Lauri's eye twitched as he took in his newest problem.
'I was wondering where you'd be.'
If Lauri had any reservations about whether reaching the seed would allow him to escape this particular dream, they were dashed to pieces finding the Whispering King guarding it. Cyan mist drifted through the eyeslits in its helmet as the Whispering King slowly raised its head as if to acknowledge Lauri's arrival.
Lauri looked at the back of Jet's head.
'Now how is she going to react? The Whispering King obviously wasn't here the last time we made our mad dash to the seed to escape that rampaging Great Titan. Is she just going to try and reach for the seed regardless?'
"This might be a problem."
Adjusting her grip on her weapon, Jet returned Lauri's gaze.
'I can work with that.'
"Since you don't actually exist, I don't feel bad about sacrificing you. So do you think you can distract that thing? I'm going to go touch the seed."
Jet's expression grew blank for a moment before she turned her head back to the Whispering King; she adjusted her grip on her weapon.
"This might be a problem."
"Yeah, alright."
Turning into light, Lauri dashed across the nova, past the Whispering King. Reaching the seed, Lauri reappeared, his fingers inches from touching the statue – when the Whispering King moved. Stomping the floor, shards from the broken pews littering the floor were thrown into the air, tearing its sword from the ground. It swatted a large piece of wood with the flat of the blade, batting it at Lauri.
Moments before Lauri escaped, the shard of wood broke through the light armour, causing his entire chestplate to shatter into a myriad of sparkles as it went on to pierce Lauri's side. Sending him careening away from the seed. Hitting the ground, Lauri screamed as the piece of wood in his side hit the ground multiple times as he rolled.
It felt like someone had just driven a wooden stake into his soul.
"AH! Gods!"
Putting his fingers on the wood, Lauri flinched, feeling as it moved.
'How the– It's just a normal piece of wood, how did it break my armour… Right, dreams don't need to make sense.'
Wrapping his hand around the wood, Lauri yanked it out and immediately regretted the decision, feeling a torrent of blood leak from the wound.
"Agh– Why did I pull that out!"
Raising his head, the pain in Lauri's mind subsided for a moment as he saw that Jet had engaged the Whispering King. Although it was only 'engage' in the broadest sense.
The Whispering King was evading each of Jet's attacks, taking large steps to avoid her blade.
Jamming his hand against the wound in his side, Lauri's brow furrowed as he saw the Whispering King evade another attack. A dark emotion welled up inside Lauri's chest as he found his way to his knees.
'It knows Jet's Aspect; how could it know…'
How did the Whispering King know to evade Jet's attacks – attacks that bypass all defences and strike directly at the soul. The Nightmare Creature had never met Jet, not the real version of her still in Antarctica, in Falcon Scott, far from the ravine where the last of the seven bridges had been brought low – where Lucky's master plan had sent the Whispering King by knocking out the ground from beneath it.
But yet regardless of this fact, the Whispering King was still on the defensive.
Not attempting to parry or block, simply dodging.
This wasn't the first time the Whispering King had shown Lauri things he had no way of knowing. During his losing fight against the Whispering King, Lauri's mind had been overtaken by visions:
Jet carving through the Whispering Legion.
Maeve slipping between the attacks of the Pawns and Rooks.
Savina descending on her foes with fang and claw.
Eden channelling nature, her living army against the army of Nightmare Creatures.
And Samuel, duelling the Whispering King alone.
How could the Whispering King have known any of this…
'It's reading my mind…'
Finally standing, Lauri's teeth started to hurt from how hard he was clenching his jaw. He didn't know when that had started.
Opening his mouth, Lauri licked his lips.
'The Whispering King, that damn thing got its fingers into my mind at some point. To perfectly craft those visions to mess with me, to craft these dreams to mess with me… Every second I'm starting to miss having [Well of Light] more and more.'
Staring at the ongoing fight, Lauri glanced toward the seed. It was only fifteen feet away, but what would the Whispering King do to impede him this time? Throw another piece of wood at him? Throw his sword?
Lauri wasn't waiting to find out.
Channelling essence through his body, Lauri made a mad dash toward the seed.
At the same time, Jet lashed out at the Whispering King, forcing it to twist its body aside. Its head snapped toward Lauri. The Whispering King moved to intercept him, leaving Jet behind.
