Chapter 47 (1 of 2) Synchronous Terminal And Generation Engine Simulations (Patreon)

“So, now that we’re back in Gilded Seat, will you tell me what happened between you and the Archduke?”

Lucille furrowed her brows but kept looking out of the window of the carriage, distractedly tapping her fingers against her seat in a rhythmic pattern. She didn’t respond to her aide.

Vincent sighed and crossed his arms. “Lucy, whatever it is that has been making you act like this since the end of the banquet, as your aide and the aide of the Aurelian Commission Head, I need you to tell me.” He frowned at her. “This is about the Archduke, one of the Empire’s seven Sovereign Dukes. If this becomes a major political issue…”

“It’s not,” she suddenly announced, turning back to him.

Vincent blinked at the strangely quick reply but raised an eyebrow. “Then what is it?”

She let out a small groan as she pressed on her temples with both hands. “It’s…” She sighed and tilted her head back to rest it against the wall of the carriage behind her. “It’s… not a political issue. It is… something personal.”

“Personal…?” Vincent asked quizzically. “In what way?”

Lucy hesitated but resigned herself to telling Vincent something to get him off her back. “When I went to meet with the Archduke… I realised I’ve met him before…” She grimaced. “And I wasn’t supposed to realise that.”

Vincent gazed at her strangely. “You’ve… met him before?”

She nodded. “When we met I was unaware of his identity. He was aware of who I was, of course, but… when we met again I recognised him. In other words, I was never meant to find out he was the Archduke…”

“But where did you meet?” Vincent asked. He scowled at her when she pressed her lips together and returned to looking out the window. “Lucille…”

“I’m not avoiding telling you because I want to, Vincent,” she said, glancing back at him. “This pertains to one of the Archduke’s secrets. One of the Eternal Duchies’ secrets.” She crossed her arms. “He didn’t want me to know, so I’m not bringing anyone else into this, because they would definitely not be meant to know. I’m not going to risk revealing his secret to you.”

Vincent went silent, looking pensive. Eventually, he sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “Fine. I’ll accept remaining unaware for now. But how does this impact you?” he asked seriously. “Is he hostile now?”

Lucy considered it deeply but shook her head. “He’s not. He might take advantage of this to ask me to do some things, but he wouldn’t push it too much in case I revealed his secret to someone.”

Not that Lucille would ever risk such a thing. She doubted anyone would believe her because of the Association Limiter protecting him, anyway.

Vincent frowned. “Ask you to do something?”

“Things like aiding a political venture of his or similar.” She looked out the window again. “Considering he’s mostly well-liked and passive in the eyes of the Empire, while also being part of the neutral faction, I don’t believe it will be dangerous or disadvantageous for me to help him.”

“But did you manage to arrange the deal you met with him to negotiate in the first place?” Vincent asked, raising an eyebrow.

She grimaced. “No.”

Vincent sighed but before they could continue the conversation the carriage pulled to a stop in front of the Commission’s Headquarters. They got out and entered the building.

“So, what plans do you have now?” Vincent asked.

“I’ll set some events in order, and then in three days Scytale and I will head to the Beast Realm to-”

Lucy was interrupted by a silvery winged snake that came slithering into the hall.

“Hey! Lucy! You’re back! What happened? I couldn’t send a message to you because you were too far away, but I could still feel your emotions leaking through to my side, and something got you real freaked out, so what- hm?”

Scytale hesitated as he noticed Lucy’s expression. Vincent blinked and looked at Lucille when he saw Scytale’s strange reaction. Lucy had her arms crossed as she stared at the snake, not blinking.

“Wait… I know that look… you’re about to show me something I really don’t want to see, aren’t you?” Scytale said with eyes narrowed in suspicion. He backed away as he flared his wings in front of him. “No, Lucy, don’t tell me it, whatever it is, don’t-”

Lucy ruthlessly shoved her memories of her encounter with the Archduke into Scytale’s head and he recoiled in horror.

