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The Simulacrum - Chapter 96 - Part 1
🕑 Added 2022-08-14 11:06:00 +0000 UTCDramatic entrances are more of an art than a science, I'd say. If you asked a moviegoer, they would probably say they needed a panning shot with trailer music, followed by a snappy one-liner. For the more anime-inclined, a good entrance was all about the timing, with the star appearing just in the nick of time to turn things around, usually with the opening theme of the show blaring in the background. However, for a wrestling fan, they would probably say a good entrance required dramatic theme music and lots of stage lighting. Also, folding chairs for heels.
Now, while hitting Roland over the head with a folding chair was certainly very tempting, I sadly couldn't play things that way, and not because I didn't have any space-efficient sitting apparatuses at hand. If I wanted to dedicate myself to the bit, I had folding chairs for days. Unfortunately, as much fun as that sounded, this wasn't the time. Not because Bel of the Abyss wouldn't do something like that, but because today was the day he was revealed to the wider public, so I needed to set a certain standard.
After all, I was about to attempt elevating my chaotic alter ego into the position of... well, maybe not the main antagonist, but something of a greater scope villain? In any case, I was about to manually insert a character into the narrative and hijack whatever it originally planned to annoy me with, so I had to be very, very particular about the details.
With Leonard Dunning's alibi firmly secured, and all the most problematic opponents absent from the scene, it was time for Bel to show up and cement his presence as a villainous mastermind, pulling the strings from the background while also being a formidable threat. For that, I needed to have opposition strong enough to make Bel feel larger-than-life, yet not strong enough where he would appear struggling, because that would undermine the reputation I was building for him. However, since this was supposed to be our Knights' big show, I couldn't trump them too easily either, or it would undermine their authority as peacekeepers in the future.
What I'm trying to say is that this was a giant balancing act that required quick thinking, situational awareness, and lots of on-the-spot improvs. As cruel it may sound, my friends and allies weren't exactly cut out for a job like this, so I had to do the lion's share of the work myself. This, of course, meant that I had no backup in case something went off the rails, but at this point, I was used to it.
That didn't mean I didn't have my heart beating in my throat as I appeared in the amphitheatre, but I didn't mind it much. Adrenaline was good. It kept me on my toes.
With the assistance of Penny and co., the disorganized coup was put down in record time, and while the place still felt volatile, most of the people present were focusing their attention on Roland, still standing in the middle of the arena with his weapon held high. Exploiting the lingering chaos, I rapidly Phased across the elevated seats and made my way over to the VIP box.
I had no theme song, but since the place already had a sound system installed, I figured it would've been a crime to ignore it. Taking just a second to find the glowing doohickey by the grand elder's original seat, I used a phantom limb to turn it on, and after properly preparing myself, I raised my hands and firmly clapped them.
It startled everyone, as planned, and since the sound was omnidirectional, I managed to get six measured slow claps done by the time they finally pinpointed my location.
"Bravo! A lovely show!" I exclaimed, and my playful Bel-voice echoed across the building. "I would ask for an encore, but I'm afraid neither of us has the time for that."
"No, we don't," Roland responded loud enough so that I could hear it even up where I was standing, and he menacingly slashed the air in front of him for emphasis.
I waited for a couple of seconds, just long enough to gather more attention, before casually Phasing over to the Knightly Quartet on the white sand. That earned me a couple of startled gasps, telling me I was on the right track.
"I'm curious; what gave me away?" I asked in a tone you would use to address an old friend.
"I have to admit, it was mostly conjecture on my end," Roland answered as he turned to me and raised his sword to a guard point. Duncan and Arnwald followed his example as well, while Penny wordlessly stepped behind them, still working on her Purple Zone breaker. I waited for them to get into position, and only then did I gesture for him to continue. "Our King told us to expect a skirmish during today's tournament. While his methods for learning secrets are inscrutable, he had yet to be proven wrong, so it made me think about who would dare to cause an incident where all of the elites of the Draconian families are gathered. Then I remembered that the Ascalon put up for auction yesterday was stolen from its vault without leaving a single trace behind. Since you are the only person I know who could do something like this, it told me you are operating on the island once again, and since you are also the only one I could imagine confidently showing your face after making an enemy of everyone in this arena, it became easy to connect the dots."
