So this was it.
Eight districts, eight bosses. It had been a long and difficult journey, but now it was finally at its end. Susumu made her way down the main street of New Lumos, where Azamir and Reina were waiting at the end.
"We're here, Azamir," Susumu said. "You said Reina had something she wanted to say?"
Reina was standing behind Azamir, looking very forlorn. She stepped out, and looked around. "Go on then, Reina," Azamir said. "What did you need to tell us?"
Reina turned to face Azamir. "Azamir... I... Want to thank you," she began. "And, Susumu... Thank you too. If it wasn't for the both of you, and Martcha... I wouldn't have become what I am today."
Susumu seemed confused. "Reina, what do you...?"
Reina turned around to continue. "Well... How shall I say this? When Martcha tried to purify that shadow... It actually worked. Well, sort of. A small speck of light began to form inside the shadow. It ignored it, thinking the light would fade out soon. But it didn't. The light only grew, until eventually... The light completely overtook the shadow, and... I was free."
"Free...?" Azamir asked. "Reina... Does that mean you...?"
Reina nodded. "Once I was free from the darkness, I... Started to change. Into... Well, the form you see now. But something was wrong. As soon as I was free, I felt no emotion. At all. I left Neksdor, thinking there was something wrong with me. Thinking I would never be a normal person, until... I ran into someone in the desert who needed help. I didn't know what I could do, but I helped them get to the town, to find someone who did. And that's when it happened. When I started to feel something. It was small at first, but... The more people I helped, the more I started to feel, until... Until I became REAL. That was when I knew what to do. To make up for what I did... I went to find Azamir. I wanted to help him rebuild his life, and maybe build one of my own."
It took Azamir a minute to realize what Reina was saying, but when he did his eyes opened for a split second. "Reina... That shadow... Was you? And you came back here because you wanted to help me?" He was having a hard time believing what he was hearing. This little girl who looked up to him so much...
She looked back up at him, with tears starting to fill her eyes. "I know, I don't expect you to forgive me, especially after I possessed both you and Martcha," she said. "But... I just... Want to thank you. For... Not just destroying me when you had the chance. For giving me another chance to make things right again."
"Reina..." Azamir wasn't sure how to react to this. He'd never heard of anything like this before. A spirit becoming a person was strange enough, but she actually wanted to make up for everything? Without another word, he picked her up and gave her a hug. "Reina. It's true that you did a lot of bad things before, but... You truly did want to change, didn't you? Look at you now. You've changed so much since then, and... I'm so glad you did."
"Azamir... Thank you," Reina said. "I'm going to start doing a lot better from now on, I promise. I... I'm gonna make you proud!"
"...Hey, yeah!" Sachio suddenly remembered something. "Azamir, didn't you say Reina had something to show us?"
"Oh yes, that's right!" Azamir put Reina back down. "Reina, why don't you show them what you can do now?"
Reina nodded, then turned to Susumu. "Susumu, remember how I said I had a place I could show you?" she asked. "Well... You've cleared out all the boss monsters in New Lumos, right? Well, now that we're all here, it's time to show you what I can really do!"
Reina closed her eyes, and held her arms out in front of her. "Ancient tower, I call upon you. Rise from the darkness, and show these travelers the way!" She then opened her eyes, and raised her arms above her head. When she opened her eyes, however, they seemed to be completely black, save for a thin purple iris glowing between the dark patches. There was a loud rumbling nearby, and a tower began to rise from the ground, right before the group's eyes.
Once the tower had finished rising, Reina's eyes returned to normal. "This is the Tower of Dread," she explained. "In that tower... You will find the most fearsome and powerful monsters in all of New Lumos. I wish you all the best of luck."
Azamir then turned back to Reina. "Now then, Reina..." he began. "You're going to be a wondeful banana merchant someday. But only if we get back to your training."
"Right!" Reina declared. "It's only Day 17 of my training, after all! See you all later!" And with that, the two disappeared into the city.
