The Simulacrum - Chapter 120 - Part 2 (Patreon)

The tension in the overlook was… nowhere to be found.

I mean, was that it? Really?

My eyes narrowed on their own as I scrutinized Director Savir's face, but her expression remained perfectly still, locked in a cordial smile and pretending she was perfectly innocent. At most, she looked a little smug, as if she blindsided me by this development… which she admittedly did, but… I was expecting more.

Was this really all she was planning? Thinking so, I glanced at the battlefield, or rather, at one of the magical screens zoomed in on the action, and I couldn't help but frown. Based on what I could see, the eight Praetorian Plonkers were holding their own against the big statue thing, doing the same kind of switch-ups and hit-and-run tactics they used when we sparred the first time. They didn't seem to be doing much damage, but to be fair, I had no idea what this 'Colossus' thing was, so I couldn't quite tell if that was normal or not.

Speaking of which, I put my palm on the pommel of the sword hanging from my belt.

"Teeny?" I whispered under my breath the moment Savir looked away from me. "What the heck is that thing?"

"{Designation: Autonomous combat construct. Clarification: Third Generation Colossus, melee variant.}"

"Since when do Celestials have something like that…?" I grumbled, but it took my question seriously.

"{Answer: The Colossi were created during the war against the Abyssal Usurper. Based on the calendar system currently used by Archon Polemos, the precise date of their first deployment should be—}"

"{Teeny, please. That was obviously one of those things our young knight calls 'a rhetorical question',}" Cal butted in, and the other sword let out a thoughtful hum.

"{Response: On further evaluation, Cal's assessment should be correct.}"

Ignoring the swords chattering in my head, I focused my attention on the battle. This 'Colossus' was rather nimble, despite its large size, and it seemed to be able to change its shape to a degree. It was also very resilient, able to shrug off the ranged attacks of midriff-woman and tunic-man without flinching, and could push armour-guy back without much trouble. Overall, while the fight was still unfolding, it was still able to fight evenly even though it was outnumbered eight-to-one.

Sooo… was that the plan? I didn't mean mine, but the directors'. Did Savir set my honour guard up for this battle to get them roughed up? Was that supposed to bother me? Did she think that, since she couldn't harm me directly, she would get my subordinates beaten up instead? I didn't even like them that much, and she had to know that. She learned about what happened in the closed-off assembly hall of the Draconic Federation just a few hours after I showed up there as Bel; there was no way in hell she wouldn't already know that I wasn't all that attached to these guys. I mean, yeah, if their lives were in jeopardy, I would've probably helped them, but that applied to most people I knew, and in this case, they were kind of asking for it.

…

Or were they?

The way she framed it sounded like my Praetorian Palookas were the ones who came up with this whole charade, but were they? I didn't put it beyond Director Savir to manipulate them into asking for something like this to 'prove themselves', as she put it, and genuinely believe it was their idea. I mean, they were more defined than the average Placeholder, but they were side-character material at best, and not necessarily the brightest sparks either. But then why would Savir go through the trouble? Plausible deniability? Misdirection?

"Lord Archon? Shouldn't we do something?" Jaakobah jolted me out of my thoughts, and when I raised a brow, he pointed at the magical screen closest to us showing armour-guy and hammer-lad getting pushed back.

"I'm thinking," I told him a touch flatly, and while the fight was getting a bit one-sided, I saw no reason to jump in without understanding the situation first.

Case in point, I still couldn't grasp why Savir framed them as the instigators of this spectacle. If it was only to get them beaten and… Oh, wait. Maybe that's where I was getting tripped up. Maybe the goal wasn't to hurt the people I might possibly mayhap theoretically care about, but to hurt my reputation instead. During her speech, he emphasized that I hand-picked them to be my honour guard, which was already a bit of a stretch. Could it be that, by making them foolishly challenge an opponent they couldn't beat, her goal was to make them look like a bunch of incompetent buffoons, and harm my image by implying that I was unable to see their incompetence?

"That's a bit of a stretch…"

My stray comment had Savir turn back to me, but after seeing that she was still wearing the same inscrutable expression, I ignored her and focused on the fight again. Not that there was much to see. The Colossus was flailing around, the eight Celestials were still doing hit-and-run tactics, and… wait. When did that thing grow two more arms?

That should've been little more than a curiosity, but it bothered me all the same, so before I would return to my attempt to crack Savir's plan again, I had to get it out of my system.

"Teeny?"

"{Response: Yes, Archon Polemos?}"

"More details please," I whispered curtly, and it took the short sword a while to respond.

"{Request: Please clarify your inquiry.}"

"{I'm fairly sure our young knight was asking about this Colossus creature.}"

After Cal came to the rescue like that, Teeny let out an unusually emotional hum.

