Game of Monsters - 213

Every Day like It’s the Last

28th day after Ophis visit.

Joshua was, quite frankly, panicking a little. He would not put it past Ophis to take the shortest possible month as the measure of time for their deal. The dragon struck him as a weird mix of patient and impatient in regards to what she wanted, which meant that she’d wait, but only as long as strictly necessary. How long was that? Unfortunately, that was anyone’s guess, really.

He wasn’t taking any chances though.

So, Joshua had prepared for those days, From the 27th and forward, he would not sleep, couldn’t afford to. So, he’d come up with a number of ways not to screw himself over staying awake all day, every day until Ophis dropped by. He couldn’t afford to be out of commission when the dragon came to knock on his door…  Metaphorically speaking, that is.

He didn’t know what Ophis would do if that happened, and Joshua hated not knowing things. So, he’d play the entire thing as safe as he could. He stayed up, working on things, and generally tried to go about his days without leaving the house at all. He needed to be available and able at all times, just in case. Else he risked everything going up in flames without so much as having a chance to put up a fight…

For a definition of a fight, that is.

“I know this is necessary,” Yasaka commented, giving him a half-pitying and half-worried look. He kind of hated it, but he also understood and appreciated it, funnily enough. Thus, the most he managed was a wry smile as she continued. “But I hate seeing you do this to yourself.”

He must be quite the sight, he guessed from her words. And it was only the first day too. How would he look if Ophis took longer than expected? Although, there was also the possibility that she was just worried about the fact that he had to wait up more than was humanly possible… without assistance, that is.

Magic, Senjutsu, Divine Intervention and more was all being applied to make sure he was at his best, hundred and ten percent there. He was doing better than in regular days, and it was all in the hopes that the little extra would help him deal with Ophis a little better. Also for the last minute effort to push his projects further.

The crash that’d follow whenever he eventually relented on his efforts to stay awake and able would be something to study. He wasn’t even joking about that; he had Friday ready to check on how it went in the hopes that they could come up with a mitigation option if it became necessary in the future. As it was, Joshua would have to deal with that as he normally would the first time. He wasn’t sure how the entire thing would affect his… everything. He expected at least a hit to his body and mind, but certainly at least some influence on his soul, considering some of the things that were in charge of keeping him going.

“I’m not a fan of doing this either, but it’s not like we have many options,” he replied, reaching for his cup of tea and shrugging before taking a sip. He wasn’t lying or even exaggerating either. He did think it was necessary, because Ophis couldn’t be trusted to have common sense or any capacity to be reasonable. The inner machinations of her mind were truly an enigma. “If things go well, I’ll try to make things easier on all of us for the next time,” Joshua commented.

Because if his attempts passed inspection, then he imagined it wouldn’t be difficult to convince Ophis to visit at a specific time and such. He might even get her to actually help him narrow down things and iron out details about his projects to better work on them. If he was feeling optimistic, he thought he might even be able to convince her to wipe out Khaos.

And if his attempts failed… Well, that was truly not going to be his problem, he supposed. He already had things set up in case that happened. Important stuff and messages would be delivered to certain individuals that he imagined would survive Ophis and so on… Not the most cheery thing to think about, admittedly.

“When things go well,” Yasaka said, eyes narrowed, as if they hadn’t arranged for Kunou to be nowhere near the place for the foreseeable future. If he had things go his way, Joshua would have been the only person in about a whole city’s radius. For some reason, Yasaka, Serafall and Gabriel hadn’t been fans of that approach. So, they’d agreed to one of them being around in eight hour rotations. He’d also had to set everything up in a spot that Yasaka could access, which had complicated things, admittedly.

Project Freedom having some progress had helped some in that regard, at least, because emptying Kyoto for days, maybe even weeks… wasn’t going to be easy, even with supernatural help.

Admittedly, Joshua was grateful not to be alone during the wait and likely during the inspection, but there was no denying that the fact that someone would be within the initial blast zone made him even more afraid of failure. Because maybe, just maybe, if he failed and he was alone around, Ophis could decide that killing him would be enough. She could decide that’d be that and not bother with the rest of the alliance. He was the one that had delivered most of the heavy blows to the entire thing, after all, so maybe…

“Joshua?” Yasaka called and he sighed, bringing a hand up to pinch the bridge of his nose. He was getting in his head, and not in the way he needed nor wanted. He needed to either work on stuff or find some optimism somewhere, because thinking about worst case scenarios and failure wasn’t going to help, at all.

“Sorry, just… overthinking things and not in a good way,” he admitted, taking a sip from his tea. He closed his eyes and sighed, again, when he felt Yasaka’s life energy wash over him and wrap around him. “Thanks, that’s-” he started, only to interrupt himself with a groan when he felt a pair of soft, but deceptively strong hands start massaging his shoulders. “I love you, so much.”

