Author's Note: I do not own anything from Bayonetta.
Chapter 5: The Lumen Sage (Part 1)
…
"Our work here is done? Are you sure about that, love?"
The boy began to pace in a small circle, waving his hands in strange, circular motions. His expression changed constantly from annoyed to visibly frustrated. Bayonetta wasn't entirely sure what he was on about this time and just opted to fold her arms and watch him with bemusement.
"Well, that Angel friend of yours kept us busy for a while. And it did bring up more questions than answers, Sovereign One."
The title's effect was instantaneous. The boy stopped all movement and grabbed onto his head with both hands. A cry of pain escaped his throat and he fell to his knees, still gripping his head.
"Not a fan, little one?" She couldn't keep the worried tone out of her voice. Bayonetta slowly walked towards him, just waiting for that strange blue mist to appear and transport her back into that dream-like reality. To her surprise, it did not and the only thing that happened was the boy slowly silencing himself as the wave passed.
"Just call me anything but that. Even 'little one'." He grunted out, slowly lowering his hands down. "I don't know why, but it's painful."
So that name was one hundred percent off limits. Bayonetta could work with that. She held a hand out and he accepted it, allowing her to pull him up. "Well, little one, I think I have a solution to our naming problem."
"You do?"
"What do you think of Ardilla Pequeña?" She asked, letting the words roll off her tongue. It wasn't often she used her mother's tongue, but she did keep in practice just in case. And besides, Luka's reactions to her speaking in Spanish were literally the funniest things she had ever seen.
The boy frowned and slowly turned to stare at her. "What does that mean?"
Bayonetta smirked and began to walk towards the bridge. "You should be able to figure it out yourself."
"Well, I won't let you call me names unless I know what you are insulting me with." He piped up. "At least I know what little one means."
She let out a bark of laughter. "I think you are a little too young to know what that truly means."
A 'harumph' burst from behind and the two walked in companionable silence for a while. The boy was the first to speak up, glancing up at her to do so.
"What I meant, Bayonetta, is that we still have to get to the bridge. You just spent a good chunk of time fighting those Angels and we're probably further away than we started." He sighed, shaking his head slightly.
"To be fair, those Angels did want to take us to the mountain." Her eyes trailed back onto the street, sweeping for anything suspicious. "Something tells me this very elaborate trap is far more elaborate than we are expecting."
The boy nodded and kicked at a pebble of debris, scattering it into a nearby wall. "That's the problem, love. We all want to get to the mountain for legitimate reasons, yet there's someone who wants us specifically to get to the mountain. It makes me not want to go to the mountain just to stick it to them… Yet…"
"I believe the same. If the way to my sleeping beauty wasn't in the exact same place as where our little friend wants us to be, I would certainly be on the other side of the planet by now."
His gaze turned a little sceptic. "And who was our helper? It was enough to piss off our mutual friend to the point they finally got involved."
"DESTROY HIM!"
The voice that roared in the sky when one of the Glamor died echoed through her mind. She assumed it was talking about Damien, but she didn't know for certain. Again, Bayonetta had never seen him use anything like that.
But who else could it be?
"You alright, love?"
His voice brough to her attention that she was frowning very deeply. Softening her expression, she inhaled deeply and exhaled a long and continuous breath. "I can't tell you for absolute certain, but I think it's a very dear friend of mine."
"You think?" The disbelief was very evident and completely unexpected. "Love, if we have allies in this place we really do need to know."
"You tell my legs to cooperate and then we'll know." Bayonetta snorted at the absurdity of the statement and shook her head. "What a day… Now I'm sounding like Enzo."
"Who's Enzo?"
"A fat man with an even fatter head." She briefly explained. "But either way, I'm certain if we do run into our helper, they will be quite the staunch…"
Her words trailed off and she too came to a stop. A cold feeling of unease trickled down her spine, increasing both her heartbeat and breathing.
If Damien was here, then he knew.
Jeanne was literally his best friend. From past experiences with his multiverse travelling's, her brother would bottle up everything until he literally could not fit anything more in there. From what Jeanne had told her when they had their argument, he had practically exploded with pent-up resentment and worry. It would be much, much worse now.
