The Tubespawn, to their credit, didn’t immediately burst into action, only the twitch of their tentacles giving away their internal…whatever they were feeling. The other two however, had no such reserve.

  “….Uhhh….HAAHAHAHA KID! You sure joke super meanly! A funny guy! Reeaally funny! Your pal here is super amused! SEE HOW HAPPY I AM?! Hahaha so there’s no reason to fear, this Ellery-“

  P-p-please tell m-me you aren’t s-serious ri…ght? ”

  “That’s enough.” Jesyll raised two tentacles to silence their panicking abetters. They looked for all the world as unconcerned as a breeze upon the waves, unstoppable and remorseless. Faiz had seen firsthand prior the…, a person could undergo. How one moment a being could espouse every virtue and grace in time, and the next become rapt with draconian intent. Never had it been directed at him before now, and a frigid chill crept up his spine.

  He decided it apt to internally begin visualizing as he continued speaking, “It wasn’t all that hard to figure out, honestly. The constant shifts in plan, how only I ever got the dangerous parts of work…mighty suspicious why someone as as you didn’t take over every task to achieve perfection, hmm?” Faiz hoped he’d managed a lofty tone, conveying uncaringness, the kind of attitude reserved for oncoming victory, revelations given by true intellect unto the brightest champions who crowed triumphant. (Anything save showing the sting in his chest and suppressed heat at the eyes would have sufficed.)

  “Ellery. Bind him. Keite, incapacitate.” Jesyll seemed past the point of retorting to his words, their tone a dull-and very cruelly cold-drone and their form utterly still.

  The scrapskin hesitated and clang reluctantly, “But…the kid…oh, if you…say so, Jesyll.” It turned its bulk towards Faiz, who sprang to alertness, “I hoped I wouldn’t be…the one doing this to you ki- Here I come.”

  Then all became a flash of chrome and hurtling weight, and he dove away from the metallic being. Or at least, Faiz tried, before finding himself beset by mind desolating throes, of nearly unconsciousness inducing severity.

  “searing hot nails were being driven into his brain, his self emptying and wounding and degradingandhurtinganditwouldntstopohplease-

  “I-I’m sorry, so very sorry b-but…I-Words broke through his haze, and Faiz realized the deleterious agony had abated, and a strange coolness had overtaken his limbs and throat. Blinking through his tears and swallowing back the bile, Faiz found himself rather elevated, his wrists and ankles bound by the pinkish silver, with a blurry Keite’s hands at his throat.

  ““ It was an extraordinary effort to not break down, let slip the liquid building beneath his forlorn gaze.

  Jesyll pitched a deep burble filled with conviction grim and deep, “We have no time. Move him now, and with luck we will have no other obstacles in our path.” They turned back, their limbs all pointing at the portal as they barked out commands, “I will have to transfer the potential myself now. Make ready to suppress him if he tries escaping.”

  “Y-yes Master Jesyll! I won’t le-let him escape…”

  “Just…get it over with quick Jes. This is all so…urgh…eh? What’s…what are you..?”

  Faiz couldn’t help the soft giggles that left him; Perhaps he really did laugh and cry so, for every tragedy that had ever overtaken him in life, and there were a lot. “”

  He didn’t even really expect anything (and he shouldn’t have and he was a fool and weak for wanting any-) from all of them and still he couldn’t cease. Faiz really was the world’s biggest loser, wasn’t he?

  “Oh Jesyll, Jesyll you-slippery mastermind…tell me, did you-did you all this in advance? Had a good laugh still pretending to look concerned for him-dead in the eye, “And what about you, bewitching little quisling? Must’ve been fun pretending to fall all over me and act so sweet, right? All the better to shank me later on, perhaps?”

  The smaller boy whimpered pitifully, a shaky hand coming up to rest delicately on his own bound arm, those fuzzy antennae straining against their coverings, “! I didn’t think that! I do-don’t wanna see you d-d-d-die…but I can’t just-just-!”

  “Keite. Ignore him. I’m nearly finished here anyways. Then there won’t be a reason to cry.” Jesyll had at some point swerved a single appendage over to where Faiz was raised in captivity, their frame quivering slightly with what Faiz could only assume was rage (maybe he’d managed to strike that tubespawns’ ego?) as they spoke.

