We continue to speed up around the wall and an idea pops into my mind

"I'll head out for the last one!"

I throw Jathorn one core and he catches it.

"Good!, get inside as soon as you place down the barrier!"

Jathorn shouts at me as he stops at the engravement, I continue my flight and increase the speed with bigger combustions, on the side where the vanta spots come out from the ground far from the walls, I notice a red round blade spin amongst the vanta spots causing dark explosions with red stripes

"Heh, that must be Jathorn's doing"

I talk to myself as I look back at the wall noticing I'm almost past the engravement, causing a large explosion with my right hand in front of me to stop myself causing a shock to hit me.

I fall to the ground and struggle a bit to get up from my reckless stop before putting up that core within the tower's slot, then I jump and create combustions below me throwing me above the walls.

As I fall, I notice a red net forming catching me from impacting the ground much like the magic Jathorn used.

Getting off the net, I notice someone putting the core I made within its slot which activates the connection between them, making 2 protective barriers above the Light beacon of blue fire. Jathorn lands close to me on the ground as the net disappears into a cloud of red smoke.

"Well done Xavier, the barriers are up and functional you should now be able to control the barrier, try summoning from it infantry to defend the walls."

As Jathorn suggested, I focus my imagination on the barrier, using my hand I make the shield disperse infantry both on the ground and flying with the directive to attack void entities.

I open my eyes

"There now should be a sizeable army around the exterior ready to fight void creatures"

Jathorn smiles

"Good, very good, we will have to use the Light beacons star, and prepare it for defensive properties before the void manages to breach in, we must hurry!"

Just as he mentioned, he begins running toward the Light Beacon.

"H-Hey wait!"

I shout from behind before summoning the wings I made for myself last time. I go straight to the Beacons star where the everpresent glow of the star resides

I notice Jathorn jumping from the ground leaving that red dust behind, I breach through the glass in the beacon's tower, crashing on the floor, shortly after Jathorn lands near me.

"You've still got a lot left to learn"

Jathorn stretches his arms toward me, I grab his hand and he helps me get up

"Let's set up this star now"

I nod to Jathorn as we approach the star, but suddenly Jathorn stops and falls on his back.

"JATHORN!"

I yell as I notice Jatohrn unconscious

The room around the star dims into darkness much like that of a vanta spot, and a very familiar voice rings into my ears

"There you are, Xavier"

surprised by the voice, I snap my gaze toward the door.

"Harko!?"

I notice Harko's silhouette in the door's frame, a light with purple tint outlining their silhouette

"No, Xavier, you know of me as the Herald or the Void as everybody likes to call us."

I shout at the Herald

"What have you done with Harko you fiend?!"

Harko's body begins walking forth

"We simply took control over their body, however, the reason as to why will concern you."

I look at the void confused

"Concern me? you already are of my concern since you decided to appear"

The Herald laughs as they approach me

"It seems their plan is working, they are already molding you into denying the truth, but no matter, I will show you the truth of this world, Xavier."

I take a worried look down at Jathorn then at the Herald again

"You insinuate that the people around me are simply using me?"

The Herald continues its approach

"Indeed, you may have already noticed how they hold onto crucial information, blaming us to obscure the truth."

Shocked at their words I take a step back

"How would you know-"

The Herald interrupts me

"Xavier, we have dealt with your kind for generations far past you, I lived and seen what humans can do and what their nature is like, but you are different, I know you aren't entirely human"

The Herald points to my right mechanical hand

"That hand of yours is proof of it yet nobody told you, am I wrong?"

I shake my head

"We have waited for generations, we have watched our families die at the hands of humans, and I will show you what they cover, what they don't tell a soul and keep private to keep intact the illusions of justice, right and wrong."

I stumble as the Herald gets closer to me, the sudden information the Herald tells me is something I'm unable to comprehend.

"Ah, Xavier, how the humans tried to corrupt you even before your mind's fragmentation, and now, you don't know what to put your trust in as this world is filled with lies, as a token of respect to you..."

The Herald crouches down in front of me and extends their hands holding an ethereal mass of unperceivable shape

"I offer you this, a fragment of your mind so you can understand who you used to be"

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

A fragment? Already? it's barely been a few days and I've come to face the first fragment?

How can I trust this is an actual fragment and not a trap?

"You're believing this to be a trap? fear not, despite what seeds of distrust and confusion these humans planted within you, I will show you clarity"

Does it know what I'm thinking? Could the roots within my neck be the reason it can know what I'm thinking?

"Indeed, I know it seems like a disease to you, but the reason you understand me is due to them, it is a gift we gave you so we can communicate, if you choose for it to be removed we will take it out of you, but this gift has more to it than just communication and is willing to tell you"

With hesitation, I reach out to Harko's extended hand and grasp at the ethereal form, a jolt goes within my body and my mind blacks out.

I find myself in a third-person view, looking around I notice my younger self, running around with that same right hand on me but small to match my age, I seem to be playing around with 12 others possessing limbs much like my own, some of them having their head in a non-human shape yet accepted by the others.

They seem to have fun, playing tag and other childish games, then as I gaze in the distance the same being I have seen before, the Herald gets into my view. The children seem to be under the care of the Herald, it even joins them to play tag running slowly letting them catch up and whatnot.

