CHAPTER 279 - THE TOWER IS THY COFFIN

She had lied— of course, she had, but the fact that it'd been so seamless made me have to do a double take. It had been so natural that I doubted myself, even! I kept my face neutral, though my fingers twitched around my crutch. My Pokemon didn't turn their heads, but I could tell they were wondering if it had been a lie or not. They'd been looking forward to the answer just as much as I had.

"I guess I was in over my head," I said. This was both a signal to my team we'd made, and a way to diffuse the situation with Mathilda. "Sorry about this. I just wanted to save the souls from Dusknoir, so I thought…"

The Overseer cocked her head to the side, her thin hair somehow not drooping and keeping still against her head. "You are not the first to have this question," she calmly said. "Many ask, if ghosts are truly immortal, then is it just not a matter of time until the world becomes overtaken by them? Even when I had just formed, over a thousand years ago, this was a question on the minds of many," she continued, approaching me. Her cane rasped against the blue-grey stones in rhythmic fashion. "But this question overestimates the number of ghosts that are brought into this world."

I nodded absent-mindedly, stopping myself from taking a step back as she got closer. "I get that. I mean, it's what, towers like this, and maybe war, that are good at creating you, right?" I said. "Mass casualty events full of tragic deaths, or places with high concentration of those," I said, remembering what she had told me the first time I'd come here. "And even then, very few are born. Anyway, it was just a question."

"Worry not, I knew no offense was meant," the ghost said.

I moistened my lips and ignored the swirling, constantly shifting blue lights on the walls.

"Where's Ruth, by the way?" I asked, trying to bait out information. "She's not going to attack us, is she?"

"Oh, Ruth has been very cooperative, these days," Mathilda said with a smile. No teeth on those gums, and yet it felt sharp. "She has taken to the top floor of the tower and rarely comes down, lately. No harm will befall you while I am here, that I can assure you of."

Shit. The top floor? The fifth floor of the Lost Tower was rumored to be akin to another world entirely, and impossible to escape from. How in the world was I going to contact her there?

"Perhaps you wish to come to pay respects to the dead," Mathilda said, gesturing to our left toward the hundreds of graves. "Not many trainers stop by, and the few that do rarely stick around long enough to speak with me. These poor souls deserve it, don't you think?"

I glanced at the tombstones. "I suppose I could," I said, wanting to buy time. I gestured at my Pokemon to follow and knelt in front of a grave as I closed my eyes. Was I completely outplayed here? There was no way I could get Ruth to notice me— or maybe she'd notice me once I got to the second floor, but wouldn't care. Or would she? I didn't want to stake this entire thing on a maybe.

There was also something else worrying me.

I had planned for my ACE Trainers to come and save me, should the fighting get to a level beyond what I was capable of handling, but even with my empathy working on overdrive, I couldn't feel them anywhere. In fact, I couldn't feel anything beyond the Lost Tower's reach, as if I'd been cut off from the outside world entirely. Why? Had I given myself away, somehow? I hoped that paying my respects to the dead would make Mathilda free me, so I had no other choice. I opened my eyes again.

Oliver Panshawe - 971-1001 - Kindness incarnate, always willing to go above and beyond for those who needed it (Negotiator, Diplomat). Died in an ambush on the way to negotiate a lasting peace with the people of Lakhut. The war is inevitable. Thousands will die due to his failure.

"Lakhut?" I asked.

"An old underground empire to the north of here, built into a mountain," Mathilda answered. "Though these days, you would call it a mere city, I presume. It predates Solaceon by far, though it was lost to the sands of time and met its end during that very war. Some kind of internal rebellion were the rumors at the time, but it was difficult reaching the Land of Fog, back then."

My eye twitched, and with her words came a new understanding. "Hm. Well, it's a shame the war had to happen at all."

The ghost simply nodded. "Many of the casualties now rest in this very tower."

I wasn't doing this. Now that I couldn't bait Ruth to help me, the best course of action was to retreat and at least inform my ACE Trainers. Maybe come back here as a group… though it'd be harder to convince Ruth that way, I assumed. It was different when negotiating with a squad capable of killing you, even if it wouldn't be permanent. Still, it wasn't like I had much of a choice. Mathilda would beat my entire team, and the best I could do against her was delay. If the fight destroyed too many graves, then I was willing to bet she'd stop holding back, too.

"I suppose I'm done here, then," I said, rising back to my feet. "Sorry for bothering you and all, but I should get going."

The Overseer sipped some of her tea, but the contents did not go down. "Perhaps you'd want to visit the upper floors now that Ruth won't be a pest?"

My neck hair stood on end, and goosebumps ran all over my arms. She was still calm. "No need, Mathilda. I've bothered you enough."

"No, no, my dear. I insist."

I glanced back at the entrance, which was shrouded in darkness, and restrained a sigh. "And if I told you I absolutely wanted to leave?"

"Then I would tell you the fact that I mean you no harm still holds," she said. Not a lie, thank the Legendaries. "But there is a conversation that should be had before you leave."

Jellicent let out a few wary clicks, asking why we couldn't have this conversation here instead of on the upper floors.

"Please, ghostling," Mathilda rolled her eyes. "Your trainer may be good at hiding her intentions, but none of you are. You come into this sacred place with intent to harm, that much is obvious. These are scheming eyes, you all have."

So that's how I'd been caught. I'd been foolish enough to think that Mathilda would only look at me, and not my Pokemon, and even if she did, I believed she'd think they were just being overprotective. Honey's tails froze in place as a blanket of nervousness spread through his skin. Sunshine's stare only worsened, and I had to snap at him so he wouldn't talk back to her. Sweetheart let out a growl as she flashed her sharpened teeth. I could have fooled her, but they hadn't. In a need to keep myself protected, I'd given away the game, and now she knew we were planning something.

"So I'm guessing it's insurance I don't attack you?" I asked. If I was on a higher floor, then running away would be way more difficult. From this, I could infer that I wasn't actually trapped here and that breaking out was possible. Breaking out, or running? I didn't know if I'd have to hit the door with some kind of dark type move to escape. "So I don't destroy the graves?"

