Attack

“Is this the place?” Emmett asked as we stood on a hill overlooking the mansion that was supposedly used as Selphine and her troops hideout.

“Should be, yeah.” I was pretty sure that this was it, unless I’d somehow made a grave error from out of nowhere.

“This is it guys…”Emmett suddenly stood straight, as if giving a grand battle speech. “The final battle! At long last! It is here! Upon us! Now, it is time for us to-arghhh!”

Louise had pinched his ear.

“Stop being an idiot for two seconds in your life, Emmett!” She reprimanded him.

“Okay, okay, I’m sorry! Geez!” He rubbed his ear as she let go. “Anyways, let’s get ready to blast in.”

“No, dumbass! Blasting in is the last thing we wanna do unless you want hundreds of these masked freaks we saw in the memory to rain down upon us like hellfire!”

“Bring em on!” He challenged while puffing his chest out proudly.

“One does not simply walk into mord-”I thankfully caught myself before finishing that sentence. What the hell was I thinking, referencing a meme so old? It made me look like a boomer, but luckily they had no way of knowing how embarrassing what I had just said was. Even if they had, they were too busy bickering for some odd reason.

Hold on a second, you can’t sneak in. There’s a barrier covering the entire area around the mansion, the three of you are already barely out of reach as it is.

This was the first time Arthur had spoken up to offer advice, which kind of shocked me.

I’m surprised you’re actually willing to help out. I assumed you’d just stay quiet until it was time for you to step in.

Even I’m not that cold-hearted, Jack. I’ve known these two for years, much longer than you have.

Yeah, true….wait, did you just call me Jack?

I did no such thing, you’re imagining things.

Yeah, you did!

Nope, like I said, a mere hallucination brought about by your stress from the upcoming confrontation against Selphine.

Nah, nah, nah, I know what I-

“Why are you spacing out at time like this, you fraud?” Emmett’s sudden cry snapped me back to reality all of a sudden. “And you dare call yourself our leader? You utter imbecile.”

“The pot calling the kettle black!” I immediately retorted. “Wait, no, now’s not the time for this. We can’t just randomly sneak in, there’s a massive magical barrier that detects the slightest intruder, we’ll be spotted instantly if we go for that option.”

“Wait, how do you know that?” Louise asked.

“Arthur just told me.”

“Great, he’s talking to ghosts now.” Emmett muttered but was quickly silenced by a typical Louise glare.

“Did he say anything else?” she then said. “Anything about how to get past it?”

“Uhh…”

You need to shatter it.

“…We need to shatter it.”

“Yeah, obviously, but how?”

Find the source and eliminate it.

“He says to find the source and eliminate it.”

“Okay, cool, but HOW do we do that?” Emmett seemed exasperated.

How do we do that?

Figure that part out yourselves, you pricks. You expect me to do everything for you?

“He said he doesn’t know, so he’ll leave it up to us as he trusts us.” I informed them.

Wha-that’s not what I said at all!

“Tell him I say thanks, then!” Louise giggled.

Louise, don’t get taken in by this charlatan! He’s scamming you!

It’s over, Arthur! I have the high ground!

You underestimate my power!

Don’t try it…wait, WHAT!!!?? How do you know that reference, that’s impossible!

Just like you have access to my memories, I have access to yours, by the way.

Wha-Why didn’t you say that earlier, you moron! That’s important information!

“Guys, stop fucking around and let’s do this!” Emmett once again got himself hyped up to give an inspirational speech but was quickly put in his place by Louise once again. “Damnit, one of us hs to give a speech, Louise!”

“Yeah, and hell’ll freeze over before I let that someone be you!”

“Ouch.”

“Guys, we have a problem.” I suddenly interrupted.

“What is it?” Louise focused instantly.

“I don’t think we can turn the barrier off, I think the power source is most likely hiding inside the barrier itself. There’s nothing we can do to walk in undetected, short of blowing up the entire area, which would admittedly solve all our problems.”

“Shit, so our only option is to blast our way in after all?” A look of concern immediately took over Louise’s face.

“Let’s go, that’s what I’ve been telling you from the beginning!” Emmett pumped his fists excitedly. “Time to show em what we’re made of!”

“Wait, hold on.” I stood up and readied myself. “Before we charge in, all guns blazing, I just wanted to say something, it might come off as little cringe, but I’ll try not to overdo it.”

“Sure! Floor’s all yours, boss!” Louise gave me a thumbs up.

“Wha-you little!” Emmett was appaled at the stark contrast in the reception I’d received compared to the one she had given him earlier.

“I just wanted to say that since it might get a little hectic in there, this might be the last time the three of us will get to talk like this. You two’ll get Arthur back, and I’ll finally go back home.”

Louise had an unexplainable expression plastered all over her face.

“I just wanted to say thanks for everything, I really enjoyed the time I spent with the two of you here, and this is probably goodbye for good…”

Suddenly, Louise jumped into me and hugged me with all her strength.

“Thanks…” I held on as tight as I could.

“I…I haven’t been completely honest with you.” She said while her voice shook.

“What is it?”

“….You’re girlfriends name is Maria.”

I froze in disbelief, and immediately let go of the hug.

“How do you know that?” I demanded.

She looked away, in Emmett’s direction-Well, where he was supposed to be at least.

“ALL OUT ATTACK LADS!” A huge roar could be heard from near the mansion: Emmett sprinted as fast as he could towards it.

“That idiot!” I yelled and sprinted after him, with Louise hesitantly followed.

My mind drifted to what she’d just said…how had she known that? Could it be?

I immediately shook it off and focused on what was right in front of me. I could deal with the rest later. For now, it was time.

The Final Battle was here.