It’s the Chuchupa chapter! And it’s really long! If Mhach is based on Gaelic, then the ‘mh’ is pronounced as v. I think. Although the Mhach wiki page shows the Japanese name translated into romaji as ‘Maha’ so I guess they didn’t know that.
I’ve been sitting on 95% of this chapter since the end of November, when Nanowrimo ended; I went on vacation for a bit to recover from a busy fall season, and then came back and things were even more busy (I got a promotion I don’t really want and it’s giving me insomnia whoo) and I’m just not that invested in either the level 60 24-man raids or the 8-man raids. Hence why I’m going to get them both out of the way before we continue with MSQ. This chapter is kind of fillery, tbh, but I can’t be bothered to work on it any longer.
Did you know that once you beat the 24-man raids, then you have 90 minutes to look around the level?? It’s really cool! You can see a ton of things that you’d miss otherwise! (Including some parts that maybe you aren’t supposed to look too closely at XD ) I went in to both Weeping City and Dun Scaith with Yllamse and we had a great time speculating on the design choices of the levels.
Also yooo my Vivienne cosplay blog post is finished!! (contains slight spoilers for her personal story after the main photoshoot)
Chapter 40: Il était une fois…
Chapter 41: The Fall of Diabolos
Achiyo went down to the drawing room the next morning to find R’nyath and Chuchupa waiting there for her. “How did it gooo~?” R’nyath asked in a sing-song voice, his ears perking up and tail curling into a question mark.
“It was a very nice party,” Achiyo said placidly. She’d partly expected this, after the sneaky way her friends had left the night previous. “Did you enjoy yourselves as well?”
“Oh, c’mon!” Chuchupa said. “Did ye snuggle without us in th’ way?”
She blinked and tried not to blush. “Of course not. Why do you think that would happen?”
R’nyath heaved a tremendous sigh. “Achiyoooo. Do you like Aymeric?”
Trapped between such a blunt question and her inability to lie, she froze. “I-I…”
“It’s kinda obvious after all this time,” Chuchupa said. “And we’re pretty sure he likes you. He was real quick to pack us off.”
“I thought you didn’t care for romance,” Achiyo accused Chuchupa.
The pirate shrugged. “Nah, I don’t. But on the other hand, I’m invested in yer well-bein’. It’s like Rinala’s single-minded crush is just ugh, but I don’t wanna see her get hurt, ye know?”
Yes, she had noticed that all was not well in that quarter. “Mayhap we should act to clear things up…”
“Yes, about you,” R’nyath said. “Rinala is a separate situation. Look, Achiyo, we actually don’t want to interfere, believe it or not.”
“That’s why I haven’t told the man flat out that he should just take ye to bed already-”
“Chuchupa!” Achiyo stood in high offence, flushing brilliantly.
“Wait wait wait,” R’nyath cried desperately. “We’re not interfering. We swear. We’ll even stop teasing you.”
“We will?” Chuchupa said. But despite her own skepticism, Achiyo sat again.
“Yes,” R’nyath said. “But you want to spend time with him, right? And he wants to spend time with you. Pretty sure. So we’re not going avoid you two or anything, we’ll try not to be really obvious, but if things, you know, develop naturally, just… follow your heart, you know?”
“Ye don’t have to keep it a secret from us,” Chuchupa said. “Fer one thing it’s too late fer that.”
“Why don’t you want to admit it?” R’nyath asked gently. “You don’t seem like you’re in denial, just… why you want to keep it a secret?”
Achiyo looked down at her hands folded in her lap. “Up until this point, at least, it would have been unwise. You heard the disgusting things they said about him and about me when first I came. He had enough difficulty defending himself against accusations of treason and patricide, let alone adding any semblance of merit to insinuations of… whoring with a Dravanian spy. And… it is not my place to force myself into his life.”
“I’d bet me axe that if ye went to the Congregation right now and threw yerself into his arms, he wouldn’t complain,” Chuchupa said. “So that’s one objection down. And t’other… I guess yer new status as Savior of the City is still pretty weird fer ye.”
“If you’re worried about Lucia,” R’nyath said, and Achiyo blinked, because he had struck that nail on the head, “if she hasn’t said anything to him in all these years, that’s on her. If he likes you, that’s not her business. So just let things happen, okay?”
She wanted to. It was so tempting. And easy. “I shall think on it.” She did not want to admit to anything even yet. Maybe if something did happen. Maybe he would be too busy from now for things to happen. She could not say. Was she afraid?
“So care to tell us what happened last night?” R’nyath asked, putting his chin in his hands with his tail twitching enthusiastically.
She blushed. “He read a book to me.”
“That’s it?” Chuchupa said. “Ye blush at readin‘!? Was it a saucy book- Nah, that’s wishful thinkin’ on my part. Never mind, I’m not interested anymore. Ye’re borin’ as hells.”
“That’s lovely!” R’nyath gushed. “I hope it’s a long book so you have to keep going back for more.”
She blushed harder. “It might be.”
“Well anyway,” Chuchupa went on. “Got a letter from Leofard today. Ye wanna go beat up Diabolos?”
“He has been found?” Achiyo asked, glad enough for the change of topic.
“Well, no, but Leofard says they know how to find ‘im.”
“All right, I’ll go start rounding folks up,” R’nyath said. “We’ll see if everyone’s still good to go. I’m a bit worried about Syndael after I brought him up last night.”
“I shall call the rest of the Warriors of Light,” Achiyo said. “Let us meet at noon with whomever answers the call.”
Leofard and his crew were not alone when the large adventuring party arrived at his little base, the Parrock. One of Radlia’s ships was also there, and yet as Chuchupa, Doctor Naomi, and Achiyo stepped onto the dock to find out what was happening, there were no angry woman pirate noises that she could hear. Weird.
There were members of Radlia’s crew, though, two of them, and Leofard standing there with his arms folded, frowning at them, Stacia at his side. Cait Sith somewhere in the back with the engineer Utata. “There you are,” Leofard said to them. “Things got a little more complicated than when I called you. Just a smidge.”
“Oh aye, like what?” Chuchupa asked, striding up next to him, giving Radlia’s crewmen a look of her own.
“That’s what they were ’bout to tell us,” Leofard said, and gestured to the crew.
The lead Talon wrung his hands. “Well, we ended up at some mouldy old ruins, lousy with voidsent… Before we knew it, some sort of spider demon was knockin’ our ships out of the sky. The two of us managed to pull away, but we saw what happened to them as got caught on the ground… If the captain survived the massacre, she’s stuck there with no wings to fly out again.”
“Why don’t you give that linkpearl a listen, Captain?” Stacia suggested. “Might be as we can learn if Radlia is alive or dead, at least.”
The Talons paled, but Leofard put a finger to his ear. “…Ugh, so much buzzin’. Can’t hear a blasted- Wait. I’m gettin’ some words…” He paused. “They’re after… Mhachi artifact. Damn demons are searchin’… Hide!” They all waited again. “…And then a bunch of screamin’. Seems Radlia’s still kickin’ for now, but who knows for how long.” He looked at Stacia. “If those screams were an act, then consider me fooled – I don’t think the Talons are layin’ a trap here. I’ve half a mind to leave Radlia to her fate, but I never turn my back on an adventure! Especially when the scent of treasure is in the air, eh? Now, tell me where you found these ruins!”
The Talons brightened with wide eyes behind their goggles. “You’ll help us, then!? You’re a good man, Redbill! We left the captain in the Yafaem Saltmoor, just northwest of Mor Dhona.”
Stacia nodded. “We’ve never been friendly with the Talons, but that don’t mean we can just sit back and let them be torn to shreds by cacklin’ voidsent.”
Then Cait Sith insisted on having a long, expository discussion with Leofard about Mhach, and what the demons were probably looking for; Leofard took the cat and Naomi and Achiyo back to his planning room rather than stand about jawing in the open. Utata escorted the Talons away. Chuchupa went back to the adventurer’s airship. Achiyo could let ’em know what they needed to know.
