With Snuggles gripping my shoulder for dear life, I sprinted along with Annalise through the streets as the massive Decibel Demon chased after us, the creature firing concentrated beams of pure sound at us that struck nearby buildings, shattering bricks and windows like they were made of confetti.
“Faster Kade!” Snuggles shouted. “It’s catching up!”
“I’m going as fast as I can!” I roared back.
Annalise ran up a narrow alley and I followed behind her. When I looked behind me, the Decibel Demon was trying to keep up its pursuit, but its twisted body was too bulky to fit in the alley.
“Ha!” Snuggles shouted. “Screw you, buddy!”
“Don’t make the thing even angrier than it already is,” I said.
Annalise slowed down slightly as she looked around at me. “The Static Sector isn’t far from here. We need to get there and repair the tower.”
“Is there any point now?” I asked, glancing around again to see that the Decibel Demon had gone, thank Christ. “Those things are already inside the city.”
“If we repair the tower, the signal might drive the Decibel Demons out.”
“Right, that’s a big maybe. And how are we gonna repair the tower? Do you know anything about repairing radio towers? Because I sure as hell don’t. Shit, I don’t think we thought this through—”
“Relax, Kade,” Snuggles said. “I should be able to fix the tower.”
We paused by a doorway to catch our breath. In the surrounding streets, there was nothing but chaos and screaming, as if the invading demons were busy tearing apart the population. “You? What the hell day you know about it? You’re a plushie!”
“I wasn’t always a damn plushie, in case you forgot,” Snuggles said. “I was human once, you know. Back on Earth, I was an engineer.”
“And what decade was this in?”
“The sixties.”
“The sixties? Jesus, Snuggles, the technology back then—”
“You don’t know what kind of technology the tower is constructed from. It might be the same.”
“Or it might not be. Shit, in this place, I can almost guarantee it won’t be the same.”
“Look,” Annalise said. “We’ll figure it out.”
“And if we can’t?” I said.
“Then we flee this city and hope we don’t get killed.”
“Isn’t there some penalty for not completing a given quest? I feel like that’s a thing.”
“There actually is,” Snuggles said. “At least there was when I played before. Players lost whole levels for failure to complete a given quest.”
“So if we fuck this up, we lose a level. Fantastic.”
“So what if we do,” Annalise said. “It’s not the end of the world. We can always grind the level back. Let’s just see how we do with this one. And Kade, you were the one who suggested we take this quest in the first place.”
“Sure, blame me.” I shook my head. “Fuck it, lesson learned. Quests might be more hassle than they’re worth.” I was about to suggest we move off again when I saw Annalise staring up at the building we were standing next to. “What is it?”
“I’m thinking we could move across the roofs of the building instead of the streets,” she said. “We can avoid those creatures then.”
“That sounds like a good idea, Annalise,” Snuggles said.
“Assuming the demons can’t climb, which I’m sure they can,” I said.
“Yeah, but we’re less likely to run into them up there.”
“Fair enough. Let’s climb.”
We soon located a rickety ladder that lead up the side of one of the buildings. From the roof, we peered down onto the surrounding streets and out over the city. There weren’t as many Decibel Demons as we thought down there, but there were enough. The ones that were there were wreaking havoc with terrifying efficiency.
The streets writhed with visible sound waves, distorting the very fabric of reality. Buildings fluctuated between solid and pixelated states, their structures groaning under the assault of corrupted audio. Holographic signs flickered and glitched, displaying garbled warnings and nonsensical messages.
Citizens fled in panic, their digital forms warping and stretching as they ran through the sound-warped environment. Some unfortunate souls, caught in the demons’ sonic blasts, simply exploded into showers of crimson gore.
One demon unleashed a low-frequency rumble that caused the road to ripple like water, swallowing vehicles and debris. Another emitted high-pitched screeches that shattered windows and caused smaller structures to collapse in on themselves.
The air was thick with a cacophony of distorted sounds—screams, sirens, and the demons’ own otherworldly roars all blended into a maddening audio soup. Occasional bursts of static and data corruption scarred the landscape, leaving behind glitching, unstable areas of partially deleted reality.
