Weak, she’d allowed these games to make her so pitifully weak under the guise of fairplay. Months of it to the point where all the strength she’d gained to climb Nae’s Garden was a memory. Where valuable tools like [Keen Investigative Awareness] and the power boost from [Mana Rotation] were unused. Now there wasn’t a need to play fair.
The restraints snapped. The weight from the seals that Harmony had been forced to work against was thrown aside, lightening her steps and focusing her vision. Half her skills, most of her bonds, and her stats burst into action. Chronostasis heightened her perception, not quite freezing time, but buying her time to reflect.
Night expanded from under the plates, that slick black covering sliding over her bare skin, growing the new scales, an armored second skin. Now that she knew from the growth chamber that it had an aura being sealed, she could feel the subtle changes it brought to the environment and how everything under the light the armor emitted belonged more to her.
“I’m back.”
That sudden rush of power didn’t make her stupid. It didn’t matter that she was stronger and more well armored; there was no absorbing a punch from an ancient undead able to toss one of the larger shifts of Hyacinth off himself so casually, far away. There was no case where letting him get past the [Final Silence] to use his high level skills like [Evict] would also be good. But somewhere in the servant, he had to be fighting the commands from Rose and thoughts influenced by the unfathomable, because otherwise he’d run from her and not toward her. The ground under her feet cracked as Harmony kicked off to meet Hargreaves.
Lady White had more than one fight brewing to action.
—
Summoned to serve her sworn, Harmony let her unsealed [Heart] draw in the wild threads of fate lashing out from Princess Rose now that she lacked the circlet to filter that power. [Eternal Fable’s Heart] in this temporary body didn’t have that same sense of danger her real body had, not that there was time to dwell on that. Princess Rosaline had the Arrow of Many Things back in her hand; it had been partially used to take Maxwell’s power before, and it represented a threat.
Maxwell hurt, breaking his seals hadn’t done more than a fraction of the improvements she’d seen in herself, and his soul hadn’t enough time to heal from the ravages of restoring his [Chaos Seed] by merging it with the newly bound Saccerate. The Astral energy was still intruding on him, spending more energy trying to surround the skill that birthed her than influence his thoughts, but without the seal, her agent’s soul was nearly a home as much as this body, and those unfathomable threads were the ropes she needed to yank on. [Renew Spirit] moved to heal with [Mend] at the same time she made that metaphysical grip on the invasive energy.
The Princess’s flinch was an opening to move on. Stepping forward, only Max’s words, “Don’t kill her,” slowed her slightly. At least he didn’t say “Don’t hurt her.”
Faster, bigger, and stronger than the Rose, the summon of Harmony dashed forward to grab her… and missed, needing to use [Style and Grace] to slide away from the arrow positioned to impale her if she’d been a tad less cautious.
Rosaline’s stat of spatial awareness was going to be annoying.
“Like I’d let the shadow of the idol who took your life away touch me. You told me how much she refused to accept you after cursing you.” Rose snapped.
“I also said it was my mistake to fix. And you said you’d help!” Max yelled back.
“I was helping. You didn’t see how she was worse than your family. So I took steps.”
Harmony wanted to bury her face in her hands. A lover's quarrel? This was why she abandoned the idea of a love life. As much as she wished she could step aside and let this play out, Rose’s words came with a fresh attack of astral energy and unfathomable influence on Max’s thoughts, and that couldn’t stand undefended.
This would be easy if she didn’t have to watch the amount of chaos being fed to keep this form and use her skills, the power she’d need to finish this battle with. Rose didn’t even have hair to use against her. Even bald, she was still beautiful. A good hairstylist with a bit of magic should be able to fix that up. But at this moment, it limited the angles of attack.
[Keen Investigative Awareness] looked at this tactically. From here, there was nothing she could do, but she wasn’t alone, and one never forgot their allies. Jenny channeled energy onto a fire containing the links she’d removed from Rose’s head. But one pair could help. Behind her back, she signaled Tyler and Loap to join the fight.
