Becoming Monsters: In The Mirror 2, Chapter 57

This is still a story of the Becoming Monsters universe by Ai Loves, setting used with permission. All canonical and mechanical errors are my own. The yarrb is the exceedingly cute creation of FelisRandomis, used with permission.

The wedding scene is one that has existed in the notes of AiLovesToGrow since she started writing her second book, well before she suffered her stroke a year before I wrote this, and was set to occur at the end of Becoming Monsters Book 2. It is my honor to be able to tell it, altered only slightly so that Jeremiah could see the parts that matter. I promised I would tell as much of Honoka’s story as I could do justice to, and this is where I can start to keep that promise.

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Chapter 57: The Bells

The bells had been the last warning to the guests we could see on screen, and those idly chatting quickly stopped and went to their seats. People of almost literally every size and shape, ranging from Humans barely five feet tall to Polar Bear Beastkin to at least one full-sized Giantkin. Perhaps an Ogre or Cyclops, but it was hard to tell when his face was so far above the camera’s field of view. There seemed to only be the one camera, which made sense for this kind of news, but there was at least a reporter of some kind giving information to viewers. “One last time before the ceremony begins, you are watching the wedding ceremony for one of the rising star guilds of Harvardtown, Becoming Monsters. All of its members have decided to marry each other, and the ceremony is something to see.”

Emily blinked at the screen. “All of them? I know that polygamy laws were repealed, but an entire guild marrying each other?”

I chuckled. “Not just any guild, either. Becoming Monsters is a new bunch, but they have been making waves. Heck, those are the people we’re helping by covering the docks tomorrow evening. When you see an Otter, that’s Guild Leader Blevins.”

Sarah was thinking deeply. “I know that name… wait. I think I know one of them, too. Their Alchemist is a Succubus named Diane, she’s the person I called to talk to about storing and transporting Hunger energies. Without her, I couldn’t have made my Greater Masterwork.” A Naga, looking to my inexperienced eyes to be a young girl, walked the aisle scattering rose petals. The flower girl, most likely, preparing the path.

“Huh, small world.” I was cut off by the unexpected start of the Bridal March, this rendition of which stood as a testament to the stamina of the organ player. The women of Becoming Monsters were… not in the dresses I expected. They were all wildly different, for one, and the colors were not fully white. The first to walk up was a Lich, wearing a colorful if old-fashioned dress. It was not pure white, but contained many highlights of the color. After her was what looked like a Bee woman. Beastfolk? Apis? Not sure, but her dress looked more like a Japanese kimono. Also of many colors, though the white was highlighted. A woman who looked to be studded with jagged crystals whose Race I couldn’t hope to identify, a Tauric Cheetah, then what looked like a Phoenix, then a Naga. All of them again dressed in their own styles, probably reflecting their homes and cultures. All were in bright colors, yet each outfit seemed to feature white in one way or another. “Good grief, no wonder they’re making that big of a splash. How did anyone manage to gather that kind of power in one place?”

“I don’t know, love.” Lucy was watching the screen intently now. “But look at the sidelines. Some of those folks are happy, but by no means all. Look at that man off to the left, if looks could kill he’d clear out the Lairs by himself.” The man in question was older, looking old enough to be one of the parents or grandparents of the brides. He was in a stiffly formal Japanese getup, with a katana at his side. The simmering anger in his expression made me uncomfortable all the way from Harvardtown, even if I was fairly sure he wasn’t associated with the bunch who had tried to assassinate my Healer today.

The song was still going. A very tall and remarkably attractive electric-blue Otter was next. Quinn Blevins, their Guild Leader, in the middle of the pack. I assume there was some symbolism to it all, but I recognized her Race. A Mystic Otter, like Guild Leader Smith from a couple of days prior. A spiny-looking Hobgoblin and an impressively massive woman who looked like a Holstaur with a halo. Then came a Succubus, Diane if that was who Sarah was talking about, but her build was impressive in a… very different way.

