Hey, here’s a random question. In theory, if one guy left his mother behind to go study and experiment on higher floors and there’s another guy who left his mother behind to go up and go on adventures. Would you say there’s any difference between the two?

  Hey there! That’s a very random question indeed. It seems quite… unadventury, to be thinking about such things instead of slaying demons. Everything alright?

  Please indulge me. There’s no difference, right?

  Only in their motivations, I guess.

  Right, but the result is the same, so they’re both shitbags.

  Wait, you lost me. Why are they shitbags?

  For leaving their poor mother behind! I forgot to say, the mother is very sad in this theoretical scenario. She’s very sweet and caring and has been left behind before.

  Okay yeah, I get it. Now it’s my turn to ask a totally random question! Let’s say there’s a father and a son. The father wants his son to be a blacksmith just like him, trains him for it since a young boy. Forces him to wear cute little blacksmith outfits with a tiny little hammer and everything. But despite his father’s efforts, the boy just doesn’t take to it. He likes flowers instead. He wants to become a plant gleaner and go on a grand mission to cultivate the most beautiful flower in all of Tenjou!

  That’s a nice dream.

  Right? But here’s the thing: the father doesn’t want to let him go. He forbids him to study and practice in the ways of gleaning. Every step of the way, he tells the boy to let go of his foolish dreams and follow in his footsteps instead. Is the father a shitbag?

  Yeah, I’d say that’s pretty shitty. He should just suck it up and let the kid follow his… Wait, this is a trap!

  Muahaha! I told you plant gleaners fight with traps! But in all seriousness, Dario, nobody can tell you what to think. You have to make up your own mind. Just… don’t forget that boy. Think of how he would live, if he became a blacksmith instead of chasing his flowery dreams.

  Ugh. I know. It’s just… It feels like there are only bad choices, you know? It’s like, congratulations! You get to choose between being a shitbag or a miserable coward. Those are both pretty crappy prizes if you ask me. Why can’t I just have it all?

  Who says you can’t?

  Dario put his tablet away, tapping his chin as he considered for the first time whether there might be a scenario where everyone was left happy, or at least, nobody was left miserable. But then the banging on the hatch intensified, the booming coming louder and faster, until a loud crack sounded from the hallway.

  He rushed through the growth room and kitchen into the hallway, but Nika was already at the stairs.

  “Dario! It’s about to give! Get ready!”

  “Shit! The seed! Can you hold it together a bit longer?”

  He could see Nika gathering a large amount of Ki from the walls, sweeping into her skin and through her seams as smoothly as water flowing down a riverbed. The change was remarkable enough that he realized she must have just ascended while he was wasting time agonizing over his problems.

  “Not for long! Hurry up!” Nika shouted over her shoulder as a wave of black Ki swept up into the slab of boron that was beginning to bend and crack under the onslaught.

  Dario raced back to the growth room, cursing as he slipped and skidded through the hallways. Sliding forward over the dried dirt until he came to a stop in front of his work area, he didn’t waste any time before layering his Ki over the pattern on the scroll and then moving it over the seed.

  There were three left, but there would be time for only one attempt.

  “Alright buddy, work with me now,” he breathed, brow furrowed in concentration as an intricate pattern of plant Ki spread out from his navel.

  It had taken another charred seed for him to realize that using only light Ki to form the stabilizing pattern wouldn’t work. For some reason, its energy just wasn’t right, so he needed to use the green Ki, over which he had less fine control.

  Dario flinched as a muted roar from Nika sounded from the hallway, then redoubled his efforts. With the pattern finally done, he moved it over to the seed and began to pull out the aspect of hardness. This part was too delicate to be rushed, but still he moved faster than before as he brought the dark-green Ki filled with the aspect of hardness hovering above the vine seed. Then, he brought out the vine’s dominant aspect - growth - and wove it together with the hardness.

  Sweat trickled down his forehead as he worked. Two green threads, one lighter than the other, moved through a series of loops to bind together in a harmonious pattern.

  “Come on, come on,” he muttered as he tied it all off, then let the weave sink slowly back into the seed. He braced for another burst of flame or an explosion of some kind, but nothing happened.

  “Dario! Hurry!” Nika cried out.

  He stuffed the seed into some wet dirt and dumped a good amount of light-hued plant Ki inside to boost its growth. A vine sprouted, growing quickly thicker and longer, but he had no time to test, feeding it more and more Ki until it finally grew a few flowers. From those, he collected about a dozen seeds, then hurried to grab his pack and bow. He paused for a moment as he noticed the lone arrow left in his quiver, then grabbed the staff he’d been training with and ran back.

