The ground was shaking again, a constant reminder that something was going on below their feet. A few of the children, those few that had managed to survive the Nature Core’s enslavement, were wailing; their hands held tightly to the glowing necklaces that dangled from their necks, clinging to the very thing that had once been enough to save them. For all of their youth, they remembered that well.

They all remembered that.

Kala pulled her gaze away from the crying children, letting it rove over the crowd again. It was both bigger than she once had thought possible and smaller than she would have hoped. The weakest among them clustered themselves around the Guardian Statue, tucked away where they wouldn’t be underfoot. Meanwhile, the ones strong enough to help - and, fortunately, the [Little Guardian’s Totem] that each of them wore made that number higher than it might have otherwise been - were still working to bolster the Guildhall’s defenses. Slabs of stone and solid wood, each large and unwieldy enough that moving them required the concerted effort of many individuals, had turned the entrance into a veritable fortress of chokepoints and defensible locations.

The front hall, once nearly empty save for the gigantic columns that lined it from end to end, was now akin to a haphazard maze. Gone was the stark beauty of before, destroyed in favor of greater safety. Anything that walked on legs would be forced to take the long way through, following the pathway provided.

Of course, anything that didn’t walk on legs wouldn’t even notice; the vaulted ceiling meant that they could simply fly over, making their efforts useless against them. Regardless, it was something worth doing. Some protection was better than none, and each of the windows had already been boarded up to combat fliers as much as possible, with only thin slits in between the boards to allow lookouts to see.

“We’ve got a few more of those things out there!” one of those lookouts shouted, a young man who looked as if he was desperately trying to be brave. His voice shook terribly, breaking his fragile guise. Kala ignored that, pretending that she hadn’t noticed.

He was brave, even if he wasn’t fearless. It would be wrong to make him think otherwise. She walked over to take a look, patting his shoulder and giving him a nod. Peering outwards and above, Kala could see the fliers that had gathered in the air.

She inwardly sighed, checking over her arrows. They looked as strong as ever, even the weakest among them glowing transcendently, their tips enchanted with enough Earth Core mana to pierce all but the strongest of armor. The strongest among them could do more than that, fashioned almost entirely from metal and filled to the brim with powerful mana.

Yet, against the enemy above her, they were useless.

What could she do? Waste her arrows shooting at the group of tiny targets, when even a successful shot at that angle would mean the arrow would land far enough away that it was unrecoverable?

Her eyes moved towards the other threat in the area, one that could prove far more disastrous than the gathering monsters. It rested in the ruins of a nearby building down the street. One of the giant darkwood’s many roots. At any moment, it could pick itself up move again, with only dumb luck deciding whether it left peacefully or accidentally crushed them all.

Kala briefly entertained herself with the thoughts of it crushing the monsters instead, but knew that possibility was no more likely than anything else. Less likely, probably. The Guildhall was a much bigger target; it would be easy for the root to clip it in passing - individual monsters, not so much. She fought back another sigh.

“Thanks for letting me know, Lucas,” she said, hiding her frustration behind a mask of confidence. “Keep a lookout and tell me if they start to do anything different.”

The boy’s chest puffed up at the sound of his name, excited to know that a Seeker recognized him. She had just happened to hear it in passing, but Kala would let him have that little bit of happiness. There was no need to take it from him.

“Yes ma’am!” he responded, eagerly turning back around to keep watch.

The ground shook again in a series of tremors. It sounded closer than before, near enough that Kala thought she could hear the distinct cracking of stone. A few moments later, a building fell somewhere in the distance.

The lookout that manned the Guildhall’s uppermost balcony shouted, his words incomprehensible and gibbering, muffled by fear and distance.

“Kala!” Rowan called out, pointing towards it. A group of spear-wielding men stood around him, each in the midst of being directed to their assigned positions. He turned back and continued hastily pointing to various chokepoints.

He didn’t need to say anything else; Kala was already on her way. She vaulted past debris and clambered over piled barriers, moving with the speed of someone long accustomed to difficult terrain. It wasn’t long before she reached the balcony, climbing up a set of stairs and passing through a hallway.

The lookout stammered as she approached, trying to force words past an uncooperative throat. She gently pushed him aside, peering through the slit left beside the double-wide doors. The doors themselves were barred shut, a sturdy block of wood held across their length.

Her eyes widened, and she frantically worked to get the doors open again.

