The Games We Play - Chapter 232

DISCLAIMER: This story is NOT MINE IN ANY WAY. That honor has gone to the beautiful bastard Ryugii. This has been pulled from his Spacebattle publishment. Anyway on with the show…errr read.

Journey

Arcana

Active & Passive) LV1 EXP: 0.00%

The compendium of secrets, the ultimate mystery. The Arcana exists as a representation of a soul’s journey, both through life and beyond, and in so doing, illustrates the truths hidden within. By mastering this skill, the user comes to understand the path they’ve taken and learns how to use the knowledge and wisdom they’ve acquired to forge a path for themselves across time.

Upon learning this skill, the user learns to access the memories hidden within their own soul, recalling their past and present lives.

In addition, this skill may be activated for no cost, allowing the user to draw strength from within themselves in the form of the twenty-two Major Arcana.

These effects activate in correlation to the user’s present state and may change accordingly.

As I activated the Arcana, I felt something clear form within me, descending upon me from above. It didn’t come with any flashes of light or cinematic riots of power, because I wasn’t drawing strength from it or unleashing anything.

I was the Arcana. It was a crystallization of what was already there, a refinement of who I was, who I’d been, and who I wanted to be. In a way, it was the closest I’d ever come to my past self’s Semblance, because a Semblance was itself an expression of who a person is—but at the same time it was more than that. It was an intermingling, a conversation of the heart and soul, and it drew elements from the both of us. Or rather, from me.

And it was like my heart had started beating after a long period of nothingness.

Malkuth’s grip on my neck didn’t slacken because of my internal shift, nor did our situation change. I don’t think he’d noticed yet, because it was—for now—still something purely internal, but I’d need to choose my moment carefully. I kept anything from showing on my body with careful control and lifted my gaze to look at my friends.

The battlefield had gone still at our entrance, the Grimm obviously recognizing their master. They seemed to almost fade into the background without actually moving, dark tremors rippling over their flesh. Nothing extended from Malkuth directly—or, at least, nothing extended from Gilgamesh’s body—but I could see them recovering slowly. Perhaps his awareness of them was enough to reach out from the other side of their portals or perhaps they simply drew strength from his presence; either way, I saw wounds slowly knit closed.

More importantly than them, however, I saw my friends. I saw Autumn high above us, still floating on the wind, and saw her multifaceted eyes focused on me. Her expression didn’t change, but I could feel her emotions shift as she drew matter and energy from her internal well, preparing herself for a fight. I could tell from the signs left on the battlefield that she’d already made use of her powers as a Preta, but that didn’t stop her from readying herself now.

Below her stood Adam, Gou, and Raven. My best friend, my team, all focused on me. Adam pursed his lips, hand on his sword, and beneath his mask his eyes focused on me and the hand at my throat. Looming over him, Gou flicked his eyes over Malkuth and I, but the majority of his focus then turned to the rest of our team and I could feel his thoughts shift towards protectiveness.

I could all but hear their thoughts; Adam readying himself to put his all into a single attack, distracting Malkuth at a crucial moment to allow me to escape, even if it cost him his life. Gou readying himself to die if it meant allowing the others even a slim chance of escape.

But fuck both of those ideas.

Finally, I turned my attention towards Raven, whose eyes were focused entirely on me. I looked through her mask to meet her eyes, both of out gazes steady. Under different circumstances, I’d send her a subtle signal with Psychokinesis or Pathokinesis, but with Malkuth so near I didn’t dare give him a sign.

So instead, I just smiled slightly, the expression light. A moment later, I saw Gou extend a Psychokinetic hand towards Raven, alerting her with a touch, and she nodded. To him? To me? There was no way to know for sure—but I didn’t have to know for sure. I trusted Raven to get the job done.

It didn’t surprise me in the slightest when Gou threw himself to the ground in front of Raven, a body that dwarfed building throwing up massive clouds of dust even as it dug a colossal trench in the ground.

“Oh, a volunteer?” Malkuth asked and he must have been smiling. An instant later, he moved, crossing the distance between us and Gou with such speed that he snapped my neck in the process. He didn’t even bother attacking Gou, he simply stepped into him, shattering Gou’s layers with a touch. I saw it as the black energy that made up Gou’s for in-between spaces flooded in each time, fluctuating, flowing, and spiking with every wave, but they gave Gou only moments of reprieve. In less than a second, all that was left was Gou’s base form, lying prone at Malkuth’s feet.

Malkuth must have gotten off on kicking puppies, because I got the feeling his smile widened as he looked down at my friend.

“Buying time for your friend’s to escape?” He asked, attention now on Gou. “What a brave puppy—but you know, I’m the master of portals. It’s a little trick to create them when I’m like this, but it’s not impossible, and I know where she went. It’s just…it’s always more fun when people think their safe. Isn’t that right, Jaune?”

