Editing BlazBlue:Calamity Trigger Part 2 Chapter 2 (section)

===Part 2===
With each step he took, the dull footsteps echoed all the way to the ceiling. 

It was dark in the middle of a dark secret passage.

Entering through a crack in the bedrock at the very edge of the village, where no one from the Kaka tribe would approach, the secret passage to the upper layer that Ragna walked through was a sewer.

The ceiling was high, and the wide passageway was lined with many pipes. They circulated through Kagutsuchi like a maze, leading wherever they felt.

It was as if it were an artificial blood vessel attached to the rocky mountain that supported Kagutsuchi. He, who was passing through it, would be a foreign object for Kagutsuchi. Thinking such a thing made him feel somewhat cynical, but even so, his footsteps did not lighten at all.

The secret passage used by the Kaka tribe to go to the upper layer was a terrible, rough road.

"Ugh..." 

Unpleasant, watery, sticky footsteps could be heard from below, and Ragna's expression sank gloomily. How many times had he felt this way?

"Bye-bye, meow! Come play in the village again anytime, meow!!!" 

It wasn't even an hour ago that he parted with Taokaka, whose piercingly cheerful voice was so out of place at the entrance of the secret passage.

If the starting point was at about the same altitude as Orient Town, how much did he need to climb to get to the upper layer? Thinking about that, it had been too short. But Ragna's chest was already full of discomfort.

It was unlikely that the sewer, which passed through the back side of the lower and upper levels, would be clean and well-guarded.

Mountains of discarded waste from who knows where were piled up here and there, and around them, muddy black things like sludge, sewer water, and slippery puddles of oil were playing a foul game.

The lighting was extremely poor, with a few lights occasionally dotted here and there, most of which had already lost their function. Instead, what illuminated Ragna's feet and helped him proceed was a strange light that grew on the floor covered with dirty waste and dirt.

An unpleasant warmth and a nauseating feeling weighed heavily on him. With every breath he took, he felt himself becoming turbid from the inside.

Worst of all was the seithr filling the air. If a normal human were in such a place, their body would become abnormal in a few hours, and if they spent a night there, they might not remain in their original mental state.

If there were any creatures living here, they would have long since been captured and maddened by the seithr, transforming them into something that should not be.

"Come to think of it, that Taokaka girl said something." Ragna muttered, suddenly remembering as he scraped an unidentified liquid from the bottom of his shoe. Before they parted, he received a warning from that silly-looking girl. That strange monsters appeared in this secret passage.

"Was it 'Squiggly'?"

The monster that Taokaka called by that name had a black body and seemed to be lurking in this sewer. It sometimes came to the Kaka tribe's village and ate their children. 

It was probably some kind of animal that had been transformed by this excessive seithr.

It was ironic, Ragna thought. 

Seithr was a particle substance that, if inhaled or touched in large quantities, could drive a creature mad or even destroy it.

It was a terrifying thing. That's why the NOL used a technique called Ars Magus to purify the air and supply it to the city. Even the air in the lower levels, where the concentration of seithr was high, had overwhelmingly less seithr compared to the outside of the city.

How did Ars Magus purify the air? It used seithr.

Ars Magus was activated using a grimoire and seithr. In other words, Ars Magus could not function without seithr.

However, what seithr was in the end, no one had yet been able to explain to the world. No one knew. What was seithr? Was it good or evil?

Moreover, humans could not live without seithr.

From air circulation to water purification, transportation, construction technology, and even cooking, Ars Magus was deeply involved in life. If seithr disappeared from the world and all Ars Magus became unusable, then the current human civilization would collapse.

That was why it was ironic. While fearing and eliminating seithr, nothing could be accomplished without it. That was very unsettling.

"It's still quiet." Unable to endure the long silence and the rhythmic footsteps, he muttered something to himself at every opportunity. 

Normally he wouldn't have been talking to himself so much. But this place was bad.

