They Who Govern Reason is the name of a soundtrack from Octopath Traveler, more specifically, a song encompassing one of the few secret boss fights in that game. Anyways, enjoy this chapter.
Chapter Nine - They Who Govern Reason.
"So who do you think is gonna win the fight? Kyle?" Bebe asked.
"Honestly, I'm not sure. They both seem to be evenly matched." Kyle scanned the forces closely. He seemed to have calmed down at this point, likely having accepted the fact that they were going to fight no matter what.
"They have quite a bit of wizards." What I said is true; there were more magical spells being flung around than I originally gave them credit for. Sure, this is Lord of the Rings, but I don't think these kids are as "grounded" as they think they are. Not like that matters in the long run anyways.
"What's our plan here once the fighting is done?" Tyler sounded rather much more pensive than usual. And honest to God, I myself really don't have a plan. What are we going to do once the fighting is done? Run back to Dustin and tell them they killed themselves?
"Maybe...just run away?" Can't say I'm entirely against Ellen's suggestion. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I'm starting to take a liking to that idea, especially how hard we fucked up just now.
"My money's on the girls," Kathy said.
"I'll bet you ten dollars," Chris remarked.
Kathy scoffed as she smirked over at Chris. "You're on."
We watched the battle unfold for what seemed to be an eternity. Legions of boys and girls duked it out against each other at the parking lot of the mall, swinging swords and spears, and firing arrows and fireballs at each other. The adults that stood to watch had phones out to take a video of the fight, and many were even cheering the fight on. The ones who were downed were left cut and bruised on the ground, but thankfully they managed to crawl themselves out of the conflict, and it appears no one has died yet. Still, this outcome was everything I was hoping wouldn't happen. Dustin sent us in to end the gender war, and here we instead accelerated it even further. I hate to say it, but our entire party is retarded (myself included).
It took until 6:17 PM, but once the dust finally settled, only two remained standing. Leven and Winter were both in a stalemate so far, both breathing heavily. Asides from a few scratches and hair pulls inflicted upon both, the rivals for the most part went through the battle unscathed. They were in the middle of the parking lot now, only no more than ten yards apart from each other.
"So...you versus me." Leven was breathing rapidly as he reached his right arm to his own back, where his quiver was held. He took another arrow and began to notch it to his bow.
"Funny how life works, don't it Leven?" Winter's sword was on the ground next to her feet. She bent down slowly to pick it back up. "We both come here at the same place at the same time, and this happens." She tightened her grip on the sword.
Leven narrowed his eyes. He was pulling back the bowstring, but as he heard Winter's words, he loosened the string, refusing to draw it any further. "Funny thing indeed. Why did you come here in the first place if you didn't have any reason to make amends?"
"Honestly, the eight tourists over there said you wanted to meet me here." Winter lifted her left arm, her shield arm, and pointed straight at us. At this point, I could feel the blood drain from my face. I'm starting to have a funny feeling all the blame is gonna be pinned on us, and this won't end well. Half of me wants to convince my party to ditch this scene right now, but I wanted to see how this unfolds further.
"Huh...these eight tourists wanted me to meet you here. And yet..." Leven glared at our party. Then Winter did.
I knew exactly where this was going at this point. Like Tyler suggested, it's best I nip this bud immediately. "Hey, don't blame us! We wanted to help you end this conflict, none of us knew that you guys would act like scumbags and bring secret armies with yourselves to this meeting!"
"Don't you bullshit us!" Winter yelled back. "Your only motive of being here is to try to 'redeem' yourselves via Dustin!"
"Oh stop it, both of you!" Kyle stepped up to my side now as he directed his anger upon the Middle Park pair. "You're both pieces of shit! If there's anyone who need redemption, it's both of you!"
"Especially considering how you kidnapped all the jocks and cheerleaders!" Bebe added. "Yeah, looking at you Winter, you lying skank!"
Winter gasped immediately. Can't blame her for being caught by surprise, if I did the same I too would try to lie my way out of that situation. "Who the fuck told you I was holding cheerleaders hostage?!"
Tyler scoffed. "Does it matter?!"
"Well it seems that all you South Parkers ever do to this town is fuck shit up!" Leven clutched the arrow and bowstring tightly. "First it was that gaylord with the pink hair and the mean fatass, and now it's you eight retards who harassed other children earlier today!"
