The Simulacrum
~Chapter 167~ Part 3

It was hard to put my feelings at this very moment into words. Trepidation? Enervation? Blood-curdling exasperation? One of those was closer to the money than the others, and it didn't take a genius to figure out it was the one with the extra adjective.

First, my perfectly cosy school athletics festival was disturbed by Ambrose's antics, then I got sick, then The Girl annoyed the heck out of me, then the Grimoire Key ended up broken, and then Bel appeared on top of all that? Twist the knife a bit more, why don't you?

That reminded me of the fact that The Girl (or rather, her portal, but same difference) up and disappeared right after we 'surrendered'. I didn't mind that though, because bloody hell, dealing with another emergency while a disembodied voice was one-sidedly pestering me wasn't my idea of a good time.

"{Chief, are you listening? There's a situation on the track field. Where are you?}"

For the record, Judy didn't count. More importantly though…

"The track field? Out in the open?"

"{No, inside a Restricted Space. Hurry, please.}"

"On it!"

In the meantime, I took a couple of deep breaths to get my mounting nausea under control. It wasn't nearly as bad as when I Phased to Ottawa, but I still hadn't fully recovered from that one, and I had a feeling I needed to be in top shape for this kerfuffle. Speaking of shapes, considering that I was dealing with Bel during this event, and that Josh and Angie were already present at the scene, it made sense to first shift my Leoformer into my Polemos outfit. Once I was mentally prepared, I honed in on Judy's mark.

Despite what she said, I found her inside our classroom on the second floor instead of the track field. By the looks of it, she was using the higher vantage point to get a better overview of the fight unfolding below. Or at least I figured that's why she was intently staring out the window.

"I'm here."

"Finally."/"{Finally.}"

I heard her voice twice over, both in person and through the communication artifact. Which reminded me…

"Why do you have that?" I asked, pointing at the snazzy party glasses sitting on her nose, and while it hid her eyes, I was pretty sure she squinted at me in disapproval.

"Foresight. Also, this really isn't the thing you should ask me about right—" Her words were cut short by a displeased grunt, and then a sigh. "Yes, he just got here."

"Josh?" I guessed, but she shook her head.

"No, Bel. He's on the same frequency as your communicator."

"Actually, the enchantments aren't using radio waves, so calling them frequencies is…"

"Chief. This really isn't the time to nitpick my terminology."

I had a rather snappy response on the tip of my tongue, but I quickly swallowed it back.

"Sorry, I'm kind of out of it. Not in the right headspace right now. I'll tell you about what happened later."

"You do that, but first, go to the field. Bel is telling me that you're needed for the next act."

"So… no situation report?" My enquiry was met with silence, so I rolled my shoulder and added a nonchalant, "Fine. Let's leave it to the debriefing."

With that said, I closed my eyes and focused my Far Sight on the nearby marks at the edge of my vision. By the looks of it, we had… quite a kerfuffle on our hands. Right off the bat, I could sense Josh and Angie nearby, along with Penny and Jaakobah. It was a bit hard to tell the marks apart when there were so many of them present, but those three felt a bit less fuzzy than the rest, so I figured they were the ones inside the Purple Zone.

Using that criterion, I also found a few more un-fuzzy marks belonging to Arnwald, Morgana, and Snowy. Based on the distance and direction, they were probably inside the school building. I could also sense the Praetorian Guards inside, which wasn't surprising considering Jaakobah's presence, but I had no time to properly check any of them because Judy was already looking at me impatiently. Or so I felt, but couldn't see because of the glasses, and…

I was veering off-track again. Damn, that trip to Ottawa really messed up my head, didn't it? I shook it hard to dislodge any stray thoughts and inhaled deeply before Phasing to the middle of the track field, and…

"Oh, look! Our tardy guest of honor finally arrived!"

Bel, aka future-me, exclaimed with glee, but I couldn't pay much attention to him, because my attention was immediately drawn to the blinding mixture of golden and deep crimson light overpowering the usual ambience of the Purple Zone. I wasn't the only one who was surprised though, as its radiance momentarily faltered.

