NIGHT

the whip of a flash of light illuminated her face again, just in time for the imperial guardian to dive towards night, and the player to leap out of the way, in a similar vein to the entity’s own launch from their position without a wind-up. cheating, night could imagine herself saying, but in her fluster from evasion (it didn’t matter anyway, she got nicked before she realized) all she could find herself barking back is, “what are you doing?!” and day barely had time to shoot her a grin, in landing her attack. “getting one back from you, obviously.” her spear landed into the side of

then, and only then, did she turn around with her sword brandished in hand. the ground ahead of her was growing with shadow, and so too did her vision start to be filled with the form of a giant, jade dog. up close, she could feel how despite the hunter looking rather inanimate, it heaved and huffed like a realistic beast. its form towering over her own was intimidating, despite her past experiences with creatures of similar sizes, and the player felt herself taking a few steps back as it struggled to even look downwards, gaze unable to meet her own due to an oversized snout. so, to

so she kneeled before the chest, and nyanko squirmed to be let out. night let him down gently, watching him reach out towards the chest’s lid and chuckling, before reaching for the cover lid herself. it was tough, and heavy, but it opened with two hands on its surface and a forceful push. it was big enough for the kitten to need to take two steps back before jumping in. a good thing that he did, too. because the moment night peered in, realizing there was nothing inside it, so too did she realize that the air around them had started to grow warm. and her instincts came alive once again, b

they had made it far without day, and they could continue onwards without her presence, if it ever came to that. so night tucked him into a cloak pocket, and he stuck his head out, just like old days. even the finger-rub upon his head was supposed to be an indication that she remembered, and so too did nyanko purr in return, only stopping and batting outwards on her clothing if only to gesture for her to move on. and night took the signal, keeping an eye out down the other corridors, just as they found the biggest hall of all. it was built completely from marble tiles, with streaks o

what was the last card drawn, again? night realized she hadn’t exactly been manually fishing out cards herself, but when she checked the box of her consumable, stuffed away in her pockets, half of the deck was already missing. the last draw she’d gotten was a hanged man, and that did nothing to put her nerves at rest. amidst an empty-looking dungeon layout, how else was she supposed to feel safe and comforted, especially without her traveling companion’s presence? it was at this moment that nyanko mewed, brushing up against her legs as she stopped for a brief moment. they were in a corrid

another few minutes and the chest was unlocked – though nyanko was the goods’ first inspector, rather than night, with the way he bound up his owner’s clothes and stuck his head into the box himself. “hey! don’t do that, what if it closes on you…?” the kitten’s tail waved back and forth, as night held the lid open for him with one hand. his visage reappeared with a small kibble in his maw, and the familiar hopped downwards, allowing night to scoop up the last remaining item: a suspicious looking piece of cake. she wasn’t even sure she was going to identify it. night was certain

the whole plan seemed to be ludicrous, but it took the span of night turning to an unamused nyanko, the player attempting to protest her secondary’s vanishment, for the gemini to actually vanish from the spot where night knew she once stood. her argument died down, then, knowing that her familiar wasn’t so much a conversationalist of good banter, and with a sigh, she turned back to the chest, starting to thumb the combination lock on its front. and there were three numbers, each etched with a certain jewel above their corresponding digit… … but night wasn’t exactly the sharpest person, an

no, it seemed as though cardinal believed that night could figure this puzzle out herself. and the player rolled her eyes, upon acknowledgement of day’s intention to busy her, so she approached the podium the very moment that her doppel pulled away from it. and that made night pause, too, instead. “what? …where are you going.” “oh, nothing!” day lied, and night tried her best not to wince at her failed intentions. “i just simply figured it would be best to give you as much space as you needed to figure out how to solve this puzzle, that’s all.” “oh,” night returne

day leaned against the central object in the room: a rounded podium, almost like an item stand, holding up a small white chest, gilded with gold and a combination lock. with two fingers, she knocked upon its surface, giving her original a toying look. “i bet you can’t figure this puzzle out,” she purred. which night took great offense to, because it was true at first glance, and furthermore was she more concerned about the threat that had been tailing them ever since the end of their first fight in the dungeon. hell, it was difficult for night to even say if it was the same one witho

it was in the next room that there was just a hint more to look at, from the growing crystals emerging out of heated walls, to the way that the thin streams of water formed layers of circles under foot had they ventured in proper. but night paid more attention towards their past, the threat they had just escaped from. and she could have sworn day whispered a, “not to worry,” to her, just as they ventured into the room. the player didn’t need to keep an eye nor her ears out for its presence. the guardian they’d seen earlier was sniffing about, and she could feel its weight impacting t

nothing but loot. and night recovered quickly from the surprise at the reward, looking over to the room’s entrance to make sure day was still in her vision. she was. except the way day was standing still, almost surprised with her head over her shoulder made night wary – not only about the fear of the entity (when did she ever get so scared?) but also about the way she lifted a finger towards her lips. nyanko, claws into night’s cloak, finally decided to pounce off the player, allowing her to rise after retrieving the spoils of their find. two signals: the kitten’s glance b

“ah, geez…!” night let go of day’s wrist at some point, after the construct had managed to unhood herself, two hands needed for them to tidy up their hairstyle. and the player, dedicated, was trying her best not to let nyanko go astray, keeping him in her sights just as he beckoned them round a corner at a crossroads, his skittering steps stopping once night had caught up to where he’d been. in the corner of a small room was a treasure chest, so the player got to working on that quickly. there was a brief moment, then, that the crossroads were clear, except with t

“what’re you showing me up for, night? wanting a rematch on monster clearance speeds already?” the player huffed instead, pulling the pointer at her neck away. night was trying to suppress being cheeky – she’d almost decided to stick her tongue out. rather, she instead reached out behind day, getting close for a second, right after she’d spotted nyanko’s green eyes glinting in the dark. “...it’s not that–” as day leaned in, turning her head, night grabbed hold of the hood of her other’s cloak – “– i just figured it was more efficient this way.”