She should have known better. “What’s the news?” Vivienne wanted to know.
“Seems the voidsent are lookin’ fer somethin’ in Yafaem Saltmoor, and Radlia’s run afoul of ’em,” Chuchupa said. “‘Cause that aethercompass don’t point to the Void Ark, it points to voidsent. Which used to be on the Void Ark. And now are in Yafaem Saltmoor.”
“Yafaem Saltmoor?” Kekeniro exclaimed. “The Weeping City of Mhach?”
“Nerd,” Chuchupa said, but it was too late. Kekeniro, Rinala, Aentfryn, and several other mages were already in deep discussion about what they knew about Mhach. “Well, ye can ask Cait Sith about it when he and Leofard finish talking.”
That took a while, but Leofard seemed pretty excited when he led the discussion group back to the airship. Stacia looked pretty cheerful too, and so did Naomi. Achiyo looked completely unexcited, but she seemed to be allergic to showing emotion so that was nothing new. She probably wasn’t that excited, though, she was no pirate to thrill to bloody adventure and riches. Cait Sith was Cait Sith – completely alien. Leofard grinned at them all. “This’s become a race to see who can nab the treasure first – which is just the sort of contest a sky pirate lives for!”
Stacia clenched a determined fist. “So we slip into the ruins, pinch the relic, then rescue Radlia right from under the fiends’ noses!”
Leofard looked at her. “…Well, I suppose we could save her while we’re pokin’ around for loot. I’ll grab the new compass from Utata so we know where we’re goin’. Check your weapons, pack your smallclothes, and let me know when you’re ready to fly!”
“So, all we gotta do is rescue that Radlia from a mob o’ nasty voidsent, then retrieve a dangerous artifact from the magically defended ruins of an ancient civilization,” Chuchupa summarized. Even though Stacia had just done it. “Easy, eh…?”
Cait Sith nodded. “I shall join you in this endeavour to recover the Nullstone. Though after fifteen hundred years, I wonder what remains of the city I once knew…”
“Would you tell us about it as we fly there?” Kekeniro asked. “I always wondered what it looked like, then or now.”
“What shall our part be, Captain?” Achiyo asked Leofard.
“We’ll fly directly to Yafaem from here,” he said. “Once we arrive, you forge ahead with your band of adventurers as you did on the Ark. Just keep slicin’ into the depths until you reach that Nullstone.”
“Right, then!” Chuchupa cried. “Onwards to the Whipping City!”
“Weeping City,” Kekeniro corrected her. “Because it’s so full of water after its submersion in the floods.”
“Do I look like I give a shite.”
“Never,” he said.
On the flight to Yafaem, Achiyo found Ser Syndael amidships with Penelope and Linnea. There had not been time to speak on the flight to the Parrock, but they were going much farther now, and she was concerned. From what little she had seen of him so far that day, he seemed much more grim than when she had last met him, and when she came to him now, that had not changed. He was unsmiling, head down, and Linnia cuddled into his side as well as she could with his armour, and Penelope sat next to them. He seemed like a husk of his former self just looking at him. “Are you unwell, Ser Syndael?”
He looked up sharply, and managed a wan smile. “Lady Achiyo. May I thank you in person for saving Ishgard again?” Penelope nodded too.
“You may, and it was a privilege to do so, but that does not answer my question,” she said. “I am worried you will only be hurt if you fight while you are not well. Will you not go with the Redbills?”
“I cannot let you all go in without me,” he said, and there was a desperate defiance about him. “I must fight. To think that something might happen to my dear friends and I was not there to stop it…” He clenched his fist and an angry tear fell from his eye. “Though much good my presence did on the Steps of Faith…”
Ah. The horrors he must have seen before the Warriors of Light and Aymeric arrived… his brothers and sisters in arms falling about him, blood and fire and screams… Well could she believe Handeloup needed to place the gentle young knight on medical leave. He should not be on this mission. If what they had seen on the Void Ark continued, there would only be more horrors ahead.
Linnea held him tighter, fumbling for words. “You’re going to be okay. We’re going to be okay. We’re going to get married and then I’ll move in now that adventurers are allowed in and we’ll be stronger together.”
“Yes, no matter what happened, my love for you is undimmed,” he said to her. “Though I fear to wake you in the nights when I cannot sleep…”
Her heart was torn for them, filling with regret that they had not been faster to stop Nidhogg – though such a thing might not have been possible. But she did not know how to express it except through practicality. “Does Kekeniro know of your resolve?”
“I did not talk to him.”
“Then I shall,” Achiyo said. “I do not think you should be here, Ser Syndael, and it is not because I doubt the strength of your arm or the determination in your heart. But you have been sorely wounded in spirit if not in body, and you have not healed.” When he inhaled to protest angrily, she poked him in the chainmail over his chest. “If you had been stabbed here, you would be told to rest until you were healed. The same is true for your spirit. I do not wish to return to Ser Handeloup only to tell him that you are worse off than before.”
He dropped his head. “I cannot sleep at night for the memories. I can feel but dimly the joy of the city in my heart. I felt empty at the memorial service for those we lost. Seeing and hearing those about me burned and torn to pieces… I do not know how I survived. But I cannot sit about doing naught.”
“No,” she said, more kindly. “No, that will only drive you mad. But flinging yourself once more into battle is not the answer either. …I am sorry that we could not be there sooner. I cannot imagine what you witnessed.”
“‘Tis not your burden to bear,” he said, with another wan half-smile. “If our heroes had to endure such suffering, how would they have the heart to stand up for us?”
That was a complicated question. And probably not the right one. “You are still standing – you may not feel like it, but you are a hero to your loved ones. A greater hero than we are, even.” And the dead must be heroes, for they had given all they had in defence of their home. The word hero was becoming meaningless, and that was fine, for she did not care to be elevated above others for doing what needed to be done. They should all respect and honour each other.
He shook his head in fervent denial. “That is not…”
“Shhh,” Penelope interrupted him. “She’s right. You always do your best, no matter what. …But she’s also kind of right that you shouldn’t be jumping right back in, not yet.”
“But I want to fight beside the two of you,” he protested, clenching his hands. “My beloved friends…”
Achiyo withheld a sigh. “Would you be satisfied if I asked you to aid the Redbills, or will you only wish to defend Linnea and Penelope?”
Syndael looked at first Penelope, and then Linnea for a long moment without speaking.
“We’ll be okay,” Linnea said. “I promise. The Warriors of Light can’t lead us wrong.” Well, no pressure. But Achiyo and Kekeniro between them would surely be able to sense when to pull back before they lost anyone.
Syndael looked back at Achiyo. “I will consent to stay with the Redbills. I do not wish for someone to get hurt because I was not my best.”
She gave him an encouraging smile. “Thank you, Ser Syndael, for your trust. And know that you have our full support in your journey to health.”
The airships put down in a green, fairly pleasant-looking location. Chuchupa had never been to Yafaem Saltmoor before, but she’d been expecting it to look a lot more… depressing. Well, maybe the ruins she saw in the distance were a little depressing, and the lightning storm giving the occasional flicker in the sky was depressing. But the green pathways through the little lakes were actually very pretty. She dipped a finger in one and licked it. It wasn’t salty. False advertising! But there’d been a few centuries to wash the departed ocean out of the land.
Cait Sith seemed to disagree about the view. “My dear Yafaem… What a wretched morass it has become.”
A huge crocodile-alligator-lizard exploded out of the water next to Cait Sith and snapped at the cat, who screamed and scampered behind Achiyo. Chuchupa whooped and ran up to hack at it with her axe; Kekeniro had placed her in the lead for once and for once she was all for it. But there were more, crawling up in search of picking off an adventurer or two for dinner. “Are those things s’pposed to be that big, or is there magic in the water or summat?”
“I doubt any biologist has had the courage or skill to venture out here and return to tell the tale,” Doctor Naomi said. The adventurers as a whole were maybe a little nervous, a little enthusiastic, and very quickly the lizards were chopped or blasted apart.
