Opening the metal doors of the tower entrance, the party found themselves in the outer ring of two huge circular rooms. The outer ring contained doors at the entry point from each tower, with little else. It’s ceiling sloped up toward the center ring, which was reached by passing through archways that marked the rapid ascension of the tower walls in the inner chamber. The inner ring was the main body of the tower, rising up nearly 500 meters to a platform at the top. The tower itself was hollow, with a staircase running along the inside wall, spiralling around as it lead to the top. The center of the room contained an enormous crystal tube, held in the air by hundreds of small metal supports off the tower walls. The base was 3 meters off the floor, nearly half a meter thick. It was made of a rose coloured metal that was warm to the touch. From the floor of the chamber, three large crystal pipes connected to the base, filled with pure white energy rushing in to the tube. Coming up from the floor around the chamber were dozens of smaller tubes, some connecting straight to the sides, some passing through metal boxes like they had seen in tower two which made the energy jagged or fuzzy around the edges as it entered, some passed through black crystals and came though dark as night, some passed through white crystals and entered as a rainbow of colours.
At the center of all this was a rapidly expanding cloud of energy, constantly changing and shifting through a dozen colours at once. The energy pouring into the tube was immense and it looked nearly full. Paz walked to the base of the tube, staring up in awe at both the size and beauty of the device. The rest of the party entered and began to explore.
All except Cyril. He lingered by the entrance, looking back across the city. Seeing this, Hattori returned to the door.
“What is it, Cyril? What do you see?” Hattori asked quietly.
Cyril turned and made eye contact with Reith. He motioned with his head for Reith to join them.
Ask Reith walked up, Cyril spoke.
“When we confronted Maynard in that lair he had made for himself, he spoke of how he could hear and control the minds of all the creatures he’d brought forth in to our world. We just killed two of those things right outside the door of where we are now.”
As he spoke, the trio walked from the door facing Tower Two to the Tower Three entrance, opening it as they arrived. Looking out they could see the buildings start 100 meters out from the door with the web wall starting 100 meters back from that.
“You think that Maynard knows exactly where we are now.” Hattori said with a mix of realization and worry.
Cyril nodded. As he did, Hattori saw a slash appear in the web wall. An opening appeared which was immediately filled by a Hive Warrior rushing through. A second quickly followed along with a third. A forth. A fifth.
Eight.
Ten.
Fifteen.
More and more were rushing out of the webs, all of them in a dead run straight for the tower.
Hattori broke in to a run toward the Tower Two entrance, Reith toward Tower One. Cyril turned to the center and bellowed.
“PAZ!”
Paz snapped around, looking first at Cyril, then past him. Her eyes widened. She began running toward Cyril, reaching in to her pack as she ran. She pulled a tied bundle of silvery chalk from her bag, pulling out two pieces and throwing them to Hattori and Reith as they headed in the other directions.
“Draw a square around the doors!” She yelled as Cyril pulled the doors shut. They opened out and had a heavy metal crossbar to hold them shut. Slamming it in place, Paz drew a line around the door. When the line was connected a Wall of Force was created, sealing the doors as best they could.
Immediately, the door in front of Cyril and Paz began to buckle as something huge struck it. Large sharp claws sliced through the top of the door and began to peel it back. Rather than hang around to see what that was, the party rushed up the stairs.
When they reached the top of the tower, they found a large open circular platform. In the center was a stone control table, covered by a small shelter with no sides. Running to the side that Tower Three was on, Hattori, Reith and Cyril looked down over the railing to see where the Warriors were. Dozens of them were climbing the tower, nearly two-thirds of the way up already. Leading the charge was the Queen, even larger than she was the last time they had seen her. Standing on her neck, one hand on the plate jutting from the back of her head, was Maynard. Eyes glowing, the Ubiquitous Synergy Seeker in his other hand, he seemed completely unaffected by the horizontal position he was standing in. Maynard and Cyril locked eyes. Maynard broke in to a horrifying smile and pointed the USS at Cyril.
