Part 1

"Gah! What the hell!?"

I'm not going to lie, if I were launched like that, I probably couldn't have shrugged it off the way Josh just did. Though again, if it were me, I wouldn't have gotten hit by such a well-telegraphed attack to begin with, but that was a completely different topic altogether.

Anyhow, Josh was already back in the game before the dust and debris could even settle. He jumped out of the same hole he just punched into the building's façade, and he flashed his Celestial wings for a moment to break his fall… only to very nearly get batted away once more when Marzanna rushed him.

She must've considered him the biggest threat at the moment, most likely thanks to a combination of his Celestial powers and lugging a sword around. Her movements weren't especially refined when compared to the Knights or the Eastern Draconians, but she was fast as heck, and her blows with her quarterstaff staggered Josh even while blocking.

It took Elly a couple of seconds to catch up to them to join the scuffle, a short yet long time that allowed me to take a better look at the arch-mage. She was, in simple terms, rejuvenated. Not to the degree of Sahi's body-switcheroo, but she easily looked at least thirty years younger and considerably more athletic than before. In fact, under her torn and burned robes and dress, she was wearing the same kind of tank top as the elite muscle mages of her school, which… made a whole lot of sense, actually.

"Josh, switch!" the princess yelled as she closed in on the two, and as if they practised it beforehand, the guy slipped under an incoming sweeping blow and allowed Elly to take his place. She raised her fists and settled into a posture that resembled a boxer's stance, yet when Marzanna tried to step out of her range, instead of a punch, Elly dodged to the side while simultaneously taking a swipe at the arch-mage's foot with her tail.

It didn't hit, but it forced Marzanna into a full retreat. That seemed fine at the surface, but when Elly tried to follow after her to keep up the pressure, she immediately hit a transparent ward that the arch-mage hastily conjured in front of her.

"Not this again!" my draconic girlfriend groaned as she balled up her fists again and shattered the magical barrier with a powerful uppercut, only to reel back when Marzanna… hit her on the head… with her staff…

…

"Bloody sunova—!"

My angry exclamation turned into a pained hiss, forcing me back to my body for a moment.

"{Young knight! You should stop this and rest before…}"

"It's just my head. I'll live," I muttered as I used my free hand to massage my aching temple.

In my moment of outrage, I very nearly Phased over, which kind of explained why future-me put the restriction on me in the first place. The backlash ended up worsening my headache, but that wasn't important. That old bint just bonked my girlfriend's head with a stick. Nobody bloody bonks my girlfriend with a stick and gets away with it!

Exhaling hard, I quickly focused my attention on the Purple Zone again and found that in the few seconds while I was gone, the duel between Elly and Marzanna had somehow moved to one of the nearby roofs. Despite not having the same finesse as a 'real' close combat specialist, the buffed-up arch-mage had the physical specs to match my princess in her fully Draconian transformed state, which was already troubling, but she also kept casually throwing down barriers and those force-waves to keep her off balance. They were also taunting each other nonstop, but as much as I appreciated the fine art of mid-combat banter, there were more important things to focus on at the moment.

Such as what Josh was doing during all of this instead of making sure my girlfriend's head remained un-bonked.

"How much time do you need?" was the first thing I heard as soon as I moved my point of view back to the square, and Josh's inquiry was met with an exasperated harrumph from Deus.

"I told you, I need her to stand still for at least a few seconds, but it doesn't matter!" The two of them were huddled together, along with Ammy, who descended from the air and was currently fidgeting by the childhood friend duo's side. "I made the Empyrean Fetters to restrain that bastard Bel, so I reinforced the spell against magical interference, not brute force! Even if I manage to catch her in it again, it would only hold her for a few seconds."

"That's a problem…" the guy muttered and turned to the class rep. "What about you?"

"… You can't restrain people with fireballs."

Her completely deadpan response made the guy's face twitch, but he somehow managed to rein in his temper and asked, "Don't you have any other spells? Like, a stone prison, or freezing her in a block of ice, or we can just have Petra sit on her, or something!"

"I… didn't have the time to master many spells yet, okay? I only just became able to cast properly, you know?" the class rep argued back, but after readjusting her glasses (which were, predictably enough, the only part of her original outfit that wasn't vaporised by her transformation) she resolutely stated, "I'll ask Grimmy."

"Please do that." Josh turned around and faced the rooftop where the muscly arch-mage and my girlfriend were still locked in a cat-and-mouse style battle, and he gestured at the Celestial girl by his side. "I'll go and back up Elly. Look after Ammy."

"Don't order me around, Boy," Deus barked back, sounding genuinely offended… only to then immediately add, "At least say 'please'," in a voice that sounded more sulky than anything else.

"… Please look after Ammy?"

"Fine, if you insist," Deus grumbled and turned to the class rep. "Come, Companion! Let's thin the herd of these fools!"

She gestured at the battle between the Magi, golems, Celestials, and the outliers of our little posse still battling it out in the square, and the class rep's eyes lit up at once.

"I… can help with that!" Ammy exclaimed, her inner pyromaniac showing once again, but my point of view was already being dragged along with Josh as he flew into the air and dived at Marzanna.

While all of that was going on, I quickly glanced at the other combatants in the square, but as much as I would've loved to just marvel at Sahi swinging a whole-ass golem around like a giant bludgeon, I had more to check in with Judy, and just in time, as she was getting visibly impatient.

"Chief, if you're still here, say something, or I'll get mad."

"I'm here."

After the customary five-second lag, she let out a shallow breath and looked up and to her left. Once again, that wasn't from where I was watching, but it didn't matter.

"You can't just say something like that and then not answer when I ask."

"… Something like what?"/"Is Brother back?"

My response overlapped with Penny's question, but my dear assistant raised a finger to quiet her, and then she glared at the sky.

When she opened her mouth again, she uttered "It's just my head. I'll live," in a faux-baritone voice, and it took me a second to connect the dots.

