I felt myself gripping my summoned blade, which had grown much more elegant since its evolution. Where before it had been little more than a sword-shaped flame, now the hilt and length itself, in particular, were fully formed of concentrated fire-mana; no trails of heat wisped from the weapon in its casually brandished state, rather it simply shone faintly in the guise of a purple-hued rapier. If you looked closely, you could tell that it wasn't made of solid matter, but it certainly held all the edges and flourishes of a properly-forged weapon now.

"You're friendly?" I asked, ignoring the comments about there being nothing for me here. "You're the first person I've met who could form a sentence and not try to kill me immediately afterwards."

I'd chosen the word 'person' very purposefully, feeling that perhaps it might disarm the golem if I didn't refer to it as a monster, even if I didn't really enjoy that it'd called me a caliban. I had nothing against the race of elf-like beings, but I knew almost nothing about them; really I was just wearing a skin that looked like they did--a thought that wasn't all that comforting in some way I couldn't altogether place.

I felt Gwen's presence laying itself firmly upon me, though the panther did not budge her eyes from the odd golems at the center of the enchanted-looking garden.

"Be careful," the cat sent the telepathic message as she scented the air. "They smell different than the others."

How different were they though?

I focused my eyes in on the golem, trying to force his System nameplate to populate.

It was only for a half-moment, but I thought I saw the space in front of the finely crafted automatons flicker a bit, before the System responded to my desire in a normal enough way.

[Monkey King, Level 30, Elite.]

[Celestial Hound, Level 30, Elite.]

Two elites? We could handle that, depending on their move-sets.

Still, something felt off. The quest to kill the Eastern Ruler called him out as being the Lord of Nothing, not the Monkey King.

Where we in the wrong place, or?

"Friendly?" the Monkey King regarded me a bit strangely, "To some. I am here for a friend."

Maybe...

"For Bres?" I asked, remembering the name the System had called the Eastern Ruler.

The strange look on the Monkey King's face turned into a committed head tilt. "Do you have a quest, miss?"

I felt my tongue catch in my mouth. If Bres was this Monkey King's friend, I doubted he'd take too kindly to a quest to defeat him.

The golem pursed its shockingly lifelike lips together and hummed contemplatively, before continuing to speak: "How interesting. Did your mother and father survive a world-fall? I haven't seen someone in your situation too many times."

"You didn't answer my question before you asked yours," I stated.

"Hm?" the Monkey King seemed confused. "Oh, about my friend? Yes, child. I am here for Bres' sake. And you, your origins aside... are you here to slay a World Guardian then?"

"Clarissa," Gwen lowered herself in a defensive posture while speaking across our bond. "I don't... I don't think we should be here."

As if sensing the panther's unsettled state, the Monkey King's sleeping companion lifted its head from off its master's thigh.

The moment the Celestial Hound turned a lazy eye to Gwen, however, the panther instantly began to snarl as a wash of primal violence flooded our soulbond.

"Gwen, what's the matter?" I asked telepathically, feeling her emotions, but not understanding them at all.

Had the hound done something to her?

"We need... we need to fight or flee," the panther replied, her tone a maelstrom mess of almost territorial distress, but a distress that seemed to be--as I probed deeper across our bond--entirely of her own instincts' making.

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For its part, the freshly awoken Celestial Hound merely eyed Gwen with its deep, iridescent pupils. With sleep seeming to coat its eyes, it seemed completely unperturbed by the cat.

"Is your friend alright?" the Monkey King asked me with a slight, almost disarming smile on his face.

I lowered my gaze, setting it firmly against the golden eyes of the Monkey King.

I was doing my best to keep the anger boiling in my chest from making me make any rash decisions. It was hard, though, especially as I could feel the need for action practically thundering through Gwen's fast beating heart.

"What are you doing to Gwen?" I asked, a threat all but underlying my tone.

One of the metallic monkey golems, which I now noticed were all circling far out on the edges of the gardens, shrieked out. As if on cue, all of the other monkeys began to cry and holler as they finally caught up to us and joined the remainder of their brethren.

Were they being affected by the Monkey King in the same way as Gwen; is that why they weren't attacking us? But... wasn't he one of them?

"I believe I'm simply sitting. I was thinking I'd say, before you came and began to speak," the Monkey King replied. "Oren was sleeping, but I had too much on my mind to join him."

