Part 34: More Fanservice in the Next Episode

Chapter 28: More Fanservice in the Next Episode



"Rolf," Rudo said, "even if these weapons exist, what are the chances that we'll find them? We can't search a whole planet."

"You said the same about Lutz, but we found him, didn't we? It's a miracle that we've come this far -- and if we've had one miracle, we can have another. If you don't want to come with me, you can stay at home."

"It's true that your decisions have been vindicated in the past," said Hugh, "but you can't deny that your recent behaviour has been alarming."

Kain slapped me on the back. "Yer as crazy as a peach orchard boar, Rolf, but that's why I like ya. 'Sides, maybe ya kin help me git inta Shir's good books -- an' since I'm bettin' she ain't the monogamous type, ya could help me git inta other things o' hers too, if'n ya know what I mean. Y'could have 'er on Tuesdays, Thursdays an'--"

"No. Stay away from her; one woman who wants to kill you is enough."

Heaven preserve me from my friends, and I'll handle my enemies on my own.



As our ship took off, I faced the window and literally stared out into space. Mota was a ball of rough green and smooth blue, like some half-peeled exotic fruit. I'd heard that Palm looked like that once, before the planet's surface was paved over and covered with machines. And now...

Now, Palm didn't look like anything any more. In the space where Palm once was, a loose collection of debris was even now spreading out into an asteroid belt. All that remained of humanity's greatest centre of civilisation was a handful of rocks.

I remembered reading a story once about an ancient city buried in hot ash by a volcanic eruption. The ash left the forms of the city's inhabitants perfectly preserved in three-dimensional relief, caught in the last moments of their lives. One minute they had been eating, bathing, making love -- seconds later they were running and hiding... and then frozen in time forever, each void in the ash an endless, hollow testament to the fragility of life. But Palm was worse off than even that city. All the great minds of Palm were denied even the dignity of being voids in the ashes of history. Not one moment of their lives remained; a whole planet had been erased from existence.

Looking more closely at the debris, I could barely see the metallic glint of a few of its larger satellites, drifting away from the planet's corpse like rats swimming from a sinking ship.

And somewhere, perhaps in one of those very satellites, a failing computer still watched over the ruins of Algo.



The radio transmitter on Central Tower's roof descended into the tower as our ship approached, making room for an uneventful touchdown. After spending so long on icy Dezo, the warm air of Mota felt heavy, almost stifling.



Even my home didn't feel the way it used to. Partly that was because the women had redecorated in my absence, but mostly I'd just outgrown it.

"I'm home," I announced, taking a painting of a cat down from the wall.

Shir poked her head out from one of the guest rooms. "So I see," she said in a monotone.

"Shir! I was hoping you'd still be here. Come on -- we've got a job to do, and I need you by my side!"

"What? Wait, you leave me here while you run off to Dezo and now you want me back like nothing ever happened?"

"I'm a changed man, Shir! Give me a chance to prove it to you! Don't let my past mistakes stand in the way of our love!"

"Love? Rolf, have you gone crazy? All I did was kiss you, and that was when we both thought we were about to die. It didn't mean anything. If I knew you were going to make such a big deal of it, I never would have done it."

"If it didn't mean anything, then why are you acting so offended? Nothing happened, so there's nothing wrong with my acting as if nothing happened, right?"

"I..." Shir hesitated for a moment, then laughed with a hint of bitterness. "You're starting to sound like me, Rolf. Fine. Have it your way."

"Wait!" Amy stepped out of the kitchen. "If that's really all there is to it, then you'll have no problem with taking me along as well, right, Shir?"

Shir's eyes narrowed. "Of course," she said through gritted teeth. "No problem at all."

"Well," I said, "I'm glad everything's sorted out. Is Anna around? I got her a pair of Laconian slashers--"

"Did someone say 'slashers'?" Anna strode out of the second guest room with a smile on her face. "If you have new weapons for me, don't think I'll let you leave without me."



"Good luck, Rolf," Rudo said as we left. "And whatever you do, at least come back alive. Remember, it's not just your life that you're risking out there."



"Very nice," Anna said, as she tried on her Laconian cape and sharpened her slashers while we walked back to Central Tower. "You do know how to keep a woman happy."



"Anna gets all of that and I just get a pair of boots?" Amy asked. "Well, uh, okay then. I... guess they're nice boots, at least."

