With weapons in hand and garb barely covering their bodies, Sly and Carmelita made their way out into the desert where Wadjet told them Seft would seek them out. To Carmelita's surprise, despite how skimpy her outfit was and how little it covered, her body behaved as though it gave full support and covering...unless she gave thought to it, in which case her body acted like how it looked. As such, she did her best not to think about it...and not give in to the temptation to find out if Sly's outfit had a similar enchantment on it.
They weren't in the desert long before the skittering of chitin on sand informed them that Seft approached. Before he became visible, his voice reached them. "And so you come upon me to kill me," he spake calmly. "Tell me, Master Thief, Inspector...how does it feel to be nothing but assassins now?"
Sly tensed up, but Carmelita merely flexed her flail. "Honestly, no different than when I'm given the order to take someone down dead or alive," she answered easily. "I always knew that if I ever found you again, I would choose 'dead'. Besides, assassins hide and strike. We're hardly doing that if you know exactly where to find us, and vice versa."
Seft chuckled grimly. "Indeed," he murmured darkly. "But then again, it's impossible to hide from destiny...and it is now destiny that we do battle." He slowly cleared a dune.
Sly and Carmelita found themselves staring up...and up...and up. The divine power inside him had expanded Seft into immensity, so that he now towered over them in the same way Wadjet had. With his legs at full extension, his head was nearly fifty feet in the air, and his torso massive. Small blessings, the tiny wound they had inflicted on first meeting was a proportionally bigger target, but it would also take a lot more punishment before they would be able to deliver a finishing blow. A badly healed scab covered it, showing what they would have to get through to get to it. His arms swept out as his pincers clicked in the air...all six of them echoing into their very bones as they saw the wicked curves and even blood channels, as though they had been forged rather than being part of a living body. His sting arced over his shoulders, blotting out the sun as it was carefully positioned.
"Let us see if you have what it takes to kill a god..." Seft growled, then lashed out with his sting.
Carmelita dove to the side, bringing her flail up to lash out with bursts of light aimed at his face, meant to distract and blind. Sly leapt back just out of range of the sting, then leapt forward to grasp the back of it before racing up it as fast as he could. When the light reached Seft's face, he shielded his eyes with one pincer and staggered back, his tail jerking backward. At just the right moment, Sly leapt from the tail towards Seft's torso, swinging his cane down at the scab. His hook barely caught it, jerking part of it free...though not enough to expose the wound before Seft smacked him away with the back of one pincer.
"Not bad, Cooper," Seft growled out as he turned towards him. "But you need to do better than-GAH!" He struck out at his chest, managing to catch Carmelita as her invisibility dropped. She'd managed to learn that Cooper technique enough to conceal herself to get in range to strike the scab with a lash from below, breaking off another chunk. "So you think that's enough to take me?" Seft roared out as he skittered forward, attempting to slash with one pincer while another swept in to close firmly.
As Carmelita desperately dodged out of the way, Sly leapt onto one of the legs and climbed up rapidly. Before he'd made it to the top, one of the pincers was coming his way...and he caught it with his hook and jerked, causing it to close on Seft's own leg. As Seft bellowed in shock and pain, he jerked back...but Sly had pulled it into the rear-most leg, and the jerk knocked Seft off all the legs on that side, causing him to fall over. As he struggled back to his feet, Sly and Carmelita lunged back in, striking at the scab with all their strength until finally the wound was exposed.
However, their single minded assault proved to their detriment, as two of Seft's arms lashed out. Sly's instincts warned him just in time to backflip out of the way before he was seized in those pincers...but Carmelita didn't react quite fast enough. She let out a scream of pain as the pincer closed around her, starting to crush her body.
"I won't insult you by trying to make you back off to save her," Seft growled as he held Carmelita high in the air as he got back upright. "We all know what happens if you lose here."
"And you want that?" Sly snapped out as he searched around for a way to get to the wound.
"Do you have any idea how much power I will have as the god that caused the end of this world, with so much of the future that needed to already happen collapsed from my actions?" Seft roared out. "I will be able to open the breach between worlds under my own power! I can cross over and conquer...and Apep will bless me for bringing him out so soon! With the blessing of chaos, nothing in any world will be able to touch me! I will be able to conquer endlessly...and the only thing that stands in my way is the two of you!" He squeezed Carmelita in his pincer, and she let out a cry of pain, the protections on her raiment the only thing keeping her from being split into pieces.
"Not quite," a cold, familiar voice declared angrily.
Seft, Sly, and Carmelita turned to stare in shock towards the source of the voice as wings spread, blotting out the sun.
.......oh no. please tell me you didnt pull another trixie out of your ass and make her into coco.
Depending on WHEN Coco came through, something tells me Discord would react negatively to the type of Chaos Apep spreads.