  Faiz sniffled again and let out a hiccupping chuckle. “Yeah ‘Friend’, listen to your master…You know, this-hah, I just remembered, this keeps happening? No matter when or where or why or how I just. GETTING SHAFTED!”pfft hah, ‘had’? Have

  nothing. No one. E-even Allie I…I knew wasn’t really…really…but! I still had some And then you happened. I lost it all again. AGAIN! vile and cruel and manipulative-! You told me I could see her again! Told me I could save her, could do something, could be a hero could have friends could so…Why do I always…get things…taken…from…me…?”

  His tears were flowing now. He could not stop them. Faint light of purple he saw try to trace his hair. Felt soft fur or fluff and softer hands fret at his face. Could not stop staring at them, Jesyll. They remained still (so very still) even as those limbs quavered. Listening. Then:

  “This was…not supposed to happen.” Strange inflection, he’d never heard this before (then again, there was a lot he hadn’t known about them, wasn’t there?) from Jesyll. “If you had just neutralized yourself in the beginning-or after-I wouldn’t have had to do this. All for ” Their limb (he didn’t realize they’d drawn so close) trailed across his Lightdial, still so starry, “What will happen to you is mercy, Faiz. You wouldn’t know-but then, I didn’t tell you-how valuable this is, what it will do for us. Of all these veiled skies denizens, your release at our hand…it will be swift. Painless. Far better than what would happen to you otherwise, what other hungry beings could do. And besides, your death to any else would be…cataclysmic. Our wishes are pure and our ways gentle, the Empyrean will not cascade out.” His head tipped up, level with the bundle of sense limbs at their apex, as they whispered softly, “So please, rest assured. We will rescue our Heir of Anima, and I will ensure she knows of your sacrifice. You will get what you’ve wanted, just from this. It’s what every human should strive towards, their Enthronings. Your contributions will be beyond compare. You will indeed become a hero.” They pulled back, his hand swallowed back up by the metal. “Don’t resist, now. I’ll ensure your last times are filled with wonder and safety, if only you’d come along quietly.”

  Ellery chimed in from all around him, “Yeah, kid! We’re-we’re the good guys here! I’ll make sure Jes does all that promised stuff! Come along now please? That gateway is open now! Your pal here’ll show you all around the isle! Every fun place and more! Totally not like here, where it’s…getting hotter..?”

  Now, it was his turn to listen, and listen he did, letting each and every letter of that self-assuring speech wash over him. Faiz pondered quietly a moment, then replied, “Hah…has anyone told you…you’re abominable at persuasion? But I guess this makes sense…I-I want to save All..ie…if I die for her, maybe they’d…call me a hero.” Jesyll had started turning away again, as Faiz slumped in his unyielding shackles.

  “But…Jesyll, I think I…forgot to tell you something…”

  “Hm? Your last words? If so, please don’t be hasty, Faiz. You’ll have plenty of time on our isle.”

  “Is-is it just me or are you two also sweating, Masters..? Oh, we s-should hurry right? I think I hear foot-” Too late, Keite. Faiz continued on.

  “Maybe it really would be better if I died. Maybe…this sacrifice is all I’m good for. However, I think…I remember what I promised Allie. I’d be a hero for her, wouldn’t I? Silent and obedient…I guess you want that from me too…? Both her and you, though, you all didn’t remember, did you? That’s alright, I did all the reading for the both of us anyways, so I’ll tell you…the thing about heroes is that-“

  “

  

  “-

  And an all-encompassing prismatic wave engulfed his vision once more.

  To clarify, this was by no means an elegant or well thought out scheme. It was in totality a ploy borne of desperate hope and desperate-er measures; All it required was that the three of them continue listening to him, and pay no attention to the deep focus-no small feat on its own, dividing his will so-he was forcing into the space around his hand (while hoping he didn’t immolate himself). He lamented more the fact he'd flubbed his quip, since a meter about stars and shine wasn't all that relevant to immolating the three traitors.

  By some propitious occurrence, it all went off without hitch, and an absolutely brilliant conflagration blew apart the segment of Ellery that was chaining him so. As for the rest, when Faiz finally came to his senses, reeling from being flung across the gateroom, he could see the scrapskin creak and clang in growing desperation as it tried to extinguish itself, trailing pools of melted alloy as it kept shifting. As he’d hoped, the ceaseless blaze had pervaded the core of its being too, leaving it far too busy trying to save itself to hinder him.

  “Hah, turn yourself into whatever exotic shape you want ‘pal’, if that fiend couldn’t get rid of it…” Faiz turned away from that ongoing spectacle, having already had extensive past experience with all the fun properties of the Empyrean’s blaze.

