Chapter 17: Crystalia, the City of Blood

“FIRE!”

A stone wall quickly appeared before Nic as Arrows and magic rained down from the Rad-Town’s walls. The sounds of arrows harmlessly plinking off the stone and the constant explosions of different magics mixing together became a cacophony of sound that drowned out anyone else's voices.

“Everyone alright?” It took a minute for the chaos to die down, but once it did Rust looked between each of the three of them- checking for injuries.

Once they all confirmed that they were okay, Rust peaked his head out from the side of the rock only to have another blast of magic nearly hit him.

“Seems like the place doesn’t want visitors right now…”

“We’re not gonna just turn around, right?” Sarman looked to the dwarf as he hurriedly spoke. A hint of worry underlined his voice. His shoulders dropped in relief as Rust shook his head.

“I have a few things I need to talk with Crystal about myself, least of all the Verilo here with us.” Rust motioned to Nic. “If they aren’t going to just let us in, then we’ll have to make our way in forcefully.”

“Should we really do that?”

“Wouldn’t that make getting an audience with Crystal tougher?”

Aria and Nic were thinking along the same lines as they questioned if going in with a fight was really the right choice for them to make.

Rust agreed with them as he let out a heavy sigh.

“Let me see if I can reason with them one more time.”

Rust walked to the edge of the stone wall and put his hand out timidly. He waved it softly, trying to let the guards know that he came peacefully.

“Please! My companions and I mean no harm to the Rad-Town! We simply want to meet with your queen!” Rust shouted into the open air. His only hope would be that the guards on the wall heard him.

The wait dragged on. Five seconds. Ten.

The short time dragged into eternity.

Until it was cut short by Aria grabbing Rust by the collar- pulling him back to her.

The space his hand had just been occupying was quickly engulfed in crackling flames as a mixture of fire and lightning ran through the area, soon becoming an explosion as it hit the ground.

The force was enough to blow everyone away from the cover of the stone wall they had been behind.

Now in the open, another volley of arrows and magic was launched at the group.

“Looks like any form of diplomacy is out the window!” Sarman quickly launched to his feet, a flaming spear igniting in his hands.

The flames grew larger and larger as he lifted the spear behind his head. As he threw it forward and the flames left his hand, the front grew even bigger. It consumed all of the arrows shot at them, burning the wood to ash instantly. Even the magic being thrown against it was no match for the sheer force of progenitor magic that Sarman used.

Ignoring everything in its path, the spear soon found itself colliding with a relatively less populated area of the wall. The explosion wiped out a portion of the wall and set the nearby wooden parts on fire.

“We have an opening! Let’s get going!” Sarman quickly pulled up Aria and Rust as Nic quickly got to his feet.

They all ran, as fast as they could.

More arrows were loosed from either side.

A wall of stone appeared on the right, rising up to meet the arrows that came from that side; while on the life the arrows stopped midflight. A wall of compressed air blocked the projectiles on the left from reaching the group.

Aria and Rust stood on their respective sides, giving the entire group the chance to make it past the Rad-Town’s walls.

The hole that Sarman made was on the right side of the main gate. As the group clambered through burning wood, they soon found themselves in a destroyed stable. Broken gates showed that the horses that had been kept there when the spear hit the wall had escaped. Though what condition they were in was anyone’s guess.

“They’re through the wall! Sound the alarm! This is what we’ve been training for!” A male voice came from above them quickly followed by the tolling of a large bell. The bell tolled- once, then twice, then three times. With each toll another bell joined in, amplifying the sound.

Nic’s lungs were starting to burn as they rushed through burning hay and wood. Once they reached the entrance to the stable and burst through, fresh air quickly filled Nic’s lungs. The refreshing feel was cut very short by the Demi-Human waiting for them in the courtyard they found themselves in.

Two wings spread from her back, brown feathers still being ruffled by the wind, as she gently landed on the ground. Short black hair surrounded her face while eyes as red as rubies peered at the group. Light armor covered unkempt clothes as wind coalesced within one of her hands. The other held a small dagger in a reverse grip.

“You know… Blasting a hole in the wall of our city doesn’t seem like something people who just want to talk to the Queen would do.” Venom filled the words she whispered softly to the group.

“You!” Sarman realized far too late that the person in front of them had goaded one of them into acting rashly. It just so happened to have been Sarman that acted rashly. Sarman took a step forward, clearly about to begin fighting the demi-human when he was stopped by Rust.

“Is there a reason you don’t want us in the city?”

“Hmmm?” The Demi-Human tilted her head. “No? I just think that you’ll work just fine when it comes to taking the fall.” A sickly sweet smile splayed across lips dyed red with makeup.

Footsteps echoed around them as soldiers of different ages, sizes, and even races appeared behind the Demi-Human. They quickly encircled Rust, Sarman, Nic, and Aria. Swords were drawn and at the ready in the second it took for them to get into position.

“Wait-!”

Aria tried to call out to the guards but was cut off quickly by the Demi-Human.

“Kill them! They are the individuals we have been expecting to attack the city! Remember your training!”

