B 3 C 39: AFTER ALL
Turning to Lu, I ask, “I can’t quite remember, do we know all of the book owners at this point? Me, Lil, Lucky, and Mat, for sure. I’m guessing that the one you were angry about me touching is yours?”
Luni frowns but nods, “The last one is Te. It’s dumb, but it’s alphabetical order. Lil, Lucky, me, Mat, you, Te.”
I groan, “That’s, that’s most of our strongest fighters, and Linti is going to be supposedly helping with evacuation efforts, and we still have the battles at the northern flank daily. Plus, plus it’s Mat! If he goes with us, he’s not here generating lava to finish the shield’s secondary structures and supports that allow it to last longer than a short duration.”
Lu nudges me playfully, “Then it’s a good thing you created a reservoir that keeps filling with lava, and that there are plenty of ice and fire mages on hand, isn’t it?”
My jaw drops as I stare at Luni. Did she plan this? Did I plan this? Lu just shakes her head, grinning.
Luni explains, “I’m as surprised as you are, I don’t know most of what happens around now, but it seems like things are set up to go right, maybe. Maybe we’re just lucky that we are who we are, and make the decisions that we do.”
Well, I trust her at that, at the very least. Still, this book thing, every bone in my body is screaming that there’s some sort of finality to it. Like, like we should say our goodbyes or something. Luni fidgets and avoids eye contact as she rides my train of thought.
I ask, “Lu, do you know something? Is this a, ‘get your affairs in order’ sort of situation?”
Luni gnaws on her lower lip, still avoiding eye contact as she hems and haws, “Hm, erm, well, I guess, maybe, probably. Yeah, I suppose it’s okay to let you know. We um, so, sort of, we could, kind of maybe, maybe sorta, make it back, like a week after the convergence, or something, maybe. I can’t explain right now. Please keep trusting me a little longer. But, well, yes. We should probably kind of say goodbye. I mean, it is a temple of time after all, there’s no telling how much time it will actually be for us until then, right?”
Luni chuckles nervously, hiding something. But she’s right, I do trust her, and will keep trusting her. If that’s the case, with all those maybes, then I need to put in place as many final contingencies as possible for the safety of my family. I think Mat and I are going to have to do some massive spell to erect a giant physical barrier to the north, to buy time until the shield is activated. I’m going to be a wreck at the temple of time, and so is Mat probably. He hasn’t complained even once, nor has he rejoined the family a single time. I honestly don’t even recognize this machine that he’s become, working and battling nonstop. Even with all that dedication, the wear and tear is starting to show beneath it all, even if he doesn’t complain about it or accept any help. Heck, he sleeps outside of the perimeter of the illusory field, in the boughs of trees.
I motion for a Kamaitachi messenger to seek out the six tome owners, Linti, Jaz, and several of the strongest. I tell the messenger that I need Mat to be at the northern edge of the reservoir in exactly one hour, that I need all the combatants to stall for a bit over fifty five minutes after that point, and then to immediately retreat.
Lu accompanies me to the location as the messenger heads off. Once there, I begin begging the systems of the world, the forces of the universe to let me connect with purest Umbra once again. The Elysium Ascent that remains overhead with Tenny coiled around it feels like the tiniest spark runs along a thread of her divinity, her friendship, her desire to see us succeed. Another thread, no, two, stretch out south by southwest at this point. They must be to Maka-Akari, and Lord Agni. The threads seem golden in color within my mind’s eye, but what I want is the shadows they cast, thin though they may be. Slowly, motes of darkness begin to form, these spheres of matte onyx are imperceptible to the naked eye due to their miniscule size at first. However, like miniature black holes, they appear to suck up the surrounding reality into their own unreality, expanding rapidly. Luni whistles appreciatively as she catches on to what I’m doing, meditating near a battle that’s raging to the north.
Grunting, I beg, “Lu, urgh, when Mat gets here, have him grab my hand, then you grab both of ours, and the three of us each touch a mote, imagining a physical barrier, like a comet smashing a chunk of the continent away to the north, or the tectonic plates upheaving as lava spews upwards, anything. Some spell that erects a massive physical barrier, miles wide, hundreds of feet tall and deep. Please anchor us, My Anchor.”
Lu nods, “Copy that. Stay strong My Hero, you got this, always have, always will.”
