PART 1

"Sometimes, I feel like I'm running a freaking daycare centre," I grumbled as I sat down between my girlfriends, once all the nuisances had been successfully chased away from the premises. They promised they would be back though, but I put that headache in the waiting out of my mind and accepted the skewer from Elly's hand.

"They're just relieved that you're okay," Judy commented on my other side, her own snack long since gone and replaced by her phone in her hands. "More importantly, are you really planning to take Rinne with you to the Elysium?"

"I figured it would help your peace of mind if I had a bodyguard around." After a brief pause, I shrugged and added, "Not that I really need protection. So far, I'm not exactly impressed by the prowess of the average Celestial elite combatant. They need training."

"You want to train the people who kidnapped you," Judy responded a touch flatly, and my mouth automatically tried to respond with a 'Yes'.

"Y— No? Maybe. We'll see."

My dear assistant was looking at me sideways, but whatever comment she had on her tongue was pushed back by the princess grabbing hold of my arm and declaring, "Great idea! They already think that you're their Archon, so now you just have to slowly build up their personal loyalty, and before you know it, the whole Elysium is going to be in the bag!"

"I'm still not planning to subvert the Celestials. I only want to figure out why they are doing what they are doing, and then get out."

"I'll accept that as an adequate segue," Judy cut in and let her phone down, focusing on my face instead. "I have a hypothesis on the current Celestial arc's structure."

"Right! That's what we wanted to discuss from the beginning, didn't we?"

Judy nodded at my other girlfriend and launched into her explanation without any further ado.

"First, let's recount the information we're aware of in regards to the variables that could play a role in this arc. The Celestials had two leaders, Deus and Polemos. Deus died and there was a prophecy that he would somehow reincarnate."

"Correction." I cut in, and Judy immediately picked up her phone again. "The prophecy apparently came from me."

"You mean from Polemos."

"Yes. Precisely." I waited for her to finish typing. "As for the reincarnation method, it apparently came from the Abyssal Archon guy, and Deus got it in exchange for making their own pocket dimension for the Abyssals."

"Noted. Anything else?" When I shook my head, Judy poked her phone a few more times and set it aside once again. "This new information doesn't affect my hypothesis, but first, let's finish the recounting."

"We were at the reincarnation part," Elly spoke up, trying to be helpful. "That's why Josh is the second coming of Deus. I think." Pausing for a moment, her brows scrunched up into a frown and she turned to me. "Do they know this?"

"If you mean the Celestials, they obviously don't. If they did, they would've done their best to pick him up before bothering with me."

"They did consider Joshua a potential candidate," Judy pointed out, drawing our attention back to her. "Angeline told us about this the first time we discussed the topic. She was placed on the island to keep an eye on him."

"Oh, you're right. She did say that." Elly pondered until her brows unknot and climbed her forehead with a sense of realization. "Do you think he's still on their list? Everyone thinks he's a Draconian now, so maybe the Celestials don't even consider him a candidate anymore!"

"That's a distinct possibility," Judy noted and turned to me.

"I'll ask around once I'm back in the Elysium," I told her right away, and she nodded with satisfaction. She liked when I was quick on the uptake.

"In conclusion, our original prediction went like this: The Simulacrum has routes for every love interest for Joshua, where his relevance as the chosen one would be revealed, and the lovers would have to face one last hurdle together."

"In other words, the most basic formula."

"One man's basic is another man's classic," the princess chimed in, and I couldn't really argue.

"But then I got taken in by the Celestials instead of Josh, because I was a match for Polemos."

"No, Chief. We're talking meta now, so focus on the Doylist angle." Judy wagged her finger at me and then made tiny circles with it. "What you should've said was that the Narrative set you up to become Polemos from the very beginning."

"That would explain why Leo could read Celestial script."

Judy responded to Elly's comment with an approving nod and pointed at me again. "Considering all the available evidence, it's likely that you were Polemos from the very beginning, or at the very least, primed to become him on the Angeline route. Since Joshua triggered the route, the Narrative moved the pieces on the board to make sure you would assume your role in the scenario. I also think it's more than likely that the memory transfer procedure was a forceful plot device the Narrative invented to course-correct you into your pre-designated role."

"Potentially, though Fred and company just explained to me that the reason why I could absorb any of the memories at all was due to my soul already having holes designed for those to slot into."

"Is that so?" The conversation paused for a minute while Judy noted that down. "That's strange. I would've bet on the memory transfer procedure being a desperate retcon by the Narrative."

"Why?"

Elly spoke the word before I could, and my dear assistant decided to graciously explain herself.

"Think about it. The Celestials who originally tried to kidnap the Chief belonged to the Unorthodox faction. The Spear of Destiny that was responsible for the memory transfer was locked up in the headquarters of the Reformist faction. What exactly was their plan, if they didn't have access to the transfer device?"

"Maybe the important part was who found Leo first, not who transferred the memories?" Elly proposed back, and after a thoughtful hum, Judy shook her head.

"I doubt it. I considered it more likely that the Chief was supposed to awaken the memories of Polemos on their own once the Angeline route triggered, but because it's the Chief we're talking about, it never happened, so the Narrative created the Spear of Destiny to force the process."

"Okay, but if all of it was invented by the Narrative on the spot, then why didn't it put the Spear of Destiny in the hands of the Unorthodox people?" the princess pointed out, and I had to nod along.

"She has a point, you know?"

"There might be extenuating circumstances we don't yet understand," Judy relented, only to turn around and add, "However, I think my point about the memory transfer being a last-minute attempt to forcefully railroad the Chief into fulfilling his Narrative-designated role is still on the table."

Rubbing the bridge of her nose, Elly let out a dissatisfied noise.

"You know, the more we talk about this Narrative, the more he sounds like a bad dungeon master in a tabletop game."

"Maybe it is? We still don't know why the Simulacrum exists. Maybe it's an advanced form of entertainment for some civilization on the higher end of the Kardashev Scale?"

"The Karda-what?"

"It's a measure of the technological advancement of and power available to a civilization," I cut in a tad impatiently. "It's mostly sci-fi stuff, and if we're talking about it, it means we are veering off-topic."

"Right! We were considering Leo's role in this hypothesis of yours!"

Following Elly's words, Judy took a deep breath and showed three fingers.

