Days flew by in constant combat. More and more of the nameless creatures popped up every time we fought, with new variations slowly bleeding into the standard combats. Every single fight was a greater struggle than the one before it, and by the time we reached the twenty-fifth combat, I wasn’t sure we stood a chance against it. We only had half an hour left in the safe room, our battery levels were running dangerously low, and it was about time for us to head back anyway.

But if we left exhausted and useless, we would be easy pickings for Endra’s chosen and Scalovera’s mercenaries who awaited us at the hazard’s exit. So we had no choice but to try. I nodded to Jun silently, what we could equip of Danday’s equipment giving us the smallest of boosts for the battle to come.

“This is our last fight in this hazard, one way or the other.” I said gravely. “If it looks like it’s going to be way too much from the very start, we leave immediately. If things start going horribly wrong, we leave. And if one of us completely runs out of battery, we leave. Dying in here would be a pointless slap in the face for everything we’re working towards.”

Jun sighed and crossed her arms. She was in the best shape of any of us, just barely ahead of me thanks to my chestpiece’s augmented recovery rates. “We can’t hold anything back. If we win this fight, we get half an hour to recover, and then what? Do we try for one more fight to get time to recover? Or do we stand still until that thing catches up to us, then leave?”

‘That thing’ was a massive dust storm that had kicked up after we cleared the twentieth combat. It stopped moving towards us when we were in the safe room, and moved far slower while we were in a combat arena. It was obviously there to stop us from camping out between fights to completely invalidate the need for a safe room. Just because I understood why it existed, though, didn’t mean I was happy it did.

“We apologize for our relative helplessness.” Mortician said dejectedly. They’d been less and less useful as we got deeper into the hazard, but that was mostly the byproduct of their lower stats. “When we return, we will work towards raising our stats to the best of our abilities. Being a burden is… indescribably frustrating.”

“Yeah. It is.” Jun agreed. “But you’re already showing signs of improvement. Don’t be too hard on yourself.”

I nodded in agreement. “Just focus on staying safe. If that means you can’t support us, give us a heads-up so we can adjust to it.”

//NOTE: OIL QUALITY HAS INCREASED FROM ‘MIDDLING’ TO ‘ABOVE-AVERAGE’.

That notification came out of nowhere. I frowned and opened my interface, which now showed by blood-oil quality as Above Average: 3%. A quick check showed that it gave an ‘X’ value of 32%, which was still lower than the signaleech oil I was using, but not by much. Soon enough, I’d be able to use my own supply to power my gear.

Jun leaned over and peeked at my interface to see what had distracted me. “Did you get a notification from The End?”

“Not yet. Not for a while.” I sighed. Its silence was starting to worry me; it hadn’t ignored any of my messages before. Something huge and important must’ve been happening. “Mortician, shield all of us to start. Just in case there’s another sneak attack like the one from seventeen.”

Mortician nodded and summoned their book, which now had three distinct ‘words’. They hadn’t used their new one on us yet, since it was much more situational than the other two, but the simple fact that they were growing stronger filled me with relief. And their new treasure, which they needed more time, battery, and materials to make, would end up being a massive boon to our crafting efforts.

None of that mattered at the moment, unfortunately. Their combat capabilities were much the same as when we’d first entered the hazard, which equated to barely anything at all. It was so different from the Mortician who’d helped me dismember countless carvurch back in the oilsea. Maybe when they got more of their memories accessible, then they’d get that fighting edge back.

“Focus, Seb.” Jun said, snapping me out of my thoughts. “Are you feeling alright? You’ve been getting distracted a lot easier than usual.”

I shook my head and grimaced. The exhaustion was catching up to me, and I knew it all too well. “No, I’m not. We need to get done with this place and get out of here.”

“Well, there’s one very easy way to do that.” Jun gestured ahead of us at the empty space which would become a battleground. “One way or another.”

She was right. I summoned my weapon and shifted it into a shield for the same reason Mortician was holding a barrier on the three of us. This combat would be our last if things went wrong, and our second-to-last if things went well. I smacked my fist against my chest to get the oil flowing through my oilblossom armor pieces, and saw a warning pop up in the corner of my vision.

//Remaining Signaleech vials: 5. Effective time remaining: 6 hours.

Damn it. Now I had a time limit too. I shook my head and stepped forward, putting all of those thoughts to the side to focus on whatever was ahead of me. Jun and Mortician followed less than a step behind me, and a short minute later, I felt the barrier pop up around me to seal me in.