It was the graves that mattered, not any actual danger I posed to her. Her priorities were strange to me, but I'd come into this ready to adapt.

"Yes. Too many were lost to the previous fight already," she said. "But we can be civilized about this. It is a warning, you must heed. About the Dusknoir you speak of. After that, I will let you go."

I squinted, and this time, I was quicker on the draw. She was still telling the truth.

"And I guess I can't convince you that I won't fight?" I asked. "Recall my Pokemon save for Honey—"

Cries of protest rang out, but Mathilda seemed unbothered.

"Does it matter, when they are one gesture away from being released? You singling out this… Honey, which I assume is your Electivire— what a horrible naming scheme, by the way— means that he will have a way to stop me long enough for you to get your other Pokemon out, should this come to blows. You are still acting like this battle is inevitable, Grace Pastel."

"Well I… can't just not have a Pokemon out. I just can't. Humans are too fragile, Mathilda. I need one of my Pokemon to protect me, just in case."

Even if I caught her intentions turning nefarious, she'd be able to kill me in a fraction of a second, while Honey would be able to react and buy me time to release my team, at the very least.

"Then that is fine. Simply follow me up the stairs, and we will discuss this Dusknoir."

I sighed. That information was too good to pass up on. "Fine."

I hope this is the right decision. A sharp smile stretched across Mathilda's face, too long to be natural, and the Overseer started walking toward the stairs as she gestured at me to follow, completely pleased with herself. Funnily enough, this time, I was at least slow enough due to my broken ankle not to be too bothered by her frigid pace. If she was a ghost, then did she really need to walk this slowly? Was the limp and the cane that necessary? Mathilda led us deeper inside of the Lost Tower, but she only started to speak once we reached the stairs.

"There are few Dusknoir in existence in this world, or at least that I know of," she started. "One in the lands of Kanto, trained and held on a tight leash by a human that should by all accounts be dead by now. He is also the most powerful by far. One in Galar, still wild and untamed. She has died the least out of all of them and mostly keeps to herself, lest the humans in her land keep her trapped in Pokeballs for centuries like they usually do to troublesome ghosts. Another in the isolated lands of Almia— that one being the oldest. Far older than anything you can imagine. He came into existence shortly after Pokemon were introduced to this world."

I blinked, surprised that she actually had a number to give me. With how rare ghosts were— and Dusknoir being even rarer— I supposed it made sense.

"That old, and he's not the most powerful?" I muttered. "That's… over a hundred thousand years. Even if trained Pokemon progress faster, that's an absurd amount of time to grow."

"I did say ghosts could ebb, didn't I?" she simply answered. From a look at her, I could tell she didn't want to get into it, so I let it go, not wanting to irritate her.

"And you know about them through the Dusk?" I asked, which she confirmed with a nod. "What about this one? The one I was telling you about?"

"The youngest," she said. "He only came into form a few decades ago."

"That's… older than Mars. A lot older," I frowned. "She's in her early twenties, at most. Maybe younger."

"Mars is her name?" Mathilda hummed. "That poor girl."

I scoffed. "Excuse me?"

The ghost ignored my outburst. "You do not understand, and that is alright. You have not seen what that Dusknoir has done to her soul. He owns her, not the other way around, even if she does not know it."

We reached the top of the stairs, and I saw the familiar faces of a few dozen Golett, tending to the graves and brushing the floor with brooms. It was difficult to remember that this was what Lehmhart had been, once upon a time. There was no light behind their eyes, no will to live or the knowledge that they were even alive. This floor was far larger than the previous one, though the light from the torches spread just as far. Dusknoir controls Mars? From the way she'd behaved in the power plant, it was more like the other way around, but I'd only seen them interact once.

"Have you spoken to Dusknoir, then?" I tried. "While alive or dead?"

"Communication in the Dusk is difficult, when we are using all of our energy to come together again, though I have only seen him with that Mars girl's soul once, right after he had rent it," she said. "He was born in this very tower as a Duskull, sixty-three years ago, and there are faces you recognize, after dying time and time again."

There was a slight silence, and I felt Honey nudge my arm. I discretely nodded. He wanted me to keep her talking.

"So what did you want to tell me, then? That a psychotic killer wasn't at fault? She's not being mind controlled, as far as the League can tell."

"Of course, she isn't. I do not know much about this 'Mars'," Mathilda said. "And I am not telling you to feel a particular way toward her. I am just explaining what I know."

My fist clenched, my nails digging into my palms as I tightened my jaw. "Yeah. Sure. What happened to her soul, then?"

"That is unclear to me, though it has been split in some way, perhaps more than once," she answered. "Hoho, take a look."

She pointed toward a crook in the bricked path, where two white flowers were growing, with a prideful look. She crouched, commending the nearby Golett for letting them grow while pulling out the weeds around them. She really did care about this place— to the point that she'd almost forgotten I was there. Her wrinkled hand delicately touched one of the petals until she let out a satisfied sigh. Happiness— no, contentment radiated out of her in dim waves.

"Sometimes, you forget to stop and look at how beautiful the world is," the ghost hummed. The world, in this case, being her tower, and only her tower. "Now, where were we?"

"Mars' soul is split," I reminded her.

"Right. I do not know how many pieces— things tend to get blurry, in the Dusk, and I only managed to parse through because hers was not getting tortured as the others were. Dusknoir has given her a special place at the forefront of his receptacle. For what purpose, I do not know, but that part of the girl you've seen? She is not a full human being. A broken piece of a whole."

"Is that why she's so insane?" I asked.

Mathilda shook her head. "No, but it might be why she might feel incomplete, at times."

"And could this cause… memory issues?" I asked.

"I do not know enough to answer that for certain, but there is a chance it might," she said. "Do you want to see my favorite grave on this floor, perchance?"

