Fancy seeing you all here again so soon. Did you enjoy the brief intermission? Grabbed a snack, maybe, or some water?
Also worth mentioning, this is the 20th chapter in the story, which is amazing to me.
Anyway, I have nothing else to say, so, uh...enjoy.
Disclaimer
Dragon Quest IX is the property of Square Enix and Nintendo and not me and probably not you.
What I do own are the characters that I make up, including, but not limited to, Michael, Jessica, and Allison, as well as some of the crazy things that happen to them.
Reviews:
It's been ten seconds since the last chapter. I'd be surprised if there were any more reviews to respond to.
Act 2 – Part 9: Rock Bottom
(No One's POV)
"Oh, no, oh, no, oh, no," Stella panicked, flying haphazardly over where the stone staircase previously stood. "Almighty help me, this is bad. I can't believe I just lost all three of them at the same time. I-I have to help them. I have to find them."
She paused in the air and looked down at where her three companions disappeared into. "But who do I find first?" She banged her forehead with her fist, trying to come up with an answer. "What was it that Michael said? At least make sure that the other two Fyggs aren't lost here? He had the Fyggs in his bag, didn't he? Th-Then I should try to find him first. At least make sure the Fyggs are safe, like he said."
Having found an answer, she began to dive towards the surface, but stopped partway after a thought occurred to her. "What if Michael is in danger, though?" she gasped, putting her hands over mouth. "Do I try to save him, or do I protect the Fyggs? He wants me to get the Fyggs, but I can't just not help him. But…that's what he wants me to do…"
Stella took a deep breath and a look of determination crept onto her face. "Then I only have one option," she announced to herself, before continuing her dive to the surface. "I'll save the Fyggs, and then I'll save Michael, and then we'll save Jessica and Allison together. It's all up to me now."
(Michael's POV)
It wasn't the worst fall I ever had, but the impact still left me dazed for several minutes. Thankfully, it seems that none of the staircase fell on me while it collapsed. Figures it was stairs that almost did me in. Never did meet a set of stairs that agreed with me.
I shook my head in an attempt to clear it and looked around. I seemed to be in a rockier part of the Heights of Loneliness, as there were large outcroppings of rock surrounding the area with a few boulders scattered throughout.
Also, I noticed that I was surrounded by a platoon of Metal Slime Knights, all of whom were pointing their swords at me.
"Don't move!" the Metal Slime Knight in front of me commanded, much to my surprise. I knew that some monsters could talk if they wanted to, but it was only ever friendly monsters, or incredibly powerful ones. This was the first I had ever heard a normal wild monster speak.
Incidentally, I ignored his command and drew my own sword. While doing so, I noticed that my bag was no longer on my body. A quick glance around the area found it fallen behind a nearby boulder, tucked away out of sight.
"I'm terribly sorry," I announced, "but I've got places to be, so you'll have to excuse me."
"I said don't move!" the Metal Slime Knight repeated.
"Make me," I growled, raising my own sword to meet theirs. They all yelled in unison in response and jumped at me, swinging their swords.
I was initially overwhelmed by them, especially with how fast they were able to swing their blades. They managed to land several hits on me, but I fought through the pain and started pushing them back. I even managed to defeat a few of them, rendering them into piles of purple dust that vanished to the winds.
The initial Metal Slime Knight, who I figured was the leader, eventually pulled the others back, and formed a defensive line a few feet in front of me. "Had enough?" I asked mockingly, holding my sword up towards them, although I was in no condition to fight. My body was physically exhausted and was bleeding all over. "I expected more from you," I continued to boast. "Now, if you'll excuse m-"
I never got to finish my sentence. I never noticed the Toxic Zombie that had risen from the ground behind me, either.
(Jessica's POV)
Ow…
My head…
I sat up and looked around, rubbing the back of my head. It looked like I had fallen into a heavily wooded part of the Heights of Loneliness. I stood up and felt around my body. Nothing seemed seriously injured, and I still had my bag and my wand with me. And then I realized that I was missing everyone else.
"Michael!?" I called out into the silence. "Allison!? Stella!?" Only silence responded. I felt my shoulders sag at the thought of my current state. "This is probably Stella's fault somehow," I thought to myself.
Unsure of what to do, I started walking though the trees, hoping to find some way out of here. The trees blocked a lot of the sunlight, so I had to travel slowly to make sure I didn't trip and fall on an exposed root.
Even though the trees were silent, I felt like I was being watched, almost as if the trees themselves had eyes. I tried keeping myself calm, but it was all starting to get to me, and I could feel myself starting to panic.
"I-It's going to be alright, Jessica," I told myself, although I didn't entirely believe it. "Everything's going to work out. You'll see. Michael or Allison or Stella are going to come by any moment and then everything will be fine."
