Now that Lumière had reappeared, the crowd become less worried.

“Is that monster one of his illusions? Was it ever even real?” One exclaimed.

“Amazing! What a fantastic trick!”

“But how did he get it to look so real?”

The audience members began to discuss amongst themselves, cheering the magician on from below.

Lumière jumped off the back of the Nameless, landing below.

He stood atop a building’s rooftop that extended length-wise along a large portion of the street, adequate room to oppose the towering Nameless that had turned spider-like in appearance.

When Cecilia and Lumière had first arrived, Lumière had instructed Cecilia to begin reshaping the flesh of the Nameless. She seemed disgusted, at first. However, there was a reason to doing so.

Lumière had two reasons for requesting this. As the ‘Beacon’ of the Lord Sinner that represented true fear, Despair, he knew of one of the most common fears of the people- spiders. He wanted to truly scare the guests of his performance. This was the easiest and most assured way to keep the memory of the Nameless in the minds of the people. Knowing them, they would tell others, and the news of the danger would spread, and people would become more aware as a consequence, protecting them.

The second reason was a problem he had become aware of while fighting Asmodeus- the condensing of flesh into a focused form. The closer the Nameless’s flesh was together, the easier it would be for them to ‘reform’ and ‘regenerate’ the damage done to them. By spreading the Nameless out into such a large form by hand, when he fought it, it would be much easier to mess around with, removing a large risk.

So, using Lumière’s blade, coated in a thin layer of saltpeter, Cecilia had stretched out the limbs of the beast, which seemed malleable like clay, carving its profane form apart until it resembled a towering spider.

Lumière dropped the reins, walking close to the Nameless and staring it in its eyes, which had grown beaded and hazy.

“You’ll be able to move soon, won’t you?” He grinned, speaking quietly. He then turned towards the audience below, raising his hands towards them before yelling. “My dearest guests, are you ready for the show!?”

The crowd cheered in response, thinking it was all a game, an illusion of the famous magician. However, Lumière had decided to make his last performance illusion-less. That was part of the reason for bringing the Nameless to the middle borough. He would make the audience know it was truly real.

On the horizon, Lumière saw the honey-haired heroine running across the rooftops. Dozens of tall, inhuman silhouettes followed behind her. He grinned, grasping hold of the hilt of his sheathed blade. With his other hand, he reached into a chimney beside him, dragging his palm against its inner surface. It became coated with a thick layer of pitch-black soot.

He looked towards the White Roses, and then towards the Mythos Garden opposite him. Then, he stepped back towards the edge of the roof, tumbling backwards. He was caught up against the air for a moment, and then heard the cries of the audience as he began to descend towards them, still staring up at the Nameless creature.

Its eyes were filled with malice, pure hatred. At that moment, the saltpeter’s paralysing effect wore off, and the creature lurched towards Lumière in midair, following him in his descent.

As he was about to land in the middle of the street beside the audience, Lumière extended his soot-covered hand behind him, unsheathing his blade slightly and dragging his palm against it, drawing his own blood. Then, he whispered, “Ignición.”. The bloodied mixture of soot and remnant saltpeter alit in his hand, mixing with the silver flame before exploding in a torrent of bright-red flame and pitch-black smoke.

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The crowd from below, and the White Roses and Mythos Garden from above watched as the Nameless Spider fell into the cloak of smoke, disappearing from their sight along with the magician.

Suddenly, the crowd began to feel incredibly anxious. Each person watching the performance began to shake, feeling an eerie sense of danger and dismay. It was like fear rested underneath them, tremoring.

The cloud of smoke began to dissipate, and as the onlookers watched, the silhouette of a drawn blade emerged, clashing with the monstrous form of a terrifyingly-large fleshy spider. Its form had cracked and torn, displaying the large networks of veins and muscle layering underneath its pitch-black miasmic skin. Its eyes had been torn from its skull, the nerves crawling down its neck and chest like ivy, sprouting blossoming blood-red eyes across its body.

The countless eyes constantly swirled around, looking at each member of the audience, sending shivers down their spine.

“Hey- that doesn’t look like an illusion!” One member of the audience, emboldened by the anxiety he felt, began to shout.

Another echoed his sentiment. “Is this… really real!?”

To them, it began to feel like they were truly in danger.

‘Good, it looks like the ‘dreadful tremors’ is working to its fullest extent. I was initially wary about using Lord Sinner’s bestowments, but it seems like they really work to my benefit!’ He grinned as he struggled against the weight of the spider, its fleshy tendrils beginning to wrap around his blade. Kicking back with both feet against it, he tore free from the tendrils, slamming down into the stone-paved road below.

Lumière shot forward, swinging his blade as he struck the leg of the Nameless spider. The flesh seemed impermeable, the Nameless focusing the heft of its body towards its legs as it fought, reshaping the flesh below to become stronger, harder. It was as if it had wrapped its own bone around its skin. Lumière’s blade subsequently bounced off, his eyes widening.

He drew in the fear from those watching behind him, absorbing and transmuting it, temporarily enhancing his strength. Lumière then lurched forth again, swinging the blade over his shoulder with the full-heft of his momentum. The sword cut through the bony-flesh of the spider’s legs, causing it to topple to the ground with a resounding ‘crash’. It cried out shrilly, the sound echoing through the streets and causing the onlookers to cower.

He continued to swing his blade, unmoving in his determination to kill. He sliced through the throat of the Nameless beast, its miasmic-black blood spilling onto the ground below. Cutting through its body felt like slicing through butter, if the flow of cutting through butter was constantly interrupted by fibrous tendrils and thick, viscous marrow.

He sped up his movements, swinging his blade faster and faster until the upper-portion of the spider had been reduced to minced bloody flesh on the stone. He let out an exhausted, heavy breath. As the crowd behind him got over their shock, they began to cheer for the magician who had given his final performance.

‘Oh, don’t clap yet. It’s not quite over. Do you think I would let my final performance end just like that?’ He wiped blood from his nose, pitch-black against his skin.

Suddenly, on the rooftops of the other buildings lining the street, long-limbed creatures mimicking the appearance of the first emerged. The White Roses and Mythos Garden on the rooftops became acutely aware of their presence, not because they could see them, but because they could feel the creatures breathing down their necks.

“There’s more!?” An audience member proclaimed with dismay.

The crowd began to back up, step by step, but quickly realised that no matter which direction of the street they ran towards, they were surrounded by the Nameless creatures regardless.

Lumière stepped atop the rotting, writhing corpse of the Nameless spider, looking up at the rooftops where the White Roses and Mythos Garden began to draw their blades. On a belltower high above, he saw the Nameless Heroine.

‘Good, you’ve done your part, Cecilia. Bringing one from Etten-Leur was always just to be the catalyst of this event.’

However, they weren’t dog-like beasts that he had encountered previously, nor were they humanlike monstrosities he had fought with alongside Ainsworth. They resembled the one he had just killed- the one Cecilia had purposefully deformed. Although, it wasn’t possible for her to have deformed the dozen Nameless in the time she had taken to lead them to the Show Hall.

‘Why do they look so similar to the one we deformed? Is it the case that mindless beasts mimic not only people, but their fellow monsters as well?’ Lumière pondered. ‘They have a perfect horde mentality that they apply to every situation they’re in. Beasts who fight well alone, but also together… how terrifying. No wonder the church placed such weight on eliminating them.’

He sheathed his blade, taking a moment to catch his breath. He turned towards the audience, preparing to speak.

‘Now, it’s all about whether my bet will pay off or not…’ Lumière’s brows furrowed.

‘Will that bastard Archangel hear the news of the Nameless attack and arrive in time to assist us?’