Book VII: A Master and his Doll

Chapter LIII

https/youtu.be/fbTf3moH72s

I fired my pistol, but the man of shadows sliced them out of the air. Why did I even keep a gun on me?

"I already told you I don't want anything to do with this anymore! Leave me be!" I argued.

"And I already said that you're allowed to make that choice, but I won't let you abandon your friends that easily!" he argued as he charged at me.

I pulled my sword and parried off of him, launching myself backwards.

"Besides," he continued. "If you didn't have the will to move on, you wouldn't be fighting, now would you?"

I couldn't beat him, not even close, not by myself. His duplicates hadn't even started attacking yet and I was hopeless.

"You're wrong! Giving up on her and giving up on life are two different things!" I argued. "If I didn't care about my life, I would've gone after her!"

"And if you cared about hers half as much as she sacrificed for yours, maybe you wouldn't be so selfish. You disappoint me Silas," he replied as he lowered his head.

"That's... not what I...," I couldn't find the words to argue. "She didn't want to get attached to me..."

"And now it's her fault?" he questioned.

"No! It's not... it's my fault!"

"Really? You don't seem too convinced!"

One of the duplicates immediately charged at me before I could respond. He used the hilt of his sword so slam me into the ground before grabbing me by the collar and lifting me off the ground.

"Hurts, don't it?" he asked. "That's nothing compared to what she's feeling."

He then tossed me into the air as the second duplicate jumped up and spiked me into the ground with the flat end of his sword.

I coughed up a bit of blood, this wasn't good.

"For the Architect's sake, you're so conflicted you can't even fight back! Will you make your bloody choice?!" he said, raising his voice.

"I... don't want to fight anymore. I'm scared... just end it all. I don't care," I finally said.

He let out a sigh. "Fine, so be it.

The two duplicates stopped and he approached me, holding his sword up.

I waited for it to kill me, but instead I watched his shadowy figure get launched into a wall and dissipate.

"How dare you try and abandon me like that!" a familiar voice said irritably as she walked into the room.

"Azami?" I said in surprise.

"Yes, it's me!" she said, yanking me up by the ear. "You know I would've gone back to my core crystal if he'd have killed you! My beloved driver shouldn't be so selfish! I'd die of boredom if you left me all alone!"

"Ow!" I said, trying to unsuccessfully pull away. "Azami, I-"

"I told you, I made it VERY clear that there was no getting away from me. Do you remember that?" she yelled, but she wasn't waiting for an answer. "I don't care that you were scared, I don't care that you feel like you can't beat him! But what I do care about is you abandoning me! Did you ever stop and think for a second about how I felt?"

"Look, I'm sorry! Can you please let go of my-"

She responded by picking me up off the ground by my ear.

"I'm not done talking!" she stated. "You're going to kick his ass, and then we're going to go save the Aegis. You're going to be a man and hold the promise you made to help her regain her full memory, and then, and only then, can you come home. Preferably with me as your bride, but regardless!"

"Alright, fine. You're right, I shouldn't have left," I finally said, making up my mind.

She then set me down. "Good, now let's prove it!"

"You said your friends weren't really friends," the shadow reminded me. "So was that a lie?"

https/youtu.be/va8sRgPwHP0

For some reason, I felt relieved. Maybe the reason I thought they weren't really friends was just me being immature. This whole thing was just me being immature, I had to get better, I had to BE better.

"Yeah, sorry. Guess my head was in the wrong place," I said, letting out a chuckle.

"What's so funny?" he asked.

Azami passed me her ether cannon and I turned to face one of the two remaining duplicates.

"I simply realized how silly I've been," I acknowledged. "You want proof? Well I'm ready now."

"Very well," he said. "Multis!"

Azami stood back-to-back with me and we were now surrounded by four duplicates.

I fired off a shot and took out one, Azami pulled my sword out of my sheathe and began sword fighting one of the duplicates.

"Everbero!" he shouted as he shot out a wave of darkness at me.

Azami twirled back away from her opponent, throwing up a quick ether shield to protect me. I then blasted the duplicate she was fighting.

That was two more down, two left.

