I'll be honest, it happened so suddenly.
Despite telling myself I was being cautious, perhaps I was arrogant from how easily things had been going so far. We can say we invaded the territory of the Winter Court, yet we did the equivalent of taking a bite out of the very edge.
Ddraig said he sensed no Draconic Aura; well, I felt that was irrelevant at the moment because the sheer amount of magical energy this thing was putting off was insane.
I almost wanted to call it a pale imitation of a Holy Grail in output.
Did it fall short in comparison? No doubt, it was still absurd that this amount of magical energy could be gathered and solidified into shape. Absolutely.
How many millennia did it take those 'Glaciers' to form from constant accumulation?
No wonder there were no 'guards' around here. When enemies became their worst opponents from trying to breach deeper into the Winter Court's territory, there was no need to station physical guards.
Gods stayed away from the Fae Realms.
And it wasn't only because they were alien and hard to navigate and enter.
This thing before me, in sheer power output, breached the realm of Gods by a large step.
However, it didn't feel like a living thing – rather obvious if you look at the pieces forced together. But with this kind of power, it was still impressive to get some kind of 'construct' to this level.
And obviously, I wasn't going to let it finish its chant to activate Juggernaut drive.
Before it could utter another word, I used Shunpo to move behind it and stabbed forward with my sword.
However, it also moved.
It moved almost the same as my Shunpo except… "You teleporting bastard." I huffed, chasing after him.
It teleported to mimic my Shunpo.
That answered one of my questions. Shunpo utilizes Reiatsu; it can't 'copy' my Reiatsu as it's something so foreign to it; therefore, it copied the application in that it simply teleported to achieve the same results.
"I am the Heavenly Dragon that has stolen the Principles of Domination from God—" It continued with that annoying little smirk before thousands of illusions burst out of him, rather impressively cast.
What made it annoying was that it had no differing aura about it. No Draconic, no Divinity, no Reiatsu, no Demonic.
All of them were magical, so I couldn't immediately pinpoint it.
I had no time to pay attention to the Youkai who had engaged their own counterparts.
Nurarihyon also seemed to be meeting his match somewhat.
However, a familiar "Boost" resounded from the corner, and I snapped my head for a "Penetrate" to follow it up.
I summoned my own Boosted Gear. "Boost, Penetrate!" And in quick succession, I copied my copy, and the two conceptually penetrating abilities collided.
What happens when two immovable objects collide…They cancelled each other out after running out of power.
But I found my copy this time and moved with my fastest speed; my Divine Lightning wrapped around my legs, and I used my Shunpo to my max. It still was able to react, but not enough to escape as my sword cleaved through the arm that held its copied Boosted Gear.
" – I laugh at the Infinite, and I grieve for the Dream."
The one whose arm I cut off, it dissipated, and I quickly turned around, dodging a blast of lightning.
Clever dick!
Clearly, this thing wasn't a mindless construct!
It imbued one of the illusions with its copied power to trick me.
All my swords flashed out through the air, slicing through the thousands of illusions in the blink of an eye. The confirmation of the 'real' one was when it had its own swords emerge and collide with my own.
I became annoyed.
It copied my swords – albeit, I could tell at a glance they were hollow copies. But those were mine, and I detested the thought of someone else having them.
I took out the Staff of Magnus, my 'copy' following suit.
We had covered enough distance that the ship was now a fair distance away, so I wasn't concerned about collateral damage.
Spell Circles appeared by the hundreds. My copy also mimicked my action as the world filled with lightning.
However, my lightning was Divine.
It couldn't copy my Divine Power.
"Shield of Asgard!" It changed tactics, slamming its staff down on the snowy glacier that remained.
I rushed forward and held my palm out as the air crackled with lightning. "Hadō #88, Hiryu Gekizoku Shinten Raiko!" I swung my palm forward right in front of his shield as the gigantic lightning dragon emerged with a roar of thunder, bursting through it and slamming into the copy.
"Bakudō # 81, Danku!" My copy called out; without Reiatsu, a substantial amount of magical energy converged to create a shield, and my lightning crashed into it like an oncoming wave. "Boost, Transfer!" It copied further, enhancing the shield.
