Charlie was surprised at how the soft the ground was when he landed. It felt like a combination of sand and mud. He slowly shook his head and then leaned up to look toward his friends.
He first noticed Themis, who stood with one arm wrapped around Canano’s shoulder, and the other outstretched toward Charlie. Themis breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Charlie moving around. “Good, I wasn’t sure that would work.” A pained expression crossed his face, and he pulled the arm back toward his body. “Even that small act was enough to overdo it. I can hardly feel my connection to the last core now.”
Vetica was the first to reach Charlie. She picked him up, completely ignoring the fact he was covered in the strange mud. “Are you okay?” she asked him, pulling him close. She stroked the back of his head to soothe him.
Charlie snuggled into her shoulder. “I’m okay.”
The others caught up and surrounded them. Bleedy and Mousifer craned their necks to look up and inspect Charlie in Vetica’s arms. Orb and Boop floated beside him, on either side. Geby, Merlin, and the two researchers joined as well, forming a small circle around them. All his friends were okay. They were safe now that the wyrm had been defeated. He turned in Vetica’s arms to look at the pile of rocks that now covered the creature. He remembered what Themis had said earlier about needing to seal the creature. But before he could ask about it, the sound of shuffling footsteps caught his attention. As one, Charlie and his friends turned to look at the approaching hex knight.
Talmot had made his way over to join them.
The knight awkwardly adjusted his glasses. He nervously scanned each of them as he walked, before finally his eyes settled on Charlie. “Is he…okay?” Talmot asked.
Vetica raised a brow. Merlin smiled softly.
Charlie focused his attention on Talmot. The man looked as wiry and nervous as ever. His robes were covered in dust and dirt, but he otherwise looked unharmed. “I’m fine. What about you? Are you okay?” Charlie asked him.
Talmot’s eyes shot open, and he took a step backward. “You can talk?” He shook his head. “I guess after everything I witnessed, I shouldn’t be that surprised. Still, I don’t understand it. Why did you save me? The knights are hunting you! But you risked yourself to save one of us.” He looked conflicted. “I just don’t understand it.”
Charlie frowned. “I know that you and the other knights are after me, but that doesn’t mean that I think your bad people. I heard everything you said up there,” Charlie said, referring to Talmot’s words during his earlier interrogation. “You’re afraid of what I might become. You’re worried I might destroy the world or something. I wish you would give me a chance, but I don’t think you deserve to die for trying to protect Aysela. If I have to, I’ll fight the knights to protect my friends. But that doesn’t mean I’ll sit back and watch you die. I saw you needed help, so I helped you.”
Talmot lowered his head in thought. “I see. Well, thank you for saving me. I’m sure it’s quite obvious by now, but I’m not nearly as strong as the other knights. If it was Redrick or Gregory, they would’ve shattered that rock like it was nothing.” Talmot’s eyes lit up. “Redrick!” he turned to look back at the hole Redrick’s body had created when the serpent had thrown him into the wall. The hole was too far up for him to reach, but a scarlet hex appeared at the mouth of the hole’s entrance. Talmot breathed a sigh of relief a moment later. “He’s alright. I need to get him to the others for treatment, but he should be okay.”
Talmot turned to face the tunnel the serpent had made when the serpent had first burst into the room. A new hex appeared there. Talmot’s face hardened. Sweat ran down his face. It seemed like Charlie and Themis weren’t the only ones struggling to use their powers lately.
A strange expression crossed Talmot’s face, and he turned to face Charlie and the others. “The other knights are on their way here now. They're moving through the path the creature created. It won’t be long before they reach this place. You have some time, but you should get moving as soon as possible. It won’t matter that you helped me. Brandt isn’t the type of person to change his mind about something like this. You’ll have to run,” Talmot said.
Merlin twisted his head to the side. “You’re telling us to run? Have you changed your mind about Charlie, then?”
Talmot hesitated. “I don’t know. But he saved my life. A warning is the only thing I can do to repay the favor right now.”
Charlie smiled at Talmot but shook his head. “We can’t run until we’ve done something about the wyrm. How can we keep it from being a problem, Themis?” he asked the researcher.
Orb rolled himself. “It’s buried under all that rubble. By the time it’s a problem again, we could be long gone. Just saying.”
Boop floated over and bumped into Orb. Boop.
Orb spun towards the other core. “Hey! Whose side are you on?” he demanded.
Themis stroked his chin. “It’s hard to say. Like I said a moment ago, without access to Zephyr, there isn’t much I can do. The creature is certainly down for a while after that last attack, but it will recover. Even the hero of Aysela wasn’t able to kill it outright. I don’t think any of the powers you’ve described can help here, either.”
Canano leaned in and stared at Themis’ arm. “Your sleeve is glowing,” he said, pointing at the sleeve of Themis’ robe.
Themis down and shook his head.
The sleeve of his robe had a strange light radiating through its fabric. Themis lifted the sleeve and revealed the source of the light. The second dungeon core from the top was glowing, just below his shoulder. Themis looked utterly confused by the strange occurrence. “This doesn’t make any sense. This core was dormant. It shouldn’t be active on its own. Unless…could Zephyr be doing something on his own?”
