Conrad Fou Wayne was quite flabbergasted when he saw the ship appear from thin air dragging behind it a big enough pile of scraps to be a floating island all on its own. Carla soon landed riding on the palm of a sinister looking red armour, the person that emerged from the armour a few moments later made Conrad's heart skip a beat in fear.
"Greetings Lord Wayne." The young Lady in a Pilot's suit bowed in lieu of Curtsy, the necessary skirt absent. The method of polite greeting was irrelevant, as Conrad was still terrified out of his mind of the Duke's daughter. "I am Angelica Rapha Redgrave, here to discuss the division of spoils from the Pirate subjugation mission your daughter arranged. Shall we go somewhere we can talk?"
Conrad could do little more than gap and nod. Angelica of course obeyed the basic rules of courtesy when visiting a guest's home, some of Leon's Coffee from a Thermos was more than enough for this occasion.
"Miss Wayne originally approached me on behalf of her immediate social Superior Stephanie Fou Offrey." What had that nightmare child involve his family in this time? "Offrey had intended to lure myself and my associate Lord Blackmore into a trap involving a pirate ambush." Conrad did his best to not spit his drink all over the Duke's daughter, unfortunately in the process he spat all over his daughter instead. "Fortunately, she instead saw an opportunity to get out from underneath Offrey." Conrad beat his chest as he coughed but nodded his head to indicate Angelica to continue. "Thus with our assistance Carla helped to turn the Pirate's ambush against them allowing us to capture them and get evidence against Offrey. By estimates they should be taken out of the picture within a few hours, provided that we make the appropriate preparations first."
"...preparations?" Conrad liked absolutely nothing about this situation.
Leon had seen hell, his entire body had been battered and bruised after his stunt with the pirates, Umbra had chosen to reintroduce him to the Masked Knight simulation as punishment for the deaths of the slaves. Not that they knew if any of the pirates had actually been killed yet, the three idiots were still digging them out so far, any injured were healed by Olivia before Umbra shuffled them off into their cargo hold to await transportation. At least that is what they were supposed to be doing.
"What are you three up to now." Brad, Greg and Chris were gathered together inside of a break room that Leon had been using inbetween getting his rear end pounded. Although Umbra's illusions weren't capable of leaving him injured he did get mentally fatigued from constantly being attacked with illusions that did induce pain. So imagine his annoyance that these three here were bothering him instead of doing their job.
"We've come to ask you a favour." Brad stated with his usual jovial tone of voice.
"Big talk from people who aren't out doing their jobs." Leon stated bluntly.
"We already sorted through the entire scrap heap." Greg stated with an annoyed tone of voice. Suspicious Leon went over to the window of the ship and looked outside, by the looks of things the wreck had been broken into pieces with the armours having been peeled out of the wreckage and opened up, far too few people to have been managing the ships were being loaded onto Umbra.
"What's finished about this?" Leon asked as his brow twitched angrily while his finger indicated the wreck outside.
"Miss Olivia has a spell that lets her detect signs of life." Chris stated as he pushed his glasses up. "Everything that was alive inside of the ship as of our arrival to this island has been extracted."
Leon smacked himself in his face. Lovely. The limiter was going back on then.
"I'm already in a foul mood. This had better be important."
"The Three of us, mostly myself, have decided that our tutoring thus far has failed us." Brad steered the situation back on track. "Thus we request that you lend us your invaluable wisdom on the subject."
"Sheba damn it!" Leon cursed. Before he had the excuse of the five fools simply being uncooperative, now it seems that the conspiracy before him to actually have to teach these fools had born fruit. "Huu yah know what fine! You two!" Leon used a peace sign to simultaneously indicate both Greg and Chris. "What are your affinities for magic and what's the strongest spell that you know!?"
"Oi we wanted to learn how to fight not-" Leon cut Greg off by grabbing his face with a shadow and pulling him in close, the exact scenario that he was afraid of having come to light.
"What are you idiotic people even coming to me for if you aren't even going to listen to what I say!?" For the first time Greg Looked Leon in the eyes, and he felt the tingle of fear going up his spine. "You know I cast magic. I do so on a constant basis! Why are you acting surprised that fighting like me involves learning magic!?"
"Myself and Greg do not know the answer to your question." Chris pushed his glasses up his face. "Neither of us has any interest in learning magic, and thus neither of us know our affinities." And Leon didn't have an appraisal orb on his ship either.
