It was around half past eight in the evening when I reappeared in my living room. I didn't need to announce my arrival, as the only other person in the room was the little miko glued to the TV, and she was engrossed into a nature docuntary about erkats. I could've used my sister as an anchor as well, but she was really imrsed while drawing sothing, and I didn't want to bother her.
Anyhow, I sat down in my usual chair and took another bite out of the ad-hoc hot dog I put together using the barbecued wiener Brang and Rinne made for dinner. Yes, that ans they actually managed to start a barbecue party underground, and yes, it was the huntress' idea. That woman was such a glutton I had no idea how she could maintain her figure. It probably had sothing to do with being a side character or an ex-protagonist or what have you.
"{What?! What happened?! Where are we?! How did we get here?!}" the fussy sword suddenly began to rain questions on after remaining silent for a surprisingly long ti, so I put it in my lap and popped the last bite of the grilled sausage into my mouth.
"It's called Phasing, and it's a thing I do," I explained with my mouth half full, and after swallowing I added, "You'll get used to it."
As for why I still had Cal on , it was a necessity. Since being in physical contact with the sword helped to heal my injuries faster, if only a little, I had little choice but to keep it around as much as possible. My fancy new weapon was a little overdramatic at tis, but as far as company was concerned, I had worse, and at least Cal was really forthcoming with their answers.
It was around this ti that the tiny miko finally registered that I ca ho, and she sprung to her feet and gave a bow. She had her hair in twin tails, the result of Judy buying so hair accessories for her as well, and she wore a loose long-sleeved shirt and baggy sweat pants in her usual red-and-white color sche.
"Welco ho, ue-sama!" she greeted , but her eyes were already fixated on the sword in my lap.
"{Is that the sister you spoke of?}" Cal inquired with a tone that was audibly guarded, so I promptly shook my head.
"No, she's not."
"Who are you talking to?" the foxy miko asked as she sidled over to with a curious glint in her eyes, so I let out a shallow breath and told her:
"This is Cal. It's a sentient sword, and I'll be carrying it around for a while."
"Really? Can he talk? Can he hear ?" the girl perked up, and if she was in her fox form, I was sure she'd be wagging her tail like crazy. When I nodded, she flashed a delighted grin at the blade and introduced herself with, "Hi Cal-san, I'm Ichiko! I can't believe I got to et another talking sword!"
"{Another?}" said sword echoed in my head, so I figured so more straightforward introductions were in order.
"Yes. She used to be a sword too."
"I got better," Ichiko added in the company of a giggle, but I ignored her for the ti being and continued.
"There was a bit of an incident regarding so misunderstandings and magical corruption and a crumbling enchantnt, so I had to move her out of her old body and now she's in a Chira."
"{You moved her out of— Wait, what did you just say? Chira!? As in, the Chiric Beasts of the Abyss!?}"
"Yes," I answered with a nod, and Cal fell silent for a while.
"{I... still don't understand. What's the joke?}"
"There's no joke. That's just how things are."
Following my answer, the sword fell silent once again, followed by the words, "{I feel that calling these 'dark tis' is just no longer adequate.}"
Needless to say, I completely ignored their grumblings, which wasn't hard considering that Ichiko in front of was doing her best to gain my attention by giving the puppy eyes treatnt.
"Ue-samaaaa? Can I talk to Cal-san?"
"They can hear you already, but as for actually having a conversation... I'm sorry, but you don't have the ports to connect, and without that, they can't talk to you."
The little miko let out a disappointed noise, and I figured that since the topic ca up, it was as good an opportunity as any to summarize what I glead from my hours-long discussion with Cal.
First and foremost, my jest about supernatural USB ports turned out to be much more accurate than I could've ever expected. Simply put, the connectors on Knightly equipnt were didn't connect to the armors, but directly to the wielding Knight. However, as with most connectors, you needed both a plug and a receptacle, and the latter turned out to be the Oaths themselves.
