Never Die Again

9. Dusty Sky

Near the outskirts of Ebott City, there was a massive seven-sided complex consisting of numerous halls that spanned roughly thirty-five acres, including a five-acre central courtyard. This structure was known as the Heptagon and served as the headquarters of the World Military.

Frisk and the rest of Cathleen's army climbed a hill overlooking the Heptagon. They crawled low as they approached the summit. Frisk took out a pair of binoculars and surveyed the target. He spotted several personnel moving through the entrance at a rushed pace. No doubt they were running on all cylinders to stop them. Hundreds of people, including the military's highest-ranking officers, were inside this complex, probably all they needed. Victory was within their grasp.

After inspecting the target herself, Cathleen stood. She raised her hand, and a crystal spear formed in the sky. An entire side of the Heptagon was cast in shadow as the spear hovered above the central courtyard. Frisk and the others joined Cathleen, and the spear swirled with the energies of wind, fire, lightning, ice, light, and darkness.

Cathleen dropped the spear and let gravity pull it down. It fell into the Heptagon and disappeared in a blinding explosion of magic. Seth enveloped them in a spherical barrier as debris came flying all the way towards them. A dense plume of dust obstructed their vision as fragments of concrete and rebar crashed against the barrier. It cracked and shuddered wildly, but it held out until the debris stopped coming. Frisk couldn't see a thing through the dust. Was it over?

"... did anyone get it?" Elara asked.

That attack must have yielded an astronomical sum of EXP. How much had...?

Frisk hadn't gained a single point.

Well, that just meant someone else had been credited with the killing blow. Surely, it had gone to Cathleen. Frisk could just barely make her out through the fog. Her wide eyes and agape mouth gutted a pit through Frisk's stomach.

No, impossible...

"Hey," Syleth said. "How much did you get?"

"... nothing," Cathleen breathed.

"... someone must have gotten it," Seth said. He scanned their ranks. "Someone got EXP, right?!"

No one answered.

"Impossible," Syleth said. "There's no way they could have evacuated that fast... not unless they knew we were coming."

"But we saw them," Elara said. "They were just there."

"Some kind of trick?" Syleth said. "Illusion magic maybe. They had to have known..." His brow furrowed intensely. "WHO SNITCHED?!"

Dacuel wasn't the only traitor? How was that possible? They were all LV 19. Who would have gone this far just to betray them in the end? If they were against Cathleen's plan, why kill so many? No, that was absurd. There had to be another explanation. How had the enemy anticipated their movements?

Glaring at Elara, Syleth drew his sword. "It was you, wasn't it?!"

"Wh-what?" Elara gasped. "No, I didn't..."

"LIAR!" Syleth dived into Elara and tackled her to the ground; they struggled as Syleth held his sword against Elara's neck. "I knew we should have put you down!"

"I-I didn't do anything," Elara whimpered.

"S-Syleth, stop this r-right..." Seth stepped forward, but he suddenly collapsed to his knees. His face pale, he clutched his stomach and vomited all over the ground. Before Frisk could even question what was happening, his own stomach throbbed with a sickly pain. It was just moments until he too spewed his fluids profusely and fell, along with all the other demons.