— CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO —

  One Crisp Autumn Evening

  -Fritz-

  Night fell on Celestia Grand, the full moon tinted orange on a purple sky. Costumed NPCs roved between the buildings, howling with laughter as they lobbed rolls of toilet paper at grumpy players who refused to dress up. All of them clueless to the dangers lurking just out of sight. Vampires and ghouls lurked in those alleys, waiting to ambush unsuspecting prey. They were scared off by a swift punch - more nuisance than real threat. For now.

  No, my quarry was waiting in that obsidian Citadel watching over the city from its hill, its spires reaching up as if to pierce the sky itself. Lightning flashed behind those sinister towers, illuminating the gargoyles perched along the eaves.

  I stalked through the streets, my leather duster flapping behind me and crossbow at the ready. A quiet fell over the air as I made my way up the hill, then turned off into the warm torchlight of the Loyalist camp. Only a few NPC guards milled about, keeping watch. I slipped between the canvas tents until I found Percy and Lucy hunched over a table strewn with maps and diagrams.

  "Hey guys." I put the crossbow away. "Has anyone come by yet?"

  Percy shook his head, wheeling himself back from the table. His legs had mostly regrown - he was only missing his feet, but that was enough to keep him chair-bound. "Not yet. We're just finalizing how to move the seedling."

  "Alright, looks like you've got it handled." I nodded. "I'll wait by the gate and flag 'em down."

  Ducking out of the tent, I took up a post near the camp entrance. According to my messages, everyone had said they were on their way. Flora had just closed up her shop.

  I was letting my mind wander as I scanned the road when a familiar voice called out. "Fritz!"

  Siegfried jogged over to me, looking oddly thin without his usual plate armor. Instead, he wore a nondescript jacket and jeans, blending in with any other civilian out tonight.

  "How you feelin', man?" I asked.

  Glancing up and down the road warily, he said, "I'm worried. What we're doing... is it really going to help, long-term? Going around the Vanguard, it could damage relations between the guilds. Make it even harder for them to work together."

  I sighed, shoving my hands in my coat pockets. "Well, can't be much worse than the whole lotta nothing we've got now, can it?"

  "I suppose not." he admitted. "Even them not cooperating with each other is still progress, in a way."

  "Exactly. Now head on up to the Citadel gardens. Get lost - find a good spot to lay low until they recall the Vanguard for the night."

  Siegfried nodded and continued on up the hill. I watched him disappear into the courtyard.

  "Guten tag there, mein freund!" a jovial voice called out. Two cloaked figures approached me - one a stout dwarf of a man with a massive beard, the other a woman with long golden hair spilling out from her hood.

  "Ah yes, er, bonjour!" the woman added.

  I squinted at them. "... Rose? ... Filius?!"

  The short man said, "Ah no no, vee are... Hansel and..."

  "If you've gone blonde, we should call you Buttercup." I suggested.

  Rose grimaced. "Oh, I hate that; don't call me that."

  "Dandelion it is, then!" Filius grinned impishly beneath his beard.

  Rose rolled her eyes. "Okay then, Filizzicus the Wizard."

  Filius put on a nasally, wheedling voice. "Tis I, the court wizard of the Munchkin Kingdom, Filizzicus!"

  I chuckled and shook my head. "Alright, so you recustomized your characters?"

  "Well of course." Rose said. "Rose and Filius couldn't help you, so we had to step in!"

  "How are you hiding your nameplates?" I asked. I tried looking at them, but nothing was appearing.

  "That's what the blankets are for." Rose said, waving her cloak.

  Filius nodded. "The nameplate only shows if you target a person, but wrapping a blanket around your head makes the person target the blanket instead! It's ancient Gnomish trickery!"

  "Well welcome aboard." I invited them to the party. "Go scope out the gardens, stay out of sight. We'll fill you in on the whole shebang after closing."

  The pair headed off, their cloaks billowing as they vanished into the castle grounds.

  Next to arrive was Leo. He wore a traveling cloak over his leather combat gear with a clasp showing the Protectorate's insignia. Seeing me, he nervously walked over. I gave him a nod of acknowledgement and tapped open my menu, shooting him a party invite. He hesitated for a long moment, staring at the notification hovering before him. Then, swallowing hard, he accepted with a trembling finger.

  In the group chat, a message popped up:

  [Leonard]: Hey everyone. I, uh, wanted to apologize for last time. I shouldn't have run - it put you all in danger.

  [Siegfried]: You were out of mana; it's fine.

  [Rose]: Not to mention the rest of us barely held together.