A nearby cracking noise caught my attention. It sounded like someone stepping on a branch. "W-Who's there?" I asked into the darkness. Nothing. "M-Maybe it's one of them, and they need my help?" I reasoned. "Or maybe it was just nothing."
Another cracking noise from the same direction convinced me that one of my friends were nearby, and I started running in that direction as fast as I could. Instead of finding any of them, however, I found myself in a large open clearing surrounded by the trees. Confused, I looked around to see if I had missed anything. Upon returning to my original direction, though, I noticed that there was now a tree in the clearing that wasn't there a moment ago.
I cautiously approached it, trying to figure out if it was there earlier and I had just missed it, but I didn't get very far before I felt something catch my leg, causing me to trip. I rolled over to see that a root had wrapped itself around my leg and was continuing to crawl up it. Without thinking, I fired a Frizzle at the tree that the root was coming from, causing it to topple over immediately and burst into purple dust, revealing that it was actually a monster.
"What the heck is going on?" I asked myself, but before I could come up with an answer, more roots and branches suddenly wrapped themselves around my body. I tried fighting against them and spun around to see that the original tree that had caught my attention was actually a Treeface, complete with a large mouth filled with jagged teeth and menacing eyes.
I continued fighting against its grip, and even tried shooting another Frizzle at it, but it pulled my wand away from me before I got a chance and forced my arms to my sides. I started kicking at the branches while screaming at it to let me go, but it happily ignored my cries and continued tightening its hold on me.
I eventually gave up and just started crying in defeat, letting the tears pour down my cheeks as I accepted my fate. I cried until I heard some monstrous form of laughter from above me. I cleared my eyes as best I could without my arms and looked up at who was laughing at me. The last thing I remembered was the pulsating colors of the Hocus Chimaera's eyes.
(No One's POV)
"This should be around where Michael lan- Almighty, what the flap happened here!?" Stella shrieked as here eyes fell on a trail of blood leaving the area, as if a body was being dragged through the dirt.
"Something terrible must've happened to Michael," she realized, starting to hyperventilate. "I-I have to help him," she stammered, before catching herself. "No, I have to make sure the Fyggs aren't just lying around here, first."
Struggling to maintain her composure, she quickly flew around the area, trying to find any trace of where the Fyggs may have disappeared. She was about to give up and move on when something caught her eye from behind a boulder.
"It's Michael's bag," she breathed, a small wave of relief washing over her. She flew inside of it for a brief moment, before reemerging. "Both of the Fyggs are still in there," she sighed. "Thank the Almighty."
She grabbed the bag by its straps and turned towards the bloody trail. "Okay, Michael. Now I'm coming to help you." She quickly took off in that direction but was immediately pulled back to the ground. "What the flap?" she asked, pulling on the straps of the bag as hard as she could. "Why is this bag so flapping heavy? How does Michael just carry this around with him?"
Gathering all of her strength, she eventually managed to lift Michael's bag a few inches off of the ground. "Okay, Michael. Now I'm coming."
(Allison's POV)
I took a deep breath, trying really hard not to think about how I was just barely hanging onto the edge of a cliff, perilously dangling over a ravine which would likely result in guaranteed death if I were to fall into it.
Focusing all of my energy onto not losing my grip, I started slowly swinging my body back and forth, trying to see if I could hopefully get one of my legs onto the ledge.
After several minutes of building momentum and a handful of bone-chillingly close calls, I finally managed to hook one of my feet onto the surface above me. Using it as leverage, I pulled myself back onto solid ground and laid down as the adrenaline started to work itself out of my system.
Looking around from where I was resting, I saw the end of the stone staircase sitting above me. I laughed dejectedly when I saw how close I was to making it to the top. It was with that thought that another, more concerning realization came to me.
"Michael!? Jessica!?" I yelled out from the cliff into the expanse of the Heights of Loneliness below me. All I got back in response was my own echo.
"Is… Is someone there…?" a weak voice suddenly called out from above me, catching me entirely off guard. "P-Please… Help…"
Unsure of what to do, I scurried around the ledge I was on, finding a ramp that led to the next level. From there, I carefully sneaked over to where the stairs ended, and looked down at where the voice had come from. What I found was the collapsed body of a young man.
"Are you okay?" I asked as I clambered down the steps to meet him.
"I… I…can't…go on…" he gasped, struggling for words. "I can b-barely…see…for ex…haus…tion… Dungeons…deserts…the deep… All…the places I have explored… Is this…to b-be the final…resting place…of Christopher…Collapsus?"
"Maybe I can help you," I offered. "Can you tell me what's wrong?"
