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[Lord of the Mysteries] For the Ones We Left Behind 11/15 (5545 words)
Title: For the Ones We Left Behind 11/15
Fandom: Lord of the Mysteries
Character/Pairing(s): Audrey Hall, Leonard Mitchell, Melissa Moretti, Benson Moretti, Klein Moretti, Xio Derecha, Fors Wall
Rating: PG-13
Warning: none?
Summary: MI9 catches Benson Moretti, and end up with more than they expect.
In the small hours before dawn, the abandoned market plaza located squarely in the South Borough of Backlund was almost pitch black. It was surrounded by the rubble of buildings from recent air raids, and the paved cobblestone road was upturned in several places. Where there had once been a proud statue at the centre of the plaza, there was now just a pile of broken stone that could barely be identified as what once used to be a man, the upper body now gone and the lower vastly chipped in different places.
In one corner, a free standing gas lamp slowly alighted, sputtering several moments before it gave off a steady light, illuminating a small section of road where wild animals scattered from the sudden brightness.
A few seconds later, a second gas lamp lit up, and then a third, until the destroyed plaza could be seen in the darkness and thick fog of the clouded night. There was just enough light to reflect in the eyes of the vermin and small feral creatures that had taken over this section of the city when the humans abandoned it.
A mere month ago, the area had been a bustling street market filled with hawkers and pedestrians, with the noise of people lasting far into the night and starting once more long before the sun came up.
Now, timid footsteps fell light along the alleys of destroyed buildings to make their way to the sanctuary of light in the wrecked plaza. Two cloaked figures stopped to rest underneath a gas lamp, huddling close together for warmth and comfort in the thick fog, shaking like they had just been chased by the darkness.
Around them, the fog rose up like a supernatural wave, and the sounds of howling in the distance, whether by the wind through bare trees or feral dogs lurking at the edge of the destroyed parts of the city, was unclear.
Another figure appeared on the opposite side of the plaza, small under the cloak with its hood pulled up for warmth in the late spring air. Two other figures followed her, also under cloaks, their forms indistinct in the mist and holding oil lanterns to light the area surrounding them.
From the rubble of the demolished buildings next to the plaza, a stern and grizzled voice called out, “Mental manipulation is prohibited!”
One of the figures holding an oil lantern pushed back her hood and flipped open a small book in her palm, and bellowed in ancient Hermes, “God says the order is ineffective!”
The air crackled with the two opposing powers, pushing back a wave of fog at the centre and revealing a piece of debris that flew toward the head of the woman who spoke.
Fors ducked in time, stepping away rather than deflecting the small rock, not letting it touch her at all. She pressed against the other woman carrying an oil lantern and slipped behind the first figure, who opened her mouth to speak.
“Bribery is forbidden! Use of weapons is subject to punishment!”
As those rules slipped into place, the fog fell heavier again as the first rule eventually overcame the nullification, and Fors grimaced as she saw Audrey lower her head when the rule against mental manipulation, although weakened, was finally established into the area.
Around them, there were flashes of movements in the fog as rats and other small animals scurried away from the clash of power in the air.
A sudden blur of movement was the only warning before several men shot closer from the ruins at an inhuman speed, ignoring Melissa’s frightened shout and flying toward the trio of women, with only Xio able to dodge and deflect.
“Don’t struggle,” a handsome and mature gentleman with nearly glowing golden eyes said as he suddenly appeared behind them, boxing them in from the frontal attackers as he wrapped an arm around Fors’s neck in a stranglehold. Fors could feel it! He had a teleportation item! “We’re here to take you in peacefully—”
(“They know the abilities of both Miss Judgement and Miss Justice. While Miss Justice may be the most dangerous piece on the battlefield, Admiral Amyrius is a sensible and cautious man. He will aim to capture the unknown variable first: that means the first attack will be on Miss Magician.”
“Me?”
Mr. World nodded. “From what you’ve said, you’ve mainly demonstrated abilities of the Bard pathway, thanks to spells from Mr. Sun. You are dangerous if those abilities can counteract the Arbiter pathway, and they don’t know your sequence.
“We need to remind them that Miss Justice is the most dangerous player in this fight.”)
Fingers like claws swept the air where the man’s head was just a second ago, and Fors was yanked away at the same moment, a brief flare of panic at being caught between two opponents dizzying her. Next to her, Miss Audrey’s hood fell back to reveal a sweep of blonde hair, her cloak swirling upward at the movement into a picturesque arc that showed brief glimpses of her green dress underneath along with the length of her attacking arm, which looked covered in white pearlescent scales with dizzying patterns.
Miss Audrey’s eyes were such a deep shade of green they almost glowed, framing the determined expression on her flawless face.
“Let her go,” Audrey ordered, without a hint of spiritual power behind it while under the first rule of the area. Her other arm, too, was white and covered in scales, the tips of her fingers underneath white silk gloves sharpened into what looked like claws.
When the man behind Fors hesitated, Audrey attacked again, her movements light like a dancer but with enough power behind each strike that Fors could feel the force of air from each action.
“I don’t need mental manipulation to defeat you,” Audrey promised with a hint of a smile, and there was something sincerely frightening about such a beautiful young woman who could say something like that with full confidence, while moving with enough strength that Fors was sure she could punch through a brick wall.
While Xio blocked the nameless MI9 members who attempted to get past her to Fors and Audrey, she couldn’t stop the speed of a demigod that ran from one side of the plaza to the other side of the battlefield with a speed that indicated the use of a Beyonder ability, his movements almost faster than the eye could follow.
“Audrey Hall will be deprived of her Beyonder powers!”
The order was spoken right before golden ropes were wrapped around Audrey’s figure, although Audrey moved in such a manner that she slipped from the ropes before they could tighten, and reached a hand to grab at the end of the rope, letting it coil and tighten around only one arm instead.
Her arms remained like a dragon’s, and Audrey’s smile sweetened as Amyrius’s eyes widened. She dodged his attempt to grab at her and told him, “Good try.”
“Celt!” Amyrius bellowed, and Fors suddenly found her body bound with ropes that felt like a weight against her skin, sinking in to bind her pathway abilities, before the man behind her let her go as she sank to her knees and he joined in the fight against Audrey.
Fors pushed herself backward away from the fight, and scooted on the ground several metres into the fog until she was not in danger of being caught in the crossfire and her shape was slightly obscured. She then fumbled along the pocket of her skirt with her arms constrained by the ropes, and pulled out Leymano’s Travels into her palm, using her thumb to flip the book open.
Her abilities may have been sealed, but her spirituality hadn’t been! Leymano’s Travel didn’t only respond to a Beyonder of the Apprentice pathway, but to anyone with the spirituality to wield it.
