"… Goddamit, man! Couldn't you do that without giving me a heart attack!?" the guy started to complain the moment I took my hand off his mouth. I didn't know what else I was expecting.

"Just answer the question," I urged him, and after circling his head around, Josh's whole body shook as if he just made a realization and he grabbed my shoulder.

"Right! We don't have time for this! We need to find Angie!"

"Wait, she's here too?" I was just about to Far Glance at her, but he shook me again. "Cut that out!"

"No, you don't understand! We got ambushed, and we were both taken to… I don't even know where we are!"

"In the Elysium," I supplied the answer, in the company of a deep frown. "And what do you mean 'ambushed'? Where?"

"In our house. We just came home from school, and wanted to do our homework together, but then we were caught in one of those Restricted Spaces, and then a portal opened in the living room, and a whole bunch of people— Wait, that's not important right now!"

"It is. I had a squad of Kage ninjas looking after you two, and at least one of the Fauns should've been on patrol in the neighbourhood, so why didn't they…"

My words trailed into silence as I had a sudden epiphany. Yes, I had my people keep an eye on Josh and Angie, precisely to foil any potential kidnapping attempts, but all of those guys were currently reassigned elsewhere. Namely, they were looking after Tajana at my place.

Bloody hell! Was… Was this another one of those 'Narrative meddling' scenarios? Did she arrive at my sisters' doorstep just to cause an upheaval in the shifts and patrol routes of our ninjas? That sounded a bit far-fetched, but I couldn't exactly just chalk what happened up to coincidence either.

"Come on, man! Stop spacing out!" Josh shook me again, and I promptly brushed his hands off.

"Fine, I'll go get her. Just take a couple of deep breaths and calm down."

"I'm calm. I'm very calm," my friend insisted and breathed in and out a couple of times for show. I would've rolled my eyes, but then something weird happened.

I wasn't paying much attention to the guy's attire, since I had more important things on my mind, but the sudden glow surrounding him drew my eyes to his weird, white… robe? It wasn't quite that though, but one of those impractical outfits Judy would call 'very anime'. Its upper half was more of a multi-layered Japanese robe, but with a high collar and skin-tight sleeves ending in silver bracers, while the lower part was more of a free-flowing toga. He also had an odd, shield-shaped pauldron on his left shoulder and a half-cape reaching down to his knees on his right, plus a thick metal belt covering most of his abdomen, all of them very elaborately decorated with golden patterns.

There were also a lot of other superfluous details, but before I could take a closer look, the guy exhaled hard, and with a sudden flash of light, all of his garments disappeared, leaving him standing around in his boxer shorts. After the first shock, he glanced down and let out a startled 'Gah!' sound.

"You weren't wearing your Magiformer when you were caught?" I asked incredulously, and Josh huffed and puffed in return.

"Gimme a break! I just took a shower five minutes before it happened, and didn't have the opportunity to grab it!"

That meant it was Josh's Celestial outfit, which was… strange, to say the least, considering that I'd already seen his Celestial form. Before the class rep delivered the prototype Magiformers, we had already done a bunch of tests on his powers, and back then, using Angie's blood would only cause him to don the same kind of bedsheet apparel she had. It took quite a while before he could even bring out the ethereal wings that came with the transformation, and while I was told the 'true form' of Draconians, Abyssals, and Celestials would change over time as they grew and developed, this kind of radical transformation wasn't normal.

I couldn't exactly doubt him though, as the fact he was left with his boxers after his transformation was undone was evidence enough. By the by, we still had no idea why his underwear wouldn't get vaporized with the rest of his outfit whenever a transformation created a Barrier around him, but it was convenient, so we just chalked it up to the 'Magical Pants' trope and called it a day.

"So you had the time to grab a capsule, but couldn't get your Magiformer."

That wasn't meant as a criticism, only as a summary of the event, but Josh let out an indignant huff all the same.

"As a matter of fact, I didn't!" When I raised a brow at that, he hastily explained, "They threw some weird web on me and got Angie when she tried to untangle me, and then they dragged us through the portal, and then there was a scuffle, and someone punched Angie, and I got really mad, and then suddenly I transformed into a Celestial and beat up the dude, but by then the portal closed, and then more guys showed up, and so I told Angie to run while I held them up, and but there were too many of them, and then I also had to run, and then suddenly someone grabbed me by the collar and dragged me into this room, and why am I even explaining this when we should go save my girlfriend!?"

I levelled a stoic gaze at my rambling friend and flatly uttered, "Before anything else, take a breath. I'll go get her, but first, let me drop you off at the base."

"Wait, you can do that?" he asked, and I shrugged.

He was already vaguely aware of my ability to teleport, though he still believed I needed a catalyst like the totally magical and not-at-all random carnival mask I picked up during the whole fustercluck with Fred, Rinne, and the Knights. Of course, bringing him home would've meant I'd have to reveal my true capability, but this was an emergency, and I figured I'd sort the explanation out later. We never got to that point though.

"No way! I'm not leaving before we save Angie!"

