Chương 83: Book 2 Chapter 5 - King's Gambit

"Long time no see, old friend." Edward pushed himself off the bed and sat on its edge, the metal frame creaking under him.

"I'm assuming you were expecting my visit," Gozen said. Edward rose and slightly spread his arms.

"Straight to business, huh? Come on now, I've been stuck in this chamber for a while. How about a game of chess, for old times' sake?" He lowered himself onto the cold steel floor and patted the space across from him.

"Sit."

"Do you really think this is the best time for games?" Gozen's eyes narrowed.

"It's the only time for me, actually." Edward jabbed a finger toward the bars, grinning.

"Trapped in this cell, and all. Look, I tell you what. Beat me in one game, and I'll tell you everything you want to know." Gozen raised an eyebrow.

"Beat you? You've got a twenty-three-game winning streak against me. You're basically saying that you won't talk." Edward hummed and rubbed his chin, considering.

"Fair point. Fine. One game. Win or lose, I'll answer whatever you ask." Gozen exhaled and lowered himself onto the floor across from Edward, legs crossed. He flicked a finger, and a chessboard box spilled from his ring, the case sliding off, pieces already set.

"Looks like you're white," Edward said, gesturing at the board.

"Make your move." Gozen slid a pawn to E4.

"Why did you do that to your own disciple?" Edward advanced his pawn to E5.

"It couldn't be avoided. I gave him the chance. He wasn't willing to take it." He kept his eyes on the board.

"Mikael cannot get his hands on his disciple. I can't fathom the anguish and suffering he'll put them through if he ever did." Gozen pushed a pawn to F4.

"And the pain you caused that Ariel girl wasn't anguish?" Black pawn takes F4.

"Ah, the King's Gambit." He let out a thin smile.

"Yes, what I did was gruesome. But it was a far kinder death than whatever Mikael had planned for her." Gozen brought his knight out to F3.

"I doubt this is really about saving the Earthspawn from Mikael's torture. Tell me the real reason you want to keep him from his disciple." Edward nudged a pawn to D5, his jaw tightening.

"It's better you stay in the haze. If Mikael catches wind that you know about his plans, he won't think twice before ordering you to slit your own throat, useful or not. I'm one of the few who knows the truth. He's probably already scheming to have me killed in this very cell as we speak." Gozen walked his other white knight to C3.

"Then answer me this. Will Gray's brother recover?" Edward captured the pawn on E4 with his own. His hand stayed steady, but his voice dropped in pitch.

"That, I can't promise you. I pushed him past his limits, further than even I could have recovered from at his rank. Whatever happens next is up to his own will." Gozen's knight swept in and captured the pawn on E4.

"Why'd you do it? You didn't have to break him past the brink. You already killed Mikael's disciple. The job was done." Edward answered by gliding his bishop to G4.

"But I did. It was absolutely necessary." Gozen slid his queen to E2 and looked up, meeting Edward's eyes for the first time since they'd sat down.

"It was necessary for you to force him to kill his younger brother with his own hands?" Edward's bishop took the knight on F3. He shook his head.

"You have it wrong. My intentions weren't to kill your disciple, Gozen. The plan was to threaten his life long enough to hospitalize Hyun. To get Gray to grieve. And to get you to visit me for answers." Gozen slid his white knight to F6. Checkmate. For a moment, neither of them moved. Twenty-three losses, and this was Gozen's first win. He lifted his gaze fully onto Edward.

"To visit you? What do you mean by that?" Edward grinned and spread his hands.

"Good game, Gozen! Looks like you've finally beaten me!" His voice came out too loud for the small cell. Gozen's expression didn't shift.

"Cut the crap. Explain yourself. What are you trying to gain here?"

"Why, my freedom, of course. What else?" As he spoke, the edge of his ear unraveled into thin curls of smoke, drifting upward and vanishing. Gozen's eyes went wide, then narrowed with suspicion.

"What is this?"

"A trial run." Edward rolled his shoulders, as if shaking off stiffness.

"A test for my new powers. It was hard to use inside this nullstone cage, but time was the one thing I had in here, and I finally scraped together enough control to let a sliver of it through." Right before Gozen's eyes, the chessboard began to warp, space bending and contorting. A moment later the distortion faded, leaving the board exactly as it was, except for one detail. The board had flipped. The pieces that once sat white on Gozen's side were now black, and Edward had the white pieces instead.

Gozen scowled, confusion flickering across his face.

"Enough of your elementary illusions, Edward. Explain what this is." Edward wagged a finger.

"Not an illusion, Gozen. A Phantom."

"Phantom?" Gozen's mind raced, chasing the word's familiarity, until it clicked.

"You can't possibly mean…" His voice dropped." A test for your new powers? Phantom? The Phantom Shade?" His breath caught in his throat.

