[Arc 5] Chapter 2-19: Sibling Fight
"...INITIATING BOOT-UP SEQUENCE. MODEL Assault-01, ACTIVATE." - Assault
With those ominous words, the mechanical doll of the Black Baron woke up. It looked around for a while before turning its attention to us.
"REPLY: ARE YOU ENEMIES OF THE OLD COOT, OR ENEMIES? OR ENEMIES?" - Assault
"None of those! We are allies! ...For the moment!" - Regina
"If by 'old coot' you mean the Black Baron, then we're in a hate/hate-but-forced-to-work-together relationship." - Noire
"Noire-!?" - Regina
"VERY WELL. DEVASTATION PROTOCOLS WILL BE DEACTIVATED FOR THE MOMENT." - Assault
That is good, I think. Is there a way to make him self-destruct in case he starts turning on us?
"AWAITING NEW TARGETS TO DESTROY." - Assault
"There are two outside. One giant snake and a black knight spewing out strange smoke that makes everyone who's not an undead or machine into an idiot." - Noire
"CONFIRMED. CHECKING DATABASE...MATCH FOUND. POSSIBLE SOURCE OF 'IDIOT SMOKE' IS THE EXTRA SKILL: [Smog of Vengeful Toxins]." - Assault
"Great! Take care of that guy! I'll keep the snake busy." - Regina
"QUESTION. WHAT WILL THIS WASHBOARD DO IN THE MEANWHILE?" - Assault
W-w-w-washboard?!
"Ehh...you know, the smoke is kinda in the way..." - Regina
"Hey, who are you calling a washboard?!" - Noire
"ANSWERING THE SECOND QUESTION: THE WASHBOARD. ANSWERING THE FIRST QUESTION: NO PROBLEM." - Assault
Who are you calling-, hey, don't grab me all of a sudden! Hey, where are you going? Stop that! The smoke is just outside! Stop, stop, STOP ALREAAAAAAAAA-!!
Ugh..., I'm getting sick. That bucket of bolts, he threw me into the sky. Or close to the ceiling, whatever you call it.
I managed to stop myself before I crashed into the ceiling. I should ask Lord Flamel for an anti-bucket of bolts potion when I am to take my revenge.
My thoughts for revenge were paused for a second as I looked down on the island. The smoke is covering the whole island, but that is it. It does not ascend to the ceiling where I am, but it is stuck in a dome shape around the island.
That ****ing robot said something about an Extra Skill. That would explain the smoke's strange traits. It is already making people stupid, so there are no reasons why it should follow any other rules natural smoke has to follow.
Hmm, this is not such a bad situation. I can still see the giant snake from up here, even if the smoke is blocking most of my view. If I can knock off that big guy's gas mask, it will leave the black knight alone against Regina...and the robot.
*Bang!*
Hii! Someone is shooting at me! Shooting...?
"Bleu! Indigo! I know you are there!" - Noire
"...I should have known." - ???
No other replies were given except for a downpour of bullets from Bleu's shotgun. This time, I was prepared for it, so I could evade the shots revealed by [Trouble Revelation] much more elegantly now compared to the sucker punch from before.
Following the bullets' line of fire, I released an arrow enhanced with [Divine Grenade]. After it detonated, the firing...did not stop. Did I miss her? No, that cannot be. [Trouble Revelation] is not a skill you can easily fool...I think.
I take a page after Garami's book and think...by throwing the book into the garbage. I released several of my avian Divine Messengers and enhanced them with [Fallen Angel's Magical Feathers] and [Fallen Angel's Flight Feathers] before sending them to any direction around me. The crows' magical abilities were enhanced by the first feathers while the second increased their flight capabilities.
You would think these skills only worked on the skill user, as in me, but it seems possible to use them on any "feathers" on me, or that I can "produce".
"What in the-!?" - Bleu
There you are. The crows at 10 o clock had found Bleu. A strange membrane-like effect was disappearing from Bleu's body as she was trying to hush the crows away from her. Before she could, I fired an arrow at her left wing.