"Since the Narrative went out of its way to force the Chief into the role of Polemos, it means the role of Polemos in general, and the Chief possessing it in particular, is vital for the scenario. Based on this assumption, I hypothesize that there are three potential roles the Chief was supposed to play." She curled up two of her fingers, so only her index was showing. "The first option is that Polemos, and thus you, was meant to be an antagonist, or even an outright villain."

"Oh? You mean, just like how, if we were in my route…" For emphasis, the princess pointed at her own face. "… Leo being the King of Knights would've made him the baddie." She was looking proud of herself, but her smile soon wilted and got replaced by a frown. "But wait. If Leo was supposed to be the baddie, shouldn't he have been an Abyssal?"

"While it would make thematic sense, you have to consider the Chief's report about the internal political and ideological strife within the Elysium. It has to exist for a reason, otherwise, the Narrative wouldn't have included it, and I reckon it's to create the setup for a civil war between Polemos and Deus."

"That would never happen." The girls looked at me funny, so I hastily explained, "That's just an impossible conflict. Polemos would never, in a million years, turn on Deus."

"Are you sure?"

Nodding at Elly, I uttered a solemn, "Positive."

"You have his memories, so if you say so, I have no choice but to accept it," Judy grumbled, audibly slighted by the way I shot down her theory, but there really wasn't an alternative.

It really was a scenario that would've never happened. As I had alluded to before, even from these fragments, I could tell that Polemos was really, really infatuated with Deus, while at the same time all the way in the back of the closet about it. I had no idea why, though. Considering ancient Celestial culture borrowed heavily from ancient Greece (or maybe the other way around?), and I was pretty sure that kind of thing wasn't too frowned upon back then, being so closeted about it felt a bit odd. That said, since I didn't have the full context of those memories and emotions, I couldn't say what the issues and motivations were for sure.

"In any case," Judy spoke up again, this time holding two fingers up. "The second possibility is multi-faceted, but it boils down to the memories and their transfer."

"I'm listening."

Following my prompting, Judy let her hand down and took a deep breath in preparation.

"As your example had shown, without your peculiar abilities, the memory transfer would overwrite the recipient. In a way, you could consider it a form of possession, and it's something that doesn't happen to protagonists, or when it does, it's treated as an affliction they have to be rid of. Looking at it from this perspective, we have three sub-scenarios that could play out. First possibility: you are the victim Joshua has to save from being possessed by Polemos, and so the scenario would revolve around this conflict."

"That can't happen now," the princess pointed out, and we both grunted in agreement.

"Right. I kind of 'saved myself' already, in a sense."

"Which brings us to the second possibility," Judy proceeded with extra élan. "In this case, Joshua is the victim. If his memory transfer worked the same way as it happened to you, it would result in his personality getting replaced by that of Deus. Since it would make him a different person, it would naturally interfere with the romance plot, and therefore, the scenario would be about everyone trying to rescue Joshua and return him to normal."

"That's one, two… what's the third possibility?" Elly inquired, and Judy let out a triumphant hum as if she was about to deliver the coup de grace.

"The third sub-scenario is what I consider to be the most likely original plan for the Angeline route by far. In this development, Joshua would be possessed in every regard but name by Deus, and everyone would naturally want him to return to his old self…" Here, she paused and levelled a finger at me. "Everyone, except Polemos."

"Oh? Oooh! I see now!" Elly exclaimed and put her hands together in excitement. "That way, Leo… I mean, Polemos would still end up as the bad guy, without actually putting him in direct conflict with Josh! Oh, and then, after Josh returns, he could even have a big final battle with Le—Polemos, who would want to have his old friend back!"

"Of course. This is, or at least used to be, a battle harem setting," Judy stated with absolute confidence. "A climactic final battle is an absolute necessity. I have also already written up a likely scenario about how Joshua and Angie would use the power of love to overcome his brainwashing and give him an eleventh-hour power-up for the final battle."

"… Dormouse. Are you seriously writing fanfiction about our lives?"

"Hush, chief. It's for theorycrafting," she chided me, and after a long beat, moved on as if nothing happened. "So, we can all agree that this is the most likely scenario?"

"Yes… But I'm still curious about the last one."

Hearing Elly's request, Judy casually raised her hand again, this time with three fingers extended.

"The third possibility focuses on the other cornerstone, and source of conflict, within a battle harem scenario: romance. Or, in this case, a love triangle."

"Oh geez… I can already see where this is going…"

My mutters were completely ignored by Judy, and she continued in a comically grave tone.

"As we all know, the Chief would never, ever, in a million years, aim for a harem. Ever. However, if the Narrative were to replace him with a different person named Polemos, he could be no longer the Chief, and therefore he could still serve as a love rival for Joshua."

"I don't know…" The princess let out a troubled sound with a finger on her chin and ultimately shook her head. "That just doesn't seem likely. Why would Polemos be interested in Angie, in the first place?"

"Love at first sight," Judy stated blithely, and before I could even roll my eyes, she addressed me directly. "Yes, Chief. It's a hackneyed cliché, but we're trying to construct a trope-heavy unoriginal scenario here, so it fits. We also already have an indicator, in the form of your sudden interest in Angeline."

"It's not interest," I denied on the spot. "It's… I don't know what it is, but it's something else. Not to mention, there's absolutely no way Polemos would be interested in her at all."

"How do you know that for sure?" she asked back, and I reflexively shrugged.

"I just do, okay?"

"Also, even if Polemos would be infatuated in Angie, she has no reason to return his affections. She's already going out with Josh, remember?"

"Not an issue," Judy answered with a disinterested expression. "Polemos could always just kidnap her, lock her up in the top of a big tower, and force Joshua to climb it to rescue her all the while he gloats and pervs on her."

"That… sounds abjectly terrible, and… wasn't that already the plot of a series about video games?"

This time it was Judy's turn to shrug.

"As I said, we are trying to reconstruct a potential scenario here. Based on the Narrative's track record, I was trying to come up with an adequate example."

"By scraping the bottom of the barrel?"

Judy didn't respond, but on the other hand, Elly looked strangely intrigued.

"What is this series you're talking about? Is it any good?"

