System Hunt: Regalia

“No thanks.” Yoko said at once and she walked back towards the box of Nuclei.

Sam couldn’t believe it, couldn’t believe her. He chased after, leaving Alex hanging with the phone in hand, “Wait, what do you mean no thanks? You heard her, this might be…this might be it. Don’t you hav-”

“Don’t you?” Yoko tossed back with a scowl, “Then go talk to them and stop wasting time. I don’t want to talk to anyone and it’s none of your business why, we just met today and Regalia Wielder or not, you’re a pair package with the DSF and I wouldn’t trust either of you as far as I could throw you.”

Sam bit his lip, the words, arguments dying down and sinking back in his throat, “You’re right, I wouldn’t trust me either but…I guess now I wonder if I should trust you.”

“Again, Sam, we just met today. Sure, we’ve bonded over survival but we’re still strangers brought together by the most dangerous thing in the world. You shouldn’t trust me.”

Yoko turned away and bothered with the Nuclei, her glasses— Regalia— flashed briefly as she absorbed yet another. Sam shook his head as he stepped away, leaving her to her own devices. He hated this. Hated everything his world had turned to including the parts of himself that were excited for it and the fact that those parts were intricately tied to the people that had left him behind in life.

He considered which of them he should call first, deliver the horrid news that he was at the centre of what had to be the on the front page of every newspaper, new channel or radio station.

‘Hell on Earth’ he imagined the reports would read. Which of them would he tell that he was about to do the impossible, about to fight for the entire planet in a way that none of them would have imagined him capable of.

His mother? He considered calling Sarah out of the natal love he had lodged in his heart. No matter where he went or what he did, she would remain his mother as he remains her son. Maybe she’d tell me to stop, save myself and come back home.

But he wouldn’t and she knew he wouldn’t too because that’s how they ended up where they are now, split away for each other’s best interests. The conflict was just too much. He shut his eyes and sighed as Alex, stressed out of her mind, gave him an expectant look. He recited a number and Alex keyed it in.

“Mind if I ask who?” she said and it was the first time since they landed in Manila he’d heard the jovial and astute Sergeant Alex leak through the military figure she had been throughout the campaign.

“My ex.”

She snorted, “That down bad huh?”

A sense of righteous indignation, a need to defend himself flared up in his tightened chest but he let go of it and nodded, “Maybe just a bit, a lot was my fault.”

“I get that but this is your one call.”

“I know.”

“You won’t get to call another person bec-”

“Belua are after us, I know, Alex, make the call.” Alex wordlessly handed him the old timey phone, its wires got in the way and tangled around his arm as he pressed it to his ear and listened to the line ring.

There was only one other person he could have thought to call, his little brother but he had no last words for the young teen and he couldn’t burden him with a message of pending death. With his ex at least…at least he had something worth saying.

“Meow.” Nyx’s soft coo came from his feet, nearly drowned out by the pounding headache and the ever ringing tone. Between Yoko, the Doom Tower leering and what was beginning to feel like his last minutes on earth, Sam had glossed the dear Bombay the attention she deserved.

Nyx made her feelings clear when she hopped into Alex’s unwilling arms after rubbing through his legs.

“Hello? Who is this.”

Sam lost his breath. His lung emptied in a silent gasp at the voice he hadn’t heard in over two months, “Jess.”

“Oh my god, Sam?”

“Yeah, it’s me.”

“Where the hell have you been for a whole month? We’ve been trying to reach you.”

Those weren’t the sentences Sam expected one bit, “What? Who? Why?”

“Me, your family. I reached out the day after the Towers fell in your city, are you okay? Your phone wasn’t going through and…I thought…” Jess sighed, whelmed with relief. “I’m over at SunCity now.”

“You’re with my mother?” SunCity was where he grew up, where he ran away from. “No, forget that, I’m sorry I worried you two. Let Sarah know I’m safe, I didn’t lose anything when the Doom Towers fell. I’m sorry I didn’t consider reaching out either, everything lately has been so…fast.”

“Where are you? I tried to convince Sarah to check on you with me but, she didn’t want to take the chance only to find that you were safe and sound, which it sounds like you are.”

Sam thought for a second as he chuckled, “Yeah, yeah she wouldn’t want a confrontation unless I’m dead, that tracks. And you?”

“…”

Sam shut his eyes at the silence, it was short, barely two seconds but he knew all it meant, “I’m in Manila. Yes, the one burning up all over the news and social media. The Doom Tower…it’s feeding monsters into our world.”

“Sam, what are you saying? How the hell did you find yourself in Manila?”

“The Doom Suppression Force…they recruited me. They’ll explain it all to you or to my mother or whoever is willing to listen but what’s happened in the past month isn’t as important as what’s about to.”

“Sam. You’re scaring me, what are you going to do?”

