The abyssal energy beam from the Collector’s notebook collided with the frail shell that held Mr. Mystical. His righteous scream, along with his glowing blue body, was snuffed out in the sickly stream of black and the cackle of his opponent. Looking closely, however, Alex was just able to make out a little blue light inching forward through the attack.

  “It’s not even possible, what you want to do!” The Collector yelled as objects from his collection appeared and disintegrated around him in puffs of inky smoke. “Bring Gary back? You’ve done this all for nothing! Nothing, Barty! And now that you’re all used up and useless, I can finally put at end to your rotten existence!”

  Three glass eyes evaporated to nothing in an instant. The robe and fez hat followed to the endless void. Then came the bones and stuffing inside the taxidermized mouse. It was a dreadful sense of nothing that the attack came from, and at the bottom of the pit, Mr. Mystical, also known as Barty, felt The Collector’s endless envy. It sickened him.

  His shell peeled away and dragged his ghost form into the festering feeling, crawling all over him like rot. Envy disgusted Mr. Mystical. If anything, he’d always felt far more attuned to jealousy.

  The last shreds of the taxidermized mouse was sent away, and his true ghostly form burst free, glowing brilliant blue in the beam. Barty screamed in outrage as he felt himself pull towards the Collector’s devouring void.

  “THAT’S MY BLOODY RING!” He screamed and expanded his ghost form against the torrent.

  A screaming, translucent blue man wearing khaki’s and a quarter zip burst out, the black beam ripping straight through his chest. Mr. Mystical howled as he fought against the attack. His face stretched to unholy proportions, and for the first time shock flashed in the Collector’s pit eyes. Barty should not have had this much vitality in him.

  That little beat was all Freeda needed to attack. Her bangles clanged as she raised her hand and unleashed a Skill.

  Sewn seams parted in her palm and out flew a torrent of scrap gold and silver. She too had a fantastic number of heirlooms at her disposal from the Dungeon. Broken watches, bracelets, broken earrings and piercings, alongside bullion now worthless flung out and headed straight for the Collector’s spotted skull.

  The Collector noted the precious gems streaking toward him and grinned. Just before he was struck, he held up his hand that still clutched Mr. Mystical’s silver band, and a writhing black hole appeared.

  Gold and silver, platinum and rubies, diamond and pearls, every scrap twisted on its path and bent toward the void. One by one, the treasures vanished into the singularity with his greedy little pops. It was all being collected. His grin widened as he felt the truth of his power unleash.

  “Power taken, never earned,” He said in a twisted accent. “Gifts seized, never gifted! The first rule of our deal!”

  His beam on Mr. Mystical intensified, along with the screams, as more of Freeda’s items were given to its power. Through the rules of exchange was his power, and a fight to him was merely another transaction.

  The Collector’s shadow lengthened as Freeda tried to turn off her Skill. But the trade had begun, and The Collector was always the better trader. She couldn’t turn off her Skill. Pounds and kilos of precious stones and metal were pulled forth from her Skill and pulled into the endless collection that would never, ever be complete.

  “Thank you for your contribution, Freeda. Truly!” The Collector laughed as Mr. Mystical began to melt away. His glow dimmed, and his miasmatic form drooped like liquid.

  Alex watched in horror with Brody as Mr. Mystical melted away and Freeda’s Skill fed The Collector.

  Just then, a gentle thwick sound came behind him from the wall.

  A pink, size-four women’s slipper flung out of the Portal behind Alex. It arced around him and Brody and headed straight for the Collector. A nonna’s slipper never misses its target. Not across a kitchen or hallway, and certainly not when flung out from the unspace and into a Dungeon.

  It zipped around Alex and Brody, curved once, and just as he noticed too late, the little slipper cracked The Collector right in the forehead.

  BOOOOOOOOOOOM.

  Alex was blown back off his feet as he tried and failed to shield a prone Bordy from the explosive attack. All the Skills were cut off, flinging everyone in all directions. The Collector was launched back with a bleeding forehead into the cans, crashing brutally against them. Freeda was pushed back, her own feet scraping against the floor, but she managed to stay upright. Mr. Mystical, a ghost, felt the pull toward the void pull away, but still felt his form collapsing into itself, disappearing in little puffs of blue miasma.

  “Porco schifose e senza cervello…,” You disgusting, brainless pig A grandmother’s voice, somehow colder than permafrost, crept into the Dungeon.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  Alex managed to sit back upright, blinking through the dust.

  Floating fast out of the portal came Nina. Her floral apron fluttered, and she was missing a slipper. She carried a simple wooden spoon in one hand. Her eyes glowed like a white winter storm. A few straggly bits of hair flew behind her.

  “Nina!” Alex called, and she turned her head. Those endless eyes of ice landed on him, and her terrifying expression met his eyes.

  Her expression softened instantly. “Alex…,” she smiled, and it was terrifying. Her eyes hardened again and she pointed the wooden spoon at The Collector. “I just come to fix the shit pig that cause me and you and us all the trouble.”

  “Your hair! Your eyes! How are you even here in the--?”

  “Ahhhhhhhhhh,” The Collector interrupted smarmily. Everyone’s eyes snapped towards him. “The woman? Come to trade? Typical. The men never come when there is shame involved. Perhaps I’ll take your soul home. Hmmm? Two for the price of one? Yes?”

