image [https://imgur.com/U3tcQHO.jpg]

Oddly enough, it was Grandpa Goblin who started us on our journey to the tower. We left the cave and made our way down a metal road with him leading.

We got out of the desert and into a livelier area. Maybe lively wasn’t a good word, since it looked like all the tree leaves were turning brown…but hey, it was still more life than that desert.

Grandpa Goblin had to take us this way because it looked like big hills had moved over the metal roads and blocked the path there.

“What happened here?” Uncle asked him.

“Because of the mana drought, we’ve been needin’ to mine out new caves to find underground pockets of mana. This is where we’ve been dumpin’ the dirt and rock.”

He wanted us to avoid all the little mountains they made everywhere to save time and not get lost in the process.

He was being pretty nice in his own way, maybe he wasn’t such a mean grandpa after all.

Funny thing, we definitely wouldn't have gotten lost without him. We have an E.P.S (Elysium Positioning System) that would show us where we were inside the planet. We didn't say anything about it because Grandpa Goblin insisted on taking us.

Once we got to the tower, he bid us goodbye and good luck. I learned his name was Poppel. I decided to call him Mr. Pops from then on. His virtual nametag changed to match that.

“Good bye, Mr. Pops! Thanks for the help!”

He turned back and sighed, giving us a weak wave.

I didn't mind him anymore. He was a tough guy on the outside, but soft on the inside. I had to wonder why he didn't like the Exceed. We were nothing but good guys.

Anyways, there was a big door at the front of the tower. It was so tall and wide! Seven glowing symbols were on it. Each of these symbols were inside of a different coloured circle and looked fancy.

Those symbols were part of a complicated puzzle to open the door. A control panel on the right side had a math equation appear as we approached it.

That alphanumerical soup was well beyond my skill, so Uncle took initiative and got to work solving it.

Each time he solved a new equation, one of the symbols on the door would disappear.

He made it look so easy, but it wasn’t. Man, I really wanted to be that smart.

Once the door was open, we looked inside. Everything was lit up red. That wasn’t a good thing. It meant that something really bad was malfunctioning.

Uncle wirelessly deactivated the emergency power. That got the normal lights working again, but he couldn’t guarantee they’d stay on forever unless we repaired whatever was wrong with the pylon tower.

A diagnostic showed that something was wrong with the main mana processing systems.

We took an elevator up. A nasty surprise waited for us when the door parted open…

Red painted the walls all over…was this…blood?

~☆☆☆~

Strange symbols were written all over the metal walls in what looked like blood. Mostly five sided stars.

“Is that…blood?” I shivered, praying it wasn’t.

Uncle scanned it and shook his head.

“It’s ink. Red ink, like in pens.”

What a relief. I would've hated to see a bloody mess all over the place.

There were weird glyphs on the walls that were written inside of the stars. They looked similar to the ones outside, but they were from a completely different language. I couldn't read them either.

“Uncle…” I clenched his coat tightly, scrunching up myself close to him, “I don’t like this place…”

“Neither do I.” He started pushing me toward the elevator door. “Someone’s here that shouldn't be. I'll alert The Hive. We'll have a swarm deal with this.”

A swarm of bees was exactly what it sounded like. They’d rush in and destroy or clean up a problem very quickly.

“Wait, I'm not able to reach The Hive," Uncle said. "My signal is being jammed!?”

The door to the elevator slammed shut and sealed with red lights before we got in. They looked like angry eyes, staring at us like an evil monster.

Now I was trembling. I closed my eyes and immediately tried to access the doors emergency override system, but something with higher administrative power was denying me access.

“Master Control Override initiated,” Uncle announced, but even with that authority he couldn't get the door open. “Impossible!” Uncle shouted. “No one should have a higher priority than either of us!”

A figure draped in a blood red cloak trimmed in glittery gold stumbled his way onto a balcony just in front of where the mana machinery was located.

As the figure reached the edge of his path, he stood still. Only a portion of his face was visible under his hood, but covered in static and pixels. Was that some sort of magic?

“I was told someone would show up eventually,” his voice spoke through the speakers all around the walls. “Welcome. Please, rest and await the coming of the day of eternal night.”

“Who are you?” Uncle pushed me behind him to protect me. “Why have you come to this place?”

Before he could answer, the man jumped off the balcony and landed on the ground in a power pose, then stood to his feet with a shiver.

“I…no…we are Janus.” Suddenly a second voice joined the first. “And we have come to bless Elysium with the darkest of days.”

“You can talk as cryptic as you'd like, but I'd appreciate it if you made sense.”

“Wouldn't you rather see what I mean, old man?” his two voices chuckled as he raised his arms.

The cylinders of mana on the wall began turning red as the light in the room dimmed. All the triangles drawn on the wall followed that example and washed over with the same crimson glow.

a black smog filled the air, but not enough to fully block sight.

“Uncle…” I fearfully uttered.

The fog settled, but a message appeared in my sight.

-WARNING! DARKNESS LEVELS RISING-

Along with those words came a warning chime playing in my head. Its eerie sound caused me to shiver and cover my eyes.

