Chapter 365

“I would like to be the first to say, this is asinine,” Erina protested from within the changing room. The atmosphere of the Lucci store had shifted to even more relaxed as the crowd of onlookers hesitantly standing around the entrance turned into a pleasant little wall to block out the outside world. The employees had pulled back to nervously talk amongst themselves while the CEO of the umbrella corporation that held the reins of Lucci played dress-up with her mysterious until-recently-unheard-of older sister.

It was bizarrely surreal.

Sonya sat with her phone out, recording the curtain while Marta sat at her side. The other maids had moved to flank the dressing area in two neat rows, forming a bit of a wall from the bystanders. Sonya cracked a grin. “Oh, don’t be such a sour-puss!” she laughed. “I bet it looks good!” she sing-songed.

“I hate you,” Erina’s world-weary voice came through the curtain.

“No you don’t!” Sonya laughed. “Come on! Stop leaving me in suspense!”

“Miss Erina, I’m sure it isn’t as bad as you think,” Marta chimed in, though Sonya saw the pinch in her jaw and the slight shake of her shoulders out of the corner of her eye.

The curtain fluttered aside sharply and Erina stepped out with a scowl. Her short hair shone a bit beneath the artificial light from above as Sonya dropped her phone. From top to bottom, she wore a pair of calf-length fashion-oriented boots, a pair of baggy tapered trousers that fixed to her hips at the top and tucked into her boots. The top was a tight-fitted leotard that ended in a turtle neck and emphasized the musculature that she’d chosen for her look. No sleeves, all bare scarred arms. She wore a coat similar to Sonya’s own blazer draped over her shoulders. Erina’s eyes narrowed. “...well?” she asked sharply. “Hurry up with the nonsense, silly girl.”

Sonya turned slowly to Marta. “...who picked that?”

Marta turned slowly to Sonya. “...Kimiko.”

They both slowly turned to the third girl on the left side, who was suddenly looking like a deer in headlights. Erina’s face was turning bright red, and it only got worse. Sonya snapped a finger out at Kimiko. “Violence against gay women everywhere! War crime!” she declared, “My eyes! She’s my sister! What have you done?” she gasped and threw herself back dramatically on the couch. She covered her face but took another peek anyway.

Erina’s eye was twitching, and a vein pulsed on her illusory temple. Augment Reality was awesome. “Sonya…” Erina growled warningly before scoffing and turning around with a flutter of the coat on her shoulders. “I’m taking this ridiculous thing off.”

Sonya gasped and hopped to her feet. Marta was already moving to block her.

“No no no no! It’s perfect!” Sonya swept around her from all angles. “Seriously, consider it a uh…” she fumbled before grinning. “An optimal camouflage for yours truly!” she said eagerly, eyes sparkling as she swept back and brought her hand to her chin, looking up and down. “Yes, yes, with this look barely anybody’s gonna be looking at my gorgeous face.”

Erina scowled. “Excuse me?”

Sonya sighed dramatically and brought her hand to her forehead in a feigned swoon. “Sis! Have you never heard the phrase ‘muscle mommy’ before?” she asked incredulously and put her hands on her hips, leaning forward and squinting. “You came out of my head,” she said with raised eyebrows. “I’m sure I’ve thought that phrase at least a couple dozen-hundred times when around Chunhua.”

Erina stiffened and grabbed Marta’s shoulder. “It’s coming off.”

Marta held her at bay. “Miss Erina, please reconsider, it’s an excellent look!”

The two of them tussled a little bit before a small voice cut into the arguing and Sonya’s peals of laughter. “U-um…” 

All eyes turned to Kimiko, who was staring at the ground like it was about to swallow her up, or at least hoping it would. “I-I thought it looked… villainous… so I assumed…” the maid muttered before bowing deeply once. “I apologize for causing so much trouble, Miss!”

Erina froze, and her dark eyes narrowed as she turned as well. “...villainous you say?”

Sonya had to turn away and take a deep, centering breath to keep from bursting into a fit of giggles. Perfect win delivered by Kimiko. Sonya turned back and tapped a long nailed finger to her lips before shrugging. “It does cut a certain intimidating figure, dear sister,” Sonya said and shrugged. “So what if half the internet is going to be meming ‘mommy? sorry’ the moment a paparazzi shot gets out?”

Erina shot her a look. “Why do you have to be so terribly good at making a compliment offensive?“

Sonya shrugged. “Talent?”

