PART 1

The air in the Elysium, for the lack of better words, tasted different. It was something I'd noticed before, but this time I was sure it wasn't just my imagination. I wasn't sure what the exact difference was, but it was weird.

Shaking my head, I exiled the thought from my head and straightened my tailcoat. I was standing outside one of the cottages surrounding the familiar Migdál Glaukós, weighing my options. In fact, this was as good a time as any to take a deep breath of the weird-tasting air and examine the context.

So, here I was, already disguised in the newest iteration of my Bel costume and looking at the tower. In that tower, there was a book that held maybe/possibly/potentially the only remaining written instance of a certain law that, if disseminated, would cause me quite a bit of headaches. Not enough for me to consider setting the whole Celestial archive on fire, but enough to make my joking about it sound plausible enough that Elly still regularly reminded me that arson was bad.

So, the solution was simple. Get in, nab the book, throw it into a volcano for style points, and dust my hands off for good measure. Or at least it would've been if this wasn't an obvious trap. No, scratch even that. Calling it a 'trap' implied that it existed for hurting or capturing a target, but this? This was just ridiculous.

The musty tome of ancient laws in question was, at this very moment, sitting on Savir's desk. By that, I didn't even mean her big, needlessly fancy marble magitech desk from her workplace (as much as that applied to her) in the archives, but the on in her room. Right next to her makeup kit and some wine. Out in the open.

Which, in retrospect, told me this was either the world's stupidest trap or its most obvious bait. But for what? Was the book fake, and I was supposed to take it, which would then lead into some multi-step ploy she cooked up, or was it the real one, and she kept it close by on purpose? Was she carrying it with herself everywhere to keep it safe, to insist on its authenticity, or so that she would be guaranteed to be nearby if I were to drop by? All of those sounded at least plausible, but because I wasn't able to pay much attention to her in the past couple of days, I couldn't catch her red-handed or find any decisive evidence of her plans, one way or the other.

Whatever the case might've been, I've come too far to get cold feet, so I was going to find out what her scheme was for myself, and soon. Or at least as soon as she stopped fidgeting, and I could find a good opportunity to Phase in. Case in point, I observed her moving around in her bedroom impatiently, occasionally glancing at the book on the desk, the setting sun outside the window, or the only door leading into the chamber.

Yep, that settled it. She was definitely waiting for something to happen, and quite anxiously at that. But again, for what? Was she expecting me to show up in person? Did she want to catch me personally? Was there another reason? Was she trying to—?

With a dull smack, I lightly hit my cheek. Of course, since I was wearing my newest Bel mask, it didn't hurt. The act was more of a ritual of sorts, and it helped knock my thoughts off their circular track. That said, I really had to stop overthinking things. I was already here. What was the point in getting bogged down in her potential motivations when finding out for sure was the whole reason for walking into her trap? Or bait, or whatever. What happened to the Leonard Dunning of old, who was willing to jump into the thick of a situation without hesitation and just fly by the seat of his pants?

…

Though again, it was that tendency that almost got me vaporized by a plasma disintegrator. And caused my debilitating hand injury. Plus it was kind of what led to the creation of Bel, and accidentally pulling Cal from their stone, and me ending up in the Elysium, in the first place. Not to mention—

Another soft smack echoed in the air as I slapped the other side of my mask and groaned. If this kept on, I would be stuck here all evening, so I flexed my fingers, flung my point of view over to Savir's side once more, and after a short beat, I Phased into the room, just as she had her back turned.

I held my breath and snatched up the book from the desk. Technically, I've already achieved my goal by doing so… but I still wasn't convinced that it was the genuine article. Not to mention, at least half the reason I came here was to heckle her a bit and vent some steam, so it would've been a waste to leave just yet.

As such, I leaned against the nearby wall, crossed my legs, and hit up a random page.

"… and on the seventh day of the Month of Marriages, the Third Archon Basileús joined the six thesmotetai in the court of Areios Pagos to perform dokimasia upon the newly appointed Archon of…" I read until I heard the owner of the room suck in a startled breath, and only then did I look up from the book. Savir looked less freaked out than expected, but I cared little and theatrically snapped the book shut. "Is all of your literature this boring? It just lacks any pizazz." I paused and used the spine of the book to prop up my chin. "I mean, Basileús was an okay guy, I suppose, but not nearly pizazzilicious enough to be the main character. He didn't even have spiky hair!"

My efforts finally seemed to bamboozle her a bit, but it only lasted for a moment before she stood her ground and folded her arms.

"Bel of the Abyss, I presume," she said with a knowing grin that would've made me annoyed even if her mere presence wasn't already making me baseline irritated. Then, her smile opened wider, and she added, "Or would you prefer to be called Bel of the Tenebrous Flames instead?"

That made me pause. This sounded like a new misunderstanding in the making, and when I didn't respond right away, she let out a satisfied smile.

"To think the ancient enemy of the Great War, and the Emperor of all Abyssals would become a petty thief. Oh, how the mighty have fallen." She paused and flashed a cheeky grin. "It's hard to believe. So hard, it sounds like the farcical claims of a foolish impostor, doesn't it?"

Okay, and now she was taunting me. What the shit?

"Tut, tut, little bird," I spoke in a low voice as I lowered the book and looked her in the eye. She met my gaze defiantly, but I could see at least a little bit of hesitation in there, meaning this was an act. For what end? I intended to find out before I left, so I decided to push her a bit. "If you keep twittering like that, you might just get your feathers plucked, you know?"

We held eye contact for the next couple of seconds, and she was the one who broke it first. Revelling in the tiny victory, I promptly Phased over to her bed and promptly landed on my back. In retrospect, that wasn't a great idea, because I forgot about how hard these Elysian beds were, and the impact pushed the air out of my lungs and nearly triggered my outfit's wards.

I toughed it out and hid my true reaction under a mirthful giggle. Method acting, as usual, was a double-edged blade. I propped the book up on my chest and turned to the woman belatedly spinning around to face me again.

"My identity aside, you don't seem too surprised by my arrival, do you, little bird?" I asked in an amused tone and casually turned a page, then tilted my head to the side and whispered, "I wonder what kind of bird you are…?"

She ignored my second rhetorical question and responded only to the first one.

"Of course not. As a matter of fact, I was counting on your appearance."

"Oh? Were you now?" I asked, keeping up the nonchalant façade while the question marks in my head were starting to strain against my forehead.

"Indeed," she answered as she walked over to the desk and… picked up a wine bottle? Bloody hell, was she using Refuge in Audacity on me? Again? The nerve!

Anyhow, while she opened it and filled up a crystal wineglass with a wide body and a long stem, I sat up and placed my feet on the ground again, waiting for her to elaborate. Instead, she started rambling about something else.

"As Deus's teachings often say, one must know their enemy better than they know themselves." She dramatically swirled the red liquid in her glass, but didn't drink any and only smiled at me. "And I know you quite well by now. You have first shown yourself several months ago, stealing an artifact from the dragonbloods of Dracis, followed by the high-profile theft of a mysterious box from the Feilong dragonbloods' auction, and I have also discerned that you once tried to get your hands on a Mana Well of the Abyss. And now, you're here." She used her glass to gesture at me, or rather, the book in my hand. "To steal something once again. Quite predictable, don't you think?"

I didn't answer right away. In fact, I remained completely motionless and stared at her, unblinking. Waiting for her smile to crack. And once it did…

"Canary!" I exclaimed at the same time I sprung to my feet, Phased forward, and extended a finger to the point I nearly poked her nose.

"Kya?!" she yelped as she stumbled back, almost spilling her drink, but I ignored her and twirled my finger.

"It fits you well. A tiny, dumb bird living inside its insignificant cage, and thinking that what she sees from her cute little hanging perch is the whole world and she had it all figured out." I paused and pointed the finger at her again. "That's you."

She was looking at me like I was an unhinged madman (which, to be fair, wasn't too far from Bel's core persona), but after a long beat, she grit her teeth and tried her best to maintain an affable look.

"T-That's quite uncalled for."

"Whatever," I responded dismissively, and this time, I Phased over to the fancy rattan armchair in the corner of the room. "Can we get to the point of why we're here?"

"You're here for the book," she said flatly, and I shook my head.

"Half correct. Gosh, I expected better from a canary. Imagine if some poor coal miners took you underground, and you only died of carbon monoxide poisoning half the time. That's some bad work ethic there, I tell you."

Getting impatient, Savir drank her wine and used the empty glass to point at me.

"Don't play mind games with me! I know you're here because Polemos, or rather, Leonard begged you to, didn't he?"

"… Excuse me?"

