With all eyes on the goblin, Sally reached down and plucked him up into the air. He hung loosely in her grip, and didn’t seem to want to beat the allegations.
“Cross is actually Pippy?” she asked, pulling a face.
“If so, that makes ending him even easier.” Claude narrowed his eyes at the limp zombie.
“Nuh-huh.” She sighed and brandished the tiny figure like a scrap of evidence. “He’s done nothing but help us so far - there must be more to the story. Bernice?”
Despite the Party clearly intending to pulp the goblin for his supposed transgressions, they at least had the patience to hear the conversation out before their revenge took control. Not that she would hold them back if he did turn out to be the big bad, but things weren’t often that simple.
The manticore shook her head, sending a few rustling petals to the ground. “All I know is that I was created by him, alongside my sibling, to ensure the world continued to function.”
Sally looked over at the bard, before back to the large creature. “Did you create the Dungeons?”
Bernice smiled. “The answers that you seek are not so easily given. I understand you want to save this world, however?”
She nodded.
“Then I will help you to destroy the Dungeons.” Bernice stood up to her four feet and looked back towards the fort. “You must press forward, and I will release the ones you have passed.”
[Poppy: This doesn’t explain Cross!]
[Poppy: Pippy wasn’t a goblin before!]
[Poppy: Didn’t he do all this??]
Despite the full plate helmet, Sally could feel the burning glare of the knight. They were confused and angry. Smashing the little goblin might not change anything, but perhaps they’d feel better after. There was also the chance that Cross might be the key to fixing the System - considering he had apparently put his soul into this zombie.
Still… in some ways, it was none of her business.
She put the goblin back down on the ground, and he immediately flopped over onto his face. “Well, this fight is between you all. If you believe he is entirely at fault for the situation in this world, then do what you need to.” She took a few steps back and crossed her arms.
Claude ran his tongue across his lips and looked at the goblin, before turning to the knight. “A few minutes to convene?”
Poppy nodded, while Kristov was still frozen in shock at the sight of Bernice. With a little encouragement, they stepped to the side and gathered around to murmur amongst themselves.
“Other than you and…”
“Bernard.”
“Bernard… are there any other Uniques or odd entities in this world?”
The manticore grinned, exposing her sharp teeth. “That depends on how much you like spoilers, Sally.”
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A rush of vertigo flooded Theo, before he bounced off of a soft surface. A bed. He then promptly fell off onto the floor, splattering blood everywhere he impacted.
With a groan, he righted himself on shaking limbs, crimson still leaking from his body. A hand came up to his neck, where he gingerly felt at the two puncture holes in his neck. Still sore, but regeneration had kicked in and they were healing.
“It’s true what they say,” he spoke out loud to himself. “It does feel more like sucking yourself.” He stretched out and fought the urge to empty his stomach.
This was his bedroom. Brow furrowed, he dismissed the notifications on the side of his vision, telling him about all the new skills he just received. Although… it should just be the one.
Stumbling, he turned to face a large figure silhouetted against the light standing right behind him.
“Humphrey?” he asked, before looking down.
No. The mandibles were certainly unlike the Death Knight - and the dagger now in his stomach wasn’t his usual way of greeting him. Hardly any flames either.
Another wave of darkness washed over Theo.
The empty but bloodied bedroom of Sally and Theo’s house sat empty for nearly a handful of minutes. No sound or movement. Gradually, the splatters of crimson faded away as the self-cleaning spell took effect.
And then, with the flash of blue light, Chuck and Dent appeared.
The swordsman shuddered. “Feels awkward just appearing in their bedroom like this. Breach of privacy.”
“If they were both on world, then I’d not risk it.” Chuck pulled a face and cast his eyes around the room. “I’m not sure how he died, or even where he died - given that the land transfer was near instant… but at least he came back.”
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“Wouldn’t want to explain to Sally that we lost the vampire.”
The Architect tensed up. “Might be easier to leave her on Thrimble if that were the case.” With a grim smile to let Dent know he was joking, he stepped around the room and narrowed his eyes at the place Theo had been standing.
“As expected?”
Chuck grunted. “Yes. You were able to transfer the skills over to him first?”
“Correct.”
“Good.” He stepped over to the window and clasped his hands behind his back. “Keep the starter area clear for now. I’ll entertain our guest there first.”
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Sally yawned and stretched out. She had a bad feeling about something, but didn’t think it was related to her current scenario. In fact, with the rest of her Party taking a lot longer than expected, the day had become mentally exhausting.
She was tempted to put her boot through the head of the zombie just so that they could move on.
With a sigh, she sat down on the grass beside him. “Wish we could get more sense out of you, goober. I’m sure you weren’t the goblin before I ate your brains, so you got in there somehow. Based on what the others think of you, you’re either a dumbass or an evil dumbass.”
“Puh.”
