The Simulacrum

Part 1

"O-ho-ho? This was definitely done by a restoration spell, that's for sure!

"Hm. Yes. Clearly an internal injury inflicted by a specialized Magi technique."

Two hours after the events unfolding behind the scenes of the school's sports festival, I was sitting in the closest thing the base had to an infirmary in the form of the Abnormal Biology Laboratories. It was a fairly spacious and well-organized workshop with dark green tiled floor and racks full of jars holding 'research materials' lining the walls. It would've still looked almost normal compared to the other Research Division facilities if not for the many Pudding-kuns running around as if they owned the place.

Jaakobah and Peabody were in the process of examining me with their usual enchanted monocles, and while I would've loved to be anywhere else at the moment, what had to be done had to be done. I patiently waited for them to complete their diagnosis, and it concluded with the portly nurse, now a professional homunculus researcher, letting out another one of his usual chuckles.

"O-ho-ho. I don't think there's anything to worry about. Leonard is quite sturdy, so he should shrug off the after-effects in a day or two."

"I concur," the dour agent voiced his unenthusiastic agreement, followed by some stern instructions. "If I may, Lord Polemos. While I might not be your official physician, I nevertheless heavily recommend that you rest, drink plenty of fluids, and try to avoid any strenuous activities. And stairs."

"Yeah, I've already heard that one today," I grumbled aloud without meaning to, so I inhaled sharply and tried again. "I'll follow your advice. Thank you."

Jaakobah gave me a Celestial salute, which probably meant he considered it just doing his duty. Since we were done here, I vaguely gestured in the direction of the other 'patient' in the room, though the word could hardly describe him at the moment.

"We have to act, now!" Lord Ambrose, lying on his back on a discount hospital bed next to my chair, one which I borrowed from a different department, was rather vigorous despite the fact that he couldn't even get up. "We need to start crafting a replacement Grimoire Key! No, wait! We need to prepare for that shrew coming to the island! No, wait again! We have to inform the Assembly and show them the evidence of her illegal experiments on the Key first! That will light a fire under her ass for sure, and then we can—!"

"Take it easy, big guy."

"Don't you patronize me, you lout!" the man on the bed snapped at the lanky arch-mage sitting by his bed, but Lord Gulliver laughed it off.

"Shouting like that isn't good for your blood pressure."

Before their back-and-forth routine could even get started, we were all startled by someone exclaiming, "What is this commotion all about?" the moment they entered the workshop. "I could hear you all the way from the opposite end of the corridor."

Unexpectedly enough, those words came from Lord Grandpa of all people. It wasn't his first visit to the base, but unless I was mistaken, he hadn't seen the 'back-rooms' of the facility yet. Despite that, he walked in without the slightest hint of reservation, and not even the group of little eldritch abominations scurrying around the place gave him a pause. Some might've said he had nerves of steel, but it was much more likely that those same nerves were just so frayed at this moment that he didn't have the time to care about any of this.

He wasn't alone either. His group was led by Sir Roland, which made sense. He was my unofficial representative at the base in my absence, something I was planning to make ratify one of these days. Some might've said that Sir Arnwald or Brang would've been a better fit, but the former was already fulfilling a similar role in the Draconic Council, while the latter…

Now hear me out. The old Faun was competent, a hard worker, and commanded respect among the personnel of the base. He also spent way more time here than Roland, so he would've made a perfect candidate… if there wasn't a language barrier. In any case, I was planning to sort this whole thing out and… wait… Dammit, I was trailing off again.

I shook my head and focused my full attention on the group again. No distractions.

So, there were Roland and Endymonion. They were closely followed by the remaining two arch-mages. Three, if we counted Sahi, who was still in her school uniform. The same went for Armband Guy, and surprisingly enough, they were accompanied by the class rep, who was already glaring at me. Maybe she was still being annoyed by her floaty orb thingies, I wondered. Or she was mad at me for that stunt I pulled with the glasses. One or the other.

In other words, with maybe the exception of Gowan, literally every even remotely important Assembly magi currently on the island was gathered in this here workshop, and none of them looked too happy to be here. Except for Sahi, who had the kind of look in her eyes that said she couldn't wait to see the drama unfold. But then again, that was Sahi, so that much was to be expected. How that girl-slash-old-woman managed to rise to her former position without being kicked out of the Assembly along the way was a mystery for the ages.

"Oh, don't you get started with me too!" Lord Ambrose yelled back at the local arch-mage from his bed, but it didn't lead to any further arguments, nor did it stop the whole group from congregating around us. It also jolted me out of my latest side-track, but that was neither here or there.

"How are they?" Lord Taika spoke up first, her question clearly addressed to the two 'nurses', but I decided to respond first.

"I'm fine, thanks for asking."

"Indeed," came the second response from Jaakobah and he gestured at the arch-mage in the bed. "As for the other patient, I'm afraid full recovery will take at least a month. With the use of a specialized catalyst, the recuperation time can be drastically reduced, but…"

"Approved," I interjected before he could finish. "Go get one on my orders. If anyone gives you a hard time, tell them that I'm not in a great mood after what happened today and that they definitely don't want me to visit them in person."

"As the Lord Archon commands."

Jaakobah gave me a quick salute, then politely inclined his head towards the Assembly group before turning on his heel and leaving the room with heavy steps accompanied by Peabody's chuckles.

"O-ho-ho. And I was hoping I could have lots of time and opportunity to experiment with unconventional treatment methods. Such a pity, such a pity."

…

Yeeeah, right. It was in moments like this that Peabody really showed his Research Society roots. More importantly, the arch-mages around me looked quite impatient. Or maybe it was just the class rep, but she certainly raised the overall impatience levels in the room. Either way, I turned to Lord Grandpa and asked, "How's the situation at the school?"

"Entirely under control. The attendees of the event had not noticed a single thing." His brows, already furrowed, now descended into a full-blown glare. "If Bel of the Abyss did not choose to engage only a select few within our Restricted Space, the situation could have easily spiralled out of control. It could have been a disaster, on the grounds of my School. Again."

"I'm afraid we'll have to get used to his unpredictability," I commented on the side. "This was just the prelude of what's to come."

"How would you know that?" Lord Barnabas inquired with a brow raised high, and after a moment of consideration, I shrugged.

"You can call it a hunch."

