Emergency Objective: Ensure the survival of at least one sinner!

  Reward: Live another day

  The words hang in front of me, and I give them a strange look. It’s a different reward than usual, but I swipe the messages away. In the distance I can see the remaining adventurers fighting the sinners. The outcome was decided long ago. I’ve yet to see any of the sinners so much as cast a spell in their defense. They may as well be unarmed civilians in the face of the adventurers.

  "Elen, what happens when the last of the sinners fall?"

  "I’m uncertain. Evelyn had already brainwashed me by the time I awoke. I could tell what I was doing was wrong, but I was unable to control my actions. If I had to guess then it can’t be anything good though."

  "That's what I thought… Take Isalithe, cross the bridge, and if you have to, kill the adventurers to protect the sinners. If you fail, then I have a feeling this dungeon will get that much harder to clear."

  "Understood," Elen says, and gives a single nod.

  Elen is good at following instructions. If at all possible, I’d like to keep her, but I know that she’s not loyal to me. She’s loyal to Terra for whatever reason that may be.

  "Hold on," Isalithe says, voice rising to a shrill squeak, "why do I have to go with the horrifyingly strong Saint? I want to stay with Clarence!" She stomps toward me, dragging Clarence behind her. His arms are wrapped around her waist, and his feet drag across the dirt as he attempts to calm her.

  "You and Elen are the fastest, so you’ll be able to get there before us," I explain, and make a shooing gesture with my hand.

  "Come," Elen says, grabbing Isalithe by her waist and pulling her away from Clarence as she tucks the girl under her arm. Isalithe shrieks and flails, but Elen doesn't even notice as she breaks into a sprint that leaves a cloud of dust in her wake.

  Clarence reaches after them, his fingers stretching, but they're gone before he can say a word.

  "Now what?..." Clarence asks.

  "We follow, and support them when we get there." I take a step forward, but the ground shakes.

  For a split second, I think the earth beneath me is about to give way. The sky overhead that had been glowing a dark shade of purple from the Starmartyr is now glowing a deep, fiery red.

  A meteor punches through the clouds, trailing a mane of flame behind it. It hits the ground, and I hold my hands over my ears. The shockwave throws me off my feet and onto my back; Clarence lands on top of me, knocking the wind out of me. I push him off and look up just in time to see a dozen more meteors, each one bigger than the last, tearing through the sky in seemingly random locations.

  "Run!" I grab Clarence’s wrist and pull him to his feet. Sen lands on my shoulder once again and pulls on my hair as if they’re reigns for him to control. We dodge and weave, the heat of each impact sucking the moisture from my body as the air fills with molten rock. Sometimes the meteors miss by half a mile, only for others to miss by mere feet.

  By the time we reach the bridge, it's grown narrow. Elen and Isalithe are there, fighting for their lives amidst the rain of flames.

  Isalithe ducks under an adventurer’s axe swing and pushes her hands into his abdomen as she shocks him. Isalithe is covered in sweat, and Elen pulls her back, throwing her aside as a meteor lands where she just was a moment ago. The adventurer who’s still on the ground disappears under the weight of the flaming boulder.

  Elen on the other hand is methodical. She’s observing the battle with a serene calmness, while watching the sky overhead for safe places to maneuver to. With a dagger in one hand, and an arrow in the other, she cuts through the ranks of the adventures. Each movement is planned, and she’s three steps ahead of her opponents.

  Clarence runs forward and holds both his hands out to Isalithe who accepts them graciously. Another adventurer charges the couple with a broadsword in tow.

  Zephyr’s Burst carries me forward and I unsheathe the Blade of the Shadewell I've been holding onto. It’s been sometime since I’ve wielded an actual sword, but I swing, and the sword gets stuck in the mans neck before I yank it out. His body hits the ground, and then I see an arrow sticking out of the base of his neck.

  I look up to Elen whos' bow is still on her back. She's been watching over Isalithe the entire time like this? She's not even sweating.

