Chapter 30

Mei had stopped moving. Looking at them both with her eyebrows raised.

“First,” she said, “Who is talking right now?”

“[God] in the basement,” Arthur said. “But not like, Earth’s [God]. Did you not have a Starting Area? They all kinda look like this, though sometimes they’re a little less goth. Hey Franky, say hi to the nice lady.”

“Hello,” Francois said, and then uncharacteristically nothing else.

“Shy around girls,” Arthur faux-whispered.

“Shut up, no I’m not. It’s nice to meet you, Mei Huang. You’re the first person I’ve met to actively refuse new skills. That must be very painful.”

“It is,” Mei said evenly, “But that is not important right now. What is important is getting us out of here. Can the Starting Area be used to take us to another location?”

“No. When I return you, it’ll be right back to where you were before, that’s how it works. And, by the way, I can’t keep you here much longer. You’re not really supposed to stay in a Starting Area. It’s in the name.”

She nodded, “Ok. That raises the question of if our assailants are going somewhere else. Once they see we’re gone, maybe they can just go to wherever they meant to be and leave us alone.”

Arthur started to say something, but she kept right on talking with an ease that made the sword think she had a lot of practice doing it. “I don’t think this is likely. I think, unfortunately, the academy has played this out very poorly, and our enemies are exactly where they wanted to be all along.”

“Ah c’mon,” Arthur said, “the Headmaster isn’t that dumb. I mean it, and I think everyone is dumb.”

“All the little raids,” Mei said, starting to pace again. “Moving closer and closer to on academy ground. Even the kidnappings, really. These are adventurers, adventurers want loot.”

“Right,” Arthur broke in, “And I’m not supposed to say this, but they told a [Demon Lord] so I don’t know what they were expecting, but it turns out we’ve been hiding like four angel swords on campus, which would explain our new friends’ golden blunderbuss.”

Mei paused in her pacing, then dismissed Arthur like he was nothing more than a fly that had briefly landed on her. “But that doesn’t match the direction of their raids. Everything’s been building to this, don’t you see? To four adventurers, probably the original four, figuring out if they could place a portal directly onto this floor. This floor which has the rooms of a [Demon Lord] and a [God] and maybe other students of equally rare and valuable classes?” She asked it in a way that made it not really a question.

“Uhhh…” Arthur trailed off. “Yeah, there are a couple of…”

“Three more on this floor,” Francois chimed in. “Two [Dragons] and an [Immortal].”

“So,” Mei said, “What if they’re slavers, not looters?”

“That…,” Arthur said, “would be bad. Given that all the defenses of the school are probably clustered around the vault with the swords right now.”

“So then, they’re not going anywhere. And we can’t go anywhere,” Mei concluded, “Therefore, we have to beat them.”

“The problem with that,” Arthur said, “Is that one of them is packing an actual, genuine article [Archangel Gun], and any who try to oppose had best throw their weapons down and beg for mercy lest ye be smited by the holy light of a wrathful nerd with wings who never got laid enough when they had the chance.”

“Yes,” Mei agreed, “that is a serious obstacle.” She added, “Not even one a [Demon Lord] can over come?”

Arthur huffed. “Well, if you want to tell them to put the gun down, then yeah, maybe I can do something.”

“I doubt my basic command skill is enough to make someone put down a…what did you call it, [Archangel Gun]?” Mei said.

“Oh I could help with that!” Francois interjected. “You’d only need a couple of steps up the skill tree I think, might be a bit of a stretch but I think I could give you a few minutes up there.”

Mei went silent. Her gaze dropped to the floor.

“It was a joke,” Arthur said after a moment. “You can stop trauma spiraling. [Archangel Guns] are like any weapon, even if one of them dropped it, another one could just pick it back up. You’d have to hold all four of them at once, which you’d fail at because you’d be having a panic attack the whole time.”

“Hey! It’s not my fault! I would totally practice, but I’m just so tired all the time!”

“Francois could use me again,” the sword said, knowing, and in fact counting on, that it would cause everyone to talk all at once.

Francois agreed at once, saying something about how he would be a better pilot this time. Both Mei and Arthur were against it, based on tiresome arguments about how much he’d been hurt the last time.

He didn’t listen.

He just needed a little more time to think things through.

He wanted to live.

He wanted to be wielded. He couldn’t control his own skills, it felt wrong, it wasn’t the way it was supposed to be done.

That might be true, but he wanted to live more. And he would feel terrible if the others died.

He took a breath, and it seemed different than the breaths he had taken before, though of course it was exactly the same. But in that moment it seemed like he could feel every part of his body that the air passed through.

Wet, organic. Totally wrong.

“I think we should still work together, Francois.”

“Ok! I thought we did a good job, to be honest. I don’t know if you can take on all four by yourself, but I bet it’ll be close. Probably.”

“Actually,” the sword said, “If you wouldn’t mind, I’d like your help with skills.”

He explained what he had in mind, as the edges of the Starting Area started to shrink towards them. Their time here was ending, whatever they decided.

Arthur frowned, “Sure you’re not just gonna blow yourself up if you do that?”

“No,” the sword said, “but I think it is worth trying. Just…try to get as far away from me as possible, I’m not sure I’ll be able to be too…selective.”

Mei crossed her arms. “I think you should be more optimistic,” she said. “You had a bad experience once, but that’s not unusual. And most of our classmates are actually quite adept with their skills, even though their bodies are different.” She smiled wryly, “It might be easier than you’re expecting. It was for me.”

The sword nodded, though he didn’t agree. It was not really necessary to say anything, he’d decided, and his thoughts were already moving ahead to what would come next.

“Ok! Let’s do it! This’ll be fun! So glad I met you guys. Really hope you all survive this.”

Just as the Starting Area faded away, Mei grabbed his sleeve. “Keep the one with the gun alive,” she said rapidly into his ear. “I think he’s important.”