107: Blood in the Water, Part Twenty-Two

Blood in the Water, Part Twenty-Two

Neve summoned Erin next to her. 

"What just happened back there?" Erin quickly asked. "Nothing I did worked. Is he perhaps immune to conventional weapons?" 

"Magic didn't work either," Neve said, shaking her head. "I have a feeling about what was up." 

"Enlighten me then, please." 

"I think we're missing some sort of item," Neve stated. 

"An item?" Erin asked, raising a brow. 

"Yeah. An object that would let us damage the guy." 

Taking yet another page from the videogame design philosophies Neve believed the Forces That Be often adhered to, a "gimmick fight", which Neve firmly believed that this was, was a fight that couldn't truly take place until the player acquired something. The point was to block progression behind some sort of obtainable item that usually required the player to interact with the world in some way.

... Mainly so that the devs wouldn't feel like they wasted their time writing the game's lore. Maybe the Forces That Be felt the same way. 

[I mean, its mana didn't go down at any point,] Neve thought. [So, I doubt this was just some sort of ultra OP ability unless it's passive. I think there's something we're meant to find first before we take this guy on.] 

"Hm... A weakness of sorts, you mean?" 

"Exactly. I think once we find it we'll be able to get past that barrier." 

"Do these rules of yours give us any suggestion of where to look?" 

"No." Neve shook her head. "It could be anywhere. Hell, it could be back in there, in the same room as him." 

Erin pulled back. 

"Seriously?" 

"Yeah," Neve replied. "I've played- I've seen a few different people who like to keep their weaknesses right next to them." 

"Why in the world would they do that?" 

[Cause devs know that players don't want to spend half an hour looking for a weapon or item they'll use for 1 minute at the most.] 

"I don't know. Maybe so they can keep a close eye on it or whatever. Anyway, I'm not saying the thing we're looking for is back there, but it might be." 

"Hm... Fine then. Where do you wish to look? Shall we head back into that place?" Erin pointed at the boss room. "If we do, I fear our host will not be so kind as to allow you to leave again." 

"..." Neve considered her options. She thought about the places they'd been through and the things they'd seen. 

Only one thing made sense to try, in her mind. 

---

As she'd predicted, as she and Erin returned to the top of the city they came across the same couple they'd interacted with when they first arrived. The two of them were sitting beside the president's chambers. Torma was holding his wife, Norn, close, with one hand over her pregnant belly. 

When they saw Neve walking up with her summon, they stood up, excited. 

"Did you find it?" Torma asked. 

"No." Neve shook her head, walking up to them. "But, I did find someone down there. A member of your species, actually, who was still alive." 

Their eyes widened. They looked at each other and then back at Neve. 

The healer crossed her arms, narrowing her eyes at them suspiciously. 

"So, uh, is there anything you failed to mention last time we talked?" 

Hearing that, Torma looked away. 

"... We didn't think he'd still be alive." Torma's voice was so quiet Neve almost didn't hear the man. "It's been... Well, it feels like it's been years since we last saw him." 

[Okay... Looks like we're getting somewhere.] 

"Who are you talking about?" 

"He..." 

The words were, apparently, too painful for Torma to speak them. Norn, however, conveyed the message he could not.

"Our son." 

Neve blinked. 

[... Oh.] 

"When the Unity Trials first started, our people decreed that only soldiers would travel inside of dungeons and fight the invading monsters," Norn said. "Civilians would remain as civilians and life would go on normally. Our son was one of those soldiers. One of the most active fighters among our people. But... that ended up working against him." 

"As things began taking a turn for the worse, and we lost parts of our city to the invading monsters, he was one of the soldiers tasked by the president with clearing the lower floors," Torma explained. "We never heard back from the warriors that were sent there, though. He- he's still alive?" 

Neve scratched the back of her head, looking away as she tried to think of how to explain this. 

"Kind of," she replied. "I don't think he's... himself anymore." 

"What do you mean?" Norn asked. 