Sam shook his head, it hurt but not as much as her voice on the other side. His breath wavered to the rhythm of his frightened heart, his mouth had dried up and all he could think about was how he’d be drenched in the scent of sulphur for however long it takes to conquer a tower.

A weight was heaped onto his shoulder suddenly, familiar, soft paws scratched his cheek as he turned and saw Alex walking away. Nyx licked his hair and he managed a chuckle, “Don’t worry about me or Nyx, Jess. We’re going to save the world, make it so-so nothing will ever harm us, nothing will ever be a struggle and I…when I return I want to show you how much I’ve learned this month, how much I’m sorry for and how I’ll make up for it.”

His throat felt like it had a boulder growing inside of it as he choked on her silence to finish what he had to say, what he had to promise, “They don’t think…I don’t think I’ll make it back but if you tell my mother and brother I love them and if you say you’ll give us a chance again, well, I’ll try really hard not to die then.”

Sam laughed but nothing was funny. His relationship with Jess was one of absence, emptiness and reclusion. For some reason he couldn’t stop being himself and start being the person he wanted to and she had not the patience of idea of how to help. It was an ‘amicable’ break they’d said at the end.

It’s different now. He was stronger, in mind, body and power. Sam was worth more than he ever wished he was for the first time in his life and he would live to reap the benefits and his world, however small, would too.

“Sam, I, can we talk about this in person? I don’t understand you right now and I-”

An ear piercing shriek broke the forest sound. Then a flurry of gunshots. Sam whirled around and Alex was running over with her finger on the trigger of her Holy rifle. She snatched his hand and let the phone fall to the ground, abandoned.

“I told you to be quick. Get the quads ready!” She yelled out at her subordinate, dragging Sam over to the open box where Yoko was crouched beside, a duffel bag and gym bag by her side and a Holy pistol raise clutched in whitened grip.

“They’re here, the Tikbalang.” she muttered under the brief sound of silence between bursts of Nuclei powered ammunition. Sam glimpsed the blue and red blast in the thick of the forest, there were only three DSF agents out there from the backup team and they were being pushed back before his eyes.

More screeches of men and monsters chilled the chaos, sending shudders through Sam. He’d left the tempered glass panes behind when he fell unconscious so unlike Yoko, he was defenceless.

His glass sense reached out, careful not to reignite his migraine in full as he searched for a shard or splinter of glass nearby and he found many right beside him.

Alex had dropped a duffel and gym bag at his feet, “Keep them on until we’re in the Tower, we’re not stopping for a firefight.”

Sam quickly threw the duffel bag on, sensing much of its contents were packaged Nuclei he quickly absorbed each before urging Nyx into the freed up space that now contained bare survival essentials. Not a camping trip but it’ll be too good have.

In the gym bag he had long, sturdy glass poles that extended the length of the bag. It’s good to have their support but I still can’t lift a thing. He set aside his laments as Alex spoke again, this time with a roar of an engine accompanying her.

“Get in!” she yelled from the driver’s seat of a petite, camouflaged four-seater ATV, only one of her subordinates was with her in the passenger’s.

“Where did that come from?” Yoko asked all while diving into the back seat with Sam.

“You watched us drop it, now hang on and if you can wield some of that Regalia in our favour, don’t hesitate.” Sam gulped and held on dearly as he knew what to expect from Alex’s driving.

They shot out and Yoko’s unprepared neck whipped back as Alex floored the gas. The ATV lunged out of the clearing, dashed through the burning roots that stretched as claws in the shadow of their black flames.

The Doom Tower grew taller and more imposing as Alex drove raggedly, uncaring of the branches smacking against the wind shield and bleeding any exposed skin it caught as we zipped by.

Just as everyone had feared but entirely expected, a Tikbalang surged out of the trees ahead and began to raise its hand to perform some witchery only that it’s body was blasted to smithereens in one second and driven over the next.

The DSF agent beside Alex threw a smirk at Sam and Yoko as he reloaded the barrel. “Not the time to impress the messiahs, Killer Bill.” Alex said, eyes on stuck to the dark, witchy path she was rampaging through.

His smirk fell and he faced the trees with greater intensity but it wasn’t needed. As the last vile tree branch cracked itself on the wind shield and scratched Yoko’s face so she hissed, the ATV roared out into another sealed clearing with one exception.

“I can’t die, I can’t die. No…” Sam heard Yoko mutter, wiping her scratched up cheek.

“We won’t.” Sam said with a manufactured resolve all while worrying if his legs wouldn’t buckle if he stood.

If Yoko heard him she gave no indication of it and continued staring through her Regalia up at the monolith. It oozed an ominous aura that made his skin crawl and his deepest fears fester the longer he gazed.

At last, Alex brought the ATV to park right at the base of the Doom Tower’s landing. There weren’t any signs that humans once occupied the space it cratered, if there were any after its descent obliterated the scene then the DSF had cleaned it up.

