"Come on," Tiria said, "let's get you back to the Encampment."

She tried to help steady him, but Gi activated [Unstoppable Nobility] and he floated upwards. The weightlessness felt good on his wounds, but the flight aspect was more important. He'd never have been able to walk back on his own.

"We can't show weakness." Gi said, his voice more gravelly than he expected. "I'll meet you back at Control."

He flicked on [Concealing Light] and then slowly flew out of the Dungeon Portal cave. Tiria looked frustrated as he left, but she didn't argue.

Trying to swim quickly through the air sent pain lancing through his left side. While his arm had never worked, it seemed like his ribs or abdominal muscles had been damaged. Probably both.

He took a slow route around Igna and back towards the lake. His mind was nearly as sluggish as his body and it churned through Fader's thoughts and experiences from their connection. There was a lot to unpack there.

Perhaps even more surprising, the Clan Stage had only a single task. Each Stage before had gone up by prime numbers if he remembered the pattern correctly. Why had the Clan Stage broken the pattern?

He didn't have the answer, but it did provide him some more information. If every Sky Clan was in the Clan Stage, it meant first, that every monster in their Clans had a Core. No wonder the Fighting Drakes had been a terror in the Child Stage. Was the function of the Spiked Eagle's Core something he'd already experienced? Or was it something they hadn't seen yet?

Second while it's possible that the tasks were different, it probably meant that every single Sky Clan was aiming to conquer a city, either Igna or Myshk. That was the goal for every single one of them and instead of fighting Queen Siht, they created the government beneath her.

How scary was she?

Gi slowly dipped himself into the lake and started the swim back towards the Encampment. Water was more resistant than air and the swim back was agony. By the time he dropped back down into the Encampment proper, his breath was coming in ragged gasps and his vision was starting to swim.

Cave Goblins carried bricks towards the second towering spine where most of the population would live as their growth hopefully continued; Cleaner Slugs roamed the area, cleaning up any detritus that had fallen; and of course, Gang Otters walked from building to building as they went about their daily tasks.

Seeing all of his clan, Gi tried to straighten, not remembering that he'd already cast [Concealing Light]. As he provided conscious attention to his Skill, his Aether grew turbulent and the flow to it died. Gi blinked rapidly, trying to remember why his Aether felt so weird.

"Let's get you into a bed," Tiria said and Gi flinched backwards as she'd seemingly just appeared in front of him. Placing an arm around him, she guided him towards the Control building. A bed had already been prepared and she lowered him into it. A hiss came from his lips as he put pressure on his left side, but it still felt great to lay down.

Maybe if he just closed his eyes...

****

"Do you have any idea about what might be going on, Doyle?" Tiria asked the giant crab that served as their trainer and the original of the [Bubble Cure] ability.

Samba listened to Tiria question Doyle, but he looked down at the Boss instead. Gi's entire left side looked like it had been crushed by a boulder and somehow molded into the rough shape it was supposed to be in. He looked... weak. He looked mortal.

"Let us use our little grey cells, hm?" Doyle always spoke like that and Samba was used to it. A quick glance to Tiria told him that she was annoyed but trying to be patient. "If we take the Angelic Mice, for example, what fuels the healing process?"

"Soul Orbs," Tiria said.

"Precisely! If they are using Soul Orbs, why? Why should they need to take the Soul Orbs in the process?"

Samba rubbed his cheek, turning to look at his trainer in the top hat. "I thought they just used those to fuel their own progress?"

Doyle nodded. "Some of them, sure, but is it only that?"

"Aether is not enough." Tiria was always quick on the uptake.

"Madame, that is exactly the problem! With [Bubble Cure], all that goes into it is Aether and it needs to take the life from somewhere so where does it come from?"

Tiria's mouth dropped open. "I was killing him."

Doyle gave a non-committal shrug, his claw getting caught up in the makeshift curtains that they'd set up. "Perhaps, perhaps no. It is hard to say what would kill him faster. His wounds as they were or healing those wounds as quickly as you did."

The three of them looked down at Gi, taking in his twitching form. Samba was the first to speak. "Well, he's not looking great right now. How do we fix him?"

"Water, rest, food. When he's fully conscious, you could perhaps use another [Bubble Cure], but you absolutely should not do it before then."

Tiria asked a few more questions, but shortly afterwards, Doyle left, leaving them to nurse the Boss. Tiria had Chum go fetch some Ancestor Stew and Samba held the Boss while she dribbled broth and water into his mouth.

There were a few spluttering moments, but eventually, it seemed like she got the trick to getting it down. Samba decided to stay and help Tiria so she didn't have to deal with it by herself. Tala came by a couple times, but she didn't stay as she needed to keep an eye on their kids.

For the first day, Gi didn't wake. A few of the priests had come to help bandage Gi up, but it wasn't likely to do much since [Bubble Cure] had closed most of the wounds. At some point, Samba fell asleep and he didn't wake up until the next day where Gi turned fitfully in his sleep.

Tiria herself was still asleep in her own chair and Samba didn't want to wake her so he eased himself up and moved closer to check on Gi. The boss must have sensed him approach.

Gi slammed his fist down into the bed and raised his torso up. His eyes locked on Samba with a sudden clarity and he screamed. Samba flinched backwards and Tiria snorted awake, but the scream only lasted for a single breath and Gi's eyes slowly lost focus and he lowered himself back down.

