PART 1

"Haah… Deep breaths…" I inhaled and exhaled slowly as I limbered up my arms and legs. I couldn't show it before, because I was playing the role of Bel, but I was actually pretty out of it. I not only already had a protracted (if mostly friendly) sparring session with Lord Ambrose, but then a second one with Josh as well, meaning I was already a bit tired before going into this whole mess.

Adrenaline was one hell of a drug though, and there were few things getting it running better than fighting against a whole bunch of semi-mythical monsters. Yet, there was a limit to everything, and so the moment I was alone, my exhaustion hit me all at once like a sack of bricks. I knew that time was of the essence, but I really, really needed a few seconds to center myself.

Actually, maybe more than just a few seconds. I was going to deal with Celestials, so I had to act as Polemos next, who also couldn't show weakness in front of them. Ugh. At times like this, I really wished I had made him a more friendly and easy-going persona, but that ship had already sailed. In any case, I shifted my outfit, took a few more deep breaths, and got ready to Phase… and yet, I stopped and absent-mindedly patted the mini-shoggoth excitedly jumping up and down on a nearby crate.

Why was I about to deal with Celestials again? I didn't mean that in a rhetorical sense, but in a narrative one. Was this situation a naturally developing flusterkuck, emerging from the interplay of entirely Watsonian reasons, or was it the result of some Doylist interference from the nebulous Narrative? The last time something like this happened, it was because we decided to cut the Gordian Knot and bust a clear plot-line prepared by the Simulacrum and its ill-defined Narrative, but nothing of the like happened this time. Except…

"Oh, bollocks…"

My whispers made the tiny Lovecraftian horror let out a curious whine, so I patted it harder. In retrospect, I did declare that I would take down the Directorate today. Even if I changed my mind halfway through, it could've caused the Narrative to freak out and start rearranging the dominos on the table, and then all it needed was a single one to topple over to bring all the rest down with it.

Of course, this was just a conjecture, and I was sure that once we scrutinized the events under a microscope after the fact, we'd get a better picture, but for the moment, that was my best explanation. More importantly though, as much as I wanted to catch my breath, I couldn't tarry here for too long. So, I limbered up my body one last time, gave a playful scratch to Pudding-kun, and then exhaled hard before Phasing into the relevant neighbourhood.

A quick glance around was enough to give me a headache, and I quickly headed in the direction of the light show.

"What the hell is this!?"

I let out a bellow as soon as I arrived at the currently rather ruined playground, where a chaotic magical shootout was taking place. On one side, we had Lord Taika and Josh, in his Justicar outfit, holding the line with the sharply dressed Magi squad. On the other side, a bit of a melee going on, as the duo of armour-guy and midriff-woman were trying to break through to the Celestial commander at the back, leading a whole platoon of the more modernised version of the hoplite-armoured soldiers I'd seen in the Elysium

It didn't take me long to recognize them: at least some of them were definitely CIEL operatives, though I'd never seen them in such numbers, not even when they were trying to capture me as Bel during my last clandestine visit. For what reason would they even send all of these guys he—? Oh, wait. Deus. Never mind. I almost asked a stupid question. Instead, I hurriedly walked over to Josh and Taika hiding behind a row of cars parked by the sidewalk of the playground.

"Sorry, I can't talk." The arch-mage's voice sounded strained as she kept muttering and waving her hands, squeezing out words between chants. "I'm trying… to keep things under wrap… with three separate illusionary layers… but the Ley-lines are weak here… have to concentrate."

That was fair, I supposed, so I turned to Josh.

"Didn't I tell you to stay put?"

"I didn't have a choice, okay?" he barked back, only to flinch when a magic arrow hit the ground not far from him.

"Don't… shout too much. Can't cover up… all sounds," Lord Taika hissed, so I walked closer and crouched down next to Joshua.

"Can I get a sit-rep?"

"I don't know shit!" He let out a grunt and animatedly gestured at the Celestials buzzing around, over, and between the playground's ruined equipment. "Those guys just showed up out of nowhere and demanded to see Angie. When we told them she's currently fighting the literature teacher and the old guy, they lost their shit and attacked us."

"Ah… Yeah, now I see how this happened…"

I rubbed my temple, feeling another headache coming, and I was just about to get up when Josh suddenly exclaimed by my side.

"They're breaking off! Provide suppressive fire!"

To my slight bafflement, the Magi followed his order and started shooting off a barrage of magical projectiles at the Celestials. I figured that maybe Taika left him in charge, since she had to concentrate on whatever illusion she was weaving to keep this whole battle under wraps, but before I could ask, armour guy and midriff woman dive-bombed next to us from high above. They even did the whole superhero-landing trope and everything, followed by a curt salute.

"Sir, Lord Archon, sir!"

"Report," I instructed him in a low voice, and the large man let out an uncharacteristically frustrated groan.

"Sir, the reinforcements proved to be uncooperative, sir."

"I can see that, tell me something new," I hissed and rubbed my temple even harder. "Seriously, I leave for just a minute, and everything gets more confusing."

"Sir, you have left for well over fifteen minutes, s—"

Before he could complete that, midriff woman noticed the withering glare I was directing at the man, and gave him a solid slap to the back of the head, then pretended that nothing happened when he looked over. Meanwhile, Josh's attention snapped to me.

"Actually, where were you all this time?"

"There's another situation going on right now," I answered off-handedly, and after a beat, I quickly added, "I was heading there, but I had to turn back when Judy told me things went wrong here."

"A situation more important than Angie?"

"I thought things were under control here, with Jaakobah at the helm," I growled between clenched teeth and turned back to the Celestial duo. "Speaking of which, what's his situation? Are the assassins apprehended yet?"

"Sir, they are putting up a fight, sir. The Prefect decided to honor the Lord Archon's command, and focus on evacuating the building first, sir."

"Well, at least he still has a good head on his shoulders." I stood up and glared at the Celestials still firing arrows our way. "Give me a minute. I'll go and resolve this situation."

With that, I stood up and walked past the cars, followed by the baffled stares of everyone present.

"Wait, Leonard!" Lord Taika called after me. "You're under my illusion… they can't see you properly…"

"Noted."

With that, I flailed my phantom limbs around a bit to make sure whatever general cloaking spell she put on me was fully dispersed. I was obviously successful, as the arrows immediately stopped flying, and the Celestial 'reinforcements' all stopped in their tracks to stare at me.

To further capitalize on the break in hostilities, I pulled Teeny out of my storage enchantment.

"[Report: Connection Initialized. Interface:Teeny, operational.]"

"Spear."

A second later, the short sword in my hand shifted into its familiar polearm form. I brandished it for even more visibility, and after planting its butt into the grass under my feet, I inhaled a deep breath.

