Chapter 32: Error vs Error
Chapter Text
Chapter thirty-two: Error vs. Error.
When the light finally receded, all that the Error could see was a wasteland cratered and tainted into a pitch-black color.
It melded perfectly with the darkness and twilight light still conglomerating in the distance and contrasted with the sun shining brightly in the sky.
This scene lasted only for a moment before it started to be consumed once again by the darkness and orange rays of twilight.
What Amon had just unleashed was the attack that the Fool had used against him in their final confrontation for Sefirah Castle.
One that had been stolen when 'He' had presented a moment of weakness.
The God of Deceit looked over at the charred wasteland, finding that it would be covered in shadows soon enough, only the storm appeared to have been somewhat affected with a considerable area of it disappearing.
'He' narrowed his eyes at the sight, recognizing that this wasn't related to the fall of the supernova.
'It was stolen? The strange me might have been able to do so… but at the level of a sequence 2 he will need to release it soon.'
The Error Amon, acknowledging that neither himself, nor his assailants could allow each other to escape, finally decided to forgo retreating through the Spirit World. Though, this didn't mean not to prepare an escape plan, after all, 'He' was dealing with extremely anomalous beings.
'He' then directed his vision to a spacious, undefined area of the revolving darkness. 'We also seem to have an audience… quite a numerous one at that.'
Not only that, the remnant darkness of the Evernight Goddess, far from being a danger to the figures, appeared to be both instinctually covering for them. Naturally, this authority gave the Error an idea of the observer's identity.
'Servant of Concealment… maybe even higher…'
Amon then gestured, about to steal the distance and see for himself who was daring to spy on him.
If it turned out to be a hidden ally, then both the Fool and 'His' false self would be forced to reappear. And if it turned out to be someone unrelated, then this might help 'Him' create new avenues to derail their plans.
'Either way I win.'
As 'He' finished to reach for the position, a sudden door of starlight appeared in front of him, with a timeless dimensional void reaching forward towards the deity.
The Error instantly changed directions, going up into the barely illuminated sky.
The figure of the man dressed in a black trench coat instantly reappeared, being illuminated by the lightning and twilight, fully revealing 'Himself' in front of the God of Deceit. 'He' was holding a cane embedded with gems, and deeply irradiated the essence of a Planeswalker.
Klein suddenly appeared in front of the deity, utilizing the recreation ability of the sealed artifact to conglomerate a brass-colored sword that rose high in the sky.
Deprivation fell upon the God of Deceit!
Naturally, the Error easily stole it and released it the next instant, now aimed at the Attendant of Mysteries. Klein tried to evade it, but the Cane of Stars suddenly appeared on the Error Amon's hands.
The Fool then made a gesture towards 'Him' as if trying to pull the staff from the thief's hands.
Instantly, a sting was felt by the deity, making 'Him' drop the sealed artifact, allowing it to evaporate in a bout of gray fog, and examine his state. There were only ringed Worms of Time, without any apparent anomalies.
Without the Cane of Stars, the Sword of Deprivation inevitably fell upon Klein's figure, with only a faint Gray Fog covering him from being affected by the Error Authority, leaving only a Paper figurine to be pierced and thoroughly disintegrated.
'He' then reappeared a few hundred meters away, intently looking at Amon while taking out a new historical projection.
This time the Error didn't intend on allowing the Fool to finish, accommodating the monocle on his right eye as he performed a theft of his beyonder abilities.
Soon, the Fool stopped trying to pull something from the Historical Void, instead taking out a real charm with teleportation abilities and disappearing from the spot towards the further edge of the barren land.
The Error Amon checked to see which abilities had been stolen, expecting the Historical Void Projection and Wishing abilities to be there.
Only for the former to be absent, a magician's underwater breathing being in its place!
A mocking laughter resounded.
The Angel of Redemption, who had been watching from the sidelines, finally decided to appear, looking at his deific counterpart with a mocking smile.
'He' had been the one to exchange Klein's fate, from having his access to the Historical Void stolen to only losing the Underwater Breathing, although this came at the cost of being him unable to use Wishes until the Theft ended.
"Noticed something?" the Blasphemer taunted the deity, before taking out a yellowish skull with rotting crystal-like skin hanging over it from within a bag inlaid with starlight, activating it before the deity could steal it.
