CHAPTER 49: THE BATTLE OF INVICTUS (13)

Five pairs of eyes locked onto each other until a sword sliced through the tension.

Sirius raised his weapon, now face-to-face with his opponent, thrusting straight for his heart. Meanwhile.

Lucy used her resonance to remotely steal the chest.

As for Iris, she took advantage of the fact that Sirius was holding off the Calamity to flee the room, sprinting up the stairs.

The truth revealed by the Baron left no room for doubt: the situation was dire.

Though she knew she could no longer save everyone, she wouldn’t abandon the ones she cared about.

With Carla in her thoughts, Iris made her way to the surface, silently wishing her friends good luck.

...

Iris’s departure surprised the other two only briefly. They didn’t need words to understand what she was about to do. And so, Sirius and Lucy resumed their fight against Baron Mephisto.

"It’s not working. It’s locked."

Lucy shouted this to Sirius after failing to seize the wooden box. When she activated her resonance, it hadn’t felt like she was lifting a simple chest, but rather the entire fortress, as if the two were one and the same.

"No problem. Let’s take this guy down first,"

Sirius replied after being pushed back.

("He’s strong,") he thought.

That brief clash had warned him: this monster wasn’t like the others.

Baron Mephisto might not have been as powerful as Captain Grégoire, but he was far more dangerous and cunning.

Sirius felt like he was fighting a version of himself.

He knew his usual tricks wouldn’t work on this kind of enemy.

Thankfully, he wasn’t alone.

"Getting rusty, aren’t you?"

Lucy teased.

"Speak for yourself. We’ll flank him, I’m starving."

"Let’s go."

As soon as they spoke, they acted.

Gate Open

Lucy pulled two pistols from her pocket dimension.

Stereos

Sirius reshaped his sword into an assassin’s dagger and a long white chain, wrapping it around his left arm.

They exchanged a confident glance before charging in.

They split up, surrounding the baron from both sides.

Bang. Bang.

Two bullets shot forth, aiming for two of the monster’s four eyes, while Sirius hurled his chain from the opposite side, trying to bind its wings.

"Pathetic,"

the baron spat.

He deflected the bullets with the stinger that served as his hand hard as iron while lightly flapping his wings to dodge the chain.

"Pull me in!" Sirius yelled.

Lucy caught the chain mid-air with one hand and roared, yanking Sirius toward Baron Mephisto with all her strength, then hurled one of her revolvers skyward.

Caught off guard, the baron saw Sirius closing in, dagger poised to slash his throat.

His neurons fired up, brain working at full capacity in a split second.

He sacrificed an arm, letting it be grabbed.

Green blood splashed as he stabbed his stinger hand toward Sirius’s skull.

Sirius, refusing to yield, twisted his body to take the blow to the shoulder instead.

Letting go of his dagger, he snatched the falling pistol mid-air.

With a soft pull of the trigger, a shot rang out.

At first glance, it wasn’t fast enough the baron tilted his head just in time, losing only an antenna.

But that didn’t stop a grin from spreading across Sirius’s face...

A second shot blasted through Baron Mephisto’s head.

Lucy was a master of stealth. Using her talent, she was in the right place at the right time.

The monster’s body collapsed, but Sirius, wary, didn’t lower his guard. He retrieved the blood-soaked dagger and separated the head from the body.

...

For Baron Mephisto, time slowed as death approached. In two seconds, his head would be severed insignificant at first glance, but enough to transfer his essence to another body.

("We underestimated them,") he finally understood.

He hadn’t expected to lose to two mere humans of the same rank.

("Nevertheless, the story is already written and cannot be changed. Such is the course of things.")

An infinite number of calculations ran through his mind.

After simulating thousands of outcomes in a fraction of a second, only two options remained.

He could transfer his essence into the parasite dwelling within the violet haired girl with rainbow pupils... but that would be underestimating the enemy again.

Only one option remained:

("I have no choice... May Her Majesty forgive me.")

Authority: Claim

Time came to a sudden halt as a bright light burst from the wooden chest.

The star within resonated with Baron Mephisto’s command.

All the ether in the room was now at his fingertips.

Though his authority was no longer at Count level, it was enough to brush against that power once more.

The etheric threads he had implanted what humans called "parasites" reconnected to his brain.

Authority: Hatching

Authority: Sensory Disruption

The first authority commanded thousands of parasites ( minor Calamities ) to evolve into nobles, devouring their hosts from within.

The second was a power he had acquired as a Count.

He couldn’t manifest it fully anymore, but it was enough to buy time.

...

Sirius felt the resistance of flesh as his dagger pierced through the Calamity. Victory was within reach...

When suddenly, everything went black.

He lost sight, hearing, smell, touch, and taste.

Unable to feel anything, his body collapsed to the ground.

Lucy wasn’t spared either but he didn’t know that.

Meanwhile, Baron Mephisto staggered to his feet.

His head looked ready to fall off at the slightest movement.

A human would’ve died of the pain alone...

But he wasn’t one.

He was a proud vermin and few Calamities were as tenacious as his kind.

He wanted to finish off those humans then and there, but he knew he’d die from his wounds if he lingered.

Postponing vengeance, he stepped toward the wooden chest.

Though he had claimed its contents, the box still refused him access.

Wasting no time admiring the craftsmanship, he brushed the treasure with his only remaining hand.

It responded to his touch, glowing even brighter.

The lid opened on its own, revealing the legendary star.

Many stories had tried to describe it and they were all wrong.

It was neither stone nor metal: just a piece of paper, torn from something far grander.

The fragment gently landed on the baron’s stinger, leaving the chest empty.

Like a house of cards missing its keystone... Invictus crumbled.

The fortress began collapsing in on itself.

Massive stone blocks came crashing down into the cavern.

"Let hell descend..." Baron Mephisto murmured, only to be surprised by a white mist spreading across the room.

Behind him, Sirius stood back up.

And he wasn’t alone.

Lucy fell to her knees, eyes closed, hand extended toward the baron.

...

What happened earlier

When Sirius lost all five senses, his consciousness was left alone in a void he knew well.

It drifted in darkness the same darkness he had known in death.

"So this is the end..." he thought.

"Yes, you are indeed dead."

"That voice? So you’re back,"

he said, then added,

"I didn’t expect to see you again so soon."

"Neither did I... After all your big words. In the end, you should’ve accepted my offer. That opponent? You would’ve crushed him."

Sirius laughed. Or at least, he would’ve if a floating soul could laugh.

"You’re still a terrible liar,"

he remarked.

"What do you mean?"

Sirius said nothing. A single thought was enough to dispel the void.

The familiar landscape of his soul reappeared just as he had left it except for one addition: a distant shadow.

It had no face, no expression, but Sirius knew it was disgusted.

"My little prank didn’t work... but my offer still stands."

"So does mine," Sirius replied.

Sirius and the shadow locked eyes before he offered a farewell.

"Until next time."

Then he spoke a single word:

Nephele

...

Back in the real world

The dagger and chain lying on the ground dissipated into vapor. A white mist began to spread from where they had fallen.

Though Sirius had lost his five senses, he still had control over his body.

He focused his consciousness entirely on the link between his soul and the white mist to perceive the outside world.

Through it, he saw the etheric threads tied to Baron Mephisto fading he could also perceive his own body, like radar pulses.

It wasn’t the same as sight, but it was enough for now.

He was briefly surprised that Lucy had also managed to operate without her senses—until he remembered the special nature of her resonance.