"WHICH ONE OF YOU MISERABLE IMBECILES IS THE ONE IN COMMAND HERE?!"

My bellow made the Celestials flinch, and after a few seconds of scurrying, a tall woman with shoulders that rivalled Duncan walked to the front. I couldn't see her features because of her helmet, but her body language told me she was rather flustered, and she stopped about ten meters away from me before performing a salute.

"Kentyriōn Atropos, reporting to Archon Polemos."

I looked her over from head to toe, and even under these circumstances, I couldn't help but wonder: was that supposed to be a Roman or Ancient Greek military rank? Celestials were pretty inconsistent in this regard, and this one could easily go either way.

Shaking the distracting thought out of my head, I levelled a glare at her and flatly uttered, "What are you doing?"

She looked momentarily confused by my question, but after a long beat, she gathered her wits and straightened her back.

"My unit was dispatched to secure Her Grace Deus."

"Yes, you were sent here to provide support," I reiterated after her and gestured at the Magi hiding behind the perforated cars at my back. "What are you doing attacking your allies?"

"Um…" Her body language once again showed that she was stumped, but she didn't back down. "We… received a report that the wingless ones have ambushed and separated Her Grace from her guards."

"No, those are two different incidents," I explained with mild exasperation and pointed at the apartment building behind them. "The would-be-assassins are over there, and they are being apprehended by the Praetorian Guards. Ang— I mean, Deus is currently being held in a Restricted Space to avoid any further attempts on her life, or collateral damage, until the assailants are captured."

"We… were informed of that, yes, but the wingless ones refused to give us access to her."

"Because they can't," I groaned and waved at the sky. "Not to mention, you'd only complicate things, so stand down, and secure the perimeter, like you should've done in the first—"

I couldn't finish that thought, as my danger sense suddenly blared at me, and my upper body twisted on its own. Once again, I could see a faint tray of magical light pierce through the air, barely missing my shoulder, and leaving a wispy trail of softly glowing condensation trail in its wake. The bang of the gunshot itself only came after what felt like a small eternity, and it made both the Celestials in front of me and the Magi in the back freak out. So was I, but once again, I couldn't show it, so I channelled the emotion into pure outrage.

"You see!?" I yelled as I straightened myself using Teeny as leverage. "The shooter is still at loose because you idiots are causing a scene! Stop being braindead for five minutes, and secure the area!"

The captain of the group stared at me in disbelief at first, as if she couldn't comprehend what just happened, but she quickly snapped out of it and gave me a salute.

"As… the Lord Archon commands!"

"But… our orders said…" one of her subordinates tried to object, but the woman hissed at him to shut up.

"Do you want to argue with Archon Polemos?"

"N-No…" the man shrank back, and I was just about to wash my hands of this affair when my danger sense started sending warning signals again.

My eyes snapped to my chest and opened wide when I saw the bright red laser pointer dot on it. My gaze immediately moved to the apartment building and traced the remaining wisps of glowing smoke in the air leading to the roof.

"I'm out of patience!" I snarled and shifted my posture before leaping towards the source of the laser sight, and then Phased.

I didn't have a mark on these guys, so getting there in one go was out of the question, but I still had my ways. At this point, I had a pretty good radius on my short-range teleportation. Not enough to cover the distance at once, but enough to make up the difference in 'quality' with 'quantity'.

The process was simple. Phase towards the roof, and the moment I reappeared, immediately Phase again. And again. And again.

Doing so played havoc with my vision and nerves, but it wasn't fundamentally different from how I used my teleportation ability to mimic the 'flash step' move popular in martial arts stories, and I had more than enough practice under my belt to pull it off.

The whole process took less than two seconds, though it felt much longer to my brain. Unfortunately, that still meant nearly two seconds of 'technical' free-fall between each Phasing 'jump', so when I finally arrived at the rooftop, my landing wasn't exactly soft. Less 'cat jumping off a tree', and more 'car falling off a bridge'.

Despite the physical enhancements doing their job, the bones in my legs creaked with pain from the impact of my arrival. Not only that, but the force was great enough to trigger the wards of my outfit, causing an extra explosion that cracked the concrete panels under my feet and kicked up a lot of dust. At this point, my plan to ambush the assassin was out of the question. Or rather, assassins.

In the corner of the roof, there were about half a dozen eclectic faces clustered around a stocky man. I couldn’t see his features properly because he was wearing an oddly blocky and bulky power armour, and in his hands, there was a high-tech and yet strangely boxy sniper rifle, about as long as he was tall.

"Sacre bleu! That scared me!" the man exclaimed with a very prominent French accent, and when he pointed his gun at me, it collapsed into a more compact form.

Following his lead, the other assassins also got ready for a fight. On closer look, at least two of them seemed somewhat familiar, but I couldn't quite put my finger on why. From right to left, there was a rough mercenary type holding a big combat knife in a reverse grip. Next to him was a middle-aged woman with a scar running across her face, wearing black robes and holding a softly glowing magic wand. Then there were the two semi-familiar faces, in the form of a muscular woman with short, yet ridiculously spiky bright blue hair. Right next to her stood a short, emaciated person covered from head to toe in black bandages like a goth mummy, to the point only their eyes showed.

Then there was the short man with the bulky armour and big gun in the middle, while his other side had an Asian girl wearing a jumpsuit and carrying two oversized single-edged blades with rings on their spines, a thin man in a shabby robe carrying a sinister-looking tome in his hands, and a heavy-set brown-skinned man with a Rastafarian hairstyle wearing traditional Japanese clothes and clutching the large katana on his belt.

All in all, that was a pretty damn diverse group, and they all looked unique enough to qualify for at least side-character status by our metrics, though I couldn't really muster the enthusiasm to give more than half a damn about it.

"What are you standing around for? Get him!" the armoured man yelled out, and the group quickly spread out, trying to encircle me. However, my eyes remained locked on him as he raised his gun to eye-level and shot at me again.

The distance was too short, so I Phased just a little bit to the side. He fired his gun (apparently a bolt-action rifle) again and again, so I kept doing my fake 'flash step' act as I moved towards him and weaved through the other attackers. Ironically, his firing at me meant they weren't too keen on getting into close combat, which gave me more room to manoeuvre.

Halfway through, he seemingly ran out of ammo and threw his rifle aside. In its place, he pulled out an oversized, kind of steam-punk-ish revolver, and started unloading on me again. However, at this point I was close enough to him, and I was just about to make one last teleport to catch him when he suddenly addressed me.