I had to at least entertain her for now. This information was too good to pass up, and I could at least justify leaving without knowing the method to kill true ghosts if I got more out of her. But what was she getting by helping me? This was a game of give and take, and I was getting a lot more than she was, even if I knew she enjoyed chatting with people and showing them around the place. I understood that what a being over a thousand years old found appealing would be skewed, but this was… odd. I played along and let Mathilda show me the graves she liked on this floor. The way she picked them was a combination of tombstone design and the actual way they had died. She would tell me stories of the lives each person had lived, as if she knew every human buried here like the back of her hand.

"The Dusknoir you wish to face is actually less aggressive than usual, and he is cunning," she said, finally getting back on track. "Though his thirst for souls appears endless. Dusknoir grow more powerful the more souls they ingest."

"Could the souls be… manually freed?" I asked her, thinking of the Voice. "If Mars ordered him to do so, for example."

"As far as I know, there is no way for that to happen. Once your soul is taken, it can never come back out. They are a part of him, now and forever. It would be akin to asking you to become another person," she mused, then smiling. "Or asking me to part with this teacup permanently," she finished as she glanced down at it.

Of course. That would have been too convenient, I thought as my lips flattened, and that was a plan out the window. I knew it wouldn't have been good to rely on the Voice anyway, given the fact that it could only be used once per day and that we might have to use it on someone else, and that was if we even came face-to-face with Dusknoir. I also knew that impossible commands would just have the individual stand around like a robot instead of actually doing anything, thanks to all the testing Chase and Mira had done.

Even if freeing the souls that way had been possible, it would have been best to have contingencies, which was why I'd come here in the first place. And failed miserably. I could still hear them now, when it got too quiet and I was having a bad day. The endless screams I'd heard when Dusknoir had opened his mouth in the power plant, to be forever tormented with no respite.

"But if ghosts theoretically could die," I said, pretending not to know otherwise, "then it would be possible."

"I am unwilling to entertain such fantasies," she lied. Still it was not a denial.

"Do you know… about the evolution method?" I hesitantly probed.

"Of course. I have been around, girl," she said. "Your Champion came to get it out of me a bit ago, but she left empty-handed. She ended up figuring it out regardless, however, and I did confirm it for her. That way, I ensured she came by twice," Mathilda finished with a snicker. "Needless to say, she was not amused."

'A bit ago' probably meant a few months ago, to a being like Mathilda, given the fact that Cynthia had known about it since earlier in the Circuit. I tried imagining a pissed-off Cynthia, but everything came up blank. All I'd seen her do was smile, and never had she raised her tone in my presence. At least the way she'd been sure of it made sense, now.

"The method itself, is to harvest cloth from souls," she continued. "But once they take to that behavior, it is almost never unlearned. This one is particularly aggressive about it, is all. Galar's Dusknoir is content with one or two a year. Almia's has stopped feasting entirely, and Kanto's gets a regular amount at set intervals."

"But Mars' just feasts, I'm guessing," I said, biting my lip. "Is there… a weakness of some kind? A way we can kill it— not permanently," I specified. "Just temporarily."

"Darkness always works," she waved a hand. "Your Champion should be able to deal with him without too much difficulty, if it comes to that. You…" she trailed off, scanning my team. "Your soul would be taken within the minute. Perhaps two."

That didn't even account for the fact that Dusknoir could just… run away like he had last time at the Power Plant and just not get killed. He seemed smarter about that than most, in that regard, though if Cynthia hadn't had to hold back due to the hostages, maybe she could have beaten him beforehand? It was impossible to know. All I understood was that Dusknoir would be stronger when the time came than he had been back then.

And that was just when facing Dusknoir, not her entire team. Though, I believed I could expect the ghost to be above and beyond the rest of Mars' Pokemon.

"Do you know why Dusknoir would want to control Mars?" I asked. Did he know that Cyrus was trying to end the world? He must have, with how close he was to Mars. There was just no way that knowledge would have slipped through. "Does he gain anything out of it?"

"Another question I don't have the answer to," she said. "Would you like to go to the third floor?"

"I don't think that's a good idea, Mathilda," I grimaced. "Something's been confusing me, too. What are you getting out of this?"

Her eyes widened a smidge. "A companion to pass the time, what else?"

"There's something else," I pushed. "You keep trying to lure me higher and higher by dangling information in front of me. What do you want?"

"Does it bother you so much, that one does not want to take, take and take?" she chided. "An enjoyable time with a human after not having spoken to one in months is all I want. I was coming up with a new design for the third floor and wanted to show it to someone, that is all."

She wasn't… lying? But how? A being so powerful giving so much away for free just didn't compute in my head. I bit my lip, not knowing how to answer except a polite, forceful nod. It made sense, when considering that her way to make her time easier here was to allow more humans in, but still… I supposed she was strongarming me into coming with her, though. It was the only way she'd keep telling me about Dusknoir.

"I'll come to the third floor, but no more," I muttered. I was being baited in a way, and I was biting. "That's where I stop."

"Thank you."

It took five minutes to reach the stairs, partly because Mathilda kept wanting to show me around, but also because of how wide this floor was. The stairs seemed to stretch higher, this time, and it took a full minute to reach the third floor. It was way different than the second and the first. Whereas the second floor was just a larger version of the first with vegetation being allowed to grow, the third floor was a labyrinth of twisting hallways and different sections of the cemetary, where tombstones were grouped together. The walls were a blank grey that was too smooth to feel right. Everything here looked new, though it kept the musty, odd smell and the cold temperatures that Sunshine was keeping me protected from. It got colder the higher we climbed. The halls were adorned by intricate, bricked archways that were the only thing keeping this place from being too monotonous. This was a crypt.

"Each age gets a section, from the youngest to the oldest," Mathilda said affectionately. "Though I will spare you the details. I doubt a human wants to hear about the young dying, especially in tragic circumstances such as these."

"Thanks," I nodded, my throat feeling tight. "So… Dusknoir. What else do you have for me?"

"It swallows souls by opening the mouth on its abdomen," she listed after sipping on more tea. "One pass through there, and your soul will be stolen. It is important to keep your distance."

"No do-overs," I confirmed. "Is there really no way to free the souls?" I asked again, though without permanently killing him was left unsaid.

