After Party [Chapter XIII]

[Hotaru]

"It's not enough."

Always the cynic. At least she was kind enough to say it to Lori in a low voice so the others didn't hear and become offended.

"It's just not enough."

[Queen Lori]

I will fight, Your Majesty. Lori was honestly stunned. She did her best to try to hide it but anyone paying close enough attention would be able to see the shock on her face. She didn't expect any of the refugees to step up, yet here was one soul ready to do what she was and put his foot down. Others soon followed his example and before she knew it the majority of those in the room was ready to fight. Overjoyed, Lori looked at them all with a smile on her face. "Thank you. Thank you all."

It's not enough. It's just not enough. "It's a start." Was all the queen spared for the Soldier of Silence before looking back to her people. "You will train under Arix. The knight you all saw at the bottom of the stairs near the castle entrance. He's the reason I'm still alive. The training will no doubt be long and hard, but I believe in you. Now I need you to believe in yourselves."

[Raal]

He found them. They actually grew here! Where the clump of huge tentacles used to be, was a mound of prismatic crystal. It wasn't a large grouping, only about seven of them in this cluster. Most of them were short and squat, barely even coming half an inch long and half an inch around. The tallest one was an inch long. Perfect.

When he approached them, they vibrated, sending his senses scrambling around like chickens with severed heads.

After fifteen seconds of disorientation, he managed to use his scrambled senses to get to the tallest crystal. He pulled it up out of the ground with ease. The soil was decent enough so they could be pulled out like a carrot. Raal left with the biggest crystal in hand, leaving the others to look pretty in what light was available. Now he could do his job and sleep later. He teleported to the top of the castle, slightly apprehensive about what came next. It had to be done!

He jammed the crystal straight into his forehead, all the way in.

Raal refused to yelp in pain at the sudden influx of power, despite his entire body feeling like it had taken a bath in boiling hot magma. The crystal gave him so much psychic energy that he started to physically change from it! Horns none-too-gently exploded from his skull, as did a pair of wings from his back. Raal grew taller, now banking on almost eight feet high. The chemical spines on his tail fell off, and the tail itself grew longer.

Despite the transformation being as terrible as inserting the crystal, he defiantly remained silent. The size of the crystal would make this last for less than an hour, so he had to get to work now. That psionic backlash earlier had been lifted, and he immediately made the entire city repair itself. House by house seemed to reverse time on itself, making self-repairs and cleaning up the streets in the meantime. Speaking of streets, those were repaired as well.

The city was looking like normal, as if Vulture's attack hadn't happened.