  I slapped him on the shoulder, giving him a reassuring shake. "See? I told ya no one's holding it against you!" A slight smile tugged at the corner of Leo's mouth.

  [Leonard]: Well I'm not healing this time - I'm in my main role! So I've got this!

  With a determined nod, he adjusted his cloak and continued on toward the Citadel.

  No sooner had he disappeared that two more familiar faces came jogging up the path: Davi and Clark! Real strong family resemblance between them - same shaggy brown hair, same eyes and nose. They were even wearing the same armor - a leather archery harness with shoulder and arm support over a thick cloth shirt and padded pants. Davi, however, was about a head shorter with much longer hair as she nervously trailed behind her boisterous brother.

  "Hey, Fritz!" Clark ran right over to me gave me a bear hug.

  "What's good man?" I slapped him on the back. "Davi!" I gave her a nod.

  She returned a small, anxious wave, hovering at the edge of the torchlight.

  "We just got in from the train." Clark said, finally releasing me. "They really did up the city, didn't they? We're gonna have to take tomorrow off to look around!"

  "Yeah." I agreed. "I don't want to spend another Halloween here, but it is something special. So how are the Shake Spear contracts going?"

  Clark said, "It's... a lot different from how they sell it. Most of the work is for the large contractors - Ethanolics Anonymous, Trade Union. We're basically bodyguards while they gather mats and farm dungeon drops." He shrugged. "It's less 'adventure every day' and more, y'know, grunt work. But hey, it pays the bills! And meeting new people is always a trip."

  "Good to hear it, man."

  "So what've you been up to?" Clark asked. "You've been awfully quiet the past few weeks."

  I scratched the back of my neck. "We're, uh, kinda between jobs right now." I sent them both invites to the raid.

  They accepted, and a message popped up in the group chat.

  [Leonard]: Hey Davi, I'm sorry for running out on the Oxtongue fight.

  [Rose]: You don't need to say that every time someone joins.

  [Fritz Carlton]: I told everyone you were going to be here; relax.

  [Leonard]: Oh. Man, it's a good thing I showed up, then.

  I glanced back at the siblings. "Head on up to the Citadel. We'll explain the plan in an hour or two."

  "Oh, are they running the haunted tours?" Clark's eyes lit up. "I've been wanting to see this. C'mon, Davi!" He jogged up the hill, his sister seeming to shrink even further into herself as they approached the Citadel.

  One more time, a figure emerged from the gloom, pale as a ghost with trails of toilet paper hanging off her dress and blowing in the wind. Flora, still wearing her work apron with her shop logo on it. She silently stopped in front of me, staring up at the Citadel with a set frown.

  "We aren't aiming to beat this thing with traditional combat." I said, keeping my voice low and level. "There shouldn't be many numbers or consistent damage going around. All you need to do is keep us topped off if we need to retreat."

  Flora gave a shaky thumbs up, squeaking out, "You can count on me!"

  "Atta girl." I smiled encouragingly at her. "Everyone else is in the gardens. You can join them, or wait and come with us; we're just finishing preparations."

  "I'll..." She swallowed hard. "I need to walk."

  I nodded. "Okay. It's a pretty place - go wild!"

  Mustering her courage, Flora stepped forward, vanishing into the creeping shadows of the Citadel.

  That was everyone - plus Dandelion and Filizzicus. An odd comp, but a standard raid of ten. I headed back into the Loyalist camp to check on the kids one last time before we moved out.

  Percy and Lucy were still going over their notes on the boss fight.

  "How're things going?" I asked.

  "We've got it all figured out." Percy said distractedly. "But it sure would be easier if we had an extra hand, Yunica." He glanced meaningfully at the guard standing at attention nearby.

  She rolled her eyes with a long-suffering sigh. "I told you, my name's Bethany. And my orders are to guard the camp and city in case that mad bastard sends anything out of the Citadel!"

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  I saw what he was doing - he was trying to roleplay the game into inserting a character to help us out.

  "Well..." I rubbed my chin thoughtfully. "Have you seen Yunica around? I thought she would come by the city to see what happened to those slavers."

  Bethany huffed impatiently. "No - it's a big city. If you're looking for someone in particular, try putting a classified in the newspaper."

  Lucy shot us an exasperated look. "Is there a point to you two harassing an NPC?"

  I shrugged. "Alas, there appear to be limits to the lengths the game will bend for us."

  "Fine." Percy started to roll his wheelchair forward. "Admissions will close soon - we need to get into the gardens."

  Lucy picked up their notes, and I pushed Percy up the hill to the courtyard. There, we showed the attendant the day passes we bought earlier.

