Chapter 10
The bath was luxurious, but the three were unable to properly enjoy it due to their continued feeling of impending trouble. So after washing, they hardly soaked in the hot pool at all before returning to their rooms.
"I'm really tired now, would it be okay if I laid down for a while?" Sakura asked.
"I guess so, we don't have anything else to do before dinner."
As Sakura changed from her bathrobe to a pair of her pajamas out of her suitcase, Tomoyo decided she might as well join her.
As they snuggled and basked in each others love they tried to forget about the upcoming threat, but it was no use. "I have an idea. I'll use Dream to see if I can learn just when and where the battle will be." Sakura suggested.
"But it's only two and a half hours till dinner, we don't have time." Tomoyo replied.
"I asked Dream and she said she can give me a dream and still wake me back up in an hour."
"Okay, I guess that won't hurt. I could use some quiet time as well." Tomoyo reluctantly agreed. "Remember that Dream hasn't been much help up to now, so don't get your hopes up."
"I know. But right now, any information would make me feel better."
When Dream took Sakura she disappeared as before, both to Tomoyo's magic sense as well as the mental link that caused them to feel each others feelings. "It's silly but I miss her love already... I wish I could nap with a Magic Card like she can. I can't even lie still even though I feel really tired... And I'm sure Kutong could get here and attack tonight if he wanted to." Tomoyo worried to herself. "If the spy called him as soon as we got here, and he took a private jet... I don't think it's that far from North Korea to here... Ii might be possible for him to be here in as little as three hours. I don't care what Ieran says about him not attacking here, we need to be ready tonight! I need to talk to Ieran!"
With this thought in her mind she got up and got dressed, then scanned for Ieran's shield. "There she is. Downstairs and over that way... But I mustn't leave Sakura! I'll try calling her on the phone. I'm sure the attack is tonight, and it feels even sooner. Fortunately he can't get here any sooner."
But just as this thought crossed her mind she felt a powerful nonphysical Magic attack! It tore through the house like a tsunami until it got to her and Sakura, where it crashed against her natural shield for a few seconds before stopping.
Tomoyo then scanned the house quickly but found only her mom's shield still active, and it felt like her mom was the only one in it. Then she realized what that meant. The fear had just stabbed her when she felt him! "That's Kutong! I'm sure of it. But how did he get here so fast? There was a crash and then she felt his shield in the house and headed for the stairs.
Sonomi also felt Kutong's shield and guessed correctly who it was. And despite hellish torment her iron will stopped her from doing what her motherly love was screaming at her to do. To try to protect her daughter. "I couldn't even slow him down. I have no protection against the fireballs Tomoyo says he throws. He would just incinerate me and keep going. And that certainly wouldn't help Tomoyo. But Sakura is with Tomoyo, and she has killed him before, so it shouldn't be any problem now." This thought comforted her until she probed for Sakura and didn't feel her in her daughter's shield...
"SAKURA! WAKE UP! NOW!!" Tomoyo screamed as she shook the Cardmistress, but it did no good. Sakura was out cold. "Dream!! Let Sakura go! She has to wake up!" But she still couldn't feel either Dream or Sakura's mind. The fear was really tearing at Tomoyo now. "I could fight him with my sword and shield. And I can throw fireballs... If I could remember how to make them..." The image of how he threw torrents of fireballs at Ieran and her team while hitting them with his Slime Needle attack came to her mind and this reminded her- "I have his Card!" She immediately called on the slimy attack card and told him to attack his former master.
She could feel the Card attacking but it didn't seem to do anything but enrage Kutong. "He's coming straight for us! SAKURA!! No, I've got to get her out of here!" There was a good sized window overlooking the garden which Tomoyo slashed to pieces with her Saber. She could now feel him coming up the stairs. The nonphysical Magic attack was back, although without Slime Needle it lacked the disgusting feeling as well as some of it's power. Still the legendary Kutong was coming ever closer and with her beloved Sakura in a helpless state, it shouldn't be surprising that she lost control to her fear. Without another thought she grabbed Sakura and jumped out the hole she had cut.
