My vertical descent abruptly turns horizontal as we hit the bottom of the shaft. With a roar of rushing water, I’m ejected and sent skidding across a hard surface in the darkness. When I finally roll to a stop, I’m drenched and on all fours; confused in the darkness. I immediately check my HUD for everyone’s health bars and am thankful to see them all still in the green.

“Is everyone okay?” I call out regardless. “Mike?”

“I’m here,” my brother croaks out a reply.

Suddenly the entire place illuminates and I see we are in wide, low-ceiling cavern now filled with a half foot of water. I look for the source of the light and am surprised to see Gilly casting a light spell.

“Whoa, how did you do that?” I ask, but I answer my own question when I look at my HUD and see the Dark Auto debuff is now gone.

“We’re two hundred feet down,” Mr. Keith says, picking himself from of the floor with a grunt. “We’re probably out of the range of that orb.”

Val Helena rushes over to Maxis, kicking up water as she pulls him into an embrace. “You okay? I was going out of my mind.”

“Not gonna lie. That was hella scary,” Maxis says shaking his head. “Didn’t think I was ever going to find the bottom.”

Mr. Keith huffs out a laugh. “Are you kidding me. You’re a Shard Warrior. A bit of water’s not going to hurt the likes of you. Now come on. We need to get moving. We got down quick, but now we have to climb back up.”

We take the opportunity to fully buff ourselves before following Mr. Keith deeper into the mines. Aiko stays close behind him, using her night vision to peer into the darkness ahead while Gilly keeps the rest of us imbued with her light spell. The low-ceiling cavern leads to a series of smaller tunnels which Mr. Keith weaves through easily, like he’s taking a casual stroll through a park.

After a few minutes we arrive at a wide vertical shaft that has a series of wooden beams jutting out of the walls forming a scaffolding that stretches upwards. I get a strange sense of déjà vu as I enter. And then suddenly it hits me and I do a double take at my surroundings.

“Holy crap, guys,” I say, drawing everyone to a halt. “This is it…”

My friends all look at me expectantly and I quickly fill them in. “We’re here. The bottom of the shaft where I broke through to underside for the first time. This is the entrance. This is our way back to Citadel!”

“What?” Aiko says. “Are you sure?”

“Gilly, you built all this remember? Before we left last time.”

Gilly nods slowly as she looks about as well. “You’re right. Since we’ve lost control of the mines, I can’t bring up the details on my HUD anymore, but this is definitely the place.”

“What are you on about?” Mr. Keith asks.

“It’s crazy but…” I pause for a moment, unable to realize our luck. “We basically just by passed both the Goblin Queen and her army to get to where we were trying to get to in the first place. This is the entrance we need to access the old world. If we break through this floor, we’ll be in the crystal forest. From there we just need to use the coordinate we got from Lennux and we’ll be on our way back home. And once we get the nano to a working node, we can save everyone.”

Including my mom, I think to myself. After all this time and all I’ve been through, it’s almost unreal to think we’ve nearly come full circle in our journey. We’re nearly there.

As the same realization slowly hits everyone else, I see the mixture of elation and hope brighten my friends’ faces. But there in conflict there as well. We’ve basically done it. We can get home. But at the cost of many others who are already risking their lives on the battlefield above.

I see the confusion on Mr. Keith’s face and I place a hand on his shoulder. “Forget about it. We’re not leaving until we defeat the Goblin Queen and get your son back. That’s the priority now. You have my word.”

He eyes me dubiously for a moment, as if in doubt of my remarks and then he smirks. “We’ll see if you’re a man if you word yet, King Reece.”

Before I can say anything else, he turns and begins heading up the scaffolding.

* * *

We encounter the Dark Aura about three quarters the way up. Once we do, we backtrack a bit to rebuff and I cloak us with Shadow Wall. We pick up speed as we ascend the rest of the way, moving as fast as we can on the wooden scaffolding, careful to not make it creak as we clamber upwards. When we emerge at the top, I’m almost shocked to see the throne room again. It’s the place where I first defeated the Goblin Queen so many weeks ago, but now it’s completely empty.

I’m not complaining either. It’s a lot bigger than I recall and I realize that the Goblin Queen must have carved out more rock to accommodate her now massive height.

“It’s just there,” Mr. Keith says in the party chat and points to another shaft at the far end of the throne room.

When we get to the bottom it looks as wide as the shaft we just traversed, but there is no scaffolding here, just roughly hewn steps carved into the side of the rock.

“You best lead from here,” Mr. Keith says. “The balcony is right at the top.”

I give him a nod and check my buffs. I have four shadows to burn and am buffed as I’ll ever be. I take the lead up the steps, Val Helena and Maxis following close behind me. I feel my heart racing with both exertion and anxiety as I ascend. In less then a minute we reach the final spiral upwards and when we emerge into the sunlight of the open balcony, I have to pause in awe of what I see.