"Grab your weapons and report to the deck at once." Leon released Greg's face who quickly stepped back and stood up. "I'll be putting you to work in a bit. Brad I have some simple elemental spells and non-attribute magic I want you to learn." Leon stated bluntly as he went to get a book of spells ready.
"What kind of spells?" Brad was always eager to learn, if there was something to help him master his magic faster he was all for it. "Detect Minerals, Detect Heat, Detect Gasses-"
"I already know all of those." They were some of the most basic spells that he had learned after all. The first step to manipulating the elements was to know where they are.
"Good for you." Not particularly, at least for Leon as he wasn't done yet before Brad interrupted him. "The last is Detect Patterns and Status Enhancement."
Detect Patterns? As far as Brad knew it was a simple non-elemental spell applied to the eyes to improve vision and pattern recognition. Usually only scouts and spotters use it to track enemies and projectiles. Status enhancement on the other hand was a magic that even meat heads like Greg and Chris knew, using non elemental magic to boost and stimulate the physical performance of the body.
"I already know Status Enhancement, thank you very much." Brad still sat down as his features zeroed in on the particular spell that he had yet to learn. "Why are you making me learn Detect Patterns?"
"Because you're going to use it together with Detect Minerals, Heat and Air on Chris and Greg. Then you are going to apply the patterns that you learned to yourself, using earth magic to manipulate your own bones, air magic to control the air around you, and status enhancement to control your muscles."
The Blackmore method was a form of training one's physical and martial abilities using magic that was originally proposed by then Baron Leon Fou Blackmore and improved upon by then Viscount Brad Fou Field while they were still in their first year of school together. The spell is fairly simple, combining together a basic elemental detection spell with Detect Patterns to track the movements of another person's body and then apply that to their own body with Status Enhancement magic.
Simple in theory but potentially costly to learn, at times it is necessary to first leave the entire body paralysed from the neck down to force the subject to learn how to manipulate their body using only magic from the ground up. Once this process is mastered and the paralysis is healed the mage in question will be able to manipulate their body to copy any movement performed by another humanoid being that they have seen done.
Excerpt on the Blue Moon Knight Order and their Training Methods
While various individuals were moving across the islands other interested parties had not been immobile either. The Scout team for the Pirates hadn't reported back yet, which meant that they had run into the intended Blackmore force and had, following the instructions from Wayne, arrived back in the girl's territory. Either Blackmore was defeated and the scout team would arrive here to rest and recover or they were defeated and brought here to await pick up from the Kingdom, is apparently what the Pirates would think. Now to finish what they started.
"Looks like company." Leon had been sitting on the deck of the ship, watching as Left and Right sparred with Greg and Chris while Brad studied their movements, right now all the involved parties had looked up in the air at the bulk of the pirate force arriving to exterminate them. "Alright round two." Saying that, Leon had taken into consideration that he would have to simultaneously deal with the pirates and protect the Wayne's territory, preferably while taking advantage of the situation to get out from underneath Umbra. In other words: He needed help. "Angelica." Angie's earring was equipped with a basic sound transmission spell, Olivia had a similar one. "We are under attack. I'm going to activate Umbra's defensive system to wi-" Leon felt the cold stare of a demonic clock breathing down his neck, waiting for him to do something that he shouldn't. "-clean up the remaining pirate forces. How quickly can you get back to The Phoenix?"
"See for yourself." Angelica used her armour as a Taxi to arrive at the Island from Leon's ship, so it only made sense that she had it close at hand.
"Understood. Olivia whatever you're doing get back on Umbra now." Leon was less than pleased by the lack of Olivia in sight, then she saw the crowd that had formed around the time that Olivia got back to him.
"I'm evacuating the people of the Territory onto the Umbra." Olivia stated while she directed the flow of traffic into the ship, at one point picking up a crying child who had been separated from his parents and directly carrying him to the individuals in question. "You both have assured me about how sturdy the ship is countless times, it should make a very good bunker, and my barriers are at the point where they can block Angie's fire lance spell. I will see you when I am done."
Leon breathed a deeply annoyed sigh.
"Baskerville, Left Right, Alastor do any of you feel any compatibility with these three fools?" At Leon's command the hounds and Alastor in sword form appeared. The Twins shook their heads in the negative, the hounds sniffed Greg then Brad and Chris before sitting in front of Greg, Alastor went to Chris's side.