"How about we ignore that, along with this entire totally impossible scenario?" I proposed, and while the princess was a touch dissatisfied, it wasn't something a hug and a kiss on the forehead couldn't fix.

In the meantime, Judy poked her phone a couple of times and came up with the following summary.

"In conclusion, we all agree that the third variation of the second hypothesis is the most likely scenario the Narrative is trying to enforce on us." She waited for me to nod. Elly was currently too busy being a cuddlebug, in reaction to my previous actions, so I nodded in her stead as well. "If so, then I propose we focus our attention on unearthing more details. In particular, you should use your newfound position to inquire about the exact mechanics of Deus's reincarnation and how it would affect Joshua."

"I was going to do that anyway. What are you two going to do in the meantime?"

"Manage the fallout of your absence," Judy flatly told me, and after a beat she amended, "I'll also help Roland's plans to catch Sir Percival."

"Oh, me too! I'll help too!" Elly proposed with a wolfish grin. "Maybe I can get the opportunity to punch him!"

"… While normally I'd tell you that violence is bad, this time, all I'm going to say is this: leave some for me too."

"Okay! You can have the left side of his face, I'll take the right!"

Judy slowly shook her head and put her phone away for good, getting ready to leave.

"Where are you going?"

"While I'd really like to snuggle, others are also waiting their turn to speak to you, and we shouldn't keep them waiting." That sounded unusually reserved, but then she turned around and added, "Not to mention, you're going to regularly come home to report, and then we can cuddle all we want, right."

"That… didn't sound like a question." She gave me a flat look, so I let out a chuckle and relented, "I'm kidding. Sure, let's do that later. I can't promise it'll be tonight though, as I have a meeting in the evening, and I don't know long it'll last."

"Judy's staying in my room, so even if it's late, feel free to Phase in!" Elly proposed, and for some reason, it caused my dear assistant's eyes to open wide… by her standards, of course.

"I told you I'm not sleeping in your room."

"But why? There's nothing wrong with it."

"There are already rumors about it," Judy argued in a decidedly annoyed tone. "I had a hard time explaining things to your mother this morning already; we don't need to start the rumor mill all over again."

"… I still don't get it. What rumors?"

Sighing, my dear assistant waved to my draconic girlfriend to follow after her.

"I'll explain on the way. As for you, Chief…" Stopping, she turned to me and gave me a peck on my head for a change. "Consider what we discussed so far, and then we'll continue to refine the hypothesis in private. Until then, stay safe, and don't do anything stupid."

"Dormouse? You know that I'm not leaving yet, right? We'll have plenty of time to say our goodbyes before I head back to the Elysium."

"I'm not taking anything like that for granted."

After saying so, she turned on her heel and pulled Elly along, and even as they left, I could hear snippets about the maids 'misunderstanding something'. If I had to guess, it probably had to do with Judy rushing over to the princess's room in the middle of the night and the two of them sleeping together afterwards. Considering we had an actual 'shipping community' on the island (though I still couldn't pinpoint its members, in my defence, it was pretty low on the priority list), I could easily imagine what those rumours were about.

Oh well. I was sure Judy would sort them out soon, so I stood up and limbered up my legs a little. They were aching a bit, and I contemplated asking Cal what that was about, but my weapons had been thankfully silent for a while now, and I didn't want to break that. As such, I just wrote it up to muscle strain after my session with the Celestial agents and ignored it to the best of my ability.

Since nobody came in to replace the girls yet, I used the momentary lull to collect myself a little and think things through. All in all, I mostly agreed with Judy's conjecture. Whether I was always supposed to assume the role of Polemos, or it was a last-minute swerve the theoretical Narrative threw my way to course-correct its plans, it was certain that this time, I had a role to play in the scenario. As in, a role I didn't make up for myself.

One thing was for sure though; considering what I knew about Polemos, both from external and more internal sources, I was one hundred percent sure that whatever plot he was supposed to move, it wasn't going to be about romance. After all, the only person this guy had any affection for was Deus, and Deus was…

"… Wait."

The word slipped through my lips as a sudden realization dawned on me.

I dismissed Judy's suggestion about a love triangle, because there was no way in hell Polemos would ever be romantically interested in Angie… but what if she wasn't the tip of the triangle? What if it was Deus? And Deus was supposed to be…

"Hey? Can I come in?" Blinking, I glanced over at the doorway, where Josh was staring at me with only one foot across the threshold. "You seem to be out of it. Should I come back later?"

"Hm… Nah, come in," I told the potential second coming of Deus with a perfectly level voice that didn't betray even a hint of my inner turmoil. "I was just considering a rather… disturbing possibility, that's all."

PART 2

"So… are we going to sit down, or…?"

Josh sounded unusually awkward, and his expression told me that he had a lot on his mind, but at the end of the day, I simply shrugged.

"Whatever suits your fancy. I've been sitting for a while now, so I'll refrain."

"Then I'll stand too," he declared, and then fell silent, waiting.

Using the lull of the moment, I took a deep breath and centered myself. This recent deduction gave me a potential idea about what the nebulous Narrative was planning, but since I already thwarted it by foiling the memory transfer, I figured I shouldn't get too worked up over the possibility. Of course, it didn't mean that I should completely ignore it either; the last thing I needed right now was some kind of enforced drama like that, so I had to be on the lookout for any development in that direction.

Anyhow, Josh was starting to fidget, so I shelved the prospective Polemos/Josh slash-fic ideas and focused on the guy.

"I guess you wanted to discuss something in private?"

"Not really," he responded by reflex, but then a second later he hastily added, "I mean, there's that too, I guess. It's been a while since we both sat down and had a discussion about stuff. Or stood around, in this case."

"It hasn't been that long," I objected, mostly on principle. "Didn't we have a heart-to-heart at the hot spring just the other day?"

"More like 'just the other week'," Josh scoffed and shook his head. "Lots of stuff happened in the meantime, and I don't just mean your kidnapping or whatever." All of a sudden, Josh blinked in realization, and then narrowed his eyes. "By the way, was that whole thing just another one of your overcomplicated secret plans?"

"I don't make 'overcomplicated plans', but putting that grievous accusation aside, nah. This whole situation completely blindsided me. I'm just trying to make the best of it, now that I'm caught up in this whole Celestial mess."

