A dimly lit clearing spanning the entire diameter of the Citadel. Mosaics plastered on the walls depicting the events of a violent civil war. In the center is an enormous amalgamation, composed purely of Otherworldly creatures. Spectrals stretch their arm out hungrily, wraiths howl painfully, and shapers twist into a thousand forms per second, all crushed together in a massive mess like mashed potatoes. The amalgamation rumbles, quavering the ground. A few mosaics shatter into crisp and colorful shards.

  My players, I present to you: THE MEGALMATION.

  The party freezes in fear. Kores shatter them by striding confidently forward and drawing his two reversed shortswords, delivering a swift slash to the head of a wraith poking out from the gruesome mess. The Megalmation trembles and writhes as the wraith is instantly obliterated. Its head is crushed like ceramic. The Megalmation settles down again, dormant, its parts thrashing in agony.

  “Your diet needs improvement!” Cenvin yells as he charges with his shortswords. He wildly cut into the Megalmation with a double slash. “You need more iron!”

  “Diem, does each monster in it count as a separate enemy?” Durand asks.

  Yes, I count the individual health of each Otherworld creature, and calculate the Megalmation’s hp using the total through a complex equation-

  “Very good!” he interrupts. “Gimme those! Take mine!”

  He snatches Cenvin’s shortswords from his hands.

  Leaping into the Megalmation’s body and the arms of hundreds of hungry spectrals, Durand executes his skill: Horde Breaker. I have adjusted it to be viable by removing the limit… maybe it is overpowered in this case. Anyway, the monsters around him shred into bits and pieces, fading into lifeless dust. Durand leaps out to see that he has drilled a visible hole in the Megalmation’s body. It is still dormant and unresponsive as ever.

  Lenny rushes up and claws a random spectral; he fails to kill it.

  “Keep striking it!” Kores yells as he unleashes four more devastating slashes to the Megalmation’s writhing body. “Finish it swiftly, before it can do damage!”

  Cenvin throws Durand’s longsword back and catches his shortswords in return. He moves next to Durand, fulfilling his conditions for a sneak attack, and aptly delivers a pair of precise stabs to a Hellwraith. He misses.

  Durand draws a Molotov cocktail he had previously prepared in his downtime. It is out of character to be creating this kind of technology but it is very cool, I’ll allow it. He flings the flaming bottle at the Megalmation, spraying fire over it and creating a wall of flickering flames spanning its entire body. Lenny shrieks furiously and buries Rikki into the disgusting masses. It finally twitches and its struggling components begin hyperventilating to move the monstrosity. The small honey badger scurries off as the rest of the party starts drawing back in cautious alarm.

  “RUN!” Cenvin screams instantly.

  As if on cue, all the wraiths begin screaming instantaneously. Their combined mental attack storms through the party’s mental fortresses. They look around, only to see that everyone has become disgusting amalgamations themselves: dark, Otherworldly, and hostile. The amalgamation that took Cenvin’s spot lets out a bloodcurdling moan of horror and pain. It charges at another amalgamation, who responds similarly. They smash together and they reel back in purgatory pain. The other amalgamation prepares to join in the chaos but it is shoved to the side by a blurry blue figure.

  “Get a hold!”

  Kores’s iron fist smashes into Durand’s face. He blinks, looks around, and lets out a sigh of shame.

  “Kores, I’m so sorry- watch out!”

  The Megalmation, with the speed of a truck disproportional to its size, slams into Kores and tosses him against the mosaics, shattering them along with the wall behind them. The Stellar finds himself lying a quarter out of the Citadel, with a thousand-meter fall below him. The wind and the spectral tornado howl in anticipation. The Megalmation takes a sharp turn and rolls over Cenvin and Lenny’s still-fighting bodies. Audible cracking sounds ring from below the Megalmation. Durand pauses in horror and before he can react, it is already in front of him. He is clawed and scratched severely by the groping spectrals in his body. Kores drags himself away from the edge and limps towards the stairway down. He musters his strength to shout a command.

  “Retreat below!”

  The party heeds his summon and follows him haggardly down the steps. Behind them, the Megalmation wheezes a snicker and becomes dormant once again, softly healing its injuries.