Emily’s eyes practically bulged out. “I can’t imagine what trying to actually carry around boobs that big would be like. She has to be larger than I made myself for you that one time, and I couldn’t get off my back until you finished!”

“Which time was that?” Lucy asked.

I coughed gently. “I was testing out how to shapeshift for the first time and needed to make sure I had it right. It was a day or two after she joined, in her old apartment.”

The last of the women was fairly short. She had dark brown skin, but generally Asian features otherwise. Long, straight black hair, petite build, and her wedding dress was also obviously Japanese in style. What was notable was how she held herself. Reading people was something I got a lot of practice at even without being close enough to read their aura to confirm their emotions, and that woman was simultaneously at both the most important juncture of her life AND wanted to run for the hills. Or stairs, I guess, Harvardtown was actually within the local Dungeon’s upper floors. She visibly steeled herself and walked up the aisle, to where the other ten brides-to-be were waiting in front of an exceptionally patient Dwarf pastor. It may have been a trick of the light or the angles, but she looked different as she walked. Almost like she was growing.

There was a glitter of gold on the ground in front of her near the midpoint of the walk, and without hesitation she bent down to pick up whatever it was. Perhaps a ring or other piece of jewelry? In either case, she stood back up and put it in a pocket smoothly before continuing towards the altar, the entire thing taking so little time that it almost didn’t interrupt her stride. She took her place by the other brides-to-be moments later, standing tall and holding herself with pride.

Wait. Standing tall? I know I clocked a couple of those women at sizes I’d strain my neck to look at, and this woman did not look small next to them. She’d have to be nearly seven feet for that to happen, when she started that walk I would have bet any sum you wanted that she wasn’t an inch over five and a half.

The Bridal March ended, the organ player visibly shaking out his wrists and doing some stretches, and the priest began his part of the rather unorthodox ceremony. Seeing what was coming, the man kept his portion mercifully brief. He spoke of the love that brought them together. He spoke of dangers they had braved to be there together, of the loyalty they shared, and of the hope for their future and that of their several children.

Children? Wonder how that one worked. Stranger things had happened in the Status, though, so I let it go with only half a shrug.

Then came the vows. The last woman, the dark-skinned Human, picked up a small box, one that looked like it displayed jewelry, and went to stand in front of the first of the ladies who had walked the aisle. That woman, the Lich, started saying a vow, but I was distracted from the specifics when Sarah perked up. “Jay, I thought you said the Otter was their Guild Leader.”

I nodded. “She is, why do you ask?”

“If she’s the Guild Leader, then why does it look like that Human woman is the one receiving the vows? I think they called her Honoka?”

I looked again, and her observation was 100% on point. As each of the women completed their brief vow, Honoka retrieved a necklace from the box in her hands and put it on them. Much like putting rings on, they seemed to carry the same meaning. One by one, down the line, including from Guild Leader Blevins. Something was up, here. Why was she the anchor of all of this? After the others finished, she returned to the center of the group, and said her own vow. To love, support, and protect the others, even if it meant her life. Who the heck was this woman to be saying something like that to THIS bunch?

She finished, and the Succubus stepped forward to put a necklace of her own around Honoka’s neck. The Dwarf pastor looked up and down the line, seeming to take inventory of the vows and the necklaces, and asked the most important question of the evening. “Do you all take each other as your lawfully wedded wives?”

In unison, the eleven women responded “we do.”

“Then by the power vested in me I pronounce you wives!” With a broad smile, the Dwarf called out “you may now kiss the brides!”

A voice from offscreen, sounding like a teenager, yelled “that’s gonna take a while, let’s get some food!”

With many laughs and cheers, the guests stood and began to file out as Honoka began the lengthy process of kissing the brides. None of those brides seemed at all interested in a small peck, either. If it was going to be a long process anyway, they were going to do it right. The reporter, who had been respectfully quiet through the ceremony, began summarizing the events to end the broadcast.

“HONOKA!”

A large and plump-looking woman noisily barged into the frame. Her shirt and pants were colorful, but her features alabaster white and featureless as a mannequin. A hand was extended forward, and I could see that she was yelling from it. Honoka, having just finished kissing the brides, looked at the intruder with an expression of disgust and anger. “Tabinda. You were not invited, and I still do not want you here.”

