Chapter Text
Azul sat across from Idia with a concentrated scowl on his face. The two were in the midst of an intense game of chess. He’d already taken nearly half of Idia’s pieces, and it was only a matter of time before the other slipped up and made a critical mistake.
He watched as Idia reached for a pawn, but before he could finish his move, the sound of an ominous explosion from outside shook the entire building.
“Uh, what is happening?” Azul asked, as he got up to quickly look out the window for the cause.
“UGH. I was totally winning that. Now the chessboard’s all messed up,” Idia complained as he looked down at the chess pieces that had been scattered across the table.
“That hardly seems relevant right now! This is clearly an emergency!” Azul snapped back, but Idia ignored him.
“Ortho, give me a sitrep.”
“Roger… the school’s barrier is under heavy fire from technomantic beams. It has already breached in several locations. Multiple non-campus bio-readings detected within school grounds,” Ortho said, far too calm for the current situation.
“Intruders?!” Azul yelped.
Idia, seeming unphased by Ortho’s report, asked “How many?”
“Presently detecting fifteen life signs, plus additional heat signatures in the air. Intruders may increase in numbers.”
“What about their gear?”
“Gauging from height and movement speed, they are likely on brooms or technomantic flying machines. They are also firing magic projectiles and electric technomantic beams. Based on the performance of their mobile apparatuses and their technomantic energy circuits, this is Styx made gear.”
“Ughhh, this sucks. Guess that means they’re Ferrymen.”
Azul watched this whole exchange feeling as if he was missing a very critical piece of information. The two brothers were talking about the apparent invasion as if it was some everyday happenstance.
“How are you two so calm?!” Azul sputtered. “Our school is under attack! We need to contact the other housewardens and-”
“Three flying objects approaching rapidly,” Ortho interrupted. “Landing in three… two… one…”
Azul barely had time to process what Ortho was saying before the window to their left shattered and three robotic looking soldiers flew in on some sort of hoverboard device.
“It appears we’re out of time,” Azul muttered to himself as he took in the sight before him. “All freshmen, evacuate! By my authority as Octavinelle housewarden, I authorize-”
But before he could finish his sentence Idia put his arm out to stop him.
“Chill Azul. Don’t try and put up a fight. Just stay cool.”
“What?” Azul glared at him. How do these two not understand how much danger they’re in right now?
“That’s the Charon spec-tech unit,” Idia continued. “Specifically, they’re members of Charon, a special technomatic security force with Styx.
“The what?” Azul asked. He felt like this is something he should have been informed of when he decided to continue his studies on land. It really was just one thing after another this year.
“Just set your pen down and put your hands behind your head,” Idia sighed.
“As long as you follow my brother’s recommendations your chance of sustaining an injury drops by 87%, Azul Ashengrotto,” Ortho chimed in with a smile, or at least Azul assumed he was smiling, since his mouth wasn’t actually visible.
“All right…”
Azul begrudgingly set his pen down on the nearest desk and put his hands up. The Ferrymen, or whatever Idia called them, quickly restrained him. With how rough they were being Azul would have thought they were arresting him for some sort of category one felony.
“Dude, you guys are being way too rough,” Idia groaned. “You’re gonna get sued one of these days.”
Idia continued to speak with the Ferrymen as if he knew them somewhat personally. If Azul wasn’t confused before he certainly was now. It continued to get even stranger when they requested for Idia to go along with them.
“Idia what’s going on?! Why would they want YOU?!” Azul demanded.
“I’ll tell you later. Basically, ‘do nothing’ is the optimal strat for this random event.”
With that, the Ferrymen restraining him casted a sleeping spell before returning through the broken window they originally crashed through.
Azul woke up with one of the worst headaches he’d had in a while. It still wasn’t nearly as bad as the time Floyd had whacked him on the head with a frying pan when he was trying to break up a fight between him and one of the other chefs for the lounge, but it was still enough that he wished had some painkillers. It didn’t help that he was sitting on a cold metal floor with his back against an equally uncomfortable wall and his knees pressed to his chest. There was also some kind of restraint around his wrists keeping them stuck behind his back. Faintly, he could hear a humming akin to that of an engine, and he could feel the vehicle they were in swaying ever so slightly. He knew this stomach-dropping sensation anywhere.
I’m flying. I was knocked out, kidnapped, stuffed in an aircraft, and now it’s flying.