"Focus, boy! I don't know how much longer I can hold the son of a bitch!" Angie… no, wait. That was obviously Deus. Again, my brain was still a bit slow, but more importantly, that comment made me realize that Bel was covered in numerous thin, brightly glowing golden chains. Was that something Deus cooked up to restrain Bel, I wondered.

Not for long though, as he let out a hearty laugh and spread his arms, snapping a few of the chains in the process. That was… actually pretty impressive. I mean, I knew first-hand how easy it was to accidentally dispel magic with just a twitch of my phantom limbs, so precisely breaking only the ones that needed breaking for the theatrics was quite tricky. There. Now no one could say I never gave myself any credit.

"Yes, boy! Do your best, boy!" Future-me called out to Josh between snickers. "Give me your best shot! No holding back! I don't want to hear any complaints tomorrow about how you would've totally got me if only you gave one-hundred-and-ten percent!"

"There won't be any tomorrow for you, bastard!" Josh yelled from the top of his lungs, and the eye-searing red-gold brilliance over his head intensified by another notch.

While I couldn't see it with my naked eyes, because of the whole 'magical equivalent of a welding arc' thing he was doing, the colour scheme told me that he was definitely charging up his beam attack. Meanwhile, Angie/Deus was kneeling next to him, with her arms stretched out towards future-me. An idle thought in the back of my head told me to look for Penny and Jaakobah, as they were supposed to be around here somewhere, but before I would even have the opportunity to search for them, Josh made his move.

Accompanied by the sound of thunder and an enormous gust of wind, the accumulated mana exploded into a thick pillar of dark red light intertwined with golden flames. The beam, as wide as a car, crashed into future-me, yet the moment it made contact it split into counters smaller streams. It kind of reminded me of high-pressure water from a hose hitting something stationary, and I had to say, watching future-me getting engulfed by it sent shivers down my spine. Was this how Judy felt when I blocked Xiao's dragon breath, I wondered.

The entire event only lasted for a few seconds, and once it was over… future-me still stood there, but he was in worse shape than expected. The clothes on his right side were torn and signed, and his right arm, now completely bare, was bloodied and covered in a mixture of cuts and burn marks. He stood still, arm outstretched, then suddenly stumbled before catching himself and giving his injured hand a good shake in the company of a jaunty whistle.

"Well, damn, boy! I might've underestimated you. That actually stung a bit."

In the meantime Josh fell to one knee, visibly exhausted. Which, to be fair, was still better than the way he immediately lost consciousness the last time he tried doing this, and… what was I doing here again?

"{Chief? Bel kindly requests that you do something.}"

"Ah, right!" I blurted out with a shiver and rushed over to Josh's side. While it was true that I only got here a few seconds ago, 'a few seconds' were a long-ass time in a battle, and the way I'd been standing around in mild confusion wasn't good for my image. Once I came to a halt next to the childhood friend couple, I also remembered to pull out Teeny and do a quick flourish before taking up a defensive stance between them and 'Bel of the Abyss', and only then did I glance behind my shoulder and ask, "Are you all right?"

"No, we're not!" Deus snapped at me while holding onto her boyfriend… I mean, Angie's boyfriend… I mean… whatever. More importantly, she glared at me and yelled, "Where have you been?"

"Sorry, I was kind of busy with a situation at the other end of the world. Cut me some slack." She didn't look like she would, so I hastily added, "What did I miss?"

"Oh, nothing major," a familiar voice called out nearby, and when I glanced over, I found that future-me Phased closer to us and stood with one hand on his hips, while the injured one kept limply hanging by his side. Then he suddenly burst out, "Only the official debut of my Axis of Evil, that's what!"

"Ugh!"/"Fiend!"

The childhood friend couple tried to rise to their feet in response to him closing the gap, but it only resulted in them both losing their balance at the same time and having to hold onto each other so as not to fall over. While they went back down onto their knees, future-me started walking up and down in front of me.

"Come on, Polemos! I planned this whole thing to surprise you! How could you stand me up like this? Tsk-tsk-tsk!" He abruptly halted, provocatively jerked his head in my direction, and shifted his tone into a decidedly ominous timbre. "For lesser men, I would've already painted the walls with their blood, scattered their bones in the four cardinal directions, and trapped their dog in a maze made of old musky cheese…" Only to then immediately shift back to friendly and upbeat. "But we do have a history, so… Eh? Just make sure you won't miss it the next time, okay?"

