The chamber shook with each crash of weapon against flesh, candy gore spraying the walls. Celeste staggered upright, light spilling from her chest in stubborn pulses that reached her friends. They drew breath easier, their wounds closed faster. Her healing aura tethered them all.
Her katanas flared into being, their edges shimmering. She clutched them tight even though her arms trembled. “I… I won’t stop.”
Mandibite loomed from the shadows, grotesque body curling around her like a cage. His ratlike muzzle stretched into a grin, saliva dripping between jagged teeth.
“You always were a stubborn moggy, Kenaz,” he hissed, voice low and venomous. His claws scraped sparks against the stone floor. “No matter how many times I rip you apart, you drag yourself back up.”
Celeste’s heart lurched. “No—wait, I’m not—”
But he didn’t hear her. Or wouldn’t. His pupils twitched, madness locking her into his memory.
“You walked away. Left us to rot. And now… you wear that cursed face, still standing in front of me like you can pretend you’re not guilty.”
Celeste shook her head desperately. “I’m not him! I’m Celeste!”
Mandibite roared, slamming his claws into the ground so hard the stone cracked.
“Liar! You carry his stink, his blood, his cowardice. Don’t you dare tell me you’re anyone else. You’re Kenaz—and I’ll tear the truth out of you with my teeth.”
His grotesque body coiled, every limb straining like a predator about to strike.
Ray stepped in front of Celeste, hammer raised high. “She’s not Kenaz, you lunatic—”
Mezzo cut her off, flames sparking along his guitar as he squared up. “Then we’ll just have to beat that through his thick skull.”
Pitch chambered another round in Lady Luck. “Or blow it straight out.”
Skye’s voice was soft but firm, eyes on Celeste. “He doesn’t see you. But we do.”
Mandibite’s many eyes glowed with sick hunger as he lunged, his voice cracking with hate and grief:
“No more running, Kenaz. This time—you die screaming.”
The chamber shook as he crashed into them, the fight reigniting with deafening fury.
The Knights pressed forward, flames and steel tearing gaps into the tide of centipede-rats. Purple fire scorched across the cavern in Ray’s crescent arc, and Celeste’s spiral of ribbons carved a path of starlight through the chaos.
The Centerpied’s halves writhed at once, syrup bubbling from its broken shells. Its many eyes burned brighter, pupils dilating into glowing beads of caramel. Then it convulsed, slamming its shattered bulk against the cavern floor.
“Sugar Spawn!”
The ground shook.
Gumballs rattled loose from its segmented body, scattering in every direction like marbles. They bounced, rolled, then split open with sticky cracks. From each sphere crawled another tiny creature—rats, but made of syrup and floss, their eyes glowing like candied coals.
They hit the floor with wet plops, squeaking as they joined the swarm. The cavern filled with the sound of claws on stone, the number of enemies doubling in seconds.
“Are you kidding me?!” Mezzo shouted, feathers singed, his axe already sticky with syrup. “It’s spawning more!”
“Then keep cutting!” Ray roared, hammer slamming another group into molten paste.
Celeste’s stomach twisted at the sound of the newborn creatures, each one squealing like a toy before lunging with gnashing sugar-teeth. Her grip tightened on her blades. This wasn’t just a fight anymore—it was survival.
C.H.I.P. thundered into the melee, chrome gleaming under the flickering lights. His arms snapped forward like hydraulic pistons, sending a Centerpied-spawn sprawling into a cracked wall.
“Target acquired. Applying corrective violence!” he chirped brightly, as though announcing the next move in a children’s game. A shockwave pulse detonated from his chassis, the floor trembling as the candy creatures reeled back.
“Chip?!” Celeste gasped, eyes wide.
“Engage combat protocol!” Arcade’s voice cut through the chaos as he sprinted into the chamber, goggles skewed and his tablet swinging at his side. He jabbed a claw at his creation. “Big mode, now—maximum output!”