  Nika was standing on the top of the stairway, muscles bulging as her arms pressed into the cracked hatch, her dark Ki flowing in and out of it.

  “I’m here!” he shouted, his voice barely audible over the pounding and grunting that came from the hatch.

  He tossed four seeds into the planters they’d prepared on the stairs, then immediately channeled a wave of green Ki into it. They’d talked quite a bit about what would be waiting beyond that slab of stone and how best to deal with it. A medium-sized chamber, likely filled with beasts as well as Uso, leading into a long hallway that connected back into the grand hall. Not a good setting for their fight - so their plan was to come out with a blast and block as many beasts off as they could while moving to more favorable terrain.

  “On three!” Nika growled through clenched teeth. She gathered her Ki and began to cycle in a particular pattern, pulsing it through her arms as something changed in the slab of boron.

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  Dario followed the plan, continuing to grow his vine as he closed his eyes and brought a memory to front of his mind. There was a time as a child, when he’d gone treasure hunting in the Belt, but he’d strayed too far from the safe paths and had run into a pair of trashgoats. He’d slipped while running and gone crashing into a pile of scrap metal, crying from the bruises and cuts as the goats closed in and began to charge their breath attacks. In that moment, he’d known he’d messed up, that he was done for, but then, out of nowhere, a man jumped in front of him.

  He’d gasped as he looked with teary eyes at his father’s strong back, seeing how the goats flinched back from just his fierce presence. In that moment, his fear and despair were washed away and turned into a different feeling. It was what he felt each time he heard his mother laugh, or even when he looked up at a new load of trash being dumped from the floor above.

  Hope.

  Four vines rose to one side, thick as his calves already and growing each second, sharp thorns forming along their bark. Meanwhile, bright yellow smoke swirled around his arms as he gripped his staff. Nika looked over her shoulder and met his eyes with a look of confidence and determination. Dario pushed down on the jittery feeling in his stomach, firming his grip on the cloud of hopeful KI as he flashed her a grin.

  Then it began.

  She sent out a wave of dark Ki and the slab of boron exploded outwards with shocking force. A cacophony of growls and whimpers washed over them as the vines burst through the opening, then Nika leapt out through the small gap that was left on the left side, with Dario right behind, eyes burning with golden Ki. His head swiveled around as he quickly took in the scene. Uso to one side, beasts all around, many wounded except for the beetles.

  With their black shields of despair, they would have been the only beasts unharmed by the flying shards of boron. One of them came at him, but Dario pulled thick strands of hope around his staff and struck, smashing right through the black smoke to crush its carapace with a satisfying crunch.

  All around them hounds and cats either laid limp and bleeding on the floor, or stood whimpering with black slivers of stone sticking from their hides. He caught Uso’s massive shape to his right, a cloud of brown smoke obscuring dark claws and tentacles.

  “Finally, a fresh Talc! Do not kill her, my brethren, we will take her alive.”

  Dario clenched his teeth as that distorted voice thundered through the chamber, but paid Nika was already rushing forward to meet that huge demon, a cloud of green Ki rising from her chest.

  Seeing that the vines were blocking most of one side of the chamber as planned, he gave them a final push of Ki, then grabbed some poisonous grapes from his satchel. A growling cat caught one right in its maw and another splashed over a hound’s face. He grinned as the beasts shook their heads, then jerked to halt, legs stiffening as the paralytic poison did its work.

  He looked down the hallway to see more beasts approaching, but not so many that they wouldn’t be able to push through. Three beetles were closing in, so he gathered the bright yellow Ki around him and swept it out over them in a wave, wiping out their shields. The first one snapped its mandibles but he danced aside, twisting around to stab his dagger through its head. Clicking feet warned him of another behind so he pivoted, kicking it away before gripping his staff with both hands and landing a big swing to crush the last one.

  Many of the beasts were stuck behind the vines, only able to squeeze through in single file. Nika was moving faster than ever, striking out with waves of green Ki to send Uso fleeing back as a part of his shroud was wiped away, tentacles and claws flinching away from the mental Ki as if it were acid. There was a space between the vines just large enough for her to squeeze through, but too small for the huge parasite.

  “Nika! Let’s go!”

  Trusting that she would stick to the plan, he turned and ran down the hallway, cursing when he saw that more beasts were coming through. First came the hounds, their lean white shapes curving up as they sent Ki-empowered howls shrieking through the corridor. Dario grunted and stumbled as they hit, but he was already thinking back, grasping for a counter.

  Two Contadino brothers beating up a smaller kid, one he didn’t even know. But the way the boy had just given up and curled up into a little ball had brought a flare of anger. The odds were bad, but still he’d pushed the bullies aside and reached out a hand to the younger boy.