"Not that I know of, no. If I could see a Dusknoir in person, I could perhaps gain a new understanding of how they function," she stopped, turning toward me and my team. "Alas, I am bound here. Do you perhaps," she paused, turning my way, "want to stay longer?"

My eye twitched. That had been the plan afoot, then. Or not exactly a plan, but a constant need to stay in touch with the outside. I would have empathized with her, had she not wanted to trap me here for however long she was thinking. With the way ghosts that old perceived time, it was probably on the longer side of things. I couldn't fight her— I couldn't run, and I couldn't use my empathy. My fingers trembled as I ignored my Pokemon's looks.

"Sure thing," I forced out. I had no choice.

I was stuck here, now, and I had missed the trap because she hadn't lied, nor were her intentions actually nefarious. She really did just want someone to talk to. I pitied her, in a way. Forced to tend to these graves until the world ended. Not only that, but communicating with my team beyond looks was impossible, or Mathilda would find out and who knew what she'd do then? I followed her, nodding along to her ramblings about graves and whatnot, and I soon realized that this labyrinth made no sense. The hallways didn't connect right, and only Mathilda seemed to understand where we were going. I tried locating myself through tracking certain torches on the walls, or localized cemeteries, but it was all in vain. The walls were too smooth to use them, so that option was barred, too.

How could I get out of this? She'd brought me to a floor I basically couldn't escape from, and this reeked like a domain. No, the entire place was one. Was my only option to wait her out and to slowly make her understand that time was valuable to me? That I wouldn't be willing to waste for months, or years here, even had Team Galactic not been running around? That I had people to get back to? That I couldn't live for hundreds of years, just randomly speaking to her about managing the Lost Tower over and over? The madness in her hadn't been easy to see, but it slipped through the cracks, now. The way her time here had slowly turned her more and more insane.

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The only reason she wanted me stuck here instead of me and my friends back then that made sense to me was that she'd grown even more estranged from Ruth after their fight, and that she was starving for contact. Any contact. But then why not speak to the ghosts in the tower? There weren't many, but they were here. Golett, I understood, were empty shells with no personalities until you breathed one into them, but there had been a few ghosts wandering the tower's halls. One Misdreavus, one Gastly, and a Litwick. Not many, and fewer than there had been when I'd first come, but they were there.

Ruth… Ruth was my key to getting out of here. I took a deep breath to calm myself down, and clasped at the side of my jeans. She was on the final floor, and it looked like Mathilda would be content to keep bringing me up to 'show me around'. Would she bring me to the final floor? Even if she did, I'd need to talk her into convincing Mathilda that she was being difficult. Worst case scenario, I'd need to engineer a fight between the two and hope to slip away somehow. It'd be ugly, but I was running out of ideas.

"Listen, Mathilda, I really need to go. This was nice, but—"

"You haven't seen the fourth floor yet," she chided. "Let us be on our way. Once I finish showing you everything there is to see, perhaps you can help me redesign the final floor. Ruth has always been difficult about that notion."

We took a right turn, and the staircase up was magically there. She'd willed that to happen, I realized. Before even climbing up the stairs, however, I felt a presence approach on the fourth floor. No, it didn't approach, it just appeared there. Mathilda sighed, licking her gums in irritation as her sunken eyes went blank and rage flickered within her. I knew Ruth had come, but I let her speak. I couldn't reveal my hand early.

"It appears my fellow Overseer has come to interrupt this tour," Mathilda said. "She will want to speak to me."

Again? But wait! This was my key to breaking out of here.

"Can I leave, then?" I quickly said.

"No. It will not come to a fight," Mathilda added. "Trust me."

Hard to trust her, when she was keeping me prisoner. She gestured at me to follow up the stairs, and the fourth floor revealed itself to us. Upon crossing the threshold, the dim glow of flickering torches revealed a vast expanse of towering shelves, each laden with the skeletal remains of countless departed souls. Bones were meticulously arranged, forming ghastly sculptures that reached from floor to ceiling. The ambient light cast eerie shadows, creating an ever-shifting dance of deathly silhouettes upon the walls. This was no normal graveyard or crypt, it was an ossuary. I felt bile build up in my throat at the sight of so many skeletons, somehow having been preserved through time without a speck of decomposition or dent. The pathways here were wider than in the labyrinth, at the very least, so I still felt like I could breathe in spite of thousands of skulls staring at me. There were no inscriptions to be seen, here. No dates, no names, and no causes of death.

Mathilda kept walking, and I followed into a grand hallway of some sort that was morbid to look at. The hallway was a haunting passage that echoed with the weight of centuries. Stone walls, adorned with intricate carvings of skeletal figures and funerary symbols, reached upward to a vaulted ceiling that seemed to disappear into shadow. The air carried a musty scent that was impossible to grow used to even after ten minutes of traveling through this place. Arches, adorned with ornate filigree and ossified embellishments, spanned the hallway at regular intervals, creating a sense of depth that extended into a seemingly infinite abyss. The ceiling— or the part of it that I could see— was supported by skeletal columns that were somehow solid enough to keep this entire place standing. The Overseer stopped me when we reached the end of the bone-filled hall.

Ruth was there. A splitting image of Mathilda, save for the fact that she did not carry a teacup with her. Her eyes, once filled with fury and… life, and desire, now carried a distant and heavy gaze. The way she held herself was timid, with her shoulders slightly hunched and her eyes staring at her feet. This was not the Ruth I had expected to see.

"May I help you, Ruth?" Mathilda innocently asked. "How strange, when you vowed never to speak to me again."

"You play too many games," she sighed. "Did you think bringing a human into this would be a good way to get me to congregate with you once more?"

Another angle I hadn't seen. The fact that Mathilda had brought me up here had been two-fold, then. One, the reason she'd said before— Mathilda was lonely, and she craved contact with anyone that came by. Why else, would she accost every trainer that came to the first floor of the tower? I'd been fooled by a technical truth, then. An obscuring of all the facts. Two, it was also a way to at least drag Ruth back to a state where they'd talk, and maybe negotiate. My Pokemon shifted uneasily, knowing that we were all horribly outclassed and that the next few minutes would decide our fates. Think, Grace. I needed to play them off each other.