C.H.I.P. whirred, panels shifting and folding. His small frame expanded, limbs elongating with a clatter of pistons and candy-colored plating until he loomed nearly twice as tall. The cheerful glow of his eyes didn’t change, even as his fists sparked with dangerous voltage.
Skye’s relief broke through the roar of battle. “Arcade—you came to help!”
Arcade skidded to a halt, panting, half-buried in wires but managing a sharp grin. “I saw him grab Celeste on the camera feeds—so I figured I’d better step in before we’re all taffy.” He shoved his cracked goggles higher on his snout. “Consider this… preventative maintenance.”
C.H.I.P. slammed both fists into the ground, sending another crackling shockwave through the floor. Several of the sugar-spawn exploded in sticky bursts, their squeals cut short.
Ray gave a sharp bark of laughter as she caved in another swarm with Heartbreaker. “About bloody time, nerd!”
Mezzo spun his guitar in a wide arc, slicing down another wave of syrup-rats. “Not complainin’, but next time maybe don’t wait ‘til after the big bug births an army!”
Arcade bristled, fiddling with a control pad in his paw. “Do you want optimization or improvisation? You can’t have both!”
“Less arguing, more smashing please!” Celeste cried, her ribbons blazing with light as she cut a path toward the towering Mandibite again.
The cavern pulsed with combat, every strike shaking the chamber as the Knights—and their allies—dug in for the fight of their lives.
Arcade crouched on the balcony above, fingers dancing over his wrist display, voice sharp and cutting through the din. “C.H.I.P., I need those things boxed in, not free-range! Cut their angles before they cut us.”
“Understood, Arcade,” the robot replied, one optic flaring red, the other blue. “Flank denial mode: engaging maximum inconvenience.”
Panels along his arms split open, spinning discs ejecting in a spiral pattern. They embedded into the walls and floor, humming before releasing arcs of blue static—forming a crackling perimeter that penned the monsters closer to the center.
Arcade allowed himself the briefest smirk, though his tone stayed clipped. “Finally. A plan executed with precision instead of brute improvisation. Try not to ruin it.”
Ray, panting at Celeste’s side, shot him a glare. “If you’ve got more of those toys, now would be the time to share.”
Arcade’s lips curved into that smug half-smile. “Oh, I always share. Just… selectively.”
The cavern reeked of scorched sugar, the swarm still writhing even as the Knights hacked them down. The Centerpied’s halves twisted violently, syrup bubbling from their split shells.
Then its mandibles spread wide.
“Chewer’s Cloud!”
From deep in its gullet, the monster vomited a wave of syrupy fog, thick and cloying as melted candy. The mist rolled out in choking plumes, sweet and sickly, coating the air in a haze so dense the torches dimmed.
Celeste gagged, her throat burning as her vision blurred. “I—I can’t see!”
Every breath felt sticky, lungs heavy as though she were drowning in sugar. Her steps slowed, legs dragging through the fog as her ribbons tangled around her ankles.
Ray swung blindly, hammer crunching into stone instead of flesh. “Damn it—I can’t tell where they’re coming from!”
Skye’s cards scattered from his paw, falling uselessly into the mist before he snapped his launcher shut in frustration. “It’s messing with focus—I can’t track them!”
Through the haze, the smaller sugar-rats squeaked, their glowing eyes multiplying as they scuttled closer.
Mezzo coughed hard, flames sputtering against the damp air. “It’s… thick enough to snuff me out.” He wiped syrup from his muzzle and bared his teeth. “We need a clean shot, now.”
The fog swirled tighter, clinging like spiderwebs, every breath a fight. The Knights were blind, slowed, and surrounded.
The sugary fog thickened, sticking in the groups throats until every breath felt like swallowing syrup. The swarm’s squeaks grew louder, closer, but no one could see more than a few feet through the haze.
Arcade’s ears twitched. His eyes darted to the glowing blue sparks dancing across his fingertips, his stabilizer chip pulsing against his neck. “We can’t fight blind. This fog’s their playground.”
“Then what do we do?” Skye coughed, paw over his nose.