At this point Edward had joined the trio at the edge and began casting spells. He dropped a pair of Ice Storms on the approaching swarm, succeeding in knocking some off the tower. Those that fell collided with others below, knocking more off as they went. The Queen, Maynard and eight others were still nearly on the platform. The Queen grabbed the closest Warrior she could reach and threw it up on to the platform before climbing to just below the party. Maynard struck the tower with the USS, which unsettled the party but they kept their wits about them.
As this was happening, Paz had been at the control table trying to get the device ready to fire. A timer had been running when they came up with less than a minute on it but she was desperately trying to shave off any time she could.
Combat quickly became so chaotic that only brief glimpses could be seen. Reith fired bane arrows at everything he could, Hattori and Ash set to the grim task of carving a path through the wave of creatures coming up over the side. Cyril fired with deadly precision while Edward found himself surrounded as he tossed Lightning Bolt at anything he could. R4D charged in to the fray, going toe to toe with the Queen after she jumped from the tower side and landed in the middle of the group.
While Cyril fired repeated at Maynard, every shot did less damage as Maynards body adapted to each attack. They locked eyes again. Maynard raised the USS like a javelin and launched it at Cyril.
“You work for me now, Cyril!” Maynard screamed.
The otherworldly staff cut through Cyril with ease, impaling him through the left shoulder. Shocked, Cyril dropped the gun in his left hand and gripped the staff as it jutted from his body. Immediately red lines could be seen spreading out from the wound. Edward took the Division Bell and attempted to hang it from the rod, hoping that it may negate some of what was happening. The two relics pushed off one another but not before a shockwave rang out from the bell. It stunned most of the Warriors for a moment, giving Cyril a chance to act.
Seeing the lines spreading out to his hands and up his neck, he looked around at the group with desperation. Then his expression changed to one of sad determination.
“I’m sorry, everyone.” He whispered.
He raised his other gun to his head, closed his eyes and fired.
The only sound after the gunshot echoes faded was Maynard laughing hysterically.
Jumping down, Maynard recalled the USS to his hand and prepared to fight. At the same time Reith landed the killing blow on the Queen. Her carapace cracked and a torrent of acid blew out across the whole party (except Reith and Paz). This proved to be too much for Edwards robot body, which broke down. This left Edward trapped in his Blackstar shard, unable to move.
At that moment, Paz managed to shave the last few seconds off the timer. With a delighted noise, she slammed her hand down on the only physical feature of the stone table: a raised metal dome with what must have been the hand shape of the Precursors.
A moment passed with nothing. Then white.
The whole world was white. Everyone around them was a black silhouette. Nothing moved. Time was frozen. This moment could have been a thousand years. It could have been a second.
Black. Everything was black. Those around them were silhouettes of while. Frozen. Endless.
White. White on black silhouettes but now there were less of them. Something changed. A feeling like everything could just dissolve away to nothing.
And then it was over. They were standing as they stood when Paz fired the weapon.
The Queens body was gone.
The Warriors were gone.
Maynard was gone.
The Division Bell was gone.
The Ubiquitous Synergy Seeker was gone.
And the Blackstar shard that contained Edwards soul was gone.
Hattori looked at the wreckage of Edwards body, only to see the silvery mist of his very essence drifting away. Edward used what little will he had left to hold himself together.
“PAZ!”
Paz turned from the table to see what had happened, only to see Edward slipping away.
“Oh shit, hold on! Hold on!” She yelled as she ran toward them. Once again she rummaged something out of her pack. She raised a fist sized sapphire and called out.
“Edward, do not fight this if you want to live!”
A vortex of blue light sprang from the gem, pulling the silvery essence in to the stone.
“You are going to have to live here for a while.” She said to the rock.
“Well, fuck” It replied.
Early Frost Warning 