"You did tell her not to come back," Mathilda continued. "Alas, you've essentially given up your role as Overseer, so your word has no more authority here."

Authority… like a shared domain, maybe. If Ruth hadn't felt like she belonged here any longer, then maybe the world had cut her loose and transferred control of this place entirely to Mathilda. Hell, even the first time I'd come here, maybe that was the reason she'd been stronger than Ruth. The balance had already been tipping, back then. I closed my eyes, opening them again as I scanned her. She was not scared or angry— just defeated. Worn down and scraped raw.

"What do you want, then?" Ruth asked.

Sinistea smiled, her eyes full of misguided kindness, "For you to join me again, and to share in our duties like he would have wanted. Like he did want."

"Does what I want not matter?" Ruth murmured.

"May I speak?" I suddenly asked.

Both ghosts looked at me, and I ignored Buddy's panicking groan.

"I have no stakes in this," I said. "Allow me to leave, and—"

"You will leave when the time comes," Mathilda chided.

I took a step away from her, glancing at Honey for him to prepare a Protect. "Ruth. What is it that you want?"

The retired Overseer shot me a tired look behind her thick spectacles, and then her eyes drifted across the thousands of bones in this ossuary. Grand structures made of ivory, hanging from the ceiling like makeshift chandeliers with blue flames flickering inside of skulls and at the edges of tibias. Her eyes met mine once more, and then she looked at my team, assessing them. I could see the calculus, running in her head. We were both trapped here, weren't we?

"This is not a wise move, Grace," Mathilda softly said. "I do not wish for this to come to violence."

And she meant it too, damn it. She still hadn't struck, because at the heart of it all, in her own way, Mathilda was a decent person, who was simply blinded by a loyalty so fervent her actions looped back to being unhinged. Deep in her heart, I could tell that she would not strike first unless we tried to leave.

"Then let me— let us go," I said. The us was important, because Ruth and I were allies of convenience, now, and she needed to be included, or she'd be less inclined to help me if things went to shit. I no longer wanted to get information on how to kill ghosts out of her, I just wanted to get out of here. "You can be an Overseer on your own."

Newborn belief squirmed across Ruth's fake skin. I noticed tendrils I could have pulled on to nurture that feeling, had I been more experienced, but I didn't want to risk her noticing and lose my only hope.

"You should listen to the child, Mathilda," she growled. Her body began to section off, only being linked by darkened tendrils as more shadows lashed out on the floor. Bones around her clattered, some falling to the ground as red runes inscribed themselves on Ruth's skin, bright and true, and it solidified into segmented stone, with a singular eye shining purple.

"I have toiled long enough," Runerigus announced. Her voice echoed numerous times. "And I am done being a slave to a dead man."

Mathilda closed her eyes as regret filled her veins. "How much longer, Ruth?" she asked, her voice distorting. She had asked the same question, during the fight I had witnessed. "One hundred years? Five hundred? A thousand? You know the answer is until the sun goes dark."

Mathilda jumped into her teacup, and all hell broke loose.

Honey instantly brought up a Protect, but it wasn't me Mathilda targeted first. The ghost summoned an Energy Ball, squeezing natural energy out of nothing, and then sectioned it off into twelve glowing spheres. She fired them off toward Runerigus in quick succession, who instantly summoned her two Night Shades. One of them crawled in front of her, blocking the Energy Balls until it exploded, creating dents in the wide hallway and shattering a few bones that hung off the ceiling like chords.

"Angel—"

His vine was already around my waist. The grass type carried me off to a safe distance as Runerigus' ghostly hands turned sharp, and the ground type hurled herself across the ossuary like she was weightless. She flew, aiming her Shadow Claw toward Sinistea, who simply put up a Protect and instantly retaliated with a Shadow Ball that dented her coffin. Ruth snarled as her arm extended toward Sinistea, but a green hue overtook Ruth, and she slumped to the ground before her remaining Night Shade took charge and helped her.

No use running when the third floor was impossible to escape from. I bit my lip, waiting for an opening. Princess flew as close to the ceiling as she could, hitting Sinistea with Tri Attack. She dared not to pull stone from the tower itself in case it would anger Mathilda. Right now, she was holding back while Ruth had given up on protecting this place. Our ally ground bone to dust, thrashing around as desperation ran its course, but she was already losing. Jellicent had finished creating a small sphere of water by now, and he soon turned it to ice. With a grunt, he shattered the ball and sent the sharp spikes flying off toward Sinistea, but only one struck her and barely cracked her cup.

"Sunshine, Honey. Since Ruth doesn't care about destroying the tower, neither should we—"

Flames danced around Sunshine's snout as he let loose a Dragon Pulse that raked against the floor, trailing upward until it hit both Sinistea— and Runerigus, who had rushed in between us, uncaring for our attacks— leaving a trail of fiery destruction in its wake. Electivire flexed, electricity roiling through his arms until he brought his hands forward and massive Thunder engulfed both. Sinistea slowed for a fraction of a second, but wasn't too hurt by the entire affair, while Runerigus was immune.

"Ruth! We need to work together!" I called out. "Sunshine, Sweetheart, you go in. Buddy and Honey have my back."

With a bone-shaking roar, Tyranitar took a few steps forward. It wasn't a run— a jog at best. Turtonator, meanwhile, was engulfed by a Flame Charge as he flew into the heat of battle. The dragon landed right on top of Sinistea, burning hotter as he flexed and flames escaped through the grooves in between his scales. Sinistea was powerful, but she was also light. Tea exploded out of her cup like a Water Spout, cutting across Turtonator's chest and kicking him back. Princess swooped down, placing a barrier behind him before he could crash back into us, and Sweetheart finally reached the fight with a scream. She lowered herself as darkness overtook her teeth and snapped her jaw shut over a quickly erected Protect. The stringent grinding of teeth over Protect made me cover my ears, but she wasn't done. A Dark Pulse blew the ghost away, hurling her high into the obscured ceiling.

