The weapons were finally complete. After the ores had been fused and the metals shaped, Sly and Carmelita had each put a few drops of their own blood into the weapons to bind them to their intended wielders. After that, they had been doused in the Divine River to give them the power to slay a Fell God. At Sly's suggestion, Wadjet had held the cane in the River by her tail through the shaped hook, so that between the weight of the weapon and the movement of the river it would constantly be in motion without ever running the risk of washing downstream, thus ensuring it never encountered the usual weakness that happened when someone or thing was blessed by being held under a sacred river by having the 'grip' not completely submerged. This wasn't an issue with Carmelita's flail, as the lashes were bound to the handle by magic rather than metal or cord, and thus did not need the indestructible aspect Sly's weapon needed.
The completed weapons glimmered even in the cave, the light of the Rivers reflecting off the metal as it glowed in gold, blue, and silver. Carmelita held hers lightly in her grip, marveling at how it responded to her slightest thought as she waved it about, the lashes almost seeming to have minds of their own as they responded to the slightest mental directive. Sly looked at his new cane unhappily, his eyes focusing on the one aspect it had that his old one had deliberately lacked: the razor sharp points on the hook.
"The purpossse of thessse weaponsss isss to kill," Wadjet gently reminded him as he continued to stare.
"Recognizing the necessity doesn't mean I like it," Sly pointed out in an oddly neutral voice. "Seft needs to be stopped. We're the only ones who can. The only way to stop him now is to kill him. That means we have to kill him. I recognize and accept that, and will do it." He rolled the cane gently in his hands before flipping it around a few times to test its weight. "Doesn't mean I like it, anymore than I did when I set out to kill Seft when I learned it was the only way to protect Coco from being used as a power source back when we first encountered him."
"You know, something's been bothering me," Murray spoke up thoughtfully. "About...that whole thing."
"Oh?" Wasjet asked curiously.
"Well, I was looking at those old papers from that job of Bentley's," Murray continued, "and...well, if I read the figures right, due to the difficulty of bootstrapping the breach, the first 'anchor' - the thing taken from the other world to energize this end of the portal with that world's energies - would have to have a relatively low energy quotient. At first I thought that meant 'has to be a kid', but that didn't seem right. There were a lot of numbers..."
"Actually," Bentley corrected, "from what I was able to determine reading it, it would have to grab someone who had energy of that world, but at levels that could blend with the energies of our world by comparison."
"So...as magically potent as I've grown up to be..." Coco began awkwardly as she turned this over in her mind. "For the portal to have snatched me for a power source...I have to be one of the weaker ones of my world?"
"Err...more or less," Bentley admitted.
"If that's 'one of the weaklings'," Penelope demanded in shock, "then what the hell do the 'powerhouses' look like?"
"And how was Seft planning to take them out to conquer?" Murray inquired curiously.
Wadjet turned into the River of Time thoughtfully. "...by forcing them to fight hisss way," she explained softly as she looked through time. "Hosssstagessss. Psssychological warfare. Ressssource harvessssting. Ssslash and burn tacticsss. Forcing the more powerful of the beingsss on that ssside to pursssue him to this ssside after resssearching the energy enough to know how to turn it againssst them. Had you not liberated Coco from him...he had a 73% chance of ssssuccesss basssed on the energy configurationsss of that world at that time."
"Then it's a good thing we did liberate her," Sly stated warmly, bending down to muss Coco's mane. "And all the more important that we take him down now...before he decides to try again with god power."
"Indeed," Wadjet agreed. "Come. I have raimentssss for you that will protect you ssssomewhat from hisss divine power, and enable you to meet him on a ssssomewhat even footing." Turning, she picked up a package before setting it before Sly and Carmelita.
Sly carefully opened the package. Golden bracers for their wrists and ankles. White silk wraps to hang below the waist. Golden sun-shaped peytrals to hang from their shoulders over the upper part of their chests and back. Two headdresses, one identical to that worn by the pharaohs, the other with a stylized throne designed atop it.
"Do not wear other garb with thessse," Wadjet warned carefully. "The energy fieldsss embedded in the material will fail if other fabrics are interlaid with these...and then you will be vulnerable-"
"So where's the rest of it?" Carmelita asked worriedly as she held hers up against her body, as she realized that the completed outfit would be...quite revealing on her.
"...that issss the entire raiment," Wadjet pointed out thoughtfully.
"What?" Carmelita demanded in shock. "But...but I'll practically be falling out of it every time I move!" She held the sun peytral up to her body to show that it would almost, but not quite, cover her ample bosom. "And this silk is so thin...it's practically see through!"
"That issss why you mussst wrap multiple layerssss," Wadjet explained calmly. "I shall show you-"
"If I wrap it that much, it'll barely cover anything anywhere else!" Carmelita complained. "How am I supposed to fight like this?"
"The...same way you fought in the belly dancer outfit in Salim's time?" Bentley offered helpfully.
"So not very well, then?" Penelope joked impishly.
"...to be fair, I'm pretty sure I showed off less in that outfit," Carmelita pointed out dryly, though she took another look at the raiment as she mentally prepared herself for...more than one sort of battle.
"If it helps, think about how much of Dad will be shown off!" Coco offered a trifle impishly.
"That does not help!" Carmelita growled out as she struggled to control her blush.