"Like you haven't fucked up the town here yourselves!" I yelled back. "Fuck off, you hypocrites!"
"Fuck you!" Winter glanced over at Leven. "Hey Leven, how about a temporary truce?! Let's fuck these faggots to death instead! You got a legendary bow and I got a legendary sword, so we can take 'em on!"
"How the fuck do these people keep getting their hands on legendary artifacts?!" Kathy yelled. "I swear, it's almost as if the people we fight against are always cheating!"
"Yeah, stop cheating!" Bebe added. "It's a fucking eight versus two fight! You're supposed to get destroyed severely!"
"We're leaders," Leven replied, "so we have the privileges! Irregardless-"
"That's not even a real word!" Kyle interrupted.
"Irregardless, I'm with you, Winter!" Leven and Winter began to reposition, such that Winter is in front with her shield raised while Leven is in back. All of the other Middle Park children were lying down, too injured to assist Leven and Winter.
I took out my battle axe. "Get ready, guys. Looks like a physical damage team." Tyler activated Devotion Aura, which would help protect against physical blows. Kathy coated herself with ice, casting Ice Armor on herself, and Wendy casted Soul Link, linking her own soul to her felhunter's. She also casted Demon Armor, as green flares coated her body. Kyle dropped down four totems now: Strength of Earth Totem, which increased our party's strength and agility, Flametongue Totem, Mana Spring Totem, which regenerated our mana, and Windfury Totem. Bebe shapeshifted into her Moonkin Form, while also giving the Moonkin Aura, which increased our attack and cast speed, and our spell critical chance.
"Ready to die, cunts?!" Leven yelled.
"You're going down, assholes!" I yelled back.
Chris casted Stealth, going invisible. Winter began to run at the eight of us, shield raised. I casted Charge, rushing in upon Winter in the speed of light. I knocked down Winter, but then I was shot in the right thigh with an arrow from Leven. "Ow!" I set my gaze on Leven as I forcefully pulled out the arrow, releasing blood, shifted into a Berserker Stance, a more aggressive stance, and immediately casted Intercept to run at Leven instead. I then switched back into a Battle Stance, a more balanced stance. Why would I attack Winter, who's wearing a shield, when I can go for the archer instead?
Leven pushed me back. All of a sudden, a multitude amount of shadowy afflictions, namely Corruption, Curse of Agony, and Unstable Affliction, began to manifest in auras of shadow energies to slowly eat away at Leven, boiling his skin. I looked over at Wendy, who was the cause of all of this, standing a few feet away from a black-and-green circle - a Demonic Circle. She briefly smiled at me before casting Haunt, letting loose a ghostly soul to attack Leven. Her felhunter roared before charging down Leven, beginning to nip and bite at his leg. "Augh! You bitch!"
I ran at Leven again. I raised my battle axe and slammed down, making a clean attack onto Leven's chest, tearing into his plate armor and drawing some blood. But Leven mustered as much strength as he could before forcefully pulling away Wendy's demon from his leg, tearing off a good chunk of skin, blood and tissue, and tossing the demon at me, causing both of us to tumble backwards. Wendy's demon was not light at all, and I could feel my ribs ache from the toss. Damn, that Stick of Truth must have done a number on Leven's physical strength. Leven fired another arrow, this time at Wendy, and it tore into her stomach. She screamed in pain. "Augh! I think it's poisoned, Stan!"
But Leven was also being demolished by Wendy's damage-over-time afflictions, which were still setting into him, causing pores on his skin to break.
I looked over briefly at what was happening with Winter, and it seemed the other six members of my party were ganging up on the poor girl. Kyle had already summoned two spirit wolves (thanks to his Feral Spirit spell), and they were attacking away at Winter, but she proved herself rather resilient from the assault. Tyler and Chris were both attacking Winter from behind, but even though the damage was notable, Winter had simply too much stamina to back down immediately. She threw her shield at Bebe and it ricochet to Kathy, knocking both in their heads as they fell to the ground dazed in a concussion. The shield returned to Winter's left arm, slipping on like a glove.
"Look out, Stan!"
