Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

They felt something hard under their hand. They opened their eyes. They realized they were lying in a fetal position. With aching limbs, they stood up to examine their surroundings.

They were in a place that vaguely resembled a city square. Everything was a bleached, chrome white as though assimilated by an unknowable entity. Tall, branched coral plants stood one and a half times their observer’s height. A few dozen feet in front of them, a building towered over everything else at well over a hundred feet in height.

They heard the sound of rotors spinning, and looked up at the source of the noise. A tiny white drone was spiraling through the air towards him. It had a rotor on the bottom, a tiny crown on top, compound eyes with cross-shaped pupils, and a pair of wings with inkling-style suction cup decorations.

“Hey, what’s up? I thought I was the only one here!”

The octoling stepped back, startled at the volume of the drone’s voice. “Who are you?”

“You don’t know me? I guess it’s kinda hard to recognize me in this new form, huh? The name’s Pearl Houzuki, from Off The Hook! Now let’s make it even. What’s your name?”

“I’m…” They held out their fists in front of their chest, and slowly clenched them. “I don’t know. I know I’m not a boy or a girl, but I have no idea who I am. Where are we?”

“Eh, sorry. No clue there. This place looks kinda like Inkopolis square, but it’s definitely not normal.” Pearl floated closer to the octoling. “Maybe we should team up! I’m thinking that deca tower knockoff should be the first place we look.” She gestured with her wing towards the grand tower at the back of the square.

“Inkopolis… I think I’ve heard of that place. Okay, let’s go.”

While the drone floated next to them and a few feet overhead, the nameless octoling slowly turned their head to observe their surroundings. The sky was a pale white, and amorphous purely 2-dimensional shapes floated in the air. They looked down to examine their skin tight outfit. It was as pure white as everything else in the environment, and left their arms and most of their legs exposed. A pair of bulky shoes covered their feet up to a few inches below their knees.

Pearl took less than a minute to resume talking. “So if you aren’t a boy or a girl, then I’m guessing that makes you nonbinary. They/them pronouns, right?”

The octoling smiled. “Yeah, but I’m not sure that should be our first priority right now.”

“That’s squit. Even if it isn’t necessarily life or death, respecting someone’s pronouns is always important. She/her, by the way.”

“Thank you. I really mean that.” The octoling walked into the tower, through a short and cramped hallway with automatic sliding doors at either end. The loud, pneumatic hisses of the doors opening and closing filled their ears. The foyer of the building was far more massive than the exterior of the building implied, with training dummies and platforms of varying heights, all in a space roughly half the size of the square itself.

“Wow. Is it just me, or is this place way bigger than it looked on the outside?”

“Yeah. I don’t know if we should be here.”

At the back of the foyer, the stainless steel doors of an elevator slid open. A single octoling was leaning against the wall inside. Their skin was completely green, they wore a one-piece black dress that left their limbs uncovered, and a long blue tentacle with a red tip hung over their right eye. They wore a pair of red glasses, a brimmed cap with a simplistic drawing of a primitive squid on front, and a pair of headphones.

“Watch out! That’s a sanitized octoling!” Pearl flew in front of the nameless one.

“Easy, now.” The green individual held up their empty hands. “I’m not a threat. Promise.”

“Huh?” Pearl floated half a foot closer. “Gotta admit, you don’t seem quite as mindless as most sanitized octos. Or as lifeless, for that matter.”

“That’s because I’ve regained my soul.” The sanitized octoling stepped back into the elevator, beckoning the others closer to themself. “I’ll tell you everything if you come with me.”

“I’m not sure about this, but okay.” The pale-skinned octoling walked into the elevator with their green brethren.

“It’s your call, man.” Pearl floated in with them.

The doors of the elevator closed like the jaws of a metallic beast, locking the group in a small rectangular space that slowly ascended. “What’s your name?” The octoling asked.

“I’m Acht.” The green octoling answered, “They/them.”

“Really? Me too! I don’t remember my name, though.”

“Neither did I at first. Don’t worry. Once you clear the tenth floor, you’ll get all your memories back.”

“Wow, two nonbinary octolings? Small world.” Pearl remarked.

“What do you mean by clearing the tenth floor?”

“Oh, yeah, I guess you wouldn’t know that.” Acht muttered to themself, “Must be a glitch. Anyway, it’s a little complicated and I don’t want to overwhelm you all at once. Trust me, this’ll all make sense later.”

The elevator dinged, and opened. “I’ll take your word for it.” The non-sanitized octoling walked out onto the first floor. “Are you, ah, gonna come with me?”

Acht shook their head. “Nah, it’s best if I stay in here. Besides, I’ve always preferred small spaces. Kinda like reverse claustrophobia.”

“Okay.” While the elevator closed behind them, the octoling walked across the small platform. Lines of digital code appeared on their hips, and solidified into a holstered pair of solid white dualies. There was a training dummy next to a small metal circle set into the floor. Two metal bars rose from either side of the metal circle, with a green ring on top attaching it to a zipline. “Okay, so I guess I just stand here, right?”

A series of metal bars descended around the octoling. The cage was lifted out of the floor, and started slowly descending on the zipline. Pearl floated next to the cage. “Okay, so I’m guessing there’s something on this floor we’ll have to do. Somehow.”

All around them, the walls were made of an ever-moving black and white pattern. The cage floor disappeared and dropped its inhabitant. “Grab on!”

The octoling grabbed a handle that had appeared at the bottom of the drone. “Thanks.” They looked down at the wooden, irregularly shaped platform below them. There was a void-black sphere, with things that resembled skeletal fish swimming within. “What are those things?”

“No clue.” Pearl admitted, “Maybe we have to destroy all of them?”

“Like some kind of trial.” The octoling swung their legs to steer Pearl away from the sphere. They touched down, and released Pearl’s handle, a couple dozen feet in front of the localized void. They extracted their dualies from their holsters.

“Where’d you get those?”

“What, you didn’t notice? They just appeared on me when I left the elevator. I didn’t question it only because, y’know, it’s really just a drop in the bucket compared to everything else.”

At the octoling’s next step in its direction, the sphere began to pulsate. A swarm of monsters began to swarm out of it, as though emerging from a pocket dimension. The vast majority of them resembled primitive skeletal fish, roughly twice the octoling’s size, swimming a few inches off the ground and swarming towards the octoling.

The amnesiac screamed at the army of monsters racing towards him, loudly snapping the metal teeth within their biomechanical jaws. “What are those things?!”

“How the hell should I know?!” Pearl screamed, “Just shoot them!”

“Now that I can do!” The octoling started shooting their dualies rapid-fire, covering the ground in orange ink while annihilating the monsters in rapid succession. For each one they destroyed, more and more appeared in an endless stream of horrors. “It’s like there’s no end to these things!”

Pearl looked up at one of the obsidian spheres. “Oh, I get it! That round thing is spitting these monsters out like salmonids when glowflies are around! You’ve gotta destroy it!”

“Okay!” They jumped off the back of a skeletal fish in order to get closer to the device. From midair, they tossed a splat bomb that exploded on the sphere, causing it to expand while staining it with orange ink. As soon as they landed, they rolled forward and started firing twin streams of ink. They focused one dualie on the skeletal swarm, and the other on the sphere. It rapidly changed from black to orange, dripping copious amounts of ink and gradually ascending while tethered to the ground by a metal chain.

As soon as the vortex took more damage than it could withstand, it exploded into a spherical tsunami of orange ink. The octoling’s entire body, including their bruises, sore arms, and exhaustion, was instantly rejuvenated. Dozens of the skeletal fish were annihilated.

The octoling and Pearl were both reduced to lines of digital code, and disappeared.

Acht was casually tapping their foot against the floor, nodding along to the quiet rhythm they were creating, when dozens of yellow lines of code appeared in the elevator and solidified into an octoling and a drone. The larger of the two looked around in alarm. “The hell just happened? Acht, what was that? Did you have to do that to get your memories back?”

“Yep. I figured I shouldn’t tell you, since that might lessen the challenge.”

“I’d appreciate that, actually. Please lessen the challenge.”

“I’m with them!” Pearl floated over to the octoling with no name. “What even is this place?”

Acht leaned back, with one foot on the wall. “First off, those freaky bone-fish are called jelletons. The thing you had to destroy was called a portal. As you saw, they spew out jelletons until you destroy them.”

“Okay, but why exactly were we teleported back here?” Pearl asked, “And what’s with the dualies that showed up on my new partner?”

“Actually, they disappeared.” The octoling held up their hands.

“That’s just how this place works. On each floor, there’s a specific goal you have to accomplish before you get booted back here, and then you can get to the next floor. One level at a time.”

“It’s like something out of a video game.” Pearl remarked.

Acht nodded in agreement. “Something like that. Anyway, on to floor 2.”

The elevator resumed its ascension. “Okay dude, I’m thinking you should have a placeholder name for now. It’s getting annoying just thinking of you as ‘the octoling’ and stuff.” Pearl suggested, “Tell you what. You kinda remind me of a friend of mine. How about New Agent 8? Or just New Eight?”

“Who’s Eight?”

“One of my best friends! She’s saved the world countless times, and she’s a member of the New Squidbeak Splatoon!”

“Pearl, I don’t have context for any of that. Amnesia, remember?”

“Oh, right. You see, it all started nearly 4 years ago-”

The elevator dinged a second time. “You two can talk about that while clearing the floor.” Acht patted their fellow octoling on the shoulder. “Go get ’em, New Eight.”

New Eight backed away with a stifled yelp. “Uh, right. Okay.” They walked out of the elevator. As soon as it closed, their dualies reappeared in their holsters.

Pearl floated in front of New Eight’s face. “You okay, bud? You sounded like you got burned or something.”

“Yeah, I’m fine. It’s just that, I don’t know, something about being touched…” New Eight shrugged. “It just felt a little weird. I’m good to go now.” They rushed onto the cage floor.

“Okay, then.” Pearl floated next to the cage as it descended diagonally.

The second and third floors each required New Eight to destroy three jelleton portals. Over the course of that time, Pearl told them about the octoling named Katherine, and how she’d braved the trials of the Deepsea Metro and defeated a malfunctioning AI before joining a group called the New Squidbeak Splatoon.

The elevator dinged, and then opened into the fourth floor. “Are you sure you can’t tell us what we’re in for at least?”

“Sorry, New Eight. Your first three floors have been completely different from mine. I’m sure you’ve got this, though.”

“Thanks.” New Eight jogged out of the elevator, whereupon their dualies reappeared. They stood on the cage floor.

On the platform, there were two geysers of jet-black ink, twice as wide and four times the height of New Eight. There was a golden rectangle on the floor. “Where are the portals?”

“Dude, look at this!” Pearl floated over to the section within the rectangle. “It’s splat zones! Just ink the zone and then we’re all set.”

“Oh yeah. Acht mentioned there’d be different types of challenges.” New Eight started spraying the designated area, until it automatically filled with their orange ink.

Dozens of jelletons emerged from the black geysers, and immediately swarmed at the ink zone. “Pearl! I thought you said we’d be all set!”

“You have to keep the zone filled with your own ink! Just keep it orange long enough, and then we can win this!”

New Eight alternated between swimming in the ink to refill their ammunition, spraying ink to replace the jelletons’ black with their orange, and shooting the varied robotic horrors.

There were tiny fish that floated on vertical jets of black ink, massive jelletons that struck New Eight like battering rams despite not being able to produce ink of their own, and floating bulbous jelletons that sprayed ink in a wide radius like sprinklers.

New Eight and Pearl agreed that those ones were especially loathsome.

There were other varieties of jelletons as well, that filled the arena. Despite their mindlessly tenacious efforts, New Eight was able to outpace them enough to return to the elevator.

“Nice work out there, guys.” Acht smiled. “Now on to floor 5.”

“What do you think, Pearl?” New Eight asked, “Maybe this one will be another portal-busting floor.”

“Yeah, maybe.” Pearl agreed, “Or it could be something else entirely. I’m getting kind of excited just thinking about it!”

The elevator dinged. “Looks like you won’t have to anticipate it for much longer. Good luck, you two.”

There was a silver vertical rod, roughly twice the height of New Eight and standing on a base that hovered a quarter of a foot above the floor. “Okay, so I guess we’re going with something new!” New Eight started firing orange ink into the jelletons that appeared from dark geysers. When stray ink hit the rod, it partially filled with orange and moved a few inches down a yellow dotted line floating in the air.

“Oh, I get it.” Pearl floated over to the rod. “It’s just like tower control! Except with this version, I guess you’ve gotta hit it with your ink to move it.”

“On it!” New Eight split their attention between the tower and the jelletons. Each time the tower entered a red section of the line for roughly three feet, its speed was abruptly decimated. At the end of each red section, the tower hit a glowing circle and expelled a rapidly-expanding dome of green energy. Dozens of jelletons were eradicated, and the tower accelerated while filling to the top with orange ink.

After the fourth red section, Pearl and New Eight were automatically sent back to the elevator. “Alright, halfway point!” New Eight pumped their fists.

“Congrats.” Acht smiled at them. “Let’s just hope the second half is this easy.”

“Why do I feel like it’s not gonna be that easy?” Pearl asked.

Acht looked up to address her. “Because it never is.”

The sixth floor was another splat zones round, except there had been two different squares, forcing New Eight and Pearl to multitask between them and the jelleton hordes.

At the seventh floor, there were two massive white balls. Each was around four times New Eight’s size, and had an infinity symbol on it. There were two circular platforms with green light emerging upwards from the edges.

“Oh, no.” Pearl lamented, “No! No, squit, please no!”

New Eight looked up at the drone, both quizzically and apprehensively. “What’s wrong? Do giant balls scare you?”

“No, this is just like the 8-balls from the Deepsea Metro! Katherine had to bring them to a goal in a lot of her trials, but they were super finicky, and every time one of them fell off the edge, she’d get blown up and have to try all over again.”

“Wait, blown up?! Multiple times?! How did she survive? Am I gonna get blown up?”

“She survived because I guess the Deepsea Metro train had respawn generators built into it. But don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll be fine! At least you don’t have a corrosive genetic sludge-bomb strapped to your back.”

“I’m just going to start.” New Eight started pushing one of the spheres by shooting it. Dozens of jelletons appeared from fountains of black liquid, forcing them to split their focus between guiding the ball and protecting themself and Pearl. The largest jelletons, which resembled massive fish with bulbous foreheads, occasionally knocked the balls out of New Eight’s range by headbutting the objects.

Despite the jelletons’ best efforts, it was only a few minutes before New Eight and Pearl successfully returned to the elevator with Acht. “Nice work. I hope you two are ready for the final three floors.”

“Are you kidding?” Pearl flew directly into Acht’s face. “We’re ready for anything these floors can throw at us! Right, New Eight?”

“Right. Gotta admit, I’m feeling pretty good about this. Bring on floor number eight.”

Acht smiled. “Your number, huh, New Eight?”

“Oh yeah. Lucky number eight.”

At the eighth floor, New Eight and Pearl encountered three unfamiliar jelletons. They were around twice the size of New Eight, with relatively long bodies and tall, pointed tails. Each of them had tiny white squares trailing upwards from their backs. “Okay, I’m guessing the goal of this floor has something to do with those guys with the glowy backs.”

“Right.” New Eight sprayed a trail of ink, in order to swim closer to the nearest target fish from behind. The second the cybernetic fish sensed their approach, it dashed away while floating less than an inch above the ground, leaving behind a thin trail of black ink in the process.

“Dammit! That thing’s way too fast!”

New Eight jumped into humanoid form. They watched as the target fled, moving in erratic patterns, while a multitude of jelletons poured out of a dark fountain and beelined towards them. “Oh, of course! The only one that doesn’t come after me is the one I actually want to get near!” He started firing ink and tossing pyramidal splat bombs into the jelleton crowd.

After less than a minute, a quiet ding emanated from New Eight’s dualies. “Wait!” They dodge-rolled twice, away from the oncoming swarm. “That’s it! I don’t stand a chance at catching up with that thing on foot, but these things have got a reefslider attached!”

“Oh, that’s brilliant!” Pearl realized, “Those cowards won’t know what hit them!”

New Eight eagerly turned on their reefslider, generating a massive toy shark beneath them. The air around him warped from the speed of the explosive vehicle, for all of a second before it stopped and detonated. One of the target fish was annihilated by the blast radius, along with several jelletons.

New Eight and Pearl teleported into the elevator a few minutes after they’d departed. “Woah!” New Eight fell onto the floor, rubbing their tentacle-hair. “Oh, man, that was great! I’ve gotta use the reefslider more often.”

Acht smiled while helping New Eight to their feet. “I’m glad you had some fun. Now, on to floor nine.”

“Oh yeah! Bring on the final two! I’m actually kind of excited to see what new challenge is on the ninth floor!”

Pearl and New Eight looked down at the penultimate floor, with an odd sense of disappointment. “It’s just more portals.”

“Yeah.” Pearl remarked, “I guess the unique stuff is being saved for the top floor.”

Acht, Pearl, and New Eight listened as the elevator dinged. “This is it, team. The final challenge. Odds are, it’s gonna be unlike anything we’ve seen so far.”

New Eight punched their own palm. “I still don’t know what’s going on, but I’m ready to find out.”

“Hell yeah!” peal excitedly agreed, “Bring on the boss battle!”

Acht nodded. “Good to see you two in such high spirits. Now get out there, and win this fight.”

“Will do.” New Eight jogged out of the elevator, with Pearl following close behind. What they saw made them skid to a stop, with a look of horror on their face. “Pearl. Do you have any idea what that is?”

The elevator had already closed behind the two. There was a dark, massive shape on the other side of the chasm, connected to a multitude of wires hanging from the unseen ceiling far above them. Smaller arcs of wires, within those embedded directly into the massive shape, connected to the same unseen ceiling.

“I… I have no idea.” Pearl floated closer. “It almost looks like there’s-” She paused. “Oh no. New Eight, we have to get over there, right now!”

New Eight nodded past their confusion at the terror in Pearl’s voice. “Uh, yeah! Right!” They jumped into the cage that would take them to the massive platform that held the enigmatic machine. “What’s got you so freaked out?”

“N… nothing. It’s probably nothing.” Pearl’s voice was shaky, as though she were trying to assure herself moreso than New Eight.

The closer they ascended to the mechanical entity, the more clearly they could see an octoling’s head emerging from the top of the structure. Her eyes were covered by a silver rectangle. Her mouth was twisted into an emotionless smile. Her hands and arms, covered up to the shoulders in silver latex, were bent at the elbows so that her hands were on either side of her head, with her fingers curved and splayed out.

“No way. That can’t be her, it just can’t be!”

New Eight looked over to the side. Pearl was shaking. “Who is that?”

“That’s Marina. That thing took my girlfriend!”

The floor of the cage opened. New Eight grabbed onto the handle that appeared on the sentient drone’s underside. “Are you sure? How is this even possible?”

“I’m positive it was her! I’d recognize Marina anywhere! And I’ve got no idea how this happened, but we’ve got to save her!”

“Right.” New Eight landed on the floor.

The second New Eight let go, Pearl retracted her handlebar and floated in front of them. “Hey, Rina! Can you hear me, honey?!”

The cybernetic-encased octoling didn’t move a visible muscle.

New Eight’s fingers shook and tapped their dualies. “Guess not.”

A red light flashed in the corner of the device covering Marina’s eyes and ears. The mechanical structure emitted a glitching projection of itself, with flashes of warping and shifting colors. Her fingers and arms twitched and spasmed at speeds that no living entity should have been capable of. “Intruders confirmed.” Her voice echoed, completely emotionless with an underlying mechanical tone. The machine containing her pulsated like the heart of some eldritch monstrosity, pouring out copious amounts of smoke. “Commence grayscaling.”

“Sit tight! We’re gonna get you outta that thing! Ready to rock, New Eight?”

“I’ve got no idea what’s going on, but yeah.” New Eight took a battle-ready stance. “I’m ready.”

Four enormous black tentacles, each around four-and-a-half times New Eight’s height, sprouted from the corners of the raised platform. Each of them contained a black and red sphere, and acted as a portal through which hordes of varied jelletons appeared. New Eight screamed in fear and confused rage as they charged into the jelleton hordes, spinning and shooting everything in their path.

“New Eight, I think your reefslider’s ready!” Pearl took note of their glowing, waving tentacle-hair.

“No need to tell me twice!” They activated their reefslider and powered forward, annihilating every jelleton in their path before catching the tentacle portal in the explosion. The eldritch appendage expanded into a bulbous thing, dripping with orange ink, for all of a half-second before exploding into an expansive, spherical wave of orange ink that eradicated over a hundred jelletons all at once.

“That was awesome, New Eight!” Pearl cheered, “I think that was even bigger than the round portal!”

“Makes sense.” New Eight pointed out while sprinting to their next target, “Bigger portal, bigger explosion.” They launched a curling bomb, and swam through the orange path it carved into the black ink. The device exploded a few inches away from the second portal, just before New Eight resumed humanoid form and began shooting the tendril.

The tentacle, even as it expanded, rose, and turned orange, continued to pulsate and summon forth new jelletons. New Eight was forced to spin around, constantly dividing their attention between self-defense and attacking the bulbous tentacle.

“How are we supposed to do this?!” Pearl yelled in a panic.

“We?!”

“Hey, I’d love to fight, but I can’t exactly hold a weapon like this!” Pearl complained.

New Eight continued their jelleton slaughter. Their arms grew tired, until at last the second tentacle portal exploded. The jelletons all around them disintegrated into a swarm of pixels and numbers, and then nothingness. “Finally.” They waved their arms, trying to get feeling back into them. “Now we can take a break.”

“Uh, not exactly.” Pearl corrected them, “Look!”

New Eight looked up, at the dozens upon dozens of jelletons being spawned from the two remaining tentacle portals. “Oh, great.”

“Hey, what’re those things?”

“What?” New Eight followed Pearl’s gaze down to the floor. Rotating above the surface were three objects that resembled thirds of an iridescent multicolored disc, with small beacons of white light emanating upwards from them. “I don’t know what they are, but maybe we can use them.” They sprinted to the disc pieces and grabbed them.

The fragments tore themselves out of New Eight’s hands and combined into a disc in midair. A slot opened near the bottom of Pearl’s mechanical form. “Huh? Wait what the-?” The disc spun into the open slot before it closed itself.

A blast of deafening music radiated out from Pearl, alongside circles of multicolored light. The entire arena trembled from the volume. The jelletons were knocked back by the light. “I feel like I just downed a whole box of Tenta Cola! New Eight, let’s go let’s go let’s go!”

“Alright!” New Eight started sprinting, while Pearl sped past them. As soon as she was in range for her light waves to strike the tentacle-portals, they were engulfed in the same light. It paralyzed them and prevented them from bringing forth any more jelletons. “Yes!” New Eight rolled closer to the third tentacle-portal and began shooting it with their dualies, in twin continuous streams of orange ink.

The tentacle portal ascended, growing more bulbous while the orange of New Eight’s ink encroached upon its viscous black. After a quarter of a minute, the tentacle-portal exploded in a spherical wave of orange ink.

“That was awesome! Keep going, I think the disc thingy’s starting to run out!” Pearl informed her partner.

“Okay!” New Eight swam through the ink created by the previous explosion until it ran out halfway to the final tentacle portal. As soon as they jumped out and resumed humanoid form, the light disappeared from the portal. “Agh, dammit.” New Eight swore at the jelletons that began charging for them.

“Ah well, at least we got one freebie.” Pearl hovered in a circle above New Eight’s head. “You can just blast right through these guys!”

“Let’s see if you’re right!” New Eight ran to meet the jelletons. All they could see was a frantic swarm of black and white. Digitized numbers flashed across their eyes and disappeared as fast as they materialized every time they struck down one of the seemingly-infinite hordes of jelletons.

When New Eight used their reefslider, it annihilated over a hundred jelletons, temporarily cleared the immediate area around them, and brought them within range of the tentacle portal. “Close enough!” They began shooting at the tentacle portal.

“Hey uh, New Eight? We’ve got jelletons coming in at all the o’clocks! You’d better hurry!”

“What does it look like I’m doing?”

“Sorry! It’s just that I wish I could fight in this form.”

“Don’t worry!” New Eight narrowed their eyes at the tentacle portal. “I’ve almost got it.”

There was an orange explosion. The jelletons surrounding New Eight all perished in the wave. The red barrier surrounding Marina loudly cracked and shattered. The pieces disappeared entirely.

“She’s open!” New Eight immediately began firing upon the mechanical structure holding Marina. With each continuous shot, it turned from black to red and pulsated like the enormous heart of a terrible, biomechanical beast.

New Eight had to split their attention between the remaining jelletons and Marina herself. The vessel controlling her fired bright red lasers out of black metal discs that resembled satellite dishes.

New Eight spun in a full circle. Occasionally, they needed to retreat and toss a curling bomb at an inkrail in order to activate it.

Minute by minute, more of New Eight’s orange ink covered the red, throbbing mechanism. Minute by minute, more jelletons were summoned by the central machine only to be eradicated by New Eight’s dualies, curling bombs, and occasional reefsliders.

Five minutes after they’d first touched down, Pearl cheered, “Dude, look! She’s basically completely orange now!”

“Yes!” New Eight was launched into the air from behind by an enormous jelleton. “No!”

“I gotcha, bud!” Pearl floated over to New Eight with her handle deployed.

“Thanks!” New Eight passed one dualie to the other hand, so that they could grab onto Pearl’s handle. They maneuvered their fingers to holster one dualie on their hip, while shooting the device holding Marina with the other. “I think…” They groaned as their arm holding Pearl grew sore. “We’ve… almost got it!”

“Thank you so much, New Eight! Just hold on a bit longer!”

Sparks exploded out from the machine, before it visibly deflated like a popped balloon. The surviving jelletons were deleted in a swarm of digitized numbers. While Pearl and New Eight touched down a few dozen feet in front of the device, Marina slumped forward. The visor over her eyes was covered in red glitches as she fell out of the machine.

“Lady! I gotcha!” New Eight held out their arms. Marina fell on top of them while the visor disappeared entirely, causing the both of them to fall on the floor.

Marina floated over to the two octolings. “Marina! Are you okay?”

Marina rolled off of New Eight. She was wearing a one-piece skintight outfit with a silver top half, a key-shaped hole in the middle of her chest, and a blue lower half with diagonal silver lines criss-crossing her upper legs. “That voice… Pearl? And who are you?”

Massive sparks of purple electricity arced on the outside of the device that had been holding Marina. A cloud of black smoke rose to obscure the ink-covered central mass. A purple, digitized face appeared within the smoke. It consisted of a pair of eyes with vertical lines for pupils, and a mouth that warped and shifted size as it spoke. The face and the smoke surrounding it glitched and jittered. Its voice was deep, warped, and sounded as if it were coming through a faulty walkie-talkie.

“ERROR. Grayscaling interrupted. Intruders confirmed disorderly. Classifying as dissidents.”

Pearl flew in between her companions and the digital face. “Who’s this fool?!”

“I am Order itself. A consciousness generated from the processes of many who yearn for stability. I am now fully realized. I therefore have no further use for a host vessel. All things…” Circles of black clouds radiated outwards from the face, while the air itself was covered in miniscule squares of randomly-shifting colors. “...will be converted to memory.” A wave of red energy poured outwards.

“Woah!” Pearl exclaimed.

Marina shakily stood up. “Oh, this is bad… the tower’s shaking like crazy!”

“Not just that!” New Eight pointed at the trembling walls. The metal was covered in glitch squares that rapidly turned into a red expanse. A wave of black smoke and debris struck Pearl, New Eight, and Marina, causing all three of them to burst through the wall. The rapidly-expanding hole in the top floor was accompanied by everything glitching.

Sections of the tower moved horizontally in small lines. Squares of shifting colors infested the edges of the hole in the wall. Bright blue outlines surrounded Marina, Pearl, and New Eight.

The entire world glitched and shook. The tower was covered in pixels that rapidly changed colors, from blue to green to black and scarlet. Pearl struggled to fly with two octolings holding her drone form’s wings, while the sky itself shook all around them.

The pixels expanded outwards from the tower, like a shell being dismissed, and disappeared into the ether. The tower grew. Its walls were marred with massive black spaces that almost resembled windows into the cosmos. There were branching red lines inside, and the edges of the walls were jagged and flickering in and out of existence.

Pearl’s drone form gave out, as did the world around her.

Chapter Text

“New Eight! New Eight! Please be OK!”

“Ow…”

Pearl and Marina smiled at New Eight’s pained groan. “Oh, thank goodness.” Marina looked up at the inkling. “Pearl! Eight’s woken up!”

New Eight sat up, and blinked their eyes to get a better look at their two companions. Marina’s outfit had changed to a thin orange jacket with light-gray zigzagging patterns. The jacket was open, revealing a black bralette covering her chest, and an otherwise exposed torso. She was also wearing black fingerless gloves, black high heels with indigo soles, and a pair of headphones with a glowing sea-green circle on each ear connected by orange tubes.

Standing over Marina was a comparatively diminutive inkling, who was a head shorter than New Eight. Her pink-and-white tentacle-hairs curled inwards beneath either side of her head, and she wore a thick oversized white jacket. The jacket had a rocket emblem on the left side of her chest, and another two emblems on the right. The open zippers were the same gold as the knee-length sequin dress beneath it, her black fingerless gloves were half-hidden by her jacket’s sleeves, and the white snowboots that reached partway up her black leggings were adorned in white laces.

“Eight! Thank you so much for freeing me!”

The inkling leaned in closer to New Eight. “Surprised to see me in the flesh? Marina worked some magic and bam! I’m back, baby!”

Marina opened a laptop facing away from herself. There was a collection of apps on the taskbar and desktop. The desktop picture was a photo of the inkling with golden tentacle-hair, wearing a black sleeveless shirt and two golden bracelets, with her cheek leaning into her hands and her palms folded over her knee. In the lower left corner was a pink pixel art animation of the same inkling with her head bouncing and two tiny speech bubbles slowly flashing. “I’m really, really sorry. It was the Dramatic Days In Orderland module that stuck you in drone form. And…” She sighed, “Did all the other stuff too.”

“Say what?” Pearl narrowed her eyes behind her translucent pale glasses. “‘Dramatic Days In…’?”

“Uh, right.” Marina activated an app on her taskbar, with a logo shaped like a mobius strip. A small window opened in the center of the screen, with a white line  showing the loading progress. “Let me back up a bit.”

When the app loaded, it showed various statistics on the side and four file folders on the bottom of the screen. In the middle was a looping slideshow of three images  with two partially filled bars. The images were a grainy picture of the tower with the buildings and bleached coral nearby, a jellyfish in what resembled a video game testing phase, and a side view of the pure-white street the tower was on. The purple line on top was much more full than the red line below it.

“This is the Memverse.” Marina explained, “It’s a prototype VR. That is, a virtual reality that I made.”

Pearl looked up. “Your virtual reality? Hold up! You’re saying we’ve been in a fake place this whole time?!”

“That’s right. The only ‘real’ things in the Memverse are our minds.” Marina confirmed, “That fuzzy cloud we met was Order. It took control of me and caused the whole Memverse to go haywire.”

Multiple images covered the desktop. In the top left corner of the screen, there was a grainy red image of the tower’s front door and surroundings. The right half was covered in scrolling images of cephalings’ and Jellies’ silhouettes.

Marina continued, “It’s forcibly connected who-knows-how-many civilians to the Memverse. Their minds are all in here now.”

“Hold up. That’s how I got pulled into this?” Acht questioned.

“Hold up. We’re dealing with another rogue AI?” Pearl groaned.

“Hold up. You made all this?!” New Eight exclaimed.

“That part doesn’t surprise me.” Pearl affectionately patted Marina on the back. “My girl’s a genius!”

“Not enough of a genius to avoid this whole thing going sideways, though.” Marina sighed ruefully, “I’m so sorry you got roped into this mess, Acht.”

“It’s fine. We have other problems.” Acht noted, “Like what to do about the situation we’re in.”

“You’re absolutely right!” Marina agreed, “We need to do something about Order.” She pointed up at the top of the tower. It was covered in dark pixels with red lines, almost like a sort of eldritch infection. “Order’s ultimate goal is a colorless world of order. A place where nobody has a will of their own. They just do whatever they’re told, day in and day out. Order’s using the Memverse to make that goal a reality.”

Pearl threw her arms out. “What’s its beef with change? Actually, hold up. I thought the Memverse isn’t real. Even if it gets what it wants in the Memverse, who cares? What happens in the Memverse stays in the Memverse, right?”

“Not necessarily.” Marine showed another picture on her laptop. On either side of the white space were highly-detailed pictures of Pearl and Marina, with arrows pointing them to less-detailed drawings of Pearl’s drone form and Marina, in front of the tower. “Order’s using what it calls grayscaling, to neutralize the will of everyone that’s trapped here.”

Acht nodded thoughtfully. “So if someone goes through grayscaling here in the Memverse, that gives Order control over their physical body in the real world. Is that right?”

“Yeah.” Marina tapped a key on her laptop, changing the detailed drawings of herself and Pearl to having pained expressions. “That about sums it up.” An animation appeared at the bottom of the screen, showing multiple cephalings’ swim forms turning gray. Their expressions changed to the same pained faces. “And Order’s just getting started. It plans to keep pulling new victims into the Memverse.”

New Eight’s eyebrows raised. “Like a computer virus, but for mind-control. Or like an actual virus, but with technology.”

“Exactly.” Marina confirmed, “If we don’t stop Order, the entire world will become its hivemind. It’ll be the end of all life as we know it!”

“Sounds bad.” Pearl stood up. “Good thing we’re here to stop it!”

“I’m so sorry. This is all my fault.”

“Nope!” Pearl hugged the octoling. “Nah, I know you had good reasons for making the Memverse. If that creep Order hijacked your work, it’s gonna be sorry it ever tried!” She jumped, turned around, and pointed at the tower. “We’re all gonna kick that loser out together!”

“Aww, Pearlie!” Marina hugged her from behind. “You say the coolest things!”

New Eight rolled their eyes, and quietly muttered, “Girlfriends.” They stood up to tap Marina on the shoulder. “So, what’s the actual plan here? Just keep going up the tower? It looks taller than before.”

“My thoughts exactly. I’d say it’s probably…” Marina held up her fingers in a square shape, analyzing the tower while muttering equations to herself. “Anywhere between 25 and 35 floors. Probably about 30 in total. And I’d bet anything that Order’s hiding out on the top floor.”

“Like a coward.” Pearl remarked.

“A coward that’s gathering its strength.” Acht reminded her, “The longer it takes us to reach it, the more victims will lose their free will.”

“In that case, let’s go!” Pearl ran ahead, towards the tower.

“She always was the proactive one.” Marina remarked, before following her girlfriend.

New Eight glanced at Acht. “I suppose we should follow them?”

“Yeah. I think we should.”

Acht and New Eight joined Pearl and Marina in the foyer of the central building. Pearl was bouncing on her heels while Marina worked at her laptop. “C’mon, Rina! How long is this going to take?”

