Immediately, a few things happen in quick succession.

The beast, upon laying eyes on us, immediately rears its head and breathes a huge amount of fire directly towards us. I watch, as if in slow motion, as it comes towards us; bizarrely, the fireball almost looks like it has a face on it; then, before it can reach us, something small and round shoots into the air, and absorbs the full force of the flame. The ball uncurls, revealing itself to be Ted, who seems to be channeling the fire with a maniacal look in his eyes.

“Scatter!” I shout, running to the side, in case Ted’s block falls through. The others follow suit.

Ted lands on the ground, seemingly unhurt, and with a yell, shoots all of the fire straight back at our foe. Unfortunately, it seems to be completely unfazed by having its own fire blasted at it. The beast simply reaches out one of its spider legs and stabs it straight through his heart.

I cannot let that stand. Thinking fast, I reason that the spindly quality of the legs makes them susceptible to attack, so I charge it with my sword drawn.

Ashley runs straight at the spider monster, while Nova charges up his lightning attack. He rains thunder down upon the monster’s head. No visible damage is done, but the creature releases Ted and turns its head towards us. Just the sight of that thing looking at us is almost enough to make me pee myself.

“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” Nova shouts. “What the hell do we do? Fire doesn’t work! Lightning doesn’t work…”

“Nova… you have the powers of Thor, right?” I ask him.

“Uh, I think so.”

“Remember in The Avengers when he swung his hammer around like a helicopter propeller and flew in the air?”

However, I hear a roar, and I turn my head back towards the monster. It is now shooting more of that sludge all around the room. Which reminds me… I should probably go check on Ted.

I leap forward and start swiping at its legs. As I suspected, they are easily crumpled by my sword. I keep up the assault, trying to knock it off balance.

It isn’t having any of that, however, and kicks out at me with legs that I haven’t hit yet. Somehow, I’m not affected by these attacks at all; in fact, contact with my armor just seems to hurt the legs more.

“Not today, asshole,” I say to myself, very pleased with this turn of events. However, the beast lets out a bellowing roar. Around me, I see some type of toxic fluid raining down on the room. Then, with surprising agility, the beast dashes across the room, leaving the sludge to flood towards me. It covers me up to my knees and seems to seep right through the armor, painfully assaulting my very skin.

Everything’s moving too quickly! What the fuck! The thing roars, Anja just kind of runs off, then the creature dashes across the room. I’m having trouble keeping track of it all.

I try to stay focused. What did Anja just say? Oh yeah. I try swinging my hammer around, and though it seems humanly impossible, soon enough it is spinning like a propeller, and I am rising into the air.

I use this flight ability to chase after the creature. After running several yards, it comes to a halt, and turns back around towards the others. It doesn’t see me landing on its back…

“NOVA!” Anja shouts from somewhere I can’t see. “GET RID OF THE CANNONS!”

I look at the cannons that are mounted near its head, and I start carefully making my way forward towards them.

By the time I’ve reached Ted, I noticed that Ashley is being engulfed by the sludge pool. She seems to lose her balance and fall face forward into it, which looks really bad. I see that Nova was able to get on the monster’s back, so I shout at him to take out the cannons.

Then, I get on one knee and look over Ted. He has a nasty black substance coming from the hole in his chest, and he is laying so still that he could be dead. I lay my hand on him and using my healing move, and thankfully he stirs and wakes up. He stands up and coughs up more the black stuff. “Those legs… they have a curse on them,” he says.

“We’d better keep our distance, then,” I remark. I then turn to Ashley, who has disappeared under the pool of sludge.

“Oh shit! Ashley!” I shout, running towards it.

“You must have another ability,” Ted tells me. “Maybe something that can help here?”

I stop and take a deep breath. Wait a minute… At a burst of sudden inspiration, I start turning my hands over each other, manipulating the very air. (Or… wait, is there technically air in the Metaverse?) Anyway, I’m able to create a flurry of winds that blows the sludge away towards the wall.

“Huh, I guess it’s never too late to randomly realize you have a new ability,” I remark, more to myself than anything else.

We rush over to Ashley, who’s been revealed amidst the pool. As we’re running over to her, she is starting to get to her feet, but she looks very shaky.

“Can you heal her, Ted?” I ask. “I don’t think I got much magic left after that…”

Ted does so, also seeming to give himself a pick-me-up in the process.

“Um… good job, guys,” Ashley says awkwardly. “Let’s go help Nova.”

I arrive at the cannon on the left, and I wail on it with my hammer. It only takes a few hits for it to come loose. The creature diverts its attention away from the others, and starts running around in circles, trying to shake me off. I stand my ground, and with another swipe of my hammer, the cannon breaks clear off. I turn to go get the cannon on the right, but then I see a huge amount of electric arcing from beneath my feet. I brace myself for pain. The electric current runs through me… but I don’t feel pain at all, actually. In fact, I feel stronger! Hell yeah! Emboldened, I run over to break the other cannon.