"Really? And what if I wasn't watching? Or just didn't care about your provocation?" I asked with my most gleeful voice, as if I had the time of my life.
"In that case, I would've simply looked a little foolish for a moment, not losing anything," he answered with a shrug. "On the other hand, it had a small chance to draw you into the open, so I took the gamble."
"Ah, you see, Sir Roland? This is why you're my favorite! I mean, no offense to Dame Unicorn in the back, but wisdom beats beauty every time."
Before Penny could respond, if she even wanted to in the first place, a new voice entered the fray.
"Who is this!? What's going on!?"
It took me a moment or two to recognize the one yelling, considering he was already in his draconic form. He had a pair of huge, ridged black horns on his head, pointy black scales around his jawline, clawed fingers, and his suit was torn at the elbows and knees, where he had spikes growing out of his skin, completing the nasty black dragon look. Because of all that, things only clicked when someone I already recognized leaped over from the seats and landed beside him.
"Brother, stay back," Dobry Smok, whose transformation was much less over-the-top than his younger brother's, said and put a hand on his shoulder. This meant that, by process of elimination, the spiky guy had to be Dupek Smok.
"He's called Bel of the Abyss," Arnwald commented without taking his eyes off me.
"Hey! Introducing me before I could do it myself is rude!" I complained with an overplayed huff.
In the meantime, our Mr. Eagle's answer only made the younger Smok brother madder.
"That doesn't tell anything to me! Any who are youpeople, anyway!?"
Now that things calmed down a bit, many of the onlookers seemed to have the same question on their minds, so the oldest Knight curtly explained, "We are the Ordo Draconis. We are sent by our King to quell the fighting and apprehend the culprit behind today's events."
"Also known as Sir Griffon, Sir Eagle, Sir Minotaur, and Dame Unicorn," I quipped, then a beat later I added, "What? You introduced me, so I introduce you. It's only fair."
"It's the Accursed Knights!?" someone exclaimed in the back, and all of a sudden all the confused stares directed at us turned hostile.
"What kind of ploy is this?!" Dupek exclaimed and threw off his brother's hand. "I swear on my name, you won't leave this place alive!"
He let out a deep, animalistic roar that shook the whole building, and I couldn't help but marvel at just how helpful this guy was. First, he helped me establish myself at the banquet, and now he came here just to do the same all over again. How considerate.
Anyhow, once he finished roaring, it looked like he was just about to lunge at the four, so I took the beautiful opportunity he presented to me on a silver platter and Phased over to his side with one hand already raised to his face level. Before he could even react, I reached forward, and my glove flashed with a blinding ethereal light. Pushing on, I grabbed hold of his face and, with an impact that rattled me to my core and numbed my arm, I smashed the guy's head into the arena's sand with one smooth motion. The sound he made upon hitting the ground was a little disturbing, but he was a Draconian, and a fully transformed one to boot, so I wasn't too worried about his well-being.
From the outside, it probably looked like I simply slapped the guy into submission, but as with all good scenes, a lot more went into the performance on a technical level than what the audience was privy to. For example, while my Bel Gear 3.1.2 had some last-minute integrated physical enchantments borrowed from the Uniformers, they were hardly powerful enough to allow me to smack around a transformed Draconian. The trick was, obviously, in the gloves.
They were something I developed with the help of Fred, and they were, in essence, a limited-use item. They incorporated the anti-grappling blast array from the Magiformers, combined with a couple of secondary enchantments lifted from the Knight armors, and to tie them all together, I used the anti-draconic array Fred reverse-engineered during our clandestine work on the counterfeit dragon-slaying spear. Put all of that together, and now I had an offensive enchantment that, when activated, delivered a focused kinetic blast that Draconians were especially susceptible to.
