Bog Standard Isekai

Of all the terrors and disasters that the afternoon brought him, the gray Easterlings were probably the thing that troubled Brin the most. It wasn't the difficulty of rescuing all his assembled [Mages] from their enthrallment with the various artworks in the Gallery of Exotic Art, though that had been a chore and a half. It also wasn't the escaped monsters from the Circle of Life's secret bestiaries, or the random cult that had decided to use the chaos to try to summon a devil; for those he'd sent of parties of the [Mages] he'd collected to deal with it and pressed ahead. It wasn't even the [Knight of the Green Mother] who was waiting for him in ambush up ahead. No, the gray Shrouded worried him more than all of that, because they proved that the Motley Shroud was still changing.

Their entire power structure was supposed to be based on the feedback loop between color, water, and emotion. They weren't supposed to be able to exist without color. And yet the gray ones did. But if gray was a color for the purposes of their power, then it should've also been vulnerable to his Color Poison. And yet it wasn't.

He couldn't feel the interference of the [Witch Queen] exactly. There wasn't a scent or sound or calling card of her that he could sense in the Wyrd to tell him that she was the one behind it. Her power was too subtle for that. He couldn't really tell that anyone was manipulation the Motley Shroud at all—she was so subtle that in its way that was a calling card all on its own. Arcaena's greasy little hands were all over this.

The worst part was that he wasn't really sure what their emotion was. They seemed to be angry like the red Shrouded, but they didn't scream and curse like those. A silent anger, maybe? It could be hatred.

With no answers to his most pressing question, and the biggest battle of the day in front of them Brin called for a break on the sixth floor. He stopped them near some of the cafe tables set up in the hall right outside the Prinnashian restaurant that he'd taken Sancha and Ares to at the start of the year.

“Alright, break time everyone. Air Team 2, I want you watching our backs. Everyone else, take ten. Drink some water, and eat something if you have it,” said Brin.

“I've brought enough to share!” Sion volunteered, and began to pull bread and fruit from his enchanted bag.

To his relief, [Illusionist] Valentin decided that this wasn't a great time for Brin's warband to be swarmed by fans, because he subtly guided them away from the group, to wander lost in a safer part of the floor. Brin figured he knew why the Illusion Circle Master and Hogg had turned this into a spectator sport, and while he wasn't sure he agreed with it, he had to admit that they had things under control. Not a single commoner or noncombatant had died since before he'd made it to the top of the Tower. With the [Grand Magi] organized and his Shadow Elementals scouring the rest of the Tower under Valentin's direction, Hogg had more or less contained the threat. For now.

He noticed Sancha standing awkwardly apart from the main group and said, “You were so worried about all the running you'd have to do today, but you look to be in pretty good shape!”

Ares laughed. “She really does, doesn't she?”

“Shut it,” Brin said with a warning glare, and Ares mimed buttoning his lips up.

To all appearances, Sancha must've just been putting on a brave face, because she released her hold on herself and bent down to press a hand against her knees, panting in exhaustion. She never lowered her hand with the Cantoby, though, and kept the gemstone fixed in the air.

Brin sighed and shook his head. Bia shot him a look like she wanted to keep arguing about Bedelia, so he ducked behind a crowd from the Air Track to find Vitor, and by extension, Calixtum.

“We could still go back up now. Or even hold our ground here!” Vitor pressed.

Brin said to Calixtum, “You really don't know what the gray Shrouded’s emotion is?”

Calixtum was still red-raged and skinless. He shouted, “Don't ignore him! Don't ignore Vitor!”

“Gray Shrouded. What are they?” Brin pressed.

Calixtum roared in wordless frustration and punched the ground with both fists. “I said I don't know!” Then he stomped off, angry and unable to stop moving. He didn't go far, though, pacing back and forth, casting the [Mages] furious glares. Brin wouldn't say they'd had time to get used to him, but they all knew that Calixtum was on their side, due to his Oath to Vitor.

They broke out the bread and fruit, and even Brin managed to bite down something, though he hardly tasted it and couldn't remember what it had been afterwards. There was a lot going on right now, and a lot that could go wrong.

As they ate, Calixtum calmed a bit, and grew paler. For a moment, Brin was able to hope that Calixtum would revert back to curiosity. While he never fought with them under that emotion, it was also the one with the best personality. Instead, Calixtum shifted to a dull shade between orange and brown. He met Brin's eyes, and then Vitors, and turned a completely solid shade of black.

