The obelisks cracks to pieces, crumbling into so much dust before me; in the same breath, color slowly returns to the world. I blink away the tears a few times, struggling against the sudden glare — apparently, protection against light isn't something that Tough Body accounts for.

There's a moment where I hold my breath, waiting for something to go wrong — for a monster to attack, or for Naru to show up, or even for that robot-thing I fought back in the Fracture to attack me.

But there's nothing.

The soft sounds of the forest surround me — the rustling of leaves, the quiet chirping of insects. I am, for the moment, not dead or in danger, and the adrenaline crashes around me; I flop back onto the dirt, staring up at the sky.

The Phantom Roots are nearby. I can feel the Firmament extending up out of the ground, thin tendrils grasping for more; it feels stronger than it did when I first entered the Hotspot this loop. The Firmament pulses from the obelisk must have empowered it a bit more. Hopefully, that means it'll be more effective when it's given to Tarin.

With a small thread of will, I summon Ahkelios. The little mantis appears on my chest, stumbling a little like he's drunk, and then abruptly righting himself and looking around. "Whoa!" he says. "You did it!"

"I did," I say. I haven't even checked my notifications yet — my entire body is sore. I'm giving myself a moment.

Ahkelios, on the other hand, doesn't seem as willing to wait. He climbs up onto my face, prompting me to yelp and bat him away, though he just nimbly dodges my hand. "Hey!" he complains.

"Don't climb onto my face," I retort.

"It's more comfy here!" Ahkelios says. "Come on, let's see your notifications. What'd you get? I didn't get to read the whole obelisk, but I know I got something good. I don't remember what, though."

"Can't you be a little more patient?" I grumble, but I pull up the Interface anyway.

[ Congratulations on completing your first Hotspot! As a reward, you have been granted +10 Firmament credits. ]

"Seems a bit low," I mutter. Ahkelios waves it off.

"It's just a bonus for completing your first Hotspot. The real reward is for completing it."

[ For completing Hotspot 12B, "The Color That Fades", you have gained the following:

— Dungeon Access: The Empty City (Special, Rank S)

— +30 Strength credits. +30 Durability credits. +30 Reflex credits. +30 Speed credits. +30 Firmament credits.

— Firmament Skill: Tetrachromacy (Rank C)

For fully completing bonus objective: Translate the Record, you have gained the following:

— +50 Firmament credits.

— Firmament-bound Item: Chromatic Root

— Firmament-bound Weapon: Chromatic Threads ]

I stare critically at the list.

For one, that's a lot of credits. I'm going to need to bank them sooner rather than later — there's a point at which it's no longer worth waiting for the next milestone, and I think I've almost reached it.

For two... there are several things here I've never seen before.

First is that the Interface has names for the Hotspots. That's not mentioned in my map or in any previous notification; much like with monsters themselves, it seems I don't get the name until I've completed the Hotspot in some way. I'm hoping there's a way I can access those names ahead of time through the Interface — it'll be nice to have some clue about what I'm about to be up against.

Second is the dungeon access. There's been no mention of dungeons before, and it seems almost like a specialized form of Hotspot. Either way, a Rank S dungeon is not something I'm going to be able to complete anytime soon, so it goes right to the back of my to-do list.

Third, Firmament-bound items and weapons. Those are new to me as well. "Are these what you were talking about?" I ask, glancing at Ahkelios.

The little mantis huffs at me, crossing his arms. "I can't see your notifications," he reminds me. "You gotta read them out! Come on, I want to know what you got."

Right. I laugh a little at Ahkelios' excited expression, and list out my rewards for him, starting with the credits and the Firmament-bound items; it's amusing the way his eyes get wider and wider.

"That's way more than what I got," he says, sitting down on my nose. I go nearly cross-eyed trying to keep an eye on him, and wave him off; he floats up into the air with an irritated buzz. "No fair."

"Any comments?" I ask, raising an eyebrow at him.

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"Firmament-bound items and weapons are things you can summon at will out of your Interface," he says. "They respond strictly to your Firmament, so they can't be stolen from you. They can be damaged, but only if they're hit hard enough to disrupt the Interface's blueprint. If they're just broken, you can re-summon them at will."

"That's convenient," I mutter. "Any chance I can bind my own items like that instead of having to wait for an Interface reward?"

"Not until you unlock the feature, and that's a late-stage reward." Ahkelios looks away for a moment. "I don't think I got it until it was too late to matter."

"Any chance you remember how to unlock it?" I keep my voice gentle, but Ahkelios shakes his head.

"I'll try," he promises. "I can't promise anything. I think I understand what the Interface did to me, but working around it is... not easy."

"Is that what you did back there?" I ask. "When you fought off the Forest Slime?"

"Kind of." Ahkelios puts a hand to his chin in thought. "I thought I could access my old stores of Firmament, and... I sort of did? It's hard to explain. But it took a lot out of me."

