[Feat Achieved! Fate Has Fallen]
[+1 Platinum Gacha Ticket]
“You wretch!” Dr. Fate’s voice boomed in my ears as I held the helmet. “I am a Lord of Order. You cannot—”
I poked the golden helmet with the Inverted Spear of Heaven.
“GAHHHHH!”
Sparks of golden light crackled from the spot where the blade touched the helm.
Huh. Neat.
Guess the dagger’s nullification worked on the possession aspect, but not whatever bound Nabu to the helmet.
Working or not, it still looked like it hurt like a bitch.
“Could I ask that you refrain from continuing that, young man?” a tired voice asked.
An elderly man with graying white hair walked over with a cane. If I remembered what Bobo told me correctly, his name was… Kent Nelson?
I snorted. “Asshole deserves it.”
“Nabu is a rather… difficult fellow, I have to agree,” Kent Nelson said with a dry chuckle. “You have my apologies. I couldn’t stop him from attacking you. He was rather set on it, unfortunately. Even so, torturing him solves nothing.” His gaze drifted to the helmet. “Despite his demeanor, he does have an important role in protecting Earth from magical threats.”
“Like Klarion?” I perked up as I finally got to ask about the whole reason I’d come here.
“Yes.” Kent nodded. “He is one of Nabu’s most terrible adversaries.”
“Perfect!” I clapped my hands together. “Because I want to beat that bastard black and blue.”
“You do?” Kent blinked in surprise.
“Why is that weird?”
“Ah, well…” Kent coughed into his fist. “With all your rather strange familiars and tools, we assumed you were some sort of chaos magician in his service.”
My face twisted in disgust. “Like hell I’d ever bow to Klarion or any of his shitty Chaos Lords. The whole reason I came to find Nabu was because I needed a way to find him.”
“I see.” Kent scratched his head. “Then you have my utmost apologies for the mix-up, young man.” He bowed his head, sincerity heavy in his voice. “If there is anything I can do to make it up to you, I will. So I beg of you, please do not deprive this world of Dr. Fate.”
I was a bit taken aback by how genuine he sounded. For half a second, I actually considered agreeing.
“Yes, release me…” Dr. Fate’s voice spoke arrogantly from the helmet. “I have much work to do undoing your foolishness in my tower. This farce has interrupted my work long enough.”
This motherfucker.
You tried to kill me!
I poked the helmet again with my dagger, and Fate screamed.
“You said you’d make it up to me, right?” I asked, ignoring the screaming.
Kent looked worriedly at the helmet. “…Of course.”
“You dare test Fate, you lowly son of—”
I tossed the helmet and the Inverted Spear of Heaven to Simmy. Dr. Fate’s helmet was dragged into the distance by her telekinesis, juggled through the air while the dagger kept pricking it over and over.
“GAHH!”
I looked back toward Kent with a raised eyebrow.
The old man rubbed his forehead and sighed. “He deserved that.”
“I heard the Tower of Fate has portals all over the place. First things first, I’m gonna need a door for my friend.” I pointed at Barbara, who had a distant look on her face.
I felt super bad that she’d gotten caught up in all this. She’d done pretty well for someone suddenly dropped into bullshit.
“You don’t even need to ask.” Kent snapped his fingers, and a door appeared behind him. “Anything else?”
Hmmm…
[Rolling Platinum Gacha Ticket]
[Fumofication]|Epic Ability|
Allows you to touch a target and turn them into a fumo. The fumo created from this ability is immune to all damage, but the target still feels everything done to them in this state. Grab ’em, shake ’em, soak ’em in milk, slam ’em against a wall, or stick ’em in a jar. Stronger targets can resist the effect, and how long you can keep someone as a fumo depends on the power difference between you and the target. The more targets you Fumo, the shorter the time you can maintain Fumofication. You cannot Fumo someone for 1 hour after they have awakened from the effect of this ability.
Oh.
Oh, this gave me some ideas.
I rubbed my hands together. “I’m gonna borrow Nabu for just a tinsy bit.”
—Boooring.
Klarion lay back against the roof of some skyscraper in Gotham.
Writhing energy crawled over his human shell’s hand, constantly trying to dig deeper and curse him. The pesky, pesky magic of the Oblivion Bar, punishing him for his so-called rule breaking.
