Vestiges

It continues.

17.

\Bishop/

Toffee kicked a knight away as soon as he got too close for comfort, the heel of his shoe audibly breaking the bones of his sternum to pieces. Without even missing a beat, he grabbed at the axe he'd implanted into the first knight he'd killed and yanked it out quickly so as to not struggle with it. For a moment, he tested its weight with a bit of hesitation, but he soon swung it away in a throw, the axe-head knocking into an armored knight with concussive force.

"Hmm… no." He picked up a claymore soon after, tested its reach and weight as well with a little sword-play experiment but he shook his head. With it, he had to defend himself from the King who wielded a large broadsword with a blade so wide it was nearly comical, just like Kelly's own. He stopped the King's sword with a clash that had sparks, but only frowned as he did so. "No… this claymore sword is also substandard."

"What are you going on about?!"

Toffee didn't answer; instead, he merely ducked beneath one of Rhombulus's crystallizing beams while sticking the blade of the sword into it purposefully. It occurred in such a way that the sword resembled a Neanderthal-like stone hammer, with a blocky crystal for the hammerhead. Without any ado, he brought it crashing down onto the King's head, braining him severely for only for a few moments before he recovered enough to jump away, but blood began to flow freely from his head injury.

"Unbelievable. You've got such a hard head that you actually survived getting beaten in the head with a diamond-hard crystal."

"Thanks," the king grunted.

"That wasn't a compliment. I literally just said that you're hardheaded." Pontification aside, Toffee took a step backwards just as the transformed queen let loose an explosive blast at would've pummeled him. "This is the strongest that Mewni has to offer? An old queen and a pot-bellied king?"

"OLD?!"

"POT-BELLIED?!"

"He didn't even mention me!" Rhombulus complained, although he was ignored.

Toffee allowed himself a smirk at their reactions, despite the time and place. "From where I am, I can see the crow's feet on Moon's face. And truth be told, River isn't fighting like the barbarian he used to be." As he spoke, another few knights surrounded him, but the Bishop was far too agile for them to engage. Swinging his tail, he swept one off of his feet, captured a halberd from another with his right hand and throwing a haymaker punch with his left, sending the third one flying into the wall, leaving it with spider-web cracks before the knight sagged off unconscious. With the long halberd in his hands, he chopped down the knight he had captured the weapon from, before stabbing the spear tip through the knight on the ground who was scrambling to get away. Most of those winced at the sound, the noise of the weapon through the man's flesh sounding like soggy wood being run through, and the hatred for the Septarian grew even more.

"You fiend!"

"Fiend?" Toffee mumbled as he started to take the time to roll up his sleeves before handling the halberd again. It was as if he was disinterested with the entire affair, as if he did not even care for their accusations, or even for the fact that he was embroiled in a conflict with them. "War is what it is, Moon." He started walking forward now with the halberd in hand, and it was with amusement that he noticed that the entire crowd of knights, including the King, the Queen (in her butterfly state) and Rhombulus went backwards a step. He stepped forward once more, and the entire throng repeated their earlier action.

Obviously, they were still afraid of him.

"Excuse me… this halberd is of hardly any use…" he gestured to his weapon with little interest. "Do you still have the pole-axe version? The sturdier one that your army used to use two decades ago?" His eyes scanned the crowd to try and find a knight who wielded the weapon he favored. He soon spied one, though not in the possession of a knight, but in a pair of two that was presented in a display case on the far wall to his right. Quickly approaching it, he smashed the glass case with the butt-end of the halberd and dropped it to the floor, before picking up the much heftier pole-axe instead. Still not entirely satisfied, he picked up the second pole-axe as well, before knocking them both together to test the metal used to make them. It was as he wished; they were quite a bit shorter than the pole of the halberd, but the entire weapon was made out of metal, giving it a nearly unnecessary amount of weight. However, the blades of the axe-region were broader than the halberds, and the opposite side sported the typical blockhead of an axe. What's more, the metal tip at the top wasn't as thin and long as the halberds, but shorter and thicker. In simple terms, what he had was a completely large metallic axe with a spear end, rather than having a spear with a smallish axe-head.

Yes, now he was satisfied. They felt right at home in his hands, never mind the weight. Despite his lean appearance, he was stronger than even the average muscled monster that was twice his size. With his physique, these were the type of weapons that he used to use, back when he relied more on his brawns than his brains. He still had the might, and he was going to put it to use.