As soon as she was clear she called on her Fly Card as well as her Shield Card and headed away as fast as her high performance dragonfly wings could take her. "We are safe now, Sakura! He has angel wings and can't possibly keep up with us." But then a thought hit her like a sword to the heart and she screamed in agony. "SAKURA'S CARDS!!!"
"I forgot them! I AM SO STUPID!!! Now all is lost. It doesn't matter if we escape or if he catches us and kills us. My real purpose wasn't protecting Sakura, it was protecting her CARDS..." But the feeling that neither her life nor Sakura's life was important anymore caused Tomoyo's fear to disappear as quickly as it had come and her mind started working again.
"Maybe I can call them."
"SAKURA CARDS! COME TO ME! SAKURA IS IN DANGER! SHE NEEDS YOUR HELP! SHE NEEDS YOUR PROTECTION! FIERY! BRING THE CARDS!"
"What do ya want?" Fiery answered from right beside her and the shock of this nearly made her drop Sakura.
"FIERY! Kutong is coming to kill Sakura and steal the Cards! Tell Dream to let Sakura wake up!"
But Fiery just shrugged. "When Dream is working she isn't even in this world. Nobody can talk to her."
"But we need Sakura to stop Kutong!"
"No you don't. I'm here. Can I burn him?" Fiery asked hopefully.
"YES! Anything! But he is very powerful! Can you contact the other Cards!"
"We are all here. Sakura told us to stick close to her so we followed. "So where is this guy you want toasted?" Fiery asked with a smile.
"He is following me, back that way." She pointed and was shocked to see how close he was. "He is there, flying with the feathered wings. You must stop him to save Sakura!"
"No problem. It's as good as done." With this Fiery flew off towards the winged figure in the distance leaving Tomoyo trying to figure out how he was catching up to her. "He must have some kind of super flying power or something! Of course he has a Fly Card. And maybe a Shield Card as well. And if we had taken the time in the other timeline to capture those cards, when we brought them here, he would have lost them! If only we had thought more about what we were doing before we did it! But we were all excited about getting Nadeshiko back. We are much too young and STUPID to be responsible for the world!" she told herself, but again she used her self control to put her torment aside and concentrate on what was happening at that moment. We aren't beaten yet. I still have the Sakura Cards and they have a lot of power even without her. And I must NOT lose my self control again! To HELL with fear, this is important!"
In a couple of minutes Fiery was back. "He is tough. I couldn't touch him. Even with Earthy and Watery helping.
"I TOLD YOU!" Tomoyo yelled at him, then checked and saw that Kutong was still catching up. "We have to do something!"
"Yeah, I know, we got you covered. We just need to get him down on the ground. You can be the bait, and we will be the trap."
"Are you sure you can stop him on the ground?" Tomoyo asked hesitantly.
"Sure! Earthy has a great idea, and with Windy and Watery's help, we'll take care of him no matter how tough his shield is." Fiery grinned. "Just land and wait. As soon as he gets low enough, we'll spring our trap."
"So what are you going to do on the ground that you can't do in the air?" Tomoyo wanted to know.
"No hints! We want it to be a surprise." Fiery said with a grin.
"A SURPRISE?!" Tomoyo screamed. Then, she took a deep breath and remembered that Sakura's Cards had killed Kutong before. "But what if he starts throwing fireballs when he gets close? I may not be able to divert them fast enough!"
"Fireballs? Who do you think you're talking to? I can toss his fireballs right back in his face. You just watch. So, come on and land; I can't wait to spring this one, it's gonna be good!"
Tomoyo thought about this for a bit before she realized that she had no choice. With him catching up she had to stop and fight. "SAKURA!" She yelled at the limp girl in her arms without any sign of response. "Okay. I'll set down in that open area and make like I'm hiding in those trees. But this better work, or Sakura and I are both dead. And the World is-"
"Don't worry, he hasn't a chance." Fiery assured her with a smile.