  Sadly, we didn’t get here fast enough. I watch as the last of the adventurers kills the last of the sinners. A thick-necked brute with a sword that's bigger than me, raises his arms in victory. "I did it! They're all gone! Give me my reward! My very own Aspect!" The words are barely out of his mouth before a meteor lands on him, and there's nothing left but a bloody smear on the ground where he had once stood.

  Objective Update: Flee

  The message appears, then vanishes as I swing my hand through the air at it.

  Whatever it isAetheria wants me to run from, I can't. I see it before I feel it. A wave of darkness rolls out from the last sinner's corpse, sweeping over the battlefield like a suffocating tide. The pressure, the cold, the sense of a thousand hands reaching for my throat. Isalithe, Clarence, and Sen all hit the ground at the same time.

  They're not paralyzed; they're afraid. This is no regular fear either, it is primal. When it comes down to it, we’re all just animals that are slightly smarter than other animals. Very few could ignore the fear of death like Elen and I.

  Elen is shielding her eyes with her hands as she looks across the bridge and to the tower. "Evelyn has been resurrected. There's a necromancer with her too. Is he one of yours?"

  I scan the horizon, but see nothing through the thick clouds of smoke from the burning meteors. "No. Kill him," I command. Elen doesn't hesitate; she draws her bow and fires into the smoke. It's such a long shot that I don’t even hear it hit anything, but I’ve seen what she’s capable of, so I choose to believe in her.

  That belief is unfounded though as I hear Elen clicks her tongue in annoyance. "She's using that spell!? Disgusting... She's got her necromancer surrounded by a barrier. We'll have to pierce its defense just as we did earlier," Elen says, and nocks another arrow. As soon as she does though, a hand grabs a hold of her ankle.

  An Aetheric Needle forms in my hand and I step forward to cut her free, but a hand claws up from the ground, pulling at my own ankle now. I cleave the thing's hand clean off, and see that it’s a zombie. Elen stomps down on her own zombie's back, and the force of it causes it to stop moving.

  Another is on me before I can catch my breath; I cut it down, but more keep coming.

  "Isalithe, Clarence, Sen, get up!" I scream, but the three are slow to rise. Clarence is trying to shield Isalithe with his body, and Sen is still trembling on the ground.

  "We're surrounded," Elen says, her voice calm. "Thousands of undead, possibly tens of thousands."

  "You never said your siblings were necromancers!" I shout, conjuring a ring of Aetheric Needles and sending them into the nearest wave of zombies.

  "Only Caedis and Evelyn are. It was a closely guarded secret because of how they denied that aspect of themselves," Elen replies, snapping a zombie's neck with one hand and driving an arrow through the eye of another. "But it seems that they’ve grown desperate now."

  "Great… I have a way to get through the barriers, but I’m going to need you to clear a path."

  Isalithe manages to get back on her feet and she electrocutes any undead that dares get too close to us. Sen, who finds himself on my shoulder launches a powerful gust of wind to push the undead back. This causes Clarence’s flames to travel further through the mass of bodies, lighting more of them on fire.

  "I’m coming with you," Elen says, and pulls her bow out, nocking five arrows at once. She fires them into the crowd, and the effect is immediate. A handful of undead drop, limbs twitching as the arrows land.

  "No you’re not. We can't risk you getting close to your siblings and having them become even stronger. If what you say is true then Caedis and Evelyn can bring the other two back indefinitely. Three of them is bad enough, if all four of you are together then Terra won't have a chance, will he?

  Elen looks away as she bites her lip. I can tell she’s upset, but she seems to understand.

  "This formation will fall without you at its base. You are to stay here with them, and keep them safe. Now make me an opening!" I command, and Elen rushes ahead, stomping on the bridge. The ground beneath her shakes, and all of the undead lose their footing as she jumps into the fray. She starts by cutting off their heads with her dagger, and stabbing others with an arrow, but the head of her arrow snaps off inside a zombie's skull. From this point on, Elen opts to just tear their heads free from their bodies with her bare hands.

