“The fourth seal is activating,” Momo reported.

Aclysia snapped the plate she was holding. The disk, made from a singular piece of stone, was split cleanly down the middle. There was something dark about the maid’s expression, a shadow over her eyes that overpowered the graceful smile that struggled to stay on her lips.

“How is Tiemarath’s repair advancing, John?” she asked, managing to keep the façade of elegance. For the most part. It said something about Aclysia’s level of annoyance that she forewent his title.

“It’ll be done before we arrive,” John answered her. “I think that weapon has about served its purpose, though… your whole arsenal could use an upgrade.”

Aclysia just gave him a stilted nod. The destruction of Tiemarath at the hands of Liakan, or at least its temporary state of inefficiency, proved that armaments of that level were not going to cut it for much longer. Tiemarath had itself been an upgrade on Marath, one weapon utilizing shards of its sister blade, Tietan, gathered after Thana had destroyed it in her battle against Sigmund. Eclys and Salver had been upgraded around the same time, utilizing Poseidury and Obsidium, two of the Celexiums.

All three weapons had been forged well over 500 levels ago. Back then, Aclysia could barely lift Tiemarath without activating Scourge. That the weapons had continued to serve her for all this was a testament to the strength of Mithril and the skill of Marathyu, the insane blacksmith that was the creator of many of their current armaments.

Purgatory’s current iteration also fell in that category, as did Beatrice’s spear Perfect. Rex Magnar, Strimata and Illuminare were also the mad smith’s creation, although they had all been made substantially later and with MUCH better materials, so they did not share the current set of issues.

John had no issues keeping Purgatory as it was. The dragon claw fulfilled its purpose perfectly fine. Perfect, Beatrice’s spear, and Aclysia’s three swords were a different matter. They relied on them not just for the enchantments but for their pure attack and defensive value. Especially Aclysia, who sustained a lot of hits by virtue of her role in their formations, needed equipment that was reliable.

Tiemarath was Indestructible 7, which meant its Durability couldn’t fall below 70%. Yet, still, it had been sliced through. The enchantments had still worked, but Aclysia needed more than enchantments, she needed a weapon she could rely on for multiple purposes. Tiemarath was the first warning sign that, at their new level of combat, even tempered Mithril was starting to become disposable.

For all the importance that stories and most of the Abyss placed on named items, ultimately, weapons were tools and even the most expertly crafted tool could tarnish or break. ‘We’ll have to upgrade to Astrotium or Fusionals,’ the Gamer thought. ‘Or at least get better enchantments in place… wonder if the crafting crew will get to a level that they can take this task on.’

“I’ll switch to a quick breakfast,” Aclysia announced reluctantly and returned to the kitchen. John cringed internally when he saw the pile of quiches that Aclysia had already gotten to the point of being baking ready. They had deliberately pulled their breakfast ahead so she would have the time to get them something hot of her preferred quality. That timetable had been ruined and so the carefully crafted pastries would not have the necessary time to bake.

John knew that Aclysia was imagining the heads of his enemies while she cracked and scrambled the eggs that served as the replacement.

__________________________________________________________________________

Aclysia remained in an aggressive mood all morning. A constant chill hung around her, manifesting in icicles that hung from her elegantly curved black horns. It did not show on her face, it barely even showed in her body language, but it was clear to anyone with an ounce of social skill that the dragon maid was ready to take her frustrations out at the first excuse offered.

“Should we do somethin’?” Hailey asked. For today, the enigma engineer had come along. By pure Agility, she was faster than John, so he really had no argument against her presence hindering them on her own.

“Either she’ll snap at who is responsible or I’ll give her bonus cuddles later,” John whispered back. He was just happy to see Aclysia fully back to her old self. Anger at things obstructing his comfort had always been in her nature, but she had overcome the phase of her life where she had let that dominate her surface. She was composed. She was ready to snap, but she did not let herself go over the edge. She was in control of her wrath.

