Extreme cold washes over me the closer I get to the meditation chamber. My awareness screams danger at literally everything around me. Real screams echo faintly like droplets of blood pattering against a drab cave floor. I don't recognize the voices, which is beyond a relief, but that relief lasts just a few short seconds. Because there shouldn't be any unknown voices at all.

All the sounds, magic, and the chill grows and grows until I reach a closed door. Something beyond cold seeps out from a small crack–not at the bottom, but in the perfect center. I shift a shield into my left hand and flare it just in case, then shove the door open.

A glistening pillar of jet–black cold juts up through dozens of pillows, fluff and fabric strewn about the room as if I'd walked into the aftermath of a stuffed animal slaughter. One glance shows it to be otherwise empty. My awareness struggles to feel through the chill magic in the air, but after a few tense heartbeats, I feel Shatterhand, Wojkmi, and Llaliu on the other side of the pillar.

Just beyond them, where the back wall should've been, is a slowly twisting mass of black ice. Shatterhand's shoving everything she has at it to keep it at bay; heat and force and something that feels like health itself fighting against the unnatural chill. The other two are in a frenzy, picking up everything they can find as they shiver uncontrollably.

"Hey!" I scream into the darkness. "Time's up! Get moving!"

Shatterhand turns instantly and nods. She lowers one hand and takes a few careful steps back, making sure not to get too close to the pillar in the center as Wojkmi and Llaliu sprint my way. Slowly but surely she comes to join us too. As she steps past the pillar, her spells die out with a sudden sputter.

Her expression falls. She scrambles to get footing on frosty ground, but her feet fail her. "RUN!"

I lunge in and wrap my hand around her outstretched wrist to yank her out of the room. My muscles surge with strength I didn't know I had as I twist and pull to run the hell away from whatever's about to break free. Shatterhand screams. Both in pain and in fear. I feel something snap between my fingers.

I know what it is. But I refuse to check my awareness to confirm.

"Llaliu!" I bark.

Cold beyond cold licks at my heels as I throw Shatterhand ahead. Llaliu turns at the sound of my voice, eyes wide with surprise, and somehow manages to get Shatterhand into a sprint without any difficulty. A tear runs down Shatterhand's cheek as she cradles her crushed wrist. But she turns her neck and whispers a sincere thanks anyway.

A loud grinding snaps my attention to Pearl. Her jaw saws from side to side as her poor teeth suffer for her intense concentration.

"It's alive," she declares. "They must have some kind of summoner on their side, and that pillar of ice was the summoning anchor. We lost our chance to destroy it."

I glance over my shoulder at the wall of black ice encroaching just a little slower than we're moving. "So the chamber's lost."

Pearl nods. "No chance at recovery."

"Shit," I hiss under my breath. Part of me had been hoping that I was wrong. That part just died. "Into the room with doors! I'll make sure Saywer and Ward are out of the library, then join you!"

"Yes, boss!" Llaliu confirms, then turns on her heel and holds out her hand.

I toss my relocation to her. She catches it easily, turns again, and sprints away. My feet skid as I turn the corner to the library hallway. Just a few feet away from me are Ward and Sawyer–both whole and healthy, but both wearing desperate expressions. Ward in particular seems especially downtrodden–he didn't make much progress with the library, after all, and now he never will.

He waves frantically, then motions silently behind him. Sawyer does the same, albeit about ten times as frantic. I furrow my brow as my brain recognizes that something's wrong. It takes conscious thought a few seconds to recognize it as a complete lack of sound coming from their direction.

My awareness locks onto it a second later. Another suit-wearing person, this time with feet like a y'tocwa, holding what looks like a railroad spike etched with thousands of glowing white runes. I slip purification to the top of my stack and whip it down the hallway. Sawyer's eyes go wide at the sight of what could be a deadly projectile. He shoves Ward out of the way–hard–into the wall. The unknowing construct winces and opens his mouth to yelp. Nothing comes out.

The suited y'tocwa raises their open hand to block my coin. A sharp, resounding impact rings out from nowhere as a luminous white spike runs my coin straight through. My connection to it almost instantly dies out. In the last moment of connection, I flare the purification.

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A small, salty detonation just barely covers the attacker. They jump back in surprise, or reflex, or self preservation–and the sound flicks back on. Ward wails for help. Sawyer constantly screams. They look at each other in surprise, then up to me–and the wall of frozen disaster that just closed the hallway off.

"We're dead!" Ward chokes. "I don't want to be dead!"

