Chapter 82: Down Below

Perspective: Kay

"Get the lamp!"

I began following the order before I even realised who it had come from. In the din of battle the only distinction I could afford to make was between friend and foe.

I wrenched the sword from the Endling's shoulder in a cloud of blood. I waited a second to see if it got back up, but it was dead. With an imprecise sweep of my arm, I gestured for my men to follow me. The lamp swayed before me as I panted ragged breaths.

It stood proudly, practically daring me to topple it. But enemies stood between me and my goal. Endlings and mercenaries and giants and all variety of other things. I deflected a blow from an Endling officer and struck him across the jaw. He warped behind me, ready to strike, but fell before Raphoe's poleaxe.

I recalled my battle with the Ender.

Next, I swept the legs from beneath a mercenary. The chief huntress and her husband struck down his fellows in a flurry of spears and daggers. The lamp was open. I lifted the mercenary from the ground threw him against it. The stone pedestal fell on him, and the purple crystals burst open amidst the blood spreading across the floor.

I recalled how I had liberated Astro.

A glance over my shoulder. Tyron cut down a giant, then beckoned for a robed figure to come forward. I recognised him as Wolfric, Steve's aloof, dark-haired friend who had volunteered to accompany Shadow. He held out a hand.

"Impulverify!" he called.

The gate before him, reinforced with obsidian, crumpled. I allowed myself a jovial laugh as our troops flooded down the stairs towards the next level.

Then, I recalled Rose cutting open the door of the portal facility. My greatest glory. My coronation. The beginning of my undoing. Suddenly, my legs wouldn't stop shaking and I had to steady myself against Clarke.

Once I had recovered, I marched on to hold the line with my troops as our allies broke free from their various engagements and pushed onwards.

Fire and the Mencur-Besh quickly overtook us and renewed the advance, overtaking my men easily. Once again, the yellow-eyed Mencur-Besh shot forward like blasts of artillery, bursting bloody holes in our enemies' lines. And as soon as he joined them, Fire was no less effective, cleaving apart enemies with burning arcs of his zweihander.

Overhead, Shadow and her coven carried out clean-up duty, several of them having been relocated from the assault on the upper levels. Danann flitted between enemies, vanishing in clouds of smoke, and leaving frail duplicates who bore all manner of injuries. Our enemies seemingly ignored all reason and flocked to these apparitions, only for Danann to incinerate them from behind with a quick snap of his sparking fingers. Iridia and Pallas ran between our soldiers, providing healing magic and, in the most extreme cases, providing healing potions. Their master, however, outshone all their efforts.

Shadow threw out powerful spells whenever there was an opportunity, blasts of flame, lightning bolts, and of course her apparent favourite: the blindingly bright ray that left nothing where it struck. Though I could swear that in the past she had used stronger versions of these spells, was it because we were indoors?

Lupe decapitated a giant next to me, spraying blood on my face. I wiped my cheek with my blood-encrusted scarf, and as I did so I found Tyron again.

Carried forth by his stone wings, the Dragoknight crashed into a man, breaking his bones, and sending him flying. As he landed on the ground and drew Kir again, Amanda and Helix rushed forward to defend him.

I found myself momentarily entranced as Amanda pulled a trick that was deeply familiar to me. A mercenary advanced on her, confident of his supremacy over a mere child. She dodged one blow, then another, and then she struck back. She brandished her crossbow like a spear and thrust it as close to her opponent's face as she could, forcing him to flinch. She pulled back slightly, then fired the bolt straight at her opponent's neck. The bolt thudded in, and he fell dead.

"She must have spoken to Secret," I told myself, though realistically I had no way of knowing.

In truth, I was probably trying to avoid looking at Helix. Even after my entrancement broke and I began to fight towards them, I could only muster minute glances in his direction. I would look at him, then draw away, as though I had cut myself on a shard of glass. First, I glimpsed him firing his luminous bow. Next, I saw him mustering purple flame to drive off an Endling.

I felt a surge of pride as I realised, he was tentatively using his demonic powers, then my heart curdled as I remembered how I had failed him.

We finished descending the stairs and came into a large hall, filled with Tower banners and expensive-looking artwork. I squinted down at the far end and saw a set of two spiral staircases. I exchanged a look with Tyron, then called out to Kami to pull up the map. I nodded to Tyron, and he began to speak into his mic.

"Right, everyone, we're coming up on the staircase down to the labs. Be on your guard, if there's a counterattack coming it'll come here."

It felt redundant, as we were still up to our necks in Tower soldiers, but we still had to be wary. We were fighting an empire, and risk encirclement at any moment. As though reading my thoughts, Tyron added:

"How are we looking with the rear guard, Lucy?"

