The Simulacrum - Chapter 111

All right. Now that we had a stretch of straight and level rails in front of this runaway train of a situation, it was time to spend a moment gathering my wits and summarizing what I knew.

In summary, Sir Percival was working for some Celestials, who were taken out by other Celestials. After the infighting, I used the opportunity to infiltrate the Elysium and mark their leaders. I thought they wanted to give me back my lost memories for one reason or another, but then it turned out that their actual goal was to implant a completely different set of memories into me, by using this transforming knife-spear-doodad in my hand. Now, they were convinced that I was an Archon, which was some kind of ancient title. That… was more or less all I knew at the moment.

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 time to finally take reign of the situation and stop getting caught up in the flow.

“O Arch—”

“Shut up. Give me 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 time, so it took priority. The girls… were in some kind of meeting, with Roland and dad-in-law. By the looks of it, they were inside the Dracis mansion, which meant they were safe. Good.

Next, I Far Glanced at my sisters, and they were back home, huddled in front of Snowy’s PC and researching something. 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 meetings, holed up in their homes, 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 meant to say since the last time 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 some 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 me over the incessant buzzing of the Mana Well just a couple steps away from us, it still earned a response from someone.

“{Advice: Archon Polemos’s body is weakened. I recommend 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, meaning 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 some time to readjust. Get me a quiet room, water, something to eat, and Jaakobah Arpachshad.”

I expected some confusion, or asking some whys and wherefores, or even just someone wondering about how I knew Jaakobah’s name. As far as they knew, I should’ve been replaced by some 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 me something 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 memories 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 me you didn’t even know how this thing worked?”

“I… This was the first time your Spear of Destiny has chosen someone, so we had no precedent, and the original texts from your time were… fragmentary.”

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

“{Elaboration: It is this weapon’s official designation.}”

“Yeah, no. From now on, you’re… let me see… ‘speero’, ‘desti’… Let’s go with ‘Teeny’,” I blurted out in frustration, and yet the mechanical voice of the spear took it in stride.

“{Confirmation: New designation registered.}”

In the meantime, 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 moment she arrived, she fell to one knee and held out a bottle of cheap mineral water to me like it was the Holy Grail.

“I, Adva Tira, Vice-Director of Housing and Rural Development, 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 name is Adva, right? Please remind me to return the favour one day.”

“A-Ah! Just the grace of Archon Polemos remembering my name is more than I could ever ask for!” she exclaimed 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?

In the meantime, the rest of the Celestials also came 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 time I started using his name. Let’s amend 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 time for frivolous things like that.” The people around me seemed 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 me. “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 moment, and when I raised a questioning brow, he gave me a deep nod and asked, “What do you request from me?”

“Lead me 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 moment,” I answered absently, and somehow ended up leading the procession back to the elevator, with Jaakobah and Tsephanyah following right behind me. 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 me with an odd look, but I was still thirsty, hungry, and way too tired to play any mind-games with him.

As such, I stepped into the cabin, gestured for Jaakobah to follow after me, and the moment he was inside, I used the same 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 something, no doubt to make the cabin stop and return to the basement, 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 meant my expression was probably direr than intended. I didn’t care. “Just so you know, you’re already on my shit-list for roping me 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 recommend 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, which was…

“Why the fifty-second floor in particular, anyway?” I grumbled out loud, and I got two different answers.

“{Explanation: Fifty-two is the holy number of Deus.}”

“It’s at the center of the Migdál, making it the best protected against outside intrusion.”

I had a lot of questions about each of those answers, but I couldn’t be bothered to ask them at the moment, especially since we just reached our destination. The elevator doors opened with a pinging noise, and contrary to my expectations, my eyes were met by the sight of a completely normal, plain corridor. Exactly the same as all the others I’d seen in the tower so far. It even had a cute little flying Roomba in it that scampered over to our side and dusted off the Celestial agent’s shoes.

Speaking of which, I gestured for Jaakobah to lead the way, and after what felt like circling half the floor, he stopped in front of a large double door.

“This is the room the Elders and the Director of Internal Affairs had prepared for the arrival of the—”

“I don’t care.”

Without waiting for him to finish his sentence, I forcefully opened the door by bisecting the locking enchantment with my phantom limb and walked in. The room itself was rather plain, but still more ornamental than the ones I’d encountered during my scouting trips. For a start, while the walls were still pure white, it had some décor in the form of a couple of familiar banners and simple stuccos, as well as a large meeting table set in the middle, surrounded by stools and one sizable throne on one end, all of them seemingly carved from white marble.

All of that looked rather uncomfortable, so I skipped this room and headed into the bedroom visible through an open doorway. It was also fairly plain, with only a few pieces of ordinary white furniture, a blue carpet sporting the familiar crest with the spear and wings, and a bunch of windows overlooking the sunset skies of the Elysium. More importantly than any of that though, it also had a rather soft king sized bed, upon which I could finally rest my aching legs. Sure, my right arm had it the worst, but I had also been standing around for thirty hours straight, so of course my legs were tired.

Jaakobah followed after me and looked rather stumped by the relieved sigh escaping my mouth as I could finally stretch my limbs, but before he could speak up, I pointed at a nearby chair.

“Bring that over and sit down. Don’t talk until I ask.”

The stoic agent nodded and followed my instructions. In the meantime, I glanced at the spear still in my hand. I laid it across the bed, and now that I could take a closer look, I had to admit that it was a nice piece of equipment. The whole shaft looked and felt like it was made of matte green jade, yet it was very light and felt quite sturdy to the touch. The spearhead had an elongated leaf shape, reaching about thirty centimeters in length, and had a completely spotless mirror-shined surface, save for the intricate, interweaved patterns carved into the flat of the blade. More curiously, it had no socket, but it gave the impression that it organically grew out of the green material of the pole instead.

Overall, it was a surprisingly well-balanced weapon, but was also rather cumbersome to carry around indoors.

“Hey, spear?” I attempted to call out to it, but got no response, so I tried again. “Teeny?”

“{Response: Yes, Archon Polemos?}”

“Can you get small again?”

“{Response: Negative. Returning to standby mode is not possible at this time.}”

Honestly, I was getting a little annoyed by how much it was responding like an AI from a sci-fi movie, using terms like ‘standby mode’ as if it was natural, and while I considered how to call it out on it, I was startled by my right palm getting hot all of a sudden. Before I could even react, the spear shaft in my hand began to shrink, while the blade at the end of it elongated and grew a guard, morphing into a short sword in front of my eyes.

“{Inquiry: Light Armament mode initialized. Is this satisfactory?}”

“… Yes. Much better,” I muttered as I raised the weapon to eye level. Strangely enough, its weight didn’t change much, but it was still easier to use.

The first thing I did was to switch it over to my left hand, and after limbering up my fingers a little, I reached down to where my belt buckle used to be on my original outfit.

“{—in that enchanted space again!?}” Cal exclaimed, probably following up on the last words we shared before I stored them away, and their outburst was followed by a long beat of awkward silence. “{Young knight? Where exactly are we?}”

“In the Elysium,” I told him matter-of-factly.

“{What? Why are we here? How did we get here? And… did you put me in that enchantment of yours without my consent again?!}”

Before I could say anything in response, the sword in my other hand let out a low buzz.

“{Observation: Another Interface Entity is detected. Attempting to make contact. I’m designated as Interface:Teeny, Archon Polemos’s primary weapon. Please, identify yourself.}”

“{What? Who was that? Young knight! Did you get another sword after you stashed me away?! Without even asking me first?! How could you?!}”

“… Why are you sounding like a jilted lover?” I mumbled under my breath, but Cal wasn’t paying attention to me, as they were too busy arguing with the other sword.

