I live! Despite all odds, I live. Holy carp. Yeah, it's been over a year. There's nothing to blame for that but myself. If you're curious about the circumstances of my hiatus and return, read on, but if not, I won't blame you if you just wanted to read the chapter. It's a few paragraphs down.
Basically I wrote chapter 58, and wasn't too happy with the direction I had taken with it, so I ultimately ended up losing the motivation to continue. I took to more personal projects and diversions and kept putting off revising the chapter until it simply faded from my frontal lobes. However, recently a new friend of mine introduced me to a website. Quotev, it's called. Think Deviantart but with more of a focus on writing (and quizzes, for some reason). Yeah, the overall content is comparable in quality - there's the occasional legitimately good piece, and most of the rest range from so-bad-its-good to just-plain-bad. For the record, I intended on only using it as a space for an RP. But after spending some time browsing for kicks, I realized Another World would probably fit much better on that site than here by this point, because let's face it - this story is more about my own creations than any of the fandoms involved.
And so, I started cross-posting chapters onto Quotev one at a time. So far, what little feedback I have gotten seems to be totally positive. It inspired me to come back to Another World, and I'd start by rewriting the back half of Chapter 58 with a fresh outlook. I must say I'm much happier with how it turned out. As for what the change exactly was, let's just say I resolved to close more plot threads than I open for once.
Anyway, Quotev's version is going to lag behind this one, but I will maintain and update both of them. So there is no need to panic. And as a bonus, while I'm reuploading the old chapters, I might tweak them in places as well, just like I've already done for chapters 1-15. I will, of course, update them here while I'm at it. They won't get near as big of an overhaul as the 6-15 chunk did, but I'll at least take the opportunity to give other characters the spotlight once in a while, and try to make everything more enjoyable and "real."
Now, as for updates to the full story, I can't promise a speedy or consistent update schedule. I'm only doing this as a hobby, after all. But I think I can safely forecast at least one new chapter a month, probably? There will be much crossing of fingers for sure.
Alright, I believe that's everything I wanted to say. I won't keep you waiting any further - let's get back to the story!
Chapter 58: Triff's Conviction
"And as Hailstorm chair-lifted the man of many forms to the sixth gate, the remaining two players proceeded to enter the game in a fashion that would strike most of you as boring and repetitive. In other words, blah blah yadda yadda stuff you've already seen."
In a dark room, a narrow light shone on a microphone sitting on a lone desk. Just outside of the light radius sat a man, narrating in a crude, almost uncaring voice.
He continued his narration. "Sera prototyped a helix fossil or something, and Broshi prototyped that block version of his girlfriend that he'd always been carrying around. You remember that chapter, right? He somehow kept that block with him all this time, believe it or not. Anyway, other than that, nothing to write home about."
The shadowy figure in front of the microphone leaned forward into the light, revealing himself to the audience with an overly smug grin. It was Mefirst.
"I bet you're wondering how I'm sitting here, talking to you," Mefirst followed. "Or, for that matter, why I'm so self-aware of the story and spoiling everything for you wonderful non-existent fans." He laughed. "Well, I won't spoil that much. It may seem like a lowly position, but a mail courier is still a government worker, after all. You know as well as I do that the government has many secrets. It keeps them from the public eye not to anger them, but to protect them."
He put a hand up to his ear. "Ooh, I can already hear the angry mob of commenters rushing in to argue politics," he observed.
The door burst open. The mailman was correct about an angry mob, but not quite about the reason for their arrival. Standing in the doorway was a triangular silhouette.
"What the heck are you doing, nub," the triangle asked coldly.
"What do you think I'm doing?" Mefirst answered. "It's been a while since the world saw my beautiful face, so I thought I'd try my hand at being the narrator."
Trank stepped menacingly into the light, drilling into Mefirst with his soulless eyes. "Do you realize the very fabric of continuity is at risk because of your nubish ways?"
"I'll say," the Hajikelist answered. "You're using such big words, so reality must be breaking down!"
Trank grabbed the still-laughing Mefirst by the scruff of his neck. "I can kill you again, you know."
"But if you do that, who will narrate the story? I already returned the original narrator to sender!" He indicated a barely-visible corpse in the corner of the room. "That's why the story hasn't updated in like over a year."