"{Reserved Response: Thank you for the clarification. Professional Response: Colossi are the invention of Ophanim Pheidias, first constructed and deployed during the War of the Pretender Archon. Individual Colossi may vary in shape and size depending on generation and individual specification. Common features shared between colossi are as follows: limited sapience and autonomy, capability for self-regeneration, shifting of internal- and external structure in response to combat stimuli, high degree of resistance to mystic arts and other forms of reality-altering effects reliant on the utilization of mana, verbal control systems based on…}"

Teeny kept listing off more and more technical details, but my mind was already drifting elsewhere. In summary, this thing was a large, shape-shifting creature immune to magic. Now, if I wasn't in public, I would've probably buried my face in my hand at this point and yelled, 'That's just a bloody Chimera!', but since there were too many eyes on me, I decided to scream internally instead.

Sure, it looked slightly more pleasing to the eyes, and it could use weaponry to a degree, but the comparison was still spot-on. In retrospect, maybe I shouldn't have been that surprised though, considering everything I knew about the common root and parallels between the Elysium and the Abyss, but getting something dropped on my head like this was still unexpected.

The real question was whether this was part of Savir's plan. Was it supposed to be a subtle dig at my 'Chimeral Slayer' moniker? Or was it simply the only thing they could procure in short order that could solo eight elite Celestial agents working together? Was I reading too deeply into this? Or not deeply enough?

Whatever the case might have been, I had a feeling I wasn't going to figure out all of Savir's plans while pondering in my armchair. Or throne. Same thing, really. If anything, I figured I should start focusing on what exactly I was supposed to do in this situation.

The first option was a classic: do nothing. It wasn't like my oh-so-elite Praetorian Pinheads were in serious threat of dying. They were Celestials, with their magical Barrier and the whole place crawling with healers and all, so I wasn't exactly on the edge of my seat worrying about their survival. If push came to shove, I could just order people to do something about it. It would help me practice my delegation-skills, and it wasn't like there weren't any stronger-than-average people around me. Like Mountain Girl.

…

On second thought, maybe that wasn't such a good idea. If my hunch was right and this was just an off-brand Chimera with better packaging, I wasn't sure if she could keep her cool when facing a 'monster' and avoid using her flashy sword techniques. Or worse yet, scream their names from the top of her lungs. Not to mention, there were other options left. Like Jaakobah, or Kane. I haven't even seen the latter fight seriously, so this might've been a great opportunity to see his capabilities.

All in all, there wasn't much of a reason for me to personally make a move in this situation, and that was—

"Lord Archon! We have a problem!"

Feeling disoriented after my train of thought was so violently kicked off the rails, I glanced over to Director Mensah, who was holding one finger on his magitech Bluetooth headset while keeping his glasses in place with his other hand. His expression was dire, but he didn't continue until I directly addressed him.

"Yes?"

"There's something wrong with the Colossus! It doesn't respond to our commands!"

"I told you that taking that old thing out of storage without testing it first was just asking for an incident like this."

Hearing Tsephanyah's remark made the bespectacled director level a harrowing glare at his colleague and lash out at once.

"I told you I personally inspected it before it was delivered to the site! Someone must have tampered with it en route!"

"Please, calm down, gentlemen," Director Savir stood up and cut between the two other chief directors, her face bearing an uncomfortable grimace. "You are embarrassing all of us in front of the Second True Archon."

"This is serious, Eri—! I mean, Director Savir! If we can't control the Colossus, it could lead to horrific collateral damage!" Director Mensah insisted, and but unlike her, his poker face showed some cracks as his eyes darted between me and the other directors.

Were they putting on this stage play just for me, I wondered? Was it to wash their hands of whatever could or would happen to the eight Celestials on the field, or was it to urge me into action? However, before I could consider every angle, a new voice joined the conversation.

"With all due respect, Lord Archon, I believe it we have to act," Michael's father was standing a bit further away from us, but his urgent voice could be heard over the rumbling of the other directors sitting behind me. "I have contacted the Seraphic Safeguard stationed around the perimeter, and it would take at least twenty minutes before we could secure the equipment required to safely disable a Colossus. If the Praetorian Guard loses its attention and it attacks the onlookers, it will result in a bloodbath."

"Just send in the army!" The demand came from one of the directors in Savir's clique, and Kane aimed a disparaging look at her.

"The regular army is not equipped to deal with a rampaging Colossus. If we send them in, the casualties would be—!"

"It's still much safer than expecting the Archonto face off against one of our living weapons all alone," Savir cut him short, sounding reasonable, yet it only made me squint at her even harder.

At first, I thought she set the Praetorian Guard up to hit my reputation. Was this an extension of that, hoping that I wouldn't intervene and appear as a coward, or was she trying to use reverse psychology on me, and trying to prod me into action? On second thought, this might've been one of those 'lose-lose' scenarios, carefully set up so that no matter which option I chose, it could be spun into a hit-piece on me. Maybe even literally, if she was hoping this Colossus thing would prove to be too much for me to chew.

