The Cherry Blossom Labyrinth

The Infinity Clockworks ~Lunar Fantasia~

第四単:月の迷宮
Arc 4: The Moon Labyrinth

「You look confuse」The Lady clad in white blazer similar to Kaname sat still on her clear glass chair as she talked to Kaname who was only a few meters away from her. Her face and a portion of her twin tailed white hair resembled a bit of Kaname and her heinous smile shows an exact copy of Kaname's arrogant smile.
「・・・」Kaname ignored the lady and decided to scan the area while maintaining his current spot. The floor Kaname was standing on was completely transparent, revealing the black space that was covering the entire premise. The whole place seems to be contructed from square transparent planes and each of the planes' edges emitted neon pink lights. Kaname stomped his right foot as strong as he could in attempt to test the durability of the floor.
「Cherry Blossom Petals?」Cherry blossoms petals emerged from Kaname had stomped.
「Beautiful, right?」The lady smiled at Kaname and said nothing more.
「（This sweet fragrance... mochi? Sakura Mochi?）」The moment Kaname thought of a japanese sweets Sakura Mochi, it appeared in front of him and landed on his palm.
«Here is Kasumi special Sakura Mochi! Now, now, Kurogane-kun eat»
«I helped making it too Senpai»
«Momo-san, you didn't help, you just played Monster Hunter the whole time!»
Mysterious sounds echoed in Kaname's mind. After staring at the Sakura Mochi, Kaname ate it without hesitating.
「Everyone...」
「You're weak when it comes to Sakura Mochi, how cute」The lady took a sip of her tea after saying her sentence.

「The tastes were identical and those voices... I see...」Kaname sighed.
「Already? I love smart kids. You probably know it by now but I'll say it: I am you and You are me」The Lady stood up and sread open her arms like he was inviting Kaname to hug her.
「(My Condensed Mana won't activate? )tch...」Kaname clenched his fists and raised them.
「How cute. I was going to have a fair and square fight with you but I changed my mind. I'll teach you a lesson and I call this lesson "Ardena-chan's Spartan Lesson!".」Ardena made a peace sign with her fingers and smiled at Kaname.
「I don't need your lesson」Kaname arrogantly smiled at Ardena.
「Don't forget that smile. If you could still make that smile after my lessons, you pass.」Ardena prepared herself and raised her fists up.
「First Lesson: Try to punch me as hard as you could」Ardena spread her arms once again.
「hmph...」Kaname ran toward Ardena with his right fist prepared to punch Ardena. Kaname punched Ardena as hard as he could but Ardena stopped Kaname's attack with just her left index finger. Her finger was still completely straight and didn't even bend a bit.

「Too weak. I'll show you what a real punch is」Ardena grabbed Kaname's right arm and pulled him toward her. Ardena then pulled back her right fist and punched Kaname in the stomach. Ardena's punch was so pwerful that it blew a hole through Kaname's stomach.
「Also, you die too easy. For the sake of the lesson, I'll bring you back」Ardena snapped her finger and Kaname woke up. He immediately stood up and back away from Ardena.
「That concludes Lesson 1 and you failed. Lesson 2: What you need. Due to our power, we rarely have problems when it comes to strength. For a person to be able to grow, they need desperation. I'll forcefully activate your Condensed Mana but it will not stop running until every Mana in your body are gone. If you manage to hit damage me even once, you pass but if your Mana runs out you fail. Now... begin」Condensed Mana came out of Kaname's fists uncontrollably. It was only a few seconds since Ardena forcefully activated Kaname's Condensed Mana and Kaname was already feeling that he was being drained.

「Damn it」Kaname charged at Ardena will all he got. Kaname sent a barrage of powerful and fast attacks at Ardena but Ardena managed to dodge them all with ease.
「Come on! Faster!」Ardena taunted Kaname. Upon hearing Ardena's taunting, Kaname paused and took off his blazer and the Y-shirt under it, exposing his plain black T-shirt. After taking off his uniform, he resumed attacking Ardena.
「Still too slow!」Ardena kept taunting Kaname.

・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・

「Haa...haa...haa...」After a couple of hours, Kaname had finally reached his limit and was leaning on the wall of the room.
「See your hands? That indicates that you have ran out of Mana. You are out of Normal and Condensed Mana. That in your hands are Empty Mana and that is the only thing that is keeping you alive.」Ardena pointed at Kaname's hands that were covered with dark and murky gray Mana.
「Damn it...」
「You failed Lesson 2. Continuing to Lesson 3: Purity. You could see that your Empty Mana looks really dirty and cloudy? That is because your Mana purity is way too low indicating that you are weak. Let me show you an example-」Ardena's hands were suddenly covered with clear Magenta Mana. Unlike Kaname's Condensed Man which looked like a drop of ink placed in water, Ardena's Mana was the complete opposite of Kaname.
「This is called Point Zero Mana and it is million times stronger than Condensed Mana. There are many other types of Mana out there, Akashic-chan can use most types. The goal of Lesson 3 is for you to get your useless Empty Mana to be at least clearer than now. Come, nothing will happen if you stay there like that.」Ardena taunted Kaname once more. Kaname charged at Ardena.

「By the way, this is the last Lesson, if you fail this one many bad things will happen to you. One of them is that I will take your beloved strength away from you forever.」After telling Kaname the consequence of losing, she attacked Kaname with half-hearted power. Kaname managed to catch with his left hand but tye momenthe caught Ardena's fist, his left hand broke.
「(?? He is slowing down? He is already unconscious, he really hates losing... no,he is probably frustrated that he was forced to face the fact that he is weak. This is going very well. Is this what she wanted to do? )」While Ardena was pondering about something, Kaname fell down on the floor facing down.
「You failed every one of my lessons. Come back when you're stronger」Ardena snapped her finger and a portal opened below Kaname, the portal swallowed Kaname as fast as possible.

・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・

「What is it?」I could hear and feel the harsh wind passing me.
「I .....am...falling...?」I couldn't care less since I couldn't move my body, I can't even open my eyes. I knew that eventually, I will hut the ground. Slowly, I started to feel that I was slowing down. I felt the ground softly touching my back. I tried to open my eyes and what I saw was a blurry figure of someone wearing a tuxido. The figure knelt down and reached into my right pocket to take my Akashic Page.
「You poor player. I apologize. I have repaired your Page. However you have lost your power, this is all I could do for you. Change will be brought upon this world soon and it will start with you.」She placed my Akashic Page on my chest. Judging from her voice, she is a woman, a really calm woman.
「Everything had ended. I am Akashic Record, this Universe' Creator. Prepare yourself, the "Change" will begin with you. You will not forget me, we will meet once again. Farewell, Player.」She placed her hand on top of my face, covering my eyes.

I couldn't hear anything, I couldn't feel anything, I couldn't taste, I couldn't see but I managed to smell her sweet fragrance that gave warmth to me. At that moment I decided that I will get...
「Stronger...Nafe..」

To be continued