Once we entered the church, our group was placed in the center of the room while everyone else was standing around us. And they were very wary of our movements, as expected.
"Okay, the town meeting is now in session. The issue, these numerous outsiders that have appeared out of nowhere," the mayor said as the others then frowned. "Shortly after they fell from the sky, a giant dark dragon started flying due west to Upover. Are we to believe that you aren't allied with such a foul beast?" he asked in anger.
"If we fell from over a hundred feet in the sky with the only thing cushioning our fall being a duo of Kabuff magic, doesn't that answer your question that we were, oh, I dunno, attacked?" I asked, the townsfolk talking amongst themselves. And they all seemed concerned.
"Hmm... hard to say, he makes a good point," said one of the different townies, it being a bunny girl.
"Are ya sure? I mean, they have a Celestrian on their side and a monster," said another person.
"I can hear better than humans, you know," Noelle said, the person who said that immediately stiffening up. "And I'm not your everyday ravenous beast. I come from the other side of the world, on a continent where humans and monsters live in peace and harmony. I came to this side to prove that not all monsters are horrible killing machines," she said, the others looking at her with anger as Keira then spoke.
"If she's here and she has yet to raise her hand against anyone, then why treat her so mean?" she asked, the group of townies then being concerned at how a little girl was among our group, let alone two of them as they also noticed Marionette.
"Peh, what does it matter? Rule one of the town, never trust outsiders. And especially the accursed Celestrians that ruined our lives all those years ago," the mayor said as I simply smirked.
"His name was Corvus, wasn't it?" I asked, him looking at me in confusion.
"What?... What did you say?" he asked.
"Corvus. The last guardian of Wormwood Creek. Deemed as missing after his first day of duty, during the clash of Greygnarl and Barbaros. Also, it being a month before the Gittish Empire was wiped off the face of the earth. True or false on any of that?" I asked, the mayor looking at me in utter shock.
"H-H-How... how do you know that much?" he asked in shock.
"You obviously forget that we have a halo on our heads... that, and he was the former teacher of my former teacher," Crux said from my mouth.
"And what else do you think you know?" the mayor asked as I then looked at the others and decided that I had to tell more.
"I also know that he was very banged up and was rescued by one of your own. And then, shortly after, the Gittish Empire came around and tried to kidnap the one who rescued Corvus and kill innocents in the town. And after he rescued them, despite his injuries, they fled, saying they'd have their revenge. And they did, as they then held the girl captive and used her as bait to bring Corvus to them. They then caught him and drug him away to their base... but not before killing the girl in cold blood. And the Celestrian never even knew the truth," I explained. And the group of both my allies and the town were stunned at my knowledge.
"You... you told the story exactly... how did you know so much?" Standoffish asked in shock. And it was then that Noelle noticed something to the plaque to the back of the church, her then finding the necklace... before we saw a small light show happen to her.
"W-What's going on?! S-She's going mad!" shouted one of the citizens. But before anyone could leave?
"Do not be alarmed... my fellow Creek residents," said the voice of none other than Serena, the ghost girl that was searching for Corvus.
"W-Who are you?..." the mayor asked.
"I'm Serena... Serena Doffish," she said, that making the residents gasp.
"I-It can't be! Is this some foul trickery?!" asked one of the residents.
"I am currently possessing the body of this kind monster so I can effectively communicate to you..." she said with a sigh, her simply standing in place. "I was the one who told him all of those things... because I was the girl that fell in love with Corvus and was killed by the Gittish Empire," she said, the group looking at her in concern.
"You... if you truly are a Doffish, then what is the name of the ruins set to the northwest?"
"The Bowhole, home of the Wyrmlight Bow," she said. And the mayor looked stupefied by that. As for Wallace? I could see he was very wide eyed with eyes of wonder.
"Crux, Drake, and company," she said as she simply looked at us from afar. "I need to tell you that the bridge to Upover was destroyed by Barbaros... the only way there now is to brave the bowels of the Bowhole and acquire the Wyrmlight Bow... now that I have my necklace, I can clear the barrier for you to enter it... I'll tell you more outside the entrance... and apologies, Noelle, for possessing you on such short notice," she said before both she and the necklace vanished from Noelle and she looked a bit groggy afterwards.
"Oogh... I feel sick.. c-can I get a b-bit of magic water?..." she asked, me then going to her and giving her a bottle of the concoction, which she then glugged down and sighed.
"That... was incredible..." Pavo gawked.
"What was?" one of the townies asked.
