Azul waited for them to be walking down the emergency stairs to question Idia about the wedding comment.
"So who's getting married?" he asked. Riddle perked up and took interest in the conversation.
"Edna is my fiance. You wouldn't believe the amount of grief Vil and her brother gave me until I finally popped the question," said Idia, shaking his head in exasperation.
"Why would Vil care about her getting married?" asked Riddle, openly confused.
"Officially, Vil's her cousin. In reality it's a lot more awkward and complicated."
"How complicated?" said Azul, pushing up his glasses.
"In reality Vil's her nephew, and his father is her younger brother, despite being physically older than her or her younger sibling."
That had BOTH of them staring at him in disbelief.
Idia chuckled, mostly to himself.
"I said it was complicated. We still don't know how or why, but Edna was transported from a now fallen kingdom to the present and woke up in a coffin. She was sorted in Pomefiore, which is the main reason Vil took notice of her. He was also one of the rare few who had even a passing knowledge of her native language, which made things less awkward. Turns out his grandfather is also Edna's father, hence the complication."
"That is utterly ridiculous," said Azul. Riddle nodded in agreement.
"Like I said, complicated. Edna still hasn't forgiven him for abandoning the family when she was seven, especially since her mother became really sick after and Edna had to step up. From what I understand, her mother died in short order after he left."
Completely enthralled in the story, Riddle couldn't help but ask questions.
"So how does this tie into Vil's grandfather?"
"I'm getting to that. It turns out that whatever experiment turned him immortal also caused an unfortunate side effect of infecting any woman who had his kids with some form of cancer. Edna's mother likely died young because of the lack of medical knowledge and medicine, and because she had two children in short order. Vil's grandmother died from the same thing, but only had one kid and it was caught rather early," said Idia. He suddenly winced at how Edna and Vil reacted over this particular news. "I think Edna and Vil were mostly joking about neutering the man when this got out, but I can't be positive."
Azul pushed up his glasses.
"If impregnating someone resulted in an untreatable illness, then it's only sensible to have the source neutered," said Azul.
Riddle nodded heartily at that.
"That sort of infection could prove dangerous with the wrong carrier."
Idia turned to stare at them.
"That's not why I'm cringing at the thought."
Seeing the way the two looked at him, he delivered a rather amusing response.
"Edna can create an arm blade and was openly talking about cutting his balls off...without any anesthetic or care about whether he might accidentally become a Ken doll by the end of it. Vil's only remark was that she not get too much blood on her clothes because it was a pain in the ass to clean once dried," said Idia wincing.
Azul and Riddle both winced at the thought. Though from the what Idia had said, the man likely deserved it and then some.
Edna was rather exasperated with Jamil after the first thirty minutes. She shared a Look with Leona, behind Jamil's back and after a moment he nodded.
Without a second thought, she slapped Jamil on the backside of the head the second he tried to take point.
"OW! What was that for?"
"Jamil, quit trying to coddle Leona. He's nowhere near as sheltered as Kalim and can handle his own fights without you having to worry about him being hurt and you getting blamed for it," she deadpanned. "Leona's not a tamed house cat like Kalim."
Leona looked smug at her assessment. Jamil had a conflicted expression on his face.
"Jamil, this is Tartarus. No one is going to say a damn thing when we come out of this looking like something Leona probably dragged in from a hunt," said Edna.
Leona's growl made her grin at him.
Jamil decided to change the subject.
"What did Ortho mean about a wedding?"
"Alpha was referring to the fact Idia is my fiance, and we plan to have the wedding during the summer months," said Edna absently.
"Alpha?" said Leona.
"Ortho Alpha is the original Ortho. Ortho Beta is his cybernetic counterpart," explained Edna. "After all the effort Idia put in to the robotic version of his lost brother, it didn't make sense to treat him any differently than the original. First thing I did when Ortho came back was to call them twins, and we all ran with it. Alpha was rather pleased and Beta was just happy to have another brother."
