· · · · · · ·

In the grand scheme of things, nobody noticed Jillas. The dragons pulled up their nose and humans brushed past him like they did with all small beastfolk. The gods? Valwin hardly cared for anything, Vrabazard floated around the island and Rangort was too busy hovering around Zelas and Luna, and trying to get to Orun, to see whether hir suspicion was better applied elsewhere. Zelas herself? Busy with the machine or organizing her pack to selectively aid the war.

Jillas might as well not exist to all the big names, which was fine. Attentive eyes might notice something odd about him.

Nothing overt — just that he himself was a tad more attentive than he could be.

Even astral beings couldn't look through other astral bodies and guess what, Jillas just happened to have an unused eye socket. All Claire had to do was some sort of healing stuff that had it grow shut physically, and voila, they had the perfect place to hide the stolen angelsblood talisman.

They had considered taking it off the island, but the moment Claire's power left the flow, it would be detectable. Plus, if she kept up the flow, Rangort would notice, not to mention the devils that would be on Dolphin's island. Thus, Jillas was the designated carrier.

He didn't really get what all the fancy magic stuff it was for — they didn't summon Luna yet, cause that would make the talisman noticeable at least to snooping Rangort. And then Rangort would be curious about Filia's secrets and that would be bad.

Until the confrontation with Deep Sea Dolphin, he had the perk of pretty awesome eyesight. It made him rather suited for sneaking around the machine and learn how it worked, but right now it landed him the job of guarding the kitchen. Leyunso had convinced the cooks they were already done, using her weird contrary way, leaving Xelloss and Filia to mess with the food.

He wasn't sure why. It had started about Ospirias being obnoxious (he agreed, that dragon had no respect at all) but now it was just about winning. How they would be winning was up in the air, since there were no rules. Regardless, Filia required his knowledge of drugs and guard service today and he was happy to oblige.

They'd been working pieces of a rug into the food that Ospirias would receive, but since Xelloss tried every day to mess with Milgazia's food, it took time to be done. Filia constantly had to pay attention to what Xelloss did.

Once they had recreated the quiche that Ospirias had ordered (more like demanded), Xelloss pulled the remaining stump of rug from his impossibly spacey satchel. Dangling it between two fingers, he asked, "Mister Jillas, would you do the honor? It's your pride that we're avenging."

"And we're not avenging your entertainment, ..." Filia said.

"Kitchen trash," Jillas said.

"Thank you, mister Jillas. Again, Xelloss, mister Milgazia will not be targeted. He did nothing wrong and you know we can't work the whole rest into this one quiche. The honors of the final part will be tomorrow and you will not shove half of that into his soup."

"Right," Jillas said. "Besides, if we mess with Milgazia's food, that'd risk Memphy getting the bad stuff as well."

Xelloss made a disappointed noise, but didn't make a fuss. Jillas shredded half of the rest off, worked it through the dough and added a sniff of gunpowder.

Half an hour later, the three of them hid behind an outcropping of elkhorn coral in the dragon's dinner hall.

Once healed and done counciling with the gods, most dragon leaders returned to help up north, but Ospirias spent most of his here. Milgazia joined him every now and then, serving as intermediary between him and the other leaders.

They talked, Xelloss twitched from boredom, and nothing happened.

Ospirias looked very sour, but kept eating. That was it. For a few days now, he refused to burst out over it.

"Do you think he figured it out and refuses to budge, or is he just that stupid?" Filia whispered.

"I think he's that stubborn," Xelloss said. "Are you sure he's not a distant relative of yours?"

"Who knows? I have fifteen eligible female relatives, maybe he married into our name recently," she said with a faux-innocent smile.

"Well, sort seeks sort, I suppose," he muttered.

"I know. After all, you are so eager to work with me on fraud."

"That has nothing to do with your stubborness," he said.

"And everything with passive aggressive criticism of my old self. You know, we wouldn't be here if you and your mom had gotten off her throne and—"

"I know, I know," Xelloss said. "Must you keep bringing that up?"

Filia just barely stiffled an irritated groan. Vexed sounds had to be their new way of irritating each other. Jillas, as always, felt it wise not to interfere.

Just then, Milgazia reached over to Ospirias and snatched a piece of his quiche.

"That's maroon now ... I think I recognize these," he said. "It's all the colors of that rug that used to lay in this area."

"He wasn't supposed to do that," Xelloss whined.

Ospirias didn't burst out into another rant, but he did burst out of his chair and ran for the toilet. Filia smiled in satisfaction, but Xelloss didn't.

"Are you going to let that one tiny sentence ruin it for you, Xelloss?" Filia asked. "So it was mister Milgazia to deliver the punchline, what of it?"

And that was enough for a heated argument about mood management. By the time they had walked back to their quarters, they were still at it.

"Hey, can you make me hear less instead of farther?" Jillas asked Claire while she teleported them back into their room.

"Hear less?" someone asked from the couch. Someone named Luna Inverse.

Frantic, Jillas twitched his hands in a denial gesture. "Less ... less of their bickering. Figured I'd try praying to ancestors."

Luna stood up, tilting her head to reveal an eye. "Huh. Didn't known vulpens did that. Not that I know'em down south. I guess it might be worth a shot, if they stayed outta hell."

"How did you get in?" Filia asked.