"You wouldn't dare!" His thoughts snapped back to the expedition where they'd first faced it, years ago, back when the two of them still fought side by side. The Phantom Shade was a Kaiser-Ranked boss they'd cleared together on that run. Getting through the early stretch of the Rift had been simple enough, but the Rift Boss itself took them nearly a month to finally bring down.

If a Psion's strength lay in its power to impose its will on another person—reshaping that person's viewpoint on reality entirely—the Phantom Shade's strength lay in its ability to reshape reality itself. With the Shade's power, its wielder would essentially become a god of their own sandbox, able to shape the world however they saw fit. Put those two powers together, and the potential was limitless. Edward only smiled, unbothered by the outburst.

"To test the limits of the Phantom, I materialized this clone of the body you're speaking to right now. To further stress test the duality of my powers, I combined it with my own Psion affinity to trick you into thinking you were playing white the entire game, and that you actually won against me."

"You may consider it cheating, but the moves my clone made for the black pieces were the exact moves you were already planning to make yourself." Gozen narrowed his eyes at the fading clone, glanced at the chessboard, then back to Edward.

"What the hell does any of that nonsense mean? I swear the only thing your powers are good for is materializing a headache with all your confusing explanations." You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. Edward chuckled, the sound low and refined.

"I understand your confusion. But the concept is simple. With my original Psion power, I can delude you into seeing a flying pig that nobody else can see. But with the Phantom's affinity, I can make that same flying pig real enough for everyone to see. You could walk up and pet it, if you wanted. The sensation would be there, real as anything. But of course, the pig was never actually there to begin with."

"The Phantom's power is useful in that regard. But there's a limit to it, since it's only a fragment of the Shade's true strength. And as always, the strength of my illusions is limited by the strength of whoever I'm up against." Edward crossed his arms, feigning modesty. Gozen dragged a hand through his hair, breath hissing out through his teeth.

"Then tell me this. When did you attune with the Phantom's core?"

"It was on the day of my supposed execution." Edward's gaze drifted away, lost in the memory.

"After you pulled your hero stunt to save my life, I had to act quickly, before Mikael could search my body and find the dimensional storage ring I kept hidden." Edward lifted a foot that was already fraying at the edges and wiggled his toes, thin threads of mist curling away with the motion.

"The Phantom's core has been tucked away in my storage space ever since our expedition. A contingency plan, if you will. Luckily, I only had to enact my will to attune with it, and one tap on the System prompt finalized the merger. Quite seamless, if I may say so myself." Edward opened his hands and shrugged.

"Seamless?" Gozen echoed, disbelief creeping into his voice.

"Surely you're aware of the penalty you must face after attuning with a Riftborn Kaiser's core? You were willing to take that risk? For what?" By now, half of Edward's face had dissolved into mist, the fog creeping slowly down his neck.

"Risk was the last thing on my mind, given my situation." He spread his arms, gesturing at the cell around them.

"Besides, the penalty was minor. I assume it's because the Phantom Shade's affinity is so close to my own class. All it did was shorten my lifespan by half. I got lucky there." Gozen shook his head, still reeling from what he'd just heard.

"Half? Even with the lengthened lifespan of a Kaiser, you consider that lucky?"

"I don't have much more to live for, Gozen," Edward said deadpan.

"Considering the other penalties we've seen when attuning with a Riftborn Core, I'd say this one was fairly fitting for me." Gozen sighed, long and tired.

"Fine, you said you replaced your host body with this clone." He watched Edward's copy, now mostly swallowed by white mist, only the torso and half a face still holding shape.

"I'm assuming you pulled this silly stunt to stall for time to escape the island?" He gestured toward the chessboard.

"I'm already riding on top of the speedboat as we speak." The half of Edward's mouth still visible curled into a grin.

"If it's Mikael you're going straight for, I don't advise it. Even with your new, pseudo Dual-Class constitution, you still aren't a match for him."

"I understand. His day will eventually come. But until then, I've gotta spend mine pursuing his level."

"So, that's your goal." Gozen crossed his arms tightly over his chest.

"Sovereignty."

"Stop." Gozen's voice came out sharp.

"It's not the path for you."

"It's the only path for me, Gozen…" Edward's face frayed completely into mist, his head dissolving into a thin trailing wisp, leaving nothing in his wake. Gozen tilted his head back and closed his eyes, registering everything that had unfolded during the conversation. He also replayed the chess game in his mind. Edward was right. During the match, he'd never once consciously chosen where to move his own white pieces. He'd only thought about where the black pieces would've went.

He let himself linger there, unhurried. He'd have to alert the guards of Edward's escape eventually, but deep down, he wanted to give Edward more time—more distance—before the Sanctuary's Army set out on the manhunt. After examining the chessboard, he picked up each piece, scrutinizing them slowly between his fingers, before finally packing everything away into his dimensional ring. It was time to leave. Gozen rose and walked to the cell bars, waiting for a guard to pass so he could call out.

Before long, Zephen appeared, walking toward the cell.

"Let me out, Zephen," Gozen said, rubbing the back of his neck.