Let's backtrack a little: according to Cal, when taking up the mantle of a title, a Knight had to make six oaths. They are, in no particular order, the Oath of Protection, Loyalty, Temperance, Fortitude, Charity, and Valor. These are mostly self-explanatory, so let's not get bogged down too much on their definitions.
Now, while these might've sounded like part of your standard troubadour-spun chivalric role-play, they were much more tangible than that. Each Oath was taken using a separate magical ritual that imprinted a separate port onto the Astral Body of the recipient corresponding to the separate connector on the weapons. Separately. Also, more on that whole 'Astral Body' thing later.
So, just to recap: there were seven magical USB ports corresponding to seven magical USB plugs, and when you put them together, you got a Knight that could rival a Draconian in power despite having no mana and being a run of the mill, if well trained, human. Now, it didn't take a British detective in a deer-stalker hat to notice a small discrepancy there: seven ports, seven connectors, but only six Oaths. Doesn't add up.
The thing is, according to Cal, there used to be an Oath of Fealty as well, but the Brotherhood didn't observe it anymore and it's only known to the King. It also didn't take a genius to figure out how that may have had sothing to do with the Celestials consistently referring to the Knights as 'Oathbreakers'.
Now, here cos the annoying part: the reason why I couldn't wear the full suit of armor I 'recovered', let alone a sword with it, was because my 'Astral Body' was damaged. This was apparently a 'Celestial thing', and while the chatty sword couldn't give a clear description of what it was, I had a hunch that it was probably the collection of records inside people I called a 'soul', or at least sothing taphysically adjacent.
The way Knightly equipnt worked required a very specific circulation of mana inside the body, which was governed by the Astral Body. I was still vague on the details, but one thing was certain: the issue was that because of the 'internal injury', my right hand acted as a dam that interfered with this circulation. That was a right pickle, but Cal was really adamant about being able to heal my hand with ti. It made sense too; if a single 'internal injury' was all it took to permanently take a Knight out of commission, it would be a bigger design flaw than spikes on a trampoline.
Anyhow, with these new bits of information in my hands, I could conclude the following: making a Knight break an Oath made them weaker because it ant they had one less port to plug their enchanted gear into, I already took those Oaths before my amnesia and I could therefore connect to Cal and my armor without any problems, and once my hand was healed I should be able to use my full Knight gear and then beco totally OP, learn how to fire beams with my sword, and maybe even win against Brang in Dominance for once. Look out, everyone; my power level will soon be over nine thousand!
Stupid jokes aside, having access to so power boosts on top of my already existing repertoire would open up a lot of new possibilities. Let's just hope that Judy was wrong on her assessnt about the dreaded Narrative purposefully sabotaging things with my injury to keep in check and I won't run into any other roadblocks. On the bright side, at least the Celestials couldn't exactly sabotage Cal like they did with my other prospective healers.
That... actually reminded of sothing. Or rather, I had a nagging feeling that I was forgetting sothing important. It bothered a lot, so tried to trace my train of thought backward, and when I finally pinpointed the source, I reflexively clicked my tongue.
Because of my long discussion with the sword, it totally slipped my mind that I promised Mike that I'd keep an eye on the class rep, just in case. I was sure she was fine, but a promise was a promise, so I figured I should put in a token effort, if for nothing else than my own peace of mind. As such, I leaned back, completely disregarded Ichiko poking the increasingly flustered sword in my lap, and closed my eyes for an impromptu Far Glance, only for them to pop open as I sat up straight again.
"Holy crap, what did I miss?" I hissed, startling the mischievous girl in front of . After a mont of consideration, I unceremoniously handed Cal over to her with the words, "Please hold onto this for a mont. I need to concentrate."
The mont Ichiko took the sword from , I imdiately focused my attention on using my Far Sight again, and a mont later I was inside a large office room, the kind with rows of smaller cubicles, or… well, I presud it had those, but the place had definitely seen better days. Not that it mattered, as the broken partitions and office supplies scattered around were all tinted in the sa hue of violet as the walls and the ceiling. I was, without a shadow of a doubt, in a Purple Zone. That was already enough to tell that sothing had to go awry, and after quickly pivoting my point of view around, I soon found the class rep in the company of Josh.
