Post-Epilogue Chapter 24: The True Call of a Fake Destiny (Part 2)

There was a short beat of silence hanging in the air around the ancient (in looks, if nothing else) stone dial, with the kids staring at the black-clad magical girl with expressions ranging from pure shock (on Fiia's end) to the typical battle-ready glint in Ichiko's eyes. Xiao was backing her up without a moment of hesitation, Ollie was more confused than anything else, while the celestial twins were a bit more pragmatic and had already started to scan the surroundings.

"I can't see any other enemies," Pais said in a low voice, and her sister nodded.

"I don't sense any, either, but we must remain vigilant. Éolienne's safety is our number–"

She couldn't finish saying that, because Ichiko stepped forward and exclaimed, "Stand aside, villain, or we'll defeat you!"

Oh, snap. We were still at the beginning of this whole project, and she already used the v-word. Wasn't that too soon? Though again, this was supposed to be a mahou shoujo kind of narrative, so maybe throwing the term around a bit more laissez-faire wasn't that big of a deal after all.

"How very brave of you to say that, when you don't have any powers, inheritor of Sonnenwenderetter. Or rather..." Purin paused to put a hand on her cheek and flash a taunting smirk. "... foolish!"

"We'll show you who's without power!" Xiao yelled out while stepping up to Ichiko's side, and she took on a familiar martial arts stance.

Seeing that the two hotheads were about to mess up the plan, the class rep also rushed forward and raised her staff with a hurried, "Stop, children! You can't fight her!"

She was also getting into her mentor role-play, wasn't she? How diligent.

"No, we... we..." Ichiko tried to argue back, but then her words trailed off as she started making strained noises. "A-Actually, I've been feeling a little funny since we came here. Am I the only one?"

"Funny?" Odango Girl echoed her and then shifted her stance a few times, growing more shocked, then alarmed, with each passing second. "W-What happened to my flow of Yin and Yang?"

Hearing that, my Chief Reminders in the back looked at each other with startled eyes and, without a need for words, started humming the same tune. There was no effect. Not even the usual light-show of indescribably non-existent magical colours that accompanied harmonic magics.

"What is it? What happened?" Ollie asked them, and after sharing another glance, Kóre responded first.

"It appears we really are powerless."

Then, after a long beat, Pais commented, "We must retreat and rely on Miss Amelia to hold back the enemy."

"But... what about the legacies of the… um...?" the little Beansprout muttered, but he apparently couldn't recall the term, so he just pointed at the big stone dial. "Those things?"

Before either of the Celestial kids could respond, Fiia let out a high-pitched whine and grabbed Ollie's hand.

"I-I-It doesn't matter! This is dangerous! We need to get out of here!"

Purin was patiently waiting for them until this point, but then she suddenly leaped into the air and landed right in front of Ammy, and thus their little group, making them all take a step back.

"My, my, little Prinzessin? Cowardly, aren't you?"

"I-I'm–!"

"Fiia-chan's not a coward!" Ichiko yelled back at her, shuffling over so that she stood between Purin and her. "She's just... startled? It's normal to be startled!"

"Y-Yeah!" Xiao agreed vehemently, if with a bit of a stutter, as she took up her usual place next to the foxy miko, but even with their bravado, they still made sure to remain behind the class rep, and...

"Time out," I said as I withdrew my point of view from the scene and turned to Judy. "I think their powers really are suppressed. Did we do that? Was that something done by Fulgor, or...?"

"A moment, Chief," Judy stopped me with a finger raised, and then tapped the frame of her artifact. "Titania to Mustarseed. Did you interfere with the Mechanicals? No? In that case, proceed with the C-variant of the script, over."

"Are you still doing the code-names even now? Really?"

My dear assistant didn't respond to that right away, only tapped her glasses a few more times. "Titania to Peaseblossom, just improvise, over."

At last, she seemed to have finished with that and turned to face me.

"Midsummer's Night Dream?" I asked, and she nodded. "Neat. More importantly, what's with the kids' abilities being suppressed? Did you guys do that?"

"I don't think so," Elly chimed in from my other side. "Did you?"

I replied with an incredulous, "No? I don't even know how to do that, but if I did, I wouldn't be asking."