“I can do it,” said Calixtum. In this form, he was loose and flowing like a river, but every once in a while the features in his head would refine themselves enough that Brin could make out what he'd begun to recognize as Calixtum's real face.

“Do what?” Vitor asked.

“I can take the emotion,” said Calixtum.

“And which emotion is it?” asked Vitor.

“I'll show you,” said Calixtum.

“Maybe we should slow down and discuss this when you're not feeling guilty,” said Brin.

“You were the one that asked. I'll show you,” said Calixtum.

Then slowly, and inevitably, the black lightened to a dull and listless gray. For a brief moment, Calixtum's anguished human face was clear, but then his muscles bulged and distorted him until he was nothing but a monster. He was long and lean, with claws, and patches of thick hair like fur.

Vitor stepped back, appalled, though he out of all of them was the most used to these monstrous transformations. Brin couldn't help but ask, “So what emotion is it?”

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“Hunger,” growled Calixtum.

“Good to know. Now switch to something else,” said Brin.

“I cannot. Not until I'm no longer hungry,” said Calixtum.

At this point, most of his small army's eyes were on the trio. Rhun offered Calixtum his uneaten share of bread.

“That isn't what I'm hungry for,” said Calixtum, his eyes full of angry resentment.

Calixtum refused to answer any more questions after that. Unlike his Anger form, Calixtum was perfectly capable of holding still like this. He folded in on himself, crouching down and glaring from under his own arms at them all like they'd decided to starve him on purpose.

It was quite the nasty little paradox. Shrouded didn't need food—they were nourished by their emotion. Calixtum was literally being fed by the concept of hunger now.

All too soon, their little break was over, and Brin was left to face the final showdown. In a strange way, this was the one he was most prepared for. The entire Tower was watching, which included Valentin and Hogg, and the two old illusion masters had put their heads together and made a plan. Brin didn't really even have to get creative here. He just had to execute.

A wave of Mirror Men ran ahead of the group, to spring the ambush early. A flurry of spells and projected scythes cut his glass men to pieces, which did nothing to damage their utility as weapons. Brin pumped his limitless Mana into the glass and made it all explode, forcing their black-clothed casters to shield the rank and file.

Now the Easterlings had to leave their cover and charge Brin's group, but he was prepared. He launched the highest-powered laser he could create at the [Knight of the Green Mother] in the lead, while his Earth and Fire [Mages] drained their own Mana pools on one last devastating volley. They'd all been briefed that this was the last big push, and they held nothing back. The Easterlings returned fire with equal ferocity, but their spells slammed against shield of solid air, and nothing got through. The blue-shelled warriors were forced to abort their charge and take cover down a hallway.

“Break through!” Brin ordered. He led the charge, and his glass body took wounds that would've ruined his regular body, but like this he simply healed the breaks and kept going.

They ran, but not towards the Easterlings. The goal here wasn't to defeat the enemy, it was to get to Hogg's defensive perimeter on the ground floor. Every member of his group was hot on his heels, heading straight for a wall. He kept an Invisible Eye to make sure no one was lagging behind, and as a rare miracle, everyone did as they should. A stray Anger Shrouded approached, but Calixtum pounced on it, biting into it with teeth that were suddenly much too long in a mouth that was much too large.

“You're up, Rhun!” yelled Brin.

The [Protecting Knight] used a [Knight's Charge], and a few Easterlings that had been hiding in some kind of camouflage were flattened as he bashed through them. Brin had to grin. Imagine thinking you could hide from [Illusionists] in the Tower.

Rhun kept charging, and broke straight through the wall, and into the open air. It was a straight fall, six floors down through the open atrium to the ground below. Rhun fell, and when they got to the hole in the wall that he'd made, no one hesitated to jump.

Brin felt no fear at the drop, because he could float this glass body wherever he wanted it. But he didn't have to bother; he felt delicate threads of air grab him and gently lower him to the ground. There was at least a hundred people in the Tower who could've done this, but he knew it was an actual [Grand Magus] who had the honor.

They'd set him down a little bit further back than they'd discussed, but it was because an outbreak of Shrouded had swarmed the area. The [Grand Magus] hadn't wanted to leave them in the air when there was danger right below.

“Break through! Don't stop to fight, just charge through!” shouted Brin.