Tomoyo was holding down her fear as best she could while trying to think of what she could do in case Fiery's trap failed when she tried to land normally. But when you are carrying someone who weighs more than you do while flying with dragonfly wings and you try to land in your usual way... Well it throws your center of gravity way off. So of course she wound up face down on top of the sleeping girl. Fortunately, the grass was fairly soft.
To her credit, she wasted no time being upset with not only dropping Sakura on the ground but landing on top of her. She kept her mind on Kutong and the Sakura Cards.
"I have to have a plan in case Fiery's trap fails. I need to be ready. I have Sakura's Shield Card protecting us, and I also have Sakura's Sword Card which I suspect is more powerful than Light Saber. And I still have all of Sakura's attack Cards. What I don't have is Sakura's immense Magic power to back up those Cards. They did Kill Kutong once on their own, but that may have just been the element of surprise. He likely wasn't expecting the masterless Cards to suddenly attack him. But now he is ready and has already held off our three most powerful attack Cards... So what can I do to stop him?" After a moments thought the conclusion was inescapable. "The best I can hope for is to hold him off until Sakura wakes up. But that is going to be very hard to do."
With this conclusion, Tomoyo took up her position over her Sakura with Sword in her hand and waited. And with nothing to do but think about being attacked, her fear tore at her insides and it took all of her self control to keep from screaming.
"I have to be brave. Sakura is depending on me. I have to be ready for anything. Fiery's plan will work. It will! We can't lose this wonderful life we have now. It is so sweet! We can't lose it now! Everything will be all right. It must!" She kept talking to herself as the seconds passed, saying the same things over and over. It seemed like twenty minutes, but it was actually less than twenty seconds before Kutong was there and descending towards the clearing. He was coming down slowly while scanning all around. "He must suspect a trap. And he is right. I just HOPE it works!" Tomoyo said softly to herself.
Then just as he touched down, Tomoyo felt the Sakura cards explode into action. There was a roar as the ground under her feel lurched so hard it not only knocked her off balance but actually tossed her nearly a foot into the air. And as luck would have it, she came down once again on top of the Cardmistress. She jumped back to her feet as quickly and to her credit she didn't worry about any injury she might have done to her love but instead tried to locate Kutong. But there was just this round hole, maybe four meters across. "This is weird! Is he hiding from the Cards? Trying to attack me from below?"
But then as she watched, a huge cylinder of rock rose out of the ground next to the hole, moved over, and dropped into it on top of Kutong. "So that is the trap." she thought to herself as she saw Fiery, Windy and Watery coming back. She was startled for a moment when she saw something that looked like a sea urchin following them, but when she touched it with her Magic sense she realized it was Slime Needle.
"The look on his face was priceless!" Fiery laughed.
When Tomoyo felt the earth move again, though much more gently she saw the ground moving together and making both holes disappear.
Using her Magic sense she reached down into the ground and kept reaching until she felt Kutong's shield. The overwhelming fear Tomoyo could feel coming from him made her feel guilty for a moment. But then she remembered he had killed Sakura once and would no doubt have done the same again. He was now four or five hundred meters down and descending fast as the hole was still open beneath him and the massive cylinder of rock was still pushing him down.
"That should do it!" Tomoyo thought to herself. "No matter how strong his shield is, having hundreds of meters of rock on top of him is going to make it impossible for him to get back to the surface. Unless he can teleport! No, if he could do that, he would have, right after they caught him. It seems he is trapped in a fatal trap. It's going to be getting hotter and hotter as he falls deeper into the Earth. Of course he has his Magic Shield. But...it can't last forever, and the temperature will keep going up the deeper he goes." Tomoyo couldn't help feeling a twinge of sympathy for Kutong. "Being buried alive is a horrible fate. But..." she took a deep breath, "we had no choice. The important thing is that Sakura and her Cards are safe...for now, at least. So I guess we can go back to Ieran's house."
"Fiery told me to stop attacking and come back to you. Is it okay?" Slime Needle asked.
"Sure. Now back to Card form." As the sprites did as she asked, she called on Illusion to make her invisible without any problem, but when she called on Silent she was ignored until Fiery backed her up. Then, she picked up Sakura and took off trying to remember which direction she had come from.