Chapter 23: Ruler of the Stars

Tayo jumps down from the building top.

"Gotar!" he shouted. "You have what you want. Leave us alone!"

But Gotar, suspended in the air like a demon king, didn’t answer. Instead, he spun midair and hurled a fireball directly at Tayo’s back.

Tayo dodged.

He sprinted to Henry’s side, worried his friend might be dead. He can now see that Henry is still breathing. He faced Gotar once more.

The beast didn’t hesitate.

In a burst of fire, Gotar streaked toward Tayo and stabbed him through the gut with the professor’s sword.

"Shhhhh," Gotar growled.

Tayo gasped and dropped his bow and arrow. The blade gleamed where it pierced him, and already, red particles began rising from the wound—glowing, fading, like embers. He looked down in a daze, blood hot against his fingers as he touched the hilt. The pain surged through him causing him to hallucinate.

The red particles, drifting upward, began looking like pollen and flower petals in his mother’s garden. In that moment, he also heard his sister, Aramide call him, "Drummer boy."

His vision cleared. His thoughts sharpened.

Tayo’s hand gripped the sword—his sword—and in a radiant flash, it burst with divine power.

The explosion blew Gotar’s arm apart.

The monster screamed, and yanked what was left of his arm back, and retreated into the sky. His flames began to flicker as his flight turned ragged.

Tayo wavered, gasping. The blade still protruded from his side. Blood soaked through his clothes.

But the red particles had stopped.

Now, they were turning into light. Golden, flickering like stars.

His entire body began to glow. Veins of light ran beneath his skin, through his arms, across his face.

He heard them again.

His mother.

"OluwaTayo… You are my joy. Thank you."

He smiled, trembling, tears burning the edges of his eyes.

Up above, Gotar hovered erratically, one hand burned, his balance disrupted. But still he roared.

"Destroy him!" he commanded in beast speech.

The kilobons obeyed, charging.

Tayo turned to Henry, who was barely conscious, face pale.

"Henry..." he whispered. "If you make it back… tell my mum and my sister that I’m sorry. No—" He looked upward, light swelling around him. “Tell them… that I’m grateful."

The light spiraled around him like a vortex.

A kilobon—armored and twice his size—rushed forward.

Tayo moved.

His glowing blade sliced through the creature in a single, brilliant arc.

Another monster neared Marie and Rowen—Tayo was there, cutting it down before it could strike.

Gotar’s fury changed into something else now. Desperation.

At his fingertip, a massive orb of flame began to form—five times the size of any he’d cast before. Its heat melted the clouds. The wind howled and fed it.

Tayo saw the danger.

He couldn’t dodge—not with his people behind him.

But he stood tall.

“I am the ruler of the stars,” he said, voice shaky, “charged with all that is good in this world.”

He vanished again—this time appearing by Hiro and Jim, cutting down the kilobons swarming them.

“Because pure is the color of my heart…” he said.

He surged across the battlefield.

“And valor is the foundation of my soul!”

He leapt.

Toward Gotar.

But a smaller fireball came faster.

It struck him mid-air with devastating force, slamming him into the earth.

Crack!

His body hit the ground hard. He landed on one knee.

The light faded.

Gotar was about to release the mother of all fireballs. Enough to end Tayo, the gamers, the square even the city.

Hiro looked on in horror. Henry groaned faintly but couldn’t move. No one could stop it.

But then—

Tayo screamed, “HOLY MAGIC!”.

His blade ignited, bursting into MAGNIFICENT BRILLIANCE, blinding everyone around as his trembling hands point it in Gotar's direction..

"Positive Light!"

He thrusts his sword at Gotar and a beam of divine energy tore through the Kilobon and his fireball.

The fireball exploded in his hand, premature and uncontrolled, turning in on itself in a thunderous shockwave that rattled the heavens.

Gotar screamed.

And then fell from the sky, his remains evaporating into nothingness.

Silence fell on the battlefield.

The light around Tayo pulsed around.

Gotar’s army, seeing their overlord obliterated, broke into a frenzied retreat. The goblins, the kilobons—every creature scattered, vanishing into the hills like shadows at dawn.

Hiro rushed to Henry’s side, checking his pulse, tapping the tattoo on his neck. A faint beep.

Unconscious but alive.

She’s relieved.

But then—Tayo.

He was standing. Barely. The light around him flickered erratically as soon as the last of the monsters were out of sight he stumbled forward. The red particles return—faster now. Pouring from him like sand from a broken sack.

He stumbled again.

The sword slipped from his grasp.

He collapsed—

—but Hiro caught him.

She gently touched the side of his neck. His dashboard appeared.

Level 44.

But his health bar was plummeting. Already at 5%, dropping…

“Stay with me, Ray,” she whispered. “Keep your eyes open. Just—stay.”