The Simulacrum

~Chapter 139~ Part 1

"Shit!" I growled as I beelined towards the spot where I originally Phased to the docks. It's been less than half a minute since I received the news, but with all the thoughts and fears overflowing in my head, it felt like a week. "Dormouse! Give me a sitrep! What's going on over there?"

"{Can't you check yourself?}"

"Running and Far Sight don't play well together," I hissed as I vaulted over a short fence.

"{Fair. There was a sniper aiming at Angeline. Joshua noticed it and pulled her to the ground, but he was hit in the shoulder.}"

"Noticed? How?"

"{Laser pointer sight.}"

"Ugh… Of course." I reached an isolated spot, but I double-checked for onlookers first. Meanwhile, another question slipped out. "Where are the rest of Praetorian Guards?"

"{Androcles is already at the scene.}"

"Who?"

"{The Praetorian Guard who wears swat-gear in school.}"

"You mean armour-guy."

"{Chief, you really need to fix your habit of not learning people's names.}"

"Not now, Dormouse!" I glanced around one last time, and seeing that no one followed me, I locked onto Josh's mark and Phased in.

It was at the edge of the suburbs of Timaeus, not far from the bus stop where the public transit line that goes up the mountainside passes through. Chances are, Josh and Angie were ambushed on their way back home from there. It's not a highly populated area, but it was still a residential district, so a battle here could turn out disastrous.

After arriving out of sight, I started running again and found Josh and armour-guy at the edge of a playground. My friend was lying on the ground, with a hand over his blood-soaked shoulder, and I practically flew down the street before coming to a screeching halt next to them.

"I came as soon as I heard there was trouble!" I announced my arrival, but to my further shock, I was stopped by a group of people I'd never seen before.

"Stop! Identify yourself!"

"Know your place, fools!" Armour-guy, clad in his Celestial armour and his shield at the ready, bellowed and then stepped in front of the group before giving me a salute. "Lord Archon, sir!"

It was only when I got closer that I realized that the people behind him were all wearing various kinds of robes. I figured they were people from the School. Lord Barnabas had mentioned something about a task force, but I pushed the thought aside for the moment and walked past them to reach Josh. Armour Guy followed right after me as I knelt to take a better look.

"Sir. The Justicar was hit by a kinetic projectile enhanced for Barrier penetration, sir. The perpetrators are still unaccounted for, so I recommend retreating to a more defensible location, sir."

"Thank you for the information," I responded absently while I looked over the guy on the ground. "How bad it is?"

"It stings a little," Josh replied and tried to flash a grin, but it turned into a pained grimace halfway through. "I used the healing magic Angie taught me. I'll be back on my feet soon, and then I'll wring the necks of those bastards, trying to snipe my girlfriend like that…"

"You've been shot, idiot. Don't try to act tough," I scolded him, and if he wasn't injured, I would've hit him over the head as well, for good measure. "I told Jaakobah to come here and patch you up. Sit tight until then and…"

It was at this point that something that I noticed something. Or rather, the lack of something.

"Wait. Where's Angie?"

"Sir, Her Grace set off to eliminate the assassins, sir, but—"

As if to punctuate his words, an explosion shook the ground under our feet, and when I looked up, what I saw made me do a double-take. The street, along with the playground, was bathed in golden light as everything was illuminated by three pairs of huge, shining wings up in the dark sky. At their center, a girl dressed in the familiar, asymmetrical Celestial outfit of Deus; with her bow drawn and an arrow made of brilliant light already nocked on the invisible bowstring.

"{Update: Ms. Yamako and Naoren Feilong arrived at the hideout. What should I tell them?}"

It took me a second to respond.

"Dormouse. We have bigger problems right now."

"{Wait, let me switch visual feeds.}" After a brief moment, my girlfriend let out a soft noise. "{… I'll give them the rundown and send them after Sir Percival and the Fauns.}"

"Please do."

"{Good luck with that.}"

"Thanks, I'll need it," I whispered through gritted teeth, but before I could come up with a plan of action, Angie let her arrow loose.

It was like an enormous flare that lit up the night sky as if it was daytime, and even more alarmingly, it seemed to be aimed at one of the multi-story apartment blocks across the playground and the small residences past it.

However, before it could make it even halfway, the enormous arrow of light impacted a series of hexagonal flat planes. Seemingly appearing out of nowhere, they were lined up between the projectile and its destination, and while it managed to pierce through some of them, it soon lost its lustre and fizzled out, plunging the area into street-lamp-lit twilight again.

