Finale Part 4: A Villainous Monologue

  “It still smells just as bad as the last time,” whispered Neitra, not bothering to mask the grimace hidden beneath her black hood.

  “Yeah, but at least we don’t have to smell it for long if we hurry up,” replied Artyom, who forced aside his own displeasure of the malodorous sewers.

  After directing Ironheart Fortress’ army to the front gates of the Dark Lord’s fortress, the duo left them under the charge of Captain Michaels while they snuck around through the secret entrance into that very fortress for their secret rendezvous. The supposed ringleader in the shadows and conduit for the goddess’ influence on his liege, the Spymaster wasn’t easy to set up such a meeting with. Through careful planning and some controlled chaos, alongside assistance from TOAL and after overcoming several roadblocks, Artyom had finally freed the way for him and Neitra to have at the seclusionary man.

  Assassins eyed them with suspicion as the two raced across the roughly hewn stones that paved the walkway, avoiding puddles of sewage and other rancid material they didn’t want coating their feet. The shadowy watchers let them be, as they recognized their crests and the urgency was excusable. After all, their base was under attack and they didn’t want to be the ones to delay the supposed reinforcements.

  Soon later, the duo reached the end of the sewers and ascended a ladder to the fortress’ courtyard. Despite the imposing black walls separating them from the world outside, they were surrounded by verdant fields of green that covered the ground between the individual buildings. The two quickly turned towards the chapel on their right and made their way towards it at a steady pace.

  “Prithvi, we’ve made it inside the fortress and are approaching the chapel. Have the snipers take their shots,” said Artyom into his phone after quickly pulling it out and dialing in the war room.

  “Orders sent,” replied a feminine voice from the other side of the line. “Also, Squad Echo has some news about our Earther. His party finally let him loose, but they don’t look all too happy. They reported Tommy interacting with a bright white light in the middle of town and now he seems to be wearing even more fancy armor than before. Lots of gold trim and gray speckles on it.”

  “The goddess’ holy armor,” breathed Neitra. “After the sword, he was supposed to be gathering its pieces before taking on the Dark Lord. But there’s no way he could’ve gotten them all in just a week!”

  “So I guess she’s noticed our handiwork,” replied Artyom with a mischievous smile. “Seeing as how she’s speeding up her own timetable, I bet we can expect them to head here soon.”

  “Squad Charlie’s broken off from the army and are headed inside the fortress to intercept,” added Prithvi. “We’ll wait until there’s maximum confusion before bagging him and using an emergency beacon to retreat. Also, the snipers are asking you two to wave so they won’t shoot you.”

  “Understood,” said Artyom. “Alright, let’s grab our guys, kill the Dark Lord, and get out of here.” He hung up the phone.

  In the distance at the entrance of the chapel, a squad of about a dozen assassins dressed in midnight black looked towards the duo with suspicion. Were they here to help them guard the Spymaster or were they here for a meeting? Their crests didn’t match with today’s selection, so perhaps the former.

  Artyom and Neitra waved at the security detail, their arms extended far into the air as they waved around in a wide arc. The most senior assassin looked at the two in disdain. They were assassins, for the Goddess’ sake! They weren’t supposed to wave like that or act so conspicuously! It was like they were trying to be noticed…

  The guards fell to the ground like dropped sacks of potatoes. They didn’t hear the enchanted bullets whizzing at or through their heads, killing them in an instant. There was no time to react. There was no noise, and no survivors to ring an alarm.

  “What was that?!” asked Neitra, forcing herself to keep pace despite the shock of the sudden assault.

  “Snipers,” casually replied Artyom. “They shoot tiny, metal projectiles from up to a mile or two away with pinpoint accuracy.”

  “And I thought that rainbow light beam was impressive. Just who are you people?!” she asked somewhat fearfully.

  “Like I said, we were also chosen ones taken from Earth. This is what happens when you put a bunch of us in a room and give us a few years to play around with magic and apply it to the technology we grew up with.” Artyom looked at his feet and sighed. “But we’re not bad guys. We just want to use what we’ve got to save more of us. We were heroes, after all. And we still are.”

  Neitra looked into his eyes and nodded with a soft smile. “You still are. Now let’s save the Kingdom and Tommy.”