I ignored everything else and pressed it; the important thing was to prevent it from finishing the chant. I admit I was concerned as to what would happen if it succeeded, as that was its immediate goal.
Not giving it an opening was a priority.
"I shall become – "
I shunpo'd around the shield from the side, Mirage in hand, and magic circles swirled around the blade. "Ether Cannon!"
It raised the boosted gear up as a makeshift shield as its 'swords' flew in front of it, also alleviating some of the damage.
My 'copy' took the brunt of the hit, getting blasted down into the water.
I grabbed my Sword of Destruction out of the air and pulled on my Demonic Side through the Hogyoku and released a powerful slash imbued with my Power of Destruction straight downwards to where it was sent, splitting the ocean, destroying everything in its path.
The copy was forced to roll to the side haggardly, but still far from defeated. It, however, didn't sit there and wait; within the blink of an eye, it had released countless spells in return.
It seemed to be able to forgo some part of the normal casting procedure.
Unfortunately for it, it didn't inherit my Magic Resistance so I could ignore the vast majority of those spells, and I shot downward onto its body, my leg crushing into its chest.
I was a fairly noticeable amount 'stronger' physically compared to a few weeks ago.
The fruit gave me a small but noticeable boost. The slaying of Hanuman also gave me a bit bigger, if still somewhat small, boost.
Every bit helped and showed.
The copy silently screamed; perhaps it doesn't feel pain but still mimics the effects appropriately.
I gathered my Power of Destruction around my hand and moved to slam my palm down onto its head.
"Fus Ro Dah!" My copy bellowed, and a magical mimicry of my Dragon Shout rippled out, and I moved to brace myself and forgo the attack.
It was enough that the falling walls of water were blown away and my feet dug holes into the ocean's floor after bracing myself from the blowback.
"– The Red Dragon of Domination. And I shall sink you to the depths of—
I let go of the sword I was currently holding and let Mirage fall into my hand again, and I moved before he could regain his momentum.
Swallow Returns!
The copy jerked its body abruptly, trying to dodge, but it was futile. If it couldn't properly copy things like my divinity or my spiritual powers, my usage of the kaleidoscope must have been a complete blind spot for it.
The first blade was dodged; the second pierced through his back.
It still moved with my blade through it, however. And I pulled Mirage free and used a burst of Shunpo to move out of the way as his haphazard attack missed me.
Myriad Slash.
Its head fell down to the ground, and its body followed a moment later.
I let out a breath, exerting my power a bit still so the walls of water around us didn't come crashing down just yet.
[Something is wrong.] Ddraig spoke up, verbally acknowledging a strange feeling I also had in my gut.
If it was copying me, shouldn't it have been... stronger? Even if it could only mimic my stuff through a bastardized usage of magical energy, I didn't have to push that hard.
The power it held was easily God level, but... that was a rather easy 'fight.'.
"—Crimson Purgatory." My head snapped towards the source of the words; the fake Gauntlet on its arm lit up despite being a headless 'corpse.'.
[We've been had.]
I wasn't the target of the copy.
"Welsh Dragon, Juggernaut Drive."
The world turned crimson.
@***@
POV – Angelica Lathas, Reporter for Devil News Today
"Quick, Greg, set up!" I waved at him to get the camera going.
He got a lot quicker recently for obvious reasons.
I quickly fixed my hair as best I could, but it was an effort in futility at this point. How long had we been in this place? I hadn't had a proper bath in what felt like an eternity.
An alligator with the mouth of a chicken tried to bite me when I found a small river to bathe in!
And that wasn't even the weirdest thing that's happened to me since coming here!
I felt like I'd aged a hundred years in the span of a few days.
Even my clothes…. I was lucky that one of Lady Yasaka's attendants took pity on me and patched up my attire; otherwise I'd be running around in rags!
I did not prepare enough for this.
Greg held up his fingers, counting down.
"Hello everyone, it's Angelica Lathas here with Devil News Today!" It wasn't live, thankfully, in that regard. But all the unedited footage is basically shown as soon as it's brought back.
Despite any embarrassing moments.