“No! I don’t want to know that! Get it out! Erase my memories now!” He hastily shook his head from side to side as if that would do something about his new knowledge. “That’s terrifying! Let me live in blissful ignorance, please!”

“No. You get to live with the knowledge of that secret because you got to stay here enjoying the peace while I went to the banquet,” Lucy stated flatly, walking past the snake.

“You’re holding a grudge because of that?!? I’m not a noble! I couldn’t come!”

Lucille ignored his complaints, heading into the lift while the snake whinged about what Lucy had shown him.

And Vincent was beginning to think that maybe it was best he remained in ignorance after seeing Scytale’s reaction.

…

-3 days later-

Lucy stretched her arms above her head and then looked down at the shiny winged snake on her right. She was wearing her black and brown adventurer gear, Apophis and Ouroboros sheathed on either side of her waist. The dimensional bag was tied firmly to her belt.

“Alright. Let’s get to Level 10, and complete these stages,” she said to her bond.

Scytale nodded. “Yup! I’ve been itching to get them done for ages!”

Lucy smirked. “Yes, well, considering the realm the first ten stages are based on, you’d be right at home.”

“Any User always likes the stages of their home realm,” Scytale said. He slyly flickered his tongue. “And I bet you’re going to looove the Beast Realm’s stages too.”

Lucille shook her head wryly, aware of what he was hinting at. “Let’s go to the Beast Realm.”

They entered the Obelisk of Gilded Seat they were standing in front of, appearing in the clear box high above the city.

Lucy called out to the System, “Open Obelisk Directory.”

[Directory: ]

1. Beast Realm
2. Demon Realm
3. Tartarus Realm
4. Mystical Realm
5. Heavenly Realm

[ ]

[You have 2 uses available. The next one will be gained on January the 1st.]

She selected the [Beast Realm], as Scytale did the same with his own Directory. She crossed her arms. “Where should we go?”

“There’s no point trying to find some special valuable Lair or something. We just want to get to Level 10 and re-enter the Obelisk,” Scytale said. “I reckon we just go to one of the lower-ranked regions.”

She nodded and scrolled down the list. “Give me a minute and I’ll find somewhere.”

After a few seconds, she looked at Scytale. “How about this one? The Daylight Forest Region ranked in the bottom thousand for strength. Forest regions typically have normal low-levelled monsters without affinities for mid-level elements.”

“Sounds good enough to me. Let’s do it,” he replied.

Lucy nodded and tapped on the region. Scytale tapped on the region in his own Directory, and they both scattered into fractured light.

…

As was likely where the region got its name from, the forest was thin with light foliage, allowing the sunlight to stream down through the branches. Dead leaves and branches crunched underneath Lucille’s boots and were crushed under Scytale’s scales.

“How do we want to do this then?” Scytale asked.

Lucy hummed as she looked around the forest. They were following a trail that led deeper into the trees. “Well, this will be the first time I ever use Apophis and Ouroboros in combat, so whatever we choose to do has to be simple. It needs to be a weak target too, as I won’t be able to assign the stats from my new levels in any way.”

“I think I’d be pretty capable of blocking an attack if it comes your way,” Scytale said.

“I don’t doubt it, especially with your Primal Descendant skill,” Lucy replied, looking up at the trees. “But Ouroboros might be just as capable of shielding me from damage as you are.”

“How- oh, her shield skill? I forgot about that.” Then Scytale titled his head. “Wait a second… would monster skills even damage you? Because you still have that pseudo-invulnerability thing going on.”

Lucy blinked and looked down at her bond. “No, that only applies to skills and magic cast by Users. The System has to be involved somehow.” She looked around again. “The only reason I have that ‘invulnerability’ effect is due to the System struggling to calculate damage between another User’s skills and my own fake stats. Monster abilities would still affect me because I’m not immune to mana or spiritual energy.”

