Game of Monsters - 215

‘Til I Burn Beyond Control

“What… is that?”

Ophis’ words made Joshua freeze further. There was something deeply disturbing about someone else seeing the Game. Nobody had so far and it was just… one of those truths of the world, as far as he was concerned. Nobody saw the Game, the Game existed for him alone. After all, not even he could find any trace of it with his own sensing and spells, and he knew it was there. He’d tried too, out of curiosity if nothing else yet…

Yet Ophis could see it?

It shouldn’t be a shock, not really. It made sense, in a way. She could see through all his attempts at blocking senses, something which nobody could do, as far as he was concerned. She was also Infinity, so it made sense that no normal logic could apply to her. If he thought about it, Joshua knew Ophis and Great Red were the ones most likely to be able to sense the Game.

Yet, he hadn’t thought about it, and even knowing all that, he was still shaken by the reveal.

“Oh,” she voiced, blinking at the screen, before he could react at all. A quick, almost reflex-induced glance of his own, forced to lose the battle to keep his eyes on the Dragon Infinity, made Joshua notice that the screen was frozen too. A rectangle floating in the air, with no text at all, was all that he could see there. Although, in the second his look lasted, he saw it glitch, as if trying to show some kind of text and failing with the thing flashing in and out of existence at the edges. “So, this is it?” Ophis mumbled, head tilted as if she were looking at an interesting trinket or decoration. “How… odd.”

‘What’s happening?’ Joshua thought, feeling the slightest bit panicked. He wasn’t good at dealing with unexpected things and that, that was very much an unexpected event. He hadn’t been prepared for that kind of thing, not at all. It made him feel small in a way that Ophis’ mere presence and threat hadn’t. It wasn’t worse per se, but it carried a sense of unease that was completely different to the aforementioned.

“I see,” the dragon continued and Joshua was really wondering if there was anything he should say or do. He didn’t know how to address this and he didn’t even know if he should. Ophis seemed lost in her own world, actually. She was talking to herself – she was talking to herself, right? – and answering her own questions and statements… “Very well,” she finished with.

After that, she straightened, as if she were snapped out of her own thoughts or, perhaps more accurately, out of her observations. She turned her infinitely deep gaze towards his eyes instead of the screen, still frozen, flickering and glitching. Without realizing, Joshua himself stiffened further almost like he was waiting for an attack to come his way. He was still processing what was happening, but Ophis seemed to have beaten him to the punch, which was perhaps to be expected.

“I will see you,” she announced and Joshua had to wonder – privately, of course – if that was supposed to mean anything to him. All the same, the dragon tilted her head consideringly at him before nodding.

And then she disappeared.

He had no time at all to process that though. That was because the previously affected screen flashed again, this time in front of his eyes, very invasively so. The Game had never been that on his face, literally and metaphorically. It always seemed discreet, at the edge of his vision unless he wanted to look at it, like it was helping keep its presence hidden.

Not that time though.

Furthermore, gone were the blue screens, or even the brown-yellow screens marked by the Egyptian touch – They didn’t actually see the Game, Joshua had checked. He’d checked. – or the Dark or Bright marked by holy or demonic effects. No, this time it was deep purple, almost black, with a much lighter shade detailing the border and writing the text inside.

[Good job. Thank you. Here, have this:

+ New Perk: Touched by Infinity]

‘... What the fuck?’ he thought, blinking at it. That was the most tampered with screen he’d ever gotten. Not even the Egyptians, the closest such thing he could remember, had done something like that. He’d have to try and talk to those, maybe he’d missed something when he’d checked with them... As it was though, he was still feeling the shock and trying to move past it.

All the same, a corner of his mind found enough awareness to call for the next, very obvious step.

Or, it would have, if not for the next bout of insanity that was thrown his way. Because he was going to check on the new Perk, more out of habit than anything. However, he was interrupted by the overwhelming sense of power flowing through him. It felt… crippling, like when he’d pushed the limits of the body with Project Spring, pushing magic into someone past the limits of their bodies.

