Alright, dumbasses, it's Ciel again.

So I went back to Sal's place, found Ken there getting some repairs done, and I demanded he tell me where Julia and Keran were. Took a little while to convince he, but apparently he trusts me enough to jot the address down for me.

So I went there to check on them, and they're both okay. They've got this secret safehouse that they're staying at, with that Isaac dude and some other guy that works for Sal. Some dorky kid who doesn't fucking talk.

But yeah, I'm gonna stay here for a while in case those Emissary pricks try anything again. Fuck those guys. Especially Heirophant. He's a prick. I went into that fight mad, and something about him just got me even more pissed. And hen there's that High Priestess bitch. Red haired girl in a dress serving as team medic? Way to steal my shtick, bitch.

Whatever. I'm done here. Fuck off.

The Knight

Terrence again.

Algeria and I had a run in with the Crimson Knight. OR rather, we saw it from a distance and immediately ducked out of sight behind a wall. Thing was huge. Probably 7-8 feet tall or higher. Covered entirely in black, red, and fiery orange armor. In one hand it carried a sword that was probably five feet long and a foot wide. Too big for a normal person to wield, but I dragged it along effortlessly.

"Don't suppose you have anything that could hurt that thing, do you?" Algeria asked.

"A cocktail would be useless," I said. "But this might make a dent."

I pulled a small metal pipe out of my bag. It was maybe a foot long and sealed off at both ends.

"An incomplete pipe bomb?" she asked. "How's that gonna help? That knight is a monster of fire and smoke."

"Making it fireproof, I know," I said. "But not shrapnel or kinetic explosion proof. Bombs can still damage something like that."

"You didn't even give that thing a fuse," she pointed out.

"Don't need one," I said. "Like you said. Monster of fire and smoke. If I can jam this thing in its eye socket and back off before the guy's body heat sets it off, I may have a chance. I'll need you to cover me, though."

"This is the dumber, riskiest plan I've ever heard," she said.

"Oh, you're gonna love my friends," I told her. "You in or not?"

"Hold on...," she said.

She opened her little tin box and pulled something out of it. It looked like a bullet, but it was see through, and had this soft, silver-blue light swirling around inside of it. She snapped the tin shut again and palmed the bullet.

"What's that?" I asked.

"Last resort," she told me. "Now let's just get this dumb plan of yours over with."

We turned our attention to the knight. It was walking away from us, unaware that we were even present. I began approaching it from behind, while Algeria stood back, gun ready. Once I got up close to it, I jumped up and threw my arm around its throat.

My plan was to get it into a headlock from behind and stab the bomb into its eye. Of course, that proved to be a bad idea, as it was way stronger than I anticipated. It through me off and turned to me, roaring. It lifted up its sword, and from this close up, I could see a large horizontal crack about midway down the blade. Must've been damaged while fighting Henry.

Algeria then opened fire, hitting it in the shoulder a couple times. IT turned its attention to her, letting out another roar. It began charging toward her. I frantically scanned the ground for my bomb. I had only dropped it about a foot away, and I quickly snatched it up. Then, channeling my inner baseball champion, I chucked the thing at the knight, hitting it in the head. It stop midstride and turned its attention to the bomb on he ground besides it.

Now, here's the thing about Crimson Knights. There's basically rage and warfare incarnate. Meaning they're very strong, very angry, and, at least in this case, very, very stupid. It hadn't registered that I had thrown the bomb, but it did register that the bomb had hit it, and so decided that the bomb was its enemy. And what do you do to enemies? Well, naturally, you attack hem with a giant flaming sword.

The knight raised its sword, which became engulfed in fire. Knowing what was about to happen, I turned around and crouched down, covering my head to protect myself from shrapnel. I didn't actually see the flaming sword come down upon the pipe bomb, but I sure as hell heard the following blast, and felt several shards of metal hit me in the back.

I stood up and turned my attention back to the knight, who was sprawled out on its back. It's sword had broken in half in the explosion, with both halves lying a few feet away from the beast. Algeria had the same idea as me and had turned away from the explosion to reduce the overall damage. She was lying on her stomach, seemingly dazed.

The knight got to its feet before she did and turned back to her. I drew my knife and called out to it.

"Hey, asshole!" I shouted. "I'm not done with you!"

It turned back to me, growling. I gulped. It stared a slow, angry walk towards me. Red hot smoke started billowing out of its helmet. Behind it, Algeria picked herself up a bit, pulling the clip out of her gun and loading her "last resort" into it. She shoved the clip back into her gun, cocked it, and took aim at the monster's back.

As soon as she pulled the trigger, the air around us grew much colder. The bullet soared through the air, leaving a trail of ice of the ground behind it as it flew. It struck the knight in the back of the spine, and it let out a pained cry, as frost covered its armor, and it slowly froze solid in one place.

"Terrence! The sword!" she cried at me.

Before the thing had a chance to thaw itself out, I ran forward and dived for the lower half of its broken sword. I grabbed its hilt, lifted it up, and brought it down on the knights frozen neck.

Its head toppled to the ground. A few moments later, the ice melted, and the armor clattered to the ground, as the knights body dissolved into smoke.

I leaned against the piece of sword I was holding, catching my breath.

"You and I are gonna have to have a talk about that crazy glacier bullet," I old Algeria. "Just as soon as I do something about all this shrapnel damage..."

Yo Justin!

Terrence here. Saving this post as a draft for chatting purposes.

Okay, so you're still alive. That's good.

Ugh, with the yellow text again... But yeah, Algeria and I are one the move right now, trying to avoid the potential Crimson Knight in he area. And Henry. Fuck that guy.

