Valtina hadn't received any word from Patior on what to do next.

Without direct instruction on what to do, Valtina more or less shut down, stumbling through the healed and still ruined lands of LoGaR as the memories of what she'd done cycled through her mind.

She knew that she had to do it, or at least she thought she knew she had to do it.

But the doubt, the fear that she'd done the wrong thing and cruelly cut down someone who didn't deserve it, someone for whom she held pale feelings.. It almost brought her to tears.

What did bring her over into the land of sobbing was when she decided to check old messages she'd never gotten around to, and found the post Aspico had put up explaining the different classes. She reached the destroyer class, seeing that the bard was one who destroyed with their aspect.

This confused Valtina, as it made her wonder what the Prince did if not destroy with their aspect. Scrolling down, her heart sank as she saw that the prince was described as a destroyer of their aspect, one who killed their aspect.

If Brendon was the Prince of Doom..

Valtina broke down, the full implications of what she'd done hitting her like a wrecking ball. She dropped to her knees, sobbing into the dirt. She wasn't sure how long she wallowed there before she heard someone approaching.

She wasn't surprised by who had come for her. Furlok was undoubtedly out for revenge for what she'd done to the teal blood's kismesis.

Furlok stopped in front of Valtina, her bladed paintbrushes in hand as she looked over the utter wreck on a human in front of her. She looked her in the eyes, saying, "you know why I'm here, don't you?"

Valtina reached up, attempting to dry her eyes; though it did nothing, and nodded, "Y-yes.. I do."

"Are you gonna try and fight it?" Furlok questioned.

Valtina shook her head, lowering her head to give Furlok a clean shot. She knew that she deserved what was coming.

"On your feet honey, I don't care whether you think so or not, everyone deserves to die with dignity."

Her voice sounded almost… amused. Valtina wasn't sure why this could possibly be at first, eventually deciding it was probably some kind of coping mechanism to deal with Brendon's death.

Valtina got up from the dirt, Furlok marching her across her land out of the ruined wasteland area and into one of the healthy plant-life territories that she'd already healed.

There, she had the human sit down on an object that Valtina had found already, but never known what to do with. It was a stone bed, a symbol depicting three blades of grass etched into it.

Valtina laid down on the stone slab. Closing her eyes to brace herself for her death.

"Eyes open honey, I'm not letting you chicken out of this." Furlok said, her amusement sounding borderline on the verge of laughter at this point.

Valtina wondered if her grief had actually driven Furlok mad, but decided it wasn't her place to ask. She opened her eyes, which then went wide as she saw something that was-as far as she currently understood-impossible.

Brendon was standing at the foot of the stone bed, dressed in an odd, dark green, regal looking mafia suit. Before Valtina could get the first sound of the question 'what?' out of her mouth, Brendon's shotgun blasted into her chest and throat, killing her almost instantly.

The force of the super shotty could probably blast trees apart if pressed.

There was a few seconds of silence-during which Brendon looked away from the grisly remains of the girl he'd just fired at-and then the quest bed began to work its magic.

Valtina rose from the bed, her body fully restored to normal, and her outfit changed to that of her classpect; the long dress and hood of a Sylph, with the greys and light green symbol of the life aspect.

She landed in a sitting position on her quest bed, blinking as her mind tried to process what was happening.

"There, now we're even." Brendon said, approaching the now ascended Sylph of Life and pulling her into an affectionate hug, "Now, can you explain why the fuck you tried to kill me? I don't believe for a second it was your idea, so just explain it to me, and we can put this behind us, alright?" Valtina was a bit shell shocked, both by Brendon being alive, and by herself being alive.

Furlok, having gotten her laughter out from Valtina's expression out already, rolled her eyes and said, "Hug and make up already, the whole pale quadrant makes me wretch and the less time I have to spend in its presence the better."


Mutosi felt that Risura had to be cheating.

There was no chance that he'd just naturally gotten this powerful by himself. She'd known something was wrong when she saw the bright white light leaving his eyes and the black vapor rising from his skin; which had become darker than normal.