After another few moments, it became apparent he was not alone as groans from several familiar voices filled the space, as well as someone bumping into his right side, during a particularly jarring bit of turbulence.
“Is someone there?” Vil.
“Vil, that you?” Leona.
“Where am I?” Jamil?
“Jamil, you were taken as well?” Azul finally spoke out of surprise, making his presence known. After the other two, he had fully been expecting to hear an exclamation from Scarabia’s bubbly housewarden, not his terse second-in-command.
If Jamil was here, he could only assume that the kidnappers had been after students with something in common other than housewarden.
Could they have taken those of us who overblotted? However, that could only mean that Vil also…
“Is Riddle packed in with us as well?” he wondered aloud.
He heard something shift from directly across from him and Leona growled.
“Well, somebody is sleeping like a sack of flour in my lap.”
As if on cue, said somebody awoke with a gasp and Azul felt a leg shoot out and kick him in the shin.
Riddle mumbled incomprehensibly under his breath before, predictably, shouting into the darkness.
“Where’s the enemy? I’ll have all their heads!”
He felt Riddle’s other leg narrowly miss his feet as the Heartslabyul struggled to fight a nonexistent foe, and Azul could only imagine how much trouble those soldiers had trying to get Riddle to cooperate.
“I can’t move… and it’s too dark to see! What’s happening?”
“Calm yourself,” Azul answered curtly. He wanted to know what was going on just as much as the rest of them, but he really did not need Riddle’s yelling to exacerbate his headache. “It’s rather cramped in here, so please lie still, Riddle.”
As soon as Leona forced Riddle to find something else to lean against in the flying can of sardines, the rest of the group quickly came to the same conclusion as Azul. Though, none of them expected the lazy prince to know their destination and the name of the organization that abducted them to experiment on them post-overblot.
The entire situation as Leona explained it was too unbelievably illegal for Azul to readily accept. An armed organization independent of any and all international law? Utterly ridiculous, but clearly not ridiculous enough to be false given their current situation.
None of this even compared to the next bit of information Vil revealed, however.
“The Jupiter Conglomerate?!” Azul exclaimed in disbelief. “That’s the parent company of Olympus Inc.! They developed the biggest operating system and search engine on the market!”
And Idia was affiliated the entire time?!
“I knew the Shroud family was involved with them of course,” Riddle voiced as Azul rethought his every interaction with the Ignihyde housewarden, “but I assumed it was pure coincidence that Idia had the same surname!”
This was all too much. Had he really spent so much energy trying to get in Jamil and Kalim’s good graces when an even more valuable asset had been sitting across the chess board from him for over a year?
“Why would someone from such a distinguished family act like… well, like he does?” Riddle finished ruefully.
He has a point. Perhaps I can’t be too critical of my oversight when Idia’s demeanor completely contradicts any connection I should have drawn between him and family fortune. Perhaps our casual acquaintance could get me excused from this nonsense once we land.
“I feel dizzy, if only I’d known sooner… I would have tried harder to get him in my debt!” he still couldn’t resist lamenting aloud.
“You really do have a one-track mind,” Riddle sighed in response, but Azul was hardly in a state to process any jabs from him at the moment.
The discussion carried on for a few more minutes before Leona conveniently mentioned that no mage has ever returned from the Island of Woe right as the plane landed with a dull thud. After their cargo box opened to a dimly lit blue hallway, one by one, each of them was hoisted to their feet by a Charon unit and unloaded into the building.
“It is you,” Vil said to the NRC junior clad in a strange new uniform in front of them.
“Yep. Idia Shroud, acting director of Styx. Whee hee…”
Something told Azul his clubmate was not going to make this ordeal as simple as he had hoped in the plane.
Idia’s arrival was met with blank stares from the group.
“Really?” he frowned. “That’s the best you got? No, ‘Say what?!’ or “Dude no way?!’”
“I’m so shocked, I’m actually calm,” Azul sighed.
“Granted, we’d already guessed there was some connection between the Shroud family and Styx on our way here,” Vil added. “But you’re the acting director? That’s not some tangential link!”
“Hey, Radish Sprout. You can start by explaining just what’s going on,” Leona cut in. “You didn’t even fly me economy class. Just jammed me into a cargo hold like a sardine in a tin can. You better have a real good reason…”
He punctuated his threat with a growl and Idia took a quick step back.
“Yikes, those are some scary fangs,” he yelped. “Look, I’m gonna go over everything. Just cool your jets.”