“Go,” she said to the terrified man, readying her bow and pulling an arrow free. “Find Rowan. Tell him that the tunnel is open. Tell him to prepare the defense. Tell him…”

She trailed off, steeling herself. Kala turned away from the man, looking back outside. The Guildhall, important and grandiose structure that it had been, was taller than most of the nearby buildings save the crop-towers themselves; she could easily see past the ring of structures that surrounded the Artisan’s district.

With her enhanced vision, Kala could easily see the horde of monsters pouring out of the tunnel’s exit, its mouth yawning wide like a great chasm. Hexablades walked with bladed limbs, bits of rotting flesh occasionally sloughing off their bones. Quadrupedal monsters bounded from the opening in great leaps, the elegance of their sleek shape belied by the rot between their teeth. Other monsters, ones that she hadn’t seen before, came out with them - each just as horrible as the last.

Then, finally, she saw the thing that had allowed them passage. It was as large as an Infernal Cyclops, and growing further with every second. Where other monsters might be defined by their form, this one was anything but. A multitude of hands seemed to thrust out every which way, each greedily pulling at the stone around it. Extended fingers swiped through solid rock in great and clawing grasps, their touch forcing it into something like thick mud or clay. That same clay was brought back towards the main body, hardened by another ability and adding to its mass.

Something was peeking out from a crack in the hardened shell, a bright glow that was hard to miss. Kala took aim, letting an arrow fly with a grunt of exertion. The arrow flew true, moving directly for the possible weakness. It never made it. The monster rose four giant arms; they liquified into a solid mass and hardened into a shield.

The shield shattered, but the monster remained whole - simply picking up the pieces again and forming them into a javelin. The hardened clay-like missile soared towards the Guildhall in a retaliatory flight. Luckily, it mostly missed its target, clipping off the edge of the roof and forcing the building to rumble. Bits of dust floated down, dislodged by the tremors.

“Tell him that our worst fears may have been realized.”

The children started crying louder, panic and fear beginning to run rampant.

Engulfed by shadow, I pulled myself up to the Lesser Core’s pedestal. Its horrible viridian glow washed over me, mixing with the oily black that I had become.

Looking at the pedestal from atop its surface, I noticed something strange; a small channel of black-water filled the inside of the pedestal, the Core held aloft just above it by ornate carvings of darkwood. Looking at the Core and the black-water underneath it, a sense of dread started to fill me; still, I pushed onwards. I was close. There was no use in faltering now. I tried to focus.

Rather than waste time searching for a reason for the strange design, I decided to take advantage of it instead. I cautiously brought myself directly atop the Coreless’ hand where it touched the Core, careful to keep both the Core and the black-water in between my body and any potential attack from below. I didn’t want to go out the way that the Coreless beside me had.

Another tremor came, causing the black-water below me to ripple and froth. A few drops flew towards me, only blocked by the Core’s sheer size. I shifted a little as my perch trembled in place, the green glow of the Lesser Core fading ever-so-slightly before it settled from the effects of the black-water’s touch; a little smaller, a little weaker than before.

Wreathed in darkness, I slowly leaned forward.

I carefully let go of the shadow-gem within my mouth, forcefully pulling myself back to reality.

[Clinging Grasp] and [Constriction] held me tight to the corpse-hand below me, letting my head swing down and my jaws open wide.

My dread grew, its sheer weight hitting me like a falling Coreless, crushing my ribs and tightening against my flesh.

The Core didn’t fit.

I was too small.

Another tremor started to shake the ground, a new wave of [FEAR] coming with it.

For the first time in a while, I heard Tiamat’s gloating thought-hisses pressing against my mind. With the growing [FEAR] provided by my connection to the Coreless of the many-nest through their [Little Guardian’s Totem]s, I could hardly even hear it.

It was just too loud, my mind-nest assaulted by thought-hiss after thought-hiss.

Still, I did hear one thing for certain, packaged into visions of my recent control over Tiamat’s brood.

[RETRIBUTION].

Almost immediately after, one of the [Little Guardian’s Totem]s lost its bearer. And then another. And then another, each screaming in [ANGUISH] and [PAIN].

My jaws opened wider, trying to wrap themselves around the Lesser Core before it was too late.

And yet, just like before, I was still too small.

It didn’t fit.

I looked down towards the black-water, now my only hope.