Oren was the wolf?

"Gwen, you need to calm down," I sent the message, with a surge of reassuring protectiveness from my heart to hers. "Are they hurting you?"

"No, no they're not--" the panther panted, her limbs locked in a lunge-ready prowl. "I just feel like I'm looking at something too dangerous to talk to."

I shifted my eyes back to the Monkey King. I definitely didn't trust him now.

"You said you were thinking? About what? Why are you up here and where's the Ruler?" I asked.

"It's your turn though," the golem replied.

"What?" I asked.

"I answered your questions, three times to your none," the Monkey King replied calmly.

"Are you okay enough to keep this up; we can't exactly jump off the tower?" I sent the question to Gwen silently before answering the Monkey King.

"I'll be fine; do what you need to do," Gwen replied, her voice was more steeled than before and I felt that she was somewhat calmer after I'd send my calming emotions her way.

"I'm not comfortable answering the question about where I came from," I decided out loud.

"Then why should I tell you where Bres is?" the Monkey King shrugged.

He had a point.

"Why would you give up your friend either way?" I asked.

A flicker of something else flashed over the previously almost mirthful look in the golem's eyes. "I wouldn't."

"But you know about Rulers?" I said. "You know that the System wants them gone."

The Monkey King made a low grumbling noise, reminiscent of an old man, as if his mood had been soured. "Many dungeon lords have guardians of one sort or another."

"Dungeon lord? You mean Cowagen? Are you with him?" I finally asked the question that had been burning in my mind since I'd first heard the golem speak so eloquently.

The golem seemed to hesitate. "I look like the rest of the golems, don't I? Why not just attack me?"

Was he serious?

"Because you seem human enough," I replied, without thinking. "At first I did think you were another golem, but--"

"Human?" the Monkey King's eyes grew wide as he interrupted me. "Did you just say human?"

Fuck, I didn't like that look. I'd just used the word as a turn of phrase. How did the golem even know what humans were anyway? Did Caliban have humans?

The golem lowered his own gaze at me and, before I could even begin to reply, I felt the world split in two.

The Monkey King's eyes flashed with a surge of golden mana; only for a moment, but in that second it felt like I was gazing into an eternity made manifest. I felt his eyes look past my own and I knew, somehow, that he had truly seen me.

Then, just like that, the broken echo of infinity passed and the memory of what had been done, what the Monkey King had seen in me, was already leaving my mind--as if it had never happened at all.

"You aren't what you appear to be, are you?" the Monkey King asked me as he groaned and began to push himself to his feet.

The Celestial Hound grumbled a bit when its master forced it to move by way of moving himself, but the beast was soon simply stretching its back contentedly as it too came to stand.

Suddenly, in that briefest of moments, I felt a bit of the primal fear that Gwen was feeling. I couldn't tell why, but my mind felt off as I watched the automaton moving.

"What are you?" I asked.

The Monkey King answered as he reached back for his ornate glaive, retrieving it from the tree behind him. "Didn't you already decide--"

I blinked, my eyes growing wide. Fear shot through my heart at what I suddenly saw. The Monkey King was gone. He wasn't by the tree anymore.

"--when you saw me?" the golem's voice was now coming from behind me. "I'm just another golem."

The kick that hit me felt like I'd been smacked by a bus. All at once I was flying through the air, soaring over the silvered rings and into the glowing gardens.

There was nothing left in my lungs.

I heard Gwen roar in defiance, even though I could faintly feel how terrified she was even through my own hazy awareness.

Air. I needed air!

Unfortunately, I hadn't managed to find any by the time my body slammed hard against the ground, rolling and tumbling until I came to a stop, thudding against something as my world shook and my vision fluttered.

"Aren't I?" the Monkey King asked me, as he completed his sentence and gazed down at me from where his metallic foot rested on my back, it having stopped my roll.

The golem didn't even look as if he had broken a sweat. He seemed interested in me, somehow, but also entirely unimpressed. I didn't even see any violence in his gaze, despite the actions he had just taken.

The odd being's free hand rested against his thigh, while the other was lazily holding up his entirely unused weapon.

The strange flowers around us, in a ten foot circle at least, opened and began to glow with a vibrant bioluminescence that was visible even in the daylight. I could all but taste the mana coming off of them through my bleeding mouth.