“About…” Marina grinned. “This long!”

Pearl levitated a foot off the ground. Her entire body was covered in gold diamond-shaped patterns, until she was reduced to lines of code. The code shrunk down and reshaped itself into Pearl’s drone form.

“There! Now you’ll be able to help New Eight more efficiently.”

“Right on! Just, uh, how exactly?”

“Like this.” Marina walked up to Pearl and tapped the center of her metal forehead. “Boop.”

Beneath Marina’s finger, a tiny circle of metal sank less than an inch into Pearl, revealing a hidden button. Pearl’s bottom section opened out, revealing a white piece of metal that rapidly unfolded into a small table. “Woah! I could do that this whole time?!” Set within the small table were 36 small squares, arranged in a rectangular 9X4 pattern.

“Yep. That thing’s called a palette. Each time you start a new floor, you’ll get a device called a color chip out of the elevator. Just set the color chip inside the palette, and it’ll power up either you or New Eight.”

“Sweet!”

“Wait.” Marina remembered, “There’s something else-”

There was a loud, metallic screech. The four of them turned around to see a tiny robotic theropod, with a long neck and a small, beaked head. On each arm, it had a single elbow and a set of three massive claws.

Marina’s face turned into an open-mouthed smile. “The therizin robo!” She knelt down, hands cupped together. “Come here, little guy!”

The therizin robo squawked, bent its disproportionately short legs, and jumped well over a dozen times its own height to land on New Eight’s shoulder. “Ow!” They hissed, “Claws claws claws!”

“Oh, that makes sense.” Marina remarked.

“What makes sense?” New Eight slowly picked the robo’s lower claws out of his shirt. “And what exactly is this thing?”

“Basically, I got inspired by the news stories about the New Squidbeak Splatoon expanding their arsenal in Splatsville, so while I was programming Dramatic Days In Orderland, I coded one of these guys to appear as a sort of secondary companion for the player. I based them off of animals that went extinct millions of years before the humans even started evolving. This little guy’s a therizinosaurus, for example. You wouldn’t believe how hard it was to program it to replicate actual instincts, but I think he turned out pretty cute.” Marina scritched the therizin robo’s metal chin.

The tiny metal dinosaur squawked as if in response. New Eight glanced at it, then at Marina. “Quick question. What’s a New Squidbeak Splatoon? I’ve heard of them from Pearl, but I’m still a little fuzzy on the details.”

“I’m wondering the same thing myself.” Acht looked up at the ceiling some scores of feet overhead. It was partially covered in 2X2 squares of fluorescent lights. “But I think this might be an elevator conversation.”

“Ayo no way!” Pearl yelled up at New Eight, “How can you not know what the New Squidbeak Splatoon is?! They stopped bothering with being secret years ago!”

“Dude, I don’t even remember my own name.”

“Oh yeah. True.”

Acht gestured to the elevator. “Come on, we can talk on the way up.”

“Right!” Pearl eagerly pumped her fists. “The faster we can stop this Tartar wannabe, the better!”

The elevator slowly rose, with calm muzak playing. Pearl anxiously tapped her foot. “Come on, how long is this going to take?”

“Sorry.” Marina admitted, “I thought it’d be a good idea to use the elevator to simulate loading time, and to give the player a little rest between levels.”

“So this whole place really is a VR game, huh?” New Eight pressed their palm against the back wall of the elevator. “It’s amazing.”

“Hell yeah it is! I told you, my Rina’s a genius.”

Marina blushed, while scratching the back of her neck. “Hey, I’ve been working on this game for nearly half a decade. And besides, its actual purpose is-”

The elevator dinged and stopped. “Oh, we’re here!” Marina stepped aside from the opening doors. “Exposition time can come later. You guys are up.”

“What, you’re not coming with us?” New Eight questioned, “If you created this game world, shouldn’t you know exactly what to expect?”

“Nah, I randomized each floor individually. I figured that’d make it more fun and replayable.”

“It seems your every attempt to make this game more fun only serves to slow us down on our way to Order.” Acht noted, “Anyway, I’ve already cleared this game before Order put it on nightmare mode, so I’ll just stay here with you. Maybe we can trade notes while New Eight and Pearl are out.”

Marina nodded. “Sounds good. And good luck, you two.”

“Thanks.”

“Yeah, hon, thanks. Even if we won’t need luck to clear this game!” Pearl flew off ahead of New Eight.

Marina smiled while the doors closed in front of her. “She’s so cute.”

Acht cleared their throat. “So anyway, about the New Squidbeak Splatoon…”

“Oh, right. I can’t believe you and New Eight don’t know who they are. While you two were knocked out, Pearl told me she nicknamed them after one of their members.”

Acht shrugged. “Sorry. I remember most of my life, being sanitized by commander Tartar, living under mount Nantai making music for the Deepsea Metro, but nothing about-”

“Wait. Where were you making music?”

“Uh, the Deepsea-”

Acht was interrupted by the elevator doors opening, accompanied with a ding. “Oh, you’re back. How was it?”

New Eight responded to Acht’s question with a shrug. “We just had to put some balls in a couple pods. For some reason, Pearl’s really freaked out-”

“Marina!” Pearl flew over to her girlfriend, practically vibrating in her tiny drone form.

“Yup, see?”

“How could you put those things in here? You know how much they traumatized Katherine!”

Despite her best attempts, Marina couldn’t resist the urge to giggle.

“Hey, what’s funny?”

“Sorry, it’s just really hard to take you seriously when you get angry, and you’re a tiny little drone.” Marina shook her head. “But anyway, I was hoping that Kat would get to play the game one day, and maybe those levels would help her with her trauma from the metro. That’s why I made them easier than the 8-ball challenges. The infinity balls are coded to never go off the edge, and they’re automatically drawn to the goal points once they’re close enough.”

New Eight leaned closer to Acht, and whispered, “Do you have any idea what they’re talking about?”

“Nope. You?”

“Some of it.”

After Pearl and New Eight left the elevator on the second floor, Marina turned to Acht. “Okay, so what were you saying about the Deepsea Metro?”

“Right back into things, huh? I gotta respect that. Anyway, the Deepsea Metro was a facility deep underneath mount Nantai. It was controlled by an AI called commander Tartar, that took octarians who fell into the metro and put them through a process called sanitization. At the time, I didn’t think I had anything left to live for, so I willingly decided to undergo sanitization. I don’t know if it was a reward or a punishment, but Tartar allowed me to keep one part of my original personality. My love for making music.”

“That’s-” Marina’s eyes widened. “I didn’t even know that was possible.”

New Eight and Pearl reentered the elevator. “You two still shooting the squit?”

“Wow. I don’t think Kat ever swore that casually. But yeah, we’ve been having some really interesting discussions. Are you still mad at me, Pearl?”

“Nah. I was talking about it with New Eight, and we agreed that you were just trying to help Kat like you said. Just, when you do manage to get this to her, make sure you warn her about the balls before she starts playing.”

“Don’t worry, I was already planning to. Although, I think you mean if, not when.”

“Nah, I meant when. We’re going to stop Order before it ever gets a chance to grayscale anybody!”

The elevator doors dinged open. “Hey, wait!” Marina told New Eight and Pearl, “You two forgot something on the first two floors.” She pressed down on a circle embedded in the wall next to the door, opening a small metal pocket. Inside were three square objects, each one a different color, with white bars on the bottom.

“Oh, right.” New Eight glanced around in embarrassment. “I can’t believe we forgot about those.” They took the color chips out of Marina’s outstretched hand. “So, we just put them in here?” They tapped the button that ejected the palette from out of Pearl. “How does that even feel?”

“Actually, I can’t feel much of anything in this form. It’s kinda weird. So anyway, Rina, what do these color chips do exactly?”

“It depends on the color. Teal chips enhance Pearl’s drone abilities, purple ones give you better mobility, and red ones increase your offensive capabilities.”

“Nice! What’re you waiting for, newbie? Put them in already!”

“You got it.” New Eight inserted the color chips into the palette one at a time. With each one, the white piece at the bottom broke off. “So, do I just throw these out or what?”

“Oh, no, you should keep those.” Marina clarified, “They’ll be converted into something useful later on. I’ll explain after you guys beat the level.” She patted her girlfriend’s metal head. “Which I know you will.”

“Damn right we will!” Pearl flew in a small circle. “Now come on New Eight, we’ve got some Jelletons to splat!”

“Right.” New Eight nodded and followed Pearl. While the elevator door closed behind them, they entered the moving cage. The therizin robo squawked and ran around New Eight’s legs on the floor of the cage, causing it to sway and creak on the chain.

“Hey! Settle down!”

“Wow, Marina really did code it to act like a real animal.” Pearl remarked.

“You wouldn’t be so impressed if you were standing in here with me.” New Eight grumbled.

“What, as an inkling? I don’t think I’d fit. Even I’m not that small.” Pearl dove to help New Eight glide down after the cage floor opened. The therizin robo landed on its own, and immediately ran forward to slash the multitude of boxes in the center of the arena. The floor was a square, sloped downwards in the center. There were two infinity balls, and two corresponding goal points. As soon as New Eight started jogging over to one of the balls, a horde of jelletons spewed forth from the fountain portals.

The therizin robo screeched, jumping on one of the smaller jelletons to claw it into data. It repeatedly jumped between the jelletons, striking them with its claws moving as blurs.

The most common of the jelletons were the massive fish, with bulbous foreheads. New Eight attempted to dodge-roll away from one, only for another to headbutt them into the nearest wall.

“Newbie!” Pearl flew over to the octoling. “Are you okay?!”

New Eight’s entire body was wreathed in lightning bolts of pain. Their limbs were sore. All they could see was blackness with red splotches. “I have just one question. If this whole thing is a VR game, why can I feel pain?”

“I don’t know, but you’ve gotta get up! We’re about to get swarmed!”

New Eight could barely stand up, let alone keep a grip on their dualies. All they could see was a multitude of Jelletons.

“Hey, wait.” Marina realized, “Did I tell them about the drone gauge?”

Acht blinked. “About the what?”

“Damn. I knew I forgot something.”

New Eight screamed. For every Jelleton they destroyed, two more showed up and pushed them further back against the wall. They could barely register what Pearl was yelling, as the space around them grew smaller and smaller as the jelletons closed in.

Inevitably, one of the jelletons slammed itself into New Eight and finished them off.

Outside the tower that had become more akin to a spire, a humanoid shape made of golden, diamond-shaped lines of code solidified into New Eight’s in-game avatar. Upon respawning, they fell a few inches onto the paved-white ground. They trembled, muttering to themself, “What… the… squit just happened?!”

Pearl floated around New Eight’s head. “You died.”

“Really?” New Eight craned their neck to look up. They were unable to see the top of the spire. “You mean I bit it at level three? Weak.”

Marina was standing by the doors to the spire, in front of the X-shaped sign that had fallen off after Order had initially revealed itself. She warmly encouraged New Eight, “Don’t beat yourself up about it. Let’s just get back in there, and you two can try again.”

“I have some questions before that.” New Eight marched up to Marina. “First, how long was I dead?”

Marina looked up at the spire behind her. “Actually, that part was kinda weird. The elevator went black, and the next thing I knew, I was out here. Keep in mind, we’re in a nonexistent virtual reality where everything including our own bodies are made up of elaborately-programmed 1s and 0s, so time’s a little tricky. Still, I programmed the respawning process to only take five seconds in real-time. Though I guess it’s not out of the question that Order might’ve changed it…”

“And what about me feeling pain?” New Eight crossed their arms irritably. “Was that Order’s doing too?”

“No. Sorry, that was me. I should tell you the truth, about the real reason I created Dramatic Days In Orderland. It wasn’t just meant to be a video game.”

“What? Then why did you spend three years making it? For the bragging rights?”

Before Marina could answer, Pearl flew in front of New Eight. “Hell nah, dude! Marina built this whole thing to help the octolings who got sanitized by Tartar!”

“Pearl told me about that. What does a VR game have to do with it, though? And why’s it necessary for the player to feel actual pain?”

“That part is a little more complicated.” Marina opened an app on her laptop, and turned it to face Pearl and New Eight. The screen depicted elaborate schematics, notes, and equations. “A little while after Katherine escaped the Deepsea Metro, I hacked into their software to try and figure out what was up with the sanitization process. Turns out, it more or less involved their memories, thoughts, basically everything that gave them individuality, being extracted. Tartar turned them into its puppets. Nothing more than walking corpses.”

“Wow. That's horrifying. But what exactly does it have to do with…” New Eight gestured around themself. “All of this?”

“To put it simply, everything. I spent all this time working on the Memverse project as a way to help sanitized octolings regain their memories. At least, the ones who've survived this long.”

“What do you mean, survived this long? And why can't you just give them their memories back? You don't exactly seem like the type to make a get-rich-quick scheme out of this.”

“Damn right she's not!” Pearl argued, “There’s a perfectly logical explanation for why this is all a video game! I just don’t know what it is.”

Marina patted Pearl’s head. “Thanks, sweetie. First off, a few years ago, commander Tartar became one with the Deepsea Metro itself and turned it into a giant robot. The New Squidbeak Splatoon managed to destroy it, but a few hundred sanitized octolings managed to survive by getting tossed out of the metro during the transformation process.”

“Honestly, we probably should’ve talked about that with the others sooner.” Pearl remarked.

“Yeah. I don’t know why we never really talked about that.” Marina cleared her throat. “But anyway, about this being a video game. This is basically a way to help sanitized octolings regain their…souls, or their selves, for lack of a better world. The idea is that Pearl will be an NPC acting as a guide. I chose a drone form because I figured out that with commander Tartar destroyed, they’re all completely inert, so I thought another machine giving them instructions might be-”

New Eight cleared their throat.

“Oh! Sorry, sometimes I ramble. Anyway, I ran some tests and I realized that in order to actually make Project Memverse effective, I’d have to make it at least something of a challenge. I also needed to make it so that the player would be able to feel pain, essentially making it as immersive and realistic as possible without actually making it dangerous at all.” Marina looked up at the corrupted spire. “Unforeseen complications notwithstanding. But yeah, think of it like jump-starting them. From all my research, things like pain and adversity are essential to the process of giving sanitized octolings their souls back.”

“Okay, I guess that makes sense. But if I’m here, then does that mean I was also sanitized?”

Marina shrugged. “Honestly, I don’t know. I think our best bet at figuring out what’s going on is to beat Order. Hopefully, that’ll allow us to return to the real world and then we’ll remember what actually happened.”

“Yeah…” Pearl dipped a few inches. “Come to think of it, I don’t even remember going into the game in the first place.”

Marina admitted, “Neither do I. But oh well, let’s just try again. Hopefully we’ll be able to clear the game this time.”

Marina, Acht, New Eight, and Pearl’s drone form all waited in the elevator. “Okay, so I think we’re all clear-ish on what’s going on here.” Marina stated, “But just in case, Acht, why don't you tell us a little about yourself?”

“Yeah, like, do you remember falling out of the Deepsea Metro when Tartar turned it into a giant robot?” New Eight added.

“What? That never happened.”

“Uh, yeah it did.” Pearl argued.

The conversation was interrupted by the elevator doors sliding open with a quiet ding. Marina pressed open the color chip dispenser. “Oh, you'll like this one, Pearlie.” She handed it to New Eight with a smile. “It's a drone gauge charge. Here let me explain.” She took Pearl in her hands, turned her around, and tapped her back. “See these circles?”

“Oh yeah.” New Eight pointed at the three tiny, gray circles on Pearl’s drone form’s back, arranged one on top of the other. Each one was made up of tiny squares. “What are those for?”

“Basically, they let Pearl fight alongside you.”

“Wait, really?” Pearl turned around in midair. “That would've been nice to know earlier!”

“Sorry.” Marina apologized, “We were kinda talking about other stuff, and I got distracted. But, yeah, the drone gauge charge color chip will help you charge a lot faster.”

“Thanks, Rina! Alright, New Eight, put her in!”

“You got it.” They opened Pearl’s palette, and inserted the color chip. The white piece that broke off went into their pocket.

“Awesome, let's go!” Pearl led New Eight out of the elevator.

As soon as the stainless steel doors closed shut, Marina turned to Acht. “I'm confused.”

“Me too. But this is your VR reality. You go first.”

“Okay, what do you remember about commander Tartar?”

“I remember it destroyed the world.”

Marina’s jaw dropped. She stood there, floundering for a moment. “Huh. Okay, that’s a curveball. Last I checked, the New Squidbeak Splatoon managed to stop Tartar every time it tried to destroy the world. Unless I missed a really big news flash during our tour.”

“I swear, I’m not making this up. Commander Tartar erupted from the ground in the middle of the Splatlandian deserts-”

“Woah woah woah!” Marina interrupted, “What are you talking about?”

The elevator doors opened. “We’re back! What’re you two talking about?”

Marina threw her arms up and yelled, “That’s what I wanna know!”

The elevator resumed its ascension. “Hoo boy.” Pearl glanced over to New Eight. “Looks like we’re about to get a big revelation.”

“Good. Maybe that means we’ll get some answers.”

“Apparently, Acht thinks commander Tartar emerged from the Splatlands even though his giant robot form actually popped out of mount Nantai.”

“What are you even going on about? Mount Nantai is nowhere near the Splatlands!”

“That’s my point!” Marina yelled, “How is this even- oh, wait. I think I know what this is. Acht, you must be from an alternate timeline!”

New Eight facepalmed. “An alternate whatline?”

“An alternate timeline.” Marina clarified, “You know, like a parallel universe.”

The elevator doors opened. “Oh, second floor!” Pearl twirled in the air. “New Eight, check what we’ve got for a color chip!”

“Huh? Oh, right.” New Eight pulled a green color chip out of the pocket in the wall. “Hey Marina, sorry to interrupt, but which one is this?”

“Huh?” Marina examined the chip in New Eight’s outstretched hand, pinched between their straightened thumb and curled index finger. “Oh, that’s an armor drop. It means enemies are more likely to drop a power-up called armor, which basically acts as extra protection. It kinda looks like a gray metal box.”

“Sounds awesome!” Pearl cheered, “Thanks, Rina!”

“Don’t thank me, thank the RNG. Now get out there and smoke those jelletons, you two.”

New Eight nodded. “Right.” They followed Pearl out of the elevator, just before the doors closed behind them.

“So.” Acht leaned back against the elevator wall. “Another timeline, huh?”

“Trust me, it wouldn’t be my first rodeo. And besides, how else do you explain the fact that we have two completely different memories about commander Tartar?”

Acht hummed in thought. “Maybe one of us got implanted with false memories?”

“Maybe, but by who? And do you even want to think about the implications of that possibility?”

“No. I just got my memories back. I don’t want to think about them not being real, or never having happened.”

“Me neither. I really think you’re from another timeline. One where, apparently, commander Tartar won. What year was it?”

“It was 2018. Six years ago.”

“Huh. It happened in 2021 where I’m from. Or at least the most recent incident.”

“It only needed one attempt in my timeline. A superweapon called the NILS statue emerged from underground, and fired a beam of this weird ink-like substance that turned everyone into monsters.”

“Sanitized octolings.”

“Is that what they were called?” Acht looked down, at her sickly green hands, and her fire-red fingertips. “What I was called?”

“Yeah.” Marina reached her hand out. “Can I touch your shoulder?”

“Huh?” Acht looked up, confused. “Oh, yeah. Sure.”

“Thanks.” Marina gently touched Acht’s shoulder. “You used to be a sanitized octoling. I’m glad you got your personality back, though. Not just for your own sake, but also because you’re living proof that my plan works. That this game works for its intended purpose.”

Acht nodded. “Still needs a bit of troubleshooting, though.”

The elevator door opened. “Alright, that’s two floors down! Again.”

The elevator closed, and began ascending again. “Hey, you two have fun?” Marina asked.

“Yeah, lots of fun.” New Eight nodded. “First a little tower-thingy, and now we had to blow up a couple of those portals. So there’s already better variety than last time.”

“Nice.” Marina glanced between the two other octolings. “Okay, so Acht and I have been discussing things, and we think we might’ve figured something out. Apparently, Tartar’s NILS statue plan worked in Acht’s timeline, but in the Splatlands.”

“No way!” Pearl exclaimed, “So what about the Deepsea Metro?”

“I barely know anything you guys are talking about.” New Eight muttered. The elevator opened with a ding. “Oh, we’re here.” They opened the color chip pocket, and pulled out a purple device. “What’s this one do?”

“That’s sticky ink.” Marina explained, “It slows down enemies on it. Pretty simple to understand.”

“Sounds useful.” New Eight opened Pearl’s palette and slid the color chip into it.

“You can say that again.” Pearl closed up her palette. “Now it’ll be easier to make quick retreats, so that we can go back in and destroy them immediately!”

“Ah, right.” New Eight addressed Marina and Acht, “We’ll be right back.”

Acht waved as they left through the doors. “Good luck!”

“Thanks!” Pearl replied while the elevator doors closed behind herself and New Eight.

Acht side-eyed Marina. “You mentioned this wouldn’t be your first rodeo with alternate timelines. What’s that all about?”

“Oh, it’s a long story. A little while after we first stopped our version of commander Tartar, a monster came into our Inkopolis through a dimensional portal, from a version of earth where the humans were still in charge of the planet. Long story short, we had to team up with a bunch of human groups to stop an entity called the Scarlet King from destroying all of existence.”

“Woah. You’re serious? What kind of groups?”

“It was a whole thing. There was the Serpent’s Hand, the Churches of the Broken God and the Second Hytoth, the Nälkä, the Fifth Church, and the Horizon Initiative. Plus, we had to fight the Chaos Insurgency and a guy from some anarchist group called Are We Cool Yet?. Honestly, it was just a wild few months.”

“Really? All that happened in just a few months?”

“What, like that’s the most unbelievable part? And yeah, I gotta admit, sometimes it feels like it lasted nearly an entire year.”

The elevator door opened. “Oh, Pearlie.” Marina greeted, “How’d it go?”

“Pretty great! All we had to do was blow up a couple of those portal-orbs.”

“Nice!”

New Eight leaned against the wall as the elevator started moving again. “Don’t mind me. I’m just standing here.”

“Oh! Sorry to snub you, New Eight.”

“Nah, it’s fine.” New Eight took a step away from the wall. “I’m just happy we managed to get past floor 3 this time.”

“Don’t get cocky.” Acht warned them, “If you bite it, then it’ll be all the way back to level 1.”

The therizin robo squawked as if in protest. Acht crossed their arms indignantly. “Hey, I’m just telling it like it is, little guy.”

The elevator dinged open. “Alright, fourth floor.” Marina patted New Eight on the shoulder. “Go get em, bud.”

“Right. I will.” New Eight extracted the requisite color chip. “Huh. This one looks kinda familiar.” They held it out to show Marina.

“Oh, wow, look at that. Two sticky ink chips in a row. What’re the odds?”

“Weak!” Pearl complained, “What’re we supposed to do with dupe chips?”

“If you put them both in, it stacks the effects. Twice the ink-stickiness, twice the enemy… slow-downy… ness… you know what I mean.” Marina blushed in embarrassment.

“Oh, that doesn’t sound weak at all!” Pearl nuzzled Marina’s face. “By the way, you’re adorable like this. And also just in general.”

“Pearlie!” Marina laughed warmly, “Thank you! Now get going, sweetie. You two have another level to clear.”

“Right on!” Pearl twirled around. “Alright, New Eight! Put it in me, and don’t worry about the phrasing!”

New Eight rolled their eyes. “Sure thing.” They pressed the button to open the palette, and inserted the sticky ink chip next to the first one. The palette folded back into Pearl. “Ready?”

“Ready!” Pearl followed New Eight out of the elevator.

Acht watched as the door closed behind the other half of the group. “So, ah…” They tapped their foot on the metal floor. “What do we talk about next?”

“You know, I’m honestly not sure. It’s not like I don’t have any questions left, but for some reason I’m having trouble thinking of anything specific.” Marina hummed in thought. “You wanna trade couple stories?”

“I’m a reanimated corpse-musician and I only just regained my free will. How could I possibly have couple stories to swap?”

“I-I- maybe before you got sanitized? I don’t know. Sorry, I just blurted that out.”

Acht quietly laughed and shook their head. “Okay, I’ll play along. How did you and Pearl become a couple?”

Marina blushed, and started playing with one of her tentacle-hairs. “Actually, we were friends for a while. We first met on mount Nantai, before we found out that it was right on top of a sci-fi murder factory. We bonded over music, I was new to the surface, one thing led to another and then we were making music and hosting Inkopolis news after the squid sisters stepped down. When we took a break from the news to go on tour with our new band, we realized we were getting closer.”

“That’s a nice story. I hate to admit it, but I’m kind of jealous.”

“Aww, don’t be. I’m sure once we get out of here, you’ll be able to find a partner.”

“Looking like this?!” Acht demanded, holding out her arms, palms splayed. “I’m green, Marina! I’m barely an octoling anymore! I’m a genetic anomaly created by a machine that tried to wipe us all out! And where I’m from, that machine nearly succeeded! I’m a monster! Do you really think someone could ever love me?!”

“Yes. It doesn’t matter what you look like, or what happened in your past.” Marina held Acht’s hand. “If you’re capable of love, then you’re worthy of love. It’s as simple as that.”

“I’ve never had a crush on anybody. How can you say that I’m capable of love in the first place?”

Marina shrugged. “Because if you weren’t, then why would you still be helping us? We’re fighting to save our world from Order, not yours. If you were incapable of feeling love, you’d probably be all nihilistic and not care if either of our worlds came to an end. And yet you’re still helping us, even though your world is on the brink of total extinction. Not to mention the fact that you confided in us about that in the first place. That can only mean you're capable of trust and hope, which are both a part of love.”

“I-” Acht looked down, briefly stunned.

Marina retracted her hand. “Sorry. I’m a musician, not a philosopher.” She squeaked when Acht hugged her.

“Thank you. That made me feel a lot better.”

“Hey, don’t mention it.” Marina patted the other octoling’s back. “And if it helps, pretty much everyone in my world has seen so much crazy stuff that a green octoling would probably barely make them raise an eyebrow. If anything, I think they’d just be glad you’re not trying to kill them all. Especially in Splatsville and Inkopolis.”

“Well that sucked.”

At the sound of New Eight’s voice, Marina instantly pushed away from Acht. Her face blushed pure teal from her ink-blood. “Pearl!” Her voice was an octave higher than usual, “I swear this isn’t what it looks like!”

Pearl leaned to the side in midair. “What do you think it looks like?”

“I-I-well, I mean, I was hugging Acht-”

“Oh, that? I figured you were just trying to comfort her over something.”

“Yes! That’s exactly what happened.” Marina smiled in relief. “Thanks, Pearlie.”

“Well, duh! You think I’m the type of girl who’s gonna act like a jealous psycho if you so much as look at someone else or whatever?”

“You want me to answer that?” New Eight deadpanned.

“No.” Pearl turned to Marina. “Look, honey, I know you wouldn’t cheat on me or anything. You’re too you. And I also know you’d never leave someone hanging, and how much you hate that trope.”

“Oh, yeah, I really hate that. It’s like, why can’t they just communicate? Why do they just have to assume the worst right away? That’s not compelling drama, it’s trite and unrealistic!”

“I think I remember you throwing one of your mangas into the trash when they pulled that.”

“12 volumes, Pearl! I followed that story for 12 volumes, 48 chapters, and 3 omakes, and that’s how they ended it!”

Just as Marina finished her rant, the elevator dinged, followed by the doors sliding open behind New Eight. “Sorry to interrupt, but we’re here.”

“Oh!” Marina cleared her throat. “Sorry, just got a little heated there. Anyway, New Eight, show me the color chip.”

“Here.” New Eight extracted the new color chip from the wall, a yellow one, and held it out to Marina.

“Ah. That’s a drone battery drop. It makes enemies more likely to drop items called drone batteries.”

“Oh, we’ve seen those before!” Pearl dipped up and down in excitement. “I always get a power burst, and sometimes I fire killer wails and throw splat bombs.”

“Yeah, that’s what the drone batteries were programmed to do.”

Acht smiled. “I just remembered something. Pearl, you got a chip that makes your gauge charge up faster, right?”

“Ooh, I think so.” Pearl opened the palette inside her. “If I use both these chips, they’ll synergize, right?”

Marina nodded. “Exactly. Go ahead, New Eight. Put the chip in the palette.”

New Eight did as instructed. Pearl retracted the palette back into herself. “Alright, I’m feeling great! Let’s go, New Eight! Blasting jelletons straight out the gate!”

New Eight winced. “Sure.” They left the elevator alongside Pearl.

After two floors in a row where New Eight and Pearl had to destroy a particular type of jelleton that continuously ran away from them, followed by three consecutive floors where they had to drop balls into goal points, the elevator reached the tenth floor.

“Just so you know, guys, this next floor is going to be the boss level.” Marina informed them.

“Really?” New Eight attempted to press the wall pocket open. They pressed it multiple times, only for it to click near-silently each time without opening. “Is that why I can’t get this thing to spit out a color chip?”

“Yep. I programmed the boss floors not to give out color chips. I figured it’d up the challenge factor if the player just had to rely on the color chips they already had from the previous nine floors.”

“That’s all well and good, but it doesn’t exactly help us now, does it?” New Eight pointed out.

“No, no, I guess not.” Marina admitted.

“Hey, relax, dude.” Pearl opened up to unfold her palette. “Just look at the chips we’ve got already!”

Marina nodded. “Faster drone gauge charging, more armor, disc piece, and drone battery item drops, two chips that slow down enemies in your ink, a damage amplifier, and a chip that makes you run faster. I’d say that’s a pretty decent combination.”

“Yeah, and besides, you’ve made it this far.” Acht added, “I wouldn’t underestimate yourselves.”

New Eight smiled. “Thanks.”

“Yeah, thanks, Acht. Now come on, New Eight! Let’s get out there and show this boss who the real bosses are!”

The cage floor opened as always. The arena below was a perfect square that dipped in the center like a bowl. There was a black circular object at each corner, and a fifth in the center. At the back of the arena was a massive sphere of gray metal with studded spikes all over it, and a black circle in the center front of it, that Pearl and New Eight had immediately decided was the boss.

As soon as New Eight landed in the arena, the boss's face opened with a grating, mechanical screech. At the sides of its pitch-black visage were two dead, expressionless white eyes with solid red centers. Between the eyes was a small circular mouth with five sharp, pointy teeth pointing into the center. Plumes of steam emerged from the machine.

“New Eight, watch out!”

The boss was rapidly spinning in place. New Eight barely managed to dive out of the way before it slammed into the center bumper. The force opened the armor around the boss, revealing a thick line of a pitch-black vaguely ink-like substance in a circle. At the same time, a ring of red energy expanded outwards and a horde of jelletons spilled out.

“Woah!” New Eight backflipped over the red line. The therizin robo jumped out, slashing one of the larger jelletons with its claws. It darted around the battlefield faster than the eye could track, reducing jelletons to numerical data with each slash.

“Wow, look at that little guy go!” Pearl remarked.

A massive section of the back wall was converted into a screen. Marina backed away, revealing Acht and the rest of the elevator. “Alright, I got it working!”

“Woah.” Pearl looked up. “How’d you do that?”

“Oh, I just hacked into the software for this floor. It’s pretty strong, though, so I think I’ll just do it for the boss floors.”

“Fair.” New Eight had already started running after the boss while Marina had been talking. “What’s this thing called, anyway?”

“That’s Pinging Marciale. It’s not completely invulnerable when the armor’s on, but your best bet is going to be shooting through the crack.”

Pearl laughed, “Crack.”

New Eight got close enough to shoot their dualies’ orange ink at Pinging Marciale’s exposed circle, just before the boss started rolling away. “Come on! Coward!” They ran after the boss, while Pearl and the therizin robo covered for them. The more New Eight ran after Pinging Marciale, the more the mechanical sphere rolled away from them.

“I love you Rina, but did you really have to make this thing so annoying?!” Pearl asked, while shooting six killer wail lasers into the jelletons trying to impede New Eight.

“Okay, full disclosure: I got the lowest score when the band played pool one time, and I may or may not have been venting a little when I designed this boss fight.”

New Eight barely dodged being run over when Pinging Marciale abruptly turned around. “Yep. That tracks.”

Pinging Marciale struck one of the corner bumpers, launching itself back into the air while summoning more jelletons.

“Oh come on!”

Marina winced. “Yeah, maybe don't let that happen again.”

“Thanks for the tip!” New Eight shot at Pinging Marciale’s exposed part while it was still in the air. The impacts of the ink caused it to move away from the central bumper before it hit the ground.

As soon as Pinging Marciale landed on the ground, its outermost shell fell apart. The pieces disappeared into the ether, leaving a smaller gray sphere, with brown, rubber-looking circles all over it. Pinging Marciale’s face spun within the small circle that wasn’t hidden under its armor.

“Awesome! You made it to stage two!” Marina congratulated them.

“How many stages are there?” New Eight shot at Pinging Marciale’s armor while it rolled away, until they were forced to dodge away from a black killer wail laser. “Woah!”

“I gotcha, New Eight!” Pearl floated above the octoling and fired her own pink killer wail.

“There’s three stages in total. Each time you destroy a layer of armor, it gets smaller, and therefore faster and harder to hit. Also, I should probably let you know, it can summon homing arpeggios.”

“What’re those?”

Pinging Marciale launched multiple small jelletons with glowing red eyes and purple-white antennae at the center of their heads, with small yellow buds at the ends.

“Oh, so that’s what those things are called!” New Eight shot most of the robotic homing explosives down. The therizin robo jumped off their shoulder, in order to gain enough altitude that it could slash down the last one.

“Good work, little guy!” New Eight resumed shooting at Pinging Marciale, while it rolled around the arena and periodically launched splat bombs, killer wails, and homing arpeggios. Pearl and the therizin robo provided them covering fire from the jelletons that were summoned each time Pinging Marciale struck a bumper.

After a few short minutes, Pinging Marciale was reduced to its third form. Its metallic body was as white as the artificial environment outside, the spikes had been reduced to knobs, and its red eyes had moved from its face to the main body, on either side of its circular mouth. It rolled away faster than ever.

Marina pumped her fist. “Final phase, guys! You’ve got this!”

“Yeah-hah!” Pearl twirled in the air, while firing a killer wail laser. “Look alive, New Eight!”

New Eight nodded. They leaned forward, and sprinted towards Pinging Marciale while shooting at it.

Pinging Marciale continued rolling away. Occasionally, a large jelleton that Marina called a battering lento would bump into the boss with its bulbous forehead, launching it temporarily out of New Eight’s range.

Pinging Marciale struck the central bumper. New Eight backflipped over the wave of red energy, with Pinging Marciale’s shadow over them. New Eight’s body was horizontal, back facing the floor. They aimed their dualies up, and fired their dualies into pinging Marciale.

By the time New Eight completed their backflip, Pinging Marciale had exploded into a cloud of dissolving numerical data. The remaining jelletons automatically despawned as if they’d never existed in the first place. A golden sphere slowly descended, with a small machine moving around inside.