She had no knowledge of the beings beyond the veil, and couldn't even take them into the equation as she battled Grimdark Risura.

The camel consorts, all bent to Mutosi's will, charged the jade blooded troll endlessly, each and every one of them getting sent flying out of the area with a single punch from the possessed femboy.

He tried to speak, likely to hurl threats and insults at mutosi, but all of it came out as unintelligible, hellishly warped voices that looped over each other and may have even been being heard in reverse after it left Risura's mouth.

Swords and spears passed through Risura's body, while his fists became solid just in time to collide with the face's of Mutosi's minions.

Every so often he would blink out of existence, invisible for a few seconds; which was always enough time for him to slip passed another battalion of Mutosi's mind slaves and get closer to the brown blood.

She was growing afraid of this, and realized more drastic measures were going to be needed. She drew her weaponized broom, sending the camel consort minions into berserk mode around the possessed target.

The camels let out mad war cries as they went into a frenzy, hurling themselves and weapons at the jade blood.

The consorts actually seemed to be doing better on frantic autopilot than they had with Mutosi's direct instructions. She facepalmed at the realization and acceptance of her utter lack of tactical strategy.

There was one plan she could she execute properly: flood. The consorts were practically dogpiling Risura, more opf the vapor leaking off of Risura as his body excerted itself harder to fight them off.

A sword cut into his side, a spear penetrating his leg, and an arrow hitting his shoulder. He let out a hellish roar, refusing to slow down or be stopped by the crowd of consorts. He struck the ground, a wave of void energy sending the consorts around him flying away in every direction.

He jumped, cracking the ground beneath him even further as he did, launching himself at Mutosi. The brown blood was ready for this though, already in position to swing her broom.

It collided with his head, knocking him to the side. His face was cut up from the impact, an acidic venom causing the skin on his body to burn away further. Smutosi smirked, holding her broom aloft and sending a bolt of golden energy at Risura's temporarily prone body.

It burned into him painfully, the force of the hope more than even the Horrorterrors could block out. Risura's body was left covered in burns from the attack. He let out another wail, this one loud and so warped it causes Mutosi physical pain. He leaped at her again, driving his fist into her gut.

The impact sent her flying off of the wheeled platform she'd had her consorts bring her in on. She tumbled across the ground, getting herself covered in cuts and scraped as she rolled over the ground.

The wind had been knocked out of her and the force of the void had damaged her internally more than she'd been expecting. Risura came down on top of her, getting himself cut into by Mutosi's broom as she rose it to protect herself.

One of the camel consorts grabbed him by the shoulders before he could attack Mutosi again, throwing him to the ground so the consorts could once again swarm him.

The damage was coming faster than the Horror-Terrors could heal it, and they were beginning to think they should just cut their losses and allow the jade blood to die so they could create a temporary void avatar.

Mutosi's hope bending was primarily responsible for his growing weaker, his own faith in his religion, and the Horror-Terror's faith in themselves, steadily burning them away from the inside out.

"You are not a terrible fighter," Mutosi admitted to Risura as he was beaten to a jade pulp on the ground, "but the power of hope and the will to break the rules is stronger than anything and everything you learned in that stupid book of yours, and far greater than whatever you've learned since this game started."

Risura's response was illegible, but sounded at least like he was genuinely trying to say something. "SCCSSCCS SCCCSCSC SCCSSSCC SCCSCSCC SSCSSSSS SCCCCSSC SCCSCCCC SCCCSCSC SSCSCCSS SSCSSSSS SCCSSCSC SCCCSCCS SCCSCSSC SCCSCCSS SSCSSSSS SCCSSSCS SCCSCSSC SCCCSCSS SCCSSSCC SCCSCSSS."

"Be that as it may," Mutosi said, pretending to understand what the fuck had just been said to her, "It's unbecoming of any troll to die like a savage. I'll give you this one chance to forfeit your bullshit, admit you've been wrong from our first argument, and I'll call them off."