“Got it, Commander Narissa. All soldiers! Attack!” Seemingly the one in charge of the new soldiers, a guy standing next to the Demi-Human, named Narissa, let out a triumphant battle cry.

It was the signal to the rest to begin the extermination of the enemies threatening their home.

Swords came flying from every direction forcing Nic, Aria, Sarman, and Rust to move separately from each other. Each one of them defended against the attackers through their own means.

Rust created stone pillars in front of each blade that came at him. Once they were stopped, the stone would shoot out from the pillar punching each soldier in the gut with enough force to send them flying back.

Flames burst to life around Sarman. The intense heat directly around him was enough to catch his attacker's clothes on fire.

Aria had the weakest defense. In one hand she held her sword in a defensive position, but due to her lack of training, she was quickly being overrun.

As for Nic, he found every attack familiar and was able to deflect or dodge them with an ease that unnerved him. The two swords flying towards his stomach passed through open air as Nic twisted out of range before countering with a strike of his own.

One of the swords clattered to the ground while the wielder of the other was shoved down by brute force.

Three completely fine people took their place. Their combined attacks moved through the air like it was molasses. It was like Nic was seeing things slower than they should be happening. Had his physical skills improved that much? Or were his opponents simply that slow?

Either way, Nic dodged two of the blades while parrying the third. With a quick flick of his wrist, his opponent's sword was in his other hand.

Dual wielding was not his strength, but at that moment in time, it was better than his single blade for defending.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Clanging range out from the small area as Nic began to parry more and more blades. Both arms of his swung in tight arcs that left no room for his opponents to react. Effortlessly, Nic began disarming his opponents left and right, leaving each one with wounds bad enough to force them out of the fight, but not bad enough to kill.

A dark shadow on the ground pulled Nic’s vision away from those around him.

It coiled around the area, seeping into the buildings nearby, and infecting the shadows cast by the burning stables. Its origin was the Demi-Human that seemingly was in charge.

No one else saw it. Nic wasn’t even sure if the one creating it could see it physically. There was simply too little of it condensed for a regular person to see it.

Irradiation could only be seen by everyone if there was enough of it condensed into a small enough area. The shadowy veins that ran through the area seemed to be just under that threshold.

“What are you-?!” Nic pushed past the soldiers surrounding him. He had to reach the Demi-Human before she unleashed whatever she was preparing. He raised the sword in his right hand to slash at her. He had to swing down. There was no chance of a peaceful solution.

They had passed a point of no return.

He swung down-

Nic’s entire body jerked as he tumbled to the ground.

Something cold and hard had grabbed Nic’s ankle. As he fell, he heard a sharp snap coming from below him.

Looking at his ankle, he saw bones clutching it. They gave off a small amount of Irradiation, though most of it was already being absorbed into Nic’s body.

“Raise the alarm to level 2! The intruders have begun an attack using Irradiation Monsters!” The Demi-Human yelled into the air, her voice loud enough to be heard far past the small area they were in.

The smile of a devil was splashed across her lips. In a single motion, the wings on her back unfurled and with one massive flap, she took off into the air.

Her trap had truly been sprung. Every detail had gone exactly as she wanted.

With her final shout, the entire city would believe that this was their fault.

“Uhhh… Nic?” Aria’s shaken voice forced Nic to look away from where the Demi-Human had flown off to.

The entire group was surrounded by skeletons clawing their way out of the ground. Black tendrils coiled around each of the limbs, giving them movement.

The Demi-Human calling them “Irradiation Monster” was very accurate.

Nic had never heard of skeletons, or any form of undead really, coming back from beyond to attack people. If there was anything that could cause that to happen, Irradiation was most likely it.

The skeletons quickly grabbed swords that had been dropped on the ground.

“Wait! Wait! WAAAIIITTTT!!!!!” Skeletons made of Irradiation were beholden to no one. The soldiers who had been on the same side as the Demi-Human was just as good of targets as the ones the soldiers had been fighting just seconds ago. In fact, since most of them were unarmed, they were the better targets.

Swords punched through the guts of multiple people as the skeletons mercilessly attacked anyone that got close.

A skeleton got close to Aria, but when she tried to swing her sword through it, the black tendrils kept the frame intact.

“NO!” Nic rushed to get up. He saw Aria’s strike. Normal attacks were seemingly useless against them.

If that was the case, then Nic’s own ability to absorb Irradiation was probably what had caused the hand that grabbed his ankle to fall apart after tripping him.

There was a chance that he was the only one able to hurt them with physical attacks.

“Oh no you don’t!” The commander of soldiers, the one that had blindly listened to the Demi-Human, was standing near Nic. As the latter tried to get up, the commander swung his sword at Nic’s neck.

It rebounded off of a slab of stone that appeared quicker than the swing.

“Kid, go!” Rust moved his hands ever so slightly. The movement forced four stone slabs to appear around the commander, trapping him inside.

Nic took the opportunity and ran. His sword rushed through the skeleton in front of Aria. As it did, the Irradiation keeping it together rushed into the crystal in the hilt of the sword.

With an unceremonious clacking sound, the remaining bones crumbled to the ground.