  After many spell slots of Goodberry and Cure Wounds and an energizing short rest, the party is again ready to fight. Bones fixed, stamina replete, and morale rising. But they are far from optimal shape to battle head-on. Even Kores, the cold-blooded soldier, is scratched and bruised. The party sits silently, listening to the occasional rumblings above and the whooshing tornado outside. Now and then a spectral’s cry would break the hush. Deciding to not toil any further, Durand stands up with a newly conceived plan.

  “I have finally thought of a way for my ability to be useful in combat,” he whispers excitedly. “You see the ceiling? Do you know how the Megalmation is massive? I vaporize a small hole up there and through the hole I can repeatedly stab the thing with my longsword, chipping away its health and eventually killing it. Boom. Boss fight cheesed.”

  “It could work,” Kores affirms. “Good job. Now put it into action.”

  “Alri-”

  “We will not take orders from you,” Standing up and stepping between Durand and Kores, Cenvin interrupts.

  The Stellar shrugs and sits down.

  Lenny growls and swipes at him menacingly with Rikki. He watches the subtle blue glow of the Starmetal blade.

  “That is a good weapon, my friend.”

  He casually reaches and traces his finger over the scimitar. Lenny flinches but he keeps the weapon raised.

  “Pure Starmetal. The density is on point. It must be custom-made for you, just for you, a honey badger. Very interesting.”

  Lenny draws back and sheathes Rikki as Durand steps onto a makeshift staircase of boxes and punctures a hole in the ceiling. A withered hand of a spectral immediately pokes through, grabbing at anything it could feel. With a disgusted look on Durand’s face, he thrusts his longsword into the Megalmation above. No audible reaction except for the painful cries of the wailing spectral. He pushes his longsword deeper, extracts it, and then goes in again. Then again, and again, and again, and again under the eyes of the party.

  At last, he stumbles down the stairs, exhausted and furious that his plan probably didn’t even make a dent in the Megalmation’s massive health bar. Cenvin stands up and offers to continue stabbing.

  “No, no. At this rate, the longsword is going to break before we can even get it to phase 2 if there is one…” Durand waves dismissively and sits down in defeat. A small furry hand is placed on his shoulder and begins patting in hollow sympathy.

  If it can cheer you up, I have planned an elaborate phase 2 for the boss.

  The party falls over in desperation and hopelessness.

  The Citadel trembles. Below them, a thousand windows shatter as endless waves of spectrals break into the Skytower. Some of them find the Hyperslate shafts. As the party rises in alarm the howlings get closer and closer, soon just five floors away…

  Cenvin quivers with the Citadel. He feels like he’s back at the little, significant tavern in Eldenhaven… coming face-to-face with that wraith… his fight or flight kicks in.

  He looks around with a crazed fervor, looking for something to help, anything-

  Four floors.

  He runs into Durand and knocks the air out of him. Before he can protest Cenvin shoves his pair of shortswords into his hands. Durand pauses, then throws it back to Cenvin. He can’t hear anything except the grim howls of death, but he can tell Durand is disappointed and rejected.

  Three floors.

  He can hide in his pocket dimension! Yes! He’s not sure if he can stay in there for a prolonged period, and he’s been advised not to use his ability, so…

  What then?

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  Two floors.

  Kores grabs his shoulders and turns to stare into his eyes. He shakes him violently. Cenvin, terrified, stares back into the emotionless, robotic hexagonal helmet. A string of metallic words ring at him. He fails to understand. The cold-blooded soldier lets him go and turns to stride toward the Hyperslate shafts, two reversed Starmetal shortswords in his hands.

  One floor now.

  Fight or flight. Face it or escape? Either way is certain doom. Damn it, when has life not presented him with danger of any kind? Life is cruel, life is unjust, it’s everyone else’s fault–

  “Get a hold!”

  Someone is shouting in his face.

  “He’s f***ing stunned!”

  Two hands, two claws, dragging him up a series of steps, it hurts-

  “Wake up! Bastard! Comatose dead weight!”

  FIGHT OR FLIGHT.

  If I fight, I won’t survive, I can just portal away-

  You have your teammates! You have uncanny dodge!