Azami slammed the sword into a duplicate as he parried it, shattering my sword.

"Azami I actually use that!" I complained.

"No worries my love!" she giggled as she pulled out another sword out of... I didn't even know where she pulled it out of. "The vessel port thought I only had fifty-six weapons."

"Remind me never to get on your bad side again," I pointed out before shooting at the duplicate she wasn't attacking.

"This is much better Silas," the shadow said.

Azami threw the sword at me and I threw her back her cannon, effectively switching weapons.

I then engaged in a sword fight with the shadow.

"Fluctus!" it yelled as it let out an ether attack around it.

I jumped back and blocked it with my own ether shield.

"You fight with your blade in harmony, as any driver should. Much better than when you were tested at the beginning," he acknowledged.

"I was a fool, but I'm not scared anymore! I mean... I am... but I have others to help me!" I said before slashing at him again.

Azami fired at the other duplicate, sending it to oblivion.

"Any final words, phantom?" I asked.

"Name's Rex" he said. "And just one question, what finally made you change your mind?"

"I don't know... I guess between Granny, you, Sarah, and Azami... it finally clicked. I was never doing this for me, and it wouldn't be right to quit now!"

"Then I wish you the best of luck!" Rex said with a hint of a smile. "Do I need to tell you where to go, or have you figured it out?"

"I don't know where Mythra is... but I know where my friends are going. I'll just try to figure it out before they even get there!" I said.

"Very well, best of luck," he said before disappearing.

"WAKE UP!" a voice shouted at me as I snapped out of it.

"What's going on Azami?" I questioned.

"Those phantoms disappeared and then you began staring at the ceiling for about five minutes now. Are you alright?" Azami questioned.

"I'm fine," I said as I sighed in relief. "Come on, let's go bother Juliani."

"I love it when you look so confident, my driver," she swooned.

"Calm down," I said, laughing a bit. "Let's go Azami... and thanks."

...

"What do you mean you lost the map?!" Nim interrogated.

"I don't know! It was in my pocket!" Electra said, trying to defend herself.

"Electra you don't even have pockets," Floren pointed out.

"Well maybe if I did we wouldn't be in this mess!"

"It's fine," Nim interjected. "There's plenty of Phonexes here! I can just ask them for directions."

"I'm still skeptical on you actually being able to do that," Floren sighed.

"Says the boy who's ability is his 'cute charm'!" Nim snapped.

"Hey leave me alone!" Floren pouted.

They stopped talking to each other and Nim approached the small creature that resembled a fox.

After squeaking to each other for about twenty minutes, Nim waved goodbye.

"So where's Juliani at?" Electra asked.

Nim stopped and began sweating.

"Well?" Floren prodded.

"I... forgot to ask," she admitted.

"Oh come on!" Electra whined.

"I'm sorry he started talking about his family and I didn't want to interrupt!" Nim defended.

"But that was the whole reason you started talking to him!" Floren pointed out.

"Well I can't help that I'm socially awkward by default!"

"Alright fine, then I'll just use my charm to talk to the locals!" Floren decided.

They went into the main area of Argentum and began asking people for about three hours, but the locals weren't exactly friendly.

After they had finally reached their wit's end, they finally stopped and took a break.

"I'm beat," Electra complained.

"Why aren't people helping us? They just keep looking at us like we're stupid!" Floren pointed out.

"Well if you were the richest and most powerful female in all of Argentum where would you live?" Nim asked aloud.

"Probably in some big giant party house," Floren mumbled.

"You mean like that one?" Electra asked, pointing at literally the largest building in all of Argentum.

"Oh yeah," Nim realized. "We're bad at this..."

"Alright!" Floren exclaimed, jumping up and down. "Now all we need to do is stake out the entrance, find a way in, and spy on Juliani!"

"Quit saying that so loud!" Nim Sai's, jumping up and covering his mouth.

"Oh, right," Floren said with a laugh.

"The Mighty Band of Misfits will soon be the most feared party in all of the BAP!" Electra shouted excitedly.

But how they'd even get in there was a mystery.

Readability Level: 11-12th Grade

Time Taken: 2 Hours