A bit later, the boy’s face showed up again.

"I can see the future," the face that popped up told Kestrel. "You’re gonna lose to her."

And just like that, the young face was gone.

Walking down a long, round hallway, the gross, falling-apart thing moved ahead, and Kestrel had to think for a second before following.

"Get out of here fast. I’ve seen something really bad happen," the boy’s face showed up again. This time, something like a tendril softly touched him.

"What’s gonna happen if I leave?" Kestrel’s thoughts got sent to the boy through her tendril.

"It’s gonna be... awful," the boy sounded really sad when they were mind-talking. "A lot of people are gonna die."

"I don’t see anything good happening either," he said. "But if you go now, you could at least stay alive."

This kid was super nice and caring, even when things were terrible. But even a kid this good got eaten by this monster to make her stronger.

"I can’t see anything good happening either," Kestrel thought to herself.

Earlier, right when she opened the Verity Vault, she saw pieces of the future that were mostly all bad news.

She knew that a huge war was gonna start today and that she was gonna die here.

"Why did you come here?" The boy’s voice got quieter as his face faded away.

Kestrel talked to herself, saying, "Yeah, why am I here? I’ve had visions and seen how bad things will get. I know I can’t beat the Queen, and that I’m gonna die. Am I not scared? —Yeah, I’m so freaked out that I’m almost shaking; I can barely move."

Up until now, Kestrel really got what fear was, and how important life was.

She wanted to keep living and eat way more candy.

Suddenly, the Queen seemed confused, noticing one of Kestrel’s tendrils was touching her shoulder.

But she shook it off; stuff like that didn’t bother her anymore.

For the Queen, the big deal now was that Kestrel had made it to the center of the academy and was standing on this weird altar with funky designs. The Queen was close to getting what she wanted.

What made the Queen even happier was that she had a perfect new body in front of her.

Turning around, the Queen reached out her hand to Kestrel, who was standing at the edge of the super-clean altar. "Come here, kid. Let me teach you how to control the Tower."

Kestrel’s feet lightly touched the edge of the marble altar. Right then, her tendrils dove into this huge, pale, open space. This blank area was a tower made of bones from tons of strong mutant creatures. It was the Tower.

Her tendrils slid into the gaps between the bones, getting pulled deeper and deeper.

In that moment, Kestrel felt like she could hear and see everything about the Tower: every hidden spot, every person who’d ever been there, even every little animal that ran through. She also heard a ton of voices, saw tons of faces, and felt like she could touch tons of minds.

She felt like she could see, hear, and know it all. This feeling in her mind was amazing, like she turned into a god who knew and could do anything.

Her tendrils barely touched this space before pulling back. Kestrel noticed that some of their tips had turned a frosty, bone-white color.

It didn’t hurt, and she didn’t feel anything, so she had no clue when this change happened. Even after pulling back, she could tell that this infection on her psychic incarnation was still trying to spread up through her skin.

As the frosty color spread into her tendrils, Kestrel felt something super creepy tighten around her. It was like something wanted to sneak into her, become one with her, or maybe even eat her up.

Kestrel didn’t know what would go down if she kept touching this thing.

Sure, she might control the Tower, but what the Queen didn’t say was that the Tower would also mess her up.

Kestrel had a hunch she’d end up blending with the Tower, and also with the Queen. The Queen had talked to her in a nice voice, helped her grow, tempted her with great perks, and now had brought her to this spot.

Kestrel was certain that she wouldn’t be her own person anymore. She wouldn’t have her own thoughts or feelings. The Queen would take over her body and be the new Queen again, until this body started to collapse a hundred years later.

This was what they called the "true deal" about being the heir.

For hundreds of years, the Queen of the Tower had switched from body to body so many times, she turned into this freaky, patchwork monster. She lost what she used to be and became a freak show.

Quietly, Kestrel pulled back her tendrils and hid them, pretending she didn’t see that their tips had changed.

"What’s wrong? Come, come here," the Queen called, smiling. The white altar glowed a bit, making her look as pretty as she used to be.

She had on a pure white dress, looking all gentle and classy, reaching out a friendly hand to Kestrel.

Anyone else standing there would be totally wowed by her, stunned by how godly and awesome she looked in that light, and they’d step closer to the beautiful, kind goddess.

Kestrel’s toes lifted, like she was about to step onto the white surface.

Before the Queen’s red lips could curl into a sneaky smile, Kestrel’s floating foot went back. Her toes left the edge of the altar. Then, she stepped back and stood her ground.

"I’ve got one thing to ask, Your Majesty," Kestrel said.

When the Queen suddenly named her the heir, Kestrel went along with it, no fuss. When the Queen wanted to rush into making her the new ruler, she didn’t fight it or make any demands. But now, deep inside the Tower and just a step away from that pure white altar, Kestrel lifted a finger and said she had one small condition.

"Wha—what kind of—condition?" the Queen stammered, standing in the middle of the altar.

"Nothing big," Kestrel said, with an awkward smile. "I just want that red gemstone necklace you’ve always got on."

She was like a shy young princess, finally asking for something she really wanted during her own big ceremony to become the new leader.

For a second, everything got super quiet. Even kids’ laughter vanished. It was just the two of them on the altar, eyeballing each other. They were both trying to read each other’s minds.

But neither could figure anything out; their mental guards were up, and they weren’t letting each other in.

"No, I can’t give that to you," the Queen finally said, shooting down Kestrel’s ask.

There was a creepy smell of blood in the air.

Lots of bad stuff had happened right where they were standing. Nobody else had ever dared to test the Queen’s patience like Kestrel just did.