She needed to find-
"Hey! What's the hold up? Don't you want to get to Fimbulventr?" The boy was standing in front of her, waving his arms. "Bayonetta!"
"It's…" She found herself hesitating.
'Do not trust him with this. Not yet.'
Her patron's advice extended that hesitation. Why so?
'Your relationship with Damien is still quite the unknown to everyone due to your own machinations. Do you really think trusting this boy with that information is correct or intelligent?'
Butterfly was correct. Besides herself, Jeanne, Luka and the Devil May Cry crew, Damien's entire history and relationship with her was completely hidden away. Neither of them was completely sure of the reaction that the world would give them, considering that her relationship with Balder was received with scorn and hatred.
"How dare the whore daughter of our gracious Father murder him in cold blood!? She should be burned at the stake for what she has done!"
Eventually, the media and the world forgot this convenient fact and began to focus on how the 'beautiful woman' constantly hung out with the 'monster of a man' and how that was such a shame. Bayonetta's thoughts darkened at this objectification. It was one thing to objectify her; she didn't really mind it as much as Luka believed she did and could ignore it for the vast majority of the time. But to call her brother a monster, something that constantly ate at him and left him in tears?
That was enough to make her hunt down a few of these charlatan 'journalists' and warn them very severely that much, much worse could occur if they continued this path. For every one she stopped, a dozen more popped up and Luka was the one to convince her the crusade wasn't worth it.
"Let's just say he's special." She answered honestly. The boy crossed his arms and gave her another sceptical look-over.
"If that's what you are gonna say, love. I just think you're hiding something."
"Where's the fun in life if you don't hide truths?" Bayonetta smirked and the boy rolled his eyes. The pair continued to walk towards the beginning of the bridge. The shadows on the building around them began to lengthen with each step and the Witch glanced over to see the sun setting, slowly dipping below the horizon. Red and orange streaks filled the sky, slowly giving way to the dark night.
And a full moon. Her senses and power were already tingling in anticipation of the strength it would grant her. A thought came to Bayonetta and she glanced down at him.
"So, little Ardilla, what is with those cards you used?"
"I dunno. They just come naturally to me. Be good if they did actual damage." A small hand of cards appeared and he fanned them out. The Witch held a hand out and he passed her one. It was a small, cerulean blue design embossed with raised intricate gold patterns. Turning it over, she saw that the image of a tall, regal woman was embossed upon the face of the card.
'Queen Sheba!?' Butterfly hissed. Bayonetta frowned slightly and peered at the card a little closer.
That doesn't look like Sheba.
'That's her human form.'
She started at that, slowly looking up and staring off into the distance. Queen Sheba has a human form?
Her patron snorted with derision. 'Besides Argosax, she's the first Demon to ever exist; a fact she constantly reminds us all of. How else do you think she came into being?'
The Witch gave it a few seconds, thinking about all the various creation myths. Most of them were absolutely preposterous, but some of them had a lot of similar features. I honestly thought she was a fallen Angel.
'The only fallen Laguna in Inferno are Mundus and Rodin, the former whom was a fully-fledged Demon for a few years before leaving to become a…' The Demon hesitated for a moment. 'Primordius.'
That made sense. But what didn't make sense was why the boy had a card embossed with the original image of the current Queen of Inferno.
Turning it back around, she stared a little closer at the golden ridges on the backside of the card. A strange glint caught her eye and they narrowed in response. It looked like-
Bayonetta turned around and stared up at the buildings around her. As expected, there was no person there and the Witch felt her skin beginning to crawl. Her eyes began to dart between rooftops, trying to justify her suspicion or alleviate her unease.
Someone was watching her.
"Love?" She turned to see the boy looking at her with wide eyes. "Is everything alright?"
She checked the rooftops behind him, then shook her head. This time it would pay to be truthful. "We shouldn't linger. Stay vigilant, little one; someone or something is keeping an eye on us."
The boy's reaction was one she should've expected. "What!? There is? Who?"
