Lady Awesome: Little bro, you know that I love you and all, but how long do we gotta keep this up?

  Vadeem the Dream: This is ridiculous, Walter! I feel like a clown!

  Lady Awesome: I’m a literal clown here, Vadeem! But seriously, do we have to act so stupid, and what is up with your wheel? I’m getting a headache trying to follow all the rules.

  Walter’s Fine: Um, sorry, just a little longer, I promise. We have about half an hour or so to kill before we can wrap this up. And on the good side, I think the Aspirants have started to figure out the gimmicks and are planning their retaliation.

  Vadeem the Dream: How is that a good thing? It’s already hard enough keeping track of how much power I should use “normally”, but now I have to keep track of debuffs and pretend to care about constraints? You know I’m not good at that kind of stuff, Walter.

  Lady Awesome: Agree with Vadeem again, little bro. And won’t them messing with your magic wheel mean we’re gonna get beaten up for a bit? That’s your kink, not mine!

  I sighed. I knew what my friends were telling me was the truth, and I was asking for quite a bit on their part. During the fight, Vadeem and Noel had to keep track of all of the various buffs and status effects being spun, and since the contents of the wheel were mainly fluff - it wasn’t like I could actually make my friends twice as strong with my nonexistent magic - it was up to them to keep track of how much power they used as the situation dictated.

  But that was the genius of the wheel in the first place. The whole setup needed almost no upkeep cost. See, 90% of it was pure BS and intimidation tactics, with the only thing that I needed to do was to observe and ensure that none of the Aspirants broke any of my arbitrary rules and punish them accordingly. The only problem, however, was the few times the wheel landed on my side, which forced Noel and Vadeem to pretend to power up. They told me, very quickly, that trying to keep the pretense up was tiring and not altogether fun.

  But… while I know that it wasn’t enjoyable for those two, I really did want to pretend to be the final boss of this place.

  Walter’s Fine: It’s only for a little while… please, guys? We’ll be done in like half an hour. Don’t you want to see the hope grow in their eyes before we completely destroy them? I’ve always wanted to do this kind of thing.

  Lady Awesome: *sigh* Fine, little bro. But just this once, and it’s because we owe you for saving the girls! And by the way, you totally sound like a supervillain. I approve.

  Vadeem the Dream: Alright, let’s just play along. It’s not that bad, I suppose. And you’re getting a little too into this role, Walter.

  I blushed. Maybe they were right… but come on! I needed some relaxation!

  Anyway, now that everyone was on board with my game, I had to pay attention to see what exactly the Aspirants had in store. All I knew was that the mages had figured something out, and while I could use Noe’s abilities to offset anything they did, I allowed them their turn to shine. The next time that the roulette was spinning, there was a subtle change in the way that the wheel turned. The first one landed on the Aspirant side of things, but just when the second wheel was about to stop on a debuff, the entire wheel twitched and tumbled, causing it to roll over just one spot extra.

  It landed on “Combat Strength Increase”.

  “It worked!” I heard one of their mages shout. “We can win!”

  Huh… how was I supposed to enforce this…? Well, I guess I could wing it like usual. I used Noe’s Emotional Redux to amp up their emotions to the max, like what I did with the Restus, and told my two friends to pretend that their attacks were doing more than they actually did. Any inconsistencies could hopefully be patched up with a few Luck Charges, although that did point to the second issue I had. I wasn’t entirely sure if I had enough Charges to go around if I had to keep using them to mess with the Aspirant’s perceptions.

  Thankfully this plan was effective… although the amount of Luck Charges I was spending was astronomical. I had to not only amplify the emotions of over 350 individuals, all of whom had higher-than-average mental barriers in place, but I had to ensure that they were feeling absolutely elated. That wasn’t even counting the ambient perception manipulation I had to do. All of that meant that I was down to a pitiful 340 Luck Charges after the five minutes were up.

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  “It’s working!” one of the Aspirants said with glee. “Look at that fucker’s expression! It’s nervous for once!”

  Well, technically that was true, but not for the reasons that they think. I was certainly feeling a little nervous seeing all of my resources wasted; I’d hate to have to end things early.

  “It is best to manipulate the first wheel to ensure that it does not land on the Aspirants again, my Host,” Noe said, “Although your friends will resent you, it is safer to have them pretend to be weakened than to try this again.”

  Fair enough… Sorry Vadeem and Noel!

  And once again, as the timer buzzed and the next round of spins was set to take place, I had Noe ensure that the next few landed the way I needed them to. I was planning to have my friends defeated after perhaps three or so rounds, so it wouldn’t look too out of place if the roulette landed on our side every time. This time the options didn’t land on one that either of my friends enjoyed.