Almost exactly an hour from when I sent the message, Mat arrives. He looks haggard, annoyed, but in some ways, glad to be called back from fighting. He’s perplexed by my meditation, and the now large orbs of darkness around. Though he’s annoyed at having to hold my hand, he carefully follows instructions, and it feels like a telepathic link forms. Time slows as the three of us work together to form the most likely spell that will succeed, tectonic, volcanic upheaval that results in a massive spiked barricade, it deepens our lava reservoir and fills that too. The northern side of our constructed edifice has lava geysers aimed all the way from west to east along the northern face. They’ll fire off randomly, then flow back down into our reservoir. It should help push back the mites, even if it won’t harm them much.
We must spend an hour or more sculpting the spell, all the while the Umbra increases in size, density, and power. Our awareness expands to the surrounding area, when we’re certain all of our allies are safely away from the spell’s range, we unleash the combined spell, spending everything we have, and the three giant motes of Umbra. Two hours of my own mana channeled into a single spell is dozens of thousands of energy, not to mention the hour of Lu’s mana and Mat’s mana. From my own recent experiments, the multiplier on greater values of mana is ridiculously exponential, and the Umbra is yet another exponential multiplier.
Some time later, we awaken, each with aching heads. Personally, I have the deepest lacerations yet, I can see bone at various points. Originally the mana channels seemed to fire lacerative, cutting mana outwards, but either the channels themselves have deepened within my body, or they’re now firing outwards and inwards indiscriminately. Everything aches, and the cuts are excruciating. Theoretically I shouldn’t even be able to move some of my limbs, because the tissue down through the muscle is severed. Thankfully, enough physics and biology hasn’t quite caught up to fakeworld yet, even with all the chaotic happenings that cause our reality to work more and more like that one. I look down at one laceration along my pectoral muscles and can see a beating organ laid bare beneath the cut, and my eyes go wide. Any deeper and that would have destroyed my heart. I can’t keep using magic of this magnitude. Possibly any magnitude.
I croak, “Good job Lu. Good job Mat, brother. Huff, I think that’s a one time thing though. I don’t think I’ll be able to pull it off again and survive.”
Mat and Lu both turn towards me, staring along with my gaze to see my exposed, beating heart. Even Mat looks concerned. Luni immediately begins binding my wounds. I check the two of them over, making sure neither of them is suffering the same effects.
Mat grunts for attention, “I. I felt something. It was building up. It was going to hurt. You took it away though. I felt it. I couldn’t stop it. I didn’t know what it was.”
Luni nods with tears in her eyes, “Me too, I wasn’t sure what it was, but it must have been the mana burn cut stuff that you’re suffering, you took mine on too. I’d rather take it than ever let you take mine on in the first place, even worse if you had died because of it. You can’t die, you just, you can’t. Please don’t die.”
My lips quiver as I fight back tears. I didn’t mean to, I couldn’t even sense I was doing it, I was caught up in the spell. I just felt like all the magic had to go through me, through the connections to Tenny, Maka, and Deckard, and out through Umbra. I rattle my head, trying to drop this train of thought, and start on what needs to be done.
I start, “We’ve bought some time, maybe hours, maybe days, but unlikely the latter. Mat, I don’t know how much you know about the books, but we need you and your book in a temple to the southwest. We need Lu and Te as well. Lucky and Lil are already there. Linti is supposed to help evacuate the Nagas. I don’t think anyone here knows yet what you did at that settlement. Apparently messages that were going between settlements had been being intercepted. Even if you wanted to stay here to keep working, I’m thinking things could get ugly. Will you please come with us, brother?”
Mat looks at Lu with a raised eyebrow, then shrugs, “Sure, if Lu says so, that’s what I’ll do. It doesn’t much matter to me where I am.”
I frown slightly, but nod all the same. It feels like my eyeballs have cold ice-cream scoopers behind them, trying to gouge the eyes from my eyesockets. It’s such an odd, very specific, vividly detailed pain that I nearly horf just thinking about how to describe it.
Luni, reading my thoughts, mutters, “Another migraine coming on. I’m sorry Hero, it’s not fair that you suffer from those.” She then seems to mutter ‘again’ under her breath.
