"Katrin!" Colin stared. {This is… Port Frichi?! And this was… this was when Katrin lost all her Comrades…}
Katrin was lying on the ground in front of them, throwing up, trying feebly to twitch, to move, or do something, but all she could do was throw up some more.
"Katrin!" Colin grabbed her. "We have to get out of here! NOW!"
Katrin turned away from Colin and threw up again. {Hey, at least she didn't throw up on me.}
"Shiro?" Colin turned to him again. Shiro kept one tail around Rita, then used the other one to wrap Katrin up and set her on his back.
She threw up on top of him. Shiro let out a big huff of a sigh.
"Let's go!" Colin said, turning and running.
Katrin's Nightmare didn't fade away. In fact, it turned on them. The Frenzied purple beaver, the Gaian saucers, the Green Men… everything turned on them and started shooting.
Shiro sprang into action. With one Howl, the new Lord of the White Wraiths sent out a veritable {ocean} of Sonic power in the general direction of the Nightmare horde. Raiki backed him up with lightning.
The hordes in Katrin's nightmare stumbled. They fell back, slowed down, or vanished entirely, but they didn't stop.
"RUN!" Colin dashed away with one hand on Raiki, one hand on Shiro…
And suddenly they were out of Port Frichi, the town collapsing behind them, the hordes still chasing them, but they were far from the docks, at the very edge of the town. {One step. That was all I needed…?}
[Two minutes, in my time.] Alicia counted as she dodged the webbing spit of a three-headed giant spider/dog guarding the door they needed to pass through. [Hurry! Things are getting worse here too!]
From Alicia, Colin saw George, Scarlet and Sora strike from both sides and the giant spider/dog thing went down. Sora tugged the door open and people started running out… out of the Ancient Ways…
All this, in mid-step and before his foot hit the ground.
"They're through!" Colin exclaimed, elated.
"What? Who?" Rita asked, completely blur.
Colin took another step and found himself already at the rock where he'd found Rita. {Strange. The rock isn't disappearing. That means… it's not part of a Nightmare. Then there ARE things that stay put in the Lower Plane?}
But now the question was, how to get out of the Lower Plane.
Alicia passed the question along to Sora. Then, she sent back Sora's answer. [Up and down don't mean much in the Shifting Sands area. That's where you are. In other words, all you really need to do is get 'out'. That particular part of the Lower Plane is like that.]
Colin tried to remember what Dad said. Something about rules being different depending on where you were… and that the Lower Planes were completely chaotic anyway, so the rules themselves weren't all too reliable…
But that didn't matter, Colin realized. What he needed to do was to get to the place he'd come in from, because that was the safest way back.
[It wasn't safe at all!] Alicia barked back.
[It wasn't.] Colin agreed. [But you guys just cleared it out.]
[True.] Alicia conceded. [We should charge you for our services.]
[We can discuss that later. Right now…] Colin shifted, stepped and crossed irrelevant space in a moment that lasted a whole of Alicia's minute.
[How do you know you're going the 'right' way?] Alicia demanded.
[Easy.] Colin grinned. [I'm going towards you.]
But the sense of where Alicia was vanished a moment (and a step) later. Colin found himself out of foggy desert and in the cavern mouth of a large labyrinth. He was out of the Lower Plane and back in the Ancient Ways. [Alicia…? Where…?]
[Here!] Alicia sent him the image of a map projected from Sora's watch as people wandered around what appeared to be a small pyramid of glass in the middle of a huge hollow.
Colin recognized that 'pyramid'. [Is that… all that's left of Skycrown Mountain?! Just the tip?!]
[For now. But Sora says it's sinking, Colin. You have to hurry.] Alicia advised him.
"RUN!" Colin told Shiro, Raiki, Rita and Henry. He dashed down the corridor. [Alicia, that red line on Sora's map…]
[Yes. That's the way out we took. Follow it.]