"Count your blessings," Shir said, pouting and folding her arms. "He didn't get me anything."



As I stared out the ship's window, Amy tapped me on the shoulder. "So you haven't actually told us why we're going to Dezo yet. Did you find that man you were looking for?"

"Oh, I found him all right. And what's more, I've found our destiny. We're going back to Dezo to gather some legendary weapons and fight an ancient evil."

"Uh-huh," Shir said dubiously. "How many of these legendary weapons are there and what do they look like?"

"Well, uh, I didn't quite get around to asking. I guess I got a bit caught up in the excitement of the moment."

"Do you at least know where on Dezo they are?"

I scratched my head. "Not as such. I think Lutz said something about ancient ruins."

"And these ancient weapons are more powerful than modern technology?" Anna asked. "I find that hard to believe."

"You weren't there when I spoke to Lutz," I said. "The man radiates wisdom. If he says there are ancient weapons on Dezo that can help us to overcome evil, then I believe him. Besides, how can I fail with all of you by my side? Especially you, Shir."

Shir gave an exaggerated sigh. "I think I liked you better when you were cold and distant."



I remembered that on my last trip to Dezo, while travelling to the crevasse to meet Lutz, I'd passed by the ruins of some kind of ancient shrine or temple to the west of Aukba. Fortunately, the path out of Skure to Aukba was short and simple enough, now that I knew the way there. Shir, still unaccustomed to the cold, shivered and complained for the whole trip. Anna was silent, of course; surprisingly, so was Amy.



Along the way, Anna had a chance to try out her new Laconian slashers, with impressive results.



"Eww," said Shir as we entered Aukba. "I'd heard that the gas leak on Dezo caused horrible mutations, but this is just disgusting."

"Those are the natives," I said. "I'm pretty sure they looked that way even before the gas. Well, except for that one woman in the Clone Labs; I think she's just so used to working with toxic chemicals that she figured a little extra gas wouldn't make much difference."



While we were in town, Amy traded in her staffs for a pair of Laconian arm guards. She could defend herself much more effectively, and still attack when she needed to using the powers of her cape. Shir tried one on as well, but decided they were too heavy for her to use effectively.

Once everyone had finished shopping, we set out to the west.



The temple was just where I remembered it, only a couple of miles west of town. For such an old building it was in excellent condition: the reliefs on the walls were still recognisable. Most of the art seemed to depict natives in absurdly elaborate hats tending to giant braziers and bonfires. Hazy images of people and animals were visible in the smoke above the flames, but their significance wasn't clear to me. Maybe the natives used fire to predict the future. Hell, maybe it even worked; I'd seen too much to be a skeptic any more.



I felt someone watching me, and turned around to see three pairs of glowing eyes in the semi-darkness of the temple's halls. I drew my sword just in time to defend myself from the three shadowy figures as they lunged at us. Their movements were lightning-fast and eerily silent and their touch was even colder than the Dezorian wind, but their bodies were as insubstantial as smoke, and Anna and I quickly tore them apart with our blades. They vanished into thin air when we killed them, leaving not even a trace of blood.

"What were those things?" Amy asked after the battle was over.

Anna shrugged. "Probably some kind of mutant with natural camouflage abilities. What does it matter, as long as we can kill them?"



The inside of the temple was decorated with grotesque stone gargoyles. Sometimes they were arranged in tight formations to form walls, funneling us along a path.



Humanoids in long capes and sinister-looking armour inhabited the temple, and attacked immediately when they saw us. They used strange techniques that clouded our minds, weakening our attacks or inducing a sleep-like daze.



A narrow path between the gargoyles led us up to the next floor, where we walked along a balcony around the outside of the temple. The snowy, lightly forested plains of Dezo stretched out below us; it may have been hard work to walk across them, but I had to admit they made for a spectacular view.



A dragon lumbered around the corner and belched torrents of flame at us, replacing the chill in the air with searing heat. My skin blistered and peeled as I charged through the flames to hack away at the dragon's thick hide. After sustaining countless blows and dealing out many wounds to us, the beast finally gave out one last agonised bellow, swayed on its mighty legs, toppled over and crashed to the floor, dead. We stepped carefully around its body and moved on.



A single statue of a spear-wielding human stood beside a crumbling archway like some timeless sentinel. Its presence in this Dezorian temple struck me as strange; had Palmans and Dezorians once coexisted peacefully? I walked past it, half-expecting it to come to life and attack. It remained motionless, though, and we continued on without incident.