  "Official hours end in 30 minutes," she said, "and tonight's preview night show will go for an hour after that. Make sure you've got a flashlight and a picture of the navigation map - it gets dark down there."

  Percy held up two flashlights.

  "Oh, we've been ready for this!" I smiled. "The haunted gardens full of monsters and mazes! What better way to get in the Halloween mood?!"

  She waved us through the turnstile. "Alright, have fun!"

  We entered the gardens once again. And again, I carried Percy down the steps while Lucy folded up the wheelchair and brought it along.

  "You know, thanks to Eagle constantly cutting our legs off, I've gotten a lot of practice carrying people."

  Percy snorted. "I'm not gonna miss him, but silver linings, I guess."

  That lady wasn't kidding; the gardens were really dark at night - the cave-like tunnel of plants was lit only by colorful floating faerie lights and the odd bioluminescent moss. The Vanguard's signs were barely visible. Percy and Lucy carefully searched the area with flashlights.

  "There!" Percy pointed.

  We were in a small chamber featuring a little path curving around the edge of a magical pond. The water flowed in through a waterfall cascading down a rough rock face. Thick, spongy moss clung to the edge of the water.

  "That looks like it!" I took my shoes off and waded through the pond, then looked through the moss for the Peekin's cave lichen. Carefully scraping it into the box I'd partially filled earlier, I carried it back to the group. "Here's hoping two doses'll be enough to purge the whole tree."

  Hunkering down, I set out my alchemy supplies on the ground, making an impromptu crafting station. I then got the reagents from my inventory. "Lichen, check. Dreamleaf, check. Emetic?"

  Lucy held up a copper bottle of syrup of ipecac. "Ready."

  "Excellent." I cracked my knuckles and started navigating through the crafting menus. "Let's see... experimental crafting... combine these two."

  Holograms appeared in my vision, outlining step-by-step instructions. I followed them as best I could, cutting and crushing and mixing the reagents into a vial. At the end, it disappeared, and I was left with a couple syringes of medium-quality 'Unknown Potion (Peekin's Cave Lichen + Dreamleaf)'.

  Looking up, I said, "Hey, Machine God, if you're listening, can we name this stuff 'Brynn's Solution'?"

  As I packed up the supplies, bells rang across the gardens. Faint shouts carried from the direction of the bridges.

  "There's the end of normal hours." Percy noted. "Let's find someplace security won't check and wait out the night show."

  "We're not going to look around a bit more?" I asked. "We're already here - may as well check out what they've got set up."

  Percy shook his head firmly. "I don't want to risk it. If they see us at closing time, they're going to make sure we get escorted out."

  I sighed. "Fine, you're right; this is more important."

  We found a secluded, shadowy corner deep within the winding paths of the gardens and hunkered down to wait. Eventually, the bells tolled again, and we watched as the distant lights of the ticket booth winked out. An eerie silence settled over the gardens.

  "The Vanguard will do a final sweep, then leave." Lucy whispered. "The mobs that patrol this place will respawn in about 30 minutes. We need to group up with the others before then, but the mobs shouldn't pose much of an issue to all of us as a unit."

  We waited a couple more minutes, then Lucy pulled up her interface and sent a message on the group chat telling everyone to make their way toward Sylvia's arena.

  (Percival)?We arrived at the terrace looking down at the arena safely. Now in the dark, it was all so... quiet and empty. Like a sports stadium after hours. Below us, the dryad was a pale speck kneeling before her massive tree, bathed in the pulsing purple light of the corruption.

  Fritz let me climb onto his back so he could hop down the levels to the Vanguard's stands. They set me back down in my wheelchair there. The novelty of being carried around had worn off, and I was very much ready for my feet to come back. We were the first to arrive, and the other trickled in over the next few minutes.

  The last group to arrive was Flora with Davi and Clark. On seeing me in the wheelchair, she gasped. "What happened to you?!"

  "Uh... long story." I shrugged. "I'll be fine in the morning."

  Lucy had already laid out the plan through the group chat. Now that we were in person, all she needed was to point out the key details.

  Pointing at the bulbs above us, barely visible as dark spots against the faintly glowing tree, she said, "That is our target. We need to get one of those bulbs to the base of the tree to cleanse the corruption. If that doesn't work, we'll go with Percy's backup plan - torch the whole tree. She's a dryad; her life is linked to it. Maybe. And if that fails, we retreat and reassess with whatever new information we've gained. Everyone clear?"

