The Simulacrum

Day five of our vacation.

I suppose it was obvious that I could only delay the inevitable for so long. As much as I preferred to keep things within the beach episode framework, Josh was really insistent about his training arc, so I had no choice but to accommodate him to the training facility. Like that, I was currently standing within its magical bubble, though only on the sidelines for the time being, and observing everyone's efforts.

We had once again divided into multiple groups. On one hand, all of my in-laws joined team Magi on a road trip to the closest tower (Migdál Chloros, if my memory served right). Not all of them though, just Sahi, Pascal, and Lord Barnabas. While on paper they were here to guard Ammy, they must have already realized that there were no imminent threats in the Elysium, and since she was accompanying me at the moment, they allowed their curiosity get the better of them.

I couldn't blame them though; the contrast between the pastoral outer settlements and the Celestial magitech crystal towers was an intriguing one, and it made sense that the Magi in particular would be curious about the latter. Others had different priorities though, and there was no rush either. Case in point, while the class rep was also clearly curious, she was currently way more focused on a different discovery.

"Mike, look! I did it!"

Speaking of her, she was currently downright ecstatic and practically hopping around a floating, semi-transparent golden hexagon. It looked like a single pane of the interlocking magic barriers Lord Gulliver used. Actually, now that I thought about it, Pascal also specialized in force fields, and his were made of small hexagons as well. Heck, once I dug even deeper into my memories, I was pretty sure the magic shield Crowy conjured up to defend himself against Elly's breath attack was also made of hexagons.

Why was that? I sincerely doubted all of these different spells and magics had the same root, so from a Watsonian perspective, all of them looking similar was a bit hard to justify. However, from a Doylist point of view, it was a well-known fact that hexagons were the bestagons, and they were a very efficient pattern found in nature and represented stability and whatnot. Looking at it like that, it made a lot of sense that defensive powers would use them as a visual shorthand. It's like how poisons were always green regardless of the compound, because arsenic was green and the two became synonymous in the common consciousness.

I would've looked for a second opinion on this idea, but Judy was currently busy watching Elly's sparring match with Josh at the other end of the training facility, so I had no one to turn to. Not that I had the opportunity, as I was soon intercepted by the beaming class rep.

"Leo! Come, look at this!"

"I saw it. It's…" I wanted to say 'impressive', but I was afraid it would come off as sarcastic, so I reworded it into, "… a lot of progress."

"It is!"

I couldn't remember the last time I'd seen her so excited, with her magical orbs circling her head so fast I was afraid they would give someone a concussion if they got in the way. Michael apparently shared my concerns, as he took hold of Ammy's hand.

"Calm down, sunshine."

He was dressed in his uniform and using his official position as an excuse to stay close to me, just so he could hang out with her. I found that a bit silly, as I specifically gave him the whole week off for that purpose, but at this point I gave up on trying to convince him to relax and just let him do whatever he wanted.

"I'm calm! I'm perfectly calm!" Ammy insisted.

"Then why are you yelling?" I asked, but she didn't respond.

"Do you want to test how resilient it is?" Mike proposed to his girlfriend, and Ammy's eyes lit up at once.

"Right! If I could cast a safeguard incantation, I should be able to cast a fireball too!"

I wouldn't have been surprised if she tried to do it right away, but then her demeanour shifted all of a sudden and she stared at me with an implied question. One I naturally couldn't understand without her speaking up.

"What?"

"Say, do you have any idea why I can suddenly cast complex incantations here, but not back home?"

"I haven't the foggiest," I admitted, but she remained skeptical.

"But you're… you know?"

"He's what?" Mike blurted out, completely losing the thread of the conversation. I couldn't blame him.

"Trust me, Ammy. If I could just give people power-ups any time I want, I wouldn't be facing nearly as many headaches as I do now."

To illustrate the point, I unsubtly glanced at the duel unfolding between Josh and Elly. He was going all out, all of his Celestial wings glowing behind him and his new sword wreathed in the same kind of energy as his summoned arm-blades were in the past. Elly wasn't holding back either, and instead of using her Magiformer, she opted to fully transform into her draconic form.

They were both on the ground right now, though I'd seen them clash in the air before. Josh moved with a kind of instinctive grace, aggressively pushing her with a series of arching swings combined with shield bashes and edge strikes. The clear similarities in style showed that he had learned a thing or two from armour guy, yet the way he was using the same moves was discernibly different.

Elly, in contrast, remained on guard and precisely parried and countered each of his strikes with her bare hands. Or as much as her dragon-scale-covered knuckles and forearms counted as 'bare' in any case. She never met his attacks edge-on, opting to knock on the flat of his sword, and maybe because Josh still wasn't very familiar with his weapon, it worked shockingly well.