Annoyed, Trank seized the hanging light and pointed it at the corpse. "That's your corpse, nubert." Indeed, it was a corpse of Mefirst, still stuck with several of Hailstorm's bolts.
The living mailman gasped at the illumination of the dead one. "Hey!" he protested. "I was saving that reveal for chapter 113!"
"Too bad," Trank rebutted, shoving Mefirst out of his chair and sitting in it himself. Or, to be more accurate, he placed himself on the seat. "I'll allow a time skip, but we're picking the story up from where it was meant to be told."
Hailstorm let himself collapse on the roof of Reed's house, setting Blah down less than gently. The pegasus panted heavily after such a long, breakless trip. Maybe if he wasn't such a nub, he could have taken it.
Hail had decided to wait to wake Blah until he had caught his breath, but he didn't have to.
"I think, therefore I am," chanted the robot in Blah's voice. "Battery is at 84% capacity. Not bad. Could have been better." Blah flipped onto his back and sat up, glancing at his exhausted ride. "Care to fly me around a bit more to top off the tank?" he joked.
"If I... do that," Hail responded, "I might... deplete mine..."
Blah stood up and stretched his servos. "Oh, no worries. I'll just let you borrow my solar charger for a while," he suggested, unplugging the generator. "Oh, wait, I forgot. You're not an awesome robot like me!" He gazed proudly out upon the world he had conceived from the high perch of the veritable tower. Way to put that nub in his place.
"Glad you had a nice rest," Hail muttered in a single, terse exhale as he stretched his legs on the rooftop.
Chuckling to himself, Blah put his charger away and looked around the roof for some stairs. He didn't have to search long; before his eyes, a SBURB cursor descended and drew a sizable set of stairs leading upward. It was an extension of a staircase leading into the house proper, from which a small contingent of black imps slowly ascended, backing fearfully away from some unseen threat.
Eager to see some action, Blah drew his Pwnhammer. Before he could approach, however, a sharp implement stabbed one of the imps through the chest, collapsing it into a small pile of purple grist. The sharp implement appeared to be some sort of bayonet, sticking out of the reed slot of a clarinet. The instrument's wielder emerged from below the roof, a young fox-like humanoid wearing a white tunic and brown shorts. His stance was somewhat loose, as though he wished he were somewhere else. This Triff only vaguely resembled the Reed he had witnessed in the Omega timeline.
"Hey Reed," called Blah, preparing to cut off the remaining imps. "You okay over there?"
"He's fine," responded a familiar female voice from behind him. Following closely behind the fox was none other than Astra. Reed nodded weakly as he approached another cowering imp.
Blah twirled the hammer in his hand impatiently. "You sure? I'd rather hear it from him."
"The whole point is for him to do this himself," Astra continued. "Despite being the first player into the medium, Reed has been... well, to put it politely, slacking off. He has a lot of catching up to do on his Echeladder before he goes on some dungeon run."
"Good, then I'll have a chance to catch up with my breath..." cut in Hail.
Blah set down his hammer with a sigh. "Well, that's all fine and dandy," he said, "but what are we supposed to do in the meantime?"
"You could find that facility of yours, so that we know where to go when we are ready," suggested Astra.
The robot looked back at his pegasus companion. "Not a chance," Hail pre-emptively denied, knowing exactly what Blah was going to ask. "I'm staying here to rest."
"You mean I have to go out there and find that thing by myself?" questioned Blah.
"Should be no problem for an awesome robot like you," the pony quipped.
Blah's internal processes churned in search of a different solution. "Why don't we just all go?" he tried. "There are loads of stronger underlings on the lands. Reed could potentially level up high enough to take on the facility en route. That's good game design for you - give you the experience you need on the roads you have to take, rather than forcing you to go out of your way to grind."
"I like that idea," Reed agreed as he dispatched the final imp unenthusiastically.
Astra crossed her arms. "I suppose you have a point."
"What about me? I'm still exhausted..." complained Hail.
"Your wings are," remarked Blah. "You can still walk, can't you?"