  I see the opening and I take it. Running across the bridge, I toss Sen off my shoulder as I do. Sen tries to chase after me, but I use Zephyr’s Burst to traverse the open terrain faster.

  The tower is barely recognizable as a tower anymore. It’s more like a nub that’s barely protruding from the ground now that it’s been reduced to a third of its original size. The structure was not made to withstand a battle of this proportion. Another flurry of explosions go off from the top. I recognize some of the spells, but others are entirely foreign to me.

  Clara, you have to run

  "What's it look like I'm doing?" I breathe out, and pump my fists harder as I head towards the tower.

  You know that's not what I mean. You need to run away, you could die!

  "Well we can only hope. Death is nothing new to me, I've died a lot, Aetheria. What's one more time?" I laugh.

  That isn't funny! Please, let it be someone else's responsibility. You can leave, Clara

  This message actually causes me to frown. "What do you think will happen if I leave now? Those three will go on to kill every necromancer in the Western Hemisphere before someone strong enough takes notice of them. The Astrovian royals aren’t exactly known for their swiftness. Besides, Terra is still up there. If I leave now then what do you think will happen to him?" I snap, and the messages finally stop coming.

  Now at the base of the tower, a membrane of sorts comes into view. It’s thick and red, pulsing with a rhythm that makes my stomach churn. It's half-filled with blood, and there's a single arrow lodged in its side.

  I reach out to touch it, but I stop as runes flicker into being just beneath my palm. There's a necromancer inside. He’s alive, or something close to it. The spell is unfamiliar, but the agony inside is obvious.

  "True Cravings," I whisper, and hear his thoughts as my own.

  "I want to die, I want to die, I want to die, I want to die, I want to die, I want to die, I want to die, I want to die, I want to die, I want to die, I want to die, I want to die, I want to die, I want to die, I want to die, I want to die, I want to die, I want to die, I want to die, I want to die, I want to die, I want to die, I want to die, I want to die, I want to die, I want to die, I want to die," The words repeat ad infinitum, and I have to blink several times to get it to cease. Even then, the words echo softly in the back of my mind.

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  "Hey, Aetheria, do we have room for one more in the dream?" I shout in an attempt to drown out the necromancers cravings.

  .....

  "He's scared, and in a lot of pain. Help me out here!"

  .....Fine

  The sky above me still has that purple plasma tinge to it, and the rest of it is red from the fiery meteors that burnt the air itself. But there’s something else now. A faint golden glow, high above. I reach out to it, and pluck it out of the air with my hand.

  You have been gifted a one-time use spell!

  Aetheric Faerry: A ferry and a fairy all in one. He comes from beyond the s-

  Another explosion goes off from the top of the tower and rubble begins to rain down around me. I don’t have time to read the rest of the message. I hold my hand out to the membrane, and recite the spell.

  "Aethric Faerry."

  A small, dark blue boat appears in the air in front of me. There’s a single paddle resting to the side of it, but… Nothing happens.

  "Maybe I should have found the time to read the instructions…"

  I lean forward, and look inside to see a small, blue person napping in the bottom of the boat. It’s wearing an oversized robe, and I can make out the faint sound of its snores over the fighting overhead.

  "Hey, can you… uh, Wake up and do something?" I ask, but as if to answer my question, the little person begins to snore louder.

  Was this thing ignoring me on purpose? I grab a hold of the boat and begin to shake it up and down. The creature gets a small bit of airtime as it lets out a surprised yelp. He falls in and out of the boat a few times but manages to catch on to the side before pulling himself up. A small pair of butterfly-like wings sprout from either side of his body.

  ?Пожалуйста, выберите язык!? The small creature shouts, and gives a formal salute with his hand just above his brow.

  "Don’t speak Russian! What does that even mean?"

  "Sorry sir! I was asking you to select a language, but this explanation is counterintuitive now since we’re speaking the same language, sir!"

  I think I liked him better when he was sleeping. The high-strung nature of this creature causes me stress. Also why's he keep calling me sir?...