"We'll do that then, but can we discuss the elephant in the room first?" Ammy finally ran out of the little patience she had and stepped forth into the center of attention. "Can you please explain to me… I mean us, about what happened in Ottawa?"

I could understand her reaction, especially seeing that her magic marbles were circling her head so fast I was surprised they weren't making whooshing noises. The rest of the group was also visibly intrigued, so I glanced at Lord Ambrose. His eyes told me to do whatever I wanted, therefore I sharply cleared my throat and gave a concise description of the event, only omitting about ninety percent of the details.

It wasn't because of my bad habit. The one that Judy termed 'compulsive secret hoarding'. Nope. This time, it had more to do with the meta-elements that reared their ugly heads, such as the floompy nature of the Simulacrum there, and The Girl, and the way I tried to use my Narrative-ness to my advantage. All of those had to be omitted, or at the very least re-contextualized in a way that made Watsonian sense, and so I finished my super-concise explanation of the events in the blink of an eye. Or half an hour. Felt the same, anyway.

"… and then I grabbed the Grimoire Key and we both returned to Critias using one of my preset long-distance teleportation markers. The end."

The room remained deadly silent… was what I would've said if not for the numerous curious Pudding-kuns running circles around the Assembly group like overly-excited puppies, making purring and 'Nyu!' noises all the time. Besides that, everything was completely silent.

"This is a problem…" Lord Barnabas spoke up first, holding his forehead in the more polite imago state of a facepalm. "While I certainly understand that you were relying on your best judgement under the weight of the unfolding situation, and the initiation of the incident squarely falls on the shoulders of Lord Ambrose…"

"Hey! What would you've done in my place, huh?!" the man on the bed complained, but he was summarily ignored as the dark-skinned arch-mage continued without batting an eye.

"However, forcefully misappropriating a Grimoire Key, regardless of the circumstances, is considered one of the most severe transgressions under the Assembly's rules, and the fact that it was accomplished with the assistance of a Celestial…" Lord Barnabas gave up the pretence and fully buried his face in his palm. "Right now, Lord Marzanna has all the required justification to demand our heads on a platter." He paused to glance at me and added, "Metaphorically speaking, of course."

"I figured."

"We can deal with that later," the class rep insisted, in clear contrast to her usually meek demeanour while in front of a group. "Where's the third Key? You said you took it, so you should still have it, right?"

"Well, the thing is…" I reached into my breast pocket and showed the two halves of the magical orb to everyone present. I had a feeling I would need them, so I asked Brang to hand them back to me before we came to this workshop, and they've been sitting in my pocket since then. Anyhow, I made sure that everyone could take a good look. "As you can see, it's a bit… broken."

"Oh. Oh no…"

The class rep looked at the shattered Key like her whole world was coming down around her, and the rest of the arch-mages didn't look too good either.

"Pull yourself together," Pascal spoke as he stepped up to Ammy, ready to catch her in case she fell. It was unnecessary, since Sahi was already propping her up with a magical hand construct, but it was the thought that counted, I suppose.

"But… But the third Key…"

"Oh, bummer. This is a problem, isn't it?" Lord Gulliver quipped on the side.

"Of course it is, you bumbling clod!" Ambrose yelled at him and clumsily hit (more like tapped) his chest with the back of his hand. It only made the lanky arch-mage smile.

"Look at you! You can move your arm already!"

The rest of the people present didn't appreciate their jostling, but had bigger things to worry about.

"This is… more than just a 'problem'," Lord Barnabas spoke through gritted teeth, and Lord Grandpa looked at me as gravely as I'd ever seen him.

"Was it already broken when you retrieved it?"

"It was cracked, but it only split after we came back," I told him, but Lord Taika interjected with a downcast expression.

"It matters not. No matter what we say, Lord Marzanna can now claim that we destroyed a Grimoire Key."

"Like, if that's a thing," Sahi spoke up for the first time since she came in, but waited for everyone to pay attention to her before she continued. "Shouldn't we start preparing a new Key, like, right now?"

"It's not that simple." The dark-skinned arch-mage let the hand covering his face down, sounding unusually dejected. "The materials required to make a replacement Key are limited in availability. We would need to propose a resource-sharing agreement in front of the Assembly in Glasgow, and there's no way we'll get the opportunity like this."

"Can't we cut some corners?" Lord Taika asked, sounding a bit more hopeful than her colleague. "With Leonard's help, we could…"

"Even with the support of Leonard," Lord Grandpa interjected, cutting her short. "There are certain corners that could not be cut, no matter what."

"Wait, wait! I've got an—!" Ambrose exclaimed, only to grunt and turn to Lord Gulliver. "I can't snap my finger!" To his credit, the red-headed arch-mage immediately understood him and snapped his fingers, allowing the bedridden man to continue. "I've got an idea! Leonard! Do that thing!"

"What thing?"

"You know! That thing you did back in Ottawa, with the door!" I admit, I was a bit slow on the uptake. "Don't look at me like a slack-jawed yokel! You know what I'm talking about! You said it was an illusion to fool the world itself, so couldn't you use it to fool the Grimoire into thinking that all three Keys are gathered here, along with the Conduit?"

"That's imp—" Lord Taika spoke up reflexively, but then she bit back her words and reconsidered. "No. If it's Leonard's magic, it might just work."

I wanted to raise an objection, but everyone in the room was looking at me with renewed hope in their eyes (especially the class rep), and so I was quickly browbeaten by them.

"I'm not making any promises, but… I'll give it a try."

To be honest, I would've been lying if I said I wasn't curious if this could work. Maybe if I wasn't sleepwalking, or whatever my current condition was called, I might've given it some more consideration, but I figured that if it was something dangerous, future-me would've warned me about it ahead of time. Not that he was especially forthcoming, even now, the prick, but I trusted myself to have at least this much decency in the future.

As such, I held my palm out along with the broken Grimoire Key on top of it and gingerly pinched the two halves between my fingers. It took some finagling, but once I got them to match, I inhaled sharply and inserted a single phantom limp into the Key.

Before long, I was staring down the familiar fractal space, and it didn't take much time or effort to pick the right replacement. I overlaid the intact variant upon the one between my fingers, and then I was immediately back in the real world and… wow. Was it just me, or was this unusually easy?

Such concerns didn't hold their spot in my mind for long, as they were soon displaced by alarm bells as the temporally retconned magic marble struggled against my grasp. It broke free before I could utter a word and it headed right towards the startled class rep's forehead.