Loudly sighing, Hail stood up. "Whatever. I know I won't be able to convince you otherwise, so let's-"
A roar interrupted his reluctant compliance. Clawing its way on top of the roof was a block-headed, mustachioed ogre, likely attracted by the extra area that Bellia had been discreetly building above their heads.
"This should be good for one last weapon upgrade before we go," assessed Astra, brandishing her scythe.
"I wouldn't mind that..." uttered Reed, staring at his ordinary clarinet with the cheap bayonet attachment.
"Neither would I!" exclaimed Blah, retrieving his hammer excitedly.
Hail didn't bother to load his crossbow, opting to take the opportunity to lay down a little while longer. He knew the others would have no problem with this one.
The group of four walked in a loose formation along the dirt trail. Although Blah had created this world, he had never spent any time considering the lay of the land. Therefore, the one with the most knowledge of the environment was Reed, who didn't get out much to begin with. Upon Reed's somewhat ill-informed direction, the group began their search along a lightly wooded path to the nearest town. There, they'd ask the local populace for clues. It wasn't the most solid plan, but it was a decent starting point.
The fox, awed and curious, studied his new weapon - a clarinet mixed with a collapsible metal music stand, making it more rigid and capable of extending its range. Hailstorm, his wings still sore, begrudgingly resorted to walking. Blah decided to do the same, now overly cautious of his battery. Astra was the most detached from the group, walking silently behind and to the side.
"So, how are you holding up, really? Feeling any better?"
Blah slowed his pace to walk next to Astra. He broke the long-established silence with a rather serious question, one that had been burning in the back of his artificial mind since before the journey to Moros.
Astra stared back at him with her characteristic blank stare, although Blah's facial recognition program reported a 16% widening of the eyes, indicating that she was slightly taken aback. "I've just had a lot on my mind," she answered. "My personal feelings aren't important right now. We have a duty to fulfill."
Blah noticed with a sliver of frustration she didn't quite answer his question. "Your personal feelings are plenty important," he assured. "Your mood can affect your efficiency at a task."
"Not Astra," Reed cut in, playfully flicking his clarinet to extend it. "She's really good at keeping her personal life separate from her business life. Or whatever you want to call it."
"Not that I have much of a personal life..." the girl commented.
"Then what's with all the spaceship stuff?" questioned Blah. "Unless you work for NASA, I don't think you could be tinkering with that for anyone but yourself."
Astra had nothing to say to that. Blah leaned in closer. "Look, sis, I'm just saying it'd behoove you to get some of that stuff off your mind before it consumes you."
"Just drop it," advised a grumpy Hail. "We need to focus and keep our guard up. Creating unnecessary drama isn't going to lead anywhere useful... you taught me that one, Blah."
Astra sighed. "No..." she refuted. "Blah's right, it's better than letting it fester. To tell you the truth..." She had everyone's attention now. Even Hail had to admit he wanted to know what was up. "I'm afraid that, one way or another, this quest will put an end to everything we know. If we fail, we die. If we succeed, the universes reset. Things won't be the way they were. Most of us will cease to exist..." She gazed at the sky. "...and I'll never get the chance to see my mother."
"...Oh." That was all Blah could say in response. He hadn't given that aspect much thought, as he was confident he'd return to his own universe and his life would go back to the way it was. Whatever it was. However, this would probably mean that he would have no recollection of his adventure. Even if he did remember, he'd have no idea as to the fate of each of his friends.
Including Pinkie Pie.
"You don't know that for certain." Hailstorm's comforting voice drowned out the worry as he fluttered behind Blah and Astra. "I'd bet my left wing that your mother is well aware of your situation, and she wouldn't leave you in the dust if she could help it. You might see her before it's all said and done. Not only that, but we already have proof that it's possible to escape a resetting universe..."
"The TARDIS," uttered Blah in a moment of realization. "That's right. Tom Nook already used it to survive the scratch... Now, if only we knew how to get it back."
"Uh, guys?" alerted Reed, coming to a dead halt and clutching his weapon closely. "W-what's that thing up ahead...?"
Putting their conversation on hold, Blah, Hail, and Astra looked ahead, where a long serpent-like creature slithered out from between the trees. It spotted the group quickly, grinning widely at them and exposing its pointy teeth and purple forked tongue. It also had visible fox ears and antennae, along with the thick shell of a cockroach.