In the room beyond, we found another rainbow-patterned headband just like the one Anna was wearing. It had felt out-of-place when we found one in the dams; now I knew why. Whatever ancient civilisation built these temples must have also made these magical items, and one had been found and taken to the dams for study.



Another flight of stairs led us up to the top of the temple. Rows of trees, left untended for centuries, still grew on its roof. The natives must have been nature-worshippers of some kind to build such an elaborate garden here.



More shadowy figures stepped out from among the trees and struck at us with spectral blades. These shades were more powerful than the ones we'd fought before; even with all our medical supplies and Amy's healing, we struggled to defeat them.



Squat, grotesquely muscular humanoids with empty, dead eyes leapt down from the upper branches to attack us, swinging their powerful fists and spitting corrosive and paralysing venom at us.



I was relieved to find another stairway nearby so we could get back inside the temple, where the monsters were, for the most part, only moderately lethal.



In a golden box we found a Laconian tiara, studded with all kinds of precious gemstones. Its size and shape meant that only Amy's head could fit into it.



The metal of the crown glowed with a faint blue light when she put it on, and the air around her shimmered faintly as if a protective aura were enveloping her. Surely this was the first of the legendary artifacts of Nei that Lutz had to sent us to find.



Another long path led us around the outer edge of the tower. There was no guardrail to protect us from falling; if we were attacked by monsters now, we'd have trouble keeping a secure footing.



"Hey!" Shir said. "You haven't forgotten about me, have you? Anna and Amy are getting all the best equipment."

"You already have a set of Storm Gear just like this, Shir," I said. "You're taking my strategic decisions awfully personally for someone who doesn't care about me."

"And for someone who does care about me, you're being awfully impersonal."

"Fine," I sighed. "Amy, would you hand Shir your Snow Crown? You don't really need it any more, and Shir has better reflexes, so she can bring up a barrier more quickly at the first sign of danger."

Shir smiled and took the crown from Amy, whose face remained expressionless. "That's more like it."



We climbed back up to the top floor and prepared ourselves for the next onslaught of bizarre monsters. It didn't take long to come: a glowing broadsword flew through the air of its own accord and set upon us with a flurry of vicious cuts. We struck back at it, but hitting a metal blade suspended in midair hard enough to damage it was no easy task. Finally, I managed to land a solid blow on the sword, snapping it in half. Its pieces fell to the floor; I prodded at them with the tip of my sword, but they didn't move. Whatever dark power had animated the sword was gone.



We'd seen most of the temple by now, but not all. Further exploration revealed one last chest in a nearby room.



While we negotiated another long path between rows of gargoyles, a lone shade appeared and stood in our way. Despite its boldness in attacking alone, it was no more powerful than the others we'd fought before; we made short work of it.



We soon reached the chest. Inside it was a heavy metal helmet, decorated with a pair of wing-like designs inlaid in gold leaf.



The helmet fit me perfectly; although it had felt heavy in my hands, it was almost weightless on my head. I had no doubt that this helmet was another artifact of Nei.

All that remained was to escape from the temple alive with our newly-won prizes in hand. I concentrated on Aukba, trying to return there... but nothing happened. Fighting my way through the temple had left me too tired.



"Shir," I said, "can you do me a favour?"

"Depends what kind of favour it is." Shir winked.

"Did you just... but you..."

I'd finally won her over! She'd forgiven me! Amy was glancing between the two of us as if trying to decide who to glare at, but I could sort things out with her later.

"For example," Shir purred, "if you're going to ask me to lend you a Trimate, then I think I could probably manage that." She stepped closer to me and leaned up to my ear, until I could feel her breath on my face. "But if it's anything more... personal..." She ran a hand down my neck and shoulder, then abruptly pulled it away and stepped back. "... then I guess you're out of luck."

No, she was just teasing me again, as usual. Why did she have to make it so hard to tell how she really felt about me?

"Damn it, Shir, this is serious! Do you still remember how to use the Hinas and Ryuka techniques like I showed you? I need you to get us out of here."

Shir pouted. "Aw, you're no fun."



A moment later, we were standing safely in the streets of Aukba. I might not have made much progress with Shir, but at least our mission was going well. Two Nei artifacts down, some indeterminate number to go.