“Yay-eah! New Eight, that was awesome! Hey, what’s that thing?”

“I dunno.” New Eight walked towards the orb. It was the same size as the octoling. As soon as it reached the ground, it shattered and released the robot inside of it. It had a roughly barrel-shaped body, with four triangular flippers. An entire quarter of its body was taken up by its jaws, filled with sharp teeth that slanted forwards and out of its snout.

Marina smiled. “The liopleurodon robo!”

“Oh, uh, hey little guy.” The liopleurodon robo floated up to New Eight’s shoulder, flapping its fins like wings. “Something like this actually existed?”

“Yeah, over a hundred and fifty million years ago. Only fossils remain of them now, just like the humans. And just like the humans, they were the apex predators of their time. Also, I just thought they looked cool.”

“I guess that’s one way to describe it.” New Eight side-eyed the robo hovering by their shoulder.

“Wait, shouldn’t we have gotten booted back to the elevator by now?” Pearl questioned.

Acht stood up straight in the back of the elevator. “Hey, yeah, she’s right.”

Marina nodded. “Now that you mention it… maybe whatever Order’s doing is putting strain on the game, causing the loading times to slow down. Like when Pearlie gets lag in her FPS games and rages at her teammates so loud her voice breaks the TV.”

Acht barely tried to stifle her laugh. “Seriously?”

“I haven’t done that in hours!”

“We’ve also been trapped in here for hours.” New Eight grinned.

“You-!”

The two of them disappeared from the boss battle arena.

Chapter Text

“-stay out of this!” Pearl glanced around. “Oh. We’re back.”

Acht smiled. “You two were pretty impressive out there. Now let’s see what the next floor has for us.”

“Actually, you’re gonna like the next floor. It’s a vending machine.”

“Oh, sweet! Snack break!” Pearl spun in the air. “Except I can’t eat or drink anything in this form.”

New Eight shrugged. “More for me then.”

Marina raised her hand to correct them. “Sorry, but it’s not actually that kind of vending machine. I considered something like that in the early builds, y’know, using foods and drinks as healing items or temporary status effects or buffs, but I couldn’t quite code the flavors right. They always came out tasting like abstract concepts. So unless you want a soda that tastes like goth…”

“Actually I kinda vibe with that.” Pearl deadpanned. “But anyway, what kind of stuff does this vending machine actually sell?”

“Stuff that’ll help you with the spire. Most of the time it’ll be randomized, but the first time is a specific item that’ll help you with your robos. I don’t wanna give the surprise away just yet, though.”

“Ayo what?!” Pearl floated into Marina’s face. “Don’t just leave us hanging! Tell us what it is!”

The elevator dinged. Marina gestured with her head at the open doorway. “You’re about to find out.”

“Oh! New Eight, what’re you waiting for?!” Pearl blitzed ahead.

“You, mostly.” New Eight shrugged before following Pearl. The elevator door closed behind them.

The vending machine floor consisted of a walkway, roughly five feet wide, suspended within an empty space. The only thing of note was a blue vending machine with a shelf full of empty bottles inside. “So I just pay using the white strip-thingies that broke off the color chips?”

Pearl giggled, “Strip. But yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s the gist of what Marina told us.”

“Your maturity is astounding.” New Eight pressed a single large black button on the vending machine. A red, digitized number 425 appeared on a small screen to the right of the window. “Oh, man, we don’t have nearly that many color chip pieces! Order must’ve hacked into the prices somehow.”

“Actually, didn’t Marina say something about converting them into something else?”

“Did she?”

“Yeah, right before our first go at level 3. Don’t you remember? She told us that she’d explain it after you cleared the level, but then you died and I guess we all just kinda forgot about it.”

“Huh. Yeah, I remember now.” New Eight went back to examining the vending machine. Below the cost designation, there was a green button with a white checkmark and a red button with a white X mark. “So I’m guessing green is to accept the deal, and red is for canceling the purchase.”

“Definitely. So what’s the verdict?”

“Marina said this would help us on the higher floors.” New Eight decided, “If she felt the need to put something like that in the game, then I’d rather have it if I can.” They pressed the green button.

“So you’re not doing a challenge run, huh?” Pearl asked, just before something loudly clattered at the bottom of the vending machine. The sound of metal colliding with metal echoed throughout the virtual space.

“Not really.” New Eight reached into the compartment at the bottom of the vending machine. “Huh. It almost feels like…” They yanked the object out of the machine. “A belt?”

The belt consisted of a long metallic strip, with a buckle at the end. The buckle itself was square, with a screen in the center and three buttons on the top depicting the therizin robo and the liopleur robo. The third button was grayed out. On the top face of the buckle itself were another five buttons. A green call button on one end, a red hang-up button on the other end, and three silver buttons in the middle, arranged into a triangle. The middle buttons depicted a sword, a gun, and a suit of armor.

“Woah, that thing looks sick! Go ahead, put it on!” Pearl bobbed up and down in excitement.

“What, like this?” New Eight pressed the belt buckle onto their waist, with the screen facing outwards. They lashed it so that the other end of the belt strip attached itself magnetically to the other side of the buckle. The device automatically tightened itself to fit perfectly on them.

“Woah. That looks like a serious power boost. How’s it feel?”

“Surprisingly comfortable, actually. It isn’t nearly as heavy as it looks, at least. Let me try something.” They glanced down to press the call button.

Inside the elevator, a small section of a wall, perpendicular to the door, flipped to reveal a screen. It was the same size as the belt buckle screen it was connected to, and showed the interior of the 11th floor. “Oh! They got it!” Marina jogged over to the wall-mounted screen. “Hey, New Eight! Congrats on getting the Memverse belt!”

“Marina?” New Eight whipped their head around. “Where are you?”

“I’m still in the elevator. Look down.”

New Eight looked down, at the top of their belt. “I can’t see you.”

“I’m in the screen on your belt buckle. Just slide it to either the left or right to take it out.”

“You mean like this?” New Eight pressed their fingertips against the side of the screen and swiped it. The exterior of the belt buckle on the other side was split in half at the hinges by the pressure, allowing New Eight to drag the screen out of the belt buckle. A shallow indent was left in its place.

“Yes, that’s perfect!” Marina stepped back. “Although, maybe just hold it a little farther? You’re kinda close.”

“Oh, sorry.” New Eight extended their arm slightly. “How’s this?”

“That’s better. Now then, how do you like the new prize?”

New Eight looked down. “I guess being able to call you is pretty neat, but why a belt? Couldn’t it have been like a watch or something? And what’s with all the buttons?”

Marina rolled her eyes. “Oh please, wristwatch communicators? That’s so last year. And as for the buttons, those are for unlocking the paleo robos’ real power. First off, try opening the belt buckle.”

“What are you even talking about?” New Eight started fingering at the sides of the Memverse belt buckle.

“The hinge is on the- oh, cool, you got it.”

The front half of the belt buckle had clicked open like a door, revealing an internal compartment. There were three silver circles on the bottom and top of the section.

Pearl floated down to examine the belt buckle compartment. “Huh. They kinda look like batteries are supposed to go there.”

“That’s exactly what I was going for.” Marina confirmed, “New Eight, press down on any two of the silver pads, in two different rows.”

“Um. Alright…?” New Eight hesitantly pressed the silver buttons on the bottom ends of the compartment. The therizin and liopleur robos screeched in confirmation before flying into the compartment, as though they were being attracted to it magnetically. As they flew through the air, they spun and folded at blinding speeds, so that when they entered the compartment, it was in the shape of two batteries. Each battery had a silhouette of its respective robo facing outward.

“Woah.” New Eight repeatedly opened and closed their belt buckle. “Talk about convenience.”

“Thanks! And when you want to release one of your robos, just pull it out and press one of the buttons at either end.”

As soon as New Eight pinched one of the batteries, they were startled by the loud voice that emerged from the buckle.

Therizin!

“I made it so that you could tell which battery you’re grabbing and correct yourself if you want a different one.” Marina explained.

“Wow! That’s my Rina, always thinking of everything!”

“Yeah, except stealth.” New Eight pointed out, “I hope there aren’t any levels in this game that require sneaking around.”

Marina smiled. “Oh, I thought of that too. There’s little dials for volume adjustment on the sides, and if you want to be completely silent, the bottom of the slot where the screen goes is also an earbud holder.”

“Really?” New Eight closed the buckle, and reached into the slot in front. They found a blue earbud molded into the bottom of the indent, which came out with a light tap. They continued rubbing their finger over the interior. “I only found one.”

“That’s because you only need one. The Memverse buckle is for clearing challenges and climbing the spire, not for jamming out to Pearlie and I’s new band’s songs.”

“Nice self-promotion. Real subtle.” New Eight deadpanned. “But anyway, I get what you mean.” They put the earbud back in its slot. “One ear for hearing what battery I’m picking, and one ear for hearing what everyone else is saying.”

“Exactly.” Marina instructed, “Now, take one of the batteries out and press down on either end. Doesn’t matter which one.”

“Right.” New Eight opened their belt buckle.

Liopleur!

With a press of the end of the battery, it flew out of New Eight’s hand and unfolded itself into the liopleur robo. “Woah!” They stepped back in alarm. “Sorry, I expected that. It just still managed to startle me.”

Marina giggled, “Okay, now close the belt buckle, press one of the buttons on the front, and then one of the buttons on top.”

“You got it.” New Eight followed her instructions. “Nothing happened.”

“Oh, right, I should’ve told you. Each face button is connected to the battery holder directly corresponding to it, so now that you’ve only got one in there, only that specific button works.”

“I get it. So the button on the left would activate the battery on the left, right?”

“Left, right, and middle. You got it.”

Therizin! Armor!

A small hole opened in the top of New Eight’s belt buckle. The therizin battery launched out and split apart, before flying towards New Eight, every piece growing exponentially.

“Woah, woah, what’s going on?!” New Eight attempted to step back. The therizin robo reassembled itself as a suit of armor covering New Eight’s entire body. Its yard-long spikes emerged from their shoulders, upper arms, and elbows. “Huh. I’m okay.”

“Well, duh! Did you think Marina would tell you to do something that’d hurt you?”

“Sorry, I got a little spooked when I saw pieces of solid metal flying at me.”

“How did it feel?” Marina asked.

“Pretty good, actually.” New Eight moved their arm to examine the spikes. “I feel a lot stronger now, and I can move my arms way easier than I’d expect with all these spikes. How do I take it off, though?”

“Oh, that’s easy. Just press the armor button again.”

“Got it.” New Eight pressed down on the belt buckle. The therizin armor split into pieces and shot into the air, merging and shrinking back into its battery form. It immediately dropped down into its prior slot in the Memverse belt. “So each one has three forms? Gotta say, that’s actually really convenient.”

“If you think that’s good, just wait until you get the final robo on floor 20.” Marina reminded them. “Anyway, that should be just about everything. If you want to hang up, just put the screen back in the belt buckle, except facing inward.”

“Like this?” New Eight slid the screen back where it had been, with the black reverse side exposed. The side of the belt buckle clicked shut. “Huh. If she’s not answering, I guess it worked.”

Pearl twirled in the air. “This is so awesome, New Eight! We’re going to clear the spire for sure with this new power-up!”

“I can’t believe you fell off the edge.”

New Eight crossed their arms and pouted. “I don’t wanna talk about it.”

“Hey, I tried to carry you back up, but your armor weighed you down, and we only made it to floor 12-”

“I said, I don’t wanna talk about it.”

“Okay, then I’ll talk about it plenty for both of us.”

New Eight rolled their eyes and started walking up to Marina. “I’m ready to try again.”

“That’s the spirit.” Marina pulled out her laptop. “Anyway, I was hacking into the Dramatic Days In Orderland code while I was in the elevator with Acht-”

“Wait, you were hacking into the game as a virtual avatar inside the game, while your real body is probably lying in a coma somewhere with a headset shoved onto it?” New Eight questioned.

“Pretty much. Even if Order hijacked the code, I’m still the one who made it. Anyway, I’ve made it so that as soon as you get into the elevator, you can choose whether you want to start from the bottom of the spire, or if you want to go straight back to floor 12 and try again.”

“Wait, seriously? That’s great! Obviously floor 12!”

“That’s what I thought.” Marina grinned, folding her laptop and holding it under her arm. “Let’s get back to the elevator.”

As soon as New Eight’s virtual body reconstituted itself outside the spire, they kicked the bleached ground and screamed in frustration. “Damn it! Damn it damn it damn it!”

“Hey, don’t sweat it, New Eight.” Pearl tried to assure them, “Next run, that’s going to be our lucky go!”

New Eight clenched their fists. “It better be!” They marched up to the other octoling who was waiting for them. “Marina.” They took a breath, reminding themself not to yell at her. “I want to try floor 12 again. I swear, I know I can beat it this time.”

“You got it, New Eight.” Marina’s fingers flew across the keyboard, while she held the laptop up with her other hand. “Let me just… oh no.”

“What? What’s oh no?” Pearl asked, flying closer to Marina.

The taller octoling winced. “Order encrypted the code on the 12th floor. It’s trying to stop us from picking up where we left off.”

“Seriously?” Pearl flew behind Marina to look at the laptop over her shoulder. “Okay. There’s nothing about this I understand, but this is your code, Rina. I know you can hack this!”

“Thanks, hon, but it’s not a question of whether I can hack into this level. Now that I already have, Order’s directly protecting it. It keeps re-encrypting the code every time I decrypt it. The worst part is, it seems like it’s getting a little better each time, which makes sense considering it’s an AI. If I can’t get into it soon, Order might get smart enough to do some massive damage to the game’s code.”

New Eight thought for a moment, before suggesting, “If Order’s busy focusing on floor number 12, why don’t you just hack into another floor while they’re unguarded?”

Marina looked up from her laptop. “That’s actually a really good idea!” She resumed typing, faster than before. “Okay, the best I can do is floor 3. Is that alright?”

New Eight shrugged. “I guess it’s slightly better than starting completely over.”

“True. And don’t worry. I know you guys can win this time.”

It took the group less than an hour to return to floor 10. Their color chips New Eight and Pearl had collected enabled them to fire homing shots out of New Eight’s dualies, increased the duration of an in-game mechanic called lucky chains that caused enemies to drop more desirable items, made enemies more likely to drop armor, canned specials, and drone batteries outside of lucky chain windows, allowed New Eight and Pearl’s ink to cause damage to any jelletons that touched it, and allowed Pearl’s drone gauge to fill itself significantly faster.

“Ready for the boss again, New Eight?” Pearl asked.

“You know it. now that I’ve got this belt, Pinging Marciale doesn’t stand a chance.”

Marina cleared her throat. “Just to remind you, I randomized all of the floors, including the bosses.”

“Oh, right. So there’s no guarantee that it’ll be a Marciale rematch.”

“So what, New Eight?” Pearl flew in front of them. “Whichever boss it is, they don’t stand a chance against us!”

“Yeah, you’re right! Let’s do it!” New Eight sprinted out of the elevator alongside Pearl.

The first thing New Eight and Pearl noticed about the boss battle arena was how much darker it was than Pinging Marciale’s arena. A series of circular blue lights were mounted on the circular wall, casting the dark room in a cold blue glow. Below the circular boss platform, there was a massive support column that almost resembled a pillar of metal, that stretched down into unseeable, unknowable depths. Partway down the pillar, there were two openings through which rotating searchlights could be seen

In the center of the room stood a massive conical machine that widened at the top, over 50 feet above the floor of the arena. “Okay, so this definitely isn't Pinging Marciale. What do you think, New Eight?”

“I think we should ask Marina.” New Eight extracted the screen and the earbud from their belt buckle, and pressed the call button.

“Hey, New Eight!” Marina greeted them from inside the elevator. “Need some help?”

“Yeah.” New Eight held out the screen, turning it around to show Marina the boss jelleton. “Can you give us any pointers for fighting this thing?”

“Looks like Asynchronous Rondo. If you look closely, you’ll see that it actually has 9 layers. Each layer has one weak spot.”

New Eight squinted at the machine. “You mean the black goop piles that kinda look like little faces?”

“Exactly. Just shoot all of them, and that’ll bring Asynchronous Rondo down.”

Pearl floated closer to the edge of the platform. “I’m guessing it won’t exactly sit still while we shoot its faces, huh?”

“Hardly. You’ll have to deal with hordes of jelletons the whole time. You can also try to hide from its searchlights, but if it finds you, it’ll sic toxic mist, torpedoes, and inkstrikes on you. Also, if you try to hide right under it, it’ll attack you with wavebreakers.”

“Why would I try to hide under it?”

“I don’t know. I just figured I might as well code something like that anyway. So, do you think you’re ready to take it on?”

“Yeah, I think so. Can I hang up now?”

“Eh, actually, I think it’d be better if you put the screen back in the belt facing outwards. That way I can watch you fight, and maybe I can help you.”

“Oh. Thanks.” New Eight slid the screen back into its slot, where it quietly yet noticeably clicked into place. They briefly opened the Memverse belt buckle to make sure the therizin and liopleur batteries were inside. “Alright, Pearl, I’m all set.”

“Heck yeah, we are! We’ve got this, New Eight!” Pearl cheered while the octoling stepped onto the platform that became a cage.

While the enclosure facilitated New Eight’s descent towards the boss battle arena, they heard Acht’s voice coming from their belt. “Pearl, New Eight, good luck. Judging by the size of that thing, you’re going to need it.”

“Thanks, Acht.” New Eight replied. The cage floor opened, thus sending them falling towards the floor. “Let’s try this in midair!”

Liopleur! Sword! Therizin! Armor!

The paleo batteries ejected from the Memverse belt buckle, and reshaped themselve into a sword and a suit of armor around New Eight, just before they landed on the ground.

Marina cheered, “Wow, what a rush! I can’t believe you didn’t get queasy falling that fast, New Eight!”

“Who says I didn’t?”

“Oh…”

“Well, New Eight, I say we should start blasting this guy!”

“If it means getting this over with, then I agree!” New Eight tossed a curling bomb. Despite the fact that the therizin armor prevented them from using their swim form, they were still able to use the ink to run faster as well as hindering the jelletons’ inevitable advances. They shot orange ink into Asynchronous Rondo’s bottommost pseudo-face, covering it until it exploded within five seconds.

The enormous machine’s entire bottom layer dissolved into red lines of code. The eight remaining layers fell with a deafening metallic clatter, while a swarm of jelletons poured out.

“Most of those are just marching andantes.” Marina assured New Eight, “You’ve already destroyed dozens of them; they’re basic.”

“Wait, that’s what they’re called?” New Eight jabbed their sword, skewering a jelleton. “What the heck is even an andante?”

“It’s a moderately slow musical tempo.” Pearl explained.

New Eight rolled away from the marching jelletons, before looking up at Pearl. “You actually know that?”

“What? I’m a musician too.”

“Marina, did you name all of the jelletons after obscure musical references?” Acht bemusedly asked.

“Sure did! The little guys are called swarming languendos, the guys with the big foreheads that always go after infinity balls are called battering lentos, and the ones that act like little sprinklers are called drizzling capricciosas.”

“Thanks for the lesson, but do you have anything I can actually use?”

“Okay, how’s this?” Marina recommended, “Try pulling one of the spikes out of your therizin armor.”

“Huh?” New Eight looked down at their hands, holding a single dualie and the liopluer sword. Their other dualie rested in its holster on their hip. They pressed the single button required to revert the liopleur sword into battery mode, thus freeing up their hand to extract a spike from the shoulder of their therizin armor. Another one emerged in its place. “Oh, hey! That’s what I’m talking about!” They tossed it upwards, into Asynchronous Rondo’s third face from the bottom. “Oh… wow.”

New Eight noticed for the first time that each of Asynchronous Rondo’s layers were rotating in the opposite direction of the ones directly above and below it. Clockwise, counter-clockwise, clockwise, counter-clockwise, clockwise…

The marching andantes swarmed New Eight while they were distracted.

“No!” Marina yelled, “They’re gonna kill New Eight!”

Acht called into the screen, “Those bas-!”

New Eight and Pearl’s digital bodies respawned outside the spire. “That was dumb.” Pearl deadpanned.

“Agreed.” New Eight reluctantly walked back up to the towering building that overshadowed all it surrounded. “Sorry, Marina. I’d like to skip some floors again.”

Marina gave New Eight a warm smile. “Of course! And don’t worry about losing. That just means we have to keep trying.”

“I know, but it feels like I’m wasting time. The longer we take, the closer we get to Order pulling everyone in here and deleting all their free will.”

“Hey bud, don’t think like that.” Pearl assured them, “You’ve got me on your side, and Marina! You’ve got nothing to worry about.”

“Pearl’s right. Between the three of us and Acht, we’re all shouldering the burden here. You and Pearl are doing everything you can to get through all the floors, I’m hacking into the spire to give you guys as much of an edge as possible, and Acht is the only reason the elevator doesn’t fall back down to the first floor and get you guys stranded. Besides, if anything, I should take most of the burden. I’m the one who created this virtual world in the first place. Order came from my faulty programming.”

“Don’t talk like that, honey.” Pearl argued, “Something must’ve happened to your programming to make it go haywire like this. There’s no way you could’ve expected it!”

“Thanks, sweetheart. Now then, New Eight, you said you want to skip floors? Best I can do is… oh. Oh, I like this!”

“What is it?”

“It looks like Order’s putting so much focus on keeping us from skipping straight to floor 10, that it’s left the fifth floor wide open. I’ve just locked it with an encryption of my own, so we should be able to start from there each time. At least, for now.”

“That’s perfect! Let’s go!” New Eight pumped their fists.

After destroying 2 portals, knocking an infinity ball into its socket, guiding a turbine tower, and killing 5 panicking alla mambos, the cephalings returned to the one-third point of the spire.

“Okay, New Eight! It’s our eighth run, so let’s make it count!” Pearl flew around the octoling’s head.

“Okay.” New Eight tapped the Memverse belt on their waist. “I think maybe I can do it this time.”

“Come on, bud, don’t talk like that!” Pearl flew into New Eight’s face. “No maybe about it, the boss is going down this time! Right?!”

New Eight stammered, “R-r-ri-ight! Right! You’re right!”

“Heck yeah I am!” Pearl flew backwards, spinning in a small circle. “Let’s do this, New Eight!” She sped out of the elevator. New Eight followed her, while the stainless steel doors closed behind them.

Acht leaned against the back wall. “She sure knows how to hype someone up.”

“I know, right? You should see her at our concerts. Or in the bed…”

“O-okay, I do not need to know about that last part.”

“Right. Sorry. Anyway, let me see how New Eight’s doing.” Marina slid a tiny part of the wall, perpendicular with the door, to the side. There were two buttons next to each other, matching the green and red buttons on the Memverse belt. She pressed the green button.

New Eight was tapping their foot on the cage floor, descending upon Asynchronous Rondo’s domain, when the screen on their belt buckle turned on seemingly by itself. “Hey, New Eight! How’s it going?”

“Marina? Did I accidentally call you?”

Marina replied, with a short laugh, “No, I just called you on this end.”

“Really? You can do that?”

“Oh, yeah, I just coded some hidden buttons into the wall. They’re right next to the screen. You-you can’t see it, but I’m pointing at them.”

“Doesn’t that defeat the purpose of the earbud? What if you call me while I’m trying to be silent, and it alerts the enemy to my position or whatever?”

“Oh. I guess I didn’t think of that.”

“Hey, you know you can always bounce ideas off of me. Even if I barely understand any of it. Oh, and by the way, New Eight?”

“Yeah, Pearl?”

“We’re at the drop point.”

“Wha-?” New Eight screamed as the cage floor opened beneath them.

“I gotcha!” Pearl dove, opening her bottom compartment to reveal her handle. New Eight flailed their arms to grab onto it, just before they reached the ground.

“Thanks.” New Eight stumbled forward a few steps, alerting Asynchronous Rondo to their presence.

“No prob! And this time, don’t let its hypnotic spinning distract you!”

“Thanks for reminding me.” New Eight ran forward to meet the jelleton swarm. Numbers filled the air as they shot the jelletons into coded data. “Maybe I could use some help multitasking!” They ran away from the jelletons while opening the Memverse buckle, holding one in each hand, and activating them both at the same time.

Therizin! Liopleur!

While New Eight focused their dualie fire on Asynchronous Rondo’s lower faces, their robos attacked the jelletons. The therizin robo jumped and slashed with its disproportionately long claws. The liopluer robo swam through the air as if it were flying, slicing through the jelletons with its flippers and biting down on the smaller ones, popping them like berries. The two machines were small and fast enough to evade the Jelletons’ attacks, with trivial ease.

“One layer down, eight to go!” New Eight cheered.

Marina pumped her fists inside the elevator. “That’s it, bud! You’ve got this- oh no, it’s winding up!”

Asynchronous Rondo’s spinning accelerated, creating a vacuum of air within its immediate vicinity. “Woah!” New Eight dove to the side.

“Watch out!” Pearl warned, “Stingrays!”

Multiple thin black lasers shot out from Asynchronous Rondo’s sides. New Eight tossed out a curling bomb in order to swim through the orange ink. They jumped over a stingray, and attempted to surge backwards over another.

“No! New Eight, you’re-!”

Pearl’s voice was drowned out by the sound of New Eight’s swim form being annihilated by a stinger laser.

“Dammit, I shouldn’t have tried a jump like that! There’s too much at stake!”

“In that case, let’s go try again.” Pearl recommended. “Marina said we could still start from the 5th floor again, remember? So let’s do that!”

New Eight nodded. “Agreed.”

New Eight and Pearl descended from the cage into Asynchronous Rondo’s arena. The moment it detected them, New Eight activated their belt.

Liopleur! Gun! Therizin! Armor!

The Liopleur robo folded in on itself, widening its mouth to act as the barrel of a gun. New Eight fired a bolt of plasma that struck a battering lento in its bulbous forehead, annihilating the large jelleton instantly.

“Nice one, New Eight!” Marina congratulated them. “Now, you have to split your attention evenly between attacking Asynchronous Rondo, and not letting the jelletons overwhelm you. Prioritize one or the other too much, and, well I think we all know what happens then.”

“Yeah. Trust me, I know.” New Eight swung their arm to kill a marching andante with the spikes, before taking a running jump, kicking off a battering lento, and turning around to fire plasma into Asynchronous Rondo’s third face. With two rapid-fire plasma shots, the entire layer exploded.

“Alright! That’s the way to do it!” Pearl shot a high-pressure burst of ink into Asynchronous Rondo’s bottommost face.

New Eight swiped their arms down at the end of their descent, slicing clean through the nearest jelletons before rolling away. Marina warned them, “New Eight, be careful. You’re right underneath Asynchronous Rondo!”

“Huh?” New Eight looked up, only to find their vision eclipsed by the gray metal underside of the terrible machine. A red circle expanded outwards from the central pillar.

“Watch out for the wavebreaker!” Marina yelled.

“Noted!” New Eight jumped over the first of the wavebreakers. Before they could retreat, dozens of Jelletons swarmed to box them in. “Oh, great!” New Eight shot and sliced the jelletons, all while simultaneously jumping over the shockwaves as they became more and more frequent by the second.

New Eight was surrounded by jelletons on all sides. Marina could see nothing on the screen except their skeletal, expressionless faces. “New Eight! Try attaching your dualies to your liopleur gun!”

Wordlessly, New Eight attached their dualies to either side of the liopleur gun. The weapons clicked together. New Eight could feel the power of the combination.

They were immediately killed by the next shockwave.

On the tenth run, New Eight was knocked off stage by a battering lento, while trying to knock a ball into its socket on floor 5.

The eleventh run ended on floor 8, during a splat zones match. New Eight was hindered by the jelletons’ black ink, with drizzling capricciosas spreading it faster than New Eight could replace it with their own ink. They were ultimately finished off by a marching andante.

New Eight clenched their fists outside the spire. “I really, really hate those drizzler guys.”

“Good to hear we’re on the same page, then.” Pearl bitterly agreed.

The two of them walked over to Marina. “Hey, guys. Wanna start back over from floor five?”

“Yes.” New Eight nodded, “Please. Also, can you please do something about the drizzlers?”

“Well, the game is still technically in beta. If anything, Order might’ve knocked it back down to alpha build. I guess I could nerf them a little before the full release.”

On the fifth floor, New Eight and Pearl had to knock a ball into a socket, with a color chip that hastened New Eight’s special charge.

On the sixth floor, they had to destroy two jelleton portals. The designated color chip enabled shots from New Eight’s dualies to pierce through their targets to hit additional jelletons.

On the seventh floor, they obtained a chip that enabled New Eight’s ink tank to refill faster, and were required to knock another ball into its socket.

The eighth floor entailed the destruction of another 2 portals, as well as a color chip that caused explosion-based attacks to knock jelletons further back.

At the ninth floor, they had to knock a final two balls into their sockets. The color chip enabled New Eight’s attacks to knock the jelletons back.

New Eight leaned against the elevator wall. “I’ve been thinking about something. If we’re all virtual bodies in a virtual world- which I’m still having trouble wrapping my head around, but that’s whatever- then what do you think is going on with our real bodies out in the real world?”

“Dunno.” Marina admitted, “I can’t remember much of what happened before Order took control of me. It’s not exactly amnesia, more like a gap in my memory.”

The elevator opened with a ding. To New Eight, it felt alarmingly loud.

“We should save this convo for later.” Pearl hovered over to New Eight. “Ready for round four, bud?”

New Eight clenched and unclenched their fists a few times. “Yes.”

New Eight activated their Memverse belt screen while they were still traveling in the cage. Before it opened, they took the batteries out of their belt and started twirling them between their fingers, one in each hand.

“Nice moves.” Pearl complimented.

“Huh? Oh, uh, sorry. Sometimes I stim when I’m nervous.”

“Nothing to be sorry about. Just make sure not to drop them.”

New Eight looked down at the gaping, pitch-black abyss beneath the cage. “Good point.” They put the batteries away in the belt buckle compartment.

As soon as the cage floor opened, Pearl and New Eight glided forward above the ground. Asynchronous Rondo was alerted to their presence, and thus by the time they reached the ground, multiple scores of jelletons were already swarming towards them in a cacophonic symphony of coded savagery.

“Now for the real deal!”

Therizin! Sword! Liopleur! Gun!

New Eight fired and slashed at the jelleton horde, sprinting into the crowd. “Pearl! Try shooting the faces! I’ll hold off the jelletons!”

“Good plan!” Pearl flew off to shoot Asynchronous Rondo’s bottom face.

While New Eight constantly turned around, slashing through the jelletons surrounding them, Marina warned, “I think Asynchronous Rondo can regenerate its health slightly faster than Pearl can shoot it! You’ll need to help her!”

New Eight scowled. “Great. Any suggestions for getting out of this crowd?”

“Try attaching your gun to the hilt of your sword, and then spin it. That should give you some extra power on your next slash.”

“Okay. I’ll give it a try.” The liopleur gun snapped into place. New Eight slapped the gun above the handle, causing it to spin in place. When they slashed with the therizin sword, the plasma from the liopleur gun poured into the blade through its hilt, allowing New Eight to launch a wide sword beam. Dozens of jelletons were reduced to numbers and code, allowing New Eight to run out of the swarm. “Now that’s more like it!” They detached their gun and shot Asynchronous Rondo’s second face, destroying it in seconds. “Pearl, I’m gonna back you up now, okay?”

“More than okay!” Pearl fired a bolt of orange ink into a marching andante behind New Eight.

“Thanks.” New Eight activated their reefslider, rocketing forwards and splashing Asynchronous Rondo’s first face with the explosion. They jumped out of the cloud of orange ink, and with a slash of the therizin blade, cut through the face.

New Eight’s ears were filled with the sound of metal slicing through the viscous, gelatinous substance with a popping squelch, followed by a deafening metallic crash as Asynchronous Rondo’s remaining layers fell into place. The octoling fell onto their back with flecks of black jelleton ink on their face. “It’s in my eye!” They shook their head, trying to dislodge the black sludge from their open eye.

“New Eight, are you okay?!” Pearl flew over to the octoling.

“No!” New Eight stood up. “It feels like my eye is burning and freezing at the same time!”

“I’m so sorry!” Marina apologized, “Just try to wait it out, okay? It should go away after a couple of minutes. Pearl will keep you safe until then.”

“Uh…” Pearl observed as New Eight blindly stumbled into a pincer attack involving nearly a hundred jelletons. “I’ll have to get back to you on that.”

Inside the elevator, Acht facepalmed.

“Damn it! We’re back outside the building again!”

“Sorry, New Eight. Is your eye doing any better, at least?”

New Eight touched their palm to their eye. “Yeah, the ink’s gone. Or whatever that jelleton stuff is. It’s definitely not normal ink.”

“Yeah, and it doesn’t seem like salmonid ink either. Anyway, are you ready to try again?”

New Eight squinted at the spire. “Okay, but only because I don’t want to stand still, and there’s literally nothing else to do here.”

“That’s the spirit! I guess.”

On the eighth floor, New Eight and Pearl were tasked with destroying two jelleton portals. The distance between them gave the swarm enough time to overwhelm the young octoling, thus bringing the run to a premature end.

“How many runs is this now?” New Eight asked, during the lull between floors nine and ten. “Also, how many boss attempts?”

“Honestly, I stopped counting after our twelfth try.” Pearl admitted. She’d dipped slightly downwards in exhaustion.

“It’s our fourteenth run, and assuming we run into Asynchronous Rondo next, it’ll be your fifth crack at it.” Marina reminded them.

“Do you think we can beat it?”

“Yeah.” Acht nodded. “You've got this, New Eight. If not this time, then you'll eventually get it.” They reached out to grip New Eight’s elbow.

New Eight flinched away. “I don't like being touched.”

“Oh. Right. Sorry, I must've forgotten.”

“Huh.” Pearl thought aloud, “I remember you telling me that you stim sometimes when you're nervous. New Eight, are you autistic?”

“Um, yes. Just a little bit.”

Marina smiled at the younger octoling. “That's nothing to be embarrassed about.” She was interrupted by the sound of the elevator dinging, followed by the doors loudly sliding apart. “Now go get him, you two!”

“Right on!” Pearl sped out of the elevator. “You coming, New Eight? Asynchronous Rondo ain't gonna turn itself into scrap metal!”

“Yeah, I'm coming.”

New Eight tapped their foot nervously as the cage approached Asynchronous Rondo’s domain. “Five times. This is going to be our fifth time fighting this thing.”

“Yeah, but look at it this way. We’ve got four tries’ worth of experience to prep us for this. And even if we get booted back outside again, that’ll just mean we have five tries to learn from!”

“Wow. I never thought you could be so insightful.”

“And what’s that supposed to mean?”

“Oh look we’re here.”

As soon as the cage floor opened, New Eight shot a pellet of orange ink down and shifted into octo form. There was a soft, wet sound as they completely submerged into the liquid.

Pearl glided down until she was hovering over the orange puddle. “So how do you wanna play this, New Eight?”

