Chapter 12
Secret Boss Battle
His dust rose in an aura around the Keeper, forming a heavy cloak that fluttered and expanded around the room. The house expanded, swallowing the heroes in a storm of clutter and grime. Ralsei huddled in his coat while Kris looked down and blinked hard to keep the dirt out of their eyes. Susie meanwhile glared up at the Keeper are bright, white eyes beamed coldly down on the three of them.
"Survive this if you can, O Heroes!"
Shells of presents, shells made of caked-on dust slammed all around them. As they smashed into the ground, they shattered and threw up a ton of shrapnel and that cut into their HP. As Kris, Susie, and Ralsei danced and dodged, whips of black magic lashed out and struck them, driving them further away from each other.
The Keeper's cloak enveloped Ralsei and he completely disappeared.
"Dammit! He took Ralsei!" Susie cursed. "Kris! What do we do?"
Kris read the situation. The only way to take down the Keeper was to destroy that cloak of his, however, that would hurt Ralsei. Their friend was swirling around in the dust. If they attacked without first ACT-ing, there was a good chance that they would take down Ralsei and further weaken their team dynamic. However, it would take both Kris and Susie to ACT and remove Ralsei from the Keeper's clutches, giving the boss another chance to tear into them.
Gritting their teeth, Kris ordered Susie to go on the defensive and they would feed both of them some candy to heal their lost HP. They needed all their strength for the next attack and couldn't risk exposing themselves next.
It was the right call to make. Books flew on the storm, flipping open. They shot out razor sharp pages in a hurricane at Kris and Susie. Kris had dealt with this attack before when dealing with Berdly. Unlike Berdly's homework attack, this was three times as large. Kris grabbed a hold of Susie and led her in a frantic tango through the maelstrom of papers. They barely made it out with a few slashes and scratches.
They then snapped and pointed at the Keeper. "Hold hands and jump in!" they shouted. "Flail your arms and hope we catch Ralsei!"
"Got it!" Susie roared, throwing both of them into the dust cloak.
Still holding hands, they fell through the suffocating mass. Moving their arms in jumping jack form, they hoped to somehow catch Ralsei. Kris was the one to hook their friend with a foot. Straining, Kris angled their whole body to become an anchor for Ralsei in the storm. They shouted to Ralsei, filling their mouth with ancient dust. Kris now knew what anthrax tasted like.
Their combined momentum carried them out of the Keeper's cloak. Crashing onto the other side of the room, their party was restored. Susie gave Ralsei a quick hug and covered him as the Keeper turned around.
"You three have no idea what you are dealing with! Have you even read the pages you've collected so far? There is no way that the author would entrust fools like yourselves with such incredible knowledge! It will destroy the world if it gets out!"
As he ranted, the Keeper shook the whole house. A deluge of dust bunnies descended on them. Kris shouted for everyone to dodge and slash as the dust bunnies descended. The horribly misshapen rabbit bared fangs made of debris and tried to gnaw on the heroes. Susie swung her axe like tornado and demolished all the dust bunnies that got too close to herself and Ralsei. Kris bobbed and weaved to avoid getting bitten and managed to slice through three bunnies before the rest scattered into the dust storm.
Reunited, it was their turn to attack. Ralsei cast a healing spell on himself as Kris and Susie slashed into the Keeper. With two large puffs, dust was carried away on the intense wind and the Keeper's form diminished a little.
"Only the proper recipient of such a powerful gift should ever be allowed to have the full book!"
With that declaration, the Keeper roared and lifted up everything that was covered with dust. Susie yelped as she began levitating. Suspended in the air, it was harder to dodge. The Keeper's black magic whips lashed out again, striking them smartly. With a final command, he slammed the three of them and everything else in the room into the ground.
WHUMP!
A tremendous amount of HP was wiped out in one move.
Susie coughed, "This guy is no laughing matter! How are we supposed to take this guy on?"
Kris fished out the snow globe and ordered Ralsei to use their remaining TP to heal himself again and instructed Susie to eat some more of their candy to heal herself.
"What about you?" they cried.
Grinning, Kris smashed the glass and unleashed the storm. It was time to get rid of the dust. It was all a weapon that the Keeper could use against them. A blizzard was unleashed, and snow flew everywhere.