  "Relax, alright? Just what is it that you do?"

  "I ferry lost souls to their designated afterlife! It is a rare privilege only a select few are allowed. Where is the target, sir?" The creature asks, and I point a finger at the membrane behind him.

  "He’s trapped in there, and he’s in pain. I wanted to move his soul first before I put him out of his misery, but I don’t know how to get him out with all the barriers around him."

  The creature leans in close, his boot at the end of the boat as he examines the membrane. I take this chance to examine him too. He looks like a fairy of sorts, but he’s way too rigid, too formal. He turns to face me, and I hear his little boots clack together as he addresses me.

  "Sir, I must inform you that I am trained in espionage, and reconnaissance. I believe myself able to move in such ways as to not trigger any of the spell's defenses, sir!"

  "Okay… Do that then."

  The fairy sneaks his way into the membrane, and comes out a second later with a brown bag hoisted over his shoulder. He tosses it into the back of his rowboat, and climbs in as he places a hand on it.

  "I’ve got the package, sir. Where would you like me to take it? Vainglory? Eden? Yomi? The Crossroads? The Eternal Dream? The Gut? You name it and I’ll get it there, sir."

  "The Gut?..."

  "You got it, sir!"

  "No, wait! Not The Gut. I want you to take him to uhm… my dream?"

  The little man is already holding onto his paddle, but this seems to stump him. He sets it down, and picks up a small map instead.

  "Right, I can get him there. It might hurt a little bit though, sir." He tosses the map back into the confines of the rowboat, and grabs his paddle with renewed purpose.

  "Before you go, what do I call you? You must have a name," I ask.

  "Oh me? The name’s Knight, sir!" Knight shouts, and gives me another salute. It doesn’t end though, he just continues saluting me. I catch the shining glint of his white eyes under his hood, and I utter a spell under my breath.

  "True Cravings."

  "I want to ask her about Rook, oh man I do, oh holy ravioli I do, I do, I do! Can I ask you about Rook?"

  "Please, sir?" Knight asks the question entirely unprompted. He moved from thoughts, straight to words.

  Did he know I was reading his mind? There could be no other explanation for it.

  "Sure, yeah, you can ask me about Rook. I don't think I'll have an answer for you though... I feel like I've forgotten something really important."

  "Is it true that you fought him before?!" Knight drops the soldier act, and his eyes are lit up like a child's now.

  "I’m sorry, I’m not sure I remember," I admit, and hold a hand on the back of my head.

  "There was a lot going on! At least that’s what Pawn told me. Right before you and Rook got into it, you were fighting with Big Mike. You told Leviatha-"

  I hear nothing else after that.

  My hand falls from its resting place on the back of my head, and my vision turns white as static overtakes it. My legs give out from underneath me and I hit the ground. It feels as if something is coiling around in my insides, squeezing my very heart. There’s an outline of a figure standing behind a bar, but I can’t make out his words.

  When my vision returns, Knight is rowing his boat, and coming straight for me.

  "It was a pleasure to see you again, sir! Please, say hi to Rook for me when you see him, buh-bye!"

  He’s uncharacteristically short with me as he rams into my head at full speed. It hurts, but him, the boat, and the necromancers soul inside the bag disappear as they collide with me.

  What were we talking about anyways? I can’t remember anything. Was it uncharacteristic of him? I can't remember much of anything that happened over the past five minutes.

  The membrane slumps, emptier than it was before, nothing is left inside but meat. Meat that’s still living, and needs to die.

  "Aetheria, what would happen to that dream of mine if I were to die?"

  It would change slightly and move elsewhere. Other than that it would be unchanged

  "That’s good to know."

  I pull Ethel's grimoire from my hip, and flip to the last page.

  Due to learning a forbidden spell, Ethel’s Karmic Grimoire has been damaged and can only copy two spells per day from this point on

  Current spell allotment for today: 1/2

  "Recreate the 30th spell, Starmartyr." The grimoire glows a dark purple, and the spell forms in my hand. It's heavier now that I’m only holding it with one hand. The power is barely contained, and my arm is shaking, but I hold on tight.

