Qube was seriously impressed with the Chosen One’s eyesight. She hadn’t even noticed that small exit at the back of the cavern, but he’d pointed right to it!

It wasn’t guarded, which, given the security measures at the front, seemed a little lax, but she wasn’t here to judge the protective ability of a bunch of birds. Instead she just grabbed onto the Chosen One as he launched into the air, scooping up Squiggles as he went. After a slight wobble as he aimed for the exit, they were through, the black clouds roiling below them. In the distance, more clouds erupted out of the swirling bank and formed a castle made entirely out of black clouds. There even looked to be a drawbridge.

Not that this stopped the party, given they had wings. They flew right over the moat of lightning, and passed through the shadowy veil that covered the entrance to the castle.

There was a brief moment of disorientation, and then they were in what looked like the main hall of the cloud-castle. All the walls were made of lumpy black clouds, streaks of lightning illuminating them. There appeared to be no other doors, just a hole in the ceiling on the other side of the room and strange floating…

“Platforms,” Qube hissed, looking at her most hated of Temple inventions. These were strange platforms; they looked more substantial than the walls, but they were also floating side to side. Qube smiled grimly at the platforms. Little did the Temple know that they had come prepared! They had wings, and could easily fly over the platforms and out through the hole in the ceiling!

Clearly this Temple had designed itself to deal with walking treasure seekers. Odd, given it was on top of a mountain, but it would hopefully make their job a lot faster! Finally, one of their quests was going to be easy.

However, all of Qube’s triumph turned to ashes the instant the Chosen One, flying just above the lowest platform, was hit in the face with a massive gust of wind, tumbling him head over heels and slamming him into the cloudy ground.

“Urgh!” he grunted from his position face-first in the cloud-ground. He lifted his head up and gave the wall-clouds a baleful stare. Qube helped him up, staggering as he put his weight on her shoulder.

“What was that? Do you need healing?” she asked him, wide-eyed as she looked around for the source of the strange wind.

“Nah, it didn’t actually hurt. Wait here a second,” he said, before kicking off the ground and into flight. Once again, as soon as he reached the height above the lowest floating platform, he was struck from the sky and slammed back into the ground. Qube helped him up again.

The other party members, benefiting from their leader’s bold charge, stayed hovering just underneath the lowest platform. The Chosen One glared at his faithful companions.

“You, fly up a bit!” he ordered Definitely Bad Guy. The Mage Advisor instantly flew above the platform, and was struck down, landing just next to the Chosen One. The Chosen One laughed.

Qube helped him up.

“That… was far too satisfying to watch. Do it again!” the Chosen One ordered. The Mage gave him a dark look but obeyed, soaring up only to be slapped back down.

“Wait, wait, wait, Sexy Screamy Spider Lady, you go!” the Hero ordered. The giant arachnid flew, her legs dangling uselessly as she, too, was caught in the wind and smacked onto the ground with a splat. The Chosen One started laughing again. Qube helped the Hunter up.

“Chosen One, what are you doing?” Qube asked him, puzzled.

The Chosen One stopped laughing. He gave her a look similar to a kid with their hand caught in a jam jar.

“Oh yeah… I probably shouldn’t mess around with them like that, should I?” he asked. “Ethics.”

“I’m sure you have a perfectly good reason for doing this; I’m just not sure I quite understand,” Qube said consolingly. The Chosen One’s guilty look deepened.

“Sure, I have a good reason…” he said unconvincingly.

“Because you wouldn’t be ordering your dear friends to get slammed into the ground just for your own amusement, of course,” Qube continued without a trace of irony in her voice.

“That would be… bad?” the Chosen One semi-asked.

Qube shot him an Understanding Smile.

“So naturally I wouldn’t do it,” the Chosen One added hurriedly. “I just wanted to see if it was… shape-based.” As Qube’s eyes started to narrow he rapidly continued, “to see if it was keyed to only strike when humanoids tried to fly. You know, so the griffins and bird people could fly in okay but intruders couldn’t.”

“Oh, well, if that’s what you were doing…” Qube trailed off. She still wasn’t entirely convinced.

“Sewer Bard fly up!” the Chosen One ordered, seizing his chance. After a second’s hesitation, the Bard flew, and was smacked into the space Sexy Screamy Spider Lady had just vacated.

Qube was now not at all convinced.

“Chosen One, please stop abusing your position as our leader,” she sweetly requested. The Chosen One stopped laughing, and sighed.

“Yeah, you’re right,” he said. “Still, that was pretty funny, wasn’t it?”

Qube climbed onto his back.

“Right?” he prodded.

Qube mentally replayed the image of Definitely Bad Guy attempting to look dignified as he hit the ground with a splat.

“Maybe,” she conceded. “Now, how are we supposed to get up these platforms?”

Qube knew from her admittedly rather basic research of the Temples that there was always a way to get to the next room. Even when it didn’t make any sense. This just helped solidify her theory that the Temples were, rather than vaults designed to never let people in, tests to determine the worth of those seeking their bounty.