  Artyom smiled back and nodded, a hint of trepidation hidden beneath the surface. He turned towards the now unguarded chapel entrance and continued his approach. His mind went back to his dream from several days ago. Suspicion and fear coiled around in his stomach, but his mind was clear and he felt a strange faith in both the task before him and his companion. They were both here to do the right thing, he just hoped they would continue to do so.

  The duo performed their final set of checks before jumping into the hornet’s nest. Artyom looked over the weighty daisy chain of magical batteries he’d been provided by TOAL for this final mission, which nearly doubled his previous magical reserves, and he tugged at the brand new set of Quicksteel and Heavy Infantry armor he wore underneath the assassins’ robes.

  Neitra looked over her daggers and tested the onyx-black edges against her finger, smiling beneath her hood as she saw the pearl of blood beginning to form. Artyom’s friends had provided her with a blade stronger and sharper than anything she’d ever seen before. They said it was made of something called “tungsten-carbide on a lightweight titanium frame”, but went into extraneous details such as it “being enchanted to keep its monomolecular edge even if you drove a steamroller over it,” and “additional anti-inertial enchantments letting you swing it at barely subsonic speeds,” whatever that meant. Either way, she was more than satisfied with the weapon in her hands. She put her glove back on and nodded at her companion.

  Artyom nodded back. He activated his suite of combat spells and kicked open the chapel door in a roaring show of force. The sound of the heavy wood hitting the wall behind it reverberated across the building’s single room, garnering the attention of the man standing at the other end. Dressed in dark, flowing robes trimmed with crimson colored fabric, the man seemed to jump into the air at the noise as he looked towards its source with a look of shock on his aging face. A stereotypical bald head and pointy, salt-and-pepper beard did little to preserve his dignity after such a reaction.

  “Wh- who are you two?!” shouted the man. “You’re not scheduled for today! Guards!”

  “I presume you must be the Spymaster, then,” said Artyom as he pulled off his hood to reveal his scarred face. “I honestly expected you to look more… sinister, but the robes and the beard really match the vibe you’ve given me so far, at least.”

  The Spymaster grimaced and pressed a button on the back panel of the nearby podium. He looked in shock as it did nothing, continuing to hastily jam his finger into the trigger while looking back up at the duo.

  “That’s not going to work,” said Neitra, porting a serious look on her face despite the satisfaction of seeing the man struggle. “We disabled all of the traps yesterday itself.”

  He turned around and began to run towards the back exit, but Neitra interrupted his escape.

  “And we installed traps of our own,” she said with a smug grin she could no longer hold back. “Do you want to see how far you can make it with only one leg?”

  Artyom raised his eyebrows at Neitra’s ability to make threats, thoroughly impressed, yet concerned at where this side of her came from.

  The spymaster immediately stopped in place and slowly turned back to the duo. “How did you get in here? My security is foolproof, and the Kingdom is full of nothing but fools!”

  “The only fool I see here is you,” came a brassy, feminine voice from beside him. A white glow filled with gray motes was present on the fountain behind the podium that Artyom and Neitra didn’t notice when they first entered the room. The light pulsed harshly alongside the cadence and pitch of her voice. “Ironheart Fortress’ army beats against your doors and the two that you were ordered to kill stand before you!”

  “Wait, is that…” began Neitra.

  Artyom nodded in response. “You know, I came here to interrogate the Spymaster,” he said as began walking towards the light. “But I didn’t expect to meet the real ringleader! Allivaine, I presume?”

  “So the largest thorn in my side has not been fully removed,” the voice spoke out again, regal yet indignant. “I thought my Divine Serpent had taken care of you, or at least that’s what I was told. Competent help nowadays is difficult to find.”

  “To be fair, the thing was dead and we were both missing. What did you expect, that we were conveniently eaten at the same time? You really aren’t invested in us enough,” joked Artyom.

  “My attention is spent on more important matters,” replied the voice, beginning to sound irritable. “A mortal such as yourself would not understand such matters of divinity.”

  “I understand enough to know that you aren’t even the real goddess of these people,” Artyom shot back. “And handling the jobs of the entire old pantheon has proved too much for you.”

  He was met with silence.

  “Hit a sore spot, have I?” asked Artyom with a cocked eyebrow. “You’ve done quite a number to this World, honestly. You showed up one day 600 years ago and dumbed down everyone while erasing all traces of the old deities and usurping their positions.”

