The Simulacrum - Chapter 97 - Part 1 (Patreon)

Allrighty then. Let's take an account of what we accomplished so far.

Revealing Bel to the wider world, check.

Introducing the reformed Knights to the Draconians, check.

Bringing the grand elder's plans onto the open, check.

Establishing Bel as a credible and serious threat, check.

Wrecking the arena and disrupting the tournament... well, it was a bonus objective at best, but a check is a check.

In fact, I technically accomplished all the optional side objectives as well, so all things considered, things proceeded very smoothly, surprise dragon notwithstanding.

At this moment, there were only two more tasks on my bucket-list remaining: have Morgana and Agrawain graciously lose and get captured, so that they can be 'released from Bel of the Abyss's influence'and get integrated into our group, and to make an exit as Bel without appearing he's running away, as that would dent the larger-than-life villainous image I was building up for him.

Considering the line-up of combatants present, I was pretty sure the 'gracious defeat' part was going to sort itself out even without my intervention, so I figured I should probably focus on my own exit. First things first, according to my 'How to be a Diabolical Villain for Dummies' handbook, a proper villainous exit had to be either after everyone else was lying defeated on the ground, accompanied by haughty scoffs about how they were mere ants not even worthy to dirty the villain's hands, or by providing a reasonably mysterious motivation for leaving the engagement, hinting at a plot with a scope too large for the poor do-gooders to ever comprehend in the process.

The first option was kind of out of my reach, as while I could certainly fake the inscrutable super-boss template, actually making good on my casual threats was something else entirely. That left only the second option, meaning I needed a suitable excuse that would be in-character for Bel. Though again, with how I played him, even if I suddenly exclaimed 'Oh no, I must go! I left the gas on!', nobody here would even bat an eye at it.

That was, of course, barely more than a last-resort back-up-plan. I was running a class act here, so I naturally preferred something meatier. An excuse that informed the onlookers about Bel's character, without revealing too much; just enough to keep them guessing and him enigmatic enough to make them want to do so. Like this one.

"Ah, good day, miss arch-mage!" I greeted Sahi with a little wave of my hand. "You're looking really spry today! I barely even recognized you; you look at least sixty years younger!"

Getting called out, Sahi visibly wavered for a moment.

"Do I, like, know you?"

"Don't you?" I asked back, head tilted in the guise of confusion. "Oh, right! That was another past, wasn't it? My deepest apologies for the confusion; it gets a little hard to keep track of time sometimes. It's all kinds of slippery and confusing and wibbly-wobbly, and don't even get me started on paradoxes. At one point, I was my own grandpa!" After yelling that, I paused for effect, then flatly added, "I got better."

I would've expected that Xiao would've at least attempted to run away by this point, but she remained completely still, like a scared little bunny. Glancing down, I got a sudden idea, and promptly grabbed her by the back of her collar. She let out a surprised yelp but didn't even struggle as I lifted her up. She was unexpectedly light, and it felt like I was holding a kitten by the scruff of hits neck. She didn't look like she was in dire need of a sandwich, so I imagined it was either due to my physical enchantments still running at full throttle, or the adrenaline. Probably a combination of the two.

In any case, I showed her off to Sahi and said, "Putting my family tree aside, I believe you were looking for a dragon, right? Lucky. I was just getting tired of playing babysitter, so... here, catch."

With that, I unceremoniously flung the girl towards her, and she reflexively reached out with her giant floaty hands to grab her out of the air before she landed.

"There we go. Now then, while I would love to stay and chat, I still have to find out the whereabouts of my box, so I should probably look for the grand elder again and..." I purposefully let my voice trail off, and after a long beat, I let out a soft 'Oooooooh!' and melodramatically hit my forehead with the heel of my right hand. "Of course! Why didn't I think of this sooner?"

After saying so, I Phased over to the increasingly baffled incognito arch-mage's side and pointed a finger at her face, forcing her to take a step back and defensively raise two of her floaty hands, while another two were cradling the shell-shocked odango-girl like she was an egg. Looking closely, maybe I overdid it with the Refuge in Audacity act this time?