Teuila and Linti arrive, and I explain the situation, “I think that us, the book owners, if we clear out the insects from the temple of time, can somehow start the energy catalyzation needed to activate the shield. Even though the shield’s secondary structures aren’t fully created, let alone in place, Spice thinks we’re safe to activate it if we can find a way to get it started. Lin, their settlement is overrun, I know how much you disliked, or dislike them, but now is that choice, now is when you have to help them evacuate to here.”
Linti whistles low and runs her hand over her scalp, taking it all in, “First you cast a spell bigger than any I’ve ever seen, now you say it’s already that time? That I just have to leave the six of you down there, alone, fighting off an endless bug horde big enough to overrun the entire Nagas’ town? Gorramit Shellcracker. Seriously. It never stops with you. How long is this incredibly long time that we don’t see each other? What’s going to happen?”
I look to Luni, but the tears in her eyes, and the sobs that she’s gulping down tell me that she can’t, or won’t answer, one way or another.
Frowning I can only guess, “I’m sorry Hunter, we don’t know for sure. There’s some cryptic stuff going on. My weird genre savviness from messed up memories tells me something with a ton of finality is about to happen. I need you to start the evacuation basically right now. I want to have Mat, Te, Lu, and myself run one last sweep driving the mites back as far as possible, taking out the queen again one more time. We’ll be able to catch up, possibly even beat you to the settlement when we combine our abilities to hit our top speeds. Even still, we probably won’t see each other again. I love you, Hunter.”
Lin looks stricken, as if I’d slapped her face, telling her to run the opposite direction from a fight. I’m heartbroken that I had to request it, but the Nagas need our help, and it won’t be safe for them to try to flee here on their own, with the random openings to the insect warrens in the way. She’s fast enough on her own that she’s faster than any single one of us on our own, so she’s the ideal person to handle the evacuation, since everything else requires the four of us.
Linti lets out a hissed ‘tsk.’ Her visage is full of fury for a moment, but it softens as she turns to Luni and Teuila, “Hey, Toots, even you Lu. I’ll miss you guys. Come back to us. Alright? You too, Shellcracker.” Then, indicating Mataalii, she says, “You can leave that guy behind though, tch.”
Mat clicks his own tongue, scoffing as he looks away. Linti embraces and kisses Teuila. She then hugs Luni. After that, she slugs me in the shoulder before pulling me in for a tight embrace, resting her chin on my skull for a moment before leaving. Mat avoids our eye contact, but the four of us gather as Teuila leaps us all into the sky above our barrier.
As we gently come down on the far side of the barrier, it’s a grim sight, the queen has set up hundreds of air pistol turrets of independent mite claws, and summoned hundreds of new soldiers. As much as I don’t want to, I add a telepathic link to Mataalii with the method I learned from the temple of time, the page that TQ showed me of my own book. I can scarcely believe that he was one of the viable targets. Still, since the four of us are linked, making split second plans and adjustments to battle strategy becomes a cinch.
I risk adopting my Mite-Hulk-King form, and King immediately greets me, “Hey partner, been a while! I knew you’d be back, it’s good to be The King!” The way his smoky voice slimes its way into my subconscious and oozes about, leaving a foul aftertaste whenever he speaks is a problem I can’t afford to confront right now.
I roll my eyes, but I can’t afford to spend mana fighting him off, I let him apprise himself of the situation. When he realizes how grim it is, he stops trying to egg me on, and takes over weaponizing my left arm. With my current damage, I can’t risk using any actual spells, only my most basic uses of my abilities and skills. Subzero Ice Punching, Flash Freeze Storms, regular inventory launching and the like.
Teuila floats above us, far enough that the air pistol snaps of the mites barely impact her against her Valkyrie armor, all the while she’s charging up an enormous hurricane shot. Mat forms massive spikes of lava and launches them fast enough that they cool and harden in midair. Luni plays a rocking riff on her harp that seems to fill the rest of us with vigor, increasing our awareness, reaction speed, and even strength.
Even King enjoys Luni’s playing, saying, “Groovy!”
The other three in my telepathic link all complain, they thought I was making the weird voice earlier, but now they realize it’s an entirely separate entity. I merely send my telepathic avatar shrugging at them apologetically. I have to contribute, and this is what I can do right now, safely, without my spells.
