Fractured God

“Do it, pussy.” He goaded.

She tapped his crotch and he leaned forward in mild but prominent pain.

“I don't have the hardware to work on such small equipment. Oh, right I have something to give you.”

She got up and went outside. He picked himself up and scratched his head.

(“I know we’re just fucking around but I can't get over how used to this I am. If the old me saw he'd assume I'm some scumbag playboy or a manslut.”)

She entered back into the room with a pair of gauntlets. They extended to the elbow and looked wicked. They each had a trio of short tilted blades, like a certain caped crusader’s gloves and had a nice dark finish. The ends of the fingers were pointed like claws as well. Its polish in addition to the darkness made it look as though someone ripped the lower arms off a demon.

“Damn, you don't disappoint.” He said as held his hands out, wanting to try them out. She handed them over, though her face did have some disappointment on it.

“Why gauntlets anyway? A sword would have been way more fitting if you asked me. Hell, you could even use a sword with those.” She adamantly questioned.

He shook his head and began putting them on. “I mostly use hand-to-hand combat and although I know a few tricks with swords, I'd pretty much be handicapping myself if I fought with one.”

“Can't you ask Elizabeth to sharpen your skills up?”

“Are gauntlets so surprising?”

“Of course! I haven't heard of a single person using those as their main weapon.”

Tibaut moved his hands around for a few moments, blocking and throwing several punches.

“How's it? I was worried you'd still be a bit light, so I was contemplating making it tighter.” She grabbed his arm. She looked to see if there was a gap between his arm and the gauntlet.

“It's good. It is not too heavy, and it doesn't seem like it'll tire me out any quicker than regular. It's snug as a glove honestly, so it probably doesn't need any modifications in that sense. I wish I could have gotten this in my spar with Elizabeth earlier.”

“Would you have won?” She asked.

“No, but, it'd probably leave her hands sore enough to give me an extra day to rest. Ugh, I can't believe I'm back to training with her every day.” He said.

“Really? Would you like to put that idea to the test?”

Vanessa and Tibaut blankly stared at each other before turning to the door. At it was Elizabeth with a letter in her hand.

Tibaut cleared his throat and started rubbing his hands together while Vanessa quickly made her way to her side.

“(You traitor!) Oh hey, Elizabeth, me and Vanessa were running some ideas by each other, she was really confident this armour could even the gap between us.”

“(Don't drag me into this asshole!) I think he's mistaken. I never said anything of the sort~” She said in a gentle tone.

“This is important, so could you two stop playing around?” She said in a firm tone.

“Got it.” They responded.

“I have a letter to deliver to Mr. Bentley. I'd rather him receive it tonight as I'd like to discuss it with him and any more information Agnes can recall during tomorrow.” She handed it to Tibaut.

“Then why not give it tomorrow?” He asked as he stared at the outstretched letter.

She sighed.

“Because I'd like for this information to make it to him as soon as possible. Though I can deliver it myself if you feel like it. (I just hope you’ll enjoy the extra special training course tomorrow.)”

“Nah, I can do it.” He looked down at his gauntlets. “I wanna see if there's anything in the forest I can test these on.”

“Please do so after you deliver the letter. Unless you feel like rewriting everything that was on that paper if you get blood on it.”

“C-can I look at first?”

She thought about it for a moment and grabbed Vanessa's hand. “Go ahead.”

Vanessa tried to struggle out of it. “H-hey, what gives!?”

“This letter is not for your eyes.”

As Vanessa struggled in Elizabeth's grasp, Tibaut noticed the letter wasn't even sealed and easily opened it.

First was the letter the priest wrote.

“Why's this in there?”

“I feel it'd be better to have it in his possession.”

“Oh, ok-” Tibaut paused as he looked at the letter. “Huh?”

“What is it?” She asked.

“No, it's-”

“If there's something on your mind, there is no harm in saying what it is,” Elizabeth said as she approached him and took a look at the letter herself with Vanessa still in her grasp, looking dissatisfied.

“Well… the light in the dungeon was pretty dim so I'm not sure if that's why I overlooked it but...

...

....

....."

Elizabeth turned to him, wondering what he was thinking.

"I'm pretty sure this handwriting is different.”

“Repeat!?” Elizabeth said, her voice raised.

“Sorry it's probably just-”

“No, I need to hear the logic behind this. Why do you think that Tibaut!?” She asked with both of her hands on his shoulder. She looked frantic.

“Well, listen I'm not sure but I read through the priest's lab report and his handwriting didn't look like this. Maybe he just had a scribe write it for hi-”

Elizabeth could feel the goosebumps starting to slowly creep up her neck. A fake letter? Who would need to create such a thing-

“And you're sure the handwriting was different!?” She exclaimed. Even Vanessa was starting to look worried based on her reaction.

“Pretty sure but like I said, I'm sure he probably had a scribe-” Elizabeth grabbed his hand and began walking. She moved with haste and the three of them soon reached the stairway.

“We need to go to Mr. Bentley as soon as possible. Shit, I shouldn't have had Ruby leave so soon! No, we should still have a few days left before they act.”

“Woah, wait you aren't implying that-”

“What's going on you two? I feel like I'm out of the loop here.”

“The man in black is likely still in this parish. This letter is a fake one he planted!”

“But when could he have done that?” Tibaut asked.

“You say those with the powder can ignore the women right? Then it's likely he saw this as adequate time to hide himself, preparing for a final blow.”

They soon reached the bottom of the stairs.

“So he's at least a priest like that short blonde guy?”

“I would bet on it. Darn, do you remember any other papers in that space the priest kept as his own?”

A cold sweat ran down his forehead. “I think I saw one or two more on the floor when I first entered but I didn't really pay them any attention, they just looked like scrap paper.”

“Yet that was the only piece of paper we could find that directly addressed themselves as the priest.”