Vessel

Crystal Peak, and Horrible Heroics

Getting the hell out of there, was made much easier by the convenient Stag Station in the city storerooms. The stag took us back to the crossroads, as requested. We thanked him, and continued on our way.

The dark cavern we made our way into, was illuminated by the lantern the knight had purchased, and revealed a toll gate. And so, I put in some geo, and watched as the gate opened.

The area inside, was very different from the crossroads. Crystals grew everywhere, covering the ground, the walls, everything. A large bug, that looked almost like a husk on all fours with crystals growing out of it's shell walked towards us.

The glimback looked at us, with what appeared to be confusion. It stepped closer to get a better look at us, apparently causing the knight to perceive it as a threat. They brandished their nail, which quickly came to the glimback's attention. It made a deep squeaking noise, turned, and walked away.

So we were at crystal peak. Cool.

Marching further into the peak, we encountered one of the big three, in the annoying enemies world, a crystal hunter. I looked at it. It looked at me. The knight looked at it. It looked at the knight. I turned and walked out.

Okay, I guess we had to fight it. The knight charged into battle, swinging their nail wildly. The crystal hunter, was not amused, and started shooting crystals. I realized an opportunity had opened up. I leapt into the air, downslashed on the crystal, and swung at the hunter with everything I had! I don't remember much after that, because I completely missed, face planted onto the rocky ground, and was knocked unconscious.

I woke up sometime later, sitting almost upright on a bench. The knight was nowhere to be found. Panicked, I shot up, and started looking for them.

The room seemed oddly familiar. But it was the gates that truly gave away the room's identity. Apparently, the knight had defeated the crystal guardian while I was unconscious. How nice of them. That might be a bit of a problem for Hallownest, but not for me.

After walking around for a while, I arrived at the hanging golem before the crystal heart platforming challenge. Looking up at it, the glow of it's crystal heart, was still present. I was surprised it was still there, but hey, now we could both have one.

So I did the only thing I knew how to do. I chucked my nail at the golem. There was a metal on metal clanging sound, and my nail fell back to the ground. Well that didn't work.

Some time later, I had taken multiple approaches to getting the crystal heart. From throwing my nail several more times, to trying to jump up and grab it, to my current attempt. I was standing on a table. This table, however, was simply the top of a large tower of tables. I would have to jump to reach it, but I could reach it now. Jumping caused the table tower to topple. Say that five times fast. Reaching into the golem's chest cavity, I found what I was looking for. Dropping back to the ground with it, I realized something rather important. I had no idea what to do with it.

I tried many things to consume the crystal heart. First, I tried to put it in my own chest. Nope. Then I tried to rationalize. Mouths consume things. What's the closest thing I had to a mouth? So I tried to shove the heart into my eye. That didn't work, and now my vision was blurry. Then I remembered a minor detail of one of my favorite stories. I tried to focus and absorb the heart. It worked, and my eye wasn't blurry anymore!

Then something touched my shoulder. Drawing my nail and turning, I found the knight. If nothing else, the knight could sneak up on you. Together, we continued forward, to where the knight would get their own crystal heart. The knight hopped onto the first conveyor belt without hesitation, and soon, they were gone again.

Waiting for the knight to return, got boring very quickly. However, things really escalated when a figure stepped out of the darkness. My mind was racing to figure out who it was. Was Mantle back to finish me off? Had Mala managed to track us down?

The red dress gave Hornet away. She stepped forward, surprised to only see me, and not the knight. "Where is the ghost?" She asked. Not wanting to get stabbed, I pointed in the direction of the obstacle course of death. Hornet seemed almost concerned for a moment, before facepalming. "Why..?"

I quickly explained to Hornet, everything we had done since our last encounter, and why the knight was dodging lasers.

Hornet seemed to contemplate something for a moment, before speaking. "Vessel, I-" She was cut off by the knight popping up through the floor between us.

Hornet seemed a bit annoyed by the knight's return. When I asked what she was going to say, she hesitated. "I realized that you probably wouldn't know where I was. So, I came to tell you that I will await you in the kingdom's edge. You will have to venture through the richer part of the city to find it."

With that, Spider-Man thwipped away again. Me and the knight decided to make our way over, to meet up with Hornet. While we were walking away, the knight showed me a rock they had picked up. It was pale, and slightly metallic. It was a pale ore. The knight had apparently climbed the entire mountain, to the peak, and found the pale ore in the statue of the radiance. No wonder it took them so long.

And that's a wrap on this chapter. I'm sorry this one took so long. I got about halfway through the next chapter, before realizing that I had forgotten crystal peak. Combine that with a few other projects on different platforms, including some irl, and you get a very late, overdue chapter. Either way, I hope you enjoyed it, and I will see you in the next chapter.