"Oh, that makes sense," the princess concluded, so we both focused on Judy again.

"It is a crucial world-building element of this pseudo-scenario that Fey magic is incompatible with 'normal' magic. The plan was to use and abuse Benjamin's and Purin's Emergent status to create that illusion, but it appears they genuinely lost their abilities within the Sonnenwendenkönigreich version zero point two point six."

Elly and I remained silent for a beat, but then my princess blurted out, "So that's a 'no'?"

"It's a very roundabout way to say it, but yeah," I concurred, then shifted gears to the slightly more serious. "External interference?"

"Most likely," Judy agreed. "It is following the spirit of our planned world-building, but we didn't set it up."

"So either it's Fulgor playing an elaborate prank," I mused, "or it's Id-me having some fun again."

"It is a development following metaphysical rules, so Superego-Chief is a more likely culprit," my dear assistant noted as if it was just a mild curiosity and not something messing up her plans. Or… it wasn't, was it? Maybe that's why she was so calm about it?

"What should we do?" Elly asked over my shoulder, sounding considerable more worried. "Should we pull the plug?"

"I don't think it's necessary," my other girlfriend argued back, one finger on the rim of her glasses again. "If anything, this made the scenario more streamlined and believable. All we have to do is adjust the script to account for it."

She wasn't entirely wrong. We just kind of accepted that, in a crisis, the kids would inevitably reveal their powers to defend themselves, which would then naturally necessitate explaining it all to Fiia, which may or may not would have blown her cover in the process. Of course, Judy insisted that this was perfectly fine 'drama', but it still felt a bit iffy to me, so... maybe that's why my subconscious fragments acted out on their own? Food for thought.

"Honestly, I don't like how we're starting to lose control here, but if you think it's fine, let's just sit back and watch a bit longer."

Judy let out an appreciative hum, and then all three of us returned to the scene at hand, where...

"Unglaublicher Tapioca-Schlag!"

... Purin just sent the class rep flying with a literally exploding haymaker punch. She was, however, quickly snatched out of the air by Petra, whom she must've summoned while we were having a discussion, and she perched on the golem's shoulders with frankly unexpected athleticism. We missed the start of the hostilities, but they must've had a couple of exchanges by this point.

"Hurry, children!" Ammy bellowed while waving her staff over her head. "You must recover the legacies while I keep her occupied!"

In line with what she said, the kids were hastily yet cautiously approaching the ancient-looking stone dial a roundabout way, circling around the gazebo and making sure to stay out of the crossfire.

"Ha! To think you would use yourself as bait, Vertraute!" Purin hollered after them. "A foolish, if commendable sacrifice! But I will not let you–"

Her monologue was cut short when the class rep finished casting her spell, and a bundle of familiar magical chains burst forth from the ground beneath Purin's feet, wrapping her up in the blink of an eye. That was a flashier but considerably less effective version of the class-rep's signature control spell she first used against Lord Marzanna. Speaking of her, I haven't heard about her case in months. Not that it mattered at this moment, but still.

"Oh, how fun!" Purin exclaimed, and that wasn't acting. She really was having a blast. First figuratively, then a literal one when she exclaimed, "Unglaubwürdiger Tapioca-Sockenwelle!"

The space around her lit up with a dark red magical light, causing a violent, rippling explosion that up-turned the ground and shattered the chains binding her into a thousand motes of light, forcing Ammy to raise a defensive barrier that also cracked on impact. But that was only the beginning. Using the spell's recoil, Purin performed a dramatic backflip into the air, only to suddenly stop and yell, "Fantastischer Tapioka-Tritt!" as she descended with a dive-kick that further cracked the defensive ward and made both the class rep and Petra stagger back.

That still wasn't the end of it, as then she used the tattered ward as a foothold to launch herself into the air again, this time directly aiming at the gazebo with the dial in it, while loudly exclaiming, "I'm coming for you, Prinzessin!"

Fiia, understandably, let out a high-pitched, "Eeeek!" at that, while Ollie exclaimed, "Hurry up!" to the twins wrestling with the artifacts embedded in the dial.

"They're not coming out!" Pais whined.