Blah retrieved his hammer. "That would be a basilisk," he identified. "A Skaian underling, even tougher than an ogre. More rewarding, too. The four of us should be able to take it down without too much trouble."
Hail glanced behind himself. "What if there were two of them?"
Hailstorm's not-so-comforting look of concern drowned out Blah's confidence. He followed the pegasus's gaze. A second basilisk had emerged from the foliage behind them, this one with Pinkie's mane and walking on several short tentacles.
"That... might be rough," Blah admitted. "We can handle it, though. Weapons ready."
Facing the rear Basilisk alongside Blah, Hail drew his Shadowbolt and swiftly loaded it. Astra stood by Reed with her scythe, ready to back him up against the one in the front.
With little more warning, the underlings lunged simultaneously. Blah jumped in front of Hail to block the maned basilisk with his hammer, allowing Hail to rise into the air and fire a lightning-infused bolt at it. The serpent crackled with electricity, but still managed to swat the Pwnhammer out of its way and chomp down on Blah's midsection in one motion.
Astra tried to dispatch the other basilisk with a sidestep and well-timed swing to its neck, but the blow barely penetrated its tough armor and failed to slow down its assault on Reed. Panicking, the Triff thrust his clarinet spear at the inside of the creature's mouth. The weapon stuck fast and Reed used the leverage to slam it into the ground.
Although the basilisk had difficulty piercing Blah, the robot's movement was severely limited from half-inside the basilisk's mouth. Thinking quickly, Hail fetched a thick fallen branch and pried its jaw open with it long enough for Blah to slip out and slam down on its head with his hammer. This snapped the branch in half, but left the monster slightly disoriented.
Aggravated, the grounded Basilisk whipped its head at Reed, spewing a torrent of red flames while it recovered. Reed jumped back just in time to get away with little more than singed clothing, but this bought Astra enough time to make a carefully-aimed strike at the underling's unprotected throat. The basilisk's head dropped to the ground, leaving a trail of grist where its body used to be.
The surviving basilisk clawed madly at the air around Hailstorm. The pegasus jumped back and took aim with his crossbow while Blah smacked it in its jaw. This flipped it upright, exposing its belly to a well-placed thunderbolt. The spoils were doubled.
"Told you," Blah grinned as he greedily snatched up his share of the grist. The others followed suit, relieved and in silence. The battle had effectively taken all of their minds off of the conversation. None of them knew exactly what would happen after, or even during this quest. Those bridges were to be crossed much later down the line. All they knew was that it had to be done, and they were the perfect team for the job.
The rest of their trek through the field was relatively uneventful, save for the random imp encounters and occasional ogres. The path increased in thickness as they went, and eventually they spotted a line of modestly-sized buildings on the horizon.
"There's our ticket!" exclaimed Blah, excited to be free from the constant ambushes.
"Do you think we could get a moment or two to actually rest while we're here?" Hail asked.
"Probably," Astra answered. "We're only asking for directions. Maybe picking up some supplies as well."
"Time is of the essence, Hailstorm," chirped Blah, in spirits that were much too good for the pegasus.
"You know what else is of the essence?" Hail retaliated, obviously irritated. "Our health. Our life essence. I just want to lay down for a while, maybe take a quick nap, is that so much to ask?"
Blah was somewhat startled by Hail's outburst, leaving a large enough gap for Reed to speak up. "If you ask me, I think we should-"
BLAM!
A loud gunshot rang out from over the horizon, causing everyone to flinch.
Blah began casually scanning the vicinity. "Where did that come f-"
"TAKE. COVER." Astra hissed as he grabbed Blah's arm, dragging him behind a tree. Reed and Hail, each shaking visibly, had already found cover behind a large boulder.
"Great, now what," Hail moaned out loud.
"That sounded like a Jemento musket..." Reed assessed. "They've turned against us..."
The air went dead silent as the heroes anticipated some other hostile action. More gunfire, a warning, something. Yet, there was nothing.
"What do we do?" asked the helpless Reed in a hushed voice.
