Fumble Order Redux 6
The hatted figure stared down at the currently disappearing corpse, its face impassive as it nudged the dead body with a foot. After watching Saber flake away for a few moments, it turned to look at the quartet, imperiously locking on to Olga as its mouth twisted into a cruel grin.
"Olga… I'm surprised to see you here."
As the group clambered to their feet, the Director's face split into a relieved smile as she cried, "Lev, you're alive!" She moved to stumble towards him, but was stopped by a firm grip landing on her shoulder and holding her in place. Standing next to her, Trent was glaring at the green clad figure as he kept a tight hold on the albino's shoulder.
"Honestly, it's very frustrating, this entire situation," Lev declared as he blithely looked over at the pillar of energy representing the Grail. He turned his gaze back to the director as she tried to shake the hand off her shoulder. "I didn't expect that you'd get this far, something beyond my plans and my tolerances." His mouth pulled into a grimace as he eyed Trent, annoyance finally showing clearly as he ground his pointed teeth.
"But what are you, unforeseen variable? Some final contingency left behind by Marisbury?"
As he said that, Roman cut in through the static, "Wait! Professor Lev is there? How didn't we find him earlier?"
"Ah, Romani, you survived as well…" the professor's mouth attempted to pull itself into a smile, but it didn't reach his eyes. "Despite my instructions ordering you to the command room immediately, you didn't listen. Honestly…scum that can't even follow orders makes me want to vomit. Why must humans try to dodge their preordained fates?"
"Master, please fall back! That person is dangerous!" Mash called to Trent even as she readied her shield to bring it between them.
Ignoring them, Lev turned his eyes to the director, smiling once more. "My, you've had a hard time of it as well, haven't you?" The hatted figure stepped forward as he allowed his sharklike eyes to open, Olga faltering back a step now that she'd been forced to sit and listen. "Honestly, all these complications have irked me, and without a doubt, the largest complication has yet to be resolved."
He swept a hand out in the albino's direction, his grin matching his gaze. "You, Olga. I set a bomb right beneath your feet, and you stand before me. Still clinging to life."
"…what?" Olga's reply was quiet, but it echoed through the cavern, her eyes widening as her already pale complexion whitened. "L-Lev…that's, w-what's that supposed to mean?"
"Ah, no, that's not completely right," the figure remarked as he breezed past her question. "You're already dead, your body was destroyed in the blast. Trismegistus thoughtfully transferred you into this Singularity after you became little more than spiritual residue. The you who had no aptitude for Rayshift while alive has gained that through the death of your body."
His hat shadowed his features, leaving only his grin as he continued, "That's the reason why you can't return to Chaldea as you are. The moment you do so, your consciousness will vanish, swept away as your spirit is torn from the mortal coil."
"Wh-bu-but, I-I'll die? I can't go back?" The director muttered, her expression lost as she tried to understand just what had been revealed to her.
The tophat bobbed as Lev replied, "Indeed, but that's far too sad a story for you. Let me show you the fate of the Chaldea that you devoted your life to before you go." With a simple gesture, a hole opened in the air, showcasing the great orb of Chaldeas, shining a malevolent red.
"Cha-Chaldeas is bright red? It's a lie! It has to be an illusion, right?" she cried as tears gathered in the corners of her eyes.
Lev kept up his jovial demeanour up as he answered, "Oh no, it's very real. I've connected the dimensions to show you, having the Holy Grail allows me to do as much." With a small motion, he pulled Olga into the air and out of Trent's grip. "Now, behold your folly, descendant of Animusphere! Not a sliver of blue representing human survival remains! Nothing but this burning red of extinction!"
The tophatted figure was crowing as his grin split his face. "Isn't it wonderful, Marie? This is the result of this mission! Once again, your incompetence has brought forth tragedy!"
"N-no! That's wrong! Absurd! I'm not responsible! It's not my fault! I didn't fail! I'm not, I'm not dead!" the albino screamed as she shook her head, kicking against the force pulling her towards Chaldeas. "Who even are you? What have you done to my Chaldeas?"
"Honestly, it isn't "yours." What an annoying child you are," Lev replied as he shook his head, distaste overtaking his features. "I could kill you, in all honesty. Dash your spirit apart like a glass, but there's no grace to that. I shall grant your final wish, instead. Lay your hands upon your treasure, consider it benevolence on my part."
"No! No! Stop! A territory of dimensional anomaly?" the girl continued to cry as she tried to squirm out of the invisible grip dragging her into the menacing sphere.
Lev was entirely focused on the albino he was tormenting. "Yes, exactly. It's not really that different from a black hole, or perhaps a sun. But, it changes nothing." He broke into an openmouthed grin, his pointed teeth gleaming in the light. "A human touching it would be a hellish disintegration on the molecular level. Please, have a taste of infinite living death!"