"They're stuck!" Kóre followed, with the two of them tugging and pulling at the two closest artifacts with all their might, to no avail.

Purin landed on the edge of the stone foundation, hard enough to make the whole structure shake, and began to slowly and deliberately walk towards the group. One casual step after the other, the very image of an arrogant villain savouring her inevitable victory. Great work. Note to self: make sure to praise her later and give her lots of head pats.

But back to the action: Ammy was a good distance away from the kids, as the two of them had been fighting on the grassy patch between the forest and the gazebo. Not far, but far enough that she wouldn't be able to intervene right away. Just as planned.

At this point, her role was to look frantic and yell, "Fiia! Touch the Dial of Destiny, quick! It's the only way!" which she did with admirable immersion.

Unfortunately, the little incognito Magi was way, way too spooked to do that, as was evident by her terrified squeaks and by her hiding behind Ollie so thoroughly that she looked like she wanted to fuse with his back. On the other hand, at least the little Beansprout was quick on the uptake, and since they were still holding hands all this time, he began to pull the frightened girl with him towards the dial.

Purin slowed down, just a little bit, to give them time to reach it, and when Ollie forced Fiia's hand onto the stone...

"Light-show, go!" Elly exclaimed next to me so suddenly it nearly knocked me out of Far Sight.

"Ack!"

I quickly reoriented myself...

"Ack! Again!"

… only to then immediately get flash-banged by the dial lighting up with every colour of the rainbow at once. There was a strangely rhythmic hum in the air, accompanied by bursts of wind chimes and other ethereal noises, as all the artifacts embedded into the sundial suddenly popped out of their recesses and hovered over their assigned spots, lazily rotating in place.

"What is happening?" Fiia cried out, her eyes wide as she stared at the glowing relics with a mixture of fright and awe.

For once, I didn't have to ask who did this bit, because this was my handiwork. Getting the whole 'hovering in place' thing was, against all expectations, the hardest part of that whole enchantment, but it was a pretty neat effect, so I felt like I deserved a pat on the back. But that was for later, because back in the scene, the kids were completely stunned.

"Whoa..." Ollie breathed out, letting go of Fiia's hand to reach for one of the floating objects. He didn't get to touch it, though, because at that exact moment, Purin lunged forward and yelled, "Oh, no, you don't! Zerschmetternder Tapioca-Schlag!"

...

Another note to self: give her even more headpats later, because memorising all of these attack names deserved some recognition. Then a forehead-flick, for adding 'Tapioca' into all of them.

Anyhow, she flew over the heads of the children and, with a deafening boom, hit the Dial of Destiny dead in the centre with both feet. It was called a 'moonsault dropkick', if Elly was to be believed. It was a little over the top, and not very practical, but this was supposed to be a low-stakes/high-energy kind of pseudo-scenario, so a bit of excess and rule-of-cool was allowed.

"Controlled demolition, go!" Elly exclaimed with mounting excitement, and then the ancient-looking stone dial exploded into dozens of pieces, large and small, the shockwave sending the kids stumbling back. Ammy waited for her cue and raised a new barrier, just to make sure nobody would get hit by the debris. All in all, everything was working out like a well-oiled machine.

As for the twelve artifacts, they didn't get shattered. In fact, even before Purin's kick hit its target, they were already sent flying every which way, drawing colourful trails into the sky before disappearing with a twinkle. Exactly as planned.

"No!" the class rep yelled, her voice filled with absolutely believable shock. I had to admit, Ammy really was going above and beyond the call of the role. Next note to self: treat her to some extra desserts at the cafeteria one of these days. "The relics! They've been scattered!"

"Hehehe!" Purin cackled from her perch on top of the ruined base of the dial. She had her hands on her hips, her chest puffed out. "Did you think that Tapioca Schwartz would let you have the ancient power of the Sonnenwenderetter that easily? How foolish! How naive!"

"Dramatic entrance, go!" Elly exclaimed again, but this time I braced myself ahead of time.

