eye seemed to almost completely ignore that area. I thought it was some sort of fluke or something…but I guess it was some uber crazy magic."

Ram also became considered.

"At just the moment you all got here, that room just suddenly appeared."

Everyone now saw that the tower had more tricks than they thought.

Emilia and Batman stood next to Subaru as they were preparing to embark to the next level.

Beatrice held on to Subaru's metal hand while gripping her staff tightly.

"Whatever comes next we'll handle it right Subaru?"

"Hell yeah! We ain't gonna let this tower beat us!"

With that, the group decided to move onto the next layer.

They reached a white space that looked almost the exact same as the monolith one. However, instead of a monolith appearing behind them…a sword stuck in the ground at the very center of the room was there.

"I wonder if that's the clue?"

As Subaru slowly approached the sword and eventually grasped it with his metal hand, a voice rang out.

"The fool that has arrived at the heavenly sword…must obtain forgiveness."

As the voice ended, Subaru looked up to see a rather tall muscular man with long red hair appear out of thin air.

His long red hair was like fire that stretched down to his back. He had bright sky blue eyes with an ugly eyepatch covering his left eye. He wore a crimson kimono, leaving the right side uncovered and a white sarashi around his body. His teeth seemed quite sharp for a human too.

Batman and Deathstroke immediately felt tense. They knew exactly who they were dealing with.

"This fucker!"

"Unfortunately so."

"So is he really-"

"-Yes….He's definitely an Astrea."

On the second layer of the tower, Subaru and his group now faced off against an opponent, that they may very well, have no hope of defeating…