He also mimed a wink, but to be honest, I wasn't paying much attention to his smaller gestures. Or his words, because while he was talking, I was also getting a robotic message from him through the communication enchantment.

"{Once things have wrapped up around here, give me five minutes and then let's meet at the usual spot.}"

"Sure," I responded on autopilot, forgetting to use my phantom limbs to tap into his gear to deliver the message, but luckily my response kinda-sorta fit his previous words. Not that anyone had the time to raise a brow at me, because a second later…

"Yaaah!"

… Penny, clad in her Uniformer, burst into the scene, holding a throwing javelin like a two-handed sword and swinging it at the back of future-me's head. Of course, by the time she got close enough to capitalize on that, he already Phased out of her range. But why was she swinging a javelin, I puzzled as she came to a screeching halt next to me and hefted her weapon over her head.

"Brother, you're back! He's already injured! Quick, we must take down this villain here and now!"

"Oh my! If it isn't Dame Pegasus!"

"It's Unicorn!" my knightly sister yelled back at him and made another overhead feint in his direction.

"A horse is a horse," future-me responded flippantly and glanced around the battlefield. "Hm. I think this should be enough for our debut. We have to leave something for our next appearance, too!" He tried to clap, but then realized that his right hand wasn't moving quite right, so he gave up the effort and inhaled deeply instead. "Gather up, boys and girls! The party's over!"

He must've fully upgraded the old Bel costume to the new standards, because he evidently had the voice amplification enchantment installed in his mask, as professed by my aching ears. That also didn't help my residual nausea, and by the time I regained my wits, I was stumped to see that future-me was surrounded by a bunch of Bels, and more were coming over.

Wait, let me correct myself: people dressed like Bel and wearing the same masks, except with inverted colour schemes. There were six… nine… about fifteen of them? Give or take a few?

They were all bearing traces of a recent scuffle on them; some dishevelled coats here, some ripped fabric there, and one of them was even missing a shoe. However, they weren't alone, as these… 'Axis of Evil' guys, for lack of a better description, were closely followed by the Praetorian Guards, Arnwald, Morgana, and even Snowy.

My family members were wearing their Uniformers, but since nobody was expecting this development, they lacked weapons. The same couldn't be said about the Celestials, who were all showing off their magitech swords and shields and hammers and whips and everything. Except for Jaakobah at the forefront, who apparently left his gear at home.

"You're surrounded!" the usually dour agent declared with uncharacteristic gusto, and future-me responded with a delighted laugh.

"Indeed, indeed! What a pickle!"

I thought that was the end of it, yet just as he finished saying that, the whole Purple Zone shook like there was an earthquake, and out of nowhere, a red blur carrying a light brown blur appeared and landed right next to us.

"You dare set foot on the land of my School, Abyssal wretch?!" a familiar voice boomed, and once its source stepped up, I finally realized what just happened: Elly, in her Draconian form, flew Lord Grandpa into the Purple Zone. Why did they have to fly? Where did they come from? I had no idea, but at the very least it explained why I couldn't see the princess anywhere until now.

"Oh, my! It seems I spoke too soon! Now we're in a right pickle! The arch-mage is here, it's the end for us!" future-me exclaimed with the subtlety of a Shakespearean actor, complete with swooning and everything, only to suddenly stand up straight and let out a chuckle. "Come on, you didn't think I was going to say that, did you? Oh no, my lovely little sausages; this is but the beginning! But now, we must leave the stage. I have a prior appointment with some cookies, you see." He did a scraping bow, then added, "Look forward to the Axis of Evil's next exciting performance, coming to a place close to you! Don't forget to tune in, and until then… ta-ta!"

There wasn't even a beat after that. As soon as he finished talking, future-me and his fake Bels all disappeared at the same time, leaving the group encircling them at a complete loss for words.

"That is patently impossible!" Lord Grandpa roared in outrage and stomped his way over to the spot where they'd been just a moment ago. "How!? How can he move so many people through space without leaving any trace behind? What sort of preposterous magic is this!?"

