The ‘reward’ Velvet picked was more determined by what items were around the periphery than what they actually thought was the most useful, though of the choices available it seemed fine. A shield that had a mirrored surface, though whether it was purely aesthetic or functional somehow was unclear. There was a limit to how much they could study their rewards before they risked removing it from the pedestal and counting it as their choice. And they very much wanted to avoid the consequences of going over.

While it was likely their group could dismantle the local formations, that wasn’t a guarantee. Even if they did, that might ruin the exact thing they came for. The stable space might collapse, which would hinder all the rest of their plans. If they wanted to bore their own tunnels into deeper levels of subspace, they would have just done that. Because of that, they were careful.

When Velvet picked her choice off of the pedestal, she had thought they might all be swept away in another round of portal shenanigans. Separately or together, they couldn’t really know.

Instead, the wall at the edge of the area simply faded. “Please proceed to the reward appreciation zone,” said the voice that had been instructing them so far. It not coming from the form of a human speaker was quite unlike Everheart, but there was still some small chance that there was someone of great skill mimicking him instead of him pretending to be someone else. Either way, they had to treat the area with the same level of caution.

They moved together as carefully as possible, wondering if traps might reveal themselves in the overlapping dimensionality of the place. Instead, they found what they could only see as a completely open area.

“I’m not even sensing anything on other layers,” Alva said. “And we’re unlikely to get any floor or wall overlapping with us. Just stay away from the pillar, I guess.”

Speaking of which, the referenced pillar in the center of their new zone added more information. “Welcome to the reward appreciation zone. It is recommended that you familiarize yourself with your rewards here. We hope you made the correct choice.”

“Do you respond to people, pillar voice?” Alva asked. She waited, but got no response. “Alright then. Because that made it sound like there was a right choice.”

“I thought it was the helmet,” Durff said. “It said we got one thing each. I’m sorry that I didn’t wait for people to discuss.”

“What does the helmet even do?” Alva asked.

“Well, it’s a helmet…” he shrugged. “Should I put it on?”

“Might as well at this point,” Velvet said. “If this place was interested in arbitrarily killing us, it shouldn’t need to be done like that. What do you think, Koralo?”

“I don’t sense anything overtly hostile from it, but it’s difficult to tell with small scale enchantments sometimes.”

Durff nodded. “I think I should.” He lifted the helmet, which was surprisingly unadorned by cultivator standards. He settled it over his head, fitting it snugly in place. “I wonder if it does-”

Before his words finished, the helmet almost seemed to melt- except the main structure never disappeared. Even so, silvery liquid metal flowed down his neck and over his chest. Down his arm and legs. Then it even reached out, pouring over his detached arm on the ground next to him.

“Well that’s neat,” Durff said. He picked up the arm now encased fully in metal. “This should make it more durable.”

“That’s… great?” Alva nodded. “I’m still not sure how things ended up like… that, though.”

“Well, the metal melted and went over it,” Durff explained.

“That’s not what I meant,” Alva said. “I was talking about you using your arm as a weapon.”

“Oh. Well , my hammer broke. And so I had to use something. And my arm worked.”

“See, that’s the thing I don’t get. You breaking a hammer you had special made?” Alva shrugged. “It happens. Sometimes things aren’t as durable as they seem or we put our weapons through situations above their material grade. But how can your arm, which got cut off, be more durable than that?”

“They’re not the same thing,” Durff pointed out. “I don’t cut or get cut when I attack. It’s all about blunt force and resisting the counterforce. But it’s not weird that my arm could get cut or burned off,” he said. “Those are different.”

“I suppose so,” Alva agreed. “Usually such durability tends to come together, though.”

“I’m pretty generally durable against anything below Augmentation cultivators,” Durff said. “But the universe seemed to be mad at my shoulder. And my previous armor wasn’t good enough, it seems.”

Durff’s previous armor had been little better than scrap after the assault on the Citadel. It had ultimately met its final fate with the ship, left behind as more of a hindrance than a boon.

The various formation flags had been handed over to Koralo, who was studying them closely and comparing them to things from his storage bag.

“Will they do what we need?” Velvet asked.

“They should be quite helpful. And of course, I had some confidence in sustaining a stable tunnel without anything extra. Otherwise I would have opposed coming here in the first place. We did not particularly expect rewards, after all.”

He was left to his observations, while Velvet turned her head towards Lelka who was staring at her. Or rather, the shield she had picked up. “What is it?” Velvet asked.

“A mirrored shield like that should be quite useful against the cultivators of the Exalted Light. I suspect it should be able to deflect a greater area than its size would suggest.”

“I’ve seen some techniques that do something akin to what you describe,” Velvet agreed.

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Lelka hesitated for a while, uncertain if she should say anything. But ultimately, she worked up the courage. “I would like to make use of that. I don’t believe any of the rest of your styles would fit with it.”

“You seemed pretty capable of fighting earlier,” Velvet said.

“So?” Lelka shrugged. “I imagine you would not be useless without weapons yourself. That does not mean I am most effective like this. And while you might not trust me with my staff, the effort of bringing me along will be wasted if I perish. And the shield should fit with my style well enough.”

“Can you use it offensively?” Velvet asked.

“Well…” Lelka hesitated. “Probably.”

“I’ll consult the others,” Velvet said.

There wasn’t exactly any privacy, so everyone would have overheard them. Durff voiced his opinion first. “She helped us in the last fight, and she could have betrayed us. I think it’s fine.”