In that case, what was the best way to go about this?

"Lord Archon! I request permission to join the Praetorian Guard! As their Prefect, my place is at their side!"

This time it was Jaakobah's turn to receive a squint, as that sounded way too hot-blooded for something that came out of his mouth. Rinne also seemed eager to join the fray, and so did Kane, but if I let them go, I would not only appear uncaring, but all my allies in the Elysium (for however much that word meant the case of the two Celestials) would leave my side, which would be the perfect opportunity for a potential assassination plot to go off, and…

Ugh. I hated this whole thing! There were way too many variables and possibilities to keep in mind! This whole hubbub was exactly the reason why I preferred to be the one doing the conspiratorial scheming instead of being on the receiving end of it.

But putting my grumbles aside, which one was the lesser evil in this scenario? Send everyone out, and watch them battle the big, four-armed statue monster thing for the next fifteen minutes while second-guessing everyone's motivations, or join the fray myself and worry about the schemes running in the background once the situation got resolved? In the end, it came down to which one felt less stressful at the moment.

"Oh, to hell with this…"

My softly spoken grumbles shocked the onlookers, but not nearly as much as when I casually unsheathed my blades and stepped up to the handrails in front of us.

"{Are we going to fight the Celestial monstrosity, young knight? Your hand isn't fully healed yet, so don't overexert yourself!}"

"{Agreement: Teeny is in agreement.}"

That was terribly redundant, but I didn't call the short sword out on in, and instead I cranked the physical enhancements of my Polemos outfit up to about seventy percent capacity. I could feel a rush of adrenaline course through my veins once the enchantments kicked into high gear as I placed my right foot onto the railing, exhaled a sharp breath, and turned to the mostly flabbergasted audience behind me.

"Don't go anywhere. I'll be back in a minute."

After saying so, I faced the battlefield again and focused my attention on the overlapping anchor zones created by the eight dingbats running circles around the enraged statue creature in the middle. Based on my posture, I was sure the directors behind me were expecting me to bring out three pairs of majestic wings at any moment, but I had no access to anything like that. Contrary to my Bel disguise occasionally having them, if the onlookers were to be believed. As such, I had to be more creative.

This wasn't the first time I had to disguise my Phasing ability in front of an audience, and while the particulars were slightly different from the last time, it was still doable. I simply had to angle my body downwards a bit, even though leaning over the railing felt decidedly unsafe, and then after picking a good 'landing spot', I tensed up my body and Phased down right between the battered octet. The moment I did, I focused my strength on my right foot, which previously rested on the railing, and stomped down while simultaneously triggering one of the wards on my outfit. I used it to dissipate the counter-force, so that I wouldn't launch myself into the air, and as a side-effect, it caused a small shockwave with me in the epicenter.

While this was the first time I pulled off this move 'live', it was one of the many 'dramatic entrance' options I considered for future use as Bel, and so I practised it enough to feel confident that, from an outside perspective, I must have looked like I covered the distance in the blink of an eye. Or so I hoped. Otherwise, I just made myself look silly.

Anyhow, once the performance was over, I straightened my back and raised my swords, much to my alleged honour guard's shock and confusion.

"Lord Archon, sir? What are you…?"

I used Teeny to gesture in the general direction of armour-guy.

"There is something wrong with the Colossus. Possibly sabotage. Consider this an Orange situation."

The big guy looked rather slack-jawed for a moment, but when I mentioned the code to him, his eyes immediately regained focus and he bellowed out, "Code Orange! I repeat, Code Orange! This is not a drill!"

His voice carried over the sound of the crowd, and the rest of the group fell in line with his instructions right away. For the record, the 'Colour Code System' was just something I made up on the spot while observing their training in the mornings, mostly just to pass the time and to see how much they would swallow without critical thinking. As it turned out, so long as it came from my mouth, they would run with absolutely anything. By the by, the Orange code meant 'Secure the perimeter, and let me do my thing without having to worry about you idiots getting in the way', except phrased a bit more diplomatically.

They followed it to a tee as well, and in just a few short seconds, they fell back to form a loose circle around me and the considerably confused Colossus. That last part didn't take long to change though, as once all of its original targets were out of range, the four-armed statue focused all of its attention onto me and let out a deafening roar that was probably very intimidating. I wouldn't know, because I was too busy arguing with my swords.

"For the hundredth time, Cal. I don't have a beam attack!" I hissed, much to my knightly weapon's disappointment.

"{Comment: Teeny would request Cal to cease meaningless chatter and focus on maintaining mana-saturation levels.}"

"{This is no idle talk! All self-respecting Kings of Knights should have a beam attack!}"

"{Exasperated Remark: Teeny finds Cal's obsession with the topic tiresome.}"

"Stop quarrelling, you two, and focus," I whispered and flourished both of them before facing off against the Colossus. "Now then. Let's find out whether I made the right call by coming down here or not…"