"I also have some bad news. Edward escaped." Zephen's eyes narrowed.

"What is this nonsense? Have you gone mad, Edward?" He lifted an arm toward the cell, and his Midnight Cloak swept over it, swallowing Gozen's view whole. Gozen scoffed as it clicked into place. Edward had gotten inside every guard's head, convincing them the man in this cell was still him. He shrugged off the trick as it would eventually expire and headed for the bed. He needed the rest anyway, and it would only widen the gap for Edward's escape.

As he passed the sink, his reflection caught in the cracked, worn mirror above it. Skinny figure. Orange jumpsuit. Blonde hair. Caucasian features. Edward didn't have to influence the minds of the guards inside this prison. He simply changed how anyone who looked at Gozen would see him. Changing reality itself. After spectating Gozen enter the elevator with his scry, Edward constructed a clone to lie down on the bed.

His real body leaned against the side wall of the cell, arms crossed, fingers rhythmically tapping on his bicep, biding his time before making his escape. Vaelor approached the screen and unlocked the cell bars. Edward strolled out of the cell just as Gozen entered. The effort of obscuring his own body while maintaining the clone on the bed was taking its toll, and his hold on the Phantom's power was dwindling.

He needed to get clear of the nullstone cell's restraints as soon as possible if he wanted to hold onto it. As he crossed the threshold, the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. His body and Gozen's aligned at the doorway, the two of them passing in opposite directions. Gozen's head snapped to the side, his eyes locking onto Edward's profile.

"Good luck." The words were whispered from behind him as the bars ground upward, locking the cell shut. Edward turned on his heel, glancing back at the cell bars. Gozen was already talking with the clone, as if nothing were wrong. Edward huffed out a dry chuckle. He walked over to the narrow gap between his cell and the one next to it. His invisible form solidified back into flesh, though not his own.

A white robe formed over his torso, a bamboo hat settled onto his head, and a pair of wooden geta clogs took shape on his feet. He instantly regretted materializing the traditional clogs and swapped them for a pair of slippers instead. Edward stepped out of the gap and back into the main walkway. He strode past his own cell, reshaping the figure inside it, Gozen, into his own likeness, and headed for the elevator.

Along the way, he passed Zephen, who stood just across from him, deep in conversation with another guard.

"Leaving so soon?" Zephen said.

"Yes, Edward turned down the visit," Edward said.

"He said to leave a chess board for him so he can play by himself." Zephen stepped up beside the disguised Edward and peered over his shoulder into Edward's cell. The Psion had his back turned to the bars, doing exactly what Gozen had said: playing chess alone, muttering under his breath.

"I swear that lunatic has lost his sanity," Zephen said.

"I'm going to have to confiscate that from him later, though."

"Alright, if you're done here, let me escort you out."

"No, I know you're quite busy. I can find the elevator myself." Edward held up a hand, waving off the offer. Zephen raised a brow.

"I thought you knew that only guards have access to the elevators." The corner of his mouth tugged, and he patted Edward on the back.

"Or did you forget, because you're so used to coming in and out of here by sifting through with your mist?" Zephen gave a dry chuckle. Edward answered with his own refined laugh, different from the usual guttural roar that was really Gozen's.

"Alright, let's go. I'll activate the elevator for you and send you off." Zephen turned toward the elevator and waved a hand for Edward to follow. Edward finally reached the lobby as the doors slid open.

"That was fast." Vaelor glanced toward the elevator, setting another stack of paperwork onto the desk tucked into the corner.

"Oh, he wasn't in much of a mood for banter." Edward waved a hand. Vaelor's posture snapped straight, and he turned his head slowly toward Edward. He squinted and studied Edward's build from head to toe, the examination stretching on as if it might never end. Vaelor finally spoke.

"Looks like you've finally made your escape." Edward's easy expression instantly turned deadpan.

"How'd you figure it out?"

"I might be old, and my senses aren't as sharp as they used to be, but my instincts haven't degraded." Vaelor tapped a finger under his eye.

"The scar on Gozen's face is an inch higher than the one you imitated. Also, I can hear the English accent seeping through your voice."

"Ah, all in the details, I suppose." Edward's mouth curved into a wide smirk, the accent fully turned on.

"Well, you must know what I have to do now, right?" Edward said. Vaelor nodded.

"Can you promise me one thing? Don't hurt any of my men."

"I promise." Vaelor grunted in acknowledgment, then his voice dropped, turning somber.

"I'm sorry. For what he did to you. Good luck on your escape. But as the warden of this prison, it's still my duty to go after escaped convicts."

"I understand."

"One more thing!" Vaelor raised a finger.

"What? What is it?" Edward snapped back.

"If you're gonna do it, do it so I can finish all my paperwork without any distractions." Vaelor jabbed a finger at the mountain of files piled on his desk. Edward sighed.

"Ignore everything else going on around you and hone in on your desk duties."