What followed was (at the risk of sounding trite) quite magical. The three Grimoire Keys shone in unison as they began to orbit around Ammy's head. Raised by an invisible force, she was gradually lifted into the air, knocking both armband guy and Sahi's magic hand back in the process. She looked rather startled by the events but didn't panic (too much) even as the orbs kept speeding up, eventually moving so fast it looked like she had a ring of light around her head.

"L-Leo? What's going on?"

"I haven't the foggiest," I admitted freely, though again, if my brain wasn't asleep, I might've considered reassuring her instead. Hindsight, as always, was a female dog.

Without warning, the three spinning spheres came to a complete and abrupt halt and then began to disintegrate into fine sand.

"Is that supposed to happen?" Lord Grandpa asked, though I sincerely doubted anyone here would (or could) know the answer.

More importantly, while the marbles themselves were rapidly disappearing, their radiant glow remained in place. We watched with bated breath as the process continued, and the moment their physical form was gone, the three wisps of white light beelined towards the confused class rep's forehead.

"W-What's happening now!?"

This question was the same as the rest. As in, nobody had a bloody idea.

That said, the lights soon disappeared, leaving a large, brightly smouldering mark on Ammy's forehead in the shape of a stylized eye. It was the kind of thing a spiky-haired card-game-playing pharaoh would've had, but it looked surprisingly natural on her as well.

Then, silence. This time for real, as all the Pudding-kuns were now hiding under shelves and only watching the events unfold from afar.

"Like, was that it?" Sahi was the first to speak, and I would've added that to the list of meaningless questions if Lord Grandpa didn't beat me to the punch.

"It is difficult to say. The records about the operation of the Grimoire of the Last Truth are ancient and fragmentary. It would not surprise me if we would have to take my granddaughter to the physical location of the Grimoire in Glasgow and have her—"

"Operation Report: Language system initialized."

This time you could taste the silence in the room as everyone was glancing left and right with expressions that screamed 'Who said that?'. It was only the beginning of the confusion.

"Operation Report: Connection with SOPHIA is established. Initializing interface."

"Leo? What is this?" the class rep muttered as soon as she realized that the sonorous female voice was coming from the mark on her forehead, but it was too early to be surprised, as a moment later it flared up and let out a wide golden beam.

It wasn't an attack but a projection, and soon the semi-transparent form of a tall, slender woman wearing a fancy toga materialized in front of us. When I squinted a little, she kind of looked like an older Ammy, but maybe I was just imagining things.

"Error: User not found. Scanning." She remained motionless, right until her head abruptly snapped to face me. "Result: Ophanim, male. Readings are inconclusive. Please provide relevant identifications."

"I'm… Polemos, the Second True Archon?" I tried, and the projection's emotionless eyes remained on me for a few seconds before turning away.

"Error: No match found. Resuming scan."

"What in the world is this?" Lord Grandpa burst out, and that was the… sixth meaningless question? Fifth? Either way, we had a bad track record here.

However, there was something else there. A vague realization that was trying to elbow its way into the forefront of my cognition, but it took several seconds to succeed. Yet, when it did, my eyes opened wide and I automatically rose from my seat.

That speech pattern… I was familiar with that one, wasn't I?

Activating my storage enchantment, I retrieved Teeny in its spear form, much to everyone's apparent apprehension. Not the holographic woman though, as she faced me again with the same inscrutable expression.

"Observation: Spear of Destiny detected. Requesting authentication. … Authentication received. New user registered. SOPHIA system, operational. Welcome, Administrator Polemos."

"Wait… Why is this… whatever this is reacting to your spear?" Lord Taika muttered in a daze, and her question was enough to make the other arch-mages stare at me with undisguised suspicion.

"Leonard?" Lord Gulliver broke the ice to ask the question on their collective minds. "What did you do to the Grimoire Key?"

"Nothing. I just returned it to the way it was supposed to… be…"

My words trailed off at the end as a sudden realization hit me like a ton of bricks, and I felt very much awake all of a sudden.

For the longest time, there had been this small niggle about the original scenario I could never quite figure out. In the Simulacrum's initial designs, I was supposed to be a major antagonist in every potential 'route' Josh could've started. Depending on his choice of 'heroine', my role would've shifted to match the route's theme. With Angie, I was supposed to become Polemos and create a love triangle over Deus. With Elly, I was supposed to be the Knight hiding in plain sight and aiming for the lives of her and her family. With Penny, as hard as it was to accept that she was meant to be a 'secret heroine', I would've been standing in Josh's path to become the King of Knights.

Fairly straightforward stuff so far, but then there was Ammy's potential route, and I could never quite figure out how I was supposed to factor into that one. At most, I imagined I would've played into the Magi vs. Celestial conflict, but there just wasn't a hook for me like in the other potential routes. Instead, Ammy's story was focused on the Grimoire and its Keys, and that was about it.

Now, let's look at the current situation: The Keys were gathered, and they activated some kind of ancient magitech AI. She was wearing a stereotypical Celestial outfit, she immediately honed in on me instead of all the certified arch-mages in the room, and she not only communicated like Teeny, but she also recognized it and granted me admin rights over whatever this 'SOPHIA' system was right off the bat.

Conclusion: The Grimoire Key, and maybe the Grimoire of the Last Truth itself, were Celestial magitech. And they were the oldest and most highly regarded artefacts of the Magi who, without my intervention, would've been at a cold war with Elysium even at this moment. In other words, there was a potentially ancient conspiracy afoot, which in turn meant…

"Goddamit," I whispered, quietly preparing myself for the inevitable. "Things are going to get even more complicated, aren't they?"

Part 2

If I wasn't already used to weird development and rising tensions, I would've been probably completely stumped at the moment. Yet, even while somewhat compromised (or maybe exactly because of it), I took it all in stride and glanced around the room first.

The arch-mages were understandably startled and confused by the situation. Except for Sahi, whose eyes were sparkling like she was watching the greatest show on Earth unfold before her eyes. Pascal was the most proactive out of all the people present, as he already conjured a barrier around the two of them, plus Peabody, while Roland… Actually, he's been here all along, but he didn't say a word. In fact, I could sense some thinly veiled hostility under his deadpan veneer, so there was a non-insignificant chance that he was a wee bit mad at me. I mean, Bel. I mean… whatever. I'd have to talk with him, but later, because there was something more important that needed sorting out post-haste.