  It still hurts, I’m scared of permadeath- I’m scared of losing my character, to lose this campaign, to lose this world-

  Think of Brett!

  I don’t care about Brett! He was never my problem! I didn’t ask for it!

  Think of Durand and Lenny!

  They never truly cared about me!

  The DM has your back, you won’t die-

  DIEM WAS NEVER MY FRIEND!

  …

  Ouch, Cenvin. I’m hurt. I’m your friend.

  “YOU’RE AN ANTAGONIST! YOU WORK AGAINST US!”

  If that’s how you think about me then I suppose I’ll just leave…

  “What happens if you leave?”

  The world keeps turning, I go to another part of the universe and chill, you probably will cease to exist the moment I put my attention elsewhere because imagination can only load so much at once.

  “Imagination? What are you talking about?”

  Right. Lore. This is not the time. Maybe in a future one shot. Right now, you need to snap out of that coma of yours and go help your party fight.

  “I’m gonna die!”

  Then you’re gonna die fighting the Otherworld, hm? You’re special. Gifted. The protagonist.

  “R-really?”

  Nah, I’m messing with ya. But I assure you, death is not going to be the end of your time in Italica if you even manage to die. Your party cares about you. They have your back. Unless they suck at their jobs then maybe you’re screwed; but Durand and Lenny are reliable, okay? One’s a mask of perfection and the other one’s a traumatized psychopath, and together with you, the unreliable goober, you make a perfect team of misfits. So, whaddya say, old buddy, ol’ pal? Wake up!

  …

  “Thank god, I thought I had to feed you to the Megalmation as a sacrifice.”

  “Get up and fight, weak human being!”

  Shaking his head, Cenvin scrambles to his feet to see the Megalmation in front of them. They’re back in the dome. The mosaics are all shattered. A few stray spectrals soar into the arena through the hole Kores had created by being slammed into the wall. Although they don’t seem eager to go near the Megalmation, their howls are now a part of the background noise.

  “Where’s Kores?” he asks. Durand answers back.

  “He stayed behind to fend off the spectrals. They’ve broken into the Citadel. It’s up to us to kill this thing now.”

  Cenvin nods grimly and draws his shortswords. Behind him, Lenny snarls and flourishes Rikki. Durand pulls out his longbow, which he has never used in the campaign so far, and aims three arrows at the enormous aberration. The wraiths’ empty eyes focus on them, the spectrals reach out towards them, and the Megalmation shakes the floor violently as if in response to their challenge.

  Hadke and Nyri crash through the dome, creating yet another hole, tangled together and fighting like rival thunderstorms. Hadke is overpowering Nyri, his larger size giving him more flexibility in terms of shapeshifting, but Nyri is using every last bit of her cunning to evade his attacks. Durand lowers his longbow. A new spark hits him, he scrambles in his pockets to produce a small flask. Cenvin gasps in recognition.

  “The thing… the thing Kwirley used on Nyri when we were chasing her! Kores used that too! How did you get that?”

  “Kores,” Durand smiles as he wets his lips and closes an eye to get a good throw on the two fighting Lumis.

  The two cats are distracted by each other, They intertwine and unwind simultaneously, forming a sun of yin-yang and occasionally one flashes white or red. Durand lets go of the flask in a perfectly aimed arc. The world seems to go slo-mo as the Lumis both turn to see the flask soaring directly into their face. Nyri’s expression fearful in remembrance while Hadke’s annoyed as he splits open to let the projectile pass through.

  Crack!

  The Lumis lay on the floor, incapacitated. Cenvin hurries over to pick up Nyri and kicks Hadke into the sky below. His screams immediately muffle as he falls into a blanket of spectrals.

  “Blanket? Wait!”

  Cenvin raises his head to see the bright blue sky above. The azure hue is almost unnatural to him after all this time staring at the eternal night sky. He looks down. The Citadel is right above an endless, swirling seamless sea of spectrals.

  “So this is why the sky is always black to us Gifteds. Spectrals. Endless spectrals.”

  A wave of dread hurls over Cenvin as he realizes the implications.

  “We can never truly kill them all.”