"I know what you're thinking!" His threatening yell was slightly undermined by the comically overacted French accent. "Did he fire six bullets, or only five? Well, to tell you the verité, in my excitement, I—"

"Oh, shut up!" I paused to whack the spiky-haired woman in the head before she could lunge at me and turned back to the short man. "I know the reference, so shut it, and put down your weapon, before I…"

As per the unwritten rules of timing, it was exactly this moment that Jaakobah and the rest of the Praetorian Guards chose to kick down the door leading to the rooftop.

"In the name of Archon Polemos, freeze!" the unusually animated man yelled as he rushed outside, and the very same moment, my danger sense started giving me a strong signal again.

Yet this time, I couldn't just Phase out of the way, because I was currently standing precisely between the aforementioned door and the gunman, meaning if I got out of the way, Jaakobah or the other Guards could get shot instead, which… Wow. This night was a greatest hits album of the 'Most Annoying and Painful Moments of my Life' variety, wasn't it? It even had the whole 'time slows to a crawl' effect and everything. How nostalgic!

Fortunately, things have changed a lot since the days of a mind-controlled Snowy chucking ice spears at me, and I had more tools in my belt. Letting my danger sense take partial control, the next instinctive choice after 'dodge' and 'Phase' was 'use your phantom limbs', and even though I couldn't quite see the bullet, my invisible appendage lashed out, and a moment later, I was in a timeless void filled with fractals of bullet-like objects.

I didn't have time to waste, so I quickly shifted through my options. Different calibres and types were obviously off the table, so I moved past those and focused on the more weird and quirky options. Unfortunately, there were just too many things that could be substituted for an object this small, and my patience was already running thin, so…

"Fuck it, gummy bear it is!" I yelled, causing the whole space to violently tremble as I slapped the new image onto the original bullet.

A moment later, I felt an impact on my chest as something completely splattered on contact with my breastplate and its surface wards. While it caused no damage, it still made me brace myself, a momentary distraction that the armoured man used to… throw his oversized revolver at me.

I swatted the unorthodox throwing weapon out of the air with Teeny, but by then, he had already broken into a mad dash, except not towards me. As he ran, a pair of stubby metal wings extended from his backpack, with small jet engines at their tips, and with a roaring sound, they ignited just as he was about to reach the edge of the roof. He jumped off and, after unsteadily hovering in the air for a second, he clumsily turned around and gave me a simple military salute.

"Well, I'm out! Au revoire, and tell Wissenschaftler that his old rival, Arnaud de Savantfou, sends his regards and—"

"No," I declared on no uncertain terms and Phased right under him.

The man was visibly flustered by my sudden disappearance, but then I grabbed one of his dangling feet while also skewering his suit with my phantom limbs. As expected, the thing was more magitech than real machinery, and his rocket boosters immediately sputtered to a stop. Then, with some effort, I twisted my upper body while still holding onto his leg, and smashed him into the room behind me with a deafening metallic thud.

Before he could get up, I fully turned around, stepped on his defenceless back, and stabbed my spear into the roof right next to his head. Then, I turned to my confused Praetorian Guards and raised my free hand, fingers splayed.

"What are you waiting for? Capture them!"

"Understood!" Jaakobah responded first, and yelled, "Offensive Hymn, now!"

The group started singing in unison, much to the confusion of the eclectic assassins. In the meantime, I finally managed to catch my breath. With these people finally subdued, Angie/Deus wouldn't have a reason to attack the building anymore, meaning that even if she came out of the Purple Zone, she could be hopefully reasoned with, and with the Celestials down there finally seeing reason, things should've been getting less chaotic soon. Or so I thought.

But then, I glanced down and saw that there were magic arrows flying. Again. More alarmingly, there were even more of them than last time, but before I could Phase down, I could hear the faint static of Judy connecting to me.

"{Chief. Did you catch the assassins?}"

I glanced over at the rest of the roof, where the teamwork of the Praetorian Guard was steadily cornering the rest of them.

"More or less. More importantly, what's going on down there?"

"{I'm not sure, I was occupied elsewhere.}" There was a long pause, and then she added, "{I've got a call from Raziel. He wants to talk to you.}"

"I'm kind of busy," I growled, without meaning to.

"{I know. He's already on the phone with me, so I'm going to relay his messages.}" There was another pause, during which one of the desperate assassins tried to attack me (the rasta-samurai, for your interest), but after I blocked a few of his swings without even moving my feet, uniform-bloke used his whip to trip up his feet and drag him away. That intermezzo aside, Judy spoke up again, in a voice trying (and failing) to mimic Moose. "{'Admin! With all due respect, but are you out of your mind?! You said we aren't staging a coup today, so what's this shit!?', over.}"

"That's what I'd like to know! Where did you even get that ridiculous idea?!" I yelled back, and when the nearby facemask-fella looked at me funny, I put a finger on my ear. He understood the gesture, and returned to duelling the black mummy guy, while Judy relayed my message.

"{He says, 'Then why is the Seraphic Safeguard and the military fighting inside Elysium?', over.}"

"How the hell should I—?" I began, only to bite back my words as it all sank in. "Say what?"

"{I also checked the Hub,}" Judy answered, this time in her own voice. "{There are lots of contradictory reports, but from what I could gather, the Orthodox side attacked the Unorthodox faction after a disagreement over an unauthorized deployment, and then the Department of Military Affairs also got involved somehow. I'll update you when there's more information. Also, Raziel is asking about what he should tell the collaborators. Are we doing a coup, or not?}"

I let out a groan, and whispered, "Tell him to tell them to lay low until we have a full grasp on the situation."

"{Roger. I'll relay that, and then check on Neige and the situation at Site C. Mission Control, out.}"

"You do that."

With that, Judy cut the connection, and I let out a long, rung-rattling sight. By the looks of it, this night was far, far from over, but fuck it, I just dodged a bunch of bullets and then did a temporary mini-retcon on the fly. I needed a minute to catch my breath. I could worry about whatever new flavour or madness the world was about to throw at me after that.

PART 2

Let's make a tally. There were three situations unfolding at the moment: the site with Percival and the Colossi, this place with Angie, the assassins, and the in-fighting Celestials, and finally there's the Elysium, things have completely escalated out of hand. Which of these required my attention the most?

Well, the Elysium was more-or-less off the table. I already had a lot of trouble being at two places at once, so I wasn't going to touch that with a standardized ten-foot pokey pole if I could help it. As for the remaining two…

"Monsieur Archon? Would you take your feet off my head, s'il vous plaît?" the armoured man squirmed under me, so I immediately put more pressure on him.

"Shut up. I'm thinking."

He let out a strange noise, something halfway between a groan and a whimper, and fell silent. Not that it made a lick of a difference, considering the rest of the roof was still loud as heck.

"Oryaaah!" hammer-lad yelled and sent one of the assassins flying with a strike of his weapon, while facemask-fella and sci-fi-dude were in the process of cornering two others by working in tandem.