"Half the rooms in this place don't have doors, so I don't assume the lack of door means I'm not welcome. I broke down that wall," Luna said, pointing at the area behind her. It looked like it had crumbled and was badly put back in place.

"You should have asked," Filia said, stone cold.

Luna shrugged. "Sure, kick me out later, but I did come for a reason."

"And that would be?"

"I really hoped to catch you in a compromised position." She held up the frayed pieces of a rug, which they's shredded while experimenting how much they could put in before the servers noticed. "But what do I find? These. Lying on the floor."

"Ehm ..."

"You used to be so tidy, Filia. Now look at you! Clearly the sex is getting to your head."

"That is not why!" Filia snapped. "That has nothing to do with— anyway, it's really none of your business."

Luna held up her hands. "If I thought that, I'd have stopped you from sabotaging the kitchens. Say, is pranking jerks is your version of foreplay?"

"Oh my goodness, miss Luna! No! Not everything is about sex."

"It's starting to taste like nothing's about sex."

"I don't have reproduction aiding inclinations of any sort, you see. Unless I choose to project the associated biological system I don't experience anything," Xelloss said smoothly.

"That and it takes a lot for him to get me in the mood. And by that I mean a lot. He's really bad at it, especially when starts talking. Not only is his voice all wrong for enticement, the things he says are ... pfff." Filia waved her hand dismissively, a smug look on her face. "But he's getting slightly better."

"What do you mean slightly? I—" Xelloss started.

"I don't need that much details," Luna said. "At least not on a tea visit. I have something more fun to talk about."

She pulled out a set of small crystal spheres from a bag. "Did you know in Zephyria, we got vision recording spells? So useful. I overheard dragons complaining. Their archives are being raided by members of Zelas's pack."

Xelloss scratched the back of his head. "You noticed that?"

"Being drunk is getting weird, I don't sleep, I'm not sure I still have a stomach, propioception is off the charts and my sense of time passing has become closer to objective. Translation : bored. Needed diversion. Desperate enough to try talking to non-Filia dragons. And lo, I figured out a way to be entertained. If you guys are into dragon talk, wanna hear what they say about your gutter activities?"

"Absolutely not," Filia said. Xelloss looked more eager.

Not that anything they could say would stop Luna Inverse, who had already begun setting up the crystal recording balls.

Ten minutes later, Filia had launched into a verbal tirade about a particularly nasty rumor. Xelloss kept his dignity a little longer, but only until he was compared to a human sewage drain.

"What? You are basing a relationship on sex, bickering and the idea that merely loving each other is enough for a happy ending," Luna said, sporting a wide grin. "They're not off by far."

"Are you kidding me? I'm this close to breaking up with him," Filia hissed.

"Why don't you?" Luna asked.

"We can't really avoid each other right now so why would we bother? I'm sure our next encounter would just result in the same as usual," Xelloss said. "In fact, we—did that dragon just claim I'd die if I felt anything positive? How do you even explain the glee devils get from a good meal?"

"Marry an upstanding dragon from the second holy order, I should? Pffft, I'll stand him up at the altar," Filia said.

When they mocked the propaganda, they at least had fun, this was just tiresome. Sometimes he felt like the only adult. Jillas got up to go do something productive, like preparing a fireworks bomb to hide in Ospirias's closet, and maybe one for Azonge too (he didn't do closets, but that could be worked around).

To his horror, Luna followed him into his workshop. She shut the door behind her, and Jillas hair went on edge.

"What do you want?" he snapped.

"You've got a good nose and are all over the machine lately," she said. Crap, had she noticed? Jillas was scooping out the details of the machine and—

"Where is Dilgear?"

"What?"

"Don't play innocent, you gotta have smelled him somewhere. Where is his lair?"

"They don't let me go everywhere," Jillas said, right when he got a good idea. "I asked gunmoll whether she could help me get to the interesting parts of the machine, but she just says later all the time."

Luna frowned. "Is she okay?"

Jillas scratched his head. "Can't you tell?"

"Not if she's cutting away emotions of her own."

"Uh ..." What was he supposed to say? He hadn't been instructed about this and Claire was quiet. Maybe just stick to the truth. "She's afraid sometimes?"

"Then why does he ... never mind. Try to find out where Dilgear is before the invasion, okay?"

He crossed his arms. "No. I don't take orders from anyone except gunmoll."

Luna looked very much like she'd hurt him for that, but he didn't budge.

"I just need to talk to him."

Jillas shook his head. "No, you don't. You don't deserve any loyalty from any beastfolk."

"Fine," she said, and slammed the door behind her.

· · · · · · ·

A day before the invasion, Filia was a clutter of stress pretending to be fine. Xelloss made a point to be around her just to eat it. He did nothing else, useless git that he was.

Filia had to be strong and so did Jillas. They'd have to kill Valgaav because he had become the kind of person who laid waste to towns and countries.

If it hadn't been Filia's plot and words, Jillas would never have gone along with it. But it was Filia, whom he had seen broken by Valgaav in Kataart. When he'd walked through the bloody halls, Jillas had dreaded to find Filia in a similar state as the injured around. When Luna and her had wandered into her nightmares of the death of his town, they had brought along a perspective Jillas hadn't wanted, but needed to acknowledge.

He'd called Valgaav kind, but kindness wasn't as simple as whether or not you let someone survive.