Wendy's voice took me out of the trance. I turned back to Leven and despite being melted down slowly by Wendy's shadow spells, he was already pulling back another arrow with his bow and aiming it straight at me! But one gunshot came out, and the bullet came to impact Leven's torso. Then another one in quick succession, and immediately Leven found himself disarmed. I knew that Ellen had casted Scorpid Sting and Chimera Shot in quick succession, which caused the disarm. Then Ellen turned her attention back to Winter to continue firing bullets at Winter. As Leven gathered his bow, I looked over at Wendy quickly. "Are you still poisoned?!"
Suddenly, Wendy's body flashed a green glow. "No, I think I'm fine, Kyle must have cleansed me with a spell just now!"
I stood up and gripped my battle axe tightly. I immediately casted Charge, rushing at Leven once more. He reached into his pocket and threw down a bear trap. It caught onto my left foot immediately. "Ow!" I yelled out in pain. I felt myself rooted to the ground due to the trap. Therefore, there was one way I could immediately break it: I began to grip my axe tightly and spin around in a Bladestorm. But it didn't even last a second as I felt myself disarmed out of it, my axe tossed aside. Apparantly Leven was skilled enough to manage to use his sword and dagger to disarm me even during a deadly Bladestorm. As I picked my axe back up, Leven jump forward and drop-kicked me, knocking me to the ground again. He let loose another arrow, this time aimed at Wendy's demon, piercing its skull and killing it instantly. It then disappeared moments later, vanishing from the physical plane.
"Goddamnit!" Wendy yelled. She casted Fel Domination first, which allowed her to almost instantly summon another felhunter - which she did. Of course, she better not get this one killed. Next she casted Soul Link on her demon. "Focus Winter, Stan!" Shadow energies gathered in her hands again, but before she could get her spell off, Leven tossed a rock at Wendy, hitting her in the face and interrupting her spell. She tried to cast Fear, but it failed. "Fuck!"
I ran by Leven and casted Intimidating Shout. "Rah!" This caused him to stay terrorized in place, unable to do anything. I then charged at Winter, but at that moment, she spun around with her sword, knocking Kyle, Tyler, Chris (who was already visible at this point), Ellen's wolf, and me down. She ran at Ellen now, bashing the hunter in the face with her shield. She made a muffled cry in pain as she staggered back, gripping her own face. She tried to run at Ellen once more.
"Deep Freeze!"
Those were the words Kathy yelled and suddenly, the air around Winter cooled, and she found herself frozen in a spike of ice. Bebe, in her Moonkin Form, casted Starfall, and for a few seconds, several flurries of stars fell from the sky to explode upon both Winter and Leven. Unlike last time, there was nothing to stop the Starfall this time so both of the Middle Parkers were being bombarded. Then Kathy summoned her Water Elemental.
"Force of Nature!"
"Icy Veins!"
"Rapid Fire!"
"Shadow Dance!"
"Avenging Wrath!"
Those were the words declared by Bebe, Kathy, Ellen, Chris, and Tyler respectively as Bebe summoned three treants the size of myself to attack Winter, Kathy began to surround herself in pure frost, Ellen briefly glowed with light as she began to fire bullets much more quickly, Chris surrounded himself with dancing shadows, and Tyler erupted golden wings of light behind his back. I glanced back at Leven and I was mortified at what I saw next.
Leven, holding his sword with his right hand, had embedded it partially into Wendy. I could visibly see her crying in pain. "Ow!"
"Wendy!" I immediately ran at Leven. "I will cut you down!" Nobody hurts my girlfriend and gets away with it! Casting Mortal Strike, I raised my axe up and brutally smashed it into Leven, and I could visibly see his armor break apart, the pieces falling to the ground, and his clothes underneath were torn up now. Leven pulled his sword out of Wendy as he staggered back. Wendy immediately teleported to her Demonic Circle, creating more distance between her and the archer.
The soul that Wendy sent to Leven returned to her finally, and she was partially healed, the wounds on her front side healing slightly. "Death Coil!" A coil of death was shot out from Wendy towards Leven, and it hit. This caused Leven to run away in fear briefly as well as stealing his life away, partially regenerating the damage caused by the sword stab. But even though Leven ran, neither I nor Wendy's felhunter relented, as we both ran after Leven.
Suddenly, a feeling of Heroism overcame me, as I could feel myself increase in adrenaline. I then realized that Kyle had casted that spell of the same name, enhancing our entire party's speed. I was going to run at Leven again, but suddenly, there was a flash of yellow, then Leven fell unconscious. I looked over, and Tyler had his left hand out directed at Leven. He must have casted Repentance to incapacitate the archer.
