Fate Play (VII)

Under the dim yellow glow of the subway car's incandescent lights, three gaunt figures sat blankly on the floor. Here, everyone's desire to communicate seemed to have been reduced to its lowest threshold.

"Have we arrived?"

"..."

The girl beside him weakly placed her hand over his and softly reassured him, "There's not much difference between having arrived and not having arrived. Maybe a little change would be a good thing for us."

The boy she had comforted forced out a smile. "Maybe it really is something good. Compared to last time, it seems we stopped several stations earlier this time... seven stations. The location is different. So the subway here can have accidents too. If we get out, is there anywhere you want to go?"

A brief glimmer of light appeared in the girl's hollow eyes, but she gave no verbal answer. She only squeezed the boy's hand harder, offering a clearer reply.

Their shoulders leaned together.

If they could get out alive, it did not matter where they went as long as they were together.

Cassell College, Class of '04, Alchemical Mechanics Department: Gao Mi, now an Executive Department operative.

Cassell College, Class of '05, Mechanics Department: Wan Boqian, an Executive Department operative assigned to the same team as Gao Mi.

Gao Mi and Wan Boqian had long been a couple who knew each other inside out, but the Executive Department had an ironclad rule forbidding relationships between teammates, so they had kept their relationship secret. Their original plan had been to build up enough seniority, get posted to the Korea Branch, and only then formally inform their families. Now, that was clearly no longer possible.

They were trapped here, trapped in a realm the living were never meant to enter.

Because of the special applications of Wan Boqian's Word Spirit, Bloodline Web, the two of them had recently been transferred to this city as scouts. In ancient times, they would probably have been called "scouts"—not especially formidable in combat, but their ability to gather intelligence could not be lacking.

Gao Mi's gaze drifted toward the last of the three, a dazed young man named Zhao Menghua, who crouched in the corner of the subway car with an unshaven face.

There were only two ways to leave this subway-station labyrinth: kill the labyrinth's master, or win enough chips in the gambling game.

Killing the labyrinth's master was far too unrealistic for them. Their only remaining option was the Texas Hold'em game.

The rules were that anyone who lost all their chips had to leave immediately, board a different train, and circle the labyrinth alone. Only when the next game was about to begin would the train stop at Wangfujing Station, allowing everyone to gather and board the same train again to find the gatekeeper, the Kamaitachi Queen, and begin another round.

The wager was loneliness—each person's loneliness.

Everyone's loneliness was finite, so they had to keep winning other people's chips. Only after accumulating enough could they leave this labyrinth.

If he wanted the two of them to leave together, he could only keep winning loneliness from Zhao Menghua... Gao Mi thought guiltily.

Guilt was guilt, but when it came time to act, he would never show mercy or let his guard down. This concerned him and his girl.

But the loneliness chips of just one person were not enough. There was only one winner in each game of Texas Hold'em, and all the losers paid the winner. The more gamblers sat at the table, the more efficiently chips could be accumulated. If another five or six people entered the labyrinth to join this game, he would be confident of getting Wan Boqian out of here.

Hearing their conversation, Zhao Menghua slowly raised his head. "When do you think the rescue team will come?"

He would suddenly ask that question every twenty or thirty minutes. At first, it had been filled with intense unwillingness to accept reality. Later, there was only profound despair.

After being trapped here for so long, he was nearly numb. At the beginning, he had struggled desperately and repeatedly called for help from the outside world, because this subway train would occasionally pass through stations.

The platforms were brightly lit, and the passengers were calm. They could neither hear him nor see his constantly waving arms. From inside the car, he could see people waiting outside, and occasionally, someone would enter this car.

But no one truly came in, and he could not get out. Time and space were misaligned.

Zhao Menghua had pressed himself to the window and shouted until he lost his voice, but the people outside kept reading, listening to music, or staring blankly into space. No one cared about his breakdown.

Outside the subway windows, bat-like creatures fluttered up from fallen stone fragments. They were Kamaitachi, spiraling upward in shimmering swarms before suddenly accelerating and leaving strings of afterimages in the air.

They flew about in panic, fleeing their nest, too terrified to remain here.

Footsteps came from outside the window.

Hasty footsteps, as if someone were dragging something heavy.

It was the first time in several days that they had heard footsteps resembling those of a human.

All three abruptly looked up.

Was it a rescue team? Zhao Menghua, losing control, was the first to rush to the nearest window. Once that thought entered his mind, he could think of nothing else.

He had to take a look. He had to confirm whether he still had a chance of surviving.

It was a long-haired man in a black trench coat. He really was some kind of professional rescuer! Zhao Menghua was too overjoyed to make a sound as he raised his hand and slapped the window.

Then he was forced onto a subway seat, his hands tightly restrained and his mouth firmly covered.

Sweating coldly, Gao Mi pinned him down and tried to communicate through lip movements.

"Don't make a sound. Hold your breath."

His excitement upon hearing those footsteps had been no less than Zhao Menghua's—if anything, it had been greater.

But in an instant, the reason an Executive Department operative should possess suppressed his excitement.

The newcomer was too quiet. His pace was quick, yet not the least bit disordered. In this godforsaken place, he still moved with leisurely composure.

Driven by curiosity and a faint hope of luck, Gao Mi had also glanced out the window. That single glance made him feel as though he had fallen into an ice pit.

In all his years at the college and in the Executive Department, he had never seen molten-gold eyes like those of an evil ghost. The overwhelming terror left his mind in a constant haze. If Wan Boqian had not held onto him, he might have dropped to his knees on the spot.

Even without making eye contact, the bloodline pressure was already at that level. It was almost impossible for him to be a hybrid from the college who had come to rescue them.

The rusted connecting door between the old train cars was slowly pulled open, making the sound of flaking rust.

It was time to get off the train.

Gao Mi and Wan Boqian did not move.

The trembling and fear in their bodies had not yet faded. Gao Mi thought of the Wild Hunt from Norse Mythology, often regarded by those who once believed in gods as an ominous sign before disaster struck. The Secret Party had once specifically researched this unverifiable phenomenon as well.

Myths claimed that witnesses might be abducted into the underworld, or have their souls taken away and carried into twisted time and space... In truth, the concept of the Wild Hunt had spread widely. It belonged to the realm of folklore, far beyond the mythology of any single region.

Its leader might be the legendary Hern the Hunter or King Arthur, or perhaps the goddess Freyja... But the most famous and widespread version was Odin, king of the Norse gods.

The god of death traveled through the night with blade and sword in hand.

What was He going to do with those weapons? Kill another god?

Through the car door, they finally saw what the black-haired man in the trench coat was dragging. It was the mutilated corpse of the Kamaitachi Queen, its chest a bloody ruin where the heart had been, thick black blood flowing without end.

Perhaps to avoid obstructing the passing trains, the man dragged the Kamaitachi Queen, whose heart had been crushed, out of the tunnel and tossed her body onto the nearest platform.

Gao Mi, Wan Boqian, and Zhao Menghua were silent as cicadas in winter.

"Ha... ha..."

Only after the trench-coated figure had completely vanished into the depths of the tunnel did they begin breathing again, trembling with lingering terror.