VOXISTALE: Novel Edition

Chapter 47

Not even thirty minutes later, the leaders had moved from the arena, now standing in the dark above a platform. The meeting chamber, where Trickster kneeled before them. "You called us to this meeting," Krashna stated. "This had better be good."

"Don't worry, my leaders, this is information I'm sure you'll want to hear," Trickster reassured. "At least . . . I'm certain Father would want to hear this."

The Son and The Spirit both turned their heads to look at The Father momentarily, before their piercing gazes went back to Trickster.

"I know where they've been keeping Magnum," Trixie stated. "She's in a laboratory owned by Alphys, a monster-scientist. The monster Undyne appeared there with her. Magnum should be located in the lower levels—somewhere."

There was a moment of silence, before Krashna took a step forward. "You don't sound certain. Who's to say the lazy monster didn't off her and you're still clinging to false hope."

"I'm certain," Trickster replied, narrowing her eyes. "I've searched everywhere else, and the fish monster has no reason to travel beneath the laboratory with the scientist."

"Vy znali, chto Undyne imeyet s ney romanticheskiye otnosheniya?" Nikolai asked, staring down upon Trickster, who pursed her lips. She hadn't been aware of that . . .

"N-no . . ."

"You're looking for proof where there is none," Krashna rolled his eyes. "I thought I told you to—" He stopped as Father raised a single hand, and all eyes turned to him.

After a moment of silence, he spoke, "Our lieutenant is there," he stated. "As is our lost one. Trickster, you will free them and kill the scientist and Raptor when the day comes, but you must wait." Trickster opened her mouth to argue against this, wanting to save Magnum now, but stopped, knowing just how bad it would be to speak against the Father, who continued, "Meet our new lieutenants in the command quarters, and they will inform you of the next phase of our plans. Dismissed." With that, the leaders turned and walked away.

Trickster hadn't had the luxury of getting to see who the new lieutenants were back in the Arena, so she wasn't sure what to expect. Raptor and Minerva's replacements . . . Trixie wondered if she could get along with them.

Shaking the thoughts out of her head, Trickster tried to stay in the mindset of saving Magnum even as she began to make her way toward the command quarters. She wanted to know everything possible about the new plan; after all, there was no way she would screw it up.

She was going to rescue Magnum.

The winding halls eventually led her to the command quarters, which was emblazoned with the emblem of the sun. The sun used to be the symbol of the Messiah and the 'cleansing light' they led upon the world. It had been a long time since anything had been like that, and it was long before her time, but some members still tried to follow the older ways of the Messiah, including the Father himself.

When the doors parted, granting her entry, she was greeted by the sight of all the lieutenants together. Warmth was in the corner of the room, staring blankly forward, his arm in a cast. Truck, still beaten and bloodied, now sat at the center table, watching as two people played cards: the two newcomers. A man and woman. The man was wearing a Japanese bathrobe (a yukata if Trickster remembered correctly) over his bare torso, his feet bare. He had short, messy, black hair and pale skin. His posture screamed "proper" as he sat at one end of the table, calmly gazing at his cards, before he gently set four down. "Full house," he stated.

The pink-haired girl sitting across from him took a look at the cards. She wore a frilly black outfit similar to that of a maid's, with a red flower pinned to a dark bowtie on the front of her outfit. "Oh my . . . you're so good at this game, aren't you~?" the girl flirted, batting her eyelashes at the man. "I could never hope to truly beat someone like you, I suppose . . . I must have just gotten lucky," she revealed her hand—a four-of-a-kind.