“You okay?!” Aria sighed in relief as the skeleton died. Nic grabbed her shoulder and pulled her in close. He only kept her in his grasp for a second before the sweltering heat beside them forced them apart. A skeleton that had been running at them burned to ash in front of their eyes.

“Don’t do that right now!” Sarman was standing there, blue flames wrapping around his hands.

Nic was not, in fact, the only one who could destroy the skeletons. That fact hurt him ever so slightly.

“Ahem, sorry. If you can burn the skeletons to ash, then we can work together to take them out for good.” Nic turned and motioned toward the ones that were attacking the Rad-Town’s soldiers. “You take the ones on the right and I’ll get the left.”

Sarman shook his head.

“I have to use extreme heat to burn them up. I’ll grab any stragglers away from others, but if I burn them while someone else is close by, I’ll probably hurt the soldiers as well.”

Nic realized why the flames were blue. Sarman normally used red or orange flames. Both were cold in terms of fire. Blue was much hotter than those.

Nic would still need to take care of the majority of the skeletons.

“Got it.”

They were monsters. Plain and simple.

Because of that, Nic already knew he could take care of them by himself.

He let go of Aria and ran at the skeletons.

With each one he passed, a single blow anywhere on their structure caused them to fall. Bones scattered across the ground, surrounding the soldiers of the Rad-Town as they looked at Nic with a mixture of horror and awe.

Blue flames caused bursts of heat. With each one, Nic knew that Sarman had taken care of a skeleton himself.

Taking out a few dozen skeletons didn’t take them that long. Each time they struck three down, another rose from the ground to take its place.

“Nic! Try striking the ground to stop them from appearing!” While the two of them had been taking out the skeletons, Aria had been doing her best to help the injured soldiers. Seeing the continuous creation of the skeletons, she had thought of the idea as a way to stop it.

Hearing it himself, Nic agreed. He could see the tapestry of Irradiation just below the ground the entire time. It was like a massive spiderweb sitting just below the ground. The largest concentration of Irradiation was at the spot where Narissa had been standing before.

Nic rushed over, slashing another two skeletons as he ran by.

The area she had been standing in was completely covered in stone.

Nic tapped the stone with his sword. There was no way he would be able to absorb the Irradiation through it or stab his sword into it with the sword shattering.

“Need some help?” Without making any noise, Rust was suddenly next to Nic.

“Can you move it to show the dirt beneath?” Nic was a bit unsure if the dwarf could do that since the entire area was one big stone slab.

“HA! Can I?” Rust laughed in Nic’s face. A stone pillar shot up from next to them. It had broken the stone slab, causing a fissure to run through the entire thing. “Of course, I can!” Rust knelt down and grabbed the newly formed edge of the stone and lifted it up.

It wasn’t a large opening. But Nic didn’t need it to be.

Just large enough to fit a sword.

Nic shoved his sword under the stone. The moment the tip touched the pool of Irradiation, it all came rushing into the jewel inlaid in the hilt.

Nic sheathed his sword and Rust dropped the stone slab.

No more skeletons appeared in their immediate vicinity. They were free of them for now.

On top of that, the Rad-Town soldiers were all either dead from the skeletons or still fairly injured. None of them were up for continuing to fight in their current state.

Of course, no one wanted to talk either.

Aria stood up in annoyance.

“Why are they being so stubborn!?”

“Well…” Nic shrugged.

“They’re probably all working with that Demi-Human,” Sarman said what Nic had been thinking. “I’ll be honest, I don’t think there is a single soul in this town’s defense force that we can trust.”

Rust believed in Crystal. He’d sworn on his own honor that she wouldn’t be behind this attack on them. Narissa had also said that she was going to use them as sacrificial pawns to take the fall.

“So they’re all traitors to this town? Every single one…?” Like Nic, Aria was having a hard time believing that every single person who was a part of the city's defense was a traitor to the city. But with how they were acting, it was hard to disprove that assumption.

“Nic…” Sarman touched one of the dead soldiers with his foot as he spoke up. “The way these guys fought-”

“You thought it was familiar too, right?” Nic finished off Sarman’s sentence for him. Nic had noticed it immediately. If Sarman had picked up on it as well.

“What’re you two talking ‘bout?” Rust and Aria both looked confused at the sudden turn in the conversation.

“You’re the one who trained with her. How long do you think it woulda taken for them to get to this level?”

“Hmmm… Considering they were all fighting with the same style, it would’ve been generalized group sessions so… three weeks? Give or take a few days.”

Three and a half weeks ago, Yuuki had disappeared from Sanum. Given that they had barged in through some stables, it wouldn’t be surprising if she had been transported here by horse. Given the speed they could go, five days for travel would put her arriving in Crystalia roughly three weeks ago.

Sarman understood this just as much as Nic.

Not only was Crystal here, but Yuuki most likely was as well.

And if Yuuki was here, they should have at least one ally in the city.

“Let’s just hope she hasn’t been attacked by that Demi-Human yet.” Sarman heaved a heavy breath before getting ready to move into the city proper.

“Wait… Are you saying that Yuuki is here as well?!” Aria was slow on the realization here, but once she realized what Sarman and Nic had been saying, she practically yelled it, earning a small chuckle from Sarman.

