Penitentes

by trimurti

Inside the Deep Dungeon, there is a corridor that lures in those steeped in regret. Some of Ramza's finest warriors are trapped there, and the only person who can save them is...Mustadio?

4. 3: Pariah

Penitentes

A Final Fantasy Tactics fanfic

By Tenshi no Ai

(C) Square Enix

Chapter 3: Pariah

Because Mustadio was, in many aspects, a normal young man, he rather liked being in the presence of the two attractive lady knights. Agrias had the elegant, poised sort of beauty only granted to those with noble blood, and the fact that a smile rarely graced her lips only seemed to enhance this impression. And although Meliadoul always kept her hair bound and hidden from sight like a true woman of the faith, she had an expressive face that brightened with her wide smiles...or darkened with the fury of a coming storm at her lightning bursts of temper. Both had strong personalities, beliefs tempered in steel which had clashed over and over since precisely thirteen minutes after the party had left Limberry Castle.

And they clashed now.

He smiled blissfully. As his eyes slid to his right, he caught the tail end of what must've been a vicious tirade from the Divine Knight, judging by the way her gleaming white teeth snapped down on her last word, her lips flattening in an ugly snarl. Quickly he returned his attention ahead of him before she could catch him. That wouldn't do, not right now. After a moment his eyes darted to the left, where the Holy Knight was finishing one of those nasty little comments she was so good at throwing out, her pale lips barely moving before she pursed them into a thin line. There was an odd buzzing in his right ear, and he assumed that Agrias had scored a hit onto Meliadoul's nerves.

Thanks Dad, these earplugs are awesome, he thought, knowing that his father hadn't created them for this exact purpose. But hey, whatever works, right? Though it'd be nice to figure out how to make it so that I could filter out specific things. That'd be real useful once I get back to the drifts, then I could use that 'drilling device' and muffle out that while still being able to hear instructions. Yeah, that'd be great, just like a pair of goggles that tint out the sun after working the morning shift. I hate being blinded! Hm, something's not right...

He turned to his right and noticed that Meliadoul wasn't there. After turning another ninety degrees he realized that the others had stopped a while back and were now staring at him strangely. "What's going on?" he asked, careful to modulate his pitch appropriately. For some reason he didn't think they'd appreciate his using earplugs to block out their arguments, even though he did it all the time.

Can you hear us? he read from Meliadoul's lips. He smiled and nodded.

"'Course I can."

Agrias turned away, and judging by the way Meliadoul nodded he could tell that the blonde had said something. When the former Shrine Knight began to stalk towards him he grinned, a nervous habit, and asked, "Melly, what're you--" but by then she had grabbed his earlobe and yanked it down to her eye level. Knowing that it was futile to escape, he let her pry out the red rubber 'drop' even though the metal of her gauntleted hand scraped against his ear.

Holding the earplug between two shining fingers, she smiled grimly. "What's this?"

"Um, well, y'know, that's an earplug," he answered, his Lionel dialect blurring his speech as he grew more nervous. She didn't look very happy right now. "An', an' since m'ears have been ringin' an' all, y'know, 'cause of the last fights an' stuff, I kinda use those ta, y'know, soothe m'ears an'...yeah. Y'know what I mean."

While Agrias, who had lived an entire life around those who spoke proper Ivalician, could only utter a, "What did you just say?" in annoyed bewilderment, Meliadoul only arched an eyebrow. Holding out the rubber bead, she let it drop into Mustadio's hands.

"I hope you don't think me stupid enough to believe that...whatever you just said."

"Well, if you didn't know what I said, how can you say you don't believe me?" he asked, vaguely aware of the fact that now he was just being difficult.

Meliadoul rolled her eyes. "Please. I have a younger brother, I know all about the art of the half-truth." Mustadio frowned at her phrasing, and she turned away once she realized what she had just said. "Had. Anyway, can you try to focus on the conversation at hand now, please?"

"And take out the other one," Agrias said from behind him, causing him to jump in surprise.

"Woah, I didn't even hear you approach!"

The blonde lady knight raised an eyebrow. "I wonder why." Chagrined, he took out the other earplug and put them in his hip pouch with all the other tools of his trade. "Thank you. Meliadoul and I are having a little disagreement--"

"Look, what you're saying doesn't even match up!" Meliadoul interrupted. "You told Cloud that you were going to find Sir Orlandu and me, but not everyone else? You're the stickler for letting everyone know where you're going and enforcing that on the rest of us, so why this hypocrisy?"