—
Having your attention split into two sometimes came with random thoughts about lovers’ spats interrupting your flow while you fought for your life against a powerful undead. [Small Armor] deflecting a glancing blow showed that avoiding direct hits was wise. It didn’t dislocate her shoulder, but it was a near thing.
This shouldn’t even be a fight if the goal was to kill the butler. Even with his repaired legs, the efficiency of [Manipulate Dead] on his body before it was unsealed had the power to rip his body apart. Now that she was free to merge it with [Beauticain], she could find the aesthetics of turning the man’s body into a perfectly smooth ball, and that close hit nearly caused her to do that.
This was a matter of positioning and timing. She needed Hargreaves closer to Rose, and the unfathomable influence active to narrow in on. Step by step, Harmony moved him closer.
“Loyal as ever, Hargeaves. I hope you tell her it was for the best.”
Silenced, he couldn’t respond except to mouth, I will.
Three, two, one, the pieces were in place. Rose’s form crashed down beside their fight, tackled by Loap, Tyler, and the copy of herself.
[Cold Touch] and [Mend] locked the servant in place. [Manipulate Dead] worked with [Claim the remains of Power] and [Renew Spirit] as she shoved a fist in Hargreave’s chest. Harmony gripped the unfathomable influence and followed it back to the source. From the other side, her copy did the same through her connection with Maxwell and the oaths that linked their souls.
Painful as it was to admit, this wouldn’t be possible with the seals still in place. A finer sense was able to pull the unfathomable from both men, separating the influence that had been spread from Rose from the natural astral energy in their containers. The summon, as the safer option, chewed some fate to get a slightly different picture with true sight; she was able to balance with her soul sight from the other side.
Roses’ living defenses fought, but traveling along the already foreign energy gave a pathway that had already damaged the princess’s soul. Without the chain circlet, two bonds in the center of her head were coming apart. The fate and astral bonds had possibly been forcibly merged, and it only took a nudge to split them apart further.
Manipulating fate from her personal experience with [Eternal Fable’s heart] was still difficult. It needed a spot to land before she could focus on the unfathomable. One version was holding that off while another directed it. Not enough hands. [Stride Before the Fall] brought another into the fray.
As the two worked, she watched the mess of a group holding down the struggling princess. Even Maxwell was aghast at the scene, his jaw hanging open.
“The fate bond is naturally drifting toward your fate-oathed engagement with Rose. I don’t think I can stop it and need my attention on the bad parts.”
“Do what you need to do,” Max answered the unasked question.
Harmony gave it that additional nudge to send it spiraling above her heart to that oath connecting her to Max. Max grunted as it hit him, too.
“Removing the influence taking her over and twisting you and Hargreaves will require me to remove it from her memories.” Harmony continued. The mimic had been clear about what was required to wipe the slate clean. Even with the bond gone, the mind might reach back out to that insidious source. It aligned well with Pappi’s knowledge and the danger of contacting Unfathomables.
“She’ll forget our time here?” Max asked, emotion cracking his voice. “We had some real love. She’ll forget it all?”
Harmony couldn’t promise Rose wouldn’t be hollowed out from this. This was battlefield surgery with very little experience and a fork. All she could do was nod. She didn’t wait to see his response, because despite Maxwell deserving to know, she was doing this anyway.
The strided copy entered as another set of hands; time was running out.
[Disintergate], [Recall], and [Renew Spirit] worked together to purge the memories touched by the effect. [Beautician] with [Mend] worked on the damage to retain what might be good. Metaphysically, to get it done, a lot of rules were broken using her stats of connections and synergy. Danger. Danger. Danger. She didn’t need [Recall] to remind her when she turned a book into a puddle of goo, and this was someone's brain, soul, and mind she was working on. [Disintegrate], [Manipulate Dead], and [Claim the Remains of Power] tackled the unfathomable energy in the princess’s soul and the bond that produced it. Three sets of hands were needed.
One set of mental hands grasped that astral bond with [Claim], phasing into sync with the energy to remove and destroy it. As the tips sank in, Harmony’s necromantic sense tapped into the other side and braced for horror.