Lucille started walking forward again. “But regardless, it would be best to reduce any chance of needing Ouroboros, as I still haven’t begun learning to fight with the weapons.” She looked down at the daggers on her belt. “It’s possible I might not use their true forms while fighting.”

Scytale nodded. “So… can you see any monsters with your perception field?”

“Yes.” She stepped over a fallen log. “There’s a few Armoured Formicidae around the corner.”

He was silent for a moment. “… ants?”

She raised an eyebrow at Scytale’s reluctant tone. “Scytale, we’re not fighting a pack of Direwolves for our first fight.”

“I get that, but…” He reared up and flapped his wings. “They’re ants! Who wants to go fight ants to level up? What kind of battle would that be? Let's go squash insects to gain powerful magical abilities, yay!”

Lucy sighed. “Scytale, you’ve forgotten what Armoured Formicidae are, haven’t you?”

He hesitated. “Uh… I didn’t think I had, but something about your tone is making me question my memory now…”

She shook her head wryly. “Just wait a few minutes. You’ll see what you’ve forgotten soon enough.”

After a while, they rounded a bend in the trail. Lucy stopped and pointed. “There, you see?”

Scytale squinted his golden eyes. “See what? All I see are the promised ants, and they look completely… normal…..”

The trio of monstrous ants came slightly closer to them, revealing themselves fully. Covered in hard black exoskeletons with strange multicoloured sacks attached to their barbed legs and abdomens with stings, the meter-high ants communicated to each other with high-pitched squeaks and clicks of their mandibles. Their antennae reached up another half metre above their heads, bringing their total heights to 1.5 metres.

“Armoured Formicidae are a species of giant ant,” Lucy stated, crossing her arms. “Please don’t underestimate insects the size of Great Danes, Scytale.”

“… okay. Right.” He shifted his wings as he got ready to launch himself towards them. “So, our plan of attack?”

Lucy unsheathed the two daggers and crouched. “Let me go first. They’ll think I’m an easy target because of my low mana, and probably won't attack all at once. Let me get a handle on using a blade, and then join the fight when the other two begin attacking.”

He nodded as she waited for when the three monsters were beginning to walk away. Then, she crept forward, trying to keep her footsteps as soft as possible so the ants didn’t pick up on the vibration. Focusing on the shard brought up their information.

[Lesser Armoured Formicidae – Lvl. 6]

[HP: 1550/1550 {+39.4/5m}]

[Lesser Armoured Formicidae – Lvl. 5]

[HP: 1450/1450 {+38.1/5m}]

[Lesser Armoured Formicidae – Lvl. 5]

[HP: 1350/1350 {+36.7/5m}]

A few seconds later, the weakest ant, the one at the back, lifted its antennae and turned around to face her. It chittered to the other two as she readied her daggers, and it came forward, clicking its mandibles at her.

Then it let out a high-pitched screech and charged. The foul sensation of monster mana washed over her as she dived to the side to roll out of its path, the creature leaving a trail of trampled leaves and branches behind it. It whirled around as she stood and held her daggers up again.

Its antennae waved near her like it was trying to gauge her strength. It chittered again, before opening its mandibles wide and releasing a loud hissing sound. An orb of orange fire mana coalesced between its mandibles as an orange-green sack on one of its legs shrunk.

She leaned to the side as a blazing fireball hurtled past her and she ran forward, stabbing downwards with Apophis towards its face.

[- 300 Damage]

[Lesser Armoured Formicidae – Lvl. 5]

[HP: 1050/1350 {+36.7/5m}]

She had been aiming for its neck, but the blade glanced off of the exoskeleton of the ant’s face as it moved. It shook its head and lashed out with a barbed leg towards her own legs.

Lucille kicked its face before the hit landed and the ant screeched as one of its mandibles was crushed beneath her boot.