"We? How exactly are you planning to contribute? You don't have your Magiformer. Or your capsules. Or clothes."

"I'll figure something out, okay?" After a huff, he clenched his fists. "I somehow transformed without a capsule once, I can do it again! Probably!"

"Very convincing."

The guy glared at me, and while I was very much tempted to just wrap a phantom limb around him and then drop him off at the base, the longer I considered the situation, the more conflicted I became. While kicking Josh out of the Elysium would certainly eliminate a variable, I was no longer sure it was a good idea, and not only because the way he was glaring at me said he wouldn't ever forgive me if I tried.

Looking at the situation as objectively as possible, this was obviously a pivotal 'event' of the still theoretical but practically as good as accepted 'Angie route'. If my hunch was correct, the Narrative shuffled around a lot of pieces, and specifically went out of its way to mess with me just to make sure I wouldn't ruin everything by showing up in the nick of time to stop the kidnapping. While I still had no idea what the 'plot' was supposed to be, the two of them getting taken to the Elysium was important enough for the Narrative to show its hands.

Now, combine that with the fact that Josh was, despite my thorough and generally unintentional involvement, still the hero of the story, his presence was probably required for things to proceed, and I had no idea just how hard the Narrative would try to push back if I outright yeeted him out of the scenario. Of course, if said scenario turned out to be either absolutely dumb, or worse yet, harmful to either one of them, I had no qualms about tearing the Narrative's whole script into pretty little confetti, but it was best not to tempt fate until I was fully aware of exactly what kind of mess I was dealing with.

As such, I slowly exhaled a shallow sigh and nodded.

"Fine. We still need to put some clothes on you first," I said, much to my friend's relief, and I put a hand on his shoulder. "Close your eyes for a moment."

At first, Josh blinked at me uncomprehendingly, but due to my urging, he shut his eyes and tried to look composed. He failed, but that was beside the point.

After making sure I secured him with a phantom limb, I also closed my eyes, only to pause when I felt a small tremor under my feet. It only lasted for a moment, and while it left me momentarily curious, I focused on the more important task at hand and began to rapidly Phase up the tower, one floor at a time. Coming down was easy, as I could use Josh as my anchor, but since both Jaakobah and Rinne were out on a wild goose chase, investigating whoever 'tampered' with the Colossus I dismantled, this was the best I could do under the circumstances.

It took a while, but at last, we reached the right floor, and a few more short-range hops later, we were standing in my quarters. Or rather, the unnecessarily spacious walk-in wardrobe in it.

"You can open your eyes now," I told him once the lights turned on, and after raising one eyelid first, Josh blinked and let out a confounded grunt.

"Where are we?"

"My place here in the Elysium," I answered curtly and gestured at the rows of clothes racks around us. "Most of these are in my size, but I'm sure you can find something that fits you. Get dressed."

Josh eyed me skeptically for a moment, which then immediately turned alarmed when I grabbed the handle of the only door leading into the living room.

"Wait! Where are you going?"

"I'll go and find Angie and bring her here, and then we'll figure out what to do from there," I answered a touch impatiently and walked over to the couch. On the floor, a pair of swords were left in a jumble, right where I left them in a hurry.

"{Young knight! What happened?}" Cal shouted into my head the moment I picked it up, and Teeny wasn't far behind.

"{Observation: Teeny is detecting elevated heart rate and respiration, indicating a fight-or-flight response. Does Archon Polemos require us to engage combat mode?}"

"Not yet," I grumbled, which caused the mostly naked guy in the doorway to perplexedly cock his head to the side.

I shooed him off back into the wardrobe, and after switching to my Polemos outfit, I sheathed my weapons and closed my eyes. I've already wasted quite a bit of time by grilling Josh for answers, and knowing that Angie wasn't exactly a combat specialist, I was half-expected to find her already captured. What I found when I Far Glanced her way, in preparation for Phasing over, was my vision filled with piercing white light, followed by the floor trembling under my feet again.

I would've blinked in surprise, but since I couldn't do that without physical eyes, I was forced to behold a beam of light drilling through a nearby wall, leaving a charred hole in its wake through which I could catch a glimpse of the Elysium's distant landscape.

"How dare you raise your weapons against me, wretched curs!?" someone yelled in a voice that tried to sound dignified but sounded way too high-pitched and shaky to come off as anything other than panicked.

Due to all the destruction surrounding me, it took me an embarrassingly long time to realize that I was looking at one of the empty apartments that filled up about two-thirds of the tower. Or rather, what remained of it after what looked like an entire herd of elephants trampled it underfoot. Elephants with freaking laser beams attached to their heads, if the gouged-out and melted walls were any indication.

On the ground, I found about half a dozen Celestial agents, most of them unconscious, a few of them missing a limb or two, and one of them, in particular, was rather familiar. In the back of my brain, a small voice rummaging through my memory cabinets noted that he was one of the people who quit my Praetorian Guard after the first day, but it was soon silenced by the looming, dreadful realization as my disembodied gaze landed upon the source of all that destruction.