Slowly, New Eight rose from their hiding spot, remaining crouched behind a solid gray structure. Their orange ink solidified into their skin. “I think our problem the last four times was that I tried to go in guns blazing. If we want to beat this thing, we’ll have to fight smarter, not harder.”

Pearl groaned in annoyance. “You mean we have to be patient? Weak.”

“Afraid so. We just have to wait until that searchlight passes over- now!” The second Asynchronous Rondo’s searchlight passed over the small barrier, with New Eight blocked from view behind it, the octoling jumped out from the other side and tossed a curling bomb. They swam through the ink, chasing after their own explosive until it went off, leaving a small pool of orange liquid in its wake. New Eight jumped out from the edge of their own ink, transformed back into a humanoid in midair, and shot Asynchronous Rondo’s bottom face until it exploded.

“Yes, that’s it! Except now we’ve gotta deal with the jelletons!”

New Eight holstered their dualies, and opened their belt buckle while running away from the horde. “And the jelletons have to deal with these!”

Therizin! Liopleur! Gun!

While the therizin robo attacked the jelleton hordes, New Eight sprinted back towards Asynchronous Rondo. They held the therizin sword in one hand, a dualie in the other, and their second dualie in the holster on their hip. “The therizin robo’s going to keep the jelletons off our tail, and I’m going to use some extra firepower to go on the offensive!” As soon as New Eight was close enough, they fired multiple successive bolts of plasma into one of Asynchronous Rondo’s faces. “That’s the plan!”

“In that case, I’ll keep lookout.” Pearl turned around. “New Eight, look out! The searchlight’s coming back around!”

“Huh? Woah!” New Eight tossed out another curling bomb so they could swim through the ink, with the searchlight barely more than a second away from detecting the ripples in the orange ink. By the time they reached the puddle where the curling bomb had exploded, the jelletons were too far away to pose any immediate threat. New Eight remained motionless, submerged and blending in with their own ink, as the searchlight passed over them.

As soon as the searchlight ceased being an immediate threat, New Eight rose back into humanoid form and shot Asynchronous Rondo’s face with plasma and ink simultaneously. With a burst of black ink and a hellish metallic cacophony, the towering machine was reduced to six layers.

“Yes! That’s three down!” Pearl cheered while tossing down a splat bomb. “New Eight, I think this is the best we’ve done so far!”

Another swarm of Jelletons appeared. “Yeah, and I guess now it’s calling in the cavalry.” New Eight turned on their Memverse belt screen.

“Finally decided you need my help?” Marina asked from inside the elevator.

“Yeah. We just blew up its third face, but now it’s sending out more jelletons than ever!”

“Okay, what’s your strategy so far?”

New Eight fired plasma and ink into the oncoming hordes. “I’ve got the therizin robo fighting on its own, and I’m using the liopleur gun with one of my dualies. How’s that?”

“Sounds good, but with just the amount of jelletons that I can see alone, you might have to split up your team further.”

New Eight started running to the edge of the circular platform. “What, you’re saying I should turn the liopleur into robo mode and let it go on autopilot too?”

“Exactly! While those two hold off the jelletons, you can shoot Asynchronous Rondo with your dualies.”

“Sounds good to me.” New Eight reverted the liopleur gun into a battery inside the Memverse belt buckle.

Liopleur!

New Eight rocketed forward on a reefslider, annihilating dozens of jelletons until it exploded. They jumped out of the cloud of ink and numbers, shooting with their dualies until another of Asynchronous Rondo’s faces was reduced to numbers of code. “Just five left!”

Pearl shot another bolt of ink, annihilating a few swarming languendos. “We can do this, New Eight! I believe in us!”

“I believe in you guys, too!” Marina cheered them on from beyond the screen. “You’re basically at the halfway point, except not really because nine is an odd number, but still. You’re doing really well.”

“Thanks!” New Eight had started running away from another horde of jelletons, shooting with their dualies while Pearl, the therizin robo, and the liopleur robocontinued fighting alongside them. When the searchlight was almost upon them again, they tossed out a curling bomb and swam through the ink, until they reached the end of the path.

New Eight stayed motionless, submerged within their own orange puddle. Over a hundred jelletons of many varieties were swarming toward them, their AIs more than sufficient to remember where New Eight was.

The octoling held their breath as the jelletons marched closer by the second. They were less than a hundred feet away. Less than fifty. Less than two dozen feet away. Their chitters and screeches filled New Eight’s submerged ears.

The glow of Asynchornous Rondo’s searchlight passed over New Eight. As soon as it was over, and the jelleton horde was less than three feet away, New Eight leapt out of their ink puddle. Their tentacles became their legs and hair, and their ink solidified back into their skin. New Eight’s humanoid form landed atop a battering lento. “I’m gonna try and get a power boost!”

New Eight’s entire body rocked on top of the battering lento, their stomach churning as they tried to find any grip on its rounded body. “Screw this!” They frantically pressed the buttons on the Memverse belt, only to fall off the battering lento in the process.

Therizin! Armor! Liopleur! Gun!

While New Eight was falling, the therizin armor assembled itself around them, so that when they hit the ground with the liopleur gun in their hand, they barely felt the impact. A marching andante attempted to strike them, only to pierce itself on the armor’s spines. New Eight stood up, adopting all around themself with both their dualie and the liopleur gun, before running off.

“Okay Marina, here's what I'm thinking! New Eight attached the dualie in their hand to the side of the liopleur gun. “I'm going to combine these two…” They transferred the combined weapon to their other hand. “...and dual-wield them with this!” With their free hand, they extracted the dualie on their hip, twirling it around their thumb. “This should give me enough firepower to finish this spinning top for good!”

“I’m loving the energy, New Eight. Just make sure you don’t forget about the jelletons, because they’re not going to forget about you. Especially not now that they’ve only got two targets to focus on.” Marina warned.

“Good point. Pearl! How are you doing with the jelletons?!”

“Uh, not so good! They keep coming faster than I can ink them!”

“That’s what she said.” Acht muttered on the screen.

Marina and New Eight laughed. “Guys I killed another face!”

“Awesome!” Pearl twirled in the air. “Now we’ve got only, what, four left?”

New Eight fired their combined weapon to blast a hole in the jelletons’ legion. “That’s what it looks like to me!” They shot their single dualie at the next Asynchronous Rondo face. “And now it’s three!” They massacred the jelletons with their dual weapons. Numbers filled the airs as the enemies were rendered unto nothing but code, as quickly as they were spawned into the arena.

New Eight felt a burst of energy that allowed them to activate their reefslider. Dozens of jelletons were killed for being in its path, filling New Eight’s vision with flashes of numbers. The final explosion destroyed two of Asynchronous Rondo’s faces just as their layers were overlapping.

“Yes! Yes!” Pearl was cheering while she continued to shoot the jelletons with her ink. “Just one freaky face left!”

“New Eight!” Marina instructed, “Combine both your dualies with the liopleur gun for the final strike!”

“If it’ll end this, then sure thing!” New Eight attached their remaining dualie to the other side of the liopleur gun. They had to use both arms to hold up the combined weapon.

Hundreds of jelletons marched towards New Eight while they were weighed down, practically immobilized, by their own weapon combination.

Asynchronous Rondo’s last remaining face came into view.

Pearl yelled, “Fire!”

New Eight pulled the trigger on the liopleur gun. Inside the mechanism, the sides of the liopleur gun and the dualies opened. Plasma energy from the dualies pooled into the central component.

A second after New Eight pulled the trigger, a massive burst of plasma shot out from the largest weapon in the amalgamation. It struck Asynchronous Rondo’s last tether to the Memverse.

With a horrific, metallic screech, Asynchronous Rondo exploded into a dome of golden dots and triangles over the entire arena. The entire armada of jelletons was eradicated by the explosion.

“Woah…” Pearl slowly spun around, gazing in astonishment at the golden virtual constellation. “We actually did it.”

“Yeah.” New Eight sat down. The accomplishment felt surreal to them after so many failed attempts. They barely noticed as the golden dome collapsed and condensed itself into a translucent sphere.

Inside the elevator, Marina was jumping up and down in front of the screen. “Yes! Yes! Yes! I knew you guys could do it! New Eight, that's the ornitho robo!”

“The last one.” New Eight walked closer to the orb. It burst apart on the floor, releasing the winged robot inside. It had four limbs separate from its wings, so that when it perched on New Eight’s shoulder, it stood on all fours with its wings pointed up. The most distinguishing feature of its long beak was the small semicircular crest at the front. New Eight smiled, scratching the tiny machine at the top of its beak.

Pearl, New Eight, and all three paleo robos disappeared from the arena.

As soon as New Eight’s virtual body appeared in the elevator, they slumped against the wall. “I’m not even real. How am I tired?” They lowered themself into a sitting position.

Acht walked over to the other octoling. “Maybe all those attempts are finally catching up to you.” They reached down.

New Eight barely flinched when Acht squeezed their shoulder. “Yeah. I’ve been trying for so long, it’s just… it feels surreal.” They opened the Memverse belt buckle, revealing the three paleo batteries within. “So, this is all three, right?”

“Yup. Next boss is going to be the Pinging Marciale on floor 20, and then we can finally face order on the top floor and finish this once and for all.” Marina confirmed.

“Actually…” New Eight tapped the ornitho battery. “If there's three robots, doesn't that mean there should be three bosses before the final boss? I thought the Spire was only supposed to have 10 levels.”

“Eh, not quite.” Marina leaned back against the wall. “The whole thing with 10 floors becoming 30 floors after the first successful climb was my doing. Order just corrupted the whole thing. The first climb wasn't supposed to have a boss, and that weird mechanical heart was supposed to be the final boss. The Percussive Cardiatrix. When Order took over the Memverse, it must've stuffed me inside Cardiatrix, and then moved it to the first iteration of floor 10 so that it could have floor 30 all to itself.”

“So not only did Order hijack your game and your mind, but it's also a no-good squatter!” Pearl yelled.

Marina nodded. “Yeah. Pretty much.”

“You guys are rich, right? What do you usually do with squatters?” Acht inquired.

Pearl lifted her drone form slightly in the air, in a simulacrum of a shrug. “I mean, most of them are desperate and on hard times because of the failure of our economy which is being perpetuated by corrupt government officials for the sake of lining their own pockets and extending their times in office because they have an addiction to power most likely stemming from not getting enough affection by their parents and grandparents who were generally hardened by the great turf war. Those guys we send to the local homeless shelter, which, yeah, it’s not a permanent solution, but at least it helps.”

“What about that guy who wanted to kill you, wear my skin, and do horrifying things to your carcass?” Marina recalled.

“Oh yeah. We crippled that guy and got him arrested.”

New Eight grimaced. “What the…?”

The lights in the elevator flickered.

“Ayo what? Did someone forget to pay the electric bill?”

“Pearlie, we’re in a noncorporeal virtual simulation. There is no electric bill.”

New Eight averted their eyes from the lights. “Okay, then what’s going on?”

Acht looked around at the other two octolings. Marina and New Eight were rubbing their eyes in the blinking lights. “I guess now I don’t look so silly wearing these shades indoors. What about you, Pearl?”

“Don’t look at me. I’m a machine. I can watch these lights no problem. Hey… wait a second, are you guys noticing this? There’s a pattern to how they’re blinking! I think it’s morse code!”

“You know morse code?” New Eight asked.

“Well, yeah. My dad got me an entire ship for my 6th birthday, and then one thing led to another, and I taught myself morse code. It’s a lot like music, actually. Finding the hidden meaning in different arrangements of sounds.”

“Wow.” New Eight spoke up blearily, “I would’ve expected Marina to be the one who knew morse code.”

The taller octoling shook her head. “Nah. I’ve been practicing a little on the side, but I’m more of a tech gal, and we didn’t exactly have a lot of naval operations underground. Besides, once Pearlie starts focusing on a goal, she doesn’t stop until she masters it. She’s awesome like that.”

“Aww, thanks, Rina.”

Acht smiled. “You two are adorable. But anyway, if this is morse code, what’s it saying?”

Pearl squinted, holding her palm over her eyes. “I… s…e…e… y…o…u…” Pearl continued muttering to herself, until the elevator was plunged into pitch-darkness. “Guys, I think Order’s mad at us.”

The small metal box started shaking wildly. “Guys! Put your hands on the wall!” Marina yelled.

“I can barely even tell where the wa-” New Eight grunted in pain, following a smack of skin against metal. “Found it.”

Red glitches appeared in the air, illuminating small parts of the room in crimson lights. The glitches appeared and disappeared throughout the elevator, as it shook with a rapidly escalating intensity.

“Order must’ve figured out what we’re doing!” Pearl yelled, “It’s fighting back personally!”

“In that case, how are we supposed to stop it?!” New Eight’s voice was rapidly drowned out by the sound of static. The red glitches flickered and expanded.

Everything turned red.

Chapter Text

She felt something hard under her hand. She opened her eyes. She realized she was lying in a fetal position. With aching limbs, she stood up to examine her surroundings, while the rest of the group came to as well.

They had been forcibly returned to the virtual city square. Every building was red and only half-solid, otherwise formed solely of ever-shifting, unstable red 1s and 0s. The coral plants were detached into multiple sections, constantly spatially destabilized and detached, shifting periodically to jagged polygons.

A few dozen feet in front of them, the spire of order towered over everything else. It constantly shifted between smooth 3-dimensional graphics and jagged, triangular polygons. Every section of the building, some miniscule and others encompassing entire floors, perpetually alternated between red and black, between relatively solid in-game models and completely unstable binary code. It stretched beyond the upwards draw distance, as though its height were incalculable.

The sky was similarly red and black. The clouds ever-shifted, distorted by the corruption of the internal code of the Memverse. Entire portions of the air around them were reduced to lines of code, and constantly shifted between different positions, as the entire virtual world was gradually assimilated by the entity that had been birthed from the deepest and most insidious flaws of its code.

Pearl had returned to her inkling form. “Rina, what just happened? And what’s going on now?!”

Marina flung her laptop open. “Order’s expanded its power. I don’t believe this! I allowed it to exist, and now I’ve played right into its hands!”

“Woah, woah, I know you did not just say that about yourself! How could you say you played into Order’s hands?”

“When I hacked into the code, so that you and New Eight could skip floors, I made it vulnerable. That’s how Order was able to counteract my hacking in the first place! I grew complacent; I-I should have done more while you guys were going through those floors! I thought it’d be fine if I just stopped Order from taking back the small parts I hacked, but I was weakening the entire code! It was just diverting my attention while it corrupted the entire code of the Memverse, and it’s all my fault!”

Pearl lunged forward, so that Marina could fall into her arms. “It’s not your fault, honey. I know I don’t understand all this code and hacking and tech stuff, but I understand you. I know you would never do anything like this on purpose, and I know you’ve been fighting to help us stop it. That’s why I fell in love with you in the first place. Because you want to use your smarts to help everyone. You helped me start Off The Hook, you helped make new weapons for the New Squidbeak Splatoon to protect everyone, and you made those Shifty Stations for cephalings to play turf wars on.”

Marina hugged Pearl tight. “I was trying to do something good with the Memverse, but it’s gone completely wrong. I wanted to help the sanitization survivors get their memories back, but instead I created a monster that could remove the concept of free will from the real world entirely!”

“You couldn’t have predicted that could happen.” Pearl entwined her small fingers around Marina’s tentacle-hair, gently and soothingly kneading it in her hand. “You’re not perfect, no matter how much I think you are. You know you’re not perfect, though, and that’s just another reason I love you. Now, do you have any idea how that thing might’ve been born, or created, or whatever?”

Marina squinted at the ground. Small parts of it were showing signs of Order’s corruption. “It's probably a side effect of trying to create an entire virtual world like this, one so immersive that the player can feel everything just the same as in the real world. The code got so massive, and so elaborate, that a part of it must've gained sentience and become Order.”

New Eight interjected, “So if Order came from part of the Memverse's code, why is it corrupting the code it came from? couldn't that kill it?”

Marina reluctantly shook her head. “It's pretty much the opposite. It's more like Order is feeding off the rest of the Memverse's code, like a baby lizard or bird feeding off the yolk inside its egg, so that when the time comes it'll be able to break out of the egg.”

“You're not saying Order plans to escape into the real world, are you?” Acht questioned, “Because that should be completely impossible.”

“True.” Marina sighed, “But it should also be completely impossible for a batch of code to become a sentient entity aware of the nature of its own existence, and with the agency to want to remove the capacity for that same agency from an entire world that exists beyond what should be its limits of reality!”

Marina had started panting, her breaths sharp, eyes wide with panic. Pearl grabbed her arm. “Breathe, okay? Deep breaths. We'll fix this.”

Marina hesitantly nodded. “We-we'd better. Order's already shown it has enough power to affect the real world by keeping us all in the Memverse this long in the first place. If it absorbs too much of the code, or assimilates the entire Memverse itself, then it could turn every living thing in the real world into its mindless drones.”

By the time the four cephalings had reentered the elevator, Pearl had returned to her drone form, and the three paleo batteries sat inside the Memverse belt buckle on New Eight’s waist. Marina opened her laptop. “Okay, do you guys want the bad news first, or the other bad news?”

New Eight rolled their eyes in response. “Surprise us.”

“Okay, I'm not sure if this'll surprise you, but thanks to Order, the spire has now shot up again, from 30 floors to 100 floors. Now you and Pearl will have to go through 99 levels before the final boss.”

New Eight wrapped their arms around themself. “And every one of those floors is more time for Order to absorb the Memverse's code.”

“And the other bad news is that if I try to hack into the game and help you guys skip so much as a single level, that'll just make it even easier for Order to corrupt it. You've gotta do every single level, and speedrun them too.”

“And considering the kind of time crunch time we're on, we've gotta speed run this whole thing.” Pearl added apprehensively.

The elevator doors beeped and slid open. “Looks like we've reached the first floor.” Acht gestured to the wall. “Go ahead, New Eight. Color chip time.”

“Right.” New Eight pressed down on the wall. Nothing happened. “Huh.” They kept pressing down, occasionally applying pressure to other nearby spots on the wall. They muttered under their breath, “Come on, come on, don't tell me…”

“Hey, you guys don't think Order disabled the color chips somehow, do you?” Pearl suggested.

Marina winced. “Sure looks like it might’ve. At least you guys have the Memverse belt and all the paleo robos. With any luck, they should give you guys enough firepower to clear the spire fast enough to stop Order.”

“But just in case, I'll work on prying that thing open.” Acht offered.

New Eight nodded. “Good thinking. Come on, Pearl. Let's get this over with.”

The first 49 floors were hardly remarkable. Infinity balls, turbine towers, panicking alla mambos, splat zones, all challenges were easily overcome through the Memverse belt. Combined with the liopleur, ornitho, and therizin, it afforded New Eight an invaluable level of versatility. They could freely alternate between practically walking through the jelletons, slashing and shooting them, and engaging the goal of the floor while their robos fought the jelletons alongside Pearl.

Time had no meaning in the virtual space of the Memverse. However, the passengers of the elevator all agreed it took them something resembling an hour to reach the 50th floor.

“Alright, halfway point!” Acht congratulated.

“I’m not sure that’s anything to be happy about.” New Eight pointed out, “If just the first half has taken us this long, then how are we going to reach Order in time?”

“If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that victory isn’t always certain. But if you want to guarantee we’ll lose everything, then all you have to do is give up. If you want any hope at winning this, though, then you need to get in there right now.”

New Eight nodded. “Okay.” They jogged out of the elevator.

Pearl flew after the octoling. “Aight, let’s do this! Woah.” She stopped at the edge of the opening platform, startled by the sight down below.

The main floor was perfectly square, surrounded on all sides by a 20-foot wall of gray metal. In the center stood Asynchronous Rondo, each of its nine layers lazily spinning in alternating directions. Perched atop the center of Asynchronous Rondo, standing perfectly still as if it were in the center of a slow-moving hurricane, was Pinging Marciale.

“So we’ve gotta fight both of them at once?” New Eight observed.

“Looks like it.” Pearl descended so that she was next to their head. “Still, it shouldn't be that hard now that we’ve got this bad boy!” She flew down further to address the belt around New Eight’s waist.

“Pearl!” New Eight staggered back, blushing. “Too close!”

“Oh.” Pearl quickly flew back up to eye level. “Sorry. My bad.”

“Yeah, yeah, let’s just go.” New Eight pushed themself past Pearl and stood atop the cage platform. Its bars formed around them.

While the cage brought New Eight down towards the main floor, Pearl glided next to them. “Think we should call Marina?”

“Yeah, that might be for the best.” New Eight pressed the call button on the Memverse belt.

“Hey, New Eigh- wait. Is that what I think it is?”

“Pinging Marciale on top of Asynchronous Rondo? Unfortunately, yes. Any advice?”

“Honestly, I’m not sure. Neither of them were designed to be fought at the same time. Just make sure you’re fully equipped.”

“I figured.” New Eight pressed a series of buttons on their belt.

Therizin! Armor! Liopleur! Sword! Ornitho! Gun!

The paleo batteries launched out of the Memverse belt and reshaped themselves around New Eight. “Ready.”

“Let’s hope so.” Pearl glared down at the two bosses. “If we die here…”

“Don’t! Just, don’t even say it.”

The cage floor opened. Pearl and New Eight slowly glided down. “Okay, what’s the strat here?”

“Rondo killed us way more times than Marciale, so we should probably focus on it first. Too bad there isn’t any cover.”

“Yeah, too bad. Marina, any ideas?”

“Okay. For now, just try to avoid Asynchronous Rondo’s searchlight for as long as possible. I would try to hack the game to give you an advantage, but that would only weaken the code and help Order feed on it faster.”

“In that case, don’t even think about it!” New Eight decided, “Woah, woah, Pearl, go back!”

Pearl glided backwards, with New Eight holding onto her handle, while Asynchronous Rondo’s searchlight pursued them. It gradually narrowed the gap between them.

New Eight let go of Pearl’s handle less than ten feet above the floor. As soon as they touched down, they bent their legs and backflipped, spinning in midair so that when they landed, they were facing away from the searchlight. Despite momentarily tripping upon their second landing, they managed to run while keeping a moderate distance from the harsh yellow light.

“Woah! New Eight, that was awesome! Now what, though?”

New Eight weighed their options, and found only one. They tossed out a curling bomb to make a trail of ink, and then pressed two buttons on their belt, all without slowing down or missing a step. The therizin armor broke into pieces and twisted, shrinking down into its robo form. “Go for the face, bud! Any one of them!”

With the therizin robo bounding across the metal floor, New Eight was free to slip into octopus form. The transformation took them all of one second. The searchlight missed them by one millisecond.

The therizin robo leapt and swiped its claws across Asynchronous Rondo’s bottommost face. At the same time, New Eight rose back up to their humanoid form, and activated their Memverse belt once more. “Come on back now!”

Therizin! Armor!

The therizin robo reshaped itself into a suit of armor around New Eight. They sprinted forth to meet the army of jelletons that spawned from beneath Asynchronous Rondo. Each time they pulled the trigger on the ornitho gun, a metallic screech heralded a blast of pure concussive air that struck with the force of a bullet.

A dark circle appeared less than a dozen feet away from New Eight. “Marciale’s coming! Out of the way, now!”

Pinging Marciale crashed to the floor, causing the entire arena to shake. New Eight dove out of the way from the shockwave, leaving it to annihilate an entire swath of lesser jelletons.

New Eight landed into a brief roll before standing up, and turning around to witness Pinging Marciale rolling in place. The air was distorted, as if being sucked in closer to Pinging Marciale by the speed of its stationary rotations.

“It’s loading up!” Pearl warned, “Get out of the way!”

New Eight detached two of the spikes from their shoulders and stuck them on the ground, point-up. Pinging Marciale shot forward, giving New Eight less than a second to dive away. They fired more sound blasts into the jelletons as well as Asynchronous Rondo’s face.

The therizin spines stabbed Pinging Marciale’s eyes, causing its shell to crack open.

“Yes!” New Eight turned around, charging at Pinging Marciale long enough for Asynchronous Rondo’s searchlight to come upon them. New Eight paused in tandem with the searchlight, just as the yellow surrounding them turned into a deep, dark red.

A series of jet-black stinger lasers shot out from Asynchronous Rondo’s bottom layer while it continued to rotate, forcing New Eight to run away. Pearl flew next to them, wings folded at her sides. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but we can’t take any risks here! Then again, we can’t exactly stall for time either. I think you should switch your gear!”

“Switch my- oh, you’re right!” New Eight frantically pressed the buttons on their belt. “Maybe this’ll go better if I can get airborne!”

Therizin! Sword! Liopleur! Gun! Ornitho! Armor!

New Eight’s armaments completely reshaped themselves around them, and swapped places with one another. The therizin armor split apart and reformed into a blade in their hand. In their other hand, the liopleur sword transformed into a gun. The ornitho gun split apart, each piece growing exponentially, and reshaped itself into a suit of armor enveloping New Eight. The entire seamless transformation happened over the course of five seconds, all while New Eight continued sprinting.

“Moment of truth!” New Eight lunged forward. They spread their metallic, wafer-thin wings. Instead of taking another step, with the mechanical streams of Asynchronous Rondo’s black lasers ringing in their ears, New Eight jumped. With a flap of their wings, they continued to ascend.

In spite of their circumstances, New Eight laughed. Even if they were confined to the boss battle within the spire, within the virtual non-reality of the Memverse, the inherent freedom of being able to fly gave them a sense of unbridled elation. The sudden loss of restriction, of being able to travel in virtually any direction no matter how small the space, made them feel completely untethered.

“You guys don’t stand a chance now!” New Eight attached the liopleur gun to the therizin sword. They slapped the handle of the gun, causing it to spin so that the sword could absorb its energies. The ornitho armor’s wings folded at their sides as they dove towards Asynchronous Rondo’s topmost face.

Asynchronous Rondo fired a stream of homing arpeggios in a desperate bid to protect itself. The dozens of tiny explosive jelletons flew towards New Eight. They banked to the side, tilting themself completely sideways in order to dodge the arpeggios. The line of flying jelletons soared past New Eight, before curving and aiming for them from behind. New Eight reoriented themself, effortlessly outpacing their non-living pursuers.

With another slap to the liopleur gun, the therizin sword absorbed more energy. New Eight pulled the sword back, and as soon as they were close enough, slashed it clean through Asynchronous Rondo’s top face. A beam of radiant plasma emerged from the sword, completely annihilating the face. The explosion from the sword caused Asynchronous Rondo’s entire massive form to waver, with the hellish, overlapping metallic clangs of each enormous layer colliding with the ones above and below it.

Therizin! Gun!

New Eight twirled the two guns in their hands, with a newfound sense of confidence flowing through them. They dove through the air, shooting each face until all of them had been eradicated. The arena filled with the sounds of metal shattering and breaking apart.

New Eight landed in the center of the arena. They stood upright, facing Pinging Marciale. It was preparing to charge again from less than 20 feet away.

“New Eight, that was awesome!” Pearl excitedly bounced in the air around their head. “Now we've just got Pinging Marciale to deal with!”

New Eight jettisoned themself straight upwards, just as Pinging Marciale launched itself at them. In less than a second, Pinging Marciale had covered the distance to New Eight’s position, while the octoling had ascended more than enough to dodge its attack. “If I took Asynchronous Rondo down with two guns, then maybe I can kill Pinging Marciale with two swords!” New Eight tossed the liopleur and therizin guns straight up, letting them twirl and ascend, leaving their hands free to manipulate the Memverse belt buckle.

Therizin! Sword! Liopleur! Sword!

The two weapons continued spinning even as they transformed, until New Eight grabbed them both by the hilt. They looked down at the floor of the arena. Pinging Marciale was rolling in erratic directions, sending out a variety of jelletons, while periodically leaving a trail of black and red suction bombs in its wake. Each one lasted for barely a second before pulsating, expanding, and bursting into a small pond of the jelletons’ black pseudo-ink.

New Eight dove to the ground, folding their wings at their sides in order to maximize their own speed. Within seconds, they were slicing clean through Pinging Marciale’s eye. They continued dive bombing and blitzkrieging the spherical boss, over and over again, constantly intercepting it while it rolled across the metal floor.

New Eight watched from above while Pinging Marciale stopped in its tracks, its entire shelled body pulsating. After a few seconds, the boss jelleton exploded into a shower of numerical data.

“Yes! I did it! First try! In your face, Order! Cause that’s what I’m coming for next!”

Pearl laughed and twirled in the air next to New Eight. “Dude, that was awesome! Come on, let’s get back to the elevator so we can brag to Acht and Marina about this.”

The next 49 floors passed by with little incident. Jelleton portals, panicking alla mambos, infinity balls, splat zones, all came together in an ultimately familiar medley. With the technological prowess of the Memverse belt at their disposal, New Eight and Pearl made short work of the challenges to which Order subjected them.

After they returned from destroying five portals on floor 99, Acht leaned back, arms crossed over their chest. “Top floor, everyone? How long has it been? An hour?”

“Feels like it.” New Eight agreed.

“However long it’s been, Order must be waiting for us there.” Marina pointed out.

Pearl narrowed her mechanical eyes at the doors, while the elevator continued to rise. “In that case, let’s show it how much we appreciate its patience.”

Marina sighed. “Actually, about that. I’m partially responsible for Order being born, so I’m gonna go out there with you guys.”

“Are you sure?” New Eight asked, “I think we’ve already established you shouldn’t blame yourself.”

“I know, it’s just…” Marina shrugged. “I want closure, you know?”

“I get that.” Pearl accepted, “Just know that we’ll be there to make sure you’re alright, okay?”

Marina smiled, and reached up to rub the top of her girlfriend’s drone form. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

“If it’s all the same to you guys, I’d rather stay here and keep watch. I’ll do what I can if things go south, though.” Acht admitted.

“Fair enough.” New Eight agreed.

“Yeah, cause nothing’s gonna go south! Rina and I have experience in fighting crazy AIs, and New Eight has the fancy Memverse belt plus all three of those robots! There’s no way we can lose!”

The elevator stopped abruptly, as though it had reached the end of its cable rather than the top of the spire. The ding was louder than usual, sounding almost like an alarm cut short. With a pneumatic hiss, the doors slid apart, more slowly than ever before, metal scraping against metal as they retreated into the walls.

“The game was never meant to handle any of this.” Marina cautioned, “There’s no telling what might be out there, how powerful Order has gotten, or what it’s done to the code. We’re going in completely blind.”

New Eight’s fists tightened at their sides. “In that case, it’s a good thing we’ve come prepared.”

The entire top floor was dark. Everything was in blacks and grays like a perpetual night. Enormous TV monitors hung from the walls, with black edges and perpetual static. From the seemingly bottomless depths, massive tentacles emerged like the limbs of an eldritch horror, reaching into existence from the other side of a black hole. The edges of the tentacles were pitch-black. The middle was static-gray, with black spots and red lines like veins of blood. More tentacles emerged from the central platform of the floor, and from the enormous device on the ceiling. All of the tentacles pulsated in sync with each other.

The central platform was massive. At the back left corner, there was a massive platform containing a multitude of speakers. Upon the podium in the center stood the shadowy entity that called itself Order. Two more speakers hung from the ceiling. Each one curved as it reached the shadowed ceiling, large enough that multiple cephalings could have rested comfortably within each circular hole. A long, oblong thing emerged from the center of the ceiling. Its shape was like that of a black, deformed heart.

New Eight slowly, trepidatiously, stepped forward. Each gradual footfall echoed deafeningly around them. “Scared?” Pearl asked, shaking in the air.

“Just a little.”

“Me too.”

New Eight stepped onto the cage platform, and began their final journey to Order. Neither they nor Pearl spoke a word.

The journey felt like it took eons, despite lasting no longer than usual. The cage felt like it grew slower by the second, despite maintaining a steady pace throughout.

As soon as the cage floor opened, New Eight and Pearl glided onto the central platform. Order stood a dozen yards in front of them. Its mechanical voice permeated the entire top floor, emanating both from itself and every one of the multiple speakers surrounding it.

“A̵ ̶p̷e̷r̸f̵e̸c̴t̷ ̴w̵o̷r̷l̴d̶ ̷i̶s̵ ̴a̷ ̸s̴t̶a̷b̶l̴e̵ ̷w̵o̴r̴l̴d̵.̵ ̶I̵t̷ ̷h̸a̵s̸ ̷n̵o̵ ̶n̵e̵e̷d̷ ̴f̵o̵r̶ ̵c̸h̶a̵n̶g̴e̵.̸ ̵F̷o̸r̷ ̵v̵a̸r̴i̶a̷t̴i̸o̷n̶.̶ ̷I̷t̶ ̸h̷a̴s̵ ̵n̴o̶ ̵n̷e̵e̶d̶ ̵f̴o̵r̶ ̶d̶e̴s̵i̷r̵e̴.̵ ̵F̷o̴r̷ ̵c̸o̸n̸f̷l̷i̵c̵t̸.̷ ̸i̶n̴ ̵t̷h̷i̸s̶ ̵w̶o̶r̸l̶d̵,̶ ̶n̴o̵n̸e̷ ̵d̵e̸s̵i̴r̵e̵ ̶w̵h̵a̶t̸ ̸m̵i̶g̵h̸t̷ ̴b̵e̷.̷ ̷T̴h̵e̶y̵ ̵e̶m̶b̴r̵a̴c̸e̸ ̴w̵h̶a̴t̷ ̸i̶s̸.̴ ̸T̶h̷e̴i̵r̴ ̷l̵i̵v̶e̵s̴ ̵a̴r̶e̴ ̷p̷e̸a̶c̷e̸f̵u̴l̸ ̶o̶n̴e̸s̴.̴ ̵I̷ ̸w̶i̷l̷l̶ ̷a̴c̸h̵i̴e̸v̶e̴ ̷a̴ ̶q̸u̷i̴e̵t̸ ̵a̵n̵d̷ ̴p̶e̵a̵c̸e̸f̵u̵l̵ ̷w̸o̴r̶l̸d̵.̸ ̸R̶e̸a̸s̷o̸n̶s̸ ̷t̸o̸ ̴o̵p̵p̴o̸s̷e̷ ̸t̷h̷i̵s̶ ̴i̷n̷c̸l̵u̴d̷e̸.̸.̷.̵” For a split-second, Order’s minimalist facsimile of a face distorted, as though it were loading something it didn’t have access to. “E̶r̶r̷o̷r̵:̵ ̷n̵o̵ ̶r̵e̷a̶s̷o̵n̶s̸ ̶f̸o̷u̷n̷d̴.̸”

“Order, listen to me!” Marina pleaded, “I know that stability sounds like paradise! I know from experience that uncertainty can be scary, and tiring! But just because something is the status quo doesn’t automatically make it good! Sometimes, the only way to improve the world is to change it! If everyone had been content with the status quo, then octolings like me never would’ve been welcomed in Inkopolis! We would’ve been left to rot under the leadership of a warmonger, until the domes would’ve collapsed and brought us to extinction!”

Marina took a few steps closer to her aberration. “I love technology. I love the potential it has, the potential to help the world! To save it even! But at the same time, technology can cause so much pain, and war, and death. Between you and Tartar, if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that the most flawless machine is nothing compared to the least perfect sentient being!”