So instead Wendy's felhunter and I ran to Winter, who was no longer stunned in a spike of ice. She was being attacked upon all sides. However, she made a whirl clockwise with her sword, cleaving everyone around her, including Kyle, Tyler, Bebe's treants, Kyle's spirit wolves, and Ellen's wolf. They were all knocked back, the treants and spirit wolves being killed instantly. Chris was the only one who managed to dodge the attack. All the meanwhile, Winter began to get hit by a Moonfire from Bebe, which caused her to burn. Then an Insect Swarm was casted from Bebe, attacking Winter.
"Augh, get it off! Get it off!" Winter was frantically trying to shoo the magical swarm away as they continued to sting her. Then Wendy casted Haunt, Unstable Affliction, Corruption, and Curse of Agony on Winter in that order, and shadow energies began to whittle away at Winter, breaking into her skin. Then Kathy instantly launched a Frostfire Bolt to blast Winter, and her Water Elemental continued to fling water bolts at the Middle Park girl.
I lifted my axe and slammed down upon Winter, casting Execute, slamming my axe down upon the girl. It cut into her backside heavily, but Winter was just too resilient to go down. I did manage to chunk out metal plates from her backside, so it wasn't a total loss.
Chris ran towards Leven now with a trail of a white aura, his speed increased thanks to casting Sprint. He bent down, picked up a pile of snow, and as Leven came back to consciousness, Chris tossed it at Leven, casting Blind to disorient the archer. He then quickly casted Shadowstep, teleporting back to Winter's backside as he and Wendy's felhunter both joined me on the melee assault against Winter.
But Winter slammed us with her shield, knocking back Chris, Wendy's demon, and myself. She then ran over to Kathy's water elemental to stab it, casuing it to extinguish. She tried to run to Kathy now. Kathy was already shielded with an Ice Barrier. Winter's attack broke the barrier, and it exploded, freezing Winter's feet in place, rooting her down.
Kathy casted Blink, teleporting closer to Leven. As Leven managed to wipe his face off, Kathy casted Polymorph, and now he was turned into a sheep. The flip side to this was that in this form, Leven began to rapidly regenerate his wounds. This could be a double edged sword. "Kathy, why'd you do that?"
"Best to keep one controlled, right?" Kathy replied.
I turned back to Winter and got up again. Entering Berserker Stance, I casted Intercept, charging in on Winter. I spun around once, unleashing a Whirlwind attack that hit Winter's backside once more, then I reentered the Battle Stance.
"I got this!" Bebe moved over towards Leven. Right as Leven returned back to his regular human form, Bebe had casted Cyclone, tossing him a bit into the air, trapped inside a small miniature tornado. She then casted Starfire, raining down a torrent of lunar energy to blast Winter.
Winter tried to run at Bebe, but she took a bullet to the head, Ellen casting Concussive Shot. The bullet simply dazed Winter, slowing her down. As the cyclone ended, Kyle let casted Hex on Leven, which turned him into a frog now. I gotta say I feel bad for Leven, we wouldn't let him do anything this fight. Winter then bashed Kyle with her shield, knocking her down. But despite our efforts, Winter was still standing strong, though she was weakening considerably, her skin heavily bruised and cut up, and the plate armor she once wore tearing away, revealing the regular jacket and pants she wore underneath. She made another sweep with her sword, cutting down Chris, Tyler, and myself.
Ellen jumped towards Leven. "Scatter!" The moment Leven returned to human form, she fired another Scatter Shot, multiple pellets that ended up disorienting Leven momentarily once more. This gave her enough time to fire a Freezing Arrow that made its way to land beneath the feet of Leven. He stepped on it and it bursted, and moments later, he found himself frozen in ice.
I casted Execute and Tyler casted Hammer of Wrath, as I let loose a brutal strike down upon Winter's head while Tyler created a holy hammer and threw it at Winter's head. The hammer exploded while my axe slammed down at full force, finally bringing the girl down. She was still breathing, but for now, she was as downed as all the other Middle Park children.
