The rest of the city cracked and buckled beneath our advance. Paltry groups of Monsters were flung our way, but even as desperation settled in for the Crimson Shadows, our Party was just unstoppable once the ball was rolling.

  It was clear to me that they were just buying time now. After fumbling with the ambush meant to stop us, the Lady would pool all her important resources into protecting the keep. With a Party at each of the beacons, she couldn’t afford to lose any more powerful pawns throwing them at us one by one.

  An almost tangible reality, as no sooner had I thought this, I paused. A pain, and warmth ran down my right arm.

  “Shit,” Ren swore, able to feel it too, while the bear just grunted.

  “What is it?” Tanya asked, looking around for looming danger.

  I didn’t know for certain, but this puzzle had so few pieces that it was easy to see the picture even without knowing how to fit them together.

  “The Lady has just killed the clone-making individual,” I responded, my own eyes trying to make out any clues from the keep ahead. “That means she has the power of two Guardians.”

  “Let’s hope it’s too much for her and her head pops off,” Ren murmured.

  Downplaying my ego aside, splitting the powers amongst the three of us wasn’t just through generosity and happenstance. Without knowing enough about the Guardians and their powers, it was equally reasonable to assume that they wouldn’t like being squished into one mortal form. The Lady in Red must be biting her nails to think that taking that risk was worth more than having another ally on her side.

  I tried to ignore what it might mean if I killed her.

  The sky flickered, some of the crimson bathing the city growing more dull. As we looked over to the side, one of the beacons went inert.

  [Fiona: East beacon disabled. East team heading home due to injury.]

  [Fiona: Hold for western updates.]

  [Max: We are almost at the keep.]

  No deaths, but down to ten of us left in the city. I couldn’t fault Leyla’s group for taking a bow and exiting stage right. Depending on how grievous their injuries were, they might not be much use to us, anyway. Better they live than fall so close to the end.

  Wolf sniffed at the air. “Something lies in wait ahead.”

  “A trap?” I narrowed my eyes at the set of wide steps leading up to the keeps large doorway. There was a suspicious lack of anything at all defending it, aside from the scorch marks from where the mortar had exploded.

  Ren fired a shot into the air and then held her hand out, the bullet bursting high up and turning into a cloud. Jagged bolts of lightning fell down from it, stopping a good forty feet in the air, as the whole area around the keep was protected by a magical field.

  “No choice but to find out firsthand,” I said with a shrug. Even as my demonic ace passed through the invisible barrier and swirled around the area by the door, I was unable to get it to cast any spell scrolls while I remained outside the bubble.

  The potential ambush aside, it was strange to have come all this way, and this was the end. After having survived the gritty ruthlessness of her gang, we had gone from strength to strength chasing down the Lady. Defeated titans and great beasts, gaining Guardian powers for the three of us, and made a few allies. There were new Players in the first area that had no clue about what was going on right now, nor what the world was really like before we had come along and carved through it all.

  As a Party of five, we stepped along the last part of the main road, entering the protective bubble. Nothing immediately happened, but I could see Wolf was still on edge. We all were.

  “They’re probably expecting us to knock,” Quinn said. “Why don’t we make an entrance worthy of our spirit?” His hand went down to where his explosive boomerang was stored.

  I smiled and stepped to the side. “Be my guest.” An ambush just inside the doorway was tactically reasonable. Blowing the door inward would put the advantage of surprise in our court.

  He withdrew it and took a deep breath. As we all watching him draw the item back, winding up for the throw—that’s when the trap was sprung on us.

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  A crocodilian beast appeared to our right, both Ren and I turning on a dime to fire on it. The System told me it was some form of basilisk, just as its brains blew out of its severed head near instantly. A second had appeared on the other side of us. Wolf roared, but our focus had been drawn away by the other.

  The second basilisk breathed a cone of yellow gas over the group of us. Ren and I switched with our birds back to the road just as the monster blinked away with a teleport. Wolf was dazed, shaking a dizziness from his head after one of his abilities had burned up.

  Quinn stood in front of Tanya, arms wide to protect her. He was also now completely stone. A one-eyed statue, boomerang still in one hand.

  “Quinn? Quinn?” Tanya took a moment to fully process what had just happened, the shock slowly registering.

  “Hold on,” I said, stepping aside as two stone birds fell down to the road, shattering. “Let me read the icon.”

  [Basilisk Petrification] [Target remains stone. Victims of the basilisk can be cured should the monster be slain.]

