Chapter 109 – The Cat And The Fox

I have many questions.

Such as why my face feels warmer than usual. Or why my heart appears to have developed a mild but persistent enthusiasm for beating slightly faster than it normally does.

I don't understand.

I glance down at my hands.

Avelyn's clothes had been torn, so I repaired them with starlight. A completely reasonable thing to do. She is a noble, after all.

…

So then…

Why do I feel like I just did something profoundly embarrassing?

My face grows just a little warmer.

Highly concerning.

Perhaps this is simply a delayed side effect of suffering catastrophic structural failure.

Further testing is clearly required.

“Aww, look at her, she’s blushing!”

“Ohmygosh you’re, like, so adorable right now!”

“Enemy ahead! Therefore try extreme violence!”

"Welcome back, darling. We were all starting to get worried. Looks like you made some friends, though. I am happy for you."

“CHILI—”

I point toward the stars.

"Do. Not."

The chili dog star wisely decides against finishing that sentence.

I smile upward.

"I'm home."

Warm greetings drift back from the stars, accompanied by several enthusiastic noises and what I am fairly certain is one particularly curious constellation reading a Wikipedia article about red foxes.

Which is mildly strange.

"I am certain we would all love to hear how your dungeon dive has gone so far, darling," the Older Sister star says warmly. "But I imagine you're rather busy?"

I nod.

"Yeah. Just give me a little while." I meet the Crystal Reaper's crimson gaze. "I'll make this quick."

The creature visibly trembles.

How curious.

It had been perfectly polite to me earlier. I merely intend to return the favor approximately tenfold.

Apparently that prospect is... unpopular.

The Crystal Reaper hesitates, no longer quite so eager to resume the fight, giving me a convenient opportunity to glance toward the party.

Avelyn reaches them quickly and immediately begins healing everyone.

Rin leans over as she works, lowering his voice just enough that I can still hear him perfectly.

Which, considering the speaker, is almost certainly intentional.

"So..." he murmurs. "Did the little miss hit her head too hard? Unlock some new powers at the cost of her sanity or something?"

Avelyn pauses, looking genuinely confused.

"Of course not." She tilts her head. "I made sure she was fully healed before I came over. Her head was one of the first things I fixed."

…

Rin simply stares at her as his joke sails majestically over her head.

My tail gives a deeply satisfied swish.

He deserved that.

The Crystal Reaper takes a step backwards.

One of my vines shifts.

It immediately freezes.

Good. It understands that interrupting would be impolite.

Sylrae, having escaped the encounter with the fewest injuries, lets out a low whistle.

"That's..." She studies the space around me, wings giving a thoughtful twitch. "That's a lot of gravity magic."

Her brow furrows.

"...Although..."

She looks directly at me.

"Why is all of it flowing toward you?" A brief pause. "...Are you literally acting as the center of the world right now?"

…?

I pause.

...Don't tell me.

"Might I inquire..." I gesture vaguely around the Garden. "...Were you able to tell that I was using gravity manipulation beforehand?"

Sylrae gives me a blank look.

"...Yeah?" She points at herself. "I have the Gravity Aspect. Of course I could tell. I noticed when you were messing around during the roaming boss fight."

She frowns slightly. Then her eyes widen.

"...Wait." She points at me instead. "Did you think I couldn't?"

I slowly avert my gaze.

My ears angle outward.

Sylrae laughs.

My ears angle farther outward.

She has the decency to recover after only a few seconds.

"For someone so ridiculously talented..." she says between lingering smiles, "...you're kind of an airhead sometimes."

My ears flatten.

This is deeply undignified.

How, exactly, was I supposed to know that people with the Gravity Aspect can perceive gravitational fluctuations?

…Right.

Perhaps I could have guessed that rather easily.

An unfortunate oversight.

Fortunately…

It no longer matters.

Now that I have ignited my vines with Starfire, any lingering ambiguity has already been thoroughly murdered.

Therefore…

This was entirely intentional from the beginning.

Naturally.

My tail gives a smug swish.

"...Cute," Avelyn murmurs under her breath.

My ears perk instinctively.

I immediately pretend they did no such thing.