But haunting laughter echoed down the corridor. Colin bit his lip. [So much for clearing out the Labyrinth. I think the Wisps are back already.]
[With all those Nightmares in the Lower Plane, you have to expect them to be forming up faster than ever.] Alicia pointed out.
All those Nightmares. Hundreds and hundreds of people in the Lower Plane… all those Nightmares… and Colin only saved three.
[That's about the most you can handle with Shiro and Raiki's help.] Alicia pointed out again. [Or would you rather struggle with more than you can manage, like with that car?]
Colin shuddered. [Don't remind me.]
[Fat chance of that.] Alicia said smugly.
"Run!" Colin said again, trying as hard as he could.
"I… can't…" Rita panted, still stumbling along in one of Shiro's tails.
Shiro had {three} tails now, Colin saw, and they were getting longer. {Shiro's really growing. I wonder if…} "Shiro?"
"Yip." Shiro nodded, then with his tails, he grabbed both Henry and Rita and set them down on his back next to Katrin. A moment later, he added Colin and Raiki too.
Now seated atop a supersized Shiro with Raiki, Katrin, Rita and Henry, Colin crouched low and said, "Run for it!"
He sent Shiro the same image Alicia sent him; the map, and the red line. Shiro took off like a shot. The walls sped by; tunnel after tunnel, Wisp after Wisp were passed in a blur… {We're doing it! We're going to make it!}
[WATCH OUT!] Alicia's panic driven thought snapped his focus away from Shiro. She shared the image of what she was seeing now.
Colin gulped. [Is that…?!]
[Ian's Frenzied Drake! It's headed into the Labyrinth!] Alicia was gasping for breath. It had been all they could do, it seemed, just to survive its passing by. Most of the group they'd saved from the Lower Plane had been killed to respawn elsewhere in Nakama World.
[But at least they're back in the Middle Plane.] Colin consoled her.
[That's not the problem!] Alicia barked. [That thing is headed YOUR WAY!]
She was right, Colin realized suddenly. They were heading out, it was heading in… which meant…
"WHOA!" Colin barely managed one yell when the huge shape appeared right in front of them. Shiro was charging headlong down the tunnels, they entered a gigantic cavern and there in front of them, blocking their way was a… six headed Frenzied Dragon? [Since when did it have six heads?!]
[I don't know! But it's definitely Ian's!] Alicia gasped. She was calling for help. There was Sora, Scarlet, George, May… and Alicia herself…
But they weren't here, at least not yet. The dragon, however, was. It breathed fire, it breathed poison gas, it breathed mists, spat out lightning, some black cloud, and some sort of icky sticky fluid from six different mouths at the same time.
Shiro lunged aside, and retreated to a safe distance. [Scatter!]
He set them down behind some rocks, and then he and Raiki split up, with dragon fire and whatever else splattering or burning the cavern walls as it targeted them.
"Colin!" Satrox appeared behind him, not quite the cool, composed character Colin had 'seen' in the Lower Plane. This Satrox was panting, covered with dirt and scorch marks, and wore blue armor that was half torn-off. {This is the real Satrox.}
With him was another guy in matching blue armor, but his looked half burnt instead of torn. He had sandy hair, green eyes, and a very big greatsword that he swung around like a leaf. {That armor… it's the same as Sora's in Alicia's memories…}
Alicia was asking Sora about the armor as she followed him and the others down to meet Colin's group. Sora's reply gave her (and thus, Colin) the answer.
"You must be Shawn." Colin greeted the other guy. "Since you're wearing the Sage's customized Inner Way Security armor."
"You're the guy who called me earlier. You remember? Inner Way Security?" Shawn answered in a slightly tilted accent.
"Yes, that was me." Colin nodded politely.
"MOVE!" Rita tugged Colin out of the way as a stream of fire nearly cooked his head. Colin spun to see that the Dragon had both Shiro and Raiki pinned down with two heads each and had two more to spare for the others.