His head rolled in my general direction. "Some…S-Special Medicine…plea-" was all he was able to get out before fading out again.
"Special Medicine?" I repeated. "I think I should have some of that," I said, digging through my bag. I paused when I realized something: I had all of our medicine in my bag. Whatever happened to the two of them, I hope they don't need it.
Returning to the current issue at hand, I pulled out one of the Special Medicines I had in my bag and moved closer to Collapsus' head. Taking the medicine in one hand, I opened his mouth with the other and started inserting the medicine into it, moving his mouth for him to chew it up to help swallow it.
"Hm? Wha-" he mumbled, reacting to the medicine. "S-Something…on my…lips… That…p-pungent…freshness… Sp-Special Medicine!" he exclaimed. "Oh, wonder of wonders! I, I can move my fingers again! And…my eyes! I can see! …Huh?" His eyes opened and looked up towards me, a joyful smile appearing on his face "Oh, what a lovely sight. It was you?"
"Uh…yeah?" I responded, unsure what to make of him.
"Ha ha!" he laughed. "I, I was convinced I'd been saved by some kind of miraculous being for a moment there! Maybe I'm not far off…" I was definitely starting to get a little creeped out by this guy. "Thank you," he exclaimed, rolling onto his knees and grabbing my hands into his. "I am forever in your debt. I, I don't know how to- Ah, yes!" He thankfully let go of my hands and reached into his pockets, pulling out a piece of parchment. "Please, take this map as a token of my gratitude."
I looked at it as he handed it to me and saw that it was some kind of treasure map. At the top was scribbled the words 'Granite Tunnel of Woe.' "Thanks, I guess."
"I know the place it leads to," Collapsus explained. "It's just west of Stornway. If you're unsure how to read the map I gave you, I should be delighted to instruct you," he gleefully offered with a passionate look in his eyes.
"Er… That's quite alright," I declined. "I think I can figure it out myself."
He sighed. "Ah… You are as smart as you are lovely." I felt my eye twitch at his words. "No matter. Once I have recovered my strength a little, I intend to descend the mountain. You are, of course, welcome to come and see me whenever you wish."
"I'll keep that in mind."
"Although, with the staircase no longer present, I'm going to have to come up with a new strategy to get off this mountain," he observed. "The monsters in the area are particularly cunning, especially ever since they got their new leader a little while ago. I was certain that they would've come for me at this point. Which leads me to my next question: How does a lovely lady like yourself wind up in a place like this? Not that I'm complaining," he added with an affectionate smile.
I definitely felt like complaining, but I let it go for now. "I was traveling with a group of friends to find Zere Rocks when the stairs collapsed from underneath us. I barely managed to make it here, but my friends fell below."
"Ah, so you're an explorer like myself. That's a darn shame about your friends, though," he remarked. "You can't really do much about it, though, can you?"
"What do you mean by that?"
"Like I said," he explained. "The monsters in the Heights of Loneliness are particularly cunning. Assuming your friends even survived the fall, they've likely been captured by the monsters. I'm not really sure what happens after that but, on the bright side, at least you made it to Zere Rocks."
"I did?"
"Yeah," he replied, gesturing to another staircase behind me. "It's right up those stairs. Not much to see, though."
I shook my head. "Th-That's not important right now. What about my friends?"
"What about them?"
"If the monsters captured them, where would they be?"
"What, are you planning on trying to rescue them?" I remained silent. "You continue to impress me," he remarked, smiling. "I believe the monsters have made a kind of base in a cave a few levels down. If your friends were taken anywhere, they'd be there."
"Then that's where I'm heading."
"Then I shall accompany you!" he exclaimed, jumping to his feet.
"Oh, no!" I immediately refused. "I-I mean, you really shouldn't. Your body is likely still weak from earlier. It's just best if you rest. In fact, here, take this," I offered, reaching into my bag and grabbing a spare Chimera Wing that I had. "Just use this to get off the mountain as fast as you can."
He gladly accepted the item that I handed him. "Ah, you have such a kind heart. I wish you luck on your mission, and I hope fate brings us together again one day soon," he said as he used the Chimera Wing and flew away.
As soon as Christopher Collapsus was out of sight, I shivered in disgust. "I hope fate keeps us as far apart as possible forever," I thought to myself, gathering my things. "Anyway, I need to figure out how to get down from here and find Michael and Jessica."
(Michael's POV)
"Michael…Michael! Can you hear me?" a small voice urgently whispered near me.
I groaned as a splitting headache tore through my head. I felt like death itself. I slowly opened my eyes, seeing that I seemed to be in some kind of primitive cage. In the distance, I could hear the chaotic chorus of a large group of monsters seemingly celebrating. I tried rolling over to see who was talking to me, and through my blurred vision, I caught a vibrant flash of pink.