“Quick! Come on, it’s your time to shine.” Alex said as they hopped out of the vehicle, her and Killer Bill’s eyes tracked the tree line with their weapons cushioned and ready.

Sam and Yoko shared a nervous look and stepped out, bringing themselves and their bags toward the Tower. Unlike one would think there were no doors to knock at or bells to ring. All there was was a monolith buried tens of feet in the ground and extending a hundred more into the sky.

The base had the most interesting things about its coarse mineral form. There were pulsating crystal veins stretching up and down its sides, trailing deep underneath the earth it’d buried itself into.

In some places there were entire pillars of radiant coloured crystals poking out the base and growing upon the vein line like a fungus breeding on the Tower. The veins didn’t extend throughout its length, they carried on for around twenty feet before Sam couldn’t see any.

From there and especially around the veins of crystal, were carved sigils or runes on the Tower’s obsidian surface. Anyone could tell they were some kind of magic and if the trend of the Towers being game-like continued, Sam would bet they were key ingredients to understanding the Doom Towers and the Regalia.

Still, staring up at the monolith did nothing to open it for the ‘messiahs’ to conquer. “What do we do?” Sam asked Alex.

She frowned deeply, brows knotted in confusion under her helmet as she said, “I don’t know. Touch it?”

“I’m not touching it.” Yoko counted herself out.

“Come on, at least try to-”

“Shut up, somethings happening.” Yoko pointed and true enough the veins and their pillars of crystals began to pulse faster, the beat previously being a small but ominous cadence became a rising drone leading up to what could only be a dreadful crescendo.

Sam instinctively stepped back, grasping Nyx as he watched the many colours of the crystals flash as their pulse quickened, Is the Tower alive? Do we have to fight the actual Tower?

He didn’t count the thought out for its ridiculousness but for the brightening of the carved runes at the Tower’s base. They lit up with various colours of the pulsing crystals, a sick green, pale blue and blood red were the most reoccurring.

The lit up runes continued further than the crystal veins stretched on the Tower. Sam reared his head as more and more continued to light up, igniting one another until a final, massive rune sparked the crescendo of the crystals pulsating with a blinding white light.

It lit up the entire crater like a football field at night, Sam glanced over his shoulder at Alex and Killer Bill, they’d ran out away from the two to fend off any encroaching Belua but none had come and so they stood still and watched with their jaws hung open.

“Ah! What the fuck?!” Yoko cried out but as Sam’s eyes adjusted to the light he had no time to see what caused her more alarm as some force ripped his Regalia out of his pocket.

His battered phone and Yoko’s crooked glasses flew towards the light bathing them faster than they could share a startled look. Sam took a step forward as for the first time the thought that this could all be a return quest occurred to him.

Fortunately, or not, the Regalia returned, floating down into their waiting hands like descended angels delivering god’s prompt.

Welcome, Vessel of the Fractured Glass Regalia. You have been granted passage to pioneer Domus, the 11th Tower of Regalia. Rejoice!

As soon as the words registered the world slid under his feet, gone was the Doom Tower, Alex, the black burnt forest of Manila. In its place was a circular room with a giant round table at its centre and at the centre of that there was a cross and a dehydrated alien creature no larger than a child crucified upon it.

It had black oval eyes that bent around its skull, limbs with three fingers and three toes and most noticeably a Nuclei hovering in a fist sized hole in its dried up greyish torso.

Sam felt like throwing up. His knees buckled and he fell like he’d crash landed. His eyes and brain struggled to keep up with the abrupt and rude spatial changes.

“Sam?” Yoko’s voice was strained, no doubt suffering the same effects he was.

Still, he was filled with relief that he wasn’t alone. He went to help her up and said, “Glad to see you made the cut.”

Yoko’s smile sadly as she examined the space. Her eyes kept running around the four windowless walls to end up on the crucified alien Belua, “I wouldn’t want to end up here alone, but you’re missing something or someone.” She said, pointing at his chest.

Only then did Sam notice the sudden lack of weight on his shoulders, “Nyx!” He called out as he pulled the bag off but she was gone.

“Sorry, Alex and that guy are gone too. No mere mortals allowed I guess.” Yoko said, her face streaked in cold sweat as she circled the round table. “So what now? Did the DSF tell you what happens after you’re suddenly teleported to a room with crucified Belua?”

There was only one source of light in the darkened space and it was the crucified Belua’s Nuclei. It’s spectrum of colours illuminated Yoko’s wide eyed fears as she sat stiffly on the dusty throne.

Sam shut his eyes to her, the ache of Nyx’s loss drilled a hole in his heart. He prayed Alex would fetch her, take care of her until he returned.

He tossed the backpack over his shoulder the right way, noting that while ‘mere mortals’ weren’t teleported, the equipment and provisions Alex had prepared was brought along with them.

With tears of anger and grief threatening to spill from his eyes, Sam met Yoko’s and answered, “Yeah, they did. We conquer it.”