Chapter Twenty-Five
STEPPING DEEPER
"Hah, what a joke."
Dionysus, still watching all of this from a leisurely position within his glass box, was taking in everything. He was absorbing the knowledge of others, making up his own knowledge, and so on.
'Still, the next step of their operation is at the front gate.'
Dionysus was still in a glass box all the way out at the front, where the iron rods first landed. He was in an alternate dimension, but he could very well see Daphne and the old man standing together all the way back here, along with some people that may be guards assigned to them.
'Still, I suppose I could do something . . .'
Dionysus eyed the front gate.
He knew that the next part of the operation was for a secret fourth unit to enter from the front. For that to happen, Daphne and Leonardo would tell the people around them to lower the drawbridge, which would allow for the fourth unit to barge in.
'And since the invasion is currently happening, nobody is really guarding the drawbridge . . .'
In fact, Dionysus had come in through the front entrance using the draw bridge which was lowered at the time. After he infiltrated, he assumed that the guards pulled up the drawbridge before running off to fight.
Indeed, while a large majority of the three units were already infiltrating the courtyard or attempting to, that didn't mean a lot of people weren't fighting to the death out front, right in front of the iron rods. In fact, he saw many palace guards beating down the Bloody Droplets.
And, yes, it was a one-way beating, with the palace guards having taken next to no casualties.
'Let's see, I do kind of owe Cerberus, but I'm not interested in getting involved . . .'
Meanwhile, within Dionysus' head, a mental war had commenced, and he was wondering whether he should step in and possibly let himself be known to everyone here just so he can pay back Cerberus, or if he should just continue to skulk around the place using his ability, Behind the Curtain.
'Eh, I'm passive, and I don't really want to take a side, but if I don't pay Cerberus back now, who knows what might come at me in the future . . .'
Deciding against his passive emotions, he began to walk towards Cerberus. Of course, the glass box he was in had a range, and he'd have to enter and re-enter it every now and then to continue progressing stealthily. That was, stealthily as he could be.
"Daphne, now's about the time to lower the drawbridge."
Leonardo decided that the fourth unit was getting close enough for them to lower the drawbridge. They didn't just have it so that the fourth unit immediately entered the fray for two reasons. One was so that they could possibly pincer the enemies with a surprise unit, and two was because there wasn't much space left on the iron rods.
"You're right, we should begin to lower the drawbridge."
Daphne looked at one of the guards, made sure they had their eyes on her, and then quickly nodded in the direction of the drawbridge. Everyone who was a part of the operation had been informed of the fourth unit, even though only Leonardo and Daphne had really ever interacted with them.
For that reason, the guard immediately got the gist of what she wanted and ran over to the drawbridge.
'Crap, they're already heading for the drawbridge. Should I just not pay back Cerberus right now . . .? No, I'll take my time and get to him.'
He could see Cerberus and unit one up ahead since they were at the front entrance to the courtyard. He slugged a guy real hard a while back, and now they were at a standstill. Nobody really wanted to attack Cerberus, while Cerberus was not doing anything on purpose so that he could keep them from progressing.
The very definition of a standstill.
'Just hold it for a few more seconds and I'll be there.'
For some reason, Dionysus lost everything but his calm. He realized it a while back as well, but ever since he ran away from the Chained King's final battle, he hadn't really felt anything besides soothed.
'I don't get anxious, excited, rushed, joyful, upset, angry . . .'
He considered it a key perk to have such a level head. He thanked the Chained King and three decades of lying in an alternate dimension in constantly growing pain, thanks to the chains, for this. While he could see the drawbacks of such a feature, he believed that the positives of being so lax outweighed them by miles.
'I wonder . . . can I drag Silhouette into this?'
He still considered it to be his best friend. It didn't matter if they didn't exchange any sort of words, as he felt as if he could connect with it on a mental, emotional, and spiritual level.
'In fact, I'm pretty sure we're bound at a spiritual level, we're connected to one another somehow.'
He still knew nothing about Silhouette. After he fled from the Chained King's supposed final battle, it dropped him off here, at the edge of the capital, and then left like it usually did, by dissipating. However, ever since then, he didn't feel like he was constantly watching him, breathing down his neck, or anything.
It just disappeared.
'Come on out Silhouette!'
He attempted to put some will into his command, but it still didn't show itself. He sighed in defeat while continuing to make his way towards Cerberus.
"W-We can't keep li-"
CHING
His head was sliced off cleanly by Cerberus, his body collapsing right after the head was sent flying.
"You can all continue to stand here while I watch over you. Nobody, not even by an inch, is stepping inside the damned courtyard."
Cerberus had his intentions laid out in the open for all to see. All they had to do was not move towards the courtyard, and he wouldn't kill them. After seeing such brutal skills from the man, nobody dared to make the first move.
'Yeah, keep them like that for a bit longer.'
