“Oh, by the stars, they are going to hate me after this,” Alana whispered to herself, as the realization of how much she had messed up started to set in.
Maze looked the most uncomfortable, Alana couldn’t tell if it was because she didn’t feel comfy in the top and shorts combo Sefi had given her, or if it was because she seemed to harbour genuine dislike for Rumi, for no good reason. If it was her alone, then maybe the witch could overlook it, but Qullqi was also a bit more frowny than usual.
“Alana may have accidentally given you the wrong idea,” Qull said to Rumina. “We are in a state of conflict with Tengu, yes, but it is one-sided. We have no desire to initiate any combat with them nor actively seek contact with their agents.”
The magical girl, or rather, the girl, since Rumina was in her untransformed form, tilted her head with that glare of hers. She and Qullqi were having a staring context.
“Don’t you care they are messing around with innocent people? They have been trying to kidnap my friend Sefirah, they have plundered many sites across the island, and I think they are also behind the appearance of that slime, which, according to Alana, killed someone.”
Qull clicked her tongue. “We cannot afford morals given our situation. I also doubt we can do more than slightly bother a few lesser goons.”
“Which could be enough to help someone,” Rumi added.
Then they went quiet, they were, after all, still waiting for Rumi’s agent to arrive. But would there be a point to it if they couldn’t agree to work together?
“Alanya.” Sefi said, patting her on the shoulder. “You look too tense, you should not worry, little friend.”
“Ah! Sorry Sefi.” The witch turned to the yellow-haired woman. “Anyway, what is this about the Tengu trying to kidnap you? Isn’t that a crime!?”
“Apparently no! For I am also classified not as a person, but as an anomaly.”
“Wait what?” Qullqi turned to face Sefirah. “I had assumed the Tengu were seeking you for reason similar to our own.”
“Sefi, there is no need to elaborate further if this lot won’t agree to be on our side,” Rumi warned.
Mazeline finally entered the conversation. “She has an artificial body. But I can’t deduce what her deal is. You know, knowing the princess, I am a bit familiar with this type of stuff.” by that she meant her friend Prim, who had a doll-like body.
The werewolf advanced without care, looking around Sefi, tail swinging rhythmically as she tried to understand what was happening. “Way less organic than I expected, head empty, hmm, the torso area.”
Everyone but Sefi and Maze gasped as the wolf simply opened up Sefi’s jacket. At first, everyone was shy, thinking they would see something lewd, but Sefi, while having a feminine shape, didn’t have, well, features, just smooth skin barely covering a black metallic cage.
“Huh, I was expecting to see some sort of tiny fairy or maybe a sentient spirit piloting ya. What is that thing?” Maze asked casually, as if she wasn’t strip-searching some innocent woman.
“Oh, hehe. That is my core.” Sefirah said with a similarly unjustified careless tone, then she pressed her hand against the centre of her chest and took out the main piece of the metallic frame. A dark silver square with an aurichalcum frame, encased in two round rings of some black material that looked oddly familiar to the witch.
“Sefi, what the hell.” Rumina rushed ahead but it was too late, Sefi’s eyes and hair went grey as soon as she did that, she stopped moving and looked as if she was asleep.
“Ahhh hell. Hell. Shit.” Rumi continued, using words a magical girl probably shouldn’t. “How do I connect it again? Damn it. I didn’t want to show this to my agent yet. You damn fleabag, why did you have to stick your nose where you don’t belong.”
Maze at first looked shocked as well, eyes wide. But as Rumi started to offend her, the wolf started to look smug again, as if trying to salvage her pride. “Oh!? Says the one who was trying to have us fight her fight! I wouldn’t have pressured your group’s dummy if you hadn’t pressured my group’s dummy.”
“Hey, no need to offend me and Safi like that.” Alana pouted.
Turning to her, Maze looked as if she remembered something, suddenly stepping up to the witch, towering over her, adding pressure as she leaned forward to take a close look at Alana.
“Hey, that choker of yours. Can I have a look at it? The material on it is the same as the one around the artificial girl’s core.”
As Maze reached forward, Alana stepped back, shaking her head. She wished she could explain it better, but excuses would have to suffice. “Ah, no no, you see, it’s a lucky charm and a gift and, uhm, just don’t mess with it okay? Grandma said so...”
Snap.
Again, without asking, Mazeline did some investigation. In this case, by snapping free Alana’s simple black choker.