“How could you do this?” I shouted. “Nobody wants it to be dark forever!”

“The worlds too bright, kid. People are blinded to the ugliness in them. Beauty goes skin deep. But if we blanket the world in darkness, then we’ll see the truth within.”

“Hah! Shows what you know, dummy! If you make the world dark, how are people going to see anything?”

I guess his brain was static too. This is why bad guys always fail. They don’t think their plan through well enough.

“I’m arguing with a child,” he sighed. “Let me put it in a way you’ll understand. Demons are about to get a whole new playground.”

“D-demons…?”

Those were the creepy red horned pitchfork guys from Heck, right? They were the bad guys in cartoons. I never liked them.

Uncle's hand suddenly turned bright blue and a blade of blue hard light appeared in his grip.

“A weapon!” I uttered in fear.

-WARNING! THREAT SIGHTED!-

-IFF tags active! : Janus tagged; Foe-

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Uh-oh! This was going to be a real battle, like the ones in movies and stuff! Unlike movies though, people can actually get really hurt.

Fighting a monster was one thing…but a real person? I didn’t know how to feel about all this.

“Young Mistress, take shelter behind me. I'll deal with this man myself.”

The evil Janus chuckled with a reverberated tone. His arms raised. Behind the static over his face, a red glow brightened the spot of his eyes.

His sleeves fell down, showing his hands had the same static around them. A black and red energy radiated from his palms.

WOOSH!

The red stars and symbols around the room started to glow. Black flame erupted at the center of the main star and grew into a wide sheet of darkness.

Arms stretched out from the darkness, a monster head peeked into the room.

“Maybe you should have the kid fight too,” Janus exclaimed. "Two on one seems awfully unfair."

Suddenly a creature, half goat, and half man, leaped into the room with a titanic crash!

“AAAHHHH!”

He loudly screamed into the air! I had to cover my ears!

-WARNING! DEMON SIGHTED!-

-Krampus type demon tagged; Foe-

Oh no! A demon!

The Krampus demon charged at Uncle, not even giving him a moment to process what was going on. His horns slammed into him and bashed him into the wall!

I barely got out of the way in time.

Janus didn’t take the moment to jump into the action. Instead he turned to me.

“Wait a minute…you’re a…” the static of Janus’s hands migrated toward his fingernails, revealing pale flesh underneath where they once were. Then they formed into the shape of virtual looking claws. “I know more than a few people back home who’d like to see you.”

He was heading right for me, not even touching the ground as he moved.

“Uncle help!”

Uncle was pinned on the wall by the krampus demon, but he used his blue light blade to cut off the horns and arm of the demon and free himself.

At incredible speeds, Uncle met Janus’s claws with his energy blade.

CHINK!

Sparks flew the moment they clashed. Uncle and Janus locked weapons. Uncle glared deep into that static face of his.

“Smothering the World with darkness has nothing to do with stealing a child.” Uncle growled.

“Relax, would you?” He struggled to hold back Uncle. “I won’t hurt the kid, I’m just taking her back so she can meet some important people.”

“I can’t let you do that!”

They kept exchanging blows until the krampus demon charged in and struck them both down.

Janus’s hood fell off when he hit the ground. For a moment some of the static around him disappeared and his head was revealed…he had two faces! One sickly and saggy one on the front, and a baby faced one on the back.

What sort of creature was he? Something about him felt familiar in a way. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not though.

“Idiot!” Janus’s two heads yelled as the static that hid his face returned. “I summoned you here, you're loyal to me! Grab the girl!”

The demon tilted its beady red eyes toward me. He pawed his hooves at the ground, then let out another terrible scream.

“AAAAHHHH!”

He charged at me!

I screamed and ran for cover in a crevice on the wall. I snuck right in because I was so small.

BAM!

The demon struck the wall, hitting horns first! He couldn't fit into the crevice.

He was so ugly and scary, staring at me angrily. I cried so loudly to try and drown out all its snarling and crazy noises.

Samael slithered around my head and started hissing at the demon, baring his tiny fangs. He must have been trying to protect me.

Uncle came up from behind the demon and stabbed his energy blade into its back, then he suplexed it with all his strength!

SLAM!

Uncle recovered faster than the demon, but had to dodge a slash from Janus.

A swing and a miss!

Uncle retaliated by clashing weapons once more, but the demon now recovered and struck him down with his newly regenerated horns.

One of the horns jabbed into him. When it pulled out, shattered shards of crystal fell out from Uncle.

“Uncle!” I screamed, knowing he must have been in bad pain.

“I’m fine!” He yelled back.

The demon turned to me and started charging forward, but Uncle got ahead of him and held him back by the horns, halting his rampage.

He quickly twisted the demon's head all the way around, breaking it!

SNAP!

“Yeah!” I cheered. “Get em’!”

“Yalda, don't celebrate violence!” Uncle growled out.

I couldn’t help the excitement. He was so cool, and we might win this after all.

Breaking the demon's neck didn’t take it down, unfortunately, but it was acting all stunned and wobbled around.

