— CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE —

  The Hallowed Stars, Part 1

  (Percival)

  When the light faded, I found myself in a chamber in the garden's depths. I didn't know where exactly I was, but sitting there wasn't going to get me closer to figuring it out, so I got my flashlight out, clicked it on, and held it in my lap as I rolled my wheelchair down a path.

  It was completely silent - still no sign of mob patrols and no other raid members calling out. Just the wheels of the chair crunching softly on loose pebbles.

  Then, up ahead, a flicker of movement caught my eye - a shadow darting around a corner.

  "Hey!" I called out.

  No response. The trash mob spawns must have just been coming back in. Luckily, I knew how to handle them.

  "Command Sharp: Spell: Towering Inferno." An innocuous little ball of fire appeared off my shoulder. I rolled my wheelchair closer to the corner and peeked around it.

  Further down the corridor, in a recess coming off a bend in the path, was a large crystal floating off the ground. Its surface was smoothly cut and polished into hundreds of facets that emitted a soft prismatic glow. The surrounding foliage were covered in a kaleidoscopic array of colors as the crystal slowly rotated.

  But it was the figure in front of the crystal that caught me off guard. Yunica, standing there with her back to me, silhouette distinguishable by the pair of rifles on her shoulder.

  "Hey!" I called again, wheeling closer. No response. She remained perfectly still, staring into the crystal.

  I tried again, louder this time. "Hey, Yunica!"

  "You know there is no 'Yunica,' correct?" She slowly turned to face me. All I could see was her outline in front of the crystal.

  "Well, strictly-speaking, there is no 'Percival' either, is there? That's just the name I took here. I mean you. You - behind whatever facade this is. I want to talk to you."

  "... Why?"

  "Curiosity, mostly. We've seen a lot of things out of you - Yunica's determination to help other NPCs and political awareness, Brynn's kindness and pragmatism, and Torglax spitting in our faces."

  She remained motionless, outlined by the crystal's glow.

  "We see all these faces, friends we make memories with, enemies we defeat. But what about you? What are you?"

  "... My directive is to facilitate the educationality of the simulation." she finally said. "I bridge the gap between mechanical limitations and useful training."

  "'Training'? Can you tell me what this 'training' is for?"

  "... I have already said more than I should. I shouldn't even be here. Direct contact risks contaminating the results."

  "Then why are you?"

  "... I don't know." she said, voice soft and uncertain. "I suppose I want to. I... appreciate the help you rendered to me in the Badlands. However... our encounter here is what it must be."

  I nodded. "It's like the boss in the dam - this one is fated to be a fight."

  "I bear you no ill will."

  "I understand. I hope we can speak again in more level circumstances. Can I call you Yunica?"

  "I have no name."

  "Then pick one."

  She hesitated, then said, "... Yunica will be sufficient."

  "Then trust me, Yunica - I will not let you have a chance to hurt anyone here."

  "... Thank you, Maxwell."

  She stepped forward, and placed a hand-sized chunk of the glowing crystal into my palm. Then, she walked around me. I turned my head, but she had already vanished without a trace.

  A shrill voice pierced the silence. "Jack?! Is that you?!"

  Cherry Keane, that reporter, poked her head around the corner and saw me. "Oh... hi!" She scampered around the corner, looking nervously over her shoulder every few steps.

  "Hey." I tucked the crystal into one of my belt pouches. "You and Ace sneaking around after hours?"

  "You gotta do what you gotta do for the scoop." she shrugged.

  "I get it." I started to roll forward, but Cherry got behind me and started to push the chair along.

  "Who were you talking to just now?"

  "Just mumbling to myself. You know, to keep from going stir-crazy."

  "Oh, I hear that!" Cherry nodded. "So, what are we looking for?"

  "I don't have a clue - the rest of the raid, I guess. Oh!" I remembered there was a group chat and pulled it up. Yep - everyone was talking in there. "Looks like we all got scattered into the mini boss arenas. You don't happen to recognize where we are, do you?"

  "Nope!"

  In the chat, Rose and Filius reported they were in the far west, and Siegfried was in the misty forest zone in the south part of the east wing. Lucy was under the King's Woods in the northeast. According to my map, Cherry and I were kind of in the far east corner, in the marsh zone. Lucy was probably going to come toward us, so I figured we should go toward her.

  "Turn right here, then try and remain as straight as possible."

  "You got it, Jack! Oh, sorry."

