Chapter 420 - 420: Do Celestials Dream of Electric Goddesses
With a mental command, The other three paper tigers snuck their way out from under his chair and skulked through the audience. Meanwhile Corvus had the palm top tiger let out an adorable roar, showing off its long fangs that could give you a really nasty paper cut, before it stretched out and leapt from his palm.
It landed on Astra's lap, quickly curled up and looked up at her with admiration. Acting like it was nothing more than an adorable little house cat.
Astra let out a gentle coo, softly petting the paper tiger with a singular finger. Scratching between its head between its ears before dragging her finger down its back.
The entire time, the tiger let out soft purrs like that of a true kitten, which only made Astra smile more. Corvus laughed softly to himself, pulling his focus away from that paper tiger and instead focusing on the trio skulking through the audience whilst he pretended to be interested in the fight.
By sheer coincidence, the moment that Corvus stopped paying attention to Astra's paper kitten was the same moment that Seth finally succumbed to fatigue in his workshop.
His eyes rolled into the back of his head, which fell and slammed against the table, denting it once more. Soft snores escaped Seth's lips as he fell into a deep sleep and his mind began to wander.
He drifted passed the countless different windows that showed his puppets viewpoints and, although his body had succumbed to exhaustion, his mind was still active as ever.
It felt itself drawn to a particular window, pulling him into it until his vision was filled with the most beautiful sight in the world. Astra smiling down at him, as she gently pet his head. Unfortunately since it was only his mind doing the wandering, he couldn't feel that sensation, but he was more than concept with the heavenly view.
It would have made for the perfect dream, had he not been distracted by the sounds of combat.
Spinning his paper tiger body around, Seth glanced back at Astra's adorable and curious expression before hopping off of her lap. He leapt across the seats, like a frog across lily-pads, until he landed on the edge of the pit arena.
The little tigers eyes widened at what he was seeing. Not the fight, no instead Seth was found himself utterly enchanted by the writing around the edge of the arena. His eyes glimmered as he studied every curve and line carved into those walls, analysing every single runic letter as if it was a gift from god.
But most importantly, from his position atop the wall, he saw it as the whole being that it was.
Corvus had once likened it to a poem or a story in his passing analysis of it and although Seth did not know this neither did Corvus understand just how right he was. To Seth this wasn't just like a poem in its complexity, it actually was a poem.
Not just in size, but in the way it was written. It wasn't lines of code written out to simply define a function, but a weaving of letters and words that formed a true enchantment. Giving the mana not only a direction and purpose through the runes, but an identity and an understanding of what he wanted them to be. What it should be.
Each line existed on its own, but they were all combined to make a whole. A single unified enchantment that had a singular identity.
That was it... That's what he was missing. Identity. He had thought that just giving them names was enough, carving simplistic names onto the items surface. But it needed a true identity and purpose, not just a placeholder.
It needed to be ingrained into its very being, like weaving a soul for a weapon. Who would have thought that Angel's idiotic, pun-names were really the secret that had been staring him in the face the entire time!
Seth's mind immediately snapped out of the paper tiger, jolting back to his body which had allowed itself an outstanding two minutes of sleep. But that was more than enough, he was flooded with energy. Overflowing with it. Sleep could wait for another week or two, He needed to put his theory to the test and he needed to do it now!
Seth scampered out of the room, slamming into the walls at every turn as he didn't even try to slow down. Simply using the walls to redirect himself as he sprinted towards the control room for the ship.
He was so eager to collect new materials, that he completely forgot to put his arm on in the process.
Unaware of what the 'clone' Seth was doing, Corvus glanced at the tiger curiously. Of course he had felt his other self's presence in the puppet. How else could it be moving on its own without his input?
But why the clone was poking in on his time, he neither knew nor cared. Instead it just gave him ample time to focus on spreading the other paper tigers, until they were hiding underneath the chairs of those he suspected.
He kept their senses open, listening for anything that might be of importance, while he focused on the fight in the pit as it was coming to a close.
The Ninja he called Panther had completely disabled the pale man called Frosty. Frosty was on his knees, hand pressed against a cut in his side, when the ninja finally appeared once more.
She already had her blade hooked under his throat, pressing at the soft skin underneath his chin and forcing him to raise his head, as she stood behind him.
"Your life is forfeit. Admit your defeat." She muttered through her half mask, narrowing her chilling eyes and pressing the Wakizashi against his throat more.
Up in the stands, her president rose to his feet and was about to announce her victory as he applauded. But he only had time to clap his hands a single time, before everything changed.
Frosty smirked as she finally appeared. Uncaring of the knife against his throat, he took the hand from his wound and slammed it against the ground. Ice spread from the point of contact, racing across the stone and rapidly forming around Panthers feet.
She sneered at the attempt, pressing the blade against his throat and drew it across slightly, making it clear that she could kill him if it was not against the rules. However it was only at this moment that she noticed the crucial detail.
What dropped from the cut on his neck was not blood, but a single snowflake. It danced through the air and gently touched against the floor, melting on contact.
The smile remained on Frosty's face, even as his head turned completely around to face her. His skin turned pure white, as white as his suit, as his entire body turned into snow. He pushed his way through the blade without a care and slammed a snowy fist into the Ninja.
The ice shattered from the impact as her body hurtled backwards, forced back by the avalanche of snow until she slammed against the wall. The barrier shimmered from the impact and when Frosty the snow man removed his hand, the Ninja Panther collapsed to her knees before flopping to the floor unconscious.
The Japanese president stood in stunned silence, his eyes wide and jaw hanging open. His hands were still in front of him, frozen mid clap, as his brain tried to process everything that had happened and how a sure victory had been snatched out from under them.
Luckily, the Nordic Queen quickly stood and clapped herself, making up for the Presidents frozen nature, as she announced the victory of her man.