“Did you only just now realize it?” Sarman cheekily grinned at her.

Gong! Gong! Gong! Gong! Gong!

The bells that had rung earlier began to ring again, echoing throughout the city.

Screams rang out in unison, eerily timed with the bells. Nic looked to the skies and found multiple pillars of Irradiation rising into the sky.

“Shit.” Nic cursed under his breath before sprinting into the city.

The stables they had blasted through were situated in a small clearing on the right side of the main gate. The clearing was accessible through a street that connected the main road and a street on the right side of Crystalia. It didn’t take more than a glance to realize that the road stretched all the way to the left side of the city, most likely connecting to a third street on the opposite side of the city.

The nearest pillar of Irradiation was a bit down the street on the right. Sarman, Aria, and Rust followed Nic as he rushed towards it.

Turning the corner onto the street, Nic found himself facing a hellish site. In the center of the road was a small kid, the Irradiation pillar was gushing from every conceivable hole in his body.

Trying to reach him was a raccoon Demi-Human. He wore the same uniform as the people that had attacked them on orders of the bird woman. Other soldiers were guarding the two of them in a circular formation, defending from an onslaught of skeletons.

Sitting in the center of the circle, the little kid was reaching out to the Demi-Human. The amount of Irradiation pouring out of his body was still low enough that Nic wasn’t sure if the average person could see it yet.

“Don’t touch him!” Nic yelled at the Demi-Human with a warning. If the two touched, the Demi-Human would also become a starting point for the pillar. His voice seemingly shocked the Demi-Human as his head snapped towards Nic. The moment their eyes met, the man stammered out a reaction.

“Wh- Huh! Why. No, how? What are you three doing here!?” Nic didn’t recognize the Demi-Human, and a quick glance and two shaking heads told him that Aria and Sarman were in the same boat. Despite that, he seemed to know the three of them. Maybe he had been in Sanum at the time of the attack and had seen their faces then.

Regardless, Nic rushed forward, slashing through three skeletons as he ran by. The guards in the circle readied their own weapons to stop him, two of them even swung at him. Like the other soldiers, Nic had little trouble disarming them.

Two stone walls appearing out of nowhere forced the soldiers back. Rust had created a quick path through for the four of them, and once they were all within the circle, a massive stone bubble formed around them, blocking every soldier out.

“Sarman, can you create some light?” Aria spoke up in the darkness and was quickly followed by a fire forming out of thin air. The fire lit up all six people’s faces.

“What are you three doing here?!” The Demi-Human asked his question again, this time in a more hurried tone.

“Un…cle… It… hurts…” Hearing the young boy softly call out, the man quickly turned and was about to grab him when Nic stopped him by putting a sword in front of his face.

“Don’t. Let me help him first.”

“What? What is wrong with him!?”

Nic sighed as he walked around the child, looking at the ground. With the amount of Irradiation underneath the kid, there most likely was a link between them. As the Irradiation followed the link into the boy, soon it became too much for his body to handle, so it started being forced out of his body.

With Nic so close, he could already feel the floating Irradiation congregating around his skin. The sense of sickness that came with it flirted with his skin as it tried to invade his body.

Nic quickly found the connection point as he looked at the shadow of the boy’s body cast by the flame that Sarman was holding. Black tendrils flicked out of the kid's shadow, leaping to his body.

“Found it.” Nic grabbed his sword and tapped the point of it onto the kid’s shadow.

The connection between the Irradiation and the kid broke as it instead crawled up the blade of the sword and invaded the sword itself. In reality, it had willingly been sucked into the black jewel.

Nic kept the point of the blade on the kid's shadow for a few minutes until no more tendrils appeared. Looking around, the web of Irradiation in this area seemed to be gone as well. With that taken care of, all that was left was the Irradiation still in the boy and the air around them.

Nic placed his free hand on the small head. He could already feel the Irradiation trying to jump into his body. So he lowered his own magic and let it come in.

The sickness assaulted him from all angles, causing him to groan as he absorbed it. Once all of the Irradiation in the area was absorbed, he coated the sickness in his body with his own magic. His magic assaulted the sickness, breaking it down until it no longer affected him.

“Felix! Are you okay?” Nic opened his eyes as he heard the Demi-Human call out the kid's name. It was clear that he was free of Irradiation as soon as Nic saw him. Not only was the black pillar gone, but his face looked better than it had earlier.

“Uncle Cyril? It… doesn’t hurt anymore! What… What happened?” The kids felt around on his body as he spoke.

Nic saw Aria smiling a bit as she watched him.

“Who’s them?” Realizing that there were people around them, the kid, Felix, questioned about the ones he had never seen before.

“They’re… You remember Miss Knight from a far-off land, right?” The kid nodded. “These are her allies!”

The kid looked around before stopping at Nic.
“Her friends? You have a sword like Big Sis! Are you also a knight?” He pointed at the sword in Nic’s hand. “Are you here to help protect us from the bad guys?”

Nic froze.

“The bad guys, huh?” Sarman lethargically said the word himself. Between the two of them, Cyril quickly noticed that something was wrong. He wrapped a hand around Felix and hugged him close.