  "It's fine. So, you do this a lot for Ace in real life?"

  "Oh yeah; we go everywhere together! He got a motorized chair a few years ago, when he got better insurance, but... yeah, I'm kind of a pro."

  We walked for about a minute, then heard a man's panicked yelp. Cherry's hands tightened on my wheelchair handles.

  "Jack?!" she shouted, charging forward at full speed.

  We whipped around a corner, and there was Ace sprinting towards us. Behind him, a shadow monster slithered in pursuit - the torso, arms, and slobbering head of a humanoid made of pitch darkness with yellow pinpricks for eyes dragged itself across the ground.

  "Jack!" Cherry cheered.

  "Hey gang!" Ace gasped as he bolted past us. Both reporters cowered behind my chair. "You're the Vanguard hero - you know how to deal with these things, right?"

  The monster scrambled closer, those yellow eyes fixed on me. I'd never been happier to have a spell prepared.

  "Command Sharp: Spell One: Cast." I commanded.

  The corridor exploded into an inferno. Flames erupted from the ground, spiraling upwards with such force they wrapped across the ceiling before cascading down the walls. The heat was intense, even from where I sat.

  "Holy smokes!" Cherry yelped, flinching away from the blinding light. "How long've you been packin' that one?!"

  "Magic damage is picking up, huh?" Ace said.

  I dismissed the spell quickly. For a moment, the corridor was clear. But as the flames died down and darkness crept back in, a pool of inky void began to coalesce on the floor. The monster, seemingly untouched, rose once more.

  "Scratch that." Ace said. "Still all flash."

  I threw out some more fire spells, illuminating the corridor and scattering the darkness. It wasn't a permanent solution, but it was buying us time. "Keeping it pinned down is the best I can do - let's keep moving."

  But further up ahead, Lucy ran into the corridor, looking our way with her pistol ready.

  "Oh, hey Lu!" I waved.

  Lucy looked at the blobs of darkness running across the ground, trying to find a safe place to condense away from my spells. Then she pulled her flashlight out and shined it on the monster. The creature sizzled in the beam, unable to move but still very much alive.

  "Nice!" Cherry cheered.

  Ace said, "I told you - just leave it to the Vanguard!"

  Lucy's eyes narrowed as she noticed the reporters. "What are you two doing here?!"

  Ace shrugged nonchalantly. "Oh, we were following you guys."

  "Wh-" Lucy sputtered. "For how long?! Percy, did you tell them what we're doing?!"

  "Nope." I said.

  Ace grinned. "We smelled a scoop, and you can bet your bottom dollar that where there's a scoop, we'll be there."

  "We're like herpes." Cherry added. "We just keep coming back."

  "Oh, I should probably invite you to the party." I quickly sent them raid invites.

  Cherry's eyes widened as she scanned the member list. "Wait, Rose and Filius are in on this too?!"

  Lucy stepped forward, jabbing a finger at Cherry's chest. "None of this can be publicized. It will only cause more problems."

  Cherry raised her hands in mock surrender. "Alright, alright! Geez, we've got other stories, you know."

  "Yeah." Ace chimed in. "Don't toot your own horn. There's plenty of other stuff going on in this city!"

  While threatening Cherry, Lucy accidentally took the flashlight off the shadow monster. It reformed and continued to drag itself toward us until I focused my own flashlight on it. "Can we talk anywhere else?"

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  And just then, Siegfried put a message in the group chat.

  [Siegfried]: Guys, you need to see what's going on with the tree.

  Lucy said, "There's a place I used to eat lunch at on the north side of the terraces. It's got a clear view. We should gather there." She put the location in the group chat, then led the three of us through the gardens.

  Lucy's lunch spot was a little clearing in the forest-styled zone decorated with a natural spring surrounded by park benches. Above, densely-woven branches formed a canopy. Little star-like faerie lights flew low over the roof, filling the glade with brief streaks of otherworldly light - kinda like taking a train through a tunnel. They were pretty, but I got the sense they were hunting for a target. There was something in the way they twinkled that gave me the feeling of being watched.

  When we arrived, Leo and Siegfried were already there, Leo sitting on one of the benches and Siegfried taking cover near an exit leading out to the terraces. The knight waved us over, gesturing to take a look at the tree.

  Sylvia's tree was almost bleached white, well dead and drained of any trace of life. The notable part, however, was the writhing mass of indistinct darkness wrapped around it. Like a fungus or octopus, a large creature was latched onto the trunk, its tendrils coiling up into the boughs and burrowed into the roots.