"SCCSSCCS SCCCSCSC SCCSSSCC SCCSCSCC SSCSSSSS SCCCCSSC SCCSCCCC SCCCSCSC SSCSCCSS SSCSSSSS SCCSSCSC SCCCSCCS SCCSCSSC SCCSCCSS SSCSSSSS SCCSSSCS SCCSCSSC SCCCSCSS SCCSSSCC SCCSCSSS." Risura repeated.

Mutosi sighed, "Such a shame. You aren't bad looking," She admitted, "You'd have been lovely to keep around, just like these mindless camels." She said, ordering them to hold Risura down. Risura struggled and roared, hissing and spitting and clawing.

His power had been worn thin by the fighting and damage. More to the point, his mind had become too unfocused for the Horrorterrors to make the body use its void powers to escape. He was trapped. Mutosi approached him, gripping her broom weapon firmly. She tried to keep her mind focused.

'It has to be done,' She told herself, 'he'll hold us back if I don't do this.' She said, coming to a stop in front of him., she raised her broom to strike him down, a strike right through the throat, quick, clean, and done with.

But she hesitated.

She wasn't sure why she'd hesitated, but she did. She'd thought about doing this a thousand times, but actually doing it, actually ending another troll's life, ending Risura's…

Mutosi's train of thought was cut off by a mace colliding with the side of her head. Risura's fighting and Mutosi's hesitation had bought Dustine enough time to get through the gate and across LoDaL to where they'd been fighting.

The powerful strike to Mutosi's head had, if only for a moment, cut the hope bending powers out. That moment was all Risura needed to surge free and throw the camels holding him down, throwing them away. He roared at the dazed and confused consorts, then turned to Dustine.

His mind tried to recall who he was looking at. He remembered the face he was looking at, but the Horrorterrors had put such a shadow over his mind that it was difficult to tell for sure what he was watching.

As the Horrorterrors decided to treat the human as a threat and force Risura to eliminate them, Mutosi took care of it first. Mutosi's hope infused bladed broom pierced through his chest, cutting into him lethally.

Mutosi hadn't even been aware that it was Dustine she was attacking. Her vision was still blurred with the impact to her head, and her mind wasn't exactly firing on all cylinders now that it was concussed.

Seeing Dustine gasp in pain, legs shaking from the pain as Mutosi withdrew the weapon lit up Risura's memory of what was happening, letting him use Dustine as an anchor to link him back to who he was. Risura pushed forward, grabbing Dustine as he slumped, not letting him hit the ground.

Seeing that Risura was on his feet, Mutosi reflexively swung to hit him upside the head, but her broom hit nothing but air as Risura ran directly through her. Risura's mind was now on one focus: saving Dustine.

The Horrorterrors tried to redirect his focus, to make him leave the wounded human on the ground and focus on the fight, but as far as Risura was concerned the fight was over now.

He wasn't fully back to normal, but he was focused on what he wanted to be focused at least, less grimdark and ore just slightly mad; with a little extra knowledge inside of his mind brought by the presence of the beasts within his skull.

They knew more about the world than Risura had, and having that knowledge let Risura know what to do. He charged through the gate he found at the edge of one of the towns, tripping and falling into the muck of LoMaW.

Risura grumbled in annoyance, getting back up to his feet and charging through the mud and grime of Dustine's land, looking for the stone quest bed. Dustine had gotten too still for Risura's comfort as he carried him up a hill of grime onto one of the town's many moats.

The toad guard glared at Risura, then blinked in confusion as Risura ran right through him, passing by like a ghost. He charged through the town, leaving tracks of grime until he found the center of it; finding Dustine's guest bed.

He dropped the human's half-dead body onto it, collapsing on the ground next to it. The voices of the Horrorterrors were still sounding off in his head as Dustine ascended.

He breathed a sigh of relief as he closed his eyes to get a little rest. Or perhaps he'd just passed out, hard to say.


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