“I love you too,” she replied, sounding amused.

[}-o-{]

The 29th was a lot more relaxed than the 28th.

Joshua was pretty sure that Ophis wouldn’t choose that day to drop by. Going by February on a leap year number of days to count a month would have been bizarre. And while the dragon could be a little unpredictable, she didn’t seem like someone that’d go for that kind of unpredictable.

All the same, he didn't let his guard down on the matter anyway. Even with that, the day went by a lot more calmly and he was able to get a lot more work done than he had the previous day. He was also motivated to do well too, since one of the following two days was likely to be the one when shit would hit the fan. So, he needed to pour his all in the projects that day. He was unlikely to concentrate enough to get much done after that day, even if he’d still try, and he knew it.

“My brothers are asking for you to drop by, you know?” Gabriel commented idly and he paused. He didn’t quite freeze, but it was a close thing. “I told them that you’re busy now and might be busy in the future. Even without Ophis, Khaos understandably takes a lot of your time, and there’s also your own life to take into account.”

“It’s not that I don’t want to go, you know?”

“I told them that.”

“Do you know that?” Joshua asked, turning and raising an eyebrow at the angel. There was a pause there and he couldn’t have that, he knew. So, he ran his fingers through his hair and sighed. “I do want to go,” he said clearly before he took a deep breath in. “There is a lot going on and… I worry, I’ll admit. Heaven is… not a place where someone like me would go, pretty sure. And there’s some… things that tell me that might not be a great idea.”

He was pretty sure he was not Heaven worthy, not in his world and likely not in the DxD world, but he was less sure about that last one. Furthermore, the System had made several references to heavenly stuff and he wasn’t sure how things would go if he actually went to Heaven or came anywhere close to their System, which was doing God’s work in his absence.

“And you’re afraid of my brothers.”

“And I’m afraid of your brothers,” Joshua admitted wryly, not even the smallest bit embarrassed by that. Those were Seraphs. Furthermore, if they decided to make nuisances of themselves, or God forbid – he realized only after the thought that it might not be very appropriate – they disapprove and become a problem for his relationship with Gabriel. A part of him expected that to be the case, actually, and it was only his ever so slightly developed faith in the DxDverse’s wacky logic that prevented him from being a lot more pessimistic about his chances in regards to that.

“You shouldn’t be,” Gabriel replied, looking amused. “They will, at a minimum, tolerate you. They know I love you and they know this is important to me, so they’ll refrain from doing anything overly antagonistic towards you,” she explained and, while it was certainly reassuring, Joshua couldn’t help but pause and note a distinctly hard, sharp look in her eyes.

And suddenly he wondered if there wasn’t a ‘if they know what’s good for them’ going unsaid there.

He was also a lot less scared about facing Gabriel’s brothers all of a sudden, admittedly. Although, that didn’t mean he wasn’t still a little intimidated. Because this was the first time he had to properly face one of his partners’ families and it was his angel partner, which made it all the worse. He’d been very close to Kunou before the idea of being with him even appeared with Yasaka, he was pretty sure. Sona thought well of him beforehand too and he ended up helping cure Serafall’s father, so that had helped a lot there.

What did he have to smooth things over with the Seraphs though? Project Ascension, maybe, but that felt very impersonal, really. There was little else there, and that wasn’t great. There was also plenty against him, he thought.

All in all… some might call him a coward, but Joshua was not looking forward to that day.

All the same though…

“I’ll make time for a visit, if you don’t think I’ll burn up as soon as I step there,” he said, giving up with a mental sigh as he smiled at Gabriel. “Or we can invite them over for dinner at home or something,” he said, not meaning literally home, but more like… his old place before he moved in with Yasaka. That place was probably not a great way to meet the angels.

“I’d appreciate that,” Gabriel told him, beaming brightly. Joshua just knew that he would have to actually go through with that as soon as he could then, otherwise he’d feel like a piece of shit. He’d almost accuse the angel of being manipulative, but then again, that was hardly a surprise.

Everyone knew he was a pushover when it came to someone he cared about.

“Yeah, yeah,” he mumbled, looking back to his notebook and getting back to work. He resolutely ignored her giggles, but he appreciated her leaning on his side a lot more. He still disagreed with them sticking around, he disagreed with that a lot, but he was definitely grateful for it all the same. God knew he’d have gone mad by himself with only the Egyptians and his familiars through his bonds to keep him company. “Thanks for being here,” he said, because it really did deserve to be voiced.

“Nowhere else I’d rather be,” Joshua heard the angel say.

Not for the first time, he wondered how he ended up being so lucky.

[}-o-{]

The 30th was tense.