Well, it was a good warm-up. It was only going to get harder, and Chuchupa couldn’t wait. Though maybe they should conserve their energy.
There was a ruin of white stones up ahead, draped in massive spiderwebs. “I’m concerned,” Linnea said. “I like tiny cute spiders. This doesn’t look tiny.”
“Wait, you give me shite for being creepy, then turn around and say you like spiders?” objected Reid, the red-headed thaumaturge who was undeniably dressed in plain black robes like some kind of cultist. Or a normal thaumaturge.
“Tiny cute ones!” Linnea cried. “With water drops for hats! I don’t like the ones a yalm across, or yarzons or anything!”
“Ugh, who should like yarzons?” asked Constaint, Achiyo’s newest fanboy.
“Do you spy that wreckage up ahead?” Cait Sith asked. “Could it be one of the Talons’ downed vessels?”
“No, where? Oh, there… I was looking at the shiny thing in the distance,” R’nyath said, looking now at the pillar of smoke rising from ahead of them.
“The ‘shiny thing’ is our destination,” Cait Sith said.
“Hey, how many people were in Radlia’s crew?” asked Crim, Naomi’s boyfriend. “Doesn’t she like having big crews?”
Was he asking if they had brought enough people? “Radlia and crew ain’t the Warriors of Light and their friends,” Chuchupa said. “We might be down a man but we still kick arse.”
As they approached the ring of ruins, a huge spider demon climbed up the other side of them and jumped into the middle of the ring to confront them. “Gaha! There were more of you blood-filled morsels!? How well I will sup-”
Chuchupa interrupted by pointing and yelling. “Why’s the spider got boobs and a face!?”
The demon had probably never dealt with anyone as reckless as Chuchupa before, and stared slack-jawed for a second. “W-well, because this is my form! Why do you have that ugly pink hair!?”
“Forward array!” Kekeniro called, and the spider had to scuttle or be caught flat-footed.
When at last that huge, hideous body crumpled in death, Tharash looked at Linnea. “I’m guessing you didn’t consider that one cute, hm?”
“No!” she cried indignantly. “That was awful! Let’s get away from it!”
“Burn it with fire,” said Reid, and immediately all the thaumaturges in the group – of which there were four, counting Linnea and Rinala, even if they were mostly healing – enthusiastically set the corpse on fire. But before more than a few wisps of black oily smoke could rise from it, it burst into aether and dispersed.
“Shall we continue?” Achiyo asked calmly. “We have dealt with the voidsent’s rearguard, that which brought down Radlia. Next we shall have to cut our way through the rest of the demons.”
“Righty!” Chuchupa exclaimed, and marched forwards on the ancient stone road that led out of the ruin. But it soon ended in a rushing torrent of water that flowed downwards steeply. There had been a bridge before, leading to more ruins that looked like a castle, but it had been destroyed long ago.
“Is this not a tributary of the White Maiden?” Cait Sith asked. “We should come upon Mhach if we follow it downstream!”
“And with what boat?” asked Vivienne sarcastically. “Or do we fling ourselves into this racing current and hope we don’t drown, get sliced apart on the sharp stones, or get swept over a waterfall?”
“Er…” The cat considered.
“Well I’m not doing any of that,” Tam said, whistling for his black chocobo. “It’s been a good adventure, everyone, see you later…”
“Tam!” cried Rinala indignantly. “We’ll figure out-”
“I’m kidding,” Tam told her, mounting his chocobo. “But I can’t swim, remember?”
“I am not terribly fond of water myself…” Cait Sith said, and Tam reached down to haul the cat up to his saddle by his silly little cape. “…My thanks.”
“Nor will our armour be conducive to such a journey,” Constaint said.
“Hmm, I can take a few in the manacutter,” Chuchupa said, pulling out her key and clicking the button. Thank Llymlaen for soul-binding! “Who’s got soul-bound chocobos?”
“We could call the big pirate ship back?” suggested Khem, the Duskwight chemist.
“No, we’d be a bigger target and the voidsent would see us coming,” Kekeniro said. “The spider was their anti-air but they could set up a defence against us on the ground.”
“Ah, ja, I understand.” Khem shrugged cheerfully.
The colourful flight of chocobos skimmed the churning surface of the water as they followed the river’s current through a narrow canyon that arched over briefly into a tunnel. After a while, the banks opened up and a city spread out before them, an ancient city of stones built in a massive ravine with a strange huge metal pyramid at its centre. The top of the pyramid seemed open, and if Chuchupa squinted she could indeed see some shiny silver round thing up there. “We aim for that pyramidal structure, but ware the voidsent,” Cait Sith told them. “The air is thick with their otherworldly stench…”
Chuchupa sniffed the air. She mostly smelled vegetation and damp. “I think ye need to clean up the Wipin’ City.”
“Weeping City,” Kekeniro said.
They landed at the base of a waterfall and dismissed their mounts for safety, and fought through demons, monsters, the reanimated corpses of Talon crew… The darkness that the voidsent leader blasted over them certainly did have a rotten stench, and it sent cold chills down the spine. Good thing Chuchupa wasn’t the sort of pirate to be afeared of ghosts.
They arrived at the pyramid, which Cait Sith… opened for them? She hadn’t been watching. But the bridge had the same bio-mechanical bone-like style as the Void Ark, and the door was shaped again like a coffin. The exterior of the pyramid was covered with shining plates with strange designs on it; Chuchupa fancied she could see birds and beasts in all the squiggles. “Ah, the wonders of Mhachi architecture,” Cait Sith said nostalgically. “Fifteen centuries and a flood later, and still it stands.”
“I object!” Cent the green knight exclaimed. “I question Mhachi taste!”
“Yes, why the coffin theme?” asked Florian, the green archer.
Cait Sith looked at the Hyur and the Miqo’te in confusion. “It is not a coffin, merely a shape.”
“Oh no,” exclaimed Lilidi. “You can’t say that, we were all on the Void Ark, which was stuffed with coffin-shaped coffins to hold voidsent in. My ancestors were buried in square stone coffins, which were easier to carve, and one is not likely to mistake any old brick for a coffin shape. This is completely different.”
“I cannot agree,” Cait Sith said. “The shape may be similar but it is not meant to invoke a coffin. That would be morbid.”
“Disagree,” Tharash muttered, as they entered a huge darkened chamber… filled with more coffins lit with a red glow. “Hey, what’s worse – a Garlean invasion of Eorzea, or a voidsent invasion of Eorzea?”
“Voidsent,” Kekeniro said. “Without question.”
R’nyath began to snicker. “Do you remember what ol’ Gaius asked us when he finally confronted us?”
“What did he say?” Linnea asked obligingly.
“He was all like ‘for whom do you fight‘, and when Rinala gave him the obvious answer he was like ‘how glib‘ like a pretentious jerk.” R’nyath giggled.
“I fight for cookies!” Yllamse cried.
“I bet that answer would have thrown him for a loop,” Doctor Naomi said. “All these serious leaders, they can’t stand non-sequiturs.”
“That’s why Admiral Merlwyb is the best, she can cut loose when she wants to,” said Crim.
“So can Raubahn!” Rinala said. “But I doubt Gaius could, for sure.”
“Um… Gaius who?” asked one of the thaumaturges, a shy-looking Roegadyn woman with dark blue hair who had not spoken up in all the time on the Void Ark or now.
“Gaius van Baelsar,” said Kane, the red knight, in the tones of a teacher. “Also known as the Black Wolf, who led the Imperial XIVth legion to attempt to conquer Eorzea. He was brought low by the Warriors of Light at his fortress the Praetorium last year.”
“Where’ve you been that you don’t know Gaius van Baelsar?” cried Cent.
The woman shrugged. “I wasn’t paying attention to the names of the enemy leaders in the war… Just trying to make my way, you know?”
“Same!” Yllamse cried, and offered the woman a high-five. “What’s your name again?”