"That was a terrible impression of me, but more importantly, I was talking to Cal. I jury-rigged this transmission, so it's picking up everything I'm saying."

"What's with your head then?"

"Long story. I'll explain after this whole kerfuffle is over." Pausing for a second, I glanced down at the battlefield and asked, "Was that all you've prepared for catching Marzanna?"

She responded with a guileless, "Yes."

"… Okay, so how are you planning to beat her now?"

"We don't need to. We've already won." She quickly understood my stumped silence and explained, "We successfully forced her out into the open, and reinforcements are already on the way. It would've been cleaner if we could capture her, but so long as Elly and Joshua can keep her busy, we'll be—"

Before she could finish that sentence, there was a big explosion, and when I looked over, I could see the princess tumbling through the air before suddenly spreading her draconic wings wide and coming to a stop, followed by a roar and a burst of red dragonflame aimed at the crumbling building where she was fighting just a second ago.

"Please hold for a moment." Judy raised a finger again, but this time she tapped it on her glasses. "Eurasian Kestrel, this is Eagle's Nest. What's the situation, over?"

She listened attentively, and I was just about to glance over when Judy abruptly turned to my sisters.

"They require backup."

"On it!" Penny exclaimed eagerly and picked up the claymore propped against a nearby metal box (probably an air conditioner unit) and immediately jumped off the building.

Snowy was considerably less enthused.

"But if we leave, who's guarding you?"

"We're far away from the hot zone, and nobody has noticed us so far. I'll be fine."

My Abyssal sister was still visibly hesitant, but at last she showed her wings through her Magiformer and took to the air. It was only then that I asked, "What exactly is the situation?"

"Joshua says Lord Marzanna is getting faster and stronger over time, and they have a hard time keeping her occupied. She's also moving towards Amelia. Should I tell Angeline and Deus to evacuate her?"

"You're the mission control, so I leave it up to you, but if you want to hold her down, shouldn't you just send in Sahi? Her floaty hands should have the best compatibility against her."

"I don't want to overplay our hand," Judy told me frankly and tapped her glasses again. By the looks of it, she was looking at battle through the eyes of the others. "If she decides to escape before the net is closed, it would set our schedule back, and we can't afford that."

"Yes, so just capture her." My advice was met with silent disapproval, so I insisted. "Come on, Dormouse. She bonked our princess with a stick. We can't take that lying down."

"While I agree in principle, it's not so simple, and…" Her eyes opened a bit wider, and she hastily grabbed her glasses, "Look out, Western Barn Owl. The building is collapsing! Take Secretary Bird and retreat towards Western Marsh Harrier, over."

While she was talking, I pivoted my point of view to get a better view of the situation down in the square, and I just caught a glimpse of Marzanna sending Penny flying. My sister did a complicated somersault while in the air and lunged back at her as soon as she landed, her rush seemingly coordinated with Josh and Elly. The two of them were also swooping in like a well-oiled machine, only for all three to get staggered by another one of the arch-mage's omnidirectional mana waves.

Marzanna rushed forth, but she moved past Penny without touching a hair on her head and aimed at Ammy and Angie. The girls were retreating towards the street dominated by Sahi and Pascal, but the arch-mage was much faster and caught up with them in an instant.

"Just fly!"

I was startled by the exasperated bark coming from my side, and I could see Judy holding her forehead in her palm. At the same time, following her instruction, both Ammy and Angie rose into the air. In the class rep's case, it was less 'powered flight' and more 'clumsy floating', but the Celestial girl grabbed hold of her by the armpits and dragged her out of the arch-mage's reach.

They weren't out of the frying pan just yet, as Marzanna flourished her staff and leapt after them. She could've unquestionably grabbed Ammy's ankle, if not for a telephone-pole-sized icicle sniping her out of the air and flinging her into an office building at the other end of the square. It was followed by three more, and then a final, even bigger ice spear that exploded on impact and covered the vicinity in a sheet of ice and snow.

Thanks to Snowy's timely intervention, Angie and the class rep managed to safely land on the top of a nearby restaurant, but the lull in the combat was short-lived. There was a loud crack, followed by a rumbling noise, and half of one of the giant ice spears flew out of the ravaged building, landing smack dab where the fountain used to be.

"Lord Marzanna appears to be more dangerous than expected," Judy noted with a detached voice that couldn't hide her apprehension.

"That's an arch-mage for you, I guess."

Judy nodded along, and after a long beat, she looked up and to the left, this time actually managing to very nearly face me.

"I'm open to suggestions."

"I already told you to throw Sahi at her, but if you want something more… Give me a second."

If I were present, I was confident I could take Marzanna down no problem, Phasing or no Phasing. Not because of my gear or my sixth sense or even my fighting skills, but because the way she was glowing like a bloody Christmas tree told me she was under the effect of a whole smorgasbord of spells and/or magical effects, and those never fared well against my phantom limbs. Unfortunately, I wasn't there, so it was impossible to resolve the battle that way.

Let's look at this objectively: If Judy were to be believed, the cavalry was already on the way, so the gang only needed to buy some time and not let Marzanna escape until then. Beating her up for the whole head-bonking thing was an secondary objective, but one I didn't want to skip. As for Marzanna's abilities, she was essentially hulking out, getting stronger and more resilient the more she was hit, yet still able to cast her crowd control spells.

Next, let's look at this Doylistically: What kind of antagonist was she? That was an important question to ask here, because it affected how the scenario expected Josh and company to deal with her. Road-bump antagonists could be used to showcase the main characters' strength, but since she's been flinging Josh around like a ragdoll and no-selling everyone's attacks for a while now, that probably wasn't her archetype. She wasn't important enough to be a main antagonist, and she didn't have enough personal connection with our group to be a rival antagonist, which meant she was most likely a 'threshold'.

