Chapter 173: Book Three Chapter Thirty Two: DBG_End Error

“Are you sure there’s no way we can avoid the inn getting destroyed again?” Qube asked the Hero.

 

“I mean, it didn’t seem to damage it too much the last time,” the Chosen One pointed out. “Plus we’ve got everyone out, so it should be fine.”

 

“So how are we going to face off against the Evil Emperor?” Sencha Bard asked.

 

“Oh she’s gonna [Heal] him,” the Chosen One said casually as he headed to the inn’s exit.

 

“And then what?” the Bard asked, confused. “While I am all for the freeing of people from the shackles of that which has been placed upon them, we have only to look at the experience with the pharaoh to see that those too entrenched in their ways may very well choose to continue doing Evil deeds.”

 

“I do not believe the Evil Emperor is Evil,” Definitely Bad Guy said. Qube gave him a look. “I know he has done Evil things,” the Mage hastily added, “but I hypothesise that your power will be able to open his mind, and enable him to see the bigger picture. While I would never ask you to work directly with him, having someone with his power could be instrumental in helping us approach the Devs not as helpless supplicants, but as entities to be treated with respect.”

 

Something about the way the Mage said “respect” made Qube think he meant a different word.

 

“I think we should kill him while he’s distracted by the spell,” Sexy Screamy Spider Lady said bluntly.

 

“My most merciful and gracious of beings, it would be the ultimate bad sport to murder a man while he’s experiencing anything like the effects of [The Bard’s Ballad], which holds but a fraction of our dear Healer’s spell,” Sencha Bard said, scandalised.

 

“Not nearly as ill-mannered as slaughtering a village full of creatures sweet enough to raise said Healer,” the Hunter replied tartly.

 

The Bard had nothing to say to that.

 

“My current plan is just to hit him with a [Heal] and then run like [heck] while he’s freaking out over it,” the Chosen One said with a shrug.

 

Nobody in the party looked terribly impressed with the Hero’s plan, but since he’d already strode out of the inn, there wasn’t a lot they could do.

 

“Oh, look at her! Squiggles, you’ve done a great job!” Qube cooed as she saw that the hens were all now standing at attention in the middle of the plaza. Squiggles, while also standing at attention, danced in pleasure, but before Qube could continue giving her the praise she had more than earned, the inn behind the party exploded.

 

Neither Qube nor the Chosen One flinched, even as the same mass of troops made of shadows swarmed over all the buildings, and the Evil Emperor once again made his grand entrance into the plaza. The others in the group were slightly less blasé about the entrance, but then, this was all new to them. Several of the chickens squawked indignantly at the intrusion.

 

He must have been hiding in one of the alleyways, waiting for them to leave so he could deploy his soldiers. If he was anything like Qube, he’d probably been practising his lines for maximum dramatic delivery.

 

Sure enough, the Evil Emperor took the same place in the centre of the plaza as he had last time, and boomed out another “Greetings, my most loyal of minions!”

 

His cape even flapped in the breeze in exactly the same way, which just convinced Qube that he was using some kind of air elemental spell to make it shift imposingly. Some of the hens eyed the moving fabric, making quiet clucking noises.

 

No wonder he was a terrible ruler, if he wasted his time on such silly things rather than trying his best to be as Royal as possible! What was even the point in trying to intimidate the Chosen One! Surely by now he should have realised that the Hero was almost impossible to intimidate through any normal means?

 

“That’s right!” the Evil Emperor, not realising the futility of his attempts to intimidate the Chosen One, threw back his head and gave his usual very Evil laugh. “Your pet Mage has secretly been working for me the entire time! He’s been feeding me information about your movements, and has directed me to the very location where you have stored the other gems! You have been fooled, pathetic, false Hero!”

 

“[Heal] at will,” the Chosen One said to Qube with a smile.

 

Qube took a deep breath and stepped forward, pulling out her staff from her backpack. She wanted to say something, a statement even more dramatic than this whole scene the Evil Emperor had set up, something to really put him in his place. But she hadn’t had however long the ruler had to think up some lines, so instead she just pointed her staff at the Evil Emperor and tried her best to improvise.

 

“You’re a jerk,” was what came out of her mouth. “[Heal].”

 

The magic was wrenched from her as it fed into the staff. She felt her mana violently drain, pouring through the conduit and exploding outwards. The silver magic hammered against the black armour, and the Chosen One immediately turned to Definitely Bad Guy.

 

“Time to go, time to go!” he said, and started shooing the slightly dazed Mage past his former liege.

 

The Evil Emperor shuddered. His gaze seemed fixed on some far-off point (not that it was ever terribly easy to see where he was looking), and his barely-visible mouth could just be seen to open. He looked like he was silently screaming.

 

“Oh man, that is freaky looking,” the Chosen One whispered to Qube as she caught up to him.

 

“We should finish him off now,” Sexy Screamy Spider Lady said, loading her crossbow.

 

“We don’t have the gems needed,” Sencha Bard cautioned her.

 

“What do we even need them for?” the Hunter hissed, sighting up the still-frozen tyrant.

 

The shadow-troops throbbed as the Evil Emperor drew in a breath.

 

It happened so fast, Qube didn’t even have a chance to register it.

 

The Evil Emperor exhaled sharply as Definitely Bad Guy raced past him, and, fast as a snake strike, grabbed the Mage and lifted him up into the air by the neck. The Mage’s tattoos flared.

 

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“You,” the tyrant ground out. There were layers to his voice, something deep and dark. Slowly, painfully, he turned away from that fixed point on the horizon he’d been staring at, and his gaze bore down onto the half-elf standing next to the Hero.

