What is going on?
The indigo Demon Knight lay on his back, breath ragged, a wet cough forcing blood up through his visor. It spilled down the inside of his helm as he grimaced and forced himself to move. Every motion screamed. Inch by inch, he dragged himself up until he was braced on his elbows. His vision dipped to his chest—his armor was caved inward, the plate visibly warped from a single blow. A few feet away, his bo staff lay broken cleanly in two, the fracture jagged and final.
He lifted his head and looked ahead.
His brother—the lapis Demon Knight—was still fighting.
Moving faster than his eyes could fully track, the lapis knight threw everything he had at Aeron. Tonfas swung, jabbed and crossed in blinding arcs, every strike desperate, precise, and lethal. Yet none of them landed. It was as if something unseen intervened every time, as though the very air bent to favor Aeron. Attacks slipped past him by hairsbreadths. Blows skimmed empty space. The world itself seemed aligned against them.
Against him.
The indigo knight's thoughts dragged backward, replaying the moments that had led to this.
When Aeron had said, "So I will use that to defeat you," both knights had hesitated. They had searched him for some change—some shift in stance, posture, power. *His cybernetic arm?* the lapis knight had wondered. But nothing happened. Aeron stood exactly as he had before.
*Was it a bluff? No. That made no sense.*
Frustration had pushed the indigo knight forward. He had surged in, intent on forcing damage through sheer aggression—but the battlefield betrayed him. The ground, churned to mud by the violence of the fight, gave way beneath his foot. His balance vanished. He pitched forward just as Aeron drew his leg back to strike.
The kick should have crushed his skull.
Instead, steel rang as the lapis knight intercepted it, crossing his tonfas just in time. The impact sent a shock through both of them.
"Your teamwork really is impressive," Aeron had remarked calmly.
The indigo knight had scrambled upright with a growl, fury burning hot—but his rushed movement flung a spray of mud from his boot. By pure chance, it splattered straight across the lapis knight's visor.
The lapis knight recoiled, snarling as mud smeared his vision, trapped behind the helm.
"That had such a low chance of happening," Aeron had observed, almost mildly.
The indigo knight attacked again, spinning his bo staff at full speed. The ends ignited from friction as he drove it toward Aeron's head and throat in a relentless barrage. Every thrust, every sweep, was avoided. Aeron shifted by inches—tilting his head, rolling his shoulders, stepping just enough that each strike missed.
Then, in the chaos of his own momentum, the indigo knight's staff clipped the back of his leg.
"Ugh!" He dropped to one knee.
"Don't blame yourself," Aeron had said as he leaned back from a tonfa swing. "Accidents happen."
The lapis knight, still half-blinded, lashed out blindly. "Hey, don't swing around like that," Aeron advised, ducking under one strike and blocking another with his forearm.
The next swing came wide.
By sheer misfortune, the lapis knight's tonfa crashed straight into the indigo knight's faceplate.
"Or that might happen," Aeron added.
Before either of them could recover, Aeron moved. He slipped past two more frantic strikes and drove an uppercut into the lapis knight, launching him backward through the mud.
The indigo knight staggered up, clutching his helm as Aeron closed the distance. Desperation took over. He lashed out with his bo staff—
Aeron caught it.
His cybernetic right arm clamped around the shaft at its center and tightened. The weapon was forged to endure crushing pressure, even the depths of the sea—but Aeron's grip found the exact point of structural weakness. With a sharp crack, the staff snapped in two.
"That's a nice weapon," Aeron remarked, almost regretful. "Wish I could use something like it."
Then he punched him.
The blow caved the chest plate inward and sent the indigo knight flying.
And now, in the present, the indigo knight lay broken, watching as his brother rose once more and charged Aeron with everything he had left.
"Want me to explain what's happening?" Aeron asked calmly as he stepped aside from a downward tonfa strike.
At that exact moment, a sword came spinning out of the chaos. It had been flung loose when a nearby demon was torn apart by the automatons, its trajectory wild but somehow perfect. The blade was lined up to slip straight through the lapis knight's visor. His eyes widened and he was forced to bat it aside mid-swing.
That single adjustment cost him everything.
Aeron's foot drove into his back an instant later. The kick sent him hurtling forward, his momentum unchecked. He slammed into the ground headfirst and was dragged across the churned earth for a couple of seconds before he managed to twist, roll, and spring back to his feet with acrobatic precision. His recovery was fast, almost flawless.
Almost.
His right leg swung out as he landed and clipped a demon beside him. Bones shattered with a dry crack as the creature collapsed.
"So much bad luck," Aeron continued conversationally, "and chance just keeps going against you."
The lapis knight turned his head, mud still smeared across his visor, vision distorted and incomplete. He looked around as best he could, piecing together the battlefield through fragments. Something clicked.
"Is this… Murphy's Law?" he muttered.
Aeron raised an eyebrow. "I do not know what that is," he replied. "But what is happening is simple. I am manipulating chance so that everything bad that could happen to you does happen to you."
Both Demon Knights froze.
"That was the reaction I was expecting," Aeron added. "It is called the Probability Gauge. It is something I have inside my body." He tapped his chest, right where his heart would be. "But enough explaining. Now that you both understand that realization changes nothing, how about you give up?"
He reached into his coat and produced a pair of handcuffs.
"You are both under arrest."