"For all of you tuning in now, here's a quick recap. Lady Yasaka and her fellow Youkai have so far claimed over forty miles of territory as per our last airing. So far, twelve different 'lords' as we've come to know them have either surrendered or have been killed as her forces have pushed forward at unbelievable speed. However, it leaves this reporter questioning the thoughts of their enemies, as they have yet to show any real resistance to the invasion."
I took a deep breath as shouting and the sounds of armor clanking were heard not far away.
"Right now, we've stepped away from Lady Yasaka's primary army, as you can see behind me – " I gestured to Greg to get a good view with the camera. "We're currently situated with not the Youkai, but their surprising allies—the Pendragon Family. Yes, you heard me right: the one infamous enemy of all Devil-kind, dating back to the time of the legendary King Arthur, is currently preparing for battle."
I subtly nudged my head to Greg to keep looking out towards the Knights.
"While much smaller in numbers, I've been told that every Knight you see here – "of which there were roughly a thousand." Is at least comparable to a Mid-Class Devil. That's right, a thousand human Knights, all Mid-Class or above!"
Wasn't that surprising?
I didn't think humans could pull off that kind of thing.
"As you can see, Lady Artoria Pendragon is meeting with a certain Fae – some kind of Knight themselves?" I wasn't really sure; a lot of them rode horses and wore armor. " – as both sides are at a standoff. We're lucky to be able to see the Pendragon family in action soon."
Because it was a cold day in hell if one of these bastards actually surrendered without a fight.
All the ones who 'surrendered' previously did so after a thorough beating.
They were still talking, no action going on. Better distract everyone with something.
I gave Greg the signal for him to zoom in on the woman in charge.
"As you can see, Artoria Pendragon has become a somewhat focal point for quite a few people since her appearance in the peace conference. There are rumors that despite being broken, she possesses the complete Excalibur, a weapon comparable to an Archangel!" Of course I didn't outright say that's true, but those are the popular rumors. "And not only that, but it's been confirmed that she's part of a harem of our very own Wilhelm Schweinorg, the Devil that's on everyone's lips recently."
Most people will eat that up; they want to know more about him. Sure they want to see the fighting, but you can't always show just fighting.
A good reporter knows how to keep the audience interested with different hooks!
And anything about the son of Lucifer is going to get a lot of attention.
Well, it also helped that she was simply beautiful. How many would-be nobility would want a chance to take her into their own harems? A harem was more than just a relationship; it was a status symbol!
However, the thing was, there was barely any information on Artoria Pendragon from the dossier that Lady Leviathan gave me.
Just the barest details that honestly sounded more like rumors.
In that case, let's make her mysterious the focal point!
"We know very little about Artoria Pendragon ourselves. Only that she appeared recently with a complete Excalibur, and every member of the Pendragon Family pledged their loyalty to her without fail."
"There are – "
"What's this, who are you?"
"Eh?" I found myself cut off as a woman with blue water-like hair walked over, pushing herself in front of me.
"Devils? You shouldn't be here. Hmph, I'll just kill you and save everyone the trouble." She raised her hands up, and while I was no magician, I could tell when magic was about to be cast.
I felt my eyes widen until a mist emerged from the ground, eating the magic that was developing.
"They have permission to be here from Lady Yasaka. Please refrain from causing them harm." Our savior arrived!
Thank you, Soma!
The strange woman frowned but stopped. "Fine, I guess it's not my place to say anything." She huffed.
Soma nodded and disappeared again.
"What's this though?" She walked up, ignoring me, and pushed her face into the camera. "Oh, a crystal structure inside. Some kind of mechanism I don't recognize. Ah, it's recording images? Not just images, sound too! How novel I don't remember anything like this back when I was more active in the human world."
Greg looked at me, but I didn't know what to say to the woman who so flippantly was ready to try and kill us.
"Um... excuse me... miss?"
"Oh!" She pulled away. "Devils, hmm. I guess you're harmless."
Why did that sound like an insult?
"I don't like Devils since they killed my Arthur. What are you doing with this, hmm? She grabbed the camera out of Greg's hands, playing with it.
"…That's a camera; it's…." Did she really not know? We were still recording too... "It's recording everything, and it's being sent back so the whole Underworld can watch the Invasion."
"The whole Underworld?!" She exclaimed. "I take it back; that's more than novel! I feel like I missed out on a lot of things!"