Except, this time, it was him and his body didn’t tear itself apart and explode. It certainly felt like it would though, but the seconds passed and Joshua was still very much alive, very much fine, if still overwhelmed. So much so, that it took him a while to realize that he was on the ground, on his hands and knees and heaving.

‘What… what the fuck is this?’ he wondered, eyes wide as he called for the only possible explanation he could think of.

[Touched by Infinity

Infinite Magic Reserves.

Immunity to the Dimensional Gap.]

If his eyes weren’t already as wide as they could possibly go, they certainly have been after that. As it was, Joshua was left staring at the words, trying to make sense of them and failing miserably. ‘Infinite… fucking infinite, what…?’ his shocked mind tried to think, but it fell short, still trying to deal with all that had happened, plus the apparently… infinite magic flowing through his body.

“... Joshua!” a voice called and he turned slightly, glancing out the corner of his eyes to see Yasaka’s absolutely panicked expression. “Joshua, are you alright? What’s happening?!” she screamed, noticing that some awareness had come back to him, or so he assumed. Maybe she’d been asking that kind of thing all the while and he’d just noticed.

“Ophis…” he mumbled. There was irony in the fact that he couldn’t quite muster the strength to speak at that moment, with all the power in the world at his fingertips. “Ophis… was too happy, maybe,” he said, wryness mixed with unease. Because…

Because what the actual fuck?

[}-o-{]

“Infinite magic?!” Serafall asked, borderline screaming.

“My reaction, honestly,” Joshua answered wryly. He was sitting a little slouched, like he’d gone through a particularly gruesome bout of training or something. He felt exhausted, even though he was full of energy. He could only breath shallowly, as if his belly was so full that he couldn’t fill his lungs all the way. Even looking up felt like an herculean effort. “I think… I think…”

“Are you alright, Joshua?” Gabriel asked, concern breaking through her usually placid expression even more than it already had before. Despite the negative connotations, Joshua found himself moved that she was so worried. He wondered if that made him a bit of an asshole. “Because you don’t look like you are.”

“I’m fine,” he breathed out as best he could. Then he took a moment to get some comfort from Friday, the spell wrapped around his body as best she could while being just energy. The same went for Cheshire, in regular cat form on his lap, Nagini, who was acting as the biggest puff chair once more, Morag, who clung to his back like a mix of piggy-backing and hugging, and Margalo, who had perched herself on his shoulder. His familiars grounded him as best they could, offering physical comfort just as much as they offered him an escape through the bond, letting him feel things other than overwhelming magic coursing through his laughably – and more obviously than ever – mortal body. “Still… Still getting… used to it,” he managed to mutter.

“Do you need anything?” Yasaka asked and it was only because of her that he managed to get there at all. Otherwise, he might just have dropped on the ground where he’d been and passed out for days. As it was, she helped him back home and had been the anchor keeping him going.

“I need to sleep… for a year,” he answered, only half-joking and they could tell, if their persistently concerned expressions were anything to go by. “Just a little time,” he added afterwards, completely truthfully. “Staying awake… so long… definitely didn’t help,” he said with a weak smile and the slightest of shrugs.

“You’ve earned that much, for sure,” Yasaka commented softly, pushing off a stray lock of his hair from his forehead. Although, he wondered if there had actually been something there or if it was just a gesture. “We’ll keep everything from exploding, alright? Take care of yourself, Joshua.”

“I need to see Kunou,” he said, finding strength where there wasn’t any. “Ravel and Koneko too,” he added. He didn’t want to play favorites like that, after all, even if Kunou had come first. Which was a little funny, since usually the older siblings came first…

And Joshua was realizing that maybe he was a little out of it.

Not out of it enough not to notice his partners sharing a concerned look between themselves. Eventually though, they nodded almost in sync. Then Yasaka and Serafall stood up and Gabriel shifted to sit beside him, on the opposite side from where his youkai partner had been, Nagini adjusting herself to make a spot for her.