"I shall explain everything once we are finished here." I point Astra Nocturne toward the Crystal Reaper. "If you will excuse me for a moment, I intend to dispose of the boss."

To my surprise, Rin raises a hand.

"Hold up, Little Miss."

I blink.

"I know you probably want to kill it after..." His expression hardens slightly. "...after what it did to you."

He pats the glowing sheaths at his waist.

"But..." A grin slowly returns. "I've been charging these babies since the start of the fight."

He cracks his neck.

"To be real, I'm also a little annoyed right now. And by that I mean unbelievably pissed off. Want to do it together?"

Reasonable.

I am also pissed off right now. Mostly at myself.

That was an unforgivable level of incompetence. One that not only almost ended in my admittedly cinematic demise, but resulted in my party members being injured as well.

Unacceptable.

I immediately make room, and Rin steps up beside me.

I have wanted to see what those sheaths actually do since approximately five minutes after meeting him.

This is, objectively, an excellent development.

I gesture magnanimously toward the Crystal Reaper, my Starfire-coated vines withdrawing just enough to allow us both to maneuver properly.

The boss immediately leaps backward.

…

Interesting.

I merely moved my hand.

It reacted as though I had personally announced its impending extinction.

Interesting. Neither the Lich nor the True Dragon behaved like this while inside my Arcana.

This appears to be... different.

I glance around the Garden.

The Crystal Reaper's eyes never leave me for even a moment.

Hm.

Perhaps monsters can instinctively sense when they are standing somewhere they fundamentally do not belong.

A fascinating hypothesis.

One I shall investigate later, assuming there are any monsters left alive in the vicinity at some point afterward to investigate.

The Crystal Reaper continues standing several dozen meters away, visibly reluctant to approach despite possessing every opportunity to attack.

Which is honestly rather strange.

The outcome of this battle has already been decided.

Naturally.

Yet the disparity between us is not so overwhelming that it should simply stand there watching while we calmly discuss whose turn it is to reduce it into aesthetically pleasing crystal fragments.

It hesitates with the unmistakable air of someone rehearsing a speech to ask their crush to the spring festival while simultaneously contemplating whether fleeing the country might somehow be the less embarrassing option.

…

Highly unusual.

I take one final look toward the party.

Marek meets my gaze first. His shield lowers slightly, and he simply gives me a firm thumbs up before taking a few measured steps backward.

Zeke follows without protest, the tension gradually leaving his shoulders as he lets the half-finished spell in his staff dissipate. He exhales slowly, then folds his arms, watching the battlefield with complete confidence.

Sylrae lifts her rifle onto one shoulder and flashes me a grin.

"Try not to steal all the fun."

Avelyn doesn't say anything.

She only smiles.

Warm. Gentle. Completely certain that everything will be alright.

…

My ears soften ever so slightly before I catch them. They immediately return to a considerably more respectable position.

Good.

Much better.

I turn back toward the Crystal Reaper.

Astra Nocturne trails beside me as I settle into Blazing Star Dance, brilliant motes of Starfire drifting lazily from the blade. They fall through the air like tiny stars before disappearing into the dark soil beneath my feet, leaving faint ripples of heat in their wake.

"I shall be manipulating your movement," I say, my attention never leaving the Crystal Reaper. "Adapt quickly."

After a brief moment, I add, "...Also, avoid the flames. I would rather not discover whether Avelyn is capable of healing injuries inflicted by them."

Rin lets out an amused snort.

"The fact that you're worried our healer might not be able to fix your own fire is a little terrifying."

His sabers slide into his sheaths.

Frostflame immediately begins to coil around him.

"But..." His grin widens as his tail gives a confident flick. "Who do you think you're talking to, Little Miss?"

He lowers his center of gravity, every muscle settling into readiness.

"I'm a Catkin." His eyes lock onto the Crystal Reaper. "If you can make me faster..."

His smile sharpens.

"I'll keep up."

Excellent. That is precisely what I wished to hear.

The rest of the party quietly gives us space, trusting us without a single question asked.

Reasonable.

I bare my fangs at the Crystal Reaper.

Then I reach for gravity.

Not a rail, or a field. Everything.

Normally, gravity flows endlessly toward the world beneath our feet. Inside my Garden…

It answers to a different center.

The vast current bends.