{At least that stream of fire is a lot thinner than the one the Red Dragon had.} Colin said, but it was small consolation against the problem of facing six heads at once.
"Everyone get back…" Shawn said, taking out a blue and white crystal the size of Colin's head.
The Frenzied Drake took one look at the crystal, all twelve of its eyes widened and it struck, deliberately lashing out at the crystal with an incredibly long tail.
"WHOA!" Shawn clutched the crystal away, sacrificing his own back to protect it. The tail whipped down where he'd held it out before, scoring a grazing lash across Shawn's shoulder. "AGH!"
"You {crystallized} your Comrade?!" Satrox spluttered.
"I just got back from the Rift!" Shawn protested. "I had to!"
{Crystallized… Shawn brought his Comrade here… in the form of a crystal?!}
"I need a diversion." Shawn said, as the dragon turned all six heads on him. Fire, lightning, and whatever else started flying at him and he started running. "How is this possible? It's like the dragon {knows} what I'm trying to do!"
"Resonance with the Lower Plane, that's how!"
"But you said it just got here! It can't have had enough time to absorb the Resonance Emanations from the Lower Plane so quickly!"
"Things in the Lower Plane are just that intense." Satrox told Shawn. "There are hundreds of unwary people trapped in the Shifting Sands right now."
"A few hundred noobs feeding a Mire Zone…" Shawn muttered. "That's insane."
"That's the work of the Cult of Gaia." Satrox mentioned. "I don't think they even had any idea what they were really doing."
Their conversation was cut short abruptly when dragon lightning zapped Satrox until his hair stood on end. They stopped talking and started running at that point. Satrox stumbled for cover behind a heap of rocks, and Shawn dashed around the corner with poison mist and black clouds wafting over his way.
"Ten seconds! No- five! Just give me five seconds!" Shawn yelled.
Colin glanced at Rita and Henry, both of whom were looking rather glum.
"We're useless." Henry admitted, spreading his hands.
"When Alicia gets here, take the first chance you can to run for it." Colin advised.
"Alicia?" They blinked.
But Colin turned his attention to his own Comrades. "Shiro! Raiki!"
"MEW!" Raiki shrieked, and sonic energy gathered before her like a cloud. Shiro dashed into the sonic cloud, and ripples of visible sound waves rallied to him as he passed through. His form swelled as he Howled, adding his power to hers, and the new Lord of the White Wraiths charged towards the Frenzied Dragon with the combined might of their powers around him.
The dragon turned a head toward him, spitting out icky green stuff, trying to glue him to the ground or something, but Shiro pushed through, the ichor simply splattering off his amassed sonic energy. The dragon turned a second head toward him and this time streamed fire at him. This slowed him down, a bit, but Shiro rammed his way through and slammed straight into the base of the dragon's necks, where all six met together. His teeth flashed; he bit down, hard.
That did it. The dragon turned its full attention on Shiro; all six heads, both upper claws, and even its tail. It lashed out at Shiro with everything it had.
"Shiro!" Colin gasped, but just before he got hit from all sides, Shiro… vanished. "Shiro?! SHIRO!"
"Mew." Raiki nudged him from the side. [Don't worry. He's fine.]
"Where… how…?" Colin didn't know what to say.
[He's fine.] Raiki assured him. [We're not.]
The dragon was really fuming now. All its attacks went through empty air, several of them hitting itself instead. It roared and hissed and snapped at its own heads, and for a moment there it looked like it was about to fight itself…
But then, Shawn's crystal flared with light, and the dragon turned its attention back to them.
"Authenticate…" Shawn was saying, when the dragon charged at him directly.
"SHAWN!" Satrox shouted in warning.
"COLIN!" Alicia yelled, arriving around the far corner with Sora, Scarlet, George and May at her heels. All of them were heavily armed and armored.
"Henry! Rita! GO!" Colin shouted, shoving them as Sora, Scarlet and George lowered pole-arms and made a frontal charge on the dragon with Alicia and May flanking on either side.