Goddamn fucking piece of shit asshole prick.

I didn’t answer, taking the moment to allow the feeling of my broken neck to fade. The full heal I’d prepared was still at the ready, but Gou’s base form was thankfully unharmed—that was the best thing about his Semblance, in my opinion; even if he got weaker and more vulnerable as his outer selves were broken, damage didn’t cross between layers. Instead, he was just exhausted as the power he’d tied into them was dispersed. So far, nothing had happened to him that couldn’t be fixed.

Of course, being near Malkuth meant that probably wouldn’t last long—if there was anything he was good at, it was violently ruining the lives of everything he touched. I needed to do something right now.

“Still, it was a good effort,” Malkuth continued, proving me right. “What’s say I give you an original death, to make it worth your while?”

Matter shifted as he gathered power in his hands and I made my move.

Gritting my teeth as I got my knees under me, I pushed myself forward as hard as I could. I felt Malkuth’s hand tighten on my neck, but he was woefully unprepared for my current strength—all he managed to do was tear my head from my shoulders. An instant later, my forehead hit ground with a crack and—

The earth exploded. A wave of force expanded out from me, pulling up several centimeters of soil as they went, and then the ground shattered violently. A hundred meters, two hundred, four hundred, and then further beyond, everything was crushed by the force of the impact and sent flying into the air. At the same time, my other self left my space and dashed towards Gou, reaching him too quickly for me to register. I had a mental image of Gou being hauled up onto his shoulders, but I wasn’t able to actually see anything until Gou was dropped off on the other side of the crater.

Strength and Chariot, huh…it wasn’t a bad hand, given the situation, but hardly ideal. That was the risk of using the Arcana—I didn’t pick them conscious; they simply rose in accordance with my actions.

But I suppose that was life—doing your best with the hand you’re dealt.

Strength: The Arcana of Strength—the representation of the courage and resolve needed to endure and overcome life’s setbacks. It is the power of understanding and control that temper the triumphant power of the Chariot. When the user is within this state of being, the power of all MP attacks without a physical component drop to 0. Increase the user’s Strength by the combined value of their Intelligence and Wisdom.

Chariot: The Arcana of the Chariot—the representation of the control and willpower needed to assert dominance over one’s own life and reach for one’s dreams. It is where the assurance of youth meets the understanding of adulthood to create crowning achievements and victories, but is still tied down by aggression and impatience. When the user is within this state of being, MP attacks that possess charge times are unusable. Increase the user’s Dexterity by the combined value of their Intelligence and Wisdom.

“…Hm,” Malkuth said at last, cracking the fingers that had previously been clenched around my neck. “Have you been holding out on me, Keter? I must admit, I kind of thought you’d start taking things seriously after I bashed your head against nothing and broke it.”

“Sorry,” I said, lifting my hands into a fighting stance. “I just wanted to save the best for last.”

It wasn’t a lie, sadly. Quite frankly, I hadn’t wanted to use the Arcana until the very end if I could avoid it and I could freely admit this wasn’t what I’d had in mind. The Arcana were my trump cards, true, but they were risky and had to be used wisely. As they arose from my situation and my actions, the ones that manifested were closely linked to where I stood at any given moment and I could undercut my own position if I activated it at the wrong time. Each of the Arcana came with great power, but the drawbacks…well, some of them were fairly severe.

As these things went, Strength and the Chariot weren’t the worst ones I could have wound up with. Under the circumstances, I could have easily manifested the Tower or the Devil—which had their uses, sure, but really weren’t the type of things I needed right now. Strength and the Chariot had their own downsides, but they were comparatively manageable.

Strength limited me to more physical MP attacks, such as Bai Hu’s skills, my Strike skills, and other things that boosted my physical attacks. My other MP attacks would effectively do nothing, coming apart even as I tried to cast them…but that was no real loss at this point. I’d already hit Malkuth with a horde of such attacks and he’d simply brushed them off like they were nothing. MP abilities that weren’t attacks were left untouched as well, so I still had access to most of my persistent skills like Acceleration, my sensory abilities, and so on. Now if I’d lost those, that would be something to worry about, but as is the only things I’d truly miss were Longinus, Lux Aeterna, and Ohr Ein Sof, and even those skills hadn’t been doing as well as I might have hoped. But thankfully, I still had access to all of them, in a sense.

