When looking in from so kind of omniscient third-person viewpoint, this situation would've probably appeared pretty contrived. Bel's sudden raids, my bull-headed decision to co here alone, the imdiate betrayal and everyone showing up here at once were both rapid and forceful developnts that just conveniently pushed the plot along. In a way, that analysis was almost spot-on. After all, this entire situation and everything leading up to it was set up and crafted by ; both the present and future versions included.
Future- coached Crowy, managed the civil war from the shadows, and he was not only the one responsible for indirectly planting this whole setup into the minds of Tracas and the Nergal patriarch, he was also responsible for getting Fidèle involved through indirect ans. Everyone present here had a part to play in the performance, and so far, things were mostly following the script. I say 'mostly', because I couldn't rember the Shamash matriarch being part of this particular scene, but future- wasn't surprised by her presence, so he must've known ahead of ti.
Which, once again, made sense considering he was future-. He probably didn't tell so that I would have a genuine reaction to her dynamic entry, I surmised. That's the kind of thing I had done in the past, keeping the gang in the dark about certain things so that their responses would appear authentic to the onlookers. In that light, it was clear I was doing the sa thing to myself. Not that it made feel any better about it, but that wasn't important right now.
First off, I adopted a neutral stance, holding Teeny high in a loose grip. Not too aggressive, not fully defensive, ready to parry high or low as necessary. Not that I would've had to do either of that yet, but appearances were important. Yet, before I could engage in any kind of banter with Bel, I was addressed by soone else.
"We et again, Leonard Dunning." Crowy was effectively growling at while he talked, and when he flexed his hand, it caused his aura to flare up. Incidentally, it also made his hair and eyes glow brighter and his cape billow. As far as villain theatrics were concerned, he was hitting all the high notes all right. More importantly, he glared at and declared, "I will repay you tenfold for the humiliation of that day!"
"Oh, co on, Crowy. Don't be like that," I responded by reflex and circled Teeny's point his way. "It was freely given, and I'm not so small-minded to expect anything in return. In fact, you can ask any ti, and I can give you more."
"I see that your insufferable personality hasn't changed since the last ti we t."
"You, on the other hand, changed quite a bit," I quipped back with a friendly smile. "I see that you successfully embraced your childhood wonder. I bet deep down you always wanted to be a dinosaur in a children's show. Or maybe a fast-food mascot? Oh, wait! Silly ! I should've realized right away, with the cape and everything: you're currently channelling your inner purple vampire count!" Quickly clearing my throat, I adopted a silly Bela Lugosi impression. "It's one, two, three! Third ti's the charm. Ha. Ha. Ha."
"You miserable…!"
Crowy continued to growl at , but I paid more attention to the woman hissing behind .
"Lord Leonard! What are you doing?"
"Psychological warfare," I answered off-handedly, but before I could say anything else, I could hear so static on my communications enchantnt, so I focused ahead again.
"Hey, Polemos! Stop heckling my Herald!" Bel exclaid with flamboyant indignation, followed by a forceful pat on the man's back that almost made him lose his balance. "I'm the only one who's allowed to do that!"
Simultaneously, while he was speaking, I received a ssage in the sa, robotic voice as usual, saying, "{Scene 1-A, start,}" inside my head. I exhaled hard and lowered my weapon a bit.
"You put quite a lot of effort into this charade, didn't you, Bel?"
"Au contraire, my dear Polemos," future- answered without missing a beat and took a couple of asured steps towards , leaving Crowy behind. "You walked right into this one without having to do much at all! It was very helpful of you, I say." He paused for a second before crossing one arm across his chest and tapping the forehead of his mask with the forefinger of the other hand. "Were you really so worried for the safety of Deus and your little empire of bohemian wackadoos, I wonder? Or maybe, just maybe…" He slowly dragged his finger down the mask, and when it reached his chin, he curiously cocked his head to the side. "Were you so confident in your abilities that you never considered that a trap could pose a threat to you?"
Our back-and-forth was drawing all the attention in the room, as intended, and while Crowy in particular looked like he really wanted to get a piece of , he didn't dare to act out of line with Bel in the room, it seed. Anyhow, it was my turn.
"I could ask the sa of you, Bel." I fell silent for a aningful beat and slowly swept my gaze across the hall. "If you want to kill , you'll need more than this."
"Ah, confidence it is!" Future- exclaid with glee, only to suddenly shift both his body language and his tone on a di, sounding about as growly and vicious as Crowy ever was. "Allow to disabuse you of that notion."
I held my breath as he slowly raised the sa glowed hand that poked his mask, followed by a long and suspenseful beat that crescendoed in the crisp and altogether too loud sound of his fingers snapping. I simultaneously exhaled and theatrically staggered back. Not to an overdramatic degree; just enough so that even the people in the back could see my body language. I mid shock and surprise, and after counting to three, I snapped at future- with a glare.