"Everything is just as I predicted," she pressed on, regaining some of her smug confidence. "Your appearance here is no mere happenstance, but the result of a carefully planned and curated chain of events I set into motion." Now I was getting genuinely curious, so I gestured for her to continue. "I have disseminated information about the Book of Hymnos holding the old laws Leonard would want to see buried, making sure it would reach his ears."

So far, as predicted.

"I was the one who made sure to keep him preoccupied by contacting the mundane authorities and pulling a few strings to ensure he would be unable to return to Elysium, so that—"

"Hooold your horses, little bird," I cut in with a hand raised. "You were the one who sicced child protection on the kid? Seriously?"

Savir let out a dismissive scoff, as if saying something like this was child's play for her.

"Of course. It is well known that Leonard puts altogether too much effort into maintaining his cover identity on our ancestral land, and that he's highly protective of his so-called family, weaknesses ripe for explo—"

"No, wait, stop. Please stop," I interjected, raising both my hands (and the book as well). "You know all of this, and you still went out of your way to mess with the kid's family? Are you real?" I asked and theatrically looked around. "Is this real? Am I being pranked right now?" When she didn't react, I turned back to her and spoke in a hard voice. "Little bird, I misjudged you. You're not a canary. You're a turkey."

"W-What?"

"Specifically the dumb suicidal kind that drowns in the rain. I mean, you do realize that whenever someone messed with the kid's inner circle, the idiot ended up regretting it, right?"

"Ah, yes. Such as the Lord of House Inanna," she responded in a hurry, as if grasping for the opportunity to bring him up. "We are very much aware of what happened to him, and that it was an act that, once again, required your contribution."

I theatrically rolled my eyes and stood up. She instinctively flinched, but this time, I didn't Phase, but just stood with my arms crossed.

"Yes, little bird, I know your chirpy little friends are great at picking up random rumors from all over the place. I mean, they better be, considering that's all they're good for. That, and shitting on statues, but that's not a life skill that puts breadcrumbs on the table." Cocking my head to the side, I waited for a beat, and only then did I Phase, once again appearing right in front of her, my mask nearly touching her nose. "I'm still waiting for you to explain why you thought any of this was a good idea. Care to elaborate, before I run out of patience and start being impolite?"

I could see her face tense up, but the Celestial bigwig managed to remain outwardly calm and took a step back.

"As I said, it was all so that Leonard would be unable to return to Elysium and interfere in person. By supporting Dolion's mobilization plan, I also ensured that Leonard's allies in the Military Department and the Seraphic Safeguard would be focusing their attention elsewhere, forcing him to contact someone else to get the job done." She paused and put down the empty glass in her hand before turning to me again. "He needed someone who could enter the Sealed Wing of the Grand Archive and break into the room holding the sacred Book of Hymnos before its transfer to the underground vaults of Migdál Iodes. Who else is better suited for such a task than a thief?"

I'm… not going to lie, I was getting a little lost here. What did that whole spiel about sealed wings and whatnot have to do with the book in my hand? Thankfully, she soon explained with a smug smirk.

"Of course, when you found nothing but a note telling you to come to me if you wanted to have the book, you had no choice but to do so. Predictable, at every step of the way."

I suppressed the strong urge to just slap her, throw my hands in the air in frustration, and leave without elaborating. Instead, I took a deep breath to steady my nerves and pinched the chin of my mask.

"So, you're telling me you set everything into motion just to meet me?" She nodded. "Me. Bel of the Abyss." After a beat, she nodded again. "Someone who, according to you, may or may not be Bel of the Tenebrous Flames himself." This time she didn't nod, and only glared at me. "And you did that, on purpose?"

"Yes. I have determined that—"

"Kakapo!" I yelled, and this time, I actually poked her on the nose, causing Savir to backpedal and nearly stumble over a chair.

"W-What!?" she yelped while holding her nose, only calming down when she realized it was still on her face. What? Did she think I would steal it?

Anyhow, I let out a chuckle and told her, "It's a flightless bird, kind of like a big, clumsy parrot." My explanation only made her look even more confused, so I clarified, "It's a dumb bird that lives on an island without any predators, therefore it got so used to its safe little bubble that when an actual predator shows up in front of it, it's too dumb to run away. Truly a marvel of nature, proving that if you live in a sheltered enough environment, even the stupidest of birds can be successful…" At this point, I reached out again and clasped my hand on her shoulder. "… On second thought, maybe calling you a kakapo is too generous, little bird. As far as I know, those silly parrots never worked hard to invite a predator to their lair. Nature truly is full of endlessly idiotic wonders, isn't it?"

"U-Unhand me!" she yelled and flashed her three pairs of wings.

As if waiting for this signal, suddenly the whole room buzzed with magical light. Before I could make heads or tails of this, I was startled by the sound of breaking glass, enough to loosen my grip on Savir and for her to slip away. A moment later, the only door leading into the room was kicked down, and amidst the buffeting wings coming from the broken windows, over a dozen Celestials dressed in heavy hoplite cosplay and magitech guns rushed in.

Savir scampered to hide behind the four men coming in through the door, their guns aimed at me, while on the other side, seven similarly armed combatants landed, ignoring the shards of glass crunching under their feet and surrounding me on all sides.

"CIEL! Freeze!" one of the men yelled, and it didn't take me long to realize what all of this was about.

"This?" I asked, casually pointing at the people around me. "This was your plan?"

Savir didn't respond and only she held her shoulder where I grabbed her instead, her vicious glare tinged with a hint of shock and fear. In retrospect, everything started to make sense. Her original plan, which I wasn't even aware of, was to purposefully get me here, to her room. She was monologuing and kept messing around with Refuge in Audacity to buy time for these CIEL operatives, the Celestial equivalent of a SWAT team, to get into position, and this strange shimmering force field surrounding the place from the outside must've taken time to set up as well.

Turns out, this was a trap after all, and not just a bait. Except, it was never meant for Leonard Dunning, but for Bel of the Abyss. And I ended up triggering it, even if not by the route she planned. Realizing all of that this late into the game should've been aggravating… if it wasn't just so absurd. No, that wasn't a strong enough word for this. It was ridiculous, something I freely gave voice to by letting out a full-on belly laugh, startling the people around me.

"Ahahaha! You're serious! Oh, dear Spaghetti Monster in the Sky, you're actually serious! Ah, my sides! You're killing me!"

"Y-You!" Savir hissed, quickly regaining her zest once she was hiding behind others. "You don't seem to realize your situation, thief! You're surrounded, and all of Elysium has already been alerted of your presence! Even if you try to run, the whole Migdál is spatially sealed! You are at our mercy!"

"Ahahaha! No, please stop, little bird! I'm really going to die at this rate!" I cackled and threw my head back in preparation for another bout of laughter, but then I abruptly straightened my back and looked her in the eyes again, switching into a fully serious and grave tone. "So? What now?"

"Now…" she blurted out, visibly thrown on a loop by the sudden change in my attitude, but when the CIEL operatives around me began yelling again.

"Freeze!"

"Hands in the air, where we can see them!"

"Don't move, Abyssal, or I'll swear to Deus, I'll shoot you right through that mask!"

"No," Savir cut in from the back. "We need him alive."

"Why?" I asked back, maintaining a level, serious voice.

"I recommend you surrender now, and—"

"I asked," I cut her short by raising my voice again, "Why do you need me alive?"

Savir's face crunched up in a grimace, and her response sounded strangely strained.

"You… So long as you cooperate, and give a testimony about your involvement with Leonard Dunning, we are willing to—"

"So, political paydirt." Interrupting her once again, I let out a sigh, shook my head and switched to a more cheerful tone, "You really are a dumb bird, aren't you, little kakapo?"

Before anyone could react, I Phased right behind her and caught her neck from the back with my free hand. Even considering the surprise factor, it was almost contemptuously easy, my hand passing through her Barrier unobstructed and clasping around her neck with ease.

"K-Kaaah!" she shrieked and tried to break free, but when I squeezed a bit harder, she stopped struggling, especially after the CIEL operatives stopped stumbling over each other and aimed their weapons at us.

"Don't shoot!" one of them yelled. "He took the director hostage!"

I chuckled, and before anything else, I activated one of the enchantments of my Bel outfit. In the blink of an eye, the old tome in my left hand started smoking, and then once the temperature reached the autoignition point, it spontaneously combusted into soft blue flames. While I checked the book with my phantom limbs in advance, and I was fairly sure it didn't have any tracking enchantments on it, I still wasn't sure it was safe to take it with me. All things considered, the simplest option was to just destroy it here and now, whether this was the specific book with the specific laws or not, and call it a day. For bonus points, this also provided me with a great opportunity to flex some of my new toys.

