Game of Monsters - 201

Far from the Sun

“Should I bring the holder of the Shroud of Turin so that you can have the whole collection?” Gabriel asked him with a raised eyebrow.

In response, Joshua could only shrug, still unable to believe that he’d actually gotten True Longinus from Cao Cao.

Joshua wouldn’t be so bold as to say that he expected the spear to stick with him, but he’d certainly hoped for it when he went to challenge Cao Cao. He remembered that the spear had, in canon, chosen to forsake its wielder to spare Issei. Which, no offense to the guy – he was a lot better than he remembered him being in canon, those days –, but told him that the supposed Will of God, wasn’t that picky.

Granted, there had been a chance of failure, which was why he hadn’t gone for that from the beginning. He didn’t fancy having the strongest spear in the world through his guts in case his assumption was wrong. He didn’t particularly want to find out what’d happen in that situation.

Alas, the situation had become plenty desperate and so had his measures.

Back on topic though, maybe it was the fact that they were fighting – unknowingly in Issei’s case, but still – against the freeing of Trihexa? It could also be any number of things that caused that, but the fact of the matter was that there was a chance that something would happen if he interacted with the spear. Sure enough, something had, indeed, happened.

[Quest Complete: Become the Wielder of the Spear of Destiny

Reward:

+ New Perk: True Longinus

+ Skill Updated: ###te# o# #e##en

+ 10 levels to Light Resistance

+ 10 levels to Light Magic]

Joshua wasn’t complaining, not really, but at the same time, it’d be very tempting to use Light Magic if the need arose. Especially if it kept getting leveled up, which he didn’t think was too likely. The skill only went up through Quests, but he already had the thing at level 40 even with that limitation.

‘Back on topic though…’

[True Longinus

The true Holy Spear which pierces through God.]

He didn’t know why he’d expected Sacred Gears to be skills, but they were not. Apparently, they were Perks. On a different note, he didn’t know why he’d expected the screen to not show him something vague, cryptic and ultimately useless. He already knew the spear was Holy and he also already knew the thing could pierce gods. It was the Sacred Gear that gave name to the Longinus tier in its entirety, the tier specifically supposed to be able to take down gods.

“Is that a problem?” Joshua asked out loud after a moment, focusing his attention back on Gabriel. The angel had sounded weird before, or so he thought. He could be wrong, of course, or maybe just projecting what he thought. Because he could easily see Gabriel – or anyone from the Church or Heaven – taking issue to the fact that he’d somehow gotten his hands on most of the important Holy Sacred Gears. Incinerate Anthem was in Raynare’s hands, who was his subordinate. Alphecca Tyrant was in the hands of Meredith, his “main” apprentice. He’d recently rescued Sephiroth Graal. And not only did he have the holder of True Longinus prisoner, but now he had taken the Sacred Gear. So…

“... No,” Gabriel answered, but the hesitation and slowness of her response was a different answer of its own. Evidently, she realized that, because she continued speaking almost right after. “It’s odd, I’ll admit, to see them being gathered like this, especially by a third party. The Church has always put emphasis on them, after all, so it hasn’t been odd for them to end up on our side. However… you’ve got most of them almost by accident and very quickly.”

Half of the credit was to be given to his canon knowledge, which had led him to Walburga and Valerie, but he couldn’t really explain that to her, could he? At least not yet. It did make him wonder when he’d feel confident enough to reveal his most important secrets to his partners though. Maybe when everything was over and he could finally relax?

He’d have felt worse about that if it weren’t for the fact that he knew they had their own secrets too.

“If I or any of us had a real problem with this though, I wouldn’t have gotten this for you though,” she continued, making him blink as she pulled out a piece of… something made of what looked like gold. He was pretty sure she’d taken that out of a pocket space, but he hadn’t actually seen it happen. She was weirdly good at being discreet with her magic usage. “In light of recent… events, I sped up some things,” she added, placing the object in his hand. It looked like some kind of object made of gold had been broken into pieces and that was one of them. “This is a piece of the original Grail.”