Everything flows towards me within my Arcana.

Which makes manipulating it remarkably straightforward.

Indigo and midnight-blue light bloom throughout the Garden as I seize the current of gravity itself, bending its endless flow into two sweeping rails.

One for myself. One for Rin.

I lower my posture. My muscles coil.

Then I launch.

The dark soil beneath my feet remains perfectly pristine despite the thoroughly unreasonable amount of force passing through it.

Excellent.

I catch the gravity rail immediately, and it pulls me into a graceful arc around the Crystal Reaper.

Beside me, Rin launches at precisely the same moment, his own rail carrying him along a wider orbit.

His eyes widen for only a heartbeat before a grin spreads across his face.

Good. He noticed.

Observant.

The Crystal Reaper hesitates for exactly one moment too long.

I reach it in three steps.

Its four crimson eyes lock onto me, and two katars lash forward almost simultaneously.

My foot kisses the soil.

My tail flicks once.

The movement flows naturally into a pirouette as Astra Nocturne meets the first strike with a harsh clang, knocking the weapon wide despite the resistance of the shimmering mana armor surrounding it.

Tough.

Annoying.

The second katar flashes toward my face, apparently determined to demonstrate that skulls function considerably better as external decorations than internal structures.

Considering our previous interaction, that particular hypothesis has already been tested rather thoroughly.

Further experimentation is unnecessary.

My gravity rail bends.

A vine sprouts from my thigh, loops around the Crystal Reaper's rear leg, and pulls tight.

Instead of escaping the attack…

I accelerate.

The rail and vine work together, slinging me around the creature in a blisteringly fast orbit as the crystalline blade slices harmlessly through the space I had occupied a fraction of a heartbeat earlier.

Meanwhile, the Reaper commits to its second mistake.

Its right-side katars sweep toward Rin.

Directly across the path of the gravity rail I created for him.

He doesn't hesitate. Doesn't even attempt to change course.

Excellent.

Trust.

My orbit completes.

Both feet land squarely against the Crystal Reaper's right arm.

Momentum follows.

The monster experiences the unique sensation of being kicked by what is, for all practical purposes, a fox-shaped artillery shell.

Crystal groans.

The mana armor holds for barely an instant before the sheer force knocks the entire arm violently aside.

My vine tightens again.

One end continues pulling me back into another orbit.

The other yanks sharply on the Crystal Reaper's rear leg.

The opposing forces meet at exactly the wrong moment.

Its stance collapses.

Rin's orbit completes.

His feet kiss the soil for barely an instant before he steals every last fragment of momentum from my gravity rail and launches just past the Crystal Reaper's shoulder.

Excellent.

He understands.

His hands settle around both hilts.

His grin widens.

Brilliant blue runes ignite along the sheaths.

“Frostflame Draw Art: First Draw!”

The blades leave their sheaths with a sound too fast to properly hear.

One instant they are resting peacefully.

The next, two silver arcs are already carving through the Crystal Reaper's abdomen, Frostflame erupting behind them in a sweeping crescent that tears deep into crystal and mana armor alike.

Beautiful.

I raise my left hand.

Indigo radiance gathers around my fingertips as gravity obeys once more, a fresh current bending into existence beneath Rin's feet before he has even finished the draw.

His boots touch the ground.

He redirects immediately.

...His ankles are almost certainly composing an extremely passionate complaint regarding workplace conditions.

Fortunately, they remain employed.

I briefly bend the current away from the Crystal Reaper before allowing it to dissolve naturally.

Rin keeps every bit of the speed. Exactly as intended.

The Crystal Reaper screeches.

My ears flatten instinctively.

The sound still hurts.

Just…

Considerably less.

The Garden refuses to let the shriek fully bloom, the noise seeming to lose its edge the moment it spreads beneath the star-filled sky.

Much better.

Loud noises are distinctly incompatible with the atmosphere.

One of my vines catches my ankle.

The pull is gentle.

Perfectly timed.

It redirects my momentum into another waiting gravity current, shortening my orbit until the Crystal Reaper fills my entire vision.

I touch the soil once.

Push.

Lunge.

Starfire pours from Astra Nocturne in brilliant streams, kaleidoscopic motes multiplying until they trail behind the blade like fragments of a newborn constellation.