“{Reminder: Please, identify yourself.}”

“{If anyone has to identify herself, it’s you, knave! Who are you, and what have you done to my young knight?!}”

“{Observation: The Interface uses archaic syntax and is deemed uncooperative. Recommendation: Since he’s defective, he should be discarded at the earliest convenience.}”

“{Who are you calling defective, you lout?! And who do you think you are to order my young knight around like that! Young knight, dispose of her, right now!}”

“Cut it out, you two,” I groaned and lightly tapped the guards of the two swords against one another.

“{Report: Superficial damage detected. Initiating repair protocols.}”

“All right, I officially ran out of patience,” I cut in and raised the short sword up to eye-level. “Why are you talking like that?”

“{Request: Please clarify your inquiry.}”

“Why are you prefacing your sentences and peppering everything with technical jargon?”

“{Answer: This Interface’s transmission systems rely on the user’s vocabulary for simulating verbal communication.}”

“{Hah! You see, young knight? She can’t even talk on her own! She’s useless!}”

Since my curiosity was quenched for the moment, I let the short sword down and raised Cal instead, though since it was heavier, I didn’t quite manage to get it to eye level.

“Listen up, Cal. I need you to focus on something else, so ignore… ‘her’ for now.” Even as I said that, it felt weird to assign gender to a transforming sword-spear-knife-whatever-thing like that, but in the grand scheme of things, it was such a minor issue that I only spent a second or two pondering it before exiling the concern from my mind and focusing on Cal again. “Please check my arm for any internal damage, and do your thing.”

“{Statement: I would like to inform the Archon that Artifact:Teeny also possesses bio-diagnostic and regenerative functions.}”

“{Silence you… you temptress! My knight asked for my help, so remain quiet, or face the consequences!}”

“{Response: I urge the Archon to reconsider discarding this newfound Interface on grounds of irreconcilable differences.}”

“{I’m no ‘newfound’! You’re the laggard here, and…} Before he could reach the end of his sentence, Cal’s words trailed off into silence. “{Hm? You are indeed suffering from some internal injuries, young knight.}”

“How bad is it?”

“{It is but a minor injury, far from maiming, yet because it is the same hand that had already suffered a crippling wound in the past, recovery might take as much as a handful of days.}”

“Was that a pun?” Cal didn’t answer, so I let it go. “Whatever. That’s not too bad. Please look after it.”

“{Naturally. After all, you are my destined wielder, and as your one true sword, it is my duty to take good care of you!}”

“{Observation: The interface designated as ‘Cal’ employs unconventional inflections, which is a sign of instability. I strongly recommend discarding him before further systematic errors could lead to…}”

“Things are going to get noisy in my head for a while, aren’t they?” I whispered under my breath, but since the room was so quiet, it still caught the attention of the motionlessly sitting agent in front of me.

“Was that a rhetorical question?” he asked with a completely straight face.

“No, unfortunately not,” I told him with a sigh and laid the two swords onto my thighs as I straightened my back and took a deep breath. “I guess we might as well get started. Please explain everything.”

The indifferent man’s expression didn’t change much, yet the way his eyes moved told me didn’t understand the question.

“Let’s try this again, with a narrower question: Why did I end up becoming the Second True Archon?”

“It’s because you are the Second True Archon,” he answered me without even the barest hint of a pretence.

“We’ll get back to that, but first, can you explain why me in particular? What was the criteria? Is it another prophecy, or…?”

“It was the characteristics of your Astral Body. I recognized the signs while I treated your injury, but I admit I only became certain when you disarmed me yesterday.”

“Okay, I get the first part, but what does the—?”

“For he is the Sovereign of the Spear, the master of war, and all that is made of magic and metal are beholden to his every word,” he interrupted me, his words carrying a strange cadence. “Second Book of Hymnos, verse thirty-seven.”

“… All right, apparently we’re still not on the same page,” I spoke with an underlying groan and readjusted my posture on the bed. “Third time’s the charm, so let’s try it again, from the very beginning: Tell me all about the Second True Archon, why it’s me all of a sudden, and why everyone was so desperate to get their hands on me and worm their way into my good graces.”

Jaakobah’s eyes shook again, and after another long beat, he tentatively asked, “You wield the Spear of Destiny. I do not want to offend you, but shouldn’t you already be aware of that much already?”

For the first time, I could see a hint of skepticism, and even caution, in his gaze, so I exhaled a dramatic sigh and pointed at my forehead.

“Listen, Jaakobah. As of this moment, my mind is a mess. Imagine… Yes, imagine the entire LotMFL trilogy, and not even the theatrical releases, but the director’s cut that’s like twelve hours long. You got that?”

Despite my oddball request, the gaunt agent nodded at once.

“Okay, now imagine that instead of having the full movies, you have about ten thousand still frames from across the entire trilogy, completely out of order, and you had to reconstruct the original story from that. Do you see what I’m getting at?”

“Yes, I understand perfectly.”

I… was honestly taken aback by his forthcoming attitude, but I’d be lying if it didn’t feel like a breath of fresh air.

“Good. Now, with that in mind, let’s return to the first question again: I want you to explain everything to me, from top to bottom, beginning to end. Are we clear on that?”

“Absolutely,” he responded with military decorum and then took a deep breath. “All things considered, I judge we must start by reminding you of who Polemos, the Second True Archon was, and is, in you.”

The way he put that was slightly ominous, but it was information I desperately craved, so I wasn’t going to let him out of this room even if the explanation lasted until the morning, and considering we were about to cover millennia of history, I had a feeling we’d be eating both dinner and breakfast in here…

In the end, my earlier predictions were off, though it made little difference in the grand scheme of things. By the time I finished hearing out the long yet straightforward explanations of Jaakobah, the sun had long set, the tower became quiet, and my headache softened, only to be replaced by a sense of mild exhaustion. I had no access to my phone while disguised in my Leoformer, and there were no clocks anywhere in the room, but my gut told me it was easily past ten in the evening by the time we finished.

Of course, we didn’t just talk for over five hours straight. There were a couple of bathroom breaks, we ate dinner (or rather, I did while Jaakobah continued to speak), and there was an incident where I had to kick a group of kowtowing Celestials from the room, but by the end of it all, I slowly but surely gained a rudimentary grasp on the situation. The fact that so much had escaped my notice until now was a little vexing, but this incident at least made two things blindingly obvious: I was too reliant on the Celestial Hub and never noticed its blind spots, and Celestials were way more fragmented than I originally thought.

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves though. Before delving deeper into the politics of the Elysium, I had more important things to take care of.

“… and so the Orthodox faction is currently holding key positions in the Directorate and the—”

“Thank you, Jaakobah. I think that’s enough for today,” I interjected before the gaunt agent could launch into another topic. “I need some time to think alone.”

“It’s understandable. Do you need me to stand guard so that you wouldn’t be disturbed?”

“It’s getting late. Shouldn’t you go home and get some sleep instead?” I asked back, but he shook his head.

“If I use a revitalizing chant every three hours, I can stay awake for four days without any deterioration in mental or physical performance.”

“That still sounds unhealthy, but if you insist.”

He nodded at my half-assed response and stood up, only to stop in his tracks a moment later.

“On the topic of insistence, what should I do if Director Tsephanya, Director Savir, or Director Mensah would request an audience with you?”

I had no idea who the latter two were, but since they were mentioned in the same breath as the six-winged Celestial big shot, I figured they had about the same standing as him.

“Just send them away.”

“I don’t have the authority to do that,” Jaakobah pointed out in a flat voice, prompting me to lock eyes with him for a moment.

“Then promote yourself into a position where you can.”

“I don’t think there currently exists such a position.”

“Then invent one. Be creative.”

“If I have your permission, I’ll do that.”

He sounded disinterested, but the way the corners of his lips were twitching told me he was pleased by this arrangement. To be fair, I just gave him a carte blanche, so it would’ve been stranger if he remained completely unfazed by it. Not that I minded too much; while he was still technically on my shit-list for getting me entangled in this mess, he was also both accommodating and forthcoming with information, so I figured this much was fine. If nothing else, I always appreciated resourcefulness and efficiency in my soldiers.