After making a mental note about making it up to her later, I extended my finger even further, and asked, "So, just to be perfectly clear: we did not, in fact, accidentally run into each other twenty-seven years, six months, and three days ago in Canada during the private concert of world-renowned balalaika-virtuoso Alexey Andreyev? Tall, scrawny guy? One glass eye? Doesn't ring any bells?" I didn't wait for her to respond, but instead, I Phased behind her and began my usual pacing routine while pinching my chin. "I see now! So the reason why my box disappeared was because this is the present of a past of the future where my future self already took it in the past of the present!"

Sahi still didn't respond. In fact, everybody in the ruined amphitheatre remained deathly silent. I imagined it was because of raw confusion, so I didn't let the lack of audience reaction deter me.

"Oh, don't mind me, don't mind me. I'm just talking to myself. Speaking of which, it appears this whole misunderstanding might have been caused by future me, so I have to go and talk to myself. It was a pleasure meeting you all today, it was a great show." At this stage, I gave a low, theatrical bow, with one arm extended behind me, and after holding the pose for a second, I glanced up and concluded with, "I can't wait to meet all of you again last week. Ciao!"

And with that happy-go-lucky finish, I immediately left the underground building and reappeared in the secret base... which, on second thought, was another underground building. Sometimes this island made me feel like a freaking meerkat…

Subterranean animal analogies aside, I stopped bowing and stretched my back with a groan.

"Chief? Are you okay?" Judy asked, pulling her communicator glasses down to glance at me.

We were in the same room where we started the morning, and my dearest assistant was sitting at the far corner, while the Fauns occupied the other end, playing some kind of card game around a table. The two parties kept their distance, as Judy was still uncomfortable around the brawny ram-men, and since they knew it, Brang and the rest tried to avoid unnerving her.

On a side note, Karukk was probably winning, as he looked reluctant to leave the game, yet he was forced to when the rest stood up to salute me. I returned the greetings with a curt nod, and then took the mask off and finally answered.

"Nah, I'm fine. Just tired." I tried flashing a reassuring smile at Judy, but she only gave me a blank stare in return. "What?"

"Chief, there's something wrong with your face."

"Wrong with my... Oh, right. Give me a moment." I hastily put on the mask again and rubbed it against my face, then after taking off a second time, I asked, "How about now?"

"Back to normal, but… what was that?" she inquired with a mixture of curiosity and annoyance, going as far as to get up and walk over to me just to take a closer look.

"Just a back-up-plan I never got around to use," I responded dispassionately and handed the mask over to Hrul, who then gave me a cold bottle of sports drink, which I accepted quite enthusiastically. "Oh, thanks. I was actually feeling a touch parched."

The Faun flashed me a grin, and he was followed up by Rabom handing me a warm towel to wipe my face.

"Was taking a dragon breath head on also part of the plan?" Judy asked in a critical tone, and I could only shrug.

"Not exactly, but it gave me the best power-move I could've asked for. I bet everyone was freaking out when they saw me tanking it without a sweat."

"Chief, do you have any idea how much I was 'freaking out' when you were covered in that beam?"

"Why though? I thought we already established that my middle name stands for 'safety'," I jested and gave the towel back to Rabom. "You should know I wouldn't have done something that could've gotten me injured. If Bel got an arm blown off, and then I came out of the fake duel with Naoren with an arm missing, everyone would immediately put two and two together. Also, it's not like this was the first time I did something like this either, so the whole thing was perfectly under control."

"I don't like the fact that you use exploding hands as an example," my girlfriend grumbled as she checked my body with her hands, and only when she didn't find a single scratch did she finally relax a little. "The next time you decide to do something like that, could you at least warn me ahead of time?"

"I would've, but it was something of a spur-of-the-moment idea," I admitted, not sounding defensive or sheepish at all under her scrutiny. "You have to admit though; it served as a great establishing moment for Bel."

"It was certainly a striking display," she acknowledged it, though grudgingly, and after taking a sip from my drink, I pressed my advantage.

"Yep! I'm sure deflecting a fancy dragon fire beam left quite the impression on Roland and co., with all the light and collateral damage."

"And the wings," Judy added.

"Yes and the… the what?" I blurted out after my brain actually processed what she said.