"I'd say that this one barely qualifies as a wielder. Barely." The sword emphasised the last part for reasons that probably hurt Chris's pride, a swordsman rejected by a sword.
"There's two armours down in the hull of the ship, built from the spare parts that we got from the pirates." A lie technically but it would be true enough soon. "Greg and Chris will take the weapons down to the armours, in the meantime I have a job for Brad."
The Hounds turned into a bundle of shot guns bundled up with a belt, the sheathed sword of Alastor attached itself to Chris's belt and the two close quarters specialists went below deck. In the mean time Angelica took to the sky and stretched her wings, before the blades that made them up scattered. Each blade was a drone, like the ones used by Brad during the duel, made in such a way that they could be used as a mana conductor even from a distance, in the past Angelica would use them as a medium for her fire magic, now she commanded them to gather all the heat in their area as they worked hard with her new magic, pushing it towards Angelica herself. Even the Pirates were noticing that something was wrong.
"Wh-what the H-h-hell!?"
It got incredibly cold under the influence of Angie's spell. Gun barrels on the ship's cannons shrunk and jammed, frost was clinging to the side of the hulls, the Pirates were desperately using magic to try and stay warm but it was futile, Angelica didn't even land her real attack yet. A huge flaming bow had appeared in the hands of Angie's mech, a common trick by casters, instead of creating balls of elements to throw repeatedly you instead create a single large ball of elements and continuously split attacks off from that to strike the target, the bow was just presentation. It was a technique that paired well with Angie's current style of gathering heat from the environment to fire off attacks. The Phoenix loosed the arrow and blew off the bow of the ship that she struck.
"Surrender or death. Your choice." It did carry the downside of needing time inbetween attacks to recharge though, but so long as she had the time to gather the Heat up again Angelica could fire indefinitely.
While Angelica was playing for time Leon led Brad to the Front of the Umbra as weapons started to unfold from the ship, including a set of twin linked weapons.
"These are drop items!?" Brad was looking astonished at what he was seeing. "Yeah good Guess." Leon stated as if what he was talking about wasn't very impressive, considering the fact that the two guns that had been attached to a firing cockpit were both massive enough to be wielded by armours as heavy weapons and looked like they were still alive with the way that the jaws opened occasionally, Brad wondered if that was even more impressive. "Unlike the others, the only thing this thing wants from you is magic, I have to go finish my preparations now. Bye."
G-Pillar: A large-caliber anti-materiel rifle that incorporates tissue from the Infernal Demon Gomorrah.
While designed as a weapon to destroy targets by firing powerful armour-piercing rounds, its shape, durability, and mass also make it suitable for use as a particularly damaging club when swung without restraint.
The dark flame emitted when the club makes impact increases the damage dealt, and this flame can also be directly discharged at an enemy for even greater effect.
Excerpt from Rodin's Weapons Catalogue
Whatever was going on up there, the entire ship was shaking, either the Pirates bombardment had begun or Leon has some truly impressive weapons going for him on this ship and kick was having that much of an effect. For now the pair ran into the bay where Leon said that he had the armour waiting for them. What Greg and Chris encountered inside of the bay was two half built armours composed of spare parts, the damage and wear from the pirates was obvious as especially apparent from the pieces of damaged armour that were sitting off to the side in a pile. "Damn it!" A few broken pieces of plating was one thing, but the most crucial pieces of the suits, the mana stone power source, were still not there, without them these armours were less than useless.
"Idiots." Alastor spoke up from Chris's hip. "What do you think you brought us along for?"
The Sword flew off with its sheath along with the bound guns in Greg's possession both of them entered the mana stone chambers of the armours, still with the powdery remains of the stones inside of them. Suddenly magic circles appeared below both sets of armours, erupting into a geyser of hair, grabbing broken pieces and pulling them into the armour itself. Soon the Hair geyser disappeared leaving behind two pristine armours, there was the matter of some parts having suddenly turned from grey to black, but that was insignificant to the other major development. In one armour the size of the Alastor had increased along with it's sheath to the point that they were suitable as a size to the Armours, similarly the second armour now had a giant wolf skull cod piece and four fiery shot guns attached to each of it's arms.
"What the hell?" Greg summed up his and Chris's opinions rather nicely. "They look better than when we were using them."
"Get in." Alastor's voice called out again. "We can't drive these things!"