All of Jillas's old family had died in the genocide of the vulpen. He had a new family new, who could die just as well. This time, it would be by Valgaav's hands.

With every step, faith in Valgaav as a good person had fallen away. Valgaav had a choice and he turned it for the worst.

A massacre lay behind this whole game. Filia laughed and acted and messed with Xelloss, had difficult conversations with Leyunso and argued with Claire over the right way to rule. She distracted herself, but he caught the wistful look in her eyes when the distractions wasn't around. It'd gone away over the years, now it had returned.

Perhaps seeing her like this made it easier to forget about Valgaav as his lord and savior. Valgaav was driven by rage and pain, but when he saved people it was conditional on their goals. Jillas had worked to pay him back and lived by devotion. That's how it went with Valgaav.

Filia scoffed at the idea he had to pay her back for anything. She put him to work in the shop because capable people had to work to earn money. Now, it wasn't for money but the world. For the same reason as before, and he knew exactly how and why.

Valgaav had never told him what he planned to do with the light weapons.

That morning, he decided to say something he'd needed to say.

Filia had taken to the kitchen, humming below her breath as she made breakfast. Like nothing was wrong, but he knew better.

"Hey, gunmoll. Y'know, I've been thinking about Valgaav a lot and I guess ... he wasn't really that nice, actually."

Filia's stopped in her track, her smile faltering. Carefully, she put down the spoon and lowered the magical fire.

"How so?"

"Like ... I dunno why I'm saying this," he said, ears drooping. He climbed on a chair and went on anyway. "I mean, I get it. What we're doing now. With the red fox tribe, we honor the loyal. We're told to choose our leaders wise and I thought I had it right with Valgaav. My people also believe in never forgetting, and he was so strong. Worth it just for that, y'know. He knew exactly what to do.

I admired him a lot and when Gaav's servants all ran out, I was proud to stay. But ... some things weren't really nice. He'd sometimes leave us behind. He told us to obey without thinking about it. Sometimes we were in danger. I didn't really like it either when we put others in danger. Like ... looting's one thing but we didn't kill people just like that.

Now I'm thinking about everything. He tried to kill us all, right? I don't get why. I didn't want to die and I don't really hate Lina Inverse. None of this makes sense."

He'd turned into a sniveling mess the more he talked, despite having resolved not to.

She put her arms around him. Jillas wasn't one to deny hugs, but this one caught him off guard. He returned it anyway. When they broke apart, he noticed she'd been crying too.

"Was this a bad idea? Me talking?" he asked.

"No, I think I needed that," she said while drying her eyes. "It's better to deal with grief than let it grow into something else."

"Like Valgaav did?"

"Maybe, but I don't think I'd ever become that. Mister Jillas, you have tried to live by vengeance. How does that feel?"

"I dunno whether it counts. It's what Valgaav did and I just followed, but I guess at the end, it wasn't real enough that I'd die for it. I thought I had to ... and before I got the the dying part, it really felt great. There's this rush that replaces being sad, y'know. But the sadness just comes back when the anger's over."

She smiled, but didn't look like she'd ever fully be okay again. He wouldn't either.

Filia had all these things like guilt and responsibility that were beyond him, and she brought along complicated friends. He didn't feel he'd ever really get it, but when it came to just this, he was here for her. When it came to the red fox tribe's loyalty, he could do far worse than Filia. He'd done worse, in fact.

· · · · · · ·

They never got around to the final part of the Ospirias rug saga because Claire decided to use him as general. He never showed up for his fancy food.

Not that it mattered. He needed all his time on adjusting to, well ... a god inhabiting his new eye.

It would stand out of Filia died, and Claire didn't feel at least a little bit bothered by that. She would be hover all over the island, her emotions readily accessible to any devil who could smell.

Claire split her whole body into two pieces, her true mind going into the talisman, while the rest of her power remained outside. She couldn't be out of the talisman without that part merging with her again, but she could program it to behave a certain way before leaving. The whole thing was a simulacrum like Val Ul Copt, albeit without the same expertise. Claire couldn't quite pin down Volphied's finese, so at best it was a very advanced doll.

Val hadn't been real, they'd told him. Filia said it over and over. They'd make him real, but send him back into Valgaav ... how was he going to explain this to Molly and the rest of their family? That was what bothered him in quiet hours. He was glad that for a day or so, he had no silence : now Claire was inside his eyes, all his senses improved. He avoided thinking about family by focusing on how quick he could found all the coral on the walls.

· · · · · · ·

The next morning, the shores on the northern part of the island were filled with busy dragons and elves. From shore, they would first fly to a small set of islands; teleportation over more than a few hundred meters was too risky in this unstable area. From there, they'd teleport to another set of island, and then some more.

Jillas had gone a similar route nearly eight years ago, when Valgaav brought him to the world's center to work on the machine. He hadn't needed to do much other than instruct Almayce on local materials, and the journey became a moot point once the station had been built on the eastern shore.

It hadn't quite sunk in yet he'd helped maybe destroy the world. Nor how exactly this was going to save the world, but everyone else seemed to know what they were doing.

Mostly.

Xelloss hummed too happily, while Filia paced anxiously across the central. Her constant stream of anxiety and scent of fear made Xelloss's scentless cheer all the more obscene.

"Y'know, you could at least try to be less obvious," Jillas said.

"I can't help it! This is the where the fun part starts!"