Erina glared. Sonya grinned. Erina squinted. Sonya made herself look cute. Erina groaned and pinched the bridge of her nose. “...Fine. I’ll wear this ridiculous thing.”

Sonya pumped a fist into the air. “We have a winner!” She laughed and turned to Kimiko, sweeping over to lean against the beleaguered maid. “You are picking out outfits more often, young lady,” she hummed before skipping off towards Marta, who Erina had finally dislodged herself from. Erina scowled and crossed her arms which made everything even better, honestly. Sonya glanced towards Marta. “Sunglasses?”

Marta nodded demurely. “Sunglasses.”

Sonya spun on her heel and pointed into the room. “Ladies! Sunglasses and accessories!” Erina just sighed behind her as the maids scurried off to begin combing through the displays again. Sonya glanced up towards her. “You’re having fun.”

“Shut up,” Erina grunted. “I should be monitoring the camera feeds and going through our research on that man right now. Not… this.”

“You wanted to live a life,” Sonya replied, her voice going a little softer as she turned away. “Going out, having a little fun, getting embarrassed by your little sister, wearing nice clothes… that’s part of it too,” she said patiently as she watched the maids fuss about.

She felt Erina stiffen a bit behind her. “...Sonya?”

Sonya raised a hand and waved it dismissively. “Let me spoil my big sister, Erina.”

“Fine,” the incarnated legacy spirit grunted. “Just… perhaps be a little less public about it next time?”

Sonya shrugged. “No promises, this is an excellent way to stay in the public eye. I’m watching the trending hashtags as we speak,” she said lazily and tapped her temple. “Impressions are everything and maintaining them is crucial. You’re a part of me,” she glanced her way. “And you have a soul now, Sister. I made sure of that when I claimed.”

Erina narrowed her eyes and then snorted out a laugh. “Always six steps ahead.”

“Damn right I am,” Sonya chuckled. “Except for when it comes to that man,” she admitted with a frown and crossed her arms. “Since I don’t know how his ability works, I have no idea how he’s getting the kind of information that sends Riot to Cairo. Or if he has an ally that’s doing it for him.” Her eyes narrowed into slits. “But that won’t be for much longer.”

“You’ve done as much as you can. Tied him down to a guild, kept him on what amounts to city-level janitor duty, maintained camera surveillance for what it’s worth with that anonymity power he has. Not only that, but you kicked him out of the public eye for at least a month with the service assignment,” Erina said. “Beyond going out and killing his henchmen directly…”

Sonya raised a finger. “Which would only exacerbate or push the problem down the road,” she chimed in. “At least I’m familiar with Riot and Felwinter, the Melinoë girl as well since she’s signed up for camp. I’ve gotten interesting reports,” she said casually. “That leaves Craftsman and Kaidan, also known elements to me. So long as they remain abilities I’m familiar with I can plan ahead for when I finally have his number.”

“Agreed,” Erina said. “Speaking of which…”

Sonya smirked. “All we have to do is wait for Major to find Mimir,” she said, a bit of bloodthirst dripping into her tone. “Then I’ll wring the truth about that man from his brain like a squeegee,” she hissed, her lip twitching. “Once I have his weakness...”

“You know it won’t be that simple,” Erina said.

“Yes,” Sonya admitted. “But at the very least, it’ll be the beginning of the end of this game.” She exhaled. “So until we get word that Major’s made contact or it’s time for DuCast’s dinner party, we stay in the public eye, we have fun, and we keep the world smiling at us.” She clenched her fist. “Soon, Otis, very soon. I’ll be ready for you.” she whispered.

–

Otis snapped his hand up and caught the goblin that threw itself at him from the side. He caught it by the throat and crushed it, watching its eyes pop. His nose wrinkled in disdain as he dropped the messy corpse to the ground. He snapped his eyes towards the path ahead of him and exhaled, striding forward with a clenched jaw. The halls of this maze were entirely enclosed, there’d been no holes or voids to concern himself with. It was irritating that there were so many twists and turns, though; it made him miss his walkthrough a little.

He glanced up towards the drone drifting silently at his side and turned his attention to the path ahead. Distorting that stupid thing would only draw attention. No. I might as well play this one cleanly. He glanced down at his bloody hand and scoffed. Well, as cleanly as I can, anyway.

He stalked forward, and up ahead, a trio of goblins scampered into the path ahead of him, shrieking at him before raising crossbows to fire. He whipped his hand again, and a ripple of compressed air caught the launched bolts and sent them scattering; it kept going until it slammed into the trio. The centermost goblin’s neck snapped as the other two fell over. He stepped on the one on the left and drove his sword down into the one on the right. He clicked his tongue before moving on.