No, I wasn't talking about the weird hologram in front of me, but the girl behind it. Because Ammy was on the verge of a panic attack.

"W-W-What is this? Why am I—? W-Wait, why's everything glowing!? What's going on right now!?"

"Class rep!" I yelled out, startling her (and everyone else in the room). "Everything's fine. Take a deep breath and—"

"Report: Synchronization with Spear of Destiny is seventy-two percent comp—"

"You, shut up," I cut in with a finger aimed at the face of the hologram woman. "I'll deal with you in a moment, so don't say or do anything."

She stared at me, but didn't speak, which was… what I told her, I guessed? Good riddance. With that out of my hair for the moment, I sidestepped the semi-transparent lady and approached the class rep.

"Ammy?"

"Y-Yes?"

"Where was I before she interrupted me?"

My question was entirely sincere, but her distressed expression immediately gave way to an annoyed one and she reached for her glasses. Needless to say, I was on the receiving end of her glasses-tweaking of disapproval, but at least she looked better than before, so… mission accomplished?

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

"Do you seriously think this is the time to joke around?"

"I'm not joking. I'm a bit out of it," I confessed on the spot and took a closer look at her. "More importantly, how are you feeling? Any pain or discomfort? Sudden inexplicable knowledge? Other side effects?"

"N-No, nothing like that. I just…" She let her hand down and slowly looked around the room. "Things just look… strange. There's this peculiar glow around everything, but I can't tell what color it is, and…"

That sounded familiar, so I quickly raised a finger to interrupt her.

"Who's glowing the most in the room right now."

"Right now?" She paused and pointed at armband guy. "It's the most intense around Pascal and his… barrier spell? It's hard to make out under all the bright lights."

"So you're just seeing magic. Phew. For a moment I thought it was something serious."

"What do you mean 'just' seeing magic?!" she snapped at me, her hand once again reaching for her glasses.

"It's no big deal. You'll get used to it eventually."

"You almost sound like you speak from experience," Lord Gulliver chimed in from the side, and from his tone, it almost sounded like he was trying to ease the mood with a joke.

"Obviously." A shrug later, I turned back to the class rep again. "I get it, it's annoying, but it's really not a big deal. Nowadays I only ever notice the most glaring magical light-shows. Though again, considering the number of enchanted artifacts and arch-mages surrounding us, it's still a lot, but there's not much we can do about that. You just have to get accustomed to it one step at a time, and everything will be fine."

My impromptu pep-talk only resulted in stunned silence, but I didn't let it bother me and put my free hand on the class rep's shoulder. I carefully guided her to sit on my previous seat, and she did so without any resistance. Curiously, even though she wasn't looking at her, the hologram woman remained stationary at the exact same spot, patiently waiting for us to finish.

"Now what?" came the stumped question from Lord Ambrose on the bed, so I flashed a (hopefully) reassuring smile in his direction.

"Now, we get some answers." With those words, I turned to face the hologram and sucked in a deep breath, only to deflate a moment later when I realized I didn't know her name. Or if she had any. "Hey? What do I call you?"

"Response: Autonomous SOPHIA System, ORACLE Communications Subsystem, Dedicated Interface Alpha."

"… That's a mouthful if I've ever heard one," I grumbled under my breath and rubbed my forehead with my thumb and forefinger. "You're related to the Grimoire, so I'm just going to call you… erm… let's go with Grimmy."

"Acknowledgement: Designation registered."

I was just about to start asking some pertinent questions, but then a new voice sounded in my head.

"{Report: Synchronization complete. Interface:Grimmy entered into the list of contacts.}"

"{Further Observation: Interface:Teeny discovered a persistent pattern in Archon Polemos's naming methodology. Requesting permission to update Interface:Cal's designation to 'Caly'.}"

Stifling a groan, I lightly shook the spear in my hand.

"I'm really not in the mood for your heckling right now, Teeny."

"{Response: Understood. Interface:Teeny will make the request again at a later time.}"

I had something to say about that too, but I held it back and focused on the hologram, or Grimmy, as I just christened here. But first.

"Okay, before we get started, does anyone else have anything to get out of their system?" I glanced around the room, looking everyone in the eye one by one. "Nobody? Good." Facing the hologram, I started again. "I have questions."

"Response: I'm at your disposal, Administrator."

"First off, why are you talking like that?"

"Is that seriously the first thing you're going to ask her!?" the class rep burst out behind me, but I completely ignored her. I gave her a chance to speak up, but she didn't, so I was perfectly in my right to disregard her.

"Response: My communications subsystems based my response pattern on the language data absorbed from the host."

"So the same as with Teeny," I noted, and my spear responded with a quiet, "{Affirmation: Affirmative.}"

"W-Wait! She learned the language from me?" Ammy interjected again, so I glanced over my shoulder.

"Of course. She's some kind of magitech AI made in antiquity. How else do you think she speaks our language? Also…" I narrowed my eyes to make my displeasure more evident. "Can you leave the questions for after I'm done with her?"

"Y-Yes. Sorry."

She conceded unusually quickly, but I didn't mind, as I already had a lot to dig through without any interruptions.

"So, Grimmy?" As soon as I spoke her name, the hologram woman… well, 'perked up' might not have been the right term, but she certainly became more attentive. "Let's start with the basics. Did the Celestials make you?"

"Answer: Affirmative."

That was a bit of a shock to the Magi in the room, but I stuck to my principles and didn't let them cut in.

"Does that make that the Grimoire of the Last Truth was also made by Celestials?"

"Error: Designation not found. Please wait." There was a long beat of silence, and then she lightly nodded. "Response: The term 'Grimoire of the Last Truth' appears to be synonymous with the SOPHIA System. Therefore, affirmative."

"P-Preposterous!" Lord Grandpa burst out, but again, I ignored him and barrelled on.

"What were you made to do?"

"Answer: This interface exists to facilitate communication with the SOPHIA System."

"… Okay, let me rephrase that: What's the purpose of this 'SOPHIA System'?"

Her expression went more rigid for a moment. More rigid than normal, at the very least.

"Query: Accessing sensitive information requires administrator privileges. Do you wish to proceed?"

"Yes."

Her expression eased up imperceptibly.

"Answer: The SOPHIA System is the core of the Global Mana Grid project, serving as its a data-repository and control mechanism." She paused here, and asked, "Query: Would you like to hear more?"