After all, I wasn’t the only one who’d activated the Arcana. Because of the nature of Thaumiel, I effectively had two picks from the deck; one for each of us. It was a bit complicated, because the Arcana simultaneously recognized us as being united and separate, but the results were fairly good so I couldn’t complain. Quite frankly, if I’d been fighting alone, I’m not sure I’d be willing to risk using the Arcana in a real fight; all it would take was a bad draw to shut down some vital part of my strategy and I was screwed. Instead, I was able to draw two cards and we couldn’t—or, at least, had yet to—draw the same Arcana, so we were only truly screwed if we both got bad hand’s, which was comparatively unlikely.

For instance, where I’d manifested Strength, my other had manifested the Chariot, so while I was unable to use MP attacks that didn’t enhance my physical abilities somehow, he was limited to attacks that didn’t naturally come with charge times, thankfully ignoring the effects of Hyper Soul. That meant he could still use things like Longinus, so long as he didn’t try to charge them past their normal limits; it wasn’t ideal, but it was manageable.

Now, had things gone as planned, I’d have continued to keep Gilgamesh—or Malkuth, as the case may be—off balance, controlling the tide of the battle every step of the way and directing the fight. That was the best way to use the Arcana after all; not to let circumstances define you, but to define them instead. Had I been able to go through with my plans for Keter, I should have been able to get at least the Star or the Sun, and maybe both. The World was unfeasible, but if I’d done things right, it might have even been possible to manifest Judgement. Even with how strong Malkuth was, so long as he was limited by Gilgamesh’s body I was fairly sure that would have been enough to decide the fight.

Instead, here I was. If I’d activated the Arcana from the very beginning, I might have gotten the Magician, High Priestess, or maybe even the Hierophant, but it was a bit late to worry about that now. And frankly, it probably wouldn’t have changed anything.

I’d just have to do my best with what I had.

Even before felt my counterpart ready himself, I was moving, rushing towards Malkuth with all the strength I could muster. While the effects of my obscenely enhanced Strength differed from my other’s improved Dexterity, there was always a certain amount of overlap between strength and speed. With every step I took, the ground seemed to ripple beneath my feet, hardly even feeling solid—like I was running over water instead of earth. My feet sank into the ground with each step, breaking through some kind of wall, and each time the ripples expanded far enough, the ground shattered yet again, strained far beyond its limits. As I rushed for Malkuth, anything that could break, broke, but each step pushed me what seemed like leagues forward.

Malkuth lifted a hand to block as I came near—but it was too late for that, now. Just before I reached him, I activated Bai Hu’s Lunge and close the last meter in an instant. The moment my fist struck his guard, a shockwave expanded from the point of connection and flashed outwards at an astonishing speed, destroying everything it touched. The now utterly shattered ground was forced down by the pressure, reducing everything near us to fine powder, and whatever smoke and dust still lingered on the battlefield was promptly swept away.

Though Gilgamesh’s mask reveal no expression, I liked to think Malkuth widened his eyes in surprise. Instead of stopping me like he probably intended, I drove Malkuth back, forcing his feet to drag long trenches in the ground. We went fifty meters, a hundred, two hundred, and then even further, hardly seeming to slow as we passed through the almost frictionless sand. A touch belatedly, Malkuth lifted his other hand in reaction, reaching for me.

I lifted my eyes to his mask and smiled.

A moment later, something tore through the world. My other self crossed the battlefield at full speed, layering all the skills he had to enhance it even further, and his passage caused almost as much destruction as my attacks had. A colossal fireball began to expand from his distant starting point, only the flashing waves of energy out pacing his approach. In almost the same moment I noticed him, he passed fully through my body and struck Malkuth head on, fist hitting the same hand I had. Malkuth abruptly vanished from my sight, the attack carrying him most of a kilometer away from me and leaving me to weather the rest of the fireball.

I braced myself, holding on even as I felt it wash over me—but though the force was unspeakable, I had the strength to stand against it. I felt my flesh burn and my eyes hiss and crackle inside my head, but I couldn’t call to Suryasta, trapped as he was within Keter. Instead, I simply waited and endured, knowing what was to come.

Sure enough, I saw my other return no more than a moment after his departure, hand firmly clasping Malkuth’s head. The Bane of the Prometheans bolstered his already ludicrous speed, aided by everything else he’d been able to bring to bear, and Malkuth’s body was held parallel to the ground by the speed of his retraction. My twin passed through me once again on his way back and we occupied the same space once again—but this time we didn’t separate, and I allowed myself to be reeled in alongside them.

At the last moment, however, I activated the Yellow Path, changing our direction—specifically, straight down. We moved with the full extent of my strength and my twin’s speed and in an instant, I shifted our hold on Malkuth, turning him as we moved.

Truth be told, in the midst of my various musings I’d once wondered how much you’d have to hate someone to try to suplex them to death.

The answer was, of course, ‘significantly less than I hated Malkuth.’

Needless to say, we added another crater to the battlefield—but no one liked Jericho Falls anyway.