Something within the Darkness invertedly resonated with it.
'Oh?' Thought the angel, making a note of following the source at another time.
That instant, a rotten bronze door appeared in front of 'Him', extending itself from within the Underworld while entering communion with something high above in the depths of space. It released countless pathogens that targeted spirituality and flesh.
Soon, the pathogens mutated, growing bones and feathers while small putrid serpents coiled around them, enlarging until the whole sky appeared to be covered in grotesque burial masses.
The Error let out a dry laugh, soon trying to steal the masses from the sky, only to find a faint amount of energy of his own pathway moving around the barren lands, with some of it trying to block the theft.
'He' instantly connected it to the feeble resistance of the Trojan Horse of Fate own theft which was enhanced by Fate Exchange and the Worm of Mysteries inside him.
'Oh, how the mighty have fallen…' The former Error lamented with a wry smile.
In this instant, each of the burial masses grew a hand, pulling an iron black revolver from within the Historical Void, promptly overcharging it with spirituality as the flesh crawled over the barrels.
These were all now Marionettes of the Fool, who using the Faceless abilities had reformed both the Historical Projection of Death Knell and the Burial Masses into hundreds of guns that channeled the power of the Second Law and the Death Pathway that remained inside the Sealed Artifact carried by Amon.
Each powered by the Spirituality of the King of kings of Angels, these weapons had the natural potential to damage even a True God!
They all shot at once, and with the Angel of Redemption partially blocking 'Him', the Error would undoubtedly be reached by a considerable amount of the accursed bullets.
"Tsk."
This made the deity's expression be mired with annoyance.
Then, a gargantuan phantom appeared, blanketing the sky in the figure of an ancient clock divided into twelve sections of time.
Followed by the ticking sound of a grandfather clock, making each and every bullet, alongside the two archangels stop in cold, suspended in the air by an invisible force.
The Error's Uniqueness had established its authority over the land!
The God of Deceit promptly stole every single one of the frozen accursed bullets and burial masses, holding onto them to avoid a new activation of the sealed artifact still in Amon's hand.
'He' then stole the distance between himself and the Fool, leisurely appearing in front of the struggling Attendant of Mysteries.
"You know, I am indeed interested in how you returned…"
'He' then narrowed his eyes, looking deeply into the cold black abyss that encased madness. "Could it be that you aren't anything, but the simple recreation of a personality made by Sefirah Castle, moving according to its will and not yours?"
A grin appeared once again on the Error's face, getting gradually more pronounced, unnaturally stretching his mouth until it nearly ruptured.
'He' continued. "I, I thoroughly killed you… and I enjoyed it just as much."
"You should have seen her face… all that guilt, all that pain! It all conglomerated in the moment when she realized that the man she was trying to save… was the same deity she had decided to betray."
"Don't you remember! The blood on her hands was yours!"
The Fool's eyes narrowed with great strain.
"I'll tell you a secret my brother told me… she was the plan all along… the convenient arrangement, the convenient weakness that accomplished her role at the last moment!"
"From her indoctrination by the Psychological Alchemists, to her seeking to contribute to your Tarot Club, and even her initial feelings towards you! All of it was set from the start!"
The Error started to laugh with intensity, each time moving closer to Klein's frozen figure. 'He' in turn, could only look at the God of Deceit as he reached for the Crystal Monocle on his face.
Even if from time to time the restraints of the Error Uniqueness trembled, the sequence 0 was finally able to suppress the King of kings of Angels who hadn't borrowed the strength of his Sefirot in time.
"Want to know something? After waking up I've been gathering information, mostly about the state of the world, I was extremely surprised to see her appear time and time again…"
The Fool felt the Error's worms start to crawl into his Spirit Body, enacting the process of infection, which would soon convert him into one of his avatars.
"Within every crisis, every revolt, every suppression. Each time that a collective desire appeared, and every time that a powerful figure in the world moved… she was there, but not of her own will."
"Everyone has a fate, and hers is nothing more than being a tool."
"The accursed scion of the God Almighty." 'He' finished, with every trace of the former smile having been erased from his face, with only an expression filled with derision replacing it.