"For all of your green knights who're still wet behind the ears, this is a weapon," Toffee lectured. "These were the types of weapons that the real knights used in the past when they relied more on their strength, rather than their reach as if they were afraid of their enemies. But Moon, I suppose that's what you get for trying to make knights in ceremonies, instead of when they are warriors meant to be born and christened on the battlefield like Mina Loveberry. These knights look more fit to be squires, and that's a stretch for a few of those that I can see at present. They're shaking at the knees."

"Don't you dare lecture me about my subjects! Knights!" she ordered, "ATTACK!"

Some charged willingly, some hesitantly. But the older version of Toffee, the one on the inside, grinned maniacally at the prospect of engaging in conflict although he was still stoic on the outside. "Moon, you just sentenced a lot of your soldiers to die." True to his word, as the knights rushed him, they could not hope to even injure the skilled Septarian much less kill him, especially given the fact that he was capable of extreme regeneration to the point of being immortal. Even though the knights tried to surround him, he was still an unstoppable force, hacking his way through vitals with the axe-blades or smashing at armored places with axe-blockheads. They were still yet others who were getting run through with the spikes, and Moon was horrified to see her knights defeated-… no, being killed so quickly and easily. Toffee wasn't even the worse for wear; there still wasn't even a wrinkle in his outfit, except for those he made by rolling up his sleeves to free his elbows.

"Rhombulus, don't just stand there, crystallize him!" Queen demanded.

"But what if I accidentally crystallize any of the knights? They're getting in the way!"

"You can DE-CRYSTALLIZE them when it's over! It's better than to watch them die! When you crystallize him, or even immobilize him partially, I'll find some way to carry him out of here where we can go all out without having to worry about the others fighting."

"About that, Moon-pie…" River said solemnly, "Marco and that girl, I cannot say that they're any less of a threat than Toffee…" Turning to look back at the pair of insurgents, the woman's heart fell when she realized that her husband was right; the girl who gave off the threatening vibe was mercilessly killing her knights, as stupefying as it seemed. Marco was more of the same, and for the first time, Moon felt some measure of regret as to where the boy was concerned. Had Mewni's mistreatment of him really led to him being one of their worst enemies?

"I…" Moon thought long and hard. "Star has the wand. But the fact that Toffee's back shows that he's capable of returning even from the dead!"

"Did he die at all last time?" River asked.

"I'm sure he did. After all, it's the reason why Eclipsa got freed from the crystal. She wouldn't have been freed, were it not for Toffee's death. The best we can possibly do is to rely on Rhombulus to completely crystallize him."

"Then what about Marco and the girl?"

"I told you he was evil." Rhombulus quipped. Seeing the royal couple glare at him, he cringed. "Sorry. Bad time for an 'I told you so'. But if we're the ones fighting Toffee, then that just leaves Star to handle Marco, right? I think we can trust her to take him down, both him and the squire girl. Besides, she's got the wand and her strong boyfriend. They should be fine."

"Fine?" Moon was worried. She most certainly didn't want to leave her daughter in the hall that was already starting to look like a bloodbath, but she had no choice. "Be careful, Star," she said quietly before she slowly turned her attention to Toffee. "Everyone, step back!"

That was all the warning she gave before she cast one of her strongest spells that blew that entire section of the ceremonial hall to oblivion. In the wake of it, Toffee was nowhere to be seen, and Moon knew that that the blast force was sufficient enough to knock Toffee through the now-nonexistent walls to the outside of the castle. "Everyone, Toffee's outside! Advance on him, before he recovers!"

With a yell of boosting morale and vigor, all of the remaining knights who were engaging Toffee charged through the gaping hole in the side of the castle after the Septarian. They were still on the ground floor of the castle, so it was safe for them to exist in this fashion. Safety as a theme ended soon after when they found Toffee a moment later. He wasn't partial to his suit in the slightest, as he still had plenty more of them; the damage done to it was superfluous. The fact that the attack had caught him off guard was what upset him, and he was now feeling angry enough to teach Mewni why they shouldn't irritate Septarians.

Pole-axes in hand, he dashed at them with the intent of taking no prisoners. Soon he was in their midst, hacking at vulnerable areas, pummeling armored places with the hammer-sided end of his axes and stabbing with the spike-bits. Even more unfortunate, in following Queen Moon's orders, Rhombulus encased quite a few more hapless knights who were fighting Toffee in an attempt to capture him as well, but to no avail. Soon, all the knights were all either dead or incapacitated; Toffee looked on at the royal couple and their bodyguard.