  A quick survey of the chamber confirmed that the renovation costs would indeed be astronomical, given that the once-gateroom now looked more akin to one of Shaiher’s seedier watering holes on open tap night. He simply couldn’t make heads or tails of what was supposed to be what, some segments buried under falling debris and others sparking anew with seven shaded fire. What might have been ornamental banners or screens lay warped and shorn, fluttering between the piled on debris like marking flags. Well, perhaps he’d been a bit hasty in his comparison, this room was still in far better shape than those crevices of hell had ever been…

  “You!

  “You should save your threatening speech for later, you perfect specimen, you!” Faiz grinned with a deep malice as he pointed above them, “The Great and Humble Jesyll shouldn’t forget to greet their fans, after all.”

  Their sense tendrils flared out, and then they stilled and Jesyll burbled, “This-did you..? You…really are special, kid...” It seemed they’d noticed the audience peering down at them from the chambers above, a very patient and assembled array of Stonesoul guards and flitting monochrome Fae. Whatever Ragan’s faults, the response times of the local law enforcement was not one of them, even if they’d needed a little tip from certain ‘anonymous’ somebody beforehand to mount an offense.

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  He stopped paying attention to that part of the room as the first few waves started descending and started walking for the (surprisingly stable) gateway, keeping a wary eye out. “Two down, that leaves…”

  “ Keite was alive still, and nigh unblemished save a single cut across his cheek, which was slowly dyeing his white fur a greenish-red. Faiz was pleasantly-and extremely- surprised the delicate boy apparently hadn’t been faking that hopeless optimism?...And now he was earnestly asking the same person he’d assisted in trapping to kill…to help free him from the stone pinning him down?

  “…a real hero is magnanimous even to his foes eh?...” Faiz was liking this high road less and less the more he thought of putting it into practice. Nonetheless, he sighed and changed trajectory. “Fine, I shouldn’t stoop to the level of all of your heartless acts I suppose. Try anything funny and I’ll have to test how good a kindling that fluff makes though.”

  Keite predictably started cheering and singing his praises as he extricated him, “Yay! I love you so much Friend Faiz!! You’re the best~ Promise I’ll be nice!” Even bloodied, that fur sure was luxurious when hugging him.

  “

  Jesyll screeched from behind the two of them, startling both. Faiz found the tubespawn wrestling four lithic guards with some translucent Aura Art, a fifth limb using a fae as a bodily shield against a swathe of magical bombardment as they whipped around their foes with great speeds, engaged in a brutal melee. Faiz was mildly impressed; He had known they were strong, but keeping a steadily growing army of powerful beings at bay even after being caught off guard? This Order didn’t lack for champions, at the very least.

  “Oh n-no …he helped me, Master JesylI! I-I can’t do t-that to a friend…but if I don’t they’ll ki-kick me out…and then…” Seeing Keite struggle and titter with an adorably pitiful look on his face, Faiz decided to be merciful and reached out, unwrapping the coverings on those fuzzy antennae. “Friend F-Faiz? Wha-“

  “Hush, Keite. There’s a nice light there, see? Pretty light, very shiny! Go get it.” There was a small cleft in the far wall now, through which that light of a chained celestial was still beaming. Keite again acquired a hazy and faraway look on his face, mumbling away trudging off as Faiz regretfully continued on. He’d miss that wonderful softness…

  It seemed his tribulations weren’t over yet though, as with a thunderous bang, Ellery careened into view, looking extremely worse for the wear. Where that false Aujyav had ever revitalizing flesh to compensate for the fire steadily boring through his insides, the scrapskin hadn’t fared so well. Its shape was severely deformed now, and the amount of liquid chrome pooling wherever it went had increased in flow, its metal form glowing a bright cyan pink. It had an uncanny resemblance to forge slag.

  “

  Faiz, now faced with a charging, insane and most likely lethally hot lump of molten metal that kept changing shape, blanched momentarily before regaining his senses, dodging out of the way as he rifled through his pockets, “Not today, you scrapheap! Good thing I filched this just in anticipation of you…ah, here!”

  An outrageously expensive Ragan Online Shopping System construct! Supposedly capable of buying anything and everything, he’d snuck one off of a passing Scalebound trader when returning from the ports. A sort of trump card, one he was “So, Ragan onli-okay, that’s a mouthful. ROSS! Yes, ROSS, I need…a whole lot of cooled quench-efflux base fluid! Now, preferably? I’m in an emergency.” It was difficult keeping the thing steady while dodging Ellery’s frenzied attempts to…do something, whatever it was trying to accomplish by swinging wildly around in his general direction.