The Praetorian Guards had a clear advantage, probably because of their magical team-power-up song or whatever, so Jaakobah had the leeway to dash over to my side. He braced his sword and gun, with his back turned to me and looking for potential threats, and after a second or two, he turned his face to me without letting his weapons down.

"We have emptied the side of the building facing the theater of operations. The rest of the civilians were informed as well and are in the process of evacuation as we speak. Your orders?"

"Good job," I spoke half-heartedly. To be fair, I was audibly out of it, so he hopefully didn't blame me for not being particularly enthusiastic. I pointedly swept my gaze across the battle in front of me and carried on in a slightly firmer voice. "Capture the perpetrators alive and then extract them from the combat zone for interrogation."

"As you command."

Jaakobah flourished his weapons (including doing one of those patently unsafe spins with his gun), and rushed back into the fray, leaving me alone. Well, as alone as I could get with the squirming man under my feet, but that's beside the point. For the time being, I needed to focus my attention, but it was hard when my head was throbbing like crazy. As much as I got used to Phasing and using my phantom limbs over the months, the after-effects never fully went away, and overusing them like this was taking a toll on me.

For example, I was so out of it that it took me this long to think of doing something about it. Activating the storage enchantment adjacent to my Leoformer, I retrieved Cal at once.

"{Hm? Where are we?}" They, for once, didn't open by complaining, but sounded rather surprised instead.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

"I don't have time to explain. Ask Teeny for details," I whispered in response and tightened my grip on the sword. "Help me with the circulation trick."

"{Again?}"/"{Report: Interface:Teeny isn't entirely up-to-date with current events either, but will oblige.}"

Despite their complaints, I could soon feel Cal guiding the mana in my body through the familiar channels, and after a few seconds, there was a cooling sensation washing over both my body and mind. I let out a relieved sigh and closed my eyes.

With my headache lessening into an unpleasant buzz, and my talkative weapons' chatter serving as background noise, I used Far Sight. While the obvious thing was to check on the situation in the Orange Zone, or the Elysium, I decided to go against the grain and focused on the people who weren't fully wrapped up in this situation yet, because the devil you didn't know was always worse than the devil you did.

Starting with the Old Man conspicuously missing from the events so far, I found Lord Grandpa in the company of Ammy, still in the School.

"… if you go, things are only going to become more chaotic," the class rep argued as they walked down one of the underground corridors. "Lord Ambrose already took command of the rapid response unit, along with Lord Taika and Lord Gulliver."

"It is all the more reason for me to also get involved," the old man argued back as they rounded a corner, and entered the familiar area of the local Enchanters' Lodge. "This is my island. Ensuring its security is my duty, and not doing so would inevitably tarnish my authority."

"Grandfather, listen!" the class rep stepped in front of him in an unusual display of fervour, and even tweaked her glasses at him. "This is not our destiny. Let Leonard and his allies handle it. If we interfere too much, it will only make things harder for everyone involved."

"Destiny?" the old man paused and raised a brow. "Why do you speak of such a senseless concept all of a sudden?"

"It's… complicated. I'm not sure I can explain, but you know what I mean!" Seeing her arguing back like that made Lord Grandpa's expression get even more complicated, but the class rep pushed on. "It's an affair they have to resolve on their own, and escalating things by mobilizing the School's forces would be foolish. Let Leo handle it."

The old man eyed her for a while, but then started walking again, pushing past her. For a moment, it looked like her words fell on deaf ears, but then he said, "I am going to mobilize the School, but we shall remain on standby for now. So long as the conflict remains under control."

"Thank you!"

She followed after him, and for a moment, I couldn't decide whether this was a good or bad development. On one hand, it was true that getting Lord Grandpa and the rest of the Magi involved in this already chaotic situation would've been a pain in the neck, but on the other hand, 'Let Leo handle it', especially coming from the class rep of all people, made my headache surge once again.

Since Ammy reminded me of him, I far glanced at Mike next, and I naturally found him in the frantic company of Moose in their apartment. While the big guy was glued in front of his multi-monitor old-school hacker setup, and browsing multiple reports and the Celestial Hub at once, the hapless blonde had half a dozen communication balls in small wooden boxes laid out on the table in front of him.

"Crap, crap, crap," Moose cursed under his breath. "This is bad. Things are getting out of hand."

"R-Raz!" Mike called over after an unfamiliar hologram head just disappeared from sight. His voice was hoarse, and he frantically gestured at the man at the computer. "I've just got a report! There's a sighting of your brother!"

"I don't care about Dolion!" Moose snapped back. "We have bigger things to worry about! The fighting is spilling out of the Migdál already!"

"That's bad! What should we do?"

"That's what our collaborators are asking too! Admin said we should stay put, but at this rate, there are going to be a lot of collateral casualties, especially once the army moves in."

"M-Maybe we should tell them to help evacuate the Malakim in the area?" Mike proposed, causing the other man to stop typing and turn in his seat to send a skeptical gaze at him. "I-I mean, Father told me Leonard really cares about the Malakim, and he spent a lot of time mingling among them, so I don't think he'll be mad if we try to help them. Doing that technically doesn't mean we're telling others to take sides, right?"

"Technically, no." They remained silent for a second, then Moose turned back to the screens. "Ah, to hell with it! I'm telling them to do that. Let's hope we won't get chewed out for it later."

"I'll do the same!" the other guy agreed with a thin-lipped smile, and then frantically tapped on one of the communication balls. "Ah! I've missed a call!"

Those two… weren't exactly on the top of things, but they were trying. That was good enough in my book. I was also tempted to take a peek at the three head directors, but stopped myself. Chances were, if I saw them, and whatever dumb scheme they were running at the moment, I wouldn't have been able to stop myself from interfering, and I couldn't afford to open a 'third front' right now. But staying on the theme of 'Celestials', I was getting a bit worried about how things were going with Angie/Deus in the Purple Zone, so I shifted my attention to her, and…

"Out of my way, wingless cur!" she yelled so hard it made me twitch by reflex, and then she let loose of a single arrow that broke into multiple projectiles, drawing bright lines through the air as they rained down onto… the pile of rubble that once used to be the copy of the apartment-complex I was standing on at the moment. And a whole bunch of other buildings as well. And the completely glassed remains of the playground. And…

…

Holy shit, did we dodge the bullet by quickly dragging her into a Purple Zone or what?

That aside, I glanced around and found Ambrose and Gulliver on the ground. They looked tired, but otherwise not much worse for wear; as you would expect from arch-mages, really. The bearded older man was in the process of conjuring up more automated magical railguns firing stones and rubble at the girl weaving and zigzagging between his projectiles, while the lanky one was covering them with a complex array of interlocking hexagonal shields.