Finally, the Fool stopped struggling, taking out a crystal monocle and placing it over his left eye.
The Error suddenly felt a connection towards a hidden space high above, with thick gray fog filling the place and pushing back against the darkness and twilight.
'Sefirah Castle…' 'He' smiled with satisfaction, and then turned to look at the still suspended Angel of Redemption before finally cancelling the Uniqueness effect upon the land.
The Error Amon looked at his anomalous self and started speaking in a condescending tone. "I would have really taken him as my blessed."
It prompted a chuckle from the Angel of Redemption. "Please don't be like that to me, I'm still you after all, a different version though."
"Don't worry, you'll follow him soon enough." Said the deity as 'He' reached once again for the monocle on his right eye.
"Wait." The angel interrupted in a nonchalant tone, taking out an apple to bite into before continuing. "You see, I am genuinely worried… how could 'He' lose to you?"
"You are using honorifics now?" The Error, followed closely by the grinning avatar of the Attendant of Mysteries, spoke in a mocking tone. "Even more, why bother trying to stall? the strange worm inside you has disappeared with his death… there is nothing stopping me from just making you me, considering that you are already me."
"Heh, you see… I'm mostly worried about how as a deity, even with all of 'His' arrangements… you haven't noticed you've put a parasite inside yourself?"
The Error Amon promptly reviewed his Spirit Body, finding once that again only ringed worms that formed his Mythical Creature Form crawled on the inside.
"Oh no, you see… you won't find a single one of those that isn't a Worm of Time…" Amon corrected his deific self. "But that doesn't mean that all of them belong to you."
"But how? He was just an Attendant of…" 'He' started to mock, only to be interrupted by a sudden eruption of energy.
The Error, feeling the spirituality of his own pathway erupt from behind him, turned to see the avatar standing behind lunge at him, grasping at his face with a pair of black gloves.
The Fool, still adorned with a crystal monocle, looked at Amon with a maddened smile.
Soon, a cocoon formed of deep bluish starlight enveloped them, with the black gloves released the stolen storm. The parasitized Klein then shouted with Amon's voice. "Leodero!"
'The Door Pathway!' Amon grasped with alarm.
At that instant, countless white snakes materialized from within the storm inside the cocoon, ripping and burning the two of them apart.
This wasn't only the storms inherent strength, it had been Magnified to a scandalous level, with the Fool completely disregarding his own safety in the process.
This naturally damaged the Fool far more than the Error, leaving his body charred and with missing limbs. Still, 'His' nearly disintegrated arms held tightly onto Amon's face, with the black gloves maintaining the partial parasitism.
Even in this state, Klein wasn't finished.
"Leodero!"
"Leodero!"
"Leodero!"
Again and again, 'He' shouted the Tyrant's name until the surrounding storm had virtually emptied its energy, with each flash a part of their bodies turning into ash, making a charred smell fill the cocoon alongside a black smoke.
In the end, the cocoon was erased, and only the Error's scorched figure could be seen standing in the air.
'He' had bloodshot eyes, a missing arm and the monocle on his right eye had been cracked, revealing the constantly flowing energies that twisted reality, breaking it down.
"Pfff." Laughed the Angel of Redemption.
At that moment, 'He' transformed his size, becoming as large as a mountain and crushing the land below with a deafening blow that threatened to make the whole of the highlands cave in.
"That won't do you any good!" Taunted the Angel of Redemption, finally accomplishing a final Fate Exchange. "About to lose control! With a parasite still inside you! The sensitive thing to do is to escape!"
The Error, ignoring the angel's words, reached for 'Him', intending on crushing this Bug before dealing with the Fool's remaining arrangements.
The Angel of Redemption swiftly used a charm previously activated to avoid the attack, continuing with 'His' taunting. "You know, before coming here I checked to see who was going to win this battle…. Want to know?"
The gargantuan figure didn't answer, only reaching once again for 'Him', this time stealing the charms and crushing them as to avoid giving him the opportunity to escape.
That didn't stop 'Him' from finishing the taunt.
"The one who wins this fight… is the Error!" 'He' said, as if condemning the deity.
The Error Amon stopped for a moment, naturally trying to understand what this meant. It was as if 'His' thoughts were filled with glue, each and every one of the countless ringed worms being swallowed by something terrifying.