"He's... gone crazy," Neve said. She recalled that when she'd asked them about boss fights, they'd said they didn't have any knowledge of what that was, so she tried to explain it like this. "When I came across him, he didn't say anything. He just started attacking us." 

Their heads hung low. It was clear this bit of news hadn't made them happier at all. Even before Neve explained that their son had 'gone crazy' it didn't seem like they were happy to hear he was alive. 

[Why is that? Am I missing something? I mean... If someone told me my parents were somehow still alive, I'm pretty sure I'd start sobbing on the spot. Or, I'd punch them. One of the two.] 

"Perhaps... Well, it does not matter," Norn said, as the tentacles on her face began to writhe. "How come you came all the way back here? Were you unable to defeat him?" 

"Yeah. There was this, uh, shield around him that prevented either of us from harming him. No matter what we tried. Do you know anything about anything that could cause that? Is he carrying a special item or something?" 

Upon hearing that, Norn's eyes grew wider. 

"I... Well..." 

"Yeah?" 

"I've never known him to carry any magical items. Maybe he picked one up from his fallen foes?" 

"Maybe, but you never gave him anything? Even if it's not magical, you didn't give him any items at all?" Neve tried to press on this. Hopefully, it would provide a clue. 

"... The last time we saw him, I gave him a necklace," Norn stated. "Something he could remember us by. That's all." 

A simple enough gesture from Norn, but one Neve was already forming a theory around. 

[Maybe the Forces That Be turned that necklace into an enchanted item. If they did, then, the answer would be to either break that thing or fight back with something else. Some other item to counter it.] 

Operating under that assumption, Neve asked:

"Then, maybe seeing something else might snap him out of this, uh, the insanity that's taken him over. Do you have something that we could, I dunno, show to him? Something that could remind him of who he is?" 

[It's kind of a little overdone, but I think by now, with the underwater segment, the platforming section back at Roha, the rocket launcher on the second floor to kill the huge worm, the Forces That Be have shown that they kinda like these sorts of things.]  0

The two of them looked at one another again. Norn and Torma seemed reluctant,  but, eventually, Norn reached into her pockets and pulled out...

[A toy?] 

What Norn produced looked a lot like one of those toy soldiers back on Earth, only in the form of their kind. 

As soon as Neve held it, a message popped up. 

Toy Soldier

{Unique}

{Key Item}

{A toy soldier. Holding this up in front of Isolnir, the Last Knight, might make something happen.} 

[Well,] Neve thought. [There it is, I guess.] 

"Alright. I'll take this to him and, uhm... We'll see what happens." 

Neve turned around, intending to walk away at this point until she heard: 

"Please," Norn said, "if he is still alive... Put him to rest." 

She stopped. 

"What?" The healer looked back at Norn with some surprise. "You *want* me to kill him?" 

That was her own plan, so it wasn't as though Neve was objecting to the act. She was just shocked that Norn herself, the man's mother, was pitching the idea. 

"Yes," she replied, quite a lot more quietly. "If it has to be done, then... see it through, please." 

Torma did not raise any objection. 

Neve turned away again. 

[Well, alright... But, how are they so nonchalant about that?] 

After that, Neve and Erin went back to the boss room. The way there was mysteriously clear, with no enemies to block them, as though now that she had this item, the dungeon wanted her to make her way back as quickly as possible. 

Neve wasn't complaining, of course. 

"Round two," Neve muttered, standing beside Erin, holding her staff and the toy Norn had given to her. "Hopefully, this will do something." 

They walked in somewhat hesitantly. The corpses of monsters and citizens of this city alike had formed a path this time, a clear way to the spot where the boss stood. 

Just as before, he was just standing there, holding that trident up, with fresh blood dripping down it.

[Here goes nothing.] 

Neve walked up. 

The man looked at her. 

She held up the toy. 

His eyes turned red. The man roared, the tentacles on his face pulling back to reveal his monstrous mouth. Veins popped out all over his body. 

A message formally announced the start of the fight, this time. 

{Isolnir, the Last Knight} 

Level 62

MP: 350/350

[Oh.] Neve looked down at the toy. [Seeing this just made him angrier. Great.] 

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