Despite my eyes needing some time to adapt, I could still catch the moment when a huge, glowing gust of wind washed over the Celestial in the sky, causing her to careen around for a few seconds before she finally regained control again.

"You dare, mortals!?" she bellowed, loud enough so that it was audible even down here, and when I looked closer, I saw two more people in the sky.

"Dammit, you fool! I almost fell off!" Lord Ambrose yelled while standing atop another semi-transparent hexagonal magic shield, while Lord Gulliver was doing the same a fair distance away.

"Sorry, but the Ley Lines are a bit wonky here," the lanky man apologized while furiously waving his hands, moving the remaining magical panels around to provide cover for the two of them.

"Do you think I didn't notice!?" the bearded arch-mage yelled back, only to duck when an arrow flew past his head.

"Why do you stand in my way!?" Angie yelled even while she was nocking another arrow. Her voice was resonant, sounding both high-pitched and deep at the same time, like when an enormous speaker was cranked up to eleven, so even the tremble would shake your guts if you stood too close to it. "My enemies are in there! How dare you protect them!?"

"We can't let you level an entire apartment block just to catch some assassins!" Ambrose yelled back, and then moved to the side, surfing on his magical hexagon footing in a very familiar fashion to dodge an incoming arrow. "Hey, watch it!"

"If you stand in my way, then you're also my enemies!" Angie declared with literally fiery eyes and… was it time for me to admit that this was probably Deus at this point? No, let's not jump to conclusions yet.

I turned around and pointed at armour-guy, then Josh.

"Get him out of the open, then call for reinforcements. We need to evacuate this area."

"Sir, as you command, sir!" Armour-guy saluted and tried to help Josh off the ground, but the rest remained motionless, so I glared at the mages (even though they couldn't see it because of the helmet).

"What? Do you want a written request turned in in triplicate!? Get your asses moving!"

That finally got the anthill bustling, so I focused my gaze on the sky again. Angie was now focused on Ambrose, so after weighing my options, I decided to make a running start, and then jump before Phasing and landing on the other arch-mage's hexagonal panel.

"Whoa! What the—?!"

He turned to me, seemingly ready to strike, but when he recognized my armour, he blinked in utter confusion.

"Leonard? What are you doing here?"

"I jumped," I told him, and quickly moved on before he could start asking more questions. "What are you doing?"

"Currently? Trying to stop her from blowing up that whole building," he answered, pointing at the apartment block a couple hundred meters away from us. "That's where the shot came from, apparently."

"I don't mean that! Why are you fighting in the open?"

"Didn't have the time to set up a Restricted Field," he admitted, but then he pointed at trees. "Lord Taika is somewhere around down there, and she's using illusions to hide what's happening over here."

"Not good enough. Give me one of those floating thingies, and I'll distract her long enough for you to pull us all into a Purple Zone."

"{Restricted Field, Chief. If you tell him that, he won't understand.}"

He apparently did, because Gulliver nodded, and then frowned at me.

"Okay, I'll deploy a Restricted Space, but… You're a Celestial, right? Can't you fly over yourself?"

"Stop nitpicking me! We don't have the time!"

"Fine, fine!" After that, he quickly chanted something, and a new hexagonal plate appeared next to his. I hopped onto it without any hesitation, and once I was on board, it sped towards the spot where Angie and Ambrose were playing aerial cat-and-mouse with each other. Before I got too far though, the redhead arch-mage called after me. "You owe me one! Next time we're in the cafeteria, it's your treat!"

I didn't know how to respond to that, but I didn't have to, because Judy was still on the line with me.

"{Update: Battle Group One has encountered the Fauns on the outskirts of the industrial district.}"

"Do you mean Rinne and Naoren?"

"{Yes. Reinforcements are on the way there, and there's no sight of Sir Percival, over.}"

"That was quick. Keep me updated if there's a new development."

"{Roger. Central Command, out.}"

As usual, my dear assistant quickly got into her mission control roleplay. I didn't mind it, so long as it didn't negatively impact things, but the odd morsel of levity it provided did feel a little off, considering how tense and chaotic the situation was at the moment.

"Ha! Have a taste of my Atmospheric Ignition spell!" the bearded arch-mage yelled with considerable excitement, only to nearly bite his tongue when I cut between him and Angie. "What? Leonard! What are you doing here?!"