It was a simple solution that had both Leona and Jamil nodding appreciatively.
"You seem particularly familiar with me. Any reason why?" asked Jamil, mostly curious.
"My little brother was trapped in a suit of armor for six hundred years. It's a long complicated story, and we still don't know how I ended up in Night Raven to begin with. However I ended up finding him in the storage room (here Edna put her hands into finger quotes) and was able to restore it enough that he was able to move again. Vil absolutely refused to let him stay in our dorm, so he opted to act as a night bodyguard for Kalim. When he got his body back, and was promptly sorted into Scarabia, first thing you did was take him under your wing as an apprentice," said Edna.
Jamil stared at her.
"How does that lead to you being familiar with him?" asked Leona.
Edna smirked.
"Because my little brother developed a crush on Najma, one you heavily encouraged because it means you finally get a vacation once Al becomes a senior since he plans to use his fourth year as Kalim's right hand. It also means she won't be paired off with some creep that would hurt her later," said Edna.
Jamil's expression hearing that was fairly entertaining.
Idia looked at the Thunder Spear with some distaste. He knew about the artifact, but he had never wanted to go near the damn things for good reason.
The alternate Ortho, for whatever reason, hadn't picked up on the fact there was another Idia around.
As it was, Idia had the feeling Edna was likely going to ascend to full goddess after this mess.
He had already talked to his 'grandfather' Hades about the matter. It was a given fact that Idia would have to use his fourth year at Night Raven acting in Hades' stead, preparing him for the time when he would have to chose between his own divine heritage or remain mortal.
For the most part, the Shroud family had remained 'mortals' with a heavy tint of divine blood. This was mostly due to the fact that awakening the full brunt of their divine blood meant having to act as Hades' go-to whenever he wanted to take an overdue vacation or have the paperwork dumped on them.
One year of that was enough to dissuade pretty much every member of the family before this point, as it was a very thankless job and meant having to do grunt work for Hades until a replacement was found or he released them to die a natural death of old age.
Hades was fairly certain that once Edna awakened her divine heritage, she would become a goddess of alchemy and resurrection. The stone she had hunted before had the ability, which lead to Hades and other gods of the dead cursing profusely when people used it for that because of the sheer amount of headaches and more importantly paperwork that had to be filled out in quadruplicate. And the less said about the bitching THEY got when a soul left unauthorized from their realm because some idiot brought someone back, the better.
If Edna did awaken as a goddess of resurrection, then they could all dump the headache of that paperwork on her. It also meant they would finally have someone regulating that aspect of life and death that the other gods could bitch at.
Needless to say, Hades was rather eager for her to ascend for this reason.
Idia had no problems working under Hades if it meant he had Edna there with him. Doubly so if Ortho was there as well.
He was not happy with this mess at all.
He shook off the daze, registered himself to the artifact and had Azul and Riddle help him aim the bulky thing.
Seeing the magma Titan go down was satisfying, but exhausting. At least they had time to wait, since the spear had to recharge.
"So...what sort of girl is Edna?" asked Azul. They had time to kill after all.
"Fiery, passionate, driven, and the most stubborn woman I've ever met," said Idia with fondness. "She has the worst poker face, but she's fun to tease about it."
"You really seem to love her," said Azul. It was clear this Edna was good for him.
"She just gets me, you know?" said Idia. "You found it utterly hilarious to tease me about my crush. You once convinced her into a French maid outfit because she needed extra cash for a ballet video she wanted to watch, but you had already gotten to all the lazier students. You made me pay the cleaning bill, as I recall."
Azul smirked at him.
"So how exactly did you two officially meet?" asked Riddle. He was finding the story cute, and comforting to listen to. It was clear that Idia really loved this girl and that she had been good for him.
"Vil asked me if I knew about automail...full steel prosthetics...and said that one of his own had developed a limp because her leg was too short. Until that point I honestly thought it was a myth, only to find out it was just a lost art."