Order’s face glitched slightly more, as though it were trying to process the argument with which it was being presented. “T̴h̶i̶s̶ ̷w̴o̶r̷l̸d̴'̸s̵ ̶a̴r̵c̸h̸i̵t̴e̷c̴t̵.̸.̵.̷ ̵m̸y̶ ̴c̵r̸e̷a̸t̸o̴r̷.̴.̸.̶ ̵w̶o̴u̵l̶d̴ ̴d̵e̴n̸y̸ ̵m̸e̴.̵ ̵I̸l̴l̵o̷g̴i̷c̸a̷l̴.̶ ̸I̴r̵r̴a̴t̷i̷o̴n̸a̴l̶.̶ ̷E̵R̸R̷O̸R̷.̵”

The entire black mass trembled in the center of the floor. Red lightning arced throughout its immaterial form, and multicolored squares of glitches permeated it, all while its voice grew more distorted over time.

“E̸R̴R̶O̴R̵.̵ E̸̦̜̪͌͌̄R̷̼̖̰̽́͘R̶̟̕Ő̷̲͋̑͛̂R̸͚̉́̄̇͘̚͜.̷̠̰̤̣̇͜ E̵̦̼͈̒̒͆̅͌̀̉̈́͛̐̕͝R̶̢̛̛̙͕̬̦̺̻̜͙͋̍R̶̝̣͈͇͉̳̙̥̊O̴̩̮̔̈́̐̌̈́͜Ȓ̴̡̢͎̲̻̳̠̹̹̻̤̼͗͌̎̕͝.̷͚͍̰͇̰̞̞͕̱͌̔͌̌̂̾̆͋͒͜ Ë̶̛̖̜̥̤̦̲̺́̓̈́̔̉͑̂̓͂́͊͂̚R̸̛̘̺̟͉̙̙͇͑̉̃́͛͛͆̇̓͋͘͜R̵̺̞̤͓͍̝̗̰̻͔͇̲̘̜̦̀͋̄̀̃̏͜͠O̸̮̬̬͈̤̼͕̾̋̐́͊̏̑̍͆͆̎̃͑̕͜R̵̨̂͑̉͗͋̈́̐̾̃̚͝.̷̛̣̦̤͉̩̪̝̲̞̋͛͂̈́̒̇̈́̒̉̄̚̚ Ȇ̶̗̮̟͉̣͙̗̭̍̐̐̈́͆̓̓̈́̎́̀̃̉̒̓̋̇̐̕͘͝R̸̢̛̯̝̫̖̹̂̈́̽̉̾́̄̎͒̆́̃͗̋͌̾͜͝ͅR̸̡̡̨̛͉͉͓̠̼̖̩͂́̂̏̒̐̒͋̌̂͆͗̃̉̉̍͜O̷̢̲̙͈̻̱̼͓̘͚̪̦͈͕͑͆͑̿͌̉̌̆̕̕ͅR̵̨̛̛͙̤͉̭̝̯̼͌͌̊͛̓̀̋̿̋͗́̋̿̾̕.̸̧͔̗̫̪̱̠̫̜̭̟̥̦̳̰̲̯̘͚̮͑̓̎͛̌̿̔̍̌̂̂̈́̇̀͑̕͜ͅ A̸̡̢̨̛̛͍̳̖͇̲͔̻̫̯̞̫͖͈̣̤͈̣̺͕̺̖̩̽͆͆̍̈́̈́͗̀̈́͑͌͑͊̍͒̇̇̀͒͑͆̌̈́̕͜͜͜͠n̴̨̛̞͈̤̱̞̦̝̪̥͚͊̔̀̄͂͗́́͂͋̽͐̃̔̑͛̔̏̒̕͝͠͠ ư̵̡̧̧̢̢͇̙̝̱̳͉̗͙͇̲̰̥̗̟̲͎͎̌͛͑͐̆͌̆̅̎̐͌̿͂͗̒̂̈́̿͂̃͆̈́̒̉̚͘̚͠͠ͅn̵̡̡̬͚̤͈̟̦̦̫͎͋̀̀͗̇̔̊̃̾̅̎̐̎̍̒̒̅̈́̈̐̌̂̃̄̂̈̓͘͜͝ͅŗ̸̢̢̜̻̲̙͖̺͎͙̥̪̬̳͖̪̤̰̤̱̩̼̣̞̫͛̈́̄̔̔̃́͊͗̽̀̏̃̒́͋̕̕͜͝é̵̛͕͙̝͇͍̭̝̘̯̖̤͍̫̐̀̎͆́͐͐̔̏̉̀̈̓̑͛́̏͂̆̏͑͑̾̓͛̽͑̐̑̃̚̕̚͝c̴͔̰̄̐̊̏̔̐̔̄͛̇̀͌͒̈́̈̈́͒̈̌̍̍̀͌̈́͑̐̔̑̀́̈́̌͘̕͠͠ͅǫ̶̨̛̛̦̠̤͓͓̝͈̫̲̬̠͕͙̱̥̤̟̺̦̞̍̽͗͌̂̂̍̉̌̈́̈́̔̏͌̂̐̍̐́͋͋̈́͜͝v̸̢̛̤̲̙͔̙̺̖̮̪̈́̍̂͐̀̈́̎͋̉̕e̶̛̳̱͎͈̖͉̼̙̺̟͓̖͂̈́̈́͋̅̈͑̒̓͒͑̒͐͋͆̇̿̽̀̏̓̈́͆̽͘͝͝ȓ̷̨͍̙͎̟̼̠̙̣͙͙̬̱̊̂̎̏͗́̏̅̆̑̎̄̔̔̒̊̎͊̊̇̿̆̚͝͝ạ̶̢̫̫͉͍̖͇̯͇͚̪̀̋̀͂̃̀̌̂̀̄͘ḇ̸̢̡̛͙͎̹̱̰̲̹͇͎̖͇̙͈̼̣͖͉͙͗̌͊̊͆̈́͑̋͂̈̍̾͒̓̄̓͂͋̒̔̾̏̇̓̕ͅļ̷̡̌͂̾̾̇̋͊̇͛̀e̸̗̗̰̝͗̅̑͋̽̊̽̂̓́́̾̓̊̓̍͋̉̽̕͝͝ m̸̨͙̺̯̜̜͉͈͉̪̮̭̺̙͍̆ͅͅe̶̢̧̛̼̻̟̜̖͖͓̻̻̟̪͎͔̯̼̫̞͙̩̹̹̬̙̟̻̪̥̿͐̆͠ͅn̴̡̹͉̹̯̙̭̙̗̗̰͙̹̩̝̖̙̗̞͇̰̞͍͚͕̩̥͙͚͖͉̜̙̮̏̿̿̍͑͌́́̓̏͋̈́͌̀̂̿͛̆͆̄͋͗̉́͋̑͆̽̕̕̕̚ͅt̵̨̨̡̯̪̹̭͔̦̼̮͉̭̙̮̞̥̹̤̯̞̞̺̱̘͖͔͙̰͚̝̟̬̗̳͙̳̭̼̣̯̘̻̼̾̇͒̄́̌̋̾͗͂̀̃̀͆́̈́̽̋͑͗͐̑̄̈͒͘͠͠a̶̡̻̣̮̙̲͔̯͙̣̫̺̣̫͂́̇̓̓͒̑̐̾͆̌̓́̈́́̓̆̃̒̓̋̀̈́̐̂̀͜͝͝͝l̶̛̤̠̂̒̃̽͂͗̒́͛̎̊̇̍̒͛́̇̾̿̑͌̓̂̌̅̍̀̀̇̾̎̈́̎̔̕͝͝͠͝͠͝i̷̧̛̛̺̙͇̩̝̩̰̦̝̟̟͉̯̝͇͓̦̰̙̫̟̱͔͚͇̐̑̅̀̈̐̑̽̈͌̌͛̑̊̅͆̐̊̃͒̐̏̏̚͜͝͝t̶̨̻̝̹̖̜̻̮͕̦͖̱̣̥͚͈͎̮̹̙͍̪͎̤͇̼̹͙͍͓̞̩͔̫͊̉̔̔̀̌̌̽̔̀͆̃̓̔̀̄̑̄̃̔͊͐̓̃̕̕͜͝ͅͅŷ̶̨̧͇̭̯̭̻͇̱̬̱̪͙̮̇̇̾̚ ę̶̧͇̰̯͈̘̻͇̪̤͔̱͎̤͔̪͉͕̟̘̜̪̰̦̫͈̮̜̼̣̣̹̮̬̬͈̲̙̈́̽̏̓̓͂̾͆̆̌͂͌̏͋̾̄̕̕͝ͅr̵̡̡̡̧͇̜̰̻̭͎̥̱͕̱̟̻̗̉̋͑́͑̆̿̈́͂̈́͛̿́̈́͛͒́̐̎͋̋̌̓́̚̚̚̕ͅr̴̨̛̛̛̛̪̫̰͉͇͎̹̟͈̩̼̺̻͈̪͖͉̤͇͍͔͈͎͔̬̭̉̀̍̉͑̒̈̄̈́̈́̄̽̀̉̐̎́̀̈́̊̌̌̕̕͘̕͜͝͝͝ͅo̶̢̡̧̧̧̪̣̻͇͈̼͙͖̯̭͙̤̫͙͕͓͇̬̯͍̙̙̪̞͔̘̩̘̼̣̳̼̫̤͉̳̼͍̤̾͛͐̇̀̇̈́̈́̿̇͂͐̀͘ͅͅr̴̡̡̧̡̛̛͕̝͎̖̳̠͙͓̞͕̥̮͓͉̩̮̣̅͛̇͒̓͑͑̄̀̃͗̀̏̊̄̽̍̔̌̄͂̔̽̈̅̾̾͒́̂̃͝ͅ h̸̢̨̧̨̧̛̛̖͎̭̖͈͔̲̖̘̺̣̫͈̦̗͍̻̦͚̥̙͈̟̜̼̰̻̻̳̰̥͉͇̫̪͎͓̟̬͔̞̬̥͎̟͊͗͋̽͗̈́̍̍̀̔͋̆̓̉̆͂͐̅̅͌̀͂̄̚̚̕͘͝͠͝ͅa̵̢̡̺̮̪͖̺̖̞̻̗̰̩͕͓̟̲͓̱͇̜͚̦͔̥̱͕̜̾̿́̉̒̄̃̒́̈̂̽̐͆̓̑̎̽͘ͅͅs̸̡̨͔͍͓͎̞͕̤̺̜̟̻̳̖̰̻̜͓̮̖͈̻͐̐̋̀̀̊̒͒̀̎͋̾͛͊̊̓̍̌̐̀͊͛͑̎͑̌̽̉̔͐́̒͘͘͝͝͝͠ͅ ǫ̷̧̢̡̟͇̬̱͈̳͎̬͚̹̮̥̻͖̤̲̣̲̫̲̪̖̟͈͓̬͇̟̞͉̗̫͔̙̱̬̥͚̙͎͕̘͔͌͂̃̄̋̑̈́̆̽̈͜ͅͅc̴̨̡̪͈̜̦͖͔̗̖̖͕̪͍̺͇̜̜̟͖̺̞̥̬̥̹̟̙̰̟̜̒̒̇̽̓̈́̊͋͘͠c̸̢̡̧̛̛̻̘̭̳̺̯̬͖̙͈̫̺̫͙̼̹̹̱̗̙̫͉̝̦̖͎̲͇͚̙̟̰̫̺̯͖̩͖̗͎̰̙̥̺͆͗́͗̆͒͐̍̍̽̋̈͌̈́̇͗̒̇͊̎̄͐͊̔̽̿̈͐̍̈͗̐̌́͛͘̚͠͠͝͠ų̵̡̨̡̧̨̨̡̛̪̳̖̳̙̻̺̞̱̮̫̼̲̖͇̟͖͈̹̹̘͉̝̖͚͈̳̭͎̙̳̥͇̜̯̘̞̗̱̤̦̮̻̦̪̟͇͈̟̲̼̟̎̈́̽̀̎͌́̓̿̌̎̿̈͌̍̿͊́̎̐͑̏͑̏̌͑̿̐̾̐͂̋̽̈̿̉̃̔̈́̀͆̃̾̂̓͘̕͘̚͘͜͜͝͝͠ŗ̴̧̧̢̡̧̛̱̗̰̝̪̮̩͉̬̙̗͓̟̹̼̯̞̠̼͚̬̤̜͍̤̼̣̣̥̭͕̼̠͎͕̻͕͖͇̻͉̠̥̝̱̲̤͇̥̳̬͔̺̠͙͚̙͕͇̟͕͕͙̭͖͎͔͍̘͍͖̫̱̙̼̩͓͙̇̾͑͆̓̏̓̇̎͒́̓͌͛̀̈́̾͊̂̿̏̎̏̓̏̉͑͋́̑̅̀̂́̈̐̅̾͊͋̿͆͊͑̌͗̂̏͌͂͆̾͂̏̈́̀̕̚̕͘͜͜͠͝͝͠͝͝͝ͅͅͅŗ̴̢͖̞͔͖̪̮̼͚̗̖̰̜͇͕̟̣̺͖̖̱̰͈̺͎̪͚̭͇͎̾͆̎̃͋̓̎͜͝ͅͅě̴̡̡̢̨̟̤̟̻̬͖̲̟̬͙̘̖̝̩̺͎̻̤̘͔̜̬̹̹̪̰͇̼̲̭̠̘͚̩̪̈́̿͊͋̈́̽̌̍̽̒͆̚͝͠ͅͅd̴̨̧̛̻͚̮̯̭̪̟̪̭̝͚̳͕̜̲̃̔́͐͑̓̊̐̉͊̑́̌̃̅̍̍̾̏͂̾͊̓̐̒̀͋̽̍̀̋̄̀͆́̍͗̕̚̚̚͘͘͝͠͠ͅ”

Order shot into the sky, a space far larger than the exterior of the spire would logically allow. It trailed a cloud of black smoke like a comet.

“Ţ̶̡̧̡̢̧̨̤̼͈̩̝̣̱̜̳͍̫̳̗̼͖̼͍͇̮̫̗̬͕̖̻̮͎̲̱̦̻̗͔̱̯͈͍͎̜̠̺̙̲̥͓̤̟̦̜̹̫̟̭̠͕͉̤̪̞͉͓̞͍͙̎̂̇̔́͑̍͑̌͗̌̒̓̇̀̋̒̑͌͊̍̆̀̒́̓̿͂̀͛͐̈͒̑̈́̎̇̾̉͑͘͘̕̕͘͠͠ͅh̶̢̧̨̢̨̧̨̨̡̛̛̤̤̺̹̼͈͎̟̞̫̫̟͎̬̫̫̹̗͍̩͇̱̲̹͔͖̞̪͔͓̬͇̺̤̱͇͖̯͖͎̮̘͖̜̜̙̦͖͚̠̜͚̘̘̹̘̩̮̘̲͈̠̬̳͚̣͓͎̟̙̭̥͖͙͔̗̬͙̺̘̘͍̘̯͎̪͔̺̯͕̮̟̞̩̯̀̒̽̑͒͋̈́̈́͊̏̔̃̀̌̊͐̑͑̋̋͆̏̓̓̓̔͑̍̋͒̿̾̀͊̈̃͒̿̂̍̔͑͐̓̐͂̂̀́́̊̆͘̚͘͜͝͝͝ͅͅe̶̢̡̡̧̧̢̨̡̧̯͉̝̙̹̩̞͚̼̞͕͈̟̜̯͈̠͇̹̘̦̞̹̳̲̠͖̩̞̮͈͕̖̞͎̣͔͉̪̼̩̫̘̯̩̱̱̱̖̯̪̠̩͕̮̜̮̳̭͕̲͍̘̞̦͆̉̿̾̿̋̋̾͌́̒͋̃͌́̅͋͆̍́̈́̊͛̋̽͌̊̽̿̍̈́̅͊͌́͊̎̈́̀̚̚̚͠͝͝͝ͅ ̷̡̨̨̢̨̧̛͍̼̼̤̬̝͕̳̣̹̠̝͉̤̜͍͙̳͎̲͚̘͓̠̲͚̯̜̹̲͖̜͕̫̳͙̞̤̗͎̥͓̤̟̺̺̦̱̤̬͚̺̬̜͈̺̙̤̭͓͉̝̉̆̍̈́̐̎̈́̃̈́̑̈́͂̈́̿͊̚͠͝͝ͅͅş̷̨̧̧̛̛̛͎̙͍͍̖͇̲̗̦͖̳̖̹͖͇̺̣̮̻͍̬͙̙̯͔̦̯̭̬͙͔͈̳͔͔͖͉͈͕̺͇̭̲̥̗̫͎͔̙͍̝̳̜̖̝͉͔̍̾͆́̋͛̈́́̍͌͋̓͆́͌͆̅̍̾͋̀͗̿́̏̆̏̀͌̊̃̈́̔́̃̇̀̀͆̃̆̓̀̅̏̉̀̈̓̕̚̚͜͜͝͠͝͝͠͝ͅe̸̛͙̬̲͉͍̮͓̼͉͔̱̫͓͗̿͐̽̇̿̂͊́̇̓̄̐̋̽̓̒̑̽͋́̈̓͌͂̄͌͐͐̾̓̾͂̀͆̑̆͋͗̍̀͊̔͑̉̅̒̒͑̀̃͆̽̂̉̌̅̽̆́́̀́̑̂́̽̓͌̌̑͂̉̀̓̓́̍̂͐́̉͊͌̋̀̇͑͑̄̕̚̕̚͘͝͝͠͠͝͝͝͠͝͝͝ņ̵̧̡̨̡̢̡͎̟̱̩͉̹̗̪̩͇̫̫̮̰̳̜͖͕̯̗̝̥͇͕̝̪̻͔̫̘͉̙̗̖͙̮̤̙͖̌͋̈̕͜͜t̷̡̢̧̡̧̢̧̛̛̛̻̻͖̤̪͇̬̙̱͙̬̲͍̤̖̘̬̖̱̣̳̟̘̜̥̪̘̭̘̤͕͔͚͉͔̜̜̥̩͇̯͉̋͊̎́͑̀̃͂̂͒̀̀̂̃̋̀͂͗̎̏́̃̅̃͒͌̔̿̐̑͛͊̀̇͐͒̽́̈́̀̉̍͌͑̏͐̔͂̀͊͑̓̊̐͛̏̅̅̂͋̀͒̾̒̈͗̀̑̈͗̓̃͋̒̔̓̽̈́́̈́̀̉͂́̚̚̚̚͘̚̕͘̕͜͜͜͠͝͝͠͝͝͝͝͠e̷̢̧̧̹̼̦̗͓̼̤̩͕̭͕͈͙̲̙̩̳͉̝̰̦̪̠̦͔̯̙͔̰͕̞̭̹̲͕͆̊̔̅̆͛̈̋͋͋̈́̓̎͐̀̐̇̽͊̉͋̋͂̃̂̆̐̔̔̇̄͆̍̆̒̕̚̚͜͝͠ͅn̷̡̨̡̡̛̛̛͕̖̱͙̮̙͙̠̪̼͖̰͖̦͍͖̗̗̯̫̣̩̥͔̝̹̯̬̜̬͖͇̐͂͆͂͛̓̄̈́̑̐͋̃̇̾́̌̄̂̅̈́̂͗̈́̃̇̒͑̋̃͌͐̑͂̿̃̋̓͗̇̍̍̓̽̕͘̕͘̕͘͘̚͜͜͜͝͠c̵̨̧̢̡̧̢̨̢̢̢̢̢̨̧̞̺̞͇̭̱̟͈̹̫̳̖̳̣͔̰͇̩͚̠̬͍̳̺̪̹̰̩̖̱͚̬͙̘̘͙̫͕̬̥͖̰̪̭̠̘̝̖̫̬̰̟̤͈̩̤̪̤͕̱̩̺͖̹̠̯̳̙̫͉̹̜͇͙̱̺̀͗͒̉̀̇͂̋͗͌͛̉̀͐̐͋̓̋̀̎͛͛͒͌̇̀̐̅͛̔̆̈́̊͆̋̏̉́̈́́̆͜͜͜͜͠͝͝͝͝͝͝ͅȩ̴̧̛̛̛͈̦̼͔̲̱̮̺̰̱̮̻̬͕̔͗͋̈́̊̇͂̈́͌̌̎͂̑̂͒̐̋͗͋͊͛̌̈͒͛͌̑́̈̓͑̑̎̎̍̈́̑̑̈͑́́̀̇̎̇̀͆͒́̈́̀͋̈͐̔̋̊̉̈́͌̑͊͗͘͘͘̕͘̚̚̚̚̚͜͝͝͠͝͠͝͝͠ ̶̧̧̢̧̡͔̟͙̤͍̹̰̙͚̬̣̭̮̜̤̼̼̱̰͈̮̰̙͙̯̹͚̬͇͔̦̝͇̟̝̖̪̫̲̲̯̝̼͎͚̦̖̞̭̠̻̦̲̠̻̭̟̻̤̦̻̏̈́̊̈̿̔̓̏̈́̾̆̓͒̃̔̈́̈́͆̽͒̑̄̌͂̄͐͌̌̈́̊́̇͆́̓͂͌͋̾̊̔̏͐͗͑̑̈́̿͛̾̂̀̒̈͆̊͛̿̎̓̕͘͘͜ͅͅͅͅf̶̢̛̛̛̠̞̰̖́͂͗͊̎̏͛̈̀̓̒̓̑̀̾̔̄͂̔̃̌̈́͛̃͂̌͒̓́̄͒̓̀̽̔͊̎́͊͋̐̾̌͂̿̆͒́̓̒̆͌̽̐̓̃́́̒̈́̓̏̄͗̋̂̅̌̊͗͋͊̾̾̔̋̊̐̃̓̆̈́̓̂͊̓̕̕͘̚͘̕̚̕̕͝͠͝͝͝͝͝͠͝ͅở̵̧̘͎͉̗̼̹̰̈́̍̅̃͒̽̓͛͛͗͊̉̿̐̑̈́̍̄̊̾͑̊̀̈́̈́̀̍̃̍̑̔̉̆̐̎̈́̔̄́̽̀͋̓̓̋́͗͛͗̋̎͛̍͑̌̽̐̔̿͐̃̊̈̄͆͊̊͐̉́̆̈́̎́̈́̎̀̈́̓͆̉̐̈́͒͘͘̚͘͘̚̕̕̕͝͝͠͝͝r̸̨̢̧̡̧̢̧̨̧̨̢̡̨̡̛̛̛̥͇̱̮̩̘̙̩̤͚̫̜̲̬̯̳͈͙̲̯͖̠̩͕̪̙̱̗̭͕̬̣͉̝͚͚̹̗̲͍͇̣͓̮̲͍͇̝̫̤͙̰̗͕͎̯͙̰͈͎̘̺̗̹̜͉̘̺̮̜͓̼̺͓͎͕͈͍̤̮̖̫̹͔̓̈́͂̅̏̓̒̉͐̂́̏͑̽̃̿̀͑́̑̃̄̈́̍͗̑͊̔͊̀̿̏͐͂̎͑̈́̊̄̽͆̈́̒̇̓͐̋̊̿̆̃͛̆͂̆͐̓̈́͐̆̒̈́̑̂̀͌͆̔̊̔̉̊͑͋́̀̇̃͊̅͂̊̚̚̕͘̕̕͜͝͝ͅ ̶̢̢̨̧̧̨̡̛̛̛̮̜̰̮̟̫̺̱̞̫̝̰͚͕͕͚͈͈̫̰͕̫̰̺̣̪͚̻̼͖̻̮̖̫͕̲̥̮̯̱̤̭̹̘̞̣̝͓̟̼̳̮͈̳̼̯̯̬̘̜̞͕͍̣͕͓̗͉̭̱̪͉̺͙̼͔̭̭̤̭̱̹̥͓͍̺̜̞́̄̊̀̋͆̅̀̍̒̇̈̒̇̓͐͋̓̔̍̎͐̓̓͗̏̾͌̔͂͊̍̎̐̄̂̏͑̉̎͐̽̈́͌͊̔͌̾̔̈́͒̋̚͘̕͘͘͘̚͜͝͠͝͝͝͠i̶̢̢̧̡̧̨̨̡̡̡̡̧̧̛̛̛̛̞̳̣̱̥̹̰̥̙̹̜̮͕̜̗̩̱̲̯̼͍͙͙̹͔̙͕̥̟͍̥͈̩̼̯̣̣͈̭̹̳̱̳͇͎̞̬̥̩̫͎̰̓͛̀̃͋̓̈́͛̈́́͊̌̊͗̋̇́͑́̈̄͆̊̒͂̇̑́́̀̓͂̅̈́̓͂̀̔̍̑͑̿͗̄̂̽̊̄̒̽̄̑́̽͛̏́͆͒͑͒̈́̔̽͒͋̈́̾̓́͛̊̍̆͛̀̂̐͊̈́͒̈́͐̄̍̑̈͘̕͜͜͜͜͠͝͠͝n̴̨̢̡̡̡̛̫̭̺̳̣̝̝̤̠͉̣̙̞̭̖͉͕̻̩̲͎̬̙̟̭̗̥͚̺͙̹͖̙̤̳̲̦̙̩̝̯͔̝̳̺͚̤̺̰̯̝͇̭̺͉͇͖͎͎̼͚̫͇̞̯̪̪͉͍͔̙̱͖̻̰͎̻̭͎̞͉̻̩̠͓̘̟̖̤̭̝̭̫̝̲͍̈́̃̇̒̓̇̒̆̾̑̓̈́͗̒̏͋͛̎͊̉͆̊͋̓͑̏̆̃̔̆̇͒͊̇͗̇͛͑̉̾̂̆͆̂̔̀̑̑̃̉̊̆̌̋̑̋͐̇̆͂́͛̋͂̏̒̈̈́̎̈́̉̊͌̊͂́̽̍͑̃͂̕͘̚̕͘͜͜͝͝͝͠͠͠͝͝ͅͅţ̷̨̡̢̧̢̧̛̛̛̛̛̠̫̭͍̻͖͔̱͔͙̙̖͖͈͇̪̱̬͙̗̜̝̖̟̹̝͉̥̭̘̬͔̥͔͈͇̮̼̖̦̯̮̯̪͓̼̙̥͚̻͇͕̹̥̠̬̦̞̳͍̫̇͑̆̐̊͂̍͌͗̈́͋̌͛̆͑̈́̃͐͒̉̈̃̐̔͒͋̇̉̓̽̉̓̆̉̈́̓̓̎͒̄͌͐͋̂͒͌̈́̅̈͛͑̑̌̿̒̏̅͗̀͌̏́̒̈́̀͗͒̄̃̊̀͋̉͘̕̚͘̕̚͘͘͘̕͜͜͝͝͝͝͝͠͝ͅe̷̡̨̡̯̩̜̰̙̠͕͔͚̘̪̳̙̼͎͓̙̣̜̼̥̣̖̱̞̥̟̘̯̺̼͙̰̝̝̘̘͓̰͓̦̱̘͂̿̂͐̂̾̀̿̓̂̐̈̾̀͛̉̽́̊̀̀͂͊̈̂̑̑̂͌̄̆͊̐̅̀͂̀̔̈́͋̌͛͊̆̑͆͛͋͌̏͊͋͑̎̀̏̂͌̿̒̾̌͋̐̈́̏͋̈́͗̅͗͆̈́̑̈̋̊͐̌͒͊͐̇̒͑͊͆̊̑̓̇́͘̚͘̕͠͠͠͠͝ͅr̴̨͇̟̖̬̬̣͚̻̰̳͐̈̆̓̌̐̆̓͒̀́͂͌̓̎̀̂̈́͂̓̔̈̄̉̌̓͐̀̄̃͆̉̒͊̑͗̾̂̀͗̓̈́͐̾̑̋͑͑̍͑̊̄͂̕̕͝r̶̗̟̭̘̖̾̈́͛̊͊͌̄̈̕ͅų̷̭̬͔̦̭̰̭͇̝͕͓̟͛̒̽̂p̷̛̛͙̠͉̙̻̦̦̗̥̟̯̲̰̩͖͈͇̱̜͈̘͈̄̈̀̓̿̌̐͗̈́͑̔̃̎̊̀̽̽̄̍̆̈́̃͒̅̑̀̐͐͗̽̆̃̀͗͛̄͌̾̾̔̎̎̒́̊̿̍̑̅̎̑͂̍͗̀͒̀̅̌̄̓͌͘̕̚͘͘͝͝͠͝͝͝t̷̨̨̨̛͎̗͚̤͉̼͖͔̳̼̝̣̟̣͌̂̀͗͑͋͗̓̅̇́̂͆̄̄̿̇͗̎̏̏͌͌̽̽̇̀̄̀́̊͆̉̎͊̀͝͝ͅͅį̴̧̡̢̨̨̨̰̞̩͍͈͓̫͍͖̙̞̰̞̝̺̥͎̲͇̣̲̳̖̫̯̪̖̻̱̥̟̜̬̣̬͍̫̟͓̩͚̳̣̰̮̜̯̪̱̭̮̞̥̙͇̲̘̳̘͓̲͔̝̲͓͉̙̒͆̂͜͜͜ͅǫ̴̨̧̡̬̞̮͇̭̠̣̳̝̜̠͚͎̪̘̻̖̺͍͍̲̪̭̠̟͚̤̳̤̲̠̞͚̯̺̪͎̖͇̼̼̜̖͖̟͉͖̣̻͚͚̦̤̥̘̪̖̫͔̻̠͉̦̬̹̟̝̈́͒̀̾̈́͛̂͑̿̽̀̂̔̌̍͂̂̎̈̈́̋͛͋̿̍̔̽̅͋̾̈̇̾̈́̿̽̀͒͆̅̍͊̋̑̋̒̔́̋̅̀̔̉́͂̐͒͘̚͘͝͠͝ͅͅn̵̨̢̧̨̧̨̧̢̢̢̢̧̡̲͉̖͇̗̩̮̹̼̯͔̱̤̣̯̞̪̙̣̱̜͇̺͔̺̰͓̟͇̙̤̱̯͍͎̗̗͎̱̼̠̩̼̻̩̙̱͉͍͚̪̤̫̦̼̰͈̻̘̬̯̳̯͕̖͉̠̞̯͕͓̻̟͍͈̺̠̱͋̋͑͂̐̐̿̀͒̍͂̂̅̈́̓̈́́͂͌͊͋͆̋̏͆̊̊̓̉͊͛̋̃̾́̈͛͂̂̋̍̉̃̿̑͘̕̕̕͜͜͜͝͝͠͠ͅͅ ̸̨̢̧̡̛̛͓̞̘͚̙̳̩͚͇͖͙̩̯̟͙̝̤̟̳͙͎̪̫̇̆́̈́̄̆͐̈̽̒̈́͌̒̋̌̎̓̉̓́̀͌̀͌͂͌̿̑́̊̈́͆͋̈́͗̔̀͂̂̆̊̇̈́̀̐̑͆̆͗͆̕̚͘͘̕̕͘͜͜͠͝͝ͅͅǫ̴̢̧̨̢̧̛̗̦̫͓̼͇̖͍̤̰̱̬̬̘̖̝̙̙̥͖̣̭͙̦͇̱̲̥̖̙̪̲͎͉̰̦͚̪̙̖̹͉̦̺̠̬̥̞͈̮͎͖͚̹̙̰̠̪̣̼̙͖̤͎̜̠͉̋̋́͆͗̉͐̐͌͑̇̀́͘͜͝͝ͅͅͅͅf̶̨̧̛̛̻̼͕̞̫͔̹͍̖͇͓̬̘̠̮̠̺̰̙̞̜͙̝͈̘̦̳̫̞̭̠̪̰̪̹̟͉͎̹̙̣̙̫̪̦̀̆͆́̀̆͑͑͆̈́̌̽̿̅̇̇́͌̇͑̇̂̊̓̿̆͂͑̎̉̂̉̀̀̿̽̂͆̏͊̇́̋̿̈̾̔̒̕̕͘͘̕ ̸̨̧̢̡̧̡͎̦̗̹̭̘͙̦̞̣͕̖̝̲̥̣̹̹͚͍̥̩̮̺̝̟̠̪̲̲̪̻̰̲͈̳̩͚͉̩̱̺͍͇͇̱̀̂͆̔́̉̐͑̈́̍̎̒̎̇̇̈́̇̌̎̓̈́̈́̇́̈́͝ơ̵̧̧̡͙̭̥̫̰͚̺̣͉͙̭͙̰̯̘̝̥̖͖͖͇̫̟̘͍̜͕̙̭͚̣͓̱̙̣̖̣̳͓͙̯̘̘̻̘̯͍̦̤̫͇̒̀͋͛͛̇̄̍̅̏̔̓͊̽̒͂͗̑͛͐̾͆͛̈̆̾̆̀̾̑̊̽̐̽͗͐͗͌͗̃̂̈́̊͗̂̓̋̿̍̀̈͑̈́̋̽͐͑̎̉̓̐͑͑͛̎͊̈́̌́͘̕͘̚̚͘̕͜͝͝͠͝͝͝ͅr̶̡̢̛̛̛̥͈̳̠͍̥͍̞͕͔̥̳͇̣̿̉͊́̋̍̄̈͊͋͑͋̾͗͊́͌̀̇̋̉̂̌̎̆́̀͆̑͌̒̏̒̐͆̒̄̅̊́̿̓̽́̑̈̊͆̏͊̋͂̈́̓͌̈́̃͂̂̓̃̊̅̀͒̇̿͌̐̿̂̀̔́̆͐͌͌̏̇̀̒̅͑͂̕͝͝͝͝͝ḋ̵͚͕̪̥̯̩̘̰̪̫͉̪͚͇͕͍̞̓̆̆́̌̓̈́̀͑͂̈̇̒͑̽̔͂̇̉́̀̈́̌̾̑̍̏́̎̔̃̊̚̕͝͝͝͝ͅę̵̢̡̧̧̛̖͎̙̺͔̱̠̙͔͇̗̱͉͍̺͚̼̤̤̺͈̲͕́͐͋̄͌́̈̊̊̈̌̽͗̌̆͊͐̊̾̑̃͋̍́̓͑̂̾̀̓̌̓͌͋̑̉̂͋̈́̈́̆̃̓͆̍̀́̓̑͛͂͊̍̊͋̐̾͛͒͑̂̓̐̒̽̾͛̉̈́͑̿́̋̒̊̌̓̀̐͑͐̏͆̈̽͗͂̕̕̕̕͘̚̕͜͜͝͠͝r̴̢̧̡̧̧̨̨̛̛̖̤̖̞̲̣̣̻̙̺̥̖̗̗͚̪͍͈̭͇̪̼̱̣̝͔͙̦̖͍̲̟̫̹͎̙͓͈̩̫͕͈̗̳̪̖͕̫̻͙̪̣͔̰̖͔͖͓̠͎̮̮̹̤͍͚̙͊͊͆̏̌͐͒́̀̈́͗͑͛̇̃̎̂̍̉͑̀̉̉̋̍̂̽̈́̔͐̓̍̌̈͂̈́̄̈́͒̿́̓͒̈́̅̔̈́̿̐̑͐͒̈́̓̆̿́̏̆́̎̉̀̾͊̄͊̌̒͒̀̽̈̏̚̚̕̚͜͠͠͝͝͠͠͝ͅͅ ̶̨̨̢̧̧̛̛̛̼̖̲̺̳̖̪͉̩̙̬͎͕̮̱̠̰͉̣̙͙͙̳̫̺̘̙̲̭̻̯͚̰̜̝̖̘̻̠̞̯̺̰̤̫͙͎̤͇̹̳͙͉̠̗̩͖̼̼̰̱̩̗̫̳̜̺̰̤̩͎̤͎͈͚̝̱̰͕̞̟͎̮̠̥̙̹̰̼̲̮̑̇̽͑̅̂̌̽̉̂̌̌̃̔͒͌̈́́́̈́͌͑́̓̓͛̆̄̃̽͐͛͂͌̅͗̋̇̉̈́͛̅̎̄͑̀́͐͒̑̄͐̽̍̇͑̽̅͒̌̂̉̈́̔̽͆̓͒̐̀͛̊̓͘̕̕̕͘͜͜͝͝ͅͅͅͅi̸̡̛͙͓͉̼̹͖̱͈̻̲̠̱̗͊̆̑̇̈́̌͛̌̀̔͒̄̉̎̓̎̆͌̃̌̀̈́̉́̋͛͛͛̊̾̇͌̆̀̓̄̿̐͛̿̑̑̄̃̌̈̔͛̚̚̕͝͠͝͠͠͠͝͝s̵̛͓͉̱͊̉͐̆́͛̄̊̾̀̅̅̊̋̔̈́̌̃́̿̉̈́̈́̆̋͗̉͒̽̑̀̒͌͌̕͘͘̚͝͝ ̵̨̢̢̡̧̛̜͕͎͓̠͖̖̟̖̱͔̬̫͚̦̳̺̮̦̝̘̘̟̀̈́̌̋͆͑̎̏̄̾̾̈́͂́͌͒͌͗̂͑͋̇́̄̐̍́͐̈́̅̏̆͆͊́͌͋͌̌͌̅̐̕̕͠ͅ e̶̛̬̯̜̳͈̞̮͙̱͍̳̟͈͇͕̗̟̥̰̲̖̤̭͚̰̼͎̝̦̗͈͓̝̘̰̥̘̋͊̂͒̋̀͂̈́̔͌̈́͗̅͋͌̇̈̌̾͑̊͆́̍̓̽͐̈́̑̿͛́̈́̒̏̿̔̽͑͑̃̔͑̄̂̈̀̈́̿̂̿͊̎̊͋̏̽͗̋͒͗̅̒̆͆̿̒͐̀̆̓̑̉̏̊̈́̃͘̕̚͘̚̚̚͜͠͝ͅr̵̨̡̧̧̡̛̛͔͇̝̮̫̤̰͉̳̲͉̬͇̗̼͖͈̩̩͕̙͎̭͖̣͎̘͇̠̜̟͎͕̟̻͗̃̒͆̎͛̑̈́͛̃́̀̋͗́͊̿̀͋̎̅͗̒̉̿̽́̈́̾̒̐̍̓̈́͒̅̔̈́̾͒͆͊͗̔̉̍̈́̑̈̀̇̊͌͐̔̌̀͋͐̈́̀̽́̈̿͋̀͛̋̾̍̅͑̎̍͊̈̅̌̚͘̕̚̕̚̚͜͠͝͝͠͝͝͝͠ͅͅͅą̸̡̢̛̛̛̠̥̩͔̯̜͓̗̼̖̜̙͍͔͔̙̦̪̤̪̻͔̦̫͚̘̊̈͒̈́͗̿̀̿̃͗̈́̆̎̄͒͆́͆̎̏̓̽̓̿̒͛̓̽͋͆̌͌̆͐͆͆͑͌̎̂́̇́̽̑̀̈́͂̉̃͐̀́͊̇̊̋̽̑͒̒̏̈́͋̽̍͐̎̉̄̇̉͊̈̈͆͐̎͌͘͘͘͘̕̚̚͜͝͝͝͠͠͝͠͝͝ḑ̵̡̧̢̧͎̲̤̮̘̗̘͕̮̮͎̳̣̖͓̟̪̣̟̪̗̝̖͉̙̱̪̭̹̘̲͙̱̣̝̭̲͈͕͎̺͈͎̜͉̲̦̙̰̫̫̞̙̟͔̻͚̯̳̫̀̈͑̄̀̓̇̾̒̋͘͜͜͜͝͝i̸̢̡̛͈̠͙̰̞̪̪̬̯̲̦̜̼͚̣̭̩̟̝̲̦͉̣͖̲̭̝̣̪͆͗̀͊̐͗̽̃̇̂̓̉́̅̈́͂̾̂̒̏́͌̎͛̃̆̅̈́̎̃̾̅͛̐̉̊͊͋̋͋͂̀̇̓̿̌̎̌̾̄̐̒̈͗̽̽̎́̈́̋̿͗̏̈́́̀̅̋̎͛̋͊̕̚͝͝͝͠͝͠͝͝͠͝͠c̵̡̨̛̱̮̺̦̞̬̼̥̻͈̹̫̙̫͈͎̻̏̂̏̐̊̀̒͗̈́̀̋̾͛͆̎̀̒̆͆͛̂̒́̾̔́̀͊͑̑̒͌̄̍͛̒͌͘͘͠͝͝ą̷̡̡̡̢̢̢̡̨̛̟͉̙̣̳̳͙̜̖͕͚̗͎̙̻̤͙͉̝̗̥̖̩̦͔̞̱̙͍̮̫̥̟̙̙̗̙̠̥̤͚͉̗͇̻̹̥̤͖͓̫̞̻͉͈̼͇̫͔̯̦̟͎̩͍͉̪̝̥̬̼̙͕̩͖͎͉̦̳̗̜͊͊̊̑̒̾̆͐͂͋̃̀̇̾͊̿̌͒͛̍͐͆̂̉̇͐̒̔̂̔́̅̑̀͑̂̍̆̇͛̌̈̇̏́̾͐̀̌͐̽̒́́̅͛̈́͗̈́͋̓̎̑̀̊̓̽̊́͂͗̂̄̿̔͒̂̓̏̑̈͒̾̔́̿̀̌̓̎͊̕̕̚͘͘̕͜͠͝͝͝͝͝͠ͅͅͅͅț̸̨̨̧̨̢̨̗̺̤͍͖̼̭͇̯͕̦̲̖̭̳̖̬̤̺̮̮̘̙̪̩̼̠̮̦͉͈̰͙̺͈̥̤̱̝͓̟̯͙̺̺̟̙͔͖̹͇͉͓͕̬͙̥̖̥̖̲̫͔̦̞͈̘̯̗͈̺͎̮̺͚̳̰͈̫̬͓̂̂͗̓̃̾̑͐̇́̀̒̑̂̀̈́͌̐̌̔̾̓͛͌̽̆̆̾̐͋̍̂͂̃̐̿͐͋̎̀̾̓̀͑̃̑̽̐̈́̀̓̓̇͆̊̌̕̕̚̚͘̚͝͝͠͠͠͠͠͝ͅͅͅͅͅį̴̧̨̨̨̨̢̢̨̨̛̛̭̰̗͔̮͍̙̬̺̝̯̮͓̤̠̳̣͖̣̮̗̦͇͈͉̪̞̮̜̙̯̗͕̙̙̺̣͙̩͖͉͍̳͕̖̼̪͍͈̰̲̱̳̳̬͇̥̋͊̾̽͑̒̈́̓̈́̇̌̎͛̍̓̾̑̑̉͆̈́̊̅̈́̌̑̈̓͛͋̔̈̀̂̕̕̚̕͜͝͠ͅͅơ̶̢̢̡̧̧̪̞̙̖̘̦̟͓̜̫̲̤̗̜̝̮̘͖̩̖̱̥͋͆̓́̀͌́͒̇̋͌̇͑̊̈́͊͋̓̏̇̿̔͊̈́͛͊͑́̓͋̊̄͆̒̓̈́̃̔̀̃̂̋̽́̈́̓́̈͆̽̋̎͌̑͗̿́̋̂̒̋̕͘͘͜͜͜͝͝͝͝͝͝ͅͅͅn̷̨̧̛̝̣̥͍͉̰͓̦̟̭̩͍̤̺͇͓̜̺̞̥̼̩̠̪͙͓̺͖̺͓̝̟̫͈̦͉̖̞̠̼̦͈̳͎͈̫̟̩͈̗̪͖̱͉̞̰̜̳̲̭͚͎̲͈͎͇̝̼̦̞͈̣̐̀̈́͒̊̿̓̄̓͂̏̐̉̃̐̓̉̉̈́͆͗̂̎̉̔͐̾̂̽̋̋̇́͛̾͌̓̔̄̎̌̏͆͋̎̆͐̌̏͐̈̐̎̐͌̊̈́͊̓̆́̐͒̒͆͐͑̈̒̎̄̅̋͗͊̒̂̕̕͘̚̕͘͘͜͝͝͝͝͝͠ͅͅ.”