"...thank you?"
"Hmm." She dropped the camera, seemingly losing interest, and I winced.
I quickly regained my composure. "And who might you be, miss….?" I glanced back as Greg picked the camera back up.
"Oh, I'm Vivian, the Lady of the Lake!" She announced proudly.
That, Vivian!?
Who didn't know that name if they knew absolutely anything about the legendary figure associated with it!?
"What did I say about running off, you idiot!" A knight came stomping over; she looked rather similar to Artoria Pendragon, who was leading the Knights here. "Negotiations could end at any minute, and you're making me come all the way over here to drag your ass back."
"Wah, unhand me, you traitor! Hooligan, betrayer!" She whined as the female knight grabbed her by the arm.
"Yeah, yeah, come on, Mom, we got work to do." The girl sighed.
"M-mom!?" She squeaked. "W-who said you could call me that!? Even if you're much cuter compared to him…"
The female knight rolled her eyes. "Do you think I want to be related to that French adulterer through you either?"
"Don't talk about Lancelot like that; he was a good child!"
"He was a cunt." She replied expressionlessly before turning to us. "Sorry about this. Father said you were coming. Can't say I care either way what you're here for, but this one wasn't supposed to come over and bother you."
"T-thank you?" I said I was not sure how to react again, but once more, my expertise as a reporter shined through. "Miss, can you please comment about what's going on currently? And can you also introduce yourself for our viewers at home?"
She looked annoyed but relented despite the struggling woman in her grasp. "Name? I'm Mordred Pendragon. Father is currently trying to negotiate a surrender of Fae you see over there. Not going to work obviously, but it's how things go. Got to give them a chance to surrender before you ram a sword through their chest." She shrugged. Besides that, there isn't much to say. Once we clear up this small force…" She paused, squinting her eyes. "About two thousand of them, if I'm not mistaken, then we're pushing up the West while our allies are pushing up the East."
"Thank you for your insight… Sir Mordred." That was how you addressed a knight properly, wasn't it? She looked pleased, so I think I did good.
Mordred turned to the Lady of the Lake. "If you keep struggling, I'm gonna poke ya." She said, pulling out a…dangerous-looking and feeling lance.
"K-keep your Divine Lance away from me!" She whined further.
Divine Lance!?
"Come on, Father is heading back." She dragged the woman off with her back to the formations of the Knights.
Lots of things just happened; I have no context for any of them.
Thankfully, we were recording most of it.
"As you can see, it appears as though conflict is inevitable!" It didn't take a genius to see both sides were prepared. The two from before rejoined everyone else, disappearing from view. That was until the side of the Knights moved forward, horses neighing and the sound of feet hitting the ground.
However, at the forefront, I recognized the armor as the girl who had just been with us.
Wreathed in lightning, at the proverbial spear tip, she charged into the lines of the enemy Fae.
Like a car running over an ant, they couldn't be stopped.
Particularly in the case of that Mordred, she utterly decimated the front lines with her first hit; Red Lightning danced everywhere, and the other Knights quickly followed, tearing into them without hesitation.
Hundreds fell quickly, but I don't think I picked up a single knight that fell along with them. There were also several dozen magicians in the rear, providing support. It seemed like as soon as one of the knights was about to receive a decisive blow, there would be some sort of magical effect appearing to protect them, be it a blast of magic at the enemy or a shield to protect the knight.
I was by no means an authority on warfare, but wasn't the side with the higher numbers supposed to have the advantage?
Why did it seem like an adult handling a toddler?
...are they really humans?
@***@
A/N
Hey guys, if you didn't know, I was busy with a very stressful and difficult move the past week or so. It involved things like the service elevator at my apartment not working when I lived on the 7th floor. But we're back to normal now, and I'll try to have antoher Cyclops and Arachne chapter out this week.
Also, Fae Arc is over as of this p.a.t.r.e.o.n chapter, finished with a chapter over 10k words. Next big arc is a new world! We also have 2 Arachne chapters ahead over here and another Cyclops chapter.
If you want to read 10 chapters ahead or support me, visit my p.a.t.r.e.o.n.c.o.m / astoryforone
I also have a boosty if you can't use the above under the same name.