The Watchtower

I walked through the mountain trails up on our way to the watchtower. It was freezing. Though we did not get very far up, the influence of the dungeon made it snow here, even in summer. The rocks were all spiky, and monsters occasionally climbed down the place, hunting for prey.

We took the paths less traveled, trying to avoid any potential traps. Sybille was on my back, sitting tight inside a barrel we had strapped unto me. Perhaps there were some people who would disagree with using ideas taken from a Japanese manga, but this was not a bad one. There was no way Sybille could make this climb by herself.

“Uhm, so, Bastion!” said Sybille. “How are you?”

“I’m fine.”

“I see… so, anything interesting going on?”

I looked up.

“Not much,” I said. “I can see the watchtower, but it is still pretty far. Don’t worry about it. We will reach it soon enough.”

Sybille sighed.

“Okay,” she said. “I’m counting on you… Mh…”

For some reason, she sounded displeased. Not much I could do about it, though.

“Hmm?” I went.

Something moved around the bushes. Perhaps, a monster. I stopped.

“What is it, what is it?” said Sybille, taking a peek out from her barrel.

It was a goat. Just a goat, grazing around.

“Just an animal,” I said.

“Phew…” said Sybille. “I would really not like to fight a monster… oh, no, look out!”

The goat stepped on a rune carved into the ground. Sybille’s scream sent it running away, and just then, the rune exploded. The noise shook us. The explosion would have been more enough to blow me up, had I been standing there.

“That was close,” I said.

“But what about… oh look, there it is!” said Sybille.

The goat was fine. It was scared to death, but it was running away with its life intact.

“Do you like animals?” I asked her.

Sybille brightened up.

“I do!” she said. “I really like the fluffy ones. Oh, if I could only have a cat!”

“I thought witches are supposed to have cats.”

“I am no witch!” she said. “Witches are illegal mages. I have my papers and permissions and follow the regulations to the letter!”

“Then what is with the hat?”

She had a witch’s pointy hat.

“What about it?” she said. “It is just a hat.”

“I see. Still, why can’t you have a cat?”

Sybille borrowed back into the barrel.

“Master won’t let me,” she said. “He says he is allergic to cats.”

“Not even in your home?”

“I live in the tower. I once tried to keep one in my room in secret, but…”

She went silent. Master Croghan probably had taken it away when he found out.

“I understand,” I said. “Do not worry about it.”

“Mh…” she pressed her body against the side of the barrel facing me. She was practically laying against my back. “And what about you, Bastion? Do you like animals?”

“I do.”

“Really? That’s great!”

I nodded.

“Yes,” I said. “You know, I never had cats, but I had dogs when I was young.”

“Dogs are very nice too,” said Sybille. “Are they your favorite animal?”

“No.”

“Oh? Then what is your favorite?”

I looked up to the sky, seeing a few of them just pass by.

“Birds,” I said.

“Birds?” she responded, then chuckled. “Oh, too bad they don’t get along with cats!”

“It is a shame.”

We got close to the watchtower. The place was originally a simple stone tower surrounded by a wall, but the mana corruption had shifted it. It had strange spirals all across the walls, almost like post-impressionist art. Furthermore, the tower and walls both had red crystals sprawling like roots all over them.

“Those are tendrils from the core,” said Sybille.

“So they feed the mana core,” I responded. “Will they lead us to it?”

Sybille nodded.

“Yeah,” she said. “Can you see the entrance?”

I looked around and saw the closed gate of the tower. I was about to go towards it when Sybille stopped me.

“Wait,” she said. “It must be trapped.”

“You are right,” I responded. “Then, how do we get in? Should I try to jump?”

“Hmm… I am not sure you can make that jump safely,” she said. “What to do…”

I let my eyes of light fall to a less defended area: the wall at the side.

“What about there?” I asked.

“The wall? I can tell it does not have any enchantments on it… wait, what do you want to do?”

I climbed around the mountain ground to get to position towards that wall, still quite a few yards away. I needed to pick up momentum for what I was going to do.

“Wait, wait, wait, wait!” said Sybille. “What are you doing?”

I took on position in preparation to run, digging my heel against the ground, and aiming myself towards the wall.

“I will run through it,” I said.

Sybille’s eyes went wide.

“Bastion,” she said, “wait, wait wait! Are you really doing this?!”

“Yes,” I said. “I am doing this!”

I bolted through the wind.

My stone feet stampeded through the ground and towards the wall. Sybille did her best to keep her composure as we neared the wall, clinging to the edge of her barrel for dear life.

“AAAAAAAH!” she screamed.

She could not keep it any longer.

I braced myself, aiming my shoulder against the wall, and crashed through. The runes at my soles propelled me further in that last jump, letting me strike with a force that sent brick and stone all across the air.

I grated my feet against the ground to halt and saw what us was now around us.

“We made it…” muttered Sybille, in relief.

There were monsters all around us.