Joshua’s eyes widened dramatically at that, because he hadn’t even known there were originals of the Sacred Gears. He’d thought the artifacts had been turned into Gears, actually. It seemed his assumption was wrong though, and that prompted him to take a more thorough look at the piece of gold. Interestingly though, he felt nothing coming from it, not Holy energy nor anything else.

Far as his senses and spells could tell, the thing was a normal piece of gold.

Yet, holding it in his hand and actually paying attention, he knew it was most definitely not. He couldn’t quite place why, but it felt special, even if he couldn’t point at anything as a reason to think so. ‘Might need to come up with more sensing spells,’ Joshua thought, even though it was a shame that he didn’t have the time for that at the moment.

“We were hoping that it might help Valerie,” Gabriel explained then, making him look up, back at her. “At least, if our guess is correct and she’s like she is because Khaos did something to her Sacred Gear,” she added and he nodded slowly. That made sense, at least a bit. And they lost nothing trying too, so there was no real reason to say no.

“Here’s hoping it’ll work, I guess,” Joshua replied softly, considering that.

He really hoped it’d work.

“You want to try now?” Gabriel asked and he looked up with wide eyes. “We can continue this conversation later. Although I think we’ve said all that needed to be said. I’ll just have to make peace with the fact that you’re not normal and you might never be,” she added, and he thought he caught a hint of dryness there at the end.

“Once everything’s said and done, I can try to give you True Longinus, but I kind of-”

“You can keep it, if you think you’ll need it, or for as long as you want,” Gabriel interrupted and she sounded strangely firm. “It chose you and I will not get in the way of that. Nor will my siblings. And if the Church knows what’s good for them, they won’t make an issue of it either.”

“... Thank you,” he said, trying to put as much weight as he could behind those two simple words. Because he knew the Sacred Gears were a big deal, and yet they were just letting him keep them around. He was actually rather surprised nobody had tried to talk about Alphecca Tyrant or Incinerate Anthem with him before.

“Don’t mention it,” she told him, leaning forward and giving him a peck on the lips. “Now, Valerie?”

So, in a few minutes, both of them were sitting with Valerie. He’d offered to give Gabriel back the piece of the Grail so that she could give the dhampir the thing herself. Alas, she’d insisted that he do so, since he’d been the one mostly caring for the girl and also the one she’d interacted with the most. So…

“Warm!” the dhampir called when he approached her, beaming like a child on Christmas. A second later though, she seemed to be a little confused by his actions when he walked right up to her, took her hand and placed the piece of the Grail in it. After that, Valerie looked like she wanted to say something else, but her eyes fixed on the golden object and she remained silent afterwards for a long moment, maybe even a few minutes. Until, eventually, she spoke again. “This is nice.”

That was two more words than she’d ever managed to string together by herself, Joshua noted immediately. Not only that, but he could see a change in her expression, in her eyes. No longer were they misty and unfocused. No longer was her expression half-vacant and half-delirious. There was a newfound sharpness to it, even if it was very subtle.

“Thank you,” she said, turning towards him and giving him a smile she’d given him a lot before. This time it was more soft, less toddler-like and more… meaningful. “Thank you,” she repeated, her voice almost raw and her eyes a little watery.

“You’re welcome, Valerie,” he replied, smiling and giving her hand – still wrapped around the Grail piece – a light squeeze. “I’m happy you’re feeling better.”

“I’m Valerie Tepes,” she said, sounding happy to be able to do that much.

“I’m Joshua Davis,” he replied and her even wider grin made him return the gesture himself.

“Thank you, Joshua Davis,” she said and he chuckled. He had a feeling that she’d be saying that a lot. However, looking at her and checking her soul, he realized that her situation had changed, almost like there was a shadow of something in the spaces where her soul had been torn apart. Not quite replacements, but certainly better than the gaping holes they had been before.

And that was incredibly reassuring, in a time where the world seemed to hang by a thread that he had to hold.

[}-o-{]

Joshua stabbed forward and he felt how good the spear was.

It was similar to the feeling of casting a new spell that worked exactly as intended, but with every single motion. Slashes, thrusts and even strikes with the shaft of it gave the same feeling, every single time. It also reminded him of Carnwennan, not only in general feeling of the weapon, but also filling him with that confidence the dagger did when going for a sneak attack at the target’s weakness.

