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Chapter 84
🕑 Added 2025-10-04 15:53:58 +0000 UTCA/N: Had to write these while juggling with guests so don't hesitate to point it out if the quality isn't up to par. I'll rewrite them if that's the case.
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As more and more twisted roots burst forth from the snow, a sudden realization dawned on me.
Much like this living forest hellbent on killing us and feeding on our blood, the Rail Zeppelin was also something like a child of one such Ancient Dead Apostle.
According to my Professor, and now Karabo, the superior of these painted the very world with their twisted alien logic and supplanted the truth of science with their own. Verily then, stepping into this forest was like venturing into a different world entirely.
If the train was the same, then the clash of their individual ‘truths’ was decidedly enough to deceive the world in such a capacity that a system from far away could be momentarily deceived into activation. That activation was what summoned Hephaestion.
But, the ritual was flawed.
There was no guarantee that the deceived system would choose the caster as a Master. In fact, if the ritual was enacted another time, there was a decent chance that the Professor, who was already familiar with that system, would be chosen as the Master.
I put a hand to my chin, “I wonder… Hey Karabo, do you know who the master of the Rail Zeppelin was?”
The elderly Executor frowned for a moment.
The roots headed for him, and for us were torn to shreds, sliced perfectly even as though an expert chef had taken them to the cutting board. Yvette squealed again, squirming exaggeratedly.
“I think I cam-“
“Her name is Rozay-En. Rita Rozay-En. To my knowledge, she was attacked by the Grand, Touko Aozaki, some time ago and her whereabouts have been unknown since. Many suspect she died, or was at least grievously wounded.”
That made sense. Touko was a woman I couldn’t get even a bit of a grasp on. She took poorly to the slightest insult, but at times, let go of the most insane grievances with a shrug. She was crazy. But, she was accomplished and powerful enough that she had the right to be as whimsical as she was.
“How does this affect our predicament?” Karabo asked calmly, hands behind his back.
I snorted, flicking my finger to carve apart a score of the dead trees, “It doesn’t. But, our current ‘predicament’ isn’t really a predicament at all, is it? All we have to do is wait for it to stop throwing a tantrum.”
If his information was right, which it probably was judging by his experience in such fields, then it’d kill itself eventually. I wasn’t about to go wandering out in this biting cold, not when I ran the very cliché risk of being separated from the others or even getting left behind by some odd turn of events.
Karabo grunted. “That could take days. We don’t know-”
“Alright, you can go then. I’m just guessing here but there’s a core to the forest, right? That’s what we have to destroy? And, it probably moves around too, yeah? Hey man, if you wanna go sword fight a tree trunk, go for it. I’ll just have some hot choco-… Yvette, go get me some hot chocolate.”
“Sir, Yes, sir!” The one-eyed maniac in a frilly Lolita dress gave an over-the-top salute before stepping back into the train. A moment later, she walked out holding two white ceramic cups that smelled like heaven.
I sat down on the train’s stair, cup in hand, “Yeah alright, go ahead.”
The Executor stood silent. Then, he gave a barely noticeable sigh and relented.
“Very well.”
“So Yvette, what were you here for?”
“Oh? Me? I told you before, didn’t I?” My classmate perked up at that, eye glimmering, “I’m here almost every year! And I’ve saved up quite a decent bit to be able to get something new to research. Oh, by a decent bit, I mean a few hundred million dollars… That must not seem like a lot to you…”
The hell it didn’t.
That was an insane amount of money to pay for some magic eyes. I almost wondered how much my own would end up going for if I did indeed put them up for sale. That thought lingered for barely a second before it disappeared. No amount of money was worth parting with them.
I glanced at the dead forest surrounding us.
Honestly, I’d expected more than a semi-sentient tree monster that just attacked blindly until it exhausted itself… but then again, none of the Dead Apostles I’d encountered thus far had been anything to really write home about.
Yeah, maybe endless spiked trees spawning out of nowhere with a constantly moving main body and mana siphoning would be trouble for some other magus-
Yvette elbowed my guts.
“Henry, is it just me or is there a person standing in that tree there?”
I followed her gaze and… well now…
“Didn’t you have enough last night?”