The minutes trickled by like the incessant but agonizingly slow water drops from a faulty faucet. He knew it was happening, that time was passing, and yet it felt like the seconds were crawling by. Every hour felt like he was aging ten years.

And yet, with all the relative time in the world, Joshua got almost no work done. A spell correction here, a rewritten but ultimately equal circle there. It felt more like he was rewriting the same texts in the hopes of his writing coming off prettier than the previous attempt, rather than actual improvement on the practical side. Like washing an already washed plate, he kept going, trying to get better and achieving nothing but wasting time.

Joshua wasn’t done, not even close, but his mind had decided to stop working, for the most part. Occasionally, he’d find something worth doing, but even that had its progress happening so slowly. He was getting nowhere and he knew it. More than ever, he wished he had some kind of spell that would allow him to speed up time so that they could get on with it.

“You’re getting impatient.”

“I am,” he confessed freely and helplessly. Then he glanced at Serafall, noticing, not for the first time, how her childish persona had been pushed to the side. She was her more “normal” self, if that version of her could be called that. “Not even you are unperturbed though,” he pointed out, although he wasn’t sure why. Did he want to feel like he wasn’t the only one freaking out? Was he offended or annoyed by her pointing out the obvious lack of composure on his end? Was it something else?

He wasn’t sure.

All Joshua knew was that he was feeling very much not himself. He was afraid, yes, but he was also eager. He felt like he wanted to do something, but none of the things he had around were effective at removing that feeling. No, the only thing that would help was just… meeting Ophis, once and for all, so that they could be done with the entire thing.

“No, I’m not,” Serafall admitted with a slight smile, as if she understood perfectly what was going through his head. Joshua himself wasn’t sure he did, so he found that very impressive… if she understood him. For once, he was doubting her ability to do so, but only the smallest bit. She was probably not a stranger to such situations, even if Joshua was. She’d been around for a while and seen a lot of shit, after all. Probably faced similar things during the Civil War, if he had to take a guess.

“I hate it,” he said, turning away and looking at his notes once more. His brain couldn’t even process more than three words without drifting off and he felt like a failure and an idiot and a scared little boy in his parent’s house. He realized it was all frustration and fear and nerves all mixed into one fun emotion, but Joshua couldn’t do anything to stop himself.

All he could do was grip his pencil harder and hear the wood cracking the smallest bit.

“I know,” Serafall told him, her hand reaching and taking his, saving his writing tool from doom… at least for the moment. Jury was still out on if the pencil would survive the night. “I know, Joshua.”

What neither of them did know was what to do while they waited, evidently. It was odd that the most affected was Serafall of all people. She always seemed like the most disconnected from things, the one least bothered by the world. Yasaka could keep her calm in most situations, but she cracked. Gabriel was a little freer with what she felt, even if she allowed only shallow displays at best most of the time.

Serafall usually was all exaggerated childishness and little else. Even when she decided to do away with that persona, she was mostly just all smiles or calm or seriousness. Joshua realized only then that this was a whole new side of her that he was seeing.

He never wanted to see her like that again.

“What are we going to do?” he asked after a short pause in which he considered what to do, what to say. “Once this is over, we’ll go on a date,” he explained and he still felt like he’d missed like five sentences in that. “What do you want to do?”

“... I want to dance,” she said and normally Joshua would have groaned. He didn’t know how to dance. He had never cared for dancing. He’d never had the chance to dance either, really. Never learned, never tried, never did.

That summed up a lot of his life before dying.

“So, one of your parties in the Underworld? One with a dance floor?” he asked. His eyes stayed firmly set on the pages of his notebook, but his focus was on Serafall and how her body pressed to his side, leaning on him. “I think I can survive that… if you teach me how to dance.”

“I’m sure Yasaka and Gabriel will be happy to help with that.”

“And you three can laugh at me for a good bit too, so that doesn’t hurt.”

“I didn’t say that,” Serafall denied, but he could hear the smile on his face. “I know you hate those parties. I know you go to them because they are useful for me.”

“Not like I can keep secrets from you all,” he said, shrugging the shoulder that was free of her.

“I appreciate it, you know? I love that you’ll go and be awkward for hours just to help me out,” she told him and maybe he imagined it, but he thought he felt her head on his shoulder pressing a little more against him. “I appreciate that you’ll go out in very public spots with me just because I like to show off.”

“I think I knew what I was getting into when I decided to start a relationship with an actress,” he commented with a smile of his own.

“... We’re going to be fine, Josh.”

To that, he just nodded.

[}-o-{]

The 31st arrived with new heights of fear and nerves.

That was the day that Ophis had to arrive… because if she didn’t, then when would she? Joshua had no idea what the answer to that particular question was, but he’d really rather not have to find out. He was pretty sure he would go crazy if he had to wait for an undermined amount of time after that day. Because at least for those days, he was reasonably sure Ophis would drop by at some point.