“We can work that part out later. Listen! Restitution is moving!”

Honoka stilled. No, she froze. “Where?”

“HERE! ANY MINUTE!”

That certainly served to unfreeze the brown woman. Her startlingly blue eyes flew open, and it was her turn to shout. “Get the guests to safety! Now!”

The reporter had stopped her commentary to capture the new and unexpected event, and was therefore in perfect position to catch the sudden rush to evacuate. Many of the guests reappeared in moments, now armed. The newlyweds also rushed to grab equipment from nearby, returning so swiftly that the chaos of evacuation was not done. Honoka herself was now in a much more mobile robe, and was carrying a katana shining so brightly it looked like mithril.

A sudden explosion rocked the room, rubble flying as something blew the entire front wall of their compound in. Captured on screen were monsters. Redcaps, greenskins, and other obsessively violent Dungeon fodder, all fighting as if driven. The guests who had managed to arm themselves did a surprisingly good job defending themselves. Less surprising were the eleven members of Becoming Monsters, who tore through the invaders as quickly as they could get into reach.

In a blur, a new challenger took the field. A small girl, blonde hair in pigtails, blurred through the crowd to the center of the aisle the women of Becoming Monsters had so recently walked. With a jab of one hand she speared through the floor, and when she pulled it out she was holding a crystal the size of her fist. It glittered like it was made of solid diamond, but within it pulsed a light reminiscent of a heartbeat. It was alive. “INSTINCT! I’m here to do what you were too much of a coward to!”

A man’s voice sounded from off-camera, one that had two very different emotions to it. On the one hand, he held the gruff tones and rapid delivery of an experienced Delver. On the other, it held an enormous amount of pure panic. “Honoka, it’s her! She killed Cleo!”

Cleo? Cleo TATE? The Mother of Lightning? Marshal Shapiro’s rival? THAT CLEO TATE?

Honoka was the one to yell back at the invader. “Please, we do not have to fight.” The monsters that had invaded were gone, the other wives rapidly making sure that even the ones who thought they could be helpful backed off. I could see why, the new challenger moved in such a way that I was certain that I’d only earn a swift death if I ever fought her. “I’ve never wanted to fight the other Heralds.”

“Do you want IT to be the Herald of Earth? Only one of us will be, and IT is more dangerous than the two of us together!” The newcomer’s voice betrayed immense rage, not a pleading request. “Our world must be ready to go to the stars, and only a world I rule will be ready for what it will face there!”

My heart thudded in my chest as several things slammed into place in my head. I had a dream, the night after I slew a Succubus in my head, the one before I shattered my Inner Mirror. A giant metal door had opened, and a slight figure identifying herself as the Herald of Instinct had made me an offer she thought I couldn’t refuse. I, being me, refused it. Her wrath at the rejection had felt powerful enough to shake the foundations of the world, but I was feeling it again… from this “Restitution” girl. She had been the one speaking to me, not Instinct. The brown woman, the one who had sworn to be the one who would protect this guild of immense power, was the one she was addressing as Instinct. Which meant, in turn, that I had been lied to in my deepest dreams. I don’t know what might have happened if I had accepted her offer, but at best I would have died in the attack I’d just witnessed.

She had also said that the Herald of Instinct was the living representation of my Class. If that was the kind of power I was looking at…

“Release your hold on the crystal, return Viv to me. Then leave. I will have no part in your war.” Honoka looked torn. Regretful, terrified. A being of power who didn’t know if she’d be able to face what was ahead.

VIV? What was that crystal? Or should I say who was that crystal?

“You don’t get to choose that. I will add your power to mine. You, and all of your people. Only then will I be able to challenge Desire.”

Honoka made a decision then. It was a pretty obvious one, considering she suddenly became something else. She more than tripled in size in the space between heartbeats, sprouting horns, wings, a tail, scales. She caught fire, she had claws, she had fangs, she had entirely excessive amounts of muscle. Oh, and she was charging at this little slip of a girl who had invaded her wedding and threatened the lives of everyone present.