“We’ll be back before you can miss us,” Serafall told him, some of her usual cheer coming back to her as she winked. She smiled so brightly that it pulled a slight smile from his weary self and he appreciated that. It was yet another distraction, yet another thing to pull him away from the overwhelming feeling of too much power flowing through his entirely, painfully fragile body.

“Sleep if you need to. They’ll understand,” Yasaka told him, even though she had to realize that he wouldn’t. He couldn’t pass out and leave his children to worry. They’d been with him when he needed them, all understanding and helpful. He had to do something for them, even if it wasn’t much.

“... You’re not going to sleep, are you?” Gabriel asked him when the two women teleported away. There was that now very familiar fond and exasperated smile on her face. Joshua was coming to accept that he just pulled those out of his partners on the regular for some reason. He wasn’t always sure of that reason, but he usually had guesses. “You’re an incredible man, do you know that?”

“People are starting to… drive that point home,” he mumbled with a slight smile. Even his non-existent self-esteem struggled to bring him down those days though. There was only so much he could talk himself down in the face of the things he could do though, especially when, as he said, there were other people around to help put things into perspective.

“Only you, Joshua,” Gabriel told him, leaning onto his side and resting her head on his shoulder.

“I love you,” he said then, feeling the angel twitch, or maybe stiffen, or maybe just shift? He wasn’t sure, but he noticed a change. “I’m so glad… I didn’t mess everything up.” The funny thing was that the statement could be directed at a bunch of things, not all of them related to that particular day and all that had happened during it.

“... I love you too,” she told him, turning around and giving him a soft, light kiss on the lips. “You did amazingly, Joshua.”

“I did enough,” he mumbled, eyes closing and basking on the victory, however minor it might have been. Ophis was going to come back eventually, but that was a problem for the future. As it was, he’d made it, so…

“You did, more than enough” Gabriel whispered, giving him a kiss on his temple this time and he felt something uncoil in him. “Sleep.”

He almost protested that, he almost said he didn’t want to. He had to wait for the girls. Yet, all he managed was a slight movement of his lips, an attempt with no hope of success.

And then he felt consciousness slip from his grasp in the mist of power beyond what he could even understand.

[}-o-{]

[Yasaka]

She almost laughed.

Coming back to Joshua asleep with his familiars around and Gabriel by his side was not something she expected. She had been sure he’d hold up until his daughters visited him. He was stubborn and determined like that, after all. The man powered through things for his family in a way that was almost as nonsensical as his prowess with magic was.

He’d finally found his match though, evidently.

It was very telling that it took infinity to bring him down though and he’d still held up for as long as he could. Whatever Ophis had done to him though, it was concerning, but also reassuring. Because if Joshua was a force to be reckoned with before, now that he had literally unlimited magic at his disposal, he’d be a monster in his own league. Yasaka had already been about even matched if it really came down to it – and if he didn’t have much preparation time, admittedly –, but now Joshua was maybe even pulling ahead of Serafall and Gabriel.

And that was without him having time to learn and adapt to what he now had access to.

How odd, to be the weakest in a relationship, she mused. Maybe that’d be something to discuss with the other two at some point, because they had to be strangers to the concept too, she was sure. Admittedly, Gabriel was a stranger to most relationship concepts though, probably. Maybe even all of them.

The train of thought led her to thinking that maybe it was about time they got together for a girl’s night out at some point.

As it was, they had more pressing matters to deal with at the moment. Most important of all being Joshua’s condition. Because not only would he be dealing with his attempts at staying awake for days and days, pushing even beyond optimal condition to deal with Ophis as best he could. On top of that, they had to add infinite magic that the dragon had just unceremoniously dumped on him.

There was a small silver lining though and it was that Joshua wasn’t falling apart because of the power, however. Because all three of them had heard about Joshua’s studies on whatever Ophis had given Khaos Brigade. They had all heard about the power up it brought and how it tore apart the existence of whoever took that. Even to that day, Kokabiel and Katerea were only still held together by Joshua’s efforts.