“You attack our school, abduct us against our wills, and you want us to ‘cool our jets’?” Jamil demanded angrily.
“No one would cool said jets after hearing that!” Riddle shouted, and Azul could tell he was close to fuming. “Do you want to lose your head?!”
One of the Charon units moved to subdue Riddle, but Idia waved his hand.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Pause that. I think our Night Raven College visitors are forgetting something,” Idia smirked, and Azul recognized it as his “I’m about to win” look he’d get right before he declared checkmate.
“Where are you again? And who am I again?” Idia continued haughtily. “I’m the BOSS. You don’t hurt me; I don’t hurt you. Capiche?”
“As long as you follow my brother’s recommendations, your chance of sustaining an injury drops by 57%.” Ortho chimed in with his usual upbeat tone.
Azul didn’t really think Idia’s previous statement was a recommendation, but he wasn’t exactly in a place to argue. He had no clue what was in store for them, although he couldn’t quite imagine Idia performing horrific experiments on them. Not because he thought Idia lacked the scientific mindset to do so, but because he knew the Ignihyde housewarden cared more about tech than anything else.
“Since there aren’t any better options, I’ll comply and behave,” Vil said flatly. “Well? After forcibly detaining us, I trust you at least have the decency to serve us some tea?”
“The way you’re acting doesn’t remotely suggest compliance OR good behavior… but whatever,” Idia grumbled. “Come on, everybody follow me.”
Idia then whispered something to Ortho that Azul couldn’t quite make out, but he assumed it had something to do with the tea Vil requested. Even at times like these, Vil still has high standards.
Idia led the group down a series of hallways. Every single door and hallway were identical to the last. The only indication they were actually traveling anywhere was the cryptic, numerical labels by each door that Azul assumed only the staff could understand.
“Alright, this is stop numero uno,” Idia said as he stopped in front of one of the many identical doors. He scanned a key card and the door opened. Azul braced himself for whatever was coming next.
“What is this hideous contraption?” Vil asked as they entered the room.
Azul looked to where Vil was pointing and saw an industrial machine that sort of resembled a miniature car wash. He’d never been in one himself, seeing as he didn’t own a car, but they were at almost every gas station the bus he’d taken to NRC had stopped at.
“This ‘hideous contraption’,” Idia repeated sarcastically. “Is the most efficient bathing machine in the entire world.”
“You don’t seriously expect me to get in that thing,” Leona growled. “It looks like a torture chamber.”
“Well, I suppose for a kitty who doesn’t like water, it could be,” Idia smirked, and Leona looked like he wanted to rip the acting director’s throat out. Azul was starting to have a similar desire himself; Idia was enjoying this far too much.
“I can bathe myself,” Jamil scowled, and Riddle nodded in agreement. “Are there any real showers?”
“LOL, no,” Idia laughed much to everyone else’s dismay.
The machines in the chamber were not exactly inviting, but Vil’s look of horror seemed a bit overkill for a shower.
“Since you all seem afraid of a little water, I’ll go first,” Azul offered indifferently.
Anything to get this over with and get back to my responsibilities at school faster.
Many years before, Azul had once been caught in a whirlpool on his way to explore (or, more accurately, pocket the valuables of) a shipwreck unusually close to shore. For several minutes he’d struggled to escape or find an anchor to grab hold of with any of his arms, but the unforgiving current was dizzying and made it so difficult to breathe that for a moment he’d believed it was how he would meet his end. Luckily, the whirlpool mysteriously disappeared as quickly as it had formed, so he’d made it home unscathed and with no one having witnessed his embarrassment.
He never imagined that experience could be recreated on land, but only a few seconds of a blasting from the Styx washing hose had him just as light-headed and disoriented. Unfortunately, this situation did not leave him any time to curl up on the floor to catch his breath like he had by the shipwreck.
Immediately, he was pushed into a second chamber (that Idia had not been kind enough to warn them about) with industrial vents on all sides blowing hot air at a pressure almost as high as the water before. As the water in his hair evaporated impossibly quickly, he swore he lost a significant amount of the moisture in his skin and eyes as well.
Eyes squinting and ears ringing from the roar of the dryer, Azul stumbled out as another Charon unit grabbed him, barbarically shoved his glasses back on his face, and clamped a kind of metal collar around his neck; it also forced a gray long sleeve shirt with matching pants into his arms and stared him down until he pulled them on and was led down another hallway.