"I don't know, but I do want to find out. I'm not a huge fan of stalkers." Her thoughts strayed to one of her closest friends and she reconsidered the statement. "Well, stalkers of the arcane kind."
…
Balder stared down at the alleyway in undisguised hatred. She was here.
In the flesh. No images. No holograms. No tricks.
Bayonetta.
He gripped his two-ended glaive a little tighter, letting his rage fill him. She was the cause of everything, and here she was. Laughing and giggling without a care in the world.
Did she not care that her supposed best friend was dead?
Did she not care that her Infernals had abandoned her?
She didn't care. Bayonetta had murdered his wife and child, caused her allies, close and far, deaths and was utterly alone in the world and she simply did not care.
Balder had once thought that the Witch could not lower his opinion of her further. Oh, how wrong he was.
Walking from rooftop to rooftop, he stayed out of sight when the Witch stopped and began to look for him. He wasn't sure how she had found him; his aura was completely hidden and there was no reason for her to start scanning the rooftops.
Balder thought about it and mentally shrugged. Perhaps the careless nature was a façade for the constant paranoia she must have felt.
Observing the pair in a much more hidden location, the Sage finally realised where the pair were going to. The Witch and Loki were heading towards the entry point to the gigantic broken bridge that the town was built around. His head swivelled to the small plaza that lay ahead of them.
It was more than due time for justice to be handed out. The last vestiges of the sun's power filled him before it set fully, granting him the strength to incantate a lightspeed spell. The world turned grey and he walked towards the bottleneck the pair would find themselves in.
First, the executioner.
Second, the schemer.
Vengeance would finally be served to those who deserved it the most.
…
"Stalkers of the arcane kind?" The boy raised an eyebrow at her. "Why not all stalkers, love?"
Bayonetta smirked and ruffled his hair, drawing an annoyed yelp from him. "Wouldn't you like to know?"
"Hey! I do, thank you very much."
"Let's just say a little kitty named Cheshire got too curious for his own good." The street opened up into a small plaza and the Witch glanced around with unease. Despite its size, the area was far too barren and open for her liking. "And then he discovered something that made him change his mind."
"What do you mean by that?"
Bayonetta stopped in the centre of the plaza, placing her hands on her hips and surveyed the area with narrowed eyes. "He stalked me because he wanted justice for his father's death. He stopped because we both found out that there was a lot more at stake. Then we became good friends when we survived the plot that enveloped us both."
"So, this arcane stalker needs to survive a plot that was set up by a relatively unknown villain who affected both of your lives with you to not be a stalker?" The boy innocently asked.
'That is spot on…'
And way too convenient.
She answered with a dirty look. "That's far too on target for a normal guess."
"Wait, I was right? I… just was having a bit of fun, that's all!" The boy began to panic and she rolled her eyes. "It's a bit cliched for that to happen, I think, but I had no idea! I swear!"
"Hush. Don't worry too much about it." One of Love is Blue dropped into her hand and she began to charge up a bullet with magic. "Besides, we need to keep our guard up, lest something terrible happens."
Hoping to catch them off guard, Bayonetta twirled around and fired her gun at the unknown assailant. She watched with unimpressed expectancy when her purple bullet slowed to a halt, then dropped to the ground with a pitiful tinkle. Her eyes rose to finally get a good glimpse at her arcane stalker and she bit back a gasp.
It was the person from that dream. A long, creamy white robe hung loosely around their body, lined with gold, criss-crossing patterns that sectioned parts of the cloth into shapes akin to stained glass designs. A gold chain of red inset diamonds hung from their chest and hips, trailing down to his feet. The robe parted from the upper thigh down, revealing tight white pants that disappeared underneath long boots. A small heel raised these boots off the ground slightly and both that and the toe were made of pure gold. The sleeves flared out at the elbows to reveal the underside being coloured gold as well. These sleeves hung lower than their hands, which were encased in, you guessed it, white gloves with a gold trim. A singular red diamond was set on the back of the hand, central and opposite to the palm. Their face was covered by a mask and hood, the former which was encircled by nine indentations that led to a single viewing point in the centre of their face.