“What is it? What happened?”

“The bad guys! Hahahahaha!” Sarman burst out laughing. “Yea, the bad guys. Defeating them huh? Well, according to your bird friend, we’re the bad guys. Though she attacked us on sight. Didn’t even give us a chance to speak.”

“What…? No, Narissa wouldn’t do something that rash.” Cyril shook his head.

“That wasn’t all she did. As soon as we got past the wall, she sent a bunch of soldiers to kill us!” Aria spoke up this time, though she was much more light-hearted than Sarman despite the situation.

“Ah, she’s also the one responsible for the Irradiation and the skeletons.” Nic brought up the last point and the one that was sure to hit the hardest for Cyril, considering his nephew’s recent predicament.

“She… did all that… No. No no no. That’s not. I mean, I don’t have the best relationship with her or Tom… But to betray her highness? That’s too far!” Cyril shook as he tried to rationalize what he had heard. No matter how bad his relationship with the two other leaders of the city of Crystalia was, he couldn’t believe that they would betray it.

The sound of someone knocking on the outside of the stone dome forced them all to stop. The enclosure had made it seem like time had stopped and they had all of the time in the world to talk. Yet in reality, the city was still in shambles and Narissa was on the lookout for four of the six people in the dome.

Rust cast a glance at Nic, asking if he should lower the stone without speaking. Nic took out his sword, causing Aria to do the same and for Sarman to ignite another flame in his free hand.

With all three readied for whatever would come, the stone dome came sliding down. Standing in a familiar circular pattern were the guards that had once been defending Cyril and his Nephew from skeletons. Now they had turned in as all of the nearby skeletons had fallen apart once the web of Irradiation in the ground disappeared.

Standing just a bit behind one of them was Narissa. She smirked as she saw the people she was looking for appear before her.

Cyril also saw her and tried to take a step forward, only to be blocked by a spear being jabbed up against his throat.

“W-What…? Narissa…?” Cyril choked out the words.

“Tsk tsk tsk. Cyril, I knew you were losing it after you brought that outsider in, but now you are talking with the enemies of Crystalia?! I’m ashamed.” Narissa shrugged as she easily lumped Cyril in with the other four next to him.

“What?! That’s not what’s going on! You know I would never betray… this city…” Cyril tried to plead his innocence but faltered when he saw the grin on Narissa’s face. “You… They’re right, aren’t they? You’re the one who betrayed this city! Men, she should be the one you are going after!” Cyril looked at the soldiers all around him as he shouted. Two or three of them seemed confused and lowered their weapons. But that was only two or three of nearly fifteen soldiers.

The rest all seemed to be directly under Narissa’s thumb.

They were all traitors to the city.

“How…?” Cyril was dumbfounded as he took a step back. Felix clung tightly to his leg as Aria quickly moved in front of them.
“We shall bring about the dawn of a new world! And none of you have a place in it… Kill them!” A single order was said by Narissa.

That single order was the sign for the soldiers that followed Narissa to attack.

The few that had wavered earlier were the first to die. Struck down by the people that they had trained with for so long. They had been comrades, friends, and some maybe even beyond that. Yet they were cut down like it was nothing.

Once they were dead, the dozen other soldiers rushed towards the six primary targets they had. Nic was ready for the fight.

It never came.

Bright blue flames passed Nic, the heat causing him to instantly sweat, and washed over the soldiers. Some were lucky and died almost instantly as they burned to ash. But the rest screamed out in agonizing pain as they felt their bodies burn to the point that it was better to say that they were melting.

“Rust, make another room!”

“On it!” Another set of stone walls appeared this time a square structure that completely went up about ten feet, far higher than most people could get. Knowing they were up against someone with wings, Rust also created a roof, blocking the sun again.

“Here.” Sarman created two flames to illuminate the room.

They could all hear the sounds of someone banging against the stone repeatably. It didn’t take too long for more to join in.

“Is this gonna hold?” Cyril looked at the walls suspiciously.

“Don’t worry. Even if they manage to break one, these’re four slabs thick.” Rust admired his own handiwork as he made sure Cyril and Felix felt fine in the room.

“So, do you believe us now?” Nic sheathed his sword again. This time, he didn’t plan on taking it back out unless he really needed it.

“Uh… Mhm.” Cyril sheepishly nodded. He had been branded a traitor as well. There was nothing else but for him to believe them. “If Narissa has betrayed Crystalia, and brought a lot of our soldiers to her side as well, then Her Highness is in grave danger.”

“Her what now? Crystal?” Rust laughed off the title that his old friend had been given. Something about it was incredibly amusing to the dwarf, though he didn’t elaborate on what.

“That’s right.” Cyril nodded. “The truth is, Narissa came to this town with a partner. An ex-adventurer named Tom. More than likely, he is also a traitor. The thing is, he was meeting with her highness all day today. If he knows that Narissa has already begun their plans of betraying Crystalia, he might go after Her Highness.”

There was even the chance that he had already attacked.

Cyril didn’t say it but everyone, except Felix, understood the implication.

“Where would they be?” Nic spoke up. If they knew where the two of them would be, they could make their way there and find out what was going on themselves.

