"Irregular, what game are you playing here?" Hearst pointed the longsword in her right hand to the nearest shard with Ivan's face. Though her attention was elsewhere, surveying her surroundings in hopes of finding where he hid.
"Hm? What else does it look like I'm doing~? You dealt my companions outside quite a bit of trouble while I was out, honestly, can't a guy get some rest without having to deal with xenophobic robots for once?"
"So you intend to continue getting in the way of our lord's ambitions? Cease resistance now and we may allow judgment to pass upon your cohorts by our benevolent lord. Who knows, he may very well offer them an accord into our reigns."
"If I asked my 'cohorts' themselves, I'd say there's a good chance they'd rather choose death. I like to think of myself as a better 'boss' than that faceless coward who hides behind his dolls."
Hearst's eyes narrowed, a provocation against her was something she could let slide, however if it were against her lord, she'd have no other choice but to hurt the one who spread such insolent words.
"I've seen you've grown tired of living. You have no authority to speak of our lord in such a way, especially when you are the one hiding from us. Now, show yourself lest we tear down this place one piece at a time."
Her words were curt, laying her intentions on the table.
"Since you've asked so kindly, who am I to not oblige~? As a man it's my duty to inflict a worser fate to the one you raised against my comrades. That's what it means to not allow others to out do you~!"
To Hearst's delight, Ivan showed himself merely seconds after saying those words. In this mirrored world, in between the 'walls' that surrounded them shattered and exposed an endless void. He floated down elegantly, as if he were as light as a feather.
However Hearst didn't sense any mana coming from his body at all. 'Is this a fake… no, that can't be. There'd be nowhere else for him to be. He must have some way of suppressing his presence.'
Inwardly, she made a command toward her subordinates, who in turn seamlessly formed a tight knotted formation around Ivan.
"Well? Isn't this what you wanted? Hurry up and attack, I don't have all day~! Or… actually, just take your time~." He sat in the air relaxed, both legs up and crossed as if he were laying in an invisible hammock.
His behavior put the others on edge. Was this a trap? Or was he perhaps bluffing? They never once considered that he just may be that confident. As someone who fought one of their kind before, and had a narrow life and death experience, he should be the last one to underestimate them.
So they launched a simple attack to test the waters. Feathers lined the sky, but upon closer observation one could see their metallic sheen under the cracked sun. They trembled in the air furiously, their numbers in the hundreds.
From all sides, Ivan merely stayed still as they closed in on him.
And with a single order from within Hearst's mind, each feather flew down on him like a rain of arrows.
WHOOOSH!
They left a trail in their wake, a loud whistling noise followed before they floated centimeters from Ivan's body and face. But still he never moved, and that really sent Hearst's alarms off.
"...."
The feathers hit their target, at least that's what it looked like to every apostle on the scene. But next thing they knew it the feathers had phased right through him, and went straight for the apostles on the other side.
STAB STAB STAB!
In their confusion they weren't able to react in time. Though they weren't very perturbed, as they knew their feathers wouldn't do much damage to other apostles. It was annoying to have to shrug off the feathers stabbing into their skins.
'An illusion…?' Had her assumption been incorrect, the Ivan in front of her possessed neither a presence and was invulnerable to physical attacks. But in order to cast such an illusion one needed to be close by, impossible for Ivan considering they already confirmed that he was in no other location.
The only placed that hadn't checked was the void above his head, the very place he had descended from.
'Or… could we be the ones in the illusion…?' None of their data indicated that Ivan Korei was a powerful illusionist, and yet he seemed capable of capturing hundreds of apostles in his trap.
"W-What's happening to me…?" One apostle spoke aloud, directing all attention towards her in the momentarily quiet scenery. The others stared in pause as she rose up into the air, dangling helplessly as it looked as though she was being hung from her neck.
And then— her body started changing.
Her wings became pitch black, feathers turned into scales. The apostle's beauty diminished as her face became that of an eagle's. Above her rear protruded the tail of a scorpion, long enough to match her height. As for her feet, they simply became black hooves as an abundance of brown hair crawled up to her waist.
The visage of cool and collective she had portrayed only a minute before hand were all gone, erased— or more aptly, transformed, into the monstrosity that now stared daggers into the other apostles.
"Hmm? Not exactly the look I was going for but it'll have to do. For my first time truly messing with this I'd say I did a pretty banger job~ Though I wonder what'll become of her when we leave this place…"
Apostles surrounding the newly transformed chimera were strung up into the air as she was before, only they didn't experience the same thing she did. For they were her benchmark to test the amalgamations abilities.
Ivan let go of the gravity magic that strung up his humanoid chimera, immediately she pounced in the air and dove for the closest strung up apostle.
Her tail coiled around the apostle like a snake would a rodent, and using her natural predator instincts, her scorpion stinger stabbed itself right into her heart. The apostle's struggle only lasted for ten minutes before she lost movement throughout her body.
Of course those that were not being hanged with gravity magic wouldn't just allow the scene to play out. Hearst flew forward at a startling speed, but then—
"Huh…?" She was certain she was moving forward, even propelling herself forward with her wings. However no matter how much she struggled she never got closer to Ivan or the transmuted apostle.
Either she was forced in place or the space around her kept looping her into the spot she was formerly in. Making it so that no matter how much she flew she'd always end up in the same spot.
But even if that were the case she still couldn't feel any traces of mana in the air, nor was the space around her distorted in any way. As traditionally spatial magic showed preemptive signs of warping space through ripples in the air.
"C-Captain… help…" The drugged apostle used the remaining will she had left to call for aid. Closing her eyes only when the beak of her former comrade approached her face. And then—
*BITE!*
Blue blood shot out of where her head had formerly been like a fountain. Hearst bore an indiscernible expression on her face as she watched the apostle's body convulse, and after several seconds, dangle.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you want to support me please follow this link! There's a couple new links added~: https://linktr.ee/ardoaleister
Maaa~ I messed around a bit here. Though I said we're swiftly approaching the end I've noticed I've dragged things out unnecessarily. A bad thing to me as I'm hoping to finish so I may reflect and begin production of my next work.
With that being said, expect things to speed up a bit, for real this time! Thanks for reading, thanks for the support after all this time, and have a great evening! I hope to see you again~!
If you want to support me and read ahead 10-15 chapters, you can check out my p.a.t.r.e.o.n right here: https://bit.ly/ardoaleister
Discord: https://discord.gg/tQ5TWbYd9t