For the first time Qube found herself wondering if others had attempted the Temples before them. Surely, in order to justify the no doubt staggering amount of mana these various trials would cost, the Temples must have had experience with others attempting to gain access, either for the Bestowal stones or the items necessary to defeat the Evil Emperor. While Qube didn’t know what the items on their own could do, it would be prudent for any tyrant to acquire and/or destroy anything capable of defeating him.

Unless… the seven sacred items, and the Temples that housed them, were made by the Evil Emperor to stop the Hero? No. That didn’t make any sense.

Then...Who had made the seven items? And why had they hidden them in the Temples? Sure, giving the Temples the mana necessary to protect them made sense when dealing with such mystical artefacts, but why did they exist in the first place? And why didn’t they use them themselves to defeat the Evil Emperor?

The devs had made the Golden Prophecy — the one Qube had met had pretty much confirmed that — but why?

Why had they made such powerful items, and not used them to overthrow the Evil Emperor? The dev had claimed that there was more at play than Qube understood, and that her brain would explode if she knew too much, but they could have dropped a few hints at least. If they had made the entire world, then surely they could have explained things a bit better.

Unless…

Unless just like the Chosen One had the devs behind him, and the Golden Prophecy, and the items, there were other beings behind the Evil Emperor. It made sense! He’d mentioned something about his own Prophecy, back in the village, hadn’t he? He’d claimed their one was false, so maybe he had his own Prophecy, which meant he had to have his own devs!

Maybe the reason her devs couldn’t leave hints was in case the Evil Emperor’s devs used that information… for Evil!

Qube was so shocked she nearly missed the Chosen One turning and presenting his back to her. She wrapped her arms around his neck, and clung on while he started carefully flying to the lowest platform. Several slits appeared in the wall-clouds as he landed on said platform, and started furiously blowing wind. But, while standing on the platform, he was just under their range, and the platform peacefully putted across the room.

Just as it reached underneath a slightly higher platform, the Chosen One jumped, and wind gushed up from more slits in the ground, vaulting him up to the second platform’s level. Unfortunately, he didn’t close his wings in time, and a sideways gust slammed him into one of the walls, then back to the ground. Where he had to start all over again.

By the Words, Qube hated platforms.

The fact that the fellow party members, seeing as they always followed a few steps behind the Chosen One, fared even worse than the Hero did not console her. Their solidarity with their leader meant that, once he fell, they would inevitably fly down behind him, sometimes bashing into him just as he was setting off again.

“No, stop, stop following me so closely!” the Chosen One ordered as he was once again sent spinning by one of Sexy Screamy Spider Lady’s limibs hitting him as she landed next to him. “Just. [Wait]!”

But all this Qube barely registered, so taken was she with the revelation she was currently undergoing.

Was there an Evil version of her? A guiding light for the Evil Emperor, to make sure that he stayed true to the principles of being Bad? Encouraging him to oppress people, and shoplift? Qube tried to picture what the Dark Prophecy version of her would look like, but all she could come up with was a clone of her dressed in a miniature version of the Evil Emperor’s black armour.

Or maybe they were a guiding dark, rather than a guiding light? Oh, and she would [Curse], rather than [Heal]! Qube was suddenly acutely aware of how often she had wished to curse people. Had that been the influence of the Dark Prophecy?

Her heart gave a sickened lurch as she realised that, similar to how the Golden Prophecy would try and (sometimes painfully) push her to the side of Good, her counterpart must have been punished for not being Bad enough. Tears sprang to her eyes, as compassion surged within her.

How wicked! How utterly, utterly wicked these Evil devs must be, to control her counterpart like that! To force her to be Bad, against her very nature if needs be! Was there anything more despicable than such meddling with a person’s very self? Qube remembered the populace of Construct Crossroads, and how they had been forced to dislike the other types, and the horrible, unnecessary conflicts that had led to.

But two of the constructs had overcome their maker’s misdeeds, and found true love with each other. Annoying, noisy, sigh-filled true love, yes, but it proved that Bad instincts could be defeated in the name of Good!

In a flash, Qube knew what her quest was. She had to guide the Chosen One, true, but not to kill the Evil Emperor and his hypothetical Evil Qube. She had to free them from the control they had been placed under, and give them a chance to turn against their Evil creators.

In fact, she suspected that the Evil Emperor already resented his creators’ control. Why else would he act against his own Dark Prophecy, and let the Chosen One live? Sure, he had said that it was because he wanted to utterly crush the Hero, but, really, what kind of weak reasoning was that for a ruthless dictator?

And the fact that he had only destroyed the villager’s homes, rather than slaughtering them all, was surely another subtle rebellion against pure Evil. She knew that the Chosen One, being so in tune with the side of Good, his devs, and dedication to fulfilling the Golden Prophecy, would not have allowed a village full of Evil people to live for even a second.

No. Clearly Qube’s mission, the thing she could do that the Chosen one could not, was seek out her Evil counterpart, and free them from their dev’s baleful influence.

After all, there was no way the Chosen One would have been able to stay on the path of Good if he hadn’t had her by his side. So, if she managed to convince the hypothetical Evil Qube, then they could win this whole conflict without any violence at all!

Qube wrapped her arms closer around the Chosen One’s neck, and smiled to herself.

She was going to save the world.