I swung Bravesreign in a wide arc, cleaving four convulsing golems in half. They fell to the ground motionless, then jittered back to life and crawled past without acknowledging me at all. I spun on my heel and felled another few, but it was a futile effort. Legions and legions of them, probably every golem in the whole palace, had converged on us at once.

DING— DONG— DING— DONG—

Everything was cracking and crumbling around me. The columns, the ceiling, the ground beneath my feet, all of it falling apart like it’d never been whole. Nestemed’s bell was ringing over and over, each reverberating wail bringing more destruction, each shuddering peal more collapse. The frenzied golems were rushing for it, striking it with their broken limbs, shattering their bodies against its unforgiving shell.

DING— DONG— DING— DONG—

“The Shaper has fallen! The Shaper has fallen!” they chanted as they raged past. “The Shaper has fallen! Valtameri’s preservation is at its end!”

There was shouting from in front and behind. I heard Priss’ shrill voice cut through the cacophony as she screamed, but I couldn’t make out what she was saying. I couldn’t see where she was either. A thick, impenetrable fog had rolled in.

DING— DONG— DING— DONG—

Where were the others? Where was I? I called out for Sherri, for Priss, for Captain Kastel, but there was no response. I saw a kneeling figure in the distance. A girl? Was it Sherri? I ran at her and grabbed her by the shoulders.

“Hey! Are you okay?” I asked in a panic.

It was a faceless golem cradling another’s head in her arms. In one swing she was destroyed.

“Over here! This way!” shouted a man’s gruff voice from the side. His hairy arm burst through the writhing fog and grabbed hold of my wrist. It was Captain Kastel, steel-eyed and stern. “Stop looking confused and get moving! I’m not letting you meet your end here, Darnini!” He had a limp golem slung over his shoulder.

DING— DONG— DING— DONG—

We ran, but I don’t know in which direction. The floor was cracking and buckling underfoot, the history beneath our feet fracturing forever. The sound of everything breaking was so loud I couldn’t think straight. I destroyed what few golems I could in our feverish retreat, but every time I stopped Captain Kastel would order me to keep moving.

We passed through a gaping doorway and out onto a long, protruding balcony lined by towering aquamarine spires. I covered my face, as the sun’s blinding radiance was assaulting my eyes, and kept desperately running. Once my vision had adjusted, I saw we were sprinting towards the others. They were all near an ornate railing and looked just as discombobulated as I was. Sherri was slumped against the railing, Priss was panting heavily, Jedda was scanning the area intently, and both Tuet and Clance were marveling at each other’s shoulder-slung golems. I guess they’d settled on their priorities.

“Jedda! Status report!” shouted Captain Kastel.

“All heads accounted for, sir!” she said with a salute. She squinted at him and sneered. “Though I guess we’ve got three extra now . . .”

Captain Kastel grinned, said, “Don’t worry about this,” and jostled his golem. “Just a souvenir since there’s nothing else to loot! Gya ha ha ha!”

Sherri ran at me and grabbed me by the arm. “Ah! Are you okay, Darni? You’re not hurt, are you?” she asked. “I got so worried when we got separated again!”

I raised a shaky thumb and smiled. “Takes more than this to—"

DING— DONG— DING— DONG—

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

The ground shook violently underfoot, nearly dropping us to our knees. I caught myself and steadied against Bravesreign. One of the aquamarine spires lining the balcony tilted slightly, then fell all at once and cratered the ground beneath it.

“It’s wonderful that we’re all in one piece, but I cannot say the same for this dreadful palace!” said Priss. “It’s only a matter of time before the whole thing falls apart!” She pointed to one of the palace’s hanging side towers right as it crumbled and fell into the ocean below.

I shuffled over closer to the rail and watched the tower’s debris disappear beneath the water. The swirling wall of fog that encased the palace was dissipating rapidly, and the whirlpool below was slowing gradually. Huge chunks of stone and aquamarine were raining down from the mass above the palace and cracks were spreading all over its surface. She was right, the whole thing was breaking apart!

