Gloom

The teacups were clattering.

Cia’s rather nervous way of serving us afternoon tea was a quite apt metaphor for the gloomy ambiance that permeated the entire tower.

Aiju was once again on my lap, getting petted. But there was no purring this time. Her tail quickly flitted from one direction to the other. Even the laid back catgirl wasn’t immune to this atmosphere.

We just finished informing everyone about what we had found out, precious little as it was.

“Meaning that, in essence, you learned nothing”, Beatrice haughtily summed my report p as she sipped on her sugar drenched tea. “Perhaps your ineptitude should no longer surprise me.”

“Not nothing. We learned that we are fucked.” Cassandra glumly stated with considerable less fancy.

“H-have you no faith? My Lord will vanquish this fiendish Dark Lord with ease! You will see!”

Only Sanakia was her usual absurdly optimistic self.

Sylphid on the other hand silently clutched her cup almost to the point of breaking. There was a grim determination in her eyes but nothing else. I was worried what she might do so I confined her to this tower until the day after tomorrow. Sylphid was not in a good state of mind right now. It hurt to see her like this.

“Miserable fools, you dare show such a pathetic state in front of your Queen?”, Hebi-san glared at us. “Cease this unsightly showing at once! Do you not recognize that we are in possession of the ultimate instrument of victory?”

Are we?

“Yer right!”, Fisti gasped. “We have Lucky! We can just count on her luck!”

All eyes landed on the Balance Breaker, who was happily munching on a cookie. She wasn’t really one for conversation I noticed and preferred to just observe unless spoken to.

“Indeed”, Hebi-san nodded with a rare smile. “This thing will ensure our triumph.”

Please don’t call her a thing.

“Eh?”, the girl looked at us. “But wouldn’t that be boring?”

…

Boring?

Lucky nodded. “I mean, if you just win like puff! That would be super boring, right? I hate boring stuff, so I’m not sure I want that.”

“Foolish child”, Hebi-san hissed. “You have said the same thing during the match but if that foolish Mari Beta loses you end up as that Dark Lords ****. Surely, this can’t be in your interest?”

“Eh, I will be fiiiiiine!”, Lucky giggled.

...

I see.

Me losing doesn’t automatically mean things take a turn for the worse for Lucky. Perhaps no matter what happens to us, her safety will be assured.

Lucky let out a sigh and looked at us. “Look guys, I like you but I hate boredom more. Having no misfortune at all is not very lucky at all.”

“To have infinite success, to automatically succeed in everything you do. To never experience failure.”, Beatrice mused. “I could envision no crueler fate.”

“This girl gets it!”, Lucky nodded and munched on another cookie. “Boredom is super boring.”

“Speaking as someone who’s large part of her life was a never ending nightmare…”, Cassandra sipped on her drink. “You will forgive me for calling that a load of shit.”

“It is adversity that makes us stronger”, Sanakia agreed. “My Lord ill needs to rely on such crutches.”

“Crutches? Foolish Sexy-Knight this is merely us using all our tools at our disposal. Does the Dark Lord not do the very same?”

I took a glance at Sylphid. This was a nice philosophical discussion and all but it didn’t change the fact that her friend was tortured at this very moment. The desire to scream at Lucky must be immense.

Maybe I should just tell Sylphid to lay down for a bit?

“Yer full of it!”, Fisti slammed her hands down on the table. “Mari! Just order her to make ya win!”

“Eh?” Lucky responded to that with a giggle. “But that’s like cheating. I told you already, I don’t like this.”

“Why ya little! Ya listen to me and mppfffff!”

Sanakia has slipped behind Fisti and put a hand over her mouth. “Do not incur the wrath of the Balance Breaker!”, she whispered towards a very angry Fisti. “The consequences of that could be catastrophic!”

If Sanakia of all people advocates for caution it might be best to heed it.

But I just couldn’t

Not with that much at stake, not when everything could hinge on this girl here. I took a deep breath.

“Lucky, please listen. Right now, one of our friend is getting hurt. Sylphid cares deeply about her and you like Sylphid right? Please, if you can just do this single thing for us we will never depend on your luck again.” I lowered my head. “Please!”

Lucky sighed in response and gave me a sympathetic smile. “Look. I like Sylphid! But I like her more like a favorite character in a book, you know? I want to see her struggle and overcome hardships! If you read a story and you know there will be a happy ending, that’s boring, right?”

...are we nothing but characters in a story for her?

I tried again but Lucky cut me off. “Stop. I’m not annoyed yet but if you keep this up I might. And then you are in really big trouble!”

…

This is probably as far as I can push.

I apologized and Lucky simply just nodded. “It’s alright. Don’t worry about it.”

“Well, I mislike relying on luck anyways. There are ways to win, even against a Dark Lord”, Beatrice mused. “Get Minerva to kill the referee, or make her kill herself.”

“Yeah right”, Cassandra snorted. “There’s a third option as well. Fight for a month, so the cunt starves to ****.”