Yet, she could feel none of that in Joshua, so that was reassuring. She’d also had the other two check, discreetly, but they’d come to the same conclusion. So, all in all, it really was just a boon bestowed upon Joshua… despite the drastic effect it seemed to have had on him.

“He must’ve been really tired,” Serafall commented, her voice barely above a whisper. She’d apparently teleported in while Yasaka’s thoughts went on tangents, Ravel and Koneko by her side. Two girls that Yasaka didn’t know what to think of. They were all but adopted by Joshua, but they also tended to keep their distance for the most part, even if that sounded contradictory. Maybe they were just looking for a father figure – a better one, maybe, in the Phenex’s case – to latch onto, without actually having Joshua act as their parent, she supposed.

Admittedly, she’d thought that of Kunou too, once upon a time, so maybe that’s why she was skeptical.

“His stubbornness met its match,” Gabriel replied, her voice even lower than the Satan’s had been, understandably. She looked entirely too happy where she was and Yasaka was almost jealous… Well, she definitely was, but only the smallest bit. That was just the kind of thing they had to deal with, all three of them.

But it was worth it; Joshua was worth it.

“I’ll have to adjust his schedule more, won’t I?” the Phenex girl asked, but she sounded more worried and maybe determined than annoyed. She was dutiful, Yasaka would give her that. Serafall had really outdone herself when she got the girl to help Joshua with his things, because there was only so much that they could help him with. Besides, the man would have been a lot more reluctant to accept their help like that.

Just like they would have been in turn, to be fair.

“If you would,” Serafall answered, beaming. “That’d be great, Ra-tan!” she added exaggeratedly, but it showed that she was forcing it a little too much. Yasaka had noticed, as time went by, that her act slipped a lot more at times. Maybe Joshua had helped her about as much as he had helped Yasaka herself, even if it was, perhaps, less obvious.

“Hm,” the girl hummed, pulling out a notebook from a storage spell and sitting down across from Joshua getting to work. Koneko, perhaps not knowing what else to do, sat down beside her. “Will have to check with Waterhouse but things there should be fine,” the young devil mumbled and Yasaka watched her start working curiously.

Although, truth be told, she was mostly just… thinking. Thinking about how close they’d all been to disaster. She remembered watching Joshua interact with Ophis and being unable to do anything other than offering silent support for the most part. She remembered all the little signs she noticed, all the tells that the man was scared out of his wits, yet he kept it together long enough to get through the entire ordeal.

And she remembered feeling absolutely useless.

There was surely something more she could have done. She might not be one of the faction leaders, but she was a faction leader all the same. Surely there was a way she could do more, right? It wasn’t even about competing with the other two, like she’d thought at times. No, this was about being able to help Joshua beyond being an ear to listen to him and offering comfort through senjutsu.

There had to be something else…

And maybe she had an idea for that.

[}-o-{]

[Koneko Toujou]

“It’ll be fine.”

She just hummed in response to those words.

“He’s just sleeping.”

“I know,” she replied curtly.

“It’s kind of adorable how much you care,” her sister commented and Koneko didn’t even have to look at her to know she was smiling stupidly. “I’m a little jealous, I’ll admit.”

She ignored that.

“Do you want to work on your senjutsu a bit more?” It was a testament, maybe, of how worried Koneko must have looked – or felt – to her sister for Kuroka to offer that and not seem playful or anything of the sort. She’d said that softly, warmly even and it made Koneko a little uncomfortable. It reminded her of times before things went wrong and that was good, but it also reminded her of how things had gone wrong.

“Yes,” she answered with a mumble and that’s what they did. She sensed what her sister did with her life energy and tried to imitate it. It was something Kuroka had come up with, as a way to train both her sensing and her manipulation. Admittedly, Koneko was pretty sure it was also so that she could avoid actually teaching and talk nonsense, but she wasn’t wrong. It did help Koneko learn how to sense properly.

So, that’s how they spent the better part of an hour or two.

