The incident took place at midnight. The first of the month is always a busy time, and the first of the new year is even busier. I had just finished writing up multiple reports for the day with a stack of papers left, and was in the process of retiring for the night when Skyla yelled out Melvin's name. It was not the melodic harmony that she would use on the battlefield, nor was it a shriek that pierced the ears. It was loud, commanding, and strong. Despite the new moon, the forest itself awoke with wisps and glow slimes.

The central pyre was out. The watchman was nowhere to be found, and two figures ran into the distance. Multiple soldiers and townsfolk were leaving their homes. I spent a minute to search Skyla's quarters, grabbed her sword, rallied the outpost, and then we gave chase. It was unclear what had happened or what the problem was, but with both Melvin and Skyla involved we had to act quickly.

Either by happenstance or fortune I was still wearing the Floating Robe. I told the outpost to follow the wisps. Where they had parted, I gathered and left a trail. A few minutes of searching went by at full speed and I appeared at a clearing with both of the culprits. They were... talking. Skyla was making an exaggerated breathing motion, then began to sing. As the wisps and glow slimes changed from pale blue to gold, the entire forest lit up like a golden sun. It was soft, serene, and heartwarming.

The scene only lasted for a few seconds. Skyla's usual song of wonder trailed off as she looked at Melvin, dumbstruck. If the forest was glowing in sunlight, then he was the sun itself. Bright gold, dancing, laughing, and free. It's a sight we've seen of him on rare occasions when he's showing off some new creation of his, but never in response to someone else. The usual sky blue has changed to all manner of colors before, but not like this.

It appears that the song itself energized Melvin in a way that he expected, but Skyla did not. She referred to him as a "Talking Slime" and he recounted the oft-repeated tale of how he fell into a slime pool and was rescued two days later. What happened after this is the true cause of the incident.

Skyla carries with her a number of unique weapons fit for a warrior. Her sword is easily used like an axe, her father's bow is far too large, the bow fires spears instead of arrows, she only covers her arms and legs with armor, and her natural claws and voice are not to be understimated. This is standard and well documented elsewhere.

Skyla now carries a small, round stone. It appears to be made of obsidian and quartz in a snowflake pattern. When Melvin was questioning her earlier, he spent a long time trying to figure out why she called this orb a weapon. Not only would she not reply, I could not figure out what its purpose was. A bag of these orbs could be spread around and used as a tripping hazard, and the combination may make for some odd sympathy if fed to a slime, but it holds no magic and wields no element on its own.

Skyla told Melvin to use the orb. There was an explanation involving the afterlife, being in multiple places at once, and the foundation of reality. I am familiar with some of these concepts, but placed together they make no sense. There does not appear to be any connection between the essences that Merdiwen talks about and the afterlife, and every time anything moves through his rift it comes intact. This is also something Skyla refused to discuss in its entirety.

Whatever the explanation was, Melvin seems to have grasped it. The glowing golden light that he bathed the forest in turned to black. It wasn't that the light had gone out or that anything around him had changed. He started to emit black light. Melvin was glowing with the night itself, and everything around him was illuminated in shadow.

In all my years of training, in all the combat that I have seen with her, I have never seen Skyla run from anything. Skyla is stalwart and skilled, ever resourceful, and always seems to know the best way to deal with a threat. The light that was growing in front of her was pulsing and teeming with a sort of life like the wisps, but instead of their fiery form this felt like the edge of twinkling of stars buried in a quagmire of forgotten memories. The world itself seemed strange and alien compared to the mass of tendrils and non-reality taking shape.

Skyla ran from this.

It's difficult to tell if she was running out of fear or from a lack of supplies. She had no weapons, no armor, and was only wrapped in the barest of modest garb. The only thing I am certain of is that Skyla ran from the growing mass of black light that Melvin had become. She ran directly towards the outpost, and in turn towards me. I called out to her, verified the situation, realized that Skyla saw Melvin as a true threat to existence, and delivered the sword from her room.

The fight that ensued is hard to describe. Lumps of black light would burst forth from Melvin. Skyla chopped them off, stomped them into the ground, and took a bite out of them. Each time this happened the mass grew, Skyla seemed to grow stronger, and the cycle would repeat. She bounded off of trees, jumped off the ground, narrowly avoided the light multiple times, grasped it with her free hand at times, and displayed a level of speed and power that the tasks I had laid before her could not keep up with. All the while she was singing a song of battle, thumping, strong, and valiant.

Perhaps out of fear, shock, or a sense of safety, Skyla never struck at the heart of the mass. It may have been out of self preservation or in a vain attempt to save Melvin's life. As the fight dragged on it became apparent that she might not be able to end this in any meaningful manner. The entire purpose of the Slimespring Troops is to deal with slimes of unusual power and size, and this fight was like that in a lot of ways.

The worst aspect of the fight is that the mass seemed to have no mind. It swung and spread haphazardly, not like a beast fighting to survive or like a slime's odd way of squishing through areas to escape. Shrill laughter was heard occasionally, but it seemed to come from the entire black mass. Whatever Melvin was doing in there, he was no longer in control.

The fight lasted for a long time. Perhaps ten minutes. By this time the soldiers and townsfolk had arrived, but none would dare set foot into the clearing. The spectacle of the fight was too fast, too furious, and above any of their skill level. I estimate that without Skyla's presence, the entire outpost would have been wiped off of the map. Half of the guards and most of the townsfolk would have been eaten as the rest tried to escape.

Skyla was visibly growing tired. Her movements were less precise, her wild bounding sloppy, and her hand claws digging into the ground and trees on every jump. Her voice sounded distressed and out of tune, but still held firm. The glowing mass of black light had grown to its full size long ago, but was still pressuring her in a way that allowed no room for error.

The moment that the townsfolk started to whisper their disbelief that Skyla could lose, Merdiwen walked out from directly beside me. I could not tell how long he had been there or where he had came from. He walked directly up to the mass, held out his hand, let it touch him, and from the point he held the glowing darkness was transformed into pure sunlight.

As the light faded from view, so too did the gel. When all the light had evaporated, Melvin was seen on the ground, face down, and asleep. A collective sigh of relief was heard from the crowd.

Skyla and Merdiwen talked for a moment before he took a bow and fell into the ground. Six weeks from now he will return.

I went to fetch Melvin, but Skyla had already put him over her shoulder. I made it very clear that she was to take responsibility for what happened tonight, as she had both awoken the entire outpost and caused Melvin to do another one of the strange things that he does. She took this to heart, explained that he had stolen the orb, she gave him an idea on how to use it without thinking that he could, and that there was already a special training planned for two days later. He would be a central figure in that training.

Melvin is known to protest and ignore things he is not interested in. Skyla is perhaps the only person who could force him to attend a training session if he did not want to attend. He was sleeping so deeply that not even her rough carry method could wake him. We shall see how he protests.