I didn't know why he was so livid; future-me didn't do anything new, only the same thing as always, but more of it. More importantly, while I was still in a bit of a daze, the princess de-transformed and rushed to my side.

"Leo! Are you okay? Where have you been?"

"Didn't Judy tell you?"

"No! I mean, yes, she told me something was happening with Lord Ambrose and you had to leave, but then you-know-who showed up and…" She abruptly clamped a hand on her mouth and gestured for me to lean closer. Once I did, she whispered directly into my ear. "He showed up and told me to go and get the arch-mage, and then the Restricted Space was erected and… you know?"

I didn't, but there was something else in the back of my mind that demanded the light of day, so I blurted it out on the spot.

"Wait, now that I think about it… isn't the sports festival still ongoing? Is the masquerade blown wide open?"

"It's only the people present who were taken into the Restricted Space. The standard obfuscation effect of the should've covered our disappearance in the minds of the mundane folk. Hopefully," Morgana spoke up next to us, and in a minute or two, everyone was gathering around with me at the center. Including Judy. She must've headed downstairs as soon as I left the classroom to get here so soon, I wagered.

On my left, my girlfriends and my family. On my right, the Praetorian Guards were looking after Josh and Angie, with Jaakobah already performing some diagnostics. I could understand why; the last time Josh did that beam attack, he got some mana burns and his hands had to be wrapped up for days.

"If we go back soon, probably nobody will notice that we're missing." Snowy continued the previous train of thought. "P-Probably."

"We have more important things to consider at this very moment." Lord Grandpa, still furious, gestured at the violet-tinted world around us. "How did Bel of the Abyss gain access to the anchor point of the Persistent Restricted Space of my School?"

"I'll be damned if I knew, but…"

"Aw! I knew I should've hit him while I had the chance!" This latest interruption came from my Knightly sister. She was standing near the childhood friend couple and was angrily bending the throwing javelin in her hands so much that I wouldn't have been surprised if it snapped in half at any moment. "I could've punched him, but I waited for Brother to make the first move and I missed the opportunity to deal a blow to Bel of the Abyss!"

"That's a shame, but…" Josh was standing on shaky feet and his face was pale a sheet, yet he forced a strained grin onto his face. "We got him this time. He underestimated us, and we dealt some damage."

"It wasn't a decisive blow, but we finally broke the ice," Angie… or was it still Deus? Either way, she resolutely declared, "We proved that he isn't infallible, let alone invincible."

"Yes," her boyfriend agreed with similar determination. "If we can hurt him, we can beat him."

"Next time," said Angie.

"Next time," echoed Josh.

"Yeah, we'll surely get him then!" chimed in Penny, acting like a third wheel again.

"Chief, are you listening?"

I blinked, hearing the fourth voice addressing me, but before I could turn to face her, Jaakobah approached me and saluted.

"Lord Archon. Allow me to give my report."

"That can wait!" Lord Grandpa cut him off, nearly knocking the Praetorian Prefect over in his hurry. "Can you first please tell me what in the name of Sofia had you done in Ottawa?!"

"With all due respect, Lord arch-mage," Jaakobah pushed back, quite literally. "The appearance of Bel of the Abyss takes precedent over the matter of the Magi."

"Are you telling me what I can and cannot inquire about? On the grounds of my own School?!"

And then, as if the situation wasn't all over the place enough, someone tugged on my sleeve.

"Chief. I have a message for you."

That was the proverbial straw that broke the proverbial camel's back, and so I raised Teeny high over my head and infused the spear with mana, just to slam its butt end against the ground. It resulted in a loud bang that made everyone flinch and turn to me, and so I followed it up with a loud, "Can everyone just give me five bloody minutes to get my bearings?! Would that really be too much to ask?!"

Needless to say, there wasn't a single soul on the Purple Zone-ified track field who would utter a single sound after that, so I exhaled a long breath and leaned against my weapon. I wasn't being overdramatic when I said I needed five minutes. Heck, I needed much more than that; this day was just that bad. Unfortunately, I also had a feeling it still wasn't over…

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