'He' realized that this wasn't something that had started just now, but an effect that had been slowly eroding him from a while ago!
The Fooling Authority!
'He' turned to leave, to run away towards a place that could erase the Fool's corruption while giving him a chance to escape.
'The Abyss!' 'He' thought, instantly taking a step into the Astral World and disappearing from the Highlands of the Southern Continent.
This was another mistake!
The next moment, a thick gray fog surrounded 'Him', and a sinister tentacle pierced through his chest, causing the Error to vomit countless worms that showed signs of being partially devoured by something.
'He' felt them inside, worms that slowly consumed him, that controlled his spirit threads, that conjoined every and all copies of himself, unifying them into a sole existence.
The Error, excluding the Angel of Redemption, was the only Amon that remained in this world.
'He' then felt a terrible existence behind him, sensing within the Error Uniqueness, then the Fool's and finally the Door's. All accommodated inside 'Him'.
'He' felt the Aura of a subjugated Sefirah Castle, which had been grafted into the Astral World to capture Amon utilizing the connection he had created when he parasitized Klein.
The deity was forcibly turned around, seeing a dark stone chair where a figure sat in silence and with 'His' eyes closed.
'He' slowly opened his eyes, a golden luster shining forth.
As if the veil had been lifted of 'His' mind, the Error Amon instantly understood the meaning of his counterpart's words, the Error would indeed win this fight… but who was the greater Error?
A deity of this pathway, the sequence 0? Normally, that would be the answer.
But now another option had presented itself.
A man who had been reborn through an anomaly that seemed to break every law of this world.
A being that bore the Error's Uniqueness even though there was already a deity of this pathway.
A creature who disregarded History, Fate and Time through the complete expanse of the universe.
The greatest offense to reality, was the Lord who made falsehood into truth… and truth into falsehood.
And a whirlwind, a vortex of countless maggots, tentacles and symbolic appendixes formed high above in the Astral World, as if finding the ceiling from where the stars had been hanged, weaving a pupilless eye at its center.
The Door of Light stood in front of the Error, closing onto him.
Consuming 'Him' with darkness and madness.
The Error had been extinguished.
***
It only took a moment for Klein's figure to reappear once again the barren land, reuniting with a nonchalant Angel of Redemption.
"It is indeed a success!" Amon said in a slightly sardonic tone. "Ah, yes Mr. Fool, I would as for this one to not count, as it wasn't really me though! Just a false, weaker version."
The Fool looked at 'Him' with coldness, snapping his fingers as a renewed Worm of Mysteries engraved itself within Amon's Spirit Body.
'Ugh… he has adapted far too well to the Error Pathway…'
Amon had initially been reluctant to the plan to hunt the Error, considering that it entailed parasitizing him without him realizing. This was, normally, an impossible endeavor.
And if 'He' used a Sinner's ability and returned to the state of being a dual-pathway true god, not only would they have to fight against the Error, but the Door Bethel Abraham would also be alerted.
Klein's own strategy was to enhance the spirituality of the Error within the Angel of Redemption, making him a bait for the deity's curiosity.
This would, in turn, give 'Him' an opportunity to hide his own Worm of Time characteristic, using it to inconspicuously infect each of the Historical Projections and Marionettes sent, and most importantly stolen by the Sequence 0.
'He' even applied this to the Wishing ability stolen by the Error.
The Cane of Stars had been a preliminary approach, both making the Error Amon notice the anomaly and, through the previous use of the projected Quill of Alzuhod the false Fool Uniqueness, make him overlook the slowly burrowing parasites.
After that, 'He' feigned losing the Historical Projection ability, preparing for when the angel Amon took out the sealed artifact of the Second Law and Death Pathways, ready to turn them into marionettes them and infect them.
Finally, Klein exchanged the Worm of Mysteries from within Amon and onto himself, pushing the God of Deceit into using the false Error Uniqueness.
The flowing energies masked those of the hidden Black Gloves, allowing Klein to protect himself for the next part of the plan.
As 'He', a King of kings of Angels, was naturally connected to the false Sefirah Castle, and this connection would necessarily transfer to the Error Amon when he parasitized the Fool.
