Chapter 303: What We Fear

The roar echoed across the ground in front of the Darkness Mirror, and Arthur stared. For one brief moment, he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

Vedas stood several meters away with King Maker resting on his shoulder. His golden armor was battered and he was breathing hard, but he was alive.

Arthur’s shoulders relaxed. "Vedas..."

The Goblin King grinned. "Found you."

Arthur laughed. "You’re really here."

"I could say the same thing," Vedas said, walking toward him.

Arthur looked around. "Where is everyone?"

Vedas shook his head. "I don’t know."

Before Arthur could answer, the Darkness Mirror pulsed behind them, and its black surface rippled. Arthur turned as the darkness spread outward, and for a moment he thought it was about to attack. Instead, it passed straight through them.

Vedas froze.

"Vedas?" Arthur said.

The Goblin King’s eyes widened. "Arthur..."

His voice faded, and the world disappeared around him.

...

When Vedas opened his eyes, Arthur was standing in front of him, or so he thought at first. Then he saw the blood. Arthur’s body lay motionless on the ground.

"No." Vedas ran forward and dropped beside him. "Arthur!"

Arthur didn’t move. Vedas grabbed his shoulders and shook him, and his hands began to tremble. "No."

The darkness closed in around him, and a cold presence filled the world.

He is dead.

Vedas shook his head. "No."

You weren’t strong enough.

"No."

You failed to protect him. This is what your weakness caused.

Vedas looked down at Arthur’s body, and his eyes burned. He clenched his teeth. Then something changed in his expression, and he slowly stood, his hand closing around King Maker.

"If Arthur were dead," he said, his voice trembling, "he’d be angry that I’m standing here crying." He raised his spear. "So get out of my head."

He charged, and King Maker struck the darkness. The entire illusion shattered.

...

When Mithra opened her eyes, she was running across a familiar battlefield toward someone ahead of her. She couldn’t see who it was, but she sprinted as fast as she could. "I’m coming!"

The figure fell, and Mithra reached out. "No!"

She arrived one second too late. The person was dead, and Mithra froze as her tails went still. She looked at her hands. She had been too slow again.

The scene repeated. She ran, and she was too late, and someone died. Again and again, every single time, she was one second too slow.

If you were faster, the darkness whispered, they would live.

Mithra lowered her head, and her hands tightened. Then she slowly raised her eyes. "Being afraid of being too slow," she said, stepping forward, "won’t make me any faster."

Her tails spread, and she moved, and the illusion shattered.

...

Sun opened his eyes and found his staff broken in his hands. He stared at it, then looked around. Everyone was hurt. Athena was down, Mithra couldn’t stand, and Kong was nowhere to be seen.

Sun tried to raise his weapon, and nothing happened. He tried again, and his hands shook. "What..."

You can’t protect them, the darkness whispered. You are powerless.

Sun’s expression tightened as he looked at his hands, and then, suddenly, he laughed. The darkness went quiet.

"So that’s what you’re going with?" Sun slowly picked up the broken staff and looked at the injured people around him. "Fine." He tightened his grip. "Then I’ll fight with this."

He charged, and the broken staff struck the darkness. The illusion shattered.

...

Kong opened his eyes, and nobody was there. There was no Sun, no Athena, no Arthur, and none of his companions, only an empty world. Kong stood very still, his little ears drooping, and he waited, but nothing happened.

He looked left, then right, and then he started walking. He searched behind rocks, around trees, and through empty ruins, and he climbed onto a broken wall to look out across the land, but there was no one. His face grew worried, and he squeaked, but nobody answered. He kept searching. He wasn’t looking for an enemy, and he wasn’t trying to escape. He was looking for someone, anyone.

Then a familiar figure appeared in the distance, and Kong froze. It was Sun.

Kong ran, and Sun turned. "Kong?"

Kong launched himself forward, and Sun caught him. The moment they touched, the illusion shattered.

...

Athy opened her eyes high above a battlefield, where she could see everything, every Beast, every attack, and every person below. But she couldn’t reach any of them. She dove, and she was too late as someone fell. She turned toward another person under attack, and she was too late again, then again, and again.

Athy screamed in frustration. "I can see them! But I can’t reach them!"

Seeing everything means nothing, the darkness whispered, if you cannot save everyone.

Athy froze and looked across the battlefield. There were too many people, too many attacks coming from too many directions. Then she realized she didn’t need to save everyone. She needed to choose.

She looked at one person, then another, and made her decision. She dove, and the illusion shattered.

...

When Melo opened her eyes, the world was beautiful, too beautiful. Moonlight covered everything, and her illusions spread across the landscape. Mithra was laughing, Luna was smiling, and Arthur stood nearby, and everyone was happy.

Melo smiled. Then she realized she could no longer tell what was real. She made another illusion, and it became real, and so did the next, until there were dozens of copies of everyone, Arthur, Luna, and Mithra, all of them talking and moving and reaching toward her.