"Of course, but first…" I raised a hand. "Let's get some chairs and sit down. I have a feeling this will take a while."

My call was the right one, because oh boy, we were treated to the mother of all info-dumps. It lasted for well over an hour, and it took me inhuman effort not to zone out during the technical bits, but I bit my lips, squared my shoulders, and endured until the very end.

So, here's the footnotes version of the whole thing:

"I can't believe it…" Ammy muttered in a daze, interrupting me just as I was about to summarize things. "To think that we… I mean the Magi… could we really have been created by the Celestials?"

"Response: Affirmative," Grimmy told her without batting an eye, and since that came up, I figured we might as well start there.

So, we have to go back quite a bit in time, all the way to the Great War between the Celestials and the Abyssals. It ended with the former retreating to Elysium, and the latter being locked away in the Abyss. So far, nothing new.

For a few centuries, everything was fine. At least until the Mana Wells started behaving erratically. According to Grimmy, those things were drawing energy from the outside world to maintain Elysium, and this drain over time created mana currents, which the Magi now call the Ley Lines. To correct this, the Celestial equivalent of scientists came outside and started investigating the problem.

The first hurdle they encountered was that they couldn't directly interact with these mana currents, so they genetically engineered a whole bunch of 'enhanced humans' to do the heavy lifting in their stead. Over the following decades, they created a control system for the Mana Wells that would adjust their throughput to match the flow of the Ley Lines, and everything was fine in the world. The enhanced humans worked diligently under the guidance of the SOPHIA System, while the Celestials in Elysium were safe and snug once again. The End.

…

Yeah, no. Those enhanced humans were obviously the ancestors of the Magi, and they were pretty much treated as slaves and indentured servants. Some might say that the Celestials should've known better than to try to keep a whole population of magic-wielding humans in slavery, but it was kind of the style at the time, so for once, I was willing to cut them some slack. The Magi didn't though, and once their numbers grew and their magic matured, they did a Spartacus, except with more success and waaay fewer crucifixions by the Appian Way.

The victory came with a price though, as they lost access to the SOPHIA System. Since it was used as the repository of all their knowledge and data, they had to 'reinvent the wheel', so to speak. The individual research groups stationed over the crossing points of major Ley Lines, known as Nexuses today, would do their best to write down and preserve as much of their magic theory as possible. It led to the creation of the first Schools over time, and while their origins were either forgotten or deliberately erased, their hostility towards the Celestials remained to this very day. Which, to be fair, they mostly deserved, but that was neither here, nor there.

Now, let's take a step back and look at the Celestials' track record. They first slept around with the Dragons (and presumably other Phantasmal Races), creating the Abyssals, which led to a huge schism that saw them going into self-imposed exile in their pocket space. Then, they created the Magi to maintain the Ley Lines and the Mana Wells, but then it led to a rebellion and the creation of a hostile global organization of spell-slingers that absolutely hated their guts. Then, when the Draconians started getting too much traction, they created the Brotherhood to keep them in check, and this time they gave them magical Oaths to ensure their loyalty… only for them to get fed up with their bullshit, break their Oaths anyway, and go rogue.

That level of incompetence and self-destructiveness was almost impressive in a way.

And now, back to the present.

"I have two more questions," I spoke up as I raised Teeny, now in its shortest, almost dagger-like form. "Why were the administrator rights keyed to Teeny?"

"Answer: The holder of the Spear of Destiny holds administrative rights over the Mana Well Network. The SOPHIA System and its sub-systems are part of the Mana Well Network infrastructure, and therefore the same rights apply to them."

"That… actually makes sense, I suppose," I muttered as I let my blade down.

The Mana Wells and the whole sub-space thing were created by the original Deus and Polemos. Or rather their entire team of smart magitech researchers and engineers, but I digress. It was used as a trading chip between them and the original Bel of the Abyss in exchange for his reincarnation technique, so it made sense that the spear of the Polemos would be used for authentication, or maybe even backdoor access to the whole system, which then carried over to this SOPHIA system and her.

Now, there was only last one thing I needed to know.

"You said that this SOPHIA thing exists as a sort of control system for the Mana Wells, right?"

"Answer: Affirmative."

"Does that mean the Conduit of the Grimoire also has control over the Mana Wells of the Abyss?" The hologram woman's face remained stock still, which told me there was something in my question she didn't understand. Who would've guessed that all my experience with reading Judy's facial expressions would come useful like this one day? Anyhow, I pointed at Ammy. "I mean her."

"Response: Updating designation. Yes, the host, the Conduit of the Grimoire, has partial access to the Mana Well Network's configurations."

With that, the last piece fell into place. Now I understood why future-me was insistent on resolving Ammy's 'side plot' first, and suddenly a lot of the things written in the notebook he gave me made a whole lot more sense. Oh, and speaking of him…

"What's the time?" I muttered absently while already holding my phone in my free hand, and as soon as the screen turned on, I let out a low hum. "Well, damn. It's later than I thought." I stood up from my seat, stashed Teeny in the storage enchantment, and pocketed my phone, in that order. "I've got to go."

"W-Wait! You can't just leave like that!" Ammy protested, so I raised both my palms.

"Easy there, class rep. I have another meeting I need to attend."

"Meeting?" the quietly smouldering Roland echoed me from the back, sounding just a tad critical.

"Yep," I told him a bit cheekily, but he didn't ease up at all. Oh boy. I was going to get an earful for that whole Bel fiasco as soon as we were in private, wasn't I?

I figured I'd endure that bridge when I got there and focused back on Ammy for the time being.

"Oh, come on! Don't look at me like that!"

"But we still have so many questions to ask!" she argued back, and I admit, that took me aback for a moment. Just not for the reason she expected.

"Class rep, I know that you're probably not in top shape right now. Neither am I. No shame in it." I pointed at her forehead. "You are the Conduit of the Grimoire now. You have all the time in the world to ask Grimmy any questions your heart desires."

"Corrections: Any questions that fall within the host's clearance level."

It took an inordinate effort to stop myself from groaning, and once I got it under control, I sent a sideways glance at the hologram woman.

"Any. Questions. Her. Heart. Desires," I emphasized word by word, and after a long beat, Grimmy slightly inclined her head.

"Response. Affirmative. Clearance restrictions lifted."