All of this to say exactly how shocking it was that Restitution dodged Honoka’s initial strike with contemptuous ease, leaving it to crater the ground she once occupied instead.

Restitution moved so quickly that she was where she wanted to be between frames of the broadcast. It was then that two of Honoka’s guild mates (it looked like the Cheetaur and Naga) seized the moment and took action. The first fired several arrows at the enemy Herald, all but one missing entirely and that one barely scratching her skin. The other called a protective barrier of magic over Honoka. A Hunter and a Bulwark, perhaps? When the girl attacked the barrier, striking it with unholy force, the Naga screamed with agony and half-collapsed. The Holy Holstaur called power, healing her, but it was a desperate thing.

The look of rage and hatred that Restitution gave the other women was powerful enough to feel radiating from our screen more than two thousand miles away. Her stance shifted the slightest amount as she prepared to assault the women who had interrupted her, but Honoka was still a threat. In the quarter second Restitution had her attention elsewhere, one of those titanic claws blurred in a broad arc. It slammed into the invader with not one but two crashing sounds, the camera rapidly shifting to where Restitution had slammed into the stone wall hard enough to result in falling rubble and debris. Now off-camera, a hideously monstrous voice yelled “I AM YOUR OPPONENT, YOU WILL NOT ATTACK THE OTHERS.”

As if to emphasize the point, a swarm of stinging insects descended on the enemy Herald as she climbed out of the fallen stone. She blurred again, a detonation of impact audible as the cameraman once again moved as fast as he could to get the action in frame. The two were attacking each other, blocking every strike. The camera could not see them all, but I was counting the detonations of noise from impact. At least ten of them in the two or three seconds the camera was on them. White light surrounded Honoka as her Cleric healed her.

Five more attacks flew and were blocked, then Restitution changed her style. Instead of pressing forward, she hopped backward and held out her hand. Lightning blasted out, engulfing Honoka. I knew that attack. It was the same one Marshal Shapiro had used the other day to clear a Gate full of Water Elementals. A voice in the back of my head whispered that it was the same thing that Cleo Tate would have used, but although I was absolutely certain I was correct the connection made no sense.

Just like when the lightning cleared, and Honoka was nowhere to be found. Restitution was neither relaxing nor triumphant, vigilance which paid off seconds later as she dodged a column of stone which descended from the ceiling. It would have reduced her to paste if it had hit her. When it slammed into the ground she had been occupying a moment before it opened up to release monsters of its own. A swarm of Frost Hornets, each the size of a large dog, descended upon the girl, forcing her to defend herself from a hundred directions at once.

There was a flash of silver. While the invader was slaying the last of the Hornets, Honoka emerged from behind her, looking mostly Human but enormously powerful. Mithril katana in hand, she leapt at her foe to deliver the finishing blow and end this battle. Sensing something, though, Restitution reacted. At the last possible split second she spun and lashed out. Honoka was on a ballistic path, committed to her strike, and was helpless to dodge or block. With the same bare-handed attack that pierced the stone floor to seize the crystal, Restitution struck Honoka through the chest, seizing her heart and emerging with it out of her back.

The sword flew from Honoka’s hand, her face contorted in shock and agony, knowing she was dead but her body was not quite there yet. It was a look I had seen far too many times in the last five years as a Delver and Surface Hunter. Her lips were working, trying to say something, but the attack that had removed her heart had likely also collapsed her lungs. Whether it was a prayer or an attempt to call out instructions was unclear. It didn’t matter, though. It was over. Restitution had slain her. All that was left was the last little bit of dying on her part. The smaller girl panted in exhaustion, face in a maniacally triumphant rictus. “And so it ends. Instinct, your power is mine.”