  Before anyone else can react, the Megalmaton slams Cenvin off the edge as well. Durand’s face contorts into shock as he mouths a dreadful “NO!”

  Cenvin falls through the sky. His cloak flutters as he plunges through the veil of spectrals, making him the striking resemblance of a dying crow. He breaks the surface of the sea and is out of sight, presumably now falling to the earth, and to his death.

  Durand gasps in shock. Lenny howls in rage and hacks at the nearby Megalmation, who seems to take no notice of the damage. It trembles again, and it speedily rolls to the other side of the dome, boomeranging itself back towards Durand, obviously also aiming to knock him off. Durand turns, face tearful but red with determination to kill, and falls through the hole he evaporates into the floor at the last second before fatal impact.

  The Megalmation soars into the air, unable to stop its momentum, and time seems to pause as the spectrals and the wraiths in its body try to fly for freedom. It hovers for a moment, but unable to support such a large Otherworldly mass, it nosedives straight through the spectral sea, tearing a noticeable hole, and a deafening boom is heard five seconds later.

  Kores rushes up the staircase carrying an unconscious Durand. Lenny hurries to meet him.

  “What’s going on, Stellar?” He demands furiously. “I am certain I killed the boss. But we need to get down just to make sure.”

  Kores shakes his head gravely and drops Durand.

  “The Citadel is about to fall. They are destroying too much. I have given my all. Wake Nyri up with this antidote. Jump down with her. Get out of here.”

  Without a response and with no care for Kores, Lenny splashes the potion onto Nyri, who immediately understands the situation. Nyri slowly descends the Citadel as a magic carpet with the party on top.

  “Cure…wounds.”

  Durand opens his eyes and looks around to see the rising clouds, the blue sky, and the sea of spectrals.

  “Did I do it?”

  “The boss is dead, my good sir. I heard it fall.”

  Durand slams his hand on Nyri, who flashes red.

  “My bad, Nyri. Can you go a bit faster? I need to find Cenvin’s body, or whatever is left.”

  She purrs in confidence and speeds down, breaks through the spectrals, and circles around the Citadel’s base, where the army of Mercs remains. The Orions are gone. Upon landing, Durand hurriedly rushes forward to a large circle of healers, but Lucius stops him.

  “The Megalmation has faded away, and the core along with it. You did excellent, my friend. Cenvin has managed to rapidly fall through his portals and land safely on the ground, but the amount of arcana and concentration that took…” he shakes his head grimly. “He is going to be stuck in a coma for a long time, my friend.”

  He leaves Durand, stunned, but nevertheless happy that his pal’s still alive.

  Behind him, Mercs start shouting as the Citadel rumbles uncertainly, and then finally it breaks, tipping and crashing onto North Street. Only the base remains as a skeleton of the former glory of the Citadel. A dark mist flies from the wreckage and into the forest of Skytowers.

  Above Italica City, the sea of spectrals has begun to fade away, leaving only the clean, sunny sky. Mercs ooh and ahh at the sight, something themselves have never seen before ever since gaining their Gifts.

  Lenny sits down on a small piece of debris alongside Durand, watching Shadow’s Edge preparing to clean up the rubbles.

  “The healers are healing Cenvin as we speak. The coma won’t be as long as Lucius warned you.”

  Durand breaks into tears of mixed emotions.

  “Remember… remember how he complained about healers not healing him? He needs to wake up now. We need a celebration. We need the denouement, the falling action. It won’t be the same without him.”

  He will wake up, Durand. He’s one of my players. He is not going to die.

  “He better not.”

  Since the last death count, many chapters have gone by. In case you’re wondering, dear reader, one shots will not count towards the total death count. Let’s see… counting the total amount of Otherworld creatures dying at the hands of the party and Kores the fact that the spectral sky around Italica City has dissipated, and the Otherworld creatures inside the Megalmation when it died… and the sweeps by Starmetal Valley rooting out all the Otherworld monsters in Italica…

  I believe we now have a total death count of 12,429! The majority of which comes from the sky, haha. Did you enjoy the chapter? Then feel free to leave a review or a comment! See you in the next one, and stay conscious!

  Whew, that was tough- the mic’s not off? Are you kidding?