It was dark and damp, and it looked as if some unknown shadow was peeking at him from here and there. From the gap between this pipe and that pipe, or from the back of the narrow side road he had just passed. He felt a non-existent gaze.

Come to think of it, he felt like he'd heard a story set in a place like this long ago. How long ago was it... that's right, when he was a child. It was a story he heard from his foster parent, the Sister.

It was a story like this. One rainy night, a man was walking through a tunnel. Then suddenly he felt a presence behind him. But even if he turned around, there was only darkness there. The protagonist continued to walk, telling himself it's just his imagination. But the presence keeps getting closer and closer, and then suddenly he hears someone's voice in his ear…

'''"I..."'''

He heard someone's voice.

"Hic!" Ragna's throat shook and twitched. A sudden presence came up behind him. Ragna pulled back and turned around, desperately trying to deny that something was there.

What appeared in Ragna's vision was a white face. From the darkness, which looked like layers of shadows, only the floating face was staring at him.

The face was empty. Its seemingly hollowed out eyes reflected nothing, and its simplistic mouth was emitting a strange voice without changing its shape.

'''"Grrrr... I... need... I... need..."'''

A sound that could not be called a human voice. It was the voice of a grudge from one not of this world.

"Oh..."

A ghost. The moment that word came to mind, Ragna's whole body froze. 

No, not something like that. Something unreasonable and bizarre, untouchable, unable to be cut down even with a sword, something that completely ignored his violence and resented him with curses and grudges.

A chill ran through him and fear stopped Ragna's breath. But…

"Hm? This guy..."

Feeling uncomfortable, Ragna frowned and kicked the floor to get some distance.

It was dark and barely visible, but he strained his eyes to see. It looked like a white face floating... but in reality, something black and amorphous was wriggling around the white face. Wriggling and trembling, with thin bones occasionally popping out, the blackness was a presence familiar to Ragna, unlike ghosts and spirits.

"Seithr?" Ragna muttered lowly, with hostility, and he glared at the white face again. His hand naturally reached for the sword at his waist.

It was not the grudge of the dead nor a wandering soul, but a mass of seithr that had gathered and taken shape.

Whether it was born from the seithr that lingered in this sewer, or whether it entered from outside Kagutsuchi, he did not know, but judging from its shape, this was probably the "Squiggly" that Taokaka had talked about.

Looking up at Ragna with its white face, it slid and crawled towards him.

'''"Aaah, Azure, Azure! I can smell the fragrant scent of Azure. The path to all wisdom..."''' The mass of seithr called out in a muddy voice. It could be heard as a human voice, but the already unclear voice was fragmented and cut off, and he couldn't understand it. But Ragna had no intention of listening and understanding in the first place.

When he saw that the liquid, mud-like thing was moving and jumping up, Ragna quickly drew his sword at his waist and braced himself.

The mass of seithr changed its body into countless sharp needles in the air, and fell down to pierce Ragna.

The intention to attack was clear. More than intention, it might be instinct.

Ragna drew his sword and held it up, catching the descending seithr with all his might.

"Tch!" The wriggling seithr was heavier and sharper than he'd expected. A screeching sound rang out from his sword and sparks flew.

The black monster had a foul appearance. It was like sludge accumulated in the sewer. It was sticky and wriggled as if dragging an unpleasant weight. It was probably some other creature originally. But now, it was a deformed thing that was clearly outside the framework of life.

"Uraaa!"

If so, there was nothing to fear. Roaring from the bottom of his stomach, Ragna pushed it back with a swing of his sword, then lightly jumped and swung the sword vertically.

"I'll crush you!"

'''"Kikikiki!"'''

Ragna's slash, carrying the weight of the sword, quickly struck the shadow. He intended to crush it together with the face, but the shadow, looking at Ragna, trembled and shook, and in an instant, it fell to the ground with a splattering sound as if being sucked in, slipping through Ragna's feet. It raised its head again, and began to chant something from behind.

