Charlie’s eyes widened. Luc didn’t know about the core guardian. He didn’t know about its powers.

If he ran in blindly, he’d get taken by the core guardian, too.

“Luc! Wait!” Charlie called out.

Luc paused, skidding to a stop. His eyes shot open, and he looked at Charlie. “I can hear you!” He shook his head. They both knew that wasn’t the thing to focus on now. “Do you have a plan?” he asked.

Charlie frowned. “I’m out of power. I can’t fight anymore. That thing is turning Lyra into a snatcher!”

Luc turned to look at her. The core guardian’s liquid was now down to her shoulders. “Then we get her out!” Luc said, taking another step.

“If it pulls you in it, you’ll turn into one of them too!” Charlie warned him.

Luc’s face darkened. “Charlie, there’s no time! Look, I know I’m not strong like Kashak. I don’t have powers like you or Lyra. But right now, my best friend is in danger. I don’t care if it’s the smart thing to do. I don’t care if the Hex King would’ve come up with some kind of plan to save the day. Lyra’s in trouble, and I’m gonna help her.”

With that, Luc turned back and ran toward Lyra.

Charlie blinked. “Luc…”

The core guardian’s liquid was down to Lyra’s stomach now. It was getting faster.

The mayor noticed Luc approaching the core guardian and rolled his eyes. He nodded at the only snatcher left standing. The snatcher turned to look at the mayor but did not respond. The mayor scowled. This was twice now one of the creatures had ignored him.

Both times he’d looked surprised.

Luc was close now.

Charlie tightened a baby fist. “Luc, it’ll grab you, too. You can’t just run in like this!”

Luc looked over his shoulder directly at Charlie.

Charlie froze.

Luc’s face was a story of conflicting emotions. He smiled at Charlie, but tears streamed down his face.

“That’s what it means to be a hero. You fight even when it feels impossible,” he called back.

Luc reached Lyra, her hands hung loosely at her side, mere seconds away from being enveloped by the creature. Luc grabbed her right hand with his good arm and pulled. At the same time, he twisted his body to increase the force.

Lyra’s body shot out of the core guardian. But the momentum left Luc falling in.

Lyra fell to the ground and landed on her stomach. The impact jarred her from her trancelike state. She looked around, a confused expression on her face. When she realized something had happened, she rolled over to look at the core guardian.

Luc was there, fully inside the beast. Lyra shook her head in confusion.

Charlie didn’t understand it either. Sir Albert was a Hex Knight, and even he wasn’t able to pull himself free of the core guardian. So why had Luc been able to pull Lyra out?

Lyra scrambled to her feet and hurried forward to free Luc as he had freed her. But the core guardian did something unexpected.

It started to float.

It lifted off the ground and out of reach. Even the mayor seemed surprised.

“What are you doing?” he demanded. “Why did you let the girl go? This boy is useless!” He looked up at Luc floating inside.

Lyra turned to the mayor. “Let him go! We had a deal! I wasn’t resisting. Let Luc go!” she screamed.

The mayor eyed her. “You’ll get your chance. Wait your turn and don’t cause any problems.” But he didn’t sound very confident.

Charlie got the feeling the core guardian was acting on its own.

It took the form of a sphere again, and the circular liquid being rotated around Luc’s body. Luc floated there with closed eyes. He was unconscious now.

Charlie watched as the boy with a missing front tooth and a broken arm slowly grew into a man. The splint on his arm dissolved. The green robe that snatchers wear formed over his body, replacing his own too tight clothes as he grew. A green aura bathed his entire body in light. The creature rippled like waves in a storm.

Then it went still.

Luc was much taller now. He was easily 6 foot something and his arm looked healthy again. His hair was several inches longer and his nails had grown significantly, too.

However, it seemed the last two things were unintentional side effects. The ends of Luc’s hair suddenly disintegrated until the remaining strands were only an inch or two long. The excess portions of his nails dissolved until they appeared neatly trimmed.

The green aura grew brighter and brighter until the outline of Luc’s body resembled a miniature green sun.