It made sense though. For centuries the only real enemy of the Draconians were the Knights, and since they were a faction specialized in medieval weaponry, the princess being thoroughly trained on how to counter swords was a given. She assured me that she had it in the bag, and while I was a bit wary to let her spar with Josh using real weapons, her insistence won me over, and she really did have the upper hand.

But anyhow, I was still in a conversation with the class rep, and once she understood the meaning of my words, she also turned back to me and let out a soft huff.

"I understand, but it's still peculiar that everyone else is having a hard time tapping into the local Ley Lines while I'm thriving here. Are you sure that 'destiny' isn't involved?"

Before I could respond, Mike grimaced and muttered, "I told you, sugarflower; this is Elysium. We should have no Ley Lines at all."

"But they're here!" she argued back, bordering on a pout. "Look! I mean, I know that you can't sense them, but trust me that they're here, and there, and everywhere! It's like…" She made a vague gesture towards the nearest tower, visible over the tree line. "I think each one of those is built on a Nexus, and then the Ley Lines branch out from there. They're also much more organized than the ones back home."

"Trust me, I believe you," Mike told her while holding up his palms. "If you say so, then I'm sure there's something there, and you can use your Magi powers, so it has to be true, but… I just don't think they're Ley Lines."

"Then what else could they be?"

It took me a while to realize that she wasn't addressing that question to Michael but to me, and I automatically shrugged.

"Can you please stop looking at me like that? I'm not omniscient."

"Yet?" she added in an unusual display of cheekiness, and it took some effort not to groan.

"No, in general. If I was, I would have even fewer headaches to worry about."

Ammy remained silent for the moment, seriously mulling over my words.

"So it's another one of your secrets you don't want to explain, right?"

"No?" I responded, sounding a bit more flabbergasted than planned.

She shook her head in return and put a hand on her hip.

"The other option is that you're unaware of something this peculiar, and I'm just not buying that." She followed it up with a dramatic sigh. "I know I should be used to this by now, but I thought we were past the point of secrets already."

"I'm telling you; I have no idea what you're talking about. At all."

"Sure."

She said that, but her eyes were telling the exact opposite.

"Come on, honeybunch. You're making Leonard uncomfortable," Mike came to the rescue and hooked his own arm into the one resting on her hip. "Let's try making fireballs first."

"Right. We can figure out the mystery later," she relented and let herself be guided back to the floating hexagon again. Though not before sending me one of those glances that said a thousand words.

Or at the very least something along the lines of 'I know, and I know you know, and I know that you know I know, so I'm expecting you to come clean in private later', which was just a little bit troubling, as I had genuinely no idea what she was talking about. On a different note, I made a mental note to thank Mike for the save later. For the time being, I focused on the other people at the training grounds.

The duel between Elly and Josh was still raging on in the back, but it was at a bit of a stale-mate at the moment, so I glanced at the next duo. There, Arnwald and Angie were practising archery… or should've been, at the very least. If they weren't arguing, that is.

"You dare to teach me about the bow, you—?" she burst out, only to forcefully clear her throat. "S-Sorry! What Grandpa Deus meant to say was that he's been using bows for a looong time, so…"

"It doesn't mean that what you're doing is right," Arnwald stood his ground. He was clad in his Uniformer, with a familiar red-and-black longbow seemingly made entirely of metal in his hand. He gestured towards the hole on the ground next to where a row of target dummies used to stand. "This is recklessness."

"But… I did get the target, right?" Angie pleaded, and the senior Knight let out a tired breath.

"Listen, Angeline. You're planning to join Joshua and Leonard when fighting Bel of the Abyss. Is that right?"

"Yes, that's the plan."

"I saw how your last attempt to join hands in an effort to subdue him turned out," he continued on, embodying the tone of a disapproving drill instructor down pat. "As an archer, your role is to provide precision support for your allies. Divide the attention of the enemy, take advantage of their openings, or force new openings for your allies to exploit."

"Yes, but…"

"In that whole fight, I couldn't see a hint of such tactical behavior. If anything, your uncontrolled use of your powers forced My Liege to divide his attention between fighting off the villain and keeping you safe."

"I-I know, but…"

"Teamwork is essential when it comes to facing a superior foe, and as an archer, you must have the utmost trust of your allies, ensuring that they would never have to feel worried about your arrows missing their mark and injuring them at a critical moment. For that, you need to prove that you're precise…" Without warning, he pulled his bowstring back and let a thin blue energy arrow loose. It flew straight and true, and hit one of the standing dummies squarely in the forehead. "… fast…" By the time he uttered the word, the second arrow already hit its mark, embedding itself so close to the first one they were practically touching. "… and consistent." And with that, he let loose the third arrow, and it landed right next to the first two.