"Normally, spirits of the deceased are not strong enough to possess someone so effortlessly and for that long a time... which means that either that necklace has some insane magic within it, or she was so attuned with Corvus, that she gained some of his strength, even in the afterlife. After all, we've been running into her all over the place and on multiple continents, something that only the most powerful of spirits are capable of," she said, me looking at the others in the town with a small smile.
"Hey, townspeople?" I asked, them looking at me with frowns, but not hostility for a change. "How about a small deal? If we can recreate the bridge to Upover, we're going to get Greygnarl to assist us in trying to take out Barbaros, who was the dragon that flew overhead. Because just an hour before this meeting, the Gittish Empire were revived from the ashes. But if we do find a way to repair the bridge, then do you promise to be at least a little nicer to outsiders? Because, last I checked, the Gittish Empire was going to aim for all of you in that story, and they only came back to attack Corvus and Serena specifically," I said, them looking at each other before then going into a huddle, which resulted in my group huddling in the corner adjacent.
"When did Serena speak to you, Drake? We've been around you since we woke up yesterday!" Stella asked in seriousness.
"He didn't, he just knew that much," Crux said, but ONLY to our specific group's brains. "And don't say a word of that to the townsfolk, or we're all dead meat."
"Okay, so do you have any idea why she was able to possess Noelle?" Dillon asked.
"No clue. Nobody but Sternivus Swinedimples did that previously, and she didn't seem the type that could do so," I admitted.
"And how did you know so much? I need to know certain details that no one else has mentioned," Noelle said.
"I'll tell you more once we're out of town," I explained.
"I'll hold you to that," she said. And then both of our groups ended our huddles and looked at each other from opposite ends of the cathedral.
"We've debated amongst each other... and though it pains us to say this, we will agree to your bargain. If you can rebuild the bridge of light to traverse to Upover and you promise to rid the world of the Gittish Empire and their dragon, we'll be willing to be more welcoming to outsiders," the mayor said, that making Wallace smile widely from the corner.
"Thanks. And we're going to head out effective immediately," I said, everyone in my group looking at me in confusion.
"It's nighttime, though," Carly frowned.
"And we have the spell Cock-a-doodle-doo on our side. Your point was?" Veronica asked sarcastically, my cousin frowning in embarrassment. We then headed off for the next location, but we also took the time to make some more items with Krakpot, which included an Icicle Dirk, a Optimistick, an Uber Warhammer, and a couple special medicines. We also made some more armor items in the form of a Raging Bull Helm, a duo of Ice Shields, a set of Enchanted Armor, some sets of specialized equipment such as the Dragon Dress for Marionette, a Dancer's Dress for Stella (as it was fairy-friendly by default), and a Fizzle-Proof suit for Keira. Yeah, we had been getting tons of items from our journey across the place, finding them from monsters or out in the field.
But along with this, we also had to contend with some very tough monsters in the form of Whirly Girlies, Bloody Manguini, Sluggernauts, and Splatterhorns. But against our tough skills of all our specialized classes, we got rid of all of them with ease, one attack for each. The only one who couldn't attack on par with the rest of us was Noelle, but it made sense, as she had been with our group the least.
"How did you guys get so strong?" Noelle asked.
"Special soup from Batsureg, forged from Corvus's own wing feathers... worst thing we've ever eaten," Keira groaned.
"I've 'ad worse. When yer a Slugger fer most of yer life, ya gotta eat what ya can to survive," Sara explained, Noelle looking at her in confusion.
"About that... I can sniff a monster anywhere, and I can smell that you're one. But you're in the guise of a human. Can I get an explanation for that and for what happened at the town meeting?" Noelle asked as I then had to spill the truth. Again.
"The first answer, she originally changed her form because of these Fyggs. And by feeding her some Celestrian wing feathers, she retained her human appearance while the Fygg was dispersed from her body," I explained, Noelle frowning at me. "And the second answer... tss... I come from a different world that knows almost everything about this one. And no, it isn't the Observatory," I said as I noticed that Noelle was about to speak, her then putting her finger down.
"So... you already knew about the Swinedimples incident prior to meeting me? Did you also know anything about me?" she asked, me looking at her with a concerned sigh.
"Uh... I did, but a bunch of things changed in the incident. If things would've played out as I remember them to, the kids would've been trapped down in that underground school for more than a few days, and all of them being from a group of nasty bullies with Fred being the main leader," I said, her frowning at me.
"Yes, my main bully at the academy... and about me?"
"You... didn't exist in this world," I said, her being confused. "In fact, you existed in a completely different one, same with Rudolfa. You would've come from a world called Deltarune, which existed in my world as a video game, same with this one," I explained, her thinking for a bit before then putting her hands on my head... and I felt like I was having my mind invaded. And after a few seconds, she gasped afterwards.
