Foxtails and Fairytales: Facades and Fables of the Phantom Prince

[Arc 15] Ch.8 Phantom Imposter

            [Sebas]

The cheeky bastard cat was waiting for us in front of a door and disappeared into it.

"He is definitely leading us somewhere." Amanda narrowed her eyes on the door.

"I don't think it is a coincidence that he is leading us in the right direction either." I said noticing that the partially formed stairs and walls seemed to be more whole and solid closer to the door we got.

I opened the door on the other side of it was a large room that looked like the family room we had walked in before the dungeon started transforming. Only this version was considerably bigger as if made to host a large gathering rather than a humble family living space.

Speaking of a large gathering... there were mangled bodies on the floor. Fresh corpses of zombies. At the end of the room a single individual with black and white hair.

"The phantom prince? Why is he here?" Amanda asked.

Talisa looked between me and the Sebas leaning against a sofa playing with a red crystal eye. He really was the spitting image of me. Just with broader muscles and thicker arms. The envy of my poor fox physique that was magically inclined and unable to build real muscle without going on a strict diet and lifting weights.

"You've been playing with some dangerous toys." The Phantom Prince's voice was smooth and dark. It was my voice, my natural voice, if the refined maturity was dialed up to ten. I think I'm actually burning with jealousy, why can't I sound that cool and distinguished when I talk with that face?

"Careful, Jekyll. He's dangerous." Amanda warned.

"Don't be so rude, after all..." the Phantom impersonator disappeared and appeared in front of me. "...I'm here to help you." He wasn't just in front of me he had placed the Sanguinite back in my hand. But he had creepily spoke into my ear.

A bolt flew by my ear, but the imposter vanished before it hit him.

I whipped around and watched him close the door behind us. When he did, he sent a surge of magic through the wall.

I couldn't believe it... he stabilized the Festering dungeon.

ROOOOOOOAARRRRRRRRR

The entire room rumbled under our feet as a monstrous bellow echoed.

There were knives and black ore spikes in the door a moment later where the imposter had stood. Once again, he seamlessly dodged them.

"Now that the dungeon is stabilized you won't need my help to finish it off. I look forward to meeting you again." The imposter smiled as he vanished.

"So that's the phantom prince. He's really cocky and annoying." Becky said.

And so Coooool. Oh... I mean a terrible evil man.. Beast... thing... that is not me the actual phantom prince. Not that my pride is hurt that my imposter is cooler than me...

...okay maybe a little.

"He's not the only problem. We go incoming. Undead by the smell of them, and a lot of them." Kaina said retrieving her bolt and knives.

"He did stabilize the dungeon, but it looks like the dungeon Lord now sees us as a threat so he is going to send everything he has at us." I said rolling my shoulder.

"So can we fight now?" Amanda asked.

"Yep, this is the moment we saved your strength for. Go wild." I cracked my neck and then the magic pulses of the rest of the party burst. They were full of energy as if they couldn't let me, a B rank, show them up anymore. Then monsters burst from three of the four doors in this room. Ranks of undead poured in and were systematically mowed down.

It was oppressive and humbling. At one time, I grew arrogant at the speed of my own growth, but after getting level capped and seeing the world I've begun to understand just how strong the people in this world were. Around every corner there was someone who had a cheat skill or power anyone from Flint, Amanda, Zorlo, to the leader of the Magus Archana who kept the entire world in check just by existing.

I may have always been strong for my age but as I struggled to keep up with just watching the rest of the party fight an onslaught of undead that poured into the room. I was reminded of just how mortal and weak I have always been. A frog in a well seeing the giants of the ocean. No matter how many times I witness this kind of event I'm always dumbfounded by how arrogant I was.

There were no more aberrations like the grapplers, no shadow crawlers, blinkers, or dimensional-gacha zombies. Everything was more mundane but not lacking in power or numbers. There were undead Hulks, armored skeleton knights, ghost soldiers, zombies who knew how to wield simple weaponry and magic.

They were high ranked in place of the more exotic enemies in the void festering dungeon. But at least there would be no surprises...

...or at least that's what I want to say but these girls are nuts.

Kaina is like a female John Wick with an unhealthy allotment of knives that I have no idea where she keeps them all. Becky slammed a hulk in a german Suplex and then proceeded to roll and do it again like a weird death roll and crushed whoever she could with it. Amanda zipped around the battlefield; she didn't even need to use her full power and magic, just her physical strength was enough to turn heads into jelly or punch holes through armor and casually pull out skeleton spines.

Talisa wasn't slacking off either.She was playing a supporter role using magic to buff the party and slicing apart the ghosts before they got near the other party members.

Actually... they are all really good.

So good in fact that I feel just a bit worthless like I'm the one needing protection. I know that was the original cover story but being put in my place so swiftly really makes everything I just did feel so cringey and unnecessary.

I squat down and start drawing circles on the ground in defeat and shame. Even Fido is useful in eating corpses even more than that he is having a field day. His tail is wagging so hard that it might actually break off then regrow itself and break off again.

First the fake Sebas is cooler than me and now this.

Looking back, do I have any cool points or was I just a nerd who thought I was kinda good?

A zombie head rolled up to me. I pick it up and sigh. It has one 'good' eye but even its good eye isn't worth much. It clacked its teeth at me trying to attack, but it is just as pathetic as me. Looking over the I note that the reason the zombie head managed to roll over to me is because the mass of the body parts has grown so high and thick that most enemies need to crawl in the doorway. Not even fido can keep up.

I guess I can play janitor.

I pulled out my knife and began to carve a spell into the unfeeling bitey face that may not have even been a real person.

Then I placed the skull on the ground and finished drawing a circle around it and activated the spell lazily holding the head down with a finger, so it doesn't move. With my spell the bodies and body parts of the undead and recently overkilled sank into the ground like quicksand as the head began to burn up with magic. All the armor and item drops remained so no one will accuse me of being greedy.

The flesh of the head finished burning away and it stopped chomping. The bone underneath turned grey and murky as it crystalized and pulsed with magic. I feel like a kid playing with stones while the adults do real work.

Jekyll is seriously underpowered. I mean he is supposed to be after I got careless with Alpha and got an A rank by accident. Still... watching a dragon, an S rank and two A ranks fighting so well really feels like I've been Nerfed by the universe's game devs. But I just have to remember, even Hyde stuck out too much with how I defined his power limits.

While shamelessly pouting I felt a breeze. It was cool and came from under the door we had just come from. Damn, why didn't I think of that sooner. It wouldn't lead back to the void since we were no in a stabilized festering dungeon.

I did a quick check to make sure the others were still fighting and distracted. Then I reached out with my senses. I concentrated extra hard to create an Alpha duplicate with four of my tails and wind shifted it under the door before anyone could notice.