Lauri poured more essence into himself.
Three steps.
Two.
The Whispering King was almost on him.
One step away, the Whispering King had reached him, lunging after Lauri. Its sword sweeping through the space Lauri was about to cross into, moments from slicing through Lauri's chest. But at the last second, Lauri feinted, pushing off with his left foot. Lauri managed to get out of the way of the Whispering King's attack.
Holding out his arms, Lauri stepped forward and wrapped them around the Whispering King like one might embrace a lover. Squeezing as tightly as he could, he pinned the Whispering King's arms against its body.
Lauri had noticed one more peculiarity whilst observing the Whispering King evading Jet's attacks. Not only did it know what Jet's Aspect was, but the Whispering King appeared weaker in this dream. Jet's ability to damage its soul should have been negligible; the Whispering King, a Corrupted Tyrant, should have had the power to overwhelm the real version of Jet, an Ascended. But for some reason, it didn't or wasn't able to exert its full power so that a mere Awakened could contend with it.
A reason Lauri was more than happy to capitalise on.
The Whispering King stretched, and Lauri immediately felt as if his arms might snap from the effort of holding onto the Whispering King. The light armour that covered his arms broke from the pressure.
With the pain in his arms, Lauri felt unbelievable pain as his soul felt the equivalent harm. Had Lauri needed to hold the Whispering King back for even ten seconds, the strain might have been enough to shatter his soul outright.
But Jet was quick enough to cover the distance in only three seconds; her blade passed through the Whispering King's shoulder unimpeded.
Lauri let go of the Whispering King, paying it no mind as he took the final step toward the seed.
His fingers touched the frozen figure.
Lauri smiled.
He was taken back to NQSC, a dream of a memory of NQSC.
A gate towered over him, open; Nightmare Creatures were streaming out through the gaping wound in reality. All of them charged straight for him, and in the pack Lauri could make out the Whispering King; it lumbered forwards, the effect of having its soul damaged seeming to do little past the initial wound.
'How rude. In the first dream I'm with friends, in the second I start off alone but then get thrown to the wolves… The bugs? And in my third, I'm out of the frying pan, and straight into the fire. Oh well.'
Light burst from within Lauri's soul.
First Lauri guided it to wrap around his soul.
Next he used it to cover his mind.
Finally, he blanketed his body.
Shielded from the Whispering King's power, the dream started to decay. The Nightmare Creatures that were rushing from the gate stuttered and then broke apart, leaking into the world like a water stain leaking across a page of synthetic paper. The ink distorting before becoming entirely illegible.
The world began to leak into itself: the bright blue sky leaked into the open gate, the gate leaked into the dark street of NQSC, the street leaked into the buildings which leaked into one another, a door into a wall, a wall into a window, a window into the background.
Before long, there was no form, no more cohesion, just blurs of colour which gradually faded into nothing.
By the end, when there was nothing left, only two were left standing.
Lauri and the Whispering King.
Tilting his head to the side, Lauri smiled.
"It's a cool trick, but it's so easy to counteract. The next time I need to sleep, I'll just make sure to channel light, and we won't have to do this dance again."
As always, the Whispering King offered no response.
It just stood there, silent and patient as the dream came to an end.
Lauri bolted up with a gasp, the covers falling down to his waist. He felt terrible, as if his very soul had been run over and ground down beneath the very rhino he had been resting in.
Attempting to grasp the dream, as dreams often do. The more Lauri tried to recall it, the more it disappeared from his memory. The details of the dream faded until he could barely recall he had a dream at all.
Feeling cold sweat on his brow, Lauri moved to wipe it away.
He tried to wipe it away.
Lauri froze.
He had tried to touch his brow, but when he moved his arm, his hand never reached its destination. Looking at his arm, Lauri felt a lump form in his throat as he looked at the stump where his upper arm ended and his forearm never started. Reaching with tentative fingers, Lauri touched the bandage.
"My… my arm… I did so much with this arm, I killed so many things, I saved so many lives…"
Closing his eyes, Lauri covered his face as he tried to recall when exactly he had lost his prized arm.