“Skaentu,” said the woman. “I know, I know, it’s not a normal name…”
“Sure ain’t,” Chuchupa said. She knew Sea Wolf names. “Yer parents some kinda hippies?”
“What is a hippy?” Achiyo asked, and everything derailed.
Cait Sith brought them to focus as they entered the top of the pyramid, the open chamber they had spied from below. From this height it was more difficult to see the city and surrounds through the clouds. “Barring our way is a terrible sphere that has devoured entire cities. We must prove the stronger if we are to reach the Nullstone.”
“What? Why?” Vivienne asked.
Kekeniro frowned at the huge sphere, then at the cat. “You didn’t think to mention this to me earlier? How do we beat it? Just destroying its aether like a summon?”
“That should work well enough,” Cait Sith said. “I am afraid I don’t know the particulars.”
“I don’t like this,” Rinala said. “If it’s destroyed cities, how are the… twenty-three of us going to not get destroyed by it?”
“We cannot turn back…” Cait Sith said.
“We may,” Aentfryn said. “If this thing devours cities, I see little reason not to let the voidsent try their luck against it. ‘Twill save us the trouble of fighting the voidsent.”
“I dare not wager on Diabolos being stopped or defeated by Ozma,” Cait Sith said. “I have the utmost faith in all of you.”
“That’s what folks say when they want you to do things anyway,” grumbled Tharash. “Doesn’t mean it’s possible.”
“That’s no kind of talk fer us!” Chuchupa cried. “If I can bash it with my axe, ye bet I’m gonna! If all we gotta do is hit it-”
“Then why hasn’t someone done it previously in history?” Aentfryn said.
“Is there treasure besides the Nullstone after it?” Naomi asked.
Achiyo slowly looked at them all. Then at the orb. Then at Kekeniro. “Without knowing its offensive capabilities, do we at least have the strength to destroy it?”
“Oh yes, without question,” Kekeniro said. “My hypothesis is that in previous battles it may have been used in, it was heavily guarded by Mhachi sorcerers and their familiars. This is just where it’s stored when not in use, and there’s nothing to protect it now. I will admit it has a lot of power, and fighting on that ring around it… We’ll have to watch our steps carefully, and we’re going to need as much shielding as we can muster.”
Achiyo looked at the orb again. “Then we shall make the attempt.”
“Yesss!” Chuchupa cheered. A lot of other people groaned.
“After a rest,” Achiyo said, and those people cheered up again. Chuchupa grunted but she understood.
The fight, she did not understand. Sure, the platform reached towards the orb enough that she could hit it with her axe, but its constant quicksilver spinning disoriented her and not falling off the platform was tougher than she had thought it would be. Then it turned into a cube and started spitting deadly lasers at them. Half the healers were screaming by this point. Then it turned back into a sphere and sucked them all into itself.
Chuchupa sat up, very dizzy from where she had landed on… flagstones? If Ozma had devoured entire cities, then there appeared to be several intact pieces floating around in its other-dimensional stomach, one of which they had landed on. The portal by which they had entered spun slowly in the sky. “What in the hells is goin’ on??”
“Magic,” grunted Aentfryn. And that was an answer that suited her just fine.
“I guess they don’t call it the Warpin’ City fer nothin’,” Chuchupa said, and Kekeniro inhaled and stopped.
“And how do we get out?” asked Vivienne grouchily from an island a short ways away.
Tharash looked around. “This seems familiar somehow…”
“Or do we not get out?” asked Florian. “That seems to be the point, isn’t it? Doomed to die here of starvation in a pocket dimension of…”
“Hush, Brother,” Meanna told him. “Don’t be silly.” He grinned and his sister sighed.
“I’m sure we’ll come up with something,” Lilidi said, but she was looking at her husband expectantly as he looked at his book.
“Actually it seems to be quite straightforward,” Kekeniro said, looking up. “I see something glimmering over there below us. It looks like a miniature version of – Ozma, Cait Sith called it?”
“Let’s go over there and punch it,” Chuchupa said, and began to lead her team across their sky island towards the Ozma replica.
Luckily, punching things was the answer, and that gave the dumb old sphere indigestion, because it spit them back out another portal and they could keep punching the original sphere. Only then it turned into a triangle, and that was the last thing Chuchupa saw for a few seconds.
When she woke up again, she smelled burned cloth, flesh, and metal, and looked down to find half her gear had been blasted off her body and her axe was warm to the touch. “What happened? Wait, tell me later. Gotta kill the triangle.” Which was now a sphere again.
“You caught a laser to the everything!” Doctor Naomi scolded her, pale as paper. “I’ve never had to cast Resurrection before! Don’t make me do that again!”
Chuchupa scowled. That was twice she’d died in one moon. She really needed to step up her game. “Ye’ll pay fer that, ye stupid overgrown marble!”
Her rage seemed to do the trick, as the orb quivered, split, and floated away into nothingness. “Sodding finally!”
“Chuchupa, are you all right?” Achiyo called anxiously across the chamber.
“I’m alive!” Chuchupa called back. “Thanks to Doc Naomi!”
“Let us take another rest here,” Achiyo said. “It looks like defeating Ozma has activated a lift but I have no mind to find out what lies at its other end in our current state.”
“Fine by me,” Chuchupa said, and sat where she was.
Doctor Naomi crouched by her. “This is pretty intense. I can’t wait to go back to treasure hunting with you in Dravania. Compared to this, it will be positively relaxing.”
“Aye, that was pretty fun,” Chuchupa said. “Ye and Crim up fer goin’ again next week?”
“Yep! Have you asked Yllamse yet?”
“Yeah, and I think a couple o’ the others might come too if we ask. Oi, Reid!”
“What?” the mage yelled back irritably.
“Wanna go treasure huntin’ next week?”
“Sure.”
Chuchupa smirked. “Now we can look fer bigger treasures.”
At the top of the pyramid, there was a large dark green chamber. They climbed past huge chained statues up to a large central platform. “This is it: the Tomb of the Nullstone,” Cait Sith said. “There will be a guardian. There is always a guardian…”
“Why do you say it like that?” Tam asked sardonically. “Are we in some sort of fairy tale? Also your people really are obsessed with death.”
“We treat it with healthy respect,” Cait Sith said with dignity. “Like any other civilization.”
“Please tell me this is the last thing we fight today,” Vivienne said, gesturing to the huge nearly-naked green woman descending from the ceiling. She was clad in only a golden bikini and there was a large glowing green orb on her forehead.
The woman’s hair writhed about her form. “Know your slayer, intruders. I am Calofisteri, and by the blood of voidsent have I ascended to the sublime.”
“No fistin’, please,” Chuchupa said, and charged at her.
They were sitting around catching their breath when Leofard and his gang walked up. Syndael was with them, and ran to Linnea as she ran to him. Chuchupa pointedly didn’t look at them. She didn’t know why Achiyo had made him go with the Redbills, and it wasn’t her business.
“…So this is the heart of the ruins, eh?” Leofard said.
“You’ve done a fine job dismantling the defences,” Stacia said to them. “I only wish we could say we had the same success, but Radlia and her Talons were nowhere to be found.”
“A bunch of them were turned into zombies,” Chuchupa explained, and Stacia shuddered.
“Yes, it is quite distressing,” said Cait Sith, showing no distress whatsoever, “but we must focus on claiming the prize at hand. The Nullstone is ours!” He reached out and the green jewel that the woman had worn on her forehead dropped into his hands.
A very evil-sounding laugh echoed through the chamber. “You’ve left me such an inviting trail of destruction to follow!” Everyone whirled to see a demonic jester with a scythe standing behind them.
“I remember you too!” Chuchupa yelled. “I thought we killed you too!”
“Stop not-quite-killing demons,” Meanna said.
“I see you’ve found the relic, then,” said the clown. “Lord Diabolos will be so pleased! And look here! I’ve brought you a gift as thanks for all your hard work!” He gestured, and Radlia appeared at his side, her hands bound with magic, hanging helplessly in midair. He brandished his scythe at her throat and she gulped. “This is the lovely lass you’ve been oh-so-desperately seeking, isn’t it? Unless you wish to see her rent limb from limb, then you will hand over the Nullstone!”