“Something is happening with the connection. I think the receiver is damaged!” That haughty aristocratic voice felt straight out of a bad play, with an accent she’d seen her mother practice a dozen times until she got it right.
“We fused it to her head. I don’t see that happening unless the candidate has been decapitated. Allowing her to enter the Ascendant Games was a mistake; sending her wherever that is happening has been glitchy. There wasn’t enough time to establish full control.” Answered a second voice, also upperclass but with an edge of anger.
“I’ll increase the negativity.” The voice came back with a hollow vibration that started to shake Harmony’s control. “Can’t have love without hate. Fear everything. Trust no one.”
“It’s time,” one copy told her, having kept that third of her processing on being aware of deadlines. [Disintegrate] with all the rules bent from all of Harmony’s skills, burned the scene and connection before her. The pull was there as Harmony felt the hundred seconds for the princess run out. One last push as Rose left to erase what infected the royal, until she had nothing left to target.
Pulled out, it was everyone surrounding the empty space on the dirt where Rose had been. Jenny cackled at the links that hadn’t gone with the princess.
“Harm.” Maxwell started, only to be whisked away too.
In the distance, Len and Felix jogged onto the scene. “Aw, we missed all the good stuff!” The legate blade yelled as the last thing Harmony saw and heard before she was removed from the games, too.
Time passed in a void. [Recall] wasn’t even able to keep track.
Congratulations! You’ve earned the title: Rebel Challenger.
Remove adverse conditions to see full effects!
A cold stone floor greeted her with a bone-rattling thud as Harmony landed sideways onto her new location.
“That was a bit rougher than the other transitions. Complications, Lady White?” Hemlock's dry, inquisitive tone asked.
The only thing keeping her from punching the guildmaster in the face was that he had company with him. Adric, Bates, and Ambrosia, with a tiny Hyacinth on her shoulder, stood by his side, as well as a surprise guest in Charter Counselor Maekus Von Trell.
Had her magic worked? “Where’s Max and Rose?” Harmony asked while standing up.
Hemlock answered. “They arrived two days ago. As did your familiar and pet. Your transition took a little more time. Some elements have taken umbrage at some of the events that happened in the game, and we have an incensed crowd at the gates calling for your head. Not that they have anything legally actionable, but I’m not sure that matters.”
Bates bowed low. “I’m sorry that I failed to set up House White properly enough to stop this kind of intrusion on your life while you were gone.”
Nonsense. What could the man have done? This is a consequence of her actions and the plots behind the scenes. “You’re forgiven, Bates. Continue doing your best.”
Ambrosia ran in to give her a hug. “Rioters from the capital have burnt down an eighth of Hazeldown.”
Maekus stepped up, still wearing his multicolored outfit. “I am here for a completely unrelated reason. The Charter does not interfere in local politics. Your level of authority has triggered a clause in the Charter for top nobles, and the paperwork has cleared. Your spot has been secured at some of the most prestigious universities in the world. The local one is available too, but I highly recommend you take advantage of a more worldly education. One far away from here.” With a grimace, he looked at Ambrosia and Bates. “Your staff will have to stay here. But we can leave today. It’ll take a week to get there with the paperwork, border checkpoints, and teleportation. You’ll be there in time for fall classes to start.”
Harmony wanted to open her mouth and yell, “But I only got back.” [Poise and Bearing] reminded her that it was improper, but didn’t stop her stiffening at the suggestion.
“Go,” Ambrosia whispered into her ear, continuing after a squeeze, “Plans are in place. We’ll take care of everything until you graduate and get back home. You’ll see. You really will.”
Schooling in an evolved kingdom, Len would be jealous. “Who am I to turn down a requirement of the Charter?”
Bates, as if by magic, which Harmony couldn’t rule out, produced two travel bags.
With everything happening in a rush, Harmony only barely recognized that her heart hadn't stopped beating heavily in her chest since arriving back in Hazeldown.
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