"Pffft. This is all water business and you're the biggest reason for that," Jillas said.

"As he said." Hearing Claire's voice from inside his eye was weird, to say the least. "Before we leave, why don't you add in a final helping?"

"Oh come now, that's not necessary, right?" Xelloss asked. "I can't stand this game any longer."

"There's the solution," Claire said with a satisfied thrill. It was really weird how her voice had so much difference now she talked right in his ear. "Just think about all those embarrassing things whenever you get inconveniently happy."

"Are you gonna manage hating her enough?" Jillas asked. "You gotta feel hatred, right?"

"Not necessarily," Xelloss said. "I didn't hate her all that much in Kataart either, but if push comes to shove, I'll just imagine Valgaav talking about rebelling against the Lord of Nightmares."

Jillas balled his fists, both because of how he talked about Valgaav, and the fact Jillas had once not questioned what Valgaav did. Somehow that made Xelloss chuckle.

"All set?" Xelloss asked Filia.

"As much as I can be," Filia said.

"Great, then let's do our best at being our worst."

"Just don't make any frog faces."

They spent twenty minutes arguing about whether frog face counted as a violation of Filia's promise.

· · · · · · ·

Invading Dolphin's island with a god on their side meant an easy victory. Just not very consequential. Dolphin could build another resort for her armies elsewhere; she had smaller versions of those already, elsewhere. Still, taking down the biggest one and preventing a part of the army from revitalizing meant enough for the effort to have value.

In the official books, Jillas only went along because he had bombs that could make the island more accessible. Dragons and elves stood out more than he did.

Unofficially, he was to release Claire at the right time.

Long range teleportation wasn't possible so close to the destabilized area, so they went to a little island closer to the north before they could teleport to Dolphin's island. For the most part, Jillas waited there until Claire #2 walked up and brought him along.

He stayed far from the actual fighting and nobody told him about it; Claire only mentioned that Dolphin and Zelas had come to blows somewhere below the surface. All he had to do was quietly sneak into spots and plant bombs. The island had no entrance points for organic creatures and Jillas's bombs were the only thing that worked to make holes here. The devil energy cancelled out holy spells and laserbreath carving drew too much attention and took too long.

Elsewhere, Filia and Xelloss began the build up their little charade. Just enough to plant the suggestion to the enemy that Xelloss was in a position with Filia that he didn't like.

The dragons had seen this for weeks already, they worried but didn't raise an alarm. They'd become used to it.

After making about five cave entrances, Jillas withdrew to the landing on the beach, which had been secured. It didn't take long before devils began to flee from the caves; Jillas couldn't see them on his own, but he could with his talisman eye.

Shortly after that, the elves began to bring out prisoners, which Dolphin had kept for torture. Claire #2 hovered above this place, healing, casting a protective barrier and teleporting away those ready for it.

Jillas helped a little with clearing space to make more beacons, but his attention was on the middle of the island. The closer the island was to being conquered and its prisons emptied, the closer the charade would be.

"Go a little further from the beach," Claire whispered in his hear. "Your anxiety begins to stand out."

Nobody cared when he wandered off to climb into a nearby grotto. There, Claire radiated her power from the talisman to observe the act.

In human form, Filia deliberately strayed from the group of dragons, suggesting she expected Xelloss to cover for her, or that she was simply careless. She came too close to the enemy and 'realized' the danger. Here she turned tail and tried to teleport back to Claire, she wasn't able to. Fake, of course, but Claire #2 had been programmed to claim her sight was distorted.

Nothing but open rocky land before Filia, until Xelloss blocked her path. He smiled, eyes wide open and feeling enough bloodlust to be credible. A few of the stronger devils nearby would be able to tell — Claire #2 had been programmed to stop shooting them down once their number fell below 9.

"Xelloss, what are you doing?" Filia asked, fearful but not yet terrified.

"Changing my mind." With one swift move, he ran his staff through her stomach. She screamed and fell back, tried to teleport away on reflex.

She only ended up in the middle of the air, somewhere above the ocean; also intended, and also to be blamed on distorted flow. Before she could fall, Xelloss appeared before her and ran his hand through her torso. Out on the other side, he clutched her heart.

That hadn't been in the script.

"Calm down," Claire whispered in his hear. "The pledge is still active, she will be fine."

Pffft, fine. He couldn't imagine she would be after this. No matter that Xelloss disliked the title of dragon slayer, he was worth everything it meant. Filia's cry was so loud that Jillas heard it even without talisman. Her hands turned to claws, digging into his shoulders as she sobbed. Xelloss looked up, while her head drooped.

He laid his fingers on her cheek. Up close it was clear they didn't really kiss, but from the distance it'd sure look like that.

"Don't you have lines?" Xelloss asked.

"Excuse my acting skills while I'm dying," she hissed through the tears. "Just get to yours."

"They're too corny."

"Really? Did you hear yourself blaring in a certain temple?"

"That was different. It was still true and I get to be a little dramatic when it's dramatic. It wasn't tacky."

"Yes, it was. And you didn't have scenery like this back then." She dug her nails deeper into his shoulder, drawing little flicks of black. "Go on, bleed me out."

The feverish look in her eyes dared him and what devil did not take such bait? Xelloss rarely grinned, but now he revealed his fangs.

"Well, alright then," he tried to grumble, but it came out eager.

Filia pushed away from him a little. "Why?"