  Still no response from the glow, but it did begin to slowly vibrate as if it were holding in a seething anger. Artyom only continued, hoping to goad the goddess into revealing additional details of her long-term plan.

  “The hero you brought over to this World is from Earth, and is living the most generic and stereotypical isekai harem fantasy imaginable, and anyone who tries to get in the way of it gets axed, except Neitra here.”

  “She was useful to my plans and did not intervene much,” replied the goddess. “Thus I did not deem her life forfeit, unlike yours.”

  “But you still tried to kill us both in the cathedral,” interjected Neitra, beginning to grow incensed. “Why?!”

  “It was merely convenient,” was the terse reply she received.

  Neitra began to walk towards the glow with her daggers pulled, but Artyom laid a calming hand on her shoulder. He looked over to her with a steadfast gaze that got across his thoughts. She nodded back and lowered her blades, but not her guard.

  “Really, it’s like you got the idea on what makes a good adventure from a trashy light novel, and the only reason Tommy’s bought it so far is because he’s still a kid who’s never read any to begin with!”

  “It. Serves. My. Purposes,” replied the light, slowly spitting out each venom-dripped syllable.

  Artyom frowned as he continued his exposition. If he could inch out any sort of detail from his enemy, he would score a massive victory in the upcoming war against her. And to do that, he needed to provoke a reaction out of her. “Even though your priests tout you as the ‘Goddess of Order’, you seem to be really bad at dealing with a little bit of chaos, what with resorting to murder or fast forwarding your entire story to the end.”

  The light grew bright and boomed out its voice in indignation. “My work extends beyond the matters of this plane! Beyond you mortals and weak divines!”

  Wait, beyond this plane? From the talks of planes he had with the nature spirit outside of Crystal Kobold Crossing and Yama, there were other planes for the home of the divines, the resting place of the dead, and other such cosmic purposes. But that’s not what she was talking about, since Yama said that her direct meddling didn’t extend that far. Artyom’s eyes lit up in realization.

  “Not other planes, other Worlds! You really are the same Allivaine that summoned those kids back there! You’re the same goddess that King Reggie probably got his summoning ritual from. But how did you bring Tommy over here without a portal?”

  “That was you?!” screamed the goddess as the light flared into a near-blinding nova. It quickly settled and the voice continued in a calmer tone. “You and your friends are more meddlesome than I thought. But at least you are not all clever. None of you understand all of the aspects and capabilities of the Runes, how to utilize them to their fullest extent and make use of certain… loopholes.”

  Artyom smiled internally. He didn’t want to give away that he was the one who’d gained the most from this exchange. The goddess was indeed multiversal, and was summoning Earthers in more than one World. He was happy to obtain this knowledge, but fearful of its implications. While he’d gained more details here than he’d hoped for, he still continued the impromptu interrogation-by-forced-monologuing.

  “You might think you’re so smart to have figured out these secrets of the Runes, but I really don’t see how that’s the case, with how shitty your plan with Tommy is. You’re definitely not trying to groom him to be some kind of servant with how little he’s actually learning from each fight, and you don’t seem all that invested with the story you’ve written for him.”

  “Stories aren’t my specialty,” the light replied. “But you wish to know my goal for the boy? Simply put, it is to bring him here!”

  The ominous statement sent a wave of chills down Artyom’s spine. The sensation was interrupted when his phone rang, and he quickly picked it up to hear the sound of a worried Prithvi.

  “Artyom, we’ve lost track of Tommy. The teleport crystal dropped him off right outside of the Dark Lord’s castle in the courtyard, and he went inside. Squad Charlie’s confirmed that the Dark Lord is dead, but Tommy and this party are nowhere to be seen.”

  Before Artyom could respond, several sets of footsteps reverberated on the stone tiles behind him. He and Neitra quickly turned around to face a very familiar sight. It appeared that he was the one who’d been played, and that the goddess was just stalling for time.

  “Artyom? Neitra?” asked Tommy, a dumbfounded look plastered on his face. He wore a silvery white armor covered in gray speckles, trimmed with bright gold bands. The only part of his armor that seemed to be missing was one of the shoulder pads, though it didn’t detract from the gravitas of his presence. He was surrounded on all sides by the rest of his party, his battle harem, the goddess’ servants. “What are you two doing here?”