Lucy's voice came back: "The Tower forces are mounting another offence, but we're holding. We further fortified the perimeter, so they have to go up against their own walls. Some are getting through though, the faster we get this done the better. Still, be as careful as you can afford to be."

Tyron nodded sagely as he raked Kir across the stomach of another mercenary.

"You heard the lady," he affirmed, then returned to his onslaught.

I fought the urge to follow his comment up with some grand oration. For one, I knew it would not be well-received. More importantly, I'm not sure I still had it in me.

I parried an enderman and sent them spinning into the path of one of Kami's showers of magical energy.

Our fight continued, bloody and terrible.

The Tower's lines did not break as they had on the fields. Every time we pushed them back, they just seemed to compress and harden, like diamonds formed by the shifting of the world itself. I heard their officers' screaming slogans over the clamour:

"Do it for Marcus! For Silver! For the world yet promised to us!"

"For a new world!"

"An end to injustice."

I borrowed a spear from one of the hunters any time I heard this dreck. Madmen preaching of a utopia at the world's end. I would not abide it. Unfortunately, eventually I realised that half these slogans were coming from crackling speaker-boxes, reinforced with obsidian casings to make them hard to shatter.

At this point, even the Mencur-Besh were struggling to advance. They resorted to striking specific points along the line so that one of them might be able to overcharge and rush through, functioning as a depth charge when they inevitably fell beneath the enemy's swords, spears, and arrows.

Even the Graves siblings Fire and Shadow were having difficulties. The Tower troops had resorted to tearing lanterns off the walls and carrying them forward, sacrificing later defence to stop the onslaught of spells. Shadow had dropped to the ground and fought using the odd amorphous blade she had also carried during the ambush on the Tower patrol, which to me felt like it happened years ago. Fire was still a force to be reckoned with, but he had dropped from supernaturally dangerous to simply dangerous, which was a big swing in favour of the Tower troops.

My eyes were also drawn to the efforts of the Brotherhood as they, against all odds, managed to advance almost uninterrupted. Tauto Chrone, beneath his steel mask, became a flurry of death. He slashed with his electrified dagger and cracked his burning whip at anyone who threatened his initiates. Next to him an assassin in a turtle-mask did impressive work as he dodged every blow and slit throats with his circular blades. But most impressive of all was a man whose name I had not yet heard. He stood at the centre of the group, though Chrone was the leader, hacking away with two shortswords in an almost continuous torrent of attacks. No blow seemed to be able to shake him, as his diamond armour seemed to form a continuous, unbroken skin across his body.

Still, despite their successes, we were at an impasse. The twin staircases did not seem to get any closer. As I removed my blade from a giant's knee, leaving him to the mercy of Tyron and Seth, I imagined the staircases swirling, boring deeper and deeper into the earth and pushing our goal further and further away. And yet, just as despair struck me, a familiar voice restored my hope.

"I'm sick of this."

Helix stepped forward. Bloodstains covered him from head to toe, and the red hue of his eyes seemed to have dulled to match them. He held his gauntlet before him, looking at it as though it were a watch. I noticed that the crystal on it was sparking purple.

"Tin-Throne!" He shouted to an unseen party. "Give me that cool demon-arm from before!" A criss-cross of purple flames weaved across his arm, and soon these lines coalesced into a horrific, giant arm. "Activate whack-a-mole mode… but only for Tower troops!"

Immediately the fist at the end of his demonic limb twitched as though nodding. It then windmilled down and struck the ground, sending Warnado flying into the enemy ranks. Before I had time to yelp in distress or notice the smoking crater he had left next to me, I saw the fist slamming around every which way, literally punching a hole in their defences.

I raised my sword and sent up a cry, and what remained of my red-scarved elites joined me as we hacked and beat our way through the fractured enemy. I saw Fire break through next to us.

In no time at all, the enemy were scattering, retreating down the stairs towards the labs or into this room full of taxidermized bears, or that room full of what appeared to be altars. My men and I caught up to Warnado as he dispelled his demon arm at the top of the stairs. He turned, panting, and smiling.

As we advanced, I couldn't stop grinning myself. This young man, who just a few months ago had been reduced to tears using precisely that power, had just used it to successfully turn the tide of battle. This power had killed his father, but he was breaking the cycle. He would be the hero his world needed. And I had to say something. I opened my mouth

"Helix-"

"HELIX!"

Amanda cut across me, running up and grabbing her boyfriend around the waist.

"That was amazing! You were amazing!"

She lifted him and spun him around.

"What else is new?" Warnado giggled.

She put him down, and then they both fell into comfortable silence. I shuffled awkwardly. The Brotherhood and Mencur-Besh charged down the stairs to my right. Tyron stopped next to us, accompanied by Seth and Rathina.

"Not bad, kiddo," Tyron laughed and clapped him on the shoulder. "Pretty sure I saw some of the moves I taught you in there so don't mind if I steal my share of the credit."