"Geh!" It was a mist of seithr. Ragna quickly spat out what he had inhaled.

Meanwhile, worm-like bugs wriggling one after another jumped out of the seithr's body and pounced on Ragna.

Seithr and small deformed creatures.

"You gross bastard!"

Watching it filled his heart with disgust. It was coarsely irritating.

Ragna put strength into the hand gripping the sword's hilt. Power flowed from inside him as if blood was being washed away. Pulling back greatly, he swung it in an arc towards the countless insects that were jumping in.

Suddenly, a sound like a burning bag ripped through the air. The sword that Ragna swung had somehow become a black, ominous flame-like darkness. The insects were burned by the dark flame and scattered, turning to dust and falling miserably to the ground. But they immediately returned to the body of the seithr, their master.

The deformed creature laughed loudly as the returning insects swirled around its feet.

'''"Kakakaka! I saw it, I saw it, it's Azure, you, your power is Azure! Unfathomable truth..."''' 

It swelled up from below and burst, and at the same time, the deformed creature jumped up. From its expanded body, countless beetle leg-like organs emerged. Trembling, it jumped toward Ragna.

Ragna quickly retreated. In the next instant, the strange feet tore apart the floor where he had been standing.

The white face glared at Ragna resentfully, as if regretting that it had missed its prey.

'''"Gugu... come here, come here! I will eat, devour..."'''

Interrupting the monster's creaking voice, Ragna's slash swept through the seithr's body. 

The sword, swung with a deep lunge, was wrapped in darkness. If the monster was a shadow, then what swallowed even that shadow would be darkness. As if subduing everything, Ragna's darkness slammed the deformed monster into the rubble, chemicals, and darkness.

A scream like crushed mud, a scream that could not be uttered from the throat of any animal, rang out. The crushed body rippled on the floor, gradually swelling and rising again. Its amorphous back trembled as if convulsing, and it stared at Ragna with empty eyes.

Ragna jumped once more, aiming for its face. This time he caught it. A heavy slash swung down towards the monster's head. It was... violently deflected by a rod-shaped object that came flying while rotating from the side.

"What!?" Losing his balance in midair, Ragna's body was forced to change its trajectory in an unexpected direction. He didn't want to touch it, but he put his hand on the piled-up rubble and reversed his body, landing on the slippery floor. Looking up, Ragna noticed an unexpected figure.

"Please, don't interfere anymore." The one who spoke was a woman's voice, suppressing her emotions as if trying to restrain them, yet still conveying a softness.

A dark, smelly, and filthy sewer. In that place with debris clinging to it, a woman was standing.

It was a woman in red clothes, with exposed, sensual thighs that looked white even in the dark. The design of her dress, with the large opening in its chest, would've attracted a lot of attention if she wasn't in this place.

But here, the clothes looked like they were only meant for jumping around and fighting.

What had been circling in an arc high above the ceiling was caught in the woman's hand as if being entangled. That was what had deflected Ragna's sword. It was a rod as tall as her.

The woman, with her long, ankle-length hair, gazed at Ragna from behind her slender glasses.

"Please, leave." She said once more.

Ragna lowered his waist and braced himself without letting his guard down. He re-gripped the sword that had almost slipped out of his hand.

"Who are you?"

"I am Litchi Faye Ling... a doctor."

"A doctor? What's a doctor doing in a place like this? And why did you get in the way?"

The rod just now was not for attacking, but for protecting that black monster from Ragna.

'''"Gu, gaga... agagagaga!"''' The black shadow monster groaned and wriggled, making a sticky, boiling sound. Its empty eyes looked at Ragna, and then at the woman, Litchi. There were a few seconds of hesitation. 

After that... it let out a shriek like scratching metal and threw its body into the darkness behind it.

"Hey, wait a minute!" 

Thinking it was escaping, Ragna was about to turn his sword towards it, but by the time he did, the mass of seithr had already disappeared in an instant, as if melting into the shadow and losing its shape.