King calls out, “Hey, watch it partner. Make sure I don’t get severed off over here. Wouldn’t want another one of me growing from a missing limb, would you? Actually, maybe that’s an idea worth exploring.”
I respond, “King, don’t you dare. I’ll cover your back a bit, which I guess is my armpit, just, just deal with the situation in front of us please. The world is literally ending.”
He asks, “It is? No wonder you called on The King. Serious situations require serious solutions! No one’s more serious than The King baby!”
I mentally facepalm, rolling my eyes, and shaking my head as I sigh. If he weren’t so invasive, slimy, smoky, and oozy, it would almost be funny listening to him. He’s entirely campy. If I were to ring a bell every word that oozed camp whenever he spoke, there would be an unending series of ringing bells for all the camp.
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
I normally utilize my magic to keep myself rather nimble, but with King’s defenses, I can wade into the battlefield and stomp my way through hordes of enemies, smashing, slashing, cutting, shooting, and tearing apart all of the other Mite-Hulks. Teuila unleashes a hurricane shot alongside me that draws dozens and dozens of mites towards the center of the line created by her fired arrow. Each of those mites begins derezzing as they’re slammed against one another and hurtled off into the distance. This lances an opening into their ranks that lets me plow even deeper, causing chaos amongst the horde. In mere minutes we’ve destroyed or driven back hundreds of Mite-Hulks, opening a path to the queen.
We agree that we need to take her out in a single go so that she doesn’t summon a king, much less power it up, so we feign indifference as she begins to retreat to summon more troops. As we allow her to gain some distance between us, Teuila is charging a shot more powerful than any I’ve ever seen her conjure, and it looks like she’s going to aim it to take out a swathe of troops, though we all know that’s not exactly the intention. Mataalii is covering her defenses while she concentrates on creating the hurricane shot, blocking acid and air shots that are lobbed Teuila’s direction with conjured lava. I risk tethering my heart to Teuila’s to offer her most of my own mana pool, and Teuila literally radiates power as she accepts the tether. The glow cast by her as she continues to charge her spell is blinding, so much so that I have to look away, and even Mat is shielding his eyes while facing away from her, due to his proximity.
Luni starts to object, “Reggie, you don’t know what might happen! Please be okay, please be okay. Both of you please be okay.”
Teuila redirects her shot, aiming dead center for the queen. A king immediately spawns between Teuila and the queen. But even though it interposes itself between the shot and its queen, it is no match for the raw power unleashed in its direction. Teuila cries out in pain as she unleashes her spell and the rest of us glance worriedly her way as she drops from the sky. Luni and I both leap to catch Te while Mat dives down, all three of us hoping to cushion her fall.
King calls coldly into my mind, “Let them handle the babe, finish the job, queenie aint dead, and that’s dangerous.”
Ugh, I hate that he’s right. I reverse my direction, risking slamming myself with regular JT propulsion magic, rocketing myself into the face of the queen as a second king spawns. I tear into her with all the ferocity I can muster as she tries to summon mites to stop my advance and my attacks. She unleashes a torrent of acid, but the king’s exoskeletal carapace that makes up my current form isn’t even singed. As she finally begins to derez, her remaining troops retreat. I scoop all the nearby loot and rush to Teuila’s side.
Te coughs, almost chuckling, “So, this is what you’ve been going through Spooterpoot? Owwww.”
Teuila playfully whines, but she looks to be in pretty rough shape as she drops from the tether. Thankfully the lacerations on Te are only surface level. It’s similar to the first night that I started suffering from mana overuse. As the world continues to become more chaotic, and the forces working against us require more and more power to defeat or drive back, I worry that none of us are going to be able to handle the power required to keep up. We need to get the shield activated as soon as possible.
The three nod along with my train of thoughts as I drop to my cherubic form, then assume my draconic form. Luni dresses Teuila’s wounds as best she’s able to around Teuila’s armor, then Te leaps us all into the air. Once airborne she suspends our gravity. I summon a vehicle around the four of us, Teuila and Luni work together to reduce its gravity, and friction, and increase the speed it’s capable of as I propel us south-westward. I feel as if I’m going to faint as we leave behind a sonic boom, but I can’t allow myself to pass out. We still have to get to the Nagas’ settlement, fight through the gathered insect horde, and activate the tomes somehow, hopefully activating the shield in the process.