  “He isn’t dead,” I confirmed. “We just need to kill the Monster.” The one that had conveniently teleported away and could remain stealthed.

  The fateweaver looked distraught. “He’s such a foolish asshole, I am already immune to petrification. It should have been me protecting him.”

  Ren slowly circled the statue of Quinn, scowling at it. “You saw how those birds shattered, though. Without a way of us finding that Monster near instantly, Quinn is vulnerable.”

  Tanya’s face went through a series of emotions, looking between me and the elf. A conversation that needn’t be vocalized, and the conclusion begrudgingly accepted. “Motherfuckers,” she eventually sighed. “I hate this, but the alternative is unpalatable.”

  She stepped away from Quinn to give us each a quick hug, slipping us as many idols as she could make. With tears in her eyes, she returned to the petrified man and gave me a glum smile. “Fucking… don’t fail us. Don’t die, you assholes.”

  “You have my word.” I smiled and took down my hat, stepping forward to place it on Quinn’s. Funny how things end how they started, but at least I didn’t crack my head on this rock first. I slipped a card into the ribbon and stepped away. “This will let you teleport with him. If we can free him, then you’re welcome to return, but I won’t put you in any danger.”

  After she nodded her understanding, they both went in a flash of blue.

  “At least he didn’t die in your stead,” Ren said, her bright eyes scouring the surroundings for where the basilisk might have gone. “And then there were three.”

  One of the differences between the Lady and us was that I didn’t see my allies as dispensible assets. Their safety was paramount, even if that meant I had to personally struggle and suffer that little more. We could stand and defend Quinn, maybe spend time trying to hunt the Monster down, but that just gave the Crimson Shadow more of an advantage.

  I adjusted my suit, ignoring the bloodied cuts through several parts from my duel with the samurai. The idol she had left me with was the one that increased the damage dealt as well as the damage I’d take. Some classic self-destruction that suited me. Sending my companions away had just cooled my temperament, however.

  Into my right hand—which now sported a white glove—I drew a singular purple card. Dropped all my mana and then dipped into my health to empower it. Barely registered the healing Ren was providing me as I stared at the bright white rectangle. Dazzled by my own power. Strong enough to cut through metal and stone.

  As well as every other motherfucker in the way.

  It left my hand at speed, and I held my wrist with my left hand to control it. Straight through the wall of the keep, I angled it back and forth in a zig-zag pattern. There were shouts from inside. The sounds of something shattering, followed burst a short and sharp explosion. My ears hummed from the exertion, and then I let it go.

  “You can sense her here, can’t you?” Ren asked, her face like thunderous clouds.

  I could. The second reason for my dulled mood. That and being without my hat.

  “My charge is ready when you are,” Wolf agreed.

  It didn’t quite make up for being blue balled over Quinn’s boomerang, but after we put additional defensive buffs on the bear, he flashed forward and obliterated the large wooden door. Up close, the keep looked like the sturdiest structure we had come across. Much like the towers we had fought through, but sized up to fit several regiments rather than just a small group.

  As the cloud of dust and debris cleared, we switched positions with our birds to land inside beside Wolf. Ren’s rifle went off, blowing the skull of a wounded Player open, as the bear continued his stampede into a group of Monsters. There was a dead Player who had taken my card through the neck, and three others who had been burned to death—to the bone—in short order by whatever had exploded amongst them. Inside this once-banquet hall, a stairway at the back led up to the next floor.

  A long table and dozens of chairs had been stacked up against the side wall to make room for the ambush and fight, and tapestries painted over by large red hand-prints decorated the walls. At least on the inside of the building, the glow of the beacons wasn’t present.

  [Fiona: West team disabling beacon. Two returned home.]

  I shot her a quick message to ask who had gone back to the cottage. She told me the paladin had almost died stopping a Player dealing the death blow to Percius, and they had both gone back straight after—her orders. Magnus was being patched up by Ruby and would be fine to continue soon.

  Part of me wanted to tell them to head home after the beacon was shut off. I still had one ace up my sleeve that we had only briefly discussed. [Guild Recall] gave everyone the opportunity to accept or decline a teleport to my location. But nobody had a second get-out-of jail-free card. Me bringing them here couldn’t guarantee their safety.

  I shook my head. All of that meant nothing right now. The Lady was above us, and the beacon was even higher than that.

  The sky rumbled, a dry storm shaking the atmosphere.

  Wolf grunted, turning his keen nose toward the shattered doorway.

  “We have a slight issue,” he said, as voices started to echo from the city.