If she just… didn’t, then she could pay them a visit any day.

That sounded like a nightmare.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, none of those fears came to pass though. The clock had marked midnight and he’d gulped. From there, he got himself yet another cup of tea and continued working after the first minute was gone. Yasaka, by his side, joined him silently, neither of them feeling particularly chatty at that moment. There was only so much they could all talk, after all, especially Joshua and especially considering the circumstances.

Besides, while he tried to work on his spellcrafting, Yasaka herself was working on her own paperwork for her faction. Business as usual, if not for the fact that the house was painfully quiet with just the two of them. Normally, there’d be something around. Maybe they’d hear servants out in the corridors. Maybe Kunou would be humming some song at the table with them. Maybe Koneko and Ravel would be silently glaring at each other while playing cards…

At that moment, it was just the occasional page being turned and the scratch of their pens and pencils against the paper.

Until something else joined them.

“Joshua Davis,” he heard and he was rather proud of the fact that he only stiffened for a second before straightening and turning to the side. There stood Ophis, the creature of his nightmares those days, in all her deceptively young, gothic glory. “One month has passed,” she announced and he felt a shiver run down his spine while the words washed over him like he’d jumped into arctic waters.

“It has,” he agreed slowly, moving to stand up. He kept his eyes fixed on the dragon in human form though. Yasaka remained silent and his notes were now forgotten. “I have much to show you,” he said, forcing a smile on his face. It was a small thing, but he managed to make it calm, confident, rather than panicked. “I’ve made… several attempts at making Silence for you,” he told her.

For the first time – not that it meant much when Joshua had interacted with her twice and very briefly both times –, Ophis’ calm seemed to be shaken the smallest bit. It was almost unnoticeable, but he saw it, because he was using his everything to try and navigate the situation. That’s how he saw the tiny bit her eyes widened, the slight shift in her lips, the intense stare she directed his way.

“I’ve made several attempts, so, if you feel like anything I’ve made is bad or a failure, remember that there’s more that might do better, please,” Joshua said. Bitterly, he was reminded of his start in the DxD world. He was reminded of his first meeting with Sairaorg’s peerage and how utterly small he’d felt faced with them. He was reminded of how he’d felt when people had come to him to help Yasaka back before he even knew her.

He was reminded of the times he was small, powerless, and he hated it, so much.

“Several attempts,” Ophis said, and while there was no inflection to her voice, Joshua entertained the thought that there was awe in her words, somewhere. “I will see them all,” she declared, like it was a definitive thing, a fact. Joshua supposed it was, because who was going to tell the Dragon of Infinity no or try and correct anything she said?

Not him, that was for sure.

“Of course,” he replied, taking a deep breath in and nodding slowly. “Now, can you follow a teleport? Because I’ve set things up somewhere else,” he asked and it took an herculean effort not to let his voice crack and his posture crumble. It was so difficult to stand there, in front of a being that could erase him and everyone he cared about and act like everything was fine.

He had to, however, so he did.

“I can,” Ophis told him with a nod. “Go, I’ll follow,” she ordered and he nodded back. After a second and a deep breath in, he teleported away, Yasaka appeared almost at the same time as him and Ophis… Ophis was already there. “Now?” she urged, but he wasn’t sure if she was annoyed already or eager or curious. It was difficult to tell anything from her, when she expressed absolutely nothing. A robot might have had more emotion in their voice and expression.

“Now, this is my first attempt,” he said, speaking slowly as he tried to gather all his courage and all his confidence for what was to come.

It was time, after all. Ophis was there, his spell arrays were set and his creations laid out. Now the dragon just needed to test them, to see them for herself and decide if they were good enough. From that hinged everything, his continued existence and the safety of people he cared about. Everything depended on his work being good enough and while he’d never been the most confident, he was pretty sure he reached new levels of uncertainty at that moment.

Because how could be confident on anything, when the result of failure was so dire and he’d struggled so much to get anything done?

“Ophis, I present you, Project Silence: Copy,” he announced, opening the door.

It was time to face the music.

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

We’re finally here.

I admit this arc was long. Was it too long? I guess that’s a matter of perspective. I don’t think so, but I understand and acknowledge that I’m likely in the minority there. I’m sorry to everyone that was done with all the repetitive Slice of Life and spellcrafting five or ten chapters ago.

As I said though, we’re here, so I hope I can at least make all that wait worth it…

And I also hope that you enjoyed the chapter, of course.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: If you look to the right, what’s the first thing you notice? I have my joystick next to my mouse. I’ve been using it to play Hades. First time I use one on PC rather than mouse and keyboard, actually.

See you.