Drakmar, dozens of them, were hissing at me and Sybille with hunger. At the far end of the wall was the entrance to the tower, guarded by two stone figures. Golems. The moment they saw me, they activated, springing out from their locked position, and breaking the cobwebs that had accumulated on them. The mana corruption had made them grow spikes and horns all over, including their fists.

“Sybille,” I said. “Can you handle the drakmars?”

“The drakmars?” she said. “What about those two?”

“I can handle them. Get off the barrel.”

I unlatched the barrel from me, letting it fall to the ground.

“Ouch!” Sybille yelped. “Hey, that was mean!”

“Sorry.”

“I will get back at you for that!”

Sybille levitated out from the barrel, using wind magic to push herself off the ground, and aimed her staff at the drakmars.

“But that will be for later!” she added.

With a swing of her staff, a storm unleashed from the ground and to the sky, casting aloft the drakmars that came to surround her. With them she fought, casting blades of wind and storms as she danced away from harm through the air.

The golems set their sights on me together.

They are not like you, I thought to myself. They are artificial. They are not even monsters. They are just… constructs.

They walked with unison, approaching with rhythmical, mechanical motions. Once they came close enough to me, they both lunged, hammering down through the air with their fists. I stepped back, letting their fists created a crater on the ground where they struck. In that window of opportunity, I struck one of the golems with a staunch upper cut, tearing a hole into its head, liberating a mist of energy within it into the air. It was its artificial soul.

Before I could go for the other, the second golem struck with a spin of its arm. I managed to block it, but I nonetheless was knocked back. The construct rushed to me, leaping across the air and crashing into my body. I fell to my back against the ground, pinned by the construct.

“Bastion!” said Sybille.

“Focus of the drakmars!” I said. “I got this!”

The construction unleashed a flurry of attacks at me, striking methodically with programmed, repeated motions. Its repetition allowed me to maintain a guard, but there was little window for me to counterattack. Instead, I just let my arm’s runes glow.

“Is that all you got?” I said.

The construct kept flailing at me, and then, it broke one of its own hands.

With that, I retorted with a strike of my own, unleashing a powerful energy blast into its head. Left without its artificial soul, the construct fell over, deactivated.

I pushed it off me, and then inspected the field. Sybille was just finishing up the last of the drakmars.

“Look out!” I told her.

A drakmar was going to try and ambush her from behind. I stepped on it, crushing it as though it was a sandcastle, letting it explode into a purple mist.

Sybille descended towards the ground.

“Ah… sorry, Bastion,” said Sybille. “There were so many. And… you’re hurt!”

“Do not worry about it,” I said.

“No, no,” she said. “How many times have we gone over this? You have to take care of yourself!”

She placed her hands on my damaged arms and used her magic to mend the cracks.

“I know,” I said.

“You don’t!”

She finished mending my wounds and patted my arm.

“Sorry,” I said.

“Less apologizing and more doing,” she said. “I will not forgive you if you keep getting yourself hurt, you hear?”

“I am a war machine,” I said. “I am supposed to get hurt.”

Sybille frowned.

“That is not what you should be,” she said.

“Hmm?”

“At any rate!” she said. “I need to get that surveyor thing out for Master Croghan.”

Sybille went into her satchel and produced that blue orb out from it. She channeled some energy into it, and then, the orb levitated on its own, revealing its eye-like center.

“It took you long enough,” said Master Croghan, speaking through the orb, though with his voice distorted.

“I’m sorry,” said Sybille. “We had a bit of… a rush, I think.”

The orb scanned around.

“Hmph,” said Master Croghan. “Oh? I see you burst through the wall.”

“Oh, the gate had traps,” said Sybille.

“Smart girl. That ability will be useful. Now, both of you are to explore the dungeon depths. Find its core, then destroy it to kill the dungeon.”

I turned my face towards the orb.

“Kill the dungeon?” I said.

“Dungeons are alive,” Master Croghan explained. “It does not have a strong conscience like an animal, but they are alive. Yes, they are alive in the same sense that trees are. Just think of dungeons as trees, ones which fruits are monsters. You could even say that a dungeon is a type of monster, you see.”

“I see.”

I turned towards the entrance of the tower.

“I will scry!” said Sybille.

She placed her hands on the ground, and let a blue shine hone through the field, spreading down through the dungeon’s surface.

“What did you see?” I asked her.

“Three floors,” said Sybille. “There are some drakmar eggs in there, I think, but most of the monsters were here.”

“Tch, a shame,” said Master Croghan. “I wanted to see my creation in plain action. Carry on.”

Sybille and I entered together into the tower entrance, with me at the front. The place was invaded by those crystal roots, which spread all the way up the stairs. There were drakmar eggs planted at the corners of the dungeon interior, but not much in the way of living beings. There were some insects, but that was all.

“Strange,” said Sybille. “We are getting close to the core, but there are not any more monsters.”

“There is not always a core guardian,” said Master Croghan. “This was a fairly small dungeon. Still, it is true what you say. There should be more resistance here.”

We reached the top of the tower. It was an ample space encased by tall walls and a roof, and with a giant crystal standing in the middle. All the red roots were feeding straight to it.