  “Hey,” he’d said, waiting for the boy to look up and see his confident smile. “If you’re going to get beaten up like that, you should at least land one hit. One good punch to the face and they’ll think twice before doing it again.”

  When the twins saw his vicious grin and puffed out chest, they’d known he wasn’t afraid. He’d been ready to face the odds. Ready to take a beating, if he had to.

  That feeling of bravery came back to him then, a warm flare of confidence that brought with it a fog of deep-orange Ki. The howls lost their piercing bite as the fog spread around him, then he wrapped a sliver of it around three of the poisonous grapes before hurling them at the dogs.

  Two struck and the dogs flinched back. Dario ran ahead, picking up speed again. One dog spat a glob of sticky fear Ki, but a swirl of rust-colored bravery washed it away. He heard Nika’s heavy footsteps behind him through the howling and hissing and pushed on, pivoting around an obvious lunge from a hound before slamming his dagger in its neck to sever its spine.

  The hound went limp and Nika came up beside him as they pushed on, faced with four black cats with the bright red Ki of rage gathered around their claws. They began to launch gleaming slashes through the air, too many to dodge, so Dario pushed down on his fear and reached for yet another feeling.

  They were only short flashes of memory this time, his mother’s smile, a warm embrace, playing with his brother, but he stretched those moments out and let the feelings of peace and love envelop him like a shield. Pink Ki bloomed, spreading quickly into a veil of smoke that caught the slashes midair. Instead of cutting through, they sizzled and dispersed into harmless puffs of smoke.

  A few bright flashes of light had the cats flinching back and he used that to land more of the poisonous blue fruits on them. Nika was already leaping through the clouds of Ki and struck, her own dark Ki surging through her limbs as she landed lightning-fast blows that broke bones and sent cats crashing against the wall. They pressed on, dashing up over a pile of rubble at the end of the hallway.

  As Dario crawled through, Nika paused to run her hands across the ceiling, thin layers of stone crumbling where her fingers passed. He could see how her Ki moved faster and reached deeper than before, until with a few heavy strikes, the ceiling came crumbling down.

  He still caught a flash of Uso’s huge form moving down the hallway, faster than he remembered, before they went sprinting down the familiar grand hall of the Cupola.

  But as the great hall became visible, Dario came skidding to a stop. There were two exits, which they knew well by now, the great heap of rubble leading up to the broken dome above, or the smaller passage that led out through a wall. Both were teeming with beasts. Hounds and beetles waited in groups, spread out across the rubble, while he could see the red Ki of the cats where they lurked near the hidden passage, at least a dozen. Well, it wasn’t so hidden anymore.

  “Bunch of cats hiding the other way,” Dario said as Nika looked over the pile of rubble. “So far for plan A.”

  Nika clenched her jaw, considering, when one of Uso’s claws smashed through the wall of debris behind them.

  “Come, children. Do not resist. You will finally find peace in your new life!”

  At the sound of their master’s voice, the beasts sprang into action, dogs yelping and barking as they leapt down.

  “The tower!” Nika said, “It should have an outside wall!”

  Dario gave a quick nod and then they were sprinting down the hall again, rushing through the open doorway. The white rooms and their black altars flashed by, sliding stone doors still partially open, just as they’d left them. It felt like an eternity since they’d played out their memories here, but it couldn’t have been more than a week.

  Hounds were closing in, not far behind as they sprinted up the winding stone stairs.

  “Buy me a moment,” Nika said as they reached the top and she placed her arms against the wall.

  Dario turned back, heart hammering, eyes scanning the stairs for a spot to anchor his seeds. With a splash of water from his water skin and a surge of verdant Ki, thorny vines soon sprouted from them. By the time the first hound rounded the bend, they’d grown thick as his thighs and crawled all along the stairs and walls, blocking the narrow passage.

  The beast scratched and bit at the vines, but thanks to his splicing, they were far too tough for it to chew through. When it gathered its Ki for a howl, Dario called on memories of bravery to send an orange cloud of Ki spreading down between the vines. He laughed as the dogs fled whimpering back down the stairs.

  “Done!”

  He turned around to see Nika stepping through a gaping hole in the wall, which was at least half a meter thick. Following right behind, he looked at the crumbling rooftops around them and took in a deep breath as he let fresh light aura wash into his seams.

  “Damn it feels good to be out of that damn basement.”

  Now, it was time to get out of this forsaken floor. Luckily, the closest rooftop was not far below them, reachable with only a short jump. Nika was already there, gesturing for him to hurry up.

  He hopped down and the both of them ran from rooftop to rooftop, heading toward the distant hills to lay their traps and prepare for the final fight.