…

Huh. Where did that come from?

Anyhow, once the mostly apathetic agent left the room, I let out a pent-up breath and focused on what to do next.

“Cal? How’s my hand coming along?”

“{… just because you can change your shape it doesn’t mean you are—! Hm? Did you call for me, young knight?}”

“Yes. Stop arguing with each other inside my head and tell me how my injury’s faring.”

“{Correction: Only Interface Number Two is arguing. Such displays of emotion are a sign of—}”

“I’m not talking to you right now,” I scolded the short sword, currently tucked into a hoop on my belt I made by further adjusting this makeshift ‘Second Archon’ disguise of mine.

In the meantime, the other sword let out a smug chuckle and told me, “{Don’t worry, young knight! Thanks to our deep bond and connection, I managed to cut the recovery time by a third!}”

“{Observation: Interface Number Two admitted to cutting corners in his treatment. I recommend deactivating him and switching to Interface:Teeny’s recovery functions instead.}”

“{Don’t listen to that scheming wench, young knight! I most certainly fulfilled my duties with my utmost care! And you! How dare you call me Interface Number Two! I was first, so it should be Number One, at the very— No, wait. Ah-ha! I see through your vile tricks! I shall not denigrate myself to your level, for I am Caledfwlch, the Kingmaker, and the one true blade of the—}”

“{Further observation: Interface Number Two is exhibiting delusions of grandeur. I urge Archon Polemos to bring him to a certified weapons artisan for readjustment, or failing that, for smelting down into useful raw materials.}”

“Can you two shut up for just a minute?”

It was a rhetorical question, as once I placed both Teeny and Cal onto the bed, I could no longer hear either of them. First thing first, I needed to change my outfit. I kept wearing the Archon disguise until now because I couldn’t be sure when the next Celestial delegation would try to barge into the room, but now that Jaakobah (hopefully) was going to keep them at bay, I had enough breathing room to change into something less conspicuous.

Before anything else, I undid the transformation, and following a rustling, kind of tingly sensation, I was back in my original outfit. This was already something that would’ve raised a couple of brows, as due to how Barriers worked, all of it should’ve vaporized on the spot the moment I ‘turned into’ a Celestial. Since I was already neck-deep in this mess, I was determined to make the best of it, and so the longer I could avoid my ‘legitimacy’ getting questioned by the Celestial directors, the better.

Next, I took out my phone from the inner pocket of my parka and placed it next to the two weapons. The battery was still at ninety-two percent, and the date and time were off due to it being effectively in stasis until this point. Needless to say, there was no signal in the Elysium to sync it to the network time.

Even while I absently considered all that, I didn’t stop preparing, and the next step was to shift over to the school uniform in the memory of the Leoformer. As of this moment, there were four ‘outfit slots’ already occupied in it; the school uniform based on Josh’s Magiformer, a military uniform copying Roland’s Uniformer, a Bel outfit, and finally, the Archon outfit that replaced the copy of the Lion Knight armour I had in that slot. Honestly, the sheer flexibility this gave me was already worth all the exhaustion and headaches I suffered while making it, but there were still a couple of kinks to work out.

For one, since I didn’t have enough time to put on the finishing touches, the school uniform I was wearing at the moment didn’t have any physical enchantments or the Oath-connectors. That meant I couldn’t take in mana without Cal’s help.

As if it knew I was thinking of it, I could see the ethereal magical glow around Cal flicker, and… wait. The light around Teeny was also flickering. Suspicious, I picked them both up, and as expected, they were in the middle of an argument.

“{… completely rusted away.}” The shape-shifting sword grumbled in a mechanical voice, but then it flashed with a brighter light and added, “{Notice: Direct connection with Archon Polemos re-established. Welcome back, Archon.}”

“… Can you two communicate with each other even while I’m not holding you?”

“{Response: Affirmative. Both Artifact:Teeny and Artifact:Caledfwlch are connected to Archon Polemos through the Universal Astral Body Interface.}”

“What the…? Let me look into this.” Without waiting for a response, I turned my magical vision on myself, and after only minor finagling, I came to a startling conclusion: Teeny was using the same Oath-receptacles that Cal and the other knightly equipment did… except it wasn’t one of the ‘usual’ ones, but the Oath that was broken by default on all the Knights of the Brotherhood of No Longer Existing Organizations.

If there was one difference, it was that Cal’s connection was actively supplying me with Mana, while Teeny’s felt more passive. Maybe it was just an authentication check? And more importantly, would I be even able to use this spear-sword-thing if I didn’t have an Oath-receptacle? Wait, no. Was I looking at it from the wrong perspective? Could it be that the Oaths were designed specifically for this purpose? Or maybe they were part of a Celestial system that was adapted for Knight use? It would definitely fall in line with what Jaakobah told me, and… and I was getting ahead of myself again.

Shaking my head, I plunged a phantom limb into my Leoformer’s arrays and after some ad-hoc engineering, I managed to replicate the belt loop I made for the short sword and tucked it in. After fastening Cal to my hip on the other side, I straightened my school jacket, put away my phone, and after Far Glancing at Jaakobah to make sure there were no complications, I Phased out of the bedroom chamber and reappeared inside the pitch darkness of the back-up secret base in the dock district.

While I would’ve preferred to go home and kick down the Dracis guestroom door, preferably right onto Uncle Percy, the current situation was quite complicated, and I didn’t want to mess things up even further. After all, if Leonard S. Dunning, who was currently supposed to be in the Elysium and replaced by a certain historical figure, just showed up on Critias again, it would’ve immediately raised quite a few eyebrows.

First off, I searched for the light switch and turned it on. Next, I patted the mini-shoggoth sitting on top of a wooden crate in the corner. Then, once I was done with all that and found a place to sit, I took out my phone again and opened my contact list. Critias’s mobile phone network was as unapologetically overcompensating as usual, and even though I was in the basement of an old brick building, I still got full bars on my reception strength. It also updated the time and date, proving my off-the-cuff calculations right. It was half past ten in the evening, and while normally I wouldn’t have called anyone at this hour, this was an emergency situation.

As such, I Far Glanced at Judy to make sure she was alone, and I found her sleeping in an unfamiliar room. After checking a couple of the surrounding red dots, I soon realized that she was also inside the Dracis Mansion instead of her own home, which was odd, but I was sure she had her reasons for staying over. I picked her name from the contact list and watched as the phone on her nightstand lit up the whole room.

She groggily sat up and turned on the lights, still half asleep, only for her eyes to open wide when she read the caller ID.

“Hi, Dor—”

“Chief? Is that you? Are you all right?”

Before I could even greet her, she immediately started bombarding me with questions.

“I’m fine. Everything’s okay,” I told her in a calm voice and returned to my body so that I could pay full attention to the conversation.

“What happened? Where are you?”

“Didn’t you get my message?” I asked back, and despite trying to sound as careful and composed as possible, I somehow still managed to blow my girlfriend’s fuse.

“Message? The message that said ‘I’m going to go and infiltrate Celestial high command for a bit, I’ll be back by dinner, lol’? How was I supposed to interpret something like that?”

“I’m pretty sure I didn’t add a ‘lol’ at the end,” I muttered, and Judy let out an irate huff in return.

“You might as well had, for all the sense it made!” she retorted sounding both angry and relieved at the same time. “Do you have any idea how worried we were when you just up and disappeared after leaving a message like that, and then you didn’t actually come home by dinner? And let’s not even mention what Sir Percival told us!”

“Actually, can we do that? What did he say?”

“That you were ambushed by a group of Abyssals while on the way to a meeting, and that you stayed behind to hold them back and to let him escape.”

“Huh. That’s considerably less creative than what I expected. Did you call him out on it?”