  The Collector stood again. Rotten black blood oozed down from the cracked crater in his forehead where the slipper had hit, revealing bone missing and the void behind it. He cracked his hunch like and gestured lazily toward Mr. Mystical.

  “Guess he’s worthless now then. No matter,” The Collector held up his notebook. “Better collect what’s left. Then we can strike a deal in place of killing you, Lich.”

  Mr. Mystical death marched shakily and dripping bits of himself toward The Collector. Even though he grimaced and he was finally dying permanently, he strained toward the Lich who had dangled his single reason for clinging to existence like a bobble.

  “Just…just need to touch him,” Mr. Mystical said from a mouth that barely held itself together. “If I can to-touch him, I can…I can avenge…I can make it…I can do something Gary would be…”

  “I have no time for useless things that take up space, and your being is much better suited in my Collection.” The Collector said casually as tilted his notebook toward the disintegrating ghost.

  Another black beam fired toward Mr. Mystical. As it cast, Alex noticed a dozen random trinkets appeared around The Collector and popped out of existence in tiny plumes of smoke. Payment. Alex realized that the Lich really did burn through his hoard to fuel his power.

  The beam was a foot from killing Mr. Mystical permanently when it met Nina's flicked [Wooden Spoon], thrown exactly when The Collector had cast.

  The humble little scoop intercepted the torrent with a clean thunk, as if someone had gently tapped a pot. The Collector’s beam smashed against it, but the [Wooden Spoon] did not bend or break. Envious energy simply splattered like rotten cosmic sludge hitting an immovable ladle. It did not crack or vibrate. The spoon took the attack like it was sauce.

  “You target my friend and delivery boy,” Nina growled ice as more trinkets popped into existence around The Collector. Each fueled a more violent attack.

  “You manipulate a ghost and an old friend,” she continued, floating towards him. She reached down as she drifted and calmly pulled off her other slipper.

  “You come after us?! And my family!?” Her voice boomed, darker and hungry. “Worst of all…” her eyes glower brilliantly. “…you make-ah me leave my DOMAIN? MY HOME!?”

  The Collector snarled and spun, aiming the full force of his abyssal beam at her instead. The attack howled, and the Dungeon light dimmed. It was hungry enough to erase anything it touched.

  Alex saw ice crackle up Nina’s apron, arm, and then over the slipper she held between two fingers. She flicked the slipper, but not at The Collector.

  She flicked it at what remained of Mr. Mystical.

  “Just…need too…” Mr. Mystical sobbed as the void-beam slammed into Nina as the slipper struck him.

  Two things happened at the same time.

  Instead of harming him, the slipper passed through Mr. Mystical’s form. A massive block of ice appeared and engulfed what remained of his ghastliness. Even the dripping bits froze and fell. The pieces clattered to the ground like beads. Inside the ice, his hand was outstretched, locked in a reach, with a half-melted face. Time stopped for him.

  And Nina took The Collector’s [Beam and Taking]. It slammed into her chest and blasted her apron. The light guttered as the energy devoured everything in its path. Everything except her.

  Her skin cracked open under the beam before healing instantly with glowing light. Crack. Heal. Crack and heal. She floated ever forward through the attack as if there wasn’t any concern at all. The whole while, The Collector’s Skill blasted against her while trinkets were sacrificed to power.

  The Collector roared as the beam increased. “WHY WON’T YOU BE TAKEN?!”

  Nina made a sharp come here motion, and the [Wooden Spoon] snapped back into her waiting hand.

  “Ah, Nino explain it better,” she said calmly. “Is like pizza. You take dough, you add sauce, you take-a cheese…maybe the toppings.”

  The Collector faltered as she floated closer.

  “When you have two souls in a Lich?” She smiled with blazing eyes. “Like pizza…it become greater than sum of its parts.”

  “It’s not fair!” The Collector yelled as he raised his other hand. “All trades must favour me! It is my calling!”

  The beam doubled as his second hand joined to grab the black book. Now bigger trinkets popped in and out of existence around The Collector while Nina stood in front of him and smacked the [Wooden Spoon] against her palm.

  Alex saw The Collector’s eyes dart toward where he and Brody sat at the back. Just a quick glance, but he saw the grimace of his face momentarily change to a small grin.

  “Nina!” Alex shouted, already trying to pull Brody behind anything.

  “He’s---!”

  “QUIET, BOY!” The Collector shrieked and seized the opening.

  His grin split wider as he wrenched one hand away from Nina and swung his [Beam of Taking] toward Alex.

  The absence of everything snapped across the room right for him. He immediately reached for a [Phantom Step] and felt the absolute lack of Essence. If he used the Skill, it would surely damage his Core.

  Nina’s face dropped as she realized Alex was going to be hit. She was without slippers, and the boy was too far for her [Wooden Spoon] to make it in time.

  Alex swallowed as he reached for the Skill. It was going to hurt brutally, and he was likely to break apart something vital. But there was no other option.

  “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” Brody roared real words for the first time as he hurled himself in front of Alex from the floor.

  Just before the Skill hit, the room’s door burst open, and Nina went to backhand with her spoon.

  “ALEX!” Snu yelled as the gang saw the battle.

  Petal Gravewhistle had already launched himself toward his Girthdom’s Companion.

  And the Dungeon shuddered as the first strike landed.