After that, through the nearly suicidal attack of the Magnified Storm, Klein managed to make the Error retreat through the Astral World.
There, the Lord of Mysteries would be waiting.
'I still believe it was far too reckless… but that might have been Chapter 34: O Captain! My Captain!
Notes:
Hello again!
Argh, too many fights... I am dried and dead as a result X=X
This chapter continues with Klein reaction to the High Priestess, some Lumian update (my boy is doing side quests QuQ), and a reunion/reveal with very important people!
Also, this chapter is extremely self indulging, even for my own standards, so yeah, sorry if that bothers you!
Also, Mr. Star + Mr. Fool vs Madam High Priestess!!
Please enjoy!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Chapter Thirty-four: O Captain! My Captain!
'The High Priestess…' The Fool acknowledged on the inside.
The reversed symbolism of this card was closely related to the loss or misdirection of intuition, secrets and deception, alongside an inflicted passivity or inaction.
All of which were applied over Klein in one way or another.
'I see… so she has probably been affecting me from the first time I met with the Justice…'
This also revealed that 'She' truly knew about the inner workings of 'His' mind and character, exploiting them to the utmost to manipulate him, even without knowing specific memories or objectives.
This was a deep application of the Discernment Authority of the Spectator.
'Butt why would she reveal herself now? To win what?' 'He' questioned with narrowed eyes.
The High Priestess, while trying to calm her emotions down, asked a question with a warm but worried tone. "Why… why did you come here, into this world?"
Klein kept his silence.
"Don't be like that to me… please…" 'She' sighed.
'Her' voice while calm on the outside, appeared to be tainted with exasperation.
'Her' gaze turned to the side as another lightning hit the overgrowth that covered the manor, promptly lighting a spark that soon turned into a small fire. A fire that naturally spread thanks to the specific angle of the rain and the current of the wind.
"I was really worried about you…" 'She' continued. "After finally and truly meeting with you at the Eden's Cathedral… I, I suppose you could say I got too emotional…"
'Her' gaze remained soft, although a hint of fluster managed to escape her control. "I, hah, I was extremely jealous…why can she have you all to herself? Why can she ask for your love so brazenly while I'm groveling with guilt?"
The fire spread through the walls of the opposing side of the manor, as if they had been doused with oil beforehand.
"But soon I understood… everything that might have made you want to protect me, to love me, to forgive me… I had given all of that to her." 'She' looked to the side once again and another lightning fell.
It then ignited the manor's entrance.
"In a sense, I had stopped being myself… it was only right that I took everything back… everything that is mine, and mine alone."
The flames enclosed onto the room through the hallway.
"Including you." 'She' finished.
The Fool let out a resigned sigh, standing straight against the High Priestess.
"I suppose this makes things simpler… for now at least." 'He' said, tightly grasping at the Cane inlaid with Starlight, continuing with a calm but hoarse voice. "I'll make this painless."
Audrey's eyes turned cold and uncaring once again. It was with these eyes that 'She' gave 'Him' a warm smile, while presenting the tender white skin of her neck as if to taunt his attack.
A new lightning struck the floor below the room.
All it took was an instant for Klein to reach 'Her' position, slashing downwards with the Door Uniqueness that he had summoned from the Historical Void.
Only to hear the tossing of a coin at the edge of the room, making 'Him' lose his footing and be grabbed by countless horrifying hands that surged from within the shadows.
But the hands only managed to reach for a paper figurine that soon turned into blood.
Now at the edge of the room, Klein turned towards the Uniqueness of the Wheel of Fortune, now in the shape of a silver coin, and reached out to steal it from within the hold of the shadowed arms.
But the moment it landed on 'His' hands, it started to go array, as if angered to be taken out of the grasp of its owner. It trampled with Klein's luck, leaving him open to the whims of the Author's narration.
The High Priestess let out a chuckle, as if finding the tantrum of the Uniqueness amusing.
'She' then started to make a prophecy. "Mr. Fool's luck had been gravely affected, and because of this his grasp over the Historical Void had been disturbed, making it so that only objects of extremely low level or close to him could be summoned."
At that instant, the Cane inlaid with Starlight became unstable, dissipating in a bout of Gray Fog.
This happened because, while 'His' main body had obviously accommodated the Door's symbolism, his present existence still used the Historical Projection, becoming susceptible to changes in luck.