"50% our win!" chirped Kir.

"Sorry guys," he quipped back. "This is the part of the heist movie where I reveal I already stole the credit two days ago."

There was a round of polite laughter because no one seemed to understand what he was talking about. Then again, when questioned what he was talking about he never seemed to fully grasp it either. I heard Lupe of all people bark with genuine laughter and turned my head to see her shoot Warnado a knowing look as she prepared to join the fray.

Shadow and Fire broke off from driving away stragglers and approached the small circle of congratulations.

"Good job," said Shadow. "You've come a long way."

Fire nodded but threw glances down the staircase ahead. It was clear that he was feeling the urgency of our situation.

Unfortunately for him, the speaker-boxes crackled to life again. I hadn't noticed their silence until that point.

"Hello Tower radio-o-o-o-o-o!" whooped a man.

I recognised the voice and my emotions immediately sparked from discomfort into joy.

"We're sorry to interrupt your regularly scheduled programming," teased a woman's voice. "But you're under new management."

"I'm Aaron Ecodew!"

"And I'm Tassadar Tunes!"

"And you're listening to 24D Airwaves, sponsored by the good folks at Eye-and-Claws Inc, where we play nothing but the secrets your bosses don't want to tell you!"

"Like how the Entity planned not to create a utopia for you guys to conquer, but just to glomp up all of reality for some reason! Don't believe us? Ask Doctor Mercury, or has she been weirdly inaccessible for the last few weeks? Just hanging around in her lab all the time. Could that perhaps be because she realised the truth?"

"Not to say the first plan made much sense to begin with," Aaron chuckled. "Did you dumb motherfuckers really think you were the toughest guys in the multiverse?"

I leant against the wall and began to polish my sword. I heard weapons clattering to the floor and saw a small group of stragglers on the other side of the hall throwing down their weapons and surrendering to a detachment of Vangaardians.

"I have to say," Tassadar said with grave professionalism. "Today's events have certainly put that assumption into question."

"But Tassadar, that's not the worst part! You see, you've all collectively been had twice over! Because after all, the Entity who tricked you to begin with died a week ago."

"Killed by our dear friend, Destiny Rosario. Rest in peace."

I shot an apologetic smile to Kami, who grimaced awkwardly in return.

"That's right, the real person in charge of the Tower is everybody's favourite phantom of fear, Freak… Phantom… Phantomson. Yeah, Freak Phantomson."

There was a pause, then the sound of Aaron breaking down laughing.

"That's really the best you can do?" Tassadar said, not letting her presenter voice drop for a second.

Fire seemed to only partially listen to the messages, he knew their content already since he'd played an important part in creating the draft. Instead, he seemed to be silently half-moving his mouth, as if speaking to someone, probably communicating with the Mencur-Besh collective, debating whether he should go on ahead.

"There's not even a surname in the script."

"I tried to improv it."

Astro's voice crackled in, slightly muffled.

"Yeah, and that did not work, mate."

"What a dipshit!" Secret howled dramatically in the background. "How could you have done this?!"

I felt like I was back in the pub in Zine Craft again. It felt like alcohol heating my insides. It felt like friendly laughter filling my ears. The laughter of people who hadn't realised what I was yet. People who thought, even despite my criminal past, I could still turn it all around with nothing but a change of attitude, an overenthusiastic smile, and a fake accent.

Aaron finally collected himself.

"...Let's go to our first guest, Laura, a Tower scientist who recently purchased some truly distressing information from our dear Freak, and also deserted to our cause."

I strained my ears as papers faintly rustled, then a tiny cough as a throat was cleared. Then, suddenly, loudly:

"I've come to make an announcement, Clark Belmont is a bitch-ass motherfucker, he stole Dimensions' fucking snacks. That's right, he took his grubby hands and stole those fucking snacks, and he said they tasted 'this good' and I said that's disgusting so I'm making a callout on this intercom-"

"-Moving stuff, Laura," Tassadar interjected, saving all of our ears. "And what do you have to say to the Tower magi who have been disguising themselves as civilians to lure in and ambush Shelter forces?"

I furrowed my brows. We had encountered this as well. Now, we were about to push into the labs, where one would expect to find scientists and technicians. How many might be willing to fight to defend their creations at any cost? Could we trust any purported civilians?

"Cut it out!" Laura yelled. "You're going to get all of us killed!"

I stood up as the fighting on the stairs seemed to intensify again. That was when the radio took a turn for the strange.

"You heard it here first, folks. Cut. It-"

There was a thudding noise, and I heard Aaron grunt.

"Fuck!" Tassadar yelled.

Gunshots, two of them. Then, a guttural roar of pain. My eyes widened. An Endling.

I heard the microphone shuffle as further gunshots sounded.