"No! No, no, no, no, no! Someone help me! Help! I don't want to die here!" the director was crying freely, tears falling down her cheeks as she tried to get free. "Because I've…I've never been praised by anyone! Why does this always happen to me? Nobody's ever valued me, they all just hated me!"
Olga's voice cracked as she floated towards the hole, those on the ground unable to interfere. "Please, no! I haven't accomplished anything yet! I've never been accepted by anyone!"
"You aren't going to die, Director!" Trent roared as he pulled his hand from his pocket and cycled through a pitcher's stance, throwing one of the stones that Cu Chulainn had given him when they left the mall. "Da Vinci! Roman! Pull Olga into Chaldea!"
"Wha-but Blackmore, weren't you listening to what Lev said?" the doctor argued from his end, panicking even as the small stone careened through the air.
While Lev was enjoying their panic, Da Vinci cut in, "It's fine, Romani! Set the coordinates to the coffin that I finished installing!"
"Honestly, giving a girl false hope, how rude you all are," Lev remarked blithely as he watched the stone come down and land at his feet, ignoring it as it tapped his shoe. He was about to finish pulling Olga into Chaldeas when the runes lit up and the stone exploded.
As a cloud of shrapnel and dust overtook Lev, Olga started to fall towards the ground before blinking out of the Singularity in a flash of blue light. Staring at the settling dust while Scheherazade and Mash prepared to fight Lev, Trent couldn't help but let out a breath.
The professor stepped out of the cloud, not a single hair or fibre out of place, face set in a mask of disappointment. He shook his head as he remarked, "Honestly, she was already dead, and you decided to just torment her with hope in her last moments. How disgusting."
"Wanna bet on it?" the blond man asked as he tried to keep from panicking in the face of the human clad monster before him.
Lev allowed a single brow to quirk up, before letting out a chuckle. The idea of a gamble clearly tickling his sadistic nature. "Hmph, the terms?"
"If Olga lives, you leave the Grail to me. If she doesn't, then we fight," Trent answered, not finishing the second sentence as facing off against a Demon God Pillar in their current state probably wouldn't go too well.
The figure smiled as he nodded, "Agreed."
"Then the contract is sealed," Trent declared, causing Lev's eyes to narrow.
The hole into Chaldea shifted, giving them a skyward gaze of Da Vinci and Romani hunched over a console, staring at the readout. A crooked smile worked its way across the doctor's face as he murmured, "She's alive! It worked! The director's alive!"
"Of course it worked! It was prepared by the genius Da Vinci!" the Renaissance Man declared proudly, putting her hands on her hips as she thrust her chest out.
The hole suddenly shifted to a clearly newly installed coffin, which had its lid shaking as muffled cries for release came from within it.
With no sound at all, the hole in space and time snapped shut as Lev turned to stare at the Canadian. His blank black eyes bored into the blond, his mouth twisted into a grimace of annoyance. "It would seem that you've won our bet. The Grail is yours." With that said, he turned and walked behind the air, disappearing into the aether.
"Blackmore! We're not getting any readings from Lev anymore, claim the Grail while you can!" Roman's voice crackled through the air, some panic clearly evident in his voice.
The blond shared a look with Scheherazade and Mash, who responded with simultaneous nods as they fanned out and took up defensive positions. The trio closed on the pillar of dark light cautiously, eyes out for any sort of incoming threat. When they reached it, Trent reached out, the pillar metamorphosing into a crystal and then into a golden grail. The blond wrapped his hand around the stem, pulling it free and marvelling at its lack of heft.
The Canuck looked up and called out, "We've got the grail, bring us back to Chaldea!"
"The Holy Grail's retrieval has been confirmed! Rayshifting you back," the salmon-haired man replied, a cerulean vortex flashing before the trio's eyes as they were encompassed in a feeling of weightlessness.
Almost the next moment, they had dropped into Chaldea, their knees buckling at the sudden shift. Trent looked around, the cratered ground and blasted walls drawing almost as much of his attention as the seemingly spotless coffin, its lid open and wafting a light mist.
As Roman jogged into the room, Trent collapsed to his knees, letting out a shuddering breathe even as Scheherazade and Mash turned to him, surprise and concern etched on their faces respective faces.
The blond ignored them.
He was out of danger, he could finally decompress and let out all the stress that had piled up.
He flopped forward, letting his head rest gently on the ground as he thought about just what he was going to do once he could raid their cafeteria.
Stench invaded his nostrils and he decided he'd shower first, then raid the cafeteria.
