Deep underground, below Eavesdrop, two wary figures stood in front of each other, sizing the other's strength and abilities.
Mysta produced several blood-red strings from the center of her palm and pulled on it, letting them ravel and reinforce each other. With just one sharp tug, a sliver of reinforced string was pinched between her fingertips, sharper than steel and stronger than iron.
She held this subtle weapon with refined professionalism, pinching one end as the other came out of the center of her palm.
But her opponent remained unfazed. The gentlemanly butler of Scorpio just smiled innocently with his hands behind his back. With the heavenly weight gone and their respective burdens in mutual defeat, only the two are standing, taking each side as their own.
Scorpio's butler spoke, his voice level and cool, without even a speck of naïveté thoughts and lousy expectations:
"Ah, Lady Mysta of Exosuia, trusted aid and adviser of the young mistress herself. What a pleasure it is to finally have a friendly chat with you. My apologies, I was in the middle of a job earlier, and so I was not able to grant you a proper audience. Again, my deepest apologies."
The man bowed with polished motions, his entire body moving in conjunctive unison. It was if he was a puppet being wielded by a marionette, his bodies animated by forces beyond his power.
And yet, the man lacked the subtle but obvious mark of a manipulated…
The eyes of those lost, and of those still fighting.
Instead, there was only nothing. Absolutely nothing.
His eyes were like a deep, dark well of nothing. Devoid of even the smallest emotional ties or connections.
As he lifted his head, out of nowhere, he was suddenly wielding a cane. It was deep black and had a golden ring by the curve that served as a handle. It looked very well-kept.
"Neat trick."
Not minding the sudden appearance of a new, unknown factor, Mysta tug sharply on the converged blood-red string. A soft and harmonious sound spread across the hallway, resounding in both ears like a sullen melody.
How could one note calm one's nerves so much? The answer was simple.
Fool the world and all in it, then proceed to pull the rug under their feet when the opportunity is ripe for the taking. The way all Accomplices should and shall. Since the end of the first century.
Eyeing the door between the two of them with a cursory glance, Mysta spoke, her tone and pitch perfectly manipulated to sound and feel calm, despite the constant ringing in her ears.
"Well, that is quite an honor. Such words are wasted on the likes of me. If I could, I would very much like to talk about this sooner, when the time is right and the stars align."
Something very wrong had occurred. Though she couldn't quite put a finger on what it is, exactly. Only that not knowing any longer would spell a terrible fate for all parties involved.
And a lot of parties are involved; that was a certainty. Mostly including hers and the Exousia's.
With a smile that didn't quite reach his ears, Scorpio's butler simply smiled and tipped his hat, which was definitely not there just a second ago, and pointed his deep black cane towards the door. His smile had turned from empty to coy for just the briefest of moments.
"Please, after you. Ladies first."
◇◆◇◆◇
A still and frozen silence settled in the dark hallway, making the air seem stale and immovable. It was as if the world had grown a little bit more heavy.
…Though not for long, it seemed.
Whipping her hands and sending a bundle of strings flying from the center of her palm, Mysta manipulated the manifested item to wrap around Scorpio's attendant.
"…!" The experienced man didn't even flinch, instantly taking a step back with one hand still on the tip of his hat and the other holding his cane. His coy smile had not disappeared for even a moment.
He tried to dodge.
But the strings were too plentiful. As soon as they detached from Mysta's palm, the bundle of strings seemingly moved with a mind of its own, forming the familiar shape of a cobweb and launching itself, spread open and ready to catch its prey at any moment.
The man may have had the experience, but she certainly did not lack in skill.
Shaken at the sudden, midair transformation, Scorpio's butler changed hands, passing his cane from his left to his right. Holding the deep black cane like an umbrella in the rain, he raised it overhead, changed his footing in a seemingly mercurial manner, and performed a single cut.
Perhaps, even the most beautiful vertical cut she had ever seen.
But Mysta didn't have much time to admire the polished gem that was the butler's swordsmanship… or whatever it was that the man used.
Dashing for the door at top speed, she opened it and quickly dove inside, landing on her face and chest with a loud thud.
*swish!*
Overhead, a sharp and fittingly subtle noise cut the air itself, producing a shrill and dense sound.
She mumbled under her shaky breath:
"Ugh. This is why I prefer desk jobs…"
Getting up to her feet with mild difficulty, Myta immediately detached several blood-red strings of reinforced wire bindings in a grid-like array. There were a few scratches on her exposed body parts, i.e. the hands and part of her face.
*tink*
It was when she had fully stood up and fixed her tightfitting suit did the expected sharp sound came. It was of metal and metal hitting each other.
Bright sparks ignited as a small, sharp piece of metal fell on the floor with a resonating sound. It reverberated ominously, much longer than it should have…
"Dammit."
It was then that she noticed the simple words inlaid on the tiny dagger's blade. Mysta hurriedly tried to form a barrier, using the blood-red strings as a medium.
But it was too late.
*BOOM!*
A loud explosion echoed in the room, throwing Mysta away like a ragdoll! Chunks and pieces of the roof, floor, and surrounding walls fell down and flew to the other side of the room. Debris flew everywhere, including the crisscrossing spears made out of earth and gravel.