"What did you do?"
"Polemos, Polemos, Polemos…" he responded with the familiar words from the script and a voice dripping with malice. "Did you honestly believe I wouldn't be able to unweave your spell and make it my own? You called it 'spatial saturation', I think? It's a clever little trick. Crude, but clever. I also couldn't help but notice that whenever you used it to interfere with my abilities, you were unable to use yours as well. So, I wondered; couldn't I use this to my advantage to lay a trap?" He spread his arms, for dramatic flair, and exclaid. "Now, it's your turn to be on the receiving end of it! Let's see how long your confidence will last, when…" Then, as if popping a bubble, his threatening grand villain tone evaporated, and he ran back with comically over-exaggerated motions and slipped behind Crowy. "… my Herald will kick your ass!"
The whiplash was massive enough to make even the previous silent peanut gallery erupt with noise, but none was more startled by the man himself.
"My Emperor? Weren't you going to…?"
"Don't be daft!" future- retorted while poking his head out from behind him. "I just told you that I can't use all my powers while holding him down. Why would I fight him head-on with a handicap when I have you here?"
Crowy couldn't quite find the words to respond. anwhile, I let out a long and sowhat relieved breath. This was one of the most crucial scenes of this entire performance. Simply put, my Phasing ability was way, way too overpowered, both from a common sense and a narrative standpoint. Being able to freely disengage from any fight or move to any previously marked person, regardless of the distance or circumstances was, in one word… neat. If you were , that is.
From the point of a narrative scenario, it was an absolute nightmare. How was there supposed to be a tense, nail-biting clash of supernatural proportions when one side could just leave any ti they were at a disadvantage? Most fight scenes, at least the ones that weren't decided by shooting coloured magic beams at each other, hinged on mobility and positioning, but the concept of 'having the high ground' completely lost its aning when soone could just teleport wherever and whenever all willy-nilly.
Again, from my perspective, there was no problem with that. It was extrely useful and convenient, and it saved my skin countless tis. So what if it broke all the usual shounen battle tropes? It was none of my problem… until very recently, that is.
The truth of the matter was that I kind of boxed myself into a corner with this one. So long as I could Phase freely, building aningful stakes was ridiculously hard, both in terms of drama and combat. Take this scenario, for example. Since I could Phase away at any ti, this trap was entirely aningless from the get-go, because I wasn't trapped. I could leave whenever I wanted. The sa went for future-; since we established that Bel can teleport around, there was no way to trap him either. It wasn't even one of those 'unstoppable spear ets invincible shield' paradoxes, but more like 'two invincible shields that don't even have to clash unless they want to'.
Therefore, as much as I hated to do it, I had no choice but to nerf myself, and this was the thing we ca up with: by giving Bel the sa 'ability' that I had (at least as far as everyone else was concerned), it could be used to stop my Phasing, therefore 'closing the trap' an raising the narrative stakes. It also hit another bird with the sa stone, which was going to be important later, but as far as the current scene was concerned, it was vital to establish it in order to make the following events easier to digest for the witnesses.
Speaking of which, I glanced at the woman next to and whispered over my shoulder.
"The situation just got exponentially more perilous. Can I trust you to hold down this side while I deal with Bel?"
"Are you referring to Lord Belette and Sir Tracas?" She didn't wait for to respond and hefted her oversized scythe. "We won't know for sure until I try."
"Just occupy their attention until I find an opening," I told her curtly and flourished my spear. "It won't take long."
I would've been lying if I said I wasn't at least a little bit worried about her, but again, future- didn't give any extra instructions, so I presud that things were still on the rails. Speaking of which.
"{Scene 2-A?}" I ssaged over, and I got an imdiate reply.
"{Affirmative.}"
Since we were on the sa page, I began to walk towards Crowy and future- with asured steps.
"I loathe to admit that I was caught off-guard, but I don't think it makes that big of a difference." I pointed the spear tip at them and lowered my center of gravity in preparation for a lunge. "That just ans I now have another incentive to take you down today."
"Heh. We'll see about that!" future- guffawed and pushed his esteed 'Herald' forth. "Go, Crowy! I choose you!"
"{Syncing. One.}"
That was the ssage I was waiting for, and I imdiately sprang forth with a wordless "{One,}" delivered through the communications enchantnt. My stab was fast and steady, sailing over Crowy's left shoulder and aid directly at Bel's face.
Of course, since we synced our timing beforehand, he deftly got out of the way and ducked to the side with dance-like steps. Crowy didn't stay still either, as his hand lashed out towards with a sort of black, viscous aura trailing his fingertips like a blob of ink being drawn on the air. It wasn't stationary either, and it moved like a whip to follow the arc of his hand movent.
