Vol.5 Ch.17.1 – Broken Shackles

Chapter 17: Broken Shackles

My mind began to race with all the implications of what had just happened and at the same time utter panic was trying to shut down my rational thought. I clamped down on both instincts. Neither would help right now. I needed to think of a way out of this mess. Ares had put the same collar on me that had been used on Yume, or at least one that used a similar kind of mind control and he had told me to kill my girls.

Between my brief contact with a controlled Yume and my evening of experimentation with Alisha and Anna I had at least an idea of how the collar worked. First of all, there were two different kinds of commands, active and passive.

Passive commands were usually restrictions. Yume's Chosen One had used one to forbid her from discussing the properties of her collar. I had used one on Alisha that forbade her from coming until I allowed it. Active commands were things that the controlled person had to do, the collar forcing the wearer to move if they didn't comply quickly enough. And what Ares had given me was an active command.

This left me with two options, comply or resist. While resisting sounded like the better option, it truly wasn't. If I resisted the command long enough the collar would force me to comply, making my muscles move against my will. But I could avoid this by complying. If I went along with the command willingly I would retain control over my muscles so long as I didn't actively go against it. As such, while complying with the command to kill my girls didn't sound like a good idea, it at least allowed me some leeway. Specifically leeway in how to twist the command.

One thing I had wanted to do was to take the collar off, as he hadn't specifically forbidden me from doing that, but I couldn't make myself reach for it. My body was being forced into a specific action and taking off the collar wasn't part of it. Another thing I wanted to do was to communicate with my girls, tell them what I was going to do and why, but my lips wouldn't move either. I remembered Yume almost wordlessly following along with the command to subjugate us back then and so I had to assume the mind control effect was built specifically to stop that kind of loophole. But that didn't mean I was out of options. Because Ares hadn't specified how or in what order to kill my girls.

Technically he hadn't even told me to kill my girls, he'd told me to kill my 'bitches', but I could feel my body responding to the command so clearly there were no loopholes to be found by taking the words literally. Also, if I decided to kill my girls through something ridiculous like licking them to death Ares would simply specify his commands so I had to make it look like I was complying. It sounded like an impossible situation but I had a clear plan to overcome this. It all hinged on my girls being smart enough to pick up on what I was doing and thankfully I had absolute confidence in their ability to do so.

The first question was who to attack first and it was a tricky one. I often said that every single one of my girls was stronger than me and while I did truly believe that it didn't necessarily translate into them being able to hold themselves against me in a duel.

Alisha was a bad fit. She could hold me off for a while but eventually her hesitation to deal a lethal blow would allow me to close the gap, at which point Ares' command would force me to kill her. Attacking Melinoe would be bad for the exact same reason.

Selene was a bad fit as well. While her fighting prowess was growing by leaps and bounds, her swordplay was still lacking compared to mine. Her miracles were devastating but not only was there no way for her to dial them down to be non-lethal but we needed to save these for later.

Athena would be capable of holding me off but I did not want to attack her. She was our insurance in case Ares decided to get involved in the fight. She was the only one capable of holding her own against him for a prolonged period of time, I was certain.

That left Anna and Yume. While Anna was terrifying with her crystal powers and had demonstrated how well she could hold herself in a duel she was still a bad fit as a large part of her power still came from her bow and it, too, was difficult to use non-lethally.

And so that left Yume. Her swordplay and her control over Qi were far beyond mine and I only rarely won sparring matches against her. Even then I sometimes wondered if she only let me win so that the beast inside her didn't start rebelling against the one who had tamed her. It wasn't just that Yume was quite simply better than me, faster and more skilled, she was also far more used to fighting humanoid mortals than I was. I had spent most of my career fighting slavering beasts and nearly mindless goblins. Her life had been harsher and being hounded by the people of her homeland had clearly tempered her blade. She could fend someone like me off better than almost anyone else.

Of course, attacking Yume carried the obvious benefit that if I did manage to beat her Ares would probably order me to stand down before I could strike a lethal blow. He still wanted her, after all.