Bang bang bang bang bang bang bang bang.

The external banging on the stone echoed monotonously as they spoke. Before Cyril could answer Nic’s question, Sarman put his hand up to stop the conversation.

“We won’t need everyone there. Rust, can you open up a hole in the ceiling?”

“Huh? What are you planning on doing?”

“Oh?”

Aria asked out of concern about her friend’s well-being while Rust merely gave Sarman a questioning look before smiling.

“I’m gonna get rid of this banging.” Rust addressed Aria’s question before turning back to Rust. “So, can you make me an opening?”

“Sure! But why the roof? Just go through the wall.” Rust walked over to one of the spots where the banging was the loudest.

“Wait!” Cyril called out to Sarman. “Be careful, Narissa is contracted with a high-level spirit.”

“Hmpf! Is it a Spirit Progenitor?” Sarman grinned at the Demi-Human as he shook his head. “In that case, this will be a cakewalk. It’s time to show her what it means to cross Salamander.” The flames of Sarman’s Spirit King armor wrapped around his body as he walked towards Rust.

Rust tapped the wall and a doorway appeared. A soldier had been pounding on the stone in that exact spot and so fell in when the stone suddenly disappeared. He fell straight into Sarman’s chest with a small thud.

“Huh?” The soldier looked up and screamed. He had not been prepared to meet a Spirit King in this fight.

Sarman grabbed him by the neck before throwing him out of the hole- following close behind himself. Once he was out, the stone slab became whole again.

Sarman was now on his own, for the time being.

“Getting back to the question of a certain someone’s location,” Cyril spoke back up after seeing Sarman leave. “You saw the castle in the back of Crystalia as you came into the city, right?”

Aria, Nic, and Rust all nodded simultaneously.

“Good. They should be in the central tower, near the top.”

“Ah, hold on, let me look.” Rust stayed quiet for a second before exclaiming a soft ‘Aha’. “Got it. There seem to be some windows near the top as well. Though only one is facing towards us, though I think I see a balcony above it as well.”

Cyril looked Nic and Aria with a confused face. While he had just described the tower, they were in a barely lit room and couldn’t see it at all.

“He can see through stones.” Nic quickly explained the way that Rust spoke to Cyril.

“I see… Then yea, that should be it.”

“Hmmmm….” Rust crossed his arms as he thought for a minute. “I have an idea to get one of us up there.”

“An… Idea…?” Nic felt uneasy as he heard the tone in Rust’s voice and the slow panning of the dwarf’s head to him.

“Mhm. You’re the one going up. So step right here.” Rust walked over to a spot roughly in the center of the small room.

Nic slowly walked over, every step getting slower and slower until he was standing right in front of Rust, but not quite in the spot.

“Ah, that works fine.” Despite Nic not being in the exact spot, Rust simply shrugged and waved his hand at Nic. A new, much smaller, stone spear encapsulated Nic, cutting him off from the others.

“Hey! Hey! Rust! What’s the meaning?!” He thought he heard Rust responding, but the sound was too muffled for Nic to hear what was being said.

The ground beneath Nic started to move, throwing him off balance. He couldn’t tell exactly what was going on but he heard Aria’s muffled voice talking with Rust’s.

“Hey! Hey!” Nic pounded on the stone around him. A small hole opened, letting Nic hear Rust clearly again.

“‘lright, listen up. We’re gonna send you flying at the tower. You should land either in the small foyer outside of Crystal’s visitor room, or you will land in her own quarters above it. Once you have confirmed the safety of Crystal, you need to get her to jump out of the tower. Aria here will catch her. Then you jump. Once you have jumped, that will tell us that there is no one else coming out with you. Got it? Good.”

Rust rapidly fired a set of instructions, never stopping to make sure that Nic understood what he had to do. Once he was done the hole filled back up with stone before Nic could say anything.

The ball of stone became very jittery before suddenly shooting upwards. The force knocked Nic onto his back and kept him there as he, presumably, flew through the air in the stone ball.

After what felt like only a few mere seconds, the rock surrounding Nic disappeared and he found himself lying on a carpeted floor.

A quick look around while standing up told him that he had arrived at the tower. The gaping hole in the wall leading to open air was proof of that. In front of him was a set of doors that was flanked by two very confused guards.

“You two won’t just let me in to see your queen, will you?”

Nic had seen enough of Crystalia’s soldiers that day to know that he was asking for the impossible.

“Never! Alex, get the intruder!” The two guards drew the swords at their hips and rushed at Nic.

Like every other soldier Nic had foughten that day, the two guards used Yuuki’s fighting style, though it was much less polished. As a trainee of the style himself, Nic had no trouble evading their attacks and striking at their weakness. One of the guards, the one who had responded to Nic’s question, went down with a single punch to the back of his neck.

Seeing how quickly his fellow guard went down, the other one dropped his weapon and held his hands up in defeat.

“You’re smart, at least.” Nic walked past the man towards the set of doors. He could hear some talking in the next room, with one of the voices sounding familiar.

They most likely were preparing for Nic’s arrival with an ambush.

Nic reached his hand out to open the door but was stopped by a screech behind him.

