145 Trickery ; Sorrow and Damnation
Seeing the corpse of Guiche that's bereft of life under Yuno's feet, my mind begins processing the best way to deal with this.
Irene, capture his soul!
{Affirmative.}
Similar to every other time I've done this, I feel a slight suction in the air as obscure particles get sucked into my body.
{Code Status: Storing one soul.}
Receiving the confirmation, I focus on the connection between Yuno and me.
The next moment, my surroundings change as I find myself sitting opposite Yuno at a table in her old house.
"Victor?" she questions confusedly.
"It's fine," I say before getting up and approaching her, "I missed you."
Enveloping her in my embrace, I begin to gently stroke her back for a few seconds.
My actions earn me a joyful hum from Yuno as she excitedly returns the hug.
After a few seconds, I let go of her and back away before saying,
"Anyway, your appearance is sure timely."
"Eh?"
"Well, you see. Remember that bug you stepped on outside?"
"Yes. Is there a problem?"
Shaking my head, I begin giving her a brief explanation of what's happening 'outside'.
Once I'm done I take a seat at the table and say,
"This normally would've been problematic, however, it is possible to make it beneficial."
Peering into Yuno's pink eyes, I say with a grin,
"All you have to do is follow my instructions."
---
The moment I exit the Network, I lean forward before dashing toward Yuno and throwing a kick at her stomach.
In response to this, Yuno places her arms in front of herself to block the kick, however, this results in her getting launched backward a few meters.
Once she has stabilized her body, Yuno points her palm toward me as a Sigillum appears on it.
"Ignis!"
Right after Yuno's voice fades out, fiery flames 'escape' from her palm and move in my direction.
Spreading my arms, I use the earth element to form a wall all around me, blocking the flames and the view of everyone outside.
I then proceed to press my foot against Guiche's body and form Flames of Devastation to burn his body down.
Thankfully, the flames do their work rather fast and there is no smell.
Could it be an aspect of Destruction?
Anyway, I couldn't use Termination to simply erase the body, as that would sap me of whatever energy I have left.
A solid five seconds, later Guiche has completely disappeared.
I immediately access the database and begin creating a new body similar to his old one, except the fact that this one doesn't have smashed bones and ruptured organs.
As I direct his soul into the body, I begin thinking of ways to make this more believable.
First, I create clothes quite similar to his old ones and randomly rip them while using Pyrokinesis to form some burn marks.
Next, I beat Guiche up a little, as not getting injured from what happened before will be absurd.
For more credibility, I specifically targeted his face.
Done with this, I directly leap out and observe the state of affairs outside.
To my surprise, numerous students along with Jean are attempting to surround Yuno and Krul with their wands pointing at the two.
Shaking my head, I fly toward Yuno and exclaim,
"Everybody, settle down!"
Hearing my words, most of the students get confused as they look at each other, not knowing what to do.
"Just do it," I say loudly.
Fortunately, this time, they heed my words and put their wands away.
"Sir Wales, what's going on?" Jean inquires while walking toward me.
Here, we go. This is the opportunity that I had mentioned to Yuno earlier.
I can make use of this 'abrupt' appearance as a way of introducing Yuno and Krul to this world without too much trouble.
"These two girls are my acquaintances," I begin, "Through their help, I was able to take back my kingdom."
Surprised by my words, Jean glances at them once each before turning his attention back to me with an intrigued expression.
"Simply put, they're part of a noble family that was on my side when dealing with a rebellion."
Jean seems to know what I'm implying as a look of realization appears on his face.
Why would I tell him about all this? Well, that's because it would be much more believable than a single guy wiping out a whole army along with his familiar and a young girl.
In this way, if Osmond were to get any information, it would seem 'exaggerated' and seem irrelevant. With that being the case, if Jean were to tell him about what I just did, Osmond would 'understand' how I was able to take back Albion.
No one trusts a monster capable of wiping out armies, so I can't act like one just yet, as it would be meaningless.
"But, how did they get here?" Jean curiously asks.
Aha! This is what I've been waiting for him to ask. I have yet to forget that time that Osmond just 'disappeared', so this is an opportunity to test something out.
"Excuse me," Yuno voices, attracting all the attention to herself, "We accidentally messed up the way the gateway worked, so we ended up here."
Naturally, what Yuno is saying is what I told her to. This is to find out if there is a 'gateway' and surmise if multiple 'gateways' can be connected to a single one.
Unfortunately, Jean is confused by what Yuno said as he has an expression of deliberation while muttering,
"Gateway…"
Having prepared for such a scenario, I chuckle and say,
"Don't heed it much attention. It's a commonly used way of transportation by the nobles of Albion."
Once his curiosity has been satiated, realization dawns upon Jean as he looks toward where Guiche is at and yells,
"Clear the wall!"
Examining the students, I find Montmorency among the bunch that remained motionless during this whole ordeal, bawling her eyes out while being comforted by the student she was speaking with.
"It's fine!" I exclaim, "I examined him earlier, and by some stroke of luck, he wasn't that injured."
To clear any suspicion I have of myself and make myself seem 'caring', I treat the time it took to create a new body and insert his soul into it as me examining his state.
Setting such thoughts aside, I approach the wall and press my palm against it before using the earth element to 'break' it.
Once the wall is gone, a battered Guiche appears before the eyes of everyone.
A desolate cry resounds as Montmorency hurriedly runs over to where his body is and examines it for a few moments.
Upon being sure of the fact that he's alive, she presses her head against his chest and begins to sob silently.
How interesting… It seems like this has made them closer. Perhaps, I am a good wingman?
As I'm standing and observing Montmorency, I feel a glare coming from the direction where Louise and the co are at.
Turning my head, to face them, I find Louise glaring at Yuno who is standing close to my side. Near Louise, Kirche seems to have an uncomfortable look on her face as she looks at me.
Even the seemingly impassive Tabitha is staring at me.
[[It seems like you will finally suffer in some way.]]
"What are you even saying?", I mutter in response to Tiamat's calm voice, "I've already suffered plenty, so let me enjoy my current 'life', okay?"
[[I have no idea what you've been through before, but your current way of handling matters is wrong.]]
"What do you mean?"
[[Master, don't try to hide it. I've seen glimpses of your real past.]]
An uncomfortable feeling suddenly wells up within me as I feel my stomach clenching.
I try to respond to her words, but for some reason, my voice is shaky despite me attempting to prevent it from being so,
"What have you seen?"
[[Not much, however, what I saw was more than enough for me to know what kind of life you led.]]
The uneasy feeling within me begins to grow as a shiver runs down my spine.
What is it? What's wrong with me? She's just speaking of my life in Project Future, right? Right?!
[[Don't think of it much, as, the way you are now is already leagues better than what you used to be.]]
[[All I know is that you should try your best to remain the way you are, as I doubt anyone would want you to return to being what you once were - yourself included.]]
Her words only seem to further worsen the state of my body as my vision gets a little distorted. However, I need to know. What is it that's making my body react like this. As, for some reason, I have a strong feeling that it's completely unrelated to Project Future.
"Tiamat, tell me what you saw," I say while using Illusion to 'cover' my face.
[[Sorrow and damnation.]]
The next moment, I feel an intense amount of pain all over my body, particularly in my head as all the energy I had left simply disperses.
My vision darkens as thinking of anything becomes harder and harder...