 

Qube couldn’t move. This was worse than when the Dryad Queen had looked at her. Worse than when the Evil Emperor had stared at her from atop his castle. He was here, directly in front of her, and he was looking at her and, for the first time, she felt the full weight of his awareness fall upon her.

 

“[Heal]!” she spat out another spell, and the Evil Emperor dropped Definitely Bad Guy. He clutched the sides of his helmet and screamed. Definitely Bad Guy writhed on the ground, tattoos burning, before the Hero scooped him up and started running towards Cobbletown’s gates.

 

“What have you done to me?” the Evil Emperor screamed, before Sencha Bard grabbed one of Sexy Screamy Spider Lady’s claws.

 

“We have to run!” the Bard said. “Remember the plan!”

 

They fled, leaving the Evil Emperor in the plaza, surrounded by roiling darkness, and an inn’s worth of patiently waiting chickens.

 

---

 

The whole party was nearly breathless with exhilaration as they raced out of Cobbletown.

 

“It worked!” the Chosen One gasped, laughing. “I can’t believe that actually worked! Oh man, I can’t wait to see how it [fiddles] him up!”

 

“If there is a shred of decency remaining within him, I can only hope that our worthy Healer’s spell has been the wake up call he needed,” Sencha Bard said. “Otherwise he, too, shall go the way of the pharaoh.” He said that last part with deep sadness.

 

“I am alive,” Definitely Bad Guy said, sounding rather stunned. He placed a hand against the main tattoo on his chest. “I felt the power of his curse start to take hold, but your spell broke it.” He looked at Qube with admiration. “I owe you my life,” he said simply.

 

“Did you see the look on his face?” Sexy Screamy Spider Lady smirked. “I only wish I’d gotten to shoot him.” She glowered at the Bard.

 

Squiggles climbed up the Hunter and waved her front tentacles about excitedly.

 

“Yes, my sweet,” the Hunter cooed at her. “You did an excellent job with those chickens, yes you did!”

 

“I betrayed the most powerful man in the kingdom, and I am still here,” Definitely Bad Guy said, staring at his hands.

 

“I’m glad,” Qube said, reaching out and gently touching his shoulder. No matter how complicated her feelings towards her friend had become with the discovery that he had been double-crossing them the entire time she’d known him, she still didn’t want to see him get hurt.

 

“Yeah, gonna be honest with you Sparky, didn’t think we could pull that off,” the Chosen One said. “And I got no idea what the fallout’s gonna be like, or what the curse was supposed to do. Hopefully it’ll help him grow? Who knows!”

 

“That raises an interesting question,” Definitely Bad Guy said, glancing at Qube. “I had been under the impression that the Evil Emperor had rendered you invisible as a way to protect you for his own interests, as well as preventing you from being, uh, accosted by anyone. But if that is not the case, I do not know what his reasoning could be for cursing you in such a manner rather than simply killing you.”

 

The Chosen One stumbled.

 

“Not that I am advocating for him to kill anyone!” Definitely Bad Guy said hurriedly. “I assure you, I am most pleased that he did not slay her. I merely do not understand his reasoning for staying his hand in what should have been a straightforward matter. After all, he executed your entire village, did he not?”

 

“My darling,” Sexy Screamy Spider Lady purred as she loomed over the Mage. “Your social skills are deplorable sometimes. It’s almost enough to make—” the arachnid winced slightly. She tried again: “You almost make others look diplomatic.”

 

“No doubt the Golden Prophecy stopped him from committing such a heinous act,” Sencha Bard said, sliding in to smooth over any awkwardness about the whole ‘why wasn’t Qube murdered’ question. “Now that I have read the sacred text myself, I can see why our ‘guiding light’ is instrumental to our party’s success.” The Bard gave Qube a quick smile.

 

“I must confess, there’s been several times where I, myself, have struggled and she has given me guidance,” he announced, making Qube blush. “No doubt this is why she is able to guide others into action when all my skills have failed to move them.”

 

Qube, having been a very good Companion for a very long time, and now more aware of the whispers inside her own mind, caught the undertone and tugged on one of Sencha Bard’s poofy sleeves. He looked down at her.

 

“I thought your speech in the inn was lovely,” she said firmly. “But they weren’t going to leave without Zakora no matter what anyone said. It’d be like if someone tried to get us to abandon the Chosen One. It had nothing to do with your skills.”

 

The Bard’s face did something complicated, a myriad of expressions flitting across it too fast for her to decipher. Then, to everyone’s shock, and her utter horror, he lifted up her hand clutching his sleeve and kissed the back of it.

 

“You are, as always, correct, my lady,” he said, giving her a small bow as she tugged her hand away from his grasp. She wiped the back of her hand against her robe, which only made the Bard laugh. Out of the corner of her eye she could see the rest of the group staring, but the Bard continued looking at her.

 

“This is why you are the guiding light,” he said softly, his eyes searching hers. “Even against those who could do you terrible harm, you show compassion.”

 

“I have decided,” he declared, looking at Definitely Bad Guy, who was still stunned, “if the Evil Emperor isn’t willing to cooperate with us, and grovel for forgiveness for the harm he has done, when we return from the final Temple, we shall slay him, power or no.” He glanced at Qube. “Some things are too precious to risk, some mercies too much to ask for.”

 

Qube had thought that was always the plan but the Mage looked at the Bard, his expression sharpening, then reluctantly relaxing as he slowly nodded.

 

“Very well,” he said, one hand still against the tattoo over his heart. “Then we shall follow this course, wherever it leads.”

 

“To the end,” the Bard said, and laughed.

 

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