"Grey Ones! Attack!"

The sound of teleportation groaned around us until it felt as though the air were corroding around us. Hundreds of Endlings materialised, many armed, many bearing only their claws. One common theme held them together. To a great or lesser degree, all of them had been marked with grey paint.

I rolled away from the talons of a snarling beast of the End and forced it to warp away with a slash of my blade.

Unfortunately, they had caught us at just the wrong moment. The Mencur-Besh and much of Shadow's Coven had already forced their way most of the way down the spiral staircase, and the new incursion of Endlings intended to keep them locked there. This left mostly Shelter forces and Vanillans in the hall, who were not nearly as well-equipped to deal with such an incursion.

They had already begun to shatter my men. Raphoe's poleaxe clattered to the floor as an obsidian blade severed his spine. One of them had Kami by the throat, but with a flourish of her staff, an orb appeared and pelted her assailant with magical energy, following it wherever it warped. My men nobly tried to keep ranks, but they had scattered just enough in the lull that the Endlings were easily able to keep them separate. The hunters, however, moved almost unaffected, dodging, and countering easily, and soon with their help we were able to establish some equilibrium.

As my men formed an armoured circle of swords and spears, I realised what the Grey Ones' arrival had to signal. Glibby was on the field, and he would be go straight for…

"Helix!" I yelled.

My eyes leapt ahead of my body and began to sweep the battlefield for any sign of Warnado.

Much of the leadership had remained upstairs to discuss how to approach the attack on the labs, so I quickly found who I was looking for.

Shadow had formed a circle of her remaining mages and was trying to cast a spell - presumably something to limit or stop Endling teleportation. The mouth of the spiral staircase with all its violence and bloodshed Fire, Tyron, Warnado and Amanda flitted around them like the spokes of a waterwheel, striking down one Endling here, then there, and then two more had appeared.

But no sign of Glibby. No hulking shoulders. No gargantuan fists. Not even a weather-worn trilby to signal his presence. Where could he be?

My eyes were drawn to Fire, who was easily the best equipped to deal with the Endlings. His ability to detect energy allowed him to reliably foresee their teleportation. I watched him lean slightly forward to evade one strike, then cleave his sword backward, killing his assailant instantly. Then, a measured backstep took him out of the reach of a flurry of swipes from the front. The flurry ended in another precise, brutal, burning stroke of the zweihander. That was when he arrived.

Glibby loomed suddenly to Fire's left, leering and smirking so intensely the cloud of arrogance which always surrounded him had almost become visible. Obsidian armour covered his form, though a loose robe had been draped over that in an oblique gesture to his normal trenchcoat.

Leader of the Mencur-Besh turned to face him. The Ape's smirk exploded into a grin, and their combat began.

I barked an order leaving Lupe in charge and began to run through the battle towards the ensuing duel.

Fire parried the Ape's opening punch, and the fist screamed away in a burst of sparks.

I ducked as Chrone's whip lashed across the battlefield.

The Ape threw a second punch, fiercer than the first. I almost saw the wind bunching up between his knuckles.

I leapt over Rathina as she plunged her daggers into the heart of an Endling she had just stunned and tripped.

Fire stepped back, angling his sword at his opponent's exposed face. The punch flew wide. Glibby staggered.

My shoulder crashed into the Endling before me, sending him flying to the ground. Amanda quickly slotted a crossbow bolt into his head. I had made it. A grin crept onto my face.

Fire thrust his sword forward, and time slowed down.

An Endling materialised and grabbed the sleeve of Glibby's robe from behind. He vanished, then reappeared to Fire's right. The Mencur-Besh, following the train of energy began to turn his head. The Ape's wild grin rapidly civilised itself into a smirk. That was when both Fire and I saw what the Endling had left behind when he picked up Glibby: a man with blue, glassy eyes, and a sniper rifle.

Flame burst forth from the long barrel of the gun, propelling its bullet onwards and into Fire's firesteel breastplate. The metal warped inwards several inches as the bullet struck, crushing scale and flesh and organ in its wake, until finally the firesteel snapped back outwards, expelling the flattened round. Fire staggered back, clasping his chest. The glassy-eyed man snapped his fingers and was whisked away by another enderman.

"I see how it is, not a proper battle unless I lose a heart, huh?" Fire spat, his voice lowered to a growl. I had only heard that tone once or twice before, Fire was angry, or as close to it as he allowed himself to get.

One of Glibby's gauntleted fists clamped around Fire's sword-arm. The other slammed into his flank, the firesteel warping in so far I wasn't sure it would actually warp back. Some relief flooded into me when it finally did, but this didn't stop Fire's face from contorting in genuine pain.

The Ape leaned in and drawled into his ear:

"What's the matter, Fire? Not so fun when you didn't plan to lose them?"