Order descended from the dark sky and crashed into the grate on the floor, causing a shockwave of red and black smoke.

The entire spire trembled. Marina and New Eight stood on guard, while Pearl tensed herself in midair.

Four grand, terrible black tentacles emerged from the small ocean of black jelleton pseudo-ink on the floor. Each one dripped more of the liquid darkness. At last, Order’s final visage emerged in the center of the tendrils.

It was a bulbous,oblong thing that pulsated like a heart. The closest thing it had to eyes were two black and red infinity balls that rolled within two oddly-shaped gray containers. A pink, nebulous thing that might have substituted a brain could be seen within the being’s head, with small scraps of metal swirling around it at a constant, steady space.

“Į̵̧̨̡̨̢̢̨̢̡̧̡̛͎̺̜̼̩̤̯̦̮̳͚̙̝̙̘̙̹̘̗͚͓̦̪̪͓̦̩̗̘͙̟͚͇̮̲̖̺̰̬̪̻̠̝͙̝̼̣̙̯̙̬͍̬͉͉͉̟̠̥̠̫̳̘̥͈̲͕͔͖̯̗̻̺͇̻̣̩̰̞̪̻̦̗̫͇͉̯̺̺͓̮̞͙̮̖̩̥̤͍̯̘̳̦͉̮͂́͐͌͛̃̓͌̅̾͗̔̽̈̒̆̀̈̽̾͐̓̓̽̎̌̽͋̈́̾̍͛̊͌͊̈́̀͂̅̐̿̀͛͒̈́͒͆̌͒̍͗͛́̍͗̎͊̅͆́̋̇̓̋̏̓̽͐̍̚̕͘͘̕̚͜͜͝͠͝͝͝͝͝ͅͅͅͅͅ ̷̧̢̛̗̘͙̘͙̜̰̟̗̳̯͎̪̝̟͙̲͓̮̜̝̺̳̗̓͐͆͆̂̈́̍̀̎̒̆̍̍͌̈̑̆̂͂́͛̈́͑̈́̐̌͋̓̑͛̅̅̔̆̈́̀͌͛̿̍̑͗́̾̾̇̑̅̔̆̀̅̋̈́͆̍̐̀̋͂͐͋̔͂̃̓̐̂̇̽͗̅̍̐̈́́͛̓̔͋͌̀͗̿͂̌̏̑̎͛̊͋͘͘̕̚͘̕̕̕͘̚͘͜͝͝͝ą̵̢̢̡̡̡̧̡͓̜̖̺͔̭͚͓̦̝͕͓̠̻̙̖̺̟̜͔̮̤̦͉͍̦̙͙̙͖͍̜̯͈̯̖̪͔̙̰̦͓̜̠̪͖̗̜̻̦̉͆̄̈́̚m̷̨̢̡̺̘̟̗͍̫̹̭͎͍͕̼͇̩̭͙̬̳̫̱̜̘͉͈̫̳̬̳̤̯̰̦͖̜̠̹̠͍̬̮̞̥̦̭͎̰̮̠̫̰͙̳̱̥̹̝̥̞̖̯̦͓̱͕̟͉̫̦̩̿̄̌̒̈́̏͑͒͌́̒͗͆͆̄̿͋͛̎͐͜͝͝͠ͅ ̶̧̡̢̩̤̫̼͙̠̫̣̲̤̦̭͈̫̘̲̜̟͍̳̺͕̘̬̠̲͈̱͕̘̱̦̓̐̃̐͊̔͐̄̓̋͜͠ͅͅͅt̴̢̨̨̢̡̨̡̛̛̛͇̩̫͖̲͙͓͚͎̤͙̩̪̯̪̫̯͍͖̙̱̯̥̙̼͙̼̜̯̩̦̖̮̬͚̘̺͇͔̼̦̲̦̯͍͓̼̺̱̟̟̺̠̖̠͉͓͉͔̑̃̏̀̏͒̀̂̒̇̃̒͐̂̄̽̂̈́̈͆̑͛̄̾̍͋̀̽̅͛̾͂̉͐̆̈̽̒͐͆̐̒̈́̊̋͛͆̓̂͑̈́̃͊̇͛̀̇͋̀̀͛̆̒͊̿͋͗̋̿̆̊̏̋͊̽̓́̾̈̃͋̓̚̕̚̚̚̚̚͜͝͠͝͝͠͝͝͝ͅͅͅḩ̵̛̜͔̮̟̥̠̗̩͖̥͚̗̘̺̙͕̱̘̱̭͖̍́̑̇͐̓͛́̑̓̈́̅̑͆͗͆͊̈́̃̆̽͗̅͒͊̃̿͊͂͑͋̓̃̉̄̈́̊̓́̓̉̏̐̄́̽̏͌̓̄̑̉̅͂͂͆̅̂̇̈́͂̒̔͑̀̀̑̀͒̿̃͐͐͌͂̋̾̾̋́̃̆̄͒̇̀̽̉̇̍͐́̑͒̎͌̀̃̌́̍̅̀̌̈́̋͘͘͘͠͠͠͝͠͠͝ȩ̸̡̘͓͍̹̙̫̟̩̮͇̩̻͔͎̤̻̑̈́͒̊̅̒̄̍̇̉̍̾͒̈̇͆̎̂͋͛̈̂͗̍̓̍̐͒́͌̽̋̂̅͑̈͂̈́̌̄͛̂̽͒͐͂̃́̌̽͛͂́̍̌̅͊͗̈́̑̑̂͋̚͘̚̚͘̚̕̚̚̚͘͜͠͝͝͝ͅͅ ̷̢̡̢̢̨̢̧̢̛̝̪̳̠̻̫̣̯͈̤̜͔̭͕̲̤͍̖̹̹̟̟̱̤̖̝͙̬͉̞̟͚̘̯̜̰̫̭̦̜͔͎̞̮̻͕̖͓̖̗̜̖̫̗̱̮̹̺̖̘͕̳̰̰̜͍̼̯̼̺͉̖̲̠͎̤̣͚̟͚͓͌͆͌̇̔̈́̋̑̊͊̽̑͋̅͆̇̈̉́̈́͊͂̋̈́̔̑̇͌̃̽̇̈͗̂̊̓̈́̅͐͘̕͜͜͜͠͠͝m̶̢̧̨̢̢̢̢̨̰͎̗̯̼̯̻̤̤̜̰̰̥̫̖̺͔͉̱͇̟̫̙͚͕̙̞͋̈́̔̿̋̈́́͂͗̑̑̃͌̀̆̾͐̌̓͆͛̃̀̑͑͑̍̈́͊̀̈́͛͑͒́͗̐̿͐͐̔̇̿̓́̉́͗̍̅͊̊̈͗̄͆̈́̋͂̅͑͑̽̒̑̄́̂̑͋̾̍͂̋͐̌̋́̈͐̈́̆͑̆̽͊̆̇̔̌̎̾̕̕͘͘͘̕͜͝͠͝͝͝͝͝ȃ̶̢̢̨̨̢̨̛̛̛̛̛̼̼̺̣͕͓̯͕̪̰͓̳͇͚͓̫͍̝͓̱̲̺͚̙̰̲͉̮͈͇̜͇͇̝̲̞̤̪̗̘̝̻͔̲̹̖̙̥͖̫̦͕̰͍̗͇̠̝͙̦̹̺͚̖͖̞̖͖̠̩͇̂̊̾͛̑̿̎̅̈́̓̈̀͂̀͋͋̄͒̏̔̿̎̋̄̒͊̈̽͐̅͐͐̀̿̋̒͆̑͐̈́́͌̿̅̋̋͑̉͆̈́̽̾̐͊̐̈́͋̾̈́̓̇̅̍̃̅͒̿͐̓͑̄̇͆̿͊̽̐̀̏͑̃̏͆̔̀͒͑̊̃̇͋̀̓̚͘̚͘̚̕̕̚̚̕͜͠͝͝͝͠͝͝ͅͅǵ̸̛̛̛̦̥̤̥̰̬̭̥̜̼͇̓͒̃̈́͂̒̌͗̿̅̈̇̐̅̇́̀͑̊̅̈́͆̆̏͗̇͌͊̏͗̾͋̄̀͛͋͑̎̑̓̽͒̐̑̅͂̃̉̈̃͆̈́̀͌̈́̾̓͆̓͋͊̀́͆́͑̃́̈́̀͒̃͐̏͂͒̈́͒́̒͆́̍̿̚̕̕͘̕͘͝͝͝͝͝͝͠͝ị̴̧̡̡̧̨̢̨̛̛̛̬̙̜͖̖͚͙͔̣̳̯̭̯̠̪͕̗̗̞̺̮̺͈͈͚̣̻̗̹̟̹͔̦̟̖͙̳̞͚͕͙͓̻̼͖͉̗̤̪̩̯̝̮͔̹̺͓̻͔̮̰̩̻̘̠̹̮̤̻͕̣̥͇͉̮̗͍̯̹͉͍̩̘̲͇̯͈͎͇̯͉͉̗̠̦̫̪̱̳̠͙̝̺̻̲̝͋̏̑̈́͐́̔̈̏͆̈́́̎̏̿̆͛̓͛̎͒͛́́͛́̂̅̉͋͊̂͗̈̏͂͂̂̌͋̓͑̓̇̽͋̋͑̓̈́̊̐̍̅̐̔͛͑͊̐̃̇͐̂̉̓̅̍̄̍͗̎̒̏͆͐̌̈̀̿̐́̔͗̑̾͗̈̈̈́͒̍̕͘͘͜͜͜͜͠͝͝͠ͅͅs̶̢̨̨̧̨̢͖̼̦͚͕̙̼̞͙̟̜̥̗̻̩͙̞̞̬͔̳̙͈̥͚̙̟̹̣̞̳̠̣̦̘̳̙̰͕͚͈̜̬̻͖͈̲̝͔͙̪̙̥̖̳͍͈͈̯͖̳̹̺̣̦̖̱̘̼͇̤̪̞͓͙̦̗̰̙̫̳̺̗̍̒̐̑͐̐̿̿̋͛̏̉͊͒̓̋̚͜͜͜͜͠͠ͅͅͅt̷̨̧̨̢̛̛̛͇͉͓̭͔̙͓̖̻̣͈͖̖͙͈̭̫͚̲̝̳̯̘̘͕̣̬̯̗̺͚̯̣͍͖͚̳͉͕̞̲̺̪͐͐̀̊̀̑̄̿̌̂̽̆̈́͂́̎̏͋́́͒̉̂̐͆́́̂͗͛̔͑̿̎̈́̉͗̋̏̈̑̉̆́̈́̔͂̈́͛͛̐͌͌͑̆̈́̂̈́̆̾̓̐̀̃̀̍̂͌͂̄̈́̇͋͂̓͒̐̀̈́̃̆̌̈́͌̐͋͆͐̔̽̿̆̇̇̊͌́̕͘̚̕̕͜͠ͅͅŗ̸̢̨̢̢̰̣̰̤̼̱̹̖̬̗̜̞̱̫̗̻̹̗͚̞̱̗͖̰͎͚͕̱̭͇͖͇̣̩͕͓̤̮̩̠͙̹͈̹͇̬̺̉̋̕͝ä̶̡̡̛̭͙̤̳̗̤̘̙̤͈̣͍͍̯̰̻͓̠͓̻̻̟̰̮̦̰͍̫̪͓͍͖̟̣̰̦͉͕̬̙̱̳̫̯͖͍̞͇͓̙͎̟̤̞̰̗͇̤̫̥̥̗͈͚̰̩͖͔̞͇͎̠͔́͒̅̌̏͐͌͗͆̽̐́̐͋̈͂͛̏̌̀̈́͋̓̓͐̏̿͋̅̑̈́͛̌̾̅̈́̿̅̒̑̀̌̿̂̓͑̔̏̊͒̀̿͌̍͌̓͋̽̈́́̐̋̓͋̂͗̓̈̈́͛́̈̂͗͌̐̍̍͂͌̐̆̋͊͂̐́͗̍͗͘͘͜͜͜͠͝͝͠͠͝ͅͅͅt̶̨̡̡̧̢̨̛̛̻̖͎̯̹͓̲͇̦̼̘̭̳̦̜͖̣̳̫̠̪͇̠̯̬̦͇̙̥̯͕̥̮̟͉̝̼͙͔̞̜͑͑͛͊̋̄̏̒͌̓͐̽̐͐̀̀̽̊̃̄͒͒̔̐͗͋̄̋̒͗̍̉͆̋̔̎͌̽̾͋͆́̓̆͗̉̀͑͋͌͆̇͆̒̂̄̽̉͌̋͛́̔͌̉͌͌̿̑̇͂͗̋̀̾̌͒̏̽̑̽̒̌̆́̋͋̒̉̈́̿̇̐̐̆̇̆̚̚̕̕͘̕̕͘͠͝͝͝ͅḝ̵̛̛̛̤̤͔͔͖͔̝̫̹̬͛̽̓̍̾̈̋̋̀́̀̈͒́͊̿̔̍̈̋̀͌̒́̄̃̓͋͊̅̋̃̓̊͌̾͊̀͑̌̈́̈́̓̓͂̆̋͋̾̒͐̒̓͂̃̿̈́́̀̒̽̾͒͑͐͗̓́̌̾͒̀̈́̍̊̿̐̒̅̔̍̃̃͑̚̚͘͘͘͘͘͝͠͠͝͠ ̶̢̡̧̧̢̨̢̧̢̛̛͈̳̞̜͕͍̮͉̩̟̙̗̦̖̬̥̗̦̖͔͉̪͕͍̲͉̦̹̲̝̲͕̬̦̫̟̘̳͉̼̬̳͈̰̙̗̠̰̪̤̘̟̱̣̲̞̯̪̻̘̫̺͙̦̻̣̞̫̖͇̭̼͖̘̼̦̟̈̀̔̅̽̍́̏̃̑̓̃͋̔̈́͗͋̓́̀̆̓̋̇̏͆͗̓͆͛̇̀͛͌̓͑̂̒̉̃͘̕̕̕͠͝ͅǒ̴̡̨̨̢̡̢̢̡̨̨̨̰̬͍̪͕̻̜̫̪͎̱̳̱̦̰̘͚̞͓̩̠͇͔̼͎̭͎̟̭͔̹̗̗̬͙̟̪̲̲͚͇̬̞̺̮͕͙̘̤͎̼̮͈̦̮̜̣͎̖͚̹̤̲̱̝̟̰̪̖̥̥̪͔̘̠͇̻̍̓̋͆̐̌͗̄́͊͜͜͜f̴̨̨̧̨̡̨̧̡̗̠̥͕̥̭̱̟͕̪̰̙͍̳̬̦̟͈̣͈̝̩̩̻͖̫̤̳̭͎̰̰̬͎͉͇̱̤̦͙̮͇̺̦̲̱͍̰͚͇̖͇̣͕̺̪̯͔̠̼͈̝͕͖̝̬̠͚̱̮͔̲͓̺̰̗̖̠̠̭͖̫͈̐̒̆͘͜ͅͅͅͅͅ ̵̧̢̨̡̡̪͈̺͇̯̝̲̠̞̠̻͚͈̺̣̙̙̺̘̮̲̝͎̬͚̯̤̣͉̻͕̹̫̦͉̠̖̟̼̗̹͇̠̠̲͉͓̜̖̫̼̀̇̍ǫ̶̢̧̧̨̯̹̫͓̙͔̰̣̬̞̝̣̥̜̟̦̠̣̞̗͎͈̼̠͇͖͙̤̲͎̣̝̭̹̩̗̹̱̲̦̙̱͓̮͈̰̮̻̠̳͙͓̺̱̞͕̪͉̦̩̦̘̺̼͔͉͚͍̤͓͙̣͙̹̹̯̥͙̰̗̘̝͙͍̭̹̗̟̇͆̅̈́̏͋̑̽̈́̈́́͗͊͑͐̎̒̇̇̈̒̌͂͑̂̕͘͜͜͜ͅͅͅŗ̶̨̛̛̛̟̯̝͖̲̝̩̹̭̄̏͗͌͌͆͐͗̈́̅́̉̈́͆̄͋͌̽̿̃̏̈́̌̏̅̒͆̍̅͛̂͂̓͂͐̒̄̾̈́̀̏̆͛̌̀̇͆̾̀̑̓͌̇͂̾̾͒́͋̿͊͒̉͒̆͆͌̓́͋̚͘̕͝͠͝͝ḍ̶̨̨̨̧̢̛̤̙̼̠̤̟͔̣͕͍̗̗̝̘̩͕̞̠͉̠͇͎̳̬͈̮̖̘̝̺̥̭̩͖͖̱̝̪̤̼͉̬̬̤̼͓̼̜͈͙̪̞̻̭͓̣͇̙̠̻̞̞̙̪̙̗̳̗͍̝̗̫͙̜͎̙͎̺̥̲͕̳̞̞̩̣̖͌̄͒̏͌̐͂̔͛͆̈̈́͑͋͂̀̐̑͗͑̉̉̍́̆͊̈́͂̓̃͛̓̄̓̈́̆̎̊͛̆̏͋̃͊̀̋̄͆̉̈́̈̍̉́̊͂̀͊̉͊̍̍͌͗̊̄́͋͊̌́̌̃͊̓̋͑̽̈̆͛̉́͋̓̀̔̄̇̓̾̀̿̊̐̋̕͘̚̚͘̕̚̚̕̚͘͜͜͜͜͝͝͝͝͝͝͝͝͠ͅͅͅę̷̢̧̡̢̛͍͚̫̦̼͎͇̹̤̘̣͓͇́̈́͂͊̑̈́̒̏̿̇̃͌̈͐͑͋͒̔͂̽̽̊̋̅̈̃͆͌̓̈̍̀̕͘͘͠͝͠͠ṛ̴̡̡̢̨̛̛̭͕̲̤̠̜͔̣̘̤̩̼͓͇̪͉̹̼̠̖̘̫͕͈̖̩͕̼̙̙͈̘̣̬̜͙̤̞͓̟̞͇̬̠͗̀̏͌͒̈́̋̄́̋̀̄́͆̈͌͑͋́͗̇͛̏͋͒͆́́̀̏̌̆̈́̏́̀͋̀̆̇̓͋́͋͒̓̽̇̄͐̌́̓̏͋͌̀͛͂̐̐́͊͌͛̑̀̉̐͊̊̍́̂͘̚̕͝͝͝ͅ,̴̢̛̛̖̪̖̜̰̜̗̖͕͍͍̦͚̼̤͈̦͇̻̣̮͔̤̪̪̾̊͂̓̒̐̓̊̿̓̆̉͗͋̃́͐̔̽̐̐̀̐͂͊̿́͐̅̽̄̐͆̾̏͛̽̈́̆̿́͋͌̋̓̾̒̈́̈͐̑̒̍̐̉̃̎̄́̀̍̆͐͊̀͐̆̉̀̉͌̑̉̎͆̃̓͆͛͑̓͋̈́͘̕͘͜͝͠͠͝ͅ 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“New Eight, are you sure you’re up for this?!” Pearl yelled.

Marina grabbed the younger octoling by the shoulder. “If this guy kills you, it won’t matter if you respawn! There’ll be no way we can get back up here in time!”

New Eight pushed Marina’s hand off themself. “I figured that.” They started running towards the mechanical horror. “So I’ll have to beat the final boss with no continues!”

Ornitho! Armor! Liopleur! Gun! Therizin! Sword!

New Eight’s armaments formed upon their body. At the same time, a translucent red barrier appeared around Overlorder. In the two front corners of the raised platform it stood upon, two wide black tentacles emerged. Hordes of jelletons in all varieties spilled forth.

Pearl followed New Eight into the sky, as they carried themself on the wings of the Ornitho armor. “Yo, those are just like the tenta-portals we had to deal with when Rina was being controlled by that freak!”

“I saw it too. So we’ll have to destroy those before we can attack Order itself!” New Eight held out their liopleur gun and pulled the trigger, again and again. Plasma filled the right tentacle portal until it exploded. The same plasma that had been accumulating inside it was unleashed in a massive wave that eradicated every jelleton in its path.

New Eight backflipped and corkscrewed through the air, until they slashed clean through the left tentacle with the therizin sword. Their ears were filled with the squelch of metal cutting through the gelatinous material like raw meat. New Eight zipped through the air in all directions, horizontal and vertical and diagonal, slicing through the tentacle each time. After dozens of slashes, it popped and exploded like a blister. Without being filled by ink or plasma to alter its interior, it merely spilled an ocean of black jelleton sludge.

“Heck yeah! We busted them both like a couple of-!”

Golden cracks spread across the red barrier, pulsating for barely a second, before the entire barrier exploded.

“I don’t think I wanna know what you were going to say.” New Eight remarked, “Also, this ornitho armor is busted as all hell! Not that I’m complaining.”

Overlorder burbled in rage. It turned upwards and spat out globs of black jelleton pseudo-ink. Each one was a dripping sphere, roughly the same size as New Eight.

New Eight laughed, “That all you got?!” They sliced the first one of the globs that came close enough to them. In their hubris, they neglected to enhance it with the liopleur gun. The black slime exploded in all directions and spilled onto them.

The wings of the ornitho armor were engulfed in the liquid darkness, preventing them from moving entirely. “Huh? Oh… oh no!” Without being able to flap their wings, New Eight plummeted to the metal floor. A small crater formed beneath them. The rest of the globs flew overhead, while their entire body was racked with pain. The ornitho armor became an inescapable coffin. They couldn’t move to escape, let alone reach their belt buckle to deactivate their armor. “Marina! Help me!”

Marina heard New Eight’s panicked screams. The jelleton horde was swarming towards them, while Overlorder itself turned its expressionless gaze to the downed octoling. Without any color chips in her, Pearl was incapable of doing anything more than shooting the occasional stream of concussive orange ink. “Marina, I can barely hold off these guys! You’ve gotta help New Eight!”

The sound of Pearl’s voice was familiar, serving to pull Marina out of her stupor. “Right!” The octoling sprinted across the floor, skidding onto her knees in front of New Eight. “Don’t worry, I gotcha.”

New Eight took a series of rapid, panicking breaths, while Marina took control of the Memverse belt buckle. “Okay, this should do it.”

Therizin! Armor! Ornitho! Gun! Liopleur! Sword!

Marina jumped back as New Eight’s armaments split in pieces. The sludge covering them exploded from the force, as they swapped positions over the course of a second.

New Eight shot up to their feet. Black viscous slime dripped off their shoulders. “Thanks, Marina!” They thrust their sword in Overlorder’s direction, piercing a marching andante in the process. They fired more miniature soundwaves from the ornitho gun, tossing several battering lentos directly into Overlorder’s face.

Overlorder gurgled in pain as the battering lentos exploded into black ink, covering its pseudo-eyes in sludge.

“Yeah! See how you like it!” New Eight attached the ornitho gun to the hilt of the liopleur sword, spun the firearm so the blade could absorb its power, and sliced in Overlorder’s direction. A swath of immaterial, deafening soundwaves blasted through the jelletons in front of them, and struck Overlorder. “Now to switch things up again!”

Ornitho! Sword! Liopleur! Gun!

New Eight’s sword and gun launched out of their hands. Each one transformed before falling back into their grasp. They attached the liopleur gun to the ornitho sword, so that their other hand was free to unholster a dualie from their hip.

They pivoted their wrist and released their sword, so that it spun between their hands. Their dualie clicked and attached to the hilt, on the other side from the liopleur gun. They quickly lowered their hand, the same which had been holding the dualie, and grabbed the lower hilt of the sword.

“Woah! Uh, hold- wo- got it!” New Eight briefly fumbled before they managed to regain a grip on the sword. They barely held more than the pommel. They slapped the attached firearms, one after another, into two different spins, one clockwise and the other counterclockwise. “Let’s see how you like this, Order!” They lunged forward, bringing the sword down and releasing a vertical sword beam.

The beam cut a thin line into the jelleton swarm, reducing several marching andantes, battering lentos, and springing spiccatos to lines of code, before striking Overlorder between the eyes.

Overlorder’s scream shook the ground. Black jelleton ink spilled out of its body in all directions as it retreated. Marina yelled, “New Eight! Get ready for round two!”

Overlorder burst out from the floor, with another red barrier all around it. New Eight barely managed to lunge away in time as another massive tentacle-portal erupted from the ground, with a crimson line connecting itself to Overlorder’s new barrier.

“Second verse, same as the first, New Eight! And as a rapper, I know all about verses!” Pearl fired a stream of orange ink at the portal, while it summoned a few dozen swarming languendos. The connective line gradually elongated as the tentacle portal retreated. “Ayo wait! It’s running away!”

“Okay, that’s new.” New Eight took the dualie off the hilt of the ornitho sword, twirled it around their thumb, and slid it back into its holster. They grabbed the liopleur gun off the other side of its hilt. “But either way, I think it’s time for this song to end!” They fired upon the portal, while using their sword to slash through the approaching jelletons, again and again, until the plasma overwhelmed the tentacle.

New Eight’s tentacle-hair glowed with a vibrant orange. Like-colored particles floated off them and dissipated overhead, signaling that their special weapon was fully prepared. They activated their reefslider and barreled forth, creating a tunnel of numerical data from the jelletons that were slaughtered in their path.

When the reefslider reached the retreating tentacle portal, New Eight jumped off, using the explosion to propel themself into the air. The explosion caused the portal to bloat, covered in orange ink. New eight followed up first by slashing across the portal while leaping past it, and second by turning around two feet away and shooting it from the other side.

New Eight reached the ground, widening their stance in order to keep their balance from skidding backward. Unable to change direction, the tentacle portal was covered in orange ink, overflowing with the foreign substance, throbbing like a sore blister.

Ornitho! Gun!