She muttered a quick prayer to Mr. Fool and squeezed her eyes shut against the fear of failure, and then with the hand not holding onto Leymano’s Travels, she reached several inches from herself into a cold darkness, and pulled from the Historical Void.
She couldn’t feel anything— nothing! Again, again, she had to do this, and Fors tried to calm her staccato heart as she moved her hand in the darkness still within the limited range of movement she was allowed, and searched and searched and finally grabbed onto a hand.
Fors Wall pulled, falling over from the force of her desperation.
Within the thick fog, Gehrman Sparrow arrived on the battlefield kneeling on the floor and with the majority of Fors’s spirituality, leaving her exhausted and glad she was already down on the ground because she wasn’t sure she could have stayed standing had she attempted pushing all her spirituality into this one act.
She let go of his hand, and watched as his blank eyes quickly gained a light to them. Fors flipped the page in Leymano’s Travels before anyone in the plaza could realise what she did and reached with the tiny amount of spirituality she had left, her vision slowly spotting from exhaustion, back into the historical void the way she had been taught mere hours ago— this time fumbling for something that she was intimately familiar with.
Using the second historical void spell in Leymano’s Travels, Fors reached and grabbed a hold of her own spirituality in her past self, the success flowing like cool water into her veins and giving her the strength and courage to stand again as Mr. World reached for the ropes around her and in one smooth movement assisted by spirituality, cut them from her.
Several metres away, the vague figures of people fighting could be seen, and Fors used her newly refreshed spirituality to open a door.
Next to her, the figure of Gehrman Sparrow melted down until it became an exact copy of the young woman at the other end of the door that Fors opened, allowing her to reach in and this time pull Audrey Hall through with her own pathway ability!
(“The greatest use of spirituality would be directing a law against a specific person,” Xio explained to Mr. World and Miss Justice. “And you can’t use it preemptively.”
“So if a demigod were to restrict my power…” Miss Justice mused.
“It would work if you’re within the area of their power. If you’re far away when the order is given, then it dissipates, even if you appear seconds afterward.”
“So.” Mr. World concluded. “Miss Justice appears only after MI9 thinks they’ve disabled her abilities.”)
Within moments, even Mr. World’s clothing changed into an illusion of what Audrey was wearing, his expression melting into the sweet and gentle look until Fors found herself doubting who was the real one in front of her.
She closed the door and watched as both Miss Justice and Mr. World faded into the mists, and then took a hold of the ropes that had bound her mere seconds before, and went to help Xio with her fight.
—
Against multiple MI9 agents, Xio knew there was no way she could win by herself. Although she was a sequence 5 and therefore far more powerful than the average MI9 operative, she was not yet a demigod with the quantifiable change that would ensure victory. Thus, she had to rely on her own skill and higher spirituality along with experience in being underhanded and sneaky in her fights.
Hers would be the easier battle, as Miss Audrey was meant to fight against two demigods at once, both of whom were all cautious around the Tarot Club members.
All of the opponents knew that they were associated with Gehrman Sparrow, who had yet to show up to this fight.
They must have also been informed that Gehrman Sparrow could change his appearance at will.
(“We use their knowledge of us against them,” Xio said above the grey fog. She had been thinking long and hard about this from the moment her information was revealed to the enemy. “So MI9 knows about us! They also know Gehrman Sparrow is working with us. But if Mr. World knows so much about Minister Amyrius, then he must know some things about you in return, right? He seemed friendly toward you earlier.”
“Yes. I took a commission from him.”
“Does he know your abilities?” Miss Justice asked, catching on.
Mr. World nodded. “He needed a double for several days.”
“Then he knows you can change your appearance!” Xio exclaimed, “He’s likely to have told other members of MI9 if they’re hunting for us. That means—”
“Can any of us pretend to be Mr. World?” Fors realised. “That won’t work once anyone uses abilities not of the Seer pathway…”
“No,” Mr. World interjected, “they believe I have Creeping Hunger. Miss Judgement is correct— any of you can act as me. And I… can be any one of you.”)
It was uncertainty that made the MI9 members fighting against Xio hesitant when she gave them a crazed smile. Experienced with infiltrating and changing her character to move undercover, Xio was fairly good at mimicking the body language of others if needed, and she pushed herself to step more like a man and loosen her limbs for a more confident posture.
Xio had never seen Mr. World in a fight before, but neither had any of the MI9 members faced against her right now. All she had to do was simulate the movements of someone who seemed like an experienced bounty hunter, like a crazy adventurer, and it was enough to give her opponents pause.
It wouldn’t work for the higher sequences, who had a knack of knowing real from fake.
But it would work for the Audrey that the demigods were fighting against, since—
As if on cue, she dodged a punch and heard Amyrius curse and yell out, “Stop! She’s a fake!” after Miss Audrey’s virtual persona faded away from the accumulation of damage taken.
From behind, she could hear Fors’s familiar footsteps hurrying in her direction, even as the writer slowed and also attempted to mimic the movements of someone else. She didn’t get very far before Amyrius bellowed, “Invisibility is prohibited. Disguises are prohibited!”
Fors paused for a moment as she clumsily tried to hide her movements while flipping through Leymano’s Travels once more, “God says the order is ineffective!”
It was her last spell from Mr. Sun (who had eagerly contributed to Leymano’s Travels out of the spirit of cooperation rather than needing to borrow it, working on the basis that he would continue to contribute his abilities until he accrued enough merits to borrow the book rather than pay the gold that the City of Silver did not have), and their last chance to convince MI9 that Fors was of the Bard pathway and could consistently circumvent their orders.
Of course, the Nullification skill would be unlikely to negate an order from a demigod, but it would at least lesson the rule to make it easier for Miss Justice and Mr. World to break through, and it would also be a headache to the demigods, forcing them to waste their spirituality with inconsequential orders.
Xio wove her way under two lower sequence agents of MI9 and almost felt bad for them as she struck out to kick one behind the knee and make him fall, and darted away to shove at the other to make them stumble.
She didn’t have the spirituality to continuously create rules like the demigods, but this plaza was her territory. She had been here dozens, hundreds, of times day-to-day and week-to-week when needed, and it was a place she doubted the higher ups of MI9 would ever frequent.
A lucky grab at her hair made Xio cry out in pain as a much larger woman yanked her back with the enhanced strength of a Beyonder, tearing some hair from her scalp. With that break for them, another MI9 member grabbed at her legs when Xio’s arms were preoccupied trying to pry those fingers from her hair.
She managed to struggle one leg free and kick him ruthlessly in the shoulder, and then the head, but the man did not let go of her despite the hits. Instead, he managed to finagle the vice grip onto both of her legs, and suddenly Xio’s small frame was entirely up in the air with one person grabbing her by the hair and the other grabbing her by the legs.