This particular array on the gloves was designed to create 'sticky' flames, something I copied from one of the very first items I received from Mike when I started practising with enchantments, but I never had a good opportunity to use it before. I figured, since the whole 'Bel of the Tenebrous Flames' thing was already out of the bag, I might as well play into it a bit. Just for fun.

In any case, these flames weren't particularly hot, but they were really hard to put out once they were attached to an item, and considering how old and dry this book was, the original blue flames were soon intertwined with orange ones of burning parchments. That was my cue, so I flung it through the large broken window at the other end of the room, causing the CIEL members to scatter, while I simultaneously, pulled the struggling Savir closer.

I leaned over, so that my mouth was next to her ear, and whispered, "Thank you for the entertainment, little bird. It was worth coming here after all."

"W-What are you—? Nnngh! Let me go at—!"

I squeezed a bit harder.

"Killing you would be as easy as cutting the neck of a chicken… but where's the fun in that? I'd rather wait and watch what the kid will do to you once he finds out you messed with his family. It's going to be hilarious. For me, not for you."

In the meantime, the CIEL operatives were getting ready to try something, so I figured it was time for the curtain call. But before that, I had to leave the right impression, so I shrugged and spoke loudly.

"Or maybe not. The kid is kind of boring, so if you grovel hard enough, he might just let bygones be bygones."

Saying so, I let go of her neck, and simultaneously gave her butt a rough kick, making her stumble forward and land on the floor, barely missing the broken glass on the carpet. Before the agents could open fire, I yelled, "See you later, little bird! Make sure you won't become a dodo by the next time we meet!", and with a cheeky wave, I disappeared from the room, leaving behind only started gasps, confused yells, and a groaning woman on the floor.

Sure, those weren't great optics, but in my defence, she deserved it, and I absolutely needed this.

PART 2

"No. I'm telling you, I've had enough!" I said, crossing my eyes with the combined defiance of a thousand soccer moms demanding to see the manager. "This was the last straw! I'm fed up with the stupid Celestials and their games, and I'm putting an end to it!"

Following my declaration, Roland touched his forehead and let out a soft groan.

"Please be reasonable. We just talked about this the other day," he insisted, but I was too mad to care.

After my return from Elysium, I changed out of my disguise, and my first stop was at the base, where I flagged our ever-dependable Sir Griffon down and dragged him to our new customary secluded scheming spot. Better known as the reception area next to the teleport closet.

Anyhow, I let out a growl and threw my hands into the air.

"Yes, but that was before I learned they sicced the child protective services on us, with the express purpose to annoy me and keep me busy! And this wasn't just Savir's plan; she had to cooperate with the others to keep my people in the Elysium busy as well, so they had to be in on the details!"

"Leonard, I understand you're upset, but—"

"I'm not upset, I'm positively livid!" I interrupted him, walking up and down in front of him out of habit. "This is getting out of hand. I already feel like I'm getting buried under all the various duties and ploys and events I have to keep track of, and I refuse to put up with the directors' inane bullshit on top of that!"

"Leonard," Roland raised his voice sternly and met my eyes. "You need to calm down. You can't make an informed decision while you're worked up like that."

As much as I didn't like to admit it, he did have a point, so I stopped pacing and took a couple of deep breaths.

"Okay, I'm calm," I declared. "I still want to stick my boot so far off their asses they could taste the shoe polish. Now what?"

Roland closed his eyes and let out a rough breath before we locked gazes again.

"So, despite my earlier advice, you want to dismantle the Celestial Directorate and rob its leaders of their ability to interfere with your life. How exactly do you plan to do that?"

"I'll just…"I started, but then couldn't finish the sentence.

What were my options? I could try to apply pressure on them as Polemos, but it had little effect on Savir so far, and if I did bring her to task, she might just respond by disseminating that stupid law to keep me busy. But then again, would dealing with the fallout of that really be worse than what just happened? Now I had empirical evidence showing that, even if I left her and her ilk alone, it didn't stop her from interfering with my life, and worse yet, with my family.

That said, if I went on the warpath as Polemos, it would definitely create a lot of resentment, no matter what Moose said. Taking Savir down this way would've given the impression that I was doing a political power grab, which could rally the other higher-ups behind her, and keeping track of three Celestial schemers and their plots was hard enough already, and it could potentially drag the Knights and the Draconians into the fray because of my other titles.

Okay, so what if I circumvented this by asking Angie for a favour instead? If Deus herself denounced Savir, it would probably make the other directors think twice before coming to her side… but doing so would open up Angie for scrutiny and attacks. At the moment, the reason why Savir wasn't doing anything about her was due to our 'deal', and because she was convinced that I was pulling her strings and trying to keep her influence low to maintain my own authority. It was one of those typical 'Evil Cannot Comprehend Good' trope situations, where she was so used to this kind of political backstabbery she didn't even consider that I would have other motivations.

However, if she thought that, chances were that all the other Celestial bigwigs were also thinking along the same lines, being cut from the same cloth and all that. Meaning that, if I did call upon Angie's authority as the second coming of Deus, it would solidify the impression of her being my puppet, which would give others the excuse to suspect, suppress, or even 'save' her. With that whole potential assassination thing Lord Grandpa told me about hanging over our heads, I couldn't afford to have even her own people, in a manner of speaking, scheme against her as well.

So… could I use Bel to deal with this? Honestly, my options as him were even more limited. Sure, I could probably beat Savir up if it came to that (she didn't exactly pose a huge threat just now), or even kidnap her and dump her in a cell next to Percival, but what would that accomplish in the long term? Have another prisoner I didn't know what to do about? And while threats of violence were a good way to keep people off-balance, if I tried to use actual violence to force the Celestials to change their policies… wouldn't that make Bel a terrorist?

I mean, yeah, I kind of played him as a villainous bad-guy and all, but there was such a thing as a line too to cross.

"If you don't have a plan," Roland spoke up again, seeing that I wasn't answering his previous question, "then don't act hastily. You said you had already laid some groundwork for supplanting the directors, right?"

"Yeah, but that'll take some time to come together," I admitted, sounding just a tiny bit miffed.

"Then let's do it this way: First, we solidify the domestic policies and hierarchy of the Draconic Federation. The lion's share of the work is already in place, so it should be doable in a few weeks if we put in the effort." He waited to see if I had anything to add, and when I didn't, he continued with, "You also have a strong connection with the local arch-mages and the Assembly, so while we focus on the internal unification, you could try to negotiate a treaty or some form of mutual agreement to ensure the Magi would have our backs, or at the very least they would remain neutral. Then, once all the internal and external problems have been resolved, you should have a much stronger power base to rely on when dealing with the Celestial Directorate."

"That… does make a lot of sense," I admitted, feeling a bit deflated. Since I stopped pacing, I decided to sit down and collect my thoughts a little. "Give me a few minutes to think this through."

"As you wish," Roland answered, and also sat down on another bench and patiently waited for me to get things sorted.

In the meantime, I sunk into my thoughts. On one hand, I absolutely wanted to put an end to Savir and her scheming, but on the other, what Roland said was entirely reasonable. Not to mention, rushing in to deal with those bastards right now could cause another of those plot pileups, where the Narrative would freak out and then just throw all the climaxes at me, all at once. The last time that happened, it resulted in the creation of Bel, me getting knocked out, and my hand getting fried from the inside. But then again, I did get Mountain Girl, Ichiko, Fred, and Galatea out of it, even if the last two required me to heckle Lord Grandpa a bit first, and…

Oh, wait! That's right, Lord Grandpa did become more cooperative after I freaked him out back then and took him down a peg. I did something vaguely similar with Savir just now, even giving her a hint about making peace with me, and if I scared her enough, she might just do that. Wouldn't that solve my problems, or at the very least alleviate them for a while?

With that thought in mind, I closed my eyes and focused on her red dot at the edge of my vision. Before I even finished that thought, I was inside a familiar small, dimly lit chamber with a single table in the middle. It was the place the three chief directors used for their clandestine meetings when they didn't want anyone else to know they were making deals behind everyone's backs, and once I arrived, I immediately groaned. Yep. Of course, they would be wearing the stupid cowls that hid their faces in shadows. Why would I even expect anything else?

"No. I'm telling you, I'm mobilizing our forces," Director Mensah declared with a growling voice, in response to something I didn't hear. "We have an Abyssal in our Elysium, and you let him loose!"

"I didn't 'let him loose'!" Savir objected in a low voice filled with indignation.

"But he did come here because of your plan," Tsephanyah pointed out, causing her eyes to snap to the man with a hiss.

"On whose side are you, Acacius?"

