“This will get ugly? Erik, what in the Byss is wrong with you? People are dying,” Felix pointed at the woman. “Is she dead?”

Doubt crossed Erik’s eyes. “We found her like that…”

“ERIK IS SHE DEAD?”

“Such is the nature of Abyss,” spoke a firm and proper voice from behind Felix. He turned to see Stefan walk out from another shop. Wax-like rainbow candy dribbled off his arms. A droplet hit the rubble. Pieces of bricks and glass animated, jerking around in a blitz of madness, and fell back down, twitching. Stefan spread his arms. A coat of that liquid madness enveloped his arms and grew around his chest face to resemble an ugly wax imitation of his fake smile.

“Betrayed by our Lord, we, the castaways, come up to the Surface to gather what we need to survive. All we ask is our share, enough to survive, and a chance to prove once more that we deserve the Abyss as much as everyone else. And this is their reply. Stop. You are wrong,” Stefan said the last words with a snarl, mimicking Felix’s tone.

“Bii run!” Felix tried to manifest his relic.

Stefan’s fist slammed into his gut first. “We don’t kill. Your lives are for Abysssssss… ttoooo… juuuuuudgee… nnooooot… uuuuuuuussss...”

World dragged into slow motion. Felix’s vision doubled, then quadrupled, then doubled again until it was a bug-eye view of blurred chaos. His body spasmed, muscles curling painfully tight. Air got stuck in his lungs. His jaw clenched tight enough to taste blood.

The torture lasted a second, but left him gasping for air as if it’d been hours. The looted shop came to his view. Fire caught onto its roof from the next house over. Erik and the others stepped out, while the shopkeep and her daughter lay inside, shivering.

“Erik, get them out,” Felix groaned.

Erik paused, clenching his fists.

A kick to the ribs. Felix’s world shattered again into a kaleidoscope and slow-mo. He writhed on the ground, mind blanked until several breaths after the effects of Stefan’s relic had faded.

“The Abyss giveth, the Abyss taketh.” Stefan smiled above him. “They preach to us that broken mantra. They preach it and keep some of us from benefiting from what the Abyss would freely giveth. The Lords forsake us. It’s time to forsake their useless rules. It’s time to take back the right to delve without a torch.”

He reared in for another punch. Intent Bank manifested inside Felix, and he slapped Stefan’s ankle, draining his intent. A rush of gleeful sadism and pride surged through him.

Stefan stumbled backwards, his fake smile failing under a face of befuddled rage. “You… What did...”

Felix gladly released the sadism. An urge to hurt filled him with adrenaline. He flipped upright and kicked the gangster’s balls.

Howling, Stefan fell to his knees.

The others moved to block his escape. Felix let them, and sprinted for the shop. Karin ran at him on all fours. The woman wasn’t moving, but Felix saw no blood. Felix gambled on a maybe, reached down, drained her intent, and felt… nothing. She’s dead.

Karin tackled him. Her claws pinned his arm and neck. Felix grabbed one of them and drained her intent. He caught only the tiniest droplet of it. In a snap motion of superhuman speed, Karin retreated several steps up the walls.

“Careful. He has new tricks,” she warned the others.

Mugshot’s and Erik’s relic enlarged bulks blocked both the display window of the shop. Door chimed, as Stefan stepped in. Felix realized he wasn’t going to get away. If he wanted to have a chance of being found, he had to make noise, and make it fast.

“Touch range mental manipulation,” Stefan reasoned. “A fitting relic. You had made fools of us with that little act, didn’t you? Very clever of you, I’ll admit. Wise? Perhaps not. But it was clever. If you’re still feeling clever, I would advise you to unbind your relics and beg, and I just might go easy on you.”

The cruel twinkle in Stefan’s eyes wasn’t going to be satisfied by any amount of begging. Felix grabbed a hefty rock relic from the shelf, and released intent to attack as he threw it at the doorbell. With a loud cling, the bell broke off and flew into the street.

Stefan smacked his lips. “I’ll presume that’s a no. Erik, I understand you had a long history. A long history of holding you back, of tethering your potential, and dragging down the real you. Life doesn’t often grant such rare opportunities to deal with a ghost of your past. I suggest you take it.”

Erik looked to Stefan, wavering as if he actually considered it.

Felix flinched at the steeled cold look Erik gave him. “Erik… this is insane, you need to stop.”

“Stop, stop, stop, stop. It’s always: Erik, stop, isn’t it?” Erik’s ground his jagged teeth. “Did I ever shoot your ideas down?”