I wasn't sure if it was official trope terminology, but a 'threshold antagonist' was someone who was overwhelmingly more powerful than the heroes and served as an insurmountable obstacle. Marzanna being so implacable certainly gave me that impression, so for the time being, I assumed she fell into this category.

If so, that meant there were only three ways she would be taken down: a third party joining the fray and taking her down, the protagonist breaking their limits to overcome them, or the antagonist's weakness getting exploited in a clever way. The first option was off the table, not only because I couldn't Phase over, but because that trope was already used when Josh first lost to Sahi and I had to bail him out. The second option was a possibility, so maybe if Josh kept getting flung around some more, he would get a power-up or something. It wasn't likely, but it could happen.

It was also out of my hands, so I decided to focus on the third option. Based on Marzanna's and our little posse's power sets, were there any clever ways they could use to overcome her? As far as I could tell, the arch-mage's spells did three things: she rejuvenated her body (possibly as a temporary power-up), piled a metric ton of physical enhancements on herself, and she was instantly regenerating all injuries on the spot. All of those fell into the purview of the Restoration School of magic, so it made sense.

Let's extrapolate from there. I knew from experience that keeping up that many physical enhancements wasn't easy. It's why the original Knight equipment had this awkward ramping up period and could only maintain peak performance for a while before it would start causing mana-burns. It was precisely the reason whyI gave the Uniformers lower but more stable power output when I made them, and why I always kept manually fiddling with the Leoformer's enchantments when I was fighting. If her enhancements worked similarly, they had to be putting serious strain on her, so I imagined she was regenerating so fast as a kind of 'required secondary superpower' to keep her body from imploding on itself.

Something like that required constant maintenance and lots of magic power. Of course, since she was a Magi, so long as there were suitable Ley-lines in the area, she had an effectively infinite supply of mana, but…

"Dormouse?"

"Yes?"

"Ask the class rep if she can use Grimmy to shift the output of the Mana Wells, so that the Ley-lines here become inaccessible."

Judy looked doubtful, but she relayed my words faithfully, only to then slightly grimace and tell me, "She said it was the most ludicrous idea she had ever heard in her life and told me that you're a bad influence on my common sense."

"Ouch. I presume that was a no, then. Too bad."

Okay, so that wasn't going to work. How else could Josh and company find and exploit the weakness of her powers then? Cleverly, too. That was important. The solution had to be something that was out-of-the-box yet made Watsonian sense in retrospect, and something they had access to right now.

Dragonflame? It could break magic, but it was too brute-force to be a 'clever' solution.

What about Penny's anti-magic attribute as the Unicorn Knight? Nah, it only applied to her, and she had no way to force it onto Marzanna.

Maybe some kind of counter-spell Ammy or Sahi could cast then? Something that disrupted or reversed the arch-mage's spells. They were acting on the Astral Body, so maybe something like…

"Goddamit..."

If I could, I would've facepalmed right now. As expected, it was one of those solutions that were right out in the open, and you just never noticed them because they were too obvious.

"Chief? Do you have another idea?"

"Yes, actually. Please tell Angie to heal her."

My words were met with confounded silence.

"Can you be more specific? Heal who? Nobody's seriously injured."

"I meant Marzanna." The previous confusion quickly turned into skepticism, so I earnestly added, "Trust me, it'll make sense in a moment."

My dear assistant subtly rolled her eyes but still relayed my instructions, and after some back-and-forth, I was surprised (and mildly pleased) to hear a throaty, hollow cry coming from the direction of the square, audible from a whole block away.

"That… was loud," I noted with mild schadenfreude. "I'll go take a closer look. I'll get back to you once everything's wrapped up."

Judy only let out a grunt in acknowledgement, clearly busy with directing the others. I let her do her job, and Far Glanced over to the square, ready to observe the final confrontation unfold and the head-bonker to get her well-deserved comeuppance.

Part 2

The battle in the Purple Zone came to an abrupt… not a 'halt', per se, but more of a strange lull in the wake of the arch-mage's scream. The noise of combat quieted as everyone turned to stare at the center of the square. Surrounded by Josh and Elly on one side, Angie/Deus and Ammy on the other, Penny bringing up the rear, and Snowy hovering over the scene while surrounded by half a dozen floating ice spears, the woman in the middle looked almost pitiful.

'Almost' being the operating word here. Her burned and frayed robes were little more than tattered rags hanging around her waist, and the dark pants and tank top she had under them were also torn and stained. Her long black hair lost much of its lustre; grey was slowly seeping back into it at a rate visible to the naked eye, and dark blood was trickling out of every orifice on her head. Yet, despite all that, and how she had to lean on her staff for support, her eyes were not only clear but filled with endless venom.

If looks could kill, everyone within a city block would've been dead by now.

"We've got her! Press the advantage!" Josh pointed his black sword at her as he exclaimed. His expression was fierce, but also relieved, and despite being thrown around quite a bit and breaking most of the wards of his Magiformer already, he looked as vigorous as ever, if a bit worse for wear.

The same couldn't be said for the rest. Penny was enthusiastic, as usual, and since she joined the fray late, she didn't accumulate much damage yet, but the others were a bit more hesitant about attacking her just yet. Meanwhile, Marzanna's focus remained entirely on Angie, her eyes filled with the kind of visceral hatred one would only show to people who personally kicked their dog.

"You cursed fiend!" she screamed from the top of her lungs, making her seem more deranged than anything. "How dare you cast your dirty magic on me!? Unforgivable!"

Her howl broke the lull in the action like a stone thrown into the reflection in a lake, and everything started happening all at once.

First, before Marzanna could rush our friendly neighbourhood Celestial messiah, her path was blocked by a rain of giant icicles courtesy of Snowy.

"Protect the Lord!" one of the muscle-mages bellowed in response, turning his back on whoever he was fighting just a moment ago, and he thrust a fist into the air. It might've been a signal, because the rest of the still battle-ready Ottawan Magi mirrored the gesture. "For the arch-mage! For the Assembly!"

