To say that Steph was uncomfortable would have been the understatement of the century. She had never been one for extravagant parties, and this particular banquet was the most overblown thing she had ever attended. In large part this was because she and Sarah weren’t merely treated as honored guests, but rather deities made flesh. It was all extremely unnerving to someone like Steph. While she was certainly no stranger to being lauded for her accomplishments, being elevated to the status of deity was a bit much. Although she very much wanted to protest the guests’ treatment of her, she found she didn’t have the heart to try to convince such a vast crowd of people that all their desperate hopes and cherished beliefs were nothing more than meaningless fairy tales. Thus, she resigned herself to politely thanking each supplicant as they lavished their gifts upon her and trying her best to keep up a pleasant demeanor.
However, while her visage may have been serene, her mind was anything but. She was constantly on the lookout for any sign of Tornel’s all-too-likely machinations. Although she hadn’t discovered anything malicious so far, she couldn’t help but worry that the wizard was plotting something sinister behind their backs, and so she had taken the precaution of employing her nanites to surreptitiously inspect each item of food presented to her. Thankfully, none of it had proven poisoned, but Steph wasn’t about to take any chances. After all, if an attempt on their lives was to be made, the commotion and noise of the banquet would serve as the perfect cover for it.
If there was any saving grace, it was that Sarah seemed to be attracting the lion’s share of attention. This was most likely due to the fact that a depiction of her featured prominently in the vast mural painted upon the ceiling above them. Steph was thankful a rendition of herself was not included in the piece. Even if her absence offered only a slight degree of additional anonymity, she was only too happy to take it.
“Nopey wopey~! (giggle!)” MDP replied cheerfully after Ronin asked if she’d seen the dragon girl before. “Buuuut, a meanie weanie person worsen who looks like that did some really nasty wasty thingie wingies to a super secret wecret placey wacey that belongs to Magical Dream Princess’s most favorite wavorite person worsen in the whole wide worldsie~!”
It was about then that Dina made her appearance and asked to parlay. Connie didn’t really understand much of what was going on, but the tension in the air was palpable. At least to anyone who wasn’t MDP. Connie’s eyes widened as she watched the cheerful girl skip over to Dina and start giving head pats to the dolphin she was holding. A dopey smile began to spread across Connie’s mask as she watched this incongruous scene play out, and she couldn’t help but giggle at the sight.
“O-Oh my gosh,” Connie whispered as a blush colored the cheeks of her mask and a pair of tiny stars seemed to appear in its black eyes. “T-That’s so adorable…!”
A part of her wanted to run over and join MDP in petting the cute dolphin, but her timid nature, combined with the knowledge of how serious the situation truly was, gave her pause.
After the brief negotiations failed to achieve any meaningful results, Dina surprised the Infiltration Team by casting a reinforcement spell on them.
“Oh wowie~! That tickles~! (giggle!)” MDP squealed as she was infused with the spell’s power. “Like, super duper thankie wankies~! (giggle!) Bye bye, for nowie, Dina Wina and Danny Wanny~!” she added as the pair departed. “It was, like, sooo super duper nice to meet you~! (giggle!)”
“You have my deepest thanks for the assistance, your Majesty,” Gaia added with a graceful curtsy. “Your generosity and desire for peace will not soon be forgotten.”
“Y-Yes! T-Thank you!” Connie managed to call out before the cat girl disappeared through a nearby door.
Not wasting a moment longer, Alicia led the team up the stairs, with FanFan (or Eli, as the case may be) taking point. Moving up to the door Dina had left through, the Ascendancy girl summoned her mechanical arms and prepared to barge into the chamber beyond. However, Alicia instructed her to wait, her attention fixated on something below them. A moment later, she gave voice to what, informing them that she had discovered a small room under the stairs, perhaps the location of Mariette’s mysterious “information expert”. Connie was slightly startled when Alicia asked if she could employ a nightmare pulse to flush out anyone who might be inside it, but she quickly composed herself enough to offer a response.
“O-Okay,” she told the Beacon girl shakily. “I-I’ll d-do my b-best!”
Turning to face the room in question, Connie closed her eyes in concentration.
I can do this, she told herself as she slowly breathed in and out, in an attempt to calm her badly frayed nerves. I can do this!
Gathering her power, Connie made sure to focus on just the room and its potential occupants, before sending out a relatively low-powered beam of condensed nightmare magic. She waited a few moments for any reaction, but nothing happened.