Using True Longinus was proving to be an experience, that was for sure.

[Spear Mastery has gone up a level.]

He paused his motions as the screen popped up and took a deep breath in.

‘Using a spear is a lot different than using daggers or swords though,’ he mused, pointing the weapon down and taking a moment to recover his breath. He’d just gotten the spear, but he already was adding it to his schedule, because he couldn’t not to. Besides, he’d gotten the thing for a reason.

With a deep breath in, Joshua glanced to the side at another screen, the one he’d actually been working on.

[Spear Mastery – Lvl 15/100

Determines the user’s ability to fight with a spear.

Increases damage output when fighting with a spear by 15%.

Increases Dexterity when fighting with a spear by 7.5%.]

Nothing too impressive, but Pierce was actually rather interested in how the skill could possibly increase the damage of something which’s damage was already absolute. Maybe it’d just boost the Holy damage? All the same, the skill also doubled as a way to, potentially, help him achieve the primary goal he had when he tried to get his hands on the weapon.

Well, that and having a surefire way to kill the people that had made his life become as complicated as it had. He’d actually be kind of pissed if he couldn’t manage to get True Longinus through at least one top member of Khaos Brigade. The ones that were still around, that is.

Speaking of goals and Khaos members though.

‘Time to address the elephant in the room and stop being a coward,’ he thought to himself, getting some agreements and encouragement from the Egyptians. ‘You better not be lying to me, by the way,’ he projected, getting plenty of reassurances. Even more of the gods and goddesses seemed to take offence to his doubts though, but he thought he could be excused.

Ignoring the now kind of angry deities, Joshua turned to the side, where a very scared Georg was currently being basically surrounded by people. Raynare stood to his side, while Kuroka sat on the bench next to his, looking as comfortable as could be. His familiars had spread themselves around and Nagini in particular seemed to make the Dimension Lost holder tense.

“Georg,” he called, making the magician stiffen. “You said you can do it, go ahead,” he ordered and the man gulped and nodded. Off to the side, Joshua saw Yasaka, Serafall and Gabriel appear almost immediately after he sent a quick message. They had all wanted to be there for his next “bout of madness”, as they called it.

Not that he blamed them.

Regardless, he turned to Georg, who had made his way to where he was, and gripped True Longinus a little more tightly as he prepared himself. As he did, he was more reassured by the fact that the Egyptians seemed to strengthen the connection they shared with him even more, at the same time that several of them coursed through it towards him. It wasn’t quite the same as channeling them, but they were no longer communicating through the hook they’d placed on him.

No, instead, they had moved their presences to where he was, almost like guardian angels peeking over his shoulder.

“Go for it,” he told Georg and the man nodded, extending his hand and producing the purple mist of Dimension Lost. The thing covered both of them in no time at all…

And in the blink of an eye, he was in a place that he could not comprehend. Like being dropped in space, with nothing around at all. Except, instead of the blackness of the void, the whole place was of a color that he couldn’t name, a color he was seeing for the first time and could not describe. Unnerving as that was, however, it was nothing when compared to the hostility that permeated that space, eating away at his magic, reinforced by the gods and goddesses with him, like he was surrounded by energy consuming fire that he couldn’t see.

‘So… this is the Dimensional Gap,’ Joshua thought, gulping.

Still, pushing aside his unease, he closed his eyes and pushed out with his other senses, especially Magic and Life Sense. What he got was… confusing, to a horrifying degree. He understood absolutely nothing from what he was picking up in either sense. Furthermore, when the gods and goddesses that had hitched a ride on him decided to help him a little more than just protecting him from the Dimensional Gap, he got a whole lot more… that told him absolutely nothing.

It was like trying to read Chinese when all you knew was English, except that instead of only being confusing, it was also unnerving, frightening and aggressive. All the same, Joshua persisted as much as he could, bashing his head against that wall while trying to understand something. Any progress would be better than no progress.

Seconds passed and then minutes, and with the passage of time, his reserves of magic kept depleting. There was no escaping that, unfortunately. The Dimensional Gap was not only strange and disturbing, but also hostile. The place seemed to actively be dangerous and very much damaging, eating away at his presence there like a body fighting off a disease.