Mustadio tensed from hearing the challenge implicit in the brunette's tone, knowing that Agrias wouldn't back down. Why did they have to discover his earplugs? "I thought that Cloud would tell everyone else. It isn't my fault if he didn't. Plus, I wasn't feeling very well."

"Oh, so it's not your fault because you're feeling out of sorts. It's not your fault because you expected Cloud to tell the others," Meliadoul stated calmly. A second passed. Then two. Then she exploded. "So, not only are you a hypocrite, you're also an out-and-out idiot! Cloud! Cloud of all people! That twit barely remembers his own name, and you would expect him to relay such important information!" Her enraged screams echoed off of the walls, and the engineer closed his eyes and dragged his hands through his tightly bound tail.

"I'm just a little unsettled in this place, and your screeching isn't helping matters," Agrias retorted.

"My...what?"

"Okay, okay!" Mustadio raised his hands, blocking the two women from each other and his unguarded body, which had the unfortunate luck of being their buffer from the other. "We're all friends, right? C'mon, let's just calm down and talk about this all nice and rationally, okay?"

"That's what I've said all along," Agrias commented. Red bloomed across Meliadoul's cheeks, darkened by the pallor the haunting light of the corridor was giving her natural skin tone.

"Alright Aggie, since you want to talk so much, you should start," he smiled guilelessly at her before he turned to the other woman and whispered, "Melly, I know you don't like her and that's okay. But if you want to get to the bottom of this, just relax." The Divine Knight nodded once at this, her face carefully bland.

"Alright," the Holy Knight responded, taking a deep breath. "I heard Alicia and Lavian call for me. I asked Cloud to cover for me while I investigated the incident, and the next thing I knew I was where you found me."

Shaking his head, Mustadio tugged at the end of his tail with one hand. "Um...that's all?"

"That's all I wish to discuss."

Doubt marred Meliadoul's carefully constructed mask. "Mustadio, you told me something else. What was it?"

"Uh, was it about Reis?"

"What is this?" Agrias asked.

The engineer snapped his fingers, though the move was clumsy with his thickly gloved fingers. "I remember! Reis said she couldn't remember hearing any of you leaving!"

"So?"

"So, isn't it kind of strange?" Meliadoul queried. "Why wouldn't she remember? The line after her was Beowulf, then Cloud and you. It's pitch black out there. Everyone knows all other senses are magnified with the absence of sight."

"Yeah, I can vouch for that," Mustadio said. "It's like that in the drifts. You can hear the workers talking from another tunnel away."

Shrugging, the former knight of the royal family stared forward. "She's not infallible."

"She's the closest thing we have to it, Aggie."

"Please." There was nothing but disdain in Agrias' voice as she clenched her hands. "She's an untrained, unqualified civilian whom we've depended on too much already. Perhaps she forgot. Perhaps she wasn't listening and just lied to cover it up."

"Always untrusting," Meliadoul murmured, "but that's a good point. Not so much if she lied or not, but that she could've been bothered by something else and wasn't listening."

Mustadio's eyes widened at this. "Bothered? Actually, yeah, that makes sense. She said she was hearing something, like...like a buzzing."

"A buzzing?" Meliadoul's tone bordered on alarm. "That's what it sounded like! It's like a constant drone, over and over, but I could hear Izlude's voice so clearly in my mind."

The mechanic looked over at Agrias, who was nodding to herself. "Yes, yes, that's right. Lavian and Alicia were speaking in my mind, as well as outside of it." With stress making lines underneath her eyes, she stared at Mustadio. "Tell me, did anyone else complain of this?"

"No, I don't think they're even aware, or maybe they're just hiding it. They're all acting weird," he answered.

"And how are you feeling?" Meliadoul asked.

"I..." he started, then paused as a thought flittered through his mind: Pro'ly best not to worry anyone. "I'm not feeling bad. This place is creepy and all, but with you guys it's not so bad. No one's talking to me in my mind or anything." But my thoughts're kinda weird...unfamiliar even, he kept himself from saying.

His mother, his father...no, that had nothing to do with this place. He was just thinking out, just being overly anxious. That's all it had to be. He wasn't hearing voices he shouldn't be hearing.

No ghosts were talking to him.

Huh? Ghosts? "Hey, something doesn't make sense here," he muttered. "Aggie, why didn't the, uh, specter-thing turn into the princess? Why Lavian and Alicia? After all, even those images were needling you about her."

"That's true. Maybe it can't. Maybe all it can do is imitate the dead." Irritation rippled through Meliadoul's expression as she threw up her hands in disgust. "It's a low-level demon. That's all it is!"