Hello Clockwerk. How nice of you to drop in.
It is times like this where I REALLY wish that Clockwerk had an orchestral version of his fight theme!
And so... Death arrives on the wings of fate....
Unfortunate that Carmelita got caught in a pincer attack but it's probably reassuring to know that this incident will probably scab over. If there's ever a time to appear, now would be the best time to wing it and hope for the best eh?
I see some plenty of people are thinking it is Clockwork and I agree. We have a mutual enemy here and poor Seft has no clue on just what is going to happen to him because he probably didn't plan on this development.
Doubt clockwerk is here but I wouldn't be surprised to see ascended coco her.
I SO hope this is clock work, simply because of the after battle drama. And the redemption, cant forget the redemption.
edit: What if its coco on clockwork? That would be epic.
8807432
By the gods, now I know how papyrus feels XD
Why must the chapter end on a cliffhanger?
The edge of my seat is going to kill my ass.
Well, this is either Clockwerk's plan he was talking about, or...aactually, that's all I can think of. The voice is supposedly familiar to Sly and Carmelita, so I don't have much to work with.
8807592
Think back a few chapters when the little bot was talking with what remained of clockwerks mind
Just had a thought, what if clockwork IS Apep?
Something about that ending made me veeeeery happy Somehow, I don't think I'll be disappointed next chapter, hahahaha.
Nicely done!
The bigger they are the more collateral damage you have to deal with when you drop their arse
...I have a distinct suspicion as to where this is going... and I am intrigued.
I think Set is about to get subjected to mechanical mayhem. Clockwerk won't let anyone but him destroy the Cooper Family, and he's apparently had a change of heart thanks to Deik-Beck. I'm actually hoping it's not ascended Coco unless she's coming in LATER after Clockwerk has a chance to inflict some wounds on Set.
8807711
I admit, Coco on Clockwerk would be even more awesome... but to fit the sneaky thief archetype she should be hiding inside him and pop out when Set thinks he's winning and do a surprise attack.
8807740
Personally, I find such wordplay sansastional.
8807335
You DARE compare The Godly and All-Powerful Trixie to a fashion designer-turned-thief? Preposterous! Trixie is the only one who can even approach Trixie's charm!
Seriously, Ascended Coco and Ascended Trixie would be two completely different results!
8807410
You mean like what they did for the collection?
https://youtu.be/vAxdPOpyk_o
8807820
That is a very terrifying thought.
Oh, Seft is in for SO much pain right now.
When did clockwork start showing up in the thevius racunus?
The cavalry's here! And it's in the form of an immortal cyborg owl
8808348
HEEEER'S CLOCKWORK.
Oh i fault it's was coco because she is piss that he is hurting her mother
Looks like the Cold Heart of Hate has finally started beating again and you know what the Cooper Clan says about those wings..."If you saw those wings sillouetted against the sky, it was already too late for you."
"A cold, familiar voice" definitely makes me think Deik-Beck or Clockwerk, it doesn't really sound right for Coco.
8808339
Slytunkhamen II (the one whose grandfather Seft killed in this) was the ancestor who started the Book...and Clockwerk could be seen in silhouette on his pictures.
Clockwerk: "You were good, Seft, but you made one mistake...You got in the way of my revenge"
Oh! Ooooohhhhhh!!!! Badass incoming! Badass incoming!!!
8808987
TACTICAL BADDASS, INCOMING
8807426
Wings of orichalcum, mithril, and adamantium at that. Which conveniently also explains why Clockwerk was built of a metal no one knew how to destroy.
8809567
huh...
8809567
Except he reforged them recently, so it wouldn't work for the original wings, unless he yanked them out of the ocean after clockla was dumped off the edge and they were already made of the stuff... which can imply a time loop between the two timelines.
8807337
Pretty sure he wouldn't like it at any point, Apep is pure chaotic destruction. Discord is more about having as much fun as reality itself falls apart around him. He never struck as someone to kill intentionally, mainly since death is pretty boring...oh they dead...whelp now what?
8809997
Some manner of loop is what I was implying, yes. We'll have to see where Tatsurou goes with it, though.
8810264
Would be interesting, also would be interesting if seft was actually clockwork somehow. Although considering the fact that clockworks daughter was an owl it is highly unlikely.
8819775
That’s them! They were pretty hard to beat and I’m pretty sure one of them turned into a giant robot.
This is going to be a hoot!
Is it past Clockwerk or an evolved/regenerated Diek Beck? Either way, we’re getting a super hot beat down with the werks!
8820860
In before both show up.
8820836
well, their heads did, though that was more taking over a pair of what looked to be military robots before Razor hijacked one to take out the other...
OH HELL YEAH !
9310273
AGREED!
Seft is delusional if he thinks he's going to win he's going down hard