Among the spells of the Umbran's arsenal one of the ones with the greatest utility is Restoration Magic, the ability to send a broken item back in time by loaning it a Umbran's own time. A collapsed building can be fully restored or even suspended mid-collapse so that makeshift platforms can be created, in an emergency broken equipment or arrays can be forcibly held together. If all of the pieces are not present the Umbran's own hair can be used as a substitute to fill in gaps. However while non-life threatening the extreme side effect of using this magic means that using it in combat must be strongly advised against, or else the situation could turn to be fatal very quickly. Also since the spell in question is extremely embarrassing as well it must be strongly advised that the spell must never be used in front of outsiders.
Excerpt on Umbran Magic Restoration by Jeanne Blackmore
Inside of the training Chamber of the Umbra, the full light to power effects of the moon stone the lined the chamber was rearing it's head supply it's occupant with mana. The individual in question appeared to be a young child wearing black shorts and a black t-shirt, since he was a child he had cute features that you could tell would grow up to be rather handsome looking, or so he liked to tell himself. Right now the individual in question was rather indignant as he looked at the holographic magic that depicted the fight happening around him.
"I am never letting anyone see this." The child stated as he let out a sigh. "I think I am doing quite well master Leon." As Umbra had said, they were accurately striking each of the armours in such a way that left the pirates inside in one piece, machine guns accurately blowing off each of their limbs. Also as the Clock demon had said, this child was Leon de-aged by several years into a younger form, a side effect of loaning his time to help repair the two armours that Greg and Chris were using.
"I hate Restoration." Muttering that the child was checking on his allies, the pirates that landed to try and take the evacuating people hostage were obliterated with out concern for the buildings between them and the guns.
Greg and Chris emerged from the ship in their patch work armours, the two of them moving to intercept armours as they landed or joining Angelica in knocking them out of the air. Then the big one appeared.
"I was wondering when you'd show up." Leon heard that the Kingdom used to use bulkier armours, so it shouldn't surprise him to see one that was about twice as tall and wide as the others showed up. The armour plating looked to be in better shape too, he assumed due to a combination of the fact that it didn't see as much action and the leader of the pirates spending more cash and resources in keeping his own armour in good shape. The back had one arm with a set of three interlinked chain saw like weapons.
There was one pretty massive point of concern however, the large cross that the armour had been carrying around with him. That was very concerning indeed.
Carmilla's Bane: In a time of darkness and despair, people seek salvation.
A craftsman forged a weapon he declared to be the Bane of the Lord of Shadow Carmilla and her kin, cold forged from a ore that fell from the very heavens themselves and became the receptacle of the countless hopes of the oppressed people.
Each and every inch of the sacred weapon is designed to slay the Spawn of Evil:
It's handle a stake to pierce and paralyse with.
It's tip a grapple to hold and not let go.
It's chain spiked to bring to heel.
It's cross a shield to protect.
Each and every strike heals the wielder in direct proportion to the damage that the weapon has dealt against the forces of darkness. It is said that the very sight of the weapon is a poison to the Spawn of Evil.
Excerpt on Notable Seraphim Arms by Rodin
Just looking at that thing made Leon's eyes hurt, and he was far from the only one based on the way that Umbra cut the feed.
"That weapon is dangerous." The Devil Arm summarised. They should've seen this coming, there were demons dropping weapons in the dungeons, so of course there'd be Seraph Arms too. Leon even recalls selling off the lesser Angel Arms a few times too. He never looked into the subject of the Seraphim arms himself, which was now biting him in the ass. And the eyes.
"I can't imagine that Baskerville or Alastor are doing so hot against that thing either." As Leon said that he got up as he prepared to leave.
"Where do you think you are going?" Umbra already locked the doors of the room.
"I'm going to go out and help." Leon snapped as he impatiently tapped his foot.
"You can't even look at that thing without crying tears of blood!" Leon tapped his cheek and looked at his fingers as he saw that blood was coming down the side of his face. "You're inside of the strongest most heavily armed fortress in Inferno. Use it!"
"Without being able to actually see the target firing blindly into a crowd is a recipe for a massacre." Leon stated bluntly impatiently tapping his foot. "Open the door!"