"Ah, that's good." Realizing that what he said sounded weird, he showed his palms and hurriedly amended, "I mean, getting caught up in stuff obviously isn't good, but… it's still better than if you scared the living daylights out of everyone on purpose, I suppose."

"Don't be overdramatic," I scoffed, but my friend remained entirely stone-faced

"I'm not kidding. Everyone was freaking out after you disappeared!"

"Including you?"

"Of course!" he exclaimed with audible indignation and crossed his arms. "Come on man, put yourself in my shoes for a second, would you? Do you think my best friend getting kidnapped was fun for me? I mean, jeez! Do you have any idea how scary it was to think that there were people out there who could even do that? If you can be kidnapped, nobody's safe!"

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

"Hey, hey! I'm also human, you know? By the colloquial meaning of the word, I mean. I can make mistakes too, and I've already been chewed out by Roland for not thinking this through well enough. I don't need a second round of that, thank you very much."

"Well, it apparently wasn't effective enough."

"Give me a break, will you? Between Fred, the girls, everyone giving their reports, and Rinne doing a terrible Celestial cosplay, I didn't exactly have a lot of time to self-reflect yet."

Josh's face told me he still was miffed by my attitude, but when I mentioned Mountain Girl, his frown finally eased up and he uttered, "What was that about, anyway?"

"I'm going to take her with me this time, granted she can properly disguise herself."

"Good idea. If Miss Yamako is with you, then everyone can rest a little easier. If you have a bodyguard, you might as well use her to guard you."

"It all depends on whether the second disguise will be any better than the first," I pointed out, and the guy's face immediately settled back into a disapproving grimace.

"Does it really matter? Keeping yourself alive should be way more important than whether or not her outfit is up to your standards!"

"It's not like I'm planning to get into any dangerous—"

"Don't even finish that sentence!" Josh cut me off and made a wild but mostly aimless gesture with his right hand. "Ever since this whole supernatural stuff appeared out of the blue, our lives had been one dangerous situation after the other! You're the one who kept everyone alive so far, so the last thing we need right now is for something to actually happen to you! Think of your own safety, for fuck's sake!"

"… Strategic f-bomb notwithstanding, you're starting to sound like my girlfriends. Please stop." Josh let out a miffed 'Bah!' in return, and when he didn't continue, I decided it was time to take the rudder of this conversation and take a sharp left turn. "Anyhow, you said you wanted to discuss something between the two of us, didn't you? I presume that means you have a topic in mind."

"Several," my friend huffed and let his arms down. "But I guess there are only two things we really need to talk about right now."

"I'm listening."

Inhaling deeply, he levelled a pair of serious eyes at me, then exhaled sharply.

"First, I want to be clear on something. Remember that talk with had way back? About those prophecies and being a 'chosen one', and all that crap?"

"Yep. Hard to forget."

"Then can you explain to me what's going on right now?" When I raised a brow in response, he elaborated. "I mean, you said I was in the center of all of these prophecies and whatnot, including the one about this Deus guy, but then you were the one who got not-kidnapped and turned into a Celestial head honcho. What's that all about?"

"Just the usual overcomplicated bullcrap," I replied with a shrug and tilted my head to the side. "On the bright side, while they are focusing on me, the Celestials are even less likely to realize that you're the second coming of their Dear Leader. After all, what are the chances of both Polemos and Deus showing up at the same time, on the same city of the same island?"

"Since it apparently happened, I guess it's one of those one-in-a-million things," our resident protagonist grumbled, but then there was a spark of recognition in his eyes and he locked eyes with me. "That reminds me of another question I had. You told us that they think you're this Polemos guy because some artifact gave you the memories, right? So… was something like that supposed to happen to me too?"

"I haven't the foggiest idea at the moment," I admitted, which obviously displeased him. "Don't look at me like that. Half the reason I'm going back to the Elysium is to find out. Well, more like a third. I have a lot of stuff do to there."

"I get it, but… I thought being recognized as this 'Deus' would be kind of like when in those fantasy stories, the farmboy turns out to be a lost prince and gets to go on an adventure. You know? Hero's journey stuff?"

"I'm surprised you're familiar with that."

Josh sent me a sideways look and flatly stated, "I needed to learn some basic literary theory just so that I could properly explain to Angie how much her taste in young adult novels sucked."

"Did it work?"

"No. She didn't talk to me for a whole spring break back in middle school." After muttering that, he visibly realized that we were going off-topic and he shook his head. "That's not important! The point I was trying to get across is that there's a big difference between suddenly getting recognized as an important person, and getting that person's memories shoved into my head. I'd like to avoid the latter if possible."

"Easy there, buddy. Even if something like that was the case, now that I have first-hand experience with this bullcrap, I'm confident I could help you out."

Unless it was a plot device, of course, in which case it would be an enormous pain in the ass and would probably require lots of creative interpretation of the rules of magic to do something about it, but he didn't need to know that, and I figured that worrying about bridges I might not even need to cross like that was pointless at the moment.

"That's reassuring." After that curt response, Josh looked me straight in the eye again, and emphasized, "Which is all the more reason for you not to die or disappear or whatever on me."

"I got it! Geez! Give me a break, will you?"

Apparently, that was all that he wanted to say on the issue, as he switched gears right away.

"The second thing I wanted to talk about kind of ties into this whole Deus topic. Or, I think it might? Maybe not, but… You see, lately, I have a harder time transforming."

"… As in?"

"For example, we had to wait for a while for you to show up today, right?" I didn't know where he was going with that, but for the time being, I nodded along. "So, to pass the time, and because he was being a prick again, I sparred with Zihao for a few rounds."

"Did you win?"

"Three to two, but that's not important." Despite saying that, the grin he flashed when he revealed the 'score' told me he was rather pleased with himself. "Listen. The problem is that I needed to pop two blood capsules to get the Draconian transformation going, and it's lasting shorter than usual. The same goes for the Abyssal one too."

"Hm. That is odd," I noted as I absently touched my chin. "Did you ask Fred about it?"

"No. At first, I just thought I was out of it, and after that, a lot of stuff happened, but since it came up again today, I thought I'd ask you first. I mean, you're the one who knows everything."

"I don't, but that really is peculiar." While I fell silent to think, the guy in front of me was looking at me attentively, his previous aggravation already gone with the wind. "You mentioned the Draconic and Abyssal pills. What about the Celestial one?"