Melo’s expression slowly changed as she stepped back. "No."

Her own power had become impossible to tell apart from reality.

What happens, the darkness whispered, when you can no longer tell who is real?

Melo looked at the countless illusions, then closed her eyes and deliberately let her power go. Everything disappeared, and the dream vanished as the illusion shattered.

...

When Eden opened her eyes, Arthur was walking away from her.

"Arthur?"

He didn’t stop, and she flew after him. "Arthur! Wait!"

He didn’t turn around, and the distance between them kept growing no matter how fast she flew. She followed him farther and farther, until she was alone in the dark, and her eyes filled with tears. "Arthur..."

He is leaving you, the darkness whispered.

Eden looked ahead at Arthur, still walking away, and she wiped her eyes and shook her head. "No."

She flew forward. The darkness tried to make the distance endless, and Arthur never turned, but Eden kept going, and eventually she understood. Arthur wasn’t actually leaving. The darkness was showing her what it would feel like to lose someone she had grown attached to.

Eden flew faster. "I’ll find you!"

The illusion shattered.

...

When Star opened its eyes, Arthur was hurt, and a massive attack was coming straight at him. Star bounced forward, the attack struck, and everything went white. Arthur screamed, and Star was gone.

Then the world reset. Arthur was hurt again, the attack came again, and Star jumped in front of him again. Over and over, the world reset, and every time, Star threw itself between Arthur and danger, and every time, Star disappeared.

Eventually, the tiny slime began to tremble. It was exhausted, and it could barely move, but Arthur was still there, and the attack was coming again.

The Darkness Mirror watched. Star didn’t understand the question the Mirror was asking. It didn’t understand fear, and it didn’t understand death. It understood only one thing. Protect Arthur.

Star moved, and the illusion shattered.

...

Arthur opened his eyes. He was back in front of the Darkness Mirror, and Vedas was there, and so was everyone else. Mithra was breathing hard, Sun sat on the ground looking exhausted with Kong pressed close beside him, and Athy hovered weakly in the air. Melo leaned against Luna, Eden floated at Arthur’s side, and Star bounced weakly near his foot.

Everyone was alive, and nobody spoke.

Arthur looked at Vedas, and Vedas looked back. Neither of them asked what the other had seen, because they didn’t need to. Something had changed, and they understood each other a little better now.

The Darkness Mirror’s surface rippled, and words appeared across it.

You feared loss.

The group went silent.

You feared weakness.

Sun slowly looked up.

You feared loneliness.

Kong moved closer to Sun, Mithra’s tails lowered, and Eden drifted nearer to Arthur.

But you continued.

The Darkness Mirror began to shine, and the ground trembled. The Miasma surrounding it began to move, but this time it wasn’t gathering. It was disappearing, not destroyed, but absorbed, as enormous currents of Miasma flowed into the black surface. The sky cleared, the purple fog vanished, and the ancient structures around them began to shake as cracks spread through the ground.

Athena looked around. "The entire region is collapsing!"

The Darkness Mirror rose into the air, and the other four Mirrors answered, fire, water, earth, and light, with Luna’s Mirror lifting out of her hands.

"Luna..." Arthur said.

She stared at her Mirror. Its light pulsed once, twice, and then faster, and her expression turned confused.

Arthur stepped toward her. "Do you know what’s..."

Luna shook her head. "No. This is new for me."

The five Mirrors began circling the group, faster and faster. Arthur raised Phanetium, and the hammer responded at once, its Light and Creation energy surging upward.

Vedas looked up at the Mirrors. "What are they doing?"

"I don’t know," Arthur said.

Another tremor shook the ground, and Sun nearly fell. "Can someone tell me we’re not about to die again?"

Mithra laughed nervously. "I don’t think anyone can promise that."

"That’s not reassuring!"

The Mirrors spun faster. A line of light shot between Fire and Water, then from Water to Earth, Earth to Light, Light to Darkness, and finally from Darkness back to Fire, until a gigantic geometric pattern hung above them.

Athena stared upward. "The Mirrors are creating something."

"What?" Mithra asked.

Athena shook her head. "I don’t know."

The pattern expanded, and the entire Everglades Secret Realm shook. Ancient towers collapsed in the distance, mountains cracked apart, and the last of the Miasma vanished from the sky.

Above them, the five Mirrors hung in perfect alignment, five powers and five authorities, five pieces of something none of them understood.

Arthur reached for Vedas. "Stay close!"

Vedas grabbed his arm. Sun grabbed Kong, Mithra held onto Melo, and Athena pulled Athy close. Luna reached up toward the Light Mirror, Eden flew to Arthur, and Star pressed against his leg.

The pattern above them flashed, and Arthur’s eyes widened. "Something’s happening."

The Mirrors erupted, and white light swallowed everything.