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Chapter 4: Ghost in the Jewel

Mikayla jumped, looking around. “Who said that?!”

“Down here. In the gem,” the disembodied voice continued. Frowning, she raised her bracer to eye level and peered at the blue stone set into the centre of the rusted bracer. “Yes. That is the receptacle of my unfortunate lingering mind. I hope you don’t object to my borrowing your eyes, I seem to no longer have any of my own. Oof, my old Core Controller doesn’t look so good. I’m amazed that it still works, but that’s Carter’s craftsmanship for you. How long was I down there? What year is it, girl?”

“2024?” Mikayla answered automatically. “No, hang on - why is a gemstone talking to me?!”

“Ah, forgive me, I ought to introduce myself. You speak with the lingering remnant of Nocturnus Virralis, the Black Knight,” If the voice had a face attached to it, Mikayla could picture it looking smug, as though expecting her to recognise the name and be amazed.

“. . no, sorry, I have no idea who that is,”

“Truly?!” The voice sounded a mix of shocked and affronted. “Do children not learn my name at their mother’s knee? Do they no longer sing of the glory of the five heroes? Does the Goliath Guard no longer live on?!”

Mikayla stifled a whimper. “Five heroes? Goliath Guard? I’m really in a whole-ass fantasy world aren’t I . . let me back up,” In a few brief sentences, she explained everything that had happened since she’d dropped Cat off, ending with, “I’m having a very weird day, and if a talking gemstone can give me some answers, I will take it,”

“A skeleton . . I see. So my remains were never recovered,” Nocturnus sighed. “I will happily tell you as much as I can, but it sounds like my information may be at least a couple of hundred years out of date,”

“Better than nothing. For starters, where are we?”

“We ought to be in the ancestral region of Hedrang, as I fell in battle whilst fighting to reclaim the city of Balmwind. I know not how my remains could have ended up out here in the wilderness. Perhaps my corpse was eaten and then excreted, by one of the starring monstrosities that fled before the Goliath Guard,”

Mikayla frowned, because the corpse she’d found looked much too intact to have gone through an animal’s digestive tract, then shrugged. She’d already seen man-eating spiders and rats, so who knew how big the animals could get around here? She didn’t know enough about how things worked here to countermand his version of events. “Okay. So we’re probably not that far from this city? That’s promising,”

“Indeed. Get to higher ground, that hill over there shall suffice. We ought to be able to see Astralia’s Spear once we’re out of these starring trees. That shall give us a direction to travel in,”

Mikayla nodded and started walking. To her surprise, the translucent armour didn’t affect her ability to move at all. It was as though it were a hologram superimposed over her body, flexing and stretching with her every motion, yet when she experimentally tapped her own chest, she heard the sound of metal on metal. It was as though the armour was slightly out of phase with the rest of the world, interacting with other matter in ways that defied common sense.

“So. I still want a lot of answers. For starters, we’re not on planet Earth anymore, are we?”

“Planet Earth?” Nocturnus parroted. “I believe not, I’m sorry to say. I think I can guess what happened to you,”

“Do tell,”

“When I yet lived and breathed, we were at war, but not with other men,” He paused. “This time, at least,”

Mikayla grimaced at how casually Nocturnus had thrown out that qualifier.

“Mysterious monsters of incredible size, each bearing the title of ‘Kaiju’, had taken over the coast and were pushing their way inland. They carried with them a strange magic that made space not work as it should. To be quite honest, the details all went over my head. But! I do recall Astralia saying that the spatial instabilities would continue to get worse, and that she couldn’t promise they would abate even after we purged the land of these Kaijus,”

“. . so, what, space is so broken around here that random portals to other worlds can open at any time?” Mikayla guessed.

“Precisely! There were reports of such things even in my time, strange travellers and artefacts that defied common sense, though many were lost amidst the rampages of the Kaijus. I can only surmise that such things have become commonplace in the wake of the Monster King,”

Mikayla paused for a moment as she picked her way around a massive fallen tree, and wished her phone wasn’t dead so that she could take notes. It all sounded like something out of a fantasy novel, but the world around her was so obviously real that she couldn’t deny it. As an aspiring historian, she itched to learn more about the histories of this fantastical world. “There’s a Monster King?”

“Fret not, young miss! My comrades and I slew it not long before I passed. That sword you carry was once sheathed within its very flesh as it lay dying!”

“Oh, fancy,” Mikayla looked at the red jewel on her wrist. She never would have guessed, but then it certainly had done a good job of carving up that spider. “So is this some kind of special monster king slaying sword?”