The Goblin Queen stands towering at the far end of the balcony, her massive back facing us. Even from where she stands about fifty feet away, I can smell the stench of the dozen or so blackened corpses dangling morbidly from her chainmail loincloth. It almost enough to make me gag, but I control myself and stifle the urge to retch from the horrific stench.

The plan has worked perfectly so far. We’ve encountered not a single goblin or troll on the way here and from my view atop the balcony I can see why. The battle rages on below us with the blare of a thousand voices and the occasional roar of cannon fire with what looks like the entire Goblin horde now deployed. I can barely even see our army in the distance with how far General Lyons has sounded the retreat. They’re pressed as far back as nearly the cannons. He’s risked it all to give us this opportunity and now it’s time to do our part.

I focus on our target, the pulsating green orb at the Goblin Queen’s feet.

Dark Zanthea’s Orb

Legendary Item

The resurrected Goblin Queen Zanthea used the souls of a hundred men to create this abomination of nature. While self-sustaining for a short period, it must be first imbued with magic to harness its power.

Effect: Dark Aura

Duration: 10 Minutes

“Aiko,” I say in the party chat. “The orb is all yours. Head for it as soon as we engage.”

“Got it,” she says.

I check the Shadow Wall Timer. We have mere seconds left.

“This is it guys,” I say, unsheathing my Zanbatō. “Go!”

I dash towards the towering figure of the Goblin Queen, feeling somewhat naked without my abilities of Sprint and Charge Strike to quickly close the gap. Still, I cover the distance as fast as I can, my legs pumping, praying that the Goblin Queen doesn’t somehow hear our footfalls amongst the horrendous din of battle.

I’m almost to her when Mr. Keith suddenly calls out from behind us.

“They’re here!”

I turn about, shocked to see Mr. Keith now visible, still at the top of the balcony entrance but now surrounded by a dozen or more female goblins in robes—the mages that control the trolls. More of them pour from out of the stairway, a hundred it has to be. I look for Gilly who was standing with him and see her now being man-handled and gagged by a goblin mage. I stop involuntarily at the sight of her fighting to get free from the much stronger goblin woman. My heart jumps for her safety, but without my abilities, I’m powerless to do anything about it at this distance.

Our Shadow Wall spell fizzles and Val Helena and Maxis appear beside me, all stopping as I did. Where did they all come from? I wonder. Did the Goblin Queen know we were making our way up here and had just waited to ambush us?

As my brain struggles to figure it all out, I notice something out of place.

Mr. Keith is surrounded by the goblin women the same as Gilly, but he’s not being restrained by them. In fact, he doesn’t seem surprised or shocked by any of this at all. The words he said echo back to me and a sickness enters the pit of my stomach as I realize when he shouted “they’re here” he wasn’t referring to the goblins, but to us.

I stare at Mr. Keith with incomprehension, searching for answers, but the old miner avoids my stare and looks up to the Goblin Queen instead.

“I’ve done my part, you horrid wench!” he shouts. “Now give me what you promised!”

The pieces slowly fall into place and I wonder now If I should have seen it sooner. Keith’s simple and convenient plan provided at the last minute. The easy access inside the mines and the zero-resistance getting up here. It was all just too easy, in hindsight. Plus Keith had never mentioned that ventilation shaft before now. Was it possible he helped construct it as part of the Goblin Queen’s trap? Perhaps even the use of the orb, forcing us onto this path to avoid it in the first place. The anger of betrayal heats my blood to a boiling point. He was never helping us.

He was sacrificing us.

But for what?

“What have you done?” I say, staring at him.

Mr. Keith finally looks at me and an intense scowl crosses his face as he stares me dead in the eye. “What have I done? This is all your doing, King Reece…”

The way he says my name; his hatred for me is so vile and palpable that it completely overshadows the present danger we’re now in. The old miner then lets out a scoff. “You Shard Warriors sicken me. Acting like the entire world revolves around you. Like it’s all a big game. You think just because you don’t believe saving my son is a priority that I’m to sit on my hands and wait for your royal blessing to do something?” He spits on the ground as if it’s some kind of curse that he’s putting on me. “I did what I had to do. What any father would do. I took action…when you refused.”

His words sink into my heart like a dagger.

The guilt I felt about not being able to do more to help his son rises to the surface as the reality of the situation hits me head on. I did cause this. I look to Gilly, still struggling with a blade now to her throat. She’d warned me. But I had to make a decision for the best outcome possible. For the greater good.

But was this finally the price I had to pay for it?

“You stupid, idiot!” Maxis shouts. “You just doomed your whole village…no...this whole world!”

Surprisingly Keith meets my brother’s harsh tone with a somber one. “Our village was doomed the moment you Shard Warriors showed up here. You’re the reason everything changed. If I can at least have my son back, then we’ll have a chance to restart somewhere else. Away from all of you.”