Shawn dove left. Henry and Rita ran right. Alicia and gang charged in. The dragon swooped in with heads and tail.
All of them crashed together in the middle. Colin saw Rita wide eyed and almost mouth-to-mouth with the mist-breathing dragon head before George whacked it upside the chin with the hammer butt of his halberd only to have the tail sweep him off his feet and almost into Satrox's arms. Satrox, to be fair, had been trying to catch May, who had leapt over the tail to avoid it only to be knocked off course by Henry, who {would} have gotten around her if not for Shawn bumping into him as he made a sudden desperate swerve to avoid a streak of icky goo…
Consequently, May didn't land in Satrox's outstretched arms; but before she hit the ground, the goo-spitting dragon-head knocked her into Alicia who had been stumbling about trying to run properly in heavy plate armor while dragging a lance twice her height behind her. May and Alicia went down; Alicia's lance went tumbling from her grasp and tripped up Scarlet who had been trying to help May get out of the lightning dragon-head's way.
"May!" Scarlet shouted, but it was too late. The lightning dragon-head opened its mouth, and blasted out a stream of lightning…
…Only to zap the mist-breathing dragon-head in the left side of the face as it made a flanking snap at George's blind side.
Shawn, meanwhile, had finished authenticating his commands and finally shouted with exuberance. "FENRIR!"
There was a flash of light and into the cavern was warped a gigantic silver-and-red wolf. The thing was almost as big as the dragon, several times Shiro's size.
"That's the real thing!" May stared, completely forgetting Alicia under her. "That's the unique…"
"Get OFF me!" Alicia barked, shoving May aside.
"How?" Rita asked Shawn. "I thought Comrades couldn't…"
Henry tapped Rita on the shoulder and pointed to Raiki.
Shawn grinned. "Comrades can be brought to the Ancient Ways. But it requires…"
The Frenzied Dragon blasted Shawn's Fenrir. Six heads and six different attacks, plus a hard whack from a tail that glowed orange-red. Fenrir went stumbling back, and the dragon went straight after it.
"Fenrir!" Shawn gasped. "FIGHT!"
Colin didn't wait. "Run! Henry, Rita, get out of here! We have to get out of the Ancient Ways! Once in Nakama World, we can Warp in everything we've got!"
"Ah!" six voices said in realization at the same time. Satrox and Sora facepalmed.
They ran for it while Fenrir snarled and the dragon hissed and explosions and crashing went on like mad behind them.
{Just a little more…} Colin thought as he dashed through the tunnels after Sora and the rest. {Just a little more and then we can… we can…}
But when they burst out into the snowy hollow over the sunken mountain, all of them froze through no fault of the cold.
Standing in front of them were the Gaians, their tanks, their Mecha… and Ian, the Mountaineer of North Hour.
"Ian… what are you…" Sora began.
Ian smirked. "Think of this as… revenge."
"You joined the Cult of Gaia?" Satrox raised an eyebrow. "Just to take revenge?"
"It wasn't for revenge." Ian snorted, then said conspirationally. "Actually, I've been following the Laws of Gaia before I ever came to Nakama World."
"Laws, my foot." Satrox rolled his eyes. "You're just a bunch of troublemakers."
"Open fire." Ian said.
"Squirmia!" George called before anyone could shoot. Colin had a bare moment to gasp before he found himself completely covered in warm, sticky blackness.
"EEEK!!!" Rita shrieked. "It's… it's…!"
"Relax. We're inside Squirmia." George said, even as muffled gunfire and explosions could be heard. Squirmia was moving; causing a ruckus, Colin imagined, but then George said, "We don't have much time. Squirmia can't hold out for long."
"What's the plan?" May asked.
"Warp in everything. Hit them with all we've got." Scarlet told her daughter.
"I like that plan." Henry said.