Alva didn’t say anything directly, instead taking shots with her bow. The first ones were extremely weak, striking the shield one at a time until they ultimately ramped up. Standard Spirit Arrows without an attribute and light attributed ones caused the shield to react differently. Whatever her thoughts, she was ultimately satisfied. “It will be fine.”

Velvet turned to Koralo. He looked away from his studies of the edge of the area they were in for a moment. “I think I would prefer we shackle her again. But if Lelka is to be free, having her be more effective for other potential conflicts would be best.”

The shield was tossed to Lelka. “Make sure to protect this guy,” Velvet said, gesturing to Koralo. “Trust me, you don’t want to be in unstable partial dimensional space.”

“I believe it will take an hour or so to work out a functional tunnel design,” Koralo added. “I was briefed by Catarina on her methods, but I hadn’t necessarily expected to put them into practical use at this time. I am also missing the, uh, catalyst you worked with before.”

“What sort of catalyst?” Lelka asked. “I have various things in my storage bag. Though I suppose you already inspected them.”

Velvet chuckled. “A distortion beast that stretched a vast distance through subspace. It’s better to not have to deal with that.”

“I would have to agree,” Lelka said. She looked around. “So how are people normally supposed to leave with these… rewards?”

“I don’t think we are,” Alva commented. “Not once we end up here. I’ve been surveying the area and there isn’t really anything like an exit formation. Unless, perhaps, the formation flags are meant to construct one.”

“Not without the requisite knowledge,” Koralo chimed in. “And that’s not our current issue, anyway.”

“Right,” Velvet said. “We just need to create-”

As she was speaking, a sudden surge of energy drew the attention of everyone. A dozen disciples of the Hardened Crown, some bloodied, appeared in the battle reward area.

“Dammit,” Lelka said. “They must have sensed our battle. Most likely more people will be inspecting. And…”

“They probably recognized both you and us,” Velvet nodded. “How strong is that Elder Ludek?”

“The five of us together should be able to defeat him alone. But… that would be an unlikely scenario.”

Koralo nodded. “Looks like I’ll need to focus on this. Take them out, would you?” he gestured to the others.

Alva drew her bow, but before she could fire a pulse of energy swirled around her.

“Do not disrupt the reward selection process, or you will face solar annihilation.”

Alva grimaced. “I bet grandpa could survive solar annihilation.”

“Your… grandfather?” Lelka frowned. “To think the Scarlet Alliance had secrets such as that.” She shook her head. “But I suppose I should not pry, at the moment.”

“Hey, pillars,” Alva asked. “Once they’re no longer selecting, can we kill them?”

There was no response.

“We should let one of them strike first,” Velvet said. “Just to be safe. Which means we’ll have to be prepared…”

“I’ve got new armor,” Durff said. “I should test it.”

“Well, I’m not sure if that’s a good idea,” Velvet commented.

“But if they don’t hit any of us, it might not count as an attack,” Durff said, shaking his second arm as he emphasized his words. “If we dodged something and then got solar annihilated when we fought back… that wouldn’t be great, yeah? It sounds bad.”

Velvet looked towards Lelka.

“I would volunteer,” she said. “But I don’t know if my new shield is optimized for, uh… the Hardened Crown.”

“They’d probably smash it,” Alva agreed. “Even if it isn’t particularly weak against physical assault.”

“It’s kind of insulting that they have so many people here,” Velvet said. “But that’s better for the Scarlet Alliance so I shouldn’t complain too much. But, Durff, one of them seems to be in Augmentation. Can you handle that?”

He rapped his armored fist on his helmet, then nodded. “Yeah, should be fine for at least one hit. Don’t worry, I’ve sparred with Sly so I know what I’m talking about.”

“I can’t believe how many Augmentation cultivators the Exalted Quadrant has,” Alva sighed. “Well, I know how great of a population they have but… it makes our numbers look pathetic.”

“... I can give you a good approximation of the total numbers,” Lelka said. “When we get to safety and I can bargain for a better position.”

“Don’t expect us to just let you join,” Velvet said.

“I would be content with good treatment and a comfortable cell,” Lelka replied. “That would already be a better prospect than where things were going here.”

All of them suddenly turned their heads, though they could only sense what happened beyond the currently solid wall. A single flare of energy burned through one of the Hardened Crown members in a single instant. Her upper energy was annihilated as she tried to defend herself, turning her to ash in the same moment it destroyed her defenses. The energy signature indicated the brief flare was almost certainly just a part of the local star.

“Please return both unearned rewards back to their pedestals,” said a calm voice.

The five of them felt the Hardened Crown members scrambling to put back the extra reward- and apparently the one that their dead member was originally entitled to.

A few minutes later, and the walls separating them faded away. Instantly, there were hostile looks from the Hardened Crown.

Koralo threw a number of formation flags behind and around Durff, small ones from his personal collection.

“Welcome to the reward appreciation zone. It is recommended that you familiarize yourself with your rewards here. We hope you made the correct choice.”

Those words were still being spoken as the Augmentation cultivator- a woman- charged towards the group. She was holding in her arms a massive shield covered with spikes. In a way that was comforting, because it was less likely to take out Durff in a single shot. She still broke through Koralo’s barriers in an instant, and then she struck Durff.

A shockwave spread throughout the area as her momentum was mostly absorbed. Durff went tumbling back, only to be caught by Lelka, who set him on his feet.

“Ouch,” he said. “That really hurt.” He paused for a moment. “Oh, looks like we’re good to kill them, guys.”