"It was right at the end, right before Lucky threw Katrina forward and sent that thing down into the ravine. Its sword, it slipped through my guard and– and–"
Lauri sighed.
"Damn."
Opening his eyes, something caught his attention.
On a small table beside his bed, [Partition's Relief] was neatly folded. Lauri reached out, picking up the golden veil. It was soft, almost soothing to touch, as if the pain in his body lessened for a moment.
"Lot of good this did me, a Supreme memory and the only enchantment I can figure out is it can reduce damage."
Lauri glanced at where his left arm was a day prior.
Through gritted teeth, he grumbled.
"How… Great… Danse probably could have made better use of this than I did, getting stabbed in the chest, that fool. I hope he's alright… Danse!"
Lurching out of bed, Lauri got tangled in the sheets, causing him to hit the floor. A short fight against the sheets left them in tatters, and Lauri was on the move. Past the privacy divider and into the communication suite. Lauri almost knocked Sansa off the chair she was sitting on beside the holographic table.
Sansa's mouth hung open for a moment.
"C– Captain? You're awake–"
Lauri grabbed her by the shoulders.
"Where's Danse!"
Sansa's brow knit together; she pointed. Lauri followed her finger, toward the front of the rhino – the only direction possible.
"Ah."
Lauri turned back to Sansa.
"Right."
As Lauri broke into a run toward the living space, Sansa called after him:
"It's nice to see you up and about, Captain!"
Lauri's heart was beating fast. He had last seen Danse moments before fainting from blood loss, although considering Danse had been under Vick's care at the time, Lauri knew he would have to be fine – but yet concern nibbled at him.
Entering the living space, Lauri saw his Irregulars.
Mele sat alone on one couch, idly flipping through a book. Obviously paying little attention to the words actually on the pages.
Opposite her, Katrina and Lucky were sitting right beside each other. Katrina's head rested on Lucky's shoulder, his arms wrapped around her, looking as if he was worried she might slip away. Despite his rush to find Danse, Lauri's eyes stayed on Lucky. Something seemed wrong with the young man. Lucky was pale, sickly pale. His paper-white skin, a sharp contrast to his ginger hair.
Mele was the first to notice Lauri. Absent-mindedly looking up from her book, it slipped from her fingers as she saw Lauri in the doorway. The sound of the book hitting the floor caused Lucky to jump, which in turn woke Katrina.
Katrina looked at Lucky; she followed his gaze to Mele, and then at the same time, they both followed Mele's gaze, turning to see Lauri.
Before anyone could speak, Lauri asked:
"Danse?"
Katrina answered.
"He's with Vick."
She pointed toward the pilot's cabin.
Walking at a fast pace, Lauri stopped as he heard conversation.
"–I tell you, Vick, the first thing I'm doing when we get to Falcon Scott. Taking a dip in the sea, sure it might be a little cold, but it'll be good for my bones."
Vick sat in the driver's seat; she glanced at Danse for a moment before rolling her eyes.
"What a good idea."
Sarcasm played thick on her tone.
"Whilst you're at it, you should go swimming with whatever Nightmare Creatures are making their home beneath the waves. I'm sure they'd love a little appetiser."
Dramatically rolling his eyes at Vick's response, Danse noticed Lauri standing at the entrance to the cabin as his head tilted to the side.
"Lauri."
He moved to stand, but his expression grew pained, a hand touching the bandage on his chest.
Walking to Danse's side, Lauri smiled as he put a hand on Danse's shoulder.
"Please, Danse, you don't have to stand. You don't know how happy I am to see you're okay. The last thing I remember was you lying on the ground with Vick patching your insides back together."
Danse's eyes widened as he looked at Lauri, as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing.
"How happy you are? Speak for yourself; do you know how happy I am to see that you're okay? The last time I saw you, you collapsed onto the ground after noticing your entire arm was missing! Then you fell asleep for six hours! We were starting to worry you weren't going to wake up."
Hearing Danse mention how he had slept for six hours, Lauri's smile grew a touch strained.
"Six hours? It… it didn't feel like that."
A moment of silence followed Lauri's words before Vick spoke up.
"Sorry we weren't able to find your arm; I reckon I could have stitched it back on with my thread. But no luck. Kat thinks it fell off the edge of the ravine when she did her thing."