With Xio’s orders at the beginning banning the use of weapons, the lower sequence MI9 members fighting against her still had their guns in their holsters, and batons sheathed as well. It was likely they were sequence eight and nines, here to carry out the grunt work of overwhelming by numbers.
They were merely bodies to throw into the fire, especially since MI9 wasn’t sure if the Tarot Club was willing to kill people or not. Xio’s fury only rose as she realised that, and how MI9 was willing to let even their own die for— for what? She wanted to believe that they were doing good overall, that the government was using their powers responsibly, and therefore her working for them was a good thing.
Xio opened her mouth, but then a hand was covering the entire lower half of her face tightly, preventing her from issuing any orders.
Were they idiots? Did MI9 not train them well enough? Did they truly think they could take her out merely by physically restraining her?
Before a third agent could bring over the rope they tried to restrain Audrey and Fors with, Xio’s eyes glowed to a near white and both agents holding her down shouted in pain, reflexively and ineffectively trying to protect themselves from her Psychic Piercing attack.
When they didn’t let go, Xio brought an arm down to use Whip of Pain, causing the man restraining her to finally drop her and curl into himself, and then she brought her arm up again, her other hand finding hold of the woman gripping her hair, and used the ability again, making the woman give a sharp cry of pain and let go of her as well.
Xio dropped to the ground painfully, her scalp burning as she pushed herself back up to a defensive position to eye the other members of MI9 who were now far more cautious of approaching her, especially the man holding a bundle of golden ropes.
Warm liquid was dripping down the back of her scalp, and Xio was horrified to realise it was her own blood falling onto her neck. It had been a while since she last got a bruise, much less been treated harshly enough to bleed. The agents were not holding back against her at all, knowing that she was of a higher sequence than them. Still, it was a trivial injury compared to what could happen.
She didn’t want to draw their attention, wanting them to think of her as weaker than she was, merely because MI9 in general should be the least wary of her, someone whose pathway they already knew intimately.
Mr. World wanted the fight over with as fast as possible.
On cue, the fog surrounding everyone thickened, until even the lights provided for by the gas lamps felt like the faint glow of a candle.
From the foggy night, she could hear the breathing of many creatures, until the thick white fog itself felt like a creature bearing down on them, like the sound of an intake of breath, and the waves of visibility a cold heartbeat.
Now that even those with enhanced vision could barely see three metres in front of them, Xio gave a wry smile and prepared herself as screams started beyond where they could see.
—
Audrey knew all the attention would be on her even before she stepped into the plaza. With Mr. World’s assessment, there would be more than one demigod there, and they might have to be prepared to evade the sight of an angel as well.
Had it just been one MI9 demigod, they could have easily sidestepped a trap, but with the possibility being more than one, they would have to be more cautious.
Minister Amyrius used too many powerful commands within a short span of time, and he would now rely on easier proclamations for the next few minutes. Nothing that would target her or her pathway directly, but seek to disable her abilities in a different way.
But whatever other demigod(s) there kept silent, which meant they had the spirituality to nullify her early on should Audrey reveal her hand.
Xio revealed that she could easily identify people, and had an easier time seeing through lies and illusions— something to do with seeing to the core of a person. If what her spirituality felt didn’t match up with what she saw, then she immediately knew there was something wrong.
As such, those here probably felt her presence already despite her attempting to hide it under psychological invisibility, but they wouldn’t be able to tell exactly where she was.
With the trick of the virtual persona earlier, they wouldn’t use a direct command on her again until they were sure she was there to be affected.
(But she could be wrong about that.)
Now that her first virtual persona was exposed, it likely wasn’t going to work again, so Audrey saved her spirituality for other things.
Around her, she could see the fog rise and hear the sounds of monster-like beings skittering and slithering just out of sight. There was a feeling of being watched, of oppression, and of madness in the air.
Trapped within the fog, many lower sequences grabbed at their heads as if trying to keep out the whispering madness encroaching on their minds. Audrey helped the hints of madness along with a widespread Frenzy, weak enough to blend into the surrounding illusions.
And they were splendid illusions, a blending of Mr. World’s mastery over the surroundings and Miss Magician’s vivid imagination bringing small details to life. Fors recorded the illusion ability above the grey fog for this very purpose, so that should any of them be specifically targeted by MI9, the illusion would not come down. Between her use of the spell from Leymano’s Travels, Mr. World’s mastery of illusions and marionettes, and Audrey’s mental whispers (which were weakened, but still came through), MI9 would have to take all three of them out to be free of the madness.
Beyond the scope of the illusions, Audrey quietly observed movement within the ruins and rubble; small creatures that started coming out from their hiding spots as if possessed, all moving with purpose and in sync.
Now, she thought, and threw herself into the battle in the plaza for the first time, skirting around the actual Beyonders as she made her way toward Xio. Fors must have been close by, but her focus was on fooling the two Beyonders who attacked the fake Audrey, filling their senses with illusion after illusion carefully designed to confuse and disorient them until they wouldn’t be able to see reality even if they could see through layers.
Audrey could see the figures of two men fighting nothing but air as she stepped from agent to agent, carefully staying away from panicked men who looked like they were trying to fight against illusory monsters.
Even Audrey, who knew that the monsters weren’t real and was not affected by the Frenzy she cast, felt unnerved at the sight of creatures that blended in with the fog.
Miss Magician really did a good job at creating illusions that would scare even the most experienced of Beyonders! As Audrey walked confidently through the fog, she brushed against Miss Magician who palmed her Leymano’s Travels through a subtle movement.
Audrey walked away from the high sequencers and flipped open the small notebook, stopping on the pages that Mr. Star recently filled up. It was a shame that she didn’t have an ability to pull everyone into sleep, but someone of the Sleepless pathway certainly would. She targeted each of the MI9 agents one by one, and saw Xio slip away from the battle as well, her purpose now to lead Benson and Melissa away from the fight to a pre-decided route where they would get away and be safe.
They only needed the Moretti siblings as bait in the first part to draw MI9 when they were at their full strength, able to identify whether a person was real or fake, especially civilians. Now that the attention was focused on the Tarot Club, their presence wasn’t necessary and could be faked through other means.
All they had to do—
“Teleportation is prohibited! Confinement!” A new voice called out, having recovered enough from Mr. World and Fors’s illusory horrors and Audrey’s Frenzy to realise there were people trying to escape.
—
It was easy to dart around the plaza half covered by the thick illusory fog as he distracted MI9 members with Audrey’s appearance, giving the Tarot Club pivotal time to strike while they stared after him and wondered if they could take out a demigod.