Back in the ruined gazebo, Purin's laughter died off when the space around her began to shimmer. The very colour seemed to be draining out of her surroundings, replaced by a stark, monochrome palette. Then, blink-and-you-miss-it, a jagged, maw-like hole in space appeared right above her, and from it, a new actor descended onto the stage. He landed with an unnerving silence, his feet making no sound on the cracked stone.

It was... Well, no need to beat around the bush. It was obviously Benny in his white Ivory Prince costume from before.

"Ah. To be roused from my slumber once more," he started with great gravitas, and then paused to let the ambient, sombre music swell, which...

"Seriously, where is that soundtrack even coming from?"

"Hush, Chief," my dear assistant scolded me without looking over. "We're at the most important part."

Shaking my head, I focused on the scene, where Purin turned around and descended to one knee with practised motions.

"Ah, my Elfenbeinprinz!"

Benjamin glanced at the kids on the edge of the gazebo, clustered behind the class rep, then at the girl at his feet, and seeing that everything was more or less on track, he extended a hand towards Purin.

"Rise, Tapioca Schwartz, my loyal retainer."

Purin grabbed the outstretched hand and rose to her feet, then froze up when Benny didn't let go of her. Still, after a long moment of hesitation, she stuck to the script and said, "W-What brings you here, your grace?"

"A great shift of power that shook the very Fey Wylds," he responded with theatrical flair, making sure to speak loud enough for the audience to hear it properly. "Tell me, servant of mine? Was it you who scattered the legacies of the Sonnenwenderetter?"

"I... had no choice, your grace! It was an emergency!"

Benny smirked at first, but then forced his lips into a genuine-looking smile as he said, "Fret not, Tapioca Shwartz. I won't blame you for your zeal. As they are right now, the powers of the Warriors of Solstice would've been wasted on these so-called 'inheritors', but it doesn't mean we should make things easy for them."

I had to bite back a laugh. He was really into the roleplay, wasn't he? Considering how much he was dragging his feet and complaining about having to do this during the rehearsals, it was quite the turnaround.

"You're right, my great Elfenbeinprinz!"

Benny let out a low chuckle and raised Purin's hand high, much to her apparent confusion. I was pretty sure that wasn't in the script.

"My time awake is short, so let us not waste it on these curs," he said, and then without warning, he lightly kissed Purin's fingers, like an old-timey gentleman, making the girl freeze up completely.

…

Okay, I was ninety-nine percent sure that wasn't in the script, but before I could ask, he finally let go of her hand and returned to the plan by sweeping his arm out with a flourish. With a snap of his fingers, another jagged portal opened up behind them and swallowed them whole.

"... Dormouse?"

"Yes, Chief?" Judy responded, as if waiting for my interjection all along.

"What was that?"

She thought for a moment, then said, "Ad-lib?"

"I liked it!" Elly chimed in from the other side, and while I had other things in mind, I just shook my head for now.

"Fine, whatever. I'm going to pick up the kids now, be right back."

True to my words, I immediately Phased away from the room. As a fully-fledged Emergent, Benjamin could effectively disappear and reappear at will by extracting from and then re-inserting his Definition into the Simulacrum, Purin obviously couldn't do the same yet. These ugly, maw-shaped portals of his were the next best thing he had, but they had limited range, so it was still more efficient for me to manually grab and ferry them around within the Simulacrum, even if it was a hassle.

Anyhow, the whole thing took less than five seconds, and I was already back, with a smugly smiling boy (-shaped cosmic eldritch abomination) on my right, and a completely stunned girl (-avatar of a mini-shoggoth hive-mind) on my left.

"Good job, kids!" Elly welcomed them back at once, causing Benny's smile to falter.

"I'm not a kid," he snapped back, while Purin remained in a daze. Not for long, though, because her whole body shuddered all of a sudden, and she hastily pulled off her left glove.

"Papa? Purin needs new gloves. The gnawer put his lips on this one. It's icky now."

"Serves you right!" Benjamin scoffed at her, and the two of them were back to glaring daggers at each other. "I told you I'll get back at you for your insults, did I not?"

"But it was dirty! And underhanded! And stupid!"

"Are you calling me stupid again? How dare you?!"

"But you are! Stupid gnawer, ruining Purin's punching gloves!"

"Well, at least I'm not so stupid I can't even consume sauerkraut properly!"