The Keeper raged, "No! My collection! Everything must be kept in pristine condition for their rightful owners! The snow will damage all the gift-wrapped presents and boxes! No!"
"Stuck in the dark and with all this dust can't be good for them either!" Susie snapped back.
"That is the natural progression of all things!" the Keeper seethed, levitating the dusty, grime-encrusted shells of more ancient gifts. "They sweat and shed dust! For that is what we all are: DUST! Gifts are special, because we take the dust of the world, and the dust we work in to create something of beauty and give it to those we love! Thereby we create a connection between ourselves!"
He slammed down the shells, shattering them and showering the friends with even more shrapnel. As the shards flew in every direction, piercing the heroes, the Keeper continued, "The relationships we cultivate with others are the only things not made of dust. The only things that do not collect dust! But the dust that helps form those bonds is beyond precious because of the metaphysical magic they hold!"
"Wow, this guy is speaking some real sense!" Ralsei said.
"Yeah, sign him up for a lecture- Gasp! Kris!" Susie screamed.
They were cut down by the last attack, already covered in fresh snow and dust. A nasty layer of dirty, brown snow was forming underneath them, but as the blizzard continued, the grime was quickly covered. The Keeper groused that it was interfering with his magic.
Susie slid over to Kris to pop a revive mint into their mouth. She shouted, "Attack him! Make his cloak smaller!"
"A-Alright!" Ralsei stammered. Even after all this time, he was still reluctant to attack others.
His crazy scarf cracked like one of the Keeper's whips, slashing away a chunk of the boss' cloak. It vanished in a puff of dust and was swept away in the storm. The Keeper responded by swooping down and carrying Susie away right as Kris was revived. They were too slow to take a hold of her hand and hold on.
They shouted to Ralsei, who quickly responded. Holding hands, they leaped into the raging dust to find Susie. Kris' face smashed right into hers. They could still taste the dust from the last time they passed through this but couldn't help but laugh at the near kiss.
"Shut it!" Susie shouted, embarrassed.
Once more, they crashed and rolled across the ground on the other side. The Keeper swung around and attacked with his whips. Ralsei kicked the friends apart and they all rolled just out of reach of the black magic. Regaining their feet under them, Kris organized another attack on the boss. All three heroes struck this time and did significant damage to the Keeper's cloak.
"Ruffians! Ruining Christmas! Just because these are lost and forgotten gifts doesn't mean they don't hold tremendous value! And you're ruining them!"
With another shuddering roar, the Keeper called down more dust bunnies. Ready for them, Kris, Susie, and Ralsei got back-to-back and batted the gremlins of the air, dissipating them back into dust. They then turned on the Keeper and battered him back, scattering more of his cloak. The dust kept getting swallowed up in the blizzard. The snow as well seemed to weigh down on the boss, mixing with his cloak and pretty much dissolving or consuming it.
He tried once more to swoop down and suck away one of their party. Linking arms, Ralsei, Kris, and Susie were caught up in the Keeper's cloak. Caught in the inside, the three began attacking with a frenzy, scattering the Keeper's precious dust.
With a horrible cry, the cloak burst completely. The heroes fell into the snow, accompanied by a gigantic dusty bunny. Kris realized their golden opportunity and ordered everyone to work together to blow on the thing. Huffing and puffing, they blasted away even more dusty, shrinking the bunny.
Flashing glasses were revealed as the boss grew smaller and smaller, shedding layer after layer of grime and dirt. The Keeper glared at the three of them, bright blue eyes turned white through the opaque lenses. He hissed and hopped back through the falling, gathering snow.
"You think I'll let you get away with this! Never!"
Kris focused and realized that there was a new option to ACT. It was time to convince the Keeper to change things up. The presents needed to be saved, and they were willing to help in exchange for the final third of Gerson's book. Kris explained their plan to the others and asked them to help out.
"Look Mr. Keeper," Ralsei implored. "It's a good thing to preserve all of these forgotten and lost presents, but what if we could knock out two birds with one stone? What if we invited everyone from the town to come here and organize them and rewrap them? We might find their proper recipients and save them from the snow!"