"…"

Angie remained silent and only shuffled her feet. I wouldn't have been surprised if there was an internal argument between her and Deus in her head, but I couldn't know for sure, and neither could our Sir Eagle. As such, he continued in a slightly softer tone.

"This was a lesson one of my mentors, the late Sir Ivor taught me, and it was one of the first and most important ones I'd ever received. If you wish to step forth on the field of battle once again, it is paramount that you heed its wisdom, lest your allies will be the ones to pay the price for your hubris."

"I… understand." Angie hugged her own bow close to her chest and lightly bowed. "Please teach me."

"Very well." Arnwald's lips bent up into a thin-lipped smile, but only for a moment, and gestured for her to pay attention. "Your destructive power is respectable, but you must rein in your impulses to use it indiscriminately. You must first learn precision, and then we'll discuss how to identify the right opportunities to safely unleash your full power."

"Sir, yes sir!" Angie exclaimed determinedly, much to the senior Knight's satisfaction (and quiet amusement), and they soon returned to archery practice.

That side was mostly taken care of, though I made a note to keep an eye on them to ensure Arnwald wouldn't fall into the mentor rabbit hole in the future. Ideally, I should've figured out how to turn my inherent Narrative-ness to good use and learn how to suppress undesirable tropes (such as Mentor Occupational Hazard) one of these days, instead of just triggering them at random, but I wasn't quite there yet.

But speaking of mentors, there was another pair practising near the other end of the training field, close to the edge of the bubble.

"Hi-yah!" Penny exclaimed with gusto as she swung her large two-hander in a wide arc.

"You need to be faster," Morgana told her sternly, her recently blooming motherly side nowhere to be seen on her face. "You're leaving yourself open on the back-draw. You need to minimize the time between striking and returning to your neutral stance."

"I know, but it's hard…" Penny whined and made a few more practice swings, this time much faster. Since we didn't bring any training weapons with us, she borrowed Morgana's flamberge, and it looked almost comically oversized in her small hands. "Uuu… If I focus on speed like this, it feels like I'm wasting the impact of my weapon."

"A two-handed sword is not a club," Morgana spoke firmly, and held out her hand, asking for her weapon back. When Penny handed it over, she immediately lowered her center of gravity and took up a stand, holding her blade high before performing a sequence of rapid strikes, each one smoothly flowing into the other like a series of flourishes. When done, she stood straight again and held out her weapon. "You said you wished to learn how to wield a two-handed blade because you felt like your own weapon lacked stopping power."

"Yes!" My sister nodded along excitedly, not realizing the point Morgana was trying to make.

"You're approaching this from the wrong direction. This sword doesn't exist to pummel your enemies into submission or to break their defences through brute force. A flamberge's main advantage lies in its reach and speed. You're naturally fast and agile, thanks to the Mantle of the Unicorn Knight, so your main focus should be mastering point control and leverage."

"I get it!" Penny declared as she accepted the sword again, and took up a clumsy stance, like a JRPG character holding an enormous buster sword. "That way, I can surprise the opponent with my speed, and then I can hit them very, very hard!"

Our Dame Gorgon looked at her with eyes that were asking if she was pulling her leg, but Penny remained entirely serious.

"Um… I don't think that's what she meant," Snowy chimed in from the side. She had been watching them from a distance in silence, and only now chose to add to the conversation.

"What do you mean?"

"You better think about it a bit more," Morgana uttered, sounding just a bit tired.

"Oh, I think I get it!" Penny exclaimed and shifted her stance. "You're saying that instead of focusing just on speed, like before, or just on strength, I should do both at the same time!"

"I don't think that's it either…" Snowy tried to correct her, but Morgana stopped her.

"It's fine. Penelope is a natural. With some practice, she should recognize the correct approach." Then, after a brief pause, she added, "Hopefully."

However, just as they were about to continue, an unexpected new face burst into the scene.

"Sorry, but can I borrow Neige for a bit?" Elly asked the moment she landed near the trio, much to Snowy's surprise.

"Me? Is there a problem?"

"No, it's just that…" She pointed a red-scaled thumb over her shoulder. "We finished sparring with Joshua, but my blood's still boiling, and then I realized that we haven't sparred in ages! Are you up for a friendly match?"