"The leeches are distracted! Secure His Grace!" the Celestial in charge shouted from another direction. "Forget about the rest! For the glory of Elysium!"

"Grrruoooohhh!" a golem also roared, because why wouldn't golems do that, am I right?

It was an outright cacophony, but fortunately Josh was at least nominally on top of the situation, and he began handing out orders like it was the most natural thing in the world.

"Elly! Don't let those golems get any closer!"

"Got it!"

My draconic girlfriend rose into the air and added yet another ear-piercing note to the ambient background noise by releasing a crimson blast from her mouth, staggering the closest incoming golem. That was a pretty good hustle, but Josh didn't share my sentiment, and even as he was making his way over to Angie's side, he turned back to yell, "Don't hold back anything! This is the endgame!"

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

I couldn't see Elly's expression from here, but I could certainly hear her reaction, because she immediately let out a deep roar that made the whole Purple Zone tremble. Her features also changed as she further tapped into her dragon bloodline; her horns got a bit pointier, her tail a bit longer, and her red scales crept up to her cheeks.

That was followed by another breath attack, and this time the crimson ray not only abruptly grew in size, but also shifted into a brilliant yellow hue. The air distorted around the beam, bending light and creating flashes in every colour of the rainbow, and as fascinating as it looked, nobody had the time to marvel at the sight, as the moment the attack landed, it effectively erased the previous golem from the waist up and carved a trench as wide as a car into the ground behind it.

"It's Dragonfire!" one of the non-muscle-Magi cried out in alarm and waved his staff over his head. "Don't try to stop it, it's futile! Dodge, or take cover!"

He followed his own advice and rushed off the square to take shelter. Of course, Elly couldn't fire those off in quick succession; True Dragonfire was hell on her throat, and she needed to catch her breath after each use. We knew that, but they didn't, so her display was enough to put a pause on the advance on that front.

"I'll take care of this side!" Penny proposed at once and, true to her words, she suddenly accelerated and threw herself against the second ground of magi and golems attacking from the direction of the wide pedestrian street leading into the square.

"Like, where do you think you're going?!"

Though again, considering Sahi and Pascal were right behind them, maybe they weren't as much 'attacking' as 'regrouping', or maybe even 'escaping', but I digress. Meanwhile, Josh observed the battlefield and called out to Snowy.

"Lili! Keep those Celestials off our backs!"

My Abyssal sister was still busy keeping Marzanna occupied, but after letting another salvo of icy projectiles loose, she shouted back, "But what about her?"

"I'll hold her down!" Josh responded with a confident look, only to falter when he noticed the glance Angie was giving him, and he amended, "We'll hold her down, I mean!"

This time, I was sure it was Angie in control, not just because of her eye colour, but also because she was constantly humming. I knew for a fact that she was just straight up superior to Deus when it came to recovery magic, so it made sense that she would be in the driving seat when one of those spells was needed.

"Can you keep… erm…" He gestured at the arch-mage, currently in the process of digging herself out of under a mountain of icicles while screaming bloody murder, her hair back to its original faded grey at this point. "That. Can you keep it up?"

"Healing arias weren't designed to be used at these ranges, but… I'll do my best!" she declared with a firm nod and started straight up singing in a solemn, resonant voice. Of course, it was the same kind of faux-Latin as the Magi's chants, so I couldn't understand the lyrics. It still sounded nice.

In the meantime, Josh turned to Ammy and told her, "Please get that spell ready ASAP."

"We're working on it."

The class rep's grumbles were underscored by the flashing of the eye-symbol on her forehead, but by this point, Marzanna had finished breaking out of the forest of ice spears Snowy threw at her and picked up her staff, ready to take a swing at Josh and company again. The guy didn't give her the opportunity, and after hastily popping a blood-pill into his mouth, he rushed forth to meet her halfway.

"Out of my way, cur!"

"I refuse!" Josh shouted back. He met the incoming staff with his shield, and this time, he didn't get blown away or even falter. "I won't let you take another step towards them!"

"Abominable Celestial scum!" the arch-mage roared, half-delirious from the anger and the pain of her physical enhancements tearing at her.

Oh, this might actually be a good spot to explain what's going on with her, huh?

Simply put, Angie was healing her. Based on what I understood, both the Restoration School of magic and the Celestials' healing songs were operating on Astral Bodies. For Marzanna, my hunch was that she used the same kind of magic that knocked out my physical body when I was in Ottawa, a spell that temporarily altered the Astral Body, forcing the corporeal one to change correspondingly.

In her case, she modded herself to be stronger and more resilient, so she could stack more and more physical enhancements without her body either blowing up or suffering from mana burns. In contrast, Angie's healing magic worked by 'rewinding' damage and syncing up both the real and the metaphysical body to make the changes permanent. By using that on Marzanna, she was constantly 'healing' the modifications she made on her own Astral Body, which reverted the changes to her physical body, and without those, she couldn't endure the strain of her own buffs, and they were tearing her apart.

Of course, this kind of thing wouldn't have worked without having an accomplished Celestial healer doing the casting, backed by Deus's raw power, but that's just how 'clever solutions against threshold antagonists' usually worked. At least we weren't doing the old 'Haha! I'm invincible to everything but the carburettor of a 1967 Chavrolet Rooibok!' followed by someone going 'Oh, what a coincidence! My weapon just happens to be forged from the carburettor of a 1967 Chavrolet Rooibok I inherited from my father, the last descendant of the noble and ancient line of 1967 Chavolet Rooibok carburettor-forgers!'

…

Yes, I know that sounded farcical, but I swear to god, I've seen something similar back when I was doing my trope research. Of course, it didn't have anything to do with vintage cars, but otherwise it was exactly like that.

