The Simulacrum

The afternoon sun of the Abyss shone red-tinted light onto a picturesque landscape. The mountain in the center, towering over the horizon. The rivers and woods of the island, full of serene natural beauty. The gentle wind making the growing wheat stalks weave and bob all around, creating the illusion of the great farmlands being covered by languid waves like the ocean.

…

And then a steam train just passed by them all at like a bazillion kilometers per hour, while a winged man in the sky was screaming, "I will not let you escape!" from the top of his lungs.

At least that's what he said, but by the looks of it, that was exactly what was happening, because he couldn't quite catch up to the speeding passenger locomotive. It was a bit surprising, considering that Deus, Snowy, and Elly were perfectly able to keep pace with it, but I digress. Maybe he was just a slow flyer.

He wasn't a gracious loser though, and he kept throwing bright orange fireballs at the train cars, so the girls were more concerned with trying to block those than properly fighting him. On the other hand, the same couldn't be said about the pair on top of the last passenger car.

"We need to throw it off!" Penny yelped as she tried to rush towards the Chimera. "It's tearing the carriage apart!"

The creature let out a gurgling sound and swept an elongated forearm, forcing my sister to jump back… which nearly caused her to careen off to the side.

"Look out!" Josh's voice was panicked, but his actions weren't, and he resolutely dashed towards her, grabbing her hand at the last second and yanking her back towards the middle of the roof. "Be careful! I can fly, but if you get swept off here, it's game over!"

"You think I don't know that?!" she snapped back, but then her eyes opened wide and she yelled, "Look out, on your six!"

Josh didn't hesitate and reflexively raised his shield, catching a downward slam that made his feet sink into the thin metal sheets covering the top of the passenger car.

He bellowed an understandably frustrated, "Fuck off!" and swung his sword, forcing the Chimera to pull its paw back, but that was it. It didn't move much, and the reason for that was as troubling as it was grotesque. The creature didn't escape unscathed from the princess's dragon breath, and even now, it was missing half its eyes, with its head in particular swollen on one side and burned to the bone on the other. Its left arm must have also been torn off, as it was currently in the process of re-growing, topped by a comically small three-fingered proto-hand.

However, that wasn't the biggest metamorphosis it underwent, as its lower body was outright missing, its legs replaced by a cluster of writhing, fleshy tentacles. Bright pink and purple and covered in shiny mucus, it was using them to anchor itself to the top of the train by grabbing onto the sides of the passenger car and the window frames. Without legs, it wasn't exactly moving fast, but it wasn't standing completely still either, and it continued to slowly inch forward by dragging its upper body with said fleshy appendages.

It was a rather bizarre (and gross) sight, but I was already aware of just how resilient these bloody bastards were, and… that brought my musings to a full circle. Was this my fault?

I admit, I tried to be a bit cheeky. Future-me didn't allow me to intervene directly, and communicating with Judy was an enormous hassle, so I figured I'd try to use my nebulous narrative powers to our advantage and gently nudge things in the gang's favour. It didn't sound like a bad idea on paper; I would have Cal do the mana circulation for the meditation technique I often used, and then sit back, relax, and watch the events unfold while focusing my attention on what I'd like to happen.

Kind of like one of those kooky self-help thingies preaching about how to 'picture your success, and it will come to reality, except my version demonstrably worked, and… maybe a bit too well? I mean, I was expecting things to go pear-shaped, because they always do, and I was waiting for all the shounen battle tropes to show up, even if only subconsciously, so… we're back to square one. Was this my fault?

…

Well, if it was, then nobody could prove it… But I figured I should apologise to the girls later for the trouble anyway. Just to be safe. Speaking of which, I Far Glanced over to the train engine cab, where Judy and Ammy were in the middle of discussing the finer details of locomotive operations.

"Can we go faster?"

"I don't know!" the class rep responded with a frankly concerning enthusiasm, her face lit ominously by the flame ball she was conjuring. "But I intend to find out!"

The driver's cab was surprisingly spacious and clean, but most importantly, it was filled with levers and gauges and buttons and all kinds of other stuff that made me wonder how they managed to get this thing moving in the first place. Maybe the class rep was secretly into trains? I've heard that was a surprisingly popular hobby.

"Just a moment." Judy raised her hand and tapped her party glasses. "Attempt seven. Chief, are you listening?"

Oh. I scrambled to grab Cal again, and after forcefully starting the relevant enchantment arrays, I sent the message, "I'm here, Dormouse. I was distracted elsewhere."

