Chapter 172: ~Chapter 61~ Part 2

All right Leo, this is it. Time for a new set of priorities.

Priority number one: Find the Purple Zone restricting MacGuffin.

Priority number two: Mark one of the baddies for future use.

Priority number three: Try to learn about their goals and operations.

Priority number four: Buy some time for Papa Dracis and the butler to arrive, because pincer-maneuvers are fun.

Priority number five: Actually establish my nefarious villain character.

That's about it, I supposed. Easy-peasy.

"{Is everything all right? You've been silent for a while.}"

"Just thinking," I whispered under my breath, and my girlfriend let out an ambivalent noise at my expense.

"{You just met the Griffon Knight, am I right?} She didn't wait for me to respond before she continued with, {Unlike the Minotaur Knights, the title of the Griffon Knight is not passed down in the family. Because of this, the name of the current Griffon Knight is unknown. According to the Dracis records, one of them was called Boreas. Whether that is a given name or a surname wasn't indicated, nor when the record was originally penned down, but it was in the section that predates the time Sebastian's daughter married into the family, so at least one hundred years ago.}"

Well, that wasn't much to go on, but more than enough for my purposes, so I whispered a muffled thanks under my breath and focused my attention on the expectant knights still waiting for my next words. I straightened my back and looked the more reasonable one in the eye before saying, "It's such a pleasant surprise to see you here. Tell me, how is good old Sir Boreas doing these days?"

The man with the winged helmet momentarily froze up while he processed my question.

"If you mean my teacher's teacher, I'm afraid he has already passed away," Mr. Griffon stated in a voice that said he didn't know what to make of me, which was exactly the reaction I was fishing for.

"Really?" After uttering that word, I theatrically shook my head, raised my hands with the palms up, and then shrugged in the classic 'oh well' gesture. "Please excuse my tactless question, sir knight. At my age, it feels like I met him yesterday."

"Ye age? Ah knew it, yer a wyrm, aren't ye!?"

I sent an annoyed glance at the horned knight and shook my head again.

"I believe I've already introduced myself to you, Sir Duncan, but just to reiterate: no, I'm obviously not. Now, I'd like to ask you to stay quiet while the adults are talking."

"Bite ma bawsack ya mangled fud!"

"Oh, how rude," I responded with flamboyant swoon, only to then add, in a flat voice, "Or at least I presume. It is sometimes hard to tell with your slight accent."

The big guy was about to share further insights into his linguistics, but he was stopped by the other named knight tapping on his breastplate with the back of his hand, and Mr. Minotaur immediately sucked down whatever cute insult was about to leave his mouth. This, incidentally, also shed some light on the pecking order of the people present, as Mr. Griffon appeared to be in charge, even though the Entitled Knights were all supposed to be peers with no hierarchy. Apparently all Knights were equal, but some were more equal than others. Go figure.

Anyhow, once the griffon guy got his colleague under control, he turned a pair of narrowed eyes, barely visible behind the slits of his helmet, in my direction.

"So, if I understand this correctly, mister Bel is not related to the wyrmbloods living in this mansion?"

I mulled over the question for a moment, and ultimately I decided to go with an ambivalent shrug and continued to flesh out my character by telling them, "Who knows? After a few millennia, it's hard to keep track of one's ancestors and who else they might've sired over time. It's a problem your organization probably has more experience with than I do."

I must have touched a nerve, as for a second I could sense an almost palpable sense of tension emanating from Mr. Griffon, but at last he let out a shallow breath and muttered, "I see," before raising his voice back into its previous, polite yet not deferential form. "I can't help but ask, if mister Bel is not related to this family, then why are you here?"

"That's a good question, one that applies just as well to you, gentlemen, wouldn't you say?" I waited for a second to see if he wanted to respond, but since they stayed silent, I soon continued with, "With your well-known disposition in mind, I presumed that you're here to terminally pester the descendants of some old flying lizard or the other, but then why did you decide to do right now, instead of when all of them are present? Most curious."

"Oor reasons ur oor ain 'n' hae hee-haw tae dae wi' ye, fien'!"

I tilted my head to the side while sending a dismissive grunt towards the aggressively Scottish man, following which I directed a slightly more amicable look at his colleague.