"What do you mean?" Agrias asked, and Mustadio thought he heard distaste in her voice.

"Well, in exorcism demons are placed in levels of power. There's the various specters and skeletons, just your typical undead. The only thing they can do is kill you. Then you have something like this...haunt, which seems to amplify feelings of regret for whatever reason." The Divine Knight looked around, where the crystals hovered all around them. "It probably has to gather essences in order to enhance its power, which only lends credence to how weak it initially was. Then there's demons like those ultima and archiac demons that accompanied Zalbag. And at the very top there's the Lucavi, who can make pacts with humans in order to come to this world."

The engineer nodded. "I get it. It's kinda like Worker 8 and the zodiac stone. So I guess it digs into people, possesses them, then has them kill other people in order to collect its energy. Yeah?"

"Yeah. Truly pathetic."

"I fail to see the point here," Agrias muttered. "Whatever it is doesn't matter, considering that while we've been wasting time discussing this issue, Sir Orlandu has probably become its pawn."

Meliadoul stopped. "That...that could be a possibility. After all, it didn't bother to possess you. It probably only wants the strongest people," she ended with a smirk.

While Agrias' face went completely blank, Mustadio began to feel a vague sense of unreality pulling at him. The idea that the Holy Swordsman could be possessed had never entered his mind, because he had never wanted to think of such a catastrophe occurring. It was one thing to fight Meliadoul or Agrias; they were great warriors, but they did have their flaws. He had worked with them long enough to know that much and use it to his advantage.

Cidolfas Orlandu had no flaws.

What am I doing here? he wondered, glancing back and forth at the two elite knights. I'm just an engineer. How can they talk about going up against Cid so...calmly? "Um, so you really think we'll have to, uh, fight Cid?"

"Seems like that's the trend," Meliadoul answered in a glib tone. She even had a small smile, the leftover of her earlier smirk.

"Well, um..." He didn't want to lose his pride, but he felt it was his duty to adequately state what they were all just about to get into. "So, what you're saying is that there's this huge chance that the former commander of the Nanten, the Thundergod Cid himself, the guy who knows at least ten different ways to kill a man is probably possessed by now. Right?"

The lady knights stared at each other, then back at him. Their expressions clearly labeled their complete understanding of the situation, and what they thought of him for stating it in such a melodramatic way. Well, he thought sourly, it's nice to see them agreeing with each other for once. Sweeping one hand over his hair, he kept that hand where it stopped at the tie and tried so hard to smile for his friends.

"Woo, this is gonna be fun."

-0-

He was alone.

From his vantage point, Mustadio could see the backs of his friends, the elite female knights. He was just a few steps behind them, and yet he felt so far away. But he was good at following directions, and the plan stated that he must be behind them in every way. He was only the support. He was only good for support.

He hated being alone.

The rubber soles of his boots scraped against the ground, and the sharp noise it produced was amplified within the narrow corridor until it was a static wave boring down upon them. It sounded like the contraption his father rebuilt, the meister surmising that it was built to receive sounds, but all it could do now was play an endless stream of noise. It didn't bother him, but Agrias tossed a glare at him before she turned back around. Random noises were not in the plan. They could alert the former Nanten commander.

He was just the guy in the back, yet he could get everyone killed by dragging his feet.

Was it ever this bad to be alone? He couldn't say for sure. When he had run away from his home, all he could think about was the fact that he had left his father alone with the Bart Company mercenaries. It killed him to do that. His father was all he had. He hadn't wanted to leave his father alone, not after that time...

Huh? What? Before the Bart Company...?

Shaking his head, he tried to focus on his surroundings. Endless gray walls, thick with the luminescent blue sheen cast by the endless amount of souls inhabiting this hallway. He was getting sick of the color blue. Even the empty blackness of the rest of the Deep Dungeon was preferable to this. There was nothing in here worth seeing, there was only sadness and the regrets of his friends being ripped out for some demon's malicious pleasure. Or something. He didn't know what was going on, and he didn't want to know.

Heavy weariness was weighing his arms down. His gun was drawn, pointing at the emptiness between the two lady knights. That was part of the plan as well. Meliadoul and Agrias were as far apart as possible, no mean feat in a place as narrow as this. The Divine Knight was one step forward; she would either break the Holy Swordsman's weapon or become his first victim. If the latter occurred, Agrias would step forward and hope that the Stasis Sword would freeze the knight in place. Either way, Mustadio was to shoot the old man in the arm, and then the leg. After that, they would try to reason with him.