"I'm not taking sides in this affair, I'm just stating the facts," the blonde director (even if his hair couldn't be seen due to the cowl at the moment) sounded altogether unbothered by the discussion, though that quickly changed with his next line. "However, I do agree with Dolion in that we must mobilize the military in search for this Bel of the Abyss."

"And the Colossi," the bespectacled director chimed in, but Tsephanyah only looked at him with cold eyes under furrowed brows.

"How would those weapons help track down an Abyssal in hiding?"

"They could have stopped him from escaping," Mensah argued back, but then they both flinched when Savir slapped the table in front of her to get their attention.

"Weren't you paying any attention to what I just explained? The plan was perfect," she insisted, even though it obviously wasn't. "I had him exactly where I wanted him to be. He was surrounded by an elite CIEL team I hand-picked for this mission, and I used my authority to activate the Mana Well under the Migdál to its full power and lock the building inside an impenetrable spatial bubble. There was no way in or out, and he still disappeared from right in front of our noses! Do you honestly believe that those hulking warbeasts would've made any difference?"

"Which brings us back to the main problem," Tsephanyah spoke up, acting as the voice of reason. "How did he get in, and how did he get out?"

"I've already sent my people to the Department of Border Control," Mensah added, his arms folded and eyes glaring defiantly. "Preliminary reports say that there were no movements, sanctioned or otherwise, between Elysium and the ancestral land for the last five hours."

"That means he had to infiltrate the realm earlier," Tsephanyah mused with a hand on his chin, and after a dramatic pause he added, "And that he's yet to leave."

"That's why I'm telling you we need to fully mobilize! There's no way an Abyssal can hide in the—!"

"And what if he's not from the Abyss?" Savir suddenly said, causing the other two to fall silent and look at her as if she just asked if the different colours of the rainbow tasted different as well.

"What do you mean?" Tsephanyah urged her to continue. "Did you discover something during your encounter?"

"As a matter of fact, I did," she declared, her hand still on the table. "Do you remember the book?"

"The one you used as bait," Tsephanyah stated blandly.

"The only part of your plan you still haven't fully clarified," Mensah, on the other hand, sounded rather miffed. "Are you finally willing to explain what was inside that old pile of dusty parchments to warrant the Archon once again sullying his hands by colluding this Abyssal threat just to destroy it?"

"Don't disrespect our Books of Hymnos, Dolion," the woman sneered and finally raised her arms and crossed it in front of his chest. "And no, I will not explain, as it is entirely beside the point. What you have to know is that, while this was not the genuine article…"

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

Argh! I knew it! I knew it would've been too easy! I mean, sure, I already decided to stop giving a damn about the stupid 'you have to marry the girl because something-something racial purity' bullcrap law, because letting Savir lord it over me already caused as much (if not more) annoyance than just dealing with it upfront, but I really hoped she was overconfident enough to use the real book for bait. That way, since I destroyed it, the whole thing would've been out of my hair already, but apparently, it was too good to be true. Will I seriously have to commit arson one of these days, just to be sure?

But hypothetical burning archives aside, let's get back to the conversations.

"… It was, nevertheless, an ancient copy written in one of the more archaic dialects of our Script. Yet, this Bel of the Abyss, as he claimed, was able to read it with no trouble at all."

The atmosphere in the room changed at once, and if I wasn't just a disembodied point of view at the moment, I would've facepalmed so damn hard I would've left a slapstick hand-mark on my forehead. I was so caught up in the moment back then, I wasn't even paying attention to what I was reading, so… did I mess up big time, or huge time? Let's find out, shall we?

"Are you telling me that he's an Abyssal that can read Celestial Script?" Mensah posited, and Savir gave her a 'Is this guy pulling my leg?' kind of look I immediately recognized, because Rinne used to give me those in the past.

"No. I'm telling you that he's not an Abyssal at all," she answered, sounding incredulous that she had to explain something like this.

"That… would explain a lot," Tsephanyah noted, and he received a nod of acknowledgement in turn.

"Indeed."

"Wait. Are you saying that he's been one of us all along?" Mensah asked, sounding justifiably skeptical of the idea.

"Not quite. I believe this 'Bel of the Abyss' is not a person, but more of an identity adopted by a group of conspirators. Dolion already mentioned that there was no recent movement crossing in and out of Elysium, but it's only a problem if we presume that he's a distinct entity who had to move between the planes. However, if we shift our thinking, it's much more logical to presume that the Bel seen on the ancestral land, the Bel causing chaos in the Abyss, and the Bel who escaped my trap today are three separate entities donning the identity and working in parallel."

I… had no idea how to feel about this misunderstanding. On one hand, she was way too close to the truth, but at the same time, she was so wildly off it was almost comical. I wasn't laughing though.

"You're saying that the Bel you encountered was just someone in disguise?" Dolion said, still sounding unsure. Good for him.

"It would certainly explain the mask," the third chief director noted in a contemplative tone.

"Precisely my point," Savir pressed on with a triumphant smirk. "As I said, my plan to capture this Bel person was flawless, but I didn't consider sabotage. Even if he possesses a strange ability to move fast, it should've been impossible to escape Migdál Glaukós under spatial lockdown… unless he had collaborators to help his flight and hide his traces."

"This 'movement technique' you speak of," Mensah interjected, finally getting caught up in the hype as he dramatically pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, like some third-rate anime villain. "Am I the only one who's reminded of the abilities Polemos demonstrated during the operation with the rogue Colossus?"

"That was going to be my next point," Savir answered cockily. "I'm glad you're paying attention."

"Eris, please," Tsephanyah groaned, and she, surprisingly, dialled her attitude back a little.

"To be more precise, I was going to share my opinion on this Bel's relationship with Polemos."

"Could it be that Bel was a role played by Polemos all along?" Mensah posited, making me tense up, only to deflate when Savir dismissed him with a careless wave.

"That's not possible. There have been too many witnesses of them operating at the same time. Not to mention, I have gone out of my way to ensure he was unable to leave his family unattended today precisely to force his hand into using Bel once again." I was tempted to let out a relieved sigh, but then she dropped a bombshell. "I believe there's something much more insidious going on. It is likely that what we're witnessing is just the tip of a vast, potentially millennia-old conspiracy laid down by the original Polemos himself."

"… You do realize you can't just make an extraordinary claim like that without elaborating, right, Eris?" Tsephanyah acted like my spirit animal and spoke my mind, and the woman flashed a provocative smirk.

"I wonder if you can say the same once I've done so," she said and placed both of her hands on the table again. "What do we know about Bel? He's active in three realms, possesses abilities reminiscent of Polemos, and despite his power and apparent personality, there are no records of him appearing before his first sighting at the end of last October. If you consider all of his actions so far, they all, without fail, benefited Polemos in one shape or form.

Bel's first appearance was during the Oathbreakers' strike on the Dracis dragonbloods, and he served as an agent to spoil their plans and weaken them enough to be absorbed by this Ordo Draconis organization he created. During his second appearance, he fed information to Optio Arpachshad, which led to the internal conflicts within the Directorate exploding, weakening and fragmenting us all just in time for the return of the Archons.

His appearances in the Abyss, while not fully confirmed, indirectly led to the destruction of House Ashur, cutting us off from our most deeply entrenched agents in their realm, and his involvement with the dragonbloods led to the formation of a unified organization that could threaten the balance of the world. Finally, he appeared twice recently, and both times he was but acting as an errand boy for Polemos. Do I need to say more?"

"You're telling us that it was all to further the authority of the Second True Archon and weaken his potential opposition?" Tsephanyah asked, and she nodded with confidence.

"I believe we just caught the coattails of a huge conspiracy, deeply embedded in our realm, as well as the ancestral land and the Abyss. Potentially even a wide-spread secret society that's been operating under our very nose for a long, long time, as it's the only way to explain how these 'Bels' could operate even in the Abyss, with Polemos at its very center. He was the one pulling the strings. He was the only one who could've taught that strange instant movement technique to his collaborators, he deceived everyone in order to rise to power, and…"

"And now, he separated Deus from us, effectively gaining custody over her to enforce supreme power over Elysium as well," Mensah said, and once again, if I had a head at the moment, I would be bashing it against a wall.

"The existence of such an enormous conspiracy is… unlikely, in my opinion," Tsephanyah tried to be the voice of reason, but Savir shook her head.

"The evidence is clear. How else can you explain Leonard Dunning's rapid rise to power, Bel of the Abyss's sudden appearance and activities in three different realms, the implausible unification of the dragonbloods and the Oathbreakers, or even just what happened today? These all required deliberate and concerted efforts using a wide array of collaborators he couldn't have built up over a few short years, let alone months. The only logical explanation is that the framework for all of this was set up ages ago, and upon his return, Polemos as Leonard Dunning only had to set the gears into motion."