The witch’s eyes grew wide, and she immediately had to focus all her magic upon herself. It was like suddenly realizing she was carrying a massive weight, and now she had to put in the effort to maintain it. Her frame was de-syncing from her body as if she was casting a transformation spell upon herself, as she had done in the muddy field battle to escape the incoming Tengu agents, but she was not casting any spell.
Or was she? Was this the feeling she couldn’t understand? A spell that she was casting without knowing? It was extremely hard to focus as she felt intense sensations spread over her form along with a sense of shapelessness. The world started to lose colour around her, and Mazeline, now wide-eyed as well, started to tower over Alana even more.
Qullqi and Rumina joined Maze soon enough, all circling around Alana with shocked expressions, all of them now taller than her.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
Alana decided to ask what was wrong. “Bark?”
Wait a moment, no, that wasn’t what she wanted to do. “Bark... bark?”
She looked around at her body, trying to make sense of what she had become, her thoughts dimmer and more primal. She looked behind and saw her sickle tail, and then down, to see her empty clothes and her paws.
Wait. Hold on a moment. “Bark!” she exclaimed, trying to say, “Am I a dog now?”
“Y... O...U!” Qullqi grabbed Mazeline by the neck, shaking the taller, stronger girl fuelled by pure rage. “FIX THIS IMMEDIATELY. SEFIRAH AS WELL. WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU”
“ARK. Qull. Calm down Qull. Rumi! Save me! Aren’t you a magical girl of justice?”
“Leave her alive so I can finish her off.” The magical girl added.
“Let me... try to put back the choker thingy,” Mazeline added, kneeling to avoid being beaten up more, she placed a cautious hand on Alana’s back and tried to wrap the leash around her neck. It felt so tight now that it was free, but Alana wanted to be a good girl, so she didn’t escape the grasp.
“Not connecting. It... I think I may have snapped it for real, meaning it's broken. Uh oh.” The werewolf said, before being beaten to the ground. Her face was on the same level as Alana's muzzle. Looking at her and almost pleading for her to intervene.
Alana merely wagged her tail.
----------------------------------------
All the remaining humans sat at the lone table that stood in Sefi’s empty living room. Qullqi, Rumina and Mazeline all had grown past their rage and confusion stage, now everyone had expressions of resigned passivity.
Meanwhile, Alana was alone in a room with the lifeless Sefi. She had been invited to stay with them, but she was feeling a bit shy, and didn’t want to leave the yellow-haired, actually, currently grey-haired, woman all alone either.
She couldn’t help but notice the curious way their groups mirrored each other. Rumi and Qull were precocious quiet types who took the initiative, and Alana and Sefi were the foreigners with some sort of mysterious form.
She wasn’t superstitious, but wouldn’t it be funny if...
“Bonsoir, Rumi. I came as soon as I could.” Said Rumi’s agent, as soon as she entered the house. She was a tall and elegant woman, with a mature look to her, wearing a dark grey blazer dress as the centrepiece of her spotless outfit, she had light grey skin and black hair... Oh, no, wait, that was Alana's dog eyes. Everything was monochromatic now.
Then she saw purple all over the living room. As soon as the agent had entered the room, her eyes gained a slight purple shine, some sort of magical ability, maybe like Mazeline and with her shiny eyes.
Somehow, Cerberus really was a mirror of Rumi's group in a way. That was kinda bizarre and probably meant something, but the dog didn't have the mind to think about that.
“You said you had made allies out of three ex-enemies?” she looked over the room. “Ah! The gunslinger! I was expecting you to get her on your side, Rumina. And is the other one that cute red-haired petit sorceress? That little electric oni? As for the wolf, eh, if you want to, I wouldn't advise."
Mazeline scoffed. “Chalry de Bourgogne, I heard things were bad for the house, but to end up as a minor marketing agent in the middle of nowhere, ouch.”
“Oh, sorry, you are?” Chalry's expression remained perfectly gentle and civilized, but the words had an added edge to them.
“You have the power of perfect memory; you know who I am,” Maze added with a grunt.
“Oh... Oh!” Chalry tapped on her chin then pretended to be surprised. “The runt of the Gevaudan litter. The girl who was a petty criminal in The Capital, along with that heiress, the poor little thing, does she still live?"
"One more word and I will..."
