A handheld candle light dimly lit the room, revealing the figure of another man, who wore run-down piece of cloth,looking like a prisoner himself. Though he seemed a bit off, or rather confused, in Yamato's terms. His walk was more of a tumble, but he was clearly aware of his surroundings. He wondered how someone like that could possibly escape a seemingly secure prison such as this one but chose to give him the benefit of the doubt. In his hand the man held a sword, which was drained in blood. The guard's, Yamato assumed. He swung said sword and destroyed the lock on Yamato's cell, and next the chain around his ankle. Then he turned around and left, without saying a word. Yamato was naturally perplexed by his rather convenient actions, but after waiting for a moment stepped out of his cell and looked over to the guard he previously talked to. He was dead, as expected. Yamato, not bothered by that, stepped over the body and looked after the man who freed him. While he was unable to feel emotions like gratitude, a fleeting sensation comparable to serenity he did feel.
He could hear a tumult from the direction his savior went off to. Naturally, he walked toward the noise. The situation was rather irritating, though it prevented him from complaining about his boredom. As he got closer to the source of the chaotic noise, he felt the air becoming increasingly hot in the seemingly endless curved hallway, though the stone floor remained as cold as one would expect. It was then that he realized that this prison was much larger than he had first thought. Left and right, one empty cell after another. They have all been opened by force. A mass prison breakout would also explain how the rather confused guy from earlier managed to escape. Though it was still werid that he did not find anyone else, and seemed essentially alone in this massive space. There was also something weird about this place itself. Its size alone seemeded massive, concidering the amount of time Yamato spent walking around by now. Since the walls were curved, he was also walking in a circle, though nothing ever repeated. No doors other than the ones of cells broken open ever appeared, no matter how long he kept walking, which by now had been at least half an hour. He was sure of it since he memorized little details on the walls such as minor imperfections, which he should be able to spot if able to. He then calculated the circle to be around 150 meters in diameter, based on the curvature of the wall. Giving the prison a minimum circumference of around 471 meters, assuming there would be immediate freedom behind the walls on the outside of the circle. To make sure he had mot just lost his sense of time, he just counted steps to calculate how much he was actually moving. Scratching, blocking or whatever would make the place identifiable. But even after walking about 900 meters, almost twice as much as he should be needing for a full rotation, he never found one of the by him previously made mental marks or new doors that could lead outside. There was also no curve up or down, which he checked by placing a relatively round rock on the ground. Since it did not start rolling in any direction, he also discarded the idea of being in a spiraling tower of some kind. The only thing he could think of was that he was trapped in some sort of loop. He thought this especially likely since he believed there was no way he missed something that could explain what was happening logically, so it had to be some supernatural concept he had no real way of proving even existed. However, he was incredibly bored by the repetitive nature of this challenge, as well as the thought of having to deal with supernatural phenomena without Yuki around, so he sat down and looked at a wall, listening to the noise that never became any louder or quieter and focusing on the rising temperature, which he also had no explanation for whatsoever.
Just as he was about to try and somehow break through the stone wall with brute force, the scenery was about to change drastically.
First, a crack appeared in the wall. Then more appeared, spreading out further as the ground began to shake, light shining through them. It was then when the temperature increased drastically, and the light started to shine brighter. Yamato took a step back, just before the wall fell apart completely which created a hole out of the looping prison. Revealing a massive gap to the ground, as well as the fact that the prison was buit around a giant tree. Facing him was none other than Yuki, who smiled brightly at Yamato while levitating in the air. Behind her was the entire forest burned down, partially still in flames. It did not look like anyone survived. She flew over to him and hugged him tightly, shedding tears of joy at the wholesome reunion. She excitedly reported about what had happened.
"Master, I'm so glad you're alright! It was all super scary without you. I was in this prison, probably similar to yours! But it was like a community thingy, so I was thrown in with a bunch of other people. I was really mad that we were not in a cell together! I promise the next time we go to a prison, I will keep you right beside me! Anyway, as I was about to recruit someone to help me look for you, a guard interrupted me so I killed him. That somehow inspired the others in my cell to rush out and do their own thing, but I stopped them and said I'd kill them too if they would not help me release every prisoner, which I of course only wanted so you'd get out! I'm so glad everything worked out!"
Yamato just took the hug and patted her head. She seemed really happy to see him again, which was kind of nice. Though his tone would not meet her level of excitement, it was not as cold as it she expected.
"Good work, Yuki. You said you had everyone help you free the prisoners, but I only see us here though…"
"Oh, that's right! I forgot about that, silly me~! So it was a little tricky because of the different female and male tracts, and I first had trouble leaving the female tract. But eventually a guard fled through a portal into the male tract, and luckily some of my searchers actually made it through as well! Super lucky! That led to me rethinking my purpose in the female tract, and prioritizing getting out entirely first! But I couldn't use magic because of some crystal at first, which I later took care of though so don't worry about it. But I needed a bit more mana anyway, so I ended up making a small adjustment to the agreement I had with the remaining prisoners, after which sadly about 100% of them died… I will never forget them. Anyway, part of the original order was returning to me once everyone is free. I was worried sick when you were not amongst them upon their return, but they must have left through a the last portal without you… Well, whatever. They all passed away after anyway, so I wouldn't hold a grudge! Though, this place was tough to get into cause it had multiple barriers of anti magic defense. But I figured that if I attack it over and over again, it'd break sooner or later."