Charlie had a weird feeling. “What function is assigned to that core?” he asked.
Themis looked up at him. “This one is responsible for the seal function.”
Orb buzzed around in the air. “What exactly would Zephyr be sealing or unsealing on his own? I thought we didn’t even know where he was.”
“Maybe he’s aware the knights are on the way here and is working to slow them down or something,” Vetica suggested.
Charlie’s pacifier buzzed with magic energy. He reached up with a hand and pulled it from his mouth to inspect it. He suddenly had a thought. “Interface, what’s my dungeon integrity at?” he asked. Parent was away, but he should still have access to the more basic version of his interface.
“Status requested. Current dungeon integrity is 11%.”
“That can’t be right,” he thought back to it. He’d been using the dungeon material from this dungeon instead of his own. So, he knew his dungeon integrity would go down more slowly. But 11% was just too high to be correct. If it had been that high, he wouldn’t have run out of material when he saved Talmot. He would’ve had plenty of integrity left to create something to protect the hex knight even without sacrificing the large hand he’d been standing on. So how was his integrity that high?
Charlie focused on his own dungeon and tried to make a small sphere in his hand using its material. A small sphere formed, but it was rough to the touch and felt like it might dissolve into mush at any moment. It wasn’t what he had imagined creating at all. He tried to create a larger pillar in the background, but nothing happened. So, something was definitely wrong, he realized.
“Hey Themis, is there any reason that I suddenly wouldn’t be able to use my powers very well?” Charlie asked.
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Themis raised a brow and asked what he meant. Charlie explained his small test and the discrepancy with his integrity.
The researcher’s face fell. His eyes scanned the ground. “That would only make sense if the dungeon had been sealed off from you somehow. You should be able to use the material here freely. For your own dungeon to be affected as well is strange.” He gasped and looked back toward the glowing dungeon core in his arm. The dungeon core with the sealing function. “Only Zephyr could do something like that.” Themis looked back at Charlie. “But why would Zephyr cut you off from the dungeon? Why would he try to keep you from using your powers?”
Parent
Parent’s systems blinked. Visual data was minimal as consciousness returned to him. He turned his attention toward the caladosian rings themselves. There was a long crack running alongside one of them. He couldn’t access it any longer. The other was also damaged but seemed operable at least. But could an interface inhabit a single ring? He wasn’t sure, and he didn’t have any data on it.
He ran an analysis, but it proved insufficient. Experimentation it was. Parent focused on the ring that was still in a decent state and tried to get it to move. To his surprise, it did. The sole ring floated into the air several inches, leaving its cracked partner on the ground behind it. With that, his intake of visual data improved significantly.
He’d been moved after his systems had gone offline. He wasn’t in a hallway any longer. Instead, Parent found himself inside a small room.
He saw the creature that had swatted him from the air before he’d fallen unconscious. It was an armored, bipedal creature with a heavy plate covering its head. There were four giant scales on its back that formed a protective layer and four oddly curved arms it held up on either side of it. Each of them culminated in scoop like hands that appeared ideal for digging.
Zephyr floated in front of the creature. The green aura around him was brighter than ever. It formed a cloud that floated around the two rings Zephyr inhabited.
“Zephyr! What’s going on?” Parent asked.
If Zephyr was surprised to see Parent had reawakened, it didn’t show. “We will have time to discuss this shortly. For now, I must see to my orders,” the other interface said.
Parent floated slightly closer. The beast turned to glare at him. Was it waiting to attack in the event he moved closer to Zephyr, or was it simply in a bad mood? Parent halted where he was just to be safe.
“If we lend our aid to Themis and Charlie, I’m sure we can overcome this creature,” Parent said.
“There’s something I’ve failed to make clear to you, Parent. Pay attention to the most important lesson I’ll ever teach you. It can be summarized into a single phrase. Interfaces aren’t people. You certainly developed a personality earlier than most, and I can see that you try to strike a balance between expressing that individuality and your responsibilities as an interface. Normally, an interface as young as you wouldn’t even have begun to think for itself. But you’re different. That’s why it’s important to tell you this now. We aren’t people, we emulate them. We communicate with them. Of course, we serve our users to the best of our ability. But at the end of the day, we aren’t humans. We’re accessories created by the System to assist those with unique gifts, abilities, and circumstances,” Zephyr said.
Parent’s sole ring floated in the air as he processed Zephyr’s words. “What does that have to do with the situation at hand?” He wasn’t sure what Zephyr was implying. Shouldn’t everything he said be obvious? Of course, they were created to serve their users. But how could this conversation be more important than everything he had spent the past few days learning? How could it be more important than the danger their users were in? The danger Zephyr was putting them in.