Just at that moment, Fire's scales' glow intensified beneath Glibby's obsidian-coated fingers. The Mencur-Besh smirked as it did. The Ape grunted and threw his head back in pain, but then rallied. He clamped his other hand onto Fire's body. With smoke rising from beneath one hand, and pain flooding his senses, the Ape hefted Fire over his head, and roared as he hurled him overhead. Fire slammed into the wall of the spiral staircase, cracking the stone bricks, then fell into the melee, where grey-painted Endlings immediately began to swarm him.

"So much for him," Glibby chuckled, waggling his burnt fingers. "Now, where's Helix."

He rounded on the demon-child and cocked his head. Warnado backed away, closing his eyes, clenching his gauntleted fist and muttering.

Tyron and I exchanged a look and immediately interposed ourselves between Glibby and his prey. Amanda knelt behind us and trained a crossbow on him.

I weighed our odds. The last time we fought Glibby, Fire had stood a chance against him one-on-one. Then again, the original Grey Ones had been there, and they had been learning how to complement Glibby's fighting style for over a decade. Could other Endlings prove as effective?

I flourished my sword and looked around for help. Shadow's circle had almost finished their spell, the runic circle almost finished shining into place. She would be free shortly, and while she seemed to be holding back in here, I had no doubt she would want to pay Glibby back for what he'd just done to her brother. Not to mention, Warnado's safety was at stake, and if nothing else I could say that she cared about him.

Unfortunately, Glibby's cool eyes also seemed to have drifted towards her.

"Ah, teleportation suppression, is it? Well, we can't have that," he rolled his shoulders and pressed a finger against his ear. "Muffin, deal with the little witch."

Boom! A man wearing a pinstriped suit and a cavernous smile shot into the air and his head immediately whipped towards Shadow. A wand sat in either hand, and I saw a heavy satchel of purple metal sat at his side: A thaumaturge. I froze. Thaumaturges were not capable of the nuance of real wizards, so most just threw themselves into raw power. As such, they weren't so much sorcerers as cannons with legs.

He wasted no time in confirming my impression, blasting himself down at Shadow with one wand, and winding up for another attack with the other. Just before landing, he swung the wand like a sword and a clod of summoned energy shot straight at Shadow. She summoned a shield just in time, and it held, but the Thaumaturge's smile remained gaping. He cocked an eyebrow, and I could almost physically hear the gears turning.

Clarke took this moment to run out of the crowd and shot a fireball at the Thaumaturge. In response, he caught the burning orb with his wands, and with a flick of his wrists split it in three. The central mass shot back at Clarke, striking him on the shoulder and knocking him to the ground. The other two formed into the shape of colossal greatswords, with the wands as hilts. He touched the ground, then neatly carved through Shadow's shield.

I saw the runic circle flicker but not break. One of the circles began to rise, but Shadow ordered her not to break focus. As the amorphous blade took shape again, her shadow detached from her feet.

Wodahs took up a fighting stance and made for the faint shadow he cast on the floor of the hall, expecting no resistance. The Thaumaturge, however, simply flourished his right hand and the wand-blade shifted from a burning flame to a near-blinding light which scorched my vision. He swept the sword across ground where Wodahs had intended to strike, leaving no darkness to occupy. Shadow lunged forward with her shifting blade, and the combat ensued, the Thaumaturge dodging their attacks in a frenzied jig, his smile never fading, and his howling laughter never ceasing.

Satisfied, Glibby returned his attention to us.

"As for you," He snapped his fingers. "Huskers, get the ghost, Eight, kill the beast."

Endlings materialised before us, leaving off two figures. The sniper from before, presumably Huskers, immediately fired a shot that whizzed past my ear and cast a scorching wind over my cheek, forcing me to duck. Seeing him winding up a second shot, I rushed at him before he could fire it off and found myself swing at a man who seemed to have just about anticipated every move I could use on him, successfully dodging and parrying or striking me with the stock of his rifle every time. Yet, I could hear him wheezing and panting. His ageing body was struggling to act upon this knowledge.

Beside him, another man appeared. He wore a similar, unbroken diamond skin to the dual-wielding fighter from the Brotherhood, except he had affixed some porous white mask to the face. Diamond talons extended from between his knuckles, runes glowed on his arms and in a flash of purple light he materialised in front of Tyron and began to fall upon him in a cascade of feral, animalistic blows.

Tyron did his best to respond, summoning rocks from the floor to reinforce his arm and striking deliberately with Kir, but before long great welts began to appear along his arms.

Seeing us distracted, Glibby charged between us, directly at Warnado. Amanda instinctively fired a shot at Glibby's face, but it shattered against the scorched palm of his gauntlet. He swept an arm at her to force her to dodge back, bearing directly down on Warnado himself. The demon-child was still muttering to himself, eyes closed, completely open. And Glibby's fist was flying forward.

