'Nickel!' Noble's ssage was matched by her external scream.
Sarai saw it too. Silent tears stread down her face. "Drop and go!"
Noble chanically obeyed the command, lowering the redhead and then racing across the once verdant field.
The ground was now ripped apart from the impact. Across the landscape, the blood of countless abominations soaked the ground.
Nickel had been busy.
One spot was charred black and still smoking with monster at. The only recognizable part of the goat-like creatures was their entangled massive horns.
But Noble had no ti to admire the man's handiwork. She was far too focused on the destruction in the distance.
With no one left to protect, the sentinels broke formation. Sun sifted through, shining light on the broken ground.
'Nickel!'
No answer ca.
Surely he could hear her in this range so why wasn't he answering?
Looking for any sign of her friend, Noble's heart sank.
Out on the field, the creatures who had managed not to be crushed by the fall were already gorging themselves on their master's carcass.
While the scaly skin covering most of the Tyrant's body was too tough for the lower-class beasts, the combined strike by Sarai and Noble had ripped open the chest for the minions to feast.
Seeing them, Noble felt sick to her stomach. She retched, wiped her mouth, and then raised her sword.
Nickel's clever lightning strike had dealt with the most powerful monsters. Noble made quick work of the scavengers left behind.
By the ti Sarai caught up to the crash, Noble was wiping her blade.
The redhead searched the landscape and then her friend's face. "Laundry?"
"I-I can't sense him." The Queen felt tears sting her eyes. "You saw...he was right under the Tyrant..."
"No. No, it cannot be! Laundry! Laundry!" Sarai beca frantic.
She pushed against the Tyrant as if she could roll away his body. Not even a dozen Awakened would have co close to completing that feat. Yet Sarai did not stop.
Noble could feel Sarai's anguish but she had no comfort to give. Her own spirit was in tatters.
Nickel had co into the Nightmare to help her. And she had let him down. To Noble, that was a fate worse than if she had died herself.
Noble wanted nothing more than to wake up. Maybe this had been a dream while she slept in the Nightmare. That was unheard of but not impossible, right? She had been wishing so hard for company that she had conjured Sarai and Nickel up in her mind...Maybe they were still back in the real world...
Deep down, Noble knew she was only fooling herself. The reality of the events around her would haunt her for the rest of her days.
She gripped her head, whispers of doubt and condemnation coming without welco.
'Why won't this blasted Nightmare end!'
'Why are you so quick to go? Are you trying to leave behind?' A voice unlike any of the others broke into her consciousness.
Noble froze in the middle of her self-loathing and focused.
'Nickel?' She didn't dare believe it. She had seen him be crushed.
'Do you have another guy talking in your head? You really should get that checked out, Noble.'
Stretching out her special sense across the plain, Noble again tried to feel Nickel's emotional signature. It was nowhere to be found.
'Where are you? Are you hurt?' Noble glanced at the carcass.
'Worse. I'm…dead.'
'WHAT?!' Noble's eyes went wide.
Laundry laughed. 'Dead gods, you are too easy. I'm fine.'
Giving up her attempt to move the Tyrant, Sarai turned around, defeated.
She opened her mouth to speak when she saw the strange expression on Noble's face.
"What is it?"
"It's Nic. He's alive. For now at least. I might kill him when I find him." Noble continued to scan the ground for any sign of the unusual wraith.
'I give up...tell where you are so we can get you.'
There was a pause. 'I'm not sure where I am to be honest...it's too dark to tell.'
That was...unhelpful.
'But you aren't hurt? How did you escape getting squashed?' Noble rubbed her forehead, trying to wrap her head around the turn of events.
'Well, you rember how I couldn't use the Key to go through the wall and see the cave drawing because I had no fear? It turns out I have a whole lot of fear when the body of a deranged Tyrant is about to co crashing down on my head.'
Nickel paused and waited for the words to sink in.
'You used the Portcullis Key to escape?' Noble gasped.
It suddenly made sense. Extending her colorless sight in a different way, Noble confird her thought. Nickel's ntion of darkness could only an one thing.
'You are underground!'
'Yeah...I might have overdone it. I've been working my way up through the caverns ever since the fall.'
Sarai waited patiently trying not to disturb the silent conversation. Noble decided not to leave both of her friends in the dark about the situation.
"He's below us sowhere. Nic used the Key to go through the earth..." Noble shut her eyes, trying to get a better read on where the third mber of the cohort was.
"Through the ground? That's brilliant!" The redhead clapped her hands.
Noble had to agree. While it wasn't sothing she would ever try–she was pretty certain the pain of the ground would be intensified as her body passed through it–the quick thinking and ingenuity had pulled Nickel from the jaws of death.
'Literally...'
'Literally what?' Nic was confused.
'Uh, nothing. Hold still. I think I am getting close.'
Noble motioned for Sarai to co close. "Stomp right here."
'Can you hear that?'
'I can...it's knocking debris on .'
'Back up...' Noble summoned a mory called [Past Regrets]. The tool mory had a wide bottom edge that was good for digging. It was one of the few ways Noble could garden effectively without causing herself pain.
"We haven't much ti. As soon as the Sentinels get organized again, they will co to this area first."
"So will those many of the creatures still alive in the city. Free at is irresistible." Sarai pursed her lips. Tell Laundry to stay back. I've got this."
'Uh, when I said back up...I ant waaay back.'
Sarai blasted the ground with a small column of fire.
The molten earth exploded.
When it settled, there was an opening in the ground very similar to the opening in the Tyrant.
Only instead of death. This one brought forth a single life.
"Fire, are you trying to kill ?!" Nickel asked as Noble floated him out of the hole.
"No, that's Noble..." Sarai laughed.
She and Noble caught Nickel in a hug, and for a mont all three of them hovered above the broken ground.
"Okay, okay. that's enough touching." The man squird.
"I thought we lost you!" Sarai cried.
With a sigh, Noble released him to stand on his own two feet. "Sarai even tried to push the tyrant to get you out."
Fireshing's cheeks turned red. "It was the least I could do."
"We are glad you are not dead," Noble smiled.
Nic's eyes opened slightly. "Don't jinx , Noble…"
"We would never! We are just happy that you are still with us." Sarai refrained from a second hug.
Nickel nodded slowly. "Thanks guys." He said softly as he brushed the dirt from his black cloak.
The wraith looked toward Crestfall, his expression becoming serious. "Now, co on. We have a Nightmare to finish. I don't know about you, but I could use a real shower!"
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