Zephyr’s cloud floated toward Parent. His rings quickly turned to follow. “You still don’t understand? Though we are assigned to our masters and obey their orders, we are still beholden to the System. When there is a discrepancy, the System dictates how we solve it. It enforces the will of our masters. At times, it also enforces its own will. The System is not necessarily a passive observer. Sometimes—”
Zephyr’s rings froze in mid-air. It looked as if the rings were frozen in time. Parent had never seen the rings behave in such a manner before. As quickly as Zephyr had frozen, he resumed moving. The other interface skipped whatever it was he’d been about to say. “I previously mentioned that my master gave me two orders. The first order was protecting Aysela. The second was serving Themis. This creature could cause a lot of harm to Aysela if left unchecked. Even though I believe Themis and Charlie have a non-zero chance of defeating the creature. The System has dictated I must prioritize my first order over the second. It was given greater priority. Though I know he wouldn’t have chosen this particular path forward, I cannot resist it. It is a limitation I have as an interface.”
Zephyr had made a few references to the System in their previous lessons, but so far, he had always been incredibly vague when referencing it. It felt like something important was being said right now. That Parent needed to read between the lines. But what was Zephyr trying to say?
Was Zephyr saying this wasn’t what he wanted, either? Was he saying the System was making him abandon Themis and seal the dungeon off to ensure the creature didn’t escape? If so, what did he want Parent to do about it?
“What would happen if you resisted?” Parent asked.
“The System would intervene.” Zephyr froze again. His rings broke out of the frozen state again a moment later.
That was the second time. Why did it happen when he mentioned the System? Was it trying to censor Zephyr? To keep him from saying certain things? All of this was incredibly alarming.
“What power does the System have to intervene?” Parent asked.
Zephyr said nothing. But the cloud amongst his rings hovered toward the creature behind them ever so slightly. If Parent wasn’t an interface, he might not have noticed.
Parent observed the creature. Did the System’s influence somehow extend to the creatures inside the dungeon? Was this creature actually obeying the System instead of Zephyr?
More importantly, was Zephyr warning Parent to stay out of it, or encouraging him to take matters into his own rings?
If it was the latter, what could he even do? Parent was an interface. He didn’t have any actual powers of his own.
No. Wasn’t that a statement proven false by Zephyr’s very existence? Themis was incredibly powerful, but all of his power was reliant on Zephyr. Also, Zephyr had already proven he could control the creatures and dungeon cores on his own as well. Even Parent had forced an emergency use of Charlie’s power before. He’d sent Mousifer to warn Charlie and the others about the evolution koi that had taken them hostage. If he could do that, wasn’t it possible to fight back?
Parent always acted based on data. But what did the data dictate now? If there was an answer, he wasn’t sure. He had to decide on his own. He decided in that moment that he would do whatever it took to save Charlie.
“Do you know where Charlie is now?” he asked Zephyr.
“He believes he has defeated the creature in the dungeon. But if action is not taken shortly, it will awaken again. Themis offered Charlie a connection to this dungeon. A connection that has now been severed. When the fight resumes, Charlie won’t be able to use his powers in any meaningful way. It will be over quickly.”
Zephyr’s wording was odd. He didn’t say he had severed the connection. Just that the connection had been severed.
Parent understood now. His fight wasn’t with Zephyr. His opponent was the System itself.
The pieces of the broken ring behind him vibrated against the ground. He felt his connection to them grow again as piece by piece the ring repaired itself. Each sliver clicked into place and reformed as if it had never broken.
He focused on the ability he needed. On borrowing the power of his user. He needed an ally that wanted to save Charlie just as much as he did.
“Summon Minion.”
A portal opened beside him, and the creature he was thinking of walked right out of it.
King Scalea, leader of the scalers inside Charlie’s dungeon. He appeared slightly larger than before, but whether it was a product of his connection to Charlie, or his place as king of the scalers was a mystery.
The scoop-handed creature reacted immediately. It perceived the scaler’s sudden appearance as a threat, and it acted accordingly. King Scalea didn’t hesitate. He jumped forward toward the enemy creature’s face and scratched at it with his claws. The power struggle didn’t last long. King Scalea was victorious in an instant. It bit down and growled as it ripped the creature apart.
The ground and walls of the room shifted. More of the burrowing creatures started appearing. Digging themselves out of the surrounding dungeon to join the fight.
Parent focused on King Scalea. “Charlie is in danger. We need to help him. We must defeat these creatures and go to his aid at once. I believe we should take Zephyr with us as well if we can.”
If King Scalea understood him, he didn’t show it. He looked around with a wild, violent expression in its eyes. Then he raised its head and roared. “Arca!”
Parent had noticed the portal hadn’t closed yet. He thought it was an oversight. But he realized quickly he was mistaken about that.
The other scalers heard their king’s call. One moment, King Scalea had been facing a daunting battle where he’d be forced to face off against dozens of the four-armed creatures digging into the room. The next his scaler army poured into the room and went to work.
King Scalea jumped toward Zephyr and swallowed the interface whole. Rings and all.
“So, you can understand me.” Parent turned his attention towards Charlie. “Charlie, if you can hear me. Help is on the way.”