"Wait...Edna has a prosthetic leg?" said Riddle in shock. He had no idea.
"And her entire right arm," said Idia. "Her neighbor and best friend was a genius mechanic and did the work at cost. The surgery was enough to make grown men cry and the recovery usually took three years. Edna did it in one."
"I can imagine!" said Riddle aghast. "From the fluid way she moves I can only assume they had to attach some sort of port directly to the nerve endings on the arm and leg. And the only way to assure it's done properly would be to do it without anesthetic, which would dull the feeling. How old was she?"
"Ten," said Idia. "Pretty obvious why the mirror shunted her straight to Pomefiore, wouldn't you agree?"
Seeing what he would look like in an Overblot state was rather disturbing. It was even worse hearing Ortho's distorted voice in the phantom behind him.
A shiver went down his spine at how easily he would have fallen into that same state if not for Edna's interference.
"Idia, now!" said Azul, confusing the hell out of the local one.
The blast from the spear caused his hood to fall down, making his alternate even more bewildered.
The second he got too close to his counterpart, Idia sensed it.
"Keep back! If you get too close you'll get drained!" he warned. "I'll draw the aggro, so retreat to the chariot!"
Azul didn't even question it. Riddle had already gotten too close and his hair had turned white as a result.
Idia retreated after them, leaving his bewildered and angry alternate behind.
Idia flew the chariot out of the danger zone, and was sure that Edna would do something the second she saw what happened to Ortho and his alternate.
"Idy, I've almost finished cutting off access to the Phantom," said Beta.
"Good job. I have the feeling Edna is going to handle this once she sees what he's turned into."
"You seem unusually confident about her being able to deal with this," said Azul.
"Let me put it this way... If I have to bet between a version of myself in Overblot fueled by the strongest Phantoms in Tartarus and Edna, I get popcorn for the inevitable beat down from Edna," said Idia without hesitation.
"She's that strong?" said Azul.
"Just wait and see," said Idia with utter confidence.
With Edna's group...
Edna took one look at the Phantom Ortho and her heart broke. It was even worse seeing the pain in Idia's eyes, and she knew if she had never come along that he could have just as easily fallen into this state.
Hearing him cry out when Leona used the spear was even worse.
Hades' words of claiming her throne rang in her ears, and she didn't even think to hesitate.
She clapped her hands together...and pressed them against her chest. The best way to activate the Gate that she knew of was breaking the Taboo of human transmutation.
Leona and Jamil sensed the power coming off her and wisely aimed the chariot upwards. No way were they getting in the way of whatever that was.
Edna stood before the Gate once again. The 'guardian', if one could call it that, looked at her smugly.
She didn't even look at it, as it was little more than a door greeter from what she knew.
Instead her focus landed on the throne hidden discreetly by the gate. Without any hesitation, she walked towards it. The guardian attempted to stop her, but she ignored it completely.
The moment her hand fell on the arm rest, she felt the power contained within.
Almost by instinct, she sat down...and connected.
The light pouring off her in the real world was blinding.
The Phantom that was once Ortho screamed in pain, causing his brother to become alarmed as well.
"Ortho!"
A hand reached out past Idia to grab something in the shadows.
The woman in the light had the warmest, most empathetic smile he had ever seen. Idia felt his connection to Ortho melt away, which caused him to panic.
It will be okay. You will be okay.
Idia blacked out as the Overblot was forcibly driven out of his body.
Above Tartarus...
Idia could sense when his alternate's connection to the Phantom was forcibly severed.
"Alpha, Beta!" he called out over the intercom.
"On it, nii-san!" said Alpha.
All three of them said in odd unison...
"Game, Set, Match...Gate of the Underworld."
Idia could hear the phantoms below scream in rage and frustration as the signature spell of the Shroud line forcibly closed the gate that his alternate had opened.
To be fair, he didn't really blame the guy in the least.