The three incarnations stared at their Little Lord for a moment before twin sighs, and a soft groan, broke the leftover tension from the memory viewing.
The groan petered off as Dark tightened its grip on the Little Trickster in his arms while burrying its head into soft, downy, hair.
/Whyyy are youuu like thisss!? (...) I blame all your puns on [Sin]. You've never had this much of a punny streak before he influenced you by way of Bad Millenial Humor osmosis.\
A (mostly) faux pout came upon a face kept only so consistent in Alexandria, this place of Mind and Memory.
'Like you guys have any room to talk. I distinctly remember you being less whiny before being at the center of [Sin's] attention spoilt us all.'
Maybe throwing out snark at someone while you were upon their lap was not my brightest idea.
Dark dealt out my comeuppance soon enough as is.
Even turned sideways by an aggressor, I still spied my remaining incarnations' muffled laughter at the sight we must have made.
Me, seated on Dark's lap, face puffed up as Dark took advantage of my theatrics to pinch my cheeks, this way and that, with both hands.
The lounge's [Hearth] felt so very warm then, my heart even warmer.
'Ne~ some day you'll have to admit it. We're all whipped for [Sin]. What's good pride to a fool anyway?'
So while my incarnations and I took stock, teased, and talked, the result of my fight had been playing out in the background.
Meanwhile,
|
Infinite Worlds'
Two people of great esteem sat, snacking on delicate desserts and chatting over a floating
"By all accounts, an [Ash] of that age and talent will go far. He'll make [Weave], at the least, even without an agency. Add in that innate title ability and...how are you planning to attract him? With how he's acting, he's not the type to be easily tied down," an AI-like feminine voice asked the other.
"Good question. I don't know," the other begrudgingly admitted. "But I do plan to laugh at the other agencies when they try," the other's gravely voice dripped with much schadenfreude then.
"My ability tells me that he'll play them like a fool if they try any of those bad little tricks on him. And since I know those idiots, I'll be a good little audience member and laugh at them when that inevitably happens," the other cheerfully bit down on a macaroon at the beautiful picture that it brought to mind.
The first sighed then, "Then on your head, the mess, it will be. Don't expect me to clean up after you this time, Mx.President."
Infinite Worlds Copy, Yuki Manor,
A snowy owl stood atop a wolf's corpse. Everywhere else being covered in a layer of weirdly colored snow.
Several minutes passed with only the
Golden eyes, glowing in the dim light of the den, blinked.
Once. Twice. Thrice.
A soft whistle echoed in the den.
Seems [Yule's] pilots were back.
|
|
'Alrighty then. (...) Anyone know why I'm getting an urge to claw open the boss' chest?'
/That would be this form's instinctual attraction to things that can help it grow stronger.\
'Ha! I knew it! No way this body's bloodline was a simple shapeshifting one, not with how weirdly easy it's adjusting to us piloting it. (...) So...'
{/
'Damn. (...) Please?'
Feelings were rapidly exchanged through our link.
Pleading > stubborness > pleading x2 > wavering > pleading x3 > exasperation > gradual hope > resignation...
{/
I felt multiple sets of surprised realization then.
{
/Blank's it!\
Then, two pings of satisfaction before a ping of aghast betrayal.
/Even you, Light?!\
I struggled to hide my amusement at Dark's expense, redirecting the thought by manifesting a set of hands in Alexandria to pat him on the back with.
'There, there. Next time you'll get Blank for sure.'
I was lying. We all knew I was lying. But platitudes didn't need to be truthful to do their job.
/I hate this Abyss damned family.\
Light, Blank, and I stepped away from the body's control to give Dark full pilot.
The link lit up with a continuous reverbration of "digust-digust-digust" as Dark did as instincts demanded, digging into flesh and clawing out a whole heart, bleeding, bluish-white in some parts, and still emanating a freezing cold.
While Dark was still incredibly unhappy at the job he'd been given, he'd still unhestantly closed off our link since it really didn't make much sense to force all of us through this next bit if we didn't have to.
Beak open wide now, dinner time.
A beat.
Two.
...
{/<'Eh?'>\}
/Uh...\
Finally, the much anticipated *ding* rang out.
|
|
/...better late than never?\
As we were about to open the shiny new thing to look through, the system took moment to remember that it had another thing it owed us.
Since Dark was still piloting, it was the one to flap back in surprise at the glowing ball of light, flickering between green and blue, that just spawned into existence in front of us.