But I looked over at Leven, and he was already thawed out with less injuries now thanks to getting healed by Kathy's polymorph. He pulled back several arrows on his bow string, and aimed up into the air. "Good to see you...fucktards." He let loose the arrows, shooting straight into the air before falling down in a rain upon us. He would do this several more times.
"Look out!" I yelled.
But most of us were woefully unprepared for what's to come as the rain of arrows began to strike us down. Wendy teleported to her Demonic Circle once again, narrowly avoiding the rain. The rest of us weren't so lucky however as the arrows began to pierce us. But I was not harmed! The arrows simply bounced off of me, and at that moment I noticed a purple crown of light floating above me. Tyler had casted Hand of Protection, saving me from the arrowstorm. But he was just as unlucky as the rest, being struck down by the arrows. Wendy's demon died immediately, an arrow piercing its brain and causing it to disappear from the physical plane, while the rest were struck down, too injured and tired to get up. Bebe lost her concentration, being forced back into her human form.
"You...you bastard!" Leven began to notch another arrow to his bow. I didn't give him this opportunity. The Hand of Protection faded away and immediately I casted Charge, rushing in. I next casted Hamstring, making a side swipe upon Leven's legs to slow him down. Then I casted Bladestorm, spinning around rapidly with my axe out to cut Leven apart. Meanwhile, Wendy casted Haunt, Unstable Affliction, Corruption, and Curse of Agony again in that order, slowly destroying Leven with shadow energy and curses. She then casted Drain Life, creating a green beam of energy that (as you guessed) stole Leven's lifeforce and transferred it to Wendy, causing the pores of his skin to break open even further (not factoring my axe attacks of course).
When I was through, and when Wendy's spells faded, Leven was now down for the count once again. He lied down, too tired to get up, but was still concious. I too was too tired as Wendy and I staggered near each other. I looked around. Winter, along with the rest of our party, was too injured, with several bruises and cuts on their skin. Wendy and I also sustained similar damages, our clothing partially torn up. I could feel my hat having holes too.
"You alright, Wendy?" I asked.
Wendy nodded. "Yeah..." she replied softly.
I turned back to Leven. "Tell me, Leven, Winter..." I slowly muttered as I breathed in and out heavily. "Was all this...was this all worth it?"
Winter and Leven both stood up, though now at this point, their plate armor was barely anything anymore, being torn away so much it ended up as nothing but scrap metal chunks on the parking lot. "Fuck you," Winter swore.
I gripped my battle axe tightly. "You're still looking to fight?"
"No!" Leven then sighed. "No. We give. I give. You win."
"Yeah," Winter added. "You win."
My party began to get up as well. Ellen crawled over to heal her wolf with magic while Bebe and Tyler began to tend to everyone else. Kyle also stood up, though bending one knee down to heal Chris. "Why...why do you continue to fight us?"
Winter turned to Kyle. "This was the one thing we thought...was worth fighting for."
"All this?" Bebe glared up upon the Middle Park pair while she had her right hand placed on Kathy's back, healing her. "For what - your stupid cause? Look at the damage you both caused!" Leven and Winter were both deathly silent.
Tyler was healing Ellen as well, placing his right hand on Ellen's left shoulder. "Funny how you say you hate the opposite gender...but when it comes to us, you assholes are too eager to team up and kill us."
Kyle gasped. He immediately looked over at Tyler. "Tyler, you're a genius!"
Tyler blinked. "Wait, what?"
Kyle glanced back at the Middle Park pair. "Don't you two get it? By trying to kill us all, you two were working together, as both boys and girls. This shows you guys can get along." I mean, as fucked up as this current situation is, I had to smile at Kyle. He knew how exactly to place his words to make peace, and right now, I could see the magic in his speeches. Winter and Leven were both silent, unable to find a good response, so Kyle continued. "Haven't you guys learned something all of this? That you both aren't so different after all? So why fight each other over petty nonsense? Why fight because some fat turd manipulated you, or some mean jocks and cheerleaders said and did hurtful things to you and those you care about? You don't need them to decide what you want to do, or who you should hate. Because I know that deep down, you both have been hurting."
Winter looked over at Kyle, then she chuckled. "If it takes a fucked up situation as this to get us both to team up..."
Leven then walked over to Winter. "Yeah. Perhaps we aren't so different after all, Winter."
I blinked. "You both are really calling a cease-fire here?"
Leven and Winter glanced at each other first, then looked back at me. "Yeah. You guys win this fair and square. Anything else?"