Everyone looked at Cait Sith. Cait Sith looked at Leofard and nodded. Slowly, Leofard walked forward… and drew his pistol, pointing it at Radlia, who blanched. “You think I care about her worthless limbs? That woman’s done naught but cause us grief, and I just thought to crow over her grave! …Don’t give me that look, Radlia. What? You thought I was here to save your sorry hide? You’ve never been aught but an obstacle to me. Do you remember the first time we met? You were roarin’ with laughter at the sight of all them Allagan relics until I used your pretty blonde head as a steppin’-stone!”
“Sky pirates aren’t as nice as I thought,” Rinala whispered.
“Where you been? Pirates ain’t nice,” Chuchupa whispered back. “I ain’t nice.”
“Yes, you are,” Rinala whispered, and Chuchupa scowled. Just because she had some consideration for the teen kitty out on her first big adventure…
“Damn you, you selfish bastard!” Radlia screeched back in despair, struggling ineffectively against her bonds. “And damn me for expecting you to act any different! If I had my weapons, I’d blow a bloody hole in your belly!”
“Have you forgotten how awful a shot you are?” Leofard snipped back. “Not much of a threat when I’ve seen you miss the side of a cathedral at ten yalms.”
“Silence, you grinning fool!” the clown roared, pulling his scythe away. “You’ve ruined my moment, and now I’ll ruin your smirking face!” All the adventurers drew their weapons.
But as the clown charged at Leofard, he dove nimbly out of the way, and Cait Sith – now wielding a peculiar staff that looked kind of like a spine with a cube on top – blasted the voidsent with pink light. The demon screeched. “It burns!”
“This world is not your stage, unholy harlequin!” Cait Sith declaimed. “Begone from our realm!”
There was an explosion, and the demon was gone. Radlia fell to the floor. But there was still a distant voice in the air… “A clever farce, mortals! But the show is not over… not until you scream!”
Leofard looked around, trying to see where the voice was coming from. “…The bugger got away. And I think we’d best do the same.”
The expedition was a bit of a mixed bag in the end. Cait Sith still had to learn to use the Nullstone properly, and Radlia’s fire had been quenched by seeing most of her crew slaughtered in front of her. Chuchupa felt for her on that one, it was true. The defeated sky pirate handed over a book that had led her to Mhach in the first place, and not even Leofard’s goading could coax her back to defiance.
And so things ground to a halt there for a couple weeks. Chuchupa found her treasure hunting group increased to eight, with the addition of Linnea and Florian and Meanna, and they actually got pretty good as a team. It wasn’t any kind of official training, but she figured that this random group getting thick with each other would help them mightily when the brains figured out what to do next. She also kept an ear out for rumour of Zurvan stirring, but there still wasn’t a peep out of him yet.
Then there finally was word from the Parrock, and Chuchupa flew in as fast as she could, matched only by Naomi and Crim who were also in the area. Unfortunately, it was only so Cait Sith could explain what, why, and how the voidsent were doing what they were doing. Chuchupa popped herself on a chair in Leofard’s stateroom and swung her legs violently as she listened. At least it seemed Cait Sith finally knew how to use the Nullstone.
Then they were interrupted by gunshots from outside, and without a look back, Leofard sprinted from the room. Chuchupa jumped off her chair and followed, with Stacia and Naomi, and Crim, Cait Sith, and Utata bringing up the rear.
They raced down the walkway outside Leofard’s quarters in time to see him tumble from the sky, bounce on the pathway with an awful crunch, and roll a couple times with a pained grunt. “Leofard!” cried Stacia, rushing to his side.
Leofard lifted his head. “Behind… He’s behind you!”
Just then, Cait Sith gave a horrible yowl, and they all turned to see Diabolos himself floating above the cat with the Nullstone in his grasp. “Curse you, fiend!” gasped Cait Sith, who had been flattened.
Diabolos contemplated the Nullstone. “At last. At long last!”
“Godsdammit,” Chuchupa said, and drew her axe.
“This war is far from over, demon!” Cait Sith cried, and coughed weakly. “We’ll not allow an abomination like the Shadow Queen to rule this world!”
“Then thou knowest naught of ruling,” Diabolos rumbled back. “It is might which decideth dominion.” That was the dumbest thing Chuchupa had heard. Didn’t matter how strong they were, ain’t no one telling her what to do! “But believe what thou mayest, frail creature. You are playthings. Your screams of denial shall amuse me as I send this rock and all upon it to shatter upon the ground below…”
“Naomi, Crim!” Chuchupa called, setting herself in a ready stance. They could have used at least one more adventurer, maybe two or three to be sure, but they weren’t letting the Parrock just be destroyed!
“I’m with you!” Naomi said, popping open her spellbook; Crim grunted assent, straightened his tailored vest, and drew his pistol.
But before either side could make a definitive move, a cannon boomed out and a cannonball hit Diabolos in the face. Or, well, it was consumed by a shield in front of his face, but it was certainly distracting. To everyone; Chuchupa looked up and saw a great fleet of airships, led by a humongous barge even bigger than the Protector that the Ishgardians had patrolling the Sea of Clouds near Camp Cloudtop.
“Gods, is that Radlia!?” Stacia cried. “…Where’s she been hidin’ that ship?”
Diabolos might have grimaced, but his face was so ugly it was hard to tell. “I would not tire my arm with the swatting of so many flies. The Nullstone is mine, and there is yet much to be done.” He flapped his wings and flew away – though Crim took a parting shot at him anyway.
Stacia carefully helped Leofard to his feet; he gasped and winced and held his left arm carefully. “I ain’t a healer, but I’d say you’ve broken your arm, a couple of ribs, and bruised half your innards. We need to get you some splints and bandages…”
“I’m a doctor,” Naomi reminded her. “Let me take care of this.”
Leofard groaned, but not particularly because of the pain. “And Radlia’s here too. Make it quick, I’ll need to greet her. Stacia, check the crew for other wounded. Chuchupa, go call your friends and tell ’em to make ready.”
“Got it!” Chuchupa said, and stepped away to go linkshell everyone. “Let’s hope it’s more fun than the Whoopin’ City.”
“Weeping City,” Cait Sith said. “Or you can call it Mhach. You cannot say it correctly, can you?”
Chuchupa grinned at him.
By the time Achiyo and the other twenty adventurers arrived in full, a couple hours later, things had been decided: Leofard was staying home, with Utata to watch over him; Stacia and Cait Sith were going with Radlia on her massive airship – called the Lady Radlia, of course – to the floating city of Dun Scaith. Chuchupa had already run all over the thing, asking Radlia questions.
“I acquired our splendid flagship after the Ishgardians saw fit to abandon her,” Radlia said proudly. “I hear she was an attempt to match the airborne agility of their dragon enemies, but the vessel never did live up to expectations. When she passed to me, we replaced all their “improvements” with structural reinforcements, and made ourselves a flying fortress. Our stately lass’ll not soon be knocked from the sky!”
“Amazing,” Chuchupa said. “Ye’re re-awakening my hankerin’ to get meself my own galleon again. Been without since the Calamity. Replaced it in me life with fightin’, but… there’s nothin’ like havin’ the freedom to go where ye please, is there?”
“Not in the slightest,” Radlia said. “You should do it.”
Leofard did see them off, his arm in a sling. “This adventure’s all yours,” he said, with comically affected meekness. “I’ll be cheerin’ for you from my sickbed like a good little pirate. Promise.”
“Don’t you worry,” Utata said. “I’ll keep an eye on the captain while everyone is off on this grand adventure. Without him. Hmmm. …Are you certain you don’t need me to go with you…?”