While Leon got into another argument with his clock the battle was still raging on outside, Umbra's turrets were still massacring the pirate armours. The pirate leader looked down at the girl who was still evacuating the last of the island's inhabitants. Perfect. Raising his Drop Weapon into the air a massive chain was quickly extended high into the air and slammed down at the girl in question, the chain abruptly bending around the girls barrier and slamming into the ground in a perfect half circle before abruptly withdrawing the chain.
"I suggest you surrender!" The pirate Leader tightened the chain from the cross in both of his hands. "Call your boyfriend out here so that he can die like a dog and I will at least spare your life!"
"Meaning you'll only spare our lives!?" The floating blades that had frozen the pirate captain's fleet had come crashing down towards him, unfortunately for their wielder the Pirate was able to swing his weapon around and knock the blades aside with his weapon.
"The duchess Redgrave. How noble." They had a special set of instructions for this one from Offrey. "Here to sacrifice yourself for your pet?"
"I'd rather just kill you." The Flaming bow in the hands the Redgrave girl fired. The spear of fire was blocked by the cross's holy barrier once more.
"How unfortunate for you, this is quite a potent shield." Even if its offensive power was somewhat lacking for his tastes. The chain reacted on it's own to create a protective barrier with its chain blocking a bolt of lightning and flaming heads of fire.
"Bastard!" Greg snapped guns aimed at the pirate captain's head.
"Stand and fight coward!" Chris followed up Alastor ready to strike.
"Well ain't it just my lucky day!" With a flourish of his mechanical wrist the pirate armour unfurled his chain whip once more and released a long whip chain to strike the two armours on the ground, as soon as the chain came in contact with the armour the black hair that Leon had been using as a bandage immediately came apart causing the two armours to fall apart into the scrap metal that they had been in the first place before the Warlock's 'repair job.'
Back inside of the room Leon spontaneously grew back into his full size and age.
"Great, the Dynamic Duo are out too." Leon liked nothing about how this situation was shaping up. "Are you going to let me out of here now?"
"I'm going to leave this island now before you get one of us killed." Umbra's voice replied. Which if you ask Leon was the wrong answer.
"Oh-ho-ho-ho! No you're not!" Leon cut his laughter short as he flexed his arm. "I'm not letting you!"
The Umbra started to move as Brad was firing the two G-Pillar cannons at the armour, what kind of drop weapon is supposed to be able to block attacks from anti-ship cannons? Even Brad's generous reserves of mana were starting to feel it at this point. The worst part was that he didn't seem to be doing much against the bastard, that damned weapon some how kept neutralising the shots that he, Greg and Chris kept firing, the only one here who did any damage was Angelica, and the pirate had taken notice focusing the majority of his attacks on Angelica with both the chain and the rifle he had picked up from one of his men. The only good news was that Olivia and the rest of the island's civilian population evacuated onto the Umbra, if they have to, then they can evacuate.
"What's the situation?" Brad jumped and did not shriek in a girlish manner when Leon suddenly spoke up next to him, he made a completely reasonable and dignified gasp of surprise on account of someone appearing next to him from seemingly thin air.
"Of my heart you ass!?" As Brad snapped he observed that Leon was standing next to a hole that had opened up next to the both of them, not the usual ship opening doors on it's own from seemingly out of no where, but from someone or something violently tear a hole open from the side out.
"The pirates you Peacock!" Leon snapped by way of reply, slicking his hair down over his face which then transformed into a blindfold.
"Your ship disabled most of their armours already and the territory has been evacuated." Then Brad took a second look. "Why are you wearing a blindfold?"
"Because that thing makes my eyes hurt." Leon stated bluntly. "Which one of them is doing the most damage?"
"Angelica, our drops attacks keep getting neutered by that cross." Ironically, the only one who didn't have a Devil arm was the one doing the damage. Angelica's completely normal floating blades was the only thing that the Pirate bothered to actually parry with that grotesquely over done back weapon, and her flame arrows were the only thing he was dodging. So long as it's not a Devil Arm, then it'll be fine.
"Understood." As Leon said that he immediately started to form a plan. "Thanks to the rest of the pirates this place is covered in weapons. The issue here is going to be getting a hold of them and used them against this pirate bastard." Leon thought about his options but a solution quickly came to mind.
"Taste my blade fiend!" As Chris shouted that prepared to use Alastor to cut off a leg, unfortunately for the swordsman, his sword suddenly disappeared.
Now that Leon had Alastor back in hand he raised the blade into the air, lightning arced off of the blade and hit the various scraps that had been left all over the territory. The People on the ground felt their hair frizzing and their bodies tingling as the now magnetised weapons and armour scrap was raised into the air above the island itself.