“Aha. No. If we’d had such things then the Monster King would have been felled long before it reached the Cloudfingers,” Nocturnus laughed weakly. “It is, however, a good blade that served me well, and shall surely do the same for you!”

“Right,” So her only means of self-defence was a priceless historical artefact that ought to be in a museum. “Okay, tell me more about this Monster King,”

“Certainly! It was the great triumph of the five heroes! I’m certain that every lad and lass in Hedrang and beyond knows the tale, but you have the honour of hearing it from the Black Knight himself!”

“Well, I always appreciate a good first-hand account,” Mikayla said. On the one hand, it sucked that she had no way of recording this, because if even half of what Nocturnus had told her was true then he was a primary source that any historian would kill to hear from. But she really wanted to know, and she could always get him to repeat it later.

“As well you should!” the gemstone shouted back at her. “It was glorious! Picture it. We know not the provenance of the Monster King, merely that it emerged victorious against countless challenges from its brood and grew to gargantuan sizes by feasting on them!”

Mikayla shivered, picturing it. If that was how the Kaijus worked . . the Cavemaw Spider had been terrifying enough. It could have gotten bigger? How much bigger? Was the square-cube law just not a thing in this world?

“But it soon learned that civilisation was a much easier meal. Bards sing of the trail of destruction it left in its wake as it chewed through forests and villages, working its way south. There were many heroes in the days of the Kaiju Collapse, but very few lived to tell their stories,”

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“Oh, I was wondering if there was a name for this whole affair,”

“Well, that is what the minstrels were calling it! The ravening tide of starring monstrosities that swept southward from the northern coast, with the Monster King at their head. Those of us that fought were driven back, and realised that our only hope was to band together,”

“Ah, of course. That’s how legends go, the heroes are strong alone but unstoppable together, right?” Mikayla had to stop herself from rolling her eyes, telling herself to keep an open mind. In her experience, it rarely worked that way, but this was a fantasy world, as far as she could tell. Maybe around here, friendship was magic.

“Precisely!” Nocturnus boomed, missing or ignoring her sarcasm. “In those days we were led by Nicholas the Red, the King of Hedrang. His home, the City at the World’s Peak, was the first place to be lost to the Kaijus, but his leadership led to a more successful evacuation than any other settlement could boast of,”

Mikayla tilted her head. Was she crazy, or did that sound kind of like . .

“Using weapons designed by Astralia of the White Skies, and forged by Carter Grimhammer and his cadre of Dwarven Elders, we and those who fought under us made our stand at the Cloudfingers, a mountain range to the south. It was a glorious battle, and due to our valour and cunning, we slew the Monster King and routed its supplicants! The next step was obvious! It was time to strike! To reclaim the Kaiju Coast, to lead the charge and drive the monsters back from whence they came!”

Nocturnus paused, then let out a guttural scoff. “But the other four were cowards,”

“Huh? What happened?” Mikayla paused, thrown by the change in tone. Nocturnus’ boisterous voice, which until now had reminded her of a jovial old man, had turned bitter.

“They wanted to starring wait! Spoke of regrouping, of protecting what they still had. Nicholas declared that we would become the founders of the ‘Goliath Guard’, and that henceforth our duty would be to fortify the Cloudfingers and protect the unspoiled lands to the south,”

Mikayla considered this. “I mean, fair enough -“

“WRONG!” The gemstone howled with volume so great that Mikayla looked around frantically, fearing that another monster might have heard and be on its way to attack them. “They wished to abandon our homes! Our heritage! To leave all the people still clinging to life in Hedrang to fend for themselves! It was appalling!” The sheer fury in Nocturnus’ voice sent shivers down Mikayla’s spine.

Mikayla said nothing, already guessing where this was going.

“So I took the forces that were loyal to me and went to do it without them!” Nocturnus finished. “We fought all the way back to Balmwind, driving the beasts before us like cattle!”

“And you died,” his carrier interjected.

“Well, yes,” He sounded a bit put-out at the reminder of his own death. “But I lived! As you can see! Or, well, hear. Granted, the process of inscribing my mind into the Core of my armour appears to have not worked all that well, as I . . cannot control what was to be my body . . but no matter! Now that I am awake once more, it is only a matter of time until we reclaim my former glory!”