Purin puffed up her cheeks and stomped her feet, quite befitting of her appearance.

"Nyuuu! Why do you keep bringing that up?! Purin hates you!"

"But not as much as I hate you!"

"No, Purin hates you, like... infinity plus one times more!"

"That doesn't even make mathematical sense!"

"Purin's hatred transcends mathematics!"

...

And so on and so forth. The two of them went at it without paying any attention to their surroundings, while I sighed and turned to my dear assistant. Or rather, I tried to turn to my dear assistant, only to find her already facing my direction, a finger tapping on her glasses.

"Chief, we have a situation."

"Is something wrong?" my princess asked at once, her brow furrowed in worry, but Judy remained impassive.

"Not sure. We're deviating from the script again."

Blinking, I immediately cast my point of view back to the gazebo on the cliff, and then got magically flash-banged for the second time in a row today. It took me a second to reorient myself, and when I did, I found everyone (including the class rep)completely flabbergasted, stupefied, and maybe even bamboozled, when the pieces of the broken sundial started floating in the air. They roughly formed the same circle as before, and each piece was shining so hard it was hard to look at them.

"Fiia-chan! Look out!"

That warning was coming from Ichiko, obviously, but Xiao held her back from rushing in, a rare display of caution on her part. The little magi was the only one standing in front of the shattered dial, her hand still reaching out and frozen in place. She must've approached it again after Ammy gathered the kids to give the post-event debrief. Except...

"Fear not, Inheritors," a melodious voice spoke, and thousands of small motes of light began to swirl around the broken dias, fusing and merging until forming a vaguely humanoid form with a vaguely dress-like outfit floating vaguely over the floor. If it wasn't clear yet, it was pretty vague, but more importantly...

"Okay, I'm one hundred percent sure we didn't do that," I said flatly and got ready to move out. "Should we abort?"

"Not yet," Judy stopped me with a slight frown.

I understood that she was really attached to this pseudo-scenario, but this was the definition of 'things going off the prepared rails', and the safety of the kids was paramount.

"Dormouse, we can't have our kids get into an unscripted encounter. Especially with their powers turned off."

"Let's give it a minute. The presence is not hostile so far. If it turns out to be, we'll abort immediately."

We locked gazes for a second, but I lost the silent battle and nodded.

"Fine. If there's even a hint of danger, though, I'm moving first, asking later. Deal?"

"Fair," she said, and then we both re-focused our attention on the strange floating figure in the fairy-tale pocket realm.

"What is that?" Ichiko whispered. "Another villain?"

"Stay behind me," Ammy said to the kids as she stepped forward with her staff at the ready. She was on high alert, but the floating apparition remained serene.

"You have faced the ire of the Ivory Prince, his machinations scattering the very gifts you were meant to inherit." The entity's voice echoed, sounding vaguely female but impossible to tell how old. "But fate is a tapestry woven with many threads. The Sundering of the Dial was not an end, but a new beginning."

Okay, so that wasn't so bad so far.

"But to fulfil your destiny and banish the terrors of the Night Kingdom, you must seek out each scattered legacy," the apparition continued, and as it spoke, each piece of the dial flared with a different coloured light. "Each is a key to a memory, a power locked away by ancient magic. The might of the twelve Sonnenwenderetter slumber within."

Ammy slowly lowered her staff, her wariness replaced with cautious curiosity. If I had to guess, she must've figured that this was some unexpected, last-minute change in our script she wasn't warned about in advance, and I couldn't blame her. After all, this weird light-person-thing's lines were matching the theme and general outline of what we'd planned to the letter.

"Do you mean... we have to find those things again?" Ollie asked, and the entity gracefully nodded. "But how?"

"Ah, come closer, youth," the light being beckoned.

The Beansprout hesitated, while I got ready to jump in if necessary, but he eventually stepped forth, backed by everyone else and closely guarded by Ammy.

"You are not one of the Inheritors of the Solstice Warriors," the being told him, and Ollie's expressionclouded over a bit, only to turn confused when it said, "Yet, your presence here is no less a work of destiny than theirs."

"H-Huh?"