"On second thought, don't tell me just yet! I love riddles like this!" Saying so, I began to nonchalantly walk in a circle around the two named Knights inside the wider circle formed by the squires, but it still wasn't blasé enough, so I also raised my hands and made various gestures with them to further elucidate my words and baffle my audience. "The only person with non-negligible dragon-blood in them is upstairs, yet instead of attacking her with all you've got, you were content with only sending half of your numbers to harass them. A most curious choice, if your goal was to deliver harm of the most grievous variety unto her, as you tend to do." I paused for a beat, then Phased over to the opposing side of the circle, eliciting a series of surprised gasps in the process before raising my voice into a considerably loud "However!"

"Fockin' 'ell, he is daein' it again!"

I ignored the exclamation coming from Mr. Minotaur and began walking in the opposite direction as before while expounding my marvelous time-wasting tirade.

"However, you didn't break down their door, even though the good sir MacChill could've probably put those oversized shoulders of his to good use. But no! Instead, half of you were content with banging on the door with the menacing flair of a Visigoth horde. One could even imagine you didn't want to actually fight the dragoness upstairs, only keep her at bay."

At this point the two Knights shared a subtle look between each other that naturally didn't escape my notice, so I let out a mirthful little chuckle befitting the situation.

"But if so, what other goals might you have to keep you from your knightly duty of slaying dragons, rescuing princesses, and then celebrating by repeatedly ramming your thick, hard rods into each other?" I let a meaningful silence hang in the air for a moment, only to innocently ask, "Or do you maybe no longer do that? Please forgive me, I've yet to catch up on modern times; is jousting no longer considered a prime form of entertainment?"

I got no answer, so I shrugged and Phased to the other side of the actually important men once again.

"Och fur fock's sake! Stoap that!"

I waited for the squires to stop running around as they tried to reform the encirclement around us, and while doing so, I placed my chin on the back of my hand as if I was deep in thought, only to promptly shake my head.

"Never mind that. We were at your unwillingness to attack the owner of this fine abode here. I can only think of two possible reasons: you were either restricted by one of your many oaths, or more likely, you had a different goal in mind when coming here. Could it be you were looking for someone else? Or rather… something else?"

Oh, look at that! They actually both twitched at the same time. How delightfully transparent. This time I didn't speak up, and instead I gestured for the more reasonable Knight to pick up the rein of the conversation, and he did so, though not before considering his words for ample time.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, mister Bel, but I believe Sir MacCool mentioned something about your being a 'collector', if I'm not mistaken."

"In a way, I indeed am," I responded with the voice of a fisherman whose hook just caught onto a prized catch. "It is but a small hobby of mine; a trait I inherited from the scalier side of my family. The number of curios I accumulated over the centuries could barely fill this room."

"Thon's… quite a lot," Mr. Minotaur mumbled under his breath, and his colleague agreed with a nod.

"Oh, please, do not patronize me," I responded with a dismissive wave of my hand. "I could hardly call that much; it's only a minor collection."

"In any case," Mr. Griffon began to speak, his voice dropping half an octave as it gained a suspicious undertone, "Have you come here to add something to your collection?"

"I may have." After responding so, I added a nefarious little chuckle for dramatic effect, though my audience didn't seem to appreciate it. "Could it be that you were also looking for something here?"

The soft-spoken knight only hesitated for a moment, but then he took a deep breath and bit on the bait with the abandon of a starving shark.

"Please forgive me for being blunt, but are perchance you in possession of an old spear that used to be inside one of the smaller rooms on the ground floor of this mansion?"

Ho? Hohohooo! Now would you look at that! I totall—

"{Called it,}" Judy cut off my thought, and I couldn't help but huff back at her.

"No, you didn't," I grumbled in a low voice while inconspicuously turning to the side, hoping that the men around me wouldn't hear it. "I called it, you just agreed with my hunch."

"{You're just splitting hairs,}" my girlfriend told me in a sulky voice, and one eye-roll later I decided to ignore her chatter and turn back to Mr. Griffon. A long beat later I let out a noise of recognition, as if I just recalled some minor piece of trivia, and snapped my finger for extra emphasis.

"Oh, you mean that spear! Why didn't you say so in the first place? It caught my eye while I was passing through the neighborhood, so I took it. Is there a problem with that?"

"It is a precious… 'heirloom' of ours," the Knight with the winged helmet explained, though I couldn't help but silently snicker at his very peculiar word choice. "Our brotherhood would be indebted if mister Bel could return it to us."

"Hmmm… I don't know," I mused as I dramatically touched the chin of my mask. "I'm afraid I can't just do that. 'Finders keepers' is the term for this situation, I believe? And what a wonderful term it is!"