“U-Um, I d-don’t t-think it w-worked…” she noted, pointing out the obvious. “S-Sorry…”
“Like, don’t be sad, Connie Wonnie~!” MDP told her, while giving the masked girl a hug. “You did your besty best, so that’s, like, all that matter watters~! (giggle!) And, like, there totally wotally might not have even been anybody wody in there in the first placey wacey~!”
“Or they could have defenses in place to guard against such an attack,” Gaia mused.
She was about to ask Alicia if they should give the room a closer look, when something emerged from the door in front of FanFan and sent the disguised Ascendancy girl flying backwards with considerable force. Immediately after that, a sonic trap activated, the mighty, ear-piercing thunderclap causing Connie, Gaia, and MDP to wince in pain and cover their ears against the cacophonous assault.
“Owie! Owie! Owie!” MDP whined. She knew this was bad, but her pounding head wouldn’t let her focus enough to allow her to conjure her Dream Barrier.
The next instant, the stairs they were standing on turned to ice, which tried to surge over their feet and freeze them in place. Simultaneously, various members of the Infiltration Team were assailed with webs, explosive artifacts, and blasts of pure magical energy, as several magical and monster girls appeared around them. Before she even realized what was happening, Connie screamed in pain, as a shimmering spike of condensed magical wind pierced her shoulder. The wound was not particularly large, and the spike didn’t perforate anything vital, but it was still agonizingly painful. Clutching her bleeding shoulder, the masked girl dropped to her knees, her body shuddering, while black tears streamed down the sides of her mask.
“CONNIE!” Gaia cried in horror at the sight of her friend’s plight. The attack had happened so fast, and she was still recovering from the effects of the sonic trap. Thus she had been completely unable to protect her friend, but she would make up for that now…
“YOU BITCH!” she roared, turning to face the source of Connie’s torment. Focusing her mystic power, the verdant magical girl sent a dense cloud of seeds hurtling towards Lea. Just before reaching her, they exploded into growth, forming a writhing mass of wickedly spiked tendrils. These swiftly enclosed around the monster girl, intending to brutally shred her apart.
Meanwhile, MDP found herself about to be engulfed by a massive blast of fire. She was just fast enough to fire a blast from her wand a moment before the conflagration struck, its rainbow beam causing the flames directly in front of her to transform into a shower of harmless glitter. It was then that MDP saw where the fiery attack had come from.
“Hey~!” MDP cried excitedly, her eyes lighting up at the sight of the draconic monster girl. “Like, is your namey wamey Mayra Wayra~?! ‘Cause, if it is, then Magical Dream Princess wants to have a talky walky with you~!”
Steph raised an eyebrow at Peter’s terrified demeanor.
“Seriously?” she asked Peter with a chuckle. “You’re afraid of heights? Your home town was built on top of a mountain!”
“Y-Yes, that’s true,” Peter conceded. “B-But I never really ventured outside all that often, and I never got close to the c-cliffs…”
“I guess that explains it, then,” she noted, although she still found it amusingly ironic.
Steph’s attention was soon drawn back to Sarah, who was asking about Draygon and his intentions. It was something that had been poking at the back of Steph’s mind as well. Who was this Draygon, and how was he able to create monsters like the harpy she’d fought back at Tinkertown? From what she had been able to gather, the so-called “Wizards” were simply people who had learned how to utilize some facet of old world knowledge or technology. Was this the case for Draygon as well? If so, then he had certainly acquired a knowledge of science far in advance of that displayed by the rest of this depressingly medieval world. However, before Sir Gravy could answer Sarah’s question, or Steph could give voice to one of her own, they were interrupted by the arrival of a youthful squire.
“P-Please pardon the intrusion, Sir Gravy,” the squire stammered, clearly out of breath. “But I come bearing a message from Master Tornel. He has instructed me to request that you…” His voice trailed off as he noticed the two young women present. “O-Oh, good heavens!” he exclaimed, prostrating himself in supplication. “Please forgive your lowly servant, mighty Oracles!” he pleaded. “I did not mean to disturb you with my presence!”
“D-Don’t worry,” Steph told the messenger gently, more than a little taken aback by his reverence towards Sarah and herself. “You didn’t do anything wrong, and there’s really no need for you to be afraid of us,” she added with a reassuring smile, while kneeling down and placing a hand on the squire’s shoulder. “We’re regular people, just like you.”