"That's the weird part: it's actually easier. Normally it takes a second or two after I bite down on the capsule for the Magiformer to trigger, but with Angie's blood, it's instantaneous. I think it also lasts a little longer, but I didn't really test it. I use the Celestial transformation much less than the others."

"Yeah, you are more of a solo brawler type, while Celestials are more about finesse and teamwork," I mused, earning me an odd look from my friend. Ignoring it, I shook my head and focused on the core topic again. "Anyhow, I guess that's why you thought this has something to do with the whole Deus issue."

"Yeah. I was wondering if the two things are related."

"Maybe."

Normally, I would've told the guy to go to Fred and get a full check-up, but since he came to me for advice, I figured I would do 'my thing' first. Not any supernatural shenanigans either, but some good old-fashioned meta-thinking.

Let's say that this is a change that's happening because Josh is on the hypothesized Angie-route. Since it would focus on her, it would consequently mean that it would focus on Celestial matters, and so Josh's transformation abilities shifting towards that end made sense. It would serve as a primer for him becoming Deus's second advent, and by consolidating his power-set, it could even serve as a route-specific power-up. Some stories really liked to do that, giving the main character some last-minute power-ups that corresponded with the girl he picked. Of course, that only applied to interactive stories; most battle harem narratives had an obvious winner from the very beginning, and the protagonist's power progression was planned out from the beginning, but that didn't seem to be the case here. Also, let's ignore how I may or may not have muddied the waters by introducing the Magiformers, the blood capsules, and giving our protagonist a unique training environment.

Anyhow, back to the main topic: when the main character had a variable power-set, depending on the route they picked and/or choices they made along the way, instead of training, it usually boiled down to three possibilities. The first option was the power of love awakening some last-minute powers. Since Josh and Angie were now officially dating, the 'love' part fit, but they got together without any major dramatic event that would've given Josh an incentive to awaken his powers. The second option was copying the powers of others, which Josh was already doing through the capsules, without requiring any epiphanies or sudden revelations. As for the last option, it was a classic eroge staple, where the protagonist gained new powers by…

…

Wait. That might be it.

"Hey, Josh?" My friend twitched when I suddenly called out to him, and a second later, he let out an attentive hum. "For the record, when did this all start?"

"I guess… After we came back from the hot springs, I think."

"Ah, that actually adds up."

My whispers, followed by a knowing nod, made the guy in front of me unnecessarily tense.

"Did you figure it out?"

"Probably."

"See, I told you? I tell you about a thorn in my side, and then after a minute of thinking about it, you just figure it out on the spot. It's what makes your denial of being an all-knowing crackerjack sound so legitimate. No all-knowingness here, no sir!"

"I can't decide if you're praising me or making fun of me…"

"Praising. Definitely praising."

Ignoring the guy's weird insistence, as well as his usage of the term 'crackerjack', I uncrossed my arms and raised a finger.

"Let's not beat around the bush. You had sex with Angie, right?"

The smirk pretty much fell off my friend's face the moment I uttered the word 'sex', and he immediately became guarded.

"We… experimented a bit, yes, but what does that have to do with—?"

"Did you go all the way?"

He eyed me for a second, and then he answered with a subdued, "… Yes."

"How many times?"

"Just that one time, and then we did some other stuff later, but nothing like that, and what does this have to do with anything?"

"Literally everything?" He looked eminently skeptical, so I exhaled a shallow sigh and launched into my explanation. "Listen up, Josh. Your power works by taking in the bodily fluids of supernatural folks, right?"

"… I think so?"

"We use the blood for the capsules because they're easy to carry around and ingest in a hurry, but it works with all bodily fluids. Like saliva and such."

"I… yeah, I noticed that."

"Okay, now consider this: when do you exchange the most bodily fluids with a girl?"

"… While doing it?" A long beat after he said that, he hastily backpedalled. "Wait! Slow down for a sec! We used protection!"

"The act itself might be more important than whether or not you have a thin latex film between the mucous membranes."

"You are making that sound weird, you know?"

"I get that sometimes from the girls," I noted with a shrug. "The point is, your ability is all about absorbing and mimicking the abilities of the transforming supernatural folk. Chances are, by engaging in recreational reproductive activities with Angie and absorbing a large volume of her various secreted fluids during the act, you're now permanently predisposed towards being a Celestial."

"I know that you're doing that on purpose! Stop it!" After those initial complaints, Josh fell silent for a while to digest my supposition. "So you're saying that because we did that, I'm now, like, a half-Celestial, and that's why it's harder to use the other forms?"

"Most likely."

"… Would it get worse if we did it again?"

"If by 'it', you mean hot, passionate sex with your girlfriend, then yes."

"Seriously, dude. I'm going to punch you."

"Why? It's natural. You should stop being embarrassed by the mere mention of doing the horizontal gene transfer. Or doing the two-person push-ups. Taking the old one-eyed snake to the optometrist. Putting the—"

Before I could get any further, the guy actually punched me. Right in the cheek. It was more of an over-telegraphed love tap, just for show, to the point my danger sense didn't even give me a pip, but it was still uncalled for.

"I told you to cut it out! Where do you even come up with these stupid euphemisms, anyway!?"

"Judy likes them," I told him while theatrically rubbing my face. "In any case, we can't know until you two do the funny business again, but there's a non-zero chance that with enough exposure, you're going to end up as a bonafide Celestial."

It might've even been the trigger to awaken his Deus-ness and telegraph his Chosen One status, but I didn't mention that just yet, seeing that the guy was already pretty distraught over the prospect. We'll have Fred look into this with his dumb B-movie mad scientist equipment anyway, and it won't be too late to share the idea with him then.

"Aw, man… That's a problem," Josh griped and put his hand on his head. "That means I'll only have access to Celestial abilities? I'm not really good with those…"

Now, while normally I would've continued to tease the guy about how he didn't even consider the idea of just not bumping uglies for a while, I didn't want to actually upset him, so after a long beat, I directed the conversation in a completely different direction.

"Do you want me to give you some pointers?"

"You?" Noticing that the question slipped out of his mouth, Josh froze up for a moment, and then he shook his head and hurriedly amended, "On second thought, that might not be a bad idea. Should we go to the sparring ring?"