"Give me more cover!" Ambrose yelled as a magical arrow exploded just a couple of meters to their left. "I can't cast anything complex like this!"

"I'm trying, but I also have to pay attention to the Restricted Space!" Gulliver argued back. "We can't afford to let her out of here yet. Not until Leonard comes back."

"Bah! I could take her down on my own if only you—" There was a buzzing sound and the magical construct the ornery arch-mage was working on nearly collapsed. "Ah! Leave some mana for me, you lout!"

"Sorry, but the throughput of the ley-line here is pretty bad. We should move somewhere else."

"But I'm almost done with my air saturation ordinance invocation!"

While the two argued, Angie continued to fly circles in the air and take potshots at them, though her attacks kept getting intercepted by the hexagons floating over the arch-mages. In any case, while the collateral damage was appalling, they were still in a stalemate, so they didn't require immediate attention.

Moving on, I checked on Crowey, but he and his cronies didn't even seem to be aware that something was going down upstairs, colloquially speaking. To be fair though, things only started escalating less than half an hour ago, so it wasn't surprising that news didn't travel that far yet. But while we were on the topic of Abyssals, I quickly checked on Tajana, and to my relief, I found her back home, though in an unexpected company.

"No. You're staying here," Roland told her on no uncertain terms, and the young spymaster honest-to-goodness puffed up her cheeks and angrily stomped her feet in return. The two of them were in my living room, standing right next to the couch; the Knight in his uniform, standing firm with his arms crossed, and the alleged Seducer dressed in her casual indoor clothes, complete with bunny slippers, fuming at him.

"But… but you said Lord Bel… I-I mean…" She stammered for a while, but then her eyes lit up and she animatedly waved her arms. "T-That's not important! What about My Lady? Is she all right?"

"Neige is currently engaged in battle, but it's not something for you to be concerned about."

"That's exactly something that concerns me!" she argued vehemently. "W- What if she gets hurt? Or worse! Shouldn't you be out there, helping her?!"

"Under normal circumstances, yes." Roland sounded cool and collected, though I could detect a hint of frustration in his voice. "However, the situation is already chaotic, so I'm here to ensure that nothing could happen to you."

Oh. I was wondering where Roland was during all of this, but this made sense. Chances are, Judy sent him to my house to make sure Tajana would stay put and wouldn't complicate things even further. That was a good call; this kind of mess was the perfect opportunity for her to slip away, and either get caught up in the cross-fire, or escape back to the Abyss and get those guys involved, and that was the last thing we needed right now.

"I… uuu… Y-You don't need to worry about my safety! I-I-I can take care of myself! I'm strong, you know?"

"Sure," Roland responded dismissively, causing her to fume again.

"I'm serious! I'm not some damsel that needs a d-dashing knight to protect them!"

"Well, I'm still going to do just that, so you better make your peace with the idea, sit down and stay quiet."

Roland either didn't notice or more likely didn't care about how flustered Tajana was getting, seemingly trapped in some kind of odd and slightly contrived misunderstanding of her own. I made a mental note to tell him to be careful around her with his choice of words, before he started raising flags unintentionally, and shelved it in the 'not important right now' folder in the back of my mind.

Anyhow, I let out a soft grunt and focused on the next red dot on my list. Since now I knew where our Sir Griffon was all this time, it made me wonder about the rest of the Knights who were unaccounted for, and since I knew that Penny was still stuck in the underground base with Zihao, my attention shifted to Duncan. However, I never got around to properly switching my point of view, because I was startled by just how close he was to my location.

Less than a blink of an eye later, I was startled by the sound of a car horn, and when I looked down to the veiled supernatural three-way battle between the Magi task force, the first group of CIEL-affiliated Celestials, and the hitherto unexplained second, even larger group of Celestial agents, I saw a limousine and two black minivans careen into the playground. The vehicles' door sprung open, and out jumped Sir Minotaur, carrying his family heirloom sword I once borrowed from him instead of his usual double-headed axe, followed by a whole bunch of Ordo Draconis Squires.

Even more surprising was that Elly was also there, already in her Uniformer, yet before I could ask any questions, Judy connected to me.

"{Mission Control here. I've rerouted more reinforcements to Site B, over.}"

"I can see that," I whispered, just slightly alarmed. "What's Elly doing with them?"

"{She insisted.}" After a long beat, she also added, "{Duncan is asking for orders. What should I tell him?}"

"At this stage, I have no idea either. Ask Josh; I think he's in command down there, so tell them to work together."

"{Roger. Are you planning to use Joshua's plot armor to their advantage?}"

"I'm not trying to be meta here, but sure. We should let him flex his protagonist status every once in a while."

"{Good thinking. This way, the Narrative presumably won't get him involved in another dramatic event.}" There was another lull in the conversation, to the point I thought Judy cut the line, but then she suddenly spoke up again. "{Chief. I recommend you take a look at Site C. Things aren't looking good there.}"

Wait, which one was Site C? The one with Percival? How could there have been any problems, considering the all-star lineup we brought to the table there?

Far Glancing over to the Orange Zone, I was met with collateral damage that was second only to the abject devastation caused by the back-and-forth between Angie and the two arch-mages. Speaking of which, the first person I saw was Lord Barnabas, who was out of the fight, and was in the process of healing a roughed-up Raven Boy. He was lying on the ground outside the half-ruined copy of the warehouse building, and by the looks of it, one of his arms was broken. As for the inside…

"Haaaa!"

Dad-in-law was in the process of wrestling with one of the Colossi on the ground, their hands interlinked as they struggled against each other. Then, he suddenly and brutally slammed his head into the face of the statuesque monster on the ground, denting its golden helmet in the shape of his ridged horns. He tried to do it again, but then the Colossus kicked at him, and Abram staggered back, but only to let out another roar and tackle the creature the moment it got onto its feet, and through a wall, further compromising the structural integrity of the building.

Following them, my eyes caught Snowy and Emese, flying high in the air and harassing a different Colossus. This one had already morphed a bit to match them, elongating its limbs and wielding a long spear and a shield, using one to threaten mom-in-law whenever she was about to dive-bomb it while using the other to guard against my sister's projectile attacks.

"Tenka Dairinzan!"/"Thousand Arhat Palm!"

Back inside, I saw Rinne and Naoren working in tandem to keep two Colossi busy, alternating their attacks, with the Feilong patriarch accommodating Mountain Girl's extravagantly telegraphed attacks with more straightforward hand-to-hand strikes of his own. That said, he was also calling out his moves, and they were accompanied by all kinds of flashy special effects, so… birds of a feather, I supposed?