  Why are you using that spell?

  It's dangerous, you need to get away!

  Clara!

  "It's okay, Aetheria. I think I did everything I wanted to do. Gabriel is alive, Terra has proven that he can survive without me, Clarence even found himself a lady friend, can you believe it? This all feels too good to be true, like a dream. I know better than to wait around for it to become a nightmare though. I’d rather wake up before then."

  I sit down, hugging the Starmartyr to my chest as I lean against the membrane. The heat is intense, but I don't care. I close my eyes, and the messages bleed through.

  Clara, you can't do this!

  You need to leave, now

  That spell is unstable!

  You still have the Ring of Wandering, you can use it to escape!

  "I don’t know how to use it," I lie, and a chuckle escapes my lip as I toss the ring aside.

  You know, I’ve always wondered just why I was always tired. I got made fun of enough for it. Coma Clara this, Coma Clara that. It was all exhausting, being awake has always been exhausting. It’s more than this thing slithering around in my chest pretending to be a heart, it’s something deeper. Why did it take me so long to realize it?

  "I've been remembering things. Places, and names from another world. A forgotten life I guess. Aetheria, did you know? I was made in the image of The Serpent."

  For once, the prompts fall away and I’m left in silence. I feel calm despite my encroaching death. This is what I’ve always wanted more than anything. The soul that had been just on the other side of this membrane was onto something. I want to die.

  Rest.

  I can just close my eyes, and finally rest.

  "What the fuck are you doing?" A voice cuts through the thought. Familiar, and far more solid than Aetheria's nagging.

  I open my eyes, and Isalithe is standing a few feet away, arms crossed.

  "Y-You! You can't be here," I stammer. I force myself upright, a hand out in warning.

  "Is that another Starmartyr? How did you even make it? Wait, don't tell me-"

  "Isalithe, why are you here? You can’t be here."

  She shrugs, and for a moment she actually looks lost, as if she doesn’t know the answer either. "I don't know. Maybe I just wanted to see if you were okay. Clarence is always talking about you, you know? Said you were this favorite cousin. Maybe it was a lucky guess that you needed some help?"

  A cold chill courses through my veins as I hear those words. Those two words. Lucky guess. They echo in my mind, and I look up to the sky.

  "Aetheria?..."

  Let her be the one to do it

  "No," I try to shout to Aetheria, but the word comes out as a whisper before I turn my frustrations on Isalithe. "You can't be here, it's going to explode! You'll die, you idiot."

  "That's what I was going to say!" Isalithe laughs. "I’m fast! You said it yourself, right? Now get a move on, I’ll catch up with you in a bit."

  She smacks me on the back as she pries the Starmartyr from my hand. I stumble forward, and turn to see Isalithe kneeling in front of the membrane.

  "What even is this thing? It's so gross," she says, tilting her head. "You still here? Go! You've got a minute before I blow this thing up!"

  But I can't leave. My feet stay rooted to the spot as I watch Isalithe.

  "What? Don't tell me you're worried about me. You're nothing like Clarence made you out to be," Isalithe says, and flicks her hand to shoo me away.

  I take a few steps, then I start to run. I run until my lungs hurt, and tears begin to stream down my face. I run until the sounds behind me fade away, but I don't stop looking back.

  "Aetheria, why did she say it was a lucky guess? Why did she use those words?" I ask the empty air around me, but there is no answer.

  I wait, and the seconds stretch on to minutes, and the Starmartyr still hasn’t exploded.

  I take a single step back in Isalithe’s direction. I’m going to go back for her, I really am, but that’s when it explodes. A column of purple plasma tears through the sky, and scorches the air itself. I’m knocked off of my feet by the force of it alone. When the smoke clears, the tower is gone, having been reduced to mere rubble.

  I wait for Isalithe to come running out of the smoke.

  But...she doesn’t.