"Helix!" I cried, just before the sniper's stock struck me in the jaw.

Glibby's fist found only air. Warnado's glowing red eyes were open, and his mouth had creeped into a smile. He leaned back at an impossible, forty-five-degree angle, suspended on his heel by magic. And his gauntleted arm had once again become the burning fist of a demon.

He propelled himself into standing and used the momentum to swipe up at Glibby. The taloned fist caught the Ape's breastplate on the upper torso and scraped away some of the obsidian. A fleck of two of demonfire even sprayed off the fist and caught Glibby on the chin, forcing him to recoil. He spun out of the way of a second swipe and forced Warnado back with a precise jab of the fist. However, he immediately found himself on the backfoot once more as he evaded another of Amanda's crossbow bolts.

"I'm pleasantly surprised, Helix," he sneered. "No more running from you, I see."

He threw another jab at Warnado. It slammed into the demon-arm, and Glibby swiftly pulled it back before the flames did him any serious damage. He stuck out his arm and flexed his fingers against the pain.

At the same moment, the sniper's age caught up to him and I was able to shunt him back a few steps. As I moved to strike him, he briefly pointed the barrel at my face, then let it drop to floor and shot at my foot, buying him a little more space. I found this very odd. Why not take the shot?

Warnado floated into the air, demon-fist raised.

"Nope, just me kicking your butt," he quipped.

He shot down, planning to reduce Glibby to a very burnt pancake on the floor. However, at the last moment an Endling grabbed his arm and warped him to safety. A purple-tinged crater cracked into existence on the ground where he had stood.

Glibby was lucky, as a second later the runic circle flickered into completion, suppressing the teleportation capacity of the Endlings, and allowing our forces a chance to fight on even footing again. The Mencur-Besh and Coven were gaining more ground on the staircase, though the Endlings were still numerous, and I couldn't make out Fire among them.

Shadow was still locked in combat with the Thaumaturge, frustration visibly forming on her face, her mages forbidden from helping her. Tyron slammed a wall of rock into his opponent, though this only momentarily broke his stride before he launched into a new round of attacks. I also saw Chrone and the Brotherhood fighting their way through the crowd toward Glibby. I struck out at the sniper, and for the first time my fist connected.

Glibby cast the now useless Endling aside and began to rummage around inside a pouch on his hip. He pulled out a bottle of purple dust which caused me to pause. I only had a second, though, before the sniper struck out at me again and we returned to the dance of combat which he seemed to know much better than me. Almost as though he had rehearsed the steps to it already…

Warnado rounded on Glibby, and the Ape cocked his head to encourage him onwards. Amanda fired another bolt to cover Warnado's advance. He ran forward with his fist before him, ready to drive it like a spear into Glibby's gut. The Ape blocked the bolt yet again and threw the bottle at the ground, throwing up a cloud of purple dust which Warnado ran through. Immediately I saw the effect. Warnado's fist began to dwindle, the flames flickered and dimmed, the talons became less sharp. His hand connected with Glibby's torso, just about breaking the armour, but when he drew it away, it was a thoroughly human hand, with only the tips of his fingers covered in the Ape's blood.

"H-how?" Warnado stammered.

The demon-child began to back away, but Glibby grabbed him and threw him to the ground. I realised I had to end this fight with the sniper immediately.

"I've been doing research on you."

The Ape's fleshy, skin-coloured lips folded into a contented smile. Warnado tried to scoot away, but Glibby kept advancing, as creeping and inevitable as the tide.

"I read a book about demonic gauntlets, and I managed to come across one which featured a crystal remarkably similar to your own. As it turns out, the connection between wielder and gauntlet can be severed with a simple cloud of amethyst dust. Isn't that a shame?"

He stooped, then batted aside Amanda as she tried to swing an axe at him. Warnado tried to summon an ethereal shuriken, but a gauntleted fist slammed into his stomach.

I struck the sniper and sent his rifle flying. He whipped his hand and a spring-loaded firearm shot to the right of my face. It didn't even come close. Suddenly, I recognised the look of glassy, far-flung terror on his face: the Prophet. It all clicked.

"You can't kill me, can you?" I breathed. "If I'm not here, you can't be here…"

The sniper hesitated and I smashed his nose in. I had no time to take satisfaction in the crunch as his blood spattered over my armoured knuckles, however. Glibby continued, now mere inches from the demon-child's face:

"Look at all that life bundled up in you," his grotesque lips spread. "Let's unhitch this burden."

I swung underhanded at Glibby's face. I froze as I realised this was the same manoeuvre that had severed my bond with Helix, and the Ape managed to leap out of the way. Amanda immediately grabbed Helix and they ran away into the melee. The Ape glowered at me, incensed at having lost its kill. I held my sword with both hands and stood my ground. I realised I needed to provoke him.