He hated that plan. How could anyone plan to hurt a friend, possessed or not?

There was just no understanding the minds of knights. All they ever seemed to understand was violence. He was different. That was why he was in the back.

Alone.

Guess I couldn't be the hero forever, he sighed mentally as he tried to lower his shoulders in an attempt to ease the strain running through his arms. I'm good in a pinch, but once the real warriors start being themselves again I guess I'm not too useful. That's understandable, I guess. After all, I'm just a mechanic.

But it still hurt.

The path was sloping downwards again, though this time it was less obvious. He glanced at the walls because the ground was boring and he was apt to stare too much at a crystal. It seemed like the damned things were just being shown off, and he hated that. God and heaven notwithstanding, he couldn't help but wonder if the souls had any sort of realization as to their surroundings or what they were being used for. He remembered talking to Beowulf once about the existence of heaven, and now he was happy that he didn't believe in God. Then he'd be like Meliadoul and believe that all these innumerable souls would never reach heaven because they weren't properly buried. He didn't understand why being buried or not would have to do with anything; it wasn't as if the people in question really had a choice in the matter.

Gray and bumpy, the walls weren't much better to stare at. A chill ran down his spine when he realized that the shadows cast by the light made it look as if there were disintegrating faces forever frozen within the walls. They were the faces of those who had been starved beyond recognition, their pallor ashen, befitting for those who had never seen the light of day.

He quickly faced forward and vowed not to look up at the ceiling. The Lucavi were probably etched up there, their maws gaping and dripping with acidic saliva as they stared down and watched as he and his friends passed beneath them...

Shit, I need to stop this, he thought while he kept his eyes clenched shut. Won't do to have me all freaked out before we reach Cid.

As a person trained with guns, he had the sharp eyesight necessary for such a pursuit. Even though he was behind his friends, practically in another world, he still made out the image of a sitting person many paces away. There was a dark cloak draped over the outline of the person, and something gleamed amber in the person's lap.

Oh, damn.

Suddenly, he didn't want to go through with the plan anymore. It wasn't even worthy of attention. It was just them versus him, the most feared man in Ivalice. That was all it came down to.

But we don't know if he's possessed! Can't we figure that out first?

The engineer in him understood why, though. That horribly logical side understood that, in the time it took to verify such a thing, they could all be waylaid by some spectacular attack ripping through their bodies like an axe through wet paper.

But all Mustadio wanted to do was to smile and talk with his friends.

I really hate this, he thought, the understatement of the year. He's not my enemy. Nobody is, really. I don't want to do this, but if I don't he'll just be another soulless shell. Dammit...

He had to be at least eight paces away to hit with accuracy. He was at twelve...

Meliadoul pulls out her sword from its scabbard on her back. It makes a slick sound, as if it were already anticipating slicing through flesh and sinew.

Eleven.

Agrias unsheathes her sword with her usual finesse, the wide blade of the Defender almost ludicrous next to her svelte form.

Ten.

I feel cold, and I don't know why when it's been nothing but muggy ever since we entered this pit. When I get outta here I swear I'm gonna dive into the ocean, though I don't think I'll ever feel clean after all the things I've seen down here.

Nine.

Cid opens his eyes and stares at us and oh shit I'm still too far away--

Everyone froze, ice figurines one and all.

The great knight stood, seemingly mindful of his joints as he rose up to his full height. Mighty Excalibur, the legendary sword from a mythical age beyond the Yudora Empire, was in one hand as he stared down at the fools with the drawn weapons and him in their sights. They stared back, although Mustadio would've liked to do anything to break the silence before it broke him. A gunshot, a laugh, anything would suffice.

Oh no no no he's gonna kill us he's gonna kill us I'm too far away what should I do--

In a single, fluid motion, the Holy Swordsman sheathed his sword. "So, are we ready to leave?"

Mustadio dropped his gun, and his body soon followed.

-0-

"Nnn..."

"Oh look, our hero is waking up."

"Really, that was quite the act of masculinity you just performed. Surely it will be a feat not soon surpassed."

Mustadio scrunched up his whole face in protest. "Love you too, Aggie. Did Melly just say something too? Heh, I just had this really funny dream-thing. Remind me never to tell it to you." Opening his eyes, he nearly screamed when he picked out Orlandu's face as one of the faces staring down at him.

"Um, Sir Orlandu, could you just leave for a moment?" Meliadoul asked. The man nodded and left Mustadio's peripheral vision. "As for you, you stunning specimen of manhood, if you hadn't fainted dead away like that you would've found out that Sir Orlandu isn't possessed."