  “Hey, Prithvi,” said Artyom into his phone in a soft whisper, forcing himself to keep his heart rate from skyrocketing. “I found him. He’s here in the chapel with me alongside the rest of his party. Send everyone, and the eye. By God, we’re going to fucking need it.”

  “Oh, we don’t need interruptions,” said Xerica in a sensual tone, a wry, sultry smile spread across face. With a snap of her fingers, the stained-glass windows surrounding the chapel began to tint orange, the heat from the flames outside warming the room to a sweltering climate. Artyom was worried that the fire would trigger the explosives he’d planted the day before, but fear soon turned to confusion as the roof and the RDX packets stayed intact. As he looked out the door behind Tommy and his entourage, he could see a ring of fire that surrounded the chapel from several hundred feet away that raised equally high into the air. The grass around it was singed, and Artyom knew that staying near it for too long could give anyone a heatstroke, if it didn’t burn them outright.

  “Prithvi, Michaels, anyone? Where are you?” asked Artyom into the phone, but all he could hear back was static. He sighed with narrowed eyes and hung up, realizing that he was cut off from his friends once again.

  “Wait a minute,” said Tommy, shaking his head as if to snap out of an illusion. “You two disappeared after I got the Goddess’ sword, and all of the priests at the cathedral were dead! Everyone says that you killed them! That you’re a spy for the Dark Lord!” He hesitantly lifted his sword and pointed it at Artyom.

  “Wait,” replied the accused, putting his hands firmly in the air while suppressing any tremors. “I’m unarmed, and I did not kill those priests. That fucking giant snake did. If I were evil or a murderer who only joined up to stop you, then why is Neitra with me? If I were supposedly evil, then I would’ve killed her too!”

  “It’s true, Tommy!” exclaimed Neitra, sheathing her daggers. “He’s not evil! The priests summoned that giant snake for the goddess and it killed everyone there, and it almost killed us! It’s the goddess who’s evil! Just give us a chance to explain everything that happened! Like how the rest of the party isn’t real, and that the goddess kicked out and took over another group of gods and goddesses! Artyom found out the truth and can show you proof if you listen to him, like he did with me.”

  Tommy’s face was flushed with fear and hesitation. His sword hand wobbled as he decided what he would do, who he would believe. Eventually, he sighed and lowered the outstretched weapon. “Alright, I’ll listen to what you have to say, but-”

  Before he could complete his sentence, Xerica launched a white-hot orb of fire straight at Artyom. He quickly tilted his head to the side with gritted teeth to avoid the attack, but still felt the hairs on his head singe at the tremendous heat it gave off.

  “Xerica, what are you doing? Let’s hear him out!” pleaded Tommy. But like with Mahmood during his second visit to Crystal Kobold Crossing, the women ignored him and jumped to action.

  “It looks like you got what you wanted with the Dark Lord, Neitra. So now let’s take care of the next part of the mission!” shouted Artyom as he adopted a combat stance and his companion pulled her dagger back out of its sheath.

  Artyom unconsciously began to take deep breaths before the battle actually began. He’d read TOAL’s reports on their run in with Alpha Squad, and how they’d manhandled their heavy infantry without a single wound to show for it. Mithril and anti-magic bullets did nothing. Even if he was in an advantageous position this time around, his most primal instincts screamed at him to avoid fighting them at all costs.

  But it didn’t look like Artyom had much of a choice. Looking at his additional gear, he channeled the magical energy within them into his body, replacing his previously cast personal combat spells with even more powerful variations. Sonic Waverider with Photonic Pathfinder and D-U Dermal Armor with a more potent variant, Osmium Body, which made him match the consistency of the densest metal element in the world. Artyom’s body shone as a gleaming silvery steel for an instant as new magics flooded through his skin and into his bones. He knew what he was up against, and dared not take even a single risk. For the sake of his life and his friends’, he was willing to go all out on his mere approach to the entrance of hell.

  “Wait, everyone!” shouted Tommy, outstretching his free arm to pause the rest of his party.

  And they did. Xerica turned around and slowly walked over to him, putting her hand on his cheek while gazing into his eyes. “Tommy, do you love us? Do you love me?”

  “I, uh… yeah. I love you,” he replied after a short-lived stutter.

  “Then please,” whispered Xerica as her eyes grew soft. “Let us do this.”

  Tommy remained silent as she turned around and threw out another fireball. The duo was once again able to jump out of the way, much to her displeasure. Tommy didn’t see the look of utter disdain on her face as she and the rest of the ladies marched towards the two interlopers, death in their eyes.

