Sworded Affair

Chapter 75: Quarter Quell

Day 13

As it turned out, Emma could move in her disembodied state, albeit very slowly as she drifted down the corridor at a snail's pace. It took her most of an hour to reach the battlements, a journey that would have been at most five minutes at walking speed. Surprisingly, there were no guards present, which was helpful as it avoided potentially awkward questions, but also raised others more pressing queries. Naturally, it was only upon arrival that Emma realized the System's exact wording on the matter.

You said getting a body is dependent on my skills, but didn't explicitly mention my System abilities. Telling me that keeping Oversoul was a good choice didn't answer my question either, it just changed the subject.

[Huh? Oh, I thought it was obvious; I've been hammering it in that Anima is the root of your existence. Just visualise your armor and it should reappear.]

"You could've mentioned that earlier," Emma huffed, as her physical form returned from nothing after a few moments of focus.

[I could have.]

Shaking her head, Emma decided to chalk the System's unusual reticence down to some hidden lesson or meaning, and moved on to more pressing concerns. Most worrying was the evidence that time itself had distorted during archetype formation; not all of the floor being affected equally. What felt like minutes to her were days outside; whereas the castle looked like it had endured for centuries. The moat had dried up, exposing parched soil and the remains of dead reptiles, whilst the surrounding walls were cracked and crumbling. The castle itself was missing many pieces; stones working their way free down to the plains below, and the undead had returned one and all to their final rest, leaving a ring of skeletons that looked rather intimidating but would be of no use in battle.

"I still need to survive the full thirty days as well."

Looking more closely at the enemy camp, Emma could see a much more consolidated position than what she'd temporarily commanded. Instead of a patchwork of tents, spread out and each bearing their own colours; a single wooden camp had been constructed, from which extended a sprawling network of trenches reaching halfway towards the castle, interspersed with smaller foxholes and guard towers burning with golden light. Flags flew in abundance, all bearing a single coat of arms that Emma couldn't recognise but were certain to belong to the royal family in this scenario.

Movement was visible from her elevated position, but very little of import could be seen; only a few heads peeking out of the tunnels at any given time, whilst those out in the open made use of actual camouflage to obscure themselves. Nothing fancy or magical, just good and proper coloration and textures, made to blend into the surrounding environment and confuse curious eyes.

"Looks like they've got their act together, rather than acting like something out of a period drama," Emma frowned. "The Princess mentioned the guards were all under her control too, so maybe they vanished along with her?"

She briefly considered going to look for them; but in the end opted to simply sit and observe. There was no guarantee the guards would work for her in the absence of their actual charges, so perhaps it was best they remained missing in action.

"I don't need to kill everyone here, just outlast them. Might as well wait for them to come to me."

Settling in to observe the enemy, Emma only wished that she'd brought a few drinks along to while away the hours. As though to mock her thoughts, the crack of gunfire split the air, as musket fire rained down upon her position. Not very accurate, admittedly, but closer than Emma had expected given they were still more than 200 yards away.

I could use the Angel again, Emma thought, glancing at her newest and most potent ability.

More than twelve days have passed since the last usage, and her cooldown seemed to go off of time as experienced in the trial, rather than her shorter subjective experience. Emma held off though; knowing she was unlikely to repeat her trick of getting everyone at the same time, especially if news of what happened before had reached the new wave.

I'll save it for when I face something strong, Emma decided at last, focusing her sight on the few living beings she could see.

One of the riflemen stood up straight down below, sighting Emma with his rifle; one fitted with a cross reticle, she noticed. He was a lone nail sticking up, his squad being more careful to keep concealed, but then she only needed one.

Let's play some hide and seek. Oversoul.

Taking over the soldier's body without resistance, Emma pretended to look around in confusion, pointing up to the empty spot where she'd been just before. The other soldiers caught on soon enough, turning their heads to and fro whilst a couple even pulled out handheld telescopes, all coming to the conclusion that she was gone. So far, so good.

---

Day 16

"What do you mean, everyone's gone?" Peter frowned, staring up at the collated reports of their scouts.

It had taken days for the magic blanketing the castle to vanish fully, but they'd wasted no time after that, sending men inside the moment the wards fell. Hundreds had scoured the castle top to bottom; with several dead and a dozen more injured from various traps that hadn't dissipated, given they were completely mundane in nature.

"There's definitely nothing left in the castle," Jen emphasised. "We even got the pop-up that said we'd conquered the castle. That, combined with offing the Princess before, means the only thing left is to rout all the defenders."

"Revenant vanished from the rooftop three days ago," Malcolm pointed out. "She has to be lurking around somewhere, but there have been no reports of attacks so far. If we've cleared the castle, and there's nothing on the plains, then she has to be hiding in our own positions."

"Let me check the full status reports, there must be some sign of unusual activity; nobody can be completely invisible given the circumstances," Felix added, agreeing with their assessment. "Shouldn't take too long; give me a few hours to dig into it, there's only a few hundred pages to go through."