[- 20 Damage]

Not hesitating to take advantage of the moment, she rammed her knee into its side, making it stumble. She stamped on it to shove its body into the ground, then sat on it to keep it down. She didn’t waste a second and stabbed Ouroboros into its neck behind its head, making it let out a ghastly screech.

[- 500 Damage]

[Lesser Armoured Formicidae – Lvl. 5]

[HP: 532/1350 {+36.7/5m}]

She stabbed the vital spot twice again, and it died instantly, fluids and monster mana escaping from the cut. The xp flowed into her, with the 1.25 xp gain multiplier from her Regressor Title active.

[- 300 Damage]

[- 232 Damage]

[Lesser Armoured Formicidae – Lvl. 5]

[HP: 0/1350 {+36.7/5m}]

[User Lucille Goldcroft has slain Lesser Armoured Formicidae – Lvl. 5]

[Apophis: +5 xp]

[Xp: 5/100]

[Ouroboros: +5 xp]

[Xp: 5/100]

[+117 xp]

[Level Up!]

[+1 level]

[+5 Free stat points]

[User has reached Level 2]

[Xp: 9/104]

Behind her, the other two ants screamed and charged forward, but Scytale chose that moment to attack them, his enlarged form bowling them over. He shredded the exoskeleton of one ant’s neck with his fangs, killing it instantly.

[-1450 Damage]

[Lesser Armoured Formicidae – Lvl. 5]

[HP: 0/1450 {+38.1/5m}]

Scytale then launched himself at the other with wings spread wide to deflect the barbed legs of the insect. He sent his tail swinging to kick the legs out from under the ant.

[-270 Damage]

[Lesser Armoured Formicidae – Lvl. 6]

[HP: 1280/1550 {+39.4/5m}]

The ant struggled to get up as Scytale moved closer. As Scytale went to bite its neck, the ant’s antennae gained a sickly green substance, which sizzled as it dripped to the ground. The acidic liquid sprayed over Scytale when it lashed out with the antennae, making him hiss.

[-50 HP]

[-50 HP]

[-50 HP]

[HP: 1350/1500 {+39/5m}]

Scytale backed away, which gave the ant time to get up again. But off to the side, Lucy had gotten up and decided to shoot a mana orb at the ant.

[-10 Damage]

It didn’t reduce its HP much, but it did make the ant stumble again when the orb crashed into one of its legs. It raised its head and screeched at Lucy. Scytale took the chance to launch himself at the ant from the opposite direction, using his fangs to gouge into the ant's exoskeleton.

[-270 Damage]

[Lesser Armoured Formicidae – Lvl. 6]

[HP: 1000/1550 {+39.4/5m}]

The ant screeched in pain, but Scytale strengthened his grip on the ant’s neck while wrapping his body around it, crushing it.

[-260 Damage]

[-280 Damage]

[-290 Damage]

He clenched his jaws and with one final pull he ripped the neck of the ant.

[-170 Damage]

[Lesser Armoured Formicidae – Lvl. 6]

[HP: 0/1550 {+39.4/5m}]

It collapsed, dead.

[User Scytale has slain Lesser Armoured Formicidae – Lvl. 5]

[User Scytale has slain Lesser Armoured Formicidae – Lvl. 6]

[Scytale has reached Level 2]

[Scytale has reached Level 3]

Because of Lucy’s spell, she also gained xp from the fight.

[+2 xp]

[Xp: 11/104]

With all three ants dead, Scytale unwrapped his body from the ant and took a moment to relax slightly, recovering from the exertion. He deactivated his Primal Descendant skill, losing his enhanced STR and CON. His max HP decreased but he kept the same percentage of damage that he had received in his larger form.

Lucille walked closer and placed her hands on her hips, both daggers sheathed. “Instead of using your Rays of Purity spell, I think we should just wait for you to heal. It will only take fifteen minutes with your current regeneration rate.”

He nodded. “Right. We should save my mana for later when we’re fighting more of them.”

Lucy sat down on the ground next to him and pulled out Apophis to study the blade. Scytale noticed and tilted his head.