He ran forwards, shooting lasers and flame at the Shrouded that came near, but most of all he focused on protecting Sancha, who was doing nothing but quarterbacking the Grand Focus through the chaos.

Hogg's Shadow Elementals arrived in force to drive the Shrouded back, but the Shrouded were swarming the area. Perhaps they'd finally sensed that this Grand Focus was the solution to all their problems, because every Shrouded that Brin could see was now heading this direction.

Brin was forced to stop, sending great torrents of flame into the air in waves to drive the Shrouded back, but he couldn't press forwards any longer. He saw [Grand Magi] eliminate wide swaths of the onrushing Shrouded, but the sudden change in tactics had caught them by surprise, and not all of them were in the best position.

Brin's group was going to be overrun. The [Mages] behind him had trusted them and given their all against the Shrouded, so they had little Mana left to fight with. They formed a ring and fought with what they could, but they couldn't last long, not when the Grand Focus was drawing the entire swarm down on them. Even the cowardly Fear Shrouded and the pale Curiosity Shrouded were fighting now.

“Vitor!” Brin shouted desperately. “Give us a path!”

Vitor chanted a long spell, so long that Brin gave himself another dose of mageburn in order to hold the Shrouded off while he casted, but it was worth it.

The [Thirsty Blade] thrust his sword forward, and a cyclone of biting sand shot forth, eviscerating the Shrouded and giving Brin a tunnel to push Sancha through. They ran, but then a wave of screaming from the crowd assembled in the atrium warned him of another danger.

The giant snaking conglomeration of Sorrow Shrouded was now winding its way through the air towards them.

Vitor leapt and struck with his sword, and another incredible wave of stinging wind knocked the Sorrow snake off course.

“I wasn't the only one holding back in our duels!” Brin yelled, but Vitor didn't hear. That had exhausted his strength and he landed hard.

“Vitor!” shouted Calixtum. He chomped through a Shrouded, and then another, slurping them up like noodles. Now free from immediate threats, Calixtum charged the Sorrow snake in turn.

He leapt, winded freely in the air, and landed on its back. The Sorrow snake reared back like a wounded animal, all of the linked Shrouded screeching their anguish in unison, and Calixtum went to work, tearing at them with his claws, and gorging himself on their watery flesh.

Now they knew what Hunger Shrouded were hungry for.

Brin took his chance. A few Shadow Elementals made it to his position, and helped to usher them towards safety. They lost one to the berserker strength of an Anger Shrouded, but three more arrived, and then another two.

He saw a [Grand Magus of Fire] moving the other direction to cover their retreat, and then Brin and Sancha stumbled the last few feet through the open doors and into the great hall. Not a single Shrouded had penetrated the security cordon around the hall where the majority of the commoners were still congregated.

They'd made it.

Brin stumbled to a stop, not really believing that he'd made it to safety. He turned, and soon Rhun came in after him. Sion was next, half-dragging Vitor along with him. Then Ares, Bia, and Marksi, and all the rest.

No one spoke; they just smiled, tired and bewildered, not really believing that they'd actually made it. Calixtum wandered in last. His belly was full—gorged on Shrouded. He smiled, looking satisfied, but still gray.

“You're looking better!” said Vitor.

“And you're looking awful,” said Calixtum.

“Just tired,” said Vitor.

“Not me.”

“I can tell.”

Calixtum stretched his arms, limbering up. All the rest of them were utterly winded, but he looked ready to go another few rounds. “I gained some levels just today. And a choice.”

Vitor was clearly ready to lie down and pass out, but he rallied himself and summoned some enthusiasm. “And is this the one? Is this what we've been waiting for?”

“It is.” Calixtum grinned a strange grin. “A path to humanity. Or something else.”

“Humanity! At long last,” said Vitor, because in his heart he was a good guy. He couldn’t see the obvious.

“Or something greater,” Calixtum added.

“But you'll choose humanity,” said Vitor.

Calixtum's color darkened, fading to black.

“You'll choose--”

At that moment, everything sprang into action as everyone's hard-won instincts reacted at the same time. Bia with her knives, Rhun with his shield, Ares with his quick lightning, and even Sion with a pinch of Water Poison. The only one with no battle instincts was poor Sancha, who stood still.

Unfortunately for them all, guilt was quick, and Shrouded limbs were as long or short as they wanted to be. The specific movements were a complicated mess of instantaneous actions and reactions.

The result wasn't complicated at all. Calixtum reached out and touched the Great Conduit of Keetes.