Audrey’s footsteps were light and almost coy, Klein making sure to catch the eyes of several lower-sequence members of MI9 on the periphery of the plaza, ones who were told to stand aside as back-up and not interfere unless the situation was dire. They would chase after him when he got close, and Klein used that opportunity to knock them out one after another, sometimes hitting just a bit too hard depending on how triumphant their leer was when ‘Audrey Hall’ came within their grasp.
All the while, Klein searched out the spiritual threads of animals nearby, pulling them to him one by one as he danced his way around MI9 members to leave their unconscious forms for the real Audrey to handle.
He should have felt more uncomfortable in her form, and perhaps Klein would have lingered over how easy it was to imitate her, wondering what it said about him that he could so easily mimic a member of the Tarot Club without study, but for slight smile Miss Justice had every time she glimpsed him through the fog.
She didn’t think it strange for Klein to impersonate her so well, and thus Klein endeavoured to mirror that nonchalance and closer resemble her current state of mind.
There were nearly twenty men poised as back-up, and Klein took but a minute to drop all of them.
It almost didn’t seem fair.
Then he turned his attention to the demigods.
The first time Gehrman Sparrow met Amyrius Rieveldt, the man immediately knew Gehrman wasn’t who he said he was. It was the first time anyone managed to see through his Faceless ability, even if the Admiral at the time hadn’t attempted to reveal his true identity.
It made Klein double down on his Faceless ability, and by the time Dwayne Dantes met Amyrius Rieveldt, the newly appointed Minister of Defense didn’t see anything strange about the middle-aged tycoon, not even that he was a Beyonder.
Still, Klein wanted to be cautious. Dwayne Dantes never inspired MI9 to suspect him of having extraordinary abilities, after all, and that could be the reason why he was never discovered.
Thus, after casting the illusions all around the plaza, he handed the reins of maintaining them over to Fors and slipped into the area between Amyrius and Celt, allowing the granules under his skin to twist and shift as he switched from Audrey’s delicate appearance to once more took on the appearance of Amyrius Rieveldt, using his illusions to change his clothing as well.
Klein took the initiative.
“You!” He called out in a familiar gravelly voice, hoarse from years of smoking cigars, and pointed at the fog covered figure of his height only a short distance away. “I found you, Gehrman Sparrow!”
The surroundings were twisted and vague, and both Amyrius and the man he brought as back-up twisted to him in surprise, even the vision of their forms shifting like drunken monsters.
“Did you think you could get away with impersonating me?” Klein bellowed, mimicking the heavy steps of the Admiral when he was angry, and gesticulating sharply.
Amyrius Rieveldt, he knew, was a very controlled man. He was a man raised with power and prestige, with a large sense of responsibility but also with expectations of the people around him. He did not stand for incompetence, although he imagined himself gracious enough to give those below him the leeway to learn how to please him just once. He would forgive one mistake, and then never again.
From what Dwayne Dantes learned of him after he moved back to Backlund, Minister Amyrius was like a rubber band pulled taut with nowhere to go, coiled into himself like a tiger as he pulled himself in from being a formidable Admiral of the Sonia Sea to a office worker gentleman who played cards and rubbed elbows with the upper escalon, barely using his powers in the past few months.
He was an intimidating man who disliked foul play, and he was going to hate Klein’s actions, but everything was planned with purpose— and Klein’s only chance at this was after Amyrius exhausted his spirituality attempting to take Miss Justice out quickly at the start of battle.
As the Minister did not bellow out any orders anymore, it meant there was some time before he recovered enough to use his Laws again, even if that was only a minute.
Even obscured by fog, Klein could see the man’s features contort into rage. “How dare you—”
“How dare you!” Klein retorted, and turned his head away a fraction of a degree in disgust, pulling at his tie as if he couldn’t believe the audacity. The actions were exaggerated for Amyrius, but Klein moved that into a supernatural calm, now eying the man contemplatively.
In control, Klein thought, and adjusted his movements. That man is always in control.
“Celt!” Amyrius gritted out, turning to the man across from him.
The man didn’t need to be told twice. “Disguises are prohibited!”
That’s good, Klein thought triumphantly. Faceless abilities aren’t technically a disguise. They truly transform you into another form, and even when your abilities are dispelled, you remain in that form.
“Celt!” Klein called out in imitation, and then forced an illusion over the form of Amyrius, subtle like warped glass, as if his form was twisting and turning. Small, as if it was under control and almost hidden by the fog.
Then as an added layer of distraction, rather than relying on purely illusion, Klein brought in some dozens of marionette rats, all of them shifted into monstrous forms bizarre and grotesque, allowing them to blend in closely with the illusion monsters that were starting to creep out from the fog.
In accordance with the illusions, Klein pretended to grapple with one of the illusory monsters, allowing him to fake the strength of the Arbiter pathway.
Several of the illusory monsters attacked the real Amyrius as well, just to make things more confusing for Celt, while Klein commanded the marionette rats to climb over each other as they all attacked Celt, only to shift away like a wave when he grabbed at them.
Of course, he still lost several of his marionettes when the man yelled and managed to crush some in his struggles. Others darted away from him and ran off, only there to provide the physical stimulus required to convince a Beyonder of the Arbiter pathway that it was real.
That at least some of the monsters in the fog were real.
All of this, he knew, was to give Xio time to get Benson and Melissa away from the danger, and for Audrey to take down the stragglers and look for any hidden agents around the plaza. It would give her time to carefully implant psychological cues for those agents to gradually forget what happened tonight, and attribute the attack to another group.
Instead, Celt turned to the most basic rules of the Arbiter pathway, shouting out, “Teleportation is prohibited! Confinement!”
Klein had to grit his teeth as he lampooned about why those of the Arbiter pathway always, always ended up using their confinement ability. Was it some strange hobby pervasive with those Beyonders? Why lock people up all the time? This wasn't even a building, it was outdoors!
Unfortunately, while Klein was correct in his assessment of Celt’s distraction, Minister of Defense Amyrius recovered faster than expected.
“Everything in this area will return to its original form!”
Suddenly the illusions started to fade away, and rats started to shift back to their normal shapes, and Klein could feel granules move under his skin and skeleton, shrinking and contrasting down the fake form he made of Amyrius, first back toward the form of Gehrman Sparrow who was the historical projection summoned into the fight, and then continuing to shift down further.
Klein’s eyes widened, and his marionettes hesitated for a moment as he covered his face, and before anyone could see the thin, bookish form, he threw himself into the Historical Void.
A/N: ...take my fight scenes with a grain of salt, please. I don't know if Bards can counter Arbiters, but let's just say it's possible. I also wanted to showcase how well Audrey and Klein's abilities could work together since one of them can create illusions and monsters while the other can turn a person crazy-- so which is real and which is fake when they're working together?
