43
Chapter 43: Unexpected interruptionNotes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Chapter 43
Despite her taking Emilia´s weight into account the landing on the grass below was a hard one. The front gates were only a stone throw away and then she would be out of here. Technically, flying towards Rem would be the safer alternative compared to walking on the ground, but Tanya was not sure if she could reliably carry Emilia in her state.
Should the cultist have hidden snipers in the forest to intercept her retreat then she would not be able to dodge them while carrying a payload far heavier than herself. Yes, the half-elf was only around twenty centimetres bigger than her, but a lifetime of healthy nutrition made one hell of a difference. Normally that wouldn´t be a problem, but Tanya was fatigued and was constantly wasting more mana than she was comfortable with just to lift Emilia.
Her shields might be able to tank the damage, but she would not risk the wellbeing of her business partner after everything she had suffer through today. As soon as she reached the forest she would be able to hide herself anyway with the use of illusions and other optic formulae. So she wouldn't be at a disadvantage for long.
A problem with that however were the dark silhouettes seemingly growing out of the ground. How many more witch cultist were there? The strength that they had mustered to attack one person was obscene. In a way it reminded her of the "good old days" when allied mages had started similar witch hunts on herself. (Only with less success.)
It almost appeared to become a pattern with these lunatics when the terrorist in the middle stepped forward and took off her hood.
"There you are! Most shamefully you are disrespecting her gift by stopping the ordeal! Killing my fingers, destroying my vessels! It is UNFORGIVABLE!"
The maniac began to bite harshly on her fingers and quickly tore the skin away. She had the same hyper-energetic voice and similar deranged mannerisms to the other two abnormal cultists Tanya had encountered. Could it be...?
She had spoken about her killing "vessels" of some sort. What if the first sin archbishop she killed hadn´t really been dead, but instead transferred his consciousness into different hosts? Back in the Empire she wouldn´t even have thought about such a possibility in her wildest dreams, but the magic of this world was pretty ludicrous.
Considering that the psycho in the hallway had spoken to her with some degree of familiarity this theory made startlingly much sense. If Petelgeuse was indeed transferring his mind from one body to the next how would she be able to kill him in that case? Tanya herself would have always hidden away at least a dozen possible hosts in protected or hard to reach locations if she possessed an ability like that. That way her survival would be reassured even against impossible odds.
Petelgeuse on the other hand was a screeching madman with an unhealthy fixation on the witch of envy. He was certainly not a complete idiot, but his rationality was fairly limited. So she made a calculated guess that he wouldn´t act on what was the most logical strategy in battle. The way all these hooded cultists had nearly thrown themselves on her blade minutes earlier was the proof of that.
His obsession was his greatest weakness and she intended to exploit it. Combined with his unquenchable desire to monologue she would stall for time until the perfect moment to attack presented itself.
"And who are you to say that what she has told you is the truth about the ordeal? Could you ever truly comprehend envy´s plans? No, of course not! Can´t you see that we all are playing our part here?"
She had just indirectly called herself a witch cultist which disgusted her to no end, but the only person present who could accuse her of treachery was Emilia who was still knocked out cold. Hopefully Petelgeuse would take the bait and construct the rest of the story in his head without her input. A typical fallacy for untrained minds.
"No... It can´t be... You were a believer all along? What game is this... I will have to consult her wisdom."
His host body stuck her arm into her robes and began to search for something. Much to his apparent dissatisfaction he couldn´t find whatever he was looking for.
"Where is it? Where is my Gospel?"
He grabbed a nearby goon and shook him as if he knew the answer to his problem. It was quite pathetic in Tanya´s opinion how he blamed his own shortcomings on his staff. Only a bad boss would do something like that instead of looking inwards and searching for self-improvement opportunities.
"Where is my cherished, treasured, wonderful sign of her love? WHERE?"
Petelgeuse had shaken the cultist so hard that his neck broke and he lifelessly fell to the floor. If he already had so little self-control then riling him up further shouldn´t be difficult. Whatever he had lost was probably important. His personal prayer book perhaps?
"What? Do you have lost your Gospel? And you call yourself a sin archbishop? What would she say about that?"
Judging from the way his vessel´s face went pale and he froze mid motion it seemed to have worked.
"No... No, no, no, NO, NOOOOOO! I am unworthy of her love! I have failed her!" he screamed so loud that she wondered how he hadn´t ruptured the vocal chords of his host.
His words soon became incoherent as he mutilated himself in a sickening fashion. Pieces of flesh, hair and blood were falling around him on the grass. If Tanya hadn´t already seen far worse during the war then she would have had to avert her eyes from the repulsive sight.
Instead she used all her known search and detection spells to find out more about the nature of his mysterious invisible force field. He was so distracted that she even dared to use the most obvious to detect ones, because he certainly didn´t look like he was running counter interference at the moment. Bafflingly all the results she got back were either negative or inconclusive.
Either Petelgeuse was a far better mage than she had given him credit for or he was completely defenceless right now.
This continued until he suddenly froze in place and slowly turned his head to the side. There a few dozen metres away laid the remains of his original body surrounded by body parts and craters from Tanya´s first battle on the mansion grounds. Like an animal he fell on all fours and crawled with frightening speed towards the corpse before he exclaimed gleefully:
"Yes! I have not failed! I still have it! Forgive me, forgive me, forgive me!"
Excitedly he held a small black book into the air as if that had been a huge achievement. Honestly, if Petelgeuse went through this whole body-switch routine every once in a while then he should have known that his material possessions didn´t carry over. His incompetence was bordering on Being X´s level.
"Had it not been for your reminder a terrible catastrophe would have come over me. You are truly inspiring me with your diligence! How thoughtful!"
Would you look at that.
She had a fan.
Her hand twitched over the grip of her pistol reflexively.
"Let´s see... Um... I cannot find anything the foretells of a different plan..."
Oh no. Had she been exposed so easily? Was he receiving his instructions through this book? Tanya wanted to punch something. Why was the magic of this world so stupid? Nothing here could be taken for granted, because literally anything was possible thanks to lack of common sense in the universal rules. Being X must have designed it that way in order to upset her scientific mind. He would do that, spiteful bastard that he was.
Alright, time for damage control.
"Not to disagree with you, but don´t you think a secret plan can only be secret as long as nobody knows about it? You have your orders and I have mine. Obviously your gospel wouldn't tell you what mine has told me."
"Indeed... Then you wouldn´t mind showing me yours, would you?"
Crap. Deflect! Fast!
"You also haven´t shown me yours."
...
Tense silence filled the air and Tanya prepared herself for combat.
...
"Ha! How true! Hahaha ha. I apologize for doubting you. As someone of your rank you obviously wouldn´t show your gospel to anybody else. You have proven yourself and I humbly ask for forgiveness for not believing it sooner."
Huh? That easy? If she should convince him to let her go they might even end this conflict without further bloodshed.
Like in their first meeting he nearly bent in half as bowed to her.
"Welcome sin archbishop representing pride."
Tanya would have used the situation to her advantage by further strengthening the narrative had not suddenly a metal ball on a chain narrowly missed her location. Only precise dodging saved her passive shields from suffering a massive hit. What the hell? Who was...
Rem?
"TRAITOR!" shouted the enraged maid.
Tanya hadn´t even time to wonder what the glowing thing on her forehead was before she had to leap backwards in order to avoid the next strike. Not an easy feat to accomplish with an unconscious half-elf on her back.
This whole mess had just become a whole lot more complicated.
Notes:
If you could have the abilities of any character from Re:Zero (excluding Reinhard for obvious reasons) who would it be?
And would you still want them if you gained the respective enemies of that person as well?