"Snow that you three caused!" the Keeper shot back. "Though… It would be nice to see them all freshly wrapped again… But what about their tags?"
As he bemoaned the effort, more dust bunnies rained down on top of them. As the heroes slashed their way through the attack, Susie shouted to him, "We'll work to help you figure it out! We have found all kinds of cool people along the way who would be happy to help!"
Kris added that many hands make light work, and a few people were probably good sleuths.
"But what if someone tries to steal the presents just like you have," the Keeper fretted.
"Are you serious!?" Susie roared. "Have you even met your neighbors? These people are so obsessed with Christmas that there's no way they would do something so unkind!"
The Keeper quickly assembled some snowballs and lobbed them at the heroes. It was such a pathetic attack after everything else that had been thrown at them. Kris realized that their plan with the snow globe had really paid off. If the Keeper had been allowed to use his dust attacks to their fullest, they would have been crushed easily.
Susie lazily shaped her own gigantic snowball and clobbered the Keeper with it. The dust bunny was buried under the mound of snow. Only two dirty ears were sticking out, flopping funnily in the harsh wind. The three heroes gathered around the Keeper and kneeled.
Kris helped the Keeper get out and with the help of the others insisted that it was okay. They had already worked together to save the world before. They knew how to resolve things peacefully and understood the value of taking the less violent route, despite how they might look. The Keeper was at their mercy; they could easily take the pages now, but instead, they wanted to be friends.
So, could they be friends?
"Fine, I'll give you the pages," the Keeper mumbled, taking Kris' hand and shaking it. "But you three need to help me clean up here!"
"Easy!" Ralsei said happily, rushing off to the door. "Let's bring everyone else in and get it done!"
It did take a little while, though. At first, the townsfolk were a little dubious. The Keeper was such a grouchy curmudgeon most of the time that no wanted to spend too much time with him. However, as carolers and shoppers slowly took up the call and invitation, they filed into the Keeper's house. First, they needed to shovel out all the snow. The snowman running the snow globe shop came and helped quell the storm.
As the kids started getting ion on the project, they uncovered the gifts and energetically began piecing together the clues for who they might belong to. Jolly arrived and helped restore the old wrappings. The children matched the boxes and shapes off the giftwrapping with the proper gifts.
Finally, some people began recognizing their individual gifts. Families were excited to find stuff they had long since forgotten and were happy to give them out this Christmas. Other presents remained a mystery, but this time they were cleaned off and carefully stacked in the back with the proper labeling.
The Keeper directed some of the efforts and was pressed from all sides with offers for hot chocolate, cider, and cookies. At first, he resisted, but ultimately the dust bunny relented. Letting these people into his home, the Keeper was soon invited to dinner and to go Christmas caroling after the work was all done.
Sheepishly, the Keeper eventually handed over the pages to Kris. He muttered, "Thanks. Thank you for keeping your word. I'll trust your and entrust these powerful pages to you… But beware! Even if Gerson Boom did intend to gift this book to you, there are some presents that were never meant to be used."
"He did say that he regretted sharing so much about the Dark World and how it worked," Ralsei remembered.
"We've already dealt with guys in the past who thought they could control this place and its powers," Susie said with a snort. "We'll deal with anyone else who tries to mess around with the balance between the Light and Dark Worlds!" She cracked her knuckles for emphasis.
"Yeah, we've kept the balance, and we'll continue to do so! It's our jobs as the heroes," Ralsei said.
"Perhaps… But there are actions that you cannot take back. And this kind of knowledge, even if it is known only to you three, will be a burden. It might even prove itself a temptation."
Susie deadpanned at Kris, "If you make another Dark Fountain without permission, I will clobber you!"
Kris crossed their heart and promised those days were done.
With a sigh, the Keeper handed the pages over to Kris. They finally had the full document. It came together faster than expected. Any chance to avoid a calamity like dealing with Jevil, Kris was more than happy to take it!
Susie grinned. "Alright, let's get Jolly on the job and we can return this book to Gerson!"
"You're giving it back to him?" the Keeper groaned, smacking his forehead. "Why didn't you say so before? That would have made this so much easier!"
"Really?" Susie asked, cocking an eyebrow.
The Keeper thought about it and then made a gesture with his hand. "Maybe only a little."