I hissed in satisfaction as the remainder of the plant-flesh bad-thing’s corpse withered away into ash, mixing into the soil that had once allowed it to grow. Tendrils of [Mana Fire] continued to warm my scales, licking at the air around me; I pushed through the wall of blue, enjoying the sensation caused by my invulnerability to my own flames.

Across the room, my Coreless came out from behind the safety of the pillar, Will placing his mobile wall of ore-flesh onto his back again. They stepped gingerly around the occasional still-sizzling spots of acid, careful to avoid contact.

Past the crackles of my still-raging [Mana Fire], I could make out the sound of Needle’s grumbles; she picked her way across the room, rooting about on the floor to recover her lost need-fangs.

“Great,” she said, bending down to peer at the remains of one of the needle-fangs. I didn’t need to check her [Little Guardian’s Totem] to sense her frustration. Bits of acid still sizzled on what little remained of the once-dangerous needle-fang, causing nearly all but its ore-flesh tip to melt away. She reached around to tug off the skin-mouth at her back, shoving a hand into its depths before pulling free a white, square-shaped skin and wiping at the remains. What little remained of the shaft crumbled within her grasp, and she sighed again. “Looks like I’ll be down a few arrows for a while...”

“We’ll see if we can get some new ones fletched while we’re here. This is a guildhall for craftsmen and artisans; surely they have something that we can use for the shafts, though the fletching may be an issue,” Will responded.

Needle grunted back, seeming somewhat mollified as she gathered the rest of her damaged and otherwise lost needle-fangs.

I slithered from the warmth of [Mana Fire], my scale-flesh brushing over the ashen remains of my defeated enemy, and allowed the-female-who-was-not-Needle to pick me back up. Her fingers ran across my scale-flesh, brushing away flakes of dead bad-thing that had lodged themselves underneath the threads that fastened my skin of ore-flesh.

“Thanks, little guy,” she whispered, voice and [Little Guardian’s Totem] filled with both [pride] and [gratitude]. “You did a good job.”

Ash now removed, her fingers found their way towards my head-scales, and I accepted the show of adulation and devotion that it represented.

That it also felt rather nice was just a bonus.

To our side, the light shifted and darkwood clattered; the sudden noise was followed by Needle’s voice again. “We need to do something about this darkness if we’re going to be spending more time here. There should be a fireplace, braziers, or something like that around that are still in working condition. It hasn’t been that long, and this building seems to still be in relatively good shape.”

With quiet sounds of assent, my Coreless began to search about in the darkness, each surrounded by a small nimbus of mana-light that illuminated the area around them. The-female-who-was-not-Needle began to search as well, and I wound my way back up to her shoulder as she walked.

Soon enough, the room was lit in full; the Coreless had spread the light of [Mana Fire] throughout the area, casting our surroundings in wonderful blue light. The warmth was soothing, and the defeat of the darkness even more so.

I looked around, noticing the details that had hidden themselves in the now-defeated darkness. Mostly more carvings of fake-leaves and plant-flesh. They were everywhere, it seemed.

“Huh. They really liked plants,” the-female-who-was-not-Needle said.

“That they did, Valera,” the guiding Coreless answered. “That they did. Then again, I would have too if I was born here - I mean, easy access to as much food as you could want, with no real need to delve into the World Dungeon or outsource to other settlements? It sounds like a dream, almost.”

The-female-who-was-not-Needle answered. “I guess they finally woke up then, huh?” She shook her head, sighing. “It’s too bad. I wish that I could have seen it before the collapse. Even the ruins are beautiful.”

“It was definitely a sight to remember,” he replied.

In the corner of my vision, The Unrepentant One peeked his head into the darkness of a tunnel at the room’s edge. He pulled back and turned around a moment later.

“Good news: I’m not seeing any enemies. Bad news: it’s a narrow hallway so there won’t be anywhere to hide if there is.”

The guiding Coreless raised a hand. “I was just planning on hiding behind Erik again until the problem sorted itself out. It seemed to work last time. Why change a good thing?”

Will groaned, pulling his wall of ore-flesh free from its place on his back. He gave it a cursory inspection and rolled his shoulders. “If my shield gets destroyed by the end of this, you’re helping me fund a new one.”

“Erik!” the Coreless gasped. “Your friends' lives are worth a lot more than a chunk of metal. Also Doran’s, his life too, I guess.”

“Thanks,” The Unrepentant One responded, his voice dry.

The-female-who-was-not-Needle laughed, baring her teeth. It was a nice sound. I could tell that the other Coreless were trying to cheer her up somehow, their words and expressions not quite fitting with the emotions I could sense through our connection - though with The Unrepentant One, I was forced to guess. Still, even he was acting a little forced, a little fake. It was good. Effective.

Better than the [GUILT/GRIEF/HORROR] of before by far.

My Coreless moved towards the darkness of the tunnel ahead, Needle holding out another rod of darkwood for me with a quiet “Fire?”. I lit its edge, and the darkness pulled back. She was careful to hold it so that it wouldn’t ruin the others’ vision, staying closer to the back of the group. I could see the way that my Coreless held fast to their fangs of ore-flesh, fingers clenching and unclenching as if ready to fight at any moment.

Yet, despite the tension in the air, there didn’t seem to be any need for wariness.

It was silent, with a surprising lack of growing plant-flesh; my Coreless soon began to visibly relax, loosening the grips on their fangs of ore-flesh.

I found myself pulled along the nest’s many tunnels, moving this way and that as my Coreless picked through a number of rooms, each protected by its own moving-wall. We broke past the defenses easily.

Most of the rooms were in disarray, fake-pedestals knocked onto their sides and ore-flesh tools littering the ground. Whoever had lived here had left in a hurry, chased away by the growing strength of the Lesser Core. The Coreless gathered what discarded tools they could, bundling them together.

“There’s a surprising number of rooms here,” not-Needle eventually said, her voice low and [wistful]. “That’s good. It’ll give the people that we save a place to hole up more safely until the Nature Core has been captured. I’m sure that they’ll like being so close to the Guardian Statue, too. It feels nice.”

The other Coreless exchanged looks filled with [hesitance], as if trying to decide who should respond. Finally, the Unrepentant One spoke. “Just remember that we still have to find out if this will work, and even if it does we might not be able to save everyone.”

“I know that,” she replied, filled with [melancholy]. “But I’m not deluding myself or holding onto false hopes. I get that not everyone can be saved.” She winced, cheek twitching in remembered pain. “We already lost one. We’ll probably lose more.”

There was a pause, followed by a deep and shuddering breath. “But we’ll do everything that we can. That’s our job, right? And I believe in our Little Guardian. He can do this. He can help them.”

The baring of teeth that came after was somehow bright and agonized simultaneously. I let her scratch at my scale-flesh until the sharp-edged expression finally softened. It felt more weighty than usual, something different behind it.

The silence, at least, was just as heavy as it always was.

We pressed on.

Finally, we broke into a room far larger than the rest of the nest’s. When the-female-who-was-not-Needle saw the great boulders of stone and giant piles of darkwood that it held, she bared her teeth again.

They glinted in the light.

There was much less pain this time.