They were both in their Magiforms, and on a second look I also noticed Ammy's golem, Petra. For a mont I felt a little silly for missing the hulking thing, but in my defense, it looked quite different from usual. It had a part of its head carved out, and it was missing an arm, but since it was still moving, the damage obviously wasn't enough to disable it. Speaking of damage, I couldn't see any injuries, but both Josh and Ammy were breathing hard, and based on the degree of devastation surrounding them, it was obvious they've been engaged in combat for a while. As for the identity of their opponent…
"You're, like, full of surprises and stuff!" a youthful voice exclaid, and as I glanced over, my taphorical eyes landed on a brown-skinned girl leisurely floating around, as if she was lounging on top of an invisible bed. She was wearing casual clothes, including a top that had a neckline that plunged way deeper than it had any business doing, and tight jeans, which only made the fact that she was hovering in the air even more bizarre.
"Why are you doing this?" Josh raised his voice as he stood between Ammy and the floating girl, and Sahi let out a derisive chuckle at their expense.
"Why am I doing this?" she echoed my friend while rolling around so that now she was lying on her back with her head hanging so that she could still look at the two. "Do I, like, really have to explain myself to you? You totally broke into a Magi property with the express purpose of stealing classified docunts. Why shouldn't I get in your way?"
Seeing their exchange, I could barely hold myself back from sighing. Yep, they were caught red-handed. I figured this would happen sooner or later, but it still ca as a bit of a shock. I an, on a narrative level, I would've expected this to be a much bigger deal, but instead it was just a background event. But then again, while it was like that for , from the point of view of Josh, it was probably a serious situation so… maybe I was the background event peeking at the main one?
While I was considering the ta-implications of the events, Josh took a deep breath and stood his ground even harder with the words, "We're not stealing anything! Those are important for Alia, so we just want to keep them safe!"
I was just about to get up and Phase over, but Josh's defiant comnt made pause in my track and focus on Far Seeing again. I was kind of joking a few monts ago (it's my coping chanism, bite ), but what if this really was an 'event'? I an, we've been training Josh for a while now in using his powers as the Chosen One of every supernatural race, so maybe this was a situation engineered for him to finally show off his progress? I an, doing it against an arch-mage was a little unfair, but as Sahi, Saahira wasn't on the sa power level as when she was in her proper body (or so she claid in front of Lord Grandpa), so maybe they actually had a chance? If so, then my intervention could potentially rob Josh of an important mont of developnt.
As such, I decided to wait and see for now. In fact, on second thought, I figured this might end up pretty entertaining. Too bad I couldn't eat popcorn while I was Far Seeing…
"Very important indeed," Sahi responded a little late as she righted herself and casually floated around them while maintaining her distance. "Has she, like, even told you what's in those docunts?"
"It doesn't matter," Josh responded right away.
"Oh, but it totally does!" the floating girl exclaid, closely followed by a giggle. "It's a secret she didn't want anyone to know about, but she was, like, waaay too slow and didn't cover all her tracks and whatever, so we totally found out. That's when I figured out that she was the one responsible for the missing paper and, like, I set this trap for you, and you totally walked into it!"
"A secret," Josh whispered and glanced at Ammy over his shoulder, but the bespectacled girl remained completely silent.
Ah, that's such a clichéd developnt! The antagonist is hinting at so kind of secret one of the heroes has, but they don't say it outright, and because they remain silent, it creates all sorts of distrust and interpersonal conflicts. It's not a bad trope, as the audience loves to craft all kinds of theories about these secrets, but I personally found it a little bit annoying. As in, it's only a conflict because the accused never speaks the truth, and most of the ti their 'shaful secret' ends up so tiny issue that no one actually makes a fuss about once it's revealed at a suitably dramatic mont.
Apparently, this wasn't that mont, as before Sahi could continue, Josh faced her again, clenched his jaw, and exclaid, "I trust Ammy, so I don't care about any of that!"