It started raining bones. Slowly at first, and then a deluge of never-ending bones falling from the broken ceiling. Ruth was barely recovering from whatever move had robbed her of her strength, summoning two more Night Shades that perpetually started to shoot the obscured ceiling with Shadow Ball.

"Princess!" I snapped.

Her eyes glowed, grappling the falling bones and throwing them back after sharpening them with Ancient Power. Her hold on them was tenuous at best, but with Psychic added to Ancient Power, it was as good as anything else. The lance-like bones flew upward, but Sinistea was nowhere to be seen. Honey grunted, another Thunder flying off of him in an instant, and finally, we heard an impact. Another crack in her cup.

"If you have something to say, say it, girl," Ruth snarled from afar.

"Strategy. Do you have one?" I quickly asked. More and more attacks were aimed at the ceiling. Dark Pulses, Tri Attacks, Shadow Balls, Thunders— and yet, we were just buying time. "If we kill her, can you get us out of here?"

"I can. But we'll need more than this to send her to the Dusk," Ruth said. "Or the fight will be a prolonged one."

"You've lost the sliver of control you had over this place, didn't you—"

I heard a series of crunches and snaps. The massive bone chandelier crashed down to the floor, but it homed toward me faster than I could react, as if it was under Sinistea's control. Electivire put up a Protect as Buddy dissolved into a liquid, letting the bones pass through him and reforming right away as he threw himself higher into battle to give Princess some support. Sinistea had come into view, now, and she was throwing Shadow Balls at her, each more powerful than Buddy's and quicker too. The flying type pushed herself with stale wind as she narrowly dodged the first few, but one broke through her barrier like a knife through paper and hit her wing, and she began falling down, spinning wildly in the air. Angel crawled toward her, a dozen vines shooting out from his body as he kept her from hitting the bone-filled floor.

"You would listen to her before me, Ruth?" Mathilda mourned. "Pick her over me? After all that we've been through?"

"The tower is your coffin," Runerigus said, "but it shouldn't have to be mine."

Sinistea sang.

Bones came together in clumps, turning into abominations— skeletal remains of Pokemon and people under her command. They were built wrong, however. Hastily assembled, and they did not fit. There were six of them in total, each being as large as Honey. With another yell, a shimmering light coursed through the monsters, and the same blue light that lit up the entire tower came alive in their eye sockets. Tyranitar brought a leg down, summoning a small Stomping Tantrum in an attempt to slow them before they could reach me.

"I'll keep her occupied," Ruth hissed. "You deal with the bones."

I could not pay attention to her fight, lest I lose mine. Princess was back in the air, and I ordered her to support Ruth as best she could while my other Pokemon would take down whatever act of necromancy this was. I ignored the clashes to my left and focused. The one Sweetheart was fighting wasn't even a contest. She was bigger, tougher, and despite it looking unnatural— spines mashed together, contorting in unnatural angles, a skull facing backward, with elongated ribs made out of bones that weren't ribs— she tore through it with a Dragon Pulse and ground its bones to dust.

The other five were trickier, however. Angel wrapped vines around a Pokemon-looking beast with two different sets of wings, yet it was still capable of flight. It had a dragon's skull, something akin to a Dragonite, and somehow, that meant it could use moves. It started as a small light in its ribs, bubbling ever brighter until it turned turquoise. Dragon Pulse. Angel stabbed through the sphere of energy with Knock Off, causing the dragon to blow up from the inside, and it collapsed into a pile of unanimated bones.

Sunshine was locked into a battle with the largest of the beasts, his arms pushing against the serpent-like construct formed from vertebrae, each jointed section giving the illusion of serpentine movement. The skull at the head was elongated like a Skeledirge's and adorned with fangs that would have bitten into Turtonator's neck had Angel not brought vines to pull away at the face. Turtonator raged at the close call, bright blue flames enveloping his entire body as he pushed the snake to the ground and slowly smothered it until it turned to ash—

Another flame, this one bright white slammed into Angel, causing him to catch on fire and squirm in agony. I hissed as flames singed the side of my face— I couldn't see him, with how bright it was, but I screamed haphazardly at Buddy to extinguish the fire and called Princess for reinforcements. Electivire blurred away, having switched position with the ghost, and he jumped in the air with Radiant Leap, ramming at full force into a collection of disembodied skulls floating in the air and the source of whatever that fire type attack had been. He grabbed onto the largest skull and slammed a glowing arm right into the collective twice in quick succession, using quick bursts of electricity to speed up a slow attack like Hammer Arm while Princess finished it off by throwing a burst of ice at it. She must have used Nasty Plot at some point, because her attacks were usually nowhere that powerful, and there was an evil glint in her eyes.

I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw Angel was… relatively fine. He could not regenerate himself with Ingrain, here, and that fire type attack had been way more powerful than a Flamethrower. I would have burned to a crisp, had Electivire and Jellicent not tag-teamed with Protect.

But there were still three left, and two were clashing with Sweetheart while the last one threw itself at Buddy and I, and he was the last line of defense. He hadn't trained with Protect enough to keep it up for long. There was some kind of white shimmer in the faceless construct, and it kept hitting— once, twice, thrice— until the barrier shattered. Honey blurred toward it, but as if it had eyes at the back of its neck, it slammed a fist back, hitting the electric type in the face before he could react—

A hit faster than I could see snapped my crutch out of my hand as Angel grabbed me with still-scorching vines and brought me back. The bone construct followed, but Jellicent's head swelled, enveloping him in water and freezing both himself and it to buy some time for us to all recuperate. I ignored the pain at my waist as Tangrowth gently placed my crutch back in my hand, and I exhaled for the first time in what felt like an hour. The final two constructs, Tyranitar, Turtonator and Togekiss had done quick work of.