In the distance, you could see the city’s defenses failing, holographic barriers flickering out of existence as the demons’ sonic assaults overwhelmed them. The very code of Glitch Haven seemed to be unraveling under the onslaught, with entire blocks occasionally flickering out of existence before reforming in warped, corrupted states.
“Shit is fucked up down there,” I said, stating the obvious. “Let’s move before there are no buildings left to run across.”
Luckily for us, most of the lower buildings were quite close together, so it was a simple matter of jumping from one roof to another. And with our leveled up abilities, the jumps didn’t pose too much of a problem, even the wider gaps, which we cleared easily enough.
We made good time, sprinting like free runners across the roofs, clearing obstacles, until we made it to our destination.
The Static Sector was unlike anything I’d ever seen before.
As we stood at its edge, it was like looking into a storm of pure digital chaos. The air itself seemed to crackle and fizz, filled with swirling pixels and fragments of corrupted code. Reality appeared to be breaking down at the seams, with buildings and streets flickering in and out of existence, their forms distorting and reassembling in impossible configurations.
Waves of static washed over everything, making it hard to focus on any one point for too long. The ground beneath our feet shifted unpredictably, sometimes solid, sometimes seeming to dissolve into a sea of buzzing white noise.
But at the center of this maelstrom of digital decay stood our objective—the radio tower. It rose up like a monument to order in a world of chaos, its structure a dizzying blend of ancient stonework and futuristic technology. The base was built from what looked like medieval masonry, etched with glowing runic circuits. As it rose, the tower transformed, becoming more modern and sleek, until its peak pierced the swirling static sky, crowned with a complex array of antennas and satellite dishes.
Pulses of energy rippled up and down the tower’s length, each wave momentarily clearing the static around it before being swallowed up again by the sector’s perpetual interference. It was as if the tower was engaged in a constant battle against the encroaching chaos, fighting to maintain its integrity in a realm that defied the very concept of stability.
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Fix the tower!
“Well,” I said, my voice distorting slightly as it passed through the static-filled air, “I guess that’s where we need to go.”
Annalise nodded grimly. “Yeah, through a sector that looks like it wants to delete us from existence and past an army of sound monsters that can literally shake us apart.”
Snuggles, his plush form already starting to fray at the edges from exposure to the static, chimed in, “Don’t forget the possibility of being corrupted into mindless NPCs or turned into living glitches! This place is full of fun surprises.”
I took a deep breath, tasting ozone and something that could only be described as the flavor of a computer crash. “Right then. Into the belly of the beast we go.”
With that, we jumped the roofs into the Static Sector, the chaos enveloping us like a glitchy embrace. The radio tower loomed ahead, our beacon in this storm of digital destruction.
As we landed on the next rooftop, a seismic thud shook the building beneath our feet. Looming before us was a colossal Decibel Demon, a towering monstrosity that dwarfed its lesser brethren. This was no mere foot soldier; this was a titan of cacophonous terror.
The creature’s form was a blasphemous amalgamation of twisted musical instruments and warped audio equipment, fused together into a hulking, vaguely humanoid shape. Where the lesser demons had mere gramophone horns for heads, this behemoth sported a gargantuan pipe organ, its pipes arranged in a macabre mockery of a face. Each pipe vibrated with malevolent autonomy, producing a discordant symphony that rent the very fabric of reality.
Its body was a nightmare made manifest, a monstrous amplifier covered in pulsing dials and fluctuating meters. Immense subwoofers protruded from its chest and back, thrumming with barely contained power, as if the slightest provocation could unleash a cataclysmic shockwave.
The demon’s arms were a grotesque tangle of guitar necks and microphone stands, ending in hands composed of cymbals and drumsticks. Every gesture it made unleashed a cacophonous barrage of clashes and twangs, each movement sending visible ripples of distortion through the air.