"I want to know something, Leven." I looked upon Leven now. "Brent and Tori told me there were actually...three people who went to Middle Park on Sunday, who went with Douchebag and Cartman. They say it was a puppet."
"It's not exactly...a puppet. It's more of a...hand, if you will."
Kyle narrowed his eyes at Leven. "A...a hand?!"
"Yes. You heard right. I don't know much more." A hand? No...if I'm thinking what I'm think of...no, Cartman cannot possibly be bringing that thing back...could he?
"Look," I said. "Aside from stopping the gender war, we also want you to release the jocks and cheerleaders, and leave alone."
Winter nodded. "I will do that."
The rest of my party now stood up, joining me. They were all partially healed at this point, well enough to start walking again. "I guess this is it," Bebe said. We watched as the other children began to cheer, getting up slowly. For once, I could feel that we were being appreciated in this town.
"You can run along to Dustin now, tell him the gender war is over," Leven said.
I nodded. "I guess this is it. Come on, guys. We're leaving."
As my party began to leave, I could hear Winter yell out again. "Hey tourists!"
We turned back to face them once more. But this time, they both smiled gracefully and nodded. "Thank you," they both said.
I smiled back. This was the first time today where I legitimately felt I did something right. Sure, it was a messy and violent path to get there, but in the end, the results didn't lie, and I'm certain Middle Park will be better for it.
We left the mall and began to walk back towards Dustin's house. Needless to say, we were all tired, beat up, and torn, and we didn't have any magical buffs on us anymore. Despite our physical fatigue, we all seemed to be in good spirits. Kyle and Bebe were laughing together. Chris and Kathy held hands. Tyler had his left arm around Ellen. Even Wendy was a bit happier than she was an hour ago, a slight smile on her face as she trailed us.
I explicitly slowed my walking pace so that Wendy could catch up to me. "Hey, you alright?"
Wendy nodded slightly. "A bit. Seeing the boys and girls here not fighting anymore is a bit more relaxing."
"You didn't seem like yourself earlier today," I continued softly.
"Yeah it's...uh..." Wendy gazed at the others, who were too busy chatting amongst themselves to really notice. "I suppose you wanna know, don't you?"
"Well yeah, you seemed pretty unhappy, and I was hoping it wasn't because of something I said or did."
"We can talk about it later, if you wanted." Unfortunately, her response didn't make me feel that much better. I really hope that Wendy is feeling alright, and I really hope the talk later will go smoothly.
But Kathy's compliment drew me out of my thoughts. "You all did a pretty good job. I kinda messed up there casting Polymorph and healing Leven though."
"It's fine, really," I replied. "I'm rather impressed at the crowd control chain you guys managed to do under pressure. We went from Death Coil to Repentance, Blind, Polymorph, Cyclone, Hex, Scatter Shot, then Freezing Arrow in that order. I'm really proud of you guys."
Kyle grinned back at me. "Hey, you practically saved us when we all went down from Leven's rain of arrows, Stan. You and Wendy both."
"Speaking of who..." Bebe turned back to Wendy. "Wendy, you feeling okay? You haven't been yourself at all in the past hour."
Wendy raised her left hand and waved dismissively. "I'm fine, Bebe. Don't you worry about me."
Bebe looked closely at Wendy, but simply conceded by nodding. "Alright. Well if you ever wanna talk, girl, I'm here for you." Wendy simply nodded back in response.
A minute later, we finally arrived back at Dustin's House, the "FIELDS'S TAVERN" banner still hanging strong above the doorway. When we walked inside however, the reaction I recieved was less than expected. There were about six other children at the tables, but when they noticed us, they all cheered and clapped at our arrival. Dustin and Chloe were both at the coffee table, and both waved excitedly at us.
"Me and Dustin are really impressed at your success in ending the war." Chloe smiled warmly at us. "Good work."
Kyle shook his head, not smiling. "I wish things could have ended peacefully."
"Don't beat yourself up over it," Dustin countered. "I had a feeling it would end in a fight, but nonetheless, you guys did what I thought was the impossible, so you'll be compensated accordingly." He turned to Chloe. "Chloe, if you will." Chloe nodded then went to head upstairs. He turned back to us. "Now, I suppose you want to know what I know about the ones you're looking for."