"Well I guess that works… You're pretty strong, huh?"
Yuki blushed at that, getting a little flustered.
"Uhm… Y-yes I suppose I am… I'm also really pretty and smart, so you can praise me for all sorts of things, really…"
She was gonna go for a kiss, though she was interrupted by something infuriatingly inconvenient. The whole tree was suddenly falling over, at which Yuki immediately flew down with Yamato through the whole she created and levitated with him to look what was happening. Though her mood was already not at its beet after being separated for the first time, there was no way she was going to allow anyone to take him from her again. Whatever caused this interruption had her deepest hatred aimed at, and would face the full power of all the mana she just absorbed from all the prisoners and guards.
Down at the ground, there stood a tall knight in white, heavy armor and holding a giant sword. The tree appeared to be sliced down by him. He looked up at them, Yuki's wings now fully visible as she had to use them to carry Yamato.
The knight, without any warning or provocation, threw his sword at the two. Yuki swatted it away with her wing and spun down onto the ground with Yamato. Next summoning a beacon of light, which created three glowing golden swords around her and a black one in her hand. The three swords flew towards the man as Yuki looked at him with genuine disgust. The sword the knight threw returned to his hand and was about to collide with one of Yuki's golden ones, but the golden sword seemed to behave like an unstoppable object, pushing everything in its path either away or crushing it. Though the knights sword seemed extremely durable and strong as well, eventually changing the trajectory of one golden sword ever so slightly only for it to fly past him and turn around to attack again. As the other two closed in as well, he used this chance to attack, striking at Yuki who could not dodge since Yamato was right behind her. While the knight's sword got parried by the sword Yuki held in her hand, he looked surprised, as Yuki stared at him with pure intent to kill. He jumped back a bit to throw his sword and call it back to him right away, but it was too slow to get back in time. Yuki's three golden swords all hit the knights armor from behind directly into his back. Though to her surprise, they were unable to pierce through it, just stopping as the tip touched the surface of the armor. Annoyed by this, Yuki held in for a moment, trying to figure out a way to kill him as quickly as possible. Yamato just let Yuki do her thing, as he was of no use here anyway. He considered trying to initiate a conversation, but since he attacked first, he thought she had a right to do as she saw fit. Yuki held her sword up and swung it down through the air, which had no effect at first, but after one second formed a massive crack in the ground just where the knight stood. Even though it appeared nearly instantaneous, he was still somehow able to dodge which infuriated her only more. He too, swung his sword, which shot a light beam at the two. Yuki covered Yamato and herself with her wings, which completely negated his attack. He jumped towards them once more and attacked with his sword, hitting Yuki, and scratching Yamato's cheek this time since he had to dodge himself by jumping back, surprised that even Yuki was unable to react in time. Though her wound immediately healed, she stopped moving completely after seeing the small scratch on his cheek. The only movement being a small eye twitch, which only Yamato saw as she was even turned away from the knight. As she stopped moving, the knight did too, curious as to why she would just stop in a battle like this.
Her mind raced and she healed him right after her little pause, though he did not show much reaction to the wound or the healing. Yuki sure did. Yamato tried to calm her down a bit, without success.
"I'm alright, Yuki."
But Yuki did not listen at all. Instead she started to breath heavily, and her halo appeared, shining bright. The knight spoke to her, even if he did not expect an answer.
"You fight well, stranger woman. You have my respect. I therefore shall give you my name and title. I am The Hero of Light and--"
"-Shut up! Shut up shut up shut up shut up…!"
Yuki interrupted, not interested at all in his name, title or anything about him at all.
"You worthless pest… Your existence serves no purpose. A lesser species is what you are. I'm going to erase your bloodline… Did you hear me?! Your lineage ends today! Can't you see… you stand in front of a god, you inferior piece of trash!"
"You think yourself a god because of your little wings shiny halo?"
"Not me! My great, super perfect, superior master, of course!"
She proudly pointed at Yamato, who looked the man down, unsure of how to react at being presented like that. The man spoke in a mocking tone.
"That guy? He doesn't look like much—"
"Shh…"
Yuki stared at him blankly as she shushed him with her index finger on her lip, no trace of playfulness or any sort of human emotion present. Her eyes devoid of any teasing glont or spark, instead just a spinning black. That act of disrespect gave her patience the rest. The self proclaimed hero got hit by a light beam from the sky, which had such an impact, that the hole created by it reached multiple kilometers deep. There was no trace of the hero, and Yuki seemed to calm down a bit. In the middle of the ashes and craters that their fight had created, there was only Yamato and Yuki as the sole survivors. Yuki looked over to Yamato, seemingly embarrassed for having lost composure like that in front of him. She then proceeded to walk towards him with small steps, a bit ashamed of herself. Though Yamato just patted her head, giving her approval for her actions since he did not mind them. Her embarrassment disappeared as she just was happy about his attention.
"It's alright, Yuki. You did great. I'm proud of you."
She felt even more satisfaction through his praise.
"Thank you, Master! But… What now?"
Yamato looked around, the destruction leaving nothing but dust behind.