Lu frets over Teuila and me, nervously glancing between the two of us, and frowning at Mat who is sneering on the far side of us. Lu pads down my forehead with a cloth, and it becomes sweat drenched in an instant. I didn’t even notice myself sweating that thoroughly. She does the same for Teuila who is similarly drenched.
The hint of ozone strong enough to assail even my anosmic nostrils lets us know that we’re either catching up to or passing Linti as we close in on the settlement. The scene below us is nightmarish. It looks like there was a reconstruction effort that had been going on in sections of the town, but the projects have been abandoned, and all of the functional domiciles are inhabited. Each one has at least one defender pushing back against insectoid creatures, protecting cowering Nagafolk within. There are so many in so many different locations, and we can’t afford the time to rescue them all. This fight is up to Linti.
Luni and Teuila nod solemnly. As much as we hate the idea of leaving those in need to fend for themselves, if we don’t staunch the flow of additional insects, by the time we rescue or free one family all of the others will be harder to save. That still doesn’t stop us from dropping into the midst of the horde and fighting our way through the city, instead of bypassing the entire horde on the way to the temple.
Groaning, I resume the Mite-Hulk-King form, and King begins his usual nonsensical chatter, but I completely ignore him. The four of us are careful to use our magic as little as possible, taking everything on hand to hand. The crackle of lightning and the boom of thunder nearby tells us that Linti is fighting her own way through endless foes as well. Surprisingly, she shows up at our side.
Lin jokes, “So, uh, if this is it for us, any last words?”
I frown, but between taking down several foes, I reply, “Other than the message of the love I have for you, not really. When you’re taking trips back and forth, make sure to stop and see the various leaders of each of the factions and groups. Give Priss a message for me, please? Tell her, Priss, I’m counting on you to take care of them all. Be diplomatic, be confident, but most importantly, always, always be kind.”
Linti nods solemnly as she breaks off to rescue a family whose home is caving in atop them as several massive bugs hammer its roof. If Linti can at least get all of the defenders free from their various locations, then when they’re grouped up, they stand a chance at keeping everyone safe while evacuating. Linti’s the fastest of us at individually taking out bug hordes, she’s been doing it for as long as I’ve known her, and longer. It’s almost like she was meant to do this.
King says, “Hey, hey, Reggie. I feel that. Stop that. Your heart is hammering so hard it hurts, and you’re barely breathing. I need oxygen too over here. Get it together! We’ve got things to kill. Some of ‘em look dead already, we’ll make ‘em more dead. Come on ya goody little two shoes, get the lead out.”
I roll my eyes again. King is right though, my heart feels like it’s fighting to even function at all, and barely doing its job. It’s not just heartache about knowing we may never see Linti again, my heart physically hurts as it tries to do its job. The strain I’ve put my body through these last few months is catching up to me. I just need to hang on a while longer. I can’t afford to fail my family this time around.
I find myself thinking about the times in my life where my heart has stopped, like at the Nagas’ sports tournament when I was killed in another timeline, and basically killed in this timeline. Even if I reach a moment where I know I’m dead in the next millisecond, if I reset time, where in my timeline would I go? What change could I possibly make? So many of these things had to happen to even make it to the point we’re at. There was no one else to foist off any of the magic onto as far as I’m aware, and even if there was, I couldn’t place this burden on anyone else.
That’s all there is to it then, I have to survive. Failure isn’t an option. Even still, despite my determination, my attacks and reactions are getting slower. I’m not quite sluggish yet, but I’ll be reaching that point before long.
A voice reaches into my mind, “Is that the rest of the Shellcrackers? Have you come to save our home?”
A tear of happiness drops from the corner of my left eye. Dehlia is alright. She survived her coma, and came out the other end, and she still has her telepathy. I’m so glad, mostly for Lil’s sake, but also just in general. I’m distracted and overcome by emotions, but at least they’re positive, hopeful emotions.
I respond, “Dehlia? I’m sorry, we’re not here to save your home, but your people instead. Linti is helping them evacuate, you need to go with them. Please. Is Lil okay? Is Lucky okay?”
Her telepathy tingles across my brain as she probes more strongly than I’ve ever felt before. She answers, “Lil and Lucky are fine. I feared as much. Szintoc and Brastley’s messages had not been getting through. Fine, I’ve already gathered the most precious knowledge, and locked away the rest in the hopes that it isn’t destroyed. Perhaps we’ll be able to return to retrieve it.”