"Stella, is tha-" I began to ask, before violently throwing up onto the ground.
"Almighty, Michael!" Stella gasped concernedly. "You've been horribly poisoned."
"Is that all?" I shakily groaned. I tried looking up again, this time fighting against the nausea, and noticed that Stella was carrying something. "Is that…my bag?" I asked, surprised to see it.
"What?" Stella asked, looking down. "Oh, yeah, it is. You said that you wanted me to make sure that we didn't lose the other two Fyggs here, so I made sure they were safe before trying to find you. They're both still here."
Despite the current situation, I still managed to smile a little. "Stella, have I ever told you how amazing you are sometimes?"
"We can talk about that later, Michael," Stella insisted, seemingly disregarding the praise. "Right now, we have to focus on getting you and Jessica out of here."
"Jessica? Is she here?"
"Yeah," Stella answered. "She's right over here, in the cage next to yours. She's not looking too well, either."
I carefully rolled over to face the other direction and saw that Jessica was, in fact, sitting in the cage next to me. She looked like a complete mess, with tear streaks running down her face and bruises all over her arms and legs. In addition to all that, she appeared completely unresponsive, with her eyes heavily fogged over.
"If I had to guess," Stella commented, "I'd say that the monsters that captured her ended up heavily confusing her. She's going to be completely helpless until someone puts her mind back together."
"Well, if Jessica is here," I asked, "then what about Allison?"
"I don't know," Stella replied. "At the very least, she's not here. Although, that's not much of a comfort, considering how late it's starting to get."
"Well, how do we get out of here so we can try to find her?"
"There's a back exit in the part of the cave that we're in," she explained. "You'd have to climb up a vine to reach it, but it should let us avoid most of the monsters in the other part of the cave. Also, both your sword and Jessica's wand are sitting over there in the corner. The issue I'm having is getting you out of these cages. The locks are simple enough, but I just can't break them open."
I gently adjusted myself to get a closer look at the locks. As I did so, I felt something move around in my pockets. I reached into them and found the Thief's Key that we had received earlier. Figuring it was at least worth a shot, I stuck the Thief's Key into the lock and, surprisingly, the lock immediately popped open, letting the cage door swing open.
"Remind me to send my regards to Cap'n Max Meddlin'," I remarked as I crawled out of the cage. No sooner had I stood up than a voice yelled out behind me.
"The prisoners!" the Metal Slime Knight leader yelled out from the opposite entrance to the cave. "They're trying to escape!" Immediately, the distant sounds of celebration transformed into a roar of anger as all of the monsters raced to our position.
"Oh, that's definitely not good," I lamented before rushing over to Jessica's cage and forcing it open with the Thief's Key. I picked up her limp body and quickly carried her over to where Stella said the vine out was, grabbing our weapons on the way. I stumbled a bit on the way, as I still had a gash on my leg that was causing me to limp a fair bit. As the sound of the monsters got closer, I immediately turned to Stella. "You need to carry Jessica up there."
"What!?" she yelled. "I can't possi-"
"I don't have time to argue about what you can or can't do," I commanded. "Give me my bag and then fly Jessica up there as I climb." Stella only nodded as she handed me my bag and grabbed Jessica by the shoulders, slowly lifting the woman's body off the ground. Out of the corner of my eyes, I noticed a massive mass of shadow convulsing on the distant wall lit from torches I couldn't see and realized the mass of monsters were almost upon us. Without wasting anymore time, I grabbed onto the vine and started pulling myself up. I only got a few feet, though, when I felt a stabbing pain in my leg. I looked down to see that the Metal Slime Knight had finally caught up to us.
"You're not getting away that easily," he stated.
"Piss off," I responded, swinging back on the vine and kicking him directly in the face, knocking him off his steed. The Metal Slime, no longer under his control, started running in a panic around the cave, much to its rider's chagrin.
"Get back here!" he futilely demanded of the Metal Slime as I continued climbing up the vine, finally reaching the ledge where Stella was waiting with Jessica.
"The exit is right over here," Stella guided, pointing to a cave along the wall.
"Excellent," I huffed. "I can carry Jessica from here. You just watch our back."
"Speaking of your back, Michael, you might want to take a look…"
Looking back into the room we were just in, I saw that the horde of monsters had finally arrived. Not just Metal Slime Knights, but Grinades, Toxic Zombies, Treefaces, Hocus Chimeras, Stone Golems, and Mad Moais. And they all seemed incredibly angry.
"They're getting away!" the Metal Slime Knight yelled, finally managing to catch his Metal Slime. "Stop them at all costs! Call in the boss, even!"