Not long after, the others were subjected to the same powerwash-to-oven whiplash and deposited with Azul on the couches in some sort of conference room.
Vil had some choice words for Idia when he finally followed them in, and the rest of them just complained under their breaths.
At this point, however, Azul had already been recovered for several minutes and was more concerned with the collar around his neck. Even though he’d managed to avoid being collared by Mr. Off with Your Head during his time at NRC, he could still tell without trying to cast that this device was having the same effect as Riddle’s signature spell. It was a stifling feeling that gave him the urge to try to break it off with his bare hands, but he refrained to keep some semblance of dignity.
Idia cleared his throat, pulling Azul from his thoughts.
“Anyway, now that we’ve decontaminated you of any microorganisms you might’ve brought in, I’d like to show you a little welcome video for Styx,” he announced, turning on the flat screen television at the end of the conference table.
Azul felt more and more patronized the longer the video went on. Not only did it look as if it was created by a freshman in MagiCut, but most of the narration just explained the basics of magic in a way you would speak to children.
“And that’s the movie. Thanks for watching,” Idia said flatly once the video had ended.
“That was a rather… cheaply made promo video,” Vil commented.
Otho proceeded to offer the two-hour documentary option if they wanted a more thorough explanation. No one took him up on that.
“So, Styx has been researching blot since ancient times,” Jamil stated. “And we’re all overblotters.”
“Yeah, I’m starting to get the picture here,” Leona grumbled. “So. What horrific experiments does the acting director have in store for us?”
“Whee hee hee, I’m glad you asked! To start with…” Idia grinned wickedly. "I’m gonna strap you all to chairs so you can’t move, then examine you with a bunch of probes. That way I can score sweet data on the correlation between stress and blot accumulation!”
Azul began to reassess his current opinion of Idia. Perhaps he’d been wrong to give Idia the benefit of the doubt surrounding the whole “mad scientist” thing.
“Wha… Do you really think you can get away with such outrageous behavior?!” Riddle demanded.
“Uh, no? I was doing a bit. Sheesh. It’s like you’ve never heard a joke before,” Idia said, rolling his eyes. Azul watched as Riddle’s face began to turn red as his hair.
“In all fairness, it wasn’t remotely funny,” Azul cut in. He should have known the other was joking. Idia wasn’t one to ever fully take something seriously.
Vil and Ortho both chastised Idia for his “humor”, until Ortho commented about how torture would affect test results (to which Vil quickly took back anything positive he’d had to say about the younger Shroud brother).
Idia went on to explain the concept of Phantoms, and it certainly put into perspective just how catastrophic their overblots could have been. Azul had understood he’d almost died, but the fact that even after his death the Phantom created during the overblot would live on was a little hard to believe. He tried to question Idia more about why they had been brought in, but all the acting director disclosed was that the unusual number of overblots in one place in such a short time is what had gotten Styx’s attention.
Ortho also shared that Styx was seeking ways to utilize blot as a sustainable energy resource, which got mixed reactions from everyone. Personally, Azul thought it was genius, but he still didn’t appreciate being forced to be a research subject.
“Yeah, so let’s get the paperwork outta the way,” Idia continued. “Take a look at the tablets at your seats.”
“What’s all this?” Azul asked. He wasn’t exactly pleased with being on the wrong end of a contract.
“It’s an NDA. Just sign it once you read everything, kay?”
“Excuse me? You drag us here against our wills and now expect us to SIGN AN NDA?” Vil argued. “There’s an armed guard in here. We’re CLEARLY signing under duress.”
“Could you save the aggro for after you’ve read it?” Idia sighed. “This contract’s meant to protect you too, you know.”
He continued to complain about all the things he could be doing other than dealing with them, so Azul grabbed one of the tablets and began to read. It was exactly 26 pages and he intended to read every single one of them. Jade and Floyd would never let him forget if he signed something as flippantly as the unfortunate students that came to him for aid.
“Dude…” Idia groaned. “Who actually reads every word from top to bottom and asks nitpicky questions about each point?”
“Well, you have to make sure you understand and agree with the terms before signing something,” Vil huffed. “That’s common sense.”
“Agreed. If I got caught in some contract because of the fine print, I’d never live it down,” Azul added.
“Vil and Azul are absolutely right,” Riddle stated. “What if the terms contained something illegal?”