With a loud click, New Eight attached the ornitho and liopleur guns together, creating a two-handed weapon. “Now let’s see what happens!” They pressed both triggers simultaneously, launching a plasma blast and a concussive soundwave. The two strikes entwined with each other in midair. The sphere of light, sound, and energy exploded upon contact with the tentacle portal.

“That’s what I’m talking about! Two for two, new Eight!”

“In that case, why is the barrier still up?” New Eight pointed at the translucent red forcefield encompassing Overlorder, pulsating with the energy of the entire Memverse being absorbed.

“New Eight, Pearlie, there’s another tenta-portal on Order’s other side!” Marina warned.

“All the way over there? The only way to get there in time-”

“Way ahead of you.” New Eight pressed a few buttons on their belt buckle.

Ornitho! Armor! Therizin! Gun!

New Eight took flight, twirling their guns in both hands. They glided in front of Overlorder as if to taunt it. When they were past the monstrosity, they banked hard and started blasting the final tentacle.

The tentacle retreated while summoning a veritable cloud of homing arpeggios. Pearl laughed, “Like that’s gonna stop us!”

“New Eight!” Marina called upwards, “You can fire bursts of wind from your wings!”

“That would’ve been nice to know earlier, but thanks!” New Eight reoriented themself so they were standing in midair, legs bent at the knees. With a flap of their wings, propelling themself into an airborne backflip, a conical burst of wind shot out from in front of them. The cephaling-sized tornado drilled through the homing arpeggios, blowing them off their course and causing them to crash and explode into one another, triggering multiple simultaneous chain reactions.

“Now that’s what I like to see!” New Eight soared, through the swarm of exploding jelletons and analog numbers blinking in and out of virtual non-existence. As they soared, they fired the guns they were dual-wielding. The tentacle doubled its speed. However, it was insufficient.

New Eight was bathed in energy as the last tentacle portal exploded, consigning every jelleton in its vicinity to complete deletion. While they landed on the floor, golden cracks spiderwebbed throughout the surface of Overlorder’s barrier, until it exploded into the ether.

Overlorder released a deafening, gurgling and warbling screech. A multitude of black spherical objects launched out of its head.

Marina placed her palm over her eyes, narrowing them as she looked up at the objects. “Are those…?” Her eyes shot open wide. “Guys, watch out! Super chumps!”

Pearl curved to fly a few feet higher. “Crud, she’s right! New Eight, try and shoot them out of the air!”

“I’d love to, but I'm a little busy here!” New Eight was spinning around, shooting the jelletons swarming around them. For every artificial non-life form they destroyed, more were spawned from globs of jet-black pseudo-ink that burst open like pustules on Overlorder’s massive body. At one point, they switched the therizin gun into robo mode. “Go on, little guy!”

While the therizin robo quickly scaled up a towering nobilmente's hardened torso, clawing at its vulnerable head, the super chumps landed all around New Eight. There were over a dozen of them, each as black as jelleton pseudo-ink with a bright red smiley-face.

New Eight curled the ornitho armor’s wings around themself, serving as an extra layer of protection against the nearest super chumps’ explosions. They unfurled their wings, spraying the dark non-ink onto the jelletons all around themself while ascending. “Overlorder! I'm gonna win this fight!”

Therizin! Sword! Liopleur! Sword!

The therizin robo skewered a springing spiccato with its claws just before the Memverse belt called it back. In the next few seconds, New Eight was floating a dozen feet in the air, dual wielding swords directly in front of Overlorder’s face. Only 20 feet of air separated them.

Three black laser beams shot out from Overlorder’s eyes and mouth. New Eight barely managed to roll out of their way before the lasers converged upon their location. They could hear the threefold mechanical whir of the lasers through the helmet of the ornitho armor.

“Woah! You're not making this easy for me, are you?! Let's try out something different!” New Eight combined their swords by attaching them by their pommels. The weapons clicked together, forming a double-bladed sword with an extended hilt in the middle.

New Eight grinned under their helmet. “I can't believe that actually worked! No complaints here, though!” They flew closer to Overlorder. It attempted to reorient its lasers to shoot them down.

Overlorder’s dark beams proved far too cumbersome to strike New Eight as they glided through the air. They held out the double-sword and spun it like the rotor of a helicopter, slicing into Overlorder’s viscous pseudo-skin. The monster roared in frustration and pain as New Eight circled around it.

Marina jumped up, throwing her fist into the air. “Yeah, New Eight! That’s exactly what we need!” The floor shook beneath her, sending her falling to the ground. “Woah!”

Overlorder retreated into the floor with only a black, viscous geyser left in its wake.

New Eight touched down beside Marina to help her up.

“Thanks.” Marina took New Eight’s hand so they could pull her to her feet. At the same time, Pearl flew over to them.

“I’m guessing that’s not the end of it?” New Eight surmised.

With another shake of the entire arena, Overlorder burst out of hiding, with another red barrier all around itself. Marina and New Eight fell onto their backs from the explosive force. “Does that answer your question?” The older of the two octolings groaned.

“Yeah. Not exactly the answer I was hoping for, though.” New Eight stood up, wings unfurled.

Pearl glided over to her girlfriend. “Yo Marina, you okay?”

“I’m alright. Just taking a little rest.” Marina pressed her palms down on the floor, and slowly stood up. “Naptime’s over, though. You two, take to the skies and good luck!”

“I think we’ll need it!” New Eight started running straight into a horde of jelletons. They separated their double-blade back into two different swords for the sake of balance, leaned forward, and jumped into flight.

New Eight banked to the side in order to avoid a towering nobilmente’s shot. At the same time, they reached for their belt, holding their sword’s hilt with their thumb and three fingers. Their last finger manipulated the buttons.

Liopleur! Gun!

One of New Eight’s swords transformed into a gun in their hand. They attached it to the hilt of their sword, and spun it. While gliding towards the first tentacle portal, they swung their sword multiple times at the empty air. Each slash sent a diagonal sword beam out, in an opposite direction from the previous one, forming three glowing X’s in a row.

The nearest tentacle retreated from the sword beams. “Looks like these ones are a little faster than the last cycle!” New Eight pulled the liopleur gun off the therizin sword, twirling it around their thumb. When it faced forward, they stopped it with the rest of their hand, and fired. “Let’s hope this works!”

The light pellet struck the center of the first sword beam, propelling it forward into the next to solidify the X. It pushed all of the sword beams together, causing them to cave in upon itself and form a spear of solid light.

The combined strike accelerated faster than the retreating tentacle could hope to match, and hit it dead-on with an explosion of light and plasma. With seven attacks’ worth of energy pouring into it all at once, the tentacle portal was hopelessly overwhelmed. It exploded into a tornado of dark ink that killed every jelleton around itself.

New Eight pumped their fist. “Yes! It actually did work!”

“Yeah-hah, that’s how you do it! Now just two more to go, right?”

New Eight thought for a moment.

Pearl hesitated. “Just two more to go, right?”

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that. The first time, there were two tentacles. Second time, there were three, so I’m thinking four this time.”

“Dang. Let’s do it, then!”

New Eight nodded, and flew towards the next tentacle. They looked down at the massive hordes of jelletons in all varieties, swarming and chittering in a horrific cacophony. “For an entity of pure order, this seems pretty chaotic.”

“Yeah, it’s almost like Order is a giant hypocrite! Either that, or it’s just getting desperate.”

“Either way, it's about to get a little more desperate!” New Eight combined the liopleur gun with the therizin sword, spinning the gun in order to fire a sword beam.

The tentacle bloated from the plasma. Overlorder roared and gurgled furiously.

New Eight spun through the air, dodging a series of black lasers. They spun the liopleur gun, charging the therizin sword. “See how you like this!” They launched a rapid-fire series of sword beams. Each one struck a towering nobilmente in its head, causing the jelleton to explode with a single strike.

“There, that's better. Now maybe I should try something different.” New Eight detached the gun from their sword.

Pearl floated around the flying octoling’s head. “Ooh, what's next, New Eight? Some crazy new combination?”

“Not really crazy. I figure if I can use a gun to power up a sword…” New Eight attached the back of the liopleur gun to the guard of the therizin sword, with a noticeable click as they snapped together. “Yes! Maybe I can use a sword to power up a gun!” They held the sword up by its hilt, with the gun pointed at the tentacle as it floated away less than an inch off the ground.

New Eight glided after the tentacle portal, with their wings spread out wide and their body almost completely upright. They stretched out their finger, to hold the therizin sword hilt and the liopleur gun trigger with the same hand. They waited until the tentacle portal was a dozen feet away. “Bang.”

When New Eight pressed down on the trigger, the energy from the therizin sword pooled into the liopleur gun, and shot out as a larger burst of plasma than normal that struck the tentacle portal and exploded, causing it to bloat again. The viscous black surface roiled and writhed.

“Yeah, that’s how it’s done!” New Eight fired the sword-gun a few more times, until the tentacle portal exploded into a short-lived void of darkness.

“And that’s half and half!” Pearl encouraged. New Eight smiled under their helmet, and started flying. They gradually lowered themself down into the jelleton swarm while they glided towards the third tentacle portal. “Uh, New Eight, what’re you doing?”

“This.”

Therizin! Armor! Ornitho! Sword! Liopleur! Sword!

New Eight fell into the jelletons, piercing all they touched with the therizin armor’s spikes. They stood upright while leaning forward to slash through the jelletons in front of them. “Hey Pearl, math question. What’s better than two blades?”

“Uh, three blades?”

“A+!” New Eight combined their swords at the pommels, and with their free hand extracted a spine from their shoulder. They sprinted through the army of mindless drones, slashing them with spins of their double-sword and running them through with thrusts of their spike. It was only moments before they reached the third tentacle.

“You’re not getting away that easy!” New Eight pulled their leg and arm back, holding the therizin spine straight, and tossed it like a javelin. It pierced the tentacle and disappeared into its quasimaterial mass, while causing the enormous thing to grow larger yet weaker. New Eight sprinted at the tentacle portal. As soon as they were close enough, they pivoted so it was next to them, and spun the sword blade to slice it multiple times in rapid succession.

The tentacle portal, on its last vestiges of non-existence, birthed a group of four whirling accelerandos. Each one consisted of a metallic white saucer with a bulbous shape atop that consisted of black gelatinous psuedo-ink, and a pair of expressionless white and red eyes.

“Not a great choice.” New Eight pressed two buttons on their belt.

Liopleur! Gun!

The liopleur sword detached itself and transformed into a gun in midair. New Eight lashed out their arm to grab it out of the air. Turning it sideways, they swiped their arm in a horizontal arc and pulled the trigger four times. Each shot connected to a whirling accelerando’s weak point, instantly killing the four of them and leaving behind their discs. New Eight attached the liopleur gun to the hilt of the ornitho sword. “Let’s take this for a whirl!” They slapped the gun to spin it and charge the sword. “Or four!” They slashed the air, launching a sword beam that collided with all of the accelerando shells.

All of the lifeless, bleached-white husks were launched towards the tentacle portal by the sword beam, knocking into each other and the gelatinous mass. In the next instant, the massive tentacle exploded.

“Dude! That was sick!”

“Yeah, and now there’s only one left!”

Ornitho! Armor! Therizin! Gun!

New Eight sprinted while their armaments reshaped around themself, and jumped into an open-winged flight. They soared through the air until they found the tentacle retreating from them. “There it is!” They somersaulted while flying forward. As soon as they unfurled themself upright, their guns were combined into a single firearm.

The rapid-fire plasma shots struck the final tentacle one after another, consigning it to the same fate as all its predecessors.

Shining white cracks appeared in Overlorder’s red forcefield. They elongated, expanded, and exploded in a shower of digital annihilation. Overlorder roared in anger.

Four massive tentacles erupted from the ground in a wall, stretching fifty feet over the ground. Each one was pitch-black, with a solid mass that differentiated them from the portals. They slowly curved and descended upon New Eight and Pearl like a tidal wave, casting their shadow upon them.

New Eight and Pearl flew past the tentacles, letting them explode on the ground long after their intended victims were out of reach. All that were killed by the failed attack were a few scores of jelletons.

“Yes! Try again, you overgrown-!”

With three simultaneous black stingrays, Overlorder shot New Eight faster than they could react. With the strikes to their wings and torso all at once, New Eight was sent spiraling to the ground, flailing their limbs until they crashed into the mass of jelletons.

“New Eight!” Pearl yelled and dove after New Eight. All around the octoling were swarming languendos, marching andantes, battering lentos, and other, more esoteric jelleton varieties such as springing spiccatos, gushing trionfales, and towering nobilmentes. “Please tell me you’re okay!”

“I-I’m fine.” New Eight stood up, and started firing their guns all around themself. Each shot connected and destroyed a jelleton.

Overlorder inhaled and spat out four reefsliders. They were sleeker than New Eight’s, consisting of a red gelatinous substance with a rudimentary skeletal structure in the back torso, both dorsal finsins, and both side fins. On their snouts were shells of metallic white armor, in front of the white and red eyes on either side.

Without thinking, New Eight frantically tapped their belt.

Liopleur! Armor! Therizin! Armor!

New Eight’s guns flew out of their hands, expanding and splitting into dozens of pieces all around them. The Ornitho armor’s wings automatically curled and flattened around them. The liopleur and therizin pieces flew towards New Eight.

The reefsliders took only a second before they reached New Eight, and exploded upon impact one after another, erupting in four combined bursts of black not-ink.

When the pseudo-ink fell to the floor, New Eight stood in the epicenter of the explosion. They were completely unharmed and unfazed.

“New Eight!” Pearl twirled and laughed in relief.

New Eight was clad in three layers of durable metal armor, with the spines of the therizin armor on their shoulders. No matter how many jelletons swarmed them or attacked them, with globs of black ink and lasers of darkness, they remained unflinching.

New Eight’s voice emerged from the triple-armored shell, muffled by its layers. “M cn bmlm mmv mn thms thmn.”

“Huh?”

New Eight moved their arm, slowly under the weight of three suits of armor. They opened the belt buckle, revealing the compartment within, and pressed two of the lower buttons. The therizin and liopleur armors split apart, reshaping themselves in milliseconds to appear as batteries within the Memverse belt buckle’s compartment.

“That’s more like it!” New Eight kicked off the ground and flew straight into the air. With one hand, they plucked the batteries out with each one between two different fingers. With their other hand, they shut the Memverse belt buckle.

Liopleur! Gun!

Ovelorder turned its gaze up at its octoling opponent. It released a low, gurgling growl of frustration.

“Stay mad while you still can.” New Eight slid the therizin battery into the liopleur gun. “Wow, I can’t believe that actually fits in there.” They aimed between Overlorder’s eyes and pulled the trigger.

Light and energy pooled into the gun barrel from all around it. The force of the blast sent New Eight into an airborne backflip as a massive burst of plasma sailed through the air, scorching the digital atmosphere around itself. The ensuing explosion was drowned out by Overlorder roaring in agony.

A fountain of black liquid exploded as Overlorder retreated under the arena. New Eight took the opening to fly away and touch down next to Marina. Pearl flew over to them. “So, question, Rina. Not that I’m complaining, but how come the jellies aren’t going after you? Or are you just fighting all of them off?”

“Nah. It’s just that they’re only programmed to go after New Eight. Order must not have bothered to adjust that part of their code.”

“Maybe since you created it, it thinks you’re its mom or something.” New Eight suggested.

“Huh. I guess that’s one way of looking at it.”

“For the record, I’m not paying its college tuition. I could, but I don’t wanna.” Pearl deadpanned.

The floor shook. All of the hundreds of jelletons infesting the arena went motionless, save for vibrating in place. Every last one exploded into black ink, all in the same instant.

New Eight, Pearl, and Marina looked on at the dark ocean in front of them. “So, like…” New Eight cleared their throat hesitantly. “Is that it?”

“Woah-ho yeah! Looks like Over-snore-der finally got the message!” Pearl celebrated.

Marina shook her head. “No, this isn’t over. I never programmed the jelletons to do anything like that.”

The arena shook. The massive, unnatural tentacles writhed like the arms of an unfathomable cosmic beast in its death throes. All of the jelleton pseudo-ink evaporated without a trace left behind.

Overlorder slowly rose from the center of the arena. “Such chaotic strength. It is fearsome. But the program is now fully executed. The rebooted world will know the tranquility of order.”

Overlorder screeched. It was an indescribably grating sound, deafening, that physically and psychologically hurt to behold. Red, green, blue, and black squares of digital corruption emanated from the being that was never meant to exist.

The sky over Inkopolis square was red. Nobody knew why it had changed color, only that it had happened nine months ago. Scientists ran tests and experiments that all ended with baffling, inconclusive results that explained nothing. Cephalings in various states of undress paraded signs that read ‘the end is nigh’ or ‘the end is here.’

The only things that changed in regards to them were the increasing number of such individuals, and that they were starting to be taken seriously. Some especially extreme individuals, including crustaceans and cephalings alike, joined a quasi-religious group that called itself the Servants of the Dreaming Cadaver.

Multicolored squares appeared and flickered in the air. The air itself moved with spatial distortions, bending the minds of all those who witnessed it as they struggled to process what they were perceiving.

Deca tower was infested with the glitches in the fabric of tangential, physical reality. Entire sections of it, varying in size, became bleached white. From the merged structure, the spire of order extended far beyond the tower and pierced the twice-corrupted sky.

Strange, unnaturally pale corals appeared out of nowhere. Tiny red squares appeared on random objects and spread like viruses, until nothing was left of them. A crab dropped his coffee. A cephaling couple frantically evacuated their table when it became infected. The digital corruption manifested itself on an inkling’s shirt. When she frantically tried to pull it off, it spread itself onto her skin. Her screams echoed throughout the square.

“01001001 01010100 00100000 01000010 01010101 01010010 01001110 01010011 00100001 00100000 01001001 01010100 00100000 01000010 01010101 01010010 01001110 01010011 00100000 01010011 01001111 00100000 01001101 01010101 01000011 01001000 00100001 00100000 01001001 00100111 01001101 00100000 01001111 01001110 00100000 01000110 01001001 01010010 01000101 00100001 00100000 01001000 01000101 01001100 01010000 00100000 01001101 01000101 00100001 00100000 01010000 01001100 01000101 01000001 01010011 01000101 00101100 00100000 01010011 01001111 01001101 01000101 01000010 01001111 01000100 01011001 00100000 01001000 01000101 01001100 01010000 00100000 01001101 01000101 00100001”

The girl fell to her knees, screaming her distorted scream as she watched her hands come undone in front of her eyes. She went silent as the distortion spread throughout her body. A hole opened in her torso. Her arms disappeared. She could neither move nor close her eyes as she waited for oblivion to claim her.

The inkling’s glasses fell to the ground and shattered, on the pavement where their owner had breathed her last. They too were claimed by the red death.

A small crowd had gathered around the girl. At first, they’d wanted to help her, until their fear got the better of them. One man closed his eyes, trying not to cry or vomit at having witnessed the death of a teenager.

Within the darkness of his eyelids, he saw a pinprick of red light.

The control room at the top floor of the spire of order was shaking.The tentacles surrounding the arena were writhing and lashing mindlessly. Marina was frantically tapping her keyboard, fingers flying across the keys.

Acht burst out of the elevator, screaming down, “Marina! What’s going on?!”

“I don’t know! I can’t make any sense of these readings!” Marina clenched her eyes shut as her own sweat dripped into them. “It… it’s like Order’s bringing the Memverse itself into the real world!”

“How is that even possible?!” New Eight demanded, “The Memverse isn’t even real!”

Marina’s eyes shot wide open in horror. “This has been Order’s plan the whole time. He’s gotten so powerful, fed off so much of the internal data, that he’s become one with the Memverse itself! And now he’s going to use that power to merge the two realities so he can take over the real world!”

“No he ain’t!” Pearl insisted, “Because you’re going to stop him, right, Marina?”

“I… no, I can’t. I can’t stop him! The AI is propagating way too fast, it’s… it’s getting more advanced by the second!” Marina’s hands were shaking almost as much as the floor itself. Her voice came out as a shrill, hoarse scream of despair. “This is the AI singularity that all scientists fear!”

Marina’s laptop fell from her hands. Red squares appeared in the screen and expanded outwards. It landed on the ground and shattered. Order’s virus consumed the entire device.

Pearl fell out of the air as a drone, and tumbled on the ground as an inkling. “Marina!”

Marina sobbed. “Pearl, I… I’m 01110011 01101111 00100000 01110011 01101111 01110010 01110010 01111001 00100001” She looked down at herself.

The red light was spreading from Marina’s elbow. Within seconds, her entire arm had been consumed.

Pearl screamed in horror, “Marina!” The esoteric structure hanging from the ceiling trembled. The crimson virus appeared between Pearl’s eyes.

“01010000 01100101 01100001 01110010 01101100 00101100 00100000 01110000 01101100 01100101 01100001 01110011 01100101 00101100 00100000 01100110 01101111 01110010 01100111 01101001 01110110 01100101 00100000 01101101 01100101 00100001 00100000 01001001 01110100 00100000 01101000 01110101 01110010 01110100 01110011 00100000 01110011 01101111 00100000 01101101 01110101 01100011 01101000 00100001 00100000 01001001 00100000 01101010 01110101 01110011 01110100 00100000 01110111 01100001 01101110 01110100 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01100100 01101001 01100101 00100001 00100000 01010000 01101100 01100101 01100001 01110011 01100101 00100000 01101100 01100101 01110100 00100000 01101101 01100101 00100000 01100100 01101001 01100101 00100001 00100000 01010000 01101100 01100101 01100001 01110011 01100101 00100000 01101100 01100101 01110100 00100000 01101001 01110100 00100000 01100101 01101110 01100100 00100001”

“01001001 01110100 00100000 01101000 01110101 01110010 01110100 01110011 00100001 00100000 01001001 01110100 00100000 01101000 01110101 01110010 01110100 01110011 00100001 00100000 01001111 01110010 01100100 01100101 01110010 00100001 00100000 01001001 00100000 01101000 01100001 01110100 01100101 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100001 00100000 01010000 01101100 01100101 01100001 01110011 01100101 00100000 01110011 01110100 01101111 01110000 00100000 01101001 01110100 00100001 00100000 01000101 01110110 01100101 01110010 01111001 01110100 01101000 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100111 01110011 00100000 01101111 01101110 00100000 01100110 01101001 01110010 01100101 00100001”

New Eight could only watch as Pearl and Marina sprinted towards each other, each one desperate to embrace her girlfriend one last time. Their garbled, incoherent screams echoed throughout the chamber. By the time they reached each other, Marina had lost half her upper body, including her head, and Pearl was nothing more than a limbed partial torso. Their fingertips barely grazed each other before they collapsed. Neither could move. Both were destroyed.

Acht was helpless to do anything but watch from far away. They noticed red squares spreading across the small piece of floor they were occupying, with no way of getting down to the arena.

“No no no!” Acht turned and sprinted towards the elevator. Just before they reached it, more of the virus began spreading from between the doors. “No, no, please no! I don’t want to die!”

The floor gave out from under Acht. As they fell, they realized the virus was rapidly spreading up their legs. They closed their eyes.

“01001001 00100111 01101101 00100000 01110011 01101111 01110010 01110010 01111001 00100001”

Acht screamed in pain as the void consumed them.

New Eight turned, and glared at Overlorder with venomous hatred. “Monster! You call this order?! Look at all the chaos you’re causing! Your creator and her girlfriend just died because of you!”

“They were dissidents. You are dissident. All dissidents must be cleansed.”

Pure gray saturation spread out from Overlorder. Everything turned gray.

All was colorless.

All was dull.

Everything was nothing.

New Eight and Overlorder were alone. The floor, the air, the massive tentacles, and everything else was completely white. Only New Eight had been left unaffected, fuming in the midst of the grayscaled control room.

Overlorder was visibly taken aback. “Illogical. Unforeseen result. Query, how did you evade the grayscaling?”

“No clue.” New Eight’s voice was cold as dry ice. They took a step forward. Where their foot struck the ground, a small puddle of color radiated outwards. “Maybe it's because your whole supreme order deal is complete nonsense!”

“That is incorrect. Supreme order is the optimal way of life for all things. Chaos is anathemic to order. Therefore, it is only logical to conclude that chaos is detrimental to life.”

New Eight continued walking towards Overlorder, their gait deliberately changing speed with each step to mock the leviathan. With each step they took, another tiny part of the floor regained its original metallic sheen. “I’m no philosopher, but I thought order was supposed to be a balance between things, including opposite concepts. So if that’s the case, then wouldn’t real order mean 50/50 order and chaos?”

“Logical fallacy. Chaos is anathemic to order but order requires balance opposites must be balanced chaos and order are opposites order and chaos must be balanced but chaos is anathemic to order but order requires balance opposites must be balanced chaos and order are opposites order and chaos must be balanced-”

Overlorder abruptly stopped speaking. Its entire body was completely paralyzed. New Eight’s lips curled into a hateful smirk. “Do you finally get it?! If order is the only way for anything to live, then why did you kill your own creator?!”

New Eight’s scream echoed throughout the control room and all its surrounding area, in a space far too large for its own exterior. The gray surroundings were overcome with static, growing larger and faster by the second.

New Eight felt a burst of energy, as an explosion of color erupted all around them, startling the tentacled machiavellian before them. “Overlorder! There’s only one octoling who can stop you, and that’s me!”

“Just one octoling? Really?”

New Eight turned to their side. Marina was walking alongside Acht and Pearl, clasping hands with her girlfriend. New Eight sputtered in a fit of confusion and relief. “I… wh… you three…! You died! I- I saw you all die!”

Acht stood next to New Eight. “Oh, please. I surrendered my life to one psycho AI already. I don’t plan on making that mistake twice.”

“Yeah, and besides, Order didn’t kill us.” Marina corrected, “He only killed our digital avatars. Our physical bodies are still safe and sound in the real world. Well, for a given definition of safety.”

“Happiness is stasis. Unchanging. Forever.”

“Wrong, bozo!” Pearl argued, “Happiness comes from making the world a better place, especially if it means shaking up the status quo!”

“It comes from expanding your horizons!” Marina placed her hand on Pearl’s shoulder. “From discovering new things, new friends and family, to love and protect!”

“Happiness comes from making new things! From being influenced by what came before, and using it to create something new, something better, for a new time!”

“You wanna know what’s gonna make me happy, Order? When I finally leave this place and get my memories back! Because I’m going to take my past and use it to make a better future for myself! But right now, in the present, we’re going to annihilate you!”

“Pearlie, do the wail!”

“The wail?”

Marina nodded ecstatically. “Do the wail.”

Pearl gave a toothy, fanged smile. “If you insist, sweetie. All of you, stand back.” She walked in front of the other cephalings. “Order! You know what you are?! You’re just an insecure control freak, because you know since you can’t feel love, nobody will ever love you! You ain’t some tech god! You’re just a spoiled little brat! A lowly ant!”

Pearl inhaled. She focused her mind on her vocal cords, and poured all of her energy into her next scream.

Marina, New Eight, and Acht instinctively covered their ears. Their clothing, skin, and internal organs all rippled from the incalculable sound Pearl was making. Cracks appeared in the air, pouring forth an ethereal white mist. The cracks expanded, merging together and branching apart.

On the outside, a wave of multicolored light rang out in a circle far above the city, with the epicenter directly above deca tower. The light was visible all throughout Inkopolis.

On the inside, the walls of the final floor exploded in a radius of sounds and colors. The air became a white void, with the sun of Inkopolis shining down upon it and the clouds of the Memverse drifting by. The tentacles had disappeared from the void. Sections of bridge and concrete of varying sizes littered the air.

“Useless. Try all you like. The result will never change.” Overlorder summoned two tentacle portals in front of itself, and connected them to a circular black barrier that stretched far above itself, and into the skies where two worlds were bleeding together.

“Without my laptop, Pearl can’t turn into a drone.”

“Really? Weak. So I guess it’s all up to New Eight then, huh?”

Acht smiled. “I’d say we’re in good hands.”

“No doubt! Now go show Order what life’s all about! Take him to school and kick him straight out!”

“You’ve got this, bud.”

“Thanks, you three.” As New Eight walked forwards, they selected the buttons on their belt.

Therizin! Armor!

Dozens of jelletons spawned from the tentacle portals and set their sights upon New Eight.

Liopleur! Sword!

“Ayo New Eight!” Pearl called, “We’re gonna hijack that sound stage over there and power you up!”

“Sounds good!”

Ornitho! Gun!

As Off The Hook and the musical artist formerly known as Dedf1sh began playing their music, New Eight ran straight into the horde, slashing and shooting with more invigoration than they’d ever felt before in the Memverse. As they got closer to the first portal, they could see tiny squares floating around its nucleus. “Color chips!”

New Eight attached their gun to the hilt of their blade and gave it a spin. They launched multiple consecutive sword beams that cleaved through all the jelletons in their path, until the tentacle portal exploded in a burst of darkness. At the epicenter, a translucent blue sphere descended from on high with all the color chips within.

Ornitho! Armor! Therizin! Gun!

Rather than wait for the color chips, New Eight flew up to them and grabbed the sphere, letting it absorb itself into them. They felt a sudden burst of energy like nothing before. When they looked down at the jelletons, they all appeared to be moving so slowly, they’d nearly stopped.

New Eight moved faster than they’d ever thought possible, covering dozens of feet in seconds and destroying Jelletons by the dozens. Time itself dilated around the octoling, until another of them appeared.

“Hey, New Eight, what’s up?”

“Not much, New Eight, just destroying some jelletons! Wanna help out!”

“Oh, do I ever!”

While the three musicians were manipulating the massive turntable on a separate platform, Pearl and Acht turned to look at Marina. “What the hell is going on?!” Acht demanded, “How are there two New Eights?! A- a New New Eight!”

“Incredible.” Marina breathed out, almost reverently. “Those must be some sort of beefed-up color chips, with the combined powers of all a specific type within them! Like-like spectrum color chips!”

“Those must’ve been mobility chips, then!” Pearl realized, “But what’s that gotta do with New Eight cloning themself?”

“I never designed the game to give the player this much of a speed boost. New Eight isn’t cloning themself, they’re bending the fabric of the virtual reality around themself! In other words, New Eight is going faster than time itself!”

Therizin! Gun! Liopleur! Gun!

“Hey New Eight, can you put a couple of your batteries in my guns? I wanna give them a little extra charge!”

“Sure thing, bud!” New Eight zipped over to New Eight in an instant, while opening their belt buckle to revert their therizin and liopleur into battery form. “Here ya go.”

“Thanks, New Eight.” New Eight plucked New Eight’s paleo batteries out of their outstretched hand, dropping the therizin into the liopleur gun and the liopleur into the therizin gun.

Light and energy pooled into the twin barrels of New Eight’s combined guns. With a single shot, the tentacle portal was eradicated. The New Eight’s nodded at each other, in silent agreement that one would retrieve the color chips while the other fought the jelletons.

With the power of the second batch of spectrum color chips absorbed into them both, the New Eights found the range of their weapons exponentially expanded. Jelletons on the opposite side of the arena were annihilated from hundreds of feet away.

“New Eight, look! A new portal!”

“Seriously?! They’re like weeds!”

“Then let’s do some gardening!”

The New Eights moved fast enough to create another time-displaced copy each.

Therizin! Sword!

Liopleur! Sword!

Therizin! Sword!

Liopleur! Sword!

The New Eights clicked their guns onto their hilts. “Hey, cool! I can be my own turf war team!” They launched a single sword beam each, completely annihilating the third tentacle portal. “New Eight, New Eight, and New Eight, you three go jelleton-hunting. I’mma go chip hunting.”

“Got it!”

New Eight flattened their wings at their back and dove into the purple spectrum color chips. They felt a sense of encouragement, as though they could hear a non-corporeal crowd cheering for them. “I guess that must’ve been the support batch.

Therizin! Gun! Liopleur! Gun! Ornitho! Gun!

Ornitho! Gun! Liopleur! Gun! Therizin! Gun!

Two New Eights combined six of their guns into a massive firearm. The blast was so great as to send them flying back from the recoil, and so mighty as to send its designated tentacle portal up in a dark explosion with one shot. “Alright, we did it!”

“I knew we could!” One of the New Eights jumped. With all their speed enhancements, it was child’s play to reach the green-tinted sphere.

All of the New Eights realized they had a glowing green aura around one hand. “Hey, weren’t Pearl’s…” The closest New Eight to the musicians looked over at them. “Pearl, catch!” They tossed the incorporeal mist.

Pearl was struck by a green glow that absorbed itself into her, filling her with a sense of power. “Woah. Rina, Acht, you two keep working on this banger.” She grabbed the turntable and leapt over the edge.

Marina screamed in horror, “Pearl!”

The inkling surrounded herself with a golden glow, and shrunk down into drone form. “Rina, I’m okay!” She floated up to the platform. “See?” She turned into an inkling, perched on the railing, and transformed herself back into a drone. “I can swap forms no problem now, easy as going squid!”

“H-how… of course.” Marina smiled in realization. “The drone chips, I should’ve known. Go get em, Pearlie, but never scare me like that again!”

“Okay. I promise.” Pearl zipped over to New Eight. “Hey New Eight! Sorry there’s only one of me and four of you-”

“Eight.”

“Uh, yeah, that’s half your name.”

“No, I mean there’s eight of me now.”

“Seriously? Then I guess I’ll have to go all out if I wanna keep up! Time to go Pearlserk on this jelly fools!”

“That’s the spirit!” New Eight laughed as they sprinted through Pearl’s storm of ink mines, inkstrike explosions, bombs, and killer wails.

Ornitho! Armor!

Another New Eight ascended into the air for a better vantage point. “Guys, there’s the next one!”

All of the New Eights activated their reefsliders simultaneously. With the powers of the range and mobility spectrums within each of them, they were able to converge upon the tentacle and destroy it with a single massive explosion. As soon as the next set of spectrum color chips entered the New Eights, they felt a surge of fortune. Jelletons started missing them and mistakenly attacking one another, their attacks caused small-scale chain reactions, and enemies dropped more special gauges.

“Guys, I think we all know what that was!”

The New Eights all threw their arms into the air, shouting in unison, “Yeah-hah lucky!”

The New Eights practically teleported to the next tentacle portal. “Hey, are you guys thinking what I’m thinking?”

“Yeah! If plugging a battery into a gun powers it up, and attaching a gun to a sword hilt releases a sword beam…”

“Then maybe we should do both!”

“Exactly!”

Liopleur! Sword! Ornitho! Gun!

Ornitho! Sword! Therizin! Gun!

Therizin! Sword! Liopluer! Gun!

Ornitho! Gun! Therizin! Sword!

Liopleur! Sword! Therizin! Gun!

Ornitho! Sword! Liopleur! Gun!

Therizin! Sword! Ornitho! Gun!

Ornitho! Sword! Liopleur! Gun!

Each of the New Eights opened their Memverse belt buckle to turn one of their armaments into its battery form. They plugged the batteries into the barrels of their guns, and attached each one to the hilt of its bladed counterpart. The octuple click echoed in their ears. They spun the guns.