I let out another low chuckle, but no one laughed along with me. Oh well, sometimes you get a tough crowd. That said, playing the nefarious villain like this every once in a while felt strangely liberating. Therapeutic, even. However, while pushing on with the act was unexpectedly amusing, I quickly reminded myself that I wasn't supposed to completely antagonize the Knights before I accomplished all my pre-stated goals, so I toned things back with a shallow sigh.

"That said," I spoke up, my words accompanied by a mischievously raised finger. "Your eloquent friend over there already gave me a nice gift, so I'm actually in a good mood right now."

"Get tae fock ya fart-box! Ah didnae gie ye mah sword!"

I smoothly ignored the yelling Scottish-Irish-Russian-Greek(?) man and continued.

"You see, I'm not completely unreasonable. If you can provide me with something interesting in exchange, I might consider a fair trade." There was a meaningful silence left in the wake of my words, which I let longer for a while for dramatic effect, and I was about to press on when I remembered that I still had a connection to my very own all-encompassing magical encyclopedia, so instead I whispered, "Psst, Dormouse? How rare do you think an anti-Purple-Zone artifact would be?"

"{I don't know. I'll ask Amelia.}"

Well, okay, maybe she wasn't quite all-encompassing after all, but I wasn't going to hold it against her. Anyhow, that meant I had to buy some time for her, so I promptly focused my attention on my current company.

"I would of course require something of comparable value, and by the looks of it, you value this spear very highly!"

"What makes you think so?"

"Oh, but it's obvious, isn't it? You've gone through quite the trouble to try and steal… I mean, 'recover' this 'heirloom' of yours, and you did so under some very unusual conditions. Invading someone's home while they are away is very unsportsmanlike. In fact, it is, dare I say, quite unchivalrous of you."

"… Maybe," Mr. Griffon agreed, much to my surprise, and a second or so later he even let out a sigh that sounded oddly self-deprecating. "The times are changing. So must we."

"Such a delightfully unexpected response."

I would've continued with the small talk after that, but Judy connected to me before I could.

"{Amelia says that artifacts that could affect a large area are very rare, and one that could interfere with the opening of a Restricted Space should be even rarer. It would also require a strong, magically conductive base material suited for the purpose, such as a wraith skull or a unicorn's horn.}"

Now, there were many ways I could've reacted to her explanation, such as being surprised that unicorns were also real, or ask 'Since when did wraiths have bones?', but my attention was currently preoccupied with a small revelation and I couldn't spare the brainpower for quips. As for the nature of said revelation, let's start by re-stating the fact that the men around me were all glowing, or rather, most of their equipment was doing so. The swords, shields, and other assorted enchanted gear of the squires were one thing, but the items on the two important guys were shining from head to toe. Besides being an eye-sore, this meant that even if I tried, I couldn't immediately recognize the magic jammer they had... however, I've actually made note of the odd, elongated cloth bag hanging from Mr. Griffon's belt. It looked a little like one of those recorder flute cases I've seen around the school, probably on members of the music club, and for the life of me I couldn't figure out what it held. Now, I had a strong gut feeling about it, and I was willing to bet on it.

"{On a related note,}" Judy continued speaking before I could get a word in, "{She sounded really angry, and she told me to tell you that she can't get Michael out of the cage and she needs help.}"

"Seriously? Can't anyone do anything on their own today?" She didn't respond to my perfectly reasonable inquiry, so after a while I added, "Tell her to keep trying. If she can't get him out by the time I'm done here, I'll bring some tools over or something."

"{Roger.}"

Okay, so where was I again? Oh, right; the knights in front of me. It was kind of a silly thing to forget about, but in my defense, I felt like I was at four different places at once.

"So, since sir knight is so flexible, I presume you wouldn't have any quandaries about making a deal with me. All you need is something of comparable value."

"Do you have something in mind?" he asked back, just a tad tentatively.

"Oh, let me see… How about some precious raw materials? Your little club has been around for a while, so I'm fairly sure you must have some rare articles in your possession. How about some orichalcum? Oh, I'm also fresh out of unobtanium, so I could really use a bar or two! No, wait!" Falling silent for a moment, I used both my hands to point a pair of finger-guns at Mr. Griffon. "I'm fairly sure some of your ancestors used to have a unicorn horn or two."

The moment I uttered the word, the slightly shorter knight's free hand immediately moved to cover up the long bag on his belt. In other words, I hit the bull's-eye. That was more or less the final piece of the puzzle I needed to be done here.