The legality of the contract wasn’t what Azul was concerned about. Though the over analytical part of him wondered if that was a jab at him after his charade at the end of the semester. He’d roped in nearly double the Heartslabyul students he had last year (likely due to Riddle’s imposed expectations), so he doubted Riddle would easily forget about all the rules he’d inadvertently broken.
“Whew… okay, now that you’ve all signed, let’s get these examinations going,” Idia announced as he collected their NDAs.
“The battle simulator and observation console are all set up,” Ortho added.
Battle simulator?
~~~~~~~~~~
Battle simulator?! Riddle wondered indignantly. He’d combed all 25 pages of non-disclosure agreement and the entire last page of fine print checking for legal discrepancies, and not once did it mention they were to be tested in combat of any sort.
He tried to voice as much aloud, but Idia had already begun issuing new orders to Ortho and the Charon units.
“Ortho, we’ll do the first test with Subjects A, C and E,” the acting director was saying. “Show them to the sim room.”
“Roger! Riddle Rosehearts, Azul Ashengrotto, Vil Schoenheit. Come on and follow me!”
Sim room? Riddle assumed that it stood for “simulation room”, but still was not sure exactly what that meant. Was Idia going to have them battle each other?
As they all followed Ortho down more hallways, he glanced at “Subject C” and "Subject E” uncertainly. Riddle was fairly sure he could defeat Azul in a test of pure magical strength; the Octavinelle relied on scheming and tricks more than power, after all. Vil, however, he imagined would not be overwhelmed so easily, though he’d never witnessed his upperclassman in combat, of course.
What purpose would battles with them serve? I cannot see how this relates to gathering information on blot.
Riddle’s speculation was interrupted as they arrived at a set of doors much larger and heavier than all of the other identical ones in the rest of Styx. After entering a 12 digit code on a keypad near the doorframe, Ortho turned around and addressed them again.
“This is the sim room! I will now provide the necessary equipment for the test. Riddle Rosehearts, please follow me to the storage area first,” he said, entering the sim room.
There was nothing at all special about the room except for its extraordinary size and the wall of strange devices at the back. The floor was the same polished concrete as the halls, and the walls were plain blue with the Styx logo painted in gray.
As he approached the wall of devices, Riddle finally spoke.
“What is this equipment?” he asked, frustrated that he had yet to comprehend his situation.
Ortho answered the question as he removed what looked like an oversized pair of goggles from its hook.
“This is a virtual reality headset for the Styx Integrated Remote Engagement Network, or SIREN for short.”
“Virtual… reality?” Ah, that must be why this is called the simulation room.
Riddle still had far more questions, but Ortho did not waste any time strapping the headset over his eyes before leading the now blinded Heartslabyul housewarden over to the empty center area of the room.
Soon after, Azul and Vil joined him, Idia’s voice echoed through the room from an intercom.
“Do you read me?”
“This is the simulation room. We read you loud and clear. All subjects have been equipped with testing gear,” Ortho responded.
“Excuse me, could the rest of us get a word in?” Vil added sharply. “First you bring us to this absurdly large room, and then you stick giant headsets on us. I can’t see a thing in this!”
Vil’s tone reminded Riddle of his own anger.
“What are you going to do with us?”
“Surely you’re not going to make us fight each other,” Azul said slowly, almost as if he feared the answer. Given his nature, Riddle was not surprised Azul had come to the same conclusion he had. He still could not imagine why that experiment would be useful, however.
Luckily, Ortho assured them it was not so.
“Not at all! You will be fighting enemies in virtual space,” he explained, as if that cleared everything up perfectly.
“Virtual space?” Riddle asked, still very unsure of what the concept meant, or what this SIREN technology was going to subject them to.
In usual Idia fashion, though, the question was ignored, and the acting director ordered Ortho to start the simulation.
“Wait just a minute, Idia! Weren’t you the one who said people should read manuals in their entirety?” Azul called to the intercom apprehensively. For once, Riddle agreed with him. Were they really being thrown in with no explanation?
Suddenly, Riddle was forced to squint with surprise as the world flicked back to light in front of him. However, the room he could see now looked nothing like the plain simulation room from before.
The space was the same size, but the walls had taken on a cubed pattern with glowing blue lines and symbols. There were also large gaps in the walls that gave the room the appearance of going on forever in certain directions.
“What is this place?!” Azul exclaimed exactly what Riddle was thinking. It was then he finally noticed Ortho floating several yards in front of them with two Charon units flanking him on either side.