“Hey, I didn’t always tell you to stop.”

“But you thought about it. You think I’m dumb. You just kept on grinning your bonk ass smile and laughed behind my back.” Erik approached, his breaths growing heavier.

“Erik, listen—”

“No! You listen for once!” Erik growled, punching a hole in the wall above Felix. “You don’t get it. You think you had it tough? You had a family and hundred friends who loved you, and still you failed to get a torch. You keep blaming you can’t bind this, can’t bind that, can’t use strong relics. All lies! You are just a lazy failure. A coward. I wasn’t handed freebies by anyone. I didn’t wait for them to. I will make my own destiny, and that’s why I’ll succeed, and you won’t.”

“I… I thought things were okay with your dad.”

“Okay between me and…” Erik snorted, mouth opening and closing as if struggling to decide on a curse.

“You should’ve told me. I would’ve helped,” Felix tried.

Erik’s voice bubbled with an edge of violence. “How? How could you have done a thing?”

“Something. Somehow we could’ve done something.”

“Yeah, I kinda doubt you would’ve done anything.” Erik straightened, flexing his fist. “Well, too late now innit? Dad and the rest of them fell down to the Byss. Good riddance I say. At least some of us can have a fresh start at life.”

“No.” Felix cringed at the twisted Stefan-logic coming out of Erik’s mouth.

Worst of all, some of it hit right home. He had seen Erik slide down and hadn’t done a thing. Hadn’t said a word. All because he’d been afraid to risk the liftwreck of a friendship they’d had.

“Yeah. That’s how it is.” Erik picked up a shelf’s support beam and gave it a testing swing. “Touch range, was it?”

A reflection of Stefan’s sadistic glint gleamed in Erik’s eyes. Felix raised his fists. His back bumped against the wall. Cracking his neck, Erik took a step closer.

“Oi! Best you surrender, or be dealt swift justice!” shouted a loud bold voice of an older man. Outside the shop stood a Knight of the End in full plate armor. A giant swarm of bloody blade-tipped tails flailed behind him and a bright lead torch hung at his hip.

Stefan’s eyes widened in panic. “Backdoor!”

Karin, Mugshot, and Stefan vaulted over the counter, stomped over the woman’s body, and disappeared. Erik shot Felix one last snarl. His stick clanked onto the floor, and Erik followed the rest of the gang.

Bii ran into Felix’s arms, pinging as it pushed his face. Felix hugged him back.

“Right on time, buddy. Thank you.”

The lead torch disappeared in a cloud of twinkling purple dust, leaving behind a familiar looking old man with stubble and a tuft-topped knit beanie. The old man sighed, clutching his chest. “Owww… Uppity old relic. They don’t play as nice as they used to, son. My Lords. ‘S that Mrs. Nilsson?”

“Dead.” Felix tried to climb up. Legs crumbled under him, as his overstrained body finally called it a day. “Guh!” A piece of the burning roof fell down. Smoke billowed in, clouding Felix’s vision and thrusting him into a coughing fit. Heroically, Bii did his darndest to drag him towards the door, but he was only a small denizen.

“Hold on, son!” The old man cupped his hands towards the main street. “Oi! Knights and all able bodied lads and lasses, we need a hand here. Oi!” He began waving at someone. “Over here!”

Voices gathered outside. Brisk steps cut through the smoke, and a knight and black and silver figure lifted him up by the shoulders.

“Wait! Let me go. I need to go find…” Felix emptied his lungs, barely able to draw breath. “Family is still out there.”

“Who are you missing,” asked a knight-shaped figure. “Names?”

“Andersson… Linda, Hannes, and Klara. I’ll help.”

“Get him to the fortress. We’ll look for your family. Most are already evacuated. If you can’t find them at the fortress, I’m afraid they’re either gone or fell into the Abyss.” The knight departed.

“Wait!” Felix tried to clutch his arm. His fingers slipped and the knight was gone.

Another fit of coughing choked him to tears. His head swooned. The relics resting in a corner of his soul hummed with an overpowering urge to close his eyes and sleep. Felix resisted the call, clinging onto consciousness. Between long blinks of half-dream, he saw the old man, the girl in black and silver, and, from high uphill, the broken ruins of Forttown engulfed in flames.

Surrounded by a shimmer of golden light, the rest of the Half-Valley loomed within view. It inched slowly, towards the deeper Abyss, as if to taunt Felix and all who got left behind. Felix tried to grab it one last time, before giving into the darkness.