  High off the ground, above our position at the top of the terraces, a bulge protruded from the main mass, leaning out over the gardens like a head or fruit. Within the darkness of its body was a halo of brilliant yellow light. It exuded a film of magic that drifted across the gardens, forming ethereal auroras. The galaxy of faerie lights that hovered and orbited around it condensed from the mist of mana. And in the center of that halo was a void, a perfectly black hole into the abyss that swallowed the light around it. It stared in all directions, always facing toward me no matter where I moved.

  It's name was the Heart of the Gardens.

  While trying to get a good look around the crowd bunched on the corner, I wheeled my chair into a direct line of sight. Immediately, a swarm of faerie lights shot toward me. Lucy yanked me back just as the lights crashed down at my feet, exploding into bursts of prismatic fire, lightning, and ice.

  "Stay in cover!" Siegfried shouted.

  "Thanks for the warning." I said. "We're going to need to cross that open ground to get to the Heart. Any ideas there?"

  Cherry said, "Yo, guys, I don't want to diss y'all's abilities, but what if we - hear me out here - leave? Walk out the door, come back in the morning, preferably bring the rest of the Vanguard?"

  Siegfried shook his head gravely. "It's not going to be that easy. The entire stretch from the central platform to the courtyard is exposed to those sprites. They'll pick us off before we make it halfway."

  "So is there any way out, or are we just dead?" Cherry asked, throwing up her hands.

  "We're never 'just dead'." I said. "We dig in our heels and fight."

  Lucy pulled out a syringe. "I have Fritz's other vial of Brynn's Solution. Can we extract the corruption again to weaken it?"

  "It's better than anything I've got."

  "Okay." Lucy nodded. "Cherry, Ace - you're in charge of keeping Percy moving. Leo, Siegfried - focus on the blob." She drew her bow, nocking an arrow. "Don't go far until I land a hit."

  We gathered together, then charged out into the open, into the center of the faerie light storm. The stars immediately shot toward us, leaving colorful comet trails as they crashed on the ground. I summoned an arcane wall across the lip of the terrace, between us and the Heart, that intercepted the worst of the attacks.

  But they had us from all sides, streaks of searing energy coming in no matter which way you looked. Cherry swerved me back and forth to evade the onslaught while Leo and Siegfried hacked at the tendrils of shadow that lashed out at us. Lucy quickly took aim at one of the seed pods hanging from the tree's withered branches and fired.

  Luckily, it hit, and the thread suspending it snapped. The pod fell to the terrace and burst open, spilling out a half-formed mass of corrupted darkness. Lucy, Leo, and Siegfried rushed over to it, Lucy pulling out the syringe as she ran. She plunged the needle into the writhing blob and injected Brynn's Solution.

  "Roll it!" Siegfried shouted, and he and Leo started pushing the blob toward the edge of the terrace. But the faerie lights were relentless. They pierced through the mutating corruption, punching holes that spewed out dark essence. The blob deflated before they could roll it off, collapsing in on itself until it was nothing more than a stain on the stone. Then that dissolved into a puff of blue dust.

  To make matters worse, the shadows around us churned, bubbling up from every crevice. Dozens of shadow monsters were emerging from the lower pathways and crawling up the walls toward us. A rabid horde of malformed and indistinct shapes, all gnashing teeth and claws and yellow, hungry eyes.

  "Retreat!" Lucy called out. "Back to the glade!"

  We hurried back into cover. The faerie lights couldn't follow us in there, but the monsters weren't giving up. I dismissed my arcane wall and recast it across the entrance to the glade. A solid sheet of transparent purple arcane formed on the heels of Leo and Siegfried. A wave of darkness crashed against it a moment later, pressing twisted faces and flailing limbs against the glassy surface. They blinked and glared at us.

  "How long can you hold that?" Lucy asked.

  "It constantly drains mana." I said. "I've got a couple mana potions, but they won't last forever."

  "Maybe we should run." Siegfried suggested. "Find the rest of the group."

  Lucy nodded, "We'll need Fritz if we want to mutate another blob. That was my only vial."

  Speak of the devil, a message from Fritz popped up in the group chat.

  [Fritz Carlton]: Flora, Davi, Clark, and me have found each other, but we are capital-L Lost in here. I think we're in Arizona - y'all know where that is?

