I stared at Deacon, crumbled on the floor, my fists curled so tightly I could feel my fingernails cutting my skin.
“You know what happens now, right?!” I demanded as I advanced on him.
Deacon’s eyes widened into almost comical saucers. “You can’t defeat me if I’m not here!” He spat, and lept up. There was a flicker of light, and he vanished from sight.
“Come back here!” I shouted angrily. “Spirits bless me, I didn’t know I was such a coward!” I shouted at the air.
The doors leading to the System control room started to open, apparently on their own.
And of course off he goes! Naturally all our hard work hacking the doors helps him first instead of us!
I genuinely thought about chasing after him, but a quick glance at my still enthralled friends put that idea quickly to rest. I needed to free them if I was to have any chance here. I reached out to the {Spiritist} magic woven around my friends and pulled, ripping the sticky strands of illusion away from them like particularly nasty cobwebs. It cost me a lot of mana to do it so quickly, but I was in a hurry.
It also revealed some unpleasant truths. As the sticky cobwebs of illusion fell away, four church paladins appeared from thin air, as well as the Shadows of Soriya and Eshaan.
“Oh fudge.” I groaned, as the revealed enemies raised their weapons.
I nearly jumped out of my skin as Soriya let out a shriek of primal rage. Spinning to face her, I saw her already chanting the words of {Infernal Black}, her eyes filled with hate and fixed on the strange silent Shadow of herself.
I didn’t have time to see more than that before I had to leap backwards, as Shadow Eshaan hurled a technomagical grenade of some sort at me, revealing a complex clockwork armature that unfolded into a mechanical spider nightmare, stabbing sharpened legs at me.
Of course. Their alternate selves. I thought as I scrambled backwards from the rapid strikes of the spider mech. I didn’t manage to get completely clear in time, and one of the spikes stabbed painfully into my side.
“I told you it wouldn’t work.” Said Shadow Eshaan with a smugness that made me want to punch him. His accent was strange, and reminded me strongly of… Lakshmi?!
Wow, that’s some accent he’s got. He sounds like… Lakshmi? Huh. One of the nobles from Spyre, I suppose.
I rolled over and took stock of my injury. Ow. Glad that my HP is at endgame levels, that… probably would have killed me otherwise. I grimaced and focused through the pain to chant a healing spell as Lakshmi and Daniyel surged forwards, engaging with the Church paladins.
I staggered to my feet to see Eshaan rush forward to engage his Shadowself, the blade of his sword shattering the spider mecha legs.
“Get! Away! From! Her!” He shouted, his sword punctuating each word with a shattering strike.
“Ah, what is this? Useless, and physically without hint of mental refinement.” His Shadow sneered. “Useless in anything but the most menial of physical tasks!”
“This physical task is going to bludgeon you into the walls!”
“So crude. As the master predicted. The utter failure of-URK!”
His monologue was interrupted rather abruptly by a paladin’s body being flung into him from the side as Daniyel dispensed entirely with grace and went straight for effect.
Camaxtli knelt by my side, holding out a healing potion. “Do you require my assistance?” He asked calmly.
I smiled wryly taking the potion from his hands, seeing how Camaxtli’s eyes followed Lakshmi.
“No.” I said. “Go on, she’s waiting for you.” He turned to me, his face an unreadable mask for a moment, before he smiled the most beatific and peaceful smile I’d never seen.
“Thank you.” He said, rising gracefully. “I believe I will.”
The crack of torn air and stench of rotting flesh drew my attention to the battle between Soriya and her Shadow. The Shadow remained listless, apparently empty of all emotion, while Soriya was fury incarnate. And yet the Shadow held its own, calmly conjuring up devouring voids that swallowed Soriya’s largest spells whole.
Entropy magic…! Soriya hasn’t touched that since she got her staff back! I was hit with a sudden realization. Entropy deals with space and time… is that how they got here before us?!
I slugged back the healing potion and clambered to my feet. We need to follow Deacon! Quickly!
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My friends were brave, fierce, and very very skilled. The church paladins fell back, the Shadows of Eshaan and Soriya retreated from our combined fury. Step by step we pushed our way into the central control chamber, and the confrontation with Deacon.
The central hub of the control system was a circular room, with an enormous pillar that took up the entire center of the chamber, stretching far down below us, and up above into a ceiling high overhead. Gleaming bronze-gold was everywhere, and it was obvious that this was a living installation. Flickering rainbow lights danced along circuit patterns engraved into every available surface, walls, floors, and ceiling alike. Around the central pillar, a walkway stretched, with a vast pit leading into the darkness below. Above, the ceiling opened to admit the pillar continuing to stretch skyward.
And standing on the walkway near what had to be a central control console, Deacon stood, grinning wildly, gesturing to the paladins and the Shadows.
“Come then, princess!” He shouted towards me. “See the fruits of my labor!”
And with a gesture, three Arcanum manifested around him, spaced equally apart on his side of the room.