"Ah, but, like, does she believe that you don't care?" the brown girl, who was for so reason once again floating practically upside down taunted him, but he was paying no attention to her, as he was too busy whispering to the class rep behind him.
"Listen, Ammy. I'm going to draw her attention and pin her down. Use the opportunity to get out of here and call for help."
"You can't!" she whispered back, but Josh completely disregarded her and instead imdiately did one of those complex hand moves Snowy also used when casting spells. A blink of an eye later a ball of shimring air ford in his open palm, but instead of throwing it at the floating girl, he aid it at the floor between them.
I don't know how exactly it did it, but the ball of air exploded (or maybe the floor did) into a large cloud of dust and debris, montarily obscuring them from prying eyes, including my own. It didn't last for long though, as Josh lunged through the impromptu smoke screen and aid a straight punch at Sahi's abdon.
The brown girl stopped horsing around the mont the air-ball was thrown, but even though she was floating upright once more, Josh closed in on her too fast for her to react. The punch connected, but there was no reaction on her end. At first I figured Josh might've hit a personal ward, but on closer look, I noticed a large, ethereal hand clasped around my friend's entire forearm. I wanted to take a closer look, but before I could do so, he opened his palm, revealing a smaller airball!
Okay, I'm not going to lie, that was pretty cool. I've never seen him do sothing like this during training, but by the looks of it, real combat brought the best out of him.
Even though he couldn't move the arm with the translucent hand clasped around it, his open palm was now close enough where Sahi had no ti to react, and she was hit by the full brunt of the attack, staggering her (as much as soone who was floating in the air can stagger) while simultaneously releasing Josh from her grasp.
By the way, what was that transparent hand? Was it a spell? I didn't see or hear her chanting, so that couldn't be it… maybe so kind of other ability? Or a continuous spell she cast ahead of ti? I really wanted to take a better look, but my observations were once again interrupted by Josh.
After landing from the last clash, he instantly sprung to his feet and dashed towards Sahi again. As he did so, I saw him pop a small capsule into his mouth, which I imdiately recognized as one of the small edible containers we used to store blood samples, so that he could transform without the girls. I only saw it for a mont, but it looked white, so… Draconian?
It was hard to tell, considering the Magiforr suppressed his physical changes, but the way he suddenly accelerated told my hunch was probably correct. He closed in on the still unbalanced arch-mage proxy and grabbed hold of her arm. By the looks of it, he was trying to grapple with her. That was a smart move. We already established that because of the way barriers and wards worked, most supernatural folks were weak to being grabbed and wrestled to the ground, and my friend was apparently about to exploit this weakness. I held my breath in silent anticipation, but I was regrettably let down when the previous translucent hand reappeared again and grabbed onto Josh in turn, keeping him at arm's reach.
The two entered into a bit of a stalemate for a mont, where neither of them could overpower the other, but they couldn't afford to let each other go either. It only lasted for a mont though, as it was abruptly broken by a red dot of light coalescing right in front of his face. Like, seriously, dude? Dragonfire at point-blank range? That was kind of unsportsmanlike.
However, just a second later, I had to reassess my opinion when another invisible hand ca out of nowhere and clamped over his jaw. Okay, now that was unsportsmanlike.
Things looked dire for a second, but then a new voice entered the fray with a frantic, "Close your eyes!"
"Ammy? What are you—?"
Josh's muffled (and equally baffled) words were stuck in his throat a mont later when the class rep appeared in the floating girl's blind spot and stuck her recently reforged magic staff at her face. It was her request to make it sturdier to avoid getting broken again, and so we I had Fred fabricate it out of tal, and the result was a surprisingly sturdy piece of work that could easily survive so abuse. I naturally thought Ammy wanted to whack the floating girl with it, but the head of the staff stopped just a hair short and she exclaid, "Lux!"
I was once again glad that I wasn't seeing this with my actual retinas, as the searing light that followed in the wake of her magical command made the midday sun look like a tiny candle in comparison. This way, instead of getting blinded, I only flinched in surprise, but not so much that I would miss the large shape appearing from the left and lunging at the preoccupied Sahi in the mother of all shoulder tackles.