This also meant that the Fool and Error Uniqueness were also barred from being summoned!
Still, this didn't mean that 'He' was out of options, as this effect would only last a few moments at most and resisting 'Her' for that long was still feasible.
'She' was naturally aware of this, making haste of her next action and summoning a large vortex from within countless shadowy figures started to rise up from. It spread through the floor, the walls and the ceiling, until it covered the burning structure of the manor.
The next moment, it all collapsed into chaos.
Klein levitated over the devastation, reaching out to grasp the space surrounding the High Priestess at the center of the vortex and promptly utilizing the Authority of the Door to crush it.
'Her' figure bent under the pressure, as if an invisible hand was grasping her whole body.
And yet, an elated smile was plastered all over 'Her' face, as if finding enjoyment in 'His' actions. Soon 'He' found out that the pressure was unable to crush the draconian body of the High Priestess, at which point she opened her mouth.
"The pressure of the Spatial Authority was great, enough for it to materialize! To become something real and physical!"
Klein narrowed his eyes, confused as to why 'She' would utter such words.
Only to receive an answer when 'Her' eyes turned into a maddened golden canvas with vertical slits, as countless scales covered her body and soul.
The High Priestess then let out a terrible growl that made not only the Fool, but everything existing within the vortex and reality start to feel awe and panic, as if her Mythical Creature form had been unveiled.
'She' then forced the now fearful authority backwards with nothing but her bare hands.
This was the utmost strength that a Mind Dragon below the Visionary level could display!
The sudden cancelation of 'His' Authority in such a violent manner made it so that Klein was victim of the resulting shockwave, sending him flying towards the edge of the vortex.
'He' didn't resist, understanding that this had been an accumulation of both 'Her' connection to the Chaos Sea to instill a "consciousness" to the Authority, and the subsequent enhancement to her physique.
'Similar to what Adam did to Gehrman Sparrow…'
The Fool then felt the Distortion in the Spirit World get more and more pronounced, signaling that the Black Emperor would soon be making a descent.
The High Priestess appeared to sense this as well, her expression hardening with annoyance and anger, and a terrible mental pressure exuding from within her surroundings.
'He' looked back at 'Her' with narrowed eyes, paying close attention to her actions as he forced an entrance into the distorted Spirit World.
'She' only let out a sigh, promptly reaching towards the shadows.
Inside the Spirit World the undercurrents and exaggerated colors were al tainted with a turbulent black whirlwind which pushed all things out of the area that corresponded itself with Backlund.
This was what 'He' wanted, perfectly timing his own movement as he was dragged towards the edge of the distortion.
When 'He' finally felt that the ban on the summoning of high-level objects from the Historical Void had ended, Klein took out the Door Uniqueness once more and swung it against the black whirlwind.
A wound was opened, and the Fool promptly disappeared inside it.
***
Back at the Highlands, a sudden crack appeared on the air, melding both reality and the Spirit World. The next moment, the Seven of Wands was thrown out of the fissure, being propelled at a speed that would have killed most demigods.
He was like a burning bullet that collided time and time again with the ground, releasing azure flames in the opposite direction with the hope of stopping the momentum.
Still, with the speed at which he had been thrown out of the Spirit World, Lumian managed to make a "scouting" of nearly the whole barren Highlands before crashing into a mountain.
The Iron Blooded Knight lay embedded onto the side of the elevated terrain. His head pounded as if it was about to be split open.
"Son of a… sow…" Lumian cursed at Amon.
Naturally, the Angel of Redemption had been the one responsible for launching Lumian out of the Spirit World, but not without reason!
As the two of them were transported using the Door guided by Fate that the Fool had conjured for them, the Blasphemer had sensed a disturbance inside the Spirit World.
What followed was an attack.
An envoy of Inevitability, one with the same strength as the original Termiboros but different from him, had ambushed them using this false world's connection with the River of Fate.
Considering that Lumian, as a sequence 4, wasn't going to be of much use in the fight against another Archangel, Amon had decided to throw him out of the Spirit World, using its undercurrents to forcefully remove him from the battlefield.
The Worm of Mysteries, although of limited reasoning, understood the Blasphemer's intentions, foregoing the option to kill it at that moment.