"The Tower of Dread..." Susumu mumbled. Boy, this place sure did live up to its name. "Dread" was the only way Susumu could describe how she was feeling, and she hadn't even stepped inside yet.
Raya's tail was wagging furiously. "There's gotta be something cool at the top!" he declared. "Come on, let's go in!"
"Well, let's get going then." Raya rolled through the doorway of the tower, followed by his fellow dog Vinny. Susumu and Konade, however, hung back, as Susumu stared at the tower, shaking slightly. "Susumu, it's going to be okay," Konade tried to comfort her. "We've fought a lot tougher, haven't we? If we can beat the Ultra Dark Lord... We can beat anything we'll find in here."
Susumu sighed. "You know... You're right, Konade," she replied with a smile. "We shouldn't have any trouble in here, right? Anyway, we should go help Raya and Vinny before they get mowed down."
Once the girls stepped inside the tower, they saw that Raya and Vinny were already fighting some sort of minotaur. "Hey, that looks like the minotaur we fought in the first district," Susumu pointed out.
"And it's a lot stronger too!" Raya stated, firing a cannon shot at the minotaur. "You girls keep an eye out!"
And then Susumu got an idea. She remembered that Junpei had given her something to try out once she went back to New Lumos. Reaching into her back, she produced a small bottle of purple flakes. "Hey, guys!" she called to the others. "Let's all try some of this! Junpei gave these to me before we left. He called them 'hype sprinkles'. I wonder what they do."
The party took a few flakes into their hands, and sprinkled some into their mouths. It took a minute for anything to happen, but... Susumu slowly felt herself getting more energy. "I-Is anyone else starting to feel-"
"HOOO-WAH!" Raya suddenly charged at the minotaur, swinging his cannon with full force. "COME ON, EVERYONE! LET'S TAKE THIS THING DOWN!"
Susumu swung her microphone wildly, Konade was flinging petals everywhere, and Vinny slammed the minotaur with his frying pan several times. The minotaur wasn't done with them, however. It raised its hammer and smashed it into Susumu.
...But she didn't feel any pain! It was weird, very weird, but the strike didn't hurt her at all! She was able to continue swinging, and eventually, the party took the minotaur down.
"We... Did it!" Susumu gasped. Her hype sprinkles were starting to wear off, and her entire body was beginning to feel sore. "Now the next floor is..."
The group slumped onto the ground, and Susumu pulled the bottle of hype sprinkles out of her bag again. They ate a bit more, and continued up to the next floor.
The next few floors were a breeze for the group, thanks to the hype sprinkles. They fought a computer head who could summon robots, a couple of frogs like they fought in the Realm Of The Fey, and even a dragon on the fourth floor! But as time went on, hype sprinkles began to run out, and the group's injuries were beginning to catch up with them.
On the fifth floor, however, things were beginning to turn around. The group trudged up the stairs, bruised, bleeding in some places, and feeling VERY exhausted. The boss of this floor was a Cerberus as well. What Susumu didn't know was that this would be difficult.
Susumu reached back into her bag for another dash of hype sprinkles, but something was wrong. "T-the jar..." She groaned. "It's..." The group had ended up using all their hype sprinkles, and had completely emptied the jar already. How were they going to win now?
They weren't.
Before the group could even do anything, the Cerberus snapped at Susumu, flung a fireball at Konade, and tried to freeze the entire group with ice breath. This thing was fast, and it had every intention of wiping them out.
"W-what do we do now...?" Raya asked. "We're... Gonna die like this..."
"No... No, we're not..." Konade picked up Vinny, took Susumu's hand, and carried them towards the stairs. "Come on. We're getting out..."
Fortunately for Raya, his armor allowed him to roll away with ease. They managed to escape back to the fourth floor, and the cerberus was unable to fit through the door follow them. With the cerberus barking at snapping at the stairwell, the group collapsed in the center of the floor to rest. "We... Made it..."
They weren't completely home yet, but once they were strong enough to walk again they could go back to the inn. Maybe they would return to the Tower of Dread another day.
But not for now...