She knew exactly what this was.
"You're a Lumen Sage." Bayonetta's voice did not waver or change; she was merely stating a fact.
"You know who this is?" The boy asked her and she could see him slipping behind her out of the corner of her eye.
"I don't. I know what they claim to be."
"Well… Never hurts to try. Hey mate! Who are you?"
"I am not surprised you do not remember, Sovereign One." The undoubtably male voice was muffled by the mask, but the venom in the words was unmissable. "My family and brethren were simply periods at the end of a long epic, were they not?"
The boy walked out from behind her, crossing one arm over his body and the other arm came to a rest on his chin. "I have no clue what you are talking about, mate, but that is a nice mask. Do you have something to hide?"
"Let's not aggravate the Sage, little one." Bayonetta pulled him back when she noticed the Lumen beginning to tense up. "But you… Just who are you and why are you here?"
"You should know why I am here, Umbra Witch."
"Let go of me!" The boy shook himself free from her grip and stared at her. She didn't return it and kept her eyes on the Sage. "Maybe you have something to tell me, love? I'm not a huge fan of getting wrapped up in domestic disputes."
"I've met one Sage in my life, little one, and he was not my type." Bayonetta growled, remembering Balder with revulsion. "What do you want? Because if it's the same as the last, then you will suffer the same fate as him!"
"What I want, Witch, is both yourself and the trickster dead." Each word was punctuated with calm rage, sending a chill down her spine. His hand slowly raised up and a white flash heralded the appearance of a double-bladed glaive. He twirled it around and brought it down to his side with efficiency; no flourishes, no fancy tricks. "Ever since I learned of all of their fates, bringing about vengeance for all you have wrought upon me is all I have thought about. It started with that girl you called a 'best friend'; the woman you heartlessly abandoned in Inferno-"
"I'm travelling to Inferno now, Sage!" Bayonetta hissed, her ire and fury beginning to rise. "She will be saved before the sun sets tomorrow!"
"You have had a week to find her, yet you made no moves. You do not care for her."
"You son of a bitch!" And with that Bayonetta sprang forward, her vision completely tinted red. Twisting her body, she started with a twisting kick that missed the man and smashed hard into the ground. The plaza cracked beneath her heel, spraying shards of concrete everywhere. The Sage snorted from her left, and she glanced over to see him just standing there, calm, relaxed and completely collected.
"The weight of your sins burdens you, Witch. You seek Inferno? I know the direct route." The glaive moved slowly to point at her. "Once you have been sent off, as your destiny, I will deal with the trickster. My brothers will rest easy knowing their murderers are wiped from this world forever."
"You will not touch the little one." She hissed, twirling back upright and summoning the other half of Love is Blue into her free hand. "And besides, what kind of adult picks on little children?"
"He is no child. He is Loki, the trickster!" The Sage thundered and she could see the boy in the background clutch his head with pain. "He plans to subjugate all of humanity and I will stop him! You, Witch, aid his cause and you will be stopped!"
"Subjugate the world? That is news to me." Bayonetta twirled one gun up to by her chin and adjusted her glasses with it. "Well, he still has answers for a lot of questions I have. And he's my guide to Inferno. You can't simply just have him."
'Be careful.'
Relax, Butterfly. I've fought a Lumen Sage before. I've fought Jubileus before! This will be fine.
'I know.' Her patron swallowed, uncharacteristically nervous. 'But you did not win either of those battles.'
Shit. Butterfly was correct. Well, no better time than the present to change those into a definitive win.
The Sage started this time, tossing his glaive like a spear at her. Leaning out of the way, she turned to watch it pass by straight back into his grip on her other side. Not sparing a second, the Witch looped one leg around the handle and twirled around it, trying to weigh down the weapon out of his grasp.
It did not work as intended. The glaive disappeared and the Sage slammed his palm into her, thrusting her straight into the ground. Bayonetta landed hard and felt the air escape her lungs in a painful exhale.