“Yeah, no,” Mikayla shot him down, shaking her head. “I’m a student - a scholar,” she corrected herself, since she wasn’t sure how Nocturnus would interpret a word like student, “Not some hero in the making. I just want to find a way home,”

The gemstone snorted. “Fine. I will aid you in that quest, so long as you swear to pass me on to some promising young squire that I might mentor to greatness before you leave,”

“Sure, sure. But let’s find this city first, and worry about that later,” At long last, Mikayla emerged from the trees and laid eyes on the horizon. The sky overhead was milky white, with a watery disc faintly visible through the clouds. (And here she’d half expected two suns in the sky.) The trees spread as far as she could see, like a massive canvas of endless dark green. A chill filled her bones, the armour around her body only doing so much to protect her from the cold wind. She definitely wasn’t in Australia anymore.

She turned around, searching for any sign of civilisation - and then she saw it.

There was a massive tower looming out of the forest, perhaps a kilometre away, made of stone and large enough to rival any modern skyscraper. Cracks ran up its length with vines and small trees sprouting from them, and if the windows had ever had glass panes they was long gone. Holes pockmarked its walls, and the uppermost section of the tower had collapsed and forced the walls to bulge outwards at its tip, making it look a bit like an extremely tall cup.

“No,” Nocturnus breathed in her ears. “No, no, it cannot be! That - that cannot be!”

“What is it?”

“It’s Astralia’s Spear. The mightiest wizard’s tower in Termania. The pride of Balmwind. It . . in such a state . .” Nocturnus whimpered. “It means . . it means we failed. That I failed. That Hedrang is lost to the Kaijus to this day,”

Mikayla’s shoulders slumped as her suspicions were confirmed. “. . Well, crap,”

There were a few moments of silence as both armour and wearer digested this revelation.

Mikayla was shocked out of her momentary reverie, though, when the dimly glowing armour popped out of existence, leaving her clad only in a singlet and skirt that were very unsuited to the cold weather. “What? Nocturnus? Where’d you go? What happened?”

A blue panel popped up at the edge of her vision. [MANA: 0/1100]

“What? I have a mana bar? That armour was eating my mana?” She did feel strangely tired, now that she thought about it. “Why didn’t you tell me about that when you were trying to teach me to count?” she snapped at the text box. “Can - can I get a heads-up-display or something? Shouldn’t I be able to keep track of stuff like that without needing to ask?”

Obligingly, the mana bar floated into the corner of her vision and settled there.

“Great. Any other metrics I should know about?”

Two more prompts popped up. [HEALTH: 952/1000] [STAMINA: 621/900]

“Of course. I want those in my field of vision too, okay?” Mikayla paused and squinted at the Stamina bar. “Why do I have less Stamina than Mana?”

[STATISTICS:

STRENGTH: 9

DEXTERITY: 10

CONSTITUTION: 10

CHARISMA: 11

INTELLIGENCE: 11

WILLPOWER: 10

UNUSED: 4

ASSIGN UNUSED STATISTICS?]

“Sure, you’re gonna rub in my face that I’m not all that strong?” Mikayla rolled her eyes. “Uh, which one of these increases my mana?”

[STRENGTH: DETERMINES MAX STAMINA

DEXTERITY: DETERMINES STAMINA REGEN

CONSTITUTION: DETERMINES MAX HEALTH

CHARISMA: DETERMINES HEALTH REGEN

INTELLIGENCE: DETERMINES MAX MANA

WILLPOWER: DETERMINES MANA REGEN]

“Right. Ignoring the fact that I don’t understand why charisma is associated with healing, that seems simple enough. Four unused points? Must be two for each level-up. So if I put one of these points into Intelligence, then . . ?”

[INTELLIGENCE: 12] [MANA: 0/1200]

“. . of course it wouldn’t be that easy. Can I get a formula on how mana regenerates?”

There was no response from the mysterious blue text boxes.

“I really should have asked Nocturnus about how all this works before letting him go on about the monster king,” Mikayla reflected, burying her face in her hands.

There was a faint noise behind her.

She span on her heels, still highly on edge after the barrel with the Cavemaw Spider, but didn’t see anything. “. . is something there?”

There was a shift. A ripple in the air. Mikayla squinted, began to step forward, then remembered that anything unknown would probably be lethal in a place like this and retreated instead. “Sword? Mana Assistance?” she tried, flexing her fingers.

[MANA: 0/1200]

“Right,” she groaned, looking around for any sign of the enemy that she couldn’t find.

A drop of liquid splashed onto her shoulder, and she looked up - finding that the sky above her had opened into a pink, fleshy maw lined with teeth and adorned with a pair of beady eyes the size of bowling balls. The air around the floating orifices rippled and solidified into a patchwork of green scales, which spread and grew and formed into a gecko as large as a sports car, already inches away from biting down on her head.