“the nerve of her!” day gestured widely, two arms extended out her sides to let her cloak sway as her boots matched where night had been standing at the bottom of the stairs. nyanko paced across her shoulders as she did so, and jumped off her upper arm towards elsewhere, allowing his comrade to fold her arms as part of her show. she strode over to night, emphasizing the clacking of her gait, just as the player was starting to peer down a singular corridor, and only stopped to give her companion the time. they were close, as day leaned in, pressing her index upon the tip of night’s s

“is this intended…?” day simply glanced towards the corridor whence they came from, along with nyanko turning his head. and night didn’t need to follow along for long, especially when she spotted the glint of jade of the beast still searching for them, from afar. the player simply swallowed her question, head dipped as she faced the stairwell once again, and then started down the stairs just as day decided to stir trouble. “so i’m assuming you’ll take the next batch of double the monsters.” “day.” “what?” the silence between them was filled with the muted steps on dus

so what was the best course of action…? night’s eyes shifted about the room, in a general direction away from her gemini, holding up the palms of her hands just as her sword retreated into her inventory. feign ignorance, the player usually opted, before remembering how to craft retorts that bite; only this time, her thought process was interrupted by the stairwell she’d tried her best to remember. as usual, of course she might’ve forgotten, by accident. she pushed blame onto that instead, diverting attention when it should’ve been on her. a finger pointed towards the descending darkness.

night could only feel her doppel shifting away from the spot she’d reclaimed, her eyes set on the enemies ahead of her, while the warrior in white had leapt towards their two deteriorating foes. she could feel the intent, however, of wanting to end their skirmish as quickly as possible, so not sparing her companion’s skirmish a glance, night set her weapon’s pommel to the floor in a harsh jab, its hilt punching into concrete, leaving a mild crater on the floor. a modified tempest made the enemies in her peripheral vision shrivel and shatter in a snap. then, she heard day land amongst the

the longer her weapon stayed wedged, the more it shuddered, as night pulled herself close to her arm. from afar, she hadn’t often heard much, but now, she would swear it sounded like boiling and frothing, despite having no liquids nor heat to show for it. the toss of limbs from the sentinel she’d kept on lock beget her to dodge, and so she did, finally dislodging her blade with one hard tug and a following cut to boot, a farewell gift from destruction to creation, just as night tumbled away and darted towards the foe on back. stopping before she plummeted face-first into the spirit, she s

might've been a poor move to focus, actually – perhaps being somewhat out of it helped night concentrate a little better, or she was trying, trying still, despite not being successful at waking up. two branches were brought down with a light breeze tailing them, and night wove through them with ease, even more so that the ground hadn't been impacted by their force. but it got trickier to hitting them, as she quickly understood – the spirits, rather than tangible beings lacked the telegraphed impact she required to know that her blow landed. and so with a skip and a swing, she'd whiffed he

skirting the edge of the room meant being able to get a glimpse of what awaited the party in the next area, and night spotted something akin to an opening, a stairwell to another layer of the labyrinth. a thought she couldn’t hold – because if she did, and set the fight to the back of her mind, she would’ve been struck by one of the clubs coming down upon her. the player dodged it, rolling, half-stumbling her way out of the mess, creating enough distance by luck to find an opening to charge the secondary spirit as a counter-attack, rending its form with the dark energies of her blade. bla

the player was first to make a move, as they had always been meant to; a direct charge towards the backline, and her sword grazed the front target, barely making a scratch against its shallow form. her body’s memory began flooding back into her, trying to recall the best method to combat these opponents – the lack of feedback upon their form often meant poor clarity on her accuracy, with the rumble of her blade in her hands the reminder of how much work cardinal was attempting to put forward to bridge the gap between her strike and her marks. the whirl was over before she’d registered the hit

night blinked slow, trying to decipher hirru's reactions. the staring, the blank look on his face, almost as though her friend was trying to capture something past her rather than at her. her own eyes had darted around his form, trying to figure out if there was any more subconscious body movements that she hadn't realized, only to watch hirru swing his head away, his eyes to the ground. at the very least, she was glad that there hadn't been anything painful or distressing to look at, from the sounds of it. though night had wanted to follow up with something else to say, sh

that made sense. she thought twice about if they should've investigated the main trees, anyway, though her hunch for choosing to do so laid in the fact that cardinal would usually give her a hard time and reel her into combat anyway. if they were here to observe and learn, then so be it – whatever hell would come their way. in fact, just as she mindlessly thought so about her decision, her attention was stolen from watching hirru to the looming forms of the elementals, clubs in hand. if she hesitated, it was because the flash of the tiny seedlings from earlier had reminded her of what her

"like someone..." her voice trailed off. night had seen the tree, its vines and its flowers, yes, but not once did she register any of the sights as a body from a hanging. her body stilled, as her figure grew tense. she'd seen the tree, and even if she knew it was devoid of a corpse, it was difficult to bring herself to look back at it again. unless the game had set it there, things like those were impossible, right? but maybe there was a special condition that only some players could see the corpse... or something. to trigger the summoning of the ghost... or other. night t

it did seem, then, that there were a gathering of players in the distance. and the part that annoyed her more was spotting an npc emerging to greet them from the environment nearby. no way. she wasn't aware of any other quests in the area, and if this was new content then it was within her scope to have to investigate. to leave her post in pursuit of another one. yeah, something new to do. but at what cost? she snorted, pushing herself up from the bench she had been laying on. sure, she would go along with it. after so many losses with the apparition, it was just as likely