“How could I, when I had no idea what really happened to you? Couldn’t you have just spent one more minute on that message to properly explain yourself?”

“I thought I did. Sorry about that,” I apologized and took a deep breath. “You can kick me over that later if you want, but first, we need to hold an emergency meeting.”

“We already did that. Today was one emergency meeting after another, from morning until night.”

“You know what I meant,” I told her a touch impatiently before reining back my temper. I was still a bit too out of it, it seemed. “Call Elly too, find a private spot, and I’ll Phase over to your side.”

“I’ll do that. Don’t disappear on us again, you hear?”

“I won’t. Don’t you know what the ‘S.’ in my middle name stands for?”

“You still don’t have a middle name, but if you did, it would stand for ‘scares the everloving bejeezus out of his girlfriends and family’,” she responded in the kind of deadpan tone only she could pull off, and I could only sigh in defeat.

“I’ll apologize later, in person, but for now, I really need you two to listen to the whole story and help me out with something.”

“I’m already on my way to Elly’s room. Do you need me to call you when we’re ready?”

“Nah, I’ll keep an eye on you two. See you soon.”

Judy let out an ambivalent noise on the other side and cut the line, so I also put my phone away and limbered up my arms a little. Since nobody was using this backup base at the moment, there was no heating, and while my Magiformer-patterned school uniform had a bunch of defensive wards built into it to protect against physical and magical attacks, it did little to protect ne from the elements, and considering we were still in the middle of January, the air in here was about as chilly as one would’ve expected.

“{Inquiry: Where are we, and how did we get here?}”

Teeny, a bit belatedly, asked the usual question, but before I could respond, I was beaten to the punch by the other sword on my hip letting out a scoff.

“{It’s but one of the many strange and impossible abilities possessed by my young knight. You’ll get used to them with time.}”

“{Statement: My records do not indicate Archon Polemos was in possession of such abilities. Updating database. Are there other abilities that require new entries? I request further explanation.}”

“{Hm, well, there’s my young knight’s ability to cut all kinds of malevolent spells and destructive magicks, I suppose.}”

“{Request: Please provide quantifiable examples.}”

While the chatty blades were busy with that, I used Far Sight on Judy again and just caught her entering Elly’s room. Her rushing over like that caused a bit of a commotion, but once the princess assured the maids and guards that everything was under control, they sat down on her bed and she listened to my dear assistant’s recounting of our previous conversation.

In the meantime, I pivoted and slung my point of view all over the room, and even outside of it, just to make sure there was nobody in the vicinity who could overhear us. When I was reasonably sure the room was private, I patted the copy of Pudding-kun stationed in the basement in parting, turned off the lights, and then unceremoniously Phased into my draconian girlfriend’s room.

“Hi girls, I’m—”

Before I could say ‘home’, the princess sprung to her feet and leaped at me, catching me in a bear-hug before I could even lift a finger.

“Leo! You’re alive!”

“Of course I’m alive. Who do you take me f—?”

Once again, I was interrupted mid-sentence, this time by a pillow hitting me squarely in the face.

“Dormouse? What are you doing?” I asked in mild bewilderment, but by then, she already had another pillow in hand.

“Keep holding him like that. Don’t let him move.”

I wasn’t sure the princess even registered her instructions, but considering she was still hugging me so hard I could feel my ribs creaking, she didn’t need to. A second later, another pillow flew through the room, and I obediently let it hit me again.

“Ouch, Dormouse. That was uncalled for.”

“Stay still. I’m still angry, and I’ve still got pillows,” she told me without any pretenses and picked up another projective from the princess’s bed. Just why did she have so many pillows, to begin with? Was it a girl-thing, an oujo-archetype-thing, or a princess-thing, I wondered?

Not for long though, as while the way my girlfriends expressed their relief over my safe return from my unplanned excursion was about as cozy as it was strange and slightly painful, we had things to discuss. With that in mind, I snatched the next pillow coming my way out of the air and tossed it back to Judy before using my good hand to carefully peel the sniffling princess off my chest. In retrospect, maybe I shouldn’t have, as once I did, she switched over to tsun-tsun mode and started hitting me in the chest.

“Leo, you… you idiot! Why did you disappear like that! I was so worried!”

“O-Ow! Princess, stop it! That’s not cute! You’re activating the wards on my outfit! And Dormouse! Stop throwing things at me and help calm her down!”

Judy glance between me, and the next cushion in her hands, and after a long beat, she threw it at my face anyway before getting off the bed and carefully restraining my fuming draconic girlfriend.

“Okay, is everyone calm now?”

“No!”/”Not at all.”

Sighing, I pulled my girlfriends back to the bed and said, “Please try to calm down as soon as possible, because I need you two for something.”

“Both of us?” Elly blurted out, and before she got some weird ideas (after all, I was leading them to the only bed in the room), I sat them down and took a seat between the two of them.

“Yes. I have a lot of news, brand new developments to discuss, and I’m curious about exactly what happened while I was away, but before any of that, I need the two of you to check something for me.”

My words were followed by several seconds of tense silence, broken by Judy sighing and saying, “I bite. What do we have to check?”

Exhaling hard, I looked each of them in the eyes for emphasis, and tried my best to keep my voice from wavering as I uttered, “I need you to help me figure out if I’m still fully myself.”

“Dormouse, please stop,” I pleaded, yet my girlfriend remained steadfast.

“You deserve this,” she fumed and lightly tugged on my ear. “I keep telling you to think twice before you get involved with anything, and yet every time I take my eyes off you, you get into trouble.”

“This time, I agree with Judy,” the princess followed her up with a solemn expression made unconvincing by her red nose and puffy eyes. She was also sitting on my lap, ostensibly to stop me from running away, but since we all knew I wasn’t going to do that, I figured it was mostly for just comfort and skinship.

“Are you paying attention?” Judy raised her voice and pulled on my ear again, but since the act had no force behind it, it barely even tickled.

While I was willing to indulge her until this point, at this rate this whole discussion was going nowhere fast, so carefully cupped her hand in my own.

“I know that you’re still mad at me, but can we move on? Please?”

My dear assistant looked at me with flat eyes, but before long, she let out a long breath in acquiescence.

“Fine. I’ll postpone your punishment for now.” With that over and done with, she moved her hand so that her fingers were clasped onto mine, and then waited for Elly to grab my other hand before speaking up again. “So, just to summarize, you had the memories of an ancient Celestial leader forcefully transplanted into you, managed to avoid the brunt of it, but there was still some bleeding in, and you want us to give you an outside perspective on whether or not it changed your personality. Did I miss anything?”

“No, that’s the gist of it,” I answered, and the girl in my lap let out a thoughtful hum.

“So far Leo sounds like Leo to me, so there’s probably nothing to worry about.”

“Let’s make sure,” Judy stressed and put a finger on her own lips while mulling things over. “I think the quickest way would be to just ask rapid-fire questions.”

“Do you mean, like the psychologists in movies?” the princess asked back, and Judy nodded.

“Yes. I’ve read that demanding immediate answers, without time for consideration, helps to bypass the mind’s natural inhibitions.”

“I don’t know… it sounds kind of sketchy to me.”

My mumbling made Judy turn another flat gaze my way and ask, “Do you have a better idea?”

“Well… no,” I admitted, and she let out a satisfied hum.

“Oh, oh, let me start!” the princess cut in with undue excitement. “For example… what is your favorite food?”

“Favourite? I don’t know. Grilled cheese sandwiches, maybe?”

“… Is that the right answer?”

Elly’s question made Judy let out a sigh and say, “We should only ask questions we know the answers to, otherwise this is meaningless.”

“Right, right. So… I think it’s your turn now.”

My dear assistant fell silent and then squeezed my hand to get my attention.

“Let’s test your long-term memory first. When did we first meet?”