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Fandom: Lord of the Mysteries
Character/Pairing(s): Audrey Hall, Leonard Mitchell, Melissa Moretti, Benson Moretti, Klein Moretti, Xio Derecha, Fors Wall
Rating: PG-13
Warning: none?
Summary: MI9 catches Benson Moretti, and end up with more than they expect.
In the small hours before dawn, the abandoned market plaza located squarely in the South Borough of Backlund was almost pitch black. It was surrounded by the rubble of buildings from recent air raids, and the paved cobblestone road was upturned in several places. Where there had once been a proud statue at the centre of the plaza, there was now just a pile of broken stone that could barely be identified as what once used to be a man, the upper body now gone and the lower vastly chipped in different places.
In one corner, a free standing gas lamp slowly alighted, sputtering several moments before it gave off a steady light, illuminating a small section of road where wild animals scattered from the sudden brightness.
A few seconds later, a second gas lamp lit up, and then a third, until the destroyed plaza could be seen in the darkness and thick fog of the clouded night. There was just enough light to reflect in the eyes of the vermin and small feral creatures that had taken over this section of the city when the humans abandoned it.
A mere month ago, the area had been a bustling street market filled with hawkers and pedestrians, with the noise of people lasting far into the night and starting once more long before the sun came up.
Now, timid footsteps fell light along the alleys of destroyed buildings to make their way to the sanctuary of light in the wrecked plaza. Two cloaked figures stopped to rest underneath a gas lamp, huddling close together for warmth and comfort in the thick fog, shaking like they had just been chased by the darkness.
Around them, the fog rose up like a supernatural wave, and the sounds of howling in the distance, whether by the wind through bare trees or feral dogs lurking at the edge of the destroyed parts of the city, was unclear.
Another figure appeared on the opposite side of the plaza, small under the cloak with its hood pulled up for warmth in the late spring air. Two other figures followed her, also under cloaks, their forms indistinct in the mist and holding oil lanterns to light the area surrounding them.
From the rubble of the demolished buildings next to the plaza, a stern and grizzled voice called out, “Mental manipulation is prohibited!”
One of the figures holding an oil lantern pushed back her hood and flipped open a small book in her palm, and bellowed in ancient Hermes, “God says the order is ineffective!”
The air crackled with the two opposing powers, pushing back a wave of fog at the centre and revealing a piece of debris that flew toward the head of the woman who spoke.
Fors ducked in time, stepping away rather than deflecting the small rock, not letting it touch her at all. She pressed against the other woman carrying an oil lantern and slipped behind the first figure, who opened her mouth to speak.
“Bribery is forbidden! Use of weapons is subject to punishment!”
As those rules slipped into place, the fog fell heavier again as the first rule eventually overcame the nullification, and Fors grimaced as she saw Audrey lower her head when the rule against mental manipulation, although weakened, was finally established into the area.
Around them, there were flashes of movements in the fog as rats and other small animals scurried away from the clash of power in the air.
A sudden blur of movement was the only warning before several men shot closer from the ruins at an inhuman speed, ignoring Melissa’s frightened shout and flying toward the trio of women, with only Xio able to dodge and deflect.
“Don’t struggle,” a handsome and mature gentleman with nearly glowing golden eyes said as he suddenly appeared behind them, boxing them in from the frontal attackers as he wrapped an arm around Fors’s neck in a stranglehold. Fors could feel it! He had a teleportation item! “We’re here to take you in peacefully—”
(“They know the abilities of both Miss Judgement and Miss Justice. While Miss Justice may be the most dangerous piece on the battlefield, Admiral Amyrius is a sensible and cautious man. He will aim to capture the unknown variable first: that means the first attack will be on Miss Magician.”
“Me?”
Mr. World nodded. “From what you’ve said, you’ve mainly demonstrated abilities of the Bard pathway, thanks to spells from Mr. Sun. You are dangerous if those abilities can counteract the Arbiter pathway, and they don’t know your sequence.
“We need to remind them that Miss Justice is the most dangerous player in this fight.”)
Fingers like claws swept the air where the man’s head was just a second ago, and Fors was yanked away at the same moment, a brief flare of panic at being caught between two opponents dizzying her. Next to her, Miss Audrey’s hood fell back to reveal a sweep of blonde hair, her cloak swirling upward at the movement into a picturesque arc that showed brief glimpses of her green dress underneath along with the length of her attacking arm, which looked covered in white pearlescent scales with dizzying patterns.
Miss Audrey’s eyes were such a deep shade of green they almost glowed, framing the determined expression on her flawless face.
“Let her go,” Audrey ordered, without a hint of spiritual power behind it while under the first rule of the area. Her other arm, too, was white and covered in scales, the tips of her fingers underneath white silk gloves sharpened into what looked like claws.
When the man behind Fors hesitated, Audrey attacked again, her movements light like a dancer but with enough power behind each strike that Fors could feel the force of air from each action.
“I don’t need mental manipulation to defeat you,” Audrey promised with a hint of a smile, and there was something sincerely frightening about such a beautiful young woman who could say something like that with full confidence, while moving with enough strength that Fors was sure she could punch through a brick wall.
While Xio blocked the nameless MI9 members who attempted to get past her to Fors and Audrey, she couldn’t stop the speed of a demigod that ran from one side of the plaza to the other side of the battlefield with a speed that indicated the use of a Beyonder ability, his movements almost faster than the eye could follow.
“Audrey Hall will be deprived of her Beyonder powers!”
The order was spoken right before golden ropes were wrapped around Audrey’s figure, although Audrey moved in such a manner that she slipped from the ropes before they could tighten, and reached a hand to grab at the end of the rope, letting it coil and tighten around only one arm instead.
Her arms remained like a dragon’s, and Audrey’s smile sweetened as Amyrius’s eyes widened. She dodged his attempt to grab at her and told him, “Good try.”
“Celt!” Amyrius bellowed, and Fors suddenly found her body bound with ropes that felt like a weight against her skin, sinking in to bind her pathway abilities, before the man behind her let her go as she sank to her knees and he joined in the fight against Audrey.
Fors pushed herself backward away from the fight, and scooted on the ground several metres into the fog until she was not in danger of being caught in the crossfire and her shape was slightly obscured. She then fumbled along the pocket of her skirt with her arms constrained by the ropes, and pulled out Leymano’s Travels into her palm, using her thumb to flip the book open.
Her abilities may have been sealed, but her spirituality hadn’t been! Leymano’s Travel didn’t only respond to a Beyonder of the Apprentice pathway, but to anyone with the spirituality to wield it.