In front of that crystal, however, someone. Or, at least, something that used to be someone. He was a human with purple skin and bloated proportions. His eyes had gone white blind with madness, and his size ribbing through the military garb that he once wore with pride. He had four arms, and a size even taller than mine. From the golden tree in his armband, I could tell he was from the Ranolkian Empire. Sybille had told me that was their emblem.

The creature was clinging to the mana core, licking it with a lizard-like tongue, and embracing it with his multiple limbs.

“What is that?” I said.

“It looks like it is what became of the researchers here,” said Sybille. “It is a manaclast. They are living beings that become… this.”

Master Croghan’s orb stopped between us.

“It seems to be affixed to the mana core,” said Master Croghan. “Perhaps, lost in their research, these researchers lost themselves and became this thing. Now they cannot part with that which reduced them to this. Pity.”

I clenched my fist.

“Can we save them?” I said.

“Save them?” said Master Croghan. “There is no saving a manaclast. No human, no animal, no insect that becomes a manaclast will ever become what it was. I know that far too well. There is no undoing the damage on a soul afflicted by mana corruption. Destroy it. Give it the peace and dignity to no longer be this shameful thing.”

The manaclast turned its gaze towards me and Sybille.

“It is protecting the mana core!” said Sybille. “Be careful! It must have been a mage… I don’t doubt it used shrouding magic to hide from my scrying, too.”

“This is troublesome,” added Master Croghan. “A human manaclast guarding the mana core… perhaps this was no accident, after all.”

The manaclast roared, then sprinted towards us. I stood between Sybille and the monster and let it tackle into my body. I stood my ground, resisting against their heavier weight with all my strength. There we wrestled, with its four muscular arms against my two of stone.

“Is there no other way?” I asked.

Sybille flew away some distance and charged her staff with wind magic.

“I’m sorry!” said Sybille. “This is all we can do for them. Hold it tight! Wind Blade!”

“Foolish girl!” said Master Croghan’s orb. “Stop this instant!”

Sybille unleashed a gust of razor-sharp wind cutting right into the manaclast, striking into the waist. Purple smoke and black liquid spilled out, but it did not die. The manaclast pulled away, shrieking in agony.

“I thought they couldn’t feel pain,” I said.

“Manaclasts are… different,” said Sybille.

She fell to her knees and went clutching at her heart.

“Sybille?!” I said.

“The foolish girl,” said Master Croghan. “She tried to kill a human manaclast. It may be a monster without a trace of humanity, but the rebound will still apply. You will have to be the one to defeat it, Number BS-8!”

I went to Sybille’s side to guard her.

“Sorry…” said Sybille. “I tried to…”

“Don’t say anything,” I said. “I… I will handle this.”

I did not like this.

Deep down, could he still be human? They say that the manaclast is just a monster now, but is it really? It feels pain. It was human. It…

“Aaaaaaargh!” roared the manaclast, channeling electrical energy into its four hands.

It was going to kill Sybille.

“Stop!” I shouted.

I ran towards the manaclast, fully intending to burst it through the wall, but then it unleashed its magic at me. Four tendrils of electricity hurled into my body. Though I was of stone, mana was still flooding into my runes. Everything outside of this fight was becoming a distant thing to me. Life or death. That was all that mattered to me in that moment. That, and one more thing.

It was to protect Sybille.

“Gurgh!” I groaned.

I was slowing down. My body was just refusing to listen to me. The lightning magic was as though it was chaining me down into the ground.

“Mana interference,” said Master Croghan. “Of course. The runes are being overloaded. I will have to make note of this.”

Sybille struggled, but she got into both her feet once more and aimed her staff at the manaclast.

“Co…” she muttered. “Cou… Counter Magic!”

A blast of her spell wrestled against the manaclasts’s magic, dismantling all four strands into mists of mana. I was free.

“Enough!” I shouted.

I hurled myself into the manaclast, tackling it away from Sybille, and rammed its body into the mana core. I thrust its body through a large, crystal spike, impaling it whole.

“Glurgh!” groaned the manaclast.

I panted out of instinct, seeing the manaclast’s body disintegrate into a purple mist and a pool of black ooze.

“We… made it,” said Sybille.

“Well done,” said Master Croghan. “Now destroy the mana core. Make this over with.”

I stared down at the pool of ooze that remained from the manaclast’s body. That thing… it used to be human.

“Number BS-8,” said Master Croghan. “Destroy the core.”

I returned to my senses.

“I…” I said. “Of course.”

I walked to the large crystal in front of me, peering into the reflection of myself that it was showing me. I was coated in that black ooze as well. I slammed my foot against the base of the crystal, raised my fist, and struck down.

The mana core crumbled under my fist, and with it, all of its roots. It all crumbled away into a fine mist, dissipating into the air.

“That does it…” said Sybille, swatting the air on her face. “Are you okay, Bastion?”

I stepped away from the place where the core was. I stared at my hand, marked with the ooze, and then where the manaclast used to be.

“I’m… not,” I said. “No, I’m not fine.”