In the middle of the room, floating a couple of centimeters above the floor, there was a radiant figure, burning with both magical and more mundane golden light. In their right hand, there was an enormous bow made of brilliant light, and they were clad in a regal outfit. Pure white, with a long-sleeved tunic, golden bracers, a billowing toga-style skirt, complete with a thick golden belt, a shield-shaped pauldron on one shoulder, and a half-cape on the other.

That was already weird enough, giving me a strong sense of déjà vu, but not nearly as weird as the three pairs of wings burning with bright golden flames, filling the room with their right. And then, amidst all of that, a familiar face.

The moment I laid eyes on her, a small corner of my mind practically exploded with elation, sending tsunami waves of pure joy tall enough to nearly drown out my own thoughts. I quickly suppressed it, stuffed it in a small box under lock and key, and then threw it back into the dark recesses of my mind. I already had a very good idea of what was going on, no small part thanks to the aforementioned fragment of Polemos acting up, but I had to make sure.

With a mounting sense of trepidation, I Phased right into the room in question. It was easy, considering I had an anchor right there.

"Who is it? Another assailant?!" the voice of a young girl bellowed, trying to sound intimidating.

The moment our eyes met, she raised her enormous bow and readied an arrow, made from the flames of her wings. By reflex, I retrieved Teeny and immediately shifted it into its spear form. Since I was close enough, I was planning to point it at her throat and stop her from acting, but instead, the moment she laid her eyes on my weapon, the half-formed arrow dissipated at once.

The silence hanging in the ruined room was positively deafening, and it would've probably lasted much longer if not for someone practically knocking the already broken door off its hinges in their hurry to enter.

"He's here! I tell you, he's here!" a frantic female voice exclaimed as she tried to come inside, but she was held back by a large man.

I recognized both of them. The woman was the Chief Director of the Department of Divinations, while the man was one of the men working under Kane in the Seraphic Safeguard. She had a frantic, almost crazed look in her eyes, and as I looked past her, I saw Savir, Mensah, and Tsephanyah surrounded by more Seraphic Safeguard members. I had no idea how they made it here so fast, but I had no time to ponder on insignificant concerns like that.

"Polemos? Is that you?" the six-winged girl asked with an incredulous frown. "You look… different."

For a long moment, I was stumped, not knowing how to answer. Weighing my options, I recognized that knocking her out then and there was out of the question. I had too many eyes on me, and if my hunch was current, it would be more than a little tricky to explain why I assaulted her after the fact. I could also play dumb, but I didn't think it would work, and it would just delay the inevitable. As such, I settled on the last option and decided to confirm my hunch by retracting my spear and thumping its butt end against the floor for dramatic flair.

"You don't exactly look like yourself either."

My response made her blink, and then stare at her own hands. In the meantime, Tsephanyah somehow managed to tunnel his way past the wall of bodies blocking the rest of the directors and he even pushed the crazed woman out of the way.

"Lord Archon! Is it true? Is he— I mean, is she really—?"

"Who is this fool?" the girl, jolted out of staring at her fingers, levelled a scathing glare at the Reformist director.

"One of the current leaders of the Elysium," I answered, doing my best to keep my voice from trembling with agitation.

"Is he?" After I nodded, she resumed glaring at him and yelled, "You incompetent imbeciles! Is this how you welcome my return?!"

"Lord Archon…!" Savir interjected, barely managing to speak over the bodyguards in front of her, "I mean, Lady Archon!"

"Yes," the girl in front of me responded with obvious distaste in her voice. "Rejoice, you lot. Your First True Archon has returned! I am—!" She looked like she was just about to make an epic declaration, but then as she dramatically extended her hand, she suddenly choked up, and after staring at her fingers again in a mixture of confusion and disbelief, the flames of her wings began to flicker. "I… I…" She mechanically repeated the word, her eyes visibly glazed over, and then her face turned back to me. "Leo… help…"

It was as if those two words cut some kind of invisible string, and a blink of an eye later her wings exploded into a torrent of fiery sparks. I reflexively threw Teeny aside and lunged forward, and using my less lauded yet immensely useful girl-catching reflexes to their fullest, I managed to grab her just as she went limp. I supported her with one arm under her back and put the other under her knees, so I somehow ended up holding her in a princess carry. For a second or two, I couldn't decide whether I should lay her down the ground or not, but ultimately decided against it, and held her closer to my chest, so that I could listen to her breath.

While she was as white as a sheet and sweating profusely, her breathing was steady and she didn't seem to be injured anywhere. That was a rather insignificant silver lining, and one I could hardly appreciate at the moment thanks to the absolute wham-episode this turned out to be. I only allowed myself to remain idle for a few seconds though, as I was current Polemos. I had to act the part, so I stood tall, shifted around so that I could grab and the sheathe Teeny, and after reaffirming my grasp on her, walked out the room while staunchly ignoring the directors pestering me. I had more important things to consider.

Such as how, apparently, Angie turned out to be Deus. Somehow. Or how this would affect Judy's theories about the Angie Route. Or, more immediately, how the hell was I supposed to explain all of this to Josh…?