Way too loud for someone who had their lungs punctured. Xelloss had assured them devils knew a way to keep victims alive a little longer and this wouldn't look weird, but Jillas wasn't so sure he didn't have fun with the immortality pledge a little too much.

"You even need to ask?" he declared. "Just as you cannot escape what you are, I am a creature of darkness for all times! You were a fool to expect otherwise, Filia."

Twisting his hand up, he burned up the fake heart and dug his fingers in her back, eliciting a sharp scream. When he loosened his hand, magic drew strings of blood.

"Nothing else to say?" he said, indifferent now. "Too bad."

He let her slide off his arm. Filia hit the water near the shore with an cutting splash. Xelloss just flicked his arm to rid it of the blood and sang.

"Little dragon down the drain,

Won't play with me again,

Like your kin you've been slain,

Really, what else was there to await?

Devils do not love, who can you blame?"

"Xelloss, what are you doing?" Zelas roared.

"Breaking free, Beastmaster."

"No. Expl—"

Deep Sea Dolphin burst between them, shooting a blue ray right at her. Her devil armies launched at the dragons at the same time, obligating Claire #2 to enforce her shield. By now it might be suspicious that the god didn't do more, Jillas caught a few whispers among the dragons. Surely the area wasn't this polluted by magic? Devils wouldn't know how well the god could aim, though. They might not even know why there was a god.

Knowing all that didn't stop Jillas from fretting.

Filia would be swept away by currents below the sea right now. What if a devil thought it funny to rip her apart? They'd find the immortality pledge and take her along to a worse fate.

Claire remained calm, though, and showed him Dolphin escaping from Zelas and taking Xelloss along. They went into the island, where she was at her advantage to Zelas, but not hidden enough for Claire's sight.

"Xelloss, tell me what you want," she said. Above them, Zelas tore down in the devils in her way, but she wasn't quick enough. Whatever she said drowned in the noise of Dolphin's demons and the thick walls.

"I wish to break ties with Zelas Metaliom and rejoin the cause of bringing about the end of the world." He took a knee before her to drive home the point. "Zelas has pushed me beyond my limits and I cannot stand it anymore. To have fusion magic, she commanded me to appease that damn dragon that she needed to revive the Aqualord."

"Ah, I see. Dark Star has told us that something peculiar was with her. Siephied's channel, he called her. I understand you would be sick of one such as that, but what eludes me is why you would rejoin us, while Zelas would not?"

"Zelas cannot believe our Mother wants to destroy the world because the Sage of Siephied, with her peculiar curse, has told her that she wants to. I am afraid she is lost to us forever. However, the Sage has never told this to me. As Zelas had fooled you all, I have fooled Zelas into believing I had a thing with that dragon. This put me at greater liberty to go around than if I had remained hostile with her, so today I finally had a chance to escape. I had hoped you would interfere for me, and am grateful that you did."

"That would match the odd tales we have about that Sage and the fright that Dark Star exhibits for her — he fled for her that one time!"

"You might like to know that right when he fled, the Sage had come to the aid of the very channel of Siephied that I just killed. Without her, their future plans will be severely crippled. They have been relying on her capacity as a channel to refill fusion vessels as well as converting godly energy for use."

"Very interesting, but how about we discuss this at a later, safer time? Leave the island for the north, I will cover your retreat."

"I don't wish to inconvenience you, lord Deep Sea Dolphin."

"Nonsense, we are in dire need for strong servants. Now go."

"Gladly."

Xelloss shot off, while Dolphin went to confront and distract Zelas, who had wormed below the surface by now.

Claire stopped paying attention to this and whispered to Jillas, "Deep Sea Dolphin feels genuinely relieved to have obtained him, we have a success! Our mole is in."

She actually sounded excited, compared to the old Claire he knew.

"Now the time to get you out?" he whispered.

"Not yet," Claire said. "Set me loose once Dolphin and all her devils are gone."

The dragons and elves regrouped on the southern shore, protected by a shield of Claire #2's making. About two seconds after realizing they were safe, the dragons and elves broke into chatter.

"How else could this have ended?" Azonge muttered.

"I told her to stay away, but she claimed nothing was wrong," Milgazia said.

"Devils can't love, everyone knows that! It's her own fault!" another cried out, which prompted a wave of complaints.

"He calls himself the trickster priest, that should have been enough of a warning."

"Shame on you. She was a poor child, unprepared for a devil's deception. He had seven years to work on her, didn't he?"

"Can we tell them now?" Jillas whispered. Barely had he said it or his sight flickered to the astral plane.

Filia's body was still dead, her ghost nowhere near to be seen. Devils filled the currents, save for where Luna swam. Luna ... oh crap. She almost caught up to Filia's body. Zelas had apparently seen her dive into the sea, too.

Claire subtly pushed some devils in her direction, which she slaughtered easily, but at the cost of losing sight of Filia's body. Once she ran out of air, so she returned to the surface.

Jillas left the grotto as well, just in case some devils decided to hide here, now Luna was leaving.

The water broke open just as Jillas stepped back on the beach.

"I can't find her," Luna said between gasping for air.. "Ragrairyos, show me how to make an air bubble. I can revive her, but I need the body."

"There is nothing to save," Claire # 2 said. "He ripped her spine apart and she fell head first in the water. Her soul is gone already. Megiddo has her."