“You and I? It was on the roof of the school on the second… No, scratch that. It was on the first day of school, wasn’t it?”

“That’s right. Elly?”

“Oh, it’s my turn already?” The princess shook her head and flashed a daring smile at me. “Answer this! When did I fall in love with you?”

“… Do you seriously expect him to know the answer to that one?” my dear assistant inquired in an eminently deadpan voice, but my draconic girlfriend’s eyes remained locked onto me, so I did my best to figure out the answer.

“I guess… Probably when you fell off the stairs and I caught you?”

“Hm? Did your crush start with the suspension bridge effect?” Judy whispered in mild amusement, but the princess didn’t pay her any attention and nuzzled up to me instead.

“That’s right! There were a lot of other things too, but that’s what started it all!”

“My turn. Do you have a maid fetish?”

“No,” I answered by reflex, and my dear assistant clicked her tongue in return.

“I’m sorry Chief, but that was the wrong answer. Maybe it’s because French maids didn’t exist in his time yet, but it’s evident that this ancient Archon’s preferences overrode yours.”

“… I see that you two are having fun, but can we please take this seriously?”

“Fine. Let’s try this again.” Letting go of my hand, Judy took out her phone. “Let’s do it this way. I’m going to say a name, and you respond with the first thing that comes to mind.”

“That… sounds like what we should’ve started with.”

Ignoring my comment, Judy tapped her phone a few times and took a deep breath.

“Elly?”

“Princess,” I uttered the first word that popped into my head.

“Sebastian?”

“Tea.”

“Neige?”

“Cute.”

“Penelope?”

“Kiddo.”

“Joshua?”

“Protagonist.”

“Rinne?”

“Pizza-cutter.”

“Noire?”

“Asshole.”

“Lord Endymonion?”

“Also asshole.”

“Agrawain?”

“Still asshole.”

“Brang?”

“Bartender.”

“Amelia?”

“I’m drawing a blank here… Um… nagging, maybe?”

“Deus?”

“Cult leader.”

“Sir Roland?”

“Team dad.”

“Sahi?”

“Valley girl.”

“Sir Percival?”

“A thermonuclear warhead shaped like an extra-large buttplug.”

My last answer elicited a confused ‘Ew?’ from the princess, but as far as my dear assistant was concerned, she looked rather relieved.

“While this is far from a full psychological evaluation, you appear to think along the same lines as usual. At most, you seem to be more on edge, but that might just be because of the stress caused by making your girlfriends worried.”

“Really? He doesn’t sound different to me at all,” Elly noted a touch absently, but by then, Judy deemed the topic closed and moved on.

“We’ll do a more thorough examination in the base later. I’m certain Friedrich or one of his co-workers will have a device seemingly custom-made for precisely this purpose, but first, let’s hear how you got into a situation where the integrity of your personality could be theoretically compromised.”

Before I would do any of that, I carefully shifted the princess off my lap and stood up. Taking a few seconds to limber up my legs, I took a step forward and faced the girls on the bed at a perfect pacing distance.

“Okay, let’s start with the timeline. Here’s what happened yesterday in a nutshell: Sir Percival and I set out in the morning to meet some alleged Magi collaborators. Instead, he led me into a Celestial ambush.”

“And you let them capture you so that they would take you to their leaders and you could mark them for Far Sight?” Elly cut in, receiving a shake of my head in return.

“You’re jumping the gun. It went down like this: it was the Unorthodox Celestials who set this up, but then the Reformist Celestials showed up, led by the healer who fixed my hand, and captured the first group.”

“A moment, please,” Judy raised a hand to stall me before returning to her notes on her phone. “What are the Unorthodox and the Reformists?”

“It’s complicated, and I’ll explain it later. For now, it’s enough that you know that they are three different factions within the Elysium. Anyhow, it was at this point that I let them take me to their leaders so that I could mark them for Far Sight. After that, I was presented with this thingamajig here.” For reference, I pulled the Celestial short sword from its makeshift holster and showed it to the girls. “I call it Teeny.”

“Uh-huh. And what’s its real name?”

Before answering Judy’s question, I hung the sword from my side again and then flatly uttered, “The Spear of Destiny.”

“Oh. I see why you changed the name.”

“Why?” Elly cut in, sounding genuinely perplexed. “It’s a good name. Sounds really powerful.”

“It’s also generic and clichéd,” Judy pointed out, yet my draconic girlfriend didn’t budge an inch.

“You’re doing it again! Just because something isn’t very unique or clever, it doesn’t mean it’s bad! If someone told me they were wielding the ‘Spear of Destiny’, I would immediately assume that it’s a powerful weapon and that they are powerful too! It gets the point across.”

“True, but you have to look at it from my perspective,” I cut in. “Would you not feel embarrassed if you had to introduce yourself with the words ‘I carry the Spear of Destiny’?”

“No, of course not. It sounds really imposing.”

Elly’s straightforward answer made me wonder if she was easily impressed, or if I was being too jaded about the topic. In the end, I decided to stop wondering and moved on.

“It’s a moot point, since its name is Teeny now. The really important part is that it’s a plot device that housed the memories of Archon Polemos, and it was designed to transfer them to a new host. Namely, me.”

“Oh. So, it’s like Onikiri?”

Elly’s next question threw me on a loop, and I could only answer with an ambivalent, “Sorta?”

In technical terms, there were some major parallels; both were overpowered weapons with insanely complex enchantments on them, both were plot devices, and both housed souls, but that’s where the similarities ended. Onikiri was designed to permanently house a complete soul, inside its own little virtual reality bubble, while Teeny was closer to a device holding a negative imprint of a soul which it could stamp onto an unfortunate victim that met its criteria. Unfortunately (for it, not for me), the attempt ended in major failure. At least if the girls were to be believed. In any case, the actual soul-related mechanics of the two weapons were entirely different.

“What happened after that?” Judy asked with a finger posed over her phone.

“After that, it took me nearly a day and a half to shut down the transfer procedure, after which I needed to take a break, interrogate Jaakobah about the Celestial situation, and then as soon as I was able, I came to meet you two.”

Judy nodded without looking up, lost in her note-taking efforts, so I glanced over to Elly next. We locked eyes, and then she gave me a knowing look and cleared her throat.

“You must be curious about what happened on our side, right?” When I tentatively nodded, her lips bent into a smile and she pointed at me. “I’ll tell you everything I know!”

I caught a glance from Judy that said ‘It isn’t much’, which I reprimanded with a raised brow saying, ‘Hey. Don’t be rude’, at which point she shrugged and returned to her phone. Meanwhile, the princess collected her thoughts and began weaving her tale.

“It all started around noon, yesterday. I was called on the phone by Neige, and she told me that Sir Percival was injured while escaping from Abyssal assassins… which was obviously a lie, and…” Elly’s words trailed off into silence as an angry scowl conquered her face, and after a long breath, she exclaimed, “He’s still recuperating in the mansion! Let’s go and beat him up!”

“Easy, princess. Let’s leave the best for last and finish what we started first.”

“Oh, fine,” she grumbled and blew a tuft of hair off her face before starting the whole story from the beginning. “So, Neige called me, right? After that, I told what happened to dad, and the Ordo Draconis was mobilized. Percival led them back to where he said you were ambushed, and Sir Roland confirmed the traces of battle left behind.”

That made me raise a brow, considering that last I recalled, we left the warehouse in mint condition, so unless she meant the Purple Zone, I wasn’t sure what she was talking about.

“Where was this site?”

“Inside an old underground parking lot near the seaside district.”

In conclusion, Sir Percival and his Celestial allies set up a separate fake battlefield to give his story more credence. I had to give it to them, they were thorough.

“Hm. What happened after that?”

Before answering, Elly raised a hand and began counting her fingers.