"Well, you pansies can wait here if you want," Blah mocked, stepping out from behind the tree. "I'm going on ahead."
Astra grabbed Blah by the arm again. "Blah," she asserted, "I know you're made of metal, but you're not invincible."
"Irrelevant," responded Blah coolly. "We're not in any danger. Have you missed the grist?"
Everyone followed Blah's thumb to a sizable pile of grist sitting in the road, inches behind where Reed had been standing before the gunshot. "They were shooting past us, not at us," continued Blah.
"Now that you mention it," Reed squeaked, rubbing the back of his head, "I did feel something... I thought it was just me, though."
At that moment, there was a distant shouting from the path ahead. It was a stern, rather high-pitched yet male voice.
Astra rubbed her chin, repeating the noise in her head. "That didn't sound like English..." she stated.
"That's because it wasn't," affirmed Reed. "He said that the coast is clear. It's safe to enter."
"Oh, right." Blah facepalmed. "Different planet, don't speak English. I forgot about that." He once again stepped out into the open, this time uncontested. The others soon followed.
"You know, I never thought about that either," Astra mused. "I just assumed everyone spoke English here, since Reed does..."
Everyone looked at the Triff for an explanation. He gave a nervous shrug in response. "Bellia taught me?"
The talking ceased as a group of three duck-like soldiers armed with muskets approached the newcomers. Blah made a mental note to ask how Astra's group of friends first met later.
The Jemento in the center, a grizzled purple male with all sorts of metal badges and baubles on his red uniform, gave Reed a series of concise orders in his native tongue, making wide, rigid gestures with his free arm. The one on the left, a green male with a loose and somewhat shaky stance, eyed Reed with slight suspicion. The third Jemento was a brown female, who was stiff as a board and stared blankly ahead.
Reed turned to his friends. "They're going to take us to some kind of bunker, where we'll await further instructions," he translated, with a hint of bemusement.
"I hope they have a place to lie down," Hail yawned.
The two lower-ranking soldiers lead Blah, Hail, Astra, and Reed through the town. The outskirts were littered with dark military tents that seemed to have been hastily erected. Jemento soldiers of various colors and hues patrolled the streets and the perimeter. Many of them struggled to maintain their discipline against their curiosity toward the newcomers, and all of them looked to be quite on edge. Further into the settlement, there was a large number of more permanent structures made out of wooden logs, but there wasn't a civilian to be seen.
The tallest wooden building stretched above the others near the center of town. Resting on top of the sloped roof was a cast-iron symbol consisting of an equalateral triangle with a circle surrounding each point. This building was the most heavily-guarded point in town. The soldiers lead Blah and the others straight for it.
"Must be some kind of church," Hail interpreted.
"You don't say?" Blah snarked, earning him a dirty look from the pegasus.
"Shush!" exclaimed the female soldier in front, turning her head in an almost robotic fashion. Annoyed, Hail resumed looking forward and they continued toward the church in silence.
As they did so, they heard another voice - still in the foreign language, but this voice had heavy inflection and a powerful timbre. There were even hints of growling between some of the words.
"Must be some kind of sermon," quipped Blah mockingly, to which he received another harsh shush from the soldier. Hail shook his head. Astra sighed. Blah knew it was worth it.
Reed, however, had stopped completely, zoning out at the sound of the voice. His pupils had shrunk to the size of watermelon seeds.
"Oh..." he muttered. "He's here..."
Before Blah could get the chance to ask about it, the soldiers opened the doors and exposed the interior of the building. Indeed, it very much resembled the hall of a church, complete with pews lined up on either side of the massive room. Atop the pews were makeshift bedding and accomodations for an entire village, all of it occupied by what presumably were the civilians of the town they had encountered; fox-people of various ages and colors. A myriad of strong emotions surged through these people - passion, sorrow, hope.
All of them were trained on the grand podium in the back of the room, where an orange-furred, green-robed Triff paraded up and down the stage and gave a determined speech to the populace. Behind him were three huge stone statues depicting the races of this world: a steeled male Jemento raising a blacksmith's hammer, a menacing male Eho brandishing an ornate halberd, and in the center, a graceful female Triff clutching a bejeweled scepter.