“What’s wrong? Is something up with the daggers?”

Lucille took out Ouroboros as well and opened the skill sheet of the dagger’s second skill.

[Skill: Twin Souls: Order | Type: Soul/Link ]

Desc: Two souls were locked together in abandoned space, with diametrically opposed natures for millennia. Where others may have destroyed each other, these two souls became as close as siblings, and as linked as those by blood. They understood the Supreme Cycle of Chaos and Order, embracing their similarities and differences as one.

Abilities:

Supreme Cycle of Chaos and Order – Two comprehended the incomprehensible.

- Gives the weapon the ability to sense and have a telepathic bond with its soul twin at all times.

- Gives the weapon and its User the ability to be immune to the forces of Chaos or Order. No demonic or spiritual mental influences will affect it or its User.

- Gives the weapon the ability to transfer spiritual energy to its soul twin. {Must be used alongside Twin Souls: Chaos, 3rdActivation.}

Gargantuan Serpentine Mimicry – The body and jaws of a serpent

- Gives the weapon the ability of independent movement.

- Gives the weapon the ability to extend infinitely, as long as the User has energy to support it.

- Gives the weapon the ability to extend in width, as long as the User has energy to support it. Ratio: 1/8 weapon’s length.

Domain of Chaos and Order – Ordered Chaos

- Gives the weapon this skill when within 1km of Soul Twin: Chaos

- Gives the weapon a x5 multiplicative stat effect when this skill is active. ATK, MATK and SATK x5.

- Gives the weapon an x5 multiplicative ability effect when this skill is active. Energy requirements and cooldown ÷5. Skill effectiveness x5.

- Gives the weapons the ability to switch places with their soul twins.

[ ]

She read the information of the last activation again. “I was wondering why they only did 300 damage each. I just discovered the issue.”

“What do you mean, ‘only’?” Scytale asked. “That’s amazing for a Level 0 sentient weapon. Epic weapons are enough for a warrior to use until the Late Level 400s and these guys are still evolvable. No Level 10 gets to fight with weapons that do 300 ATK.”

She sighed. “Yes, but Scytale, their third activation says their stats are multiplied by five when within one kilometre of each other. I should’ve been doing 1500 damage.”

He looked between the skill information and the weapons. “…. Oh. Huh. Okay.”

She grimaced as she looked at them both again. “I think the third activation only works when I’m using their true forms. I can’t use their full potential unless I use their snake-sword forms.”

“So… you probably won’t end up being a dual-dagger-wielding warrior then,” Scytale said.

Lucy shook her head. “Not if I want to be a good fighter. With my stat issues, the power of these two weapons will be my lifeline. These two are the only way I can have strength on par with other warriors of my level.” She looked at her bond. “You seemed to deal with the two ants pretty well, considering you had to get used to your weaker strength.”

Scytale nodded energetically. “Oh yeah, the Primal Descendant skill is great. At the Obelisk after we bonded, I added 10 of my free stat points to STR, so with ATK being equal to STR multiplied by five I do 270 ATK on average because my skill multiplies that again by 3.”

She rolled her eyes. “I bet your MATK and SATK are terrible though. How many points do you have in WIS and MENT?”

He fell silent. “…9 and 13,” he slowly replied.

Lucy raised an eyebrow. “9 for WIS and 13 for MENT?”

He didn’t reply. She smirked. “You didn’t put any in WIS, and you put only two in MENT, even after I told you to do it to fix your soul. You have a pathetic MATK of 45 and miserly SATK of 65.”

He hissed at her. “Yeah, but at least I have MATK! My 100 MP can do 45 damage per point, but what can you do? 1 MATK for each MP?”

“I don’t need to care about that.” She unsheathed Apophis and smugly raised the dagger. “Both of my two weapons come with 100 MATK and 100 SATK on their own. That’s much more than a mere 45 and 65.”

