Y/N POV
"A Sin Archbishop is being held there."
Otto said that after as we began to leave the city hall's nearest shelter and headed onto the next one. As I predicted, this part of the timeline did not change.
Sirius, the Sun Archbishop of Wrath, is still successfully detained.
We met Priscilla at the entrance of the shelter, and she looked at us with contempt before she and Subaru got into an argument.
"That you don't like my face is your personal subjectivity, so that's okay, for now, good work to the both of us. I'm relieved that you came back safe. I'm not flattering you." Subaru said, retorting as Priscilla rambled on.
"Mine personal subjectivity is the aesthetic sense which has to be respected the most in the world. It's not even worth evaluating what you have to say... Well, it's fine. However, there are no words you can say in defence for your blindness in saying safe upon seeing mineself."
"She's not wrong, Subaru, since she probably suffered at least three fatal injuries." I said as I pointed to my own neck as I looked at Priscilla, and she gave a me a slight smile of approval.
"So at least one of you had the eyes to notice. It seems that not all commoners are useless. Al is keeping guard inside, so go ahead and talk to him if you want an audience with that monster."
"He's not going to kill her, is he?" Subaru asked, but Priscilla only gave a slight chuckle.
"If he has to do it, then he would've done it already. Go in already, and stop wasting my precious time."
Heeding to Priscilla's selfish request reluctantly, Subaru ventures into the shelter with me, Emilia, and Beatrice in tow. We arrived at a corridor, where Al was standing guard along with his Blue Dragon Sword unsheathed.
"Hey there, bros. It seems that the miss is safe, so good job, bro." Al said towards Subaru, before turning back to me. "By the way, how did your fight with Lust go?"
"I managed to convince her onto our side, and she's probably helping the healers recover injured people."
"Hah? How did you get that egocentric piece of crap to do such deeds? What kinda magic did you use to make her like that?"
"No magic, mostly words. To be honest, I wasn't sure if it was going to work either. However, I took the gamble since it doesn't matter what the outcome was, just one being better than the other. And I dare say it seems I've won the gamble."
"Well, bro, you're quite amazing, in a sense." Al said before he opened the door. "Wrath is being held in there. Although she's chained up, she's still a monster, so be careful."
As we were about to go in, Al put out a hand. "Let me give you a piece of advice, bros. Don't go in there and leave, since that's the best option."
"You know we can't just do that." Subaru replied, his determination strong.
"I knew you would say that." Al sighed, and put his hand down. "But just don't lose sight of yourself while you speak in there, okay?"
"I won't." Subaru confirmed, and I nodded as well. "But I trust that you will come help us if things go wrong, right?"
"The Princess would come in and send them to heaven if things to go wrong, so go do what you have to do."
Taking that as confirmation, we headed into the chamber, where a figure sat on an old chair, bounded by the chains she formerly wielded as weapons. As soon as we entered, her head perked up in excitement.
"I thought they won't send anyone, but they sent you, dears!"
"We're here to interrogate you, not to play around." Subaru clarified as he signalled to me, and I created a wooden chair, which he grabbed and sat on to face Sirius.
Sirius seemed more than comfortable to answer Subaru's questions, although her answers were very vague in general. She still firmly believed that Petelgeuse rested within Subaru's body, and warned Subaru of the Gluttonies. However, due to my interference and the new knowledge brought to this timeline, Subaru didn't need to run off and check if the other Gluttony was there, since I knew they all fled.
On the other hand, I do have business with Sirius.
"Subaru, you mind stepping out for a bit? I have something to talk about with Sirius."
"Be careful though, Y/N." Subaru said as I have him an affirming nod. Sirius didn't lick Subaru in this timeline, probably due to the fact that I was here. Well, this at least saves a lot of trouble.
"I still can't figure out which one of you is the real Petelgeuse. Both of you have resemblance to my dear. However, I personally believe that boy to be the perfect vessel more, but you're not bad of a replacement."
"Okay, if I'm not Petelgeuse, then why are you even talking with me then?"
"Because you have better abilities. The perfect vessel might not be able to protect himself well, but you definitely can. So keep my beloved safe for me."
"If you want me to help you, you have to help me too, since a deal for a deal, okay?"
"I can see where you're coming from. What do you need me, a prisoner to do?"
"Simple. Hold my hand for a second."
"Huh?" Sirius, confused, stuck out a feeble hand beneath the chains and held mine before I gave her a wicked smile.
"You Sin Archbishops are so predictable. One talk about your desires and you let your guard down." I smiled as I plunged my hand into her stomach as I activated Suitoru, and used all my force to extract what I came here for.
"Haha. Gotcha." I smiled as I looked at the rotating pyramid in my hands that I snatched out from the Archbishop, glowing a dim red like a Sith Holocron from Star Wars.
"Copy it, Deceit." I commanded, and my Witch Factor obeyed my order as it spewed out an identical copy of the pyramid, which I inserted back into Sirius.