As much as I doubt that, I don’t want to disillusion her right now, “I’m unsure, but hopefully yes. Dehlia, I’m sorry that we can’t do more, but we’re trying to secure the location you’ll be evacuating to. It’s complicated, but are there any other routes into the bottom of the temple? Has the primary route at least been cleared?”
Dehlia evinces confusion, “Of course the primary route has been cleared, but no, no secondary route exists. I only know of Lil’s safety through my telepathy however, we have not been able to reach each other for at least a week due to the endless hordes of creatures infesting the temple. Lil is of course deep within, working on whatever secret thing they’d been doing all this time.”
Phew. Okay. I can handle that. I express my gratitude to Dehlia, “Thank you Dehlia, that’s about as good as I could hope for in the circumstances. We’ll fight our way to reuniting with Lil. Can you rally your people around Linti? I know there’s bad blood between your people and the cats, but she’s the one here to save and evacuate you all. If your strongest can make a break for it, and unite with her, together they might be able to get everyone out mostly unscathed. I won’t be able to respond mentally anymore, my mind and body are exhausted. I’m glad you’re awake, that you pulled through.”
There’s a pause before Dehlia replies, “Yes, of course, consider it done. And. Lil told me what you did for me. I may not have awoken if it wasn’t for you, or so I hear. Thank you. I wear it as a pendant. The stone you used upon my brow.”
I let a smile play across my lips as I continue to battle alongside Mat, Lu, and Te. It feels like it’s an hour of battling just to get to the bottom steps of the exterior of the temple as we fight through the main thoroughfare on the northern side of the town. Occasionally I spot a flash of lightning streaking by to one side or another, and that reassures me that Linti is still alive, and still fighting. I didn’t ask which building Dehlia was in. I doubt she’d accept being given a priority rescue anyway.
The unthinkable happens, and some new form of colossal insect explodes from beneath the earth, sending shattered paving stones flying in all directions, and scattering my small party, hurtling us against stone walls. Even within my exoskeleton the impact rocks my fleshy form beneath its surface, and I can feel blood trickling along my brow and other softer bits of my base form. The dust and debris obscures the base of this new beast, as well as my allies.
Struggling to my feet, King’s attacks and my own fisticuffs seem to not phase this colossus in the slightest, as I’d feared. It’s just too massive to truly harm. Its white flesh is feculent lumpy, veiny. It can extend its neck a dozen meters or more as it swings its face around to bludgeon me or to try to sink its teeth into me. The creature doesn’t have eyes, only its gross fleshy neck atop what might be a torso, which sits atop two taloned feet. There’s a gross stub of a tail that’s similarly stretchy as the neck, and lumps that might be wings near the base of its neck. In short, it’s utterly horrifying to gaze upon. We don’t have time to waste on this creature, nor on the new hordes spilling out of the hole it created as it burrowed to the surface.
I call out telepathically to Lu, Te, and Mat, telling them to take to the air if they’re conscious. Thankfully I get three responses of affirmative. I risk suffering further damage as I conjure a massive Flash Freeze Storm while trying to not convert the siphoned energy into my own personal pool. I seem to be mostly safe from ill effects. Better yet, all of the lesser giant insects are frozen solid, blocking up this new hole, and even the fleshy colossus is slowed to a crawl.
Still, even if that didn’t take any additional toll, I’m gasping for breath and struggling to continue now as I ascend the exterior of the temple. I see a massive spike of lava forming, coalescing and being hardened by a hurricane shot, it spins from the wind whipping spirals around it as it’s fired below, decimating and destroying the fleshy colossus in a combined attack by my three allies.
We rejoin one another at the top of the temple’s exterior before entering it, taking the shortest of momentary breathers. I drop to my base form as I slump against an exterior wall, lazily utilizing my Valkyrie dagger and stabbing grublike creatures that tumble out the top of the temple next to me while I try to catch my breath. Mataalii conjures spiked tonfas from lava, and wields them with deadly ferocity, filling the wounds he causes with lava, derezzing anything he strikes almost instantly. His limitation of the incredibly short range on his conjuration isn’t going to hamper him at all in the tight quarters we’ll be fighting through momentarily.