Anyhow, where were we? Right, Marzanna's weakness. She not only got hit hard by the backlash of her own physical buffs, but since Angie continued to 'heal' her, she now had to focus on counteracting her. That didn't weaken her much, but on the flip side, she no longer had the mental leeway to fight and cast her crowd control spells at the same time, which resulted in a straight-up brawl between her and Josh with sparks flying and the ground breaking and all kinds of shockwaves everywhere.

"Foolish child! Your naïve idealism has no place in this world!"

"It's not idealism, it's the truth! You just have to open your eyes!"

… Well, okay, maybe none of those epic clashes were happening right now, but I was talking in general. In fact, at this moment Josh and Marzanna were doing another time-honoured tradition of the battle shounen genre, the clashing of ideals mid-fight.

It was something different from just run-of-the-mill combat banter, and Josh was demonstrating how it worked in practice.

"Look how much we accomplished by working together!"

"All I'm seeing is a vile group of schemers, betrayers, and backstabbers! Nothing more, nothing less, and certainly nothing new!"

The two of them lunged at each other, and their weapons clashed a couple of times. Josh's sword shaved a few splinters off the arch-mage's staff, but at the same time she pushed him back, and after just a few short exchanges, they both staggered back, readied their arms… and continued with their conversation like they never stopped.

"I'm telling you that you're blinded by your hatred! I don't know what kind of grudge you have against Celestials, and I'm not gonna tell you to get over it, but you have to at least try to understand! You can't live in the past!"

"What do you know about the past, Celestial scum?"

"Nothing! That's the point! I don't know why you're doing this, and I don't care! I don't wanna understand your past, I want you to understand our present!"

"Bah! Do you expect me to listen to some poisonous sermon about putting old grudges aside and working together for a better tomorrow?"

"Yes! If you would just listen, we could end this right here, and…"

… and so on and so forth. A minute of arguing, followed by a minute of fighting, rinse, lather, and repeat. It was a trope, and I'd seen Josh engage in it in the past, but this was the first time I stayed around long enough to listen to the particulars, and… well, let's just say that my inner cynic was cringing like he just bit into the world's sourest lemon, and leave it at that.

While they kept that up, I could see Elly and Snowy up in the air tag-teaming, Mike coming out of hiding to brainstorm with Ammy, while Angie kept singing her song with bloodshot eyes, as if afraid that if she took her eyes off Marzanna for a second, she would turn the tables. Of course, it never came to that, because after their latest clash sent Josh flying, he cast aside his shield and grabbed his sword with both hands.

"I was a fool for even attempting to reason with you, cur!" Marzanna sneered, and for once, Josh nodded along.

"Maybe. Maybe we weren't gonna come to a peaceful resolution." As he spoke, his whole body got enveloped in a pale golden aura streaked with red sparks, like tiny lightning bolts, and he lowered his sword, the tip pointing at the ground. "At the end of the day, you and your stubborn old hatred stand between us and rescuing our friend. If you're unwilling to step aside and accept your fault… then you leave me with no other choice!"

Oh, oh! Josh used the F-word!

No, not that F-word. The other one. The friend-word! It's also a trope (more a cliché, really), but as soon as he brought that up, his power surged, his black blade got enveloped in a sheath of crackling red energy, and even the debris around his feet began to rise up and levitate in the air, probably for dramatic effect.

Whether he received a sudden power-up because he invoked the power of friendship or if he brought it up to mentally steel himself before giving his all was an academic question we didn't have the time to dissect at the moment, because he immediately rushed towards the arch-mage. He was so fast it would've been hard to follow with the naked eye if not for the straight line of neon-bright streak he was drawing behind him, a mixture of vermillion and gold painted on the canvas of the air itself.

Marzanna stood her ground and tried to do something in return. Maybe a spell of a ward of some kind, but before she could finish casting, she reeled back when Angie raised her song to a crescendo, breaking her concentration and outright staggering her as blood seeped from her nose and mouth once again. Her next response was to retreat, but she was immediately cut off by a sudden rain of ice spears behind her position, forming a criss-crossing pattern that barred her path.

Out of options, she had no choice but to raise her staff with a roar. By then, Josh was already upon her, and he swung his sword upwards with a battle-cry of his own.

There was a high-pitched sound, like glass cracking, and then the whole Purple Zone was tinted red once more as an enormous pillar of crimson light rose to the sky, as if trying to pierce the heavens or something equally epic. I was more curious about how an upwards sword-swing created a vertical beam five meters in diameter, but the effect ended before I could take a closer look, leaving Josh and Marzanna in the middle.

Once again, the battlefield fell silent as everyone stared at the crater in the center, and after a suitably dramatic beat, the arch-mage's staff cleanly broke in half and disintegrated in front of everyone's eyes. Then, as soon as it completely disappeared in the wind, the blood-soaked woman fell to one knee, holding her face. Despite the pyrotechnics, the only injury Josh's final strike inflicted on her was a long, sharp wound running from her right cheek and across the bridge of her nose and forehead, just barely reaching past her right eyebrow.

"You… can consider that my last mercy," Josh stated, trying to sound cool, but it was obvious that whatever that last attack was, it took a lot out of him, and he was wobbly on his feet.

"Josh, no!" Angie cried out in a hoarse voice and immediately shifted her healing song to him. Which was, in retrospect, a bit of a tactical blunder.

"How dare y—?!"

Or rather, it would've been under other circumstances. Burning with rage, anger, and so on, Marzanna rose to her feet and reached out towards the guy's throat, her fingers like the claws of a predatory bird ready to rip and tear, but before she could reach him, her whole body froze up mid-motion. It was so sudden and unexpected that it not only took Josh a second to reel back, but even she needed a second to absorb the impact of coming to a forced standstill like that, and it caused her to cough up another mouthful of blood.

"Statement: Deployment successful," a new voice broke the stunned silence, and everyone turned to look at the semi-transparent woman standing next to the class rep.