"That sounds like our cue to leave," I remarked, picking up Jessica's body and running out the exit into another open area. I ran through the area as fast as I could with the monster horde hot on our tails. When I reached another cave, a sharp, jagged shriek cut through the air. The fact that all of the monsters started cheering in response told me that that wasn't a good sign.
I ran through this next cave as fast as I could but stopped when I found the path blocked by a Stone Golem that did not look happy. I took a step back as it loudly roared, unsure of what to do. It raised a fist to attack, but stopped mid-motion has a cloud formed around its head, causing it to fall asleep. It toppled over, snoring loudly, revealing Allison standing behind it with her staff raised.
"Oh, thank the Almighty," we said in unison as we saw each other.
"What happened to you guys?" Allison asked, shocked by the state we were in.
"Long story short, I'm poisoned and heavily bleeding, Jessica's mind is currently broken, and it looks like she was strangled. Oh, and by the way, there's a massive mob of monsters chasing right behind us probably trying to kill us all.
Allison's face paled at my summary. "Then quickly follow me," she advised. "Hopefully, where we're going has a place where I can began trying to heal the two of you."
Finally wholly reunited once again, at least in some capacity, we quickly ran the rest of the way through the Heights of Loneliness, until we reached another stone staircase.
"Zere Rocks should be right up here," Allison quickly explained.
"Great. Whatever." I responded. I could still hear the monster hoard a short way behind us. "Let's just hurry."
We hurried up the stairs and found an entire village carved in stone. Everything, even people, was beautifully carved out of stone. We didn't have time to admire it, though, so we ran farther into the sculpted village. As we did so, Allison ran from building to building, trying to see if we could get into any of them to hide.
"None of these buildings are actually buildings," Allison groaned, exasperated. "They're all just statues in the shape of building. It doesn't look like it's possible to go inside any of them."
"Michael," Stella started to ask, "don't you think this place seems kind of familiar?"
"We have more important issues to deal with right now, Stella," I reminded.
We ran all the way around the village, looking for at least one building we could actually enter. Thankfully, the monsters hadn't entered the village yet, although I swore they were right behind us just moments earlier.
"I found one!" Allison suddenly called out from ahead of us. I quickly ran over to her, Jessica still in my arms. "There," Allison explained, pointing to a house with an open archway. "We can go into this one."
Not wasting any time, we all rushed in. "No way," Stella breathed, "this one's even got the insides carved out properly as well…" Looking around, we saw that she was right. A table, a couple of beds, even a bookcase, were all perfectly carved out of stone. "What's the deal with this place? Someone's left no stone unturned in turning everything to stone…"
While Stella was busy being awestruck by everything, I hurried over to one of the beds and laid Jessica onto it. "Allison, you need to-" I was interrupted by Allison poking me with her staff, sending a burst of magic into me. Within seconds, I felt a bubble of gas rising within my body, which I soon quickly coughed out as a cloud of violently purple gas.
"There," Allison stated. "Now you're no longer being actively killed by poison."
"Allison," I ordered. "Jessica."
"I was getting to her next," she explained. "She looks incredibly confused right now. Hopefully, this Angel Bell should do the trick," she said, reaching into her bag and pulling out a small blue bell with wings. She held it over Jessica's face and rung the bell once, giving off a soft, soothing chime. The bell then burst into dust and slowly settled onto Jessica's face. Her body soon started convulsing as the color returned to her eyes and she rapidly sat up, gasping for breath.
"What? Where-" she gasped, stopping when Allison placed a hand on her shoulder.
"Relax," Allison whispered soothingly. "We made it to Zere Rocks. Everything's alright now."
"Relatively speaking…" I added under my breath.
Stella, who was still looking around, came back to us. "Hang on, Michael… I'm having a backflash… Haven't we seen all this before somewhere?"
"Stella…"
"We went somewhere like this a while back. Somewhere with a gimongous tree bang-slap in the middle of town…"
I was about to say something in response, when I noticed a small Slime hiding behind statues of a rather sad couple. It seemed afraid of something, so I walked over to it to see what was wrong.
"(slurp) Who are you?" it asked. "What are you gooing here?"
"We're looking for Mason," I answered.
"Every singoo rock here was carved by Mr. Mason, you know," the Slime explained. "He did it all on his own. He really stretched himself! It took him years and years to make this village, and then just when he'd finished it, he dropped down dead. What a way to goo!"
"He's dead?" I asked, disheartened at the news.
"He was a very frugal man," the Slime continued. "But in the end he indulged in a gootiful fruit that he'd slurpchased in Dourbridge. It was his one extravagoonce ever. Do you know what he told me as he ate it?"
"…What?" I asked, concerned with what the issue was.