  The device clicked and clacked, the delicate spires whirring to life as it flew up into the air and a rather happy voice came out of it, “New User Detected! Scanning! Alert-Please Complete This Survey Before Being Able To Access Our Store!”

  Faiz stared dumbfounded at it. “You…have to be kidding me. Who would-why would I agree?!”

  The inquisitive machine chirped again, “Affirmative Processed! Starting Survey! Your Name-User?”

  Faiz ducked a molten spear, fell back in time to avoid being pummelled by the falling mass, “Faiz! It-it’s Faiz!”

  “User Faiz Registered! Next Question! Your Domicile?”

  Jump to avoid a sweeping flood of chromatic slurry, use debris as a cover from the horrifically hot droplets, “Domicile…? Ragan! I-live here, yes!

  “Domicile Registered! Next Question! What Is Your Mode Of Payment?”

  Dive out of a cleaving quadrupedal shapes way, clamp ears to mute that annoying trill, “I don’t care! I really don’t care presently! Just let me buy something already!”

  “Mode Of Payment Unregistered. Would You Prefer A Buy-Now-Pay-Later Plan? We Have Attractive Offers At Only Fifty Percent Interest Rate For-“

  “

  “Survey Complete! Unlocking Store Functions And Readying Resident Purchase Permit! What Would You Like To Buy?”

  Faiz, having had enough of dodging and getting his (imagined) splendid moment ruined, grabbed the ROSS and tossed it straight at Ellery, “Buy anything! Everything! W-Whatever you can, accursed thing!”

  It sailed right into Ellery’s corpus, whirring merrily even as the metallic liquid engulfed it, barking out garbled phrases. “

  Plink!

  More Plinks, and Faiz had to start rubbing his eyes, for the scenario unfolding before his eyes appeared truly fantastical; Ellery, straining and shearing and distending as more and more…for lack of better terminology, materialized within it, each accompanied by a tinkling crystal chime and a glimmer near instantly swallowed by the metal. And still, the scrapskin ballooned, losing any coherence of body as odd bangs and hisses rang out from its steadily burgeoning insides, any items possibly being purchased by the construct finding snug homes in their molten insides.

  “Oh…erm-that isn’t-I didn’t-! You’re going to have a really…torrid time I think…sorry.” It was all he could do, cautiously retreating as the screaming started anew from the tortured alloys, hoping against hope the store didn’t stockpile any particularly volatile substances. “I hope you won’t di-” He jerked back just in time to avoid being nicked by a shard shot out from their insides, hissing with an ominous grey sheen.

  Faiz judged it eminently wise to abscond then, and turned his focus back towards the gateway, eyes widening in alarm as he saw the dismally flickering state of that Pillar of Marks. Was it running out of energy?! Then…if he wanted to escape, he’d have to do so now!

  “Okay, fine, alright this is all Now how do I…?” He inspected the glistening bonds tying the gateway to the pillar, trying to find a way to redirect course when…

  “Can’t get away from me this easily kid!” Faiz barely had time to cry out in alarm before a lunging mess of tendrils bowled him over.

  “-!” He could only sputter bemused as he fought off the wriggling appendages trying to ensnare him, “Jesyll? But-?! You were fighting a whole army back there and…and…oh..” A cursory glance back near the entrance-way confirmed his fears. Apparently the tubespawn could just…defeat entire legions worth of highly trained beings on their own home turf.

  They gurgled with a rather moribund wheeze to their voice, “Hah, I told you…can’t escape the great me-no matter how hard you try.” Pitched squeals and keens reached his ears, and upon further glancing, Jesyll looked to be in a state far more dreadful than he’d previously seen, a few tentacles ripped away entirely, gushing luminescent blood as other tears and rips swelled an angry hue of blue across the remaining limbs.

  “Doesn’t seem like you’ve got many arms left to hold me by, you sack of rubber…” Faiz wasn’t giving up this close to victory, and squirmed against those grasping tentacles with all his might. It was a testament to how weak they’d become that it devolved into a scrap wrestle among them. “

  You really must love me too much, clinging to me even as you’re bleeding out and their reinforcements are soon to arrive..argh..”