"Mister Bel, I'm afraid—"

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While the Griffon Knight prepared to make his excuse, I checked on Papa Dracis, and I was delighted to learn that he was only a couple of blocks away from the neighborhood. It was perfect timing, and also my cue to move on, so I raised my left hand to shoulder-level, with two fingers pointing forwards, and at the same time let my right hand down and opened it with the palm facing outwards.

Before anyone could react, I immediately phased over to the side of a nearby squire, and then jabbed forwards with my left hand, aiming at the small gap between the man's helmed and his spaulders. I didn't pick him at random either, as he was one of the only three guys in the circle who wasn't wearing a gorget to protect his neck, allowing me relatively quick access to his skin. I mean, no one said I had to mark one of the considerably more dangerous Entitled Knights to keep track of them, right?

Oh, but speaking of those guys, the moment Sir Squire McNotproperlyarmored let out a panicked shout, Mr. Griffon immediately grabbed onto the grip of his saber… leaving him wide open for my next maneuver as I unceremoniously Phased right in front of him and, before he could properly reach, I clasped my open right hand around my actual target, and then a forceful tug later I Phased away, leaving behind a satisfied "Zoink!" in my wake.

"Eeeep!"

"Hi mom-in-law," I greeted the currently uncharacteristically flustered Emese the moment I arrived.

"Future young master?" Melinda muttered in a bit of a daze on the side, so I lifted the mask off my face and gave her a reassuring smile that might've looked less heartening than I intended, as she somehow turned even paler. At the end of the day I decided to ignore her and turned my attention back to Mama Dracis.

"Long story short: I've got the magic jammer thingie," I paused for a second as I plunged my Phantom Limb into the item inside the bag, and a moment later added, "and now it's off. Dad-in-law and Sebastian are on the way, so if you want to have a piece of the action, now's the time to go out. That said, you might want to lay low instead; the Knights weren't actually here for you, and they should be leaving soon. I leave it up to your discretion. Oh, also," I threw the package over to Melinda, and she almost managed to drop it. I didn't call her out on it, and instead I told her, "Hold onto that for now, I'll have to go now."

"O… Okay. Bye?"

I almost chuckled at Emese's odd response, but at the end of the day I settled on flashing a smile at her before lowering the mask again and, a deep breath later, I Phased over to my next destination. A short, increasingly nauseating blink of an eye later I was inside a similarly dark room, right behind a certain magi girl currently ineffectually hammering on the padlock with something that looked like a comically oversized Allen wrench.

"Hi, class rep."

"Eeeep!"

This time the surprised squeak came from the guy behind the bars, while Ammy only froze up for a moment before turning on her heel and directing a pair of thundering eyes at me.

"Leo, what exactly were you…!?" she started, only for her words to quickly trail into silence, followed by a flat yet distinctly alarmed, "You're bleeding."

Now it was my turn to be alarmed as I uttered a short "I am?" and looked over myself. It was hard to see at first, probably because my eyes were still adapted to the magical light show at the mansion, but on closer look, there really was a long, vertical cut on my abdomen. Odd. I wasn't feeling any pain, yet by the looks of it, I was most certainly cut.

I reached down and used two fingers to feel around the area. It went through my coat and then sliced across the ballistic vest I was wearing under it, leaving a long, thin cut on my stomach, yet even when I touched it, it didn't really hurt, nor did it actually bleed much. Wait, on second touch, I couldn't feel the area around it either. How about other parts of my body?

…

Nope, pinching my forearm didn't really hurt either. That… probably wasn't good. Oh well, let's look on the bright side: at least my slightly disconcerting numbness allowed me to inspect my wound without any hassle.

"Don't spread it!" Mike called out to me, but I only shook my head.

"Don't worry, it's literally just a scratch. I probably got it when the Griffon Knight drew his sword, but it barely broke the skin."

"Griffon Knight?" Ammy repeated after me, but I quickly shook my head, lest I would accidentally reveal even more incriminating evidence.

"Never mind that, I'm just rambling. More importantly, what's the problem here? Why is he still in the cage?"

"It's because of you," the class rep burst out, and once she realized I had no idea about what she meant by that, she followed it up with, "You just left me here without any way to open this lock!"

"Why don't you use your magic?" I asked what felt like the obvious, and Ammy almost stomped her feet in reaction.

"Because the room is warded from the outside! It interferes with any low-tier spells!"

"That's why I couldn't escape on my own," Michael informed me a little sheepishly, though his comment was mostly beside the point.