"I appreciate the thought."
Looking at his wounded arm, Lauri sighed before turning his head back to Vick, then he looked out the windshield. The rhino was proceeding slowly, as the windshield showed nothing but an impenetrable blizzard. Even the rhino's powerful headlights did little to cut through the white void.
"Vick, how come you're piloting? Lucky enjoying Katrina's company a little too much?"
Danse answered.
"Lucky's still suffering from essence exhaustion."
"Essence exhaustion? He hasn't managed to replenish himself in the last six hours? That's… unlucky. How unlike him. I had noticed he seemed a bit pale, almost sickly. He hasn't caught some kind of infection."
Vick shook her head.
"I gave him a look over before we left the ravine. No infection, neither of the mundane variety nor the mystical variety. Poor Lucky's just not on his lucky streak, I guess."
Watching the blizzard outside, Lauri held his troubled smile, letting the silence wash over his mind.
It was the first time he had felt at peace since before he and his Irregulars had been sent on the suicidal mission to destroy seven bridges in seven days, ending with facing the Whispering King and a small contingent of its legion. Taking a deep breath, Lauri touched the chair beside Danse's, letting his smile slowly return.
"I think I'll make a little speech. I'm sure everyone's feeling exhausted after this mess. I'm so relieved that there's nothing between Falcon Scott and us now, and if Central Command thinks they can send us on another wild goose chase after the week we've had. I'll let them know where they can shove it."
About to turn away, Lauri paused.
"Will you be joining us, Vick?"
Without taking her eyes off the world outside, Vick answered.
"I think I'm good here; I'll feel even better having put more distance between us and that ravine. Knowing the Whispering King is still around makes my skin crawl.
She shivered as if to add to her statement.
Softly shaking his head, Lauri continued on to leave, Danse following just behind.
As he reached the door, Vick called to him.
"It really is good to see you up and about, Lauri."
Stopping one more time, Lauri turned. His smile grew genuine as he locked eyes with Vick.
"I'm just happy to see you all in one piece."
"All in one piece, huh! You call this all in one piece."
Danse pointed at his chest.
Looking at him, Lauri lightly jabbed his elbow into Danse's side.
"Last time I checked, you only got stabbed."
He waved his left arm in front of Danse's face.
"I got a little more than stabbed."
Both men laughed.
Rubbing his full beard, Danse slowly turned toward Vick.
"You know. I've always heard the ladies dig scars, but I've never gotten the chance to try one out. How about it, Vick, am I any more attractive than I was yesterday?"
Glancing at Danse, the man wore a silly grin as he lightly tapped his thumb against the bandages on his chest. Vick let out a slight exhale of breath that could have been mistaken for a small chuckle.
"You'll need a dozen scars like those before I even glance in your direction, Danse."
Clicking his fingers, Danse clicked his tongue.
"Ah darn."
Passing Lauri, Danse bumped his shoulder with a smile as he continued on into the living space.
Watching him go, Lauri cast one last look toward Vick before following.
Everyone was still where they had been with a few additions. Mele was now sitting with Sansa, their conversation interrupted as they spotted Lauri and Danse enter the room. Katrina stirred Lucky, pointing toward Danse as he approached the couch they were sitting on. Moving closer to each other, Lucky and Katrina made room for Danse to sit.
Stopping at the door, Lauri leant his back against the wall beside the doorway.
"Hey everyone, if you'd just give me a moment. I'd like to say a few words. Congratulations of sorts."
"I think we're owed a congratulations after that phenomenal performance of ours–"
Sansa punched Mele's shoulder, shutting the other woman up.
"We were just shooting arrows the entire time; don't act like you made all the difference."
Before Mele could offer a retort of her own, Lauri spoke, causing both the ladies to stop.
"No, Sansa, Mele is right. She's completely and absolutely right. All of you have been phenomenal. Each and every single one of you. Now I won't say it's all over, because it's only just begun. We did good diverting the Whispering Legion, but they weren't the only group of Nightmare Creatures marching toward Falcon Scott, just the most uniform, the most disciplined… If that is even a word one can use to refer to Nightmare Creatures. But please know this, I honestly can't imagine a different group of Awakened I would have wanted to take on as my Irregulars. Each of you has offered your talents and performed beyond my wildest expectations. But… If I were to commend one of you even more than the rest."