“At the end of the day, it’s their world. Your world. I’m not the universe police… yet, so things have to happen as if I wasn’t here.” She raised her eyebrow at the goblin, who had managed to get into a slouched sitting position to look back up at her.
“P-puh-ee.”
“Yeah, well. Who am I to judge? I’m just one bad day away from eating those three instead of helping them. I’m the least qualified to be passing judgement. Could go back to the fort and eat my way through the survivors.” Her brow furrowed. “But I like to think the fact that it would be so easy, yet I do not do that, makes me a good person. Or at least a tolerable one.”
She wouldn’t want the universe police to come arrest her for the sins of her past. That’s why she needed Chuck to get organized and be first in that position - be in power so that she was above the law.
Bernice leaned forward, stretching out to be part of the conversation. “If I may interject? I think you’re a terrible person.”
“Oh.” Sally turned to the manticore and pulled a face.
“I know what you’re really here for, and it’s a crying shame that someone could be so selfish.”
“That’s not…” she looked over at the rest of the murmuring Party. “They’ll all die eventually otherwise.”
“Is that not the natural process of all things?”
Sally rolled her eyes. Easy enough for the living embodiment of Death in this System to say. It wasn’t about taking control over people or extending their lives unnaturally - but stopping the suffering that these worlds left unchecked could fall to. They had all been plucked from their versions of Earth or Othea, and placed in a System against their will.
Although the main goal of her coming here was to absorb a dying System, it was to be done with saving as many people as possible.
But to truly be satisfied with her work… she needed answers.
“C’mon, Cross.” She gave him a light pat on the head as she stood. “Let’s see what fate has in store for you.”
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Theo’s eyes darted open. Trapped. A tube of glass surrounded him, illuminated with a dull glow. He ached all over and clearly hadn’t fully recovered from beating himself up in the past. Maybe this was the future? Had Chuck finally put together the STAR Force they’d been planning in secret?
Was he just waking up from cryo stasis?
He pressed his face up against the glass. There were others here. Lucius. Bella. Other people who he knew but couldn’t… EDWARD was there.
“Hey, Edward! Edward! Edward!” He ran his tongue across his teeth. It had been years now. Decades maybe. And the demon was right there, he just had to…
Slowly, he moved his head around on his neck, his glasses sliding down his nose as he tilted. Someone outside of the tube. An insectoid face with mandibles and… oh, this was the person who put him here.
“Never thought we’d get the chance to capture the vampire, did we, pet?”
Theo watched as the creature held up a rat to observe him. “Let me out, please.”
“Oh no, we can’t do that.”
“You will die if you do not let me out in three seconds.” A coldness swept across the vampire’s features. Normally crimson eyes went several shades darker as small arcs of red electricity sparked around his body.
“I thought he’d be better than this, pet.” Ash’var tilted his head. “Threatening behavior from someone so great?”
“Two.”
“Shame. Time for you to go to sleep zero-zero-ten.”
“One.”
Ash’var held up a keypad in one of his clawed hands and pressed a red button.
“Now you’ll die,” Theo said, grinning widely. The life back in his glowing eyes. “You’ll die and be dead and you will never come back.”
“Pet, something is wrong with…” he pressed the button again and again.
“Time to die, time to die, time to die,” Theo continued, pressing his face against the glass.
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Chuck took a deep breath in and then exhaled through his nose. A light breeze washed through the grass around him on the empty starter island, his blue robes rippling slightly.
Those with ill intent were always so confident in themselves. Get away with murder enough times and you’d start believing yourself untouchable. That had been in part why he had made Sally do so many Events where she died. She’d never underestimate the stakes of something, knowing how easily she’d come undone. It was cruel, but he knew she understood it, too.
Breaking into the wider universe was always going to be dangerous.
Theo, on the other hand… well, the vampire liked to win and be on top. Bullying him with repeated losses would temper that and only make him bored. He liked to have his strength tested in a way that allowed him to design a way to come out on top. While Sally had the ambition and soft skills to be the underdog that rises up from the mud, Theo liked to guarantee his victory long before even drawing his blade.
One a fast-growing seed to be planted. The other a pair of sharpened shears. Not that he saw either of them as tools, as such. They were his friends, and he cared about them. He understood the roles they needed to play, however. What they brought to the table…
And in defense of Sanctuary, he would utilize them to their full extent.
It was his job.
Head tilted up toward the empty sky, he raised up his right hand. Eyes narrowed as sparks crackled around his extended fingers.
The air high above started to warp and thrum as if a storm had started in the clear sky. Muscles tensed as he scowled at the distortion while rows of data streamed past his vision.
He clenched his hand into a fist, and the sky erupted with thunder.
A shape emerged in the space above him. Dark gray metal with glowing green stripes and dull flashing lights. Sharp edges as if it were made to pierce through space. The design was alien… but in some ways it was about as cliche a look as a spaceship could have.
Chuck wiped the blood running from his nose on his sleeve and smirked.