“Let’s see. Dad, Naoren, and Lady Yseult investigated the area, Rinne took the Kage ninjas, Ichiko, and the Fauns to track the kidnappers, while the Knights took Neige and Judy into protective custody.” All of a sudden, Elly froze up and then pointed a finger at me. “You should teleport to Rinne and tell her that you’re okay. I think they are still out there, looking for you.”

“I’ll add that to the to-do list. What happened after that?”

“Lots of things,” Judy interjected, finally rising from the phone screen. “There was an emergency meeting, where Sir Percival gave an impassioned speech about how it was necessary to stay calm and not let this sudden attack by the Abyssals undermine the unity of the Draconic Federation. After that, he swore that he would find you, or failing that, avenge you, and then he declared that he came out of retirement and that the Ordo Draconis would need to elect a new leader until you return.”

“… Seriously?”

“Yes, he did that,” Elly confirmed, and I promptly buried my face in my palm.

“Please tell me he didn’t receive full applause and got appointed on the spot.”

“He didn’t.” Elly’s answer made me exhale a sigh of relief, but then it got caught short when she explained, “He only got appointed when Sir Roland refused the proposition and handed it over to him.”

“Why would he…?” the words slipped through my lips on their own, but as my brain caught up with the situation, I bit back the rest and considered the situation a bit more closely.

I already told him about my misgivings in regard to Uncle Percy, so after what happened, he might’ve been suspicious about what happened to me. He also knew both that I was Bel and that I could teleport, so I’m sure he must’ve realized that kidnapping me was virtually impossible. Considering all of that, why would he still nominate Percival to be my substitute?

The first possibility that came to mind was that he was following my example and was trying to keep the old bastard where he could see him. After what happened, he would be under extra scrutiny, making it all the harder for him to get in touch with his Celestial contacts, and if he tried to abuse his position, it could be used against him later. In a sense, by making him the provisional leader, Roland just handed more rope to Percival with which to hang himself.

Of course, this was just my conjecture, but if I was right…

“Please remind me to give Roland a bonus.”

“Noted,” my dear assistant commented on the side, and then put her phone aside. “Anything else you’d like to know?”

“Is there anything else I would need to know?” I asked back, and after a long beat, Elly raised her hand.

“Actually, there was one more thing. The Assembly contacted the Draconic Federation about your disappearance. It said they had nothing to do with it, and don’t know anything, but they’re willing to join the search and rescue operation. Dad wanted to turn them down. He said they were just trying to get involved to use it as a bargaining chip later during the negotiations, but Naoren convinced him to take the offer.”

“So now even the Magi will be looking for me…”

“Providing lots of opportunities for them to butt heads with the Knights and the Draconians in the process,” Judy noted, and I couldn’t help but agree with her.

“I was only gone for a little more than a day, and yet the whole island is spiralling out of control…”

“Chief, it’s the other way around.”

“Maybe, but unfortunately, I don’t think I can casually return to Critias any time soon. This whole Archon business is kind of tying me to the Elysium at the moment, and that place is a veritable powder keg, and if I left it alone, it would all spill over our already overcomplicated situation.”

“Is this the part where you explain what’s going on with the Celestials and justify why you can’t stay?” Judy asked in an uncharacteristically biting tone.

“Yes, it is,” I answered in a level voice and began to slowly pace in front of the bed. “Buckle in, girls. This is going to take a while…”

Where to begin, where to begin…?

Normally, the obvious answer was ‘at the beginning, stupid’, but there were too many different beginnings for such a simple answer to work. Still, I couldn’t let the girls wait indefinitely, so I exhaled sharply and kicked things off in chronological order.

“Let’s start with Archon Polemos, Deus, and the ancient Celestial civilization.”

“Let’s,” Judy echoed me with a finger on her phone, and the princess looked just as expectant.

“Here’s a quick primer on the history of the mystic-folk as we knew it until now: at first, there were the Phantasmal Creatures, Celestials, and humans. Out of the first group, only dragons got really involved with humanity, pretending to be polytheistic gods and whatnot, while Celestials mostly kept to themselves. Then, over centuries, the two groups got it on with each other, and the Abyssals as a race were born. Stuff happened, which I will elaborate on later, which led to the Celestials and the Abyssals going to war, with the dragons getting involved on the side, and it ended with the Abyssals getting locked up in the Abyss. Then the Celestials, led by Deus, retreated to the Elysium, while the dragons ran amok and made a bunch of Draconians, so the Celestials created the Brotherhood to crack down on them. Over a couple of centuries, the two sides wore each other down, and then the Magi stepped up to fill in the power vacuum, creating the Assembly. Are we clear so far?”

Judy nodded, while Elly just kept looking at me extra-expectantly.

“Okay, now let’s discuss the twists and turns of this whole thing. First off, ancient Celestial civilization. From what I’d learned, it all goes back to ancient Greek times, and it developed on Critias. Make a note, Dormouse: apparently, Critias really is Atlantis by another, unsubtle name.”

“Noted.”

I watched her fingers dance on the touchscreen and only continued once I had her full attention again.

“Based on what I gathered, the chain of events went something like this: Celestials made contact with the early Greek city-states, adopted their aesthetics over time, made a bunch of colonies. You know? Ancient Mediterranean stuff. Then, some of them moved further east and made contact with the Mesopotamian civilizations of the era, and got involved with the dragons posing as deities over there.”

“Is this the origin of the Abyssals?” Elly asked a pertinent question, and I nodded along.

“Yep, more or less. The funny thing is, they lived more-or-less peacefully for well over a thousand years before the war between the two, and it was related to power dynamics. Long story short, Celestials got weaker and shorter lived for some reason, probably genetics, while the Abyssals had draconic ancestry, so they naturally lived for much longer. Over time, this changed the demographics of Critias and caused some political instability. Are you with me so far?”

“I… think I am?” the princess whimpered, so I flashed a reassuring smile before returning to my explanation.

“All righty then. So, government. They were running a republican system, with something resembling a senate and a trio of elected Archons serving as the head of state.”

“Oh, I remember this one from history class. It’s ancient Athens, right?”

I gave Elly a shrug.

“I guess. Don’t ask me which one came first, I have no freaking idea. Anyhow, since the demographics changed, Abyssals were gaining more and more seats over time. Finally, things reached a tipping point, and they not only got an Archon candidate, he actually won, and all he broke loose.”

“How bad was it?”

I didn’t even have to think about the answer to Judy’s question.

“Oh, you know? Forty years of darkness, seas boiling, cats and dogs living together, mass hysteria, the whole nine yards.”

The giggle coming from her told me Elly got the reference, while Judy only rolled her eyes and muttered something about how now she was sure I was still myself.

“Seriously though, it fractured the entire society of the island. One side supported the elected Abyssal Archon, while the other Archons broke away and formed their own faction, declaring themselves the First and Second True Archons.”

“In other words, Deus and Polemos.”

“Spot on, Dormouse,” I confirmed her conjecture and lightly clapped my hands. “Now, this is where things get really spicy. The Abyssals had a lot of clout, but they were still a minority on Critias, so when the civil war broke out, they were forced to flee to continental Europe, to join their draconic relatives, including the Abyssal Archon, while the loyalist Celestials returned to the island. After both sides collected their forces, there was a big war with big aerial dogfights involving dragons and proxy battles using humans and Draconians and everything in-between, and it intermittently lasted for nearly a century. In the end, both sides got tired of it, and there was a truce.”

“W-Wait! Hold on! Slow down! Didn’t you first say that the Abyssals lost?” Elly interjected, sounding genuinely confused.

“That’s the funny part,” I admitted while still pacing up and down. “Based on the memory fragments I’ve got in my head, I have an impression the Abyssals were winning the war, but considering the story was written down by the Celestials, they probably gave the story a facelift, and there were no Abyssals around to contradict them. In any case, the main contention, beyond the race-politics I don’t want to get too deeply into, was that both sides deemed Critias as their homeland and wanted the other, ‘illegitimate’, side off of it. It was at this point that the Celestial side proposed a trade in exchange for an end of hostilities.”