Lauri's gaze fell on Lucky.
"It would have to be you, Lucky."
Looking as if he had just been stung, Lucky uncomfortably shifted in his seat.
"M–Me? Why?"
Danse scoffed
"As if you even need to ask that question, kid."
"Yeah, Lucky, you've been our lucky charm. Without you, we'd have probably run into Winter Beast or something even worse…"
A soft red blush crept across Katrina's cheeks as she said her piece.
In contrast, Lucky looked as if he had seen an insidious Nightmare Creature in his bathroom.
"I need to say–"
Mele cut in – sounding distraught as she threw her hands into the air.
"Dude, that army of echoes was just insanity. I still can't believe you can do that. Why didn't you do that earlier, huh? Imagine how much easier our lives would have been if you used even half – even a quarter of those echoes you had stored up. Oh, we'd have probably been done with Antarctica on the second day."
"I asked him not to."
Rubbing the growing stubble on his chin. Lauri shrugged.
"When Lucky came to me and told me about all the echoes he had in store. I told him not to use them willy-nilly, and as fate would have it, we needed every single echo. Each destroyed echo was a death that didn't belong to one of us."
"Speaking of echoes."
Danse pointed an accusatory finger at Lauri.
"You got an echo of that big ugly dog thing and never thought to tell us?"
Lauri blinked.
"Ah, right, Festering Alpha. I really did mean to tell you all; I just never found a good chance, and then we had all these shenanigans with destroying seven bridges in seven days. I completely forgot about it. That's… my bad. But hey, did I see you with an echo of your own Danse?"
Danse's finger slowly dropped as he reclined, wincing in his seat.
"I did; it was called Herald of Oryx. They all seemed to have Oryx in the name; Pawns being called Blade of Oryx, the Rooks were called Hand of Oryx. What was the horse called?"
"The horse?"
It took a second before Lauri understood what Danse was asking: the horse the Whispering King had ridden.
"Ah, right, the horse. I don't know."
"You don't know?"
"I don't know."
Shaking his head, Lauri sighed.
"I was in such a state, I wasn't really paying attention to anything but murder. Not even to the words of the Nightmare Spell… Not that it really matters what I was paying attention to, since the Whispering King struck me across the head and destroyed my armour… Wait, my armour!"
Slapping a hand across his forehead, Lauri groaned.
"That bastard destroyed my armour. It's the only one I had. I swear, if I get the chance to see it again, I'm going to kill that Tyrant and pray the Spell turns it into an armour memory for me."
"You'll get that chance."
Lucky spoke, almost at a whisper, yet when he spoke, everyone turned to watch him.
"My echoes, I heard the Spell announce a couple dying from falling into the ravine. Then after that, the Spell spoke to me some more. A bunch of alerts of my echoes being destroyed in quick succession; I figure the Whispering King destroyed the rest… I'm completely out of echoes now, I… I don't have a single one left…"
The statement felt like a subtle impact on everyone listening. It was obvious that Lucky had summoned every Echo he had at his disposal, but where it had been speculation, Lucky's confirmation made it fact.
Sansa was the first to speak.
"Did you not get any Echoes from killing the members of the Whispering Legion? No Pawns or Rooks. Or should I call them Blades and Hands of Oryx?"
Shaking his head, Lucky held Katrina a little tighter; she, in turn, laid her head back on Lucky's shoulder.
"No, no. It doesn't work like that; it's not like I get a copy of every Nightmare Creature I kill. That would be incredibly overpowered… Even I'm not that lucky…"
Shifting, Lucky pulled away from Katrina; she jumped slightly, not expecting him to move away. Standing, Lucky took a step toward Lauri.
"I– I need to tell you something, Lauri."
Lauri's brow furrowed.
'I don't think Lucky has ever called me by my actual name before.'
Lauri pushed off from the wall.
"What's wrong?"
As Lucky opened his mouth, a deafening shriek of tearing metal erupted around them as the rhino was split in two, its front half torn from the rear. The occupants of the lower half were thrown from the living space through the now–gaping hole, spilling into the blizzard.
The Antarctic night swallowed them whole.