“How embarrassing, Cass”, Beatrice cackled. “To give up after merely a minor setback. That is why you will never amount to anything more then my servant. How pitiful, where is your pride?”

Cassandra didn’t respond to the taunts.

Perhaps a bit put off by that Beatrice scowled. “Unlike you, I haven’t given up. I will figure out the mystery of the missing transformation and lead this lunkhead to glorious victory, you shall see.”

That again.

“Is it really that big of a deal?”, I asked.

“Yes!”, Beatrice thundered, suddenly back to angry. “Have you seen the before and after images of some Dark Lords? Ithere used to be an Upy! An Upy!”

That was certainly quite the uh...glow up.

“It is indeed most strange”, Sanakia, no longer battling with Fisti, admitted. “There are no records of the Church of anybody ever keeping their pre Dark Lord form.”

Right.

“I asked Minerva, but she said she had no idea as to why that is.”

“Well”, Beatrice sipped at her tea. “That was obviously a bold faced lie.”

“And how can you be so sure? If even the church has no records...”

The ex-witch let out an exasperated huff. “Are you for real now? Your screwing with me, right? I mean, there has to be a limit to just how much of an unintelligent power gorilla you can be! Use that tiny, miserable brain of yours for once in your life!”

I really wasn’t in the mood for this right now.

“Cunt had a Dark Lord at her beck and call, Daddy”, Cassandra informed me. “She obviously pressed him for information.”

Oh...that does make sense, now that I think about. Ithere would be the perfect source of information.

“Precisely”, Beatrice nodded, a little placated again. “The question is thus just what exactly Ithere told his successor.”

“What does it matter?”, Hebi-san rather annoyed stated while letting Gilbert slurped up the rest her tea. “Her invincibility field is in place and operational. Her form is of little consequence if we have no way of hurting her.”

“Don’t ya have any more magic weapons lying around?”, Fisti asked Sanakia.

“These are holy weapons!”, Sanakia quickly corrected. “And I’m afraid not. Sir d’artagan has long since departed the city, he most certainly took Jaivardhan with him. There is still the Hero Arios Theoman with the holy sword Escude, but his weapon can only be wielded by the chosen hero.”

Which certainly does not apply to me.

Sanakia nodded ponderously. “Beyond that, only the Light Blade Nikkou remains, but it’s whereabouts are unknown.”

“You forgot Chaos”, Beatrice added.

“The less said about that Demonic sword the better!”, the Sexy-Knight frowned. “That vile instrument of evil is the sworn enemy of the Church! My Lord, I will never allow you to wield it!”

Not that I could. Every Helmanian knows the story about that Demonic Sword. Legends has it the founder of Leazas used it when he rebelled against Helman to create his kingdom. It is currently sealed deep beneath Leazas castle. I would have an easier time beating up the golden knight and snatching up his lance.

“It is decided, then!”, Sanakia abruptly stood up and faced me. “My Lord! I shall embark on a holy quest to find the Holy Blade Nikkou! Armed with it, you will surely be able to vanquish this evil!”

All of us stared blankly at the Sexy-Knight.

“A-are you daft?”, Beatrice blurted out. “Nikkou is lost since the times of Demon King Gele! That was eight hundred years ago! Many great adventurers have spend decades searching for it!”

“Well, maybe they just haven’t looked hard enough!”

She...was totally serious. I could see it in Sanakia’s determined expression.

“I hereby make a holy oath that I will find Nikkou or die trying!”, the Sexy-Knight boldly put. “If you excuse me, my Lord! Await most splendid tidings!”

And there she went, towards the elevator.

H-Hold on! I really appreciate the effort, deluded as it was, but letting Sanakia walk around alone in the city is a disaster in the making!

“Would you like me to keep an eye on her, Master Beta?”, Maria asked with a smile and I nodded.

She should be fine with Maria at her side. Might as well keep her busy. “Just make sure she is back before dark.”

“Hah!”, Beatrice cackled as the unlikely duo descended with the elevator. “If that bumbling fool actually ends up with Nikkou I turn myself into her personal naked jester!”

Guess that’s a bet Beatrice will win for once.

…

..

.

After, Hebi-san went off to tend Uni and the discussion mostly stagnated. Beatrice still promised she will find an ultimate solution but that is about as likely as Sanakia finding me a magic Dark Lord slaying weapon.

...no.

That wasn’t quite correct, was it? If victory was my only objective, the ultimate solution was rather obvious.

But it appeared nobody was willing to bring it up. As if by simply mentioning that option, it would come to fruition.

Cassandra finished her tea, spiked with a generous amount of brandy and then stood up. “Oi, Daddy.”

“Y-Yes?”

“Can we talk in private for a bit?”

“What’s it now, slaver?”, Fisti looked at Cassandra with a suspicious glare. She wasn’t the only one.

Cassandra showed her a disarming smile. “Relax. Just want to make him an offer without everyone shouting me down.”

“That’s exactly why we shouldn’t let ya talk to him in private!”, Fisti shouted.

...

I was grasping at straws here, so I was at least willing to hear Cassandra out.

Besides…

She might have the same idea as me.