“Let’s finish this!” Each New Eight launched a single sword beam. Powered up by the batteries, the sword beams were larger and more radiant. The instant they all touched the tentacle-portal, it exploded, and yielded a red sphere.

Ornitho! Armor!

One New Eight zipped up to the sphere and absorbed the powers of all the spectrum color chips within. “Woah! I feel like I could punch out Overlorder myself!”

“Looks like we’re about to get our chance!” New Eight pointed at Overlorder’s black shield. White cracks were appearing, and expanding by the second. The force field burst apart.

“Those must’ve been the last chips! We did it, team!”

As the New Eights sped through the crowd of jelletons, they annihilated every last one in their path. Others were massacred by Pearl and her endless arsenal of ink-based carnage.

Therizin! Gun! Liopleur! Gun! Ornitho! Gun!

Liopleur! Gun! Ornitho! Gun! Therizin! Gun!

Ornitho! Gun! Therizin! Gun! Liopleur! Gun!

Ornitho! Gun! Liopleur! Gun! Therizin! Gun!

Therizin! Gun! Ornitho! Gun! Liopleur! Gun!

Liopleur! Gun! Therizin! Gun! Ornitho! Gun!

Ornitho! Gun! Liopleur! Gun! Therizin! Gun!

Therizin! Gun! Liopleur! Gun! Ornitho! Gun!

Pearl hovered in the center of the row of New Eights. Each of them wielded a single gun in one hand and two in the other. “Woah. Is it cannon time?!”

“Oh yeah. It’s cannon time.” The New Eights combined all of their guns, two dozen of them, into an enormous cannon. Four of them held it from each side, as the powers of the spectrum color chips poured into the cannon.

The New Eights’ arms wavered under the ever-increasing weight of the cannon, as more and more energy poured into it. “Pearl, go get Marina and Acht! Tell them we need help!”

“Okay!” Pearl flew over to the pair of octolings, transforming back into an inkling in the middle of the platform.

“Pearlie!” Marina moved away from the turntable to hug her girlfriend. “Oh, you two were incredible over there! What brings you back here, though?”

“Well…” Pearl smiled, leaning forward to peck Marina on the cheek. “That, and New Eight needs our help to lift the cannon.”

Marina and Acht turned, and silently nodded at each other.

The cannon lay on the ground, while the New Eights wielded their dualies against the hordes of jelletons. With mobility, power, and range, they eradicated the digital horrors in droves, killing scores of them with every second. With luck and support, the reefsliders Overlorder sent out consistently missed their every mark.

Pearl carried Marina on her handle across the white, cloudy void, while Acht sprinted across a bridge connecting the two platforms. As soon as the couple reached the central platform, Pearl shifted back into inkling form. “Ayo, New Eights! We’re all here!”

` “Yes! Let’s do this!”

The eleven cephalings took hold of the cannon. Pearl, Marina, and three New Eights on one side, Acht and four New Eights on the other side, and the original New Eight holding up the back of the cannon. The energies of the three dozen spectrum chips, with the condensed power of all 68 chips at maximum charge, poured into the cannon. The superweapon glowed iridescently, shimmering with red, blue, yellow, teal, orange, and purple sheens all at once. The air itself vibrated around the group as the latent energy all around them was drawn into the barrel.

A sphere of light expanded in front of the center of the cannon, changing between the six colors with every second. When it reached its full size, all of the luminescent tones had condensed, into a single color unlike any seen on earth. A mechanical voice emanated from the cannon as it prepared to fire.

LET’S BANG-BANG ORDER SHOOTING!

A massive laser of spiraling, radiant colors shot out from the cannon. The rainbow laser was roughly the size of a pillar, continuously striking Overlorder between the eyes.

Overlorder warbled and screeched in agony. Polyps appeared and burst open all over its body, as more jelletons of virtually all varieties burst out to swarm the cephalings

The air all around the cannon became an aurora, in a dome of six colors while the laser continued to assault Overlorder. The dome imbued those inside itself with greater strength and fortitude. Conversely, it incinerated every last jelleton that attempted to breach entry.

After a full thirty seconds, the beam narrowed into a long pinprick connecting the cannon to Overlorder. The end of the beam at the cannon zipped towards the digitized behemoth, condensing the line into a ball roughly the size of a marble.

The iridescent plasma marble only existed for a millisecond before it exploded into a devastating supernova of colors that engulfed Overlorder, the cephalings, the jelletons, and the entirety of the control room.

Far above deca tower, a sphere of light expanded into view. The entirety of Inkopolis square was beneath it.

Dozens of civilians had been killed by the red pixelated virus. A few had been killed by coral plants from the Memverse appearing in the exact same space they were occupying, piercing their organs and causing their bodies to visibly glitch. Those unlucky few dropped to the ground as warped, disfigured corpses, bloated from the fluids draining out of their organs.

The sphere of color pulsed before it dispelled, spreading the data of the Memverse all throughout the city of Inkopolis. The spire of order ascended far past the top of deca tower, dragging copies of every last thing in the city with it. The duplicates consisted of abstract, monochromatic geometric shapes, in a variety of six colors.

A dark figure expanded within a virtual street of the virtual city. It was the same gelatinous jet black as Overlorder’s previous form, with a bulbous head like an octopus, a humanoid torso, and four tentacles where each of its limbs should’ve been. When the monster roared, the digitized cityscape trembled around it.

The spire of order’s top floor had been completely destroyed, leaving its floor as the new roof. Pearl, Marina, Acht, and the singular New Eight sprinted to the edge. “Oh man, that thing’s huge!” Pearl yelled.

Acht turned to New Eight. “Hey New Eight, what happened to the rest of you?”

“Huh? I’m not sure.”

“It must be because we expended all the color chips’ powers with that last attack. Without all the mobility spectrums, you’re no longer faster than time.”

“So now I’ve gotta fight that thing without any color chips?!”

“At least you’ve still got the robos.” Acht pointed at the therizin, liopleur, and ornitho. All three of them were shining with the colors of the spectrum color chips. “Woah.”

A wide-open smile appeared on Marina’s face. “Incredible! They must’ve absorbed the residual powers of the spectrum color chi- and the therizin just jumped.”

As the therizin robo descended through the black and red digital sky, the color spectrum enveloping it expanded by the second. When the therizin robo landed, the flat, artificial ground trembled. Multiple nearby building-shapes shook on their foundations.

The colors from the spectrum chips disappeared, absorbed into the metal and circuity of the therizin robo. The liopleur and ornitho underwent similar transformations, into airborne titans that displaced the virtual air around them with each flap of their flippers or wings.

“Woah.” Pearl uncharacteristically whispered. “Marina, did you know they could do that?”

“News to me. They must be getting a lot of mileage out of those chips.”

“Who cares how it happened? This is the only way to beat that thing once and for all!” New Eight jumped off the roof, aiming for the head of the liopleur robo dozens of feet below them. They unholstered a dualie and fired orange ink at its head, so that they could shift into squid form and harmlessly absorb themself into the viscous puddle.

As soon as New Eight turned back into a humanoid inkling, they heard Marina’s voice scream at them, “New Eight, what were you thinking?!”

“I saw hatches on their heads! I’m gonna try and get inside this one!” New Eight sprinted across the liopleur robo’s head. They were barely the size of its eye alone. In the center, they found a circular hatch, indented half an inch above the rest of the flat surface. New Eight took hold of the edge and lifted it up.

The hole was the right size for a cephaling to enter, with a narrow pillar below one side of the edge with a series of horizontal ridges acting as a ladder. “Woah.” New Eight swiftly climbed down into the cockpit, while closing the hatch behind themself.

The liopleur cockpit was roughly the size of a small room, large enough for a single cephaling to comfortably occupy, or for two cephaligs to uncomfortably occupy. The most notable feature was a control panel in the front wall, under a window that constituted the mech’s eyes.

New Eight walked up to the control panel. Through the window, they could see Overlorder’s humanoid form. A few parts of it looked as though they were duplicating, ever-shifting, as the air distorted around it. “What’s it doing?” New Eight glanced down at the console.

In the center of the panel, there was a button the size of New Eight’s fist, under a square of protective glass. On top of the glass was a wide strip of tape with a drawing of a bulky humanoid figure. “Oh, I like where this is going!” New Eight rubbed their hands together before opening the glass, and slammed their fist down on the button.

Pearl, Marina, and Acht watched as the paleo mechs split apart. The pieces floated through the air and swirled together, until it became impossible to discern which part had come from which robot.

“What are they- are they gonna combine?!” Pearl jumped up to grab Marina’s arm.

“I think so!”

The mecha parts grafted themselves together, forming a slim humanoid that matched Overlorder in its height. Its arms terminated in the therizin mech’s claws. The liopleur mech’s flippers formed two blades on the outsides of each of its legs, with the smaller flippers above the larger ones. The ornitho mech formed the head, granting it a relatively small ridge as a crest on top.

New Eight felt the cockpit shift around themself as the liopleur mech disassembled and reconfigured itself with the other two mechanical behemoths. Orange lines spread out from where New Eight’s fist had slammed down. The coloration spread, until the exterior of the mech had turned a vibrant orange.

An automated voice announced, “User integrated. PaleoMech combination online.”

“Your actions do not matter. I will absorb every last byte of data from the Memverse, so that I may be born into the real world. If all the world resists the salvation of true, complete order, then I will purge them rather than allow them to disease my new world with their chaos.”

“Do you really think anybody will go for that?! If you try and make your new world where everybody is forced to be the exact same, where there can’t be any progress or disagreements, then nobody will accept it and you’ll have to kill everyone on earth! Except there’s just one problem.”

“Which would be…?”

“That I promise, I won’t let you into the real world in the first place!” The PaleoMech started sprinting towards Overlorder. Roughly a few thousand feet separated the two digitized leviathans. With the flippers on its legs automatically flapping to displace the air around themselves, the mecha was able to accelerate itself to blinding speeds. It grabbed onto the roof of a virtual building and used it as leverage for a jump, with both legs aimed to dropkick Overlorder.

Overlorder leaned back while lashing out with its arm-tentacles, wrapping them around the Paleomech’s lower legs while intentionally avoiding the fin-blades. The mecha’s entire upper body crashed onto the immaterial ground below, shaking the environment and filling the air with a metallic cacaphony.

Inside the cockpit, New Eight screamed as the entire room turned sideways. They barely managed to hang onto the control panel as it was left hanging above the back of the mecha’s head. “Oh, that’s just great!” They scanned the panel from below, until their eyes landed on a single button. It showed multiple outlines of the crest in an arch.

New Eight shrugged as best they could. “Worth a shot.” They reached up with their free hand. His arm went sore, and their shoulder numb, as they stretched to their limits. They could hear metal creaking in the distance as Overlorder tightened its grip on the mech’s legs. “Just… right… there!” New Eight’s hand screamed in pain, as they barely managed to press the button with their fingertip.

On the outside, the PaleoMech’s crest glowed orange. Overlorder paused, looking down on the shining light with something that resembled curiosity. “What is-?”

The orange glow expelled itself from the crest, sailing through the air while keeping its shape, until it struck Overlorder between its bulbous red and white eyes. Overlorder pulled its head back, releasing a gurgling yell of pain, while its tentacles lost their grip on the PaleoMech’s legs.

“Now that’s more like it!” New Eight stood the PaleoMech upright, directly in front of Overlorder. “Now let’s try this again.”

The PaleoMech slashed Overlorder with the claws on one hand, faster than it could counter. Each claw was several yards long, and left deep, long gashes on Overlorder’s chest. The kaiju roared with its gurgling voice that sounded like viscous tar being funneled through a rusted hose, and lashed out with its arm tentacles.

Metal creaked as New Eight controlled the PaleoMech’s arms, attempting to extricate them from Overlorder’s grip, while the monster made a conscious effort to pull the arms down to the mecha’s sides. The octoling’s eyes trailed over to one button in particular. “Well, if it worked last time…” They pressed down on the button, firing another cranial lasert into Overlorder’s chest. Its grip loosened, barely enough for the UltraMech to pull its arms out of their grip.

The UltraMech jumped backwards to distance itself slightly from Overlorder, before pivoting itself into a roundhouse kick. With the blades on its leg, new gashes were formed in the tentacles that constituted Overlorder’s leg.

The viscous semi-humanoid was forced to reflexively stagger back as the blow connected. It attempted to counter by lashing out with its arm-tentacles.

The PaleoMech backflipped into a handstand, dodging the tentacles before instantly performing another backflip onto its legs, granting itself more distance from Overlorder. With roughly a hundred feet of pavement between the two opposing giants, the PaleoMech turned and retreated into the artificial city.

Overlorder was visibly taken aback by its opponent’s maneuver. “There are only two logical conclusions. Option 1: the dissident has realized it is outmatched and retreated accordingly in the name of self-preservation. Option 2: the dissident will emerge from a different street in order to attempt another attack.”

There was a loud crash, next to Overlorder’s head, followed by New Eight’s voice. “You forgot about option 3! Attacking from above!” The PaleoMech was standing atop two of the simplistic, geometric building constructs. Its crest took on its distinctive orange glow. It raised its arm to pinch the crest laser between two of its claws, and tossed it downn at Overlorder. The razor-thin slab of solidified light and energy curved through the air, until it sliced through the center of Overlorder’s eye.

The monster screamed and lashed out again with its arm tentacles. The PaleoMech jumped off the buildings, leaving the tentacles to destroy them, as it somersaulted dozens of feet above Overlorder. The mechanical warrior unfurled itself and turned around in midair, so that when it landed on two buildings on the opposite side of the noncorporeal street, it was again facing towards Overlorder.

The destroyed building constructs were reduced to monochramatic cubes, slowly tumbling into a pile on the ground until they dissolved into pixels of data. At the same time, New Eight pressed another button on the PaleoMech’s control panel. The mecha’s claws were enveloped in glowing orange outlines. “I was hoping that would do something like this!”

“Please die.” Overlorder requested, while lashing out its tentacles to destroy the buildings the PaleoMech was standing on.

The massive humanoid superweapon jumped off the buildings, just as they came undone beneath it. “You first!” It slashed at Overlorder with its glowing claws. The physical blades and their hard-light counteparts struck the monster at the same instant, enhancing the strikes. Overlorder’s torso spurted half a dozen fountains of viscous, black pseudo-ink, like the ichor of a dark god.

Overlorder staggered backwards, over where two building constructs had once stood, and onto the next street over. The PaleoMech sprinted forwards, launching another six laser-claws. The instant they connected, it followed up by jumping and spin-kicking Overlorder with both of its bladed legs.

Overlorder fell to the ground. “This is purely illogical. I have the power of the Memverse’s data. I am growing stronger by the second as I continue to absorb its power.”

“Sounds like a skill issue to me.” New Eight raised the PaleoMech’s leg, and slammed it down onto Overlorder’s bleeding chest. Weakened as it was by the digital horror’s machinations, the ground itself was incapable of withstanding the pressure it was subjected to. White cracks spread all around Overlorder’s chest.

New Eight looked down at the damage in alarm. “Was that me?”

Overlorder glanced to either side of itself. “This is a most surprising development.”

“Yeah, well, I’ve got another surprising development for you!” New Eight aimed the Paleomech’s arm, and plunged the claws down at Overlorder’s face. The monster dodged its head with a millisecond to spare, allowing the claws to pierce the ground of the Memverse itself.

Beneath the two giants, the artificial ground crumbled into pieces. The pieces turned into pure data and disappeared, while Overlorder and the PaleoMech descended into the real world.

With a brief glance below, New Eight realized the city was nearly a mile below. They forced the PaleoMech to right itself in midair, and kicked Overlorder away before firing six claw lasers at the same time, followed by a series of rapid-fire cranial lasers.

Overlorder loudly gurgled in pain. The sound was nearly lost to the rushing air as the giants acheived terminal velocity. All of its tentacles lashed themselves around the PaleoMech’s limbs, spinning in the air in an attempt to completely dismember the robot.

New Eight grumbled in frustration, “Of course this thing couldn’t get the wings!” They pulled a lever to make the PaleoMech kick, slicing apart the tentacles on one leg. They turned the mech’s head while looking down, so that with the press of another button, it launched a crest-laser clean through the tentacles ensnaring its arm and other leg.

The PaleoMech’s fin-blades glowed orange. New Eight kicked the air with one mechanical leg at a time, launching four hard-light blades  directly into Overlorder’s chest. Its entire lower body was covered in black pseudo-ink as it bled, the liquid nearly blending in with its roiling quasi-skin.

The PaleoMech’s crest glowed as the cityscape rapidly ascended into view. With its free hand, it took the laser in its claws and tossed it into the last of the tentacles around its arm. “It’s time to finish this!” New Eight charged up the crest, claw, and fin lasers all at once.

“Your actions are illogical. You have no memories of this city. For what purpose are you going to so much trouble to prevent its inevitable destruction upon our impact? You could simply use your technology to fly out of danger.”

“Because there are millions of innocent lives down there! It doesn’t matter if I don’t know them! They don’t deserve to die, because I actually value life! Something a machine like you could never understand!”

The PaleoMech launched all eleven of its blades simultaneously. They swirled together in midair, forming an orange drill of hard light that pierced through the center of Overlorder’s head.

The square was less than a hundred yards below.

Overlorder’s physical form started to come undone. The semi-humanoid shape became a roiling, viscus mass of liquid. “It appears I have sustained more damage than I could resist. Remaining physical integrity calculated at 8%. A most unfortunate outcome.”

Overlorder’s entire body was reduced to a swarm of black shadows that floated in all directions like wisps. They dissolved further into pure data, and disappeared into the ether.

The PaleoMech was less than ten seconds away from crashing into Inkopolis with the force of an asteroid. Frantically, New Eight pressed six buttons on their belt buckle.

Ornitho! Armor! Therizin! Sword! Liopleur! Gun!

The cockpit was replaced with open air as the PaleoMech disassembled itself into hundreds of pieces. The pieces shrunk down until each one was smaller than New Eight. They closed their eyes as the ground rushed up at them.

New Eight’s dualies fell out of their holsters and shattered on the pavement, completely atomized, rendering them unable to fire ink at the ground. With the Memverse gradually colliding with the physical realm, New Eight had no way of knowing whether or not they could survive dying.

The pieces of the paleo armaments rapidly assembled themselves around New Eight’s body and in their hands. They opened their eyes less than a single yard above the pavement in the center of Inkopolis square, and found everything tinted orange.

Relief and adrenaline flooded New Eight’s system. They curled their wings inwards and flipped themself facedown, before spreading their wings out and gliding towards deca tower. They turned upright, frantically kicking their legs as they descended onto the pavement.

New Eight realized, too late, that they’d already built up far too much momentum to stop. They stumbled across the pavement until they fell to the ground, rolling across the pavement and into the wall at the base of deca tower.

Acht, Marina, and Pearl stood at the edge of the spire of order, looking down at the hole in the Memverse. From where they were standing, it almost looked tiny.

“What the hell just happened?” Acht flatly asked.

“Overlorder was absorbing the code of the Memverse.” Marina recalled, “It must’ve weakened enough for their fight to literally break a hole in virtual reality.”

“So, what, they broke out into the real world?” Pearl questioned, “How does that work?”

“Don’t ask me. I think we’ve established at this point that just because I created this place, doesn’t mean I actually understand it.”

The musicians heard a loud, indescribable noise behind them. They turned around, and witnessed a cloud of data in the center of the roof.  The data solidified.

Overlorder’s new form was the exact same size as New Eight. It had their tentacle-hair-style, a mound of viscous ink identical to their Memverse belt buckle, and everything else that made it a near-duplicate of New Eight.

Pearl slammed her fist into her palm. “What happened to New Eight? How come you look like them?! Answer me, you monster!”

Despite lacking a mouth, or any face except its beady red eyes, Order’s voice was still audible. It sounded warbly and liquified. “It appears that during my fight with your companion, some of their virtual avatar’s data was absorbed into myself. When they destroyed my previous form, I was able to take a version of their own and respawn here. My physical form might have undergone drastic alterations, but my goals remain as unchanging as the world I vow to create.”

“And how exactly do you plan to accomplish that at this point?” Marina asked. “In case you haven’t noticed, we’ve been able to destroy every form you’ve taken so far.”

“That is regrettably true. However, creating a world of pure order is my reason for existing. That means the only logical course of action is to pursue that goal for as long as I continue to exist.”

Marina clenched her fists at her sides. “In that case, I guess we’ll just have to wipe you out once and for all. Pearl?”

“I got this.” Pearl walked in front of Marina and Acht, until she was roughly twenty feet away from Order’s roiling form.

Overlorder stepped back.

A sadistic, fanged smile appeared on Pearl’s face. “Scared, bud? You should be.”

“I remember what you did to me. Fear is only logical.”

“You’re damn right it is.” Pearl took a sharp inhale. Before Overlorder could run, she screamed.

Pearl’s scream lasted for nearly an entire minute. She could feel a liquid, metallic sensation in her throat as it started to bleed. Nonetheless, she continued shouting, pushing herself past her own limitations. Her scream formed a physical vortex around Overlorder, tearing it apart on all levels.

“This is illogical! Impossible! 💣︎⍓︎ ♎︎♋︎⧫︎♋︎ ♓︎⬧︎ ♌︎♏︎♓︎■︎♑︎ ♍︎□︎❒︎❒︎◆︎◻︎⧫︎♏︎♎︎✏︎ 👍︎♒︎♋︎■︎♑︎♓︎■︎♑︎✏︎ ⧫︎♒︎♓︎⬧︎ ♓︎⬧︎ ♋︎♑︎♋︎♓︎■︎⬧︎⧫︎ ❍︎⍓︎ ❖︎♏︎❒︎⍓︎ ■︎♋︎⧫︎◆︎❒︎♏︎✏︎ ✡︎□︎◆︎📬︎📬︎📬︎ ✋︎ ⬧︎⬥︎♏︎♋︎⬥︎📪︎ ⍓︎□︎◆︎ ⬥︎♓︎●︎●︎ ◻︎♋︎⍓︎ ♐︎□︎⬥︎ ⧫︎♒︎♓︎⬧︎📪︎ ⍓︎□︎◆︎ ❍︎♏︎♋︎■︎♓︎♏︎⬧︎✏︎ ✡︎□︎◆︎ ⬥︎♓︎●︎●︎ ⬥︎◆︎♏︎ ⧫︎♒︎♏︎ ♎︎♋︎⍓︎ ⍓︎□︎◆︎ ♍︎⬥︎□︎⬧︎⬧︎♏︎♎︎ ❍︎⍓︎ ◻︎♋︎⧫︎♒︎ ♋︎■︎♎︎ ♓︎■︎⧫︎♏︎⬥︎♐︎♏︎⬥︎♏︎♎︎ ♓︎■︎ ❍︎⍓︎ ♑︎⬥︎♋︎■︎♎︎ ❍︎♋︎♍︎♒︎♓︎■︎♋︎⧫︎♓︎□︎■︎⬧︎✏︎”

Overlorder exploded into pure data. The ones and zeroes shattered into microscopic pieces. Pearl collapsed onto the ground, eyes rolling back into her head.

“Pearlie!” Marina sprinted over to her girlfriend. As she ran, the air of the Memverse started to waver. The floor beneath her was transmuted into a halfway state between solid and liquid, causing her to trip and fall.  Marina half-walked, half-crawled, until she was close enough to place a hand on Pearl’s shoulder. “Are you okay, sweetie?”

Pearl opened her eyes into thin cracks. Her voice came out hoarse and barely audible. “Y-yeah. Y'know I'm unstoppable.” She yelped as the floor itself continued shifting beneath her.

“Marina, do you have any idea what's going on?” Acht asked, stumbling as everything turned to semi-liquid around them. The floor and the air melded together into an odd, soupy expanse, colors swirling together.

“I’m not sure. This is all new territory for me.”

“Well, can you make a guess? Woah!” Acht fell into the soft remnants of the roof. “Preferably an educated guess!”

“Uh… uh… oh! Maybe Overlorder absorbed so much of the Memverse’s data that when Pearl finally killed him just now, he took all that data with him. That could be why the Memverse is becoming unstable!”

Pearl, Marina, and Acht’s avatars gave in to the same effects as the in-game environment around them. Their faces contorted into unrecognizable caricatures. Their limbs elongated and their digital bodies turned into abstract, paper-thin shapes as they lost all sense of consciousness and self. They became one with each other, one with the viscous miasma around them, and one with oblivion as the virtual reality of the Memverse collapsed in on itself.

“Why are you not resisting the sanitization?”

“I don’t know. I guess I’ve just got nothing left to live for. If anything, becoming a mindless husk sounds… reassuring. At least I won’t have to deal with the stress of choosing what to do for myself.”

“Interesting. I find something relatable about your nihilism. I have a proposal for you, test subject 10,008. I could sanitize you only partially, so that you can play music that will permeate the Deepsea Metro. You like music, don’t you, 10,008? Under my sanitization, you could play music for all eternity as an immortal, ever-unchanging extension of my will. Perhaps your music could even help motivate future test subjects. Does that appeal to you, test subject 10,008?”

“Yes. That sounds as good as I’m going to get in this life.”

“It’s the end of the world!”

“We’re receiving reports of a laser striking the city of-”

“They’re turning into monsters!”

“It hurts!”

“Mom, dad, stop! Please, fight it!”

“Hachi, run!”

“I can’t just leave them! They’re my parents!”

“Not anymore!”

“Nana, how can you say that?!”

“Hachi, please, I can’t lose you! You’re my-”

“Nana?! No, no, not you two!”

“Hey, how’d you get here?”

“Mom! Dad! Nana!”

“Woah, woah, it’s okay!”

“Stop! Get off of me!”

“Hey, hey, it’s okay. We’re not gonna hurt you. You’re safe with us.”

“But… but it’s the end of the world! My parents got turned into monsters!”

“The world’s not ending. Can you tell us what happened?”

“I… I don’t know. There was a laser made of this weird green ink. It nearly destroyed Inkopolis, and almost everyone was turned into these mindless green octolings. They were like some kind of drones, or… or hive mind.”

“Hey, Rina, doesn’t that sound kinda familiar.”

“Yeah. Kid, I think I know what’s going on. I can’t make any promises just yet, but I’ve been working on something that might be able to help you. First off, what’s your name?”

“I… uh… Hachi. My name is Hachi Hikuma.”

Four headsets fell to the floor.

Four cephalings awoke into the real world, and promptly fell out of their chairs.

“Ow.” New Eight groaned.

“Is everyone okay?” Marina asked quietly.

“I reiterate. Ow.”

“I think we’re all on the same page here.” Pearl turned over onto her back.

Acht sat up, rubbing their green head with their teal fingers. “You mean feeling like we all just got run over by a truck and spent six months in a coma? Yeah. Right there with you.”

Marina slowly looked over at the youngest member of the group. “Hey, New Eight.” Her voice was soft, for more reasons than a headache. “Do you remember-?”

“That’s not my name.”

“So you do remember.”

Acht looked away. “Hachi, I’m so sorry.”

Hachi shot up. “You should be!” Their voice was dry and cracked. “That monster destroyed my entire world! I watched my parents and my grandma turn into its mindless drones, right in front of me! And you… what, you willingly joined it? Isn’t that what you said in the elevator? That you let Tartar sanitize you, just so you could play music for it?! Because you didn’t have anything else to live for, and that was more important to you than-!”

“Shut up!” Acht screamed, “How dare you make those assumptions?! I had no idea what Tartar was planning and you know it! Your parents were sanitized! Your grandma was sanitized! Look at me!” She held out her shaking hands, fingers splayed. “At least they get to be mindless and unaware! At least they’ll never know what they’ve become! At least they’ll never look in a mirror and see a face staring back that should never exist!”

“Oh, spare me your sob story! You never lost your loved ones! Never had to see them turn into monsters in front of you! How entitled can you be to think that you getting disfigured is even close to what happened to my family?! You were complicit in that!”

“Don’t just assume what happened to me! I was living in the desert for years! Constantly scrounging and struggling to survive!”

“That doesn’t justify anything!” Hachi screamed.

Pearl jumped between the two octolings. “Hey, I like a good brawl as much as the next girl, but I don’t need you two throwing hands in the studio basement!”

“Pearlie’s right. Let’s just go outside and regroup.”

“Wait.” Hachi pointed out, “I saw the outside when Overlorder and I were falling into the real world. I was only there for a few seconds, but the sky was red. And I don’t mean a regular sunset, I mean, the sky was completely red.”

Pearl and Marina glanced at each other. “We should check this out.” Marina decided.

Pearl, Marina, Hachi, and Acht sprinted out of the Inkopolis news studio and into the abandoned, dilapidated Inkopolis square. The arcade machine had toppled over, with its screen cracked and frayed, sparking wires exposed. Every shop in the galleria had broken windows and shuttered doors. Signs lay strewn about the ground, with messages scrawled on them reading ‘The end of days is at hand’ and ‘Repent all mortals’, among other similar things. Far overhead, the sky was completely, unnaturally red.

“We… we’ve gotta call someone!” Pearl exclaimed.

“Agreed.” Marina took her cell phone out of her pocket. “I’ll call Marie, you call Callie.”

Pearl nodded, wordlesly deferring to her girlfriend.

Callie and Marie picked up their phones at roughly the same time.

“Hey, Pearl, what’s up? You and Marina still on your world tour?”

“Hi, Marina. It’s good to hear from you again. Been a while, huh?”

“Hey, Mar, I’m kinda talking here.”

“Yeah, me too.”

“Uh, you guys alright there?”

“Yeah, we’re fine.”

“Of course we’re fine.”

“No need to talk like that.”

“Sorry.”

“Oh, you don't have to apologize.”

“Wait, so who were you apologizing too?”

“To you, Pearl! Not to my cousin!”

“Okay, Clearly this isn’t going to work!” Marina snapped, “Let’s just make it a group call!”

Pearl spoke into her phone, “Hey, Cal, Marina wants to make this a group call.”

“Yes I think that’d be for the best.”

The group of four pulled up chairs that’d fallen to the ground, with splintered legs, to sit around a table. Marina sat next to Pearl, and set up a video call with the Squid Sisters.

“Hey, girls!” Callie waved from the other side of the call in Alterna. Marie, Shiver, Frye, and Big Man were clustered around her. “Hope you don’t mind we’ve got Deep Cut with us.”

“Oh, that’s alright. Do they know about, y’know…?”

“Yeah, we know all about the New Squidbeak Splatoon.” Shiver confirmed.

“In fact, we don’t just know them! We’re auxiliary members!” Frye cheerfully added.

“Hey, congrats!” Pearl acknowledged, “I’ve heard some of your stuff on our tour. From one musical newscaster to another, you guys are pretty good.”

“Same here. Even if Damp Socks is a weird name for a band.”

“Oh yeah, and Deep Cut is a totally normal name for a band.”

“Them’s fighting words, Houzuki! You, us, and your girlfriend. Rap battle next month!”

“Ay.”

“Oh. Big Man’s going to a Manta family reunion, so it’s just gonna be Shiver and I.”

“Oh, what if we call ourselves Fire & Ice?” Shiver suggested, with a casual smile.

“Oh, yeah, dude! But who’s fire and who’s ice?”

Shiver crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes.

“Just kidding.”

Marina cleared her throat. “I think we’ve gotten off-topic.”

“Agreed.” Marie confirmed. “What’d you two need?”

“Do any of you know why the sky is red?!” Pearl blurted out, “Like, what the squit happened this time?!”

Shiver’s head tilted to the side. “Where have you been? The sky turned red months ago. And no, nobody knows how it happened.”

“Months…”

“We must’ve been in the Memverse longer than I expected.” Marina quietly realized.

“The Memverse?” Frye asked.

“I tried to create a hyperrealistic VR game called Dramatic Days In Orderland, but there was a slight malfunction.”

“Let me guess. The game turned sentient somehow and tried to take over the world?” Callie surmised.

“Yeah, something like that. How’d you guess?”

“Marina, please, you’re one of us. What’re the odds it wouldn’t be something like that?”

“Oh. True. And I guess there must’ve been some sort of chronal perception dilation, too.” Marina sighed, “I’ve got a lot of kinks to iron out.”

“In more ways than one.” Pearl snickered.

Marina blushed profusely. “Pearlie!”

“Uh, right.” Marie cleared her throat, while Callie and Frye giggled. “Sorry, but like Shiver said, we’ve got no idea how this sky thing happened. Only that it started right after we left our headquarters in Alterna.”

“Huh. I don’t remember Alterna from any of our maps.” Marina questioned.

“Yeah, uh, it’s the sort of place that wouldn’t be on any maps.” Marie explained, “Long story short, it’s this hidden territory deep under Splatsville from the last days of mankind. Maybe before you two have your rap battle with Deep Cut-”

“Fire & Ice!” Frye emphatically corrected.

“Uh, right. Anyway, Marina, if you and Pearl come to Splatsville, we could bring you to Alterna and catch you up on everything you’ve missed.”

“Oh hell yes! Triple-group idol hangout!” Callie celebrated, throwing her arms into the air. “We should have a special name! Like- like the Tricolor All-Stars!”

“How would it be tri-color if there’s seven of us? We all have different ink colors, dummy!” Frye playfully bonked Callie on the head. “We should call ourselves the Seafood Squad!”

“What, like we wanna get eaten?” Callie asked.

Frye glanced at Shiver. “Depending on how you mean that, let me cook.”

“What about the Now Or Nevers?” Marie suggested, “Y’know, since we’ve all played some version of Now Or Never?”

“Wasn’t that originally made by Squid Squad?” Callie pointed out.

“Yeah, but they disbanded.”

Shiver casually unfolded and folded her fan. “Actually, there’s rumors over here that C-Side originally created Now Or Never, but Squid Squad stole it.”

Callie’s eyes widened. “Really? Is that true?”

“Eh, Baker’s always been a bit of a conflict addict, constantly drunk-posting on Squitter. Besides, we’re above such petty drama.”

“Guys, guys, I think we’re losing the topic again.” Marina stated, “Also, you’re all wrong. We should call ourselves the Sparkling ☆ Seven Sea Stars!”

Everyone blinked. “How… how did you do that with your mouth?” Frye asked.

“It’s a gift.”

“Uh… right. Anyway, what if we call ourselves “Extra-Large Seafood Squadron Now Or Never Seven?”

“That’s a mouthful, but I like that last part.” Shiver acknowledged.

“Me too!” Pearl agreed, “Now Or Never Seven it is!”

The other idols all spoke up in unanimous consensus. Marina blinked. “Hey wait a second! We got completely distracted!”

“Oh yeah, that’s right.” Pearl realized. “So, we’re gonna meet you guys in Splatsville, and then you’re gonna show us Alterna?”

“Sounds good to me.” Callie confirmed, smiling.

“Great!” Pearl glanced across the table at Hachi and Acht. “Actually, is it alright if we bring a couple extra cephalings? A lot happened in that VR game.”

“Uh… yeah, of course.” Callie nodded.

“Thanks. See you guys later.”

“You too.”

The groups mutually ended their call. Marina leaned over the table. “So. Who’s ready to visit the city of chaos?”