“What the hell is that?” I heard Leresa mutter behind me. She walked up hand in hand with Rexir, and Zare was trepidatiously following behind.

“That, Leresa, is a dimension eater.” Vanessa said through gritted teeth. “Although I’ve never fought one that size.”

“How do we even kill it?” Zare asked. Her legs were shaking as she looked up at the dimension eater.

“Generally, you kill them by separating their cores from their bodies.” I explained. “Usually the core is much smaller than their presented size, but… I’ve no idea what the core size of this monstrosity could be.”

“Well, I don’t see how that changes what we need to do.” Hazeel said, taking my hand. She closed her eyes, and I could feel our contract activating.

“By the Hunter’s Oath, I shall be your shield.” I said as the photons between us started to be permeated by our combined energy.

“By the Tracker’s Oath, I shall become your sword.” The wood elf’s body melted away, and soon, a long, golden buster sword remained in her place. The sword floated towards me, and I grabbed the light blade in one hand.

I could easily wield it, despite the fact that it was roughly one and a half times the size of my own body.

Vanessa remained as a human for a while longer. “I’m sensing a large concentration of photons at the head of that thing. That’s most likely where the core is.”

I nodded, and tried to create a portal - only to find that I couldn’t. “What the hell.” I clicked my tongue. “Does this thing put out a strong enough photon field to block all travel?”

“Not exactly.” Leresa chimed in, using a portal to move five feet laterally. “Short distances seem to be ok, but I can’t imagine you could just go up a few thousand feet in this cloud of photons.”

“Wait, where did their bodies go?” Zare asked shakily, pointing to the pool of blood where Alison and Maria’s bodies once occupied.

“Oh, fuck us.” Vanessa sighed. She looked up at the beast’s giant head. “Another thing, why isn’t it moving?”

Is it… no, it couldn’t be. “Alison did summon it, but did she ever give it a command?” I asked.

Vanessa shook her head. “It shouldn’t need a command. It’s a being of pure energy solidified into a physical form. Lacking sentience never stopped the dimension eaters of the past from acting on instinct.”

“Then what is it?” I asked, prompting Vanessa to sigh.

“I don’t know. I do know that we have a chance to end this before that thing ever starts up properly. We should get a move on.”

I nodded, and performed the Oath one more time with Vanessa. Her body morphed into the familiar katana/bastard sword mix, and I smiled at the sensation in my hands.

“Let’s get to it then.” I said, turning to see Zare looking at her brother and Leresa with a slightly pained expression.

“Why can’t I go!? I can help out, and… and… I won’t be useless! I promise!” Rexir gave Zare a loving smile, and placed a hand on her head.

“As much as we would like that to be the case,” she said, “you can’t use any dimensional powers, and that would make you a liability. I’m sorry Zare, but there’s nothing you can do to change our minds.”

The younger princess fought back tears with a frown on her face. “So what!? You just leave me here in front of that!?”

Rexir gave his younger sister a tight hug, allowing her tears to fall into his shoulder. Leresa came up behind Rexir, and placed a hand on Zare’s head.

“At the first sign that the thing starts moving, we’ll be back down before you know it. We promise. Just behave and wait for us.”

Zare started to sniffle, but did her part and sat down on the White House floor. Rexir transformed back into a weapon, and Leresa stood next to me.

“Is Rexir feeling ok? He’s already transformed into a weapon quite a few times today. I’m worried about his durability.”

Leresa nodded. “Me too, but as long as we stick to the back and only use magic, I think we’ll be fine.”

I sighed. If they had the resolve, which they clearly did, it wasn’t as though I could stop them either.

They had each made their choice to be here, and whether or not that came with a price had yet to be seen. Although…

They’ll be leaving spotless, if I have anything to say about it. I forgot that my thoughts were being broadcasted to my two weapons, who each filled my mind with a feeling of playfulness and respect.

‘Oh, you’ve grown so much from the boy who used to spurn anyone who wasn’t me. I’m so proud of you!’ Vanessa’s voice made me blush, much to my chagrin.

‘Having personally witnessed that growth myself, I can truly say I am proud of the person you have become, Leo.’

Hazeel’s added praise just compounded my embarrassment, but I quickly shook my head to brush off the lingering feeling.

“I’m going to need your help, Dantae, Hazeel. Let’s get through this together.” I felt a burst of warmth from both blades as I stepped towards the giant, with Leresa and Rexir trailing slightly behind us.

‘God damn.’ Vanessa said through our mental link. Honestly, I had to agree with her. The thing’s toe was as big as a house, and being at the base of the giant was even more intimidating.

“Well, we have to start somewhere.” Leresa sighed. I jumped, and using two short portal jumps, landed on top of the toe. Leresa landed next to me, although she used three hops.

I looked upwards at the top of the giant, and our destination. I hadn’t noticed it before due to the fog, but the giant was wearing armor. A set of greaves adorned its shins, and it had some armor on its abdomen, that was split into two sections and divided at the waist.

It had on gauntlets, as well as shoulder pieces that spread out like small wings. I couldn’t see the head from this angle, but my guess was that we’d find the core somewhere in that vicinity.

“Only one direction to go but up.” I muttered, as we began the long and arduous climb up the giant.