It takes less than half an hour for General Lyons—along with help from Rembrandt, Becky and the team from New London—to finish off what’s left of the Goblin Queen’s army. With the area back under our control, they make their way through the mines and join us on the balcony and the reunion brings relief to the death and destruction all around us.

“Rembrandt! Becky!” Gilly runs to them both, embracing them in turn.

They make their rounds embracing us all, and I can’t hold back my joy and excitement at seeing my friends again.

“You really saved our bacon, Rembrandt,” I say, pulling him into a bro hug. “And Becky, the timing on that drone was impeccable.”

The halfling smiles at me, cute as ever in her black mage gear, which looks to have undergone a few goth upgrades in New London. “No worries,” she says. “I figured you all would have gotten Gilly killed by the time I got here.”

Her joke causes a well-needed laugh and it feels like we’re almost back to normal again after the ordeal we’ve been through. Lady Diana however, no nonsense as always, gives me a formal salute. “You are victorious, my King. What are your orders now?”

I look to General Lyons and give him a firm handshake. “The victory is as much yours as ours, General. What can we do for the troops?”

“Some rest would be in order,” he says, “As well as some celebration. But I must say, if it wasn’t for your timely visitors here from abroad, I fear we’d be telling a much different tale of this day.”

“You can say that again!” Blacktop chimes in with a chuckle. “Making me jealous bringing all that top grade firepower around here.”

His words bring my attention to the six cyberpunkers who have returned with Rembrandt and Becky from New London. There are four guys and two girls and I recognize they’re from our old clan, dressed in the colors of House Young Lords. I can’t recall all their names exactly but I know them by face and I shake their hands in turn.

“Thanks so much for coming to help us, you guys. You’ve done more than you know.”

One of them, a petite girl with a green mohawk and nose piercings grins back at me. “No worries, King Reece. I always wanted to see what was beyond the city walls. I was glad to see Lord Rembrandt wasn’t lying about the battle we had to face either. That was bloody epic, mate.”

General Lyons chuckles. “I venture to say, your armaments made it almost trivial. I fear the world you hail from…where even the common foot soldier can wield such might.”

“Yeah,” Becky says with a smile. “Guns are OP.”

That gets a round of chuckles from us and the New Londoners, but General Lyons and Lady Diana stare back quizzically, not getting the joke at all.

“We should probably start cleaning up this mess,” Gilly says, motioning to the hundreds of dead goblins corpses around us as well as the huge, mummified remains of the Goblin Queen herself still looming over us.

“Plus, we’re nearly home now,” she adds “Every last nano we gather now will count if we want to save Citadel.”

Just the thought that we’ve cleared our final obstacle to home brings a smile to my lips.

We did it Mom, I whisper a thought to her. We’re coming home.

“Good call, Gilly.” Maxis nods in approval and begins converting the Goblin corpses around us. He then looks to the huge corpse of the Goblin Queen before looking back to me. “You wanna do the honors, oh great king?”

I laugh at his ribbing before giving a smile to Gilly. “No, Gilly got the killing blow. You go for it, Gilly.”

“Really?” she says, but she can’t hide her cute little smile as she approached the remains of the Goblin Queen and lays her hand on her huge foot. In an instant the corpse resolved into Nano dust and messages flash onto my HUD.

Gilly converts the Corpse of Dark Zanthea!

Gilly receives 100 nano-cubes!

Gilly receives a Scroll of Great Miracle II

Gilly receives a Minor Dark Zanthea Orb

As the corpse dissolves, I notice it leaves behind a much smaller version of itself, a more human sized corpse that was perhaps the original Golbin Queen before the Other possessed it.

Gilly quickly shares the item descriptions with us from her drops.

Scroll of Great Miracle II

Teaches the Celestial Magic Spell: Great Miracle II

Level 97

Revive all defeated party members and restore them to full health and body. This spell calls on not just the power of celestial healing but reverses the flow of time itself, restoring the target’s body to a stage before any damage was taken. Able to restore limbs and other status effects not normally able to be revived.

Cast Time: 15 seconds

Recast: 3 minutes

Cost: 1000 TP

Minor Dark Zanthea’s Orb

Legendary Item

A lesser version of the abominable item crafted by the resurrected Goblin Queen, Dark Zanthea. Produces a debilitating Aura that prevents Ability use. User is not immune to its effects.