But it was the aura of absolute silence surrounding the creature that truly chilled my soul. A suffocating bubble of anti-sound seemed to devour all noise in its proximity, as if the demon commanded not only the power of sound, but also the terrifying absence of it.
As the colossus turned its pipe organ visage towards us, I felt an icy dread grip my heart. This was no mere minion; this was a conductor of chaos, a general of cacophony, the maestro of this apocalyptic orchestra. The words flickering on my screen only confirmed my worst fears.
The Cacophony Colossus - Level 14
This towering terror is the unholy fusion of every broke-down jukebox, haunted church organ, and amp that’s ever been turned up to eleven. The Cacophony Colossus isn’t just here to rock your world—it’s here to shatter it into a million out-of-tune pieces.
Its ‘eyes’—pulsing oscilloscope screens—focused on us, and I knew we were in for the fight of our lives.
Without thinking, I grabbed Snuggles off my shoulder and held him in front of me. “You’re going over there to fix that tower.”
“What?” Snuggles said. “What do you mean—”
Before he could argue, I wound up like a pitcher on the mound. Snuggles’ button eyes widened in realization.
“Oh no, Kade, don’t you da—”
But it was too late. I launched Snuggles through the air, his small plush body spinning as he sailed over the chaos below. His voice trailed behind him, a stream of colorful profanity that would have made a sailor blush.
“YOU COTTON-BRAINED MORON! I’LL GET YOU FOR THIIIiiisss...”
Snuggles’ voice faded as he arced towards the radio tower, his blue form becoming a small speck against the static-filled sky. For a moment, I feared I’d miscalculated, that he’d fall short or veer off course.
But then, by some miracle (or perhaps due to his newfound ability to partially control his density), Snuggles managed to snag onto one of the lower antennas of the radio tower. He dangled there, a tiny blue dot clinging to the massive structure.
Even from this distance, I could almost feel the heat of his glare. A faint, tinny voice carried back to us on the static-filled wind: “When I get back there, Kade, I swear I’m going to unravel every last thread of your—”
The rest was mercifully cut off by a surge of interference.
Annalise stared at me in disbelief. “I can’t believe you just did that.”
I shrugged, trying to appear more confident than I felt. “He’s small, he’s resilient, and he’s got those weird plushie powers. Plus, now he’s motivated.”
“Yeah,” Annalise snorted, “motivated to turn you into a pincushion when this is over.”
As if in response, the giant Decibel Demon let out a roar that shook the very foundations of the city.
“Right,” I said, cracking my knuckles. “One problem at a time. Let’s deal with DJ Doomsday here, and worry about Snuggles’ revenge later.”
As the Decibel Demon’s roar faded, leaving an eerie silence in its wake, Annalise and I locked eyes, the tension thick enough to taste. No words passed between us—the stakes were too high for anything but action. This was life or death, and we both knew it.
I activated my fingerless gloves, the riff of “Eye of the Tiger” buzzing through my veins, sharpening my focus. Annalise’s pumps began to glow, casting a sinister pink light across the shattered rooftop. The air crackled with anticipation, the calm before the storm.
The demon moved first, its cymbal hands crashing together with an ear-splitting clash. The shockwave tore through the air, shattering the concrete beneath us. I barely managed to dive left, the force of the blast sending me skidding across the rough surface, my shoulder slamming into the ground. Pain shot up my arm, but there was no time to dwell on it—this fight was far from over.
Rolling to my feet, I launched myself at the demon, narrowly ducking under its swinging guitar-neck arm. The strings whistled past my ear, as I countered with an uppercut, my fist smashing into its amplifier body. The impact jarred me to the bone, but I saw a dial crack, and that small victory was enough to keep me going.
Annalise was a blur of neon light, her “Dragon’s Daughter” skill turning her into a deadly whirlwind. She leaped into the air, her kicks targeting the demon’s subwoofer weak points with pinpoint accuracy. But just as she went in for another strike, the demon moved faster than expected. With a twisted grin, it shot out a cymbal hand, snatching her from midair like a predator catching its prey.
“Annalise!” I screamed, helpless as the demon lifted her high above the rooftop.
