Rising Shards

We did our best to follow behind Marmalade and Kris Krag. At least he didn’t hit us with the insta teleport move, apparently wanting to chat with Marmalade on the way. We were bracing for that to happen at any moment though.

“This sucks,” Kalei said. “First off, I was totally the only one in character. That was undeniably good flirting on my part, too.”

“Eh.” Iris said.

“Eh what?” Kalei asked.

“I’ve seen better.” Iris said.

“I doubt it, that was impeccable,” Kalei said. “Second, it really sucks he picked Marmalade. She’s like who I least want stuck with this dude. Makes me wanna just run over there and punt him.”

Kris took a left, heading up to a house. The wooden fence stretched as soon as Marmalade took one step onto the Krag household lawn, blocking our entry. Kalei groaned as she tried to force her way through. A blast of ice didn’t have any effect.

“Lillia, fire breath time,” Kalei said, gesturing to the fence.

“And risk burning the entire neighborhood down?” Lillia asked.

“Who cares about the stupid neighborhood, there probably isn’t anyone in any of these houses!” Kalei said.

“Marmalade’s in one of them,” Oka said.

Kalei grimaced. “Ugh, you don’t have to act all smug about it.”

"How am I acting smug?" Oka asked.

“We’ll likely have to climb it,” Lillia said.

“Can we just stand guard or something?” Maia asked. “In case more Kris Krags show up or whatever?”

“Yeah, I’m beat,” Iris pouted. “I want my cookies.”

“Sure, whatever,” Kalei said, clearly half listening to anything that wasn't about rescuing Marmalade as she scanned the fence, maybe looking for weak spots or a secret way through.

Oka conjured some vines and tossed them over the fence. I was worried about falling over a bunch of times climbing over a fence that was just slightly taller than us, but Oka pretty much helped me the whole way over, and I definitely wasn’t screaming or babbling or doing anything super embarrassing as I climbed over a fence that, again, was not very tall. After searching around the house, we found where Kris had brought Marmalade, a simple bedroom. We all lined up at a very wide window, trying to avoid detection but making sure Marmalade saw us.

“I always admire how funny you are, Marmalade,” Kris said. “That’s why I think you’re the most special to me.”

“Uh, cool…?” Marmalade said. “I mean…yeah, sure.”

“Ah damn, she wasn’t an artist, she was the class clown,” Kalei said. “She basically did prop comedy on accident there, no wonder he picked her.”

“So what do we do now?” Oka asked.

“Diast, is he in that vulnerable state yet?” Kalei asked. “Because I’m thinking we bust in and kick his ass already.”

“Maybe, but I’d prefer if you didn’t bash the window in,” Diast said. “You may be in the void, but glass usually works the same, and it’s dangerous for everyone if you’re careless around it.”

“Diast always crying about the glass,” Kalei said. “Probably got in some broken glass incident, huh?”

“What is with you and crying?” Oka asked. “It’s really consistent.”

I nodded. “It’s concerning how many times I’ve heard you say something like that."

“I meant like whining, whatever, shut up, let’s just.” Kalei groaned. “I’m tired of you two grilling me about that, focus on helping Marmalade!”

The window opened, and Kris Krag stared at us.

“You all followed me here…?” He asked.

Kalei struck instantly, launching a heavy looking block of ice directly at the monster’s face. It just bounced off like she’d just thrown a tissue at him. In the next instant, we were all in Kris Krag’s room, even Iris and Maia.

“Wow,” Kris said. “Never in my wildest dreams did I think all eight of you would love me. But I guess it’s just destiny, right?”

None of us said anything. At first I thought it was out of defiance, but when I tried to speak, I couldn’t. None of us seemed able to move either, frozen in a stupid pose.

“Now that you’re all here and I know you love me, I can show my love back for you by showing you a secret…” Kris said. He turned around for a moment, then the lights started flickering. Or I thought they were, it took me a second to realize that Kris himself was flickering with energy.

“I may be just an average guy, but I also…am…” Kris’ voice got deeper. I thought he was about to go all Beast Tendency and turn into a huge monster, but he somehow got even more generic, just taller and a bit more muscular. Most of his face seemed to fade away into nothing, only a crooked grin remaining. “…going to take…what’s mine…” He started lumbering forward like a zombie. "You're...all...mine..."

“OK, now he’s vulnerable,” Diast said. “Can any of you move?”

None of us responded.

“I’ll take that as a no,” Diast said. “Don’t worry though, this’ll be taken care of in just a second.”

Kris wandered around, his smile widening more and more as he looked each of us over. I tried to not look at him, sparing myself another second of the chasm of terrifying boredom in front of us. Kris was too busy staring at us to notice the bedroom door silently open. Quick as a kitten chasing a toy mouse covered in catnip, a figure darted into the room, clubbing Kris with a brick, the satisfying “KLUNK” sound ringing all around as he collapsed forward. As he groveled on the ground, our rescuer drew their bloodsaber. Roux stabbed their sword squarely into Kris Krag’s back. 

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