The voyage to Dun Scaith was not likely to be long, according to Radlia’s logs, so everyone made themselves comfortable on the aft deck, eating and drinking a little as they flew. Tam and Chuchupa were drinking alcohol; Achiyo did not approve, but they could mind their own affairs. She went instead to Ser Syndael. “How do you fare today?”
“I feel a little better than when we last spoke,” he said, and squeezed Linnea’s hand. “I am still not well. My heart is still sick, and I still mourn my lost companions. I still carry with me the terrors I have witnessed. But I have rested, this time, and I can fight. Naught that we find ahead can daunt me.”
His eyes were much more clear than before. They were still haunted and grieving, but he saw her and could meet her gaze steadily. “I am glad to hear it. Have patience with yourself.” A lesson she’d had to learn without aid…
He nodded. “I… I understand. I hope. But I may fight?”
“I cannot actually stop you from fighting,” Achiyo said with a little smile. “Such is the freedom of the adventurer – which is yours today. But yes, I will not gainsay you this time. Fight well, Ser Syndael.”
“Hey, Vivienne,” said R’nyath across the deck. “Why do you have such long hair when you also have so many sharp bits it could get caught on?”
Vivienne gave him a dour look. “Personal reasons. Why do you look like a red haystack?”
“I take care of my hair,” R’nyath said indignantly. “It takes a lot of work to look this roguishly tousled, you know.”
Vivienne rolled her eyes. “Three hundred brushstrokes with white eft serum worth of work?”
“Three hundred is a lot,” said Yllamse. “How do you count that high without losing track?”
Vivienne shrugged. “It’s relaxing.”
“I wash my hair often,” Achiyo said. “It must needs be brushed with light oils equally often, else it becomes dry and breaks constantly. You would recommend white eft serum?” Inwardly she rejoiced at this inane conversation topic. She knew that Aymeric envied the freedom of adventurers… she wished he could be there with them to speak of useless, frivolous things. To see the strange and marvellous things that they found. It was a pleasant distraction from the trials awaiting them at Diabolos’s lair.
“It’s good for my hair, anyway,” Vivienne said. “I’ll give you some to try.”
“Oh yes, the breakage is constant,” Naomi said with a commiserating nod. “Worse at sea… and at altitudes! It’s not fair for a pirate, let alone one with Eastern heritage that makes me shed all over the place.”
“Or in the desert,” Rinala said. “I practically grew up with my hair in a wrap, I didn’t start letting it down until I went to study conjury in Gridania.”
“I bet that lady we fought in Mhach spent all her days brushing her hair,” Lilidi said. “She was certainly proud enough of it while she was trying to kill us with it.”
“I suppose there would be naught much else for her to do,” Cent said, running a hand through his own tousled brown hair, in between trying to feed biscuits to his mistress. She pushed them away impatiently.
“Would she not use magic?” Kane asked, stealing one of the biscuits from his comrade and earning himself a wide-eyed stare from Cent. “She was made of magic, was she not?”
“Y’all take care of yer hair?” Chuchupa asked. “What a waste o’ time. Just keep it short like me.”
“What a waste of time, keeping it short,” Tam quipped back. “After the first few hundred years, cutting it back every few moons just gets tedious.”
“Ummm?” said Penelope. “He’s joking, right?” she whispered to Linnea.
“I don’t know,” Linnea whispered back. “He joked about stuff like that in the Crystal Tower, too.”
“Don’t you dye your hair every few moons?” Tharash asked, gesturing at Tam’s blue bangs.
“Touché,” Tam replied with a grin. “Once a year. It gave me a chance to connect regularly with my parents, though.”
“We’re getting close, adventurers,” Radlia announced from her location at the helm. “Perhaps ten more minutes- What is that?”
“Cap’n!” yelled the lookout. “Monster to starboard!”
All the adventurers jumped to their feet, stowing gear, grabbing weapons. Naomi threw her hands in the air with her codex as the healers all began casting Protect. “It’s another sky pancake! Huzzah!”
“That’s the biggest pancake I’ve ever seen,” Khem said cheerfully. “It’s bigger than the last one!”
“We’ll need a lot of butter and syrup,” Yllamse said.
“Be on your guard,” Achiyo said, leading the way out to the centre of the deck as the monster bore down on their ship. “Larger often means more powerful. Are all ready?”
There was a chorus of acknowledgement from everyone except for Skaentu, who had taken a final sip of water too fast and was choking and coughing. “I’ll be… ready in a sec, I’ll… jump in when… I’m not dying!”
“We’re not stopping,” Radlia told them. “Even if this thing is here to get in our way, we’re charging straight ahead to Diabolos’s lair!”
The monster hovered at the front of the ship for a moment, spinning around them and taking up a position on their left. “Insolent mortals… One does not come uninvited to the Shadow Queen’s castle!”
The pancake demon had been defeated, happily without little Kekeniro blowing over the side of the airship. The craggy hills and towers of Dun Scaith were in sight. Chuchupa was pretty impressed with how Radlia carefully steered her huge ship to berth at a dock on the south end of the islands. The long winter night had already fallen, but the moon was setting in the west and cast a cold white light across everything.
Cait Sith was the first down the gangplank, looking around at the city as the dock turned into a wide boulevard winding its way between grey brick houses. Regular grey brick… and creepy grey brick, and the road was grey flagstones with black and blue metal railings, all very austere. Lights shone in some windows for some reason. There were still occasional crates and pieces of scaffolding around. Orb-like frosted glass streetlamps were still lit, bringing more concentrated light than the moon. “These buildings were meant to house the refugees of Mhach. A promised land, forgotten by time…”
“Think we can reclaim it for Ishgard-” Penelope began, and was cut off by a cackle.
“What’s this? Visitors to our fair abode? Pray allow me to be the first to welcome you!” With one swing of his scythe, which seemed to have grown since they last saw it, the jester demon cut an entire building in two.
“It’s that clown!” Chuchupa yelled. “Get ‘im!” But the jester flitted away with a giggle.
“Ishgard, what about Ala Mhigo?” said Lilidi to Penelope.
“But what would they eat?” Crim asked. “Are there gardens and fields behind these houses?” But this was Cait Sith’s first visit to the place too.
“Who would wanna live here anyway?” Chuchupa said as they passed under a tower with a bell, tolling an alarm endlessly. “It’s all metal and stone. Depressing as shite!”
“I like the railings, at least,” Linnea said. “They’ve got little hearts on them.” Syndael gave a soft chuckle.
In a large plaza at the end of the boulevard they met the jester again; behind him was a beautiful fairy-tale castle, and between jester and castle was the coffin of the Shadow Queen that Diabolos had taken from the Void Ark. It was split open.
“Oh, how I love entertaining unexpected guests!” cried the jester. “And do I spy some familiar faces in the crowd!? Come closer, come closer! I promise I will give you a show to die for!”
Chuchupa cackled. “Oh, this gonna be fun! Let’s go!”
She’d been right, killing the jester was the most fun she’d had on these missions yet. It really helped when one’s enemy also seemed to be having fun, no matter how sincerely murderous the battle was.
The group moved forward across another Mhachi aerial conveyance to the castle garden, filled with white lilies and red roses. The castle itself was whitewashed and whimsical, with heart motifs in its facade. It looked straight out of a fairy-tale, not at all like anything else in Mhach they’d seen.
But in front of it was a huge red and black shape. “The Queen’s Coffin, rent in twain!” Cait Sith cried. “Scathach is already awoken, then…”
“Aye, I noticed that earlier,” Chuchupa said. “Didn’t wanna mention it with that jester- whoa!” A rose swung into her face and blinked at her with a slitted yellow eye with eyelashes. “By Llymlaen’s arse!” She chopped at the rose and it fell to the ground. And twitched.
“Oh, that’s creepy,” Rinala said. “Never mind, I don’t like this garden.” The roses were all watching them.
“Voidsent energy corrupting this place?” Vivienne asked.
“Probably,” Aentfryn answered.