There is little point conserving stamina inside my own Arcana, after all.

The Crystal Reaper twists with surprising speed, using its own unbalanced posture to lash a katar toward my chest.

Unfortunately…

It is watching what it thinks is me.

Not the current carrying me.

The blade slices cleanly through the illusion as my gravity rail curves around the attack, carrying me directly alongside the wound Rin opened only moments earlier.

Excellent positioning.

Frostflame still clings stubbornly to the wound, impossible cold sinking deeper into the crystalline shell.

A wonderful foundation.

I bare my fangs.

"This is for your earlier greeting."

My tail flicks.

The motion carries naturally into a spinning slash as Astra Nocturne paints a brilliant crescent of Starfire across the Reaper's side.

The instant my blade meets crystal, sovereign flame crashes headlong into lingering Frostflame.

Crystal explodes outward.

The mana armor fractures with a sound like a frozen lake breaking beneath the first warmth of spring.

Four vines erupt from my thighs and slam into the soil.

The sudden resistance yanks my momentum backward hard enough that several internal organs briefly reconsider their preferred locations.

A small price to pay.

The Crystal Reaper's answering strike whistles harmlessly through the space I had already abandoned.

One heartbeat later, Starfall Sequence descends.

The delayed strike blooms inside the fractured mana armor itself, carving another incandescent line through crystal before the wound has any opportunity to recover.

Right on cue, Rin arrives like an exceptionally motivated projectile.

He drops into a low stance, both blades sliding smoothly back into their sheaths as he glides past me.

Excellent.

I twist one hand, weaving a short gravity rail between him and the Crystal Reaper. It only lasts a fraction of a second, but that is more than enough to lend his draw just a little more velocity.

At the same time, dozens of vines burst from the Garden around the Reaper, wrapping around its limbs and torso.

They won't hold.

They don't need to.

One heartbeat is sufficient.

Blue runes blaze brilliantly along Rin's sheaths.

Even brighter than before.

“Frostflame Draw Art…”

He springs upward.

“...Second Draw!”

The blades leave their sheaths in a blur.

Two crescents of Frostflame intersect perfectly at the joint of the Reaper's right forearm, impossible cold exploding across the limb. Crystal whitens instantly beneath the frost, and the strike carves a deep gash through the joint before Rin lands several meters away, already disengaging before the creature can retaliate.

My ears perk.

Excellent timing.

The frozen joint is unbelievably rigid.

I reach into my inventory.

A massive Starlight Scythe materializes in my hand, its celestial-silver blade already wreathed in kaleidoscopic Starfire.

I push a little harder against the soil during my current orbit.

Then, I throw.

The scythe tears through the air with enough force to distort it behind the blade.

At the same time, I seize the surrounding starlight.

Illusions bloom.

Not one scythe.

Many.

Brilliant afterimages scatter outward like a meteor shower, each one trailing kaleidoscopic fire until the entire sky seems momentarily filled with descending blades.

The Crystal Reaper reacts exactly as hoped.

It abandons its position entirely.

Excellent.

The real scythe sails harmlessly through the space it had occupied a heartbeat earlier.

I carve a new gravity rail for it.

The boss lands several meters away and immediately growls.

Crystal formations surge from the ground around it before launching toward me in a relentless barrage.

…

Really? Projectile spam? Against a star?

I do hope this isn't its final strategy.

That would be profoundly disappointing.

Gravity answers my thoughts.

Indigo and midnight-blue radiance whirl around me as I bend the current into a stable vortex.

The incoming crystal lances enter the field.

Instead of striking…

They curve.

One after another, the projectiles are caught by the whirlpool, each joining the growing orbit circling my body until dozens of crystal spears revolve around me like tiny moons around an unusually homicidal planet.

Beautiful.

I flick two fingers.

One spear peels away from the orbit and accelerates toward the Crystal Reaper.

I follow immediately behind it, gliding along my gravity rail.

The Reaper smashes the projectile aside with one katar.

Its second arm draws back.

Apparently intending to introduce my internal organs to the concept of exterior decorating once again.

Rin immediately begins curving around the Reaper's blind side.

Excellent.