DING— DONG— DING— DONG—

The ground shuddered again and made us all brace against each other. I grit my teeth as a feeling of dread welled up deep in my heart. A giant monster, a demon from the other side, a fiendish, detestable villain. Those were things I could fight, things I could defeat! Even with Bravesreign in hand, I couldn’t beat a whole palace disintegrating around me!

“Well Clance, it’s been excellent,” said Tuet. He sheathed his sword and extended a hand to Clance, who did the same. “I’m glad to have been your comrade.” His beautiful eyes were glittering with a tragic light that was completely at odds with his determination to keep his newly acquired golem propped up on his shoulder.

Clance took his hand and shook it slowly. “Same to you, old pal. You know, my only regret is that we didn’t get to do all too much here! Hahaha!” He threw his head back and chuckled to the sky, but stopped when his own golem started sliding to the side.

Priss jumped up and punched both of them on the heads as hard as she could. “And you’ll never get to do anything else if you let yourselves fall here!” she shouted. “Don’t you dare throw in the towel when there’s still a light of hope!”

They both turned to her and frowned.

“Come on, boss! Even you have to admit that our goose is cooked!” said Clance.

“He’s right,” echoed Tuet. “I see no way for us to wiggle our way out of this one . . .”

“Even then, you can’t just give up!” I said. I was admittedly saying it more to calm my own nerves than anything. “It's not over until it's over! We’ve got to try everything we can until we draw our last breaths!”

Sherri came up next to me, her fists clenched in front of her chest, and said, “Darni’s right! W-We can’t give up yet!”

DING— DONG— DING— DONG—

The palace shuddered harder than ever before, sending us all down to our hands and knees. Deep cracks spread across the balcony and, in a spray of choking dust, its entire left side crumbled away in an instant. I clutched Sherri close and clenched my jaw so hard it hurt. No amount of brave words would change the reality of our situation.

“It would be nice if Seren would save us again!” shouted Sherri.

“I wouldn’t count on it!” I yelled over the grinding of stone on stone.

“Come on everyone! We’d best move to higher ground!” barked Captain Kastel. “As high as we can get!” He turned and ran back towards the palace.

“Wait! Captain Kastel! Come back!” cried Jedda. “We need to stick together!”

DING— DONG—

Wait, wasn’t it too soon for it to ring again? It was supposed to take longer to ring again! The cracks in the floor widened and spread further until the entire balcony was covered in them. Captain Kastel stopped in his tracks and whirled back around.

“It’ll all be alright, everyone!” he shouted. “Just keep your chins up and your spirits high!” He raised his fist over his head and grinned ear to ear. “I’ll see you all on the other side! Glory be to Darnini!”

KRAKOOM CRUSH KRAKOOM

He was gone in an instant as the ground beneath his feet gave way, and a heartbeat later the rest of the balcony finally disintegrated as the cracks reached its furthest edges.

I recall a few things from that haze of panic. Sherri’s blood-curdling screams as she squeezed the air out of my chest, Priss pulling at my hair and clutching my arm for dear life, Tuet and Clance hugging each other and crying for their mothers, Jedda frantically clawing at the air with tears streaming from her eye. I saw the palace burst into a billion jagged pieces, its twinkling fragments creating a titanic kaleidoscope in the sky. I also recall the feeling of hitting the water, and how every inch of my body screamed out in agony so loudly I went deaf to its cries.

I don’t know how long I floated, my face barely above the water’s surface, staring at the prismatic brilliance above. What I do know, however, is that it was a sight that could never be recreated. Never again would a sailor stumble across the fabled Prism Palace, never again would they wander its endless, barren halls, and never again would their eyes bear witness to its refractive brilliance. It’s selfish beyond belief, but knowing that I was a witness to the palace’s final display made me smile. That and the fact that I was still alive, even if I was too pained to move.

After a while, once the last of the palace’s form had rained down overhead, an overwhelming sleepiness took hold of my mind and dragged my consciousness away. There, as the gentle ocean waves lapped against my skin and carried me off to who-knows-where, I felt such a warm, welcoming serenity that I couldn’t help but drift off to sleep.