That being said, everyone knew not to tease her. Even Sylph, the last of the elementals who had respawned after yesterday’s fight, kept quiet. The party moved in respectful silence, mindful of the annoyed maid. No one – absolutely no one – in the harem was brazen enough to mess with the head of the housekeepers. Aclysia was the sole woman that could stand next to Rave in terms of authority within the harem. One kept the social group operating, the other made sure everything around operated seamlessly. John could not have lived this life without both.

Aclysia’s ire being so respected by those around made the loud approach of the warhorse more out of place. Everyone turned their heads, ready for battle, but the speed of the steed’s gait did not imply a charge. The battle-marked armour of War barely reflected the sunlight, scratches, rust, dried blood and red paint all contributing to an overall dull surface. It occurred to John that he often saw the rider without his massive sword.

‘Probably got his own trick to summon it,’ John had to assume. ‘Glory just gets his weapons from his magic and I am pretty sure Famine’s weapon is part of him. Wouldn’t surprise me if War got a similar trick up his sleeve.’

As if to prove John’s thought, War reached into the air besides him. It opened up like a zipper, revealing an arsenal of weapons in the hundreds. Swords were most numerous, followed by spears, bows, and other common armaments. All of them were forged for purpose, many had even been chipped or outright broken by service. Ares selected one and pulled it from the space.

It was a crude weapon – practically just a slab of grey metal. The edges were so worn down they barely qualified as such. In truth, it could scarcely be called a sword. It was too large, too heavy, and far too rough. Rather, it resembled a raw heap of iron with a long grip and nothing else.

War raised the weapon. The group paused. He lowered it too slowly for it to be understood as a threat. The scarred helmet of the Horseman hid any emotion, while he pointed the tip of the double-edged weapon at Aclysia. The broad spine of the sword was thicker than the span from John’s little finger to his thumb.

“Do you wish to fight?” Aclysia asked.

War remained in that pose, until his ghoulish steed snorted. “Not yet,” the Horseman decided and lifted the weapon onto his shoulder. Without another word, he spurred his steed into a gallop towards the seal.

‘Bunch of oddballs around here,’ the Gamer thought.

They arrived at the endpoint of the barrier shortly after War. Glory was already there, receiving his fellow Horseman with a friendly smack on the shoulder and a comradely phrase. The leader of the Riders of the Apocalypse was back to his radiant exterior. Still, next to War, he looked quite small. Both the horse and Ares himself were towering specimens of their respective category.

Liakan had brought both Singed and Karia with her today. The three members of the Azure Tribe looked as healthy as they could. Having reclaimed her calm, the daughter of chaos struck an eldritch figure between the animated armour and the practically human assassin.

While the Grim Reaper’s forces and the Azure Tribe were present in full force today, the Illuminati had only sent Hikari and an accompanying cyborg. John doubted that Norahnon or Malady were incapable of deploying – but perhaps they wanted other people to think that. Their fight yesterday had to have been caught in some detail by the other factions.

John himself was there with his elementals, Hailey, and Rave. The others were, as per usual, in position to claim a new base as soon as possible. That was with the exceptions of Nia and Metra, the former he still had not seen since her intervention in that first fight and the latter was hanging around about two kilometres back.

And their gracious hosts had sent only one member forward.

Tezcatlipoca, the Lord of the North, the Lord of Darkness, was perhaps the most unassuming of the god-warriors. Two-metres tall, with a body as black as night, covered only with a loincloth and pelvic curtain, he was scarcely unusual for the Abyss. Only the human jaw inside the parted mouth of the cat-head, half mask, half face, was out of the ordinary.

“Welcome to the fourth trial, invaders,” the god-warrior greeted them with a hostile growl.

John glared back in kind. Tezcatlipoca was one he was worried little about. He would have been around or slightly above Quetzalcoatl, which made John confident they could just nuke him if it came down to it. Importantly, he had every reason to do so. The black-teethed man had been the one to originally spread the Purple to Fianna. That was one of the larger reasons why John considered the official narrative Nahua regurgitated to be a falsehood.