The Seven of Wands started to rise slowly from the crater, with each movement straining his already tired body.
When he finally managed to unbury himself from the mountain, Lumian looked over at the darkness mixed with orange lights and crowned by deep storms.
He then promptly let out a chuckle, lighting a small orange flame to keep the darkness at bay while merging with the landscape.
"I suppose there are worse places to be… hah, what am I going to say to Mr. Fool?" He rambled. "No… 'He' might have already foreseen this… I hope 'He' has…"
Lumian moved slightly, not wishing to remain stationary for too long.
'I'll pray to Mr. Fool after moving to a better location…' He thought, looking over at the darkness revolving in the distance. 'After all, I doubt I can leave this place on my own…'
He was just worried about his flame attracting too much attention.
And this worry soon proved to be justified, as a bullet bathed with Black Flames nearly reached the side of his head, with Lumian saving himself with a last-minute movement to the side.
'Demoness!'
A Demoness' Black Flames!
Lumian instantly hid behind a large rock, grasping at one of the distended stones in the floor while covering it with black iron.
Soon a whistling sound reappeared in the distance, taking less than a second to reach the large rock and explode with the impact. Naturally, this repeated many more times, each dissolving more and more of Lumian's only barrier.
In the end, only a cloud of dust remained, melding with the soil and the darkness.
A cloud from which a projectile suddenly appeared, a distended stone covered by black iron and propelled by azure flames!
It flew even faster than the bullets, taking only an instant to reach the approximate zone from where the sniper had been aiming from, promptly enveloping in a violent explosion.
Lumian then surged from within the smoke, his body enveloped in an armor of black iron that emanated azure flames, and broke into a sprint towards the place he suspected the bullets had been fired from.
His intuition proved to be correct, as another barrage was launched against him from the hill in the distance.
With a smirk, Lumian created a great shield from black iron, deliberately clashing against the bullets, and creating large curtains from the smoke of the explosions.
His intention was to create a cover for him to use teleport, catching them by surprise!
But as if his plans had been seen through, the bullets suddenly stopped letting the smoke and dust dissipate for a moment before a small slim projectile flashed with countless silver streaks.
It fully revealed the shooter's exact position.
A powerful lightning round rushed in front of Lumian's eyes, transforming into a small star that decomposed into thousands of branches of light. All aimed at the iron black armor.
Lumian made a gamble.
While the sharpshooter had seemingly suspected that the Hunter's evasion was related to the rise in the dust, they couldn't know about his teleportation abilities!
So, he activated the black mark on his shoulder, directly aiming at the sniper's nest in the mountain.
The armored figure of the Seven of Wands reappeared in the sky, falling towards a figure kneeling on the ground, a woman with her face concealed by a brown and gray gas mask, aiming through a rifle adorned with electric coils and dark symbols.
Suddenly, as if advised to do so, the sniper turned the rifle upwards and shot without looking.
An explosive bullet of black fire struck Lumian's armored arms, forcing him to shed this part of the armor, with its pieces falling by the sides of the sniper.
'This reaction time… a demigod! And while I'm dealing with a woman, she isn't the demoness!' He soon recognized with a sense of urgency.
The Seven of Wands hastily put down a plan, and exploded with blue flames that covered the sky, illuminating the whole mountain and propelling him once again close to the shooter.
There was no way for her to evade!
But just as Lumian's fiery fist was about to collide with the sniper, she then cracked into countless mirror shards. But this was something to be expected, making him redirect the attack from a hit into a curtain of flames that spread through the hill.
The sound of a shattering mirror resounded once again.
Lumian planned to keep bombarding the sniper until either he scored a kill or made her retreat, which most likely would also force the Demoness to leave.
The Seven of Wands raised his hands once again, powerful azure flames compressing deep into his fists and ready to be unleashed against the terrain once again.
Only to be then tied with countless invisible threads!
Still, he wasn't surprised by this development, instead reaching and grabbing the threads with his flaming hands, instantaneously contesting against the Demoness while lightning them up!
A grunt resounded close by, with an exceptionally beautiful woman appearing from the shadows.
She had a round face with slender eyes, and her lustrous black hair moved with great vitality as she cut her connection with the burning threads.