But suddenly, a sudden laser beam hits the Herald from a distance, the Herald drops to the ground and humans in robes surround the children, the Herald tries to get up but gets shot again, and the humans in robes approach the children, kidnapping them, myself included.

The Herald was weeping on the ground, reaching out for the kids but a human pins its hand down, they then remove its claws putting them in a bag, dissecting parts of the paralyzed Herald, its chitin plating is removed and stored, its right hand which looks similar to mine gets torn off, and the Herald is left to rot as the humans leave with the children and parts of the Herald's body.

The Herald begins to scream as it gains control over its body, alerting other void creatures that take it away.

Everything fades to black and shortly I find myself in an enclosed room, I see the children strapped to wooden tables with chains unable to move, screaming out of fear, and the humans in robes stick tubes within the robotic limbs making the kids silent, 24 humans in robes come within the room, the 24 humans split into groups of 2 in front of each kid, each group taking one kid off of the table and leaving saying unintelligible words.

I can see myself being taken by 2 of these humans, a woman with red hair and a swollen tall man.

My vision blurs and I shortly return to the beacon, finding myself in front of Harko.

I can't help but feel a strong sense of nostalgia, I can now remember what happened in my childhood, and I'm able to see and feel both my first-person point of view, the fear, the sadness, the confusion, and the calm as they injected me with whatever that serum was which made me the younger me forget about my true family.

I shed a few tears in response to the sudden memories flooding my mind.

"Do you understand now, Xavier? What humans did to me and how they stole my children away? Everything we wanted to do is create a hybrid between our species and humans so we can communicate and try to stop this, to live in peace, but humans instead chose to kidnap our children and use them against us"

I wipe the tears off of my face and hug Harko

"We cant reunite yet my child, you will have to be strong and pretend nothing happened here, do not let your hatred for them compromise our plan, set up the defense and fight what is to come, we need them distracted from this alright?"

I nod as i let Harko go

"What will happen to Harko?"

Harko smiles

"Harko will be freed. The roots on your neck will develop and allow us to communicate through other ways, so don't be afraid my child, Harko cares about you and is worthy of redemption, you can trust them, however, be wary of Jathorn, he may prove troublesome.

I look at Jathorn unconscious on the floor as I get up

"Alright... Thank you, Herald."

Harko shakes their head

"Call me Nyarla for that is my true name, my child."

I nod

"Thank you Nyarla, until we meet again..."

Harko lies on the floor

"Until we meet again, my dear child."

Harko closes their eyes as the darkness is pierced through by the star's light.

I walk to Jathorn and attempt to wake them up

"Jathorn! Wake up! we don't have much time!"

I slap Jathorn a few times and hear a gasp behind me as Harko wakes up.

I look back at Harko and they look back at me, they then have a smile spread on their face.

"Xavier, you're safe, thank the Light Beacon"

I smile too

"Yeah, I'm fine, but before we can talk I need to wake up Jathorn"

Harko notices Jathorn unconscious beside me crouching

"Ah"

Harko creates a ball of light

"close your eyes, Xavier"

I do as they told me, then i see a white flash behind my closed eyelids as a manly gasp fills the room

"Harko?! When did you get here?"

I hear Jathorn's first words as he notices Harko. I then open my eyes and see Jathorn gazing at Harko.

"It's a long story, but the way I got here is unclear, I remember using a spell to carve my way through Xavier's blue fire barrier, and then suddenly I find myself here"

They both then look over at me as if they expect an explanation

"What? How am i supposed to know when i went unconscious myself?"

They both respond in unison

"Fair point"

Harko raises an eyebrow as they look at Jathorn

"What?"

I shake my head

"Aren't you forgetting something Jathorn?"

Jathorn sees the star in the middle of the room and gets up

"Hell, I've forgotten, lets get this star in defensive mode"

Jathorn looks at Harko as they get up

"i've seen the ammount of vanta spots surrounding the Beacon, Now, if you dont mind ill set up the star myself, Xavier, and use the barrier to throw at them projectiles and refill the infantry"

I nod my head

"Good, Jathorn, I will need you to defend when they breach in, Xavier will accompany you shortly when the barrier breaches, if he doesn't then that means he used too much stardust to make the barrier, ill give you a sign If that is the case."

Jathorn nods

"Hmm, sounds reasonable enough"

Harko looks at both of us

"alright get to it then, we don't have much time

As Harko said that, Jathorn jumps out the broken window, Harko begins to switch the star to defensive and I focus my infantry, soon the infantry makes contact with void fiends which gives me green light to start showering them with incendiary artillery.

The fire burns through the army of the void, and the infantry makes short work of the void's cannon fodder, the waves get harder and harder as more of them clash, and I fail to make enough new infantry to keep up with them so I focus on my artillery more, it works for a while but they begin to deflect the fire.

Harko draws my attention.

"Alright, the star is in defense mode, this should give us an advantage against the void, you can go easier with the barrier, we will need your powers when they breach"

I sigh in relief

"Good, I'm starting to get a bit tired from the influx of projectiles and infantry I had to conjure"

Harko looks back at me

"it takes a toll on one's body to continue such a heavy use of the stardust"

A screech breaks our talk as we notice the barrier above the walls is broken, the void fiends begin to pour in from the gap, the guards Jathorn appointed for defense hold up well, and the fight begins, we shall see who the victor will be.