A fresh gravity rail blooms beneath his feet, bending his path into a wide orbit around the battlefield.

The Crystal Reaper pays him no attention.

Instead, the remaining katar lunges straight for my chest.

Perfect.

A heartbeat before the strike reaches me, a familiar weight descends from above.

The Starlight Scythe completes its full circuit through the Garden, returning precisely where I calculated it would.

Astra Nocturne dissolves back into my soul.

My hand closes around the scythe's hilt. The momentum carries naturally into a pirouette.

Only then do the Reaper's crimson eyes widen.

It finally understands.

This was never a thrown weapon. Nor was it a mere distraction.

It was simply another dancer.

Too late.

The scythe's longer reach carries the celestial-silver blade cleanly through the already damaged joint.

Crystal bursts apart in a kaleidoscopic shower as the frozen limb finally gives way, hanging by little more than fractured shards before separating completely.

Kaleidoscopic strands of mana stretch briefly from the stump, reaching after the severed limb before recoiling into the wound.

Hm.

Regeneration.

Annoying.

The opening appears.

I glide through it without slowing.

As I pass beneath its remaining arm, every crystal projectile still orbiting around me peels away from the current and slams into the Reaper's back in rapid succession.

I doubt they accomplish much beyond expressing my dissatisfaction.

Still…

Every performance benefits from applause.

My gravity rail reverses.

For the first time since this dance began, it works against my momentum instead of with it.

The remaining speed is still absurd.

I drive the scythe into the dark soil. The blade bites far deeper than crystal ever managed to, resisting just enough to let me bleed away momentum instead of excavating a new valley through my Garden.

My shoulder immediately begins filing formal complaints with the rest of my skeleton.

Understandable.

Using the resistance, I swing myself forward, planting both feet atop the hilt before the scythe finally comes to a halt.

From an outside perspective…

I imagine the maneuver appeared exceptionally elegant.

I shall refrain from mentioning the amount of internal negotiation required to achieve that result.

Satisfied, I hop lightly from my admittedly rather dramatic perch.

Astra Nocturne returns to my hand.

Rin arrives beside me at almost exactly the same moment, his own momentum finally exhausted.

The brilliant glow surrounding his sheaths has intensified to an almost painful brightness.

Excellent.

The next draw will undoubtedly be substantial.

He keeps his eyes on the Crystal Reaper.

"Last one needs half a second." He exhales once. "I can't move during. Can you give me that?"

"Naturally."

After all…

I am the most talented prodigy in existence.

I flick my hair haughtily.

Besides, I already know what comes next.

The Crystal Reaper possesses a measure of intelligence. Just not the particularly troublesome kind.

Closer to a beast than a person.

And evolution has gifted beasts with one remarkably effective survival strategy.

Recognize what works, then continue doing it until presented with overwhelming evidence that perhaps it does not.

It screeches.

The loud sound spreads beneath the stars before quietly losing its edge, swallowed by the calm of my Arcana until it resembles little more than an unpleasant memory.

Then the Reaper lowers its stance.

It chooses the exact same opening attack.

One instant it stands dozens of meters away.

The next—

It is already moving.

Unfortunately for it, I have seen this attack before. And I would never be hit by the same move twice.

Guiding Star Dance carries me into motion.

Starlight bends.

My outline blurs as I glide aside, the Crystal Reaper committing fully to the same attack that had nearly killed me only minutes earlier.

Predictable.

A crystalline katar thrusts toward my abdomen.

Almost lazily, I lift Astra Nocturne.

The point glides along the flat of the void-black blade before slipping harmlessly away, the force of the strike redirected just enough to miss.

Its second arm follows immediately.

Gravity gives me the slightest encouragement backwards.

The katar whistles past my chest, close enough that I feel the disturbed air brush against my dress.

It adapts instantly.

One clawed foot lashes toward my temple.

I step into its guard instead.

My posture sinks.

Astra Nocturne rises horizontally, my free hand bracing the flat of the blade as the kick crashes into it.

The impact reverberates through my arms.

Then…

It launches the Crystal Reaper away instead.

Its own momentum betrays it, the creature pitching sideways as all remaining limbs desperately attempt to recover a balance that no longer exists.

Unfortunately for it…

Rin has already arrived.

