Chương 18: Book 8 - Chapter 16 - Thief

My cape has a lot of neat features and no user manual - which makes it perfect for the Reacher part of my brain since we like features and we hate reading. Win-win. One thing I'd discovered: It has an on-off switch. Not officially speaking, I think the mites would be mildly miffed if they knew what I was doing to their treasure here. The 'switch' was mostly in how the cape itself was constructed. The hidden part of it that could only be seen with the soul sight.

All the fractals within that make this work aren't inside the cape. They're superimposed and fixed within an alternate dimension of some kind. Or going into mite space. Somewhere I couldn't quite track or follow behind, but could get a vague notion. There is one single fractal on the cape, sandwiched through the cloth, and it served as some kind of bridge to the fractals superimposed in the micro-pocket that followed the cape everywhere.

With a bit of creative soul-tweaking, I could make it work like a loose battery connection. Just a slight bend on the hooks within it and it would point elsewhere until I let go. Which would effectively turn the cape completely off until I stopped tampering with it. Nice perk of that bridge fractal is that if I cast out a mirror image, my mirror image also has a copy of this cape, and that cape copy has the same bridge fractal etched on top.

Which all pointed back to the same superimposed pocket dimension where the real gears of this cape were running. So if I turn on the real cape, all the other mirror capes are equally turned on and do the same thing. And for the second discovery: What happens when I fold it up so that the rift side of it connects back to itself? Well - folded like a hammock sheet, it leaves just a tiny little flattened rift edge sticking out. And folded like a rolled up pillbug, it looks like a tightly packed spiral rift.

But the sheet folding was more optimal according to Journey. All put together, I was using the cape perhaps not quite how the makers had envisioned for it: Neatly folded up and protected in a small black metal box Wrath had printed up for me before I'd left. Might not be used like the cape it was built to be, but this was the optimal use case for this kind of treasure. A dimensional bedsheet.

When I put it all completely together in one beautiful working package, I probably went straight to To'Sefit's most hated human list. If I wasn't already there given last time we met. As usual, Feathers were absurdly fast when they needed to be. To'Sefit seemed like the regal reserved noble who would scoff at doing anything with speed.

But the moment I stepped out of the higher dimension in order to actually attack her, she responded with all the speed and ferocity of a feral pipe weasel freshly kidnapped into a sack. The change was as fast as a snapped finger. One moment she was humming to herself looking for a better sightline to attack, and the next second she was doing ten things in the same second.

She defended against my knightbreaker round, and then immediately tried to stab into the rift, followed by a series of mad frantic attacks at all my occult images harassing her plates, then a cut directly through my chest when I'd leaped away, before finishing all this by yanking a slow moving panel out of the air, like a misbehaving kid taking too long, then aiming it right at Wrath's last known position. All within one or two seconds.

In the higher dimension pocket I stood, she looked like a superimposed mess of images. A prickly sea slug of prior staff stabs outwards and a mad dash to slash through my chest. As for that part, she missed me completely in the same way someone punching directly in front of them couldn't possibly hit someone standing on their far left. Mathematically, that's mostly what was happening at least.

If I wasn't already withdrawing my gun and turning off the rift from the moment I pressed the trigger to fire, I think she would have actually stabbed me through my own rift. But for all their absurd speed, I'd learned a few tricks to handle that: Give them so many different things to worry about, they can't physically handle it all. This is where my prior practice with the occult dimensional cape came into handy. Because now I didn't just command 16 occult mirrors with Superior's help.

I could also move them around through the higher dimensions, and then stab outwards from their copies of the cape. Not many choices a long-range specialist like To'Sefit could make against an assassin that can't be physically shot due to being phased out of her dimension. Hostage situation with Wrath was arguably the best play against that kind of overpowering assassination ability. Jokes on her, Wrath and To'Orda both knew to start moving the moment they lost communication contact with me.

