Day ten. And for my efforts, for having survived this long, and in no way a naked bribe to players to stay engaged with the game for longer, I would be rewarded with a new top-of-the-line Six Star summons. I tapped the calendar. The day was marked with a circle, and a long crystal landed in my hand with a thump.
The crystal was beautiful. All shimmering rainbows and a faint heavenly sound coming from it. A Rainbow Clarion Crystal, and only the second one I had ever seen. The first summoned Versai. Carousel transformed on the spot, so there was no crystal to speak of.
I walked down to the room with the summoning pools. It still had the feeling of a ruined church, all its fabled holiness condensed into two pools. One was long, and felt like a Roman bath. The other was smaller, and circular, set in its own alcove. Six Stars got to put on a solo act when summoned. All eyes on them.
I gently tossed the Crystal into the circular pool. I didn’t have any special prayer about who I wanted summoned- they would all be useful. We don’t have many front-liners. Only one vanguard, I think. We are set for scouts and medics. We can always use more snipers and artillery, and no one will ever say they have too many direct damage dealers. And we were entirely out of support, if you don’t count the Blue Roses.
Which I don’t.
Out of my hands. Pachinko, please bless your loyal follower. Whoever they are, please- let them not be a pain in the ass. Please and thank you. Amen.
Also a cat girl. No, wait! This is a Tower Defense game. Please send a cute, sporty Six Star with Inumimi and a super soft, fluffy tail that she loves to have petted but she gets all bashful and shy about people touching. Loyal, brave, energetic and a team player. OH Great Pachinko, please grant your loyal follower’s humble wish. Amen. Double Amen. The end.
No fat chicks.
AMEN!
A glorious aria, a mystical OOOAAAAHaaaaeeeeIIIIIAahaaaiaiaAAIIIIIII sound, like Evanescence had a jam session with Enya with the guy who did the Skyrim soundtrack providing the instrumentals. You could feel something holy come to rest on this place during the summoning. You couldn’t feel it normally, but during a Six Star summoning, you had a sense of a presence. Something immense and… awe inspiring.
I don’t know what ‘holy’ is supposed to feel like. Summoning a Six Star felt like there was something benevolent touching this place. Something so great, trying to wrap human words and ideas around it would diminish it. If it wasn’t the descent of God, it was a Kami, surely.
Perhaps even the great God of games, gamblers and those with a love of bright, shiny lights- Pachinko.
A woman arose from the waters, born again into the world. She was beautiful, as all the Awakened Souls were, but there was something in her eyes that made you forget the beauty. Haunted. These were old eyes.
She hovered above the water- white hair twisted into a bun, heather eyes and high cheekbones. Her armor was less thorough than Versai’s- Calf high leather boots over red stockings under what I can only call Pantaloons also in red. Up top was a very loose, baggy shirt with wide sleeves, under a solid breastplate and tucked under one arm- helmet. In her free hand was a brutal looking halberd. No weird hooks or wavy bits- it just looked well used.
She floated down to the ground in front of me and knelt. “In this life, and every life, I, Othai, shall serve the Tower Master. May the Heavens witness my oath!”
“Thank you. We are lucky to have you joining us. I’m Liam, the Tower Master. Welcome.” I held out my hand. I gave myself a mental pat on the back. Just ten days, and I didn’t come off like some awkward little beta male. That’s progress right there. That’s growth.
“Ah, I’m not your first Six Star, am I?” She briskly stood, dusting her knee as she did. Her voice was distinctly business-like.
“No, this is Day Ten.”
“Oh? That’s quite good.”
“What’s your record?”
“Twenty five. But candidly, most of my Tower Masters died before the fourth day.”
Huh. I was… kind of expecting a higher number. That was a bit alarming.
“What did the higher survival rate Tower Masters do that the short timers didn't?
“Better luck in who they summoned, better tactics, more useful discoveries by scouts and if they made it to a relic site, the ability to at least acquire useful resources from it.”
“How did they manage their Sky Realms?”
“I’m sorry Tower Master, but I don’t want to talk about it.” She didn’t sound very sorry. Damned relationship gated conversations!
“Any manage to conquer a relic site?”
“Sorry, Tower Master, but I don’t want to talk about it.”
I waved it away. “How about… wherever you are from? Did you discover any relic sites connected to you?”
“Genuda? I don’t want to talk about it.”
I grunted. She may have found the relic site, but she hadn’t conquered it or she wouldn’t be here now. Genuda… I’d heard that name before, but not often. It was tickling a memory. Mmm. It would come to me.
“What is your role on the battlefield?”
“As you can see, I’m a halberdier. I hold the front line, be it in attack or retreat. I work best with other close order melee infantry, supported by ranged direct damage and artillery. But, as you might imagine, I’m also capable of taking care of myself in single combat. I am an experienced commander, though I cannot take overall control of a battlefield. At present, I can command up to ten Awakened.”