  “I’ll go for the Spymaster, you try and get Tommy! Hit them if they get in the way with everything you’ve got!” shouted Artyom as the two ran into action.

  Lensa replied by beginning to chant a prayer as she held up her staff. The gemstones embedded into its head began to glow white, as the same light began to form around the rest of the battle harem before diffusing into the air. While the Kill Team’s prayers brought them a defensive shielding, it seemed that Lensa’s chants only worked to strengthen the others, their muscles seemingly writhing and expanding underneath their skin and pupils widening. Still, that only meant they should still be just as vulnerable to attacks.

  As Daisy drew a pair of serrated machetes she switched out her cleavers for and Ecole threw her poisoned daggers, Artyom triggered the smokescreen spell scrolls placed on the ceiling. A thick black smoke descended on the chapel, coating the air in a severely opaque cloud that blinded everyone inside. Prescient of the sudden change, Neitra acted quickly to dodge Ecole’s daggers and make her way through the impenetrable haze to her first target.

  Just like during their fight with the Dark Lord’s kill team, Neitra realized that she and Artyom wouldn’t be able to get anywhere while the enemy cleric was still active. Lensa’s enhancements would easily let the others tag her and Artyom if they had to contend with the additional weight of a pair of people, so Neitra had to act. Thus she decided to go after their most vulnerable supporting member before trying to grab Tommy. Neitra quickly juked past the two bruisers in front as they were distracted by the smokescreen, and plunged her dagger towards her target.

  A scream erupted from the middle of the building where Neitra stood, prompting a series of scrambling footsteps. While Artyom couldn’t make out exactly what had happened, he hoped for the best while taking care of his own task. Caught in the chaos, the Spymaster didn’t expect to be attacked himself, and doubled over into Artyom’s shoulder as he received a heavy fist into the gut. He might’ve had some broken bones, but he was very much alive and conscious. While he turned around to make his retreat, Daisy was upon him thanks to the loud gasp the Spymaster let out as he collapsed.

  Artyom reacted with a roaring punch right into her nose. If bullets couldn’t do anything to her skin, maybe a combination of his penultimate spells channeled through a ferocious attack would at least break her nose cartilage? He thought to himself how smug she would look after her having her nose broken, and sneered once he made contact.

  It wasn’t a look of schadenfreude, however. Artyom reeled back several feet while shaking his hand in pain, the enchanted extremity ringing after making contact with the inviolable surface of her facade, which remained utterly unblemished. The Spymaster scrambled away as he was forcefully dropped to the ground, choking back fearful tears all the while. Daisy’s smug face remained, visible through the smoke as if she could see Artyom’s reaction. A moment later, Neitra appeared beside her companion, clutching her side with her left arm.

  “I tried to stab Lensa, but your super dagger didn’t even go through her skin!” she exclaimed with a grimace. “I even put all of my Skills behind it, and still nothing! All I got was a smack on my side, I think she cracked a rib.”

  “Shit, they weren’t supposed to be this strong,” lamented Artyom with an angry tone. “I’m sorry for thinking we could take them.”

  “It’s alright, I have another Skill that’ll let me fight through the pain as if it weren’t there.” She looked at Artyom with fearful eyes. “But I think it’s time to use our secret weapon.”

  “Secret… right.” Artyom nodded as the duo took several silent steps back as he reached for the mahogany staff in his bag.

  Before he could take it out, however, a wave of magic conjured a powerful gust of wind that blew all of the smoke out of the chapel. Within seconds, the air was clear once again and the sirens delivered death glares at the two.

  “So that’s how it is, then?” asked Artyom, raising his voice so all present could hear. “Unlike the winged serpent, you four don’t actually have an obviously exploitable weakness.” With the air cleared, they would see him if he reached for the Yamastra and be on him in an instant. If he could stall for time, he’d be able to slowly extricate it from his bag, hopefully without drawing their attention to it.

  To his relief, the four women stopped in their tracks and replied, Daisy first. “Of course, that’s why we’re with Tommy! We’re invincible, and neither you nor your friends could do anything to hurt us! The goddess’ wrath is nothing compared to us!”

  The other three looked at her with judgemental eyes as she gloated, silently telling her to shut up, worried that she was giving too much away.