“It’s a virtual space created with technomantic VR. We cut off your magic in the facility, but you can use it all you want here!” he told them. “And your bodies won’t be affected in real life, so feel free to cut loose!”
Battling simulated enemies without risk of blot accumulation? That almost sounds… fun, Riddle thought as any fear of actual danger left him.
“I see. In that case,” Vil said, “There’s no need to hold back.”
“I wasn’t planning on it,” Riddle replied, sizing up their competition. He doubted the Charon unit’s armor would be as invincible as reality, so he decided a first strike at maximum power would be the best course of action.
Before Vil could even finish saying “Here goes!", Riddle sprang forward and sent a double blast of fire magic from the pen that the SIREN system had given each of them at the left-most Charon unit. Caught off guard, it failed to dodge the blow and was knocked onto its back, sliding several feet away from the force. It was then Riddle noticed a long, thin green bar above the unit’s head. As it took the hit, the bar shortened from the right until it was only a third of its original length and turned red.
“Ah, I suspected that it was a health bar. You almost ‘one-shot’ him, Riddle!” Azul called as he blocked a blast from the other Charon unit with a wall of ice magic.
Health… bar? Perhaps he means it is a representation of the enemies’ remaining stamina.
“If that’s all you’ve got, this will be over in no time at all!” he yelled to the unit he’d struck, readying another attack.
Before he could cast again, he was pushed aside by Vil just as Ortho fired a beam of energy into the Pomefiore housewarden’s barrier spell.
“Do not become too focused on a single opponent, Riddle,” Vil spoke quickly. “I will cover you from Ortho while you finish that minion off.”
“Understood!” Riddle nodded, slightly shaken by the unexpected attempt on his life from Idia’s brother. Though he supposed Ortho had assured them this had no effect on reality.
At this point, the damaged Charon unit had righted itself on its hoverboard and was charging its weapon with the same energy Vil had just saved him from.
Again, a simple barrier was all it took to deflect the attack and soon the Charon unit was smoldering on the floor, ‘health bar’ completely drained.
Riddle turned back around just in time to see Azul freeze the other Charon unit with a basic ice spell, and then use a more advanced flora spell to shatter it into hundreds of pieces with vines. The bar above its head barely had time to turn red before it disappeared. An efficient strategy, if not a little more brutal than he would’ve expected from Azul.
“Don’t waste my time,” Vil smirked as he deflected yet another of Ortho’s attacks before restraining him to the floor with vines. “Am I supposed to finish you off too? I don’t see any bar over you.”
“Congratulations, Vil Schoenheit! You have defeated me, and this concludes the first test!” Ortho replied, and Vil’s magic dissipated into pixels along with the remains of the Charon units.
Ortho barely gave them a second to breathe before the room around them once again transformed.
“What?!” Azul said loudly, taking a step back.
“Is this… the cafeteria?” Vil remarked with uncertainty.
The familiar walls of the NRC cafeteria surrounded them, and Riddle wondered what Idia could possibly be planning. There was no sign of Ortho or the Charon units, but Riddle was hesitant to let his guard down.
“What’s their game now?” Riddle frowned as he continued to analyze their surroundings.
Nothing seemed out of place. The cafeteria looked identical to the one back at NRC, aside from the unsettling absence of students.
Suddenly, footsteps could be heard near one of the entrances to the hall and a moment later Rook, Trey, and Jade walked in. Riddle subconsciously felt himself take a step back in shock. Why is Trey here?
“Aha. There you are, Roi du Poison,” said Rook, smiling pleasantly as if nothing unusual was going on.
“Oh good, you’re here too, Riddle. The housewarden meeting’s about to start,” said an also strangely calm Trey. Why is he acting like nothing has happened?
“Azul, I've brought the documents for the topic you wanted to discuss,” Jade said with his usual unnerving smile.
Azul and Vil seemed to be just as shocked as Riddle was as there was a solid silence that followed the three vices’ entrance. Azul looked completely befuddled, while Vil was merely frowning at Rook. Riddle wasn’t sure how to feel.
“What's the matter with you three?” Rook asked. “You look positively bewildered.”
“Do we ALL have something on our faces?” Trey joked, but Riddle didn’t find it particularly funny.
“No… It’s nothing,” Vil replied carefully. “Let’s go.”
Riddle and Azul followed Vil’s lead and pretended that nothing was in fact wrong.