"Kuh-!" - Bleu
And there's one down. Too easy-
*Swish*
I was right! It was too easy! Just a second before I was about to gloat to my feeble "older" sister, a bullet passed right beside me, missing me by just a few centimeters. It is thanks to [Trouble Revelation] and the mental-type skills that prevented that bullet from going straight through my head. Th-that was too close for comfort. I am bleeding a little from the line-shaped wound on my temple...
Following this new bullet's line of fire, I saw Indigo in the far distance. She's quite the distance away, but she cannot escape my [Sky Eyes]. I didn't see her earlier, so it may have been Bleu's skill that kept her hidden until I shot the latter down.
As I looked toward her, more danger lines provided by [Trouble Revelation], originating from the revolver in Indigo's hands, were aimed at me. Quick, a shield! ...Who am I, Iron? Unfortunately, I am not. Evading? There is nowhere to run. In that case, a meatshield it is.
"Summon!" - Noire
I created a summoning circle in front of me, and the creature summoned was immediately hit by the bullets arriving. Half a second later and I heard the gunshot of the bullets that had defeated my summoning before it could even have the chance to materialize properly.
"Checkmate, 'sister'." - Bleu
"...How in the world did you recover from that wound so soon?" - Noire
I dropped my bow and calmly raised my hands as I felt the mouthpiece of Bleu's shotgun at the back of my head.
"That is the easy part. You just make sure not to get hit in the first place." - Bleu
"What do you mean by... Never mind. I figured it out." - Noire
Before me, ANOTHER Bleu appeared. Then one more to my right, one more at 1 o'clock, and a few others. Clones. Or maybe decoys?
"So...what are these? Mirror-based illusions?" - Noire
"Close. Illusion attribute skills. I only tell you since we technically are family." - Bleu
"Alright then. But to go so far as to make copies out of yourself. And people call me narcissistic. Never quite understood what they meant with that. I mean, I am amazing." - Noire
"...Yes, you are. After the boss suspected that they would throw a flier such as you into the sky to evade his smoke Domain, we had to plan long and well to come up with a plan to sabotage your new 'muscles' before you could use them." - Bleu
Now I see. Summoned creatures, no matter how strong, aren't all-powerful unless they are summoned completely. I guess. This whole deal is new to me.
"Not that I think you are wrong on the narcissism part either. Maybe that is why Dad decided to adopt all of us." - Bleu
"......Say what now?" - Noire
"Did you not know? Why else would everyone have so different hair colors?" - Bleu
"I thought everyone was just faking it with disguise magitechs to make father happy!" - Noire
"...Maybe we are related. Indigo and I thought the same thing the day Dad revealed the 'secret' to us." - Bleu
"Why wasn't I told of this!" - Noire
"It's because your disappearance caused Dad to spill the beans." - Bleu
...Now that makes sense.
"That means you and Indigo are 'together' because..." - Noire
"No, that was something we did even before you left. Dad's reveal only made us decide to leave and go on the run. We took after you." - Bleu
"First, don't try to push the blame onto me. And second, you two are impossible!!" - Noire
"You should see our days on the run before saying that. But we have caught up enough. I will have you stay quiet until the Fairy King's knights trap all your little friends before we leave for Avalar." - Bleu
Avalar? Are they planning on throwing us into prison there? Why not kill us all off and be done with it?
"...Okay, fine. I've bought enough time with this chit-chat." - Noire
"You bought wh-AAAAAAT!?!?!" - Bleu
*MOOOO!!*
And there goes the Gugalanna rocket.
"Quick tip: try taking up Rune-based classes! You can even write in the activation of Extra Skills with delayed timing if you have the talent for it!" - Noire
I shouted my sisterly advice to Bleu as Gugalanna pushed her into the ceiling. On the way, I caught my bow and the 2 runestone straps on it that had been thrown into the air due to Gugalanna being summed right underneath it. Glad I spent some of my time last night carving these out.
Now, get back boy. ...Get back... He can't hear me. Well, Bleu should be defense-orientated if her weapon of choice is a physical gun...I hope.
Leaving behind Gugalanna who looked like he was enjoying plowing the ceiling, I turned my attention to Indigo's direction. No gunshots or danger lines are coming from there, so the 2nd runestone-summoned minion should have done its job.