One cluster of creatures fell after another, pulverized, eviscerated, or turned into clouds of pink mist as he marched down the path like an inexorable killing machine. A splatter of blood hit his face, and he looked down at the gurgling creature that hadn’t quite died when he’d ripped its arm off. He reached up and thumbed it off before stepping past it, leaving it to suffer. They were just masses of mana, even less than the things that called themselves people on the outside. Not even worth considering.

He found the doors to the boss room and kicked them open with enough force to rip the doors off. One door hurtled through the air and crashed into a bloated figure that was in the midst of turning to shriek at him. It never got the chance. He stepped, and with a flicker of pseudomotion, he was driving his sword through the door and into the soon-to-be-corpse. He pulled his sword out as it gurgled and whipped it, cleaning it with a stroke. The dungeon groaned around him, and he exhaled. “Finally.”

A chest appeared in the center of the boss chamber with a flicker of golden light, and he strode over to it, kicking it open. He reached in and pulled the grotesque bone-carved talisman out. He turned it over and eyed it.

<Focus Talisman of the Goblin Shaman. Caster-type Light-touched may use it to temporarily enhance their powers before the talisman crumbles into dust.>

“Trinket,” he chuckled and shoved it into his pocket for now. He’d toss it to that Evergreen woman like a bone. Maybe she could make some use of it. He turned towards the rear of the chamber where a portal was beginning to form and exhaled. The devil had I been so nervous about? These creatures are trash. Utterly beneath my notice, he thought as he strode towards it and reached for it. A window appeared as he touched it, the text streaming across it in real time.

<Congratulations on completing the Shadow of the Rigid Maze!>
<Returning to the Overworld. L->

Otis snorted, dismissing the notification before it finished. He got it every time he completed a dungeon. It never changed. He stepped through into the real world and exhaled, taking a breath of Earth’s atmosphere as the portal flickered and died behind him. To his right, Crusader was leaning against the inner wall of the dungeon containment building with an assessing look in her eyes. She nodded once before pushing off and walking out. “It’s already late, so we’ll camp here.”

He narrowed his eyes and smirked as she disappeared, then he pulled the talisman out and tossed it over to Evergreen, who caught it. She examined it for a moment, her cold eyes flicking up to meet his. “What is it?” she asked.

“Caster enhancement talisman,” he said with a shrug and raised a hand, his sword vanishing. “I have no need for it. One time use.”

She pursed her lips and nodded once, tucking it into her coat pocket. “Brownie points to you, Otis,” she said with a smirk that made the temperature in the room drop a bit. She nodded to the door. “Crusader isn’t wrong, though, you were in there a while.”

“Been a while since I went solo,” he said, trying to look contrite. “I’ll do better next round.”

“Good, see that you do. I’d rather not be doing this for a whole month,” she said and opened the door to walk through. She turned her back, and he felt his jaw tighten. Just one flick of his sword, just one grasp with his debug ability, just one move. His lips curled before he settled them back into a placid smile, and he strode after her. 

They stepped out into the Virginia air. A Common-tier dungeon didn’t call for much in the way of security, so there was only a small outpost building nearby. He followed her into it and forced himself to endure the indignity of eating the food they presented. He watched Crusader while they ate, her manner was cold, stoic, just as advertised. Yet he didn’t miss the careful looks she gave him. Curious. Very curious. It was like she was being cautious around him or something.

Something to test later, though.

When the outpost building was quiet with the sounds of the night and sleep. Otis lay awake, staring up at the ceiling. A single buzz in his pocket roused him from distant thoughts of fire and apocalyptic screams. He sat up and opened his menu. He selected Anonymous and concentrated on his two escorts. He felt the pulse ripple out from him like a sonar click before he rose lazily to his feet.

He walked out the door and into the open air. A crackle of red light drew his eye, and he crossed his arms behind his back with a small smile as he looked down at the back of Riot’s head. Riot was kneeling, holding a writhing form down next to him with one gauntleted hand.

“You must have found something interesting to risk coming out here,” he said and then glanced towards the young man next to him, face buried in the dirt, bands of liquid metal wrapped around him, restraining his body. His wrists were cuffed with mana suppressors. Otis’ eyes brightened. “Prince Saleh!” he said brightly and turned to face them. “How nice we finally get to meet.”

Dark eyes looked up at him above a metal gag, dark eyes full of a world-weary hate and resignation.