Alright, so... quick question. Why are we talking this way instead of over email?

Oh, that's so hat V can get in on this. Yo V! How's it going?

こんにちは

Huh... didn't realize the Japanese "Hello" had so many characters in it...

Terrence, don't encourage that thing. We have no idea how dangerous it is.

It's trapped in a computer. What's the worst it can do? Post links to all the porn sites Justin's been on lately?

I have NOT been on any porn sites! And stop calling her "it" and "thing".

I'm a 女の子

I don't give a shit.

So did you bring her here with you?

I mean, I have my laptop, so... yeah. kind of a package deal. Know any way we could possibly rendezvous?

Not sure. Everything kind of looks the same here. Might be able o retrace my steps back to the last shop I was at. OR maybe stumble across another one. If I do, I can tell you who runs it, what they sell, and anything else that might help you track it down.

I think Sal's has some level of familiarity with place. Couldn't hurt to give that a shot. Also, V, can you please stop that? You're gonna attack attention from other players...

ごめんなさい

What's she doing?

Playing Vocaloid music.

Oh. Honestly, I prefer punk.

You guys are idiots. Justin, put Sal on.

Can't. He doesn't wanna talk, and his hair color's too close to Terrence's. I would get confusing.

Well, ask him where Julia and what's-her-face are. I wanna check on them.

He says to ask Ken.

And where the fuck is Ken!?

*shrugs*

Thanks, Justin. As always, you've been a big help...

Try checking out the bar. He might've gone back there to get some repairs done.

Anyway, I'm just gonna end this post here. From now on, just emails.

バイ

Time is fucking weird....

So, apparently it's April now. Like, half a year passed, when I could swear my last post was just a week ago. Fucking weird...

Anyway, I packed everything I thought I'd need. My scythe, a couple back up sickles, some light rations, and a couple extra vodka bottles for Terrence. OR myself, if I get a craving. Decided to bring Sal's APple cider with me too.

Anyway, Sal brought me to meet up with his servant friend. A Japanese gentleman, carrying a 5 foot long daito. He told me to call him Makoto Yamashita, but I think it might be an alias or something. He and Sal exchanged a few words, then he drew his sword, slashed it through the air, and tore open a special rift into another world. Her world.

The Screaming Tower is... well, a very big tower, with a lot of screaming involved. Not the kind of place you wanna visit twice.

He led the way, bringing us into the tower and leading us to the top. I tried to ignore my surroundings. Nothing there was pleasant to look at. Anyway, we were eventually brought face to face with the Wooden Girl herself.

he Wooden Girl is the Fear of being controlled and manipulated. She looks like a puppet, but she has the power to turn humans into her own toys by binding them in her strings. I was nervous the whole time we were in that tower, and being in her presence was downright terrifying.

"You've arrived," she said to us and we stood before her.

"Yes," Sal said, calmly. "We wish for your help getting my friend Justin into the Game Master's world."

"Very well," she said. "I just have one request for Young Justin."

I wanted to express anger at being called that, but I held my tongue. Better to avoid pissing her off.

"What do you ask of me?" I asked.

She approached me and whispered something in my ear. As she did, I felt something tighten around my left wrist.

"If you fail, you will lose your hand," she told me. "And keep this task our little secret."

I nodded. She turned from me, and raised her hands. After a few seconds, she growled in frustration.

"Is something the matter?" Sal asked.

"He's strengthened the barrier since last time I did this," she said. "I can still break through with enough effort, but I might hurt reality a bit in the process."

A moment later, the air in front of her cracked, and split apart to reveal the world Terrence had described to me. The Board. The Game Master's world.

"Ah, there we are," The Wooden Girl mused. "And reality seems just fine. Well, go on through, Young Justin."

"Thank you," I said, stepping forward.

I hesitated for a moment before crossing over into the Board. I turned back and locked eyes with Sal as the portal began closing itself.

"Thanks," I told him. "Tell Ciel and Julia that I'll get the others back safely."

Sal looked back at me as the portal grew smaller and smaller. He seemed conflicted about something. He vanished just as the portal was about to close fully, and I felt him reappear beside me.

"What!?" I gasped. "Why did you cross over?"

Sal stood there, eyes wide and panting.

"I don't know...," he said. "I don't know."

He looked back at where the portal had been a second ago.

"But it's too late to go back now," he said.

"Indeed it is."

We both turned to see the figure of the Game Master looming over us. He was huge. At least ten feet tall. He raised a hand, and I suddenly felt a pressure from above forcing me to my knees.

"Justin Gremori Ferin," he said. "The Angel's Reaper. It's a pleasure to have you here."

He turned his attention to Sal next.

"Valon," he said. "You've finally come home, my child."

Sal angrily drew his shotgun and aimed it at the Game Master's masked face.

"This is no home of mine," Sal snarled.

The Game Master chuckled, and waved a hand. Some invisible force sent him flying, and he crashed into a bishop shaped building behind us.

"Welcome to my tournament, gentlemen," the Game Master said. "Do enjoy yourselves."

And with that, he vanished. The pressure weighing me down vanished, and I picked myself up and rushed over to go check on Sal.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

"I'm a big boy," Sal said, getting up and dusting himself off. "I'll be fine."

"Why did he call you Valon?" I asked.

"Forget about it," he said. "Let's find some shelter for now, then we can come up with a plan."

So yeah. We're hiding out now. When I opened my laptop to start this post, I saw the date and realize that I've somehow skipped like, 7 months. Which doesn't make any sense. But I guess the tournament's still on. I just have to focus on making sure Terrence is okay.



Dude, if you're reading this, let me know. I'm here now, so if you can help me find you, that would be great.