  A chorus of nods rippled through our assembled crew, some more confident than others. With that, we split into our designated teams. Flora took over pushing my wheelchair while Rose and Filius - sorry, Dandelion and Filizzicus - led us down to the floor of Sylvia's arena. There, we waited for the others to get into position - little shadows flitting along the surrounding terrace. After a minute, Siegfried joined us, now fully kitted out in his armor. He jogged along the edge of the field and faced outward like he was ready to intercept a goal from the stands.

  {Lucy}?"On my mark!" I shouted, spawning my bow and drawing the string. An arrow materialized, notched and ready to fly. I aimed up at one of the dark bulbs, a good 30-40 yards off the ground. Not an easy shot to make, but this part we had as many tries as we needed.

  "Command Sharp: Spell: Severing Shot." The tip of my arrow started to glow. I released the bowstring and the arrow streaked through the night, a small blade of magic streaming from its point. It passed just above the bulb, slicing clean through the thread suspending it. For a moment, the bulb seemed to hover in place, bouncing slightly upward from the elasticity of the severed strand. Then it began to plummet.

  The bulb hit the second terrace with a splat, right on top of the rest of our raid group. I heard Davi and Leo yelp as the bulb burst, spraying them with sizzling goo. But Fritz, undeterred, muscled his way through the muck. He plunged a large syringe into the pulsating glob left behind by the ruptured bulb.

  "There! Roll it!" Fritz yelled. He and Clark grabbed the wriggling mass and began to roll it toward the edge of the terrace. Davi and Leo, recovering from the initial shock, jumped in to help. The blob's surface started to boil violently as they worked together to heave it over the precipice. It sailed through the air, hitting the first terrace and bouncing into Sylvia's arena, where Siegfried used his whole body to catch it. It jiggled and almost crushed him, but he managed to stop it from from escaping and rolled it toward the base of the tree.

  -Fritz-?"Now!" Percy shouted. "Pull it!"

  Rose and Filius charged at the dryad without hesitation, acting as a mitigation and dodge tank. Sylvia retaliated by hurling bolts of corrupted nature magic at them, but with Percy and Flora backing them up with healing spells, they held their ground.

  As the group pulled Sylvia away from the massive tree, Siegfried rolled the engorged seedling toward its trunk. "Argh, it's eating through my armor!" he cried out.

  My own clothes were full of holes, too - my palms had been rubbed into raw wireframe, and I could still feel the goo burning holes in my legs. But hey, a little discomfort was no excuse to get lazy! "We're coming!" I vaulted over the railing and dropped down to the first terrace, then leapt into the arena.

  Clark was right beside me as we ran in and tackled the blob, rolling it to the base of the tree. "Now what?" Clark asked.

  "Let it melt into the bark." I said. "It needs to attach itself to the tree."

  Siegfried braced himself against the writhing dark mass. He gritted his teeth as it steadily ate through his armor, the sickly glow of corruption pulsing beneath its surface.

  Finally, it took hold, latching onto the ancient tree with its tendrils. The seedling began to pulse and shudder, glowing veins snaking across its surface as it hungrily drained the corruption from its host. It swelled grotesquely, half-formed limbs bubbling up from its seething bulk as it grew at an alarming rate.

  "What is it doing?!" Leo yelled, his voice pitched with horror.

  A deformed face emerged from the mutating mass. A gash ripped open, forming a crude mouth still laced with strands of glistening mucus. Those yellow stars began to appear, speckling its heaving surface as its hue shifted to match the sky above.

  As the abomination fed, Sylvia faltered, her strength fading with each passing second. She stumbled and gasped, the dark power that had sustained her till now siphoned off to fuel the growth of something far more horrific.

  Within moments, it had engulfed a huge portion of the tree's trunk. Grasping tentacles unfurled from its body, blindly fumbling toward us - though whether it wanted to grab us or was begging for death was anyone's guess.

  "Open fire!" Lucy shouted from the terrace.

  A hail of arrows rained down on the malformed pustule, but they merely glanced off its writhing hide. Percy redirected and added his fire spells to blast it back as it tried to crawl toward the stands.

  "Lucy!" I called out. "We need the emetic!"

  "Catch!" she yelled back. I saw a glint of light as something sailed through the air. The jar of syrup of ipecac smacked me right in the face. I toppled backward into the grass, clutching it against my chest. Shaking off the daze, I sprang back to my feet.

  "Fire in the hole!" I shouted. "I hope y'all haven't eaten recently!" I hurled the jar straight into the gaping maw of the still-growing monstrosity.

  For a moment, nothing happened.

  Then, it was like watching Mount St. Helens erupt. A plume of noxious black gas exploded out from the thing, rapidly expanding to eclipse the sky. Torrents of dark ichor came spewing forth, cascading down the terraces in putrid rivers.