"I barely made it in time…" Ammy had rivers of sweat running down her forehead and looked like she could keel over at any second, but luckily Mike was there to prop her up. After taking a few deep breaths, she pointed at the arch-mage and declared, "Take that! My first original spell!"

"Correction: The mana-weave is technically a variant of—"

"I said, it's my first original spell!" Ammy insisted, and the hologram of Grimmy graciously bowed out and fell silent. Feeling triumphant, she pointed at Marzanna again. "It's a unique and never-before-seen curse that reverses the effects of any and all physical enhancements! A spell that only the Conduit of the Grimoire could invent and cast like this! You won't even be able to move an inch until I undo it! Haha!"

…

I couldn't help but feel that becoming the Coinduit had a bad influence on the class rep's character. I would probably have to sit down with her and have a talk about it once I got out of this sticky Abyss situation, wouldn't I?

That was for later, though. For now, I focused on the arch-mage, and after but a few seconds, she completely paled and, unable to maintain her magic anymore, she collapsed onto the ground. Much to everyone's surprise and a certain class rep's embarrassment.

"M-My spell only works while someone has physical enhancements, okay? They must've come undone when she lost consciousness, so—"

She didn't have the time to finish her explanation, because as soon as the sight of Marzanna falling over sank in with them, the Magi in the Purple Zone went into a veritable frenzy and would've bull-rushed everyone… if not for the sudden and inexplicable opening of a large, circular portal at the edge of square.

"Are you serious with me right now?" Josh muttered, probably in response to something Judy said to him through the communicators. "They show up now, after we've already done all the heavy lifting? Fricking hell!"

As for the aforementioned 'they', emerging from the gateway…

"Kihihi! Fear not, for Doctor Robatto is here!"

…

Oh, what kind of fresh hell was this?

From the portal emerged Fred, wearing a full-body mech suit that inexplicably left his face exposed, followed by Galatea in the purple full-body catsuit I haven't seen her wearing since I hired the two of them. However, this would've still been in the realm of 'normal', by my standards. However, when they were followed by hundreds, and I mean, hundreds of the newest iteration of those dumb Sprocket robots Fred threw at the gang last year, I was ready to lose my mind. When those were flanked by not one, not two, but seven Biomechanical Gigants! And not the ones used in construction, but the type armed to the teeth!

Where did those come from? When did he make them? Where? How? Why didn't I notice?

"Deep breaths, Leo. Deep breaths…" I muttered under my breath as I watched the situation get exponentially more chaotic with this small army entering the Purple Zone.

There was no need to be upset. I'll have plenty of time to be upset later. For now, I still had to sit down with Judy, metaphorically speaking, and calmly and concisely explain the situation to her. If I had to postpone that because I was getting an aneurysm from sheer, unmitigated sentai-induced vexation, she might just murder me for real…

Part 3

The cleanup operation following the cessation of hostilities was quick, efficient, and silly. Because no matter what, being apprehended by sentai minions and big robots that looked like they were made of cardboard boxes was hard to take seriously.

While that was going on within the Purple Zone, the Praetorian Guards and Squires stationed around the neighbourhood were also busy, and after just about half an hour, Jaakobah entered the violet version of the thoroughly destroyed square. He scanned the perimeter and quickly found the loudest spot.

"Like, this is totally lame! You didn't let me, like, punch her even once! Forget me out the door, why don't you?!"

"Please, do not make a scene. Everyone is fatigued after the battle."

Funnily enough, Pascal looked the most tired out of everyone present, probably because he had to constantly provide cover for Sahi while she went on an indiscriminate punching spree. For further emphasis, he placed a hand on her head, which caused the fuming ex-arch-mage to twitch and look up to face him.

"Like, don't patronize me, Paz!"

"… All right."

He was just about to remove his hand, but then she hurriedly caught him by the wrist.

"Like, I don't remember telling you to stop."

Talk about mixed messages. Anyhow, while Armband Guy continued to placate the brown girl, Jaakobah reached the group on the edge of the ravaged square. The whole gang was there, including Judy. Some, like the Magi duo, were standing on the side, while most of the rest were seated in a circle on whatever intact chairs they could scavenge from the nearby restaurants, cafés, and other shops.

The dour Celestial agent headed towards Angie right away. She was sitting shoulder to shoulder with Josh and resting her head against him, eyes closed. They popped right open when Jaakobah stopped in front of her and gave a salute.

"Praetorian Prefect, Jaakobah Arpachshad, here to give my report, Your Grace."

Angie blinked in surprise, seemingly unable to focus, but then her eyes shifted to bright amber, and she straightened her back in the wobbly dining chair.

"The Girl is exhausted by today's ordeal. Give your report, Prefect, and let us rest."

"As you command." Jaakobah put his hands behind his back and stood with legs apart, head held high. "We managed to apprehend all seven of the escapees in cooperation with the Ordo Draconis personnel. The four Magi fugitives were handed over to the local authorities, while the Celestial traitors will be taken to Elysium, along with the rest of their co-conspirators for interrogation."

Deus nodded along and her eyes scanned the empty square. Just as he said, once Fred, Galatea, and their Sprockets showed up, the rest of the battle was wrapped up in no time. All the Magi, both the regular guys and the muscled variety, were apprehended and dragged through the same portal they used to enter the Purple Zone. It was one of the semi-permanent portals from the base's Portalport, and I imagined they used some kind of mad science trick to temporarily reroute its exit to this place for the sake of rapid deployment.

Some of the captives were seriously injured, but amazingly enough, nobody died. At least not yet; some of the non-muscle-Magi and a few Celestials had half their bones broken by golems or a building falling on them, but their wards and Barriers (not to mention, magical medical attention) kept everyone breathing. I was a bit afraid that letting the cat out of the bag with the death of Tracas, but apparently that rubber-band analogy future-me used was still loose after that and didn't demand further casualties in the name of raising the stakes. At least not yet.