"No! She'd stay, she has unfinished business."

"What would she stay for?" Milgazia asked.

"This world," Luna said, her voice rising. "She can claw her way out of hell and drag others along, I've seen her do it," said with a scathing laugh, but she hesitated.

Claire #2 had by far the widest astral body here, and right now this body experienced rather negative emotions. The loss of Filia would mean the loss of a lot of other lives by proxy. Luna got a pretty hefty dose of negative emotions, and so would Zelas.

Luna's eyes fell on Jillas, almost like seeking confirmation. Claire #1 whispered him a script.

"I don't think so. It was always about lord Valgaav, though," Jillas said. "He was everything to all of us."

When Luna vented by kicking over a stone pillar, Jillas made himself scarce by crawling between the sharp rock wall. He wasn't the only one to back off, but only he was small enough to slip over to an inlet on the other side. He didn't do that yet, just perched on the side to keep an eye on the main beach.

"Hey, is it safe now?"

"Dolphin is not yet gone," Claire said, sounding a little irritated. "She has called for a retreat just now, they should be gone once her lieutenant reaches them."

That took nearly ten minutes, during which Zelas tried to get past Dolphin and chase Xelloss. It didn't work, but Dolphin was slowly driven back by Claire #2. When Dolphin finally vanished into the sea, Zelas just stopped. All her fury turned cold, and she asked the god, "What happened? What happened that my priest went mad?"

"Perhaps he tried too hard?" she said before diving after Dolphin.

Zelas stayed behind, flickering.

"I think we gotta do something now. That looks like when Xelloss tries to lie," Jillas said. "Can't be good."

"If I merge with my other part here and not on the island, the remaining devils will notice the change in mood. My emotions are all over the place with a body that large. Let it play out, it will be over soon. Zelas's well being is not a priority at all."

Zelas moved, now. She didn't project anymore, not that this helped the dragons with being less anxious when she landed near the beacons.

According to Claire, she was there to feed on the miasma of Dolphin's victims, but Jillas wasn't so sure that was all. She looked around in a weird way, like a cornered animal.

Luna must've thought something was wrong too, cause she wandered over and astrally tapped Zelas on the wing. "Hey, y'dealing with this?"

"He was supposed to be like me," Zelas whispered around her. "I made him that way and more than I am. His loyalty was to be with me forever. Of one pack. I am supposed to be the one more likely to falter — I was not created like this. Why did he return to Shabranigdu, why not I?"

"You can ask him all that when we catch him, and we will, right?"

Zelas didn't answer, and her astral form became hazy even to the talisman's sharpest sight.

Jillas knew rabid wolves when he saw them; the kind that lays in wait and strikes only when you get too close. He didn't like where this was going.

Zelas's head snapped up and fixated on a specific spot in the circle around them.

Milgazia.

Without projecting she lunged at him, one whirling mass of rage.

He'd be dead if Luna hadn't already been half in the path, ripping into Zelas's side on the astral plane.

On the physical plane it only looked like Luna randomly threw white fire around, but astrally it was chaos. Far stronger than Luna, Zelas tore through her shield and Luna let it. The delay had let Claire #2 teleported Milgazia out of the way already.

Blackness gathered in Zelas's jaws and she spun around, but just as she charged, a flash shot through her astral body. On reflex she projected, more forced than willing. Her form was massive and send the sand far up as she collided.

A single small sword had pinned her wing down, held by Luna. The blade brimmed with a dual black and white energy. It didn't budge, pulling only had Zelas rip herself.

"Oh look, this still works. Funny, no?" Luna said.

The moment Zelas took note of it, the sword dissolved.

"What's that about, Poodlywoo? Why that dragon?" Luna asked.

"He started it. Because of him Xelloss considered defying. He must have realized he could ..."

"No, Milgazia didn't," Luna said. "Wait ... is this about the joke ... eh, I guess we do live in a world where words can fuck over minds."

"It is not words," Zelas said. "It is the first time Xelloss wanted to defy me and the first time she had power."

"That'd sound much more dramatic if I didn't know it was about bad jokes during ice cream. Also, Rangort helped out. She told me about it that night and I—Oh shit. Ehm ... listen. Don't go attacking any other dragons, got it?"

"What is it?"

"Maybe ... Maybe I, ehm, tempted Filia to learn messing with soul gates so she got a handle on Xelloss. And Valgaav kinda broke her, again, and y'know ... I'm not gonna say sorry, but don't jump to conclusions about chaos providence here. There's no Supposed To Be with a little trademark, and more ... y'know, me making choices. Wanna fight me, or are you gonna take care of yourself, you selfish bitch?"

Zelas flattened her ears, more defeated than aggressive, when Luna suggested there was no providence. She almost entirely deflated.

"The area is clear enough, my main body will return within half a minute and Zelas just clustered up. She's not paying much attention anymore" Claire said. "You may now toss the talisman in the water."

Finally!

Quick, he opened the patch, grabbed the shard and he threw it in the water. The world appeared small again and a dull pain remained in the socket, but he didn't care.

In the depths, Filia's body would be retrieved by Claire, using the talisman as a channel. It left a pretty noticeable trail, but that was okay now. Once Claire #2 was done chasing Dolphin away, all would be fine.

Jillas climbed back to the main beach, trying not to be too obviously relieved. He stayed distant from Zelas and Luna, just to be safe.