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Oh. Ohoh! Wasn’t this interesting! If Versai was the Queen of the Solos, here we have a consummate team player! No dog ears, but otherwise, Pachinko really came through for me. Praise his billions of shiny little balls.
Just going to say it- the lack of dog ears is a real loss. Dog-eared heroic girls are based and Awoo-pilled and I will fight you about this. Also the existence of beastkin would raise all kinds of questions about the worlds the necromancers were drawing from. Based on the ceiling art and the store, elves and gnomes existed. I could hope for animal eared beauties.
I have absolutely no idea why that train of thought made my recollection click into place.
“Genuda. That’s where Mika’s from.”
“Yes, yes it is. You have a Mika?” She smiled, though there was a lot of sadness in that smile.
“Quite a few of them, actually. You will see.” I smiled back, though mine was a lot warmer.
“Speaking of Mika, on a… related point…” Othai probably thought she was being diplomatic, but the fake-casual way she was resting the halberd on her shoulder gave her away. “I do have a little policy I like to make sure my employers are aware of at the start of my time with them.”
“Oh?” Six Stars could set terms now? Since when?
“Yes, you see, while lower rank Awakened Souls are closer to dolls than real people, they are my people. And I view any attempt to lay hands on them, be it out of anger or some more base urge, to be a betrayal. And once I have been betrayed, I am no longer bound by my oath of loyalty.”
Wait. Wait just a second. This was…
“Generally I throw such Tower Masters out a window for the monsters to play with. It feels fitting. In less serious cases, I simply behead them.
“My first Six Star told me almost the same thing. Including the window thing, incidentally.” I tried to play it cool. There was something in Othai’s haunted eyes. Something beyond coldness. Within the cold, there was still a burning ember and some ancient instinct told me I didn’t want to find out what that was.
“On a totally unrelated point, how do you feel about fighting ghosts?”
Before I launched the expedition, I heard Othai greet the Mikas. “Genuda Forever! Death to traitors!”
There was a sudden crack, smash, like every Mika turned, stomped their heels and smacked their shields into the ground. “Genuda Forever. Never Forgive! Never Forget!”
The sheer hate in those words. The sheer fury in them. Some coward part of me was glad I only heard it. I don’t think I could stand being in the same room. Just what happened in Genuda? What could turn these cute young women into… into who they are now? What did Othai see to give her those haunted eyes?
No way to know, really, but I got the feeling she was old. I don’t know how old, but she had that feeling of excessive experience. Not just a moment of trauma, but a lifetime of struggle.
I’d find out. One way or another.
I shook my head and patted my pouch. I should have enough to summon an ordinary Awakened.
I… did not. I was short ten Resonance Crystals. I checked twice, but I was still short. Wasn’t today supposed to give me more crystals? Or something? I was sure I was supposed to get an extra summons by the end of this ten-day period!
It took me a long while to figure out, but I got there. I had looted more resonance crystals than just the daily rewards. This meant I was summoning Awakened Souls faster. It also meant I was using up crystals faster. I wasn’t short ten- I just hadn’t earned enough to reach one hundred again.
I snorted through my nose. Easy mistake to make. Can’t dwell on it. Time to finish restocking, and go.
I returned to Hidden Moon Mountain with a rather generous lineup. Two Six Stars who just had a LOAD of weapon upgrade packs dumped on them, one local scout (ditto, re- upgrades) one sniper (ditto re-, in fact, they all got upgrades, I damn near emptied my wallet), and one Four Star combat engineer who looked like she hadn’t had nearly enough R&R in the dorms.
And, needless to say, we had restocked on the Ghost Touch potions.
I did have a moment of indecision about Rakim. The lack of on-site healing was a major problem during the fight against the Woodcutter and his ‘Wife.’ Subbing out a high tier, but less tactically key, Awakened for healing was tempting. Ultimately, I decided I was there for the Heartless Clearing and nothing else. This shouldn’t be a long campaign. After all, if I had judged things right, we had accidentally skipped to the final boss on our last trip. The ghosts up there should be a mini-boss-type encounter. And I had a theory about how to manage them.
We collected Yoko and Mrs. Hungry along the way, of course.
“Yoko, do you have any suggestions about how to deal with the hungry ghosts?”
“Hmm?” She tilted her head and put one finger to her cheek. “I wonder.”
“You wonder if you have a suggestion?”
She nodded seriously. And then completely failed to elaborate.
“Would you happen to have any incense that might help? In any way?”
“Oh yes. I have some that’s wonderfully calming.”
“It works on the ghosts?”
“No, it works on humans. You will feel more at ease as you enjoy the aroma. It’s a little expensive, but worth it I include a blend of balsam, cedar and just a hint of dried poppy.”