"He said this place was all he had. So it was his wish that it would always remain and never goo squishy. But ever since he gave up the goost, there's-" He was suddenly interrupted by a violent tremble, followed by the jagged shriek from earlier and the distant cheers of monsters nearby. I guess they had finally made it, and it sounds like their boss had arrived. "Th-There it is agoon!" the Slime shrieked. "I-I've been hearing that p-petrifying noise ever since!" Trembling in fear, the Slime fled into the back corner of the house, hiding behind one of the stone beds. In its trembles, you could hear it repeating "(slurp) Gooness me! You shouldn't have come here!" over and over.
"Michael, what's going on?" Jessica asked, standing up off her bed.
"It seems the horde of monsters has finally reached us, and it appears their leader is here, too," I explained, handing Jessica her wand back as Allison quickly healed me with some magic to take care of some of my larger wounds.
"Horde of monsters?" Jessica repeated, confused.
"Also, Mason is dead," I continued. "Although, he still managed to eat the Fygg beforehand, and wished for this village, which he built, to last forever. It seems that the new leader of the monsters appeared soon after that."
"We're going to have to fight it, aren't we?" Allison asked.
"I'm afraid we don't have much of a choice," I lamented.
"Well," Jessica began, "as long as the three of us are together, I don't think there's anything that can stop us."
"Except heavy rain," Allison noted.
"And those damned staircases," I added.
"You get my point," Jessica huffed.
"Guys, if I may," Stella suddenly joined in. "I want to help in this fight, too. We-We're all in this together, right?"
"Well, shit," I remarked. "With Stella's help, we can't possible lose."
"I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not," Allison noted.
"I can't either, anymore," I responded, grabbing my sword.
Cautiously, we all stepped outside. The village strangely appeared to still be empty. We gingerly took a few more steps into the open.
"Ah!" Stella suddenly shrieked, pointing at something above. Perched on the large stone tree in the middle of the village stood a large figure hidden in shadow, illuminated by the full moon. In a flash, it extended its wings and jumped into the air, landing directly in front of us, cornering us against the side of the mountain. As it landed, the horde of monsters suddenly emerged from nowhere, crowding behind their leader, watching like an audience at a show.
"Who…are…YOU…?" the gargoyle-like creature raspily asked. "You…are…not…Mason… Intruders…!" It stretched out its wings and claws as its eyes flashed menacingly. "You…will…know…the…wrath…of…Garth…Goyle, …Guardian…of…the…Rocks…!"
Garth Goyle immediately lunged at us, slashing with its claws. We all barely managed to roll out of the way. Jessica immediately countered with a Boom, which shattered one of Garth Goyle's wings, causing the monstrous audience to gasp. The stone creature flinched for a moment before turning back to us as the pieces of its wing reformed and reattached to its body, soliciting cheers from the audience.
"You've got to be kidding me," Jessica remarked. "I can't just blow it apart."
"Then find some other way to defeat it," I reasoned. "It has to have some kind of weakness."
Allison and I both lunged at it with our weapons, both managing to chip off pieces of its body, although they quickly rejoined with the rest of the body. Garth Goyle cackled as it cast Kabuff and Magic Barrier on itself, greatly strengthening its stone body, and greatly hindering us.
"We're not going to be able to brute force this," Allison noted. "There's only so much we can do against solid rock."
"Well, we have to keep trying," I ordered. "Something has to give eventually."
"Michael, look out!" I suddenly heard Stella yell from above.
I turned just in time to see Garth Goyle slam its clawed foot into me, throwing me into the wall. Large cheers came from the watching monsters. Especially from the Metal Slime Knights. My armor thankfully absorbed most of the damage, but it still hurt my still injured body a fair bit.
"Michael!" I heard Jessica yell before another pair of Booms blasted two smaller chunks off of the statue's body, which also ended up reforming in a matter of seconds.
"Michael, are you alright?" Allison asked, rushing over to me to see if I needed healing.
"I'm fine," I answered. "Don't worry about me. Look out!" I quickly pushed her away from me as I rolled backwards, barely avoiding another claw swipe. Acting quickly, I slashed at its arm with my sword, which ended up getting stuck thanks to the increased toughness of its body. Garth Goyle and I ended up having a bit of a power struggle as we both pulled against each other. I eventually managed to pull my sword free, which also resulted in Garth Goyle's arm breaking off and falling to the ground, temporarily shattering. As I watched it reform, I realized that it didn't reform perfectly, and that there were still a few cracks left behind.
"Jessica, keep blowing it up," I ordered. "As much as you can. It seems to be slowly damaging it over time."
"Understood," Jessica confirmed, sending another spell that shattered one of Garth Goyle's legs. The monsters started booing at her as she did so, and Garth Goyle turned to face her.