"Your presence springs bravery from the hearts of your friends," the apparition continued, its voice accompanied by the soft chimes from before. "It's something unique to you, something they will need to face the challenges ahead. You must support and guide them on their path. And to do so, I shall bestow a gift upon you."

As soon as the entity said so, the base of the ruined dial split, and out floated a palm-sized disk that looked like a minified version of the original sundial, down to the minute details. I should know, since I made it. It shone with a pale golden light until it suddenly zipped through the air and landed smack-dab in Ollie's hands.

"Whoa!"

"Behold, the Astral Compass," the light being introduced the artifact with an audible flourish. "The legacies will not reveal themselves easily, and the path to reach them may be treacherous. Let this Compass be your guide. It shall point you towards the way."

"The what and the what?" Ollie started, only for Ichiko to butt in and point a finger at it.

"How does it work? Do you turn it? Shake it? Do you need a blood sacrifice? I don't like blood, but if we need it, we can..."

The being didn't answer; instead, it began to scatter into thousands of motes again, and before long, the pieces of the broken stone dial also lost their lustre and tumbled to the ground. The whole spectacle was over in a couple of seconds, leaving the kids and Ammy in stunned silence.

So were we, to be honest, and since the 'situation' seemed to be over, I returned to my body in Elly's room and turned to my girlfriends.

"That wasn't how things were supposed to end, right?"

"No,"/"Nuh-uh," they responded in unison.

"And yet, it somehow also hit all the important plot-beats, right?"

"Yes,"/"Yeah! Weird!"

...

"Listen, girls. I don't want to be alarmist or anything, but I think things might be slowly but inevitably spiralling out of control. Let's call Fulgor..." I paused, then thought better. "No, let's call everyone to do a general double-check on the Simulacrum, just to be safe."

"Fair, again," Judy concluded.

Meanwhile, Elly let out a dejected, "Aw...", closely followed by the question, "Does that mean the scenario's on hold?"

"For the time being." I turned to Benny and Purin next, to tell them about the news, only to find them...

"No, no, no. You're not supposed to eat sauerkraut with ice cream. That's a dessert."

"If you only keep telling Purin what Purin can't do, then I guess I just won't eat anything at all!"

"No. You brought this upon yourself, so I will make sure to have you eat everything properly, whether you like it or not."

"You can't make Purin!"

"You dare tell me what I can and can't do!?"

"Yes! Purin has your weakness, gnawer! If you oppose me again, I'll tell everyone how cute you are! Nyuhuhu!"

"How dare you! I'll devour you for such insolence!"

"No, Purin will beat you up first!"

"Graaaa!"

"Nyuuuu!"

...

Still arguing, but this time with their hands clasped together and straining, constantly pushing on each other in a contest of strength. It kind of reminded me of deer locking horns, except with a lot more pouting and angry grunting.

Anyhow, they were lost in their own little worlds, so I shook my head and turned back to Judy, saying, "Let's tell them after..." only to pause when I saw her taking out her phones and making notes while staring at the two. "Dormouse?"

"Yes, Chief?"

"... What are you doing?"

"Nothing in particular."

Squinting, I looked closely at her, and... oh. I knew that look in her eyes. The one she was giving those two. I was familiar with it, and it said...

"No, Dormouse. Just no," I declared, on no uncertain terms, and it finally made her look away from them and lightly tilt her head to the side.

"What do you mean?"

"You know exactly what I mean. Stop it."

We locked gazes again, and this time it was her who turned away first with a soft click of her tongue. And then, just as I thought that the situation was resolved, Elly spoke up.

"Come on, kids. Don't fight. Get along."

"Impossible! I'll never abide by her!"/"No chance! Purin hates him infinity plus two times!" the two snapped at her, and then returned to their squabble with renewed gusto.

There was a long beat hanging over the three of us by the bedside, and then Judy started poking her phone again and...

"No, Dormouse," I warned her.

"..."

"No," I stressed, with maximum emphasis.

"... ..."

"No!" I snapped.

"... ... ..."

At last, she glanced up. She looked me in the eye, expression as deadpan as ever, the bickering of the kids still loud in the background, and then she slowly opened her mouth to say...

"Too late, Chief. I already ship it."