The voidsent tried once more to bar their way, led by one calling herself the Queen’s handmaiden, but they were no sky pancake. Still, Achiyo called a rest afterwards. The castle’s front gate was exuding a sinister red glow, and they’d been fighting for a couple hours without much break. Chuchupa wasn’t that tired, just a little bit, but from how quiet everyone was, they were kind of tired.
“You know,” Rinala said into the quiet, “Leofard is kind of like Jacke.”
Chuchupa’s head swivelled around to look at her, followed by Naomi, Crim, and Aentfryn. “An’ how do ye know Jacke?”
Rinala blushed. “Um. I. Just do.”
Chuchupa put her head back and groaned. “When are ye gonna stop fallin’ fer them Hyuran prettyboys-”
“I don’t know him because of that!” Rinala protested, blushing harder. “I went and got some close combat training from him, okay!?”
“Why didn’t ye just say so!?” That… made a lot of sense, actually. R’nyath made a face of sudden realization.
“Who’s Jacke?” asked Khem.
“He’s a fine, upstanding pirate,” Naomi said. “Fantastic friend to have if you’re not breaking the pirate’s code. You’re right, he is kind of like Leofard.”
“I wonder if they’d get along,” Crim said thoughtfully. “Always difficult to predict with our brethren.”
“Any idea why this castle looks completely different from other Mhachi architecture?” asked Lilidi. “It’s like it’s trying much too hard not to be depressing.”
“I have a couple theories,” Kekeniro said. “One is that they were influenced by Amdapor.”
“Their mortal enemies?” asked Rinala. “You think so?”
Kekeniro shrugged. “Amdapor had white towers too. This is pretty much the last thing the Mhachi built, right, so it’s much newer than the city we saw recently. Perhaps they were trying to one-up their rivals, ‘anything you can do I can do better’ sort of thing.”
Cait Sith paced back and forth, gazing at the castle door. “By the twitching of my whiskers, there is fell magick ahead. Only the queen herself could radiate malice of this magnitude!”
“What about Diabolos?” asked Reid.
“Why do you think he still serves the Queen at least nominally?” Aentfryn said. “Though I have no doubt he schemes for his own ambition. He seems the type.”
“At least he doesn’t have too many minions to call on,” Kekeniro said. “We killed most of them in Mhach, and I don’t think he can summon too many at a time.”
Chuchupa bounced impatiently. “Are ye done yet? I wanna see what doin’ a coup d’etat feels like. Since they accused us of doin’ one earlier this year.”
“Very well,” Achiyo said. “All ready? Let us go.”
They entered the castle, and the hall, tiled with coloured stones, led them directly to a beautiful throne room filled with stained glass heart lanterns. And in the centre of it, seated on a throne of rainbow stained glass butterfly wings, was a little girl clad in tight-fitting black-and-white silks, poofy white pigtails, and a little black crown. Her hands were folded demurely in her lap, holding an imperial-looking halberd. And she was twenty fulms tall.
She rose to greet them gracefully as they entered. “Welcome, mortals, to my citadel of shadows. I am Scathach the Shadow Queen. Have you come to deepen the gloom with an offering of souls?”
“Uh, no,” Chuchupa said. “We’re here to kill ye like all t’other voidsent come to this world. Have fun!”
“She’s so pretty,” Penelope said. “I wonder if I can do that with my hair…”
“She is pretty!” Skaentu agreed. “She looks like a cute little lolita girl. Except big enough to crush me.”
“She doesn’t look like a little girl to me,” R’nyath said. “Look at those hips…”
“She’s been trapped in a coffin for fifteen hundred years, and ruled demons for gods know how long before that,” Reid said. “Shut up and kill her. …She is pretty, though.”
Chuchupa rolled her eyes and threw a Tomahawk. Battle was joined, and very soon admiration for the lolita demon was submerged under panic as indeed the shadows surged around them to sap their strength and slap them around. But Kekeniro was very firm in his directions, good man, and after a bit of pummelling, Scathach pulled away from Chuchupa’s axe. “From a chrysalis of light shall I birth the deepest shadow…” She spun and was enveloped in what looked like an egg made of stained glass, but Chuchupa’s axe bounced right off it.
“Dammit!” she cried. But there were other things to fight – monsters that looked like…
“Are these stuffed dolls!?” cried Lilidi. “Except thrice my size?”
“Quick, burn them!” Skaentu exclaimed. “Mutilated monstrosities!”
“They do appear to be, my lady,” Cent said to Lilidi. “Hark, those pictures on the walls are unsettling.”
“They look like a child’s drawing,” Penelope said. “A child’s drawing of nightmares. Maybe she is just a little girl. Now I feel bad.”
“I don’t,” Vivienne grunted, slicing a doll in two with her glowing greatsword. “She certainly doesn’t feel bad about ripping us to shreds.”
“Group up for heals!” Kekeniro called, and they obeyed.
“Your fate was sealed the moment you set foot in my domain!” Scathach cried, and the cocoon burst, showering them all in aetherial stained glass. “Accept my touch, and bask in tenebrous brilliance!”
“What’s ‘tenebrous’ mean?” Chuchupa asked. Even Carvallain didn’t use that word, at least not in her hearing.
“Shadowy,” Tharash and Reid said at the same time.
“She do got a theme, don’t she?” R’nyath said, jokingly.
“It does not matter!” cried Constaint, Achiyo’s fanboy. “Our light shall prevail!”
“Please don’t go casting Flash everywhere!” Kekeniro warned him – and the others who knew Flash. “And… don’t move!” Darkness swept over them, only the faint light from the stained glass heart lanterns illuminating them. Chuchupa felt the floor crawling beneath her, faint hands pawing at her boots. Good thing she had those new adventuring boots. “Three… two… one…”
As the hands receded, Chuchupa clamped her axe tightly and bounded into the air, hacking a huge slash across Scathach’s heart. “Git down, lady!”
Scathach reeled, aether fluttering like butterflies from her form. “Such pervasive light… It doth steal into the darkest corners, and chase away my shadows…” She collapsed and fell – though she did not burst into aether.
“Yeah! We’re the best!” Chuchupa cheered, and so did many of the others… though the room was still dark. And suspiciously quiet.
“And thus the Shadow Queen doth fall,” said Diabolos’s voice. Chuchupa looked around frantically, raising her axe, but he was nowhere to be seen. “I commend you on your victory. Yes, such skill and strength are deserving of a more fitting stage. Come, mortals – the true master of shadows awaiteth you.”
The floor beneath them shivered and began to ascend as the ceiling above them irised open, bringing them out into the bright moonlight. Diabolos swooped in, silhouetted against the setting moon. “Shall we begin? Let dominion of your precious skies be decided here and now!”
“Bring iiiiit!” Chuchupa roared, charging. If anyone wasn’t ready, that wasn’t her affair! As long as Naomi was ready, that was all she needed!
Diabolos grinned as she came. “You expect the creature I was before, enfeebled by confinement? Hah! Face me now in the fullness of my power!”
But even if he’d not been phased by a cannonball to the face, he was a bit phased by facing all twenty-four of them, all those pointy things and magic biting into his aether. He tried to cast his greatest spell that Chuchupa vaguely remembered from way back, but the healers just shielded up and it did nothing. Well, not much, anyway. She was feeling pretty good about this…
Then Diabolos flew up out of the reach of the melee, towards the moon; the archers loosed a few arrows but without the volume of the lot of them, he absorbed them easily. “This tiresome battle hath dragged on overlong. Enough. The energies of the nether will be mine! I will bathe in primordial darkness!” He pulled up a giant door in front of them all and began to cast something.
“Channel your energies into the door!” Kekeniro yelled.
“Focus your aether! Fight back!” Meanna cried as the adventurers all reached out their hands to the door, magic flowing like beams of light into it until it glowed like the moon behind Diabolos.
“Bow before the shrieking majesty of the void!” Diabolos shouted, and cast his spell; a black sphere of magic formed before him and shot towards the door – blocked by a beam of light that blasted out from it. “What have you done!? You seek to wrest from me control of the portal?”