He wasn't fast enough, and unlike with future-, his attack was not only clearly telegraphed, but my sixth sense was able to pick it up without any problem, and so I could leave so of the ntal processing related to dodging to it while I focused on the choreography.
"{Syncing. Two,}" I conveyed through the enchantnt while simultaneously pulling my weapon back and ducking under the incoming magic attack.
I didn't move past Crowy though, but instead I set my foot hard and pivoted. Future also repositioned himself, so that now we were on the left and right of the Abyssal guy, and as soon as I got the green light in the form of a chanical '{Two,}' I launched another stab right through the billowing cape between us.
This ti, there was an impact as future- parried the speartip, pushing the shaft to the side and effectively tearing the cape off the bastard's shoulders. It caused him to stagger and lean forward a bit, which was precisely the position future- told he would take.
"{Syncing…}" ca the next ssage, and after a short beat, there was a slightly more forceful, "{Three!}"
I imdiately shifted Teeny into its short sword form, disentangling it from the torn cape, and I grabbed Crowy's shoulder, using him as a prop to leap over him. Of course, doing that by myself would've been tricky, even with physical enhancents, but when he realised what I was doing, Crowy let out a low roar, his purple aura surged again, and the explosive force allowed to essentially jump over his head.
I twisted my body mid-air and then sent a curt "{Three!}" to future- just before I swung my sword, allowing him to slip under it without any harm. It wasn't strictly necessary, but I still landed into a roll for dramatic effect, and as soon as I ca to a halt in a low crouching position, I shifted Teeny back to spear form and lunged forward again, like a bolt from a crossbow aid squarely at future-.
Of course, Crowy was between us, and he reacted just as future- said he would, conjuring a relatively small hexagonal shield to stop my attack while already making complicated finger-motions with his other hand, probably to create another offensive spell. I would've said that I was surprised that he didn't shift to his Abyssal form yet, but then again, I wasn't, because future- told he wouldn't.
Future knowledge is such a bullshit advantage.
Anyhow, I pretended to hesitate for a mont, and then I changed the trajectory of the spear tip downward, planting it into the ground. Crowy must've thought I made a mistake, because he triumphantly snarled at and swept his hand horizontally, releasing a wave of purple flas. It probably disappointed him greatly that I wasn't in the way anymore, as I used my spear kind of like a vaulting pole to push myself over his head. Then, while still in the air, I pulled the weapon after , and as it glanced off the shield on the upwards stroke, it gave a bit of a spin.
Holding my breath, I waited for the signal of "{Syncing, four!}" coming my way before pulling in my limbs to increase the speed of my rotation while simultaneously extending the spear out. It was a very silly, very Penny-like attack, but it was big and flashy, and that was the kind of thing we needed right now, so I swallowed my pride and did it anyway. I only made a single revolution, and when I landed on the other side, I did so with a mana-infused slam of my weapon that dug a deep gash into the polished stone floor.
"{Request: Interface:Teeny would like to request Archon Polemos to refrain from engaging in acts that may negatively affect the structural integrity of—}"
"Ouch, Polemos!" future-'s voice drowned out Teeny's complaints. He was standing ramrod straight on his tiptoes after dodging out of the way of the incoming spear, the toecaps of his shoes sitting right next to the furrow on the floor. Once we made eye contact, he dropped down onto his heels and hopped to the side, just as I pulled my weapon back. "That was dangerous! It's almost like you want to kill , or sothing!"
"Do I?" I asked back tauntingly while using the opportunity to glance at the other group, and… surprisingly, they were still only just arguing with each other, no fighting. Maybe Belette and Tracas wanted to straddle the line a bit longer, until the victor was decided here.
"Can you?" future- asked back with glee.
"Do you want to find out?"
"Do I ever?"
"Then how about you stop hiding behind your Herald?"
"I'm not hiding. It's called tactical positioning," he retorted with a mock posh British accent, and it was at this point that we were interrupted by a loud bellow.
"STOP IGNORING !"
That was followed by an enormous flash of purple light and a small hurricane's worth of similarly tinted smoky winds kicking up nearby.
"{Right on schedule,}" ca the ssage from future-, just as the light-show reached its peak and revealed a bigger, hairier, and hornier Crowy in the center of the purple storm.
"{Phase Two?}" I asked back, and then…
"I'LL RIP YOU TO SHREDS AND FEED YOUR MISERABLE ENTRAILS TO THE RATS!"
Future let out a soft chuckle, and responded with a still chanical yet sohow flagrantly mischievous, "{Yep. Phase Two.}"
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