He sent her a mental imitation of a ‘tsk’ and turned away. “Whatever.” Then he glanced at her. “So, are we ready to continue?”

She smirked and stood up. “Yes. Let’s go kill some more ants.”

…

With a crack, the head of an ant was split in half, the demonic aura-encased black blade coming down hard on its exoskeleton. Lucy took a second to breathe as the notifications sounded.

[User Lucille Goldcroft has slain Lesser Armoured Formicidae – Lvl. 6]

[+142 xp]

[Level Up!]

[+1 level]

[+5 Free stat points]

[User has reached Level 5]

[Xp: 34/110]

She glanced over to where the sound of an ant’s dying screech could be heard. Scytale ripped his fangs out from the monster and came back over to her.

[User Scytale has slain Lesser Armoured Formicidae – Lvl. 7]

[Scytale has reached Level 7]

“Are you still fine, Lucy?” he asked her.

Lucy nodded, looking at the red-jewelled blade in her hand. “I am. It’s just… a bit hard to keep up with the agility of these monsters. Apophis is also quite heavy to wield in his sword form.” She looked at the other dagger sheathed at her waist. “Without any STR I can’t dual wield these.”

Scytale thought for a moment. “What about telekinesis though? You wouldn’t have any problems with using that, would you?”

“I’m still trying to keep my soul as stable as possible,” she explained, crossing her arms with a slight frown. “As it is currently, it might just be stable enough to gain a soul-related Aspect for it after the stages safely. I’ve barely managed to settle it after that… meeting during the banquet.”

Scytale looked at the several monster ant carcasses sprawled over the ground before them, slowly releasing murky monster miasma. “Then let’s go to the centre of this Lair and find a point where you can extend a weapon and quickly wipe out a bunch. I’ll deal with any of the ones left.”

She nodded. “Alright. We’ll get this over with as quickly as possible.”

They tracked through the forest, brown-green mist pooling around their feet. It steadily grew thicker, and Lucy gestured for Scytale to stay quiet as they moved behind a tree, Lucy’s perception field revealing the crowd of five to ten ants guarding the anthill’s entrance in a small clearing.

“So, the plan is: You stretch out Apophis to launch a big attack and I’ll deal with the ones that are left.”

Lucy nodded and glanced at her bond. “Do you have enough STR?”

“Yep. I put 15 in STR, 10 in CON and the rest in AGI so I do 495 ATK in my Primal Descendant form now,” he replied.

“And here I am sitting with 55 free stat points I can’t even use.” She sighed.

Scytale shuffled his wings in an approximation of a shrug. “Better get used to it. You’re going to have thousands of unused free stat points down the line.”

She pulled out Apophis and stepped out from behind the tree. “Time to start.” Letting the weapon shift into its longsword form, she swung her arm back as if she were about to do an underarm throw. The monster ants in the distance seemed to detect something was off, and looked in her direction, but they noticed too late.

Lucille activated Apophis’s demonic aura and slashed the crimson-hued blade, the sword lengthening instantaneously with the staggered sounds of clinking metal. The black blade cut through the bodies of the monsters with little to no resistance, segments revolving around it to create hundreds of small lacerations to the ants’ exoskeletons, making them scream in pain. The whip-like movement of the weapon pulverised most of the ants, the few remaining suffering major damage to their bodies.

[-50 Dam…]

[-1500 Damage]

[-50 Damage]

[-50 Damage]

[-50 Damage]

[-1500 Damage]

[-50 Damage]

[-50 Damage]

[-50 Damage]

[-1500 Damage]

[-50 Damage]

[-50 Damage]

[-50 Damage]

[-1500 Damage]

[-50 Damage]

[-50 Damage]

[-50 Damage]

[-1500….]