"W-Whoa... that was... quite a lot," she gawked.
"What'd ya see?" Sara asked.
"Our world, as well as this Deltarune world, existed in different things called gaming systems. They made moving pictures and you could interact with it by pushing buttons... my game had me playable in chapter 2 only, as that's how far it was along... and I could freeze enemies solid in order to kill them," she said.
"And what about this world? What did we look like?" Keira asked with what looked to be childlike curiosity.
"Um... in this world, almost everyone was around the same height and had flat chests, a bunch of bright colors, and we spoke, but no sound came out of our mouths. It was interpreted via words that came on the screen, with the only difference being who was speaking," Noelle explained, Keira being surprised at that.
"Yeah, the game system in question had very few games that had voices on them. It usually relied on text and movements in order to explain what happened," I described as best as I could. And they looked perplexed further, as I expected.
"So... can I possibly get an idea of how that could happen? How can a piece of technology have an entire world at its fingertips, but you can't even hear voices?" Dillon asked.
"Okay... oof... well, think of the system like a brain. And it knows how to do tons of things, but it only has so much space on it to have this knowledge. And it knows an entire tilogy of books' worth of scenarios and characters, but because that's how much content is placed in it, it had literally nothing left for sounds. So it had to reuse numerous sounds that could only be put inside of it. And for some reason, producing anything relating to a human voice would be way too much of a sound quality to produce... so imagine it like an immensely powerful celestial being, but they're completely mute," I explained.
"Huh... that made it easier to understand... I still don't understand most of this whole situation, but so long as we can be prepared for some things, that's all good," Marionette smirked.
"Believe it or not, big brother's been helping out a bunch. We've had numerous things change already, and he's been changing strategies to work around them," Firkle smiled.
"So what all has changed? Just out of curiosity," Noelle asked.
"Well, I'll stick to basics and use only the incidents that happened from Batsureg and onward, since you and Sara are the most recent newcomers," I smiled, her nodding. "First off, if things weren't changed drastically in Batsureg, then Sara would've still kept controlling the settlers before the fruit overtook her completely. But because of me finding out that she was fighting the force of the Fygg, I gave her the same treatment I did to Marionette, which was make her a mortal human with some of my wing feathers, which ended with the Fygg coming out on its own," I smiled.
"And also, the part about the Bodura Grass being used against the Scarlet Fever? That wouldn't have happened. We'd still get the Bodura Grass, but we would've used it to reveal Sara's true monster form in front of the entirety of Batsureg's hunters," Carly explained.
"And wot about Swinedimples?" Sara asked, her looking a bit concerned at what we said.
"Believe it or not, not much changed. The only things that were different was Noelle and Rudolfa's presences and the fact that the ghost of Sternivus would've just lectured the students and held them captive in the underground school for more than a few nights and days. No book slapping, but definitely a danger of death via dehydration or starvation," I said, Noelle's face going from smile to worry shortly afterwards.
"Wow... and what about what happened in the past hour?" she asked.
"Well... because of the fact that the Celestrian code is strong enough to never be overpowered by even the one playing it, Aquila would've gotten the Fyggs and then he would've attacked me and Crux... and only us, since absolutely no other recruits would've joined the Starflight Express, as the part of the Celestrian feathers allowing people to see the Celestial realm never happened... because of the fact that the feathers would never be found," I explained.
"So what would've happened to the feathers?" Pavo asked.
"They would've burned to a crisp shortly after the wings themselves flew off of their back, caused by a dark pillar of light. Most likely the very same dark light that I saw over the mountains during my initiation to the school... but uh... it was a student one. And they didn't do it as they usually did. And I don't want to go into any detail," Noelle said with a blush, me smiling at her... after effortlessly slicing the Hypernova sword through the body of a Grimarye Gruffon.
"Just so you know, Noelle... though I do miss my own timeline, I would like to stick around in this one. But I do need to find out how to get myself and my little sister taken out of our different hosts," I said with seriousness as we finally arrived at the Bowhole.
"Well why don't you just ask?" spoke none other than Serena, who appeared right in front of us with a small smile.
"Um... before that, how about another question. How did you know enough to catch onto my plan and, not only help out, but also blatantly lie and tell them that you told me that stuff?" I asked, her smiling at me.
