Gripping Nova’s body tight, Arcturus was on guard. The Shiftie boy in front of him had a red earring, yet he detected something rather ominous from him. Despite being siblings with Constance, he paid her no attention and continued drilling his gaze towards his direction.
Arcturus wondered how he was going to fight while holding Nova. Putting him down was the worst idea for he could easily be snatched away. Although Nova was light, using only his legs to fight wasn’t a good idea as Shifties’ legs were hard and solid. Throwing his daggers was a gamble as he wouldn’t throw them very far.
His thoughts were interrupted when the brother started charging towards him. As a reaction, he threw Nova up with all of his strength and then drew as much power into his leg in order to kick him really hard until he flew back onto the nearby wall. He caught Nova once the collision happened. He was grateful that the loft room was rather spacious, which allowed him to stand straight despite his tall height and kicked him quite far.
Constance took the opportunity to rush towards him and placed a hand on both shoulders and held him against the wall. The person in the brown cloak got out a revolver from under their sleeve and pointed it at him. Arcturus found this a good opportunity to hand Nova over to Hilbert. He wanted to join the fight.
“Hide Nova somewhere safe.”
Hilbert nodded. “Alright. I’ll also notify the others.”
“Please do.”
Hilbert rushed downstairs. Now that Nova was not occupying his arms, he took the opportunity to materialize his daggers.
“Brother, why are you here?”
“I’ve been ordered to capture the Charlatan.”
“Under whose orders?”
Instead of answering, he grabbed Constance’s wrists and forcefully pulled them off of him. He then kicked her, causing her to fly back. She held her ground with the heels of her boots. The power of her feet caused the heel of her boots to sink into the floor. Arcturus knew this Shiftie would be a tricky opponent to deal with given the small space of the loft. The brother-bot could not be reasoned with, so he knew the next best option was to find a way to get rid of him as soon as possible before the Shiftie destroyed the entire house. He had to find a way to separate his earring from his body.
Suddenly, Asteria jumped up from the ground floor and landed onto the loft room without the need to climb up. Arcturus noticed how gleeful she looked.
“It’s a Shiftie. How fun.”
She pressed her right index finger on a ring on her right thumb. A long spear-like weapon started manifesting. When it was completely materialized and three prongs showed up, Arcturus noted that her weapon was a trident. She held it with charisma and grace. The other members of DUO arrived and unleashed their weapons as well. Some of them wielded guns of different shapes and sizes; Marlo was the only one who didn’t wield a gun as he had a crossbow instead. Seeing them all prepared to fight made Arcturus rather excited. It had just been Nova and him fighting, so to have an influx of companions made him feel safe.
“A Shiftie’s weakness is the earring. Find a way to remove it from their ear.”
As he got into a fighting stance, he noticed his hands glowing a lavender hue.
Marlo called out to him, “Hey, you’re glowing…”
“Huh?” He looked down and noticed his whole body was glowing; this caused him to worry.
The person in the ivory cloak commented, “Since when were you able to shine?”
“This isn’t natural, I swear!”
The glowing stopped, which confused Arcturus even more. He wondered what just happened. It was surely unusual. All he could deduce was that Souhait must have lent his power to him. The only problem was that he didn’t know what Souhait lent to him. He didn’t have the time or opportunity to figure it out.
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The person in the brown cloak questioned, “How are we going to defeat this Shiftie?”
Asteria got into a battle stance. “There’s only one of him and a lot of us. Just wing it until you have the chance to take out his earring.” She took the initiative and charged towards him. The trident’s prongs were about to jab into him, but he evaded the attack. He then kicked Asteria to the wall on the left.
The person in the brown cloak was the first to shoot at him. The bullets had little effect on him as he rushed towards them and kicked them to the same wall Asteria was at. Their hood was removed to reveal an Ilacian woman with a long blonde braid.
Marlo rushed towards her. “Esta, are you okay?”
“I’m fine.”
“How about you, Boss?”