"Hello Kay," he seethed. "You just took away a moment I've been looking forward to for some time."

"Good," I said. "Glad I did it, you sad bloody chimp."

Glibby reared up and suddenly looked taller than the Tower itself.

"What did you just say-"

He was interrupted as I ran up and slashed at his face again. He forced me back.

"You going to fucking talk all day Glibby or are you going to fight?"

I spread my arms and jabbed my head forward in defiance. I had dropped all pretence, my natural brogue finally undistinguished. I was spitting more than speaking.

"I am Kay Mandy, Lap Dog of Herobrine, Hero of Arcadia, the uncrowned king of Nexus, and I condescend to challenge you, Ape. You should be honoured to face an opponent such as I. Or do you only fight children and shepherds?"

I had his attention now. I ducked one stroke of the gauntlet, then another, the air turned to a storm by the power behind his blows.

I leapt up and swing at him twice, which he deflected easily before jabbing me in the jaw. The very sinews of my mouth seemed to be threatening to unwind. I stayed upright, barely, and dodged well enough for another jab to merely glance off my cuirass.

I made for the small wound Helix had made on his flank. My blade plunged forward, then stopped. The Ape's gauntlet formed an obsidian scabbard for it. He wrenched the sword from my hands, flipped it around, and began to advance on me. I looked around.

Tyron was now being straddled by the diamond-skinned man Glibby had called Eight, only barely blocking his blows, his arms red with blood. The sniper was slowly recovering himself. I watched as Fire exploded back into view, roasting several Endlings and beginning to cleave another in two. Shadow's skin slipped into that shade-beyond-dark, and Wodahs proceeded to immediately ignore conventional shadow logic. The shade reached across the blinding light and grabbed the Thaumaturge's shadow by the head. His skull crumpled. The tide was turning, and I wondered if there was time for one of them to come up and save me.

Then, off in the corner, I saw Helix. Amanda had him propped against the wall and was talking quickly, continuously to him. He had his eyes closed and his head bowed. He breathed deeply and heavily and desperately. I remembered all those things which had been done to him, by Glibby, by the demons, by his mother… and by me. I took one last glance at the prophetic sniper, and the distant, unmistakable fear was still there - the fear of a man who had known all that was to happen, and now found himself blinded. And that was my mind made up.

I nodded, then spread my arms wide once again.

"Go on, you stupid animal," I muttered. "Finish the job."

If he killed me, that was the cycle broken. I died in Nexus, so I could never have gone back to my own world. And if I had never gone back to my own world, I could never have done whatever horrible thing I did there, and so Astro could not have come to Nexus in the way he did. And if Astro hadn't been in Nexus, I might never have tried to fight the Entity to begin with. The chain didn't just break, it exploded, and all those things were undone. We were set back to square one, and perhaps this time I could get it right.

He lifted the sword, then stopped. The sniper had called out to him, but I'm not sure either of us could make out what he said.

"Forget him, Glibby!" I roared. "Do it!"

I hoped beyond hope that someone might remember. Maybe me, though I doubted that. Then, I thought of Shadow, or the Lady of Dreams. If anyone would remember, it would be them. They might be able to steer us right. To save Destiny, save David, Fristad, the Book… perhaps they could even stop my own disgrace.

Glibby returned his eyes to me, choking on rage.

He thrust my sword down at me, and I bared my neck for the deathblow. I remembered the question I asked of Silver.

"Do I die well?"

"You seemed to think so."

I could only conclude that this was the best I could do. At least this time around.

Clang! I looked down, distraught. The diamond-skinned man from the Brotherhood had caught the blow with his twin swords and now forced Glibby back. Chrone interposed himself between me and them and shunted me back as I protested.

"Chrone, no! This is the only way I can-"

His head shot around and our eyes locked. Beneath the steel mask I could detect a strange familiarity. Either a deeper friendship than I had ever known, or a fiercer hatred than I could conceive. Maybe both.

"This isn't about you," he said quietly.

"Hey!"

My eyes shot to the source of the second word. Helix was back on his feet. No heavy breathing. No closed eyes. Not even hatred. Just an exuberant smile, so like the one he had worn when he first appeared at Fire and I's door back near the spring. Amanda stood behind him, a crossbow in one hand and an axe in the other.

Glibby, still engaged with the dual wielder, called out to Eight. Eight, having since been forced off Tyron by Rathina and Seth, grunted reluctantly and, in a streak of purple light, was busy harassing his doppelganger. Chrone shoved me once more and ran off to help his brother. The Ape turned to Warnado, a smile slowly returning to his face.

"So, he's back, is he?"

"Yep."

"Little Helix is ready to fight?"

The Ape threw his arms wide and roared with laughter.