The young man gasped as he felt Steph touch his shoulder, but calmed slightly upon seeing her kind smile. Now that he looked at her face, she didn’t appear to be any different than a normal person. And yet, she was an Oracle, a divine messenger of the Ancients! How could she be so… humble?
That thought was quickly banished when Sir Gravy spoke up.
“Young squire! You spoke of a message from Master Tornel! Out with it lad! What new task awaits?!”
“M-My apologies, sir! M-Master Tornel wishes for you to escort the Oracles to their chambers and watch over them until the feast tomorrow. I would have informed you sooner, but I was told you would be in the library, and when you weren’t there…”
“Not to fret, young squire!” Sir Gravy reassured him. “Your quest to locate us was successful, and you have imparted the message entrusted to your care. You have done quite well indeed! What pray tell is your name, young squire?”
“S-Squire Toast, sir.”
“Well, then, Squire Toast, I shall be sure to mention your exemplary service when next I speak with both Master Tornel and His Majesty, the King!”
“T-Thank you, sir!”
“Think nothing of it, lad!” the paladin replied with a hearty laugh. “A job well done deserves to be recognized!”
“Wait, you mentioned a feast?” Steph asked.
“Why, yes! Of course! Master Tornel is preparing a grand banquet in your honor! There will be music and entertainers of all kinds! Master Tornel has demanded only the best for our Mighty Oracles!”
“Tornel’s setting this up?” Steph asked dubiously. She tried not to scowl at the mention of the wizard, but after his earlier treatment of Sarah and herself, she found it hard not to regard all his actions as highly suspicious.
“Well, from what little I know of it, Project Prometheus was focused on the manipulation of something called ‘Biogenic Energy’,” Steph explained after Peter had inquired about the project. “That’s the kind of energy harnessed by the sword Minoc gave me,” she added, hoping that might make things a bit clearer. “It also had to do with the creation of beings specifically designed to make use of such energy, like Sarah here.”
After Steph asked about potential methods of rapid transit, Peter frowned. “W-Well… There’s the train we took to get here, but, uh, like I said, it only runs between the Castle and Tinkertown…”
“There are also several winged beasts upon which one can ride,” Sir Gravy added. “Of course, they are not simply handed out to just anyone, but I have no doubt that two Oracles of legend, such as yourselves, would most assuredly be granted them, if requested.”
“You can say that again,” Steph agreed, when Sarah noted the daunting task ahead of them. Then Sarah mentioned going to check out the view from the towers, practically dragging Peter along with her. “I guess it wouldn’t hurt to get a look at the local the lay of the land,” Steph reflected with a giggle, as she and Sir Gravy followed after them.
Dana was unsurprisingly taken aback after Victoria revealed that her opponent had indeed been another Ars Magi, or at the very least, something indistinguishable from one. And the Wing of Justice was right, it shouldn’t have been possible, and yet…
“Understood, ma’am,” Dana found herself saying, echoing Nicole’s response to Victoria’s instruction to never mention a word of what they had seen. “Loose lips sink ships, after all,” she added with a nervous chuckle in a half-hearted attempt to bring some levity to the situation. “Or somethin’ like that…”
Although she was as eager as anyone else to learn the true identity of Victoria’s mysterious opponent, Dana knew that the present moment was neither the time, nor place to ask further questions. She was also still a bit annoyed by Astrelle’s disrespectful attitude, but she figured that issue could be addressed at a later date as well, perhaps when she wasn’t fighting to keep her eyes open…
After the Ars Magi had taken her leave, Dana’s exhausted body had wasted no time in returning to unconsciousness. She awoke an hour later, when the airship finally arrived in Palmyra. Feeling a bit more refreshed, Dana gathered up her belongings and followed along with the rest of her new friends, first to a military hospital, and then to their dorms at Nova Lux itself.
“Yeah, I guess it’s not much to look at,” Dana agreed when Penny noted the somewhat ugly aesthetic of the city. “But, when ya think about it, it’s really the people inside the buildings that count,” she added with a grin.
Upon their arrival at Nova Lux, Dana couldn’t help but jump up and punch the air in elation. “All right! We finally made it!” she cheered, before quickly sobering upon catching sight of the glowering visage of the faculty member who was waiting to greet them. “Eh, heh… Sorry about that…” she apologized as she followed the woman inside.
Dana’s cheerful exuberance returned, when she learned that she would be sharing a room with Penny. “Awesome! Put ‘er there, roomie!” she said, while holding her hand up for a high five. “Or, uh, maybe we should just gently fist bump…” she added, remembering the bespectacled girl’s numerous injuries. “And don’t worry, there’s no one else I’d rather be stuck with! I think we’re gonna get along just great!”