The one that sent the younger Smok brother to the ground was the lowest setting. At that level, I could deliver three more blows before the whole enchantment would break down. I used the lowest output because I never had the opportunity to test it out on a Draconian before, and I didn't want to take anyone's head off. Good riddance, as even this much hurt my hand like I just slapped an anvil.
On the other hand, the guy on the ground probably felt like he was hit by one, as he appeared to be completely out cold. That was way more effective than expected, but I couldn't let the surprise show in my voice, so I adopted a sterner attitude and tugged at the glove that delivered the KO.
"Quiet down, child. The adults are talking." Dupek naturally didn't respond, since he was still unconscious, so I directed a meaningful glance at the older brother, seemingly frozen in place due to the sudden development. "What about you?"
My question finally shook him from his stupor, and after glancing at me and his brother on the ground in turn, he unceremoniously yanked the limp body up and over his shoulder before frantically dashing away from our group in the center.
"Heh. I like that guy," I said as I turned back to Roland, one finger pointed at the retreating pair. "He has a good head on his shoulders. Almost doesn't make me want to detach them from each other, if you know what I mean."
Our Mr. Griffon didn't respond to me but instead addressed the suddenly quiet onlookers.
"Our identities can be discussed later! For now, know that we are here to help!"
"It was our liege's command," Arnwald added and pointed at the Dracis couple idling in the back, as previously agreed upon. "Even if you do not trust us, know that his family will guarantee our allegiance."
Papa Dracis blinked in an expression that screamed 'We do!?', but then Emese bumped him with her shoulder, and he hurriedly cleared his throat.
"Yes! The… um… it was 'Ordo Draconis', I think? They are definitely here to help! I can vouch for that!"
Restraining the urge to nod in approval, I turned to Roland again, and when our eyes met, he raised his sword to the guard position again. In the back, I could hear Mr. Minotaur whisper, "'Main 'en, Penny-gurl! Jist hoo much loonger is thes gonnae tak'?", with my sister hissing back a frustrated, "I told you, this isn't easy!"
Ignoring the whispers, Roland raised his voice again and declared, "Let us put our past differences aside for the moment, and focus on the common foe before us!"
"Yeah, we all should do that! Down with that common foe guy!" I agreed wholeheartedly, then paused a beat later and snapped my fingers. "Ah, wait. You were talking about me, weren't you?"
He didn't respond, so after shaking my head, I Phased behind the group and proceeded with my usual pacing routine.
"Now, now, my good Sir Roland. I'm not your enemy. If I was, we wouldn't be talking like this. Mainly because you would be dead, along with everyone else here."
"You are still responsible for today's conflict," Arnwald noted with an arrow nocked on his bowstring. "That makes you our foe."
"{Chief, I have an update.}"
"A moment," I whispered before theatrically grabbing my chest. "Sir Eagle! How could you jump to conclusions like this? You are hurting my poor maidenly heart!" This time, I Phased over to one of the Feilong elders and loudly whispered, "Can you believe that guy? So rude, am I right?"
The high-strung man blinked in surprise, but then let out a yelp and threw a punch at me, seemingly by reflex, but by that time I was already strolling on top of the wall surrounding the arena, far enough where I could respond to Judy without anyone hearing it.
"Go on."
"{Morgana and Agrawain have successfully captured grand elder Xinji. Xiao shifted focus from Elly to trying to rescue him. Josh is still fighting Zihao, while Elly is trying to break them up. Pascal and Amelia found one of the anchors of the Restricted Space and are working on breaking it from the inside, and Penelope asked me to help coordinate their effort.}"
"In other words, things are still off the rails," I whispered, just a tad exasperated. "Notify me when it looks like the Purple Zone is about to go down."