“Uh, I guess?” Florian said, still channelling aether into the door.
“You don’t need to tell us what we’re doing,” Aentfryn said.
Diabolos growled. “So be it. A contest of strength, then! A contest you have no hope of winning.”
“Hope is our specialty!” R’nyath said, and laughed. “Keep it up, everyone!”
And little by little, though the black sphere forced its way inch by inch closer, the beam of light burned brighter and brighter until something aetherially broke loose and the sphere bounced away.
“Impossible! I am a lord of the void, you cannot-” Diabolos screamed as the black sphere collided with him. For a second, Chuchupa thought he had been completely obliterated as a huge orb of spell circles obscured the moon, and when it faded there was no sign of the demon.
“Haha, yeah! Get buggered, ye bugger!” she cheered.
Nope, he was still there. “Mine imprisonment… weakened me more than I imagined… But you have not bested me yet! Witness now my true purpose for seeking the queen’s rebirth!” The Nullstone appeared in his hand and with a purple zap, he waved it at the Queen’s body.
“I knew it!” Reid said. “Demons never serve willingly.”
“Did she know about this?” Linnea asked. “Seems rude.”
The corpse rose and floated towards him, dissolving finally into aether… that he absorbed. He howled as his body shuddered and flexed, another pair of wings ripping free from his shoulders, his entire form swelling in size and a scarlet glow igniting within his skin. “Yes, the glory! An infinite well of shadow! You have breached Scathach’s unholy vessel, and released her power unto me! Shadow itself shall be mine armour! Come! Strike your feeble blows in vain!”
“Vivienne, take point for a bit,” Kekeniro directed, and she nodded and spun her sword, its glow brightening from violet to gold, and ran forwards. Chuchupa pouted a little, but she figured Kekeniro would rotate her back on soon enough. Besides, they might as well try fighting shadow with Vivienne’s shadow and see what happened.
“From the depths of shadow’s well shall rise your ruination!” Diabolos cried, and darkness enveloped them in a huge black dome.
“Heals!” was all Kekeniro yelled before the dome went off, blasting them with red and green light. It was very sparkly, and Chuchupa was almost distracted by the pretty colours, even though it did hurt. But enh, she’d had worse.
Diabolos was about to throw a tantrum. “Must I entreat the very spectre of death to be rid of you!? I care not! I will wager all for your destruction!”
“Ugh, I’m getting tired,” Yllamse said, flexing her wrists. “How much punching can one guy take?”
“I think that’s what he just said about us,” Rinala said with a giggle.
“Hey Yllamse,” R’nyath said. “Do you still fight for cookies?”
“Oh yup!” she answered cheerfully. “Especially chocolate chip!”
“What if I told you he’s full of cookies?”
Yllamse laughed and dove back in, and her next punch slammed into Diabolos with a pillar of light.
Their battering was taking its toll even on the overpowered voidsent. “What more must I have…? How great the flood of darkness… to drown out your light…”
“That wasn’t so bad,” R’nyath said, as Diabolos’s body went poof and the Nullstone fell to the tiled floor. “The Cloud of Darkness was worse.”
“Do not relax your guard yet!” cried Cait Sith. “The air is still heavy with his foul presence…”
There was a sound of whirring airship blades from the sky, and they looked up to see Radlia and Stacia coming in for a landing.
“Already taken care of the fiend, have you?” Radlia said, as she jumped to the ground. “And you didn’t even need that dusty old relic to do it!”
“Be careful, Captain! Diabolos yet lurks in the shadows!”
But Cait Sith was too late with his repeated warning – Radlia had reached out for the staff, and Diabolos abruptly appeared behind her, punching her across the arena. Cait Sith darted forward, to try to take advantage of Diabolos’s distraction, but Diabolos spun back and sent a spell sizzling at the cat-thing. Cait Sith nose-dived into the floor, smoking, and Diabolos picked up the staff again. “Finally have I claimed the Shadow Queen’s power for mine own, yet still am I harried by you noisome weevils!”
“Ready for round three- or four!?” Chuchupa yelled at him, hefting her axe. “Cuz I am!”
Diabolos raised his hand and a portal appeared above him. “I must needs quit this realm for a time… And when I have grown accustomed to my newfound might, there shall be a reckoning for your insolence!”
Chuchupa growled as she slowly closed on him. She hated fights with no clear conclusion. Was this squidbrain about to get away after all that?
“This ain’t the time for nappin’, furball! You’ve still got a job to do!” There was a shout from the sky, and a large blur crashed into Diabolos. A figure jumped away, firing shots from his pistol as the small airship exploded onto Diabolos’s body. Chuchupa ran forward as the Nullstone dropped, and as Diabolos swatted Leofard heavily to the ground, she chucked the staff bodily at Cait Sith. Leofard groaned. Diabolos turned his gaze on Chuchupa and she growled back.
Cait Sith had caught the staff with a shaky but defiant paw, and clambered painfully to his feet. “…Aye, my work here is unfinished. In Cessair’s name, I unmake thee, Diabolos! My master’s will be done!”
The staff glowed like a star, and a huge beam of light streamed from it to strike Diabolos. He sheltered himself in his bat-like wings, but they were burned through quickly, Chuchupa could see from her vantage point. Diabolos screamed as the light ate away at him. “For fifteen centuries have I yearned for this power! Thou canst not unmake me! No! Nooooooo!”
The light became too bright to see, and everyone covered their eyes. There was one final scream and the light blasted out into the sky unimpeded, then ceased. Cait Sith fell forward upon his face.
Chuchupa looked around. No more demon. Leofard’s smashed and burning airship. A smashed and not-burning Leofard, Stacia at his side cradling him. A crowd of adventurers filled with the increasing sensation of victory.
Stacia looked up at them and shook her head. “…I should have known we were wastin’ our breath. The captain only heeds the siren in his heart, and damn the consequences…” Naomi went over to them, ready to start patching him up again.
Leofard snickered at her, using his good arm to pull off his goggles, which had had both lenses smashed in. Chuchupa decided he looked weird without them. “Heh… I told you you’d be lost without me, didn’t I?”
“I would have thought of something,” Kekeniro muttered.
“I am glad we did not have to add Diabolos to our list of things to worry about long-term,” Achiyo said calmly. “Thank you.”
Cait Sith had gotten up again with some help and healing from Rinala, and limped over to Leofard, who pointed at him. “And look at you, puss, gettin’ knocked out cold in your moment of glory. You weren’t like to get another chance to honour your master’s memory and you almost missed it. But I suppose you pulled through at the last. …Aye, I’ll give you that much.”
“Thank you, Captain,” Cait Sith said. “You… are right. I’m afraid I misjudged your commitment to our cause.”
Radlia had been on her linkpearl. “The Lady Radlia will be here in a few minutes. Can I offer you a lift, Redbill?”
“I guess,” Leofard said, carefully not looking at the wreck of his little ship. “It’s the least you could do, really.”
“Oh, I could do a lot less than that,” Radlia grumbled.
Stacia turned to Chuchupa and sighed. “Well, I think he’ll live. Which is surprisin’ considerin’ he crashed his ship into a bloody demon… Damned fool.”
“That’s my style,” Chuchupa said approvingly. “But he needs folk like you about to keep ‘im grounded. That’s why I hang out with my lot, partly.”
“It just doesn’t seem like he ever listens to me, y’know?”
“Yeah, but he does.” Chuchupa was only serious for a second before grinning again. “Then he ignores it. Heheh.”
“That’s what I mean!”
Radlia watched them all file onto her giant ship, Leofard one of the first on supported by Stacia and Naomi. “How vexing to once again be rescued by Redbill…” she said to Chuchupa. “He’d better recover from those injuries so we can go back to hating each other on an equal footing.”
“That’s the spirit!” Chuchupa said. At least it was requited hate! Nothin’ more insulting than unrequited hate. She had to say that was the most fun she’d had in a while. Too bad it was over. What other treasures might be hidden in the Sea of Clouds?