I tried to remember what I had been told about the Hungry Ghosts. “Do you have something that could make the Ghosts feel full? Or content at least? Or even make them more hungry, so they fixate on the incense and not on us?”
She hesitated. I could see her thoughts running. Trying to find the words that would be, if not right, then at least not wrong.
“Remember, we are trying to kill the monsters here. If I conquer the mountain, it will become part of my realm. It won’t be able to eat people anymore.” I blatantly put my thumb on her mental scales. She wasn’t stupid, but she was… I think the nice way to say it would be… straightforward.
Yoko nodded decisively. “Yes, I do have some incense that will lure them to one place. It won’t make them more solid though. Or hurt them at all. And I can’t help with the fog. And it isn’t free.” She tacked on the last sentence like she had just remembered it. I wish she hadn’t. I wasn’t quite out of runed bones, but I might struggle to add fries to the proverbial Big Mac with what I had in my pocket.
“Heads. If you are going to clean up this mountain anyway, get a head start now. I want… twenty five demon heads.” She nodded firmly, with the air of someone making their best and final offer. I sighed, and agreed. It would just take time.
Turns out, not that much time. I really can’t believe standing on a rock and yelling “OH MY GOD! WHO LEFT ALL THIS MEAT HERE?! IT WILL TAKE ME AGES TO JUST CARRY ALL THIS MEAT. I HAVE MEAT FOR DAYS. MONTHS. I AM THE MEAT GOD. ALL THE MEAT IS MINE AND I WILL EAT IT OVER RICE WITH TERIYAKI SAUCE AND NOT A HINT OF BROCCOLI! ZERO BROCCOLI. IT’S LIKE A TREE SHAPED LIKE LUNGS AND SMELLS LIKE FARTS IN A ROOM FULL OF PEE. NO BROCCOLI! ONLY MEAT HERE!” worked. I feel like they really let down their reputation as ruthless villains.
Yes, I was standing “all by myself” in the middle of a clearing, next to some big sacks, and yes, those sacks smelled intensely of blood, but come on!
I mean, chopping up one demon and spreading the blood around was a lot easier than getting a lot of meat, right? And why would you ever think that the clearing wouldn’t be filled with traps? Or that the sacks were hiding shallow holes in the ground with Versai, Rakim and Othai in them?
It was quickly all over but for the screaming. Othai was, as advertised, a certified menace with her halberd. Her moves were very simple and direct, but possessed an unstoppable momentum. When she raised the haft to block, it was like she was holding up the sky. When the ax blade swung down, she seemed ready to split open the earth. She lunged like maddened lightning. Othai might not move very fast, but there was an awful lot of her when she got there.
Between Rikka’s home-field advantage in running down prey and the sheer offensive firepower available to us, the longest part of collecting twenty five heads was the travel time. There was essentially no risk.
Yoko examined the heads and nodded. “Alright, now we can go to the clearing.”
I had a better sense of the Heartless Clearing now. It was circular, as advertised, and still mostly flat. But I had a feeling about the place now, a sense of its nature. This place shared a lot of points of commonality with Japan and Japanese folklore. And in Shinto, the moon god… wasn’t exactly a benevolent figure.
It always struck me as kind of funny. Everywhere else, the Sun is the ultimate masculine symbol and the moon is inevitably feminine. Not Japan. In Japan, the moon god was the jealous husband of the more powerful sun goddess. He was, essentially, a non-player in their mythology. He killed a primordial food goddess. He was banished from sharing the same part of the sky as Amaterasu. And that was about it.
If he had shrines, there couldn’t be many of them. He was not a popular god, to put it mildly. There was just a lingering sense of danger, of hidden machinations, and magic. And even the magic was more people putting stuff on him later, because why wouldn’t you associate your creepy magic rituals with night and the moon?
The only real myth about Tsukiyomi was that he killed a god of food because the method of presenting the feast disgusted them. And here everyone was, eternally hungry on Hidden Moon Mountain. A circular clearing- it could be the shape of the full moon or an arena. Sumo had its origins in Shinto too. But I didn’t think that was it. It was a plate.
Yoko brought out an incense burner shaped like a turtle and made out of bronze. She carefully lit the incense inside of it, the smoke pouring out of its mouth and from under its shell. The fog came down fast, and with it, a heavy chill.
“Apply the Ghost Touch potion. Get ready to fight.” I probably didn’t need to say that last part.
I could see shapes moving in the fog, getting closer to the burner. I quickly lost count of how many there were. Ten? Twenty? I really didn’t know. I just knew how I was going to start things off.
“Miyuki- shoot into the densest cluster of them. Let’s see how many you can fit on a single arrow.”
“Yes, My Lord!” Her voice was hungry too. She drew her long bow back, hand coming up to her cheekbone as she sighted down the shaft. At such short range, she could hardly miss. A sudden release of her fingers, the arrow of light shot out. And then things went ever so slightly off the rails.