Chapter 1803 - 1803: Worth It

"Why haven't you done anything to help Kintar?" said Savast earnestly. There was a lick of fury in his eyes. "She's… broken now. I don't know why or how, but when you scolded her, it was like something inside of her shattered. Surely… we need her at her best, don't we? So why have you not done anything?"

The other Stars – Baddan and Grim – said nothing, but it would have been a lie to say they didn't share a smidgeon of the same sentiment that Savast had. They all knew Kintar was unusual – everyone did. For her to shatter like that after only a little scolding was pathetic and bizarre; words no one would have ever associated with the Deputy.

"Is it actually because she – we – messed up? In that case—"

"Of course not," Skullius cut the former Cluster General off. He closed his eyes as they adopted darkness again. "As I said before, I know you socketholes were not entirely being reckless. You knew you were walking into a trap of some sort, but you believed that, at worst, nothing could kill you before you could call for my help. That's how Kintar thinks – how she got you all to take a load off and explore… recklessly."

Grim, perhaps because of shame, slowly sank deep into the pool.

"And also, as I acknowledged before, I don't blame you for wanting to see the broader world around you. In fact, I want you to be able to do so without reservations or fear. You are my friends – my family, after all," said Skullius.

Savast's lip trembled. "Then… why?"

Skullius, even while gliding elsewhere, weaving between strikingly quick and bloodthirsty plasma beams, sensed the wealth of fire burning inside the Unlimited Star.

"It's simple, really?" he said. "I don't know how."

The Stars and Troops were taken aback.

"…Boss?" Grim resurfaced.

Baddan inched closer to Skullius, perhaps to ensure he heard every word right.

"The soul is a universal concept. It carries the information about everything an entity will be. Some parts of that can be changed, but others… are difficult, but not because there aren't powers out there that can rewrite a person's flaws," said Skullius. "To be honest, if it were a matter of transforming Kintar into a perfect, stable drone that followed my whims, I could easily strip her of those dark, twisted, vulnerable bits that only Allora truly understood. But I won't."

Skullius opened his eyes and stared right into Savast's.

"I love Kintar as much as any of you," he said. "I value her as she is so much that I thought she'd make a great Deputy – a devil in my ear, contradicting me or watching for my own contradictions. On Aigas, she managed to save me and twist my course from hypocrisy. Even if it was just that one instance of her transforming me against a million others where she screwed the flesh out of me, I would never change her."

"She is invulnerable in parts that we may fail to understand right now, but she can be better. Don't let her abrasive, overwhelming talents fool you into thinking she's unbreakable. You guys have a better chance of understanding her and helping her figure it all out than me. After all, don't forget," Skullius grinned, "I'm not whole myself – far from it, in fact. Part of me is a skeleton that knows only the mines in the domain of a Lich."

At that, Savast gave a grunt of understanding. "I see."

Grim spewed a stream of water from his mouth back into the pool.

"It's really hard to imagine you as a brittle skeleton with a pickaxe, boss. It almost sounds like you miss that old life of yours," he said.

"Barring Somanda's influence, a part of me does miss those days with my old crew."

"I miss the days when you reluctantly went by the name Bright Storm," said Timmit, flapping his wings and punting heaps of steam away from himself.

"I still hate that name."

"Come on, you looked pretty cool back then," Grim chuckled. "A lone, pitch-black skeleton, commander of storm clouds."

"What do you mean back then? It was less than two weeks ago when I last adopted that form - technically. I do miss the Eternal Storm Veil Penetrator aesthetic, though. I wonder what I could have been if I didn't deviate from that path," Skullius mused.

The Stars mused along with him, breaching the heavy air that had settled in just seconds before. Just like that, Skullius managed to free himself from the pressure of where he was and what he was here for. For a moment, he forgot that he was in enemy territory, facing a billion trials with almost no information about how to avert or challenge them. But that was alright.

Sparing a moment to splash Grim with a wave of hot water after he (the Star) dared to say that the Granted Star Armament looked better than the Numinous Ichor armour was worth it. It was also worth it to hear Baddan say he'd love it if he could have a last name like most humans.

"Maybe we all could have a last name. That's how humans make families, right, Grim?" he said, turning to the Star after he emerged from the depths of the pool, coughing liters out of his mouth.

"I think I should step in and teach you what exactly constitutes human tradition, Baddan," said Ruge, with an odd look at the former Sky Watcher.

"Even I could do better than that white-haired idiot. The inside of your head is just as empty as a dandelion's," sneered Timmit.

"Hey, you two realize I outrank you, right?!" hissed Grim.

Skullius laughed.

It was all worth it indeed.

…But he didn't forget that there were eyes and ears behind him. Fortus was watching and listening.

However, everything Skullius had discussed with his subordinates gave no more clues about him any more than his enemies had already seen. Certainly, Gylliard knew more about him than anything he'd shared with the Stars just now.

The information gap was immense, and the more Skullius dove deep into the consciousnesses of the Vacuum Fiends and heard snippets of scattered conversations with missing words, or rather, intent expressed in a way he couldn't translate, the more he realized that there was a way to chip at that gap significantly and perhaps, easily.

Coming back to himself again, he turned to Fortus.

"Would you mind enlightening me about this… sophisticated means of communication you use here?"