“... Mr. Davis,” he heard and he turned to see Georg sweating bullets, floating by his side. He’d almost forgotten the guy was there, if he was entirely honest. Almost, but definitely not. The man was his passage into the Dimensional Gap and out of it. So, he couldn’t afford to let him do anything other than staying by his side while he tried to gather data.

“Let’s go back,” he replied, acknowledging the unspoken plea. Credit were credit was due, even while running out of magic and likely risking plenty, Georg hadn’t demanded to go back, nor had he been obnoxious about it. Maybe all those research sessions had been worth something other than the information Joshua gathered.

Who’d have thought?

A moment later, and after being covered in purple mist again, they appeared almost in the same spot where they’d disappeared. There, Joshua took a deep breath in, savoring the down right cozy nature of his world. It was like coming inside the warm house after walking through the streets in winter, but a thousand times better.

“That was unpleasant,” he said, steading his breath as best he could. It wasn’t saying much though, considering how shaken he’d been left. Georg didn’t look any better than Joshua felt either, so he imagined it was normal. “And this is going to be difficult,” he added, lips pursed.

The Dimensional Gap was a lot of things, but silent wasn’t one of them.

Joshua had a feeling that, first, he’d have to figure out what the hell Ophis even meant by Silence. Easier said than done, but he had to do it anyway. There were no ifs or buts when it came to that matter. He had a feeling that Ophis wouldn’t care for excuses. That meant that he had to succeed, no matter what.

“Did you expect something different?” Yasaka asked him, somewhat dry and somewhat sad.

“No,” he answered wryly. “But I hoped so.”

“No such luck~” Serafall chimed in, skipping around him and then draping herself on his back and peeking over his shoulder. He was pretty sure she just wanted to touch him though. Looking at all three of them, they looked like they’d been uneasy, which he knew was reasonable. He’d have felt the same if they were the ones going to the Dimensional Gap, especially after being there himself.

The place felt like a death trap, even with all the precautions he had in place.

“Now what?” the Satan asked him and he took another deep breath in and then let it out in a long sigh. That was the question, wasn’t it? He didn’t even know where to begin, if he was honest. Alas, nobody was going to wait for him to figure things out…

“Now I need to think,” he mumbled, running his fingers through his hair and trying to order his thoughts. “Anyone wants to join me for some tea?” he asked and he received three raised eyebrows and intent stares. “Well, let’s go then. Raynare, Kuroka, keep an eye on him, will you?!”

“Of course!”

“Sure thing~”

For good measure, apparently Nagini had found it amusing to torture Georg and she wanted to continue to do so. That’s what Joshua gathered through her hiss and what she sent through their bond. He almost felt bad for the poor bastard.

Almost, but not really.

[}-o-{]

‘First order of business is to make a void,’ he noted to himself, already starting to write down ideas in his notebook for that. It wouldn’t even be difficult, to make a perfectly silent space. Blocking out any other sense would be similarly simple, really, if a little tricky in regards to those that he didn’t often make illusions for.

Although, maybe he wouldn’t have to use illusions.

It might actually be better not to.

‘Gotta block energies too, magic, life and anything else,’ he added afterwards, and that would be a little more difficult, especially all together and with plenty of more magic that’d be necessary later. By itself, none of that was complicated or hard, but all at the same time? That’s when things got problematic. He’d deal with that though.

‘Third step… profit?’ Joshua thought, somewhat frustrated. He still had no ideas about how to start replicating the Dimensional Gap. It was so unnatural that he couldn’t even comprehend it, nevermind emulate it. ‘How am I supposed to do that?’ he wondered, picking up his cup of tea and taking a sip.

When that didn’t help him at all, he leaned back, huffed and looked up at the ceiling as if it’d give him answers.

It didn’t, but it brought attention to him though.

“Having trouble?” Gabriel asked.

“Yes,” he admitted freely with a helpless chuckle. “I think the fact that I have to be quick about this isn’t helping,” he added, and that was nothing but the truth. It’d have been difficult enough without a deadline. Nevermind the fact that the destiny of his family hanged on him succeeding, at least partially, before that deadline. “Barely can get my thoughts going, honestly.”