I glide backward, opening the stage.

Blue runes erupt across both sheaths.

The Frostflame surrounding them brightens.

Brighter. Brighter still.

For one fleeting instant, even the stars above my Garden surrender the spotlight.

"Frostflame Draw Art..."

His voice is quiet. Calm.

"Final Draw."

His blades leave their sheaths.

...

I do not see the strike.

Only the aftermath.

A perfectly straight line appears across the Crystal Reaper’s waist.

Its mana armor separates first. The crystal beneath follows a heartbeat later, splitting so cleanly that the two halves remain aligned for one impossible instant.

Then a brilliant crescent of Frostflame blossoms into existence behind Rin.

It races across the Garden in absolute silence, as though reality itself has only just realized it was cut.

The upper half of the Crystal Reaper shifts.

Slides.

Then stops.

...?

Kaleidoscopic strands of mana stretch between the two halves of its body, thin as spider silk but considerably more stubborn.

Something pulses deep inside the exposed wound.

Crimson light surges through the strands, and the Crystal Reaper screeches.

Its remaining limbs slam into the soil, crystalline claws tearing long trenches through my Garden as the upper half of its body violently drags itself back into place.

The severed crystal grinds together.

Fractures begin sealing.

Rude.

Rin lands several meters away.

His blades return to their sheaths with a quiet click, but his legs buckle the instant his feet touch the ground. One hand strikes the soil before he can collapse entirely.

The brilliant runes along his sheaths flicker, then fade.

His eyes widen as the Crystal Reaper begins knitting itself back together.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”

Understandable.

That attack was beautiful.

Allowing the creature to recover from it would be profoundly disrespectful.

Fortunately, Rin has already opened the stage.

I plant my feet.

My posture lowers, Astra Nocturne trailing beside me as a gravity rail curves into existence before my path.

Then I launch.

The Garden blurs.

One step.

Two.

The distance vanishes.

The Crystal Reaper attempts a retaliatory swing.

Dozens of vines throughout my Garden snap forward at once, catching its limbs and demonstrating just how optimistic that decision was.

My hilt rises to my shoulder.

Every mote of Starfire scattered throughout the Garden vanishes, drawn inward as I pull as deeply from my Astral Stream as my body allows.

I activate my anklet. Power floods my limbs as the stored momentum collapses into me.

Tragically, the reservoir is only half full.

This is therefore slightly below my true maximum output.

I elect to ignore that detail.

A faintly unhinged smile finds its way onto my face.

Starfire Resonance is nearly maxed from the motes burning through its armor.

My Garden blankets the cavern. Astra Nocturne drinks deeply from the gathered flames, while the released momentum from my anklet reinforces every movement.

And my Dexterity is nearly triple what it was the last time I used this technique with meaningful force.

Yes.

This is going to be far more cathartic than the last two times.

Motes of concentrated Starfire bloom around Astra Nocturne.

Far more than I have ever produced before.

They gather first along the fuller, flickering like tiny living stars, before spiraling toward the point. A harsh radiance forms at the center, surrounded by kaleidoscopic flame that twists through its colors too quickly for the eye to follow.

The light becomes painful to look at.

My shadow stretches across the cavern.

So does the Reaper’s.

Both are thrown against the crystal walls in enormous, distorted silhouettes.

Then the motes collapse inward.

The tip of Astra Nocturne becomes a miniature stellar convergence, bright enough that the surrounding crystal loses its color entirely.

I thrust.

"Blazing Star Dance, First Step:"

The point strikes the frozen, brittle shell Rin left behind, and passes through without resistance.

"Rending Starfire Line!"

Astra Nocturne drives through the Crystal Reaper’s torso.

Through the reforming wound.

Through its core.

The passage leaves behind something almost disappointingly small: a razor-thin line of kaleidoscopic light running through the entirety of its body.

For one heartbeat, that is all.

Then I activate Astral Veilstep.

My body slips through Astral Space and passes cleanly through the boss before my momentum can transform me into highly decorative paste against several tons of crystal.

I reappear behind it.

My boots carve through the dark soil as four vines spear into the ground, anchoring hard enough to drag trenches behind me while I bleed away the remaining speed.

I turn just in time to see the line ignite.