I ignored him and focused on the girl floating in front of me. She was wearing her full Deus outfit all right, and her three pairs of burning wings were on full display. They weren't beating, and she was perfectly still mid-air, but that's just how Celestial flight worked. It had more to do with show than aerodynamics. More importantly, her eyes were just a pair of pale yellow balls of light, their glow completely washing out her irises and pupils, yet I could still feel her gaze on me.

"Polemos?"

For a moment, I considered shifting over to my Celestial outfit, but I decided against it. Angie was currently unstable, so as much as I hated to consider it, a fight breaking out wasn't out of the question. While both outfits had physical enhancements and wards, armour was still armour. I also readied my phantom limbs and spread them out around me, just in case.

"Please, stand down," I told her, trying not to sound too threatening. "This battle is meaningless."

"They are the ones in my way!" she argued back, the intensity of the flames on her wings rising and falling with the volume of her voice. "I must kill the assassins before they can strike again!"

"Are you even listening to yourself?" I argued back and pointed at the apartment building. "You know that place is full of people, right?"

"It's… they're mortals," she responded, her flames waning as she grew more conflicted, but then her eyes coincidentally landed on Josh being carried away by armour-guy and they flared up again. "They aren't my people! I must protect those who belong to me!"

"Yes, and Josh could use your healing, so calm down. Let me deal with this."

"No," she declared flatly, her eyes now glowing with an even deeper golden colour. "We have made a promise. I would be the broad shield of protecting the lives of our people, and you would be the sharp spear to bring swift death upon our enemies. They… they hurt my Josh… ticar? Him. They hurt him, and I can't let them get away with it!"

Apparently, Angie was still in there, but it was hard to say what the current Angie-to-Deus ratio was without taking a closer look at her soul, which wasn't feasible right now. Still, I had to at least try to appeal to her better nature.

"Listen, this isn't you. I can't let you do something in the heat of the moment you'll regret later, so let's go down and talk it—"

And then, right in the middle of that sentence, my danger sense gave me the biggest, most blaring red flag I've received since… well, since I got an icicle in my stomach, really. It was so sudden that my brain could barely even process it, but my body acted on instinct and my torso reflexively twisted on its own. As if in slow-motion, I could swear I saw a glowing streak of pale light pass so close to my helmet I could practically feel the air current. Then, after what felt like an eternity, it was followed by the stomach-cramping sound of a distant gunshot.

Was… was I just shot at? Why? How? Weren't we supposed to be invisible up here? What was Lord Taika doing? Was I not under her spell? Or… shit, did I accidentally dispel her magic when I readied my phantom limbs? Argh! Why did it have to be guns, so late in the game!? Why couldn't the Simulacrum just stick to slow and ineffective magical arrows?

None of those questions had enough time to settle in my head before they were kicked over by the next one, and it all became inconsequential when the alarm bells in the back of my mind started blaring, drowning everything else out.

"They dare?!" Angie roared, her light once again turning night into day over the area, and the sheer amount of power she radiated was giving me goosebumps.

"Gulliver! Where's my Purple Zone!?" I yelled over to the arch-mage in the back.

"Almost do—!" He began, then shouted even louder. "Done! Deploying!"

A moment later, the world flashed in negative colours, then settled into a deep shade of purple. The sudden development made Angie's literal flames of wrath quiet down for a second, which I used to communicate with the arch-mages.

"Finally! I'll go and round up those goddamn assassins! Keep her bogged down for a few minutes!"

"What?!" Ambrose yelled after me and gesticulated at the ground. "Look at the color of this damned place! This is a hack job!"

"I did what I could on short notice," the lanky man on the other panel butted in, but the bearded arch-mage only scoffed.

"It doesn't matter! This whole Restricted Place would probably only hold out for ten minutes at most!"

I ignored his complaints, and only said, "Make sure you don't hurt her!" before I stepped off the platform and, before I could gather any momentum, I Phased over to Josh's side.

My appearance startled everyone present, which included Jaakobah and the rest of the Praetorian Guards as well. Considering the distance, they must've flown here after hearing the news, and they already secured a perimeter. We were under the roof of the nearby coach stop, and Josh was lying on a pair of benches pushed together to form a makeshift bed, with his blood-soaked shoulder already caked over, and I could see some adhesive bandages under the cloth.

"Lord Archon," Jaakobah greeted me with a grim expression, while someone else asked, "Wha? Where did he come from?"