She muttered a quick prayer to Mr. Fool and squeezed her eyes shut against the fear of failure, and then with the hand not holding onto Leymano’s Travels, she reached several inches from herself into a cold darkness, and pulled from the Historical Void.
She couldn’t feel anything— nothing! Again, again, she had to do this, and Fors tried to calm her staccato heart as she moved her hand in the darkness still within the limited range of movement she was allowed, and searched and searched and finally grabbed onto a hand.
Fors Wall pulled, falling over from the force of her desperation.
Within the thick fog, Gehrman Sparrow arrived on the battlefield kneeling on the floor and with the majority of Fors’s spirituality, leaving her exhausted and glad she was already down on the ground because she wasn’t sure she could have stayed standing had she attempted pushing all her spirituality into this one act.
She let go of his hand, and watched as his blank eyes quickly gained a light to them. Fors flipped the page in Leymano’s Travels before anyone in the plaza could realise what she did and reached with the tiny amount of spirituality she had left, her vision slowly spotting from exhaustion, back into the historical void the way she had been taught mere hours ago— this time fumbling for something that she was intimately familiar with.
Using the second historical void spell in Leymano’s Travels, Fors reached and grabbed a hold of her own spirituality in her past self, the success flowing like cool water into her veins and giving her the strength and courage to stand again as Mr. World reached for the ropes around her and in one smooth movement assisted by spirituality, cut them from her.
Several metres away, the vague figures of people fighting could be seen, and Fors used her newly refreshed spirituality to open a door.
Next to her, the figure of Gehrman Sparrow melted down until it became an exact copy of the young woman at the other end of the door that Fors opened, allowing her to reach in and this time pull Audrey Hall through with her own pathway ability!
(“The greatest use of spirituality would be directing a law against a specific person,” Xio explained to Mr. World and Miss Justice. “And you can’t use it preemptively.”
“So if a demigod were to restrict my power…” Miss Justice mused.
“It would work if you’re within the area of their power. If you’re far away when the order is given, then it dissipates, even if you appear seconds afterward.”
“So.” Mr. World concluded. “Miss Justice appears only after MI9 thinks they’ve disabled her abilities.”)
Within moments, even Mr. World’s clothing changed into an illusion of what Audrey was wearing, his expression melting into the sweet and gentle look until Fors found herself doubting who was the real one in front of her.
She closed the door and watched as both Miss Justice and Mr. World faded into the mists, and then took a hold of the ropes that had bound her mere seconds before, and went to help Xio with her fight.
—
Against multiple MI9 agents, Xio knew there was no way she could win by herself. Although she was a sequence 5 and therefore far more powerful than the average MI9 operative, she was not yet a demigod with the quantifiable change that would ensure victory. Thus, she had to rely on her own skill and higher spirituality along with experience in being underhanded and sneaky in her fights.
Hers would be the easier battle, as Miss Audrey was meant to fight against two demigods at once, both of whom were all cautious around the Tarot Club members.
All of the opponents knew that they were associated with Gehrman Sparrow, who had yet to show up to this fight.
They must have also been informed that Gehrman Sparrow could change his appearance at will.
(“We use their knowledge of us against them,” Xio said above the grey fog. She had been thinking long and hard about this from the moment her information was revealed to the enemy. “So MI9 knows about us! They also know Gehrman Sparrow is working with us. But if Mr. World knows so much about Minister Amyrius, then he must know some things about you in return, right? He seemed friendly toward you earlier.”
“Yes. I took a commission from him.”
“Does he know your abilities?” Miss Justice asked, catching on.
Mr. World nodded. “He needed a double for several days.”
“Then he knows you can change your appearance!” Xio exclaimed, “He’s likely to have told other members of MI9 if they’re hunting for us. That means—”
“Can any of us pretend to be Mr. World?” Fors realised. “That won’t work once anyone uses abilities not of the Seer pathway…”
“No,” Mr. World interjected, “they believe I have Creeping Hunger. Miss Judgement is correct— any of you can act as me. And I… can be any one of you.”)
It was uncertainty that made the MI9 members fighting against Xio hesitant when she gave them a crazed smile. Experienced with infiltrating and changing her character to move undercover, Xio was fairly good at mimicking the body language of others if needed, and she pushed herself to step more like a man and loosen her limbs for a more confident posture.
Xio had never seen Mr. World in a fight before, but neither had any of the MI9 members faced against her right now. All she had to do was simulate the movements of someone who seemed like an experienced bounty hunter, like a crazy adventurer, and it was enough to give her opponents pause.
It wouldn’t work for the higher sequences, who had a knack of knowing real from fake.
But it would work for the Audrey that the demigods were fighting against, since—
As if on cue, she dodged a punch and heard Amyrius curse and yell out, “Stop! She’s a fake!” after Miss Audrey’s virtual persona faded away from the accumulation of damage taken.
From behind, she could hear Fors’s familiar footsteps hurrying in her direction, even as the writer slowed and also attempted to mimic the movements of someone else. She didn’t get very far before Amyrius bellowed, “Invisibility is prohibited. Disguises are prohibited!”
Fors paused for a moment as she clumsily tried to hide her movements while flipping through Leymano’s Travels once more, “God says the order is ineffective!”
It was her last spell from Mr. Sun (who had eagerly contributed to Leymano’s Travels out of the spirit of cooperation rather than needing to borrow it, working on the basis that he would continue to contribute his abilities until he accrued enough merits to borrow the book rather than pay the gold that the City of Silver did not have), and their last chance to convince MI9 that Fors was of the Bard pathway and could consistently circumvent their orders.
Of course, the Nullification skill would be unlikely to negate an order from a demigod, but it would at least lesson the rule to make it easier for Miss Justice and Mr. World to break through, and it would also be a headache to the demigods, forcing them to waste their spirituality with inconsequential orders.
Xio wove her way under two lower sequence agents of MI9 and almost felt bad for them as she struck out to kick one behind the knee and make him fall, and darted away to shove at the other to make them stumble.
She didn’t have the spirituality to continuously create rules like the demigods, but this plaza was her territory. She had been here dozens, hundreds, of times day-to-day and week-to-week when needed, and it was a place she doubted the higher ups of MI9 would ever frequent.
A lucky grab at her hair made Xio cry out in pain as a much larger woman yanked her back with the enhanced strength of a Beyonder, tearing some hair from her scalp. With that break for them, another MI9 member grabbed at her legs when Xio’s arms were preoccupied trying to pry those fingers from her hair.
She managed to struggle one leg free and kick him ruthlessly in the shoulder, and then the head, but the man did not let go of her despite the hits. Instead, he managed to finagle the vice grip onto both of her legs, and suddenly Xio’s small frame was entirely up in the air with one person grabbing her by the hair and the other grabbing her by the legs.