Effect: Dark Aura

Radius: 50ft

Duration: 2 Minutes

“Wow, these are really powerful, Gilly!” Becky says, her eyes wide and aglow with the information on her HUD. “Congrats!”

“Thanks,” she says. “Still weird that she would drop this spell and even be able to use it, but not able to use it on herself.”

I marvel a bit on that as well. Was that a restriction that Karlis had placed on the Queen?

Before I can ponder it any further, a glowing light suddenly encircles the spot where the Goblin Queen’s corpse had been. Something then pushes itself up from the ground with a slow rumble of stone—an obelisk made of crystal emerges and stops at about four-feet high.

[A Wayfaring Stone has appeared!]

“Bloody hell!” one of the Young Lords says jumping back from it. “What is that thing?”

Val Helena lets out a Goddess laugh at the young cyberpunker’s reaction. “Take it easy. It’s not going to kill you.”

“It’s a wayfaring stone,” Becky explains to him. “They appear when you kill an LM in this realm. I guess they don’t work in New London because there’s no means of teleportation there.”

“Aye,” Rembrandt says. “It’s a node point really. Supposed to be a direct conduit to Citadel, but the network is broken here.”

“I nearly forgot about these myself,” I say approaching it. I touch it for good measure and sure enough I get the same error code as before.

[Node Terminal 27EE: NULL_ERROR_541]

“Yup,” I say with a sigh. “Still broken.”

“That doesn’t matter anymore,” Aiko says. “The mines are clear. We have the way home now, right? We should stop wasting time and get going.”

“Wait,” Gilly says. “There’s something I need to do first.”

Gilly suddenly produces a scroll in her palm and reads it before it vanishes in a burst of nano dust.

Gilly uses a Scroll of Great Miracle II

Gilly learns the Spell Great Miracle II

She then begins casting and before I can even figure out what she’s doing, I see the two bodies of Mister Keith and his son rising off the ground in a beam of golden light. Just like before their wounds are reversed and they heal miraculously before landing on their feet, completely whole again. They stand on shaky legs for a few seconds, completely bewildered, but when they finally see each other, they cry out and embrace in tears.

It’s a heart-warming reunion to watch, even if most of the people present perhaps can’t appreciate what has led up to this point. Finally, Keith turns towards us all sheepishly. A wave of emotions flash across the old man’s face as our eyes meet. Shame, embarrassment and remorse all in one.

Keith falls to his hands and knees sobbing again. “King Reece! I can not atone for what I’ve done or said. I’m at your mercy, my king. Forgive me!”

I approach him slowly, acknowledging his son Lucas with a nod, who also falls to his knees.

“Please, mercy!” Lucas says. “Spare my father, for whatever he has done. I’m the reason for it, I’m sure!”

I rest my hands on both their shoulders. “There’s nothing to forgive. You both had less hand in what transpired than you think. And honestly, I played a fair role in driving you to do what you did as well. So please accept my apology, Mister Keith.”

Mr. Keith looks up at me with tears of gratitude and incomprehension in his eyes.

Before he can say another word, I point to his true savior. “And it’s Gilly over there who you can truly thank for bringing your son back to you. Her concern for you both was never far from her mind.” I pause a moment. “Or perhaps heart.”

I give Gilly a smile of both appreciation and apology. I’d made the tough choice, but thank goodness for Gilly who remained my moral compass to remind me that hard decision come with a price. I can only thank the Goddess that she’d seen fit to find a way to bring a positive resolution to all of it.

Keith bows his head to Gilly. “I am in your debt, Lady Gilly.”

“Think nothing of it,” Gilly says cheerfully. “I hope you can rebuild what’s left of this village with your son.”

“So…the Goblin Queen,” Lucas says, almost cautiously. “She’s dead?”

“Yes,” Aiko says. “And taken down near single handedly I might add. You’re really starting to scare me a bit, King Reece.”

Aiko nudges me playfully and while I laugh, I can’t help but hear the nervous laughs that join it. We truly were carried in that fight by my Kono Zemsu form. And as much as I want to believe it’s a part of me, it’s not something I can rely on easily. At least not yet. The fact that we needed it to survive this fight still doesn’t rest easily with me. I can only pray that we don’t find ourselves in that kind of situation again.

“Well,” Aiko says. “Are you ready to lead us home, my king?”

I smile at her before looking to Gilly.

“I am,” I say. “But there’s one last thing I need to do here. And I’ll need both your help to do it.”