  “Well that explains everything then,” replied Artyom, slowly moving his hand towards the staff. “We already know you’re also the goddess’ creations. In fact, you’re pretty much her personal attendants by the looks of things, and you’ve been tasked by her to ‘watch over’ Tommy. Fatewatchers. That’s what you are. Same as Lyseris, who was just as durable as you four.”

  Their eyes went wide as they stared at Artyom. He looked at them back in confusion, not believing that the revelation was anything extraordinary. They’d revealed themselves as being anything but human with their abilities and hastily put together history, they shouldn’t have been too surprised at him putting the pieces together now. But their hesitation was soon replaced with anger, as they stepped forward as one, ready to end them.

  “You’re the ones who killed our sister! Now you pay!” spat the normally quiet Lensa. Spite and sadism dripped from her lips, she was going to make them suffer.

  “Oh,” thought Artyom to himself through a gulp of air. “That’s why they’re so pissed.”

  Artyom, realizing that he wouldn’t be able to stall for any longer, quickly reached for the Yamastra and pulled it from its hiding place. Remembering the activation chant, he began to mumble the words together into a mostly coherent chain of syllables.

  The sirens’ eyes widened again, so much so this time that Artyom thought they would pop out of their heads if they were any more surprised. But their comedic reaction didn’t detract from the truth of the matter; they recognized the weapon in his hands and saw it as a threat.

  Before he could react, a pair of ranged attacks flew towards him in perfect synchronization. Fire and steel whizzed through the air and nearly struck him, and he was barely able to get out of the way, just in time for the hilt of Daisy’s machete to strike his hand and send the staff flying backwards. How had she done that? Daisy was so far away from Artyom just an instant ago and he was still under the effects of Photonic Pathfinder, he should’ve seen her!

  Neitra jumped into a sprint to grab at the Yamastra, but was kicked in the back as she found a grip on the weapon. She screamed in pain as her injury was made worse, letting the staff fall to the floor once more. Neitra fell to the ground alongside it and rolled to her knees, ready to get back up. But what met her was Daisy, who’d already closed the distance between her and Artyom in the blink of an eye, holding one of the heavy wooden pews above her head with a maniacal grin on her face.

  “I’m going to enjoy squishing you like a bug!” let out the blonde femme fatale in a drawn out whisper as she licked her lips. “You don’t know how long I’ve been waiting for this.”

  Even with Photonic Pathfinder active, Artyom took too long to comprehend what had happened. He didn’t even see Daisy move past him like that, she must’ve been supersonic at the very least! Was she covering up her true strength this entire time, even against Mahmood? Were they all? Before he could react, something else interrupted Daisy’s assault.

  “Stop!” shouted Tommy, holding out his sword arm and forcing confidence and authority into his voice. “Neitra is our friend! You will not kill her!”

  “Just stand back, Tommy,” replied Daisy lackadaisically. “She’s been nothing but a bother, it’s about time she left the team, permanently.”

  “No!” he shouted again, much more resolute. “I know you’re better than that! She’s helped us out so much and you don’t even want to listen to her?! If you do it, I’ll hate you! I’ll never want anything to do with you again! I’ll dissolve the party and kick you all out!”

  Daisy froze in place, tilting her head to look into Tommy’s eyes, and then into those of her other teammates. They similarly looked unsure of themselves, and turned towards the still-present glow at the far end of the room for their answer.

  “Despite the numerous vitiations marring my experiment, I believe I have all of the information I need about the kind of ‘hero’ that is borne from such a casual and debauched lifestyle,” replied the goddess, the light pulsing with her voice. “If these are the kinds of soldiers I shall soon be facing, then I have not much to worry about. I can see how they tick, and how to take them apart. Your mission is complete, kill them all.”

  The concern on the womens’ faces melted away, along with their skin. Their arms began to grow feathers and fingers turned into claws, knees twisted around to bend backwards, and feet reformed into cloven hooves as fur the same color as their hair began to grow wildly along their bodies. All curves melted away with the metamorphosis, their sexual features dissolving into their new bestial forms. The transformation concluded with a pair of fangs forming in their mouths and eyes turning into slits. And in these new bodies, they looked very hungry.