"Greg, Chris, I advise you to get on the ship. Now!" Leon wasn't waiting for them either. Both of the individuals in question were suddenly grabbed around their ankles by their Shadows who dragged them both back onto the Umbra. And then Leon launched his attack.
"Don't you dare you Bastard!" The Pirate brandished his weapon to defend himself. "I have the protection of-!" And then the pirate had his arm torn off and nailed to the ground by a blade. And then the storm of scrap metal falling from the sky like rain followed.
An hour after the fight with Pirate Lord had ended Angelica was looking at what could only be described as a pile of scrap metal. Dozens of weapons had struck the ground with enough force that they had been left with over half of their mass in the ground, scraps from the armour that had been their target had been made out, That was all that was left of the Pirate Lord. That and the weapon that he had been using.
"So this is a 'Seraphim Arm?'" Angelica looked down at the weapon in question as it sat between the five of them, herself, Olivia, Brad, Greg and Chris. Leon didn't want to get near the thing, just looking at it through Umbra apparently made his eyes hurt.
"They're rarer than Devil Arms." Greg provided his expertise as the heir of the Seburg family.
"Angels hold more value for their subordinates than their own power, so they aim for even distribution. Demons value power more than their subordinates, so they hoard it for themselves." Olivia picked this time to pipe up. "Or so I read in a book." The take away was that there are fewer Seraphim Arms than there were Devil arms.
"The question here is what do we do with it?" Brad got down to the brass tacks of the situation. "I mean most of us can't even touch it." Olivia had been the one to pry it out of the Pirate's severed arm, the weapon having shrunk itself down until it sat comfortably in her hands.
"What are the chances that Pirate bastard would be using a weapon with an affinity for healing magic?" Greg asked rubbing the back of his head.
"I don't think it likes him that much." Olivia stated as she looked over at the skewered corpse of the pirate armour. "Liked him." At the very least it likes her more, it even bent it's attacks against her to avoid hitting her. "I can't get much information out of him though, maybe if we get some Halos from Leon to feed it." While Greg and the others looked at Olivia Questioningly they slowly turned their attention to the suits of armour that Pirates had been peeled out of.
"I know this model of armour." Chris had zeroed in on the Head pieces for many of the Armours.
"It was modelled after a lost armour." The head pieces that Chris had been referring to had only one central eye, hidden behind a knight-like grill.
"Didn't know you were such an armour enthusiast Chris." Greg stated legitimately surprised.
"This model has been a vested interest to my father for several years." Chris replied bluntly.
Earl Edgar Fia Garrett: The pirates were wiped out? All of them?
****: All of them. It seems that the Offrey's and the Forest chose to pick a fight that they could not win and will be paying for it with their lives.
Garrett: Ah well. They've disposed of themselves ahead of schedule then. I recall a few of the Prototype combat crosses that we entrusted them to try out. How did that go?
****: They reportedly gave the Blackmore family, the target of ire of the aforementioned parties, some difficulty before ultimately being wiped out. Their ability to neutralise attacks from Devil Arms appears to be rather easily subverted by hurling mundane steel at the wielder.
Garrett: Ah well. If nothing else our plans have just been moved ahead by a couple of years. The Princesses won't see this as a great lost I am sure.
Earl Edgar Fia Garrett of the Principality of Fanoss with [REDACTED] Prior to the One Week War
Review Section:
RonaldM40196867: My life's not interesting enough to be a story.
hnh058513: So instead she chose to be a worse person then all of her potential bullies combined. Being a victim of circumstance doesn't mean that she doesn't deserve to be punished.
Chronos0305: I, personally, would've loved to see Bayonetta teaming up with the angels in one of the alternate realities, maybe even teaming up with one of her alters that joined the Lumen instead of the Umbran. Of course in the alternate reality where that happened then the Bayonetta and Jeanne Equivalents would've gone on to found a new Lumen Clan instead of a new Umbran Clan. I agree with the Concept of the Humunculi though not the execution. With the likes of Baldur or Aesir we at least have an understanding of who they are, why they are, and what they are hoping to accomplish. With Singularity and the Homunculi? We get no idea where this thing came from, why it is transforming humans into Homunculi, or why it wants to fuse the various alternate realities together. Beyond that? Spoilers.