"The Chief is here," my dear assistant whispered with just a hint of relief, then she asked, "We need some help. How do you kill a Chimera?"

"… Didn't I already explain in detail what happened back at the school?"

"Yes, you did, but we don't have any acid on hand," she explained to me a tad impatiently, and I was just about to respond when there was a knock on the door.

The girls looked over, and Elly was hanging onto the side of the cabin, gesturing for them to let her in. Since Ammy was still in the middle of making custom firebox-heating fireballs, Judy took it upon herself to step over and carefully open the door wide enough for my other girlfriend to slip inside.

Elly was drenched in sweat and she bent over, then took a deep breath and lightly slapped both of her cheeks at once. "Phew. Okay, I'm fine now." She shook her head and finally locked onto Judy. "Guys, I have good news and bad news."

That wasn't boding well, but Judy maintained her poker face and said, "Good news first."

"That Clan Head is no longer chasing us in the air."

"Oh, good," Ammy noted with a hint of relief. "So that's why there aren't any explosions anymore."

"Bad news," Judy instructed, and the princess's expression clouded over.

"He's now chasing us on the rails." She pointed toward the back of the cab, in the direction of the passenger cars. "They sent another train after us."

"Another… train…" Judy repeated after her, her voice flatter than ever.

"Yes, a smaller one. Without any cars, and it's gaining on us. Oh, and it's having a lot of really angry people riding on top of it."

I had to see this, so I shifted to Angie's mark for a better vantage point, and it was true. Jesus tapdancing Christ, the guys were now in a high-speed train chase. Was this also my fault? I couldn't have been! I didn't even know that was a thing!

Anyhow, the Deus and my Abyssal sister were lagging a bit behind and trying to harass the second locomotive, but it was covered in a semi-circular dome of interlocking pentagonal magical barriers, which weren't as cool as hexagons, but still shielded the machine from any icicles and arrows sent its way. It was generated by half a dozen Abyssals standing at the back of the engine and wildly gesticulating, like a pack of conductors trying to assert their dominance over the orchestra, while at the head of the locomotive, the Ninurta patriarch was standing defiantly, arms crossed and shouting (what I presumed to be) threats towards the sky.

So yeah, that was happening. Josh and Penny were still fighting the steadily octopussifying Chimera, but Judy already had asked me a question, so I didn't stay to watch them and returned to her side, just in time to catch her say, "… the Chief is listening. I hope."

"Yes, I'm still here," I messaged, then after a long beat, I added, "I still don't think I can provide much advice. You just have to hit it really hard with something big and solid. Like the ground."

"The Chief says we just have to hit it really hard," Judy interpreted my words to the others, making Elly's face turn cloudy with outrage.

"We already did that! I hit it really, really hard!"

"Yes, I saw it. It was a good hustle, but you need to do it without magic."

"The Chief says we have to hit it with something that doesn't involve mana-induced phenomenon," my dear assistant clarified on my behalf, and both Elly and the class rep looked at her funny.

"How are we supposed to do that?" Ammy spoke up first, then suddenly proposed, "Wait, the first Chimera was killed by dropping from the top of the school with Leo on its back. Can't we take it high into the sky somehow and replicate the event?"

"No way!" my draconic girlfriend denied while making an X with her hands. "It's grabbing onto the top of the passenger car really, really hard, and even if it wasn't, I don't think the three of us can lift it with our wings."

"Then why don't we just detach the last car?" Ammy proposed next. "I mean, if we did that, it would also stop the other train following behind us."

This time, it was Judy who shot down the idea.

"We can't. We don't even know how to do that, and those couplings are solid steel clamps."

"Yeah, that'll take some effort…" Elly started, but then quickly shook her head. "No, even if we did that, we only have two passenger cars. There's no way we can cram everyone into just one!"

"Oh, right… I didn't think of that…" Ammy conceded, and after a few long seconds, she threw her fire orb into the furnace, closed its door, and asked, "What does Leo say?"

"Nothing, as of yet," Judy whispered with just a hint of peevishness in her voice, so I gave up and decided to just speak my mind.

"You guys have a train, you know? That's both big and solid."

As soon as I said that, Judy's eyes lit up and she tapped on her artifact.

"Joshua, do you copy? I think we have an idea."

It really was just that, and a rather obvious one too, so I didn't feel great about having to point it out to them like this. But then again, when under pressure, evident stuff could just fly under the radar sometimes.