  While the other humans in the room looked upon the Fatewatchers in horror, Artyom didn’t give them a chance to complete their transformation in peace. As soon as Daisy was halfway transformed, he shouted at Neitra to close her eyes and cover her ears, and channeled magic into the air towards the pew, triggering the flashbang attached underneath. Neitra did as she was told and was spared from the debilitating burst of light and sound. Daisy, on the other hand, was not so lucky.

  Light seared her eyes as they were still reshaping, the audio-visual assault forcing her to lose her balance and drop the pew in her hands with a harsh scream. Neitra seized the opportunity to grab the Yamastra and run to Artyom’s side while Daisy uselessly flailed at the air around her, trying to find her target.

  “Neitra,” started Artyom, the terror in his voice palpable. “Ignore the rest of them, let’s just grab the Spymaster and Tommy and let’s get out of this building. We can use the rest of the traps we primed to keep them distracted long enough, and maybe the Yamastra can destroy the barrier so we can get help, but we can’t use it with these four on our asses.”

  She nodded and looked back towards where the Spymaster was. Daisy began to recover and looked at the man as he took a step backwards.

  “Wait, what are you doing? The Goddess’ enemies are there!” he exclaimed, unable to hide the fear from his face. He had pulled aside one of the floor tiles to reveal a trapdoor, but had yet to actually open it.

  “The Goddess told us to kill everyone,” hissed the true Daisy. “Your job is complete, so you are no longer needed.”

  “Bu-But, the Goddess granted me the gift of knowledge! I was her chosen to help deliver her will onto the world! You can’t do this to me!”

  “And you’ve made ample use of Her gift, but now you have no more need for it. We have no use for you. You won’t be missed.” With a devilish grin, Daisy raised her claws at the Spymaster and slashed at his throat.

  “No! I’ll be the one to kill you, and your damned goddess!” shouted the Spymaster as he pulled out an ornate dagger coated with the same green poison Ecole was so fond of, and plunged it towards Daisy at the same time as her.

  The dagger dropped out of his hands before it moved so much as an inch, Daisy’s claws already having ripped out the man’s throat. Before it hit the ground, she caught the dagger out of the air and mindlessly licked the tip.

  “You really thought you were important?” Daisy sneered. “Even your so-called trump card here is nothing more than a playtoy to us. And you were nothing more than a playtoy to us as well. Oh, and it seems you’re broken. Goodbye.” She began to cackle as the Spymaster fell to the ground with a final tear in his eye, his entire life flashing before his eyes and being declared meaningless by the very ones he’d dedicated it to. His body fell limp to the ground, surrounded by a pool of blood as it hit the floor. Daisy leaned over his corpse and began lapping up the crimson liquid.

  “Alright, scratch that,” said Artyom in a strained voice as he watched the scene play out in front of him, trying not to puke out of either disgust or stress. “Just grab Tommy and let’s get the fuck out of here!”

  Neitra nodded as the two began to run towards the entrance. Neitra activated nearly every stealth Skill she had available to cloak herself from the Fatewatchers, but Artyom was only left with the assistance of a single party-wide Skill that simply wasn’t enough. After seeing the sheer speed the now-distracted Daisy was capable of when she wasn’t holding back, Artyom realized he couldn’t take any risks here and charged even more magic into Photonic Pathfinder, additionally focusing it into his mind and automatic reflexes as he began to run along the walls to take even more of everyone’s attention off of the magically cloaked Neitra.

  The first pair of sirens in his way were Lensa and Ecole. The first of which continued her chanting, granting the other what seemed to be additional strength and dexterity via the white glow over her eyes and throwing arm. Artyom knew that despite how quickly he was moving, he would still be an easy target for her, but wasn’t about to let that stop him.

  He channeled his magic into the tile below the two, triggering the explosive scroll that pushed them several inches into the air. It wasn’t enough to send them flying sky high, but it did force them to lose their balance, interrupting Lensa’s chanting and Ecole’s throw. The poisoned projectile went wide, and struck the wall several feet away from where Artyom was running along it. He continued by throwing a pair of spell grenades holding another smokescreen and flashbang at the duo, engulfing them in an enfeebling blast followed by a viscous, black cloud.

  Neitra made her way past the two as well thanks to the addition of Artyom’s distractions, albeit at a slower rate due to her own physical limitations, yet entirely unscathed mainly due to her stealth. She sighed in relief at how her theory that the goddess’ own System could be used against her agents continued to hold water.

