Then dear gods heavens, something happened to my companions.
Oh, remind me to never, ever try to out-negotiate a magical village again.
I thought I was being a genius. A strategic genius! Give the starving people some junk food, right? I figured the dark, crunchy "Boss Energy" inside the Uber-Heartstone would act like a sedative, or maybe just give them spiritual indigestion while we made our grand exit.
I was wrong. I was so, so wrong.
The moment I held that Stone up, the villagers didn't just "sniff" it. They didn't even nibble. They recharged. It was like plugging a group of ancient, dusty Nokia phones into a lightning bolt. Their hollow eyes didn't just glow; they flared with a sickly, neon purple light.
They didn't want to eat our memories anymore. They wanted to play with them.
"Seraphine... I think you just gave the zombies a software update," Viking managed to mutter before the world turned into a kaleidoscope of absolute nonsense.
"Did you just use my own lingo?"