“I haven’t been to the Dimensional Gap a lot, believe it or not,” Serafall commented, joining the conversation, leaning to one side and then the other on her chair like an upside down pendulum. He didn’t have a hard time believing that though, despite her words. He had a very easy time believing that everyone stayed the fuck away from that place, actually. “But I do get the issue. Like, how do you even begin to mimic one of the things there? Even the color of the place is… one would think it’d be black, right? But nope.”

“Yeah, I mean, I thought it’d be a void worse than space, so it’d be some flavor of black. You know, absence of light, but it’s…” Joshua said, struggling to explain. That was the crux of the matter, right? He couldn’t understand, let alone explain. “It’s like there is something there, the place is filled with something, just not anything we have over here, so…” he continued, before pausing.

What if the Gap was filled with something? He’d just assumed it was empty, like a void, because he imagined it like it was space. Just like there was void in space between planets, the Gap was a void between dimensions. But what if that wasn’t it? What if there was something there, filling up the space, like… like insulation, sort of? What if there was something there, aggressively corrosive – for lack of a better term – to everything that was not itself?

What then?

‘What if that’s the Silence Ophis wants?’ Joshua thought, blinking and considering that for a long moment. He didn’t feel like he was closer to a solution or anything, but he had something which was more than he had before.

‘So, I have to find a way to replicate an element that doesn’t exist anywhere but in the Gap, as far as I know,’ he wrote down, eyes narrowed and lips pursed. ‘Or I need to create more void than the absence of everything, somehow.’

Neither option sounded possible, not even remotely. They sounded like nonsense, plain and simple. Yet, they were all that Joshua had to work with, at that very moment, so… So they’d have to do.

“Well… now I have something, at least,” he mused out loud, looking at his ideas and considering them. On the one hand, he’d need to investigate for any clues of the “mystery element” that filled the Gap. On the other, he’d need to see how to deprive something of everything and then push it past that. “How do I do this though?” he mumbled to himself, leaning down once more and starting to note down things, random ideas that hopefully would develop into something usable at some point.

Then, at some point, Joshua paused and looked up.

“Uh… sorry,” he whispered, looking at the three pairs of very amused eyes. Serafall burst into giggles and Gabriel’s smile widened. Yasaka, for her part, just raised an eyebrow at him from where she sat across from him. “I got… a little carried away.”

“Business as usual then,” the youkai replied, her lips twitching up. “Don’t worry about it, Joshua. We get it.”

“It’s kind of endearing, actually,” the angel commented, running her fingers through his hair over his ear as if tucking back non-existent strands of hair.

“The focused look is hot,” Serafall said bluntly, catching him off guard. But then Yasaka nodded and Gabriel remained suspiciously silent, which was all he needed to know their opinions on the matter. “Feel free to get back to it,” the Satan added with a wide grin. “We’ll be here when your magnificent brain gets tired, yeah?”

“Don’t you have work?” he asked with a half-smile.

“One of us will stay,” Gabriel answered firmly.

“We have to make sure you don’t fry that, as Serafall put it, magnificent brain,” Yasaka added. “We kind of need you capable of thinking after all is said and done.”

“I’ll do my best,” he replied with an amused snort.

“You do that, magic man~” Serafall told him, twisting where she sat beside him and then dropping her head on his lap. “Don’t mind me. Go on.”

With a chuckle and a shake of his head, Joshua turned back to his notebook.

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

The Dimensional Gap will, understandably, be a struggle for Joshua. This is something that kind of bothers me in other series when it comes to Ophis. The way they take the Silence thing literally. If it were just about making a place not have any sound, she’d make that happen herself, or just go out to space, where there’s literally no sound.

So, Joshua will have to struggle with that for a bit.

Then again, I’ve thought similarly before and then have him put everything together in way too short a time.

Stupid magic genius.

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: Have you ever gone to watch any kind of sports event in person? Personally, I have not, neither do I care for it. I feel like doing that would be worse than watching it on TV. On TV you have a lot more information about what’s happening.

See you.