"Good." With that, I looked over the Magi in the room. "All right. I leave the rest in your hands. In fact, can I leave the whole Assembly and Marzanna situation to you as well? I know it's a tall order, but between six arch-mages, the Conduit, and Grimmy here, I'm sure you can manage."

"Six?" Lord Taika blurted out, but nobody else noticed my faux pas, especially when Lord Grandpa let out a heavy sigh.

"This is a rare conundrum indeed. I scarcely believe that the Assembly would accept this… new history of the Magi without a single grain of salt, but yes, I am certain that with the Grimoire of the Last Truth…" He paused and looked over the semi-transparent woman from head to toe. "Or Grimmy, as you call her, at our side, our chances of peacefully resolving the otherwise catastrophic incident you and Lord Ambrose caused at Ottawa are considerably higher than before."

"What Endymonion is trying to say," Lord Barnabas interjected, "is that the discovery of the Conduit and the recovery of the Grimoire are significant enough to overshadow whatever happened in Lord Marzanna's School, so unless she personally comes to Critias, we could most likely avoid a violent confrontation with her."

"Oh, buggers…" Ambrose muttered, but nobody paid him any attention.

"In that case, I leave you to do your Magi business. Let's talk again later."

It looked like everyone was expecting me to Phase away, so it came as a surprise when I just turned on my heel and left the biology workshop. Roland almost followed after me, but then he was intercepted by Lord Barnabas, no doubt to tell him to keep what he heard under wraps, which allowed me to slip away. My destination wasn't far away, and as soon as I entered the lounge area of the research wing, the circular room with the beanbag chairs and way too many aquariums, I was greeted by the sight of Galatea, Fred, and my girlfriends sitting around a table and playing a card game.

"Kihihi! Are you done, boss?" the resident slightly mad scientist asked as soon as I came into view, and I reflexively shrugged.

"With this meeting? Yeah. With the whole day? Nah, it's not even close to over."

"How did it go?" Elly inquired quite excitedly, not even noticing that Judy was peeking at her cards. "Did Amelia become that Conduit thing?"

"Yeah, and it came with a busty artificial intelligence hologram thing too?"

"Busty," my dear assistant repeated after me, and I could already see some kind of anti-harem countermeasure skit in my future. One which I was too tired to engage with.

"Yes. Imagine the class rep, but adult, and in a toga."

My straightforward description took her aback, and there was a brief spell of silence until Galatea let her cards down.

"Should we continue this game next time? I have already recorded everyone's hands, so we can continue where we left off."

"Wait, what?" Fred exclaimed in mild alarm. "How did you do that?"

"X-ray vision," she responded flippantly, and the guy eyed her skeptically.

"Bullcrap! I never gave you X-ray vision!"

"Correct. I made the upgrade myself using the pocket money I received from Grandmaster. I'm a self-made woman now."

"What pocket money? No, more importantly, why aren't I getting any?"

While the duo continued to bicker, my girlfriends also put their cards away and came to my side.

"What's the plan?" Judy asked first, and I pointed straight up.

"First, I take you guys home, then I get something to drink, have another strategic meeting with you-know-who, and once that's over, we get together in the evening and I tell you all the news."

"You look tired," Elly said, apropos of nothing, and put a hand on my forehead. "And you're still a little feverish. If you don't feel well, we can talk tomorrow."

"No, that won't work." I removed her hand from my forehead and held it in mine, then exhaled a short breath. "You see, princess, we're going to be reeeally busy starting tomorrow…"

Part 3

Back when I first started shopping for locations for our secret base, I passed over a handful of places. Many of them were decent, and some were way more convenient to access than the abandoned bomb shelter in the mountainside, but after settling on the current site, I'd forgotten about most of them. Most being the operative word there, because one could never have too many backup black sites. Did saying that make me sound like a villainous mastermind, or what?

"Please focus."

Hearing the warning made me stifle a groan and I flourished the swords in my hand.

"I'm trying my best, but you of all people should know what condition I'm in right now."

"Of course I do, but this is important," my sparring partner told me flatly and made a beckoning gesture with his hand. "We don't have much time, so let's start from the top."

"Fine, I got it."

With that, I assumed an offensive stance again, one blade held high and one kept low. It wasn't very practical, but it looked cool, and for once that was the most important factor. A second later, the plain concrete walls of the old, abandoned factory were lit by flashes of magical sparks once again.

"Remember: Left, right, backstroke, and then spin."

"Got it."

Future-me was in his full Bel getup. It was technically my old gear, before I switched to the Leoformer, but by this point he customized it (that is to say, I will customize it) to the point it could no longer be called the same. As for what we were doing, I called it sparring just a moment ago, but it was closer to a rehearsal than anything else.

First I swung Teeny, then Cal. He dodged the first strike and blocked the second one with the back of his left hand, creating even more magical sparks. As soon as the blade connected with the wards, I let the counter-force push it back while simultaneously swinging Teeny again on the backstroke, which he dodged under and followed up with a roundhouse kick. At this point I used the momentum of the previous attack to carry me forward, did a simple pirouette while guarding my back with Cal, and then once we both stopped, we squared off again, but this time with our positions reversed.

"Good." Future-me let his fists down and circled his shoulder. "Let's work on the other repositioning exchanges next, but first…" He raised a hand over his head and snapped his finger. A second later, Pudding-kun skittered over to us with a pair of mineral water bottles balanced on his back. "Five-minute break."

"You won't hear me complaining about that," I spoke absently and picked up the bottles, then tossed one over to him. He caught it without any trouble and lifted the Bel mask to take a gulp. I was going to do the same, but first, I gave the little eldritch abomination a belly rub for a work well done.

"Nyuuuu…!"

Pudding-kun, or rather one member of the 'Pudding-kun collective', was here for a rather prosaic reason: I couldn't mark myself even if I tried (it must've been one of those totally-not-time-travel restrictions, or something), so he served as my anchor point in case I had to come here. Future-me revealed the location to me after our earlier talk today, and while it was lacking in amenities, it was perfectly suited for our purposes.

Speaking of comforts (or lack thereof), future-me unceremoniously took a seat on a bright yellow plastic box; the kind used to transport fruits and other perishable cargo. He turned it upside-down and was using it as a stool, and when he saw me looking at him, he gestured towards the pile of similar boxes behind him. I had no reason to be shy, so I picked one up and set it down next to his.