All the while, Koneko stared at Joshua’s sleeping form. Ravel had to leave to go back to her place, because she did actually have a family waiting for her, even if they didn’t sound like… much of a family, really. Kunou, for her part, had to be dragged away by her mother because she was younger and she had a schedule. There was also the fact that, for as worried as the three of them were, Joshua was actually supposed to be fine, if very tired and a little overwhelmed.

Koneko had stayed though, having gotten permission from Rias to spend the night over. She had further stuck to Joshua longer too, staying up late. She’d use senjutsu the next day if need be to get through her day.

She was aware that it wasn’t necessary or anything. She was overreacting to Joshua’s condition, but… But there was also the fact that things had been tense for a whole month. Nobody had explained, not really, but Kunou, Ravel and her had heard enough to put a theory together between the three of them. So, while they might not have all the info, they had a pretty good idea…

So, it was no wonder that she wanted to make a little extra sure that everything was fine.

“You should go to sleep,” her sister told her eventually, after she yawned for the third time. “He’ll be here when you come back. And I very much doubt he’ll wake up before then. Even if he does, I’m sure he’ll call and even get you pulled out of school.” That was true, she supposed, but she was reluctant to leave.

She had trouble speaking about what she felt, after all, so she tended to try and say stuff without needing to actually use words. In this case, she wanted to stick with Joshua, so that she’d be there when he woke up and he’d know she cared. Because sometimes she worried she wasn’t getting across how much she appreciated having a home away from Rias. Nothing against her King, but the Davis’ place felt more like a family where the Gremory place felt like staying with friends, and not just because of Kuroka.

“He knows you care,” Kuroka said, and Koneko wondered if there was some sort of mind reading aspect to senjutsu she’d never heard about. “He’ll be happy to see you come to him whenever you can and he’s awake. As it is, he’d rather you take care of yourself.”

Why did her sister have to choose that very moment to sound reasonable? Why couldn’t she be irresponsible and silly like usual when Koneko needed her to be? It was so unfair. Even more unfair was the fact that Koneko could almost picture the worried look on Joshua’s face if he saw her pushing herself like she was.

“If you give him a hug and sit on his lap when he wakes up, he’ll be happy,” Kuroka told her then and Koneko turned to stare at her, eyes wide and curious. “He likes when you girls stick around, even when he’s busy or you’re all doing different things. He likes having people he likes around him and happy, even if he’s a bit like you and doesn’t talk about how he feels a lot.”

Koneko hummed, storing away all the sudden and unexpected information on Joshua and ignoring the bit about her. All that Kuroka said made sense though and she wondered why she hadn’t seen that before. Suddenly, a lot of random glances and smiles from Joshua were making a lot of sense.

She was also pretty happy with the realization, because of what it implied.

Granted, she no longer felt like she was imposing on Joshua’s family as much as she did before, but she sometimes wondered how much she fit in. It was nice to hear that she did, in fact, belong there, at least as far as Joshua was concerned. She was wanted and not just by her sister.

“You silly kitten,” her sister said, her smile more fond than teasing, unlike her usual ones. “He loves you. If you asked, he’d probably adopt you along with the fire bird,” Kuroka said and Koneko determinedly did not think about that at all, because… because.

“I guess I’ll go,” she mumbled, but she didn’t stand up.

“I’ll make sure he sends for you as soon as he wakes up if you’re not here,” Kuroka reassured her and she smiled gratefully. “Go along, Shirone.”

For once, the name didn’t make her want to flinch or frown.

Instead, she just nodded and did as told.

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

A bit of a roller coaster chapter, isn’t it? Or maybe it’s just me. Or maybe a snowball downhill is more accurate? After all, it did start a little slow, then grow a lot and ultimately slow down towards the end again.

I don’t know. Analogies aren’t my thing.

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: Do you like surprises? Personally, it depends. I like my routine and knowing what’s gonna happen and when, for the most part. But certain good surprises can be neat, so long as they aren’t too big, I guess.

See you.