Arcade clenched his jaw, glancing at Celeste through the blur. “We burn it off.”
He raised both hands. Sparks leapt between his claws, swelling into arcs that danced wildly up his arms. His voice was low, grim: “This’ll sting.”
He thrust his palms outward.
A crackling wave of lightning surged through the fog, splitting the cavern with a deafening CRACK. The sugary mist ignited in a blinding flash, vaporizing into a rolling wave of caramelized smoke.
The Centerpied shrieked, its body convulsing as arcs of lightning tore across its syrup-coated shell, charring chunks of candy armor. Smaller spawns popped like chestnuts in the blaze, their screeches silenced in bursts of fire.
But the group wasnt spared.
Celeste cried out as the charge danced across her ribbons, searing her arms. Ray gritted her teeth, purple flame sputtering as arcs burned into her fur. Mezzo staggered, guitar smoking, every cord buzzing with residual shock.
When the light faded, the fog was gone—but so was their strength. The Centerpied writhed in pain, chunks of its body sloughing off, but its eyes still glared, furious and wild.
Arcade dropped to one knee, smoke curling from his chestplate. He gave a ragged, breathless laugh. “See? Told you it’d sting.”
Celeste winced, clutching her side, but managed a shaky smile. “It… worked.”
But the Centerpied wasnt finished yet.
Celeste pressed her back to the beam, breath catching, hands trembling as the faint glow of her healing spilled over the group like a cracked lantern’s light. It dulled the worst of their wounds, but her chest throbbed with every pulse. I can’t keep this up…
The creatures shrieked in answer, their voices scraping like sugar glass.
Ray staggered beside her, paw clamped to her side, blood seeping between her fingers. She winced. “You realise the more you glow, the more they scream? Feels like we’re ringing the bloody dinner bell.”
Celeste shook her head quickly, too weary to argue but unable to stop. “I… I don’t have another way. If I stop, you’ll fall—and I can’t let that happen.”
Mezzo dove into cover with them, chest heaving, grin flashing through his exhaustion. “Alright—mad idea time. What if—hear me out—we don’t kill them? We trap ‘em. Trick ‘em. I dunno, chuck ‘em in a giant candy jar and call it a day.”
Ray shot him a look, teeth bared. “Brilliant. Got a candy jar the size of a bus on you, do you?”
Mezzo shrugged, half-laughing despite the fear sparking in his eyes. “I’ve got charm. Sometimes it works better than a sword.”
Celeste’s claws scraped faintly against the stone as she whispered, almost to herself, “There has to be a gentler way… even if it sounds foolish.” Her eyes flicked toward the writhing cocoons in the shadows, and her stomach turned. “Because I think… killing them won’t end this. Not really.”
Pitch shouted from above, “They’re cornering us!”
Celeste’s blue eyes locked onto the distant wall—something clicked.
“No… they’re not.”
Ray turned. “What?”
“They’re… they’re not chasing us just to eat,” Celeste murmured, rising slowly, her blade’s glow flickering like a heartbeat. “They’re steering us. Like sheep. Toward those cocoons—toward the middle of it all.”
Mezzo’s ears flicked back, dagger trembling in his grip. He tried for a grin but it came out thin. “Grand. And what’s waiting at the middle, then? A bloody raffle prize?”
Celeste’s eyes lingered on the cocoons, the faint silhouettes twitching within their sticky shells. Her stomach tightened. “I—I don’t know. But these creatures… they feel like pieces on a board. Someone else is playing the game.”
The floor gave a low shudder.
Both Centerpieds shrieked, lunging forward in perfect unison.
Celeste snapped to the others, voice clear despite the fear hitching beneath it. “Fall back—we need to breathe, to think. There’s another way, I know there is.”
Ray bared her teeth, tail lashing. “Think faster, blondie—where the hell do you want us to fall back to?”
Celeste’s claws tightened on her hilts, her glow flaring brighter. She swallowed, then answered softly but with steel in her tone:
“Deeper. We go deeper.”
They ran.
