Luna rushed around the roof, trying to find a way into the building. The roof was entirely clear and almost flat, save for the small arch that was a part of the shape of the roof. Luna did not ponder why the roof was arched because she had just noticed a faint outline of a square in the material the roof was made of. Using the pointed end of her kite shield, she was able to dig into a small crack that was part of the outline and pry the square open.

The square lifted on a set of hinges and fell backwards with a quiet thump. Inside, there was a chute with a ladder made of the same brown material as the roof and the hotel. She ignored the ladder and floated down the chute she had found. The chute was dark, so Luna conjured a few flames around her and continued on her way down. The chute was not long; she soon found herself in a large open space. The room was lined with shelves, boxes, and crates. Most of the boxes and crates, however, were smashed to pieces, their contents missing. Out of the boxes she saw, there were only 7 that were untouched. She flew further into the space, finding more boxes smashed, but none more untouched. ‘This sucks! I thought there would be some cool stuff here! Oh well, let’s just- ooh! What’s that!?’ she thought. In a small area she had missed, there was a boxy… thing made of some new blue, metal-like material she had not seen before. The front of it was a black, but there was a border preventing the black from reaching the edges of the side. There was also a small button on the side of the box. Luna wasted no time in pressing the button.

Once she pressed the button, she felt the Ether in the air shift then pour into the blue box. A small board extended from the bottom of the box and the black part began to glow. Soon, blue abstract symbols appeared in the black space. They glazed over and revealed a line of text Luna could understand.

[Welcome Thomas]

[Password:______]

She had no idea what to do with the box, so she looked around the small, cramped corner of the room but found nothing. The box was placed on a desk with a long drawer featured in the front. Pulling the drawer open, she found a stack of blank paper and a smaller piece of paper with the password on it. ‘Really? The password was just “password”? Even I know how stupid that is. Oh well, at least it’s easy to input.’ she decided. The password worked, and the box soon displayed another set of blue symbols that glazed over, being replaced by text Luna could understand.

[1. Inventory]

[2. Current Procedures]

[3. Orders]

[4. To-do’s (Custom)]

[5. Messages (3)]

Before she could press any of the options, she heard Kain yell down the chute. “Hey, Luna, hurry up, it’s pretty close right about now!” he shouted.

“If it’s close, then help me! I found a bunch of stuff here!” she shouted back. She heard him sliding down the ladder and sent a flame over to the bottom of the ladder. His figure soon appeared and he wasted no time going over to her.

“Alright, what did you find?” he asked quickly.

“This!” she exclaimed, motioning to the box.

He went wide eyed for a moment before storing it in his amulet. “Okay, so you found a computer. That’s good, but we need to leave soon, or we’ll be fighting the hordes of moss that are spilling out from the tower. Last I saw, it had reached the road.” said Kain. Luna made a quick detour to find the rest of the untouched boxes she had seen and they made their way to the roof once more.

Once outside, Luna heard strange noises coming from one of the alleyways that branched off from the main road. The noise was like that of a boar, but more guttural than she was used to. “Big brother, do you hear that?” she asked. “It sounds like a dying boar.”

He raised his eyebrow at her. “A dying boar? Where do you hear a dying boar?” he asked, pausing for a moment. “Oh, wait, I hear it too. Where is it?” she pointed at one of the side alleys. Almost as soon as she did, a large, lumbering mass emerged from the alley. It was 5 feet tall and a dozen feet long with pinkish-blue skin and fat hanging off of its frame. It was a giant boar, but without any tusks, like she had seen. Its eyes and head were covered in a layer of fat that blocked every feature aside from its nose and ears.”Hmm. A giant pig?” Kain wondered.

“That’s a pig? It looks like a boar.” Luna responded.

He shrugged. “Well, they are similar. A pig is a defanged boar. They’re raised for meat and fat, so it isn’t surprising that, after being strengthened by so much Ether, they could become this big.” he explained. As he finished, the large pig began to walk toward the growing moss. Behind it, a group of other pigs, all much smaller than the leading pig, followed. The leader soon came close to the edge of the rapidly expanding moss, and began to cough. It coughed and coughed before it spat a glob of some purple mucus. The glob arced before falling into the mass of moss. The mucus practically detonated on landing, covering a large portion of the moss in the purple liquid. Almost immediately, the moss stopped growing at all of the edges, and the moss doused in the mucus was being burnt, likely due to acid that could have been in the mucus. The pig who had spat the glob then waded into the moss and began to devour it. The rest of the pigs did the same as the largest: they spat globs of mucus and waded into the areas they had landed and ate the moss. Kain coughed a bit. “Well, that’s not normal. I’ve never seen a pig do that. But, hey, I’ve never seen a pig strengthened by Ether either, so what do I know?” he remarked sarcastically.

She gave a short chortle. “Plenty. Anyway, I think that we should head to another building, we can find some more stuff to loot while those two are…” she declared, glancing at the scene on the street. The pigs had eaten a large portion of the expanding moss at that point and were cornering it by charging into the front lobby of the hotel. Despite the hogs’ proficiency in eating the moss, the large moss blobs had met them at the front of the hotel and were battling the pigs. “...doing that. Same thing, or do you want to be the one diving in?” she asked.