"Makes sense to me," Mensah noted with a troubled frown.

"I'm still not entirely convinced," Tsephanyah spoke softly, but even he gave up soon. "But for the sake of argument, let us presume you're right. What do we do about it?"

Smirking, Savir theatrically raised her hands and declared, "A conspiracy under the limelight is as good as dead. All we have to do is to force Polemos to reveal his hand to the rest of the world. We must put enough pressure on him to force his hand until he makes a mistake that undeniably proves that he's…"

This was the point where I stopped listening and returned to my body.

"Fuck it," I uttered with all the indignation two simple words could possibly hold.

"Excuse me?" Roland blurted out, startled by my outburst, but by then, I was already on my feet.

"I said fuck it. I've had enough of these bastards, their stupid ploys and all of these goddamn plots never resolving themselves and only getting more complicated."

"Hold your horses. Why are you more worked up than…?"

Ignoring him, I Far Glanced at Snowy, and seeing that she was conveniently alone at the moment (sitting on the toilet, to be precise), I speed-dialled her on my phone.

"Y-Yes?" she muttered, sounding startled by the sudden call.

"Hi, sis. You're planning to visit the hideout this weekend, right?"

"Yes, that's the plan."

"When you talk with the old bastard, tell him he's out of time. He either coughs up something useful, or he's sleeping with the fishes. That's our ultimatum."

"W-Wait! This is too sudden! What happened?"

"We're speeding things up a bit. I'll explain everything in detail later," I declared, and then quickly said my goodbyes and started dialling another number.

"Leonard, please slow down and explain why you changed your mind so suddenly," Roland pleaded with me, but I raised a finger to put him on hold.

"Mike?"

"Eh? Yes?" the guy mumbled in confusion, apparently not expecting me to call him at this hour. "Tell Moose that the plans have changed. Tell him to gather all the supporters he can, and we're going to strike in…" I paused and consulted my mental timetable. "Monday. Let's go with Monday."

"By strike, do you mean…?"

"Exactly what you think. I'll visit you on the weekend and discuss the details, but I want him to get started ASAP."

"U-Understood!"

With that, I cut the line and turned to Roland even as I dialled the next number.

"Have the Ordo Draconis on standby, just in case. Hopefully, you won't have to get involved, but I might need some backup."

"… Please tell me you aren't planning to invade the Elysium."

"It's only Plan D, but it's unfortunately on the cards," I answered as I pressed the green button.

"But why? What happened in the last ten minutes to warrant this?"

"Have you ever heard of the saying, 'Play stupid games, win stupid prizes'?" He only looked at me funny, so I shrugged and said, "Don't worry. I'm going to teach the Directorate about it, you can listen in on the side if you want." Just then, the line connected, so I raised the phone to my ear again. "Hi, Angie. Sorry for calling you this late, but I have a small favour to ask…"

PART 3

It was a slow, languid Saturday afternoon, as if in direct defiance of the crazy day I had before, and the familiar living room of Josh's home felt especially tranquil. In retrospect, I kind of needed something like this to unwind a little, and even the repeated yells of 'Wave Motion Fist!' coming from the television felt oddly calming.

"So, you're not going to flip the Elysium's table overnight?" Josh asked, obviously trying to divide my attention so that he could catch me in an air juggle combo, but I was onto his game and managed to push him back with a Greek Cancel and we returned to neutral.

"Nah, not yet," I grumbled as my character used a Force Parry, but then got caught in a ground combo. "I'm not allowed to do that, by the decree of the Plot-Non-Up-Screwing Committee."

"The what?" he blurted out, only to hiss as I used his momentary lapse in attention to launch a Super Move and catch his character in an air combo, ending the match. "Hey! Unfair!"

"All is fair in love and Street Kombat," I told him with a grin, and we got ready for the third and decisive match.

"… Seriously though, what's a Plot-Un-Screwing Committee?" he grumbled, but before I could answer, a new voice joined the fray as Angie returned from the kitchen with a pair of soda bottles under her arms.

"It's Judy and Elly, silly squirrel," she told her boyfriend as she walked by and roughly tousled his hair, an act made easier by the fact the two of us were sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of the TV.

"H-Hey! You're distracting me!" the guy moaned, though it didn't make a lick of difference, considering the game was on pause at the moment.

In any case, Angie had the right answer. As much as I expected the girls to welcome my resolution to upend the status quo and do something about the three chief directors, I was scolded for rushing things in a half-assed way instead. Judy, in particular, insisted that if I wanted to do this, then I should do it right and not leave any stray threads hanging.

That was followed up by my talk with Moose, who insisted that acting right now was unwise, considering he was just on the cusp of rallying the unsatisfied Celestial middle class behind me, so he implored me to give him a bit more time. As such, I was forced to soften my stance a little. That, of course, didn't mean that I wouldn't give the three head honchos a piece of my mind, and draw the proverbial line in the sand, but that was for later.

For now, I was still focused on beating Josh in the game, and I was doing pretty well. While I was a bit out of practice, and I picked a different character from usual, I held my own well enough, if I do say so myself, until someone poked me in the back with her toes, causing my attention to falter and my character to get caught in a super-combo.

"Hey!" I called out without looking back, but by then half of my health bar was gone, making a comeback rather unlikely. "That was uncalled for."

"Nah, do you know what was uncalled for?" Angie answered as she continued to poke my back while sitting on the couch. "Scaring the ever-loving bejeezus out of me yesterday, that's what!"

"Cut it out!"

Despite my best effort, my character's health reached zero, and to add insult to injury, Josh ended the fight with a Finality Move. Slightly peeved, I turned around, but the Celestial girl already had her legs under her and was devouring a bowl of popcorn like she was an angel. I mean, a literal one, not a metaphorical one.

"I didn't want to scare you, you know?" I told her, and she gave me an innocent look, as if she didn't know what I was talking about. "And my warning still stands, anyway."

"What?" Josh sounded a touch incredulous as he turned to me with a brow raised high. "Didn't you say you weren't going to do a coup because of that plot-something-something committee thing?"

"Not a coup, but I'm planning to cut their legs out of under them anyway, so my recommendation still stands," I told them and glanced back to Angie. "You, lay low and make sure you don't get caught up in any Celestial shenanigans." I looked at Josh next. "And you, stay by her side and keep her safe, just in case."

"I do that all the time," the guy responded with a shrug, then added, "And it's not like I have much of a chance to do that, considering those Praetorian Guards of yours are mother-henning us all day, every day. We barely have any alone time lately."

"Right, I just wanted to talk about that!" Angie raised her voice and pointed at me. "Can you ask them to give us some breathing space? We can't even k-kiss without them peeking at us."

"… Why did you stutter just now?" I asked with one hundred percent genuine curiosity, but she puffed up her cheeks anyway.

"Mou! Stop nitpicking! We're still new at this, you know?"

I wanted to point out that they had been going out for the better part of two months by now, but my attention was drawn back to Josh, who gestured at the old-school console on the floor. Or maybe the character-select screen? Either way, he was obviously asking if I wanted to start the next round. Instead of answering, I reached out and snatched the popcorn out of the distracted girl's hands.

"Nah, I'll take a break. Your turn."

That caught Angie's complaints in her throat, and a blink of an eye later she was sitting between us with the second controller in hand.

"Don't mind if I do!" she exclaimed with a happy-go-lucky grin, but then she soon turned sombre when she looked at me again. "Seriously though, can you tell them to give us some personal space?"

"Can't you do that yourself?" I asked back while chewing on a mouthful of popcorn, but she shook her head. Then nodded. And then shook it again.

"No, I can't! They take everything I say as an order, and they get depressed when I tell them to cut it out. It must make them feel that Deus is telling them they are doing their job wrong."

"And how does my telling them the same make it any different?"

"You're their boss," Josh came to his girlfriend's support, even while his eyes were glued to the TV screen and his fingers busy selecting his next character. "Isn't telling them they aren't doing their job right your job?"

"Semantics," I grumbled, and the girl between us let out a soft giggle. Then, her expression turned pensive.

"Hey, guys? Do you think we can stay like this even after we return to Elysium?"

"Stay like what?" I asked, and she made a vague gesture at the three of us.

"Like this. Hanging out and playing games and stuff. I really hope we can stay friends forever."

That was sweet, but also a little suspicious. I was pretty sure talking about mushy stuff like this before something dramatic was about to happen was one of those Death Flag tropes.

"I mean, I'd really like it if we could stay together forever. In fact, we should do that!" Angie exclaimed, steadily working herself up in the process. "We'll be the three amigos of Elysium, and nothing could ever come between u—"

Before she could finish, I reached out and put a finger on her mouth.