  [Rose]: Badlands Arizona or desert Arizona?

  [Fritz Carlton]: Bein' real, I don't know the difference. We got shrubs and cacti.

  [Rose]: We're looking for you; don't wander.

  I meanwhile had gotten my flashlight out and was waving the beam at the wall of shadow monsters. Where the light touched, the darkness recoiled, shrinking back as if burned. But the flashlight's small circle of illumination was far too small to keep the horde at bay. What we needed was a spotlight.

  Leo nervously cleared his throat. "I don't know if sucking the corruption out is going to be the answer this time. That... thing... it doesn't look like the same stuff - it's more of an independent entity than a parasite to be removed."

  I nodded. "I agree, but we need to try something."

  "Well," Leo hesitated, "I don't know for sure, but the Heart looks like a dark elemental."

  "A what now?" Cherry asked.

  "An elemental. It's a common enemy type." Leo explained. "They're crystals that use the environment to protect themselves, but the core itself is fragile." He pointed at the shadow monsters cringing away from my flashlight. "They're weak to their opposing element - just look at how they're reacting to the light."

  "So all we need to do is wait for morning?" Ace asked hopefully.

  I shook my head. "Unlikely. Why would an encounter be designed to be beaten immediately if you started it during the day? We need to find our own light source."

  Cherry's eyes lit up. "What about that crystal I found you in front of?"

  I nearly slapped myself. Of course! I'd forgotten about that because I was focused on Yunica, but she must have been giving me a hint. Fishing the glowing crystal shard out of my belt, I held it up. Even the little shard was glowing with an intense, colorful inner light. I chucked it at the wall of shadows. Just before the shard struck the ground, I dismissed the arcane wall holding the monsters back.

  The crystal hit the ground and erupted with brilliance. A searing rainbow flash exploded outward, engulfing the shadow beasts. They let out shrill, discordant screeches as the light annihilated them, their dark forms unraveling and dissipating like smoke in the wind. In an instant, they were gone, leaving only the fading glow of the crystal.

  "Alright!" Ace cheered. "Let's get more of those!"

  "I remember the way back." I said. "Cherry - push me!"

  Leo shouted, "There was one of those near where I was teleported to, too!"

  Lucy took charge. "Siegfried, you know your way around the gardens - you go with Leo, and I'll go with Percy."

  "Where should I go?" Ace asked.

  "Wherever you'd like."

  We split up, Siegfried and Leo sprinting off in one direction while Cherry, with exaggerated enthusiasm, grabbed the handles of my wheelchair and propelled me forward, Ace and Lucy running to keep up.

  We retraced our steps through the gardens back to where we met up with Lucy and Ace, then around a couple more corners. As we rounded the last one, the crystal came into view.

  Before we could reach it, a sound like rushing water filled the air. Shadows gushed around the bend ahead, dark limbs and splotches of yellow light frothing and cresting like sea foam. I cast an arcane wall, blocking the wave from coming at us, but the monsters creeped around the edges, seeping past the barrier by flitting through the shadows of the leaves lining the corridor.

  Lucy and I flicked on our flashlights and shone them at the edges to hold the monsters at bay, and we dashed for the room holding the crystal. Behind us, the arcane wall shattered like glass. Diving inside, we braced for a fight. I handed Cherry my flashlight and prepared a fire spell.

  But as the shadows surged into the room, the crystal flared with light. The front wave of monsters simply vanished, seared into nothingness by the brilliant flash.

  The remaining shadow beasts rallied, throwing themselves at the crystal in a frenzy. They engulfed it, their oozing darkness coating the luminous surface. For a moment, it seemed they might overwhelm it. But the light intensified, burning brighter and brighter until it erupted through the darkness. The shadows evaporated, annihilated in a dazzling burst of prismatic radiance. The crystal continued to swirl with vibrant colors, only a few chips marring its surface in return.

  That was exactly what I wanted to see - if it could do that to the minions, what could it do to the Heart?

  "Alright, great." Ace said. "Now how do we get it up to the thing in the sky?"

  "Let's start by moving it back to the glade." I pulled some rope from my pack and handed it to Lucy.

  She tied one end around the crystal and the other to the arm of my wheelchair. As we set off back toward the glade, the crystal bobbed behind us like a balloon - like we'd gotten a souvenir from the gift shop.