  “Can’t-Won’t let you, not now…we just need one; Only you and our Kingdoms shall open, just that last sliver-!” They managed to pin Faiz right before the gateway, chirping with distress, “Just…stay still! I’ll take you--alone if I have to. No more tricks then, hah.”

  Faiz might have wailed, he might have cursed, so close and yet so far from his emancipation. Only, he remembered suddenly that he in fact have a single trick left in his pockets. What had that woman said? Sturdiness to withstand a Star’s blows?

  Time to put that to the test.

  “Cease whatever you’re-doing! I dunno how you invoked the calamity armament, but I won’t let you do that again either…A great…mind like me, knows exactly how to-“

  Whatever Jesyll was planning to do, it might’ve worked in preventing him from calling up any sigil into focus, or even a line for that matter. So it was a good thing he wasn’t trying to achieve either.

  “

  Power.

  Now, where could Faiz find the requisite energy needed?

  “Hah, I really need to thank you one last time…you traitorous tubespawn menace…” Faiz attempted a roguish grin (as roguish as he could imagine a grin being, anyway, since he hadn’t seen any in reality to compare), hand reaching out to the side and grazing the nearly extinguished Pillar, “If you all hadn’t carried this over, I’d probably be in another world of trouble now…”

  Bang!

  With his own reserve of will, he called up a Refute between himself and Jesyll, ejecting the slimy intriguer and letting him stumble to his feet.

  “…How?” Jesyll-perhaps for the first time Faiz had ever heard them-pitched in a disbelieving despair as they wriggled back up without much finesse, half-functional sense limbs trembling as they trained onto the shining barrier in front of Faiz, “How did you learn to…”

  Now it was his turn to act highfalutin, even as that familiar roaring throb built up in his head, “Learn how to best you utterly? Specialists never reveal trade secrets, but I suppose if it’s you who wants to know…?” Faiz leaned in, disguising the pain incrementing within and the slow gleam forming at his arm, “Does the name ‘Aujyav’ sound nice to you, friend?”

  Jesyll burbled and wailed in high tones, the shuddering of their limbs growing more pronounced, “You didn’t hide, so you met-but no, humans would-!”

  A possibility seemed to have come to their mind, for they stilled and then, in a low rasp, weakly raised up a single limb. “Hah…then I suppose you aren’t…” All the fighting spirit seemed to pour out of Jesyll like a sieve, as they settled down, “Just my luck meeting one of you as the last key. You’ll just burn yourself up, won’t you kid? Go ahead then, be my guest. This whole-endeavour was doomed from the start…”

  They had taken on a resigned and calm tone, probably expecting Faiz to attempt to kill them and then perish, or the like. But…

  “So you really haven’t read a single story in your lifetime then? Let me educate you in that case…” Faiz straightened up as he shifted slightly so he’d be in line with the gateway, before pulling a little something out of his (surprisingly voluminous, now he thought about it) pocket, “Recognize this, ”

  Whatever imagined tranquility Jesyll had been attempting to project, it all shattered like the most brittle of plaster, as they beheld the ship-containing cube in his outstretched palm. Horror suffused their panicking warbles, “…?” It was somewhat amusing watching them flail their limbs as they simultaneously tried to drag themselves away whilst pleading with him, “Kid! I-I know…we have had our differences, but-you can’t! Think of-someone?! Anyone! This’ll be inhumane, cruel! Oh Thrones protect us

  “A real hero…” Faiz continued over their objections, “Has neither fear nor doubt, and unlike you, never backs out once the course is set. In this case, you’ll even find the destination so very close to home, my dear captain…”

  The last flickers of power fizzled out of the Pillar as he raised his arm, aiming that Edge he couldn’t feel but the world could sense, dead on at the container sphere, “Most importantly…real heroes aren’t afraid of telling bad guys like you…

  Not particularly bright as parting lines go, but poor Jesyll didn’t need any extra effort wasted on them, already scrounging up whatever defensive Art they could as the Eternally Severing Edge met the very severable container.

  

  Faiz felt every sense narrow into the Refute around his form as a force of ludicrously momentous strength beat against his form, expanding in an instant like a tower to the face. The strain was much more than enough to make him blank out and faint, from how it utterly knackered his already struggling mind…but not before the sheer force threw him across the horizon of the shrinking gateway, just as planned!

  “

  In his last moment of consciousness he saw a raging storm of cut spatial Arts, centered on the once cube, a once enacted wish struggling and failing. And from the detritus of reality…

  …a prow with a few letters (obviously) blazoned on its side, aimed right at him and going full speed at his face..