  Eventually, the heroic duo reached the last obstacle that kept them from their target. At the chapel’s entrance stood Tommy, clasping his sword with two shaky hands as he stared into the slitted pupils of his once lover.

  “Xerica, what’s going on? Why are you doing this?!”

  “You don’t know how long I’ve been waiting for this!” hissed the red-furred creature as she took a slow, deliberate step towards Tommy. “Playing along with the Goddess’ plan for so long, spoiling you rotten and demeaning myself by giving you my body like some kind of sex toy… and now it’s all about to pay off as I finally get my long awaited vengeance!”

  “I thought you said you loved me!” shouted Tommy, taking another step back with tears forming in his eyes. He held the sword up higher. “I-I don’t want to hurt you!”

  “All part of the lie,” she hissed coldly. “And someone as weak as you could never hurt us! Our upcoming war with The Adversary will be an easy one…”

  A series of flashbangs went off underneath the pews near the two, forcing Tommy to fall back while still gripping his sword. Xerica was only distracted mildly, but it was enough for Artyom to rush in. From his previous attempt at punching Daisy, he realized that there would be no use in trying to harm any of the Fatewatchers. Instead, he quickly grabbed Tommy and dragged his limping body out of the chapel. Before Xerica could recover and go after them, an explosion below where she stood shook her balance and made her vulnerable for another flashbang. Reeling back further, Neitra shut the doors of the chapel and ran after the other two with the Yamastra in hand.

  As soon as Artyom saw she was far enough away from the building, he triggered the spell scrolls on the roof, which in turn detonated the RDX lining its sides. A massive explosion sent a reverberating shockwave throughout the courtyard, causing everyone to lose their balance. Neitra dropped the godly staff as she rushed away from the falling rubble. Thick slabs of stone fell into the chapel as the roof and walls collapsed, burying all within in a rockslide.

  Neitra slowly made her way towards Artyom and Tommy as the half-asian man set the Great Hero down. Tommy coughed twice as he Artyom helped him to his feet, using his sword as a crutch.

  “Wh-what just happened?” stuttered the boy from Earth. “Everyone, Xerica…”

  “I really hate to break it to you, but it looks like everything you knew was a lie,” carelessly replied Artyom. “Don’t worry, I know how it feels too. Trust me that it gets better.”

  “But what were they? And why did they try to kill me?! I thought they loved me! That isn’t them, isn’t it?”

  “Oh no, that is them. They’ve always been like that,” replied Artyom. “The goddess dragged you here from Earth because she had some kind of plan set up that needed you in it, and now that it’s apparently over, she’s trying to kill us all. Fairytale World my ass.”

  “It’s true,” replied Neitra. “They’ve been treating me terribly the entire time I was with you all, and Artyom says that they’ve always been incredibly strong and hiding it. If they wanted to, they probably could’ve killed the Dark Lord by themselves.”

  “I knew they were strong, but not this- wait, they were treating you terribly?” asked Tommy, breaking his previous train of thought. “Why didn’t you tell me? I would’ve asked them to cut it out!”

  “I thought you knew, they’d insult me and say awful things to me even around you. They even told me to leave the team plenty of times!”

  “What?! Really?” exclaimed the hero.

  “It was pretty obvious,” replied Artyom. “I mean, even I could see and I was just sitting on the sidelines most of the time.”

  “I-I thought they were just being playful, you know, like banter! I thought all women did it to each other!”

  “Buddy, it looks like you have a lot to learn about women, let alone people in general,” said Artyom with a sigh. But his expression slowly turned into a comforting smile as he placed a hand on Tommy’s shoulder. “Looks like the goddess and your childhood here really did a number on your social skills. But I’m sure you’ll have plenty of time to learn all of that once we get out of here.”

  Artyom grabbed his phone with his free hand and tried dialing the war room. “If what my friends have told me is true, then I doubt a couple of falling rocks will be enough to finish them off for good. Now that we’ve got some distance, it’s time to get all of us a group-wide emergency recall out of here!” Before he could start the call, however, Artyom noticed that there was an error message on his phone. The same one it gave him after the incident at the cathedral that separated him from the rest of TOAL.

  He and the others looked back towards the chapel in horror as the rubble began to shift, and out came the four Fatewatchers, feathers and fur covered in dust, and eyes filled with utter hatred. They bared their fangs as they looked onto their targets, ready to exact their long-awaited revenge.