Chapter 35: Bound Souls
Weiss knew he was dragging his metaphorical feet as he pieced his faulty memories together, but the middle of a journey into the desert certainly wasn't the right time for revelations. At least the others didn't bother either him or the Shadowlord too much, trusting them both to tell the truth eventually.
…Was it right to still refer to him as such, when Weiss knew his real name? And it was so obvious in hindsight, once he managed to look past his inhuman features to see the familiar face beneath.
Weiss rustled his pages, unable to keep his thoughts from constantly returning to the Gestalt and the revelations of the previous day. It was a mess, pure and simple, almost making him wish that Project Replicant stayed forgotten, but ostrich behavior had never helped anyone. And this knowledge, no matter how unpleasant, was still better than the painful blankness of amnesia, though there was still far too much Weiss couldn't remember, the scattered pieces that returned to him nothing more than islands in the vast ocean of nothingness.
He still had no solution for their troubles.
Kainé's idea to search the other side of the canyon that stretched near the city of Facade had merit. They had found an ancient facility there, though only time would tell whether there was something useful within or if this trip was as pointless as their last one.
"What a boring place," Weiss mused. "Just your average ancient laboratory full of unspeakable horrors created by science and magic in the middle of a harsh desert."
"Sure. Nothing unusual," Nier deadpanned. "Has anyone noticed that our lives are really weird?"
"Eh," Kainé shrugged. "Could be worse."
"It's not so bad," Emil added.
"I've learned not to question it," the Shadowlord said. "It made things easier."
Weiss translated his words, noting that the Gestalt seemed to be back to his usual self, if still slightly on edge.
They descended deeper into the facility without much interruption. It was abandoned even by Gestalts and no wonder: there seemed to be no way to get into that sector of the desert without the ability to fly.
He wondered what secrets this ancient place concealed.
"Oh, you've got to be fucking kidding me!" Kainé yelled, dodging a magic blast. "There's two of them?!"
Sure enough, there was not one, but two Grimoires attacking them. The blue and green books (Neela and Verde, something whispered from the corner of his mind) weren't as vicious as Rubrum, but they worked well together. One raised a magic barrier while the other attacked, both of them quickly and seamlessly swapping roles as needed.
Weiss would've been impressed if he wasn't so angry at the stalemate they were forced into.
"What do we do?" Emil cried, sending another of his spells to crash harmlessly into the barrier.
"Keep attacking!" Nier yelled back. "This shield has to break eventually!"
"Oh, brilliant plan!" Weiss snapped. "Now why haven't I thought of it myself?" He sent a barrage of crimson spears at the duo to no effect, "Must be because at this rate they will surely outlast us!"
"If you have any other ideas, I'm all ears," Nier said, dodging the Grimoires' retaliation.
"Attack all at once?" Emil offered, raising a shield of his own. "I can try to pin them down."
"They'll just raise another barrier!" Kainé growled.
"I'll teleport in and try to knock them away from each other," the Shadowlord suggested, darting in the air between magic blasts.
"Try to knock one of them towards me and keep the other occupied," Weiss said quickly. "I will need time to absorb them."
With the plan in place, the team scattered. Emil's bright magic wrapped around the enemy Grimoires like crawling lightning, the others quickly charging their own spells and letting them fly simultaneously, overwhelming the magic barrier.
Before the Grimoires could replenish their shield or retaliate, the Shadowlord teleported in and with a powerful hit sent the green book flying. Weiss immediately blasted them with his own magic, trusting his teammates to keep their blue partner occupied.
Grimoire Verde refused to give up without a fight, but Weiss had the power of Rubrum and Porphura on his side, managing to quickly tear out their green pages.
Without their partner, Neela didn't last long in a five-on-one fight, and Weiss ripped out their pages as well.
The world was white and empty as if only the three of them existed in the endless light.
"So you have beaten us and now want our power?" Neela asked then shrugged, calm and unconcerned. "Fair enough."
Verde gave him a crooked grin, "We've been in this world for far too long already. So thanks and good luck."
Weiss fluttered his pages, feeling blue and green fade into white, new magic settling inside him. Neela and Verde specialized in communication and observation, hence their uncannily flawless teamwork. With their power and knowledge at his side, the threads of magic were visible to him.
He could see the bond between Nier and him, their soul pact manifested as an unbreakable chain. Weiss touched it curiously, his magic flowing through the connection and making it even stronger.
Nier twitched slightly and looked at him, "Weiss? Is that you?"
"Oh, you can feel it?" Weiss asked, tugging lightly on their bond and pouring more magic into it. "Those two had some useful skills. I can see the framework of any spell now, our soul pact included. This is exactly what we need to get through the dimensional barrier! And not only that: seeing spellweave is the key to breaking or changing any kind of magic."
Weiss waited until the memories and power settled within him, when something else caught his attention. There was another, different bond wrapped around Nier. Weiss lightly traced its path, realizing that the other end was connected to the Shadowlord.
So was this the link between a Gestalt and a Replicant? Weiss studied it intently, the spellweave complex and unfamiliar. Which part of the spell was affected by relapsing? Which part was responsible for Black Scrawl? Could he break it? Unravel it? Was he even supposed to? Would it be better to make the spell stronger? Change it? Rewrite it? Just how dangerous could such tampering be?
He didn't know, had barely any idea where to start, but this was still the greatest step forward. It seemed like they were finally getting somewhere.
A/N: Again with the theme naming: 'neela' means 'blue' in Hindi and 'verde' is Spanish for 'green'. And if anyone's wondering how I picked the names, I just opened Google Translate and clicked between different languages until I found something that sounded okay. Also, in some languages there's no distinction between blue and green, which made these colors a perfect choice for a team of two Grimoires.