Stardust

-WARNING! DEMON THREAT SIGHTED!-

-IFF tags active! : Krampus type demon tagged; Foe-

-Janus tagged; Foe-

The goat man demon, who apparently was named Krampus, let out a ferocious snarl and a large plume of steam burst out of his nostrils. He was lit up by occasional sparks of red electricity that scattered around the room.

I was so afraid, but also angry. It sure was scary, but I hated it even more. It wasn’t just because it was ugly. It felt wrong. Unnatural. I wanted it gone from the deepest parts of my soul.

“Behold! The beast you see before you is the fruit of all my mana grinding!” he pointed his voxel sword toward Krampus. “Isn’t he just the most ugly thing you’ve ever seen? Such a beast!”

“So this is what you were stealing all that mana for…” Uncle concluded.

“Indeed!” Janus threw out his arms excitedly. “But this is hardly where we pause the game. This is only the beginning of what we have to reveal to the world.”

What a true villain!

“Why would you do this?” I shouted. “Demons are evil!”

“The world is too bright, kid…” his downer voice replied. “We’ve been living in a blinding light for too long, and it's time to show the ugliness underneath that shiny surface.”

His uppity voice continued where the last left off, saying “That’s why we're here to flood the world with eternal darkness!”

“Then the true nature of the world will be revealed,” both his voices said in unison.

I had no idea what this jerk was babbling about… Darkness and ugliness… The only ugly thing here were his plans.

“You’re stupid!” I shouted. “If the world’s going to go dark forever, how is anyone going to see what you're doing to it?”

This is the type of bad logic that always caused bad guy's plans to fail. He clearly hadn’t thought it through well enough. What an idiot!

“I like this kid,” Janus laughed. “So spritely! Krampus, why don’t you grab her and help me take her home with us?”

Krampus turned to his summoner with a crazed look on his face, illuminated by quick flashes of red. Then a smile broke his expression and he began stomping his foot on the ground, preparing to charge at me.

The demon rushed forward in a terrifying stampede. Any debris or crates in his path were bulldozed away as he tried to kidnap me.

“Ahhh!” I screamed, running for cover.

“Ssss!” Samael flipped around my head and bore his tiny fangs as a warning to the goat man not to get close or he’d bite.

That was when suddenly Uncle flew forward on his glassy wings and gripped Krampus by the horns.

“Uncle?!” I turned back, never more happy for his strength. “Kick his goat butt!”

Krampus let out a loud and foul scream in Uncle's face, but he took it like a man and glared even more angrily at the demon.

With all his might, Uncle twisted the demon's head and snapped his neck! Then he pushed him away. The demon wasn't dead though. He just stumbled around and tried to twist his head back to normal.

That didn’t kill it?!

Uncle let out a breath, clenching his hand as if to summon something to his side. But nothing was happening.

“I can’t bring it out… Blast it… When was the last time I used that longsword?”

A longsword? Isn’t his stinger blade his sword?

Because Uncle prevented the demon from capturing me, all that rage and anger turned on him. Krampus recovered and headbutt Uncle, sending him flying. But Uncle’s glass wings caught him and he came right back, slashing at the demon again with his stinger sword and cutting off one of his hands.

A good hit!

Krampus ignored the pain, getting even more angry and charging down Uncle.

The demon's remaining hand chard black with burning coal and he punched Uncle repeatedly. Once Uncle got his footing to dodge, the demon breathed a horrible smog of cinder and ash.

The smoke breath disoriented Uncle, but not enough to keep him from kicking the demon away and getting back to his feet.

Janus came running at Uncle and slashed him with his voxel sword. Uncle was able to catch it with his stinger blade, but Krampus quickly sent a hoof into his side.

“I told you to go for the girl!” Janus yelled at the demon.

The demon tilted its beady red eyes toward me again. He pawed his hooves at the ground, then it let out another terrible scream.

I screamed and ran for cover in a crevice on the wall. I snuck right in because I was so small.

*BAM!*

The demon struck the wall, hitting horns first! He couldn't fit into the crevice.

It was so ugly and scary, staring at me angrily. I cried so loudly to try and drown out all its snarling and crazy noises.

