Me being the one protected, huh...
Touma said nothing as he mused on Severa's playful words toward him... or was that even the right word? Especially considering how she followed herself up later. But regardless, he said nothing to that, perhaps uncharacteristically so. He had to admit, the thought of a girl voluntarily stepping forward to protect him was nice, even if he was used to taking action for himself, but well... the boy didn't forget that his type was a little more... well...
Anyway.
As the "guards" were dispatched without much hassle, Touma went along with the prospect of following the silver-haired man. In line with what Ludger believed, even if the boy wasn't really a member of the Coalition, they ought to look into this incident if it did or could later impact them. If the latter was the case, these illusions -- echoes, memories even -- could definitely help them take a proactive step in shattering an illusion of truth that they'd held all this time.
As they all navigated through the hall, taking sight of a strange looking man making short work of some guards trying to apprehend him, Touma instinctively clenched his fist, but cursed under his breath knowing that this was all akin to a memory. Events that had already transpired, and even if they could interact with the illusion, it seemed there was definitely a limit to how much they could interfere with it.
As the strange man shot out the control panel, seemingly nixing their way forward unless there was a way around the door (or if they could just break through that door, prompting Touma to remember that time in the Fuse Facility when they made him try to open like two doors back to back with the same puzzle for no reason), the young man let out a harrowed sigh, unsure of what to make of it, until suddenly...
The silver-haired man seemed relatively unphased by this development. He reached his hand toward the control panel. Sparks that danced off the broken machine suddenly froze in the air. They then began to move in reverse and the small explosion that the bullet caused seemed to repeat this time, but now inversed. Ludger felt goosebumps on the back of his neck, realizing that the man had turned back time, just isolated to the control panel itself in order to fix it.
"That felt... familiar," Ludger muttered.
Witht the guards still dead, the silver-haired man walked into the room and accessed the control panel himself, opening the gate ahead so the group could pass.
"I have a feeling we were not meant to witness this," Ludger whispered to the group.
They followed the silver-haired man further up the stairs, but were forced to stop when the stairs ended at open air. The section of stairs ahead was built in a way that it could be put away to deny access to the top floors. Another control panel controlled the stairs above and it was in a room in the center tower, but this one could only be accessed from above, meaning the group could not walk to it.
As they reached the "end" of the stairs, as far as they would take the group at least, Touma clicked his tongue, resting his hands on his hips as he looked around for a way to keep moving forward. He never had this problem of being stone-walled back home!
"Great... Now what?" he could only utter aloud.
In the security room above, before one could think to make their own way up there, what looked like the shadow of a man stood inside the room, the security chamber too dark and dimly lit to allow one to see who exactly was there, but even so, even Touma took notice of him above.
"Hey, who's...?" He began to question, before suddenly, the chamber rumbled slightly as more stairs appeared for the group to continue their trek. Whoever the mystery man was in the security room, he had just granted access to the group, allowing them to keep moving forward, but for what purpose, who could say?
With another glance, the man was gone, his shadow gone completely as though he were never there, like a phantom.
"What... I could have sworn I saw someone there," Touma uttered in confusion. Was this a trap of some sort? It would have been easier to catch them off guard while they were in a place like this, so why help them, he wondered. But regardless of whether or not the mystery man had ill intent, Touma knew they had to keep moving, even if he didn't like it one bit.
...
Meanwhile, in a dark corner, away from the awareness of the group, the mystery man in question hunched over in a crouching position, watching them from afar like a silent stalker, keeping tabs on them with great interest, but never interfering with them.
His chalk white skin and otherwise unsubtle appearance surprisingly did little to expose him in the dark. Literally, a clown like him was able to hide shockingly well in a place like this, though perhaps that could also be attributed to his skills as a predator of sorts.
"Mm, like watching cookies in the oven," he chuckled to himself, conjuring up a heart with his strange power nonchalantly.
"Like ripe little fruits, just on the cusp of being pushed to their breaking point," he commentated to himself,
"I see the game you're playing... so I'll let you carry it out, just so they can reach their full potential. But how far it'll go, it had better be worth it. If they yield too soon... that'd just be dreadfully boring."
And with that, he disappeared from the scene before anyone could take notice of him.
...
With that odd moment out of the way, the group continued up the stairs once again, soon reaching the top floor.
"Some of the worst criminals... are held up here," Eleanor said in a small voice. She eyed the heavy-duty doors that lined the hall here and sighed. She followed dutifully into the next room, stopping behind the silver-haired man and Velvet as they were confronted by a pair of Coalition exorcists. One was male and one was female, but both had matching green eyes and blonde hair.
"Stop right there, daemons!" the woman cried. The man seemed more calm.
"Teresa," he said,
"don't be so hasty." He took a step toward the group.
"There are ladies among them. We should show them due respect. I am Oscar Dragonia, and this is my sister, Teresa. Who among you is the leader of this pack? Tell me, who are you?"
Neither the silver-haired man or Velvet responded. Ludger looked conflicted, while Eleanor looked outright in despair.
"Oscar and Teresa... do they... not recognise me...?"
Velvet shook her head.
"Sorry, we don't have time to chat. Move aside."
Oscar let out a disappointed noise and unsheathed his sword.
"Very well. You may have numbers on your side, but my sister and are largely unmatched."
"Get back in your cages," Teresa said as magic cascaded around her. Fireballs erupted from the air and went flying at the group.
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