Vil began heading towards the exit behind them, likely with the intent to travel to the mirror chamber since Trey had mentioned something about a housewarden meeting. Riddle and Azul quickly followed, not wanting to be left alone with their strangely behaving vices. However, just as Vil reached the entryway, a blast of flame magic flew past his head.
“Heh… Silly Vil. You’ve left yourself wide open!” Rook scoffed.
“Just what do you think you’re doing, Rook?!” Vil demanded angrily, but Riddle could hear the fear in his voice. Jade and Trey also had menacing looks on their faces as they drew their pens.
“Jade?!” Azul questioned.
“Trey?! What is this?!” Riddle shouted. He refused to believe Trey would ever intend to harm him.
“Have you forgotten?” Rook smirked. “Every student at this school has the right to challenge their housewardens for their seat.”
Already beginning to ready a spell, Jade grinned wickedly and added, “We’ve already filed the paperwork for this with the headmage.”
“You all wish to become housewardens?” Vil asked as he shot the group an intense glare.
“Let me explain, Vil,” Rook said, and Riddle thought he sounded almost remorseful. “As you know, I appreciate beautiful things. Hence… I can hardly allow someone who acted as ugly as you to occupy the Fairest Queen’s throne!”
Rook punctuated his last word with a strong blast of wind magic. Vil quickly dodged it and shouted at Riddle and Azul to focus on the other two.
Riddle hesitated when preparing to land a hit on Trey. He paid for his mistake when Trey used that to his advantage to knock Riddle’s pen out of his hand with water magic.
“Don’t tell me you can’t handle a simple duel, Riddle” Trey mocked him. “The previous housewarden must’ve been pretty weak if you defeated him.”
Riddle glared at him. He wouldn’t make the same mistake twice.
“Just thought I’d have to go easy on you is all,” he quipped back as he rushed to grab his pen. “Heartslabyul’s ex-housewarden was a worthy opponent, but you are nothing more than a virtual shell!” he declared once he was armed, sending a wave of flames toward Trey. His vice dodged the attack effortlessly, only smirking wider.
Realistically, Riddle would easily beat Trey in a one on one like this, but something felt different about the way Trey fought. His stance and overall demeanor were extremely standoffish, which made Riddle fairly certain these were merely fakes. It still felt wrong to be attacking Trey, and a small part of Riddle was still paranoid it could be the real one, but the onslaught of attacks didn’t really give him time to ruminate.
“Vil! Azul!” he called out. “Those are not actually Rook and Jade. Ortho must be able to create exact copies of them in this virtual space!”
“I suspected that as well,” Azul shouted back as he deflected Jade’s onslaught of fire magic. “This Jade seems to be even more violent than the one I know.”
Riddle wasn’t sure how that was possible.
“You’re right, Riddle,” Vil agreed. “The Rook I know would never do something as backhanded as this.”
With their newfound resolve to defeat the slanderous imposters of their friends, they ended the conversation to focus on their opponents.
Even with Trey’s artificially improved dueling, he was still no match for Riddle’s practically bottomless pool of fire magic, and he was quickly subdued once Riddle figured out how to predict his evasive maneuvers.
Once Trey was down, he turned his attention to the others. Vil seemed to be muttering more than just incantations under his breath as he cornered and defeated Rook against the counter in front of the kitchens with a relentless barrage of wind magic. Riddle swore he caught the words “one vote” and “scrapbook,” but he had no idea what that could be referring to.
Meanwhile, Azul was having a bit more trouble pinning down Jade, as his SIREN version seemed to have Floyd’s signature deflection spell.
“I am certain Idia programmed him this way just to watch me suffer,” Azul huffed in frustration as Jade nullified yet another one of his attacks only to retaliate with triple the aggression, all the while keeping his eerily calm smile.
With nothing else to do, Riddle decided to assist him.
“Azul, on your left!” was all the warning he gave before sending a full-power wall of fire at the older Leech and singing the sleeve of Azul’s simulated uniform.
Jade was caught slightly off-guard by the massive attack, and Azul took the opportunity to tackle him to the ground between two lunch tables and wrench the pen from his grasp manually. Riddle raised an eyebrow at the uncharacteristically barbaric display but didn’t comment.
“Finally!” said the Octavinelle housewarden victoriously as he secured Jade to the ground with vines.
Almost immediately, Riddle felt the room change again and they were back in the simulation room where they had fought Ortho.
“Testing complete!” Ortho beamed. “You may now remove your headsets.”