Lumian's eyes widened. 'If she managed to cut the connection in time and not be dragged alongside the blue flames… then she isn't a support, she must at least be one sequence higher than me!'
This meant that this was a Demoness of Unaging!
The woman looked over at Lumian, her eyes narrowed as if gauging him, before offering a faint but refined smile that carried many kinds of bewitching prospects!
Charm!
Lumian resisted with a feeble bombardment, barely enough to avoid the deeper effects!
But this left him open to an attack! And this was an opportunity that the shooter didn't waste, reappearing from the clouds of dust that had risen from the explosion, now aiming at him with a small silver clock!
An aqueous ray of light shot towards him, passing through his defenses and embedding itself on his skin. At that instant, the Hunter felt his mind turn sluggish and his arms moved by themselves, slowly removing the armor covering his body.
Lumian soon managed to recover from the sudden parasitic control, but by that point most of his armor had already dissolved into molten iron.
This gave the shooter enough time to take out another weapon. It had two dark brown barrels that had many engravings of volatile and explosive symbolism.
Lumian hastily created a great shield for his body and took out a single charm from his traveler's bag.
But it was soon ripped apart the moment she pressed the trigger, as countless cones of orange light instantaneously crushed the black iron shield, pushing Lumian back into the mountain.
The smoke and dust created a curtain once again, but this time the shooter didn't stop, opening the gun to reload a large round embedded with the energies of Twilight.
She aimed the gun towards the place where Lumian had been buried and fired without hesitation, releasing another hurricane of light out of the barrel of the gun.
In the end, a whole section of the mountain had been erased and the sequence 4 Alchemist panted after using the weapon that consumed a great deal of her energy, cogitating to recover the spent spirituality in a hasty manner.
"Good! Very good Miss Strength!" The voice of the Demoness resounded on the Strength's ears.
"It took two Twilight bullets to bring him down…" She sighed with frustration while taking off the gas mask that obscured her features. She was a woman in her mid-twenties, with dark-brown hair and eyes.
"I'll have to ask Mr. Sun to help me craft more after we go back…" She whispered.
The Strength stood straight while looking over at the damage she had caused, and then turned to speak at the silent figure of the Demoness. "Empress, have they fin-."
"Hmm? Someone talking? They must be very disrespectful… a very naughty child." The Empress interrupted, taunting a reaction out of the Strength like an annoying elder sister.
"I beg of you, Trissy, not now." The Strength growled, her irritation with recent events reaching a boiling point.
"Aww, but you are so cute when you are angry! Even more, I was genuinely praising you!" Retorted the Demoness. "There aren't many that win in a firepower contest against an Iron Blooded Knight. Yes, this is valuable experience for you! All thanks to your dearest Madam Empress!"
The annoyed Strength looked at the Empress with narrowed eyes before turning back at the place where the Seven of Wands had been buried, the smoke and dust having already dissipated.
'He should be dead… yeah, you need to have even greater durability to survive that attack…' She concluded, proudly starting to walk towards the place where Lumian was supposed to have died.
'I hope you become a really nice, sealed artifact… I promise to treat you better than when you were alive…' She pictured with slight childishness.
When the Strength reached the center of the buried area, she turned to see a shadow plastered, burned onto the wall.
But no trace of the Hunter!
It was at this moment that both Miss Strength and Madam Empress felt their respective minds start to realize some things about the earlier battle, strange incongruencies that would have made it many times more difficult for them to win.
They had been fooled!
It was faint and superficial, but enough for the Hunter's conspiracies to bear fruit!
"Melissa!" Screamed the Empress, rushing towards the place where the Hunter had been buried.
But then, the figure of the Seven of Wands lifting the Strength could be seen in the sky. The Hunter had successfully taken her weakened self as a hostage!
The two instantly disappeared, leaving the lone Empress Trissy with widened eyes. This only lasted a moment, because she then made a small ice altar and put two Tarot Cards over it.
The Star and the Sun.
When Trissy injected her spirituality into it, they glowed, and two figures instantly appeared by her side, one covered by a dark cloak and sporting a pair of old red gloves, and another one towering high above like a giant.
Both exuding the aura of a complete Mythical Creature.
The Red Gloves looked at the giant, promptl