Amanises faked a smile.
"Alright, glad we cleared things up." She said with a slightly strained voice.
"Yes, after all how could I have fallen in love with you. We're hardly even friends." The Fool said, in a rather matter of fact way.
"Mhm."
"One last thing."
The Fool leaned in gently kissing Amanises. Pulling away he muttered to himself.
"Yes, it does seem to stir some emotion."
***
Amanises returned to her ghost form beside her other self.
"So how did it go?" Evernight asked.
"..."
"Come on, tell me. Or did you two do something you can't share~." She teased her other self.
"..."
"Hmm, no reaction," Evernight started poking the Eternal darkness. "Come on, Amani say something."
"It was fine."
"Well that's boring. Why don't you give some details."
"I'm going to go for a walk." Eternal darkness disappeared from the room.
***
The Tarot club gathered.
"Good afternoon Mr Fool~." Justice greeted.
"Good afternoon Miss Justice." The Fool returned the greeting.
"So how did the date go?" She asked.
"Didn't go as well as I would like but nothing can be perfect."
Audrey smiled before greeting the rest of the members. Evernight looked at The Fool who was oddly bouncing in "his" seat.
She turned to her other self who was clearly contemplating something.
"So… what are you thinking?" Evernight asked.
"How to wipe that smirk off his stupid face." Eternal Darkness responded, bitterly.
"Damn, what happened on that date?"
"It doesn't matter," Eternal Darkness let out a long sigh. "It's kind of irrational for me to be mad, I should have never expected anything from him anyway."
"So you're just being petty. What happened, did you get dumped or something?"
"..."
"Seriously? I'm sorry I asked. But didn't he imply it went well?"
"Yes… but does that really mean anything?"
"I have a question, do you like him?" Evernight asked.
"..." Eternal Darkness was in deep thought. "I'm not sure, this is something I have never experienced before."
"Me neither. It seems that even after thousands of years there are still new things for us."
"Yes."
"So when is the next date?"
"..."
***
Adam took out a quill and began writing. His face was calm, as his childlike eyes glanced over the page.
"The trends of the times have been set in to motion. Yet no one has realised yet. Such a shame, Mysteries I expected better from you."
He sat back in the chair laying his quill on the table.
'Shame I can't manipulate great old ones. This romance is going to take forever. No I shouldn't think that, this is different to Klein and Hela.'
***
Grey fog covered the vision of Klein and Leonard. They suddenly found themselves in Sefirah castle.
"Plans have changed. Go to West Balam. You will find Ince Zangwill there." The Fool told them.
"By your will." The two of them smiled as their revenge would be coming soon.
"One last thing. Due to the requirements for Klein's ritual I will not be assisting past the preparation."
***
Klein tucked the charms he had prepared in to his pocket. Due to not having access to Sefirah castle he asked The Fool to create some charms for him in case things went wrong.
"Where do you think you're going?" Hela asked.
"When did you get here?" Klein was confused at how she got past his marionettes outside.
"Some sequence 5's are nothing to me." Hela boasted.
Klein smiled.
"Congratulations on reaching sequence 4. I heard you were switching to the darkness pathway."
"Yeah, the ritual was much easier plus I got some extra abilities. Even better since I used blood from Eternal Darkness. Now I can protect you."
"Ha, I'll be catching up soon. We're about to go hunting Ince Zangwill."
"Well that's why I came to see you."
Hela took Klein's hand and placed a familiar revolver in it.
"I can't fight with you because of my demigod status however this guy can."
"You talk like it's a person."
"Hey, don't talk about him like that. This guy has been with me since the beginning of my journey." Hela acted offended.
"This would have ended up in my hands if the other me didn't come here."
"Well he's mine."
"If we get divorced I'm taking him with me." Klein joked.
"I will be taking creeping hunger then." Hela replied with a cheeky smile.
Klein took his normal revolver from the holder and placed death knell in it.
"It's a bit too big." Klein muttered.
"Cough, that's what she said." Hela blurted out.
The couple looked at each other before laughing.
"You know it's I think it's kind of weird how our relationship was a game of some bored gods." Hela mentioned.
"Well that doesn't matter." Klein replied.
"Yes, because I love you."
"I love you too."
The two of them kissed before Klein went to pick up Leonard. Klein took one last glance back, smiling at her as he stepped in to the door of starlight.
'Next time.' Hela thought.
***
"You're ready, right?" Klein asked.
"Yes. By the way, one more person will join us." Leonard replied.
A beautiful young woman dressed like a spirit medium approached the two.
"It's nice to see you again, Klein." Daly said.
"Nice to see you again madam Daly."
"I want an explanation later."
"Of course." Klein transformed in to Gehrman.
"I heard you were travelling with a corpse collector woman. So did something happen between you two?" Daly teased.
"What can I say? The taste of a corpse collector ain't bad. The captain would agree." Klein joked.
Daly looked flustered but quickly regained her composure. Leonard attempted to keep his composure.
"It's nice to chat again, however we have someone we need to kill. So save it for afterwards." Daly said.They all nodded as Klein summoned a door. They tapped their chest four times in a clockwise circle.
"May the goddess bless us. Praise the Lady."
***
Appearing from a door of starlight the three remaining members of the Tingen Nighthawks confronted Ince Zangwill. Not wanting to give him an opportunity to react they immediately attacked.
Klein blinked behind Ince with death knell raised, immediately firing. Ince quickly ducked and summoned hairs to bind Klein. Blinking away Klein then switched creeping hunger to the dream stealer soul.
Leonard and Daly attacked Ince Zangwill, not giving him an opportunity to use the quill. In the meantime Klein attempted to steal 0-08.
***
Adam walked up to Ouroboros who was kneeling on the ground injured.