Annoying.
For a mortal, the spell would have likely killed them already. But Klarion was no gooey mortal.Still didn’t stop it from being annoying. The nature of the spell meant it would constantly try to destroy his current body unless he used some of his magic to suppress it.
“Ugh, how dare he die so boringly!” Klarion kicked his legs in the air. “No fair, no fair! I got banned from the Oblivion Bar for nothing!”
Klarion had been so excited too!
The mortal’s little shenanigans were right up his alley. Yet he couldn’t even survive a little hole in the chest. How was Klarion supposed to have fun if his toys broke that easily?
Ugh. Soooo bored.
A meow had him glancing over as his precious little familiar jumped up beside him.
“You’re bored too, aren’t you, Teekl?” Klarion grabbed the cat and spun him around. “Stinky Gotham is too crowded and boooring.”
Klarion half considered messing around with the Bat, but he was no fun. He and his little troop of children were as bland as they came.
Duty and logic and heroism.
Bleh!
The only halfway decent person who understood Chaos had been the Joker, but that little clown had disappeared somewhere.
Guess he’d go back to Vandal and see if he could finagle some fun out of him.
Klarion snapped his fingers, and a red portal opened in front of him. His foot was halfway through when he paused.
“Hm?”
The scent of disgustingly familiar Order magic reached him.
But… it was distorted. Thinned out, somehow.
Still, he’d never mistake the scent of that dummy Nabu.
“Come on, Teekl. Let’s go give that crappy old man a hello.”
Klarion giggled as he flew through another portal, this one leading into some dingy alleyway.
He skipped down the alley, and the disgusting smell of Nabu’s magic grew stronger with every step. Red chaotic flames filled his hands as he hummed.
“Come out, come out, wherever you are…” Klarion giggled as he reached the end of the alley, then jumped around the corner. “It’s time to play!”
The entire alleyway was empty, save for a little doll sitting on the floor.
Klarion blinked as he looked around.
Huh?
Teekl strode forward, nabbed the doll, and brought it back to Klarion.
It was a small blue and gold doll with a pink ribbon on it. Nabu’s power wafted from the thing like cheap perfume.
No…
It couldn’t be.
Klarion’s shoulders began to shake as he stared at the doll.
“Is that you, old man?” Klarion’s voice was delighted.
The shift in the magic around them all but confirmed it. The mini Dr. Fate doll’s expression didn’t change, but Klarion just knew.
Klarion laughed harder than he had in ages.
“Oh, this is just perfect! Who did this to you? I have to give them a pat on the back!”
“Go…” a whispered voice came from the doll.
“What’s that? Got something to say?” Klarion raised the doll to his ear.
“Go eat shit, Witch Boy.”
Something stabbed straight through his back and burst out of his chest.
Klarion screamed as his connection to the material plane glitched.
Who—
Two gigantic gargoyles appeared out of thin air and smashed Klarion into the ground. The burning pain in his chest worsened tenfold.
“Yo,” a familiar voice spoke up. “Long time no see.”
Klarion struggled to look up.
His eyes widened at the very much supposed-to-be-dead mortal standing over him.
How!?
Klarion was sure he had felt his soul extinguish!
“Surprised?” Jean Valjean grinned down at him. “You treated me so well last time, I couldn’t just stay in the grave and not pay you back.”
“Oh?” Klarion smiled. “Fine, then. Let’s have some fun—”
A boot smashed into Klarion’s jaw, sending several of his mortal teeth flying across the alley.
Hmph!
Annoying, but not—
What was this feeling?
His body was shrinking.
Klarion pushed his magic to the limit, but the dagger in his chest warped everything he tried to cast. His power twisted, stuttered, and slipped through his fingers.
He couldn’t stop it.
No, no, no!
The mortal grew bigger and bigger above him as Klarion felt his body disappear. The endless font of chaotic magic at his beck and call fell out of reach, like someone had slammed a door between him and the rest of himself.
Klarion tried to scream, but nothing came out.
“Oh, I will,” Jean Valjean said with a dark chuckle as he lifted Klarion’s new doll body in his hand. “Trust me.”***Gahhh sorry for the late. Side effects of my meds hit me hard. Slept for 15 freaking hours and felt like a block.