“Same as last time. You seem to be having fun with this, so I won’t stop you. But if we are doing that, we should probably go over there.” he proposed. He pointed at a building that was across the cobbled road. It was close enough to the hotel that it was in danger of being taken over by the moss, but it was far enough away that they could run if the pigs died and the moss was left alone to spread, Luna thought.

They floated across the road and landed on the roof of the building they had planned to loot. The window at the front of the shop showed a large sword prominently, and it had the words ‘Slicer’s Store’ printed on the window. She looked back at the store they had just left and realized that it was called ‘Gerald’s General’. One more thing she planned to ask Kain once they were allowed room to breathe. She looked around the roof they were standing on and took note of its size. It was only about half as large as the roof they had just left, but the hatch was in the same place. She quickly floated down the chute and summoned her flames once more. The room she found herself in was similar in all but size to the previous, with more shelving units and smashed boxes. She looked around and found nothing of note. There was not even a single box left untouched by whatever force wrecked the place. When she noticed that the room was almost entirely identical to the room in the general store, she decided to look for the ‘computer,’ as her brother called it.

She found the small area the computer was in last time, but instead of a functioning computer, she found a smashed husk of blue metal-like material and the machine’s innards spilled around the husk. ‘Well, what could have done that?’ she pondered. She did not receive much time to wonder, as she heard a faint noise coming from behind her. Whipping around, she unleashed her floating hammer head on whatever had snuck up on her. Immediately following the boom of the hammer’s propulsion, the room was soaked in bluish-violet blood. Looking around by using the light from the blast, she saw a headless chitin-covered monkey followed by 3 other chitin monkeys without a lack of heads.

She backed off instantly, summoning her Ether shield and holding it off to her side. Her normal, metal shield flew to her side as well. The monkeys, not to be outdone, hoisted their fallen comrade and threw it at her. The body soared through the air only to be batted aside by her Ether shield. It was enough for them, however, as they had closed the distance within that time. Cursing, she swung her metal shield over her head and let the pointed end crash into the neck of the monkey leading the charge. The pointed end immediately found its mark, and dug into the chitin. Luckily, the area was an important joint, so the shield had little trouble breaking through the armor. With a crunch, the chitin shattered and the metal dug into soft flesh. The monkey fell forwards, barely letting out a pitiful screech before dying. Despite the death of their companion, the other two showed no fear. The closest one swung a chitin-covered fist at Luna which was stopped by her Ether shield, though it was able to dig deep into the thick mist the shield was made of. The second one swung a fist at her as well. She couldn’t pry the metal shield from the corpse of the second dead ape, so she had the hammerhead, which was available again, shoot at the attacker.

Learning from experience, the ape dodged as soon as the boom sounded. Though it escaped, it did not do so unscathed. One of the creature’s forearms was blasted apart, and it was sent reeling. As soon as the creature retreated, the other was able to break through the shield with another smash from its fist. Luna backed off once more while the creature was recovering, but she played into its hand. The tail-like limb that protruded from its chest, which had been slung over the creature’s shoulder, whipped out and smashed into the skull she was sitting on. She was sent flying, and eventually crashed into the opposite wall.

Dazed, she tried to get up, but fell back to the ground. With blurry eyes, she watched as the monkey slowly approached her. Before even moving 3 steps, a hissing was heard and it’s head was pierced by a metal bolt. Making a few gurgling sounds, it fell to the ground. Another hissing rang, and the other monkey, who had been cowering in the corner, died. She felt someone pick her up, and saw that it was Kain. “You okay?” he asked with concern.

“Just… fine.” she replied. She was lying a bit, but she didn’t want him to be worried about her. Before she could argue, she felt Kain’s Ether rub against her back as he frowned.

“Some bruising, maybe a small crack, but nothing too major. I’d try to use Ether to heal you, but I don’t want anything to go wrong.” he said. “Come on, let’s find somewhere to rest.” He climbed out of the room after gathering her things and left the area. On their way out, she noticed that the pigs had almost entirely devoured the moss blobs, so they were not an issue.

Kain traveled slowly and carefully, but was still quick by most standards. After a bit of running, they stumbled upon a forested area. The trees were unfamiliar, all slightly gnarled and twisted but still lush and healthy with a thick canopy of leaves. Treading carefully, Kain inched his way into the forest while watching out for any other surprises. As they continued, the trees thickened, then began to thin. Soon, they had reached a clearing with nothing but a large circular building. It had 2 floors to it, and had the middle cut out, making the building look like a ring from above. “Hmm… interesting. It seems like we can rest here.” he concluded. Sighing, he came close to the doors and opened them carefully. Inside, the room were rows of pews that wrapped around a semi-circular room, all of which faced an altar. However, instead of a lectern, as Kain had described to her before, there was an ominous red pillar that had crashed into the altar.