The creature’s grip tightened, and Annalise gasped in pain, her eyes wide with shock. The demon’s cymbal hands began to vibrate, emitting a low, sinister hum that grew in intensity. The sound waves rippled through Annalise’s body, contorting her face in agony as the vibrations attacked her from the inside, shattering bones and tearing muscles. She screamed, the sound raw and desperate, cutting through the night like a blade.
“Let her go, you bastard!” I roared, adrenaline surging through me as I charged forward, but the demon was faster. With a flick of its wrist, it flung Annalise like a ragdoll. She hit the rooftop with a sickening thud, sliding to a stop near the edge, her body limp and battered.
I sprinted to her side, my heart pounding with fear. “Annalise!” I dropped to my knees, my hands trembling as I reached out to her. Her face was pale, streaked with blood from a gash on her forehead. She coughed, a wet, rattling sound that made my stomach twist.
For a terrifying moment, I thought she was done for, but then her eyes fluttered open, determination burning in their depths. “I’m… not out yet,” she rasped.
“Stay down,” I urged, panic rising in my throat. “You’re hurt!”
She shook her head, wincing as she pushed herself up on shaky arms. “No… way. We’re finishing this. We have Health Potions, remember?”
Before I could protest, she was on her feet, swaying but resolute. Blood stained her clothes, and every breath she took seemed to cause her pain, but she was still standing, still fighting. The demon, seeing her rise again, let out a distorted howl of rage.
The pipe organ face turned toward us, its oscilloscope eyes flickering wildly. It blasted a concentrated beam of sonic energy, aiming straight for us. The force slammed into us both, sending us flying. We crashed hard into the ground, pain exploding through my body as I rolled to a stop.
“Just a love tap,” I gasped, struggling to rise. My entire body screamed in protest, but I forced myself to stand. I had to. Annalise was already on her feet, bloodied but unyielding.
The demon advanced, but its movements were jerky, erratic. Annalise, with grim determination, unleashed a series of kicks, her movements slower but still deadly. Each strike weakened the demon further, but it wasn’t enough.
“We need to end this!” Annalise shouted, her voice barely audible over the ringing in my ears.
I nodded, an idea forming. “I’ve got a plan! Can you get me close to its head?”
She grinned, though it was more a grimace of pain. “One express elevator, coming up!”
With a wince, she interlaced her fingers, and I sprinted toward her. Every step was agony, but I pushed through it, launching myself off her hands as she hoisted me into the air with a strained cry.
Soaring through the air, I locked eyes with the demon’s pipe organ face. Time seemed to slow as I drew back my fist, the gloves humming with raw power.
This was it—our last chance.
“Lights out, maestro!” I roared, driving my fist into the center pipe with all the strength I had left.
The impact was seismic. Cracks spiderwebbed across the demon’s face, its pipes shattering as a discordant wail erupted from its core. I crashed back to the roof, the landing sending fresh waves of pain through my legs, but I rolled to my feet, knowing the fight wasn’t over yet.
Annalise was already moving, pushing through her injuries with sheer willpower. She spun into her “Spotlight Stunner,” each strike fueled by the need to end this once and for all. Her dazzling combo connected with the demon’s weakened chest, the final blow shattering its amplifier body.
With a sound like a thousand speakers blowing out at once, the Decibel Demon swayed, sparks and broken audio equipment raining down in a violent cascade. It toppled backward off the roof, disintegrating into a shower of musical notes and static as it fell, the final reverb echoing through the night.
Panting and drenched in sweat, I turned to Annalise. She was bloodied, bruised, and barely able to stand, but a fierce grin spread across her face.
“Nice moves,” I said, grinning despite the pain I was in.
“Not so bad yourself,” she replied.
Our moment of triumph was short-lived, however, as a familiar voice cut through the settling dust.
“If you two are done showing off,” Snuggles’ irritated tone crackled from the direction of the radio tower, “we’ve still got a city to save. And Kade? We’re going to have a long talk about proper plushie handling when this is over, you son of a bitch.”