Marzanna flew a bit too close to the sun though; if what I overheard was to be believed, the only reason she didn't keel over from the backlash on the spot was because Angie kept casting healing magic on her even after she lost consciousness. If not for that, she would be pushing up daisies by now, but to be honest, I wasn't all that sympathetic towards her, considering she brought it all upon herself. Also, I was still a little mad about that head-bonking thing.

Speaking of which, I shifted my perspective and looked at the rest recuperating on the chairs. Clockwise, we had my sisters, then my girlfriends, and finally Mike and Ammy. Sahi and Pascal were standing on the side, while Zihao was sitting in a lotus position on the ground, or rather, on some cushion he'd found somewhere in the rubble. He must've been circulating his chi or some other esoteric stuff. Adding in the Magi duo and Jaakobah, it meant there were twelve people in total… which was also more or less the entire population of the Purple Zone at this point.

With all the injured already captured and/or evacuated, only a mixed group of stragglers remained in the square. By the looks of it, they were busy documenting the signs of the battle, probably so that it could be presented in a case against the perpetrators. They kept their distance from the gang though, so the place was as good as empty.

It got a bit emptier when Jaakobah asked, "When are you returning?"

"We rest for a while longer. You may attend to your duties."

Hearing Deus's dismissal, the man's face remained inscrutable, and he touched his chest in another salute before turning on his heel and leaving the way he came. It was only when he was out of earshot that Deus set her head against Josh's shoulder again and closed her eyes. More importantly, the guy looked a tad impatient, and he was insistently staring at Judy. He wasn't the only one though, as did Elly, my sisters, and even the class rep.

"He's late," Ammy noted with a tinge of sourness in her voice, and Michael grabbed her hand.

"Patience, Sunshine. Didn't Judy say that he needed some time to prepare?"

"It's been twenty minutes," she pointed out in turn, and her tone made me just a bit snappy, so I grabbed hold of Cal, and…

"{Ten minutes, young knight. Not a minute longer.}"

"Yes, yes. We already agreed on that."

My grumbling didn't exactly please my sword, but once I started channelling mana and doing the circulation, Cal automatically joined in to ease the process, and after a few seconds, I opened the communications channel again.

"Dormouse, please tell the class rep to either invent her own less-straining inter-dimensional communications method, or zip it."

A few seconds later, my dear assistant perked up and she said, "The Chief is here, and he says he's sorry for the inconvenience."

I rolled my eyes, but we were on a timer, so I didn't stop to squabble with my girlfriend.

"Cal is mother-henning me, so I can only talk for a couple of minutes more before I have to cut the transmission for today."

"He says the connection is unstable and we can only talk for a short while."

Once again, that wasn't exactly the case, but I didn't have the time to correct her.

After the battle ended, I had already given Judy a quick rundown of the situation, starting from how future-me grounded and ending with my meeting with the Matron and my jury-rigged solution for the transmitter. I would've talked to her more, but I had to take a break, because there was an unforeseen side-effect I ran into: maintaining the micro-tunnel and sending messages across it was taxing, both mentally and metaphysically.

Cal realised that before I did. I was accumulating internal damage, and so he forcefully cut my mana-circulation (and my broadcast) lest I would give myself full-body mana burns. Or rather, more of them, but that's beside the point.

"Me first! My turn!" Elly demanded with her hands balled into fists in front of her chest, her eyes practically sparkling with excitement. It was hard to believe that this cutie was breathing giant wave motion cannon beams just a couple of minutes ago, but such was this world.

Meanwhile, Judy let out a shallow breath and took off her funky glasses. My princess snatched them out of her hands at once and put them on.

"Leo? Can you hear me?"

"I can hear you fine, no need to shout. Also, there's a bit of a lag in the communications, so don't be too alarmed about any late answers."

She kept blinking for a few seconds, but when my voice finally reached her, her face lit up with an enormous smile.

"I missed youuu!"

"So did I, princess. Sorry for being late like this."

The relieved chuckles escaping her lips were music to my ears, but they only lasted for a short while before she suddenly asked, "Right, we don't have much time! Quick, tell me: did you see when I gave Judy a massage last time?"

"… Is this seriously the first thing you're going to ask him?" Josh asked with a not very subtle undertone of disapproval, but my draconic girlfriend didn't relent.

"This is important, okay?"

Shaking my head, I told her, "Back in the mansion, right? Yes, I saw you."

"Ha! I was right!" she beamed and reached out towards Judy. "Ten Jens, please."

Oh. So it was another one of their bets, huh? The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Meanwhile, the class rep lost her patience and pulled the glasses off Elly's nose, much to her outrage.

"Hey! What gives?"

"Judy said we have a limited time. You can flirt later; some of us have more important things to discuss with Leo." Saying so, he took off her own glasses and put on the artifact. A long, silent beat followed, then she suddenly blurted out. "Did you see my fireball?"

"… Yes, class rep, I saw both of them."

"It was amazing, right? Listen, Grimmy is telling me that I have to branch out and learn all the spells, but there's nothing wrong with first focusing on something I'm interested in, right? Like a specialization? Can I tell her you agree with me? Then maybe she'll stop pestering me, and…"

I'm not going to lie, considering the class rep's usual modus operandi, I was prepared for a scolding, so her sudden motor-mouth took me aback for a second or five. She was probably still riding on the adrenaline high of the battle, I surmised, and forcefully cleared my throat to interrupt her.

"Yes, yes, it was very impressive, and yes, you can do whatever you want as the grimoire, and so on. Can you pass on the glasses? I don't have much time left."

"Ah, right…"

She took off the artifact and offered it to Mike, but he politely refused and allowed my knightly sister to grab hold of it instead. Then…

"Brother! Are you all right? Are you eating well? Did you really get captured on purpose? You shouldn't have scared us like that! Did you at least get in a good hit on that Bel bastard? When are you coming back? And…"

Wow… I had the trippiest case of déjà vu just now.