"{Roger.}"
I took five more meandering steps after the line was cut, then theatrically turned on my heels and bent forward, looking down on the people clustered in the middle of the arena.
"If you think this is my doing, I'm afraid you're sorely mistaken. Let me correct that for you. I, your friendly neighborhood Bel of the Abyss, did not cause this cute little brawl of yours. I have no vested interest in the politics of the thin-blooded descendants of my old friends, nor in your little medieval re-enactor society… thought on second look…"
At this stage, I Phased right up to Duncan and poked him in the chest. Mirroring the elder from before, he froze up for a moment before he raised his axe to strike me, but by then I was already inspecting Roland's outfit from the side. Contrary to the big guy, he only shifted his posture to face me, his sword still in the guard position, and after touching my chin and nodding to myself, I promptly phased a couple of steps back again.
"Are you perchance trying to move with the times? I say, it was about time. Those metal plates were getting awfully quaint."
"Thank you for the compliment. Now, would you mind finishing your previous thought?" Roland responded politely, and I could tell he was stalling for time, probably waiting for Penny to finish dispelling the Purple Zone holding the rest of the group. I was more or less doing the same, so I graciously obliged.
"As I was saying, I'm here for my own reasons, mostly disconnected from your little internal conflict here. Why, if you didn't call for me, I probably wouldn't have even shown my face."
"Ye dornt shaw yer coopon. Ye wear a mask. Bampot."
"Sir Duncan, could you please not be so literal? You are quite distracting." I clicked my tongue and glanced at Mr. Griffon again. "So, as I said, I wouldn't have even shown my mask normally, as my dispute only involves a certain grand elder. You know? Old, has a funky mustache, speaks in ice-cream koans, kinda irritating? Anyhow, he happened to interfere with my plans, so I figured it was only fair that I did the same."
"Are you saying that the grand elder was responsible for the rebellion? Preposterous!" one of the Feilongs scoffed at me. Was it the same elder I bothered a minute ago? It was hard to tell, they all kind of looked the same.
I had a nice retort on the tip of my tongue, but Judy's voice cut me off right at this moment.
"{Update: Amelia says the Restricted Zone should be dispelled any second now.}"
After an appreciative grunt, I did a split-second Far Glance to see where the old man was in relation to the building, and once I found the spot, I Phased over and loudly cleared my throat.
"Well, if you don't believe me, why don't we ask the man in question?" Spreading my arms, I waited for something to happen. Except, it didn't, so I cleared my throat again and repeated, with extra emphasis, "I said, why don't we ask the—"
At last, the whole building and everyone in it flashed in negative colors, and with a quiet popping noise, the grand elder appeared in front of me, lying on his side and barely conscious.
"Oh, there he is!" I exclaimed, but nobody seemed to care, as the whole arena was filled with startled yelps as the contestants also appeared, seemingly out of thin air, and pushed the already present people out of the way. Confused by the development, most of them stopped fighting, though the same could not be said about Josh and Zihao.
The two of them, seemingly falling out of the sky as the Purple Zone popped, landed with the grace of a pair of tunas, and while they were both worn-down and bruised, they were still full of vigor.
"What happened?" the spiky-haired younger Feilong brother called out, jumping to his feet in the process, but I ignored him and drew the attention of the confused crowd by clapping my hands. While I no longer had the benefit of the sound amplification from before, I still managed to get back into the center of attention, especially when our Knightly Quartet rushed in to push everyone back, forming a circle around me and the old man on the floor.
Using the chaos, Morgana and Raven Boy also managed to break away from whatever engagement they were embroiled in and formed up behind me, along with most of their squires.
"Morgana? What are you doing?"
Arnwald sounded genuinely shocked, but before Miss Gorgon could answer, I raised a hand to forestall her.
"As much as I loathe to interrupt a dramatic reunion, I'm afraid we must postpone it for later. Let's just say that these two are currently under my command, and leave it at that. So, as I was saying—"
"You! So you are the mastermind behind all this!"