Luna had taken to kicking Zelas.

"Dammit, respond!" Luna snapped. "Don't you dare get upset about this. I bet he's just experimenting. You got your old self to compare your new one to, he doesn't. Maybe he needs to know some chaos theory of his own, whatever. What does it matter to you?"

No response.

"Come on, just stick to what you want to me. I'll make a new talisman and we get Luke and Milina outta hell."

"It does not hold any more meaning" Zelas snarled. "Everything has worked against me from the beginning, from the very beginning."

"Yet you want meaning, or you'd be joining Shabranigdu right now. Come on, is this just you being upset, or reason? If it feels hard to stick to yourself, I can make it easier."

Zelas looked up at last. A few seconds passed before she said, "Do it, but only a little. I will see what it feels like first."

"As it should be," Luna said with a grin.

Whatever happened next was invisible to Jillas, but Zelas stood up calmly. After brushing off the sand on her, she said, "What else can you take away? Can you make me stop caring about him?"

"Not roots. You're still gonna give a crap about your pup, but I can make it not control you," Luna said with a grin. She flicked a white flame on in her hand. "Wanna bet we agree on making sure Xelloss doesn't teleport anyone to Elmegiddo?"

Zelas held out her claw, releasing darkness to compliment her light. Jillas had seen enough fusion magic to know it.

Their shield covered everyone on the beach, as well as the returning main body of Claire.

Oh hell.

"Ragrairyos, we're getting out of here new, got it?" Luna said.

"Alright," the doll god said. The golden glow spread all around them, but only as far as the fusion shield.

Oh hell.

It wasn't supposed to obey Luna.

Jillas broke from his shelter and ran up to them.

"Hey, hey, stop, it was all a game! They're—"

Jillas almost reached them, but someone hooked an arm around his torso and carried him off through the air. A wave of blonde hair and the woosh of wings hinted Memphis.

"What are you thinking?" Memphis whispered as she set him down a few on the other end of the beach. "Don't go near that, didn't you see? She nearly killed uncle!"

"It's about that. Gunmoll's not dead, it was all a trick and you just gotta wait for a bit till the other Claire returns," Jillas said, pulling her arm desperately. "We have to stop them! A fusion thingy can't be right!"

She pulled Jillas's hands loose. "What the ... oh, I see, some devil cast an illusion spell or something on you, right? Don't worry, we'll get that off soon."

Before he got another word in, Memphis cast a silence spell on him.

Not being noticed wasn't so convenient anymore.

· · · · · · ·

Jillas didn't run very well on a blank, and oh boy, did he have a blank right now.

He had no way of contacting the rest of the team. Claire #2 was on their mid way island but didn't respond to anything except rudimentary questions. She had an eerie tendency to follow Luna's instructions.

Zelas and Luna's shield didn't let up the entire time, blocking everything except the teleportation, which they permitted. Once they arrived back at Elmegiddo, that damn shield covered the entire island.

In the middle of distributing the injured and the freed captives, Memphis forgot to remove her spell from Jillas. By the time he found someone to get it off, Rangort had already fortified an extra shield. Jillas got a check up on that alleged spell, none was found and the caster shoved him out of the room without really listening.

And that was it.

Boom, every main player was now locked outside. Jillas tried explaining things to the important people, but barely got two sentences in before being shoved away. When they care to, dragons can be very intimidating, but he kept trying until Leyunso appeared.

She tapped him on the head. "Go on, they'll listen."

Jillas's shoulders slumped as the realization of how powerless he was hit full force. "What are we supposed do now?"

"Hmmm ... have you tried asking friends?"

"You just said nobody will listen!"

"They will," she said while pointing at the surrounding dragons.

"Memphy doesn't listen either," he said.

She said nothing, just gently prodded him down a cave.

Orun waited there, to Jillas's surprise. He didn't remember the woman being part of the scheme.

"Does she ..."

"I've been informed," she said with a nod at Leyunso. "As well as she can. To be honest, I suspected something was up : I saw you when Lei tried to steal the talisman."

Leyunso walked past them, back to the secret room. Orun followed in silence.

"Hey, you okay?" Jillas asked. "Y'know, we would've told you if we could."

" don't like being left out, but I suppose it had to be. The Aqualord had split, right? Do you know why?"

"Gotta have real emotions. Claire would feel really bothered if Filia died, Zelas would notice if she didn't. Claire had the soul of the bluehaired guy still, we used that. Claire the real one was in the talisman, cause that's the only way to keep that split real."

"Oh."

Jillas didn't know much about how humans did loyalty, but he saw a person in grieving. He put a hand on her shoulder. "You did it right."

She gave a weak smile. "Let's just focus on making everything else go right too, okay?"

After a hurried walk, they reached the area where the sealed work room lay. It seemed to take her effort, but she teleported them both inside.

What now? He cast a desperate look at Leyunso, but she just shrugged.

"Can't you just make them disbelieve the wrong stuff?" he asked.

"There are absolutely no risks to that. Also, my voice works on Luna."

"That means it doesn't work on her. You can't make her believe or disbelieve anything."

"Your conclusion is wrong."

"So it's right. Got it. Zelas?"

