The Simulacrum Volume 6 – Prologue

There I stood, surrounded by a group of definitely-not-angels in their silly togas genuflecting in front of , a result of a long string of seemingly avoidable events culminating a new and unforeseen developnt. One that would inevitably find brand new and hitherto unexplained ways to be a pain in the neck. Story of my life, really.

There was no point crying over spilled milk though. Now that we had a stretch of straight and level rails in front of this runaway train of a situation, it was ti to spend a mont gathering my wits and summarizing what I knew. If only to see if I was still in full command of my faculties.

In short, I was in the Elysium, the holand and headquarter of one of the hidden supernatural powers of the world. My alleged ntor, Sir Percival, was working for so Celestials, who were taken out by other Celestials, for reasons I still wasn't entirely clear about. After the infighting, I used the opportunity to infiltrate the Elysium with the intent mark their leaders for future observations. I thought they wanted to give back my lost mories for one reason or another, but then it turned out that their actual goal was to implant a completely different set of mories into , by using this transforming knife-spear-doodad in my hand. Now, they were convinced that I was an Archon, which was so kind of ancient title. That… was more or less all I knew at the mont.

Anyhow, that last bit was definitely not part of my plans, but there was no point crying over spilled milk. If anything, this was the ti to finally take reign of the situation and stop getting caught up in the flow.

"O Arch—"

"Shut up. Give a minute," I told them, and closed my eyes.

First, I used Far Sight to check the situation 'outside'. I had no idea how long I was out, and what Sir Percival and his collaborators were up to during that ti, so it took priority. The girls… were in so kind of eting, with Roland and dad-in-law. By the looks of it, they were inside the Dracis mansion, which ant they were safe. Good.

Next, I Far Glanced at my sisters, and they were back ho, huddled in front of Snowy's PC and researching sothing. They looked tired, but otherwise fine. So far, so good.

Over the next couple of seconds, I repeatedly cycled through all the marks on my friends and allies, and while most of them were either in etings, holed up in their hos, or running around on rooftops (that last one was mostly Mountain Girl), I finally settled on Percival. The old man was lying on a bed with his back propped up by pillows, his head and arms covered in bandages, and he just gave his thanks to the Dracis maid for bringing him an early dinner, and… Wait, was it really that late?

"You. Tsephanyah, was it?"

"Y-Yes, O Archon!" the blonde man stood up at once, delighted by the fact I recognized him.

"How long was I out?"

"If you ant to say since the last ti you walked this earth, I believe the answer in solar years should be—"

"Not that, you dimwit," I scoffed and massaged my temple. "For how long was I in that infernal cocoon?"

"Ah. It has been a little over…" He glanced over to the other Celestials behind his back, followed by so back-and-forth whispering. "It was a little over thirty hours, O Archon."

"No wonder I'm thirsty…" I whispered under my breath, and while I was certain nobody could hear over the incessant buzzing of the Mana Well just a couple steps away from us, it still earned a response from soone.

"{Advice: Archon Polemos's body is weakened. I recomnd an intake of sustenance and prolonged rest.}"

"Nobody asked for your opinion," I hissed and knocked the butt of the spear against the floor again. It took way more effort than I expected, and I didn't have to think long to recognize the reason behind it. While I donned my faux Knight Gear, aning my physical strength was boosted, I'd still held out my right arm at a ninety-degree angle for over thirty hours. That obviously wasn't good for circulation, so the fact that it felt weak and tingly was entirely understandable.

Focusing on the Celestial representative again, I collected my thoughts and let out a long breath.

"I need so ti to readjust. Get a quiet room, water, sothing to eat, and Jaakobah Arpachshad."

I expected so confusion, or asking so whys and wherefores, or even just soone wondering about how I knew Jaakobah's na. As far as they knew, I should've been replaced by so thousand-years-dead leader figure, yet all the Celestials in the room took my request in stride and practically stumbled over each other in their hurry to bring sothing to drink.

The only one who remained stationary was the toga-wearing bigwig, and after a long beat, he tentatively asked, "Do you, perchance, still possess the mories of Leonard Dunning, O Archon?"

"Of course I do," I scoffed as I started moving, using the spear as a makeshift walking pole to help with my stability before shaking it in front of his face. "Are you telling you didn't even know how this thing worked?"

"I… This was the first ti your Spear of Destiny has chosen soone, so we had no precedent, and the original texts from your ti were… fragntary."

"Spear of Destiny?" I echoed the man, and as he nodded, the pointy stick in my hand also chid in.

