My shots weakened their torsos, the sonic energy breaking large chunks of red stone out of their bodies, allowing for Trig’s grenade to tear them to pieces—the explosion washing over them within seconds of my arrows striking true.
A burst of heat struck me as the explosion roared, the sound so strong I felt like my eardrums might pop. The explosion in such an enclosed area was excruciating and undoubtedly loud enough to alert everything in a mile radius.
“Let’s go, go, go!” I shouted, rushing forward, ignoring the noncombatants. The moment the attack began, they simply ceased moving entirely, perhaps hoping that they would not be seen as enemies. Their strategy worked, though if I had more time to react, I would have destroyed them anyway. But the fact was, I had no clue what stood beyond my field of vision and we needed to get to the core as soon as possible.
Trig followed after me, shouting something. I could scarcely hear him, for the ringing and pain in my ears were too great. I could feel a slight trickle down my sideburns, a familiar dampness that was thicker than simple water. My ears were bleeding on both sides from the explosion. An unexpected consequence. But hey, if I could grow a leg back, I could certainly regrow my eardrums. At least, so I hoped.
We ran past the debris of the shattered guards, making our way deeper into the cavern. At once, I realized why I had been unable to see past the guards. There was a wall before us, a smooth, black wall made out of some kind of material unfamiliar to me.
“Splosion…it…” Trig said, his words still fading in and out as I tried to puzzle out what he was saying. I assumed that he wanted to blow up this wall, but I had another idea. Raising my sonic bow, I fired a single shot into the black wall, watching as it cracked like glass, the long cracks running in all directions. With a sturdy kick, the entire crystal wall came tumbling down, changing color from black to red, revealing its true nature.
Trig muttered something in admiration of my instincts. At least, I assumed he was praising my instincts. But I was too busy focusing on what was in front of us to try and decipher his words.
There were seven other walls surrounding the room, in the shape of an octagon, each wall just as black as the one we had destroyed. In the center of this room was…the Titan’s Core! The large, white ball, radiating energy and pulsing like a heart, with my two arrows stuck inside of it.
Standing next to the white core was a tall gembeast. Its body was a mixture of both red and blue—both colors seemed to glow and push against each other, like they were fighting for dominance. This gembeast was more similar to the Overseer than the rest of the guards we had obliterated. I raised my bow to fire, but a voice quickly spoke in my head.
I would not strike at me. In doing so, you will release the Nursery Keeper from its bondage. It shall consume everything within the woods and move on to the next inhabited realm, the voice warned. It spoke almost like…almost like the Overseer.
I did not stop raising my bow, aiming it straight towards the gembeast. “Do you understand my words?” I asked.
If you mean to communicate with me, you merely need to think it. I have connected our minds, it said. Your language is beyond me.
I was tempted to just fire and move on. After all, the core was the link to the Shadow Titan’s survival. Why not just destroy them both as quickly as possible?
The great beast is above this cavern. Its vortex rests on this entire area. The moment it senses pain, it shall send every last inch of its shadow arms into this place and seize all living things, the Masara warned, either reading my mind or simply anticipating my plans. You will perish before you can kill the core. That much I can assure you.
You seem awful confident for someone who just got caught off-guard, I replied. You really think that we can’t destroy a core within a few measly seconds?
This bravado seemed to take the Masara aback. It began to vibrate a little, displeased with my mental tone, and took a half step back, raising its arms. You would doom yourself, just to kill your prey? I had assumed the human lifeform was intelligent.
We are. Intelligent enough to know the cost of two lives isn’t worth the survival of a lot more people. So you have a choice. You can surrender now, or better yet, aid us in killing this core, or you can die here with the Shadow Titan. I’m not much in the mood for games.
I don’t know if the word ‘games’ could actually translate well to the creature, but it seemed to understand my desires well enough.
If you kill me, you kill the Overseer, it said, taking a step in front of the core. Looks like it wanted to play interference, tactically placing its body in front of the Titan core. I’m sure if I pulled my bowstring back hard enough, I could take them both out at the same time.
Oh well, I replied, trying to call its bluff. But the gembeast did not move aside.
I am not speaking in falsehoods to you. You must know that I possess the Overseer’s memory shard. That links us together, intrinsically. For you to destroy me is to shatter the memory shard, turning their entire pod into husks, empty and devoid of all thought, it protested.
Then I guess I better let you live, I replied. And with that, I aimed my True Arrow above the gembeast and let the shot fly over the head of the supposed possessor of the memory shard. The True