Blah, Hail, and Astra entered, taking in the sights and sounds. Reed stared straight ahead at the preacher from outside, quivering slightly. The brown soldier poked him lightly in the back with her bayonet, forcing him to stumble inside. After which, the doors slammed tightly shut.
The preaching Triff stopped abruptly upon hearing the doors slam. He locked eyes with Reed. Soon enough, the entire village was staring at him as well. There was a burning silence.
"Ridutek!" cried the preacher in utter shock as he stormed off the stage and down the hall.
Reed gulped. "Father..."
"Oh joy," Blah expressed blandly. "A family reunion."
The fox father stopped upon hearing Blah's comment. He looked back at Reed and asked him something in an accusing tone. Reed replied with a heavy stutter. The conversation escalated from there into a lot of shouting.
"Something tells me Reed won't want us to hear the translated version of this," stated the bewildered Astra.
"Hey!" Blah raised his voice loudly, speaking over the two Triff. They reluctantly ceased, giving him their attention. "Do we really have to do this here, in front of all these people?"
There was a pause. The preacher looked at his son, who gave a rather frail translation. The father sighed, turning around and silently beckoning the group to follow him.
Hail exhaled loudly as he trailed behind everyone. "Do we really have to do this at all?"
Blah stopped, looking back at the tired pegasus with a sudden surge of guilt. He poked Reed on the shoulder, jolting the young fox out of his nervous trance. "Ask the guards to find this poor thing a quiet place to sleep," he instructed. "We... might be here a while."
With Hailstorm tucked cozily away on the roof of the church (he seemed quite at home there), Blah and Astra followed the two Triff into a storage room overstuffed with food and various supplies. While Blah wanted to get the show on the road, he had to admit he wouldn't mind learning a bit more about Reed and his relationship with his father. It was like staring at an unfinished jigsaw puzzle. Despite Blah knowing more about this world than everyone else ever could, the missing pieces were all the more agonizing because of it.
The elder Triff sat down on a crate, hunched over and crossing his arms. Now that he had taken some time to collect himself, he seemed a lot less vicious and unyielding.
His first gesture, breaking the silence, was to throw an arm in Blah and Astra's direction, asking his son something in an eerily calm voice.
Reed turned to the visitors. "H-he wants you two to leave," he translated.
"But we just got here!" Blah protested. "The scene was all set up and everything..."
Blah had fully expected Astra to oppose him and drag them out of the room. However, to his great surprise, she leaned against the door stubbornly. "Reed is a close friend of ours," she replied. "His business is our business too."
"Uh..." Reed hesitantly turned back to his father and gave him the news. The priest rubbed his temples as though trying to hold on to what little patience he had mustered so far.
"Look," Astra continued, "Confronting your son alone isn't fair to him. He doesn't have the confidence to stand up to a powerful, prominent figure like you, and you know it. That's why he needs us right now." Reed, awestruck at the human's loyalty, relayed the message. The elder's ears twitched at the sound of it. Ultimately though, he leaned back in defeat, nodding.
"First off, an introduction," Blah cut in. "I'm Blahsadfeguie. This is Astra. We're from... a different world."
"Tyappe," Reed's father reciprocated, folding his hands in front of him.
Blah's digital pupils shrank ever so slightly. "Tyappe..." he repeated. Yet another in a long line of names that he recognized. "High Priest of Itchav, and Triff's Godspeaker or something like that... I was never too clear about it? Anyway he's really important and I should have known," he finished, leaving everyone to stare at him.
"How do you know all that already?" Reed questioned.
"Wait a minute!" Blah exclaimed, ignoring the prompt. "Isn't the Godspeaker supposed to be able to, like, magically translate all languages? It's how the three races are able to co-exist in the first place..."
"Only the ignorant call it 'magic'," scoffed Tyappe. The sudden burst of plain English caused Blah, Astra, and Reed to simultaneously perform a double-take. "It is but faith of Triff's will that brings us the gift of communication!"
"Oh thank God," Blah cried while Reed and Astra remained speechless. "If we had to sit through Reed translating just one more line, I might have gone crazy..."
"I'm not going to question it," Astra dismissed, returning to facing Tyappe. "What's your problem with Reed, exactly?"