The mayor watched on in awe. “I’ve always enjoyed watching this. In ancient times, they called this creature Nae Glera. They were once as feared as dragons, if not more. They alter the body and mind of humans. The creatures were thought to be hunted to extinction. But this one survived, a relic from the days of the Hex King. If you believe all those stories.”

Lyra shook her head. “Luc! Can you hear me? You have to get out of there!” she called out to him.

The mayor shook his head. “He can’t hear you, and even if he could, he can’t do anything about it. It’s over, Lyra.”

Charlie’s head hung. The number of his friends getting hurt was growing rapidly. Luc had done what he couldn’t. He’d saved Lyra. At least, temporarily. She was still in danger. They all were.

But Luc had taken her place without a second thought.

He’d run in to help her with tears in his eyes.

Despite the fact he didn’t have power.

When Charlie thought about it, he realized that Luc and he weren’t so different. Hadn’t Luc acted in the same way Charlie usually would? Charging in headfirst, even if he didn’t have a plan. The difference was, Luc didn’t have powers like Charlie did.

As soon as his powers had run out, Charlie had thought he was out of options.

He’d come to rely on them since coming to this world.

But that wasn’t all. Charlie had come to rely on his friends, too.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

He hadn’t been alone even once since being transported to Aysela. Orb, Mousifer, Bleedy, Merlin, and more recently, Vetica.

From the very start, he’d continued to meet new people and inevitably, Charlie had come to depend on them.

Without Bleedy, he’d still be crawling around in the forest somewhere, running away from Hex Knights. Orb was always floating around nearby when Charlie needed him. Mousifer was constantly ready with a supportive squeak or two. Vetica was ready to jump at any opportunity to kill something and keep Charlie from being hurt or inconvenienced. He was still working on calming her down.

And then there was Merlin. Merlin kept following Charlie into dangerous situations because he was just that good of a friend.

Charlie had learned he could trust all of them, and of course, he’d made new friends in Sange. Lyra, the other children, and the Scalers. But recently, he’d had to adjust to being without Orb and Merlin and all the friends he depended on.

Here he was, facing an impossible situation without the people he would usually look to for help, and he’d let it beat him.

He’d lost his fighting spirit.

But Luc had reminded him what it means to be a hero.

You do the things that need to be done to protect the people you care about. To protect people in danger.

Charlie had come here to save the people of Sange, so how could he give up just because the interface said he couldn’t fight anymore?

Who says the interface gets to decide what he can do?

He looked up at Luc, and he realized something.

The two of them weren’t just similar in the fact they’d charge into a reckless situation without thinking.

They were in the same in another way.

Just like Charlie, Luc had given up.

Sure, he saved Lyra, but after that, he’d accepted his fate.

Luc had shown Charlie something important. It was only right to return the favor.

The mayor said that Luc couldn’t hear Lyra. But Lyra had to speak with her voice.

Charlie could speak with his mind. If he could only just nudge the boy a little. Anything to help him awaken.

“Luc!” he said, focusing his attention on the boy turned man floating inside the Nae Glera core guardian.

“Luc! Wake up! We aren’t done fighting! They still plan to turn Lyra into a snatcher! As soon as you’re done, they’ll do the same thing to her. She’s not safe yet. We aren’t done protecting our friends. Fight back!”

Charlie frowned. Nothing. He’d hoped that…

For the briefest of seconds, it looked like one of Luc’s fingers twitched. Could he hear Charlie?

Maybe?

He had a thought. If Charlie was fighting for his life, who would he most want to hear from?

His friends.

“Luc! Lyra is calling out to you. Listen,” Charlie said.

Another twitch.

“Lyra, try talking to him again!” Charlie told her.

She looked back at Charlie, and then at the floating sphere above.

“Luc! I’m sorry I lied to you before. I said I would join your guild because I wanted you to go with Kashak. I was worried if I didn’t, you would realize that something was wrong. But I knew I couldn’t follow through on my promise. I knew if we didn’t defeat the core guardian, they would turn me into a snatcher.”

“But I promise, if you just wake up, I will join you. I’ll fight by your side and help you become the hero you’ve always dreamed of being. I’ll join your guild. But you have to wake up. That’s what the Hex King would do! He’d fight and overcome this! I know you can do that too. Please, Luc!”