Our party nodded. "Yeah."
Dustin nodded. "From what I gathered, the two boys from South Park are Ray and Cartman. But you both probably already know this." We nodded, but kept silent, letting Dustin continue. "Now there is a third person that went with them from South Park to here." So it's confirmed that they didn't get anyone here. "Well...it's not exactly a person, per se..."
"It's a hand," I continued for him. "According to what Leven said."
Dustin nodded. "Yes...a hand with a name."
Wendy spoke up now as she leaned forward against the coffee table. "Do you...do you by any chance know what that name is?"
Dustin nodded once more. "Yes indeed. Not sure if I heard correctly, but I believe the fat kid, Cartman mentioned...Mitch Connor."
We all gasped. Then Kyle was the first to groan. "Oh no...you gotta be fucking kidding me."
Dustin narrowed his eyes at us. "You know Mitch Connor?" As he said those words, Chloe finally joined us, carrying a brown satchel. She didn't interrupt, only stood next to Dustin to listen.
"Yeah, he's basically a shitty persona of Cartman, who brought a Mafia to South Park to fuck it all up," I replied.
"He's not an actual person, it's just Cartman using a dumb persona just to be a fucking asshole to everyone," Kyle added. "I can't believe he would pull this shit again...actually I can believe he would pull this shit again."
"We don't know his true intent though," Bebe reasoned.
Dustin leaned closer. "There is one artifact that you can use to discern the real truth from the enemy. It's called the Lasso of Truth, like the one from Wonder Woman, and last I heard it's somewhere in North Park. Speaking of which, the ones you're looking for aren't here. They haven't been here, they left early in the morning today, and I believe they went up north."
"North Park..." I then gasped. "Maybe they might know where that lasso is."
"But why would Cartman want that lasso in the first place?" Kathy shook her head. "It's not like he'd have any real use for it."
"Probably artifact hoarding," Tyler replied. "Cartman isn't stupid: any artifact that exists is a potential artifact that could be turned against him. Even ones that just discern truth from lies."
"To turn against him..." Chris then looked over at Kyle.
"He...doesn't want to be called out for his bullshit, he doesn't want everyone to know that Mitch Connor is a fake, so he can keep doing heinous acts under the guise to keep his real fat turd identity safe. And so that he won't tell anyone why and how he convinced Douchebag to join him." Kyle grumbled. "We have to get that lasso before he does."
"Fortunately, they say he and the pink haired kid left town by foot." Dustin nodded.
"But is there any way we could get there faster?" Ellen asked. "We're too tired to travel tonight."
"Fortunately, that is where I come in." Chloe placed the satchel on the coffee table and opened it up. "Here's your rewards for the heroic deeds you eight performed." She began to take each item out of the satchel one-by-one. "Five hundred dollars cash." She put the money out on the table. "Two rooms for the local motel here for one night. It's sorta cheap, but it's what we can get." She placed two identical pieces of paper on the table, which appeared to be receipts of a purchase for two rooms at the motel.
"How'd you get all this?" I asked.
"I got...contacts." Dustin winked at us. Damn.
We all took the money to distribute evenly while Kyle took both pieces of paper. "Thank you so much for this," Kyle nodded.
"No problem. I hope you guys find what you're looking for, and I do wish you good luck on your journey. Name's Dustin Fields by the way." Now it makes much more sense why this place is called the Fields's Tavern.
"I'm Chloe Clarkson," the black girl added.
"I'm Stan Marsh." Then I began to point one-by-one to each of the other travelers. "This is Kyle Broflovski, Wendy Testaburger, Bebe Stevens, Kathy Freeman, Ellen Joseph, Chris Howard, and Tyler Hoffman. And we're the Octopath Travelers."
"It was an honor to meet you all. I hope you do well." Dustin and Chloe both bowed down and the rest of the children clapped again. "Thank you for all your help."
"Thanks for believing in us," I replied.
We all smiled and waved at the rest of the house as we all began to leave. First we would head in the direction of the motel, and fortunately it was only 6:49 PM. The sun still shone brightly in the sky, and luckily, we could have the evening to eat and relax.
The next chapter may come out a bit slower since I'm still thinking of how I'm going to approach the much-later chapters. But for now, this is basically the end of the Gender War Arc, so I hope this was at least somewhat enjoyable for you all.