Janus came in with a surprise attack, but Uncle was ready and they locked weapons again and tried to force one another down.

“I assume you stole all of that mana to power yourself up and summon that demon.”

“Yeah. We stole more than enough to make that big guy. Not quite what we were going for, but whatever.”

“Might I ask how you managed to do all of this under my nose?”

“That’s a secret. Speaking of which…” he shoved Uncle and leaped all the way back up to the ledge above. “I have some preparations to make. In the meantime, enjoy fighting that demon!”

Janus left the demon to us, who immediately focused on Uncle.

Uncle managed to get a slash across the demon's chest, tearing away tufts of shadowy gunk!

The demon countered uncle by letting out a screech and backhanding him! Uncle caught himself before hitting the wall, retaliating with a swift strike of his energy blade.

That sent the demon into a frenzy. Uncle took advantage of its lack of coordination, cutting off the whole left arm.

“Yes!” I cheered.

Even with this bull thing completely disarmed, it wasn’t the end. The demon summoned more arms from his back that looked misshapen, and decaying, like a zombie. Really gross.

Suddenly, the demon stopped using pure brute force and struck with flat palms and chops. As he moved, his fleshy bone arms started to look more muscular and complete.

Wherever he hit, a puff of black looking powder exploded and caught fire. It smelled like coal.

“Phase two!” I shouted, realizing the demon had entered the second phase of his fight.

Uncle was really having a hard time now. His energy blade was doing wonders at protecting from the demon's attacks, but he couldn’t hold out much longer.

I tried to think of a way to help him, but I didn’t have anything that could be used against the demon.

Or did I?

Maybe there was something in me that I could use. I started to search my systems for any sort of way to fight. Even if it was something small, we might be able to turn the tides.

I wondered if I had laser eyes or something...wouldn't that be cool?

-Searching for combat protocol…-

-…-

-Combat protocol systems found- -Access restricted-

-Theta Drive systems found- -Access denied-

I snapped my fingers in frustration. I had combat systems, but they had a bunch of restrictions that kept me from using most of it. I couldn’t even bypass the restrictions as an administrator of my own body because they were locked by the Master User, which was dad.

Then I looked at the Theta Drive. That one was encrypted behind a really weird programming language that I’d never seen before. Needless to say, it was completely out of the question for now.

Within the combat systems, I found one thing I did have access to. It was called stardust.

-Anti Demon Attack/Defense Systems : Active-

-Unpacking Stardust Information-

-…-

-Unpack complete! You may now use Stardust!-

That sounded cool, but what was it?

I noticed a small icon flashing on my hotbar, just next to the HELP icon. It looked like a sparkly group of stars.

Was the sparkly icon related to stardust? I think it was supposed to be a list of powers, but it was all blank.

Oh! There was a new message from daddy in the HELP menu…

-Dear Yalda, stardust is one of your most versatile and powerful tools against darkness and demons. It gathers the power of the sun and stars and turns it into crystal energy that you can use against them. Let your creativity shape how you wield it.-

This was really good! Stardust was made to defeat demons!

Out of instinct, my body knew what to do to summon the power, so I let my heart take control for me.

Warmth exploded in my chest, like a baby sun had suddenly been born in me. The heat traveled around my body, giving me tingles all over.

My crystal heart sparkled. With each beat of light, a glittery glow traveled down my mana arteries and lit up my whole body. My skin was glowing. It felt good.

That light in me started to gather under the skin of my hand, then it rose up from below and hovered above my palm like a sparkly white haze.

It kept spiraling in my hand, not taking any shape until I pictured something in my mind.

Something sharp...something with reach, that way I didn't have to be close to the demon.

The gas suddenly collapsed in on itself, and formed into a strange looking stick made of pure crystal. It kinda’ looked like a little spear, but it was misshapen.

“Wow!”

This was incredible! I made something appear out of thin air. It was so pretty, and sparkly too.

As Uncle and the demon were fighting, they both immediately stopped the moment the little crystal spear formed.

“She figured that out…” Uncle uttered in shock, “...all on her own?”

He had a determined smile. The good news gave him a boost of confidence that we could win this battle.

The demon’s red eyes sank into its head once it saw the stardust. It winced out a cry and took a step back before being paralyzed with fright.

"Yalda, give me that!" Uncle ordered.

I tossed the little spear to Uncle without even thinking. He caught it midair.

He took the spear and stuck it through the heart of the cowering demon! It let out a horrible screech of pain!

"EEHHHHHAAAAH!"

Its body was cracking apart with white lines, almost as sparkly as the stardust. Bursts of energy split him apart.

BOOM!

The demon exploded!

Bits of it flew all over the place, painting the walls black with gunk. Uncle jumped in front of me just in time to make a bubble shield that protected us from getting hit by any of it.

"Are you alright?" Uncle asked, powering down the shield.

"Yeah." I nodded. "I can use super cool stardust!"

He smiled. He must have been really proud of me. I know I was! We just beat a demon, and I played a big role. This felt like some of the crazy cool stuff a superhero in an anime would do.

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