Which was right this moment. Journey had an easy time receiving a signal while I was hiding inside the Dark Side, the difficulty was in sending a signal out from Journey. Wrath and To'Orda both could receive fragments of it, with other parts of the signal probably bouncing into different slices of dimensions, according to Wrath's models. Nothing that couldn't be solved by making things as simple as they could possibly get: One monotone single running directional ping.

Journey would have a few codes setup to communicate with Wrath, almost the same way it talked to Bob a while back. Signal for ' I found the enemy.' and'I'm attacking'or' The human's still alive and doing fine, despite his best efforts otherwise.' So when Wrath failed to get the ping at the expected time period, and noticed To'Sefit is no longer active on any of her chats, she'd know that there was a communication blackout. And that would mean it's time to pack up and move.

I just had to keep To'Sefit talking for four or five seconds.

"Okay, okay, no need to be dramatic about this." I said, staying within my higher dimensional spot.

"Let's all calm down and put the weapons of mass destruction away." This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

"My, my, it seems you do truly care about my adorable little sister. Why don't you be a gentleman and step out of the shadows where I can see you?"

"Let me think about that for a second… no. Wait, let me think it over a little more… Also no, but in all caps and bold. Sorry, out of luck, gave it my best try." And that was five seconds, which meant Wrath was out of range now and To'Sefit wouldn't know better.

"I assume my little sister has begun changing her positioning." To'Sefit said, and I recognized a bait when I saw it. And if she hadn't fired it meant her plan was different than shooting Wrath. Or she wanted to kill me first before Wrath.

"Journey, scramble my voice so she can't tell if I'm lying or not, thank you." I asked, which my armor complied with happily. It had already generated an engram for that a while back, all it needed to do was run it. I couldn't actually see To'Sefit's face in the superimposed blur of images, but I wasn't going to step into the Light Side into stabbing range, just to see if she's frowning at me or not. She did sound miffed however.

"Oh please, where is the fun in that? Come now, live a little on the edge. I'm certain a man of your intellect can play around a few word games~""That sounds like trying to play a fair game, and you have to have realized by now that I'm deathly allergic to doing anything the fair way. So, how about you tell me why you're not already shooting and we can get back to the part where I stab you a few dozen times over?" She tutted.

"Very well. I already know there are seven mite lanterns on that mountain. I also know those cannot be moved, but can be destroyed. My little sister's changed location does not change anything. In effect, I've been the one stalling for time so that the remainder of my plates could take a correct lock on~" Seven plates were now floating, pointing directly down at the mountain. Oh. I remember now what happens when I get too full of myself. They all began to glow occult blue."

O radiant weapons forged in starfire, heed my call~" To'Sefit started, and I didn't stick around to hear the rest of the chant. Superior gave me thumbs up, and was already moving his images to float right by her plates. I followed suit for my own set and then got to work. Each mirror image drew their equally replicated cape out, held it with one full arm to unfurl it, and aimed to stab straight through the center. I triggered the real cape.

Every cape image equally triggered, and the occult ghosts all stabbed straight through. To'Sefit in turn, went right for my throat at the same instant. She moved fast enough even her hat and halo were left behind. Somehow she located where my true physical body was, and the box on my belt that held the neatly folded up real dimensional mite bedsheet. She swung straight for that, aiming to cut diagonally through the entire thing. I turned the rifts off early.

Her staff cut through where the rift should have been, which saved my cape from being sliced in half, but equally shut down the mirror versions of the cape that were extended out to allow for stabbing. Result was a tie. Her chant had been aborted, but my attack on her plates had failed. And she was too close to me for comfort. I scrambled backwards, using an occult lash to get me out of here. She laughed, "Pulling out?

What a coward you are, Winterscar, I would have thought you more committed~" I was about to answer when Journey's heads up display showed me a text from Cathida. She's using your voice to track your actual location, you moron. Quit playing her game. Don't land anywhere, don't make any sound. I launched another occult lash and repositioned myself, flying at a small distance from her in a circle.