"{Elaboration: It is this weapon's official designation.}"

"Yeah, no. From now on, you're… let see… 'speero', 'desti'… Let's go with 'Teeny'," I blurted out in frustration, and yet the chanical voice of the spear took it in stride.

"{Confirmation: New designation registered.}"

In the anti, one of the Celestials that departed just a minute or so ago returned. She was a solidly built middle-aged woman with shoulder-length black hair, currently looking rather matted and dishevelled. The mont she arrived, she fell to one knee and held out a bottle of cheap mineral water to like it was the Holy Grail.

"I, Adva Tira, Vice-Director of Housing and Rural Developnt, present my gift to you, O Polemos, Second True Archon of the—"

"Thank you." Running out of patience, I snatched the bottle out of her grasp with my free hand and downed its contents with one single go. It turned out I was thirstier than I thought, as while it definitely hit the spot, I felt like I could drink three or four more of these without feeling full. In any case, I returned the empty bottle to the still-kneeling woman and told her, "Your na is Adva, right? Please remind to return the favour one day."

"A-Ah! Just the grace of Archon Polemos rembering my na is more than I could ever ask for!" she exclaid with a frankly disturbing glint of zeal in her eyes. Was this how pop singers felt in front of their most rabid fans, I wondered?

anwhile, the rest of the Celestials also ca back one by one, carrying bottles, crystal glasses, and all kinds of other containers. Upon noticing the Celestial woman's smug grin as she brandished the empty bottle, I could practically hear the sound of their teeth grinding from over here. My evaluation of this entire society was falling dangerously close to ground level.

"Open the way!" the six-winged director waved his hands and… on second thought, I was probably going to have to interact with him a bunch, so figured it was ti I started using his na. Let's and that: Director Tsephanyah waved his hands and shooed away the gaggle of Celestial bureaucrats plugging the only entrance to the Mana Well shrine. "The Archon just returned to us and requires rest!"

"But what about the banquet? And the parade?" a voice from the back of the group cried out, but before he could respond, I beat him to the punch by raising my voice.

"Cancel them. Nobody has ti for frivolous things like that." The people around seed almost disappointed, but didn't raise an objection, so I dramatically swept my gaze around the room and added, "So, where's that room I already asked for, and where's Jaakobah?"

"I'm here, Archon," another voice called out from even further back, and when I took a step in that direction, the gaggle of idiots parted in front of . "Please forgive my appearance. I was requested to present myself at once."

Despite what he said, the man looked perfectly fine. Well, by his own standards, as his cheeks were still sunken and he still had bags under his eyes, but since he was now wearing a dark business casual suit without a tie and matching pants, he looked more than presentable. At the very least, he probably looked better than I did in my makeshift disguise, but that was neither here nor there.

We locked eyes for a mont, and when I raised a questioning brow, he gave a deep nod and asked, "What do you request from ?"

"Lead to a decent bed, for a start," I grumbled as I walked between the two rows of people sticking to the walls of the corridor, and I was closely followed by Director Tsephanyah.

"We've already prepared a room for your use, O Archon. It should more than fulfill your expectations."

"That shouldn't be hard, considering they are rather low at the mont," I answered absently, and sohow ended up leading the procession back to the elevator, with Jaakobah and Tsephanyah following right behind . Once we arrived, I waited for them to call the lift, but they remained completely motionless, so I had to use one of my phantom limbs to do it myself. "Which floor is it?"

The elevator arrived just as I asked, seemingly to everyone's surprise.

"It's… the fifty-second floor, O Archon," the man in the toga answered as he eyed with an odd look, but I was still thirsty, hungry, and way too tired to play any mind-gas with him.

As such, I stepped into the cabin, gestured for Jaakobah to follow after , and the mont he was inside, I used the sa phantom limb to close the doors and get the elevator moving before anyone else could even move a finger.

"I think there was a mistake," the gaunt healer whispered and tried to hum sothing, no doubt to make the cabin stop and return to the basent, but I quickly overrode the command he sent to the magical interface.

"Shut up, Jaakobah," I hissed at the man, and his eyes opened wide as saucers, which ant my expression was probably direr than intended. I didn't care. "Just so you know, you're already on my shit-list for roping into this. How high you're going to end up on that list is entirely dependent on your words and actions in the next couple of minutes, so I recomnd you shut up, stay put, and think long and well about your options. Are we clear?"

"Yes. Crystal."

His response was instantaneous. I had no choice but to give it to him; he was remarkably cool under pressure. For the next couple of minutes, we remained silent as the elevator slowly climbed its way up to our destination.