I also Far Glanced back to the pair on top of the train, with Josh hanging back and listening to Judy's explanation, leaving the front to my knightly sister. After a few seconds, he let out a soft grunt and yelled, "Listen, we have a plan!"

"Is it a good one?"

"Hell if I know!" the guy barked back and joined the fray, hacking at one of the tentacular appendages trying to pull the Chimera towards the middle of the car. "We're gonna hold the line for now, and wait for the other train to catch up to us!"

My sister nearly stumbled when hearing that and yelled out a confounded, "What? Why?!"

"It's hitting two birds with one stone!" he answered a touch cheekily, managing to do so even while ducking under a horizontal swing. "We're gonna need a way to dislodge this goddamn cockroach for it to work, somehow! Any ideas?"

Penny responded with a hesitant, "I… have a secret technique…"

"Can you cut its leg… tentacle-things with it?"

"Y-Yeah, but I never—"

"Good enough!" Josh yelled back and threw himself into the fray again, not listening to Penny muttering '—used it in real combat…', and she wasn't going to repeat it either, as she hurriedly adopted an odd stance, holding her large sword vertically, with its flat facing the enemy, and she began to silently recite something that almost sounded like poetry.

In the meantime, Josh weaved between the flailing arms of the injured beast, targeting its tentacles whenever it tried to inch forward. This stalemate lasted for a solid minute, and just as the guy was about to get impatient, my sister yelled, "I-I'm ready… I think…!"

While that didn't exactly inspire boundless confidence, Josh didn't complain and retreated to give her space. Just as he got out of range, Penny rushed in, surrounded by an oddly pink aura. Then, right as the Chimera was about to switch its focus to her and attack, she came to a sudden halt and yelled, "S-Seishun Dairin Zan!"

Whatever the heck that was supposed to mean, it was immediately followed up by a storm of pink, crescent-shaped somethings that rained down on the beast, targeting its tentacled lower body and outright shearing off about half of them in the first salvo alone. The weirdest part wasn't that, but the fact that my sister remained stock still while all of that was happening, still holding her glowing sword in the same pose as before.

And then it finally clicked with me: it must've been something Mountain Girl taught her! It had her fingerprints all over it!

It also explained why it was so infuriatingly effective against the Chimera. While her previous slices and pokes barely managed to inflict surface-level lacerations, despite her best efforts, these ephemeral-looking slash.png effects swirling around my knightly sister managed to not only inflict deep cuts on the grotesque appendages, but ended up straight up severing them. Worst of all, it made sense; Rinne was a ninja in name only, while in truth she was a monster hunter, so of course her techniques, even if bootlegged to fit a great-sword, would do a number on something like a Chimera, magic resistance be damned.

It wasn't quite enough though, as while most of its limbs were cut and minced, the beast still clung onto the passenger car's roof with two tentacles, one on each side.

Penny was visibly pale and a bit woozy as she yelled, "I… I tried!" and retreated a few steps, yet in an unusual display of camaraderie, Josh reassured her with a pat on the shoulder.

"It was good enough. I'll take it from here." He stepped forth, and if I didn't know he was already taken, I would've suspected he was trying to look cool on purpose to impress my sister. He also reached into his belt pouch and took out a familiar red capsule, then after a moment of hesitation, he threw it into his mouth and muttered, "I wanted to save these for later…

As soon as he crunched the blood pellet between his teeth, his whole body flashed with the usual mixture of gold and dark crimson light. If I were a betting man, I would've put money on him breaking out his sword-beam attack… and I would've lost, because he put away both his sword and shield. The Chimera, in shock from the pain, was flailing wildly, so he brought out his wings and leapt over the wounded creature, landing right behind it.

Then, for my further shock, he grabbed it. I mean, the Chimera. He just straight-up grabbed it from behind, as if trying to get it into a hold. I knew he practised a bit of judo, but I was pretty sure there was no approved grappling technique for this situation. On this bet, I would've been right, because he wasn't planning to grapple with the beastie; he was going to throw it.

Josh's whole body surged with the same aura as before, and as he strained, the fleshy bottom of the creature's mangled lower half left the surface of the roof, but only barely. Its two tentacles, clamped around the frames of the broken windows below, were pulled taut, yet didn't let go. He grunted, then let out a roar as he unfolded his Celestial wings, all eight of them. Their semi-transparent, golden-feathered form was the same as usual, yet as his crimson-tinted aura flared, they became less radiant, with strange, swirling red lines spreading on their surface.