"LEVANAEL!" Ozone and static filled the air in a horrible stench and Bayonetta rolled to escape the lightning that struck down after her. Flipping onto her knees, she fired a volley of bullets at the Sage's head. Rather predictably, he waved his hand the bullets each slowed to a crawl. He swiped them all and let them drop to the ground.
"You are rather predictable, Witch. Did they not teach you not to rely on the same trick?"
The words bit at her and she felt her frustration beginning to surge. Taking in a few breaths, Bayonetta tried to calm herself down. It would do her no good to start becoming reckless at his behest; she needed to approach this with a level head.
Whereas Umbra Witches were driven and powered by emotion, Lumen Sages drew it from control and collectiveness. She needed to put him off his game, not let him get under her skin.
"I have plenty of more tricks, my dear Sage." Bayonetta spat out, standing up and circling him to the left. "I don't want to just give you all of them now, do I?"
"Intelligent, but not wise."
The Lumen Sage rushed at her, the glaive flashing back into existence. He whipped it around his head and lashed out with a slice, of which she ducked under. He transitioned into a smooth uppercut, both blades cutting through the stone with no resistance whatsoever. Bayonetta dodged right and watched as the blade split into two, one half held as a normal sword and the other in a reverse grip.
Dancing around his next onslaught, she decided to try and give him a reason to be frustrated. "And giving me all the gossip on your tricks is a perfectly wise idea?"
The Sage did not answer and continued his assault. A swing at her hips was blocked by her heel. Bayonetta capitalised on the opening by pushing her foot down and ripped the blade from his grip. He did not falter and focussed on sending more flowing strikes at her with his remaining half, each one its own intricate dance.
Lowering herself under a backhand slice, she swung her leg out in an outstretched sweep and knocked the Sage off his feet. Her hair unweaved itself and launched out with a wicked thrust, tossing the man away. Unfortunately, he recovered with a twirl and landed on his feet, supporting himself with one hand.
"My 'tricks' do not need to be shown so early, Witch. But if you wish to use more powers beyond those necessary, then I will reply in kind." The Sage summoned back the other half of his glaive and stuck the two back together. He reached up and plucked a feather from the air, then tossed it into the sky. "ZIRACAH!"
The golden light of Paradiso filled the area, illuminating all with its soft glow. The portal formed after, releasing a familiar Angel above the plaza.
"Hmmm… We remember you." Fortitudo's main head gazed dispassionately at her, its eyes slowly narrowing. "Umbra Witch."
"Back for more?" Her gaze dropped to the Lumen Sage and she gave him a smirk. "Please, I didn't even use a summon. But if that's how you want to dance, then allow me to make the next step. SUNDENNA!"
Diomedes whinnied as they burst through her own portal, tossing its fiery mane impatiently. "We will destroy this Angel for you, our mistress."
"There. Now it's back to being even."
The Sage grunted in anger and charged at her again. This time she met it with one of her own and the two clashed, gun against sword. In the background she could hear Diomedes swiping with its own weapon and Fortitudo responding with blasts of fireballs and flames. She broke from the stalemate and lashed out with two high kicks, aimed at his head. The Sage deflected them with a roll of the glaive and then twisted back to lunge at her with a thrust.
The Witch saw that coming and deflected it with a flick of a wrist barrier. He had anticipated this and formed a ball of transparent blue energy in his free hand, disengaging with a flip and launching the orb at her. A single shot shattered it and another spread the shards into the wind.
Diomedes roared and she looked up to see the Demon's horn sword biting hard into the neck of the left head of the Auditio. The horse pulled it out and reared back again, but this proved to be a mistake with Fortitudo snapping at the forelegs with its uninjured head. The Demon whinnied in pain and reared back further. Bayonetta cursed and quickly recalled it back to her and Diomedes disappeared in a portal of hellfire and hair.
There was no time to waste as the Sage began another assault, this time comprised completely of magic. His glaive fell behind him in a neutral stance and his other arm raised. The floor followed and ignited into molten fireballs.
"SIZICIEL!"