"Slow down kiddo. To answer your questions, yes, yes, it's complicated, sorry, yes, and I can't yet."

Penny paused to pair up my answers with her questions, and then her expression clouded.

"W-Well, at least you punched Bel, right? That's something!"

"Kicked too, but again, it's a long story. I'll tell you the details once we aren't under time constraints."

"O-Okay, and… we also miss you…"

She only whispered the last bit before suddenly turning beet red and hurriedly handing the artifact over to Snowy. As soon as my Abyssal sister took it, Penny buried her face in her hands, making everyone else look at her funny. Meanwhile…

"Leo?"

"Hi, sis."

Snowy let out a relieved sigh as soon as she heard my voice.

"Are you all right?"

"More or less. I'm currently having a pretty bad headache from all this enchanting and other related malarkey, but I'll live."

"Um." She nodded, then glanced around before continuing in a low voice. "Uuu… Did you… Did you really meet Noir?"

"Oh, yeah. We ran into each other."

"You weren't hurt, right?"

"Nah. He couldn't hit the broad side of a barn. I almost cut off one of his wings, thought. Before I got hit in the back. Too bad those grow back. Wings, I mean, not backs."

My blabbering drew a smile out of her, and she quietly whispered, "I'm glad that you're okay."

"And I'm glad that you guys are okay, too. While we're at it, thanks for bringing me up to speed on the roof. It helped a lot."

"Oh, it was nothing much."

"Thanks anyways. Oh, and once Penny calms down a bit, tell her I miss you guys too."

This time her smile fully bloomed, and she nodded again with a soft, "Um." She then paused and grabbed the frame of the glasses. "Josh is getting impatient, so I'll pass it on now. Stay safe."

She took off the artifact and handed it over to the guy. It was a bit tricky, because Angie fell asleep at some point while still leaning against him, so he couldn't get up to receive it, but with Snowy's help, they managed to work it out.

As soon as the glasses were on his nose, he let out a pent-up breath and spoke up in a quiet but insistent voice.

"Dude."

"Yes?"

"Give it to me straight." He was glaring at the insides of the glasses, so… did he think I was looking at him through that? That was just silly, but more importantly, a pregnant pause later he levelled a question at me that directly cut to the heart of the situation. "Did you, or did you not get yourself captured on purpose just to get everyone riled up?"

I had some time to consider how to answer that question, as I had been thinking about it ever since he first floated the idea in front of the Draconic Council, so I responded right away.

"Let's just say that I wasn't planning on getting stuck here like this, but the results are still well within the margin of error, so everything's mostly fine."

"… So it's a yes," he concluded.

"It's not as clear-cut. Let's just say that it's not a straightforward 'no'."

Josh let out a groan and massaged the bridge of his nose.

"Goddamit, man! You can't keep doing this!" His sudden outburst roused Angie, but when he fell silent again, she nuzzled closer to him and went back to sleep once more. He waited for a few seconds, then continued in a quieter, "One day, this plans within plans bullshit's gonna be the end of you. I bet you're already having the time of your life playing your mind-games down in the Abyss and subverting the whole damn place, but we were seriously worried about you!" When I didn't respond, he shook his head and asked, "Do you need us to get you out of there?" in a frank tone that tolerated no nonsense.

"Honestly, the situation is a bit complicated, and—"

"Yes or no, Leo. Yes or no."

Wha? He cut me off! Even though there was still a five-second delay! How do you even do something like that?! Was this another weird protagonist-privilege, or what?

Anyhow, I exhaled hard and uttered a short, "Yes," at which point the guy looked like all the tension was drained from his shoulders.

"That's all I wanted to know. Sit tight." He took off the glasses before I could respond and looked everyone over. "The plan's still on track, guys. We're going in."

"Wicked!"

That came from Sahi, naturally, while the rest of the group was ever so slightly less enthused by the news. Meanwhile, the artifact made a full cycle, so Judy snatched it back from Josh and put it on.

"Chief? Anything else you want to say?"

I could feel my mana-circulation growing more strained by the second, so I answered with, "I'm running out of time, so… Sorry for worrying you, I miss you, and I love you."

She probably wanted to hear more than that, but for the moment, she let out a soft huff followed by a curt, "I'm still mad at you, but I love you too."

"Me too!" Elly chimed in from the side. "The love part, not the mad part!"

I wanted to say my goodbyes, but just as I was about to open my mouth, I was hit by a spike of white-hot pain in the back of my head that jolted me out of my Far Sight. I hastily turned off the transmitter enchantment, and after several long breaths, the pain finally subsided, and I rubbed the nape of my neck.

"{I told you that this would happen.}"

Cal's voice sounded a bit more echo-y than usual, and when I tried to get up, the whole world started spinning, so I quickly sat back down and took a couple of deep breaths.

That was a bit alarming, so I quietly asked, "How bad is it?"

"{Severe, young knight,}" they answered in an unnecessarily dramatic tone. "{If not for my intervention, you could've crippled yourself! I advise against using mana for the next three days, at the very least.}"

"I mean, I believe you, but it doesn't feel that bad…" I muttered as I rolled my shoulders.

Truth be told, I was still a bit queasy, but now that I stopped actively channelling mana, the headache got a bit tamer and my body, while a little sore, was in decent shape. Then I recalled that I still had my Leoformer turned on, and that the physical enhancements dampened my sense of pain, and I suddenly dreaded turning it off. Not that I had much of a choice in the matter.

It was a small price to pay for finally being able to contact the girls and the rest of the gang. Now I just had to sit back, wait for the rescue, and watch the runaway shenanigans that would inevitably follow. But before that…

"Let's go home and build some LAGO pirate ships."

It was still well before bedtime, and full-body pain or not, a promise was a promise.

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