[User Lucille Goldcroft has slain Lesser Armoured Formicidae – Lvl. 4]

[User Lucille Goldcroft has slain Lesser Armoured Formicidae – Lvl. 5]

[User Lucille Goldcroft has slain Lesser Armoured Formicidae – Lvl. 4]

[User Lucille Goldcroft has slain Lesser Armoured Formicidae – Lvl. 6]

[User Lucille Goldcroft has slain Lesser Armoured Formicidae – Lvl. 5]

[+93 xp]

[Level Up!]

[+1 level]

[+5 Free stat points]

[+117 xp]

[Level Up!]

[+1 level]

[+5 Free stat points]

[+93 xp]

[Level Up!]

[+1 level]

[+5 Free stat points]

[+142 xp]

[Level Up!]

[+1 level]

[+5 Free stat points]

[+117 xp]

[Level Up!]

[+1 level]

[+5 Free stat points]

The sound of the System notifications rang constantly as she retracted Apophis, the surrounding trees’ bark marred by countless serrations from where the blade had cut across.

[User has reached Level 10]

[Xp: MAX]

[User has reached MAX Level for Rank-0]

[Please complete the Main Quest (Rank-1: Beast Ream) to unlock Levels 11-199]

Lucy fell silent as she took in the devastation, but Scytale didn’t waste a minute as he pounced on the remaining injured ants, killing them all within seconds. With Lucille already having reached Level 10, any share of the xp that would’ve belonged to her from her damage was transferred to Scytale, allowing him to quickly get to the same level as her.

[User Scytale has slain Lesser Armoured Formicidae – Lvl. 5]

[User Scytale has slain Lesser Armoured Formicidae – Lvl. 7]

[User Scytale has slain Lesser Armoured Formicidae – Lvl. 6]

[User Scytale has slain Lesser Armoured Formicidae – Lvl. 8]

[Scytale has reached Level 8]

[Scytale has reached Level 9]

[Scytale has reached Level 10]

“Haha! Yes!” Scytale exclaimed. “I can feel the power flowing into me! Beware, Hero, I shall soon obtain the strength needed to destroy you!”

Lucille didn’t respond, still observing the clearing. Scytale noticed her silence and came over to her, turning his eyes to what she was looking at. He glanced between her and the clearing. “Er… what are you looking at?”

She crossed her arms as she stared at the clearing, then scowled. She threw a hand out to gesture at the devastation. “Can you explain to me, Scytale, how exactly I’m supposed to use this demonic weapon of mine?! I’ll kill everyone around me with this weapon, friend or not!”

Scytale considered it. “You know Lucy… because it’s a demonic weapon, I’m pretty sure that’s the entire point.”

She sighed and crossed her arms again. “It’s just… I don’t know how I’m supposed to use these. If I don’t learn to fight with them, I won’t be able to make use of their strong abilities, but I need to learn how to fight with them in the first place.”

“You’re complaining to a limbless reptile, Lucy,” Scytale said. “What experience would I have fighting with weapons?”

Lucy shot him a flat look. “I’m aware. But you have enough experience battling the races to understand my issue.”

Scytale took another look at the clearing. “Well… was he easier to wield when extended?”

She tapped her fingers against her arm in thought. “Yes, he was. He was much lighter.”

“And you can control his movements with telekinesis?” her bond asked.

Lucy nodded. “I could, as long as I focused my will and spiritual energy correctly. His autonomous movement reduces the load on my soul. It’s just that his demonic aura and rotating segments have an extensive area they affect.”

Scytale nodded. “Then you’re probably overthinking things. The way I see it, using these weapons would’ve always resulted in you turning into a massive area-of-effect damage dealer,” he stated. “These swords are essentially made to be endlessly expanding and enlarging weapons, as long as you have the mana and spiritual energy. Apophis even absorbs energy. Just use Ouroboros if you’re worried about his demonic aura.”

Lucy paused and then unsheathed Ouroboros. “Ah, yes. We need to check Ouroboros’s Rebirth from Death skill.”

Scytale blinked. “Huh? Why?”

“To see if she’s collected any skill shards and stats.”