The air along my trajectory shimmers, bending around a wound nearly forty meters long. Its edges glow brightly as kaleidoscopic Starfire churns within, alive and restless, as though a fragment of a star has been drawn through the cavern and ordered to remain.

For those few seconds, everything within that narrow trajectory belongs to Starfire.

The Crystal Reaper stands directly inside it.

It never had a chance.

Heat floods the fracture Rin created, meeting the Frostflame still buried throughout its body.

The reaction is immediate.

Frozen crystal flashes white.

Mana armor ruptures from within.

The Reaper’s torso does not explode so much as lose its agreement with cohesion.

Cracks race outward from the line, branching through every remaining limb. Plates shear free. The core splits apart beneath the combined pressure, and the entire creature collapses into a storm of glowing shards, half-melted crystal, and hissing vapor.

The wound in the air persists for several more seconds.

Kaleidoscopic motes of starfire drift from it like sparks shed by a dying constellation, each one winking out before it can touch the ground.

Then the rift closes.

Silence returns.

Only the faint popping of cooling crystal remains.

I nod solemnly.

Had I performed that outside my Garden, the surrounding atmosphere would currently be expressing several extremely violent opinions.

Fortunately, my Arcana allows me to suppress the resulting air currents.

Carving a forty-meter line of stellar material through open air would otherwise have been mildly inconvenient for the audience.

Probably.

Speaking of audiences…

I lean forward ever so slightly.

One foot slides back.

My tail settles into what I believe is an exceptionally dignified angle.

Composition…

Is important.

Obviously.

It takes the System a few heartbeats to catch up.

Two levels. A treasure chest. The usual.

I dismiss the notifications almost immediately in favor of the considerably more important wave of cheering echoing across my consciousness.

The stars are celebrating enthusiastically.

As expected.

At roughly the same time, the rest of the party finally reaches us.

Rin is closest, so he arrives first.

His Frostflame has faded, and the brilliant runes covering his sheaths have returned to a dull gray.

He stops beside me, folds his arms, and grins.

"We make a pretty damn good team, Little Miss." He jerks a thumb toward the thoroughly shattered remains of the Crystal Reaper. "We practically bullied that thing to death."

True.

It really didn't stand much of a chance.

He raises a hand.

I inspect it for a brief moment.

Then I return the high five. Elegantly, of course.

His grin somehow widens.

Unfortunately, I receive absolutely no time to appreciate this victorious exchange.

A pair of arms suddenly wraps around me from behind, causing a small, dignified yelp to escape me.

"A-Avelyn?"

The considerably larger Foxkin nearly knocks me over entirely before I manage to stabilize us with a vine.

"..."

She doesn't say anything. She simply hugs me tighter.

…

Understandable, I suppose.

She was rather distressed earlier.

After a few moments, she quietly lets go, her face burning a brilliant red as she hurriedly takes a seat.

I lower myself beside her.

She shifts closer almost immediately.

Suspiciously close.

The others arrive a moment later.

Zeke and Marek immediately launch into what appears to be a spirited debate regarding whose attack had been the most satisfying to watch, while Sylrae begins enthusiastically discussing the fight with Rin.

Approximately half of what she is talking about appears to involve me violating several fundamental assumptions regarding how gravity is generally expected to function.

Fair.

Meanwhile, Avelyn excitedly begins recounting portions of the battle to me with so much enthusiasm that one would think she was explaining my own exploits to someone who had never witnessed them.

I already know what happened.

I was there.

Still…

My tail gives a contented sway.

My Garden remains fully unfolded around us.

The stars above burn quietly. The vines drift lazily through the air. The flowers continue swaying beneath a breeze that doesn't exist.

Suspiciously…

The night sky has become unusually quiet.

The cheering ended some time ago.

Nobody speaks. Nobody interrupts.

They simply…

Watch.

…

Highly unusual.

Normally, at least one of them would be enthusiastically attempting to derail the conversation by now.

I consider the phenomenon for a few moments.

Then decide that it is probably not important.

As my gaze drifts across the Garden, however, something else catches my attention.

The flowers…

They seem slightly denser around where Avelyn and I are sitting.

Not dramatically.

Just enough that I notice.

…

How very curious.