"I didn't faint," the mechanic grumbled as he tried to sit up, supporting himself with his elbows as he did so, "I passed out. My nerves don't 'preciate a working over like that, y'know."

"Noticed," Agrias said, a rare smile touching up the corners of her lips.

Heaving his upper body up into a sitting position, Mustadio reached up with one hand to rub the back of his head. "Geez, just take potshots at me why don'tcha. I don't mind an' all." He flinched in pain when he discovered a bump and decided to leave it alone, instead turning his attention to the reason why he was in such agony. "Hey Cid, glad to see you're alright, but didja have to surprise us like that?"

"I do apologize," the elder man said with a small smile. "Believe me, there was a time when I couldn't be sure if I would get the better of that malevolent spirit."

"Oh, I see." With a grunt the engineer stood up, then realized that his gun was still on the ground and bent over to retrieve it. "What was your ghost?"

"Balbanes, Ramza's father." The great knight looked so painfully human as he sighed. "Even to this day, I feel I should've noticed what Dycedarg had been doing to him. I had never trusted that man, and yet..."

"Hey, it's okay," Mustadio said, raising his hands up in a placating gesture. "There are things you can't stop, even if you're one of the most powerful men in the country. I mean, that's the same with everyone else. You're still human."

Cidolfas smiled. "Truer words of wisdom could not be spoken."

"Well, I don't know 'bout that," the younger man grinned. "That's just life and how we live it--

-and if you can't live with what you've done just lie and pretend it never happened rewrite what you know and live in ignorance of your sins-

and it'd be a great idea to leave, huh?" he finished weakly.

"Great idea," Agrias echoed, already walking away. With an eyebrow raised in interest, Meliadoul followed the younger knight's lead. He walked behind them, and was surprised when Cidolfas matched his pace instead of joining up with the other elite knights.

"Are you feeling alright? You look a bit pale."

Mustadio laughed the concern away. "It's pro'ly the lighting in here. Makes us all look like we're in bad need of sunlight."

Cidolfas chuckled appropriately. "That is true. How are the others doing?"

"Well, they're acting kinda off, to tell the truth."

"Do you think that the spirit has gotten ahold of them?"

"I don't know. It could be that powerful, maybe, but since they weren't really acting like Melly and Aggie when I found them I'm not too sure. Maybe it can't reach too far away from this place."

"Hm, an astute observation." Stroking his beard, Cidolfas glanced down at Mustadio, an action that made the engineer nervous. The two rarely conversed. "I heard from those two about your adventure through this corridor," he revealed.

"Yeah? I was out that long?" Embarrassment hastened the blood flow, causing Mustadio's face to darken. "Geez. Um, sorry. I don't do that, y'know, not usually or anything."

"It's fine. But to continue, I was impressed by your actions. One wouldn't expect a non-warrior to overpower two elite knights."

"I didn't 'overpower' them or anything. That wasn't my intent," the mechanic snapped. Then he felt more embarrassed when he realized what he had just done. "Oh, damn, I'm sorry. It's just, um, I didn't want to fight them I just...well, I just wanted to help my friends."

The Holy Swordsman laughed, a low rumble reminiscent of Mustadio's father's own laughter. "That is quite heroic, if I may say so."

"Nah, not really." A happy blush spread across Mustadio's face as he realized that he was being complimented by this grand figure in Ivalice's recent history. "I'm no hero or anything. I just did what I had to do...'cause, y'know, I wanted to."

"I see. I suppose I would have to agree with one of your sentiments."

"Yeah? Which one?"

"You're no hero."

As Mustadio began to turn, a question on his lips and confusion in his eyes, he felt as if a giant sword was thrusting its entire blade up through his body. A scream began to rip through his throat when it was suddenly silenced. Severely weakened, he could only watch as Meliadoul turned around, her brow creased as her lips parted.

And Agrias was behind her, her sword unsheathed and held with both hands as the hilt crashed against the back of Meliadoul's head.

Meliadoul crumpled to the ground without a word, and the Holy Knight smiled at Mustadio as he futilely tried to shout, to understand, to reason with her. A wicked light gleamed in her eyes as her mouth twisted in a parody of a pleased grin. "I'm no low-level demon," she hissed.

Mustadio wanted to scream, but his voice wasn't working. He wanted to run, but he couldn't move. With a dumbfounded gape on his face he glanced at the Holy Swordsman, who grinned with piercing, evil intent.