"Ridutek has committed blatant acts of blasphemy, abandoning his brothers, partaking in the dark arts, calling it the 'true will of Triff'!" shouted the Godspeaker. "He is no longer welcome in this holy place. Furthermore, he is no son of mine." Reed shrunk away shamefully at the potent words of his father, who now refused to look him in the eye.
"So he's antisocial and plays video games, and that makes him a blasphemer?" challenged Blah.
"His mind was corrupted by a dark agent of Eho!" Tyappe stood his ground. "Introducing him to this... this metal witchcraft, communion with otherworldly creatures, bringing forth the apocalypse..."
Even Blah couldn't deny that suddenly being introduced to a genocidal video game might seem quite fishy from an outsider's perspective...
"Agent? You mean Bellia?" tried Astra. "Eho doesn't govern all dragon-like beings..."
"...Yeah," agreed Blah. "I'm a fox and you don't see me praying to Triff."
"You are a cold abomination, twisted into the form of Her Grace!" blurted the priest. "It's a wonder She does not strike you down where you stand."
Blah felt a bit of a sting from that one. "Jeez," he replied. "And here I thought your goddess advocated peace and tolerance..." Tyappe opened his mouth to immediately respond, but Blah continued. "In fact, with the way you're ruthlessly attacking everything different from yourself... even your own child... you're acting just like Eho right now."
Tyappe was visibly taken aback. At first, Blah thought he had succeeded in getting through to him, but the pause from the High Priest was only brief. "A follower of Triff would not blindly accept false prophets and call forth the end of the world. This issue cannot be dodged." His unblinking glare pierced straight through to Blah's soul.
Blah desperately searched himself for a response to that. He glanced at Astra for help, but her worrysome expression implied that she was in the same boat. However, something happened that caught all of them off-guard.
"No, father." Reed spoke in a clear voice as he stood up, clenching his fist and looking his dad in the eye. "You have it all wrong. I did not summon the apocalypse. The end was coming, and there was nothing we could do to change that. What we needed was a hero to protect our people, and guide them to the next world. Triff chose me to be that hero. You were so wrapped up in this war that you couldn't see the big picture." Blah, Astra, and even Tyappe were flabbergasted at the courage that seemed to manifest out of thin air in the boy. "I admit that I have been slacking... hiding in my own house like a coward, unable to face the demons that plague my people... but that changes now." He held his clarinet out proudly and triumphantly, determination dominating his face. Blah's eyes literally sparkled as he recognized that look. This was the true hero from the Omega timeline. "By Triff's grace, I will fight to protect this land... for Moros... for Jemento, Triff, and Eho alike... and for you, my father. Whether you accept me or not, you have always been my inspiration. If I can become even half the man you are now... then my task is complete."
He turned to leave the room, the power of his words leaving a deep impact on those present. Astra stood up and motioned for Blah to follow.
"Wait." Tyappe called out to his son. Reed stopped. "I... have never heard such passion, such confidence from you before, Ridutek... it is as though you have indeed been blessed by Triff Herself." Reed turned to face his father, whose eyes were starting to well up with tears. "I should not have... pushed you so forcibly out of my life. Whether what you say is true or not, it goes against Triff's teachings to forsake one's family... I was conflicted because I believed you had been corrupted by darkness. I see now your intentions are pure, and I was foolish to think otherwise." To see a figure that was so lively and dominating before assume such a posture of guilt and regret was quite jarring to say the least, especially for the younger Triff. "My son... I am deeply sorry for what I have done to you." Tyappe stood, gazing at his child with sincere eyes. "Reed... will you forgive me?"
There was an unsettling silence as father and son remained face to face, the afterimage of their intense emotions projected palpably onto one another. Finally, Reed regressed to his youthful demeanor. "I-I forgive you, D-Dad..."
Saturated with relief, Tyappe lunged at Reed, taking him up in a hearty embrace. The Page eagerly returned the favor, as though hugging his father for the first time in his life.
"Alright!" cried Blah, clapping his metallic hands together and shattering the silence. "Glad that's settled. No, really, I am. I hate to rush you guys, but we kinda have a universe to save."