{Welcome to the twenty-fifth combat, glory-seekers!} The voice announced. {Today, you will fight a memory of one of the competitors who have reached this point, with their abilities scaled to match this arena!}

I braced myself for a copy of someone like Okeria, Inopsy, or even Nia. Jun and Mortician did the same, but after a moment, nothing seemed to be happening.

“Skies above, please don’t tell me that Danday was a copy.” Jun muttered.

“Oh. We hadn’t even thought about that.” Mortician said in terror. “Though would he have dropped all of the gear he gathered if he was a copy?”

{No, he would not.} The voice replied. {But what the hazard has deemed is that fighting him somehow counted for your completion of this combat. I don’t agree with its choice, but who am I to complain about the entity that created me? It’s not like I have a say in the matter, I’m just here to read off what it tells me.}

A sound like frozen branches creaking in the soft breeze came over the same channel as the voice. {Hey, don’t pretend you’re not desperate for people to clear your hazard. Ever since those ones stopped coming here, I’m the only one you’ve had for company. And no matter how wonderful I am, you’re bound to get sick of me eventually. Just… just let me blame you so these people don’t get eviscerated by what they’re actually supposed to fight, alright? They’ve been through enough.}

“Are… are we supposed to be hearing this?” Jun murmured in disbelief. “Because it doesn’t feel like we’re supposed to be hearing this.”

More creaking, followed by a tinkling laugh. {...No, you were not supposed to hear that. Drowned button keeps getting stuck. Well, since the secret’s blown, I’ll just be honest with the three of you. You won’t win against what you’re supposed to fight. Not because of your strength, but because that Danday fellow sapped so much of your strength that you won’t have enough battery to survive.}

“Juniper and Sebastian have approximately sixty percent of their batteries remaining.” Mortician pointed out. “Is that not enough to complete this combat?”

{It’s not. Because this combat doesn’t scale to party size.} The voice explained. {You’d fight an echo of someone who cleared this combat already. It doesn’t matter if you have a group of three or a group of ten, which is the maximum. But if you’re willing to throw away the prize for clearing this combat, we’ll count your fight against Danday as the twenty-fifth combat and open the safe room for you. There’s something in there that might make you want to come back.}

The creaking wind picked up for a moment, then turned into soft words. {Return. Empower. Listen.}

I didn’t really have a problem with getting a free clear, but losing the clear prize was a little blow. I turned to Jun and titled my head in question. She nodded without hesitation. Mortician did the same when I asked them as well.

“We’ll accept your offer.” I said the moment I had permission from my friends. “Thank you.”

{If you wish to thank us, return once you have finished whatever important work awaits you outside.} The voice said with something like sympathy. Maybe it had been eavesdropping on our conversations all this time. {Though I do hope you kept that helmet with you. It’s purpose will very, very soon be revealed.}

The barrier shattered around us into a million pieces, and a small notification that combat number twenty-five had been bypassed appeared in the corner of my vision. The door to the same room appeared, but it was slightly different than before. A single, glassy gem was inlaid at the apex of its frame, and from what I could see inside of it, a few more things had changed.

Jun went in first, without any fear of what might’ve changed. Mortician and I followed almost immediately after. The stone was still the same as before, as was the spring of strange liquid, but there was a very clear difference that only became obvious when I turned around and looked at the room from a different angle.

Another doorway had appeared right next to the one we came in from. It was completely open, leading to a closet-sized space that held a rusted and ruined suit of armor upon a skeletal mannequin. Its hands clasped around a sword with half a blade, raised as if to bring it down at any moment. And it was missing a head.

“Well. That’s a little more obvious than I was expecting.” I chuckled and summoned the helmet. I spun it around to stare at it for a moment, then stepped forward and placed it upon the mannequin.

Its sword slammed down through the air the moment the helmet touched the rest of it. I grunted in annoyance as it pinged uselessly off my armor and stepped back to let the thing actually finish the motion it was going through.

The blade raised slowly as Jun and Mortician came to my side. When it reached its apex it fell once again, slamming into the stone below with a blade that had reforged itself out of dust and stone. I waved away the tiny storm it kicked up with one hand and stared down at the hole it had broken into the floor.

//CHECKPOINT UNLOCKED.

//THE NEXT TIME YOU RETURN TO THIS HAZARD, YOU WILL HAVE THE OPTION TO BEGIN FROM COMBAT TWENTY-SIX.

//REMOVE THE KEY FROM THE APPARATUS IF YOU WISH TO CREATE FUTURE CHECKPOINTS.