So I turned towards Yume and drew Helios Edge. There was a look of betrayal on her face that lasted until her gaze caught mine. Then it was replaced by a look of surprise, then determination. She understood. She knew why I was going for her. Hopefully she would also clue in on the rest of the plan.

I dashed toward her and swung Helios Edge at her as I reached her. She met my strike with Hoshizora, parrying it at an angle that made my blade slide off and while I was still off balance she delivered an open palm strike that rocked me backward, again at an angle. Ares was no longer directly behind me. Perfect. My little fox had figured out what I was going for. Hopefully she had noticed the same thing about Ares' gear that I had.

And as I charged in once again to strike at Yume's exposed throat I heard that bastard Carl whining behind me:

“What do you mean, kill them all? You promised me Alisha!”

Ares paused while Yume once again pushed me back, spinning around to deliver a follow-up that forced me to jump back a short distance.

“You'll get her,” Ares finally said. “These commands aren't absolute.” His tone turned colder. “But do keep in mind that you are my servant, not the other way around.”

Carl swallowed audibly.

While they were busy with their little argument I had tried striking at Yume a couple more times. Yume, clearly aware of what I was trying to do and just as aware of the fact that the plan would be ruined if Ares so much as suspected me, started avoiding my blows in less predictable ways. She jumped out of the way, flash stepped around others and used illusions to avoid the more brutal blows. Thankfully Ares and Carl were distracted by their argument but the same did not hold true for the orcs and goblins. They started eyeing my girls and creeping closer, clearly having decided that five females they hadn't ruined yet were more interesting than continuing to rut into a barely responsive Artemis. Reprehensible little shits.

I would have loved to mow them down but unfortunately my body was preoccupied with trying to kill Yume and my mind was preoccupied with trying to stop my body from doing so. And so, in my stead, Selene started giving orders. I was so proud I could have popped. I always knew she had the potential to be a leader, she'd just had precious few opportunities to demonstrate it with me taking charge in every combat encounter. But now, with no choice but to do it herself, she rose to the challenge.

“Anna, support Yume. Alisha, Melinoe, stay behind me and be ready to blast the goblins if they come closer. Athena, be ready to stop Ares if he decides to get involved.”

Yes, Selene had understood the plan as well. As I said many times, just because Selene didn't speak up much didn't mean she wasn't paying keen attention at all times.

My body once again shot towards Yume and once again she dodged out of the way but as I got ready to strike at her again a voice shrilled in my ear:

“What in the blazes are you doing, Felix?!”

Apparently Syr was back.

Little busy, I thought at her as hard as I could, hoping the collar wouldn't be able to stop this type of communication.

Talking with Syr wasn't speech but it wasn't quite thought, either. Clearly my thoughts were still my own, even with the collar on but that didn't necessarily mean that this mode of communication was also still possible.

I can see that, Syr hissed. Why would you attack Yume?

Instantly relief flooded through me. She had heard me. Ares is the traitor, I thought at her. Well, a traitor. He put one of those red collars on me and told me to kill everyone.

WHAT?!

And also that blond rat over there is Alisha's old fiance who has taken up with the bad guys, I added.

Sounds like your time was just as informative as mine, she said sarcastically. So how do we get out of this mess?

I have a plan, I told her. I think Yume and the others have figured out what I'm doing. But if you can somehow get my thoughts across to Yume, that would be great.

I've never done anything like that, Syr said, sounding defeated. She has to open up the connection.

What about Athena?, I asked.

Same deal, she said. She opens up the connection.

Try praying to her, I thought.

What?

Try praying to Athena, I repeated. Tell her she should use her mind magic on us.

Do you really believe that nonsense that gods can hear all prayers addressed to them?, she asked.

I believe there's no harm in trying, I thought back.