"I hate you!" I screamed. "I hate you!"

Uncle came up from behind the demon and stabbed his energy blade into its back, then he suplexed the demon with all his strength!

*SLAM!*

He recovered faster than the demon, but had to dodge to avoid a slash from Janus.

A swing and a miss!

Uncle retaliated by clashing weapons once more, but the demon now recovered and struck him down with his horns.

One of the horns jabbed into him, and when it pulled out, shattered shards of crystal fell out from Uncle.

“Uncle!” I screamed, knowing he must have been in bad pain!

“I’m fine!” he yelled back.

If this kept up, Uncle would be finished! I needed to help him or I’d lose him too!

I know Uncle told me to run if things got bad, but someone had to help him. I tried to think of a way, but I didn’t have anything that could be used against the demon.

Or did I?

Maybe there was something in me that I could use. I started to search my systems for any sort of way to fight. Even if it was something small, we might have been able to turn the tides.

I wonder if I have laser eyes or something… Wouldn't that be cool?

-Searching for combat protocol…-

-…-

-Combat protocol systems found- -Access restricted-

-Theta Drive systems found- -Access denied-

“Rats!” I snapped my fingers in frustration.

I had combat systems, but they had a bunch of temporary restrictions that kept me from using most of it. Some requirements needed to be met before I could lift those.

Then I looked at the Theta Drive. That one was encrypted behind a really weird programming language that I’d never seen before. Needless to say, it was completely out of the question for now.

Within the combat systems, I found one thing I did have access to. It was called stardust.

-Anti Demon Attack/Defense Systems : Active-

-Unpacking stardust Information-

-…-

-Unpack complete! You may now use stardust!-

That sounded cool, but what was it?

I noticed a small icon flashing on my hotbar, just next to the HELP icon. It looked like a sparkly group of stars.

Was the sparkly icon related to stardust? It had to be. But right now, the menu was blank.

Oh! There was a new message from daddy in the HELP menu…

-Dear Yalda, stardust is one of your most versatile and powerful tools against darkness and demons. It gathers the power of the sun and stars and turns it into crystal energy that you can use against them. Let your creativity shape how you wield it.-

That was really good. Stardust was made to stop demons!

Out of instinct, my body knew what to do to summon the power, so I let my heart take control for me.

Warmth exploded in my chest, like a baby sun had suddenly been born in me. The heat traveled around my body, giving me tingles all over.

My crystal heart sparkled. With each beat of light, a glittery glow traveled down my mana arteries and lit up my whole body. My skin was glowing. It felt good.

That light in me started to gather under the skin of my hand, then it rose up from below and hovered above my palm like a sparkly white haze.

It kept spiraling in my hand, not taking any shape until I pictured something in my mind.

Something sharp… Something with reach. That way I didn't have to be close to the demon.

The gas suddenly collapsed in on itself, and formed into a strange looking stick made of pure crystal. It kinda’ looked like a little spear, but it was misshapen.

“Wow!”

This was incredible! I made something appear out of thin air. It was so pretty, and sparkly too, lighting up so much of the dark room.

As Uncle and the demon were fighting, they both immediately stopped the moment the little crystal spear formed. The demon wore a look of absolute anguish and fear. Uncle on the other hand looked more determined than ever with a smile.

“Yalda, throw that over!”

I had the throwing skills of a fish, but I tossed it up in the air anyway.

The stardust spear landed about halfway between me and Uncle, but that didn’t bother him one bit.

He dove away from the demon, deflecting away a strike from Janus, who clearly didn’t want him to get that spear. The Voxel sword's microphone hilt took the hit and fell apart.

“No!” Both Janus’s voices shouted, but weren't able to prevent Uncle from acquiring it.

“It’s over!” Uncle announced as he took the spear and stabbed it right into the belly of the demon!

"Eeeahhh!" It let out a horrible screech of pain!

Its body was cracking apart with white lines, almost as sparkly as the stardust. Bursts of energy split him apart.

*BOOM!*

The demon exploded!

Bits of it flew all over the place, painting the walls black with gunk. Uncle jumped in front of me just in time to make a bubble shield that protected us from getting hit by any of it.

-☆-

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