As soon as the word of command left his lips the fireballs moved, shooting out with tremendous speed. Activating Witch Time, Bayonetta merely walked towards him with a confident smirked, pushing the last one back at-
The Sage appeared beside her, swinging his glaive in a deadly arc. She cursed and ducked under it, only to feel the ground beneath her begin to heat up.
"LAVA-"
She kicked him in the head before the incantation could be completed, knocking him off balance and out of her Witch Time. Ending the spell, she twisted and summoned another Demon while watching Fortitudo bear down on her, both draconic heads outstretched and ready to a Bayonetta-sized meal.
"ARGEDCO!"
Labolas appeared above it and immediately split into five. Each cat latched onto the Auditio and pulled it into the buildings around the plaza, crushing and exploding the stonework like a foot through a sandcastle. The Demons continued to swarm at the Angel, only stopping once the Sage recovered and dismissed his summon.
"Mistress?" The leader questioned, jumping down from the ruined building. She cocked her head towards her adversary and raised her eyebrow.
Labolas nodded and each cat turned their attention to the Sage. The man was unperturbed by this; it seemed he was simply awaiting their movements.
One of the cats grew restless and pounced. The Sage cast his hand out and it was thrown back by an invisible force, then disappeared into black smoke when he tossed his glaive at it. The other four cats growled, but ultimately Bayonetta called them back. It was no use in wasting them like this, especially if they weren't going to be as effective as she had imagined.
"I guess we'll keep things nice and simple then?" Bayonetta asked, quickly checking around for the boy. She found him hiding behind a nearby bench, shuffling through some cards.
The Sage did not answer verbally. He instead tossed his glaive forward, repeating his opening move. She prepared to move out of the way-
It was a feint she should have seen coming. Her adversary seemingly warped and caught the glaive before it even reached her and brought it down with a hard slash at her face. Sluggishly, she leaned back to watch the weapon slide millimetres from her face, then slice through the gap between her cleavage and then through her thigh.
Pain erupted from the limb and she collapsed down with a gasp. A very quick, cursory glance down told her that the wound was superficial and not to be worried about.
What was to be worried about was the Sage standing above her, glaive held up with both hands.
"Hey! Asshole!"
The familiar voice was followed by a familiar thwip of a grappling hook flying through the air. It punctured through the relatively exposed wrist of the Sage, pulling him off balance and, most importantly, away from her.
A twirl of the glaive severed the line and Bayonetta followed the falling strand to see Luka standing there, his face ashen and-
How in the actual fuck was he here!?
"Mortal. Leave us. This does not concern you."
"This doesn't concern me? That's my friend you are about to kill, asshole!" He fired back, taking the Sage's hesitation as an opportunity to recoil up the wire. "That fucking concerns me!"
"Luka, get out of here!" She cried out, gesturing towards one of the entrances to the plaza. "Run before-"
"I'm not running, Bayonetta. This is our fight, not just yours." His expression was resolute with determination. "And this asshole ain't ruining anything yet!"
"I will not warn you only once more." The Sage growled. "Do not make me bring harm to those I have sworn to protect-"
"The last Sage I know murdered millions, if not billions, of people. You aren't different, so don't claim to be." Luka answered, raising his fists. Bayonetta began to panic and tried to stand up, but the ache of her leg flared up and she collapsed back down with a pained grunt.
Fire began to form into a flickering glove around his left fist when the Sage raised their free had. "Please. Leave us!"
"I'm just the distraction." The man finally broke out into a smile and the Witch wanted to smack herself at his stupidity. The first rule of being bait was that you don't announce yourself as the bait-
A blue orb flew into her vision and the Sage twisted around to watch it arc towards him. He dodged with a flip before it could make contact and the magic projectile exploded on impact with the ground. He gathered himself into a low crouch, his head not moving at something behind her.
"Just what…" The voice was stunned and unsure. "Who are you?"
The person who answered sent a jolt of electricity down her spine and brought the same stupid smile to her face as it had six months ago.
"Hands off my sister."
To be continued…
Post Notes: And it's a cliffhanger to finish things off!
I hope you all enjoyed this and please await the next chapter landing shortly.