"Will what? Force me to get a Velo-dog?" Chalry laughed, that type of laugh fancy ladies did in movies. "That was for the fun factor, by the way, I do not need toys to take down some mutt."
"Maybe I should tell everyone about what your family did, Saint-Slayer."
"Precious words from the one who was best friends with a Protocol Breaker, what was the name of the bloodsucker again? Lechia? Lydia? I forget. But you surely remember."
“Uuuughhh.” Qullqi suddenly said, forcing her voice into a tone completely unlike her typical one. “I cannot believe it, Aeolian court intrigue. Nobody cares. Literally, nobody cares. What is the rivalry? Did her great-great-great uncle cause the cousin of the brother of your grandmother’s side affair to lose face by not complimenting their moustache? Sincerely, if I wanted cheap drama, there are good wuxia shows to watch, or maybe some Antilean soap opera.”
The two nobles flushed at the display and then, like bratty children, pouted and looked offended, but at least the bickering stopped.
“Anyway,” Rumi said awkwardly. “Forget that Chalry, they already said they will not be helping. This is about... another issue. You know how Sefi is over-eager to show things, yeah? Well...”
And then Rumi explained everything. What had happened to them, and the entire mess Mazeline had created for no good reason outside of being too curious for her own good.
By the end of it, the pretty lady with purple eyes simply nodded and moved to the room where Sefi and Alana were, ignoring Alana.
“I had known she occupied an artificial body, but of all the reasons I considered for that, all of them involved a human origin, someone with a framework, not a physical core. She truly is an anomaly, with human-like intelligence, but a machine. This thing looks quite ancestral as well.”
“The body?” Rumi questioned.
“No. The body is a common model, Chalav Dvash style automaton. Technologyat HaGolem Model 11952. Almost sixty years old but still used as basic drones to keep libraries tidy, easy to find, if you have the money, flexible, and reliable. What is ancient is the core. The char bands are percussor designed, we don’t even know who made these.”
"Char?" Rumi asked.
"Coal," Chalry answered.
“Coal?” Rumi asked, with a blush.
“Ah, sorry. Coal is a type of rare material, formed by Carbon.”
Rumi was overheating from blushing. “Which is...”
“You should not skip your classes Rumi. I know this was part of your lessons!” Chalry lectured but then sighed. “The body element, the thing most living biological entities use to form themselves, making it the physical half of life essence.”
“Isn’t that the black diamond stuff? Not the real thing, I mean, those blocky chalky stones you use when you can’t afford a real diamond?”
“Diamonds, Diamantine, Black Diamonds, Graphite, Coal, it's all Carbon,” Qull informed.
“Yes! Lady Canine Chimera is correct.” Chalry smiled at Qull, glancing over the core a few more times before starting to fidget with Sefi “It's a VERY flexible material once made solid, but most of it is gaseous or ethereal, living beings were the only source of solid carbon for most of known history. Today we can synthesize many materials made of carbon from plants and well, dead animals, but in the past, no. It’s very rare, so this band using it means it's a true relic."
As she explained that, Chalry shoved it back upon Sefirah’s chest, causing the girl’s eyes to shine again, her body stirring to life.
“Ah! Wow! I was truly out for a while. Why didn’t you connect me back, Rumi? ... Oh! Hello Chalry! OH! HELLO PUPPY!”
Alana found herself being picked up by the automaton, patted at and kissed, she started struggling out of embarrassment but nothing her little furry paws could do stopped the metal entity.
“It was as simple as shoving it back? I didn’t want to break her... crap!” Rumi raged again.
“Oh, but I am glad you did. I am so pleased to learn you have been hiding something so crucial from me, petit shaman girl. We will have a lot of fun talking about this later. Well, shall we go now?”
“Wait. The witch is still a dog.” Rumi said.
“Ah, indeed she is.”
“She turned into one after we broke this band,” Qull said.
“Shame.” Chalry hummed.
“You have a degree in alchemy and enchantment, don’t you, Chalry?” Rumi’s voice became more serious.
“Hmm. Professional work though. Would cost hundreds of thousands of manas. Maybe I could do it, if you three agreed to help my protegee with her career and... ACK” She was cut off by a punch to the ribs from Rumi, her glasses almost fell to the ground.
“I don’t want friends and allies through blackmail. You said you can help them, then just do it.” Rumi said firmly. “Make it compensation for me hurting Alana earlier this week.”