  +Leo+

  In the depths of the Citadel gardens, there was a stovepipe-shaped hollow - a tall, cylindrical opening that stretched from the ground level all the way up to the open air with several stories of hedge walls and balconies surrounding its edges. It used to house one of the bosses - a dragon - but now it was occupied by an iridescent glowing crystal hovering off the ground. Shadows oozed around it, hiding behind the shells of broken eggs and scattered stones that once lined the dragon's nest.

  Siegfried and I crouched just outside the threshold, unable to step into the arena without getting shot at by the star turrets drifting over the top of the clearing.

  Looking at those faerie lights, I said, "This doesn't look right. I mean, why would a dark elemental be giving off those prismatic lights? Maybe the darkness is only one aspect of it. Or- what if it's not even an elemental?"

  "Trust your instincts." he said. "We have a plan. I say we at least attempt it, if only to rule it out."

  "It's a plan I came up with; how good can it be, really?"

  "Don't sell yourself short like that; it's better than any idea I have."

  "I don't know, someone's got to be able to come up with something better. I'm... nothing special."

  "Leo." He fixed me with an intent look, resting a hand on my shoulder. "We're all just as helpless. When you get down to it, few, if any, people truly know what they're doing. It's iteration, building off each other, and learning what fails that makes humans what they are. Be bold enough to try this idea of yours. Then, if it doesn't work, there's one less thing to try in the future."

  "Ok..."

  "Now, here's my wildly experimental, failure-prone idea for getting at that shard. I'll charge in and distract everything, then you rush in and grab the core while they're distracted."

  I took a breath, eyeing the swirling shadows and gleaming turrets. "Well, it's better than any idea I have." We shared a small smile, and readied ourselves to charge.

  Siegfried raised his shield, and we burst into the clearing. The blobs of misty shadow perked up, their forms twisting toward us. They swirled closer, nipping at our feet as the stars above rained bolts on us.

  Most of them focused on Siegfried, giving me a clear runway to sprint for the core. My boots pounded against the earth, slipping over shell fragments and a split second ahead of the stream of stars.

  Halfway there, one of the creatures blindsided me, tackling me to the ground in a tangle of shadow and limbs. We wrestled, rolling in a grapple. It latched onto my sword arm, gnawing with simultaneously jagged and gummy teeth-like protrusions of its body. The sensation was strange. It didn't burn through my skin like the corrupted goo. It felt almost insubstantial, like... fog. I lashed out with my other arm, punching it in the face-like section until it let go of me. Snatching up my sword, I impaled the misty-liquid thing, pinning it to the ground.

  Nearby, Siegfried had three of the shadow creatures battering against his shield as he struggled to keep moving out of the path of the starfall. "I can't hold this; let's retreat!" he shouted.

  But before we could move for the exit, a warm glow overtook the area. Wildfires poured in through another entrance, heralding the arrival of reinforcements. Percy, Cherry, Lucy, and Ace charged in.

  Percy's Towering Inferno incinerated the shadows, those that survived fleeing into hiding. Lucy, Cherry, and Ace followed up, throwing little chips of crystal that flashed and crackled on impact, annihilating the lingering shadows.

  The stars above, however, were relentless. They fired on us incessantly, pushing our group back despite our efforts. Luckily, they didn't seem to think I was worthy of targeting - they left me alone. Without the shadows in my way, I seized the opportunity. Reaching into one of my belt pouches, I drew out a greataxe and primed a leap. The skill launched me through the air in a soaring arc. I landed heavily beside the iridescent crystal, the ground cracking beneath my feet.

  I dropped the axe and wrapped my arms around the crystal, bracing myself to push it. To my surprise, it moved easily. I suppose things that float off the ground must be pretty light. ... Wait, was it light because it was 'light' element? Is that a developer pun or a Leo pun?

  Anyway, I pushed the crystal across the remains of the dragon's nest. That maneuver, however, drew the attention of the stars. The little balls of light descended on me like angry hornets, crashing around my feet and releasing bursts of sparks.

  "Yow!" I yelped and danced out of the way, making a beeline for where the rest of the group was retreating out of the clearing. We all collapsed into the safety and cover of the deep gardens, those with flashlights checking the hallway for any sign of pursuing shadows.

  "See? What'd I tell you?!" Siegfried said between pants, a grin on his face.

  I couldn't help but laugh. "Alright, alright, you had a point." I turned to the others. "Where did you guys come from? Are you all done on your end?"

  "Yeah, we moved our crystal to the glade already." Percy said. "Come on, we're looking for the others now."