“Did it involve accepting the Abyssal Archon’s legitimacy?”

“Hm? Nah, not that.” Judy’s eyes were still poised over her phone, so I curtly explained, “By this point, Deus and Polemos fully took over the government, and they were declared that only two Archons, in perpetuum, till the end of time. The third Archon’s position didn’t even exist anymore.”

“Got it.”

While Judy typed, Elly took the opportunity to raise her hand next.

“So if it wasn’t about accepting the Abyssals, what did the Celestials offer them?”

“I’m glad to see you’re paying attention. As I was saying, the war wasn’t going well for the them, so they looked for a way out. Classic wunderwaffe stuff, from dragon-slaying sword prototypes to mini-mecha golems Fred would have a nerdgasm over. None of them proved to be a silver bullet, but near the end of the war, they figured out how to copy the island into a pocket space, and that intrigued the Abyssals. As part of the truce, they settled on a deal: both the Celestials and the Abyssals would get their own pocket-dimension version of the island, while the real Critias would serve as a sort of neutral holy ground between the two. It was a bit of a have-your-cake-but-eat-it-too solution, but I guess it just shows how fed up they had to be with the war to go for it.”

“Question,” Judy interrupted me with a hand raised. “What did the Abyssals give in exchange for that?”

“Idunno, I don’t have that particular memory, but if I had to make an educated guess, I’d say the Mana Wells. Or maybe the technology to make them? They are used to anchor the pocket-spaces, I think, but it’s hard to parse some of these fragments, so I’m not sure. More importantly, once the Celestials got what they wanted, they backstabbed the Abyssals.”

“Shocking!” Elly exclaimed, and I’m not going to lie, with her track record of utmost appreciation when it came to tropes, I wasn’t sure whether she was being sarcastic or not.

“Yes, quite. We already know the outcome, but just to be clear: the Abyssals were baited into the Abyss, along with most of their Celestial families and supporters, and then they were locked inside, while the stragglers outside were hunted down or had to go into hiding. Over time, they developed their own culture centered around the people in control of the Mana Wells, and the Abyssal Archon became the first and only Emperor.

In the meantime, the dragons were miffed by their descendants getting locked away, so just before the second round of the war could start, all the Celestials evacuated Critias and moved into the Elysium. Things are a bit more hazy after that point, but I’m pretty sure Deus died if old age, Polemos outlived him by a couple of decades, during which he reformed the government to his liking, and then before succumbing to old age, his memories were saved into this here sword-spear as a back-up plan, and that’s how some of them ended up in my head.”

“But… if this Polemos was so important, how come we never heard of him?”

“That’s a good question,” Judy followed up on Elly’s inquiry with an intrigued glint in her eyes.

“Three reasons. Deus had better PR, being the cultural and political leader of the Celestials for something like two hundred years straight. Actually, scratch that; he technically still is, because of that whole ‘Archon in perpetuum’ thing. Secondly, Polemos was a gruff, no-nonsense military type who stayed in the shadow of Deus. Thirdly, and maybe most importantly, the latter was idolizing the former and actively helped to mythologize the man until he became the indefinitely-reigning leader and a religious icon for all Celestials, and to do that, he purposefully downplayed his own achievements.”

He also might have been just a tiiiny bit gay for the guy, but the girls didn’t need to know that. Hell, I wished I didn’t know that, but thanks to the whole memory-bleed-in thing, I couldn’t un-know it anymore.

“That concludes the history lesson. Any questions?”

Before the question even left my mouth, Judy’s hand was already up in the air.

“Why wasn’t any of this on the Celestial Hub?”

“It’s because the Hub is being run by the Orthodox faction, and they don’t want anyone to know this. Heck, Celestial history and Polemos had been obfuscated so much, I’m not even sure the average Celestial inside the Elysium is even properly aware of it.”

“I see. You didn’t mention anything about Deus’ return, the prophecy, or the masquerade maintained by the Celestials. Can I presume that there’s no major change in our understanding of those topics?”

“There are some minor clarifications, but I’ll talk about those when we get to the current Celestial political landscape.”

“I have a question too!” Elly raised her hand even higher than Judy’s, so I gestured for her to speak up. “They think that you’re Archon Polemos now, right?”

“… More or less,” I responded a tad guardedly, recognizing the look in her eyes. It was the same as when I first told her about the Kage clan.

“Does that mean you’re now the leader of all Celestials too? Are they going to join the Draconic Federation too? Do we need to rename it to something more generic? My vote is for ‘Pan-Mystic Alliance’.”

“You’re jumping the gun, princess.” For emphasis, I waved with both my palms for her to settle down. “The situation inside the Elysium is a bit too complicated for something like that to happen.”

“Please elaborate.”

Following Judy’s prompting, I let my hands down and began pacing again.

“Here’s the current situation in a nutshell: Polemos was a military leader, so the government he created was very hierarchical, and remained so to the present day. In theory, it is still led by two Archons, but because Deus and Polemos were declared to be the permanent holders of the titles, nobody was elected to replace them. The people at the top with actual power are the Board of Directors. They are kind of a mix of ministers and the leaders of the various branches of Celestial military.”

“So it’s a junta.”

I considered Judy’s interjection for a moment, and in the end, tentatively nodded.

“Sort of, except it didn’t come to be through a coup d’état. In any case, it’s certainly some flavor of militaristic oligarchy, with some religious undertones thanks to the whole Deus-worship thing going on.”

“Noted.”

True to her words, Judy continued to type as if her life depended on it, allowing the princess to speak up.

“Are these the Orthodox people you were talking about?”

“Yes, and no. On the surface, the Celestial leadership is united, but there are three different factions with differing ideologies among them.

The Orthodox are the oldest group, and they are the ones exemplifying what most people-in-the-know consider to be a ‘baseline Celestial’. They venerate Deus, they try to keep everyone in check while waiting for his return, and they are the ones responsible for most of the spying, instigation, and other underhanded operations.

Then there’s the Unorthodox faction, which was formed after the Abyssals managed to finagle their way back to realspace, and they’re concerned with preparing for a second war with them.

The last group, the Reformists, are the newest faction, and their main goal is to modernize the Elysium and bring it up to current-day living standards.

For the record though, take all of this with a pinch of salt, because all my information about these groups came from Jaakobah, who has his own affiliations. He subtly implied that the Orthodox are ultra-conservative, scheming control-freaks who use Deus as an excuse to keep both the Elysium and the world in the dark, the Unorthodox are paranoid firebrands who want to nuke the Abyss and take over the world, not necessarily in that order, while the Reformists are nice guys who just want to help the poor and the downtrodden by introducing modern technologies like electricity and running water to the Elysium.

You can have three guesses about which group he belongs to.”

“Sooo… You said you can’t just assume a leadership position because there are multiple factions,” Elly mused with a hand in the air. “Which one of these three is against the return of this Archon Polemos?”

“That’s the problem. I have no idea. From what I gathered, there’s a good chance all of them want me on their side.”

“And that’s a problem because…?” Judy prompted me while twirling her finger, so I let out a sigh and answered in a morose voice.

“Because when I messed with them, implying that Bel of the Abyss had already infiltrated the Celestial high command, it gave the Unorthodox faction fuel, tensions rose, the Directors jumped at the opportunity to get rid of their political opponents, it caused an internal shakeup, and right now the whole Celestial Directorate is just an inciting incident away from a civil war, so I can’t thoughtlessly tip the scales before first figuring out who the good guys are.”

“And that’s why you need to stay in the Elysium,” Judy stated with audible disapproval, but since I was already expecting it, I nodded on the spot.

“Exactly. I’ve only heard one side of the story so far, so I want to make sure I don’t jump to conclusions and make a mistake I cannot undo.”