"Nah, we're fine." Waving my hand, I walked into the middle of the reception room, and after an uncertain pause, he followed me. "I'm not feeling up to a proper match, and I only want to test some theoretical stuff anyway. You learn new things, and I can confirm or debunk some of my conjectures. It's a win for everyone."

"If you say so…" Without any need for prompting, Josh tossed a pill into his mouth, and a split-second later, his casual street clothes got replaced by the Magiformer school uniform. "What are you going to teach me?"

"We might need Angie for this too, but for now, let's try something between the two of us first." Pausing, I put a hand on Cal's pommel, to make sure I had a proper mana circulation going, while simultaneously unsheathing Teeny and transforming it into its spear form, just in case that was also a requirement. A long beat later, I exhaled hard, and asked, "For the record, you know the lyrics of 'Never Gonna Give You Up', right?"

PART 3

As they say, time flies in good company, and who was I to argue with such universal truths?

In the blink of an eye, the whole afternoon rushed by me like a bullet train, leaving me a touch disoriented by the whole affair. Between the heart-to-heart discussions, the barbecue party, and playing around with my girlfriends, it was a good thing I set an alarm on my phone so that I wouldn't forget to keep an eye on Jaakobah.

Half past seven, I continued to keep one ethereal eye on the man, and preparing to make a beeline for the teleport closet the moment he was about to deliver my dinner to my Celestial penthouse suite. Not that I needed any; thanks to Brang's handiwork, I was already filled to the brim with grilled meat, more than making up for my vegetarian diet over the past couple of days. But putting my food woes aside, once I announced that I would soon have to return to the Elysium, I had to endure pretty much the exact same thing as I did during my arrival, just in reverse.

"Make sure you eat well, and if you feel like you're in danger, come home immediately," Emese instructed me while giving me a bear-hug.

"That's right, son! We aren't afraid of any Celestials!" dad-in-law followed her up with a boisterous declaration and put his arms around the both of us.

"Rest easy, future young master," the usually quiet Melinda spoke up on the side, sounding as unflappable as always. "Even if something were to happen to you, I promise I will take care of Milady in your absence. You can feel free to take risks."

"Hey, princess? Your chambermaid is sounding more dangerous by the day. Would you please do something about her already?"

Elly completely ignored my objections and she exclaimed "Family-hug!" instead, embracing me to the best of her ability. "Come, Judy! You're missing out!"

"I'll make up for it later," my dear assistant responded nonchalantly and turned back to Mountain Girl.

The latter was currently dressed in a mixture of a white shirt and lab coat combo fashioned to vaguely resemble some kind of uniform, the visorless white helmet she borrowed from Fred's workshop, as well as a whole bunch of random armour pieces Ichiko and Xiao pilfered from the squires' storage for her. It was all over the place, but it was still better than the first iteration of her disguise, and I grudgingly accepted it. If I was in any way invested in this whole thing, I might've proposed to throw together a makeshift Uniformer for her, but I had neither the time nor the will to do so.

"Make sure the Chief doesn't accidentally seduce anyone in the Elysium."

"Rinne will strike to do so!" Mountain Girl declared with undue solemnity, causing a tiny miko to yell "Rinne-san meant 'strive'!" from somewhere in the background.

Meanwhile, the Dracis family finally stopped trying to crush me under their familial affections, and they were soon replaced by the Knights, led by Arnwald and Morgana. Despite Roland more or less taking the reign as their leader as of late, for obvious reasons, seniority was still seniority, I supposed.

"My liege, please be careful. The Celestials are an insidious lot…" He suddenly paused, and glanced at the glowing girl with the ponytail shadowboxing not far behind them and added, "Present company notwithstanding."

"I can only echo Arnwald's sentiment," Morgana followed him up with a heavy voice. "I have already seen too many of my comrades in arms die before their time, and if it was up to me, I wouldn't let you return to the den of the lion… but you are the King, so I'll only say this: don't take any unnecessary risks."

"Aye. Tis nae lik' ah care whither ye bide or die, bit losing a King richt efter we fun yin wid mak' us a laughin' stock, sae huv a go nae tae bite th' stoor."

"Just don't take any risks in general," Roland echoed the other two's sentiments… or at least I figured that's what Duncan was trying to say. With all the buzz around us, it was even harder to decipher his accent than usual.

Anyhow, Raven Boy in the back was also about to say something, but he never got the chance, since the entire Knightly cluster was unceremoniously shoved out of the way by a loud ex-arch-mage and her exhausted handler.

"Like, we've totally got this! You shouldn't worry about this whole lame-o-rama with the old fogeys of the Assembly, and just give them hell!"

"No, you should at least keep the Lord's position in mind," Pascal interjected, and Sahi promptly rolled her eyes.

"Endy is a big boy. He can totally take care of himself, and I already charmed like three of those old badgers off their feet, so we're going to be totally fine!"

"I already told you that trying to honey-trap the Assembly officials is more likely to backfire than to help."

"Aw, Paaaz! Don't be jelly. Everything's totally fair in love and war, you know?"

While those two argued, they kind of drifted away, only to be replaced by the gang of my friends and sisters.

"Leo, be honest with us. Are you one hundred percent sure you have to do this?"

The source of the question was, surprisingly enough, the class rep, who seemed genuinely worried about me.

"I don't necessarily have to do it, but I would rather get to the bottom of this whole situation with Polemos and everything else now than let it ferment in the background and blow up in our face later."

"I understand that part, but…" Sighing, she readjusted her glasses and sternly pointed at me. "Just remember: don't trust anyone over there. Celestials are all about deceit, subterfuge, and lies. They never tell you the whole truth, they always have secret plans within secret plans, and the moment you think you figured them out, it turns out you only peeled a single layer off, and there are even more layers of deception underneath."

"Huh. Maybe you really were a Celestial all along?" Josh quipped, and I punched him in the shoulder for his trouble. "Hey! I couldn't have been the only one to think that, right, Angie?"

Instead of answering, the happy-go-lucky Celestial continued to hop from one leg to the other while humming the refrain of Eye of the Tiger, the magical glow around her rising and waning to the rhythm of the song.

"I think you broke her brain," Judy noted upon returning to our midst, her discussion with Rinne finally finished.