"It's a fruitless endeavour. You are incapable of stopping the trend of the times from moving forward." Adam calmly stated.
Adam summoned the Chaos sea and created a large storm. Ouroboros's eyes widened as he was being corrupted by the Sefirot.
"How can you control the Chaos sea?" Ouroboros asked.
Adam simply smiled.
***
Klein managed to take the quill from Ince Zangwill.
"Adam!"
He threw the quill in the air as it suddenly disappeared. Klein switched back to the Traveller soul.
"I came, I saw, I recorded."
In the midst of Ince Zangwill's battle with Leonard and Daly a lightning bolt struck him. Leonard followed up by punching him in the face. Klein blinked over and threw his own punch. Daly then followed with another punch. The three of them kept up the pressure making sure Ince Zangwill wouldn't get an opportunity to move.
His form shifted as he transformed in to a mythical creature. He then attempted to escape through his Underworld gate. However Leonard took out a charm.
"Seal."
Klein loaded a special bullet in to death knell. He infused his spirituality firing a lethal shot, the bullet tore through the area seemingly shattering space. It pierced the head of Ince Zangwill and continued going all the way through.
Ince Zangwill collapsed to the floor. The three of them approached with their guns drawn and opened fire, one for each person that died in Tingen.
***
"How many is that?" Leonard asked.
"1,536." Klein answered. "Next."
"There is only one more." Daly checked the list with a melancholic look.
"Then we can leave." Klein said.
The other two looked confused.
"Isn't it obvious? The one that killed him was for captain."
"No, there's still another," Leonard took out his gun, firing it once more. "That one's for you."
***
Klein took the potion, bringing to his lips as he drank it.
Immediately his skin began to writhe and wriggle as if there were maggots beneath his skin. He felt his face warp with features being bizarrely shuffled. Some parts were his persona's while others belonged to The Fool.
Klein began cogitation as he attempted to calm himself. Eventually his body settled on a mix between Klein Moretti and Zhou Mingrui though it was different to Mr Fool's.
He looked down at a puddle which formed from the storm taking a look at his features.
'Not bad.' Klein thought.
He transformed back in to Gehrman and turned to the others. Leonard collected the characteristic from Ince Zangwill.
"I will take my leave. I assume you two will handle the clean up." Klein bowed.
"Let's meet and have a drink to celebrate later." Leonard said.
"Sure, meet me at the manor in a few days, I will have some things prepared. Shouldn't be suspicious as a tycoon who believes in the goddess would want to gain favour with some Nighthawks. If things go wrong we can just have Amanises cover it up for us." Klein said.
"Amanises?" Daly questioned.
"Don't worry about it." Leonard shrugged.
"Oh, I almost forgot." Klein took out two cards from a deck and threw them piercing the body of Ince Zangwill.
The Star and the World.
"Praise the Fool."
***
Leonard and Daly were brought in to a private room where Dwayne Dantes was waiting.
"Glad you two could make it." He stood up and handed two glasses of wine to the.
Daly took a sip.
"Hmm, I haven't tasted anything like this before."
"It was a gift from Mr Fool."
The three of them sat down when there was a sudden knock. Klein checked outside with spirit body threads only to find them completely immovable. He quickly put the pieces together and opened the door with an exasperated expression, not even bothering to shapeshift in to Dwayne Dantes.
"What do you want?" Klein asked.
Merlin Hermes popped open a champagne bottle splashing all over Klein.
"Surprise! Didn't expect to see me here did you?" Merlin said with a goofy grin.
"Merlin?" Daly said in shock.
"We'll explain later." Leonard said.
***
Daly sat down pondering what she had just heard.
"You know what. Just pass me another drink. I don't want to think about this."
"Good choice." Merlin summoned another bottle.
***
In a familiar graveyard a couple was sitting beneath a tree overlooking it.
"Dunn…" Daly muttered.
"Is there something you want to talk about?" Dunn asked.
Daly looked at the man's grey eyes and receding hairline. She brushed her hand against his face moving upwards to play with his lacking hair.
"Is this a dream?" She asked.
"No." Dunn stroked her face.
"How are you here?"
"Call it a reward from the goddess."
"How have you been doing?"
"It has been quite boring without you."
Daly blushed.
"I wish I could have saved you."
"Well, there are many things we wish for. But in the end isn't it a miracle we are able to meet again? Let us leave this meeting with no regrets so we can meet again in the afterlife."
Daly realised she had been crying and wiped the tears from her face.
"I love you." She said.
"I love you too." Dunn replied with a gentle smile.
Daly pulled Dunn in to a kiss allowing it to linger for a few seconds. In the midst of this Daly fell asleep.
***
Dunn turned to the other three.
"I'm glad I had this opportunity. I hope you all will continue to guard the world from threats and that you all won't succumb to madness. For one last time, thank you."
"We will… and thank you for everything." They all said.
Dunn's spirit returned to the goddess's embrace. Klein and Leonard began to cry as they stood in the graveyard. Merlin looked at the sky as it began to rain. Ignoring it the group stood there for a while until night fell.
Klein and Leonard looked tired however kept insisting they wanted to stay for a while longer.
"You will see him again. We can always return." Merlin said.
"Just a bit longer." The pair said.OK, we have plenty of time."
***
The Fool placed the three Tingen Nighthawks to sleep within the mansion. "He" replicated the serenity and darkness of the Darkness pathway allowing them to sleep peacefully.
Returning to Sefirah castle "he" sat in The Fool's seat staring blankly in to space. "He" summoned a projection of Dunn from the historical void.
"I'm sorry, I can't live up to your expectations."
The Fool dismissed the projection. "He" touched "his" face. "He" was smiling, that was all "he" could do.