“For the dawn of a new world!” The guard who had feigned surrender ran at Nic, his sword aimed to stab through Nic’s chest. Nic drew his own sword in the blink of an eye and swatted the guards away from him. With his chest open wide, Nic punched the guard hard enough to cause him to stumble backward. Not taking any chances of another attack, Nic burst into the room.

The first thing Nic noticed when he rushed into the room was the presence swinging a sword at him from behind. Nic threw his blade over his shoulder, stopping the blade by just a few cer.

When he turned around to see who had attacked him, Nic’s eyes widened in shock. Though she was using her left arm instead of her right, Nic wouldn’t mistake the purple eyes that were staring at him. Her long black hair was in disarray like she had just gotten through a lot of running.

“Yuuki?!”

“Nic?!”

The two yelled each other’s name at the same time.

In Nic’s case, he was simply glad to have found Yuuki. Even after assuming she was in the town based on how the soldiers fought, confirming she was there lightened his mood considerably. His heart jumped slightly as a smile formed on his lips.

Though it wasn’t all happiness as he looked at her. Worry crept into his smile as he looked at her limp right arm. The telltale black miasma of Irradiation was pouring out of it, though it seemed to be stopped by something foreign just below the shoulder.

As for Yuuki, he could see a variety of emotions pass through her face in rapid succession. At first, happiness beamed from her eyes, but it was overtaken by worry, fear, and pain in the blink of an eye. Finally, it settled on a confused happiness. It wouldn’t surprise Nic if she knew about the ‘attack’ on the city by foreigners.

Appearing in front of her like this was sure to compound some worrisome ideas.

“It’s good to see you again, Teacher.” Nic didn’t use her name. Even to Nic, it felt wrong. But if he positioned himself as someone who was on Yuuki’s side, even if only as her student, Nic hoped it would help lower the guard of those listening to them.

Nic lowered his blade before turning to the two other people in the room. One of them was half-sitting in an ornate chair. It was clear that she had moved to get up as soon as Nic had entered the room, but stopped once Yuuki and Nic crossed blades. She had eyes as red as rubies with long snow-white hair draped behind her. She was wearing a red dress that matched her eyes, though unlike the few that Nic had seen, this one looked formal while still looking like it could easily be moved around in.

For Nic, the most defining feature on her was her face. It wasn’t anywhere close to a one-to-one comparison, but he could see features of his father’s in her face. Though, it might have been better to say that his father had some of her features instead. In fact, Nic was sure that he also had some of her facial features.

He was her descendant, according to Rust and Aerial.

“You must be Crystal, correct? Leader of this Rad-Town?” Nic turned to the other person standing slightly behind Crystal. “And you would be Tom?”

It was plain to see that the burly man was confused. It was plastered over his bald face. The raccoon Demi-Human from before, Cyril, had mentioned that he was an ex-adventurer. Nic could totally see it. Muscles for the sake of lugging around the massive sword on his back. Clothes that looked like they had been dragged through the mud one too many times. Tattoos across the visible parts of the body.

But what Cyril had never seen, and Nic was sure the other two people in the room couldn’t see it either, was the third web of Irradiation running through the ground that Nic had seen that day. Like the first two, this one was focused on a person. And that person happened to be the ex-adventurer, Tom.

“Ah, yes. I’m the Blood Elf herself, Crystal Serilo. And you-”

“How do you know my name? Who did you beat it out of? The weak-willed fool Cyril?”

Crystal introduced herself, but when she was beginning to ask Nic to do the same, Tom cut her off with a self-defending question.

“Tom!” Crystal turned to admonish her subordinate.

“It’s alright. I heard it from Cyril yes, though I didn’t ‘beat it out of him’. He willingly told me to stop you once Narissa branded him a traitor for simply talking to me.”

Nic’s statement left the room dead quiet. Three pairs of eyes were glued onto him.

“Narissa… did what?!”

“Crystal, you know Cyril wouldn’t do something like that! He loves this city, why would he betray it?”

Crystal seemed dumbfounded and was questioning what one of her advisors had done while Yuuki immediately jumped to Cyril’s defense.

Given that Cyril had been able to recognize Nic, Sarman, and Aria before and Yuuki’s avid defense of him- it wasn’t hard for Nic to piece together that Cyril was likely the one to have brought Yuuki to the Rad-Town.

At the same time, Tom took this opportunity to advance his own goals.

“See! Cyril was a traitor. And as the one Cyril brought, this cat person is also a traitor! You heard him right?! He called her ‘teacher’! They are working together to assas-”

With each sentence, he took a step toward the throne. With each step, the net of Irradiation bubbled more and more. It was reaching for the Blood Elf herself. He continued to walk until his face smashed into an invisible wall just a few feet from Crystal. Sitting in the middle of the wall was a small green orb leisurely floating around.

“Huh?!”

“I needed you to stop moving.” Nic pointed his sword at Tom’s feet. “Just so you know, I see what’s below you. I won’t let you get any closer to her.”

The pleading look on Tom’s face turned to confusion as he was stopped, then anger as he realized what Nic was saying.