This time it was my turn to blink in surprise, and I turned to the source of the yell, where I found Zihao, already joined by odango-girl, staring daggers at me.
"I—"
"He is Bel of the Abyss, and he's—" Penny interrupted me, only to be interrupted in turn.
"I don't care who he is! Let's just beat him up, and sort things out later!" Zihao continued to yell and took up a fighting stance.
"Wait! Listen to us!" my sister tried to hold him back, but he threw her off, and with a burst of speed, he lunged at me, his hair shining with a bright orange light, like he was on fire.
"What is it with you guys offering yourself on a silver platter today?" I half mused and half grumbled as my danger sense warned me of not particularly serious threat. My eyes kind of said otherwise, as the guy accelerated even further and was about to hit me with a palm-strike that had all kinds of fancy light effects, including tiny-miny transparent Asian dragons flying around his hand.
It surely had some kind of grandiose name, with all kinds of references to coiling dragons and arhats and flattening mountains and whatnot, but as far as I was concerned, it was just a very obviously telegraphed attack that I could probably dodge even without my sixth sense warning me. So, without standing on ceremony, I simply stepped to the left, and when the still furious guy passed by me, I casually raised a hand and smacked him across the face.
This time I was using the medium setting, which meant my whole arm felt like it was about to jump out of its socket, but I gritted my teeth and endured the flash of pain. In retrospect, the low setting would've been probably enough, but I still owed a guy a punch for insulting Judy, so I figured it was fair.
However, if the impact was painful on my end, it must've been quite something else on the receiving one, as Zihao's rush didn't just stop on its tracks, but he straight up flew off at a ninety-degree angle like he was hit by a truck, and didn't stop until he very nearly broke through the wall surrounding the field.
"B-Brother Zihao!" Xiao exclaimed in horror and dashed over to his side, and while the guy was rattled, he was still conscious.
"Children of this generation are really rude, aren't they?" I said aloud and straightened my lapels, and that, for some reason, made the guy spit out a mouthful of blood and finally lose consciousness. Wow. Was the clichéd or what? Anyhow, I dramatically dusted my sleeves and slowly looked around the crowd surrounding me. "So, for the record, does anyone else want to follow his example? Come on, don't be shy. Get it out of your system now."
Everyone remained silent for the moment, so I shrugged my shoulders and gestured for Raven Boy.
"Prop him up, will you?"
He looked at me funny, but when I repeatedly pointed at the old man at my feet, he finally got the message, grabbed the grand elder by the collar, and lifted him up so that he was standing again. On closer look, he had a swollen black eye, and his hands were cuffed with thick metal chains. I kind of wondered where the heck Morgana even got those, but I had more important things to worry about, so I patted Raven Boy on the shoulder before turning to the crowd.
"Nobody wants to play? Okay then, in that case, let's resolve this awful, awful misunderstanding about my character, and listen to this poor old chap's story, shall we?"
"… Very well," Roland finally relented and lowered his blade, though he was obviously still on guard.
"{Chief? Roland and Arnwald are planning to distract Bel while they slowly evacuate the injured. Are you okay with that?}"
"Perfect!" I exclaimed with my arms open wide, then whispered, "Bishop moves to c4."
"{… I still don't get it.}"
Shaking my head slightly, I disregarded my dear assistant's objection and mentally prepared myself for the third act of our little stage play. So far, a few small unexpected developments notwithstanding, things were proceeding fairly smoothly. Being a pessimist, I knew it was only a matter of time before things go pear-shaped, but at least I could take solace in the fact that I at least wasn't going to be surprised by it. It was one of the main perks, really.
Comments
Egathentale
Wow. I did not expect someone would get this just by hearing one side's moves...
carebear90
Scholar's mate?
Tú Hồ Anh
I ffing love Bel, he's so funny.