Teuila is taking pot shots from the top of the temple towards foes advancing on groups of survivors that are making a break for it as they try to meet up with Linti and the main survivor force. Even if we can’t join each other’s fights, we can at least try to make it easier on each other. I’m still unsure how to feel about Mat, I don’t exactly trust him, but he’s had any number of opportunities to end me over the last day alone, not to mention the last couple of months.
Alright, a few minutes is all the break we can afford to take. It’s pretty much now or never. When the queen respawns, it won’t take her long to figure out how to get her forces around or over the barrier we erected. We only have a handful of hours til she respawns, and then who knows how little time before she finds a way to advance on the Miracle Oak. Our strongest defenders that the mites aren’t immune to are here, and the rest are spread thin keeping insects out of the settlement. I never even got around to meeting even a small fraction of the Fairies. I think I’ve only learned two of their names. I’d feel horrible if they died and I didn’t even know who to mourn.
I rattle my skull trying to shake free such dark thoughts. No time to be caught in thought. I feel like I can’t even muster the strength to change my form anymore, which is bad, as my current cherubic form is definitely not my most adept combat form. I also don’t want to risk getting stuck in any of the other forms though, especially not the Mite-Hulk King form, so I’ll just have to make do. Even worse yet, I can barely stand. Luni helps support me as we enter the top of the temple.
Teuila and Mat take turns leaping or gliding along the walls or ceiling with their weapons dragging or spearing across the center in long forward swaths, leaving Luni and me to only deal with a few missed foes. It works out well enough until we get to a more open level, jam packed with insects floor to ceiling, many of whom have acid spitting organs, or long scythelike mandibles on extendable necks, or other ways to make our lives hell.
Frustrated, I sigh and lean into an attack, shoving everyone back momentarily. I barely roll over the incoming scythe in time, freezing it as I connect with an edge of it as I pass over the top. Once I have a limb blocking the path of other limbs, I take an instant to conjure a massive Flash Freeze Storm, turning the entire room into a giant insect ice cube.
Teuila grins and charges up a hurricane shot while Mat similarly conjures a dozen spikes from lava that cool into sharpened stone alongside Te’s wind. When Teuila releases her shot, it drags the spikes along in a spiral, sawing through everything in the entire room, treating us to a massive time dilation at the simultaneous derezzing.
We alternate strategies so that no single one of us is over exerting themselves on the way down, but hall after hall, room after room, the amount of creatures we slay seems countless. Between hostiles launching things, and our own attacks occasionally going a bit overboard, all of us are looking bruised, bloody, battered, and overall just rough. Lu continues to tend our wounds, occasionally pulling out the soap stone to make sure no grime or sludge ends up in them, but even the soap stone can’t keep up with the amount of blood or pixels we’re constantly staining our bandages and dressings with.
Finally, after several more hours of fighting, we’re on the bottom floor of the temple, and it’s obvious where at least one of the sources of incoming hostiles is. There’s a tunnel leading off to the southeast that has an unending stream of insects pouring from it.
I plead, “Mat, would you be so kind as to do the honors? Plug that hole, please.”
Mat nods. His cloak billows and flares out behind him as he generates a massive stream of lava continuously aimed to propel itself down the tunnel. As the lava derezzes dozens of insects, he lets it cool layer by layer, filling the tunnel with stone a hundred feet deep.
I have no idea how fast these creatures tunnel, but it’s better than not trying to close it up at all. I nod at Mat in thanks. We make our way to the not-so-secret entrance to the temple of time, and Mat makes a ‘tch’ sound under his breath. I can only surmise he thinks the reason he didn’t kill me when he attacked the Nagas’ settlement is that I was down in this temple within a temple. That’s partially true.
As we enter the temple, sliding around on the secret passageway’s circular stone, we’re treated to a brilliant sight. Rivers of color are blindingly radiant as reds greens and blues mingle to form an ocean that cycles through every color in the spectrum in bubbles and swaths and patches and bursts.
Amidst it all is my oldest friend, my buddy Lil whom I have been missing for so long now. Lil sits in spheriform stage atop Lucky in Lucky’s full Hunter form. I weep tears of joy at seeing the two of them in good health. I can’t help it as relief washes over me so ferociously that I slump to my knees and, at least momentarily, lose consciousness.