It didn't interfere with their function, and using them to increase the force behind his pull, he strained against the Chimera with all his might. Its remaining tentacles were stretched to the limit, literally distending like they were made of rubber, yet it refused to let go. For a moment, it almost looked like it would win this tug-of-war, but then…

"Josh!"/"T-Take this!"

Two voices called out from the sky in unison, barely audible over the racket of the train and the howling of the Chimera, yet their timing was impeccable. On the left, three fiery swords whistled by. On the right, a wide, sharpened piece of crystal-clear ice the size of a kneading board fell from the sky like a guillotine blade. Their targets weren't the stretched taut segments of the Chimera's tentacles, but the contact points between them and the roof.

The creature roared in pain again, followed by a surprised whine as his body finally detached from the train and Josh raised it over his head with a triumphant roar of primal fury. He didn't hold onto it for long though, as he continued the motion and slammed the charred, cut, and maimed upper body against the trailing edge of the passenger car, causing it to shake so hard it was a small miracle it didn't jump off the rails.

The impact broke off the overhanging roof at the end, and the Chimera plummeted with a pathetic bark, its many limbs and appendages flailing uselessly as it tried to grab onto the back of the carriage. It was all in vain, as just a couple of hundred meters behind them, another train was desperately blowing its horn, its brakes locked and trying to futilely stop the inevitable.

Then, collision.

The Chimera's magic-resistant bulk shattered the pentagonal barriers right in front of the locomotive, its battered yet still massive body falling right under the wheels. There was a cacophony of sounds. Bones snapping, metal shrieking, and then finally an enormous clatter as the chamfered metal wheels left the rails and the train engine hitched, then tumbled to the left and off the raised embarkment with a stomach-rattling sound that dwarfed all the previous ones.

…

"Well, at least it didn't explode, like in the movies," I whispered off-handedly to myself…

… and then there was a giant fireball.

"Me and my big mouth."

Or so I thought, but a second look showed that it was just the Ninurta patriarch venting his frustrations by throwing magic every which way. Which was still silly, but less silly than a steam engine exploding into a ball of flames.

In any case, I was pretty sure that the Chimera wasn't going to come back from that, so I shifted my point of view back to the gang, and I found Angie and Snowy landing on the battered roof of the last passenger car.

"Boy! Are you all right?"

Correction: Deus and Snowy landing. Not that it made much of a difference.

He responded with an exhausted, "I'm fine, but… Can you give me a hand?" and gestured to his feet, sunk knee-deep through the metal outer cover and only held up by the superstructure underneath. "I think I'm stuck."

Her words, while not strictly funny, still deflated the tension a bit, and the four of them all started chuckling. Once it started, it was like a wildfire that couldn't be stopped, and things soon devolved into a group hug (with Josh still embedded in the roof), so I moved along and returned to Judy's side.

"Tell Josh I'm officially welcoming him into the Chimera Slayer club," I messaged over, and my Dormouse let out a relieved sigh.

"The Chief just confirmed it. The Chimera is down."

Elly exclaimed a delighted, "Awesome!" followed by a slightly more restrained. "So, we're not being chased anymore, right?"

"I don't think so, no."

Judy's response drew a hum out of the class rep, and she asked, "Do we know where we're heading?"

"We turned south-west once we left Digirmah. According to the map Neige drew on the Abyss, we should be heading towards the territory of House Shamash."

"Really?" Elly perked up at once, with a relieved smile settling onto her face. "That means we're on the right track! Get it?"

Judy ignored her pun and turned to the class rep again.

"The carriages suffered some damage during the first. Since we're no longer being pursued, we should slow down and assess the extent of it before we continue."

"Right… About that…" The class rep turned at the control board of the train, with all its levers and gauges and buttons and whatnot, and admitted, "I don't know where the brakes are."

"Oh. That's a problem," Judy noted with the kind of measured tone that people used when they were a bit agitated but didn't want others to notice… which, considering it was Judy we were talking about, probably meant she was quite agitated by this revelation.

In contrast, the princess, ever the ball of sunshine she was, just beamed at them with an optimistic, "Don't worry, don't worry! Between the three of us, I'm sure we can figure it out before we hit something!" in tow.

"You're not helping…" my dear assistant grumbled, but still followed her advice, and the three of them began inspecting the panels.

That wasn't too riveting to watch, but then again, this was a major kerfuffle, so now that it was over, I figured they didn't mind the downtime. It was fine, really. After all, they stole a Mana Well, killed a Chimera, humiliated an Abyssal aristocrat, and yet somehow, they were on the right track. I'd call that a pretty good score for their first semi-independent adventure.