I’m taken aback for a second time.

I can understand his logic to a degree, but it’s not something I would expect anyone to think or even want. Perhaps that’s the real different between us and the NPCs. To us this is a battle to be fought and won. But to him, a normal person, perhaps fleeing to safety and finding peace was all that mattered.

Even if it meant making a deal with the devil.

Speaking of which, the Goblin Queen surprisingly hasn’t moved throughout any of this and instead looks bemused by my discomfort, sharp teeth on display in a wide grin. That thing shadowing over her mirrors the action. Or perhaps, more accurately, it’s the Queen that is mirroring its actions. I feel the intense stare from within the shadow…an Other. Powerful. Almost like the one I fought within the sphere, but this one is different, I sense.

But it hungers for me all the same.

A sudden motion blurs to my left and I glance over to see Aiko leaping towards the orb. My heart lifts with hope, thankful she didn’t freeze up like the rest of us. She draws her arm back to strike, just a few feet from it now.

The Goblin Queen suddenly pivots without even looking and spins her huge staff with such speed it becomes a blur.

Dark Zanthea uses Pinwheel!

Aiko’s Shadow absorbs the attack!

Aiko’s Shadow absorbs the attack!

Aiko’s Shadow absorbs the attack!

Dark Zanthea hits Aiko for 840(1275) damage.

The last hit catches Aiko and the elf lets out a scream as she goes flying backwards like a hockey puck.

“Aiko!” Val Helena cries.

She hits the ground in a roll next to us, less than a quarter of her health left.

I flex out of reaction, trying to activate Abilities I no longer have.

“Damn it!” I curse. We were so close!

The Goblin Queen taps the orb again for good measure, refreshing the ten-minute timer on my debuff. She then looks down at Aiko, now crawling back to her feet to stand next to me.

“Thou would do well not to attempt such again, meat,” the Queen speaks for the first time, and her booming voice takes me by surprise. It’s dual toned, one part is feminine and shrill the other deep and gravely…corrupted. She then gestures to her army of Goblin Mages. “Constrain them.”

The Goblin Mages descend upon us and put us forcefully on our knees. I can see the anger in both my brothers and Val Helena faces as they push back again the much weaker goblins. If not for the threat of the Queen and our lack of abilities, we could fight the hundred or so of them off easily.

But there’s nothing we can do.

At least not now.

“Guess we have our answer to whether she’s immune to her own aura or not,” Aiko says sardonically in the party chat. “I was expecting her to attack but I thought my Shadow Copy would protect me. How the hell did she know to use a multi-hit AOE on me?”

“It’s okay,” Val Helena says. “Abilities or no abilities, we’ll figure something out. Right?”

Val Helena’s looking to me as she says it and I give her a nod of confidence, but my mind is drawing a blank. The Goblin Queen is even more prepared than I thought. With Mr. Keith helping her, who knows how much he’s shared about our capabilities.

The Goblin Queen lets out a low chuckle as she turns to face us. “The Strange Meat speaks truth. Easy to control thee, Kono Zemsu…by the threat of other meat.”

I’m still trying to understand what she means when the goblins suddenly drag Gilly towards the Goblin Queen and places her at her large, gnarled feet. The sight infuriates me in more ways than one. I’m tired of Gilly being used as a weakness against me and I’m sure she’s sick of it too. Gilly’s not weak at all and she’s protected me just as much as I’ve protected her. If she had her abilities, she could keep us all alive while we fought against this fiend.

I glance at the orb again, the Goblin Queen’s back now to it.

It wasn’t the plan we had settled on, but plan A might still be an option.

I send a PM to Blacktop and hope he’s still within range.

Me: Blacktop? Are you getting this?

Tense seconds go by before I finally get a response.

Blacktop: Reece?

Thank goodness for that. I follow up with another PM.

Me: This is your shot, Blacktop. But you’ll only get one.

Blacktop: What?

Me: The plan has gone to crap.

Mr. Keith has betrayed us, I wanted to add, but I didn’t need that clouding things at the moment. We had mere seconds to act.

Blacktop: What are you talking about?

Me: We have the Queen’s attention but just barely. Line up a shot as best you can. A full volley if you have to. Break that orb!

Blacktop: That’s not going to be easy. We’re on the defensive now. A whole lot more goblins came out of those mines than we were expecting. All of our fire is focused on the front line, trying to keep these suckers at bay. I’d be lucky to get even one shot off.

I glance at the battlefield and see General Lyons’ forces now surrounded on all sides, the cannons at the center. I check the numbers and there are indeed more than before, almost twice the amount. But I’m not surprised. The Queen knew our rouse from the start. She perhaps hid her numbers to help us commit, but now we were losing this battle in more ways than one. If we don’t kill the Goblin Queen then not just us, but everyone on that battlefield was going to die. I send Blacktop a final PM.

Me: If you only have one shot, then make sure it counts.