Around that same time Sid was pacing the Hallow, feeling sorry for himself and just listening to the sound of the rain falling all around him. It began slowing down, the clouds clearing and a rainbow becoming visible in the sky. But that did little to improve his mood.

Meg really thinks I'm careless all the time? I guess, but it's not my fault. I want to stop the Cultists and save Robyn just as much as the rest of them. It's just...

He sighed, not being able to find any words in his head to finish that thought. He reached into his inventory and pulled out a pretty, pearlescent butterfly.

Last time I saw you, I fainted. I've got unfinished business I'd like to settle.

He placed the Prismatic Lacewing on the ground, and watched as it fluttered away, emanating a reflective, crystalline effect around itself. Undoubtedly the most beautiful sight one could ever lay their eyes on.

Then Sid blew it up with a rocket.

He heard a familiar shriek as the Empress of Light appeared in front of him from her rainbow aurora. He was assaulted once again by her sheer beauty – her glowing, luminescent wings that flashed in all the colours of the rainbow. Her pink-and-blue crystal dress, which wove in intricate curves around her body. Her golden headdress, which was topped with a cerulean crystal. Her angelic face with her light-pink hair, though her nose was perhaps a bit too long.

"You again?" the Empress shrieked. "How could you kill something so innocent and pure? Much less twice??"

"The first time, because I was a dumb jerk," Sid said. "The second time, now, is because I want to speak with you."

"Speak with me?" the Empress threw back her head, her long nose pointing straight up into the sky, and laughed. "What makes you think you've earned that privilege? I am literally the goddess of the Hallow, behind scrubbing the land of all impurity! You, sir, are the most impure being to ever stroll into my domain!"

"I challenge you to a duel," Sid said without hesitation or fear.

The Empress laughed again. "You are a fool as well as impure! I'm literally called the Empress of Light! When you last disrupted my domain, your friends were fortunate that it was night-time. But at daytime," she pointed a crystal-gloved finger to the sun, "I can use the light from the sun to incinerate anything instantly! You, kind sir, are going to die! Why would you wish to embark on such a reckless venture?"

"I intend to prove to my friends that I'm not stupid, or reckless, or impulsive," Sid replied.

"Well, I'd say you've already done a very fine job of that so far!"

Sid rolled his eyes at her sarcasm, but stayed focussed. "How about we cut a deal? If I beat you, you'll tell all my friends that despite my flaws, I still have the drive to fight and win at all costs. I'm literally putting my life on the line to fight you. Something I didn't have to do, something I'm choosing to do."

The Empress seemed to take a moment to consider this. "Deal." She hovered upwards, and a set of large yellow rays began sprouting out from behind her, like a sun behind her back. "Your move."

Sid held up his Rocket Launcher, which he'd still had in his hands, then threw it to the side.

A surprised look flashed across the Empress's face, but that quickly disappeared when Sid flew up and whipped out his Sanguine Staff.

His Deadly Sphere Staff was more powerful, but the red bats that the Sanguine Staff summoned were his fastest summon. If there was anything that could keep up with the Empress, it would be them.

She strafed along the sky, unleashing an array of glowing yellow bolts that hovered in the sky for a moment before shooting forward in an arc towards Sid. Their trajectory was predictable however, and Sid dropped down to avoid them. He summoned a Frost Hydra on the ground. He doubted it would contribute much damage since most of the fight would be taking place high in the sky, but he'd take all the help he could get.

The Empress shrieked and charged towards Sid, blurred illusory images of herself rotating around her as she moved, but he quickly dodged to the left. Bright yellow lines then appeared all throughout the sky, which each then had a blinding white lance shoot along each of them. Sid made sure to keep off of all of the lines to avoid being jousted.

He pulled out a new weapon – a Tactical Shotgun. This had been one that somebody had picked up in the Dungeon, but had just put it into one of the chests at home. Sid had chosen it and paired it with Chlorophyte Bullets – ammunition which could home in on targets. That meant that even though the shotgun fired a semi-inaccurate spread of shots, every single one of them would immediately fly after the Empress and hit her. And he could just keep firing, over and over again.

The Empress charged again, then unleashed a ring of white star-projectiles that spiralled out from her, leaving glowing yellow trails in their wake. Sid made sure to avoid them.

"You fight gallantly and have avoided being smitten by even one of my attacks," the Empress shouted after some time. "But sooner or later, you will slip up."

Suddenly a spiral of yellow lines began appearing all around Sid, meaning lances flying from all directions. He dodged to the side right as the first bunch started shooting. The Empress did one of her illusory dashes, but then emanated her Sun Dance, and she was close enough that one of the rays struck Sid.