With Xio’s orders at the beginning banning the use of weapons, the lower sequence MI9 members fighting against her still had their guns in their holsters, and batons sheathed as well. It was likely they were sequence eight and nines, here to carry out the grunt work of overwhelming by numbers.
They were merely bodies to throw into the fire, especially since MI9 wasn’t sure if the Tarot Club was willing to kill people or not. Xio’s fury only rose as she realised that, and how MI9 was willing to let even their own die for— for what? She wanted to believe that they were doing good overall, that the government was using their powers responsibly, and therefore her working for them was a good thing.
Xio opened her mouth, but then a hand was covering the entire lower half of her face tightly, preventing her from issuing any orders.
Were they idiots? Did MI9 not train them well enough? Did they truly think they could take her out merely by physically restraining her?
Before a third agent could bring over the rope they tried to restrain Audrey and Fors with, Xio’s eyes glowed to a near white and both agents holding her down shouted in pain, reflexively and ineffectively trying to protect themselves from her Psychic Piercing attack.
When they didn’t let go, Xio brought an arm down to use Whip of Pain, causing the man restraining her to finally drop her and curl into himself, and then she brought her arm up again, her other hand finding hold of the woman gripping her hair, and used the ability again, making the woman give a sharp cry of pain and let go of her as well.
Xio dropped to the ground painfully, her scalp burning as she pushed herself back up to a defensive position to eye the other members of MI9 who were now far more cautious of approaching her, especially the man holding a bundle of golden ropes.
Warm liquid was dripping down the back of her scalp, and Xio was horrified to realise it was her own blood falling onto her neck. It had been a while since she last got a bruise, much less been treated harshly enough to bleed. The agents were not holding back against her at all, knowing that she was of a higher sequence than them. Still, it was a trivial injury compared to what could happen.
She didn’t want to draw their attention, wanting them to think of her as weaker than she was, merely because MI9 in general should be the least wary of her, someone whose pathway they already knew intimately.
Mr. World wanted the fight over with as fast as possible.
On cue, the fog surrounding everyone thickened, until even the lights provided for by the gas lamps felt like the faint glow of a candle.
From the foggy night, she could hear the breathing of many creatures, until the thick white fog itself felt like a creature bearing down on them, like the sound of an intake of breath, and the waves of visibility a cold heartbeat.
Now that even those with enhanced vision could barely see three metres in front of them, Xio gave a wry smile and prepared herself as screams started beyond where they could see.
—
Audrey knew all the attention would be on her even before she stepped into the plaza. With Mr. World’s assessment, there would be more than one demigod there, and they might have to be prepared to evade the sight of an angel as well.
Had it just been one MI9 demigod, they could have easily sidestepped a trap, but with the possibility being more than one, they would have to be more cautious.
Minister Amyrius used too many powerful commands within a short span of time, and he would now rely on easier proclamations for the next few minutes. Nothing that would target her or her pathway directly, but seek to disable her abilities in a different way.
But whatever other demigod(s) there kept silent, which meant they had the spirituality to nullify her early on should Audrey reveal her hand.
Xio revealed that she could easily identify people, and had an easier time seeing through lies and illusions— something to do with seeing to the core of a person. If what her spirituality felt didn’t match up with what she saw, then she immediately knew there was something wrong.
As such, those here probably felt her presence already despite her attempting to hide it under psychological invisibility, but they wouldn’t be able to tell exactly where she was.
With the trick of the virtual persona earlier, they wouldn’t use a direct command on her again until they were sure she was there to be affected.
(But she could be wrong about that.)
Now that her first virtual persona was exposed, it likely wasn’t going to work again, so Audrey saved her spirituality for other things.
Around her, she could see the fog rise and hear the sounds of monster-like beings skittering and slithering just out of sight. There was a feeling of being watched, of oppression, and of madness in the air.
Trapped within the fog, many lower sequences grabbed at their heads as if trying to keep out the whispering madness encroaching on their minds. Audrey helped the hints of madness along with a widespread Frenzy, weak enough to blend into the surrounding illusions.
And they were splendid illusions, a blending of Mr. World’s mastery over the surroundings and Miss Magician’s vivid imagination bringing small details to life. Fors recorded the illusion ability above the grey fog for this very purpose, so that should any of them be specifically targeted by MI9, the illusion would not come down. Between her use of the spell from Leymano’s Travels, Mr. World’s mastery of illusions and marionettes, and Audrey’s mental whispers (which were weakened, but still came through), MI9 would have to take all three of them out to be free of the madness.
Beyond the scope of the illusions, Audrey quietly observed movement within the ruins and rubble; small creatures that started coming out from their hiding spots as if possessed, all moving with purpose and in sync.
Now, she thought, and threw herself into the battle in the plaza for the first time, skirting around the actual Beyonders as she made her way toward Xio. Fors must have been close by, but her focus was on fooling the two Beyonders who attacked the fake Audrey, filling their senses with illusion after illusion carefully designed to confuse and disorient them until they wouldn’t be able to see reality even if they could see through layers.
Audrey could see the figures of two men fighting nothing but air as she stepped from agent to agent, carefully staying away from panicked men who looked like they were trying to fight against illusory monsters.
Even Audrey, who knew that the monsters weren’t real and was not affected by the Frenzy she cast, felt unnerved at the sight of creatures that blended in with the fog.
Miss Magician really did a good job at creating illusions that would scare even the most experienced of Beyonders! As Audrey walked confidently through the fog, she brushed against Miss Magician who palmed her Leymano’s Travels through a subtle movement.
Audrey walked away from the high sequencers and flipped open the small notebook, stopping on the pages that Mr. Star recently filled up. It was a shame that she didn’t have an ability to pull everyone into sleep, but someone of the Sleepless pathway certainly would. She targeted each of the MI9 agents one by one, and saw Xio slip away from the battle as well, her purpose now to lead Benson and Melissa away from the fight to a pre-decided route where they would get away and be safe.
They only needed the Moretti siblings as bait in the first part to draw MI9 when they were at their full strength, able to identify whether a person was real or fake, especially civilians. Now that the attention was focused on the Tarot Club, their presence wasn’t necessary and could be faked through other means.
All they had to do—
“Teleportation is prohibited! Confinement!” A new voice called out, having recovered enough from Mr. World and Fors’s illusory horrors and Audrey’s Frenzy to realise there were people trying to escape.
—
It was easy to dart around the plaza half covered by the thick illusory fog as he distracted MI9 members with Audrey’s appearance, giving the Tarot Club pivotal time to strike while they stared after him and wondered if they could take out a demigod.