You can summon multiple Arcanum?! Why didn’t I think to try that! I thought with frustration.
“Well that’s very impressive, but I’ve got a few more than you!”
And I reached down into myself and pulled, calling forth the Arcanum that I had carefully gathered through this ridiculous quest.
Deacon’s grin stretched even wider, his joy outshining the sun. He started to laugh wildly, and I suddenly got a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.
“You stupid, stupid girl! You really are trapped in the tropes! I know the storyline too, you fool! Did you really think I was afraid of you?!” He ranted.
The pulsing rainbow light from the control room brightened, and a faint echoing voice in subtle feminine tones spoke from the air, the voice unmistakably the soft voice of the World Soul, but infinitely more powerful and resonant.
“Oh honeysuckle.” I whispered, as the central control pillar slid apart, revealing a flickering sea of light, a portal into another world, a swirling mist filled with motes of dancing lights that felt strangely familiar.
“Now, finally! I can do what needs to be done! What you lack the strength to even conceive of doing!” Deacon ranted, his arms outstretched overhead.
I couldn’t help it, I rolled my eyes at him. Really? I thought with a cynical disapproval. And you think that I’m the one who’s trapped by the tropes?!
“Everyone, comeon!” Eshaan shouted. “We’ve got to stop him!”
Eshaan’s charge towards the bridge was met with the clang of swords crossing, Shadow Eshaan’s endless panopoly of gadgets having produced another blade wielding golem.
Shadow Eshaan or real, apparently boys like their sword toys. I thought with mild amusement before I charged towards the forming melee.
“Would you like to know how your defeat was assured?” Deacon called over his shoulder, his fingers dancing rapidly across the glowing control panel.
“Not really!” I spat out.
“It was simplicity itself!” Deacon gloated.
I groaned. And now the monologue. Wonderful. “Anyim was working for you. He found you and then you had Shadow Soriya teleport you with Entropist magic. Can we hurry up and get to the endless exposition about a better world?” I said, my staff blocking an overhand strike from one of the paladins.
Deacon halted in mid rant. His mouth slowly closed and his eyes narrowed. “You know, I’m starting to understand why the villain always wants to gag the heroine.” He snarled. “So yes. Very good! You’ve deduced it. A proper witch studies {Darkness}. A proper woman knows her place!
Any trace of sympathy I might have had for the deluded half of myself standing in front of me vanished, drained out my heart with those words.
“I will solve this world, this trap for souls!” He continued. “I will restore the balance on this pitiful world, and then return to where I belong!”
I blinked, my eyes going wide as an idea suddenly swirled in my head.
“Pitiful fool, only now at the end do you realize who the true hero of this story is!” Deacon continued to gloat, seeing my wide eyes.
I blinked and the slowly nodded, a plan crystalizing in my head.
“You’re right.” I said, ducking under the strike of the paladin, avoiding another swing from Shadow Eshaan’s {Tinker} trickery. “I do.” I said, and dropped my staff, casting {Awaken} on myself.
My strength and stamina soared through the roof, and I charged forward, pushing past the paladin who fell over the railing, flailing wildly. Even as he fell, he made no sound.
I hit Deacon in the chest, knocking him away from the control panel and into the infinite void at the heart of the System.
He whirled, and then stumbled into the void, seeming to drift further into an infinite distance, while not moving at all. His expression was lost and baffled.
“But why? You’ve given me everything! This is the heart of the system! This is… everything!” He said, his voice baffled.
I nodded, feeling suddenly sad. I could never have reached you. I thought with a sudden pang.
Sparkling shimmers flickered over Deacon, and his legs began to fade into nothingness. He looked down, and his eyes widened in horror. “What? What is this!? What’s happening?!” He twisted and thrashed, then called out “System! Cease this! I am in command! I am the System Administrator!”
“What?! What is this!? Stop! STOP, I command you! I am the System Administrator! I am the real Deacon!”
Genuine pity filled my heart and I could feel tears teasing at my eyes as I watched him slowly fade into the star filled void that had to be a gate to the Well of Souls.
I looked at Shadow me sadly. “No. Because you’re not the real one. You were only ever a Shadow copy of me.” I shook my head sadly. “And no matter how much I might have changed, I’ve always known that I was the real one.”
Deacon’s scream of shocked denial faded into a whisper and then nothing as his body returned to the nothingness of the void that the System had drawn it from.
The silence was broken by the sudden clatter of metal. I spun to see the last church paladin fall to its knees, black and grey smoke pouring out of it. It fell face down, and the armor fell apart, revealing only an empty shell.
The only sound left in the hall was a slowly rhythmic clapping sound. I raised my eyes, desperately hoping that I wouldn’t see what I knew I would see.
Anyim, slowly clapping his hands together, a broad dazzling white smile on his face as he stood near my Oak Arcanum.
Why did there have to be a three phase boss? My thoughts wailed.