"Be careful doing that next time," I say, and Ahkelios nods.

"I didn't know it would take so much out of me, but it's good to know we have that option, right?" he suggests. He looks so innocent that I laugh, holding out a hand for him to fist-bump; to my surprise, he responds, a tiny insect fist bumping against my own. "Good to know we have that same custom, too!"

I can't help but smile. "Whatever you did, if it let you draw from yourself at your prime... it might be our way to get you all the way back. We'll have to work on it together."

Ahkelios beams at me. "I'll tell you all about it later! But you still have other rewards, right?"

"Dungeon access and a Firmament skill," I confirm.

"A dungeon!" Ahkelios claps his hands together excitedly. "The Sewers, right?"

"No?" I tilt my head. "The Empty City. Rank S."

"Why are your rewards so different?" Ahkelios folds his arms across his chest. "I don't think you solved it faster than I did. Did you read more of the obelisk or something?"

"I read the entire thing," I say. "Does that make a difference?"

"The entire thing?" Ahkelios blinks. "The obelisk crumbles the moment the translation stone is done. I barely got two entries even with my mental acceleration skills."

"Oh, yeah, I just triggered an Inspiration so I could read the whole thing." I shrug. Ahkelios stares at me, his mandibles spread wide in what I'm pretty sure is his species' equivalent of a jaw drop.

"You did what," he says, and then he promptly flies a step away so he can sit on the ground and put his hands over his face. "Oh for the love of— why didn't I think of that."

"You might not have had the points?" I say awkwardly.

"I had the points." His voice is muffled. "I just didn't think of it."

"At least now you'll know what it says?"

"It's not the saaame." Ahkelios whines a little. "I guess that explains why you got access to a different dungeon. It sounds like you get access to the whole dang city. If it's rank S, you shouldn't try to explore it yet."

"I wasn't planning to," I say dryly. "Is there any particular way I can access the dungeon?"

"You can get there from your Interface," Ahkelios says. "It'll open up a portal for you. But uh, again, you probably shouldn't do it yet."

"A portal." I hum in thought. I wonder if there's a way I can exploit that. "Why not? Am I going to get attacked as soon as I open the portal?"

"No," Ahkelios says, although he says it reluctantly, like he can tell I'm planning something. "It usually opens in a safe spot."

"And the dungeon instances are the same between loops?"

"You keep progress between loops, if that's what you're asking. All monsters that you don't kill will regenerate, though."

"Got it." There's some way I can use that, I'm sure, although I can't think of anything right now. "Does it cost me anything to open or close the dungeon portal?"

"Time, I guess?" Ahkelios screws his face up in thought. "There's a cooldown, I think. Twenty-four hours. Other than that, it doesn't cost you anything."

"Good," I say, grinning.

There's a slight pause.

"Ethan?" Ahkelios peers at me.

"Yes?"

"Why are you grinning like that?"

"Like what?"

"You look like you just found a rare flower and you're planning to keep it all to yourself."

"...I promise you, Ahkelios, if I find a rare flower, you're the first person I'll share it with."

----------------------------------------

It takes me a moment to gather myself, but I'm on my way back to the Cliffside Crows. Ahkelios sits on my shoulder, and the Phantom Root is held carefully in my hand — it's incredible how such a small thing is able to emanate so much Firmament. I can sense the Firmament tangles embedded in every fiber of the wood. It's a part of the thing, and the closest thing to living Firmament that I've seen.

I'm not sure how it'll help Tarin, but I'm looking forward to finding out.

I can't help but feel nervous, though. There are a few things on my mind — one is that I haven't yet told Ahkelios about the new Firmament skill. I'll have to eventually, but... I remember what I saw of his past. Tetrachromacy speaks for itself even without Intuitive Analysis to explain it to me. It gives me the ability to distinguish between more wavelengths of color. It's the exact thing that Ahkelios lost, and I don't know how he'll feel about me acquiring it as a skill.

Where Intuitive Analysis does come in handy is that it tells me that the skill combines with Color Drain to allow me to identify what draining a particular color does, which cuts through a lot of the busywork I'd need to do to identify the colors that correlate with different debuffs.

Another are the notifications about Mechanical Remnants. There's been nothing new since the last ones, and that only makes me more concerned. My best guess is that this has something to do with that robot I pushed into the Fracture's explosion, but I don't understand what, and I'm nervous. It feels like there's a clock ticking in the background.

Ahkelios is clearly aware that something's wrong, but he doesn't seem to know how to bring it up. "Do you want to tell me the rest of what was on the obelisk?" he asks me. "Was it sad?"

"It was pretty sad," I admit. I can let him think that's what's bothering me.

And so, on the way back to the Cliffside, I regale him with the tale of the unnamed mother, who remembered to name everyone except herself, in her attempt to make sure they would all be remembered.

Maybe we'll find her name when I explore the Empty City.

Another to add to the long, long list of goals.