Okay, I breathed. Calm down. You're all alive, and that's what counts. I scanned the grand hallway in search of Ruth and Mathilda and saw that they were still locked in combat. Distracted. I scrambled to grab potions from my bag, ignoring the pain in my hand. Not broken, I thought after flexing it and clenching it a bit. But my crutch had been torn away very violently, and I was honestly surprised the damn cane was still in one piece, save for a noticeable dent. I applied the potions to Angel, Sunshine and Tyranitar before I ran out of time and the fight was moving our way again.

Buddy did not shatter, when the construct broke free. Instead, he turned back into a liquid right before he reached his breaking point, letting the bovine beast through. He had bought enough time for the rest of the team to finish it off with our combined attacks, destroying it until the light went out of its empty eye sockets.

Ruth wasn't… losing too hard, but she was far from winning, and while she looked to be tiring, Mathilda was not. One of Runerigus' Night Shades suddenly appeared in the shadows behind Sinistea and slammed both of its hands over the teacup, catching her off-guard, and Ruth used that opening to open up her segments and put Mathilda inside of her coffin-like body. All of the sections closed, snapping in place like pieces of a puzzle, and Ruth became a coffin.

Then, there was only silence.

"Is… did we win?" I asked in disbelief.

"Of course not!" she yelled. "This will only buy… a minute or two. She's seeing the worst memories she's ever had, and she will be furious by the end."

"Why the fuck would you do that? That's a terrible strategy—"

"Shut up and listen!" she snapped, her eye lighting up in fury. "There is only one way to kill her, and that is to make her abandon her duties. Her role as Overseer is her implement. With it, she is infinitely harder to kill, but it is also a limiter of some sort. She sees herself as a peaceful Overseer whose role is only to defend. That is the role that she has put herself in, and that is the role the world has given her despite it being narrower than most beings with a domain. If she abandons this role, she will be far stronger, because she will no longer be defending, but attacking. However, the world will not tug in her favor to have her survive."

"Tug in her favor?" I frowned.

The red mouth motifs on her stone body seemed to twist into a grin. "Have you not ever wondered why Pokemon with domains are harder to kill, girl? Why, even for Pokemon who aren't ghosts, they extend their lifespans indefinitely until they are kicked out or abandon their role? Because the world thinks they belong there and won't allow them to go down unless you finish the job properly. Burn the corpse until there are only ashes left."

The only domain holder I'd seen die was Shiftry, and Cynthia was not someone to base my knowledge on, with how powerful she was. Bellatrix's old lessons rang out in my mind, and I could only muster a tight nod. Still, I hadn't known that they were immortal. My earlier suspicions had at least been confirmed, though. The reason Ruth had been so much weaker, even months ago, was now apparent. She had no longer been committed to her duties as an Overseer and was far easier to murder.

"So we make her step out of that role, and she'll be easier to kill," I said. "But she's still a ghost."

"Of course. She'll only be dead for a few days, that gives us plenty of time to run— ah, she's coming back. Steel yourself."

Was that a minute? I inhaled sharply—

Ruth exploded into a thousand pieces, her Night Shades collapsed and exploded as Mathilda crawled out of her remains with a fury so loud I would have been brought to my knees had I not met Mesprit beforehand. This anger— it had weight to it. It crawled into my throat and made it harder to breathe, to move, and even to see straight. I stumbled back, but Honey brought his arm behind me. What had Ruth made her see, to anger her so? At least there were no more bone constructs, but… fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck! Ruth was reforming, but she was taking her fucking sweet time with it, and we were Mathilda's only target, now. Liquid kept pouring out of her cup— more than what should have even fit in there. It surrounded it and pooled onto the floor, building up into a horrifying amalgamation of purple, gooey hands and faces with empty eye sockets and mouths. Dozens of them. She used the arms to crawl around like some kind of centipede. She was slightly larger than Jellicent's head, which was very big. I took a step back as the dozens of mouths spoke to me at the same time.

"I only wanted peace," they said. "Yet you struck first."

"I wanted to leave, and you wouldn't let me," I whimpered, ignoring the dread creeping up my spine. By the Legendaries, this was an abomination beyond words. Each voice was a terrifying echo that shook me to my very core. Only Spiritomb had ever shaken me this much. "This can still be resolved through peace. Just let us leave. Please."

I'd been begging, by the end. I was outclassed beyond the bridges that skill could gap. The abomination paused, then multiple smiles crept up on its heads.

"You are the aggressor. Trainers strike at the tower's entrance in hopes to get in. You struck first. I am assaulted on all sides, and keeping to my duties."

The ACEs were trying to get in, then— wait, was she monologuing? Who was she talking to— no… no, no, no! "You kept us trapped here," I blurted out in a panic. "Conflict could have been avoided— if you just let me leave. I am the victim, here, and you are the aggressor. You've stepped out of bounds. Out of your role."

The ghost's faces twisted into snarls that made my lips quiver. "Clever little girl," they spoke as one. "Alas, it will not make a difference."

My jaw clenched. "She's coming—"

She threw herself forward with wildness I thought only Ruth was capable of as bones levitated toward her and became armor. Knowing her defenses were the toughest, Sweetheart's body shone with Rock Polish as she slid across the room, almost stumbling before she clashed with what could barely be called Sinistea any longer. Powerful stone plates met bone and Shadow Claw, and they held— the first time. The second, too, but the third, Mathilda dug inside the flesh of her leg and pushed her away as she slid on the ground because of Rock Polish, creating an elongated dent in the hallway. Honey slipped out of her reach, firing Thunder after Thunder that froze her for a split second every time they hit. Princess raised the ground, creating walls of earth and bone to slow her further. Tangrowth slammed weakened Knock Offs into her side, trying to snake past her bone armor and to strike at the teacup at the center of her body. Sunshine huffed, breathing out massive Dragon Pulses whenever an opening was available. Bones close to him literally caught on fire, including Mathilda's armor. Her mouths let out a high-pitched, garbled scream, but the damage was superficial, and she cleansed the flame with some kind of ghostly aura.