Mysta held her breath.
The next second, Scorpio's butler stepped in, his eyes scanning the room with a deep frown. There was a deep scowl on his face, as though the dilapidated VIP room was the most disgusting place in the world.
Mysta unconsciously backed away, using the man's own eyesight against him.
'What should I… huh?'
A familiar figure spread before her, out cold and in deep unconsciousness.
It was Aries, her mistress's chosen contestant.
"There you are."
◇◆◇◆◇
An eloquent voice echoed:
"There you are."
Jumping to her feet in a dire hurry, Mysta spread her arms wide, casting a web of non-reinforced strings in a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree radius. While weak, the construct she had created was versatile.
The numerable amount of blood-red strings shot forth from the center of her palms and clung close to the walls of earthen spears. When she felt the strings bind wrap themselves on any protruding object, she cut them off her palm and gripped them tight and true.
Glaring at the eloquent man, Mysta said in a hoarse and strained voice:
"Faker."
The blood-red strings drew taut.
"…!"
And the eloquent man's eyes shot wide.
Raising his cane, the man slashed empty air. However, the air wasn't empty. Instead, several strings, these ones not blood-red, fell to the floor with a faint glimmer that shone in the dilapidated room.
However, despite his hurried attitude and erratic, panicky behavior, the man's face remained as calm as ever, if not a little bit serene.
It was very disturbing. To Mysta, at least.
*crik*
The earthen spears cracked and crumbled under pressure as she exerted herself, filling her body and soul with Augmentation mana, allowing it to enhance and fortify her physical and mental attributes, as inefficient and pathetic it was.
Normally, such a thing was bereft of Mysta, lacking in the mentality and natural affinity with the straightforward and quintessential category of Augmentation, but the situation simply begged for it.
...She couldn't let the boy die.
'For now, at least.'
Pulling on the nearby objects and debris, she manipulated them to come to her, the focal point of this maneuver. While not exactly her greatest skill, she was more than talented enough to pull it off, at least once.
Her hazel eyes flashed.
Manipulating several blood-red strings to wrap around the objects behind the eloquent man, Mysta drew the strings taut, attracting them to her position with astonishing speed.
…But not fast enough, it seemed.
Dashing forth with an explosive step, the eloquent man approached Mysta with the speed of a raging bull, his cane in hand and held like a sword.
For a second, it even looked like one. Like a phantom or an illusion.
With the bottom of the cane behind him, the eloquent man cut off several blood-red strings as he dashed like a madman. His actions were panicked, yet his expression still was not.
And then, in what felt like barely even a second, the eloquent man was already upon Mysta, ready to deal her reckoning with a single cut.
The glimmer of her hazel eyes became momentarily brighter.
Just as he had been prepared to deal her reckoning, so was she, way before the man even thought of it.
A convergence point was made in the fabric of space.
The debris, scattered objects and ruined earthen spears laying about were a couple of feet shy of her, also ready to deal her reckoning through numerous cuts and stab wounds.
Mysta made sure that it didn't, solidifying her resolve and activating her spell: Fair Lady's Dew in the convergence point she had made…
Right where the eloquent man stood. A shadow of alarm passed over him.
"…!" Noticing this sudden shift in her mood and attitude, the eloquent man tried to step away, but a hidden pair of reinforced strings suddenly glimmered in the dark, around his right arm where the unusually sharp cane was held at.
For a second—no, even shorter than that, the eyes of the eloquent man reflected the confusion and despair that followed the very next second.
Fair Lady's Dew was a gravitation spell that required a convergence point in order to activate, and can be used to change the focal point of her blood-red strings and even increase their recall rate in exchange for relinquishment of further control and manipulation. It was a risky ability that drained her reserves to unnerving degrees, but was well worth the gambit should she succeed.
As her body suddenly felt sluggish and tired, Mysta struggled to even stand up as she watched several dozens of sharp earthen spears and hard debris of stone and concrete gravitate around the convergence point of Fair Lady's Dew, as if time had been rewound at a horrifying speed.
"…?! No—"
The debris and ruins flew, lodging itself deep into his body like dozen of sharp and macabre daggers. Several more flew and stabbed deep him, drawing crimson blood; which — rather than drip down and fall to the floor — confusingly stayed in placed and remained inside of the man's body, pushed… well, pulled into place by the overbearing force of Mysta's risky spell.
The eloquent man couldn't even kneel or fall to the floor, frozen in a gravitational lock as all sides pulled him into place, whether that be up, down, or from the sides. And made him unable to dodge or even move his arms and legs, let alone the tied up wrist and arm holding the deep black cane.
It was then that she realized her grave mistake.
Taking a deep breath, Mysta looked down with a reluctant nod, closing her eyes right afterward as an erratic bundle of blood-red strings sprouted from the center of her palms and swiftly formed a barrier by her feet.
"Ah… I messed up. Silly me, I knew I wasn't cut out for this."
Several tiny dagger lay by her feet, their blades triangular, and with a few set of simple words inlaid on their blades. They were glowing brightly and menacingly.
She wasn't the only one to make a gamble. The eloquent man had a few tricks up his sleeve, too.
'Goddammit.'
*BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM!*
All of them exploded in a cacophonous unison.