Anja, Ted and I run to the monster just in time to watch Nova knock one of the cannons off of it. It is trying to use its robotic arms to swipe at its back, but they are too short.

“Okay, Anja… in just a moment, fire a round right into its face,” I tell her. I take a deep breath, and then I throw my light attack at it with as much force as I can. I see some cracks in its abdomen, and a few of its legs break clean apart. In between the cracks, I see inside the metal hull, to see some sort of strange spinning contraption…

Anja recognizes my cue and lets loose right into it.

Our dual assault seems to be effective. For the cherry on top, Nova makes use of this distraction to finish off its second cannon.

The creature is now bleeding all over its face, and it’s only barely still standing. It looks furious…

Its eyes light up a bright white, and then it lets out a terrible roar, more guttural than any sound it has made yet.

Then, something absolutely unbelievable happens.

We hear a loud cracking sound coming from above us. I look up to see that it’s coming from the moon in the sky, which we can still see through the broken glass on the ceiling. The moon appears to be breaking apart and cracking… like an egg…

“What the motherfucking christ?” Anja asks, terror in her voice. I share her sentiment.

The moon… breaks apart into halves, and from inside it, one of the cherubim creatures flies down. It swoops straight down at Nova, knocking him off of the beast’s back.

“Go help him!” I shout at Ted. “It has to be him…”

Ted nods in understanding and takes off towards where Nova fell.

Its eyes still white, the beast then locks eyes on us, and before we can do anything to react, it unleashes another fire attack. This time I’m sure of it; I see a miserable skull face in the flames as they shoot towards me and sear me from head to toe.

The thing slams me to the floor and begins scratching me all over. I tried to whack at it with my hammer, but it has my arms pinned down. I focus my energy, and bring down a lightning bolt right onto it, now knowing that I have nothing to fear from electricity in this world.

The force of the blast knocks it away from me, allowing me to get to my feet. The thing is getting back on its feet and preparing to make another leap at me…

When suddenly, a familiar gunshot rings through my ears, and the winged thing’s head explodes. I look to my side and see that Ted has come to my aid. Unexpectedly, he then proceeds to climb up my back and sit on my shoulder.

“This is your moment, Nova!” he tells me.

I turn back towards the monster. I see both Ashley and Anja lying on the floor, looking charred all over… Then, the spider creature turns towards me, the white glow fading from its eyes.

“You’re going to pay for that!” I shout at it. I run towards it and prepare to do another leap right into it.

However, the creature still has some limited mobility, and is able to move enough to meet me halfway and grab me out of the air with one if its arms. Then, it opens its mouth, and starts slowly moving closer… I understand that I’m about to become dinner.

“NO! NOT INTO THE MOUTH!” Ted shouts in my ear. He unexpectedly leaps up off of my shoulder and manages to stick a landing right on the edge of the creature’s mouth. He then unloads every round he has straight down its throat…

The creature drops me on to the floor, and its jaws close down onto Ted. He goes back inside his shell right before the impact, but the creature’s bite still has enough force to dent his shell, leaving Ted to fall uselessly back to the ground.

Then, I see something I didn’t expect. While the creature was trying to eat me, Ashley had somehow gotten to her feet and was now standing under the creature again.

“Finish this, Nova!” Ashley shouts at me. She takes a huge swipe at one of its legs, cutting it clear in half. The creature screams in agony, and it finally totally loses balance and falls to the floor, its legs useless. Ashley is crushed underneath the hull. Ouch…

Now motionless, the creature simply glares at me, and is trying to swipe me with its arms. I know what I must do.

I use the propeller technique to bring myself into the air- as far as I can go. Then, I take my hammer, and I bring it down right onto the top of its head.

The force of my hit dislodges the head. Its neck breaks apart, spewing some type of tar-like substance up like a geyser.

I jump off of its head and see that the creature is finished. Its head seems to quickly break down, and shatter into nothingness. Where the neck was, I see inside the hull. It appears to be a giant centrifuge, which is now slowing down. When it finally comes to a stop, the metal hull itself disintegrates, leaving behind a strange glass capsule, large enough to fit a person into.

I lean down to Anja. She looks terrible. Her skin is covered with black soot, and her dress is singed off in places that I’m… trying not to look at.

I lower my hand to her forehead. After a few seconds, she sleepily opens her eyes.

“Hey… Nova…”

“What is it?”

“Do you think that I’m… hot?”

“…What?”

“I mean… I was basically just cooked alive…”

“Oh yeah, that.”

She giggles at me weakly, and then pushes herself to a sitting up position and embraces me.

“We won, Anja,” I tell her. “We defeated the… whatever.”

“Yeah. I figured so. What happened to the rest of our party?”

I help her get to her feet. Several yards away, Ted lies. His shell is still crumpled, and his head and appendages are limply hanging out of it.

Anja scoops him into her arms and carries him like a baby. “He’s still alive… I hear breathing,” she says. “Poor little guy, though. I think he took more of a beating today than the rest of us put together.”

Then, we walk towards the capsule. A few feet away from it, lies Ashley. She’s managed to get herself up to a sitting position before we even get over there.