They were buying time. Time for Ruth to come back together, one shadowy tendril at a time, but we'd be too slow. She lunged at Sunshine, hitting him with a punch that caved in his chest and kept going past him, aiming to kill me. My fingers tingled as I pushed and pulled at emotion itself. Love… how do I make love? Or is hesitation faster? I knew what that crush Edith had on me felt like, so it was the only tool I had to work in. Hues of… damn it, it wasn't strong enough! The colors were too dim, there wasn't enough passion! I weaved my hands in the air as Mathilda crashed into Jellicent's Protect. Honey joined him, adding his own as I bit the inside of my lip until it bled. Warmth. I needed warmth! I finished my concoction, leaving myself so exhausted I could barely keep my eyes open. I blinked, biting my tongue to keep myself awake as I pushed the feelings inside of Mathilda with all I had and collapsed backward.

She stopped. Thank fuck, she stopped, but I'd gone about it wrong. There was no precision, no tools used. It was like I'd tried to fit a fridge inside of a backpack. It just wouldn't fit. There was too much all at once. Shit! I hadn't wanted to risk grabbing all the rage out of her, because I would have passed out, and who knew if she would have stopped attacking?

"What… have you done to me?" Mathilda's mouths slowly spoke in horror. "Oh, Legendaries, what have you done?"

A nervous smile stretched across my face as Jellicent's Protect faded— though Electivire's still remained. She'd felt that, at least. Enough to stop her for this long. It was like she'd forgotten what love felt like— and this wasn't even love yet. A pale imitation of it. And I knew it hadn't held. Already, it was flickering out like embers dying in the wind.

"Please don't kill me," I begged with a sniffle, making my voice as pitiful as possible. I did not know if the tears were real or there to trick her. "You love me, don't you?"

Doubt flickered in her empty eyes, but then her faces bared her non-existent teeth—

Sweetheart rammed into her, a Dark Pulse shooting out of her mouth and inside of Mathilda, whose faces screamed, mostly in annoyance rather than in pain. Jellicent rushed toward our enemy with Water Sport, becoming a liquid as he slipped past the bone armor and exploded with Water Spout to take her apart, but I cursed when purple tendrils linked her back together immediately. That love trick would not work twice, but Ruth was almost back— and her Night Shades were. Her misshapen form summoned two perfect shades who engaged Mathilda in combat and left us time to breathe. I was so tired that my legs and arms felt numb.

"Ruth," I hoarsed out. "Finish the job. She's left herself open."

The ghost grinned, tasting that her freedom was closer than ever before. I ordered my team to join her to help, though I asked Sunshine to stay back. His breaths were weakened, and that hit had nearly singlehandedly taken him out. Runerigus and her shades took Sinistea in a three-on-one, their attacks ramping up as they began to hope. Sometimes, a hit that would have made contact was deflected by Princess, who struck from every side with Air Slash. Jellicent summoned Night Shades of his own, sending them to explode like bombs over and over while he pestered Mathilda with Shadow Balls. Sweetheart, although limping due to her leg, was still in fighting shape and fired off Dark Pulses toward Sinistea. This was working, slowly but surely. At the tenth minute, the last of Mathilda's reinforced bone armor collapsed.

She was stronger, but her stepping out of her role had left her open. A massive boulder from Princess would have missed Sinistea, but Honey grunted as he made use of Railgun to adjust its course by just a bit, staggering her for an instant.

An instant was all Ruth needed.

Runerigus gasped as she made use of the opening and plunged a hand into the liquid that was Mathilda's body. She shook, clearly looking for the cup, and she snatched it out of Mathilda. It was still dripping with purple liquid in her hand, when she crushed it with all her might.

"Ruth… you dare…" the voices whispered. "You… abandon your duty…"

Sinistea collapsed into a pool of purple liquid that dissolved the moment it became inert.

She was dead.

The Lost Tower's oppressive atmosphere seemed to lighten, but only for a moment, and I understood that Ruth had stepped back into the role of Overseer, stealing it from Mathilda. If she wants to kill me, I'm dead, I knew. She might have still been blocking the entrance too, and even if she wasn't my ACEs would have to make it to the labyrinth as well. As it stood, I was incapable of moving.

"I'm… free," she muttered in disbelief. A garbled laugh rang out throughout the destroyed ossuary, and her form slowly reverted into that of a human's. "I'm free!"

"I can… leave now, right?" I hesitantly said. "I helped you."

"You were of use, and I thank you for that," she confirmed. A weight lifted off my Pokemon and my shoulders. "Alas, I know what you're after already. I heard you ask for a way to kill a ghost. I am forbidden by covenant to ever tell anyone, but know that there is a method."

"Why— you know what, never mind. Just… who made this covenant?"

"No one knows. Perhaps it is intrinsic to us," Ruth muttered as she slowly walked toward one of the walls. "I am far too young to know what went on at the beginning of our introduction to the Dusk, child."

"The Dusk," I muttered. "What is it?"

She smiled. "That, I can tell you. It is a mirror of this place, ruled by a single sovereign where all ghosts are born, and all ghosts go to die," Ruth slowly explained. "It is Warden. It is Guardian. It is all. Though it has no part in the covenant. It is far too powerful to bother itself with the musings of ghosts and mostly preoccupies itself with sustaining the Dusk. We just feed on the scraps it leaves to come into being, sustain ourselves and travel into this world. I hesitate to call it a being… it is more like a Concept that has existed since the beginning of everything. Distortion."

Legendary, I guessed. The entire Dusk was run by a fucking Legendary.

I continued. "A mirror of this place… the tower?"

She laughed. "No. A mirror of this entire world." She stopped, snapping her fingers, and suddenly, sunlight was allowed into the tower through windows, and I felt fresh air brush upon my face. "Now, I must be on my way. Goodbye, Grace. I will remember you, when the centuries pass and you have been reduced to dust."

She paused before continuing.

"Oh, and also, do not go to the fifth floor. Our old trainer cut his soul into a hundred and eight pieces in his maddened quest for eternal life, and though he remains dormant, he will wake should someone other than us disturb him."

She disappeared into the wind, and my ACE Trainers arrived thirty seconds later through the windows and evacuated me and my team to safety.