It jumped to slash at her, but I jumped over and blocked his claw with my sword. "Oh, no you don't," I told it, getting into another power struggle as we pushed against each other.
Garth Goyle was visibly getting annoyed at this point and raised its other claw to slash at me. I watched in anticipation as I expected it to hit me, but Garth Goyle became distracted as a pink flash suddenly started flying around its head.
"How do you flapping like that?" Stella asked mockingly, kicking the stone beast's head with her heel for good measure. Apparently, she managed to hurt it, as it stumbled back and roared in pain, which was immediately followed by part of its torso blowing up from another of Jessica's spells.
"Don't worry, my lord," the Metal Slime Knight leader called out from the front of the audience. "You've got them on the ropes."
Ignoring them, I decided to flip my sword around and attack it with the hilt instead. Hitting it on the knee and knocking off its lower leg, I saw that the blunt end of my sword was more effective against stone, just as I had expected. Allison, following suit, swung with her staff from behind, knocking off half of one of its wings.
Truly annoyed now, Garth Goyle turned to slash at Allison, but an extremely well-placed Boom from Jessica caused its entire lower body to shatter, which resulted in the top half falling onto the ground, also shattering. The audience gasped at the sight, but immediately began cheering as soon as it started putting itself back together.
"Damn," Jessica cursed. "Not even destroying its whole body is enough to stop it."
I was starting to get frustrated, unsure of what we could possibly do to stop this thing. Nothing we were doing seemed to be greatly affecting it in anyway, other than giving it a lot of minor cracks across its body.
As I struggled to come up with a plan, I noticed Jessica pulling a Magic Water out of her bag and chugging the contents down to replenish her magic. An idea suddenly came to me. A terrible, stupid idea, but it may just work.
"Jessica, how many of those Magic Waters do you have?" I asked.
"I don't know," she answered, confused. "Maybe ten."
"Quick, give them all to Stella."
"What? Why shou-"
"Just do it," I ordered.
"Okay, okay," she conceded, handing Stella a decent pile of Magic Water vials.
"Stella, when I give the signal, I want you to drop all of these onto Garth Goyle, do you understand?"
"What!?" Stella asked, now the one being confused.
"Look, we don't have time to debate about this before it fully reforms, okay. Just trust me on this."
"Alright, fine," Stella agreed, taking the vials and flying above the fight.
"Jessica, I'm going to try and daze it," I explained. "When I do, I want you to blow it up entirely again, okay?"
"That, I can understand," Jessica responded, raising her wand in preparation.
"Good," I smiled. "I just hope that this works," I mentioned under my breath as Garth Goyle finally finished reforming, letting out another sharp, jagged shriek. Now incredibly enraged, the creature lunged at me with both its claws. I nimbly dodged out of the way of it and jumped over it, bashing the side of its head with my sword hilt as I did so.
Dazed from my hit, Garth Goyle stumbled backwards before getting entirely shattered once more by Jessica's explosive magic.
"Stella, now!" I called out and watched as a pile of Magic Waters fell onto of the pile of ruble on the ground, soaking the pieces and mixing shattered glass into the pile. "Jessica, quickly, cast Crackle on that pile."
Following my orders, Jessica cast the ice magic on the pile at the same time that it started reforming. While the small icicle spear mostly served to move around parts of the ruble, the presence of ice magic caused the spilled Magic Water to start freezing, just as I had hoped, causing the pieces to expand and get stuck together with incorrect pieces and shards of glass.
Despite this, they still tried reforming, but the end result was only barely recognizable as the fearsome Garth Goyle from earlier. All that stood before us now was a pathetic amalgamation of stone, glass, and ice. With a proud little smirk on my face, I propelled myself off the mountain wall and ran straight at the strange creature, diving straight into its center blade first.
I passed right through it as the stone pieces, made brittle by the cold, fell apart entirely from the force of my impact. Sticking the landing, I turned to see what remained of Garth Goyle, now with a huge whole through its center, slowly fall apart and dissolve into small puffs of purple dust.
As it did so, you could faintly hear it say one last thing. "St…St…Stone…me…!
Sheathing my sword, I turned to face the audience of monsters that now stood before me, mouths agape and entirely speechless.
"I'm terribly sorry about all this," I mockingly explained. "But like I said, I have places to be. Now, with that being said, who's next?"
At my words, the monsters all turned and quickly ran away, screaming in horror. Their screams could be heard coming all the way from the bottom of the Heights of Loneliness as they fled.
I laughed and turned back to my companions. "Michael, how did you know that was going to work?" Allison asked, amazed by what had just happened.
"I don't know," I shrugged. "I think I remembered reading something at the Observatory about how broken rock and water don't get along very well when it gets really cold. I figured the same would apply here."