“Usually, the trial of my aspect is simple. Walk in the dark, from the beginning of this segment of the road until here.” Tezcatlipoca pointed at the distant point where the first of the black pillars framed the road, then behind him at a large obsidian formation in the shape of a stylized skull. “That will not work for you… powerful as you are.” It visibly bothered him to push those words out.

“Yes, yes, I am quite magnificent,” Glory boasted.

“Get to the point,” Hikari weighed in.

“Each of you chooses a champion and they fight me in the arena of my choosing,” Tezcatlipoca growled. “The fights will happen simultaneously. The one that defeats me first shall be the winner. All those that manage to defeat me shall pass, including their factions. All others will find themselves hounded in the next segment of the Glory Road.”

“Is that a hard restriction?” John asked.

“No.”

Boisterously, the hooves of the white horse clapped. “With all of this petty talk out of the way, I shall-“

“Zelos,” War interrupted his leader, to the wraith’s mild surprise. “I hear the call.”

Glory raised a finely swung eyebrow and looked around the field. “Today of all days?” he asked, in a serious tone. “Should you oblige?” He sighed and waved off. “No, you have your orders and your privileges, I understand. Our Lord Death would want you to follow the whims of your smithy.” Glory turned the horse around. “It won’t matter, ultimately.”

Wordlessly, Hikari stepped forwards. ‘Bad news for us,’ John thought. ‘I have to assume the shenanigans Tezcatlipoca is pulling to fight four people simultaneously will be of the multi-body variety. If she gets a 1 on 1 fight, the victor is already decided.’

After little deliberation, Karia stepped forwards for the Azure Tribe. At that point, John’s mind was still racing through his options. Revealing Metra at this point could have worked; if there was anyone that had a chance to compete Hikari in having a swift duel, then it was her. John would have rather kept that card in his sleeve until he fought Zelos though.

‘Matter of fact…’ John thought and glanced at the leaving Horseman. If War was out of the picture, then there was no better time to spring that trap than now. ‘I can take a loss on the seal and being in a worse position for a segment,’ he decided. ‘I just need Tezcatlipoca to be beaten by one of mine. Then I get two victories under my belt at once.’

He was thinking at top speed. Quests typically demanded that he was at least somewhat involved in the outcome, so it was best to send a familiar in there. They were counted as part of his power set, so their victory was his to claim. That narrowed things down, effectively, to Salamander, Siena, Sylph, Aclysia, and Ehtra – since he had already excluded Metra and the other elementals just weren’t useful in a duel.

Salamander went into closer consideration. With her Unleash giving her bursts of power on a cooldown, she could overwhelm a lot of opponents as long as she fought carefully – which she was capable of when she wanted to. Siena would usually have been a favourite, but he doubted her control over shadows was stronger than that of the god-warrior. Sylph was too much of a gamble. One or two hits and the arcvolt elemental was out and gravity magic was part of the Lord of Darkness’ repertoire. Ehtra also was in close consideration, for obvious reasons. Aclysia…

Emotionally, he wanted to give Aclysia the opportunity to unleash her frustrations, but he wasn’t sure if that was smart. She was not a bad duellist, but her victories were not quick. If he sent her in there, he had to do it because he genuinely thought she would be the best fit.

Between the three remaining options, Salamander was eliminated first. She was good, but she wasn’t as good an option as either Ehtra or Aclysia. Between those two, then, John had to honestly ask himself who was the more powerful.

‘That would be Aclysia, wouldn’t it?’ he thought to himself, to a mental nod of Ehtra. The First of Hatred had her annoyances with being weak, but she was not denying the fact and the fact was that Aclysia had more Perks under her belt and that made her the stronger combatant on paper. Application of those Perks and Skills was another matter.

The ultimate factor here was that Aclysia had already fought Tezcatlipoca before. That battle had been inconclusive, with Zelos intervening, but had felt slanted against the Artificial Spirit. ‘I will not disappoint,’ the first maid signalled mentally.

“Aclysia will fight for us.”