  Vadeem the Dream: Oh, come on, are you serious? We have to pretend to be blind now?

  Lady Awesome: *sigh*

  Walter’s Fine: Um, just three more of these and we can call it a day. After that we’re prepping for the final showdown, so just a little while longer. Please? You can’t see me, but I’m making puppy eyes right now.

  Vadeem the Dream: Walter, you look like you came right out of a horror movie. Those “puppy eyes” are the stuff of nightmares.

  Walter’s Fine: Is it that bad?

  Lady Awesome: Little bro, you have wires sticking out of your eyes, and half your face is chewed off. It’s bad.

  Walter’s Fine: I’m pretty sure the wires are on my eyelids… but I get your point. Okay, I swear I’ll owe you two a favor when we get out, alright?

  Vadeem the Dream: You’re lucky we like you.

  I had to force myself not to wince when I saw what my two friends had to endure for the next little while. The Aspirants, with new enthusiasm and life pulsing through their veins, went absolutely ballistic on the two. Vadeem was bashed by various Aspirants almost as large as he was, while Noel ate wave after wave of various arcane spells. Worse, they had to pretend to be paralyzed, weakened, or forced to use only one arm to fight. It was only through the constant bickering and complaints that I knew they weren’t taking that much damage, but it was a little hard to watch either way. Especially since they were doing this for me.

  This went on for the next fifteen excruciating minutes, and as each round ended in a clear victory for the Aspirants, their faces and postures became more and more bold. Cheers started to erupt after they had dealt a major blow to Vadeem, causing him to stagger on his feet, and they were even relishing in the suffering of Noel by the end of the fifteen minutes. What was impressive, however, was that despite all of this, AJ’s team never let down their guards. They never grew complacent; it was commendable.

  Walter’s Fine: Alright, alright, it’s time to wrap this up. Vadeem, Noel, prepare for the final act. You remember the lines, right?

  Vadeem the Dream: Yeah, Walter, like we’d ever forget…

  Walter’s Fine: Go right after the next hit!

  And right on cue, the moment that a monstrous sledge slammed into Vadeem’s noggin, he pretended to slump back and groan. I used my connection with Sarah to envelop Vadeem’s body, preparing it to be transported out of there. With a bit of help from Noe’s perception shard, it’ll look like the man was disintegrating or melting away, and from the triumphant looks on the Aspirant's faces, they bought the deception easily enough.

  “Curse you, foul Asp- uh, I mean foul invaders!” Vadeem screamed. “You will uh, rule the day that you fought the glorious vice director!”

  I winced. I had forgotten how bad Vadeem’s acting can be, but this… this was next levels of bad. I can only hope that Noe could somehow salvage this performance.

  Lady Awesome: Wow… did you honestly say rule the day? The idiom is rue, Vadumb, it’s rue the day. Holy shit, how am I in the same guild as this moron?

  Vadeem the Dream: Shut up, Noel! I’d like to see you do better.

  Walter’s Fine: Okay, never mind that. Noel, it’s almost your turn. Stall out for another minute or two before falling as well. Take out a few of them in your dying moments.

  Doing as she was told, Noel’s form started to blaze with energy. Remarkably, she was able to subtly hint that she was at the end of her ropes, that this was nothing more than a final surge of energy before all was lost, by making her flames flicker and disperse. It really did look like she was risking it all on a desperate last stand. Her flames exploded outwards, engulfing the Aspirants closest to her before the mages in the back were finally able to contain her outburst. She even managed to take two of those pesky back-row individuals out in the chaos, but eventually, it too was her time to go.

  AJ, sensing the end, ran up to Noel and plunged a spear into her body. With the ability to bend and distort her body in any way that she wanted, she allowed herself to be stabbed. Noel’s flames started to sputter from the wound, making it look like she was bleeding all the while her body started to shrink and lose its form. Finally, she collapsed onto the floor, her body struggling to maintain a humanoid shape.

  “How…” she muttered as more liquid flames poured down her mouth. “This can’t be the end! I can’t go like this. Vice Director, hel…”

  “There is no saving you,” AJ spat and finished the job. He stabbed Noel again, this time in her face, shutting her up for the last time.

  I did the same thing with Vadeem and used the hospital to drag her away from the stage. And as her body finally disappeared once and for all, the cheers and applause from the Aspirants filled the room. But AJ, ever the pragmatic individual, halted their celebration and his eyes stared into mine.

  “There’s still one more bastard to kill before we can celebrate,” he said with rage. “We will make you suffer, fucking filth. You will know the wrath of Atlus’ Aspirants, and our comrades will be avenged.”

  I didn’t respond. I didn’t have to, because it was time for the final boss to make his entrance.

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