“My master called me back before I could put you in your place, magus.”
“Last I checked you were the one on your knees in front of me last night.”
Hephaestion didn’t answer my provocation with anger, instead the raven-haired woman smiled amusedly. Her mismatched eyes wandered to Yvette, then to Karabo, before finally meeting mine. Her smile deepened. She put a hand against the bark of the tree she was standing on.
“You liked that, did you?”
I dismissed her words with a wave of my hand, “Nah, I have my wifey.”
“Ah yes. Luviagelita Edelfelt, was it? I wonder how your mother will take to her when they eventually meet.”
Hmm…
The tree she was on exploded into splinters. She easily moved to another one.
I rose to my feet. “So, I take it that your master wants to pick a fight. Tell me, is he one of the Twelve Lords?”
“Formerly. No more.”
“Is he or she watching?”
“Yes, he is. He quite likes you, in fact. Last night, he expressed his regret over not having a student quite as loyal as you.” Hephaestion crossed her arms under her breasts, tilting her head. “I admit, I still don’t see the point in having an unruly brat for a student. After all, the ideal one is a person that knows their place, obeys without qualm, and realizes their faults.”
I smiled cheekily, “So you want me to be all obedient and submissive for you, is that it? My, I can understand. Being dead for a thousand years must have you quite backed up… unfortunately, I’m taken”
“Above all, my master recognizes you as a threat to his ambition. I, for one, will be glad to be rid of such an incorrigible boy.”
“Is it cause I embarrassed you-“
Suddenly, my vision went dark, my control over mana faltered and spazzed out of control. Yet, it was unlike that time Touko had managed to surprise me. It was like my very eyes had been wrenched from my control.
The ‘attack’ passed. When it did, I opened my eyes to Hephaestion’s shortsword pierced through my chest. In a brutal movement, she ripped it free and tore me from heart to shoulder in the process. To his credit, Karabo had moved the second she appeared. His Black Key shattered against her superior body. Yvette was too surprised to do anything at all.
The servant stepped back with a huff. She shrugged her blade to rid it of the blood. My blood.
And yet, my reaction to that wasn’t one of horror, or of pain. Bloody and torn in half, I grinned wider than I ever had.
“Always hate when people have something to interfere with my eyes but… never mind. Do you know what the Reversed Cursed Technique is?” I inquired excitedly.
Hephaestion raised a brow, visibly confused. That confusion changed to surprise when my body began knitting itself together. In a display of war-honed instinct, she attacked again. She sliced off my shoulder, before burying her blade in my neck.
When even that did nothing, she was forced to back off.
With a heave, I pulled her blade out of my neck and tossed it at her feet. The snow immediately drank up the blood. My arm grew back. My body joined itself back together. The wound in my neck closed up. All in the span of a few dreary seconds.
“Your master is watching, right?”
“What the hell are you? What the hell have you done to yourself?”
I put a finger against my head, ignoring her. “Going by the script, I should blast you with a Hollow Purple right now… but you know what? I have an even better idea. Your master is watching, right?”
“Are you insane?” The hero of legend asked with wide eyes, pointing her blade at me once again. “What are you even saying?”
I brought my fingers together, and felt a distinct burn on the back of my hand.
“Ask him if he recognizes what I’m doing right now. Go ahead.”
When I snapped my fingers, the world was deceived once again.
A gunshot rang out.
A bolt of flame struck Hephaestion. She blocked it with her sword.
Then, another.
And, another.
A flurry.
A cacophony of gunshots.
Each pushed her back when it never should have. Each alarmed her further as realization dawned.
And a terrible voice not mine or my fellows’ thus declared from atop the Rail Zeppelin.
“Your presence disgusts me, abhorrent puppet of the gods.”
Comments
Bleap
Hell yeah, super senior Henry
Bleap
I plan on a variation of it, of sorts, definitely
BigBot
Henry is too goated 🐐
William Kirk
The whole "world severing slash", also got me thinking about other "space" shenanigans. Is Henry going to be learning displacement magecraft at all? Cuz that shit is straight up hax when taken to the level of the Ainsworth family and the like. Although I suppose the same could be said for alot of "basic" magecraft.