Honoka’s eyes widened, and from offscreen came a woman I didn't recognize from earlier. Her skin was pallid and dirty in the way of people who had neglected themselves for years. Her blonde hair was lank and greasy, her muscles wasted. She was nude as well, nothing on her body with one exception. Grasped in both hands overhead was Honoka’s katana, and this one time Restitution was too injured and too tired to hear her foe coming. One last sweep of silver, and the enemy Herald was headless. Her body dropped, and both the crystal and Honoka dropped with it, staring up in wonder. The wasted woman looked down, and for once the words being said weren’t shouted. “That’s what my heart looks like, huh? It was good to see it one time. You saved me, Honoka. It is my turn to return the favor. I love you.”

The crystal heart which had been laying on the ground suddenly shattered. Flame engulfed the woman, a flame that then engulfed Honoka. When it cleared, Honoka was on her feet, alive and unharmed. Her robe had a hole in it, but the flesh underneath was whole. As if she had not been killed less than a minute before. Of the pallid woman, nothing remained but ash. Honoka wailed “VIV! No…” She desperately looked around, realizing something as the ground began to shake. “EVACUATE HARVARDTOWN! Get out, the Dungeon is dead and about to collapse!” Tears streaming down her face, Honoka sprang to her feet and ran offscreen.

The camera feed died, the screen black, the news chyron scrolling questions about what had just happened. Emily, Lucy, and Sarah were asking desperate questions, to which I had no answers. I had a lot to do though, and no time to do it in. First, a message to the Twins to capture the news that had played for the hour it had taken from the first bell until the end of the fight. Second, a bare four seconds later, was a call.

Marshal Shapiro picked up on the second ring. “Guild Leader Kithkin? I was not expecting a report at this time, and I have an appointment in just a moment.”

“Sir, I do not care what that appointment is, the news I have is more important.” I described the events I had just seen in brief, though I had no hope of even beginning to do them any justice. “I have my social media people getting a copy to send you.”

“I do not take you for one to make up wild tales, Jeremiah, but this strains even that credulity. You say you have proof?”

“I was watching it on a news broadcast from Harvardtown, sir. Within fifteen minutes it will likely be on every major news network, anyone who knows anything about what this means will find it as significant as the Change itself.” I was breathing hard, still. My body had been stationary on the couch, but the enormity of what I had just seen was sinking in. The phone was shaking, I realized that it was because the hand holding it was not able to hold steady.

“Kithkin, I’m texting you a link to the Major Guild Leaders network. Tell them what you found. I do not yet know what it means, but it explains much that has been happening. I have work to do, now, thank you for bringing this to my attention.” His side of the line clicked and went dead, a text message chime sounding a moment later. Then an email, the Twins had come through with the video clip. They, like me, had no idea what it meant.

“Love?” Lucy was sounding scared, her emotions radiating off of her even for those who didn’t have the advantage of all the extra senses I had. “Who… what were those people? I’ve never seen Classes that could do that, and then Harvard Dungeon… died? Can Dungeons even die?”

“Lucy. I will tell you what I think as soon as the others get here, but right now I don’t know. I’m trying to find out.” I had pulled out my recently-disused laptop and was booting it up. I rapidly typed in the link to find a small forum, and when I began to type out a post about what I saw I attached the video. There was an option to alert the others on post, I made sure it was checked.

Then I wrote a much shorter post about the zoo encounter I’d had some hours earlier, since it seemed the kind of thing that needed reporting. I did not check that one as urgent, which says something about the state of the world. Instead, I bookmarked the forum, then logged off and shut down. While I had been focused on what was before me, the rest of the ladies of my Guild had arrived. Gloria had started to go to the kitchen to get something started, but Lucy stopped her for the moment. Whitney and Paige were now on the couch, and Amber was emerging from the sleeping room after having dropped something off I didn’t see. I walked over to the television, plugged in my laptop, and hit play on the video.

“Before we get to the important part, I want you all to know that I have no real idea what this all means. I’ll tell you what I know as it becomes relevant, and what I figure out as I do. I do not want you to watch this quietly. If you see or think something, speak up. We will watch it through one time, eat dinner, then do so again to analyze it. We need to figure this out, failure is not an option. It could mean life or death, for us or for the world.”