"Judy. Don't be rude," Elly chided my other girlfriend by pinching her arm. "You aren't supposed to say these kinds of things out loud."

"It's not nice to silently think these kinds of things either," the class rep rebuked both of them in turn, during which I turned to Josh with a shrug.

"I take no responsibility for any potential brain-strain, either spoken or unspoken," I denied on the spot, but then Angie chose this precise moment to stir from whatever she was doing and turn a pair of sparkling eyes at me.

"Hey, Leo? Leo? Can this be done with any song? Does the tempo make any difference? And what if I change the pitch?"

"I have no idea. Feel free to experiment in your own free time."

She nodded and started humming again, eliciting a groan from her boyfriend.

"Are you seriously just going to keep going like that?"

"But this is so cool!" Angie exclaimed, eyes still sparkling and looking nearly half as cute as the princess. That development was still troubling, but once the first surprise wore off, it was relatively easy to ignore. "I always thought you needed to sing one of those boring hymns to make this work, but look! Even the Trucy opening theme works!"

"That's neat, but could you at least wait until Leo leaves before you continue experimenting?"

"Oh, fine," Angie finally relented with a soft huff and grabbed hold of Josh's arm. "But in exchange, you'll have to help me practice!"

Josh grumbled something that vaguely resembled agreement. As for me, I was nominally curious about what they would come up with later. Based on Josh's performance during our impromptu training session, it was either going to be amazing, or hilarious. The latter was fine when it was only the two of us (three, after Angie joined), but the former would be certainly better from a utilitarian perspective.

I was just about to start reminiscing about the short but intense bout of misadventures we had during my attempt to recreate the magical chorus the Celestials used during combat, but before I could even get to the point where Josh sang a note wrong and caused a small electric discharge (as well as made his hair even spikier than usual), I was intercepted by my sisters.

"Brotheeer? Do I really have to stay here?" Penny whined, drawing a shallow sigh out of me.

"I already told you, kiddo. We can't risk you accidentally raising Sir Percival's alarms, so for now, you should just stay out of sight for a couple of days, until we're ready to resolve this whole situation."

"I know, but… can't I at least stay home with Snowy?"

After a beat, my Abyssal sister explained, "There's an event in the game she's playing, and she doesn't want to miss it."

Oh. So it was about the PC, huh?

"It's really not the end of the world, and you should really keep your priorities straight," I rebuked her, and doggedly ignored the puppy-eyes she was giving me in return. Instead, I turned to Snowy, and told her, "Have the Fauns already left?" She nodded at once. "Good. Once they're done with the house, please tell them to sweep the Dracis mansion too, just to be safe."

"Okay!"

She sounded unusually enthusiastic, but to be fair, so were the Fauns when I gave them the orders not too long ago. Since Percival had already demonstrated that using more 'analogue' methods wasn't below him, I decided to put the counter surveillance kit I bought before taking Fred into our 'custody' to good use and asked Karukk and company to sweep the whole house for bugs of the electronic variety. They were the best fit for the job not only because they could turn temporarily invisible thanks to Snowy's Sigils, but also because they were literally the only ones who knew how to operate the detectors.

They were quite excited by the prospect of being useful, and left right away, without even waiting for me to leave. To be fair, from their perspective, there was nothing special about it, since they all knew that I could return any time I wanted, but some people (read: Zihao) still complained about them not being courteous enough. Naturally, such criticisms were summarily ignored.

But speaking of the Feilongs, Naoren took this opportunity to walk over to me and send me a conflicted look.

"I still think that there has to be a better alternative."

"Seconded," the class rep interjected on the side, and then immediately faded back into the crowd, apparently trying the defuse the argument between Sahi and Pascal.

"I work with what I have."

He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, and let out a long breath.

"Just make sure to be careful." Pausing for a second, he turned to Mountain Girl. She was already behind me and prepared to go into my shadow at any moment, but she stepped forth when she noticed his eyes on her. "The same goes for you, Miss Rinne. Please keep not only my sworn brother safe, but also yourself."

"Naoren-san shouldn't worry about Rinne. Rinne is a professional," she declared with completely unfounded confidence.

Nodding, the Feilong patriarch turned back to me.

"I won't ask you to bring me a souvenir, because knowing you, you would bring the entire Celestial leadership to us and say something along the lines of 'I couldn't find a gift basket, but I hope this will suffice'."

"Oh, please! I would never do something like that!" I denied his grievous accusation on principle while trying not to notice the way my dear assistant clicked her tongue in annoyance. Maybe she wanted to make a similar joke?

Meanwhile, Naoren's lips widened into a thin smile, and he gave me one of those fist-cupped-in-hand salutes.

"I wish you the best of luck."

That pretty much opened the floodgates, and one after the other, everyone said their goodbyes with various levels of solemnity. The knights, squires, and ninjas all saluted, my in-laws nearly trapped me in a hug again, Josh and Angie gave me fist-bumps, the class rep nagged me about not trusting Celestials (which was still rich, considering she was dating one), and the girls kept clinging to me right until I reached the door of the teleport closet.

"Remember, Leo: Don't let them look down on you!" the princess instructed me with an unusually severe bearing. "Remind them that you're their boss, and if they get uppity, beat them down! Only when they are completely subservient can we safely integrate them into the Federation!"

"Are you still going on about that?"

My question fell on deaf ears, and she would've probably continued to drill me if not for Judy cutting in.

"Whatever happens, make sure you stay safe, and that you don't cause too much chaos. Also, be on the lookout for any Narrative influences."

"It's kind of hard to catch those until after-the-fact analysis," I noted, but she remained steadfast. "Fine. I'll try to be introspective."

"Good. Also, don't forget that we're waiting for you at home, so no flirting around."

"Judy!"

The princess tried to protest, but my dear assistant shut her down.

"The Chief is going to be living in a new environment, with new temptations. It had to be said at least once."

"Don't worry, Judy-sama. Rinne will make sure no seductress could approach Leonard-dono!"

The two of them nodded, as if sharing an understanding, and then the moment my girlfriends let go of my arms, our non-angel cosplaying highly visible monster slayer ninja PE teacher seemingly fell through the floor and into my shadow.