"I was veiled under a spell by Lord Taika," I spoke off-handedly to stave off any further questions and, I turned to the dour man standing next to Josh. "How's he?"

"I already removed the bullet and stopped the bleeding, but he was shot by a projectile bearing a curse that hinders Celestial healing hymns." He paused, and glanced at the guy, then added, "Considering the circumstances, he was lucky. The bullet didn't penetrate deep; it was designed to pierce through Barriers, so the protective wards of his outfit provided effective resistance."

Right. Because of Angie's condition, the two of them were practically always in their modified Uniformers. The assassins must not have anticipate that. I turned to my friend, and while he was still pale as a sheet, he didn't seem to be in as much pain as before.

"How are you?"

"I feel like shit, and it still hurts." He paused and looked me in the eye. "I told you, I'll live. What's going on with Angie?"

"I stopped her from demolishing the neighbourhood for now, but it's a temporary measure at best. We need to catch those assassins before they run away."

Or get another shot, but that was beside the point.

"I'll help," Josh proposed, and tried to sit up, but I pushed him down.

"The patient should rest."

"No, I need to…" He strained against my hand, and I was startled to see that his eyes were glowing the same way as his girlfriend's. For him, it was only his sclera at this point, but I had a feeling it was going to get worse if I let him act.

I really couldn't waste any more time here. I made a split-second decision there and left Angie to the arch-mages to manage, but with every passing second of her in Deus-mode, the chances of her doing something stupid, destructive, or stupidly destructive were rising exponentially. And the least said about her merging with Deus… honestly, I had less to say about that, as I could only guess, but it was something to deal with after this situation was resolved.

"Lord Archon." I was just about to head out, but Jaakobah stopped me by falling to one knee. "I take full responsibility for the events that transpired here. It was my decision that left the Praetorian Guards unable to protect Her Grace. Please punish me as you see fit."

"Oh, for the love of… Stop it, and get up! We don't have time for this!" I hissed and forcefully dragged him to his feet. "We need to catch the assassins, now. That's the first priority. You guys, follow me. We're heading over to that apartment complex."

"Sir, with all due respect, sir," armour-guy interjected with a hand raised. "If we leave now, who will guard the injured Justicar, sir?"

"Call for reinforcements," I told him with a growl and then gestured for the rest. "All of you! Foll—!"

"{Chief! Urgent update!}" Judy cut me off mid-sentence. "{Neige and Agrawain tracked down Sir Percival. They are being overwhelmed.}"

I quickly raised a finger to my ear.

"You mean the Fauns, right?"

"{No, Neige and Agrawain,}" she clarified. "{Ms. Yamako and Naoren Feilong are still suppressing the Fauns at their hideout, and they can't back them up yet. I've called in other reinforcement, but it will take time for them to reach there.}"

"Reach where?" I blurted out, but instead of waiting for an answer, I used Far Sight to look at the scene, and I'm not going to lie, I was left flabbergasted for a second.

In what looked like a small factory with multiple production lines, Snowy was desperately trying to cover Raven Boy's retreat as he was being pursued by… about a dozen Celestials? Yeah, those hoplite uniforms made it impossible for them to be mistaken for anyone else. However, the shock and confusion of that was nothing compared to when Agrawain was sent flying by someone wearing a full suit of pitch-black armour, and wielding a familiar-looking spear.

The assailant hurriedly parried the icicles Snowy shot at him, allowing Raven Boy to get away for the moment, but then they were getting steadily surrounded by the Celestials being commanded by the armoured man, and…

"Fuck… That's Percival, isn't it?" I whispered under my breath, and seeing the plight of my sister and my… acquaintance no longer high on my shit-list, I had to make a decision. It didn't take long, and I gestured at Jaakobah. "Change of plans. You go ahead and secure the apartment building. Try to get as many of the residents out as you can in the process, but focus on capturing the assassins. I'll catch up with you later."

I turned to Josh next.

"And you. Stay put, okay?"

Josh glared at me with glowing eyes, but when I met his gaze, the lights in his eye-sockets subsided and he let out a thoroughly displeased, "Fine."

I didn't wait any longer, and dashed away from the bus stop, about to open a new front in this whole stupid situation. The feeling of déjà vu in the back of my mind would've been amusing, if not for the fact of how infuriating and dangerous this whole thing was shaping up to be. But then again, what else was I expecting? Chances are, things were going to get much, much worse before they'd get any better.