“What’s under my feet? There’s nothing under me! Whatever you think you’re seeing is delusional.” Tom tried to sweep Nic’s accusation under the rug. In an instant, he had gone from trying to throw Nic to the wolves to simply defending himself.

He tried too hard.

Tom ratted himself out with that defense.

“You know, I do think yours and Narissa’s plan would’ve probably gone off without a hitch if Narissa hadn’t unknowingly made one single mistake.” Nic grinned as he felt the glare of the ex-adventurer on him. “One of the people she chose to act as your fall guys… Well, I’m the descendant of the person you're trying to kill.”

“Descendant…” Tom looked between Nic and Crystal as the realization that the two did in fact look alike dawned on him.

“Isn’t that right, Crystal Verilo?”

“Hahaha… HAHAHAHA…. So you already know the truth?” Crystal burst out laughing, her speech coming out in bursts as she tried to hold it in. “Who told you? Rust?”

“Aerial.” Nic responded with a single name, a name which caused Crystal to stop laughing immediately. She eyed Nic suspiciously as Tom, fed up with the situation and not caring about familial relations, charged at Nic.

“Who cares if your family?! I’ll just kill you both!” Tom moved far too fast for Nic to dodge or block his attacks. He wouldn’t be able to move his sword up in time.

Yuuki might have stood a chance, but Nic wouldn’t.

So instead he pointed his sword at the adventurer's shadow. The connection point for the Irradiation. Tom sensed a threat from the sword and stopped his charge. He kept a good chunk of distance between the two of them while eyeing the sword.

“What’s that blade?”

“This one? Hey Yuuki, what does Sora make the blades out of?” Nic glanced over at his friend, who had been watching everything unfold quietly. Her eyes were full of anger as she stared at Tom herself.

“The blades? Nothing special, just some Iron and Steel. The gem’s what’s special with your blade, right?” Yuuki answered the question without turning away from Tom at all.

Nic admired her one-track mind when it came to situations like these. Even without the use of her dominant arm, she was ready to attack Tom if she needed to.

“Ah yes, the gem!” As Nic spoke, he pointed to the muddied dark gem in the hilt of the sword. “Here, let me show you what it does.”

Whenever the sword absorbed Irradiation, two things happened. First, the gem would lose its luster and become muddier the more Irradiation it absorbed. Second, Nic could feel the Irradiation through the hilt. The sickness he always felt was in his hands.

Because of that, Nic could always invite the Irradiation within the gem into his body.

A dark tendril of Irradiation snaked out of the gem and up Nic’s arm, where it then entered his body. As the sickly sensation spread, Nic’s magic quickly coated it and wiped it out as fast as it appeared.

When he was done, he held up the sword again to show a pristine, shining black gem inlaid in the sword's hilt.

“Did you just absorb Irradiation willingly?!”

Even if they were opponents, Tom yelled at the stupidity of the man in front of him. To a normal person, willingly absorbing Irradiation was simply a way of saying that you wanted to die.

“It’s fine. I can absorb much more than this and I’ll be just fine.” Nic readied his sword again, pointing it at his opponent. “I do believe it is time for me to stab that shadow of yours.”

“Hehehe… Not happening.” Tom raised a hand, free of his sword but Nic could see the Irradiation pouring off of it. He raised it above his head, ready to slam it down.

“Yuuki, immobilize him with your sword!”

His master didn’t respond.

All he heard was the clattering sound of a sword falling to the floor.

“You’re too late! You’ll always be too late! For the dawn of a new world!”

Nic looked over at his friend.

Yuuki was hunched over.

“Ugh… It… Hurts…”

She wasn’t being held up by her arms. Her legs had already collapsed beneath her.

So what was holding her up?

The black spike shot into her right shoulder from her shadow.

Nic had been so focused on the web of Irradiation only being tied to one person's shadow, that he had never even thought it could sit in two different people’s shadows at the same time.

Yuuki groaned in pain. Nic took a single step towards her.

But it was too late.

“AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!”

A guttural scream left Yuuki’s mouth as the pain got to her. The Irradiation inside of her body bellowed out of every hole it could find. Mouth, eyes, ears, nose, skin pores.

Yuuki was now a massive spiral of Irradiation.

Nic gripped his sword so hard his knuckles turned red.

“Wait! Stop! AHHHHHH!” Nic looked over towards the screaming Tom just as his head dropped to the ground. A red liquid hung in the air for a second before slicing through the rest of his body.

As it fell to the ground, Nic saw Crystal finally standing up.

She was pissed. The red liquid hanging in the air came from her hand. It wasn’t until it retracted into her hand that Crystal finally looked at Nic with worry in her eyes.

“Can you stop this?”

Nic looked at the vortex of Irradiation next to him. What Noah Verilo had written in his journal flashed in his mind. Rust and Aerial had said the same things.

“Aren’t you gonna say that I’m 200 years early?”

“I only told Aerial that I would wait for them to choose when the lock would be dropped. If he has chosen to break his 500-year absence two centuries early, well that works better for me anyways.”

Crystal had already pieced everything together. Nic smiled as he reached out toward the vortex.

Crystal was the first one to simply accept that he was able to absorb and purify Irradiation.