With a resounding thunderclap, the black rift that blocked the staircase collapsed onto itself, sending out pulsating rifts of light. Claud immediately pressed on forwards, a feeling of surrealism infecting his entire mind as he and another shadow stormed up the blocked staircase and burst onto the fourth floor.

Panting, Claud unclenched his fist and said, “The first time we went there wasn’t as intense as this.”

“But we came in our true body that time, and we nearly died.” The sound of Lily bouncing off the barrier below them entered his ears, and he knew that she had laid down on their makeshift bed entirely. The two of them had done them enough times for him to pick out such actions immediately, and Claud reached out — while still wearing his Second Shadow — to rub her head.

“Still,” Claud replied, “it’s a good thing that we used the Second Shadows. Otherwise, we would have actually died for real. In fact, I’m already getting used to being killed in that horrible way.”

Lily paused. “We’ve died ten times on the top floor already. I’m not sure if getting used to it is a good idea.”

They enjoyed their little break for a while, before Lily got up. “Let’s try to breach that hidden area once more!”

For the past week or so — time was not easy to tell when they were in the Celestia Ruins — Claud and Lily had used the Second Shadows to explore the Office of the Secretary-General. They had already retraced their initial steps and made it to the top floor a few times, but they hadn’t learned anything new. Sometimes, they would take a break and work on their attempts to take out one of those artefacts that looked like a Comms Console, but they would still be killed afterwards.

Fortunately, their attempts to take one of those artefacts with them were growing easier and easier. Before long, the artefact would be out of the room entirely, and that would be it.

Claud shook his head and roused himself from his musings, before nodding. “Let’s check out that hidden area once more.”

Clenching his fist, Claud’s vision shifted from the darkness caused by wearing what was essentially a magical blindfold to the interior of the Secretary-General building. Once again, they were back on a sleek, aesthetically luxurious third floor, and the two of them continued on their hiking trip to the topmost floor.

There weren’t any traps there, as usual. The highest floor of the Secretary-General building was actually a flat plaza, with only a crystalline dome at the very middle. While every floor usually had a twelve-pointed star in the middle for aesthetics, the crystalline dome — the office of the titular Secretary-General — occupied the position of the star itself.

It glimmered with faint, false lights as Claud and Lily approached the building. If they had come here in person, opening the door would trigger the massive, mind-blowing vision that showed the final days of this ruin. Three divine beings, who tore down the heart of Celestia and tore it into irrevocable pieces, would appear in their eyes once more. They would tear through the defences, strike at a golden light, and reality would come to an end.

Fortunately, Claud and Lily had come here using their Second Shadows, which meant that they wouldn’t be able to view those visions. They didn’t have the intention of viewing these visions either, especially since not watching these visions turned the interior of the dome into an entirely different place altogether.

“Ready?” Claud asked.

“On you!” Lily’s spirited, distant voice echoed in his ear, and Claud nodded to himself. Pushing out against the door, the two of them immediately ducked down, and rushing bolts of purple-green light tore through where their heads used to be.

In a methodical fashion, the two of them continued to sidestep and dodge the incoming bolts of purple-green light, which followed a fixed pattern. It was evident that this whole thing was more of a standardised defence against intruders who had somehow bypassed the visions somehow.

After dodging a particularly huge lance of purple-green light, Claud glanced at the shadow Lily was using and then threw himself onto the ground. They slid forward, just in time to dodge a torrent of energy that tore through the area right above them.

Three seconds later, purple-green spikes shot out of the ground that they had been standing on earlier on. This was a particularly nasty trap; Claud and Lily had died twice to this point. The first one was, of course, the huge torrent of energy, which they had initially dealt with by throwing themselves on the floor. However, before they could move on from there, a bunch of spikes had torn through their prone forms, destroying the shadows.

This time, they had come prepared.

Getting to their feet, Claud and Lily burst into motion, running headlong towards the end of the corridor. Since they didn’t know what followed after this point, the best way onwards was to cover as much distance as possible and trigger as many mechanisms as possible.

Regular bolts of light continued to harass them as Claud charged onwards, with Lily right by his side as they memorised the firing pattern of these bolts. Fortunately, however, it seemed that the last nasty trap was that prone-plus-poke segment, and the two of them soon arrived at the end of the corridor.

Disappointingly, the mechanism that had been hurling bolts of purple-green light was nowhere to be found. The end of the corridor was simply another door, but unlike the pristine ones that had been seen everywhere in this building, this particular door showed signs of age.

Claud glanced at Lily’s shadow once, and then reached out for the knob. The door squeaked as they pushed it open, revealing a dim room that was littered with all kinds of things.

A simple sweep revealed many odd items. Weird metal parts had been strewn all around the place, and as he took a few steps forward, Claud saw two glowing glass tubes at the far end of the messy room. These adult-sized tubes were giving off purple-green light, with all sorts of pipes and wires hooked up to them.

One of these glass tubes were filled entirely with liquid, while the other had a five-pointed, fist-sized star floating in the middle. Claud paused a moment later, and a memory rushed through his mind.

A frozen throne, with Throne, Crown and…a cracked, five-pointed star.

Claud took in that sight slowly. “It reminds me of your Throne, Lily.”

There was a brief pause. “Yeah. Just that it’s a star or something.”

“…Let’s see if we can get the little fellow out, then.” Claud returned his attention to the tube and examined it slowly. There were a few buttons here and there on the panel, and what looked like an hourglass was glittering on the glassy part.

“It’s almost running out, but there’s a tantalising green button there,” Claud muttered. “It’s glowing and everything too. Should I press it?”

“It’s green, right?” Lily asked. “There shouldn’t be danger. Usually, glowing red buttons represent danger, not green.”

“True.” Claud pressed the button once, and the purple-green liquid bubbled and frothed. The motionless star hanging in the middle shook once, before the frothing mix obscured it from view entirely.

At the same time, the room began to shake.

“Run!” Claud shouted, grabbing the items on the table randomly. His focus was on a bunch of books, but since they could hold more items than his hands, most of the odds and ends ended up on the books, a few dropping onto the ground as he fled the room with Lily.

Even with his senses dulled, Claud could tell that the whole thing was about to break apart, and the two didn’t stop for a second round of gathering random items.

Fortunately, they made it out of the room, but before he could even heave a sigh of relief, a glint appeared on Claud’s shoulder, and his vision lit up with a purple light.

The purple light intensified over the next second, blinding the two of them directly. Before Claud could shout out in alarm, the glow had vanished, and the first floor of the Secretary-General building appeared all around them.

A little star meeped away happily, orbiting around Claud’s head. The surrealism he had felt at the start of this exploration doubled down, and for a moment, he felt too light-headed to actually think properly.

Staring at the sentient shape, Claud looked at the books in his hands and

“What the…never mind. Let’s bring our spoils back first.” After sparing another thought at the happy little star, he and Lily directed their Second Shadows back to their base.

It didn’t take long before they retrieved their spoils of war, which was a whole bunch of mysterious metal parts and a star.

“…Okay, we’re becoming a collector of sentient objects.” Lily, who had removed the Second Shadow from her head, looked at the three shapes that were meeping away happily. “This is getting ridiculous.”

“Meep?”

“Meep?”

“Meep?”

The three shapes looked at Lily, who immediately gave up.

Claud stifled the urge to laugh, and then checked his status. There, under his passive skills, was the skill ‘Artificial Life Contractor’. It was the same as Lily’s, and…he did see a star frozen in his throne, back when he was the Frozen Emperor.

A sobering thought, to be sure.