The green aura faded, and the sphere sunk back to the ground.

The mayor approached it. He pressed a hand against the core guardian’s exterior. “Is it finished?” he asked, studying Luc, who floated just in front of him. He paused. He looked up to inspect the beast. “Can’t you hear me?”

Another pause. He turned to look at Charlie and Lyra. “What did you do?” he demanded.

Lyra and Charlie exchanged a look. What was he talking about?

Behind him, Luc’s eyes shot open. One was aquamarine, the other was Luc’s usual darker shade of blue. One of the large, muscular arms on Luc’s new body raised to the side.

“Luc?” Lyra said.

Luc mouthed something.

The mayor turned around to see what they were looking at and froze. He took a few steps back.

Charlie realized what Luc had said as a large sphere of green flames formed inside the core guardian.

“Burst!”

The Nae Glera exploded.

The mayor was flung several feet away, landing hard on his back.

Droplets of the creature shot all around the room.

A few of them splattered on Charlie’s face.

His face scrunched up. “Gross!”

Unlike Lyra, or the boy they’d seen turned into a snatcher earlier, Luc was soaking wet. Possibly because he had interrupted the process. He fell to the ground; he planted a hand in the ground to keep himself from face planting.

Lyra hurried over and knelt in front of him. “Luc! Are you okay?” she asked him.

He didn’t respond to her question. Instead, he asked one of his own. “Did you mean what you said? You’ll really join my guild?” he asked, smiling. His voice was much deeper now, but it was clearly the same old Luc.

Lyra smiled back. “Yes. I did, and I will.” Her head tilted. “Your teeth,” she said, noticing his newfound smile.

Luc made a confused face and then ran his tongue over his teeth. His jaw dropped and his eyes widened in horror. “My missing tooth! That was going to be my trademark! Now I’ll need something else, unless…”

Lyra glared at him. “You aren’t pulling one of your teeth out.”

Luc sighed. “You’re no fun.”

Charlie smiled. But even now, the Nae Glera was rebuilding itself, droplet by droplet.

That was alright, because he had an idea.

He looked at his right hand, staring at his palm.

Then he placed it on the dungeon ground.

“Dungeon Manipulation!”

Nothing.

“Dungeon Manipulation!”

Still nothing.

He grunted. In Sirra, he’d manipulated the dungeon without transferring his own material. Actually, he’d done it here in this dungeon, too. He hadn’t realized it until now. But he’d done the same thing here a few times. Once or twice against the Scalers, and again when he slapped Tomas. He hadn't noticed then because it had felt so natural, but Charlie had manipulated other dungeons on multiple occasions.

There was something else was bothering him, too. Something Tomas had said. Dungeons had something called spheres of influence. The dungeon in Sange had sent Tomas to investigate Sirra because its influence was waning there. The dungeon Charlie had defeated was hurting the dungeon from Sange’s ability to exert its control in that area.

In Sirra, the dungeon had prevented him from using its material after the first time. Here, he had already done it a couple of times.

Why hadn’t the dungeon here stopped him like the first one?

Maybe he was stronger now. Or maybe it was because the dungeon in Sange had spread its influence over such a wide area and didn’t have as much control.

Either way, something important hit Charlie.

He had a dungeon, too.

So, wouldn’t that mean he also had a sphere of influence?

If he could control it, it may be possible to manipulate this dungeon again.

He could use the dungeon’s power against it, like it had used his power against him.

“Dungeon Manipulation!”

Nothing.

“Work!” Charlie shrieked. He calmed himself. Maybe he was trying to do too much. He focused on a tiny piece of the dungeon. Only the material directly below his hand.

“Dungeon Manipulation!”

A tiny bump formed on the ground underneath his hand.

Charlie smiled.

The mayor had slapped Lyra and terrorized the people of Sange.

The core guardian had turned children into snatchers, or Limblings, whatever you wanted to call them.

He was going to return to the favor, and he owed it all to Luc, who had reminded him what it meant to be a hero.

Charlie’s vision flashed, and a series of images came rushing across his mind.

He focused on one in particular. A soldier stood over Merlin, ready to plunge his blade down into the chest of Charlie’s friend.