“Ashley, how did you get all of the way over here?” Anja asks her.

“I walked over here. What kind of question is that?”

“We were both hit by the fire attack over there.”

“Well, I wasn’t quite finished yet, now was I?”

Anja pouts. “That’s not fair. How come you survived the attack, but it finished me off in one hit?”

“I only barely stayed conscious through that. I don’t know, maybe you’re weak to fire.”

“Maybe you need to get good,” I suggest.

“Oh, shut up, you!” Anja barks at me. But she’s smiling, so I think she’s not actually mad.

We gather around the capsule. As we do, a door opens in the front, releasing a bunch of white mist. In the middle of it, is Pavia, at his regular size and wearing his usual judge clothes.

“Urgh… so you came back yet again,” he says begrudgingly. “You kids never listen to what you’re told to do, do you?”

“Shut your mouth! We beat you!” I yell at him, feeling immensely pleased to finally have him at my mercy.

“It’s the truth,” Ashley agrees. “I just hope we were able to beat some sense into you, as well.”

“You’re going to let my sister and I stay with my dad, right?” I ask him threateningly.

“You… understand my decision-making process, right?” he pleads. “I loathe seeing wasted potential in a young person…”

“Well, have you heard what we’ve been trying to tell you?” I argue. “I can’t get my stuff done with my mom around. Thinking about having to sit through a temper tantrum again makes me just want to quit any time I make a minor mistake…”

“I do regret having overlooked your mother’s… character flaws,” he admits. “I thought that perhaps a sterner, tougher hand could guide you in the right direction, but perhaps I was mistaken.”

“Well, what she’s like goes beyond being ‘stern’ and ‘tough,’” Anja comments. “It’s just outright abusive, the way she treats him. You should’ve known that from his testimonies!”

“There’s another thing too,” I add. “I’ve realized that… I can’t rely on someone else to let me live my life. I’ve gotta want it. Because someday, I’m gonna be an adult, and I’ll be on my own. I won’t have my parents to buy me video games and stuff anymore.”

“Nor will you have them to pay your rent,” Ashley comments. “But you know, that’s secondary.”

“Right. So I gotta start getting ready for that now. I, uh, I don’t know exactly what I’m gonna do yet. But I’ll figure out something. I gotta.”

“We’ll be here to support you, too!” Anja says, smiling at me. “I won’t try and tell you what to do. But anything I can do to help, just ask.”

“Uh, yeah. Sounds good. Thanks,” I reply, caught off guard by this.

“Very well, then,” Pavia says. “I will… put you where you need to be to do that, then.”

“Hell yeah!” I say. That means we won for real!

“Hey, before you fade away or whatever,” Anja says hastily, “I wanna ask, like… what the fuck is with that ugly spider thing?”

“Well Anja,” Ashley starts to explain, “Don’t you remember what Lucy told us before coming in? About the palace owners taking on monstrous appearances?”

“Yes, I remember! But doesn’t this just seem… out of place to you?”

“Remember what that Sarah chick said?” I say. “She said she ‘did a good job on him’ or whatever.”

“What are you talking about?” Ashley asks, frowning at me.

“Right before she released the thing on us,” I explain. “And then she said something about his original form being too weak…”

Ashley turns towards Pavia. “What is your relationship to this Sarah woman?” she asks him.

“Hmm? Which one?” he replies, looking puzzled. “There is a Sarah that I know from church…”

“Does she have dark skin?” Ashley questions him.

“And long hair?” I add.

“And a really thick ass?” Anja says, a twinkle in her eyes.

“Uhh… no,” Pavia says, looking even more confused. “I have no idea who you’re talking about…”

“What the hell, man?” I question him. “You don’t even know who’s running around inside your own palace?”

“That’s… existentially terrifying, in a way,” Ashley muses. “And what about that cloaked figure? With the electric gun?”

“I’ve… seen no such thing,” Pavia answers, looking concerned.

“Is there anyone you know of who’s supposed to be here other than that assistant of yours?” Ashley presses.

“Assistant? I don’t have an assistant!” Pavia replies.

“I literally saw you two talking yesterday, though,” Ashley counters. “Remember Luke?”

“He’s not my assistant. He was simply… a client of mine. He warned me that you lot were coming and helped me prepare…”

“A client of yours? Why did he do this? How did he know about us?” Ashley asks, rapid-fire.

“Look, girl, we operated on a need-to-know basis!” he says, starting to get irritated. “I really don’t know much more than you do.”

“Okay, well…” Anja says, scratching her head. “I think I’m more confused now than I was when I asked the initial question…”

“Well, it looks like we’re not going to get any more useful information out of him,” Ashley laments. “Let’s just get out of here. We can think about this stuff later.”

“Yeah, let’s get out of here,” I agree. “The blood coming out of those statues’ mouths is about to reach our feet.”

“Ack! I forgot about that!” Anja screams, looking around and noticing it herself. “Yep, all in agreement. Let’s go.”