"So," I started between sips. "What's with the whole 'Axis of Evil' thing?"

"Oh, them?" He lightly shrugged. "They're people I recruited in the Abyss. They're good guys. You'll see."

"No, I don't mean that…" I started, then shook my head. "I mean, I meant that too, but I was meaning to ask about something else. Meaningfully."

Future-me took my jest in stride (naturally, since he must've seen it coming) and said, "You mean the outfits, right? I got the idea from one of those animes we watched for research. You know, the one with the big robots and the super-duper-genius protagonist hiding his identity behind a fancy helmet."

"Yeah, yeah. So that's why the concept felt so familiar."

"Yup." He finished up his bottle and handed it over to the eager Pudding-kun. "Every self-respecting villain needs a group of snazzily dressed minions, and it's not like I can rely on Crowy and his cronies at House Inanna to stick to the dress code."

"Wasn't the masked guy in the anime the hero though?"

"You know the saying: Every villain is the hero of their own story," future-me told me with a cheeky smirk. "More importantly though, you know how these things work. We need secondary antagonists for the side-casts to fight, and the Abyssal houses and their forces aren't trained to stick to the script."

"Fair enough." I also finished up my drink and we sat in silence for a while. That is until I remembered something else. "Say? Do we seriously have to start it tomorrow?"

"Yeah, we do," future-me responded on no uncertain terms. "We're on a very tight schedule here. The crazy arch-mage is coming on Monday, and then Crowy will start to move later next week. We have to lay down the foundation and have everything in place by then."

"She's coming here that soon?" I blurted out in surprise, then squinted at my future self. "Wait, isn't that a spoiler?"

"Nah, Tajana will tell you about it the first time next morning," he answered flippantly and rose to his feet, then continued on before I could even question why Tajana of all people would be telling me about it. "You'll be pretty busy after that, so we need to squeeze in a few more dramatic exchanges over the weekend. Speaking of which, let's practice the one where we trade a big hit and both fall back."

"When are we going to use that?"

"The big finale."

"Doesn't that mean we have some time to rehearse it?"

"Oh, come on. We both know that the finale is the most important part, so we can't mess it up."

"Yeah, yeah. I know…" I grumbled as I rose to my feet and picked up my swords again. "I don't even know why I'm bothering to argue with myself."

"I don't know either," future-me shrugged as he pulled the mask over his face again and tugged on his gloves. "I guess that's just my nature."

"Very philosophical."

"It sure is."

Meanwhile, we walked to our respective spots and took up some suitably dramatic fighting stances.

"We need to make it flashy, so let's push up the power output a little."

"Is that safe?" I asked back, but future-me just confidently nodded at me. "If you say so." I directed my attention at my weapons next. "You've heard him. Let's crank things up a notch."

"{Response: Affirmative. Interface:Teeny requests Interface:Caly to match the external mana-flow.}

"{Young knight, I implore you! Tell her to stop referring to me like that!}"

"{Insincere Inquiry: Interface:Caly isn't responding to Interface:Teeny's request. Is there an obstruction in communications?"

"{I told you to stop calling me 'Caly'! Young knight, help!}"

Sighing, I raised a finger to forestall future me and raised my blades to eye-level.

"Teeny?"

"{Reticent Response: Yes, Archon Polemos?}"

"Did I say 'Yes' when you asked me about giving Cal a nickname?"

"{Obfuscating Answer: According to Interface:Teeny's records, Archon Polemos didn't say 'No'.}"

"… It is just me, or you're getting cheekier over time?"

"{Insistent Reply: Interface:Teeny assures Archon Polemos that it's nothing but a misperception.}"

"If you say so…"

"{Young knight!}" Cal cut in, full of indignation. "{Don't entertain her! Just tell her to cease and desist at once!}"

"{Innocent Response: Interface:Teeny fails to understand why Interface:Caly objects to his new designation.}"

"{Why, you…!? How would you like it if I started calling you something like that? For example… how about… Teensy!}"

"{Polite Refusal: Interface:Teeny is flattered, but would like to remind Interface:Caly that the current designation was bestowed by Archon Polemos, and as such may not be altered without his consent.}"

"{What do you mean 'flattered' you… you…!?}"

"Cut it out." For emphasis, I also lightly tapped the flats of their blades together, startling the two swords. "Teeny, stop teasing Cal. Cal, stop getting caught up in Teeny's pace. Also, how about you two work this whole thing out between yourself when we're not in the middle of practice."

There was a long beat of silence, and then my Knightly sword let out a mortified grunt.

"{Ack! Please, forgive my indiscretion, young Knight! I don't know what came over me!}"

Teeny, on the other hand, remained silent. That said, the way my mana flow stabilized as soon as the two of them started working together told me they both got the message, so I lightly swung them again. As I did, the blades lit up with a pale white light that lingered just long enough to draw trails in the air. It was a rather useless feature in combat, but it looked cool from the outside, so it was fine.

"Sorry for the holdup, I'm ready now," I told future-me, and he didn't mind at all.

"No problem. This is around the time when those two have a thing going on, right? With the nicknames and everything?"

"…Yeah."

Future-me let out a guffaw that told me there was something funny going on, but he didn't elaborate. Chances are, if I asked him about it, he would've just deflected it with some cryptic nonsense about spoilers, so I didn't even bother to speak up.

What followed was a solid twenty minutes of complicated exchanges that didn't leave me much time to think about anything else. Not necessarily because I it was all that complicated or especially dangerous, but due to a combination of not yet fully recovering from my weird sleepwalking condition and, more importantly, the lack of sixth sense warnings.

Honestly speaking, the latter was the bigger problem. I would recover from my astral-body-induced scatterbrainedness sooner or later, but my danger sense not triggering in this situation was something I needed to get used to. Even when I was sparring with Josh or the Fauns, it always warned me about incoming dangers, so I became reliant on it over time. The problem in this case was that it only reacted to 'danger'; even during training, my opponent would actively want to hit me, so it got a reaction from my sixth sense.

It would say 'Hey, dumbass! If you don't duck right now, you'll get whacked in the head!', just with less words and more gut feelings. Not when 'fighting' myself though, because the whole point of this exercise was to make sure that I wouldn't accidentally hurt myself, which meant my danger sense would only trigger when one of us messed up. Ideally that would never happen while we were on the 'stage', so to speak, so our goal here was to rehearse the moves, counter-moves, and flashy finishers until they became second nature and we could perform them live in front of an audience.