I, like pretty much everyone in the Trismegistian kingdom, had been told from an early age that gods could hear all prayers addressed to them and, also like most people, I had lost that belief eventually. The idea that the gods simply hadn't heard my prayers had simply been easier to accept than the idea that none of them had given a shit. But these days I was not so sure anymore.

Athena had pretty much admitted to me that the gods had heard my prayers and had ignored me because of my stats or whatever and that meant that any earnest prayer would reach the god in question. Of course it would be up to the god to actually pay attention but I had no doubt that Athena would be listening keenly for all of us. And so Syr prayed.

Oh goddess Athena, oh Aithia, hear my humble prayer.

Athena's eyes, narrowed at Ares ever since he had revealed himself as the traitor, flew open.

It's working, I thought.

Please cast mind magic on Felix so he can share his plan with all of you, Syr rattled off. The collar keeps him from talking.

Streaks of off-white magic sprouted from Athena's head and started questing toward me, piercing into my head. They didn't feel like anything but I could feel the connection being established.

“You're not going to break the collar's effect with some paltry mind spell, little cousin,” Ares taunted. “They're built to be magic-resistant.”

“Go fuck yourself, Ares,” Athena hissed back, giving a fairly decent impression of desperately straining against a powerful ward.

I felt the connection establish itself and immediately shouted into the void: Can you hear me, Athena?

No reply.

Athena, can you hear me?, Syr asked.

I can hear you, Athena's voice boomed in my mind. Gods above, now I knew where all those stories about people going mad when talking to gods came from. She sounded like an angry mountain when she spoke like this.

Alright, you apparently can't hear Felix, Syr said, so I'll relay his message to you. He wants to tell you what he's planning.

I'm all ears.

**

There were two problems I had to deal with. The first one was that damn collar. The second one was Ares. Right now Ares wanted to break me. He wanted to force me to kill most of my girls. And I was sure once only Yume and Alisha were left he was planning to violate them in front of me before he finished me off. That was the only reason I could see why he would stand back and just watch me fight instead of joining in. That also meant that any effort to take that damn collar off was doomed to fail because once he realized that the girls were trying to do that he would do his best to stop them. And so, Ares needed to go first.

Of course, Ares was still one of the Olympians and would simply come back to life once killed but even that little bit of breathing room would be enough. After the thing with Yume and her Chosen One I had made sure to outfit all of my girls with a set of dispelling stilettos and so Alisha, Selene, Yume and Anna all carried a half dozen of the things with them. Thus, once Ares was dealt with I was reasonably certain that they would manage to free me of the collar in short order. Gods above, I was pretty sure Yume would be able to slice it off my neck without even breaking my skin but I wasn't entirely sure what would happen if the collar was removed without its enchantment being disabled first. But either way, Ares came first.

I kept charging at Yume and she kept parrying my blows until, finally, a diagonal swing brought her off balance and I had her precisely where I wanted her. I squared my shoulder and pulled my sword back, preparing a mighty thrusting attack. I summoned forth my Qi and fed it into the blade, charging up a Qi Burst that would create a white-hot lance of fire capable of erasing her where she stood. And then I sent the lance of fire at a defenseless Yume.

As I had said, Yume had understood my plan instantly, even without Athena relaying it to her, and she had steadily shifted our positions around as we fought until she had stood with her back to Ares. Ares had clearly never seen anyone with my abilities handle Helios Edge and he clearly hadn't known about the lances of fire beforehand or he would have realized my plan. Because the allegedly defenseless Yume flash stepped to safety a moment before the lance of fire would have hit her and so the white-hot blast of furnace heat slammed into Ares, hitting him center mass, just where I had aimed. Clearly whatever protection the breastplate offered wasn't quite enough and he screamed in pain, smacking himself with his massive hands in an attempt to put out the flames.

But Yume had not just been paying attention to my plan. Clearly she had also paid just as close attention to Ares' gear as I had. She had noticed its main weakness, same as me. And so, while Ares was busy trying to smother the flames of my Qi Burst Yume flash stepped onto his back and, with a single precise cut of Hoshizora, cut his fucking head off.