Tiria and Samba only had time to share a look before Gi started talking. Samba had to lean down to hear him. "Samba? You won... Did Danna help you? Did the Father? ...Did I?"

Samba raised an eyebrow. "Won what?"

"Richard failed. He didn't have any help. We can't be like Richard." His eyes rolled and locked onto Samba for a moment. "Promise me we won't be like him."

"I-I promise." Samba didn't have any idea what the boss was talking about. Was he going crazy? What would they do if he wasn't the same anymore?

Tiria leaned forward then. "Who is that?"

Gi flinched and his panicked eyes shot to Tiria before he visibly relaxed. "Fader was me. His mistakes were worse. I killed myself.... Stole my own fate... Why did the Father help him? Why didn't he help Richard?"

Samba looked over Gi's body towards Tiria. "Is there any medicine that we can give him?"

"I'll ask Rocky."

Tiria quickly left their makeshift bed in the Control, but Gi wasn't done talking. As Samba still leaned over him, he grabbed onto Samba's robes with a surprising strength, considering how frail and injured he looked, and pulled him close.

"We have to kill them. All of them. It's the only way to be sure that we're not like him."

Samba felt queasy as his imagination spun up an image of the Boss alone in the Brain Goblin's cave, mowing down their children methodically one by one. The boss's wild glare still pinned him, demanding an answer. "W-we'll kill them," Samba said, patting Gi's arm.

This must have been the right answer as Gi's body fell slack and all the tension fell away from him replaced by exhaustion. His eyes flickered, but he didn't stop mumbling. Most of it was incomprehensible, but he did catch one piece.

"I'm sorry, Noah..."

To Samba's great relief, Tiria returned shortly afterwards with a glass bottle. Dried brown moss rested at the bottom of it and was surrounded by a similar if lighter colored liquid around it. With little chunks of moss floating around in it, it looked disgusting.

"Help me lift him up," she asked and while Samba didn't want to get within grabbing range of him again, he couldn't deny a request from Tiria. He picked the Boss up, and thankfully, he didn't do anything other than continue his inaudible mumbling and Tiria slowly dribbled the potion down his throat.

A few minutes later, Gi's twitching and mumbling finally stopped and he went back to sleep. Samba released a breath that he hadn't even realized that he'd been holding. He really didn't like the changes in the Boss. He hadn't done anything against the clan itself, but were they rushing to fight the Spiked Eagles before they were ready? Couldn't they spend a few seasons preparing for that ascent?

Did it matter if he wouldn't attack the clan directly if he led them to their demise?

Tiria's palm on his arm caused him to jump. "I'm going to grab Chum and clean up his wounds. Why don't you go take a break?"

Samba stole a glance at the boss. "Yeah, I can do that."

After waiting for her to grab Chum, he left, stepping out into the main thoroughfare. The Lake Encampment had grown a lot since he'd first ascended past the Child Stage. The Spine that was made of the Cave Goblin's bricks rose up to touch the lake just outside the bubble. Otters, Cave Goblins, and Cleaner Slugs roamed the small street that ran through the Encampment including a few offshoots.

He glanced towards one of the original Quarters that Tala and the kids now were the sole owners of. Listening to the Boss's rambling through his illness had made him uneasy and he wanted to talk to Tala about it, but he didn't want the kids to hear. Helm, in particular, was sensitive to that type of thing.

He thought through the others that he was close to - Doyle was an option, but he felt like an outsider. Kumo and he had barely managed to get the laws done together. Her attitude always grated on him. There were other Templar that he was close with, but he didn't want them to lose faith in the Boss.

That really only left one option.

He headed towards the Twins' workshop. He stepped inside without knocking and then immediately stopped at the strange scene. Wax was bouncing from paw to paw with what could only be described as a makeshift attempt at a taco which dribbled a reduced Ancestor Stew out of the back.

As he did this, Wane had Killer in both paws and would raise the cat up into the air before tossing him onto the moss bed that the two shared. Killer, apparently, loved this game and would race back over to the twins afterwards for them to toss him again.

Much to the delight of the twins.

When Wax finally saw him, he stopped bouncing and Wane immediately put Killer back down. Wax stuffed his taco into his mouth as Wane addressed him.

"What can we do for you, Samba?"

The two of them had always been quiet and intelligent, but he'd never expected to see the two of them acting so... carefree. It felt refreshing after his conversation with Gi. Samba smiled.

"I was just with the Boss. He's still recovering and it's... rough. Thought I'd check in."

"Ah!" Wax started and Wane continued. "I see. We're still working on the Spiked Eagles' reaction to different elements to ensure we didn't miss anything. Fire should be just as effective as we thought."

Wax picked up what looked like a textured stone tablet and a candle. He held the flame up to the tablet and it quickly darkened even from the scant heat that the flame must give off.

"See? It's much more effective."

It took Samba a minute to realize exactly what they were doing and horror spread through him. "Is that... a piece of a Spiked Eagle?"

The twins shared a quizzical look. "Of course?"

It was true that they often ate monster meat to survive, but to him, that felt different than the casual way that the twins held up the dismembered corpse of the Spiked Eagle. After the Boss's actions, was it Samba himself that was too soft for the world of monsters? Should he be eager to throw the clan into a dangerous situation and kill Child monsters so they couldn't threaten them later?

"I... gotta go," Samba said and then hurried out of the workshop.