"I'm not nearly done as yet, Moon. Have any more tricks? Humor me."

"I have plenty, you relic of a lost age!" Forming magical bolts, she let loose a salvo from all six of her arms, blasting them at Toffee. The Bishop ran in a strafe, easily avoiding them; as it were her intentions, he was driven towards Rhombulus, who had his hands encased in crystals to augment his hands into diamond-hard bits. In a flurry of punches, Rhombulus broke through Toffee's guard to puncture his upper torso full of holes. However, Toffee's body, expectedly, soon healed. However, it was noticed that there was some sort of purple substance bled from him, and wherever his blood dripped, it sizzled on the ground, even on the diamond-hard crystals that Rhombulus had encased his snake-hands with. He tried to crystallize Toffee being that he was at such close range, but Toffee merely avoided each blast; it was relatively easy to the Septarian. He only had to be in the direction wherever the M.H.C. Security aficionado wasn't looking in. The beam was always shot from the center of his eye straight forward-… that much was plain.

"If you repeat the same action, you get the same reaction," Toffee monotone as he dodged the beam again and again. "What did you hope to gain?"

"A long enough distraction…" Rhombulus said rather cheekily. Before the Bishop could properly react, River came rushing forward with his sword swinging. Toffee was barely able to lean forward enough to keep his head from being beheaded, but in his moment of being caught off guard, Moon came flying in, and grabbed him by the leg and flew high with him.

"You're a tenacious enemy, Toffee, I grant you that…" Veering around in a sharp circle, she then spun with acquiring momentum before throwing him down as hard as he could. Coupled with gravity and mass and velocity, Toffee was hurled to the earth with such force that the ground shook a bit with the impact, and kicked up loose dust. The queen was looking forward to seeing a broken Septarian, but he emerged out of the dust haze as if there was nothing wrong.

"That… was an exercise in futility."

He paused after this, trying to consider his next move. Despite being virtually immortal, he was at a disadvantage. It wasn't because he was fighting three people… no, it was because he was presently a close-range fighter and was going up against two people with projectile attacks, one of whom could fly. A fight like this wasn't impossible, mind you, but simply undoable.

King…

So the King was Marco, hmm? He had seemed to have been an unlikely candidate, but there must have been some ulterior reason as to why it was the way it is... a reason why the boy would have dominion over them. Wasn't he the one that was Star's best friend? Wasn't he the very one whom he had affronted while in his sideline objectives to get to the Wellspring?

An unlikely person. But the fact still remained that he was his King. So be it.

They'd all been chosen by a calling higher than theirs… destiny, perhaps? Toffee had never considered himself a believer in fate, but everything that had happened had been done so in accordance with the maxim of removing magic from the multiverse.

But for now... what was he ordered to do?

"My Knight's feeling a bit overwhelmed… Could you do something about that?"

"Hmm… A bit vague," Toffee thought out loud. "He probably meant for me to thin the numbers. I've already done so. After all, the knights are all neutralized. If I'm to take on the Queen and Rhombulus, I'd need at least a Rook to support me, or the King himself. The King?" At the word, Toffee began to laugh; it started small, but it soon grew, unsettling his opponents. "Imagine! The King! Hmm… How ironic… the King is almost as weak as an ordinary pawn, but they're the ones who are granted the might to make all others kneel before them!"

"What?" Moon asked in a bewildered tone. "King?"

"Does he mean me, Moon-Pie?" River asked.

"I don't think so…" Rhombulus said. "And didn't he call Marco 'King'? I knew Marco was evil, I knew it, I knew it!"

"No… not just that…" Moon thought back a bit, recalling that Marco had called him 'Bishop'. "Toffee, what's the relationship between the both you and Marco?"

"I have no obligation to tell you." Readjusting his pole-axes in his hands, he prepared to go on the offensive. "But it is time I removed you from play…" Musing on his strategy for a while, he realized that Rhombulus could only crystallize objects he could see with his sole eye. ('Typical Rook, hindered by his vision!') Furthermore, the queen would be the one to come rushing in if her precious pieces were caught in check.

And so, his plan came together.

