NOVEL NEXT Chapter 25: Birth of the prophecy
My allies have successfully scoured the last vestige of elder beings. It took intervention from the goddess herself to end their reinforcements, but the solar alliance is still on my ass. They blame me for the beings of the beyond invading, when I was the one who saved them of it. My allies said they will sleep until they are needed again, I hope they never wake up. On the bright side, I have all spell components needed to start the ritual. Once I make the being which can reliably cast my custom spell, I will beat back the solar alliance. They will not stop me in my pursuit of ultimate life.
-Logbook of The Grand Scientist
Entering the arena backrooms, I spot Kyla tapping her feet impatiently, while Eden is talking to a cloaked man. There's also a timid looking woman with round glasses, and a teacher outfit. She lights up when she sees me and approaches.
"You are Esstrey, right? My students told me about you after they rescued you from Mazurio. I'm Ena Dalia, the teacher that was summoned alongside the kids." Right there was a teacher summoned alongside the students, she doesn't look too strong, but she's confidently standing in the same room as Eden and Kyla.
"That's correct ma'am, I am Esstrey of the Russian Spetsnaz. Due to circumstances I physically cannot provide you with more details, but if possible I could help, what do you need?" Kyla and Eden both look at me like I ate something weird as I'm talking to Dalia.
"Thanks, but no need. I mostly wished to see the person that was still alive after being summoned before us. Also, do you happen to know of a way we could return to earth?" She looks hopeful as she says that, but I have bad news for her on that front.
"Sorry, ma'am, but my team was able to ascertain that this world doesn't have the resources to send us back to earth. Apparently, great amounts of dimensional mages would be needed for such a task." She looks dejected, but not too surprised.
"That's a shame, then all I could ask of you is to please survive, lady Esstrey."
"Don't worry about me, if you keep the kids safe, I'll focus on making the world a better place. That way, we at least have a future." She balls her fist in determination.
"I will, and I am confident we will all make it out. Excuse me." She leaves having finished what she came here to do. I'm sure she can keep the kids safe. Kyla walks toward me in annoyance.
"Esstrey! Why were you so nice to her? I have never seen you be that nice to anybody!" Eden also finishes talking to the cloaked man, and joins us.
"Because she is from the same planet I am. Us interdimensionals have to stick together, ain't that right, Cathy?" Kyla and Eden both give confused looks between Cathy and me. Eden is the first to speak up.
"What makes you think Cathy is interdimensional?"
"She's a S̶̬̗͉͚̠̲͙̏̍͌̒̉͜h̶̰̩̳̳̏ọ̶̢̲̜͓͑̈̅͒̈́͋̈́ͅg̴͚̋ġ̴̘̙̈́̇͜o̵̚͜t̸̗̗̑̂͒̄̓͋͛͠h̸̜̝̞̟̄͂͗̂̌͘͠, my CO used to read Lovecraft and his work. Most of Cathy seems to align with those traits, so I'm mostly assuming here." My voice cracks up a bit as I say Shoggoth, making a weird sound reminiscent of having a bad radio connection. Kyla and Eden both looks physically stunned. While Cathy turns a darker shade of purple.
"Enough stalling Eden! Tell us what the fuck is up with that Magnus guy." Eden quickly pulls himself together.
"Magnus Bellator is an old, retired war hero. He had retired over a decade ago to live peacefully, and donated most of his assets to the Empire. I was informed just now that he is participating at the behest of Count Lifstein, and the Count saw fit to equip him with some very high-end gear specifically to stomp us. It seems we have been stepping on some toes, and they were planning to stomp us so hard it would prove that opposition to the Emperor is possible." Since when are we in the emperor's camp?
"Well, what do we do then? If we let this guy do his thing, it would be rather annoying. It would be easy if I had my guns." Eden actually looks at me for a bit at that.
"I didn't think you would be so open to the idea to work with me to hamper my opposition. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the help, but they are very much my enemies, and my enemies alone."
"Don't think I don't know about the Emperor's men covering my tracks. I also know that the information broker is one of yours, since my first targets were all tax-dodgers. The way I see it, the people opposing the Emperor are already including me in their list of enemies no matter what. As it stands, the way I see it, we need to beat the shit out of Magnus to prevent this Liverstein guy from doing anything." I'm sure it was obvious to everyone who knew me that I have been going around killing slaver, and in the same manner it was pretty obvious someone was covering for me. I have had way more heat from the guard at Quintillius.
