118: But when do the cool fights start?
"Um… sorry for laughing like a nutjob. I was really just expecting that to be way more of a problem than it turned out to be," I finally say in response to the ring of awkward stares surrounding me. "That guy, Regulus - he was able to 'stop time' for himself, making him totally invincible, and letting him destroy whatever he touched. I guess he died because… his combat instincts suck and he didn't see the gun before it fired."
"Wait, if he can be that invincible, what the hell did you think shooting him was going to do?" Jason asks.
"Ah, he has a five second limit or so - using it stops his heart, so he'll die if he keeps it on all the time-"
"So it's the same type of stand as Star Platinum…" Nobunaga mutters, and I ignore her.
"-but he can get around it by putting a substitute heart in the chest of someone he declares his 'wife'. I'm not sure how many women he kidnapped and forced into that role in the other world, but I know it was at least over two hundred." Ah, there's the looks of disgust I was expecting. "By the way, I don't think he needs any kind of reciprocation to his declaration - in fact, the trigger for him to be able to use [Small-Hearted Lion] might just be 'a feeling of attraction', so that could have gone really bad if he had seen Mash…"
(Nobunaga kicks my shin.)
"Ah, if he's weak to pretty women, we totally could have made him work for us if the Euryale thing had panned out…" Jason mumbles.
"P-putting aside the indirect compliments, I guess it's a good thing he was dealt with so quickly, then," Mash says with a slight frown. "I wish you'd mentioned him before now, though, Senpai."
"Eh?" I blink. "Oh, no, this wasn't any kind of premonition… I just recognized his voice, since I heard it so much before. The guy seriously never shuts up."
"Speaking of never shutting up," Cu Chulainn interjects with a small amount of irritation in his voice, "are you guys coming or what?" Without waiting for an answer, he vaults off the boat and begins trudging inland.
"R-right…" I mutter.
"Oh, and if we see any more enemies, give me a chance at them," He calls out. "I'm so freaking bored…"
Leaving Jason, who didn't want to come, and Nobunaga, who said she wanted to chat with Georgios back on the boat, Mash, Cu, Benkei, and myself venture inland.
Of course, we don't encounter any more enemies on the island - just a smattering of craters and devastated trees. Cu got excited briefly, but when I explained that they were likely just Regulus's work, he returned to sullen silence.
Come to think of it, the poor battle maniac has been on the sidelines since the end of Fuyuki. He hasn't even had a fight since we ended up here, thanks to being stuck playing a support role.
"I can't even promise to give you the first crack at Dagon or Heracles either, since-" I mutter.
"It's fine, kid," The Caster mutters. "I've got Odin's influence to help me simmer down - and since you need me alive to mess with Alter Ego's spirit origin, it's not like I can go throwing my life away… Why'd I have to suggest a plan like that, anyway?"
"It's your best chance of getting a good fight anyway," I say with a shrug. "Until we make Alter Ego commit to fighting, all you're gonna meet is Rogue Servants."
…I say that, but it's not as though Alter Ego hasn't been fighting. Based on the sort of ideas he gave me about himself, he's probably been making attempts at us nonstop.
"Your strategy that finally forced me to reset and pull Medea and Drake out was so full of holes that it looked like you were throwing it together on the spot." -he had said.
At the end of the day, he's still Natsuki Subaru. Our defeat of Asterios was a fluke, caused by interference between the Labyrinth and Return by Death - under all other circumstances, that idiot won't let a single one of his allies die. He'll reset, pull them out, and make a new plan.
In other words, between Benkei's strength, Nobunaga's guns, and Cu's [Gae Bolg], he has yet to kill me in a way that meets his requirements.
…Incidentally, if I do end up dying at some point, and manage to recruit Euryale, I could totally make Regulus fight the guy. Judging by Echidna talking about Regulus like he was some big obstacle, the Greed Archbishop has to be more traumatizing for Alter Ego than he was for me.
"...What am I even thinking?" I mutter under my breath. It might be doing to him what he wants to do to me, but I don't really want to go out of my way to break Alter Ego's will.
I pity him too much for that.
(Prelati had said something ominous about the risks of pitying your enemies, but I expunge that recollection as quickly as possible.)
"Well, not to interrupt your scheming, but to go back to the subject," Cu says, "I can at least be patient enough to hold back from fighting when we've got a freaking Grand on board, but… if he loses to Heracles, I'm up next."
"Who do you think you are, the Prince of Saiyans?" I mutter.
Come to think of it, do we have a Nobbugeta-?
"Cu Chulainn, Jason said you really wouldn't stand a chance as a Caster," Mash calls him out to his face.
"Indeed, I don't want to boast of my strength, but… I am quite strong right now," Benkei says. "With you stuck in a suboptimal class-"
"I have my spear, okay!? I have my spear!" He shouts.
Although the sun - or rather, the ring of light that seems to have taken its place - can't be seen behind the storm clouds, the steadily dimming light of sunset is still just about recognizable as we near the final island. In fact, I'm just about certain of it - because, in the sky above said island, there is not a cloud to be seen, and so I can see the dimming sky clearly as we draw near.
Soon, though, that view is hidden from sight by curtains of rain as the wind begins to scream. Thunder rolls, and I feel my chest vibrate in tune. The deep blue night is lit up in staccato flashes of light as lightning crackles seemingly without pause. The Argo tips this way and that, only Jason's expert hand at the rudder saving us from capsizing.
I'm not shocked in the least. From the moment Nobunaga first spotted the open sky above our destination, we knew he had to make his move here.
'An island outside of the reach of the Reef God's storm' - in other words, the resting place of the [Ark of the Covenant] was also the final island required for Cu Chulainn's plan. And so, to prevent us from reaching his weakness - he'll draw the storm to a climax, and make his last stand here.
{There's another boat on the edge of the storm,} Nobunaga says telepathically, from her position in the air behind us. {Looks like they're waiting to see the result.}
As expected of Alter Ego, I guess. {Feel free to take some potshots if you happen to see Medea or something, but otherwise come on back. We'll have to take them as they come.}
Amidst lightning flashing frantically enough to prompt an epilepsy warning, I see him rise from the ocean. A hulking form - nowhere near his size in France, but still almost twice the height of Benkei - with purple-gray skin and yellow-orange eyes that continue to burn in the darkness as the lightning abruptly ceases.
"You've come far enough, sinners," The monster says, his voice a dull rumble. "I know not how you came under my curse - but I shall fulfill it with gladness. This is the duty of a monster - and of a god. I, Dagon, shall pay my debts."
A distorted roar rings out under a sky as dark as the deepest ocean.