After a scan from Light had shown that it wasn't dangerous, we landed back on the boss' body to be greeted with an explanation from the system for our scare.
|
|
I opened up our link. I needed my incarnations to share in the familiar dread that we were all experiencing. I wasn't gonna state the obvious, but we all knew how difficult it was to stem the tide of bad memories that this situation brought up.
/Bet?\
{<'No bet.'>}
The ball of light flickered rapidly between the two colors, even stretching out and back in again as if it was puddy.
Eventually. It slowed.
Green-big, blue-big, green-small, blue-small...
...green-medium.
|
The now pointy-shaped light turned blue after the first *ding* as we realized that we didn't have hands to catch the thing once it stopped being a floating light and hurriedly transformed to catch our "reward".
Hand carefully placed around the bony handle instead of the sharp bit, I inspected the first part of what I was due for this whole mess.
Let's see, befitting that "fang" name for sure, shape is more fang than any true dagger. Same color as the boss' teeth, cold as it too, without the purple surprisingly. A quick hand measure gives back an estimate of 2/3rds of a foot, not our favorite length but workable. A few waves and one go through a [C6] shortsword excercise I'm repurposing for a bit and...
Alright thingy, whisper me your secrets.
...
'Verdict, team?'
{/
I sent them a mix of exasperation and "where's your enthusiasm" over the link before finally mentioning the dragon in the room.
'Our luck with gachas is horrible, be happy it even gave us something we can use. Even the system thinks so, "-2"
I wanted to pla- uh- get familiar with the to- weapon a bit more but- more things awaited so...
To the inventory- storage- whatever- you go. I would keep it with me but- with how often I transform- and how much I'm rellying on surprise tactics right now...
Not to mention the biggest factor...the damn system didn't give me a damn sheath to put it in!
Putting that aside.
'Now. We've waited enough. Light. Bestiary. I'll check that task and [Yule's] thing after.'
{Had it waiting the whole time. Here you go. Both parts. Quick reminder though; I also have memories ready for you.}
'Thank you, Angel-Mine. You're the only dependable one around here (me included). I'll get to it after this.'
I felt a set of agreement flash accross the link alongside a dash of bashfullness. Truly, I have no idea how this family deserved Light.
Satisfaction flooded the link, mostly from me, I'll admit.
But I think it's well deserved after all the shit I've had to deal with.
And the last ingredient was but a thought away; the feel of smooth metal soothing to my blood drenched soul, if not to this body's teenage self.
Thankfully, the system was quicker on the uptake this time.
|
|
|
Multiple things happened after that.
Firstly, something disturbingly similar to a mental attack rolled through, and peered at, a lot of my memories which, if it weren't for the fact that I knew my incarnation would protect me, and that Alexandria hadn't identified it as a threat, I would be a lot more concerned about.
Secondly, even if it wasn't an attack, it left me with a throbbing in my temples and unwarranted grief where old memories of lives, and people, long past flickered, behind my eyelids.
Thirdly, the perfectly normal system message waiting obediently for my input flickered and-
|
Ah.
'Cool black hole recreation you're doing there, system.'
As the card in my fingers started floating, while radiating a black and gold that appeared to be consuming somethings that I couldn't sense, as well as those "materials" the system so graciously told me about (i.e. the black hole comparison).
I just- considered for a second; do I have any fucks left to give right now?
Because- it's been barely a few hours since I've woken up to this shit and I just had to deal with a fucking greatest-fear illusion- so...
'Yea. You know what? No. Nein. Not dealing with this. I'll just...do something else.'
Leaving the floating card to its business, I very pointedly turned away from that situation and grabbed onto the other thing I had wanted to do as distraction instead.
'Growth.'
...
{/<'Interesting...'>\}
And while we would have loved to further discuss what we've just learned from the new system menu, the situation that required us to use this as a distraction in the first place, made its' attention seeking-self known.
Black-gold ribbons of light flashed in the edges of my vision and several *dings* rang out at the same time as I, along with my incarnations, turned to a newly decorated card as we felt a newborn soul attach itself to us.
|
|
|
|
There was an urging from that newborn soul and we did as we were asked, even when lives-old embarassment welled up at our actions.
"Even as frost melts, even as resentment corrupts, loyalty in pack, Yūsuī- sturdy will this pact be-"
Instead of black and gold light ribbons, it was to the cripsness of cold mountain air and comforting fur beneath my fingers that my new companion made himself known.
A splitting image to the now decease boss, snow white fur and pale blue, clear-as-ice, eyes, the only difference seeming to be a patch of darker fur, a silver-grey instead of snow white, on the chest where the heart would lie beneath.
Kneeling down to better face him, I brushed a part of my spirit along our new bond.
"Hello, Yūsuī. Welcome to the world."