"Um…" Snowy looked a bit reluctant, but seeing how enthusiastic the princess was about it, she weakly asked, "Are you sure? The last time we fought, it was… not a good memory…"

"Don't sweat that!" Elly grinned at her, her tail excitedly swaying side to side. "That happened ages ago, and I want to see how much better we got since then!"

"In that case…" She glanced at Penny, then Morgana, and ultimately let out a determined hum. "I'm curious too."

"Let's go then!"

While my girlfriend dragged my sister over to the spot where she fought Josh just a few minutes ago, my other girlfriend arrived at my side with the same guy in tow. Josh was unharmed but a bit out of hit, with beads of sweat tricking down his forehead.

"Good news, Chief," Judy declared and showed me her phone screen. "Elly rose in the power rankings again."

"You're still doing that?" I muttered, but then a different question came to mind. "I've seen you take notes all week. How does your phone even have any charge left?"

"I brought ten fully charged power packs with me," she answered off-handedly and pointed at the screen again. "Look at the chart, please."

"I'm more worried about the fire hazard, but…" I squinted at the aforementioned chart and fell silent for a bit. "Since when I'm at the top?"

"Is that a serious question?"

The one asking that was Josh, who took my girlfriend's weird hobby in stride.

"With how many powerups you received since the last official power ranking, it would be stranger if you weren't at the top."

"Speaking of powerups, Ammy can now cast proper spells."

My dear assistant's eyes lit up at once and she put away her phone.

"I'll go and document the new development. I'll be back shortly."

"Have fun."

She waved at me and skipped over to the class rep's and Mike's side, who were still experimenting with fireballs. That meant I was left alone with Josh, and the moment she was out of earshot, he let out a rung-rattling sigh.

"You don't happen to have a few of those spare power-ups lying around, do you?" he asked half-jokingly, and the fact it was only half so was enough to tell me he was getting just a bit frustrated.

"I don't know why everyone thinks I can just hand those out all willy-nilly," I grumbled, and he shrugged in return.

"Hey, I couldn't hurt to ask."

"Progress?" I asked nonchalantly and got another sigh in return.

"Not much. I feel like…" He abruptly pulled his sword out of storage and held it out vertically. "Idunno… I think I'm getting better with practice, but it's just not… you know? It doesn't feel 'special'."

"Special," I repeated after him, and he nodded while looking at his own reflection on the obsidian-black blade.

"Yeah. Like, I'm waiting for some kind of epiphany or big realization or something, but…" He let down his sword and sighed again, for the third time in a row. "I really dunno man. I mean, I'm getting more used to my Celestial powers, and Mr Androcles says that I'm clearly showing the 'supremacy of a true Ophanim', whatever the heck that means…"

"Eight-winged Celestials. They used to be a big deal," I told him, and he waved his hand with a soft 'whatever'.

"The point I'm trying to make is that everyone tells me I'm getting stronger, but… it just feels wrong. These Celestial powers, I mean. Or… how should I put it…? It feels like I'm doing something wrong."

"As in?"

"I just said that I have no idea, man," he continued to grumble. "If anything, I was hoping you could give me a clue."

"How could I do that when you yourself don't know what's the problem?"

"But… Isn't this your thing?" he blurted out without much thinking. "I mean, I get that powerups don't grow on trees like in games, but isn't there something up your sleeve?"

"I can't say I do. Your situation is pretty unique, because of this whole 'Chosen One' thing you had going on. The best I can tell you is that you should think about the source of your power and how to make the best of it."

"The source of my power…" he echoed me, sounding like I just gave him an idea.

In particular, I was referring to Deus. After all, he was currently locked into being a Celestial due to absorbing some of Angie's Deus-ness through the good ol' matrimonial polka. I saw first-hand how OP Angie could be if she fully tapped into that power, so there was a good chance Josh had lots of untapped potential as well. I couldn't help him access that without actively tweaking his core essence though… which I technically could do, but that process was just a wee bit too close to retconning, and since technically we were already in the middle of a retcon initiated by future-me, I didn't want to cause some kind of weird, recursive error by initiating a retcon within a retcon.

"That's food for thought…" Josh muttered by my side and then let out a soft chuckle. "Eh, at least I'm not the only one who has trouble powering up."

Following his line of sight, I found Penny being lectured by Morgana and decided to remain silent. Not just because ragging on my own little sister wouldn't been mean, but because if I told the guy about the plans I had for her, he might've started nagging me about powerups all over again. Fortunately, this whole conversation was cut short by the deep, rumbling sound of a small explosion, followed by the class rep practically jumping into Mike's arms while yelling, "I did it!"

Everyone was improving, and that was a good thing. I hoped.