Dionysus was now going through the crowd, slowly maneuvering past them while appearing and disappearing in reality every now and then.
WHOOSH
At one point, while Dionysus was beginning to close in on Cerberus, Cerberus saw the curtain. He didn't actually see Dionysus himself, which was a bit of a relief, but he was also beginning to attract attention.
'It doesn't matter though, I'm close enough at this point to actually do this.'
WHOOSH
A curtain appeared right in front of Cerberus. Dionysus didn't emerge from it, but Cerberus naturally understood who's curtain this was.
"Where are you, in the crowd?"
Cerberus began to eye the unit. He closely inspected every single person there, but Dionysus could already mentally tell Cerberus that he was nowhere in the crowd, although Cerberus wouldn't get the message, considering that he wasn't a psychic.
"W-What is that?"
"Is that one of ours?"
��Someone among us has an ability?"
Meanwhile, the unit was starting to lose themselves even more than they had before. Their leader had been beaten so easily that they could've compared the battle to an ant versus a human. Along with that, the man in front of them wouldn't let them proceed, and nobody was willing to take command in place of the late leader.
"Hoh, I guess there's only one place you could be in."
With these words, Cerberus walked through the curtain before seemingly disappearing in the eyes of the crowd. None of them could even begin to comprehend the root of what was going on, and a large majority of them were in an uproar in their mind.
--- SEQUENCE 2 ---
Meanwhile, within a glass cube in an alternate dimension, Cerberus had finally laid his eyes on Dionysus for the first time in around a year by now, though not a full year.
"I see your ability hasn't gotten any better, huh?"
"Shut up, I'm just here to tell you something. A fourth unit is going to enter from the front entrance. What you do with that information is up to you."
WHOOSH
A curtain appeared from out of nowhere right in front of Dionysus' face.
"I'd rather establish the minimum contact with you, so I'll be heading out."
". . . ok."
A hole appeared in front of Cerberus, just the right size for him to fit through. Dionysus, in his mind, had played his role, and was getting ready to vacate the premise. He only wanted to pay back his debt to Cerberus, and now that he had, his will to stay here was basically erased.
"Though, can we meet up after this to talk?"
Cerberus caught Dionysus right before he went through the curtain. He hadn't actually physically grabbed him, but it still caught his attention.
"No."
With that, Dionysus walked through the curtain, leaving Cerberus all alone in the glass box. He could see Dionysus on the outside through it, and then he saw as he opened another curtain. Right when he opened another curtain . . .
KSHH
The glass box that he was in shattered, and he dropped back into reality.
"Only one at a time, huh?"
He was on his ass, right behind unit one, who had just identified him for who he was.
"He's on the ground, rush the courtyard!"
"YEAH!"
They all began to cheer on one another to raise morale before rushing straight in like a herd of lions closing in on their prey.
Obviously, Cerberus wouldn't allow such a thing. He quickly stood up and appeared right in front of them, his speed clearly surpassing that of the average person. He was already underneath the archway that lead into the courtyard.
"I've got no time to mess with you. Either leave now or die now, one or the other."
The grin from his face was gone, and he looked at each and every single individual person in the unit. For every person that he looked into the eyes of, he saw more and more of the emotion that was called fear.
"W-We can't back down after coming this far, rush!"
Even if he had heard it, Cerberus still didn't make a move. He wanted to give them a thorough chance at turning around. He didn't have much time, as Dionysus had informed him of another threat that was approaching and would most likely arrive any second now.
"Run or die?"
This was his final warning.
"I c-c-can't do this man, I'll just continue to live under the current royal family."
A young man that was seventeen at most fell onto his bum before quickly getting back up and dashing away.
Following the herd mentality, an overwhelming majority of the unit turned tail and fled. The only one's left were the people who looked like not even a god would stop them.
"There's a difference between courage, bravery, dauntless, and so on, and recklessness."
These were his final words before he took his hands out of his pocket.
'I'm in a bit of a rush here.'
VHWOOOM
An immediate intensifying of what seemed to be gravity weighed down on the shoulders of each and every single person that was still standing before Cerberus and not running away. Most of them hit the ground immediately, with the ones who didn't having their skulls crushed by the impact of it all.
'I wonder, what would these seemingly normal people think if they could see what I was seeing?'
Cerberus' granted ability was called Wormhole, a simple name. All it did was allow him to jump around in an alternate dimension, similar to Dionysus', but with no ability to view the outside. It allowed him to get out of some prickly situations, but with just that ability, there was no way he would've arrived at the position he was in now, which was right below the king.
It was his awakened ability that had pulled him along this far. He could see the strands of energy in the air, all of it emanating from one thing or another. Some of it was coming out of the souls of people, while other energies came out from nature, the ground, and so on.
"You're all gonna die, so you 'oughta know that you messed with an aura master. Left hand of the king, Cerberus Meisteroid, at your service."