No...no--!

There was pain, and then there was darkness.

-End of Chapter Three-

This is a shorter chapter, but I've told all I need to. I guess it's predictable, especially if you happened to read the reviewer responses and noticed that I said there were 'eight parts' total to this story. Well, I miscounted. There's only seven parts altogether. Also, this is the first chapter I've finished on my schedule in a long while (Thursday to Saturday for the first draft). It's a monumental event, especially since the last chapter was finished on Monday night...

On a different note, if I decided to hold a fic contest for the FFT section, would anyone be interested in entering?

Reviewers!

Hey, Viktor Mayrin! Slap? Please. When women really want to hurt each other, words tend to be the weapon of choice. But yeah, I can't imagine a team up in the game that would be comfortable fighting Orlandu.

Yo, TobyKikami! I'm glad you liked the Alicia/Lavian explanation. Plotwise, I can't believe that they would've joined Ramza and Mustadio since they were part of the princess' guard, but the game just likes doing weird things like that.

Evil Mina, hello! Well, my reviewer responses are intended to draw out conversation so that I can learn about the kind of people who read my stories and what they like, which helps me to fine-tune my writing. Besides, is it really that bad to actually want to talk:) I'd hate for anyone to think that writing a review is only an obligation.
I misspoke and said 'defended' when I meant 'sympathetic to'. We're opposites when it comes to anti-heroes and whatnot; I don't care for them, but I have a fondness for the sweet and kind characters like Rosa.
Heh, I didn't mean that the story was 'respectable' in the common sense of the word, but I can respect that you can write humor. I sure can't, so I'm impressed. My main interest in fanfiction is writing about those characters that no one else writes about...but I guess that's obvious, huh?
Regarding Agrias...geez, the last time I said I didn't care for a popular character (well, a coupling) I was called 'petty' and was pretty much talked down to. Let's just say that I'm far more interested in other characters for very good reasons. You said that you weren't sure that in-game Agrias would've only joined Ramza's party to save the princess, but that's exactly what happened in the game. She joins at Bariaus Valley for the express reason to save Ovelia from execution. However, since there's that three month space between Ch. 2 and 3, she probably stayed for another reason. Hm...I'm suddenly inspired.
But I digress. Considering this chapter's revelation, it wasn't as if Agrias was being herself to begin with.

Wow, toastyann! I haven't seen you since WHW! And here I thought I just hadn't written anything else that interested you. Heh, since all I can write are character driven fics, I'd better get the readers to start thinking about the characters in different ways. I'm very, very happy to know that you're liking the story, and I can't wait to see what you've got to say!

Trueborn Chaos, now that's a pagefiller to be proud of. I mean, damn. You should see how long it takes me to respond to the reviews, especially with the reviews of the last chapter.
I bet Ramza wasn't feeling too good after absorbing Gaffy's crystal. There's a joke I'd use here, but it's notoriously in-joke. I can't imagine the sight of Meliadoul lifting up her dress being too exciting, considering it looks like she wears full armor underneath. Woo, sexy metal-covered legs!
'Is this going where I think it's going?' Well, I don't know. Where do you think it's going:)
As an odd zodiac inference, Taurus and Libra are both ruled by the planet Venus, and thusly the two actually act more alike than one would think.
Thanks for the compliments regarding the fight!
Agrias, agreeable? The same Agrias who was bitching at Gaffy in the prologue and some of Ch. 2? Never mind if he deserves it or not, she's supposed to hold herself to the professional standards befitting an elite knight. Anyway, moot point.
Mustadio's okay. He doesn't get the old 'strip and kick' from me.

Blueberry Bagel (that is a very cool name, though I like blueberry muffins more), I'm happy that you're enjoying the story!

Cake Dance, you've returned! Ah, but your power is nothing against my complete inability to eat cake! Yeah, it kind of sucks.
All of Melly's abilities affect only one square at a time with a midrange reach. She can hit a target with perfect precision, but since she has only human capabilities she can't auto-target a moving weapon when she's committed to her current attack. Plus, Mustadio threw it out of her range so she couldn't reaim at the weapon. Ta-da for fanwanking.
Definite yea for double reviews! When you say that you're half Piscean, do you mean that you're born on a cusp? Nice reference, too. :)
Technically, I wasn't counting how many ways Orlandu could kill a person, though he could always just stab them. And yes, they're definitely target practice.

Interlude: Devil: "Oh, I did. I broke your paramour, little dragoner, just like the rest of your friends. Their souls are mine. So, what're you going to do about it?"