"We shouldn't go near her," Orun said. "Right now, Zelas is furious and she's repeatedly talked about killing Leyunso. I can tell through the flow of the island, and there's another problem. According to Valwin, the gods are theorizing that something went wrong with Filia's experiments on soul gates. Rangort's figured out something went down that e didn't pay attention to. E's getting very, very paranoid."

Jillas slumped down on a chair. "We're in deep, deep problems."

"Can you explain me why?"

Not entirely, and Leyunso could only add sparingly, but Orun was smart enough to put the pieces together.

"That's ... terribly convoluted. Do we have evidence? I may be able to convince Valwin, but we need to be very careful because they consider Filia may have messed with minds. If Valwin gets the wrong idea about that, I don't know what will happen to me or everyone else involved. And Zelas worries that something more happened when Xelloss ... wait ... he tried to empathize? An astral being? Oh gods, now they're theorizing that miss Leyunso did something to him too."

"It'd be so useful if her curse was to make people believe her. Sounds like we now have a bunch of really paranoid deities on our roof. We can't mess this up, cause they can do a lot of things to us ... we gotta drop that damn shield somehow, but we need to be careful. And we need allies." He turned to Leyunso. "Is it safe to go fetch Sylphiel and Memphy?" Jillas asked Leyunso.

Leyunso shook her head.

"Got it," Jillas said. He jumped up and grabbed a remnant of the last prank. After Leyunso teleported him out, he followed Sylphiel's scent.

He found Sylphiel and Memphis in the armory. In a hushed tone, they talked about how to inform Sailoon, while Memphis thought it was high time to tell Filia's remaining family.

"Gunmoll's not dead," Jillas said the moment he was in range of Sylphiel's human hearing. "It was all a hoax so Xelloss could defect and plant a beacon thing to teleport Valgaav to be split up and made virally or something. Gunmoll was pledge stoned and she's okay now. Well, I think. I'm not sure what it means with the second Claire being here and the real Claire out there."

Beat.

"Are you on magic mushrooms, Jillas?" Memphis asked.

"No! I swear, it was all fake. Gunmoll and Xelloss just put up an act, when nobody watched they were friendly ... well, friendlier than normal and he screwed up a lot, but you get it, right? You don't really believe they had a thing, right?"

"Pffft, of course not," Memphis said. "But she wasn't healthy. Maybe you're not either. Maybe that Sage messed up your head or Filia did some weird life law things."

"I can prove it," he said, holding up the rug. "When nobody watched, we went into the kitchen and worked a rug into Ospirias's food. Just for fun."

Memphis grabbed the item. "Hey ... this does look like the threads that were in our breakfast."

Jillas nodded eagerly. "Yep, we did that. Come on, we gotta go talk somewhere private."

"This is all too weird, if you can help us make sense of this, I'd love to hear," Sylphiel said.

"Wanting to isolate us is weird," Memphis said. "I don't know."

Jillas grabbed her arm and put on his best pleading face. "Come on, I swear it'll all make sense. Please, Memphy? What can happen? There's three gods on this island!"

"Eh, okay. I guess it can't hurt to listen and if you're like, possessed, I can take it. I'm one of the best Zenaffa wielders," she said, a warning hint in her voice.

Sylphiel and Memphis followed him to the room, were teleported in and introduced to Leyunso. As well as that went; Leyunso could only say hi.

Jillas poured out his story again, Orun added in explanations where needed, and Leyunso sporadically claimed he lied.

At the end, Sylphiel broke into a relieved smile. "I'm so glad that was all false. We'll help them, right, Memphy?"

"Eeeeeh ..."

"We need to lower the fusion shield so the two Claires can become whole again and teleport gunmoll where everyone can see her," Jillas said.

"This is too much," Memphis said. "The whole thing a plot? Dammit, why do I even believe this? There's rugs in my breakfast, the gods are play mind games on us and what is her deal? Can't she try talking without being sarcastic?"

"Well, no. She's cursed so people can't believe her her claims. It's a long, long story. Better let gunmoll tell it."

"Hold it. What?" Memphis asked. "She can brainwash people by talking? Please tell me you're joking."

"He's joking," Leyunso said.

Memphis let go a nervous little laugh. "Gaia be praised ... I'm ... I can't even seriously consider you're joking now she said that. How ... how does this work?"

"Does it mean they won't believe she's telling the truth, or that they cannot believe anything she claims ever in any situation ever?" Sylphiel asked.

"The second one," Jillas said. "If she says it wasn't a hoax, that means they will believe it was a hoax but what kinda hoax they think it is depends on who they are. They can't ever again believe it was a hoax."

"A whole lot of them already believe it was a hoax," Memphis said. "Just that they were fooling themselves or that Xelloss always planned to defect and that kinda stuff. So, if she says, Xelloss and Filia did not perform a hoax. This hoax is not meant to plant Xelloss as a mole. That wouldn't work?"

"Nope," Jillas said. That just means they're gonna argue over what those statements did mean. Some will get it, but others are gonna think they didn't do a hoax to plant Xelloss as amole and that means they can never believe it. That's gonna be a problem once those three come back, especially if Rangort or Zelas are among those. We can't predict that. That shield needs to go down. If we can get Zelas and Luna to disagree somehow, without anyone blowing up Leyunso or locking us up first, that'll get us far."

"Or how about we just convince them to kick out the Aqualord?" Leyunso asked.

"Or that. I've got a few ideas, and you're all gonna need to help out here. Are you game?"

· · · · · · ·