"I don't know how the flap you did it, Michael," Stella explained, "but whatever you just did was amazing."
"Yeah, Michael," Jessica added. "You definitely saved the day, today."
"No, we all made sure we all made it out of today alive. It's kind of fitting that we were able to conquer the Heights of Loneliness by working together. …Not that that's any different from how things normally go, but I digress."
"Still," Stella wondered, "what the flap was that…? It didn't half give me the woolies! I'm all itchy now."
"I'm not scratching your back if that's what you're asking," I responded.
"Hey, Michael! What's that?" Stella suddenly asked, pointing back towards the house we hid in. We all turned and saw the ghost of an old man standing outside before turning and walking down a staircase that went under the house. "D'you think that old man was…?" Stella began to ask.
"Only one way to find out," I answered, walking towards the stairs.
The stairs led to a stone chamber that was empty save for a few pots and a large stone coffin on the far end. The ghost of the old man stood by the coffin, seemingly waiting for us.
"I owe you an apology, laddies," the ghost began. "Looks like that guardian fellow appeared when I ate that funny fruit and made a wish for my work to be kept safe. But that wasn't what I meant by keeping it safe at all… Anyway, thank you. Now my little friend can relax again at last." Mason sighed and started giving off a familiar glow. "I couldn't go back there, so I recreated my beautiful, lost hometown here in Zere Rocks. This place is just a replica, you see. The dream of an old fool who hoped he could bring back his lost love. Now, Petra, lass… Now I can come home to you at last… To my hometown of Zere."
Another flash of bright light and Mason was gone, leaving behind a Fygg, our third, in his place. I carefully picked it up and inspected it. Befitting its name, an incredible amount of suffering could be felt pulsing through the Fygg of Despair.
"Three down…" Allison breathed. "Four to go."
"Let's just get out of here," I suggested, sliding the Fygg into my bag and placing it next to the Fyggs of Power and Greed. "It has been a very, very long day."
Everyone seemed to agree, so we quietly climbed out of the chamber and back outside. The moon had reached higher into the sky, and the stone village was now better illuminated as a result.
"Of course!" Stella exclaimed, flying higher to get a better view. "This village is the splitting image of the Zere place where we heard the song about the Wight Knight."
Jessica gasped in realization. "Petra! She was one of the old ladies who taught us the song…" I realized she was right.
"So Zere was Mason's hometown, and he spent years sweating blood, sweat and tears to build this replica of the place…" Stella continued. "Well, it all…makes sense…now…" A look came over her face. "No it doesn't!" she shouted. "How the flap was that supposed to win his girlfriend back?" She shook her head. "I really don't get mortals. Out of their trolleys, the lot of them, if you ask me."
"Ahem."
Stella turned back to see Jessica and Allison, who both had their arms crossed and eyebrows raised. She opened her mouth to say something but paused to think about it. "No, my point still stands. You two are lovely, though."
Allison shivered at that word. "Almighty, I hate hearing that word right now."
"…Why?" I asked.
"I'll explain later," she answered. "Can we just go somewhere and sleep now?"
"Fair enough," I agreed before Zooming us all back to Dourbridge for a well deserved night's rest.
After a massive ordeal complete with plenty of pain and suffering, our beloved heroes finally managed to obtain the third Fygg hidden in Zere Rocks.
The idea for this chapter first came into my head a few days ago, and as soon as it did, I wanted to write it more than anything else. And so I ended up writing this chapter and the last one over three days during finals week instead of playing Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (RIP my boy, Isaac). This is probably one of my favorite chapters so far, up there with Zachary's introductory chapter. I hope you liked it as much as I did.
As always, if you like what you've read in the last two chapters, please leave a review, make a post in the forum, or even just follow and favorite the story. Or, if you find it easier, you can just follow and message me on Twitter (at DScribbleF), where I share awful jokes, make random comments about video games and music, and occasionally post an update on this story's progress. In any case, I greatly appreciate all of the feedback I receive, and I always use it as motivation and guidance on how to make the next chapter even better than the last. Of course, I'm grateful for you just for taking the time to read this story in the first place.
As for the next chapter, I can guarantee that it won't be posted as soon as this one was. Whether it'll be in January or April or anywhere in between, though, I can't say for certain.
I might be crazy for suggesting this but, hey, I've already given you two chapters in one day, and it is the 20th chapter and Christmas time. So, for the next chapter, let's do a little QnA. Ask any question you want (within reason) for me, or any character, to answer at a special section at the end of the next chapter. Although, if I manage to get a chapter out before you all have a chance to ask questions, I'll extend it to the next chapter, too.
Anyway, I wish you all a happy holidays and, until next time, this is D~F.