In the meantime, To'Sefit tutted, hand grabbing her giant hat, before she made sure it was perfectly crooked on her head, then turned her gaze back down. The seven panels hadn't stopped glowing. Her staff lined up, and pointed straight down.

"Where was I? Ah yes. The part where she dies. Awaken. Unleash the light that ends all darkness~" There were sound effects too. A deep thwumming sound, that was clearly added into it all. And hints of background music starting up. Feathers. I triggered my mirrors alongside Superior, and we once more hovered our images in the higher dimensional space, each mirror lifting their capes up, preparing to stab through. I triggered the cape. To'Sefit once more moved like a feral cat at the same instant.

Her hand whipped around, and aimed one of her panels in my direction." OBLIVION!" I didn't take a chance and turned my cape off before she'd even finished saying the word. The laser lanced straight through the darkness, several dozen feet away from my current location. She'd missed. She'd godsdamned missed. Or was that intentional to make me drop my guard so that the next time she'd get me? Nope. Not playing her game. Fine, if she wanted to keep her plates un-stabbed, then I've got other ways to ruin her day.

Superior got the internal message for what to do, returned an evil little grin back at me, and we got to work. My real cape was unhooked from storage and opened up. In my other hand, I aimed my sidearm downrange and let Journey handle the lock-on. A small flurry of bullets rang out through the rift, and unfortunately splattered over her dome shield. She'd twisted to face me, plates slowly floating behind her umbrella. Welp. Plan B then, back to tradition.

I twisted in place, launched an occult grapple, and zipped right over her. Then I triggered the cape again. To'Sefit freaked out the moment she scanned my appearance above her. Not from seeing me appear through the rift or anything. More because I'd lobbed a grenade through the rift. I was going to rip those plates off her hands if it was the last thing I did.

"Catch!" She noticed the incoming attack immediately, and between hunkering behind her staff's impenetrable dome shield or going on the attack, she picked the attack. To'Sefit lept straight upwards to both intercept the grenade and slice the master rift apart. The cape turned off before she was even halfway up to me, so she settled for slicing at the grenade. Poor choice.

I'd learned that Feathers tend to cut apart things that were moving too fast for anyone else to cut through, and grenades generally didn't detonate if they were cut from the fuse, as a safety precaution. My versions were the opposite of safe. In effect, cutting them in half caused them to detonate early, launching shrapnel shards in just about every direction. Not all her panels were cut by the shrapnel, a good nine remained functional, albit knocked around. But the rest?

Holes punctured through, or plates bent when they hit the ground too hard. To'Sefit shrieked at getting her toys ruined by the same technique I'd used last time I'd fought her. All that was missing was to steal one of the panels and reuse it against her. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough time for that, since she pointed her staff directly at Wrath's mountain, and the remaining plates that were operational turned and began to glow.

She didn't have enough of those to eliminate all the lanterns on the mountainside now, but I was already ahead of her. Occult images moved like wraiths through the higher dimension, unseen.

"I'll show you the true meaning of destruction." To'Sefit hissed, then pointed her staff down at Wrath's general direction, all nine panels glowing bright occult blue. I could see once more the occult dome shield appearing at the edge of her staff to protect her from the fallout." OBLIVIO - WHAT?!" In that one instant, nine of my occult wraiths swooped down straight for her panels, their cape prepared like kidnappers. No attempt to stab the panels at all.

Instead, I triggered the master rift fractal right as they all passed through the plates. The result was an instant flash of rifts manifesting all over real space in the instant she was still sounding off her final kill-word, each rift gulping their respective plates before vanishing back into nothingness. They still went off, opening fire in the higher dimension. All nine beams lanced through the mountainside, going through it, dealing no damage.

Nothing from the real world could affect me in this higher dimension. But by the same coin, I couldn't do anything myself. And neither could things spirited away into this dimension. But that's not the important part to all this. What really matters is that I'd managed to steal her plates. Again.