Her happy grin spreading from ear to ear, Dana listened as Penny “warned” her about a few things.
“Hey, that’s fine!” Dana reassured Penny after the later said she might be taking some extra long baths. “I totally understand! I like my showers nice and refreshingly chilly, so it’s no problem if ya use up all the hot water. I don’t think I snore too loudly,” she added. “At least, not as loudly as an industrial drill! I’m pretty neat myself, but if I don’t meet your standards, please don’t hesitate to let me know! Oh, and I can sleep through pretty much anything, so don’t worry about that! Feel free to crank up your study music as loud as ya like!”
“I’d love to know the kinds of games and music ya like, and all sorts of other stuff, but I’m sure we’ll have plenty of time to talk about that later. Right now, we should probably hit the sack,” she advised, pointing her thumb at the bed closest to her. “After all, it’s gonna be a big day tomorrow!”
“Like, super duper thankie wankies, Samurai-chan~! (giggle!)” MDP told Ronin cheerfully. “That makes Magical Dream Princess, like, sooo super duper happy wappy~! (giggle!)”
Then came the lasers, followed by the approaching monster patrol, which Connie swiftly dealt with by using her nightmare magic.
“Humph, Magical Dream Princess would have liked to dazzle wazzle them with sweet dreamy weamies instead of giving them awful wawful nightmares,” MDP pouted. “But, like, you did get them to go away without hurting them, so, like, Magical Dream Princess thinks Connie Wonnie did, like, a super duper good job~! (giggle!)”
“T-Thanks…” Connie replied. “I-I’m just g-glad I c-could h-help…” She was still a little shaken up, but she was starting to feel a bit better, especially after seeing how successful her spell had been. Of course, had she known that her actions had caught ???’s attention, and that she was now being placed in the same threat category as Leena, she would have felt considerably more concerned. As it was, her slightly more optimistic outlook quickly changed once they reached the stairs…
No sooner had they started their ascent, than a barrier slammed shut behind them, while above them, a magma bomb detonated with a loud roar and a flash of light. Alicia began snapping orders on how to deal with this latest threat, but before she could finish a single sentence, she would find that the situation had already been taken care of.
“Golly wolly~!” MDP exclaimed as the molten magma spilled down towards them. Not wasting a second, and moving with the swiftness of a hyperactive child on the world’s greatest sugar rush, she conjured her Dream Barrier, fully encapsulating the entire team in a small bubble of warped reality. They would find themselves in a colorful land of fluffy, pastel clouds, stars, hearts, rainbows, unicorns, and other such incredibly whimsical and sickeningly cute things. They would also discover that the deluge of magma had transformed into a torrent of skittles and other small candies. “Mmmm~! Yummy~! (giggle!)” the childish magical girl cheered as she scooped up some of the candy and popped it into her mouth. “Magical Dream Princess just wuvs candy wandy~! (giggle!)”
Just what she needs, more sugar… Gaia thought to herself, while she helped Connie keep her footing as the candy surged around them.
So as to keep the sugary surge from getting too intense, a large cutesy cartoon caterpillar suddenly appeared among them, holding a massive umbrella, which it used to part the candy’s flow. “Like, thankie wankies, Mister Caterpillar Willar thingie wingie~! (giggle!)” MDP told the creature, before giving it a big hug. “Oh, wow~! Like, the candy wandy floody wudy’s all done~! Bye bye for nowies~! (giggle!)” she said with a cute wave as the Dream Barrier dissipated, leaving them in the mansion’s (now magma free) stairway once more.
The moment the Dream Barrier dissolved, Connie fell to her knees, whimpering and clutching her head.
DREAMS!!! the voice of her Patron roared in her mind. SHE WAS USING DREAM MAGIC, EMPRESS!!! SHE IS THE SERVANT OF MY MOST HATED FOE, THE SOVEREIGN OF SWEET DREAMS!!! YOU MUST DESTROY HER EMPRESS!!! YOU MUST ENGULF HER IN ENDLESS NIGHTMARES!!! DO NOT WASTE A MOMENT, EMPRESS!!! DO IT NOW!!!
For a moment, crackling tendrils of dark energy swirled around Connie, before suddenly dissipating as she collapsed with an exhausted sigh.
“Connie!” Gaia cried in alarm as she rushed to her friend’s side. “Are you okay?!”