By the looks of it, both the class rep and Petra used the sa dust cloud that Josh kicked up to circle around the arch-magess while she was focusing on Josh, and use the elent of surprise to take her down. I had to give it to her, the idea was pretty good in theory, but it didn't count on Sahi being domineering as hell.
Before Petra could make contact, its thunderous approach was abruptly halted by two more hands materializing out of thin air and grabbing hold of it, forcing it to stop in its track like it just hit a small mountain, sending cracks running across its upper body. I would've expected the still floating arch-mage to get pushed back at least a little bit, but she remained completely steadfast even though she had no support and… wait a mont. On closer look, there was another hand clamped onto the floor in the opposite direction, so… five? She had five of those things?
No, scratch that. By the ti I glanced back, she was holding Ammy up in the air by the collar of her Magiform, so that's six! Considering two of them were enough to immobilize Draconic Josh and she could no sell a full charge from Petra with another two, at the sa ti no less… wow, that's so bloody OP stuff right there.
"That was a totally valiant effort," the floating girl cooed with a smile as Josh also lost his grasp on her and she proceeded to dangle him right next to the class rep, except in his case, it was by his jaw. That… couldn't have been comfortable. "I'm surprised you could put up this much of a fight, Alia, considering what you are," Sahi paused and glanced at the struggling guy in the grasp of her other translucent hand spell thing. "As for you, I'm, like, totally impressed! No wonder old Endy was so interested in you!" Josh remained silent and only defiantly glared at the brown girl, yet it only drew another giggle out of her. "You're such an interesting boy! It's too bad you got totally entangled in her little quest to hide what she truly is. Are you, like, really not curious at all about why she went to such lengths?"
Honestly, I was getting a little impatient. This was yet another 'I shall taunt you' mont common in the battle harem genre, and while I admit that even I was guilty of it every now and then, but in my defense, I usually prompted people to do it to buy so ti. What was the point of listening to her repeating her whole spiel again? Josh obviously still had so fight in him, so this was far from over. It was ti for a heroic second wind! Co on, Josh! I know you can do it! Use the power of friendship! Trust in the heart of the cards! Believe in who believes in you!
I waited. And waited. And then waited so more.
"Please, don't…" Ammy pleaded in a weak voice, so I held my breath, even as Sahi let out another giggle, and…
Nothing. Josh did nothing. In fact, he looked like he was on the verge of losing consciousness from having his mouth and nose covered.
"Oh crap. There's no second wind," I blurted out as the realization set in, and before I knew it, I was already back in my living room.
"Oh? Ue-sama woke u—"
I jumped to my feet without sparing any words for Ichiko, rushed into the entryway to put on a pair of shoes and the first coat I could get my hands on, and then just as swiftly returned to the confused little girl's side.
"Thanks for holding onto Cal, I have to go now," I sputtered in a hurry as I grabbed hold of the sword and took a second to compose myself.
"{What is the matter, young knight? Did sothing—}" It was at this point that I unceremoniously Phased away, and a montary beat later Cal exclaid, "{It happened again! Where are we!? How did we get here!?}"
I didn't respond to them, but instead I focused on the scene unfolding in front of . Sahi was still floating, with the six magical hands around her, and because I Phased behind her, she was currently still unaware of my existence. The sa couldn't be said about Josh and Ammy, as the mont they noticed , the tension visibly drained from their bodies.
The arch-mage might have misunderstood this as them giving up, as she exclaid, "In fact, this girl here is actually a—!"
It was at this precise mont that I put both my hands on Cal's poml and stabbed it at the floor in front of , resulting in a sharp sound and a disapproving {Hey!}. I paid no attention to the latter, but instead followed it up by pointedly clearing my throat. By this point Sahi already turned around to face , and once our eyes t, I dryly told her, "Good evening, arch-mage Saahira. I ca to… negotiate."
User Comments
0 comments from readers