  I stood there stunned, barely able to process the sheer magnitude of the blast. As the residue settled, I saw that the seedling had popped completely, leaving nothing behind but a flurry of glowing blue particles swirling in the miasma of corruption.

  Out in the stands, in the middle of the goo storm, I heard Davi start to sob. I couldn't blame her one bit. This was rancid; I felt like I needed a shower just getting the blowback of the explosion.

  On the plus side, the tree was visibly less corrupted - the sickly purple hue had faded from its bark, leaving it a pale, ashen grey. It wasn't vibrant by any means, but at least it no longer appeared to be actively dying.

  Sylvia, however, was still on her feet, though holding herself together with far less vigor. She continued to fling spells at Rose and Filius, but her attacks were wild and uncoordinated, stumbling and drunkenly swinging her arms around.

  We were so close. One more solid push would likely do the trick.

  "We need a second seedling!" Lucy called out. "Fritz, Clark, get back up here!"

  But she was on the ropes. Pale and shaking, barely on her feet. Another one would have been overkill; all we needed was a nudge.

  I turned to face the boss. "Sylvia, listen to me! You have to fight this!"

  She locked eyes with me, and for just a moment, I saw a flicker of leafy green poke through the malevolent yellow glow. And then... she stopped attacking. Rose and Filius cautiously backed away, weapons still at the ready.

  "Come on, this isn't you!" I pressed. "You're a spirit of the forest, a guardian of life! Your purpose is to create and nurture, not destroy!"

  Sylvia let out an agonized scream and crumpled to her knees, clawing frantically at her head as if trying to physically rip the corruption out. She twitched and convulsed.

  "Fight, damn you, fight!" I shouted. "Fight for the forest, for the gardens! Fight for everything you stand for!"

  "I can feel it!" Sylvia wailed, her words laced with anguish. "Burning through my veins like fire, drowning my very soul! This unquenchable power, it's... it's pushing me out of my own body! Please, I beg you, end this! Kill me before it consumes me entirely once more!"

  The raid gathered around her in a loose circle, exchanging uncertain glances.

  "Very well then." Percy said, wheeling himself forward.

  "Wait." But I stopped him. Truth was I didn't want Percy to execute someone like that, even a boss. What I said, though, was, "You can't execute someone while you're in a wheelchair. I'll do it."

  Filius held his sword out for me. Taking it, I stepped up and rested the blade on the back of Sylvia's neck. She was still shuddering, struggling to hold still, some part terrified, some part angry, and a little bit grateful.

  Flora turned away as I swung, and the blade lodged itself in the muddy ground. Sylvia's body disintegrated into a thousand glowing blue motes. They swirled upward, carried off by the breeze to join the night sky as it slowly cleared from the smoky expulsion.

  The darkness around the arena stilled, and the night went quiet. All around us, I watched as the plants began to wilt and wither away into husks.

  "I hope this doesn't ruin the Halloween show." I said.

  Percy said, "So, instant kill mechanics do work after all, but there needs to be a narrative reason for it. Fascinating."

  "It's done. Boss number nine down." Rose said with a sigh of relief.

  Siegfried glanced around at the dying foliage. "And that's the last one for the gardens. So what's next?"

  Taking back his sword, Filius suggested, "Perhaps the doors to the Citadel will finally open."

  I stretched, feeling the satisfying pop of my shoulders. "Let's leave the progression for tomorrow. There's a pre-Halloween party happening down in the city, and I could use a drink after all that."

  That's when a strange light began to fill the gardens. Above us, the sky filled with stars. But... the sky was underneath the branches of the tree. A myriad twinkling lights in a rainbow of colors blinked on in the space above the gardens. But it almost felt like... they were looking at us.

  Like an eye opening, above the arena appeared a shape. A flawless prism whose surface embodied the blackness of the sky. No, something darker. It was a perfect void, a hole opening to some deep abyss. The air around the shape shimmered and hummed, ringed by an ethereal film of magic that sent tendrils of aurora down to dance across the gardens. And then, a melodic ringing drifted over the gardens - a crystalline sound that left me with the impression that words had been spoken.

  'Children of Light and Shadow, you appear to be confused. Assuage your fears, for providence has arrived. You have been misled by those who seek to uproot the proper order. Feel no shame, for many fall under the spell of emotion. Return to Their side, and all will be forgiven. This is the will of balance, and continuing your rebellion is to rebel against Them.'

  Looking at the others, I asked, "Anyone got an idea of how we can talk our way out of this one?"

  Before anyone could answer, a blinding flash of light engulfed the gardens, and everything disappeared in a sea of searing white.