Lucas and Cass looked at the new scenery in front of them. This time they saw the same thing, and told each other as much, which did not help matters as much as they thought it would.
Emptiness.
A void filled with stars, up and down, so far as the eye could see. Yet, oddly, they could see clearly. All that separated them from this void, this utter nothingness with points of light, was the ten-feet ledge on which they now stood. Lucas could fly, theoretically, but she had no real way to be sure. Even if Cass wasn't there, fully under the effects of gravity. Yet this only brought up the question of in what direction would someone fall. It was at that point that Lucas did her best to stop thinking about it and decided to simply follow the ledge leftwards, marking points with her sword every few steps.
"Huh. Lucas, pay close attention to the colors..."
As they walked leftwards, the ground slowly took on a greenish tint and expanding a bit. The The void itself was slowly turning pink, and some whispering sounds could now be heard. In the nothingness, they could actually be understood. Sorta.
Meet blumen isso blookz regardez impera ianjf...
It went on. Lucas listened.
"Random words in different languages, interspersed by random sounds, I think. English, German, Portuguese, gibberish, French, Latin... None of it makes a sentence. I think you can hear them as well."
Cass nodded.
"Yes. It seems that effect where we see different stuff doesn't work when we have no reference... At least it's what I figure."
Lucas looked ahead and saw a beautiful elf woman running around and firing arrows at a huge frogman of sorts and at a pale, huge Asian man with dreads that did not fit his style well at all. The two other beings also took turns fighting off each other and the elf herself.
"Huh. Elf. Slaad. Kotaro Fuuma. In a huge fight, too. Let's keep our distance."
Cass looked, and saw a man with a bow and arrow, a coyote that somehow kept to his hind legs and the Clown Prince of Crime.
"For me, they look like Robin Hood, a coyote and... Jack Nicholson as the Joker... Also fighting it out. The fuck is with this place?"
Lucas paused.
"I think they are what we could call chaotic figures. This may well not apply here, but I'll use it just for ease of explanation. Elves are Chaotic Good in D&D;, as is Robin Hood. A Slaad is a Chaotic Neutral frog-like monster. I think coyotes are a Native American trickster figure? And Kotaro Fuuma is a character from a game. He fights for pleasure, and does his best to keep the Sengoku going so he has people to fight. A psychopath, not unlike The Joker. Both Chaotic Evil. We should find some place to hide before they notice us."
Cass facepalmed. For all his skill, Lucas was still very much unused to being in an anime radius, and sometimes forgot one or two tropes. Which was why Lucas only noticed her mistake when she saw "Kotaro" turning his eyes on her.
"Ih, merda. (1) Sorry about that, Cass."
Cass sighed, deciding she might as well lampshade the trope. Who knows, it might help keep them alive.
"You just had to say it."
Robert tried her best to relax by reading the paper. After a while, she began feeling hungry, and thought about what Lucas said. Comfort food. - She thought. I could use some...
Her most judgmental side began warning her about the dangers of gluttony, but she didn't plan to overdo anything. Just sit in a nice atmosphere and relax. She wondered idly if she would meet Lucas and Cass there, and - if she did - if she'd be disrupting their date. Yet Lucas... Didn't seem to mind, basically. And, from what Robert knew, would have no qualms at all about telling Robert she minded or about going somewhere else. All in that... weird disposition of hers.
It was settled. She could use some nice, "cozy" place to be, and, by what Lucas said, the Angel Cafe was pretty much that. Different from Hell's Kitchen's "fun", energetic atmosphere. She decided to go to the Cafe, as a place to recharge.
Now dressed and having relaxed a bit, she walked up the stairs to the bell tower, and looked at the door to the Cafe. The door that began this whole thing, turning her into a demoness and teaching her a lesson in humility. Struck blind on the road to Damascus. This door that she thought would take someone to heaven, took someone to a much more mundane place. Yet she was curious. Lucas treated the matter with such simplicity. As if a door that could teleport someone between nations was nothing. Robert sighed and opened the door, going in...
(1) - "Oh, shit."