Anyhow, it looked like they'd got the upper hand, so I searched for the two missing Colossi and found them outside, where Sebastian was soloing them on his own. While I've been looking forward to seeing him in action, reality was kind of disappointing, as he did little more than dodge with minimal effort, and occasionally let loose a short but loud burst of Dragonfire, its red light momentarily overpowering the orange ambiance of the place, and sending a Colossus tumbling down.

Yet, it didn't seem to have too much of an effect, as even though it left the affected creature covered in blackened burns, after just a few short seconds, the skin of the affected areas just flaked off and they would join the fray once again. Still, the fact he was keeping two of them at bay at once was impressive, I supposed? I was still expecting more though.

In any case, everyone seemed to be at least holding the line, if not necessarily outright winning yet, so what was the…? Ah, right. Percival. Where was he, anyway?

Shifting my point of view, I was suddenly looking at the roof, where a black knight was standing tall over Morgana and Arnwald, the two of them bruised and exhausted, which meant…

"Shit. Is that bastard the actual final boss of this whole mess?" I hissed as I returned to my body and stepped off the armoured man under my feet. Then I kicked him before he could get up, because unarmed captive or not, he tried to shoot Angie, and did manage to injure Josh, so he deserved it.

Anyhow, this was bad news, but I should've expected it. I thought three-to-one was enough to suppress the old bastard, but considering how the Knights operated, ramping up and then their enchantments winding down after a while, maybe this was inevitable. Fortunately, the Praetorian Guard already more-or-less wrapped up the situation here, so I flagged down Jaakobah.

"I have to leave now. Once you're done here, provide support to our allies on the ground."

"As the Lord Archon commands." He saluted to me, and then when he saw the man on the ground stirring, he took my place and stood on his head. "Please, stay safe."

"Don't give me death flags."

That prompted Cal to ask, "{What manner of pennant are you talking about, young knight?}"

"{Speculation: Archon Polemos must be referring to the type of flags used for communications at a distance. According to my knowledge-banks, the proper term is 'semaphore'.}"

"{Ah! So our young knight is telling his retainer no to bring him news of their untimely demise. Such a simple yet elegant explanation!}"

"{Boast: Thank you, Interface:Cal. Interface:Teeny is indeed well-versed in the ways of linguistics.}"

Ignoring the sentient swords lost in their non-existent metaphors, I stepped up to the edge of the roof, and mimed jumping off before Phasing to the same old storage room. Since I had a bit of momentum, I landed with a rough stomp, causing the startled Pudding-kun to hurriedly hide behind some boxes. For the moment, I ignored them and got ready to move out again.

After catching my breath for a few minutes, I felt better, and my headache was also mostly gone thanks to the mana-circulation trick. While I was far from being in top shape, I was at least ready for action again… but first, I had to make a decision about who should show up to back up Morgana and Arnwald, and that was a trickier question than it seemed at first glance…

PART 3

"Judy? Are you there?"

I reflexively tapped my ear, even though it was pointless, but I got no answer. It wasn't that surprising though; she was probably busy coordinating with Duncan and Elly at the moment, and didn't have the leeway to connect to me. I really wanted to ask for a second opinion again, but she couldn't be at two places at once. Neither could I. At least not officially.

And that brings us back to the problem at hand: should I head to the Orange Zone as Bel, or as myself? There were pros and cons for both. If I went as myself, I could bring Cal and Teeny along, which would've levelled the playing field. That said, whether I chose to engage Percival or to crack down on the Colossi, I would've had to fight seriously, but at least I had a choice.

Acting as Bel gave me more freedom to use my Phasing ability though, and I could use my presence to relatively safely draw the attention of the Colossi while letting the others back up Morgana and Arnwald. It would also allow me to do the whole 'Phase Percival three hundred meters high into the air without a parachute' thing, if push came to shove. On the flip side, without a weapon, it was about as far as my offensive capabilities went as Bel, which was a bit of a problem.

The clock was ticking though, and after considering everything, I put my weapons back into the storage enchantment and shifted over to the Bel outfit. I wasn't sure it was the best choice, but if it didn't work out, I could just disengage and show up as Leonard later, something I couldn't do the other way around. I was also a bit afraid that someone would put together a timeline later and bring into question how I got to the other side of the city in just a few seconds, and it was always better to be safe than sorry. Or so my girlfriends always told me. I fixed up my mask and was just about to Phase out when I noticed something tugging on my trouser.

Pudding-kun was on the floor, and he was doing his best to pinch the fabric with his stubby tentacles, his one big eye staring intently at me.

"Do you want to come along?" The tiny eldritch horror nodded enthusiastically, but I had to disappoint it. "Sorry, pal, but I kind of need you here to serve as my anchor. I might have to change my outfits a few more times today."

The mini-shoggoth let out a disappointed snort, so I crouched down and lightly patted its fleshy back to make it feel better.

Anyhow, once prepared, I took a deep breath and shifted my mentality to the 'Bel of the Abyss' setting. Since I no longer had Cal doing the mana circulation, both my exhaustion and my headache were creeping back into my perception, but I forcefully pushed them aside and Phased over.

"I'm back!" I exclaimed as I appeared standing on top of the Colossus Dad-in-law was squaring up against, and then promptly jumped off just before he grabbed the surprised creature and suplexed it. Normally I would've made a big deal out of that, but I was steadily running out of my damns-to-give supply, so I just shrugged and added, "Sorry for being late; there was this other show that was just really, really fascinating and I got sidetracked. What did I miss?"

My nonchalant question was met by a series of roars as the Colossi, including the one still on the floor after getting its ass handed to it by Abram, focused all of their attention on me. This pretty much confirmed my previous theory about how I was their primary target, and it should've given my extended family and friends ample opportunity to strike… yet they seemed more worried about my presence than the big statue monsters they were fighting just seconds ago. Priorities, people. Priorities.

"You are…?" Dad-in-law tried to address me, but before he could finish his sentence, he was nearly knocked aside by two Colossi rushing in from the side. Based on the burn marks, these were the ones Sebastian had been toying with, which was perfect.

This meant that, with the old butler freed up, he could back up the struggling senior Knights. Or at least that's how it should've been.

"Stand back. I'll be his opponent." Sebastian declared out of the blue and started menacingly walking towards me while cracking his knuckles. "Clear the way. I'm afraid I'll have to get serious."

Staring blankly at him, I Phased out of the way of the Colossi charging at me and behind him.

"Wait? Why weren't you fighting those things seriously?"

My question was so genuine I nearly broke character, and so I hastily pointed a pair of irreverent finger guns at the disoriented statue creatures, but he brushed me off with a soft scoff.

"I had to preserve my stamina, knowing that you would return." He fully turned to me and assumed a boxing stance. "Don't think I forgot about how you stole my property!"

