Maybe he'd been hasty in ditching the armor, Archer thought mournfully as he ducked behind a large of piece of rubble leaning on a wall just before countless bullets passed where he was standing.
His search for an open access to the Tokyo underground has been stymied in Shinjuku. The Britannian had been thourough in sealing the metro, pouring so much concrete into every entrances, services door and airduct any attempt to break through would draw attention from the ghetto's inhabitant. Rather than make a scene, he'd decided to try his luck in another ward.
It turned to be the right move. A maintenance hatch under a fallen wall had been left untouched, and a little application of strength had been all it took to get in. Heartened by this lucky break, he'd made his way toward the center of the old city, beneath the Brittanian settlement.
He was half way there when the tiny spider mech had shown up.
Archer had taken to the shadows at the first noise of crushed pebbles, but the machine had found him out anyway, relying on different sensors than its lone red eyes. It had asked for his identification once and promptly opened fire when he'd politely declined. Archer had made short work of the machine, more than fast enoug to outpace its targeting system.
It got more complicated when the whirring returned from all direction.
Archer was fast. Fast enough to dodge bullets. Not fast enough to dodge a seemingly neverending spraying from nearly all angles.
Archer was tough. A lifetime ago, he's survived many wound that should have by all right finished him, including gunshot wounds. Not tough enough to live after being perforated like swiss cheese.
And so, his current predicament, curled behind a piece of concrete that was slowly behing chewed up by the amount of lead being thrown at it. Archer wondered idly if they would run out before it gave.
Frustatingly, the machines were smart enough to actively avoid each other's line of fire, so his chances of having them destroy each other before they got him were too sluim to contemplate.
Avoiding to expose magic to anybody who may be watching through their eyes was irrelevant compared to Archer's survival, so the man started sifting for through the Hill for a blade that would defeat the entire crowd without bringing down the ceiling on his head.
His thoughts were interrupted by a series of dull noises and the sound of small, metallic object hitting the ground. The seven petals of the Aius materialized just before the grenades exploded.
"
I am the bone of my sword."
Archer's he filled the air with blades, turning the little vermin into scrap. He sighed. If the Britannian hadn't known of his presence before, this was sure to clue them in. Ah well, he'd confirmed that the underground lair or infiltration wouldn't work out. That was something at least.
That's when he noticed the door that had been revealed by the explosion. An entrance to the maintenance tunnels, which meant a possible exit nearby. Worth checking out as by his estimation he was underneath the settlement.
The first clue that something was wrong was when the door burst open before he got within two feet. The second was the inky emptiness that the other side. The third was the cyclonic winds that swept him off his feet and sent him tumbling through. Archer grabbed the frame at the last moment.
Then the opening vanished, door, frame and all.
Archer fell.
-------
A midnight garden.
He is standing in a field of white lilies, bathed in the full moon's light.
He face palms "What the hell did I get himself into now?" He can feel the mana permeating the air and maintaining this space. A Reality Marble, or something close to it. He's better not do anything rash before he confronts the master of this place. His swords vanish.
The field slopes gently into a hill, a large tome resting on a stone pedestal at its top. As good a place to go as any, he decides.
"Hey, mister." A tiny voice whispers.
"What are you doing here?"
He takes her brusque appearance in stride. "I'm lost. Do you know the way out? "
She pouts. "You're not the Guardian?"
"The Guardian? What do you mean?"
"Poppy Zelretch told me the Guardian would come and Zelretch wouldn't be alone anymore." She says sadly.
...That would certainly explain your wild transdimensional trip, wouldn't it?
The little girl bounces from sadness to giddyness in a flash "Hey, mister! Would you play with Zelretch?" She asks as she happily tugs at him.
[]...?