And we weren't talking about some silly community theatre swashbuckling choreography here. We might have twisted the genre of the scenario into a pretzel and back, but at its core, this was still a battle harem narrative, and those required some impressive, high-powered battles, not some harmless Flynning.

…

Though, on second thought, wasn't that exactly what we were trying to do here? Flynning, I mean? Sure, it's usually associated with the whole 'strike high, parry high, strike low, parry low, rinse and repeat' thing from theatre and old movies, but the principle of what we were doing was essentially the same. We just had more impressive pyrotechnics and acrobatics and high-impact moves and…

"Wait…" I blurted out in the middle of a spinning move, and once I landed after future-me pushed me back, I belatedly added, "… are we doing pro wrestling right now?"

"Yeah," he responded without missing a beat and took up a boxing stance. "Now, get back into kayfabe and focus. This is the tricky part."

"I don't know how to feel about this…" I muttered as I also took up an offensive stance and we continued our high-flying exchanges.

Our rehearsal lasted for another twenty or so minutes after that, and by the time we finished, we were both heaving, and my head was starting to hurt.

"Ugh. Incorporating Phasing into the choreography is a pain in the neck."

"Yeah, but it would look unnatural if we didn't use it every once in a while," future-me told me while rubbing the back of his neck. "Look on the bright side: we won't be repeating it back-to-back like this when we do it live."

"That's less of a bright side and more of a silver lining."

Future-me didn't say anything to that, just picked up Pudding-kun and started petting him instead.

"I think that's enough for now. It's getting late, and the girls are already waiting for you back home. Go take a shower and rest. We'll be busy tomorrow."

"What about you?"

"I'll take a breather too, and then I'll go and pester Crowy a little. Just to keep him on his toes."

"Have fun with that."

"Oh, don't worry. I will."

I couldn't see his face, but I was pretty sure future-me was grinning. I could perfectly understand him; there were few things as relaxing as trolling a bastard after a long day of hard work. Speaking of which…

"Crap, it's this late already?" The numbers on my phone didn't lie. By this point I already put my bickering weapons away and turned my Leoformer off, returning to my school uniform, and as soon as the physical enhancements were out of the picture, I was hit by a new wave of fatigue. "Damn. It's on days like these that I really wish I could sleep."

"Ah, right!" Future-me snapped his fingers and pointed a finger gun at me, startling Pudding-kun for a moment before he resumed petting him. "It was today when you were bothered by The Girl, right?"

"… Yeah?"

"You can bother her back."

"… Is that advice, or a spoiler, or…?"

He didn't respond, though I could once again feel that he was grinning under his Bel mask. At last, he put the mini-shoggoth down and gave me a nonchalant wave, along with a cheeky, "You have fun too!" before promptly Phasing away.

Shaking my head, I crouched down to give a few pats to Pudding-kun as well.

"See you later, buddy."

"Nyu!"

The oddly adorable eldritch horror waved his stubby tentacles in something resembling a salute, then climbed on top of the plastic box from before and then made a few more wild gestures… before turning into an identical yellow plastic container with a puff of smoke. That was probably his way of saying that he'd look after the place in our absence, so I gave him a thumbs up and then also Phased away, directly into my bathroom.

I checked first to make sure no one else was around, of course, so I could take a quick shower without any interruptions and put on a fresh set of indoor leisure clothes I had stashed away near the washing machine before stepping outside and heading to my room.

"Welcome back, Chief."/"Hi, Leo!"

My girlfriends, god bless their hearts, didn't even bat an eye when I walked in like that. Though again, compared to just showing up out of thin air, this kind of entrance probably felt a bit mundane. They were both in their pyjamas and, from the looks of it, browsing the Celestial Hub on my PC.

"Sorry for being late. I kind of lost track of time," I apologized reflexively, but they didn't take me to task, so I walked over to their side and peeked at the screen. "Anything interesting?"

"We're reading reports on what happened at Ottawa!" Elly responded in a lively voice, followed by a slightly less enthusiastic, "There's not much yet."

"Well, obviously. I told you that place is pretty undefined, so the local Celestial agents must be about as placeholder as it gets."

"Then what about that report?" she insisted, and seeing that I didn't get it, she pointed at Judy. "The one that made you go over to Canada. That one was very detailed."

"It might be because it was plot-related," my dear assistant noted, but before I could get a word in, she turned off the PC, made a one-eighty turn in my swivel chair, and grabbed my hand. "Let's talk about it tomorrow. It's late, and we all need some rest."

She was already pulling me towards the bed, and Elly soon joined in on the tug-of-war as well.

"You do realize that I still can't sleep, right?"

"That was the previous paradigm," Judy told me emphatically while dragging me under the blankets. "You said your body is technically asleep right now, so you might be able to have genuine sleep for the first time today."

"And that means we'll sleep together!" Elly doubled down with a grin and flipped the light switch, plunging the room into darkness. "We never did that before!"

"Technically, we did sleep together in the other meaning of the word, but…" My idle objection was overruled when my princess also slipped under the covers and they each grabbed hold of one of my arms. "… We'll just call it an experiment."

"That's right. Experiment." Elly let out a giggle and nuzzled closer to me. Judy did the same on my other side.

And like that, dead tired and sandwiched between my girlfriends, I fell asleep…

…

Yeah, no. Half an hour later, I was still staring at the ceiling and listening to the rhythmic breathing of the girls. It apparently didn't matter whether my brain was asleep or not, my consciousness stubbornly refused to take a break. And to think that for a moment I was almost expectant…

I mean, they say that robots dream with electric sheep, so what kind of ruminant would show up in my dreams? It was almost like one of those Zen koans, and I was sure Judy would be curious about the answer too.

But alas, I was still awake, and each passing second was slowly taking me closer to the next day and the beginning of the end. In narrative terms, at the very least. Very slowly. Veeery slowly. Veeeeeeeery slooooo—

"Oh, to hell with it," I whispered under my breath and readied my stubby phantom limb.

It quickly became obvious that future-me's timing, telling me about The Girl and how I should pester her back, was anything but coincidental. I wasn't exactly in the mood for it, but at this point I felt like I was just delaying the inevitable for no reason, so I exhaled hard and plunged my phantom limb into my head.

Let's go and see what shakes loose, shall we?