Chapter 1713 The Moment is Over

--- Lily ---

Lily didn’t know what to feel. Mentally that is. Physically she was feeling something almost akin to ant-nausea. It still wasn’t pleasant but the closest comparison would be those brutal massages that hurt a bunch in the moment but leave you feeling better afterwards. Only in this instance it was being applied to Lily’s brain and made her feel like collapsing. She did transform back into her Memphis form which seemed to handle the feeling better but not by much.

All around her the changes to the local space were unwinding. The room didn’t take long to return to its rectangular form and the tunnels outside were snapping back into place. Various markings were either removed or combined in this process. An example was all the damage done to the ground during the battle. It mixed together in places, exploding violently in others and sometimes got wiped away entirely. Soon they were in a rather broken looking room with various riches that poured out of the walls returning to the real world.

The big hole in the floor was not a much smaller hole in the floor and the giant crystal was only half in the ground though it seemed to be merged at least somewhat with the wall. Ronldo was deposited at the edge of the room as well though unlike everything else he remained frozen for the time being. When Lily recovered and saw this she couldn’t help but wonder if there was anything to DO about it. So she transformed and asked, "Should we fix that?" Read latest stories on empire

"Probably not," stated Hunter.

"Yeah it’s not a good idea," agreed Meg with Strdl nodding along from the side.

Pebbles let out a long, heavy sigh. "Look guys I know he’s not a good person but he IS my friend and second in command. Can’t you free him from this? He’s already down an arm…"

Hunter shrugged, "My statement was in regards to the fact that I likely can’t fix him," *Ah… that changes things…*

Meg had similar thoughts, "Whereas I CAN fix him… but the fixing would probably kill him. I mean, I can give it a try but I give it about ninety percent odds that any method I use will kill him at the same time,"

Pebbles winced. "Alright, alright I get there’s reasons to leave him like this beyond him being an ass… so what exactly am I meant to do?"

Hunter shrugged again and looked to Meg who was wearing a smug grin. "You just have to give it time!" Pebbles gave her an ’are you serious look’ "Indeed I am Pebbles! Waiting for the time magic to wear off is by far your best option. I genuinely have no idea why it hasn’t already!

"I know for a fact he doesn’t have any time magic powers himself, and he’s not weak to time magic, well any more than most people are anyway. So… the fact that he’s still stuck like that? It has to be something Trvis did for some reason. Well that or he just got really unlucky,"

Lily thought that sounded a bit weird to her but couldn’t detect any obvious misdirections in Meg’s words. So instead she turned around to look at the crystal. "Well what about that?"

"I’m probably going to do up a circle to take it back to the Hub with us when we teleport. It’s a bit too big for me to deal with it myself…" admitted Meg.

"Why not do that with the others?" asked Lily.

"Because you can’t just send things back and forth like its post. Most ’things’ don’t survive transit all that well. D.E.M.O.N.S does something weird with the soul to keep you safe while travelling between dimensions and that sense of self helps you remain safe. Comparatively.

"Anyway, the point is we’ll need to all head back together with this in the centre of our return circle to keep it safe. It’s probably fine if it’s destroyed along the way but I’m not entirely certain about that point and if we’re all leaving anyway it shouldn’t be too much of an issue." Meg turned to Pebbles. "That of course means we’ll be making use of this basement,"

Pebbles just gave a big shrug. "As long as you don’t break your way in it’s fine. I’m going to have my hands full repairing everything, working out who will be in charge of Ronldo’s stuff while he’s out of commission and working out who to blame this Trvis nonsense on to get the most resources… a job I’d really want Ronldo for that but… I guess I won’t have the time for that,"

Meg shrugged, "Very much not my problem,"

Lily sighed, when a thought occurred to her. *Hey Kat? Are the clones gone?*

[Not yet but I think they’re heading that way. Each time we kill them now the crystal stabbed into them gets a bit smaller. I’m guessing that eventually it’ll be all gone. It’s already at the point where it’s barely sticking out of the clone’s chest.]

*Not ideal I guess, but good enough for now. Keep me updated on that and I’ll let everyone know.* Lily announced what had been shared with the rest of the group… to minimal fanfare. Nobody seemed concerned, except Pebbles who obviously took it as good news… but everyone else sort of just shrugged at it.

Lily found it a touch odd. *But I suppose we did just beat the ’big boss’ so the fact that they’re dying off isn’t strange. Heck it’s entirely possible that them dying off empowered the twisted space or something and with it collapsing they no longer had a way to draw in extra energy? Which I guess means they were, in this scenario, making it worse by stealing time energy or something.*n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

"So… what now?" asked Lily.

Meg shrugged, "I guess you all get ready to leave. I don’t want to head off early myself but the crystal here is weird and it’s going to need to be destroyed properly sooner rather then later. A day is fine, two might be pushing it but three is the definitive cut-off point,"

"Wait why?" asked Lily.

Meg kicked the crystal lightly with her foot. "Well, on the plus side this thing managed to draw in a bunch of the remaining crystal shards. This right here is most of what remains of the dragon so no more searching for us…

"On the downside this is most of what remains of the dragon and it’s all here in one place. Horrifically mutated, but all here nonetheless. That mutation is a strength, and a weakness. It’s constantly trying to reform into something coherent and it’s not succeeding… but it might. It’s getting better constantly even just sitting there because it tries something new every time it fails.

"Just little things, barely relevant things most of the time… but little things that are slowly getting tuned. It’s not worth the risk leaving it around longer than we have to and even with the three day limit I’m going to have to come down here and check up on things to make sure it’s fine for a bit longer. It’s annoying for me as well. I get you probably want to go on more dates with Kat or help out the town or something but we do not have time,"

"I think I know the answer… but why would I trust you when you say that?" asked Lily.

"Obviously because you know I want to spend time with my Lil Sis! I certainly won’t be helping with whatever goody-two-shoes stuff you and Kat end up doing," stated Meg proudly. Lily was pretty sure Meg shouldn’t be proud of her decision… but it was in character at least.

"What if I end up helping out as well?" asked Hunter.

"Bah, your help will involve running around and looking for powerful monsters and that’s fine by me! Sure you might try to do some more normal tasks for a bit to spite me but I bet you won’t keep it up long! Besides, even if it IS boring that just means I can focus more on you instead of the task!" bragged Meg.

Hunter looked like she’d just bit into a lemon upon hearing that news but she didn’t say anything to counteract things and the room descended into silence. *I guess I should work out what I want to do. Meg’s right there isn’t really time to blindly make our ways back through the tunnels… and I’m not sure I’d feel comfortable having a date in a half destroyed city.

If Pebbles focusing on fixing it up in just a day then it could be fine… but I’m still not sure how comfortable I am with having a date then and there. At least with the tournament stuff it’s all in good fun. This… I don’t really know how I feel about this. I don’t know how I feel about something that might have been a person essentially committing suicide. I’d love to blame the others, or even Meg specifically… but that doesn’t feel right. Even if Meg’s a shithead. Sigh…*