Audrey’s footsteps were light and almost coy, Klein making sure to catch the eyes of several lower-sequence members of MI9 on the periphery of the plaza, ones who were told to stand aside as back-up and not interfere unless the situation was dire. They would chase after him when he got close, and Klein used that opportunity to knock them out one after another, sometimes hitting just a bit too hard depending on how triumphant their leer was when ‘Audrey Hall’ came within their grasp.
All the while, Klein searched out the spiritual threads of animals nearby, pulling them to him one by one as he danced his way around MI9 members to leave their unconscious forms for the real Audrey to handle.
He should have felt more uncomfortable in her form, and perhaps Klein would have lingered over how easy it was to imitate her, wondering what it said about him that he could so easily mimic a member of the Tarot Club without study, but for slight smile Miss Justice had every time she glimpsed him through the fog.
She didn’t think it strange for Klein to impersonate her so well, and thus Klein endeavoured to mirror that nonchalance and closer resemble her current state of mind.
There were nearly twenty men poised as back-up, and Klein took but a minute to drop all of them.
It almost didn’t seem fair.
Then he turned his attention to the demigods.
The first time Gehrman Sparrow met Amyrius Rieveldt, the man immediately knew Gehrman wasn’t who he said he was. It was the first time anyone managed to see through his Faceless ability, even if the Admiral at the time hadn’t attempted to reveal his true identity.
It made Klein double down on his Faceless ability, and by the time Dwayne Dantes met Amyrius Rieveldt, the newly appointed Minister of Defense didn’t see anything strange about the middle-aged tycoon, not even that he was a Beyonder.
Still, Klein wanted to be cautious. Dwayne Dantes never inspired MI9 to suspect him of having extraordinary abilities, after all, and that could be the reason why he was never discovered.
Thus, after casting the illusions all around the plaza, he handed the reins of maintaining them over to Fors and slipped into the area between Amyrius and Celt, allowing the granules under his skin to twist and shift as he switched from Audrey’s delicate appearance to once more took on the appearance of Amyrius Rieveldt, using his illusions to change his clothing as well.
Klein took the initiative.
“You!” He called out in a familiar gravelly voice, hoarse from years of smoking cigars, and pointed at the fog covered figure of his height only a short distance away. “I found you, Gehrman Sparrow!”
The surroundings were twisted and vague, and both Amyrius and the man he brought as back-up twisted to him in surprise, even the vision of their forms shifting like drunken monsters.
“Did you think you could get away with impersonating me?” Klein bellowed, mimicking the heavy steps of the Admiral when he was angry, and gesticulating sharply.
Amyrius Rieveldt, he knew, was a very controlled man. He was a man raised with power and prestige, with a large sense of responsibility but also with expectations of the people around him. He did not stand for incompetence, although he imagined himself gracious enough to give those below him the leeway to learn how to please him just once. He would forgive one mistake, and then never again.
From what Dwayne Dantes learned of him after he moved back to Backlund, Minister Amyrius was like a rubber band pulled taut with nowhere to go, coiled into himself like a tiger as he pulled himself in from being a formidable Admiral of the Sonia Sea to a office worker gentleman who played cards and rubbed elbows with the upper escalon, barely using his powers in the past few months.
He was an intimidating man who disliked foul play, and he was going to hate Klein’s actions, but everything was planned with purpose— and Klein’s only chance at this was after Amyrius exhausted his spirituality attempting to take Miss Justice out quickly at the start of battle.
As the Minister did not bellow out any orders anymore, it meant there was some time before he recovered enough to use his Laws again, even if that was only a minute.
Even obscured by fog, Klein could see the man’s features contort into rage. “How dare you—”
“How dare you!” Klein retorted, and turned his head away a fraction of a degree in disgust, pulling at his tie as if he couldn’t believe the audacity. The actions were exaggerated for Amyrius, but Klein moved that into a supernatural calm, now eying the man contemplatively.
In control, Klein thought, and adjusted his movements. That man is always in control.
“Celt!” Amyrius gritted out, turning to the man across from him.
The man didn’t need to be told twice. “Disguises are prohibited!”
That’s good, Klein thought triumphantly. Faceless abilities aren’t technically a disguise. They truly transform you into another form, and even when your abilities are dispelled, you remain in that form.
“Celt!” Klein called out in imitation, and then forced an illusion over the form of Amyrius, subtle like warped glass, as if his form was twisting and turning. Small, as if it was under control and almost hidden by the fog.
Then as an added layer of distraction, rather than relying on purely illusion, Klein brought in some dozens of marionette rats, all of them shifted into monstrous forms bizarre and grotesque, allowing them to blend in closely with the illusion monsters that were starting to creep out from the fog.
In accordance with the illusions, Klein pretended to grapple with one of the illusory monsters, allowing him to fake the strength of the Arbiter pathway.
Several of the illusory monsters attacked the real Amyrius as well, just to make things more confusing for Celt, while Klein commanded the marionette rats to climb over each other as they all attacked Celt, only to shift away like a wave when he grabbed at them.
Of course, he still lost several of his marionettes when the man yelled and managed to crush some in his struggles. Others darted away from him and ran off, only there to provide the physical stimulus required to convince a Beyonder of the Arbiter pathway that it was real.
That at least some of the monsters in the fog were real.
All of this, he knew, was to give Xio time to get Benson and Melissa away from the danger, and for Audrey to take down the stragglers and look for any hidden agents around the plaza. It would give her time to carefully implant psychological cues for those agents to gradually forget what happened tonight, and attribute the attack to another group.
Instead, Celt turned to the most basic rules of the Arbiter pathway, shouting out, “Teleportation is prohibited! Confinement!”
Klein had to grit his teeth as he lampooned about why those of the Arbiter pathway always, always ended up using their confinement ability. Was it some strange hobby pervasive with those Beyonders? Why lock people up all the time? This wasn't even a building, it was outdoors!
Unfortunately, while Klein was correct in his assessment of Celt’s distraction, Minister of Defense Amyrius recovered faster than expected.
“Everything in this area will return to its original form!”
Suddenly the illusions started to fade away, and rats started to shift back to their normal shapes, and Klein could feel granules move under his skin and skeleton, shrinking and contrasting down the fake form he made of Amyrius, first back toward the form of Gehrman Sparrow who was the historical projection summoned into the fight, and then continuing to shift down further.
Klein’s eyes widened, and his marionettes hesitated for a moment as he covered his face, and before anyone could see the thin, bookish form, he threw himself into the Historical Void.
A/N: ...take my fight scenes with a grain of salt, please. I don't know if Bards can counter Arbiters, but let's just say it's possible. I also wanted to showcase how well Audrey and Klein's abilities could work together since one of them can create illusions and monsters while the other can turn a person crazy-- so which is real and which is fake when they're working together?