"You said low-tier spells, right? Why didn't you just summon your golem?"

"Because if I summon Petra, then who is going to sit on Galatea?"

"Ah, right," I admitted with a tinge of embarrassment in my voice. "I didn't think of that. Ah, but you could've summoned your staff."

Ammy's expression was practically seething at this point and she unceremoniously pointed to our left. I followed it, and there I found a familiar staff on the ground… in two pieces.

"Um… My condolences?" She was still less than amicable, so I raised my hands to pacify her and uttered, "I'll help you make a new one later; how about I go and get some proper tools for the job first?"

"You better," she grunted, but then her expression eased up and she wondered, "But… how did you even come in here? The door is locked, and…"

"Oh, look at the time, I better get going, bye."

"Wait…"

I didn't, and before long, I was inside the secret base. I looked around, and the first thing I naturally noted was that the Chimera was pretty much down for the count, suffering a death of a thousand cuts under the continuous assault of the creepy huntress. Another thing that didn't escape my notice was that, at the moment, I felt quite fine. I was light-headed, and I was feeling a bit odd, but my previous nausea almost entirely subsided, and my head no longer hurt. Or maybe I just couldn't feel it anymore? The thought was a little disconcerting, but not enough to sidetrack me from my next objective.

"[General, I request that you brief me on the present condition of affairs.]"

"[Ah, Blackcloak, welcome back,"] the old Faun greeted me as he finally noticed my presence, only to tense up as he looked over me. Following his gaze, the rest of them also glanced my way and showed a similar reaction. "[You are injured.]"

"So are you, and you won't see me gawking," I snapped at them, and the small gaggle of Fauns immediately (and quite conspicuously) averted their eyes. Speaking of which, our group was currently crouching in a small huddle behind the counter in the recreational area of the main hall, and for a change, someone finally showed a bit of competence, as they were all cloaked at the moment and let Rinne and the Chimera duke it out between each other.

The awkward silence only lasted for a few short moments before Brang forcefully cleared his throat and addressed me.

"[We have regrouped and tended our wounds, as per thine orders. Thine associate remained belligerent, and thus we stayed out of her way till thine return.]"

"The Chimera's in bad shape," I noted, and Gram (or Rabom, it was hard to tell under the bandages) let out a grunt in agreement.

"[I'd say it would go down in a few minutes.]"

"[I give it less than five,]" Pip noted, only for the rest of the group to nod in agreement.

"[What do we do then?]" came the next, entirely reasonable question from Karukk, and the others also seemed to share his interest based on the way they were looking at me.

"I kind of have to go and help free a wayward Celestial, but I suppose I can't really leave her alone any longer, can I?"

That was an entirely rhetorical question, yet for some reason the seven Fauns all shook their heads in unison. That was mildly aggravating, but I let it slide for now, and instead I thought long and hard for a few seconds before coming to a resolution.

"I have a plan, but I will need your help. Who is the least injured among you?"

There was a long moment of silence, but when Brang sent a glance at him, Karukk awkwardly raised a hand, his ears drooping so low they almost disappeared under his hairy head fur hair thing. Let's not get into the semantics of that.

"You still have the sword, so it should work," I told him before taking a deep breath to collect my thoughts. "Listen up; first, I need you to sneak up on her and wait until the Chimera goes down and can no longer move."

"[You want me to hit her in the back?]"

"Actually, no. I want you to appear nearby, preferably so that when she faces you, she would have to turn her back this way. Draw her attention, and then challenge her to a duel."

"[Um… Boss, no offense, but this sounds like a terrible plan so far.]"

"Less back-talking and more listening," I chided him, and then once he fell silent, I followed it up with, "I don't need you to fight her per se. Your job is to draw one of her silly named sword-moves out of her."

"[So you want me to get hit by a sword art?]"

"No, you're not going to get hit by anything. Listen, you just have to make sure you are not too close to her; about two paces should do the trick. I'll take care of the rest."

"[Okay,]" he agreed, if a tad apprehensively, and I gestured for him to get going, as the Chimera was on its last legs (literally, as it lost one front and one hind paw), but after half a step he turned back and whispered, "[How should I get her attention?]"

"Taunt her, or something. Be creative."

"[I'll try…]" he muttered with a distinct lack of confidence, but after some more silent spurring he finally got going.