"Is this seriously—?" My danger sense blared, so I repeatedly Phased back to avoid his sudden rush and his straight jabs aimed at my head. "— still about—?" This time, he closed the distance and tried to sweep my legs before following it up with a short Dragon Fire burst. Of course, by the time it came, I was already elsewhere. "— that stupid spear?"

In the meantime, I tried to get a better look at the state of the Colossi. The ones Rinne and Naoren fought were in the worst shape. One was missing a leg, still in the process of growing a new one, while the other had its armour and helmet completely pummelled out of shape, with even a few fist-sized holes here and there, and barely being able to move. The one Snowy and Emese kited wasn't in much better shape either, and it was practically nailed in place, its back studded with so many ice-spikes it looked like a porcupine, while Dad-in-law's one was currently trapped in a choke-hold.

By the looks of it, these things had the same kind of tunnel vision as the first Chimera I met, and they were so focused on me, that it left them wide open to the combined attacks of my Draconian associates. As for Mountain Girl, I used the momentary lull in the hostilities (read: the moment between two of Sebastian's combos) to gesture at her, and for once, she was quick on the uptake. With some Japanese words I couldn't hear properly, she lunged at the two Colossi previously engaged with the butler and methodically hamstrung them while they were still focused on me.

Once again, I sincerely doubted that it would've done more than temporarily hinder these alabaster eyesores, but I was still busy with Sebastian, so getting them off my back for the moment was still nice. But speaking of which…

"Are you seriously doing this?" I hissed at the incognito dragon with undisguised indignation after Phasing away to the other side of the warehouse. "If you're really that hung up on that spear, why aren't you taking it up with—?"

It was at this point that I belatedly realized that I lost track of Sir Percival, and I glanced up at the roof, only for my danger sense to scream at me again. This time, I didn't need to dodge. I reflexively made a slapping motion with my right hand, closely mimicked by my phantom limbs, and then my vision was tinted red from a sudden burst of Dragon Fire enveloping the spot where I stood.

A blink of an eye later, before my sight even had time to clear up, I got another warning, and this time I Phased away just in time to avoid a tail strike. In the split-second, Sebastian partially transformed. Unlike my in-laws, he didn't get taller or buffer, but he grew large wings, a long, tapered tail, and six or eight pairs of twisted horns on his head. It was hard to make out the details, but from what I could see, besides his face, his entire body was now covered in shiny, obsidian-black scales. Even more impressively, his fingers now ended in talons that made the ones Elly had in her Draconian form look cute in comparison, and when he swept at me, the resulting wind blades coming off their tips positively shredded the metal gate of the warehouse, along with part of the walls.

"How the heck is this building still standing?"

The nonchalant question slipped out of my mouth before I knew it, and it made Sebastian literally growl at me.

"Don't you dare look away! I'm your opponent!"

"You're really not though," I tried to point out the obvious, only to get another burst of Dragon Fire in my face for my trouble.

"Hold on, elder! We'll support you!" Naoren suddenly yelled from the side, followed by a confused, "But what about the empyrean monsters?" from Mountain Girl and a groan coming right from the bottom of my soul.

"Time out!" I yelled and put my hands in the internationally recognized T-position before snappily pointing at the Feilong patriarch. "You stay right there, mister! You can get your dessert once you are finished with your meal! Understood?"

"… What?"

Ignoring his baffled response, I turned to Sebastian again. The old man was apparently still raring to go, so before he could get moving, I made a cross with my forearms in front of my chest.

"Stop! You're wasting everyone's time, and I won't stand for this!"

I would've continued, but my speech was rudely interrupted by the sound of an explosion coming from the roof, followed by a panicked, "Morgana! No!"

Once again, my body was moving ahead of my brain, and before I knew it, I was already Phasing into the air, where a certain Knight was currently in a free-fall. To my surprise, it turned out my famous girl-catching reflexes applied just as well to adult women, and once I grabbed her, I immediately Phased to the ground, before either of us could build too much momentum. I wasn't fast enough though, and with Morgana in my arms, I could absolutely feel the impact in my knees.

"Bloody hell! At this rate, I'll develop arthritis by the end of the day…"

My hissed exclamation made the normally cool and collected woman look at me funny for a moment, only to then get startled by the beams and other corrugated roof elements crashing down around us. Then, just as things finally grew quiet, our Sir Eagle yelled at us for good measure.

"Let her go, you fiend!"

Looking up, I found him on the roof, looking through the same hole she fell through, and…

"Holy hell, another hole? Seriously, how is this building still standing?" Shaking my head, I loudly declared, "They really knew how to build them in the past, didn't they?"

"Look out! He has a hostage!" Sebastian shouted, and this was the point where my patience reached its absolute theoretical limit.

"Your… I mean… What are you—?" Morgana tried to ask, uncertain about how to address me, but before she could finish, I already Phased over to Lord Barnabas's side and unceremoniously put her down next to Raven Boy.

"Auntie? Are you all right?"

I didn't hear her answer, because by that point I already Phased next to Sebastian. The context-insensitive old man probably thought I was finally going on the offensive, as he braced himself, only to look completely flabbergasted when I Phased him up to the roof, right next to the equally startled Arnwald.

It was only when I got there that I finally realized why I hadn't been seeing Snowy for a while now; during the time the Draconians (and Rinne), were playing whack-a-mole with the battered Colossi to keep them down and out of the fight, and Sebastian was pinpoint-focused on me over an old grudge, she had been up here and helping the senior Knights suppressing Percival. Speaking of which…

"Come down, little missy! Isn't fighting like this unfair?" Percival exclaimed with an odd mixture of annoyance and excitement as he swept a couple of icicles out of the air with his spear, with the rest of them embedding themselves into the thick corrugated metal of the roof around him.

"You don't care about fairness, so neither do I," Snowy responded with a snarl and made a couple of gestures, causing the ice spears around him to explode into a cold mist.

The old man immediately jumped back, but he still got parts of his armour covered in a thin layer of frost. It only lasted for a second though, as his gear let out a high-pitched noise, and all the rime flaked off him. All in all, he didn't seem to receive any damage, but Snowy being able to keep him busy like that was still impressive.

"What are you doing here—?!" Arnwald started as he reached for his bow, but by then I already wrapped a phantom limb around him, and we appeared next to the increasingly more baffled arch-mage and the two Knights. "… fiend?"

"Yes, yes. Much evil, such wow," I said whatever came to my exhausted mind, and lazily wriggled my fingers at him.

Sufficiently bamboozled, I left Arnwald behind and returned to the rooftop. As things stood, this arrangement should've been sufficient to take down the old man. As powerful as his gear was, between Snowy, and a serious Sebastian, I doubted he could've done much, but just to be safe, I Phased over to announce my departure, lest the old dragon would start wasting time looking for me again.