"Careful. This is what we, in the business, call tempting fate," I told her in a stern voice, and she blinked at me, giving her best startled-bunny impression.

"Tempting fate?" Josh echoed me with a critical brow raised. "Wait. If fate's real, then that's real too? Is that why Judy and Elly always teased you about jinxing stuff?"

"It's one of the more annoying universal forces, yes," I answered vaguely and retraced my hand. "You best keep it in mind. Also, no joking about retirement, never show family photos to others in a tense situation, never tell someone you're going to tell them something important at a later date, and for the love of all that's good and holy, if you're in danger, never, ever start a sentence with 'If we survive this, I'll…'. Seriously, just don't. Don't even think it."

"… Wow," Angie muttered in a daze. "Fighting destiny sounds more complicated than I thought."

This time, Josh turned the same critical eyebrow at her.

"Why? What did you think it took?"

"Idunno? Lots of determination, and shaking your fist at the heavens?"

"Don't do that either," I told her, this time half-joking. "The universe is a dick, so it's just asking to be struck by lightning."

"… S-Seriously?" she muttered, her face paling in shock.

"It never hurts to be too careful," I told her with a wink, but before she could take me to task over whether I was pulling her leg, there was a knock on the front door, and I hopped to my feet. "Must be Jaakobah. I'll go get it."

"Oh. Are you coming back?" Josh asked a tad pensively, and after considering the answer, I shrugged.

"Maybe. Depends on how long it'll take. In any case, thanks for the hospitality, and have fun."

"Good luck!" the Celestial girl exclaimed with a thumbs up, and then hastily added, "Oh, and if you're meeting with Mr. Arpachshad anyway, tell him about what we just discussed. About our private time and stuff."

"I'll try not to forget about it."

With that, I headed over to the front door and slipped into my shoes before opening the door.

"Lord Archon," the apathetic man on the other side greeted me in his usual manner, and he was wearing the same ridiculously conspicuous trench coat and fedora combo as always. "The preparations are complete."

"Great. Let's go."

I said my farewells to the childhood friend couple and closed the door behind me. I didn't bother to put on a coat, since we were only walking to the Praetorian Guards' home base at the house near the end of the street. Once we arrived, we passed through the wards placed around the place (which were considerably less thorough than the ones Snowy put around our house, but I digress) and entered the living room.

The insides of the family home were fully transformed into a field headquarters, full of both mundane and magitech equipment. At the moment, only us, midriff-woman and facemask-fella were in the building, with the rest of them out on patrols and supply runs (the latter was what they called going to the nearest pizza place and ordering some food on the go, but I once again digress), and more importantly, a familiar face in the middle of the room.

"I-I greet the Second True Archon Lord Polemos!" the scrawny man did his best to salute to me, even though his multi-purpose magical instrument was in the way.

"At ease," I told him and rolled my shoulders. "Is everything in order?"

"Y-Yes, O Archon," the certified portal-technician nodded and put his hands on his instrument. "The reception committee has been informed of your arrival, and we are ready to go at your earliest convenience."

"Good. Please open the way."

"At once!" the man yelled with gusto and began playing a discordant melody.

Meanwhile, I activated my Leoformer, and shifted into my Polemos disguise, prompting me to roll my shoulders all over again to get it to fit me properly. Glancing at Jaakobah, I saw that he followed my example, and was already wearing most of his Celestial garb under his trench coat, which midriff-woman took from him without the need to ask.

"Are you planning to follow me?" I asked, and Jaakobah nodded without any pretence.

"Naturally. As the Prefect of your Praetorian Guard, it is my duty to accompany you whenever you perform formal duties or head to the battlefield."

"Oh? And which one is this going to be?" I asked with just a hint of a smile, which he didn't return at all.

"Whichever the Lord Archon decides."

I couldn't decide whether that was a good answer or not, but I had to admit, the man was both consistent and dedicated to his new job. In any case, while we conversed, the guy with the instrument finished his job, and I could already see a portal forming in the middle of the living room. I feel the vague timing of its opening, as always, and it was rather fast. Probably because it was an authorized sanctioned entry, about which I notified the Directorate ahead of time.

Before long, the small crack in space widened into a large circle, and I could see a group of people waiting for us on the other side. It was only when we stepped through, and I could feel the wind on my face, that I realized we were on the same balcony where I officially entered Elysium for the first time. And where I officially left the place as well.

…

Seriously, was this the formally designated portal landing platform of the Elysium, or were the people here just that creatively stunted? In any case, once I came to a halt, an equally familiar group of trumpeters announced my arrival and a group of Celestials in togas greeted me.

"Welcome back, O Polemos, Second True Archon of the—"

"Where's Savir?" I interrupted the man in the middle trying to give a speech and theatrically glanced around. "And the rest?"

"Lord Archon?" another Celestial, this time a vaguely familiar middle-aged woman, called out to me to get my attention. "Director Savir is currently at Migdál Iodes, while Director Tsephanyah is conducting a—"

"Do I look like I care?" I cut her off as well, a levelled a flat stare at her. "I thought I was explicit with my orders, but it seems your Directorate is even more undisciplined than I thought."

"E-Excuse me, O Lord Archon, we only—"

For the third time, I interrupted the speaker by raising a hand. I closed my eyes, slipped even deeper into my Polemos act, and when I opened them again, now in the form of a glare directed at the welcoming committee in front of me.

"This is a soft age. One of peace, prosperity, and security. I realized this long ago, and so I adopted a more lenient approach to you wayward lot. Something many of you have taken for granted, it seems. This, will not stand." I let my hand down, and raised my voice, channelling all my frustration from the day before. "Send messengers this instant! I want those two, and Mensah as well, in front of me within the hour!"

"B-But Lord Archon, as I just said, Director Savir is not in Migdál Glaukós, so…"

"Is that my problem?" I uttered flatly, accompanied by another glare. "Tell her this: she either comes before me on her own two feet, or I will personally drag her over by the hair, across half of Elysium if I have to. Did I make myself clear enough?"

"Y-Yes, Lord Archon!" the woman stuttered and turned tail, hopefully to contact the chief directors.

The moment she started moving, the rest of the committee also stirred, as if awakened from a light slumber, and they also thundered, "As you command!" more or less in unison before stumbling all over each other in their hurry to leave the balcony.

Shaking my head, I turned to my left, where I found two of the little girls with baskets full of rose petals standing nearby, looking rather anxious. I closed my eyes for a moment, and after letting out a pent-up breath, I forced a more neutral expression onto my face and casually waved at them.

"Shoo, kids. You're not needed today."

There was no need to say that twice, and the two of them scampered away, leaving me alone on the balcony with Jaakobah. I was just about to ask him if I was overdoing it, but before I could do so, the man let out an approving grunt.

"An excellent display of decisive leadership, Lord Archon."

I blinked, and after a long beat, slightly nodded my head and then turned at the landscape, once again feeling that my concept of what it means to be a leader was seriously out of whack with the rest of the world's…

PART 4

"Lord Archon?"

Hearing the flat voice coming from the doorway, I opened one eye and glanced at Jaakobah, who returned my gaze with an unperturbed expression. I was sitting inside the clandestine meeting room of the chief directors at the moment, and I've just finished doing a Far Sight round check across all the relevant targets. My coming here was a bit of a gamble, because it gave the nefarious Narrative the perfect opportunity to start moving the pieces on the board in my absence, so I'd been routinely checking on everyone, just in case.

As for why I choose this spot of all places to meet the trio… let's call it some subtle power play, and leave it at that. In any case, just a glance wasn't enough to make the man in the doorway speak his mind, so I opened both of my eyes and faced him properly.

"Yes?"

"We just received a message from Director Savir, saying she won't be able to arrive in time. The messenger also said that—"

"Stop," I uttered, making the hard-faced agent's expression turn just a little bit surprised. I closed my eyes for a second, glancing at the Orthodox director's red dot, and the moment I returned, I frowned with exasperation. "Go over to director Mensah's suite. If anyone tries to stop you, tell them you're running an errand on my behalf. Once there, tell him, Savir, and Tsephanyah that I already know they're here, and to stop wasting my time, or I'll be forced to make good on my previous promise. Understood?"

"Perfectly."

I dismissed him with a wave of my hand, and he closed the door behind him, leaving me alone in the small conspiratorial meeting room again. Tried as I might, I couldn't stop myself from exhaling a shallow yet weighty sigh as I massaged my eyes.

"Seriously, are these guys dumb, suicidally over-confident, or both?"

There was no one else here to respond to my question, so I crossed my eyes and steeled my nerves for the conversation to come. First off, I had to get into character. Or rather, I had to finalize my Polemos persona before they got here.