For the time being, the rest of us watched over him while he edged closer to the brutal battle of attrition in front of us, and not a moment too soon, as with one solid lunge, Rinne stabbed forth and impaled the battered creature through the neck. The Chimera let out a low, guttural whine, and once she retrieved her sword, it collapsed onto the bloodied concrete floor with a thud, immobile, though not unmoving, as even then its paws kept ineffectually clawing at the ground.

Mountain Girl also looked pretty out of it; her hair was a mess, and her usually impeccable outfit had several tears on it, though she had nothing worse than the scratches I originally inflicted on her. She was also breathing hard, though I figured after being engaged in melee for this long, it wasn't entirely unexpected. Her stance, on the other hand, was as stable as ever, and once she made sure the Chimera wasn't going to get up any time soon, she raised her blade and scanned the perimeter. She was just about to look our way, but Karukk, either by design or by pure chance, decided to reveal himself just before she could have noticed me.

"You!" he exclaimed in a rumbling voice while pointing his borrowed blade at her, startling Rinne into taking a defensive posture. There was a short beat of awkward silence, then he declared, "Your mother! A hamster!"

…

Really, Karukk? Really? I just spent a bunch of time maneuvering around a pack of knights, and it's you who makes a Holy Grail reference? Since when did you guys even watch British comedies? What's next; are you going to tell me you had cable TV in the Abyss? That's just silly!

…

Note to self: Next time I meet that Cumhail fellow, I absolutely have to tell him that his father smelled of elderberries, because dammit, I refuse to be outdone in combat-banter by Karukk of all people.

More importantly though, after such a grievous insult, Mountain Girl naturally couldn't hold herself back and immediately lunged at Karukk. He followed my advice and retreated while doing his best to parry any incoming strikes, and even by a cursory look, I could tell that he was indeed affected by some kind of external, suppressive force, as his moves were positively sloppy. He still held his own fairly well, though it was probably more due to Rinne being tired than his own skills, but that's beside the point.

While all that was going on, I also took up a stance in preparation, bending my knees for a runner's start and getting ready for an explosive dash at a moment's notice. The rest was all down to timing, so I held my breath and focused all my attention on the two of them, or rather, the sword in the huntress's hand. I didn't even dare to blink, which was ever so slightly uncomfortable, but thankfully I didn't have to wait too long, as…

"Sakurabana Ranbu!"

That! That was exactly what I wanted to hear! Honing my focus to a single point, I watched her wind up to an upwards slash that managed to knock Karukk off-balance even though he successfully deflected it. Now came the crucial part; it was all about timing. I waited, and waited, and then…

"ZOINK!"

In the literal blink of an eye, I let loose all the potential energy in my legs and let them propel me forward, while at the same time I also Phased right behind Mountain Girl just as she crouched down and was about to do her three-sixty spin. Our eyes met for a moment, and I doubt she could even register what was going on as I leaped over her, using one hand to boost myself by pushing down on her shoulder while my other reached out and expertly grasped the hilt of the sword flying through the air. However, even after I caught it, I still had to disperse my momentum, so I did a not particularly graceful yet effecting tumble upon landing.

The lesson of the day: letting go of your sword for some fancy-pants special moves is a bad idea. The more you know, am I right? Once I stopped rolling, I immediately jumped to my feet, wary of how Rinne would react to this development, but unexpectedly enough she was simply sprawled out on the ground with a vacant expression on her face. I was just about to call out to her, but then she abruptly sat up as if she was poked by a needle and looked around in mild panic, and once her eyes met mine, she practically screamed out to me.

"Leonard-san, no! Let go of Onikiri! Quickly, before she—!"

I'm not going to lie, I was slightly taken aback by her reaction, but not as much as when I glanced down at the sword in my hand. I was holding it in a reverse-grip at the moment and… wait, when did the shroud get wrapped around my wrist?

I had a couple of other questions as well, but then they were all drowned out by a strange, ethereal sound. It took me some time to realize that it was a voice, or rather a set of voices. One was silky and sensual, another was low and growling, and yet another was like the screech of nails upon a chalkboard. They were all strangely feminine, and even though the words were unfamiliar, somehow I still understood their meaning.

"<What a surprise. We might be actually compatible,>" the voice declared, and I could feel the shroud around my wrist tightened even further. There was also a creepy, crawling sensation slowly making its way up my arm that became even worse as it added, in a tone that was both alluring and terrifying, '<Let me in.>"

Oh, great. And now the stupid sword wanted to possess me or something. Lovely. Because apparently my day just wasn't crazy enough yet…

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