"Nope, Helix isn't home. You're dealing with Warnado, now."

He manifested an energy axe in his hand.

"Well, that's quaint. Fighting on even without your demonic powers."

He began to stride toward Warnado.

"Funny you should say that…"

Warnado's eyes glowed purple momentarily, then his energy axe turned from green to deep, molten purple. The Ape stopped. I couldn't see his eyes, but they must have been wide as oceans.

An exhilaration ran through me. Chrone was right. It wasn't about me. This was his moment. A chill ran down my cheek and I realised I was crying.

"You cut off my connection to the gauntlet, but those powers don't belong to the gauntlet. They're mine, and it's time I started acting like it."

The Ape snarled and raised his fists. Warnado ran at him.

Warnado swung and Glibby tried to parry. The manoeuvre succeeded, but a large chunk of obsidian was chipped off the outermost knuckle. I saw burnt flesh beneath.

Glibby gritted his teeth and drove his fist at Warnado's flank. Warnado lifted his arm, and a shield formed, absorbing the blow but sending him sliding back on the floor. Seeing the opportunity, the Ape began to launch a series of blows directed at Warnado's head. However, Warnado's eyes flashed purple again and he dodged each of them without fail, still flashing that same exuberant smile.

Amanda landed a bolt in Glibby's exposed shoulder, and he howled with pain. The offensive juddered to a halt, and Warnado struck back, catching Glibby on the arm and leaving a deep welt. The scent of scorched flesh sprayed into the air.

The Ape wheeled back and reassumed a fighting stance, teeth bared like fangs. Only, a wall of rock slammed into his side. Tyron hung from Rathina's shoulder as a healer tended to him, one arm stretched out in a fist. Warnado struck again and cracked Glibby's right-hand gauntlet straight down the middle, leaving his hand exposed. The Ape swung with his still-armoured hand and Warnado nimbly spun out of the way.

Glibby staggered closer to me, still warding Warnado off with heavy punches, and the small puncture wound on his torso called out to me once more. I grabbed a discarded sword from the ground and thrust at it. On account of the wound still being framed by a lot of armour, the sword stopped quickly, and wound was superficial, but the Ape's focus was broken. I lurched away from the retaliatory strike. I landed strangely and my knee suddenly began to throb afresh.

This brief break in concentration, allowed Warnado the chance to shift his axe into a baseball bat. Crack! The helmet went flying from Glibby's head.

Still more enraged, he charged at Warnado. Unfortunately for him, he was so consumed with his fury he did not notice the blast of heat flying into his path. He collapsed, his lower right leg separated from his body, and I saw Shadow blow the smoke from her finger.

Still, the Ape was not done. He steadied himself with his remaining knee and his unarmoured hand and jabbed fiercely at Warnado. The demon-child snapped his fingers, and the remaining gauntlet materialised in his palm, smoke rising from it.

Glibby's jaw fell open. He turned his exposed hand over and over, eyes reading over every scratch, every blemish, every line of his palm, as though trying to find some sign in them that had led to this moment. Nothing distracted him from this examination. Not the presence of his opponent. Not the sound of his men being slaughtered around him. Not even the excruciating pain he was probably feeling from his various wounds.

Fire appeared beside Warnado, breathing heavily and supporting himself on his zweihander.

"The choice falls to you, do you want him dead, or will you give him a chance to surrender? A chance that is wholly undeserved, seeing what he did now and in the past. Still, we might have a use for this Ape yet."

Warnado squinted down at his opponent, or perhaps glared. My heart began to thunder. Then, finally:

"Eh, I don't really care…"

And he just walked off. The Ape looked up in confusion, as though woken from a dream. I felt a surge of… maybe it was pride, maybe it was disappointment. Regardless, I hung my head and unleashed a deep breath I had been holding.

Fire nodded. "Alright then, Glibby. You get another shot at the decision you made in that valley, now I hope that you choose to save some of your subordinates for a change instead of sending them to their deaths."

Fire detached his radio's microphone which through some miracle had survived up until now. He held it in front of the Ape's face. Fire's next words were much louder by virtue of being relayed through the Tower's intercom.

"Glibby the Ape, do you surrender?" Fire asked, then waited for a response.

The notorious serial killer looked up at Fire like a lost child. He cast an eye in the direction of Eight, just in time to see Chrone's whip cleave his mask in two. Another, more searching glance failed to find the prophetic sniper. He ran a tongue over his teeth, then leaned forward.

"I surrender. Grey Ones, stand down."

I looked around, there weren't many left to surrender, but a cheer still went up in our ranks when the remaining obsidian weapons clattered to the floor. The Mencur-Besh and Coven mages had secured the staircase. We were a stone's throw away from our objective. However, there was no way of knowing what truly awaited us in the Deep Labs, or how dearly it would cost us to get there.