Honestly speaking, I didn't put too much thought into this until now. In fact, I could say my 'Polemos' had much less thought put into him than my 'Bel', mainly because I just used the mask as a degree of separation between me and Elysium. However, I had a feeling that I would inevitably have to use it much more in the future, and while I was planning to put more thought into the act, it was near the rock bottom of my priority list, so I failed to do so until… well, right now.

The problem was that 'my Polemos' wasn't nearly as fun to play as 'Bel'. Well, fine, maybe that wasn't the right metric here, but it was true! Bel required a specific mindset, lots of preparation and setup, and just a dash of showmanship on top of it all that made him more fun to play. Even when it was a stressful performance, there was a sense of catharsis when I was done, and even the less bombastic acts had their high points, like being able to kick Savir in the ass without repercussions.

Compared to that, Polemos was… I didn't really build much on him, to be honest. Just be solemn and authoritative, but otherwise, I didn't clearly delineate him from my normal act as Leonard Dunning.

…

Wait. Did I just call my natural self an act?

…

Whatever. There was no time to get sidetracked by unfortunate word choices right now. I expelled the thought from my mind and focused on the original issue. Namely, Polemos. Bel, as a character, was born under intense pressure, and later moulded to make him dissimilar enough from me to allay any suspicions. So, what was my goal with Polemos?

Initially, it was to fool the audience who watched me getting cocooned by Teeny's memory transfer bubble and to make them think it succeeded. By now, however, it was fully known inside and outside the Elysium that it wasn't a full overwrite, and everyone seemed to accept the 'merger' of Polemos and Leonard. So, my goal wasn't to portray a fully separate persona, but more of a 'shift' from one to the other.

Now came the next question: What was I doing here?

Yeah, I know, asking this so late in the game was kind of stupid, but to be fair, I still wasn't entirely sure about it. One thing that I knew for sure was that if I left these clowns to their own devices, it was only a question of time before they would turn this circus on its head, and then all the lions and monkeys and rope-walkers would spill over into my life, and at this point the analogy kind of broke down. The point remained the same though: I had to take them down a peg.

Yet, I couldn't take it too far. Not yet. As other-me had warned me, I had to be aware of the plot, which I presumed was the whole Angie-route thing we've been theorizing about for the past couple of months. I was aware that if I pushed too hard here, it could potentially trigger a plot-pileup, just like what happened when I cut the 'sentai arc' short by leading the gang to capture Fred as Robatto, which caused the Narrative to freak out and dump the Knights and Rinne on my head at the same time.

As such, today's goal was to put a stop to the Directorate's meddling with me, without pushing them too far and causing the plot to go haywire. Easier said than done, but I refused to continue living in fear of these bozos purposefully messing with my daily life, so I had to do it anyway. The easiest way to do that was to give them another target, like handing a dog a chew toy to make them stop ruining my slippers, and I luckily already had something in mind.

In conclusion, my Polemos had to be firm and overbearing, but not tyrannical. I had to browbeat them, but I couldn't rely on Bel-style threats, and violence had to be avoided or risk leading to a narrative kerfuffle. In other words, I had to cow them with just the weight of my words and the authority of the Second True Archon, and then divert their attention somewhere else. Easy peasy.

…

Oh, who was I kidding? This was shaping up to be a pain in the ass, and I couldn't wait to go home, forget about being Bel and Polemos and whatnot, and just play myself again. I mean, be myself again. Preferably before I start developing dissociative identity disorder by juggling all of these roles.

…

Though again, I already did have a kind of split personality in the form of 'other-me' who had a better grasp on the ins and outs of this Simulacrum thing, so maybe I should stop caring and embrace the madness. Let's make my next identity an attack helicopter! That sounded fun.

Jesting aside, I could detect that the red dots of the three chief directors were moving, so I did one last quick Far Sight roll call on the usual suspects before returning to my body. I assumed a straight-backed posture, picked up the half-empty glass of water from the table, and waited until the three, plus Jaakobah, reached the secret room, and only took a sip the moment the door opened.

The first one to enter was, surprisingly enough, the blonde chief director, though he looked slightly more dishevelled than usual. The moment our eyes met, I placed the glass back onto the table and flipped the Polemos-switch. From this point onwards, I would be arguing from a Polemos perspective, dress them down for Polemos reasons, and get them to behave through sheer, unadulterated Polemosness. Whatever the heck that even meant.

"Lord Archon," Tsephanyah bowed in a shallow manner, looking calm on the outside. "We didn't expect your return at this ti—"

"Sit," I told him, interrupting him mid-sentence, and directed a glare at the door. "You two. Get inside, and stop wasting my time."

Grudgingly, Mensah and Savir also entered the room, and the female director in particular looked tremendously irate, her eyes practically thundering with the kind of outrage usually reserved for people on social media with different political opinions.

"What's the meaning of this?" she uttered with barely disguised disdain, but I fully ignored her and her attitude and turned to Jaakobah, still under the doorframe.

Thanks to the roll-calls, I knew he already made contact with Kane, so I straight-up told him, "Inform the Seraphic Safeguard that I want this whole floor locked down. Not a soul can enter or leave until we're done here."

"As you command, Lord Archon," the man, ever-so-uncomplicated, gave me a salute and closed the door, leaving me alone with the three chiefs. Normally, this would've been one of those 'trapped in the wolves den' situations, except they have yet to realize who was the wolf in here.

"Sit," I commanded in a low voice. "You have wasted enough of my time already, so stop making me repeat myself."

Savir looked at me defiantly, but when her companions did as I said, she also grudgingly took a seat. So, there we were. Ostensibly the four most important people in the Elysium (not counting Angie), sitting across a single table in a drab grey room, with the three on the other side waiting for me to speak up. It almost felt like a scene out of a school sitcom, where the hardass principal was about to scold a group of troublemakers… and the fact that I wasn't that off the mark made me weep for the Celestial civilization.

"I assume you know why I called you here," I opened, sticking to the aforementioned principal impression.

"It's because of what happened yesterday, isn't it?" Savir spoke with audible distaste.

"As in?"

Looking annoyed, she put her hands onto the table and said, "You sent your collaborator here to retrieve something, but he returned empty-handed."

I levelled a flat gaze at her, and let the silence linger in the wake of her statement for a while before I turned to Mensah.

"Do you know why I called you here?" I asked, and the man with the glasses blinked in surprise, not expecting me to completely disregard Savir's answer.

"You… are aware of the existence of this room," he pointed out, a finger aimed at the ceiling. "So it must be because of what we discussed here yesterday. Am I correct?"

I repeated the same process with him as I did with Savir, and turned to Tsephanyah next. To his credit, he caught the pattern, and I didn't have to individually prompt him.

"You're here because Eris's plan to draw out Bel of the Abyss interfered with your household on the ancestral land."

I let out a soft hum, reached out for the glass on the table, and took another sip before responding.

"Correct. You are once again proving that you're the least worst one. Congratulations."

"… I don't think that was a compliment," he whispered, and I was tempted to yell 'Of course it wasn't, you potato!', but I didn't have the chance.

"Let's dispose of the pretenses, shall we?" Savir spoke up, crossing one arm across her chest and holding up the other hand in a vague manner, as if she was carrying a cup or wine glass. "You're here because he informed you about what happened. That means you're in contact, and it's as good as admitting that you ordered him to go after the Book of Hymnos. Isn't that right?"

Looking at her made the irritation in the pit of my stomach flare up, but I couldn't let it cloud my judgment. As such, I used a phantom limb to trigger one of the storage enchantments, Cal immediately appeared in my hand, causing the directors to twitch, and Mensah in particular looked extra-startled.

I ignored them and focused on Cal.

"{Hm? What's the situation, young Knight? Where's Teeny?}" I didn't answer, but started the mana-circulation pattern instead, and after just a few seconds, my sword let out a sound in realization. "{Ah! Do you wish to use that Eastern esoteric technique again? I still don't like it, but I understand, young Knight! Leave it to me!}"

After a moment, my mana made a full circle, and I could feel my mind clear up and my tension alleviated. Damn. I really should do this more often, not just to counteract my gut reactions…

But putting my belated realizations aside, I put Cal on my lap and then faced the confused trio on the other side of the table.

"Eris," I began in a low voice, and that somehow made her face twitch harder than when I took out a weapon. Anyhow, I continued with, "At this point, we've known each other long enough to be on first-name basis, so I'm sure you don't mind if I address you as such." Nobody responded, so I leaned back in my seat and let out a dramatic breath. "So, Eris? Please tell me; how did a thoughtless fool like you ever manage to rise to the pinnacle of Elysium's hierarchy?"

"W-What?!" she blurted out, clearly outraged, but before she could continue, I tapped a finger against the table.