"Corvus's strength was so great, that it followed me, even to the afterlife... the moment that I found out about you being a Celestrian, I started to look into your mind, to see what you saw, all while trying to find him... and I knew you needed help at that point, so I decided to assist... but I couldn't do a thing without my necklace... it was given to me by him. A necklace that he said he was given by none other than the Almighty himself for his immeasurable number of dutiful duties of protecting mortalkind... it allows me to see more and know more... but when I looked into your mind when I held onto the necklace? I know where he is... but that he can't be rescued in his current state..." she sighed with a few tears emerging from her face.
"Wait... Corvus... can't be saved? What does that mean? You can't be serious!" Crux gawked as I sighed.
"He has been beaten, maimed, and heartbroken for over 300 years, to the point where he has no positive emotions... the best way to explain it is that he's become the opposite of what a Celestrian should be. He's become an anti-Celestrian, which gave him access to the darkest of dark magics. Recall the location of where the wing feathers with a black tip were found, the ruins of the House of Gitt. Corvus has been missing for 300 years, because he was kidnapped and locked away by the Gittish Empire. And the dark magics that pierced the heavens, even to the point of attacking the Almighty himself, emerged from those very same ruins. He's lost his mind, sanity, and all positivity... and even if we do show Serena to him, he'd just believe that she would want to finish the job, since the Gittish Empire claimed that she sold him out to save her own skin. And as Serena herself confirmed, that's the opposite of what happened," I frowned, her sighing and nodding.
"Can we STOP with this sadness and moppy soppy shit?! We need to get to Upover and quick and the only way there is to get that Wyrmlight Bow! Let's talk on the way, got it?!" Stella shouted in annoyance, which surprised all of us.
"Um... okay, let's get going. Any other questions to ask, Drake?" Serena asked, me nodding.
"Do you happen to know if you can separate me and Firkle from our current combined bodies?" I asked, her smirking.
"With this necklace, anything is possible," she smiled... and then, when she simply touched it and then touched my head... I gawked as a bright light happened... and then, out of nowhere, I looked around and looked shocked. Right next to me was the other side of me, Crux! And the only difference between both of us was that he had a halo and I had...
"WINGS?! YOU HAVE WINGS?!" Pavo gawked in shock, me then looking at myself... and then immediately get bashful and cover myself. Why?
"Oh, so that's what they look like on humans," Noelle smiled with a giggle, me blushing profusely. I feel I don't need to explain further.
"Now can I get some friggin' clothes on me, Serena? Anyone? Hellooo?!" I asked in annoyance, me then getting my answer by getting some clothes on me... that were meant to be wing friendly. What did I mean by that? I got Dragon Mail that had to be clicked together on the back with a hole big enough to occupy both of the smaller parts of the wings. And I also had some pants put on in the form of some blue jeans, which I also put boxer shorts underneath to act as underwear.
"No one is going to tell anyone about what I looked like without clothes, got it?" I said, them smirking at me.
"I dunno, I think I have some legit dirt to use on you in the future, brother," Firkle smiled... and then Serena touched Marionette's face, which made the duo of girls then get separated from each other. And Firkle looked even more embarrassed than me, since she was also naked.
"EEK! D-Don't look at me!" she said immediately, me then simply tossing her a pair of undies and a Flowing Dress, which she put on and I smirked at how it fit her to the point it was just above her ankles. "T-Thanks, brother," she said afterwards.
"Consider this my payment to make sure you don't tell anyone," I smirked, her nodding at me.
"Now let's get going," Crux said, us nodding as we then went inside... and I also noted a small, tiny set of wings on the back of Firkle, me smirking at them.
"Looks like we have a little fledgling among our ranks," I smirked.
"What are you going on about now?" Pavo asked.
"My sis? See the small bulge coming from her back?" I asked, Pavo then looking there and smirking.
"Hmm... this proves it then. Only someone like the Almighty could make Celestrians and both you and Firkle both had wings when you were made your own selves. So that MUST mean that the Almighty was the one to send you into Crux's body," Pavo smirked widely.
"And as for me and Firkle, that was from his daughter in Celestria, who has slightly less power than her father according to Stella. Sounds like we know who to talk to when our journey takes us back to the Observatory," I smirked.
"Yeah, but then what aboot the Gittish Empire? 'Ow do we stop 'em?" Sara asked.
"You're asking this when we've gotten so tough that most enemies die in one hit and Drake managed to knock Aquila away with a half-hearted slap to his face. And Aquila is sure to be stronger than he had been prior, same as us. So we could be considered tough enough to take the whole of them out," Crux smiled.
"Crux is right! We can do this!" Veronica smirked as we then rushed further into the Bowhole. We had to get our game on from here on out, especially with me being my own self now.