"This should do it!" I exclaimed with all the faux enthusiasm I could squeeze out of me. "A Black Knight with Celestial technology against a Black Draconian backed by Abyssal magic! This should be fun!"

"Was this your goal all along?"

Sebastian was still on guard against me, but before I could respond, my sister landed next to him.

"M-Mister von Fraenir? Shouldn't we focus on Sir Percival first?"

"He might be only waiting for us to exhaust ourselves so that he could steal the spear again."

Oh, for the love of…! Why was this stubborn old man so obsessed with the bloody dragon-slaying spear?! It was seriously getting on my nerves.

"No, you…!"

I was just about to chew him out, telling him I didn't want the spear at all, but the words were stuck in my throat.

Why?

Why did I suddenly feel like I was overlooking something? That I was about to make one of those stupid mistakes for which I'd curse hindsight after-the-fact? It was on the tip of my tongue; something obvious, that I couldn't grasp… until I laid my eyes on the glowing spear in Percival's hands.

… What the hell? How did I miss this until now?

Sure, it wasn't the original dragon-slaying spear, but outside of the anti-draconic curse on it, I reproduced all the other enchantments in order to fool Sebastian. He treated it as the real deal, Percival treated it as the real deal, and infinitely more importantly, the Narrative treated it as the real deal. The original was even a plot device, meaning it was always meant to play a pivotal role in the plot.

Now, what role was a freaking dragon-slaying weapon best suited for? Slaying dragons, of course. Oh, and what a coincidence! We had an actual, genuine dragon right over here; one of the only two known ones in existence! And this is an extremely dramatic, dare I say, climactic moment, with high stakes and everything. Sure, my intervention had already caused it to go waaay off the rails, but I could still see the fundamental scaffolding in place.

Raise the stakes with the Colossi to have Sebastian come out, let him have a big, dramatic fight to show off his power, and then let Percival give him the stabby-stab, establishing himself as a genuine threat. It's pretty much 'How to build up your villains 101'; have him take down one of the strongest allies of the good guys, to show that they mean business, and light the fire under the protagonist(s) asses to get stronger. Classic shounen battle formula, a veritable timeless trope if there ever was one… and I would sooner jump off a bridge than be on the receiving end of it.

"You know what? Hold that thought," I spoke softly, slipping back into my usual Bel mannerism as I raised a finger in the direction of Sebastian. "Stay put please while I check something. I'll be right back."

"Oh?" Percival let out an impressed sound, slightly distorted by his armour's voice modulator (why it even needed something like that, I had no idea), but he still assumed a defensive stance. As he shifted his posture, the metal roofing panels under his feet groaned, but remained stable, which once again made me think that whoever originally built this warehouse had overengineered the heck out of it. More importantly, the old bastard pointed the spear at me, and asked, "Have you finally decided to come at me? Good. I just warmed up."

"Shut up, snake. You no longer interest me," I told him in a level voice and Phased right next to him.

I grabbed onto the spear, but considering the levels of our physical enhancements, I had a bat's chance in hell trying to wrestle it out of his gasp. Fortunately, I didn't have to do that; while Phasing items out of other people's hands was tricky, I could do it if I used all of my phantom limbs. I did just that, but then my sixth sense screamed at me about danger. It told me to let go and Phase away, but I wasn't ready yet, and a second later, I felt an enormous impact on my abdomen.

Fortunately, I managed to anchor the spear to myself just in time, and as I Phased back, stumbling a little due to the hit I tanked, I still had the weapon in my hands, while Percival obviously didn't anymore. On closer look, he must've kicked me just then, and the impact was strong enough to break half of the wards of my Leoformer. Still, the gamble was worth it, and ignoring the sore spot on my belly, I straightened my back and looked at the spear in my hand.

"Hmm…? Yes, this certainly looks like the spear in question, but we better make sure," I spoke softly, ignoring the armoured man frozen mid-motion, still grasping at thin air where his weapon used to be. "Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice…!"

Without further ado, I activated a different set of enchantments on my Bel suit. It was a legacy feature I never bothered to remove, and one that I specifically developed and installed onto it back during the tournament arc. Back then, if not for the fully transformed Xiao's true Dragon Fire serving as a convenient tool in-the-moment, this was the slightly less dramatic, but just as effective way I devised to get rid of the stupid spear. I never thought I would have the opportunity to use it, but for once, I was thankful for the occasional procrastination streak that stopped me from removing the feature.

As such, I flourished the weapon over my head with a bit of a theatrical flair before grabbing it with both hands, and then brought it down on my knee. The impact triggered the enchantment, and with a blinding flash of light, the fake Ascalon was cleaved in half, shorting out the arrays on it and returning it to its original, unadorned form.

"No!"

Funnily enough, the one letting out a soul-crushing cry wasn't the man who lost the means by which to defend himself, but Sebastian. He looked like I just killed his lover or something. He was really attached to this bloody spear, wasn't he? Anyhow, it was time to deliver the coup-de-grace, so I raised the two halves of the spear and let out a thoughtful hum.

"Huh. Shame on me again, I suppose? I think I might've put a bit too much force into it." I paused for effect and then casually flung the two pieces over my shoulders and down to the warehouse floor. "Oh well, at least now we know it was the original. We all learned something from this. That's how science progresses, or so I've been told."

With that potential threat resolved, I dusted my palms and got ready to vacate the area, before Sebastian would fully transform and start chasing me around while crying bloody vengeance, or something. As such, I gave a cocky wave and a wink before promptly disappearing from the Orange Zone, and then reappearing in the reception room of the underground base. Since Judy's communication artifact had an one-way connection, I couldn't contact her on my own, so this was the quickest way to ask for an update, and maybe some advice on how to proceed.

"Ah, Chief. I was just about to call you," my lovely girlfriend told me in her categorically not-so-lovely star-shaped party glasses, but before she could get into it, I raised a palm and flopped down onto one of the benches.

"Please give me five seconds to catch my breath."

She nodded, and after exactly five seconds, she asked, "Can I start?"

I was just about to remove my mask, so I used the hand I already raised to make a vague gesture, and she tapped the communication artifact on her nose.

"There's a big development at Site B. Angeline broke out of the Restricted Space, and there may already be casualties."

"Casualties," I flatly repeated after her, and she nodded. "… I hate this climax. It's literally the worst."

"Hang in there."

Tried as I might, I couldn't muster a snappy response, so I just stood up, and then immediately Phased away, unaware that I was just about to trigger the biggest change ever; not only in our lives, or in the plot, but in the Simulacrum as a whole. Also…

"Bel of the Tenebrous Flames!"

Oh shit… I forgot to switch outfits, didn't I?