"No need to reply. I already know the answer; this is a soft age, and the Elysium has grown soft as well. You have grown fat and complacent. Arrogant and vain in your ivory towers, thinking yourself safe and secure in the blanket called the Directorate you've woven, and you're viewing the world through the lens of petty schemes whose backlashes could never touch you." I paused and linked my fingers. "This. cannot. continue."

"Don't try to change the subject!" Savir complained. "You use big words, but at the end of the day, you're only here because your Bel couldn't—"

"Did I give you permission to speak?" I growled, lowering the pitch of my voice, and it made her look at me with an expression that belonged on the face of a bratty teenage girl who had never been overruled in her entire life, not one you'd expect to see on the face of a seasoned politician. That either meant that she was completely unbalanced by my act, or that her ego was more fragile than I thought.

"Lord Archon," Tsephanyah spoke up, and when I glanced his way, he hastily continued with, "If I may ask, what was contained in that book?"

"Acacius!" Savir hissed, but the man wasn't apologetic at all.

"A few lines of old law about the ancient marriage customs of Ophanim that would've mildly inconvenienced me and my inner circle if they got widely circulated," I told him, and this time she looked at me like I was a ghost. I had no idea why she was so shocked. It was a well-known fact that the moment a weakness wasn't secret anymore, it would stop being a leverage, and I was fully intending to take away her cards today.

"Eris…" To my mild annoyance, Director Mensah looked genuinely impressed by what I just revealed. "You tried to blackmail the Archon?"

"It was a deal," she hissed, and I nodded along.

"Yes. Was," I emphasized. "Eris promised to keep the news about these old laws out of the eyes of the public to avoid inconveniencing me, and in return, I would leave her to her own devices. Yet, in her conceit, she broke the deal after only a few short weeks." I paused and levelled a long, hard stare at her. "I didn't know why I was expecting anything better."

"I did no such thing! You were the one who used Bel to—"

"You keep making irrelevant accusations. Stop." After a beat, I shifted to a slightly more contemplative tone, and added, "You're so trapped in your own little world, that you completely failed to consider the consequences of your actions. I was willing to give you a small concession, allowing you to play your petty games if it meant you would stay out of my sight and affairs. But of course, you couldn't help yourself. Answer me this: if our deal was predicated on avoiding an inconvenience to me and mine, then if you caused one anyway, why would I trust you not to do so again? Why would I consider our deal worth anything at this point? And if the deal is worthless, then why would I bother trying to get my hand on that precious book you keep talking about?"

All of a sudden, Tsephanyah raised a hand, prompting me to look at him.

"Yes, Acacius?"

"Lord Polemos," he started, sounding a bit unsure of himself. "Are you implying that you had no reason to send Bel of the Abyss to retrieve the Book of Hymnos in question?"

Instead of responding right away, I closed my eyes and theatrically tilted my head back in an implied facepalm.

"Have you even considered that your entire premise is broken beyond repair?" I posited and let out a soft sigh. "Tell me, Eris: did Bel of the Abyss strike you as a being that could be ordered around?"

"You have already done so," Mensah butted in. "When he delivered the communicator to the dragoblooded."

"Is that so, Dolion?" I addressed him, and it made him visibly uncomfortable. "You have access to the intelligence from the time, haven't you? Did what happened back there seem like a subordinate following orders to you?"

"Well, not, but…"

"It was all an act!" Savir exclaimed, finally running out of patience, glaring at the Unorthodox director. "We discussed this the other day! There is no other logical explanation!"

"For what?" I posited, and she glared at me in turn, but when I met her eyes with a calm-ish gaze, she soon averted hers with a soft grunt.

"I believe Eris is referring to the way Bel of the Abyss is present in three realms," Tsephanyah said, and I once again shook my head.

"Once again, you're so snug and comfortable in your little bubble, that you fail to understand the true significance of what you see, imagining sleight of hand and ploys to explain the obvious, because that's all you know." I let out a soft sigh and shook my head. "I shouldn't blame you. You're like slightly larger fish living in a tiny pond, imagining themselves apex predators because they lack the frame of reference to realize how weak and insignificant they are."

"Are you implying that we're wrong, and Bel of the Abyss truly is just one person capable of moving freely between the realms?" Mensah blurted out, and oddly enough, when I frowned at him, he hastily amended, "O Lord Archon?" at the end.

"That's impossible," Savir insisted, but by this point, I'd already successfully sown the seeds of doubt in their minds.

"You're only proving my point, Eris," I stressed. "You're still afraid to consider the world outside your miniscule pond. What's so impossible about entering and leaving the Elysium and the Abyss unannounced? Any sufficiently powerful Celestial or Abyssal of old could do so if they were alive today, after millennia of erosion thinning the walls between the realms."

"Can you?" Mensah asked.

"Which part of 'sufficiently powerful' did you not understand, Dolion?" I asked back, and the man continued to stare at me, trying to weigh my words.

"Are you telling us…" Savir muttered, her eyes clouded over with clashing thoughts and realizations, "You're saying there's no conspiracy, and Bel is…"

"Bel is a shark," I told her flatly. "Stop trying to confine him in the logic of your tiny pond. You must first accept that he's fundamentally different from you. Only after you do that can you start to understand what he's doing and why."

I let that sink in, and after a few seconds, Savir's eyes cleared up.

"But I've seen him read Celestial Script!" she said, sounding unusually perturbed. "He can't be from the Abyss!"

I let out a theatrical groan and fell back to the exasperated principal act from the beginning.

"Have you put any thought into that conclusion? Did you think Abyssals could hold positions in our government in my time if they couldn't read our Script?" I told her disparagingly, though to be perfectly fair, I had absolutely no idea if they could or not. I had only a fraction of a fraction of the true Polemos's memories, but my conjecture sounded reasonable enough, and a shocked expression settled on the director's face.

"But… that would mean he's ancient, just like…" Savir mumbled in a daze, her voice trailing into silent whispers.

"Lord Polemos?" Tsephanyah addressed me, seeing that his colleague was out of it. "Ignoring our… potential misunderstanding about this Bel, you've come back to Elysium to warn us not to interfere with your affairs. Indirectly or otherwise. Am I correct?"

"Not quite," I responded, pitching down my voice again. "We're past the stage where I warn. I order you to cease, or face the consequences."

I was expecting them to argue, but the previous bit about Bel was apparently still on their minds, so I only got a few vague grumbles, followed by a borderline baffling, "Any other orders?" from Mensah.

With zero idea about what he had on his mind, I pondered the question for a moment, then just winged it.

"Do you expect me to give you another command?"

"I… thought you would have something to say on the current state of mobilization," he pointed out, and I was just about to nod along when I caught myself.

Wait, I was Polemos right now. Sure, I personally didn't like that, but the Second True Archon was a military leader, and so he would be in favour of military readiness. Not to mention, it was another of those 'had the Narrative's fingerprints all over it' developments, so I didn't want to touch it until I gave enough thought to how it could fit into the context of the Angie route.

"No. Continue as you were," I told him, and the bespectacled director's eyes lit up in pleasant surprise.

"We understand, O Lord Archon," Tsephanyah noted, and glanced at Savir, still lost in thought, before his attention returned to me. "I don't want to be disrespectful, but… I wish you had shared this information with us sooner. It could have avoided such an…"

"Awkward situation," Mensah continued the thought of his colleague.

"Yes. Let's call it awkward," the blonde director nodded. "Anything else you wish to discuss? Maybe we could move to a more pleasant venue?"

"No, that's unnecessary," I told them and stood up, carrying Cal in my left hand. "I can't leave Deus unattended for long, and your tardiness already made everything take longer than necessary." That was the excuse I prepared ahead of time, and when the others tried to follow after me, I gestured for them to stay put. "I recommend you remain here for the time being, and reflect on your past actions and what we just discussed."

I headed to the door, but just as I was about to leave, Savir spoke up again. She still looked a touch scatterbrained, probably because I sent her brain on a loop with all the 'revelations' about Bel.

"Leonard?" She paused, and after a moment she rephrased that to, "Lord Archon? If this… this Bel is as you described then… what are we supposed to do about him?"

"Nothing," I answered off-handedly. "Minnows should not concern themselves with the affairs of sharks."

And with that, I opened the door and left them to their own thoughts and devices. With some luck, it would shift their attention to Bel and keep them guessing for a while, too busy to meddle with us. Of course, that didn't mean I wouldn't keep them under constant surveillance during the coming days. If they decided to throw caution to the wind and keep scheming behind my back, I was still perfectly willing to put my plan into action and overthrow them all on Monday. If they decided to be on their best behaviour though… I was willing to postpone that until another Monday.