We locked eyes for a few seconds, and I would be lying if I didn’t say I felt a little guilty about leaving the whole situation with my disappearance and the Assembly on the girls’ shoulders, but the last thing any of us needs right now is an outright supernatural war spilling on top of everything else.

“Fine. Just makes sure you’ll stay safe, and if there’s any sign of trouble, you should just come home,” she compromised, and I agreed right away.

“I will, but it’s going to be my last resort. The moment I publically returned as Leonard Dunning, I would permanently lose the opportunity to use the identity of Polemos to further infiltrate the Celestial leadership and learn about their plans, so I want to avoid it for as long as possible.”

“Judy already warned you to stay safe, so I’ll tell you to do your best instead!” the princess joined in with a fire in her eyes. “I bet they’ll be ready to join the Pan-Mystic Alliance by the end of the week!”

“You’re still jumping the gun, princess,” I murmured in the company of a soft chuckle, and just as I thought that was the end of the topic, Judy cleared her throat to get our attention.

“Now that we’re clear on the questions of the what and how, I think it’s time to address the why.”

“As in?”

“Why are you the Second True Archon Polemos,” my dear assistant stated with an implied frown and put her phone aside for the moment. “We are on the Angie route, which means that the Celestial involvement was to be expected, but why are you who’s getting involved instead of Joshua?”

“You mean, from a narrative perspective?” Elly placed a thoughtful finger on her lips, and tentatively proposed, “Maybe Leo really is meant to unite all the forces of the world of mystics under his banner? Why else would he gain another leadership position?”

“That is just something the Chief does, because forcing everyone to ally together is the easiest way to avoid annoying conflicts in the future.”

“Guilty as charged,” I admitted, and she let out a content hum before continuing.

“That is unlikely to be the Narrative’s goal though, so there has to be something else. Just as how he being a secret Knight was most likely supposed to set up some kind of future conflict until we turned it on its head, this development should also have an angle like that. It should, in some shape or form, put him into a position where he could play a role in Joshua’s story, most likely as an antagonist.”

“But… weren’t Deus and Polemos supposed to be allies and friends?” the princess pointed out, and I had to give her, it was a solid point. “If Josh is the reincarnation of Deus, how would Leo being Polemos make him into a bad guy?”

“I don’t know, but I feel like we’re missing something,” Judy whispered, and she bit down on the finger of her right thumb while thinking. That could turn into a bad habit, so I carefully wrapped my hand around hers and pulled it away from her face.

“Well, I guess that’s another thing I’ll have to try and figure out while in the Elysium.”

“Maybe,” she granted, and squeezed my hand. “I should probably sleep on this.”

“You do that. In the meantime, I’m going to do my best to turn this whole episode to work in our favor.” Judy still looked conflicted, so I proposed a concession. “That said, I can’t ignore the situation brewing on the island either, so let’s arrange another emergency meeting, focused on keeping Percival in check and everything under control until I’m back. Please contact Roland for me.”

“I hope he isn’t the only one you want to talk to,” my dear assistant commented a tad dully, and my other girlfriend also raised her voice in support.

“Right! You should at least call Neige and Penelope! They are worried sick!”

“I recommend involving the other Knights as well, while we’re at it, if you want to Sir Percival isolated.”

“And don’t forget Naoren! I’ll talk to Dad, but he really has to know what’s going on with him and the Celestials.”

“On the same note, Rinne should also be notified, so that they would stop looking for you in vain,” Judy added, and it was at this point that I gave up and threw my hands into the air.

“Just call everyone, why don’t you!”

“Actually, that would be the most straightforward way to deal with this situation,” my dear assistant noted in a detached tone.

“In that case, I’ll call Josh and Angie!” When we both turned a questioning gaze at her, the princess hastily explained, “You keep talking about how he’s the protagonist and how this is her route and everything, so shouldn’t they be involved in what’s happening?”

“She has a point,” Judy remarked in a pleasantly surprised tone, while I just sighed.

“Oh, fine. Let’s get everyone up to speed then.”

“Good choice. How do we contact you?”

“You can’t. There’s no phone reception over there, and while my Leoformer has the communication enchantment integrated into it, I doubt it works across the Elysium.” Pausing for a beat, I considered my options. “I guess I’ll just keep a close eye on you through Far Sight and visit as often as I can.”

“I like that option,” Elly beamed at me, but then a second later she blinked and asked, “By the way, I meant to ask this before, but what’s a Leoformer?”

“It’s what I call my personal Uniformer,” I answered without any pretenses, yet my other girlfriend looked at me like she just bit into a lemon.

“Chief, I have said this before, but I feel obliged to say it again. Your naming sense is terrible.”

“Oh, hush you,” I chided her as I stepped closer and planted a kiss on top of her head. “I really should get going now, before someone notices I left my room.”

“How long are you going to stay there?” the princess asked while unsubtly tilting her head forward, so I gave her a kiss on her noggin as well before I answered.

“I’ll try to get to the bottom of this as soon as possible, before things get out of control. It’ll probably take a couple of days. A week at worst.”

“Your attendance record is going to suffer,” Judy pointed out, drawing an eye roll out of me.

“That’s pretty low on the priority list. I’ll just ask Lord Grandpa to tweak the records for me or something.” My joke failed to ease the tense atmosphere that settled onto the room, so I descended to one knee and caught both of my girlfriends in a big hug. “Don’t worry, girls. I’ll visit as much as possible.”

“You better,” Elly muttered as he hugged me back, and even though this would’ve been the perfect time for Judy to gripe about how I kept jumping into weird and dangerous situations, she remained conspicuously silent.

“You were just wondering why I wasn’t nagging you, weren’t you?”

“N-No, not at all.”

Her question caught me off-guard, but before I could ask when she learned to read my mind, she also hugged me back and added, “I’m slowly getting to terms with the fact that you’re impossible to keep out of trouble, so I don’t even bother to try. Just promise me that you stay safe.”

“It’s still my middle name,” I jested.

“Which you still don’t have,” she replied similarly.

After that, we stayed huddled together for close to a minute, until my legs started getting numb (they still haven’t fully recovered), so I patted them on the back and stood up.

“Oh, before I leave, can I borrow your phone for a moment?”

My dear assistant was surprised by my request, but she obediently handed it over without me having to ask twice. Her phone had the same operating system as mine, so it only took me a few seconds to find a notepad app and type in two lines.

“My e-mail address and password for the Hub,” I said as I handed her phone back to her. “Please play my role as Admin until I’m ready to come back. Just to be sure.”

“Do I have anything to do?”

In response to the princess’s question, I thoughtfully pinched my chin and soon shook my head.

“No, nothing else in particular. Just convey everything to dad-in-law, Naoren, and the others.”

“That sounds plenty enough,” Judy noted, and Elly agreed, with a determined spark in her eyes.

“You can leave that to me!”

I was tempted to lean over and give her a kiss, but if I did that, then I would’ve had to give Judy one too, and then we would’ve been bogged down in goodbyes for minutes on end. Instead, I flashed my best smile, waved them goodbye, and after they returned the gesture, I reappeared in the Elysium. I glanced up at the night sky over my head, and let out a long sigh before taking out my phone from my pocket and holding it out, along with the two swords, before I used a phantom limb to switch my Leoformer outfit to the Archon disguise.

As for why I was outside, the reason lay in the scene currently unfolding in front of my Far Sighted eyes. At the moment, the nearby tower was on full alert after, despite declaring himself my First Praetor, Jaakobah failed to stop the intrusion of one of the Celestial directors. Needless to say, my conspicuous absence was discovered right away, and now everyone and their mother’s neighbor’s dog was looking for me. Which meant…

“Welp. Time to create an alibi.”

Accompanied by those words, I strapped the weapons to my sides again, put away my phone, and ventured into the settlement surrounding the ivory spire for the second time, except this time, in the open.