In a dead-on run, he charged forward to where they were. Naturally, they all separated apart to counterattack from a presumed safe range from him, but it was just as well. He threw one of his pole-axes after the King to drive him further away and as he did, Toffee swiftly turned away to head straight towards Rhombulus who had mistakenly believed that Bishop was after the weakest of their group.

"Time to go!" Rhombulus muttered excitedly at the prospect of finally encasing Toffee. Trying once more to crystallize him, he fired his beam but missed. Anxious now, he flung off the encasings he had over his snake-hands and started to fire crystal shards from the mouths of his snakes. Toffee dodged what he could and deflected others with his weapons. Realizing his folly, Rhombulus backpedaled to increase his distance again, but it failed as Toffee had been approaching him at full speed. As a last-ditch effort, he tried to crystallize him again, but Toffee was far too quick and dodged it easily.

With a grunt of effort, he swung his axe and chopped off one of Rhombulus' hands, the snake itself shrieking as it went flying off. Golden blood squirted from the wound and in pain, Rhombulus yelled his hurt, bringing both the King and Queen to try to save their comrade. However, they'd put too much distance between themselves and Toffee, and it took them too long in getting there.

"Now for your other arm!" Toffee announced.

"Hell no!" To defend his last arm, Rhombulus immediately formed a covering of diamond all over it. Unfortunately, he had fallen for Toffee's bluff, and the Septarian grinned.

"There goes the last defense…! You're strong, but not very clever!" Punctuating his last word, Toffee lifted his pole-axe and slammed it into the Crystal-Magic user directly in his chest. Already near death, even more of the golden blood was spilled as Rhombulus was sent sprawling and just as he'd planned, the Queen came rushing in at full speed. She was armed with a zigzagged sword made from pure magical energy, and but it mattered little to him.

Everything came riding down on the second.

"Damn you, Toffee!" she screamed as she prepared to liberate his head from his body. With an undertone growl in his throat, he sidestepped her sword slash in her attempts to behead him with a diagonal strike. She had only managed to take off his left arm, and her excessive force had only allowed her sword to follow through with her action. She couldn't defend herself with the sword now, and Toffee knew it all too well. Still in his other hand and rapidly swinging at her at incredible speeds was his pole-axe, fully intent on bisecting her in two.

"Moon!" River yelled, still too distant to intervene. "MOON!"

In shock, the Queen almost waited for the finishing blow, but it never came. In fact, Toffee was unarmed, and the Septarian found himself getting blown back with explosive force against the walls of the Ceremonial Hall, creating spider-web cracks as he impacted against it. Dark malignant blood outflowed from the stump that was his left arm before it regenerated, but the Bishop was far more focused on the fact that the massive form of Omnitraxus. The demigod was now emerging from a large fiery portal of (likely) Hekapoo's making, and his visage was positively frightening as he looked on at the area littered with dead knights and bloodstains. There was also the fact that his brother was severely injured, if not dead-… golden blood still streamed from him, and if looks could kill, then the Bishop would've died then and there, regenerative powers or not.

"Your weapons are now several dimensions away! You, however, will know only the far reaches of oblivion!"

Toffee clicked his tongue in disappointment as he got back on his feet, staring intently at the gigantic leviathan. "Well, well. This was an expected complication, but not one I'm prepared to deal with…"

"Die, Septarian!"

Reinforcements are here. That's the end of Bishop's chapter.

Well, for some who caught the update on early Saturday and soon after, you may have noticed my comment that I was hoping to update again in a half-day. Well, it didn't happen. Sorry. But look, here it is! Smallish chapter? I know it is. In fact, this was originally meant to be a fic with 2.5k-4k chapters.

What? You want more useless facts about the chapters? Well, for starters, this story was projected to last for 52 chapters. That's not gonna happen anymore and it's now projected to go into the thirties bracket.

Another useless fact is that every chapter, though named after a theme in the chapter, the theme is a word beginning with a particular letter of the alphabet, in reverse-double order. To simplify it, (if you haven't already noticed it or didn't care to):

First A, then Z, then B, then Y, then C, then X…

You get the idea. However, double chapters for each letter was halted after the set-up for the story had been completed. Hmm… Apparently, the title of the last chapter will begin with the letter 'N'. I wonder which epic word that'll be?

Irrelevant.

I'll be making the next update on Saturday, if not earlier on Friday night. But for now, good night.

MRAY 4TW.