"The wings you had at the time," she clarified, and I probably looked as confused as I felt, as she soon clarified, "After you took the dragon breath head on, you had a pair of transparent black wings."

"Feathered or membraned wings?"

"I can't say for sure. They were hard to see from Penelope's point of view." She paused here, then tentatively asked, "Does that mean they weren't something you made with an artifact?"

"Nope."

"Then where did they come from?"

"That's a very good question," I answered, mildly stumped, but then I glanced over my shoulder. "Do I still have them?"

Judy shook her head.

"No. They faded out of sight in a few seconds, around the time Saahira came out of the portal."

Hearing that, I stopped trying to look at my shoulder blades, and instead we both fell silent for a good while.

"That's weird," I gave my scientific evaluation of the observed phenomena.

"Very weird," Judy agreed in her usual deadpan tone, though I could still hear a tinge of uncertainty in it. "Maybe the Narrative is playing along with your act and you're becoming an Abyssal Lord?"

That stray joke immediately perked up every Faun ear in the room, so I hastily shook my head.

"Let's not jump to conclusions. It might've been a side-effect from the attack, or due to the destruction of the spear."

"True. We need to run some experiments before we can conclude something like that," she agreed, only to then firmly declare, "Without putting you in the way of dragon breaths, of course."

"Naturally," I agreed, lest I invoked my worrywart girlfriend's fury. She seemed satisfied enough with that, and moved on to the next question.

"Are you sure it was fine to let the fake spear be destroyed like that? It took a lot of time and effort to make it, didn't it?"

"Well, you see…" I murmured, momentarily torn about whether or not I should let her in on the secret, but in the end, I couldn't help myself and gestured for her to lean closer and whispered, "That wasn't the fake one."

At first she only blinked in incomprehension, but then her eyes settled into a flat stare.

"You brought the original Ascalon with you?"

I nodded.

"And you used Xiao's dragon fire to destroy it?"

I nodded again, this time with a proud smile.

"You are aware that Sebastian is going to flay you for that, right?"

"Only if he finds out, and he shouldn't so long as you keep this between the two of us."

My dearest assistant continued to give me her deadpannest stare for a few more seconds, but eventually she still rolled her eyes with a defeated sigh.

"Was that actually part of the plan from the beginning?"

"Believe it or not, it was," I responded with a grin. "I mean, the whole 'melting by dragon fire' part was coincidental, but I made the fake spear with the intention of switching the real one out with it from the start." By this point she resumed to give me a critical look, so now it was my turn to roll my eyes and explain, "Oh, come on Dormouse. We both know that that thing was a ticking time bomb in the making."

"It was also, as you called it, a plot device. Don't you think that destroying it would cause ripples in the Narrative?"

"Honestly, between that possibility, and it being used against Elly, or our in-laws, I can't say I care much for Narrative ramifications."

"What about Sebastian?"

"What about him? He'll get 'his' spear back, and unless he's willing to stab his own foot to test it, he'll never learn that his Ascalon is just a well-made but considerably less dangerous replica. He's happy, I'm happy, everyone's happy."

This time Judy didn't even bother to roll her eyes and immediately went for a facepalm.

"Just for the record, what was your plan for destroying the spear if Xiao didn't come along?"

"Funny you should ask. Did you know that Critias has an active volcano at the southwestern tip of the island that regularly spews lava?" I let the mental image of me chucking the stupid thing into the crater while cackling maniacally hang in the air for a while, only to then reveal, "Nah, just kidding. I originally wanted to break the spear with my bare hands to demonstrate Bel's power, but I didn't have the opportunity."

"Bare hands?"

"I have an enchantment for that."

"… Of course you do." I expected her to keep drilling me, but then she tapped the temple of her party glasses and said, "Joshua is calling me. I'll be right back with you."

"No need to rush," I said, and after finishing my sports drink, I casually grabbed a chair from the Fauns' table and sat down next to her. "I plan to watch how the finale unfolds anyway, so let's continue this conversation after that."

"Roger."

With that, Judy focused her attention on her communicator. As for me, I only realized how tired my legs felt after I sat down, probably due to all the running around I did while keeping Xiao busy, so I slouched down in my seat and closed my eyes. My part was done, so it was time to see how the others would go about finishing the show.