He took no damage.

He let himself fall, out of the ray's touch, then flew to the side and faced the Empress.

"You took a hit?!"

"Hallowed Armour, your majesty," Sid said.

"Of course, its Holy Protection is very protective. But it can't always be there for you."

Sid knew this. His armour's built-in Holy Protection ability could completely nullify the damage from any attack, but there was a 30 second cooldown before it could come back. He had to not be hit again in that time period.

He dodged and weaved, continuing to take part in this dance with the Empress. A dance where she was in the lead, leaving Sid with no choice but to follow her every movement, lest he be slain. His Tactical Shotgun banged and banged, and his summons chipped away at the Empress's health.

She eventually cast a volley of Ethereal Lances that proved to be too dense for Sid to completely dodge, but luckily the 30 second cooldown had just elapsed, meaning he again took no damage. However, in dodging a later attack, Sid then found he had been put into the perfect position for the Empress to charge into him.

This is where chance comes in.

She hit him.

And he survived.

The Empress turned back to face him.

"Impossible..."

"How about I explain after I win?" Sid smiled.

And win he did. Before too long, the Empress's health had been brought down enough that she disappeared, fading into the sky. Sid saw the usual drops pop out from where she'd been – health potions, coins, and a weapon. Flying down, he saw it was a new whip, which shone in multiple colours like everything about the Empress – the Kaleidoscope.

"So, you have won the duel."

Sid turned to find the Empress had reappeared, now hovering in the air behind him some distance away, not so far that she'd be too hard to hear, but not so close that she'd appear overbearing or threatening.

"If you had lost, it would have meant your death," she said. "But you prepared. You chose the best weapons to use against fast-moving opponents like myself. Knowing my attacks would kill you in one hit, you chose to wear Hallowed Armour. What escapes me, is how you managed to avoid damage from another attack before your Holy Protection had refreshed."

"It wasn't perfect protection," Sid said. "I crafted Master Ninja Gear, which gives me a 16% chance of dodging attacks, and also used my Brain of Confusion, which I've had on me for a very long time. There was a chance in whether or not I would have been able to avoid your attacks while my Holy Protection was down, yes, but that chance rolled in my favour."

"You took a risk," the Empress said. "Some may consider such a risk to be foolish. I pose no threat to you; you are not in any less danger overall having bested me in combat, nor are you any closer to achieving your overall goals. But you prepared for the best possible chance of success."

"Exactly. Sure, sometimes I can be a bit... silly, but whenever I put my mind to something, nothing's going to stop me."

"Until a roll of the dice strikes you down."

Sid shrugged. "Sometimes you don't have a choice but to rely on the odds. Sometimes it may be better to just ignore them and hope for the best, use sheer will and determination to get through. In the words of Han Solo, 'Never tell me the odds'."

"This Han Solo sounds like a wise person."

Sid tried not to chuckle.

The Empress of Light began floating towards him, and seemed to shrink down to the same size as him. In her hands, she held a blade made from a prismatic material that resembled that of a Prismatic Lacewing.

"This is the Terraprisma," the Empress said. "One of my blades, capable of decimating any opponent. Only the very bold, and the most pure, can wield such a weapon. If you show this to your friends, it will tell them all they need to know."

Sid reached out, and took it with two hands.

The Empress then rose up, vanishing into a prismatic aurora.

***

Sid returned to the Forest Village, Terraprisma in hand. He saw Meg speaking with the Wizard. He took a deep breath, and approached them.

She turned her head and spotted him.

"Sid," she said.

"I just want to say," he said first, "I'm sorry. I know we don't always get along, but we're in this together. We have a common goal, and even if it may not always look like it, I want nothing more than to put an end to the Cultists and bring back Robyn. The only thing that's going to stand in our way is not working together."

"I know," Meg said, and she sounded genuinely sympathetic. "I too, am apologetic for becoming infuriated with you. We work differently, and that's okay. Perhaps if you hadn't blown up the village, it would have gotten overrun by vampires and we'd all be dead. Some of us... like me... some of us play it safe but end up losing anyway. You..." her voice caught, as she tried to find words, "You shoot for Mars when the rest of us just aim for the moon."

Sid found himself smiling, feeling warm inside.

Maybe he never needed the Terraprisma or the Empress's approval to set things right with Meg.

But if it was as powerful as a weapon as she'd said, he was sure he'd be glad to have it.

"Speaking of the Cultists," the Wizard said, "We were just discussing this, but they have revealed themselves."

Sid stabbed his Terraprisma into the ground and leant on it.

"About bloody time!"

"There's just one problem."

"What is it?"

"The Dungeon has been walled in in a massive fortress."