She ignored him as she got up and dashed towards the Shiftie once again. This time, Constance assisted her by charging towards her brother and pinned him down. Asteria jabbed the prongs on the leg that had kicked her. He didn’t react to the attack, but it did immobilize him.
“Answer me, brother. Who is your master?”
“I cannot say.”
“Enough blabbering and just remove his earring!” Asteria yelled.
Arcturus groaned as he charged forward. If Constance wasn’t going to remove his earring, he’d do it instead. However, he didn’t account for the brother-bot to use his hands, which were free, to touch his earring. It started glowing, causing him to shift from human to animal. Seeing how Asteria got distracted, the brother used the opportunity to remove the prongs from his leg and kicked Constance off of him. He stood up straight, but suddenly hunched over as his hands and feet became hooves and his neck got longer; he even grew a tail. While Arcturus was familiar with such a sight, he was still amazed by it. Once the glowing stopped, he was no longer human, but a large buck with a red earring dangling on his left ear.
Asteria was the first to charge forward, but the brother-bot used his antlers to knock both her and her trident away from him. He then charged towards Arcturus. He noticed that the buck kept charging and didn’t look back. It made him realize that the buck’s target was Hilbert and Nova, so dodging only gave the Shiftie a way to reach them quickly. Realizing his error, he panicked. He threw his dagger in an attempt to stop the buck. It didn’t hit. Instead, the dagger started moving erratically. Instead of piercing the leg like how he was intending, it started swinging around the leg as if he had launched a grappling hook. His dagger looked as if there was a very thin piece of string attached to the handle. It was connected to his bangle, so he assumed it was a feature Hilbert had added in without his consent.
The adjustment was to his advantage as the makeshift grappling hook prevented the buck from proceeding any further. He used all of his strength to hold the Shiftie back as he yelled for someone to remove the earring.
Asteria used her trident to pierce the Shiftie’s body, completely immobilizing it, and Constance dashed towards her brother and was the one to remove his earring. In a flash, the buck became still and then slumped onto his side. The tense air dissipated as the noise became quiet. Arcturus’s dagger and Asteria’s trident dematerialized.
Arcturus checked the area. The ceiling had a hole and the surrounding area was a gigantic mess, but nothing else seemed broken. Marlo and Esta were fine. An immeasurable joy welled up within Arcturus. He was able to stop a Shiftie from getting to Nova without destroying too much. He wanted to go check up on Hilbert and Nova, but when he stood up, Asteria stood up alongside him.
Asteria approached Constance and reached a hand out to her. “Hand that earring over.”
Constance grasped it tight in her hand. She wasn’t too keen on complying to her demand. “Why?”
“I’m going to destroy it.”
She shook her head. “I won’t allow that. This earring is my brother-bot. Destroying it means killing him and I won’t allow that.”
“He’s still a Shiftie at the end of the day. Put that earring back on his ear and he’ll attack us again. Consider it a miracle that we managed to subdue him and take out the earring. Combat Shifties are difficult to defeat. We must eliminate any obstacle in our way.”
Arcturus wondered if he should butt into their conversation. He didn’t want Asteria to destroy the earring as the souls inside were needed for Nova and Souhait. Before he could speak up, an unfamiliar sound was caught in his hearing distance. Constance seemed to have picked up on it too as they were both staring in the same direction. He felt an uneasiness that was accumulating faster than his own heartbeats.
“What’s wrong?” Asteria asked.
“Something’s coming…” Constance muttered.
Through the hole that the Shiftie came from, an unfamiliar figure trespassed into the Flying House. She was a tall, graceful woman with short and wavy dark brown hair and blue eyes. She was dressed in an unnecessarily long fur coat that covered her entire body to the point that it was draping onto the floor. The sight of her shocked Arcturus. It wasn’t due to her being a sudden trespasser, but how much she looked like Sophia if she was younger. He easily deduced who this was just from looking at her face and recalling the stories Sophia and Murphy had told him back at their apartment.
Asteria gasped as she uttered a familiar yet unfamiliar name.
“Virgo…”