“Y-Yeah, I-I’m f-fine, Mia,” Connie replied shakily as Gaia helped her to her feet. “I j-just had a l-little p-panic attack, t-that’s all. I-I’m f-feeling b-better n-now,” she added, while giving her friend what she hoped was a reassuring smile.
“All right, little sister,” Gaia said, her eyes still filled with concern. “If you say so. Come on,” she added, “let’s catch up to the others.”
Continuing up the stairs, they found the rest of the team standing in a spacious foyer. Something unpleasant must have recently occurred here, because the entire room was covered in gore, as if some giant creature had been blown to bits. Noticeably free from the bloody mess covering the rest of the room, pictures of several magical and monster girls were hung upon the wall, although one of the images appeared to be blank. Ronin drew their attention to this one, explaining that “she” was an information specialist, who was probably following their every move. This was certainly a bit unnerving, but Ronin went on to add that this mystery girl was probably working from a secluded room. If they could somehow find her, Ronin was fairly sure that she wouldn’t be able to put up much of a fight. After that, she could presumably locate Mariette for them or something. The diminutive samurai wasn’t too clear on that part… In any event, MDP wasn’t really paying too much attention, having been drawn to the portrait of a scaly monster girl in a fiery landscape.
“Oooohhh~! Like, who’s this dragony wagony person werson~?!” she asked Ronin excitedly.
“Indeed I do, Miss Steph!” Sir Gravy replied after Steph inquired about the possibility of finding a map. “Right this way!”
As they followed the paladin, Steph returned Sarah’s sympathetic smile. “Thanks, Sarah,” she told the pink-haired girl. “It was really nice to see her again, even if it was just a holographic recording. Mom worked on a lot of stuff, to be perfectly honest,” she added with a chuckle after Sarah had voiced her question. “As you saw, she even did some work on Project Prometheus, back in its early days, but her real focus was nanotechnology.”
“Aha! Here we are!” Sir Gravy declared, gesturing to a large map.
Steph couldn’t help but gasp at the sight. The land masses depicted looked nothing like the world she had known.
Could Harbinger really have changed the world this drastically…? she thought as she scanned over the map and its legend, committing their various details to memory.
“Hmmm… Even if the world’s geography has been completely altered, and taking into account that this map may not be scaled correctly, we can still use it as a rough guide,” Steph told them as she placed the holographic map atop the physical one. “If we use the complex my parents and I worked in as a starting point,” she began, moving the holo map to place the complex’s location atop where Tinkertown was displayed, “we can extrapolate where these other locations might be found.”
Sarah then spoke up, noting that potential Oracles might be found by following up on rumors of people exhibiting strange abilities.
“Good thinking,” Steph commended. “Although, I doubt such news travels all that quickly these days, unless you have some form of rapid communication I don’t know about,” she added, while glancing at Peter and Sir Gravy.
“Yeah, that’s right,” Steph confirmed after Sarah attempted to answer Peter’s question. “I guess you could say that it’s a bunch of very small artificial workers reassembling the basic components of things, like someone turning a piece of wood into a table or chair.”
A moment later, the holographic display flicked to life, and Steph couldn’t help but give voice to a small gasp.
“Mom…” she whispered as she felt her eyes begin to moisten. She watched in silence, while her mother described her work on Project Prometheus.
She looks so young… Steph reflected. This must have been recorded shortly after I was born…
That seemed about right. After all, Prometheus was clearly still in its early stages, and Dr. Westfield was still alive…
After her mother had concluded her report, a map of the world was displayed, indicating the locations of various facilities linked to Project Prometheus.
“It’s a report from my mom about a project she was working on,” Steph explained to Peter. “And this here is a map of the world. At least, of how the world used to look… I imagine its geography is quite different now,” she added, while adjusting the map so that the globe was now a flat, 2D projection, “but if we can find a more current map, we can superimpose this one on top of it. I don’t suppose you know where we might find one?” she asked, turning to Sir Gravy.
Well, it's been a little over a month since I made my poll, and somewhat surprisingly, Angela is in the lead. I guess she really is the Best Magical Girl, at least among my side characters.
I was also really surprised that Ari of all people voted for Nykannis, the most game-breaking character on the list.
And someone apparently voted for Karen...
Anyway, thanks to all who voted. Now we'll just have to see what I decide to do with these results...
The World
Majoraa
op2024
twave
CitrusArms
Shinny
FaithfulMuse
Lime
Villamvihar
Shadow Dragon