"Well, I guess that's it for today," whispered under my breath and opened the door to the fake teleport circle, and then turned around to face the crowd again. "Until next time, everyone!"

Before it could've started another round of send-offs, I dove into the small room, closed the door behind me, and after pinpointing Jaakobah's location, I immediately Phased right into my own specially arranged room in the tower, and let out a pent-up breath. I didn't expect to be this overwhelmed by everyone, and while I had to admit that all of them caring for me and being worried about me filled my chest with all kinds of warm and fuzzy emotions, I would've been lying if I said that all the attention wasn't also absolutely exhausting. Not that I had much time to rest, as less than half a minute later, there were three heavy knocks on the door. Did I nail the timing or what?

Joking aside, I inhaled deeply, straightened my clothes, and once I was sure I was in perfectly presentable condition, I walked over to the stone conference table and picked up the long paper bag on it. Only after that did I turn to the main entrance, and clear my throat.

"Come in."

Before I even uttered the last syllable, the door swung open, and Jaakobah walked in while pushing a simple serving cart.

"Your dinner is ready," he told me flatly, only to pause and give me an odd look when I walked past him and stopped in front of the open door.

"Much appreciated."

"Are you… leaving?"

"I have an appointment," I told him flatly, and then added, "Feel free to sample the food. At least that way we'll know it's not poisoned for sure."

Before the phlegmatic man could respond, I closed the door behind myself and walked down the corridor. I was supposed to meet Director Savir on the seventy… something-something floor. It didn't really matter, considering I had a mark on her, but for the sake of appearances, I called the elevator and stepped into the empty cabin before Phasing over to her location.

My target was currently inside the bedroom of one of the countless empty apartments of the tower. This one was slightly smaller than mine, but just as plain. The living room area was currently bathed in a warm golden light, emanating from the crystal ball hanging from the ceiling, and that kind of miffed me. My room had cold white light that made my eyes sting after a while, when they had lights like this? Were they messing with me, or was this another one of those 'this is what Polemos would want', as with the vegetarian dishes?

I didn't have much time to think about this, as the director was about to return to the living room, so I hurriedly made my way over to the nearest padded chair by a coffee table, sat down, crossed my legs, and adopted my best aloof, 'fully in control of the situation and dare you to say otherwise' expression.

"Good evening, director."

She froze in the doorway when I casually greeted her and repeatedly blinked at me in disbelief. She was in more casual clothes than the last time I'd seen her, at least as much as a multi-layered, modest Grecian long dress could be considered 'casual'. Her auburn hair, let down and its wavy locks loosely framing her face, made her look a couple years younger, but more importantly, her stunned expression would've been priceless, if only it wasn't accompanied by a wave of irritation.

I considered whether or not I should ask Cal to start the mana circulation, but this time it wasn't that bad, and I figured that, sooner or later, I really had to learn how to deal with this stupid gut reaction of mine. In the meantime, she finally recovered from her first shock and took a step forward.

"When did you arrive?"

Her question was rather plain, considering the situation, so I matched her tone by flatly telling her, "Just now."

"I didn't hear you come in."

"I was afraid I would be late, so I let myself in."

"What about the guards?"

"I didn't bother them." Seeing that she raised a curious brow, I added, "Security is rather lax here. Didn't even have to use spatial manipulation; a simple illusion was enough."

"Is that so?" She accepted my explanation with startling ease, and casually walked over to the other padded chair in the room, all the while looking at me expectantly. When I didn't respond, she gave me a thin-lipped smile and asked, "Did you bring me something?"

"Just this."

Saying so, I casually place the bag with the wine onto the coffee table, and it caused her eyes to light up with… something. Pleasant surprise? Greed? Nostalgia? It was hard to tell.

"So you could read it after all." Her voice was filled with mirth as she reached for the bottle and pulled it out to inspect the label on it. "Ah? That's a great vintage. Thank you."

Blinking, I tentatively asked, "Is it? I'm not familiar with wine culture."

"It's one of my favorites," she told me with a modest smile and inclined the bottle my way. "Would you like a taste?"

"No, I'm good."

She lightly shrugged, as if telling me it was my loss, and put the bottle aside with a satisfied expression. Okay, first off; Jaakobah? You had one job. One damn job, and you blew it.

Second of all, contrary to the unbending and antagonistic 'iron lady' impression Savir gave me the first time we met, this time she was much more laid back. No, scratch that; it was much deeper than just 'laidback'. She had zero apprehensions about someone appearing in her room and wasn't treating me like an intruder, or even an official guest. Her relaxed posture, small gestures, and the casual tone she used all pointed in one direction; she wasn't entertaining Polemos, the returned Second True Archon, but an old friend she hadn't met in a long time. It was a preposterous suspicion, but one that didn't take long to be proven right.

"I'm getting ahead of myself, but I was dying to ask this all day long: Are you Leonard with Polemos's memories or Polemos with Leonard's memories?"

"Does it make a difference?" I asked back on autopilot, just to keep the conversation going while my poor brain was trying its best to make sense of this development.

In the meantime, the previously stern woman's façade completely melted away as a knowing smile conquered her face.

"That's definitely something Leonard Pendragon would say."

"How can you be so sure, Director Savir?" I asked back, trying my best to maintain my poker face, and this time, Savir hid her mouth with her hand while trying her best not to laugh.

"Just call me Eris, as usual. We've known each other for ages; calling me that in public is a necessary evil, but when you do that in private, you're giving me goosebumps."

After a long beat, spent frantically trying to come to a conclusion, I ultimately let out a long breath and loosened my posture with a faux-reluctant 'Oh, fine.', which elicited another stifled chuckle from my host.

Of course, things weren't fine. Not by a long shot.

By the sound of it, Leonard Pendragon used to work with Savir, and they were close enough to be on a first-name basis. She's the head of the Orthodox faction, while Sir Percival, my alleged mentor, was on the payroll of the Unorthodox faction, who infiltrated the Knights, who planned to infiltrate the Dracis family, which meant… Was I a triple agent? Or quadruple one? Argh, dammit! Just when I thought things were going to get simpler!

…

Maybe Ammy was right after all. Maybe Celestials really were like onions. Unfortunately for me, I had no choice now but to sit back, play along, and peel things back one layer of conspiracy and deception at a time.