The Queen had been chill with Kestrel, but she wasn’t gonna give up that necklace, especially not now.

It was like their species’ sixth sense for danger. The Queen wasn’t sure why Kestrel wanted the red gemstone so bad, but she knew Kestrel had been eyeing that necklace since the first time they met.

Just like the Queen really wanted to take over Kestrel’s body, Kestrel was super focused on getting that blood-red gem.

That gem had just shown up after the Tower was built. Everything that came from the Tower was white, except for this gem that was red like blood.

The Queen wasn’t sure what the gem did, but she felt that if Kestrel got it, something bad might go down. So, she didn’t want to give it away, even in this make-or-break moment.

"Stop being stubborn; come here," the Queen said, standing in the middle of the altar. Her red lips peeked out from under a white veil. "I don’t want to hurt you."

Kestrel stayed put, just shaking her head a little.

The Tower’s Queen had always thought Kestrel was hard to figure out. But right now, she felt like she knew her pretty well.

She knew that Kestrel, with that tiny head shake, wouldn’t come any closer.

No matter what happened next, Kestrel wasn’t gonna back down, even if that meant going head-to-head with the Queen.

In the world of psychic battles, one could pretty much tell who was stronger. The bigger one’s psychic incarnation was, the more powerful they were.

And the Queen’s psychic form was way, way bigger than Kestrel’s.

The old Queen looked at the young girl who was standing her ground. And for a moment, a piece of a memory she hadn’t thought about in forever flashed through her mind.

She used to be tough, even fighting her mean dad and being brave enough to talk to scary mutants. But back then, she wasn’t as strong as this kid; she got totally freaked out by the monsters’ psychic power. Up until today, she was scared deep down.

She remembers begging the super-creepy Queen of Mantidale for mercy, kneeling in a place full of flowers and stars, all while sweating like crazy.

She got through those times by copying what her enemies did and holding onto whatever kindness they gave her. She never forgot being that scared, so she’s always wanted to be stronger.

Now, she was super strong, even stronger in her mind than the Mantis Queen she met a long time ago.

So, it blew her mind that the young girl in front of her would dare to stand up to her. This wasn’t new, though—lately, there has been a few other brave or maybe crazy people.

Like a young boy holding a paintbrush, trying to fight her off. The boy used his sharp psychic incarnation to rip the Queen’s old body just to help his friend get away.

The Queen never thought the Erdtree would fight back. She thought the Erdtree was just another mutant, and mutants usually didn’t mind being eaten or eating other creatures.

Before the Erdtree was destroyed, its wild fight put her already shaky mental strength on the edge. Even after she got a piece of the Erdtree and became stronger, she was still messed up.

So, she quickly picked Kestrel to take her place, even though it was kind of a rushed decision.

Now, as she listened to what Kestrel’s asking for, she was not sure what to do. She didn’t know if she should just keep trying to talk her into it or just use her power to make Kestrel do what she wanted.

She hadn’t encountered any trouble like this since she was always at the top of the game, thanks to her supreme power.

Just as they were in this awkward moment, the ground started to shake, and there was a weird noise. Then, it got quiet for a sec before lots of loud sounds broke out—probably things blowing up, guns going off, and a lot of people screaming.

They were too high up to see what was happening, but if they could hear all that noise, something big must be going down at the Tower.

The ground shook again. The Queen’s opticomputer screen thingy lit up, and a bunch of messages started coming in super fast.

She didn’t look down. Even without checking her messages, she knew what was going on inside the Tower.

Right now, down at the Tower’s lower levels, rebels who usually worked in secret had officially started a war against the Empire. They kicked off a siege like never before.

Cannons boomed and guns fired without stopping. The attackers and the Tower’s Royal Guard were already deep in battle.

Normally, people like these rebels wouldn’t even get the Queen’s attention. But for some reason, they picked this super important time to start trouble.

The Queen made a face but decided to let the rebels slide for now. She turned her focus to Kestrel, who was standing in front of her.

Fixing the Tower could wait, but she couldn’t afford to lose or wait for an awesome ’successor’ like Kestrel.

Kestrel’s wristband computer also lit up with notifications. She didn’t glance at it, but her fingers brushed lightly against the screen, like she was calming someone on the other side.

"Let’s do it the old-fashioned way," the Queen said, unhooking the ruby necklace from around her neck and twirling it on her finger. "If you can grab it, it’s yours."

The deep red jewel hung from the Queen’s pale fingers. She was standing right in the middle of the altar. So, if Kestrel wanted that necklace, she’d have to step onto the white stone carved with weird symbols.

Soon enough, any fake friendliness between them disappeared. A heavy wave of psychic energy rolled from the Queen, filling the space with darkness. Floating in the dark mess were human eyes, arms, bug parts, and animal claws. Waves of hate and pain surged in, along with screams, cries, and curses.

The sight was super creepy.

Facing the incoming dark fog, Kestrel sent out squishy tendrils from under her skirt. These tendrils stepped on the dark mist and clamped onto the creepy stone with a snap.

In a flash, Kestrel jumped into the air, throwing a spinning kick. Her long tendrils, like whips, swung toward the necklace in the Queen’s hand.

The Queen’s dark cloud shifted and vanished like a ghost, avoiding Kestrel’s surprise attack and reappearing at the opposite end of the altar.

After missing her target, Kestrel quickly moved back, steering clear of the cursed stone that messed with her psychic incarnation. Still, when she landed, one of her tendrils looked pretty messed up.

The second it barely touched the altar, its soft, red skin changed into a hard, white color that looked like porcelain. The pale color spread fast, like it was some sort of skin disease, climbing up its normal skin.