"Alright, so Esstrey will help, would you gals be amendable to provide help?" Eden looks to Kyla and Cathy full of hope, unfortunately for Eden, I already know Kyla's answer will be n-.
"Sure, I'm not a big fan of Empire nobles myself. It's about time someone turned them into modern art. I'll also send a message to get you those gonnes you want. You could use them better than I could. I'm guessing they will arrive in two weeks." My jaw drops, did Kyla just agree to help a solar? All for free? And she's even giving me the team's guns back, just like that?
"I, too, will provide [assistance/aid/support]. Us interdimensionals are to [stick together/work together/ally]." And all that roughly translates to yes, Cathy will provide help.
"Alright, I have a plan, but we need someone who is a general weapons expert, and has good battlefield awareness." As Eden says that, the eyes in the room turn to me.
"What? What's the plan then? Spit it out quickly, because I'm up soon, and my opponent is Magny."
"On this side of the ring, we have the strongest man, the myth, the legend, MAGNUS BELLATOR!" I hear the crowd cheering for Magnus.
"And opposing Magnus is the largest mermaid you have ever seen, the titanic madwoman, Esstrey The... Mad?" The announcer trips over his words, as I enter the ring. I can feel the eyes of the crowd burning into me. Even Magnus seems to speak up.
"You… why? How?" I smell a tinge of fear coming from Magnus.
Instead of responding, I draw the black flaming blade, and the glowing golden shield. The flesh armor starts covering my whole body in preparation for a fight. I can hear it whispering all kinds of things in my ears. The armor tells me about bad relations between militant bureaucrats, and hive minded extradimensional refugees. When I focus on Magnus, it switches its whispers over to how best to prepare this man's heart. The dark flaming sword, and the shining golden shield are having a small battle between each other. The mana artifacts in my hands being on the brink of rebellion.
I try to respond to Magnus, anything. Instead, I find myself only able give a guttural groan.
"C-contestants get set, ready, fight!" Magnus shoots out at me, intending to finish me when I don't seem mentally ready, but he is instead fooled as water burst from below, and blows him off course.
Before he can recover, I blast him with solid light. In response, he feeds mana into his right pauldron, which turns his whole body reflectant. The armor whispers to me that he is equipped to counter both strong light and dark magic. With the intent to counter the two big players of the arena. I respond by slashing the blade in his direction, which sends a black tear in his direction. His left pauldron fires a sort of light beam at it, some sort of point-defense system. This isn't going to work.
I approach the man, he responds in kind with tower shield lifted. When we get in range of each other, he slashes at me, but draws back when he sees me trying to take the hit with my face. He jumps back a few meters, and lifts his faceplate.
"What are you?!" I feel a word on my tongue, the only word I could speak in this state.
"NIGHTMARE!" I burst forth, and slash at him with the black blade. His pauldron tries in vain to deflect the artifact. Instead, Magnus is forced to put his shield in between us. I push down on the shield, and the blade start cleaving through. Using my superior heft, I rip the shield from his hands. The blade is now stuck in the shield, so I simply drop both behind me. I don't need that anymore.
Seeing that I am without a sword, Magnus believes himself to have an advantage. He goes for an overhead slash, wielding his blade in two hands. I respond by bashing his right shoulder in with the golden shield. As he takes the damage, he suddenly explodes into light, but I command the sentient armor to attack in all directions. When the light lifts, I spot Magnus being more wounded than before. Time to finish this.
I advance on the man. When he tries to back up, I push him forward with water. He takes the moment to charge forward, and drives his sword through one of my kidneys. Instead of pushing the blade out of the wound, I command the armor to take a hold of it. I give Magnus a close-range blast of light, his reflecting enchantment having been disabled when I bashed him previously. I drop the shield to the ground while he recovers, and dig a claw into his right shoulder. My right claw emerges with another weapon in hand, a small mass-produced unenchanted shovel. There is a last moment of fear as I start wailing into him.
By the fifth hit, I am getting attacked from the sides by magicians, but their combined air magic is no longer strong enough to displace me. The announcer hasn't called for the end yet, but I figure if they are trying to get me to stop, it's a win for me anyway. I drop the mauled man to the ground, his enchantments sparking dangerously. I shuffle back, and pick up the sword and shield. They aren't mine, so I'll have to return these.
"E-Esstrey is victorious!" Medics start rushing in, and one slowly approaches me like I'm some wild animal. I try to tell them to hurry up, but the armor is still blocking my speech. I command it to unblock my head.
"What the fuck are you waiting for? My kidney won't regrow itself, you know!" Goddammit, there's still a sword stuck in me.
