Chapter 87: The Heroes Reunite

Chapter 87: The Heroes Reunite

The heroes have been in the mansion for a while, so now a brief summary of their paths up to this point. Upon entering the mansion, Zeth and Sasha fell through a trap floor that dropped them into the lower levels, separating them from the other heroes. Zeth and Sasha moved through the lower levels while Kurt, Emily, and Joe traveled through the middle levels. In the lower levels, Sasha was knocked unconscious and abducted by Daykona’s ninja, Sheeth, separating her from Zeth. On the middle level, the other three heroes defeated the mansion’s butler, Walno, after which Emily was forced to split up from Kurt and Joe due to doors that only allowed a limited number of entrants. Back on the lower level, Sasha temporarily awakened her dark power and eliminated Sheeth along with other Daykona assistants, while Zeth continued searching for her and encountered the Shriekers. Zeth’s encounter with the Shriekers allowed Sasha to find him, reuniting them. Together, they then fought against a fraction of power belonging to the mysterious and evil Poleon. On the middle level, Emily continued alone and fought a group of knights with no bodies, while Kurt and Joe faced the strange Troll Queen and endured her Troll Quest. Elsewhere on the middle level, Kogen’s underling, Udana, infiltrated the mansion and defeated three of Daykona’s minions. Now, Zeth and Sasha must return to the middle level to reunite with the other heroes.

***

Back with Zeth and Sasha.

Zeth and Sasha reach a staircase leading upward.

“Hopefully these take us out of the lower levels,” Zeth says.

“Yeah,” Sasha replies, her voice hopeful. “We need to find the others as soon as we can.”

They begin running up the stairs. As they make their way up, flashes start appearing in Sasha’s mind, the same brief, one-second glimpses of what she did to the doctor, his assistants, and the guards that she saw while fighting the Shriekers.

She thinks with concern, “What are these memories that are showing up in my mind? Did I really do stuff like that to those people? No! I can’t focus on something that was probably just a dream! I have to keep my focus on what’s ahead of me!

They reach the top of the stairs and step back onto the main floor.

***

Meanwhile, with Emily.

Emily runs from room to room, searching for any sign of her friends. She looks worn down, as if she has been through even more fights since facing the knights.

“I can’t believe how expansive this mansion is!”

Eventually, she reaches a hallway and spots Zeth and Sasha farther down it. Relief washes over her face.

“Zeth! Sasha! Finally, somebody!”

“Emily!” Zeth and Sasha shout at the same time.

“Glad to see you’re okay,” Zeth says. “Where are Kurt and Joe?”

“We had to split up,” Emily replies. “Hopefully we can find them.”

She pauses, examining Zeth and Sasha’s appearances and notices their torn clothes and visible wounds.

“Jeez, you two look worse than I do right now. What happened?”

“It’s a long story,” Zeth and Sasha say at the same time.

“We can talk about it after we find Kurt and Joe,” Sasha adds.

“Right,” Emily agrees.

They continue through the mansion, searching room after room until they reach another set of stairs.

“I don’t think there’s much more left on this floor,” Emily says. “We might as well go up to the next one.”

“Alright then,” Zeth replies. “Let’s go.”

They head up the stairs to the next floor.

***

Daykona watches them through her crystal ball.

She talks to herself as her frustration grows. “Damn! They’ve all reached the next floor. This is getting bad. They’re progressing faster than I expected, and I still haven’t heard from Fisha’s group about a successful killing of Udana.”

She shifts the crystal ball’s focus and sees the bodies of Fisha, Grape, and Bano lying lifeless on the floor.

“No way!” she shouts. “This is getting out of hand! I didn’t want to do this… but it’s time I call in ‘it’. Aside from my close guards, ‘it’ is all that’s left to stop them.”

***

Now on the next floor, the heroes look around cautiously.

“It definitely feels spookier up here,” Zeth says. “I don’t like it.”

“It’s very unsettling,” Sasha agrees.

“Getting worse as it goes has been the theme of this mansion honestly,” Emily adds.

Soon, they reach a door that leads to a balcony outside. Sitting there are Kurt and Joe.

“Kurt! Joe!” Zeth, Sasha, and Emily shout as they rush over.

“Good,” Kurt says. “You three are here. We were just planning our move.”

“Okay, but before you tell us, we all need to explain what we’ve been through so we know what we’re dealing with.”

Everyone explains what happened to them, with particular concern over the threat posed by Poleon.

“Yes, that sounds very bad,” Kurt says. “But no matter what, we’re committed to helping you stop the Dark Goddess, Poleon, and any other threat to this world.”

He looks at Joe and Emily.

“Right?”

“Right,” they both reply.

Kurt continues. “If we don’t help save this world, there won’t be any world left to live in.”

“Thanks, guys,” Zeth says.

“And since I’m a divine being like you, I’ll certainly fight by your side to the end.” Sasha adds.

Zeth smiles.

“Okay,” Kurt says. “Now here’s the plan.”

He explains it to the group, though the details remain unheard.

Zeth pounds his fist into his other hand and grins confidently. “Oh yeah! That’s a great plan!”

The heroes have reunited and now have a plan to defeat Daykona! However, what is this “it” that Daykona spoke of?!

Chapter 87 END
To be Continued in Chapter 88: “It” Comes Calling

(Author's Note: "It" is a reference to Resident Evil 4. That game has a monster that the antagonist simply refers to as "it".)