Sawyer sets his jaw and holds out his hands. I toss him two relocations. He dives and snatches them from the air, presses one against Ward's chest, then whips them back. I pluck them from the air, give him a nod, then flare the relocation in Llaliu's hands.

I appear in the middle of the room with doors. In one quick motion I drop the other two relocations and flare them. Sawyer and Ward appear, but only Ward makes noise when he hits the ground. Sawyer just slumps over, a long icy gash on his back and two spike-sized dents on his arms.

Shatterhand rushes to his side. I quickly take stock of us–Sawyer, Shatterhand, Ward, Llaliu, Wojkmi, and one very twitchy Agathe. She looks like she's about to explode from the fact that her magic isn't really working in here for some reason.

"What is happening?" Click asks, emerging from the shadow with worry plain on their face. "Even if they managed to breach the walls, they shouldn't be able to use any magic in here."

I jut a thumb at Shatterhand and Sawyer. "Tell that to them. But do it when we're done here. Is there any way to destroy the doors behind us when we leave?"

Click thinks for a second, then shakes its head. "Not unless they destroy this place themselves."

We can't gamble on that. Shit. I scratch my neck and turn for the door that leads to the rollercoaster district. There's nowhere else to go right now. Not until Clutter and Gil give the ok to relocate to them.

Pearl stiffens. "Thirty seconds. Max."

My nails scratch a little too deep. Blood wells up at my neck. I summon a shield and toss it at the door to the rest of the tower, then reinforce it with a purification. A projectile burns in my hand as I stare at the door that'll lead us to slightly more safety. Everyone looks to me for the call.

I shove open the door and nod at it. "Move."

Ward scampers through first. Agathe follows closely after while Wojkmi and Llaliu help Shatterhand carry Ward's shaking heap of a body through. Click doesn't move. I forcefully grab it by the shoulder and shove it through.

"But I… could… delay them." Click tries to say.

I shake my head. "Llaliu! You're in charge. Make sure everything happens like I said it would!"

She looks back from through the door. "You're not coming?"

"I am. Just not with you." I shove a finger in Agathe's direction. "She's your firepower. Click's your guide. Try your damndest to find the way to clear this before the horizonguard, yeah?"

Llaliu's resolve visibly hardens. "Understood, boss. See you soon."

"See you soon." I repeat, then close the door behind them. Pearl looks at me like I have two heads–and both of them are idiots. That's fine. I'm only doing this for stupid reasons, anyway. Stupid, selfish reasons.

Shivers run down my spine as cold knocks at the door. I flip my projectile through my knuckles as the weird summon struggles against my shield and purification. Either the attackers can't break the room with doors for some reason, or they know that it's too important to break. Reality won't let me believe in option one.

I close my eyes and breathe through my nose. The sharp emptiness of cold instantly invades my sinuses, filled with enough magic to make my choice for me. This place won't last. Might stand for a few minutes longer, but that's it. I slowly open my eyes and watch as my shield crackles with webs of blackened ice. Even purification isn't enough to slow it down.

So I need to make sure everyone's safe. More than I need to evolve something a few months down the line. I summon my Class Card and swipe over to my spells. Coinbound projectile stares back at me. Hopefully ready to provide the firepower I so desperately need. I press 'evolve'. It doesn't offer me any choices this time. Nor does it ask for any payment.

It just changes.

Coinbound Projectile forcibly evolved into 'Shellbound Projectile' due to progress in quest: Serenade of Shattered Shells.

…

Shellbound Projectile

Create a mass of destructive Shellbound energy using a compatible coin as a base. The use of awareness greatly changes this.

…

Halsia Deity Effect: Projectiles contain solid, crystalline mass that allows for greater control.

The details are vague. I hold up my coin and try to focus on the new spell–but it won't connect. A twinge of worry wiggles into my brain, but before I let panic seep in, I pull out a different coin instead. A six-Worth hex. I push this new Shellbound Projectile into it, and… it still wants more. Intent. Commands.

Awareness.

It wants so much more from me. And it promises so much more power in return. I envision the most destructive projectile I've ever seen; the one Noland used back at the party so many months ago. The spell hums in my hand. I toss it at the door that leads to the rollercoaster district.

Shearing, salty demise flares forth. A hyperdense eye-sized mass of destruction that bores through the door like a plasma cutter. The city groans as the projectile emerges from the other side of the door–revealing the tower courtyard instead of the other district. Hundreds of eyes fall on the hole. My purification falls away.

I turn to get one last look at the mass of ice. It feels angrier, somehow.

With one last flare of relocation, I bid the tower goodbye.

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