Flying over to where I last saw Indigo, I found her grappling with a masked, super-busty humanoid...something wearing revealing priestess clothing and a golden mask resembling Gugalanna's head.
And who am I trying to fool= Anyone can see that it is the Gugalanna Disciple from the summoning skill I obtained before alongside the Extra Skill.
It was one of these that I used to guard against Indigo's sniping attempts. These two must have believed I would use Gugalanna for that. ...That reminds me, I should prepare some proper anti-sniping defenses in the future.
Indigo and the Disciple were struggling as they rolled over the rocky surface of the island they were using as their wrestling ring. Such a scene would be enjoyable for men (and certain women I am wise enough not to name), but this "catfight" is just making my ire grow.
I knocked an arrow that had the runestone with the "Sacred Entrapment" sorcery spell engraved into it. It is the final stone I had time to finish before sleep took me over last night, so please let this one count...
Indigo managed to throw off the Disciple before my arrow could trap her, so she managed to evade the net of divine light. Tch, that is 10 minutes of my life I will never see again.
Realizing that I was preparing more arrows to fire at her, Indigo lept behind a huge rock before I could aim at her again. She is too fast for someone having such a "top-heavy" body. How envious...I mean, outrageous! I can feel my motivation increasing by 10% every second now.
However, I should refrain. There are still things I need to ask her. Bleu will not be able to answer anything in the near future and I need answers NOW. The HQ should be safe with Regina and the robot...I think. And there's also Flint and Blaze. Those two are the type that does not need intelligence for defeating their foes.
"Indigo! Get out here and surrender if you know what's best for you!" - Noire
I tried to call for a surrender, but I was only answered by more bullet lines from [Trouble Revelation]. Running behind cover...is not for me. Instead, I jumped into the air with a speed capable only through the thanks to the new [Fallen Angel's Flight Feathers] skill. It is not a fusion of both [Flight] and [Flight Reinforcement] for nothing.
Indigo tried to aim her long-range-capable revolver toward me in the "skies", but I flew over her head so to make it as difficult as possible for her to get me into her sight. And she could not pay all her attention to me. Before she could react, the Disciple had appeared again and restarted the catfight from before.
When I was right above the two brawling bovines, I dropped a [Divine Grenade] right onto Indigo's bosom (GRRRR!!). The Disciple kicked Indigo away from her, causing the ball of divine powers to explode only in my "elder sister's" face.
Seeing as Indigo is not likely to interfere in her current situation, I had the time to cast the spell chant for Sacred Entrapment the old-fashion way. A gauge with the name of the spell appeared in the lower-left corner of my vision. This must be from the golden ring-type Magic Catalyst I am wearing. The gauge is filling at a high speed, and around 3 seconds after it had started, the spell was ready to be cast.
"Sacred Entrapment." - Noire
Along with the command words, aka the spell's name, the net of divine light appeared again and finally hit its target. I would probably need a skill that cancels out even the need for the activation words if I wanted the spell to only appear by thinking about it. Something other than [Speedcast], which I already have. Its effect only makes the gauge be filled faster.
With Indigo now wrapped up in the divine net, the Disciple managed to pin her down to the ground. Huh, I didn't know "those body parts" could be used in this manner. Just to be safe, I picked up the revolver that Indigo had dropped during the latest free-for-all fight with my Disciple.
"Now, 'sister', what do you have to say for yourself?" - Noire
"MMMMM!! *Muffled screams for oxygen*" - Indigo
"...You, move away." - Noire
I had the Disciple move so that her chest didn't suffocate Indigo any longer. Only perverts like Ciara or Mira would wish to go out that way.
"Let's try this again. Tell me what I want to know, Indigo?" - Noire
"*Cough, cough*..., about what?" - Indigo
"Your friends' weaknesses, their plans, and most importantly, how to crush the Irritation Lord. ...And how to save Blaze's father, I guess." - Noire
"Make me. And where is Bleu!?" - Indigo
"Acting as my bull's hood ornament." - Noire
"Make it stop!! Please, I will tell you anything!" - Indigo
"Great. Now, the first thing I want to know..." - Noire
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