"Not good!" Shawn warned them. "The dragon's coming after us. Fenrir's trying to slow it down…"
Colin had an idea then. "Wait! What if…"
But it was too late. Squirmia vanished, and Colin found himself staring at a whole army of Gaians shooting at them.
Everybody started calling in Comrades on the spot, most of them scattering to get more room. Colin himself dodged aside with Raiki, and Alicia came after him. Both of them seemed to have gotten the same idea.
"Lend me a weapon!" Alicia barked to May.
May blinked, not relinquishing her lance, but taking out a short sword and offering that to Alicia in turn. Alicia grabbed it, thumbed a trigger, and smiled in brief satisfaction as blue energy lit up around the blade. She glanced at Colin.
"Do it!" Colin told her. "Quick!"
All of the trouble. All of the fighting. All of the fear and tension and strife. Alicia ended it all in an instant, with a single, smooth motion. She stabbed him in the heart.
***
Colin and Alicia respawned back at his Home Base, the Heart of the Forest of Legends. They were safe. Colin was feeling rather sick, but they were safe.
He started sniffing his half of the special leaf and thought about what they just left behind. He supposed the others would start a fierce fight… or maybe the Green Men would see they had already failed in their mission and just plain give up.
But it no longer mattered. Even if the Gaians fought and won, they would win nothing. The prize they sought was gone, halfway across the world, in Colin's case.
A lot had happened. When they headed to the Mountain's Tournament of Ascension, Colin had had high expectations… but this had gone beyond anything he'd imagined. {I actually rescued my friends from the Lower Plane. We fought a Frenzied Dragon… how strong was it? A class-9? Class-10? And a whole army of Gaians… by now the dragon would have chased the others out of the tunnels and arrived at the hollow as well. They're probably going to have a grand three-way fight over there.}
{All I expected tonight was to watch a Tournament for the title of Mountain Prince… and I gave that up for love of the Forest…}
{Wait. If there's a Mountain Prince… doesn't that mean, that one day… the Forest, too, might hold a Tournament of Ascension… for the title of Forest Prince?!}
{Then… surely… there might be a way for me to enter.}
Colin froze. The idea seized him so strongly, he couldn't begin to imagine letting go. {I still don't know what the Prince is supposed to do. Is he Lynn's right hand assistant? A middle-manager of some sort? Her champion for combat purposes?}
It didn't matter. The concept was vague, but already, Colin decided.
{I'm going to fight for it. Maybe it'll be in a few weeks, or a few months… but whenever it happens, the minute I find out the Forest's Tournament of Ascension is called, I'm going to fight for it. I'm going to fight for the title.}
"Colin?" Alicia's voice clawed at him. "Colin, what's the matter? Colin? Hello?"
Colin didn't want to let go. He wanted to stay as he was, looking into a possible future, considering how he might attain it. {Just the title! I don't care about the money or the fame! I don't care how much work Lynn's going to give me if I get the job! Just the title alone! I'll fight anyone and anything! I'll fight for it with everything I've got!}
"Colin!" Alicia shook him out of his reverie. "Snap out of it! What's wrong?! Are you all right?! COLIN!"
"What?!" Colin roared, frustrated and dismayed at being forced out of his reverie.
"What's wrong? What's happening to you?!" Alicia gasped. Her face was pale, and sweating, her eyes wide. She looked shocked, almost panicked.
Colin closed his eyes. It wasn't her fault. She didn't know, didn't understand, couldn't understand. "I'm fine. I just… I just thought of something I want to do."
"Don't SCARE me like that!" Alicia panted. "I half expected a Gate to open up and swallow us out of the blue!"
"That shouldn't be a problem unless we're already running." Colin pointed out, suddenly feeling deflated.
"What were you thinking about anyway? You looked like you were in a trance or had a vision or something."
"A vision?" Colin thought about it. "I guess. I have a goal, at least. Something I want to accomplish no matter what."
"And that is?" Alicia pressed.
"I want to win the title of the Forest Prince."