"There. Now that you have your longevity back, you won't die, but nor can you cause any harm to others." I said before I slammed the original Witch Factor of Wrath into my stomach, and let it fuse with my body.
I spewed our blood due to my actions, but I was fully prepared for that. Taking a new Witch a Factor via my method is somewhat taxing to my body, since I'm not compatible with any witch factor. The Deceit Witch Factor only synthesizes my body with the witch factor after I absorb it, and it'll take some time before I could even use the authority of wrath.
I smiled weakly as I obtained my objective, and slowly stood up as my body recovered. I took a look at Sirius, who was still bound to her chair, but this time, with a more peaceful expression than normal.
I stepped forward to make sure that she was asleep, and I used my Authority of Deceit to deconstruct her bandages, and smiled as I realized her identity.
"I see." I patched her bandages up with new ones, and she looked silkier than before. Leaving the fallen Archbishop, I muttered one last phrase before I left.
"Rest well, and when I need you, I'll come back to get you. Take care of yourself, *******."
With that, my mission was complete, and I headed back towards the shelter where the major parties gathered to discuss the aftermath of the battle.
"So... this happened, huh? I thought that Roy and Lye would prioritize me over any other 'meal', but Julius-san still got his name erased. I am very sorry about that. I probably should have prepared another plan."
"Don't blame yourself, Y/N. I'm already very grateful that you and Subaru can still remember me."
With the previous business out of the way, I am faced with a problem that I forgot to take into account for, which was the victims of Gluttony. It would take a lot more than just fractions of Scindo to get rid of the effects, since they were supposed to be permanent instead of Sirius' emotion link.
Meanwhile, Subaru had a different thought. That was, because Subaru belonged to a different world, same as myself. We are human whose origin was from a different world , and not an existence who belonged to this world. Not being an existence of this world, we supposedly don't fall under the effect of the Authority which interfered with the concepts of this worldーthat was his hypothesis.
To be honest, I didn't even know if that theory was true, since Al flat out denied it. However, he is a mysterious man, so I would never know if he's lying or not. Believe it or not, the Authority of Deceit could not detect truth or lies, but only the authenticity of a truth or the unauthenticity of a lie.
Sighing at this, we entered the meeting. It seems that the first topic for discussion was obviously my new addition in the Battalion: Capella.
"Y/N, this might be rude to ask, since you saved Crusch-sama's life, but WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU TAKE IN THAT VILE WOMAN AS A COMRADE?" Felix yelled, obviously triggered.
"Okay, calm down, Felix. We all know Capella was kinda a bastard before she was reformed. However, the past is the past, and she's helping us now."
"That doesn't change the fact that she struck fear into the city... and was responsible for turning people into shapeless beings!"
"Hence why she's cleaning up her mess now. Don't worry, she won't leave Priestella before she finishes."
"Y/N-dono, I understand and can now see the unusual amount of affection Sphinx holds towards you, but do you think that you can truly keep that vile beast under control?"
"Eh... now that is a question I don't know exactly how to answer. A simple way to say it would be that we signed an unofficial contract. I fulfill one of her goals, while she doesn't hurt anyone. So that's the gist of it."
"Wait." Meili, who was quite silent since none of the Battalion members spoke up during the meeting. "If Mama is technically a part of Y/N's Battalion, does that mean... the Assassination Organization is also under our control now?"
"Wait... what did you just say?" I turned towards the Mabeast user, who just brought up an insanely good point.
"Well, Meili is right. Mama, who controls all assassins from over the four countries in the world, so technically, Y/N, who has taken Mama under his wing, technically controls the Assassination Organization by extension."
Elsa's revelation just made everyone in the room lean back in shock. This amount of power is not to be underestimated. I personally didn't even realize that when I made the deal with Capella, that such a powerful piece in the game has just fallen straight into my hands.
A/N: I actually didn't realize this when I started writing Arc 5. It was only when I started looking up stuff on the wiki did I then realize, so the disbelief here is genuine.
"Well... I guess that is true. But what am I supposed to do with such a large force? It's not like I have any use-"
"There's plenty of use for that!" Subaru interjected. "With that amount of willing manpower, we could easily find Gluttony-"
"There will be no need for that, Subaru." I clarified. "I understand that you want to find them, but Gluttony will be dealt with soon enough. Pure Truth confirmed it, of course."
At the mention of Pure Truth, Subaru nodded before settling down. And at this moment, Anastasia (actually Eridna) has decided to announce something.
"Like Julius-san over there, we have 36 other confirmed cases of Nameless people. Y/N-san here clarified that people who lose only their name would be still conscious, so we'll assume anyone who has been affected by the Sleeping Beauty Disease has both their names and memories eaten. Now, I think I know that I may have a solution to the problem. With the deformed creatures now reformed by Capella, we only have to deal with Gluttony."
"So... what exactly is your idea, Anastasia-san?" Subaru asked.
"I think we should seek out Shaula the Sage. Which means, we need to travel to the Pleiades Watchtower."
With that, the road to Arc 6 was set.